Page:This side the trenches, with the American Red cross (IA thissidetrenches00desc).pdf/31



This war is being fought for the children of the world. The men who are now in the trenches will reap few of the benefits that will come from the conclusion of a permanent peace. The nations that are losing their best manhood, that are spending billions of dollars, that are undergoing countless privations will derive little immediate material gain from all their sacrifices. Small in comparison with the investment will be the present profit of the United States at the conclusion of its great venture.

The thought of everybody, from the least important soldier or sailor to President Wilson himself, has been the generations of the future. It is that the people of the United States and of the world of tomorrow may be a better people, that the people of the United States and of the world of today are at war with autocracy.

But the people of tomorrow are the children of today. They are the boys and girls who were born last year, the boys and girls who are in kindergarten now, who are in grammar school, in high school, who are working in their first jobs. That these children may have greater opportunity, the men on the battlefront are risking their lives. Is it not important, then, that the boys and girls of the United States should be fitted to make the most of the opportunities that the world of tomorrow