Out To Win | Page 5

A
very gross falsehood is frequently on the lips of this sort of man; he
doesn't know where he picked it up and has never troubled to test its
accuracy. I can tell him where it originated; at Berlin in the bureau for
Hun propaganda. Every time he utters it he is helping the enemy. This
falsehood is to the effect that Great Britain has conserved her
man-power; that in the early days she let Frenchmen do the fighting
and that now she is marking time till Americans are ready to die in her
stead. This statement is so stupendously untrue that it goes unheeded by
those who know the empty homes of England or have witnessed the
gallantry of our piled-up dead.
Then there's the jealous fool--the fool who in England will see no
reason why this book should have been published. His line of argument
will be, "We've been in this war for more than three years. We've done
everything that America is doing; because she's new to the game, we're
doing it much better. We don't want any one to appreciate us, so why
go praising her?" Precisely. Why be decent? Why seek out affections?
Why be polite or kindly? Why not be automatons? I suppose the
answer is, "Because we happen to be men, and are privileged
temporarily to be playing in the rôle of heroes. The heroic spirit rather
educates one to hold out the hand of friendship to new arrivals of the

same sort."
There is one type of fool, exclusively American, whose stupidity arises
from love and tenderness. Very often she is a woman. She has been
responsible for the arrival in France of a number of narrow-minded and
well-intentioned persons; their errand is to investigate vice-conditions
in the U.S. Army. This suspicion of the women at home concerning the
conduct of their men in the field, is directly traceable to reports of the
debasing influences of war set in circulation by the anti-militarists. I
want to say emphatically that cleaner, more earnest, better protected
troops than those from the United States are not to be found in Europe.
Both in Great Britain and on the Continent their puritanism has created
a deep impression. By their idealism they have made their power felt;
they are men with a vision in their eyes, who have travelled three
thousand miles to keep a rendezvous with death. That those for whom
they are prepared to die should suspect them is a degrading disloyalty.
That trackers should be sent after them from home to pick up clues to
their unworthiness is sheerly damnable. To disparage the heroism of
other nations is bad enough; to distrust the heroes of your own flesh
and blood, attributing to them lower than civilian moral standards, is to
be guilty of the meanest treachery and ingratitude.
Here, then, are some of the sample fools to whom this preface is
addressed. The list could be indefinitely lengthened. "The fool hath said
in his heart, 'There is no God'." He says it in many ways and takes a
long while in saying it; but the denying of God is usually the beginning
and the end of his conversation. He denies the vision of God in his
fellow-men and fellow-nations, even when the spikes of the cross are
visibly tearing wounds in their feet and hands.
Life has swung back to a primitive decision since the war commenced.
The decision is the same for both men and nations. They can choose the
world or achieve their own souls. They can cast mercenary lots for the
raiment of a crucified righteousness or take up their martyrdom as
disciples. Those men and nations who have been disciples together can
scarcely fail to remain friends when the tragedy is ended. What the fool
says in his heart at this present is not of any lasting importance. There
will always be those who mock, offering vinegar in the hour of agony
and taunting, "If thou be what thou sayest...." But in the comradeship of
the twilit walk to Emmaus neither the fool nor the mocker are

remembered.

OUT TO WIN

I
"WE'VE GOT FOUR YEARS"
The American Troops have set words to one of their bugle calls. These
words are indicative of their spirit--of the calculated determination with
which they have faced up to their adventure: an adventure unparalleled
for magnitude in the history of their nation.
They fall in in two ranks. They tell off from the right in fours. "Move to
the right in fours. Quick March," comes the order. The bugles strike up.
The men swing into column formation, heads erect and picking up the
step. To the song of the bugles they chant words as they march. "We've
got four years to do this job.