I can vision the
ideal republic, where every man and woman is called under the flag
for assignment to duty for whatever service, military or civic,
the individual is best fitted; where we may call to universal
service every plant, agency, or facility, all in the sublime
sacrifice for country, and not one penny of war profit shall inure
to the benefit of private individual, corporation, or combination,
but all above the normal shall flow into the defense chest of the
Nation. There is something inherently wrong, something out of
accord with the ideals of representative democracy, when one
portion of our citizenship turns its activities to private gain
amid defensive war while another is fighting, sacrificing, or
dying for national preservation.
Out of such universal service will come a new unity of spirit and
purpose, a new confidence and consecration, which would make our
defense impregnable, our triumph assured. Then we should have
little or no disorganization of our economic, industrial, and
commercial systems at home, no staggering war debts, no swollen
fortunes to flout the sacrifices of our soldiers, no excuse for
sedition, no pitiable slackerism, no outrage of treason. Envy and
jealousy would have no soil for their menacing development, and
revolution would be without the passion which engenders it.
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