My friends, a great day of duty has come, and duty finds a man's soul
as no kind of work can ever find it. May I say this? The duty that
faces us all now is to serve one another, and no man can afford to make
a fortune out of this war. There are men among us who have forgotten
that, if they ever saw it. Some of you are old enough--I am old
enough--to remember men who made fortunes out of the civil war, and you
know how they were regarded by their fellow-citizens. That was a war to
save one country--this is a war to save the world. And your relation
to the Red Cross is one of the relations which will relieve you of the
stigma. You can't give anything to the Government of the United States;
it won't accept it. There is a law of Congress against accepting even
services without pay. The only thing that the Government will accept
is a loan, and duties performed; but it is a great deal better to
give than to lend or to pay, and your great channel for giving is the
American Red Cross.
Down in your hearts you can't take very much satisfaction in the last
analysis in lending money to the Government of the United States,
because the interest which you draw will burn your pockets, it is
a commercial transaction, and some men have even dared to cavil at
the rate of interest, not knowing the incidental commentary that
constitutes upon their attitude.
But when you give, something of your something of your soul, something
of yourself goes with the gift, particularly when it is given in such
form that it never can come back by way of direct benefit to yourself.
You know there is the old cynical definition of gratitude as "the
lively expectation of favors to come." Well, there is no expectation
of favors to come in this kind of giving. These things are bestowed in
order that the world may be a fitter place to live in, that men may be
succored, that homes may be restored, that suffering may be relieved,
that the face of the earth may have the blight of destruction taken
away from it, and that wherever force goes there shall go mercy and
helpfulness.
And when you give, give absolutely all that you can spare, and
don't consider yourself liberal in the giving. If you give with
self-adulation, you are not giving at all, you are giving to your own
vanity; but if you give until it hurts, then your heartblood goes with
it.