The Power against which we are arrayed has sought to impose its will
upon the world by force. To this end it has increased armament until
it has changed the face of war. In the sense in which we have been
wont to think of armies there are no armies in this struggle, there
are entire nations armed.
Thus, the men who remain to till the soil and man the factories are
no less a part of the army that is in France than the men beneath the
battle flags.
It must be so with us. It is not an army that we must shape and train
for war--it is a Nation. To this end our people must draw close in
one compact front against a common foe. But this cannot be if each
man pursues a private purpose. All must pursue one purpose. The
Nation needs all men, but it needs each man, not in the field that
will most pleasure him, but in the endeavor that will best serve the
common good.
Thus, though a sharpshooter pleases to operate a trip-hammer for the
forging of great guns, and an expert machinist desires to march with
the flag, the Nation is being served only when the sharpshooter
marches and the machinist remains at his levers. The whole Nation
must be a team, in which each man shall play the part for which he is
best fitted.