ON THE FIRING LINE
October 31, 1917
Our men are now actually on the firing line, and while, of course, they are as yet there primarily for purposes of instruction, nevertheless, they are there. They are at times under fire. They are at any moment liable to death in upholding the honor of their country, of your country, my reader, and of mine.
General Pershing’s original division under his direction and the direction of his lieutenants, such as Major-General Sibert, Brigadier-General Duncan, and their associates, has evidently been trained to a high point of efficiency. The accounts show that the infantry effected their entrance to the trenches with the precision of veterans. Evidently the artillery is being handled with similar efficiency. Apparently, from the account, our artillerymen are using French guns.
All Americans must feel a glow of pride as he reads of the soldierly manner in which our American troops have made their entry into the fire zone. But we must not confine ourselves merely to feeling pride in our fellow countrymen who are at the front risking their lives in doing their duty on behalf of all of us. We must back them up. We must support the Government in every movement taken efficiently to put the strength of this Nation behind our soldiers, and we must vigilantly insist upon the efficiency including the speed absolutely indispensable. We must support the Liberty Loans, conserve food, cheerfully pay taxes, and tolerate neither improper profit-making out of the war by capitalists or strikers,—nor slackness and malingering which interferes with our military efficiency by laboring men. Every American civilian should now do his work with the same sense of duty as is shown by the soldiers in the field.
And now let good patriots keep in mind that the Huns within our gates from this time on are the allies of the Huns who are actually doing battle against our soldiers at the front. The men who directly or indirectly advise people not to take Liberty bonds, the men who clamor for an early peace, an inconclusive or negotiated peace, the men who condone the offenses of Germany directly or indirectly, the men who say we have not ample cause for war against Germany, the men who attack our allies or seek to breed dissension between them and us, are each and every one to a greater or less degree acting as friends of Germany and therefore as enemies of the United States. Every patriotic American should now clearly understand what is really implied in the attitude taken during the last nine months by the Stones and La Follettes, the Hearsts and Hillquits. These men are out of place in America. It is sincerely to be regretted that they cannot be put where they belong—under the Hohenzollerns.