CHAPTER XLIII "BACK FROM HELL"
My fists are now clinched! I am fighting now. My experience as I have here given it, drives me to this inevitable conclusion. Germany, as she now is organized, cannot be tolerated in a modern world. She must be vanquished! Bloodshed is not the worst thing in life. The slaughter of the men who are enslaving and killing millions is today a Christian duty, so help me God!
To me has come the Great Awakening. I have surrendered myself to Him. America, the strongest democracy of history, has undertaken to fight and defeat the Kaiser. Every man, woman, and child in this nation must be mobilized in order to guarantee this outcome. In this supreme, vital hour, the pacifist and the slacker shall suffer the damnation of hell! Fighters are patriots—pacifists are traitors. The whole nation must undergo a rigid system of preparedness to accomplish this great task of safe-guarding our own and the world's liberties, and further than that, to make a more stalwart citizenship than we now possess. We need a more robust young manhood than we have. We are living in the greatest Republic the world ever saw. We have more liberty than any land on earth—more than some people know how to use sensibly. But "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," therefore, my people, arouse! I plead, and get behind the government with every ounce of energy and support that you can muster. Buy Liberty Bonds, give to the Red Cross, conserve the food, encourage the drafted men, enlist yourself in some branch of the Service and Help to Win This War! If you can't go, remember this: You must equip the brave fellows who do go. As my friend said to me, "None of us must think his part insignificant."
Out there, it is a fact that the spirit of sacrifice is contagious. No man counts his life dear to himself. It must become so here. Every shoulder is required at the wheel, as our foe is a monstrous one.
I labor under no delusions as to the weakness of the enemy. Germany is still powerful and will fight with the desperation of an animal that is cornered, and we must prepare for a long, hard battle. Universal Service today is the one thing which is saving America and civilization. Always remember that. And our youths need it to make men of them mentally and physically. Our boys need it for their own good and the good of the future. It is a preparation for life that we need in America and with it we will be prepared for anything.
We have had perhaps too much liberty in our land, and it has often made boys a lawless, careless, disrespectful, slouchy crowd, thinking only of what they can get out of life and not of what they can give in the way of service. These are not my personal opinions. They are well-known facts and the highest army officers have bitterly complained of them. Even the father who is against Universal Service will admit their truth. The boys of America need to learn courtesy, obedience, respect, efficiency. Their hearts are right and the present fault is not entirely their own. They have not been disciplined. Let us now be wise.
I am closing up my little book. I'm back from hell. Back from the hell made by the Kaiser and his German hordes in Europe. But also, and more significantly, back from the hell of pacifism, when God is crying, "Militancy, my son!" Back from the hell which says, "Sleep on, thou sluggard, in thy peace and cowardice, while God, and the other nations are awake and doing, against the wicked adversary." Back from the hell which whispers, "Lose thy soul, but save thy skin." Back from the hell in which men like David Starr Jordan and Mr. Bryan and my humble self have been. Pacifism is hell, when heaven challenges the soul to fight. So I am going to fight. I have found my soul through war. I'm a saved man. I'm happy at last and I am going to preach it now. I am going to speak and write as long as I have power, to help America win the war primarily, and then to help make America a better country by making her people better citizens, and thus help to make this place we live in a better world.
We must fear God and down the Kaiser. And I do not know of any more fitting words that could be used in closing up this little war message to the American people, from a common, humble helper, than those of our great National Anthem:
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,