We have had our day of glorification. It is now time for our best thought, and the first of this thought will be for the men who have given their lives for our cause and for the men more fortunate, but not less willing to give all, who in France and Flanders have covered our flag once more with undying glory, the soldiers of the Marne, of Cantigny, of the great German repulse east of Reims, of Chateau Thierry, of St. Mihiel, the Argonne, and Sedan. The graves of our men have consecrated these immortal battlefields and our sacred dead will live on in the memory of the republic forever. As for those who return, crowned with victory, they shall now be first and foremost under the roof tree of the great motherland, who sent them forth with aching yet uplifted heart, confident that they would honor her even as they have done.
In this hour we salute our army and our navy, which have not failed us at any point, in any test, however arduous or fiery. Under commanders devoted, efficient, indefatigable, our regiments have met the most famous troops of the enemy and crushed their resistance, have set new records of sanguinary valor under punishment, and driven always and irresistibly on to victory. They have written a page in the annals of the republic and in the history of war which will shine down the ages with unsurpassed magnificence.
It has been terrible, yet glorious, to live through such a time, even for us who have not passed through the great experience of battle, who have not watched and taken part in the heroic charge of our infantry across death-swept meadows, or heard with our ears the thunder of the great guns or felt the earth shake under the tread of marching legions. We at home have had our own experiences, our deep anxieties, our doubts, our griefs, and always we have been conscious of the might of forces in grapple and the high issues that hung upon the fate of the armies. In the background of all our thoughts at all times has been the solemn consciousness that the destiny of mankind was at work in mighty throes toward an end hidden to our knowledge if not to our faith and hope. We have none of us passed through this experience without receiving its mark. Life can never be altogether what it was before for any of us. New generations will spring forth innocent of the memories which are ours and the unexpressible lessons of our day. But for us it has been, with all its tragedy and vast destruction, a day of illumination and inspiration.
Standing on the threshold of a peace restored, we must pray that out of the epic experience of the great conflict something more than the stern negative of our victory shall be preserved for the time to come, something positive of good, something of that divine light of men's heroic sacrifice which shone out in the darkest hour, something of new strength and understanding of life and of human potentialities.
We have before us now a tremendous task of restoration. America is in a more fortunate situation than the nations of Europe; yet to return our resources to the channels of peace, to free our institutions from the hasty improvisations of war emergency, and to protect them from the effects of forced and abnormal application, is a task which will test the wisdom and character of our leaders and our people.
If our war experience has proved anything of America, it has been the soundness and beneficence of American institutions and the life they make possible. Let us realize that truth, and resolve that these institutions shall be strengthened in peace and not weakened, and that the life which has grown up and flowered under their influence shall be jealously preserved for our children and our children's children, and for the sake of our heroic dead."
THE CROWNING HUMILIATION
The Crowning Humiliation, or Before and After Seeing Foch, might be the appropriate title for the latest story now added to the pages of world history.
Four years and four months ago the German leadership, fully confident of its strength, assured of its weapons, arrogant beyond anything in recorded history, challenged the organized and unorganized forces of the civilized world to mortal combat. They thrust the Imperial German sword through all the covenants and commands of civilization and of justice. Bursting out upon an unprepared and unsuspecting world, they were, despite their incredible strength, checked by France on the battlefield of the Marne, encircled by the British fleets, and like Napoleon after Leipzig, condemned to ultimate defeat. At the hour when the white flag was brought to the French lines, British armies were approaching the field of Waterloo, American armies stood victorious in Sedan, and French armies were sweeping forward from the Oise to the Meuse. The crowning humiliation came with the admission of defeat. Germany sought armistice at the hands of a Marshal of France!
FOCH—"THE GRAY MAN OF CHRIST"