The Burial of an "Unknown Warrior"
England had a great state funeral not long ago. It rivaled in ceremony the honors paid to dead queens and kings. Throngs followed the great procession to Westminster Abbey, where England's famous dead of all time are buried. A tablet was placed above the tomb of a hero whom a nation united to give its highest honors. The name on that tablet was "To an Unknown Warrior." In America, too, the deeds of the great number, in battle or at home, will always be nameless.
The spirit of heroism needed in peace
If each person, instead of looking straight ahead at the task to be done, had looked to see who else could do it, America's war program would have failed. It has been said that in a great nation any one person, by himself, is lost, and does not count. The chapter in American history just ended proves that when his country is in danger, each citizen can and must act as if the result depended on him. This spirit of patriotism among millions of those whom history will call nameless heroes brought victory in the war, and if it is still followed in peace, will bring "victories no less renowned."
An unparalleled war
240. The World's Greatest War. The war of 1914-1918 is the greatest history has ever known, because of the number of nations in it, the number of lives lost, the cost in goods and money, and the changes it has made among nations.
CARRIER PIGEONS, A MEANS OF COMMUNICATION AT THE FRONT
A record in shipbuilding
Its size is too vast for any one mind to picture it fully. The front-line trenches, with all their turns and twists, were six hundred miles long, nearly equal to the straight distance from Philadelphia to Chicago. Mountains of material had to be sent across to keep our soldiers well fed and warmly clothed, and furnished with the cannon and shells they must have to meet the enemy. Only about two out of three men in the army could fight, for the third man had to keep these mammoth quantities of supplies steadily moving toward the front. Ships were the thing our government needed most, since it was fighting so far away from home. American shipyards grew so rapidly that they broke all records for number of ships launched and swiftness in building them. The United States soon led the world in shipbuilding for this war.