The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-09-15
YOUR POST OF N

liens or q republic must always be
ready in the hour of need to leave
their homes and take up arms in de-
Tense of their rights and principles.
Otherwise the republic could not long
continue TO exist. The men who now
enter military service deserve the
gratitude and respect of their fellow
citizens.
You are doubtless making a heavy
sacrifice in order to perform this duty
to your country. Hundreds of thou
sands of other young men and their
families are face to face with similar
sacrifices. All our citizens will sooner
or later be called upon, each to bear his
or her share of the burden. Men and
women, rich and poor, alike must
do whatever is necessary and must
give up whatever Is necessary. For no
personal interests or feelings "a be
permitted to stand in the way at a
time when the safety and honor of the
country are at stake.
AS a citizen-soldier you are chosen
for a post of special distinction. Amer
lea Is justly proud of the soldiers Of the
past who have won for us the rights
today denied and put in serious danger
by the high-handed attacks of the Ger
man government. America will be no
less proud of you.
Your personal responsibility is great.
AS warfare today is conducted, the
Individual soldier counts for more than
ever before. Your W skill and bray
cry, no matter how humble your rank,
may easily be important factors in de-
Gliding whether an engagement is to be
won or lost. You cannot depend upon
anyone else to carry this personal re-
sponsibility for you, you must depend
upon yourself.
Americans are well-ftted to, meet
this test. During the Civil war. at the
battle of Antietam, the Seventh Maine
Infantry lay, hugging the ground, I'M
der a furious storm of shot and shell.
Private Knox, who was a wonderful
shot, asked leave to move nearer the
enemy. For an hour afterwards his
companions heard his rifle crack every
few minutes. His commanding officer
finally, from curiosity, "crept forward
to see what he was doing, and found
that he had driven every man away
from one section of a Confederate
battery, tumbling over gunner after
gunner as they anne forward to fire.
. . At the end of an hour or so,
a piece of shell took off the breech of
his pet rifle, and he returned discon-
QnlQfns hIf offnr a faxu rninufnc hn
gathered three rifles that were left by
wounded men and went back again."
In the Confederate armies individual
soldiers were no less skillful, cool and
brave.
Tales of heroic courage can be found
in the annals of all armies and of all
nations.
Other things being equal, an army
made up of s~elf-reliant, thinking men
has a great advantage over a merely
machine-llke army, and this is espe-
cially true in ~present-day warfare.
A second tradition of the American
army, which need only be mentioned,
Is that of fighting fairly and treating
even the enemy with as much human
ity as his own conduct will permit.
AS for slaughtering or enslaving the
civilian population of captured terri
tory, attacking prisoners or ~assaulting
women, American soldiers would as
little commit such crimes in time of
war as in time of peace
There is a third splendid tradition
of the American army which you will
help to carry forward. 1t has fought
always and everywhere in defense Of
principles and ~right-never merely
for territory and for power. Even the
Civil war resulted from the clash of
opposing principles-the principle Of
an indivisible Union upheld by the
North, and that of freedom to wirh-
draw from the Union upheld by the
South.
To protect the rights of citizens, the
American people have several times
opposed tyrannical governments-the
English government in 1776 and 1912,
the French government for a short
period In 1898, the Mexican govern
ment in 1S48, the Spanish government
In 1898. The final effect In each case
has been to advance the cause of lib
erty and democracy throughout the
world, even in the countries against
which we fought. Our weapons have
not willingly been turned against any
peoples, but only against the rulers
who misgoverned and misled them. In
fighting for U WI rights, the Ameri-
can army has fought also, In Presi-
dent Wilson's phrase, for the rights
Of mankind"
For a like high purpose, the Ameri-
can people have entered into the pres
ent wal against the German govern
ment--a government which in our be-
lief mlsrepresents and misleads the
German people. Only by so doing can
1--WE make America and the world "safe
for democracy" But a ending can
he fhoupht of-an andiD0 thot uyiu