Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1917-05-21


they may be for instructions as tc
how they may accomplish their regis.
tration by mail. In such case per-
sons as, through sickness or absence
may be unable to present themselves
personally for registration, shall be
sojourning in cities of over thirty
thousand population, they shall apply
to the city clerk of the city wherein
they may be sojourning rather than
to the clerk of the county. The
clerks of counties and Of cities of
over thirty thousand population in
which numerous applications from
the sick and non-residents are ex-
pected are authorized to establish
such sub-agencles and to employ and
deputize such clerical force as may
be necessary to accommodate these
applications.
The power against which we are
arrayed has sought to impose its will
upon the world by force. To this end
it has increased armament until it
has changed the face of war. In the
sense in which we have been wont to
think of armies there are no armies
in this struggle. There are entire
nations armed. Thus the men who
remain to till the soil and man the
factories are no less part of the
army that is in France than the men
beneath the battle flags. 1t must be
so with us. 1t is not all army that
we must shape and train for war; it
is nation. To this end our people
must draw close in one compact front
against common foe. But this can
not be If each man pursues a private
purpose. All must pursue one pur-
pose.
The nation needs all men; but it
needs each man, not in the field that
will most please him, bu. in the en-
deavor that will best serve the com
mon good. Thus, though sharp
shooter pleases to operate a tripham-
mer for the forging of great guns,
and an expert machinist desires to
march with the flag, the nation is
being served only when the sharp
shooter marches and the machinist
remains at his levers The whole ma
tion must be team in which each
man shall play the part for which he
is best fitted. To this end congress
has provided that the nation shall be
organized for war by selection and
that each man shall be classified for
service in the place to which it shall
best serve the general good to call
him.
The significance of this can not be
oversteted 1t is a new manner Of
accepting and vitalizing our duty to
give ourselves with thoughtful deyo-
tion to the common purpose of us all.
1t is in no sense a conscription of the
unwilling; it is, rather, selection
from a nation which has volunteered
in mass. 1t is no more a choosing of
those who shall march with the col
ors than it is a selection of those who
shall serve an equally necessary and
devoted purpose in the industries
that lie behind the battle line.
The day here named is the time
upon which all shall present them
selves for assignment to their tasks
1t is for that reason destined to be
remembered as one of the most con-
spicuous moments in our history. 1t
is nothing less than the day upon
which the manhood of the country
shall step forward in one solid rank
in defense of the ideals to which this
nation Is consecrated. II Is impor-
tant to those ideals no less than to
the pride Of this generation in mani
Testing its devotion to them, that
there be no gaps in the ranks.
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