The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-08-20
THE GREAT

Wy > 80 $780,
be taken, out OF the old routine, out OF the cir
cumscribed environment into the wide horizon
where men are doing the work of the world.
Men whose lives had begun to run IN grooves;
men to whom the privilege of doing significant
things-the things of which they dreamed
had been denied, now. suddenly lind vlstas
opening before them which lead to far, strange
shores, to harbors thronged with ships, to the
ancient queenly cities of earth and the lands
where human history began.
The camps where these picked and physical.
ly fit young men are now to begin their season
ing and training are more healthful and by
Igienic, more removed from temptations and al
lurements to p~rofitless ways of living than the
environments the vast majority OF them left
behind. No other places in the land are better
protected against deteriorating influences. No
where else is the regimen of daily life more
conducive to moral and physical well being.
The gain in all that makes for manliness is so
swift as to seem almost miraculous. The
springy step, the head held high, the sun
Drowned faces and bright eyes und"r the serv-
ice hat, tell what life in the open, drilling in TIE
sun or rain, regular diet and hours of restful
sleep from taps to reveille can do in u month to
the average young man taken from our city and
village streets.
Never before was army life the improving
experience that it is today. Even in the few
Years since our war with Spain conditions IN
our military and naval service have been revo-
lutionized. All the uplifting influences Of So
ciety are at work that our young men whom the
country calls to it's defense shall return to
civil life worthier, manlier and more s%elf-re-
specting than when they went way.
And most of them will return. Thus far in
the war, according to statisticians, fourteen out
of fifteen have been safe, and it is believed that
only about one man in thirty is meeting death
now. The vast majority of the boys who fol
low the flag across the sea will certainly see
their native land again.
Some will bring shoulder straps back-stars
and ribbons and medals-and some will bring
honorable scars. But the overwhelming ma
GRITTY of them will come home. The situation
has entirely changed since the days when
Germany, with a hundred guns and a thousand
shells for every one the entente had, so nearly
annihilated the heroic little English army. The
huge preponderance of guns and shells aud
men and food is on the side of our allies now.
Our troops will 60 to the front with more Of
food, munitions and equipment, offensive and
defensive, with more knowledge of their en-
emy's methods and more completely on their
guard against his savagery than any other
army he has encountered. They will face him
across the trenches after three years of mighty
effort, sacrifice and losses have weakened shin
and shaken his morale, and when he has come
at last to feel that his government is the Ish-
mael among the nations and that all the rest OF
the human race is resolved at whatever cost
that militarism shall no longer menace man
kind.
Our soldiers are embarking on a great and
splendid adventure in which fifty thousand Of
their countrymen had already engaged before
Pershing and his regulars had set foot in
France. In the famous Foreign legion, with
the British. with the Canadians, in the ambu-
lance corps, in hospitals, field and base, and in
every capacity in which red blooded men were
needed, American heroes were to be found long
before our nation was forced into the war. And
tens of thousands more are going as the war
goes on who are under no constraint to go ex-
cept the compulsion noble natures are always
under to battle for the right. And those among
us are short of sight who do not realize that
when the war for human freedom has been won
and our soldiers and surgeons and servers ore
home again, a very palpable if invisible line Of
demarcation will be found between those men
and women who threw themselves with all
their hearts and souls into the service of hu-
manity in this world crisis and those who
might, but did not, fight, serve or sacrifice
abroad or at home.
One of the most valuable results Of the war
will be the development of a distinct, uncom-