The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-12-03

tryman of men of such stuff and
valor. Those of US who stayed at
home and did our duty; the war could
not have been won or the gallant men
who fought it given their opportunity
to win it otherwise; but for many a
long day we shall think ourselves "as-
cursed we were not there, and hold
Tour manhood cheap while any speaks
that fought" with those at st. Mihiel
or Thierry. The memory of those
days of triumphant battle will go with
these fortunate men to their graves; !;
and each will have his favorite men,
ory. @Old men forget; we all shall
be forgot, but he'll remember with
advantages what feats he did that
day!"
| What we all thank God for with
deepest gratitude is that our men
went into the line of battle just at the
critical moment when the whole fate
of the world seemed to hang in the
balance and threw fresh strength
into the ranks of freedom in time to
turn the whole tide and sweep of the
fateful struggle-turn it once for all,
| SO that henceforth it was back, back,
back for their enemies, always back,
never again forward!
(! Empires in Liquidation
| After that it was only a scant four
months before the commanders of the
central empires knew themselves
beaten; and now their very empires
are in liquidation!
1 And throughout it all how fine the
spirit of the nation was, what unity of
purpose, what untiring zeal; what ele-
walton of purpose ran through all it's
splendid display of strength. it's un-
firing accomplishment / have said
that those of US who stayed at home
to do the work of organization and
lsupply will always wish that we had
been with the men whom we sustain
ed by our labor; but we can never be
ashamed.
| 1t has been an inspiring thing to be
here in the midst of fine men who had
turned aside from every private in
terest of their own and devoted the
whole of their trained capacity to the
tasks that supplied the sinews of the
whole great undertaking.
The patriotism, the unselishness,
the thorough-going devotion and dis
tinguished capacity that marked their
toilsome labors day after day, month
after month, have made them fit
mates and comrades of the men in
the trenches and on the sea. And not
the men here in Washington only.
They have but directed the vast
achievement. Throughout innumer-
able factories. upon innumerable
farms, in the depths of coal mines
and iron mines and copper mines,
wherever the goods of industry were
to be obtained and prepared, in the
shipyards, on the railways, at the
docks, on the sea, in every labor that
was needed to sustain the battle lines,
me nhave wed with each other to do
their part and do it well.
| They can look any man-at-arms in
the face, and say, "We also strove to
win and gave the best that was in us
to make our fleets and armies sure of
their triumph. And what shall we
i say of the women-of their constant
intelligence, quickening every task
that they touched; their capacity for
organization and cooperation, which
gave their action discipline and en-
HANGED the effectiveness of everything
they attempted; their aptitude at
tasks to which they had never before
set their hands; their utter self f-sacri-
flee alike in what they did and in what
they gave? Their contribution to the
. great result is beyond appraisal They
have added a new lustre to the an
mails of American womanhood.
The least tribute we can pay them
! is to make them the equals of men in
professional right as they have prov
ed themselves their equals in every
field of practical work they have en-.
4 tered, whether for themselves Or fol
their country. These great days OF
completed achievement would be sad.
ly marred were we to omit that ac1
of justice.
Besides the immense practical serv-
ices they have rendered, the womer