Putnam patriot., 1918-06-21
Essays Delivered at High School Graduation Exercises
Filth too foul for printers ink, Crimes from which the apes woulC
 shrink"

Filth too foul for printers ink,
 Crimes from which the apes would
 shrink"
 During the first months of the war, it was the French army, and the French citizen soldier, who saved the world from German conquest The price France has paid in flesh and blood is a greater sacrifice than has been yet demanded from any of the allied nations. France estimates that her loss from the time she entered the war until Sept IA, 1917, was more than S15.327 100000. "They shall not pass" has been the password of the French people since this awful war began. And to keep them from passing, the French people estimate that by Jan. l, 1918, 5,606,7S4 of their men had been killed. wounded, disabled, or captured. Not only has France given the bodies of her sons in the sacrifice of battle, but she has also given the fruits of their brains. But France could not have done all this. without the inspiration of her women. who. collectively. have been a thousand loans of Arc In thou sands. women are on the fields of France, nursing, cooking. clerking, cleaning, washing, meadiag, motor ing, toiling in camps and huts, and all of this, too. that men may be freed for the fighting line The French wo- men are constantly being called upon to sacrifice No words can ever de scribe the anguish of the young moth CT and wife, who, when she saw her husband die as they lifted him off of tke French hospital train. turned her face upward and said, "I am only his wife-France is his motheri l am on ly his wife-France is his mother! | give him back to his mother" At such sacrifice as this, has France saved Democracy.
 We are now trying to pay our debt to France, not only for her part in forming our nation and in preserving democracy, but for her part in stem ming the German tide, and up to the present time saving civilization from German autocracy. And now, Ameri- ca is on the world map, and young American Lafayettes are in France to stay until the day of victory We are at war.
 It is not the slightest congregation to say that France Is in as crying need of American assistance, as were the American Colonies when Lafay cite and Rochambeau came to our aid. Let us help France. for democ- racy in France today is bleeding to death The spirit of Lafayette brought him to America to fight for democra- cy: he was a hard fighter but not a beast And now, against that cal culating and brutal power which with the treacherY of a tiger of the jungle, and all the devilish ingenuity of the highest kultur has assaulted the peace of the world. the armies of America are led hy the spirit of La fayette 1t is as if Lafayette had risen from his grave in Paris and said, "I took France to America when she needed France: America is come to France when France needs her" An other Declaration of Independence was launched, another Declaration of Rights made, the day the vanguard of Americas army sailed out from under the statue of Liberty" which France g years ago, gave to us as a visible and perpetual embodiment of the love of liberty animating the two great re- ' the democrat, calls to us across that same ocean. The bugles of the heav- ems ring out. The days of '76 are born again. Once more is heard the battle-cry of the Republic Where his spirit calls, our armies go."
 Our boys are glad to be able to fight for the Liberty of posterity, ev- en as our forefathers did all of them say in heart as did Kiffin Rockwell of the Lafayette Esquadrille, "I pay my part for Lafayette and Rochambeau. ]" So America, in the words of Alan Seegar, mot unmindful of the an tique debt, goes back the generous path of Lafayette" /"
 When democracy rises triumphant from the struggle with despotism, and when the last page of war history is written, the whole world will gladly acknowledge it's debt to France "Give us name to move the heart
 With the strength that noble grief
 impart.
 A name that speaks of the blood out
 poured
 To save mankind from the sway of
 the sword,-
 A name that calls on the world to
 share
 In the burden of sacrificial strife
 Where the cause at stake Is the
 worlds free life
 And the rule of the people every
 where,-
 A name like a VOW, name like a