New-York tribune., 1918-06-08
Next Year Critical
Period for Nation,
Says College Head
President Of Kenyon Ad-
dresses Bankers After
Seeing Foreign Service

The next twelve months will be the
the United States, members of the
Bond Club of New York were told yes
terday by Lieutenant w. F. Pierce, of
the Lake Division of the American Red
Cross, who has just returned from
France, at q luncheon given at the
Bankers Club. Seward Prosser, presi
dent of the Bankers Trust Company,
also addressed the gathering, telling
of his experiences in France during his
recent visit there with II. ?. Dawson,
head of the American Red Cross.
Lieutenant Pierce is returning to his
duties as president of Kenyon College,
Ohio, after spending several months in
France, part of the time seeing actual
service on the Verdun front with a
Franco American canteen.
In telling of conditions as he found
them during his visit in France Lieu
tenant Pierce emphasized the fact that
Germany is still unbeaten and that the
task of winning the war depends now
almost entirely on what is accom-
plished by the United States in the
course Of the next twelve months
He declared that the people of
France were making gallant fight
under tremendous burdens, and assert
ed that the work of the American Red
Cross in maintaining the morale of the
value.
MIR. Prosser during the course of his
remarks defended Wall Street against
the charge of profiteering.
II heard the other day." he said,
that out in Minnesota there is a man
trying to get the Republican nomina-
tion for. Governor, and | understand
he has expressed himself th,t this war
was brought on for the profit of peo-
pie of means, and suggested a great
many Interior motives as to why it
should be done, and he has done it in
print, and that is dreadful thing in
these times. Politics is all right if you
want to play politics, but these are not
the times in which to play politics.
There is SO much evidence that fellows
like you have stood up and taken the
punch and are breaking your necks in
every way to help this government. 1t
is not fair, gentlemen, and every time
we get a chance we want to say some
thing for the fair name of this Street.
81 don't know how many of you have
heard of it, but here is a practical il
lustration that I want to give to you.
| heard a lot of this talk about this
being a rich mans war, and that the
poor fellow was fighting it, and the
rich man profiting by it, and it oc-
CURED to me that I would make sur
vey of the Bankers Trust Company
Building from the top to the bottom
and find out what tenants we have in
there. | think you will all agree that
the general type of tenants of the
Bankers Trust Company Building
would be as typical Of Wall Street as
any building there, because it is a
high class building, snd it is typical.
81 decided that | would find out if
we had any tenants there within the
draft age, what they were doing, if
they had any sons of tenants, and
what they were doing. We went from
the roof of that building right down
through, and we found that there was
not a tenant in that building within
the draft age that was not now serv-
ing the government; there was not a
son OF tenant in the building that
was not in the service, and we further
found that there was not one of them
that went in under the draft That is
pretty good answer, gentlemen"
When the Germans began firing on
Paris with their seventy -five-mile gun
Mr.. Prosser was in the French capital.
II was interested to sec,' said he.
what the effect of the thing was. In
the first place the effect on Paris-I
don't think | could give you better
parallel than to say that Paris felt
about those projectiles arriving there
Just about the same way that New
York feels about these submarines
that have been discovered off our
coast"