The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1918-01-04
OUR DUTY FOR THE NEW YEAR
By Theodore Roosevelt
(Copyright, 1917. Kansas City Star

By Theodore Roosevelt
Copyright, 1917, Kansas City Starr
In the papers there appeared re
Gently brief statement made by an
unnamed young American major 70
his troops in the trenches in France.
He said:
we have reached the top in
training. II you need anything come
and tell me and ! viii get II for you
II I can. II I do not get It / do not
want 10 hear about Il again. for
It means that I can not get Il
We viii have three meals day
If We can get them II we have
TO miss one meal we viii not be
badly off. and Il we miss two or
three It viii not Be much worse We
are expected 70 work from midnight
Of one day 70 midnight Of the next
day. II there Is any chance 70
sleep between. all right Il viii also
Be all right If there Is no chance
Let everybody pitch in While mud
and water must Be fought It may De
much worse. The hopes Of the na-
ton are fixed on each man"
TIE ideal Of duty was thus set be-
fore our soldiers, before the Amer
cans who AZ this time risk most and
suffer most, Is substantially the
IDEAL Of duty toward which all OF
the rest Of Us here IN America
should IN our turn. likewise strive
We must brace ourselves for effort
and for endurance thru hard and
dangerous year. High Of heart and
with unfaltering soul we must do
our part IN the grim work Of toll
ing and fighting TO bring little
nearer the day when there shall be
orderly hberty turnout the world
and when justice and mercy and
brotheriy love shall obtain between
man and man and among all the
nations Of mankind We must
show our faith by our works We
must prove our truth b. our endeav-
or. We must seorn the baseness
which uses high sounding speech
70 cloak ignoble action and which
seems 20 betray suffering with
the Judas kiss Of the treaeherous
peace.
During the year that is opening
we at home viii suffer discomfort
and privation and wearing anxiety.
What Of Il? What we az home en-
dure will be as nothing compared
to that which is faced by the sons
and brothers, by the husbands and
fathers at the front, and what the
fighting men Of today face and bear
viii be no harder than was faced
and borne by Washington's troops
at Valley Forge and Trenton and by
the soldiers of Grant and Lee when
they wrestled IN the wilderness
We inherit as free men this fair and
mighty land only because our faith
ers and forefathers had iron IN their
blood. We can leave our heritage
undiminished TO those Who come af-
ter Us only If VIC in our turn show
a resoIute and rugged manliness m
the dark days Of trial that have
come upon Us
Let US all, individually and col
Iectiyely, do our whole duty with
brave hearts. Let Us pay our taxes,
subscribe 10 the government loans,
work at our several tasks with all
our strength, support all the agen-
eies which take care Of our troops
and accept the stinting in fuel or
food as part Of the price We pay.
Let our prina care be the welfare
and wariike efficiency Of the men
at the front and in the training
camps.
Let US hold to sharp account
every public servant who in any way
comes short Of his duty in this re-
spect, but let Us also insist that the
soldiers at the front and in the
camps treat every shortening
merely as an obstacle to be over
come or remedied or offset by their
own energy and courage and re-
sourcefulness-
The one absolute essential for our
people is to insist that this war be
seen thru at no matter what cost
until it is crowned with the peace Of
overwhelming victory for the right
Tha to,s;gn trade Of the Washingtau