The Cordova daily times., 1919-04-05

which they impeded the desperate at tempt of veteran Prussian divisions to retrieve the fortunes of battle. It was the impossible" American army that arrested the German drive at Chateau Thierry, first halting the huns, and then driving them back. The sorely pressed, but brave and heroic French, shaken by four years of frightful struggle, were in desperate retreat. They told American officers that to go forward was impossible and besought them to turn back. A few weeks ago in France I was personally told of the laconic answer of the American com mander to this appeal. "Go back!" he exclaimed, "Why, hell, we've just got here; and my orders are to go forward!" And they went forward; and, as President Wilson in his ad- dress to Congress so pointedly said, from that moment it was back, back, ever back for Germany" She never thereafter wrested single foot of soil from the allied armies.
 "For four Hateful years, nearly, the dangerous salient at St. Mihiel pro- jected it's threatening head into France, menacing Verdun from the flank. The Germans could not be driven back, it was said, without frightful slaughter of the allied force. Those familiar with the topography said it was impossible. Yet, that un- tried American army made the assault and drove the Prussians helter-skelter under the defensive guns of Metz. The operation was over in fourteen hours, with 15,OOO German prisoners in the American prison pens.
 "So, impossibilities are constantly made possible; and when 1 am told of the difficulties which will beset the Victory Loan, refuse to lose faith in the enduring patriotism of the Ameri- can people; I decline to believe that the fathers and the mothers who gave four million sons to die, if need be, that liberty might survive, will now higgle over the material cost of saw ing the very soul of civilization from the perdition of Prussian tyranny.
 But l am told, in rather discon- certing way, by men of steady judg- ment and tested patriotism, that we must approach the problem of future loans in a distinctly cold-blooded mood; that things have assumed diff ferent phase; our attitude of mind and heart is altered; we must con- sider the matter strictly from an in vestment point of view and put the lean on a commercial basis. Some men tell me it will be impossible again to appeal to the patriotism of the American people. Frankly, gentle men, I should despair of my country if these things were exactly true. I should doubt our ability to cope with the problems of peace if we so quickly should forget the obligations of war. wonder if those who talk in this fashion speak considerably? They tell about the sacrifices" the Ameri- can people have made, and in their voice there is a metallic tone and in their mien unconscious austerity.
 What is meant by the sacrifices" of war for America? Where are our devastated fields and ruined cities? Where our cathedrals destroyed and homes profaned? Where our flooded mines and pillaged factories? Where our defled women and starved chil- dren and wrecked men? Where on this wide continent does hunger stalk abroad or pestilential disease claim its thousands of victims? Is it, then, serious sacrifice" to invest ones money in the interest-bearing obliga- tions of ones government in order to make everlastingly secure the nations freedom as well as the nations pros- perity? Is it a grave sacrifice to de- vote ones labor to such a cause and in the process to acquire the habit of thrift and saving, so sadly lacking as a characteristic of the American peo- pie? Our allies fought for us nearly three years before we began to fight with them. For nearly that period of time the United States profited tre- mendously, in a commercial and in- dustrial sense, by the European war Immense fortunes were made; pros- perity prevailed our land. Our do- nestle trade was almost past compu- tation; our foreign trade in many lines was epochal. It reached the immense proportions of s23,422,191652 of ex- ports against $11,SS1. .973,986 of inn ports, showing balance in our favor of $11,5SO, ,217,666 We imported more