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Show THE CALL TO SERVE. Tlio liinn has arrive! wiinii t lie young men must seriously coiiaidfr tho obligation obliga-tion thut mats upon them to volunteer their soi-vices for the rlefense of their I country. A country which is unuMe to seiture tho services of its young men for defense in war will soon cea.se to be. a country. It will beeonio some , nameless noual conglomeration like! ; China. J I In Europe we see whole nations rising s up as one man to fitfht a foreign foe. No matter (o which side our sentiments or our prejudices incline wo cannot but be thrilled hy the patriotism and splendid splen-did preparedness of the Germans and French. liofh sides believe their cause to bo just, as both sides in our civil war believed their cause to be just. The verdict of history usually is for one side against another, but the people of 1 ho countries cannot wait for the verdict. ver-dict. They must make the great sacrifice sacri-fice at once if their countries are to survive. sur-vive. Kvpii in Mexico the factions which have hated each other for years and which have been shedding each other's blood until within a few days are uniting unit-ing to fight the armies of the United States. Wo mny pity the universal ignorance ig-norance and anarchy of the Mexicans which has made the clash ine It able, but we must respect the men of that country, aye, and tho boys of ten and twelve, who are willing to fight with : tho poor weapons and supplies that the selfishness and ambition of conscience- ... less leaders have. left them, and, if necessary, nec-essary, to die -iii the common defense. - AVe hold our cause just. We believe that after a patience and tolerance never nev-er before shown by a great people we have been absolutely forced into war. ': "We have been insulted. Our people have, been murdered. Our troops have been lured to death by treachery. And yet it remains a fact that we are not prepared for the war. Already the country has beeu compelled to call for recruits and must use inexperienced men. The volunteer system is now being put to the same test that it was subjected sub-jected to in England and in our civil : war. It finally failed in the civil war, j despite the hundreds of thousands of j soldiers raised under the voluntary sys- j tem. and it has decisively failed in Kng- I land. ' j "vTe must face the knowledge that if t he volunteer s stem fails now the American people, for their own safety, must adopt universal military service. ; But just at this moment the duty of j the young men is clear. Many have re- j sponded to the call, but the number is insignificant compared with that reserve of 20,000,000 men of which this country .boasts iu times of peace. At least 100,000 additional men arc needed at this moment and wc cnture to say that not one-fifth of that number num-ber has been enlisted up to date. And after that 10",00O i? raised we probably shall need ?00,X'0 more. The young men of the country, especially espe-cially the single men, should reflect for a moment upon the passionate patriotism of their fathers and grandfathers who fought in the war of the states. The-siitntUI The-siitntUI rei lee t upon the immense sacrifices sacri-fices that were made in the days from '01 to '0i and should ask themselves whether the patriotism of that inspiring e:a exists now. "We hase a country worth fighting for, the greatest country, the best countrv in the tide of time. Today its rmor and its future are at stake. There is much move iu the Mexican war -than appears tin the surface. There is the necessitv i of demonstrating our power before all the world, of showing the world that we are willing and able to defend our r:hts wherever and whenever thev niav bo threatened. V e enter upon another w:t in a Mate of mi preparedness. We are wi:i;rg to demonstrate our power. K;t we are unai-de to irplve the demonstration demon-stration a swift and as striking as it should be. After t he European war the world will continue to question our abilitv to defend the most colossal store of riches any cation or empire ever gathered, to-, to-, get her. The Monroe doctrine will be 1 . questioned and jealous and avaricious ! powers will ask them-eives whether we can make good our pledge to defend the vre-tern hemisphere in the wav that the Monroe doctrine demands that it shoidd be defended against foreign aggression. But, setting aside the big questions of tomorrow, thp ablf-d:odied men houM -unt:!:ipIatH the old es-ohs of patriotism, patri-otism, the ff t hers of the country who sraked their lives and thir fortune? iu a revolution to thnnv off the i hackles ;f injustice, the- little army troing through the ldtt'-r winter at Valley l-'ore and hoi-ling togt krr iu pite of all for a caue that see.med lost, of Lincoln Lin-coln 's lif'i aiid martyr death, of trie bat tie fields of the civil war, where our fathers died for that abstraction called principle, loir, which wo know to be the rirhe-t of human poeions, and finally final-ly of tho glnrions preparedness of our navy when Iewey and Schley wrecked the power of Spain and when our army and navy, true to the guud old A m erica eri-ca n tradi rions, fought again for freedom, free-dom, a fight ail tint more splendid because be-cause it was a fight for the freedom, not of our-clves, but of our brother men. |