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Show A Few Words by the Editor to the Young Hen Who Will Be "Selected for Service" Tomorrow IN the world's history, many millions of young men have entered armies or navies and fought and died. It was for some tribal or national interest in-terest for country. The aim of war was very often plunder, very often acquisition of territory, and riot infrequently to force a particular religious belief upon the conscience of other peoples. In the wars of history his-tory the purposes of warfare have been largely confined to a single nation or coalition of a few nations. There has very seldom been anything like a world wide issue, a world principle at stake. Rare have been the instances in-stances in which the fight was made in behalf of all humanity. The present war is for all humanity, since the world, through Christian Chris-tian influences and the higher development of mankind's intelligence, has come to demand the unalienable rights, of life, equality and the pursuit rvi-ir'pplnpsg Fithpr-rnly-alaimpii hy nr he)A prprinnc in thf firnils pf the vast majority of men throughout civilization, rules the American Declaration Dec-laration of Independence. John Adams, the lawyer; John Hancock, the merchant; Ben Franklin, Frank-lin, the printer; Ben Harrison, the farmer; Roger Sherman, the shoemaker; John Witherspoon, the minister; Oliver Wolcott, the doctor, and others who gave immortality to that declaration of July, 1776, risked- hanging that a dozen of poor little colonies, with a few hundreds of thousands of beings might be free of autocracy which denies all common rights and aspirations save those of abject servitude. The young American of today who offers his life in, army or navy enlists in service for all humanity all the nations of civilization, with their hundreds of millions of men, women and children and all the uncivilized unciv-ilized peoples for whom there is hope of future rise from benightedness. The torch lit in the grandeur of self scarifice and heroism by lawyers, farmers, shoemakers in '76 is in the hands of our American manhood to be made a sun whose rays shall lighten even the gloomiest regions where brother men cower and suffer under wrong, injustice and, ignorance. It is the greatest, grandest opportunity offered in history. Maybe the young American who reads this is to be conscripted, and conscription implies force. Ah! Young Man, don't go in with the slightest feeling that you're forced. You are specially selected for world service. It is opportunity such as few, if. any; war heroes ever had throughout all recorded time. . , You fight, as Jesus Christ preached, loved and died, for all men. You are tested as to physical, mental and moral qualification, and pronounced fit to uphold the all-important cause of human progress and happiness. The world needs you, calls you; you are fit, you are specially spe-cially selected. It is high honor, though our place be at the breech of ten-inch gun, or at a factory drill, or at the handle of a hoe. . It is America saying to the dying in ttfe trenches, the starving in the homes of stricken Europe, "We are sending you our very best!" It is giving your children right to say not "My father was rich," or "My father held high office," but "My father was one of the heroes chosen to uphold freedom, justice and equality through Christendom when the fires of destruction raged highest and fiercest!" Put behind you all that you wanted to be, all that you wanted to do! The greatest of life's opportunities is open to you world service. There can be no higher honor than being picked from among' your fellows to do or die in the'erucial hour of civilization's status, in a cause that is both God's and humanity's. Face front! Shoulder, arms! Forward march ! It is that human free-dom, free-dom, equality and happiness shall not perish from the earth. |