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Show I A NATION NEVER DEFEATED. On Sunday President Wilson placed a. wreath on the tomb of Lafayette, and thus recalled the debt of gratitude I which America has paid to France. ' l When Lafayette came to America wtlh his troops, the struggling soldiers of Washington wore making a fight against great odds. An American, lately writing from Paris, says God must be wtlh America for, with the very inception of the nation's na-tion's birth, by fortunate circumstances, circum-stances, defeat always has been warded ward-ed off, and America remains tho one undefeated nation of history. Lloyd George remarked this, when American trobps began to arrive in Franco in large numbers. He said that at last America was in the war in full panoply and victory was assured, as America had never been defeated. The Paris correspondent, reviewing this wonderful record of successes, says: "In the war with Mexico the Yank fought vastly superior numbers of brave men and won. Tho Mexican war was comparatively small, but the troops had to suffer and endure and they always filled all they were called upon to fill, and often more. In that war, Grant, Loe, McClellan and many others made their debut, and all gloriously. glo-riously. "Of the civil war the deeds of the soldiers of both sides have become classic. General Grant, in speaking of the south In his offiical report, says: "Let us hope to remain in perpetual peaco and harmony with that enemy whose manhood, however mistaicen tho cause, has called forth such Herculean deeds of valor." A tribute from a generous foe! And in his memoirs, written almost on his deathbed, he said: "United wo need fear no foe." It was General Longstrcot, the right hand of Robert Leo, who said: 'Of Washington it was said, "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen." ' Of Grant we can say, 'First in war, first In peace and first In the hearts of his enemies.' "And at the marvelous funeral of Grant, among his pall bearers were Goneral Buckner and General Joseph E. Johnson. The former had surrendered surren-dered to him at Donelson: the latter had been ono of his most efficient enemies. Both, with Sherman and Sheridan, their old opponents, assisted in bearing away his remains to the beautiful tomb which overlooks the Hudson. It was their answer, the true answer of the south, to the famous sentence, 'Let us have. peace.' "In our little war with Spain, in which I took a humble part, when the Spanish ships were sinking oTf Santiago Santi-ago de Cuba it was an American officer offi-cer who sad, or rather shouted, to his crew: 'Don't cheer, boys; the poor devils are dying.' And the men obeyed and did not cheer, but they did what they could to save the lives of their quixotic opponents. "Why the German emperor and the German general staff could think wo were of little military value 1 never 'could make out. With traditions such as ours, how could our army he anything any-thing but what it is? And when people peo-ple say with a surprised look, 'The Americans are good soldiers and did well,' I smile and say: 'Of course; I could have told you that before.' "We have a blameless military record. rec-ord. We have never been beaten in all our history. We have had a aeries of wonderful commanders. Today their sons are doing just what sons of such men would do. They are maintaining maintain-ing our standard and that standard Is high." J nn |