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Show RECRUITING SERGEANTS 'The War Department's appeal to 'American citizens to turn recruiting sergeants and fill up the gaps in the regular army is based on the soundest sound-est kind of patriotism. It Is an appeal ap-peal directed at each individual and as obligatory In adherance as though the call for actual service was niade It suggests the country's response to Lincoln, memorialized for all time in the sentence "We are coming, Father Abraham, One Hundred Thousand Strong," and it ought to have an equally enthusiastic acceptance accept-ance now. There has been much said and written and sung of "preparedness." As' the War Department's appeal reads those who are really Interested In preparedness "can render no more effective service than by using their utmost influence to recruit the regular reg-ular army to the strength authorized by law." Why shouldn't the country do this? The army is not an amusement enterprise. en-terprise. It is organized to protect US. It is maintained to defend omr country and its interests. Why shouldn't therefore, every individual who enjoys this protection and this defense do the very little now asked of him or her, if not in the interest of the nation, then in the selfish interest of himself or herself? It was a misfortune because it was in insult, to regard at one time, the army as a service unbecoming a man Thanks be, that perversion of public opinion has been cured. The army, military service, not from the viewpoint view-point of the ogre or the brute, but rrom the viewpoint of the trained man, the physical culturist, the patriot, patri-ot, has become a highly respectable and highly patriotic service, which, in the course of time maybe, no man may ignore unless he is crippled or inhibited by religion. That being so, none need hesitate to recommend the service to a young man whose circumstances will permit per-mit enlistment. The army, like the navy, is a great forge in which iron men are made, men who are needed ;n this life, gentle as a child and . strong as a lion. And the country' : needs them and it needs the help of i its citizens to get them. MAKE YOURSELF A RECRUTT-ING RECRUTT-ING SERGEANT! |