The opportunity for a military training, the beneficial results of its
discipline, must be continued for the youth of our country. The
sacrifice necessary for national defence must hereafter never be
neglected. The virtues of war must be carried into peace. But this must
not be done at the expense of the freedom of the individual. It must be
the expression of self-government and not the despotism of a German
military caste or a Russian Bolshevik state. We are in this war to
preserve the institutions that have made us great. The war has revealed
to us their true greatness. All argument about the efficiency of
despotism and the incompetence of republics was answered at the Marne
and will be hereafter answered at the Rhine. We are not going to
overcome the Kaiser by becoming like him, nor aid Russia by becoming
like her.

We see now that Prussian despotism was the natural ally of the Russian
Bolshevik and the I.W.W. here. Both exist to pervert and enslave the
people; both seek to break down the national spirit of the world for
their own wicked ends. Both are doomed to failure. By taking our place
in the world, America is to become more American, as by doing his duty
the individual develops his own manhood. We see now that when the
individual fails, whether it be from a despotism or the dead level of a
socialistic state, all has failed.

A new vision has come to the Nation, a vision that must never be
obscured. It is for us to heed it, to follow it. It is a revelation, but
a revelation not of our weakness but of our strength, not of new
principles, but of the power that lies in the application of old
doctrines. May that vision never fade, may America inspired by a great
purpose ever be able to say,