Similarly, it was thought _prosperity_ had killed the spirit of '76 and the all-embracing heart of Lincoln in the youth of America, and under those circumstances there could be no danger that American youth would enter the great world war where prosperity and all kinds of comfort and ease were to be sacrificed and life itself be risked.
Miss Grace C. Bostwick writes in _The Pagan_:
_O America!_ They said you were young and crude and extravagant, And that your women were too free and open; That your children had no respect for age; And that you gave no thought to the past. They said you had no artistic sense And accused you of setting up an altar To the almighty Dollar---- O America! And they smiled when your name was mentioned. But yesterday There marched an army down the street, An army of brave-eyed men with boyish mouths, Straight-backed and proud in their new-found mission-- The saving of the world! And yesterday ... somewhere ... at sea A white face floated With empty eyes upturned to an unseeing sky. And yesterday ... in a barren field ... a mere boy fell from his perilous work on high-- While great ships heavy with sustenance Plow stolidly through the deep ... O America! You are the Hope of the World today.
Germany had made a miscalculation; the spirit of '76 was not dead in young America, neither was the great heart of Lincoln. Prosperity had not been able to kill them. When the suppressed really needed America, our youth heeded the summons. With firm footsteps, with eyes afire, they went away into the great fight. I do not know whether they vowed as did the young Lincoln, but I do know that when they arrived at the battlefield, they struck, and struck hard--so hard, indeed, that the tyrant succumbed. And well may we say about that right of free men which was won by American participation: _It was dearly bought by you--who never came back_.
It is said that the French government in July, 1918, had decided to order the evacuation of Paris, but when General Pershing heard this, he telegraphed a request to postpone the carrying out of the order until his soldiers had entered into active fighting. Then came the turning point. Our soldiers brought it about, and victory was won.