These men, as I have said, were largely uneducated. I turn now for a moment to those in our great seats of learning, and to the heads and faculties and trustees of those institutions. Their stand was doubtless one to be expected, but is still worthy of remark. That the best blood in England suffered the most losses I think is conceded. That would have been the case with us if the war had broken on us as it did on Great Britain. As it was, our boys courted the posts of danger--aviation; submarine chasers; balloon observation, and so on. Some left college to enter the service; others stayed at college awhile, but in order to train and perfect themselves in the art of war. The colleges themselves became military schools; the dormitories barracks. For a short time some anxious mothers held back, and it is little wonder that they did. But it was not for long, and soon the woman who could wear a pin, with one, two, or more stars in it on her bosom, gloried in it, while she who wore a star of gold, in all her grief still cherished the solemn pride, as Lincoln called it, of having laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of her country. Whether the son was a student or ploughboy, a bootblack or factory hand, or the son of a millionaire, the feeling was the same. In fact, there was a tendency at first among the people at large to suspect the well-to-do and moneyed classes of holding back their sons. This soon wore off; and one of the most inspiring as well as instructive sights I ever saw was on this very island; the parade of war mothers on the Bar Harbor fair grounds; women in all walks of life, some with gold stars on their badges.
College presidents who encouraged the entry of students into military service came in for adverse criticism, but that soon passed, and now that college, the largest percentage of whose students and graduates went into the service, points with the greatest pride to its record in that respect.
I think, however, that the greatest achievement of the war, and the one that makes most for the future safety of our country, is the success of the selective service draft. All the books ever written, all the lectures ever delivered, attacking the pacifistic tendencies of our people, fail to accomplish anything of consequence in comparison with that achievement. Whether our people have undergone a great psychologic change I know not. It is certain that at no time previously had they submitted willingly to be drawn into service. For a century and a quarter militia and volunteers were the basis of the armed power on land. During the Civil War drafting meant riots. During all our prior history bounties for enlistment were an accepted fact.