rst class. It was the end of a war
for which Germany had prepared for generations, a war bred of a
philosophy that Might can take its toll of earth's possessions, of human
lives and liberties, when and where it will. That philosophy involved
the cession to imperial Germany of the best years of young German
manhood, the training of German youths to be killers of men. It involved
the creation of a military caste, arrogant beyond all precedent, a caste
that set its strength and pride against the righteousness of democracy,
against the possession of wealth and bodily comforts, a caste that
visualized itself as part of a power-mad Kaiser's assumption that he and
God were to shape the destinies of earth.

When Marshal Foch, the foremost strategist in the world, representing
the governments of the Allies and the United States, delivered to the
emissaries of Germany terms upon which they might surrender, he brought
to an end the bloodiest, the most destructive and the most beneficent
war the world has known. It is worthy of note in this connection that
the three great wars in which the United States of America engaged have
been wars for freedom. The Revolutionary War was for the liberty of the
colonies; the Civil War was waged for the freedom of manhood and for the
principle of the indissolubility of the Union; the World War, beginning
1914, was fought for the right of small nations to self-government and
for the right of every country to the free use of the high seas.

More than four million American men were under arms when the conflict
ended. Of these, more than two million were upon the fields of France
and Italy. These were thoroughly trained in the military art. They had
proved their right to be considered among the most formidable soldiers
the world has known. Against the brown rock of that host in khaki, the
flower of German savagery and courage had broken at Chateau-Thierry.
There the high tide of Prussian militarism, after what had seemed to be
an irresistible dash for the destruction of France, spent itself in the
bloody froth and spume of bitter defeat. There the Prussian Guard
encountered the Marines, the Iron Division and the other heroic
organizations of America's new army. There German soldiers who had been
hardened and trained under German conscription before the war, and who
had learned new arts in their bloody trade, through their service in the
World War, met their masters in young Americans taken from the s