bombardment. I have tested the spirit of fellowship which
unites them, including as it does the names of the most
aristocratic French families and the most modest citizens.
There is no false pride among those in high places nor envy
among those lower in the social scale. They wear the same
garb, the same cap, with the same cross on their foreheads.
For the soldiers there is the same uniform, and when you say
uniform you mean equality in devotion, in the risk of life,
and in loyalty to duty. Between the classes of society there
is no contention, there is only emulation. I do not know
whether or not, in times of peace, they had all and
everywhere escaped the local passions which have poisoned
national life, but the war has given them sacred union for a
countersign, and they, as disciplined soldiers, have
respected this countersign.

The French nurse's smile will have served the nation's
defense well, but I emphasize this when I think how well it
will have served the nation's unity in the aftermath that
shall follow war. What rancors it will have appeased! What
jealousies it will have blotted out! What petty prejudices
it will have conquered! These society women and women of the
middle class who have leaned over the beds of sick or
wounded peasants, and these young girls who have tended
their hurts, bound up their wounds, and calmed their
sufferings have, with their delicate hands, so expert in the
worst treatments, laid the foundations of a France that is
united and fraternal, where envy and hate have no place. All
eyes have opened to broader vistas of revealed clearness, to
which they have hitherto remained closed through prejudice,
or obstinacy. They will have learned that bravery, devotion
to the right, loyal and tried disinterestedness, heartfelt
and wise knowledge can dwell in the simple soul of the
peasant and the workingman. The peasants and the workingmen
who have come out from their care will have learned that
luxury does not exclude goodness, that beauty is not always
a sterile gift, that youth is not altogether callow, that a
woman can be pretty and generous, delicate and courageous,
rich and sympathetic, and that the mothers whose children
are dead excel in lavishing the care of their hands and the
tenderness of