and French fighting-man, now that they have seen
the American soldier, are clamorous to have him adjacent to their
line. The American has scarcely been blooded at this moment, and yet,
having seen him, they are both certain that he's not the pal to let
them down.

The confidence that the American soldier has created among his
soldier-Allies was best expressed to me by a British officer: "The
British, French and Americans are the three great promise-keeping
nations. For the first time in history we're standing together.
We're promise-keepers banded together against the falsehood of
Germany--that's why. It isn't likely that we shall start to tell lies
to one another."

Not likely!

III

THE WAR OF COMPASSION

Officially America declared war on Germany in the spring of 1917;
actually she committed her heart to the allied cause in September,
1914, when the first shipment of the supplies of mercy arrived in
Paris from the American Red Cross.

There are two ways of waging war: you can fight with artillery and
armed men; you can fight with ambulances and bandages. There's the war
of destruction and the war of compassion. The one defeats the enemy
directly with force; the other defeats him indirectly by maintaining
the morale of the men who are fighting and, what is equally important,
of the civilians behind the lines. Belgium would not be the utterly
defiant and unconquered nation that she is to-day, had it not been for
the mercy of Hoover and his disciples. Their voluntary presence
made the captured Belgian feel that he was earning the thanks of all
time--that the eyes of the world were upon him. They were neutrals,
but their mere presence condemned the cause that had brought them
there. Their compassion waged war against the Hun. The same is true of
the American Ambulance Units which followed the French Armies into the
fiercest of the carnage. They confirmed the poilu in his burning sense
of injustice. That they, who could have absented themselves, should
choose the damnation of destruction and dare the danger, convinced the
entire French nation of its own righteousness. And it was true of the
girls at the American hospitals who nursed the broken bodies which
their brothers had rescued. It was true of Miss Holt's _Lighthouse_
for the training of blinded soldiers, which she established in Paris
within eight months of war's commencement. It was true of the American
Relief Clearing House in Paris which, up to