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Fellow countrymen, to win
this war, Congress pledged the resources of the
United States to the last man and the last dollar.
When you applauded that, you agreed that we would
be a united nation, prepared to make every sacrifice
necessary to win this fight. Have we the strength
of character to carry out that pledge? We ought
clearly to comprehend that this is a war of equipment.
Our men may be as brave as any heros ever were,
but they cannot successfully fight this sort of
fight barehanded. They must have the equipment
of guns great and small, of ammunition, of a sky
full of airplanes, and of a bridge of ships across
the Atlantic. The cost of that, together with
the cost of what we must manufacture for our allies,
will represent of money value of nearly 19 billion
dollars.
We cannot fight a war without
money, that we all know. But after all we cannot
win a war with money. You could dress a soldier
in dollar bills and he would still be cold. It
is the output of the workshop that we must have.
We are just now seeing that money will not build
a fire in a furnace. That needs coal, and money
will not secure coal where the coal cannot be
transported. We are learning that appropriations,
and treasury credit do not equip the army, unless
there are other raw materials -- the workshop,
and the manpower -- which that money can command.
Sticking a label on a bottle does not fill the
bottle; making an appropriation does not build
a ship. There are not men enough to make for us
our ordinary comforts and luxuries and at the
same time build the ships and fighting equipment
needed. If we will recognize that fact, we will
then see why each one of us must give up some
of our ordinary comforts and luxuries. If we do
not, the army cannot be equipped in time.
So we must see to it that
every one of our hundred million Americans enlist
in that great army back of our soldiers. We must
all serve. The responsibility is upon you to decide
how you will serve. Whether in the army in khaki
or in the larger army -- the hundred million army.
You must go or forego. You must fight or sacrifice.
You are the Kaiser's ally if you make men work
for you manufacturing luxuries while guns are
still unforged and ships unbuilt. Join the hundred
million army. Then mark your service by foregoing
unnecessary things and bringing, buying with the
money you save bonds of the United States, big
bonds if you can, baby bonds in any event. Buying
war saving stamps means equipping the army, means
saving the lives of American soldiers, means whipping
the Huns, and redeeming the world for civilization.
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