t draw close in
one compact front against a common foe. But this cannot be if each
man pursues a private purpose. All must pursue one purpose. The
Nation needs all men, but it needs each man, not in the field that
will most pleasure him, but in the endeavor that will best serve the
common good.

Thus, though a sharpshooter pleases to operate a trip-hammer for the
forging of great guns, and an expert machinist desires to march with
the flag, the Nation is being served only when the sharpshooter
marches and the machinist remains at his levers. The whole Nation
must be a team, in which each man shall play the part for which he is
best fitted.

NOT A DRAFT OF THE UNWILLING

To this end Congress has provided that the Nation shall be organized
for war by selection, that each man shall be classified for service
in the place to which it shall best serve the general good to call
him.

The significance of this cannot be overstated. It is a new thing in
our history and a landmark in our progress. It is a new manner of
accepting and vitalizing our duty to give ourselves with thoughtful
devotion to the common purpose of us all. It is in no sense a
conscription of the unwilling. It is, rather, selection from a Nation
which has volunteered in mass.

It is no more a choosing of those who shall march with the colors
than it is a selection of those who shall serve an equally necessary
and devoted purpose in the industries that lie behind the
battle-lines.

The day here named is the time upon which all shall present
themselves for assignment to their tasks. It is for that reason
destined to be remembered as one of the most conspicuous moments in
our history. It is nothing less than the day upon which the manhood
of the country shall step forward in one solid rank in defense of the
ideals to which this Nation is consecrated. It is important to those
ideals, no less than to the pride of this generation in manifesting
its devotion to them, that there be no gaps in the ranks.

DAY OF PATRIOTIC DEVOTION

It is essential that the day be approached in thoughtful apprehension
of its significance and that we accord to it the honor and the
meaning that it deserves. Our industrial need prescribes that it be
not made a technical holiday, but the stern sacrifice that is before
us urges that it be carried in all our hearts as a great day of
patriotic devotion and obligation, when the duty shall lie upon every
man, whether he is himself