o despise the office of garbage
man. I can think of conditions under which I would be quite happy to
serve my country in that capacity. But having enlisted because of the
noble figure of a soldier carrying a flag, I grew pretty sore at the
'Damn you, we've got you' manner in which I was ordered to carry
things--well, not to be too indelicate let us merely say things less
attractive than the flag.

"It's not having to peel potatoes and wash dishes; it's seeming to be
despised for doing it that stirs in men's hearts the awful soreness that
makes them deserters.

"In our regiment men were leaving right along. Our company had a
particularly bad record on desertions. Our captain, a decent fellow, was
away most of the time and the lieutenant in command was a cur. I'd find a
more gentle word for him if I could, but I know none such. Army men talk
a great deal about discipline. But there's a difference between
discipline and bullying. This fellow couldn't issue an order without
making you feel that difference.

"He had a laugh that was a sneer. It wasn't a laugh, just a smile; a
smile that sneered. He couldn't pass a crowd of men cutting grass without
making their hearts sore.

"I don't say he's the typical army man. I don't doubt that there are men
high in the army who, if all were known, would despise him as much as the
men in his company did. But I do say that if there were not a good many a
good deal like him more than fifty thousand young men of America would
not have deserted from the United States army in the past twelve years.

"There was a fellow in our company I had been particularly sorry for. He
wasn't a bad sort at all; he was more dazed than anything else; didn't
understand the army manner; the army snobbishness. This lieutenant
couldn't look at him without making him sullen.

"One day he told him to do a loathsome thing, then stood there with that
sneering smile watching him do it. Well, he did it, all right; that's
what _gets_ you, that powerlessness under what you know for injustice.
But that night he left.

"I knew he was going. He wanted me to go with him. I don't know why I
didn't. I don't blame men for deserting. But for my own part, it would
only be two years more; I used to say to myself, 'You got into this.
You'll see it through.'

"They caught him, brought him back the next day. I happened to be there
at the time. So did our spick and span lieutenant. The man who had been
caught--or boy, rathe