aning of it all?

At first on the field of battle one thrills at the sound of mighty and
unearthly forces loosed, but in the din we suddenly realize that boys
are dying all about us, and that these guns bear swift death and
mangling to suffering men. Between us and the enemy are just a few
deep shell holes and a thin red line of flesh and blood, as a human
rampart, formed of men who hold their lives in their hands, ready to
make the great sacrifice. Behind us are the hidden guns and the
support trenches in the narrow strip of hard-won territory. Behind
these are the moving columns on the long roads, the pulsing arteries of
traffic, and the moving troop trains on the rails. Behind these in
turn are the plying ships, the millions of toiling workers, and the
suffering hearts of the nations in arms. Whole nations--yes, almost
the whole of humanity--are organized for war and dragged into deadly
conflict as by some devil's behest, instead of being organized for
brotherhood and the building of a better world. Oh, not for this
devil's work were men made. Surely mankind must come to its own in
these birth pangs of a new era. Never, never again must a whole
humanity of the free-born sons of God be dragged into the hell of war
to sate the pride or pomp of kings, or to glut the ambition of scheming
secret groups who have taught men that they are created as obedient
slaves.

Far behind us, marking the slow advance up this ridge of death, are the
sheltered cemeteries of white crosses that tell the price that has
already been paid. There are five thousand crowded graves in yonder
acre alone. Great is the price, awful in its solid weight of agony.
This is no longer a war between two peoples, but between two
principles; it is as much to free the German people as to protect
ourselves. It is not for this narrow strip of hard-won soil, but for
every foot of a world that from henceforth must be free. The men who
are fighting on grounds of moral principle would rather pay any price
than lie at ease under the false shadow of militarism, materialism, and
grasping greed. These men are fighting, and many of them know that
they are fighting, for a new world. Not only military oppression, but
industrial oppression, must go. Not only German militarism, and
Russian autocracy, and Turkish cruelty must be done away; but American
materialism must be purged in the fiery furnace of this war. Its
purposes will reach far beyond our ken, a