In January I was ordered to Paris on sick leave. Shortly after, I sailed for home on the _Mauretania_ and saw the mass of New York lift on the horizon, where my three children, who had practically forgotten me, were waiting. So ends the active participation of an average American with average Americans in the war. CHAPTER XII AFTERWARDS "When old John Burns, a practical man, Shouldered his rifle, unbent his brows, And then went back to his bees and cows." BRET HARTE. The war is important to us in this country for what it accomplished directly: namely, it crushed the brutal military power of Germany, which threatened our ideal of civilization. We are, however, primarily civilians, not soldiers, and we are now going back to our "jobs," whatever they may be. For this reason I consider more important and more far-reaching than the military victory the lessons that it taught us and the effects it had on our citizens who participated. We must profit by these lessons and preserve the impulses that have been given to our people. If we do this the war will not simply be history, a past issue, a good job well finished; it will be a force that will be felt in this country through the generations to come for righteousness and a truer Americanism. The first and most evident lesson taught us was the effect of being ill-prepared. We permitted in the past a policy which substituted fine words for fine deeds, the pen and the voice for action. We, in the past, contented ourselves with sounding platitudes; we allowed our sloth to approve them under the misnomer of idealism. We allowed ourselves to be switched from the hard realities by glittering phrases. We sowed the wind and we reaped the whirlwind. As a result hundreds of millions have been spent to no purpose and blood has been shed unnecessarily. Those who were in this country saw daily the evidences of inefficiency and the coincident waste of the public moneys. Those who went to Europe saw blood shed unnecessarily through lack of supplies, inefficient organization, and untrained leadership. At no times did our equipment compare favorably with that of either of our major Allies. At all times in Europe we were to a greater or less extent equipped by them. Much as we are to blame for permitting these conditions to arise in the past, we will be doubly so if in the future we let half-baked theorists and sinister demagogues lead us again into a like neglect. We will be guilty of bringing down upon the heads of our children the same punishments that we have suffered. Indeed, we will probably bring down more upon them, as we by pure good fortune escaped the maximum penalties that were due us.