_American_. And undying names--the lads' names. _Englishman_. What they and the other Americans did can never die. Not while the planet endures. No nation at that time realized how vital was your country's entrance into the war. Three months later it would have been too late. Your young, untried forces lifted worn-out France and England and swept us to-victory. It was America's victory at the last. It is our glory to confess that, for from then on America has been our kin. _American_. (_Smiles_.) England is our well-beloved elder sister for all time now. _Englishman_. The soldiers who died there (_gestures to the ditch_) and their like did that also. They tied the nations together with a bond of common gratitude, common suffering, common glory. _American_. You say well that there was common gratitude. England and France had fought our battle for three years at the time we entered the war. We had nestled behind the English fleet. Those grim gray ships of yours stood between us and the barbarians very literally. _Englishman_. Without doubt Germany would have been happy to invade the only country on earth rich enough to pay her war debt. And you were astonishingly open to invasion. It is one of the historical facts that a student of history of this twenty-first century finds difficult to realize. _American_. The Great War made revolutionary changes. That condition of unpreparedness was one. That there will never be another war is the belief of all governments. But if all governments should be mistaken, not again would my country, or yours, be caught unprepared. A general staff built of soldiers and free of civilians hampering is one advantage we have drawn from our ordeal of 1917. _Englishman_. Your army is magnificently efficient. _American_. And yours. Heaven grant neither may ever be needed! Our military efficiency is the pride of an unmilitary nation. One Congress, since the Great War and its lessons, has vied with another to keep our high place. _Englishman_. Ah! Your Congress. That has changed since the old days--since La Follette. _American_. The name is a shame and a warning to us. Our children are taught to remember it so. The "little group of wilful men," the eleven who came near to shipwrecking the country, were equally bad, perhaps, but they are forgotten. La Follette stands for them and bears the curses of his countrymen, which they all earned. _Englishman_. Their ignominy served America; it roused the country to clean its Augean stables. _American_. The war purified with fire the legislative soul.