America heard the call; America saw that there were no limits to the evils of the powers of darkness unless the powers of light should fight them; and on April 6, 1917, America declared her purpose to do so. As the small American republic once heard with rejoicing and confidence the word that Lafayette and Rochambeau were to bring aid westward across the Atlantic, so now the great French republic heard with the same emotions the declaration that American soldiers were to bring succor to them eastward across the same sea. The last great neutral nation, immense in power of men and wealth and energy, had cast in its lot with the forces that were fighting for freedom. The Allies, weary and worn with more than two years of fighting, looked to this fresh, great people to bring them victory. A month after we joined the cause of liberty French generals and statesmen came to America. At their head was Marshal Joffre, the hero of the Marne. He visited Mount Vernon and laid a wreath on the tomb of Washington; he traveled through the country and everywhere he found statues of Lafayette and Joan of Arc and memories of great Frenchmen. To America Joffre stood for the ideals of France, courage, endurance, nobility of thought and action. Not since Lafayette’s visit in 1824 had the people of the United States welcomed any visitor with such love and admiration. The tour of Marshal Joffre was the outward symbol of the new union. Instantly the United States, a peaceful nation with a very small standing army, an insignificant merchant marine, its farms devoted to supplying its own needs, its factories busy with the commerce of peace, changed to a nation at war. It faced a stupendous problem. From its untrained men it must create great armies, fitted to cope with and defeat the fighting machine that the enemy had spent years in building. It must have the ships to carry those millions of soldiers to Europe and it must supply them in Europe with the food, the clothing, the guns, the ammunition they would need. That in itself was a task beside which the greatest military achievements in history paled into insignificance. Napoleon crossed the Alps, but he could feed his army on the supplies of the countries on the other side of the mountains. We must supply everything, must transport America into Europe, and then keep America there by an unending bridge of boats. More than that, we must do our part in building ships to provision our allies, ships that should replace those the pirates of the sea were sinking daily. And we must feed not only our own people, but the people of starving countries, and particularly the people of Belgium, whom we had helped since the war began. Here in the broad and fertile land that lay between the two oceans was to be the granary and factory and training-camp that were to make liberty victorious. The nation turned to its new task with the same indomitable energy that had conquered the wilderness in the days of the pioneers.