MY COUNTRY’S PART [Illustration: General Pershing’s veterans direct from the trenches in France marching to the City Hall, New York City] MY COUNTRY’S PART BY MARY SYNON ILLUSTRATED CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS CHICAGO NEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS [Illustration] TO THOMAS S. ENRIGHT JAMES B. GRESHAM MARLE B. HAY PRIVATES IN THE RANKS OF THE AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES WHO WERE THE FIRST TO DIE IN FRANCE IN OUR WAR AGAINST GERMANY THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. “MY GRANDMOTHER AND MYSELF” 1 II. THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD WAR 40 III. WHAT THE GREAT WAR REALLY MEANS 53 IV. HOW THE WAR CAME TO THE UNITED STATES 65 V. HOW THE UNITED STATES WENT INTO WAR 77 VI. WHAT THE UNITED STATES IS DOING IN THE WAR 85 VII. REAR-LINE TRENCHES 93 VIII. THE AMERICAN’S PART 110 IX. THE UNITED STATES AND INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM 121 X. THE UNITED STATES AND INTERNATIONAL PEACE 131 ILLUSTRATIONS General Pershing’s veterans direct from the trenches in France marching to the City Hall, New York City _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE Belgium refugees between Malines and Brussels 66 President Wilson delivering his war message 80 Recruits of the National Army waiting at the booths of a National Army cantonment 90 Children selling thrift stamps 104 Boys at work in their war garden 110 The launching of the U. S. S. _Accoma_ 118 An immigrant family qualified to enter the United States 128 CHAPTER I “MY GRANDMOTHER AND MYSELF” What can an American boy or an American girl do for our country? The ways are many. Every man, woman, and child in the United States has the duty of defending the nation. In time of war every American must be in spirit, if he cannot be in actual duty, a soldier. A soldier’s part is to guard his nation. An American’s part is to guard America. The guarding may be done by saving the food that the government asks its citizens to save, by buying War Thrift Stamps, by buying Liberty Bonds, by working for the Red Cross, or for other patriotic organizations; but it must be done with the idea that our country is our first concern, our first care.