Even when the United States entered the great war on the 6th of April, 1917, the part that we would take in the conflict was not clearly defined. Would we send an army abroad? Would our navy fight? Or would we merely defend our own shores against possible attack, and supply the other nations at war with Germany with food, munitions, and other supplies? The question was soon answered by American honesty which thundered that the only way to wage war was to send soldiers to the scene of battle. Preparations never equalled in the history of the world went into effect for the purpose of conveying our soldiers over the ocean, of supplying them and equipping them, and of standing back of the troops and peoples of the Allies who were already at war with Germany. Not, however, until more than a year after the beginning of our part in the war was the issue of exactly what the United States would do on the battle-fronts settled. Then the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, gave the order that General John Pershing, in command of the American Expeditionary Forces, should place the American force at the disposition of General Foch of France, commander-in-chief for the armies of the Allies. The American Expeditionary Forces slipped into place, and American soldiers began the actual fighting of America’s war. For the war into which our nation has entered is, in spite of the fact that it is being fought on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, as much America’s war and a war of defense as if it were being fought along our own Atlantic seaboard against an invading army. It is being fought for the same principles which are the only ones great enough to force our country to war, principles of freedom for the individual, freedom for the free-governed nations, and of ultimate, lasting peace for the world. It is being fought against the forces of aggression, of greed, of injustice. It is being fought against the intention of Germany to dominate the world. In every war there are two great issues battling against each other. Men fight for one or the other. Nations fight for one or the other. There have been wars of conquest waged by strong nations against weaker ones, wars of religion, wars of territorial aggression, wars of defense, wars of trade, wars of high moral ideals. This is a war where the issue is sharply set. It is a war where democracy fights against autocracy, where liberty fights against bondage, where freemen fight to keep their freedom against men who strive to take it away from them.