Every war has its home heroes as well as its field heroes. Since this war is, more than any other, a war of resources, it follows that the part of labor is more important than it has been in any previous war. If the working men and women of any one of the great warring nations should refuse to continue at work, that nation would be defeated as surely as if the armies had laid down their arms in the field. American victory is as dependent upon American labor as it is upon American manhood. And it is with pride that it may be said that American labor has been found worthy of all American traditions. The United States has been pre-eminently the nation of the working man. Its legislation has continuously tended toward the betterment of his condition. Nowhere else in the world has he enjoyed the lot that has been his in America. Nowhere else has he the voice, the power, the future that our nation accords him. And upon him in this war has fallen the duty of speeding up the war production of the country, a task so important that those men of draft age engaged in such occupations have been exempted from military service in order that they may continue at their work. For the making of munitions is as necessary as the firing of guns. It has become the duty of American labor to keep at the allotted tasks. No one must shirk. No one must fail. No one must delay. No matter how trivial the task may seem in the sum of the war work, it may be the one whose lack of doing may be the breach in the wall through which the enemy may enter. “For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For the want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For the want of a horse, the rider was lost. For the want of the rider, the message was lost. For the want of the message, the battle was lost. For the loss of the battle, the kingdom was lost. All for the want of the nail of a shoe.” And the maker of the horseshoe was one of the factors of his country’s defeat! The civilian’s part in this war has been outlined by the President of the United States in his proclamation of the 16th of April, 1917: [Illustration: The launching of the U. S. S. _Accoma_ Scarcely a minute after this 3,500-ton wooden cargo-ship had been launched the keel of another ship was swung into place]