The spirit of the American soldiers at Belleau Wood and in the Argonne Forest was the same spirit that animated the people at home and it brought the whole nation into a closer union and a more understanding comradeship than it had ever previously known. In the army at the front were three hundred thousand negroes, among the most valiant of its fighters; representatives of fourteen tribes of Indians, as contemptuous of death as any of their forefathers and as devoted to their country as any of their comrades; men of almost every racial strain under the sun, and all of them loyal soldiers of America. And, just as all these troops in uniform were joined together in the democracy of their crusading spirit, so all the people of the nation behind them were joined together in feeling and effort and purpose--the purpose that America should win the war for democracy’s sake, the utmost effort needed to realize that aim, a passionate patriotism that blazed at white heat in every heart. The occasional rumbles of dissatisfaction that were heard in some of the centers of alien population during the first months of our participation in the war, due chiefly to enemy propaganda of one or another form, soon ceased as better information was spread among them and the country’s cause had no more whole-hearted and self-sacrificing support than was given by those same crowded centers of foreign born people. Thoroughly representative of this rapidly changing spirit and of our foreign-born citizens throughout the land was the East Side of New York City, where German propaganda and disloyal socialism together did their best to create trouble. But the American Army contained no better and more valiant soldiers and none more inspired by the crusading spirit than the thousands of lads from that region, whose unyielding courage, soldierly qualities and loyalty to their comrades in battle won the praise of all who shared with them the dangers of shell fire, gas and machine gun bullets. And just as fine and staunch in its different way was the patriotism of their families at home, for whom the absence of their men meant much self-sacrifice and even sometimes serious financial troubles. But they proudly hung their service flags in their windows and supported the Government’s war program in every way in their power. Their purchases of thrift and war stamps constantly increased and in the second Liberty Loan campaign they more than doubled their subscription to the first, in the third they multiplied their subscription to the second by sixty and in the fourth they more than trebled their subscription to the third, buying in it $50,000,000 worth of bonds.