68 JORDAN— THE HUMAN HARVEST. [April i8, 



of the empire to arms . . . and 350,000 conscripts were promised by 

 the Senate. The mighty swirl of the Moscow campaign sucked in 

 150,000 lads of under twenty years of age into the devouring vor- 

 tex." " The peasantry gave up their sons as food for cannon." But 

 " many were appalled at the frightful drain on the nation's strength." 

 '' In less than half a year after the loss of half a million men a new 

 army nearly as numerous was marshalled under the imperial eagles. 

 But the majority were young, untrained troops, and it was remarked 

 that the conscripts born in the year of Terror had not the stamina of 

 the earlier levies. Brave they were, superbly brave, and the emperor 

 sought by every means to breathe into them his indomitable spirit." 

 " Truly the emperor could make boys heroes, but he could never 

 repair the losses of 181 2." " Soldiers were wanting, youths were 

 dragged forth." The human harvest was at its very worst. 



And the sequel of it all is the decadence of France. In the pres- 

 ence of war — of war on such a mighty ruthless and ruinous scale — 

 one does not have to look far to find in what constitutes the superior- 

 ity of the Anglo-Saxon. And we see the truth in Franklin's words, 

 the deeper truth of their deeper wisdom : " Men do not pay for war 

 in war time ; the bill comes later." 



Another wise man, Ralph Waldo Emerson, has used these words : 

 " Man has but one future, and that is predetermined in his lobes." 

 "All the privilege and all the legislation in the world cannot meddle 

 or help. How shall a man escape from his ancestors or draw off 

 from his veins the black drop?" 



It is related that Guizot once asked this question of James Russell 

 Lowell, '' How long will the republic endure ?" " So long as the 

 ideas of its founders remain dominant," was the answer. But again 

 we have this question : " How long will the ideas of its founders 

 remain dominant?" Just so long as the blood of the founders re- 

 mains dominant in the blood of its people. Not necessarily the blood 

 of the Puritans and the Virginians alone, the original creators of 

 the land of free states. We must not read our history so narrowly 

 as that. It is the blood of free-born men, be they Roman, Frank, 

 Saxon, Norman, Dane, Goth or Samurai. It is a free stock which 

 creates a free nation. Our republic shall endure so long as the 



