278 BANQUET. 



Not many days before the terms of the armistice had been agreed upon — we call it an 

 armistice; that is the legal name for the complete surrender (loud and prolonged applause) — 

 a detachment of American and French and British soldiers in a bloody engagement captured 

 a number of Germans,' whom they took back into the prison camp. Among the prisoners 

 was a young German officer, who had been in America when he was younger. Some of our 

 officers and the French and British officers talked with him ab9ut the battles which had been 

 fought, as soldiers always do, and they found that what surprised this young man most was 

 to find so many American soldiers in France. He said to them, frankly : "When I was in 

 Germany a few weeks ago on furlough, I was told there were only a handful of Americans 

 in France, but now it looks to me as if the whole face of creation was covered with Yankee 

 soldiers" — from South Carolina (applause) and from Maine and Texas and California; and 

 one of the things about this war that we have learned in this nation as never before is that 

 soldiers from every portion of it have been proud to be called "Yankee soldiers," and they 

 have all marched to victory to the time of "Dixie." (Applause.) This young officer's sur- 

 prise was great, and from that moment he foresaw the end. They talked familiarly about 

 various things, and a French soldier showed him his cross of the Legion of Honor which he 

 had won for bravery and courage, and a British soldier showed his cross, and then he took 

 out his Iron Cross and showed it to them. Then the young German officer said : "I under- 

 stand all about the Victoria Cross you British soldiers wear, I understand all about the Cross 

 of the Legion of Honor which you French soldiers wear, and about the Iron Cross given to 

 me for courage in battle, but, gentlemen," he said, "pray tell me how did the Americans 

 get a-cross." (Laughter and applause.) You know, and I know, and all the world knows, 

 that more than two million of them got across, because the Navy was on the job, fit and 

 ready. (Great applause.) 



War was declared on the sixth day of April, 1917, and on the twenty-third day of April 

 American destroyers were in British waters, and from that day to this — and they have not 

 quit yet, but are there to stay until every term of the armistice is complied with, and there 

 can be no doubt that peace will reign. (Loud applause.) From that day to this, in the cold 

 of winter, the young men on these destroyers, not knowing what it was to sleep in a bed, nor 

 to eat, except to stand up and take a bite at the post of duty — the men on the transports, the 

 men on ships that before the war we thought were almost valueless and which were early com- 

 missioned and sent to these hard tasks — there has not been a moment when any duty that 

 was required of the Navy has not been performed instantly and victoriously by them. (Loud 

 applause.) Not only on the seas has the Navy been worthy of the best traditions of the 

 service, but upon the land it has accomplished things so big that never before did a Navy 

 undertake to do them. (Applause.) 



I have not time to-night to detail to you these new and striking big things accom- 

 plished by men whom I virtually believe, though they have their equals in every profession 

 and trade, as a compact body of capable men have no equal in the world, the men of the 

 American Navy. (Loud applause.) Very soon after this war began, at the request of our 



