RATIONING THE NATIONS

Almost immediately after the first military and naval preparations had been set in operation the United States Government, taking no chance as against the future, began to regulate the lives and living of Americans at home.  A policy of conservation, so well devised that it went into effect without the slightest disturbance of daily living and daily routine, was at once adopted.

England, France and Belgium had to be fed.  Belgium had to be clothed and housed as well as fed.  Out of our abundance had to come the means to those ends, as well as to equip and maintain vast armies of our own, from bases three thousand miles away in Europe and twice as far in Asia.  The whole nation was mobilized for war.

Britain and France had come through more than three years of close-lipped but bone-cracking effort, in which every aspect of domestic life was changed, the final ounce of strength exerted, privations unheard of endured in grim silence.  America saved them, and not alone by force of arms against the common enemy.

  WHAT THE YANKEE DUDE’LL DO

  BY TOM H. DEVEREAUX.

  Uncle Samuel blew the bugle call,
  For his boys to fall in line,
  And they came, yes, by the million,
  On the march at double time,
  With muskets on their shoulders
  They answered to the call
  To defend our nation’s honor,
  And for Liberty of all. 
  They buckled on their knapsacks,
  And they loaded up their guns,
  To the tune of Yankee Doodle,
  They whipped those Turks and Huns;
  For their hearts were with the colors
  Of the red, the white and blue,
  And they’ve shown those fiendish Prussians
  What the Yankee Dude’ll Do.

  REFRAIN

  Singing rally round Old Glory, boys,
  And fight for freedom true,
  Rally to the Stars and Stripes
  As your fathers did for you. 
  Oh! we sailed across the ocean deep,
  With the red, the white and blue,
  And we’ve shown that devilish Kaiser
  What the Yankee Dude’ll Do.

  From our north land, and our east land,
  To our far-off Golden Gate,
  From our south way down in Dixie
  And the old Palmetto State,
  Bravest sons of all the nation came
  To fight our country’s foe,
  Who would follow our Old Glory,
  Where her stars and stripes might go;
  To the battle cry of Freedom,
  All our men would surely come,
  And fight for world-wide Victory
  At the call of fife and drum. 
  We have proved to all creation
  That our boys are real true blue,
  And we’ve shown those fiendish Prussians,
  What the Yankee Dude’ll Do.

CHAPTER II.

UNITED STATES ENTERS THE WAR

The President Proclaims War—­Interned Ships Are Seized—­Congress Votes $7,000,000,000 for War—­Raising an American Army—­War to Victory Wilson Pledge—­British and French Commission Reaches America.