"It Must Not Be Again"

No spot seems so typically American to Major General Charles Pelot Summerall, Chief of Staff of the U. S. Army, as Chicago. So said the General at the Hotel La Salle last week, guest of the Military Intelligence and Reserve Officers associations. Stiff-jawed, military as a court-martial, Major General Summerall, warmly welcomed, rose, spoke crisp, West-Pointed sentences.

He said: "Our great centres of population and civilization have followed the track of the soldiers, who forced their way through the wilderness and made it safe for settlers and pioneers. . . . When President Harding was at Hoboken, watching the ships with the American dead come in from France, he uttered these momentous words: 'It must not be again.' That found an echo in the hearts of the people. But sentiment alone cannot carry us far. It suggests, but does not attain. It requires action if we are to fulfill that great declaration. The agencies charged with this are the armed forces.

"... I am sometimes advised that there is a movement among students and women that is against national defense. If there are any two elements that give me no fear it is the women and young men. We can't keep the young men from responding to a call for war. In a far nobler and higher degree is this true of women. In all times of trial women lead . . . inspiring and supporting beyond the power of man.

". . . Those who oppose them [civilian training camps] say there will be no more war. There is nothing in history that guarantees no more war. . . . All we have is the result of armed conflict and if we hold it, it must be by strength."

Among those who applauded the General's speech were Vice President Dawes, Major General William Lassiter and officers of the Salvation Army.