Your cosmopolitan doughboy who has shaken hands with the King of England, danced with the Princess of Roumania, learned the slang of a dozen nations and cocked a knowing eye at all the choicest sights of the Continent, may sound extremely sophisticated by cable, but wait until he strikes the United States and see what furrin travel has done for him! It has made him love, not Europe less, but home more, and he hardly tries to conceal his grand passion under a poker face, either. For he has been homesick and weary for months, and the Goddess of Liberty looks like an angel, and New York harbor like Heaven, to his fond eyes.
Spirit of the American Doughboy
As a national asset, then, the soldier is perhaps our best citizen, and because the A. E. F. as a whole is rampantly enthusiastic about its homeland and her interests, America may look to her soldiers for real inspiration in citizenship. These are the men to put into our business life, as rapidly as they can be transplanted from army to civil jobs.
To make the transposition more simple and effective, the War Department through Col. Arthur Woods, Assistant to the Secretary of War, has set up the wheels of a giant machine, which is working night and day to co-operate with all employment agencies for the sake of the returned soldier who has no job. But more than that, this great employment system operates for the good of America. Col. Woods and his thousands of assisting committees believe in the doughboy and in his power of real achievement in the future national life of the United States.
Instead of seeing snakes and other reptiles, the bibulous tramp sees axes and wood saws.
Source: The Camp Bragg News – August 28, 1919
All images included in blog posts are from either Accessible Archives collections or out of copyright public sources unless otherwise noted. Common sources include the Library of Congress, The Flickr Commons, Wikimedia Commons, and other public archives.
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