The Call To Greater Duty

When, in 1917, America threw in her lot with the allied nations fighting against Germany, there was a national draft for the second time in our history. On the whole, Americans were enthusiastic about the crusade, but few can have been so forthright about their reasons as the mountain woman who wrote the letter that appears below. This unusual document was recently discovered among the Woodrow Wilson papers in the Library of Congress by Donald Smythe, an associate professor of history at John Carroll University.

Dear U.S.
He can’t rote.
My husband ast for me to rote for him a recoment that he supports his family—he ant done nothing but drink lemon essence and play the fiddle since I maried him 8 years ago—and I gotta feed seven kids of hisn. Take him away and welcome, for I need the grub and his bed for the kids. May bee you can get him to cary a gun for hes good on squirrels and eating. Dont tell him, but take him. Name Withheld