Letter from a Local Board to General Enoch H. Crowder - July 30, 1918

Transcript

Philadelphia July 30, 1918. Provost Marshall General E. H. Crowder, Department of War, Washington, D.C. My dear General Crowder: Your letter, declining the very meritorious and so honored an office of the highest distinction possible, save the presidency, that was so graciously tendered to you, the rank and title of Lieutenant General, and which was so graciously declined from so patriotic a stand, and your most thoughtful and truly patriotic consideration of your co-laborers in this great task of which there is no record of its equal in the history of the world; you declining this great American honor in behalf, for, and in consideration of your co-laborers, the local and district boards of this Nation, --was received and read, and re-read and then read again by this board. General Crowder, I know of no case that can be compared to it save the historic remark of General George Washington to his brother officers, when publically, he shared the great honor of his glorious victory with his officers and his men. You have touched a chord whose depth of meaning will only be solved in years to come. The Local Boards of the Nation have performed a duty that can hardly be measured. If your views are put into orders, 3,000,000 of the flower of our Nation have crossed the dangerous ocean, and many will not come back in form; men who have gone to the call of their country to follow its flag in the cause of so human an object, of so far-reaching an object, carrying with them the principle of our beloved land, that the golden rule has given to us 2000 years ago, may be known and be loved in all parts of the world as it is here. It is the Local Boards that have said to those brave men,