In honor of Veterans Day:
An excerpt from a war bond speech given by Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne during World War II...
While you and I are sitting comfortably here amid familiar surroundings, many thousands of American men are in great peril on the sea and in remote, strange parts of the world. They have left the homes they love to go to battle. Whatever protection they have depends upon the guns, tanks, planes and ships we must buy for them with United States War Savings Bonds and Stamps. In comparison with what they are doing, our contribution is trifling, but we must give with the spontaneity of comrades. Let us ask ourselves this simple question. What is a wound worth in dollars and cents? What is the cash value for a life given for our country? We all know the answer. There isn't money enough in the whole nation to pay for the devotion and bravery of the men who are preserving with their lives the liberties we have been slowly creating in America for a hundred and fifty years...it is time we roused ourselves from this cancerous lethargy. We must pour everything we are into a mighty drive for victory.
Photo circa 1945.