To Whom It May Concern

Those men wounded beneath their battle flags
May or may not have a fighting chance,
Nurses are needed, yet recruiting lags
While every mile of ground our troops advance
Is bought with blood and even lives expended;
Though death to some has always been the price
Of victory when any right's defended, Nothing excuses useless sacrifice!
Whether or not the men in foreign lands
Have little nursing care to ease their pain --
Or die perhaps -- the answer's in your hands.
Life means so much to them! Can you explain
To any youth who fought, suffered, and bled,
Why you did not serve, too, beside his bed?

--RUTH ARUNDEL PIERCY, R. N.

From The American Journal of Nursing,
Vol. 44, No . 2, Feb. 1944, p. 97.
By permission of The American Journal
of Nursing.