William P. Runnington to Woodrow Wilson

May 30, 1917. I am at present the Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Minneapolis and as such am deeply interested in the moral and spiritual welfare of the young men who are offering themselves so willingly in the service of their country. I am not going to bother you by an advocacy of any of the plans whereby we are seeking to mitigate some of the horrors of war and lessen its dangers to the enlisted men.
I believe there is one outstanding thing which you Sir, as Commander in Chief of our armies and navies, and as President of our great nation can do, which will be of greater benefit than all of these schemes.
Two or three paragraphs from your pen addressed personally to every soldier or sailor encouraging him to maintain the honor and justice and righteousness for which we are fighting, and to keep himself unstained in the face of temptations to intemperance and immoralilty will have more power for good than a thousand sermons, which we might preach. I am daring to offer this suggestion because I have not yet read any such message from you, and because I have seen the messages written by King George, the late Earl Kitchener and Admiral Sir John Jellicoe to the armies and navies of our Ally Great Brittin. I have accepted appointment as Chaplain of Base Hospital #26, being organized in Minnesota and I would like to put into the hands of every member of our unit, before we go on our errand of mercy, some word from you Sir, which would sustain us and inspire us in the hour of our peril.
Your words have crystallized the opinion and the ideals of our country in this crisis. May we not have now a personal word to every enlisted man which will challenge our Christian manhood to do its best?