The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-04-30
WOODROW WILSON
 WELCOMED HOME Alderman Speaks of "Even
 Higher Honors' IS LOGICAL LEADER Has Been Tried Out and the Whole
IS LOGICAL u
Has Been Tried. Out and the Whole Nation Will Rejoice in Choos- ing Him for National
 Political Leader

Norfolk, Va, April 29.-In voicing
 virginia's welcome to her native son.,
 Gov Woodrow Wilson, at the Pewter
 Platter club tonight, President Edwin
 A. Alderman of the University of Vir-
 ginia said in part:
 "The welcome that Virginia extends
 to the governor of New Jersey and a
 leader of American democracy Is nat
 urally not a sectional or provincial
 welcome in any narrow sense The
 mother state appreciates perfectly that
 she Is welcoming back home son ot
 hers, who has had much experience
 of men and things, who has known
 the discipline of service to many states
 and communities, who, though not un-
 mindful of that strength of local affec-
 tions and sentiments. but because of
 that very largeness of outlook. sees
 more clearly, in its true relations, the
 majestic meaning of our inheritance
 in the whole nation He has lived in North Carolina, which l can highly rec ommend as experience good TOT the soul of any man. He has good Soutn Carolina blood in his veins. which mas its fine uses, too, unless it falls to scrap ping with the corpuscles from North Carolina. He has felt the exhilaration of mere existence In Georgia He has been tried out on the anvil Of Penn- sylvania and Maryland. and 1t would seem as If he might, in time, be trans lated from New Jersey. He has learned wisdom from books and sympathy from men and toughness and virility oi
 spirit from that most testing of human experiences, ten years tenure Of the presidency of an American university May Be Even Honors
 I've of Virginia could bear with TOT titude Governor Wilson's assumption oi even larger honors and responslolltles Where he can do the most service 10 the renublic there we want him to be. It IS good to be a democrat in this year or our Lord. The very word leaps out al one from the printed page charged with new and vital meaning. The leaders oi the party that bears the great name, in the federal Congress are going about the tasks imposed upon them by the nation with a sobriety and an intelligence, sell sacrifice and a calmness very disappoint- ing and surprising to their enemies and very heartening to their friends.
 .'The people are slowly growing more and more curious about their government and not averse to taking part in its in innate processes. The day, for instance when such a measure as the Payne-Al- drich tariff bill could be steam-rolleo through the American Senate Is passed never to return. We may not deal In in. l finite wisdom with all the tariff sched' ules. but we will never deal with then in just that unscientific way again.
 The air of public duty blowing
 about the region in which Woodrow
 Wilson. was born has been wholesome
 air for purifying the blood of public
 leadership in this third great Amer ican political crisis.
 The whole nation should rejoice, believe, that such a training ground for leadership, prepared through sucf trials lay In her borders. and there Is a fine .stice. which the thought ful will not miss, in the turning south ward of the eyes of all the people foi help and guidance at this decisive houl when our age of furious gain getting has at last been succeeded by an age of moral warfare, when the supremest need of the nations life is the lead ership of a patriotic national-minded ed man wh ose eyes are clear to see the whole blessed truth about things, who has stomach for the fight, who will not falter before difficulties nor swerve backward nor be made afraid '