The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-05

| Nf BpiuE lO pldN tHt Oiu IOtt Ot dsihb the power for our own aggrandizement and material benefit?
 "The department of state is constantly called upon to back up commercial en- terprises and the industrial enterprises of the United States in foreign countries; and it at one time went so far in that direction that all it's diplomacy was des- lgnated as dollar diplomacy. 1t was for supporting every man who wanted to earn anything anywhere If he were an American. Now there is limit to that. | l have been preaching year upon year for the United States to show her wit. | skill and enterprise in every country of the world. But there is a limit laid
 upon it more than any other nation in the world. We set up this nation and We propose to set it up on the rights
 of man. We did not name any differ ences between one race and another: we did not not set up any barriers against 1 any particular race or people, but opened our gates to tho world, and said all men who wish to be free come to us and they will be welcome. We say this in- dependence is not merely for us-a selfish thing for our own private use--but for everybody to whom we can find the means | of extending 1t.
 Great Idea
 Now we cannot, with that oath taken l in our youth; we cannot, with that great | idea set before us when we were a young people, and practically only a scant l S,OOOO0O people, take upon ourselves now l that we are an hundred million any con 1 ceptlon of duty than what we entertained at that time. So, if American enterprise in foreign countries, particularly in those foreign countries which are not strong enough to resist us, takes the shape of imposing upon and exploiting the mass Of the people in that country, it ought to be stopped
 T am willing to get anything for americans that money can buy except | the rights of other men, I will not help any man buy a power he should not ex- ercise over his fellow being. You know | what big question there is in Mexico | Elghty-hve per cent of the Mexican peo- pie have never been allowed to have a | look-in in regard to their government and the rights which have been exercised | by the other 15 per cent Do you sup | pose that circumstance is not some- times in my thoughts? l know the Amer l 1can people have a heart that will beat | for those millions in Mexico and when | they once know what is at stake in Mex leo they will know what ought to be done in Mexico.
 l You hear a great deal stated about the property loss in Mexico and I deplore it with all my heart Upon the conclusion | Of the present disturbed condition in Mex 1 leo, undoubtedly those who have lost properties ought to be compensated Mans individual rights have met with many deplorable accidents but back of 1t all is the struggle Of the people, and while we think of the one in the struggle of the people, and while we think of the one in the foreground, let us not forget the other in the background. Every pa- triotic American is man who is not nig- gardly and selfish in the things he needs . rights of man, but wants to share it with the whole world. And he is never so proud of the great flag as when it means for other people as well as himself the symbol of liberty and freedom. l would be ashamed of this flag if it ever did any thing outside of America that we would not permit it to do inside of America. We stand for the mass of the men. worNen and children who make up the vitality of every nation.
 While you were trying to get a front seat just now l was requested to turn around and address the distinguished com pany behind me, but l said that while had great respect for them, and even quite an affection for some of them, the real people were on this side Gndicating the audience). If l had done anything else 1 could not have proved l spoke on lnde- pcndence day, because that great docu- ment written by that aristocrat, Thomas Jefferson, was written by man whose heart was as big as all mankind and he was thinking of them not himself, when he penned that immortal document.
 Regard Honor of Country
 "So 1 say, it is patriotic sometimes to regard the honor of this country in pref erence to it's material interests. Would you rather be despised by all the nations of the world as incapable of keeping your treaty obligations, or would you rather have free tolls for American ships? The treaty may have been a mistake, but it's meaning was unmistakable. When 1 have made a promise as a man 1 try to keep it. The most honorable and dis tinguished nation in the world Is the na- tion that can keep it's promises to it's own hurt. 1 want to say, parentheticalIy, that I don't think anybody was hurt. 1 am not enthusiastic for subsidies to a monopoly. But, assuming that was matter of enthusiasm l am much more enthusiastic for keeping the integrity of the United States absolutely unquestoned and unsullied.
 Popularity is not always successful patriotism The most patriotic man Is sometimes the man who goes in the direc- tion in which he thinks he is right, whether or not he thinks anybody agrees with him, because it is patriotic to sacri- flee yourself if you think you are right. Do not blame anybody else if they do not agree with you That is not the point. Do not die with bitterness in your heart because you do not convince anybody. But die happy because you believe you tried to serve your country without sell ing your soul.
 Those were grim days-the days of 76. Those gentlemen did not attach their names to the declaration of independence on this table expecting a holiday the next day. That Fourth of July was not holiday. They attached their sigma lures to that document knowing if they failed the extreme likelihood was that every one would hang for the failure. They were committing treason in the in- terest of the liberty of 100000 people in America, and all the rest of the world was against them. All the rest of the world smiled with a cynical incredulity at the audacious undertaking.
 Has Got to Be Started
 Every idea has got to be started by somebody and it is a lonely thing to start anything. Yet you have got to start it if there is any mans blood in you. and if you love the country that you are pretending to work for. I, am sometimes very much interested in seeing gentlemen who suppose that popularity is the way to success in America. The way to success in Amer lea is to show you are not afraid of anybody except God and his judg- ment. If I did not believe that I would not believe in democracy If I did not believe that I would not believe people could govern themselves. If I did not believe that the moral judgment would be the last and final Judgment in the minds of men as we'll as at the tri- bunal of God. I could not believe in