The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-26
MIR. BRYAN'S PACIF'ISM
Hillary A. Herbert in the New Y,

Hillary A. Herbert in the New York
 Times.
 NUR country is not yet out of the perilous waters through which
 our President has so far safely guided us, and now we have MT. Bryan again replying to his friend, President Wilson. This time it is to the speech the President recently made before the Man haitian club in New York city advocat- ing preparedness, not for offensive war, but for defense. To that address of his friend MT. Bryan responded so promptly that his reply went out along with the Presidents speech into the evening pa- pers of the next day.
 His objections are on divers grounds; To the Manhattan club in New York, where Mammon worshippers congregate; to the amount proposed to be exepnded- it would build good roads all over the country; to all war, because it Is wicked i; to preparedness, because it is unneces- sary. and causes, and does not prevent, wars; and finally he appeals to American history and traditions, which. in his opin- ion, sustain his contentious.
 In the revolutinary war our chief cities, Boston, New York, Philadelphia Charles ton and Savannah, were, by comparison, mere villages. The British took them all, but no matter; we had no railroads, not even the good highways MT. Bryan advo- cates now, along which had they then ex- isted British armies might have marched, and so we prolonged the fight for eight years and finally, with the help of our allies, won the victory. In that war find each other. depended as much on weather conditions as on seamanship. Now. swift armorclad fleets can go straight to whatever port they may se- lect. With modern artillery, aided by aerial squadrons, they may Lombard any of our cities that are on or near the sea.
 In Savannah, Charleston, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. the capture of all Of which signified but little in our war for independence there are now all to- gether millions of inhabitants and bil- lions of dollars of wealth. Germany. soon after she had prostrated neutral Bel gium, imposed on it's capital city, Brus- sels, a fine of many millions of dollars German generals levy fines on or shoot selected noncombatants in every Belgian town that is in their power, and or whose inhabitants violate orders issued py their commanders, and even on towns whose German garrisons have been nreu on by passing aeroplanes of the aiiiss. That is modern war. So now an enemy dominating ahy one of our seacoast cities' could levy tribute at will From New York city alone he could collect m nve days more money than the President proposes to expend for defense within | the five years to come. And yet MT. Bryan wonders why people in the east should clamor for preparedness, and talks about the "atmosphere of the Manhattan club and the "Mammon worshipping' 1 people that meet there!
 MT. Bryan himself lives in Nebraska, | fully 15o0 miles from the Atlantic or the Pacific or the Gulf of Mexico.
 1 Better far, MT. Bryan thinks, to spend 1 $500, ,0O,000 in five years on good roads, som@ of which would be in braska. than to expend 1t quieting the fears of ! Man'mon worshippers, many of whom dwell in cities by the seq 9