The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-01

without any preparation whatever, If could have written as witty beech as Mr Pulitzer. I would have written it. If I could have written as clear an enunciation of the fundamental ideas of American patriotism as the mayor, I should have attempted it. If l could have been as appealing a person and of as feel as heart as MT. Cobb, l would have felt safe. If I could have been as feeling hart as MT. Cobb 1 would inc as MT. Colby I should have felt that could let myself go without any preparation. But. gentlemen, as mat ter of fact. I have been absorbed by the responsibilities which have been so frequently referred to here tonight, and that preoccupation has made 1t impos- sible for me to forecast even what you would like to hear me talk about.
 There Is something very oddly contra dictory about the effect you men have on me. You are sometimes, particularly in your photographic enterprises, very brutal to me, and you sometimes invade my privacy, even to the extent of for mulating my judgments before they are formed, and yet l am tempted when l stand face to face with you to take off all guard and merely expose myself to you as the fallible human being that am.
 MT. Colby said something that was among the few things I had forecast to say myself He said that there are some things which is really useless to debate, because they go as matter of course.
 "Of course, it is our duty to prepare this nation to take care of it's honor and it's institutions. Why debate any part of that, except the detail, except the plan itself which is always deb at able?
 PREPAREDNESS A DUTY
 "Of course, it is the duty of the gov ernment, which it will never overlook to defend the territory and people of this country. It goes without saying that 1t is the duty of the administration to have constantly in mind with the utmost sensitiveness every point of national honor.
 But, gentlemen, after you have said and accepted these obvious things, your programme of action is still to be formed When will you act and how will you act?
 The easiest thing is to strike The brutal thing is the impulsive thing. No man has to think before he takes ag- gressive action, but before a man really conserves the honor by realizing the ideals of the nation, he has to think ex7 actly what he will do and how he will dc it.
 Do you think the glory of America would be enhanced by a war of conquest in Mexico? Do you think that any act of violence by a powerful nation like this against a weak and destructive Eeighbor would reflect distinction upon the annals of the United States?
 Do you think that it is our duty to carry self-defense to a point of dcta- tion into the affairs of another people |? The ideals of America are written plain upon every page of American history.
 And I want you to know how fully realize whose servant I am. And I do not own the government of the United States even for the time being. I have no right in the use Of it to express my own passions. I have no right to express my own ambitions for the de- velopment of America. if those ambitions are not coincident with the ambitions of the nation itself
 And I have constantly to remind my self that I am not the servant of those who wish to enhance the value of their Mexican investments that am the serv- ant of the rank and file of the people of the United States.
 PEOPLE DON'T WANT WAR
 T get a great many letters, my fellow citizens, from important and influential men in this country, but I get great many other letters I get letters from unknown men, from humble women, from people whose names have never been heard and never will be recorded, and there is but one prayer in all of these letters: MT. President, do not allow anybody to persuade you that the people Of this country want war with any, body
 'I got off a train yesterday and as I Ii,,n @-~I hxr kD : kI,1t said in an undertone, MT. President, keep out of Mexico.' And if one man has ss id that to me a thousand have said it to me as I have moved about the country If l have opportunity to engage them further in conversation. they say Of course we know that you cannot govern the circumstances of the case altogether, sake, do not do it unless it is neces- sary.' i- T am for the time being the spokesman of such people, gentlemen. I have not read history without observing that the greatest forces in the world and the only permanent forces are the moral forces. We have the evidence of a very competent witness. namely, the first Napoleon, who said that as he-looked' back in the last days of his life upon so much as he knew of human history, he had to record the Judgment that force had never accom- plished anything that was permanent Force will not accomplish anything that is permanent venture to say, in the great struggle which is going on on he other side of the sea. The permanent things will be accomplished afterward when the opinion of mankind is brought to bear upon the issues and the only thing that will hold the world steady is this same silent, insistent all-powerful opinion of mankind.
 Force can sometimes hold things steady until opinion has time to form. but no forces that were ever exerted except in response to that opinion was ever con- quering and predominant force.
 T think the sentence in American his-