The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-30
SURE OF RESPONSE

Are the men going to come out, anu are those who employ them going to facilitate their coming out? l. for one, believe that they will. There are many selfish influences at work in this coun- try, as in every other, but when it comes to the large view, America can produce the substance of patriotism as abun- dantly as any other country under Gods sun.
 'T have no anxiety along those lines, and I have no anxiety along the lines of what Congress is going to do. You elect men to Congress who have opinions, and 1t Is not strange that they should have differing opinions. I am not jealous of debate If what I propose cannot stand debate, then something ought to be sub stituted for it. But I am not afraid that it is gong to be all debate I am not afraid that nothing is going to come out of it; l am not afraid that we shall fail to get out of it the most substantial and satis factory results, and certainly when I talk great deal myself I am not going to be jealous of the other man having a chance to talk also. But we are talking to get at the very final analysis of the case, and the final proof and demonstration of what we ought to do
 My own feeling, ladies and gentlemen, is that it Is pity that this is a campaign year. 1 hope with the chairman of the meeting that the question of national preparation for defense will not by any body be drawn into campaign uses or par tisan aspects. There are many differ ences between democrats and republicans, honest differences of opinion and of con- viction, but democrats do not differ from republicans upon the question of the na- tons safety, and no man ought to draw this thing into controversy in order to make party or personal profit out of it. am ready to acknowledge that men on the other side politically are just as deeply and just as intelligently interested in this question as l am; of course, and 1 shall be ashamed of any friends of mine who may take any different view. And what 1 want you to do is this I want you to make yourself vocal I want you to let everybody who comes within earshot of you know that you are par tlsan for the adequate preparation of the United States for national defense have come to asa you not merely to go home and say: The President seems to be good fellow and to mean what he says want you to go home deter mined that within the whole circle of your influence, the President, not as partisan, but as a representative of the national honor, will be backed up by the whole force that is in you
 q know that that appeal is not in vain. I know what deep fountains of sentiment well up in America know that the surface of our life some times seems Sordid. l know that the men who do most of the talking do not always hear the undertones of our llfe; put l know that the men who go in and out of the farms men who go in and out a the factory door, the men who go in and out of the offices, the men who go abroad upon ships, the men who travel up and down the cOun- try to quicken the courses of our com merce-underneath the surface of every one of these men there is the beating of a heart which is willing to make a profound sacrifice for the coun- try that We all love.
 Those hearts are now going to be
 guided by very hard headed minds. by minds that know how to think and plan and insist that out of what seems an intricate debate, there is going to come great plan for national defense of which we will be proud and which VIII lead us to forget partisan differ ences in one great enthusiasm for the | United States of America.
 SPEAKS TO LADIES
 1 In his speech here today at the over- flow meeting, the President said: "I feel that I was lured here under false pretenses. I was told that I was to address an audience of women, and the men, as usual have been usurpers and come in. So they need not listen. There is sense in which the women ! Of the country live closer to the life
 Of 1t than the men,. The preoccupations or business for the man who has to work for his daily bread are such that
 sometimes the material side of life seems the only real side of life. I find
 that very few men stop to think of the
 life of the family, of the life of the
 community, of the life of the state and ] of the nation Their. hrn iS