The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-30
PRESIDENT WILSON BEGINS
 SIX-DAY PREPAREDNESS TOUR

l handled arms of war. who are mere ma terial for shot and powder if you put them in the field, and America would be ashamed of the inefficiency of calling such men to defend the nation.
 | What we want is to associate in train- Ing With the army of the United States
 men who will volunteer for a sufficient l length of time every year to get the rudi- | mentary acquaintance with arms, the ru- | ulmentary skill in handling them, the ru- 1 ulmentary acquaintance with camp life, | the rudimentary acquaintance with mili- 1 tary drill and discipline and we ought to see to It that We have men of that sort
 in sufficient number to constitute an ini- tlal army when we need an army for the | defense of the country.
 1 l believe that the Congress of the | United States ought to do, and that it | will do, great deal more for the Ma tlonal Guard than it ever has done: and | everything ought to be done to make it | a model military arm. but that is not the | arm that we are immediately interested | h. We are interested in knowing that 1 there are men all over the Unitetd States l prepared. equipped and ready to go out at the call of the national government 1 upon the shortest possible notice You VIII ask me why do you say the shortest possible notice? Because, gentlemen. let me tell you very solmnly you cannot af- 1 ford to postpone this thing I do not know what a single day may bring forth
 NO PARTICULAR DANGER "l do not wish to leave you with the impression that l am thinking of some particular danger. I merely want to leave you with this solemn impression that l know that We are daily treading amidst the most intricate dangers and that the dangers that we are treading amongst are not of our making and | are not under our control; and that no man in the United States knows what single week or single day | or a single hour may bring. forth These are solemn things to say to you, put would be unworthy of my office II 1 did not come out and tell you with absolute frankness just exactly what understand the situation to be. T hope that you will bear me out in saying that I have proved that I am a partisan of peace; and would be ashamed to be belligerent and im- patient when the fortunes of my whole country and the happiness of all my fellow countrymen were involved. But know that peace is not always within the choice of the nation, and I want to remind-and remind you very solemn lY-of the double obligation you have laid upon me. I know you have laid 1t upon me, because I am constantly reminded of it in conversation, by let ter, in editorials, by means of every voice that writes me out of the body of the nation. You have laid upon me this double obligation We are rely ing upon you, MT. President, to keep us out of this war, but we are relying upon you, Mir President, to keep the | honor of the nation unstained'
 DO you not see that time may come when it is impossible to do both of these things? Do you not see that if I am to guard the honor of the na- tion I am not protecting it against itself, for we are not going to do any thing to stain the honor of our own country? I am protecting it against things that l cannot control-the ac~ tion of others. And where the action of others may bring us I cannot fore tell. You may count upon my heart and resolution to keep you out of the war, but you must be ready if it is necessary that I should maintain your honor. That is the only thing a real ! man loves about himself
 Why is it that every nation turns | to us with the instinctive feeling that l if anything touches humanity it touches us? Because it knows that ever since | we were born as nation we have
 undertaken to be the champions of hu- ! manity and of the rights of men. Without that ideal there would be noth- | ing that would distinguish America l from her predecessors in the history Iof nations. Why is it that men that love liberty have crowded to these shores? Why is it that we greet them as they enter the great harbor at New York with that majestic statue of liber- ty holding up torch whose visionary beams are supposed to spread abroad over the waters of the world, and to say to all men, Come to America where mankind is free and where we love tha ,rlyy ~ir rI1t tao of peace?'
 UP TO YOUNG MEN
 Pittsburg, January 29.-President Wilson, opening here today his six day programme of speaking in the mid | dle west on national preparedness, told a throng which packed Memorial hall 1 that the test of national preparedness was not with Congress, but with the
 young men of the country in their an- ! swer to the call to volunteer and their
 employers who should oppose no ob- | stacle to free response.
 l And l, for one," the President said, 1 believe both the young men and the
 employers will do their duty.
 | And I am not afraid that America | will not do enough. I am only earn
 estly desirous that she should be very
 cooly considerate of what she does. l On cool second judgment actions are
 worth a thousand nasty counsels. 1 'The plans do not involve great | army said the President. "because , that is not Americas way of being ef- ficient in respect of her physical force We do not intend, we never intended | to have an army, a standing army greater than is necessary for the ordi-
 nary uses of peace. But we want to have back of that army a people who can rally to it's assistance in most ef- ficacious fashion at any time they are
 called on to do so; but who in the
 meantime are not professional soldiers, who do not take the professional sol
 diers' point of view in respect of pub
 lie affairs; whose thought is upon their daily task of peaceful industry; who know that the civilian takes precedence over the soldier in the United States
 q am not going before an audience like this to go into the details of the
 programme which will be proposed at
 the Congress of the United States, be-
 cause after all the details do not make
 any difference. I believe in one plan:
 others may think that another plan can be substituted, and I hope that my mind Is open to be convinced that 1t can. But what I am convinced and what we are all working for is that there should be provided, not a great militant force in this country, but a great reserve or adequate and avail :
 able force which can be called on upon
 occasion.
 IS SMALL NUMBER
 'T have proposed that we should be cd at aSt half