Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-11-07

right things had been done. no doubt,
they had been done by the wrong peo-
pie? What difference does ii make who
did them, whether they were good look
ing men or ugly men, whether they
were wise men or unwise, whether they
were schoolmasters or sages? If they
were done and were the right things to
do, then every man ought to stand by
them and praise them. 1t is not a ques
tion of personal qualification. 1t is a
question of what the person, whether
qualified or unqualified, intends to do
that tells in an exigency like this, for
IL is an eXigency.
ut is a crisis because some of the
fundamental things of the life of the
world have to be determined. That
is one reason why we have been saying
so much about the apparent desire Of
some people to have our public policy
determined by European reasons and
not American reasons. We have seen
that unless we could unite and direct
and purify the forces of this country,
we could not do what it was necessary
to do for the world through the instru-
mentality of America.
Therefore, we have insisted with re-
peated insistence that the first thing
to do was to see that everybody intend
ed the same things and loved the same
things and believed i'm the same things.
All that we have heard from our oppo-
nents has been that they believed in
themselves That is not what we want
ed to know. Do they believe in us also?
DO you believe in America also? Do
they believe that America, by showing
in her own politics that she means what
she says about herself. can be counted
upon to mean what she says about the
world when the war is OVer2
SPREADING FINDER"
1T mazes me that men calling them
selves statesmen should discuss some of
the things our opponents have been
dwelling upon when the whole atmos-
phere of the world was lurid with the
blaze Of threatened trouble; men spread
ing finder In this country when sparks
without number were blowing over from
this terrible confilagration; men making
party sport of unsettled questions, not
settled ones; of present courses of &C.
tion, not past courses of action; seeking
to make party capital out of things
which If not settled wisely might bring
this country at any moment into the
world conflict which is devastating Eu-
rope
THE United States will never again
be what it has been. The United States
was once in enjoyment of what we used
TO call splendid isolation. The three
thousand miles of the Atlantic seemed to
hold European affairs at arms length
from us. The great spaces of the Pa
cific seemed to disclose no threat Of in
huence upon our politics.
with this outlook, is IL worth while
to stop to think of party advantage? Is
it worth stopping to think of how we have
voted in the past? We are now going
to vote, If we be men with eyes open
that can see the world, as those who wish
to make a new America in a new world
mean the same old thing for mankind
that il meant when this great republic
was set up. mean hope and justice and
righteous Judgment and unSelfSh ac-
ton. Why, my fellow citizens, 1t is an
thing in the world that
any nation in determining its foreign re-
lations should be unselfish, and my am
bition is to see America set that great
example.
"Is II not worth willie voting for these
things no matter how you may have vot-
ed in past years? You never had these
things to vote for before. are you going
to determine what you are going to vote
for now by what you voted for in an. era
that is concluded and gone by. For my
part, thank God that the era of the old
guard has gone by. They never con-
ceived or understood an unselfish pur-
pose in their lives.
Look at the industries which have
treated their employees as if they were
fellow men and human beings. Have
they not had better factories and have
they not made more money than the
rest?
80. my fellow citizens, ] feel rising
in my pulses already the inspiration and
impulse which is to come not only to
the United States. but to the world next
Tuesday. 1 do not identify myself with