The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-01
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President declared. That is not what is making us think. We are not asking our selves shall we be prepared only to de- fend our own homes and our own shores.
 FOR BOTH CONTINENTS
 'Is that all We stand for? To keep the door shut securely against our enc mics? What about the great trusteeship set up for liberty of national government in the whole western hemisphere? We stand pledged to see that both the con- tinents of America are left free to be used by their people as those people choose to use them under a system of national popular sovereignty as abso- lutely unchallenged as our own.
 "At this moment the Americas are growing together upon that handsome privilege of reciprocal respect and de- fense."
 Detailed plans for strengthening the army and navy and the aviation corps and for making munitions and armament by the government were outlined. The President spoke for nearly an hour. The auditorium was a riot of red white and blue, swung in festoons from rails
 
 i American coat of arms on a field of blue. MANY TURNED AWAY Four galleries beside the main floor were white with faces. Many had sought in vain to obtain tickets and were turned away. Twelve hundred police held in check the sidewalk throngs, clearing the street entirely of traffic between the ho- al A,,l; 1,,1 t,, Inc pit played pdpular and national airs.
 An hour before the President was due to speak the galleries were filled. The main floor seats were taken long before he came on the stage. The rousing well come with which Chicago greeted his ar rival was echoed in the cheers of the crowds about the building as the presi- dential party came in.
 Mayor Thompson of Chicago occupied a seat on the stage near the President and Governor Dunne of Illinois was in a box.
 The entrance of the President was her. aided by the playing of the Star Spangled Banner. The crowd stood and applauded. Mrs. Wilson did not enter with the Presi- dent but sat in @ box.
 The circumstances of the day are so extraordinary that perhaps it is not pru- dent for a man upon whom the responsi- bilities of affairs are laid to know too particularly the details of what are hap pening,' said the President.
 The trouble with a great many of our fellow citizens is that they let their imag- nations become so engaged in this ter rible affair that they cannot look upon it as those should who wish to keep a cool head and detached judgment. So many men on this side of the water are seeing red that you seem to see in their thoughts the reflection of the blood that is being spent so copiously on the other side of the sea. It is not wise for us to let our thoughts become so deeply in volved that we cannot think separately. must admit to you very frankly that have been careful to refrain from reading the details in the newspaper reports. l have wished to see the thing and realize it only in it's large aspects and to keep my thoughts concentrated upon America, her duty, her circumstances and her tasks and her tasks have been very difficult. They have not been merely negative,
 LOOK TO AMERICA
 Have you not realized how all the world seems to have been constantly con- scious from the beginning of this strug- gle that America was, so to say, the only audience before whom this terrible plot was being worked out? How every nation engaged in the struggle has seemed to
 
 concerning it?
 T know that on the other side of the water there has been a great deal of cruel misjudgment with regard to the req sons why America has remained neutral Those who look at us at a distance, my fellow citizens, do not feel the strong pulses of ideal principle that are in us. They do not feel the conviction of Amer ica that her mission is a mission of peace and that righteousness cannot be main- tained as a standard in the midst of arms. They do net realize that back of all our energy, by which we have built up great material wealth and created great ma- terial power, we are a body of idealists, much more ready to lay down our lives for thought than for a dollar.
 NOT MONEY QUESTION
 'T suppose some of them think we are holding off because we can make money while the others are dying the most cruel misunderstanding that any nation has ever had to face, so wrong that it seems almost useless to try to correct it, because it shows that the very fundamentals of our life are not comprehended and un- derstood.
 T need not tell my fellow citizens that we have not held off from this struggle from motives of self interest, unless it be considered self interest to maintain our position as the trustees of the moral judg- ments of the world. We have believed, and I believe that we can serve even the nations at war better by remaining at peace and holding off from this con test than we could possibly serve them in any other way.
 Your interests, your sympathes, your directions may be engaged on the one side or the other, but no matter which side they are engaged on, your duty to your affections in that matter is to stand