The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-28
WILSON'S SPEECH ON FOREIGN SITUATION
 AT GRIDIRON DINNER
 THRILLED HEARERS
(contInued from Page One)

! other foundations than those it builds | on the sand and not upon solid rock. | It seems to me that the most enlight- cning thing man can do is suggested l by something which the vice president said tonight. He complained that he found men who when their attention was called to the signs of spring did not see
 the blue heaven, did not see the move
 ment of free clouds, did not think of
 the great spaces of the quiet continent. but thought only of some immediate and pressing piece of business. It seems to
 me that if you do not think of the things that lie beyond and away from and dis connected from this scene in which we
 attempt to think and conclude you will inevitably be led astray. l would great
 deal rather know what they are talking about around quiet firesides all over the country than what they are talking about in the cloak rooms of Congress. I would
 great deal rather know what the men on the trains and by the wayside and in the shops and on the farms are think
 ing about and yearning for than hear any of the vociferous proclamations of policy which it is so easy to hear and
 SC easy to read by picking up any scraps of printed paper. There is only one way
 to hear these things. and that is con | stantly to go back to the fountains of American action. Those fountains are not to be found in any recently discovered sources.
 EVERYTHING FOR AN IDEA
 Senator Harding was saying just now that we ought to try when we are a hundred million strong to act in the same simplicity of principle that our forefath-
 CTS acted in when we were 100000 strong
 heard somebody say--I do not know the exact statistics-that the present popula-
 tion of the United States is 103, ,OOO, ,00O If
 there are 100000 thinking the same things
 that that original 100000 thought, the 1O0,0OO,00O will be saved for an illustrious future. They were ready to stake every thing for an idea, and that idea was not 1 expediency, but justice. And the infinite dlnlculty Of public affairs, gentlemen is
 not to discover the signs of the heaven and the directions of the wind, but to
 square the things you do by the not sim pie, but complicated standards of justice.
 Justice has nothing to do with any tenn
 porary standard whatever It is rooted
 and grounded in the fundamental in stincts of humanity.
 America ought to keep out of this
 war She ought to keep out of this war
 at the sacrifice Of everything except this single thing upon which her character and history are founded-her sense of humanity and justice. If she sacrifices
 that, she has ceased to be America; she
 has ceased to entertain and to love the
 traditions which have made us proud to be Americans and when we go about seeking safety at the expense of human
 lty' then l for one will believe that have always been mistaken in what I
 have conceived to be the spirit of Ameri- can history.
 SQUARED WITH DUTY You never can tell your direction ex-
 cept by long measurements. You cannot establish line by two posts you have goT to have three at least to know
 whether they are straight with anything, ana the longer your line the more cer- tam yossr measurement. There is only one way in which to determine how the
 future of the United States is going to
 be projected and that is by looking back
 ana seeing which way the lines ran
 which led up to the present moment of power and of opportunity. There is no
 doubt about that.
 There is no question what the roll of honor in America is. The roll of honor consists of the names or men who have
 squared their conduct by ideals of dutv
 Ihere Is no one else upon the roster:
 there IS no one else whose name we
 care to remember when we measure things upon national scale And I wish that whenever an impulse of impatience comes upon us, whenever an impuIse to.
 settle thing some short way tempts us We might close the door and take down SC me old stories of what American ideal-'
 ists and statesmen did in the past and not let any counsel in that does not sound Tn the authentic voice of American tra- oltion. Then we shall be certain what
 the lines of the future are, because We snail know we are steering by the lines or the past. We shall know that no tenn porary convenience, no temporary ex- pedlency, will lead us either to be rash or 10 be cowardly. I would be just as
 much ashamed to be rash as I would to
 be coward. Valor is self-respecting
 Valor is circumspect Valor strikes only
 when it is right to strike valor with
 holds itself from all small Implications and entanglements and waits for the flash as if it carried the light of heaven
 upon it's blade"