The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-05
MAYORS ADVOCATE
 UNIVERSAL SERVICE
Would Have United States First Naval Power of
 the World

| St. Louis, March 4-The two-day con- ference of mayors on national defense at it's final business session this after noon adopted resolutions declaring for ! universal military training and for the construction of a navy that would make the United States the first naval power in the world. The resolutions also de- clare arsenals and intuition making plants should be located at places distant from either coast or the Mexican or Canadian boundaries and also call for the mobilization of the physical resources of the country, the standardization of war materials and the organization of transportation services.
 During the afternoon Henry A. Wise Wood of New York in an address dwelt upon the need of a large navy, and letter from Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, was read in which MT. Gompers said organized labor was for preparedness provided the cost of procuring and sup porting it was equally distributed. "The organized labor movement will not permit the establishment of agencies for defense that can ever be used for the
 
 Tn times past the state militias have been used strike-breaking agencies. Organized labor will make determined opposition to any plan that does not make provision for the protection of their industrial as well as their civic rights.
 The burden of taxation for prepared ness must not fall upon the poor. Addi- tional revenues can better be provided by changes in the income tax, so gradu f,II Hoct able to pay"
 A banquet tonight at which the leading speakers were George W. Wickersham, former Attorney General; Miss Anne Morgan of New York and Mayor William Hale Thompson of Chicago closed the conference.
 Mayor Thompson in his address ad vocating preparedness said:
 We may indulge in snug complacency over our alleged neutrality, but we can not hide the ugly fact that our people are contributing to the horrors of the conflict through the stream of death dealing munitions going from our shores to European battlefields. Legally we are within our rights in taking this business, but it leaves us in a weak position to invoke the golden rule if we should be attacked"
 Miss Morgan, in an address before women's club here today, said that, women of the country should begin 8 campaign of education looking toward universal military service.
 Tn the present crisis the womans part must be idealistic and creative, Miss Morgan said, otherwise American women could not pass on to their children the right ideals of patriotism"
 It is to the women to force upon the nation a realization that universal mili- tary service is the corner stone of the nations existence. Women demand equalty-then they must share an equal part when the demand upon them comes in a crisis.
 Tt is in our hands to arouse the en- tire country. Ours is the educational problem in which the home is the first field. Immediate action is demanded of the women of America.
 Let us so arouse public opinion upon the need of preparedness that nothing can stand against it. We shall help to arouse the world to preparedness not to meet war, but to preserve peace"