The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-06-10

 cupied by prominent bankers and guests from all over the statee~ The crowd was far beyond all expectations. considering the fact that heavy rainfall had just preceded the speaking hour Morris Bush presided at the Jefferson meeting, and so admirably did he handle his role that sew eral were heard to remark that he made the same kind of speech that General Wood made here Tuesday, so pungent were his remarks. so minus adjectives and in every sentence was he concise and clear.
 HENDERSON SPEAKS
 Governor Henderson was the first speak CT and though he made a very brief talk he captivated the crowd with his refer ences to Alabama.
 Tt should be the ambition of every man and woman in Alabama to do his part in the work of placing the liberty loan bonds for they will be aiding the government" said the governor He told of the story that he had recently resd in Birmingham newspaper where a news boy went in and laid down his dollar and asked for liberty bond, and com pared him to Robert Morris, who offered the government everything he had but his integrity
 This is big task" said Governor Hen- derson, but it is in the hands of big men who are in the habit of performing big tasks and we should send them away with renewed strength. Alabama is a great state and you would resent any, thing of a disparaging nature spoken about her, but she is to be measured by her activities, the way she does things now, in the crisis. I want to present to you the personal representative of Presi- dent Wilson, Secretary McAdoo" said the governor.
 MT. McAdoo was given an ovation. His speech was as follows:
 SECRETARY M'ADOO'S SPEECH Fellow Countrymen:
 Whatever differences there may have been about this war before it happened and there were honest differences of opinion about it, I am not so intolerant that l cannot respect or give impartial consideration to the views of those wh5 differ with me; l say that whatever those differences may have been th.s is no time to discuss them or to think of them. Your representatives in the Con- gress of the United States the men you sent there to speak for you after having been informed by your President of the issues involved in this supreme contest in the worlds history declared by practically unanimous vote, that the rights and liberties of the American people had been put in jeopardy by the aggression of foreign power. It makes no difference by what name that foreign pOWeT Ildy De called. The 1act that has committed repeated aggressions upon American rights, that it has subjected this nation to indignities and wrongs which no sef-respecting nation could af- ford to endure, that war has resulted and that we are in it, means that every citizen, no matter what his birth or origin, owes fealty to the flag. The hour of test and trial is here. I know that every American citizen, every true free man, will respond to the call of his country in this crisis
 1 know how to sympathiZe with the men of German origin in this situation. l was born in the south in October 1863, in the latter part of the civil war My father fought on the southern side; some of his people fought on the north- ern side. They had their differences of opinion about those grave issues that finally threw the country into convul- sions. 1 know with what heart burnings with what anguish, they had to face the issue of a divided country; I know what it meant to the men in the south Of northern sympathies who had to leava their own people and fight on the north erp side to overcome their own families and friends in the south. I know what those things mean to every man and woman in this land who has some racial sympathy or some past fealty which they have adjured in order to become loyal cltlZenS OI tfllS great iepupllc hHoW how to sympathize with all of that; and vet, my friends, the call of duty is here, the supreme duty of the hour faces every American citizen, man and woman alike. We cannot falter or hesitate It is no time to think of the past. or to indulge in complaint recrimination. There is only one thing to do, and that is to mobi- lize to organize, the might of this ma ton. Our country is engaged in right eous war, and we must assert our power so effectively that We may soon bring this horrible carnage in Europe to an end For humanity's sake, we are just as anxious to end the slaughter of Ger mans as we are to end the slaughter of English and French and Russians and Belgians and Servans and Italians. Our hearts bleed as much for the widows and orphans of one country as of another. The sooner we Nstop this crime against civilization, the sooner we shall stop the sa acrifice of American lives and the loss of American treasure. and the sooner we shall be able to re-establish peace. liberty and justice throughout the world
 There are times in the history of every nation when the hand of an unseen power directs things when individuals are ab- solutely impotent to control the course of great events. This is one of those supreme crises in the worlds history, one of those great convulsions of civilization
 
 events that profoundly affect the future of the human race for ages. believe flat God has called this nation into this struggle because He had mighty pur- pose to serve. We have always been the champions of freedom and humanity isi the world; we have always stood pre- eninently for those ideals. We have al- ways fought for freedom and never for material ends In 1776 we cast off our allegiance to Great Britain; we fought until we secured our independence and established the liberty we today possess. Liberty and government have come down to us untarnished and untainted but impressed with an obligation to hu- manity No nation can escape it's obli- gations to the world. Our obligations to humanity require us to carry to all the responsible peoples of the earth the bless aifgs of self-government and liberty. That Is noble ideal. No nation can survive If 1t has a purely material base; it must have ideals Christ gave us the greatest ideal in all the history of the recorded ages, an ideal for which Christianity has been struggling through the centuries God has chosen America as an instru- ment to restore peace and liberty tQ the