The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-08
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

.Tngland's mighty Daughter of tn,
 West"
 This to me is one of the most de scriptive and yet at the same time tn,
 most affectionate title that Englishmer
 give to America
 Forgotten today is the family row in which the mother country lost hei daughter, for side by side they ar. fighting to keep alive the Anglo-Saxon ideals of home and liberty
 Never before has 1t been borne fin upon us so vividly that the English speaking people are one; one in their laws, literature and religion; one in their love of liberty and justice one also in spite of the sad scenes being enacted on the blood-stained fields ot Europe, in their love of peace.
 I am not unmindful of the brave al . lies who are standing back of the two great English speaking races in this their hour of peril, when they are face to face with grim enemy who is test ing with fire and sword their right to live and to perpetuate their free insti- tutions, but I confess that my prayer is that God will strengthen their hands and not let freedom perish from the face of the earth.
 As think of the sorrows of the Eng fish nation. the sacrifices that our kin across the sea have willingly made, the thought of the sacrifices which will still and for long perhaps be required, I want to do my bit to stir American patriotism to heroic endeavor, not merely In the splendid abnegation of the young men who go to fight, but to check self-indulgence at home. by pro- noting a more sober and chastened tone in public life. and thereby nerving the national heart to put every re- source behind those whom we have chosen as our leaders.
 What is 1t that we are fight ing for? We are not fighting for European supremacy. It has been sacred policy to keep out of en- tangling alliances. We are not even at war to save the English, as strong as may be the wish to so do. Let's face the facts. We are fighting because Ger man aggression seeks to test the Mon- roe dictrine, or hold us up for tribute, if she wins abroad.
 
 Our very life as free country is at stake, and we might as well drop any idea that we arc engaged in any chi- valrio defense of England. We are fighting for the right to remain what we are, self governing country in which the door of hope is shut in no mans face. It Is true that it heartens us to know that we fight for the moth erland, but the thing that ought to send us forth as conquerors is that we battle for home and native land.
 President Wilson is a great phrase maker. When he said that i've are fighting to safeguard democracy for the world" he sent thrill into every breast where love of freedom dwells. Our fitness to inspire and help to guide the life and destinies of all the peo- pies who strive to be elf-governing nations is at stake. It Is up to us to be able to bear, both by might and by counsel. all those who rightly look to us for aid in this testing time when the souls of men are being tried as in a furnace of fire.
 The eyes of the people who would be free are turned towards America. But freedom has always been bought with blood. Everything in freedoms line was bought with blood. How was the Magma Charta won? Bloodi How was the Declaration of Independence made valid? Blood! It has been so all the way down history, and knowing this of our sons to be spilled on the fields of France. It will take blood to set free and train those nations lying un- der the iron heel of Prussianism and U atty and liberty. in those ideals of self government and well ordered freedom, which have alone made the United States truly great in the past, and which will make her greater in the fu- ture, unless the pacificists and the aliens have their way and permit freedom to perish from off the face of the earth"
 When look back upon our early his tory I recall the sufferings and priva- tions of the early settlers, who faced dangers undaunted and won for them selves and for their children a place in the New World. How Is 1t possible to forget their heroisms. America, as we'll as Judea of old, has been a chosen land, and here on this continent men have found an asylum from persecu- tions of all kinds. It is truly wonder full to think of our successful strfvings. It seems almost an impossibility how various races have como to our shores and been assimilated. The strange pro- vidential fusion of hostile faces with in America. has given to our citizen ship cosmopolitanism that is un- known in the older world. Out of the melting pot we have gotten the Ameri- can.
 America has not only been the birth place but the refuge of freedom. Justice