The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-03
WE ACCEPT CHALLENGE


 "We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose because we know that in such government, following. such meth ods we can never have a friend; and
 that in the presence of It's organized DOW er-always lying in wait to accomplish we know not what purpose there can be no. assured security for the democratic governments of the world.
 we are now about to accept guage of battle with this natural foe to liberty and shall, if necessary, spend the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its pre- tentons and it's power. We are glad, now that we see the facts with no veil of false pretense about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for the liberation of it's peoples the Ger man peoples included; for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the trusted foun- dations of political liberty.
 We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We arA but one of the champions of rights of mankind We shall be satisfied when those rights have been as secure as the faith and the free dom of the nations can make them.
 Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish objects, seeking noth- ing for ourselves but what we shall wish
 to share with all free peoples, we shall. feel confident conduct our operations as belligerents without passion and our selves observe with proud punctlio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for.
 T have said nothing of the governments allied with the imperial government of Germany because they have not made war upon us or challenged us to defend our right and our honor. The Austro- Hungarian government has indeed avowed its unqualified indorsement and acceptance of the reckiess and lawless submarine warfare adopted now without disguise by the imperial German govern ment, and it has therefore not been pos sble for this government to receive Count
 Tarnowski, the ambassador recently ac- credited to this government by the inn periaisand royal government of Austria Hungary; but that government has not actually engaged in warfare against citl- zens of the United States on the seas, and I take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the authorities at Vienna. We enter this war only where we are .t boo thara TO
 no other means of defending our rights, Tt will be all the easier for us to con duct ourselves as bellgerents in high spirit of right and fairness because we :! act without animus not in enmlty to- ward a people with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them but only in armed opposition to an ire sponsible government which has thrown Iaside all considerations of humanity and lof right and is running amuck.
 We are, let me say again, the sincere 1 friends of the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early re- establishment of intimate relation of mu- tual advantage between us-however hard 1 it may be for theni for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from our hearts.
 l HAVE BORNE MUCH
 1 We have borne with their present government through all these bitter months because of that friendship-ex- ercising a patience and forbearance which would otherwise have been impos- sible. We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship in