The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-18
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

all hope of preventing colHSleH With the ruthless German war machine, l be- came bellicose, and ever since have been a bclligerent to the extent of my abil-
 ty.
 I have a friend who was the most ar dent pacifist 1 ever came in contact with. He believed in peace more strongly than did William Jennings Bryan, his ideal man, for he was Of the inner circle of the Bryanites lie sided with him when he left the cabinet. and followed him all the way until we got into the war. But since then ne is the most out and out defender of Will son and the Wilsonian policies that know.
 He has no sympathy whatever with the professional peace man, and believes 1 that the peace advocates are allowed 100
 much liberty of speech, and that any man who Is not whole-heartedly behind the government in its prosecution of the | war ought to be made to feel It in business and social way, and If he is careless in his speech should be silenced or interned He is against all halfway measures.
 | I cite him for fear a good many peo-
 ple are not yet thoroughly alive to the 1 seriousness of the situation, and that
 because they might have been such out
 spoken pacifists arc ashamed to lean ever so slightly toward militarism. l be- lieve that this war will, in the long run' | set forward the cause of international peace, and that the quicker America puts forth It's great power, the sooner
 will permanent peace be made.
 I think the European powers expected war. They did not know just when, put 1t was ever present in the minds or the responsible rulers, but I do not believe that any of them realized just in what
 cold -blouded way Germany had set
 the stage and the date. Even France,
 her nearest foe, was taken by surprise at
 the suddenness of the strike. England
 was asleep. lulled by German pretense or friendship. Belgium was wholly unsus-
 pccting, and the life was crushed out
 or her before she had time to realize the heinousness of Prussian perfidy. l America was not only surprised; she l could hardly credit her senses. The pro : fessional pacifists had been aiming II Unto her ears that while the powers were , heavily armed, the armaments were s meant to repel attack and to preserve peace" This was the German hymn which put us to sleep, while all the time ! she was getting ready to commence nel
 war of aggression which would give nel
 l ''mittel-E Europa" and the domination o'
 the world.
 Then a strange thing happened tha g 1arred us out of our dreams of peac'
 that would find its home at The Hague ! where all differences would be settled . according to international law. The nel n to the Austrian throne (whose name a had forgotten, although I had attended I the University of Vienna, and since the' }. kept up pretty well with European poll e tics) was assassinated. kneV V there was an heir apparent, ou Is his name had clean gone Iron c me. Before you laugh at me. just "fess j. up. did you know it? Before you qui IT smiling can you recall his name evel y now?
 II The thing I am trying to drive hom
 is this: Because scion or royalty wa
 assassinated by an unknown student l
 an unknown town, in almost an unknow : land. SO far as we are concerned her
 in America, the world was plunged int oi war. I am willing to wager that thos y over 40 years old who read the story 10 it flashed over the wires had to go le the maps to even find Servia. The pist' re shot was the fire that started conrls m grafton that Is raging today fiercer tha nt ever in spite of the fact that three veal es have elapsed since 1t first fiared up ne the Balkans
 All this in spite of the fact that II :. lpacifists in their propaganda Kept teiilI us that the bankers would not permit eu European war; that the great intern'
 tionai industries would veto it; that u at socialists would stop 1t; that u sw churches would frown upon 1t; that u
 very destructiveness of the modern e ed zines of warfare would make 1t sulcios as that in fact it was folly to believe tn we anyone wanted it. But they little kne in the Kaiser and the coterie of militaris lth at Berlin, who had gone into the bus er ness of war, just as other countries we 10 relying Upon trade.
 ." Even after it broke with fury Ill +
 rope and had been raging for more th two years, the pacifists in America we ht' telling us on account of its splendid + at lation that she was in no danger wh; the ever. that Germany was our friend,
 for no other reason than because ths
 were SO many German-Americans in United States, that 1t would be folly 8" think of the German imperial eag
 bouncing upon our national bird. IT an was our side of it, but when Minis cry Gerard told in his book how the gr' ast Zimmerman stormed up and down g ned struck the table with hls fists say of that America dared not war agai Ich. Germany because there were half T ! e lion German reservists in America ' .ht- would rise against her." my heart le Lble out with joy when, like true Americ Na- our representative at the court Of yer Hohenzollerns flung 1t in his teeth ''t aan may be true, but there are more u ra r. 5oo,000 lamp posts in America" I ow- against lynching, but If Zimmerman ] na been right in his surmise, and any
 this community had tried it. mi have been tempted to have had h'
 s. in stringing them up. or at least
 in sympathy or standing by aiding 'o' abetting' or mixed up in 1t somehow .uve