The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-08-10
MEN, WOMEN
AND THINGS

Some people are still talking as If we
were going to war.
It's hard for many to realize that we
are already at war and that it is to be
finish fight.
We have seen our volunteer soldiers
marching through the streets of Bir-
mingham; we have seen regiments of reg
ulars passing through; we have had our
sons and neighbors drafted, and yet we
are still unable to realize fully that this
great country of ours is graphing with
the greatest military machine ever built
since the world began.
1t took England a long time to realize
She sent her picked sons to die in France
and their death touched few homes, but
the public was not aroused It's all set
out In "Mr. Brittling Sees 1t Through,
how by degrees the country was begin
ming to awake from its lethargy
Then one night zepp elm flew over the
tight little ISLE" and John Bull, looking
up into the heavens, saw light and a
bomb came hurting earthward and fell
on the man in the street." and the
Kaisers death dealing letter dropped
from the sky, woke up London and thou
sands floclsed to the recruiting station.
So far, the modern angels of death
IL
outstretched wings have been unable to
fly across the Atlantic to sprinkle our
towns and cities with shot and shell, but
if the war lasts long, German ingenuity
may find a way to lengthen the flights Of
the cartons Of the air and make it pos
the American Eagle will kill the vultures
that fatten on the blood Of helpless
women and children.
I remember in one of Kiplings tales
how a raw regiment wavered and be-
haved badly until they saw their dead
and then fought like demons. We haven't
yet seen our dead, but the day is not far
away and when it comes, Black Jack
Pershing's men are going to show the
world how the American fights.
Now, I haven't been able to visualize
the war. It's growing clearer, and / am
beginning to sense it. Just over the hills
few miles away from where am writ
ing here in Admission the sound Of the
hammer and the music of the saw Is
IL. e. h.
and it won't be long before the roar of
machine guns will mingle with the noises
of the city, for the ranges are ready.
It's strange how little things affect one.
AT the hearing before the armor plate
board at the Tutwiler. / listened to the
talk Of experts about the mechanics of
war, and was rather interested in beau
tiful shell on exhibition. 1t was a pretty
ornament, and helped the other decora-
lions to show a war setting but that was
ALL
But the other day in company with
Theodore Swan I went through the mu-
milton plant here in Admission, where 1t
was made and saw hundreds of its mates
piled on trucks, and it dawned on me
that while they were made for the Eng
lish government, it might be that the
great plant would be called upon to make
them for Uncle Sam.
And then our boys in France came be-
fore me and all the deviltry of shot and
shell and fire and gases, and the hell of
bursting craters, and all the parapher-
MALTA of modern warfare at its worst was
bottled up in the beautiful. shining things
around me, while in the next building
men busy with steel making were doing
their daily tasks, war and commerce
linked together. Kings are dethroned.
ministries fail. banks break, and mil
lions of men must die and for what? Our
President put it in sentence, pithily and
truly saying, democracy must be safe
guarded"
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