The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-07-30
Secretary of State Drives
Home Truths of Right
eousness of the American
Cause
ALL PROMISES MADE
BY GERMANS TORN
AS SCRAPS OF PAPER
Says Government of Kaiser
Can Never Be Trusted to
Deal Fairly with This
Country 6


Madison Barracks, n. Y, JulyS In
a speech here tonight Def 9 sol70o
members of the officers reese 81 lorps.
Secretary Of state RobeF, .n-Ins,
emphasizing the peril of an inn
periaIism to the United o. and 10
the world. declared his that the
German people could not EAST of the
yoke of autocracy "untiI the physical
might of the united democracies of the
world has destroyed forever the evil
ambitions of the military rulers of
Germany That, he added, is the only
way to restore the peace of the world.
We're every people on earth able to
express their will, there would be no
aggression, he said. "and if there were
no wars of aggression. there would be
no wars. and lasting peace would come
to this earth. The only way that a
i people can express their will is through
democratic institutions. Therefore when
the world is made safe for democracy.
when that great principle prevails, uni
versal peace will be an accomplished
fact.
FALSE GODS OF GERMANS
NO nation Of people will benefit more
than the United States when that time
comes. But it has not yet come.
great people ruled in thought and word
! as we'll as in deed by the most sinister
government of modern times, is strainins
every nerve to supplant democracy by
the autocracy which they have beer
taught to worship. When. will the Ger.
| man people awaken to the truth? Wher
viii they arise in their might and cas-,
off the yoke and become their own mas
tiers? fear that it will not be until
the physical might of the united democ-
racies of the world have DESTROYED for
ever the evil ambitions of the military
rulers of Germany and liberty triumphs
over it's arch enemy"
CAUSE is RIGHT
Mr.. Lansing sought to drive home to
the student officers the righteousness of
the cause for which they had volun-
teered to go to France and fight, as
sorting that America would win '.be-
cause our cause is the cause Of Justice
and of right and of humanity"
The immediate cause of our war with
Germany-the breaking of her promises
as to fndiscriminate submarine warfare
has a far deeper meaning" he said,
"a meaning which has been growing
more evident as the war has progressed
and which needed but this act of perfidy
to bring it home to all thinking Amer
leans. The evil character of the Ger
man government is laid bare before the
world. We know now that that govern
ment is inspired with ambitions which
menace human liberty, and that to gain
it's end it does not hesitate to break
faith. to violate the most sacred rights,
or to perpetrate intolerable acts Of in
humanity
RECALLS CHANCELLOR'S WORD
1T needed but the words reported to
have been uttered by the German chan
cellor to complete the picture of the
character of his government when he
announced that the only reason why the
intensified submarine campaign was de-
layed until February last was that suf-
ficient submarines could not be built be-
fore that time to make the attacks on
commerce efficient.
DO you realize that this means, if II
means anything, that the promises to re-
frain from brutal submarine warfare
which Germany had made to the United
States were intended to be kept, that
they were only made in order to gain
time in which to build more submarines
and that when the time came to act
the German promises were unhesitat
ingly torn to pieces like other scraps
of paper?
1T is this disclosure OF the character
of the imperial German government
which is the underlying cause of our
entry into the war. We had doubted
! or at least many Americans had doubted
| the evil purposes of the rulers of Ger
| many. Doubt remained no longer. In
the light of events we could read the
| past and see that for quarter Of a
century the absorbing ambition of the
| military oligarchy which was the mas
tQY 0f tho