The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-17
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

pie in this free land of ours who are more interested in seeing to it that the Germans are right than they are in help ing Uncle Sam to withstand the propa- ganda of Prusslan might.
 There are even apologsts for the poli- cy of Hohenzollern frightfulness, and to listen to them you would think that the Bismarclzian doctrine of blood and iron had the right of way over the gospel of righteousness.
 I have little sympathy and less pa tience with the befuddled, prejudiced, and piteously ignorant Americans who have been hoodwinked by the insidious 1 German press gang who have so sedu- lIously sown the seeds of mistrust in their weak minds.
 1 I am one who believes in the creed, America first" I look upon all who war upon democracy as foes of thfs great republic and all who line up with autocracy as enemies of our American institutions, I believe in freedom of speech, but there is a time when free- dom becomes license.
 1 I do not see how any one born in free America can so far forget the history of their forbears as to be caught nap ping by the pseudo statesmen who abuse their office by helping to spread views that are subversve of all that differ entiates this land of ours from those where Emperors words are laws, and where the divine right of kings tram ! ples under foot the rights of man.
 
 ! l had to wait few days ago at a 1 railroad station in small town. Three upstanding, clear-eyed, tanned skinned 1 lads in uniform were walking to and l fro, laughing and chatting, and look ling every inch soldiers. It was a typi- cal group. All over the country are | likely lads like them, who are ready to fight for the Stars and Stripes. l I couldn't help contrasting them with the sorry lot who, in Congress, have lined up against the President and are doing everything in their power to ! tn wart him and make it harder for the government to wage the war against the insolence of a world drunk Kaiser, whose dream of empire has brought mis- cry and bloodshed to millions. Watching the three young men in khaki I couldn't help thinking of the principles creeds, and ideals in the per sonalities of three representative Amer jeans, Washington, Jefferson and Lin Icoln. I believe the boys walking up and down the platform are nearer in spirit to the trinity of true Americans named above than are the trio of sen ators, LaFolette, Vardaman and Hard wick who are seeking to embarrass those who strive to put an end to Ger many's war of aggression.
 
 The little band of germa philes who are crying, Justice for the Teutons' are encouraging the Germans in the idea that Germany and the Germans are su- perior to everything else in the world, and that it's their manifest destiny to spread German "kultur' throughout the earth. This is the root idea that set Germany on her mad career and that is keeping her going in face of overwhelm- ing odds. The belief that she is irsde up of 8 race of supermen is haFd to overcome.
 Germany really made herself into great nation by postulating her great ness and superiority in all things and then insulting it into the minds of her boys from the kindergarten through the university I saw it at work in every classroom in which I was enrolled at the University of Berlin. The belief amounted to an obsession Germanys mistake consisted in trying to prove it to the rest of the world.
 It is true that the conceit of Gar many has called out her energy and made her material present superior to her her material past; but that cannot place her lover all," for already she sees that the world is sick of her pre- tensions and is set against letting her occupy the first position In fact she has aroused such bitter opposition that the powers will not be content until she has been reduced to submission and made to take lower seat.
 I wonder if those who plead for Jus tice to the Teutons realize that the German conceit has sunk so deep into the German soul, that they really be- lieve that in their effort to occupy and enslave other countries they are doing them real service. If you doubt this just please give the name of any Ger man of note who has shown any pity for bleeding Belgium. Her pubicists and l statesmen take the attitude that Bel 1 practically a German province. Ger mans have been guilty of making that l humorless statement.
 
 l do not know who said it, but I saw 1 it stated anonymously that "as man is ! the type of the great Archetype, so one ] man stands this day as the type of the | Betrayer, and that man is William Of Germany and yet there are men call ing themselves patriots who seek to hinder Woodrow Wilson. President of l the United States in his effort to re- deem this land of ours from the greedy, l tightening grasp of the disease racked ego-maniac who seeks to rule the world from Potsdam