The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-06

being uttered. Or he might have bee some overt act 1f sensa tionalism on tn manifestation by those foes to liberty ''pacifists."
 But if he depended on tomorrow again to present the President, or the news papers of the country for the literal translation of the intricacies of the mes- sage; or If he was consoled in the knowl- edge that in the delicacy of that moment not even suffragette or pacifist would by irrelevant or shocking repartee he would have had an incomparable op- portunity of beholding the faces of lead CTS of Congress who, in the ultimate, were to declare existing the state of war.
 There to the front of the President were the members, more than 800 strong. of people, of all political and religious factions, of all varieties and shades of thought There were the bellicists who breathe best in an atmosphere of fire. There were the pacifists, of puny appear ance, diminutive of frame, small voiced men fitted for muffs and wrist watches. And there were the conservatives, men who are neither spectacular nor dramatic, but who when time comes, will. be the main dependence of the nation in its hour of trial.
 OLD MEN ARE BRAVE
 ITO of ba fba a q more elderly members of the Senate Some of them were very feeble. They were listening to that which was tanta- mount to dclaration of war, and declaration of war is tantamount to death warrant for thousands. And yet these old men, from the brink of the grave. mocked the grave. It was the expression on their part of the patriotic necessity of the hour.
 A veteran of another war, Senator Till man, still grim despite the mellow influ- ence of age, extricated his arm from sling in order that he might applaud the warlike sentiments of the President. Sena- tor Culberson of Texas, one of the level heads of Congress one who is almost in variably right on every proposition, de- spite certain obvious and distressing in firmities, let it be known that he was American to the core and that in heart and mind, at least he would follow wherever the banner was borne.
 WILLIAMS ATTENTIVE
 John Sharp Williams, in many respects the best informed and most aggressive member of the upper branch, was an interesting auditor In recent years his hearing has become defective. As the President read, he sat with his hand be- hind his ear, immovable. He was patient ly in accord with all that was said. But the passages which he applauded referred to American satisfaction in that Russians had overthrown Czarism, predictions, lily .veiled, that Germans would rise in their might and overturn the throne of the HohenzoIlerns, and that in the end, de- mocracy the face of the world over, must prevail. The attitude of Senator Williams indicated that prior to the ad- dress of the President his keen intellect had reached the same conclusions It is prODdDle ludt U0 OClCN So l iSFoi"NtOAi -AA Germany will be the ultimate precursor of universal peace.
 LODGE SAT WITH PULLMAN
 Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, suave, well hammered, we'll groomed, debonnair and intellectual, was present. He was seated with Senator Tillman. representative ot another school, brave, impetuous. rough and tumble school. The Massachusetts solon carried bruise on his face which Bryan pacifist. the morning previous, had inflicted. But he was entirely serene. And another thing-during the address of the President, he displayed real signs of happiness. And he does not love the President. During the campaign he was satirically bitter and cynically vindictive. Later, the President declined to speak from platform on which Lodge had been invited to stand. But in the opinion of Lodge, the man who was speaking was the leader of the nation, not MT. Wilson or another And in the opinion of Lodge that which the Presi- dent said, was proper and just and neces- sary Therefore, Lodge applauded every pungent sentiment He could not have been more palpably pleased had the speaker been one in whom he reposed every confidence of amity and respect.
 LAFOLLETTE ILL AT EASE
 Two seats behind Lodge sat Bob La- Toilette The senator from Wisconsin was scarcely at ease. It was through his ruthless leadership that the armed neutrality bill was fillbustered to death, and it was against him, chiefly, that the President issued his remarks concerning the little groupe of willful men, La- Toilette twisted in his seat. He was either distressed at the position assumed by the President, or was obviously peeved in that MT. Wilson had given as much attention to rhetoric as logic, or was restless under the patriotic and perpetual curtain of fire which was hurled down from the over-crowded galleries. When MT. Wilson spoke of the Germans in America, kindly of those whom he knew would be patriotic and sharply of those whom he feared would resort to trick and treachery. it seemed that he raised his eyes and permitted them to rest for just a moment on LaFollette. At any rate, there was significant pause and significant display of that LaFolletta restlessness which had become the sub- feet of general gallery remark