The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-09-28
GROUNDLEss DOUBTINGs

nave made tnlS analySlS or the 1n- ternational situation which the war has created, not, of course, because doubted whether the leaders of the great nations and peoples with whom we are associated were of the same mind and entertained a like purpose, but because the air every now and again gets darkened by mists and groundless doubtings and mischiev- ous perversions of counsel, and it is necessary once and again to sweep all the irresponsible talk about peace in- trigues and weakening morale and doubt ful purpose on the part of those in au- thority utterly, and if need be, uncere-
 moniously. aside and say things in the lainest words that can be found, even when it is only to say over again what has been said before, quite as plainly if in less unvarnished terms
 As I have said, neither I nor any other man in governmental authority created or gave form to the issues of 1 this war. I have simply responded to them with such vision as I could com mand. But I have responded gladly and with resolution that has grown warmer and more confident as the issues have grown clearer and clearer. It is now plain that they are issues which no man can pervert unless it be willfully. I am bound to fight for them, and happy to fight for them as time and circumstance | have revealed them to me as to all the world. Our enthusiasm for them grows more and more irresistible as they stand | out in more and more vivid and unmis- takable outline
 CLOSER ARRAY
 i And the forces that fight for them draw into closer and closer array, or- sanize their millions into more and more uncomfortable might as they become n D1rnn l;rt,, l1k and purpose of the peoples engaged. 1t
 IS the peculiarity of tn1s great war that while statesmen have seemed to cast aoout for definitions of their purpose and nave sometimes seemed to shift their ground and their point of view, the thought of the mass of men whom states
 men are supposed to instruct and lead
 has grown more and more unclouded.
 more and more certain of what it is that they are fighting for.
 National purposes have fallen more and more into the background and the
 common purpose of enlightened mankind mas taken their place. The counsels of p.ain men have become on all hands
 more simple and straightforward and
 more unified than the counsels of so- phlsticated men of affairs who still re- tam the impression that they are play ing a game of power and playing for high stakes. That is why I have said that thls Is peoples war. not state mems. Statesmen must follow the clari- ned common thought or be broken. II take that to be the significance of
 the fact that assemblies and associations
 or many kinds made up of plain work
 aday people have demanded, almost
 every time they came together. and are
 still demanding, that the leaders of their governments declare to them plainly
 what 1t is. exactly what it is. that they
 were seeking in this war, and what they
 think the items of the final settlement
 should be- They are not yet satisfied
 With what they have been told They
 still seem to fear that they are getting
 what they ask for only in statesmen's
 terms-only in the terms of territorial
 arrangements and division of power
 and not in terms of broad visioned jus
 tice and mercy and peace and the satis-
 faction of those deep-seated longings of
 oppressed and distracted men and wom-