The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-06

| ish enough to kick us once. No one In 1 history has ever kicked us twice and lived"
 T tell you now with certain confidence. | that our country has been in this war i for about 20 months, a war which we did everything to avoid, a war which We would have avoided if there was any road that marched to the goal of na- uonal honor and security, which would nave kept us clear of this war, and we went into this war with heavy hearts. l almost broken hearts, because we knew well the shipwreck of civilization, the | squandering of the best blood in our coun- i try, the tens of thousands of graves. This matters little, the sacrifice of blood the sacrifice of material, the stored re- sources of the thrift and providence of | centuries All that we knew and we went into this war with heavy hearts, After all we have endured and suffered, l after the many casualties, after all the l bereavements, after all the sorrow and | after all the inconvenience, after all the charges upon our civilian population l l tell you, choosing these words delber- ately. that the determination of cur peo- pie to see this thing through to the end burns today with light as unquench- able as on the first day when our troops went sailing to France.
 .'We count the price in blood and treas- ure, as we counted it then, and we hold
 
 struggle today, as we held then. We 1 hold the view that it is one of those 1 controversies which cannot be settled. 1 There can be no compromise. Germany l has broken every law, human and divine She has defiled herself with every bes- tial violence, which we had hoped that 1 for centuries of Christian endeavor had been exterminated forever from the hu- man race.
 These things can only be done In one way. That one way is to punish with strong hand, which will teach the world that malefactors can still be dealt with by the strong hand of civiliza- ton.
 "This war must be carried on until we are strong enough to punish those who have done these vile deeds, those who l have covered Germany as Germany Is covered today with an indelible record | of infamy. And when that punishment l is inflicted that nation may revert to it's higher traditions, to it's older civiliza- i tion and to the civilization to which the world owed much, winch the world loves. and which as far as the human mind can see, has been absolutely extermin- ated in Germany.
 1 Until that time, my fellow country men, let us who are bound in loyal com I radeship to achieve that task, not be under delusions as to the difficulty Of that task, not deceive ourselves as to the time which its complete achleVe- ment may involve, but let us keep our hearts and our courage bright, and let us, above all, determine this That when the historians of the future, when our children and our grandchildren writing Gf God Is very good to them) of the last war, record the exploits and endurance
 of their fathers, let them say that they
 were as worthy in this country as the rugged pioneers who conquered nature for us, and established freedom for us
 in these vast dominions. Let us stand
 shoulder to shoulder with our allies.
 creating in them by our deeds that com-
 placent confidence which gives them J courage without fear, and let the light
 of this nation so shine that 1t will be
 the bride of the world. the leader Of democracy"