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

| !, ing."
 5000 HEAR SPEECH
 l Five thousand persons who filled the
 Metropolitan Opera house to capacity 1 heard the President speak. Five min utes before his arrival a guard of sol diers, sailors and marines seated al the rear of the platform were suddenly ordered to attention. They arose with a smart click of rifles, the national colors were advanced and the great audience became silent. The dramatic i quiet was maintained without interrup- I ton until the President, without other lwarning of his coming, walked on the lstage escorted by Benjamin Strong governor of the federal reserve bank l of New York. Then a tremendous burst fof cheering broke loose, which caused the President after taking his seat Ito rise three times in acknowledgement | A sailor band played America" the President joining with the audience in singing it.
 1 Mir. Strong read to the audience a | summary of late reports showing American troops advances during the
 day in France.
 "Our boys in France do not learn
 readily when to stop fighting>' he added That is the spirit in which we
 must raise the Liberty Loan" Cheers greeted the news of the Amer l iean successes. particularly when MT. Strong said the Yankee troops in their drive had reclaimed 100 square miles of territory for France.
 Patriotic fervor seemed to reach it's climax when the President arose to begin his address, the audience rising and again cheering for several minutes. MT Wilson read from printed text. SPONTANEOUS APPLAUSE For 10 minutes after the President started speaking the audience made not sound and his voice carried to all parts of the tiered opera house. But when he declared that the issues of the war must be settled by no arrange ment or compromise" applause broke out spontaneously. Again when he said we cannot come to terms with them, ' there was another outburst and again when he declared that Germany will nave to redeem her character not by what happens at the peace table. but by what follows
 Throughout these demonstrations of approval punctuated his speech so that at times he was obliged to pause almost at the end of each sentence.
 The President was driven to his hotel immediately at it's conclusion. PRESIDENTS ADDRESS The text of President Wilson's ad-
 dress follows:
 My fellow citizens: I am not here
 to promote the loan. That will be
 done--ably and enthusiastically done
 by the hundreds of thousands of loyal
 and tireless men and women who have
 undertaken to present it to you and
 to our fellow citizens throughout the
 country; and have not the least doubt
 of their complete success. for l know
 their spirit and the spirit of the coun-
 try My confidence is confirmed too.
 by the thoughtful and experienced CO.,
 operation of the bankers here and ev-
 anywhere, who are lending their val
 uable aid and guidance. I have come.
 rather to seek an opportunity to pre-
 sent to you some thoughts which I
 trust will serve to give you, in per haps fuller measure than before, a
 vivid sense of the great issues ln- volved, in order that you may appre- ciate and accept with added enthusi- asm the grave significance of the duty of supporting the government by your men and your means to the utmost point of sacrifice and self-denial No man or woman who has really taken in what this means can hesitate to give
 to the very limit of what they have; and it is my mission here tonight to
 try to make it clear once more what the war really means. You will need no other stimulation or reminder of your duty.
 "At every turn of the war we gain fresh consciousness of what we mean to accomplish by it. When our hope and expectations are most excited we
 think more definitely than before oe the issues that hang upon 1t and of the
 purposes which must be realized by means of it. For it has positive and
 well-defined purpose. which we did not determine and which we cannot alter. No statesman or assembly created them no statesman or assem- bly can alter them. They have arisen out of the very nature and circum- stances of the war. The most that statesmen or assemblies can do is to carry them out or be false to them They were perhaps not clear at the outset: but they are clear now. The and the whole world has been drawn into it. The common will of mankind has been substituted for the particular purposes of individual states
 Individual statesmen may have, started the conflict, but neither they nor their opponents can stop it as they please. 1t has become a peoples war. and peoples of all sorts and races. of every degree O. power and variety of fortune, are involved in it's sweeping processes Of chanee and settlement. We came into it when it's character had become fully defined and it was plain that no nation could stand apart or be indifferent to it's outcome. Its challenge drove to the heart of everything we cared for and lived for. Our brothers from many lands as well as our own, murdered. dead un-