The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-03-16
MN, WOMEN
AND THINGS

Are you doing your bit? know that
) my friend John Sparrow has put a ia
boo on the expression, and substituted
the more heroic duty of doing ones
ALL but it's hard to kill a phrase
when it gets lodged in the public mind,
so 1 will use it, even though John
frowns upon me for so doing.
In the multitudinous calls which
come to each of us to serve the many
good causes which have been formed
to help win the war, it is really diff
ficult for those of us who are beyond
the military age to discover just where
we can work to the best advantage.
question, and that many are seriously
troubled to find their sphere of influ
ence l know full well, for a number OF
my friends have discussed their cases
with me.
As a lawyer, it was my business to
give advice; as a preacher, it was my
office to give counsel; but | confess
that I have had men since the war be-
gan to put up to me situations in their
lives in which I felt almost powerless
to advise or counsel Just for example,
| take the case of principal Of school,
i with an aged father and mother de-
pendent upon him. He feels that he
wants to go to France in Young Mems
/ ~
| yond the draft age He is doing a fine
work In teaching fine lot Of boys
and girls. Must he turn his back upon
them and say good-by to his parents,
who in their latter days are leaning
upon him? I do not mind saying that
I advised him to stick by his school
and his father and mother What would
| you have done?
| Take the case of my good friend J.
| Cary Thompson a man up in the for
ties. with a charming wife and an in
teresting and growing family of boys
and girls. saw him fighting out with
himself his place of duty. For weeks
he was tossed with doubt. Love of fami-
lily would win one day and the next love
of country had him going. / was sympa-
thetic but l dared not try to help him
to decision. / remember his coming
to The Age-Herald and telling me he
was going, and then the next day he
came around and said that family ties
were so strong he could not put
them aside. I said. Cary, old fellow.
| l don't blame you; stick by the good
wife and the little ones" But the very
next day he left for an officers train
| ing camp, and what's more got a cap
taincy, and I don't blame him"
| Birmingham has right to be proud
i of any number of men who volunteered
j when they could easily, on account OF
! age. have remained safely at home
| Take my neighbour Jack Bowron. He
seemed in ordinary times a typical club
man. fond of golf and rather disposed
to take life easy. l knew he came OF
! fine stock, but little dreamed that at
his age he would turn his back on an
elegant home, a lovely wife and hand
some children to put himself at the
/ service of Uncle Sam. But he heard the
| call and could not rest content to go
| on in his old way. and meaning bust
ness he set out to get a commission
and now he is Capt. Jack Bowron.
| There are others whom I will not
name and / hope the two | have will
! pardon me for taking such a liberty,
but felt that they were typical cases
and l wanted to use them to show how
some of our manly men were meeting
situation which calls for the best
! there is in each of us. Thinking on the
men who have made the great sacri-
flee it ought to arouse those of us who
are permitted to remain at home and
go about our affairs to put our hands
| to the tasks that we can do for our
country for there is work for every
willing hearted worker.
| We may not be trench soldiers but
we can all enlist in the home guard.
| We may not be under military dis
cipline. but each of us can put upon
himself the discipline which will make
him be ashamed to be a waster, or a
mere spender without being a pro-
Queer. So far we have been spared from
the need the danger, and imposed re-
straints of the English, French, Ital-
ians, Bclgans. Serbians and others in
the thick of the war zones. The hard
ships which the men, women and chill
dren OF these countries have under
gone and are undergoing make our
little inconvenience Of wheatless,
meatless and fireless days seem tri-
fling and not worth worrying about
much less making fuss over them.
Americans have lived luXuriously. !
We have been the great MASTERS, the
great spenders. the great lovers of
ease. We wanted the best, and we got
it at any cost. We had, before the war,
become victims of leisure and plenty,
and carelessness was the result. We
had looked upon life with its stern
realities not as seasoned actors but as
irresponsible amateurs. and now that