The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-01-21
CANNON ARE FLAMING

1 shivering for want of the wool that 1 a sheep would have supplied; juggling 1 with figures to hide our incomes; lying ] awake at night to figure on plans to | induce the collector of revenue to pass | us by. Business as usual while the blonde beast is marrying the souls of 1 Belgium and France; while Truth and l Liberty lie bleeding. Is it disloyalty | tkat has swept across us like a flood? l cannot, 1 will not. believe it. It 1 is but lack of imagination to see that l which the distance hides from our l view. But an unwillingness to believe 1 that any nation of men could be so
 base as to destroy these free insti- tutions that we cherish, and yet this l blindness this unwillingness to be- 1 liove that which as fact does eX-
 ist is just as Dangerous to the nation
 as the blacllest disloyalty of which
 man could be guilty.
 AMERICANS ANXIOUS TO SERVE
 Oh, I do not believe that hands are unwilling or hearts reluctant to do whatever can be done. I believe that | every American who is worthy Of the l name is anxious to serve as best he l can. But there is mistake that l 1 believe many of us are making with l the best intention in the world. We are casting ourselves across the gov l ernments expressed wishes, because we do not see the necessity of the
 steps that the government has taken. I We are withholding our support from l the programme that the government | has laid down, because that pro- gramme does not appeal to us as be- | ing the wisest and best. We who sit l here in the darkness a thousand miles 1 from Washington; who know nothing | whatever about the war or the needs | of the situation except what we read 1 in a carefully censored press; we are continually guilty of this which seems 1 to me to be almost treason; guilty of guiding our individual conduct by our 1 own ideas of what is best instead or lending ourselves hearts and bodies and souls to the war programme that l has been determined upon as best by l our President and his associates who l sit at the board and see with their own
 eyes every move that the enemy is
 making. Perhaps some of you have gone to the ball game in the summer l and noted as I have that every man 1 in the grandstand and every fan in 1 the bleachers knows more about how 1 the game ought to be played than l the manager who has made 1t life
 study and draws a salary for playing l it. Perhaps some of you have noted, as I have, how there is hardly soul l in the church who does not know more ! about running a church than the min i ister who has made it his life work. It is just as foolish for us to criticize ! the government in these days of crises. I think we are safe in assum- 1 ing that 1t is at least as wise as we, and I know that it has information for l it's guidance that has been withheld | from us There is absolutely only one l course and that the loyal citizen can | rightly take, and that is to give to
 the government his strength and con- secrate to government needs his worldly possessions in so far as the 1 government calls.
 I America now stands at the supreme moment of her history She stands su- | preme in the world at this the great est hour the world has ever known. | She has been chosen as the keystone l in the great arch of civilization. Her | strong arm and fertile -hrain must bear l the measured attack of the mightiest. | the blackest and most sinister. and most devilish military machine that
 ever destroyed the peace of the world. Americas great hour has struck. She 1 is being weighed today in the bal ances of God. The tragedy of her fail-
 ure would be as great as the glory of
 her success and she has no place ts
 .day for the self-appointed critic. It 1 is not advice. but loyalty that is the supreme need of the hour Nor does
 she want a grudging loyalty that re- ] luctantly does its legal and bounden duty, for a stingy and niggardly loy- atty that falters and whines when its pocketbook and comforts are touched; l; 1 a loyalty that does not burn more brightly with each new and necessary l sacrifice, is the loyalty of a soul that l is dead.
 1 | am not speaking these words to you
 because I think that you have been re- | miss As matter of fact. do not
 know one member of this congregation who in thought or deed has been dis
 loyal. But I am speaking through you l to those with whom you come in contact
 during the routine of your lives outside this building. You come in contact with
 men who have forgotten more about run ming war than Woodrow Wilson ever
 krew. You come in contact with men i who, without leaving Jefferson county
 krow what is being planned in Potsdam. | You find men who have friend whose wife's step-brothers cousin heard about ! transports being sunk. You find men who damn the government for what they
 have done, or left undone; for what they
 are doing or leaving undone; for what | they are about to do or about to leave
 undone. These men pose as loyal Amer l ican citizens, but without desiring to
 hurt their feelings, I think that they are plain traitors or silly fools They 1 need to be instructed or they need to be interned And so when you meet these | men I ask that you constitute yourselves missionaries on the governments behalf. 1 I urge that you remind them of some of l the problems that the government has l had to face (such as producing castor oil | for airplane motors with no castor beans
 this side of India). If they have any in- telligence you can reach them with req son. If they have no intelligence, report
 them to local authorities, and l have no doubt that the government will reach them with arguments that even fool can understand.
 SPLENDID WORK DONE
 And in the meanwhile you can set these | others an example. You have already l done so in part with your splendid work