The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-15


 Birmingham will join with the French in celebrating Bas- tile Day today. An elaborate programme has been arranged for the occasion, with the pres ent governor of Alabama, a former governor and promi- .nent citizens of Birmingham on the programme for speeches. One of the features of the event will be the reading of a message from President Will son, the same message that will be read in thousands of cities and towns in the United States today.
 Bastille Day is to the French what July Fourth is to Americans. On July IA the French people shook off the shackles forged by despots which had bound them down for centuries and gained freedom and liberty for themselves. It is fitting that the free people of America, the haven of the oppressed peoples of nations on earth for nearly century and half, should join in celebrating the occasion.
 MILITARY BANDS
 In the procession as it marches through the streets will be several bands, among ttem Memolis band, the Tennessee Coal, Iron! and Railroad band, the Boys In drstrial band, military band from Camp Mcclellan and others. French, Ital- ian, Greek, Red Cross and other societies will participate.
 The parade will disband at Capitol park and immediately therear,er the ceremo- nies will take place. simon Klotz, French consul in Birmingham, will tell the story of the fall of the Bastille, and speeches will be made by Gov. Charles Henderson, former Gov Emmet O'Neal, Dr. N. A. Barrett, president of the board of city commissioners and others. T. J. Crittenden, chairman of the four minute men, will read the Presidents messa ge, which is as follows:
 LIBERTY MESSAGE
 Liberty has two birthdays-one in the new world and one in the old. One is marked by the anniversary of our Dec laration of Indepence on July 1, 1776. It is the birthday of a nation in the new western world, dedicated to the propo- sition that All men are created free and equal Its cradle was Independence hall in Philadelphia. That nation has be- come a great people which has gathered in it's ideals the self -governing hations of the two Americas and now fights for the preservation of it's life, that gov- ernment of the people, for the people, and by the people shall not perish from the face of the earth. The second cradle of liberty was amid the ruins of the Bastille in Paris. On July IA, 17S9, the people of Paris dstroyed this great me- dieval prison, the emblem to them of tyranny and oppression and autocratic government They lighted the torch of liberty at it's smouldering ruins and sent their armies forth from the first great European republic to carry this torch into a Europe governed by absolutism and cursed with privilege and inequality and injustice
 TWO GREAT REPUBLICS
 These two great republics are chill dren of the same spirit. Their essen tial union from the days of Lafayette and Washington to the days of Wilson and Poincare. of Pershing and Foch, has been unbroken. French blood and treas ure were given. so that we might found the first great experiment of self-gov- ernInent America, today, sends her millions in men and her billions in gold that the home of Joan of Arc and the tomb of Lafayette may remain inviolate. France stands erect today, unconquered and unconquerabe. America stands be- side her, our boys in khaki shoulder to shoulder with the horizon blue of Fra nce's brave men, our Stars and Stripes over the trenches, beside the tri-color of France, proclaim to the mill Fitary masters of Germany a union, which shall carry the cause of democracy to triumph and form the basis of a greater world federation in the days of peace. Today we ask of France nothing but the privilege of repaying the debt we owe we, too, celebrate the fall of the Bas- tile, the first stronghold of absolutism to go down before the rising power of freelnen We shall stand beside her till the last stronghold of autocracy falls in ruins about the Hohenzollern dynasty.