The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-11
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

In the last two weeks I have been in The state has never known such pros- perity and ip& the r years I have been covering it r have never seen so much ready money.
 The thing I am trying to drive home to our people is that the prosperity calls for liberal subscribing for bonds and giy- ing to our great Humanitarian war causes. It has been driven home to the intuition makers and those whose profits have been swelled because the govern ment is in the market for their mariu factured products that they must set aside certain profits to carry on the war. The industrial world realizes that the long hand of Uncle Sam reaches down into it's revenues.
 But as yet the average man on the farm has not learned the lesson that the high price of cotton, corn, wheat, pota- toes, poultry, butter, eggs and all forms of his labor is brought about because our American boys and the sons of our noble allies are dying. In a certain sense it's blood money, not through any manip- ulation of their own, but by force of circumstances, and therefore its use ought to be matter of conscience.
 
 I believe that God is going to hold every man and woman responsible for the way in which they use their money in this great crisis when men are dy- liberty. The person who in the face of the sufferings in Belgium, Serbia, Po- land, Roumana, Russia, Italy and north ern France, and wherever else the mailed fist of the Hun has struck or his bloody feet has trod.
 In the beginning of the war there was much talk about business as usual and some of the big advertisers got restive when the papers began to urge economy. I saw the change come about in Bir- The first time it came home to our merchants was when MT. Wander lip, the great banker, came and delivered HIS SISdl duultSSCS oi tiiiiit- II bS7 gan to dawn on all that instead of our slogan Business as Usual" the call came for a higher motive and so we changed almost overnight to Our Busi- ness is to Win the War;
 Now am in close touch with the big stores and the little stores in Birining- ham, and I have never come across finer spirit than is- manifested by our merchants The great majority of them are living up to every request made upon them and are subscribing and giv- ing in a way which is an inspiration. I have had some specific instances to cite them, for by so doing I might un- duly laud few and fail to give credit to others equally as patriotic.
 The farmer may be a bit slower in getting in step with the great move ments, but it is not through his being any less patriotic than the city man, but from the fact that he is off the main currents and it takes longer for the tide 10 feacn nm, put when the DackWateTS flow around him he is just as willing to pull an oar for his government as is his town brother. The same principle works even in cities, for the coast cities saw the danger and got busy long before the inland ones realized their peril or thought of helping.
 I thought Birmingham got into the war game early. and I used to do a big lot of boasting long before we got aroused in good earnest, but friends back from Washington and the seaboard told nfe that we had hardly gotten our feet into the water when the people up east were up to it in their necks. This did not mean that the south or the west was one whit behind the east, but 1t only showed that the waves were washing closer to their shores and they were necessarily trying to dam them up before being washed away.
 believe am in as close touch with