The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-07-16
LEAGUE OF NATIONS P R A CTICAL STEP
 TOWARD A WORLD
 PEACE-UNDERWOOD
Continued from Page one.) )

foremost policy of our country. There may be nations who in the past were forced to make war that they might live. Not so with us; our fathers gave to us as sacred heritage the most wonderful country that has ever era dled great civilization in the progress | of the world. Great, fertile plains, cap able of producing food for population 10 times larger than our own-moun- tains and bills holding in their ever lasting embrace treasurers of raw ma terial such as the world knows not of elsewhere-coal and iron. lead and cop per, gold and silver-with but few ex- captions, every raw material that is needed to build the greatest industrial nation that the dreams of man can im- agine. We possess a people, who for industry, courage and virtue. stand un- rivaled on the globe. Within our bord- CTS, we are a world to ourselves, pos sessing every attribute that makes man strong, great and self-sus ustaining. We stand alone, the foremost nation on our hemisphere, protected on all sides with natural barriers to defend us from the aggression of foreign foe.
 FACING A CONDITION
 You may say: Then, why should we become involved in an alliance that may drag us into the disputes, the disasters and the dangers of other nations This was the doctrine out fathers be- lieved in, and one that I am slow to yield. But we face a condition not theory. Since the foremost patriot of all the great men who have held alleg- lance to our flag advised his country men against becoming involved in en- tang1ing alliances the mind of man has invented, discovered and perfected the railroad and the steamships, the telegraph and the telephone, the sub marine and the airplane, the high ex- plosive and the deadly gases. In Wash iDgton's time men voyaged across the sea for more than a month to reach the European shore; in our day, men have flown across the Atlantic ocean in 16 hours. Time and space have been eliminated. Dangers to our people and our republic that were not dreamed of a century ago confront us today at our very doors, threatening menace to our lives our civilization and our institu- tions. Shall we continue to dream Of the ideals of the past or meet as practi- cal men the dangers of the future? For me, there is but one course to pur- sue.
 The era of territorial expansion has PdSSCu tue tIde Ol ScCIdl utNelOpi1ltHl is here. We must face the conditions as we find them. Many of the difficult ties of the past arose from the fact that the countries of higher civilization were becoming densely crowded, and those of more primitive life controlled large un- occupied areas possessing vast nat ural resources. The instinct inherited from the tribal life of remote ancestors remained the governing cause that guid ed the course of nations long after it was repudiated as being immoral in the life of individuals. For the last four centuries, the policy of most of the great nations has been to settle the waste places, and if it could be done without too much danger to exploit the lands of their weaker neighbors. Force was, and continued to be, the foremost virtue of national life until it took the combined strength of the world to de- stroy the last great monster, reared through a century of treason against humanity and imbued with the desire to absorb and destroy all other peoples of the world, their commerce and their ideals, making the sword the sole ar