The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-01
HOW UNDERWOOD HELPED


 The had no authority to sell the pat ents. as they were not deemed to ba property, so he handed Senator Under wooG an amendment fixing their status a property and asked him to slip it into an appropriation bill. 'Mr. Under wood is a grand little slipper" said MT. Palmer, "and before night that amendmNnts became law. and I sold the patents to the United States gov ernment and they are now available to American chemical manufacturers"
 In introducing him Senator Under wood stated that MT. Palmer could havo been Secretary of War, but he declined it as he was a Quaker and opposed 10 war. Referring to this MT Palmer said there were two kinds of Quakers in Pennsylvania-where Quakers grow the kind that oppose fighting and the kind that fight That the former were popular in the meetings, but the latter more popular with the citizens. and that he joined the fighting kind. T did decline the office of Secretary of War" he said, "but it was not be- cause I objected to fighting, but be- cause I wanted to stay in the House of Representatives and work under the leadership of my friend, Oscar Under wood. the ablest, wisest and best leader any party ever had in Congress" BOOST FOR SENATOR Referring to the talk of unprepared- ! ness heard on every occasion early in the war, he denied that such was the case, The United States was not pre- pared. in a military way, he said, but through the wise and able leadership of President Wilson and Senator Under- wood, the income tax, the reserve bank system and the farm loan bank had been established and labor had been sat- isfied, with the result that when war came it was merely a question of mobil- izing the resources in men and materials and the machinery for that had already been provided.
 the alien property custodian's depart ment, citing a number of instances where German plots and intrigues and propaganda had been discovered through documents found in the offices of Ger man owned concerns in this country. It was through the 30,00O messages found at the Sayville wireless station on Long Island that the true ownership of Ger man property in this country was dis closed.
 When we took over the Sayville wire l less station the German chancellor made l a strong protest to our state depart 1 ment." MT. Palmer said: "'The imperial German government most vigorously pro- 1 tests against the act of A. Mitchell Pal mer, alien property custodian, in taking possession of property of Germans in the United States, which is evidently de- signed to destdoy German economic ex- i istence on the western hemisphere the protest read" he said
 MT. Lansing sent the note to me with
 the request that I indicate the answer
 to be made I called MT. Lansing over
 the phone and said to him. Tell the
 chancellor You got it right"
 ''When he took possession of the Ham.
 burg American steamship line and solo
 its property in New York. he said, Herr Ballin, the principal owner. on his knees
 begged the Kaiser to end the war; and
 as the Kaiser could not end it and Amer
 ica would not. Ballin committed suicide
 APPEAL FOR BONDS 1 MT. Palmer closed his speech with 9
 strong appeal to the people of Birming.
 ham and Alabama to buy Victory Bonds
 The l67th, the Rainbow division, was the first to go over after the regulars and almost the last to return. They have done their duty to the end and you'll do your duty
 1 The way to protect America from bol-
 shevisn1, he said, is to show faith in the American government and the best way
 to do that is to show a willingness to
 lend money to the government. ten times over Unnecessary. That is the way to 1 say to tHe world that we believe In our
 institutiorF and in our form of democ- racy.