The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-17
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

I am thinking great deal about Presi- dent Wilson as Americas representative at the peace table, for he is the incarna- ton of Americanism in the eyes of Flu rope.
 The great ovations given him in France, Italy and England go far deeper than a mere tribute to him as an indi- vidual; great as he is in the regard of many of his own countrymen, for des- pite criticism he is dominant person. ality and looms large in the worlds thinking.
 The reverence shown him by the great mass of common people in the countries visited by him is symptomatic of the times, for what we for a better word call the proletariat are looking to him as their political savior, and upon him they have staked their all.
 But we must go even deeper than this if we would properly diagnose the su- preme part he is to play in the great play staged at Versailles. for he has not caught merely the fancy of the man in the street. but he is regarded as spe- cial pleader for the rights of the smaller Inationalities and 1t is to be his reciding word which will give them proper status in the council.
 | Woodrow Wilson is to be the champion of the American spirit as a basis for world democracy. Our liberties as well as those of other democratic nations were at stake in the trial of strength with autocracy, and while giving our noble allies credit for the part they played to carry out the Wilsonian ideal of making the world safe for democ- racy," yet in the broadest sense he is to act as it's spokesman.
 It has been asked, is there an Ameri- can spirit? We are ready to admit that | the American spirit. like the American people, is a composite, but this does not mean that it is but rope of sand held together by divided royalties. For one I believe that the many nationalities rep resented in our ancestry and in our nat uraiized citizenship have been welded to- gether in one unified whole. and out ot /, melting pot" heated to a white heat in the fires of war ali alien!sm and byphen- ism have been purged and the residue | is pure Americanism.
 1 The war costs billions in treasure and | i,, rrociouS liyoS. hilt thank God when the smoke of battle cleared away the American spirit rests like Q sunrise glow over the whole land. and the very air we breathe is fragrant with the breath of our pioneering forefath-
 CTS who paid the price Tn blood thai
 of the earth, and that for all time the people sitting in the shadow of autocracs might look over the seas to America a; the land of the free and the home or tn: ! brave.
 In the light of what the American spirit now means to humanity this slori |fication is no emotional patriotism ir
 which I am induging. neither is 1t thu rag end Of one or F'Ourtn or July SpTeat
 eagle speeches. but it is a sober fact o
 history which is being accepted at pa
 value around the globe. and America il
 looked upon as the Great Deliverer, ant
 President Wilson is our accredited apos tie to preach the gospel of democrac.
 and lead the backward nations into tn light of a brighter day.
 l believe that God raises up men to d. His work on earth, and that Woodrow
 Wilson is a Twentieth century prophe l charged with a mission great o
 greater than that of any other man wh
 since the birth of the lowly Jesus ha i. sought to lift the world into the pur realm of the Masters teaching. and mak , lthe gospel not something divisive but unifying power to bring men of all race : and creeds into closer fellowship, an
 make the Sermon on the Mount real . izable in social, political, economic an
 religious life
 , In his famous address delivered befor . gathering of recently naturalized cit