The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-09-14
PROGRAMME WE ADOPTED

That is the programme we started out on That is the programme which all America adopted, and shall we now fal- | ter at the very critical moment wher. | we are finally to write our name to the l standing pledge which we then took? q want to remind you many other 1 nations were put under a deeper temp tation than we. It would have been pos sible for little helpless Belgium at any 1 time to make terms with the enemy. l Belgium knew that resistance was dlse- l less. Belgium knew that she could get any terms of advantage from Germany | that she pleased if she would only sub- l init And at the cost of everything lthat she had Belgium did nothing else than underwrite civilization. I do not
 know anywhere in history of 8 more in- 1 spring fact than that Belgium lies prostrate because she fulfilled her pledge to civilization. Italy could have l had her terms at the hands of Austria 1 at almost any periods of the war, par | ticularly before she made her final stand ! at the Piave river, but she would not compound with the enemy. She, too, had
 underwritten civilization. And, too, this passage which I have read to you, which 1 the whole country accepted it's pledge is but an underwriting of civilization. "But in order to let you remember
 what the thing cost, just let me read you few figures. If I did not have 1 them on official authority I would deen them incredible. Here is what the wal cost those who were engaged against Germany:
 Great Britain and her dominions, Ss, 0O0 GOO 900; France, s26, ,000, ,000, ,0OO; tn, United States, s22, GOO, 900 900; Russia. SIS,
 oo0 Ooo.ooo; Italy. $l30oo, ,ooo.0oo; and the to-
 tai, including Belgium, Japan and othel
 smaller countries, s123oo0,000.
 "It cost the central powers, Germany sSs 900, ,ooO, 900; Austria Hungary, $z1 ,ooo
 Loco GOO; Turkey and Bulgaria, 5000 900, 900
 a total of s63, GOO 900, 900; a grand total O
 direct war cost of s1S6 COG, 900, ,0O0 an in
 credible sum, to save civilization.
 Now the question is are we going t.
 keep safe? The expenditures of tn United States were at the rate of $1, 900.
 900 an hour for two years-$1 100000 a hour, including the night time, for tw years. Battle deaths-and this is tn cost that touches our hearts-were Russia, 100000 Germany. 1,600,ooC France, 3S5, ,0O0; Great Britain, 900, ,00C Austria 500 000 Italy, S64,00o; the Unite States, 50,3o0; 8 total of all beliigcrent Of 7,45O 200 men dead on the field in bat tle
 The total wounded for the Unite States army was 230,000 excluding thos< Of course, who were killed.
 TERRIBLE FACTS "The total or all battle deaths in a of the wars of the world from the yea 1793 to 1914 were something under 6.o00 I 600. So that in all the wars of the worl | for more than 100 years fewer men die | than have been killed upon the field ( battle in the last five years. These ar terrible facts and we ought never forge them.
 | we went into this war to do a thin that was fundamental for the work | and what I have come out upon tn | journey for is to ascertain whether tf | country has forgotten it or not. I haN | found already. The country has not fol gotten it and will never permit any ma who stands in the way of the fulfil | ment of these great pledges ever to fol get the sorrowful day when he mac | the attempt.
 I America alone cannot underwri' | | civilization All the great free people | of the world must underwrite it. An only the free peoples of the world ca join the league of nations Germany | for the present excluded because st must prove that she is self governing. ''She must prove that she ha changed the process of her constitt | tion and the purpose of her powe Il When she has proved these things sE l can become one of the partners gual ! anteeing that civilization shall not su
 fer again these iptolerable things. MORE THAN UNION
 | "The league is not only a union | free peoples to guarantee civilizatfo it is something much more than tha l It is a league of nations to advan' | civilization by substituting somethir ! that will make the improvement | civilization possible.
 q call you to witness that our clvi | ization is not satisfactory, it is z