The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-03-05
CALL FOR JUSTICE

1 "The nations that have long been under
 the heel of the Austrian, that have long l suffered the indescribable agonies of
 being governed by the Turk, have called | put to the world, generation after genera l tion for justice for liberation, for sue | cor and no cabinet in the world has
 heard them.
 Private organizations, plying hearts, | Ihilantropic men and women have | poured ont their treasure in order to 1 relieve these sufferings; but no nation mas said to the nations responsible, Y ou
 must stop; this thing Is intolerahle, and We will not permit it and the vision has been with the people.
 | My friends, l wish you would reflec' | upon this proposition.
 1 ''The vision as to what is necessary | for great reforms has seldom come from | the top in the nations of the world. It l has come from the need and the aspira- ! ton and the self-assertion of great bodies | of men who meant to be free. And l
 can explain some of the criticisms which have been leveled against this great enterprise only by the suppostion that | the men who utter the criticisms have | never felt the great pulse of the heart of i, the world.
 1 And l am amazed-not alarmed, but | anna Zed-- that there should be in some | quarters such a comprehensive lgnor- ance of the state of the world. These | gentlemen do not know what the mind of
 men is just now Everybody else does l I do not know where they have been
 coseted; I do not know by what influ- | ences they have been blinded; but l do know that they have been seperated from l the general currents of the thought or mankind.
 1 And 1 want to utter this solemn warn | ing. not in the way of threat, the
 forces of the world do not threaten | they operate. The great tides of the world do not give notice that they are | going to rise and run; they rise in their l majesty and overwhelming might and | those who stand in the way are over whelmed Now the heart of the world IS awake and the heart of the world must 1 he satisfied.
 Do not let yourselves suppose for a l moment that the uneaSinesS in the popu- | lations of Europe is due entirely to economic causes or economic motives; | something very much deeper underiles | it all than that.
 | "They see that their governments have never been able to defend them against | intrigue or aggression, and that there IS no force of foresight or of prudence in | any modern cabinet to stop war. And | therefore, they say:
 MUST UNITE FOR JUSTICE l There must be Fundamental | cause for this,' and the fundamental cause they are beginning to perceive to | be that nations have stood singly or In | little jealous groups against each other 1 fostering prejudice. increasing the dah ger of war, rather than concertinS meas ures to prevent it. and that if there is
 right in the world, if there is justice in | the world, there is no reason why na- 1 tions should be divided in the support of 1 justice
 1 "They are therefore, saying if you be l lieve that there is a right, if you really 1 believe that wars ought to be stopped,
 stop thinking about the rival interests l of nations, and think about men and women and children throughout the world.
 l Nations are not made to afford dis tinction to their rulers by way of suc- | cess in the maneuvers of politics, nations are meant, if they are meant for any | thing, to make the men and women and children in them secure and happy ana prosperous and no nation has the rlghI | to set up it's special interests agalns' the interests and benefits of mankind, least of all this great nation Which we love-
 'It was set up for the benefit of man. kind; it was set up to illustrate the high est ideals and to achieve to the highest aspirations of men who wanted to be free; and the world-the world of today believes that and counts on us, an" would be thrown back into the blackness | of despair if we deserted it. q have tried once and again, my fel- low citizens, to say to little circles Of | friends or to larger bodies, what seems I to be the real hope of the peoples Of
 Europe, and I tell you frankly l have not been able to do so because when the
 thought tries to crowd itself into speech l the profound. emotion of the thing Is too much; speech will not carry. l have | felt the tragedy of the hope of those suffering peoples.
 | "It is tragedy because Of peace