The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-19

sword only to prevent, or repress, the abuse of strength.
 Faithfully supported by her domin- ions and colonies, Great Britain decided that she could not remain aloof from struggle in which the fate of every coun- try was involved. She has made, and her dominions and colonies have made with her, prodigious efforts to prevent the war from ending in the triumph of the spirit of conquest and the destruction of right.
 Japan, in her turn, only decided to take up arms out of loyalty to Great Brit ain. her great ally, and from the con- sciousness of the danger in which both Asia and Europe would have stood of the hegemony of which the Germanic em- pires dreamed.
 Italy who from the first had refused to lend a helping hand to German ambi- tion, arose against an age-long foe to answer the call of oppressed populations and to destroy, at the cost of her blood, the artificial political combination which took no account of human liberty. "Rumania resolved to fight only to real ize that national unity which was op- posed by the same powers of arbitrary force. Abandoned, betrayed and strangled she had to submit to an abominable treaty the revision of which you will enact. Greece, whom the enemy for many months tried to turn from her traditions and destinies, raised an army only to escape attempts at domination of which she felt the growing threat.
 Portugal, China and Siam abandoned neutrality only to escape the strangling pressure of the central powers. FORGED U. S. TO WAR Thus, it was the extent of German ambitions that brought so many peoples great and small, to align themselves against the same adversary. And what shall I say of the solemn resolutions taken by the United States in the spring of 1917 under the auspices of it's illustri- ous President, MT. Wilson, whom I am happy to greet here in the name of grate- full France, and, if you will allow me to say so, gentlemen, in the name of all the nations represented in this room?
 What shall I say of many other American power, which either declared themselves against Germany-Brazl, Cuba, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, Honduras-or at least broke off diplomatic relations-Bolivia, Peru, Ecua- dor Uruguay? From the north to the south the new world rose with indiga- tion when it saw the empires of cen- tral Europe, after having let loose the war without provocation, and without ex- cuse, carry it on with fire, pillage and the massacre of inoffensive beings.
 
 was something more, something greater than great political and military event. It was a supreme judgment passed at the bar of history by the lofty conscience of a free people and their chief mag1s- trate on the enormous responsibilities incurred in the frightful conflict which was lacerating humanity.
 "It was not only to protect itself rom the audacious aims of German megalo- mania that the United States equipped fleets and created immense armies, put also and above all, to defend an ideal ol liberty, over which it saw the huge shadow of the imperial eagle encroachinS upon it's prey. America, daughter Of Eng land, crossed the ocean to rescue her mother from the thraldom and to save civilization
 ''The American people wanted to put an end to the greatest scandal that has ever sullied the annals of mankind Autocratic governments having pre- pared in the secrecy of the chancel- lories and the general staffs mad pro- gramme of universal domination, let loose their packs fixed by their genus | for intrigue and sounded the horns for i the chase, ordering science Cat the very | time it was beginning to abolish dis tances, to bring men closer together | and make life sweeter) to leave the | bright sky toward which it was soaring | and to place itself submissively at the service of violence, debasing the | religious idea to the extent of making | God the complacent auxiliary of their 1 passions and the accomplice of their crimes-in short, counting as naught the traditions and wills of resisting | peoples; the lives of citizens, the hon or of women, and all those principles of public and private morality which 1 we for our part have endeavored to keep unaltered throughout the war, and | which neither nations nor individuals | can repudiate or disregard with im- | punity.
 While the conflict was gradually ex- 1 tending over the entire surface of the | earth thee lanking of chains was heard 1 here and there and captive nationalities cried out to us for help. Yes. more- over, they escaped to come to our aid.
 POLAND CAME BACK
 "Poland came to life again and sent | us troops. The Czecho- -Slovaks won l their right to independence in Siberia, | in France and in Italy. The Jugo Slavs. | the Armenians, the Syrians and Levan- tines the Arabs, all the victims, long helpless or resigned, of the hostoric deeds of injustice, all the martyre of l the past all the outraged in conscience; all the strangled in liberty, viewed the clash of arms and turned to us as their | natural defenders.
 "The war gradually attained the full
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