The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-29

rage. We sent fighting craft to every se.
 and brought new courage and inventive
 genius to the crucial fight against the 1 C-boat.
 i: In transporting our troops to France, we never lost man in a ship conveyed 1 by the American navy
 1 One of the first decisions was between
 the volunteer system and the selective draft. Many patriotic citizens strongly ] deprecated eonscription and dreaded ,ts possibilities The administration how ever, placed it's influence behind the
 measure, secured it's passage, and made
 possible the winning of the war.
 It proved a democratic system assuring equal service. equal danger and equal opportunity At one stroke of the pen, | bounty jumping, aue the hired substi-
 tutes that had disg"aced the management of the Civil War were made imposslple. The selection Of men to eo to the front was placed not merely in the hands of 1 the civil authorities, but actually in the | hands of the friends and neighbors of the l men eligible for service. No fundamental law was ever administered with such scrupulous honor Not one breath of scandal touched this egislation and so cheerfuly was it accepted that today,
 the term draft dodger'' is an epithet c-' roproach in any community.
 Partisanshp was put aside in the se- | lection of General Pershing as leader of 1 our forces and no military commander i in history was ever given freer hand or more unflagging support. The policy 1 of selecting officers through training | camps avoided the use of political fla worries and guaranteed competent lead i ership for the youth of the land. Ten
 million men were registered within three months from the declaration of war and | thrty-two camp cities, complete in every l municipal detail. were built in ninety i days.
 1 In France, we had to con ;trdct our
 own docks, railroad lines, storage do
 pots, hospitals and ordnance bases. we 1 had to cut down the forests for our bar
 racks. In June, two months after the 1 declaration of war, our fighting men were in France; in October, Americans
 were on the fighting line; in scarcely
 more than a year, we had two million
 men in France, had whipped the enemy
 at Belleau Wood, beaten them back at
 Chateau Thierry. wiped out the St Mihel
 salient and delivered the terrific hammer blow at Sedan that virtually ended the war.
 Less than two years ago, General Haig with the buntness of soldier, said ! ''The British army is fighting with it's 1 back to the wall;" Lloyd George was | crying: "It is a race between Wilson | and Hindenburg:" and France chung like 1 a drowning man to the Rock of Verdun | turning agonized eyes toward America. i And America came We challenge the critics of the administration to point out | how, within the limits of human possi- 1 bility, the war could have been won l more promptly or with less loss of Amer | ican life.
 l It was not by mere chance that these l tl,i Tn ra16t1lSt 1 the processes of peace so as to serve the activities of war reurlired leadership of
 unexampled skill Petty criticism of
 minor defects and individual officials may for time attract a superficial at 1 tention, but the significant things, the great outstanding facts plead eloquentiy l for the democratic cause.
 1 Let no one misunderstood us. These
 great affairs were carried forward under 1 the stimulus of American patriotism, sup ported by the courage and the spirit or | our people. All this is freely and gladly
 acknowledged, but surely the time has | come when, because of the calculated criticism and the premeditated calumnies I of the opposition, are entitled to call l attention to the fact that all of these things were accomplished under the lead ershp of a great democrat and great democratic administration. We have no lapoloeies to make-not one. We are | proud of our great navy; we are proud or our splendid army; we are proud or the power of our country and the manner III I which that power his been used; we are nroua of the work that America has done ] in the world: we are proud of the hero ism of American men and women; ana we are proud of the inspired and lncom parable leadership of Woodrow Wilson. Has not the time come when all Amer
 jeans. irrespective of party should begin to praise the achievements of our coun- try rather than to criticize them? surely n inst and righteous sense of national I pride should protect from the insen- , sate assaults of mere partisans. we l fought a great war for a great cause. land ge had leadership that carried | America to greater heights of honor and | power and glory than she has ever 1 known before in her entire history 1T inc American flag must be lowered, 1t 1 will be hauled down in a republican con- tyention and not in a democratic conVen- ton.
 1 PARTISAN INVESTIGATIONS | Ii is this shining record of tremendous lach'evement that republican managers and the Chicago platform Seek to shame | committees. which for want of mere | appropriate term. called smelling com- lmittees" were appointed for the purpose i of ascertainng whether or not there was any graft in the conduct of the Great l War. Over eighty investigations have ,been made over two million dollars have been wasted and tho one result has | been to prove that it was the cleanest war ever ever fought in the history Of civilization.
 l Through the hands of a democratic ad- minstration there have passed more
 than forty billions of dollars and the finger of scorn does not point to one
 single democratic official in all America
 It is a record never before made by any | political party in any country that ever 1 conducted a war.
 | If republican leaders are not able to i rejoice with us in this American triumph, | they should have the grace to remain silent for it does not lie in the mouths 1 O. those who conducted the Spanish , American war to indulge in the luxury of l criticism. What was there in this war l to compare with the typhoid infested | camps and the paper soled shoe contro- versy of lSSS7 What was there toScom- | pare to the embalmed beef scandal of the | Spanish American War? Despite all their 1 investigations. not one single democrat 1 ic official has either been afflicted or accused or even suspected: and the only | dignitary in America, of any outstanding political significance who is moving in the direction of the pententiary, is Truman Newberry of Michigan.
 The every power of the republican party to conduct a partisan investigation of sthe war. to criticise the President to
 control the organization of the Senate