The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-22
SENTIMENT AGAINST LIQUOR GROWS STRONGER DAILY N OPINION OF ROY A. HAYNES.
Social Political Religious And Economic Lines Are Being Tightly Drawn At Last Says Commissioner And Strug- gle America Is Making Is Full Of Significance To Whole World As Public Conscience Is Awakened

error, joy bound up With pain.
 That Is only new expression os the old truth that there is scarcely an outlook upon life that does not | confront the intellect of man with | ponderings and perpleXities. Most men understand as little the events i transpiring about them did Mac
 beth the language of the witches or their fantastic orgies. The problem of unveiling life and of disentangling
 the good from the evil has led many
 to the shrine of science and philos- ophy.
 Job stood before life He tried to find it's secret hidden behind the events of his little hour, and the emotions that were stirred within him and the questions that arose in his mind make him kin-fellow to all thoughtful men who have lived since his day.
 significance Of Passing Events"
 Few men," said Edmund Burke, really see what is passing before them day by day, penetrate to the soul of things, interpret the age in which they live and catch the signiti- canoe of passing events.
 The first time l read the story of Ben Hur'' my imagination was borne with breathless and reverent haste through those tragic events in which our religion and our ciViliza- tion were born. There was a moment when two figures stood out In bold
 relief and striking contrast-Ben- Hur and the fair Egyptian. The thoughtful Jew dimly saw the halo about the cross; the beautiful girl saw nothing deeper than the com- monplace fact that Jew in mock majesty struggled under a cross, and that night closed down over three crosses on the summit of Calvary's hill.
 To us the girl seems to have been strangely blind that she could not see the meaning of the great drama that was to change all the tides of human history. ct, in that day there were but few like BenHur who sensed the meaning of that hour. The multitude had eyes to see, but they saw not; and the historian. Lechy, looking back upon that and subse- quent ages. remarked: "The great est religious change in the history of the world took place under the very eyes of a brilliant galaxy of philoso- phers and historians. who treated as contemptible facts worthy of medita- l tion during the space of three cen l turies.'
 Long centuries have passed since the young man saw the armies of Syria, but failed to see the chario teers of fire. His partial vision is inherent in humankind in our days as in his. Most men must have the perspective lent by distance in order to understand a great picture and there arefew men who do not require the perspective of time in order to in terpret an hour or an age. The Col den Age lies to mortalF either in the past or in the future; the present is the commonplace. Our attention is foo ant fo he Fixad nr, Ia cbariOteAra of iron and steel, with the result that we fail to discern the charioters of fire that form a part of our age.
 So in every age, great men, great events, great movements come and go; and those who touch them closely scarce sense thelr greatness.
 "The Greatness Of The Struggle"
 Many of us crossed the threshold of tAe new century. But how few of us really caught its greatness! Our at tention was largely absorbed in the humdrum duties of the everyday life and all the while epoch making events were occurring all about us. Lord Alfred Russell tells us that there were 13 great discoveries dur ing the nineteenth century and only seven during all the centuries before. We raise our eyes6at that, and won- der, marveling. now. But we found little to marvel at when those dis coveries that fell within our lives were given to the world.
 What Is true of the past is true of today. We live in an hour tremulous with the shock of conflict. To many 1t seems that Americas destiny is to be shaped by the outcome of the con flict to wipe out the curse of drink Yet there are some of us who do not sense the greatness of the struggle and gauge the future only by records of the past. They are encouraged by those who would break down the laws we have set up. The need of the hour is Americans who will see straight, and far. and true. And their number is increasing.
 I recall a book in which the author described his feelings while in the Dresden gallery standing before the