The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-06
WILSON'S DEATHLEss VISION

 halts while. the last rites are per formed in honor of Woodrow Wilson, Americas war president, to be sure, but far more Americas peace presi- dent. Although Woodrow Wilson was our commander-in-chief during the most tremendous war in all his- tory, yet Americans think of him, Europe thinks of him, the whole world thinks of him, not as a war president, but as the man who out lined the program in accordance with which five-sixths of the nations of the world are now travelling towards fthat universally longed-for era of per petual freedew from war. And they, having progressed, will draw all others after them.
 The people are not so much grieving over Wilson's death, which was for him an emancipation from an outworn mortal frame that shackled him, as saddened and .sobered by the thought that in some way they did not vouch- safe to him the definite assurance that this nation would henceforth bear aloft that torch of hope with which he shed such an illumination upon the gloom of the latter war days, and upon the path of the troubled future. Yet, with his astute mind and with his confidence in the ultimate triumph of right principles, there can be no doubt that the great leaders vision enabled him to pierce the veil of the future for himself and with prophetic anticipation to behold the day when the nations shall welcome his own fair country into the circle of. tAJse who have bonded therhseIvest into the covenant of the League ,of Nations. Yet how comforting 1t would have been to him ks4d the people in whose behalf he poufed out the final volume ,of his strength and energy also shown evidence of such vision. ~
 To mourn Wilson's passing and not be edified by the ideals that he cher ished is hypocrisy. The substantial good that men do lives after them. Their frailties of the flesh die with | them. Before Woodrow Wilson's bier the political and personal differences of all sincere men drop from them, and for that moment at least they plumb those profound currents of principal and morality in which there is universal human kinship and agree ment. In order that men may build their monuments of human welfare on a lasting foundation, they must clear away all the debris and fragile structure of dogma and thinspun sophistry-whiGh this one believes and that rejects, each displaying at the same time the products of his own spinning--and must arrive at those fundamentals of right and justice and morality which are accepted in all lands among all peoples of all ages. Only on those fundamentals, purged of prejudice and predilection, can the permanent institutions of mankind, ac- ceptable to all nations, be constructed.
 It must be accorded to the great leader, over whpse mortal remains the final ceremonies today are being sol emnized, that hSS searched for the eter- nal verities and sought to incorporate them in his magnificent plan for a worldwide democracy of sympathy and understanding, in order that men might forever be freed from the dan ger of war, protected therefrom, not by militant world police, but by the very absence of preparation and of desire for war.
 Because Woodrow Wilson dug deep and rested his foundations on the truths of the ages, the edifice he en- visioned and in part brought into be- ing will continue to build and to grow into its ultimate and inevitable tri- umph and completion. Its destiny may not be achieved in this generation nor the next, for the lasting products of civilization are of slow development. Nevertheless, men have already begun to enjoy its benefits and these also will multiply as time goes on. Wood row Wilson lies in his final sleep; but the part of Woodrow Wilson that is deathless. the practical ideal of more s.- as.. &S ,e,9,e ,1s,4,