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 REMARKS ^A 
 
 OF THE ^ 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 at a Luncheon 
 
 BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA 
 OCTOB E R 26, 1921 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 1921 
 

 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 NQV2ai92t 
 
 n*Of>UMEMo t*. VIRION 
 
AT LUNCHEON, BIRMINGHAM, OCTOBER 26, 1921. 
 
 Senator Uxdeuwood, and Ladies and Gentlemen : It is very pleas- 
 iiio- indeed to be presented to a company in Alabama by Senator 
 Underwood. There is a personal side to piiblic life which is its 
 chief compensation other than that which comes of the conscionsness 
 of service. 
 
 Viewino- oovernment from afar, the average American citizen little 
 realizes how simple it is. He little stops to consider that the men 
 and women Avho are makino- public history are very much like those 
 who look on from the hearthstones of the Republic, except they are 
 clothed with authorit}^ by the people for whom they act. And he 
 little realizes how little of narrow partisanship is displayed when a 
 problem which is vital to American security is in process of solution. 
 Men who are really worth while are simpler than they are appraised, 
 and vastly greater than many partisans have measured them. 
 
 It was my good fortune to establish two pleasing and heli)ful 
 friendships with stalwart statesmen from Alabama. I entered the 
 Senate when you commissioned Senator Underwood to that body, 
 and somehow, I never knew just why, Ave began with a ''paired" 
 agreement to protect each other's votes. That arrangement held 
 until I retired from the Senate, and we rarely, if ever, had to ask 
 each other for instruction. There was a confident, respectful, and 
 cordial friendship from the beginning, and it was never embarrassed. 
 Perhaps I need not tell you that my high opinion and affectionate 
 regard still abide. Not so very long ago it became my duty to choose 
 four outstanding Americans to represent our Republic in a conference 
 with the statesmen of the leading nations of the Avorld. It was not 
 a personal regard alone, but that feeling combined with a high esti- 
 mate of his statesmanship and his lofty devotion to country, impelled 
 me to name him as one of four to speak for America in a conference 
 ijregnant with incalculable possibilities. I know, as you know, he 
 Avill serve us well, honoring himself, his friends and neighbors, and 
 the land for Avhich he speaks. 
 
 But I must speak of another Alabama friend, with a genuine 
 sorrow that he is no longer here to join Avith you in your cor- 
 diality of Avelcome. I had a deep respect for dear, old Senator 
 Bankhead. and I knoAv Ave shared affectionate personal regards. In 
 him you had and the Xation had a stalwart statesman and a fear- 
 less defender. 
 
 7;;o37— 21 (3) 
 
I hope it is not iinseenily to relate a personal incident Avhich 
 stranfrely touched me. Amid the early preconvention speculation 
 my name was mentioned as a i)ossible condidate for the Presi- 
 dency. One day Senator Bankhead beckoned me to his committee 
 room, and in the fellowship of man to man, he said : " Hardino;, I am 
 a Southern Democrat. I do not know how the 1920 election is o-oino- 
 to result, but if we are to have a Republican President, I want you 
 to know some of us Alabama Democrats would rather see you in 
 the executive office than any Rej)ublican we know. If I can <^ve 
 you any pointers, or any personal influence in Alabama to help 
 nominate, do not hesitate to call upon me." 
 
 Naturally. I treasure that expression of friendship, but I revere 
 his memory because of his Avisdom, his unfailing courage, and his 
 insi^iring Americanism, his reverence for our inherited institutions, 
 the preservation of which is the security of our Republic. 
 
 Capt. Bankhead made every sacrifice in his devotion to the Con- 
 federate cause, which was happily lost. I saw him one day. in line 
 with the Confederate A'eterans in reunion, wearing the uniform in 
 which he fought. He wore it proudly, too. and I saluted him with- 
 affectionate regard, because I knew that in a proud Confederate's 
 heart there throbbed a passionate love for our reunited country. 
 
 Somehow^ I Avished for him only a feAv days ago. It was my for- 
 tune to visit the marines in camp on the battleground of The Wil- 
 derness. As guests of the marines, informally and without premedi- 
 tation. Avas a group of Civil War veterans, half of them in blue and 
 half in gray. When I greeted them a picture was suggested, and 
 suddenly Ave found ourseh'es posed, the Yanks in blue flanking my 
 right, the Confederates in gray flanking my left. Just as the cameras 
 were about to click, some one projwsed that Ave alter the pose and in- 
 stead of Jiaving the blue on the right and the gray on the left, we 
 blend the l)lue and the gray. Xo flank moAement Avas CA'er so quickh'' 
 executed, and the President was flanked by blue and grsij on both 
 sides. 
 
 That Avas a symbol of the rededication, out of the old order Avhich 
 settled indLssoluble union and triumphant nationality for all suc- 
 ceeding time, and eAcry heart Avas in unison, rejoicing in our com- 
 mon country. A more costly and more sanguinar}^ rededication was 
 made wiien the sons of the South and sons of the North touched 
 elbows in defending the flag in Avar for Cuban liberation, and again 
 a still more costly sacrificial offering was made in 1917, when 
 America entered the World War. 
 
 I recall that the first Ohio boys to bear the flag of Ncav World lib- 
 erty to aid threatened freedom in Europe came to Alabama for their 
 triiining. and they caught the spirit of your devotion, just as the}' 
 
impressed you with their determination, and your sons and our sons 
 braved the seas together, and gave new courage to our allies in 
 Europe, and won new glories and a new consciousness for the 
 American people. 
 
 United consecration for war shall never be challenged again. Our 
 tasks now lie in applied concord and no less patriotic devotion in 
 solving the problems of peace. These are not easy tasks. A world 
 disordered amid the upheavals of war is not readily put in order 
 again, and nations torn by the fever of conflict are not readily re- 
 stored to normal ways. 
 
 But we shall succeed. Unshaken by the world cataclysm, we hold 
 our foundations to be eternally right. The Nation which withstood 
 internecine conflict, so heroically fought as the Civil War, will tol- 
 erate the threat of no minority which challenges the supremacy of 
 law or endangers our common welfare. 
 
 There will never come the day when the rights of any minority are 
 denied, however formidable or weak it may be, but no minority shall 
 ever challenge the supremacy of the rule of law. 
 
 The readjustments and the restorations of peace are not easy. War 
 invariably leaves its impress on the industrial and financial life of 
 every participating people. With all my heart I crave a better and 
 higher industrial state, as a compensation for the sacrifices made. 
 But we can no more maintain the abnormal heights than we can favor 
 the return to the old-time levels. There must be — there is — a right- 
 eous mean between these two extremes, and we mean to find it. It will 
 be a lawful pursuit, orderly in our practices, and reverent for the 
 Government, where justice is supreme and the law is our security'. 
 
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