The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-01-04
PUBLIC OPINION
Editor of the Farmer:-

l Editor of the Farmer:-
 l In your issue of Dec. 20th, Joannus ] Cornelius, Jr., again, this time with
 much warmth or rather fire, attacks ! Socialism and Socialists. Had a So- cialst been as incorporate in utter 1 ance as Joannus Cornelius, Jr, SO- l cialists could never disprove the as- sertion that they are fire-brands. The impression one receives from something of the bulls fear of the red flag. At least he fumed and ragged and snorted and altogether disported i himself much as a bull would. Or. I might say that in controversy your correspondent is rioter or a revolutionist If you will. He lacks
 that temperance that gives discussion smoothness, and is guilty of the very faults of which he accuses his op- ponent. He. rants and mouths in
 pyrotechnic fashion; hurls sweeping accusations without proof; condemns, planes and danlns a philosophy which I am certain he has never investiga- i ted and to cap the climax makes a cheap appeal to patriotism.
 The reason for all this is that Joan nus Cornelius, Jr., is living in spirit Tn the middle ages. A modern idea would play havoc with him. Intel lectually he belongs to the times when
 
 brooches. or rather to that earlier time when knighthood was in flower It is amusing to note his reference to the stars and stripes. It is certain that had Joannus Cornelius Jr., been living at the time of the American Revolution he would have been an ar- dent Tory. No man with mediaeval mind could have been otherwise I can imagine our friend approaching one of the hardy Minutemen of the Revolution and talking after this fashion:
 My dear Minuteman, don't you know it is naughty to engage in a are pitting class against class? Don't you know that this thing for which you arc fighting and which you cal free government is but an iridescent dream-a rrdeIy concocted and inagi- native system presupposing men to be angels? We have always had Kings God has ordained in his inscrutab!e wisdom the divine right of Kings to rule and own the earth. Holy Mother Church has sanctified and made fast that right. Don't you think it pre- sumptuous of you to attempt to over throw all this? It is not the most reasonable thing in the world that one man because of his superior endow- ments should rule and own the coun- try. Just a minute. Your objection that the ruler and owner may not be the best endowed mentally. morally or physically is irrelevant. Such ob- jecitons are the result of a pernicious and perverted education and associ- ation with other Minutemen. God did, nt make every one equal-therefore every one can't be King. Inequality of possession is the result of congeni- tai inequalities You can't possibly expect every one to be light fingered. 1fcav,0 rf1f to do is to go to work, keep away from the general store, quit drinking hard cider and burn that scurrilous, revolutionary sheet 'sThe Bunker Hill Gazette
 'Take those leaders of yours Franklin, Jefferson, Paine and Patrick Henry-what did they ever do to be worthy of admittance to a select draw ing room? They are anything but respectable. They are denna gogs. Their ideal of democracy is a delusion and snare. If you don't believe me ask any other Tory That impudent piece of mobisn-the Boston Tea Party was not only reasonable, it was a slap in the face to all constituted au- thority. Take that piece of bOmbastic literature-the Declaration of Inde- pendence-wfat is that? Nothing but a tissue of glittering generaiities and spectacular rhetoric. I am aware that
  good thing but then there are so many other bad things in the world You must remember that our only rea- son for existance on earth is to work out our eternal salvation. My own remedy for this mal-condition known as taxation without representation is to-well-er-in a spirit of Christian patience and fortitude-grin and bear it''
 To get serious, your correspondents reiterated statement that Socialists are beer guzzlers' and pool-room habitues; that they shirk their. responsibilities and do not work is slanderous. Soci- alists in habits are similar to aver age other people, but if they spend their time attacking the habits and weaknesses of capitalists and their re- tainers they would stir up cesspool of moral filth that would make your correspondent wish that he had been more discreet.
 If Joannus Cornelius, Jr., and others exercised more Christian charity and other Christian virtues there would not be so many atheists in a humanity that needs a God now more than ever.
 If your correspondent is snug and is; if the problem of making living rests lightly upon his shoulders; if he is one of the sort that can enjoy tonight's supper with the knowledge that there are many who have no sup per to enjoy in world of unspeak- able wealth, then, there is no use in trying to convince him that there is q way out of this economic hell in whcih most of us live.
 But if he is a ewage-worker which I think he is not; if the increased cost of living, low-wages and long hours mean something to him; if he has the fear and dread of want that Quintes- sence of poverty; if he has the mind and the heart of a free man and not of a slave, then, he will look for a way out and under God find it.
 I do not wish to further continue this discussion. I am a very "unso- cialistie Socialist I work for a liv- ing. I will leave Joannus Cornelius, Jr to the tender nercies of the trusts. Perhaps he will learn sometime that it is a far better thing to work to bring about system in which the nation will own the trusts rather than work to perpetuate a system in which the trusts own the nation.
 At any rate, his future ideas on these questions, will be shaped by two big words that Socialists are fond of us- ing-ecopomic determination. I also want to leave Joannus Cornelius, IT,, to those two big words.
 HENRY J. HORSEFIELD.
 THE PROBLEM OF COLOR Editor of the Farmer: