The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-06-18
WAR OF 1912 CAUSED BY
 THE SQUEAL OF A PIG

Today is the centennial of the de- claration of war against Great Britain by the United States Congress. For
 months the relations between the i'm
 fant republic and the mother coun- try had been far from cordial and the demand for war was all but uni versal throughout the United States.
 On June Is, 1912, the mattel came
 squarely before Congress. as a result of the war message sent to that body
 by President Madison on the first of
 June, and the declaration of war was
 passed by vote of 19 to 13 in the
 Senate and of 79 to 49 in the House
 of Representatives. From that mo-
 ment the war was on--and all be-
 cause of the squeal of a Rhode Island
 pig! @
 In the discussion of the war ques.. tion in the United States the Demo- cratic party favored while the Fed eralists opposed resort to arms On
 an election day in Rhode Island 8 Federalist voter postponed going TO the polls until a short time before
 their closing. He was about to start
 for town when his attention was att tracted by the squeal of pig. The
 animal had caught it's. head between
 the rails of fence and could not
 Hberate it. Now, a: vote is only a vote, but a pig represents such ex-
 cellent breakfast food as ham and
 eggs and sausages, so the farmer
 abandoned his intention of going to exercise the right of franchise and turned his attention to his porker.
 The Democratic candidate for tho State Legislature was elected by one vote. If the Federalist had not been
 kept from the polls by the squealing
 of his pig, the Democrat would have failed to win his seat in the State
 Legislature. The latter body was
 called upon to choose United States | Cy<-n &~~~ As
 to a toga was the victor, but with
 not vote to spare. Without his vote
 in the United States Senate, the war
 with England might never have been declared. So runs the tale, which is probably as true as most historical
 facts of that character.
 AS a matter of fact, while the Fed eralist leaders opposed war, a great many of the rank and file of the party did not agree with thein, and it was a practically united country that faced the British in the struggle that
 continued, with varying success. until
 brought to a close by the treaty cf
 Ghent, signed Dec. "A, 1914. The lat ter centenary, marking hundred years of peace between English speaking nations, will be generally celebrated throughout England, Can ada and the United States. The War of 1912 was, in reality, continuation of the American Revolution. From the Declaration of Independence to 1912 the United States was only nom inally independent. Socially and commercially the republic tacitly ad-
 mitted it's dependence upon England. and the other mother country was rapidly regaining a political influence in her former colonies when the war broke out. Many American states men favored a return to English domination, in modified form, or the establishment of monarchy with British princes as kings. '"The Revo~ lution has been fought and won, but the war of independence is yet to come,' declared Benjamin Franklin, shortly before his death. The strug- gle was not considered of great im- portance by England, which had troubles of a more serious nature at home. The result was less a defeat for England than for the opponents of Democracy in America.