The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-14
BY H. G. WELLS,

Ta1nS climb In rocky slopes to S0l1fuQe8 of stone and sunlight that curve round and join that wall of cliffs in one com mon skyline This desoIate and aus tere background contrasts very vfyidly with the glowing serenity of the great lake below, with the spacious view of fertile hills and roads and villages and islands to south and east and with the hotly golden rice flats Of the Val Magg1a to the north
 And because 1t was a remote and in- significant place. far away out of the crowding tragedies Of that year af dis aster, away from burning cities and starving smultitudes, braci1g and tran quilfxing and hidden, 1t was here that there gathered the conference of ruI- CTS that was to arrest if possible be fore 1t was too late the debacle of civilization. Here, brought together by the 1ndefatigable energy of that i'm passioned humanitarian, Leblanc, the French ambassador at Washington, the chief powers of the world were to meet in a last desperate conference to z-save humanity
 Leblanc was one of those ingenuous men whose lot would have been fnsig- nilcance in any period of security, but who have been caught up to an iua- mortal role in history by the sudden simpdhcat1on of human affairs through some tragical crisis to the measure Of their simplicity. Such a man was Abraham Lincoln, and such was 5ari- baldi And Leblanc, with his traRspsE- ent childish innocence, his entire self forgetfuIness, came into this cOu1usion of distust and intricate disaster with an inYincible appeal for the manifest sanittes of the situation. His voice when he spoke was s'fun Of renon- strance.' He was a little, bald spec tacIed man, inspired by that intellec- tuaI idealism which had been one Of the peculiar gifts of France to hu- manity- He was possessed Of ono clear persuasion, that war must end and that the only way to end war was to have but one government for man kind He brushed aside all other con alterations. At the very outbreak Of the war, so soon as the two capitals Of the belligerents had been wrecked. he went to the president in the White House wikh this proposal, He made 1t as if it was a matter of course. He was fortunate to be fn Washington and in touch with that gigantic childish ness which was the characteristic of the American imagination, for the Americans also were among the sim pie peoples by whom the world waG saved He won over the Auerlc6u president and the American govern ment to his general ideas. At any rate, they supported him sUfhctently to give him a standing with the more skepticaI European governments ana with this backing he set to work-it seemed the most fantastic of enter prises-to bring together all the rulers of the world and unify them. He wrote innuH1erable letters, he sent messages, he went desperate Journeys, he enlisted whatever support he could find. No one was too humble for an ally or too obstinate for his advances. Through the terrible autumn of the last wars this persistent little visionary in spectacIes must have seemed rather like hopeful canary twittering during a thunderstorm. And no accumulation of disasters daunted his conviction that they could be ended 5tt0 JsfIff
 For the whole world was f1aring then into a monstrous phase of destruction Power after power about the armed globe sought to anticipate attack by aggression. They went to war in a de- Hfiun of panic, in order to use their bombs first. China and Japan had as- sailed Russia and destroyed Moscow, the United States had attacked Japan; India was in anarchistac revolt with Delhi, a pit of fire spouting death and flame; the redoubtabIe king of the Bal- kans was nobNizing. It must have seemed plain at last to every one in those days that the world was slippinR headlong to anarchy By the spring ot 1859 from nearly 200 centers, and ev- cry week added to their number roar ed the unQuenchable crimson condagra- Az. Ll.. fabric of the worlds credit had van fshed, industry was completely disOr- ganlzed, and every city, every thickly. populated area was starving or tFern- bled on the verge of starvation Most of the capital cities oE the world were burning; millions of people had already perished. and over great areas govern ment was at an end Humanity has been compared by one contemporary writer to a sleeper who handles match es fn his sleep and wakes to find him self in flames
 For many months 1t was an open question whether there was to be found throughout all the race the will and intelligence to face these new con ditions and make even an attempt to arrest the downfall of the social order. For time the war spirit defeated ev- cry effort to rally the forces or preser- Vation and construction Leblanc seem ed to be protesting against earthquakes and as likely to find a spirit of reason in the crater of Etna- Even though the shattered official governments now clamored for peace, bands of irrecon- cilables and invincibie patriots, usurp- CTS, adventurers and political dsspera- does were everywhere in possession of the simple apparatus for the disengage- ment of atomic energy and the fnitis- tion of new centers of destruction The stuff exercised an irresistible fascina- ton upon a5certain type of mind. Why should any one give in while he can still destroy his enemies2 Surrender