The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-03
IS AMERICAN PATRIOTISM WANING? OLD FASHION
 ED "FOURTH'' IS DYING

Is American patriotism waning? Is the eagIe. which once screamed 70 shr1I1y on the Fourth of July, now sounding his death rattle Is it pos sfb1e-can 1t be possible - that the American youth no longer entertains an ambition to start the Indepen- dence Day celebration properly by go- ing out and killing an Eng1ish h1nan be- fore breakfast2 And, failing to find an EngIlshnnan, Blowing himself into small and scattered pieces to make a Yankee hoHday2
 Every subject of Uncle Sam who is Knee high to a. grasshopper,'' and all people of other lands who know any, thing of the history of the United States can remember when the 4th of July Beneath the Stars and Stripes had not dezenerated into the pale and Combustion. 1t was a real fes- tival of liberty, when everybody could do about as everybody pleased, with suicide permissible, and only cold blooded murder barred.
 In the good old days when there were real patriots in the land, the obsequies usually commenced a week before the Fourth, and when the day of Joy arrived the hospitals. physi- eians, fremen and undertalzers work ule. and even then were rushed to death.
 Look over the statistics. Ten years ago, in 1904, there were 1S3 burnt sacrifices on the altar of American patriotism. while the roll of the injIlr- ed numbered 3,9S6. In 1905 there were 182 killed and ,9e4 injured During the next three years there was a dininution in the number of fatali- ties, although the list of the serious ly injured showed no decrease.
 Patriotism reached high tide in 7a hal f7f he mounted to 215, and the injured mum bered 5,092. Since then, thanks to the "safe and sane Fourth crusad- CTS, there has been a notable decrease in the figures. From 1s1 in 1910. the number of deaths dropped tor 57 in 1911, Al in 1912, fand 32 in 1913. Think of it. Only thirty-tyvo people killed in the entire United States less than one api ece for each of the States. And only 1165 injured It is probable that this year an even smal.sr number of innocent ads will ricochet over the pearly. gates on a giant frs-cracters EveH may the old fashioned patriot view with alarm, and inquire, What is the country com ing tog''
 ton of the decline of American pa trfotisna, is the face that the children of the United States are no longer taught to hate England and English men, ] AS late as thirty years ago al future .zcitizens. of the Republic who had the advantages of education knew that England was a. synonym for ty- ranny, and that to slay an English man was an act of virtue. It was the ambition of American youth to spenC Fourth of July in London, or, il that could not be accomplished, 1T downtrodden and tyrant-ridden Cana. da, and shoot off hrecrackers under the very nose of the King or the Ca nadian Governor General But, alas under the new-fangled system of ed ucatfon. the youngsters of the Unitet States are taught that Englishrnen an, Canadians are bIood-relatio ons-cous ins at the very least-and that Eng land is the mother-country, instead o being a nest of vipers and the abod of despotism.
 In adopting a 'tsafe and sane'' cele bration of the Fourth, the Unite, States has doubtless been influence, by the example of Canada in its ob servance of the first of July as Do
 ninion Day. But the latter hoIida- merely commemQrates the bloodles launching of a new nation, and tn Beginning of an era of constructiv work. while Uncle Sam's festiva marks an event which is associate with revolution and war.