The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-11
(By George Creel.)

l ---N>-- fitted above all others for the job.
 Time went on, the Chicago steam rol-
 Ter ran over the Colonel as per plan and habit, the St. Louis convention re-
 nominated President Wilson and from
 the laboratory at West Orange came no comment of any kind whatsoever. Now MT. Thomas A. Edison, while cutting no large amount of ice With the master mechanics of the Reubll- can party, as they strove to make quite plain, is nevertheless a gentle
 man of some importance where the | thought of the people of the United States is concerned. Not only IS 1t the case that his life and his genius have been devoted to the happiness of | humanity and the advancement Of civ l ilizat ton, but certain Lincolnesque
 qualities have won him an enduring place in the popular heart. Along | with their belief in him as a miracle | worker, people have come to a great faith in his sturdy Americanism and his shrewd common sense. | As a consequence, MT. Edtson's post convention silence came to be the sub- ject of somewhat excited speculation among those who sit around political campfires What would he do, now
 that the Colonel had been rolled into cardboard thickness? Republicans
 and Democrats, fully appreciative of the tremendous weight carried blythe Edison opinions, worried no little, " even the relief of decisive action was denied them.
 For Thomas A. Edison, as they
 knew from years of experience, was
 not a man to be approached with ar
 guments or cajolery. He forms his
 political opinions as painstakingly as
 he forms model, he tests his con- victions just as he tests an invention, and when he is satisfied that his po-
 sition is as sound as his judgment can make it, then he announces his views for what they are worth.
 Some weeks after the two conven-
 tions, l interviewed him on industrial preparedness, a movement to which he has been giving much of his time
 and thought. Talking in ideas, rath- CT than in words, he outlined the in- ventory of Americas industrial re- sources that is being made by 30,000 famous engineers. touched upon the myriad uses to which the national
 laboratory will be put by scientists, in- ventors and technicians, and drove home the truth that the one solid rock upon which national defense may be builded is the readiness of factories and skilled workers to turn to war production at a days notice. Something that he said gave very plain indication of his admiration of Woodrow Wilson, and out of my own ardent advocacy took courage to ask him whether or not he had made up his mind" between MT. Wilson and
 MT. Hughes.
 Mot yet" He shook his head impa- tfently. Wait until we see what this
 man Hughes has got to offer"
 It was on the day of MT. Hughes final speech in California, the wind-up of his coast-to-coast campaign tour, that I received telephone message
 from MT. W. L. Saunders, the mining engineer.
 'I happened to be talking with Mir. Edison yesterday" he said, "and he told ms to tell you that he was will ing to make that Wilson statement if you still wanted it."
 I was at Mr. Saunders office a1- most before the click of the telephone | receiver had ceased to echo. Here was a chance to make a campaign contri- button worth more than monsy. We l rode to Jersey through the Hudson | tubes, and as we went, Mr. Saunders l told me how he had worked beneath | the river bed as far back as 1881, a young man on his first engineering | job. 4 story of broken lives and | hroi-eJ7 fortl1naa starting with Da1ns Haskins, who first conceived the idea of tunnel. continuing through for eign syndicates, and winding up with William G. McAdoo's success where
 others had failed, He talked also of his work in Mex ico, Europe and, the Orient, the fight of America for the conquest Of her natural resources, of the difference
 between legitimate business and '1oad-
 ed dice" business, Of the distinctions
 that must be made between enterprise
 and rapacity and as he talked it was
 plain that this mans support of
 Woodrow Wilson was based on no
 mere party affiliation, but had it's
 source in a tried and proved Ameri-
 canism.
 Mir, Edison, as a matter of course,
 was not in the office, but down in the
 shops. A boy went after him, and
 as we looked down the alley that ran
 between the factory buildings, the
 well-known figure popped out of far
 door. Bare-hsaded, in his shirt sleeves, vest flying open, trousers bag gy and impressed, he looked like noth- ing so much as a country store-keeper hurrying to fill an order for a pound of
 prunes.
 Not until he came close enough to
 see his eyes and forehead, to catch
 the full effect of his dynamic force, was the impression dissiPated. At a
 sort of half fuH he led the way into the laboratory, and sat dewR with the effect of wanting ts get through dis agreeable job as quickly as might be.
 Well, Mr. BdisOn," began, with drawing myself by an effort from fas- cinated contemplation of that big, dominant face and a necktie of the vintage of 'T6 "we"-
 Wait a minute" he interrupted. Leaning back so as to gain iRgress, he pushed his hand into his trousers pocket-the old-fashioned kined that opens at the top, not the side-and drew out a bunch of yellow paper.
 "There!" he said. "Everythings right there."
 sheets torn from a cheap tablet-aJ written over in pencil. the writing firm and curieusly like old English print. Glancing through them, saw that he had merely jotted down a number