New Britain herald., 1916-09-01

patriotism.
 "But this is not in the least what MT. Wilson's advocates mean when they ask us to support him, because he and they are for safety first They are for the unworthy safety that is merely obtained by the abandon ment of duty. They are for the mo- n1entary safety which shortsighted men secure when they purchase escape from present risk and effort at the cost of future disaster. They are for the safety of each man to spend his time in moneymaking and in f1abby ease, at the cost of remain ing untrained and unfit to render ser vice to the nation in the nations hour of need. They are for the mean safety which this nation secured when it treated The Hague conventions, which 1t had signed, like scraps of paper and declined to make even a protest on behalf of tortured Belgium. They are for the safety this nation temporarily secured by tame submission to the murder of it's men, women, and chill dren on land by Mexican bandits, and at sea in the Lusitania and similar cases by German submarines. This kind of safety first means duty last,
 
 lieve that 1t is obtained at the cost of moral degradation in the present and at the risk of national ruin in the future.
 An Opiate to Idealism.
 Since 1912 we have had four years of a policy which has been an opiate to the spirit of idealism. It has meant the relaxation of our moral fibre. Horror of war, combined with a sordid appeal to self-interest and to fear, has paralyzed the national con- science. We have been told that Americans, if they do not wish to be killed, should leave Mexico and should keep off the ocean; that to save a few Am erican lives it Is not worth worth while to hazard the lives of Ameri- can soldiers; that Mexicans should be allowed to spill blood to their hearts content; that the European war is no concern of ours; that even as between Belgium and Germany we should be neutral not only in act but in sym pathy.
 Not once has President Wilson squarely placed before the American people the question which Abraham Lincoln put before the American peo- pie in 1860; what is our duty? Not once has he appealed to moral ideal ism, to the stern enthusiasm of strong men for the fight. On the contrary, he has employed every elocutionary device to Hull to sleep our sense of duty, to make us content with words instead of deeds, to make our moral idealism and enthusiasm evaporate in empty phrases instead of being re- duced to concrete action. America as a nation has been officially kept in a position of timid indifference and cold selhshness. America, which sprang to the succor of Cuba in 1898, has stood an idle spectator of the invasion of Belgium of the sinking of the Lusi- tania, of the continued slaughter of our own citizens, and of the reign of anarchy, rapine and murder in Mexico.
 Nevertheless I believe that the people were ready for the same kind of appeal which was made to them by Abraham Lincoln in 1860 by the advocates of an honest cur rency in 1896, by the advocates of the Spanish war in 1898, by the advocates of nationalism in 1900. But the ap- pearl was not made. On the con- trary, MT. Wilson invoked the spirit of timidity and selfishness. He made no effort to invoke the sense of duty He put safety first the immediate safety of the moment, to be obtained by shrinking from duty. He did not even put American rights first, still less did he put American duty first.
 ''His Task Not Difficult''
 His task was not an especially diff fcult or dangerous task; but it needed a brave heart and a steady hand. Un- der his lead America could and should have put itself at the head of all the neutral nations, by it's example if not by direct diplomatic agreem ents in demanding that the war should be conducted in accordance with the usage of civilized nations that inter- national law should be observed, that the rights of neutrals and nOn-com- batants should be respected
 "If this spirit had animated our administration there would probably have been no invasion of Belgium, no fears of a like fate to terrorize other smaller nations, no torpedoing of mer- chant vessels, no bombarding of churches and hospitals no massa cring of women and children, no murder of Miss Cavell, no attempted extermina- tion of the Armenians and Syrian Christians.
 Tt is just that this nation should concern itself with it's rights: but it is even more necessary that it should concern itself with it's duties. As between Mir Hughes and MT. Wilson, who can doubt which is the man who will, with austere courage, stand for the national duty? MT. Wilson's words have contradicted one another; and all his words have been contra dicted by his acts. MT. Wilson's promise has not borne the slightest reference to his performance.
 we have against him in MT. Hughes man whose public life is a guarantee that whatever he says he will make good. and that all his words