The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-11-03

1 stopped the sinking of the Lusitania' '' If they know how these miracles could 1 have been wrought should they not tell us and prove their superhuman l power2 Do these men who now claim that we should have protested against the invasion of Belgium de- | mand now that we shall protest against the invasion of Greece@ What I'd have done!" This is the most popular game that was ever played. We have all played it, from 1 our childhood up. Anyone can play it. It costs nothing. It is the ref uge of the unfortunate and the solace Of those who never had chance and never will have. It is a glorious game, for no one ever loses. You can strut in it, dress for it, pose in it and talk of it. It is played by the children in the attic, who call it Lets pretend" and by the larger children in politics who call it Saving the na- l tion."
 1 What I'd have done" if I'd been the boy upon the burning deck, if I'd l been Hamlet in the presence of the new King, if I'd been Lincoln when Sumter was fired on! What I'd have done" if I'd been Meade at Gettys- burg or Lee at Bull Run! We've all conceived strategy that was impossible | and situations that could not be real ized. We have hypnotized kings in- to yielding to our wills and found a strength in ourselves that would have overthrown great enemies. A bril- liant playing at this game once grew so excited over the crucifxion of Christ that he burst into a poem. The closing sentence of each verse read:
 If I'd been there with three score men I Christ Jesus had not died.
 l Vice President Marshall says that if he had been in the Garden of Eden and was tempted by Eve he thinks now that he could not have eaten the apple, but maybe he would have eat en two. There are always men who can do the impossible, after the event men in whom we have unlimited faith but whose capacity has never been proved.
 No one planes the Republican par ty for failing to reveal to us by what mystical power of magic it would have brought the European countries to their senses, for they know, as we all know, that no power short of Hea- ven could have done more to preserve the peace of the world than we have done. But I do say that it is not good Americanism for men who cannot pro- duce a better method than Woodrow Wilson has followed to hold the Presi- dent of the United States up before the world as one who failed in his du- ty toward this nation and toward man. kind
 l We are not little folk, dealing with little things. If we keep our heads no power can stop us from being the leaders of. the world-in finance, in in- dustry, in inventive genius, in educa- t1on and I trust in nobility of spirit. Our future and the worlds future de- mand our men of larger vision.
 Read the Republican platform. Read the speeches of the Republican leaders. Is there hope for the na- tions in these? Do they realize that the world has been turned upside down by this war? That France and Europe and Asia, too, and the United States can never be again what they were before? That not even the French Revolution was so great and momentous an event in history? That social life and the economic life and the political life of all countries has been changed, and will be forever more? That the men in the trench es will be the masters of the future of Europe? That he will ask for a hand in the government? That he will not go back to his shop or his farm the simple, crude parochial that he was? That he has become a man of the world, with a new sense o1 his true relation to things? That E,-