The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-15
were at issue in that struggle.
 Civil War. Wounds Healed.

C1VH War wounds HeaIGQs ''You know how two great sections | of this Union seemed to be moving 1 in opposite directions, and for a long time it was questionable whether that l flag represented any one united pur- pose in merica. And you know how | deep that struggle cut into the senu- ments of this people, and how there came a whole generation following l that great struggle when mems hearts were bitter and sore, and memories 1 hurt as well as exalted, and how it seemed as if a rift had come in the hearts of the people of America | And you know how that ended. while it seemed a time of terror, 1t has turned out a proof of the validity I of our hope. Where are now the dfvi- sions of sentiment which cut us asun- der at the time of the Civil War l Did you not see the Blue and Gray mingled this morning in the process sion2 Did you not see the sons of subsequent generation walking to- gether in happy cOmradeship "was there any contradiction of feel Ling or division of sentiment evident there for a moment? Nothing cuts so deep as a civil war, and yet all the wounds of that war have been healed not only, but the very passion | of that war seems to have contributed to the strength of national feeling which now moves us as a single body polite.
 tAnd again the test is applied, my fellow countrymen. A new sort of division of feeling has sprung up among us You know that we are | derived in our citizenship from every nation in the world. It is not s1ngu- lar that sentiment should be disturbed | by what is going on on the other side of the water, but while sentiment may be disturbed. loyalty ought not to be. Strikes at Hyphenates.
 e'I want to be scrupulously just, my. fellow citizens, in assessing the cir cumstanees of this day, and am sure that you wish with me to deal out with an even hand the praise and the blame of this day of test. I believe that the vast majority of those men whose lineage is directly derived from the nations now at war are just as loyal to the flag of the United States as any native citizen of this beloved land but there are some men of that extraction who are. not, and they, not only in the past months, but at the l present time, are tdoing their best to | undermine the. influence of the gov ernment of the United States in the interest of matters which are foreign to us and which are not derived from the questions of our own politics.
 There is disloyalty active in the United States ,and it must be abso- luteIy crushed. It proceeds from a, | minority, a very small minority. It
 a very active and subtle minority. It | works underground but it also shows its ugly head where we can see it; and there are those at this moment who are trying to levy species of political blackmail, saying: Do what we wish in the interest of foreign sentiment or we will wreak our vengeance at the lpolls.'
 That is the sort of thing against A xrr3JI lwith a might and triumph of senti- ment which will teach these gentle men once for all that loyalty to this | flag is the first test of tolerance in the
 United States.
 Real Lesson of the Day.
 That is the lesson that I have come
 to remind you of on this day-no more
 sentiment. It runs into your daily life and conversation. Are you going your selves, individually and collectively, to see to it that no man is tolerated who
 does not do honor to that flag? .Its is not a matter of force It is not a mat ter that is to say, of physical force. It is matter of a, greater force than that which is physical It is a matter of spiritual force. It is to be achieved as we think as we purpose, as we be- 1ieve, and when the world finally
 learns that America is tndivisible,
 then the world will learn how truly
 
 Il America is.
 'T realize, personally, my fellow cit izens, the peculiar significance of the If1ag of the United States at this time,
 because there was a day not many years ago when, although I thought l
 knew what the flag stood for, it had
 not penetrated my whole conscious ness as it has now
 'If you could have gone with me
 through the space of the last two years, and could have felt the subtle
 impact of intrigue and sedition, and
 have realized with me that those to
 whom you have intrusted authority are trustees not only of the power but l of the-uery spirit and purpose of the United States you would realize with
 me the so1ernnity with which look upon that sublime symbol of opr unity and power.
 ! T want you to .shsrs that con-