The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-26
THE HOPEFUL PESSIMIST
 EUGENE MANLOVE RHODES Author of 'Tlle Desire Truey

to Hyphehism is firm and dignified. | We think the palpitant silence of MT.
 Hughes is firm-purposely firm-but
 hardly dignified. On all questions re-
 lating to the European war and to German-American activities MT.
 Hughes seems to be intellectually in termed.
 Neighbor Bill and I do not think
 that MT. Hughes lacks convictions. But
 we do know what they are. He does 1 not telr us. We think he does not tell us because he lacks courage. We think he feared to state his views; that he fears MT. Roosevelt on the one
 hand; that he fears the German-Amer-
 ican vote on the other.
 Neighbor Bill and do not want for President a man who fears. We dis | trust a candidate who is not candid. We think that a man who has intel
 lect and convictions but who lacks | courage and candor is less admirable than an unconvicted persons with l more courage than brains.
 F That reminds us of Colonel Roose-
 welt. Neighbor Bill and I have some
 respect and more affection for Colonel Roosevelt. There is a man who would rather fightIthan be President. The Colonel has impnlsively insert ed himself in the big middle of an old
 fashioned, long-horned dilemma. He has expressly pledged his support to
 MT. Hughes. On the ot.,er horn, he has at odd times made few guarded remarks about tippitoeing, eggshells, pussy-footing, weasel-words, weak
 knees, undiluted Apericanism. German ! Americans, and, cowardly evasion.
 That was before MT. Hughes entered into the silence.
 Colonel Roosevelt must remember those remarks now every time he reads one of the Hughes speeches, and notes how many things MT. Hughes really does not say, upon subjects and
 such like. The worst enemiesAno, let us be accurate and say. the most consistent opponents of Colonel Roosevelt
 have never denied to him a certain measure of sef-approvaL The temp tation will be very strong, when Col. fRooseve1t speaks in Maine, to smoke Mr. Hughes out and so to remove any lingering doubts as to who is emphati- cally who in Republican circles: And Why.
 If the golden silence of MT. Hughes can be broken; if Colonel Roosevelt can force MT. Hughes to speak out
 on this subject, when MT. Hughes has shown so unmistakably that he does
 not want to speak out; then Colonel Roosevelt will have proven that the
 man who-by means of a horrible threat-made the blameless and loY- able MT. Taft our President, and who later defeated the b. & l. MT. Taft for insubordination, is still the biggest man in his party; that though incom- potent and misguided delegates of that party have nomi4ated Mr.. Hughes. Colonel Roosevelt is still Nable-and willing-to dictate' speech or silence to the nominee. -i
 That MT. Hughes should defy Col Roosevelt Is improbable. It would be 100s per cent imprudent.
 That Col. Roosevelt should swal- low his own undiluted words of pre- nomination times is not to be thought of. His digestion Is not good. And yet-andy ct the Colonel goes to praise MT. Hughes not to bury him
 It is most vexatious- Really, I sometimes wonder that the Colonel doesn't abandon us to our own re- sources.
 MT. Wilson has been assailed for the expedition in pursuit of Villa. He would have been assailed more, bit terly-by the same people-if he had not sent that expedition. He has been abused for sending the National Guard to the border; he would have been abused if he had not sent the Guard to the border; these people will shril and scold at him when he brings the Guard back.
 They don't really mean anything by this quadrennial debauch of frenzy, mysteries and stiffness; some very worthy people enjoy the blare and glare of it; they contribute their lit tie opera bouffe passions with joyous squea1 and scream, just as they would join in carnival fooleries. For the same reason; they like the excite ment To take them seriously would be to join their folly, to denounce \them on the high moral lay would be to confess yourself dupe, knave, liar, imbecile, splay-foot. dastard dema- gogue, ha1f-w1t, hair-lip, ranted, polt- room. murderer, traitor, grape-juicer, Iscariot, high-brow; .aese excellent, red-faced people do not mean these things except in Pickwickian sense in Rooseveltian sense, as we are beginning to say. They use the words exactly as grave and reverend Mos- lem would address you as a Christian dog. The Moslem gentlemen would not expect you to take his phrase lit- erally, but as formal and symboli- cal expression; reminder that on certain subjects his opinion diverged from yours.
 ? Neighbor Bill and I are not swell ing the torrent of vituperation, abuse and epithets. If we have called any body any nasty names, we take 'em, back. like the dastards we probably are. For. Neighbor Bill really has lot of common sense; and I have al- ways lived in gun-toting >communi- ties.
 Curious! Out on the border, we were as fully armed, as keen to up- hold "the point of honorANas Colonel Roosevelt would have the United States be- and for our pains we were described in precisely the same terms applied to Germany by her opponents. It is very puZzling. Perhaps some day we shall know which is the nobler citizen-the two-gun man, ready to shoot at the drop of the hat. proud. masterful, resolute and bold, willing to kill rather than not have his own way, or the sordid, prosaic, commer-