The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-26

(By Eugene Manlove Rhodes, Author of "The Dire of the Moth." Good
 Men and True,' 'etc.)
 These be dismal days for Americans. The Allies despise us because we forced the Germans to abandon their sub- marine slaughter of non-combatants, because we refused to lay an embargo on the sale of munitions, because we lent them money, because of our left handed activities with hospitals and relief work; the Germans hate us be- cause we won't fight them. European Eneutrals scorn and distrust a nation shaving no desire to grab; and the Latin-Americans-t A B c, powers. abhor us because we do not annex Mexico. We could have done 1t So easily. too. An mel . 'R Mexico is rich in natural resources. And we had such splendid excuse. We had fbean. injured and insulted by
 weakne4ss stgnorance and despair; American men and women have been killed Never was such a chance thrown away. An us! /. In our whole Mexican policy we have been cowardly. As cowardly as MT. Jess Willard would be if he re- fused to knock out a newsboy.
 Other nations are enjoying the mor- fal uplift of war while we plod wretch Eedly end hopeless in the base ways of peace, To date the Kaiser has bestow- led 430,o00 Iron Crosses-not to men, ltion the other kind, the marble ones. Think of that! Then look at ighoble American, with only the pitiful Red ECross for decorative purposes-and blush for shame! ger
 Ridicule, derision, scorn. contempt these are the portion of America to- Iday. We swallow in the slime of de- tgradatfons and humiliation: (Adv.) We lare submerged in the night which lowered Mr.\ .\Ienley from pole to pole. 50 to speak. So the papers tell me; and the orators; Sahd MT. Hughes. I.j For two years it has been widely proclaimed by thinkers and others, lthat war-war in the abstract, with lout regard to causes or results-is wholesome, necessary and desirable.
 Neighbor Bill and I have been talk llng 1t over. Let me here make a lshameful admission. Neighbor Bill and I are prejudiced in the little mat ter of rushing to glory or the grave. , ! have three boys. And Neighbor Bill has two.
 k We have decided that we would not have our country less patient under insult and ingratitude, than MT. Will lard would be with khe street urchin-- not with poor littie urciin like Mex l3co, fever-stricken. delirfous, ill-treat- ed, underfed. step-fathered and un- lachooled. We would have our nation be gentleman: as good gentleman. In such as case, as MT. Willard.
 ,3 We find. it difacult b imagine Mir. Willard. under any. provocation. ad- Imtpistering left hook and right swing to "a scrawny ten-year-old.
 We should have gone to war over Belgium, we should have gone to war over the Lusitania, we should have < gone to war ovar Vera Cruz, we should have laid an embargo, on the sale of arms to the Allies; above, al,. we shoi1ld have been, firm and dignified. You may recognize the last statement. 1t is the foreign policy of MT. Hughes.
 To all demands that he state de- finitely, what he would have done re- Txarding Belgium and the Luatania, Huerta and Mexico. MT. Hughes bland 1y replies that all such situations must be met with Firm Americanism-" That is the Paregorical Imperative. ts MT. Hughes has criticised MT. Wil-' son unsparingly. He has not thought 1t worth while to state. clearly, what he knows very well, and what you, most probable sir and reader. know very well,-that MT. Wilson has been up against a deleted hard problem
 MT: Hughes knows-no man better that in a world gone mad with war, American must necessarily suffer and mot rejoice: no matter what course she l1oIlowse no matter what the Outcome Of the war may be4 no matter who is tPresidentN MT. Wilson is subjected to 4scurrilous abuse because he has not made war on Germany for the viola tion of Belgium. MT. Hughes knows mo man better-that every day of our ,past has pledged this country to 1on-participation in the joys of Euro pean war: he knows that this pledge binds himself noS less surely than it binds MT. Wilson: he knows that the denunciation of MT. Wilson would have increased tenfold had he inter- vened on behalf of Belgium. Know Ing these things, MT. Hughes does not say them b1.t
 MT. Hughes hears it stated that as B sigpatory of the Hague conventions. Anne flea was bound to take up arms to dekendv Belgium. MT. Hughes knows this to be expressly false. and de1ib- erately false. He knows that MT. Elihu' Root, as Secretary of State under Theodore Roosevelt, directed or per- 1nitted that our signature be guarded by htfs explicit stipulation:
 Nothing contained in this Conven- tion shall be so construed as to require the United States of America to depart from it's traditional policy of not in truding upon. interfering with, or en- Hangling itself in the political ques- fion, .-.y.. of any foreign state.' ] Mr Hughes knows this. He does not say so. Mr., Hughes does not lack hnformAtfon. He does not Jack in telligence. He lacks candor. He does not put forward these untruths him. self, but he seems willing to profit by them.
 bus murders, are black and terrible. ndr. Hughes knows that any war is lblacker and more terrible: that any kwar is incredible disaster and incredi- )ble folly: that in a war with Germany Tor. even with Mexico, such loss and lgrief and suffering as that of the Lus- I1tania or of the Columbus raid would lbe insignificant details in the stupend- ous sum of agony He does not, say