The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-06-27
HOLD LIFE AND PROPERTY SACRED
 ON JULY FOURTH
Celebrate With Reverence Day of Nations Birth,
 Holcomb Pleads

HOlcOmO FlodQS
 Hartford, June 26-Gov. Holcomb issued yesterday the following Fourth of July proclamation:
 Next to that most sacred of all days which marks the birth of the Son of the Supreme Ruler of the Ma tions, the day which symbolizes the birth of our country stands dearest in the affections of our countrymen and most significant in their thoughts. The Fourth of July, properly christ ened as Independence day, has throughout our history possessed a peculiarly patriotic and almost fatal
 istic significance. Men are wont to
 attach a meaning deeper than a mere
 coincidence to the circumstance that
 those two Revolutionary patriots, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,
 passed away up on this day, just half a century after the nation which they had nurtured saw the light. It was also on this day that the first omi- nous whisperings of the nations re- birth in the great civil conflict ap- peared in the turbulent anti-slavery meting in Boston, in 1883. So, too, on this day was the annexation of Texas, our second step in national ex- pansiop, ratified by popular vote in 1S44, while, four years later, on the same day, there was signed the treaty of peace with Mexico which deter mined the acquisition of our vast southwestern empire. The gloom of our great baptism of blood in the
 Civil War, in which northern arms first came to a realization of the
 stern character of the problem they were facing, was brought home to the people of the north by President Lincoln's message on the Fourth of July in 1861 following the battle of Bull Run; while three years later, on
 this selfsame day, the light of victory broke through the clouds of northern skies by the announcement of the | decisive conflict of Gettysburg and the l fall of Vicksburg. It was, in deed with | a fine recognition of historical pro- prieties that our congress long ago en- acted that each new star be added to I the flag on this day. Thus does the Fourth of July, which witnessed our national beginning. seem to have been | signalized by unusual circumstances l by the Unseen Hand which directs | the affairs of men.
 By the easy going carelessness of a great, good natured andw onder- | fully prosperous people this day has gradually degenerated into what is frequently an occasion of unseemly or I i'll advised jollification, often improp- er1y commercia1ized by private inter ests. Our very impulses of patriotism
 seem to have been converted into in- l lstrumentalities of wanton destruction.
 The toll of life and property from these sources has been appalling. We learn from the Journal of the Ameri- can Medical association that the cas-
 ualties from the use of fireworks toy pistols and similar ,instrumentalitfes during the past 14 years have been over 45,00o; the maximum years be- | ing 1908 with $500 maimings and | deaths, and the lowest being 1916, with only $50 casualties. There has been a like destructive toll of prop
 erty
 According to statistics collected by
 one of our great insurance companies one celebration of independence day I has cost in sporadic anad widely scat tered property losses $1,150,0o0, with probably. half a million dollars not lreported. The destructive fire in 1866 which nearly-wiped out the beautiful | city of Portland, Me-, entailing loss of $1O,000,0 was due to this sarns l cause. When, then, this statistical authority Just referred to tells us that "one days celebration was as costly as battle in the Spanish-American war and, that, leaving out of ac-
 count our general national losses o1
 many decades past and considering Ion1y the yearly celebrations in a few
 large cities. more persons have beer
 killed and injured than the casual II {y,[ +11o, Io a- Lexington, Bunker Hill, Fort Moul trie, White Plains, Fort Washington Monmouth and Cowpens combined, il should give us pause even in times of peace. '
 sBut the nation is now at war--the
 most colossal. war that ever has dis lfigured, the fair face of this planet a war that promises to tax our re. sources to the -uttermost mill, and the end of which we cannot now fore. isee. | ..At this hour. when we are asking the farmer to plant. the housewife tt
 save, the manufacturer to speed LII
 production, the id1er to work and ou1
 young men to fight, it is fitting tha l I ask, would that had the power tc command, that this foolish and wan 1 ton destruction of life and property cease.
 Il .I count among. the supreme asset!
 of great and free people that i'm
 ponderable thing that we call spiri < or loyalty. Even in these days O. rigid economy and strict frugality
 deem it. not wasteful but rather al
 enlightened form of economy that il each community of our ancient com
 onwealth this day be fittingly and in
 expensive1y celebrated. I urge =tha it be celebrated in a spirit of rever
 ence and conservation: that we sum
 mon up the shades of the nation great and make them our orac1es
 that we scan reverently every well es
 tablished precedent and every sacred tradition; and that Independence da. of 1917 in the state of Connection
 be instinct with gratitude for the pas grim responsibility for the. present
 and unshaken resolution. for the flu
 l