The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-03-21

The German government said, We were forced to take the sword for Jus l tice and liberty of national evolution. | which means evolution into the terri | tory of others.
 Africa has been partitioned, Asia has been partitioned, Europe Is occu- pied, Australia is occupied. What remains but America, that vast region 1 from Terra del Fuego to the Carri- 1 bean, which has been protected by the | Monroe Doctrine? What remains for | the pressure of surplus population and 1 the liberty of national evolution but l that thinly people and undefended ter 1 ritory7
 Panama Canal a DardaneIles?
 That is what we have got to face
 when this war Is over. And where is our Monroe Doctrine? What is 1t
 worth without force behind it7 And
 if the Monroe Doctrine fails, if that is ignored with a German naval sta- ] ton in the Caribbean and an Asiatic
 naval station in lower California, the Panama Canal is as worthless to us for strategic purposes as the Dardan- elles to Russia today. Then we will
 be face to face with the situation in 1 which France has been for the last 40 years with strong, aggressive military powers on all borders.
 "The letter of Herr Zimmerman
 to Mexico proposing the alliance of
 Mexico and Japan for the dismember-
 ment of the Union was not dream.
 It was an incautious exhibition of a
 purpose-a subtle purpose which has been thought out and which is being l worked out and which will continue to be worked out until this country stands alone and defenseless against immediate and contiguous superior military power.
 "A serious thing for us today Is that we are on trial. The question wheth- CT the American people are competent to defend their rights is being tried
 out now, and if i've fail in the trial our rights will disappear. AS Gerard says truly, if we had a million men under arms we would not be so near the edge of the war. If it is under stood that this hundred million peo- pie are animated by a common spir- it; that they have the courage and the devotion which founded this free Re- public, sno one will seek to prevail against us, but if it is understood that we are a weak, flabby, divided and in- definite people, who can be insulted and assaulted and abused with inn munity, then the tide flows over us and we are gone. Our country Is gone. Our Union is gone. Our lib- erty is gone.
 Must Demonstrate Our Courage.
 Make no mistake: Unless we demonstrate now that we have the courage and the power to defend our selves against aggression, we will speedily reach the point where we cannot defend ourselves against az gression We have been very unre- Isponsive to voice that should have called to us in the names of our fathers. We have stood dull and in- definite, while the peoples of Europe have been fighting against the mega tion of everything that makes Ameri- ca what 1t Is.
 swe have stood dull and unre- sponsive while England and France and Russia, now being rev1v1hed and glorified, thank God-while the spirit of democracy has been struggling to defend itself against the spirit Of m1l- itary despotism and the principles or absolute control by government over human life and human liberty.
 we have forgotten the mission of America for liberty and justice We have rejoiced in our prosperity. We have passed on the other side While men have suffered and died for the principles that our fathers taught us, and now 1t has been brought home to us with 8 last appeal
 "The time has come now In the inseparable course of fate, for the American people to learn whether there still lives in this Republic the true spirit of a free democracy, or whether we are merely great az gregation of prosperous people, fit only to be prey to the domination of an aggressor.
 "Now, if our voice can be heard, if we can do somethihE anything, to make our government feel that the free and loyal people of Americaf want 1t to assert the principles of American hberry and freedom, and to assert them with the power of this great people, for Gods sake, let us do it..
 MT. Hughes, in calling the meeting to order, said:
 we are here to record our convic- lions. to offer our service. It is the distinction of this club that 1t came Into being as an instruanentahty of national service, giving it's pledge of unconditional loyalty. It's loyalty, of which we speak, is not a mere form of words. 1t is the loyalty that de- Tends; 1t is the loyalty that preserves; it is the loyalty that is 'fttingly ex- pressed in the supreme service of sac rifice.
 ''It is the distinction of this club that it has in the past, in times of national crisis, expressed this loyalty, and the club, I believe, is quite as Heeply moved tonight as ever in it's history with respect to the gravity of the national situation and the need which that situation illustrates.
 'I am sure that none of us can fail to recognize the actual condition of Germany is now making war upon the United States making war with a ruthless barfbarity. It is not ques- tion of 1egalistic conception. There is now state of war, and the United States, the people of the United States should recognize that fact. Our citi- zens have been murdered-are being murd cred. Our ships are being sunk. Our commerce is existing on leave of @ nation or government whose hostile intent is manifest
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