Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1917-10-19
LOTS OF "PUNCH" TO
BIG WAR MEETING
Audience CrOwding Town Hall
Hears Kaiser FierceIy FIayed
Original Program Changed But
Substitute Speakers Lack
No Fire

Four speakers drafted by the Nation.
oratorical cunning of the war brought
their heavy artillery into Addison
County last Tuesday afternoon and with
the stage of the Middlebury town hall
as their vantage ground they sent one
shell after another into the Kaiser s
camp until, fguratively speaking, it was
torn to shreds and its emblem of the
double headed black vulture was glo-
riously displaced by the Stars and
Stripes.
Certainly not since the Civil War has
an Addison County audience had Old
Glory unfurled before it with more
verbal fire, and its results were attested
by storms of applause at every climax
The gun crew included the 26-year-
old assistant of the United States Sen
ate Democrat and a patriot, John <.
O'Toole, as the first speaker; DR.. w.
B. Guthrie, former Professor of Public
Law at the College of the City of New
York, as the second; Hon. Newton W.
Gilbert, former vice governor of the
PHILIPPINE Islands, and Charles Bigelow
of New Haven, Conn, who spoke as
personal representative of Herbert
Hoover, the food administrator.
The original program had called for
the appearance of George Adam of the
British War Office and other speakers
but for reasons outside the control of
the local committee, these men could not
be here. The substitution of other
speakers, however, worked no damage
to the object of the meeting, which was
to rally the people of Addison County,
as doubtless they will be rallied time
and again before the war is ended, to
the realization of what the conflict
means.
President Thomas of Middlebury Col
ege touched off the guns, and he re-
ceiyed successive rounds of applause
when at the conclusion of each address
he said, Again, | have to ask, what's
the matter with our program"
Mr.. O'Toole, who began his public
speaking career with the Chautauqua cir
cult when he was l9 years old, and who
is known to the newspaper men in
Washington as one Of the popular per
formers at the famous gridiron dinners,
opened the speaking with tribute to
Senators Page and Dillingham;, both re-
publicans, whom he said had from the
very first been depended upon to stand
behind the great war measures of the
Democratic administration Himself
from the South, he said he felt a real
thrill in coming to New England, where
1t seemed so unnecessary to preach pa
trOtism, since it was warp and Woof of
our statehood. Before him in the audi
ence which filled every available seat
on the main floor and in the gallery,
there We're probably hundred women
who were busiy engaged in knitting
socks and sweaters for the soldiers, and
he paid them glowing tribute for their
patriotic industry.
DR.. Guthrie, the next speaker, cannot
be reproduced in print. Even motion
picture apparatus running on high gear
would fail to do him justice as real
arouser. Announced as a professor of
public law, with his subject 1.-The
Underlying Causes of the War" the
audience undoubtedly expected thor
ough academic discussion of issues, but
at the first crack he completely upset
any preconcelved idea of his tactics. He
is large man of Pickwithian build,
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