The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-08-20

$4,000, 900 for the purpose of arm (
ing 1,10O,000,000 merchant vessels J.
flying the United States. flag. Sew
eral Of these vessels have already |
been In action against U-boats; First
blood" having been scored at the end
Of April by the American steamer
Mongolia, which sent a pirate sub
marine to Davy Jones locker with |
bulPs-eye fired at a two-n1ile range. |
The Secretary of the Navy estimates |
that s30,O0O,000 of the amount re-
quired for arning merchantmen will
be needed for guns and $20,000,00O |
for ammunition.
AS the worlds greatest producer of |
breadstuffs and meats the role which |
United States is destined to play in
the war commissary-in-c hief of
the Allied belligerents is a tremendous
one. During the two and half years
of our benevolent neutrality we, of
course, performed wonders in supply
ing foodstuffs to Britain and her
fighting forces in all parts of the
world. But except for the. purchas-
ing organization maintained by the
Allies themselves, the limitless food
resources of the United States were
in an entirely loose-jointed state.
That issue has also been taken UP in
Washington. One of Mr.. Hoover's
| first acts in conjunction with the
Federal agricultural authorities, was
| to appeal to the United States as a
nation to look. upon the growing of
food and its economic distribution as
almost the primarily essential aid
they could render Freedoms fighting
cause in Europe.
! The American Food Commissioner
/ has also taken steps for a stricter con-
| troll than was ever possible in the
| days of neutrality over American food
shipments to countries adjacent to
Germany. Holland, Denmark, Nor
4 way, Sweden and Switzerland will
henceforth be subjected to more or
Hess arbitrary trationing'' and restric-
! lions requiring sconsumptioh of ship
ments in the country of their imme-
diate destination. It is notorious that
/ leakage of American food through
4 Holland and Scandinavia Throughout
4 the war have contributed in no. little
l,degree< to the Germans mysterious
4 ability to feed themselves, though
Theoretically blockaded by both
land and sea.
i America has already lent her AL
lies a billion dollars.
Describing. the monumental finan-
cial support guaranteed by the adhe-
4 sion of the United States to- the AL
4 lied cause, Mr.. Hartley Withers has
well said: with its active and ener-
getics population of 100000 900, with
unbounded natural resources to work
on, enriched by the war instead of
i exhausted by it,, Americas ability to
produce the stuff that is needed for
the Allied cause is as nearly unlin-
tied as anything can be-"
l5 In the presence of such concrete
i facts and figures as I have herein set
g.. H. - ~,
4 to little impotence with reports ca
bled abroad that America is not yet
awake" We are very much awake.
), America, casting overheard one Of
her most cherished traditions, adopt
ed CONSUMPTION before the war for
her was two months old. That was
!, a. leaf which she did extract from
Britain notebook. It was the Uni
. ted States first, sweeping innovation.
!. But it will not be the last.
q The war has not touched us, can
hardly ever touch us as it is hourly
81 touching the lives and fortunes of
the British and the French. The war
has to be brought home to us. We are
an impressionable people, and Amer
+ lean hearts and homes will not have
been saddened by many casualty lists
. at sea OR affeld before that which the
! war has come to mean for the free
tpeop1es35wil be borne@i in upon us with
! a flaming vengeance.
, New York with al total population
of IS, 100000, has 1,900,e0 foreign
born residents, including 278,000 Ger
!, Imans, 100000 Austro- Hungarians,
j $4,000 Irish, 484,000 Russians, and
$4,000 italians. Chicago's 100000
population includes $4,000 Germans
and Austro- Hungarians. Milwaukee
! Wisconsin, has more Germans and
: Austrians (80,000) than many pros
] porous indWstriaf town in the Father
! land. There are more Scandinavians
4 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, than In
several of the best-known towns ir
r Sweden or Norway. The negro popu-
: lation of the United States is more
/ than 100000. In the State of Miss;
issippi there are more negroes thar
white people.
What nation in history ever essayet
to weld such a conglomeration o.
: breeds, instincts and ideals, such
: confusion of inherited traditions and
political prejudiees, into a war-wor
= thy, war-rnalxing, unified entity? Ina
: CINE, for example, the trials Of oul
= Press Censorship, which will have tx
2 deal with 500 publications: daily
z weekly, and monthly printed in Bo
henaian, Danish, Finnish, French
= German, Greek, Dutch, Hungarian
= italian. lithuanian. Norwegian-Dan
= ish, Polish, Swedish and Yiddish, il
!. la country as broad as the Atlantic
!. I have merely scratched the sur
= face of the internal vicissitudes will
= which our country and countryme1
= must grapple in order to present tn
: aspect and actually cut. the figure o
. United States. We have given tn
: world wondrous exhibition of assim
= Hating capacity in our 141 years o
: Republican existence. The melting
- pot has never been subjected to sucl
: a trial as it now faces. The fires O
= war will fan the crucible, which i
:, America. to such high purpose tina
= the product will be worthy of her an
of the undi1uted idealism which ha
- called her ITO arms.
Much satisfaction is expressed b
4 automobile owners with their glarin
ar headlights that confuse other driver
&c SO much that they all get out of tn
N way in the bushes