The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-11-13
OurEnennies What We Are Now
 Fighting

Forgetting the warnings of history, superficial optimists smile at the pos 5fbflity of Germany's ultimate victory. Thinking always of the size, wealth and natural advantages of the United States. these men never tire of pro- phesying Germany's defeat within the very near future. But what has been, may be again
 It is striking fact that the first and in some respect the most intellec- tual republic the world has ever seen was crushed by military autocrat. No analogy in history is more striking. Tho rise of militarism in Macedonia brought the fall of Athens. The ruth less hand of militarism snuffed out ail the torches in the temples of in- tellect 'that once looked down on Marathon, as Marathon looks on the sea" What scholar does not thrill with pain at the very thought of the brutal regiment that destroyed the temples. the libraries, the statues, the galleries of Athens?
 Pericles believed, as did Plato and his pupils. that society had outgrown forever brute force, wars and savag- cry. Athens put her emphasis upon the intellect. She founded schools, and made her sons to be scholars. She became the mothers of the arts, sci- ence and philosophy, and prided her. self upon her artists and statesmen. She established foreign colonies, built ships and extended her trade to far off lands in Sicily. Spain, Gaul and North Africa Within century, Ath- chs became the center of eloquence. poetry, philosophy and liberty.
 But one day young prince from Northern Macedonia visited Athens. He marveled that the city should be like vineyard whose purple clusters were without a fence, whose treasure be xes were without watchmen. In thAt hour of avarice and ambition, Philip recalled the soldiers in his fa- ther's army at home. He believed that one soldier could conquer a dozen merchants, bankers. statesmen and scholars.
 Returning to Macedonia, Philip turned his whole people into one vast fighting machine. His unit was the Macedonian Phalanx. First came twenty-four men. with short spearsi. then came a second twenty-four with spears. Of six feet; then a third twen- ty-four, with spears of eight feet in length. The last tier of men in the company had spears twenty feet long.
 
 tf. the front rank These bristling spears were invincible.
 The terror of the Macedonian Fha-H ianx went out into all the earth. Dem osthenes was the one man who had vision. He called the people togetn-s CT upon the public square, assembled them fin the great theatre. He mount ed the rostrum upon Mars Hill and warned Athens. He calledt he a1en- ton of the people to the fact that be- tween Athens on the south and Mace- dor1ia on the north were three buffer states. As the Macedonian army nov ed sputhward, these states organized their army and went forth in defense of their homes and their firesides But Demosthenes insisted that these buff CT states were not only fighting their own battles .but the battles of Athens. If they fall. if their armies are de- feated. then Athens, singlehanded. must meet the entire force of the vic- torious host But Athens delayed. The greatest man of his time, Demos themes, and among the noblest ora- tions ever propounded, were of no avail. When he crossed the frontier Philip made himself. terrible. The flames of the burning towns at mid- night lighted up the land as terrible warning. Those who could. fled and henceforth were exiles and wanderers upon the face of the earth.
 The populations that remained in the towns were annihilated to the last child Thirty-two towns that had flourished as commercial communities vanished from the face of the earth. The whole State of Chalcidece. an swering to our modern Belgium. be- came a desert although the mines were still worked lTeErorized into sub mission, the Greeks threw down their arms. and opened the gates of their cities to Philips soldiers, who brought with them women and children in fet- ters that the spirit of Athens might be utterly broken
 Now tell me, is there any parallel in history, quite so striking. as that between the organized militarisn of Germany. now attempting the ruin of Belgium, France and England.
 Listen to Professor von. StengeI, the German authority on International law. There will be no conference at The Hague when this wal is over. The one condition of prosperous existence for the natives is submission to our (Gerfnany's) supreme direction. Up- der our overlordshir all international law would become superfluous, for we of ourselves, and instinctively, give to each one his rights,''