The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1917-02-07
AMOS P. Wilder
LAUDS PRESIDENT
AS new LINCOLN
Former Consul General to
China Addresses Peoples
Church Audience.
PRAISES FORESIGHT
OF NATIONS HEAD
Diplomat Deplores, How.
ever, American Attitude
Toward Japanese.

| Amos p Wilder, former consul gen.
eral to China from tie United States,
now residing in New Haven, supported
President Wilson's policy of safe and
sane diplomacy, advocated prepared
ness without militarism, condemned
the attitude of America towards ORR
| entails. and compared our present
chief executive to Abraham Lincoln in
a speech which swayed $50 men and
! women in the Peoples church from
laughter to deep though. last night
The occasion of Mr.. Wilder's speech
was a dinner given by the Mems club
! of the church to Mr.. and Mrs. Edwin
O. Jenkins, $50 Howard avenue, who
will soon take up residence in Auburn,
N. Y.
Besides officers Of the club and the
pastor of the church, Miss Margaret
E. Sangster. Jr., associate editor OF
the Christian Herald, New York, and
Ellsworth Grammar, of this city, re-
Gently returned from missionary work
! in China, were the chief speakers.
Mr.. Wilder, whose talk followed in
| the wake of mild discourse upon the
( interesting characteristics Of the Chi
nese people, their standards of educa-
! ton and finances, and the resurrec-
| ton of persons from the slums of
New York, opened his address by
humorous comment upon the New
Haven road and it's service. He told
Of the necessity Of taking an early
afternoon train from New Haven
though regularly scheduled train
| might have brought him to Bridge
port just Is minutes before he was
due to speak, and related the recent
suicide of a Japanesa engineer be-
cause the train he drove was Is min
utcs late, wondering what would be-
come Of the population Of Bridgeport
if all New Haven engineers living in
this city should assume the same atti-
tude of responsibility towards their
passengers.
Diverting with sudden transition
from the humorous vein of discourse
which had provoked great mirth from
the assembly. Mr.. Wilder spoke
gravely upon the momentous question
of the day. He spoke with the calm
of one who is an authority and one
doubly qualified because, as he re-
marked:
1--WE, too, have a son on the ambu
lances in France
After abiding to the efforts made
to stay the present crisis, he said: "I
do NOT know whether President Will
son is merely a fatalist. has been un-
justly criticised for sl1is policy, or
whether he foresaw Clearly the end
from the beginning.
Whatever he is, all peoples what
ever their race, creed or language, are
Ii T. 49,
ton towards GERMANY
That the President has fostered to
the last vestige of patience the hope
that Grmany might change her atti-
tude is seen by Mr.. Wilder in this
expression:
cit is hard to find a man who does
not think that he (the President) has
waited long enough. But with all
profession Of kindness to peoples re-
member we cannot wait too. long to
express our attitude against this last
thing that seems to propose a ruth
less destruction Of life that no self
respecting nation ought to stand for
Drawing the parallel of the bar
room statesmen who talk constantly
but settle nothing, he urged that the
nations leaders be allowed full scope
for diplomacy with silence from the
people and their full support when
emergency calls.
eff there is anything we can do,
it Is to urge ourselves to be calm and
self-controlled," he said, also eau
tioning his hearers to Beware Of the
man who talks too much about the
flag at this time. Let us all walk
behind the flag and not talk too
much about it, for it is noticeable
that it's the man who is constantly
waving the flag before the people
that has an ulterior motive behind
his act.
On the subject of neutrality Mr..
Wilder continued: st think that wa
may practise too much neutrality. We
may have carried it too far, I think,
for there is a stage when neutrality
may be carried so far that our view
Of real neutrality may be I blurred.
That was the danger that is past We
were getting fabby; hay in our
thought-our duty 1t were possibly
better to have taken the present step
earlier.
II maintain that it is always time
for individuals to say Tt is wrong
when that something that is wrong
happens. There is nothing noble in
QulllIg- uOWu Lie SIldQCS Ol youI OWA
home when something serious is hap
pening next door-when a man is
chatting his wife, or something of that
kind.
MEN lost their lives because of such
interference and the acts that ensued,
but monuments to their everlasting
fame have been erected"
OF preparedness the speaker contin-
ued that now is the time to prepare
under such President as Woodrow
Wilson who seemed to be imbued with
the spirit Of Lincoln, ready for war If
it must come but hoping that the
bloodshed might be averted.
II think I can detect something of
the Lincoln spirit in his actions to-
wards Germany. He hopes he will
not have to go to- war. Yet there
seems to me to have been no pre-
cedent in the annals of diplomacy
where after a similar break We did
not have to go to war-and with the
dreadful machinery of the army and
navy in motion, God take care Of us!''
Dealing a strong blow at militarism
the speaker continued:
Frankly I am afraid Of universal
military training. I object to having
this country, with it's peculiar mission
among other nations and protected
as it is by great oceans and while
others are expressing military ideas,
expressing these same military ideas