Putnam patriot., 1918-05-03
WHO Is GOING TO
WIN THIS WAR ?
Editor j. c. DeWolf of The
Worcester Gazette Talks
Straight From Shoulder to
Putnam Audience.
Out and Out Facts He Presents Show
That This Country Won't Win I'm
less Every Man Does His Duty.

Healthy Pessimism" is the phrase
that most adequately and truthfully
describes the content of the address
given at the Congregational church
last Sunday evening by Mr.. J c. De
Wolf, managing editor of the v or
cester Evening Gazette Prooiaiming
that over confidence and lack of real
ization of the tremendous size Of the
task before US are Americas greatest
blunders, the speaker ia d challenging
and ultrazforceful style, put the uiti-
mate success of the conflict RIGHT up
on the shoulders Of the people not on
ly the people Of the state Of Connee-
ticut, but the people Of Putnam If
You people don't make up your mind
that We are going to win this war
Germany WILL win this war Coal
can't win the war; Hoover says food
will win the war, but it won't; Nc
Adoo says transportation will win the
war, but that is not so. There is only
one thing that can win this war, and
that is the American people. And
that means Y0U-you people right
here And when each of you realize
this, we will win the war. What are
you doing? You are suffering no
l. l-I. 70 Oh,
fortably on Sunday morning. You
are not going hungry. Right now at
this time it is night over in France,
and right now on the Western front
Putnam and Worcester boys are fight
ing They are making sacrifice.
Soldiers are often hungry Is anyone
in Putnam hungry? What ever you
are called upon to do, you must do.
Subscribe to all that is asked of you
and then little more. If you are
asked to eat less wheat and more po-
tatoes if you are asked to give to the
Red Cross or Y NJ. C. A, you've got
to do it if we are to win the war It's
Germany will win.
But America will win. Because
someday, somehow, sometime you
people of Putnam will get aroused.
md when you get aroused there is no
doubt as to who will win the war. And
one way of showing that you are
aroused is to go out tomorrow morn
ing and buy Liberty Bonds. >
There is no question about it, those
present at the church held their
breath In these days when everyone
is confident that the United States is
to win an early and decisive victory,
the message from the Worcester
speaker was calculated to take the
wind from many sail The effect of
his address was amazing. Every per
son in the church auditorium was
startled into realism that the war is
by no means won as yet, and that
many sacrifices VIII have to be made
before a successful peace is brought
about.
Mr.. DeWolf began by outlining
some of the blunders that this eoun-
try has made in its carrying on of the
war He spoke of the i'll success of
the Liberty motor, which has since
been rectified. He touched on the
slowness in the development of our
L q
Our biggest blunder is our optim-
ism"
This over optimism Mr. DeWolf
characterized as largely due to Ger
man propaganda He stated that
while we hear much of serious food
riots in Germany, that in reality
there have been none. The Austrian
strikes likewise were not so important
as they were declared to be- All talk
of this nature, the speaker stated, is
sent out with the expressed purpose
of deceiving u.s. "And it has sue
ceeded," concluded Mr. DeWolf.
Germany is ready for any emer-
StHCy, lie GOuliHutu. II SHE IdllS
in the present drive on the West
front she knows exactly what she will
do Our serious mistake is that we
didn't realize year ago on entering
the war, the size of the task before
us We thought of our resources, our
coal, iron, wheat, copper. But we
are not to boast of these We are not
sepsonsible for them. God gave US
those resources. Any nation could
do with them what we have done
with them"
The speaker then touched on Ger
many's war program, which he said
was begun in Bismarck's time Ger
many under Bismarck defeated Aus
tria in seven weeks Four years later
she attacked France. Mr. DeWolf
here related an anecdote tending to
show the marvellous state of Ger
many's preparedness. Bismarck was
interrupted in the middle of his sleep