The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-05-08

 houses and the great farms of Amer ica were essential to American sue
 cess in this war When our army went abroad, it was supported by the i financial power and the industry of | America, by the labor in the factory | and the labor upon the farm. When
 the real test came, no country was
 ever better prepared for it than
 America America was strong be
 cause it had adequately prepared for
 any test of it's strength. It had pre-
 pared by it's new system of taxation,
 by means of which. the government l was able to draw from the incomes 1 of the peoples much of the support | needed to supply the army and navy. 1 America had prepared by its reform l of finance by which the Federal Re | serve system was esta blished, and l America had ready at hand the means l of financing our kgreat undertaking ! and the ability to supply the needs l of our Allies. America had prepared by means of the new consideration which had been extended to labor which kept labor steadfast through i out the conflict America had pre- i pared by the new support which measures like the Farm Loan system and the Smith-Lever Law had giv- en to the farmers of America. Let any candid man reflect upon
 what the condition would have been if 1 our country had been unable to re- 1 sort to the Income tax. What would ] the condition of our country have | been if labor had been discontented
 and unwilling to follow the leader ship of our President? What would
 the condition have been if no prep
 aration had been made to encourage the farmer in supplying the need of the world for food? And what would the condition have been if our finances had remained in the state ir which the Republican party left them? All these measures were essential to Americas success and they were the very basis upon which that success was founded. And yet all these re- forms have been enacted since Pres ident Wilson first became President iof the United States. Having laid this splendid basis, it was not impos- lsible to speed up the process of lchanging from a peace basis to a war basis, and this fundamental reason accounts for the extraordinary achievements of America in this war
 which have been the admiration of the entire world.
 Only progressive and far-seeing leadership could have brought Amer
 ica to her presetn place of honor and ica to her present place of honor and have stood in the way of all these
 measures of progress are the ones who are now criticis1ng the conduct of the war and the activities of the
 American President. Let me give you a hOmely illustration. If you em- ployed a lawyer, and he gave you such bad advice that you were unsuc- cessfuI in an important piece of liti- r l R9fiNT he +N change counsel. If a member of your !, family were seriously i'll and the phy- sician summoned had subjected the ' loved one to some malpractice which | resulted in serious complications, you
 would not be likely to employ that physician again. If you went to your broker and sought his advice about . some financial investment, and as a , result of that advice, you lost the f greater part of your fortune, you ! would not go to that broker again. . And if all these men, all these false
 advisers should come to you again
 voluntarily to warn you against a
 certain course that you were about
 to take, you would repel the bad ad- = visers- and take the advice of those z whose advice had proven to be sound.
 The gentlemen who are now lead ing the Republican party, 'criticising
 the President of the United States and : warning the people against the poli- cies of Wilson and the League of Ma . tions, are the bad advisers of old. the $ discredited leaders, the men whose l counsel led to trouble, and whose ad- e vice had to be discarded before . America could make progress Is a this too general an assertion Let me l be a little more particular. Was i
 not Senator Lodge who proclaimed il Il the Senate that the Federal Reserve n System was foredoomed to failure u Was it not Senator Root who saiC I that the Federal Reserve System | | would ruin the financial structure O. America? Was it not Senator Pen rose who took the same position e And did not all these gentlemen op $ pose the passage of the Shipping Bil
 which was urged by Secretary Me = Adoo two years before war began 2 And was it not this same coterfe o T leaders who prevented the passage O s the Shipping Bill and delayed Ameri $ ca'S preparedness for two years IL Was it not this same group of leader! II who are responsible for the opposi :" ton to the Income Tax, the Earn - Loan System and the Agricultura $ and Labor bills? These are the samt S bad advisers, who, hopeful tha " America has forgotten their bad ad Il vice, are now rendering their sugges tions as to the future. So vindictiv, z, have become their attacks upon the Il President, so outrageous have becom, Y their assaults, that one would i'm agine, listening to their insensat H chatter, that President Wilson was al
 arch criminal being brought befor. IL the bar of world justice. And ye " what has he done except to lead %h
 country successfully through tn ,s greatest war of all time ahd followiny
 that, has devoted his great talents t. 4 creating a structure of world peac = which shall make the recurrence O
 war unlikely, if not impossible. Tn
 President has endeavored to rea1iz 7, for humanity the dearest dream tha has come to the mind of man since
 the dawn of civilization.
 - Tt is the hope of all thinking mel L. and women everywhere, that thi q great attempt at world peace will re = suit in increased happiness and SC If curity for all of us who are now liv inc