The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-05-15

shock troops, composed of the cream of American manhood, storm the Spanish blockhouseS on top of San Juan Hill; to the greying vets of those wars 1t seems only yesterday, and yet 1t is thirty-five years ago since the echoes of Dewy's guns died away at Manila.
 We call those big steps of the cen- turtles, ages, periods and other names, but only @ few of thogc steps link us with the burning of witches at the stake in Salem to the burnings in the chair at Sing Sing of boys just out of their teens.
 One of the great evils of our times is the lack of great leaders in all walks of life. Great men who pass on are hard to replace, Shakes peare's shoes have never been filled, and 50 Lincoln, Washington and others of their stamp. Whatever the truths of reincarnation. 1t is one of It's facts that great men do not reincarnate. But the world some- how gets along without them, that Is worries along.
 TO0 Lazy to Think!
 These truths appeal to thinkers who try to gauge the future by the past, but the masses arc too lazy to think. They leave the radio and the newspapers to do their think ing. This is Q rubber stamp age. This explains the successes of men like Mussolini and Hitler. The first who moulds his ideas into bombing planes, poisoned gas, cxplo- siVcs and forms an empire; the other who hypnotizes a nation into hairing him as another Caesar, ono who will no doubt live to see the world bathed in the blood of another world war, and go down into his- tory as an exile, from the country he had ruled as a dictator.
 So the world muddles on with it's wars, poverty, prisons, capital pun- ishments and murders; and poster fly carries on the policies of ono generation to another. Each trying to solve the social problems of its predecessor, struggling towards a Utopia and through 1t all Time marches on with It's seven league boots.
 The masses are too lazy to think, so we have wars, 50 capital pun ishment.
 A Picture of War
 William March tells this story in Fifteen From Co. K": Johnny Citron was with me that day when we took the machine gun nest in Veuilly Wood. We found the crew all killed except one heavy-set, bearded man, and he was badly wounded. Just as VIC came up, the bearded man reached inside his tunic and fumbled for something, so I emptied my pistol into him. His arm came away from his coat with q jerking, irregular motion and his palm rested against his lips. The blood in his throat began to stranglc him, and he made gurgling, sigh ing sound. His eyes rolled back and his jaw fell open.
 q went over and opened his palm to sec what he had in 1t. It was the of Q little German girl. She was round faced and frcckled and her hair was curled, for the over her shoulders. That must have been his daughter said young Johnny Gibson. That night couldn't sleep for thinking of that German soldier. ."
 Reason For These Articles
 The battle against capital punish. ment has been Waged for more than D hundred years by humanitarians, who believe m the mandate from the mount "Thou Shalt Not Killp Even today 1t seems like hopeless task to cry out against It's brutality md legality. Tn time 1t will be abol- shed by e more merciful generation which will be responsive to the ap- peal. Meantime few will carry on the fight against 1t. In Lowells words:
 Men whose beast 1t is that yc Come of fathers brave and free, Ie there breathes on earth a slave, Are ye truly free and brave? If ye do not feel the chain When 1t works . brothers pain, Are ye not base slaves indeed, Slaves unworthy to be freed? Is true freedom but to break Fetters for our own dear sake And with leathern hearts forget That VIC owe mankind debt? No, True freedom Is to share All the chains our brothers wear, And, with heart and hand. to be Earnest to make others freel There arc slaves who fear tO speak For Che fallen and the weak; There are slaves who will not
 choose
 Hatred, scofRlng and abuse; Rather than ln silence shrink From lhe truths they needs must
 think,
 There are slaves who dare net Dc In the right with tive or three.
 
 Among the coiTlns in the vaults of churchyard Ih Dublin. IrlGh Free State, stolen property valued at s200 vas found. and six boys were haFged with using the place as