Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-04-16
CONAN DOYLE ON AMERICA.
From Man Who Has Perceived the
Causes of Our Antipathy.


States comes back, according to my ex-
peTience, with two impressions, which
are so strong that they overshadow all
others. CEe is OF the excessive kind
ness which is shown to individual Eng
lishmen. The other is of the bitter
feeling which appears to exist both in
the press and among The public against
his own country. The present ebulli-
ton is only one of those recurrenJ
crises which have marked The whole
history Of the two nations. The feel
ing is always smouldering and the
least breath of discussion sets it in a
blaze. | believe, and have long be-
lieved, that the greatest danger which
can threaten our empire is the exist
ence Of this spirit of hostility in a ma
ton which is already great and power
ful, but which is destined to be far
| more so in the future. Our statesmen
have STOOD too long with their faces
toward the east. To discern our best
| hopes as we'll as our gravest dangers
they must turn the other way.
AS to the cause of this feeling, it is
usually contend. 1t is the fashion
among us to apportion the blame be-
tween the Irish-American and the poll
tiCian who is in search of his vote
But no such superficial explanation as
this can cover the fact that the COVER
nors of thirty American states should
unhesitatinSly indorse a presidential
! message which obviously leads straight
to war. A dislike so widely spread and
! so fierce in it's expression cannot be ex-
! planned by the imported animosity OF
the Celtic Irishman.
| Few Englishmen could be found now
to contend that we were justified in
! those views of taxation which brought
! on the first American war, or in the
! question of searching neutral vessels,
which was the main cause of the sec
! ond. This war of 1872 would possibly
only occupy two pages ont of 500 in an
English history, hut it bulks very large
! in an American one, and has left many
bitter memories behind it. Then there
was the surly attitude which England
adopted toward the states after they
had won their independence. the re-
peated frictiOns during the Napoleonic
epoch, and the attack upon an Amerl-
can frigate by a British fifty-gun ship
in time of peace. After the war there
was the Florida dispute in the time OF
Andrew Jackson, the question of the
| Oregon line, the settlement of the
Maine and New Brunswick line. and,
! finally, the hostile attitude of most of
our press at the time of the civil war.
Since then we have had two burning
| questions of the Alabama claims
and that of the Behring sea fisheries,
eliminating in this of Venezuela. The
history of his country, then, AS it pre-
sents itself to an American, is simply
long succession of quarrels with our
| selves, and how can it be wondered at
! if he has now reached that chronic
state of senSitiveness and suspicion
which We have not outgrown ourselves
in the case of the French?
! If we are to blame as a community
! for some at least of these unfortunate
! historical incidents, we are even more
to blame as individuals for the wide
spread bitterness which is felt against
US. We have never had a warm, I'M
! grudging word of heartfelt praise for
J the great things which our kinsmen
have done, for their unwearying indus
! try, their virtues in peace, their dog
| gedness in war, their unparalleled
clemency when war was over. We have
always fastened upon the small, rude
details and overlooked the great facts
| behind. In cur shocked contemplation
of an expectoration upon the floor we
have lost sight OF universal suffrage
and equal education. Our travellers,
from Mrs. Trollope and Dickens on
ward, have been surprised that the YER
satile hard-working men, who often
combined ten trades in one to adapt
! themselves to the varying needs of a
raw growing community, had not the
manners of Oxford or the repOse of
! Sussex. They could not understand
that this rough vitality and overbear-
! ing energy which carried them through
! their task implied those compliment
! tary defects which must go with unus-
ual virtues. Of all English travellers
! to the states there was hardly one who
| did not make mischief with his remin-
! iscences until, il our own days. Mr..
Bryce did something to rectify the bal
! ance. And ourswant of charity and
! true insight are the more ineXcusable
| since no one has written more charm
/ ingly of England than Washington Irv-
J ing Emerson and Holmes. Our jour
! mails and public men are in the habit
/ now, as rule, of abiding to America
and Americans in the most friendly
way, and that must in time have it's eff
| feet, if recent unhappy events do not
! change it. We should in my opinion,
i lose no opportunity of doing those lit
/ tie graceful acts of kindness which are
the practical sign of brotherly sent1-
ment. Above all, | should like to see
/ an Anglo-American society started IN
+ London, with branches all over the en-
/ pire, for the purpose of promoting good
! feeling, smoothing over friction, laying
! literature before the public which will
ments in favor OF an Anglo-American
/ alliance, and supplying the English
! press with the American side of the
! question and vice versa. Such an Or
, ganization would, I am sure, be easily
founded, and would do useful work to-
! ward that greatest of all ends, the con-
I solidatiOn of the English-speaking
! races.-A. Conan Doyle.-London
Times.