Evening star., 1896-01-25
CONAN DOYLE ON AMERICA.
4 Man Who Has Perceived the Causes
for Our Antfpathy.

4 Man Who Has Perceived the Causes
for Our Antipathy.
From the London Times.
y To the Editor of the Times-Sir: An Eng
lishman who travels in the United States
&C mes back, according to my experience,
with two impressions. which are so strong
that they overshadow all others. One is of
the excessive kindness which is shown to
individual Englishmen. 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 ebullition is
only one of those recurrent crises which
have marked the whole history of the two
nations. The feeling is always shoulder
icg, and the least breath of discussion sets
it in a blaze. 1 believe. and have long be-
lieyed, that the greatest danger which can
threaten our empire is the existence of this
spirit of hostility in a nation which is al
ready great and powerful, 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 weF' as our gravest dangers
they must turn the other way.
| AS to the cause of this feeling, 1t is not
so ur.reasofiable as Englishmen usually
| contend 1t is the fashion among US to ap-
| portion the blame between the 1rish-Amer-
| ican and the politician who is IN search OF
I his vote. But no such superficial eXplana-
-tion as this can cover the fact that the
governors Of thirty American states should
| unhesitatingly indorse presidential mes
| sage which obviously leads straight to war.
| A dislike SO widely spread and so fierce in
| its expression cannot be explained by the
| important 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 second. This war of 1872
| II Un111d rnccihlv
| of 500 in an English history, but it bulks
very large in an American one, and has
| left many bitter memories behind 1t. Then
| there was the surly attitude which Eng
/ land adopted toward the states after they
had won their independence, the repeated
| frictions during the Napoleonic epoch, and
| the attack upon an American frigate by a
British fifty-gun ship in time of peace.
After the war there was the Florida dis
| pute 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,
that of the Alabama claims and that of
| the Bering sea fisheries, eliminating in
this of Venezuela. The history of his
country, then, as it presents itself to an
American, is simply long succession of
Guarrels with ourselves, 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 historic
al incidents, We are even more to blame as
| individuals for the widespread bitterness
which is felt against US. We have never
had a warm, ungrudging word of heartfelt
praise for the great things which our kins-
men have done, for their unwearying in
oustry, their virtues in peace, their logged
ness 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 Our
shocked contemplation of an expectoration
upon the floor we have lost sight of uni
versal suffrage and equal education. Our
travellers, from Mrs. Trollope and Dickens
onward, have been surprised that the YER
satile hardworking men, who often com.
biEed ten trades in one to adapt themselves
to the varying needs of a raw-growine
community, had not the manners of Ok.
ford or the repose of Sussex. They could
not understand that this rough vitality and
through their task implied those compile.
mentary defects which must go with un-
usual virtues OF all English travellers to
the states, there was hardly one who did
not make mischief with his "reminiscences
Until, in our own days, Mr.. Bryce did some.
thing to rectffy the balance. And our want
of charity and true insight is the more
inexcusable since no one has written more
| charmingly Of England than Washington
Irving, Emerson and Holmes. Our journals
/ and public men are In the habit now, as
rule, of alluding to America and Americans
in the most friendly way, and that must ir
time have its effect if recent unhappy
events do not change it. We should, in my
opinion, lose no opportunity Of doing thos'
little graceful acts of kindness which ar,
the practical sign of brotherly sentiment
Above all 1 should like to see an Anglo
American Society started in London, will
branches all over the empire, for the pur
pose Of promoting good feeling, smoothing
over friction, laying literature before th'
| public which will show them how stront
are the arguments in favor of an Anglo
American alliance, and supplying the Eng
lish press with the American side of tn
question, and vice versa. Such an organi
. zation would, am sure, be easily founded
! and would do useful work toward tina