The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1897-12-31
CsTr OFFICIAL PAPER.
snArTLE, SnIDAT, DEC. 81.
nAEGAsxE.s DECLARATION OF WAR.

nAxEAlNE's DECLARATION OF WAR.
The letter written by John 4. Bat
line 20 the London Chronicle would
have lost none Of its interest had he
conf3nsd himself 10 his contrast be-
tween New York and the other cities
= the United States. He no doub,
thought Il incumbent upon him as the
b4arer Of . military title to express
h1noe1k In beliigerent terms. and the
titls Of ..adtutant general Of the Ma
1jonal Guard Of the state Of Washing
1toop y evidently received In London
With much more seriousness than In
The state Of Washington. When. In ae-
dition 10 that title. the author OF the
ssdaa" has had crowded into his veins
The blood of 500 years Of Norman con-
Querers. u Ii enough to make the aver
Are Britisher think twice before he
comes 70 the defense Of Stead.
II John Il. Ballaine had spent about
80 minutes in Great Britain and ac-
CURED his Information OF things from
little experience. instead OF inhaiing IL
through eight centuries of ancestry. be
would know that w. r. Stead no more
ropresents British sentiment than
0ery young Jerseyite. reared In Iowa.
and accidentally injected into a military
uniform. represents public sentiment Ia
the United States.
There In just enough truth In some
Of the comments Baiiaine has made on
Stead to make It an appropriate an
swer to the gross exaggerations CON
tanned In 'satan's Invisible World"
New York city Is necessarily cosmo-
pOjitAn, but the foreign elements in IL
do not control II IN proportion more
than similar elements dominate Lon
don and stamp II with their charac-
teristics. II has been said that there
are more Jews in London than I'm
Palestine ana more freshmen than in
Ireland. This Is exaggeration. but 1t rep
reNents . certain truth. In New York
are hundreds and even thousands of
some nationaiities. but Il Is absurd to
say that they are I'm tho majority IN
Tammany hall. II Is true that aimos,
every freshman II an adherent Of that
organiza ton. but IL Is not true that
none but foreigners are members II
there are any Americans In it, and the
dominating forces are such as Raiialne
describes. the Americans who associate
with them and do their bidding must be-
worse than these products OF poverty
and squalor" the Irish. the italians and
their like.
II n pleasant "a turn from what Bal
laine does not know To that portion "
hi letter In which he makes a fairly
3ust comparison OF New York with
Western cities. There Is no deubt sha,
the greater remoseness from the sea.
hoard and more independent exlstens,e
Of the Western American has resulted
IN building up type which Is far
more distinctive than the New Yorker.
The Yankee OF New England and the
Kntckerboeker of New York have been
swamped under the deluge Of imrui-
grant. from all parts OF the world.
while an original Individuality has
sprung ur from the wider Western all
There IL no doubt that bread prairieS.
great rivers. high mountains. huge
trees. have made broader and orawnier
men. The swarms az those who are
only tiny cegs In the great machine II
q metropolitan city have nor those at
tributes which mark the independent
westerner. who hreathes fro,r air and
moves with his limbs unshackled.
Hut having said this much Cor
the letter. praise must end. Such
letters "a Rallaine's and such books
as Stead's de infinite mischief. There
10 no American 81 responsible years
and mature Judgment who Ter
Britain and the United states may TO,
be long delayed"
Americans who visit England and
EnEiishmen who visit the Unite.
States are received on either side with
the utmost corcia.i,y and respect. Ne.
toriety seekers. like Stead and Rarlasne
who can only attract attention BY say
Ing something rash. are not 30 be taken
as representing either nation. There
IL nothing like the bitterness between
the United States and Great Britain
that there was hatweea the North ara
the South about the time OF the Sleil
MAR. Hatred # England is much more