The sun., 1902-11-08
NEW ROOKS.
An American critic OF Ills Countr,men

A large number Of letters published or
rejected 10y Paris and New York newspa-
pers have been collected in a volume en-
titled Political Mays by An Inter-
nationalist paris. Charles EiteD The
author il ona Of those self-expatriated
Americans who profess TO survey events
from cosmopolitan and an impartial
viewpoint. but whose dominating motive
seems to be dislike of their native coun-
try. 1t is hard for stay-at home Ameri-
cans to understand how such "A mental atti-
tude can become babitual Not. of course,
that there Is anything surprising IN the
disapproval OF any given American states
man or OF any particular political measure.
Seldom in the United States has law been
proposed, or man been nominated for high
Office without provoking protest and oppo-
sition. When, for instance, the author OF
this book condemns the eNiiiug Of VAL
landigham during our Civil War as uncon-
stitutional, he does but express an opinion
which was held at the time with an approach
TO unanimity by Democrats throughout the
Northern States. So, too, when our author
denounces our acquisition of the Philippines
and our suppre ession of the Tagal inSurrrc-
ton, he does but give utteranCe to views
repeatedly propounded on this side Of the
Atlantic by Mr.. Charles Eliot Norton. eX-
Gov. Boutwell, and other Anti-lmpeAal-
lists. What scgre gates the ~elf-expatri-
ated American from the stay at-home
critic of our institutions L. that the former
can find absolutely nothing 10 approve of
In the United States, unless 1t bc the news
paper that consents to publish his lucubra-
tions His eve roves from Maine 10 Florida
and finds all barren. lie can see as little
TO admire in Mr. Roosevelt a. in Mr.. Croker.
In his eyes MIR John ID. Rockefeller and Mr..
Andrew Carnegie are classified with no.
torious rogues.
There is no graduation, no discrimina-
ton in his reprobation of things Ameri-
can. He looks at his native country
through glasses that distort and backen
everything 1t Is a pity that this should he
so: both the author himself and his fellow
countrymen have reason 10 regret his
morbid state OF mind Nobody can read his
book without recognizing that the writer
il a highly educated and highly intelligent
man, and, moreover man capable of
broad and generous sympathics witness
his Jealous advocacy of a retrial for Dreyfus
at time and place where it took courage
to defend the victim Of Devils Island. Wit
ness, also. his fervent sympathy for the
Beers throughout their struggle against
overw he Inning odds. Such a man might
render a service to bis native land il his
observations and suggestions, made from
a standpoint in some ways advantageous,
that Of distant oulooker, we're prompted
by love, instead of by hatred Of his native
country. Hatred is poor medium through
which TO project shafts Of insight and Of
id Than apaiD fhn bnr himSplf
SO long as he can see nothing III the United
States that is not despicable. must be des-
perately unhappy.
1t is sad thing to hail from country
that one is ashamed Of How can an Ameri-
can living in Paris expect to be respected
by Frenchmen if he not only Processes but
proclams that his country is totally un-
worthy of respect. renegade is dis
trusted even 10y those among whom he has
sought refuge, and it is a matter of common
experience that the consciousness Of such
slistrust makes renegade exceptionally
bitter against the nation or religion from
which he Is a fugitive. When a man can
find il in his heart TO utter no kindly or
appreciative word about his native land
he is inevitably eyed with suspicion on
the foreign soil which he has chosen for
stituted that it can hardly conceive of
deliberate desire to become "a man with
on. a country and instinctively impute
some unavowable motive for the act of
self-expat ration. We know, as a natter
OF fact, that such imputations would be
entirely unwarranted in the case of the
author Of the book before us: he can hardly
hope TO escape them. however, on the part
~ strangers so long az he assumes the role
Of indsc. inmate reviler Of his countrymeu.
Hatred springs from two causes only: men
hate those whom they have injured, and
those from whom they think they have
suffered injury. To which Of those classes
does An Internationalist" belong? lie
will scarcely assert that he has suffered
wrong at the hands of the American COM
munity Must he not admit, them that his
attitude of inplacable hostility is due TO an
uneasy consciousness that, at certain con-
junctures in the past--during the Spanish
war, for instance-he may have done his
best to lower and iniure his countrymen in
the eyes of Europeans2 This is, OF course,
mere hypothesis: we are simply trying to
account for an hostility that otherwise
would be inexplicabe on the part OF a
native American. Luckily, II Is never too
late 10 mend. and nobody can read "Politi-
cal X-Rays' without wishing that man
Of brains and knowledge like tho author
may eventually awaken to the fact that a
sympathetic commentary on persons and
things American would be likely to prove
not only more veracious and useful, but
also more acceptable TO European readers
than a commentary prompted by mys-
terious antipathy. NJ. W. ii.