Evening star., 1909-02-14
AMERICAN PR0VNC|AlISM
ENGLISH CLERGYMAN TALKS
OF NATIONAL CoNCEIT.
Believes the People of the States
Are Not Liberal and Open Minded
as Those of Europe.
Prom the Literary Digest.

Prom the Literary Digest.
A rather severe and scathing arraign-
ment is brought against our countrymesl
by Herbert w. Horwil in the English
imperialistc National Review. The Rev.
Mr.. Horwill is a Methodist of high at
tainments and much brilliancy as jour
nalist, and he speaks from personal OBJ
servations made here He gives quota
tions from the Congressional Record as
yielding Interesting material for an ac-
count of the natural history Of the spread
eagle He quotes a member OF the ma
tional parliament at Washington as de-
scribing Congress as 1.-The supreme coun-
Gil of the greatest nation of recorded
time" This and other like utterances
are Of 1.-The style Of eloauence which Dick
ems recorded He pays his compliments
in this manner to Senators Bailey and
Thurston.
The rhetorical flights of DR.. George
Cary EsGleston and others are also treat
ed as specimens Of self f-complacent pro-
vincialism' arising from "a colonial ig-
norance of what has been done. and is
being done. outside the United States" To
quote his words:
Too Much Uniformity.
This ignorance is fostered by those
surroundings which are mistakenly sup
supposition that to be born in large
country is in itself liberal education is
curious fallacy 1t is not uniformity,
but variety, that quickens intellectual ac-
tivity. In this respect the advantage is
not with the American. but with the Eu-
ropean. The fact that the United States
measures nearly three thousand miles
from east to west. with an ocean on either
side. does not magically expand the mind
of the individual American; 1t simply
makes 1t necessary for him to travel far
ther to escape the conditions with which
he has been familiar all his days.
In most European countries. on
the other hand. the comparative nearness
of the national boundaries to man e
birthplace makes it the easier for him to
pass over them. If you live in Birming-
ham. for example. you can put yourself
fore the resident in Kansas City has
crossed the Ohio
Isolation Of the States.
This geographical isolation. with its
narrowing effect, according to this rev.
erend journalist is made more direful
still from it's complication with political
isolation. which, we are told. has long
kept 'the average American ignorant
and even indifferent about what has
been going on in the outside world. .
Hence we read:
The necessity of making acquaint ance
with what is happening elsewhere in the
world has been minimized for Americans,
until lately. by the political isolation OF
the United States. That country has been
spared not only the ENHANCEMENT OF
foreign alliances, but also the educating
influence of direct contact with foreign
problems. Its freedom from European
complications, however helpful on the
whole to the development Of its internal
resources. has certainly tended to circum-
scribe the ideas OF Its people Further
in the old world, even II we are not
able to go abroad, a constant appeal Is
made to the imagination by visible me-
MORALS of past centuries. We can travel
in time. If not in space. We have before
our eyes persistent reminders that the
civilization of the twentieth century is
not the sudden creation Of our own con-
temporaries, or of a generation immedi-
ateiy preceding. but has been slowly built
up by the genius and toll Of our fore
fathers