Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1914-11-19
Editorial Page of The Daily Capital Journal
AMERICAN PRESS AND THE WAR.

The Literary Digest has taken the trouble to determine
and classify nearly possible the sentiment OF the
American press regarding the European 1t has IN
terrogated editors and scanned the editorial columns OF
the daily papers until its conclusions founded on a
most thorough survey of the field Its summary which
follows, is therefore worthy Of reproduction
Much talk is heard about American sympathy in the
European war; but thus far it has had no basis except
hearsay very limited personal observation Do ma
jorty of the American press the American people ia
vor the Germans or the allies? TO approach to-
this question have obtained statements from between
$50 and 400 editors telling their own attitudes and the
feelings of their communities toward the warning nations
We need hardly say that give the result Of this inquiry
entirely without parsanShp, and purely for readers
information The replies the country from the At
antc to the Pacific and from Mexico to the Canadian
border They cannot very well be woven into connected
narrative but the reader who the summary pre-
sented here will find the country divided into large
where the feeling is preponderatey for side the
other or is so mixed as to be neutral Yet the sympathy
either side is that of the distant observer No belg
erency evident anywhere Reports Of o-German SEN
tment follow pretty closely the geographical distribution
Of our GermanAmercan population, but at the time
number OF editors report more favorable feeling to-
ward Germany than at the start of the war both
sides exact some comfort from the findings We hear
frequently from sections of the Middle West in which the
Germans preponderate, that this is German commun-
tywe for the Germans" Or it is related of other
districts that the extreme parsanshp" of the German
Americans has awakened good deal OF active sympathy
for the allies But matter in what territory we come
upon downright supporters of the allies we are nearly al
ways assured by our nfomants that mot Germany or
the Germans" do they and their readers condemn but
Pussan militarism The reproaches to the kaiser for
having plunged the German people into are severe by
proay parsans in quarters In others it is noticed
not unfayorably that the local Germans are very loyal
to the fatherland and the kaiser" Finally in some mid
de-sized towns of mixed population we even find gen.
era tone of absolute neutrality The citizens are said to
have only idea about the war; and that is to
and done with at the easiest possible day. In the larger
cities, such New York. Chicago and Others the sent
ment of the community is apty described very mix
because of the great and various foreign population
Looking at the matter in wider scope that is in the gov
enments geographical divisions of the country we are
struck with old fact discovered anew The marked
leaning of New England toward the allies may be the ef
feet of the lineage of the majority Of the inhabitants just
as the German tendency of the Central States or of
regions in the far Northwest proceeds from the heavy
population of Germans and German-Amercans in this re.
gion. In the Southern and Southwestern States whose
people principally of English ancestry sympathy in.
2nes to the allies while the Western States and the Coast
seem Of the same bent though less markedly Part ex.
panaton of this condition is found in the statement of
authority that in certain sections "he Teutonc ee-
ment is far in the minority Nor must it be overlooked
that in neghborhoods which were "on the fence" so to
speak, at the beginning Of the war; American resentment
against so-caed censored British dispatches works for
German sentiment just the Belgian invasion has nflu-
enced some neutral" minds against Germany.