Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-12-04
One of the Panic Stricken.

pean war, and that the United States
may have trouble with the winner
were predictions made by George B.
| Mcclellan, former mayor of New
York and now professor of economic
history in Princeton University. In an
address Tuesday night, at Princeton.
He said:
mo matter who wins. 1t Is almost
certain that at some not far distant
date we shall be confronted with the
alternative of either abandoning the
Monroe Doctrine or fighting to main
tain it. If we fight for it in our
| present unprepared condition, there
can be but one outcome. A tri-
| umphant and victorious Germany
| would have little to fear from us and
while we might possibly in the end DE
able to check Japan by herself We
could scarcely hope to do so If she re-
! ceived help"
Some men seem to have contract
ed malady for displaying their mar
row perspective. Prof. Mcclellan, OF
course. has a right to his individual
opinion but to pretend to be able 10
read the future for his young men,
seems to us to be presuming upon his
prerogative. No human agency can
| forecast the result of this war. And
no man is justified in declaring that
the world shall not gain some degree
of moral betterment out of this most
brutal of all civilized" demonstra-
tons If, when this conflict is end
ed, the world has not seen the folly
and the wickedness, the utter degra-
same old way of daring the other
fellow and preparing to give him as
bad as he sends, then there will be no
getting together for a common ra-
tional method of adjusting differences;
nc throwing off from the backs of the
worlds people the burden of mill
tarism-the international chip on the
shoulder program.
But our scholarly Princeton friend
will agree that, even should the
war end today, none of the powers
engaged would be in appetite or trim
and friendly nation engaged in propa-
eating peace. If the war should en1
today, the only nation on earth In
any measure prepared to assume the
aggressive against America would be
Japan-and Prof. Mcclellan probably
we'll understands that Japan, were
she not friendly toward US. can see
no probable chance of securing as
much as the cost, even in case of final
triumph over us. The relative
strength of America is increasing by
leaps and bounds. as the powers en-
gagged in the present conflict exhaust
their resources. and their peoples come
to realization of the depths to
which they have been betrayed by
national greed and war lords.
Today is the day for America to sit
UP straight and square and judicially
take notice" She should get a les
son from the Old Worlds animalism
that Prof. Mcclellan does not suggest
in his Interpretation of events.
America should refuse to fever up
under the war epidemic; she should
sit tight and observe and heed; she
should sit a cosmopolitan judge of
world events.
Why. today, are so many normally
practical men suddenly panic strick-
en-? Does not Prof Mcclellan know
that the subject nearest the heart Of
every European government. after the
war, is to justify itself in the eyes Of
America? Does he believe that
America should preach peace and, at
the same time, say by her actions:
When you get through with each 9TH
er we are ready for you; come on"
1t would seem, in solemn considera-
ton of the prospects. that when the
war is over" America will be in as
desirable position to prepare for war
as will any of the exhausted powers.
On Thursday the Boston Herald, ed
itorially calling attention to an arti-
Gle by DR.. Scudder. said-and we ap-
prove its common sense:
Two peoples facing the pacific ocean,
who have every reason to be lasting
friends, are becoming more estranged
every year. We do not want European
conditions to prevail in the Pacific
world. We are not ready for foreign
war, that if once joined would be the
oioodlest our country ever knew, and
all for nothing but a mere prejudice.
Yet all this is possible, and IL our rela-
tons with Japan are suffered to grow
worse, 1t is inevitable. In this era of
increasing human solidarity, neighbor
nations that refuse to trust one an
other must eventually fight. No bet
ter time to bring this truth home to
the American people will ever be found
than now, when the horror and crime
and insensate folly of war are being
ground into the consciousness of the
entire human race