Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1914-11-17
AMERICAN sYMPATHIEs I'M THE WAR
One Of The Day, Best Cartoons.

Much talk is heard about American
sympathy in The European war. but
thus far II has had no basis EXCEPT
henrHay or very limited personal OBJ
Servation. DO majority of the
American press or the American pco-
pie favor the Germans or the allles ?
To approach an answer to this aucs-
| tion, says the Literary Digest, we have
obtained statements from between $50
and 400 editors, telling their own Mt
titudes and the feelings OF their com
fnunities toward the warning nations
We need hardly sny that we give the
result of this inGuir" entirely without
pnrtisanahip, and purely for our read i.
crs Information.
The replies cover tho country from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from
Mexico to the Canadian border They
cannot very we'll be woven into a
connected narrative. but the reader
who scans tho summary presented
mere will end tho country divided into
large 3rons, where thc--fceling Is pre-
pondorately for one side or the other.
or IL so mixed as to he neutral. Yet
the sympathy OH either side liz that OF
the distant observer.
No belligercncy is evident any
where Reports Of pro-German ZEN
timent follow pretty closely tho geo
\
American population. but 1T the same
time n number Of editors report 4
more favorable feeling toward Ger
many now than ut the start OF the
war. so both sides can cxnct some
comfort from the findings.
We hear frequently from section.
OF the Middle West. in which ~.
der'nans propondcrntc, that this IL
German comrlunity--wc nre foc ~"
Germans" Or il Is rclnted of other
districts that the "cxtreme partisan
shin Of the COMMUNICATING has
( awakened q good deal OF active sym
pnthy for the allies.
But no matter In what territory we
come upon downright supporters of
the allies. We arc nearly always as
stirred by our informants that mot
Germany or the Germans do they
ana thsN? readers condemn. but "I'rus-
sian ,nili,urisin." The rcproachcs 10
tho kaiser for having plunged the
German people into war are severe
by pro-ally partisans In some quar-
tcrs. In others II ia noticed not I'M
favorably that the local Germans arc
very loyal TO the Fatherland and the
Kaiser"
Finally. In some middle sized towns
or mixed population we even find a
general tone OF absolute neutrality.
+ rho citizens are said TO have only one
/ IDEA about tho war; and that is 10 sec
II over and done with at the enrliest
possible day. III the larger cities,
such as New York. Chicago and 9TH
ers, the sentiment of the community
lie aptly described as very mixod,'
because Of tho great and various for
eign population.
Looking at the matter In wider
scope. that is. in the government $
geographical divisions OF the country,
we are struck with an old fact dis
| covered anew The marked leaning OF
New England toward the allies may
be the effect OF the lineage of the
majority of the inhabitants, just as
the pro-German tendency of the Con.
/; trail States or of regions In the Far
. Northwest proceeds from the heavy
population OF Germans and German
Americans in this region
In the Southern and Southwestern
states, whose people are principally
| OF English ancestry. sympathy In
clines TO the allies, while the Western
States to the coast seem of tho same
bent, though less markedly. Part ex-
PLANTATION of this condition is found
In the statement Of ono authority that
IN certain sections the Teutonic ole
inent is far in the minority"
Nor must it be overlooked that in