South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-08-26
WAR SPIRIT DEAD
CLAIMS WRITER
All Americans Are PaCifiStS,
Says London Author-Con-
fliCt Not Wanted.

LONDON. Aug. 26.-Writing in the
Daily Mail. sydney Brooks, who has
lived n great deal in the United states.
says that a friend returning from
America tells him the most popular
song there now is Il did't raise my
boy to be "A soldier" Mr.. Brooks
quotes the song and continues:
Behind the sentiments expressed in
this ditty there is rallied. in my judg-
ment, a force OF American opinion
such as has never yet in any country
Deen devoted TO the cause Of peace
peace at any price. peace regardless
OF justice and national dignity and
rights.
1 do not. Of course. mean to imply
that this instructive adherence OF
war, OF any wal and all wars, Of war
in itself and apart from all questions
or right and wrong, is as yet the DOM
inant feeling Of the country.
All Americans are %pacifsts just
now, but the minority that sets the
preservation OF peace above any
other consideration whatsoever, while
a larger minority than has even been
known in any other land. is still a
minority. Most Americans will 90 far
and even very far to avoid war. But
they will not go any lengths.
Were Ready for War.
When L first went to the United
States. all but 20 years ago, found
hat for the dropping OF a hat would
have gone TO war with Great Britain
over a few hundred square miles on
the borders Of Venezuela.
j found a country eminently high
spirited. rather given TO making in
ternational mountains out of mole
hills. not without a decided strain Of
b~ellicOsity in its composition, apt to
detect enemies and crises where
nnna awfGfnH nH~aFf nc e nh1urDa IN
Cuba, to cut with the sword a tanEle
that could not otherwise be unravel-
led. n not in the least afraid TO
meet and tackle the responsibilities
OF expansion.
That America is certainly not dead.
But may not even be slumbering.
But very obviously IL is not the Amer
lea which is now in the ascendant. It
is not the America which finds itself
today represented in the White House
or in congress or in the foreign policy
or the preDOnderant popular opinion
of the country.
The United States at this moment
is more pacifst than ever before in
its history. Nor is its pacifsm mere
~ the reaction from the horrors and
waste Of the European war. 1t is a
movement Of thought and sentiment
that within the last four or five
Years has made a sudden and an ex-
tra%Ordinary advance. a phenomenon
so striking in It's contrast TO The
present state of the old world and so
novel in American experience is worth
illustrating and worth, if possible, ex-
planning.
Right to Intervene.
For the past four years Mexico has
been ground by civil war into an
archy. The United States is MexicO's
immediate neighbour. II possesses
three rights which hitherto have
been held to justify the Intervention
of one country in the internal affairs
OF anOther-the right to protect its
own citizens. the right TO suppress
contagious chaos, and the right of a
strong people to rescue a weak one
from being crushed by murderous
factions into bankruptcy and starva-
ton. In addition there is imposed
upon the United States government by
The recognized and peculiar obliga-
tons Of the Monroe doctrine the duty
OF safeguarding the lives and prop
erty of foreigners.
These rights the United States has
deliberately RETAINED from exercis-
ing. This duty with equal delibera-
1ion il has failed to discharge. And
there cannot be much doubt that the
passivity Of the government has had
The support OF the great majority of
the American people.
They shrink from going into Mex