Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1915-07-08
AN AMERICAN ANSWER.

"First-Our universities do not and
and cannot'sit like yours in high seats,
inspiring public opinion l wish they
did. Second-W are not yet melted
in:o one nationality; we are a mosaic
of languages and bloods; yet, even SO,
never in my life have | seen the Ameri,
can press and people so united on any
question. Third-Our Charity is our
very way-the only way we have-of
telling you we are with you. / am
glad you recognize the necessity of our
political neutrality. Anything else
would have been, both historically and
as an act of folly, unprecedented.
Fourth-Do not forget that George
Washington advised US to mind our
own business. ,"
But they reply: Isn't this your own
business.
And there they touch the core of the
matter. Across the sea the deadliest
assault ever MADE on Democracy has
been going on, month after month.
We send bread and bandages to the
wounded; individually we denounce the
assault. Columbia and Uncle Sam stand
looking on. Is this quite enough?
War being out of the question, was
there nothing else? No protest to
register? Did the wide ocean wholly
lof Col1nohio o,,t9
/ cannot tell what George Washing
ton would have thought; only know
that my answer to my European friends
leaves them unconvinced-and there.
fore how can it quite satisfy me-?
Minds are exalted now, and white. hot.
When they cool, what will our historic
likeness be Al revealed in the lightn-
ings of this cosmic emergency? Will
it be the portrait of q people who solo
its birthright for a mess of pottage?
Viewing how we have given and the
tone of our press, think this would
hardly be just. If it is deemed that
we missed great opportunity in no
protesting as signatories of the violated
Hague conventions, are not our proofs
of the violations more authentic now
then at the time? What we heard was
Incredible to American minds. We had
never madd or known such war. BY
the time the truth was established a
protest might have seemed somewhat
belated.
1t is too early to answer; certain it is
that not as we ourselves but as others
see US. SO shall we forever be. Ger
tain it is also, and eternally, that
through suffering alone men and nations
find their greater selves. 1t is fifty
years since we Americans knew the
Pentecost of Calamity. We have pros
pered, we have been immune, and our
prosperity has proved somewhat a
curse in disguise. We have yet to find
our greater Selves We have also yet
to realize that Europe, since the Span
ish War, has counted US in the concert
of the great nations far more then we
have counted ourselves.
Somebody wrote in the New York
Sun:
We are not English, German, Swede,
Or Austrian, Russian, French or
Pole;
But we have made separate breed
And gained seperate soul.
1t sounds well: it means nothing; its
sum total is zero. America asserts
the brotherhood of man and then talks
about separate soul!
To speak of the Old World and tn
New World is to speak in dead lam
guage. The world is one. All human
ity is in the same boat The passengers
multiply, but the boat remains the
same size. And people who rock the
boat must be stopped by force. America
can no more separate itself from the
destiny of Europe than it can escape
the natural laws of the universe.
Because we declared political indie
tendance, does anyone still harbor the
delusion that we are independent of
the acts and fortunes of monarchs? I'll
so. let him consider only these four
events: In 1492 Spanish Queen finan-
ced sailor named Columbus-andl
Europe reached Que and laid hand on !
this hemisphere. In 1886 a French
King revoked an edict-a and thousands
of Huguenots enriched our stock. In
1903 French consul. to spite Britain.
sold US some land-it was pretty much
everything west of 1.-THE Mississippi.
One might well have supposed we were
independent of the heir of Austria.
In 1914 they killed him and Europe fell
in shaking our ship of state from stem
to stern.
There may be some citizens down in |
the hold who do not know it-amonp a |
hundred million people you cannot ex-
pect to have no imbeciles. Thus, from !
Palos, in 1892, to Sarajevo. in 1914, the