The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-01-05
AMERICAS PART in THE WAR n,nns SINCLAIR
Author of The Divine Fire" Says: "America Might Have Stood Aside with a Clear
Conscience. This Was Not Her War;" But America is Also Playing a Glorious
Role. Though Neutral She is Really Taking Part-a Big, Giving Part.

WIZ a q
May Sinclair, whose home is at |,
Rock Ferry, Cheshire, England, was
the first notable woman writer to get
to the front in the war. Miss Sinclair
is known to the American public for
numerous book successes and maya
zine articles that strike to the depths |
OF modern thought. She is a writer
so big that she can sink her own in
dividuality in her work.
Readers of "The Judgment of Eve
or The Combined Maze" know this.
Nowhere has she better displayed that
quality than in this contribution to
the work of relief in Belgium. 1t is,
too, her most notable contribution to
any publication in the past six
months. She here declares that not
only mere men and women's person
alities are being lost for a little while,
or a long while, as the case may be.
but writer's talents, art, have been
submerged. Listen to this: 1T is as
If the streaming glory Of life had
passed them by
Last night I sat up until / o'clock
III the morning reading the reports,
published and unpublished. Of the
American Commission for Relief in
Belgium, dated from October 81 to
December 5. 1t was impossible to put
them down. From the appeal of AL
bert, King of the BelGians, signed, we
are told, under fire in the battle be-
fore Dunkirk,' to the last bald sum-
mary of the work of the commission,
those typewriter pages held me en-
thrailed. Their story Is one of the
most poignant, most terrible, most SUI
perb in history.
1t simply tells how a small handful
Of American business men in London
were visited with an idea. The idea
was so preposterously vast, SO iEcredi-
bic, so impracticable that the author
iti.s to whom it was first impaired
may be forgiven if they smiled in ten
der pity. 1t looked so very like the
kind or idea that originates with a
handful, not of business men, but Of
iovable humanitarian lunatics. 1t was
the idea of feeding the entire Belgian
nation at a time when transport was
impossible, and foe not to be had
for love or money. There are seven
millions OF starving people in Bel
gium, and it takes one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars to feed them
for one day. The rest of the calcula-
IlOH Is UtyouU Ine. Lie ilIlO IccIS q
the figures it involves.
Now this superbly impossible thine
is the thing that these business men
backed by the whole American nation
have been ~doing-nOt for one day
but for two months. Sitting in theil
offices in London. they tool America
backing for granted and made ar
~rangements accordingly. America
might I'VE stood aside with u clea.
conscience. She was not responsible
for the state of Belgium. This vas no
her war. She has nothing to gain b,
the war, and a great deal to suffer b,
the sheer nuisance Of it. She ha'
nothing to gain by helping Belgium
nothing-not ever international pres
tige--to lose by not helping her. Sh
might have said, no perhaps with tn
best possible grace, but with q stag
gering show of reason: Its up t
Germany and France and Great Brit
ain to feed Belgium, if they go bank
rupt in the attempt"
But she said: Germany won fee
Belgium anyway, even IL she has tn
food. rance and Great Britain car
So it's up to u.s." Simply, as a matte
of course. as a plain duty Of whic
there a be no question, she took u
this almost s~uperhuman, this entirel
superhumanitarian task.
The Sad Sight OF the UnenliStcd Poe
Now there is something about
war, especially a big war, that reduce
every non-combatant to insignificanc
Everybody feels it. 1t is as if IL
streaming glory OF life had passe
them by. The businessman, sneakir
ANONYMOUSLY to his office, feels
The artists-the novelists, the poe
and the painters-feel it. They al
their works have become fC- the tin
being utterly Unimportant. There
no sadder sight III England at tt
thar the poet who has n
enlisted. The only writer who CO
hold up his head is our special co
respondent at the front. The paciti
feels it in his secret heart. The won
on feel it terribly. Apart from pi
and humanity, this sense of the utt
worthlessness of the non-cOmbatant
at the bottom OF the ruSh of SO ma
people to the front, to the firing ii