The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-06-06

| everlasting involvement in the Old
World snarl and hopelessly tangled in
the vicissitudes Of European politics.
Barbarossa said that on the road to
| Italy many footprints were to be found.
but that they all pointed in and none
pointed out. The same remark Is true
of Europe In our time.
In the Concert of Europe.
One Of the sanest streaks in the
American people is their dislike and
dread OF mixing up in oversee affairs.
1t is no part Of the national vanity to
aspire to a seat at the council table Of
Europe.
And the Americans are no more want
ed there than they wish to be there.
For their appearance at the board 10
as much dreaded by Europe as by them
selves.
When in 1852 the United States was
bristlins toward Austria in a quarrel
over her seizure OF a former subject of
the Hapsburs. who had placed himself
under American protection, the Car
er Emperor to let the Americans have
their way, lest Francis Joseph unwit-
tinEly introduce an unknown factor into
the public life Of Europe" Today the
Introduction Of this new factor, with
sixty years Of added growth, would be
still more unwelcome to the monarchs
and statesmen who play the game OF
empire. For II Uncle Sam should sit
into it, the rules would have to be revised
and the limit would soar to the sky.
In his younger days. when he saw
visions. Kipling beheld the apparition and
he warned his fellow-imperialists that in
time to come the Yankee will wave his
long. thin. bony hands. with the blue
veins on the wrist. from one end of the
earth to the other" or will sway the
seesaw"
Yet England has had parlous spells of
wooing the great republic, when she
stretched her hand across the sea and
vainly strove to draw the United States
into Old World politics. But those emo
lions belonged TO the era OF her splendid
isolation" rather than to that Of the en-
tente. At any rate. there has been an
impressive and significant absence of this
fervor since the German-American crisis
misgiving the entry of Uncle Sam into
the war. even on their side. His nasal
note might pipe up too shrilly in the
concert of Europe in the day Of reckon
ing at the end of the war and his pres
ence might quite upset the balance Of
power
When he had sold Louisiana to the
United States, Napoleon congratulated
himself that: Il have just given to
England a maritime rival that will SOON /
er or later humble her pride" and he |
added the less-familiar remark: 1T will
be objected that the Americans may |
be found too powerful for Europe in two |
or three centuries, but my foresight |
does not embrace such remote fears"
There were not many more than $780,
900 Americans then and the First Con-
sui hardly could have seeh that they |
would increase nearly 20 fold in a little |
more than one century Nevertheless, |
they have continued to let Europe Sc
Verely alone.
when We Were an Ally.
When, his tailor failing to keep his |
word and his wigmaker sending him a |
wig too small for his head. BENJAMIN |
Franklin presented himself at the court !
Of France in street clothes and his |
own hair the United States made its
first formal entry into the family of Ma
tons. BY the strange chance OF Euro
pean politics, the young republic be-
came the ward Of Bourbon king and |
the ally OF the kingdom Of France. It
is strange that a Nation which won its
independence by the aid Of that Euro
pean alliance should have grown up
with an aversion to foreign alliances.
The truth Is the Americans grew so /
weary Of the French alliance that they /
did not keep II. They pledged them
selves. in return for French assistance
against the British. to protect France I
m any possessions she then held or /
might conquer in the West Indies, and /
that protection was promised forever.
When. however. the Bourbons were
lethroned and all Europe leaEued itself |
against revolutionary France, Presi-
Dent Washington declared for neutral. /
~ In the war. Fortunately the irsve.