Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-04-21

viii come Tor them, OF cOurse-ooI @iAS
test will come to us particularly.
DO YOU realize that. roughly speak
ing. we are the only great nation at
present dfsengaged? am not speaking.
OF course. with disparagement or the
greater of those nations in Europe
which are not parties to the present
war. but am thinking how their lives
much more than ours touch the very
heart and stun of the business, Where-
as we have rolling between us anu
those bitter days across the water a; 9
miles OF cool and silent ocean. our
atmosphere is not yet charged Win
those disturbing elements which must
be felt and must perlneate every ma
tion of Europe. Therefore, is 1t not
likely that the nations of the world
will some day turn to US for the cooler
assessment of the elements engaged!
l am not now thinking so preposterous
a thought as that We should sit IN
judgment upon them.
No Nation Fit to Judge.
mo nation is fit to sit in judgment
upon any other nation, but we shall
some day have to assist in reconstruct
ing the processes of peace. Our re-
sources are untouched; we are more
and more becoming by the force of
circumstance the mediating nation of
the world in respect of its finances.
We must make up our minds what are
the best things to do and what are
the best ways to do them. We must
put our money, our energy. our en-
thusiasnl our sympathy into these
Things, and we must have our Judg-
ments prepared and our spirit chas-
tened against the coming of that day.
So that I am not spea king in a selfish
spirit when I say that our whole duty
Tor the present. at any rate, is summed
up in this motto. America first Let
us think of America before we think
OF Europe. In order that America may
be fit to be Europe's friend when the
day OF tested friendship comes. The
test Of friendship is not now sympathy
with the one side or the other. but
getting ready to help both sides when
the struggle is over.
THE basis of neutrality, gentlemen,
is not Indifference; 1t is not self-inter-
est The basis Of neutrality is sympathy
for mankind. It is fairness, it is good
Will at bottom. It Is mpartiality of
spirit and judgment l wish that all of
our fellow-cftizens could realize that.
to create distempers in thi. body
polite. Men are even uttering SLAM
ders against the United States, as If
to excite her. Men are saying that if
we should go to war upon either side
there will be a divided America-an
abominable libel Of ignorance. America
IS not all of 1t vocal Just now. 1t
is vocal in spots. But I, for one. have
complete and abiding faith in that
great silent body of Americans who
expressing their opinions just now, but
are waiting to find out and support the
duty of America. ] am just as sure
of their solidity and of their loyalty
and of their unanimlty as I am that
the history Of this country has at every
crisis and turning point illustrated this
great lesson.
The Mediating Nation Of the World.
I'VE are the mediating nation of the
world. l do not mean that we under
take not to mind our own business and
to mediate where other people are
quarreling. I mean the word in a
broader sense We are compounded of
the nations of the world We mediate
their blood. We mediate their tradi-
tons, We mediate their sentiments,
their tastes. their passions: we are our
selves compounded of those things.
We are. therefore. able to understand
all nations; we are able to understand
them in the compound. not separate
lE, as partisans, but unitedly, as know
ing and comprehending and embody
ing them all. 1t is in that sense that
1 mean that America is a medlating
nation. The opinion of America, the
action of America, is ready to turn and
Tree to turn in any direction.
Did you ever reflect upon how almost
all other nations. almost every other
nation, has through long centuries been
headed in one direction" That is not
true of the United States. The United
States has no racial momentum. 1t ha IS
no history back of it which makes 1t
run all its energies and all it's ambi
tions in one particular direction; and
America is particularly free i'll this,
that she has no hampering ambitions
as d world power. If We have been
obliged by circumstances, or have con-
sidered ourselves to be obliged by cir
cumstances, in the past. to take terri
tory which We otherwise would not
have thought of taking. l believe | am
right in saying that we have considered
it our duty TO administer that territory
not for ourselves, but for the people
living in it, and to put this burden upon
our consciences. not to think that this
thing is ours for our use, but to regard
ourselves as trustees of the great bust
ness for those to whom 1t does really
belong, trustees ready to hand over the
cOsmique trust at any time, when the
business seems to make that possible
and feasible.
No Hampering Ambitions.
THAT is what I mean by saying We
have no hampering ambitions. We do
not want anything that does not be-
long to US. Isn't Il nation in that posi-
ton free to serve other nations, and
isn't nation like that ready to form
some part of the assessing opinion of
the world?
MY interest in the neutrality of the
United States Is not the petty desire
to keep out of trouble. ! have never
looked for il, but ! have always found
it,. / do not want to walk around trou-
BILE. If any man wants a scrap that is
an interesting scrap and worth while,
| am his man. / warn him that he is
not going to draw me into the scrap
for his advertisement, but II he is look
ing for trouble that is the trouble OF
men in general, and | can help little,
why, then, l am in for 1t.
but | am interested in neutrality be-
cause there is something so much great
err to do than fight. because there is
something, there is q distinction wait
ing for this nation that no nation has
ever yet got. That is the distinction
terry Whom do you admire most among
your friends? The irritable man? The
man out Of whom you can get rise
without trying? The man who Will
fight At the drop of the hat, whether
he knows what the hat is dropped for
or not:
Don't you admire and don't you fear
If YOU have to contest with him, the
self-mastered man, who watches you
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