New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-02-07
AMERICAN EYES SEALED
Miss Marie Van Worst Pleads with Us To Be True
to Our Ideals and Aid France and England
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: It is impossible for not to realize that
the eyes and the attention of the powers at war on
the other side Of the ocean are fixed and fastened
upon US with intensity, with anxiety and were at
first so fixed with hope ard belief. | speak OF the
French and English the one speaking own lam
ruare TO whom we are neither foreigners nor Aliens
with whom we are by and speech, by ancestry
and by tradition, kin; the other, whose friendship
for US in the moment Of our struggle Tor indepen-
deuce is a thing that American should forget.
These peoples have seen US from the beginning
Of this struggle manifest the generosity such the
American people have never failed TO display IN
crises and disasters the unbuttoning OF the general
pocket TO relieve suffering, the bgness OF heart which
evinces itself in the bigness OF its donated sums
This thew have seen They have felt the wave Of
protest mild indeed compared to the gravity OF the
crimes They have looked and waited, expected ana
hoped, and, ! might say, appealed, and TINS Is all
they have seen. The great American Republic seal
ing her eyes the dazzling horrors Of the distant
wars has turned herself to her affairs. From
the very moment that the neutrality OF BELGIUM was
violated, from the moment the treaties regarding
her welfare and security were insulted and tramped
upon the Germans offended every principle out
ragged every ideal for which the United States stands
And further the Germans manner of entering into
the kingdom of Belgium, her undoubted and undls-
puted acts of hideous brutality crime, mutilation
and slaughter have outraged offended and disguised
and Mortified every human and truly American clt-
zen of the United States
No general protest from US, from the millions Of
women who feel intensely and with all their hearts
disapproval of Germany's war and her methods OF
warfare no protestation from the citizens Of this
free and humanitarian republic has gone forth. had
a general protest been launched at the very begin
ming it is probable that the subsequent course Of
events would have been changed.
OF the ninety millions of citizens Of the United
States are the the most intense the most
alive and the vital the Germans? Is II possible
that such thing as this be true? II this is not
true how can il be possible that the national voice,
which the conflicting peoples have listened IN vain
to hear uplifted, when it speaks speaks alone for
commercial interests for-csn say TO satisfy the
greed Of certain class?
That our commerce, that industries, should
have free scope, that in wise we should be either
crippled prosperity imperilled is just and
right; but at this crucial and delicate moment Of
the history Of nations ii behooves this great people
10 be extremely careful 10 its methods and its
modes Of procedure Americans have not hesitated
to Judge Germans; must not hesitate TO judge
ourselves. In order to purchase few informed
sells in the harbor purchase by which the Germans
would be supplied with further means OF carrying
their detested war. the forcing of issue at this
moment over the protests of England. over the pro
tests OF France is like driving the very prov Of the
vessel of our state through the hearts and vitss Of
France and England.
We have been called the nation in the world
where public opinion cannot be stifed either by
rlutocracy autocracy. Il been said OF that
We are ideaists; still one begins % doubt il and TO
fear for the materalism that is choking vs. and ID
d,aw the likeness between this ma'e-iasm and Inc
qualities that the German Empire possesses ard
which has made them offensive to Us and made their
propaganda such a dangerous factor at this moment
IN the politics OF our country.
MARIE VAN WORST.
New York, Feb g. 1915.