Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-12-30
UNDIGESTED AMERICANISM
Engishmen Believe What We Say About Peace
Because They Think We Do Not Know
What We Mean
By GILBERT VIVIAN sELDEs
Special Correspondence Evening Ledger


out the result would be another balance
Of power, with Middle Europe Gas the Ger
mans like 70 call 10 nrrayed against the
fringe or border of the inner circle Sober
thought In all the countries now nj war still
looks for the United States to act az media
tor. That is just why the people who
have the interests OF the United states at
heart are SO hopeless They do not want
the United States to be swept into a league
by pure emotion without careful thinking
Of what the league involves The first step
Is easy, but they are looking for the ardu-
Gus steps beyond, Again I am able to
quote from "A conversation; the speaker is
engaged now in the work of making Eng
land think about her allies:
Years of Misunderstanding
THE trouble is that we have been on the
wrong tack all these years. We have been
thinking of other nations purely for what
we could get out of them. The principle
is the same as between men. II an en-
ployer thinks OF his men only as producers
for him he Is going to wake up with a strike
on his hands one fine morning. Germany
thought OF the whole world just in that
way; so did we, except that we did think
of the dominions as nations with destines
of their own, and we hardly thought of the
outside world enough, And the result Is
that we woke up on that fine bright morn
ing OF the 9Th of August 1914. with war
on our hands which we did not want and
did not understand Now we are trying to
think OF the people of other nations as
people with purposes of their own, who are
like us and unlike us, and are entitled to
their own freedom and TO their own develop
ment. That is how we have always thought
of the United States. but l am afraid that
we have been very Indifferent about you,
and you have been Indifferent about us. You
do not know how our Empire has been
buiiti you think 1t Is nothing but agrees
Germany. None OF us understands Russia.
Because we have always tried TO under
stand what was to our interest Now II
the nations Joined in league without n
deeper understanding OF each other Il
would work until--well, until It was called
upon really TO work, Then as you Ameri-
cans put It, Goodnight What we must do
now is to build up relations which are
more than friendly because they rest not
on proht but on mutual UNDERSTANDING
How2 Well, that Is a long argument MY
own panacea Is study.
II don't know Just what Incentive you
have for applying yourself to these aues-
tions, the hardest In the world Only 1
don't see how you are going TO arrive alta
real democratic understanding with the
other nations OF the world II you don't pre-
pare for IL and-I suppose you're g.cl of
hearing this-but don't see how YOU viii
avoid trouble In the future unless you have
the support OF the world, or large part OF
H." ~
These two opinions are not only repre
sentative, have not found a European vet.
French, Russian, British or Italian. inter-
est,d In the States or Indifferent TO them
who was prepared to deny one word OF
them. What Europe thinks just at present
may not be important on the other hand
II may. AT present her foreign ministers
accept every Kind word from the United
States, and the people are frankly skeptical
They do not believe that We mean what We
say because they do not believe thar we
have thought out what we are saving