The Washington herald., 1916-05-15
John Bull Discovers West;
No Use Now for New York
After Months Of Bewiderment English Learn American
Opinion Is Not Made by Residents of Atlantic
Seaboard- Now Underrate Metropolis

here make a huge mistake, and indeed
render themselves supremely ridiculous,
by cherishing and paying attention to
quaint old-time legends and rumors Of
great States and cities on the Atlantic
coast. To go to America and potter
around their Paleolithic walls, or worry
about what is said by the few ancient in
habitants who crawl about the grass
grown streets, or like owls poke their
heads out of some ivy-mantled ruin, is
about as sensible as an American going
to Europe and occupying his time with
the dead cities of the Zuyder Zee in
stead OF pushing on to London, Paris
and Rome. But though know all this,
still banker after obtaining some rec
ognition, however small. for the East
The fact remains that cannot resist the
temptation to plead that the East should
be rediscovered before It Is wholly and
finally forgotten.
"PIeads for the East
II am not, of course, so mad as to sup
pose that when the East is rediscovered
any very great attention will or should
be paid to views or feelings of its SOM
nolent and evergreen inhabitants. ]
must make 1t quite clear that IN what
have written am not asking either Eng
lishmen or Americans to be so foolish as
to pay any attention to what the people
of the Eastern States and cities think
about political issues. internal or exter-
nal. With matters OF such vital import
ance it IN clear that they can have no
concern. Their opinions on public events
cannot be of any more Importance than
those of a water wagtail 1t has never
entered my head TO suggest anything SO
foolish as training them as live citizens.
A fossil may be interesting. but at best
1t is only some fossil" ] am merely
pleading that the East should p os al
lowed to drop altogether out OF human
ken. These survivals OF the past san do
no harm. and may afford the world the
kind OF pleasure which we get from stall
actites or the remains Of the antediluvian
fauna and flora. Because they are dead
and dessicated is no reason why we
should talk as II they had never even
existed"
Americans who have not been to Lon
don since before the war. when the New
Yorker was received as a cosmopolitan
and the Indiana man asked vaguely
about Indians and cowboys. may well ask
what has happened to make such a satire
as the one l have quoted possible.
The principal cause has been the at
titude of the American people toward
Wilson's negotiation with Germany and
England. The leading newspap pers OF
New York have many times so strongly
demanded a break with Germany that
well-informed people here were con-
vinced that was coming Immediately.
They then learned from Washington that
pressure from the Middle West, from the
Pacific coast, from the South, was too
strong for the warlike East. This hap
pencd not once, but several times, before
the Briton got it into his head that when
he tries to size up American opinion he
must consider the view OF all sections ot
the great country. He was helped in his
progress toward the light by the strong
protests made by the South over the cot
ton embargo, by the Middle West ovel
meat and wheat delays, by the Far Wes
over fruit seizures, at a time when th'
New York press was singing the praises
of the allies in such fashion that Ameri.
cas- entry into the war must have seem
ed, to the readers of those organs,
matter of days. John Bull has learned
and what he learns he does not forget
though it is possible that some day h,
will come to attach a little more i'm
portance to New York than he does nov
and allow its opinion equal weight witt
that of any group of 100000 people, ever
If that group is in the West.