Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-08-04
TWO YEARS OF
WAR EMOTION,
The Shifting Winds of Neutrs
Feeling in America = Hopes
That Cancelled Judgment and
Fears That Broke Hope

| i med UP in a sentence. The man W,
has never stuck a red.topped pin into
map nor discovered how to pronoun
Ypres is as competent as the militia,
expert to tell what has happened.
brief we may say that for two yea
neutrals, apart from sentiment, said IN
you've got to hand It to those German,
and now the Allies are handing Il
them. The campaigns, the strategy. Il
miserles and the glories of that tin
will make a stupendous history. Anotb
story must be written. It is the story
the underlying emotions.
we think OF the United States as
neutral nation fully conscious of tl
protest which will be registered again
the word. But we speak by the car
The country is neutral. 1t is not engag,
in war with either side. But our ne
trality is sharply divided, It has mar
sources and it is complicated by Il
allegiance of Germans and their d
scendants to the Fatherland not less tha
by the sentimental attachment of mo
other Americans to the cause of the e
tente. To neglect or slur this attac
ment would be doing a serious wrong
Americans. II would also make 1t impo
sible for us to understand what went O
internally, during these two years
Until the Marne
For the whole fabric of our emotion
is woven of our hopes and fears. II v
had not, by the 4th of Septembe
1914, gone through the depths Of a
prehension and of misery at Il
thought Of another German army on IL
Champs Elysees, how would our hear
have leaped with the news of the bait
of the Marne? That whole episode can
after Belgium lay PROSTATE under heay
heels, after the sack of Louvain-cam
after, indeed, all the long stories of tru
and false atrocities had blunted our fir
thrill of joy in the war. For a mont
we had talked and wondered. For
month we had suffered the calm conf
dence of our pro-German friends, VIII
remain in the proportion, let us "a,
of one to fifteen, but whose loyalty mu
tiplied them incredibly. We had wol
dered whether this place or that migf
not be the turning point. We had place
our last hopes on Maubeuge, in spite
the awful example of Liege. We waite
for the French to turn, but the retrea
went on inexorably. Nothing Russ
could accomplish momentarily coul
cheer our hearts. France was doomed.
That was the first stage of the war, Ii
one which brought with 1t the two force
of Efficiency and Frightfulness. Ill \
clined to theorize then, we spoke littl
of Democracy VS.. Imperialism. We dl
not want the better armies to win. w
wanted, unreasonably, France to win.
a dull way we heard hostile lips spea
of the Day when I'VE enter Paris an
we doomed Paris before its time,
We were tired of the war, we said, bu
the truth is that we were tired OF wa
news. Each day something tremendou
happened, yet nothing was changed, IN
experts began to talk about deadloc
on the western front, but that did no
begin to compare with the deadlock
our own hearts. Nothing had happens
since September IL. We distrusted Ru'
sia's victories and discounted her defeau
Momentarily our interest fiuttered agar
in the wind which blew off Coronel, or u
dashing Emden swung us along strang
exhilarating seas. We had momentar
laugh when the Serbians recaptured Be
grade, a thrill when the British 40
vanced, fruitlessly, at Neuve Chapel'
But until the first week in May, 1915
had the heart to be frankly bored by N
war. II we were not bored we were 70
busy. 1t was almost literally nothing
our young life.
England, France, Germany
The sinking Of the Lusitania crys'A
lized the loose seWiments Of the countr'
divided sharply the American and n
hyphenate. and almost as definitely tn
pro- German and the pro-Ally. I'D
strange thing is that we had been graz
ually prepared for just what happens
for Germany, intellectually in a betts
position at the outbreak of the war, va
rificing her advantages.
There grew up very early in this coul
try feeling OF resentment against Ens
land. Her self-anointed altruism, as
has been called, got on our nerves. w
Shaw denied that Belgian neutrality IA
anything to do with her entrance in'
the war Sir Edward Grey insisted thi
it had everything to do. We knew tha
the truth lay between. But we gre
weary TO death of the incessant cal
upon us. We knew that il we went
England would win the material gain
no expense, and would probably get ava
with the moral gain. And all this tin
we saw Germany, beset by enemies, u
complaining, reliant, satisfied and su'
cessful.
That was the crest of the Germa
wave. Her military crest came nearly
year later, but morally Germany held g
world in her power about three mont
after the war broke out. She was NJ
forgiven Belgium, by far. But she wrun
from unwilling neutrals an unbounds
! admiration, mixed with fear. Every hoI
Of Allied success was shaken by respe'
for German arms. Every reasonan
judgment was broken by hope. 1t Is u
possible to overstate the case for &c
many at this time. She was fnYineipa
IN