Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-11
HOLLANDS HOLD
ON INDEPENDENCE
The Little Kingdom, Unlike Belgium,
Is Prepared, if Need Be, to Fight
Off Both Sides in the Great
War at the Same Time

TTNHE rising of Dutch wrath against Ger
i many over the sinking of several vessels
has divided opinion into two extreme views
on the question, will Holland enter the
WARP" One side argues that the Dutch have
suffered nearly as much as the Belgians have
much to fear from Pan-Germanic aspira.
tions, and will naturally take their place
among the Allies. The other represents Hol-
land as greedily nursing it's German market
immensely lucrative now and under the
economic alliance with Germany In the past
and so promising in the future whether Ger
many wins loses In a word, the Dutch
are represented either as heroes or as misers.
The mistake in both cases is natural. No
nation has developed in such even balance
insistence upon liberty of the die-n.the.ast
ditch type and the canny clutch riches. 1t
is true that the Dutch have often seemed
to need the stimulus of fear of financial
loss to make them fight, but this does not
plain their unconquerable tenacity in war.
The man who is all merchant does not fight
to the last ditch He makes terms.
The love of wealth has given Holland
fatty degeneration of the soul in more than
one period, but the best proof of indeibe
Dutch manhood Is that the little patch of
country at the mouth of the Rhine, composed
of mud and silt brought down by the rivers
from the highlands of Germany through the
centuries, has never yielded its nationality in
the 200 years of Prussan expansion.
Champions of Liberty
Tho Dutch are cassed as a Germanic peo.
pie in the same sense the English are.
Raclally they are probably closer to the Eng
lsh than to the Germans, if any one still
cares to speculate about racial afiinities after
the dismal explosion of the Pan-Germanists'
theory of where "Teuton England's" sympa-
thies would lie But from Fresland, the
northern province of the Netherlands, comes
our English speech. In Friesland today they
say come here" "go on" back" ION board"
They construct sentences the English
speaking peoples do. They pronounce bread"
butter" water" and Cheese" fundamentals
on which man go a long way without
feeling faint, pretty much as we do.
But the greatest bond between the English.
speaking peoples and the Dutch is the free
institutions which both have been ready to
hold to the last drop of blood The great war
of the pygmy against the giant. in which the
pygmy won-the war against Spain at the
height of Spanish power-was not a religious
war, though the Spanish Inquistion played so
important a part in it. 1t was a war for
local self-government. against taxation with
out representation" Following that the Dutch
for 215 years maintained a republic TO the
loathing of all the autocratic mOnarchs of
Europe. One William of Orange stopped the
Spanish monarchys menace to Europe in the
sixteenth century, Another William of Orange
broke the Stuart autocracy in England
century later and was at the same time King
of England and President of the Dutch Re-
public, He formed alliance which under
mined and led to the defeat of the ambitions
of Louis XIV Of France, the Kaiser of his day.
In no other individual could the spirit of
Dutch national character be studied to better
advantage than i'm the life of William III.
Dutch King of England. For he not only
carried personal heroism to the point of lead
ing his troops he was wounded more than
oneel, but he also freed the activities of the
commercial classes of England which there
after We're to govern that country.
Effects of Too Much Success
In fact, in the 18th century the spreading
trade of England robbed the Dutch of the
commercial supremacy they had gained AT
the same time the dulling effects Of wealth
had their effect on the governing classes.
Luxury, extravaganza and loose morals pre-
vailed. Fat, pudgy faces appeared on the
eanvases of portrait painters instead OF the
strong, serious faces of the earlier heroic
time. The office OF stakeholder, or president"
became hereditary in the House OF Orange
and thus paved the way for monarchy. But
all this did not taint the spirit of the people at
large. The Dutch were the first to salute the
American flag In 1776, and materially aided
the American Revolution with loans aggre.
eating 100000. Four OF our original 10
States were first settled By Dutehmen. ana the
principles for which Washington fought stirred
the sympathy of Holland
To-day the Dutch are fundamentally demo.
cratic people. They govern themselves. The
great point about the so-ealled "self-control OF
the Dutch Government" in not getting into
the war has been thai there no geYsrnmsat
could make up the peoples nllnds Ter them.
They understood easaFg = the time q Eng-