New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-06-10

peacemaker, IL was opNlouo IHo'
=. best she could only offer a compro-
misc Now that she is a war maker she
nav we'll have the function of framing
M compromise, but a conviction or
wood In other words, by joining the
var she may yet end the war, not with
en- illogical but with logical peace. A
rood is much more practical than a
.,onnromise; nor is there any stuplder
,tuff than the denial of the deadly I'M
nortance of logic to life; the vague no.
finn that a man can become practical
r,arelv bv becoming unreasonable. Mr..
Ford may make motor cars very quick
". but if he were too impatient to make
the wheels mathematical circles they
would not move very quickly. A philoso-
INV that tries to work with wheels
shaped like eggs or sausages is not
PHILOSOPHY that will send the world
along. as it says in the song about
Georgia: and this business cannot end
until it has become something more
than usinesslike-which very often
only means being busy without knowing
WHY. Doubtless America has business OF
that barren sort; nevertheless, think,
and | certainly hope, that the effect OF
American Intervention will not merely
be practical, but rather ideal; even in
the sense that some would call academic.
In other words. America introduces in
the simplest form what we may call the
need for universal view Of the war. 1t
involves the question of how we are
justified, not only as Englishmen or
Frenchmen, but as men, IN maintaining
the onslaught upon Germany. There
are two very real yet very little realized
causes which give the United States this
universal significance. They consist in
two unique and arresting facts about
the United States which think | can
see even from here, but which, for va
rious reasons, are not always seen by
nv countrymen. Many of them have
been to America, and have not; and |
note even these broad historic peculiarl-
ties with all proper Difference. But |
should not, for that matter, profess to
understand America even if | had been
there | have been in England ever since
was born, and l do not understand it
in the least.
But one thing the English hardly
realize is this: That in one way America
is nearer to Europe thar England. |
do not mean that many rich Americans
20 to Europe. On the contrary, | mean
that many poor Europeans go to Amer
lea. A more facile sociology than my
own will say that a great deal of rubbish
is shot on the shores of America, while
the rare masterpieces Of American cult
ure are alone paraded through Europe
must myself confess to a more an
tquated creed, which, despite all mod
EN- Improvements, still does not believe
in threading needles with camels. | do
not believe that thousand Italians as
poor as st. Francis are necessarily rub
Dish; or even that a millionaire coming
from Chicago becomes appreciably more
Ike st. Francis merely by going to
Assist. To tell the truth, ! have much
more sympathy even with the poor fell
low who hides in America from the po-
Ice Of Europe than / have for the rich
fellow who hides in Europe from the
popular opinion Of America. But these
are confessions merely egoistic, and my
general argument is sufficiently sup
ported bv savin0 that. whether or no