New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-24
The Country Makes Up Its Mind


Of wealth is only one more in long series
Of incidents illustrative of the fashion III
which the United States is making up us
mind in the matter of war. Actually we
have been at war with Germany for some
Eve months. In that time we have adopted
conservation of manhood and of money
We have sent troops to France and we
bsve settled down to a policy of sending
more and more troops to France. we
have sent the flower of our youth to train
ing camps and thence into the service OF
this country as junior officers, achieving
in this last detail a success which Will De
a landmark in democratic military his
tory.
A few days ago, when the Papal mes
sage proposing peace was uttered, there
was a frank recognition on all sides that
its success or failure would depend largely
upon the reception it had in America
There was in its contents a deliberate
appeal to ideas and views long held over
here and generally believed in Europe to
express the American point Of view. Z.
The response Of the country to the
Papal proposal was one of the most IN
teresting evidences we have yet had OF the
extent to which the American people IN
recent weeks have made up their mind on
the matter of the war. There was no
large amount of talk; there was very
little agitation; there was very little
argument; but the day after the Papal
message had been read by the American
people it was a transparent fact from
one end of this country to the other that
il had been rejected on its merits by a
people who were at last perfectly well
aware that the great questions at issue
could not at the present time be settled in
the way suggested.
There has been one of the most interest
ing evolutions in history going forward IN
this country since the beginning Of our
phase of the war. There has been a
period of doubt, wonder, examination and
discussion. A thousand voices have been
raised CRYING a thousand different policies
and purposes. Sedition has gone hand in
hand with pacifsm, and the pro-Germans
have Joined hands with the anarchists.
There has been a din and disturbance on
the surface unparalleled in our history.
Yet underneath all this it is now plainly
to be seen that the mass Of the American
people have been making up their minds,
and it is no less plain that now their minds
are made up those who constitute the great
majority of this country are resolved to
20 forward with the war until there can be
a solution which shall abolish the perils
which they now recognize and prevent a
repetition Of crimes which they now un-
derstand.
There is not the smallest semblance Of
enthusiasm of the sort that one connects
with nations at war. The people of the
, United States have not entered the con-
fct singing or shouting. Yet it is un-
mistakable that they have gone to this
task with an earnestness and determine
ton not at first to be detected, but no
longer TO be mistaken. They have neither
been invaded like the French, nor assailed
through the air like the British. They
have not yet had casualties on the battle
front to fire their determination and stir
their emotions, but they have seen an
obvious and inescapabe duty, and they
have turned TO it as man turns to a
task unwelcome but necessary.
II was always plain that if this nation
of one hundred millions Of people made
up It's mind the consequences would be Of
incalculable moment in the war and in
human history. The Germans reckoned
from the start that we were, as a nation,
too divided, too uninterested, too insular
10 take an intelligent view Of world ques-
tons or 10 perceive in European conflict
an American concern.
Now, the most amazing thing that one
can say about the present situation in
the United States is that the Americans
who make up the mass Of the nation have
calmly, quietly, deliberately accepted the
facts in the world situation as their gov
eminent has accepted them; they have