Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-09-20
THE HARM A FEW
JINGOES CAN DO
British Sensitiveness essen t S
Casual Remarks About Uncle
Sans Prowess
By GILBERT VIVIAN sELDEs

dents first
At the very beginning. a rumor which
was verified and grew into a fact of an un'
pleasant nature.
Rising out Of that a succession Of con.
versatons and overheard remarks
Following upon them, a direct urging
from persons of such personal authority
that il cannot he resisted.
The rumor and the fact, alike, I shall not
repeat.
OF the conversations l can give the gist
in few words, 1t is (a) 'They won't talk
| that way after they've been under shell
| fire.; % "Of course, few rotters are
bound 70 occur in every army, ana if they
talk wildly they give a bad impression ;
! tc) Some Of our chaps talked that way to
the French at the beginning, too" and (d)
| THE bulk of the American army is n decent
! lot Of men, most of whom know what they
are up against and who can be trusted to
| keep their tongues in their heads
From which you may judge that few
! chaps have waEged their tongues rather
! loosely and have said foolish things
The matter Is trivial, no doubt The
| entente which Nir. Balfour and President.
| Wilson symbolized IN the joint session of
Senate and House will not be shaken by
the mad talk of a few Of our soldiers,
nor will international complications arise
| if Dragging and resentment lead to blows
| But there is a serious side to the matter
which we cannot overlook, and the worst
| thing We can do is to hide or garbe the
! truth. The simple fact is that "a few, an
| Insignificant few in number, of our soldiers
| have taken 1t on themselves to say that we
| have come in to show France and Britain
! how to clean up the Boche, And these
| remarks have not been appreciated The
! bulk of our army has gone silently and
| doggedy at the work of learning the new
| fighting of learning everything which our
| Allies have been taught in the ghastliest
| school Of experience. The inevitable few
! have talked much. If we do not stop them,
| they will be taken for the voice not only
of the army but of the United States
"Shut Up the Braggers"
And now for the urgings which prompted
me to write SO disagreeably. l knew of the
incidents before, but preferred not to mem
tion them Yesterday | had reason to
change my mind Good fortune brought
me to lunch with one of the greatest men
in England a man who has through his
own energy and genius done as much as
any civilian in this world for the success
of the Allies. For variety of reasons |
cannot indicate what his service has been,
but il has been enormous ? / asked him
what he would write to America if he were
in my position and his reply came like
a shot:
Tell them for Heavens sake, to shut up
the braggers :"
on the way home 7 fell in with SOL
der. He had been out there since jan
ND f,,gt hot
commission first Lieutenant.
He said to me- If they only knew what
we had been through they wouldn't talk the
way they do"
asked him who they were, how many
of them.
"One in several thousand" he replied, rs
more than enough We aren't sensitive. old
chap. We've been through worse gassing
than any mortal mouth can give us. But
well, I leave it to you. You chaps that
have been over here and know what the
game is lke-you ought to tell them tn
drop the swanl in a bottle overheard when
they come across"
And here is an incident which came TO
my mind when he spoke. A casual ac-
quaintance of mine was coming home from
Salonica, wounded. On the way he wit
messed running fight between a tramp
steamer and one of the largest submarines
in the German navy The tramp won,
he found that the United States had broken
off relations with Germany, and in the JOY
OF the occasion he hailed the first American
he met--the lieutenant of an American war
vessel-and said:
Well we're together now. what?"
To which the american replied. "Od man,
when the good old United States navy gets
going the U-boats won't have any more
chance than a SNOWFALL in hell"
All the Harm Done by Per Cent
In the many months which have passed
since then this acquaintance Of mine has
met the grim and silent men Of our navy.
He has been impressed by their determina-
tiou and their modesty, their absolute ad-
miration for what Britain has done and
their willingness to learn. But he has never
forgotten the words of that bounding lieu
tenant,
l know that ninety-nine out Of our
hundred millions are innocent of the charge
of "swankng" When we think of the
record from Mons 10 Nerdun few OF us have
the heart even to Jest at the expense Of
the men who went through these three
years But can't we do something for the
bounders who know nothing OF this war
and who talk much?
In all seriousness we may consider the
simple fact that the words OF one soldier
Of our army. spoken to another soldier OF
an allied army, carry further than the
eloquence of Presidents and Prime Minis.
ters What the latter say we all believe
and only those Of us who already believe
take the trouble to read and to understand.
But. what Tommy says to CASTOR and Gas
ton to Ivan and Ivan to the American
Johnny Coes round the world 1t reaches
the people "who do not count" in interna-
tional politics. That means it reaches the
millions We must decide for ourselves
what impression we want to make on the
millions of Britain and Of France.
Troops Made Fine Impression.
A short time ago the American soldiers
marched through the streets of London.
Their reception was tremendously good
But a few people wondered how and why
II was that no battalion Of Frenchmen
weary with the dust and heat and blood of
Verdun, had been invited to parade through
these same streets. London has never seen
its own regiments, not even the London
Scottish, marching through her streets. The
honor was given TO us for many reasons
| For one thing. 1t showed England that our
| troops were really here. For another, II
| made civilian England happy. 1t happened
| that the first cheer which welcomed our
| men came from a company of leave men
| lust coming out of the station after a trip
| from tha firing line / do think hat