The Washington herald., 1917-06-10
81 John LLOYD BAlpERsroa.
(Copyrjsht, 1871, by the Mcclure -Nswrpsper

States during ouf thirty-two tpoatIs OF nsl-
| trality Even sIuidst the insfHrlng denonstfa-
tions Of cordiality and solidaIity, between our
| new allies and ourselves nov being witnessed on
\ both sides Of the Atlantic, many mnAt have
/ wondered whether the old nspiciOn and jbittsr-
ness did. not lurk still beneath the sHiare.
/ And the eonscisnees d many -AneficaIs. IN
these days when the country y being toased to
! eght for democracy and humanity, must be tery
uneasy As TO the course Of the United states
during tho6e thirty-tvo moths. sincs had We
come in at the start We could have won the. war
/ long sines.. The writer resident. in Europs
| during most Of the war. has TEepaIed at The re-
J quest Of the National Weekly . deicnse and
/ explanation Of our long ipactiou. II eeslS
! frankly with EisRt psiEstsiy sxpresSed every
where, but which the newspapers here. fearing
to stir up ill-feslInE have SHE'D at. and this Is
my excuse for prtsenting my analysis Of Amer
| icA's policy to my own coInlnynen. a. well As
TO om new allies for whom 1t ives written.
Reciprocal ignorance and nisunder-
standings have opened a vide gulf
between the American and British
ance who have. studied opinion and
events in both countries at first hand
during the past thirty months, know
we'll enough that the entry Of the
United States into the war "on her
! The American commentator, who de-
signs to attempt an interpretation Of
; dominant opinion at home in the be-
/ lief that the, best cure for any es-
arrangement now. existing is the dis
semination OF the truth, lnds him
self faced at the outset with chilling
and disheartening sentiments the ex-
/ istence Of which cannot. be. ignored
because they are not openly avowed
in the British press.
Much has been written about the
! necessity for better British propa-
ganda in America, but to the writer
| the need for American propaganda
| in Britain seems even more pressing.
| That some OF the mud thrown sticks
! in the minds of Englishmen can sur
prise nobody, not only in view Of in
nuendo and covert sneer in a. section
OF the press, but because most Britons
/ have heard from the lips OF enIbtt.
tered Americans themselves such SEN
timents as these:
| America dishonored her Signature
! to the Hague Conventions by doing
nothing when they were violated;. has
worked feverishly coming gold out
Of the heart-blood Of Europe, while
mounting disgusting cant about ideals
! and humanity; has ignored unheard-
4 of atrocities, protesting only when the
British blockade cut OF her lucrative
trade with Germany; did not moE's
when scores of her women and child
rem were brutally murdered on the
seas-and now, at the last minute,
comes in against Germany, too late to
do any real fighting. but In time to
! pose as having settled the war; and
comes in for no other reason than
: because the submarine blockade OF
Western Europe must be broken or
hcr own export trade crippled"
. The preceding paragraph was not
set UP as a windmill to tilt against,
. but two points may call for an Inn
: mediate sentence apiece. The United
: States has not dishonored its en-
: F1aada n The Ha for
! the American representative append
| cd a codicil implying that his sig
nature to the agreement in no way
/ bound his country to depart from
its historic policy Of noni9terfeTo hiTo
It may be ineffective or ridiculous
to sign a treaty. and then say you
| take no responsibility for enforcing
! it, the signer should not be accused
of bad faith for acting precisely as
Americans have made millions out
Of munitions, raw materials. food
B stuffs, supplied to the allies, but,
! speaking as a human being and not
as a banker, the United States has
, not profited by the war; the enor-
Of money as registered by the rise
in commodity prices, DISCRIMINATION
of an internal trade greater than the
, export trade of the whole world'
ruin Of many industries through the
/ war have combined to render the
I lot of the average American of the
middle and poorer classes less enVia-
! bic in 1917 than in 1914.
But these are minor points. ana 10
meet the main grievance against my
! country-its apparent caliousness 70
aggression and atrocities. its refusal
to rrotect the lives and rights Of its
| citizens, its failure to align itself
! from the start against GePmany-
\ it will be necessary to consider Amer
| lean opinion about the war as a
| ing generalizations. 1t is essehIiial Iis
that the American point of view.ht-
! tie understood in England, indeed,
/ impossible to present in print mere
/ before the Russian reVolutlon-
| should be explained, more SO than
sverI now that the United States has
| declared war, for II would be serl.
| ous error to assume that President
| Wilson, because forced into hostli-
| ties at last. will throw his dreams
and policies overheard and acknoWE,
his critics right. A man who talks
| Of entering a war to fight for peace
I without victory" may be legitimate
object Of satire, but when ne ap,
pears in the midst of an exhausteo
| world with millions OF prospecoIve
as muchc applied Industrial power as
sSists in ali the world besides. it is
| lust az we'll to try to understand
| what he is driving at-a mental et
! fort many of his severest critics AT AT
! home and abroad have decnned 70
Pro ProfoundIy as American feelings
have been changed by the events OF
| the past months, it Is important InaI @
some attention be directed TO our
previous position, which mas peen 80
! dpTl0e0.
given rise to so much pam ~
I ridicule and calumny, that IN tne
, ewes of a large part of the bellgereht
! world, even now that we are at war,
our good faith, sincerity ana honor
emain undeniably suspected. tHe
! to help the redress the balance OF the
old, il must command respect and con-
fidence, as we'll as armies ana neets.
Decentralization of complex rs
sues. that curse Of Journalism Is IN
evitable in compressing witnin a Ley lev
book. But broadly speaking. the
American policy OF one-sided neutral
ity adopted at the beginning o., the
war was based upon horror at the
outrage of Belgium (for us, as for you,
the dominating moral issue), upon
sympathy for invaded and gallant
France, and upon realization that the
material interests of Britain and the
United States were so bound up that
the destruction. of the British empire
would be for ourselves an unspeak-
able calamity (the motive power Of
this last factor being greatly weak
ened by our belief in the British navy,
our confidence that the worst that
could befall you would be a .drawO
Why, then, did we remain neutral?
Because the President was unable to
go further and believe that the war,
seen as a whole, was a conflict be-
tween peaceful and aggressive pow
ers, between the lamb and the wolf.
in which all the right was upon one
side. II he had believed that, he
would not have permitted his coun-
try to remain inactive.
When Mr.. Wilson said. Nothing in