New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-01-01

reshapc political, social and economic ire.
So out of this war are bound TO come re
actions which will radically remake the
world II IL is ia result, as many now OK
pect. in curbing the unwholesomc develop
ment of natonalsm IN Europe, in Great
ing an international federation which will
restrain nationalistc aggression and pre-
vent future wars, then this great conflict
will have had as reconstructive an effect
on the world OF the early twentieth cen
fury as the French Revolution had on the
world of the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries.
Our government made the mistake-per-
lhaps the very natural mstake-o' think
ing, when the war broke out, that the
United States could easily preserve an
attitude Of neutral isolation. Because
America had nothing 10 do with the causes
Of the war il was assumed that we could
escape The wars Transforming influences.
We set up an official neutrality OF act,
word and thought and believed that we
could escape ENHANCEMENT and successful
Ily maintain our traditional American
policies.
Yet we soon discovered that such an
ideal OF aloofness was unrealizable. We
have been drawn into the currents OF the
European struggle. Every now and then
Washington announces that we are APP
preaching "the verge OF war" We have
had to abandon the dangerous theory that
we did not need to make any special prep
arations for our national defence. We
have spent money lavishly Though so far
as our army reorganization is concerned,
Iineffectively) for military protection.
Now we are told that the United States
1. to join an international concert after
the war to preserve the peace Of the world,
thus abandoning for good and all the policy
CT political isolation which Washington
outlined and which had as its offshoot the
declaration Of European non-interest in
American affairs (supplementing Ameri-
can participation in European affairs
which passes under the name Of the Mon
roe Doctrine,
II the present plans Of the Administra-
ton do not change again, the United States
may therefore face, as the result Of
peace in Europe, radical reversal OF
It's traditional foreign policy. We shall
exchange our limited aspiration to be the
chief factor in an American concert for a
new ambition to figure in a leading role in
a new world concert. We shall broaden
our national vision and multiply our ma
tional responsibilities.
With that new role must come COM
pete reshaping Of our former contained,
easy-going, careless, clustered national
life. We must thoroughly nationalize our
selves before we can become really COM
petent to internationalize ourselves. We
must put away the habits Of thought, the
preiudices against collective action, which
have come down to us from the period
when we were a scattered, sparsely-setted
community, struggling to subdue CONT
nent and painfully pushing our frontier
line west toward the Rocky Mountains and
the Pacific.
This is the prospect which the year 1917
holds out for the United States. Probably
few Americans realize as yet what Presi-
dent Wilson's latest suggestions Of policy
mean. They are a legacy Of the European
war. and we have rather prided ourselves
on not understanding the European war.
The new year, whether it actually brings
peace or merely brings the warning ma
tions to the point at which all OF them will
see and feel peace close ahead, ought,
therefore. to be very enlightening year
for the United States.
It may at last awaken Americans to
clearer consciousness of the influences
which are now remaking the world-our
world as well as Europe's II may make
most Americans wonder why they have
never before grasped the meaning of what
has been going on about them-why they
ever thought that the war was merely
manifestation Of madness with whose
results. as well as with whose causes,
America ought not TO be and never would
be concerned.