The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1917-07-20

Continued from last week.
The outbreak of war in 1914
caught this Nation by surprise. The
peoples of Europe had had at least
some warnings of the coming storm,
but to US such a blind, savage on
slaught on the ideals of civilization
had appeared impossible.
The war was incomprehensible.
Either side was championed here by
millions living among us who were
of European birth. Their contra
dictory accusations threw our
thoughts into disarray, and in the
first chaotic days we could see no
direct assault on our rights. 1t
seemed at first to most of US a
purely European dispute, and our
minds were not prepared to take
sides in such a conflict. The Pres
ident's proclamation of neutrality
was received by US as natural and
inevitable. 1t was quickly followed
by his appeal to "the citizens of the
Republic"
every man who really loves
America will act and speak in the
true spirit of neutrality" he said,
(which is the spirit of impartiality
and fairness and friendliness to all
concerned. - 1t will be easy to
excite passion and difficult to allay
it." He expressed the fear that
our Nation might become divided in
camps of hostile opinion. "Such
divisions among US might SER
iously stand in the way of the prop
er performance of our duty as the
one great nation at peace of impair
| tial mediation and speak counselS of
peace and accommodation, not as a
partisan, but as a friend"
This purpose-the preservation of
strict neutrality in order that
later we might be of use in the great
task of Observation-Disclosures all the
Presidents early speeches.
"We are the mediating Nation of
the world" he declared in an address
on April 20, 1915. "We are com
pounded of the nations of the world /;
we mediate their blood, we mediate
their passions; we are ourselves COM
pounded of those things. We are,
therefore, able to understand them
in the compound, not separately as
partisans, but unitedly as knowing
and comprehending and embodying
them all. 1t is in that sense that l
mean that America is a mediating
Nation"
American neutrality, in those first
months of the great war, was be-
yond any question real.
But the spirit of neutrality was
not easy to maintain. Public opinion
was deeply stirred by the German
invasion of Belgium and by reports
of atrocities there The Royal Bel
gium Commission, which came in
September, 1914, to lay their coun
try's cause for complaint before our
National Government, was received
with sympathy and respect. The
President in his reply reserved our
decision in the affair. 1t was the
only course he could take without an
abrupt departure from our most
treasured traditions of noninterfer-
ence in Old World disputes. But
the sympathy of America went out
to the Belgians in their heroic trag-
edy, and from every section of our
land money contributions and sup
plies of food and clothing poured
over to the Commission for Relief in
Belgium, which was under the able
management of our fellow country
men abroad.
STILL the thought of taking an
active part in this European war
was very far from most of our
minds. The Nation shared with the
President the belief that by main
taing strict neutrality we could
best serve Europe at the end as i'm
partial mediators.
But in the very first days of the
war our Government foresaw that
complications on the seas might put
us in grave risk of being drawn into