The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1917-11-07
THE NEW AMERICA.

lis that while he ships mis- goods t.
foreign markets, he keeps his minC
at home" That has been a long
standing limitation to the American
point of view, not only in matters o.
trade but in the entire range of inter
national interests, says the Atlanta
Journal.
As a people We have been SO alb
sorbed in our own affairs and SO, bles
in our spacious freedom that the lnad
and lives across the sea have concern
ed US but idly except in their sharply
dramatic moments. Even toward
South American countries. our neigh
sors in democracy, we were until
rather recent years almost as indif
ferent as toward Europe and the ORR
emit There was no considerable eff.
fort on the part of our merchants and
| manufacturers to learn the peculiar
needs and tastes nor even the lang.
uage of the South Americans whom
they wished to win and hold as Gus
toners; wherefore it is not to be won.
dered that we were outdistanced in
| those markets by the more far-see-
ing and more adaptable exporters of
europe. Time was, indeed, when our
LatinAmerican countries regarded
the United States quite coldly. if not
with downright distrust, simply be-
cause we had not taken the pains in
either diplomacy or in business to
convince them of our wish and our
ability to serve them. And for much
the same reason other nations
thought OF us as provincial and mon.
ey-gruubing. Established in ocean
bulwarked supremacy on a continent
whose vast resources supplied our
every material need, we lived our ma
tional life wholly aloof, without anx-
iety and with scant concern for the
rest Of the world.
How the war has challenged and
changed that indifference! No lone.
er can it be said that American ships
their goods to foreign markets but
keep their minds at home. Not only
their minds but their hearts also, not
only their fortunes but their souls
dearest interests are bound up in the
grim world-confiict that centers three
thousand miles across the sea. All
the efforts of peace-loving and mar
velously patient Government to keep
America out of that conflict were I'm
aVailing. All preconceived ideas of
our secure isolation and of our duty
to hold forever aloof from European
alliances crumbeld and fell before the
brutal fact of Prussianism. Our re-
moteness, our neutrality, our long
long suffering, our abundantly mani
fest desire to keep peace meant no
more than did the intervening ocean
to the German militarists bent upon
dominating the world. At last Amer.
lean realized, not simply as individ-
uals but as people, that their nation
was a vital, inseparable part of that
world and, therefore. could not live
unto itself alone; that the affairs of
Europe far from being of no especial
concern to us, involved our safety, our
liberty, our all; and that far from be-
tbS "
aloof, we must rally to the defense of
the worlds common civilization or
stand in deadly peril of losing our
national existence.
By virtue of it's unsought but in
evitable part in this war, the United
States has become truly World
Power. And a World Power will re
main. Henceforth it will play its
great part in international lffairs
not as a seeker of selfish dominion
but as a watchful guardian of the law
and right and peace. 1t will be- no
a whit less cautious than before O
What President Washington meant b!
"entangling alliances" but it will no
hesitate to take it's place and do 1T
duty in what President Wilson means
by "disentangling alliances. Ameri
cans are drawing too close to TIM
worlds larger life and are drawing
| TOO deeply into its grea. emotions