Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1917-06-10

because they are not openly aNoWcd In b
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 |
Great Britain seems even more press |
ing. That some of the mud thrown I
sticks in the minds of Englishmen can .
surprise nobody, not only in view of
innuendo and covert sneer in a section /
of the press, but because most Britons
have heard from the lips of embit- ]
tered Americans themselves such sem
timents as these:
An Unpleasant Indictment,
America dishonOred her signature
TO The Hague conventions by doing
nothing when they were violated: has
worked fevershly coming gold out of
the heart-blod of Europe, while
mouthing disgusting cant about ideals
and humanity; has ignored unheard-o of
atrocities. protesting only when the
British blockade cut off her lucrative
| trade with Germany. did not move
when scores Of her women and chill
dren 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 be-
cause the submarine blockade of
western Europe must be broken or her
own export trade crippled
The preceding paragraph was not
| set up as "A windmill to tilt against. but
two points may call for an Immediate
sentence apiece. The United States
I has not dishonored its engagements
made at The Hague, for the American
{ representative appended a codicil i'm
] II O.
ment in no way bound his country to
depart from its historic policy of non
/ interference in European affairs, and
while it may be ineffective or ridicu-
/ lous to sign treaty, and then say you
/ take no responsibility for enforcing it,
the signer should not be accused of
bad faith for acting precisely as he
said he would act. Scores of Ameri-
cans have made millions out of NUM-
tions, raw materials. foodstuffs, sup
piled to the allies; but speaking as a
7 human being and not as banker the
! United States has not profited by the
war; the enormous decline in the pur-
chasing power of money as registered
by the rise in commodity prices, dis
orga nization of an internal trade
! greater than the export trade of the
whole world, ruin of many Industries
thru the war, have combined to render
middle and poorer classes less enviable
in 1917 than in 1914.
But these are minor points, and to
meet the main grievance against my
country-its apparent callousness to
aggression and atrocities, its refusal to
protect the lives and rights of its citi-
Zens, its failure to align itself from
the start against Germany-it will be
necessary to consider American opin-
al w N
make certain sweeping generalizations.
Ii is essential that the American point
of view-little understood in England,
indeed. impossible to present in print
here before the Russian revolution
should be explained, more so than ever
now that the United States has de-
clared war, for it would be a serious
error to assume that President Wilson.
because forced into hostilities at last,
will throw his dreams and policies
overheard and acknowledge that he
has been wrong and his critics right.
A man who talks of entering a war to
fight for peace without victory" may
be legitimate object of satire, but
when he appears in the midst of an
exhausted world with millions of pros
pectve soldiers, siZeable fleets and
nearly as much applied industrial
power as exists In all the world be-
stand what he is driving at-a mental
effort many of his severest critics at
home and abroad have declined to
undertake.
, Lack of Confidence.
Profoundly as American feelings
! have been changed by the events of
the past months, il is important that
some attention be directed to our pre-
vious position, which has been so ira
duced. maligned and derided. has
given rise to so much pain, wrath,
ridicule and calumny that in the eyes
of a large part of the belligerent
world, even now that we are at war
our good faith, sincerity and honor re-
main undeniably suspect. If the new
, world. having been called in is to
help to redress the balance of the old
it must command respect and conf
dence. as well as armies and fleets.
over r-simplification of complex is
sues, that curse of journalism Is in
evitable in compressng within a few
paragra phs the material for a large
book. But, broadly speaking, the
American policy of one-sided neutral
! ity adopted at the beginning OF 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 Great Britain and
, the United States were so bound up
, that the destruction of the British en-
pire would be for ourselves an un-
speakable calamity (the-motive power
, of this last factor being greatly weak
y ened by our belief in the British navy,
, our confidence that the worst that
7 could befall you would be draw
Why. then, did we remain neutral ?
e Because the president was unable to
= go further and believe that the war,
v seen as a whole, was conflict be-
5 tween peaceful and aggressive pow
4 ers. between the lamb and the wolf. In
y which all the right was upon one side.
u If he had believed that. he would not
y have permitted his country to remain
J, inactive.
l. When Mr.. Wilson said, Nothing In
: particular started 1t, but everything in
: general" ne was probably moved. as
" know that man In close topch with