The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1917-06-20
THREE THOUSAND MILES AWAY.

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that we here in America have no con
Germ with something so remote. Sucl
hint, such a statement, implies
either lack of Imagination or a lacl
| of patriotism. Ii the war is thret
thousand miles away, let us be crate
Jul, and especially grateful to oul
government because it proposes tc
keep the war three thousand miles
away. How long should we wait
How near should we let it come be
fore we begin to defend ourselves
Should we do nothing until our ships
are sunk not merely within a few
hundred miles of Europe, but off
Long Island and in Chesapeake Bay,
or until our coast cities are lombard
ed? Let us do all in our power to
keep the war three thousand miles
away.
And yet this is but a dull-eyed way
Of looking at it. During the last hun
dred years, Europe and America have
been coming closer by leaps and
bounds. If George Washington had
been able to foresee how steam and
electricity would be put to serve
mems needs, he would never have ut
tered his famous warning against en-
tangling alliances. He would have
hidden us tighten the bonds of friend
ship with all peoples whose customs,
beliefs and ideals were similar to
ours.
What Is there in three thousand
miles to keep us away from friends
1t is four thousand miles to Rome,
which to millions of our fellow citi-
zens is the central seat of religious
authority. and to the rest of us the
main source from which civilization
las come down to us. 1t is five thou
sand miles to Athens; some of us
still cling to memories of Homer and
Plato. 1t is six thousand miles to
jerusalem; have we, whether we are
Christians or not, nothing
o do with the Mount of Olives or
With Calvary? Are friendship, SYM
,athy, mutual aid, to depend upon
| limited number of miles, say fifty
II sixty, and after that distance to
vither and drop off?
The war is three thousand miles
away.
Have we no sympathy with the
slaughtered Armenians? None with
he Russians who have thrown off
he yoke of tyranny? None with the
Belgians Of Louvain, Bruges, Ant
werp, with mothers whose sons have
been deported, whose daughters have
been ravished? Where is that solid
arity of humanity, where are the fam
lily ties of democracy, which have al
ways been on American lips, and now
have an opportunity to express them
selves in action?
from Massachusetts, and yet they are
sister states under one government.
The hope of humanity is that I'M
sympathy, mutual aid
'OI"COl SldIcS Will lOI uSpeHu uh
mere proximity, but upon a realiza-
ion of a common humanity; that our
leighbors are not necessarily people
BORN and bred within our OWL politi
al borders, but people whom we can
lelp all the world over. When the
destroyed Mess&na, that
feeling of human solidarity was
strongly realized in the Un,.ed States.
Belgium has been destroyed by forces
worse than an earthquake.
America is both too prudent and
too great to sit still when her neigh
boris house is on fire and say, "My
house is untouched, the conflagration
is a mile away Duty tells us to
go to put out the fire which assails
our neighbor's house, and conn. IN
sense reminds us that fire will leap
from house to house, and through
we may be safe today, tomorrow we
too may be ablaze.