The Washington herald., 1917-07-30
aAmericanizina the War;

The war has a different set Of values
for every country engaged in ii. They
are a constantly shifting set Of val
ues. Belgium and Serbia alone have
fixed. rigid. -immovable purpose.
They are willing to die rather than
live like worms under the yoke Of
the enemy. But the other nations are,
naturally. in a state of unstable eq'ui-
librium. They cannot announce a
peace program which is a mere stock
formula, for they cannot yet agree
on all the ingredients of that formula.
Even II they did. it would always be
subject to the ordinary processes of
compromise, negotiation, adjustment,
and revision, according to the facts
of the military situation.
Americans know that their nation
is fighting to thwart and to extermin-
ate the criminal aggressions Of
autocracy, but the war to them has
no localized meaning. They perceive,
as they survey the war map, a myriad
of things which they cannot correlate,
which they cannot bring within the
scope Of American aim and purpose.
They wonder whether all the nations
1ghting Germany subscribe to the
wilsonian program. whether the
Idealism which anlmates their own
nation in the war Is shared by all the
nations which are their comrades in
arms.
OF one thing they are sure. The
cause of France and Belgium is hal
lowed in their eyes, and for them
they are willing to fight as II they
were crusaders bearing the cross
against the hosts Of Beelzebub. They
have seen Great Britain-after strug-
Cling for more than a decade to super
| impose modern liberalism on a frame
work of Victorian imperialism-finally
throw itself bag and baggage into the
lap of democracy as its only saliva
| ton, perceiving Imperialism, reduced
by Germany to its ultimate terms, to
be paganisn and barbarism.
OF course, many Americans still
doubt whether Britain has really re-
nounced imperialism. whether the
democratic movement there is any,
thing more than a wave, to recede
when the war panic has passed. The
skeptics do not know how thoroughly
the war has done its work. 1t has
pummelled the old-style Toryism out
Of England. 1t has given the colonies
a new place in the empire; 1t has
made them really self-governing
democracies. If ever a nation has ex-
plated past sins of omission and COM
mission in a war, Great Britain as
suredly has in this.
Americans have seen Russia under
the Czardom fighting to attain the
prize of the Bosphorus. and under
various forms of loose democracy
sway uncertainty back and forth. un-
less she has ceased to be a responsible
factor in the war against Prussian
autocracy. They have seen Italy send
her legions against Austria. not Ito
make the world safe for democracy"
but to regain the lost Italian provinces
of Austria and also a large strip of
the Dalmatian littoral. populated by
CZechs and Slays, to which she is no
more entitled than are the Patago-
mans. Italy is frankly fighting with
the imTeriallst motive OF ruling the
Adriatic. She has her eye on Dalma-
tia and a large segment Of Albania.
She is not fighting against the central
powers without a very definite and
material end in view.
The American government is keep
ing its hands of the Balkans, and of
all things except the major issue,
That is the only issue for America
We are not committed to the localized
PLANS or programs of any of our al
lies. If Italian aspirations should
tend to prevent a clearing OF the Bal
kan skies, and thus a possible separ-
ate peace with the three satellites OF
Germany when the present forces at
work are fully developed, it is safe to
say the United States will not remain
aloof and detached on such a situa-
tion.
Only by the fullest publicity can the
war really be brought home to the
American people. The hour has al
most arrived when that publicity will
be demanded, and must be given.
Two Epigrams.