Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-10-31
A the British See Us.

TIE London Daily Mail in Septem-
her paid ELUSIVE compliment to Amer
Jean spirit" and prompt and Ell
fective way of doing things, once they
start. At home here where we See
some OF our own shortcomings we
may have misgivinss, but it feels sooo
to know that they think we are O.
K, over there" The Mail says:
The United States has been in the
war little over five months. To de-
scribe what it has accomplished in
that time would take a volume. But
from Lord Northcliffe's survey, which
we publish. today, a great deal that is
interesting encoura g1ng, and instruc-
tive may be gathered as to the spirit
in which Americans have addressed
themselves to their tremendous task.
They are in general a patient ana
good natured people. But when the
limits of their tolerance are trespassed
on too far. when they are convinced
there is no remedy for evil ex ,"pt IN
action then they act with a decision
and promptness all The greater for
their previous confluence. They turn
their faces, as Rudyard kipling ions
? ago phrased it, home to the instant
need of things" and they allow no
nonsense, no shibboleths, TO stand in
their way.
In that respect they are far ahead
of US. If they seem at times slower
to rise TO an emergency, they are
much more thorough than we are
when they have made up their minds
to grapple with it. They deliberate
long, they hold themselves in, they
make it appear as though nothing
would move them. And then sudden
~ they launch a smashing blow and
everything is changed Discussion
ceases and the cobwebs Of debate are
swept aside.
Americans are just as devoted as
we are to the liberty of the indivld-
ual. But no nation Is SO energetic
in putting individual liberty in its
proper place when it threatens to him
der the public good Their common
sense, for instance, tells them that
the sale Of liquor in the neighborhood
Of camps is a bad thing. They do
not, as we do, look out at once for
some method by which the question
can be compromised" Instead, they
close the saloons within a given ra-
cius; there is no lodging OF the issue,
no agitation over vested interests"
no talk of Compensation. The saloons
are simply closed.
Common sense, again, tells them
that in wartime the liberty of the
citizen to preach peace and to make
his anti patriotism public and audible
must be curtailed. 1t is accordingly
curtailed so abruptly that little or
nothing Is left of it. The Americ ans
do not palter with or find excuses for
sedition. They stamp it out.
Common sense, once more tells them
it is folly to feed a Power you are
engaged in fighting. The American
embargo, in consequence. is not gov
erned by sentiment or political con-
siderations' or an exaggerated tend
erress for neutrals, but solely by the
necessity OF keeping foodstuffs from
the enemy.
In the same final and unambiguous
FASHION they have dealt already. and
continue to deal, with suggestions
Tor peace. whether from the Vatican
or anywhere else. They bring them
coidly to the test Of their declared
"ar-aims. and If they fail to meet
mat test they are snuffed out.
American achievements in the past
hVe months have been many and great
Eut greater than them all is this
spirit OF answering determination
which has made them possible. 1t is
the spirit which commands succass
by deserving IL