The Washington herald., 1917-04-02
Background OF American Hesitation

BACKGROUND of American Hesitation.
cThe New Republic.)
If we are to participate In the war. let
US do so with the intention OF adding to
The action something Of our own-some-
thing money, guns. ships, and soldiers.
something besides the mutilated and dead
bodies of American youth. There is a
chance that our contribution. while II
will not make the tragedy any less in
tolerable. may make its repetition less
probable and less costly. Although the
United States shares with the nations of
Europe the delinquency which has in
volved the civilized world in this disaster,
although like them 1t has organized its
domestic life with the callous indiffer-
ence to popular welfare, although like
them II has neglected the problem of Sc
curing results beneficial to all nations
from the action OF motives satisfactory
to patriotic individual and national con-
tscience. still the United States does
possess one fortuitous but important ad-
vantage over the European nations. II
Is the completest illustration in the mod
ern world Of surplus political value-of
political value which like the surplus
economic value of modern industry be-
long to society and needs to be dis
tributed in order to be redeemed and pre-
served. Its situation enables 1t to be
Sdlc "ltnOul DeCOTUlns
dangerously powerful. Its ideals and ex-
perience have prevented its. natlonalism
from being aggressive and from becom-
ing incompatible with political catholi-
cism. BY associating its participation in
the war with a federal and catholic in
ltcrnational ideal 1t can give to such an
ideal 4 wholly unprecedented standing in
the counsels of nations. By abandoning
Its own exclusiveness 1t can enormously
advance the general cause OF federal in
Iterdependence. 1t will not escape thereby
th' necessity of a drastice process Of do
mestic purging. But it will at least neith-
er shirK it's share of a dilemma which Is
involved in the very nature of our mod
ern secular political civilization. nor will
1T by entering. as SO many Americans
fear. oe merely interfering in other peo-
pies quarrels and acting as a rubber
stamp to the other peoples projects. II
will be entering to play a part which
will become more important as the trag-
edy draws to an end. which can be writ
ten in part out Of its own purposes, which
could not be played by any other nation
end the lack of which. If it Is not writ
ten and played. will obscure much OF
the significance of the tragedy.
The Worlds Leading SniveIer.
louisville Courier Journal)
Chancellor Won Bethmann-H -Hollweg IL
energetic as a stump speaker. He Is in
tent upon making the German people be-
leve that Germany has been drawn into
war with America against her will, and
not because of having played Ishmael
for nearly three years.
"We shall not have to bear the re-
sponslbility for war with America, =
sounds like an address from the German
throne to the German people. the we
meaning the imperial government. now
somewhat put to it to defend its record
to the plain people OF the empire. '''
AS sniveler the chancellor is un-
matched. The question that arises is
whether the people OF Germany have not
become weary of imperial sniveling. and
too wide awake to actualities to be taken
in by stump speeches in which the civil
lied world is represented as being hun
CRY for a pretext upon which to make
unwarranted war upon the Kaiser
New York Evening Post.
Each day brings new evidence of the
extraordinary changes being wrought In
German public life. The officials of the
government are now plainly on the de-
fensive. Their course Is sharply chal-
lenged in the Reichstag. 1t is not Ameri-
cans, but Germans, who accuse the chan
cellor of being weak and vacillating, and
Of having brought his country into the