New-York tribune., 1918-05-22
Understanding the English

At no time since the war began for us
has there been greater necessity for
understanding our allies, and particu-
larly for understanding our British ally,
than at the present moment. Britain is
passing through a supreme crisis, easily
comprehensive for the few Americans
now alive who remember the moral
crisis of 1864 in our own Civil War, but
difficult of appreciation by younger
generation now just beginning to feel
itself at war and reused by the emo
tions and by the spirit which reused
Britain and France, alike, three years
ago.
There has been in this country full
but not exaggerated appraisal of the
contribution of France to the common
cause What France did at the Marne,
at Verdun and since has commanded
American admiration and American
sympathy. But in doing full justice to
French service in the past four years.
we have been and are in danger of deal
ing a little less fairly with our British
ally than the French themselves are deal
ing with her.
In the present moment it is of utmost
Importance to remember what have been
the sacrifices of Britain in the past two
years. Since the opening of the Battle
of the Somme, less than two years ago,
nearly 100000 British have been killed,
wounded and captured. The casualty
list of last year was approximately
million, and the costs of the present Ger
man offensive to the British have al
ready passed the 100000 mark. Such
tax upon the manhood of a country,
such drain upon it's vital resources, can
hardly be expressed in cold statistics.
In this period, too, there have been
for the British the same disappointments
which there were for the North in the
years separating Antietam from Cold
Harbor. Precisely as the people of the
North saw, first with surprise and
finally with unmistakable depression,
the great armies which they had raised,
equipped, filled with the best of their
youth, fail to win decision, exactly as
the North, entering the campaign of
1864 with high hopes and utmost conf
dence, saw Grants campaign from the
Rapidan to Cold Harbor fail of it's
larger purpose, the British have seen
larger army, containing a vastly greater
percentage of their manhood, miss the
decision which they expected.
Britain is meeting her disappointments
as we of the North met ours half CEN
,tury ago-and the Civil War was won
by the political campaign of 1864, which
ended in the reelection of Lincoln and
the demonstration that the mass of the
plain people Of the North meant to fight
! it out to victory. The same spirit is un-
! smistakable in England now. The disap-
pointments are real, the Establishments
F., are patent, the burden of the war is
= provoking the same complaints which
were heard in the North after The Vir-
ginia campaign of 1854 had led to the
bloody shambles of Cold Harbor, after
. the indecisive slaughters at Spottsyl-
vania and the Wilderness.
And in consequence, of all moments,
this is the one in which it is necessary
that the British should feel our sym
spathy and our confidence, not our crit-
cism. OF this the British are having
enough at home. The sole value of criti-
cism now or at any other time must be
ito eliminate apathy, to abolish incom-
petents and to arouse new effort-and in
all these respects the British press and
the British people are performing their
tasks to the uttermost.
1t is for US, in America, newly reused
to the gravity Of the present crisis, with
strength still unshaken, still happily
freed from the weight of blood tax
measured by hundreds of thousands of
lives, to see to it that we contribute
nothing to depressing and everything
that is possible to heartening our allies,
who must still do work which we could
and should have performed had we
awakened to the demands of duty
promptly. Only German purpose can
be served now by criticism, criticism of
those who are doing their best at fright
full cost and under the most dishearten-
ing Of all circumstances--an unexpected
defeat.
The alliance between Britain, France
and the United States is not merely or
primarily an arrangement Of expediency
limited in its life to the years Of the
war. 1t is already plain that if it serves
the immediate purpose it must serve an
even greater purpose by bringing about
= permanent association founded upon
mutual respect, common ideals and the
y