New-York tribune., 1918-07-21
The Battle of Saratoga
What an American Political Convention Is Like
Englishn1an
BY P. w. Wilson
Correspondent of The London Daily Neacs
Englishn1an

behind unless emulate it. Americans
may be too apt to exclude rich men from
Office because they are rich. In Congress it
is penal offence, SO told, for brewer
or railway director to speak in the interest
Of any corporation with which he is con-
nected. In the British Parliament there is
no such rule, and ! am not prepared to say
that we less swayed by "the interests"
than our American friends are said to have
been Anyway, the men boosted at Saratoga
were Roosevelt, Governor Whitman, the late
John Purroy Mitchell and others Of their
kind who have maintained the loftest
standards Of public conduct
In some respects the American mind is
conservative. But so also are distinctions
between right and wrong Every Parlla-
ment needs at least one scavenger" said
the late Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman.
but in America, as it seems to me. the
cleansing physic is administered by the
press. Public life is lanced with the toma-
hawk and the wicked are scalped. Anything
like lobbying is scored either by the Pres-
dent or by the newspaper men, and what we
need in England is wiser administration
of the libel law. In their present mood
when exposed and the exposure is relent-
less. Every country has its seamy side,
but this change looks fundamental. The
iron is hot and the seams are disappearing.
Conventions social as we'll as politi-
cal. The smaller hotel has two wings, each
200 yards long, in one of which you feast
and dance, while the other is divided into
starcases, Cottages" five stories high
and appropriated by various committees,
which rest not day or night In every room
there is a stout rope, by which you can
hang out of the window in case of fire or
other calamity. Happily all enjoyed them
selves. Faces smiled and eyes cleaned with
zest. Chances were restless with uncer-
tainty. Sorry I did not recognize YOU"
said some one at my elbow, who then added
IN low mysterious whisper ct R." |
looked at him shrewdly, hunched my
shoulder and jerkcd out, 60 k" which
ended my one and only encounter with the
dreaded machine. Deeds as dark as that
have been done at the Primrose League or
the National Liberal Federation.
The English spirit differs widely from the
American, and time will show whether a
country which conccals the best within it.
and has misgivngs over religion, and ar
CUES about the eternal actualities, will lead
the world rather than country which
believes. decides, asserts, prays and con-
fesses it's faith. This distinction strikes
far deeper than the accidental factor of
was-wearness. We think that all progress
must run along the Labor Socialist line
adopted in Europe Americans answer that
right things done by the individual are as
good as right things done by the state And
it is one up to the American theory that all
our trade union restrictions had to be
scrapped as uneconomic when the industrial
stress came. If once you can get the ulti-
mate appeal clearly made in America, it is
Omnipotent, and they will not think of
compromise, but move forward as one man
This perhaps is why American influence is
growing beyond her borders. Her outlook
is only beginning to be world wide but she
holds up a lamp amid the chaos and the
fame of it is not materialism. Flame de-
stroys the material.