Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-01-06
BOOBIES PRESERVE
OLD ANT|PATH|ES
misunderstanding of Bygone
Days Fostcred for Insidious
Usage in War.
PROPAGANDA NEVER ENDING
American Uncertainty Concern
ing England Attributed
to Germans.
PROPAGANDA NEVER ENDING
nY ROLAND G.. USHER.

b1 UObS Nj SShEh'
Have you ever heard any one say
that 10 was :, good American" but
"a poor Eng lishman''? Did YOU realize
that that uttcrance WAS consciously or
,Inconsciously. for the most part let US
hope uncoRscously, tho result OF a
definite propaganda created. nourished,
md paid for by agents and money that
came from Berlin any time in the last
thirty years.
To-day we arc the comrades in arms
OF Great britain and France. Nothing
IL so imperative for tho successful
prosecution oil the war as cooperation
harmony and an absolute unity of aim,
an absolute trust each in the other.
Scarcely anything is. therefore. more
10 the German purpose than the pre-
scrvation and development OF the old
antipathic. and feelings, based nccc.:-
sarily on past issues century or a
century AMI !. half old, long since for
gotten and never very real: past errors
aud blundcr8 upon most Of which the
best English and American historians
have been pretty thoroughly agreed
for the last generation We're errors OF
misunderstanding and not thu result
.; real antipathtcs
Sometimes this uropa "a nde is pretty
direct as in it's cspousal III tho Irish
home-rulc movement. the dcnunciation
of the sins OF the English against
ireland. At other times !; attempts 70
maintain the racial sentiments OF the
English speaking, elements Of our
population with tn" general idea. bet
tcs anythin;: than English
In all scrluuHncSs. d. YOU with 10
take Your thinking from berlin? Do
VOW like 10 have IL delivered TO YOU
wrapped up in package and paid
for? Have YOU the faintc2; notion that
that was where great many ideas
came from which you embraced simply
because you had heard them or read
them 4 great nany times without in
the lea-; having investigated their
origin or basis:
ALL FREE STATES
HAVE THEIH GRIEVANCES
There are appa rently not great
many pcopl. IN thc United states who
realize that there are no independent
states now In existence in Europe or
elsewhere, whatever their attitude to-
ward each other at present. who have
not had in the past very real Grlcv-
ances ana ,lntipathics against all their
neighbour
There have been times when Helsi
was as much afraid ot England Is she
MAS later "f France and she il
now or Germany. Italy has had old
scores against France. Austria. Ger
many and England. one has merely
70 think Of the relations OF England
and Scotland no longer ago than the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to
I've, prn hiCS have
been between, nations whose co-opcra-
ton and respect for one another Is
now taken aS ii truism.
Indeed the great majority Of wars
have resulted in tho past from causes
which have not been permanent. and
which have been replaced By the
strongest ;i-s of confidence. What
countries to-day bound together
more closely than England and Scot
land: than England, belgium and
France: than Germany and Austria
seem to be.
Yet within generation there were
difficulties between England and
France so serious as almost certain
TO cause war. while Austria and Ger
many were actually at war in 1866
over as fundamental an issue as two
countries can possibly fight about.
Timo indeed, is great clariiier.
great cxplaincr of Misunderstanding
and wars are great periods of crises
in which realities stand forth naked
and unashamcd. and when the false
and the sham disappear into the tcnu-
GUS misty back ground Of oblivion.
Then the real interests of nations
appear and their real friends rally to
the cause. Then the wolves in sleeps
clothing are revealed and the sham
friendships are strippcc Of their falsity.
SO it is between Britain and the United
States. The identity Of our aims ard
interests is now clear. So il is be-
tween tho United States and Germany.
The fallacy Of common ground, At
conrtlon ideal is only too apparent.
OUR ENGLISH aIAIthEI.S
HELD LITTLE ASTIPATHY
Yet there arc many who for want of
a moments thought do not realize that
tho wars and quarrclS between the
United states and England never were
at any time, not even during the Rcvo-
luton. serious, as real as the great
bulk Of differences and antipathics be-
tween European nations
Historians have been pretty we'll
agreed for generation that tho Ameri-
-
on both sides. IL msconception due
very largely to conscious misrepre-
scntation at the time. Tho number
and character of tho patriots was not
understood in England their purpose
marcprcsentcd. their determination
little realized, by George III. and Lord
North in particular.
Had the Graftons and the Townsends
known the truth, the Revolution never
would have taken place. The War OF
1872 was again a misunderstanding, a
clash OF minor interests. tho result in
tho main OF resentment i'm England and
America due to tho first great mis-
understanding in the Revolution itself.
II the ono had not occurred. the other
scarcely could have happened.
y To-day every issue raised at that
CONTINUED on MIN naCe1