The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-01-30

rier between your country and the
vast mystic Oriental world some
where over the skyline into the. heart
of the sunset. Now you realize that
instead of g barrier, the Pacific is a
highway that brings you very near to
the Orient, indeed. Truly it is the
Near West. It seems strange that
ocean voyage you should change
worlds; that you could journey in. the
short course of Is days from the up
to-date, slap-dash, freshly painted
Ynkee hemisphere into the shoddy,
dilapidated, slough-along old Orient
where your first chore is to break
in three pieces and throw away your
American yardstick; where you must
unlearn much that has made of you
good hustling Americn; where you
must take civilizations as you find
them and shorten your stride to
theirs or wreck your head and your
wits and your health in learning the
lessons you must learn sooner or later
or turn about and return.
Just over the western skyline, it
is-the Near West; Japan, Korea,
Siberia, Manchuria, China, the NAL
avs, India. Our splendid isolation ex-
lists no longer. We have taken ship
and sailed on voyage of discov-
ery-the discovery that the world is
ominously small, that our country is
very bright and newly-varnished
and puerile country, that the big
world, the real world, exists outside
of America, that we Yankees have
been and are the most provincial peo-
pie on the face of the globe. And
somehow our native land assumes a
far different ratio to the balance of
the universe. Just a few days of
sociability on deck, few evenings
of festivity in the forward saloon, a
few days Of our country sinking low
er and lower on the eastern skyline
and the arms of the Pacific opening
wider and wider, and we are in a
strange, strange civilization, among
strange, strange people-so near and
yet SO far. We are the foreigners
out here. Women and old men stare
at US. Little child run curiously
after US in the streets. We can
not make ourselves understood. And
all at our own back door. Truly, it
is an alarming situation.
The first thought is, what are we
going TO do about it? The trend OF
thought in the Near West is SO diff
ferent than ours; the ethics, ideals,
customs, morals, are all SO much al
variance; the civilization is so much
older and sadder and wiser and philo-
sophical; we come to appreciate in
deed what Kipling meant when he
said that East is East and West is
West, and Never the Twain Shall
Meet. And we realize that the few
MUST meet. Modern invention has
spanned the waves, annihilated dis
lance, brought time to naught. VIZ
must meet and have human inter
course. We must try and discover
tn common viewpoint, the common
rendezvous of thought and action
And when those of us who thinI
deeply realize the consequences at
tnding on the danger of not gettine
along with one another, of not IN
derstandins Of missing the common
rendezvous of thought and action
panic siezes US. What are we go
ing to do about it. indeed? We won
der.
And the1. the first normal ana nat
ural impulse is to write about it. w,
want to tell the folks back home still
IN the paradise of the Splendid Isola
ton how far the Near West is from
US; how near the Far East is to us
Subconsciously we. feel that a know
ledge of things as they are will be tn,
panacea of all tn old worlds troub
les. If we know the facts, we cal
conduct ourselves accordingly an,
wisely. We start in with our writ
ing. And then the enormity of tn
task dawns upon US. The task is en-
; ormous because Of the difficulty O
comparisons. How can we make tn
1olkS Dack nome appreciate and I'm
derstand peoples and condition
which they have never seen, judge b
standards they have never had to EN-
ploy before, get the viewpoint of PEG
pies whose civilizations are the exac
of ours? Where is the Great Meet
ing-place. How can we bring on
home-folks to it? And yet time
going on and problems multiply. An
so, discouraged by the size of tn
work, we abandon it to the Hig
Foreheads and Academicians. An
only a Chosen Few follow the Hig
Foreheads and the Academicians. TIL
great mass remains in the darkness
of Indifference. Both hemisphere
suffer from lack of competent press
agents.
Here is Asia awaiting the hand {
: the Word-Artist of the Common PEI
pie.
Here is the Orient, old, sad, wis
philosophical, a bit helpless, lookin
with skepticism on the newborn, VI
start Occident.
And here is America, blandly goin
on its provincial way, calling out fl
the great east to stand aside or ia
in line, the East and the West
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