New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-04-06
Hoouer's An7er;;can;s11
May 1t Not Be All the Better foJ
a knowledge Of the World9

a Anoniedgc OF the w ortd }
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: hold no brief for Mr. Hoover.
but do ike fair play, even in
Presidential candidating season. And l
am not so sure that we are not doing
more damage to our simon-pure Amer
icansm than to him when we cry that
his residence abroad disqualics him.
IS a brand Of Amercanism so thick that
it looks like backwoods provincialism
necessary to Republican orthodoxy? +
am reminded of Mrs. Dcland's delightful
Old Chester lady who felt that the cam
ddate for her niece's hand was dis
qualified by his having once stepped out
Of Pennsylvania as far as Europe, And
does no echo Of our lamentcd 1910 pc
Rod of spreadoagleism come to your
car?
What dreadful things do your read
ers imagine that Mr. Hoover learned in
Europe? We used TO think
we'll for college professor to
see bit of the world as part
Of his training, and possibly to learn
how others sec us. There was time
when our bankers occasionally left
Wall Street for more refreshing
change than modern Cuba. Besides. it
is staggering thought, but some thou
sands of our intelligent voters came
originally out of that sink of inquiry
across the sea, and some of them. like
Carl Schurz, were good patriots here,
not in spite of it, but largely because
of it.
Myself, whose ancestors really did
come over in the MayAowcr, once had
the temcrity to study in Continental
university. even earned some money
on foreign soil. With some millions
Of my fellow Americans, l recently
spent nineteen months in France, Bel
GUM and Germany. All that time, too.
| happened, under American orders, to
be attached to the French army. AS
yet no one has told me that I am there
BY disbarred from the rather cxacting
qualifications of a Presbyterian minister
But TO return to the great, have
often wondered how much further the
world would be toward settlement if
M. Wilson might have spoken French
at Paris. Have you noticed how the
treaty has been misunderstood in some
, features because Of the unintollicon
translation Of it the public got? Just
because, up to date, American education
has failed to teach us speaking
knowledge Of any language but our
own. must we, to cover our conscious
lacks, maintain that such intimacy as
Travelled American has with other
manners, other ways, is thing against
him?
And, Mr. Editor, when the exodus
to Europe begins again this spring
when Americans of truest blue 90 off
prepared to spend millions for things
they feel they cannot get at home, viii
the pot still call tho kettle black and
dccaim against a man who, in England
spread not the unonviable notoriety 0!
Americans on tour, but American bust
TESS methods. American organization
sense, and who. in the Belgian cmcr
gency, was the only American fittec
BY training and experience to carr!
out the actual work OF food relief which
VIC all supported under the ardent con
yiction that it was an expression O.
purest American aspiration?
Or perhaps any aspiration for some
thing better than the status QUO ant,
bcllum is un-American these days
MERRILL T. CLARKE.
New York, April 3. 1920