The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1922-09-28

lied defeat. We are to blame for the
debt Europe owes us on account Of
money advanced by the billions, and
eXacted in taxes and Liberty Loan
drives from the American people, at a
time when England and the other
allies would have collapsed in the
face OF the enemy except for that
aid.
This attitude toward the United
States is helped along by certain pro
vincial Americans who think it is
sign of cosmopolitanism to run
down" their own country. Mr.. Cox
has been in Europe telling the states
men and the public over there that
America has "broken faith" in failing
to feed, finance and fight for the
rest of the world perpetually. H. G..
Wells remarks that Americans of the
sort he met in this country, toadies
of an all too prevalent breed, are suf-
fering from a national inferiority
complex. Americans used to be crit
isized for boasting. If they were even
more guilty than other people of that
offense, which is doubtful, certainly
in this day they are far more guilty
of a failure to appreciate and stand
by their own country, which many Of
them, partly because of persistent
alien propaganda, fail to appreciate
or comprehend.
4 i
Mr.. Kipling's idea that America
has lost her soul is one that European
literati have been expounding for a
long time; in fact most of them have
never been willing to admit that
America ever had a soul. The Amer
lean people have become accustomed
to abuse from European, especially
British, authors, whose royalties are
largely derived from the sale of their
books to American readers. Tom
Moore set the pace more than CEN
fury ago, Dickens repaid the hospi-
tally of Americans with caricatures
of their country, and the fashion
these writers set has been followed
down to the day of Kipling and Shaw.
Americans have not been much dis
turbed by these i'll natured misrepre-
sensations, knowing they were the re
suit of ignorance and prejudice.
There are Americans who have
thought that this country's place in
history depends upon the judgment Of
Europe, but most Americans care
little for what Europe thinks that is
based upon envy or i'll will.
Mr.. Kipling's theory that America
has degenerated since the Civil war
is surely not based upon an accep-
lance of what Charles Dickens said
about Americans before the Civil
war. If the killing off of men by war
causes a country to degenerate, what
must be the condition of England and
of Europe after a century of almost
continuous wars? Mr.. Kipling has
never been an advocate of the theory
| that nations grow strong through
pacifsm. The Civil war was a noble
struggle for the preservation of ma
tional unity, and thus for avoidance
of the evils that attend, in Europe
the division of continent into many
petty, warning states. Incidentally ii
was war for the curling of the
power of the institution of human
slavery. Where was Mr.. Kipling's
country when that war was on? Did
it take up the cause of humanity and
liberty and maintained sovereignty
of the great English speaking nation
of the new world? 1t is a matter of
record that the middle and upper
classes of England were almost
unanimously on the side of secession
with slavery, because division of the
American union would have helped
the British empire. They bought the
| bonds, made the munitions and ever
| fitted out the privateers Of the states
in rebellion, two or three times
sought to intervene against the Uni
ted States and went back on the
ancient British principle of the right
of search and seizure on the high
seas in order to force Lincoln anC
Seward to their knees in the Trent
episode while mobilizing an army il
Canada. How late was Mr.. Kipling's
England in that war, which was
surely as much the concern of the
English motherland as Britain,
troubles with Germany were of ours
in 1914?
Undoubtedly millions of Americans
have been hurt by the realization thai
after all this country has done fol-
Europe, our sole return is i'll will
The belief that we could expect any
thing else was based upon a miscon
ception of Europe and of the tradi
tional attitude of European nations
This misconception was the result o.
needing the chatter Of European
propagandists, imported and domes