The New York herald., 1922-10-16
Our Debt to Holland.
Is 1t as Great as Mr.. Box Makes
Ii Out to Be!


TO THE New YORK HERALD; In an ar
ticle exalting Holland-oh, no; ] mean
The MISUNDERSTANDING W. Box in the
October Atlantic Monthly sets up his
men of straw and then knocks them all
down by predicating gross ignorance on
the part Of Americans az to The Neither
lands past and present. And he then
reduces America and all its institutions
to a mere echo of the great and glorious
things that Holland did at home, here
and all over the world
To answer the article at length would
be worse than useless. Let one thing
settle the issue. Box claims that all our
great and typical institutions were mere
copies of those of Holland. He implies
that we were indebted to Holland for all
our governmental forms and polity. He
specifies particularly among other things
the Declaration of Independence and the
Federal Constitution. And i'm govern
mental forms he claims for Holland also
the distinction of having furnished
specifically the model for our Federal
Senate.
OF course. as all schoolboys know
but perhaps not Holland schoolboys-
the great minds that ms4s the American
Constitution searched for pfecedents and
analogies in all time, in all history, in
all countries for their forms of execu-
tive. judicial and legislative govern
ment And what these men who really
made it thought and argued was set
down in the FederdIiSt. Well. IL Box
hat 90
he will find his beloved Netherlands is
indeed discussed by Madison and Hamil-
ton as an example of a certain kind Of
federated government, an alleged feder-
ated government But did Hamilton or
Madison urge that the methods of this
Dutch federation be copied in the
American Constitution? Not by long
shot. On the contrary, though 1t may
pain Box to read what they said, these
two great statesmen only discussed the
federation of The Netherlands to repu-
diate 1t and to hold It up to those es-
saying TO form the American Constitu-
tion as a horrible example Of how not to
do Il.
1t is really to laugh. Madison and
Hamilton even quote Grotius. one of
Boks heroes. against The Netherlands
constitution. for according to them
Grotius said that nothing but the hatred
OF his countrymen for Austria kept them
from being ruined by the vices OF their
constitution" And OF the repudated
federation. celebrated anew as a sort of
governmental miracle by Box, the FED
erdlist writer's say, after referring to its
quality as parchment document !:
"What are the characters which prac-
tice has stamped upon 1t? Imbecilty in
government discord among the prov
inces: foreign influence and indignities !;
a precarious existence in peace and pc
culiar calamities In war"
They then mention in detail the ca
lamities that grew out of this curious
federation which Box has just redlscov-
cred in order. to minimize the achieve
ments of our own leaders Of 1776 and
1887. and they are very specific in point
ing out the dangers that arise from a
weak and NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. And
still using The Netherlands federation as
n precedent TO be avoided by American
statesmen they refer TO the fatal evils
of this Dutch constitution as known
and acknowledged" and they wind ur
their repudiation Of II by saying.
Let us pause, my fellow citizens, for
one moment over this melancholy and