The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1922-09-28
OUR ONLY WAY TO THE WORLDS
RESPECT AND GOOD WILL

RESPECT AND GOOD WILL
Of all the important nations par
ticipating as belligerants in the world
war, America is the only one that
did not go in from necessity. With all
the others it was a matter of self de-
tense, self interest, or a combination
of the two.
OF all the important nations enter
ing the European war America is the
only one which, at the end of the war,
asked nothing in the way of territory,
indemnities or other form of reim-
bursement for the injuries sustained
and the sacrifices made. Against
the Vaccinations of the other
victorious powers we cOntended in
vain for a peace in which the last
drop of blood should not be drained
from the veins Of our PROSTATE foes,
and which would not sow the seed
of future wars.
Because we did not enter the Euro
pean war the day England did, we
have been often rebuked by European
jingoes and home grown provincials.
That criticism is not based upon
sane judgement or sound consider
ations of justice. Accepting the
allies theory of what the war was all
about, and subsequent developments
have somewhat shaken American
faith in the sincerity of the cry that
it was war to establish freedom and
justice throughout the world,-there
was no good reason why we should
have gone into the war at the begin
ming. We were not guarantors of
Belgian or other European neutral
ity. We were not interested in the
rivalries, jealousies, hatreds and
ambitions which had made Europe an
armed camp and led inevitably to
war. All that had been said to the
contrary is plain bunk" inspired
either by ignorance or alien propa-
ganda.
Rudyard Kipling has recently been
quoted as attacking America because
we did not enter the European war in
August, 1914 He is alleged to have
said that we had all the gold in the
world, but had lost our soul, while
England was short OF gold but had
soul enough to supply the export
trade. He was quoted as declaring
that America had been a degenerate
nation since the Civil war, when the
best of our stock was killed off in
war and since that we have been
flooded with European immigrants of
an inferior sort. Mr.. Kipling says he
did not say it. Probably he did not
say it for publication. That these
are substantially his views, as often
privately expressed, seems certain.
That they are the views of most up
per and middle class people in Eng
land, and not only in England, but in
France and in other countries we
helped pull out of the hole when we
entered the World war and gave the
final push that turned impending al
lied defeat into victory, is true. Mr..
Kipling can be criticized only for be-
ing less diplomatic than the rest. In
what he said he voiced the prepon-
derant opinion of unofficial Europe.
4 \
The realization that what we did
in the World war has brought US only
the envy and hatred Of so many Eu-
ropeans of the higher social strata,
ought not surprise Americans or
arouse here a corresponding hatred
of our late associates in war. Our
plight is the usual one of the inter
national Happy Hooligan- the disin-
terested nation out to do good. The
man withouta visible selfish motive is
always misunderstood, no matter how
altruistic he may be, because the
weak human nature of his fellows
always invents a motive, and always
an evil motive, for him. Europe, with
its traditions, is so completely unable
TO understand any motive but selfish
ness in international relationships
that by trying to be noble in the
greatest crisis the world has ever
known, we have only gained a reputa-
ton for being hypocritical and
greedy, We are to blame now, having
gotten into the European mess, for
everything that has happened in Eu-
rope for a thousand years. We are
responsible for the war between Tur-
key and Greece right this minute
because we failed to take over Arme-
MIA and police the near east. We arc
to blame for selling the Allies wan
supplies before we entered the wal
at time when we might have pulled