The Elk Mountain pilot., 1922-09-28


Kipling "Gets in Bad.
Kipling's alleged remark that al
though "America has our gold. Eng
land has saved her soup' was the oc-
casion for some of our countrymen
to become much "het up. The in
sinuation is of kind to provoke
patriotic Indignation. Yet is there
real occasion for offense?
First, Kipling denies that he ever
said any such thing. On the. contrary,
Mrs. Claire Sheridan, who reported
the remark in The World' as part
of an interview with Kipling, stoutly
maintains that he did say it. So the
primary point to the controversy at
once narrows to question of fact be-
tween these two, and nobody, who was
not party to the interview, can on
that point contribute anything ma
terial whatsoever. We can only guess.
Mr.. Kohlsaat in his "reminiscences,
From Mckinley to Harding" relates
that President Roosevelt once gave
a correspondent of Paris news
paper an item which created a Juror.
To quell the storm, Roosevelt pos
itively denied that he ever gave the
offending interview. Two or three
days later, Kohlsaat said to him:
Il believe you said what the French
man reported. And Roosevelt re-
piled: "Of course said it, but 1
said it as Theodore Roosevelt, and
not as the President of the United
States!" One is astonished to hear
of our noble and strenuous country
mans resorting to such a cheap eva
sion. May we understand that the
British author made his offending
remark as Rudyard Kipling, and not
as the most eminent living poet of
the English race?
But suppose he did say it. Is it
true? There is certainly no wisdom
in our becoming wrought up over an
untruth, mere slur, uttered by a
private individual.
To save her soul and some other
things such as her over-topping as
cendancy as world power, England
went into the war, August S, 1914.
The saving Of her soul may have been
a minor consideration, but that she
took the high ground she did in that
matter stands to her everlasting
credit. On the afternoon Of the pre-
ceding day the British Ambassador
to Germany had called on the Ger
man Chancellor, Rethmann-H -Hollweg,
to protest against the violation of
Belgium's neutrality, which Germany
as we'll as England had pledged her.
self to maintain. The Chancellor.
among other things, substantially
said this: Surely, your nation will
not break long and warm friend
ship to go to war over the word
neutrality, which other nations
have so often disregarded at their
pleasure. Germany has had to vio-
late Belgium's neutrality to make
the straightest stroke at her enemy:
1t was matter of life or death with
Germany" The British minister.
Goschen, replied: at is also a
matter of life or death with England:
life or death to Englands honor. To
save her soul England must be true
to her pledge concerning Belgium"
When the German warned of the
terrible cost of such a policy, the
Englishman could only say that in
such matter England could not
afford to consider the cost. As soon
as possible after IL o'clock of the
morning of the 5th, English troops
were crossing the Channel for the
Dattle-fields of France. England had
saved her soul.
Ihe case of America as to the war
is strong or weak, according to in
depreciation. The United States did
not enter the war for thirty-two
months after England. But did we
stand aloof from any such motives
as base desire to get Englands
gold? God knows we are selfish
enough, and there were some among
us who both before and after our en-
trance into the war profiteered at
the expense Of everybody Infinitely
more at the expense of our own
people than to England's loss,-yet
lhat America deliberately kept out
d the war for thirty-two months for
the sordid purpose of getting Eng
lands gold, I believe to be as false
as hell.
But, granting we are not sordid,
were we craven and cowardly, and SO
reaping at Englands expense, when
We should have been standing beside
her. Should America have gone into