Evening star., 1933-07-02
BY WILLIAM r. CASTLE, Jr.,

YHEN we decide what we want
"a to do, We Americans go into
wv our adventures with unlim-
Y tied enthusiasm. We see
only evil traits In our en-
emies, only virtue In our friends.
1t was thus that we entered the war
IN 1917. We had been fed on propa-
ganda for nearly three years and there
fore looked on the Germans as brutal
race whose purpose was to destroy civil
ization as we knew it. Equally we saw
in the allies the defenders Of civiliza-
tion, fighting with their backs to the
wall, fighting our battles. Suspicion of
the English, laboriously fostered for
years by the Irish in America. collapsed
in face CT our acclaim of the superb
bravery of the British expeditionary
dogged resistance Of the French, in the
modern heroes, Joffre and Foch and
Petain. we learned to retell the story
of French assistance to us in the Revo-
lution; Lafayette became once more a
living figure, epitomidng our duty to
help in this modern invasion of France.
Italian entrance into the war seemed
to us wholly noble and unselflSh; we
did not speak Of the Italians as "Wops"
any more The suf1erings of Poland, as
explained to us by Paderewsh, became
Germ, and Mazaryk's tales of the Aus
trian oppression of the Czechs brought
us shouting to our feet, although we
had little idea where Bohemia was Sit
uated. One page was wholly black, the
other wholly white. We entered the
war as crusaders, to save the world for
democracy This, at least, was the at
titude of the crowd, and mob psychol-
ogy was in the ascendant The Gov
ernment gave free rein to these popular
emotions, fed them when there was any
sign Of tagging, because we all wanted
to help win the war in short order.
This hysteria was necessary, also, to
enable us to raise the stupendous funds
necessary to carry on, both in our own
effort and to help our nearly exhausted
allies. Money was poured out like wa
ter. 1t was true that we had plenty
of it, but people who had little invested
that little In the cause. Any holding
back was branded as treason. Any
criticism Of the allies, any expressed
query as to how the money could all
be paid back was frowned upon or
derided
But in the very nature Of things this
enthusiasm could not last. The pendu-
lum began to swing back, and it did
not stop at neutral 1t tended rather
to 60 to the other extreme. Ugly tales
began to drift home from our troops
in Europe, some of them true, most of
them false. Then came the armistice.
American troops which marched into
Germany were well received, and they
began to compare German friendliness
with French tolerance. Then came the
Peace Conference, with all its disillu-
sionments and its absurdities, its ex-
travagant punishmentS and its exhibi-
tions Of national selfishness. People
recognized that the treaties were bad,
that they would only perpetuate hatreds.
American sympathy began to swing
toward the defeated powers, but in our
disbursement the general feeling was
that, after all, We had made bad mis-
take In ever getting mixed up in the
quarrels Of those selfish European ma
tions.
Blocked by Senate.
1t was this general feeling. more than
any specific dislike of President Wilson
or of the details of the treaties, which
made the Senate reject them and along
with them, the League Of Nations. For
years Americans had been cropping to-
ward some scheme to insure world peace.
It would have seemed that the League.
avowedly created for this purpose, would
have been received with enthusiasm,
especially coming, as it did, Immediately
after a great war. But the desire for
the peaceful settlement of disputes did
not compare In its intensity with the
fear that America might once more
become involved in European quarrels.
And there was much in the covenant
of the League which made this pcssi-
never missed the opportunity to make
this clear, and his insistence on the
dangers of article x, with its guaranty
of frontiers which the American people
already had begun to think inequitable,
carried more weight than the pleadings
of the President that America should
not desert the world in its need. The
American people in their hearts had
already deserted their former associates
in the war.
Then there arose the question Of the
debts. Great Britain was the first to
come forward and make an offer of
settlement, which was accepted. The
rest seemed indisposed to do anything,
but finally, after much haggling over
terms, arrangements based en- capacity
to pay" were secured. Theoretically, the
standard of capacity to pay was both
equitable and generous, but European
nations resented Americas prying into
their affairs and denied that America
could fairly estimate capacity. In the
last contention they were right. Ca
pacity varies with prosperity, fact
which at the time was not recognized
and has since caused dangerous mis-
understandings.
But the United States, believing the
debts to be as sacred as any other obli-
cations, deeply resented the European
attitude that, after all, the money ad-
vanced was merely the American con-
tribution to the war, little enough
compared to the European sacrifice OF
men; resented bitterly the appellation
of Uncle Shylock" and insisted on
payment Of the greatly reduced sums.
The dislike resulting from the debts
was more acute on the European than
on the American side of the water. 1t
is said in private life that loan de-
stroys friendship, and 1t Is human
nature that when a loan Is not paid
the debtor is inclined to be more bitter
than the creditor. He has to flnd
excuses for himself, and he therefore
builds up case against his creditor,
which finally makes him out monster.
After all, nations are merely collections
of individuals, and mass psychology Is
only the exaggeraticn OF Individual
psychology.
Illusions Torn Away.
Thus began the reaction in sentiment
against cur associates in the war.
Nothing happened to turn the tide
again. Americans were disillusioned. 1t
was not that for the first time they saw
clearly the truth about the nations OF
Europe, but that veil of illusions had
been torn away. Because the face be.
hind the veil was not as wholly beautiful
as they had believed during the tntoxl-
cation of war association, they were
| inclined to find it wholly ugly. Both
conceptions were, of course, radically
wrong, but the growing tide OF resent
ment against Europe in general, and our
allies In particular, made much more
| difficult the task of the Department OF
State in rebuilding cur trade relations
and in securing cooperation in dis,