Milford chronicle., 1933-09-15
GEORGE 7. MACKLIN
ADDRESSES ROTA2IANS

Professor George T. Macklir
superintendent of the Bridgevill
public schools delivered the follow
ing address at the regular week.,
meeting of the Milford Rotary Clul
held at the New Windsor Hotel ol
Monday, September IL, 1888:
NatiOnalism as a Cause OF War
As we view the news of the worlt
as it comes to us today through thu
medium of the newspaper, the mag
azine, and the radio. we are strucl
by an element which seems to ruI
like a scarlet thread through tbs
woof and warp of the entire fabric
it is an element which produce:
both good and bad-which is cap
able of raising a nation to the
heights of emotional effort and its
results are such that many times a
nation is left in disgrace and dis
pair. The name given to this ele-
ment is nationalism.
Nationalism has been defined as a
sentiment, an emotion, a psychologi-
cal experience. Out of it comes
patriotic loyalty to the country. It
does not depend upon race, religion,
or culture, although these are i'm
portant ingredients. It is an arti-
fetal creation and binds together
extremely divergent groups with
common feelings and ideas. Its
products are imperialism, militar-
ism, and hosts of other dangerous
factors. 1t is both unifying and di-
versitiye-both constructive and de-
structiYe.
Every great war has been pre-
ceded by a rising tide of national
ism. 1t is therefore logical to sup
pose from the evidences of national
ism to be seen abroad in the land
today that the world is sitting on
a powder barrel-that we are on the
eve of a great conflagration which,
if allowed to come to pass, may ut
terly destroy civilization.
In the days which preceded the
World War the various nations of
the world through their representa-
tiYes took occasion to extol the vir-
tues of their own people-to certify
to the fact that their own individ-
ual nation was an instrument chosen
by divine Providence to carry out
the destiny of the human race. The
Kaiser made the statement that the
German people are the grant blocks
upon which God would create His
work of culture. Voltaire. years be-
fore, said, Some day to be ap-
proved by others, it will suffice for
one to say this was the taste of
the French" An eminent citizen
of Bulgaria in the palmy days of
the kingdom said, THE largest
beads in the string of recorded
events standing out most conspicu-
ously are the literature and culture
created in Bulgaria" A Russian |
citizen, bemoaning the fact that |
Kipling spoke of Russia as 'the bear |
that walks like man" and inferred |
that the great Russian nation might |
ultimately overwhelm Europe, |
made the statement that except for |
one other country in the world, and |
that the United States of America,
Russia had approximated the ulti-
mate, and further added that Rus
sia had never waged war except |
for an ideal.
Nor. is the United States of Amer
ica free from the sin of national |
boasting, because Walter Hines
Page said not many years ago that
God has yet made nothing or no.
body equal to the American people.
l don't think He ever will or can"
Text books studied by the French
assert that France is a country of !
justice and right; and at the same
time, Potncare, onetime President
Of France, said of Germany, "She
has been carried off her feet by
kind of drunkenness or vertigo!"
At the same time, Adolf Wagner
said of the French, Her whole his
tory has been one of war and con-
quest"
As a nation we have prided our
selves upon our idealism and have
fallen into the error which has been
a part of the weakness of other ma
of self-praise. 1t there
fore might be interesting to find
Just what some other nations of the
world think of the United. States. A
South American country which has
protested against the policies Of the
United States Government has pro-
tested in the words of one of its
prominent citizens to this effect
'The people of the United States
are rude and obtuse, swollen with
brutal appetites, enemies of all
Idealism, furiously enamored of the
dollar, Unsuitable gulpers of whisky
and sausage.
A member of Parliament of Eng
land asserted upon the floor of the
House, Anyone who takes the
trouble to read the history Of the
United States will discover that in
all the wars in which it has been in
Volved, she has been the aggressor.
A study of the inside facts relating
20 the events leading up to our par
in the World War leads
he cautious reader to the conclu-
sion that we were not guiltless. We
are told Of secret agreements be-
tween the United States and the
allis prior to 1917. We are shown
hat had we taken the same atti-
.ude toward the English blockage !
the rights of American
were violated on the high |
ieas in the seizure of ships and |
.argoes as we took toward the ruth
ess submarine warfare of Ger
many, we should have gone to war
With England and not with Ger
many.
And thus the sad story runsl A
Japanese statesman, Count Emichi-
nasui Soyejima, once said, "Amer-
cans are crafty, underhanded. sell
Ishly inhuman, and seek to domi-
Iate both East and West" He fur