The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-09-24


automatically to the conclusion
that Germany, animated by
some secret and satanic pur-
pose. must be deliberately fore
ing on the war. That, obviously,
explained everything. 1t was
ready, it was simple and it was
psycholOgically satisfying.
In the presence of OverWhelm-
ing disaster, the human mind
must find mean or criminal mo-
tives to explain" it. Somebody
must be responsible.
Long before the great war
propagandas began to develop
from abroad, the leading organs
of American opinion, through the
interplay of haste. ignorance and
their own psychological necessities,
had begun to distinguish in the
German Empire vast, malignant
power which alone and for its own
atrOcious ends had plunged the
world into this stupendouS cataS-
trOphe.
TN spite of the long popular
Il tradition of Anglo-American
hostility the influence of the
British viewpoint upon the United
States was in fact enormous.
Politicians might placate an
Irish constituency or stir our
bumptious natiOEalism with a lit
tie tail-twisting now and then, but
those more cultivated elements
which dominated our Intellectual,
political and financial life still
found in London their unac-
knowledged capital.
In washington, that Monday,
Congress was rushing through Mr..
McAdoo's emergency fiscal legis-
lation and had little time to think
of the larger aspects Of the crisis.
The Senate did pause to adopt a
resolution "deprecating" the war
(aS one correspondent put it,;
while the moralist in the White
House summoned the newspaper
men and urged them to eschew all
unverified rumOr and excitement.
The United States, MIR. Wilson
told them, "OweS it to mankind
to remain in such a state of mind
that she can help the world"
BY the evening OF Aug. the I'M
menSe catastrophe had become
complete and irretrievable; and
on wednesday morning, Aug. 5,
the great banner heads went
marching like fate across Ameri-
can breakfast tables. The thing
had happened.
THE Bank of France was re-
Il ported (erroneously) to be
opening a big war Credit-all of
So 00.000-with j. P. Morgan &
Co. The U. S. S. Tennessee was
being hurriedly loaded with gold
dollars and rushed abroad to the
rescue of the tourists now jam
ming every American consulate
and embassy in Europe-in the
panic stricken discovery that they
were stranded in a world where
civilization had broken down,
where letterS-of credit had no
meaning and whence security had
fled.
On Aug. 5 the British navy
dredged up and cut the German
cables and on Aug. 6 there was not
single Berlin or Vienna date
line in the American press.
The war broke upon our gov
eminent even more suddenly than
upon our newspapers, and gave it
even less time in which to assess
its problem and formulate its
policy.
The idea of an American media
ton, however, was as spontaneous
as the shock and horror springing
from the disaster itself. There was
a resolution in the Senate on
Aug. + urging the President to I'M
dertake a settlement by medi-
alton or arbitration"
TINE earliest official suggestion
Il arrived at the State Depart
ment with those first cables of
July %, in the dispatch from AM
basSador Herrick at Paris. Ger
man mobilization he reported.
would mean war. and he believed
that "a strong plea for delay and
moderation from the President of
the United States would meet with
the respect and approval Of Eu-
rope"
Even in those days mediation,
in Mr.. Herrick's excited mind, was
being colored into a proposal for
what would have amounted to an
American intervention on behalf
of the Entente powers to halt the
Germans.
The dispatch went Immediately
to the White House. Did the
President grasp the unneutral i'm
plicatiOnS of the suggestions He
respected it. at any rate; and in
stead of issuing at once the plea
for moderation" he cabled late
that night TO Ambassador Page at
London, asking his advice as to a
Sounder course of action.
rs there in your opinion any
likelihood that the good offices of
the United States would be
acceptable or serve any high pur-
poSe?"
Mr.. Page was asked for his own
opinion; unfortunately he re-
sponded by giving Sir Edward
Grey's.
A LREADY Mr.. Page wss far
L n gone beneath the spell of
that astere nobility. L think 7
shall never forget yesterday" the
infatuated ambassador reported TO
Mr.. Wilson. There sat this al
ways solitary mamie and T. Of