FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



"I wish that you were here sitting beside me, looking down 

 on the islands of the Sirens and lolling, simply lolling. But I 

 fear that this would not comport with the disposition of a one- 

 hundred-and-eighty-miles-an-hour American. Speaking of one- 

 hundred-and-eighty-miles-an-hour Americans reminds me that 

 your President has not shown such mad velocity in the act of 

 redressing the wrongs of those American citizens whose dear 

 ones went down on the Lusitania. But that incident has at least 

 procured for us literarily-minded Europeans the pleasure of read- 

 ing exquisitely-penned notes which we trust will eventually be 

 brought together in a book as a companion piece to the 'Fioretti' 

 of St. Francis!" (Mr. Lansing was not present that night!) 



It was this that started them. Dear old Dr. S. N. D. North 

 sprang to his feet and gave voice to the patriotic sentiments of 

 all of us, and speaker after speaker followed. There was much 

 moderately restrained excitement. 



After a bit, a man unknown to most of us arose and with an 

 accent that sounded to our ears like German, began to speak. 

 He turned out to be Frank Meyer, the agricultural explorer, and 

 what he said was: "You vill think from my agsent dat I am a 

 Cherman, but I am no Cherman; I am no Austrian, I am a 

 Hollander. I haf listened to dese sentiments vith much interest. 

 Von speaker has said that Militarismus is de cause of war — that 

 Militarismus is de cause of all wars. But I tell you, chentlemen, 

 dat dere is somedings dat is a surer and deeper cause of war, and 

 dat is Patriotismus. Patriotismus is always and has always been 

 de cause of almost all wars. What we must work for is not for 

 country, but for humanity. If you t'ink in dis way, you vill 

 become Social Democrats like me." 



In my anecdote about Spencer Miller and his Wednesday 

 evening talk, I purposely phrased my concluding sentence: "It 

 delighted Dr. Bell and greatly interested the rest of us," for in 



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