1913I] ^'America s Conquest of Europe' 



the hope that with the assurance of peace between the two 

 nations constituting "Greater Britain" — the earnest of the 

 larger peace to follow — the name of Ghent would always be 

 honorably associated. 



At this congress I met many school principals from Teachers 

 various lands, but not all who would have liked to '" distress 

 come were able to be there. From Varna in Bulgaria, 

 for example, a man wrote saying that his absence was 

 due to the distressing results of war with Turkey, the 

 schools having been turned into hospitals and the 

 teachers all serving as soldiers or nurses. In ex- 

 pressing their sympathy the Belgian group little 

 dreamed that by that time next year a similar fate 

 would make of most of them helpless refugees in 

 Holland! 



In 1912 I had been urged by La Fontaine^ to write a primer 

 a booklet on American ideals, to be published in 'fj''^°'^' 

 French in Brussels and used as a reference text for 

 schools. He himself suggested "America's Conquest 

 of Europe" as a telling title. By this he meant not 

 conquest by arms or wealth but by ideas — and 

 especially by those of internationalism and democracy. 



America (so he argued) has been built up by emigration; 

 the most energetic and fittest of Europe's sons created the 

 Republic. You must not forget that for you Europe was and 

 should still remain the beloved Motherland. It is for America 

 to liberate Europe from its burdens, its prejudices, its hatreds. 

 It is your highest duty to reconcile. America is the true inter- 

 national people. These alone can transform the earth into a 

 family of nations, a brotherhood of men. Colonization is the 

 work not only of men and capital but of ideas, by example and 

 experiment. 



1 See Chapter xxxvii, page 326. 



C 493 3 



