LAND AND WATER 
September 4, 1915. 
review traces ll.is chanf-e in tlie feelings between hntain 
and the I'nired States to the settlement of the V enczuela 
dispute in i8t/,, which brought home to the conscious- 
ness of both peoples the tragedy involved in a' war 
between tiieni. The older American historians were 
intensely provincial and tended to disparage the motives 
of all who to anv extent opposed the nation's desires and 
interests. Distrust and dislike of England were regu- 
larly inculcated in the schoolroom. The present genera- 
tion of historical scliolars has abandoned this narrow 
viewpoint, and has shown that. there are two sides to 
most of the (juestions that formerly seemed to Americans 
to be purely unilateral. With this broadening of the 
historical standpoint has largely disappeared the view 
once so prevalent in America that Fuirope is tlie home of 
elTete monarchies and that a republic is the only justifi- 
able form of Government. Americans liave awakened 
to the fact that not all republics are democracies while 
some monarchies are. 
Unity of English-speaking Peoples. 
The solid friendship between Britain and the United 
States rests upon the immutable fact that there is a funda- 
mental unity among English-speaking peoples which 
sharply distinguishes them from all others. All com- 
petent scholars agree that American political institutions 
are derived direct!}' from English practices and that the 
spirit animating the political framework is basically the 
same as in England. Professor Dunning's slirewd say- 
ing is cited : " An intimate like-mindedness is the 
indispensable factor of permanent international amity," 
It will be asked what about the hyphenated 
American, concerning whom we have heard so miich ? 
How does this mass of non-English speaking and anti- 
English thinking people (it is much smaller tlian is gener- 
ally supposed) react on public opinion? In 1910, out 
of a total of ninety-two millions, two and a half inillions 
were Germans by birth. The immigj-ant's son is prone 
to out-Herod Herod in his Americanism. He resents the 
slightest intimation that he is not as thorouglt and as 
good an American as his neighbours. Tile grand- 
children become so thoroughly Americanised that in 
not infrequent instances they do not kqow in what 
country was their ancestral home. The immigrant 
brings his own standards from F^urope, but his children 
acquire the typical American viewpoint from their 
environment. The main agency has been the free-school 
system, which tends to produce uniformity of type. 
Stress is rightly laid on the important part played by 
language in this metamorphosis, and these words of the 
American anthropologist, David Brinton, are aptly 
quoted : "An individual is a mental slave to the tongue 
he speaks. Virtually it fixes the limits of his intellectual 
life. His most violent efforts cannot transcend them." 
And so it happens that, in .spite of the fact that the 
United States is composed of manv European strains, 
there is an essential unity in so far as the Caucasian 
elements are concerned. The English language that cuts 
off the son of the immigrant from his father's nationality 
bmds him in an indissoluble mental and spiritual union 
with the other English-speaking peoples. 
Why Not Intervention? 
We lia\'e seen that tlie war itself has created 
American sympathies witii the Allies; that there has 
always existed a traditional liking for France; that there 
has been a remarkable growth of friendship between 
Britain and the United States during the last twenty 
J ears ; also that the mechanical processes of social life 
I°nl°rT^i'' f "'■^'■' ''''^" Germans into Americans with 
his^no^ A^ ■ '" -^ '°"P'' ?^ generations. ^Vhy, then, 
ch-lli^n i^ ''"^ '"'^'■^"^"ed '" this war between riva 
has "Sir"' r'^'^"'""-^' ''''' '''' provocation she 
WM ''"^'' ''^"^ ^'■"°" °f German submarines'^ 
tl,.- 'u T/"'ter of this Round Table review like 
e sen "iT' '''''''''^f '" ^'"'^^'"■"' "'^ America^ ^eop ,' 
'- ' "^^-'"^^'^"L .!!^!^:!!l!!!^ '-istic; an d, while recognising 
that war is not always avoidable, it demands that every 
effort should be made to secure a peaceful solution of 
.differences before recourse is had to the ordeal of battle. 
'There was' and still is, he adds, an almost universal 
d'esirein America to keep out of the war,,and everything 
tending towards a peaceful snhiticm of the difficulty has 
been eagerlv welcomed by the bulk of the people. This 
is the national temper, but it would be wrong to conclude 
.from it that thougli slow to act it is immobile. Back of 
■it is that old horror of being embroiled in European 
affairs, which had its origin in the very cradle of its in- 
dependence. 
' ■ -Washington's famous words spoken in his fare- 
well address of 1796 have never been forgotten : 
" Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have 
none or very remote relation." Less than twenty years 
later the Monroe Doctrine gave these words a new 
significance, and Jefferson wrote :" Our first and 
fundamental maxim should be never to entangle our- 
selves in the broils of Iiurope. Our second, never to 
suffer I'^urope to intermeddle with cis-Atlantic affairs." 
This dogma has lost little of its primal force; it was re- 
affirmed at the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907, 
when it was expressly stated that nothing contained in 
the Conventions should be construed as requiring the 
United States to depart from its traditional policy of 
non-intervention in liuropean affairs, and the American 
representatives signed the Algeciras Treaty without 
assuming for their country " obligation or respon- 
sibility for the enforcement thereof." Twice within recent 
years there have been departures— small departures 
^ — from the traditional policy. The Spanish-American 
War necessitated the occupation of the Philippines, and 
interests in China compelled the President to lend a 
hand in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion. 
Neither adventure can be said to have resulted in the 
honour or the advantage which was anticipated, and the 
wisdom of the Monroe Doctrine since then has appeared 
to be more justified than ever. 
A Break with the Past. 
If President Wilson were to break off diplomatic 
relations with Germany he would break for ever with 
the past. He would steer the ship of State into new and 
uncharted seas, amid shoals and reefs of which no liian 
has knowledge. There are those who hold that the 
. United States is now so powerful that she can weather 
the roughest storm in the most dangerous waters. We 
are of the number, but the decision rests with one man 
and one man alone, the President. Can we feel surprise 
that in his lone watch-tower, from which no Pisgah 
vision is granted, he should be slow to speak the word 
that shall sever his nation finally from her past ? Are the 
people ready for it ? Is it their will ? 
There must come an hour, if Germany persists in 
her folly, when this arbitrament will pass from him— will 
in point of fact be decided for him. Though the Hot- 
heads speak of pusillanimity, the charge cannot be 
sustained. If, working for peace, President Wilson be 
driven into w^ar as the only possible means of upholding 
the honour of his country and the rights of humanity, 
he will have behind him the full weight of his people. 
Meantime it behoves us not only publicly but in our 
private speech to refuse to play Thersites. If America 
intervenes, she can employ her power in many ways, 
but if obtaining from Germany the satisfaction she has 
demanded, she considers it her duty to adhere to her old 
habit of isolation, then we may continue to rely on her 
strict neutrality at home and of that benevolence towards 
prisoners, captives, and the distressed which by her 
representatives in the belligerent countries she has exer- 
cised throughout these grievous monthsi America 
" speaks the tongue that Shakespeare spake." and in 
these hours of crisis she may well address to herself the 
words that vShakespeare wrote : 
Come the three corners of the world in arms, 
And we sliall shock them. Nought shall make us ru«. 
If A merica to itself do rest but true. 
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