20 
LAND & WATER 
June 7, 1917 
Our Tone in Transatlantic Discussion 
By G. K. Chesterton 
IT is a common yet a curious fancy that we are all living 
at the end of the world ; and e%'en at the other end of 
the world — from the other people. It is equally odd, 
thou4;h equally obv-ious, that we even stand simul- 
taneously at two opposite ends of the world, for the races 
from whom we are remote. For the Russian our island 
seems one of the clouds of sunset and for the American one 
of the clouds of sunrise. And tliis trick of geographic re- 
litivity is but the symbol of a moral relativity wc are even 
more in danger of forgetting. It is inevitable that foreign 
criticisms should be inconsistent even when they are true ; 
and tliat England seen from the cast and west should look 
like two different objects. Many Russians regard us simply 
as a people that has long had a ParUament. Many Americans 
regard us simply as a people that still has a King. Many of 
the latter do not realise how little despotism is implied in 
having a King ; many of the former, we may add, do not 
realise how very little democracy is implied in having a 
Parliament. Distant criticisms always simplify even when 
they do not falsify. And the most acute aliens are often 
thus misled, both by the subtlety and the snobbery of our 
society. 
A Chicago millionaire will stand before an English lord 
as sentimentally as if he were standing before a tomb- 
stone ; and be quite 
unaware that he is 
standing before a 
mushroom quite as 
new and possibly quite 
as vulgar as himself. 
In the same way a 
■Russian refugee will 
often hail a Radical 
M.P. named Binks as 
a Tribune of the 
Plebs. risen on the 
wreck of privileges ; 
and be quite unaware 
that he holds the 
family seat from Sir 
Thomas Binks, has the 
powerful support of 
Lord Binks, and is 
one of a large un- 
failing family of Par- 
liamentary Binkses. 
It is clear that these 
cross-purposes at a 
great crisis have some 
elements of danger ; 
for mistakes about 
moral material are 
always dangerous. 
One of our Allies over- 
rates our democracy ; another of our Allies underrates our 
democracy or rather, perhaps we should say, overrates our 
aristocracy. And it is always in the long run a disadvan- 
tage to be overrated ; even where it is perhaps a case 
rather of overstating than overrating. And about the 
mortal matter of the great war, it is very necessary to 
simplify the strange and congested yet courageous and very 
living compromise we call England. 
In dealing with very distant, very different and even still 
doubtful persons, even when they are Allies, it is far more 
desirable to secure a minimum than to risk a maximum of 
agreement. It is more imp( rcant that our truth in certain 
things should be trusted absolutely, than that a varying 
number of our beliefs should be more or less believed. Now 
that we arc dealing with types so utterly contrasted with 
our own as, for instance, an Irish-American Democrat or a 
mystical Russian Tolstoyan, we must not expect them to 
praise English policy in the same language as we dQ, or 
anything like so much as we do. We must not expect them 
to say that England is the champion of liberty and justice 
in all ages and all over the world. But we can expect them 
to see, as a simple »act, that England is one of tlie champions 
of liberty and justfce at this definite and deadly minute by 
the clock. Wc must not ask them to believe that we are 
wildly and exceptionally idealistic about tins business ; for 
it is not our reputation about any business. We are in many 
ways less idealistic than Americans :' and we are certainly 
far less idealistic than Russians. But we can ask them to 
beUeve that we are honest about this business ; because, as 
a simple fact, we are honest about it. 
The Mirage 
A Red Indian's Vision of Civilisation 
When an English politician, as our sjx)kesman. says that 
wc are horrified at Prussianism, and especially Prussianism 
in Belgium, he is telling the truth. I can cjuite understand 
Irish-American Fenians saying he is a liar, who has no right 
to be believed even when he is telling the truth ; but he i's' 
teUing the truth. I can quite understand the Russian 
revolutionist thinking we are much more materiahstic than 
he is ; for it is a fact that we are .much more materiahstic 
than the Russians. But it is also a fact, in precisely the same 
cold classification, that we are much less materiahstic than 
the Prussians. And indeed this more modest estimate of 
ourselves is the one damning estimate of our enemies. It is 
not that England is so good that she wanders over the world 
like a knight-errant, defying and destroying every evil, it 
is that (iermany is so bad that she has startled a very insular 
and individualistic merchant into minding something more 
than liis owti business, in the presence of a particular 
evil wliich manifestly must be defied and destroyed. We 
must be a httle more conscious of the things that are said 
against us, before we can even drive home the truth, far less 
the sincerity, of the things that we say against Germany. 
We must not merely patronise the yojng R ssian Bear by 
saying he has most of his troubles before him. We must 
not merely smile at the American Eagle, and suggest 
that he has taken a 
long time to make the 
ornitiiological dis- 
covery that he is not 
a dove ; still less must 
we sneer at him and 
suggest that the func- 
tion of the dove has 
been merely to flaunt 
the white feather. 
The first necessity, to 
follow out the fable, 
is that the British Lion 
should not seem to be 
claiming to be the 
king of these beasts 
and birds, that the 
lion should not be 
credited with demand- 
ing the lion's share 
even of the credit. The 
point on which we 
must insist is not that 
the German Eagle 
must perish because 
it has crossed the 
lion's path, or even 
because it has wan- 
tonly twisted the lion's 
tail. It is that the 
German Eagle, in itself, is so disreputable a fowl that even 
the other eagles have to quarrel with it ; that even birds 
of its feather will not flock with it any more. Or, to 
abandon the apologue, the point is not to defend our repu- 
tation from the charge of human faults, but to defend our 
lives from something, the faults of which are frankly 
inhuman. Patriotism is very practical just now ; and it is 
much more necessary we should be supported than that we 
should be praised. 
For what we want to be supported in is a drastic and 
destructive policy against the Prussian power. I suggest 
that we make our moral claims modest, precisely because we 
must make our political claims severe. We can accept all 
that a Russian or an Irishman might say about our lack of 
political imagination, and be content to answer that one does 
not need to be a social philosopher in order to desire the des- 
truction of Prussian power, any more than one needs to be a 
dog-fancier to desire the destruction of a mad dog. We need 
not pretend to be democratic in the American sense ; we ma\' 
concede that our ideal has been the gentleman rather thaii 
the citizen. But we can still claim that our ideal gentleman 
has not been a gentleman who lashes a private across thj 
face while he stands at attention ; or, in other words, that 
even our snobs admire a gentleman who in some degree 
behaves like a gentleman. We need not pretend to be devout 
in the Russian sense ; we may admit that we have too often 
upheld respectability ratiier than religion. But wc can still 
claim that our respectability is comparatively respectable, 
when it prevents us (as it would certainly prevent us) from 
using any sacrament on any altar as a target for very leisurely 
