WILL AMERICA FIGHT?

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3039, 28 March 1917, Page 5

WILL AMERICA FIGHT?

PDBUC SENTIMENT AND NATURAL ' CAUSES {The following ortiole on the attitude of America towards the wax • 'Jβ written by Mr. Fred. Davison, Past President of the Chicago Australasian Society, who has lust returned' from the TJnited States after residing there some years. Mr. Dayieon'e views, it will be noted, . i are estremo and emphatic, are . . baeed on his own observations and experiences. Whether he has formed a oprreot estimate we shall probably know next week when Congress meets.] ," Roosevelt should know Americans, land he has summed them up as fol■j lows:—"My, countrymen hayo two : faults—one is the habit_ of- making projmisee that they never intend to Keep; I the other is mistaking elooution as an I efficient substitute for action." If New Zealanders will read the American ' cablegrams appearing in the daily j Press with the aid of this Rooseveltian ! pronouncement, they will get fairly i close to the attitude of Americans toJ wards the United States taking a physical part in ttie Great-War. ' ■ I' For eight' years I have lived in the j TJnited States, meeting all sorts and .conditions of men, and I met 'only ono who favours intervention— xTt physical intervention. Mentally, the ■^r'\ American will fight—financially, no; physically, never. The one American (excepting RooseiTclt, of course), who would have the • TJnited States jump into the fight, had j been twelve years out. of the States, innd had iust returned to Chicago from jßussia', when I:met him. Hβ told me "jjhe had called on an elderly Russian in I charge-of considerable business interlests in Petrograd, and the Russian ■ opened out as follows: .•'■;■' • \ "You are an American—l want to [task you a question: I have some right !to ask it. for I fought for the North ilnyour Ciyil.War—what kind of men 'are you raising now?" ' '■• ■ ; My friend to/d me he could give him no answer, for he had noiie to give, could only stand ashamed. ; , Two things'would make America ifight—the German Fleet outside New i'York battering • down, the skyscrapers, "or the Japanese blowing up San Francisco. For IeES than this they will not •fight. All lEngland could be Belgiumised,'aU EngkshwomW. outraged, and all Englishmen lined against a wall tad shot, and the TJnited States would Hot pull, a trigger—though some Notes jraight b'e written; As. to New Zealand—why, not even a Note would be forthcoming. The sooner the British ! everywhere .realise .this fact (for fact »tt is) the bettor, for then they will |know that there is no -help_ excepVin \ our own strong-arms. It is a finish .fight—with the United States as looker;on, and picker-up ,of unconsidered trifles. ■.'■•■ .'...■ . i. : In all that iWoodrow "Wilson _ hafc •ileft- undone,, though, not unwritten, '.he has had, and., still'. lias, the support of : Americans. '"He Kept us out of ■war," gave Wilson , his i second term,' and converted the minority vote that eleoted him in 1912 into 'the majority vote over Hughes in 1916. ,1 have lived eight years in, America, earning my living alongside the American people hi St. Louis, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake, and San Francisco, and [I know Americans—know how they <5o ■ things, and why.they,do things.' The official* from New Zealand, Australia, and elsewhere, knows little of his . 'America. He is "official," so he is outside the people, and as they do not ;talk openly to him he cannot learn. • 'The tourist travels over the land, but knowledge passes him by also. He .reads the^"outside" of the papers—tho inner meaning is'sealed to him. 1 AsMo who sends out the cable nowe in which the British, including New Zealanders, are fed, I do not know, 'but the iteinß have a strong" Amerioan •"smell. Take those appearing in The Do'minion of Saturday last, March 24: "It is believed that action to be taken by. Congress will make the American' position unmistakable" Bounds good—but read it twice, and it.says nothing and ■jneans nothing. Congress hae done nothing—and what is the American position? Again, "Mr. Roosevelt's proposal for an. expeditionary force 'is widely disoussed,. but while it is evi.dent there will be a vast body of vol- .. unteers it is unlikely that any early 'aotion will be taken." -That' is ; a •"peach." Roosevelt's talk , of raising !a division of soldiers was stale when I left the States a 'month, ago, and nq- . 'body ever took any notice of it at any time. "Teddy is shooting the bull aEain," was tho usual comment made. ,ffhe "vast body of volunteers" makes . ■ me smile. I went around the re- . i cruiting offices'in' Chicago when efforts 'were being made to fill the National \ jGuard, at the time of the Mexican raids, and there was neither enthusiasm nor recruits.., Again, when Mr. (Wilson "broke" with Mexico, I watched the .recruiting office's,- and again 'the recruits were not there.- Roosevelt has a paper scheme, but that is , all; so, as the cablegram says, "it is ■ -unlikely that any early action will be taken." ; It is unlikely! The ' ! "break" with Germany gave the news- , papers great opportunity to wage war '"mentally." The Chicago 'ITribune" headed one of its articles, ''War Re'cruiting Plans to Make Kitchener's iWork Appear. Small,", and then- proceeded: "The campaign which will be bonducted .by the United States Army .will set an example to the world," said ■ Captain Kinney, "The United States will make Kitchener's campaign look .'email in comparison." And so on until the space was filled. Reads all right to (Americans, but sounds batlly in other .folks' cars. Of course, the recruits never eventuated, but no. one ever ■thought they would, nor will they join Roosevelt's expeditionary force. The people,of tho TJnited States aro not ' making tho land of noise a nation makes before it fights. The truth of the matter is that Americans despise.all.European peoples, and do not think any European cause whatever worth fighting about. They are .taught to bo despise them "by their .sohools and by their newspapers. An j American does nob know and cannot 'be taught that anything outside the ;Statos is worthy. A personal friend of mino, high in the American newspaper world, heartily dislikes the British, though himself of British descent. Said he to me: "I ! don't know why it is, but I don't like thorn." "I will tell you," said I. "You Refit as a small kid at school";, and I brought to his memory tho little talcs told tho boys and girls. "You are right," he said; "I never looked at it that way before. I got the 'twist , at school." Getting back to the cablegrams. Thoy wag on: "All the newspapers feature ■with headlines across tho pages the proximity of war." Well, well'l But , they have been thus fighting mentally this two and a half years. Americans don't worry about their papers' headlines. The American Preßs has beon "demanding" and "must"-ing and the Kaiser, and- slapping 'John Bull this long time. Who cares? " It moans as littlo as President Wilson's Notes. Of course, the cablegram writer would say in defence: "It was in tho papers." Of course it was; but it Mover was in tho people's minds; which is the main thing. ; And so on, and so on. America Is the "Land of Let's Pretend," and Britishers irill do well to recogniso the fact. ..... ' . .

But there is one thine that we should bear in mind. It is this: First, last, ,£ad all the time America is a business

nation —always tho oyo ia on the main chance. So far they have made all the money possible out of The War; later they will try to- make all the money possible out of .The Peaoe—and to do bo will at tho right moment, when no saorifioe will bo involved, come but "boldly" for tho Allies—that tl'oy may bo inoluded in after-tho-war tariffs. At that time ire must romember that the only thing entitling my nation to equality of benefit ia equality of sacrifice. And America has made no sacrifice, will make none—the cablegrams to the contrary notwithstanding.