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diff --git a/15523.txt b/15523.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..de210cb --- /dev/null +++ b/15523.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1332 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Getting Together, by Ian Hay + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Getting Together + +Author: Ian Hay + +Release Date: April 2, 2005 [EBook #15523] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GETTING TOGETHER *** + + + + +Produced by Rick Niles, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net). + + + + + +[Illustration:] + + + + +GETTING TOGETHER + + + + + GETTING + TOGETHER + + BY + IAN HAY + + Author of "The First Hundred Thousand," + "A Safety Match," etc. + + + GARDEN CITY + DOUBLEDAY, PAGE + & COMPANY + + BOSTON + HOUGHTON MIFFLIN + COMPANY + + 1917 + + + + + Copyright, 1917, by + IAN HAY BEITH + + _All rights reserved, including that of + translation into foreign languages, + including the Scandinavian_ + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + +For several months it has been the pleasant duty of the writer of the +following deliverance to travel around the United States, lecturing +upon sundry War topics to indulgent American audiences. No one--least +of all a parochial Briton--can engage upon such an enterprise for long +without beginning to realize and admire the average American's amazing +instinct for public affairs, and the quickness and vitality with which +he fastens on and investigates every topic of live interest. + +Naturally, the overshadowing subject of discussion to-day is the War, +and all the appurtenances thereof. The opening question is always the +same. It lies about your path by day in the form of a newspaper man, +or about your bed by night in the form of telephone call, and is +simply: + +"When is the War going to end?" + +(One is glad to note that no one ever asks _how_ it is going to end: +that seems to be settled.) + +The simplest way of answering this question is to inform your +inquisitor that so far as Great Britain is concerned the War has only +just begun--began, in fact, on the first of July, 1916; when the +British Army, equipped at last, after stupendous exertions, for a +grand and prolonged offensive, went over the parapet, shoulder to +shoulder with the soldiers of France, and captured the hitherto +impregnable chain of fortresses which crowned the ridge overlooking +the Somme Valley, with results now set down in the pages of history. + +Having weathered this conversational opening, the stranger from +Britain finds himself, as the days of his sojourn increase in number, +swept gently but irresistibly into an ocean of talk--an ocean +complicated by eddies, cross-currents, and sudden shoals--upon the +subject of Anglo-American relations over the War. Here is the +substance of some of the questions which confront the perplexed +wayfarer:-- + + 1. "Do your people at home appreciate the fact that we are + thoroughly pro-Ally over here?" + + 2. "How about that Blockade? What are you opening our mails + for--eh?" + + 3. "Would you welcome American intervention?" + + 4. "What do you propose to do about the submarine menace?" + + 5. "You don't _really_ think we are too proud to fight, do + you?" + + 6. "Are you in favour of National Training for Americans?" + + 7. "Do you expect to win outright, or are both sides going to + fight themselves to a standstill?" + +_And_ + + 8. "Why can't you Britishers be a bit kinder in your attitude + to us?" + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + +Let us take this welter of interrogation categorically, and endeavour +to frame such answers as would occur to the average Briton to-day. + +But first of all, let it be remembered that the average Briton of +to-day is not the average Briton of yesterday. Three years ago he was +a prosperous, comfortable, thoroughly insular Philistine. He took a +proprietary interest in the British Empire, and paid a munificent +salary to the Army and Navy for looking after it. There his Imperial +responsibilities ceased. As for other nations, he recognized their +existence; but that was all. In their daily life, or national ideals, +or habit of mind, he took not the slightest interest, and said so, +especially to foreigners. + +"I'm English," he would explain, with a certain proud humility. +"That's good enough for yours truly!" + +This sort of thing rather perplexed the American people, who take a +keen and intelligent interest in the affairs of other nations. + +But to-day the average Briton would not speak like that. He will never +speak like that again. He has been outside his own island: he has made +a number of new acquaintances. He has been fighting alongside of the +French, and has made the discovery that they do not subsist entirely +upon frogs. He has encountered real Germans, at sufficiently close +quarters to realize that the "German Menace" at which his party +leaders encouraged him to scoff in a bygone age was no such phantom +after all. Altogether he is a very different person from the +complacent, parochial exponent of the tight-little-island theories of +yester-year. He has encountered things at home and abroad which have +purged his very soul. Abroad, he has seen the whole of Belgium and +some of the fairest provinces of France subjected to the grossest and +most bestial barbarity. At home, he has seen inoffensive watering +places bombarded by pirate craft which came up out of the sea like +malignant wraiths and then fled away like panic-stricken +window-smashers. He has seen Zeppelins hovering over close-packed +working-class districts in industrial towns, raining indiscriminate +destruction upon men, women, and children. In fact, he has seen things +and suffered things that he never even dreamed of, and they have +broadened his mind considerably. + +Last year, under stress of these circumstances, the average Briton +relinquished his age-long propensity to "let George do it," and +evolved a sudden and rather inspiring sense of personal responsibility +for the safety and welfare of his country. He no longer limited his +patriotism to the roaring of truculent choruses at music-halls, or the +decorating of his bicycle with the flags of the Allies. He went and +enlisted instead. Now he has faced Death in person--and outfaced him. +He has ceased to attach an exaggerated value to his own life. Life, he +realizes, like Peace, is only worth retaining on certain terms, the +first of which is Honour, and the second Honour, and the third Honour. + +Finally, he regards the present War as a Holy War--a Crusade, in fact. +He went into it with no ulterior motives: his sole impulse was to +stand by his friends, France and Belgium, in the face of the monstrous +outrage that was being forced upon them. He is out, in fact, to save +civilization and human decency. Consequently he finds it just a little +difficult to understand how a warm-hearted and high-spirited nation +can be expected to remain "neutral even in thought." + +With this much introduction to the man and his point of view, we will +allow him to speak for himself. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + +"Do I realize that you are pro-Ally over here? Well, somehow I have +always felt it, but now I know it. When I get home I shall rub that +fact into everyone I meet. What our people at home don't grasp is the +fact that America is inhabited by two distinct races--Americans, and +others. The others appear to me--mind you, I'm only giving you a +personal impression--to consist either of alien immigrants who have +not yet absorbed their new nationality, or professional anti-Ally +propagandists, or people of mixed nationality with strong commercial +interests in Germany, whose heart is where their treasure is. These +make a surprising amount of noise, and attract a disproportionate +amount of attention: but I know, and I intend the people at home to +know, that the genuine American is with us in this business heart and +soul. + +"What's that? The Blockade? Yes, I want to talk to you about that. I +take it you will admit that a blockade is a justifiable expedient of +war. There have been one or two of them in history. In the American +Civil War, for instance, the North established a pretty successful +blockade against the Southern ports. British cotton ships were +everlastingly trying to run through that cordon. In fact, I rather +think we exchanged a few cousinly notes on the subject. Of course +blockades are irksome and irritating to neutrals. But we look to you +here to endure the inconvenience, not merely as one of the chances of +war, but rather to show us that you in this country do recognize and +indorse the ideal for which we are fighting. We _are_ fighting for an +ideal, you know: I think the way the old country came into this war, +all unprepared and spontaneously, just because she felt she _must_ +stand by her friends, was the finest thing she has ever done. Of +course no sane person expected America to saddle herself gratuitously +with a European War--without good and sufficient reason, that is--but +we in England would like to feel that your acquiescence in the +inconveniences caused by our blockade is your contribution to the +cause--your slap on the back, signifying:--Go in and win! + +"Open your mails? Yes, I'm afraid we do. And we find a good lot inside +them! Do you know, there is a great warehouse in London filled from +top to bottom with rubber, and nickel, and other commodities for which +the Hun longs, disguised as all sorts of things--rubber fruit, for +instance--taken from the most innocent-looking parcels--all dispatched +from the United States to neutral countries in touch with Germany? +But we are most punctilious about it all. Every single article retains +its original address-label, and will be forwarded direct to its proper +consignee, directly the war is over. Can you beat that? + +"Would we welcome Intervention? My dear sir, is it likely? Supposing +_you_ had been caught entirely unprepared, and had been sticking your +toes in for two years--fighting for time and playing a poor hand +pretty well--and were at last ready to hit back, and hit back, until +you had rendered your opponent incapable of further outrage, and were +in a fair way to fix this war so that it never could happen +again--would you welcome Mediation, or offers of Mediation? I think +not. + +"Submarines? We aren't attaching _too_ much importance to submarine +frightfulness. It is true we have lost a number of merchant ships, and +that a number of innocent lives have been sacrificed. But let us put +our hearts in the background for the present and look at the matter +from the economic and military point of view. We have lost, in +twenty-seven months, about one tenth of our original merchant fleet. +Against that you have to set the fact that we have been steadily +building new merchant ships during the same period. The dead loss of +merchandise involved amounts to about one half per cent. of the total +value--ten shillings in every hundred pounds; or fifty cents per +hundred dollars. That won't starve us into submission. + +"But the Germans will build more and more submarines? Very probably. +Still, I think we can leave it to the British and French navies to +prevent undue exuberance in that direction. Our sailors have not been +exactly garrulous during this war, but I think we may take it that +they have not been entirely idle. Has it ever occurred to you that +although there are hundreds of Allied warships patrolling the ocean +to-day, you hardly ever hear of one being torpedoed by a submarine? +Passenger ships and freight ships suffer to the extent I have quoted, +but not the warships. Why is that? Don't ask me: ask Jellicoe! But it +rather looks as if the submarine, as an instrument of naval +warfare--as opposed to a baby-killing machine--had rather failed to +deliver the goods. + +"The Deutschland? I take off my hat to Captain Koenig: he is a plucky +fellow. The _U 53_? I have no remarks to offer, except to repeat my +previous reference to baby-killing machines. As for the presence of +these two vessels in American waters--in American ports--I won't +presume to offer an opinion. Still, not long ago the U 53 sank six +British or neutral vessels off the American coast, just outside +territorial waters. Fortunately for the passengers, an American +cruiser was in the neighbourhood, to guard against violation of +American waters, and picked them up. But the whole incident looks to +me like a deliberate German plan to jockey an American cruiser into +becoming a German submarine tender. + +"Let me see--what else? Too proud to fight? Not much! We know the +American people too well. Besides, we suffer from politicians +ourselves, and know what political catch-phrases are. So don't let +that worry you. + +"National Training for America? There I am neither qualified nor +entitled to offer advice. I know the difficulties with which the true +American has to contend in this matter. I know that this vast country +of yours is more of a continent than a country, and that so long as +your enormous tide of immigration continues, it will be a matter of +immense difficulty developing a national sense of personal +responsibility. I also know that your Middle West is inhabited by +people, many of whom have never even seen the sea, who are rendered +incapable, by their very environment, of realizing the immensity of +the external dangers which threaten their country. These must see +things differently from the more exposed section of the community, and +I see how dangerous it would be to enforce upon them a measure which +they regard as ridiculous. But on this great subject of Preparedness, +I can refer you to the case of my own country--not as an example, but +as a warning. _We_ were caught unprepared. In consequence, we had to +sacrifice our best, our very best, the kind that can never be replaced +in any country, just because they hurried to the rescue and allowed +themselves to be wiped out, while the country behind them was being +aroused and prepared. That is the price that we have paid, and no +ultimate victory, however glorious, can recompense us for that +criminal waste of the flower and pride of our youth and manhood at the +outset. + +"Do we expect to win the war outright? Yes, we do." + +It is true that the Central Powers have recently succeeded in +devastating another little country, though they have not destroyed +its army. On the other hand, during the past few months the Allied +gains on the Somme have included, among other items, a chain of +fortresses hitherto considered impregnable, four or five hundred +pieces of artillery, fourteen hundred machine-guns, and about +ninety-five thousand unwounded German prisoners. Moreover, the French +at Verdun have regained in a few weeks all the ground that the Crown +Prince wrested from them, at the price of half a million German +casualities, in the spring. German colonies have ceased to exist; +German foreign trade is dead; the German navy is cooped up in Kiel +harbour; and Germany is so short of men that she has resorted to +outrageous deportations from Belgium in order to obtain industrial +labour. On the other hand, our supply of munitions now, at the opening +of 1917, is double what it was six months ago, and our new armies are +not yet all in the field. The British Navy, despite all losses, has +increased enormously both in tonnage and personnel. So I don't think +we are fought to a standstill yet. + +"Yes, you are right. All this bloodshed is dreadful. But +responsibility for bloodshed rests not with the people who end a war +but with the people who began it. As for discussing terms of peace +now, what terms _could_ be arranged which Germany could be relied upon +to observe a moment longer than suited her? Have you forgotten the +way the War was forced on the world by Prussian militarism? The trick +played on Russia over mobilization? The violation of Belgian +neutrality? Malines, Termonde, Louvain? The official raping in the +market-place at Liege? The _Lusitania_? Edith Cavell? The Zeppelin +murders? Chlorine gas? The deportations from Belgium and Lille? +Wittenburg typhus camp, where men were left to rot, without doctors, +or medicine, or bedding? How can one talk of "honourable peace" with +such a gang of criminal lunatics? Ask yourself who would be such a +fool as to propose to end a war upon terms which left the safety of +the world exposed to the prospect of another outbreak from the same +source? + + +"You, sir? _Why can't you people in England be a bit kinder in their +tone to us here in America?_ Ah, now you are talking! Let us get away +from this crowd and go into the matter--get together, as you say." + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + +So the average Briton and the average American retire to a secluded +spot, and "get together." The American repeats his question: + +"Why can't your people over there be a bit kinder? Why can't you +consider our feelings a bit more? You haven't been over and above +polite to us of late--or indeed at any time." + +"No," admits the Briton thoughtfully, "I suppose we have not. +Politeness is not exactly our strong suit. In my country we are not +even polite to one another!" (Try as he will, he cannot help saying +this with just the least air of pride and satisfaction.) "But I admit +that that is no reason why we should be impolite to other nations. The +fact is, being almost impervious to criticism ourselves, we naturally +find it difficult to avoid wounding the feelings of a people which is +particularly sensitive in that respect." + +"Very well," replies the American. "Now, we want to put this right, +don't we?" + +"We do," replies the other, with quite un-British enthusiasm. "No one +who has spent any time as a visitor to this country could help----" + +"Why then, tell me," interpolates the other, "what is at the back of +your country's present resentful attitude toward America?" + +The Briton ponders. + +"Didn't someone once say," he replies at last, "that 'he that is not +for us is against us?' That seems to sum up the situation. We on our +side are engaged in a life-and-death struggle for the freedom of the +world. We know that you are not against us; still, considering the +sacredness of our cause, and the monstrous means by which the Boche is +seeking to further his, we feel that you have not stood for us so out +and out as you might. Only the other day your Government announced +that in their opinion it was time that both sides stated plainly what +they were fighting for! Now----" + +The other checks him. + +"Don't you go mixing up the officially neutral American Government," +he says, "with the American people, or the American people with the +inhabitants of America. In many districts of America, the balance of +power lies with people who have only recently entered the country, and +who have not yet become absorbed into the American people. As for our +present Government, it was put into power mainly by the people of the +West--people to whom the War has not come home in any way--and the +Government, having to consider the wishes of the majority, naturally +carries out the instructions on its ticket. That is how I, as an +average American, sense the situation. However, that is not the +point. Listen! + +"You say that America has not helped you very much? Let us consider +the ways in which America _could_ have helped. Military aid? Well, of +course that is out of the question so long as we remain neutral, as we +agreed just now we certainly ought to remain. Still, there are more +than twenty-five thousand American citizens serving in the Allied +Armies to-day. Did you realize that?" + +"I did not," says the Briton, interested. + +"Well, it is true. There are battalions in the Canadian Army composed +almost entirely of men from the United States. Others are serving in +the French and British Armies. Then there is the American Flying +Corps in France." + +"Yes, I have heard of them. Who has not? Proceed!" + +"Industrial help, again. We are making munitions for you, night and +day. It is true that we are being paid for our trouble; but the cost +of living has risen almost as much here as in your own country. Also +let me tell you that we are making no munitions for Germany, and would +not do so, money or no. The same with financial help. Loan after loan +has been floated in this country for the Allied benefit. How many +loans have been raised for Germany? Not one! That is not because +German credit is so bad, but because no true American will consent to +lend his money to such a cause. Believe me, the attempt has been made, +and strong influence brought to bear, more than once, but the result +has been failure every time. + +"Red Cross Work, again. There are hundreds of Americans driving +ambulances in the Allied lines to-day, and hundreds of American women +working in Allied hospitals. There are complete hospital units over +there, equipped and maintained by American money and American service. +Have you ever heard of the Harvard Unit, for instance?" + +"Vaguely. Tell me about it." + +"Well, I mention the Harvard Unit because it was about the first; but +others are doing nobly too. Let Harvard serve as a sample. At the +outbreak of the War, Harvard put down ten thousand dollars to equip +and staff the American Ambulance Hospital in Paris. Then, in June, +1915, Harvard took over one of your British Base Hospitals, with +thirty-two surgeons and seventy-five nurses. That hospital has been +maintained by Harvard folk ever since; they go out and serve for three +months at a time. Harvard also sent an expedition to fight typhus in +Serbia. Harvard's casualty list, in consequence, has grown pretty +long. Not a bad record for one neutral University, eh? I don't seem to +remember your Oxford or Cambridge sending out a medical unit to help +us, when we were fighting for a moral issue too, away back in the +'sixties under Lincoln." + +"I knew nothing of all this. People at home must be told," says the +Briton, earnestly. + +"Or," continues the American, we can take the work of the American +Ambulance Field service. The American Ambulance Field Service with the +Armies of France has carried over seven hundred thousand wounded since +the beginning of the war; their sections and section leaders have been +sixteen times cited for valuable and efficient work; fifty-four of +their men have been given the Croix de Guerre for bravery, and two the +Medaille Militaire. Three have been killed. The Society has at present +over two hundred ambulances at the front, besides staff and other +cars attached to different sections. This Service, which, at the +beginning of the war, was a subsidiary part of the American Ambulance +Hospital at Neuilly has for the past year been self-supporting, and +although still co-operative with the Hospital, has its own +administration and headquarters, and its own maintenance fund. If you +require any further information on the subject, read 'Friends of +France,'[1] or 'Ambulance No. 10,'[2] both of which books will stir +you not a little. + +"Talking of books, if you want to read a genuine American's opinion +of the Allies and their cause, read 'Their Spirit,'[3] by Judge Robert +Grant. And if you want to know what another prominent American, who +formerly admired and reverenced Germany, thinks of Germany now, read +Owen Wister's 'Pentecost of Calamity.'[4] Or, if you want a complete +exposure of German aims and methods in this war, read James M. Beck's +'The Evidence in the Case'.[5] + +"Now a word concerning War Relief Societies in general. (There's more +to hear than you thought, isn't there?) I cannot possibly give you +details about them all, because their name is legion. For instance, +this printed list contains the names of a hundred and ten such +societies; and there are others. As you see, it covers Armenian, +Belgian, British, French, Italian, Lithuanian, Persian, Polish, and +Russian Relief enterprises of every kind. German Relief Societies? +Yes, throughout the United States there are eleven German and Austrian +Societies altogether; but they are all under purely Teutonic +management, as a glance at the names of their supporters will show. +America, as such, stands aloof from them. + +"Let us have a look at the purely British Relief Societies, which +naturally will interest you most. There is The American Women's War +Hospital at Paignton, Devonshire, directed by Lady Paget, herself an +American, and supported by American contributions. It is a far cry +from America to Australia, but there is an Australian War Relief Fund +in America. Then take the British War Relief Association of America. +This Association occupies an entire floor in a lofty building on the +busiest stretch of Fifth Avenue. All day and every day they work away, +cutting surgical dressings at the rate of nine thousand yards a week. +They also collect and despatch comforts of every kind, from motor +ambulances to antiseptic pads. The rent of their premises is eight +thousand dollars a year; but they get the whole place free. Their +landlord, an American citizen, has given them that floor for the +duration of the war, as his contribution to the fund. Isn't that +pretty fine? Again, there is an American branch of your own Prince of +Wales' fund. There is a United States Guild for British Soldiers' +Comforts; there is an Indian Soldiers' Fund Committee, and many +others. These, as you see, are purely pro-British organizations, but +naturally your country also benefits under all general schemes of +Allied Relief. Last summer, for instance a great bazaar was held in +New York in aid of Allied War Charities, and over half a million +dollars were cleared. Another bazaar, held more recently in Boston, +raised over four hundred thousand dollars. Another, in Chicago, was +equally successful. And so the tale goes on. France and Belgium, of +course, receive the lion's share of American sympathy, as being +invaded countries, but I have told you enough to show what we are +trying to do for Great Britain too. We are somewhat handicapped, +however, by the fact, firstly, that Great Britain is not exactly what +one would call a gracious receiver of benefits, and secondly, that the +man in the street over here regards your country as too fabulously +rich to require relief of any kind. But after all, it is the spirit +of good will which counts, and you have all ours. + +"Well, the list which I have shown you will give you some idea of the +big forces which are working for you over on this side. But big forces +are made up of little forces. As we say in this country, it is the +little things that tell. All over America I could show you little +sewing meetings and social gatherings which have got together for the +purpose of preparing clothing and medical comforts for the Allies. +Even in cities like Milwaukee and Cincinnati, which have the +reputation of being overwhelmingly Teutonic, there exist very +efficient and plucky Allied Relief Societies which are carrying on in +the face of open hostility. There is hardly a village or township +that does not possess such a society. You have a song in England about +'Sister Susie Sewing Shirts for Soldiers.' Well, over here in the +States, your cousin Susie is doing precisely the same thing. She is +doing it so extensively that it has been found necessary to establish +a great clearing house in New York to deal with the gifts as they come +in, sort them out, and forward them to their destinations. The +Clearing House also knows where to stretch out its hand for particular +commodities. For instance, if there is a shortage of absorbent cotton, +the Clearing House sends an appeal to Virginia for some more, and +Virginia sends it. Here is a copy of the monthly bulletin. They appear +to have been busy. You notice that during one period of seven days +last month, this Clearing House handled over a thousand cases of +material a day. + +"Yes, a clearing-house like this calls for some organization and +labour. Who supply that? A number of American business men, each of +whom has decided to run his business with his left hand for the +present, leaving his right hand free for War Relief. + +"Besides gifts in kind, these same organizations send gifts in money. +Between seventy and eighty of the leading clubs in America have +formulated a scheme under which members who feel so disposed may have +five dollars or so debited to their monthly bill, to be devoted to +Allied Relief work. During the last three months about eighty thousand +dollars has been raised and distributed by the Clearing House from +this source. + +"Our Relief work is both collective and individual. At one end of the +scale you find a scheme for raising a hundred million dollars to +maintain and educate Belgian and French orphans. At the other, I could +show you a poor woman in Boston who is living on a mere pittance, +because she gives every cent that she can possibly spare to Allied +Relief. I know many American business men who cross the Atlantic +several times a year: on these occasions they seldom fail to take +with them, as part of their personal baggage, a trunk stuffed with +surgical dressings, rare drugs, and the like. Again, do you know who +presented to your nation St. Dunstan's, the great institution for +blinded soldiers in Regent's Park, London? An American citizen. So you +see, here we are, the American people, the greatest race of +advertisers in the world, doing all this good work, and saying nothing +whatever about it. Doesn't that strike you as significant?" + +"It strikes me as magnificent," says the Briton. + +"Well," rejoins the other, I don't allow that it is magnificent, but +it is pretty good. We might do more--ten times more. For instance, +all our contributions to Belgian relief don't amount to more than the +merest fraction of what France and Great Britain, in the midst of all +the agony and impoverishment of their own people, have contrived to +give. Still, I think I have said enough to show you that we are doing +something. You'll tell the folks at home, won't you? It hurts us badly +to be regarded as cold blooded opportunists." + +"Trust me; I'll tell them!" says the Briton warmly. + +And the Get-Together ends. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Friends of France: The Field Service of the American Ambulance +described by its members. (Houghton Mifflin Co., $2.00. Limited +Edition, $10.00) + +[2] Ambulance No. 10. By A. Buswell. (Houghton Mifflin Co., $1.00) + +[3] Their Spirit: Some impressions of the English and French during +the Summer of 1916. By Robert Grant. (Houghton Muffin Co., 50c.) + +[4] Pentecost of Calamity. By Owen Wister (Macmillan Co., 50c.) + +[5] The Evidence in the Case. By James M. Beck. (Putnam, $1.00). + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + +The only fact of importance which fails to emerge with sufficient +clearness from the foregoing conversation is the fact--possibly the +courteous American suppressed it from motives of delicacy--that +America is by comparison more pro-Ally than pro-British. The fact is, +the American is on the side of right and justice in this War, and +earnestly desires to see the Allied cause prevail; but he has a +sub-conscious aversion to seeing slow-witted, self-satisfied John Bull +collect yet another scalp. American relations with France, too, have +always been of the most cordial nature; while America's very existence +as a separate nation to-day is the fruit of a quarrel with England. + +In this regard it may be noted that American school history books are +accustomed to paint the England of 1776 in unnecessarily lurid +colours. The young Republic is depicted emerging, after a heroic +struggle, from the clutches of a tyranny such as that wielded by the +nobility of France in the pre-Revolution days. In sober fact, the +secession of the American Colonies was brought about by a series of +colossal blunders and impositions on the part of the most +muddle-headed ministry that ever mismanaged the affairs of Great +Britain--which is saying a good deal. It is probable that if the elder +Pitt had lived a few years longer, the secession would never have +occurred. It was only with the utmost reluctance that Washington +appealed to a decision by battle. In any case the fact remains, that +while in an American school-book the war of 1776 is given first place, +correctly enough, as marking the establishment of American +nationality, it figures in the English school-book, with equal +correctness, as a single regrettable incident in England's long and +variegated Colonial history. It is well to bear these two points of +view in mind. Naturally all this makes for degrees of comparison in +America's attitude toward the Allies. One might extend the comparison +to Russia, and more especially to Japan; but that, mercifully, is +outside the scope of our present inquiry. + +To America, friendship with France is an historic tradition, as the +Statue of Liberty attests, and rests upon the solid foundation of a +common ideal--Republicanism. The tie between America and Great Britain +is the tie of a common (but rapidly diminishing) blood-relationship; +and, as every large family knows, blood-relationship carries with it +the right to speak one's mind with refreshing freedom whenever +differences of opinion arise within the family circle. But our +idealists have persistently overlooked this handicap. They cling +tenaciously to the notion that it is easier to be friendly with your +relations than with your friends; and that in dealing with your own +kin, tact may be economized. "Blood is thicker than water," we +proclaim to one another across the sea; "and we can therefore afford +to be as rude to one another as we please." This principle suits the +Briton admirably, because he belongs to the elder and more +thick-skinned branch of the clan. But it bears hardly upon a young, +self-conscious, and adolescent nation, which has not yet "found" +itself as a whole; and which, though its native genius and genuine +promise carry it far, still experiences a certain youthful diffidence +under the supercilious condescension of the Old World. + +Our mutual relations are further complicated by the possession of a +common language. + +In theory, a common tongue should be a bond of union between +nations--a channel for the interchange of great thoughts and friendly +sentiments. In practice, what is it? + +Let us take a concrete example. Supposing an American woman and a +Dutch woman live next door to one another in a New York suburb. As a +rule they maintain friendly relations; but if at any time these +relations become strained--say, over the encroachments of depredatory +chickens, or the obstruction of some one's ancient lights by the +over-exuberance of some one else's laundry--the two ladies are enabled +to say the most dreadful things to one another without any one being a +penny the worse. _They do not understand one another's language._ But +if they speak a common tongue, the words which pass when the most +ephemeral squabble arises stick and rankle. + +Again, for many years the people of Great Britain were extremely +critical of Russia. Well-meaning stay-at-home gentlemen constantly +rose to their feet in the House of Commons and made withering remarks +on the subject of knouts, and Cossacks, and vodka. But they did no +harm. The Russian people do not understand English. In the same way, +Russians were probably accustomed to utter equally reliable criticisms +of the home-life of Great Britain--land-grabbing, and hypocrisy, and +whiskey, and so on. But we knew nothing of all this, and all was well. +There was not the slightest difficulty, when the great world-crash +came, in forming the warmest alliance with Russia. + +But as between the two great English-speaking nations of the world, it +is in the power of the most foolish politician or the most +irresponsible sub-editor, on either side of the Atlantic, to create an +international complication with a single spoken phrase or stroke of +the pen. And as both countries appear to be inhabited very largely by +persons who regard newspapers as Bibles and foolish politicians as +inspired prophets, it seems advisable to take steps to regulate the +matter. + +This brings us to another matter--the attitude of the American Press +toward the War. A certain section thereof, which need not be +particularized further, has never ceased, probably under the combined +influences of bias and subsidy, to abuse the Allies, particularly the +British, and misrepresent their motives and ideals. This sort of +journalism "cuts no ice" in the United States. It is just "yellow +journalism." _Voila tout!_ Why take it seriously? But the British +people do not know this; and as the British half-penny Press, when it +does quote the American Press, rarely quotes anything but the most +virulent extracts from this particular class of newspaper, one is +reduced yet again to wondering whence the blessings of a common +language are to be derived. + +But taking them all round, the newspapers of America have handled the +questions of the War with conspicuous fairness and ability. They are +all fundamentally pro-Ally; and the only criticism which can be +directed at them from an Allied quarter is that in their anxiety to +give both sides a hearing, they have been a little too indulgent to +Germany's claims to moral consideration, and have been a little +over-inclined to accept the German Chancellor's pious manifestoes at +their face value. But generally speaking it may be said that the +greater the newspaper, the firmer the stand that it has taken for the +Allied cause. The New York _Times_, the weightiest and most +authoritative newspaper in America, has been both pro-Ally and +pro-British throughout the War, and has never shrunk from the delicate +task of interpreting satisfactorily to the British people the attitude +of the President. + +Journalistic criticism of Great Britain in America is frequently +extremely candid, and not altogether unmerited. Occasionally it goes +too far; but the occasion usually arises from ignorance of the +situation, or the desire to score an epigrammatic point. For instance, +during the struggle for Verdun in the spring, a New York newspaper, +sufficiently well-conducted to have known better, published a cartoon +representing John Bull as standing aloof, but encouraging the French +to persevere in their efforts by parodying Nelson's phrase:--"England +expects that every Frenchman will do his duty." The truth of course +was that Sir Douglas Haig had offered General Joffre all the British +help that might be required. The offer was accepted to this extent, +that the British took over forty additional miles of trenches from +the French, thus setting free many divisions of French soldiers to +participate in a glorious and purely French victory. + +But this sort of foolish calumny dies hard, together with such phrases +as:--"England is prepared to hold on, to the last Frenchman!" While +not strictly relevant to our present discussion, the following figures +may be of interest. In August 1914 the British Regular Army consisted +of about a hundred and fifty thousand men. To-day, British troops in +France number two million; in Salonica, a hundred and forty thousand; +in Egypt, a hundred and eighty thousand; in Mesopotamia, a hundred and +twenty thousand. The Navy absorbs another four hundred thousand, +while a full million are occupied in purely naval construction and +repair. And at home again enormous masses of new troops are undergoing +training. This seems to dispose of the suggestion that Great Britain +is winning the War by proxy. + +And for the upkeep of this mighty host, and for this general +comforting of the Allies, the British taxpayer is now paying +cheerfully and willingly, in addition to such trifling impositions as +a 60 per cent tax on his commercial profits, income tax at the rate of +twenty-five cents in the dollar. + +On the other side of the account, _Life_, the American equivalent of +_Punch_, (if it is possible for the humour of a particular nation to +find its equivalent in any other nation), published not long ago a +special "John Bull" number, which will for ever remain a monument of +journalistic generosity and international courtesy. _Life's_ good deed +was gracefully acknowledged by _Punch_ and _The Spectator_. + +But in spite of _Life's_ good example, enough has been said under this +head to illuminate the fact that a common language is a doubtful +blessing. The joint possession of the tongue that Shakespeare and +Milton and Longfellow and Abraham Lincoln spoke has bestowed little +upon our two nations but a convenient medium, too often, for shrewish +altercation, coupled with the profound conviction of either side that +the other side is unable to speak correct English. + +Well, this nonsense must stop. + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +Therefore, whenever a true American and a true Briton get together, +let them hold an international symposium of their own. If it were not +for the unfortunate interposition of the Atlantic Ocean, this +interview would be extended, with proportional profit, to the greatest +symposium the world has ever seen. Meanwhile, we will make shift with +a company of two. + +The following counsel is respectfully offered to the participants in +the debate. + +Let the Briton remember:-- + + 1. Remember you are talking to a _friend_. + + 2. Remember you are talking to a man who regards his nation as + the greatest nation in the world. He will probably tell you + this. + + 3. Remember you are talking to a man whose country has made an + enormous contribution to your cause in men, material, and + money, besides putting up with a good deal of inconvenience + and irksome supervision at your hands. Remember, too, that + your own country has made little or no acknowledgement of + its indebtedness in this matter. + + 4. Remember you are talking to a man who believes in + "publicity," and who believes further, that if you do not + advertise the fact, you cannot possibly be in possession of + "the goods." So for any sake open up a little, and tell him + all you can about what the British Nation is doing to-day + for Humanity and Civilization--in other words, for America. + + 5. Remember this man is not so impervious to criticism as you + are. Don't over-criticize his apparent attitude to the War. + Remember you are talking to a man whose patience under such + outrages as the sinking of the _Lusitania_ has been strained + to the uttermost; so don't ask him whether he is too proud + to fight, or he may offer you convincing proof to the + contrary. + + 6. Remember you are talking to a man whose business has been + considerably interfered with by the stringency of the Allied + blockade. So don't invite him to wax enthusiastic over the + vigilance of the British Navy or the promptness of the + Censor in putting the mails through. + + 7. And do try to disabuse the man's mind of the preposterous, + Germany-fostered notion that your country regards this war + merely as a vehicle for commercial aggrandizement, or that + the British Foreign Office proposes to maintain the Black + List and other bugbears after the War. It seems absurd that + you should have to give such an assurance, but doubts upon + the subject certainly exist in certain quarters in America + to-day. + +Let the American remember: + + 1. Remember you are talking to a _friend_. + + 2. Remember you are talking to a man who regards his nation as + the greatest in the world. He will not tell you this, + because he takes it for granted that you know already. + + 3. Remember you are talking to a man who is a member of a + traditionally reticent and unexpansive race; who says about + one third of what he feels; who is obsessed by a mania for + understating his country's case, exaggerating its + weaknesses, and belittling its efforts; who is secretly shy, + so covers up his shyness with a cloak of aggressiveness + which is offensive to those who are not prepared for it. + Remember that this attitude is not specially assumed for + _you_: as often as not the man employs it toward his own + wife, who rather enjoys it, because she regards it as a + symptom of affection. + + 4. Remember you are talking to a man who is fighting for his + life. To-day his face is turned toward Central Europe, and + his back to the United States. Do not expect him to display + an intimate or sympathetic understanding of America's true + attitude to the War. He is conducting the War according to + his lights, and is prepared to abide by the consequences of + what he does. So he is apt to be resentful of criticism. + Bear with him, for he is having a tough time of it. + + 5. Enemy propaganda to the contrary, remember that this man is + not a hypocrite. He is occasionally stupid; he is at times + obstinate; he is frequently high-handed; and often he would + rather be misunderstood than explain. But he is neither + tyrannical nor corrupt. He went into this War because he + felt it his duty to do so, and not because he coveted any + Teutonic vineyard. + + 6. Remember that your nation has done a great deal for this + man's nation during the War. Tell him all about it: it will + interest him, _because he did not know_. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +Practically every one in this world improves on closer acquaintance. +The people with whom we utterly fail to agree are those with whom we +never get into close touch. + +Individual Americans and Britons, when they get together in one +country or the other, usually develope a genuine mutual liking. As +nations, however, their attitude to one another is too often a distant +attitude--a distance of some three thousand miles, or the exact width +of the Atlantic Ocean--and ranges from a lofty tolerance in good +times to unreserved bickering in bad. Why? Because they are +geographically too far apart. But with the shrinkage of the earth's +surface produced by the effects of electricity and steam, that +geographical abyss yawns much less widely than it did. So let us get +together, whether in couples or in millions. The thing has to be done. +No rearrangement of the world's affairs after the War can be either +just or equitable or permanent which does not find Great Britain and +the United States of America upon the same side. What we want is +common ground, and a sound basis of understanding. Our present +basis--the "Hands-across-the-Sea, Blood-is-thicker-than-Water" +basis--is sloppy and unstable. Besides, it profoundly irritates that +not inconsiderable section of the American people which does not +happen to be of British descent. + +We can find a better basis than that. What shall it be? Well, we have +certain common ideals which rest upon no sentimental foundations, but +upon the bedrock of truth and justice. We both believe in God; in +personal liberty; in a Law which shall be inflexibly just to rich and +poor alike. We both hate tyranny and oppression and intrigue; and we +both love things which are clean, and wholesome, and of good report. +Let us take one common stand upon these. + +We must take certain precautions. We must bear and forbear. We must +forget a good deal that is past. We must make allowances for point of +view and differences of temperament. And we must mutually and +heroically refrain from utilizing the unrivalled opportunities for +repartee and pettiness afforded by the possession of a common tongue. + +Of course, we must not expect or attempt to work together in unison. +National differences of character and standpoint forbid. And no bad +thing either. Unison is a cramping and irksome business. Let us work +in harmony instead, which is far better. And so--to paraphrase the +deathless words of the greatest of Americans:--With charity toward +all, with malice toward none, with mutual understanding and +confidence, we shall go forward together, to bind up the wounds of the +world, and prevent for all time a repetition of the outrage which +inflicted them. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Getting Together, by Ian Hay + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GETTING TOGETHER *** + +***** This file should be named 15523.txt or 15523.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/2/15523/ + +Produced by Rick Niles, Jeannie Howse and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net). + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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