Page:Ian Hay - America At War - The Times - 1918-03-26.jpg



Thus far, the reader will have observed. America's difficulties have been very much the same as our own. But America has millstones round her neck from which we are comparatively free. For instance, hers is not a homogeneous nation; her wide hospitality has admitted countless aliens to her citizenship; and the possession of a strong German accent is not in itself, as with us, an automatic qualification for admission to an internment camp. The huge German population of America has behaved on the whole, with great restraint and loyalty; and this very fact has made it the more difficult for the Government to take drastic measures against the hundreds of German (or pro-German) plotters who lurk in the background of German America to-day. Sabotage is rampant. According to the returns of the insurance companies, 40 million dollars' (£8,000,000) worth of incendiary damage has been done to munition plants, arsenals, and the like during the past three years.

More subtle, and more dangerous, is the insidious propaganda everywhere disseminated to poison the public mind and produce a general spirit of suspicion and depression. The country is permeated with whispers. Where these originate no one knows, though competent persons are now making it their business to find out. But once launched, they require little artificial circulation. Every natural pessimist, every idle busybody—we know them well in our own land—assists in the joyful task. Tales are told of transports lost at sea, with casualties so appalling as to be incapable of publication. Earnest but fussy persons, on the flimsiest evidence, rush into print with the assertion that drunkenness and debauchery are rife among the American troops in France, until they render American mothers distracted.

Again, the usual attempts are being made to foment class hatred and industrial strife. There is much loud talk of food hoarding and profiteering—there is some truth in this; but the profiteers and "food-hogs" are not limited to any one class—while in the training camps furtive individuals, some of the enlisted men, ask the "rookies" why they propose to lay down their lives for Wall Street. The formerly pro-German and anti-British section of the Press, in deference to a healthy and refreshing change in public sentiment, has arrayed itself in a discrcet camouflage; and its activities are now mostly limited to the demand that American babies shall not be starved in order to feed British civilians, and the like; but it is always ready to strike. For instance, when the Tuscania was torpedoed, this section of the Press commented pointedly upon the fact that she was escorted by British destroyers.

But probably the most insidious and dangerous form of German propaganda to-day is the reiterated assertion-to which the Pacifists, Internationalists, and all that motley throng which (for reasons not always altruistic) cherishes a morbid passion for every country but its own, render enthusiastic support-to the effect that neither side can win the war; and that the sooner we cut our losses and arrive at a compromise the better.

In this respect it may be noted that the American people, though among the shrewdest in the world, are afflicted with a vein of sentimentality which tolerates the most outrageous antics on the part of her cranks and faddists. America is suffering to-day from a plague of those persons—we are only too familiar with the type at home—to whom their country's extremity is the opportunity of their own particular propaganda. The Suffragists, for instance, of the "wild" type, oblivious of the fact that Woman's Suffrage is already practically assured throughout the United States, have elected to assist the President in his labours by "picketing" the White House, and flapping banners in his face whenever he drives out for a little fresh air. The extreme Temperance Party, or Prohibitionists, are clamouring to have General Pershing's Army in France compelled to do a thing which no Frenchman who valued his life would ever dream of doing—namely, drink French water, instead of French small beer and vin ordinaire.

The Anti-Vivisectionists have violently attacked the American Red Cross Society, and are endeavouring to hamper that splendid body in its activities, on the ground that some of the marvels of surgery which have been achieved in the military hospitals during the war owe their discovery and perfection to experiments on animals. Sickly sentiment could no further go. It need hardly be added that all these auxiliary aids to national dissension and national depression receive the enthusiastic support of the genuine pro-German organizations.

Finally, there is the most potent influence of all—the influence of the Press. Let it be said at once that the American Press as a whole has conducted itself, from the time of America's entry into the war, with an ability and patriotism beyond all praise—always excepting certain tainted fountains of private opinion, already mentioned, whose existence and power for evil are fully recognized, and therefore to a certain extent discounted. A few "high-brow" publications, too, whose editors appear to imagine that a German shock battalion can be repelled by the exercise of pure reason, still, continue to bleat for a peace which would be no peace; but the average American newspaper, metropolitan and provincial, has exhibited a sturdy patriotism and à sound common sense which have helped enormously to educate and vivify American public opinion. In such matters as the raising of War Loans and the conservation of food the American Press has given most generously of its advertising space, while editorial comment has been restrained and fair-minded. But man is a lazy animal, and will always follow the line of least resistance. You may present him with a newspaper containing most reliable news, backed by an excellent leading article, which, if read, would maintain him in a well-balanced attitude towards the progress of events.

But all this excellent presentment of the case will be discounted and nullified if a temperamental sub-editor, with an eye for effect and none whatever for proportion, is permitted—as he almost invariably is, in all except the greatest of the American dailies—to summarize the situation in a few lines of type some inches high upon the front page. The American is the greatest newspaper reader in the world, but he would rather—and invariably does, if observation goes for anything—read the headlines in six newspapers than digest the actual substance of one. Consequently he is unable to distinguish an elaborately-planned battle from the most ordinary scuffle in No Man's Land, because these two events are regarded as equally worthy of large type by the individual who sets up the headlines. If a law could be passed in America to-day absolutely prohibiting all headlines, and thus compelling American readers to dig for their news instead of browsing on the top-dressing, we should hear no more about American lack of realization of the war. This sense of proportion—which spells realization—is the one thing lacking in America to-day. Everything else is there the enthusiasm, the ability to execute, the amazing community of effort, the cheerful readiness to submit to hardship or strong measures. With wise guidance, especially from the Press, this sense of proportion will come. And the sooner it comes the better for the American soldiers already in the field and the Allied cause in general.