Princeton, N.J., Nov. 4, 1914.
America's Peril in Judging Germany
By William M. Sloane.
Late Seth Low Professor of History at Columbia University;
ex-President National Institute of Arts and Letters and of the
American Historical Association; was secretary of George
Bancroft, the historian, in Berlin, 1873-5; author of works on
French History.
The American public has been carefully trained to avoid entanglement
with foreign affairs. This European war was so unexpected, so entirely
unforeseen, that we were at first bewildered, and then exasperated, by
our unreadiness to meet our own emergencies.
In our effort to fix responsibility we then became partisan to the verge
of moral participation and had to be called to our senses by the wise
proclamation and warning of our Chief Magistrate.
Western Europe is a nearer neighbor than either Central or Eastern, and
what stern censors permit us to know is nicely calculated to arouse our
prejudice on one side or the other. Believing that, owing to cable
cutting and neutrality restrictions of wireless, as yet the plain truth
is not available, we ask for a suspension of judgment on both sides in
order that our Government may enjoy the undivided support of all
American citizens in its desire to secure a minimum of disturbance to
the normal course of our commercial, industrial, and agricultural life
by convulsions that are not of our making.
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