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Presented to the

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
LIBRARY

by the

ONTARIO LEGISLATIVE
LIBRARY

1980

Digitized by the Internet Archive

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IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/britoninamericaOOspenuoft

A BRITON IN AMERICA

MEN, MANNERS AND
MORALS IN SOUTH
AMERICA.

DemySvo. Illustrated. 1216 net.

"Mr. J. O. P. Bland has
never written a dull book, and
(D.v.) will not. He brings
freshness, humour and irrever-
ence for pomposity to every
sub j ect that he touches. I revel
in his happy knack of showing a
whole stratum of civilization in
a phrase." —

Westminster Oazette.

A Briton in America

48663

BY

HAROLD SPENDER

" We're bom to be good friends and so we oughta,
In spite of all the fools both sides the water ! "
James Russell Lowell.

The Biglow Papers.

4S663

illiam Hcincmanri

^~ ^ go

>

TO
THE TRUE AMERICA

•THE HOPE OF THOSE WHO SUFFER,
THE FEAR OF THOSE WHO WRONG ! "

(Ou a War Memorial iu Bloomiugtoa, Illiuois)

CONTENTS

A WORD BEFORE ....

I. THE APPROACH . . l

II. NEW YORK CITY TO-DAY .

III. FROM CHICAGO THROUGH ILLINOIS

IV. PROHIBITION ....
V. SPRINGFIELD TO BLOOMINGTON .

VI. IN KANSAS STATE
VII. AWAY FROM EUROPE
VIII. ACROSS MISSOURI
IX. IRELAND AGAIN
X. BACK TO NEW YORK
XL THE WONDERFUL CONTINENT
XII. WE VISIT BOSTON CITY AND PLYMOUTH

XIII. NEW ENGLAND .

XIV. AMERICA'S CAPITAL .
XV. THE BIG NAVY SCHEME

XVI. THE STATES AND JAPAN
XVII. IRELAND AND WASHINGTON
XVIII. THE BLACK PROBLEM
XIX. THE WOMEN OF AMERICA
XX. THE AMERICAN MAN .
XXI. THE ELDER STATESMEN

XXII. good-bye!

APPENDIX — DICKENS AND AMERICA

A WORD BEFORE

Ever since the days of Christopher Columbus,
America has been the cynosure of Europe. The
pricking spur of curiosity which drove that dauntless
Genoese across the Atlantic has driven, in his wake,
one unbroken line of explorers and observers. I
am simply the latest — and least — along that trail.

The interest of Europe in America is a healthy
curiosity and deserves to be satisfied. For the
Old World has much to learn from the New. In
her search for Utopia, Europe has looked East
and she has not found it, but found decay and
death. So she ever turns again to the West, and
dreams dreams, as Plato dreamt them of old, of
the fabled Atlantis beyond the pillars of Hercules,
where the people are always at peace with one
another and live a perfect life.^ Then she goes
to find out whether those dreams are true.

In that spirit, and with such a quest, we still go :
and the Americans must pardon us for our errand.
They must also ever remember that if European
records of these quests sometimes seem a little

' See the remarkable picture of the community of Atlantis in
the unfinished dialogue of Critias.

II

12 A WORD BEFORE

severe in judgment, it is because our dreams have
been so golden, and our hopes so high. Perhaps
we could scarcely hope to reach to the height of
Plato's dream of the Atlantians : —

" They despised everything but virtue, caring
little for their present state of life, and thinking
lightly of the possession of gold and other pro-
perty, which seemed only a burden to them ;
neither were they intoxicated by luxury ; nor
did wealth deprive them of their self-control :
but they were sober, and saw clearly that all
these goods increased by virtue and friendship
with one another. Whereas by too great regard
and respect for the goods, the goods are them-
selves lost and friendship is lost too/' ^

It was with such a vision in his mind that de
Tocqueville went to America in the early thirties,
to help solve the puzzle of European democratic
order : returning to write that most brilliant and
illuminating of poHtical works. Democracy in
America (1835-40).* It was even with some shadow
of such a vision that our English Charles Dickens
voyaged in the forties, and returned to write Martin
Chuzzlewit and the American Notes. It was with a
mind fully ready for such a vision — a mind always
ready for what is new and good — that Bryce
journeyed thither so often in the late nineteenth

* Critias, 120. From Dr. Jowett's Translation (Vol. III. of
Dialogues). Clarendon Press, Oxford (slightly varied).

*Democratie en Amerique (1835). Translated by H. Reeve into
Democracy in America (1835 — 40).

A WORD BEFORE ^^y^ 13
\^ ^>^

century and returned to pen hg T^Jfiti^ei&al
classic.^ u) ^>^ : "^^ ;:p

The people of the United States . have sholvn
themselves sensitive to the criticisms that too freely
intersperse these Enghsh records of American
travel — the criticisms of Dickens, Matthew Arnold,
and other notable visitors of our own day. Perhaps
they have reason. The EngHshman abroad is
too Hke Diogenes hunting round with his lantern
for an honest man, and the honest man he hunts
for must always be made in the EngHshman's own
image. Now, that is not the true spirit of travel
literature. We do not want to go abroad to find
ourselves. We go abroad to see new men and new
things, and to learn from them new lessons. The
hatred of new men and new things is a sign not of
cidture but of barbarism — yet it is too often the
prevaihng spirit of the modern traveller.

It is even more difi&cult to appreciate new men
when they are clothed, like the Americans, in the
famihar dress of our own speech and our own
traditions. Notoriously we are apt to quarrel
with cousins. But what we British travellers have
to remember when we visit America is that the
Americans are not merely a type of provincial
Enghshmen, with strange provincial ways and
accents, but that they are now definitely a new
nation in a new land, kin to us indeed, but in

^ The American Commonwealth (Macmillan & Co.). Lord Bryce
has lately put the crown to this labour in the chapters of
Modern Democracies, which bring his study on America up to
date (also Macmillan & Co.).

14 A WORD BEFORE

customs foreign, producing a new civilisation and
a new language in a new climate and on a new
continent.

" Axioms ! " you will say : yes, but axioms
which are universally forgotten.

Perhaps the fault does not lie entirely on one
side. Americans, too, have occasionally shown a
certain freedom in criticising Enghshmen. Mr.
Owen Wister has shown in a recent book ^ how
lightly mischief arises. Besides the kindly criticisms
of ourselves which we learnt to love in the books of
such Americans as Henry James and W. D. Howells,
there are other and harsher voices, sounding daily in
the great cities of America, representing us in an ogre-
like shape which fails to convince, or to correct.

That being so, I suggest that the will to praise is
the proper key-note for the traveller across the
Atlantic — agoing either way — the courteous desire
to appreciate rather than to depreciate, the spirit
of the charity that *' envieth not." Be pohte to one
another — that is the first law. For it is high time that
travellers, if they are not to be muzzled by society,
should shew a spirit of greater self-restraint. Too
often nowadays do they roam dangerously about
the world like "lions roaring after their prey.'*

In these letters I have tried to avoid that leonine,
predatory touch. They were written from America
in the winter of 1920-21 in the intervals of a
strenuous public mission undertaken as one of the

» A Straight Deal, or The Ancient Grudge, by Owen Wister.
(Macmillan & Co., London).

A WORD BEFORE 15

four British delegates invited by the American
" Mayflower " Council, and selected by the British
Council for the Interchange of Speakers, in associa-
tion with The English Speaking Union. That
brilliant journalist, Lord Burnham, suggested the
scheme of the letters : and they were most of them
published at the time in The Daily Telegraph.
But I have fully revised them and added nine others
written at the time for my private use.

My endeavour throughout has been to steer a
way between the Scylla of prejudice and the
Charybdis of flattery. My conviction from the
outset has been that these two great Enghsh-
speaking peoples — the Americans and the British —
have much to learn from one another, much to
teach one another. My aim has been to help in
that work : and with that object I have been

persuaded to pubUsh the letters in book form.
* ♦ * ♦ «

How does this record stand the remorseless
shock of time ? Let us see.

Looking out on America from the vantage
ground of a public visitor, who saw many men and
many cities, I ventured, as will be seen, on one big
forecast. It was that the United States would,
on no account, join the League of Nations as shaped
in the Versailles Treaty. I dared that forecast in
spite of the hopes in America of the Democrats
and of the Leaguers in Europe. Since then it has
been fulfilled in the speeches of the new American

i6 A WORD BEFORE

President and of the new American Ambassador
to the Court of St. James's. Nor could there at
any moment be any doubt about it to any open-
minded observer. American public opinion had
given its decisive judgment : and the one sure
thing about America is that public opinion — once
it has decisively spoken — ^is always supreme.

I trespassed on another forecast, ignoring George
Eliot's warning that '* prophecy is the most gratui-
tous form of human error," I foretold that,
nevertheless, by some means or other, by some
other approach, the New World would gravitate
again towards the Old. We " Pilgrims " were
driven to that belief by the force of our impres-
sions. For we saw the first beginning of that
great industrial crisis which has since spread from
Europe to America, and involved both Continents.
It became clear to us that, in spite of all the loud
and assertive claims to political detachment,
America would be brought back to Europe by a
stem economic law. " Big Business," so we were
told, had condemned the League of Nations.
'* Big Business " was determined that America
should have no more to do with Europe. Yes, but
it was precisely " Big Business " that was going
to suffer most by the depression of Europe. It was
exactly through " Big Business " that America
was going to be drawn back into the circle of
nations. Since then that is precisely what has
happened. It is at the command of " Big Busi-

A WORD BEFORE 17

ness " that the new American Government has
since agreed to depute its Ambassador to sit once
more in the Council Chamber of Europe, and has
now summoned a Disarmament Conference to
Washington.

Thus it may yet prove that when America turned
her thumbs down against the League of Nations,
that deep and solemn damnation was a, decision
not quite so tremendous as she imagined. It may
turn out that it was a decision not entirely un-
affected by personal prejudices. On that issue I
pass no judgment. But there are often world
forces too strong for statesmen and more powerful
than politicians; and it sometimes happens that
when the statesmen have expelled Nature with a
fork from the front-door, she comes flying back
through the window. Economics are often stronger

than politics.

m * * * *

What of the outward show ? What of the
•American people, their society, their pleasures,
their occupations ? We saw a nation immensely
wealthy, to all appearances practically untouched
by the sorrows and exhaustions of the Great War.
Coming from Europe, we felt — ^so great was the
contrast — ^like men who had passed from the
shadow into the light. We blinked at the glare of
New York. We could almost dream that the scroll
of time had been rolled backwards. We seemed
to stand where we did in Europe before the great

i8 A WORD BEFORE

world calamity. Not that we would depreciate
the part that America played in those great issues.
Her participation in the war was indeed a great
and memorable event in her history — a supreme
act in a great moral upheaval, finely conceived
and finely achieved. Her present mood cannot
be fully understood unless it is accepted as in part
a recoil from that splendid ecstasy.

Yet the Great War has necessarily meant less
to America than to Europe : it was a briefer trial,
more distant, less critical, and above all less costly
in that most precious asset of young life. She
appears before us now as practically the only
nation that has emerged without calamitous loss
of population. Thus she tends to forget her very
heroism. Half ashamed of the great emotion which
will be so great a glory, Business America — the
grave, diligent, ardent America of commerce — now
resumes the mundane march, rather Hke some
serious City merchant who is trying to forget that
he once fell desperately in love.

Let me attempt to recover some image of modern
America — the America of to-day — as we saw it in
the East and the Middle West.

We caught a vision of a nation with an eager
forward glance, and yet a strange fixity of habit —
a nation at once attached to her past and intent on
her future — a nation effervescent in invention, and
yet conservative in faith — a nation impassioned
for new ideas and yet anchored to her own creeds.

A WORD BEFORE 19

We became conscious of a certain basic solidity in
this New World — an underlying loyalty to its own
high tradition, the central point round which its
changeful life circles and bubbles. It was like a
cataract flowing over a rocky bed. Beneath us,
all the time, the ground was firm and hard, and
that seemed to give a fresh and buoyant liberty
to the play of that eager, swift, daily life and thought.

Let us get a firm grip of this new fact of world
life on this planet. It is not Europe, let us fully
realise, but America which is now the " land of
ordered liberty." It is not America, but Europe,
which is now the sport of rash and random experi-
ments. It is not Europe, but America, which now
holds fast to the faith of its forefathers.

Perhaps this unique combination of change and
faith explains one outstanding feature of American
life. That is the atmosphere of serenity, the
calmness of outlook, the confidence in survival.
We lack that in Europe to-day. For with us the
very pillars of Society are shaken. Civilisation
itself seems to be on trial. The very security of
our lives seems to be in doubt. Our society is
suffering from some kind of shell shock. It is that
element of shell shock which you leave behind
when you cross the Atlantic.

Many people had told us otherwise. We had
been filled with jeremiads about the dulness of
that drinkless land. We had been told by many
excellent souls who lack a sufficient confidence in

20 A WORD BEFORE

their own inner sources of gaiety that we should
find America a drear and droughty Continent, a
dry and dour land where sour Puritans frowned
over flagons of iced water, eked out by secret
potations of stronger liquid.

We found a people certainly much brighter and
happier than the shadowed folk of Europe — a
people scintillating with a certain cheerful gaiety
of heart, whose keen wit always has a razor edge,
and whose brightness of spirit scarcely seemed to
need a whetstone. We speak soberly, but also
truthfully, when we say that in that land one
scarcely seems to miss those artificial aids to
human happiness of which Europe still so con-
fidently preaches the necessity.

Great, indeed, is our EngHsh genius for merri-
ment— warm, indeed, are our EngUsh hearts. I
remain a most confident behever in the survival of
" Merrie England." For there is no kindUer people
on earth than our British folk : and the Americans
with all their courtesy and hospitality are simply
inheriting those quahties and displajdng them on
a larger field. But in addition to this kindliness
the Americans possess a quality of spirit which is
more Gallic than Britannic, and which seems to
belong to the head rather than to the heart. It
is the quaUty of happiness in the simplest acts
of hfe — of *' joy in widest commonalty spread."

This quahty is, perhaps, bound up with the
American sense of equality. For where men are

A WORD BEFORE 21

equal and really treat one another as equal, it is
amazing how many barriers to happiness fall down
of their own accord, Uke the walls of Jericho at
the sound of the trumpet. Perhaps the sense of
caste is not altogether a source of happiness to the
Englishman. It partly accounts for his shyness and
his reticence. At any rate, the absence of caste in
America produces a singular freshness and frankness
of speech and dealing. It seems to widen the circle
of human friendship. It tends to produce a bigger
man, more tolerant, less suspicious, less afraid.

But the difference strikes deeper. For here in
England — let us confess it — we have not yet quite
escaped from the quarrel of the seventeenth century.
We are still apt to divide up into Puritans and
CavaHers. Our society is still incHned to fall

asunder in two halves the grossly merry and the

sourly good. There are still too few Falklands
amongst us — too many Pr5mnes and Ruperts.
Now one strong impression left by America to-day is
that there is more innocent merriment and less sour
goodness. In fact, the spirit of that old " Merrie
England" seems to have crossed the Atlantic.

They have a new phrase for this new type in
America. They call him a *'real American." In
the same way they no longer ask of a man — *' Does
he talk English ? ", but they say — " Does he talk
United States ? " " Talk United States or quit I "
was the cry at one period of the war, and it expresses
the consciousness of a definite, new racial type

22 A WORD BEFORE

emerging from the fusion of the European races.
We have to recognise that consciousness if we are
to understand the America of to-day.

In Kansas City a group of journaHsts interviewed
me for several hours on all the issues of the day.
They received my views on the League of Nations
with profound indifference. They had decided
that matter, although they were too pohte to say so.
They listened, but their pencils were idle. But when,
as a side-thought, I suggested in a playful manner,
that the American and Enghsh languages were
drifting apart, and that we now required, in spite
of Webster, separate dictionaries, then at once their
pencils began to work. Next morning all the Kansas
papers had headlines that ran as follows —

English Author Discovers the American
Language.

Spender Suggests a New Dictionary.

The idea had fallen on fertile ground. Instead of
offending them, it was accepted as a tribute to their
nationahty. The Mid West was pleased. They
were proud to be thought of as a new nation with
a language of their own, instead of being regarded
as employing a hnguistic offshoot, a mere corrup-
tion of the Anglo-Saxon tongue. They were tired
of being told that they talked bad Enghsh. They
were glad to meet a visitor who recognised that they
just " talked American."

That is typical of the spirit of America to-day.

A WORD BEFORE 23

The war has not weakened, but has increased, her
sense of nationality. It has stimulated her pride.
Looking back, she sees herself as the balancing
factor, the outside arbitrator, the friend in need
of world civilisation. She attributes her power to
her detachment. She beheves that if Europe
were to draw her in she would be robbed of her
strength. She fears that Europe, Uke Delilah,
would shear away her Samson locks.

Thus it is she often suspects our advances, and
sometimes even fears them. Perhaps, indeed, we
are, at times, a Uttle too effusive. We have been
creditors for so long that we cannot quickly adopt
the pride proper to a debtor. We are suspect of
presuming a httle too much on our relationship.
We talk too often of our brotherhood. We forget
that between nations nowadays blood is too inter-
fused to count for much : blood relationship is
almost too common to carry its real value. In
future, it would appear, the only brotherhood that
will count is the brotherhood of ideas, aims, and
aspirations.

Thus America, puzzled by all these changes, and
sceptical of our affections, still stands at the cross-
ways. She remains divided in thought and heart
— still halting at the fork of the roads — ^uncertain
between the road that leads to Europe and the road
that leads away. But she cannot stand there for
ever. She will find that she must decide.

September, 192 1. H. S.

A BRITON IN AMERICA
I

THE APPROACH

The Baltic, Nov. if, 1920.
The great fact about America, as approached
from Great Britain, is — the Atlantic. That really
explains everything. But you do not really under-
stand why it explains everything until you remind
yourself by crossing it. Then, after a week at sea,
you begin to realise. You grasp the fact that the
Atlantic has been very much under-rated as a
factor in the dividing of nations.

It is all very well to call the Atlantic a " pond."
That expression has the typical, hopeful courage
of true American humour. But it deceives us.
Just so, it is dangerous to speak too often of the
"shrinkage of the world." For the Atlantic is
still — the Atlantic. It is still the ocean — the vast,
mysterious, variable, incomprehensible ocean.

Here we are, on a floating palace — a White Stajr
liner — of 24,000 tons and more. Here we live,
citizens of " no mean city " — a moving city — a city
with a population of over 3,000 — with its contrasts
of wealth and poverty, with all its divisions of
classes, and with more than the usual mixture of

25

26 A BRITON IN AMERICA

races and languages. Here, in the first-class, we
have luxury such as on land we only dream of now,
as a pre-war memory, in our London clubs. Down
below, in the second and third class, they cultivate —
the simpler Hfe.

The whole thing is a microcosm of our modern
order. Here, in the first-class, we travel because
we wish to. Down below, in the third-class, they
travel because they must. They are fleeing, many
of them, from a troubled Europe — Irish, Poles,
Czecho-Slovaks, Galicians — all in search of a " newer
and a better world."

The United States does not seem to want them
very much. Every difficulty is put in their way —
passports with a £3 fee, harryings of sanitary au-
thorities, searchings of Customs officers. They are
winnowed at every port — at Danzig, Liverpool,
London, New York. But still they come. There
are 1,300 on this ship. The first-class is roomy and
at ease. The second class is crowded, and the
third class is packed tight.

The restless peoples move unccisily in their bonds.
The search for the " Blessed Island " — ^for Atlantis
— ^goes on. A year ago the stream was going east,
to find a new Europe. Now the stream is going
west, to find a new America. Will they succeed }

The Irish are going. When we anchored off
Queenstown, two tenders could be seen steaming
fast out of the inner harbour — that wonderful
harbour, broad and deep enough to contain the

THE APPROACH 27

whole British Fleet. Both tenders were packed,
and as they came nearer we could see that the
crowds on the decks were waving American and
Sinn Fein flags.

Looking down, we could see among those excited,
shouting crowds all the Irish types of to-day —
the black-coated priest, the lean labourer, the white-
cowled nun, and, by her side, the colleen, the
* ' dark-eyed Rosaleen. ' ' Green was the predominant
colour — vivid green in the head-dresses, on the
shawls, the blouses, the flags — everywhere green,
and nowhere England's red. On the top deck of
the foremost tender stood a group of youths with
the strong, assertive faces, the dark, defiant eyes,
and the longish stragghng hair of the new Sinn Fein
type. Over the waters came the angry chant of
the " Soldier's Song," and as they sang they waved
their flags.

The English stood by the bulwarks of the liner
watching these visitors in puzzled silence. The
tenders were moored on either side of the big ship,
and then, up the gangways, began the long pro-
cession of Irish emigrants fleeing from their " dis-
tressful country " — not, as of old, poor, ragged
fugitives ; but well-dressed, substantial men and
women, going to seek a quieter land. Many of
them, I am told by those who ought to know, are
fleeing from the terror of their own friends.

The last had come aboard, and now the tender on
the port side sheered off and began to move back

ZS A BRITON IN AMERICA

towards Queenstown. Then began a new phase
of this dramatic scene. There remained on the
tender, as it receded homewards, a certain number
of the young men whom we had seen waving the
flags so defiantly. But now the defiance had left
them. Their mood had quite changed. The ex-
hilaration had gone ; and there had settled down
on them that other mood of their race — ^the mood
of deep and tragic melancholy. At first they waved
their handkerchiefs in silence. Then there floated
back to us the strains of that sweetest and saddest
of Irish songs — so plaintive, so thrilling — the dirge
of so many partings — the threnody of so many
exiles :

Come back to Erin, Mavourneen, Mavourneen,
Come back, Aroon, to the land of thy birth —

It faded across the waters as the tender moved
swiftly back — ^hurrying, as if to bring this sad
leaving to a close — it faded into silence. Long
after we ceased to hear anything, we could still see
the flash of the white handkerchiefs from the deck
of the diminishing ship. That song was the lament
of Ireland — the cry of Rachel for her children —
Rachel that will not be comforted.

Day by day, in this strange modern fife of the
ocean-going passenger ship, we are presented
with a morning newspaper. The Ocean Times,
which gives us news from the outer world. Or,
rather, it conveys to us a few of those whispers
which come through the ether across the vast

THE APPROACH 29

Atlantic and are caught by our " wireless." Great
is Marconi, the King of Ocean ; and greatly has
he changed the ship-Hfe from those days when you
were utterly cut off from the outer world at the
moment you stepped on board until the moment
when you stepped ashore on the other side.

That great silence is now broken by many voices
— thronging voices from the great, restless,^ troubled
world. Among those voices has come to us the
news of the Presidential election in the United
States on November 4.

The victory of Senator Harding was taken as a
foregone conclusion. But everyone has been taken
aback by the size of the majority. It is accepted
as a portent — as a great and final decision on the
part of a great people.

I have talked it over with many Americans aboard,
and they have given me the frank views of minds
detached from the mass opinion of the world
ashore. I will give a typical talk with a very
enlightened American lady.

H. S. : " What is the meaning of it all ? "

A. L. : "It simply means that we want to get
back to our beloved Independence."

H. S, : " And to leave us to stew in the European
juice ? "

A. L. : "I don't know ; but I know that it is
the instinct of the American to get back to our
own affairs — to get home again."

There it is, expressed with all the simplicity of

30 A BRITON IN AMERICA

a woman's outlook. ' And once more — the Atlantic
gives the answer. I sit here, on the deck of this
splendid ship — one of the great achievements of
the human brain and hand — and I look over the
waste of tumbling waters. We are passing the
Nantucket Lightship, a lonely vessel, but the
first outpost of the New World. It is Thursday,
November ii. We started from Liverpool on
Wednesday, November 3. A quick voyage to
that of the Mayflower, which occupied nine weeks !
But the impressive fact to me is this : that since
we left Liverpool, eight days ago, we have not
sighted a single ship. So great a solitude Hes
between us and America — so vast a desert. We
belong to different worlds. We are sundered by
a continent of water.

A God, a God their severance ruled.
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.

Meanwhile, beneath us, even on this ship, we
carry passengers who bring with them a hostile
message. To-day is Armistice Day, and we have
celebrated it with a service which, in its mingling
of majesty and simpHcity, must have touched the
most seasoned voyager. Last night a message
came to us from the King, commanding a silence
of two minutes at eleven o'clock by local time.
It was a thoughtful whisper to the ships at sea,
for we had been considerably puzzled as to whether
the Armistice silence should take place then or

THE APPROACH 31

at London time, which would have been two o'clock
in the morning! As soon as the message was
received a service was arranged to open on the
deck at 10.45, ending at the moment of silence.
This was for the first class. But it was soon found
that the second and third classes, being for the
most part moved by the same emotion of timely
commemoration, also demanded a service. So
our Httle stock of ministers were divided — my
colleagues and fellow Pilgrims undertaking their
respective share — Canon Burroughs for the top
deck ; Dr. Gillie for the second deck ; and Dr.
Alexander Ramsay for the third.

On the top deck all went well. The service was
simple and beautiful. Canon Burroughs addressed
us in a few words of simple, thrilling appeal, re-
calling to us the great moment of three years ago,
reminding us of the great vows of that day, bringing
us back to its high resolves and purposes. Then,
at eleven o'clock precisely, the ship's siren sounded ;
and there, in the midst of the deep, the whole ship's
company stood silent for two full minutes. No
sound broke that silence except the rustling whisper
of the waves as the great ship, slowing down,
gently moved forward.

What thoughts passed through our minds !
What memories I What common sorrows knit
together, there in the midst of those solitudes,
that company of mingled British and Americans !
When the siren sounded the close of that silence

32 A BRITON IN AMERICA

the eyes of many who looked up were glistening
with tears.

But down below, when the silence ended, another
scene was enacted. The Sinn Fein emigrants —
let it be said in all fairness — respected the Service
and the Silence. But instantly it ended a voice
broke out from a Httle group that had stood aloof : —
" Ladies and gentlemen of the Irish people " — so
began the speech — and then, at the end, the group
sang " God Save Ireland."

There you have it ! What is the use of blinking
the facts ? We shall not understand the position
of the United States unless we have a vision of
this ceaseless flow Westward of these enemies of
our rule, embittered by exile and the sufferings
of the sea. They land, and almost instantly they
become voters of the United States. They swell
the following of one or other party — ^first of one
and then of the other. They grasp the city govern-
ments. They become a casting vote in the State
and the Union.

Above all, they become the readers of the news-
papers ; and newspapers to-day cannot ignore
their readers. I had a talk last evening with an
American advertising agent from Syracuse. He
was explaining to me, very deHcately, the difficulty
which the American newspapers had to face in the
attempt to do justice to British visitors. " Of our
readers," he said, " nearly 40 per cent, are Irish.
They do not want to hear anything said in favour

THE APPROACH 33

of Great Britain. They will not read anything in
favour of Great Britain. On the contrary, they
want to hear everything that can be possibly said
against her. The result is, that the newspapers,
outside a certain number of independents, are flooded
with Sinn Fein propaganda. They hear nothing
about murdered constables ! They hear a great
deal about British atrocities ! '*

So now, before we land, we know what we have
to face. But, of course, there is another side.
The result of the Presidential election shows it
for all the world to see. Cox played up to the Irish
vote. He went so far as almost to sell his soul
to the Irish vote. But, in the process, he frightened
the stable voter, who is, in America as in England,
the master of the situation. He alarmed the
woman voter, whose rooted fear at present is lest
her boy should be called upon again to go to Europe.
My agent himself gave me a part answer to his
own discontents. He told me of what happened
at Syracuse in the elections of the city " School
Committee " (our " Education Committee," but
elected separately). The Irish combined with the
Catholics and ran their own ticket. With what
result ? Why, the Protestant Democrats immedi-
ately shifted over and joined the Repubhcans,
with the consequence that the Democrats were
beaten !

Dimly, through these sea-mists, I seem to see
here a reflex of the situation left behind in the
c

34 A BRITON IN AMERICA

United Kingdom. The Sinn Feiner rushes for

support to the Roman Catholic Church. He finds

there a great machine : the Church, hungry for

followers, receives him into the fold, and arms

him with all her spiritual weapons. But look

at the immediate consequences. The Sinn Feiner

alienates the Protestant, the old traditional friend

of " nations rightly struggling to be free." The

Roman Cathohc Church, on her side, offends many

of her own flock, who revolt against the methods of

Sinn Fein in Ireland. Truly do the *' best-laid

schemes of mice and men gang aft agley " !

We have passed the Nantucket Lightship. We

are on the eve of our adventure.

" Where lies the land to which the ship would go ?
Fax, far ahead is all her seamen know.
And where the land she travels from ? Away,
Far, far behind is all that they can say."

We go to vindicate the cause of our coimtry.
It is a great and solemn trust. It cuts one to the
heart to hear what some of these people below
decks say of the dear old land. They seem to
think us a kind of Turk — a strange accusation
against a race which, whatever its faults, at bottom
shares with Americans the qualities of kindliness
and humanity. But such is the indictment, now
as in the days of Wordsworth's famous sonnet,
hurled by the world against England.

" England I all nations in this charge agree."

It is for those who carry on the British tradition

THE APPROACH 35

so to direct our policy that they may answer such
enemies in the gate.

Of one thing I feel sure — ^we shall find in America
friends of British blood ready to think the best
of the British cause. During the voyage we have
been reading many books on the voyage of the
" Pilgrim Fathers." This morning we passed not
far from their course. To-day, Armistice Day,
is, by a curious chance, the day on which they
landed. This winter is exactly three centuries
away from the winter in which half their number
— including practically all the mothers of families
— perished on the shores of Cape Cod.

It is easy for Americans to laugh at some of the
claims put forward on behalf of those gallant
Pilgrims. It is natural that there should have
been some reaction from the days when half the
families in New England claimed to be descended
from some fifty men. But at the root of it there
is a great memory — a memory of a great heroism —
and that a British heroism. The men who voyaged
in the Mayflower were typical British yeomen
and shopkeepers. The men who followed them
to Massachusetts and the other New England
colonies were aU of the old stout stock. Their
descendants have spread Westward, and influenced
with their traditions all the States north of the
Mason-Dixon line. True, their places in their
country of original landing have been largely
taken over by Irishmen and Cathohcs. But all

36 A BRITON IN AMERICA

through the United States the old strain runs,
sometimes on the surface and sometimes below it,
hke the Gulf Stream that flows through this Atlantic
Ocean.

That story explains the seeming paradox of
American Hfe. It is easy to show, in figures, the
absurdity of calling the American race " Anglo-
Saxon.'* It is not difficult to emphasise that vast
immigration of varied European stocks which
swept into the United States between 1850 and
1910, and to point out the small contribution of
Great Britain. The American-Irish do that every
day. But in the traditions and origins of races
it is not only quantity that counts. The United
States now finds itself — imder the new Census and
cutting out the Philippines — ^with a population of
105,000,000. If no more than 30,000,000 of those
can claim British descent, whether through Virginia
or New England, that is far more than those in
England itself, the home of the Anglo-Saxon race,
who are really descended from Saxon stock.

At any rate, there are enough British-descended
Americans to make a great presumption in favour
of friendship between the United States and the
United Kingdom. " The British stock," say our
candid friends, " is only one of many that have
gone to build up the American people." True ;
but it happens to be the stock that has given them
their language, their dominant religion, and their
tradition of orderly self-government. How is it

THE APPROACH 37

that no other stock has changed these things ?
Surely that fact alone gives " furiously to think " ?
The more one reflects on the present condition of
mankind, the more one becomes convinced that
the hope of future well-being rests almost wholly
on the prospect of a closer knitting together of
these two races. May all the disputes that divide
us disappear ! May all those that travel to, and fro
across this great ocean highway aim not at em-
bitterment but at conciUation !

II

NEW YORK CITY TO-DAY

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

New York, Nov. 12.

Although we reached the quarantine island at
3 a.m. this morning, it was not until about 8.30
that we got up steam again and went slowly up the
harbour. The interval was occupied by the process
of passing through quarantine, which consists in
a doctor strolling through the saloon whilst you are
eating your breakfast and looking at the back of
your head to be quite sure that you have not got
small-pox. So great is the virtue of the first
class ! For the comity of nations also permits the
American Government to take the third-class
passengers back to Ellis Island and pass them
through a prolonged stage of inquisition before
they are considered to be fit and proper persons
to land on the free soil of America.

When we stepped on to the deck at 6.30 a.m. we
found a glorious morning — a fresh breeze crisping
the steely-blue sea, the crests of the little waves
breaking into foam far beneath us. But it was
only a harbour ruffle, and the great ship stood
steady while a far greater ship — an American

38

NEW YORK CITY TO-DAY 39

battleship — swung by us, moving out to sea,
parading past us just as if she meant to display
to us the strength and pride of the American Navy.

Before leaving the ship we were invaded from the
tender by a crowd of photographers and journalists.
The four Pilgrims were taken up on to the top-
deck and photographed in various attitudes. We
were then each of us interviewed down in the
saloon, and I found myself suggesting various
questions to the modest American interviewer.
That type has certainly very much changed since
the days of Martin Chuzzlewit. These American
interviewers are pleasant and dehghtful fellows,
but now lack the dash and spirit of the new European
journalist.

Then we went back to the promenade deck and
stood waiting for that gUmpse of the Statue of
Liberty on her little island at the mouth of the
Hudson River, which I have always remembered
as one of the most thrilling sights for anyone
approaching New York. Soon she appeared before
us, holding aloft her Hghted torch. But somehow
she seemed smaller and less impressive than when
I last saw her twenty years ago. For the great
New York spectacle now lies away across the
harbour, and it was thither that our eyes were
turned. That spectacle is the mighty group of
sky-cHmbing buildings which rises on Manhattan
Island and gives the first great shock of surprise
to the visiting European.

40 A BRITON IN AMERICA

The tallest of them— the " Woolworth "— is
over five hundred feet high, and so it is something
more than a figure of speech to call them mountains
created by the hand of man. They give you the
impression that you are approaching a land of
Titans. Perhaps it is that the nine days you have
spent at sea make you ready for some great sur-
prise. Therefore you exaggerate the meaning and
import of these great buildings as they stand
there on the verge of the New World, flinging
defiance at the spirit of the Old, seeming to typify
some new attitude of enterprise and audacity that
is not to be confined by the conventions of Europe.

We ghded gently to the White Star Wharf, and
there we found our friends, the excellent Dr.
Atkinson, Secretary of the Church Peace Union,
who is doing so much for the cause of friendship
between the two worlds. Old and New, and several
other distinguished American ministers, who had
so thoughtfully come down to welcome us. They
helped us through the Customs, and perhaps it
was their friendship that made things easier for
us. But although the American Customs House
officers are very thorough in their work and insist
on opening every bag, I have never in America
met with anything but courtesy in this always
unpleasant experience. We descended to the street
and our baggage was placed on a moving carrier
which brought it without bangs and bumps down
to the pavement. We were swiftly taken to the

NEW YORK CITY TO-DAY 41

Prince George Hotel, and there we had our first
experience of the splendid food which America
is still able to supply. The big oysters, the un-
Hmited butter and cream, and the large portions of
meat reminded us of our pre-war Europe at its best

After lunch we were motored by our friends
through New York, down Fifth Avenue to Central
Park, and afterwards along the Hudson River.
We obtained during this drive an impression of an
affluence and luxury such as has become almost
mythical to us Europeans. It takes many forms —
gigantic shops with their splendid displays of wealth
and food, well-dressed crowds, with a lavish display
of furs and jewellery, and above all teeming motor-
cars, which at some moments in Broadway are so
tightly packed that you could almost jump from
roof to roof across the road.

The immense congestion of this motor traffic on
Broadway has compelled the New York authorities
to invent some new methods of traffic control. At
regular intervals along this great thoroughfare
there axe high stands with posts Uke railway signals.
At the top of these posts are lights. A red light
is a warning, a white light stops the traffic, and a
green light allows it to go forward. When a white
hght is shown the whole traffic is held up for about
a dozen " blocks." Meanwhile the street traffic
from east to west is allowed through. It is a most
ingenious method of traffic control, and is admirably
suited to New York, with its long distances and

42 A BRITON IN AMERICA

broad thoroughfares. I doubt whether it would
be of any use in London. New York is now so
crowded and dangerous that you witness the
curious sight of great crowds of people gathering
together on the pavements, like swarms of bees, to
cross the street — as if the mere solidity of the
human mass might provide each individual with a
protection against injury. The Irish poHcemen,
who are the sole custodians of New York, shepherd
the people across with admirable coolness and
good humour, and I am bound to say that the
Irishman in power in New York seems to do this
sort of thing just as well as the EngHshman in
London.

Central Park is a huge open space in the centre
of New York, landscaped to imitate as nearly as
possible a piece of wild country. There are pools
and lakes, hills and valleys. The American grass
goes very brown in the winter, and to our European
eyes Central Park in November seemed therefore
rather arid and barren. Here and there there
are outcrops of the rock on which New York is
built. These rocks add to the impression of wild-
ness. There is an excellent riding track. But
London has the supremacy in the matter of parks
over New York, as over every other great capital
in the world.

The glory of New York is the Drive along the
Hudson River. We came on it just as the sun
was setting over the New Jersey bank of the

NEW YORK CITY TO-DAY 43

Hudson, and we drove along by the river till the
orange glow faded to a pale lemon. Halfway down
this broad thoroughfare is the colossal tomb erected
to General Grant. Over the doorway are written
the simple words with which Grant accepted nomina-
tion for the Presidency in 1868, three years after
the close of the Civil War — *' Let us have peace ! "

New York, Nov. 14.

We have divided our luggage, and now we are
going to divide our party. Each one of the Pil-
grims takes a different itinerary, and my marching
orders are for the Mid- West. To-night my wife
and I start for Chicago, taking Niagara on the way.

Niagara, Nov. 15.

We have had a wonderful day at Niagara, which
I had not seen for over twenty years. When we
arrived at Buffalo at the end of our night journey,
early this morning, it was snowing hard. But the
beautiful warm station and the hot breakfast
made us feel more comfortable than on a European
journey. We reached Niagara at 8.50 a.m., and
after many debates as to the proper way of seeing
the greatest sight in the world we decided to defy
the Anti-Waste campaign and, acting as genuine
spenders, to take a motor for the day. £5 was
the modest fee demanded, and five pounds it was.
But it was really worth it.

Thus relieved of all anxiety and trouble, we

44 A BRITON IN AMERICA

could give our whole mind to the wonderful Falls.
We did everything there was to be done — visited
the American Fall and the Canadian, walked about
the little islands, went down to see the rapids,
travelled in the aero-car across the whirlpool, and
descended, clad in mackintoshes, beneath the Fall
on the Canadian side, and only did not visit the
" Cave of the Winds " because it is at present
closed owing to the tragic accident of last year.

Since twenty years ago I seemed to notice some
slight diminution in the water of the American
Fall, which is being drawn off now to provide power
for a vast number of enterprises and industries —
electric trams and railways, workshops and factories
and the lighting of many towns. Nearly one
million horse power is now being drawn off from both
Falls, the greater part of it on the American side.
This great and splendid force of Nature is being
gradually harnessed to the service of man. It is
useless to say that this harnessing carries with it
no ill effects. The neighbourhood of Niagara is
now being more and more defaced by vast works
and power houses. But the Falls themselves re-
main, and I doubt whether the subtraction of force
has made any substantial diminution in the volume
of falling water. I count the impression of that
diminution to be an illusion, drawn from a quarrel
between Nature and humanity which is a latent
" pathetic fallacy '* in every mind. Witnessing
the assault of man one takes the side of Nature.

NEW YORK CITY TO-DAY 45

For Nature always seems to be the offended inno-
cent, and man the impious aggressor.

Nearly eighty years ago Charles Dickens stayed
for some little time in a house looking right out on
the Canadian Fall, and after several days that
great master of English speech wrote home in a
letter to Charles Forster on May i, 1842, the follow-
ing description : —

" You can see the Falls rolling and tumbling,
and roaring and leaping all day long, with bright
rainbows making fiery arches down a hundred
feet below us. When the sun is on them, they
shine and glow like molten gold. When the day
is gloomy, the water falls like snow, or some-
times it seems to crumble away Uke the face of
a great chalk cliff, or sometimes again to roll
along the front of the rock like white smoke.
But it all seems gay or gloomy, dark or light,
by sun or moon. From the bottom of both
Falls there is always rising up a solemn ghostly
cloud, which hides the boiling cauldron from
human sight, and makes it in its mystery a
hundred times more grand than if you could see
all the secrets that lie hidden in its tremendous
depth." 1

Poor twentieth century writers cannot improve
on that !

^ The Letters of Charles Dickens (Chapman and Hall), Vol. I.,
page 70. (See Appendix.)

46 A BRITON IN AMERICA

We saw the Falls on a dull, grey day, and the
sun gave us no help. The winter frost had not yet
clutched the cataracts with its icy hand, although
on the edge of the banks of the islands we found
many ice stalactites. We noticed, like Dickens,
that the noise of the Falls had been much exagger-
ated, and that you hear little until you come quite
close. Standing in the cave right behind the
Canadian Fall one seems to be looking at a snow-
white solid, so continuous and unvaried is the
impression of that rush of water.

Dickens was tremendously impressed with the
great ghostly cloud of mist which rises from the
depths of the Canadian Fall. He describes it again
in another passage —

" From its unfathomable grave arises that
tremendous ghost of spray and mist which is
never laid, and has been haunting this place with
the same dread solemnity, — perhaps from the
creation of the world." ^

Perhaps we should not quite write like that now,
since we have learned more of the tremendous
changes that have taken place in the world since
the beginning of time. But for my part I do not
blame Dickens for his simple awe in the presence
of this great fact. It is better than the flippant
famiharity of to-day. Dickens was too great a

* Forster's Life of Dick$ns, Vol. I., page 386,

NEW YORK CITY TO-DAY 47

man to treat Nature lightly. Being great himself
he realised the greatness of things. And this
Niagara is a very great thing.

The trip in the aero-car across the whirlpool is
quite worth taking. You pass from bank to bank
in a Httle car running on a cable, and look down
over a hundred feet into the restless whirlpool of
waters. To this the Rapids come. By some curious
freak in the rock the whole river turns back on itself
at a sharp angle. The result is that the great
mass of water seems to drive round and round in a
great pocket for long periods without being able
to resume its current and return to its bed. Great
logs of wood will voyage round and round in a
circle for whole days — so we are told — before they
resume their journey down the river. We could
actually see them disappearing beneath the surface
and going down into the vortex. We recalled
with more wonder than admiration the endeavours
of men hke Captain Webb who have tried to master
these forces. The battle is too unequal to make it
even '* sporting."

We descended by the cog-wheel tram to see the
Rapids. Standing close to them is Hke watching
the Atlantic on a stormy day. The force which
drives the waters on and up comes from within and
below. The great waves with their broken crests
and their prancing manes are independent of tides
and winds. They are agonised by the tremendous
power of Niagara itself.

48 A BRITON IN AMERICA

At first, after falling over Niagara, the waters of
the river glide so tranquilly that ships Uke the
Maid of the Mist voyage quite calmly on the great
pool beneath the Canadian Fall. The river glides
into its gorge, and then, like some tremendous
suppressed passion, the terror and volume of that
mighty cataclysm come again to the surface and
drive all before them. In the " Rapids " Niagara
has its catastrophic revenge.

We had finished with nature by lunch time, thanks
to the speed of our motor, and we lunched pleasantly
at " Prospect House," a comfortable though expen-
sive hostelry. Then we wandered round the town
of Niagara : and finding it cold, looked for some
warm American interior.

As we wandered along, with the free and easy
observation of tourists, our EngHsh eyes were
attracted by a certain freshness in the shop notices.
This, for instance, in front of a small boarding
house —

Niagara Inn.

Reasonably

You WOULD not

BELIEVE WE SERVE
SUCH
GOOD THINGS

TO EAT
AS WE DO.

NEW YORK CITY TO-DAY 49

That and the use of

standard goods
has been the success

of our business.

After this, what can a traveller do but walk in ?

It is almost as frank as the notice seen in a New
York " Store."

*' God helps those who help themselves."
But God help those who help themselves
FROM THIS Store !

We walked a httle further and found a big hand-
some factory devoted to the making of that delect-
able food, popular in two worlds, " Shredded Wheat."
(I shall be suspected of being paid for this as an
advertisement, but credit is due to the great food-
makers.) On the door was written in big capitals
"ALL VISITORS WELCOME!" A new and
refreshing notice to the sore eyes of Europeans,
accustomed to such charming addresses as — " ALL
TRESPASSERS PROSECUTED ! " " ALL DOGS
SHOT ! " (which I actually saw of late defacing a
beautiful English landscape).

Well, we just walked in. We found ourselves in
a great oblong hall with a marble floor, steam-heated
and comfortably furnished with leather arm-chairs.
We were greeted by a charming American lady,
and then asked to sit and read mcigazines, profusely

D

50 A BRITON IN AMERICA

provided, until the guide returned with the party
he was taking round.

He returned, and then took us through the factory.
We witnessed all the diverting and multifarious
processes of shredding wheat — the storeys of
ingenious machinery, the baking of the biscuits,
the packing of the product. But we had seen many
factories. In all this we were chiefly struck not
merely by the cleanliness and hght of the great
building, but also by the happiness and health of
the 400 men and 260 girls employed. They seemed
really to sing over their work.

The mystery of this happiness was soon explained
when our guide took us on to the club-rooms pro-
vided for the employees. There is a fine, large
restaurant with tiled walls and floor, so meticu-
lously clean that one could eat off them : dressing
rooms with lockers for each individual : fine bath
rooms : and a huge recreation room where there
are concerts and ** movies " in the summer and
basket ball in the winter. A mid-day meal is
provided free at noon in the restaurant. The hours
are from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. There are ample playing
fields outside. The Cadburys and the Rowntrees
provide nothing better on our side. I wonder
how far this factory is typical ? I am told that
there are thousands Uke it in this country.

We have spent a quiet evening at Prospect
House, and are taking the train for Chicago at
8 p.m.

NEW YORK CITY TO-DAY 51

Chicago, Nov. 16.

We reached Chicago this morning in a heavy
snow-storm, and foimd the great city as dark as
London under fog conditions. Coasting along the
shore of Lake Michigan before we reached the city
we almost seemed to be moving along the shore of
a sea, so big were the waves which broke along
that coast.

We took off our baggage from a great trolley
at the station and carried it with us on a taxi to
the La Salle Hotel. Arrived there, we found the
great hall packed with men standing in queues
waiting for rooms. There is a Convention going
on in Chicago — there seems always a Convention
everywhere on this Continent — and we hear that
all the hotels are crowded. But this crowding of
hotels is now a common phenomenon of American
life. For America has its housing problem as well
as Europe, and it is due to the same cause — the
cessation of building operations for the last two
years of the war. There was nothing for it but
that we should sit in the hall writing our letters
and diaries, waiting till a room was free.

It is easy to do this sort of thing in America.
The hotels are public places, and all the world
seems to resort to them. The *' Lounge " of the
La Salle was hke the lobby of the House of Commons
on a day of political crisis. Everyone seemed to
stand : and everyone seemed to talk at the top

52 A BRITON IN AMERICA

of his voice. There was a great sense of hustle and
exhilaration, combined with an immense sense of
discomfort for wearied travellers.

During the morning we visited one of the great
Y.M.C.A. buildings, with their wonderful profusion
of facilities for the young hfe of America — libraries,
reading-rooms, lecture-rooms, gymnasia — and we
learned that there are eight similar buildings in
Chicago, The superintendent of this particular
building told us that the working of Prohibition
was proving an immense boon to the young life of
the city.

" It takes away a great temptation," he said,
" and the result is that they have more money for
books and classes ! "

He was quite enthusiastic about it.

We lunched at one of those wonderful food shops
which are christened with the beautiful name of
*' Child's." They are everywhere, full of a profu-
sion of cheap, good food, an immense boon to the
workers of this great city. We fell into conversation
with a lady civil servant in the municipal service
who was lunching there. She gave us a curious
account of the mingled enterprise and graft of the
Chicago civic functions. These two sides of life
— ^graft and enterprise — seem to be strangely
intertwined in the public life of America. It
seems due to that perpetual change of public servants
which still goes on under the system of " spoils
to the victors." I am disappointed to find that

NEW YORK CITY TO-DAY 53

Civil Service Reform has made so little progress in
America.

Then we wandered about the town for a while
and reahsed the tremendous contrast between
Chicago and New York. In New York the traffic
goes like clockwork. There is not a better regulated
city in the world. But in Chicago it seems all
confusion. In this part of the city one obtains a
fearful impression of chaos and disorder in the noisy,
tumultuous vortices of traffic between high buildings
which tend to shut out light and air. This old
part of Chicago is like a city of Ratcliffe Highways,
though Chicago's noble parks go far to redeem the
city as a whole.

During the last twenty-four hours I have been
visited by the Editor of the Chicago Daily News,
and I have paid a call on the Editor of the Chicago
Tribune. I have also bought and read the Hearst
papers, and a strange paper called the Chicago
Republican, representing the views of Mayor Thomp-
son, who now rules Chicago. These Chicago papers
reflect a poHtical atmosphere quite different from
that of New York. They are more remote from
Europe, and it now seems to be their vogue to
avoid with all possible care any expression of
friendhness towards Europe — and especially towards
Great Britain. The view of the Chicago Republican
is that America made her greatest mistake when
she came into the war. The view of all these
Chicago papers seems to be that Europe is an effete,

54 A BRITON IN AMERICA

corrupt continent, containing little of interest to so
progressive a community as Chicago.

The American newspapers, of course, are grouped
in zones, and the Chicago zone is very different
from the New York zone. There is no national
Press in the United States at all corresponding
to our London Press. The country is too vast.
But unhappily, the nearest thing to a national
Press is the Hearst Press, which runs right across
America and pubhshes a newspaper in almost every
great city with syndicated articles. Thus the Hearst
Press is almost the only approach to a national Press.

Perhaps the most ominous thing between Great
Britain and the United States is the virulent and
sustained hostility to Great Britain of the whole of
this gigantic Hearst combine.

This evening, however, we have obtained a better
impression of this vast community of nearly three
milhon human beings. I was fixed to speak at
the North- Western University, twelve miles out
from Chicago. The train took us through the
suburbs out to Evanston — a pleasant township of
broad roads and handsome, spacious, detached
villas. There I dined with a distinguished company
of pohticians, professors and journahsts, and after
dinner I lectured in the University Theatre on the
Pilgrim Fathers, illustrated by Newton's sHdes.

At the end of the lecture the audience remained
seated. I was rather surprised at this, and not

NEW YORK CITY TO-DAY 55

altogether pleased, as I had done my work and
imagined that I deserved some rest. But the chair-
man then rose and explained to me that though
they were very pleased to hear about the Pilgrim
Fathers they were not content to let me go at that.
Having before them a visitor from Europe they
wanted to hear something about that troubled
continent, of which the papers now told them far
too little. They also wanted to hear about Ireland.
In fact, they wanted something " real and actual."

I told them that I had made a vow on board
ship that I would not talk politics in America.
But they only laughed, and as it seemed clear
that they had no intention of leaving until they
were gratified, I had to make them another speech,
this time on the events of the day. It seemed
rather perilous, as I did not pretend to admire the
present foreign policy of the United States. Nor
in regard to Ireland did I affect to beheve that
the American attitude is altogether helpful. I
suggested that Ireland, being a common trouble to
both nations, might, in the end, bring us together.
That seemed such an original and surprising idea
that it filled them with enthusiasm. For the
Americans love a new idea, almost as much as we
disUke one.

The upshot was that we all parted good friends.
We got back to Chicago very late to-night, but on
the whole thoroughly pleased and satisfied with
our first adventure into American politics.

Ill

IN THE MID-WEST
from chicago through illinois

Springfield, Nov. 17.

We stalled from Chicago early this morning, and
travelling in a pleasant Pullman car we have
traversed throughout the day the great plains of
the Mid- West. We journeyed south-west across
the great State of Illinois, one of the most famous
States of the earlier American Union. It is the
country of Abraham Lincoln, and there seems
always a touch of that great man's spirit in the
little western towns through which we have passed.
From the train we get glimpses of the little two-
storied houses with large porches and verandaJis,
standing in their own grounds, rather shabby and
badly painted, a little ramshackle Hke " Uncle
Abe " himself, but always with the same sense
of space and freedom that marked his character.
Though the houses are small, the roads are wide
and bordered with trees. The houses stand weli
back from the thoroughfares, with no raihngs or
fences, and always with a certain genial openness
about the appearance of even the smallest home-
stead— a hospitable accessibihty, like that of
Abraham himself.

56

FROM CHICAGO THROUGH ILLINOIS 57

In the train we found ourselves travelling with
that distinguished French soldier, General Nivelle,
one of the heroes of Verdun. He has been selected
by the French Government as the French repre-
sentative at the Pilgrim Fathers' celebrations,
and it was ordained at New York that he and I
should visit Springfield together.

We arrived at Springfield in the dark. The
railway station was full of friendly faces and
welcoming hands. Committees pounced upon us
from the gloom and carried us, bag and baggage,
to waiting motor-cars. We rolled smoothly through
broad thoroughfares to the Leland Hotel. The
lounge of the hotel was full of eager crowds, for
many things are happening in this city. A Con-
vention— another Convention ! — ^is sitting here in
the capital of lUinois to revise the Constitution
of the State, and the town is full of important
delegates and lawyers. The revising of the State
Constitution is a rare and vital event in an American
State, and all these men are fuU of a high exhilara-
tion and excitement. I noticed again in the
lobby of this hotel that few of them sat down,
but persisted in standing quite as remorselessly
as members of the British Stock Exchange.

I have talked to many of the members of this
Convention Committee, including several Ministers
of the State. I am deeply interested to find that this
Convention recognises as the basis of its new
Constitution all the great documents of English

58 A BRITON IN AMERICA

freedom — Magna Charta, The Petition of Right,
The Bill of Rights. Nothing is admitted to their
Constitution which is inconsistent with any of
these great British standards. The walls of America
are built on British foundations, and it is really
useless for people to say that British traditions
count no more than any other foreign traditions
in the making of America.

For in discussing their new Constitution with these
men, I reaUse instantly that they are bound by
the laws of British freedom almost as closely as
we are ourselves. They inherit the achievement
of British ancestors : they build on the deeds of
British heroes. All the time they hark back to
British origin and think in terms of British faith.
Certainly the best Americans can never forget this
aspect of their hves.

But while talking to these distinguished men we
have been witnesses of a pretty spectacle which
presented the lighter and gayer aspect of American
Hfe. A fashionable wedding took place in the
hotel this evening — for American weddings always
take place in the evening. A great party assembled,
including all the rank and fashion of the town and
all the beauty of Springfield womanhood. Two
things have impressed us. One is the grace and
charm of the women ; and the other is the elegance
of their dress. The women in this Mid- West
capital are as finely dressed as any women in
Europe. Thanks to their great wealth, they can

FROM CHICAGO THROUGH ILLINOIS 59

indulge in this taste freely, and certainly there is
no sign of excessive thrift in this matter of dressing.
American women are fond of wearing their jewels,
and it appears to be a pleasanter habit than that
of keeping them in boxes at home. It is surely
an amiable thing to share the glitter and delight
of your possessions with the world at large !

November 18.
Springfield is indeed the city of Abraham Lincoln.
He dominates the place, even in memory. For
this is where he lived during that important period
of his Hfe between the early Mid- West backwoods
experiences and the later grandeur of his Presidency.
At Springfield he was something " betwixt and
between " — not yet the great man of America,
but already emerged from the obscurity of his
early days. He had become a lawyer and given
up the vague, shiftless hfe of the Mid- West pioneer
store-keeper which he had led for so many years.
In 1834 he had been elected a member of the IlHnois
House of Representatives, and in that house he
served until 1842. He was elected to Congress
in 1846, chosen by the RepubHcans for the Pre-
sidency in i860, and elected on November 4 of that
year. During all those years — from 1834 to i860 —
he lived in Springfield, residing in the Httle house
which has since been bought and furnished by the
State, and is now kept sacred to his memory.
After his tragic death at Washington his body was

6o A BRITON IN AMERICA

brought to Springfield and buried in the cemetery
here. A great monument has been erected over
his tomb, and a statue of Abraham Lincoln stands
in front of the monument. Another statue is
placed in front of the State Capitol, the great
white-domed building which here in Springfield,
as in all other State capitals of America, represents
the majesty of State power.

During the morning we have been taken in a
motor-car loaned to us, with the usual American
hospitahty, to visit all these great memorials of
Abraham Lincoln's hfe and death. We have
journeyed in this way round this beautiful spacious
town, now befiagged in our honour with French
and British bimting. We have accompanied
General Nivelle to the cemetery and laid wreaths
in front of the tomb.

American cemeteries are certainly a great advance
on European. In Europe after we die we are laid
to rest in great melancholy, fiat, walled spaces,
deprived of the companionship of trees and streams,
and unpleatsantly crowded even in death. England
is such a congested country that of late years we
have been obhged in the great city areas to keep
moving our ancestors' bodies from one melancholy
site to another, the living always pushing the dead
further away from their company. In England
the tomb itself gives no rest. But America, being
more spacious, has more room for its dead ; and
consequently there is not the same movement

FROM CHICAGO THROUGH ILLINOIS 6i

towards cremation that has gone so fast in England
during the last twenty years. At home we are
now obliged to bum our dead because they take
the space of the living — and after all the living
have the first claim. In America there is still
room enough both for the living and the dead ;
and so on the outskirts of their towns you come
across these beautiful undulating, wooded spaces,
of which Springfield cemetery is only typical. In
these fields of sepulture — these "Sleepy Hollows'*
as they beautifully call them — they do not cut
down the trees, they do not dam the streams,
they do not crowd the tombs. They put man
to rest beneath the shade of the weeping willow
or the beech tree, giving him softly back to
Nature ; they do not attempt to reproduce in
the cemetery the crowded conditions of life.
The result is soothing and beautiful; death itself
is robbed of some of its bitterness.

In the midst of such a cemetery stands the tomb
of Abraham Lincoln, a mighty structure with that
tall, sombre, melancholy figure of the grim President
guarding the portal, and round him at each corner
of the tomb four sculptured groups, episodes in
the Civil War, made from the cannon captured
from the South. Within this colossal tomb is a
chamber tended by a custodian — a keen and
devoted man, who can remember Abraham Lincoln
and can tell you stories from his Hfe. He is a man
of the same age as Lincoln's only surviving son.

62 A BRITON IN AMERICA

It was pleasant to be taken round by such a mentor,
who could show us with intelligence the collection
of interesting relics hoarded in that chamber —
memorials of every kind, trivial and important.
Pictures, engravings, photographs, letters, and
poems — the play bill of the actual drama — " An
EngUsh Cousin " — which was being performed in
the theatre at Washington when he was assassinated.
Here are cuttings from contemporary newspapers
bringing back to you the immense tragedy of that
human ecHpse — the blow to the North, the appalKng
shock to the whole American people, just emerged
from the bitterness of war. Perhaps the most
vivid memento of this event is a small piece of the
brocade dress worn by Laura Keene, the actress,
and actually stained by Lincoln's blood, which
dropped on to the dress when she knelt down and
took Lincoln's head on to her lap after he had
been shot. "Now he belongs to the ages." So it
is that, looking back past the years that intervene,
we see that life and that death fall into their proper
perspective, and feel that the martyr's end some-
how or other suited the hero's life. Perhaps after
all, as Tacitus said of Agricola, he was happy in
the opportunity of his death. " Tu vero fehx,
Agricola, non vitae tantum claritate sed etiam
oppor t uni t ate mortis. ' '

From the tomb we passed to the house, for our
time was short. The Lincoln home is in Eighth
Street, four blocks from the Courthouse. It is

FROM CHICAGO THROUGH ILLINOIS 63

open to the public at certain times, and we were
most graciously received by the charming lady
who now owns it. She is the grand-daughter of
the sister of Mrs. Lincoln, and she showed us
through the rooms with a loving enthusiasm for
the man who had lived there. Like the chamber
at the tomb, those rooms are full of mementoes.
But the simple furniture best bespeaks the Ufe.
One gains the impression of a smooth, middle-class
existence, intensely domestic : the life of a man who
had passed right beyond his pioneering stage, and
had settled down to tranquil ways. One wonders
how that gawky, long, lank man was contained in
those little rooms. I caught a fancy that he was
probably more often to be found on the open
verandah outside the house, perhaps sitting there
in a long chair on the summer evenings with his
feet on the railings, pouring out his unending stream
of stories to the mixed crowd which probably sur-
rounded him there, as all through his life.

The neighbourhood of the house is full of tales
about Abraham Lincoln, many of them bizarre
and grotesque. But the one I like best is that
which tells how Abraham Lincoln, going down the
street outside to an important engagement at the
Capitol, passed a little girl who was carr5dng a very
heavy basket. He stopped and insisted on taking
the basket from the little girl and carrjdng it himself
all through Springfield. That was characteristic
of the man, his indifference to external dignity,

64 A BRITON IN AMERICA

his unbounded compassion for the weak, his
readiness to bear the burdens of others, his essential
and fundamental goodness of heart.

From the house we passed to the Capitol, and
there we paused to look at Lincoln's second statue.
It is a representation of a younger Abraham,
probably during the period of his State poHtical
life, and alongside of it stands the statue of his
great friend and rival Stephen Douglas — a stout,
thick-set Httle man, rather recalling Charles Fox.
The interesting fact about this second statue of
Lincoln is that it represents him without the goatee
beard conspicuous in the statue presented to London
by the United States, and now generally associated
with his features. Shorn of that ugly appendage,
the face is far more interesting. The close-lipped
mouth and the square jaw reveals the secret of
his strength and determination, hidden from the
world afterwards by the straggling beard.

The story of why he took to growing this beard
is interesting and characteristic. In the chamber
within the tomb there is a letter from a little girl
commenting on his photograph, and telling him
that he would look a handsomer man if he grew a
beard. It is the solemn fact that Abraham Lincoln
brooded over this letter and finally decided to
obey this child. It is also the solemn fact that
afterwards, having grown the beard, he sought out
the child on one of his journeys to Washington and
shook her by the hand, thanking her for her advice.

FROM CHICAGO THROUGH ILLINOIS 65

It is one of those strange, half-foolish stories
about Lincoln which make you wonder whether
there is not a touch of folly about all great men.
At any rate, there seems always a touch of kinship
between them and children.

We now hastened back to the hotel, where we
were to be entertained at lunch by the Springfield
Luncheon Club. It was a great and enth'usiastic
gathering, and certainly Springfield did her best to
show both England and France what she could do
in the way of welcome and hospitaHty. When I
ventured to ask that gathering whether they would,
in the end, after they had finished with their poUtics,
come back to the assistance of afflicted Europe,
they replied with one unanimous shout — " Yes !
We will ! " Whether that shout was merely the
exhilaration of the moment, or whether it repre-
sented the deeper mind of America time alone will
show.

We have spent the afternoon motoring roimd the
suburbs, and paying a series of visits to the homes
of hospitable Americans, who have overwhelmed
us with invitations. I will not trespass upon their
privacy except to note the beauty of their houses.
We visited ex-Senator Hays, who possesses one of
the finest private libraries that I have yet seen in
an American home. Then we visited the villa of
a rich business man which seemed the last word in
artistic luxury. Every bedroom, including also
the servants', has a bath room with a shower bath.

B

66 A BRITON IN AMERICA

The guest's room is the best of all, a happy touch
in home-making. It has a marble bath worthy of
a Roman Emperor. There are sleeping porches
and verandahs all round the house for use in the
hot weather. The study of the master of the house
is in the basement, and is surrounded with pictures
of the American Revolution, showing that no luxury
abates the patriotism of the true American. We
ended by ghmpsing into a house where the hostess
was entertaining a bevy of American girls. For in
Springfield, as in most other American towns,
the women are quite happy with their own company.
A prettier set of girls one could not wish to see :
their tea frocks exquisite, with short sleeves, but
otherwise covering the body in a way that puts
the present nudity of Europe to some shame. One
more point — they were really drinking tea, and
not smoking cigarettes !

There is no rest for the wicked. This evening
General Nivelle and I had to address a great popular
audience of 4,000 people in the great Springfield
Arsenal. General Nivelle spoke on France, and I
tried them with the lantern -lecture on the Pilgrim
Fathers. The Arsenal was decorated throughout
with French and British flags. The band played
and all sang four great patriotic hymns — *' The
Star Spangled Banner," " America," " God Save
the King," and the " Marseillaise."

We spoke with a background of Tricolours and
Union Jacks : and there seemed no evidence that

FROM CHICAGO THROUGH ILLINOIS 67

America is afraid to display British flags. I would
commend that fact to those people in Europe who
are hysterically declaring that the British flag
cannot be shown in America without a riot.

Looking round that great building, now empty
of arms, there came back to mind the mighty poem
of peace that Longfellow wrote at the suggestion of
his wife — " The Arsenal at Springfield." It is still
worth remembering at the present moment in the
world's history. Here are two stanzas : —

' Were half the power that fills the world with terror.
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts.
Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were no need of arsenals nor forts.
* * * * *
' Down the dark future, through long generations.
The echoing sounds grow fainter, and then cease ;
And Hke a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations,

I hear once more the voice of Christ say, ' Peace \' '*

IV
PROHIBITION

does it work ? will it last ?

Springfield, Nov. i8.

In this letter, while we pause at Springfield from
our Hghtning journeys, I propose to take a glance
at one of the great features of American life to-
day— a feature that has faced us, with icy glance,
in every city and railway station since we landed
at New York.

It is Prohibition.

Prohibition came into force throughout the
United States on January i6 last (1920). The
Amendment to the Constitution was declared vahd
by the Supreme Court on June 7. Thus it has been
in full force for five months.

The saloons are all closed, and the sale of alcohol
is absolutely forbidden. A great Federal staff is
employed in enforcing the law. You can drink
what you possess, or drink on a doctor's certificate —
those are at present the only two loopholes in the
law of absolute abstinence adopted by the whole
American people in a majority of three-fourths of
the States.

68

PROHIBITION 69

Thus Prohibition to-day is the greatest fact on
this side of the Atlantic. The League of Nations
seems very far off. But Prohibition is here all the
time. It is present before us at every meal, as a
vast, daring, imperative, challenging social experi-
ment. It is also a huge essay in the power of
a Government. I am not sure that it does not
come next to Russian Communism on this planet
at present as a matter of vital human interest.

For whatever its enemies may say — and they
are legion — Prohibition has not failed — at any rate,
not yet. It holds its head high ; its grip on the
United States is strong and firm ; you feel every-
where the silent pressure of its power. I have now
spent nearly a v/eek in the hotels of New York,
Niagara, and Chicago, and I am quite certain of
one thing. You cannot get a drink to-day in the
public resorts of America — the hotels, the restaurants
the confectioners, and so forth — unless you either
" know the ropes " very well, or are willing to
risk a stay in an American gaol. No doubt the
law is broken by persons who have that
knowledge or are accustomed to that sinister risk,
but not by the ordinary, honest, wayfaring man.

The first blast of Prohibition comes to you on
board ship. A day or two before you reach New
York an imperious notice is posted up on every
ship, foreign or American, informing you that you
must make a statement that you are bringing no
liquor in your baggage when you enter New

70 A BRITON IN AMERICA

York. The gay ''sparks'* on board celebrate the
approach to a " dry " land by an inordinate
consumption of wine and Hqueurs. It is the last
spurt of revolt. Then when you land and settle
down in your hotel, and move about the streets
with the curiosity of a traveller, you soon realise
the mighty change that has come to this land.

New York was famous for its saloons and bars.
Last time I visited New York the saloons dominated
social and poHtical life. Now they have all dis-
appeared, leaving " not a wrack behind.'* They
are *' lost in the foray." The breweries and dis-
tilleries are all closed. The buildings have been
turned into factories. The saloons have been
converted into ice-cream bars, where you can
obtain any temperance drink on earth mixed with
ice-cream — but no alcohol.

King Bacchus has been dethroned, and King
Ice has taken his place. Iced water, iced ginger
beer, iced ginger ale, iced coffee, iced fruit cocktail —
all these you may have. But in pubHc you may not,
for your life and liberty, be seen drinking anything
that appertains to spirits, wine, or beer. A whole
nation — a nation of over loo miUions — would seem,
if you judged by public appearances only, to have
gone teetotal in a few months. From that point
of view alone the world has rarely witnessed a more
amazing fact. For the great cities of America —
New York and Chicago in especial — were by no
means models of sobriety. The saloons played at

PROHIBITION 71

least as great a part in the national and city life
as the " pubs *' of London or Manchester.

We walked one night, after a " dry " dinner at
a New York club, down Broadway. The whole
world was out to witness that marvellous scheme of
Broadway illumination by sky-sign, which is now
one of the seven Wonders of the World, The
street was a blaze of liquid, moving, flowing, dancing
rainbow lights, here rising in fountains of fire,
there writ by a moving finger across the black
firmament in shifting letters of coloured fire. Above
and around us shone in that light all the pomp
and wealth of a great city scarcely touched by the
maladies and sorrows of Europe. Along with us
there moved slowly vast, packed crowds, of every
language and nationality. For the first time for
five years we were witnessing great masses of
humanity at least as prosperous as in the Europe
of 1914, and still marked, as our great cities were
then, by that great, proud plurality of young man-
hood which is now a thing of the past in Europe.
Amid all those great throngs you could not per-
ceive a single man — or woman — ^in any degree
affected by alcohol. I do not say " drunken,"
for, after all, there are few drunken men or women
to be seen now in the open streets of London or
Paris. The new fact is the entire absence of that
spirit of exhilsu-ation, exaltation, excitement — call
it what you wiU, think of it as you will, good or
bad, I pass no judgment — ^which you witness among

^± A BkiTON IN America

the crowds emerging from our restaurants and
public-houses. This new sobriety of great crowds
of human beings is a strange, new social fact.
We felt it not merely in the streets — those well-
ordered streets of over-crowded New York — but
also at that vast Capitol Picture Theatre, where
we sat afterwards through a very long performance.
We felt it walking home afterwards, through the
homing street throngs. We felt it especially
when near to midnight, we — our whole party, ladies
and all — dropped in to a " bar " and partook sedately
of a cooHng fruit drink. It really seemed as if
drinking — the satisfaction of thirst — were at last
to become respectable. Why not ?

So much for the outside of the platter — the
public aspect of Prohibition. What of the inside ?
How far is it true — as so many will hasten to infotm
you — that drinking has been only driven back
beneath the surface, to become more loathsome
because of its secrecy ? How far is the compulsory
natmre of this great change undermining liberty
and honesty in this great country ? Take the
admitted facts. No attempt has been made to
seize or confiscate the privately-owned stocks of
alcoholic drinks. There are many stories of rich
men who, foreseeing that the Prohibition Law
was on the way, bought in great stocks of whisky
and wine — some say enough to last for several
generations — and are now inviting favoured guests
to drink them. There are stories of men who have

PROHifelTtON 73

very conspicuously retired into private life, and are
now rarely to be seen in clubs, where no drink can
be obtained. You hear of a new passion for
domesticity ! Respect for private property is the
bedrock of American politics and social life : so
neither the Federal nor the State Governments
would yet propose to seize these private stocks.
So the contest goes on from day to day — a^ scandal
to those who believe in equal treatment, a store
of fuel for the merriment of mocking foreigners, a
constant supply of ammunition to the Reds and
revolutionaries.

On the other hand, it must be remembered that
it is not merely the rich who have an underground
access to drink. The gang that rules New York,
and whose amazing doings are now being daily
unfolded to the American public, are alleged to be
not behind in slaking the thirst of their true friends.
Tammany is said to be still true to its own. Then
there are the foreign ships. What more easy than
to slip down to some part of the extensive docks
and wharves of New York and pay a sympathetic
visit to a friend from a far country ? Then there
is the great new industry of home brewing and home
distilling. In a newspaper at Buffalo I saw a clever
cartoon of a business man glued to his telephone
while crowds of cHents waited outside. The message
he was conveying through the telephone was this :
" Say ! How do you make that grape- juice ? "
For the ingenious American mind has already

74 A BRITON IN AMERICA

discovered that the fermentation of grape- juice
into wine can be a home industry. Happy homes
are now reported to be wine-vats. Fireplaces are
said to be becoming popular in America for the
first time, because it is found that the domestic
hearth is a good wine-maker !

Such is the current humour. How far does it
go ? Well, my readers can tell for themselves.
There are many parts of England and Wales where
wines — elder wines, gooseberry wines, and so forth
— are still fermented at home. But it is an innocent
industry enough. It cannot go very far to slake
the thirst of a great and parched nation. You can
make a home-brew of beer which is, at any rate,
cheaper than that which used to be sold in the
saloons. The stores sell you Httle packages of
hops and malt. But the barber at Chicago who
told me this also sighed for English beer and stout,
and particularly asked me how it was tasting now
in England. Another — an ItaHan bootblack down
in the basement of a New York hotel — assured me
that he intended to go back to the land of wine
and liberty as soon as he could get away — which
did not seem likely to be very soon. An old negro
at Niagara mourned over his lost glass of beer.
" I[liked to take a Httle at a time — not too much ! "
For these are the people to talk to — not the
Government servants and the men at the top,
or the philanthropists. It is only in the barber's
shop and the boot-blacking saloon that in

PROHIBITION 75

America you can find out what the masses are
thinking.

Propaganda has now been carried so far as to
delude its own operators. You find all the organ-
isers at the centre blinded with masses of figures
and statistics, while " the man in the street " goes
on his way thirsty and resentful.

The great danger, then, of the present law of
prohibition appears to me to be that it may lead to
a new hypocrisy in this great country. An English
whisky merchant told me the other day in London
that his trade with the United States had actually
increased since prohibition. The only difference
was that all the cases had to be marked " For
medical consumption only." Yet it is hypocrisy
to drink by way of your doctor, and it would be
a great pity if that odious quality were to spread in
this great free-speaking country. For there is no
country less naturally liable to hypocrisy than
this land of America — no people more open, more
direct in their aims, more frank in their address.
Even the pursuit of the dollar, which is still carried
on with a frenzy which seems madness to the
slower European, is open and above-board. It is
taJcen for granted in America that you are after
advancing yourself in the world. " On the make "
is not a phrase with any tang of reproach, as it is
on this side of the water. Why not ? He is a poor
creature, so the American argues, who wishes to
remain where he stands. That is not the way that

76 A BRITON IN AMERICA

the United States have been fashioned. Their
greatest perplexity about the European — their
greatest cause for suspecting him, and despising
him — is that he seems to be, for the most part, a
man who does not want to get on.

But now, in this drink question, has America
become a country of hypocrites ? If one judged
wholly from what the opponents of Prohibition say,
both in Europe and in America, one would have
to agree that it has. But I believe that opinion
to be exaggerated. Of course, there is a large
minority opinion in America against Prohibition.
The very facts of the vote showed that. There
was the minority of States entirely opposed. There
was, in the States that voted for it, the minority
vote, often pretty strong, although always under a
fourth. You bump constantly up against this
minority opinion, especially at Chicago. But if
you remember this minority of one-fourth, it is
only fair to remember also the great fact of the
three-fourths majority in the States and Congress.

A Federal referendum would probably have been
a better way of solving this question. It would
have removed the bitter discontent of the minority
— the sense that they have been scored off by the
politicians. But we must always remember in
England — ^if we wish to discuss this Prohibition
question intelligently — that it was no ukase of
President Wilson, who was even supposed to be
opposed to Prohibition, but the slow result of a

PROHIBITION i*]

prolonged agitation, which had been going on for
some thirty years. Lord Bryce refers to it as a
formidable movement in his great book, which was
pubHshed over thirty years ago.

Nor has it been imposed on the whole country
without many trial runs. Prohibition has been
the civic law in many American cities for nearly
a generation. Detroit, where most working-men
now own their own motor-cars, went " dry " in the
nineties. From the city it spread to the county,
and many counties in America were " dry " long
before a single State. Then came the State laws ;
and many States were " dry '* before the United
States as a whole. Then, finally, came the Federal
Amendment to the American Constitution, which
had to be carried by a three-fourths majority,
both in Congress and in the States.

In the vast majority of the forty-eight American
States, therefore, Prohibition had been carried
by an immense preponderance of pubHc opinion
before the war. That was the first step. Then,
after carefully watching the results and comparing
with that shrewd, critical eye of theirs the social
and industrial results in the ** dry " and '* wet "
States, a great mass of the American pubUc gradu-
ally shifted over to the theory of " dryness " ;
and when America is converted to a theory it leaps
forward to the practice of it with the most amazing
swiftness of spring.

But it was not merely the desire for personal

78 A BRITON IN AMERICA

temperance that converted American opinion.
There were other things. One was the passion to
purify their city politics, which have lagged so
terribly behind their Federal politics. There the
saloon was insolently, tyrannically in power. Now
its power has gone — wholly and irretrievably. The
pure forces have for the first time a fair chance.
The second was the fact of the negro population —
now some twelve millions. Everyone in America
shrinks with horror from the idea of a drunken
negro ; and as a matter of fact the negroes are, and
have been, a singularly temperate and steady part of
the population. But White America of the Southern
States gradually drifted — as will also South Africa
in the long run — to this dilemma — either to become
" dry " themselves or to let the blacks become
increasingly " wet." After the Southern States
had fully faced that question the pubhc swimg more
steadily over. The most notable fact was that
the Southern States, though " Democratic " in
party politics, went almost wholly Prohibitionist.
Then there was the war. That played a great part.
The War Time Prohibition Law had so great an
effect on the nation that it converted many. There
was the immense increase of efficiency, which
impressed the doctors and the business men.
Then there was the fact — so unfortunate for the
" wet " interest — that most of the brewers and
distillers were Germans, or at any rate foreigners
of some sort. " Speak United States here, or

PROHIBITION 79

quit ! " was written over many saloons, and led
to their closing.

Lastly, there was the woman's vote in the States.
The American woman has always been an enemy
of the drink interest. She was always determined to
use her vote against it if ever she should obtain the
vote. When she achieved poHtical power the very
first thing she did was to put the " Dry '- oyster-
shell into the urn. That is not because she is a
fanatic. It is because the saloon in America set
before itself the aim of defeating the woman, and
the woman decided to beat the saloon. In that
country, far more than in ours, the drink interest
got into a close conflict with the suffragist party,
and so it was the first fruit of victory that they should
strike a blow at the drink interest. There is nothing
quite corresponding to that in British life, and there
is as yet no absolutely clear sign that the woman's
vote in Great Britain is a temperance vote.

♦ ♦ Xi * ♦

Thus, so far as any parallel can be established
between American and British experience, the
American precedent makes very strongly for a
start with the application of civic, county and
provincial control to the liquor traffic. Mr. Lloyd
George has argued strongly of late in favour of
applying the federal method to the drink question.
He is in favour of a separate " self-determination "
of liquor control in the four provinces of the United
Kingdom. That is how the United States began.

8o A BRITON IN AMERICA

Each State at first had its own Hquor laws. It
was then up to the " dry " States to convince the
" wet/* which they gradually did. We have nxade
a beginning with the Liquor Veto Act in Scotland ;
and the vote of this November, indecisive as it has
proved, may yet be the first opening of a new era.
The parallel would be complete if, after Scotland
and Wales had successfully tried a new experi-
ment, the whole United Kingdom agreed on one
common law — of whatever kind that might be.

Meanwhile the Prohibitionists in America are
claiming great results in the reduction of crime
and the increase of efficiency in the schools and
factories. This argument seems to make Labour
suspicious, and perhaps explains why Gompers
is opposed to Prohibition. But the trade unions in
America carry little weight in these matters. The
United States, of all countries, is ruled by public
opinion as expressed in the ballot-box. PubHc
opinion has spoken in this matter by the strongest
measure known to the American Constitution — the
amendment of that Constitution itself. For that
reason the decision is accepted for the moment as
final. The threats of overt action on the part of
the minority have all died down. " No Drink, no
Coal ! '' is no longer heard. The grumbUng in
private goes on. But the issue played little part
at the Presidential election, and that for the simple
reason that it is no longer considered an open
issue.

PROHIBITION 8i

It is an axiom of American politics that next to
the actual process of passing an amendment to the
American Constitution the most difficult thing — an
almost impossible thing — ^is to repeal an amend-
ment. There is no precedent for such a repeal.
The most hostile opinion is now therefore, for the
present, resigned to the continuance of the law.
" It will last our time " is what they say with a
deep sigh.

Amazing as it may seem to British opinion, there
is no doubt that that appears to be the probable
outcome. The law is practically glued to the
Statute Book. Of course, if it becomes sufficiently
unpopular, it will be ignored. But it will not be
repealed.

[-

V

SPRINGFIELD TO BLOOMINGTON

round the mid-west

Bloomington, Nov. 19.

We rose this morning at 5 a.m. in the Leland House
Hotel at Springfield. In the dim dark we finished
that precarious process of packing which " vexes
public men " on travel intent.

We had been promised a five o'clock breakfast.
But one of the weak spots in these admirable
American hotels is the supply of early food. The
instructions seem to get handed on from one head
of department to another — and it is marvellous
how many heads of departments there are in the
smallest of these Mid- West hotels. The only real
** servants " appear to be the negroes. Every white
man or woman becomes a " manager " — of sorts :
and managers don't Uke early rising. Division of
labour leads to efficiency up to a point, but beyond
that point it becomes a form of industrial stagnation.

This morning at Springfield, lUinois, for instance,
it shocked up against the earliness of the hour and
sank in deep water.

Compelled at last to make a bolt for our train
we had the hungry experience of passing our break-

8a

SPRINGFIELD TO BLOOMINGTON 83

fast on our descent to the hall — ^we in the lift and
the breakfast on the stairs. We climaxed in a
game of hide and seek. The breakfast and the
negro dodged us. At last, despairing of our quest,
we took refuge in the hospitable car of our friend
and were whisked breakfastless to the station.

Then came a glorious relief. For lo ! there
stood to hand in the station restaurant a gfacious
breakfast of fresh fruit — apples rosy-red and grape
fruit bulging — steaming coffee and hot rolls —
such as one could not dream of in war-worn Europe.
Thus refreshed, we quickly forgave and forgot.

So we started back .eastward to this little town of
Bloomington in mid-Illinois, where I was booked
to address the students of the Wesleyan University
at ten o'clock. We travelled in an " Observation
Car " — a car attached to the rear of the train, and
provided with " big windows " — which gave us
an admirable vision of the Mid- West prairies and
vast com fields which used to supply Europe with
maize at a time when the exchange permitted it.
To-day the country is in its winter dress. The
golden maize has been plucked and the fields are
a dirty yellow, dotted with bare stalks. But it is
all new to us, and we loved every Uttle village that
we passed — the freedom of the little wooden houses
and the pretty thoroughfares.

At the station we expected the usual committee.
But instead we were greeted by an old Oxford
friend — a contemporary from the eighties — who.

84 A BRITON IN AMERICA

seeing our arrival notified in the Press, had walked
down to the station to welcome us. My friend is
typical of the American human kaleidoscope. He
came to America twenty years ago as a railway
manager and remained to become an Episcopalian
minister. He is now in charge of the principal
church in this little town of Bloomington. Although
now a fully equipped American, he remains British
in heart and memory. How often throughout
this tour we have met this type of British American !
Prosperous and patriotic, true to " The Star Spangled
Banner " but still always, with a touch of the exile,
eager to see an EngHsh face and to hear an English
voice !

" I just thought I'd come and meet someone
from the old country,*' is the way they put it.
Or if he is a Yorkshire man then rather wistfully,
" And how may they be doing up Bradford way."
Or if he be a Lancashire man — '' Do you happen to
have been down Manchester of late ? " Or if he
be from Somerset, he grips me with both hands
and smiles all over his face when he hears that my
native town is Bath.

It is wonderful how long these memories of the
old country survive. It is not only the Irish-
Americans who love their old country.

We have been lucky to-day. For these good
British-Americans — this old Balliol man and his
American family — ^have looked after my travel-

SPRINGFIELD TO BLOOMINGTON 85

weary wife, letting her rest in their house, while I
have been lecturing and speaking.

The sight of the morning was the crowd of eager
young faces of the boys and girls at the Wesleyan
University — a vast hall packed with young men
and women allowed to sit as they Hked and with
whom they hked — just left to their own sense of
discipHne and order. When I looked at these glad
and happy faces, and received their joyous welcome,
I thought of how differently we order these things
at Oxford — of the young men and women separated
into their flocks and eyeing one another furtively
over their books — and I wondered which was the
better way, the English or the American !

They are good Hsteners, these young Americans.
But I think we all enjoyed ourselves best when the
lecture was over. Then they told me all about
their University, and their happy life there, and
they brought out their Kodaks and took photo-
graphs of me, and made me sign autograph books
and do a number of other trivial things, just expres-
sive of their general pleasure at meeting a visitor
from England. At the gates we parted, and I
suppose I shall never see again any of that great

crowd. May they live happy Uves !
« ♦ * « ♦

But America leaves one no pause for regret.
My guide and guardian immediately switched me
off to eat with the inevitable Town Luncheon Club.
What I said at that luncheon does not matter, for

86 A BRITON IN AMERICA

most of the time was occupied by a formidable
American orator — " spell-binder *' is, I believe,
the word — ^who was billed to lectm-e on Abraham
Lincoln. It was a gathering of lawyers, well-
dressed, prosperous men, and I think I told them
that Europe was not quite so prosperous as they
were. But my chief recollection of that luncheon
is that our speeches were preceded and followed by a
band which played jazz music with amazing violence,
and comfortably drowned most of our conversation.
Listening to this music I was not surprised to hear
from my neighbour that many of the melodies were
of African origin. A fearful thought then possessed
me — that possibly the musical tradition of America
is' destined to be submerged by the aboriginal music
of the negro !

For it is a curious fact that although America
shines in many of the arts — especially in painting
and sculpture — she has, as yet, struck no original
line in music except along these semi-barbaric paths.

Finding it impossible to talk, I spent most of
my time watching the keen, mobile, clean-shaven
faces of the men sitting around me, and I became
conscious of a certain boredom and weariness
reflected on their countenances, as if the endurance
of these jazz noises were merely accepted as one
of the sacrifices of Hfe offered on the altar of con-
vention.

Luncheon over and its turmoil abated, we enjoyed
a few hours of afternoon rest in the British- American

SPRINGFIELD TO BLOOMINGTON 87

home of our hosts. We obtained here a vision of
that large American class which has procured no
increase of wealth during the war, and feel only
the incidence of high prices. It is a class that must
never be forgotten if we are estimating the com-
parative well-being of the English-speaking peoples.
For it is through the common experiences of that
class on both sides of the water that America and
Britain have the best chance of being drawn
together.

Here was a household built on an income corre-
sponding to £400 EngHsh sterling — with three
children ranging from ten to fifteen — a small house
but no servants. It is a hard hfe.

The difference indeed between siich a house in
America and England is the far ampler supply in
America of facilities for cooking, warming and
cleaning. Central heating alone saves much work
on fires. Shopping is easier and quicker in the
wonderful American stores. Holidays are simple
and cheap. For such a family in America is freed
from the British tribute to the seaside lodging-house
keeper. They enjoy an almost free holiday in
the vast spaces of this continent. For three months
every summer they go camping out on the shores
of Lake Michigan, living in tents, fishing, bathing,
and renewing their energies in a glorious experience
of the simple life. That is one signal advantage
to set against the drudgery of the domestic life.

For an hour or so we have wandered about this

88 A BRITON IN AMERICA

town, visiting the fine bookshops and other stores,
all bespeaking the wonderful wealth and well-
being of this Middle-West city. All round you is
a sense of national well-being, but perhaps most of
all in the multitude of motor-cars which crowd the
streets. It is a low estimate to say that one out of
three adults in any of these Mid- Western towns
possess a motor car. At mid-day you see all the
side streets blocked with them. There are practic-
ally no chauffeurs: nearly everyone drives their
own car.

Our host has been teUing us of some glorious
examples of the motor-mania which now possesses
America. The workmen spend much of their
spare cash in purchasing motors, usually on the
hire system. A strike crisis recently arose because
the workmen engaged on a new building did not
consider that sufficient facilities were provided for
" parking " their motor cars. Walking around, I
expressed a surprise at seeing a number of cars
" parked " behind one of the great stores. " You
have a rich shopping class here,'* I ventured to
say. My friend laughed.

" It is not the shopping class," he said. '* It's
the girls in the stores. That's where they put their
cars while they are at work."

Perhaps not a bad investment ; because, after
all, it enables the girls to Hve out in the fresh air
at lower rents instead of being crowded up in
expensive lodgings in the centre of the town. But

SPRINGFIELD TO BLOOMINGTON 89

it all speaks of high wages and a great national
reserve of wealth and energy.

A lady engaging a charwoman recently in one of
these American towns, was faced by the charwoman
with the following interesting dilemma.

" Have you room for my car in your garage, or
will you fetch me in yours ? "

Surely a very perplexing question, and Hkely
to add very much to the problems of the modern
mistress.

One last memory of Bloomington. In front of
the Capitol there is an Arch of Triumph, on which
is recorded all the names of the young Americans
from Bloomington who fell in the war. It is a long
hst, and in thinking of the American war record
we must not forget how much these Uttle towns of
the Mid- West paid in blood for the saving of the
Allies. But what has struck us most is not so
much the names, as the Uttle interchange of poetical
greeting between the Old World and the New
recorded on either side of this triumphal arch.

On one side is written " Message from Flanders
Field," composed, I beUeve, by a young English-
man at a bitter crisis of the war, and addressed to
America.

" MESSAGE FROM FLANDERS FIELD."
In Flanders Field
The poppies blow
Between the crosses
Row on row
That maxk our place.

90 A BRITON IN AMERICA

And in the sky
The larks still bravely
Singing fly
Scarce heard amid
The guns below.
We are the dead.
Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn.
Saw sunset glow
Loved, and were loved
— And now we lie
In Flanders Field.
Take up our quarrel
With the foe !
To you from fallen
Hands we throw
The torch ! Be yours
To hold it high !
If ye break faith
With us who die
We shall not sleep
Though poppies blow
In Flanders Fields^

On the other side of the arch is an inscription of
a poem entitled, " America Answers," composed
by a young lUinois writer, Mr. Villard. Here it is : —

"AMERICA ANSWERS."
Rest ye in peace
Ye Flanders dead !
The fight that ye
So bravel}'- led
We've taken up
And we will keep
True faith with you
Who lie asleep
With each a cross
To mark the bed

SPRINGFIELD TO BLOOMINGTON 91

And poppies growing
Overhead

Where once his own
Life blood was red !
So let your rest
Be sweet and deep,
In Flanders Field !
Fear not that ye
Have died for naught !
The torch ye threw
To us we caught.
Ten million hands
Will hold it high
And Freedom's light
Shall never die !
We've learned the lesson
That ye taught
In Flanders Field.

It is well to record these poems, because they
express in noble phrase for all time the highest
phase of feeling in the relations between the old
and the new Worlds.

ToPEKA, at Mr. Mulvane's, Nov. 20.

We mounted into the Pullman at Bloomington
last night at 5.30, and we reached Kansas City this
morning at seven o'clock. The splendid coal-black
negro who looked after us in our car glanced at his
watch " wrong side up," as he " guessed " to us
afterwards. The result was that he woke us all
up at five o'clock instead of six, and we had to sit
and yawn for a whole hour and a half before reach-
ing Kansas City. The good fellow was very much

92 A BRITON IN AMERICA

amused at his mistake, and kept chuckling all the
time as he passed up and down the gangway between
his sleepy passengers.

" Sure a' don't know how a' did it ! Think a'
must a' been asleep myself ! "

Nobody scolded him. Everyone smiled a wintry
smile and just endured. For out here in the Mid-
West people are very tolerant of the negroes, who
indeed have a singularly engaging way with them.
They laugh more freely than any other people on
this continent. I have been witness of their kind-
ness from hour to hour both to women and to
children on the cars. One gets very fond of them.
Yet the Southerners would have us believe that if
you scratch a negro you always find a savage !
So one is left puzzled, with just a touch of wonder
as to whether all the savagery is on the black side
of the fence.

Kansas City railway station is one of the most
splendid of the great " People's Palaces " which
the railway corporations provide for the public
in America. It is equipped with every resort for
the traveller — rest-rooms, bath-rooms, hair-dressing
saloons, candy stores, tobacco shops, boot stores
and information bureaux. The whole place is
splendidly warmed and covered in with a vast
and beautiful roof which defies all weathers. Above
all, the station is provided with a magnificent
restaurant which gave us this morning a timely
meal, quickly served and splendidly hot. What

SPRINGFIELD TO BLOOMINGTON 93

a contrast to the railway restaurants of the Old
World ! I could not help remembering the grubby
fights for food at our railway stations, and the
haughty service of slow-moving, beautiful maidens.
But once more our time was all too short, and
at 9.10 a.m. we started again for Topeka — a pleasant
journey in sunshine, through rolling country along
the banks of the Kansas River. The river ran
steely-blue between pale yellow sandbanks, fringed
with grey-brown and gold-brown winter trees,
while beyond lay great stretches of fields, covered
with yellow-brown maize stalks. The sky was
bright blue at the zenith, but faded to grey on
the horizon, with sharply-outhned clouds scudding
along and casting indigo shadows over the faintly
tinted landscape. It was a pleasant, cheerful
journey, and we were met at Topeka station by
a group of kindly American friends who insisted
on offering home hospitality, and motored us straight
to this house. Here we are permitted to rest for
no less than thirty hours, punctuated by no more
than two meetings. The prospect seems too good
to be true I

VI

IN KANSAS STATE

TOPEKA, Nov. 20.

ToPEKA is a " capital "—the capital of Kansas
State — and is proud of the fact. It is one of the
paradoxes of the Mid-West that Kansas City is
not in Kansas but in Missouri. So Topeka has the
State Capitol, another of those great white-domed
buildings in which the State Assembly sits ; and
it has a cathedral and a college and all the State
offices. Otherwise it is a smallish country town of
some 40,000 inhabitants spread out wide on both
banks of the Kansas River, with the broad roads
and detached villas of the Mid- West.

Of course Topeka has a luncheon club — run by
the Topeka Chamber of Commerce — and we had
scarcely begun to unpack before we were rushed
oif to address this club. The club was lunching in
a large, low-ceiUnged room, full of small tables
and crowded with hungry business men. They
were all eating hard and making a tremendous clatter
with their knives and forks. The chair was taken
by Mr. Van Petten, who is suffering from the
affliction of blindness, but who has attained to an
almost miraculous independence of that calamity.

94 '

IN KANSAS STATE 95

He will always stand out in our memory as a
triumph of the human spirit over darkness and
tragedy. He passes through life serenely, with
the wonderful patience of the blind Hnked to some-
thing keener than the perception of vision. In my
youth I knew Henry Fawcett : and he, like Sir
Arthur Pearson of to-day, was a living miracle of
" victory over blindness." But Mr. Vaa Petten
is the equal of those two eminent men. The loss
of sight seems to have gifted him with some new
sense, keener than that which he has lost.

In the midst of all the clatter, an American Red
Cross lady arose and made a five minutes speech
on behalf of the work that the American Red Cross
is still doing for the starving children in Central
Eiurope. To my great astonishment the whole
room went on clattering : the negroes passed to and
fro without any abatement of noise : the rattle
and talk scarcely diminished. It was the first
scene of discourtesy that we have witnessed since
we landed in America, and we were gravely per-
turbed. The discoiurtesy seemed to be intended
not so much for the lady speaker as for unhappy
Europe. For the first time a certain anger began
to rise within one. There seemed a touch of the
insolence of prosperity about this behaviour.

The Red Cross ladies took the treatment with
inexhaustible serenity, and patiently finished their
almost unheard speeches. Then Mr. Van Petten
called upon me. I rose and stood standing without

96 A BRITON IN AMERICA

uttering a word, until from sheer curiosity some of
the lunchers began to put down their knives and
forks and turned to look towards me. Having
thus achieved some slight degree of quiet, I told
them very slowly and gently that I could not address
them unless they could make a choice between
their food and their European visitor. I am sure
that they intended no discourtesy, because now
they began to be quite attentive. But a certain
flaming anger on behalf of Europe still possessed
me. Those Red Cross ladies after all had spoken
for our Continent, and I could not at once forget
the way they had been treated. So very deUber-
ately I took out my wallet, and slowly extricated a
very dirty dollar note which was by a happy chance
therein.

" On the exchange,*' I said, slowly, " this is worth
more to me than to you. But as these ladies have

remembered us I will give it to them " So I

stood holding it out till one of the ladies tripped
cheerfully across the room and smilingly accepted
it for the use of the Red Cross in Central Europe.

After that I had no trouble with my audience.

What I said is of Httle consequence. But for
the first and last time in America I spoke my full
mind about the behaviour of the United States
since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. I
was angry and I spoke frankly. " My heart was
hot within me . . . then spake I with my tongue."

The Topika Daily Capital gives the speech in

IN KANSAS STATE 97

full this evening, and these are the headlines with
which they preface it —

LONDON VISITOR GIVES TOPEKANS THE
BRITISH SENTIMENT

-WE NEED YOUR ADVICE, NOT YOUR
DOLLARS."— E. H. Spender

USELESS UNLESS U.S. IS IN

PRAISES WILSON AS MAN WHO SAVED THE
WORLD

•* British bluntness and outspokenness," says
the journalist too kindly, " marked the speech
from start to finish, combined with an eloquence
which indicated the deep feeling of the speaker in
his subject." I do not know about the eloquence,
but I do know that I spoke very bluntly.

The result was very astonishing. Instead of
being annoyed, that audience of Mid- West business
men became more and more interested. Gradually
they put aside their ice-creams and their iced-water
and listened intently.

There is always one feature about the Americans
which continues to puzzle us, and that is their
incapacity for resentment. A frank people them-
selves, they seem to love frankness in others. The
plainer and blunter I became at this lunch the better
pleased they seemed. I told them that they had
deserted us. They beamed back on me. I told

98 A BRITON IN AMERICA

them we did not want their money. They sparkled
with joy. I told them they would soon feel the
shadow of Europe coming across the Atlantic.
They were radiant at the prospect. I built up a
comparison between them and the Good Samaritan,
ending with the remark that they had left us in
the Inn and neglected to come back again. They
exploded with enthusiasm.

I thought that I had told them quite enough
and meant to tell them no more. But then the
Secretary arose and pressed me to say what I
thought of their treatment of President Wilson ?
I gently hinted that I would rather not say. They
pressed me again. I was forced to comply.

" Well," I said slowly, " we regard his present
illness and general treatment by America as one
of the five great tragedies of the world." And there
I hesitated. But they pressed me further. What
were the tragedies ?

" The death of Socrates," I began, " the killing
of Caesar by Brutus, — the assassination of Abraham

Lincoln — the cruc " and then I paused, and

ended — " I think that there we will draw the
veil ! "

After that I expected to be picked up there and
then and thrown out of the window— or tarred
and feathered — or scalped — or treated in one of
the numerous ways attributed to this part of the
world. Instead of that these good Americans
came up one by one very formally and kindly and

IN KANSAS STATE 99

warmly shook me by the hand. One after another
they said — " That was fine ! That was fine ! "

Such are the real humours of the American
Mid-West.

In the afternoon we were motored by the Van
Pettens through the country district round Topeka,
visiting one of their big farms and handling the
grain in the great storehouses. We learned that
there is now such a glut of com owing to the loss
of the European markets that the Mid-West
farmers are not only using grain for cattle food,
but even biurning it as fuel. The price has slumped
from three dollars a bushel to one, and the farmers
are half in anger and half in despair. They meditate
a descent upon Washington with a demand for
Government action. In our simplicity we took
for granted that they were going to ask for freer
markets.

But our friends smiled at the idea. " Then
what are they going to ask for ? " we said.

" Why, higher tariffs, of course ! '* they replied.
" A tariff against Canada 1 *'

That is still the only remedy that the American
farmer thinks about ! Higher tariffs at a moment
when the whole world is being held up by the
difficulties of trade and the want of easy commerce
between nations !

We ended oiu* ride this afternoon at the Topeka
Golf Club, which is laid out not far from a wired
piece of prairie which still contains a small herd

100 A BRITON IN AMERICA

of buffaloes — the last remnant of those vast herds
of these creatures which used to range in such
multitudes over this part of America. The buffaloes
sustained the Red Man and proved the enemy of
the White. So the White Man replied by com-
bining both in one common doom of destruction.
The survivors of both the man and the animal are
now herded within reserves, and the White Man
possesses the land.

" May I go in and see them ? " asked one of our
party

" If you did, you wouldn't come out again,"
replied Mr. Van Petten, grimly.

For the buffalo in captivity — unlike the Red
Indian — ^has acquired the ferocity which he never
possessed in freedom.

The only difficulty of these motor trips through
the brown prairie country dotted with villas is
the badness of the roads. The American roads
of the Mid- West are still shocking. The residents
put it down to the softness of the soil. They tell
us that macadam is useless in the Mid- West. But
I suspect that most of American energy has hitherto
been directed to the making of railways. The road
period has yet to begin. A great transcontinental
high road is already starting — so we are told —
from San Francisco across North America to New
York. It is to be built on concrete, and should
prove a remarkable achievement. The building
of American roads is indeed necessary to complete

IN KANSAS STATE loi

the triumph of the American motor. For at
present long distance rides are far less comfortable
in America than in England. England still retains
her splendid supremacy as a road builder.

We returned to the hospitable home of Mr. D. W.
Mulvane, but an heroic attempt to rest was soon
broken by the invasion of an enterprising journalist,
who honoured me by mistaking me for my " comrade
in arms" — the term with which he so graciously
honours me — General Nivelle of Verdun. Perhaps I
ought to have given my visitor a thriUing account of
the last days of that immortal combat. But I was
taken off my guard. I failed to rise to the occasion.
In one fatal moment of candour I confessed to
being nothing more than — my humble self.

Allowing for this shock, my interviewer was
amazingly kind. This evening he recorded my
views in the following headlines — eloquent ot
much : —

"CALL IT WHAT YOU WILL BUT JOIN
THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS," SAYS SPENDER.

ENGLISH JOURNALIST SEES DANGER
THAT SHADOW OF EUROPE MAY FALL
ACROSS PROSPERITY OF AMERICAN
PEOPLE.

He also recorded some questions of mine which
are perhaps worthy of insistence : —

" I want to ask the Americarls do they think
they can profit in the end by seeing the countries

102 A BRITON IN AMERICA

of Europe go down to moral and financial ruin ?
Do they think they are safe in having the coun-
tries of South America in conference with other
countries at Geneva where America is not repre-
sented ? Do they not think that some day
Europe may become so self-sustained and self-
sufficing that it may not want America's pro-
ducts ? Are they sure they are not deserting
the principles of the boys who lie in that great
cemetery in the devastated region of France ? "

Immediately after the departure of the journalist
the admirable negress who attends to all the wants
of this household entered softly into the room and
leaning familiarly down towards me whispered
into my ear the following delicate message : —

" Yo' wife think yo' ought to come and put yo'
does on."

Gathering from this a fresh summons to duty I
ascended to prepare myself for the banquet that
was lying in wait for us this evening.

Our entertainers were the members of the local
Mayflower Club, and it was their Annual Banquet.
All the members of the Club are residents of Topeka,
and no resident is admitted to the Club unless he
or she can prove their descent from one of the
Pilgrim Fathers. This proof is no light affair, for
pedigrees have to be obtained from Europe. Yet
it is a club of considerable size, and some thirty
people sat down to dinner this evening.

IN KANSAS STATE 103

Just consider the significance of this fact. Here
we are, some 1,400 miles from the landing-place of
the Pilgrim Fathers and the home of the Puritans.
Yet here is a httle body of their descendants who
have penetrated thus far into the land and settled
in Kansas. Their ancestors perhaps came to
Kansas during that historic struggle for the soul
of the State which took place in the Sixties — just
before the Civil War — when it had to be decided by
a majority whether Kansas should be a slave or a
free State. The rival invasions which came from
the north and the south on that occasion have left
Kansas a State mixed in blood and origin. But
there came from the North a very large infusion
of Puritan blood. Perhaps that is the reason
why the Mayflower descendants make such a good
show in Topeka.

Anyhow we found ourselves present this evening
at a very bright and charming meal. A committee
of the Mayflower ladies had arranged the whole
affair between them. Some had supplied the
table hnen, others the silver : yet others had
decorated the dinner-table. It was sunny with
yellow chrysanthemums and golden heads of maize ;
in the centre was a gorgeous orange pumpkin tied
with yellow ribbons. The menu also was quite
cheerful. The presence of turkey already fore-
shadowed the coming of Thanksgiving Day.

Let me give a record of the luscious food while
it is still fresh in a grateful memory —

104 A BRITON IN AMERICA

A mixture of grape fruit and cherries.

Turkey with sweet potatoes and cauliflower,
bread sauce, cranberry jelly and cherry preserve.
(All together.)

A plate of turnip and asparagus salad with butter
piled on the top of it all.

Hot apple pie with vanilla ice sitting on top.

After dinner began the speeches. The aim of
the orations was to celebrate the coming of the
Pilgrim Fathers three centuries ago — in 1620 —
and this evening at any rate we stuck close to our
text. Doctor Kulp, an American Minister of
Dutch origin, led off with a resounding oration on
the meaning of the Pilgrim Father movement. He
displayed a knowledge of the history of British
Puritanism which would have astonished a British
university. I followed in humbler style, dwelling
on the interchange of influences which have passed
between the Old and the New World during the
last three centuries, and daring to say that when
America came to help us in 1918 it was a case of the
Mayflower coming back to us. " But then she
left us again. When will she return ? " On that
note I ended, and as far as that pleasant and
hospitable company is concerned I feel sure that
they will always vote with both hands for bringing
the Mayflower back to Europe.

VII
''AWAY FROM EUROPE"

What the Mid- West Thinks -

ToPEKA. Nov. 20 (later).

While still in the Kansas State, let me pause
again in my narrative to consider some questions
of serious political and social import.

Here in Topeka, we are in the heart of the
great " Middle West " region of the United
States, 5,000 miles away from Europe and 1,200
miles away from New York. It is a country of
immense wealth and prosperity, drawn from vast
numbers of large, rich farms, which produce enough,
not merely to feed this State, but also enough, if
transport and exchange permitted, to stay the
famine of Europe. This State has produced 600,000
bushels of corn for export this year, but, as we have
seen, they cannot now find an adequate market.

There is a glut of all good things. Apples are
being given away. We live in a land of milk and
honey, or, let us say, cream and candy. After
five years of scarcity we British feel ourselves over-
whelmed by the food which is lavished upon us.
Here is a prosperity only equalled by the generous

105

io6 A BRITON IN AMERICA

hospitality of these dehghtful, large-hearted
Westerners.

But, though they are very kind to us who are
present in the flesh, they have ceased to think at
all kindly of Europe. The Middle West has regis-
tered a great decision ; and it would be fooHsh for
Europe to dream that there will, in American public
opinion, be any weakening of that decision.

" Away from Europe " would be a Bismarckian
way of expressing the will of this people. The
poUticians at Washington, who are trained to
fool the American people, may perhaps try to get
round that decision. But there is no doubt as to
the interpretation which is placed upon it by the
good people of the Middle West. They beheve
that they have decided to be quit of Europe and
all its works. The overwhelming vote which was
given against President Wilson and on behalf of
Senator Harding meant, to the West people, one
thing, and one thing alone. It was a vote against
President Wilson as standing for a European
policy.

Now, I have put the case for Europe very strongly
to these good people in the various gatherings with
which they have honoured me as a British delegate
to the American May/lower celebrations. So may
I, with equal candour and directness, put the case
of the American people to Europe ?

I put aside the purely party Republican case,
because it is, Hke all other party cases, built up

AWAY FROM EUROPE 107

on a desire to find fault. The Republicans blame
President Wilson practically for every act that
he has committed since the close of the war. He
ought not to have gone to Europe — so they say —
he ought not to have gone alone. He ought not
to have pledged his nation — and so on, and so on,
with endless iteration. It becomes soon painfully
clear to the listener that whatever Wilson had
done he would have been equally condemned by
these people. I ventured to remind them that the
British Prime Minister had done precisely the
opposite thing — acted through a Coalition — and
had been condemned in precisely the same terms
by the same type of party person in his own country.
There is no need to say more on that.

But why has this party spirit waned in England
and waxed in America, in a great country at least
as patriotic as ours and equally capable of great
enthusiasms and sacrifices ? It has waxed because
this great American nation had already tired of its
great European crusade. " My policy is to get back
to the Monroe Doctrine.'* That is the most fre-
quent remark of the Mid- Western business man ;
and no argument or appeal at this time of day
will make him budge very far from it. When you
point out that he has incurred great obHgations and
given great pledges, he remains unmoved. " They
weren't our pledges," he will say. " They were
only Wilson's — you hadn't ought to have beHeved
Wilson ! '* If you then ask how, if Europe is not

io8 A BRITON IN AMERICA

to believe the President of the United States, any
country can negotiate with the States, he will shrug
his shoulders. " No single man/' he will say,
" can speak for the United States."

I sometimes wonder, indeed, whether what I
am observing here does not strike much deeper than
a mere party victory, or even the revolt against
a single towering, perhaps too commanding, per-
sonahty. I seem to get fugitive ghmpses of a
general revolt against the whole pohcy of inter-
vention in the Great War.

There are two facts about the Presidential
Election which strengthen this suspicion. One is
that the women's vote — a very powerful vote to-
day— was thrown very largely against Wilson on
strictly peace grounds. The answer of the women
always is, " Because he took my boy." *' I didn't
raise my boy to be a soldier " is still the prevalent
view of the American women. They have not
forgiven Wilson for taking their boys. Simple,
but profound.

The second is that the vote of both the German-
American and the Irish-American vote was cast
against Wilson. The German-Americans, because
at bottom they have never forgiven Wilson for
going to war with the country of their birth ; the
Irish- Americans, because Wilson would not acknow-
ledge them at Paris as separate negotiators. Since
then they have bitterly opposed the League, and —
as I have described — not even Cox's wild promises

AWAY FROM EUROPE 109

of support in their independence could bring them
in. As so often in all crises of their fate, the Irish
punished their friends.

But the Great War is past. The really pas-
sionate motive has been rather the dread of another
war. Here the mothers have come in decisively.
They have made up their minds that their boys
shall not pay another trip to Europe — not if they
can help it. It is not merely death and wounds
that they fear, these women. They accuse Europe
of having polluted their boys with drink and disease.
Every time that Europe scoffs at prohibition the
resolve of these women against the League of
Nations hardens and tightens. It is in part a
great moral alienation — this drawing away from
Europe.

But of course that is only one contributory cause.
No one can fully comprehend the hatred and fear
of the League in America who does not also witness
and realise the strength of the agitation against it.
In this alone of the great war countries, it has been
a supreme political issue in a great poHtical cam-
paign. The whole subject has been closely argued
— on one side.

For, owing to President Wilson's tragic and
deplorable illness — the central human point of
human pathos in this great drama — the League
has had few defenders. He seems to have estab-
Hshed no organisation to support it. vSo much
was it a " one man job " that his own supporters

no A BRITON IN AMERICA

scarcely understood the League. They were mostly
in favour of compromise. But Wilson stood like
a rock against compromise. He would not budge
an inch on the famous Xth Article. Rightly or
wrongly he felt that he had already given away
enough.

Consider the sort of things that were freely
said about the League, and are said to-day through-
out the United States, with little contradiction
from anyone. It is said that at any moment,
under the League, any American youth might be
sent off to Europe to fight in any " silly old war,"
whether America had an interest in it or not. There
is no mention of all the restrictions with which
the Covenant of the League has hedged the appeal
to force ; of the vote which America would have
to give on the Council ; of the alternative of the
economic blockade ; of the very pertinent detail
that no American army could be sent without the
consent of America herself. During the past week
Mr. Borah, the fiercest out-and-out opponent of
the League, has been pointing to the rumoured
proposal to send Spanish troops to Vilna, and
exclaiming triumphantly that, but for the recent
election, American troops would have been going
there also.^

Then there is the famous question of the " six
to one " votes. The Americans feel very keenly
upon this. Their idea seems to be that the innocent
» Spain cried off and did not send any troops.

AWAY FROM EUROPE in

Mr. Wilson — innocent to foreigners, though fiill
of guile towards . his own people — was entirely
fooled by the clever British delegates. They com-
plain bitterly of the arrangement by which we have
secured votes for our principal Dominions as well
as for ourselves.

I have pointed out to them, with all due defer-
ence, that they have behind them the, votes of
eleven South American Republics — including Hayti,
Cuba, and Panama — all practically within the
American sphere. I have also suggested that the
splitting up of the British Empire vote, so far from
strengthening the power of the British Imperial
vote in the League, divides it. I have even pointed
out that Lord Robert Cecil, now representing
South Africa, does not sit at Geneva as a friend
of the British Government, but distinctly as an
independent speaker and voter. But all this is of
no avail. It ought to have been said a year ago.
It is too late now. The public of the United States
have registered their great decision.

This being so, I was very much astonished to
hear, from a powerful owner of newspapers in the
Chicago region, that President-Elect Harding had
privately informed him, in the middle of the
Presidential election, that he intended to come
into the League before the end of 1921. The idea
seems to prevail that this assurance signified an
understanding between the new President and
France and Great Britain, by which America

112 A BRITON IN AMERICA

should still join the League. If one could say
positively that the people of America could now
never be fooled — all the time or any of the time ! —
then such an outcome of this election would be
impossible. But one has to consider that purely
party government has here been carried to the
finest point of efficiency— that an election pro-
gramme is largely regarded as an instrument by
which a party attains to power. Having attained
to power, the President, by becoming the supreme
head of the Executive, is from that moment an
uncrowned king. Like all kings before him, he
tends to plead Divine Right. He grows bigger
than his party. Just as President Wilson came
into the world war in 1917, after being elected on
an anti-war ticket in 1916, so it is still not quite
impossible, in spite of everything, that Harding
may, after being elected on an anti-League ticket
in November, 1920, still sHp into the League in
some form or other, before he finishes his tenure
of power in November, 1924.

Old students of party politics will notice that
Harding has left himself one or two loopholes by
which he might find an escape from his present
position. He has said that he will not join a
" League " ; but he has added that he might join
an "Association of Nations." Well, there is no
substantial difficulty there. " A rose by any

other name ." The French call it " The Society

of Nations." The Germans have another term.

AWAY FROM EUROPE 113

Let the Americans have still a third if they desire.
Then there is the question of " reservations."
Switzerland has already come in on the reservation
of her neutrality. Let Harding table his reserva-
tions, and it will be for the League to consider them.
The British Government is not, I believe, opposed to
reservations. They want to see the American reser-
vations tabled by a responsible American Govern-
ment before they pass any judgment on them.

But the issue is now not with the British Govern-
ment alone. It is a matter for the whole League
of Nations, who are at Geneva obviously becoming
daily more confident and self-reHant, and less
inclined to wait humbly on the dormant will of the
United States.

Probably it is these rumours of Harding's secret
intentions that has produced a new and remarkable
movement at Washington among the more resolute
Republican Senators. The elder Senators of the
United States represent a sort of poHtical aristo-
cracy, " fathers of the people," patricians in spirit,
elected for long periods by great areas, not untouched
by a certain fine contempt for the party whirlpool.
They are determined that Harding's victory shall
mean a defeat of the League of Nations. They are
resolute that America shall not be a party to the
Treaty of Versailles, which many of them detest
on other grounds. So they are pushing forward
the policy of " Peace by Resolution." The resolu-
tion of Senator Knox, declaring peace with Germany
n

114 A BRITON IN AMERICA

without terms, is to be passed again. Instead of
being vetoed, as President Wilson vetoed it, it is
to be allowed to become final by the new President.^
That is the simple plan for ending the war that finds
favour at Washington.

This policy will carry with it certain notable
results. America will have to give back to Germany
all the property, whether in ships or other estate,
which is at present only being used under the right
of war. She will revert to her ante-war attitude
towards Germany. She will have no part or lot
in the annexations of German territory either by
France or Great Britain. She will not undertake
to guarantee anything in the Versailles Treaty.
It is, perhaps, a significant fact that the RepubHcan
victory in America has been followed by the develop-
ment of a new German attitude of resistance towards
the AUies in Europe.

One dimly perceives that Harding may come
into conflict with this powerful body, the American
Senate, almost as acutely as President Wilson.
There are all the elements of a new deadlock in the
party proportions of that body as it emerges from
the elections. The RepubHcans have a majority of
only nine notes. That would not give them the
necessary two-thirds majority for a purely Re-
publican poUcy. The RepubHcan extremists will
almost certainly be unable to secure a two-
thirds majority for peace by resolution. If Harding
^ This reeolution has now been passed (1921).

AWAY FROM EUROPE 115

becomes a League President, the Democrats in the
Senate may support him, if they can forgive the
Republican attacks on Wilson. But they, too,
will be unable to give him the necessary two-thirds
majority. So this great country may drift on,
suspended, like Mahomet's coffin, between war and
peace, a silent voice in the counsels of the world.

Such are the shifting aspects of this grea-t drama.
Behind them all one gets glimpses of a world tragedy.
One seems to be an onlooker at one of the great
crimes of history. The slow dying of President
Wilson — which the Republicans gaze at with an
indifference approaching to satisfaction — appears
to carry with it some sense of doom for the great
country that can pass by with so little pity or
regard. The Americans will descant to you at
great length over the faults and " kinks " in President
Wilson's character. Many great men have great
faults. To err is human. But do not Wilson's
enemies suffer from a greater fault than any of his
— the fault of not recognising greatness when they
see it ? " His great deed was too great," sang Mrs.
Browning of another man. President Wilson's
character seems to tower above his race and time.
Already, Hke Abraham Lincoln, he " belongs to the
ages." And just as America paid a fearful price
for the kilUng of Abraham Lincoln, so sometimes
it occurs to an observer of these events that a
reckoning for all this lies ahead for this now smiling,
prosperous land.

ii6 A BRITON IN AMERICA

Is not the shadow of it already coming ? While
I write, the talk of a slump in trade is going on
all around me. The farmers of the Mid- West
cannot understand why their prices are affected.
They have been told for so long that they can stand
utterly detached from Europe. They know so Httle
of the new shrinkage of the world. They have
taken for granted that there will always be a market
for their produce. They have laughed at those
who told them that if Europe starved they would
suffer. But they are already feeHng the wind
from the East. Will they realise the meaning of
these things before it is too late ? Or will they
continue to go on their own course until the shadow
from Europe falls across the Atlantic and wraps
them also in its gloom ?

Personally, I still hope that they will realise in
time. They are a splendid people, these Western
Americans ; a little heady, but generous to a fault,
capable of great enthusiasms. Europe has not
hitherto spoken to them with a persuasive voice.
It has alternately used them for its own ends, and
then snarled at them for not continuing to serve.
But they will serve no man. They are essentially
free and independent. If they are to be drawn
back to Europe it must be as equal counsellors.
We shall have to give more weight to their advice
than we did when last they came. We must let
them have a voice proportionate to their numbers,
their wealth, and their power.

AWAY FROM EUROPE 117

If they are once convinced that they will be
listened to after that fashion, I beUeve that they
will still come. But they must do their own work
of conversion. British propaganda is now suspect
here, and will be of little avail. The most hopeful
rumour that has reached me of late days is that
the Democratic party, now freed from the burden
of rule, propose to start over here in America an
American League of Nations Union. If that is
done, then for the first time we shall see a steady
and continuous process of persuasion, based on
large and broad principles, such as alone can suffice
to convince so great a people of their high duty in
this great matter.

This, at, any rate, we can always say of the Ameri-
can people — that if once they see their duty clearly,
they always follow it.

VIII

ACROSS MISSOURI

and back to kansas

Kansas City, Nov. 21.

We left Topeka for Kansas City at five o'clock this
afternoon, and arrived here at eight o'clock, going
straight to the Muhlen Hotel. It is a first class
American hotel, with three lifts, a splendid lounge,
and a marvellous restaurant, where we were waited
upon by Italian servants. Kansas is the second
city of Missouri, with nearly 200,000 inhabitants.
It Hes on the south bank of the Missouri River.
It is less than fifty years old and is now one of the
most thriving cities of the Mid-West — a great
commercial and industrial centre, with wide and
splendid streets, magnificent public buildings and
surrounded by beautiful suburbs. But what dis-
tinguishes it from a similar city in Europe is the
exuberant, exhilarating spirit of youth and energy
which fills the atmosphere.

We are destined to stop here only for to-night,
as we are due at St. Louis to-morrow to speak in
the evening. It has been quite an interesting
event to dine in the restaurant. It is an " exotic "
room, lit with numerous Httle brightly-coloured

118

ACROSS MISSOURI 119

lanterns, their gay colours reflected in the shining
marble floors and gleaming from the table glasses,
which look as if filled with golden hock, but on
closer inspection are foimd to contain nothing but
— the usual, inevitable iced-water. The roof is
sustained by columns up which creep gaudy artificial
nasturtiums, and as we sat there we felt somehow
or other the room expressed the audacity and
luxuriance of the Wild West.

After dinner I was waylaid by a band of journ-
alists who kept me talking for the rest of the evening.
I said many wise things about the League of Nations,
but I observed that the only utterance of mine
that was recorded in their note-books was my
venturesome opinion that the American language
was drifting rapidly away from the English. ^
This seemed to interest them far more than any-
thing I said on the League of Nations — a subject
of which they are profoundly fatigued — scarcely
to be wondered at when one reflects that they
have fought a great Presidential election on it
throughout the whole of this year !

These joumaHsts frankly discussed with me
to-night a very extraordinary feature of the present
phase here. It is a startling recrudescence of the
old spirit of violence, which seemed to have passed
away in the Mid- West.

There have been four murders here in a week —
all forms of highway robbery. A man slips on to

*See page 22 ("A Word Before").

120 A BRITON IN AMERICA

the footboard of your motor when you are slowing
down at any point, faces you with a revolver,
demands your money : and if you hesitate, shoots.
A poHceman has been shot because he was mistaken
for a robber. The Court gave ' ' j ustifiable homicide. ' *
So uncertain is life : so precarious is order. Men
and women of means are going about armed :
because the possessing class in America, still having
the courage of its property, never takes these things
" lying down."

In the opinions of the journaUsts this is only a
passing phase, due to the Great War. I told them
that we had experienced similar incidents in Ireland
and elsewhere, and were anxious to put them
down to the same cause.

November 22.

We breakfasted at the beautiful Kansas City
railway station, and after being interviewed and
photographed by sundry journalists we started off
on a long day trip to St. Louis — an eight-hour
journey across the State of Missouri, striking the
river at Jefferson City — where we caught a glimpse
of the fine white Capitol of that splendid town. A
kindly American who made friends with us on the
train took our breath away by inviting us to lunch
with him in the restaurant car. There he enter-
tained us royally, although he had never seen us
before. This delightful act of hospitality took the
fatigue from our journey, for it made us feel that
we were in a friendly land. We found that our

ACROSS MISSOURI 121

host was a Mr. Graves, the son of the Judge of the
Supreme Court in Jefferson City.

Our experience of St. Louis was brief and Hght-
ning-Uke. We were whisked off in a motor car
to the beautiful home of Mrs. Wilkinson. There
we dined, and then we were spirited off again to
the great Pilgrim Church. I was taken by back
ways on to the platform and found myself facing
a vast audience of grave American ministers. As
we had to leave again at ten I thought it wise to
claim the right of first speech. I spoke to them
for half an hour, and was most kindly treated. The
pleasant roar of their applause had hardly died
down when we were called away, thrust back into
the motor car and rushed to the station. We had
spent precisely five hours in St. Louis, and left
with nothing more than a vague, brilliant impres-
sion of broad thoroughfares, beautiful houses and
vast shop fronts showing motor cars of every make
and size.

November 23.

We breakfasted once more in the great railway
station of Kansas City, and we have spent the day
in partaking of our friends* splendid hospitality.
A morning in the hands of the Kansas " Exo-
dontist " left me short of two teeth and a consider-
able amount of blood. But in spite of that
— such is the spirit one catches from America — ^I
managed an hour later to address the City Women's
Club — a large and prosperous gathering of some 200

122 A BRITON IN AMERICA

ladies. Mrs. Spender took my place until I had
recovered from the Exodontist, and made an
admirable debut as a public speaker. In the after-
noon we were taken by Mr. Sharon, the Chairman
of the Chamber of Commerce, for a long motor
ride round the suburbs of Kansas City. We
motored for two hours, going swiftly all the time
through one huge prosperous land of beautiful
villas, all of them standing, in their admirable open
American way, a little back from the road, without
either hedge or fence, and displaying their varied
architecture to the passing eye. Nowhere is the
prosperous middle class better housed. Would
that the housing of the working class was equally
satisfactory ! But there I noticed a sad falUng
off, openly admitted by the best Americans. " Well,'*
they say, in their characteristic slow, humorous
way, " I guess that some day we will give our
minds to it. We haven't had time yet.'*

This evening we were entertained by the Chamber
of Commerce at a great banquet. A lighted
model of the May/lower was carried through the
room. It was a scene of wealth and luxury, and
I spoke a word for poor Europe, and tried to remove
a few misconceptions about the League of Nations.
I was listened to with profound attention and respect :
but I left with the same conviction that out here in
the Mid- West the issue had been decided. This
part of America — it seems to me — now regards the
League of Nations as something quite remote and

ACROSS MISSOURI 123

far away, having little relation to their actual
concerns.

After speaking I was abruptly summoned from
the room and once more snatched away to the train,
which left for Chicago at 10.30 p.m.

ONTARIO

r

IX
IRELAND AGAIN

opinion in the mid-west

Chicago, Nov. 24.

Here we are back in Chicago : and sitting here
it may be worth while to say a few more words on
the question which overshadows all else in America
— the relations between Britain and America.

The terrible events that have occurred in Ireland
during the past week^ have sent a reverberating
tremor through the whole United States. All the
many newspapers in the great towns through which
I have been travelHng — Topeka, Kansas City, St.
Louis — have been full of the news from DubHn and
Westminster. The news service is full, detailed,
and impartial. I have been able to follow events
in Ireland quite as easily out in the Western city
of Kansas as if I were at home in London. Re-
member that the eyes of the whole world are on
Ireland and our doings there. Britain is being
judged — aye, and let Irishmen remember, Ireland
is being judged also.

Again comes the echo of that mighty sonnet of
Wordsworth, written at the time of the last great
Irish RebeUion (1798) : —

iThe slaughter of the ofi&cers in Dublin, etc. See file of
The Times for November 18-23. '^ -i D 0

\ 124 \

IRELAND AGAIN 125

* England ! all nations in this charge agree.
But worse, more ignorant in love and hate.
Far — far more abject, is thine enemy !
Therefore the wise pray for thee, though the freight
Of thy offences be a heavy weight ;
Oh, grief that Earth's best hopes rest all with Thee ! "

America holds her breath at what is happening.
There is little comment in the Press outside Chicago,
and even there the ravings of last month are moder-
ated. A Catholic priest denounces England as the
" ghoul " among nations, and King George as
Nero ; but perhaps the shrewd American public
thinks of St. Bartholomew's Day, and passes on.
In any case, opinion is strangely silent. The
Americans feel instinctively that there is peril in
the air.

So there is. Let me say at once that I find
American opinion on Ireland far more steady
and far better informed than I had expected.
There is here an immense mass of central, solid
opinion, essentially conservative in its nature,
and wholly unsympathetic with the methods of
Sinn Fein. The astonishing thing, after all one
has heard, is to find that many Irish Americans
side strongly with Great Britain in the present
phase of the struggle. They are ashamed of these
methods of violence. They are Home Rulers, but
opposed to the claim for Irish independence.

Still, there is peril. How can there fail to be ?
Consider the broad, general facts of the situation
between these two great countries, America pos-

126 A BRITON IN AMERICA

sesses an Irish problem scarcely second to our own.
Here, in the United States, there live some 20,000,000
persons of Irish descent, many of them with bitter
memories of eviction and family traditions of
famine, all of them descended from those who have
come across the sea because they cannot Hve in
their home-land. Now it is a common feature of
life here — ^greatly disturbing to the pure American
— that nearly everyone has a tender place in his
heart for that bit of Europe from which he has
sprung. I have described how men and women of
English stock, now Americans, come up after
the meetings everywhere just to clasp an English
hand and hear an English voice. Must it not be
the same with the Irish ? It is ten times more the
case, because the woe of their land keeps her memory
always green. Ask the post-offices in the West of
Ireland how much money comes across the ocean
from America to poor relations in that distressful
country !

Now 20,000,000 Irish people mean at least
5,000,000 voters, men and women. We know how
the parties in England play up to the Irish vote.
Multiply that vote ten times, intensify the party
atmosphere twenty times, and you have the situa-
tion here. Both great parties play up to the Irish
vote. Not so much because they care for Ireland,
but simply, Hke all parties, because they want to
score a win and achieve power. None the less,
this process may become very dangerous.

IRELAND AGAIN 127

Take the recent Presidential election. It opened
with the knowledge that the Irish vote^ was going
to be cast RepubUcan, because President Wilson
had snubbed the Irish envoys at Paris. The Irish
were going to vote against the League of Nations
because they were not included within it. Now
the Irish vote has gone Democratic from the begin-
ning of things. So the Democrats, foreseeing the
terrible disaster which awaited them, played a
desperate hand. Governor Cox made a speech
in which he hailed the advent of Irish Inde-
pendence, promised his support to the cause,
and, in fact, took a stand which, in the event of
his success, might have led to unpleasantness
with England. But Governor Cox did not suc-
ceed ; and always remember to the credit of the
Americans that that speech was largely the reason
of his failure.

The Irish still voted Republican. The moderate
Democrats, frightened by their candidate's Irish
pledges, voted Republican also. Such, as I have
said, was that Hibernian result.

But now the present Administration, having
been returned partly by the Irish vote, will have
to consider Irish feeHngs. In the vast shift of
officials which will begin next March — America is
already seething with the prospect — Irishmen must
be considered both abroad and at home. There is
talk to-day of a new " Irish drive." Great sums
have been collected in this country to promote

128 A BRITON IN AMERICA

the Irish cause. The " Irish bonds/' paid up to-day
but only to pay interest when Ireland is free, have
been taken up by the girls and boys in every part
of the country. The money that used to go to the
Nationalists now goes to De Valera — for what
purpose can be clearly gathered from interviews
published weekly throughout America, in which
De Valera, sitting in the hired Presidential offices
of his New York hotel, feeds the flame of Anti-
British fury.

The vast, decent, essentially law-abiding American
public disapproves all of this. Their great tolerance
makes them slow to act. If they were once satis-
fied that England was wholly in the right they
would instantly stop all this playing with fire.
They would remind De Valera that he must not
use American hospitality to threaten a friendly
State. But the American is not satisfied. There
is the rub. He has an uncomfortable feehng that
the Irishman has a case. He regards our attitude
towards Ireland as our one great moral failure.
He takes the whole story of the last fifty years,
and he suspends judgment.

" It would help us over here if you would settle
that Irish question of yours," he says, in his slow
sing-song. " You see, it gives us a lot of trouble,"
he goes on apologetically. Then he generally
adds, with that passion for fair judgment which
sways the American, '' Not that I think it is any
a0air of ours, any more than Hayti or the Philip-

IRELAND AGAIN 129

pines would be an affair of yours. " Then he pauses.
*' But, of course, you've sent a lot of them over
here, and they don't seem to become real American."
For the " real American " here, as I have told you,
is the man who thinks first of America, and only in
a very second place of the country of his origin.

To which I often reply, " Then why don't you
help us to settle the question ? " Whereat the
American, waking up from his easeful dream, fires
off at me that disconcerting social pistol-shot of
his — " What's that ? " So I explain more fully.

*' Why don't you urge moderation on your Irish
friends in America and Ireland ? Why not point
out to them the folly of crjdng for independence
and so losing Home Rule ? "

He laughs. "Oh! It's the politicians! That
cut wouldn't suit the poUticians ! "

There's the red hght. America, which thinks
itself a self-determining country, is really run by
a caste of politicians. Like the condottieri of
mediaeval Italy, the American poHticians live by
fighting. They feed on the country like those
estimable gentlemen of old. They are rewarded
with the " spoils " — a system which still prevails,
as we have seen, in State, city, and Washington,
in spite of civil service reforms. Now to this caste
of poHticians, whether RepubKcan or Democrat,
all is grist to the mill. The difficulty in a great
country hke America, where nearly all the big
political issues of the Old World are decided, is to
I

130 A BRITON IN AMERICA

get up a real political fight. Ireland has the double
feature of providing a political fight for the New
World as well as for the Old. That is the peril of
Ireland.

The peculiar advantage of Ireland as a political
issue is that it can be used as a stick to beat the
League of Nations. It is held up as a supreme
illustration of the folly and incompetence of Old
Europe. Quite decent papers publish from day to
day stories of Irish " atrocities " committed by our
troops and police. It is a feature of the American
Press, quite as regular as Armenian " atrocities "
used to be of our own. A considerable number of
Americans seem to get into Ireland, and they come
back with fearful stories. Australians return home
across America, and they write their experiences
on the way. A visit to Ireland now plays the same
part in America, as a Press sensation, as is played
in England by the visit to Russia of some eminent
pubUcist. So gradually England becomes a
" bogey " and all our appeals to America to save
the Armenians from the Turks are greeted with
irreverent laughter. Why not the Irish from
oui selves ?

The Irish propaganda is violent and penetrating.
It is sent to all newspapers and public men. It
follows British visitors with a trail of suspicion.
Speaking in many places about the " Pilgrim
Fathers " to Mayflower audiences, we find that
our approach has been preceded by the receipt of

IRELAND AGAIN 131

leaflets denouncing the whole movement as a
British dodge. The poor old " Pilgrim Fathers "
are sadly mauled in these leaflets. They betray
the touch of rehgious venom, as well as of race
hatred. For I must honestly say that the Irish
agitator is often just a stalking-horse for the Catholic
priest.

Then there is another great argument, especially
pressed by the Chicago Republican, which attacks
equally both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago
Daily News. The Republican simply cries every
week, '* Yah I What about those Belgian atrocities
now ? " Its aim is to undermine what remains of the
war sentiment ; to prove that the United States was
tricked into the World War ; to show that there is
not a pin to choose in moral outlook between any
of the effete, corrupt European countries. That
is the deliberate aim of the extreme Republican,
who is going to fight to the last ditch against
joining any form or shape of the League of Nations.

All this is a great worry to the large body of
respectable American opinion. One of the strange
side effects is that it ruins their city government.
For it is a strange world-paradox that Ireland,
being disappointed of governing herself, finds some
consolation by running the great cities of America.
New York is — ^as I have told — at present going
through one of her sensational disclosures of
Tammany rule, with all its incredible levity, selfish-
ness, and corruption. Chicago is making a great

132 A BRITON IN AMERICA

show of draining some of her innumerable human
cesspools. But a day or two spent here brings
home a conviction that the trouble is not at the
bottom so much as at the top. The whole machinery
of Tammany — with its sale of offices, its municipal
blackmailing, its systematic collusion with crime
— has been introduced into Chicago.

Very suspiciously, this all goes along with a
fierce anti-British propaganda. It is the opinion
of the British Government that many of the murders
in Ireland have been perpetrated or organised by
" gun-men " imported from Chicago. It is difficult
to obtain any precise confirmation of this on the
spot. But the Americans to whom I have reported
the story have simply shrugged their shoulders.
It is quite clear that in their opinion no policy of
homicide, on whatever scale, is incredible in regard
to some of the forces now flourishing in the vast,
teeming human jungle of this amazing city.

But while their hold on the big American cities
has given the Irish great advantages in running
their propaganda and subsidising the forces of terror
in Ireland, it has seriously injured their cause in
America. For if there is one thing that the Ameri-
can is ashamed of it is his city government. The
best men keep quite clear of it. Mr. Sharon, the
president of the Chamber of Commerce at Kansas
City, a splendid type of that class of fine, self-
sacrificing, public-spirited men who are quite as
nimierous in America as in England, described to

IRELAND AGAIN 133

me his efforts to work with the forces of municipal
government at Kansas, and his final retirement
in disgust. How can any serious man defend a
system of administration where almost every
office is just a gift of the poHtical machine, and
every official, however painstaking, is liable to
dismissal in order to provide a tasty morsel for
Democrats or Republicans ?

The only people who can really work this system
are the Irish. But their capacity to do so covers
them with grave discredit among the sober Ameri-
cans. I have been surprised to find how many
Americans have begun to doubt whether Ireland
is capable of Home Rule — although it is only fair
to say that there is a class of Irishmen in this country
who have kept clear of all this muddiness, and have
risen to high posts, both in the State and the nation,
with every credit to themselves and their race.

America is all the less inclined to surrender to
the Irish propaganda, because she is at present
swept by this wave of crime of her own. Consulting
that dentist in Kansas city on Sunday night, I
was surprised to see him take from his pocket a
beautiful six-shooter, fully loaded. He soon re-
lieved me of my suspicion that this was a new
weapon of dentistry, and bearing out and confirming
what had been told me by the Kansas city journal-
ists, he explained that " hold-ups " of motor-cars
were now quite common in Kansas City, and that
several of his friends had been robbed that very

134 A BRITON IN AMERICA

week. A charming girl, one of the most popular
in the city, had been ruthlessly shot because her
fiance tried to defend her from robbery, and a
woman engaged in shopping had been mercilessly
slain because she stooped to pick up a boy who had
been knocked down by one of these ruffians. After
this I watched these crimes in the Press, and I
observed an extraordinary lenity on the part of
both police and magistrates. The man who shot
the girl was allowed to have his dinner in the
dining car, and he jumped through a window and
escaped when his guard was conveniently turning
his back. In regard to his crime, all horror seemed
to be submerged in sensationahsm.

Now the true American loathes these crimes.
The cities in which they take place are not wild
Western towns, but marvellous triumphs of modern
civilisation, with wide boulevards, beautiful public
buildings, splendid hotels, and homes equipped
with so exquisite a machinery of daily living as is
not anywhere dreamed of in Europe to-day. The
fierce recoil of middle-class opinion — the ferocious
repression of pohtical offences — is a measure of
the strength of this society of prosperous workers,
in which classes and races all seem to fuse in a
general search for well-being. They love the
basis of ordered liberty on which it all rests, and the
American Government have the full support of the
community in expelling back to Russia everyone
suspected of attempting to tamper with the Ameri-

I

IRELAND AGAIN 135

can State. The sufferings of Eugene Debs draw
far more tears from Europe than from any American.

How, then, explain this amazing tolerance for
Irish Sinn Fein and all its works among this essenti-
ally orderly community ? The answer is that,
along with this wave of conservatism that has
swept over America since the war, there is also a
wave of selfishness — a kind of American Sinn
Feinism. Irish crime is England's affair ; let her
look to it. But this American attitude of neutrality
really appHes to Ireland as well. While America
harbours Irish extremists, she has not the remotest
intention of serving them or helping them. " A
plague on both your islands " is her attitude. Her
politicians will play with them and make a catspaw
of them, but you need not have the smallest fear
that she will go to war with us about Ireland alone.
Her present resolve is that she will not again go
to war for any cause whatever ; and certainly
Ireland is the least of the causes that might rouse
her from that temper. The real peril is that the
sore of Ireland, festering all the time, may poison
the relations between the two countries to such an
extent that they may gradually drift apart. Then,
when they have drifted apart, some other matter,
such as the Panama tolls, or the Jones Act, or our
sea-power, might produce a struggle which, in
spite of all appearances, would really have had
its origin in the Irish trouble. That is the danger.

For, after all, 5,000,000 votes working with a

136 A BRITON IN AMERICA

single eye for one object must always be a serious
power in a country of less than 30,000,000 voters.
It means that the strength of Ireland cannot be
measured by Ireland alone, but must also be taken
to include the Ireland beyond the seas.

It also means that Americans, too, as well as
ourselves, have a very serious responsibility in
regard to the Irish question. The American
Government at Washington are fully conscious of
this responsibility, and have acted throughout the
last year with a full and due sense of their position.
They have carefully avoided all risks of identifying
themselves with the Sinn Fein agitation, and they
have carefully kept clear of being mixed up with
the various demonstrations which De Valera has
organised in the cities, the States, and even in
Congress.

Foi when the British public hears of public
receptions to Irish leaders, or even of receptions to
men like De Valera in the Senate, they must always
remember that the American Government has no
control whatever over the proceedings of Congress —
whether the Senate or the House of Representatives
— and is not therefore in any sense responsible for
them. The Government has acted quite strictly.

But there are other people in America who do
not possess the same sense of the gravity of inter-
fering with the affairs of other nations. Throughout
the last few weeks a commission of American citizens
has been sitting at Washington and taking evidence

IRELAND AGAIN 137

about events in Ireland. The papers have been
filled with its proceedings every day, and they
include the most horrific accounts of the doings of
our soldiery. The trouble about the committee
is that it cannot get evidence on our side.

The American is just amused at this Irish Com-
mission. He extends to it his infinite tolerance and
good humour ; but I wonder whether he, would be
moved with the same tolerance and good humour
if a commission of British inquirers began to sit
openly in London and to hear evidence on American
lynching and Hayti " atrocities," especially if
that commission flooded the newspapers with their
reports and made their committee-room the centre
of a great anti- American propaganda ? I doubt
whether the British Government would permit
this to go on ; I am sure that British pubUc opinion
would — rightly — disapprove. How, then, is it that
America, allows a similar commission to sit in
Washington ?

Once more, because the Irish are a troublesome
crowd to repress, and because it seems better to
let them talk. Also because the American has a
rooted belief in the long-suffering patience of the
British people. They have twisted the British
Hon's tail so long that they do not beheve that any
resisting power is left. They regard him as a good-
natured old animal who understands the American
game. I wonder !

Other nations have taken the same view in the

138 A BRITON IN AMERICA

past about Great Britain, and found themselves
wrong. I have tried to explain to the Americans
that there is a flash-point in British opinion — a
dangerous flash-point, which, when once fired,
becomes a raging furnace. The steady people
listen and agree. The newspapers go on sand-
wiching the proceedings of the Irish Commission
with the sensations of the Mid- West murders.

X

BACK TO NEW YORK

New York, Nov. 25.

When we arrived at Chicago on our way back
eastward across the continent we were met with
the following refreshing anticipation in the Press
of that entertaining city —

SNOW FLURRY ENDS SOON

Southern Breezes due to bring warmth again
to-morrow.

To-day's storm more " Flurry " and not
blizzard, experts explain.

" As you read this, standing ankle deep in
snow with the old ear-muffs pulled down well
on their way toward your collar and the festive
goloshes buckled about your blue ankles, try
to remember quickly where you stored your
straw hat and beeveedees.

" For the winter, which somebody delivered
without warning at our front door last night,
will start back to the factory to-night ahead of a
south wind. Take the word of the weather man
for it — ^it is to be warmer to-morrow.
139

140 A BRITON IN AMERICA

*' There is no reason for buying a new ice-book
or dusting off the electric fan, however. The
official forecast shows that deaths from sunstroke
are hardly to be expected. Cold weather will
return to us to-morrow night."

(Chicago Newspaper.)

Heartened by such breezy forecasts we made the
two days' trip to New York without foreboding,
and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in the well-
warmed cars. Starting from Kansas City on
Tuesday night, November 23, we slept well in a
reserved compartment, and breakfasted on the train
along with a distinguished fellow-Pilgrim from
Detroit. We reached Chicago at 11 am. and spent
the few hours allowed to us there in strolling about
the streets near the station. We lunched in a
httle German-American restaurant, where the Ger-
man was peeping out again on the menus. We
learnt there the true hustle and bustle of the Chicago
eating-house, combined with the amazing off-
handedness of the Chicago caterer. All this is
endured by the people with that extraordinary
resigned serenity of theirs, which means either
strength or exhaustion — I am not always sure which.

We left Chicago again at 1.30, glad to leave its
crowded, perilous streets. It was now snowing,
and the whole landscape was white. I wrote all
the afternoon in the Pulhnan, and suddenly ran
short of paper. Then came an extraordinary

BACK TO NEW YORK 141

demonstration of the essential kindliness and gener-
osity of the Americans. The whole of the Pullman
personnel — conductors, passengers, negroes — Whelped
to collect pieces of paper for me to write upon —
sheets white, sheets grey, sheets yellow. I do
not know whether this was inspired by enthusiasm
for the Daily Telegraph, that great organ of British
pubhc opinion for which I was writing. But
certainjy each of the people helped in a small way
to improve the relationships between the two great
English-speaking peoples — for how could one write
an unfriendly word on sheets of paper so collected ?
It was rather a fine confirmation of Wordsworth's
belief in the value of

" Little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love." ^

« « * * *

It was still snowing when we woke this morning
in the train : but it stopped when we passed Syracuse
and as the express sped southwards the country
turned from white to grey and brown. We had a
very pleasant and deHghtful journey along the
Hudson River, and I am confirmed in my belief
that travelling by daylight is essential to seeing
and imderstanding a great country. These mighty
rivers are the very arteries of America — you cannot
understand the framework of this continent without
seeing them. They are as broad as lakes and as
powerful as seas.

We arrived in New York at 4 p.m. in the mid-calm

* T intern Abbey (July 13th, 1798),

142 A BRITON IN AMERICA

of Thanksgiving Day. It was really an experience
of value to see this great American city on what is
practically their great Bank Holiday. At times I
have thought that America could not rest. But
to-day I realise that it can. The very railways are
half asleep. As we taxied across New York, we
might almost have been in London on Easter
Monday. This great city — ^thank God ! — ^is really
resting. Contemplating this moment of calm I
begin to believe in the future of America. Perhaps,
after all, she will not perish untimely — as some
observers have unkindly predicted — of premature
senile decay.

I need not dwell on the hundred and one engage-
ments— luncheons, dinners, speeches in theatres
and halls — to which I am now consecrated. I will
draw a veil over the kindly attempts of these
Americans to bring back the age of perpetual motion,
and to turn my life into one continuous display of
rhetorical pyrotechnics. There is no zest in the
further narration of such human megaphonies.

Let me rather consider on this Thanksgiving
Day, during this moment of peace, one of the open
questions about America which puzzle the British
mind. That is — how does the United States to-day
*' react " to the Labour movement ? How does she
compare with Britain in that regard ? What is
there to say here to-day about the condition of the
great working masses of the American people ?

Depend upon it, the fortune of America will

BACK TO NEW YORK 143

largely depend upon the true answer to those great

questions.

* at * * ♦

Well, the paradox about the United States to-day
is that, despite its abounding prosperity and amaz-
ing civilisation, the social organisation is right
back in the Victorian Age. America does not
possess any of the machinery of social' assuage-
ment which we have created for the British people
during the last twenty years. She has no pensions
for her old people ; no medical benefits for her
workers ; no unemployment insurance for any
trade. Not only so, but she has not the slightest
intention at present of adopting any of these pro-
visions.

Socialism, as a theory of poHtical construction,
has here little standing. It is as unpopular a creed
as it was in England forty years ago. IndividuaUsm
is taken for granted as a working theory of Hfe.
"Getting on," "self-help," "success in Hfe "—
all these aims have just as high a vogue as in the
days of Benjamin FrankUn. They are not only
preached by the elders : they are accepted by the
young. With the boundless horizons of America
in front of him, the young American refuses to
accept any limits to his strivings. He will not
agree to confine himself within what he regards as
the strait-waistcoat of SociaHsm.

One result is that Labour holds in America a
position very inferior to that which it has attained

144 A BRITON IN AMERICA

in England. Trade unions are much weaker :
the great " middle class " is far bigger, and more
assertive. When the miners struck last year in the
Middle West, the clerks took off their coats, went
down the mines, and fetched enough coal to keep
their " home fires burning." The marvellous adapt-
ability of this race helped them. The American
is the least speciaHsed of beings. Most of the
Western men have put their shoulders to every
wheel during their varied and dazzling lives. A
clerk to-day — but why not a miner to-morrow ?
*' Why, certainly, rather than be cold at home ! "

Then there is the vast tide of immigration.
Everyone is talking about the ahen immigrant
to-day in America. But while they are talking
he comes. He arrives at the rate of 40,000 a week.
The great human tide still flows into New York
Harbour. EUis Island does its best to hold it
back, but with httle avail. The immigrants come
from hungry lands, with plenty in front of them ;
they break their way through all the red tape
thrown across their path. It is calculated that
they are now about to come again, as before the
war, at the rate of a million a year — ^perhaps even,
to judge by the present flow of the tide, two millions !
and the astounding thing is that, although America
is still at war with Germany, German immigrants
somehow get in. Truly this is a wonderful country !

These immigrants mean a constant supply of
cheap labour, ignorant of the American language

BACK TO NEW YORK 145

or American customs, and ready to take the places
of American workmen if they should go on strike.
American labour, therefore, is now drifting into
the same hostiUty towards immigration that has
marked the poHcy of the Australian Labour party.
In that hostility it is joined by the patriotic, " All
for America " party. The great middle class look
on, puzzled and perplexed, hating the a;lien, but
longing — just aching ! — for " helps.'* For the prob-
lem of the domestic servant is far more intense
here than in England, and is compHcated by the
negro problem too.

One of the ninety-nine reasons given for the defeat
of President Wilson — apart from the one real
reason, that the American people did not like him
— ^is that he passed a bill for giving shorter hours
to railwa5niien. That piece of legislation was
deeply resented by the railway " corporations,"
and by " big business " in general. It was regarded
as an unnecessary surrender. There does not seem
to be any recognition of the fact that it kept the
railways working without friction through the
critical years of the war. No one reflects what
might have happened if the concession had not
been made. The feeling about this measure is
symptomatic of the American attitude to Labour
problems.

It is difficult to analyse this attitude of the
American well-to-do, who are the backbone of the
victorious Republican party. It is not that they

K

146 A BRITON IN AMERICA

are in any degree less humane than other well-to-
do classes all the world over. On the contrary,
I take the American well-to-do to be the most kindly,
courteous, and generous in the whole world. They
are wonderful givers. Scarcely a day passes which
does not record the event of some great and bountiful
donation. This week it was a million sterUng from
Rockefeller to the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children. Rockefeller's benefactions
indeed, are enormous, and set the lead to lesser
millionaires.

They will give,^but they will not yield. Philan-
thropy— yes, to any amount. But " rights of
Labour *' — *' a fair wage for a fair day's work " —
all that is anathema. They are amazed at our
concessions to the coal-miners. " But why didn't
you fight 'em to a frazzle ? " is their wondering
question. Yet I have just seen in New York a
marvellous building in grey granite, some twenty
stories high, a palace for the railwaymen, who
come from all parts of the country and have to
sleep in New York for a night or two before going
back to their homes. There are hundreds of Uttle
sleeping rooms, one for each man ; there is a
beautiful restaurant ; there are billiard tables
and a concert room ; there is even an American
skittle-alley. It is run by the Y.M.C.A., and
richly endowed by the well-to-do. Even at the
present moment, when the cause of Labour stands
so badly, you can always get money for good works.

BACK TO NEW YORK 147

Mr. Samuel Gompers, that most modem of
Labour leaders, prophesies bad weather. Mr.
Eugene Debs, the Socialist leader, remains in prison
with the universal consent of the American well-
to-do. Which is very much as if we were now
keeping Mr. Ramsay MacDonald in prison because
he made violent speeches against the war. If
Labour is troublesome then you can call it " Bol-
shevik " — and once you have used that bad name
it has less chance than the proverbial dog. You
can imprison, deport, or detain. For America is
far more united against Bolshevism than we are
in England — and when once America is united its
unity is tremendous and terrible.

But the big employers are supposed to be con-
templating something much bigger than the war
against Bolshevism. Prices are rattling down —
and they are kicking every day more fiercely against
the high wages. The wages vary enormously.
There is little uniformity. In some lines of life
they seem to the English visitor extraordinarily
high. In others they are very low, and are eked
out by extravagant " tips " — a system which has
grown into a regular octopus since I last visited
America (1900). A tip of two shillings is a mere
trifle.

But whatever the variation in wages, the " Big
Business '* people clearly intimate that they propose
to cut wages down as soon and as much as possible.
There is also a great deal of talk about the " Open

148 A BRITON IN AMERICA

House," which is another way of saying that, in
one way or another, " Big Business " proposes to
drive Labour and trade unionism back under-
ground.

I have a feeling sometimes that all this wealth,
all these immense palaces of splendour which kiss
the skies in New York, are built on very shaky
foundations. I seem to hear rumblings from under-
ground. I do not feel sure or certain that Lenin,
that terrible mole with the relentless teeth, may not
be at work somewhere down below. But I may
be wrong. One must always bear in mind the fact
that America is still in the making. If you travel
West, as we did, you soon see at its true value all
the European talk about the " exhaustion of Ameri-
can resources." It is true that America uses them
with prodigal hand. In the Western towns there
are gasoline pumps at every other street corner
where you can replenish your " automobile " — and,
of course, everyone has an ** auto." There are
over 9,000,000 motor-cars running in the States,
and that means a lot of oil. No wonder they write
us anxious letters about Mesopotamia !

But the American panic about oil has not, I
think, much more substance in it than our panics
about our coal supply. If they only consent to
put more money into prospecting — as they shortly
will — the Americans will probably find in America
new wells to take the place of the old. And it is
the same with all their other resources — ^land,

BACK TO NEW YORK 149

lumber, coal, iron. No real shadow of exhaustion
lies across this continent. The forty-eight States
could probably hold 300 or 400 milHons of human
beings — 1,000 on the scale of our EngHsh crowding.
Even now, with the great increase recorded in
this last census, they have only 105,000,000. There
are vacant lands out West still unsettled, waiting
for inhabitants. The " Career open to the- Talents '*
is therefore Ukely to remain a long time the popular
creed of this country. Its energy is not ready as
yet to be channelled or State-controlled. It is
like Milton's eagle, " preening its mighty wings,
and sunning itself in the noontide beams.*' It needs
no strong drink. It is intoxicated with its own
prosperity.

Yet in spite of all this lusty confidence and gay
pride, a tiny shadow is just touching these American
shores, the shadow from stricken Europe. Great
as is the home market, America, with its vast powers
of production, depends on the foreign market to
sell its surplus goods. It is only " as large as a man's
hand " at present, Hke the shadow thrown by the sun
setting behind some very distant peak. But it grows
larger every day. It is touching, not merely
agriculture, but also steel, motors, and even the
banks. The deserted sick man is sending across
even that great ocean just a whiff of his infection.
I wonder if America can stay the disease ? Can
she regain her export trade, and yet continue her
present policy of aloofness and detachment from the

150 A BRITON IN AMERICA

Old World ? That is the supreme question of the
future.

The real trouble is that there is not Hkely to
be any decisive answer at all for the present. In
Europe the " moving finger writes," but here no
one pays much attention. After the stress of the
election the United States has fallen into a back-
water. There is a dead calm. It is one of those
periods of calm arranged for in the American
Constitution to suit the needs of an earher time.
A hundred years ago it took four months to obtain
a decision on the Presidency. The pack horse
was master of the situation. He is long since dead,
and the swift expresses and telegraphs carry deci-
sions in a breath of time over land and sea. But
the habit of the pack horse remains. The new
President has been elected, but he does not begin
to reign at the White House for another three
months — till March, 192 1. Nay, more. The new
Congress has been elected, but it does not begin
to sit. The Congress which will assemble at
Washington this week will be the old Congress—
the Congress that has broken Wilson and is still
at issue with him. The Americans tell you that
this is all as it should be. Well, in that case a
European can only bow the head and wonder over
the rash precipitancy of the Old World.

The result is that there is no real Executive
with a real mandate ; and therefore no real decisions
can be taken. As the State possesses a voice in

BACK TO NEW YORK 151

all appointments, no new appointments of Ambas-
sadors or such like can take place till March. In
the present deadlock between the President and
Congress no American army or navy could be put
into motion except by the unanimous impulse of
the nation. In a word, America is out of action.
An extraordinary result for a decisive election !
But was it a decisive election ? That is the doubt-
ful point.

It was certainly a great triumph for the Senate
over the Presidency. If one wants an analogy one
must go back to the triumph of the House of Lords
over Mr. Gladstone in 1893. The Senate is now
the dominant power in the United States, and the
Senate contains a group of the ablest, richest,
most experienced " elder statesmen " of America.
President-elect Harding has already made it clear
that he proposes to consult with these men, who
are indeed the victors in his battle. He proposes,
in other words, to reverse the policy of President
Wilson, and to run the Presidency in harness with
the Senate — as, indeed, he must. But then will
come the rub. For as I have pointed out, it is
doubtful whether he has an effective majority in
that body.

XI
THE WONDERFUL CONTINENT

Machinery Supreme.

New York, Nov, 29.

When I visited the United States twenty years
ago there was already a telephone in every well-
to-do house. Now there is one in every room.
In addition there is also always one, and generally
two or three, motor-cars in the garage. There is
now, as then, always a bath-room attached to
every substantial bedroom. In those days the
houses were well lighted. Now the main streets
of the big cities are, in the evenings, almost as light
as during the day.

So this great and brilliant civilisation marches
on, with its gigantic energy and resourcefulness,
now almost overpowering to the mind and eyes
of a poor, war-worn, impoverished European.
Twenty years ago I was amazed by the sight of
the tall buildings that covered Manhattan Island.
But to-day it is not Manhattan Island that they
cover — it is the sky. Then it was a matter of twenty
storeys ; now it is over forty. " Ah ! " said the
Belgian Archbishop as he looked up at the Wool-
worth Building, " how beautiful it is to see that you

152

THE WONDERFUL CONTINENT 153

remember God ! *' He thought it was a cathedral.
But it is not. The cathedral wilts below, while
Woolworth kisses the stars. You ascend to the
empyrean. To cMmb the Woolworth you take
a through express elevator, which takes you in one
rush up forty-six storeys. Then you change
elevators, rest a while on that storey, and take a
quick ride to the fifty-sixth. You emerge on to
a dizzy balcony, contemplate the great expanse
of city, river and sea below you, and cHng on.

The climb of the Insurance Building in Madison-
square is equally swift and terrible. Young
America loves it.

At night these buildings look beautiful. With
their myriad lights they twinkle up in the firma-
ment. The Insurance Building marks the hours
by the hghts — red and white — in the crown at
the top of the tower, white for the quarters, red for
the hours. As they twinkle they can be seen for a
circuit of twenty miles. Light has taken the
place of sound as a messenger and recorder of
time.

Hotel and domestic life is equally adaptive,
resourceful, inventive. Name a new want, and the
American seeks to supply it. Discover any slightest
roughness in the journey of Ufe — rub against the
smallest friction — and some American will invent
a way over or a way round.

But the marvel of America to-day is, after all,
the machinery — the adding-machines, the stamp-

154 A BRITON IN AMERICA

machines, the letter-addressing machines, the bank-
clerking machines — so that you soon have a feeling
that you are in a country where man is becoming
gradually superfluous. Frankenstein seems to have
discovered a new mechanical Humanity — not homi-
cidal this time, but kindly and helpful. The stamp-
machine dehvers your change with an exactitude
more than human. The letter-chute carries your
letters down to the hall from your floor without a
hitch ; the tel-autograph records your message with
a grim and fleshless finger in all parts of your hotel ;
or you pass into a house and find that the American
householder is meeting his shortage of labour by
the adoption of multitudinous labour-saving devices
— the electric cooker, the oil furnace, the automatic
cleaner, the laundry chute.

All these new inventions are found at their best
not in the East, but in the West. It is here, in
these new lands, that the new world is in the making.
Out at Topeka, in the State of Kansas, I stayed — ■
as I have told — ^in a house where there was only
one woman, a negress, to " help." Yet everything
went with perfect smoothness. All the admirable
cooking was done on the one electric stove ; all the
excellent heating came from the one oil furnace.
The electric stove was cooking all by itself, presided
over by a clock, which kept it accurately to time ;
the furnace was heated by oil which flowed in
steadily from a tank. The negress was really a
superfluity ; yet the master and mistress were

THE WONDERFUL CONTINENT 155

both leaders of local society and busy in all good
public works. Then the new shops ! We were taken
out shopping at Bloomington, in Illinois, to a grocery
store. It was of the kind known in the United
States as the " Piggly Wiggly." You enter by
a turnstile. You find all the goods set out on
various shelves and carefully priced. You take
up a shop basket, pick out the articles yqu desire,
and collect them in the basket. No one interferes
with you, because you can only emerge from that
shop by one exit — through another turnstile.
There the manager of the " store " checks your
purchases, notes down what you owe him, adds it
up with his adding-machine, and distils your change
from his changing-machine. He is the sole human
thing left in that shop ; and you feel as if he were
a sort of pathetic rehc, soon to give way to a
machine that will stand at the door and *' strike
once and strike no more ! "

In fact, so far has this process gone, that some-
times, in the midst of this marvellous network of
machinery, you feel as if you were a machine
yourself, an auto-motor at the mercy of automata,
due to grind out so many speeches per day. Per-
haps, indeed, this will be the next stage in inter-
national relations ; and perhaps at the next cele-
bration of the Mayflower America will prefer to
import a group of superior auto-mega-gramophones
teUing them the simple story of the Pilgrim Fathers
in accents of storm.

156 A BRITON IN AMERICA

I have always greatly admired the " check '*
system of the American railways, and preferred it
to the unutterable chaos of our own luggage system.
The war has not improved the American system,
and has clogged it with a detestable plague of
tipping. The lavishness of American tipping is,
I suppose, some measure of the wealth of her
travelHng class ; but it bears with a crushing force
on the visitor from other and poorer lands. A
quarter of a dollar is, as I have said, quite a
usual tip for a porter. The black boy who
carries your " grips " up to your bedroom refuses
to leave the room with less than that same sacred
coin — and so it goes on. A tip is due at every
meal, and imless given is direly revenged at the
next. This amazing system of daily and hourly
extortion — to which the American himself submits
with his usual good-humoured tolerance — has grown
to fearful dimensions.

But, in spite of that, travelling in America is
still infinitely easier and more comfortable than in
Europe. The hotels are also far more commodious,
although the subdivision of function in the great
American hotels and railway stations is so meticu-
lously minute. Seeking some simple service, you
are handed on from one counter to another, and
from one chief clerk to his neighbour, until, after
completing the circuit, you generally end with an
honest, good-tempered son or daughter of Africa.
In America to-day everyone speaks ill of the negro,

THE WONDERFUL CONTINENT 157

and everyone employs him. Everyone loads every

menial task on to his broad back and woolly head.

Everyone says he is lazy, and proceeds to prove it

by making him work. And that is not remarkable :

for he is really the only good servant in America.
« « « ♦ *

For what is it, after all, among the white waiters
and hotel servants of the big hotels of, America,
that the English visitor finds lacking ? Is it just
the human touch, the friendly smile of the old
English waiter ? Perhaps that English waiter
shuffled a little in his gait, and was a little shabby
in his dress, but that old waiter — rare alas ! now
in England also — took a human interest in your
comfort. He left you less numbed and crushed,
feeling less as if you were an atom whirled round
on the wheel of soulless forces, less crushed, less
overwhelmed. For America is tremendously hke
Niagara. All feel all the time rushed along by
speed and power, your poor old European limbs
bruised and shaken, helpless in the cataract and
the whirlpool.

Energy, action, movement — those are what the
American admires. Sometimes he almost seems
to overrate their potency — to believe that energy
and action will solve any difficulty, unravel any
situation. The European is perhaps more reflective.
He hesitates to act until he has made up his mind.
Sometimes I wonder whether, gradually, the
American is not falling into the same position

158 A BRITON IN AMERICA

towards Europe as Europe has been in towards
Asia for the last two thousand years. We despise
the slowness of the Oriental. " Better fifty years
of Europe than a cycle of Cathay," cried our great
Victorian poet. Is not the American incHned to
say the same to-day of ourselves — " Better fifty
years of America than a cycle of Europe " ?

I am always haunted with the feeling, when I
reach America from Europe, that I have landed
on a new planet. The change is far deeper than
those cheerful variations that one finds in travelling
about Europe — variations of language, costumes,
food. There is here a difference of soul which
penetrates everything. This amazingly fertile and
facile people does not look at anything quite with
our eyes. The impression is all the more striking
because the language is — or was once — the 'same
as ours. The identity of language only brings
out more remarkably the difference of outlook. I
have been present at Boston at a conference of
their Federal Churches — a tremendous and pro-
longed effort after Church Reunion. About the
actual task of Church Reunion in America there
seems little difficulty ; the only puzzle is how, with
such simplicity of outlook, the Christian Churches
have managed to remain divided.

But the fact that has dawned upon some of us is
that this American Christianity is quite a different
thing from our European Christianity. Doctrine,

THE WONDERFUL CONTINENT 159

and all the talk about doctrine which falls on our
Church conferences, seems to have quite dis-
appeared. These men, these powerful speakers
and perorators, seem to be no " divines," but
rather a set of capable, earnest business men met
together to organise this great affair of the Christian
life. There is less " spirituaUty " than in Europe.
There is the same intentness on action— rcnergy —
as you see in the business life. Christianity here,
in all the Churches, has taken on a new phase.
It has become subject to this wonderful, magnetic,
electric, American spirit. It is a thing of shocks ;
it is almost as far different from mediaeval European
Christianity, with its silent churches, its chants
and incense, its dim aisles and Gothic windows, as
our European Christianity is different from the
rehgions of Asia.

At an Episcopal Church which we attended at
Topeka, in the Middle West, the choir — made up
chiefly of girls in beautiful purple robes — literally
danced the Processional Hymn to the two-step.
They did not mean to. They could not help it.
I watched them closely. The heads moved to and
fro and the feet fell into the dancing rhythm. It
was the spirit of America — a dancing, moving spirit,
never quite still. You see it especially in the
young. For this is the country of the young. All
the time it looks forward.

In all these respects it stands out as the country
of the future. That, when all is said and done, is

i6o A BRITON IN AMERICA

the secret of its power and fascination. The
country of the future — and therefore the country
of hope. A Dutch professor who was working at
Columbia University told me that even if he wished
to go back to Europe — which he did not seem to
— his children would not allow him. They had
fallen in love with America — with their school, with
their games, with their work. But I think that
what they really loved was the atmosphere — not
the physical atmosphere only, although that is full
of an amazing vitality, but the social and moral
atmosphere — the spring of eager anticipation that
seems to fill all young lives, the sense that nothing
is impossible, unachievable.

All this is bound up, of course, with the feeHng
of equality that penetrates everywhere. Europeans
call it rudeness. Well, that depends on what you
mean by the word. If you expect to be treated
deferentially, to be called " Sir " or *' Madam " all
the day, do not go to America. The only American
who called me " Sir " in America was an Irishman
from Tipperary, and a Sinn Feiner at that. The
true American never calls you " Sir." He refers
to you in public and private as a " man " — not
" gentleman " — that word is rarely or never heard.
Above all, he never, never blacks your boots.
That business is done for you after breakfast by an
Italian in the basement. The Italian always tells
you that he wants to g^t to London ; and no wonder.
For the Americans do not understand Italians.

THE WONDERFUL CONTINENT i6i

The people who treat you with least respect
in the whole of America are the boys in the news-
paper offices. They do not stop chewing candy
or gum when yo'u enter ; they do not lift their
heads from their arms, or cease playing any game
they may be engaged in. " Can't see him — he's
gone uptown," is the usual reply to the EngHsh-
man's mild suggestion that he has an engagement
to see the editor. That and nothing more. But
the reason is that their day does not begin till
they have left the newspaper office. Then — as one
kindly explained to me while he was guiding me
across the city — he goes to evening school — then
later to college — and perhaps, in the end, to uni-
versity. For the universities are legion, and they
are beckoning to all young America to come along.
And though they may not teach much — universities
very rarely do — they inspire and stimulate. They
turn the newspaper boy into the complete American.

What is to be said of this same " Complete
American " ? He is a new type of human being,
quicker, keener, more adaptable than anything the
world has seen yet. He is passionately in love
with his own continent and his own flag. He is
tired of Europe, and wants to have nothing more
to do with her. He can talk no language but
his own, and is proud of that fact. He is openly,
notoriously, avowedly out to make himself rich.
He has little sympathy with poverty, and considers
that it is generally a man's own fault. He is

L

i62 A BRITON IN AMERICA

courteous, considerate to women, and now,
in his own country, generally sober. He is silent
about negroes and Free Trade, which he classes
together as undesirable topics of conversation.
In his view it is a waste of time and breath to dis-
cuss things on w^hich you have made up your mind.
He is not really boastful, although he will put his
best foot foremost, and cannot for the life of him
understand why the EngHshman does not do the
same. He is essentially humorous, and generally
kindly. Not a bad sort, if you get on his right side.
But a very formidable person if you get on his
wrong side !

XII

WE VISIT BOSTON CITY AND NEW
PLYMOUTH

Boston, Dec. i.

We left New York last night for Boston in one of
those beautiful trains of sleeping cars only which
connect these two great cities, and make the passage
from one to the other so easy and attractive. The
really good American, one sometimes suspects,
spends very few nights under a roof. For his aim
seems to be to make his railway trains so comfort-
able that we should all acquire this gipsy habit.
It is an old joke of the New Yorker, framed I suspect
on the model of a famous saying of Dr. Johnson's,
that the only good thing about Boston is the railway
that takes you to New York. But if I were a
Bostonian I should think it could be said with
equal facility that the only good thing about New
York is the railway which takes you to Boston.
The worst of these Httle jests is that they lend
themselves so easily to reprisals.

We reached Boston at 7 a.m. on this December

morning when it was still dark. We drove straight

to the Hotel Belle Vue and " registered." But as

usual in these crowded American cities we were

. 163

i64 A BRITON IN AMERICA

told that we should have to wait in the lobby until
II o'clock before we could obtain a room. The
delay was quite retrieved by the quaHty of the room,
and we spent most of the pause in consuming an
admirable breakfast. Then we went out and ob-
tained our first impressions of Boston.
*****

Boston is the most English of the American
cities, and the people are the most English of her
people. That fact is not altered in the least by
the recent capture of her civic government by the
Catholic Irishmen, who have swarmed into this
city from overseas. Certainly that invasion has
not yet made any difference in the appearance of
Boston.

Instead of the methodically ordered avenues of
the typical American city, you have a characteristic-
ally British jumble of houses, intersected by such
narrow streets and alleys as are familiar to us in
our own cities. In this respect Boston makes an
Englishman very much at home, and he feels
indeed — what is the fact — that he has only just
come from the Old England to the New.

The piece of land on which the oldest part of
Boston city is built was once almost a peninsula.
But now the filling in of the bays and inlets has
immensely changed the formation of the town and
the harbour. To the historian this is puzzling
and disturbing, as he will find it extremely difficult
to trace the sites of the tremendous events which

BOSTON CITY AND PLYMOUTH 165

took place here in 1770-1776. He will go down
and find that the spot at which the cases of tea
were emptied into Boston Harbour is now dry land,
and is marked with a tablet on the wall of a modern
warehouse. If he climbs to the summit of Bunker
Hill and tries to trace the outHne of the famous
battle — which though called after that hill, really
occurred on Breed's Hill — he will find that Charles-
town is no longer a peninsula connected with the
mainland by a narrow causeway, but is really part
of the same mainland as Cambridge itself.

For since the end of the eighteenth century the
Americans, with their tremendous energy and indus-
try, have literally paved the bed of the sea, and
have created, Hke the Venetians of old, new founda-
tions for a part even of the very streets in Boston.

But they have so created the new as to interfere
little with the old ; and that is the chief charm about
Boston — this intertwining of the new Ufe with the
old. There is, for instance, the great Boston
Common, that immense park of nearly fifty acres
which lies in the very heart of the city, just beneath
the State House. With its pleasant grassy slopes,
its lakes, its paths and its statues, this common has
belonged to the Boston people for nearly three
centuries. That great open meadow has seen
the gatherings of multitudes in times of popular
emotion. It has seen the drilling of soldiers, and
to-day in smoother times the children play around
the stately memorials of the great American Wars.

i66 A BRITON IN AMERICA

The great biiilding of the State House stands on

Beacon Hill, at the north-east corner of the Common,

conspicuous with its huge gilded dome and its

great Corinthian portico. In front there stands a

remarkable basrelief — the Shaw Monument. It

is perhaps one of the most successful examples of

independent relief work in any great modern city.

It commemorates the young and gallant Colonel

R. G. Shaw, the idealist young Bostonian, who, in

the later stages of the Civil War, undertook the

perilous risk of raising a negro regiment and leading

it into action. The relief stands by itself, and you

see the young officer on horseback leading his men,

who follow him with fixed bayonets. The regiment

seems to move, and you think of his untimely death

while leading his men into the Confederate trenches.

There comes back to you the wonderful lines from

that great poem of James Russell Lowell, " Memoriae

Positum " :■—

" Right in the van,

On the red rampart's sUppery swell,

With heart that beat a charge, he fell

Foeward, as fits a man ;
But the high soul burns on to light men's feet
Where death for noble ends makes dying sweet."

You mount the steps of the State House and
within its doors you find many precious mementoes
of American history. Displayed in the great
Memorial Hall there are two brilhant sets of flags,
— set forth behind plate glass — the regimental
colours of the Massachusetts Regiments that fought

BOSTON CITY AND PLYMOUTH 167

in the Civil War, and now added to them on the
other side of the hall the flags brought back from
Europe after the great World War. These flags
make a brilUant and flashing display. Beyond is
the great State Library, where at last we found the
original copy of the Log of the Mayflower, written
in close but clear hand-writing by WilHam Bradford
— a manuscript which I had been pursuing over
two continents. This original copy was once in the
Fulham Palace Library, and was presented to
America by Dr. Creighton, when he was Bishop of
London. Just before starting from England I
tracked down a facsimile of it in South wark, amK
was shown it with pride by the Librarian of the
Free Library, to whom it had been lent by the
present Bishop of London. That facsimile was
given to us in England by America in exchange
for the original, and thus by a happy arrange-
ment the original of this manuscript has been
returned to New England, while the facsimile is
retained in Old England.

There is no more thrilling narrative in the English
language than this of Bradford's, and none which,
by its simple, heroic story is better calculated to
draw together the two English-speaking races.

Later on we plunged into the crowded streets of
the main city of Boston, and following Washington
Street we came to the old State House, where the
Colonial Assembly used to meet in the days before
the revolution of 1776. With a happy generosity

i68 A BRITON IN AMERICA

the Americans have placed in front of this building
the figures of the British Lion and Unicorn, and
they have restored the building almost precisely
to its old early eighteenth century form, so that
you can wander through the rooms and imagine
yourself in New England when it was a British
Colony. It was in front of this building that there
occurred on March 2, 1770, the opening tragedy of
the Revolution — the first shedding of blood between
EngHshmen and Americans. It was merely the
firing of a few sentries upon a disorderly crowd, and
in these later days — if it had happened in Dublin
for instance — we should think httle of it. But in
those days it was called the " Boston Massacre,"
and it inflamed a whole continent.

Tlien we passed on to that great meeting place
of many democratic memories — Faneuil Hall, named
after the Huguenot merchant who gave it to the
City in 1742. Through nearly two centuries it has
been consecrated by many great scenes, both of the
Revolution and the Civil War. I could not help
mounting the platform of this hall and picturing
to myself the great, ardent assemblies that have
met here, and hearing again in fancy the many
resounding appeals that have been uttered from
its boards. But there is httle that is dramatic in
its appearance. It might be the old Town Hall of
any British city borough. Here, indeed, is one
of the most truly Enghsh things in America. It is
part of the irony of history that this intensely

BOSTON CITY AND PLYMOUTH 169

English hall should have been the scene of the
events which led to the separation of the two Eng-
lish-speaking races. For Faneuil Hall is essentially
EngHsh of the eighteenth century, with its Httle
conceits and classicisms, its Greek columns and its
galleries. I have never felt so much at home as
standing on its platform.

Let us pass on. Not far away, down IVIilk Street,
stands the famous old South Meeting House, another
of the original scenes of revolutionary times. It
seems to-day nothing more than a little English
Nonconformist chapel ; and yet in that building
there was hatched and prepared one of the most
stirring conspiracies in the world's history. For it
was there that on December 16, 1773, forty American
" rebels," disguised as Mohawk Indians, assembled
together : and from its doors they proceeded to
steal down to the harbour, board an innocent
trading ship, and throw 342 chests of excellent tea
into the depths of the water. The waste of that
tea seemed to send a greater thrill through the
British world than the Boston Massacre. For it
was from that moment that the quarrel between
Britain and America became irreparable.

Hard by this building, standing quite modestly
in the middle of a modern street, is a little wooden
cottage, such as the Colonials used to inhabit in
revolutionary days. This cottage has been happily
left untouched by the hand of the restorer. For it
is a sacred shrine. Here Hved Paul Revere, the

170 A BRITON IN AMERICA

famous Bostonian rebel who, on the night of April 17,
1775, started out on the ride which gave the alarm
to the farmers of Lexington, and enabled them to
fire that famous shot.

Longfellow has told the story in one of his Tales
of a Wayside Inn — ^how Paul Revere had arranged
with a friend on the Charlestown bank to tell him
by signal whether the British were going to march
by land or by sea —

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light —

One, if by land, and two, if by sea ;

And I on the opposite shore will be.

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country folk to be up and arm."

Paul Revere waited and waited through the
dark hours until the signal came —

" And lo ! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer and then a gleam of light !
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns.
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns."

Then Paul Revere knew that the British regulars
were going by sea — across the harbour and up
the river, and he started out on his midnight ride,
reaching Lexington by one o'clock and Concord by
two, arousing the farmers from their beds as he
passed. From the point of view of every true
American, it was Paul Revere that turned the scales
of that war and gained independence for his country

BOSTON CITY AND I^LYMOUTH 171

December 4.

To-day we have spent in visiting this town of
Plymouth — the New England Plymouth — the goal
of our pilgrimage. For here the Pilgrim Fathers
landed this year three centuries ago. It seemed
right and fitting that we should stand on that spot
before we turn our steps back towards the Old
World. So we decided to accept the -invitation
which reached us yesterday from the Pilgrim Club
of Plymouth, urging us to come over and visit their
town.

It is a journey of nearly forty miles from
Boston to Plymouth, along the curve of the Massa-
chusetts Bay, and we took it this time really as
true pilgrims, traveUing in the ordinary public
car, and taking a railway lunch of sandwiches from
the restaurant. This latter proved unnecessary,
for when we arrived here we found that the Pilgrim
Club had prepared a splendid lunch for us, and it
became our duty as national pilgrims to eat the
public lunch as well as the private. As the time
for that banquet had to be snatched from the hour
or two which had been allowed us for seeing Ply-
mouth it required an effort of self-sacrifice to
consume it without betraying our eagerness to
visit the spots of which we had heard and read so
much during the last few weeks. For we Pilgrims
are a faithful band, and have read practically
every book and pamphlet written on every episode
of the Pilgrim Fathers' journey. Finally, at the

172 A BRITON IN AMERICA

end of our six courses, we were allowed to mount
the automobile and were taken swiftly round the
sacred town.

We have been allowed to place our hands on the
broken piece of the Plymouth Rock — a mere
fragment of an old granite boulder marked with
the date 1620 — the year in which the Pilgrim
Fathers landed — and enclosed by a Renaissance
canopy. It was no small rehef to us to hear that the
Plymouth Pilgrims propose to remove this canopy
as soon as possible.

The really impressive features about this Httle
town are those which have been left untouched
by the hand of commemorating man. Running
up from the Quay is a street of little old wooden
houses, some of which date back to the lifetime
of the first founders of the town. Beyond some
modern shops is the church called the First Church.
This building stands above that original burying
place of the early settlers which played such a
pathetic and noble part in their early history. For
it was just here — on " Coles Hill " now so-called
— opposite the Rock, that the Pilgrim Fathers
buried their early dead and sowed their corn on
the graves so that the Red Indians around them
should not discover how many of the settlers had
ceased to live. Above the church you mount in a
series of flights of steps to the later burial hill, to
which the Fathers transferred some of their dead,
and where they buried those who died later.

BOSTON CITY AND PLYMOUTH 173

Here in this ground we found the grave of one
of the noblest men who ever landed on American
soil— Bradford, the author of the Diary and the
Governor of Plymouth Colony from 1621 to 1657.
On his tombstone is written in Latin this grave
and solemn exhortation to America —

" Quae patres difficillime adepti sunt nolite turpiter
relinquere."

Which may be translated thus : —

'• What our fathers with so much difficulty
secured do not basely relinquish."

Over his grave is a fine obeHsk more than eight
feet in height, and on the north side is a Hebrew
sentence which I am told signifies

" Jehovah is our Help."

This mouldered memorial is one of the most
impressive things that we have yet seen in America.

From this old graveyard, where the dead lie
scattered beneath the trees in that impressive and
restful American fashion, we descended the hill
to the Pilgrim Hall — a building full of a most
interesting collection of Pilgrim reHcs. Here is
the cradle in which was nursed the Httle Pilgrim
baby — ** Peregrine " — that was bom on the Atlantic.
Here are the Httle pieces of furniture which these
wanderers had brought right through from their
Lincolnshire homes, and had kept by them during
those ten years of exile in Holland. Looking at

174 A BRITON IN AMERICA

these little fragments of their lives you begin to
realise that these Pilgrim Fathers and Mothers
were not eccentric old people with flowing white
locks, as they have been so often depicted, but were
keen young men and women of prosperous Hfe who
left everything and dared everything for their faith*

Then you go forth from this hall on this December
day and look out on the bleak, grey Atlantic and
reaUse how much they risked. It took them nine
weeks to cross that Atlantic, a hundred of them
packed in a little ship of 140 tons. Half of them
died in the first winter, and were buried on that
hill. They were in daily peril not only from the
sea but also from the Red Indians, who regarded
them as intruders without any rights, and treated
them as such whenever Miles Standish allowed it.

It is easy to live here to-day, reaping the fruits
of what they suffered. But every person who Hves
a happy life in this New England to-day owes it to
the daring and hardihood of those English pioneers.

For they were EngHsh — these people; and they
were proud of that fact. Standing here to-day in
Plymouth those impressive words written by
Governor Bradford in his Diary again and again
come back to us —

" May not and ought not the children of these
fathers rightly say, ' OUR FATHERS WERE
ENGLISHMEN, which came over the gieat
ocean and were ready to perish in this wilder-

BOSTON CITY AND PLYMOUTH 175

ness ' : but ' they cried unto the Lord, and He
heard their voice, and looked on their adversity ?"*

« :ic * :ic «

Before coming to Plymouth, I was commonly
told that the people of Plymouth themselves had
sadly departed from the tradition of the Fathers.
In fact, it is a current saying in Boston that Ply-
mouth has been bored back by Puritanism into
heathenism. This touch of flippancy is part of
the same spirit which rejoices in such amusing
after-dinner aphorisms as we have so often heard.

" We are sorry for the Pilgrim Fathers," says the
after-dinner speaker — and you generally see it

coming on his face " We are sorry for the

Pilgrim Fathers, but we are still more sorry for the
Pilgrim Mothers — because they had to put up with
the Pilgrim Fathers ! "

This is part of the general good humour of
American life, which makes them laugh even at
themselves.

To-day I have been enquiring as to how far that
saying is true about Pl3rmouth — ^that all traces of
the Pilgrim spirit have disappeared.

We were gazing at the great national Pilgrim
Monument which has been erected by the Americans
at the East entrance to Plymouth — a colossal figure
of a woman standing on a high pedestal crowded
with emblematic figures. I remarked that the
erection of such a monument did not look Hke any
falling off in the Pilgrim spirit.

176 A BRITON IN AMERICA

The local Minister with whom I discussed this
afterwards made the following interesting reply.

" Among the people here/* he said, " there are
a good many men filled with a remarkable spirit,
quite distinct from that of New York, Chicago or
Boston. It is a combination of independence and
toleration. These people are characterised by a
deep spiritual earnestness, but free from any
fanaticism. They pursue their own course without
condemning others. They stand apart from the
common current of American Hfe, and I for my
part certainly trace their spirit back to those
Pilgrim Fathers who came from Holland and
landed on these shores 300 years ago.'*

There stands the answer from one who knows
these men, and lives among them. If his witness
be true, here is a remarkable proof of the long
survival of spiritual quahties.

But we had no time to enquire further. For
now we could hear the whistle of our train which
was to carry us back to Boston and another pubhc
meeting.

XIII
NEW ENGLAND

WHAT TO REMEMBER.

Boston, Dec. 5.

In the intervals of public conferences and banquets
we have been making a round of those great historical
spots which make the environs of Boston one of the
great places of European pilgrimage.

We have motored out and visited Lexington,
preserved to-day almost precisely as it was at the
time of strife — a model Uttle village of old eighteenth-
century New England, with the noble statue of the
American Minute Man standing proudly on the
village green. There the old British claim to
exploit the Colonies met its first disastrous check.

From Lexington we motored on to Concord and
visited the bridge where the men of Concord rivalled
the men of Lexington in their defiance of the British
power. Another statue, equally proud and triumph-
ant, stands by that bridge — ^this time the statue of
an American farmer with his coat off, his rifle in
one hand and the other hand on a plough ; marking
the spot where

*r\ The embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world."
♦ « * « 4:

M 177

178 A BRITON IN AMERICA

The Americans are frankly astonished that we
should wish to see these spots. They have a
curious, apologetic air in showing them to us.
With their great courtesy, they are almost inclined
to make excuses for their ancestors in their rudeness
to the British military visitors of that distant day.
So far has this been carried in Boston that there
exists a school of writers in that happy town which
maintains that the whole War of Independence
was a great blunder, that the Americans would
have been wiser to have accepted the stamp duties
and the tea tax, and to have bowed to the beneficent
rule of George III.

I have tried to explain to them that we do not
demand this historical penitence ; that English-
men, as a whole, take the view expressed by Tenny-
son in that Httle-known poem, " England and
America in 1782 " : —

" What wonder, if in noble heat

Those men thine arms withstood,
Retaught the lesson thou hadst taught,
And in thy spirit with thee fought —
Who sprang from English blood ! "

In other words, I have suggested that the most
enlightened EngHsh view of to-day is that those
incidents took on from Runnymede the defence of
English Hberties against despotic aggression. The
men who fought against George III. were the direct
successors of those who battled with King John.

I find the Americans pleased with this view.

NEW ENGLAND 179

although they seem somewhat surprised. It ap-
pears that many English visitors attempt to go
back on the decision of those fateful years, and give
the impression to America that they wish to resume
the poHcy of George III. These English people
are deceived by the courtesy of the New Englanders
into imagining that that reversal of history has a
chance of acceptance on American soil.

It shows how little they know the American
mind, which, as a whole, stands precisely where it
did in 1782 ; steeped in the spirit of independence,
rootedly hostile to any possible return to the con-
stitutional forms of the Old World. If there is
one thing which keeps America aloof from Europe
it is the grave suspicion stimulated by such visitors
that Europe intends to entice America back into
her gilded cage. After four generations America
affirms and upholds the judgment of her fore-
fathers, and she — all that is best and strongest in
her — is as stoutly to-day a believer in the issues of
the War of Independence as she was when she
broke away from England in 1782.

What I have been suggesting to the Americans
is that they should remember, in writing their
history books for the young, that EngUsh opinion
was, even during the war, divided on the American
issue. Their text-books rather tend to suggest
that the whole of England was behind George III.
Surely they might remind the American youth
that there was a large body of British opinion that

i8o A BRITON IN AMERICA

favoured the Americans, and that that opinion was
strongly upheld by some of the greatest Englishmen
of that day. After all, the best statement of the
case for the rights of America is still contained in
the two famous speeches of Edmund Burke, and
in the elder Pitt's passionate and historic appeals
to the House of Lords. I have suggested to en-
lightened Americans that, to the various statues
which they have raised to commemorate the
independence of America, they might add one to
Edmund Burke and another to Lord Chatham.^

Nor do I confine these remarks to the War of
Independence. For it is also a common impression
in America that w^e took the wrong side in the War
of Secession. One is reminded here that Mr.
Gladstone was in favour of recognising the Southern
States. But there, again, might it not be some
advantage for America also to remember that
another great Englishman, John Bright, fervently
took the side of the North, and that the Manchester
cotton-spinners faced starvation on behalf of the
Northern arms ? Perhaps a statue of John Bright
might be added to those statues of Edmund Burke
and Lord Chatham as reminders of what is in
common between the two great English-speaking
nations.

iK « :(( « *

The longer one stays in America the more one
is impressed with the feeling that these people

» This suggestion has since been adopted by the British
Sulgrave Institution.

i

NEW ENGLAND i8i

have two minds towards us — one expressed in their
daily courtesy and their real love of our Hterature
and our society ; the other expressed in their
historical memories and their poHtical achievements.
The first unites us, the other divides. The play of
these two minds of the American pubUc constantly
creates in EngHshmen an impression of hypocrisy.
We find the American visitor to England enthusi-
astic over our ancient buildings and our social
Hfe. We meet him again in America, and we
find him gone back into his shell of independence,
brooding over the wrongs that we did him in the
past, fearful of our interference in the future.
Now the problem before us is to throw a bridge
between the real American political attitude and
ours. We shall not do that by attempting to aboUsh
the differences — by trying to persuade him that he
ought to adopt a Monarchy, by talking about the
advantages of titles, or by running down his generous
plutocracy. Let us realise once and for all that
the true American has made up his mind on all
these matters, and Jet us agree to differ. He has
decided that for him a Presidency is better than a
Monarchy. He is still rootedly of opinion that
titles would corrupt his politics. He believes in
social equahty, and he acts on that belief. It is
useless to try to push him off this ground. You
will only maike him more suspicious and resentful,
more incHned to detect a touch of patronage, or
even of an ambition to re-annex him.

l82 A BRITON IN AMERICA

There is a far better way than this. It is useless
to try to re-write history or to pretend that we
have not wronged America in the past. Of course,
we have wronged her — deeply and bitterly. Did
we not let German mercenaries and tomahawking
Red Indians loose on her farmers ? It is useless
to deny these things. The only real cure in human
affairs is to admit our wrongs and to ask for forget-
fulness. What nation has not wronged another
in the past ? What of the long wars between
England and France ? Yet England and France
do not argue about these. We simply make up
our minds that the more we have quarrelled in the
past the more important it is to agree in the future.

In visiting Concord I saw a monument erected
in this very spirit of mutual forgiveness, which seems,
after all, the best way of bridging these gulfs. It
has been erected by Americans over the graves
of the British soldiers who fell in that tragic skirmish.
On it are written four lines from an early poem of
John Russell Lowell's, " To Two EngHsh Soldiers " :

" They came three thousand miles, and died
To keep the Past upon its throne ;
Unheard, beyond the ocean tide

Their Enghsh mother made her moan."

That is the true appeal — to our common humanity,
to the spirit of pity and tears that Hes behind all
great human events. It might be a great step
towards peace if in our monuments and records
this tone were to prevail instead of that menacing.

NEW ENGLAND 183

boastful, triumphant note which mars so many of
our national epitaphs.

For indeed historical memories count a great
deal. They are far more important than most of
us imagine. Take, for instance, the relations
between America and France. Between those two
countries there exists a sentimental tie which is
entirely due to the fact that France intervened in
the later years of the War of Independence, and
practically decided the issue. > I am not sure that
the intervention of America in the final years of
the recent Great War was not ultimately due to
this subconscious feehng of gratitude towards
France for what she did in 1780.

This has been particularly brought home to me
during the last fortnight, because, as I have already
told you, we have been travelling around with
that splendid soldier, General Nivelle, who helped
General Petain to save Verdun, and thereby to
save France. General Nivelle is one of those simple,
enduring soldiers of France who make a claim upon
the homage of all who admire patriotism and valour.
But I have been conscious during these days of
our joint receptions that the enthusiasm for General
Nivelle is not merely for a man, but also for France.

Of course, the Americans always observe that
beautiful rule of courtesy which distinguishes their
race. At the great Pilgrim celebration in the
great and beautiful Trinity Church here in Boston,
for instance, the three flags— American, British,

i84 A BRITON IN AMERICA

and French — were carried together through the
great church and placed in front of the altar.
Wherever we have been these three flags have
been linked together over our heads. You must not
imagine because of a certain incident in New York
that the Americans wilHngly allow any discourtesy
to the British flag. We have never demanded that
that flag should be displayed, because the question
of flags is a matter of manners best left to the
host. But never in any case have they failed to
display it, although always they have done so at
the risk of attack by the Sinn Feiners.

But I have observed throughout the public street-
demonstrations that the French flag takes pre-
cedence over the British. No one in America is
Ukely to pull down the French flag. No shop is
Hkely to suffer in custom through putting up the
French flag. When we visited Springfield the other
day the whole town was draped with the tricolour.
For it is a strange and notable fact that this senti-
mental attachment to France exists more in the
Middle West than it does in the East of America.
The most British section of America is probably
that of the upper classes in all the eastern towns,
both north and south — just as the most anti-
British section is probably to be found among the
masses of the people in those same towns. Out
in the Middle West there is a large class of farmers
who were born in Great Britain, and are still
attached to the soil of their birth. But in these

NEW ENGLAND 185

Middle West towns there is also a strong feeling in
favour of pure Americanism. It is very unpopular
to be hyphenated, and the tendency is for all
classes to concentrate on being good American
citizens. That is a thoroughly sound instinct,
and I heartily agree with the British Ambassador
in deprecating any attempt to create a class of
British- Americans. The best service we -can per-
form towards our stock in America is to encourage
them to be faithful and loyal to the country of their
adoption. They have accepted America with all
its institutions. They are sharing in her prosperity,
and they are taking advantage of her great defences.
Their highest duty is, while never forgetting the
land of their birth, still always to be good Americans.

Happily there is no reason why these men of
British stock should feel that they are exiled and
forlorn. They are no longer in the British Empire,
but it is brought home to them at every turn that
they are in a land of kin.

This kinship is brought home to them not only
in social intercourse, but even in the Courts of Law :
and there again we have another very remarkable
instance of this power of historical tradition.

The Americans are a nation of lawyers, and they
have one great advantage in the fact that all their
lawyers are pleaders as well as solicitors. This
lawyer class supplies most of the pohtical brains.
They possess, indeed, through the Supreme Court,
an authority which is actually higher than the

i86 A BRITON IN AMERICA

statutes of Congress. America is a country dom-
inated by law in a sense unknown to Europe.
Now, this law is based entirely on the English
common law. Our law is therefore as famiUar to
American lawyers as to any English lawyer. Thus,
the most keen-brained class of the community is
constantly brought into famiUarity with English
traditions. Surely the unhappy quarrel of kings
and courts ought not to be powerful enough to
prevail over such tremendous influences.

Or take another great hnk — the hnk of literature.
We motored out to Concord and visited the houses
of Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Long-
fellow. It was really very difficult to remember
that we were not in England, so familiar are we all
with this literature of Northern America. But
were we not in England — New England, it is true,
but still England ? The very landscape is English
— the lake by the side of which Thoreau dwelt,
the woods and copses that clothe the countryside
between the winding streams ; those old colonial
wooden houses built to recall the houses they had
left behind them in Old England. When we visited
Longfellow's house we were met and entertained
by Miss Longfellow, the daughter of the poet — a
beautiful old lady, with silver hair, and leaning on
a stick, but mentally still serene and alert, and
inheriting from her father his splendid hopefulness
and vitahty, mellowed by her charming American
kindness and good humour. She showed us with

NEW ENGLAND 187

a wonderful pride through the rooms where the
poet lived — the homely dining room and the ver-
andah where he sat in the heat of the day, the cosy
study where, at " The Children's Hour," he received
her and her sisters —

" Grave Alice and laughing AUegra,
And Edith with golden hair,"

She was Edith, the golden hair now furned to
silver.

How EngHsh it all seemed ! How famiHar, how
homehke ! How intimately interwoven with all
our thoughts and memories ! Whatever we may
think of Longfellow to-day — and I beUeve it is
common form with the younger generation to
admire him quite as little as they read him — yet
we all regard him as one of ourselves, a member of
our British family. So continuous is the golden
thread that runs through our literature from
Chaucer right across the Atlantic to that Httle
village of Concord.

Then, on another day, we have visited here the
great university of Harvard, where we were enter-
tained by the distinguished president, the bearer
of a mighty name — the name of Lowell — Lawrence
Lowell. Harvard is a great American institution,
and here youth is full of that proud American spirit
which would not brook interference or patronage
from any other nation. I do not pretend for a
moment to compare the merits of my own university,
Oxford, with the claims of either Harvard or Yale.

i88 A BRITON IN AMERICA

I do not wish to pit the college system against the
hostel system any more than I wish to contrast
Rugby football with the American game. Their
study of books, Hke their games, is more eager,
more competitive, less regulated than ours. They
range more freely, they cover more ground. There,
as in other matters, America always faces the future,
and if you face the future you cannot possibly give
so much attention to the past. True, I have not
seen in Europe anything so wonderful as their
library, with its marvellous and ingenious arrange-
ments for easy reading, its warm and well-lighted
rooms where the tutor or student can live with
his books and by the side of his books, without all
the labour of fetching and carrying. Nor have I
seen in Europe such bold experiments in training as
their Faculty of Modern Business, with its wide-
ranging study of modern conditions in commerce
and economics. That experiment can only be
rivalled by the equally daring College of JournaHsm
at Columbia University, which is training a school
of yomig journaHsts for the American Press.

In all these aspects I see a new spirit in these
American institutions. But behind and through
it all I also perceive the EngHsh tradition being
carried on — the high seriousness of our universities
with their true devotion to the spirit of wisdom,
the refusal to bow to the specialists and the experts,
the idea of the university as really universal in its
outlook on human affairs. The very name of

NEW ENGLAND 189

Cambridge carries on a link between the Old and
the New Worlds.

Let us, then, emphasise all these things that we
have in common, whilst casting into oblivion the
" old, unhappy, far-off things." It is not always
necessary to feed our minds on battles and quarrels
of the past. Surely far more enduring are these
great things that we have in common — language,
literature, law, and great memories of great deeds.

But to-morrow we must get back to New York
— and then on to Washington.

XIV
AMERICA'S CAPITAL

Washington, Dec. 6.

To-day we travelled to this beautiful city from
New York.

In the gracious rivalrj^ of welcome which is our
happy experience in the United States, the British
Embassy has, from the first, been to the fore.
Quite early in our stay we received a cordial invita-
tion from Sir Auckland and Lady Geddes to stay
with them at Washington, and it was quite a grief
to us to have to refuse a visit to the Capital, owing
to the peremptory calls of our Pilgrim errand. But
we certainly did not expect that the invitation
would be so kindly repeated for a later date, and
now that we have returned from Boston we have
been at last able to pay the long looked-for visit.

Washington is one of those towns which every
citizen in the world should visit. It represents
one of the great daring experiments in human
freedom ; and so to-day, when we boarded the train
at 8.15 a.m. in the great Pennsylvania railway station
— another of those vast palaces which the railway
corporations have built for the pubHc — we started
out on this trip with a sense of keen exhilaration
and enthusiasm.

190

AMERICA'S CAPITAL 191

It is well worth while to take the journey by day.
For the habit of travelling by night in America
really does deprive the visitor of many opportunities
of seeing the country. The Pullman car provides
you with a convenient and comfortable outlook
on the scenery of the New World ; and after all,
the keen-eyed traveller does learn more than he
thinks during the days of cursory observation which
he passes in railway trains. The enemy of observa-
tion in America is the newspaper, and most visitors
glue their noses to the news sheet instead of looking
out of the windows. That is a great tribute to the
brilliant and versatile American Press — certainly the
most readable Press in the world. But it is a
mistake; for the American countryside is well
worth looking at.

One of the great glories of North America is the
ample network of rivers that drain this vast country.
The Mississippi is the Queen. But on this journey
to Washington we have learned the breadth and
beauty of the Delaware, which turns Philadelphia
— a city fifty miles inland as the crow flies — into a
port, and the glory and majesty of the Susquehanna,
which flows into the mighty Chesapeake Bay. The
railway takes these great rivers in a kind of easy
stride. For the American is a great bridge-builder :
and his aim seems to be to make you forget that
any rivers He across your path. The works of man
in this country seem to combine to fill you with a
sense of his power; and this journey from New

192 A BRITON IN AMERICA

York to Washington, taking you so easily across
two of the great rivers of the Eastern States, is as
well fitted as any to bring home to you this sub-
ordination of Nature to man.

We caught glimpses of that great city of Phila-
delphia, the third city of the United States in area
and population — such a contrast to New York in
the fashion of its building — the " City of Two-storied
Houses," as it is called, or more pleasantly, " The
City of Homes." "The City of the Quakers"
it used to be. But now, in the vast mix-up that
has taken place in America, the power of the Quakers
is, I fear, waning, and the tradition of WilHam Penn
is becoming very dim. These great ports seem
to share both in their spirit and in their popu-
lation, the ebb and flow of the sea. They are
never still.

Then we passed through Baltimore, the chief
city of Maryland — another of the great ports of
America — a city of a very different origin from
Philadelphia. Baltimore is the capital of a State
which represents quite another wave of emigration
from the Old World — Maryland, the country of
Cavaliers, whose founder, the great Lord Baltimore,
was a Catholic, and where in point of fact the prin-
ciple of religious toleration first began. For the
Catholics were then a persecuted sect, and, requiring
toleration themselves in the New World, they
gave it to others. It is not perhaps by a mere
chance that Baltimore to-day is the centre of

AMERICA'S CAPITAL 193

Catholicism in America and the home of Cardinal
Gibbons. 1

We breakfasted and lunched very agreeably on
the train, which was full of politicians going to
Washington for the meeting of Congress.

We were met at the station by an attach^ from
the Embassy, and driven straight to the spacious,
freshly-painted, villa which is the emblem of
British power at Washington. Sir Auckland Geddes
and his charming wife received us, and their appear-
ance certainly does credit to America. For when
I last saw them in England they were weary and
worn. But now both of them look in splendid
health and seem in splendid spirits. One after
the other their little children came trooping in,
and it was indeed a charming experience to find
oneself in a typical British home, surrounded with
the pleasant frankness and simplicity of one's
own race — a Httle Anglo-Saxon island where one
talked the same language and thought the same
thoughts.

Knowing that our time was short, our hosts did
everything to help us during this visit to Washing-
ton. At 2.30 p.m. Lady Geddes took us out in
her '* Auto " and in a few hours showed us all
the chief sights of the capital city. In front of
us her eldest boy, a lad of some fourteen years, sat
next the chauffeur and generally directed affairs.
That Embassy chauffeur is certainly a ''character."

^ Died March 25, 192 1.

N

194 A BRITON IN AMERICA

He has been at the Embassy for sixteen years,
and is a power not to be despised. At present
he has to go about armed, as the British Embassy
has fallen under the disapproval of Sinn Fein.
But as he was at the war for a long time, that seems
a natural experience to him. The fear of sudden
death does not seem to abate in any degree his
radiant cheerfulness and his human kindUness
to the children. There is always about such
EngHshmen a touch of Sam Weller, or, let us say,
Mark Tapley. They carry their splendid cheerful-
ness to the ends of the earth. It is our greatest
imperial quality; for I am not sure whether
in the long run it is not British amiability
rather than British pugnacity that conquers the
world.

Washington is now certainly one of the most
beautiful cities in the world Visiting it in 1842
Dickens thought that it was going to be a failure.
He found it a mere outline " with spacious avenues
that begin in nothing and lead nowhere. With
streets a mile long that only want houses, roads
and inhabitants." He called it a " City of Magni-
ficent Intentions," and he ventured on this bold
prophecy — " Such as it is, it is Hkely to remain." ^
Happily for us Dickens has proved completely
wrong. George Washington's great initiative in
town planning has been fully justified. For that
great man and Thomas Jefferson were the first

1 American Notes. See Appendix, pp. 295 et seq.

AMERICA'S CAPITAL 195

men to realise that a town should be laid out before
it is built. They boldly committed the planning
to a Frenchman — Major L' Enfant.

Every European visitor knows the general scheme
of Washington. The streets that run east and
west are named by the letters of the alphabet.
The streets that run north and south are designated
by numerals. Vertically across these streets, run-
ning north-west and south-west, are a series of
avenues called after the various States — New
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia,
Florida and Carolina. These avenues radiate from
two great centres — the Capitol and the White
House. Of late years a Commission has been at
work beautifying the city and attempting a return
to L'Enfant's original plan, which was seriously
departed from during some forgotten " An ti- Waste "
period in American history. The work of improve-
ment is now going on rapidly, and Washington is
being beautified by parks and gardens on every
side. We saw the digging going on. For the
Americans take a great pride in this city ; and they
seemed to have agreed that here at least they
should do some homage to the spirits of beauty
and amenity which have been so recklessly sacrificed
in other American cities.

Perhaps it is the entire absence of the com-
mercial " drive " and the manufacturing ferment
that gives to Washington its rare sense of leisure
and peace. For it is a city wholly consecrated to

196 A BRITON IN AMERICA

diplomats and officials. In London the work of
government is carried on in the midst of all our
other national affairs — our business, our law, our
literature. But the founders of the United States
decided in their wisdom that they would isolate
their political centre from all other influences, and
so they built this city 185 miles from the Atlantic
and nearly 200 miles from New York, turning it
into a poHtical district all by itself. They even
disfranchised it and gave it a special autocratic
regime. Now it stands apart from all the rest of
America — a city without city government, belonging
to no State, possessing no factories and no indus-
tries, with one trade alone and that the trade of
human government.

During this afternoon we have visited all the
chief sights of the city — ^ghmpsed into the new
Abraham Lincoln Memorial, ascended the Washing-
ton Obelisk, looked into the Capitol, sat in the
Strangers' Galleries of the Senate and the House of
Representatives, and finally paid a call on the
National Library. The only building we have not
peeped into is the White House, where the tragic
illness of the great President makes the most
casual observer pause before he invades that sombre
privacy. It is part of the great crisis through
which America is passing.

A curious fancy has brought back to me, while
moving about this city, memories of Luxor and
Kamak. Egypt somehow or other recurs to the

AMERICA'S CAPITAL 197

mind all the time. It comes back with especial
intensity while one is visiting the tombs and
memorials of the great Presidents, now occupying
so many of the conspicuous spots in this city of
Washington. I do not say that America is in
danger of worshipping her Presidents. But cer-
tainly it is a strange thing that in a country where
human equaUty reigns, and the root principle of
aU Hfe is that " one man is as good as another,"
to find these mighty monuments erected and being
erected to the memory of individual dead Americans.
The great new monument to Abraham Lincoln
is not yet open to the pubHc, and we were only
able to obtain a glimpse. But we saw enough to
realise its colossal scale. Externally it is in the
form of an immense Greek temple, surrounded by
fluted Greek columns. Within, it contains a
colossal statue of Lincoln seated. The employment
of the form of a temple, with its suggestion of
worship and the use of the colossal — all these
things kept bringing back to my mind those immense
statues of the great Rameses which look out over
the Nile with their countenances of implacable
calm. This is strange, because there is really
nothing in common between the position of an
American President and an Egyptian Pharaoh.
But above and beyond all differences there is the
insatiable thirst of the human being for hero-
worship, asserting itself on the banks of the Potomac
as conspicuously as on the banks of the Nile.

198 A BRITON IN AMERICA

But if Lincoln already holds this naighty position
in the hearts of countrymen, what about George
Washington ? Sometimes when I view the multi-
tudinous portraits and statues of Washington in
this land, there comes back to me just a thought of
the attitude which the Roman Empire adopted
towards JuHus Caesar — that very human, sinning,
striving man whom they turned into a god, to whom
every good Roman paid his due of incense, and of
whom for many centuries no good Roman spoke
except as " the divine JuHus." To-day in passing
Mount Vernon, the country home of George Wash-
ington, on the Potomac, fifteen miles from here,
all American soldiers have to come to the salute.
I know no parallel to that in our European hfe of
to-day. Perhaps in Europe we are too apt to
destroy our ancestors, or to forget them. For
certainly there is no EngUshman — not even Glad-
stone, King Alfred, Milton or Shakespeare — whose
memory holds the same position in our country as
Washington holds in America.

The Washington ObeHsk stands in the midst of
the open ground of the Mall, not far from the Poto-
mac, and rises to a height of over 500 feet. It is
a plain erection of white Maryland marble, and the
kind Americans supply you with a free elevator
to help you ascend it. You mount very slowly, and
as you rise you are given time to contemplate the
various stone tablets and flags presented by the
States of the Union to be deposited on the storeys

AMERICA'S CAPITAL 199

of this monument. Here again is a touch of the
religious spirit, and you notice all through that the
sacramental word is always, " The Union." For
that idea the American people have fought and
bled, and to it they return whenever they are in
their most solemn moods. Was not this city of
Washington the very centre of that great conflict
of the Civil War ? Was it not here that, fortified
by the memories of their great founder, the Ameri-
cans of the North rallied and organised for the
achievement of victory ? Was it not across
that bridge over the Potomac that the Armies
marched ?

From the top of the ObeHsk we obtained a most
magnificent outlook on Washington, through a
series of oblong, horizontal windows. Looked
down upon from this height, the city wears a varied
aspect. You are tremendously impressed by the
method and order of its planning, and the beauty
of its position. Looking westward you see the
dim shape of the Blue Ridge Mountains : eastward
flows the Potomac, which beneath you, its waters
joining to those of the Anicostia River, seems to
enfold the city as in the bend of an arm. Truly
it was a wise choice of site for his capital — that
made by George Washington. Standing there to-day,
one looks back with whole-hearted admiration on
the steady resolution and persistence of the Ameri-
can people in building their great city just here.

Then we motored along to the Capitol and

200 A BRITON IN AMERICA

glimpsed into the Chambers of Congress. To-day
has been a day of poUtical ferment. Senator
Harding has just resigned his seat in the Senate
in order to step up into the Presidential chair. He
was upstairs talking with his Party, and explaining
himself with that inexhaustible genius for amia-
bility which will become, if I mistake not, the
trade mark of his power. For the moment the
Chambers below were empty, and we were able
to gaze at them at leisure. They have often been
described and often depreciated by Enghsh visitors.
I cannot share the depreciation. The desks in
both Chambers are arranged in semi-circular form
— far and away the most businessHke method for
a public chamber. The most striking feature to
the European eye is the size of the pubHc galleries,
which in both cases seem to overshadow the Chamber
itself. This seems emblematic of the immense
authority of the pubHc voice in American affairs
— of the way in which all authority seems to dwindle
and shrink before the majesty of pubHc opinion.

What a city of contrasts — the past with its
tombs and obelisks, the present with its shy, timid
deference to public favour ! Which in the end will
dominate this mighty land — the spirit displayed
in the obeHsk, or the spirit displayed in the public
gallery ? The power of one man or the power of
the multitude ? For the moment the multitude
is winning, and the one man of to-day Hes sick and
broken away there in the White House. But will

AMERICA'S CAPITAL 201

the multitude succeed any better than he ? And
what if the multitude fails ? Why, then the spirit
of the obelisk and the temple is always there in
the background. With all its passion for popular
rule America has, at all its great crises, always
rallied back to one-man power.

XV

THE BIG NAVY SCHEME

GRAVE OUTLOOK

Washington, Dec. 7.

While I am in Washington, the political capital
of the United States, it seems the fit moment to
set down on paper such observations as have been
possible of certain public questions that are now
looming up between Great Britain and America,
supremely important for their future and well-being.

Take first the question of the American and
British Navies.

The party poUticians who play their great game
for the soul of America seem to have made up their
minds that the trump card is a Big Navy. So we
have the curious spectacle of Mr. Daniels, the
Naval Secretary of the outgoing Democratic Ad-
ministration, competing with President-elect Hard-
ing, who, in a recent speech, put the big navy idea
to the very forefront. The game cannot be regarded
as child's play. For already the submarines are
on the stocks, the big ships are in preparation, and
the swollen naval estimates are ready to be placed
before Congress.

If you wish to grasp the extraordinary political
202

THE BIG NAVY SCHEME 203

situation which partly accounts for this perilous
development, look back to the British political
records of the year 1885. In June of that year of
grace Mr. Gladstone's Administration had been
defeated by Lord Sahsbury, but the Liberals still
held a majority in the House of Commons. The
result was that both parties for a few months com-
peted with one another along the same Hne-of poUcy,
and for some little time it seemed doubtful which
would first take up some form of Irish Home Rule,
which loomed ahead as the coming political issue.
It was only when Mr. Gladstone plunged definitely
for a Home Rule Bill that the other party nailed
their flag to the mast of the Union.

The position at Washington at the present
moment is curiously similar. The whole poHcy
of the Democratic Administration has fallen to the
ground with an almighty smash. President Wilson
has been defeated and humiliated.

To-day Harding draws the eyes of the country,
and it is pathetic to watch how every newspaper
gathers his random words Hke crumbs from the
rich man's table. But in the meanwhile President
Wilson still remains at White House and the
Democrats are still in power.

But as public opinion really rules America they
are totally paralysed in regard to the main points
of their policy. They cannot send a single repre-
sentative to the League meetings or conferences.
They may flirt with the idea of protecting Armenia,

204 A BRITON IN AMERICA

but they cannot move a corporal's guard for the
safeguarding of a single Armenian woman. They are
discrowned and unrobed; and yet they continue
in power. The old Congress is also in power, but
it happens to be a Republican Congress just as
the British Parliament in 1885, even after Lord
Sahsbury's victory in June, was still a Liberal
Parliament.

The result is that the only thing left for the
Democrats to do is to adopt the Republican policy.
So Mr. Daniels is proving to the Americans that if
they refuse to be good Democrats he can give them
a bit of the true Repubhcan touch. Incidentally,
he is also able to demonstrate with a somewhat
expensive and dangerous irony the terrible nature
of the true alternative to the League of Nations.

" Won't you have peace on earth ? " he says in
effect. " Why then we'll lam you ! "

There is nothing whatever new about this attitude
of the Democrats. President Wilson has always
been characterised by a certain remorseless logic,
which he seems to have brought into politics from
the groves of Academe at Princeton. It is difficult
to say how far he influences American poHtics in
his present afflicted state of health. But I gather
from Admiral Grayson's accounts that he is able
to give a certain portion of every day to public
affairs and it seems quite hkely that this novel
pohcy comes directly from the brain of President
Wilson. Nor is there any reason to suppose that

THE BIG NAVY SCHEME 205

it will be reversed by President-elect Harding.
Once more I urge my British readers not to attach
any importance to President-elect Harding's platonic
flirtations with the idea of the League of Nations.
The American people have pronounced definitely
against the League of Nations ; and when the
American people have pronounced against a thing
no President or Congress can reverse the -decision.
The vague and varying reports of conversations
with President-elect Harding which are at present
being poured forth by men Hke Mr. Taft and others
must be taken at their face value. Those expres-
sions of opinion are all essentially political in the
narrowest sense of the word. They are merely
intended to keep the RepubHcan Leaguers in good
temper without losing the support of the Republican
Anti-Leaguers.

If my readers will once more recall another
British political analogy they will better under-
stand this part of the American situation. President-
elect Harding stands towards his followers precisely
as Mr. Balfour stood towards the Unionist Pro-
tectionists and Free Traders in those difficult years
between 1903 and 1906. We all remember how.
during that period Mr. Arthur Balfour directed the
whole of his great brain to persuade one-half of
his party that he was a Free Trader and the other
half that he was a Protectionist. He finally failed
because the British people hate dialectics. Now
President-elect Harding is trying precisely the same

2o6 A BRITON IN AMERICA

method with his great Republican party — who are
really divided at heart on the whole subject of the
League of Nations. He is trying to persuade one-
half that he is a Leaguer and the other half that
he is an anti-Leaguer, and every day he produces
a new formula, just as Mr. Balfour every day pro-
duced a new formula between 1903 and 1906.
How Jong that position will go on I do not know,
but Mr. Harding has the immense advantage over
Mr. Balfour that he is fixed in power for four years.
But meanwhile the world goes on, and if America
is not to prepare for peace she must prepare for the
only possible alternative. That is the terrible
logic of the whole situation, and it is the meaning
of the new Big Navy programme now being pushed
forward by Mr. Daniels, with the consent and
approval of the Republican party. There are
thousands of Democrats all over America who
regard this prospect with horror. But they are
helpless. They represent a crushed party. You
meet them at every gathering, and they come and
talk to you after every speech you have made.
If you say a word in defence of the League of
Nations, they smile at you and say : " I see you
are a good Democrat !" just as a Freemason might
greet a brother Freemason. But they have the
air of being a minority. They keep in the back-
ground, and they do not flourish their faith in the
presence of mankind. It becomes quite clear that
the tide is running hard against them.

THE BIG NAVY SCHEME 207

These Democrats remind you pathetically of the
Early Christians during the period of persecution.
They seem to have taken to the Catacombs. They
meet in secret — I mean the real Democrats, not
the party bosses, who are, of course, shouting with
the crowd and busy adorning themselves in the
most gorgeous Republican clothes. The real Demo-
crats have absorbed President Wilson's faith better
than President Wilson himself. They have yearned
through these weeks to be present at Geneva, and
they feel a sense of shame at the absence of America.
But the shout is not with them. The shouting is
with the Republicans, who cry : " Look at poor
old Europe ! Guess it's a jolly good riddance to be
quit of her anj^way ! Her troubles are only begin-
ning, and her wretched old League of Nations is
a broke show from the start ! "

" Is America arming against Japan or against
England ? " That is the question frequently put
to me by my fellow-travellers. My answer is
that she is arming against neither. She is arming
to defend the Monroe Doctrine, which automatically
becomes her only alternative to the League of
Nations. For if she stands outside the League of
Nations the League itself becomes a new peril to
her. President Wilson is in the tragic position of
seeing his own weapon taken out of his hands and
arming a possible enemy. That is the full, bitter
irony of his position. For if America is not in the
League of Nations, then the League becomes a

268 A BRITON IN AMERICA

League of Europe and Asia, with a possible bias
against America. The situation is made even
worse for America by the fact that the Republics
of South America have come into the League. I
see that Mr. Lloyd George has been arguing on
behalf of Europe that disarmament is impossible
for her unless America comes in. The same thing
is true of America on her side. Unless she goes
into the League, disarmament is impossible for
her also. On the contrary, increased armament
becomes necessary, because in case of war the
League nations are Hkely to act together, and,
indeed, are expected to act together by President
Wilson's own Covenant. The tragedy of the situa-
tion is that President Wilson, owing to his illness,
cannot put this argument clearly to the American
people, because even now, in my opinion, it is
possible that America might pause on the brink of
her desertion of Europe if she fully realised the
tremendous and calamitous alternative lying ahead
of her — and of the world.

As I write there come from Geneva the messages
inspired by Japan, and published extensively in
the American Press. It is quite clear that Japan
wishes to convey in a friendly way her attitude to
the American people, and, indeed, it is far better
that the whole case should, at this critical moment,
be discussed with the utmost frankness ; for once
the world has again entered on this race of arma-
ments there will be no turning back. Japan states

THE BIG NAVY SCHEME 209

on her side her reasons for refusing to join in any
plan of disarmament, although she is a member of
the League of Nations. Japan says quite clearly and
definitely that she cannot disarm unless America
disarms too.

Now it is useless for America to regard that
attitude as unfriendly on the part of Japan, because
it is the exact repUca of her own attitude. The only
difference is that, as Japan has joined the League
of Nations, she has put herself in the right, while
America is on the defensive because she has held
aloof from the only sincere effort towards general
peace that the world has yet made. It is useless
for President-elect Harding to talk vaguely about
another League and another Association. The
League of Nations at present holds the field, and
the world is not going to scrap it in order to please
the United States. America must make up her
mind whether she is going to come in or stay out —
for reservations are always to be considered, but
not destruction.

How does all this affect Great Britain ? For
the present our naval superiority is so overwhelming
that we can view with comparative indifference
the naval schemes of other nations. Every Euro-
pean fleet that counted as a possible enemy to us
has disappeared during the cataclysm of the Great
War — not merely the German and Austrian fleets,
but the Russian also. The only fleets of importance
outside America — the fleets of Japan and France

210 A BRITON IN AMERICA

— belong to friends. Fortunately for us, we can
pause awhile and reason with the Americans before
we are drawn into a repetition of that calamitous
sea-rivalry which filled the early years of the
century and did so much to lead up to the fearful
catastrophe of the Great War. At this solemn
moment, therefore, I suggest that it will be better
for the British Government to hold their hand, to
be tolerant and patient with the American situation,
and to present every possible alternative to a
competition in building warships which would
inevitably poison the relations between the two
countries. For it is useless to deceive our American
friends on that point. The nation that cries
" Big Navy ! " to the British people is practically
in the position of a man who cries " Rats ! " to a
sleeping dog. Armies will not provoke the dormant
British lion. But ever since the days of Drake
any challenge on the sea has always been a clarion
caU to that little island in the North Sea.^

Crossing the Atlantic, I travelled with an Ameri-
can admiral, who described to me the wonderful
friendship and harmony that grew up between the
American and British Navies during the last year
of the Great War. At first, he said they were a
little suspicious of one another, and incHned to be
a little critical. But then they began to take

^The White Paper issued on July 26th, 1921, showed that
Great Britain had 29 battleships and 8 battle cruisers ; the
United States, 36 battleships and 1 1 building, 6 battle cruisers
building ; while Japan had 15 battleships {3 building) and 9
battle cruisers (2 building).

THE BIG NAVY SCHEME 211

notes from one another, and a friendly rivalry grew
up and in the end, when they parted, they parted
as brothers. Now it would seem a calamitous affair
if that wonderful story should be dashed by the
schemings of politicians. For I feel sure that as
between two peoples there has been no change since
1918, and it is the profound desire of both Americans
and British that, as their navies worked as'brothers
in 1918, so the two nations should go on in brother-
hood during the coming years. The question is —
how shall this be brought about, and how shall the
alternative be avoided ?

It appears to me useless for us to gloss over the
situation by specious diplomatic promises. It
is, of course, possible to argue, as Lord Northcliffe
does, that under no conceivable conditions could
we join Japan in a possible fight with America.
The probabilities are on his side.

But who can prophesy the future ? After all,
we have been allied with Japan all these past
years. We have gained immense advantages from
that alliance in the Far East. Is it of any use
to pretend ? Is it clear that if Japan were in
danger of being crushed by America we should be
able to stand by inert and indifferent ?

Who can forecast the possible results of human
passion as long as these great armaments go on
swelling and increasing ? Have we learned nothing
from the last six years ? Have we not seen the
futility of trying to build up peace on the basis of

212 A BRITON IN AMERICA

cross-alliances and cross-ententes — all of them
certain to wither up in the first blaze of real human
passion ? I see no use in attempting to pursue
the argument on those lines with the United States.
It is better to tell her frankly and plainly that as
long as she remains outside the League of Nations
disarmament becomes impossible and the world
will live on a powder magazine. I am glad to see
that Mr. Lloyd George has put that argument so
definitely to the American pubHc, because I beHeve
that they are a people who love frank dealing and
frank utterance.

I cannot think that the situation can rest here.
It will be clearly useless for us to discuss this matter
later on; and therefore all friends of peace will
earnestly hope that the British Government will
clearly express its mind before things grow worse.
As long as America merely held aloof from Europe
it was possible to nurse the dream that she might
become the great neutral who would step into
the arena at some critical moment and always
throw her influence on to the side of peace and
justice. But it is already becoming clear that
America cannot remain neutral. She belongs to
the world. She has great possessions and great
interests to safeguard — Hawaii, the Philippines,
Panama, a sort of hold on Cuba. If Europe
revives without her it will be a different matter
for her than if Europe revives with her assistance.

Therefore, by the inevitable logic of events.

THE BIG NAVY SCHEME 213

America is being already borne on, not towards the
League of Nations, but away from it. That is
the real crisis and heart of the naval situation.
The brain which invented the League of Nations,
finding itself thwarted in that direction is now
moving on another course, and all those hosts of
Americans who have dreamed of a policy of tranquil
detachment are finding themselves swept' into a
new current. For there is no " slack " tide in
human affairs. The ebb already begins. Unless
we all look well ahead, the new strife of the nations
may be resumed — ^not in the Old World, but in
the New.^ n

^ The United States has now summoned a Conference on
Disarmaments to Washington for November, 192 1. But I
leave this letter as it was written in December, 1920, because
it sets forth the difficulties and perplexities which have led up
to that happy issue.

XVI
THE STATES AND JAPAN

Washington, Dec, 7.
From the Navies, I pass to another acute and
kindred problem which disturbs men's minds here,
" Great Britain arms Japan against America."
Such is the genial and helpful headline that I
perceive to-day in one of the Hearst papers. It is
the crude attempt to exploit a fear which now
plays a considerable part in the life of America,
especially in the Western States. The Pacific
Coast thinks far more about Japan than about
Europe. Her thoughts fare to the setting sun.
The States along that coast look across the great
ocean and meditate on the menace of distant Nippon,
with its formidable army and navy, and its eager,
industrious multitudes, impatient of the Umits
of the Japanese seas.

Already a question has arisen which raises
definitely the issue of racial Hmits in the coming
age. It is the latest chapter of an old story. The
Japanese and Chinese have been for a long time
past tending to migrate from their own crowded
territories across the Pacific into Western America.
In spite of immigration tests and other strong

214

THE STATES AND JAPAN 215

administrative efforts to exclude them, many of
the Japanese have managed to get in. There are
now over 80,000 Japanese residing in California,
and so the Californians are becoming acutely con-
cerned about the futiure of their country. The
remedy that the Californians contemplate, in order
to keep the Yellow race from setthng down in
America, is to pass a law forbidding the Japanese
to possess or lease real estate. That law has been
submitted to a popular vote in California and
approved.

But the Japanese Government very much objects
to that law. So negotiations are going on at Tokio
and Washington between Japan and the Federal
Government with a view to arriving at an agree-
ment. But I regret to say that the State of CaH-
fornia is showing a singular want of deference to-
wards the Federal Government at Washington.
The Cahfornians most clearly intimate that what-
ever may happen between the United States and
Japan, they, the State of California, have every
intention of sticking to the law for the prohibition
of land-holding in CaHfornia by Japanese.

This clash between CaHfornia and the central
Government is interesting in many ways. It
shows that the old claim of the States, known as
" State rights," is scarcely any weaker now than
in the sixties. That latent peril of the United
States, that imadiusted conflict, lurks behind every
pohtical crisis.

2i6 A BRITON IN AMERICA

But a far more important aspect is the evidence
given of the bitter and intense race-feeling against
the yellow man which penetrates the whole of
North America. Here Canada works with Cali-
fornia ; for the feeling of British Columbia is just
as intense as that further south. It is perhaps
to be traced to the early struggles against the Red
Indians — this intense, passionate determination to
maintain the white civilisation with all its ideals
and principles. It extends even to a positive
hostihty to any extension of American control over
black races. America has no desire to " take up
the white man's burden." President Wilson's
parting advice to leave the Philippines really
expresses the public mind. No one in America
really wants to stay in Hayti.

The clearest proof of this is the treatment of
Mexico by the United States. If Hell were let
loose again in Mexico, I do not beheve that, how-
ever many Americans were murdered there, the
United States would intervene. She desires no
" mandate," either in the Old World or the New,
She cares neither for Armenia nor for Turkey.
That American Sinn Feinism of which I spoke, is
steadily growing. All she desires is to be left alone.
*' Herself for herself." So her message to Japan,
through California, is " Hands off ! " America
does not want to interfere with Japan. Let Japan
not interfere with America. Let each live in their
own country — the Japanese in Japan and the

THE STATES AND JAPAN 217

Americans in America — and both will be happy and
contented. That is the American message to
Japan.

But Japan showed at the Paris Conference that
her deepest ambition now is to obtain equal world
rights for her citizens. She is deeply mortified by
the policy now being pursued by Australia, Canada,
and California. She put forward in Paris the claim
that her immigrants should be placed on an equaUty
with those from white countries. President Wilson
opposed the claim and defeated it. It is all the
more serious now that that signal defeat of Japan
by America at Paris should be followed by this
development in California.

Very unhappily, this matter is complicated by a
grave suspicion of British Policy. A great number
of people in the United States are being encouraged,
by such methods as we have perceived, to think
that Great Britain stands behind Japan in this
matter. The argument is very simple. Japan is
the British ally. We have promised to fight
alongside of Japan in certain cases. That promise
— so it is argued — is encouraging Japan in main-
taining her claims. It may even, in the long run,
involve the two English-speaking countries in a
terrible and disastrous quarrel. How does this
matter stand on our side ? Our treaty with Japan
is at present in a sort of suspense. On July 8 last
(1920) both Great Britain and Japan, acting under
a clause in the Treaty of 1911, gave notice to the

ai8 A BRITON IN AMERICA

League of Nations of the approaching termination
of the existing Treaty. They jointly submitted to
the Council of the League that they desired the
Treaty, if it is to be revised in July, 192 1, to be
more consistent with the forms and spirit of the
government of the League.

Nothing could be more correct. One of the
results is that if the United States were to go back
into the League to-morrow she could actually
claim a voice in the revision of the Anglo- Japanese
Treaty. She could probably secure that she should
become a party to the Treaty herself.

But apart from that, and presuming the present
provisions to hold, there is another way in which
the United States could practically " reinsure "
herself against the treaty. The Anglo- Japanese
Treaty makes one vital exemption from the clause
pledging Britain's help to Japan in a two-Powei
war. It exempts any Power with which Great
Britain has an arbitration treaty. The United
States, therefore, could at any moment guarantee
herself against the Japanese Treaty by signing the
arbitration treaty which we laid before her in 191 2.
If she prefers to have no treaty with us, then it
follows that she hands over the advantage to
Japan. But it is certainly no fault of ours. It is
the fault of the Foreign Relations Committee of
the Senate, which is now supreme in its own sphere
of government. Just after the outbreak of the
Great War, Lord Grey actually pressed through

THE STATES AND JAPAN 219

another Treaty which equally, though less effectu-
ally, cuts out the United States from being involved
in any struggle consequential on the Anglo- Japanese
Treaty. 1

The desire of every peace-loving EngHshman is
that Americans and Japanese should both be our
friends. If we renew our aUiance with Japan, it
will certainly not be aimed at America: For as
recently as 19 19 we proposed an alliance with
America — the Triple AlHance project, which came
from Paris — and we were rebuffed. It would be
quite as easy and possible to take all the sting
out of the Japanese AUiance as far as America is
concerned by the simple process of carrying through
the arbitration treaty between Great Britain and
the United States.

But of course the ultimate desire of the British
well-wisher is not merely that both should be our
friends. We wish also that our friends should be

^ In the autumn of 19 14 Great Britain and America signed
what was then known as a " cooUng off " Treaty. They agreed
to submit all disputes to an International Commission consisting
of five persons, two British, two American, and one (the Presi-
dent) chosen from a neutral nation. The British Government
informed the Japanese Government that that Treaty would
have the force of an Arbitration Treaty in relation to the Anglo-
Japanese Treaty, debarring Great Britain from being bound to
help Japan in the case of her being at war with two Powers
one of them the United States.

Besides this Treaty, President Wilson, on May 31st, 19 13,
signed a Treaty renewing for five years the Arbitration Con-
vention of April 4th, 1908 — one of the famous Bryan Treaties —
agreeing to refer to the Hague Court of Arbitration all issues
that do not affect the vital interests, the independence, or the
honour of the two Contracting Parties. That Convention has
since expired, owing to lapse of time (1918). But the Inter-
national Commission Treaty of 19 14 still holds.

220 A BRITON IN AMERICA

friends with one another. That brings me to the
question — why is there so Uttle friendship between
the Americans and the Japanese ? It is plainly to
the interest of both that they should become good
friends. It is certainly to our interest. It is equally
certain that it is vitally to the interest of the whole
world. For it is clear that, in some way or other,
a quarrel between Japan and America would in-
volve the whole world. There are no such things
as limited wars nowadays.

I had the honour some days ago of being the
guest of the Cosmopolitan Club, in New York. It
is an effort to befriend the " stranger within the
gates " similar to that of the Y.M.C.A. Hospitahty
Committee in London. There I saw Americans and
Japanese sitting in friendly colloquy ; and within
Columbia Hall that night the great humane side of
America — the warm heart which is never far away
from all her shrewd counsels — was doing its best to
melt away the great ice barrier which divides the
yellow race from the white. Such efforts do much
to assuage the bitterness that divides peoples,
but alone they are not enough. It is for the
American people to decide whether one of her
forty-eight States should be allowed to divide two
great nations. The vast naval effort into which
Mr. Daniels is leading the American people might
become as unnecessary as it is unwise if Japan and
America could achieve better relationships.

The danger in all these international matters is

THE STATES AND JAPAN 221

lest America, finding her States recalcitrant to
any settlement, may drift along into perilous seas.
The claim that the American continent should be
committed to the wardship of the Monroe policy
has survived Paris and Versailles. The guardian-
ship of the United States was even solemnly safe-
guarded in the Covenant of the League (Article 21),
although that triumph of President Wilson availed
him little in his dispute with his domestic foes.

But such doctrines and policies require to be
translated into the workaday Hfe of the modern
world. It was often wisely said by Lord Cromer
that only the fact of the Open Door made the claim
of the British Empire tolerable or possible. If the
United States is at once to close the door to the
Japanese on the Pacific Coast and to the European
on the Atlantic, she will create a feehng that will
not make for the peace of the world.

Yet that is a policy which is now popular in
Congress. While California is still claiming, as
we have seen, to evict every Japanese leaseholder
and close her doors to every Japanese settler, at
the same time a bill has been presented to Congress
to shut out all immigration from Europe for a
period of two years.

Checks and Hmitations are one thing ; total
exclusion is another. Such policies contain ex-
plosive matter.

On the other hand, every European must try
to realise the American point of view. The United

222 A BRITON IN AMERICA

States is like a vast water which is never still.
There pour into it from day to day multitudes of
streams from all over the world. The rate at
which the immigrants are coming now from Europe
is simply appalling to the Americans. Europe is
in flight. The estimates now given to me go to
prove that at the present rate of increase — rising
to 40,000 per week — America is faced with the
possibility of an annual immigration of some
2,000,000 persons. This is about twice the immigra-
tion that took place before the war ; and it is
alarming the steadiest. The worst of this immigra-
tion is that it is apt to remain in New York, in-
sufferably crowding that already crowded city,
swelHng the immense foreign and undigested
populations, and creating a problem of non-assimila-
tion which is growing more alarming every year.

There is doubtless an element of exaggeration
in these immigration figures. The panic-mongers
forget to deduct the figures of the exodus from
America to Europe. Ever since the war there
has been a considerable flow of population back
from America to the resurrected States of Poland
and Czecho-Slovakia. That population consists
of the native Poles and Czecho-Slovakians who are
anxious to take their places in the new countries
that have sprung from the war. With the failure
of the hope of prosperity in Eastern Europe that
flow eastward is now diminishing, but it has by
no means entirely ceased. On the other hand, the

THE STATES AND JAPAN 223

flow westward is undoubtedly increasing. It con-
sists largely of Jews who are flying before the new
racial hostilities which are also the result of the
national revivals in Eastern Europe.

The view taken by the average American is that
America has quite enough Jews already within her
territory. There is an amusing epigram going the
rounds in New York at present — " New York is a
city governed by Irishmen, inhabited by Jews, and
occasionally visited by Americans." There is,
indeed, a certain amount of truth in that epigram.
There are certain streets in New York down which
you can walk at mid-day without hearing a single
word of the American language. They are the
streets of the clothing trades, and of the diamond
merchants. At that hour the pavements are
blocked with masses of men conversing and trading
in the various languages of Eastern Europe. Social
workers in New York tell me that one of their chief
difficulties in dealing with the poor of New York
is this trouble of the language. The children learn
to talk American in the schools, but the parents
come over too late in Ufe to learn any language
but their own. The children are apt to laugh at
their parents for their ignorance of the national
language, and in that way arise many domestic
quarrels and differences. No wonder the American
gets a little disturbed when he discovers that his
boast of making all citizens talk one language is
so seriously imperilled.

224 A BRITON IN AMERICA

It is indeed not true to-day that America talks
only one language. There are many languages
talked over this vast continent, and the danger
is that those who talk the same language are tending
to aggregate and to act together as national
units. Some Americans dimly see the possibiUty
that the variations of Europe may be reproduced
on their continent, and the United States may
break up into fragments which will be echoes of
Europe.

" We have already a League of Nations which is
the United States. Why should we destroy that
achievement in the search for a dream League ? "
That is how some good Americans phrase it.

Such a feeling finds its sharpest edge in America's
attitude towards Asia. Harassed on all sides by
fear of invasion by foreign influences, America's
anxiety towards Europe is turned into real anger
when she looks across the Pacific. She ma}^ fear
the Jews, but that fear is turned to frenzy when
she contemplates the invasion of the Yellow Race.
She has within her frontier already the Red Race
and the Black : is she to have the Yellow also ?

« 4c « * «

If we are to begin to understand the American
attitude, we must reahse how she is beset on every
hand by these new perils of a changing world. She
is honestly perplexed as to how she shall meet
them. In the first onset of panic, Congress, as
I have said, placed during its December session

THE STATES AND JAPAN 225

an immigration bill in the very forefront of legis-
lation, and during the last fortnight that measure
has been closely discussed at Washington. The
first proposal was to exclude all immigrants for
two years — a plan which would have had grave
effects upon both America and Europe. The two
years were soon whittled down to one. But even
then Congress soon reaUsed that they were up
against a very serious proposal. Hkely to have the
most perilous effects both upon their shipping and
upon their foreign relations. How about the
Irish, for instance ? Their sympathisers soon made
it clear that they would not tolerate the blocking
of every outlet from Ireland during its present
agony. The result has been that the bill has now
been sent to a Committee. We shall piobably have
a tightening up of all the various restrictions and
conditions laid upon immigrants, and a further
winnowing out of that vast crowd of unhappy
fugitives who are now packed upon EUis Island^

There, again, we must understand the American
point of view. Those who visit the " east side "
of New York soon perceive the grave bearings of
the immigration problem upon the conditions of
Hfe in the great cities of America. Certainly the
housing conditions on the " east side " of New

* This Bill became law in May, 192 1. It restricts the number
of aliens admissible into the United States to 3% "of the
number of foreign-born persons of such nationality resident in
the United States" as determined by the Census of 19 10. It
remains in operation for one year — until June 30th, 1922,

P

226 A BRITON IN AMERICA

York are far worse than the housing conditions in
the East-end of London. There is no restriction
of space or rent, and as the masses crowd in from
Em-ope the landlords keep reaping a greater profit
out of the insufferable conditions of their tenants.
Something of the same sort is going on at San
Francisco with the immigrant Japanese and Chinese,
and certainly we, with our strict anti-alien laws,
have no right to ask America to tolerate these
things without any abatement.

How is it that the United States cannot persuade
this population to go westward, where there is
unlimited room, instead of blocking up the towns,
which are gradually repeating all the worst social
conditions of Europe ? That is a difficult question
to answer. But it is a strange and ominous fact
that all over the world at the present moment
there is a general reluctance on the part of masses
of people to live on the country-side, and a general
desire to flock into vast and crowded towns. Per-
haps the flashing river of light that runs down
Broadway every night may partly supply one of
the explanations.

XVII
IRELAND AND WASHINGTON

Washington, Dec. 7.

Before leaving Washington, there is another task
that I must face. I must squarely look at the
Irish question once more — this time from the
angle of the capital of the United States.

The peril of the Irish influence here is not, indeed,
immediate or direct. No serious American poH-
tician or citizen sanely contemplates quarrelling
with the British Empire about Ireland. The
friendship of Ireland is too uncertain a factor,
whether for men, parties, or nations, to justify or
encourage so great a hazard. On the contrary,
the danger of such an issue to the present situation
is almost deceptively remote. The tj^ical American
laughs at the Irish-American efforts to embroil
him with England — conscious as he is of his own
deep determination never on any account to sur-
render to such a menace.

But the Irish-American does not expect that he
will succeed in that simple way. He works with
far greater subtlety and cunning. He has a longer
view. He voted against the Wilson Administra-
tion in spite of the old and close aUiance between

227

228 A BRITON IN AMERICA

the Irish voters and the Democratic party. Why ?
Because Wilson's foreign pohcy was friendly to
Europe and Great Britain. By the same token the
Irish-American voted for the RepubHcans because
their poHcy was unfriendly to Europe. On a long
calculation, it seemed to the Irishmen, who cast
their votes now mainly on this question of inde-
pendence for Ireland, that the Republicans were
more hkely to embroil America with England than
the Democrats.

The argument was not without its plausibility.
To vote for the Republican meant voting against
the League of Nations. To vote against the
League of Nations was dragging America away
from Europe. It meant also the final destruction
of the Triple Treaty — ^between America, France,
and Great Britain — which President Wilson brought
back from Versailles. So complete has been the
destruction of this Treaty, so utter the disdain
with which the very idea has been received in
America, that Mr. Wilson has not even taken it
out of his secret despatch box. Its details still
remain unrevealed to the American pubhc. The
Treaty has not even been reported to the Foreign
Relations Committee of the American Senate.

That was victory mmiber one. But it was a
mere skirmish compared with what is contemplated
by the advanced Irish- American party, which hopes
to pour a lethal poison into the relations between
the two great EngHsh-speaking peoples. The next

IRELAND AND WASHINGTON 229

great hope is to capture the Foreign Relations
Committee. Now, one very important aspect of
the Presidential election is that it is a great victory
for the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate.
That Committee took the lead in fighting President
Wilson. Now that President Wilson is beaten,
the Committee holds the palm of victory. It is
significant that, in the discussions going on round
the choice of a new Cabinet, many Americans are
boldly maintaining that the Foreign Relations
Committee is a more important body than the
Cabinet. The party, therefore, who can capture
the Foreign Relations Committee can control all
foreign relations.

But it is not so very difficult to control the Foreign
Relations Committee. For no Treaty, as we all
now know, can be carried without a two-thirds
majority vote of that Committee. If, therefore,
the Irish can influence more than a third of the
Committee, they can effectually block the treaty-
making power of the United States. The Irish
vote is now, probably, powerful enough to block
this power. The Irish influence over the members
of the two Houses of Congress is probably strong
enough to affect 70 per cent, of their voting strength
in the new Congress. If that calculation is correct,
then we may safely put away all hope of the United
States joining the League of Nations in any shape
or form, or under any name, whatever Harding
may desire or say. For the League of Nations is,

230 A BRITON IN AMERICA

for some reason the special object of hatred among
the Irish- American, as well as among the German-
American voters.

The aim of the Irish-German vote will probably
be to secure the defeat of any treaty with Germany
that is tarred with the Versailles brush. They
will probably support the revival of the Knox plan
of declaring peace by resolution. They are not
alarmed by the fact I have already pointed out —
that Germany would be able to claim back her
ships from America, and would be able to sue for
her property in the American Courts. They are
not to be frightened by the idea of the revival of
Germany ; for that is one of their special aims.
The German- American vote, coalescing with the
Irish, has voted for Harding partly to punish Wilson
for having come into the war at all, and partly to
obtain better terms for Germany in defeat. One
of its objects, therefore, will naturally be to prevent
the Foreign Relations Committee from agreeing
to any of the compromises so dear to the hearts
of League RepubUcans Hke the Hon. Elihu Root
or President Lowell.

But the new Senate, under the strange provisions
of delay which dog American poHtics, will not
come to Washington — this beautiful city of
the broad avenues and the long vistas — until
March, 192 1. It will not begin to function till
December, 1921, imless specially simamoned by
the new President, who will probably summon

IRELAND AND WASHINGTON 231

the new Congress for emergency purposes in
April, 1921.1

The Congress which has just assembled here is
the old Congress in a new mood, already worshipping
the newly-risen sun, already turning away from the
setting sun. No man who has any reverence for
fallen greatness can have witnessed unmoved the
personal drama of these days — the throngs of
journalists and Congressmen who surround Harding,
the lonely, stricken figure in the White House, the
muffled, broken utterance of his farewell address
to Congress.

It is not for a mere visitor to say whether he is
looking on at a great crime, or witnessing a great
punishment. But the political fact emerging from
the situation is the triumph of the Senate. The
analogy always bubbling up in my mind is the
triumph of the House of Lords over Mr. Gladstone
in 1893. From that date until 1910 the House of
Lords was supreme in our politics, with such results
as we now dimly perceive. The House of Lords
was always in those days dominated by an anti-
Irish bias. Will the Senate be equally dominated
by a pro-Irish bias ? Will the pro-Irish bias always
be anti-British ?

Let us attempt to survey the symptoms. The

outstanding fact is that the Foreign Relations

Committee of even the old Senate steadily refuses

to pass any treaty or agreement helpful to Great

^ He has done so (1921).

232 A BRITON IN AMERICA

Britain. The Arbitration Treaty between America
and Great Britain, from which so much was hoped
before the Great War, is still held up. But even
more notable is the refusal to agree in smaller
affairs. A fishery agreement immensely desired
by Canada was recently submitted to the Foreign
Relations Committee. It was discussed, and a
number of amendments submitted. The amend-
ments were accepted by the Canadian Government.
The agreement was then submitted again — and
rejected by the Senate. This incident is typical
of the present deadlock. It is partly, of course,
due to the long interregnum, which paralyses all
poUtical effort in an amazing way. The old Con-
gress has lost all moral authority, and yet it still
occupies the seats of power. The President has
received a smashing vote of censure from the
people ; and yet he still lives at the White House.
He still possesses the power of veto over all measures
to come up from Congress.

The new President is still only " elect," and he
spends his time wandering about the American
continent, visiting Panama, going home to Marion,
and generally making himself supremely amiable
to all parties and persons. The sprightly and
volatile American Press is already growing tired
of recording the universal amiabiHty of their new
ruler, and beginning to wonder whether King Log
is really, after all, more satisfactory than King
Stork. But the United States has got the President

IRELAND AND WASHINGTON 233

it desired. It was tired of being preached to and
dictated to. It was sick of idealism. It asked for
a President who would just talk common-sense.
Harding talks it by the colimin.

Some shrewd tests of the power of this common-
sense will now he ahead of the new President. I
have mentioned Mr. Harding's solemn voyage to
Panama. Now, one of the most definite 'pledges
given by Mr. Harding in the course of his election
campaign is that he will remove the tolls from the
American vessels passing through the Panama
Canal. His return from Panama has been followed
up by an onainous article in the Marion paper,
which belongs to him and is his mouth-piece. The
argument revives the case put forward by Congress
at the beginning of Mr. Wilson's presidency, when
Congress passed a law taking off the tolls from
American ships, and so placing them in a pre-
ferential position over other shipping. The Marion
oracle pleads that such a removal of tolls does not
conflict with the American-British Pauncefote
Treaty. But every American knows that the
British Government takes the opposite view. All
the best elements in America agree with the British
view. President Wilson agrees with it, and acted
on that view when he opposed and defeated Con-
gress over this question. But now very soon
America will have a President who has pledged
himself to the extreme American case on the Panama
tolls. That is a serious outlook.

234 A BRITON IN AMERICA

No sensible man, either in Europe or in America,
would hold that the Panama tolls question is worthy
of a serious quarrel between the two great English-
speaking peoples. At this time of day such a view
is repulsive. Nor is there any doubt that under
ordinary circumstances such a question, like the
Guiana boundary question or the Alaska question,
would be submitted to arbitration. But here
again comes in the complex of the Irish vote. As
long as the pressure from the Irish-Americans is
kept up there is no knowing how the new Congress
may act.

A steady and well-organised minority is very
powerful in this country. The American capacity
for organisation — for dossiers and card-indexes,
for lobbying and agitating — has been carried to a
very high scientific point. " Drives " are talked
of with great confidence, and the general public
seem to grow as frightened when the talk begins
as the birds on the day of a great " shoot.*' It
is one of the Irish ideas to concentrate a " Drive '*
on a question like Panama and influence opinion.
In such a design they are helped by the steady
and calculated anti-British mahgnity of the Hearst
Press.

The only adequate reply of the British people
is to refuse to be roused to passion by such arts.
Forewarned is forearmed ; and the British people
will best meet this plan by a determined refusal
to lose their coolness or presence of mind. Let

IRELAND AND WASHINGTON 235

them remember, all the time, the vast mass of
Americans who are favourably disposed to them,
and who will in the end swing this country back
into the paths of rational dealing.

Meanwhile the self-appointed Commission of
Inquiry into Irish affairs goes on meeting here
from day to day. Nobody approves, but nobody
has the courage to stop it. The latest witness has
been Mrs. MacSwiney, who has been allowed to
range at large over the whole Irish question and to
give her views on the whole question of Irish
independence. The other Irish witnesses have
been kept to the point, and their evidence is now
being sold throughout the United States. The
difficulty of the Commission is to obtain any evi-
dence that will give an appearance of impartiaUty
to the inquiry. The British Embassy severely
boycotts the Commission, and has now followed
up its refusal to give evidence by a refusal to give
vis^s to the investigators whom the Committee
desire to send to Ireland. The result is that the
evidence, terrible as it is, bears the ineffaceable
stamp of being one-sided. Now the Commissioners
are far too able to be blind to the defect of this
feature in their evidence. They consist of a picked
body of persons selected by some 150 representatives
of politics, law, and the Churches.

Miss Jane Addams is the leading spirit, but close
behind her is Mr. Garrison Willard, the gifted editor
of the Nation, which is a sort of American twin

236 A BRITON IN AMERICA

to the British journal of that name. The com-
mission is a body of serious persons, who genuinely
think that they are doing a great work by entering
into judgment on the affairs of a friendly nation.
They are not in the least degree alarmed by the
suggestion that British people might set up an
inquiry into " lynching in America." " So much
the better,** they say ; "we are all guardians of
humanity ! " I wonder how long the peace of
the world would survive the strain of such a system
of international judiciary ?

The strange thing is that even modern Americans
see no harm in the proposal to send American
investigators to Ireland, and express great surprise
at the action of the British Government in refusing
vises. This surprise is characteristic of a certain
phase of American pohtics worth noting at the
present moment. Many Americans have got into
the way of regarding Ireland as a world affair.
They are not in the least surprised at our diffi-
culties. They express deep sympathy. " Oh, I
don't want an Irish Republic ! " said one lady to
me. " We've got one already, in New York City ! "
But their sympathy takes the rather embarrassing
form of desiring to help. Not that they want
Ireland for themselves. " Oh, no ! " shouted an
American audience, when a few days ago I jokingly
suggested that they should take Ireland for a year,
and try their hand at governing it.

But they are deeply impressed by our failure to

IRELAND AND WASHINGTON 237

settle the question, and they draw the conclusion
that we shall be grateful for a little assistance.
They want to be fair, and it seems to them that
as an inquiry is being held in Washington, the
British case ought to be heard. There is a curious
naivete about the way some Americans view inter-
national politics, and the very impulse that led
them to regard Belgium as their affair makes them
more inclined to regard Ireland also as their affair.
Of course there are a large number of substantial
Americans who keep repeating about Ireland :
" Oh, it's no affair of ours." But unhappily for
us they are very often the same people who said
the same thing about Germany and Belgium.
That weakens their authority.

For all these reasons it is very necessary for us
to be very patient and tolerant in our attitude
towards America about Ireland. Always remem-
ber that America has an Irish problem, as well as
Great Britain. We are both suffering from the
same trouble. The task of statesmanship — as I
have suggested to many American audiences — would
surely be so to direct matters that this common
trouble may not divide us, but may draw us to-
gether. Is it possible ?

XVIII
THE BLACK PROBLEM.

Washington, Dec. 7.

Lastly, before I leave Washington, I must even
approach that naost acute and delicate of all
American questions — The Negro Problem. The
American census will probably show a population
of over 12,000,000 negroes within the United States
— meaning that the people of black blood will
thus number over one-tenth of the whole popula-
tion. This population is mainly confined to the
States of the south. But during the war, owing
to the shortage of labour in the north, there has
been a considerable drift of the black population
northwards, partly to enjoy the higher wages, and
partly to escape from the social and poHtical
restrictions of the south. Apart from this, there
have always been a considerable number of negro
servants and porters employed throughout the
States, and thus every visitor to hotels in America
immediately comes face to face with the negro
problem, even in New York.

The European finds the negro servant an amiable,
talkative person, extremely anxious to please,
inaccurate in regard to time and space, but, within

238

THE BLACK PROBLEM 239

his powers, obliging and attentive. He compares
the negro service favourably with such white service
as is still sullenly available, especially in the hotels.
He finds that in America the service of the antique
world survives chiefly among these dark-faced men
and women. The result is that the European feels
kindly towards them, and wonders why the Ameri-
cans are silent when he praises them.

He is still more surprised when he reads, from
time to time in the Press, that one of these black
people has been hanged on a lamp-post or frizzled
in a fire.

The real fact is that the very presence of this
black race in the heart of America is utterly dis-
tasteful to the mass of the white Americans. It is
the constant reminder of an ancient trouble — the
recurrent recall of an old crime which seemed to
have been expiated in the blood and fire of the
Civil War. It was a crime for which we are also
largely responsible, for Great Britain made a very
good thing out of the slave trade for two centuries.
But we have suffered Httle, while America, even
now that she has given freedom to the black man,
cannot shake it off. The black spectre dogs America
still — as it did at the time of de Tocqueville's visit
(1832), when that great social observer prophesied
that the inevitable emancipation of the black man
would create an even more critical and perilous
cleavage in American Ufe. That prophecy has come
true. Behind all American politics there is a deep-

240 A BRITON IN AMERICA

rooted fear — a fear of the black man in the present,
and a still greater dread of him in the future.
America fears for her civilisation and for her race.
She dreads lest North America should become a
Black Man's Continent.

Those who travel in the north may think this
absurd. But in the south the peril is nearer.
There are Southern States where the white man
is only in a bare majority ; there are States where
he is actually outnumbered.

For all the time the black population is increasing
at a great pace. More important still, their am-
bitions are increasing also. They are no longer
content with the poHcy of wholesale disfranchise-
ment and social ostracism which has been so long
pursued in the Southern States. There are hundreds
of black lawyers and black parsons ; thousands of
black teachers. Many of these black men have
proved themselves the equals of the whites. Often
they work harder. So the claim to white privilege
is threatened, and a very serious problem looms
ahead. It is not a question of actual slavery ; it
is a question of poUtical freedom. The broad fact
is that, in spite of the Civil War and the famous
fifteenth amendment to the Constitution, the negro
has been by one means or another deprived of his
political rights — and often of his civil rights also—
throughout the South.

Now it is open to question whether the North
was wise to enfranchise the negro so rapidly after

THE BLACK PROBLEM 24X

the Civil War. There were incidents in the " recon-
struction " period which cannot be defended ;
there were events which are still remembered to-day
in the South with an incredible bitterness. But
two generations have now passed ; the negro
population has shaken off the taint of slavery.
The South has had time, if it had so willed, to
educate and train its black people. It is -not as
if the Southerners could do without the negroes.
They require them and use them for work on the
torrid cotton plantations, where the white man
cannot and will not work. Nor is it that the
negroes have refused to progress. On the con-
trary— and this is part of the complaint against
them — the negroes have been keen and eager for
education. They have adopted Christianity, often
with great zeal and earnestness. They have ac-
quired the EngUsh language. They have fought
in the American wars, both against Spain and
Germany, with great distinction. All these facts
increase the bitterness caused by their disfranchise-
ment.

The '* practical disfranchisement " of the negro
population is secured by many means, differing in
various States, but always attaining the same
object. Each State has a Constitution of its own ;
and the machinery employed for the disfranchise-
ment of the negroes is generally an amendment to
the State Constitution. The amendment is always
unerringly framed to undo the work of that Federal

242 A BRITON IN AMERICA

amendment — which wholly forbids any distinction of
colour or race in the gift of the franchise. There
is, for instance, the "Grandfather Clause/* which
ingeniously disfranchises all illiterate voters except
those who are the sons or grandsons of those who
voted before January i, 1867 — the date of the
enfranchisement of the negro. This clause leaves
a vote to the illiterate white, but takes it away from
the illiterate negro.

Then there is the '* understanding clause '* of
Mississippi, applying a literary test, which is not con-
fined to reading and writing ; for after all there are
many negroes who can read and write. A further
test is therefore added, under which the voter has
to explain " any section of the Constitution of the
State " or " give a reasonable interpretation thereof."
As there are generally some clauses which are
liable to various explanations, that test possesses
infinite and inexhaustible possibilities. These tests
are more humane than the shot-gun of old times ;
but they arrive at the same object. The negro is
barred from voting.

Most of these disfranchising State clauses have
been sanctioned by the Supreme Federal Court,
though the " Grandfather Clause," first invented
in 1898, was at last disallowed in 1915. But so
slow a veto has had Httle effect. The negro is in
practice still disfranchised in the Southern States.
The State franchise fixes the Federal franchise ;
and thus, by a curious anomaly of the American

THE BLACK PROBLEM 243

Constitution, powers are being accumulated which
open out some grave political possibilities. For
there seems no reason why, with the gradual exten-
sion of these State limitations on the franchise,
the white vote should not also be gradually under-
mined. It is not outside the scope of future develop-
ments that the fundamental governing principle of
the United States should gradually be changed
from that of a democracy to an oligarchy.

There is already actually a peril of minority
rule in the country as a whole. The disfranchise-
ment of the negro in the Southern States has not
been accompanied by any corresponding diminution
in the electoral powers of those States. The Union
as a whole does not appear to be strong enough to
assert that if a State should disfranchise its black
population it should incur a corresponding loss of
representation in the House of Representatives and
the Electoral College. The representation of the
Senate, of course, is fixed at two for each State,
whatever the size. But the representation in the
House of Representatives is based on recurrent
redistribution according to population. The
Southern States would probably not be so willing
to disfranchise their negroes if they lost a corres-
ponding mmxber of seats in Congress. But that
power is not asserted by the Federal Government.

The reason for this is, I take it, that in their
hearts the men of the North share the dread of the
men of the South. Since the spread of the negro

244 A BRITON IN AMERICA

up North during the war period, there have been
serious outbreaks of lynching in districts hitherto
immune from that evil. If this transmigration
should increase there is always a possibiHty that the
Northern States, which have up to the present
allowed their black men and women to vote, may
introduce similar powers of disfranchisement into
their State Constitutions. The temptation to do
this does not arise until the majority power of the
white man is threatened. Then an agitation begins
which too often proves irresistible. For in spite
of the Civil War and of the Fifteenth Amendment,
no power seems able to persuade the white American
to risk handing over the control of government to
any coloured race. The red man is frankly sent
into reserved territories and kept outside politics.
The black man is equally debarred, although the
pretence of political rights is asserted and main-
tained. Perhaps, on the whole, it would be safer,
as well as more honest, to treat the black man Hke
the red. For the resentment growing up among
the black race is immensely increased by the
apparent hypocrisy of the present situation. The
black man feels that he is being cheated of his
poHtical rights in the South by a series of tricks.
The promise of the mouth is betrayed to the heart.
The claims of the Civil War men, the charter of
rights laid down by the emancipators and recon-
structors, seem to be reduced to dust and ashes.
A fair-minded Enghsh observer will always

THE BLACK PROBLEM 245

remember the peculiar difficulties of the American
situation. The Northerners of the Civil War period
were filled with a high ideahsm. They passion-
ately sought some adequate return for their great
sacrifices. They found it by adding political rights
to emancipation in their gifts to the black people
for whose cause so many of them had died. But
it is the case of the South that the North cheaply
scattered those gifts at the cost of the white men
whom they had conquered. The South was left
shattered and decimated, often at the mercy of the
freed blacks. There are thousands of men still
alive in the South to-day who can remember the
bad times that came after the war. Up in the
Alleghany Moimtains west of CaroHna there are,
I am told, still settlements of people who fled from
their own emancipated slaves. The deep resent-
ment born in those days has not yet by any means
passed away. The South has now in part recovered
its prosperity. But the negro population has
trebled its numbers, while the white will never, in
all probabiUty, recover its numerical superiority.
The trend of population since the war has been
westward, and not southward ; the South does not
welcome the Northerner. So the South is left to
nurse its resentment, and to stand guard over the
threatened leadership of its shattered race.

Thus those who beUeve that war cures no evils
might find some sombre confirmation of their
creed in the present position in the Southern States

246 A BRITON IN AMERICA

of America. For in spite of the victory of Abraham
Lincoln's emancipation policy, the black problem
still remains almost as dour and as grim as ever
before in history.

The fearful remedy of lynching has somewhat
abated of recent years, after the holocaust of over
2,500 coloured people in thirty years (1889-1918).
But in spite of President Wilson's noble appeal
during the war (July 26, 1918) sixty-three negroes,
five of them women, were lynched in 1918. The
accusations against these victims were various,
and by no means confined to the offence usually
associated with these acts. The claim of the South
to deal with their own " niggers " in their own way
extends far beyond the protection of their women-
kind. No Briton has a right to quarrel with the
strict laws against inter-marriage by which the
Americans protect the purity of the white stock.
That is clearly within the rights of the race. But
considering the strong and honest condemnation of
acts of inhumanity among other peoples which
prevails in the United States, I cannot but detect
a certain moral weakness in the Press comments on
lynching, not only in the South, but also in the
North. There are many righteous forces that
have still the courage to speak. But they speak
fitfully ; 1 the State authorities make no effort to
check the evil ; and the movement on behalf of a
Federal law which exists among the churches obtains

^ The tarring and feathering of a British clergyman in Texas
(July, 192 1) may partly explain this.

THE BLACK PROBLEM 247

little support. The lynching extends to whites as
well as to blacks, and only a few days ago three white
men were taken from a gaol in CaHfomia and hanged
by a gang which carried them off in their motor-cars.

Such things cannot go on in America any more
than in Ireland without grave corruption of the
public conscience and will. The lynchers of to-day
are the criminals of to-morrow ; and the weakness
of authority invites to crime. A race of lawyers
Uke the Americans fully appreciate these facts, and
it is fair to say that the Federal Government of the
United States has always steadily set its face against
lynching. But the weakness lies in the State
authorities, who often actually condone the offence.
With all the conservatism of the American people,
there is still visible a certain strange laxity about
obedience to the law, and I doubt whether the
widespread defiance of the law of Prohibition by the
richer classes is adding to the strength of authority.

There is grave danger for America in allowing
the black problem to drift. In Great Britain such
a trouble would find instant voice in Parliament.
There would be frequent questions about lynching
episodes. There would be legislative proposals of
various kinds, and probably the Government
would send the whole question to a Royal Com-
mission, who would inquire and report. But in
America, despite their courage and vigour, there
seems a curious reluctance to face the great problems
of the future. Neither great party seems to hew out

248 A BRITON IN AMERICA

a policy and stand by it, after the fashion of our
parties in England. The result is that pubHc
opinion is left without guidance. It is not faced
with a choice of policies.

Now we Britons have various policies in regard
to the black problem in our Empire. South Africa
has one and India another. I do not say that they
are perfect policies, but they are poHcies. America
has no poUcy in regard to the black man. It
might decide to disfranchise him — that would be
one pohcy. But it does not do that. On the
contrary, it announces in the Federal Constitution
that on no account is he to be disfranchised. Then
in the State Constitutions it proceeds to do so.

On the other hand, it might put the negro under
a special law and confine him to special regions,
as Botha proposed in South Africa. But it does
nothing of the sort. It claims for him the full
liberty and protection of an American citizen.
Then it proceeds to stand aside while he is hanged
and burnt without trial.

I call that a dangerous policy, because it provokes
the greatest possible amount of anger and resent-
ment, while it places no real restraint on a develop-
ment which is growing more and more formidable
every day. One never knows in great affairs what
shape or form will be taken by the genii of revenge
and hate. One can only say quite certainly that
some day, in some form, they will emerge from
the Great Magician's bottle.

XIX
THE WOMEN OF AMERICA

New York, Dec. 8.

We are back in New York, and to-day, at the
Biltmore Hotel, we were sumptuously entertained
at a great banquet provided and attended by some
five hundred American ladies, who certainly gave
to their visitors from Europe a most charming and
courteous reception. There were some six of us,
and we each had to speak for about a quarter of an
hour on our various topics.

But it was soon brought home to us that what
these ladies had come out to scrutinise was not our
views so much as our personalities. They seemed
far more interested in what we were than in what
we said.

There is something beautifully humbling about
this. For it appears to give the proper position to
man's intellectual importance.

But it gives one furiously to think on the whole
subject of this new influence that has come into
this New World, as well as into the Old — the
influence of the woman's point of view. Let me
therefore set down a few words at large on the
American woman generally — ^greatly daring, and

249

250 A BRITON IN AMERICA

without even troubling to take out any insurance
policy against the risks at the hands of the American
men.

He >K * « :ic

These ladies' clubs have now become a most
striking feature in American life. They exist in
every big city, and they are not confined to the
intellectuals. On the contrary, you find yourself
faced with the very cream of American beauty and
wealth. They do not come to these feasts of the
soul dressed timidly or sparingly. They dress as
only American women can dress, and they do not
leave their jewels in caskets at home, but wear
them honestly and frankly in the light of day.
They do not smoke at these gatherings, and they
drink — iced water. They Hsten intently, and they
never interrupt. Nowhere, indeed, do you find
audiences more courteous and more kind. But
always it is the personal ^ote that interests them. It
is not causes they want to hear about so much as men.

At the present moment, for instance, they are
profoundly interested in our Prime Minister.
Wherever I have been in America I have been
asked to speak about Mr. Lloyd George. I have
gently intimated that I came to speak about the
Pilgrim Fathers, to which they merely replied,
*' Make him a Pilgrim Father and go on ! "

What is going to be the effect on the Hfe and
poUtics of the New World of this immense awakening
of womanhood ?

THE WOMEN OF AMERICA 251

Looking at it all from outside, I am somewhat
puzzled by certain contradictions. For instance,
women evidently have achieved a new place since
I was last in America. They have obtained the
vote, and they have smashed the saloons. Yet
they have not, even now, the public position attained
by the women in Great Britain.

There are many dinners and luncheons in America,
for instance, still confined to men. " We are
sorry, but you cannot bring your wife. There
will be no ladies present.** Now in Europe the
women are claiming to go everywhere. They are
present, for instance, in great numbers at the
men's club luncheons in London.

But I note that in America the men still strongly
keep their own preserves and stiffen their upper
lip if you suggest that the women should invade
them. Perhaps these universal women's clubs
form the reply to the American man's poHcy of
excluding women from the male banquets.

Yet I am doubtful, because it would really appear
that the women do not want to go to these men's
gatherings. There is in America a real camaraderie
of women which seems to be lacking in Europe,
They really seem to Hke to meet one another and
to talk to one another. They tell me that in these
gatherings the talk is on a higher level than in
similar gatherings in Europe, and that there are
new departures from the time-honoured, well-
trodden topics of children and servants. They tell

2S2 A BRITON IN AMERICA

me that women amongst themselves are discussing
earnestly the great social questions that are arising
in both worlds along with the women's vote.

Yet here again there is a contradiction. For
there are far fewer women speakers in America
than in Europe. An EngHsh lady speaker is always
heard gladly by the American women — gladly,
and with a certain surprise, such as we experienced
in England twenty years ago. What we forget
is that America escaped that fearful struggle over
the women's suffrage through which we passed in
England. But during that struggle, with all its
evils, a large number of Englishwomen learned to
speak. It developed a new school of feminine
oratory, both indoors and without. That school
appears to be lacking in America, although the
American woman will manage an audience as well
as any other person if she is really put to it. But
she is not anxious to speak. She holds back with
a certain timidity, such as her English sister showed
twenty years ago.

This is all the more surprising as America pos-
sesses some of the ablest women administrators
in the whole world. There are those splendid
women who have taken the lead in the various
social settlements in New York and Chicago —
settlements now greatly outnumbering the settle-
ments in our EngHsh towns, and greatly sur-
passing them in vigour and wealth. These settle-
ments are generally inspired by women. Then

THE WOMEN OF AMERICA 253

there are the women who have taken the lead in
the prohibition movement — women Uke Mrs. Willard
— ^women of heroic quahty. For if there is one thing
that marks the American woman when she is roused
it is always courage. Not without reason has the
statue of Mrs. Willard obtained a place at Washing-
ton.

Behind all the shifting phases of the women's
movement in America there is always the soUd
fact that on that continent men and women are
brought up together, both at home and at school.
England is the land of the boarding-school, and
America is the land of the day school. That means
that brothers and sisters are not separated, as they
are in well-to-do English families. But far more
important is the fact that in practically all the big
secondary schools boys and girls are educated
together. The other day we visited a great school
of this kind at Bridgeport in Connecticut. It was
a vast building, containing 3,000 children. It
was provided with the finest equipment, and in
the centre was a noble hall, where the whole school
could gather for entertainment. All this was
provided absolutely free by the town for the towns-
people. But the most conspicuous fact to our
British eyes was that in almost every class-room
the boys and girls sat side by side, learning and
studying together.

That fact explains, I think, the atmosphere of
the American home. The one prevailing note

254 A BRITON IN AMERICA

about that home is the equality of the sexes. In
England we must all admit that there is, in too
many of our homes, a sense of rivalry persisting
between man and woman, the boy and the girl.
Sometimes it is the brother who rules the roost,
sometimes it is the sister. But there is a sense of
struggle for mastery in the air. Now I have stayed
in many beautiful American homes during the
last few weeks, and all the time I have been struck
with the absence of this sense of rivalry. It is a
common idea in Europe that the American husband
is the slave of his wife. That is scarcely a correct
reading of the facts. True, he makes a rule of
being kind and courteous to his wife. He loves
to see her well-dressed. If he can, he will spare
nothing to secure that she dresses well. He keeps
her out of his business affairs, but he encourages
her to live a full Hfe of her own. He is not anxious
to restrict her energies, or jealous of her diversions.
In short, he treats her as an equal, with equal
claims to development and to happiness. At any
rate, that is the general standard aimed at among
the best people in the American towns.

But the real check on all this feminine develop-
ment at present is the question of '' helps.'* Of
course, you never use the word " servant," because
such a relationship is not recognised. " Hel^ " is
what you cry for, and help is what you rarely get.
The wages now being paid in America to domestic
helps of every kind — to cooks, parlourmaids,

THE WOMEN OE AMERICA 255

governesses, and so forth — seem fabulous to the
European ear. I heard of several cases where
governesses were receiving £300 a year — and " all
found." No wonder that the class of well-to-do
ladies who find themselves cut off from their
amusements by having to cook and to sew, view
with a cold eye the movement for restricting
immigration. They would like to see immigration
carried on in full flood, but restricted to domestic
servants imported from Europe — ^if there are any
to spare !

Face to face with this new situation, the American
woman grapples with it with a certain bHtheness
which is all her own. I have been in several
houses where the mistress of the house has had
to do all the cooking and the tending. But she
rarely grumbles. She keeps up that wonderful
gay serenity which appears to be the finest of all
American gifts. She annexes every possible mech-
anical aid. Whenever she can escape from her
toil she flies around in her inevitable motor-car,
and accomplishes her shopping in about a tithe of
the time occupied by the European housekeeper
of her standing. In spite of her many cares, she
generally manages to keep up her social life and to
maintain her interest in public affairs. For the
American woman is determined that she is not
going to be allowed to drift into a backwater.

What, then, is the position of the American
woman in public affairs ? We have seen that she

256 A BRITON IN AMERICA

takes a less prominent part than the Englishwoman,
and yet she keeps up a vivid interest. The result
is that her power in America still closely resembles
that of the best type of Frenchwoman at the best
period of French history — the middle of the eigh-
teenth century. At that time the Frenchwoman
ruled France, not on a platform, but in her salon.
So the American woman largely rules America,
not from the platform, but from her drawing-room.
She is a wonderful talker — ^rather apt to change the
subject too often, but always original and stimulat-
ing, fresh and gay. She keeps herself better
informed than the European woman, and so her
gaiety has more effect. Often she concentrates
her power on certain great social questions —
especially the questions that concern women and
chiMren. At the present moment, while her man-
kind have turned their backs on Europe, she is still
carrying immense offerings of love and help to the
starving children of Eastern Europe. In many
cities we have discovered that while the men were
sullen and indifferent when one spoke of Europe,
the women came forward with instant help, and
even showered on us gifts for those helpless children
of whom we told them, in far-off Vienna. For
indeed, these American women have the quickest
heart for suffering, and their purses are readily
open to those who can touch their heart.

So it is at home in their own country. I attri-
bute to the women of America very largely the fact

THE WOMEN OF AMERICA 257

that that country has gone ahead of us on many
questions of social reform, using the word in its
purely hiunane sense. Take the children's courts
of New York. I spent some hours there yesterday
sitting by the side of Judge Hoyt. Like every
other visitor, I was filled with overwhelming admira-
tion for this new humanisation of legal process in
dealing with the erring children of the great cities.
It is a problem that we have not yet solved, even
in London. There in New York, thanks to the
women, they have established a system of pro-
bationary and family courts to deal with the young
with a tenderness and justice that should now form
a model for the world.^

When we think of America we must put these
facts against all the stories of graft and corruption
that reach us through their own sensational Press.

Or take the court which they have established
for deahng with fallen women. There, again, the
new system of justice tempered by tenderness
which has been estabhshed in New York has pro-
duced a far-reaching reform of social conditions,
and that is, I am told, due to women reformers.

The same process of social change has been going
on in other American cities, and in all these ways
the women of America seem to me to have chosen
a wiser course than the women of Europe. For
while they have left the purely poUtical game to

^ e.^. — The punishment of children by whipping at the order
of public courts ii unknown in America.

258 A BRITON IN AMERICA

their menkind, they have concentrated on that
side of life on which their peculiar powers of pity
and sympathy produce the surest and quickest result.

Up in Boston I came across a ladies* club of a
somewhat different type from these large fashion-
able gatherings of New York. It was a club in
which all classes met, and the conditions of food
and subscription were adapted to the humblest
and the poorest. It was led by a lady of great
social gifts, Mrs. Hopkins, a descendant of Stephen
Hopkins, one of the Pilgrim Fathers. There the
discussion soon led on to the larger political pro-
blems, and I found myself being heckled with friendly
vigour on most of our European sins and errors.
In that club I saw a new development beginning
in that wonderful town which holds the intellectual
leadership of America — a development which seemed
to indicate that the power of the woman in America
is soon Ukely to stretch beyond those other subjects
of social welfare, and is likely to invade politics.
But I was agreeably pleased to find that among
those women there was far less of the bitterness
of party poHtics than among the American men.
That evening seemed to me to open up the hope
that the American woman, coming in with her
flashing spirit and her serene temper, may abate the
bitterness of faction which now desolates the higher
places of American political life. So may it be !

I come back to the central fact of equahty. It
penetrates this American atmosphere, with all

THE WOMEN OF AMERICA 259

its virtues and its defects — ^with the slight insolence
of the less worthy to the more worthy, with the
heavy burden that it lays on public men, and yet
with the perpetual rebuke that it gives to arrogance
and insolence in high places. But it is seen at its
best in this matter of the relations between men and
women, because there, more than anywhere else
in life, lies the temptation to the pride of pjiysical
force, and this habit of deference to woman has a
notably refining effect upon the men. You enter,
for instance, into an office in New York. Very
often the head of the business introduces you to
all the young ladies who are doing his typing,
or managing his correspondence. This pleasant
custom estabhshes an easier relationship, and
makes their lives far more pleasant and sweet.
On their side there is generally an attempt to rise
to the situation. These American girls seemed
to me to take an interest in the business of the firm,
such as one does not often find in the women on
the British side of the water.

In all such symptoms of American life I see the
growth of a new idea of partnership between man
and woman. It seems to realise our British poet's
dream of woman's future development : —

Till at the last she set herself to man,

Like perfect music unto noble words ;

And so these twain, upon the skirts of Time,

Sit side by side fuU-summ'd in all their powers.

Dispensing harvest, sowing the To-Be.

XX

THE AMERICAN MAN

New York, Dec, 8.
Having ventured to speak of the American woman,
I must not now fail in courage, but must, before
leaving this country, collect my thoughts on the
American man as I have seen him in 1920 — and
then, perhaps, I had better go.

* 4: ♦ 4t ♦

Since my last visit to America there has asserted
itself a remarkable change in the American man.
The older type of American — " Uncle Sam " — as
depicted in all our British cartoons, is a long, lanky,
thin man with a goatee beard. The American man
of to-day is clean-shaven, of medium height and
possessed of a resolute chubby face which gives
him the appearance of a formidable cherub. In-
stead of being lean, he is now substantial in frame :
his old languid attitude, with feet on the mantel-
piece and the long cigar in the side of the mouth
has given place to an alert and unresting activity.
He smokes little. He no longer chews tobacco —
but only gum and candy. He drinks not at all to
the outward eye — and he seems to prefer standing
up to sitting down.

260

THE AMERICAN MAN 261

His daily habits correspond to this change in
his physique. He rises early and goes to work
early. The great city of New York is already
humming with energy at an hour when London is
still breakfasting. Pessimists on the European
side of the Atlantic have prophesied that if America
gave up drink she would plunge into gluttony.
But I notice no signs of such a change. The
American eats well, but not greedily. His food at
the present moment (December, 1920) is so much
better than ours that he cannot fail to be a heartier
man. But being deprived of his wine, he does not
sit so long at table, and he remains far more attentive
and awake after his meals. Strangely enough, I
have been very much struck by the improvement in
the dinner table conversation that results from the
removal of the wine bottle. Such an outcome
seems to contradict all the cherished notions of
our poets and novehsts. But it bears out the con-
sidered judgment of the American scientists, who
now assert that alcohol is a narcotic and not a
stimulant.

Nor is the talk cheerless or melancholic. On
the contrary, the American is one of the most
humorous men on this planet, and he is certainly
one of the best story-tellers. Within a few weeks
in America you hear better stories than you would
hear in the same number of months in Europe.
These stories at the present moment naturally turn
very largely round this very question of Prohibition.

262 A BRITON IN AMERICA

The American smiles over his own Puritanism and
laughs at his own heroism. He turns the jest
against himself so swiftly that he seems to rob you
of your laugh. There is the story I heard in New
York of the ardent Prohibitionist who advocated
in a speech the policy of carrying all the alcoholic
drinks that remain in America right out to sea,
and dropping the bottles overboard. To his great
surprise a member of his audience cheered enthusi-
astically. The orator beamed.

" I am delighted," he said, " to notice that one
American, at least, is in favour of my policy."

*' Of course I am ! " said the man who had
cheered. " I'm a diver ! "

There is an element of the unexpected in these
American stories which shows the clean fancy of
their wit. There is a story of a body of negroes
who came to ask exemption from Prohibition on
the ground that they wished for some wine for
sacramental purposes, which is permitted under
the law.

" Well, what kind of wine would you Hke ? "
asked the official.

" Well, boss," said the negro spokesman, " I
guess we had a difference about that. So we had
a meeting about it, and after a lot o' talk we come
to some sort of agreement."

" What was the agreement ? " asked the official.

" Well, sah 1 " said the negro, beaming all over,
" we all voted for gin ! "

THE AMERICAN MAN 263

The other day we attended a luncheon in one of
the New York hotels, and after lunch we had
two minute speeches. It is not very easy to acquit
yourself well in a two minutes* speech. But the
American manages it admirably. Everyone told
a story and everyone was delighted.

The American man is not a cynic. That is where
he chiefly differs from the European. The American
is really anxious to enjoy and appreciate. He is
intensely inquisitive, especially about things Euro-
pean. He is really very ignorant about Europe.
He knows, for instance, very httle about the British
Constitution, and is honestly puzzled as to how
we manage to have a King that does not rule.
The House of Lords especially worries him. The
very idea of hereditary legislators puts him into a
sort of frigid politeness which dimly obscures his
disapproval. It offends his rooted idea, which is
that public opinion should always govern. When
you explain to him that the House of Lords always
claims to represent public opinion, he abruptly
changes the subject, as he does when you mention
negroes, or Free Trade, or any other subject on
which he has formed immovable convictions. For
the American disUkes ^contradicting you, and his
way of disagreement is to change the subject.

The American man is not quite so devoted to his
club as is the Englishman. It is not so much that
he is more domestic, as that he is more considerate
of his wife and less willing to leave her so much

264 A BRITON IN AMERICA

alone. But like his wife, he is much addicted to
the habit of the club luncheon. In New York,
for instance, there is scarcely a day on which there
is not held one of these club functions, and the
Americans love to invite the British visitor to
attend and address them. There is the Advertising
Club, which consists of aU the men employed in
pubHcity work, including publishers, editors and
advertising managers. There is the Economic
Club, containing most of the best business men in
New York, all willing to Hsten for long periods to
solemn economic debates. There are the literary
clubs, and the artistic clubs. They all have their
luncheons, which last just about an hour and
then the men stream back to work. This custom
has now spread to London by way of Leeds and the
Rotary Clubs. But the difference is that in New
York the women are strictly excluded from the
men's luncheons. These luncheons are the last
preserves of the mere man.

The American men's clubs are certainly not so
homelike as our British clubs. They are more like
hotels. You feel less at your ease. But in one
respect they are immensely superior. They are
far more hospitable to strangers. In London
there are clubs, like the Beefsteak, that literally
keep the stranger on the pavement. At the
Athenaeum they thrust the stranger into a box.
At the Travellers they entertain him only in the
hall. These outrageous survivals of a barbarous

THE AMERICAN MAN 265

age surprise and shock the American when he
comes to London. Even at the National Liberal,
which is the most hospitable club of London, the
foreign visitor cannot take up a membership
under less than a month. But in the United
States you can be introduced to their clubs, if
you and they so desire within a day. Your name
is put down, and you have the run of the club and
are as much a member as if you had Hved in America
all your hfe.

But the American man is not only hospitable
in his club. He loves to take you to his home.
He is generally proud of his home and of his wife
and children, and wishes to show them to you.
There he is unHke the Frenchman, who very rarely
takes you to his house. In the matter of giving
the American is not quite so generous as the Rus-
sian, who will hand over to you everything that is
his — ^including his house and his horse — ^if you
express any admiration for it. But he is far more
generous than the Englishman, who is a slow giver,
partly from shyness and at the present moment
partly from poverty. I find in America that it is
quite dangerous to express any admiration for a
book : it is immediately presented to me. If we
arrive in a city where we are pressed for time
there are always good Americans who offer us the
use of their motor-car for whole days together.
As it is in private hfe, so it is in pubUc.

The generosity of the American miUionaire makes

266 A BRITON IN AMERICA

us almost forgive him his wealth. Sir Auckland
Geddes, who is a very shrewd observer of American
character, contends that it is this generosity of
the American milUonaire which safeguards the
capitahst system in America and makes it stronger
than anywhere else in the world. Certainly,
examples of it are most dramatic. In^England we
have one or two big rich men — men hke Lord
Leverhulme, Mr. George Cadbury and the Rown-
trees — who reahse some of the possibiHties of fine
and generous pubhc action open to the wealthy
man. But the thing is far more common in the
United States. Those great Universities which
are the marvel of modern America, are largely the
creation of the successful business man. Then you
have men Hke Mr. Henry Ford, of Detroit, who is
always doing striking and surprising things, some-
times very bizarre, but always with a dash of
splendour, such as gives the millionaire in America
the mantle of royalty. At the present moment
up in the North- West there is a great manufacturer,
who is selling his agricultural machinery below the
market price at a presumable loss to himself, just
in order to help the American farmer out of his
troubles.

The European cynic would probably say that
in such a case the American miUionaire is dumping
his goods in order to obtain a new market. But
the American says nothing of the sort. He knows
his rich men better than the European. He reaUses

THE AMERICAN MAN 267

that they make money largely for the sake of
power. Now the greatest power in the world is
the power of doing good. The next greatest power
is the power of being kind. The American milhon-
aire has just enough touch of genius to realise
that wealth places within his grasp the immense
liberty of being able to exercise these two powers.
That alone is what prevents American' pubUc
opinion from rising up against the power of wealth
and smashing it, as they have again and again
showed signs of doing. You have bursts of pro-
tests against the power of the Trusts, as there were
under Roosevelt : but those bursts of protest do
not last long, for the simple reason that the million-
aire so often disarms public opinion by becoming
the servant of the public.

This opinion may seem rather surprising to those
who have visited the luxurious mansions of the
American miUionaires in New York. Those man-
sions form the modem counterpart of the princely
palaces of Genoa, Venice and Rome. These mer-
chant princes of the New World dwell in their
castles hke the barons of the Rhine. They have
even their own private poHce, Hke the feudal fol-
lowers of the mediaeval lords. The Pierpoint
Morgan mansion in New York is guarded by its
own retainers. We stopped to look at the building
the other evening, and we were immediately and
firmly rebuked by one.

My readers may naturally ask how I can say a

268 A BRITON IN AMERICA

good word for a class that flourishes its wealth so
ostentatiously in the public eye, and arrogates
such powers.

But let us reflect. The British rich man can buy
great country houses and great estates, with
shootings and deer forests and all kinds of surviving
feudal powers. If you really want to see how the
British wealthy man spends his money you must
go down into the shires and the counties of England
where he still shines in splendid power. The
American has no such outlets for his money. The
land laws of America forbid the accumulation of
great estates. The United States have no con-
venient game laws, to make the killing of animals
a privileged occupation. This building of sumptu-
ous city homes is really the only form of personal
expenditure left to the American millionaire.

But a man can only spend a mere fraction of a
great fortune on himself and his city home. The
result is that famihes Uke the Rockefellers and the
Vanderbilts have immense resources left for public
use. During the short period I have been here
there have already been several striking donations
to public causes from the millionaires. The Rocke-
fellers have given a milhon dollars to the cause of
the prevention of cruelty to children. One
young milHonaire has refused a fortune and given
it to the poor. Mr. Henry Ford has distributed
7,000,000 dollars in bonuses to his employees. It
is all on the Carnegie hues. For that great man's

THE AMERICAN MAN 269

splendid example has left a great impress on the
life of America. But it is also partly because the
American rich man has so little to spend his money
on. He is now tied in even more closely than ever
by sumptuary laws. Public opinion has doomed
his wine cellar, and at the table of people hke
the Rockefellers you drink nothing but iced water.
The American home is certainly one of the most
dehghtful and attractive in the world. In most of
the cities of the Middle West we have motored
round their suburbs and seen the wonderful develop-
ment of villadom which now surrounds those cities
with glorious mansions. In England the public
amenity of villas is almost entirely destroyed by
the erection of high walls and wooden fences.
Thus the very word villadom has attained an
odious meaning. At Chiselhurst, for instance, a
district of noble villas, you see little of those fine
dwellings unless you have the entry. But in
America national opinion has condemned the
fence and practically destroyed it. All the houses
are open to the eye, with nothing to separate them
from one another except sunken hahas. Their
gardens are exposed to the public view; and their
beautiful adventures in architecture — in every
style of Gothic, Classic, Tudor and Jacobean —
add immensely to the attractiveness of their
suburbs. On the other hand, the Americans have
not acquired the cult of flowers, and their gardens
are far behind ours. They buy flowers in great

270 A BRITON IN AMERICA

quantities, but those flowers are grown in market
gardens and hothouses. It is quite unusual to
see a fine private garden round an American viUa.
There again the American lacks one great form of
personal expenditure which is peculiarly popular
with the successful business man in England. It
is a matter still requiring explanation why a success-
ful trader in England almost always develops an
inextinguishable passion for growing flowers. Per-
haps it is simply that all EngHshmen have the
passion, but he alone has the power of indulging it.

But let us enter the house, and then we have
revealed to us the new and extraordinary facilities
of living which America is discovering — the marble
bathrooms, the shaded verandahs, and the cool
basement rooms, built for their summer heats : the
ingenious devices of cookery and cleaning which
make them so independent of domestic aid: the
spacious rooms, the simple and restful decorations,
the general air of ease and comfort. Perhaps it
is all a question of space. For, after all, space
is at the back of all great things in America — it is
the source of their wealth and the token of their
power.

Yes, after our cramped England these large and
roomy houses of America have great charm; they
make one almost wish that one had emigrated
young.

No wonder that the American loves his home I

THE AMERICAN MAN 271

After the American man I must say just a word
on the American child.

The American child has distinctly improved since
my last visit to this country. Twenty years ago
he was still an insolent tyrant of the home, spoiled
himself, and spoihng the Hves of others : the torture
of the visitor, and the loved anxiety of his parents.
American children are still intensely inquisitive,
and far more independent than our English children.
But, on the other hand, our Enghsh child in the
interval has become a little more American, and so
the two types tend to grow nearer to one another.
Owing to the lack of servants the American child
of the richer classes is perhaps less tended than
the English, and thus attains independence at a
younger age.

As a whole, the American children are cheerful,
jolly little creatures, keen on their school and
play. But I do not find that they know so much
as I should expect after visiting their schools.
It is the opinion of a good many Enghsh people
living in America that the children are less thor-
oughly taught than in the great English schools.
I do not know how this may be.

The American child brings me back to the
American man. He is a tender father, as he is an
indulgent husband. The corporal punishment of
children is practically unknown in the United
States. It has been aboHshed in all the children's
courts, and it is very rarely used in the homes.

272 A BRITON IN AMERICA

The result is that the child is on very friendly terms
with his father.

The uppish boy becomes a splendid youth. For
I do not think that in the whole world there is a
finer young manhood than America possesses.
You have only to visit the Universities to realise
that — and when we have said that, could we give
a better tribute to the American man, who is, after
all, his father ?

XXI

THE ELDER STATESMEN

MY TALKS WITH MR. ROOT AND COLONEL HOUSE
—SHOULD AMERICA COME BACK TO EUROPE?

New York, Dec. 9.

During these last few days in New York, I have
been able, by means of kind introductions from
friends, to enjoy the privilege of long talks on the
situation between America and Europe with several
of those distinguished " elder statesmen " whose
opinions count for so much in America.

I saw the Hon. EUhu Root, Ex- American Senator
and Judge of the Hague Court, in his office " up-
town." He received me graciously, but from the
moment we entered upon public affairs he became
the Roman. As I sat talking with that stern,
grizzled man, I recalled an interview of twenty
years ago — an interview I enjoyed on my last
visit to North America with that veteran political
thinker, Mr. Gold win Smith. There was the same
grim, grey outlook on the world — the same harsh
judgments on the man who held the reins of power
— the same proud, obstinate adherence to his own
individual views.

Mr. Elihu Root has held in American public life
s 273 -

274 A BRITON IN AMERICA

the highest positions possible — next to the Presi-
dency— the Secretaryship of War and the Secretary-
ship of State. He has served his country faithfully
and well. He has played a dominating part even
in the recent great election. To-day when I saw
him it was considered probable that he might play
an even more powerful part in the Administration
which he has helped to place in power.

He has held, in the great international con-
troversy, the key position of a man who intensely
beUeved in the cause of international peace, but
has bitterly opposed the Wilson League and
Covenant. Not that he has entirely stood aloof
from Europe. He has just accomplished the task,
as a member of the Commission of International
Jurists appointed by the League of Nations, of
framing the Permanent Court of International
Justice established by the Covenant. All this
makes him a singularly interesting figure.

He bears the burden of his seventy-six years
very lightly. He sat bolt upright in his office
chair throughout our long two hours' conversa-
tion, speaking clearly and deliberately, and always
effectively. He would dismiss a subject in a curt
phrase, always rather drily, perhaps with too Httle
humour and geniality. He reminded me of our
typical European statesmen, rather than of his own
kindly countrymen. Let me set down some of his
utterances.

" The election was not won on political issues

THE ELDER STATESMEN 275

at all ! *' he said. " It was a decision against
Wilson."

" But why ? What was his offence ? "

Mr. Root was quite clear on that. His offences
were many.

" He ought not to have gone to Europe at all.
That was his first blunder. He ought to have
stayed in America, and sent someone to speak for
him. Then he could have revised the decisions
from the American point of view.*'

I ventured to point out that the other heads of
States had gone to Paris. How could America
have been represented by anyone less than its
Head of State ? How could she have agreed to any
final decisions ?

" The others would not have gone if Wilson
hadn't gone. As he went, so they had to go."

Mr. Root's next great quarrel with Wilson was
that, having gone, he acted as a King and not as a
President.

" He forgot the American Senate ! He for-
got the American Constitution ! He acted as
an autocrat ! America has no place for an
autocrat ! "

I ventured to remind Mr. Root, at this point,
that President Wilson had come home before
signing the Treaty, and had consulted the leaders
of the Parties on the critical questions, and often
accepted their advice.

* He ought not to have merely consulted them.

276 A BRITON IN AMERICA

If he was to go to Paris, he ought to have taken
them with him."

That was the centre of the offending — I very well
knew that by now.

Finding it useless to discuss further a conviction
which had now struck so deeply into the rocky soil
of the veteran's mind, I tried to shift on to the
question of the League of Nations itself.

Here Mr. Root was equally irreconcilable.

" The League ignores the American Constitution.
Article X empowers the government to send troops
on the agreement of the League. Sending troops
is an act of war. War can only be declared in the
United States by Congress. Congress is destroyed
by the governing article of the League."

I suggested, of course, that the League always
impHed that each government should act according
to its own Constitution. I even went so far as to
suggest that the whole of the American Con-
stitution should be added to the League as an
appendix.

Perhaps the old statesman suspected a touch of
irony in this. His face darkened.

" We cannot have Article X. We said so.
President Wilson refused to hsten. Wilson has
gone. We still say the same. We cannot have
Article X on any accoimt ! "

*' Why not propose its omission in the form of a
Reservation ? Switzerland has come into the
League on a Reservation. Lord Grey has made it

THE ELDER STATESMEN 277

clear that the British Government is willing to
consider Reservations. But America presents none.
She merely holds aloof ! '*

Mr. Root would not commit himself. Perhaps.
He did not know what Harding might do. Harding
had asked him to go and consult with him. He
was going. He did not know what the result might
be. Events had gone very far, and America had
other objections to the Covenant. '

What other objections ?

" We object to the power which it gives to the
little States. We cannot permit the possibility that
any httle South American State should have the
right of veto over the foreign policy of the United
States."

There spoke the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine,
the Anglo-Saxon pride of the " Predominant
Partner " in the New World. There was in it,
also, a touch of the imperious insularity of the
American Continent.

There was much else that Mr. Root said, but I
think I have given the gist of it. All the time we
were talking I was uncomfortably aware that a
great Luncheon Club audience of American clergy
was waiting for me at the other end of New York.
But the clergy had to wait. For as long as that old
man talked I had to listen. I felt that I was
hstening to the historic voice of Old America, with
all its grim prejudices against the New World
Order. I was in the presence of the Spirit of the

278 A BRITON IN AMERICA

Past, putting up its last fight against the Spirit of
the Future.

Mr. Root talkecj long enough for me to realise
how formidable this spirit was — how hard-set, how
self-confident, how contemptuous of sentiment.
The world-appeal fell away from this rock hke a
shattered wave. I did not even attempt any call
for pity, any sorrow for a broken Europe. What
had Europe to do or say in this austere, remote
Court ? Mr. Root, sitting there in his lawyer's
office, in the heart of this great pulsing city, was
Old America speaking. Old America judging, Old
America condemning.

" He ought not to have gone to Europe. Wilson
ought not to have gone.*'

That was the burden of the complaint.

Insensibly the name of the offending President
dropped out, and there sounded in my ears this
refrain : —

" America ought not to have gone to Europe. She
ought not to have gone."

Perhaps. But having gone, ought she to have

come back ?

♦ ♦ ♦ * «

Another morning, in a brief interval between two
meetings, I went to see the famous Colonel House
in his rooms in the Biltmore Hotel. Mr. Kohlsaat,
the Chicago newspaper proprietor, a firm friend and
admirer of the Colonel, gave me an introduction.

Instead of a grim office of the law, I found myself

THE ELDER STATESMEN 279

in a flat, tastefully furnished, very quiet, very
small, very comfortable. But a lonely flat — a
silent flat^ — a flat that seemed full of secrets.

I sat for a few minutes in this secretful silence,
and then, very softly, there entered a thin, grizzled
man, beautifully dressed, exquisitely courteous,
dehghtfully amiable.

Colonel House is an entire contrast to e;c-Senator
Root. He does not sit in judgment. He suggests.
He submits. He is persuasive, not judicial. He
does not lay down the law. He hints to you a
new law.

As with the man, so with the career. Root's
career has been carried on in the open, under con-
ditions of stress and storm. He has held great
offices. He has wielded the power that comes
from great popular support. He has Uved before
the world.

Colonel House is one of those men who prefer
to rule without being seen. He allows others to
carry off the prizes. While some ask for the palm
without the dust, he is content with the dust
without the palm. We have such men in England
— men hke Lord Esher. Democracy does not love
such men. When they fall, no dog barks. When
they are afflicted, no tears are shed. No hand is
lifted to save them.

But such men are all the more useful to men in
power because they do not seek power themselves.

28o A BRITON IN AMERICA

At the time of the Great War, for the first time,
Colonel House departed from his policy of refusing
office. He accepted the post of Wilson's Special
War Representative in Europe. He represented
the United States on the Supreme War Council of
1917, and at the Armistice.
' He played a great part in winning the war.

So at the Peace Conference he naturally became
an American Peace Commissioner : and during the
Conference he acted on the League of Nations
Committee, and on the Mandates Committee. Now,
with Wilson's illness, he has gone silently back
into private Hfe. He has taken his eclipse as quietly
and as selflessly as he has played every other part
in Hfe. He stands aside until he is wanted again
by his country. He will surely be wanted : for
such men — ^so devoted, so true, so high-minded, are
indeed rare in any nation.

I put to Colonel House the leading political
question, and he answered clearly and briefly.

" Wilson had to go to Paris. But he ought to
have taken the leading Republicans with him ! "

" In fact he ought to have taken a Coalition body
of representatives ? "

" Yes. It would have strengthened him. It
might have saved him. In his absence this furious
attack developed. It could not have developed
if Senator Lodge had been with Wilson in Paris.
That would have disarmed the Senate. The
Senate would probably have acted with Wilson."

THE ELDER STATESMEN 281

" But Lloyd George did that, and he is not
forgiven for it. He has split the Liberal Party.
Would not Wilson have split the Democratic
Party ? "

" Perhaps. Very likely. He might not have
succeeded. Party is very strong in this country.
The RepubUcans were hungry. They had been
out of office for eight years : a long time for a
party which, like your Tories, claims the right to
rule. They were hungry — and angry. Anyway
they would have fought hard. But Wilson ought
to have done it. If he had, at any rate, whatever
had befallen, he would have done the right thing."

That was Colonel House's refrain : —

" He would have done the right thing.''

Then he went on.

*' They have broken him. We are in a bad
way. But it is no use Europe asking us back
yet ! "

" What should we do ? " said L

" Why, just carry on — show that you can do
without us — that is the surest way of bringing us
back."

Colonel House smiled a sad, shrewd smile. He
knows his country.

As to Wilson's conduct since his return to America
— his obstinacy — his treatment of Lansing — and
of Colonel House himself — the Colonel puts it all
down to sheer illness.

" He is a very, very sick man. There is no good

282 A BRITON IN AMERICA

taking any account of what he is doing. His
treatment of Lansing was sheerly a case of sick-
ness."

But on the main point of Wilson's policy Colonel
House is quite clear. He was right to go to Europe.
He was right to propose the League. He ought to
have taken his own countrymen along with him —
that was his only fault.

** America was right to go to Europe : and America
ought to go back."

That, in a word, was Colonel House's view : and
I think that there he expressed more truly than ex-
Senator Root the mind of America of the Future.

XXII
GOOD-BYE !

On Board the Celtic, Dec. ii, 1920.

Once more we are passing the lightship off Nan-
tucket Island. This time we are traveUing east-
ward, and the shores of America have receded
from us. All the busy murmur of that great
restless continent has fallen silent, and we feel as
if our experiences there were part of a wonderful
dream. Once more there falls on me the illusion
that I have been visiting another planet, and that
I am returning to Old Earth away from the blaze
and gutter of a distant star. But to-day that
feeling is even more vivid, because of the contrast
produced by the war. For we are going back to a
war-worn continent, darkened, half-fed, disillu-
sioned, full of discontent and trouble, looking
doubtfully into the dim future, distraught by
quarrels, no longer confident of its own destiny.

Such is Europe to-day. We have left a con-
tinent still in the heyday of its glorious prosperity,
gHttering with a million lights, glutted with its
surplus of food, with no serious trouble except the
very excess of its own production. Now that we
have left her, and are travelling over the waste of

283

284 A BRITON IN AMERICA

waters back to our own island, that contrast comes
to us all the more sharply and vividly. It is the
one clear-cut impression of our visit to America.

" Are you sorry to go home ? " said an American
to me last night at our farewell banquet in New
York.

" No," I said, " because I do not feel quite
happy in a land so prosperous as yours, when I
know what my own continent is suffering."

The American flushed, as if I had delivered a
rebuke, and said quickly in reply, *' Oh ! we have
our own troubles, although we may seem so pros-
perous to you."

" Yes," I said, " that is perfectly true. But
being a European, I cannot help you in your
troubles, or even really feel them. That is the
reason why I must go back to my home."

We both spoke seriously in that moment of
parting, and I think that we uttered unconsciously
the unspoken thought of all these last weeks.

Alas ! that it should be so ! But since America
has decided to stand apart from our European
affairs, there is no doubt that the two continents
have gradually drifted away from one another,
both in thought and feeling, with less capacity to i
understand one another's troubles. And yet the
American was right. In spite of her apparent
prosperity, America has her own troubles already.
So, I have no doubt, Dives had his own troubles
within his palace. They were different troubles |

GOOD-BYE 285

from the troubles of Lazarus, but they were serious
enough to Dives. But the curse of it all was that
the troubles of Lazarus were so much more acute
and intense in their nature that they shut off from
him any feeling for the troubles of Dives.

So it is with Europe now. It is difficult to
persuade her that the troubles of America can be
serious. She sees a continent flushed with wealth,
drawn very largely from Europe's own disasters,
She looks across the ocean and contemplates a
country that used to be her debtor and is now her
creditor. She finds that her creditor is inclined to
adopt the manner of the proverbial rich uncle.

Looking through the cracks in the door into
the blazing Mght of Dives' palace, Lazarus feels
bitterly. Yet Dives has a case. I sit here on
deck and pass in memory the teeming multitudes
through which we have passed in the streets of
New York and Chicago, the many languages that
we have heard talked in the railway and street
cars — the many types of people that we have met
in the course of our visit. Then it occurs to me
that the war has faced America with a new problem.
At the very moment when she was absorbing and
unifying her various populations, the shock of
this great world conflict came upon her as a dividing
and disintegrating force. Her Latins once more
became ItaHans. Her Hibernians once more be-
came Irish. Her Teutons once more became
Germans. Even her British once more became

286 A BRITON IN AMERICA

Anglo-Saxon. She found herself breaking up
into nations at the very moment when Europe
was appealing to her to be international. The
magnet of Europe began to separate and sort
out the various races that make up the great
American population. Then a great fear came
upon America — an old elemental fear, drawn
unconsciously from her past history. She dreaded
that Europe was once more going to pull her back
across the Atlantic. So she shrank back from
what she feared might be a fatal embrace, and in
her panic she cut loose from the League which she
herself suggested. That, I think, is the true
reading of recent events.

If that be so, then what is the moral ? The
moral appears to be that Europe must invent a
new approach to America. The League of Nations
has got on America's nerves, and we must avoid
both the name and the thing. But even already
there are symptoms that events in America will
work out a condemnation of her poHcy of isolation.
The course of trade is already correcting American
politics. The depression of trade which is falling
on the great producing centres is teaching them
more than all the speeches of President Wilson.
Now the Americans are, above all things, traders.
Commerce is to them more than politics. It
claims far more of their best brains. Looking back,
I seem to see commerce everywhere at the head of
all that wonderful energy and splendid originality

GOOD-BYE 287

which one typifies as America. Well, if American
commerce once learns any lesson, it is very swift to
apply it. So that if the approach comes to us next
not by way of poHtics, but by way of commerce,
let us not be too dainty to accept whatever over-
tures we may obtain.

Just before we embarked I learnt that the
American bankers were meeting at Chicago, and
had resolved to make a combined loan of £25,000,000
to European credit. They met last year and refused
to contemplate such a loan. On that occasion their
view was that American finance would do best to
keep itself loose from Europe. They regarded
Europe as a bankrupt, from whose affairs they had
better keep severely apart. But now they find
that the bankruptcy of Europe threatens them
also. They are beginning to learn the first lesson
of international trade, which has hitherto been
hidden from the United States. The banks are
the first to learn this lesson, because they are most
closely in touch with the outer world. But the
traders are learning it too. Henry Ford knows it
well enough far away in Detroit, where the shadow of

Europe has already fallen over the motor industry.
« « « * *

Eight bells ! I count the famihar and cheerful
notes as they come, and they fill one with that
peculiar sense of rest and tranquillity which the
sea brings to those who love it. Here on this great
White Star liner — this floating palace of comfort —

288 A BRITON IN AMERICA

for the next eight days we shall enjoy a pause in
which to reflect. It is about the only rest that
comes to some of us in this stormy modern life.
True, we have our morning Ocean Times, which
brings to us whispers of the outer world. But it
does not trouble us with overmuch detail.

But it is ominous that in this httle news sheet
the name of Ireland recurs day by day with tragic
insistence, and I observe that the Americans on
the ship fall very silent when the subject of Ireland
comes up in conversation. Ah, there is the great
trouble that lies between us ! It is no new thing.
If it were, perhaps it would produce little effect.
But it is like the rubbing of an old sore, which
grows more and more inflamed day by day.

There is no denying that the American people
are intensely troubled about Ireland. I believe
that the majority of them would hke to hold aloof.
But they know that their Irish population will not
allow it. They are a little afraid of their Irish
population. It is a minority that feels intensely
and acts intensely. Such a minority is often like
a few wolves among a large number of sheep. The
sheep are in a vast majority, and yet the wolves
drive them ruthlessly to and fro. Not that the
Americans are in the least degree like sheep on
any other question. It is only that they do not feel
strongly about Ireland, while the Irish- Americans
do feel strongly ; and the strength of that feeUng
gives them a vulpine authority.

GOOD-BYE 289

Take one incident that occurred while we were
in New York. There was a perfectly peaceful
evening service at the Methodist Episcopal Church
in Madison-avenue. Being asked to speak on
Ireland, I ventured some mild Simday evening
exhortations to all countries concerned. Being a
Pilgrim I innocently exhorted all parties to follow
the Pilgrim spirit. The congregation was suffi-
ciently gratified to insist upon shaking hands
individually with the speaker, and all seemed to
pass off quite satisfactorily. But the next morning
there appeared a report in the New York Times
to the effect that many members of the congrega-
tion had left, protesting against the speech, and
denoimcing the speaker as a paid propagandist
of the British Government. That detail being
deplorably imtrue, and all the others mendacious,
I discussed the matter with several friends, but I
was advised that it was futile to protest, as my
protest would be only taken to confirm the state-
ment. But the matter did not stop there. Down
in Philadelphia — so I am informed by Commissioner
Kitching, of the Salvation Army, who was there
and read all the accounts in the Philadelphia papers
— the news of this meeting took new and monstrous
shapes. It was represented as ending in a riot.
It was stated that 400 people had been arrested,
and that New York was in a turmoil. It
was also affirmed that Sir Auckland Geddes
had cabled to Mr. Lloyd George demanding

290 A BRITON IN AMERICA

that the mihappy speaker should be recalled to
England.

Now what was the source of all these amazing
inventions ? I take it that the aim and object
was to discourage from coming to the United States
all British speakers — at any rate, all British speakers
who retain any spark of affection for their own
country. The news was possibly worked up by
Sinn Fein journaHsts. I record this because it is
a conspicuous instance of the penetrating influence
exercised by the Irish Americans in the United
States. But it is only characteristic of many
other incidents. I have evidence, for instance,
that traders are threatened with loss of custom
and newspapers are threatened with loss of adver-
tisements unless they espouse the Irish cause.
The net result is that, while many newspapers
show enthusiasm for the Sinn Fein cause, very few
show the mildest interest in defending the British
cause. Why should they ? The British Govern-
ment is far away, and how can it protect these great
businesses or great newspapers from the evil con-
sequences which would inevitably fall upon them
if they showed an ill-starred desire to shield Great
Britain ? So it is that our cause goes by default.

Nor can I say that such champions as visit this
country always assist our cause. The type of
speaker sent over to America by the Ulster organisa-
tions, for instance, offends the sense of reHgious
equality in America by his unwise attacks on the

GOOD-BYE 291

Roman Catholic Church. Now the Roman Catholic
Church in America is a highly respected body, living
in friendship with its Protestant neighbours, and
neither enjoying undue privilege nor demanding it.
Any abuse of any religion jars upon American
ears ; for if the Americans have one lesson to teach
the world, it is the great lesson of achieved religious
toleration.

Toleration ! Yes, I am not sure that that is
not the greatest lesson which America has to teach
Europe. It is not merely a toleration of creed,
but also a toleration of races. There, in America,
all the various races who, in Europe, spend their
time thirsting for one another's blood, learn to meet
together on an equal plane in a common brotherhood
as American citizens. Within the Hne of white races,
in spite of that occasional strain during the war
and the making of peace, this toleration still endures.
Even the Frenchman and the German have to
learn that no human wrath should be implacable ;
the ItaHan and the Austrian have to sit down to
meals together ; the Greek and the Bulgarian have
to learn that all racial hatreds cease when they
pass beyond the Atlantic. For in spite of the
various breezes that still come from Europe, the
harmony of races within the United States still
rests, secure.

What is it that brings these races together ?
Is it the pride of a New World ? Is it the common
" public school " in which they are educated ?

292 A BRITON IN AMERICA

Is it the common language which they have to learn ?
Or is it the career open to the talents — the amazing
equality of chance for all men and women which is
still the governing law of the United States ? I
leave my readers to answer. But it is my impression
that such a result would have been impossible
except under a democracy securing equal rights
and equal justice for all citizens. It is the idea of
the State, not as the oppressor, but as the common
benefactor, which has really welded together this
great composite country, this vast conglomerate
of races.

As some evidence of this, take their immense
pride in their flag, with the forty-eight stars repre-
senting the forty-eight States of to-day, and the
thirteen stripes representing the thirteen original
colonies. You see the flag everywhere in America.
It is far more commonly displayed than ours is
with us in Great Britain. It flies over every town
on their public buildings. It is displayed in every
church. It is common on private houses. The
intense passion for this emblem seems to indicate
some deep-rooted affection attaching, not to race
or to history, but to the very essence of the American
State, as conferring some new form of unity on
harassed and afflicted himianity. The visitor ob-
serves the same phenomenon when he hears a gieat
American audience sing one of their national hymns
— " The Star Spangled Banner " or "My country
'tis of thee." He notices the sudden flush on the

GOOD-BYE 293

uplifted faces of the multitude, the gleam of pride
in their eyes, and the passion with which they sing.

It is clear that these people love their land with
a mighty affection. The strange thing about it
all is that some of the most eager Americans are
those who have come quite recently away from
Europe. When an audience comes to perform the
great American ritual of shaking hands with the
speaker — really a very pleasant and charming
ritual ! — it is usual for each person to exchange a
few words with him. In that way you learn a good
deal about your audiences, because they tell you
instantly all they can about themselves, and the
first thing they generally tell you about is their
devotion to America.

Later.

Land ahoy ! We crowd to the bulwarks with
that eagerness for dry land which comes to people
who have been tossing on this uncertain element
for seven long days. To the north, on our port
side, we can see the long, undulating hills of that
beautiful, distressful Island of the Saints. The
emerald has darkened to sage green in the evening
light. A sad, sombre shadow seems to brood over
Ireland.

For many hours we coast along, looking into
bays and inlets where men live who love us not,
picking out the white cottages on the hillside, all
of us entranced with the beauty of that lovely
coast. There it Hes, fated to be either a barrier

294 A BRITON IN AMERICA

or a link between the Old World and the New,
a menace or a shield to England's heart, a rampart
or a peril. We pay no friendly visit to Queens-
town, as in the old days, but we pass her by as if
she belonged to an ahen Power. The Irishmen down
below who are returning to their homes will have to
go by way of Liverpool. The Americans who wish
to visit old friends in Ireland will have a longer
journey.

Here, on the sea, it is borne vividly home to us,
as we look at that coast, that this quarrel weakens
and divides all of us Enghsh-speaking people here
on board ; throws an apple of discord between
races that should not be sundered ; and opens up
a vista of danger to the existence of much that now
seems firm. Grattan put the whole truth of this
matter long ago in unforgettable words : —

" Ireland hears the ocean protesting against
Separation, but she hears the sea Hkewise pro-
testing against Union."

When shaU we both, on both sides of this sea,
finally and fully learn that lesson ?

APPENDIX

In contrast and comparison with these notes of an
American tour, it may be worth while to add here
some account of

Charles Dickens' visits in 1842 and 1868 ^

The Charles Dickens who felt the call of the
" West " in 1842 was a young, sHm man of thirty
years, with a rich crop of black curly hair, a beard-
less face, a keen, attractive manner, and an eager,
passionate interest in all things human. He was
already well on the way towards that giddy pinnacle
of fame which he reached in the mid-century.
Three of his greatest masterpieces — The Pickwick
Papers, Oliver Twist, and Nicholas Nicklehy —
had already appeared, and the noise of his achieve-
ments had already rolled round the world. He had
acquired fame not only as a writer, but as one who
loved the common people. Pity for the poor and
helpless — that was the new note that he sounded ;
and it was a note that was sure to echo across the
Atlantic, where, as de Tocqueville had already

1 This article is reprinted, by permission, from The Fortnightly
Review of March, 192 1.

295

296 APPENDIX

shown/ a new State had arisen dedicated to the
idea of the equahty of man.

It is now nearly eighty years since Dickens
started from Liverpool on January 4, 1842, in a
small paddle steamer of one thousand tons, built
by an ingenious man of the name of Cunard, to
face a fearful winter crossing of the Atlantic. There
is no doubt that the sketches of American Hfe,
both in fact and in fiction, given to the world on
his return by Dickens largely affected the relations
of the two continents to one another for many years
after. Dickens's descriptions of American char-
acters— Colonel Diver, Mr. Jefferson Brick, Major
Pawkins, General Fladdock and Mr. La Fayette
Kettle — probably even to-day still colour most
British thought and feeling about the United States.
For the pubHshers tell us that the novels of Charles
Dickens are still immensely read by the British-
speaking folk, and his opinion of men and things
is still so much in tune with the British tempera-
ment that he continues to assert an amazing auth-
ority over the British world.

Yet the America of Dickens's first visit has
actually vanished into history. The New York
which he describes in the American Notes as " a
long, fiat, straggling city " now towers to heaven
in a series of breathless architectural leaps. The
Washington which he dismisses as " a city of Mag-

^ Democratie m Amerique (1835), translated by H. Reeve into
Democracy in America (1835-40) and with biography (1875).

DICKENS AND AMERICA 297

nificent Intentions " has become a great and beauti-
ful town. " Spacious avenues that begin in nothing
and lead nowhere " have now a definite scheme and
meaning : and the " streets a mile long that only
want houses, roads and inhabitants " are now the
finished, inhabited parts of a finely ordered city.
His audacious prophecy about Washington : " Such
as it is, it is likely to remain," has met the fate of
a defeated forecast. For at the present moment
— 1 92 1 — Washington, girded by mountains and
laved by its mighty river, is one of the most beautiful
capitals of the civihsed world.

As with Washington, so with the Far West.
The Swamp of Eden, of which Dickens gave us in
Martin Chuzzlewit so terrible and gloomy a picture,
has now blossomed into a hundred beautiful cities.
The morass has gone : the piles have been driven
in ; and on that foundation has arisen a mighty
and splendid civilisation.

Dickens happened to visit America at a moment of
extreme fever in Western land speculation. Doubt-
less there was much that was shady in that wild
land ** ramp." But his description of Eden has
the fault of a caricature and the errors of exaggera-
tion. It was apparently suggested to him by his
experiences during an adventurous journey taken
by himself and his wife in a canal boat along the
Mississippi. He was shocked and scandaHsed by
the spectacle of the new settlements, the forlorn
appearance of the cabins in which the settlers lived,

298 APPENDIX

and the general air of desolation that hung over
this country during the winter months. ^ He
appears to have forgotten that the American winter
is always hard and bitter, and that it is the char-
acteristic of new settlements to wear an air of
disreputable untidiness, which, though it closely
resembles the symptoms of decay, is really the rag-
gedness and unset tlement of a new and growing Hfe.

He would be a bold man who denied that such
things as the Eden fraud did not happen in the time
of this wild land gamble. I have known them
happen even in this settled land of England. But
in the America of to-day, at any rate, that phase
has passed, and, though all offers of land should
everywhere always be received with a wise and
prudent scepticism, yet we need not suppose that
the land speculators of America to-day are any worse
than land speculators in any other part of the world.
Caveat emptor — the purchaser must look after
himself — must always be the golden rule, both in
regard to horses and land.

As with Eden, so with its inhabitants.

Since Dickens's visit of 1842 there has been a
complete change in American habits and manners.
Both in Martin Chuzzlewit and in American Notes,
Dickens is never tired of referring to the offensive
personal habits of the Americans of that day.
We are all famiUar with his highly-coloured pictures

» See his description in a letter to Forster, Life of Dickens,
Vol. I., p. 343. (Chapman and Hall.)|

DICKENS AND AMERICA 299

of Americans, not so much spitting as emitting
continuous streams of liquid into distant spittoons.
We remember his doubtful humour about their
bad shooting at those receptacles. We caught
from him a vision of the Yankee as a man who sat
continually with his feet on the mantelpiece chewing
endless tobacco. Now all this has gone like a bad
dream. The American of to-day spits no more
than the European : the notice that " Spitting is
strictly prohibited " is quite as common in American
tramcars as in British. True, the spittoon still
continues to occupy part of the floor space in the
American hotels — just as it does in certain famous
London clubs and houses. But the American of
to-day is quite as well behaved as any European —
and considerably more sober. True, in America
there is more equality of mutual courtesy, and per-
haps less deference. There are fewer who rise above
the general level of manners, just as there are fewer
who fall below it.

In the same way, to anyone who has to-day
just returned from daily association with American
journalists and public men, Dickens's sketches of
those types in the 'forties seem singularly remote.
We all remember the editor who met Martin Chuzzle-
wit at New York, and on introducing him to his
war correspondent, Mr. Jefferson Brick, put this
amiable question to Martin : —

" ' Now let me ask you, sir, which of Mr.

300 APPENDIX

Brick's articles had become at that time the most
obnoxious to the British Parhament and the
Court of St. James's ? "

Or the toast given by the war correspondent
himself : —

" ' I will give you, sir, the Rowdy Journal, and
its brethren ; the well of Truth, whose waters are
black from being composed of printer's ink, but
are quite clear enough for my country to behold
the shadow of her Destiny reflected in.' "

Now American journaUsts of to-day do not talk
like that. The type has changed, and the style
has changed with the type.

The questions, indeed, which keep recurring the
more one reads these pages are : Was Dickens's
picture ever true ? Did he give a really faithful
description of the America of 1842 ? Or was he
blinded by some remnant of deep national aversion,
perhaps still traceable to the War of Independence
and the war of 18 12 ? For, after all, only thirty
years had intervened since the two nations had
been at war.

There was, indeed, no personal reason why Dickens
should " have conceived any actual aversion from
the American people. I turn to the volumes of
his letters, and I find him writing from Boston
on January 31, 1842, in the following terms : —

' I can give you no conception of my welcome

DICKENS AND AMERICA 301

here. There never was a king or emperor upon
the earth so cheered or followed by crowds, and
entertained in public at splendid balls and dinners,
and waited on by pubHc bodies and deputations
of all kinds. I have had one from the Far West
— a journey of two thousand miles. If I got out
in a carriage the crowd surround it and escort
me home ; if I go to the theatre the whole house
(crowded to the roof) rises as one man, and the
timbers ring again. You cannot imagine what
it is. I have five great public dinners on hand
at this moment, and invitations from every town
and village and city in the States." ^

It is clear that in the affluence of its hospitable
welcomes the America of 1842 was very much Hke
the America of to-day. But as the weeks passed
on it is equally clear that the tumultuous side of
this reception began to fatigue Dickens, and perhaps
to vex him. America has several democratic
habits which are not always quite popular with
European public men. An American crowd now,
as then, not only insists on seeing a visitor, but
generally desires to shake hands with him. They
also wish to speak to him, and generally refuse to
be denied. Now it is possible, with training, to
accept these habits with patience and good temper.
But the Hterary temperament is proverbially apt
to be irritable at small shocks, and rarely goes

1 Letters of Charles Dickens (Chapman and Hall), Vol. I., p. 59.
There is a similar description in his letter to John Forster.
Vol. I., p. 376.

302 APPENDIX

along with that large, easy geniality which loves the
easy access of crowds. Writing from Baltimore on
March 22, 1842, Dickens expresses this mood : —

** Think of two hours of this every day, and
the people coming in by hundreds, all fresh,
and piping hot, and full of questions, when we
are hterally exhausted and can hardly stand.
I really do beheve that if I had not a lady with
me, I should have been obliged to leave the
country and go back to England. But for her
they would never leave me alone by day or night,
and as it is, a slave comes to me now and then in
the middle of the night with a letter, and waits
at the bedroom door for an answer.'*^

Students of Dickens will remember how he
revenged himself for this experience by the famous
description of the great soirte given to Martin
Chuzzlewit in the National Hotel before his de-
parture to Eden. Mark was tremendously puzzled
over this soirke. At the last moment, before the
ship left the wharf, he ran back to Captain Kedgick
and asked him why they had made so much fuss
over Martin : —

" ' What have they been making so much of
him for, now ? ' said Mark slyly. ' Come ! '

" * Our people like ex-citement,' answered
Kedgick, sucking his cigar.

" ' But how has he excited 'em ? ' asked Mark.

> Letters. Vol. I., p. 66.

DICKENS AND AMERICA 303

The Captain looked at him as if he were half
inclined to unburden his mind of a capital joke.

" ' You air a-going ? ' he said.

" ' Going ? ' cried Mark ; * an't every moment
precious ? '

" ' Our people like ex-citement/ said the Cap-
tain, whispering. ' He an't Hke emigrants in
gin'ral ; and he excited 'em along of this. Scadder
is a smart man, and — and — nobody as goes to
Eden ever comes back a-live ! ' "

In view of the enthusiasm with which America
greeted Dickens it really seems a httle unkind
that he should have taken the soirte and given
to it such a sinister ending.

But as we read these letters, and compare them
with American Notes, we begin dimly to perceive
that there were several features of American life
which were gradually creating the hatred and
aversion which found such violent expression in
Martin Chuzzlewit, It was not merely their
manners that irritated Dickens, or their crowds that
crushed him. There was one disease of human
character which Charles Dickens profoundly detested,
and that was hypocrisy. It was hypocrisy which he
had begun to detect beneath the surface of American
life.

It was in Virginia that he first came across the
institution of slavery, and it seems to have aroused
in him the same horror and hatred as it aroused in

304 APPENDIX

Abraham Lincoln when he saw it for the first time
traveUing on the steamboat down the Mississippi
to St. Louis. But what shocked Dickens was not
merely the institution of slavery. It was the
terrible contrast between that institution and all
the spread-eagled chatter about rights and hberty
which deafened his ears at every turn. For instance^
take the talk of Colonel Diver in the office of the
Rowdy Journal : —

" ' In general we have a hold upon our citizens,
both in public and in private Ufe, which is as
much one of the ennobHng institutions of our
happy country as "

" * As nigger slavery itself,' suggested Mr.
Brick.

" * En-tirely so,' remarked the Colonel."

In American Notes Charles Dickens supplied the
world with evidences of the horrors of slavery in
America which stand for all time as justifications
for the Abolition movement, and for the great war
which ended that evil. If anyone to-day wishes
still to sentimentalise about domestic slavery —
and there are such people in the world even now
— I would advise him to read again that terrible
and scathing chapter entitled " Slavery " ^ (Chapter
XVII.) , in which Dickens merely gives the evidence
that came to his hand in the course of his journey.

1 Here Dickens collected instances of atrocity with all the care-
and method which gives him a claim to be regarded as the
greatest of agitators.

DICKENS AND AMERICA 305

Of course, Dickens could not then foresee that the
great American people would, in the end expiate
this crime in blood and tears. The extraordinary
thing is that, when that great issue of humanity rose
in America, Charles Dickens, Hke so many other
Englishmen, took the side of the South and not the
North, and threw his influence against those who
were fighting for the aboUtion of that very institu-
tion which he himself did so much to unveil and
expose in all its nakedness and horror. No wonder
that even to-day the average American is a little
puzzled by the attitude of Europe towards his
institutions and his poHtics.

There was another issue on which Dickens felt
very strongly, and which affected at that time the
relations between England and America. It was
the question of international copyright. In 1842,
and for more than a generation afterwards, there
was no law of international copyright in the United
States, and every Enghsh writer visiting that
country enjoyed the questionable experience of
seeing his works sold in immense quantities at a
mere song, without the smallest power of claiming
any fraction of profit for his own pocket. Now
Charles Dickens felt very strongly on the subject of
copyright. All through his life he was a crusader
for the rights of the author, both in this country
and abroad. No wonder that when he was in
America his deepest indignation was aroused, and
in a letter to Henry Austin, written from Niagara

306 APPENDIX

on May i, 1842, he gave full vent to this
fury : —

"Is it not a horrible thing that scoundrel
booksellers should grow rich here from publish-
ing books, the authors of which do not reap
one farthing from their issue by scores of
thousands ; and that every vile, blackguard,
and detestable newspaper, so j&lthy and bestial
that no honest man would admit one into his
house for a scullery door mat, should be able
to publish those same writings side by side,
cheek by jowl, with the coarsest and most obscene
companions with which they must become
connected, in coiurse of time, in people's minds ?
Is it tolerable that besides being robbed and
rifled an author should be forced to appear in
any form, in any vulgar dress, in any atrocious
company ; that he should have no choice of his
audience, no control over his own distorted text,
and that he should be compelled to jostle out of
the course the best men in this country who only
ask to live by writing ? I vow before high heaven
that my blood so boils at these enormities, that
when I speak about them I seem to grow twenty
feet high, and to swell out in proporion ' Robbers
that ye are/ I think to myself when I get upon
my legs, ' here goes ! ' '* 1

There is no doubt that much of this fury remained
» Letters, Vol. I., p. 71.

DICKENS AND AMERICA 307

with Dickens when he returned to England and
that it partly inspired the vehement invective of
Martin Chuzzlewit. Perhaps it to some extent
explains the following remarkable outburst of
Martin himself : —

" As Martin ast:ended to his bedroom his
eye was attracted by the RepubHcan banner which
had been hoisted from the house-top in honour
of the occasion, and was fluttering before a window
which he passed.

" * Tut ! ' said Martin. ' You're a gay flag
in the distance. But let a man be near enough
to get the light upon the other side, and see
through you, and you are but sorry fustian \' "

Or this other passage, which was Charles Dickens's
last parting shot at the United States : —

" Cheerily, lads, cheerily. Anchor weighed.
Ship in full sail. Her sturdy bowsprit pointing
true to England. America a cloud upon the
sea behind them !

Why, cook, what are you thinking of so
steadily ? ' said Martin.

" ' Why, I was a-thinking, sir,' returned Mark,

* that if I was a painter and was called upon to

paint the American Eagle, how should I do it ? '

Paint it as like an Eagle as you could, I

suppose ? '

"'No,' said Mark ; ' that wouldn't do for me>

3o8 APPENDIX

sir. I should want to draw it like a Bat, for its
short-sightedness ; like a Bantam, for its bragging ;
like a Magpie, for its honesty ; like a Peacock,
for its vanity ; like an Ostrich, for its putting
its head in the mud, and thinking nobody sees
it ' "

But at that point Dickens obviously thought
that he had gone too far. For he makes Martin
interrupt Mark with this assuaging comment : —

" ' And like a Phoenix, for its power of spring-
ing up from the ashes of its faults and vices,
and soaring up anew into the sky ! ' said Martin.
' Well, Mark, let us hope so ! ' "

It was indeed time that the great author made
Martin interrupt his friend, whose famous geniality
and good-heartedness had for the moment failed
him. For in that correction of Martin's Dickens
packed a whole world of insight and observation
about the United States. Matthew Arnold practic-
ally said the same thing at much greater length in
his famous speech on " Numbers " which he gave
to a New York audience sixty years later ; and all
the shrewdest observers of America have noted this
same remarkable feature in her Hfe. It is her
amazing power of moral recovery, this surprising
reserve of national virtue, which again and again
draws America back from the brink of ruin, and
not once, but many times, in history has surprised

DICKENS AND AMERICA 309

her best friends by the valour and splendour of
her sudden deeds.

It was twenty-six years later when Dickens
patd a second visit to the United States. Nearly a
whole generation of human time had intervened,
and both America and Dickens himself had passed
through great changes. He was now well past
middle age — ^bearded and grizzled. He had acquired
certain gifts of patience and restraint that come
with years. He was less liable to sudden storms,
more tolerant of human feelings, with that wider
vision that comes to a man who feels that his own
pilgrimage is drawing towards a close. On the
side of America there had been even greater changes.
Slavery had vanished, and Dickens was to see the
spectacle of the black man groping his way into
freedom like a blind man who has just emerged into
light. In spite of the immense losses of the great
Civil War, the United States had also practically
passed from one stage of civilisation to another.
Thanks to her immense energy and resourcefulness,
she had already almost repaired the terrific waste
of life and substance which had taken place in the
earlier 'sixties. The victory which crowned the
efforts of the more progressive North had given to
the people of the Northern States a more sober
pride and hopefulness. For it was a pride based
upon suffering and won by sacrifice.

310 APPENDIX

We find, therefore, a complete change of judg-
ment in the letters which Dickens wrote from the
United States during this second visit. He is even
inclined to retract some of his earlier judgments,
and, indeed, before quitting America in 1868 he
actually declared his intention to pubhsh in every
future edition of his American Notes and Martin
Chuzzlewit his testimony to the great and mighty
changes that he had witnessed during his second
visit to the United States.

Perhaps in this mood of repentance he forgot
that the changes lay not so much in his point of
view as in the facts of American Hfe. For he stepped
into the first phase of that marvellous new mechanical
civilisation which America has since given to the
world : the magnificent hotels, the steam-heated
houses, the Pullman cars, and all the himdred and
one trifles of life which make up together an easier
and more adaptable way of hving than we know in
Europe. The invention of the telegraph was already
the first step in that wonderful capture of electricity
to the service of man which has now carried America
a further stage on her triumph over matter, distance
and time. Now Dickens loved all such things. It
is the tradition of the Daily News office that, during
the brief period of his editorship of that great
journal, he filled the rooms with cushioned armchairs
and was waited upon by footmen dressed in velvet
plush.
Thus it is clear that Dickens Hked a comfortable

1

DICKENS AND AMERICA 311

life, and it was indeed to obtain the money for that
life that he had set forth on the marvellous and
tireless lecturing tour which was the object of his
second visit to the United States. He was, there-
fore, aU the more relieved and pleased to find that
after the winter rigours of the Atlantic he had landed
in a coimtry where the hotels were now well warmed
and the railway trains were beginning to, be com-
fortable.

On March 21, 1868, Dickens wrote from Spring-
field in Massachusetts a letter to his friend, the
actor Macready, which was practically a recantation
of the remarkable letter in condemnation of America
which he had written to the same correspondent
from Baltimore on March 22, 1842. Then he
had placed upon paper that famous historic
judgment : —

'* But however much I like the ingredients of
this great dish, I cannot but come back to the
point upon which I started, and say that the
dish itself goes against the grain with me, and
I don't hke it.'' ^

But now, in 1868, he writes to the same corre-
spondent :— '

" You will find the general aspect of America

and Americans decidedly much improved. You

would find immeasurably greater consideration

and respect for your privacy than of old. You

1 Utters. Vol. I., p. 62.

312 APPENDIX

would find a steady change for the better every-
where.** ^

Then he gives us a glimpse of what he means by
some of these improvements in American life : —

" When the railroad straight away to San
Francisco (in six days) shall be opened through,
it will not only have drawing-rooms but sleeping-
rooms, too ; a bell in every httle apartment
communicating with a steward's pantry, a
restaurant, a staff of servants, marble washing-
stands, and a barber's shop ! I looked into one
of these cars a day or two ago, and it was very
ingeniously arranged and quite complete." ^

Thus did Charles Dickens, far out in that Western
world, obtain the first glimpses of that new and
wonderful civilisation which is now the marvel of
mankind.

It is not recorded that the American public
displayed during this second visit of Charles Dickens
any resentment for the criticisms which he had
uttered after his return from the first visit. They
crowded to his readings in such immense masses
that the sale of his tickets became a whirl of specula-
tion. Thousands were unable to hear him and
went away disappointed. They acclaimed him
as if he had been a god. Crowds would assemble
in the streets to see him pass. He toured through-
out New England, and then visited Philadelphia,
1 Ibid. Vol. II., p. 374.

DICKENS AND AMERICA 313

Baltimore and Washington, afterwards travelling
up north to Cleveland and Buffalo. His fatigues
were immense, and undoubtedly laid the seeds of
that fatal seizure which cut short his Hfe only two
years later. But he loved this existence, and it
brought him gigantic profits. He was the first of
that long line of British authors who have gone to
America to earn the wealth which is denied to
them in their own country. But it was not only
dollars that Dickens was after. He loved the
applause of the multitude with a great passion.
His readings for the first time brought him face to
face with that world to whom he always made his
appeal. A great wave of affection seemed to pass
between him and that great common people whose
joys and sorrows he had depicted with such supreme
pathos. It was the crown of his career — this
discovery of that vast store of human affection
that he had won by his hfe's work. Now that the
sands of his Hfe were running out we need not
grudge him the joys of those last two years.

This tremendous experience seemed to draw him
nearer to the heart of the American people. Perhaps
it helped him to understand better that collective
side of the American nature which is, if we under-
stand it rightly, its most impressive feature.

It is now fifty years since Charles Dickens
returned from this second visit. Unhappily, his Ufe
was too far spent for him to place on permanent

314 APPENDIX

record those changes in his impressions about the
American people. He was to produce no second
novel on American life which would unwrite the
harsh judgments of Martin Chuzzlewit. That was
an unhappy accident. For it would have been
better for the relations between the two countries
if he could have built up into one of his immortal
novels the various kindly impressions of the American
folk which are now contained only in his Biography
and Letters. There is nothing, for instance, in
Martin Chuzzlewit to convey the judgment every-
where recorded by Dickens in his intimate writings,
both in 1842 and 1868, as to the amazing courtesy
of the Americans towards women. It was in 1842
that he wrote from Boston : —

" There is universal deference paid to ladies,
and they walk about at all seasons wholly unpro-
tected." 1

A remarkable tribute to a rough and early civili-
sation. Or, again, his description of their habits at
the rough meals which he otherwise loved so httle : —

" Nobody will sit down to any one of these
meals, though the dishes are smoking on the
board, until the ladies have appeared and taken
their chairs " ^

At the present day in America (1921), if a woman
enters an *' elevator," every man takes off his hat,
and women travellers will teJl you that America

^ These passages are from the letters to Forster contained in
his Biography.

DICKENS AND AMERICA 315

is the safest country in the world for them to wander
alone. Throughout that has been the high credit
of that country ; and it seems unfair that so httle
tribute is given to Americans in English fiction for
this great quality of chivalry.

Not that it means that women in America are
any less beautiful or attractive than in other coun-
tries. Here, again, we have Dickens's judgment
as early as 1842 : —

" The ladies of America," he says, " are decid-
edly and unquestionably beautiful."

And Dickens had a distinct eye for beauty.
Everyone who visits America to-day will bear
evidence that there is here no falling away.

But it is even more remarkable to find scattered
through Dickens's letters to Forster tributes to
American men which certainly do not seem wholly
consistent with the sketches contained in Martin
Chuzzlewit. " Americans," he says, " are friendly,
earnest, hospitable, kind, frank, very often accom-
plished, far less prejudiced than you would suppose.
Warm-hearted, fervent, enthusiastic." After that
it surely matters little that Dickens goes on to say
that he does not want to Uve in America, because it
seems a fitting thing that every man should live in
his own country. The great fact is that he gives
to Americans this great tribute, and no one who
visits that country to-day will say that they have
done anything to lose that praise. They are as a

3i6 APPENDIX

people still as friendly, hospitable and kindly as
they have ever been. Whatever faults they have
seem the faults of excess in these admirable virtues.
They are still '* warm-hearted, fervent, enthusiastic,"
and if some of these qualities sometimes show them-
selves in excess, then they ought not to be judged
too harshly by those whose hearts are more frigid
and whose tempers are less eager.

But the most remarkable thing is to find in
Dickens's letters some very notable tributes to
American poHticians, the very class which he has
so bitterly caricatured in Martin Chuzzlewit, In
a letter contained in Forster's Life, and written
from Washington in 1842, he thus speaks of the
very men whom he was so soon to caricature : —

" There are some very noble specimens out
of the West. Splendid men to look on, hard to
deceive, prompt to act, lions in energy, Crichtons
in varied accomplishments, Indians in quickness
of eye and gesture, Americans in affectionate
and generous impulse." ^

That is certainly not the impression of these
men which he conveys when he draws his pictures
of General Cyrus Choke or Mr. Scadder. In those
descriptions the men from the West are simply
depicted as intriguing scoundrels, distinguished from
that type in Europe only by the brassiness of their

1 Vol. I., p. 330.

I

DICKENS AND AMERICA 317

boastings and the insolence of their absurd self-
esteem.

The fact is that the young Dickens of 1842 was
essentially pugnacious and impetuous. He loved
a fight, but he disUked contradiction. Thus it
was that when he bumped into conflict with the
America of that day on the questions of slavery and
copjnight, he met men of very much J:he same
temper as himself, and this aroused in him an amaz-
ing bitterness. " I beHeve/' he wrote to Forster in a
very remarkable letter of February 24, 1842, ^
** that there is no country on the face of the earth
where there is less freedom of opinion on any
subject in reference to which there is a broad
difference of opinion than in this country." But
what Dickens forgot was that he was expressing
opinions on definite subjects of acute domestic
controversy ; and few countries like to hear such
questions discussed by a visiting foreigner.

That is still the chief danger to-day in the rela-
tions between Great Britain and the United States.
We are both countries in which every man Ukes to
" say the thing he will " and therefore we have
always indulged in amazing freedom in our critic-
ism of one another. A whole Une of English
writers have followed in the track of Martin
Chuzzlewit, and there have been some American
writers who have retaUated. But these things do
not add to the friendship between nations. It

^ Life. Vol, I., p. 299.

3i8 APPENDIX

does not follow that because there is kinship between
men criticism is more readily accepted. It is
recorded of Dr. Jowett that he said in a sermon to
two young people whom he was marrying : " Above
all, remember to be poUte to one another." The
same advice seems to be desirable for two nations
of the same speech aiming at a friendship which is
often achieved, not on account of kinship, but in
spite of it.

Reflecting on the situation to-day between the
two countries, I would suggest some such counsel
to those writers and speakers who are now labouring
to improve the relationship between Great Britain
and the United States. Let them, at all costs,
resist the cheap and easy temptation to mutual
criticism. Let us remember that the depreciation
of kindred peoples is not, as so many imagine, a
mark of superior culture, but the common vice
of uncultured humanity. Let us mutually learn
to select what we can admire in one another —
" whatsoever things are of good report " — and dwell
on those. If Dickens had done so, then we might
have lost a great satire, but he would have worked
better for the things that belong unto our peace.

INDEX

Addams, Miss Jane, 235

Advertising Club, N.Y., 264

Alaska, 234

Alleghany Mountains, 245

American Commonwealth, Lord
Bryce's, 13

American Constitution, Fif-
teenth Amendment, 240 ;
and League of Nations, 276

American Minute Man, statue
at Lexington, 177

American Notes, Dickens', 12,
296, 303, 304. 310

Anglo- Japanese Treaty, 218

Anglo-Saxons in America, 36

Anicostia River, 199

Arbitration Treaty, between
G.B. and U.S. unratified, 219,
232

Armenia, 203, 216

Armistice Day, 30

Arch of Triumph, at Blooming-
ton, 89

Arnold, Matthew, 13, 308

" Arsenal at Springfield," Long-
fellow's poem, 67

Atkinson, Dr. Henry, 40

Australia, Anti-Japanese policy,
217

Australian Labour Party, Anti-
Immigration policy, 145

Balfour, Mr. ; Arthur, 205
Baltic, S.S., 25

Baltimore, 192. 302, 311, 313
Beacon Hill, Boston, 166
Biltmore Hotel, N.Y., 249
Blue Ridge Mountains, 199
Bloomington, 82 fiE., 155
Borah, Senator, 110

Boston, 163 ff., 177, 258, 300 ;

Common, 165
Botha, General, 248
Bradford, William^ 167 ; tomb

of, 173, 174
Breed's Hill, 165
Bridgeport, 253
Bright, John, 180
British Columbia, Japanese

question and, 216
British Constitution, American

view of, 263
British Embassy, 193, and Irish

Commission, 235
Broadway, N.Y., 41, 226
Bryce, Viscount, 12, 77
Buffalo, 43, 73, 313
Bunker Hill, 165
Bumham, Lord, 15

Cadbury, Mr. George, 266

California, An ti- Japanese policy
of, 215, 217. 221

Canibridge, Mass : 189

Canada, Japan and, 216, 217 j
fishery agreement, 232

Cape Cod, 35

Carnegie, Mr., 268

Cecil, Lord Robert, HI

Celtic, S.S., 283

Cemeteries, American, 60

Charlestown, 165

Chatham, Lord, 180

Chesapeake Bay, 191

Chicago, start for, 43 ; Press in»
53 ff. ; sobriety of, 70 ; Pro-
hibition in, 74-76, and Ireland^
123, 124 ; climate, 139, 140 ;
spirit of, 176 ; diverse langu-
ages of, 285

319

320

INDEX

Chicago Daily News, 53, 131
Chicago Republican, 53, 131
Chicago Tribune, 53, 131
Children, American, 271 ; Courts

for, 257
Child's restaurants, 52
Church Peace Union, U.S.A., 40
Civil War, American, Kansas
State and, 103 ; English
friends of the North, 180 ;
the negro and, 239, 240, 244 ;
Dickens and, 309
Cleveland, 313
Coles Hill, 172

Columbia University, 160, 188
Columbus, Christopher, 11
Concord, 170, 177, 182, 186
Congress, Chambers of, descrip-
tion of building, 200 ; Presi-
dent Wilson and, 204 ; Im-
migration and, 224 ; Irish
influence, 229 j President
Harding and, 231, 232 ; Irish-
American pressure on, 234 ;
League of Nations and, 276
Cosmopolitan Club, N.Y., 219
Cox, Senator, 33, 108, 127
Cromer, Lord, 221
Cuba, 111, 212

Daily News, The, 310
Daily Telegraph, The, 15, 141
Daniels, Mr., 202, 220
Debs, Mr. Eugene, 135, 147
Delaware, the River, 191
Democratic Party, the Ameri-
can, and the League of
Nations, 117; and the Irish
Vote, 127 ; and the Big
Navy scheme, 204 £E.
Detroit, 77, 140, 266, 287
De Valera, Mr., 128, 136
Dickens, Charles, and America,

12, 45, 46, 194, 294 ff.
Douglas, Stephen, 64

Economic Club, N.Y., 264
Ellis Island, 38, 144
Emerson, 186
Emigrants, on 5.5. Baltic, 26 ff.

English Speaking Union, 15
Evanston, 54

Faneuil Hall, Boston, 168
Filth Avenue, N.Y., 41
First Church, Plymouth, 172
Ford, Henry, 266, 268, 287
Foreign Relations Committee,
and Japan, 218 ; and Ire-
land, 228, 230, 231
Franklin, Benjamin, 143

Geddes, Sir Auckland, 185 ;
and Lady, 190, 193 : 266, 289

Germany, attitude of America
towards, 114; immigration
from, 144: 237, war with,
241

Gibbons, Cardinal, 193

Gladstone, Mr., triumph over,
by the House of Lords, 151 ;
in favour of Southern States,
180: 198, and Home Rule,
203 ; and House of Lords, 231

Goldwin Smith, Professor, 273

Gompers, Samuel, 80,147

Grant's Tomb, N.Y., 43

Grayson, Admiral, 204

Harding, President, 16 ; victory
of, 29 ; election of, 106, 107 ;
and jLeague of Nations, 111-
114, 209, 277 ; and Senate,
151 ; and big Navy scheme,
202, 203; and German-
American Vote, 230 ; and
Ireland, 231-233

Harvard, University of, 187

Hawaii, 212

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 186

Hayti, 111, 128, 137, 216

Hearst Press, influence of, 53,
54 ; and japan, 214 ; anti-
British policy of, 234

Hopkins, Mrs. Stephen, 258

House, Colonel, interview with,
278 ff.

Howells, W. D., 14

Hoyt, Judge, 257

Hudson River, 41, 42, 141

INDEX ~

321

niinois, revision of State Con-
stitution, 57

Immigration, American, 144 ff. ;
increase of, 222 ; from Ire-
land, 225

Insurance Building, N.Y., 153

Ireland, American attitude to-
wards, 55, 227 ff. ; coast of,
293-294

Irish Commission, at Washing-
ton, 137, 235

Irish Vote, Presidential Election
and, 33 ; influence on Wash-
ington of, 136 ; effect on
treaty making of, 229

Interchange of speakers, British
Council for, 15

James, Henry, 14

Japan, America and, 207 ff. ;
California and, 215 ; British
Columbia and, 216 ; Aus-
tralia and, 217

Jefferson, Thomas, 194

Jefferson City, 120

Jones Act, the, 135

Kansas City, journalists of, 22,»
railway station at, 92 ff. 5
stay in, 118-124 ; crime in,
133; 140
Keene, Laura, 62
Knox, Senator, 113, 230
Kohlsaat, Mr., 278
Kulp, Dr., at Topeka, 104

labour, American, 143 ff.
Lansing, Secretary, 281
League of Nations, Big Business
and, 15-17 ; American in-
difference to, 22 ; remoteness
of, 69 ; strength of agitation
against, 109-111, 112, 113,
119, 122; Republicans and,
131 ; alternative to, 204, 205,
207-208 ; America borne
away from, 212, 213 ; and
Monroe Doctrine, 221 ; 224 ;
no hope of joining, 229 ; Mr.
Root and, 274-276 ; Ameri-
can trade and, 280

L' Enfant, Major, town planner
of Washington, 195

Lexington, 170, 177

Liberty Statue, N.Y. Harbour,
39

Lincoln, Abraham, home of,
56, 59 ff. ; lecture on, 86 ;
assassination of, 98 ; char-
acter of, 115 ; monument at
Washington to, 196-198 ; 246

Lloyd George, Right Hon. D.,
and the League of Nations,
212; American , interest in,
250 ; Colonel House on, 281

Longfellow, 67, 170, 186

Longfellow, Miss, 187

Lowell, James Russell, 166, 182

Lowell, President Lawrence, 1 87,
230

Lynching, 246, 247

MacSwiney, Mrs., her visit to
America, 235

Manhattan Island, N.Y., 39,
152

Martin Chuzzlewit, 12, 39, 297,
299, 302, 303, 307, 310, 314-317

Maryland, 192

Mason Dixon line, 35

Massachusetts, 35

Mayflower. The. 30, 35, 103,
104, 106, 122, 130, 155; the
Log of the, 167

Mayflower Council, the, 15

Michigan, Lake, 51, 87

Millionaires, American, attri-
butes of, 267, 268

Mississippi, the, 297

Monroe Doctrine, the mid-west
and, 107 ; American Navy
and, 207 ; League of Nations
and, 221 ; Mr. Root and, 277

Motor-cars, prevalence of, 88,
148, 255

Mount Vernon, near Washing-
ton, 198

Nantucket Island, 283
Nantucket Lightship, 30, 34

322

INDEX

Nation, The, American news-
paper, 235

Navy, the American, 3 ♦, 202 fif.

Negro Problem in America,
238 fi.

New York City, 17 ; arrival in,
38 flE. ; prohibition in, 70-72 ;
139; skyscrapers of, 152;
spirit of, 176 ; languages in,
223 ; housing conditions in,
225 ; Irish influence in, 236 ;
249 ff., 285 ; the Press of,
289 ; Dickens and, 296

New York Times, 289

Niagara, 43 ff., 74

Nicholas Nicklehy, 295

Nivelle, General, 57, 66, 101, 183

North-western University, near
Chicago, 54

Pacific Coast, the, 214

Panama, 111, 135, 212, 232;
and the Pauncefote Treaty,
233, 234

Peace Conference, 280

Penn, William, 192

Philadelphia, 191, 192, 289, 312

Philippines, 129, 212

" Piggly Wiggly " Store, Bloom-
ington, 155

Pilgrim Fathers, descendants
of, 35 ; lecture on, 54, 55 ;
French representative at cele-
brations, '57, 66 ; descendants
in Topeka of, 102-104 ; Irish
propaganda at meetings, 130 ;
Club at Plvmouth, 171, 173 ff.,
250, 258 '

Pilgrim Monument, Plymouth,
New England, 175

Plymouth, New England, 171
ff. ; the Rock at, 172

Potomac, the River, at Wash-
ington, 197, 198, 199

Presidential Election, American,
news of, 29 ; result of, 33 ;
prohibition and, 80 ; Wo-
men's Vote in, 108 ; League
of Nations and, HI ; Irish
Vote in, 127 ; [ interval before

assuming office, 150 ; Foreign
Relations Committee and, 229

Princeton, 204

Prohibition, 68ff. ; stories
about, 261-262

Queenstown, visit to, on s.s.
Baltic, 26

Red Cross, the American, 95, 96
Religion in America, 158, 159
Representatives, House of, 196 ;

basis of, 243
Republican Party, the Ameri-
can, and Presidential Elec-
tion, 127 ; composition of,
145 ; and the big Navy
scheme, 204 ff. ; and the
League of Nations, 228 ; in-
fluence of Senators of, 113,
114
Revere, Paul, in Longfellow's

poem, 169, 170
Roads, American, 100
Rockefeller, Mr., 146, 268, 269
Root, Hon. Elihu, 230, 273 ff.

St. Louis, 118, 121, 124, 304
San Francisco, 100, 226, 312
Senate, the, American, 196, 243
Servant Question in America,

I 254, 255

: Sharon, Mr., of Kansas City,
122, 132

! Shaw Monument, Boston, 166

I Shredded Wheat Factory, at

i Niagara, 49

I Sinn Fein, at Queenstown, 27 ;

; and Armistice service, 32 ;

I and American Press, 33, 34,
290 ; American opinion and,

i 125, 135 ; British Embassy
and, 194; American, 216
South Meeting House, Boston,

169
Springfield, 56 ff., 184
Standish, Miles, 174
State House, Boston, 166
Susquehanna, the River, 191
Syracuse, 32, 33, 141

INDEX

323

Taft, Mr. W. H., 205
Tammany Rule in N.Y., 131;

in Chicago, 132
Thanksgiving Day, in N.Y., 142
Thompson, Mayor, of Chicago,

63
Tocqueville, A. de, 12, 239, 295
Topeka, 91 ff., 124, 154, 159
Topeka Daily Capital, 96, 97
Traffic Control, N.Y., 41
Trinity Church, Boston, 183

Vanderbilts, the, 268

Van Petten, Mr. A. E., of
Topeka, 95 fE., 99

Versailles Treaty, America and,
15, 96 ; no guarantees under,
114 i* Monroe Doctrine and,
221 ; Secret Triple Treaty
and, 228

Villard, Mr., his poem at Bloom-
ington, 90

Virginia, 303

War of Independence, Ameri-
can, 179, 183, 300

Washington, City of, 62 j Ire-
land and, 129 ; Irish Com-
mission at, 136, 137, 237 ;
description of, 190 ff. ; Irish
German influence at, 230 ;
Dickens and, 297, 313, 316

Washington, George, town plan-
ning of Washington by, 194 ;
obeHsk to, 196, 198

Weddings, American, 58

Wesleyan University, Bloom-
ington, 83, 85

White House, the, at Washing-
ton, 196, 231

White Star Line, the, 287

Wilkinson, Mrs., of St. Louis,
121

Willard, Mr. Garrison, 235

Willard, Mrs., 253

Wilson, President, and prohibi-
tion, 76 ■ Mid- West vote
against, 106-108 1 Presiden-
tial election and, 109-111,
112, 114-115; Irish envoys
at Paris and, 127 ■ reason
for def 3at of, 145 j Congress
and, 150, 151 ; at White
House, 196 j illness of, 200 j
and big Navy scheme, 203,
204 ; and disarmament, 207-
208 ; and Japan, 217 ; and
Monroe Doctrine, 221 ; and
Irish Americans, 227-228,
230 J and Pinama Tolls, 233 ;
Mr. Root on, 275; Colonel
House on, 280, 281 • and
League of Nations, 286

Wister, Owen, 14

Woolworth Building, N.Y., 40,
152, 153

Yale University, 187
Y.M.C.A., Chicago, 52;
York, 146, 220

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