Ian Hay

“ To-day the American nation, in the first year of its war, is divided (as was another country with which we are more familiar) into people who realize the war and people who do not. Those who do are contributing to the common cause a measure of effort and devotion out of all proportion to their numbers. In fact, it is not too much to say that every American to-day who does realize the war with the realization that goes deeper than flag-waving is straining every nerve to win it. ”

“ This sense of proportion—which spells realization—is the one thing lacking in America to-day. Everything else is there the enthusiasm, the ability to execute, the amazing community of effort, the cheerful readiness to submit to hardship or strong measures. With wise guidance, especially from the Press, this sense of proportion will come. And the sooner it comes the better for the American soldiers already in the field and the Allied cause in general. ”

“ Above all will it call for national imagination, for without imagination a country which is situated from three to seven thousand miles away! from the seat of war cannot possibly realize the meaning of that war and the consequences if it is lost. So let us, with the grim realities of the struggle at our very elbow, make special allowance for our Transatlantic Allies in this respect, and we shall have our reward. For America is going to make good in this war to a degree which will surprise even her warmest admirers. ”

“ The American soldier is fortunate, above all, in respect of his social welfare. The Americans do not claim to be a military nation—they hate the word—but they do claim, rightly, to understand home life. They are the most domestic and home-loving nation on earth—possibly because there is no need for them to stray outside their own great land in search of adventure or profit. An American citizen cherishes a sentimental affection for his home town quite inexplicable to the roaming Englishman, who can make himself equally comfortable in Wei-Hai-Wei or Wigan. ”

“ On Sunday afternoon in particular a military camp in the neighbourhood of a large town is a vortex—a vortex of sweethearts and wives—encircled by an impassable barrier of Ford cars. In fact, the military authorities of the camps have been compelled to intimate on more than one occasion that one may have too much of a good thing, and that there is a war to be finished. ”

“ So America, like the rest of us, must have time. To-day, strangely enough—though the fact might have been foreseen—her contribution to the Allied cause is actually less than it was a year ago. The reason is simple. A year ago America was at peace, and her surplus resources were available for the assistance of her friends across the sea. To-day she is at war; she has no surplus resources; all her energy is concentrated on herself, and will be until she is ready and equipped for battle. ”

“ In this respect it may be noted that the American people, though among the shrewdest in the world, are afflicted with a vein of sentimentality which tolerates the most outrageous antics on the part of her cranks and faddists. America is suffering to-day from a plague of those persons—we are only too familiar with the type at home—to whom their country's extremity is the opportunity of their own particular propaganda. ”

“ If a law could be passed in America to-day absolutely prohibiting all headlines, and thus compelling American readers to dig for their news instead of browsing on the top-dressing, we should hear no more about American lack of realization of the war. ”

“ Let it be said at once that the American Press as a whole has conducted itself, from the time of America's entry into the war, with an ability and patriotism beyond all praise—always excepting certain tainted fountains of private opinion, already mentioned, whose existence and power for evil are fully recognized, and therefore to a certain extent discounted. ”

“ The conduct of the war in America to-day has reached the critical stage. That is to say, the stage at which every one is criticizing every one else—a spectacle not altogether unfamiliar nearer home. The criticism is partly honest and sincere, partly a move in the inevitable party game ”

“ No reflection is intended here upon the United States Cabinet, which is working gallantly with inadequate tools; but a Government which cannot be removed from office in any circumstances for a space of four years would be more than human if it did not exhibit a greater indifference to public opinion than a Government like our own, which is liable to be requested, by an eager band of successors, to walk the plank at any moment. ”

“ There are, of course, many intensely interesting points of comparison between training-camp life in America and in England. Over here in England we are accustomed to pursue our martial avocations in a certain cloistered seclusion. We keep ourselves to ourselves, and civilian visitors are not encouraged. In fact, a civilian in a British camp bears a strong resemblance to a stray cat in a dog show. But the American Army, as is inevitable in a country which prides itself upon its democratic bearing, is almost entirely subordinated to civilian and political influence. ”

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

“ The American is the greatest newspaper reader in the world, but he would rather—and invariably does, if observation goes for anything—read the headlines in six newspapers than digest the actual substance of one. ”

“ If we consider briefly some of America's difficulties, a more just and illuminating estimate of her achievement to-day will be gained. First of all, we have to remember that the American nation, like our own, was for years lulled into a sense of false security by persons who persisted in taking the good intentions of other nations for granted, and who passionately upheld the strange doctrine that the best way to keep out of war is to remain unprepared for war. ”

“ But the shortage of food and other supplies which we are feeling in France and England to-day is caused less by shortage of tonnage than by temporary paralysis of the American railways. To take a single instance; in January thousands of tons of wheat, destined for the British markets, were lying at wheat depôts in the Middle West of America; the necessary ships were waiting at the coast; but the railways were so disorganized through snow, want of coal, shortage of cars, and port congestion, that the wheat could not be conveyed to the ships.
The railway problem requires a word to itself. ”

“ Home and mother reign supreme in the American heart, and the American is not ashamed to own it. And, therefore, since the American boy in camp to-day is often undoubtedly and frankly home-sick—a condition which the more reticent Englishman but rarely admits the whole motherhood of America to-day is, mobilizing to set the matter right. ”

“ Labour again, as ever, presents problems of its own. On the whole American Labour has played its part manfully, but here, as ever, we are presented with the spectacle, first, of Labour leaders who are unable to control their own followers ”

“ The American, when he "has the goods," believes in advertising the fact. To-day the whole vast continent of America is astir with war activity. (Some of that activity is being misapplied, as with us, but the activity is there.) "This is our war," says every man, woman, and child in America to-day, and proceeds to make it so. All social activity centres on the war. ”

“ The war, in America, has suffered somewhat from "over-boosting." Once committed to the struggle, the American people took up their task with characteristic enthusiasm. There were many contributing causes. Thousands of sensitive Americans had burned for three years with a sense of passionate resentment at the cumulative; insults heaped upon their beloved country by Germany, and of shame at the mingled surprise and reproachfulness of the Allies over America's supine attitude. ”

“ In such matters as the raising of War Loans and the conservation of food the American Press has given most generously of its advertising space, while editorial comment has been restrained and fair-minded. But man is a lazy animal, and will always follow the line of least resistance. You may present him with a newspaper containing most reliable news, backed by an excellent leading article, which, if read, would maintain him in a well-balanced attitude towards the progress of events. ”

“ The cost of living has soared up, and the demand of Labour for higher pay has followed it to a corresponding altitude. Owing to the drain of military service and the entire cessation of immigration, the labour market is but scantily filled, and those, harbingers of national stringency—and feminine patriotism—the elevator girl and the car-conducting girl, are abroad in the land. ”

“ Labour furnished a whole crop of separate difficulties. Wages had risen steadily; strikes were numerous; the number of hours of work was a standing source of controversy; and the burdens imposed by the Federal authorities, coupled with the innumerable and variegated exactions emanating from those happy hunting grounds of the amateur Solon, the State Legislatures, had concentrated the entire energies of the companies less upon a policy of efficient service than upon a sheer struggle for life. ”

“ We have the goods. America has never yet emerged defeated from a war." And so on. "That may be so," replied the sober-minded; "but let us bear in mind the fact that America has never found herself in conflict with the full resources of a first-class Power." But this doctrine was too unpalatable, and the enthusiasts proceeded to boost" the war with all the misdirected zeal of the gentleman who once blacked himself all over to play Othello. The result was a tremendous war boom. ”

“ On the whole, the railways have been more sinned against than sinning. Railway enterprise has been heavily hampered by restrictive legislation. Even before the war. American railways had fallen into a most debilitated condition. Many of them were dissipating their energies in ruinous competition—a relic of the days when railways were pawns in the great financial campaigns of those rival giants, Hill and Harriman. ”

“ As for the actual camp routine, the training is of the most thorough description. The men look remarkably fit and well-set-up, though suffering almost universally from spring coughs of the most deafening description, as many an instructor and lecturer has discovered to his cost! The officers are immensely hard-working, and it is satisfactory to note that the large number of British and French officers and non-commissioned officers who have been sent over as instructors in artillery, machine-gun, grenade, and bayonet work have made an excellent impression, both professionally and socially. ”

“ Indeed, most of America's difficulties are political. The trouble about making war upon purely democratic lines is that so many people have to be consulted; and not only Congress, but the 40-odd State Legislatures of the country, are all most jealous of their privileges in this respect. ”

“ Her soil is so rich and her territory so vast that we in England and France are apt to overlook the fact that America is feeling the war pinch too. The cost of living has doubled. Sugar is nearly as scarce as with us. There is a serious scarcity of casual labour, for the tide of immigration which supplies that demand has ceased to flow since the outbreak of the war. There has been a coal famine so serious that it was actually found necessary at one period to import coal from England in order to enable certain liners to sail from American ports. ”

“ The war is not at their doors, as it is at ours; few of them had seen a soldier a year ago; the restrictions and ceremonial of discipline are alike abhorrent to them; esprit de corps, which raises prompt obedience from a humiliation to a boast, cannot be created in a day. ”

“ Fifthly, cheerful acceptance by the nation of acute discomfort caused by food and coal shortage. The winter has been appalling. Rivers and harbours have been frozen to an extent which has made navigation impossible. Coal-barges have been frozen into the ice; coal frozen into the coal-trucks. Snow has fallen persistently; Chicago has been literally buried more than once. ”

“ The American recruit, though on the whole physically superior to the British recruit, is constitutionally less robust and possesses less staying power. (International athletic competitions have always emphasized this fact: the Americans have won the sprints, the British the long-distance races.) This is only natural, for it is well known that a man who can endure the vagaries of the British climate can endure anything. ”

“ In the winter of 1914 our military authorities were far too busy converting the Kitchener recruit into an efficient fighting man to have much leisure to consider his welfare as a human being, as those who experienced the squalor and discomfort of Bramshott and Salisbury Plain and other quagmires of dismal memory, during one of the wettest winters on record, will testify. The American recruit is far better housed. ”

“ Again, the American Constitution, although a model in its way, and although it gives its Ministers of State a security of tenure—and consequently a freedom of action—greatly to be envied by harassed occupants of the Government Front Bench in the British House of Commons, makes it extremely difficult to get rid of incompetent public servants in the critical times of a great war. ”

“ Every civilian in the street wears a button, or group of buttons, on the lapel of his coat, signifying that he has joined the Red Cross, or subscribed to War Loans, or is an adherent to the principles of the Food Administration, or has a relative in the Army. No American woman walks abroad to-day without an enormous bag of chintz containing knitting materials. ”

“ Again, a man called from civilian life and the (to the Briton) asphyxiating atmosphere of the average steam-heated American home naturally suffers, though an enthusiastic outdoor man in the summertime, when called upon to face the rigours of life in the open at a temperature of zero Fahrenheit. In such weather it is not easy to keep the great wooden hutments warm, and almost impossible to keep the men sufficiently exercised, which is the root of all military health. ”