The land of the Stars and Stripes is only being asked to give its
neutrality the color of good-will. It is, for the time being, unlikely
that the United States would stand beside our opponents with army and
navy, as has been urgently counseled by Mr. Roosevelt, (who received the
honorary doctor's title in Berlin and as a private citizen reviewed a
brigade drill at the Kaiser's side.) Nevertheless, experience warns us
to be prepared for every change of weather, from the distant West, as
well as the distant East, (and to guard ourselves alike against abuse
and against flattery.)
The sentiment of the Americans is unfriendly to us. In spite of Princes'
travels, Fritz monuments, exchanges of professors, Kiel Week, and cable
compliments? Yes, in spite of all that. We can't change it. And should
avoid impetuous wooing.
The missionaries of the Foreign Office brought along with them in trunks
and bundles across the sea the prettiest eagerness; but in many cases
they selected useless and in some cases even injurious methods.
Lectures, pamphlets, defensive writings--the number of the defenders
and the abundance of their implements and talk only nursed suspicion.
Whatever could be done for the explanation of the German conduct was
done by Germania's active children, who know the country and the people.
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