I must insist that whatever anti-German feeling there is is not fully explained by Prof.  Eliot, and his article cannot be made a code by which German behavior could be regulated in the future.  Prof.  Eliot is a scholar; business interests do not come very near him.  So he is especially concerned with the ethical aspect of the matter.  He believes the Germans think that “might is right.”  This is very unjust.  Our history proves that we have never acted on this principle.  We have never got or attempted to get a world empire such as England has won, all of which, with a very few exceptions, by might, by war, and by conquest.  The German writers who have expounded this doctrine have only shown how the large world empires of England and France were welded together, what means have been adopted for that purpose, and against what sort of political doctrines we must beware.

Our Sympathy for the Under Dog.

As Dr. Eliot makes his remarks for the benefit of his German confreres, may I be permitted to say to them what I consider the reason for the American attitude?  There is, in the first place, the ethical side.  Americans have a very strong sense of generosity, and are, as a rule, very good sports.  They think Belgium a small nation, brutally attacked by a much bigger fellow; they feel that the little man stands up bravely and gamely, and fights for all he is worth.  Such a situation will always command American sympathy and antagonism against the stronger.  Then there is the business side.  Americans feel that this war is endangering their political and commercial interests, so they are naturally angry against the people who, they believe, have brought the war about.

As Germany has not had an opportunity to make herself heard as amply as her adversaries, they think that it was Germany which set the world afire, and that is what they resent, and in which they were justified, if it were true.  But the question of the hour is not the question of the past, but of the present and of the future, and the people on this side who will give Germany fair play because it is just in them will examine the situation in the light of their interests.  Then they will find that Belgium had been in league with the Allies long before the conflagration broke out, only to be left to its own resources when the critical hour arose.  They will further find that it is not Germany but England and her allies that are throttling commerce, maiming cables, stopping mails, and breaking neutrality and other treaties to further their aims; that, finally, today England has established a world rule on the sea to which even America must submit.  They will then soon come to the conclusion that, no matter what happened in the past, the peace of the world can only be assured by a good understanding between Germany and the United States as a sort of counterbalance against the unmeasured aggrandizement of English sea power.  Then the feeling toward Germany will be considerably better, and I may add that even now it is not so very bad after all.