AMERICA AND JOHN BULL

Senator Reed has distinguished himself in the Senate by a protracted attack against Herbert Hoover. Charging him with the arch-offense (from Mr. Reed's point of view) of being kindly disposed toward Great Britain, he expressed grave apprehension concerning the possibilities of British domination over the United States in the League of Nations during the Hoover administration. In the Sunday Advertiser a critic who is less well-known as well as less self-contained, divides a whole page between assailing Admiral Sims for alleged pro-British activity and libelling our recent ally.

As if there were not enough "questions" already, this new one is clearly forcing itself upon us more and more every day--what shall be our relation with Great Britain? Mr. Hearst could probably answer in a few brief, pointed, not altogether nice remarks. His opinion would be vociferously seconded by many ardent supporters of Sinn Fein.--We ought not to declare war right off, perhaps; but we should certainly make ready for war. And when we do open hostilities against the rest of the English-speaking world--My! What a licking we will give them!

Of course this solution is based on these gentlemen's opinion of England. England has never done anything right in her history, Why? Delightfully simple Because anything that England does is in itself wrong.

On the other hand we have the "blood is thicker than water", type; persons who simply must have their tiffin, and into whose speech creeps a home-made Oxford accent whenever they talk to "those of the middle and lower classes." These are amusing and do little harm. What they fail to see is that we are no more English than we are anything else; in short, that we are Americans.

It is as Americans that we should view the "tight little island," not as Englishmen, not as Irishmen. It is not an American policy to foment ill-will between any two nations. Those who try to provoke international enmities are no less enemies of the United States than those who deliberately injure us from outside. While maintaining our own sovereignty, we must not endanger our cordial relationship with Great Britain.