NOT NEUTRAL.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Sia,—The enclosed may give you an idea of how I look on the Boches. Let me say right here that I am not a neutral in spirit. Had I two good legs, instead of a pair rather badly crippled, and had I less years on my head, I would be with the Foreign Legion right now. It may be that my blood has a great deal to do with my feeling in the matter, being English-Scotch, with no admixture of other strains. My folks came over in 1637 and fought in every war the American Continent has had since then. That means that we had two rounds without gloves with Britannia, but a man with that blood in him has to shake hands after a fight. I am thanking God this minute for my Anglo-Saxon ancestry. I am so heartily in sympathy with England and her Allies that I pray daily for their success. I believe them to be fighting the battles of civiliza- tion. I only wish that we might do more to aid, rather than write about it and talk about it. I consider this a time when a man should say frankly just where he stands, where his sympathy lies. I think it foolish and cowardly to do anything less. So I am putting myself on record as not neutral, but solidly for the Entente. I have no idea that this letter will do any good, nor that my opinions will help lick the Huns, but it is some satisfaction to say what I think. I wish I might send my views on the tip of a Spitzer bullet, right across to the German lines. And yet I have German friends who are fine and likable to the extreme. With me they agree that the Prussian spirit is rampant, and one said this week : " I confess a strong inclination to stand with my former country, but I hope I am not — fool enough to not see where she is acting the part of oppressor. I guess I must have lost some of the Prussianism during my thirty-five years in America." Mr. Editor, I am merely a speck on the far side of America, unknown outside my own little circle, of no especial consequence, but I am one of many, many thousands, of millions, I believe, who are praying for England over here. The time when a man might honestly say " I am neutral " has gone by, I believe. I think it is time to say God bless the Allied armies and all who are backing
them.—I am, Sir, &c., E. E. HARRIMAN. Los Angeles, Cal., December 13th, 1916.
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