Misinterpreting English-Speaking Friendship
The Poisoned Loving Cup. By Charles Grant Miller. (The NatiOnal Historic Society, Bankers Building, Chicago.) The Poisoned Loving Cup. By Charles Grant Miller. (The NatiOnal Historic Society, Bankers Building, Chicago.) TnE is a small group of sincere Americans, among whom is the author of this book, who are convinced that a widespread conspiracy is afoot which seeks to sap the foundations of the American Republic and to bring the United States under the tutelage of the British Empire. In every effort to improve English-speaking friendship they see . some sinister design, part of a great offensive which seeks to achieve its purpose by the " defamation of our nation's founders, perversion of their doctrines, and distortion of their ideals."
Of the defenders of the hundred per cent. American text- books, the best known in this country is Mr. William Hale Thompson, the Mayor of Chicago, but no less active is the author of this book, who for some time has taken on his shoulders the burden of defending the American Republic against the onslaughts of pro-British historians and others.
There can be no doubt about the sincerity of the author. He is genuinely persuaded that his country is in danger, and most of his book is devoted to a survey of the ramifications of all institutions pledged to promote English-speaking co-operation. Both the English-speaking Union and the Rhodes Scholarship Fund have each a chapter devoted to their activities.
Every American and every Englishman who is convinced that the best way of promoting world peace is by advancing the- cause of English-speaking friendship should read this book. The author's views are so fantastic and his fears so inconceivable to ordinary mortals that they may not feel inclined to persist to the end of the book ; but they should certainly do so. It is essential to their work to understand the mental complex of those who disagree with them and who are working so actively to exclude what they term the pro-British textbooks from American schools.
Despite Mr. Grant Miller and his friends the cause of English-speaking friendship is making steady headway, and doubtless that has led him to write this book. One of the reasons why the author regards the work of the Carnegie Peace Foundation with such suspicion is that on one occasion the. Pittsburgh steel magnate wrote in his book, Triumphant Democracy (edition of 1893), about his fondest dream of the " Re-United States, the British-American Union." On that occasion Carnegie wrote, " Let men say what they will ; therefore, I say that as sure as the sun in the heaven once shone on Britons and Americans united, so surely is it one morning to rise, shine upon and greet again, the Re-United States, the British-American Union." Mr. Miller has never forgiven Mr. Carnegie these words. Time and again Mr. Miller, tries to make his readers' blood creep by reiterating that terrible prophecy.
The author is genuinely convinced that every. American historian who ,tries to sift the available data concerning the founding of the American Republic and British-American relations during the . eighteenth century, is tainted with Carnegie money and tainted with Carnegie's ideas. "The tabloided and denatured accounts of the War of the Revolu- tion" are constantly referred to. There are many Englishmen who consider that the founding of the American Republic was the greatest achievement of their race. Mr. Miller cannot forgive Professor Van Tyne, the American historian, for expressing this thought from the American point of view. " It will then appear that the American Revolution was cne of the glories of British history rather than a blot upon her fair political record."
Major George Haven Putnam receives a rebuke for having referred to the fact that the United States Government is now " securely in Anglo-Saxon hands." If we are not mis- taken, many American public men besides Major Putnam have been at pains to prove^ that the great majority of Presidents, Judges of the Supreme Court and men prominent in American public life generally, have been of British descent. The trouble about people like Mr. Miller is that while they desire nothing but " true history " to be written, their ideas on what constitutes truth differ from that of many of their countrymen. The history books which they envisage are those which find no fault with any of their national heroes. They refuse to admit that any of the earlier American history books could ever have been at fault.
Among the other organizations which are indicted for seeking to sap hundred per cent. Americanism are the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship through the Church, the World Peace Foundation, the American Association for International Co-operation, the League of Nations Union, the New York Peace Society, the New York Union for International Justice, and the World Court League.
Mr. Grant Miller thinks that Englishmen who are working for cordial British-American relations are inspired with a dislike of the rest of the world, so he writes, " This inter- national good will must not embrace France or Germany or Italy or China or any other nation except Britain," and again, "The international mind is British thoroughly" (page 207). " While insidiously seeking to denationalise America and destroy our immemorial friendship with other peoples, it insistently strives to strengthen the nationalism of Britain and our allegiance to her."
As the Spectator is regarded by the author as a tainted source, we fear no words of ours will have any weight with him, but we would assure him and his friends that among the most earnest workers for English-speaking co-operation are those who are working equally hard for international friendship in other directions.' The Spectator is second to none in its enthusiasm for the cause of British-American co-operation, but it has never approved of a narrow race Imperialism. Just because we regard English-speaking friendship as a bulwark of peace, we are anxious to promote a better understanding among all peoples, through the League of Nations, or any other agency that is at hand.
Mr. Miller has provided us with a couple of hours' good entertainment. Some day we hope he will realize that there is no one in his senses in Great Britain who desires to weaken the foundations of the American Republic. J.
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