le
to sympathize with the tone of the imperial and royal addresses which,
in summoning the people to war, use such phrases as "My monarchy," "My
loyal people," "My loyal subjects"; for there is implied in such phrases
a dynastic or personal ownership of peoples which shocks the average
American. Americans inevitably think that the right way for a ruler to
begin an exhortation to the people he rules is President Wilson's way:
"My fellow-countrymen."

It follows from the very existence of these American instincts and hopes
that, although the people of the United States mean to maintain
faithfully a legal neutrality, they are not, and can not be, neutral or
indifferent as to the ultimate outcome of this titanic struggle. It
already seems to them that England, France, and Russia are fighting for
freedom and civilization. It does not follow that thinking Americans
will forget the immense services which Germany has rendered to
civilization during the last hundred years, or desire that her power to
serve letters, science, art, and education should be in the least
abridged in the outcome of this war upon which she has entered so
rashly and selfishly and in so barbarous a spirit. Most educated
Americans hope and believe that by defeating the German barbarousness
the Allies will only promote the noble German civilization.

[Illustration: JOHN W. BURGESS

_(Photo by Alman & Co.)_

_See Page 507_]

[Illustration: WILLIAM M. SLOANE

_(Photo by Pach.)_

_See Page 515_]

The presence of Russia in the combination against Germany and
Austria-Hungary seems to the average American an abnormal phenomenon;
because Russia is itself a military monarchy with marked territorial
ambitions; and its civilization is at a more elementary stage than that
of France or England; but he resists present apprehension on this score
by recalling that Russia submitted to the "Concert of Europe" when her
victorious armies were within seventeen miles of Constantinople, that
she emancipated her serfs, proposed The Hague Conferences, initiated the
"Duma," and has lately offered--perhaps as war measures only--autonomy
to her Poles and equal rights of citizenship to her Jews. He also
cannot help believing that a nation which has produced such a literature
as Russia has produced during the last fifty years must hold within its
multitudinous population a large minority which is seething with high
aspirations and a fine idealism.

For the clarification of