France, we have nothing more
to gain? In London and Paris and Berlin nobody at present dares say
"Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?"; for the
slightest disposition toward a Christian view of things is regarded as a
shooting matter in these capitals; but Washington is still privileged to
talk common humanity to the nations.

*An Advantage of Aloofness.*

Finally, I may remind you of another advantage which your aloofness from
the conflict gives you. Here, in England and in France, men are going to
the front every day; their women and children are all within earshot;
and no man is hard-hearted enough to say the worst that might be said of
what is going on in Belgium now. We talk to you of Louvain and Rheims in
the hope of enlisting you on our side or prejudicing you against the
Germans, forgetting how sorely you must be tempted to say as you look on
at what we are doing, "Well, if European literature, as represented by
the library of Louvain, and European religion, as represented by the
Cathedral of Rheims, have not got us beyond this, in God's name let them
perish." I am thinking of other things--of the honest Belgians, whom I
have seen nursing their wounds, and whom I recognize at a glance as
plain men, innocent of all warlike intentions, trusting to the wisdom
and honesty of the rulers and diplomatists who have betrayed them, taken
from their farms and their businesses to destroy and be destroyed for no
good purpose that might not have been achieved better and sooner by
neighborly means. I am thinking of the authentic news that no papers
dare publish, not of the lies that they all publish to divert attention
from the truth. In America these things can be said without driving
American mothers and wives mad; here, we have to set our teeth and go
forward. We cannot be just; we cannot see beyond the range of our guns.
The roar of the shrapnel deafens us; the black smoke of the howitzer
blinds us; and what these do to our bodily senses our passions do to our
imaginations. For justice, we must do as the mediaeval cities did--call
in a stranger. You are not altogether that to us; but you can look at
all of us impartially. And you are the spokesman of Western democracy.
That is why I appeal to you.

G. BERNARD SHAW.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] The English newspaper, The Nation, in which Mr. Shaw's letter to the
President of the United States appeared on Nov. 7, made the following
comment thereon:

We are g