SUNSET
THE PACIFIC MONTHLY
OCTOBER 1914
THE PULSE OF THE PACIFIC
THE neutrality which President Wilson urged the United States strictly to observe has been forgotten. Instead of maintaining the position of an impartial, cool-headed observer interested only in the early reéstablishment of peace, the bulk of the American press has sown the seeds of discord at home, prepared the ground for lasting antagonism abroad and obstructed the path of the peace advocates by a strong partisan attitude. Though the press unanimously acknowledged the wisdom of the President's injunction, a large number of papers and magazines immediately proceeded to disregard it utterly, condemning one side and according unstinted praise to the other.
The United States is peopled by the descendants of immigrants from all the nations now at war; all of northern Europe has helped to rear the great structure between the Atlantic and the Pacific; countless ties of blood and friendship run intermingled from every city, hamlet and farm to Europe's desolate homes; men, women and children tracing their descent directly or indirectly to the antagonists are in this country working and playing peacefully side by side. This world catastrophe has shown them the full worth of American citizenship, but the lesson will lose a large part of its effect, the spiritual value of American citizenship must drop in the eyes of foreign-born Americans and of their children if the jury of American public opinion is to be swayed far to one side or the other by the utterances of partisan pleaders before all the evidence has been presented. Strong partisanship must inevitably arouse one element of the population against the other; it fans into martial enthusiasm the quiet sympathy of those favored by the bias of the jury; it fills with bitterness and rancor the breasts of those who believe their native land slandered and maligned. Above everything, partisanship must bring to the surface the old, almost forgotten ties of blood that were completely submerged in the common sea of American citizenship.
A gray-haired man the other day listened to the acrimonious discussion of the war between an Englishman and a German. Words had brought them to a point where blows were next in order, when the old man stepped between them.
"Don't fight, brothers,' he said very quietly. 'This is America! I was born in 645
