a straight deal(一笔干脆的交易)

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A STRAIGHT DEAL

By Owen Wister

To Edward and Anna Martin who give help in time of trouble

A STRAIGHT DEAL

CHAPTER I: Concerning One's

Letter Box

Publish any sort of conviction related to these morose days through

which we are living and letters will shower upon you like leaves in

October. No matter what your conviction be, it will shake both yeas and

nays loose from various minds where they were hanging ready to fall.

Never was a time when so many brains rustled with hates and panaceas

that would sail wide into the air at the lightest jar. Try it and see. Say that

you believe in God, or do not; say that Democracy is the key to the

millennium, or the survival of the unfittest; that Labor is worse than the

Kaiser, or better; that drink is a demon, or that wine ministers to the health

and the cheer of man--say what you please, and the yeas and nays will pelt

you. So insecurely do the plainest, oldest truths dangle in a mob of

disheveled brains, that it is likely, did you assert twice two continues to

equal four and we had best stick to the multiplication table, anonymous

letters would come to you full of passionate abuse. Thinking comes hard

to all of us. To some it never comes at all, because their heads lack the

machinery. How many of such are there among us, and how can we find

them out before they do us harm? Science has a test for this. It has been

applied to the army recruit, but to the civilian voter not yet. The voting

moron still runs amuck in our Democracy. Our native American air is

infected with alien breath. It is so thick with opinions that the light is

obscured. Will the sane ones eventually prevail and heal the sick

atmosphere? We must at least assume so. Else, how could we go on?

A STRAIGHT DEAL

CHAPTER II: What the Postman

Brought

During the winter of 1915 I came to think that Germany had gone

dangerously but methodically mad, and that the European War vitally

concerned ourselves. This conviction I put in a book. Yeas and nays pelted

me. Time seems to show the yeas had it.

During May, 1918, I thought we made a mistake to hate England. I

said so at the earliest opportunity. Again came the yeas and nays. You shall

see some of these. They are of help. Time has not settled this question. It is

as alive as ever--more alive than ever. What if the Armistice was

premature? What if Germany absorb Russia and join Japan? What if the

League of Nations break like a toy?

Yeas and nays are put here without the consent of their writers, whose

names, of course, do not appear, and who, should they ever see this, are

begged to take no offense. None is intended.

There is no intention except to persuade, if possible, a few readers, at

least, that hatred of England is not wise, is not justified to-day, and has

never been more than partly justified. It is based upon three foundations

fairly distinct yet meeting and merging on occasions: first and worst, our

school histories of the Revolution; second, certain policies and actions of

England since then, generally distorted or falsified by our politicians; and

lastly certain national traits in each country that the other does not share

and which have hitherto produced perennial personal friction between

thousands of English and American individuals of every station in life.

These shall in due time be illustrated by two sets of anecdotes: one,

disclosing the English traits, the other the American. I say English, and not

British, advisedly, because both the Scotch and the Irish seem to be

without those traits which especially grate upon us and upon which we

especially grate. And now for the letters.

The first is from a soldier, an enlisted man, writing from France.

"Allow me to thank you for your article entitled 'The Ancient

Grudge.' ... Like many other young Americans there was instilled in me

A STRAIGHT DEAL

from early childhood a feeling of resentment against our democratic

cousins across the Atlantic and I was only too ready to accept as true those

stories I heard of England shirking her duty and hiding behind her colonies,

etc. It was not until I came over here and saw what she was really doing

that my opinion began to change.

"When first my division arrived in France it was brigaded with and

received its initial experience with the British, who proved to us how little

we really knew of the war as it was and that we had yet much to learn.

Soon my opinion began to change and I was regarding England as the

backbone of the Allies. Yet there remained a certain something I could not

forgive them. What it was you know, and have proved to me that it is not

our place to judge and that we have much for which to be thankful to our

great Ally.

"Assuring you that your ... article has succeeded in converting one

who needed conversion badly I beg to remain...."

How many American soldiers in Europe, I wonder, have looked about

them, have used their sensible independent American brains (our very best

characteristic), have left school histories and hearsay behind them and

judged the English for themselves? A good many, it is to be hoped. What

that judgment finally becomes must depend not alone upon the personal

experience of each man. It must also come from that liberality of outlook

which is attained only by getting outside your own place and seeing a lot

of customs and people that differ from your own. A mind thus seasoned

and balanced no longer leaps to an opinion about a whole nation from the

sporadic conduct of individual members of it. It is to be feared that some

of our soldiers may never forget or make allowance for a certain insult

they received in the streets of London. But of this later. The following

sentence is from a letter written by an American sailor:

"I have read... 'The Ancient Grudge' and I wish it could be read by

every man on our big ship as I know it would change a lot of their attitude

toward England. I have argued with lots of them and have shown some of

them where they are wrong but the Catholics and descendants of Ireland

have a different argument and as my education isn't very great, I know

very little about what England did to the Catholics in Ireland."

A STRAIGHT DEAL

Ireland I shall discuss later. Ireland is no more our business to-day than

the South was England's business in 1861. That the Irish question should

defeat an understanding between ourselves and England would be, to

quote what a gentleman who is at once a loyal Catholic and a loyal

member of the British Government said to me, "wrecking the ship for a

ha'pennyworth of tar."

The following is selected from the nays, and was written by a business

man. I must not omit to say that the writers of all these letters are strangers

to me.

"As one American citizen to another... permit me to give my personal

view on your subject of 'The Ancient Grudge'...

"To begin with, I think that you start with a false idea of our kinship--

with the idea that America, because she speaks the language of England,

because our laws and customs are to a great extent of the same origin,

because much that is good among us came from there also, is essentially

of English character, bound up in some way with the success or failure of

England.

"Nothing, in my opinion, could be further from the truth. We are a

distinctive race--no more English, nationally, than the present King

George is German--as closely related and as alike as a celluloid comb and

a stick of dynamite.

"We are bound up in the success of America only. The English are

bound up in the success of England only. We are as friendly as rival

corporations. We can unite in a common cause, as we have, but, once that

is over, we will go our own way--which way, owing to the increase of our

shipping and foreign trade, is likely to become more and more antagonistic

to England's.

"England has been a commercially unscrupulous nation for

generations and it is idle to throw the blame for this or that act of a nation

on an individual. Such arguments might be kept up indefinitely as regards

an act of any country. A responsible nation must bear the praise or odium

that attaches to any national action. If England has experienced a change

of heart it has occurred since the days of the Boer Republic--as wanton a

steal as Belgium, with even less excuse, and attended with sufficient

A STRAIGHT DEAL

brutality for all practical purposes....

"She has done us many an ill turn gratuitously and not a single good

turn that was not dictated by selfish policy or jealousy of others. She has

shown herself, up till yesterday at least, grasping and unscrupulous. She is

no worse than the others probably--possibly even better--but it would be

doing our country an ill turn to persuade its citizens that England was

anything less than an active, dangerous, competitor, especially in the

infancy of our foreign trade. When a business rival gives you the glad

hand and asks fondly after the children, beware lest the ensuing emotions

cost you money.

"No: our distrust for England has not its life and being in pernicious

textbooks. To really believe that would be an insult to our intelligence--

even grudges cannot live without real food. Should England become

helpless tomorrow, our animosity and distrust would die to-morrow,

because we would know that she had it no longer in her power to injure us.

Therein lies the feeling--the textbooks merely echo it....

"In my opinion, a navy somewhat larger than England's would

practically eliminate from America that 'Ancient Grudge' you deplore. It is

England's navy--her boasted and actual control of the seas--which

threatens and irritates every nation on the face of the globe that has

maritime aspirations. She may use it with discretion, as she has for years.

It may even be at times a source of protection to others, as it has--but so

long as it exists as a supreme power it is a constant source of danger and

food for grudges.

"We will never be a free nation until our navy surpasses England's.

The world will never be a free world until the seas and trade routes are

free to all, at all times, and without any menace, however benevolent.

"In conclusion ... allow me to again state that I write as one American

citizen to another with not the slightest desire to say anything that may be

personally obnoxious. My own ancestors were from England. My personal

relations with the Englishmen I have met have been very pleasant. I can

readily believe that there are no better people living, but I feel so strongly

on the subject, nationally--so bitterly opposed to a continuance of

England's sea control--so fearful that our people may be lulled into a

A STRAIGHT DEAL

feeling of false security, that I cannot help trying to combat, with every

small means in my power, anything that seems to propagate a dangerous

friendship."

I received no dissenting letter superior to this. To the writer of it I

replied that I agreed with much that he said, but that even so it did not in

my opinion outweigh the reasons I had given (and shall now give more

abundantly) in favor of dropping our hostile feeling toward England.

My correspondent says that we differ as a race from the English as

much as a celluloid comb from a stick of dynamite. Did our soldiers find

the difference as great as that? I doubt if our difference from anybody is

quite as great as that. Again, my correspondent says that we are bound up

in our own success only, and England is bound up in hers only. I agree.

But suppose the two successes succeed better through friendship than

through enmity? We are as friendly, my correspondent says, as two rival

corporations. Again I agree. Has it not been proved this long while that

competing corporations prosper through friendship? Did not the Northern

Pacific and the Great Northern form a combination called the Northern

Securities, for the sake of mutual benefit? Under the Sherman Act the

Northern Securities was dissolved; but no Sherman act forbids a Liberty

Securities. Liberty, defined and assured by Law, is England's gift to the

modern world. Liberty, defined and assured by Law, is the central purpose

of our Constitution. Just as identically as the Northern Pacific and Great

Northern run from St. Paul to Seattle do England and the United States

aim at Liberty, defined and assured by Law. As friends, the two nations

can swing the world towards world stability. My correspondent would

hardly have instanced the Boers in his reference to England's misdeeds,

had he reflected upon the part the Boers have played in England's struggle

with Germany.

I will point out no more of the latent weaknesses that underlie various

passages in this letter, but proceed to the remaining letters that I have

selected. I gave one from an enlisted man and one from a sailor; this is

from a commissioned officer, in France.

"I cannot refrain from sending you a line of appreciation and thanks

for giving the people at home a few facts that I am sure some do not know

A STRAIGHT DEAL

and throwing a light upon a much discussed topic, which I am sure will

help to remove from some of their minds a foolish bigoted antipathy."

Upon the single point of our school histories of the Revolution, some

of which I had named as being guilty of distorting the facts, a

correspondent writes from Nebraska:

"Some months ago... the question came to me, what about our

Montgomery's History now.... I find that everywhere it is the King who is

represented as taking these measures against the American people. On

page 134 is the heading, American Commerce; the new King George III;

how he interfered with trade; page 135, The King proposes to tax the

Colonies; page 136, 'The best men in Parliament--such men as William

Pitt and Edmund Burke-- took the side of the colonies.' On page 138,

'William Pitt said in Parliament, "in my opinion, this kingdom has no right

to lay a tax on the colonies... I rejoice that America has resisted"'; page

150, 'The English people would not volunteer to fight the Americans and

the King had to hire nearly 30,000 Hessians to help do the work.... The

Americans had not sought separation; the King--not the English people--

had forced it on them....'

"I am writing this... because, as I was glad to see, you did not mince

words in naming several of the worse offenders." (He means certain

school histories that I mentioned and shall mention later again.)

An official from Pittsburgh wrote thus:

"In common with many other people, I have had the same idea that

England was not doing all she could in the war, that while her colonies

were in the thick of it, she, herself, seemed to be sparing herself, but after

reading this article... I will frankly and candidly confess to you that it has

changed my opinion, made me a strong supporter of England, and above

all made me a better American "

>From Massachusetts:

"It is well to remind your readers of the errors--or worse--in American

school text books and to recount Britain's achievements in the present war.

But of what practical avail are these things when a man so highly placed

as the present Secretary of the Navy asks a Boston audience (Tremont

Temple, October 30, 1918) to believe that it was the American navy which

A STRAIGHT DEAL

made possible the transportation of over 2,000,000 Americans to France

without the loss of a single transport on the way over? Did he not know

that the greater part of those troops were not only transported, but

convoyed, by British vessels, largely withdrawn for that purpose from

such vital service as the supply of food to Britain's civil population?"

The omission on the part of our Secretary of the Navy was later quietly

rectified by an official publication of the British Government, wherein it

appeared that some sixty per cent of our troops were transported in British

ships. Our Secretary's regrettable slight to our British allies was

immediately set right by Admiral Sims, who forthwith, both in public and

in private, paid full and appreciative tribute to what had been done. It is,

nevertheless, very likely that some Americans will learn here for the first

time that more than half of our troops were not transported by ourselves,

and could not have been transported at all but for British assistance. There

are many persons who still believe what our politicians and newspapers

tell them. No incident that I shall relate further on serves better to point the

chief international moral at which I am driving throughout these pages,

and at which I have already hinted: Never to generalize the character of a

whole nation by the acts of individual members of it. That is what

everybody does, ourselves, the English, the French, everybody. You can

form no valid opinion of any nation's characteristics, not even your own,

until you have met hundreds of its people, men and women, and had

ample opportunity to observe and know them beneath the surface. Here on

the one hand we had our Secretary of the Navy. He gave our Navy the

whole credit for getting our soldiers overseas.

He justified the British opinion that we are a nation of braggarts. On

the other hand, in London, we had Admiral Sims, another American, a

splendid antidote. He corrected the Secretary's brag. What is the moral?

Look out how you generalize. Since we entered the war that tribe of

English has increased who judge us with an open mind, discriminate

between us, draw close to a just appraisal of our qualities and defects, and

possibly even discern that those who fill our public positions are mostly on

a lower level than those who elect them.

I proceed with two more letters, both dissenting, and both giving very

A STRAIGHT DEAL

typically, as it seems to me, the American feeling about England-- partially

justified by instances mentioned by my correspondent, but equally

mentioned by me in passages which he seems to have skipped.

"Lately I read and did not admire your article... 'The Ancient Grudge.'

Many of your statements are absolutely true, and I recognize the fact that

England's help in this war has been invaluable. Let it go at that and hush!

"I do not defend our own Indian policy.... Wounded and disabled in our

Indian wars... I know all about them and how indefensible they are.....

"England has been always our only legitimate enemy. 1776? Yes, call

it ancient history and forget it if possible. 1812? That may go in the same

category. But the causes of that misunderstanding were identically

repeated in 1914 and '15.

"1861? Is that also ancient? Perhaps--but very bitter in the memory of

many of us now living. The Alabama. The Confederate Commissioners (I

know you will say we were wrong there--and so we may have been

technically-- but John Bull bullied us into compliance when our hands

were tied). Lincoln told his Cabinet 'one war at a time, Gentlemen' and

submitted....

"In 1898 we were a strong and powerful nation and a dangerous

enemy to provoke. England recognized the fact and acted accordingly.

England entered the present war to protect small nations! Heaven save the

mark! You surely read your history. Pray tell me something of England's

policy in South Africa, India, the Soudan, Persia, Abyssinia, Ireland, Egypt.

The lost provinces of Denmark. The United States when she was young

and helpless. And thus, almost to- infinitum.

"Do you not know that the foundations of ninety per cent of the great

British fortunes came from the loot of India? upheld and fostered by the

great and unscrupulous East India Company?

"Come down to later times: to-day for instance. Here in California... I

meet and associate with hundreds of Britishers. Are they American

citizens? I had almost said, 'No, not one.' Sneering and contemptuous of

America and American institutions. Continually finding fault with our

government and our people. Comparing these things with England, always

to our disadvantage......

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ASTRAIGHTDEAL1ASTRAIGHTDEALByOwenWisterToEdwardandAnnaMartinwhogivehelpintimeoftroubleASTRAIGHTDEAL2CHAPTERI:ConcerningOne'sLetterBoxPublishanysortofconvictionrelatedtothesemorosedaysthroughwhichwearelivingandletterswillshoweruponyoulikeleavesinOctober.Nomatterwhatyourconvictionbe,itwillshakebothyea...

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a straight deal(一笔干脆的交易)

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