se 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 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 Nor