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America To-day, Observations and Reflections by William Archer
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any more than they love or hate (say) Italy or Japan, but whose
indifference would, until recently, have been much more easily deflected
on the side of hatred than of love. The effect of the Spanish War has
been in some measure to alter this bias, and to differentiate England,
to her advantage, from the other nations of Europe.


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote L: A very distinguished American authority writes to me as
follows with regard to this passage: "I hardly think you lay enough
weight upon the fact that in two or three generations the great bulk of
the descendants of the immigrants of non-English origin become
absolutely indistinguishable from other Americans, and share their
feelings. This is markedly so with the Scandinavians, and most of the
Germans of the second, and all the Germans of the third, generation, who
practically all, during 1898, felt toward Germany and England just
exactly as other Americans did.... Twice recently I have addressed huge
meetings of eight or ten thousand people, each drawn, as regards the
enormous majority, from exactly that class which you pointed out as
standing between the two extremes. In each case the men who introduced
me dwelt upon the increased good feeling between the English-speaking
peoples, and every complimentary allusion to England was received with
great applause." At the same time my correspondent adds: "Your division
of the American sentiment into three classes is exactly right; also your
sense of the relative importance of these three classes."]




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