Everywhere I found hundreds and thousands of people eager to help
along a league of peace. Much in this league of nations has been
misunderstood and misrepresented in America. The Covenant became mixed
up with party politics at election time. Millions of Americans seemed
to favour some modified league of peace. I am sure this country has
never considered the League perfect or above amendment; and I believe
that changes could be made which would improve the efficiency of the
League and which would at the same time make international coöperation
acceptable in America. I may be wrong, I do not think so. Many in
America have been frightened by certain clauses. They fear they might
be drawn into European wars--as though England with her nine hundred
thousand dead would ever join any league except to avoid wars. If
certain clauses are unacceptable to America, let us change those
clauses. No league can succeed unless it is based on mutual trust.
In America I tried to make them see that it was neither their money
nor their sons, but their great moral support which was needed. I
think myself that they realise it, thousands of them. The foreign-born
American can hardly fail to see that the best way to help the country
he has left is to vote for a real league of nations, which will
include all nations. The League of Women Voters, which represents
millions of women, is overwhelmingly in favour of some league of peace.
Women of all countries want peace because we pay so heavily in war.
There are women of all countries in America, and I feel sure they will
work toward peace. They may give a lead to the men. They can if they
will, and I feel that they will. America is bound to have a foreign
policy if she has a Mercantile Marine! The thinking men and women
realise that, and it’s only the thinkers in any country that count.
They are thinking hard in America, thinking so hard that they are
playing havoc with the old Party machines. They are bound to be broken
unless they represent the soul of the country. I don’t believe that
America cares more for oil concessions than for bleeding humanity.
Certain interests may, but they exist in all countries.
If the Press of the country is any indication of the thought of the
country, then we can rejoice when we read the American Press. Not
the Personal Press. The Personal Press in all countries is very much
alike and very misleading--in fact, it is a curse to any country. It’s
no good the reporters taking this down for most of their employers
won’t publish it. One reads the Press for news, true news and facts,
not to have the news tainted by the personal prejudices of the owner.
Unfortunately some newspaper owners don’t realise this, but we, who
read their papers, can only pity them and pray for better times. Now
the Associated Press of America is a shining light in the country,
because it tries to put true European news before the people. Mr.
Melville Stone, and the gentlemen who helped him to build up the
Associated Press deserve, and some day will get, the gratitude of the
world. True international news is what we need to know to-day. I was
much struck with the good European news that once got in the American
Press. Over here, except for a few commendable exceptions, one would
almost think that America was made up of bootleggers, drunken society
girls, and cinema scandals. If that were true, it would be far better
that America should never come into a league of nations. But that kind
of news does not represent the country: it is only true of those people
who add to no country’s greatness, and unfortunately are to be found in
all countries.
I could talk to you for hours of my travels, and the wonderful kindness
shown me wherever we went. It was so unexpected. I never started on
a mission; I never knew that America would be so interested in what
England had done and was trying to do. They warned me not to speak
of the League of Nations, but I found that a fool without fear is
sometimes wiser than an angel with fear. I had to speak of what was
in my heart. No one could have lived through these last seven years
and not had their hearts either broken, hardened, or just made larger.
I tried to tell them about English sailors and soldiers, and above
all English women. Many could have done it better, but I feel that
England’s greatness lies, perhaps, in her reticence. No English-born
M. P. could have spoken out so. I had an unique opportunity, and
sometimes when I feared I should fail, I remembered my friends in
Flanders fields, and that gave me courage. However, it doesn’t take
great courage to speak out what you feel is the truth to people,
particularly if they are your own people. It’s a wonderful thing to
belong to two great countries, but it’s even more wonderful to feel
that the hearts and desires of these two countries are striving for
what is best and what is right. It may take time before America comes
into her own, but her own is clear to me. She cannot live up to her
high ideals if she tries to live to herself alone. I don’t believe she
wants to do it. She proved it at the Washington Conference. She had the
chance to build the greatest navy in the world. She gave it up with as
much grace as the greatest navy in the world gave up her long reign of
the seas. There they showed the rest of the world how great they were.
Sometime, somehow, America will confer again, and that will be to help
the whole world, as England is so bravely trying to do almost alone
now--to show men that her foundations are built on peace on earth and
good-will toward all men.
IX[I]
“_America is no more a mere country of business men than England is a
nation of shop-keepers._”
It’s a wonderful thing to feel that you in Plymouth, who gave me my
first chance of public service, should be here to-night to thank me
for any small service I may have rendered. I know that there are some
here who never wanted to give me the chance, some who fought against
my getting the chance, but that makes it all the more splendid and
generous of them to come to-night. I hope that they will realise that,
whenever a really big chance comes, the Member from this glorious
old town will strive to do what is right, without party prejudice or
partial affection. That’s what I tried to do in America. I never did
half as well as I should have liked, but at least I did the best I knew
how.
My American trip will always remain a mystery to me. A mystery and an
inspiration. As you know, I never went out on a mission; I was not
quite so egotistical as that. I went to speak to the League of Women
Voters. They asked me, and I realised that, being Virginian born and
a British M. P., I might be able to explain to them a little some of
the outstanding characteristics of the British. I could stand before
them as an emblem of British Justice. You all must know that a certain
section of the Irish in America (and only a section--many of the
Irish-Americans are among the best and most highly respected citizens)
have made hatred of England not only a plank in their religious
teachings, which is the greatest of _all_ crimes (for it is a crime to
teach hate in the name of God who is Love), but they have also made it
a political issue. They are highly organised, and not a silent body
by any means. They have grossly misrepresented England, but I think
they have over-rated their powers. To hear them talk you would think
that England was a monster of greed and injustice. Their propaganda
is subtle, but it is not really convincing. I think it is killing
itself. It is a poor thing to preach hatred and it is almost suicidal
to nourish it. It is a losing doctrine and is bound to lose, if God is
true and God is love. I am not afraid of those who preach hate--be it
class, national, or international, for I believe that hate is a blind
force, and that the truth about everything finally works through,
though it takes time. This to me is one of the fundamental facts of
civilisation. We are slowly but surely progressing nearer and nearer
reality.
However, that is not what I came here to talk about. I am here to try
to tell you of my trip. In the first two speeches I made, I spoke of
England--her high ideals and desire to help the whole world. I spoke
of the common bond between America and Great Britain, that bond I
believe to be a common purpose of Peace on earth and good-will toward
all men. I reminded them of what a great part the British Navy had
played in making what civilisation we have. I don’t believe that any
other country in the world but England or America, with the greatest
navy in the world, would have used it always for purposes of peace.
I’ll admit that before America was settled the navy under Drake was
not exactly a missionary society, and yet it did missionary work, and
made it possible for English ideals to go forth and spread the whole
world over. I told them with as much pride as though I, personally, had
bidden godspeed to Francis Drake and seen that his powder was dry.
I should remind you that Drake is as much a part of Virginian history
as of England’s.
I spoke of the League of Nations, and how it could never be a real
League without America, and that America’s greatness would never be
true unless she helped the whole world; in fact, I just spoke out. I
would have understood had they said: “This woman talks too freely; we
don’t want to hear any more of what she has got to say.” I would have
understood that; but they didn’t do that. After my first two speeches
we got wires from all over America, from all kinds of associations
and people asking us to speak--business men, Chambers of Commerce,
colleges, etc.--that’s the wonderful part of the whole thing. I dared
speak of England and the League of Nations, and of the pity that
America should not be in, and they still wanted to hear. I have always
felt that not only are America’s laws Anglo-Saxon, but her ideals are
Anglo-Saxon, and I have always felt, too, that until people from other
countries brought better laws and higher ideals than my forefathers
carried from this country, that those laws and those ideals would be
accepted, and would govern and guide all those millions of people from
other nations who came to America. For the sake of humanity, one would
wish America to accept better laws and better ideals if she could find
them. I don’t think she has found them yet. She may have improved
them, but the background and bedrock are the same. Virginia did improve
them, and I was reminded in Canada that Nova Scotia got her laws
from the Virginians, who had improved them to suit a young country,
and from these laws a great nation is springing. Let no one forget
America’s greatness. She is very young compared to the Old World. She
may seem precocious--young people generally are--but she cares about
real things, and her heart is as big as her territory. Ask any one
who goes there, and they nearly all tell the same story of generous
hospitality and a great sense of friendliness. I, being American born
of only stout Anglo-Saxon forefathers, would naturally always love
the real America, but this time I loved her more than ever, for I saw
that my thoughts about her were right, and I loved her for letting
me speak of England--how she had suffered, how she fought, and how
hopeless she was at ever speaking of herself. I told them that perhaps
some of her greatness lay in her reticence. When you do right, you can
afford to be reticent. It is only people who are doing wrong who need
to be continually talking. I knew that though ten Englishmen were being
killed in the war for every two overseas men, to read the papers one
would have thought that only the overseas men were fighting. So much
was it so, that the German-Americans tried to use it as a proof of
England’s selfishness. She saved her own men, they said, and sent the
overseas men into the worst places. You and I and the men themselves
know better. It was England’s dauntless chivalry which made her give
first place in her accounts of the battles to her gallant sons who came
so far to help her.
Then I tried to tell them what English women did--how they bore it all;
and just worked and smiled and helped their sons when they came from
America. You here in Plymouth know all about that, for you did it so
well. You bound many a Yankee with your West Country kindliness. They
won’t forget. I went back and reminded them that English Kings found
out in 1214 at Runnymede what the Kaiser only discovered in 1918.
I reminded them that long before they set sail to settle America,
Englishmen were fighting for freedom. They let me say all this, and
they listened and were very kind.
And so we travelled far and wide, the two Plymouth M. P.’s of the Upper
and Lower Houses. The Member of the Upper House was a far greater
success than the member of the Lower House. They were slightly
prepared for my democratic outlook, but they were totally unprepared
for his. Imagine their surprise when they found him more progressive
and democratic than most of the people that they saw about them.
Before I leave America, I must tell you that my welcome in Virginia
was best of all--Virginia, England’s first child and my first home.
All I can tell you here at Plymouth about Virginia is this: I got a
Plymouth man a job in Virginia, and I saw him when I got back home and
he said: “Lady Astor, you are right about Virginia. I didn’t feel a
bit away from Devon here. It’s just like home.” And so I feel about
Plymouth. It, too, to me is just like home. There’s the same sort of
naturalness about Virginians as there is about Devonians. We both have
fine traditions, and perhaps we are both a little slow. The rest of
the countries may pick out many faults in us, but they can also pick
out many pages of history that would not have been written without us.
We went from New York to Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, Virginia,
then Chicago--a wonderful place--and everywhere we found a great spirit
of hope. It really seems a land of hope. Then we went to Canada.
Everyone in Canada was kind, from the Prime Minister down, and most of
my friends were down. They appeared all along the railway on the train
from Ottawa to Montreal. When I was trying to rest a bit I heard at
a wayside station two familiar voices--“Hurry up and come out, Mrs.
Astor, we’ve come a long way to see you.” There they were--two of the
Canadian soldiers from the Hospital at Cliveden. Virginia and Canada
did give me a very personal kind of welcome; so much so that I can’t
really speak of it, but I told them I realised that in thanking me,
they were just thanking all the women of England who had worked so hard
for their sons.
Now I don’t want you to think that we took this trip for any personal
purpose; that wouldn’t have been worth while, and yet it turned out
to be for a purpose--a purpose far above anything so small as a
personality--things we believed in, not what we had attained. But we
saw we had a chance to speak the kind of things that would unite, and
we took it; and I firmly believe that some day we shall see the British
Empire and America not bound together by any treaty--they may never
sign any agreement--that won’t matter, but seeing things as they saw
them at Washington. There are so many people in these two countries
who are working for what is greater than all nations--Civilisation
based on Christianity. I know you may look around and say we have very
little civilisation and even less Christianity; yet we have a nucleus,
a leaven perhaps, and some day it will leaven the whole. You may
rightly say bitter things about America not coming into the League of
Nations--no more bitter things than I heard some Americans say. I can’t
pretend to say that America will come into this League of Nations. I am
no prophet; but I would stake my very life that some day and some hour
America will come into some sort of League of Peace--not to protect
herself, but to protect the peace of the world. I know that there are
hundreds and thousands of men and women in America who are striving
for what is best and right in civic, national, and international life.
There are people in all countries with vision, and they keep the rest
from perishing. America is no more a mere country of business men than
England is a nation of shop-keepers. We do business and we keep shops,
but we don’t end there. That’s only where we begin. The countries who
taunt us with that find, when there’s famine in the world, American
business men and English shop-keepers are the first to help.
To-day is Independence Day in America. Little American children are
burning their fingers with fire crackers. American orators are burning
their audiences with oratory. They are speaking of America’s great
fight for Independence. Let us all remember that the American War of
Independence was fought by British Americans against a German King
and a reactionary Prime Minister for British ideals, and that a large
part of the British nation sympathised with the rebels. The same old
British fighting always for freedom! The great American of that day
was a Virginian--George Washington. Some one described him as one of
England’s greatest sons. He was a Virginian with only British blood--I
am just the other way around--a British M. P. with only Virginian
blood. I am no leader, no general, and no statesman, but I hope I am
a fighter, especially when it’s a fight for peace. Many of us believe
that until the British Empire and America get together and lead the
world in Peace--Peace will be a long time coming. We feel, too, that in
fighting for understanding between these two countries we are fighting
for something far greater than any one country--for a civilisation
based on Christianity.
THE END
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Before the League of Women Voters, New York.
[B] Before the English Speaking Union, New York.
[C] Before the Convention of the League of Women Voters, Baltimore.
[D] Before the Associated Press, New York.
[E] Before the League of Women Voters, Chicago.
[F] In Ottawa.
[G] New York farewell.
[H] Before the English Speaking Union, Plymouth.
[I] Plymouth.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.