The formula
covers two diametrically opposed purposes by the symbolic phrase
"American rights."
But there was the Lusitania. Like the 1912 schism, it was an
invincible obstacle to harmony.
"... I am confident that there would have been no destruction of
American lives by the sinking of the Lusitania."
Thus, what cannot be compromised must be obliterated, when there is a
question on which we cannot all hope to get together, let us pretend
that it does not exist. About the future of American relations with
Europe Mr. Hughes was silent. Nothing he could say would possibly
please the two irreconcilable factions for whose support he was
bidding.
It is hardly necessary to say that Mr. Hughes did not invent this
technic and did not employ it with the utmost success. But he
illustrated how a public opinion constituted out of divergent opinions
is clouded; how its meaning approaches the neutral tint formed out of
the blending of many colors. Where superficial harmony is the aim and
conflict the fact, obscurantism in a public appeal is the usual
result. Almost always vagueness at a crucial point in public debate is
a symptom of cross-purposes.
3
But how is it that a vague idea so often has the power to unite deeply
felt opinions? These opinions, we recall, however deeply they may be
felt, are not in continual and pungent contact with the facts they
profess to treat.
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