And in this analysis let us exclude from the beginning
such very real, but temporary, grievances against the English as
spring from Irish oppressions, trade rivalries, or the
provocations which always arise between allies in war. All such
causes of anti-English and anti-"Anglo-Saxon" sentiment belong in
a different category from the underlying motives which I propose
to discuss.
These new Anglomaniacs, with their talk of Anglo-Saxon domination,
cannot mean English domination. That would be absurd, although
even absurdities are current coin in restless years like these.
At least one Irishman of my acquaintance _knows_ that King George
cabled Wilson to bring America into the war, and that until that cable
came Wilson dared not act. I can conceive of an English influence upon
literature that is worth attacking, and also worth defending. I can
conceive of a far less important English influence upon our social
customs. But in neither case, domination. That England dominates our
finance, our industry, our politics, is just now, especially, the
suspicion of a paranoiac, or the idea of an ignoramus.
"Anglo-Saxon domination," even in an anti-British meeting, cannot
and does not mean English domination; it can mean only control of
America by the so-called Anglo-Saxon element in our population.
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