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THE
MUJIC TRADE
VOL. LXI. N o . 10 Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI at 373 Fourth Ave., New York, Sept. 4,1915
S
SING
^OO C PER ES VEA^ ENTS
INCE my return from my long Western jaunt, I have been interested in going over a volumi-
nous personal correspondence which has been held for my inspection, and I have been
particularly gratified to find a number of letters from friends who have taken the trouble
to compliment me upon the varied service which The Review is constantly rendering to
readers in the music trade. It is the kind of encouragement which is stimulating and spurs one to
do better things.
One writer expresses a sentiment which I feel it is timely to reproduce. He writes: "I have been
a close reader of your editorials for years and I feel that you are giving the trade something which
is distinctly original and of great value to every department of the industry. I have been pleased to
see that you have not marred your admitted standing by entering into a discussion of the European
war or 03^ advancing any arguments concerning your views whether pro-German or pro-Ally. We
are surfeited with so much of this in the columns of the daily papers that it is refresiling to find a
trade journal which expunges all reference to the horrible war across the seas."
The writer touches upon an extremely delicate subject, and I am glad that he approves of my
attitude in this matter. I have never been able to convince myself that I had the right to expound
my personal theories or beliefs regarding the war which is steadily crushing all of Europe. My
readers do not purchase The Review to read war news or discussions.
I have firmly held to the policy of non-participation in war discussions and issues. It is dangerous.
The subject is charged with high explosives from the very beginning, the causes which led up to
the war and all subsequent incidents relating thereto.
To-day, as in the past, America is a melting pot for humanity, and the fact that all races have
lived here harmoniously furnishes one of the best evidences in support of the theory that there is
no real race antagonism. People of different blood intermarry, showing that this antagonistic feeling
is political, not racial.
To go into a detailed discussion of war issues one is apt to offend the tender feelings of some
who, by ties of blood and sentiment, are bound to the warring nations, for it logically follows that
the ties to the motherland for a generation or two are more or less close.
The delicacy of the situation is increased by reason of the fact that the United States is the only
large neutral nation not yet involved in war, and of all the one hundred millions of inhabitants of
this country many are as to racial origin and sympathies largely derived from the nations at war.
There are millions of people who feel as passionately for England, France and Italy as do the
inhabitants of those countries, and there are other millions who rejoice and suffer with Germany,
Austria and Hungary exactly as do the people of those countries.
Never before in history has there occurred such a situation.
While I have decided beliefs, yet I have been careful not to affront any of my leaders by
advancing my particular mentorial views. I respect their feelings and I know that men of all bloods
read The Review. They are men whose friendship I prize, and while I am an American, descended
from the man who wrote the first American Constitution in the cabin of the Mayflower, I do
not feel that it is proper for me to criticize the patriotism of any newcomer who to-day is an American
through sworn allegiance to the flag, yet whose sentiments lean toward the friends who are fighting
in the country of his birth across the sea.
No man can read the literature put out by the various governments without feeling that each
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