Presented to
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of tbc
Tttmversitp of Toronto
THE NORTH AMERICAN
FOUNDED IN 1771
The Oldest Daily Newspaper in America
DESCENDANT OF THE
WEEKLY PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE
FOUNDED BY
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IN 1728
Issued Every Day in the Year
THE NORTH AMERICAN COMPANY
THE NORTH AMERICAN BUILDING
BROAD AND SANSOM STS.
PHILADELPHIA
THE WARv,,n,,-
FROM THIS SIDE
A THIRD VOLUME
AUGUST, 1916— MAY, 1917
PRESS OF
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
EAST WASHINGTON SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA
N 67
Y.&
Copyright, 1917, by The North American Company
Set up by The North American
Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company
FOREWORD
»
TWO previous volumes containing some of this news-
paper's principal editorials on the war were wel-
comed by so many readers in this country and
abroad that the series is continued. The articles are
arranged, as before, in chronological order, and comprise
a more or less connected survey of important develop-
ments in the period treated.
The first collection dealt with events from the begin-
ning of the war to the operations at Gallipoli. The
second carried the record to the Battle of the Somme.
The present volume pertains to the history of the third
year, down to the time when the Russian revolution and
America's participation had changed the whole charac-
ter of the conflict.
THE NORTH AMERICAN.
Philadelphia, February 22, 1918.
CONTENTS
Page
TWO YEARS OF WAR ....'.. 1
Two questions unsolved. — Can Germany win? — How
long will the war lastf — Allies have gained initiative. —
Can Germans stand adversity f
RUMANIA HESITATES ...... 6
Bewildering vacillation. — Reasons for and against her
joining the war. — Must soon decide.
JAPAN AND RUSSIA IN ALLIANCE ... 11
Another of many international agreements. — Each gov-
ernment to support the other's foreign policies. — How
it may affect Asia and Europe.
THE BALKAN TURMOIL 15
Coming conflict between Allied forces in Greece and the
Teuton-Bulgar armies. — Rumania joins. — Complications
in Greece.
THE BALKAN MESSAGE 20
Rumania declares war. — Beginning of long fore-
shadowed struggle for the Balkans. — Effect upon
Greece.
GREECE "KEPT OUT OF WAR" . . . 24
' Long conflict between King Constantine and Venizeloa.
— Betrayal of Servia. — Intervention of the Allies. —
Government yields territory to Bulgaria. — .Nation
prostrate.
A REAL OFFENSIVE ........ 29
Battle of the Somme in eleventh week. — Germans long
ago boasted it had ended. — Purpose is not to "break
thru." — Signs of weakening German power.
THE BATTLE OF DEMOCRACY .... 34
Shall autocracy or democracy rule the world f — Latter
always weak in war at first. — Battle of the Somme
shows that free peoples can organise for defense. — A
war of irreconcilable ideals.
ISHMAEL AWAKES 39
Arabs declare their independence of Turkish rule. — His-
tory of the race. — Repudiate sultan as head of Islam.
iii
AMERICAN WEAPONS IN THE WAR . . . 45
American inventions dominate the war. — Tanks. — Tor-
pedoes.— Submarine. — Aeroplanes. — Machine guns.
WHEN THE WAR WAS WON . . . . ., 50
Battle of the Marne shattered the German plan and
presaged German defeat. — Story of the momentous con-
flict.— One of the "decisive" battles of the world.
ISOLATING AMERICA 56
Allies mistrust and condemn this nation's policy. —
Utterances by President Wilson that have created
deplorable impressions in Europe.
THE BATTLE OF DECISION 62
The Somme campaign. — Results not shown in ground
gained, but in superiority established. — German retire-
ment an inevitable effect.
GERMANY KNOWS 66
Submarine raid near American coast. — The "com-
mercial" U-boat Deutschland a test. — This country not
"isolated." — Mistaken policy.
SUBMARINE RIGHTS AND WRONGS ... 71
Was the raid near this coast "legally and humanely"
conducted 1 — Has the submarine all the rights of a sur-
face warshipT — // so, has it not the same obligations f
CRETE MAKING HISTORY AGAIN .... 76
H (ilk an events more romantic than fiction. — Revolution
in Crete. — Scene of ancient civilizations. — One of pri-
mary causes of the war.
THE "LEGALIZED" SUBMARINE .... 82
Washington warns away Allied warships, welcomes
German submarines — 17-53 and the raid from Newport.
— #0 protest made.
AN OMINOUS SITUATION 87
Controversy will become more acute. — Germany deter-
mined to use "ruthlessness." — United States' policy
invites aggression.
ANOTHER YEAR OF WAR? . . . sSSJE^I 91
Nothing in military situation suggests early peace. —
Both sides still confident. — Henceforth a test of endur-
ance, which will not be brief.
A BATTLE ANNIVERSARY . . . . . 96
How Belgium saved Europe at the Yser. — A sanguinary
and heroic struggle. — German advance checked and
Channel ports protected.
FRUITS OF A "VICTORY" 102
Sinking of steamship Marina. — The Deutschland and
the 17-53. — Germany preparing to repudiate her pledges.
iv
HOW 20,000 BOYS DIED .... .106
Youth of Servia, driven from homes by the Teuton
invasion, meet tragic fate. — Terrible march across plain
and mountains.
THE BALKAN BATTLES . .' . ..... 112
Rumania invaded and in danger of conquest. — Allies'
capture of Monastir means little. — Germany clinching
her control of peninsula.
PEONAGE IN BELGIUM . . . . . 116
Wholesale enslavement of the civilian population by the
Germans. — Savage methods employed to break the
nation's spirit and strengthen invader's armies.
SUBMARINE NEWS AND VIEWS . . . . 122
Menace of more ruthless warfare becomes clearer. —
American official attitude hastening a crisis.
THE WAR BEGINS ANEW ..... 126
Peace never seemed so remote as now. — Campaigns in
west and east. — Britain and France perturbed. — Ger-
many's drafting of all males into war work significant.
THE REVOLUTION IN GERMANY .... 132
Compulsory service law. including all able-bodied men,
marks new epoch. — Will affect war and the future. —
A grim Utopia.
DIVIDED GREECE . . ... . . 137
Amazing complications. — Intervention of the Allies, and
its reasons. — Contest between king and political leader.
— Monarch may lose his throne.
GERMANY'S PEACE PROPOSAL .... 143
A dramatic gesture. — Some controversial statements. —
What the "war 'map" shows. — Germany wants peace
because thus far she has won. — The Allies will not sur-
render.
WHAT WILL BE THE ANSWER? .... 150
German offer gets two replies, in French drive near
Verdun and in rejection by Russian duma. — Allies'
terms already known. — They should state that they
fight Prussianism, not the German people.
MAKING PEACE NOT SIMPLE . 154
Arrangement of conference a difficult task. — Antago-
nisms are still bitter. — Conflicting aims make complex
issues. — Territorial and political adjustments concern
whole world.
MORE ABOUT PEACE . . . ,•* • . . 160
President Wilson's intervention. — Either marvelously
well-timed or appallingly indiscreet. — Some phrases
unfortunate. — Apparent indorsement of Germany's
demands.
PEACE HOPES MARRED 164
Conflicting explanations of the president's action. — His
plea inopportune and obscure. — United States drawing
nearer to war.
THE EXPLANATION 169
Causes behind the president's note. — Secretary Lan-
sing's true interpretation and its disavowal. — This coun-
try's intervention foreshadowed.
STILL MORE CONFUSION 175
Both groups of belligerents embittered by the presi-
dent's action. — Germany's refusal to state her terms. —
Intervention has not promoted peace.
NOT YET 179
Allies' reply to German peace offer. — Responsibility for
the war. — "Penalties, reparation and guarantees"
demanded. — Entente unity. — Conference proposal
rejected.
A DARKENING CLOUD 184
Submarine frightfulness Germany's alternative to her
peace offer. — Open threats made. — What U-Boats have
accomplished. — United States will be involved.
BACK TO SPARTA 189
National compulsory war service in Germany parallels
the policy of ancient kingdom. — A significant social
revolution.
GERMANY'S STUPENDOUS PRIZE .... 194
How she has changed the map. — Control of the Danube
would give her domination of all Central and Eastern
Europe. — A great highway of commerce and empire.
TO "REORGANIZE EUROPE" . . . . . 200
Allies' reply to President Wilson. — Their terms of peace.
CONFUSION OF TONGUES 205
Complicated peace documents to be studied. — Con-
flicts and misunderstandings. — Where the Allies and
President Wilson differ. — No peace without justice.
THE "GUILT OF BELGIUM" AGAIN ... 210
Germany still slandering her victim. — Manufactured
charges of duplicity put forth to excuse Prussian
crimes.
STRANGE VIEWS OF PEACE . . . . . 215
Characteristic expressions of pro-Germanism and
pacifism. — Fallacy of a peace made by negotiating with
unbeaten Prussianism. — Mr. Balfour's forceful utter-
ance.
THE PEACE DICTATOR ..... . 221
President Wilson's remarkable speech to congress. —
Obscure and illogical statements. — "Peace without Vic-
tory" a deplorable recommendation.
vi
MILLENNIUM BY PROCLAMATION ... 227
President Wilson's proposal for a "league of nations." —
Its meaning, explained by himself. — Dangerous implica-
tions.— Would involve the United States in remote
quarrels.
MYSTIFICATION 232
Obscurity of the president's peace declaration. — Opinion
in Germany, Allied countries and the United States. —
Phrases that baffle understanding.
THE BLOW FALLS ........ 237
Germany's new proclamation of submarine murder. —
Action forecast long ago. — United States cannot submit.
THE WAR AGAINST NEUTRALS .... 239
German declaration simplifies the issue. — Its arrogance
and hypocrisy. — New campaign directed against
neutrals. — American people will support government in
resisting.
THE PRUSSIAN MIND 245
Moral defects produce perversions of judgment. — Ger-
many no more an enemy of civilization now than three
years ago. »
INEVITABLE 250
s War between autocracy and democracy could not but
involve America. — What militarism and kaiserism
mean. — Democracy cannot be safe while autocracy
exists.
ANOTHER "SCRAP OF PAPER" .... 255
Germany tries to revive old Prussian-American
treaties. — How she has vitiated them by crimes against
this nation.
THIS COUNTRY IS IN WAR 260
Theory that we are still at peace is false. — Germany
has been making war on the United States for months.
— Ports blockaded by terrorism.
A WAR MADE BY PACIFISM . . . . .265
Term is misapplied, since pacifism produces war. — How
American submission increased German aggression. — A
nation despised cannot know security.
A DIALOGUE IN THE "BARRED ZONE" . . 271
A fictitious but suggestive conversation with the former
German ambassador.
THE EVILS OF DELAY .276
How strong words, with no policy of action or pre-
paredness behind them, led inevitably to this country's
involvement in the war. — Decision, made at last, will
unite the nation.
vii
KEEP 281
Germany's plot to incite Mexico and Japan to attack
the United States. — Hypocrisy and perfidy the reflec-
tion of Prusaianism'a guiding doctrines.
PROOF NOT NEEDED, BUT USEFUL ... 287
Pro-Germans deride German plot in Mexico as a myth.
— But Berlin confirms it. — Not surprising.
A LITTLE STUDY IN PACIFISM .... 291
Germans and pacifists delight in senate obstruction. —
Examples of distorted reasoning. — Evil effects of the
cult.
ACTION AND DELAY 297
American merchantmen to be armed. — President Wil-
son imposes a delay of five weeks before congress can
deal with crisis.
BAGDAD, A GERMAN DEFEAT .... 302
British capture of Turkish city avenges a bitter
reverse. — How campaign was fought. — Significance of
the victory.
GERMANY'S DEFEAT IN RUSSIA .... 308
Fall of czarism destroys Prussian influence in Petro-
grad and blocks scheme of separate peace. — How Rus-
sian army was betrayed by bureaucracy. — Warning to
Germany.
THE GERMAN CANKER IN RUSSIA ... 315
History of Prussian domination of the Russian court
and government. — Hoio czarism and kaiserism have
served each other.
DEMOCRACY'S WAR . . . . . . 321
Russian revolution clarifies the fundamental issue of
the war, autocracy against democracy. — Slav peoples
are instinctively for freedom.
RUSSIA AWAKENS GERMANY .... 326
Overthrow of czarism may lead to end of kaiserism. —
Demands for liberalisation already heard. — Undemo-
cratic electoral system. — Will of people hampered.
GERMANY'S SHACKLED DEMOCRACY ... 332
Russia's example difficult to follow. — War strengthened
autocracy. — Movement for popular rule limited. — Habits
of people against self-assertion. — Defeat in the war
would mean fall of autocracy.
BELATED DEFENSE 338
Busy preparations now emphasise neglect of past years.
— Military establishment is meager. — Nation invites
disaster.
AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR 344
American unpreparedness due to policy pursued during
the war. — First steps taken after the declaration.
viii
AMERICA SPEAKS .350
President Wilson's war address to congress. — A mas-
terly statement of this nation's cause.
GREAT WORDS DEMAND GREAT DEEDS . . 356
An epoch-making declaration. — But it must be trans-
lated into action. — Co-operation with the Allies.
HOW ARE WE TO WAGE WAR? . . . . .' 361
Two conflicting theories of procedure. — A distinct war
and a separate peace t — The president's wise program.
— America must fight in Europe.
THE MISSION OP AMERICA . . . . ". v 367
The war a stupendous undertaking. — Germany has no
fear of this country. — To "make the world safe for
democracy."
GERMANY CAN FORCE PEACE . . . . 374
Overthrow of kaiserism would end the war. — But the
people have blind faith in autocracy.
WHAT IF RUSSIA MADE PEACE? .... 380
Germany intriguing for sett.lem.ent. — Peace sentiment in
P.u/>.iia as result of the revolution. — Country needs sup-
port.
OUR FLAG IN THE TRENCHES .... 385
Allies eager for American reinforcements. — Moral
effect. — The Roosevelt division.
A SOLDIER OF DEMOCRACY . . . . . 391
Joffre's visit to Philadelphia. — Franklin and France.
Lafayette and America. — Career of the marshal of
France.
THE SUBMARINE PERIL 398
War is won, Germans say. — Danger more serious than
had been foreseen. — Heavy shipping losses. — United
States must solve the problem.
SEND ROOSEVELT TO FRANCE! .... 404
General staff is opposed. — Does not recognize value of
sentiment in war. — Former president in the field would
inspire Allied troops.
WHAT THE WAR MEANS TO US . . . . 409
Americans do not realize magnitude of the task. — Mili-
tary, naval, shipping and food problems.
"DARKEST RUSSIA" 415
Extremist elements disorganising the provisional gov-
ernment.— Aims of workmen and soldiers. — They repu-
diate treaties with Allies. — Separate peace virtually in
effect.
ix
RUSSIA'S CHAOS ' . _ .. 421
Two forces struggling for control. — Immediate peace
with Germany demanded. — Big task for American mis-
sion.
A STRANGE IDEA ABOUT MR. WILSON . . 427
Some admirers now boast he led the country into
war. — Evidence of his utterances.
THE REJECTION OF ROOSEVELT . . . , 433
President Wilson overrides the expressed will of con-
gress.— His reasons unconvincing. — Roosevelt plan
would not interfere with general program.
STIFLING PATRIOTISM 439
Rejection of Roosevelt division chills public ardor. —
People not aroused. — War called "practical" and
"undramatic." — But sentiment makes fighters.
A GREAT "DISCOVERY" 445
Washington learns "for the first time" of the designs of
Pan-Germanism. — Project of empire in Central Europe
and western Asia long ago avowed.
THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
A THIRD VOLUME
TWO YEARS OF WAR
August S, 1916.
BY COMMON consent, official and non-official com-
mentators on the war marked its second anni-
versary last Sunday. The date was. convenient
and not illogical. It was on July 28, 1914, that Austria's
declaration against Servia, dictated by Germany, was
thrust like a firebrand in the face of Europe. It was
on July 30 that a German ultimatum to Russia, followed
forty-eight hours later by notice of hostilities, gave the
struggle a continental scope. It was on August 2 that
Luxemburg was occupied and French territory invaded.
But August 3 will always have a tragic pre-eminence in
the chronology of the conflict. For it was on this day
two years ago that the faith of nations was treacher-
ously struck down at the frontier of Belgium, and a con-
troversy of governments became a war upon mankind.
There have not been in the history of the race two
years more significant or more ominous. They have
seen the energy and ingenuity of man at his highest
development turned from the processes of creation to the
processes of destruction. They have seen vast territories
blasted by war, untold treasures of wealth consumed,
millions of human beings submerged in misery. They
have seen the ancient foundations of law shaken, the
structure of civilization itself imperiled, the very hopes
of humanity mocked. The impossible war, the unthink-
able war, has been a reality for two years, and no man
can say, with assurance, how much longer it is to con-
2 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
tinue nor what regions now at peace are to be afflicted.
What, then, isj the suggestion brought by this melan-
choly anniversary ? We can measure approximately the
descent of civilization since the great betrayal of August
3, 1914; but wherein is the world better or worse off
now than twelve months ago ? Which of the two irrec-
oncilable principles now at war is to guide the destinies
of the world? One may put the issues in the form of
two questions that have become almost colloquial — Can
Germany win? and How long will the war last?
A curious example of human fallibility was the
widespread theory in the beginning that the conflict
would be brief. "The shortest great war on record,"
was the confident prediction of one expert. And during
the first few weeks it seemed likely to be verified. At
any cost, it was believed, the nations would soon com-
promise their differences, rather than invite the immeas-
urable sacrifices which a war in this age of scientific
destructiveness must entail. What optimism failed
to perceive at first was that this was no mere clash of
national ambitions, but the collision of two fundamental
ideas of human government, only one of which could sur-
vive. Force had challenged Law, and until one or the
other had gained the mastery there could be no hope of
settlement. This is the truth which Germany, after two
years of successes, is just beginning to glimpse. If
military superiority alone could command victory, she
long ago would have dominated Europe and imposed her
will upon the world. But by her acts she stirred the very
depths of human conviction and aroused against herself
the inextinguishable will of man to be free. And against
these forces the mightiest arsenals of militarism cannot
prevail. The marvel, then, is not that the spirit of her
adversaries remains unbroken, but that they have been
able, while withstanding twenty-four months of savage
TWO YEARS OF WAR 3
punishment, to create a military power commensurate
with the great task of liberation. What Germany had
succeeded in accomplishing by concentrated effort dur-
ing forty years of peace, they had to achieve during
twenty months of war. How far they have succeeded
may be judged from a comparison of tfce conditions of
August, 1915, with those of today.
A year ago the military ascendency of Germany was
established in every field. Altho the program of a quick
elimination of France had been shattered at the Marne,
there were tremendous triumphs to record. Belgium
and the richest regions of France had been subjugated
and made secure by formidable defenses; Poland had
been overrun and German armies planted deep in Rus-
sian territory; the desperate valor of the French and
British was to spend itself in vain against the intrench-
ments in the west, while in the Balkans German diplo-
macy was to win Bulgaria, and Teuton arms were soon to
open a highway from Berlin to Stamboul and the East.
The conquest of Servia, the Anglo-French disaster at
Gallipoli and the British humiliations in Mesopotamia
were already foreshadowed.
•But the vital evidence of Germany's ascendency was
her command of the initiative. She dictated at her
pleasure the problems which her antagonists must work
out; and before they had solved one, thru exhausting
endeavor, she had put before them another — she was
always one campaign ahead. While the French were reel-
ing from one savage thrust, she smote the British line ;
before Russia was able to halt her disordered forces,
Teutonic armies were hacking their way thru Servia.
She reached across two continents to buffet the English
back from Bagdad, and shortened her blow to smite
them at the Dardanelles. It is small wonder that, being
blinded to the spiritual forces she had awakened, seeing
4 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
the war merely as a contest in military might, she asked
in bewilderment and scorn why her deluded enemies did
not seek terms before they were utterly destroyed. The
same German ascendency was maintained thruout the
rigors of a second winter campaign and was emphasized
with striking force in the beginning of the titanic effort
at Verdun in February and the Austrian drive into Italy
in May. But these were its last manifestations. Unity
of effort by the Allies was arranged at a conference in
Paris late in March, and its effects were seen in the
simultaneous campaign in France, on the eastern front
and against Austria. Temporarily, and perhaps defi-
nitely, the initiative has passed from Germany to her
enemies. Her task now is not to set military problems,
but to solve them under compulsion.
The hardest work of the Allies during the year was
to wait ; to hold their defenses against relentless attack ;
to build up, under galling fire, forces adequate for a sus-
tained offensive. France had a great veteran army and
the priceless possession of an heroic, united national
spirit, but could not advance; Great Britain had vast
wealth and productive power, but no trained armies;
Russia, with inexhaustible human resources, lacked guns
and ammunition. The problem was to endure the merci-
less blows of Germany and her allies until attacks,
backed by ample material, could be co-ordinated.
Altho Entente successes on both fronts have been
notable, they do not yet supply sound basis for definite
judgment. But they reveal a complete transference of
the initiative and of preponderant striking force. State-
ment of two vital conditions will illustrate the change of
a year — organization, which was Germany's exclusive
and most powerful weapon, the Allies now have ; and in
the matter of resources they have an immediate superi-
ority, which time must steadily increase. There remains
TWO YEARS OF WAR 5
the psychological factor — the stimulating effect of an
offensive, long delayed but finally launched with impres-
sive success, and the contrasting depression which inevi-
tably follows a surrendered initiative. And in the pres-
ent war these conditions have a national as well as a
military influence. Every imperial proclamation, every
newspaper utterance, reveals now a realization in Ger-
many that victory in the German sense is impossible and
that the nation fights now, not in the inspiring hope of
dominion, but with desperate need to avert disaster.
While each battle seemed a prelude to triumph, the Ger-
man army and people displayed superb discipline and
devotion; will they reveal the same qualities under the
prolonged agony of a violent siege? To win a war
demands supreme confidence in victory, absolute belief in
the justice of a cause which demands such terrible sacri-
fices. That the Germans have been inspired by such a
faith, their great deeds testify. But is it still theirs ? If
so, how long will it withstand the knowledge that a war
of triumphant aggression has become for them a war of
painful resistance, of agonizing suspense — no longer a
means of national aggrandizement, but a desperate
struggle to extort favorable terms from relentless antag-
onists? How long will it survive the revelation, now
emerging dimly thru the murk of battle, that the nation
was drugged by a false philosophy and led to disaster
by a deluded statesmanship ? And there is a still deeper
source of weakness. The national spirit which could
exult over the corpse of Belgium and glory in the Lusi-
tania massacre is not sound. It has been strong in vic-
tory ; will it be as valiant in adversity ?
RUMANIA HESITATES
August 18, 1916.
MOST persons, we fear, were but imperfectly
enlightened by a recent news dispatch which told
of the capture by the Russians of the village of
Tustobaby, and continued:
The Austrian line now runs from Berestechk thru Sheru-
zovitse and Stanystavezyk along the Styr, and thru Olesko-
Zboroff to Brzezany, forming a zigzag to the upper Zlota
Lipa; along that stream to Zawatow, thence southwest to
Jezupol, at the mouth of the Bystritza-Maidan, ten miles
northwest of Stanislau; thence south to Solotvina, northwest
of Nadvorna. Military critics look for their eventual with-
drawal to the line of Kamionka, Lemberg, Mikolayoff and
Stryj.
There is one region, however, outside of the two
countries directly involved, where these appalling names
are read with avid interest, and where mention of
each incredible arrangement of consonants conveys an
enthralling significance. Rumania, at whose northern
frontier the great battle line begins its uncertain course
thru Galicia, watches with absorbed attention the prog-
ress of the Muscovite armies, and feverishly speculates
upon the effect which this mighty movement will have
upon her fortunes. For two full years the little nation
has baffled the most adroit diplomats of Europe and the
keenest students of Balkan politics. A few news head-
lines will illustrate the bewildering nature of the record :
Rumania and Bulgaria Will Aid Russia (September 8,
1914) ; Rumania Held by German Diplomacy (February 24,
1915) ; Rumania Deaf to German Urging (September 27) ;
6
RUMANIA HESITATES 7
Rumania Bides Her Time (October 12); Rumania Soon to
Make Decision (November 19) ; Greece and Rumania May
Join Teutons (December 10) ; Rumania to Join Allies, Says
Leader (January 3, 1916) ; All Rumania Strongly Pro- Ally
(January 27); Rumania Still Dodging War (February 19);
Germany Worried Over Rumania (March 14); Rumania to
Join Allies in April (March 23); Rumania to Join Allies at
Proper Time (March 25); Rumania Decides >to Stay Neutral
(August 4) ; Rumania Waiting for Best War Bid (August
7); Rumania on Eve of Fateful Decision (August 14).
For twenty-four months, eager yet fearful, ambi-
tious yet calculating, the restless little kingdom has
presented a fascinating spectacle of indecision. Now it
would seem that the choice must soon be made, if she
hopes to establish a claim to a share in the spoils of war.
True to the Balkan character, Rumania has made self-
interest her guiding star. Her sole concern is to enlarge
her boundaries, by the addition of either Transylvania
and Bukowina, Austro-Hungarian territories on the
west, or of Bessarabia, a Russian province on the east.
The former regions she covets because they contain
3,000,000 or 4,000,000 Rumanians languishing under the
Magyar yoke; the latter she demands because it was
awarded to her by the treaty of Paris in 1856 and arbi-
trarily conferred upon Russia by the treaty of Berlin
in 1878. Russia, then, is the arch-enemy or the pro-
spective benefactor of the wavering nation, according to
the political convictions which at the moment prevail.
As the czar's hosts sweep on toward the Carpathian
passes, beyond which Hungary lies open, Rumanian
ambition is fired with the prospect of receiving Transyl-
vania and Bukowina in return for assistance. On the
other hand, one Rumanian frontier bristles with Aus-
trian bayonets and another with Bulgarian guns, and
there is the fate of Servia to instill caution. Moreover,
the national spirit revolts against giving hostages to the
vast neighboring empire which tore Bessarabia from the
8 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
kingdom's side and which casts its shadow over the
straits of Constantinople, the ultimate mouth of the
great Rumanian highway, the Danube.
One used to think of "The Prisoner of Zenda" and
its imitations as extraordinary products of fancy; yet
the most extravagant inventions of the Ruritanian fable
never surpassed the strange existence in this remote,
semi-Oriental corner of Europe, with its atmosphere of
regal splendor and gipsy gayety, of garish romance and
intricate intrigue. A Hohenzollern monarch and court, a
spirit of fierce nationalism, a scheme of politics based
upon territorial ambition and international antagonisms,
a population nine-tenths illiterate, a statesmanship at
once far-seeing, subtle and audacious and a moral sense
subjugated by self-interest — here are the elements of an
unending drama. And that is what they have produced.
The geographical and racial reasons for Rumania's
interest in the war are familiar to most readers. She
advanced her frontiers, at trifling cost, by joining Servia
and Greece in overwhelming Bulgaria in the second
Balkan war, and now she hopes to accomplish a great
deal more in the same direction, by like economical
means, thru delivering her military power to that group
which appears certain to be victorious in the continental
struggle. The vital question for her is, of course, which
side will win. Bulgaria's guess seemed plausible, but the
easy conquest of Servia did not establish Teuton suprem-
acy in Europe, and now the Bulgars are waiting in ill-
concealed anxiety for the revenge which the Entente
Powers will try to take. When the Russian armies, early
in the war, were swarming thru the Carpathian passes,
Rumanian advocates of intervention wept with rage
because the government let pass the glittering oppor-
tunity; yet Von Hindenburg and Von Mackensen were
to roll back the invaders, overrun Poland and open the
RUMANIA HESITATES 9
Teutonic highway to Constantinople, and if Rumania had
rashly joined then, she would have become another
Belgium within thirty days. Popular opinion has
unquestionably been pro-French and pro-Italian, some of
it even strongly pro-Russian. But this sentiment has
been held in check by influences more powerful than the
pro-German court. Rumania for years has been sub-
ject, in an economic sense, to Germany. "Peaceful pene-
tration" had brought her finance, her industries and
much of her vast commerce under Teutonic control.
Always the chief markets for her vast products of grain
and oil, Germany and Austria during the war became
of overshadowing importance as customers. In general,
three main lines of policy have divided the nation. The
government, while professing a resolute nationalism and
a determination to achieve the dream of a greater
Rumania, has clung desperately to neutrality, upon the
ground that the country could not afford to make a
mistaken choice. The strongest element of opposition,
led by Take Jonescu, a former minister, demands an
alliance with the Entente Powers. And this movement
is modified by a party which condemns the government
for having failed to seize its opportunities, but at the
same time is implacably hostile to any deal with Russia.
Between these policies the nation oscillates.
Jonescu has been called by a pro-German writer the
Sir Edward Carson of Rumania — "adroit, devoid of con-
science, not burdened by principles." Rather, he is the
Rumanian Venizelos, for in his indefatigable champion-
ship of the Entente against a Teutonized court he closely
resembles the brilliant Cretan who has challenged the
Greek sovereign. His reasons are as frankly material as
those of any other Balkan statesman — Rumania must
satisfy her "national aspirations" by absorbing outside
territory. Yet those who imagine that publicists in this
10 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
semi-barbaric region are incapable of lofty thought and
expression should read this man's speech in the chamber
of deputies a few months ago, with such passages as
these :
If Germany were to win, there would be no more liberty,
not even for the great American democracy. If German unity
had sprung from the liberal movement of 1848, a great new
nation would have been added to the liberal nations of Europe.
But German unification is the product of Prussian militarism.
This is a war of nations, not a war of armies. If Ger-
many is victorious, her rule will be the rule of the mailed
fist; if the others win — and they will — the law they will im-
pose will be the law of justice. * * * Some one has just
remarked that it was childish to introduce the idea of morality
into international politics. How slight must be his acquaint-
ance with the philosophy of history ! Peoples, like individuals,
pay for the offenses they commit against morality; there
would be no order in the universe were it not that we have
the conviction of the existence of a moral law above us.
Another leader has summed up a more popular
Rumanian view in a sentence. "We would fight," he says,
"Germany with regret, Austria with indifference, Hun-
gary with the keenest satisfaction." Perhaps his cyn-
icism is a truer reflection of the national spirit than
Jonescu's ardent phrases. But in any event the decision
would seem to be nearly due. "Now or never!" is the
summons that echoes back to Rumania from the battle-
front in the Carpathian heights.
August 22, 1916.
DIPLOMACY was not bereft of its functions when
half the world chose to settle clashing interests
by war, nor is it reduced to inertia while awaiting
the issue of the titanic struggle. Statesmanship and
intrigue have never been more active than during the
last two years, and the nations are as feverishly intent
upon preparations for the silent strife which will be
called peace as they are upon prosecuting the deadly con-
flict of arms. Few persons, perhaps, realize how numer-
ous and far-reaching are even the known agreements
which have been consummated or projected amid the
very fury of battle. Germany's alliances with Austria-
Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria, and the treaties which
unite her adversaries, will come instantly to mind. But
these are merely the most notable instances. Austria
and Bulgaria have agreed upon new boundaries in the
Balkans. Rumania, most businesslike of neutrals, has
a useful arrangement for exchange of products with the
Central Powers, is believed to have an understanding
with Greece, and has been in negotiations concerning
trade with Turkey and with Sweden. Denmark and
Holland conduct their complicated import and export
affairs under conventions made with both groups of
belligerents. The three Scandinavian nations are allied
for mutual defense or offense. France and Italy have
accommodated their claims in northern Africa. The
British protectorate over Egypt required recognition of
11
12 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
French suzerainty in Morocco. And finally there is
the tremendous alliance recently completed which is
designed to wage economic war against the group of
nations headed by Germany. Only one diplomatic event
has approached this last in importance, and that is the
agreement announced a few weeks ago from Tokio and
Petrograd — a Russo-Japanese treaty which amounts
virtually to an alliance. No one outside of the two gov-
ernments, of course, knows what secret provisions the
instrument contains, but those published as a "sum-
mary" are sufficiently sweeping. They are :
First — Japan will not participate in any political arrange-
ment or combination against Russia, which assumes the same
obligations.
Second — In case one country's Far Eastern territorial
rights and special interests recognized by the other are
menaced, both Japan and Russia will confer on methods to
be taken with a view to mutual support and co-operation in
order to protect and defend those rights and interests.
Thus the two autocratic empires which were in
desperate collision a little more than ten years ago have
gone to the other extreme, justifying those observers
who said that they must be either enemies or allies.
Neither country was satisfied with the treaty of Ports-
mouth, which ended their war, and it was certain that
their conflicting interests in the Far East would result
in another clash or in a settlement on a partnership
basis. Within two years of the peace, indeed, they
made amicable terms over the development of Man-
churia, and they were to be brought, or driven, closer
together by action of the United States. In 1910 Sec-
retary of State Knox sought to buttress the Hay doc-
trine of the "open door" by urging that the Manchurian
railways, projected under Russo-Japanese auspices,
should be neutralized ; and the joint refusal to entertain
the proposal was more decisive than friendly. From
JAPAN AND RUSSIA ALLIED 13
that time Russian and Japanese diplomacy has operated
with increasing cordiality, and the present war, of
course, has hastened the inevitable union. As a mem-
ber of the anti-Teutonic alliance, Japan performed her
allotted tasks with efficiency and dispatch, and, at tri-
fling cost, established her claim to be* considered the
arbiter of eastern Asia, particularly of China. But a far
greater contribution has been in the supplying of guns
and ammunition to Russia. It is owing chiefly to her
munition plants that her former enemy has been able
to overwhelm Austria and double the effect of every
blow against Germany in France.
The published terms of the treaty are vague enough
to justify any interpretation — even the bland explana-
tion of Premier Okuma that the sole aim is to "promote
peace in the Far East." But the obvious meaning is that
the two countries have pooled their interests to the
extent that Russia recognizes and will support Japan's
asserted right to paramountcy in China and the Far East
generally, while Japan will give at least moral support
to Russian policies thruout the rest of the world. This
means that Russia is determined to have a free hand in
replacing Teutonic domination over the Balkans with her
own, and in establishing herself at Constantinople,
whether with or without the consent of Great Britain,
whose veto has closed the Dardanelles to Russia for
nearly a century. It is a striking circumstance that this
agreement should have been made within a few days of
that by which the anti-Teutonic Powers completed their
trade war plans. In a single week one group of nations
undertook to decide the economic future of Europe and
half the world besides, and another announced the desti-
nies of the Far East. Both these events should be rather
disconcerting to those Americans who have the compla-
cent belief that, because this country shuns "entangling
14 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
alliances" and has been "kept out of war," such develop-
ments do not greatly concern us, and who are not at all
perturbed by the contemptuous indifference which the
intriguing governments display toward the United States
in announcing exclusive title to the world markets. As
a fact, this nation will be profoundly affected, and the
mythical nature of its supposed "isolation" from world
problems will become painfully apparent before the
echoes of the war have subsided.
It is unofficially intimated that the nations allied
with Russia and Japan are "satisfied" with the arrange-
ment ; but the truth is that their approval was not sought,
and their objection would not greatly distress the high
contracting parties. It may be taken for granted that
when Japan renews her defmands for recognition of
"predominating influence" in China, they will be stamped
with the powerful assent of Russia and will be imposed.
The "open door" is closed, and outside are stationed a
trooper of the mikado and a Cossack of the czar.
THE BALKAN TURMOIL
August 29, 1916.
IN THEJIR efforts to find phrases fit to describe the
intensified European conflict, noted writers have
referred to the present campaign in France as the
Battle of Europe. No doubt this application of the
resounding title has logic, since the future of the con-
tinent is being shaped in that terrific struggle. Yet in
another sense it would be singularly appropriate to the
impending clash in the Balkans, where, for the first time,
forces of all the European belligerents save one are
arrayed for a great encounter of nations. Cannon speak
but a single tongue; if they uttered the language of
those whom they serve, what an astounding polyglot
thunder would rise to heaven from that battleground
of nationalities ! On one side are Germans, Austro-Hun-
garians, Bulgars, Turks and representatives of the lesser
races which they include. On the other side are gath-
ered British forces, with contingents of Canadians and
Australians and New Zealanders saved from Gallipoli
or transferred from Egypt ; an army of French veterans
from the western field, despite Verdun and the Somme ;
100,000 Servians brought around from Corfu, hardy
survivors from the Teuton conquest and the retreat
thru Albania; restless mountaineers from Montenegro
and half -tamed tribesmen from the heights of Albania.
For weeks transports have been unloading at Saloniki
regiments of Italians from Brindisi and of Russians
brought up thru the Red sea from the Persian gulf, and
15
16 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
batteries of artillery from Portugal. And now Rumania
joins. Of the countries involved, Belgium and Japan
alone are unrepresented, so far as is known, on this
spectacular front.
The operations in Greece, now in a somewhat halt-
ing and confused beginning, have been referred to as
another great offensive against the Central Powers.
Russia began her tremendous drive against Austria on
June 4 ; the Anglo-French forward movement in Picardy
started July 1; Italy advanced in the Isonzo region
August 4, and the activities in Macedonia have been
widely heralded as the fourth attack in the co-ordinated
strategy of the encircling forces. In this assumption,
however, it would seem that interpretation has outrun
the news. As a fact, there has been desultory fighting in
this territory ever since last spring, and no movements
of major importance have yet taken place. The Entente
commanders show no signs of haste, and up to this time
the offensive, such as it is, has been carried out by their
opponents. While Anglo-French forces have seized
some advanced positions about sixty miles north of their
base at Saloniki, the Bulgars have been more aggressive,
establishing themselves in Greek territory at the west-
ern end of the line and occupying Greek Macedonia —
the chief prize which Bulgaria seeks — clear down to the
Aegean coast, including the port of Kavala. The mili-
tary situation, as shown by the map, has a certain pic-
turesque simplicity which appeals to the inexpert
observer. The 100-mile battle line extends from east
to west in a rough curve near the frontiers separating
Greece from Bulgaria and from Servia, and almost
opposite the center of it is the base of the Allies ; thus
the line resembles the edge of an opened fan, with the
vast intrenched camp of Saloniki at the point where
the sticks of the fan meet. Last May it was reported
THE BALKAN TURMOIL 17
that the British, French and Servians had more than
650,000 troops making ready for the advance, but later
information indicates that it will require rather heavy
Italian and Russian reinforcements to bring the total
up to this* number.
The stakes are worth all the effort that will be
made on either side, for it is control of the Balkans,
where Germany has been supreme thruout the war, that
is to be decided. The immediate problem of her antago-
nists, of course, is to inflict such .punishment upon
Bulgaria that she will be detached from the Teutonic
alliance, and at the same time to sever the line of com-
munications between Germany and Turkey, thereby
eliminating another belligerent. Reconquest of Servia
would be a further and more costly undertaking. And
there are other factors, of both a political and military
nature, which loom large in the operations. Decision
by the two Balkan states which remained neutral has
been in the scale; already the developments have shat-
tered the caution of Rumania, and they are almost cer-
tain to cause the fearful Greeks to forget their terrors,
thus¥ ranging both countries with the Entente. Ruma-
nian neutrality was always of a temporary and coolly
calculating character; government and people hardly
attempted to conceal their purpose to take part in the
war on that side which showed a certain grasp of vic-
tory. Popular sentiment is anti-Teuton because of
the national ambition to possess Hungarian territory,
and pro-Ally because of racial sympathy with Italy. At
the same time it is cold toward Russia, because Ruma-
nian Bessarabia was awarded to the czar at the con-
gress of Berlin; but this feeling has been modified by
the impressive spectacle of Russian successes over
Austria. Rumanian participation was hastened by the
18 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
demonstration that the operations in the Balkans were
to enlist all of the belligerents and were to lead to a
definite decision.
The position of Greece is desperate rather than
uncertain. All students of the war are familiar with
the dizzy evolutions of Hellenist politics since the con-
flict began— the daring insistence of former Premier
Venizelos upon an alliance with Britain, France and
Russia; his overthrow by King Constantine, brother-
in-law of the kaiser, and the setting up of an unconsti-
tutional but determined government devoted to the
impossible task of avoiding hostilities; the secret
intrigues with Bulgaria, resulting in Bulgar occupation
of Greek forts and territory in Macedonia; the Allies'
coercion by blockade, and the government's surrender,
signalized by demobilization of the army, which had
been put into the field to resist Bulgar aggression and
then ordered to submit to it. A more vital demand
enforced by the Allies, however, was that there should
be a real national election. This final test of public
opinion has been set for early in October; if events on
the battlefield have not settled matters by that time, the
Greeks will decide by ballot, once for all, whether they
want Venizelos returned to power with a mandate to
join the forces against Bulgaria, or are content to let
that historic enemy have cherished Macedonia. The
drastic measures employed by the Allies in Greece have
been feelingly denounced by Germany. It is to be
recalled, however, that there is a certain warrant for
them. It was the combined fleets of Great Britain,
France and Russia which won the independence of
Greece at Navarino, in 1827, by defeating the Turco-
Egyptian sea forces; and three years later, when the
new kingdom was established, those three nations under-
took the obligations of guardianship. Having protected
THE BALKAN TURMOIL 19
the liberties of their ward for three-quarters of a cen-
tury, they feel that they have some right to enforce
actual neutrality pending a popular decision. Demob-
ilization of the army was insisted upon because it was
clear that the government would not permit it to act
against Bulgaria, and might conceivably attempt to
employ it in harassing the Anglo-French forces upon
the ground that their occupation of Greek territory was
a violation of sovereignty. These suspicions were tre-
mendously strengthened, of course, when it was dis-
closed that the government was secretly committed to
allowing the Bulgar invasion. Whatever the future may
bring in the way of new complications and combats in
the Near East, the attention of the world is likely to be
attracted for some time to that troubled region, where
the situation is more interesting now than it has been
at any other time since the Allies discovered that Ger-
man diplomacy and military power had put the "balk"
in Balkans.
THE BALKAN MESSAGE
August 81, 1916.
IF THE Rumanians are blessed with a sense of dra-
matic values, it must be gratified by the world
interest which their remarkably deliberate interven-
tion in the war has caused. Two years ago, or even
one year ago, their joining would have been only a mild
sensation; today it fills the capitals of one group of
belligerents with exultation and those of the other group
with apprehension and gloom. The entrance of a coun-
try with a population less than that of Pennsylvania
causes a perceptible swaying of the balance between
huge alliances of nations that number their peoples by
hundreds of millions. Its immediate effects recall a
statement made in these columns nearly a year and a
half ago:
It was in the Balkans that the great war began, and
there, in all likelihood, it will be decided. The battles on the
plains of France and in the mountain passes of Hungary are
hardly more vital than the grim struggle which diplomacy is
waging for control of the little states whose explosive politics
has kept Europe's nerves on edge for half a century. That
side which wins the Balkans wins the war.
Six months later Bulgaria joined Germany, Austria
and Turkey and completed the long-planned highway
between Berlin and the Bosporus, the gateway to the
East. Servia, Montenegro and most of Albania were
quickly brought under domination of the alliance,
Rumania was isolated by the rolling back of the Rus-
sian hosts, and Greece terrorized into neutrality, while
20
THE BALKAN MESSAGE 21
Anglo-French prestige in the peninsula was reduced to
the vanishing point by the failure at Gallipoli. Unless
the Entente Powers could retrieve that disastrous rec-
ord, they had lost the Balkans and the war. The essential
error in their policy was that they conceived the Balkan
problem to be diplomatic, whereas it was really military.
Their political agents were just as industrious, just as
lavish in promises and perhaps just as adroit as those
of Germany. But behind her diplomacy Germany
massed her guns, and these were the negotiators that
carried conviction to the observant peoples of the region.
Bulgaria joined the Teutons because she knew that
Mackensen had 300,000 troops ready to overrun Servia.
Rumania, eager to profit at the expense of Hungary,
clung to neutrality only because the Russians were
driven out of Galicia. And Greece, where popular senti-
ment was overwhelmingly for alliance with England
and France, collapsed in fear when she discovered that
those Powers could not save a foot of Servian soil from
the invader. The Dardanelles fiasco and the futile expe-
dition from Saloniki taught the Entente governments
that their diplomacy was no match for German cannon ;
that* the Balkans were to be won only, if at all, thru the
creation of an overmastering military power. And just
as soon as they had demonstrated this achievement,
the gaining of the peninsula became only a matter of
time. With Russian armies once more hammering at
the gates of Hungary, and with 650,000 troops repre-
senting all the Allied Powers intrenched around Saloniki,
Rumania could no longer doubt which path led to realiza-
tion of her ambitions, and a like decision by Greece is
no more in doubt.
That these events portend the wresting of control
of the region from the Teutons is reasonably clear. Ger-
many, of course, has had ample warning of the blow,
22 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
and it is conceivable that she could make another Servia
of Ferdinand's kingdom. Geographical and military
conditions, however,, make her problem infinitely more
baffling than that she solved by her drive from Belgrade
to the Grecian frontier. A vital factor, of course, will
be the extent and efficiency of Rumania's preparations.
On these points there is no trustworthy information,
but it is unlikely that Russia has neglected to share
with her new ally the apparently inexhaustible sup-
plies of guns and munitions which she has acquired dur-
ing the last year. Rumanian hostility erects a barrier
between the Central Powers and their allies. It creates
a menace to the flank of the Austrians, whose line
already is reeling under the Russian attacks, and to the
rear of the Bulgarians, who are involved in the begin-
nings of a dangerous campaign in Greek Macedonia.
It opens at last a direct path southward for Russia, and
announcement is already made that forces of the czar
are pouring down toward Bulgaria.
An additional result will be the entrance of Greece.
That unhappy country, victimized by its own fears and
the audacious policy of an autocratic king, had not the
skill or the luck of Rumania, and had to endure, besides,
the rather suffocating embraces of the Entente Powers,
her guardians. Neutrality is a singular commodity, in
that, under adroit management, it can be sold and still
possessed. Rumania collected untold millions for it, yet
held it until belligerency was more profitable. Greece
permitted hers to be marketed by an unconstitutional
sovereign, and received no return except the suspicion
of both sides and the threat of national disaster. And
she has not even the satisfaction of realizing the ideal
of the feebler kind of statesmanship, which is to "keep
out of war" even at the cost of national dignity, justice
and sovereignty. She never had a chance to escape.
THE BALKAN MESSAGE 23
Betrayal of her treaty obligations toward Servia brought
her not peace, but peril. And she is to enter the con-
flict, not as a nation worthy to be an arbiter of its issues,
but as one which must wipe out the shame of having
deserted an ally and surrendered to an aggressor. The
government of Constantine, yielding to the false allure-
ments of "safety first" as a national policy, sought to
maintain it by a mobilization which was a hollow sham.
Not a soldier would it send to the aid of Servia. But it
proclaimed that every one of them would be ordered to
die where he stood before the Bulgar flag should be
planted on Greek territory. Yet when Bulgarian forces
crossed the frontier it surrendered fort after fort, and
abandoned to the invader the entire region of eastern
Macedonia, with its Aegean littoral, which was the
nation's prize in the second Balkan war. It is small
wonder that this record has driven the Greek people to
humiliation and rage, and that they are now ready,
unless all reports are deceptive, to fight for the rights
of the nation even if they must reach the battlefield only
after enduring the throes of a revolution.
After Italy's declaration of war against Germany,
Rumania's decision was inevitable. Each act was
long deliberated, and was dependent upon convincing
demonstration that Germany could not win ; for neither
Italy nor Rumania dared to contemplate the possibility
of inviting the hostility of that empire, to which both
were formerly allied, if there was a chance of Teuton
victory. What Rome and Bucharest have proclaimed
to the world is that over German power is passing the
shadow of defeat, and that nothing can save it from
ultimate eclipse.
GREECE "KEPT OUT OF WAR"
September 5, 1916.
ACCORDING to an old prophecy preserved in Greek
folklore, a sovereign named Konstantinos, with
six fingers, is some day to restore the ancient
glories of Hellas. This legend may have had something
to do with the popularity and influence of King Con-
stantine. While he is normally furnished as to fingers,
it is credibly reported that he has six toes on each foot,
which conceivably might satisfy the oracle. Current
events suggest, however, that if he really possesses this
extra equipment, he will need it all to keep his royal
feet on the ground in the present turbulent condition
of affairs. A highly efficient Anglo-French censorship
prevents the world from observing the course of the
political upheaval which is shaking the kingdom; but
rumors of a possible abdication and news of actual
revolts against the government, together with the
imposing of more rigid supervision by the Allied forces,
unmistakably forecast developments which will pro-
foundly affect the destinies of the nation and the out-
come of the great war.
From the beginning of the struggle the involvement
of Greece has been a spectacle full of interest and sug-
gestion. Since the conflict had its rise in the Balkans,
and since its chief issues center there, none of the states
in that troubled region could hope by any good fortune
or necromancy to escape. Yet the government of Greece
— which was Constantine — undertook to achieve that
24
GREECE "KEPT OUT OF WAR" 25
impossible feat, and the country's present plight affords
an enlightening study in the effects of a policy whose
overshadowing aim is to "keep out of war" at any cost.
The ambition was a worthy one, but even a superficial
acquaintance with the bewildering criss-crossing of
racial, political and economic forces in the peninsula will
suggest insuperable obstacles to its realization. Geog-
raphy itself forebade that the Balkans should ever
know tranquillity; and when control of the region
became a prize contended for by the great Powers, which
played ingeniously upon the inveterate enmities, prej-
udices and rivalries of the little states, the widening of
the war was inevitable. In no single country was there
a simple problem. Servia, selected as a victim by Aus-
tria-Hungary, was a ward of Russia and an ally of
Greece, and had awakened the mortal hatred of Bulgaria
by repudiating an agreement concerning division of the
spoils won in the victory over Turkey in 1912 and by
defeating the enraged Bulgars in 1913. Rumania,
economically a dependent and politically a satellite of
the Teutonic alliance, was racially sympathetic with
Italy, yet deeply distrustful of Italy's ally, Russia. She
yearned to wrest territory from Hungary, yet hesitated
long before she made war upon her most profitable cus-
tomers and accepted partnership with the Muscovite,
who in 1878 had torn Bessarabia from her possession.
She faced, moreover, the fierce hostility of Bulgaria,
since she had assisted Servia and Greece to humiliate
that kingdom in the second Balkan war. Bulgaria, freed
from Moslem misrule by Russia, was drawn to her lib-
erator by ties of religion and blood ; yet these influences
were cast aside in favor of an alliance with the Teutons,
the reward for which was to be revenge upon Servia
and the regaining of the Macedonian territories which
26 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Bulgar arms had won from Turkey, only to lose them
to Servia and Greece. And thus national ambition
brought about the incongruous union of the Slavic Bui-
gars with their historic foes, the Turks, against their
blood-brothers, the soldiers of the czar.
But it would seem as if the very dregs of the bitter
Balkan broth had settled at the bottom of the peninsula.
Immeasurably fortunate, thus far, when compared with
Servia, Greece has enjoyed neither the commanding
independence of Rumania nor the feverish gambling
excitement of Bulgaria's desperate adventure. She has
known the miseries of indecision, the distractions of
political warfare, the humiliation of surrender and the
shame of unresisted invasion. And now she endures
the pangs of civil strife, and faces at the end a forced
participation in the conflict. Greek events during the
last two years afford a striking exemplification of the
saying that history is made up of the biographies of
great men, for during all that period only two mem-
orable figures have emerged from the news of the king-
dom— Constantine, the king, and Venizelos, former
premier and present leader of the revolutionary move-
ment. Venizelos has always been an avowed advocate
of an alliance with Great Britain, France and Russia,
the creators and guardians of Greek independence. It
was he who formed the Balkan league that overthrew
Turkey, and he drafted the defensive alliance with Servia,
which was to protect both nations from Bulgaria's
revenge after the Balkan wars. When the final Teuton
invasion of Servia began, therefore, he decided, as a
matter of course, that Greece should go to the aid of
her ally. Constantine intervened and repudiated the
treaty; it had not been meant to apply, he argued, in
a general war, and the danger was too great. Venizelos
GREECE "KEPT OUT OF WAR" 27
retorted that no peril could excuse such a betrayal, and
that, if for no other reason, Greece could not afford to
remain passive while Bulgaria, with German aid, became
the dominating power in the Balkans. While he still
had power, therefore, Venizelos invited the British and
French to land at Saloniki in order tfiat they might
fulfill Greece's defaulted obligation to Servia. For this
he was dismissed by the king, who, when the Venizelists
won at the ensuing election, virtually abrogated the con-
stitution and set up a puppet ministry devoted to his
policy of "keeping out of war."
Constantino's caution, which he said was inspired
by a belief that Germany would win, was justified tem-
porarily by the disaster at Gallipoli and the collapse of
the effort to rescue Servia. But it was not long before
the policy of peace at any price began to prove a slender
guarantee. The Allies exacted a declaration of "benev-
olent neutrality" and intrenched themselves solidly on
Greek soil. Germany poured out dire threats of reprisal
for this concession to her, enemies. But worst of all,
Bulgaria showed a disposition to make her agreement
to respect Greek territory a "scrap of paper." In such
national crises leadership is everything, and Greece was
afflicted with a leadership which was neither consistent
nor courageous nor far-seeing. The spirit of the people
was sound enough, but it was paralyzed by the pressure
of a government which had enough force to be despotic,
but not enough to uphold national rights against foreign
aggression. Day by day it became clearer that the
opportunity for Greece to protect her interests and sat-
isfy her aspirations was receding, yet the government
clung with frantic grip to its impossible doctrine of
neutrality. The first blow fell when Germany, after
solemnly assuring Greece that she would herself hold
28 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Monastir, in Servia, turned that border city over to the
forces of Bulgaria. Later the Bulgars, likewise in vio-
lation of pledges, crossed the northern frontier and
occupied Greek forts; and the nation was stupefied by
the discovery that this invasion was by consent, Athens
having ordered the garrisons to evacuate the positions.
Under the circumstances, the Allies wisely demanded
demobilization of the army. It had been sent into the
field for the announced purpose of resisting any Bul-
garian violation of Greek territory; and when that aim
was openly abandoned, its maintenance not only was a
mockery^ but might become a source of danger. The
government sullenly yielded. After that the Bulgars
threw aside all pretense. They have overrun all eastern
Macedonia, the region of which they consider they were
robbed by Greece, and have occupied fifty miles of the
Aegean coast, including the port of Kavala.
King Constantine is entitled to all the fame which
accrues to leaders who put expediency above honor,
safety above justice. He has "kept his country out of
war"; but it is a country bankrupt in finances and in
prestige, torn by revolution, stripped of its rights and
possessions, and doomed to be- dragged at last, with
meager hopes of reward, into a conflict which he bar-
tered the nation's soul to avoid.
A REAL OFFENSIVE
September 12, 1916.
IN ESTIMATING the importance and effect of various
war operations as they develop, the amateur
observer has learned to be cautious, especially since
military experts themselves have been so often at fault
in their predictions. During the twenty-five months of
fighting, so many "decisive" battles and campaigns have
languished, leaving the general situation but little
changed, that the average reader has become skeptical.
Thus the cumulative reports of the Anglo-French offen-
sive in Picardy, now in its eleventh week, while they
have been followed with interest, have not made any
unusual impression. So far as surface indications go,
this movement seems to differ only in extent and con-
tinuity from the Champagne advance of a year ago, a
victory which was really a defeat for the assailants.
That sections of the most elaborately prepared intrench-
ments can be taken by either side, by sufficient prepara-
tion and expenditure of lives and ammunition, was dem-
onstrated long ago. The vital question is whether this
campaign has in it any novel factors, reveals any funda-
mental changes in conditions, promises any definite
transformation.
It is still too early, of course, to pass final judgment,
but every careful student will discern in the battle of the
Somme unmistakable signs that the war has entered a
new phase. If this great struggle is not yet decisive, it
is significant. If it does not presage the collapse of
29
30 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Germany, it marks definitely her loss of superiority to
her adversaries. If it leaves Allied victory still unde-
termined, it makes German victory unthinkable and
brings German disaster within the range of possibility.
In all these aspects it differs from and overshadows any
previous campaign on the western front, from the Marne
to Verdun. In measuring the difference, the military
events are not exclusively to be considered. The evi-
dence will be found not alone in the reports of ground
gained and prisoners taken, but in the varied signs of
an augmented force and precision on one side, a dimin-
ished vigor and confidence and power of recuperation
on the other. And the former change is no more strik-
ing than the latter. There was a certain element of
surprise in the first assaults, and Germany was not at
all shaken by the loss of positions in the opening clash.
A month later — that is, a month ago — they were
still more assured. While trenches and villages had been
yielded under pressure, the enemy's advance, they
asserted, was being made at insupportable cost, and the
force of his blows was perceptibly weakening. An
American correspondent at the German headquarters
made these inspired statements on August 12:
The critical stage of this gigantic operation has now
definitely passed. The climax was reached on August 7 and 8.
The much-advertised offensive has now spent its uttermost
fury. Any further attempt by the English and French would
mean wanton sacrifice of human lives. No new phase con-
ceivable on this side of the line can make any possible impres-
sion on the German front. Enemy resources, human and
otherwise, have been drained to the dregs. The campaign is
a tragic failure.
"The offensive has been stopped," the German com-
mander was quoted by another writer. "The crucial
point has passed. They will keep on with their hopeless
A REAL OFFENSIVE 31
task another month, perhaps, two. But a break thru
my front is 'ausgeschlossen'." In six weeks, wrote
another, the Allies had recovered only fifty-eight of the
8000 square miles of German-held French territory. The
offensive that had passed its climax, that had failed, is
still in progress, and the unadorned facts suggest that
its intensity is increasing rather than diminishing. The
hardest blows since the beginning were delivered on
September 3, September 4 and September 10. In three
days of this month 7000 prisoners were taken, and the
September total reported is above 12,000. Capture of
many heavy guns shows that the German retirement is
often hasty. Since July 1 the French and British have
conquered more than thirty villages, every one of which
had been transformed by German military science into
a formidable stronghold. But the significance of the
record lies less in these statistics than in the methods
employed, the strategical results achieved and the
unrelaxed grip of the Allies upon the initiative. Three
important changes in tactics have been observed. First,
of course, is the employment of heavy artillery for the
chief t work of reducing positions. This plan has been
brought to such perfection that losses in the advance
are greatly decreased. Infantry no longer assaults in-
trenchments; it merely occupies them after they have
been devastated by shells. Second, the strongest posi-
tions, such as fortified villages, are not subjected to
frontal attack, but to a double flanking by the driving of
a wedge on either side ; as these thrusts go deeper, the
fortress becomes pocketed, and is readily reduced.
Third, instead of the familiar device of attempting to
crush in an enemy salient, the offensive forces make
salients of their own; and then the aim, instead of
forcing the point forward, is to widen it. The former
32 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
method might be compared to the operation of a pair
of tongs ; the latter, to the operation of a pair of scissors,
thrust in and then wrenched open.
An additional point to be observed is that the Brit-
ish and French have no delusions about "breaking thru"
the German front. Their purpose is not the impossible
one of smashing that mighty line, but the rational one
of wearing it thin, of keeping it under such a deadly and
sustained grinding that ultimately it must be withdrawn
to avert collapse. No less impressive than the unrelent-
ing vigor of the offensive, however, are the evidences
of a wavering of German confidence, of tremors of weak-
ness in that superb military and political machine. All
readers who recall the terse satisfaction, even arrogance,
of the early official reports from Berlin, and the exultant
descriptions of victory written by German correspond-
ents, must be struck with the change of tone. Even
official communications have a tone of what might be
called wondering complaint; they speak of battles "of
indescribable extent and ferocity," and describe artillery
fire "exceeding all previous efforts." But the newspaper
writers give free rein to their disconcerted feelings.
"Never before," says one, "have such colossal instru-
ments of homicide been assembled. In destructiveness
and agony of effort the struggle surpasses anything
in the history of human conflict." "Germans," says
another, "are resisting the most terrible mauling, batter-
ing, grinding blows that have ever fallen on an army.
It is a battle symphony of death. It is awful. It is
appalling. The theological hell has no terrors for those
who survive this inferno." While Germany was making
a threshing-floor of Belgium and France she was moved
to no such acknowledgments of the horrors of war, and it
is at least suggestive that such expressions are being
wrung from the nation now.
A REAL OFFENSIVE 33
But there are more definite signs of weakness. The
dismissal of Von Falkenhayn as chief of staff is one, and
the almost superstitious acclaim that greeted the substi-
tution of Von Hindenburg, as tho there were magic in
his very name, is another. It is undeniable that the
victor of Tannenberg is a great soldier ; but it is equally
true that he is the one commander who could order the
line shortened — that is, territory surrendered — without
creating a panic in the empire. The most significant
item of all, however, is that virtually every foot of
French soil reconquered from the invader has been held.
The shrewdest test of the force and spirit of an army
is its striking power in counter-attack — the celerity and
impetuosity with which it wrests back ground once
yielded. Here the Germans, on the Somme, have sig-
nally failed. Their resistance, while gallant and devoted,
has not in it the power of effectual aggressive response.
The world does not look for any sudden shattering of
Germany's line, any spectacular breach in the wall of
her defense. But it cannot mistake the evidence that
henceforth her task is to endure punishment, not to
inflict it, and that she is less fitted for one than for the
other' She was defeated, experts have said, at the bat-
tle of the Marne. But she was to learn that fact at the
battle of the Somme.
THE BATTLE OF DEMOCRACY
September 15, 1916.
A 5 WE watch the absorbing spectacle of the world
war, and from time to time discuss its tremendous
events, we are conscious of an increasing sense of
hesitancy, an instinctive leaning toward conservatism in
opinion. Upon the fundamental issues of the conflict one
is secure in supporting the judgment of mankind ; as to
the final outcome there need be hardly more uncertainty.
But two years of observation have taught all rational
beings the folly of dogmatic assertion concerning other
aspects of this mighty upheaval, and such are wary of
positive generalizations and predictions. In the early
days of the struggle discussion was more confidently
assertive ; we can almost envy the assurance with which
we accounted for the first defeats and triumphs of the
defenders of France. Comparing the French people of
the third empire and of the republic of today, we said :
It is an axiom of political science that the most efficient
system, particularly in war, is an intelligent autocracy. Such
prodigious feats as Germany's swift mobilization and the
irresistible drive toward Paris require the surrender of popu-
lar rights to a centralized power. Democracy is never so well
prepared, never can mobilize so readily in full strength. But,
on the other hand, autocracy must have victory to endure,
while democracy can survive defeat. Autocracy is at its
maximum of strength in the beginning; democracy, if not
then overwhelmed, steadily increases its efficiency and strik-
ing power. Thus the military strength of France, despite
enormous losses, is greater today than at any other time
since the war started.
34
THE BATTLE OF DEMOCRACY 35
This was written on November 20, 1914, and the
paragraph is resurrected now chiefly because it embodies
a statement of principle that has been signally justified.
The great fact about the war is that it is to decide
whether autocracy or democracy shall guide the develop-
ment of civilization, and at this very hour each is prov-
ing its worth, not only as a scheme of government,
but as an effective system for preserving or advancing
national ideals by force of arms. One may deplore the
barbarous nature of the test, but that does not evade it.
Under autocracy, war is an accepted probability of exist-
ence, to be studied, planned for, met with minute prepa-
ration and prosecuted from the beginning with merciless
precision. Under democracy it is an almost incredible
chance of evil, preparation for which, if not wholly
neglected, is undertaken with languid or laggard inter-
est. Yet in the end the fate of both rests upon the
application of sheer force, upon skill and audacity and
efficiency in the business of destruction. Each must
stand or fall by the verdict of the battlefield. And that
is no cloister for the presentation of fine-spun theory,
howeyer logical. The principle that seeks vindication
there cannot hope to repulse assaults with arguments
nor to refute cannon with declarations of belief. That
which is being determined, then, is whether democracy
can be efficient as well as true ; whether in pursuing the
ideals of peace and justice it necessarily loses the power
to maintain itself against the terrible efficiency of its
remorseless enemy. Events are answering now the chal-
lenge framed many months ago by a writer on behalf
of Britain and France. "See which will crack first, our
democracy or Prussianism, now that both have been
plunged into the furnace together. The day of God's
testing has come, and we shall see which can best
abide it."
36 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Autocracy has certain obvious advantages in war,
aside from its power over its subjects, individually and
in the mass. It is, as we have said before, answerable
to no one — until the final settlement; its mistakes are
covered up, its weaknesses concealed, its decisions sub-
ject to no inquiry. Democracy, on the other hand, must
pay in blood and dissension for every blunder. It is the
product of the common mind, and must answer to the
common judgment for its delinquencies. When those
charged with its administration fail, they must give way
to better men, tho the change shakes the very founda-
tions of confidence and creates disunion in a critical hour.
These weaknesses have been manifested in a score of
political upheavals and military disasters. Autocracy in
Great Britain would never have allowed the nation to
drug itself into false security and confront a sudden
peril unarmed. Autocracy in France would not have
neglected to pile up adequate ammunition reserves, nor
permitted cabinets to be disrupted in the face of the
enemy. It would not have sacrificed scores of thousands
of lives to incompetent leadership at the Dardanelles and
Bagdad. It wouldj be incapable of such indolence and
inefficiency as are reported from India, where sick and
wounded soldiers have been allowed to suffer and die in
remote encampments without even decent care. On the
other hand, autocracy in these countries could not have
withstood the staggering shock of defeat and disillusion ;
it could not have fashioned victory from the elements of
discord and neglect and inexperience; it could not have
transformed a national spirit of fierce individualism into
a devoted, self-sacrificing patriotism ; it could not have
called into being that implacable will to be free, which
is intensified by delay and invigorated by disaster.
What is the message that the thunderous echoes
from the Somme convey? It is that what autocracy
THE BATTLE OF DEMOCRACY 37
accomplished in forty years, democracy has achieved in
two ; that all the mighty preparations of the one during
four decades have been overtaken and surpassed by the
efforts of the other in twenty months. A great host
rolling in resistless waves across Belgium and France,
every detail of transportation, supply and tactical move-
ment perfectly co-ordinated in harmony with pre-exist-
ing plans — that is autocracy in war. A few divisions of
British troops flung hastily in the path of the advance,
to stay with their bodies the tidal wave of invasion; a
French army, loyally disciplined, but unequally prepared,
fighting in gallant yet almost hopeless retreat ; then the
sudden stiffening of the line, the swift onslaught of a
hidden army — 15,000 troops dashing into battle in taxi-
cabs ! — the miraculous achievement at the Marne and the
beginning of the long, desperate war of trenches; two
years of patience, of iron endurance, of incredible labor,
and then the revelation of vast new armies, of inexhaust-
ible supplies, of devastating power, of a spirit of victory
that nothing can withstand — that is democracy in war.
In the beginning, Germany's superiority in every
department of military science and equipment was over-
powering; thus far autocracy had justified itself. But
once the initial drive had been halted and the defenses
made secure, it was certain that in time the genius of
democracy would turn the scale. It filled the depleted
ranks as fast as they were emptied. It created new
armies, not only summoning millions of men by right,
but drawing them from the ends of the earth in free-will
response. It built up gigantic industrial activities, reor-
ganized the forces of labor, drafted a million women into
the ranks of production. It devised guns that dominate
the mightiest products of Krupp, ranged them in a bar-
rier of steel from the sea to the Swiss frontier, and
heaped up behind them such mountainous supplies of
38 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
ammunition that the torrent of destructive fire upon
the enemy never ceases. And this was done while the
invader held in his grasp nine-tenths of the ore-produc-
ing and metal-working territory of the defenders.
Democracy's weaknesses in the earlier stages of a
war are obvious. It is contented with itself, careless
and skeptical. Its counsels are confused and embittered
by dissension. Its spirit is often stolid when it should be
eager, and querulous when it should be calm. Its ener-
gies are dissipated in contention and wasted thru ineffi-
ciency. But suffering and adversity change all that.
Democracy learns, grows in stature, mobilizes the com-
mon strength into one cohesive force and directs it by
the power of universal purpose. So there comes a day
when autocracy has done all that it can do, when the
doctrine of the superman is revealed as a myth, and
the contest emerges as one between two systems of
government, two ideals of the human soul. Then the
expanding vigor of an aroused and disciplined democ-
racy declares itself, strikes and strikes again with ever-
increasing power and carries its cause steadily toward
triumph. This is the transformation that the startled
world witnesses today in France. In the forefront of
that stupendous battle for civilization, shining thru the
murk of death like the white plume of Navarre or the
oriflamme of St. Denis, it is the standard of democracy
that is carrying the hopes of mankind to victory.
ISHMAEL AWAKES
September 19, 1916.
IT WOULD be an extravagance, we suppose, to say
that a sixteenth nation has entered the war because
certain tribes of Arabia have declared their inde-
pendence from the Turks. But it is a picturesque and
not unimportant circumstance that that land of for-
gotten history, source of one of the great religions of
mankind, has been caught into the current of the world
conflict, and that its fortunes are involved, no one knows
how deeply, with those of the great belligerents repre-
senting a newer civilization. As a fact, tremendous
interests hang on the result of obscure skirmishes in the
vast deserts beyond the Red sea, and one may profitably
spare a glance from the mighty struggles in Europe for
this upheaval in the birthplace of Islam. There are no
special correspondents at the headquarters of the grand
shereef of Mecca, commander-in-chief of the insurgent
people. This is a loss to the world, for the glimpses we
have had of that political ecclesiastic, who combines in
his person spiritual and military leadership and the office
of mayor of the holy city, reveal him as a man of parts.
"You are an ignorant youth," was the calm dismissal he
uttered a few months ago to Enver Pasha. Strong
words to fling in the teeth of the man who dominates
the Turkish throne in behalf of his great patron, the
kaiser; one can imagine the Oriental scorn of the tur-
baned, graybeard ruler, seated in the city whence the
Moslem philosophy went forth to conquer, for the suave,
39
40 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
frock-coated intriguer who had made the commander of
the faithful the vassal of an infidel sovereign. But a
keener point is that this descendant of Mojiammed —
thru Fatima, the prophet's favorite daughter — is making
good his sentence in the field. The revolution, which
began early last June, has already overturned Turkish
rule in Mecca, where the founder of Islam was born ; in
Medina, where he died ; in Jiddah, the Red sea port thru
which scores of thousands of world pilgrims pass to and
from the holy places every year, and in other coast cities.
Politics and religion are inextricably intermingled
in Oriental affairs, and both elements are equally promi-
nent in this portentous drama of the desert. The main
reason for the uprising is that the Arabs, who have
never tolerated more than nominal rule by Turkey, and
that only because of an historic claim by the sultan to
leadership of Islam, consider that the tie has been broken
by Turkey's submission to Germany. Foreseeing the
collapse of the Osmanli power in Europe, they are fired
with the vision of a restoration of the glories of an
Arabian empire; a revival of the days when Saracenic
law and faith held sway over Syria, Palestine, Persia,
Egypt, northern Africa and Spain. How much of this
feeling is due to religious zeal and how much to the
diplomacy of Germany's antagonists cannot be known.
But in any event it is ominous for Turkey that the chief
bond holding together her shaking empire has been
severed by the people whose religion has been the source
of all her power. Aspiration toward liberty is with the
Arabs a birthright, a fundamental racial characteristic,
not the product of evolution or enlightenment. They
trace the lineage of the greater part of their race to
Ishmael, and that child of the desert they venerate as
the eldest and favorite son of Abraham. The Bedouin
may be taken as the unchanged descendant of the youth
ISHMAEL AWAKES 41
whose "hand was against every man." Certainly the
Arabs represent the Semitic race in its purest form.
Arabian history begins fifteen centuries before
Christ. While the country was subjected to foreign
invasion and interminable tribal wars, it was never wholly
subjugated, and in the seventh century it was to become
itself a world power. Mohammed, prophet of a faith
whose adherents, thirteen centuries after his death, were
to number 200,000,000, conquered the entire peninsula
within ten years by the sheer power of an idea judi-
ciously enforced by arms. He was of the influential
tribe of Koreish, centered in Mecca, and the city of his
birth inevitably became a place of pilgrimage. It had
been, indeed, a community of holiness from time imme-
morial, and the prophet, like many other religious inno-
vators, took over and adapted to his own creed the
visible equipment of the paganism which be overthrew.
The Kaaba, that strange cubical structure which stands
in the mosque and is the chief sanctuary of Islam, was
a temple of idolatry ; and its holiest relic, the black stone
set in a corner of the wall, while venerated as a gift from
the Angel Gabriel to Abraham, is really a meteorite
whieh generations of pre-Islamic heathen had worshiped.
But behind and beyond these superstitions there was in
the teachings of Mohammed a force that was to sway
the minds of unnumbered human beings. Islam em-
bodied above all things a militant faith, and for many
stirring years carried on the conversion of the world by
the sword. East and west swept the tide of conquest,
until Mecca had become the capital of a religious empire
extending from the islands of the Pacific across Asia,
Africa and Europe to the Atlantic. The fact which links
this mighty religious movement of the Dark Ages to the
world war of the twentieth century is that the chief
authority in Islam has centered in the caliphate, of
42 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
which the sultan of Turkey, ally of the kaiser and enemy
of Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy, is the pres-
ent de facto holder. A glance at the complicated matter
of succession will explain the revolt against him.
Of Mohammed's successors, the first four are known
to the faithful as the "perfect" caliphs, in that they rep-
resented the pure ideals of the faith, and under them
(632-661 A. D.) Islam extended its sway over vast ter-
ritories. Their capital was Medina. But inevitably the
rulership became the prize of ambition and factional-
ism, and the faith of Mohammed eventually was divided
into more sects than trouble even Christianity. Under
the Ommiad caliphs (661-750) the wave of Moslem
conquest rolled over northern Africa and Spain, and
would have submerged what now is France, had it not
been arrested by Charles Martel in 732. The Ommiad
capital was Damascus, but from 756 to 1031 an inde-
pendent line of twenty-two caliphs reigned at Cordova,
while another branch was recognized and protected by
the rulers of Egypt until the sixteenth century. To the
orthodox Ommiads succeeded the Abbassid dynasty,
thirty-seven representatives of the line having their seat
at Bagdad. After five centuries, the last of these was
overthrown in 1258 by the Mongol invaders, precursors
of the Turks, who came out of central Asia to adopt
the religion of the Arabs and extinguish the civilization
which was Arabia's gift to the most benighted age of
the world.
It is singular to reflect that to the Arab, whom most
of us picture as a sort of picturesque savage, com-
pounded of barbarism, superstition and hopeless igno-
rance, the world owes priceless services. Arabian philoso-
phers, jurists, theologians, historians, mathematicians,
poets and astronomers were producing literature and
enlarging the bounds of science when most of Europe
ISHMAEL AWAKES 43
was in darkness. There were schools at Bagdad, Cor-
dova and Cairo where the translated works of the Greek
philosophers were expounded, and these themselves sent
forth treatises that were studied for generations in
western seats of learning. The library at Cairo con-
tained 6000 works on astronomy. In Cordova there were
eighty Moslem schools and a collection of half a million
volumes, and to this day the glories of the Moorish era
are reflected in the relics of its wonderful architecture.
But the very spread of the Moslem faith thruout the
world had operated to reduce the importance of its birth-
place, and Arabia sank rapidly to the rank of a fourth-
rate power, then to an unconsidered region of neglect.
The Turks, who had national cohesion as well as military
power, made themselves the political masters of Islam
and created by the sword an empire which covered
western Asia, southeastern Europe and northern Africa.
Then, at the height of their power, in the sixteenth cen-
tury, they made secure for long years their domination
of the Mohammedan world. Sultan Selim I, after mas-
tering Persia and Kurdistan, extended his sway over
Egypt, and there, in 1517, the last descendant of the
Abbassid caliphs — which had been exiled from Bagdad in
1258 — solemnly invested the Osmanli sovereign with the
title of caliph for himself and his successors. For just
four centuries, then, the sultan of Turkey has been
titular "commander of the faithful." While the Arabs
have given to him little more than nominal allegiance
politically, they have for the most part recognized his
spiritual authority; first, because Turkey was the lead-
ing Mohammedan state, and, second, because it was the
guardian of Mecca and Medina, the shrines of the
Prophet. What veneration they had for the vicegerent
of Allah was dissipated, however, by the spectacle of
Turkey revolving as a bewildered satellite in the system
44 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
of Teutonic ambition. "Our aim," says the sententious
grand shereef of Mecca, "is the preservation of Islam,"
and his followers thrill to the summons of a Pan-Arab
movement that is to make Mecca the center of a real
Moslem empire.
This is, of course, a fantastic vision. There is no
solidarity in Islam, nor ever will be ; and the Arabians,
hardy as they are, have not the capacity for united
action beyond the boundaries of tribal loyalty. The
spirit of Ishmael still sways their minds and souls.
There is a grim poetic justice in the fact that the "holy
war," which Germany boasted she would use to destroy
her enemies has had its only manifestation in a religious
uprising that threatens to destroy her ally. The fer-
ment among the Arabs, which constitutes merely an
episode in the world upheaval, may well have far-reach-
ing results. Months hence we are likely to learn that
the diplomacy of Great Britain has inspired the expul-
sion of the Turks, and that a caliphate seated in Mecca,
with British agents supervising the pilgrimages thru
Damascus and Jiddah, will signify the doom of Ger-
many's Asiatic ambitions, the final extinction of Turkish
power and the establishment of a protectorate by the
most Christian nation over the land which gives law
to the hosts of the Prophet.
AMERICAN WEAPONS IN THE WAR
September SS, 1916.
DURING the earlier period of the war its develop-
ments had fascination not only because of their
extent, but because of their novelty. Besides
involving military operations on a scale of unprecedented
magnitude, twentieth-century warfare was revealed as
a new science, with methods and devices which had
never been employed before in actual combat, some of
which had been unknown except to their originators.
The aeroplane and the submarine, to mention only two,
were to have their first real tests. But in its later stages
the struggle produced nothing exceptional. Apparently
it had become a contest in endurance and productive
capacity, with the element of surprise largely eliminated.
There was a genuine thrill, therefore, in the appear-
ance' the other day of an innovation that shattered
the routine of offensive and defensive trench warfare.
The familiar idea of the armored motorcar had been
secretly developed, and suddenly the battlefield was
invaded by a new death-dealing monster. One can
imagine the excitement caused by the apparition of the
great gray things as they lurched thru the mists of
dawn and the battle smoke — swaying and plunging,
grunting and straining over the shell-torn earth, stum-
bling into craters and ponderously heaving themselves
out again, plowing thru swamps and crawling over
gaping trenches and battering down walls with their
steel snouts — all the while ejecting devastating streams
45
46 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
of bullets from their sides while themselves impervious
to assaults. The Germans had had their Zeppelins and
poison gas, the French their terrible "soixante-quinze"
guns and bomb catapults, but here was something new
from the British side. John Bull, the conservative,
plodding worshiper of tradition, had at last startled his
competitors by a feat of pioneering. And it is no more
than just to say that he deserves credit for his imagi-
native ingenuity in transforming a well-known device
into a formidable engine of war.
But the interesting point to us is that the only
novelty was the combination of armor plate and machine
guns with a familiar machine. The essential part of
the new crawling fortress is the American caterpillar
tractor, thousands of which are in daily and peaceful
use in the United States. The terrifying monster of
the battlefield is but a modification of a device which
millions of Americans have seen at work, from digging
ditches and hauling whole trains of laden trucks for
big contractors to plowing the great wheat fields of the
middle west. We emphasize this fact, not because it is
unique, but because it is typical of a condition which
few Americans realize — and never will, if they wait for
European nations to advertise it. This is the circum-
stance that the belligerents owe to American invention
virtually all the more effective weapons they are using
in this war. It would be unworthy,, perhaps, to exult
in such a tribute to this nation's genius, but none the
less it is instructive to glance at the record.
One might begin at the beginning of modern naval
equipment, and recall that steam navigation was made
practicable by John Fitch on the Delaware river and
commercially successful on the Hudson by Robert Ful-
ton, who was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania.
The first ocean steamship voyage was made from New
AMERICAN WEAPONS IN THE WAR 47
York to Philadelphia, by John Stevens' Phenix, in 1807,
and Fulton built, for the United States navy, the first
war vessel propelled by steam power. Men still young
can recall the death of John Ericsson, Swedish-Ameri-
can, whose screw propeller revolutionized navigation and
who built for this country the first screw-driven war-
ship in the world. But if these things seem too ele-
mentary, let us inquire where mankind got its chief
military and naval defenses and weapons. Floating bat-
teries were used as early as the siege of Gibraltar, in
1782 ; but it was Stephens — whose son founded the
famous institute of technology in Hoboken — who made
the first practicable proposal for an armored steam ves-
sel. This was in 1812, and the idea was too advanced for
the time. An American warship of the new type was first
laid down in 1854, but even then was not completed, and
the French launched the first iron-hulled armorclad,
about 1858. It was Ericsson who gave to naval warfare
the revolutionary device of the revolving turret ; the idea
was offered to Napoleon III in 1854, but had its first
real demonstration on the ever-memorable Monitor,
eight years later. While this vessel was not strictly a
seagoing warship, but rather a floating battery, its
engagement with the Merrimac opened a new era in
naval history by proving conclusively the value of pro-
tective armor and the revolving turret. The naval mine
and torpedo, which Germany has boasted would bring
her victory, were American in conception and develop-
ment. In 1775 Captain David Bushnell failed by a hair's-
breadth to blow up an English warship by attaching a
mine to a submerged part of its hull. Fulton experi-
mented in this direction in France, and in 1801, as a
demonstration, sank a vessel by means of an underwater
torpedo. Samuel Colt, of Connecticut, devised the elec-
trically exploded mine for harbor defense, and a Phila-
48 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
delphian, Rear Admiral John Gumming Howell, first
applied the principle of the gyroscope to the automatic
guidance of the torpedo.
What of the submarine, which is the chief reliance
of one of the belligerents in sea strategy ? While navi-
gation under water had been accomplished in crude fash-
ion long before, the first undoubted success was made
by Bushnell, for it was in a primitive submarine pro-
pelled by foot power — a sort of undersea pushmobile —
that he approached that frigate .of King George's in
the effort to blow a hole in her oaken planks. Fulton,
too, was a foster parent of the submarine, for he navi-
gated under the surface of the Seine for the edification
of Napoleon Bonaparte and launched a torpedo success-
fully from his ingenious craft, the Nautilus. It was
Fulton who perfected the first effective steering attach-
ments and the first safe artificial device of air supply.
During the civil war the Confederates used spar torpe-
does from submarine boats with conspicuous success.
Finally, the modern submarine may be said to have
originated! in the experiments of John P. Holland and
Simon Lake forty years ago, for they first demonstrated
efficient methods of propulsion and control of the
vessels.
No weapon has been more vital in the present opera-
tions than the aeroplane; and while mechanical flight
by heavier-than-air machines had been studied for cen-
turies, the problem was solved by Americans. The
father of aviation was Professor S. P. Langley, of
the Smithsonian Institution, who put forth basic
new ideas of flight in 1891, and two years later startled
the world by sending a model "aerodrome" on a flight
of three-quarters of a mile. By 1903 he had developed
a machine which was capable of carrying a man, but
the demonstrations were marred by accidents, the
AMERICAN WEAPONS IN THE WAR 49
experiments had to be abandoned for lack of funds, and
the inventor died unhonored for his splendid achieve-
ment. Within five years of his unfortunate failure man
had conquered the air. On September 9, 1908, Orville
Wright, at Fort Myer, Va., flew for fifty-seven minutes,
and a few days later, in France, his brother Wilbur
remained in the air for an hour and a half, covering
fifty-six miles. After the triumph of these young
Americans, the evolution of the present aeroplane, with
its astounding feats, was only a matter of developing
the principles they had demonstrated. Warfare on the
sea, under the sea and in the air owes much, therefore,
to American inventive skill. But perhaps the most
striking item in the record is that the machine gun,
which in modern operations on land is second in impor-
tance only to heavy artillery projecting high explosives,
is in its most effective form a thoroly American prod-
uct. The only type of machine gun used by the British
in their first line today is the Lewis gun, which a high
official in the government has declared to be "the envy of
all Europe." The inventor, Colonel Isaac N. Lewis,
U. S. A., retired, is a Pennsylvanian, now living in New
Jersfcy.
Those who feel that the Allies are, as they declare,
"fighting America's battles," may take comfort in the
fact that they are doing it with American weapons.
WHEN THE WAR WAS WON
September 26, 1916.
MANKIND'S remembrance of this war will be
studded with anniversaries of significant or
spectacular events — the ultimatum to Belgium,
the fall of Liege, of Namur, of Maubeuge, of Longwy;
the conquest of Servia, the defense of Verdun, a hun-
dred sanguinary battles on land and sea, a score of
stupendous campaigns. But none of them, unless it be
the final combat that will be the prelude to peace, will
occupy a more lustrous page in history than that which
the French, with characteristically clear perception,
commemorated recently as the sure signal of victory.
This was the series of engagements known as the battle
of the Marne, fought September 6-12, 1914.
At that time the sudden and dramatic change in
the tidal currents of the war sent a thrill thruout the
world; it even aroused extravagant hopes that the
menace to Europe was to collapse as swiftly as it had
arisen, and that the invaders were about to be flung back
upon their own soil. Yet in time it passed out of com-
mon recollection, except as a convenient phrase. The
unending fury of trench warfare, the terrific offensives
of the defeated Germans, the vast operations in Russia,
the Balkans and Asia, caused the startling reversal to
recede in interest, until to most inexpert students of the
conflict it became only a striking incident with no more
than local and temporary significance. Yet the recent
national celebration by France was just and logical. It
50
WHEN THE WAR WAS WON 51
forecasts the judgment of posterity, which will be that
the great European war was won and lost two years
ago this month — hardly six weeks after it began — and
that the stupefying slaughter which ensued, and which
must continue no one knows how long, is but the
methodical registering by fate of a deeision then irre-
vocably rendered. The star of German victory, which
had led the hosts of the empire in their exultant, rush-
ing advance, was extinguished in the reddened waters
of the Marne. This fact, we say, has been obscured by
the glamour of succeeding events. Yet while there were
many who, like ourselves, grasped by a vague intuition
the meaning of the encounter, there were those of deeper
knowledge and better-trained vision who proclaimed the
truth and expounded it convincingly even in those
doubtful days. Early in 1915, when the military superi-
ority of Germany over her enemies was being constantly
demonstrated, a book on the strategic developments of
the "first phase" of the war was written by Count
Charles de Souza, a noted French commentator. The
title was "Germany in Defeat," and the theme — or
rather the conclusion which the facts as stated
unerringly supported — was thus summarized by a Brit-
ish expert in his introduction:
Germany was defeated at the Marne. She has been a
defeated nation ever since. * * * France not only bore
the onrush of Germany's legions with consummate strategic
ability, but she came within an ace of crushing the German
armies on Belgian soil; and within a few weeks had not only
stalled off the German attack, but had defeated the German
arms in a series of battles that decided the destinies of
European civilization.
Even now, after the earlier events of the war have
fallen into something like their true perspective, this is
a staggering conception, for it implies that all those
colossal struggles that have since taken place in France,
52 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
in Poland, in Servia, in Asia Minor and beyond, have
been inconsequential, so far as concerns the ultimate
result — that the issue was decided within forty days of
the beginning. It is interesting to piece together again
the kaleidoscopic happenings of those tumultuous days
and examine the fateful design which the experts see
in them. It is a commonplace that success of the plan
framed by Germany during her years of preparation
required the elimination of France by a series of swift,
crushing blows ; unless the armies of the republic could
be scattered or destroyed before the slow-moving might
of Russia was in full action and before other possible
allies could effectually intervene, Germany would face,
her strategists knew, the slow strangulation of a siege.
This condition dictated the "military necessity" of the
perfidious violation of Belgium. There has been, there-
fore, a virtually universal belief that this crime was the
first step in an elaborately planned rush to capture Paris
— that the Germans chose to dishonor a treaty and
devastate the territory of a helpless neighbor in order
to avoid the costly operation of hacking a way thru the
strong frontier defenses of France between Belgium and
Switzerland. But the French expert offers a quite dif-
ferent exposition, and supports it by impressive argu-
ments. Liege was attacked on August 5, and the action
was commonly accepted as the first preliminary to a
sweep thru France. And yet, altho several army corps
were within striking distance and inactive, it was not
until August 20 that Namur was invested. There was
nothing to prevent an overwhelming advance on Brussels
on the very hour that Liege fell. Yet for nearly two weeks
the mighty German forces skirmished and feinted and
maneuvered in Belgium, and the world was led to believe
that they were being held impotent by the heroic little
army of the Belgians. The more plausible explanation
WHEN THE WAR WAS WON 53
neither relieves Germany of the odium of her invasion
nor dims the glory of Belgium's sacrifice. It is simply
that the Germans were in no hurry to reach French
soil by that route; that, on the contrary, they planned
that the crown prince should pierce the French center
and march in triumph to Paris thru Rheims — after the
French and British had been lured into Belgium,
trapped and destroyed. This plan failed because Joffre
refused to strip the center of troops for an adventure
into Belgium, but did make such spirited advances there
that the Germans believed their invitation to battle on
their own ground had been accepted. Thus it was that
the crown prince found the central gateway to the west
barred against him ; thus it was that the Germans were
finally impelled to make their principal inroads into
France thru Belgium ; and thus it was that there began
that stupendous movement, like the swinging of a
gigantic whip, the extremity of which snapped viciously
at Paris, missed it by a hair's-breadth and then recoiled
far from the capital.
In such a brief survey as this we cannot even note
the Aeries of historic encounters that made up the trag-
edy and glory of the Anglo-French retirement. The
German advance was seemingly as resistless as the tides.
They had limitless forces of men, overpowering superi-
ority in guns, remorseless efficiency and a driving sense
of victory. Few impartial observers could foresee a
check. Yet day by day Joffre was giving ground by
intention as well as because of pressure ; day by day he
was waiting for the position to develop which would
give him an opening for a crashing blow. The time came
none too soon. The French government had left Paris,
and the fall of the capital, where the guns of the invader
could be plainly heard, seemed imminent. The German
right, under Von Kluck, was sweeping down upon it
54 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
swiftly. But Joffre knew, and the Germans knew, that
the storming of Paris was an impossibility, its invest-
ment would be folly, while the French armies, virtually
intact, remained in the field. The essential objective of
that mighty rush was not the sentimental triumph of
a seizure of the capital, but the decisive achievement of
an overwhelming of the republic's armed forces. This
explains the historic swerve of Von Kluck, who suddenly
wheeled his army to the southeast, leaving Paris on his
right, and launched an attack against the French and
British at the left center of the line, which then stretched
from Paris to Verdun. The answer was Joffre's terse
order of September 6, in which he told his battered
but undaunted legions that "the time has passed for
looking behind," that an advance was necessary, and
that every group would be expected to "keep the ground
conquered or die upon it." Then it was that the army
hidden behind Paris fell upon Von Kluck's flank; that
General Gallieni put a grim jest into military history
by speeding 15,000 troops to the battlefields in taxicabs ;
that Von Kluck extricated his forces only by extraordi-
nary suppleness and because the French corps on the
extreme left attacked too precipitately ; that the French
and British forgot the miseries of retreat in the fierce
joys of pursuit, and by sheer fighting power rolled the
German armies back seventy miles from the imperiled
capital. The popular idea still is that the defeat of
Von Kluck "saved Paris" ; but as a fact the vital action
was in the center, where General Foch overthrew the
ablest strategists Germany could put into the field.
Plainly, these and other actions along the line were
not "decisive," in that they did not end the war. But
they were conclusive in the sense that they shattered
beyond resurrection the German plan ; that they pinned
the German forces to a line of trenches where for two
WHEN THE WAR WAS WON 55
years they have been compelled to stay while their
enemies collected overwhelming forces; and that they
marked the beginning of the siege of Germany. The
kaiser's troops went from Liege to the outskirts of Paris
in thirty days ; but for twenty times that period, since
the battle of the Marne, they have been held immovable,
awaiting execution of the sentence there passed against
them. According to a familiar judgment, there have
been fifteen decisive battles in the history of the world.
Among the most noted were: Marathon, where the
Persian wave of conquest was shattered; Chalons, a
thousand years later, where the hordes of Attila were
checked; Tours, in the eighth century, which turned
back the Arab incursion; Hastings, which established
Norman civilization in Britain; the defeat of the Span-
ish armada, which created a new maritime power;
Blenheim, where the domination of Louis XIV was
broken; Saratoga, the turning point in the war for
American independence; Valmy, which confirmed the
French revolution, and Waterloo, the end of the Napole-
onic era. The list was framed before Gettysburg had
saved the great republic of the west from disruption.
And 'now must be added the battle of the Marne, where
the democracy of Europe rose victorious from defeat
and rescued civilization from enslavement to brute force.
ISOLATING AMERICA
September 28, 1916.
GERMAN hatred of the United States, inspired by
the military party for political purposes and fos-
tered thru the utterances of the controlled press,
has been one of the familiar phenomena of the war. The
work of creating anti-American feeling has been done
so thoroly that in the remotest corners of the empire
there is universal animosity toward this country. The
extent and bitterness of the feeling are reflected in the
propaganda of German sympathizers here, who denounce
the American government and people as enemies of their
fatherland. Far less widely recognized is the fact that
in Great Britain and France there exists a like feeling
of unfriendliness, which, altho not so unreasoning and
venomous, is daily becoming more deeply rooted and
more vigorous in expression. To the "average" Ameri-
can such a sentiment is baffling. He has assumed that
the people of those countries would be gratified by the
circumstance that an overwhelming majority of this
nation is opposed to Prussianism and identifies the
cause of the Allies with that of democracy and inter-
national justice. It has seemed to him, further, that
the intemperate and often malignant anti-Americanism
which finds voice in Germany must make her enemies
feel a sense of comradeship with the United States. This
comforting conception is quite erroneous. Both in
England and in France this country is regarded with cold
aversion, and the public opinion of those nations is stead-
56
ISOLATING AMERICA 57
ily developing unreserved hostility. Every returning
American brings the same story. In business circles the
atmosphere of enmity is unmistakable, and among the
masses of the people the feeling is so pronounced that
the dullest stage clown can raise a jeering laugh by
a gibe at the expense of the United States. Official
England, of course, is scrupulously careful to avoid
unfriendly utterances ; it would be folly to irritate need-
lessly a powerful neutral nation. Thus the diplomatic
fiction of cordiality is maintained, but in private con-
versation members of the government express them-
selves in terms that are not less effective because they
are veiled under polite restraint.
It is difficult for one who has not experienced the
sentiment to understand how it could have attained such
widespread proportions, in view of American sympathy
with the Allies' cause, which manifested itself at the
very beginning of the war and has since gained in force
despite the organized efforts to undermine it. And this
sympathy has been expressed in the most practical man-
ner— in vast contribution to works of relief and charity ;
in overwhelming defeat by public opinion of proposals
to interfere with the supplying of the Allies' armies;
even in the enlistment of thousands of citizens of this
country under their banners. American youths by the
score are driving French war ambulances and risking
their lives in France's air battles. Hundreds of Ameri-
cans have lost their lives in her foreign legion. And
recently a whole battalion of native-born Americans
went from Canada to join Britons, Australians, Irishmen
and Canadians in the trenches. What, then, is the
cause of this extraordinary aversion? Upon what
charges or misconceptions is it based ? The critics say,
first, that this nation is "mercenary"; not only has it
exultantly turned to enormous profit the sufferings of
58 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Europe, but it submitted to the murder of some of its
own citizens, while rousing itself to anger when a cargo
of copper was delayed in a prize court. America, they
aver, is a Shylock among nations, and they cite the
action of bankers in exacting excessive terms for loans
to nations fighting for their lives and for civilization.
They even sneer at it as cowardly, in that its govern-
ment has shrunk from the elementary duty of protect-
ing the lives and rights of its citizens. But such criti-
cisms emanate from a limited class in France and Eng-
land, from men who are students of national policies
and tendencies. Far more deadly is the sentiment which
pervades the masses — which the man in the street
expresses, which music hall audiences savagely cheer,
which the very children echo. And, strangely enough,
this popular sentiment is not the result of any action by
the government or people of the United States; it is
the product of utterances by President Wilson. Of this
there can be no doubt, because it finds constant expres-
sion in repetitions of his lamentable phrases.
"Too proud to fight" — who can measure the evil
caused by that shameful implication which fell so glibly
from the presidential lips ? Consider the circumstances
under which it was uttered. More than a hundred
Americans, men, women and little children, had just
been slaughtered on the Lusitania, and the whole world,
aghast at the horror of the deed of blood, looked for a
declaration that would fitly voice the just wrath of the
American people and their determination to exact
justice. And this was the response. But the shock to
believers in the American spirit was less injurious than
the incredible affront to the anguished peoples of Europe.
That was in May, 1915. Great Britain, her original
army almost destroyed, was raising new forces that tore
gaps in millions of families, and sending them into the
ISOLATING AMERICA 59
terrors of an unequal conflict. France, bleeding from
a thousand wounds, was throwing her very soul into
the task of withstanding a ruthless invasion. And the
same voice that had advised us to be "neutral even in
thought" and had boasted of America's "self-possession"
loftily admonished the stricken nations that a righteous
pride might have saved them from their folly. If they
felt a contempt for a country that could neither avenge
its dead nor protect its living, what must have been
their emotions upon receiving from it this taunt ?
Yet they were not suffered even to believe that their
motives were conceded to be just or their cause worthy
of sympathy. "With the causes and issues of this war,"
said President Wilson, "we have no concern." He said
this at a time when Belgium lay prostrate, the victim
of dishonored faith; when international law had been
trampled to fragments; when the people of France and
of Britain and Ireland and Canada were enduring
unspeakable sacrifices for the cause to which they had
pledged themselves ; when millions of women were send-
ing their husbands, their brothers, their sons into the
dreadful ordeal of battle. Men discuss, not unjustly,
the Commercial aspects of modern war, the policies
which create and prolong conflicts for purposes of trade
aggrandizement. But who can contemplate the immeas-
urable sacrifices and unfathomable griefs of those peo-
ples and charge to them — those who go forth to die and
those who remain to mourn — any motive of sordidness ?
They fight and suffer for their ideals, for preservation
of their liberties, for the sanctity of law — and, they
profoundly believe, for the rights of humanity and the
security of institutions which are fundamental to the
life of America itself. And they are mocked with the
declaration that none of these things is America's con-
cern. Moreover, lest the abandonment happily should
60 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
be forgotten, the president was moved to give it a new
emphasis. When the spirit of devotion and sacrifice
had been intensified and the losses had become more
terrible, he referred lightly to the "war madness" of
Europe, and deftly pictured those peoples as the vic-
tims of sanguinary delusion.
To these three utterances may be traced that senti-
ment of searching condemnation which has been passed
upon this nation by the French and British people. To
this every intelligent American who has studied the
matter at first hand will testify. Paul D. Cravath, a
well-known New Yorker, said on his return from Europe
the other day that the French and British believe they
are fighting the battle of civilization, and deeply resent
the announcement that the United States is indifferent
to the cause and its outcome. Even more explicit and
convincing is the finding of James M. Beck, the eminent
lawyer and writer, whose recent visit to Europe, because
of his high repute and the reception given to him, had
almost the force of a diplomatic mission. He wras cor-
dially thanked for having enlightened his audiences by
convincing them that this country had been misrepre-
sented ; that the spirit of Americanism was not dead, not
sordid, not indifferent to the moral and spiritual signifi-
cance of the issues in this conflict. Yet he could reach
only a few, and he was impressed by the well-nigh uni-
versal existence of adverse opinion. As to the causes, his
experience left him in no doubt. He says that everywhere
he found evidence that Europe's hostile judgment of the
United States was due most to President Wilson's three
deplorable statements — that a nation may be "too proud
to fight," that America has "no concern" with the causes
and issues of the war, and that Europeans are afflicted
with "war madness."
ISOLATING AMERICA 61
Standing alone, the foreign policy of the adminis-
tration would be enough to create abroad a skepticism
as to the worth of American expressions of idealism;
but diplomatic issues are always debatable, and time
would soften the world's judgment. Standing alone, the
president's three utterances will have a more lasting
sinister effect, because they have imbedded themselves
in the memories of millions to whom international poli-
cies are mere abstractions. But when the two things
are combined — when the administration's acts are
studied with the president's declarations, each illuminat-
ing the other — one may well despair of a rehabilitation
of this country's repute. Peace will make the task more
hopeless. For those peoples will come out of the furnace
of conflict with higher conceptions of duty and loftier
ideals of conduct, more than ever convinced that they
endured its torments in the cause of justice, of civiliza-
tion, of humanity. And who can doubt that, as they
contemplate anew the record and the sentiments fast-
ened upon this nation by its chief spokesman, their scorn
will become fixed, an invisible but terrible barrier
between their spirit and ours.
THE BATTLE OF DECISION
September 29, 1916.
A TEAR and a half ago, when the German intrench-
ments in the west were being subjected to fre-
quent attacks, which then seemed of impressive
importance, General Joffre remarked lightly that he was
"just nibbling." The phrase implied that the really im-
portant operations would take "bites" out of that for-
midable line, and the first demonstration of that process
is now to be observed. The steel jaws of the Anglo-
French war machine have bitten a twenty-mile semi-
circle out of the territory held by the invader, and are
sinking deeper and deeper into his defenses. The daily
dispatches give the impression of stupendous activity,
and, as a fact, the battles of the Somme campaign excel
in magnitude and fury all other combats. Yet on the
map the accomplishment of three months looks absurdly
small. Less than one-twentieth of the line has changed
in position, and the seventy square miles taken is but
a tiny patch in the vast provinces that have been
in the grasp of the enemy for two years. If the occu-
pied parts of Belgium and France had to be reconquered
at this rate, it would be years before the invader was
expelled. The results, however, are not to be computed
merely in terms of the advances made. The campaign
has a far broader significance, in that it marks a new
phase in the war, in which is revealed not only Ger-
many's loss of the initiative and of offensive strength,
but a definite decline in her powers of resistance.
62
THE BATTLE OF DECISION 63
It cannot be observed too often that the object is
not to cut the line by a desperate thrust at one point,
but to keep it under such continuous, unendurable pres-
sure that it must eventually weaken, necessitating a
withdrawal upon a much wider front. Success of the
drive will depend not upon the number of trenches or
fortified villages actually conquered, but upon the extent
of territory surrendered by a forced retirement. Cap-
ture of a single base might conceivably compel evacua-
tion of half a province. Aside from this, the results
thus far are impressive. Beginning on July 1, the French
and British have advanced on a front of twenty miles
for from two to eight miles ; they have taken scores of
miles of trenches, in many places passing the third line
of defense; upward of thirty-five fortified villages and
towns, every one of which had been transformed into a
fortress with elaborate subterranean citadels; large
numbers of guns, vast stores of supplies and 60,000 pris-
oners. Their early difficulties were the worst, because
they had to fight their way up to heights bristling with
deadly defenses; having gained those, their guns com-
mand enemy positions on lower ground. They have
reduced the fighting strength of their opponents by not
less than a quarter of a million men. And they have
carried pivotal points, like Thiepval and Combles, whose
capture threatens the German hold upon a wide region.
These great accomplishments, however, are of less im-
portance than is the proof which they afford that behind
the offensive is a definite superiority. The Germans
have concentrated on the Somme front 1,000,000 men
and the most powerful array of artillery they can col-
lect. Their troops are brave, their strategists resource-
ful, their defenses the product of their ablest military
scientists. Yet every attack during two months has
been carried thru to success.
64 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Study of the situation on the German side, as indi-
cated in the developments and the dispatches recounting
them, shows striking evidences of diminishing powers.
Over a wide front the first great system of defenses —
the trenches and dugouts of reinforced concrete, the
massive blockhouses and elaborate entanglements, cre-
ated during two years of unremitting effort — has been
lost, and the invaders have only such protection as is
afforded by intrenchments hastily constructed under
fire. In many instances the fighting has been in the
open, a return to the methods of former wars. The
failure to remove huge stores of ammunition and sup-
plies from Combles, the certain fall of which was long*
foreshadowed, shows astonishing indecision or lack of
foresight on the part of the German staff. And there
is evidence in the official reports even of a sense of con-
fusion and despair. The most convincing fact, however,
is that the once terrible German counter-attack is no
longer effective. For two months the French and
British have ceaselessly assaulted and intermittently
advanced, and not yet has one foot of the ground con-
quered by them been retaken. It is not necessarily
prophetic, but it is significant, that rumors of an exten-
sive retirement have arisen.
It did not need the campaign of the Somme to prove
that any field intrenchments, however strong, can be
taken if the assailants have enough artillery power and
can stand the necessary losses. Hence it is not the
actual gains made, but the continuity and undiminished
vigor of the advance that are ominous for the invaders.
This is, by accounts from both sides, immeasurably the
most terrific struggle in all history; yet, after three
months, its fierceness is unabated, is even increasing.
A fortnight ago the opinion came from Berlin : "Even if
Germany's opponents have not been weakened, a con-
THE BATTLE OF DECISION 65
tinuance of the attacks with their former intensity is
impossible, because the Anglo-French offensive, espe-
cially last week, cost them so heavily." And since then
the Allies have taken Thiepval, Combles and a dozen
other fortified places, and have thrust far into the new
German defenses. The matter of outstanding impor-
tance is that they assert, and thus far have demon-
strated, that they are prepared to continue these deadly
and far-reaching assaults, as Premier Asquith declared,
"indefinitely." It is worth noting, however, that there
is no foolhardy belief in an early collapse of German
resistance.
In a word, the conception is that the Somme offen-
sive is to be made the beginning of the end of the war.
An unending battle, ever widening in scope and ever
increasing in fury of attack, until by sheer destruction
the enemy is overborne — this is a staggering concep-
tion, of which only a glimpse is caught in the struggle
of the last three months. Field Marshal von Hinden-
burg may have it in him to shatter it, but as yet he has
shown no evidence of being able to do so. The greatest
danger to the Germans is that their courage and pride
and desperate resolution may lead them to delay too long
the inevitable retirement, and so bring upon themselves
irremediable disaster.
GERMANY KNOWS
October 11, 1916.
WE CAN imagine nothing more futile than to cite
a newspaper opinion three months old that never
was published; yet we intend to do just that
inconsequential thing. When the submarine Deutschland
arrived at Baltimore last July, and the press of this coun-
try was prostrating itself before the evidence of German
power, the event seemed to us so ominous that we
framed, but did not print, an editorial of protest and
warning. While conceding that the feat showed daring
seamanship, we were infinitely more impressed by its
palpably sinister intent ; by the fact that Americans not
only tolerated an audacious affront, but accepted it as a
compliment, and by the subtle threat which it conveyed
of a different demonstration of naval efficiency in Ameri-
can waters. That the submarine carried 750 tons of
dyestuffs — about 1^4 Per cent of the amount consumed
in this country annually — gave German propagandists
a pretense for asserting that the voyage marked a res-
toration of commercial relations. The submarine was
hailed as the forerunner of a whole fleet of undersea
freighters, and thoughtless citizens complacently swal-
lowed the fable that this perilous voyage was under-
taken as a mark of esteem for this country, whose
suffering commerce it was the consuming desire of Ger-
many to relieve. Yet it was plain that the real purpose
was to impress upon the American people the far-
reaching power of Germany, to teach them that their
66
GERMANY KNOWS 67
fancied isolation was an exploded myth. But there were
circumstances which gave to the incident the color of a
studied insult. Of all places in the world, it seemed to
us, the last that would be chosen for a friendly demon-
stration by a German submarine would be a port of the
United States, where the very name of that weapon is
enveloped in memories of horror and loathing, and where
it must recall an outrage without parallel in history for
perfidy and atrocity, for which neither reparation nor
disavowal had been offered. We could conceive of no
commercial disguise that could make such a visit any-
thing less than an offense to decency and an incitement
to just anger. Above all, we were perturbed by the
threatening implications; for if there was anything to
prevent the unwarned appearance and activity in these
waters of an armed submarine — even of the very craft
that sank the Lusitania, with the identical crew that
perpetrated that crime — it was concealed from our
understanding. We expected, therefore, an outburst of
indignation from the public, and the announcement of a
governmental policy that would explicitly discourage
visits from sister ships of the craft that had murdered
American men and women and children on the high seas.
We hopelessly misjudged both the spirit of the
American people and the attitude of the administration.
The officers and crew of the submarine were officially
entertained in Baltimore, and felicitations forwarded to
the government which sent them on their mission of
intimidation. A member of the family of the vice presi-
dent of the United States, it was reported, inspected the
vessel. It was solemnly announced that these were
simple seamen from Germany's mercantile marine — as
tho it were not known that every available German is a
conscript member of the armed forces of the empire and
as tho it were possible that men trained as submarine
68 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
experts would be sent 3000 miles from the zone of war
merely to carry dyestuffs to a neutral country. At any
rate, we threw aside our editorial ; it was too hopelessly
discordant with the prevailing contentment, and might
have appeared to be unduly alarmist, even unpatriotic.
But we recall that the concluding paragraph ran some-
thing like this :
Germany has delivered here more than a cargo of mer-
chandise— she has delivered a threat. And she has taken
away more than some urgently needed war supplies— she has
taken the measure of the American government and people.
How long will it be before one of her submarines — or a
squadron of them — appears on the coast of the United States,
to thrust again into the very face of this nation the still
unsettled questions of international law and "the sacred rights
of humanity"?
The interval of time that elapsed is not important,
but Americans can judge for themselves now the merit
of the deductions which we were led to suppress. The
German war craft are here ; one of them has penetrated
an American harbor ; they have sunk half a dozen mer-
chantmen and passenger ships almost within sight of
our shores; and they have forced American, citizens —
with women and children — who were "exercising their
indisputable rights," to seek precarious safety in row-
boats at sea. The Stephano was a British-owned vessel,
regularly engaged in passenger service between New-
foundland and New York. She was bound to the latter
port, the Americans aboard being chiefly home-coming
tourists. She was unarmed, and, so far as is known,
carried no contraband. Yet her American passengers,
under threat of death, were forced to abandon their
property and risk their lives in open boats when she
was sunk.
Already administration organs intimate that if it
is sliown that the vessel was "properly warned" and that
GERMANY KNOWS 6d
"provision was made for the safety" of those aboard,
"the incident probably will end there." But the notes
which achieved President Wilson's celebrated "diplo-
matic victory" explicitly denounced as unlawful, inhu-
man and intolerable the practice of leaving the occu-
pants of torpedoed vessels "to the mercy of the sea in
small boats"; he condemned "so much as putting the
lives of those aboard the ship in jeopardy." The sub-
marine commanders interpreted their obligation to end
with the permitting of men, women and children to
scramble into lifeboats thirty miles from shore in a sea-
son of sudden storms. The fact that rescues were made
by American warships does not relieve the atrocity in
the least degree, unless we are to accept the shameful
imputation that such vessels are justly to be required to
follow humbly in the wake of German submarine raiders
and pick up their victims. The complicated and menac-
ing controversies which these events have brought upon
the United States are obvious enough in outline, and the
discussion promises to range thru boundless regions of
disputation. But a matter of more immediate conse-
quence is that this country is now directly and irrevo-
cably involved in the European conflict.
The final answer to those infatuated souls who
have babbled of "America's splendid isolation" and "the
protective rampart of the broad Atlantic" is the impu-
dent appearance of a war submarine in an American
harbor and its assaults upon American citizens in the
presence of American naval vessels. Whether there is
one German craft at work, or half a dozen, does not
signify ; if one can be sent on such an errand, fifty can
be sent, and this country is no more immune from
attack than Great Britain found herself to be. Yet there
is a matter which to us is graver even than this, and
that is that there has not yet developed in the United
70 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
States a national spirit which would discourage and for-
bid such contemptuous invasions of its rights as have
been inflicted upon it. No other neutral nation has suf-
fered such grievous wrongs as this, yet is there another
in the world that would have tolerated, would actually
have welcomed with adulation, the presence of a
Deutschland? After the Lusitania crime, the coming
of that vessel, with its transparent pretense of a com-
mercial mission, was palpably designed as a test of
American public opinion. Holland, living in the very
shadow of Germany, would not admit it to her ports;
even Sweden, which is pro-Teuton in sentiment, would
resent its appearance in her waters. But if Americans
would submit, the way was opened for far different
operations. The feting of the Deutschland's crew by the
countrymen of the Lusitania victims was a signal to
Berlin that the next step would be safe, and that the
demand for "strict accountability" which was abandoned
off the coast of Ireland would not be dangerously revived
off the shores of Massachusetts. It was not even deemed
necessary to proclaim a new "war zone," or to announce
the purpose thru an advertisement by the imperial
embassy. And only a few hours ago partisan folly was
bleating its praises of the administration that has "kept
us out of war" — of a policy that has drugged the nation
into surrendering its rights in return for a fictitious
safety, and has brought the conflict 3000 miles to menace
us at our very doors !
SUBMARINE RIGHTS AND WRONGS
•
October IS, 1916.
TO ANY citizen who may have been apprehensive lest
adequate measures should not be taken respecting
the recent submarine activities in American waters
we can convey this encouraging information:
If there is a continuance of the operations and Germany's
pledge to the United States is violated, no word or deed will
be spared by this government to protect not only the interests
of the United States, but of other and less formidable neu-
trals. * * * The present crisis offers an opportunity for
the Wilson administration to make more emphatic than ever
its heretofore announced determination to protect American
lives at sea, whatever the cost and regardless of the con-
sequences.
The announcement, which has all of the vigor — and
some of the phraseology — of a Wilson note, was made
by the New York World in a dispatch written at Shadow
Lawn, and, therefore, has behind it the authority of the
chief administration organ. In our own discussion of
the matter we shall not presume to offer suggestions as
to the immediate duty of the government, but shall
examine the controversy in the light of past events and
shall offer such observations as may appeal to minds not
burdened with official responsibility nor clouded with
technical knowledge. It is the more embarrassing to do
this because official and expert judgment seems to be
almost unanimous that the submarine raid on the Massa-
chusetts coast was conducted legally, humanely and with
perfect propriety. It was semiofficially announced that
71
72 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
the state department believed the German commander
"observed strictly the rules of international law and the
pledges made to the United States." The navy depart-
ment, Secretary Daniels remarked, was interested only
to the extent of exerting itself to prevent loss of life.
Washington, it was made known, has "little disposition
to believe that American interests are menaced by the
new campaign." And an eminent professor of interna-
tional law sweeps the whole case out of court with the
finding that "Germany had a perfect right to pursue the
course she did." In the face of such positive utterances
only the lay observer, we suppose, would have the temer-
ity to pursue the subject, and it is in that role that we
shall inquire into certain issues of fact and principle.
The most obvious result of the raid is to raise anew
the question of the submarine's status in relation to
international law, the established usages of warfare and
the rights of humanity. The German contention, sup-
ported by many Americans, is that the undersea boat is
legally a warship, nothing more and nothing less, and
entitled to all the privileges and immunities conceded to
a belligerent vessel which moves upon the surface. It
has a right, they say, to visit neutral ports, subject only
to the customary rules as to length of stay, etc. ; it may
stop and search all craft at sea, and it may wage war
upon enemy commerce after the manner of surface
cruisers. Germany's opponents, on the contrary, argue
that the submarine cannot justly claim treatment by
either neutrals or enemies as an ordinary craft of war,
for the reasons that it cannot, like other vessels, be held
subject to control and observation, and that its identity
and character cannot be positively determined. It can
enter and leave neutral waters without knowledge of the
government having authority therein; it can secretly
obtain supplies where an ordinary warship could not
SUBMARINE RIGHTS AND WRONGS 73
even appear ; and it can do its work of destruction from
concealment, leaving its government free to repudiate
responsibility. Upon these grounds the Allies have
formally urged that neutrals shall close their ports to
submarines of any nationality or character, and such
countries as Sweden, Norway and Holland have done so,
as much for their own safety as out of regard for the
request made. But no laborious argument need be wasted
upon the point that the submarine is essentially different
from other war craft. Germany herself has volubly and
vociferously argued that the U-boat has quite changed
the character of naval warfare ; that it has such serious
weaknesses of structure that the ancient right of mer-
chantmen to carry arms for self-defense, for example,
must be rescinded in its behalf, and that the ordinary
cruiser's obligation to save the occupants of a ship about
to be destroyed shall be canceled for the submarine.
Not being an expert, one might ask with due timid-
ity why the rules should be changed only so as to benefit
the fragile assassin of the deep. If it is to be conceded
that the submarine has revolutionized the character of
warfare at sea, is it unreasonable to suggest that neu-
trals'would be wise to revolutionize their rules also?
It is the promoters of submarine frightf ulness who insist
that their weapon is essentially different from ordinary
ships of war. Then by what right, may one inquire, do
they demand identical treatment for it? A German
submarine, we are loftily informed, has precisely the
same right to come uninvited into Newport harbor, and
depart thence on a mission of destruction, that a German
or a British cruiser would have. Has it, indeed ? Then
by what logic is it relieved of the obligations that are
exacted from the surface vessels? Neither a German
nor a British cruiser would dare to sink an unarmed
ship and consign American passengers to precarious
74 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
escape in lifeboats. The submarine cannot at the same
time claim the privileges of other warships and repudiate
their responsibilities.
Another point raised by the operations off the
American coast is that many months ago the United
States government sternly protested against the "hover-
ing" of British and French warships "about American
coasts and ports," and persisted until the objectionable
vessels were withdrawn. Having justly denounced those
naval forces for exercising their acknowledged rights of
visit and search in an obtrusive manner, the government
is now advised by weighty opinion to countenance the
actual sinking of vessels and the endangering of Ameri-
can lives in the same waters by the opposing forces!
Viewing the matter apart from special incidents, it
should be remembered, we think, that the submarine is
the one type of vessel which is available exclusively for
war purposes. The voyage of the Deutschland, despite
its peaceable cargo, was a feat of war, and all talk of
commercial undersea freighting is pretense, because in
time of peace such a device would be preposterous. The
first steam warship might have been entitled to special
consideration, because steam embodied a benefit to all
mankind. But the submarine, designed for war and
useful solely for destruction, should be held to "strict
accountability," not aided by relaxation of rules.
In considering the facts of the raid, discussion as to
its legality would be profitless. The vital issue concerns
the extent to which Germany observed the rules of
"cruiser warfare" and the pledges she gave to this gov-
ernment. She gave due warning to each ship, say the
experts, and no American lives were lost. But in every
one of Mr. Wilson's eloquent notes it was demanded that
she should not alone avoid killing Americans, but should
avoid placing them in jeopardy. The submarine gave
SUBMARINE RIGHTS AND WRONGS 75
the passengers of the Stephano — men, women and chil-
dren— the choice of drowning with a sinking ship or
taking to the open sea in small boats. Germany had
formally promised not to take such measures "except
when the conditions afford absolute certainty that the
boats will reach the nearest point" on the coast. The
only "certainty" the submarine officer had was the
knowledge that American naval vessels were in the
neighborhood. But this precedent makes the intolerable
implication that this government should supply rescue
ships for Germany's victims in order to relieve the
raiders of responsibility. Everything about the sinking
of the Stephano, say the experts complacently, was
strictly legal. Yet it was concerning the sinking of the
Sussex that President Wilson sent an ultimatum to Ger-
many ; the Sussex was a passenger liner plying between
two belligerent countries, France and England, while the
Stephano was bound from a belligerent country, Canada,
to a neutral country, the United States; in each case
American lives were endangered, yet in neither was an
American lost. If, then, the Sussex outrage justified an
ultimatum, based not only upon the absence of warning,
but upon the imperiling of passengers by forcing them
into small boats, why does the torpedoing of the Ste-
phano appear to be an unassailable act of war ?
CRETE MAKING HISTORY AGAIN
October 17, 1916.
AtfONG the little noted victims of the war must be
counted that populous company of authors grad-
uated from "The Prisoner of Zenda" school of
fiction. Not because the conflict has discredited their
borrowed inventions, but because, on the contrary, their
most ingenious tales of palace intrigues and subtle diplo-
mats and turbulent peoples and royal adventures have
been made flat and tame by the realities. Who will be
impressed by the tinsel romance of Kuritania when he
has witnessed the real throes of Rumania? What are
the imagined events of Graustark to the actual woes of
Greece? True, Constantino is of middle age and some-
what bald, and Eleutherios Venizelos, the other hero cf
the drama, is a graybeard statesman in spectacles and a
frock coat, who campaigns in the newspapers instead of
from the back of a prancing charger, and who would be
incapable of holding a staircase with a rapier against
half a company of the guard. Nevertheless, the scenes
and properties of theatrical. pageantry appear in the his-
tory as we see it unfolded — the king and his faithful
courtiers withstanding the popular will; armed troops
patrolling the palace grounds ; the beautiful queen up to
her royal ears in plot and counter-plot ; foreign ministers
in gold-laced uniforms conducting their devious maneu-
vers with ceremonious dignity; mobs in the streets,
traitors in the army, insurgents in the navy, spies
everywhere ; and finally the departure of the revolution-
76
CRETE MAKING HISTORY AGAIN 77
ary leader by night in a rowboat — ah ! — to be picked up
at sea by a warship and landed in his native Crete.
It is a sufficient testimony to the genius of that
extraordinary man that ever since he was dismissed
from the premiership his personality has overshadowed
that of the sovereign, while even in exile* he commands
the destinies of the country he raised from obscurity,
only to see it fall back thru indecision. He had not been
in the island capital two hours before its eleventh revolu-
tion in a hundred years was an accomplished fact, and
he was head of a provisional government pledged to pro-
mote war by Greece against Bulgaria, Turkey and their
allies. This was three weeks ago. Simultaneously it
was announced that King Constantine, yielding at last
to the nation's demands, would summon it to expel the
invader, and the act awaits only the making of satis-
factory terms with the exacting and suspicious diplo-
mats of the Entente. Crete, therefore, is the domi-
nating factor in the Greek crisis, and deserves consid-
eration apart from its calculating foster parent. Aside
from that, the island will have historical notoriety
because its complicated problem was one of the main
causes- of the Balkan war and of the world conflict.
Physically, Crete is not impressive — a narrow strip
of land with about one-fifteenth the area of Pennsyl-
vania. Of its population of 300,000, one-fifth, perhaps,
are Moslems; the others, Greek Christians, and 80 per
cent of all are illiterate. But politically it has baffled
the wisdom of Europe, while historically it is the
inspiration and the despair of scientific inquiry. For
here was one of the first of human abodes, and here there
rose and vanished in forgotten centuries a civilization
coeval with the Pharaohs and the glories of Babylon
the great. Venizelos, riding in an automobile from the
quay of Canea to government house, stirred with his
78 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
wheels the very dusts of prehistoric time. Those who
left school so recently as twenty years ago, and there-
upon joyfully abandoned the study of ancient things,
have a vague idea, perhaps, that Crete has a respectable
antiquity ; but they do not know that her story links us
to the remotest periods of human existence. It has been
only within the last few years that archeology has
uncovered on the island the architectural relics of races
that make the myths of Greece seem modern. Within
sixty miles of the capital the debris of apes has been
dug away, and the sun now shines into the roofless
habitation of dynasties that ruled before the pyramids
were built.
The palace of Cnossus covered six acres, and sci-
ence dates its erection in the fourth millennium before
Christ. And below those ruins are strata filled with
evidences of still older races, so that on this spot, it is
computed, Neolithic humanity was settled at least 12,000
years ago. This palace and others that have been found
tell in their sculptured remains and in their faded wall-
paintings of a highly advanced prehistoric civilization
whose existence was unsuspected until the opening of
the twentieth century of this era. They reveal the
startling fact that Minos, king of Crete, who had been
considered one of the creations of Greek mythology, was
an actual monarch — or more probably the name belonged
to a dynasty. The legend of the dreadful minotaur, to
which Athens paid annual tribute of seven youths and
seven maidens, has curious support in scenes pictured
on Minoan coins, even to the fabled labyrinth where
Theseus slew the monster. Daedalus, the mythological
father of aviation, may have been an authentic archi-
tect, as the Iliad avows, for such a dancing place for
Ariadne as that record says he built in Crete has been
laid open to the sky.
CRETE MAKING HISTORY AGAIN 79
These discoveries, indeed, have revolutionized ideas
of prehistoric developments of the human race, and
Crete now rivals Mesopotamia in archeological interest.
If the latter can claim renown as the site of the Garden
of Eden, the former boasts of being the birthplace of
Zeus himself, father of all the gods. 'After this it
sounds commonplace to say that a tribe of the Philis-
tines, whom Samson fought, were transplanted Cretans,
or Cherethims, as the Bible calls them. But perhaps the
most astonishing revelation is that the Minoan civiliza-
tion had the art of writing in a primitive form
twenty centuries before the Phoenicians introduced let-
ters. On clay tablets from Cnossus are alphabetical
signs scratched when Moses was planning the exodus
from Egypt. In the light of these facts the history of
Crete during the last 1900 years seems wholly modern.
It has been one unending story of strife. "For this
cause," Paul wrote to Titus, "left I thee in Crete, that
thou shouldest set in order the things that are want-
ing"; and the settlement is not yet. The plain-spoken
apostle quoted against the islanders a saying of one of
their prophets: "The Cretians are always liars, evil
beasts, slow bellies." But in recent times, at least, their
sufferings have been due to other causes. Conquered
by Rome in 67 A. D., Crete became a part of the Byzan-
tine empire and so remained, except for a century under
Saracen rule, until 1204, when it was sold to Venice,
which held it for 400 years. Its subjugation by the
Turks, completed in 1669, was marked by the longest
siege in history, Candia being invested for more than
twenty years. For nearly two centuries and a half
Crete was the worst governed of the Turks' hapless prov-
inces, Moslem misrule being complicated by the irrecon-
cilable strife between the Christian population and the
ruling Mohammedan minority.
80 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Present events had their immediate rise in the
revolt of 1896-97, which led Greece to proclaim annexa-
tion, precipitating her disastrous war with Turkey. The
great Powers intervened, and decreed — in their fatuous
policy of bolstering up the collapsing rule of the sultan
in Europe — that Crete must not be Greek, as she desired,
but must have autonomy under authority of Constanti-
nople. Prince George of Greece was made high com-
missioner, with autocratic powers; the last Turkish
troops were removed in 1898, and the constitution
revised. Venizelos, a leader in the successful revolution,
was made one of the five councilors of the prince, but
was dismissed in 1901, and four years later led another
revolt against the despotic ruler, proclaiming annexation
to Greece. The Powers solemnly hauled down the Greek
flag that he had raised, re-formed the constitution again,
and tried a new high commissioner, M. Zaimis, who is
still prominent in news from Athens. In 1908 the assem-
bly, in the absence of Zaimis, voted again for union
with Greece, and the Powers, dealing now with the
Young Turks in Constantinople, laboriously evolved
another compromise which satisfied neither faction.
Venizelos, sick of the blundering intrigues of the states-
men of Europe, whom he pungently described as "a parcel
of old women," determined to manage the business of
annexation himself, and in 1910 went to Athens as a
member of the Greek chamber. He did not overestimate
his powers. Within a few months he was premier;
within a year and a half he had reorganized the entire
political, military and naval administration of the king-
dom; within two years he had created the Balkan
League, which stripped Turkey of most of her European
dominions, and within three years he had enlarged the
boundaries of Greece at the expense of Bulgaria.
CRETE MAKING HISTORY AGAIN 81
Even in this hasty and imperfect outline of Cretan
history may be traced intimate connections with the
world conflict. Ever since the congress of Berlin in
1878 the selfish Powers had sacrificed the Christian sub-
jects of the Moslem to promotion of their own political
and commercial interests at Constantinople. This policy
created the Balkan question; it fomented the strife
between Austria and Servia, which precipitated the great
struggle; but before that it drove to despair the mis-
governed Cretans, whose passion for liberty found per-
sonification in Venizelos; it sent him to Greece, where
he was to become the avenger of Turkish misrule and
the destroyer of the integrity of the Ottoman empire,
which diplomacy conspired to maintain; and so it top-
pled over the balance of power and plunged the whole
continent into war. Surely there is no stranger frag-
ment of the vast fabric of human existence than this,
which reveals in a little Mediterranean island threads of
fate whose beginnings are lost in the dim regions of
unrecorded history, yet which are being woven into the
story told in this morning's newspapers.
THE "LEGALIZED" SUBMARINE
October 20, 1916.
THE widespread belief that British controversial
methods lack adroitness will be shaken, we think,
by the extraordinary statement of Viscount Grey
the other day respecting the submarine raid off the
American coast. Altho the scene in the house of lords
palpably had been rehearsed, it was managed with deadly
skill. No American with a decent sense of pride could
have read without humiliation the suave secretary's
studied phrases, so ironically considerate, but so bitterly
contemptuous in implication:
The United States government did request us very
emphatically not to patrol near their coast, and instructions
were sent to British warships to avoid causing unnecessary
irritation. When we come to what has passed with regard
to German submarines we do not know.
We know that American warships saved lives. The ques-
tions asked me are: What did they do before any vessel was
sunk, and is it true that a German submarine requested them
to clear out of the way in order that the sinking of a defense-
less ship should be facilitated, and did they, in fact, comply
with that request and so facilitate the sinking of vessels?
On that we know nothing more than what has appeared in
the press. I assume that the only persons who can give an
account of it are the officers of the German submarine and
the officers of the United States navy who were on the scene.
In September, 1914, the United States authorities inter-
cepted wireless communications from H. M. S. Suffolk to New
York asking for supplies and newspapers, and we were
informed that the United States government considered that
this would be making use of American territory as a base
for supplies and information as to shipping movements. We
82
THE "LEGALIZED" SUBMARINE 83
do not know what precautions were taken to prevent the
German submarine from obtaining supplies or information
from the newspapers as to the movements of merchant ships.
Nor do we know whether American warships facilitated the
operations of the submarine by getting out of the way.
* * * As to the proceedings of the submarine, the United
States government will, I suppose, in due »course let it be
known to the world what view they take.
If Viscount Grey really had any such expectation,
he now knows that it is hopeless; for it is announced
that the Washington authorities will make no statement
of any kind concerning any phase of the matter, not even
the sinking of an unarmed passenger ship and forcing of
American men, women and children to take to open
boats forty-two miles from the nearest port. Of the
three points raised by the secretary, his reference to the
action of American warships is perhaps the most irri-
tating. It can only be said that it was stated in the
news dispatches, and not contradicted, that the German
submarine asked an American destroyer to move aside,
as a ship was about to be torpedoed, and that the request
was complied with. Washington reports it has found
"no evidence verifying this report." The two other
issues raised concern the American attitude toward sub-
marines and surface warships, respectively, and the
status of the submarine itself. It will be useful to
glance at the record. In October and December, 1914,
and in April and December, 1915, Secretary Lansing
protested against the patrolling of the high seas near
the United States by warships of Great Britain and
France. He did not even intimate that their procedure
was illegal, but expressed this government's irritation
at "the hovering of belligerent warships about American
coasts and ports." The United States, he said,
has always regarded the practice of belligerent cruisers
patrolling in close proximity to its territorial waters and mak-
ing the neighborhood a station for their observations as incon-
84 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
sistent with the treatment to be expected from the naval
vessels of a friendly Power in time of war, and has maintained
that the consequent menace to the freedom of American com-
merce is vexatious and uncourteous.
Great Britain gave assurances that she "had issued
instructions which would prevent further molestation
of American commerce in the trade lanes approximate to
American waters," but Mr. Lansing insisted that the
warships be withdrawn to a considerable distance, and
Great Britain complied. The established position was,
then, that it was objectionable for a war vessel of the
Allies to get newspapers from an American port or to
exercise the lawful rights of visit and search even in
the neighborhood of American waters. On the other
hand, Washington peremptorily rejected the suggestion
that submarines were not entitled to all the privileges
of surface warships, and has conceded the right of Ger-
man submarines to use American harbors, freely obtain
American newspapers and destroy unarmed vessels in
the very waters from which British and French cruisers
were indignantly warned. The British charge is, in
short, that the Allied vessels are forbidden even to patrol
nearby waters and exercise therein the legalized customs
of warfare, while German submarines are invited to
prosecute in those identical places methods which the
American government has repeatedly denounced as
unlawful, intolerable and inhuman. We have no inclina-
tion to argue Great Britain's case for her; we simply
state the facts and let the reader judge for himself. As
to the status of the submarine, it is to be remembered
that the same Wilson administration which was properly
resentful of the "hovering" of belligerent cruisers in this
part of the Atlantic ocean made a special plea for a
radical alteration of the rules of warfare for the benefit
of the submarine. It proposed that, because of the
"weakness" of that type of vessel, merchantmen should
THE "LEGALIZED" SUBMARINE 85
be deprived of their ancient right to carry defensive
armament. But after arguing in this manner that the
submarine was vitally different from an ordinary war-
ship, the administration held that the undersea boat
was in legal respects the same thing — that it is entitled
to all the customary privileges in American ports and
waters, but is relieved of the customary responsibilities.
Do we overstate the case? Let us see. The U-53,
armed with guns and torpedoes, was escorted into New-
port harbor by an American warship. Its commander
exchanged visits with the American rear admiral of the
station and obtained newspapers. Departing, it sank
five unarmed vessels within sight of Nantucket lightship
— one of them a neutral (Dutch) freighter carrying an
American cargo to a neutral (Dutch) port, another of
them a British passenger ship carrying Americans from
Newfoundland to New York. This latter had essentially
the status of a ferryboat, as had the Sussex, the sinking
of which in the English channel impelled President Wil-
son to send an ultimatum to Germany. The passengers
were forced to enter lifeboats, and but for the presence
of American destroyers would have had to row forty-two
miles to reach the nearest port. On these undisputed
facts, the finding of the administration is apparently not
only that the submarine's course was legal and its opera-
tion close to American waters unobjectionable, but that
it fulfilled the pledges made not to sink vessels until all
on board had been put in safety. A summary of the
Wilson position is, therefore, that the searching of ves-
sels by patrols of Great Britain and France is "vexatious
and uncourteous," while the sinking of vessels and the
imperiling of passengers by German submarines is a
matter of indifference. The incident recorded is ominous
enough ; but what Americans must face is the prospect
that it will be repeated indefinitely. Unless Germany
86 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
has lost her vigor and efficiency, other submarines of
hers will visit American ports, exchange courtesies with
the authorities, and then sink unarmed ships offshore,
in accordance with the consenting silence of Washing-
ton and the tacit understanding that American war-
ships will dutifully stand by to rescue the victims. A
point we must emphasize is that the situation is not new,
but merely aggravated. The New York Tribune sol-
emnly remarks that "no one disputes the right of the
U-boats to act as commerce destroyers so long as they
follow the methods of 'cruiser warfare.' " Yet only last
April President Wilson wrote to Germany:
The use of the submarine for the destruction of an enemy's
commerce is, of necessity, because of the very character of the
vessels employed and the very methods of attack which their
employment involves, utterly incompatible with the principles
of humanity, the long-established and incontrovertible rights
of neutrals and the sacred immunities of non-combatants.
The exact value of President Wilson's robust dec-
laration is shown by the fact that now these vessels
and their methods are advertised by the administration
as legal, even when they extend their operations close
to American waters and endanger the lives of Americans
within a few miles of their own shores. Thus the nation
has been "kept out of war" !
AN OMINOUS SITUATION
October 23, 1916.
f MHE contentment which pervades official circles in
Washington regarding recent developments in Ger-
-*- many's submarine tactics is regarded by many
Americans as reassuring. Partisan supporters of the
administration, in particular, argue that indorsement of
the raid off Nantucket lightship, when scores of Ameri-
cans were driven from a passenger vessel to lifeboats,
is a guarantee against renewed complications over under-
sea warfare. The truth is, of course, that the contro-
versy is certain to be revived; and in its next form, be-
cause of the accommodating attitude of the administra-
tion toward operations in these waters, will be more
acute than in the last. The note-writing achievement,
which the president's adherents are celebrating with
such. .unction, would be nullified within an hour if Ger-
many were to decide that advantage lay that way, and
during the last few months there have been ominous
signs that eventually the Diplomatic Victory — that
unarmed and pacific craft — will be torpedoed without
warning.
Research need go no further back than President
Wilson's note of April 19 last, when he warned that
diplomatic relations would be severed unless Germany
"should now immediately declare and effect an abandon-
ment of its present methods of submarine warfare
against passenger and freight-carrying vessels." On
May 4 Germany gave her final pledge not to sink
87
88 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
unarmed and unresisting ships without warning and
without providing for safety of the occupants ; but she
expressed a hope that the United States in return would
act vigorously to break the force of the British blockade,
and added to her promise this reservation :
Should the steps taken by the government of the United
States not attain the object to have the laws of humanity
followed by all the belligerents, the German government would
then be facing a new situation, in which it must reserve to
itself complete liberty of action.
President Wilson, asserting that possible action by
this government on other matters could not affect this,
answered that the United States would "rely upon a
scrupulous execution henceforth of the now altered pol-
icy of the imperial German government." The "settle-
ment" was hailed, not without some justice, as a triumph
for the administration; but the considerations which
moved Germany to yield temporarily had very slight
connection with the literary factor in the controversy.
First and foremost was the fact that the submarine
enterprise had been excessively costly— it was Great
Britain's deadly counter-measures which led Germany
to suspend a campaign in which many of the submersible
cruisers and their crews had been lost. There were also
more abstract reasons. It seemed worth while to find
out whether the United States, gratified by a German
concession, would not undertake to force modifications
of the British blockade. Another argument of caution
was that continued submarine lawlessness might impel
the Allies so to intensify their economic pressure that
neutral neighbors of Germany would be coerced into
closing their frontiers against her, if not into actual
hostility. Third, there was the remote but discernible
chance that the United States might actually be stung
into making good some of President Wilson's resonant
AN OMINOUS SITUATION 89
but forgotten demands. And, fourth, there were not
wanting Germans who insisted that the submarine
account showed a net loss to the nation. It is to be noted
that all five of these factors, in the view of most Ger-
mans, have steadily lost force. The partial suspension
of indiscriminate raiding has enabled the government to
put a new fleet of more powerful submarines in com-
mission— the exploits of the U-53 are significant of
increased equipment and powers in this arm. The hope
that the Wilson administration would exert pressure on
Great Britain vanished when it failed even to stop the
rifling of American mails. The fear of neutral hostility
has greatly evaporated, and the sedulous Wilson culti-
vation of pacifist sentiment is regarded as a guarantee
that the United States will be "kept out of war" regard-
less of any outrages committed. And, finally, the cease-
less Allied assaults and advances in the west, with the
rejection of all tentative offers of peace, are steadily
breaking down German objections to the revival of
"frightf ulness" as a last resort to force favorable terms.
Those who have taken it for granted, because no Lusi-
tania horrors have been perpetrated recently, that the
Wilson administration re-established law and vindicated
the sacred principles of humanity, may be interested to
know that more than 300 passenger and freight vessels
have been torpedoed since the "settlement."
But a more perturbing condition is that for months
Germany has been divided into hotly contesting camps
upon the direct issue of renewing "ruthless" submarine
warfare, and that every reverse on land adds vigor to
the movement which demands unrestrained operations.
Backed by such influential organizations as the Navy
League and the Conservative and National Liberal
parties, it is gaining adherents in the reichstag and
thruout the whole empire. Against this agitation Chan-
90 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
cellor von Bethmann-Hollweg is standing firmly. Never-
theless, advocates of ruthlessness are indefatigable, and
it is more than probable that in the end they will over-
come the policy of the government. They declare that
the "new situation" which the German pledge made the
basis of a reservation has arrived — the unlawful British
blockade is inflicting suffering, the United States has
made no effective move to interfere, and the utmost
reprisals have become a national duty. The meaning of
all this is, of course, that Germany yielded to the demand
as a matter of cold calculation, not of conviction, and
will reverse her position at any time when it seems
necessary and expedient to do so. She will weigh the
consequences, and will be guided by the probabilities of
advantage which lie in one course or the other and not
in the least by consideration for President Wilson's
"diplomatic victory," especially since his administration
has championed the submarine commerce-destroyer as
a legitimate weapon and indorsed its operations almost
within sight of the American coast. The reopening of
the controversy has been immeasurably hastened by the
fact that this government is taking down, one by one,
the bars which it erected against the outlaw of the seas ;
and, in pursuance of the deluded idea that thus the
nation is "kept out of war," has tacitly conceded that
American passengers have been put in places of safety
when they are forced to tak;e refuge in rowboats forty-
two miles from the nearest port.
ANOTHER YEAR OF WAR?
October 25, 1916.
ONE of the eminent authors who have astonished
the public by turning readily from imaginative
literature to the discussion of abstruse problems
of war strategy offered the other day a singular varia-
tion of a once popular theory. He was moved to revive
at this late day the suggestion that war is to be elim-
inated by its own destructiveness — that weapons so pow-
erful are being perfected that even the present conflict
may be "terminated by its own terrors." His estimate
would have been more impressive if the devices of which
he wrote — the "tanks" used by the British — had revealed
the devastating power which he ascribed to them.
Those lumbering monsters have been undeniably effec-
tive,-'but it seems hardly rational to expect that a con-
test involving half the world should survive the employ-
ment of Zeppelins and submarines and poison gas and
liquid fire, only to collapse at the appearance of armored
tractors. It may be that the writer's enthusiasm was an
unconscious reflection of the common habit of trying to
foresee the end of the appalling struggle. The war has
reached a stage where the thought of its cessation is
the background against which its every development is
projected. Few of the earlier illusions of conquest and
of spectacular victories remain, and each event now has
the appearance, in the mind of the observer, of some-
thing that is important because it brings nearer the
consummation, whatever that is to be.
91
92 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
There is, indeed, a never-failing interest in the com-
plicated problems touching the probable duration of the
hostilities; and the present situation affords a logical
opportunity to examine the factors which may affect
the length of that term. This is a subject of over-
shadowing concern to hundreds of millions whose exist-
ence the war has darkened, while it pervades the
thoughts of unnumbered millions more who seem to be
spectators merely, yet whose future is to be colored by
the result. Obviously, the first thing to be considered is
the military situation on the various fronts. While
columns of space would be required to describe the dis-
position and possible movements of the opposing forces,
a few lines will outline the contest as it stands with
sufficient clearness for our purpose. In the west the
trench warfare that began after the battle of the Aisne
is now being subjected to its first important modification
in the campaign of the Somme, which has been in prog-
ress for nearly four months. Its outstanding feature
has been the demonstration that Germany is now over-
matched there in man power, gun power and striking
power. The French and British advance at will, altho
that is not to say that they advance far or swiftly ; their
artillery commands that of the enemy, not only because
it is superior in aggregate weight and ammunition sup-
ply, but because they have almost absolute dominion of
the air. It is fairly well established that they can con-
tinue to bend back' the German line as long as they care
to expend the necessary lives. That they have not
"broken thru," as the Germans proudly declare, means
nothing, for they have no expectation of accomplishing
that incredible feat. They are not conquering territory
so much as they are forcing Germany to relinquish it.
The Russo-German front shows intermittent activ-
ity, but it is unlikely that any large operations will be
ANOTHER YEAR OF WAR? 93
possible there before winter descends. On the northern
and southern borders of Rumania actions are under way
which may well be decisive ; Falkenhayn and Mackensen
between them may eliminate the latest ally of the En-
tente Powers, or may fail to do so while the weather
remains open, and so fail entirely. The northward
movement toward Servia and Bulgaria by the forces of
General Sarrail is singularly slow, largely because of
the uncertain attitude of Greece. Italy and Austria con-
tinue their desultory campaigns, while the Russians and
Turks are conducting operations in Asia Minor which
give no promise of visible results in the near future.
At sea there are prospects of a renewal of unrestrained
submarine warfare and the possibility of another North
sea battle.
The dove of speculation will surely bring back no
olive leaf from a flight over such war-flooded regions
as these. There is nothing of a military character
anywhere to suggest that peace is not still remote.
It will be of interest to examine some recent opinions,
which reveal a singular unanimity upon this point. Utter-
ances of public men in the belligerent nations differ in
tone, t)ut not in essential meaning. French statesmen,
for example, declare resolutely that the war must go on ;
German publicists, while no less determined, express dis-
appointment that the peace which they hold would be
reasonable does not arrive. Americans returning from
Europe bring back but one judgment — there are no signs
of faltering on either side and no real hope of a settle-
ment within a twelvemonth. British sentiment is per-
haps the most outspoken in forecasting a prolonged
struggle. Two months ago Winston Churchill argued
that the nation must prepare for a severe test of endur-
ance, and Lloyd George considered himself optimistic
when he said: "I think in the dim distance we can see
94 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
the end." General Robertson, chief of the British gen-
eral staff, remarks with military brevity: "It took us
two years to begin the war; we are now in the middle
stage; the end is not yet in sight." Not without sig-
nificance is the feeling which pervades the men who are
actually doing the fighting. "In spite of the steady
advance," wrote a correspondent from the Somme front
a few weeks ago, "British officers and soldiers alike are
always talking of 'next year.' The phrase has become
almost a byword." An American writer, who talked
with many Allied statesmen and military leaders, put
the case with heaped-up superlatives of emphasis :
There will be, there can be, no peace before the end of
the fourth campaigning season (1917). It seems to me safe
to state positively that the known factors of the situation
make a conclusion of hostilities before September or October
of next year absolutely impossible.
Long ago, we suppose, most observers gave up all
hope of a settlement before the coming winter, and if
there has been produced recently anywhere a plausible
forecast of peace short of next summer or fall it has
escaped our attention. The reasons are quite discernible.
In no field of operations has there been a decision. The
Germans, suffering reverses from week to week in the
west, profess to be satisfied that they can hold Belgium
and northeastern France, or most of those territories,
long enough to force a compromise. The fighting in the
east and in the Balkans shows no signs of bringing
definite results — German conquest of Rumania or Ger-
man loss of Bulgaria would not fatally shift the balance
either way. And winter weather will soon reduce all
fronts to comparative quietude. It needs no argument
to show that even tho Germany cannot win, she is still
far from overcome. Nor is it absolutely certain that
she would yield if all her allies were detached from her,
one by one. If that condition marked the beginning of
ANOTHER YEAR OF WAR? 95
a war of invasion, it is possible that the nation, with
vastly shortened lines to defend, would be capable of a
prolonged resistance, altho it is difficult to conceive of
any people so abjectly the slaves of a despotic militarism
that they would sacrifice themselves uselessly rather
than repudiate it. Her adversaries, on the other hand,
are still less inclined to negotiate on the basis of the
present war map, for the excellent reason that they
have not yet exerted their full power. . They believe they
can make the blockade of Germany more stringent, and
they aver that not until next spring will their military
equipment be at its zenith of destructiveness. The cam-
paign of the Somme, they declare, is a mere rehearsal.
Thus the opposing ideas of practicable peace terms are
not more irreconcilable than the opposing ideas of mili-
tary strength. Finally, it is clear that none of the
peoples concerned would now tolerate a patched-up peace.
Each nation feels that its dreadful sacrifices would be
made a mockery and its dead dishonored by concessions
yielded to an arrogant foe.
Every indication suggests that the war has defi-
nitely, arrived at the phase when compromise is utterly
impossible, not only because of irreconcilable demands,
but because of military aims which have not had their
final demonstration. It is to be henceforth a test of
endurance, of resources, of individual and national spirit.
One will not expect it to be brief.
A BATTLE ANNIVERSARY
October 28, 1916.
Ai'TER two years, what is the thought of mankind
concerning Belgium? If a sculptor sought to
arrest in a single figure the spirit of that name,
what would his chisel create? A suppliant, perhaps — a
drooping form of tragedy and woe, stretching out pitiful
hands to receive the charity of a sympathetic world?
Is it not thus that one is too ready to think of a nation
whose sacrifice moved the hearts of men to admiration
and succor ? And is our feeling quite free from a sense
of complacency because we responded so quickly and so
generously ? Belgium, we say, is the ward of humanity.
Are we to forget that she was the savior of Europe and
of civilization, and that her true figure is not that of a
helpless dependent, but of a champion, who met hope-
less odds with valor unsurpassed, of a heroism and devo-
tion which set a mark that all the great deeds since
then shall not efface? History will see events in their
true perspective, and will be more just than contempo-
rary opinion, dazzled by the swiftly changing panorama.
It will record that the battle which reached its climax
two years ago today was the precursor of the crucial
combat of the Marne ; for it gave the first premonitory
sign that brute force was not to subjugate law in
Europe, and there, in a struggle which was to be
obscured by others more vast and more spectacular, the
most vital phase of this stupendous war was decided.
96
A BATTLE ANNIVERSARY 97
If the battle of the Marne saved France, the battle
of the Yser saved England. Between October 16 and 30,
1914, Germany tasted her bitterest defeat, and to this
day she has not advanced beyond the place where the
shattered remnants of the Belgian army made their last
stand. That little corner of their country, where they
fought and died thru fifteen days and nights of cease-
less agony, still mocks the invader and still is the bul-
wark behind which his most powerful adversaries are
secure. On this anniversary, then, let us remember that
Belgium has given to the world not only its most inspir-
ing record of national honor and devotion, but also one
of its most stirring pictures of human valor. Let us
think of Belgium's astonishing victory, as well as of her
martyrdom and her misery. The imagination is thrilled
now by the spectacle of titanic forces, virtually equal in
strength and skill and equipment, battling for suprem-
acy. Far different was war in the remote days of two
years ago, when that mighty German military machine
came thundering across the plains of Flanders, leaving
devastation behind it and scattering before it a ter-
rorized, nation. It seemed that nothing could withstand
it; against its monster weapons and its remorseless
blows the defenders could oppose forces so meager and
arms so inadequate that their cause appeared as hope-
less as that of the last spearmen resisting the first rifle-
men. And the prelude to this battle was a succession of
terrifying disasters. The proud fortresses of Liege and
Namur had been reduced to worthless fragments in a
few days. Louvain was a ghastly ruin; Dinant and
Aerschot and Malines had become sepulchers, and from
the Meuse to the Scheldt there were desolation and
despair. Worse than all, Antwerp had fallen — on
October 9 — and six days later the sweep of the Germans
westward had carried them into Ostend. After the
98 THE WAR PROM THIS SIDE
exhausting siege of the great seaport the Belgian army,
by supreme effort and endurance, had extricated itself
and retreated to the west; but for two months and a
half the troops had' been waging desperate war against
cruel odds, and it was a pitifully weakened force that
finally established itself near the line of the Yser. There
were hardly 80,000 men, with only 350 pieces of ordinary
artillery, two dozen machine guns and only enough
ammunition for one battle. They had scarcely more
food than the men could carry in their knapsacks ; their
sick and wounded were scattered in improvised and ill-
equipped field hospitals; physically and spiritually they
Were on the verge of exhaustion.
It was against this broken and impoverished army
that the Germans, flushed with success, hurled huge
forces of fresh troops, backed by their mightiest guns.
The enterprise was a crucial one for the invaders. The
drive for Paris had been halted at the Marne, France
was unconquerable for the time, and the imperial staff
planned a sudden, irresistible thrust to seize Dunkirk
and Calais, outflank the British and French, and estab-
lish bases from which England could be destroyed by
systematic assaults. Between the Germans and their
goal there were the 80,000 Belgians and 6000 French
marines, the latter with no guns. The front to be
defended, extending from the North sea to Dixmude,
measured twenty-two and .a half miles. While easterly
outposts were held, the real line was the winding Yser,
with several bridges, and beyond that the straight rail-
road from Nieuport to Dixmude. So thinly was the
position held that there were only two brigades and
some cavalry in reserve. Yet it was in this situation
that King Albert addressed to his soldiers an order
which inspired them to unsurpassed resistance. "Let it
be understood," he said, "that in whatever positions I
A BATTLE ANNIVERSARY 99
place you, your eyes are to remain toward the front.
And you are to consider as a traitor the man who shall
pronounce the word 'retreat' before the formal order
for it has been given." It was a splendid audacity which
could give such an order, but it was a superb devotion
that caused it to be literally obeyed. The shattered and
exhausted armies stiffened into a desperate resolve to
make that little winding river a scene of victory or
extinction.
The battle began with outpost actions on October
16, and within twenty-four hours the center was so
menaced that it had to be reinforced. Next day the
Germans launched their main attack toward the bridge-
heads of Nieuport and Schoorbakke, and made serious
advances everywhere except at Lombaertzyde, where
French and British warships checked them. On October
19 the fighting increased in intensity, and on the 20th
virtually the entire Yser line was raked by murderous
fire, while Nieuport and Dixmude were in flames. For
five days the Belgians, now reinforced by a division of
French, had been fighting without cessation, yet on
October 21 they had to meet still more furious assaults
from fresh German forces. The help which they had
counted upon from their allies did not arrive, and their
last reserves had to be flung into the sanguinary strug-
gle. That night occurred one of the most desperate
encounters of the battle — the fight for the Tervaete
bridge, capture of which meant the piercing of the line
and irremediable disaster. In the darkness the defenders
fought literally to the death, but they held their posi-
tion. On October 23, after a week of unimagined endur-
ance, French reinforcements began arriving; but they
were sent to Nieuport to attempt an offensive, and the
Belgian center began to crumble under the terrific bat-
tering. An urgent appeal brought to that point a French
100 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
brigade, but too late to avert a retreat. Foiled at Nieu-
port, the Germans then opened, on October 24, a series
of savage assaults on Dixmude. Fifteen times during
the night they hurled masses of troops against the
intrenchments, but fifteen times the Belgians, as tho in
a sort of "grievous and heroic dream," rose from their
ditches and flung them back. This terrible combat, most
of it with the bayonet, came upon the defenders after
they had endured seventy-two hours of fighting without
rest. On the next day the imperiled center was strength-
ened by French reinforcements, but it was seen that
human flesh and blood could no longer withstand the
cataract of German shells, and the Belgians prepared to
retire and flood the land between the river and the rail-
road. Exultantly the invaders pressed forward, and for
three days poured upon the defenders a merciless bom-
bardment. On October 30 they began to drive home
attacks on the railway. But the released waters were
doing their work. Slowly the inundation spread, turn-
ing fields into morasses, and covering the roads, so that
when the Germans awoke to their peril it was only by
violent effort that they succeeded in drawing back, under
galling pursuit by the Belgians and French.
This was the battle of the Yser, and there, after
two years, the Germans are still held. The Belgians had
been asked to hold the line for forty-eight hours ; they
held it alone for one full week, and then, with the help
of one French division, for eight days and nights,
against overwhelming numbers. Shelterless in the
ditches, weakened by hunger and tortured by lack of
rest, that gaunt wraith of an army stopped the hosts of
the invader and saved the channel ports, whose capture
would have paralyzed Great Britain and doomed France.
There is not in military annals a more brilliant achieve-
ment than this Thermopylae of yesterday. And its
A BATTLE ANNIVERSARY 101
glory is enhanced by the spiritual triumph of which it
was the expression and which was pictured so vividly
in the words of Cardinal Mercier to his countrymen :
Which of us would cancel this page of our national history?
Which of us does not exult in the brightness of the glory of
this shattered nation? The laws of conscience are sovereign
laws. We should have acted unworthily had we evaded our
obligation by a mere feint of resistance. And now we would
not rescind our first resolution; we exult in it. Being called
upon to write a most solemn page in our history, we resolved
that it should be also a sincere, also a glorious page. And
so long as we are required to give proof of endurance, so
long shall we endure.
Minds incredibly paltry and blind have found in
Belgium's defiance of Germany a theme of reprobation ;
she has suffered, they say, because she deserved to
suffer, having resisted overpowering injustice instead
of submitting. They cannot discern that defeat has
brought to her imperishable glory. And to this is to
be added the deathless renown of having achieved a
victory which means her restoration and which man-
acled militarism to await the slow vengeance of civili-
zation.
THE FRUITS OF A "VICTORY"
November 3, 1916.
THERE are some forty American citizens in an
Irish port, and five more dead in the waters of the
Atlantic, whose testimony concerning one of the
principal issues in the present political campaign would
be of singular value if it could be expressed. They
were members of the non-combatant crew of a west-
bound cargo vessel, torpedoed without warning last Sat-
urday by a German submarine. The survivors, picked
up from open boats in a storm, know what it is to be
"kept out of war" according to the prevailing formula;
and the slain victims knew, in the last moments of con-
sciousness they may have had as they were flung
mangled into the sea. It was theirs to learn just how
false is that parrot-cry of partisanship and poltroonery,
just how ghastly is the farce of reiterating it as an
excuse for surrender and a palliative of shame. No
doubt it was due to chance, but none the less it has the
effect of malignity, that the submarine Deutschland,
that peaceable sister of the craft which destroyed 115
Americans on the Lusitania, arrived to demand and
receive the hospitality of an American port within a
few hours of the latest torpedo crime. In any event, the
coincidence may profitably be studied by those who are
to pass judgment upon an administration which has
not yet exacted reparation for the Lusitania victims,
which has conferred upon the stealthy submarine of
both the "merchant" and the warlike classes certificates
102
FRUITS OF A "VICTORY" 103
of character, and which has thereby invited renewal of
the campaign of assassination.
Let thoughtful Americans take what comfort they
can from the announcement that the administration
"realizes the gravity of the situation" and is "surprised"
by renewal of the submarine campaign.. The concern
of official circles is encouraging, but why the astonish-
ment ? What observer of ordinary unbiased intelligence
has been able to foresee any other result of the policy
pursued in Washington? What was the first trip of
the Deutschland but a device to discover how sincere
and how vigorous was American detestation of sub-
marine lawlessness? When the sinister craft was
adjudged an innocent and welcome merchantman, and its
officers were feted by countrymen of the unavenged slain
of the Lusitania, how much force was there left in the
stern demands for "strict accountability" and for "imme-
diate abandonment" of a campaign "utterly incompatible
with the principles of humanity" ? If one of the vessels
indirectly associated with the most infamous assault
upon this nation's rights ever perpetrated could be
greeted with lavish official courtesy, would the visit of
one without disguise be tolerated? If so, might it not
even gain useful sanction from the very country that
had been wronged? Thus came the U-53, insolently
showing its guns and torpedoes, to extort from the com-
plaisant administration recognition as an ordinary ship
of war, entitled to all the privileges of such a vessel;
and thus it went out from an American harbor to sink
an unarmed passenger ship and expose nearly 100
American men, women and children to peril, from which
they were saved only by the efforts of American naval
vessels. When the Deutschland first arrived last July,
our judgment was that thru her "Germany has delivered
a threat," and we believed that she had taken away
104 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
"more than some urgently needed war supplies — the
measure of the American government and people." And
after the U-53 had struck its foul blow and disappeared,
we stated only the obvious when we said :
The reopening of the submarine controversy has been
immeasurably hastened by the fact that this government is
taking down, one by one, the bars which it erected against
the outlaw of the seas; and, in pursuance of the deluded idea
that thus the nation is "kept out of war," has tacitly con-
ceded that American passengers have been put in places of
safety when they are forced to take refuge in rowboats forty-
two miles from the nearest port.
It was always plain that Germany yielded only
because, for naval and political reasons, it was more
profitable at that time to suspend than to continue the
tactics of indiscriminate destruction. She needed an
opportunity to replace the submarines she had lost, and
she needed precedents that would enlarge the sphere of
their operations. Recent events show that she has the
submarines — scores of neutral vessels have been law-
lessly destroyed within the last few weeks — and in the
American attitude toward the Deutschland and the U-53
she has recognition for which she maneuvered. The
sinking of the steamship Stephano off Nantucket light-
ship was accepted in silence; it occasioned no protest,
not even a public inquiry. If, then, the driving of scores
of men, women and children into open boats off the
shore of the United States was condoned, why should
Germany fear complications over the killing of half a
dozen obscure horsetenders off the coast of Ireland?
American warships busied themselves to rescue the vic-
tims of the first outrage ; is it fantastic to suggest that
Germany may regard this, too, as a precedent, and may
deplore the failure of the United States navy to extend
its life-saving patrol to European waters?
FRUITS OF A "VICTORY" 105
As we recount again and again the circumstances of
this nation's humiliation and danger, illumined as they
are by successive incidents of unchecked aggression, we
are perfectly conscious that our discussions avail but
little, and that our indignation seems to many citizens
quite groundless. There is truly an irreconcilable con-
flict of opinion as to what constitutes the requirements of
national honor and safety and justice, and in a few days
we will know just how the conditions which appear to
us so ominous have impressed the majority of the
American people. Nevertheless, we should declare our
judgment if we believed it had no popular support what-
ever, for we are utterly convinced that it is right. It is
some satisfaction, at least, to recall that there have been
American statesmen courageous and farseeing enough
to warn against the perils of craven submission to wrong.
Far better than our statement of the issue is an utter-
ance made by Josiah Quincy in 1808, when the contro-
versy with Great Britain was verging toward war:
But to my eye the path of our duty is as distinct as the
Milky Way. It is the path of active preparation, of dignified
energy. It is the path of 1776 ! It consists not in abandoning
our rights, but in supporting them, as they exist, and where
they, exist — on the ocean as well as on the land. But I shall
be told, "This may lead to war." I ask, "Are we now at
peace?" Certainly not, unless retiring from insult be peace;
unless shrinking under the lash be peace! The surest way
to prevent war is not to fear it. The idea that nothing on
earth is so dreadful as war is inculcated too studiously among
us. Disgrace is worse! Abandonment of essential rights is
worse !
HOW 20,000 BOYS DIED
November 21, 1916.
IN HOW many homes where this newspaper is read
are there sons from 12 to 18 years old? If the
proportion is one in ten, we are to imagine 20,000
boys. Would it matter much if suddenly every one of
them was forced to leave his home, and if, within a few
weeks, the whole 20,000 were to perish miserably, of
cold and hunger and disease? One cannot begin to
measure the anguish and horror of such an event, nor
even to imagine it as a credible thing. Yet that is pre-
cisely the story — except that the locality is distant and
the victims unknown — that we are minded to recount
today. Possibly it will impair the interest of the narra-
tive when we admit that the occurrence it describes is
twelve months old. Obviously it has no merit as news,
and we are not sure that it has any special appropriate-
ness as an editorial theme. So we offer it merely as a
casual contribution to the imperfect knowledge which
the most industrious of us possess about the war.
The matter was noted at the time only in a few
hasty news paragraphs. For an instant the dreadful
picture flashed into view in the kaleidoscopic panorama,
then was whirled away and forgotten. We should not
be recalling it now unless we had come upon the recital
of one who witnessed the beginning of this fantastic
tragedy of childhood. It makes a chapter of "With
Servia Into Exile," by Fortier Jones, an American volun-
teer in relief work. His glimpse of the first ominous
106
HOW 20,000 BOYS DIED 107
scene came to him when he and a detail of English
women nurses whom he was escorting were caught in
the torrent of the retreating Servian army and the
hosts of refugees fleeing before the Teutonic invasion.
This was in November, 1915. The scene was the plain
of Kossovo, in central Servia, across which a vast multi-
tude of soldiers and civilians, men, women and children,
struggled in desperate confusion. The autumn rains had
made the plain a morass, and the single road, rutted by
the wheels of thousands of wagons, ox-carts and gun-
carriages, was little better, while in many places it was
submerged by floods. For twenty miles this highway of
desolation and despair was filled with the ghastly cortege
of a people in flight — broken companies of soldiers,
homeless families of peasants, men and women stagger-
ing under bundles that contained all their possessions,
mothers clutching babies to their breasts as they floun-
dered thru the mud, children stumbling along behind
them, and here and there great army motortrucks and
lumbering batteries and plodding ox-teams. And by
day and night there rolled up from behind the mutter
of the ever-nearing guns. Once when the twenty-mile
line became entangled somewhere and halted, the writer
heard a strange commotion rearward, and out in the
marshy field he saw 1000 or 1500 boys running thru
the mire like stampeded cattle. Mounted officers were
herding them back into the road, riding furiously among
them and slashing at them with whips. The youngsters
— many of them not more than 12 years old— were con-
stantly straggling, and would have perished in the empty
waste if they had not been driven back into line. This
was just a detachment of the nation's youth, which by
tens of thousands had been drafted by the government,
not for military service, but in order to keep them out
of the grasp of the invader. For the Germans and
108 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Austrians were at pains to make prisoners of all Servian
boys they found who were "almost ready for military
service." And so, as each village and town was evacu-
ated, the boys from 12 to 18 years old were ordered to
march away with the retreating army. The writer had
seen throngs of them all the way from Belgrade : —
Many for the first time in their lives were away from
their own villages, and most of them had never before been
separated from their families. There was no one to look after
them. They did not even have the advantage of a soldier in
getting food and shelter. If there was bread left over at the
military stations, they got it ; if not, they did not. They slept
where they happened to stand when night came on. Few had
sufficient clothing. I used to see the smaller of them sitting
on top of the railway cars crying together by the dozens.
They were hungry, of course ; but it was not hunger or thirst
or cold — it was old-fashioned homesickness that had them,
with the slight difference that they longed for homes which no
more existed.
They were concentrated finally at Mitrovitze, but
before provision could be made for them, an order came
to evacuate that town, and the boys were put on the
march again. Yet they started away cheerfully; for
to each one was given a rifle and all the ammunition he
could stagger under, and, boylike, they exulted in being
"soldiers." As they straggled along they sang and
shouted and fired their rifles in reckless fusillades, until
hunger and weariness gripped them, and then they
wandered away from the road and had to be driven
back to the line of march. So the writer saw them
hurried past him in the retreat, and it was months later
when he learned what had been the staggering climax
of the little drama he had seen. During that night the
famished, shelterless hosts creeping across the plain
were overtaken by a blizzard. In an hour Indian sum-
mer changed to winter, the treeless expanse was swept
by a snowstorm driven by an icy gale, and by hundreds
HOW 20,000 BOYS DIED 109
the ill-clad refugees stumbled aside and perished. But
these are commonplaces of war's miseries ; we are tracing
the obscure story of that amazing army of leaderless
boys. One recalls the piteous tales of the children's
crusade, but who can say how much of truth there is
in the records of that strange pilgrimage*, when multi-
tudes of children marched singing across Europe, some
to litter the medieval highways with their bodies and
thousands to be sold into slavery in Egypt? That, too,
was 700 years ago; this Servian tragedy was but yes-
terday. How many were lost by the way may never be
known, but 30,000' boys reached the Albanian frontier.
There a gendarme pointed to the west, and told them to
march on and they would reach the sea and safety.
Without a leader or a guide, without food or means of
shelter, they set out thru the defiles of the Albanian
mountains in winter weather. Columns of soldiers over-
took and passed them, and gave them what food they
could spare. When that was. gone they gnawed roots
and bark. At dusk they crawled into hollows and under
fallen trees and huddled together in groups for warmth.
Each night found the broken ranks thinner as starva-
tion and exposure claimed the weaker, and each morning
there were wasted little forms that did not rise from the
trodden snow.
How long it took the boys to reach the sea, and
what they suffered by the way, no one knows. But
from Prizrend, near which they crossed the frontier, to
the port of Avlona is 150 miles, thru almost trackless
mountains. When they reached the city, where an
Italian army was in occupation, there were only half of
those who had started to find the sea — 15,000 had per-
ished. And those who survived the terrible journey
found no safety at the sea, after all. Gaunt from famine
and disease, "there was nothing human about them,"
110 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
said one who saw them, "but their eyes." And there
were no hospitals, no shelters, even, for the 15,000 piti-
able creatures that dragged themselves toward the city.
They were put in a camp in the open country, and
arrangements were hastily made to send them to Vido,
an island near Corfu. By the time the ships that were
to transport them arrived, 6000 had died, and 2000 more
succumbed on the twenty-four-hour journey. The
French and Servian doctors at the island encampment
said that, if it had been possible to give each boy a bed
and special diet and careful nursing, perhaps two-thirds
of the remaining 7000 might have been saved. But at
Vido there were neither beds nor nurses, nor food for
invalids, and for weeks the boys died at the rate of 100
a day, so that every morning a steamship came and car-
ried away scores of bodies and buried them at sea, while
the great warships in the harbor of Corfu, helpless for
all their mighty power, lowered their flags in salute to
the boys of Servia.
This is the story, tragic even in its incompleteness,
for the world does not know how many more than
23,000 died. Yet there is the inevitable historical
interest. The plain of Kossovo, where the martyrdom
of this army of youths began, is to us a mere geographi-
cal expression, but in the ears of the Servian the name
rings like the blast of a trumpet. It was there, in 1389,
that the power of the great. Servian kingdom was broken
by the armies of the Turks, and to this day every peas-
ant croons the songs that have been handed down from
generation to generation in memory of the lost battle.
The slaughter was so great, their legend runs, that after
the fighting ceased the sky was darkened with flocks of
vultures ; and KOssovopolje, the Field of Blackbirds, the
desolate place has been known for half a thousand years.
And now it has a new meaning which intensifies the
HOW 20,000 BOYS DIED 111
spirit of nationalism that has outlived five centuries of
hope deferred; for there is an army of Servians that
marched singing into Monastir, that fights the fiercer
because of the boys who were driven to hideous death
by a ruthless invader. Otherwise, as we have remarked,
the episode was of no importance whatever in respect
to the great political and military developments of the
conflict. This was not a battle or a massacre. No gen-
eral won a decoration because of the destruction of these
thousands of boys, nor is any one execrated as the
author of the appalling sacrifice. It was just a minor
incident, an obscure interlude, a gruesome bit of fate's
byplay in the stupendous drama of war in civilization's
most enlightened age.
THE BALKAN BATTLES
November 24, 1916.
IN ATTEMPTING to estimate the scope and meaning
of the extraordinary campaigns now proceeding in
the Balkans, a useful preliminary is to reduce the
spaces of that region to familiar terms. If the Balkan
map is placed over a map of the eastern United States
drawn to the same scale, with Saloniki covering Phila-
delphia— they are, by the way, in the same latitude — a
fairly clear idea of the distances is obtained. Monastir,
captured the other day by Servians and French, will
be found in about the location of Harrisburg. Northeast
of Saloniki, the Anglo-French base, is Constanza, a
Rumanian Black sea port recently seized by the German-
Bulgar forces — it will be represented on the American
map by Portland, Me. Three hundred and twenty miles
west of Constanza and 300 miles north of Saloniki is
Orsova, at the other extremity of Rumania — this would
be Oswego, N. Y. From that point the Transylvanian
Alps, separating Rumania from Hungary, extend north-
east and north, the barrier being 360 miles north of
Saloniki, or nearly as far as the Quebec frontier from
Philadelphia. The Danube, dividing Rumania from Bul-
garia, is 120 miles south of the mountains — relatively
to Philadelphia, about in the region of the Adirondacks.
These rough comparisons suggest the magnitude of the
problem involved in the current news dispatches. And
the fighting is proceeding on a scale worthy of the tre-
mendous stage, the various battle lines extending for
112
THE BALKAN BATTLES 113
nearly 1000 miles. These operations, indeed, for the
time being dwarf in importance those on the western
front. If they lack the concentrated fury of the great
spectacle that was centered around Verdun, and the tre-
mendous volume of force expended in the struggle of
the Somme, their action is immeasurably swifter and
their possible results not less vital.
Of the seven Balkan countries, Montenegro, Servia
and most of Albania have long been held by the Teu-
tons, their allies, Bulgaria and Turkey, completing
their control of the central part of the peninsula from
the Adriatic to the Black sea and from the Danube to
the Bosporus. For many months the Entente forces
have been established in Greece, and have made some
progress in pressing back the Turco-Bulgarian invaders,
the Allied line extending from the neighborhood of Seres,
fifty miles northeast of Saloniki, virtually all the way to
Avlona, an Albanian Adriatic port held by Italy. Last
Sunday they consolidated their hold upon a small strip
of Servia by occupying Monastir, ten or twelve miles
over the border. Greece, still technically neutral, is torn
by civil war and is in effect a forced ally of Great Britain,
France and Russia, their occupation deriving a color of
legality from the circumstance that they have been
her recognized protectors since 1830. The last of the
Balkan group, Rumania, joined the Entente cause late in
August, and, after a brief experience of conquest against
her northern neighbor, Hungary, is now being rapidly
subjugated by a Teuton invasion. There are, therefore,
three great campaigns in progress, altho they are dis-
tinctly related.
After the Entente Allies had been established in
Greece for nearly a year, Rumania decided that that was
the winning side, and late in August declared war against
the Teutonic alliance. From the beginning, political
114 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
considerations guided her moves. Her chief ambition
was to "redeem" the 3,000,000 Rumanians living in Hun-
gary under a hated rule, and she immediately invaded
Transylvania, counting upon her principal ally, Russia,
to protect her southern frontier by driving back any
Bulgarian incursion. This arrangement appealed to both
governments : Rumania wanted to conquer Transylvania
without assistance, while Russia, aiming toward Con-
stantinople, preferred a free hand in dealing with Bul-
garia, whose "treacherous" adherence to the anti-Slavic
cause was bitterly resented in Petrograd. For several
weeks the plan prospered exceedingly, and in the Entente
countries the participation of Rumania was hailed as the
decisive move in the war. When the Rumanian armies
dashed thru the mountain passes and down into Transyl-
vania, the Austrians retired, and within thirty days the
invaders were achieving successes fifty miles beyond the
frontier. After the Rumanians were deeply involved on
this adventure, the Germans and Bulgars suddenly
struck from the south, swept back the Russo-Rumanian
forces there, and soon held a line from Constanza, on
the Black sea, to Czernavoda, on the Danube, threaten-
ing ultimately to force the river barrier and endanger
the capital, 150 miles to the westward. Meanwhile, Von
Falkenhayn had gathered a great army in Hungary, and
when he started his drive, the Rumanians in Transyl-
vania were swept thru the lofty passes in a disastrous
defeat.
The capture of Monastir last Sunday, on the anni-
versary of the day when Servia wrested it from the
Turks in 1912, and almost a year from the time when
they evacuated it before the onslaught of the Bulgarians
and Teutons, sent a thrill thru the Entente countries.
Standing alone, this victory would be counted an achieve-
ment of high importance ; but in relation to the Balkan
THE BALKAN BATTLES 115
campaigns as a whole it proves to be of hardly more than
local significance. For while the Servians and French,
with some assistance from the Italians operating from
Albania, were advancing a dozen miles into Servia, Von
Falkenhayn's armies smashed the Russo-Rumanian line,
plunged southward to the main railroacl, captured the
vital junction point of Craiova, midway between Bucha-
rest and the western Rumanian frontier, and thus split
the defensive forces into three parts. Already the Teu-
tons control one-third of Wallachia and its principal
railroads, have isolated a large Rumanian force con-
centrated at Orsova, and are in a position to make a
swift onslaught toward the capital. Nothing short of a
military miracle can now save Rumania.
Perhaps the most striking result is the demonstra-
tion that even the terrific battering Germany is endur-
ing in the west has not prevented her striking a crush-
ing blow in the east. This is the first achievement of
the plan of the new chief of staff, Von Hindenburg, the
essentials of which are to fight defensively in France
and offensively in the Balkans. The former region will
see the most sanguinary fighting, but the latter is the
inevitable scene of Germany's chief endeavors. For,
while what she holds in Belgium and France might be
valuable to her in peace negotiations, what she holds and
seeks to acquire in the Balkans represents the domina-
tion for which she went to war and which she would
consider a sufficient reward for all her sacrifices.
PEONAGE IN BELGIUM
November 27, 1916.
IN DISCUSSING, a few weeks ago, the more extensive
use of poison gas as a weapon of the battlefield, we
offered the trite comment that "familiarity dulls the
edge of interest" — that the human mind becomes habit-
uated to horrors oft repeated. Events of the war which
two years ago would have shocked the world are now
accepted as episodes in a sort of terrible routine. This
may explain the public's attitude of detachment concern-
ing Germany's latest ingenuity in calculated terrorism —
the deportation of thousands of Belgians for forced labor
beyond the Rhine. The martyrdom of that little nation
was the first event of the war, and still stands forth as
its worst atrocity. The violation of Belgium, the sacri-
fices of Belgium, the nobility of her heroism and the
anguish of her suffering — these things have been burned
into the mind of mankind ; and perhaps the very depth
of her woe makes it difficult for sympathy to arouse
itself adequately over this new barbarity. Nevertheless,
the subject seems to us to merit examination. There is,
it is true, nothing novel in the wholesale deportation
and enslavement of the civilians of a conquered terri-
tory— the captivities of Israel began twenty-six cen-
turies ago. But this particular form of military crimi-
nality has not been practiced since the world reached
enlightenment, until this year of grace. And it chal-
lenges American attention because it is a violation of a
law which the United States helped to frame and because
116
PEONAGE IN BELGIUM 117
its victims are a people toward whom this country has
assumed peculiar obligations. Because a rigorous cen-
sorship stifles the cries of the tortured nation, it has
taken weeks for the details of the outrage to become
known. Even now, only the German authorities know
how many thousands of Belgians have been exiled, how
many families have been sunk in terror and despair by
forced separation. But gradually the repellent story is
being made known — in the fragmentary news dis-
patches, in the ringing protests of Belgian officials, and,
more clearly than anywhere else, in the characteristic
pleas offered by Prussianism in defense of the crime.
A military occupying force, being responsible for
the orderly administration of territory so held, properly
exercises a control over the subjugated people more
drastic than that of the native government during
peace. In theory, therefore, one might justify German
decrees issued in August, 1914, and May, 1915, which
ostensibly were directed toward reducing unemploy-
ment. They forbade voluntary idleness, regulated con-
ditions of employment and provided for the forcible
exaction of labor from able-bodied men who persisted
in rejecting opportunities of work. But these orders,
rigorous as they were, apparently contemplated only
labor in Belgium; it was not suspected that they were
the efficient preliminaries for a system of peonage under
which workers would be seized and transported to Ger-
many. The earliest evidence of the malign purpose
appears to be a decree dated October 3 last, imposing
forced labor on all Belgians fitted for work who were
receiving public support, and conveying the threat that
they might be compelled to work "away from their domi-
ciles." The meaning of this was made clear in the post-
ing of notices in the villages of the Mons district, sum-
moning the entire male population above the age of 17
118 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
to present themselves at an appointed place at 8 o'clock
on the morning of October 26. Herded in an open yard
in a pelting rain, they were finally inspected by German
officers. Priests, school teachers, officials, old men and
the physically unfit were dismissed, and from the others
selections were made. In some cases men unemployed
were sent home, in others men who had not been idle —
including clerks, students and farmers — were taken. In
all, 1200 were retained, about one-fourth of the able-
bodied male inhabitants of the district. These were
divided into groups and escorted by soldiers to the rail-
road station. There they were loaded into a train of
cattle cars and sent away. Having had no warning of
their fate, the men had not brought clothing or food for
a journey. When the alarm of the deportation spread
thru the countryside, distracted women by hundreds
ran to the station, carrying coats and wraps for their
men ; but soldiers barred the way, and the train departed
for an unknown destination. For weeks scenes like
this have occurred in numberless places in Belgium. It
is said that some of the men were induced to sign long-
term contracts for work at stipulated wages; others,
who refused, were imprisoned or taken forcibly. Large
companies were sent into the German-held part of
France; whole trainloads were forwarded to Germany,
where the exiles will be put to work in mines, quarries
and other industrial enterprises. Ten days ago official
reports stated that 40,000' men had thus been exiled,
and that they were being shipped away at the rate of
2000 a day. It was declared that not fewer than 300,000
would be torn from their homes. When the sinister
purpose of the order became known, Belgian municipal
authorities refused to furnish to the Germans lists of
unemployed persons in their districts. This resistance
was severely punished. Tournai was fined $50,000, and
PEONAGE IN BELGIUM 119
the council was informed that $5000 penalty1 would be
exacted for every day the list was withheld. For the
same offense the entire board of aldermen of Brussels
was imprisoned.
As in the case of all Germany's war dealings with
Belgium, the defense offered for these ruthless deporta-
tions is compounded of effrontery and false pretense.
After an occupation of more than two years, with an
unarmed population under guard of a huge military
force, the authorities cite as an excuse a rule of war
which requires them to "re-establish and maintain
order" — unemployment, they protest, is dangerous to
peace. But another part of the same article — requiring
the invader to feed the population — they conveniently
ignore ; that has been made the business of the United
States and other neutrals. They argue further that
idleness puts an intolerable burden upon charity; they
seem quite oblivious of the fact that the charity which
suffers is American, not German. But the principal plea
is more offensive in its hypocrisy. "Nothing," says the
German governor, "so demoralizes a man as long idle-
ness, and nothing tends more to weaken a nation than
that. a large part of it is compelled for years to do
nothing." This intimation that the Belgians, the most
industrious people in the world, have become a nation of
loafers and grafters would be indecent from any source,
but from Germany it is utterly revolting. For the Ger-
man invaders did more than strike down the government
of Belgium and reduce its population to political servi-
tude; they stripped the country of its crops, its seeds,
its raw materials ; they seized every factory, and either
turned it to their own use for military purposes or dis-
mantled it and shipped the machinery across the Rhine.
And it is after they have destroyed the industry and
paralyzed the business of Belgium, after they have
120 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
wrung from the helpless people a war levy of $8,000,000
a month — twenty times the normal taxation — and forced
them to exist upon the doles of charitable neutrals,
that they taunt them with their impoverishment and
denounce them as idling vagabonds. If Germany's pur-
pose were merely to eradicate unemployment, she could
have every able-bodied man at work within twenty-four
hours upon projects of public improvement at the expense
of the Belgian nation. When she drags these men from
their homes, and sends them by trainloads into Germany
and into the regions behind the trenches in France, she
is reviving the slavery that sometimes disgraced medi-
eval warfare, and is using a subjugated people to
strengthen her armies, than which there is no more
infamous perversion of the rights of conquest. For
every famished Belgian who can be tempted by high
wages, or coerced by threats and maltreatment, into
working in German industries releases a German for
the firing line and becomes a unit in the forces devastat-
ing his own land. Those who want first-hand evidence
of the situation will find it in the protest issued by
Cardinal Mercier on November 7:
At first the ordinances threatened only unemployed men.
Today all able-bodied men are carried off pell-mell, penned up
in trucks and deported to unknown destinations, like slave-
gangs. It was already a matter of forced labor for Belgium ;
today it is labor in Germany for the Germans' benefit. The
whole truth is that each deported workman means another
soldier for the German army; he will take the place of a
German workman, who will be made a soldier.
Parties of soldiers enter by force peaceful homes, tearing
youth from parent, husband from wife, father from children.
They bar with bayonets the door thru which wives and
mothers wish to pass to say farewell to those departing.
They herd their captives in groups and push them into cars,
and as soon as the train is filled an officer waves the signal
for departure. Thus thousands of Belgians are being reduced
to slavery.
PEONAGE IN BELGIUM 121
The strange force of justice that works thru the
blind moves of fate was never more clearly illustrated
than in these events. Belgium, that was counted upon
by Germany to be her stepping-stone to glory, remains
for her the threshold of everlasting infamy. And it is
in relation to Belgium, above all else, that the Prussian
mind seems doomed ever to baffle its own desires. It
was the violation of Belgium that ranged the might of
Great Britain and the sentiment of the world against
Germany; it was the methodical brutality of the con-
quest— the burning of cities and levying of crushing
tribute, the shooting of civilians and the execution of a
nurse — that raised vast new armies against her. And
now, when the German people yearn for peace because
of the horrible slaughter they and their enemies are
enduring, and when new victories in the Balkans per-
suade them that soon their adversaries must succumb,
their infatuated rulers revive the terrorism of slavery
and inspire against them more bitter condemnation,
more implacable resolve. How much nearer peace may
be brought by the overthrow of Rumania is already an
exultant theme in Germany. How much further it has
been put away by the enslavement of the helpless sur-
vivors of Belgium's martyrdom she has yet to learn.
SUBMARINE NEWS AND VIEWS
December 1, 1916.
TWO news reports, which are unequal in credibility,
but are singularly eloquent when associated, appear
among the numerous recent dispatches relating to
the threatened revival of unrestrained submarine war-
fare by Germany. One tells of persistent rumors that
two of the undersea craft are lying in wait in the
steamship lanes off the American coast; definite warn-
ings to this effect have been sent out daily for some time
by British cruisers, and as a result vessels leaving or
approaching New York and Boston have been making
long detours. One ship thus added eight days to the
customary length of her voyage from London to New
York. Last Monday there was not a liner or cargo boat
to be found within miles of the usual course near Nan-
tucket lightship. The other news story told of the depar-
ture of the United States dreadnoughts on a target-
practice cruise. The huge battleship Connecticut, on
orders from Washington, dropped behind the fleet as it
passed out beyond Sandy Hook on Monday, and anchored
near the three-mile limit. The incident was of less inter-
est than the explanation confidently offered by a pro-
German newspaper in New York :
She is waiting to see that fair play is done. She will do
the work of mercy that the American destroyers did when
the U-53 raided the shipping off Nantucket, should more ships
be sunk. The navy department was taking time by the fore-
lock.
122
SUBMARINE NEWS AND VIEWS 123
If an historian of the future, seeking light upon the
attitude of the United States toward the complications
raised by the war's invasions of American rights, should
come by chance upon this astonishing announcement,
what would be his judgment ? Standing alone, of course,
the paragraph would be dismissed as the most worthless
of fabrications, a preposterous libel upon the govern-
ment of a great, free people. Indeed, that is our opinion
of it now. But the historical inquirer would be bound
to take into account preceding circumstances; and he
would find that the scandalous imputations made are
deduced from events of record. When it is implied that
an American battleship has been stationed near the
expected scene of lawless attacks, in order to perform
"the work of mercy" of rescuing the victims and thus
facilitating the criminal operations, the suggestion is
based upon an actual precedent. One does not credit
the charge that the Connecticut has any such instruc-
tions; but one cannot ignore the fact that in a like
situation American warships did watch a submarine at
its work of law-defying destruction, and dutifully gath-
ered up American passengers who had been forced to
leave . .a steamship in defiance of this government's
explicit declarations. We remarked the other day that
it is not our purpose to revive old issues for the mere
sake of controversy, but that new developments would
justify such discussion. New developments in the sub-
marine matter are ominously present. Not only do daily
dispatches tell of official alarm in Washington over signs
of a resumption of unrestrained use of this weapon, but
there are constant warnings that the raiding of nearby
waters will be repeated. What this would mean was
sufficiently indicated by the exploits of the U-53, which
boldly sought the hospitality of an American port,
obtained information as to the sailing of vessels, and
124 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
within twenty-four hours had sunk five in sight of Nan-
tucket lightship, one of them a steamship bound from
St. Johns to New York with nearly a hundred passen-
gers, the majority Americans.
At the time1 of this outrage we discussed frankly
the dangerous issues it raised. It was the logical result,
we argued, of the policy that not only had failed to
enforce just demands, but had given a certificate of
character to the submarine as a warship entitled to all
the courtesies, immunities and privileges of vessels that
can be kept under observation and control. We gave it
as our opinion that the reception of the Deutschland, at
a time when the Lusitania murders still lacked repara-
tion or even disavowal, would be a sign to Germany of
American indifference to her practices, while the official
recognition given to the U-53 would be a calamitous prec-
edent. But we had our perturbation to ourselves. Wash,
ington exhibited only the mildest professional interest
in the sinking of the passenger ship and the endanger-
ing of the American occupants, while most newspapers
forgot the women and children tossing in small boats
forty-two miles at sea in testifying to the "strict observ-
ance of Germany's pledge" which that circumstance
embodied. The only support we found was in the Army
and Navy Journal, which suggested that the visit of the
U-53 was intended by Germany to establish a precedent
nullifying that set up by President Grant in 1870. It is
worth while to recall the terms of that declaration,
expressed in a note from Secretary of State Hamilton
Fish to the American minister in Paris:
Altho vessels of either belligerent may not actually shel-
ter within the jurisdiction of the United States and proceed
thence against vessels of its enemy, this government would
regard as an unfriendly act the hovering of such vessels upon
the coast of the United States, near to its shore, in the neigh-
SUBMARINE NEWS AND VIEWS 125
borhood of its ports and in the track of the ordinary com-
merce of these ports, with intent to intercept vessels of trade
of its enemy.
France and Germany then yielded to the warning.
But the U-53 not only came into the jurisdiction of this
country and proceeded thence against enemy vessels;
not only hovered near our shores, in the neighborhood
of our ports and in the track of their ordinary commerce
and intercepted enemy vessels, but destroyed them by
lawless methods in defiance of this government's warn-
ing, and subjected American citizens to hardship and
peril which it had denounced as intolerable. Renewed
outrages of this nature might disturb and incense the
American people, but what reason has Germany to fear
anything from an administration which has been at such
pains to recognize and condone her deliberate jeoparding
of the lives of American passengers "exercising their
indisputable rights"? There have been many steps in
the abandonment of national rights in this matter, but
not the least deplorable was the recognition given to the
U-53 in the harbor of Newport and actually in the prose-
cution.,of her lawless work of destruction.
No thoughtful observer can escape the conviction
that the administration's avowed concern over pending
developments is justified, and that at any time this
country may be involved anew in a crisis invited by its
own complaisance.
THE WAR BEGINS ANEW
December 7, 1916.
THAT familiar expression, "the war has entered a
new phase," often inexactly applied, is distinctly
appropriate today. At no other time since the
struggle began has the situation presented so many fac-
tors of capital importance, such a stupendous clashing
of the forces of the human will. In other periods of
stress it was possible to observe national and military
crises singly. At one time submarine warfare was the
commanding spectacle; at another, the intricacies of
Balkan intrigue; at another, a western offensive, a
Russian campaign or operations in the Far East. Gallip-
oli, Lusitania, Warsaw, Bagdad, Trentino, Verdun and
the Somme are names that seem to recall isolated events.
But today the whole vast area of belligerency is shaken
at once. It is as if the nations, after two years and a
half of blind struggling, had looked for the first time
into the abyss of universal ruin and were simultaneously
making convulsive efforts to save themselves. Far more
significant than the movements of armies are the des-
perate maneuvers of governments and the ferment of
the peoples. When it seemed that the limits of human
power and endurance had been reached, there is a new
straining and heaving of the vast forces, demands for
sterner sacrifices, and a menace of war more bitter than
has yet been seen. It is certain that peace never seemed
more remote than now, when its terms are a subject of
daily speculation.
126
THE WAR BEGINS ANEW 127
Developments have been so rapid that news of them
has overlapped, and events of far-reaching importance
are obscured by others before their meaning has become
clear. When every belligerent capital is a political storm
center, one great change counteracts another in the pub-
lic mind, and it is difficult to see them in their true value.
Before attempting detailed discussion of the various
upheavals, therefore, we shall outline briefly the general
situation. In the military field there are operations of
importance on only three main fronts, and in each case
Germany is once more in the ascendant. As to the posi-
tion in the west, this is true only in the sense that her
defense is still unbroken and that the attacks of her
adversaries have become relatively weak. The great
Somme offensive, now in the beginning of its sixth
month, has been reduced — chiefly on account of unfa-
vorable weather — to local actions and artillery duels.
The Anglo-French superiority in men, guns, ammunition
and striking power has been definitely established, and
the initiative is still with that side. But it is impossible
to maintain that the pressure there exerted is of crush-
ing force when the Teutons can simultaneously conduct
a triumphant campaign in a distant field. The attack-
ing forces have performed remarkable feats in taking
strongly fortified trenches and villages, and are still
animated by the invigorating1 consciousness of holding
the mastery. But for the present the western struggle
is once more -a deadlock.
Quite overshadowing this, the campaigns in Rumania
have dominated the news for several weeks. Partici-
pation of that country on the side of Great Britain,
France and Russia, which was hailed by them as the
turning point toward victory, has proved to be their
most costly miscalculation. It is, indeed, one of the
direct causes of the political unrest in all three countries.
128 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
The ingenious explanation is now offered that Rumania,
armed chiefly with guns from German and Austrian
factories, intended to delay her joining until next spring,
when she would have been fully equipped by her allies,
and that the Teutons, aware of her weakness, forced
the issue. However this may be, it is clear that the
Rumanians were hopelessly outclassed, that Russia was
unable to give effective aid, and that the international
forces operating from Saloniki have failed miserably to
perform their part in the Balkan plan. This project
was for a quick subjugation of Transylvania, a move-
ment which was to hold Austria while Bulgaria was
crushed between a Russo-Rumanian drive from the
north and an Anglo-French-Servian ad vane 2 from the
south. The Transylvanian adventure was a fatal suc-
cess, for neither the Russians nor the Allies operating
in Macedonia made good. After leisurely preparation,
the Teutons and Bulgars began a gigantic encircling
movement, Von Falkenhayn driving down thru the
Transylvanian Alps and Von Mackensen sweeping north
to the Danube. Capture of Monastir by the Servians
and French had no effect, Russian reinforcements
arrived in Rumania too late, and within a few weeks
the invaders had cleared virtually all of Wallachia and
added its fertile plains to their prizes of war.
In this calamitous affair the utter inability of the
Rumanians to withstand a grand German attack was
not surprising. Russia's failure, too, is explained by
inefficiency and the distraction of a political crisis. But
the comparative inertia of Sarrail's army of more than
half a million men in Macedonia is as much a mystery
now as it has been for six months past. Had the plan
based upon Rumania's intervention been carried out with
vigor and success, the results would have been ominous
for Germany. Bulgaria would have been eliminated,
THE WAR BEGINS ANEW 129
Turkey isolated from her powerful allies, and a barrier
erected across the highway to the East which Germany
had opened at such heavy cost. Collapse of the enter-
prise is correspondingly serious for the Entente Powers.
For not only is Rumania virtually crushed, but Bulgaria
is immeasurably strengthened and the Berlin-Constan-
tinople line made more secure. But the effects are
reflected most clearly in the reactions they have caused
in the defeated countries — a political crisis in Great
Britain, drastic criticism of the government in France,
and turmoil in Russia. British unrest has been grow-
ing for many weeks, notable signs being violent attacks
on the government, discussion of a food dictatorship,
reorganization of the navy command and furious com-
plaints of the mishandled Balkan situation.
Whatever succeeds the overturned coalition cabinet,
therefore, it is clear that British confidence has received
a severe check. Hilaire Belloc, a capable military author-
ity, tells his countrymen that this is an attack of
"nerves" ; but it will take more than soothing advice to
overcome the effect of the Balkan rout — the latest of a
dismal succession — and of the sinister prospects in
Greece. Even in France, where the frank expression
of democracy is tempered by a sterner discipline, the
questionings of disappointment and alarm will not be
stifled. "Time passes — we talk, Germany acts," cries
one influential journalist. Another writes: "It is the
life of the republic which is at stake. If it is proved in
the eyes of the nation that we cannot organize for war —
despite numerical, financial and naval supremacy — the
parliamentary regime will be held responsible. The
republic itself will be blamed." The nation, which has
endured almost unimaginable sufferings and losses, can-
not conceal its dismay that these sacrifices are not
enough to command victory, and that an advantage in
130 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
the Balkans has been squandered thru military feeble-
ness and lack of co-ordination. The censorship conceals
most of the developments in Russia, but there is no
doubt of the existence of serious conflict between the
people and the autocratic ruling class. Even that vast
population feels the stupendous loss of blood the war has
inflicted, and Russian inefficiency has made the food
problem acute. And yet, singularly enough, the over-
throw of Premier Sturmer was due to a popular uprising
against subtle suggestions for a separate peace. Stur-
mer was a representative of the strong German element
that still remains in Russian governmental affairs ; Tre-
poff, his successor, is an advocate of war to the end. Yet
even the appointment of the latter did not pacify the
duma, and the new premier could not make his first
address until shouting assailants had been ejected.
Outweighing all these events in importance, how-
ever, and responsible in great measure for them, is the
action of Germany in summoning to active war work,
under government control, the entire male population
between the ages of seventeen and sixty years. No other
movement in the struggle has been comparable in magni-
tude to this. It means that this is to be really a war
to the death. Against the superiority of her enemies
in numbers, in supplies and in sea power, Germany is
able, thru the discipline of her people, to pit such a con-
centration of energy as the world has never seen. It
shows how momentous arid confusing are the develop-
ments of the last few weeks that this colossal move has
occasioned less world interest than the battles in
Rumania. When we say, therefore, that the great war
has entered a new phase, we have in mind two new ele-
ments— Germany's tremendous initiative in organizing,
once for all, the entire power of her people, and the
appearance among her antagonists of a realization that
THE WAR BEGINS ANEW 131
thereby she has once more forged to the front and that
she cannot be defeated unless she is first overtaken. In
addition, there is the obvious revelation that hopes of
an early peace are vain. Germany's eagerness to capi-
talize by settlement her holdings and her latest victories
is not more ardent than the determinatign of her ene-
mies to smash her power. And now she has multiplied
it to such a degree that their task has become more for-
midable in appearance than at any other time since her
legions were sweeping toward Paris.
THE REVOLUTION IN GERMANY
December 8, 1916.
A MEMBER of the staff of the New York World,
returning recently from a long sojourn in Germany,
wrote several pages of enlightening matter upon
affairs in that country. The essence of it all, however,
was in these sentences :
Seventy million people with their backs against the
wall. Seventy million people fighting as one. Seventy mil-
lion people, and not a quitter among them. That is one of
the deepest impressions that I brought back with me from my
visit to Germany. Powerful as is the pressure under which
they are standing; heavy as are the blows they receive; dark
tho their eventual prospects may be, the spirit of patriotism,
of steadfastness, of courage, of defiance, that the Germans
are showing burns as brightly and as fiercely today, after
more than two years of war, as at the outset.
The most significant thing about the writer's esti-
mate is that it is already out of date. When he referred
to "seventy million people fighting as one" he wrote
figuratively — and now Germany has made it a reality.
By a law passed a week ago every able-bodied male in
the empire who is not under arms is made liable to
compulsory civilian service under government control.
Literally, not metaphorically or thru voluntary effort,
the whole national power is organized for war, from
the foremost trench in France or Rumania or Russia to
the remotest village and last man in the empire. Dur-
ing the whole conflict of twenty-eight months there has
not been any project, military or economic, that
approached this in magnitude and significance*
132
THE REVOLUTION IN GERMANY 133
It marks the opening of a new epoch, not only in
Germany, but in all Europe ; it will profoundly affect the
course and duration of the war, the terms of peace and
the future of civilization thruout the whole world. It
may well be as revolutionary as the American war of
independence or the introduction of steam power. For
what Germany has done is to erect, almost over night,
the framework of a socialized state. That the movement
is directed by autocracy, that the purpose is to accom-
plish a temporary arrangement and that the inspiration
is the abnormal need of war — these things are of minor
importance in presence of the fact that one of the fore-
most nations of the earth has organized itself essentially
according to the formula with which Bellamy, in "Look-
ing Backward," amused an incredulous world thirty
years ago. It is a grim Utopia that confronts us in the
present manifestation, and will awaken no envy. But
the vital point is that it is a fact, and will compel emula-
tion. Already Germany's allies are following her lead,
and her enemies must do the same or lose all they have
won. And who can say that the restoration of peace
will mean the discarding of methods which may prove
effective in carrying a great people thru the terrific
ordeal of implacable war?
The causes of the move are plain enough. This war
has resolved itself into a contest of endurance — a com-
bat of money and metals and men. The first need Ger-
many has met by ingenious devices of finance and self-
support. The second she has supplied by conquering and
holding metal-producing territory. The third presents a
problem infinitely more difficult — the factors are an in-
creasing demand and a diminishing supply. Germany's
declining man-power has long been a matter of remorse-
less calculation by her enemies. The populations upon
which she can draw are known, she is unable to command
134 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
further reinforcements, and precise estimates have been
made as to when the wastage of lives will fatally impair
her human resources and compel her to yield. It is not
surprising that a nation which has found ways to with-
stand a suffocating blockade, maintaining itself in food
and war supplies virtually without imports, should have
recognized long ago the threat of such a condition. The
German government knows as well as do its adver-
saries that the supply of men is a question of life and
death, and its devices for solving the problem are char-
acteristically direct, efficient — and Prussian. The first
move was to make use of the stores of human material
lying unused in conquered territory. It required no
extraordinary keenness to discern that the way to make
all Germans of reasonable age available for actual mili-
tary service was to replace those still employed in pro-
ductive enterprise and other civilian activities, and even
in munition plants. If 25,000 French peasant women
could be sent from the Lille district to harvest German
crops, that meant just so much German energy conserved
for war purposes. If 100,000 Belgian workmen could be
seduced or coerced into peonage in German mines and
factories and quarries, every one would release a Ger-
man worker tO) be sent to the firing line. This is, of
course, the explanation of the ruthless "slave raids" in
Belgium. German papers have hailed the infamous
decree as an act of humanitarianism, designed to redeem
the suffering Belgians from idleness; but Governor
General Bissing has bluntly told one true reason :
I consider that I am serving the emperor and the
fatherland to the best advantage when I cause the least
possible German blood to flow here and the fewest possible
Germans to be withdrawn from our front line to watch over
Belgium.
So the men of Belgium by tens of thousands are
torn from their homes and families and sent into Ger-
THE REVOLUTION IN GERMANY 135
many in order that the garrison of the country may be
diverted to the trenches in France. And another pur-
pose, as frankly stated in the reichstag, is that these
victims shall take the places^ of German artisans like-
wise needed at the front. The "freeing" of that part of
Poland taken from Russia is a similar expedient. For
the German chancellor has announced to the reichstag
that the promise to create the new kingdom was only
conditional, being dependent upon the success of the plan
to raise a Polish army of "volunteers" to fill the depleted
ranks of the kaiser's. But these are mere subordinate
parts of the great plan of utilizing every scrap of human
energy which is available to an autocratic government
that has the confidence of its subjects. The main plan
is embraced in the bill which was passed last week, under
which all male citizens between 18 and 60 years old are
made subject to "compulsory civilian service in the inter-
ests of the empire." Only a few hours were devoted
to discussing the far-reaching revolution proposed. The
advocates put forth by the military authorities merely
explained briefly that the measure was "necessary to
secure the victory already won in the field." Germany's
enemies, they said, still cherished illusions of triumph;
and altho the defense lines were impenetrable, it was
needful to strengthen both the military and economic
fronts of the nation during the winter. Not only, it was
said, must gaps in the firing line be filled, but subtrac-
tions from economic enterprise, thru raising the age limit
for active service, must be replaced. The essential aim
was to link up every productive activity of the whole
empire into one vast network, centering in the govern-
ment, so that all efforts should be concentrated and
directed toward achieving victory.
It was frankly admitted that this was the "most
revolutionary measure ever submitted to a German
136 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
legislature." Yet the disciplined people accepted it as
tho they had contemplated it for years, instead of having
become acquainted with it a few days before. The bill
passed by a vote of 235 to 19. The objectors, singu-
larly enough, were a few radical Socialists, who winced
at submitting to the "enslavement" of labor by a form
of compulsory enlistment and autocratic military con-
trol— a very different thing from their ideal of a social-
ized state. We have emphasized, in the face of a gen-
eral attitude of indifference toward this event, our
opinion that it is the most important and significant
development of the war, and therefore a matter of the
deepest concern to all the world. The German chan-
cellor himself declares that "there never has been a
mobilization of national energy so gigantic in its scope,"
and that the empire has embarked upon "an enterprise
of staggering magnitude." Certain it is that Germany
has once more seized the initiative in the prosecution of
the struggle. Already her action has startled and
shaken her antagonists; the political turmoil in Great
Britain, France and Russia is a sign that those nations
realize that a new and more stupendous force has been
launched against them. What the effects are likely to
be upon them, upon the duration of the war and upon
the future of civilization, we shall discuss at another
time.*
*See "Back to Sparta," page 189.
DIVIDED GREECE
December 14, 1916.
EXACTLY one year ago today, in one of our numer-
ous discussions of the ever-changing Balkan situa-
tion, we offered the following remark :
There has been no more interesting political episode in
the war than the complicated evolutions of Greece during the
last ten months, by which she has been transformed from an
almost certain ally of the Entente Powers to a sullen neutral,
of a temper which may flame at any moment into hostility.
The events of the twelve months have more than
justified this comment, for they are about to culminate —
unless Germany's peace proposal acts as a stay — in a
new complication of belligerency. While one-half of
Greece is in arms against Bulgaria and with the Entente
forces, the other half, led by the king, is awaiting a
signal, from Berlin to fall upon the rear of the Allied
armies. Unless, therefore, Great Britain, France and
Russia apply effectually the "radical solution" for which,
it is announced, they are prepared, the kingdom whose
independence they created, guaranteed and protected
for three-quarters of a century will be officially their
open enemy and a new ally of the Central Powers. In
view of the fact that differences of opinion among the
Greeks themselves as to the course of the government
have led to bitter civil war, it is hardly remarkable that
neutrals have been somewhat bewildered by the kaleido-
scopic changes during the last two years. After moving
for many months toward her natural alliance with the
Entente, Greece compromised upon a guarantee of
137
138 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
"benevolent neutrality"; when this arrangement was
broken by the will of the pro-German sovereign, revolu-
tion began ; and finally the strong royalist remnant, after
a year of shifting intrigue, has revealed its purpose as
unqualifiedly hostile. And, involved with the interna-
tional developments, there has been an irreconcilable
conflict between the country's ambitious military autoc-
racy and the champions of constitutional government.
Obviously, no understanding of these intricate issues and
their possible results can be had without study of events
in their order ; and, since no normal memory could recall
them without assistance, we shall supply a brief chrono-
logical survey.
It is necessary to remember, first, that for nearly
four centuries Greece was under Turkish rule, until she
won her independence in 1830 with the aid of Great
Britain, France and Russia. Those Powers thereupon
assumed guardianship of the new state, and fulfilled their
obligations on several occasions at rather heavy cost to
themselves. The first king, a Bavarian, was an impos-
sible despot, and when he was expelled, a better dynasty
was founded by the selection of a Danish prince, known
as George I. The guarantors of the "monarchial, inde-
pendent, constitutional state" showed their interest by
granting big loans and by contributing $100,000 annually
to the king's civil list. They have done this ever since
the treaty of 1863, and, so far as is known, Constantine
has regularly drawn his royal allowance. When Greece,
in 1897, undertook the mad adventure of war on Turkey,
it was Great Britain, France and Russia that intervened
when the German-led Moslems were about to reconquer
the peninsula; and they even upheld the crown prince,
now the king and their implacable enemy, when the dis-
illusioned people wanted to overturn the royal house.
Treaty rights and duties, therefore, are cited by those
DIVIDED GREECE 139
countries as legal ground for their active participation in
Greek affairs when the world war submerged the Balkan
countries. But there was justification of a far more
direct kind. When the Teutons, in September, 1915,
began their assault upon Servia, that natiqn invoked its
defensive alliance with Greece. Premier Venizelos, who
from the beginning had urged his country's participa-
tion in the war against Germany — he resigned office and
was overwhelmingly returned to power on that precise
issue — pledged the aid of Greece to her stricken neigh-
bor. But King Constantino, a brother-in-law of the Ger-
man kaiser, repudiated the treaty. There was in that
agreement a provision that, in case of default by Greece,
it should rest with France and Great Britain to fulfill
the terms if they chose. Accordingly, the premier, sup-
ported by the parliament, invited the landing of Anglo-
French forces to carry out the task Greece had rejected ;
whereupon the king dismissed him and embarked upon a
policy which was in flagrant violation of the constitu-
tion, but which he defended as for the best interests of
the nation. Half a dozen puppet cabinets pledged
"benevolent neutrality" toward the Entente, and this
attitude was maintained to the extent of permitting the
Allies to occupy Saloniki and adjoining territory and
many Greek islands as naval bases. Moreover, the king
was vociferous in his protestations of friendship and his
complaints because the occupying Powers seemed sus-
picious of his intentions. Only a belief that the Teutons
were invincible and that Greece would invite the fate of
Servia by joining the unprepared Allies, he said, induced
him to stifle the aspirations of thei people. Yet court
and army circles were so unmistakably pro-German that
the Entente leaders never dared to relax their vigilance.
Ever since last spring a great force has been ready to
140 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
advance against Bulgaria, but has been held by the
ominous possibility that Constantine would hurl his
forces against them from the rear.
That their distrust was justified was shown last
June, when suddenly the Bulgarians overran Grecian
Macedonia, the Greek forces, under orders from Athens,
surrendering fort after fort without firing a shot. Seres,
Drama and Kavala, the three principal cities — the last
named an important seaport — were occupied by the
invaders, and enormous quantities of guns, ammunition
and other war material were acquired without a struggle.
Constantine insisted that this shameless deal was neces-
sary to his patriotic plan for "keeping the country out
of war" ; but in plain terms it was the surrender of hard-
won territory to an inveterate enemy and the arming of
that enemy at the expense of Greece. The supplies
seized and the losses inflicted amounted to $40,000,000.
The anger and dismay of patriotic Greeks culminated
late in August in a tremendous demonstration, which in
formal resolutions warned the king that the nation
would resist his attempt to seize autocratic power thru
the agency of a German victory. A few days later a
revolution started at Saloniki, and thirty warships of the
Allies arrived at the port of Athens. This was the begin-
ning of unceasing turbulence — huge defections from
the army and navy, intermittent outbreaks of civil war,
more desperate shifting by the king and his pro-German
military party, more drastic measures of repression and
coercion by the French and British. While the revolt
gathered strength in the provinces, the capital remained
a hotbed of German propaganda and espionage, until,
on September 2, the Allies demanded and received con-
trol of the postal and telegraphic service. A fortnight
later a new ministry renewed the pledge of "benevolent
neutrality" — and signified its sincerity by surrendering
DIVIDED GREECE 141
the last of the Kavala forts to the Bulgars. On Septem-
ber 24 the revolutionists took complete control in Crete,
whereupon the king told the Associated Press that he
was ready to join the Entente in return for definite and
certain advantages. But the worthlessness of his word
had been proved too often. During the night Venizelos
left for Crete, with the commander-in-chief of the Greek
navy, and there a provisional government, pledged to
war on Bulgaria, was established. Almost simultane-
ously the chief of the army staff and 500 officers pre-
sented to the king a memorial urging him to abandon
neutrality. Even then, had he taken the field against the
Bulgars, the whole nation would have followed him. At
that time German papers predicted a declaration of war
from Greece. But Constantine, it has been shown, was
only maneuvering for time, and as the government's hos-
tility was becoming dangerous, the French, on October
li, took over all Greek warships. Six days later furious
riots began in Athens, armed crowds attacking the Allies'
patrols. The menace of an attack on the rear of the
Saloniki armies had become so plain that the Entente
demanded withdrawal of the Greek royal forces from
Larissa to the southern peninsula. Constantine resisted,
but finally promised to comply — and methodically broke
his pledge.
By this time all hope of a friendly arrangement had
been abandoned, and the repeated suggestions that
Greek aid be purchased with arms and equipment were
ignored. "That," said Paris, "would be to arm a poten-
tial enemy." Incidentally, it was a proposal by the king's
partisans that the Entente equip and finance the forces
of a government which had actually supplied the Bul-
garians with arms and ammunition to use against the
Allies. The sanguinary battle in Athens on December
1 was the result of the Allies' demand, and the king's
142 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
written agreement, for the surrender of armament
equivalent to that he had given, or sold, to the enemies
of Greece. But a more sinister part of the record is
that the 3000 Anglo-French troops that landed were
subjected to "treacherous and unprovoked attack" by
royalist forces secretly placed to trap them. With that
encounter the mask of Constantine dropped, and he
disclosed himself the determined ally of Germany.
Whether he acted thru pure love of Greece, or, as his
enemies charge, with "hideous treachery" and falsehood
to Greece's friends, the fact remains that his course
during the two years has been more serviceable to Ger-
many than if he had declared war simultaneously with
the kaiser against Britain, France and Russia.
What the outcome will be cannot be foretold. Prob-
ably the peace move by Germany will chill Constantine's
enthusiasm; possibly the Allies' "radical solution" will
be to depose him by force and recognize the Venizelist
provisional government; perhaps the ambitious sover-
eign will attempt, as the German papers predict, to
smash thru to a junction with Von Mackensen and "make
a clean sweep in the Balkans." But it seems certain, at
least, that the long period of baffling intrigue and duplic-
ity in Athens has come to a close, and that forced
settlement will soon be made of the fate of unhappy, dis-
united, distracted Greece.
GERMANY'S PEACE PROPOSAL
December 15, 1916.
ERE is not an American of decently humane
± impulses, we suppose, who did not feel a thrill of
relief and hope upon first reading the news that at
last a formal and authoritative proposal for peace nego-
tiations had been made by one group of belligerents.
The uninterrupted spectacle of death and destruction
has become so dreadful to contemplate, and the increas-
ing range and bitterness of the conflict so ominous, that
any definite move toward ending it must be hailed with
satisfaction. The severest critic of Germany's policies
and war methods and the most skeptical analyst of her
motives will not withhold, therefore, the recognition due
to a striking and forceful action. The dramatic instinct
which is so marked in the character of the kaiser never
was .displayed to greater advantage nor on a stage so
vast. For the background of the magnificent interlude
there was Von Hindenburg's triumphant progress in
Rumania; for incidental music the thunder of unnum-
bered guns ; for supporting principals, a king-emperor, a
czar and a sultan ; for supernumeraries, 70,000,000 faith-
ful subjects, and for audience, the nations of all the
world. It is in no petty spirit of distortion that we repre-
sent the kaiser as the central figure in what was heralded
as an event of "world-wide historical importance." Not
only did the imperial chancellor ascribe the momentous
decision to "his majesty," but it was made without even
the form of consulting the nation. The reichstag
143
144 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
assembled in total ignorance of the action that had been
taken, and the people knew nothing of it until it was
irrevocably accomplished. It was considered no more a
concern of dutiful citizens of the empire than was the
issuance of the order that mobilized them for war twen-
ty-eight months ago.
The very first words of the proposal challenge atten-
tion— the war is called "a catastrophe." There is no
other evidence of a change of heart; therefore, this
phrase has a hollow sound coming from a statesman-
ship which held that "war is a biological necessity," and
that its "inevitableness, idealism and blessing must be
repeatedly emphasized." That the Central Powers
"gained gigantic advantages over adversaries superior
in numbers and war material" is a statement that will
flatter their people more than it will impress their
enemies. They won the territory they hold from armies
outnumbered and ill prepared; they have made no
appreciable advance — except in Rumania — since their
opponents effectually organized their resources. Events
have demonstrated, they say, that the resistance of their
forces cannot be broken. But events have demonstrated
that it can be seriously impaired, and the indications
are that present pressure is to be vastly increased.
Assuredly, Verdun yielded no "gigantic advantage," nor
can such a term be applied to the hurling back of the line
on the Somme. Moreover, this is a war, not of battles
merely, but of endurance. The boast that "our lines
stand unshaken" is not without reason; but the same
may be said by the enemy — and the real question is,
which will stand the longer? And in the exultant cele-
bration of complete triumph what becomes of the "free-
dom of the seas"? Is a nation "unconquerable" and
"victorious" when its fleet is in hiding, its merchant
flag driven from the ocean and its trade reduced to com-
GERMANY'S PEACE PROPOSAL 145
merce with its subject neighbors? Germany says she
"fights to assure the integrity of her frontiers"; by
whom were they ever threatened? She fights "for the
right to develop freely her intellectual and economic
energies in peaceful competition and on an equal footing
with other nations" ; but where, and from what Power,
did she ever suffer restrictions in these activities ? Were
these the crimes of Servia and Belgium?
The chancellor insists that his country is "ready for
fighting and ready for peace" and that supplies are
"inexhaustible." If this be so, what is the meaning of
drafts in starving Poland and slave raids in stricken
Belgium ? If the enemies of Germany do not yield forth-
with, he threatens, "every German heart will burn in
sacred wrath" against them ; but why should this possi-
bility dismay peoples that have withstood submarine
slaughters and the invention of poison gas and liquid
flame ejectors? What terrors are there in a new Hymn
of Hate ? That the imperial government is moved by a
"deep moral and religious sense of duty" we have no
right to deny, but its vehement protestations of regard
for humanity are not wholly convincing. What is the
humanity for which Germany has suddenly become
solicitous ? It cannot be the humanity of Great Britain,
which is utterly abhorred; nor the "barbarous" Rus-
sians ; nor of the "degenerate" and "revengeful" French ;
nor of the "idle" and "treacherous" Belgians. She is
"seized with pity," it must be, for the humanity of Ger-
many, which, after two and a half years, has attained
nothing definitely but a desire to return to the condi-
tions of peace. It was inevitable that Germany should
repeat her complaint of a war of aggression, and her sen-
tence that her enemies shall bear the odium of continu-
ing the struggle against her power. But, while she dis-
claims responsibility for this "before humanity and his-
146 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
tory," she dishonors humanity by enslaving a helpless
people and mocks at history by reiterating the fable con-
cerning "war forced upon us."
Having stated these matters of dissent, we may
turn to the really serious aspects of the problem. If
Germany's offer be regarded as a sincere move toward
peace, its essential defect is that it is avowedly the pro-
posal of a victor — her alliance, she says, has "unconquer-
able strength," continuance of the war means "further
successes," there will be "a victorious end," and the
kaiser proclaims his "consciousness of victory." This
basing of peace proffers upon military success is, of
course, not novel. Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg
several times has publicly invited a settlement, choosing
as his occasion some notable demonstration of military
prowess. But it is unfortunate for the cause of peace
that this first formal proposition should convey explicit
notice that its acceptance will be an acknowledgment
of defeat.
Aside from this defect in diplomacy, the form of
expression is undeniably justified if examined according
to the only formula that the German mind will admit —
with a reference to the "war map." Altho stripped of her
colonies and barred from the sea, Germany, with her
allies, manifestly dominates the belligerent area on land.
She holds 189,000 square miles of foreign territory. In
the west her defenses are not likely to be seriously
threatened during the winter. Her might overshadows
the Balkans and looms ominously across the path of
Russia. She has opened her long-coveted highway from
the North sea to the Bosporus and beyond, and guards
it with powerful legions. If she could command peace
now, it would be a German peace ; she could make what
might seem substantial concessions and still impose her
will as acknowledged victor.
GERMANY'S PEACE PROPOSAL 147
Her maximum terms, as outlined by the devious
process of diplomacy, would contemplate "restoration"
of Belgium, evacuation of French territory, erection of
Russian Poland and Lithuania as "independent" king-
doms, return of Austrian lands occupied by Italy, resto-
ration of German colonies, addition of Servia to Austria-
Hungary, compensation for Bulgaria and ratification of
Turkey's possession of Constantinople. 1?o the German
student of the "war map" these arrangements are dic-
tated thereby witH mathematical precision, and the Ger-
man mind is astonished at its own moderation. But
that is, perhaps, the most serious obstacle to peace — that
Germany's success thus far has been too great, and that
each successive victory, since it cannot be decisive, only
makes a settlement more remote. It is the proud dec-
laration of Berlin that Germany's enemies have lost
15,000,000 men. Granting that this estimate be sub-
stantially accurate, what does she offer in the tentative
proposal toward the balancing of those sacrifices and
the establishment of a "lasting peace" 1 Belgium is to
be "restored" as an impoverished and subject nation.
Servian nationality is to be extinguished and the people
thrust under Hapsburg domination. Russia is to submit
to the loss of two kingdoms and final exclusion from the
Mediterranean. France is to receive back her devastated
provinces and doomed to cower, burdened with debt and
bleeding from deadly wounds, in the shadow of Prussian-
ism. Great Britain is to surrender her sea power, restore
the possessions won by her loyal colonial forces and
abandon her empire with only half a battle. It may be —
the German philosophy will insist — that all these
arrangements would redound to the benefit of the human
race. But we need not discuss that here. The vital mat-
ter is the probability, or otherwise, of their receiving in
148 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
any recognizable degree the indorsement of the other
side, let the "war map" say what it may.
We have given candidly our impressions of certain
provocative qualities which we find in the German pro-
posal— its incidental manifestations of hypocrisy, its
evidences of self-deception, its understandable but unfor-
tunate tone of arrogance. Despite these things, it seems
to us quite clear that Germany's action is logical and
essentially honest. She wants peace, ardently desires
peace. And why not? She has won all the things —
excepting only the "freedom of the seas" — for which she
made war upon Europe and civilization. Readers of this
newspaper need not be reminded that Germany's goal
has been in the East ; that her purpose is the erection of
an overland empire stretching from her "German ocean"
thru the Balkans, Asia Minor and Mesopotamia to the
Persian gulf. "Look," as her people say, "at the map" —
adding the interpretation of the terms> she would like
to enforce. The empire is there — Germany, Austria-
Hungary plus Servia, Rumania subjugated, Greece a
humble satellite, Bulgaria and Turkey well rewarded and
devoted allies. Is it any wonder that the German people,
counting their list of 4,000,000 dead and wounded and
surveying1 the dazzling products of autocracy's genius,
yearn for the peace that is so gloriously mapped ? Their
government has taken the only course possible under the
circumstances.
But the published engagements among the Entente
Powers must be taken into account. None of them can
consider a separate peace without confessing unmiti-
gated perfidy. Individually and unitedly they have
declared that their terms — which, they insist, are neces-
sary to the rebuilding of civilization — must prevail.
Within a fortnight they have made known that they
GERMANY'S PEACE PROPOSAL 149
intend to seat Russia in Constantinople. In the face of
these facts, is there a single visible factor of reconcilia-
tion?
Great Britain, France and Russia are just complet-
ing drastic reorganization of their governing systems;
in each country democracy is at last taking control —
not to seek peace, but to make more relentless war.
There is in those nations a belief that they are fighting,
not for political aggrandizement, but for the rescue of
civilization. They are convinced that Prussian domina-
tion must be destroyed — that they are making war
against war. And the peace they want is not. the peace
offered to them on the point of the Prussian bayonet.
To accept it, they are persuaded, would be to destroy law
in the world, to enthrone militarism and autocracy and
to establish the doctrine of force as the ruling principle
of civilization. That end is conceivable, anyway, if one
can stifle one's faith in human destiny. Germany's con-
fidence in a German victory and a German peace may be
justified. But unless the events of the last two years
belie themselves and these monstrous things are to be
imposed upon the world, it will be thru the sheer weight
of brute force, and not thru a premature surrender by
those nations that have undertaken to re-establish law
and justice.
WHAT WILL BE THE ANSWER?
December 18, 1916.
IT IS, of course, far easier for neutrals than for bellig-
erents to consider judicially Germany's proposal for
peace negotiations. They have no multitudes of dead
to mourn, no crushing burdens to bear, no grinding sus-
pense to endure. Elementary justice demands, there-
fore, that they make generous allowances for some of the
curious reactions which the event has caused in the
countries at war. The most notable result in Germany
was an outburst of rejoicing. Statesmen and news-
papers for the most part expressed themselves with
reserve; but the populace — which knew nothing of the
action until it had been taken — hailed it as though the
announcement that Germany was ready for a conference
were equivalent to the signing of a peace protocol. The
demonstrations suggested that the German people have
considered peace, like other matters of their experience,
to depend upon the promulgation of an imperial decree.
Two answers, of an exceptionally definite nature,
have already been made. The brilliant French victory
northeast of Verdun is a sanguinary satire upon the
German boast of "our unconquerable front." And the
unanimous declaration of the Russian duma for "a cate-
gorical refusal to enter, under present conditions, into
any peace negotiations whatever" will have a tremen-
dous effect upon the ultimate action. With these two
responses already on record, the chance that Germany's
move would give her commanding ascendency becomes
150
WHAT WILL BE THE ANSWER? 151
remote. For it must be remembered that, aside from
her genuinely ardent desire for peace, her proposal was
a skillful diplomatic maneuver. Upon the theory that
military successes precluded the bringing against her
of a charge of weakness, taking the initiative put her in
a position of tactical advantage. It was calculated to
appeal to neutral sentiment and also to stimulate what-
ever peace longing there might be in en.emy countries.
If successful, it would irrevocably give to her the pres-
tige of victory. Moreover, a request for her terms would
enable her to outline a settlement which would create
dissension among the Entente nations by offering tempt-
ing concessions to some of them at the expense of others.
Such devices as contemptuous silence or contumelious
affront would give imperialism new weapons. Justice
and reason require that the Allies state anew the condi-
tions which impel them to continue the conflict, and,
in understandable terms, the objects for which they
intend to invoke further bloodshed.
It must be said for them that their fundamental
demands have never been in doubt. The ideas expressed
in Germany during the last two years have ranged from
restoration of conditions before the war to insistence
upon radical schemes of annexation and indemnity. The
aims, .of the Entente were first stated in Mr. Asquith's
announcement in November, 1914: —
We shall not sheathe the sword, which we have not
lightly drawn, until Belgium has recovered more than she has
sacrificed, until France is adequately secured against menace,
until the rights of the smaller Tiationalities have been placed
upon an unassailable foundation, and until the military domi-
nation of Prussia is finally destroyed.
Since that time the problem has been complicated
by the conquest of Servia and Rumania, the operations
152 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
of Italy and the avowal of an agreement to place Russia
in control of Constantinople. The most drastic demands
suggested include these items :
Evacuation by Germany of all occupied territory, with
full indemnities and repayment of illegal levies; restoration
of Alsace-Lorraine to France; recognition of Russian control
of the Bosporus and Dardanelles; indemnity for shipping
unlawfully destroyed by submarines; punishment of those
responsible for acts contrary to the laws of war; agreement
for the limitation of armaments.
Mr. Asquith once put the case in a few words —
"adequate reparation for the past, and adequate security
for the future." And this idea the French, with their
genius for concise utterance, have reduced to the three
words, "restitution, reparation, security." Specific aims
might well await presentation at the conference which
must ultimately be< held, but it is recognized that the
Entente Powers would seriously weaken their position
if they refused to state the main objects to which they
are committed. And there is offered to them an oppor-
tunity of far greater moment — to make clear to the Ger-
man people the purposes of the empire's adversaries.
Thus far public opinion in that country has been formed
wholly upon the declarations and interpretations put
forth by the German government. In the absence of any
united utterance by the opposing coalition, the authori-
ties, thru control of the press, have been able to inflame
the patriotism and the hatred of the Germans by
emphasizing the most venomous assertions from enemy
sources ; thus millions of persons in that country are per-
suaded that the Entente has planned to "destroy" them,
to reduce them to utter humiliation and servitude, to
strip them of territory and inflict upon them remorse-
less economic enslavement. Such projects, never urged
except by irresponsible imitators of the author of the
Hymn of Hate, are palpably grotesque.
WHAT WILL BE THE ANSWER? 153
If the Entente governments were to declare as
clearly and as candidly as diplomacy will allow the read-
justments they purpose to enforce, and were to state
explicitly that they are making war, not against the Ger-
man people, but against the intolerable system to which
that people has surrendered its liberties and the safety
of Europe, they would begin a campaign of education
which would go far to promote peace. For this is, if it
is anything, a war of conquest — not conquest of armies
alone, not conquest of territory, but conquest of a delu-
sion. For forty years the German people have been
taught to believe that autocracy was invincible; that
they were advancing civilization and serving humanity
by subordinating the rights of men to the power of a
supreme state; that "for its own salvation the world
must be Germanized," and that their racial superiority,
manifested in kaiserism and militarism, must impose
itself by means of systematic aggression and triumphant
war. If the Allies were soberly and reasonably to dem-
onstrate the fallacy of these doctrines ; if they were to
present convincing proof that their aims, rather than
those of Germany, are "to defend justice and the lib-
erty of national evolution," and if they were to make
clear that the enemy they would destroy is not the Ger-
man, nation, but the insufferable system which perverts
the genius of that great people, they would assuredly
find some there to understand. Such an utterance no
despotic censorship could stifle; it would be the first
authoritative refutation of charges that we must believe
are false, and it might be the final thing needed to
awaken thinking Germans from their infatuation.
MAKING PEACE IS NOT SIMPLE
December 20, 1916.
ON THAT July day in 1914 when Austria severed
diplomatic relations with Servia and made certain
the most terrible conflict in history, Secretary of
State Bryan said of a series of agreements which he had
just signed: "These treaties ought to make war almost
impossible." Considered as the aspiration of a humane
mind, this utterance was highly creditable; viewed as
the judgment of a responsible official, it contained, we
suppose, more folly than could easily be concentrated
into any other eight-word sentence in the language of
statesmanship. It is in quite a different character — "as
the friend of the nations at war, as a Christian and a
lover of humanity"— that Mr. Bryan now applies him-
self once more to the problem of extinguishing war. He
has sent a message to the British premier urging accept-
ance of Germany's offer to enter negotiations. "There
is no dispute," he says, "that must necessarily be set-
tled by force; every guarantee that can possibly be
secured by war can be stated as a condition precedent to
peace" ; and so on. One might remark that it is difficult
to see how the very serious dispute as to which alliance
holds the keys of victory can be settled except by force.
But pacifism refuses, of course, to recognize the exist-
ence of such a controversy, so it is not worth while to
raise the point. We shall consider merely the curious
theory that it would be a simple matter to arrange the
conference and a task of ordinary accommodation to set-
154
MAKING PEACE NOT SIMPLE 155
tie the affairs of three continents aflame with strife.
Mr. Bryan is by no means alone in his placid optimism.
German newspapers and publicists, while making allow-
ances for the "madness" and "delusions" of the enemy,
are confident that the imperial summons will be obeyed
and that the result will infallibly be peace. "The con-
ference will be held," says one journal cheerfully, "on or
about January 15." And Professor Delbrueck, the noted
historian, remarks that "once the delegates sit around
the council table and begin to negotiate, it is highly
probable that they will finally come to agreement." A
New York banker, representing German governmental
financial institutions, predicts that within ninety days
arrangements of "a lasting peace" will be in sight.
That pacifists should leap to such agreeable conclu-
sions is not remarkable, for theirs is a philosophy of
unreality, the basis of which is a repudiation of facts.
But the prevalence of like ideas among the Germans has
a more practical explanation. The determined discus-
sion of the proposed peace conference as a matter of
certainty has a psychological purpose — it tends to create
thruout the world a vague impression that the meeting
has really been arranged, and that refusal to join would
be in. the nature of an affront to the family of nations.
Yet when the situation is examined, not as one hopes it
might be, but as it actually is, one must discern that
tremendous obstacles intervene between the present and
the assembling of negotiators, and that beyond that loom
difficulties still more appalling in the problems of restor-
ing peace to the world. Experience has shown that
it is no simple task to bring even two warring nations
to the council table, particularly when there has been no
decisive proof of military superiority. But here are
fifteen nations, five of them ranking as "first-class"
Powers, divided into two alliances whose territories
156 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
cover the greater part of the habitable world and whose
purposes affect literally every country on the globe.
They have been fighting for twenty-eight months ; their
relative strength is not greatly different from what it
was at the beginning, and their aims are no less in con-
flict. Surely it is not a sign of dull pessimism to recog-
nize these indisputable facts and to inquire as to what
likelihood there is that the comforting predictions of
pacifism and Prussianism — how significant is their
agreement! — will be fulfilled. Considering first the
probability of agreement upon a conference, the most
obvious difficulty is that the war has reached no logical
conclusion. When Japan, after Mukden, proposed nego-
tiations to Russia, in response to President Roosevelt's
urging, both belligerents were satisfied that further con-
test would be futile. But what rational observer will
contend that a decision in the present struggle has been
reached? Germany proclaims that it has, and thru her
exultation there cuts the grim rejoinder of the French
thrust beyon^ Verdun, with its 11,000 prisoners from
the "unshakable" front. And out beyond the barred
gates of the sea still lies the British fleet, tactically van-
quished, we are informed, at the battle of Jutland, but
impenetrably existent, nevertheless. Germany's alli-
ance, on the other hand, holds vast reaches of enemy
lands in Belgium, France, Russia, Servia and Rumania.
Yet this advantage, far from making a conference invit-
ing to her foes, makes it singularly unattractive. And
Germany speaks not only in the character but in the
tones of a victor. Acceptance of her proffer would be
an acknowledgment of defeat. To a nation of Bryans
such a course might appeal ; but how far the opponents
of Germany are from this frame of mind may be judged
from the utterances of their governments, their news-
papers and their people.
MAKING PEACE NOT SIMPLE 157
Not alone is the war undecided as it stands, but the
arsenals of the antagonists contain weapons and forces
not fully exerted or wholly untried. The naval blockade
is still capable of development. New armies are being
prepared in the east and the west. New accumulations
of guns and ammunition are being heaped up. It may
be deplorable that nations which have millions of dead
to mourn should contemplate fresh sacrifices to achieve
what they believe to be right ; but that they plainly do
so is a circumstance not to be blown away by a puff of
pacific admonition. A conference without an armistice,
formal or informal,, is inconceivable; but an armistice
under existing circumstances would be the last desire of
Germany's foes, for negotiations could be prolonged to
any extent, and their only hope lies in exerting unremit-
ting pressure. Apart from the military factors, there
is the obstacle of an unexampled hostility. A war that
has produce^ the atrocities of the submarine and the
Zeppelin and the Belgian slave raids does not yield to
ordinary devices of alleviation. And the proposal is
inopportune, because the adversaries of Germany have
just reorganized their governments for the distinct pur-
pose of intensifying their efforts. Moreover, their acqui-
escence must be united — the weak must stand with the
strong. The belief in ultimate victory is as fierce on one
side as on the other.
But it is when one has conceived, by a stretch of
the imagination, an acceptance of the German plan, and
when one attempts to visualize a ready agreement, that
the colossal nature of the task becomes apparent. Those
who think the issues of this war must dissolve in the
presence of a group of delegates, gathered together
under existing conditions, cannot have given much study
to the factors involved. The first is that there are two
solidly allied groups of Powers, the one holding enormous
158 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
advantage in the field, but essentially in a state of siege,
the other possessing unused forces by which it is per-
suaded ultimate victory can be achieved. We cannot
regard these facts as pointing toward peace. Enough is
known of the conflicting aims regarding Belgium and
Courland and Poland and Servia and Rumania and a score
of other territorial matters to make it a test of the most
sublime faith to foresee a compromise while force
remains untried. Every nation involved would go into
such a conference aware of its staggering burdens of
death and debt. Are these stupendous losses to be easily
adjusted when neither group acknowledges the possi-
bility of defeat ? Because of what she holds, Germany's
minimum demands would now have a force hard to
weaken by argument or diplomatic maneuvering. And
the same may be said of those of her opponents. "Resti-
tution" is easily defined, perhaps. But "reparation"
opens unending regions of controversy. If it is to be
exacted for Belgium and Servia and France, what of the
Russian invasion of East Prussia and Galicia ? "Security
for the future" is likewise clear in phraseology, but how
shall it be defined in a treaty? Germany beaten in the
field would give security of peace when her armies
yielded; how shall it be exacted from Germany "at the
council table," with her forces deep in enemy lands?
The interests of her enemies are intricately interlocked
by an oft-proclaimed pledge. Her group might conceiv-
ably make peace with one antagonist, but how with ten ?
Other wars have turned upon matters affecting a small
area — this covers Europe, Asia, Africa and the remotest
highways of the sea, the government of unnumbered
millions and the development of continents. There must
be delegates from the antipodes as well as from the
capitals of Europe. And when the crucial matters
touching Belgium and France and sea power and mili-
MAKING PEACE NOT SIMPLE 159
tarism have been settled in imagination, let the hopeful
observer consider that Russia's claim upon Constanti-
nople is to be adjudged and the map of the Balkans
redrawn. Having visioned these things peacefully
accomplished, he can contemplate the simple arrange-
ments to be made concerning disarmament and a league
of nations.
It requires no special aptitude for controversy to list
the palpable difficulties that beset the path of the nations
toward peace, and our purpose is by no means to con-
demn efforts to hasten a righteous solution of the prob-
lem that darkens the future of the world. But we find
it discouraging to a belief in human intelligence that
men whose utterances attract attention help to obscure
the realities by loquacious insistence upon empty form-
ulas. Mankind has loosed against itself forces which
are not to be stayed by words, and it can bring them
under subjugation only by paying the price of suffering.
That millions are ready to die to achieve peace, not that
others are ready to grant peace or talk peace, is the hope
of civilization.
MORE ABOUT PEACE
December 22, 1916.
WITH far greater emphasis than we said it one
week ago today, we may now repeat that every
humane-minded person must be hopeful regard-
ing the outcome of Germany's remarkable proposal for
peace negotiations. Opinions differ radically as to the
inspiration and essential significance of President Wil-
son's intervention, but there are reasons to expect that
it will bring settlement appreciably nearer. The rapidity
with which events have moved during the last ten days
is quite contrary to experience, for in past wars it has
been a matter of prolonged effort to prepare even the
preliminary grounds of discussion. On December 12
Germany addressed to the Entente governments a pro-
posal "to enter forthwith into peace negotiations,"
declaring that her propositions would have "for their
object a guarantee of the existence, honor and liberty of
evolution for their nations" — those of the Teutonic alli-
ance— and "an appropriate basis for the establishment
of a lasting peace." Rejection of the proffer was vigor-
ously demanded by the statesmen and press of the
enemy countries. Such utterances led to an expectation
that the British response would intensify and make irre-
vocable that group's refusal to treat. But the speech
of Premier Lloyd George distinctly left open the way to
a discussion, at least to the extent of an interchange of
notes. This was in harmony with public sentiment not
only in the United States and other neutral countries, but
160
MORE ABOUT PEACE 161
in the belligerent nations. Lloyd George's address,
therefore, was studied with the closest scrutiny. He
frankly acknowledged the "terrible responsibility" rest-
ing upon the decision of his government, but announced
that the Entente Allies had "arrived separately at
identical conclusions" which they purposed unitedly to
maintain. He gave "clear and definite support" to the
answers already made by France and Russia, and
announced "complete restitution, full reparation and
effectual guarantees" as "the only terms upon which it
is possible for peace to be obtained and maintained."
Nevertheless, he offered an oratorical inquiry as to what
terms the German government had in mind.
This hopeful indication was emphasized in the sub-
sequent comment in all countries — so much so, indeed,
that a striking factor in the speech was obscured. This
was that while the British premier opened his address
with an examination of the subject of peace, nearly
three-fourths of it was devoted to discussion of projects
for intensified war looking to ultimate victory. He
explained the reorganization of the government machin-
ery, announced plans for control of shipping and food
distribution, and outlined schemes for the mobilization
of all 'the man-power of the nation in a system of com-
pulsory national service analogous to that adopted in
Germany. Explicitly and vigorously he proclaimed that
Great Britain and her allies were resolved to carry the
conflict to a victorious conclusion, if that were necessary
to impose the terms they held to be vital to the security
of civilization.
All interpretations of these utterances left certain
outstanding revelations. First, it was shown that the
nations opposing Germany remain firmly united; not
only were all her efforts to divide them by force or guile
futile, but they exhibited a common resolution in their
162 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
individual attitudes toward her proposal. Second, they
were engaged in far-reaching preparations for more
relentless war. Third, their fundamental terms had not
changed during the two years and four months of con-
flict. Fourth, they were willing to hear what readjust-
ments and guarantees Germany considered suggesting.
Fifth, and not least in importance, was the disclaimer
of a purpose to "destroy" Germany. That mythical pur-
pose has been, of course, a fable created by Prussianism
to alarm and infuriate the German people, but its dis-
avowal was significant of a dissolving of belligerent im-
placability. The situation, then, was that the Entente
Allies were to answer Germany's note by uninterrupted
prosecution of the war and by a formal rejection, with,
however, an invitation to present a tentative program.
We come now to President Wilson's intervention.
The circumstances described would seem to make it
either marvelously well-timed or appallingly indiscreet.
The chances favor the former description, because it is
unthinkable that action of this kind would be taken
without private assurances that it would be accepted as
friendly and appropriate. But it is not obviously for-
tunate that the note was dispatched on Monday night,
nearly twenty-four hours before the British premier had
expounded the attitude of his government. In other
words, despite President Wilson's protestations, his
appeal was essentially a pendant to the German proposal,
and was deliberately offered so as to forestall the British
rejoinder to Germany. The terms of his communication
are too familiar to need emphasis. He disclaims pro-
posing peace or offering mediation, yet expresses him-
self ready to serve in any useful capacity. What he
explicitly asks is a candid definition of the war aims of
each side and a clear statement from each as to what
guarantees of future peace they recommend.
MORE ABOUT PEACE 163
In stating that "the objects which the statesmen
on both sides have in mind are virtually the same," the
president makes an assumption which will not tend to
strengthen his appeal to the antagonists of Germany.
The assertion is likely to recall to their minds his admo-
nition to be "neutral even in thought" and his remark
that "with the causes and objects of the war we have
no concern." If the Prussian conception of international
justice, the rights of nations and the maintenance of
treaties is not distinguishable in Mr. Wilson's mind from
that of Germany's opponents, concealment of that cir-
cumstance might have been more serviceable to the
cause of peace than its avowal. These features explain
the unfavorable attitude taken at first by Entente dip-
lomats in Washington, who have been said to regard the
note as an indorsement of Germany's demand for a con-
ference which she would enter in the role of a victor.
Whatever may have been his purpose, two things,
in our judgment, he has accomplished. First, a way has
been provided for the Entente Powers to join Germany
in making peace, if the attainment of peace, rather than
the establishment of the principles for which they fight,
be their paramount desire ; and second, Germany's proc-
lamation of victory has been indorsed by the president
of the.United States. It was as a conqueror, as the pro-
poser of terms to beaten adversaries, that Germany sug-
gested holding negotiations, with an alternative threat
of more ruthless war. If she gains her point, with or
without the aid of President Wilson, the defeat of her
enemies is confirmed, and she has shown that she can
make war and command peace at will.
December 26, 1916.
NOT in a belief that the statements were relatively
important, but because they were in a modest
sense prophetic, we reprint some sentences from
our editorial last Friday, concerning that extraordinary
action by President Wilson which was hailed by pacifists
as a master-stroke of diplomacy:
The circumstances would seem to make it either marvel-
ously well-timed or appallingly indiscreet. The chances favor
the former description, because it is unthinkable that action
of this kind would be taken without private assurances that
it would be accepted as friendly and appropriate. * * *
Despite President Wilson's protestations, his appeal was
essentially a pendant to the German proposal * * *
deliberately offered so as to forestall the British rejoinder to
Germany. * * * Events alone can show whether the
device was helpful to the cause of peace.
The impulses of patriotism and of humanity strongly
urged us to hope that the move would prove sound ; only
experience with Mr. Wilson's methods made us cautious.
And how deplorable has been the confirmation of our
fears! The whole world longed for light and leading,
and the results of incompetent intervention are greater
obscurity and confusion. The warring nations have been
filled with new suspicions, the power of neutrals has been
compromised, the hope of a just and early peace has been
dimmed. Any good results will be in spite of, not because
of, this intervention. It is the duty of thoughtful Amer-
icans to examine the bewildering record. The main sub-
164
PEACE HOPES MARRED 165
ject of study comprises three official utterances — Presi-
dent Wilson's circular note to the belligerents, dispatched
on December 18 and published last Thursday ; an expla-
nation thereof by Secretary of State Lansing, issued on
Friday morning, and an explanation of his explanation,
put forth that afternoon. In addition, there is a series
of inspired interpretations, published thru.the Associated
Press, these being still in progress. And into these main
streams of controversy there have flowed torrents of
speculation and debate from all quarters of the globe,
until every landmark of understanding seems sub-
merged.
It is vital to recall, first, the circumstances preced-
ing the inundation. Germany, on December 12, pro-
posed peace negotiations, explicitly declaring that her
alliance was victorious and would present a victor's
terms at the desired conference. France, Russia and
Italy, thru official utterances, rejected the proffer as
unsound, if not insincere, and as impossible of accept-
ance because it proclaimed their defeat, obviously not
a fact. The British premier, it was announced, would
reply on December 19. But on December 18 President
Wilson, without consulting other neutrals or any mem-
ber of congress and without the slightest intimation to
the public, interposed with an urgent appeal that all the
belligerents forthwith state the terms of settlement they
would favor, in order to hasten a conference. He gave
as reasons his belief that the war was proceeding
"toward undefined ends by slow attrition," which meant
irreparable injury to civilization, and particularly the
danger that the situation of neutral nations might
become "altogether intolerable." Regardless of its
details, and under any circumstances, action of this kind
is a matter of obvious delicacy. Mediation is an art
calling for special talents of address, singular acuteness
166 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
of judgment and the keenest possible perception as to
propitious opportunity. It needs an atmosphere of con-
fidence, even of expectancy; so well recognized is this
requirement that governments have universally avoided
offering such suggestions until privately assured that
they would not be offensive or embarrassing. For a gov-
ernment to thrust forward, without warning, demands
or recommendations upon belligerents affecting their
quarrel was an unheard-of procedure. In this case it
was exceptionally dangerous, because the move actually
followed a proposal by one side and was deliberately
interposed before one of the chief participants on the
other side had answered.
Only extreme urgency could justify such defiance
of amenities, and only the most transparent sincerity
and explicitness could give it force. Yet in all the
archives of diplomacy there is not to be found another
document so clumsy in its purpose or so cloudy in its
meaning. Not only has it baffled the understanding of
belligerents and neutrals alike, but it has defied the
most laborious efforts of its framers to interpret logic-
ally its stupefying implications. After six days of con-
troversy, neither the causes nor the aims of the move
have been clearly revealed, while the deadlock it was
presumably intended to break has been immeasurably
complicated. That the action was calculated to embar-
rass the belligerents, regardless of considerations of
justice, naturally excited the admiration of pacifists,
who set up a clamor that Mr. Wilson was about to com-
mand peace. But he specifically declared that he was
not "proposing peace," "not even offering mediation,"
but merely seeking a definition of the objects of both
sides. This might conceivably have been useful, were
it not for two facts — first, that that was essentially
the demand of Germany, rejected by her opponents ; and
PEACE HOPES MARRED 167
second, that the Entente Powers had already stated the
fundamental terms upon which they would treat, while
Germany had not stated hers. In other words, despite
his disavowal, President Wilson indorsed the German
position that the time had come for negotiations, and
condemned the Entente assertion that the war must go
on until Germany signified her willingness to discuss
"restitution, reparation and securities for the future."
But if his plea was inopportune, the statements
with which he supported it were diplomatically impos-
sible and historically false. When he said that "each
side desires to make the rights and privileges of weak
peoples and small states secure" he affronted every per-
son who knows the fate of Servia and Belgium; and
when he said that the objects on both sides, as described
by the opposing statesmen, are virtually the same,
he put upon an equality governments which made war
to destroy treaties with governments which made war to
defend them. To justify these assertions by citing what
the leaders say is to argue that there is nothing to choose
between the statements of pledge-breakers and pledge-
keepers. If, after two years and four months of cogita-
tion, President Wilson does not yet know which side is
fighting on behalf of Servia and Belgium, or if he con-
siders their assertions of equal weight, what reason is
there to hope that any of his representations are sound ?
A more perilous diplomatic move, however, was the
threat — for such it was — that unless the belligerents
yielded, this government would have "to determine how
best to safeguard its interests if the war is to continue."
This might have been allowed to pass as merely a char-
acteristic bit of meaningless fluency had not the secre-
tary of state given this astounding explanation:
The situation is becoming increasingly critical. I mean
by that that we are drawing nearer the verge of war our-
168 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
selves, and, therefore, we are entitled to know exactly what
each belligerent seeks, in order that) we may regulate our
conduct in the future. * * * The sending of this note
will indicate the possibility of our being forced into the war.
That possibility may serve to force an earlier conclusion of
the war.
With this utterance, of course, every capital and
business center in the world was flung into ferment — the
note was not a move to promote peace, but to prepare
for possible war. Whereupon this most agile of admin-
istrations made the quickest reversal in its record, Secre-
tary Lansing, within a few hours, retracting his state-
ment, substituting an assurance that neutrality would
be maintained. By this time the helpful influence of the
note, if it ever had any, had quite evaporated, and there
remained only the irreconcilable disputes as to whether
it was pro-German or pro-Ally, truculent or pacifist,
ineffably stupid or miraculously subtle. From all the
unnumbered speeches and letters and news dispatches
and "interpretations" it is impossible even now to derive
any convincing idea of its inspiration, its meaning or its
result. There is a disposition to charge the worst blun-
dering to Secretary Lansing; but it is announced that
the note was under consideration for at least five weeks,
and it is utterly incredible that he should have miscon-
ceived so completely the president's intentions. But the
shocking thing is the disclosure that the interests of this
nation are committed to a diplomacy so inept that its
utterances need a concordance and a glossary.
THE EXPLANATION
December 27, 1916.
ATER a full week of inquiry and discussion, the
world controversy over President Wilson's note
to the belligerents has brought no decision. The
causes and conduct of the war itself have not produced
more irreconcilable disputes than has this effort to clar-
ify the issues. Mr. Wilson declares that he desires a
clear definition of the meaning of the conflict, but a
more urgent need now is a satisfying interpretation
of his own procedure. German public opinion, of course,
will eventually be determined by government decree, but
while awaiting imperial instructions the nation is in a
ferment of contradiction. One element hails the note
as a commanding service to humanity, inspired by the
genius of a far-visioned statesmanship; but the other
condemns it as a sinister attempt to paralyze German
might and save the tottering enemy from just retribu-
tion. ..Russia is stolidly hostile. France is courteously
scornful. In Great Britain the action is regarded vari-
ously as a treacherous4)low, a blunder due to ignorant
benevolence and a diplomatic experiment which may
deftly be turned to good account. From Switzerland,
on the other hand, comes "a mighty echo" of approval,
which may be repeated from other neutral sources.
The conflict of opinion is no less marked in the
United States, where the communication is described in
terms of adulation or contempt, according to the predi-
lections of the observer. Pacifists and the pro-German
169
170 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
press find it a product of inspired humanitarianism,
while others declare it will strengthen injustice and defer
a righteous peace. And the dispute touches not only
the effects of the move, but the reasons which prompted
it. After patient study we are prepared to offer our own
explanation, which we shall support by analyzing the
language of this master of words and by deductions from
incontrovertible facts. Let us first examine the internal
evidence. Does the note suggest that President Wilson
plotted to help Germany by indorsing her arrogant
demand for peace negotiations on the basis of Teutonic
victory? Partisans have made this charge, but it
refutes itself; his neutrality certainly does not lean in
that direction. The contradictory theory that he revealed
prejudice the other way, and aimed to extort from
Germany an explicit statement of terms for the advan-
tage of her enemies, is no more logical; for his state-
ment that the objects "seem the same on both sides"
was as deadly a blow as he could deliver against the
Entente Allies. Was he moved, then, by solicitude for
humanity, for the restoration of law and the establish-
ment of justice? One would wish to think so, and such
an impulse is indicated in the assertion that this govern-
ment has an interest "as quick and ardent" as any other
in defending smaller nations against "wrong and vio-
lence." Unfortunately for this theory, however, the
administration was silent when smaller nations were
trampled upon by aggression, when law was flagrantly
violated and when justice was brutally defied. Mr. Wil-
son's interest in this cause may be "ardent," but, since
he has yet to declare himself upon the rape of Belgium,
it can hardly be regarded as "quick." There remains
the interpretation that his aim was to promote an early
peace, upon the ground that further war threatens to
destroy civilization. But he explicitly declared that he
THE EXPLANATION 171
was not "proposing peace" nor "even offering mediation,"
and Secretary Lansing added later that "neither the
president nor myself regard this as a peace note." Indeed,
all previous conceptions were swept away by the explan-
atory comment of the secretary of state. The chorus
of praise from pacifists, who characteristically saw noth-
ing in the document except the magic word "peace,"
was stilled when he peremptorily disavowed any purpose
to compel or hasten settlement, and any administration
conviction as to the justice of the contentions of either
side.
If the note, then, was not designed to help Germany
or support the other alliance or advance the cause of a
righteous peace, what did it signify ? The true explana-
tion stands forth clearly, even amid the cloudy rhetoric
of the note, and is absolutely confirmed by the incautious
candor of the secretary of state. The administration's
concern, wrote the president, "arises out of a manifest
necessity to determine how best to safeguard those
(American) interests if the war is to continue." He
urged settlement "lest the situation of neutral nations,
now exceedingly hard to endure, be rendered altogether
intolerable." The only reasonable deduction from these
deliberate phrases, the product of five weeks of literary
effort," is that the administration fears a continuance of
the war might involve the United States. And Mr.
Lansing gave that precise interpretation on the follow-
ing day, when he said:
The reasons for the sending of the note were that
* * * more and more our own rights are becoming
involved by the belligerents on both sides, so that the situa-
tion is becoming increasingly critical. I mean by that that
we are drawing nearer the verge of war ourselves, and,
therefore, are entitled to know exactly what each belligerent
seeks, in order that we may regulate our conduct in the
future. * * * The sending of this note will indicate the
172 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
possibility of our being forced into the war. That possibility
ought to serve as a restraining and sobering force, safe-
guarding American rights. It may also serve to force an
earlier conclusion of the war.
Language could hardly be plainer. The president
intervened, not with a "peace note," but with a warning
to the belligerents that their violations of American
rights made possible the participation of this country,
and with a demand that they state explicitly the objects
for which they are fighting, in order that the United
States might "regulate its conduct" — presumably in
taking sides. At the very least, there is the announce-
ment that the paramount consideration is the danger of
this nation's being driven to defend its rights by force
of arms. A few hours later, of course, Secretary Lans-
ing was compelled by events to "correct that impres-
sion." But he did not retract his statement, he merely
made it obscure by a labored explanation; and the
obvious fact remained that what he had first said was
true. It is incredible that after weeks of discussion and
conference Mr. Lansing so completely misconstrued the
president's thoughts and misstated the administration's
policy. He may have been indiscreet, but he was not
misinformed. This country is, as he said, "near the
verge of war" — as it has been for nearly two years, or
ever since the administration entered upon its perilous
course of making demands which it had no intention of
enforcing and of accepting hollow "diplomatic victories"
as compliance. And that- the nation is now "drawing
nearer" to conflict is patent to the meanest under-
standing.
Conditions have indeed become "increasingly crit-
ical." Germany, holding the fruits of military victory,
is nevertheless without hope of extorting terms conso-
nant with her present triumph. Enduring a suffocating
THE EXPLANATION 173
economic pressure, she ardently longs for peace — she
must have peace if she is to retain any profit from her
sacrifices. If her overtures are rejected by her enemies,
self-interest, if not self-preservation, will demand that
she finally repudiate all restraints and make war with
utter ruthlessness. The imperial government as now
constituted would yield much to avoid this frightful
future, but it has no wish or power to abandon what
has been won. If its peace move fails, it must either
employ every weapon of destruction, however lawless
or injurious to neutrals, or else give way to a govern-
ment that will. It is Von Bethmann-Hollweg or Von
Tirpitz. President Wilson knew this. He knew that
German shipyards are turning out flotillas of subma-
rines with unparalleled range and armament; that if
the effort to compel negotiations fails these craft will
be sent out in hundreds, with orders to sink at sight all
enemy merchantmen and neutral ships bound to or from
enemy ports, regardless of war regulations or the
endangering of crews. He knew, too, the position of
the United States. He knew that long ago he gave
warning that diplomatic relations would be severed
unless the killing of Americans ceased; that the Ger-
man pledge had been violated ; that so long as the pres-
ent chancellor remains in power a break can always be
averted by accepting "regrets" and "reparation"; but
that rejection of the peace overture means unbridled
submarine warfare. What was to be done ? Infallibly the
administration turned to the familiar device of a note. It
was a desperate chance, and it was certain to be mis-
understood by both sides ; but notes had heretofore been
effective at least in confusing the issue, and might do so
again. So a note was drafted. When Germany made
her sudden move, and when rejection of her offer was
indicated, action was forced, and the American govern-
174 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
ment announced to the world that its situation was
becoming "intolerable" and that its possible intervention
should be "a restraining influence" upon the belliger-
ents.
After giving President Wilson all possible credit
for sentiments of peace and humanitarianism, the plain
fact is that his action was an expedient of desperation
designed to stave off menacing complications. Two years
of vacillation and the abandonment of just demands
have bankrupted the administration's diplomacy. The
only hope was to create a new controversy, to introduce
an issue that would involve belligerents and neutrals
alike, and thus, perchance, to escape the alternative of
defending or finally abandoning the rights of this nation.
If one can forget the fundamental requirements of inter-
national justice and permanent peace, one must hope,
for the sake of the United States, that the audacious
device will succeed.
STILL MORE CONFUSION
December 29, 1916.
WE HOPE that our frank criticisms of President
Wilson's diplomatic intervention in the war have
not created an impression that we see in the
maneuver no possibility of merit. It is our belief, on
the contrary, that under certain circumstances it might
have had far-reaching results for good. If it had been
inspired by a genuine desire to promote a righteous set-
tlement, rather than peace on any terms; if the time
had been opportune; if the appeal had been phrased
clearly and forcefully instead of ambiguously, and if
the way had been prepared by giving confidential notice
to the belligerents, according to the recognized require-
ments of diplomacy, it is conceivable that the basis of
an understanding might have been laid. But the actual
results, so far as they can be discerned at this time, have
been confusion, distrust and a hardening of the attitude
of each warring alliance against the other, together
with an impairment of the influence of the United States
as a possible mediator. The reasons for this unfortunate
outcome are plain. The revelation that the American
government was indifferent) to the issues of right and
wrong involved in the war embittered one group, while
the other group was encouraged by the confession that
this country's chief concern was its own safety. Instead
of being lucid, the utterance was so obscure that it has
created the most hopeless controversy of the war. And
the expedient of hasty intervention, without the cus-
175
176 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
ternary preliminaries, has evoked resentment on one
side, and contemptuous satisfaction on the other, with
astonishment on both.
The failure of the note to achieve any real prog-
ress is most clearly shown, however, by Germany's
reply, which is, in some respects, the most striking
diplomatic document in the records of the war. That
a response so inevitable should be termed a "shock" and
a "disappointment" to the administration shows how
imperfect has been the understanding in Washington
of the problems approached. Two qualities in the Ber-
lin note — its deliberate candor and its incisive brevity —
must commend themselves to those who have tried to
extract the essence of meaning from Mr. Wilson's
involved declarations. Having determined to deny his
request, the imperial government wasted no words in
conveying its purpose and left no room for misconcep-
tion. But while this helps to clear the atmosphere, the
studied curtness of the note and its publication by Ger-
many in advance of its receipt in Washington indicate
the low esteem in which this country is held.
If the communication is to be regarded as an accept-
ance, one would like to inquire what his excellency would
consider a rejection. President Wilson urged an avowal
of war aims by all the belligerents; it is1 true that he
rather recklessly declared he was "indifferent as to the
means taken to accomplish this," but he explicitly urged
the move for the enlightenment of "the neutral nations
with the belligerent." Germany counters with a pro-
posal for "an immediate exchange of views" among the
warring Powers, specifying a meeting of delegates from
those countries, from which neutrals would be excluded.
In other words, Germany brushes aside the Wilson sug-
gestion, with a gesture not too courtly, and repeats the
identical proffer she made to her enemies.
STILL MORE CONFUSION 177
Gratifying indorsement of the American note has
come from some neutral governments, and others
undoubtedly will join. How effective this pressure will
be cannot be foretold, but the complete failure of neu-
trals to exact recognition of their own rights does not
argue that they will be able to impose their views regard-
ing the issues between the belligerents. M9reover, Presi-
dent Wilson persistently declined to co-operate with
these nations in an appeal to the warring Powers. If
any such intervention was to have hope of success, the
most logical expedient would have been an expression
representing the well-considered and united thought of
all neutral governments. But Mr. Wilson, while ready
to commit this country to the dangerous enterprise of a
world alliance, refused to accept support in the far
simpler matter of urging an avowal of the belligerents'
views. Thus the project loses most of its force, the
action of other neutrals is discounted, and they are com-
pelled to indorse a move which was so maladroit that
already it is discredited. It may be argued, on the other
hand, that President Wilson was right in maintaining
an isolated position, for the reason that his real concern
— as Secretary Lansing declared — was lest this country
should be drawn into the war by a renewal of submarine
murders.
But if this was his inspiration — if, as we believe,
he acted from a desire to protect the United States,
regardless of the issues involved in the war — his pro-
cedure was extraordinarily inept. For in that case his
duty was to inquire into the intentions of the belliger-
ents toward the United States, not as to their intentions
toward each other. Germany, for her part, has now
refused to state her terms in the manner he designated,
and it seems inevitable that her opponents will take the
same course. It is to be hoped that in doing so they will
178 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
show equal restraint, and will not take advantage of the
opening he made for an embarrassing rejoinder. In his
note President Wilson laid the greatest emphasis upon
the desirability of a frank avowal by the belligerents
of their aims in the war and their attitude upon its
issues. What if they were to reply that if the time had
arrived when they should state, for the benefit of neu-
trals, the objects for which they are making immeasur-
able sacrifices, there is a still more urgent obligation for
the United States to declare its own position ?
In this war there are involved great international
and moral issues — the rights of nations, the sanctity of
treaties, the preservation of law, the fate of democracy
and autocracy. Supposing it should be asked by what
right a government which has remained silent upon
these vital matters now demands information concerning
such incidentals as "political or territorial changes"?
Each day's developments seem to reduce the hope that
the president's well-intended intervention will serve
either the interests of the United States or the cause
of peace. And a more perturbing thought is, there is
no assurance that he will not be impelled to commit the
nation without warning to other and more doubtful
undertakings.
NOT YET
January 2, 1917.
IT WOULD be forming judgment upon incomplete data
to estimate the prospects of peace upon the Entente
governments' joint reply to Germany's proposal for
a conference. They are still to answer President Wil-
son's request, and what they say to him — while its
nature is clearly foreshadowed — will shed new light
upon their purposes. The note to Germany is, however,
of far-reaching import in itself. A feature of incidental
interest is its failure to fulfill confident predictions as
to its tone. Rejection of the German offer was a fore-
gone conclusion — this explains the haste of Germany in
responding to President Wilson's plea with an apparent
compliance ; but there was a widespread belief that the
decision would be expressed in terms of devastating
hatred and scorn. The reply was to be "a damning
indictment" and an utter repudiation of any possibility
of negotiating with Germany until her forces had been
destroyed and she had become a prostrate suppliant for
mercy. That the statement of the case presented seems
mild is due, of course, to the fact that the world has
become habituated to violent denunciation and defiance
in discussions of the war. The language of diplomacy
is stiff, and the responsibilities its use entails make for
conservatism. Examined in this light, the studied hos-
tility of the Entente note becomes ominously impress-
ive, and its repetition of merely familiar terms of con-
demnation discloses a grim purpose. One must remem-
179
180 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
ber that behind those relatively subdued utterances is
the combined might of five first-class Powers and five
smaller nations.
Naturally, the first declaration following the introduc-
tory paragraph is a denial of two provocative assump-
tions by the enemy — that the Entente alliance forced
the war and that the Teutonic alliance must be recog-
nized as victorious. As to the first point, the ruling of
the court of world opinion will be "Objection sustained" ;
as to the second, it would, we think, grant an exception,
with leave to present further argument. Repudiation
of these assumptions put forth by Germany and her
allies signifies much more than irritation. It is impor-
tant because while there remains such direct conflict
upon these matters a parley is impossible. So long as
Germany asserts — in defiance of historical facts — that
she was the victim of aggression, and so long as she
proclaims — in defiance of Verdun and the Somme and
her condition of economic siege — that she is now in the
position of a conqueror, she appeals for a conference
in vain.
The indictment charges that "the war was desired,
provoked and declared" by the Teutonic empires,
and supports the accusation by citing facts which no
impartial student of the conflict will dispute. Austria's
ultimatum to Servia, her declaration of war in spite of
satisfaction offered, the repulse of British, French and
Russian proposals for settlement by means of confer-
ence, international commission or arbitration, and the
flagrant dishonor of the attack on Belgium — these famil-
iar items in the record are stated briefly, but unanswer-
ably. Dismissing the past, the note then turns to the
present situation, and rejects the idea that peace might
be made with reference to the present war map in
Europe, "which represents," it is declared, "nothing
NOT YET 181
more than a superficial and passing phase of the situa-
tion and not the real strength of the belligerents."
We have discussed many times the fallacy of Ger-
many's dependence upon occupation of enemy territory
as a means of extorting peace from unbeaten foes.
Regardless of the fact that they have taken greater
areas in her colonies, nine-tenths of what she holds was
won by taking her opponents by surprise 'and relatively
unprepared. If they did not succumb when she had
overpowering superiority, they are not likely to ratify
her precariously held conquests just when they become
conscious of ascendency themselves. Moreover, her pos-
session of Belgium and northern France, once a military
asset, has become a peace liability ; and she would be far
nearer to the settlement she craves if her forces were
out of those ravaged regions. In any event, her adver-
saries hold that the war map is subject to revision.
As to the future, they decisively retort upon the self-
proclaimed victors by demanding "'penalties, reparation
and guarantees." There could hardly be a more irrecon-
cilable contrast than between the Teutonic idea that that
side is to grant peace terms, and the opposing conviction
that the Entente will impose its own stern conditions.
It is charged that the proposal of the Central Powers —
"less ah offer of peace than a war maneuver" — was really
an uncandid device designed to aid them and embarrass
the enemy rather than to promote a just settlement.
One object, says the note, was "to create dissension in
public opinion" in opposing nations ; another, to encour-
age the people of the Teutonic group; another, "to
deceive and intimidate public opinion in neutral coun-
tries" ; and finally, "to justify in advance a new series
of crimes," such as submarine outrages and the enslave-
ment of enemy civilians. These interpretations do not
182 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
lose force because they suggested themselves at once to
most students of Germany's proffer.
But all these matters are of subordinate interest
to four significant features of the note. First is the
final and conclusive demonstration that the ten nations
— and the name of Belgium leads all the rest — are united
in conviction and purpose as to the fundamental terms
upon which the war should be terminated. In view of
the desperate efforts Germany has made to detach some
members of the alliance, this evidence of unity is
impressive. Very suggestive, we think, is the appear-
ance of a studied effort to discredit the Teutonic pro-
posal as not only unwarranted in its terms, but essen-
tially false in its inspiration. This testimony of a hostile
attitude is given in a quite surprising array of oppro-
brious phrases — "pretended propositions of peace," "a
sham proposal lacking all substance and precision,"
"these sham offers," "calculated misinterpretation,"
"empty pretense," "a proposal empty and insincere."
In such declarations it is clearly set forth that Ger-
many's opponents do not even concede that she has
shown an honest desire for peace. The third pronounce-
ment of importance is phrased in three words — the allied
governments "refuse to consider" the proposition for a
conference. A fourth fact, or rather an apparent
intimation, must be taken into account. When the
note charges that the German proffer "lacks all sub-
stance and precision," and argues that "a mere sugges-
tion without a statement, of terms that negotiations
should be opened is not an offer of peace," there is a
seeming implication that a more specific and less arro-
gant declaration would receive attention which this does
not merit. The opening is a narrow one, but there it is
— if Germany communicates to her enemies a willing-
ness to discuss the only terms upon which peace can
NOT YET 183
now be had, negotiations are possible ; or if she conveys
to them a clear statement of her own purposes, they
will reopen the subject of a conference. Until she does
one of these two things, her overture stands rejected.
Except for the pending reply of the Entente Powers
to President Wilson, therefore, it is Germany's next
move. Let her proclaim ever so loudly that continuance
of the war will be due to the inhumanity and folly of
her enemies, the fact remains that it lies with her to
command, not the victory of which she dreamed, but the
peace which she so sorely needs. Even the suspicions
and enmities awakened by President Wilson's maladroit
intervention can be overcome if Germany is willing to
abandon a false and sanguinary quest and give security
for a return to law. To yield to moral compulsion in an
hour of ostensible military triumph would be a bitter
decision, but far worse would be the prolonged agony
of an effort that must be sterile in the end. No amount
of frightfulness could win for her greater advantages
for negotiation than she possesses now, and they will
diminish with every day that she maintains the pre-
tense of being innocent and invincible when she is guilty
and vulnerable.
A DARKENING CLOUD
January 3, 1917.
WE ONCE knew a dear old lady who had a whim-
sical program for the encouragement of filial
affection and the promotion of family discipline.
"I'll teach my children to love and respect me," she
used to say, "if I break every bone in their skins." As
her actions never approximated the violence of her
statement, it is unfair to trace a parallel between her
philosophy and that of Germany, yet we cannot help
doing so. "We will compel peace negotiations for the
sake of an afflicted world," says that astonishing empire,
"if we have to drown whole shiploads of non-combatants
to prove our solicitude for humanity." Germany's
remarkable endeavors to force a diplomatic settlement
with her enemies have so completely dominated public
thought that there is a vague idea that the worst of the
war, at least, is over, and that even if her overture fails
the future can hold nothing more terrible than the past.
Yet it is certain that her proposal constitutes only one-
half of her prepared program. She is ready for an
alternative procedure, and final rejection of her efforts
will be the signal for more desperate, more sanguinary
and more ruthless methods of attack. This settled pur-
pose has been forecast by her antagonists, recognized
by neutrals and virtually avowed by the imperial govern-
ment. It was implied in the chancellor's speech three
months ago, when he cried out — and he has been an
opponent of submarine frightfulness — that "a German
184
A DARKENING CLOUD 185
statesman who would refrain from using every proper
means of warfare which is apt to shorten the war ought
to be hanged." It supplied an ominous undertone to the
formal peace offer, with its threat of "terrors which
hereafter will follow" if the enemy should refuse to
treat. It was the inspiration of President Wilson's
extraordinary intervention, with its prediction that the
position of neutrals might become "altogether intoler-
able," and of Secretary Lansing's announcement that
"we are drawing nearer to the verge of war ourselves."
It is explicitly charged in the Entente note, which
declares that Germany's proposition is an "attempt to
justify in advance a new series of crimes," including
unrestrained lawlessness in submarine warfare.
To those who have carefully followed the news dis-
patches of the last six months the peril will bring no
surprise. As every well-informed observer knows,
public opinion and political thought in Germany have
long been sharply divided upon the submarine issue.
One element, supporting the kaiser and Chancellor von
Bethmann-Hollweg, has maintained that Germany could
win while restricting her undersea craft to the rules of
war, and that there would be more loss than gain in
arousing neutral sentiment by lawless procedure. The
other/ represented by Von Tirpitz, a determined group
in the reichstag and some influential newspapers, has
demanded a ruthless submarine campaign as- the only
method of counteracting the blockade and beating the
foe into submission. But at all times it has been under-
stood that concerning the utmost use of the submarine
as a last resort — to avert defeat or to compel a peace
otherwise unattainable — there would be no disagree-
ment; the chancellor himself, as already noted, concedes
that circumstances might make that course necessary.
186 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
The situation now existing was accurately pictured in
the vivid phrases of Maximilian Harden many months
ago. He wrote:
There is still a short space of time during which Ger-
many might come to terms. If these proposals are refused,
Germany will have paid the last debt she owed the world and
humanity, and can proceed to be more frightful than ever,
with complete indifference to the views of neutrals, espe-
cially the United States. If Great Britain is yearning for
proof that we cannot wound her heart with submarines and
aircraft, and if she will not discuss peace until this has been
proved, the United States must reconcile itself to the con-
viction that no further hesitation will cripple our submarine
war and no stars or stripes will protect a ship in the war
zone.
Three months ago a staff correspondent of the New
York World, after a long stay in Germany, returned on
the same ship that bore Ambassador Gerard for a con-
ference with the president; and he declared that the
ambassador's mission was to convey the warning that the
German government must soon yield to the overpower-
ing demand for unrestricted submarine war. "Peace
with the world or war with America," he said, was a
formula that was becoming the cry of the nation. The
impatient advocates of frightfulness tried to force an
open discussion in the reichstag early in October. The
demand was voted down in committee — for the practical
reason that the peace move was then in preparation.
The Lloyd George speech called forth new threats. "We
must abandon all other considerations," declared a Berlin
journal, "and grasp all the means of war at our dis-
posal." Three days before President Wilson made pub-
lic his significant note a Washington dispatch declared
officials there realized that if Germany's offer was
spurned she would loose her submarine squadrons for a
campaign of unparalleled destruction.
A DARKENING CLOUD 187
The imminence of the danger is in exact proportion
to Germany's desperate need of peace. Every German
believes utterly that unrestrained use of the submarine
would destroy the power of the enemy coalition within
a few months. What has been accomplished already is
cited as proof — 3,636,500 tons of hostile shipping has
been destroyed, and British statesmen have openly
referred to the problem of food supply las "extremely
grave." Only the pledge extorted by the United States,
the Germans are convinced, postpones a victory for the
empire ; and now that the enemy has spurned the proffer
of peace the demand for repudiation of the compact
gathers deadly strength. Not only is there nothing
between the world and a demonstration of unbridled
ferocity but a "scrap of paper," but that scrap is singu-
larly thin. From the time that Germany learned that
the demand for "strict accountability" had only a rhetor-
ical significance she has had no fear concerning that
which she was resolved to do if necessary. She made her
famous concession, and gave Mr. Wilson a "diplomatic
victory," for the sole reason that she hoped to use the
United States in compelling recognition of a "German
peace." And she expressly reserved "liberty of action"
if American support of her demands was not successful.
That *new situation" has now arisen. The enemy gov-
ernments have refused to consider peace on the basis of
the victory Germany proclaims — even the intervention
of the president has failed to move them — and the coun-
sels of moderation in Germany are being overwhelmed
by cries for relentless war. Lawless sinkings are multi-
plying, submarine commanders are being decorated, and
the kaiser proclaims that "the gallant deeds of our sub-
marines have secured for my navy glory and admiration
forever." It did not need the warning of Secretary
Lansing to reveal that these developments profoundly
i
188 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
concern the United States. For the impending campaign
is to be war without law or limit, and the field of opera-
tions is to extend almost to our very shores.
And not the least disturbing thought is that the
government of the United States opened the door for
the menacing incursion. When the administration which
had exacted no penalty or disavowal for the Lusitama
massacre welcomed the Deutschland, sister of the
blood-stained craft that sank that ship ; when it opened
its harbors to foreign submarines in the guise of mer-
chantmen and warships also ; when it gave to such ves-
sels a certificate of character and condoned as "perfectly
legal and proper" the procedure of driving American
men, women and children to open boats forty miles from
land, it all but invited Germany to do what she is about
to do. The sending of the Deutschland was a test of
American public opinion; the maneuvers of the U-53
were a test of governmental policy; the Nantucket raid
was a device to establish a precedent that forcing non-
combatants to take to lifeboats far at sea was "placing
them in safety." The ultimatum that followed the sink-
ing of the Sussex in the English channel was nullified
by the complacent silence that followed the sinking of
the Stephano off the American coast. Prattle about
President Wilson's "noble efforts for peace" does not
alter the fact that his note was essentially and properly
a warning that this nation is "drawing nearer to the
verge of war." And it does not alter the fact that the
country faces the peril uninformed, unaroused and
unprepared.
BACK TO SPARTA
, January 5, 1917.
IN A burst of admiring satisfaction, a Cologne news-
paper remarked the other day that "Germany is
approaching with rapid strides ever nearer the Spar-
tan ideal," and predicted that within a year conditions in
the empire will approximate those in the Peloponnesian
state of 2500 years ago. The reference, of course, was not
to the Spartan virtues of simplicity and courage, but to
the relations between the government and the governed ;
and the parallel is closer, perhaps, than the complacent
commentator realizes. The German authorities do not
decide which infants shall be reared and which eliminated
by exposure ; but they enforce a Spartan claim upon the
service of the citizen, especially in arms, and exact from
the youth an equal measure of self-denying obedience to
the state. The government of Sparta, under a dual king-
ship, was a militaristic oligarchy, whose purpose was to
impose the Kultur of the nation upon less vigorous na-
tions by brute force. While there was a popular assem-
blage, its functions — not unlike those of the reichstag —
were chiefly to accept or reject proposals offered to it by
the autocratic regime, and its decisions could be set aside
by the council of elders, an irresponsible body. It is not
without interest that the great Peloponnesian war was a
conflict between the democratic principle of government,
represented by the league headed by Athens, and the
oligarchical principle, represented by Sparta's confeder-
acy. To complete the parallel, there was a Belgium in
189 «
190 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
the peninsula — the Spartans deemed it a military neces-
sity to subjugate the Messenians, their neighbors on the
west, and make helots of them. But what the German
editor had in mind was his country's approach to the sys-
tem for which Sparta had been unique in history — the
complete subordination of the individual to the will and
service of a despotic state. The empire has long been
subject to the idea of a supreme cult of militarism, and
now the exigencies of a desperate war have intensified
the relation by the state's assumption of absolute control
over civilian life and individual activities, even to the
Spartan device of rationing the populace.
What has been termed "monarchical socialism" is
not, of course, a new thing in Germany, where for many
years the state has increased its power and minimized
the rights of the individual by appropriating and enforc-
ing social reforms — the purpose being not to enlarge
the liberty and increase the happiness of the individual,
but to exalt the state as an institution apart from and
superior to its subjects. But the stress of war has sud-
denly given to this system an extraordinary develop-
ment, not only carrying Germany back to the political
ideals of ancient Sparta, but dictating an adaptation of
the system in democratic France and Great Britain. It
is the more worthy of serious study because its influence
will assuredly survive the conflict and present new prob-
lems to America in its commercial relationships with the
world. We outlined the other day the terms of that revo-
lutionary enactment which makes every able-bodied male
in the German empire, between the ages of 17 and 60,
liable to compulsory service, military or civil. It had
been the careless habit of observers for more than two
years to refer to Germany as literally a nation at war,
to take it for granted that the government had com-
pletely organized, and was completely directing, all the
BACK TO SPARTA 191
resources and energies of the empire. But the truth is
that the mobilization of these forces, while far more
extensive than in the enemy countries, did not reach its
logical development until a month ago. The bill passed
on December 2 provides for completion of the national
organization. There are in the system five main factors
— compulsory military service; government control of
industries, agriculture and other productive activities;
rationing of the population; government purchase and
distribution of raw materials for manufacture, and com-
pulsory civilian service.
The purpose was to strengthen both the military
and economic defenses of the nation, in preparation for
the terrific ordeal of the war during 1917 and beyond, by
directing the entire energies of the people toward the
two tasks of self-sustenance and prosecution of the con-
flict. Hindenburg and Ludendorff are charged with the
military operations; General Groener is the dictator of
the stupendous economic consolidation of the productive
capacities of 70,000,000 people. He is to make all the
empire's resources, human and material, available for
adding force to the blows of the army and for upbuilding
the economic independence made necessary by the pres-
sure of the blockade. The problem in its essentials is,
first, to release more men for the firing line by replacing
industrial workers of military age with civilians unfit
for campaigning, and, second, to increase steadily the
output of guns and shells and other war materials. And
both factors require the registration of every man
capable of any sort of work, and his employment in
whatever task he can be most useful, regardless of any
consideration save efficiency of the military and economic
machines. The basic need is increased production of
coal and iron; then enlarged transportation facilities;
then greater supplies of auxiliary raw materials, greater
192 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
output of semi-finished products, and, finally, vastly
bigger production of weapons and ammunition. When
one department loses a worker to the army, another
must take his place ; for the latter — if in an indispensable
industry — there must be found a substitute; and so on
back to the places which can be filled by persons not now
employed. At the same time, of course, there is rigid
supervision of industries, those which are not vital to
support or defense of the nation being closed down. Gen-
eral Groener has declared the far-reaching nature of the
plan:
Germany is preparing for a war lasting to all eternity.
We shall first double our production of war materials, then
treble it, and so on and on until every man and woman will be
working in defense of the fatherland. By spring we shall be
running under full steam. The mobilization of labor and
economic resources is not a temporary or halfway measure;
it is an evolution from one organic state to another, embrac-
ing and affecting the whole nation. We must make ourselves
completely independent, not only for the duration of the war,
no matter how long it may last, but also for the war after the
war, should it be forced upon us.
In the United States there is an astonishing indiffer-
ence to this gigantic social revolution, but the countries
at war with Germany are already preparing to follow her
example. Mobilization of the entire human resources of
France is provided for in a bill recently introduced in
the French chamber, and the foundation of Premier
Lloyd George's dictatorship is a determination to draft
the man-power of Great Britain to exactly the same
degree. When Germany took her extraordinary step
we said we believed "there has not been any project
in the war, military or economic, approaching it in mag-
nitude and significance." And now we see the three lead-
ing nations of the Old World transformed almost over
night, putting into practice on a stupendous scale eco-
BACK TO SPARTA 193
nomic and social devices which have been regarded as the
visions of impractical theorists. We are encouraged to
note that one other American newspaper, at least, has
discerned the colossal significance of the event, and we
urge a thoughtful reading of the comment of the Chicago
Tribune :
The two tremendous facts — the mobilization of all the
active manhood of a nation of 70,000,000 directly under state
control, and the taking over of the whole buying function of
her industries — are the two longest strides ever taken toward
complete state socialism. One of the great changes in world
organization is taking place under our eyes. If there are
such things as epochs, a new epoch is dawning.
It may be pointed out that the measures now being taken
in Europe are war measures and will pass with the coming
of peace. They will not pass entirely, but there is to be no
such peace as will permit any nation to fall back into the
lower national organization of the past. Every measure
taken to heighten a people's power, to economize their col-
lective resources and more effectually direct their collective
energies will be retained so far as it has been successful and
can be applied in "the war after the war."
Collectivism or socialism, in democratic and autocratic
forms, is the world system. This may be what Herbert Spen-
cer called the coming slavery. Meanwhile, it is for us to con-
front the facts before us and to realize that, whether we dis-
trust their beneficence or welcome them as human progress,
we nmst deal with them. The optimistic indifference of
American thought must give place to a courageous and
realistic study of the world movements and a practical
adaptation of its lessons to our own interests and needs.
GERMANY'S STUPENDOUS PRIZE
January 12, 1917.
IN A recent issue of Punch there was an amusing
picture of a squad of British soldiers in a trench,
nervously yet eagerly awaiting the order to go "over
the top" and follow the curtain of shell-fire into the
German lines. "I suppose," remarks one of them to the
sergeant, "we shall be making history in a few minutes ?"
And the grim leader of the squad retorts : "History be
blowed! What you've got to make is geography!" A
simple jest, but singularly striking because of its uncon-
scious truth. It is an epitome of the war. The con-
tending governments are not indifferent to history ; but
their immediate concern is geography — let them make
the map of Europe, and they care not who tells how it
was done.
Germany, in particular, set out to make a new
map, and thus far she alone has changed the political
configuration of the continent. Her military frontier
in the west is admittedly temporary, and her line in
Russia she would be willing, perhaps, to modify. But
in the southeast she has drawn boundaries which she
means to be permanent — Servia, Montenegro and Albania
conquered, Bulgaria and Turkey in contented vas-
salage, and now Rumania in process of subjugation. The
long-planned confederation stretching from the North
sea to the Bosporus and beyond virtually exists ; what-
ever the future may hold, it is a present fact. There has
not been such map-making since Napoleon shook Europe
194
GERMANY'S STUPENDOUS PRIZE 195
apart and disdainfully rearranged the fragments to suit
his imperial whims.
The central idea of the Teutonic ambition is famil-
iar to every reader; but there is a fundamental factor
in the tremendous Balkan campaign which has escaped
general attention. This is the Danube. Military strategy
on a large scale is governed by the natural obstacles to
be overcome — mountains, marshes and rivers. The last
named are the most frequently encountered. The prog-
ress of campaigns is measured in these terms. Caesar's
crossing of the Rubicon was a declaration of war. In
the present conflict the story is told in such river names
as Meuse and Moselle and Marne, Somme and Sereth
and Struma. At this moment the vast operations in the
east are dominated by the Danube. It might even be
said that that mighty stream dominates the war. For
what Teuton and Slav are now battling over is more than
the remnants of Rumania — it is control of the greatest
waterway in Europe, a highway of mankind since history
began, and destined to be the route of a colossal com-
merce in the future. The Danube and the Dardanelles —
these are the symbols of empire, the prizes for which two
races have come to a death grip. To grasp the signifi-
cance of the conflict it is necessary first to recall the
facts- of the Rumanian campaign. Combined attacks of
Germans, Austrians and Bulgarians swept the Ruma-
nians and Russians out of Wallachia, the western part
of the country, and captured Bucharest, the capital.
Then, to the dismay of the Entente Allies, the Teutonic
plan was found to comprise also the conquest of Mol-
davia, which thrusts itself northward between Hungary
and Russia, and likewise the Dobrudja, lying north of
Bulgaria between the Danube and the Black sea. With
hardly a check Mackensen drove the Russo-Rumanian
forces northward and across the great river, taking the
196 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
important cities of Czernavoda and Constanza, and
finally clearing the Dobrudja. Meanwhile Falkenhayn's
armies rolled eastward thru Rumania; they have just
taken Braila, at the head of sea navigation, and soon will
have Galatz, a few miles further downstream ; and they
are steadily pressing the Russians back on the Sereth
river and toward their own frontier. A few weeks, per-
haps a few days, will see, therefore, the culmination of
the greatest achievement of the war — the Danube, the
most important waterway in Europe, hitherto jealously
neutralized in its lower reaches and held free to the
navigation of all nations, will be under Teutonic control
from its source to its mouth. The left bank for the last
hundred miles is Russian, but the Teutonizing of that
also is not inconceivable.
If these conquests are ratified they make stu-
pendous changes. Germany will have a direct, closely
guarded outlet to the Black sea — for her commerce and
her submarines. She will have a route by water, as well
as by rail, virtually from Berlin to Constantinople, for
the upper Danube is connected by canals with other
rivers in Germany. With the Dardanelles, the gateway
to Asia and the eastern portal of the Mediterranean, held
by her Moslem allies, she will control the other great
factor in the military, commercial and political domina-
tion of southeastern Europe. To most of us the name of
the Danube suggests waltz music and picturesque tours
and such pleasurable trifles ; but when we trace its won-
derful course on the map we realize that it is one of the
world's greatest waterways, as vital to the economic
life of central Europe as the Mississippi is to that of our
middle west. Its mere magnitude is impressive. Rising
in Baden, in the hills of the Black forest, this father of
waters flows southeastward thru one of the richest and
most beautiful regions of the continent, to empty at last
GERMANY'S STUPENDOUS PRIZE 197
1
into the Black sea. It is the only great European river
running from west to east. Its length is 1750 miles,
nearly four and a half times that of the Delaware ; and
its basin of 300,000 square miles is twenty-five times the
area drained by our river. It has more than 300 tribu-
taries, sixty of them navigable. On its banks are three
capitals — Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade. ,
Historically, the Danube excels in interest any other
river in the world. It was long a frontier of the Roman
empire ; near the present site of Regensburg, in Bavaria,
there was for five centuries the chief imperial outpost
against the incursions of the northern barbarians.
Traces of Trajan's wall and fortifications may be found
where Bulgars and Russians met in the Dobrudja, and
in the gorge thru which the river flows where the fron-
tiers of Hungary, Servia and Rumania meet. The Danube
was the route westward of the great barbarian migra-
tions of Huns, Slavs, Magyars and Turks, and the path
eastward of the Franks and the Crusaders. Along its
banks Napoleon's legions fought some of their most
sanguinary battles. But it is as a commercial highway
that the river is of modern importance. It traverses
Bavaria, Wurttemberg and Hungary ; forms parts of the
boundaries between Hungary and Servia, Servia and
Rumania, Rumania and Bulgaria, and Rumania and Rus-
sia. It is the great export route for the products of Aus-
tria-Hungary to the Balkans, Russia, Turkey and Persia,
and for Balkan products to Russia and the regions around
the Black sea. It provides for eastward passenger traffic
a quicker and cheaper route than the rail. From Ulm, in
Wurttemberg, all the way to the mouth, nearly 1600
miles, the stream is in some degree navigable. Shallow-
draft barges are used in the 500-mile stretch between
Ulm and Vienna. From Vienna to Orsova vessels draw-
ing five feet can ply. Below the Iron Gates — a huge rock
198 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
ledge near the Rumanian border, thru which a channel
has been blasted — 600-ton ships and 2000-ton barges use
the river to Braila, 400 miles eastward ; and below that
port, distant from the Black sea just as far as Phila-
delphia from the Atlantic, 4000-ton steamships have
access. A century of labor and prodigious expenditures
have been required to make the huge waterway service-
able, the greatest progress having been made during the
last sixty years. Like nearly everything else that is an
issue in the war, the Danube is involved in the intermin-
able Balkan question; its present status is linked with
Russia's unsuccessful attempt to obtain control of the
peninsula in the Crimean war.
Under the treaty of Paris, in 1856, the Danube for
sixty-six miles from the chief of its three mouths was
placed under direction of an international commission
comprising one delegate from each of the contracting
Powers — Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia,
Sarclinia and Turkey. Designed as a temporary expedi-
ent, the commission was kept alive by other agreements
until 1878, when its powers were extended by the con-
gress of Berlin to cover the waterway as far as Galatz.
In 1883 the jurisdiction was enlarged to include Braila,
and the life of the commission extended to 1904, since
which time it has continued automatically, in the absence
of withdrawal by any of the Powers. Vast works of
dredging, straightening and jetty-building have made
Braila a notable seaport. A twenty-four-foot channel is
maintained from the docks .to the sea, a hundred miles
distant. The treaty of Paris neutralized the Black sea —
no warship was to trouble its waters. In 1870, however,
Russia canceled this provision, and Prussia agreed in
order to obtain Russia's assent to the crushing of France.
By that contract, too, the Danube below the Iron Gates
was neutralized ; but the war has made a scrap of paper
GERMANY'S STUPENDOUS PRIZE 199
of this treaty, and the appearance of Austrian sub-
marines in the Black sea is a prospect which the Russian
fleet commanders must now take into account. These are
the reasons why the remorseless conquest of Rumania
constitutes a remaking of the economic as well as the
political map of Europe. Germany has her grip on
Constantinople, and is now taking the mighty Danube
into her control. Russia covets chiefly the straits, but
the Teutonic confederation must have both. The Danube
and the Dardanelles together are vital to the scheme of
the empire. More than eighty years ago Field Marshal
Radetzky, a great Austrian general, stated the problem
which is being worked out under our eyes today:
The Danube is Austria's main artery. Its lower reaches
are as necessary to her as the Dardanelles to Russia, and,
in order to utilize the Danube fully, Austria requires also
free use of the Dardanelles. Hence it follows that the con-
flicting interests of Austria and Russia must lead to war
unless both nations agree with regard to Turkey.
From the participation of Rumania, which was
hailed by the Entente alliance as a fatal blow to Ger-
many's ambition, she has extracted her most tremendous
victory thus far. For she has opened a second highway
to the east and holds them both in a grip that no effort
has y-3t been able to loosen. It may be, as experts never
tire of telling us, that the decision in the war must be
had in the west. But what an overwhelming triumph
Germany's foes will have to win there if they hope to
break her hold in the east!
TO "REORGANIZE EUROPE"
January 15, 1917.
THERE has been a disquieting impression among
thoughtful persons that President Wilson's note
to the belligerents, because of its inopportuneness,
its inept phrasing and its irritating assumptions, really
extinguished the faint hopes that had been lighted by
Germany's bold bid for peace. Despite this, there is a
clean-cut achievement to the credit of his intervention —
he has obtained from one group an avowal of the objects
for which it makes war. It is, we believe, unique in
the record of great conflicts — if we except the American
war of independence — that so clear and decisive a decla-
ration should be made so far in advance of any possible
settlement. Remote as it seems to make the ending of
the struggle, the world is distinctly benefited by definite
disclosure of the aims which one side fights to realize.
While we saw the obvious weaknesses of President Wil-
son's communication, we supported from the first his
contention that the warring governments should declare
their reasons for continuing the most terrible war in all
history.
Whatever may be opinions as to the justice of their
demands as a whole or in detail, it will hardly be denied
that the Allies' answer is completely responsive to the
president's request. The advantage which Germany won
by her proffer to enter a peace conference has been
squandered. She has lost the initiative. If she had
immediately declared her basic terms, and supported
200
TO "REORGANIZE EUROPE" 201
them with sound reasoning and generous aspirations,
the Allies' note to President Wilson, instead of being an
aggressive and convincing declaration, would be an echo,
a plea in defense. But instead of forcing the diplomatic
campaign, Germany thought it subtle to forestall the
expected rebuff from her enemies by rejecting the invi-
tation of the United States and standing upon her impos-
sible proposal for a conference which she* would enter as
a self -proclaimed victor. Worse than that, the kaiser's
fatal gift of eloquence overcame him, and he issued a
bombastic proclamation in which he celebrated victories
"in all theaters of war on land and sea" and the "gallant
deeds" of his submarines, and announced that his terms
— still unacknowledged — would be enforced by ruthless
war against the arrogant foe. At that time the Allies'
reply to President Wilson was almost ready for dispatch,
but the attitude of Germany caused it to be held back
for revision, and there is little reason to doubt that its
expressions did not lose vigor in the process. The matter
of present importance, however, is that the Entente gov-
ernments declare that they will "act with all their power
and consent to all sacrifices" which may be necessary to
compel acquiescence in these terms :
Restoration and indemnification of Belgium, Servia and
Moitienegro.
Evacuation of German-held territories in France, Russia
and Rumania, with reparation.
Restitution of territories wrested in the past from
Entente nations by force or against the will of their popu-
lations— such as Alsace-Lorraine.
Liberation of Italians, Slavs, Rumanians and Czech-
Slovaks (in Austria-Hungary and the Balkans) from foreign
rule.
Enfranchisement of peoples "subject to the bloody tyr-
anny of the Turks" — Armenians, Syrians and Arabs.
Expulsion of the Turkish empire from Europe.
202 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Re-establishment of the kingdom of Poland, under Rus-
sian protection, to include the Polish territories partioned
by Prussia and Austria as well as by Russia.
"The reorganization of Europe, based upon the principle
of nationalities."
Liberation of Europe "from the brutal covetousness of
Prussian militarism," but without destroying the political
integrity of the German people.
Establishment of permanent peace "upon the principles
of liberty and justice and fidelity to international obligations."
Such of these adjustments as are intended to
restore invaded territories need no explanation and pre-
sent no problems that of themselves need make peace
impossible. None of them approaches in magnitude that
object, overlapping them all, which is stated in these
simple but stupendous terms:
The reorganization of Europe, guaranteed by stable
governments based alike upon the principle of nationalities
and on the right which all peoples, whether small or great,
have to the enjoyment of full security and free economic
development.
The "reorganization of Europe" has been the aim
of statesmen in a multitude of wars. The difference
here is that the basis outlined is not national aggrandize-
ment or dynastic glorification or empire-building, but
the long-suppressed principle of free nationalities. Met-
ternich and Bismarck were exponents of the old system,
and its fallacies are revealed in this devastating war,
the origins of which may be traced to the selfish schem-
ing of the congress of Vienna, in 1815, and the congress
of Berlin, in 1878. Now a new expedient is advocated.
The obvious complications involved might appall the
most optimistic observer. From the German-Austrian
border to the Aegean sea there are entanglements of
races that might baffle superhuman intelligence to
rearrange. Western Russia, Hungary and the entire
Balkan peninsula have problems that have created gen-
TO "REORGANIZE EUROPE" 203
erations of turmoil and cost unnumbered lives. Yet
assuredly the principle is sound, and the ideal is far
better worth pursuing than is the outworn device of
map-making with regard to the political ambitions of
the great Powers. Because of the military situation,
many persons have expressed surprise at the extent of
the Allies' demands. They have been justly called "the
terms of a conqueror"; but they are not 'terms of con-
quest. Great Britain asks nothing for her sacrifices
except security for peace thru the destruction of Prus-
sian militarism. France seeks only territory torn from
her by force. The matter of Constantinople is, left open.
The compensations for Italy and Rumania would have
to be justified by "the principle of nationalities." If,
therefore, Germany "fights for her existence," as she
says, which of these adjustments, deeply as they
might wound her pride, would threaten her ? Unless she
denies the right of small nationalities to free develop-
ment; unless she is making war to subjugate lesser
peoples and perpetuate the dismal anachronism of
Turkish rule in Europe, how can she repudiate the ideals
proclaimed ?
But debate of these and like considerations becomes
rather futile in the face of the outstanding fact that
hope for early termination of the war must be aban-
doned. The most ominous thing is not that the Allies
have stated terms which wring from Germany a cry of
fury and scorn, but that they deliberately declare peace
"is impossible to attain at this moment." The antag-
onists might approach agreement upon some proposi-
tions, such as the evacuation of Belgium and France.
But the impassable barrier to peace is Germany's arro-
gant proclamation that she is definitely the victor and
that the settlement is hers to dictate. The Allies are
resolved, at any cost, not to enter negotiations until they
204 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
have broken the power which thus far has triumphed
over them. Utter rejection of Germany's proffer has
caused to her statesmen as much surprise as anger;
this is another manifestation of the limitations of the
Prussian mind. Militarism did not foresee the desperate
resistance of Belgium ; it disparaged the valor and endur-
ance of France; it was skeptical of the vigor of Great
Britain; and now it has wholly misjudged the implacable
purpose created by its own excesses.
The Germans have raised up against themselves a
force more powerful than armies, and that is the deep,
abiding conviction that their system is immoral, impos-
sible, intolerable, that life in its shadow is not to be
endured. The peoples of the allied nations do not conceive
that they are fighting Germans, but the ravishers of
Armenia, the violators of Belgium, the destroyers of the
Lusitania, the enslavers of the helpless, the betrayers of
international justice, the arch-enemies of human liberty.
While this spirit prevails, compromise is unthinkable.
This is to be a war of resources, carried to exhaustion.
As we said two years ago, two irreconcilable philosophies
of government are in a death grapple, and one must suc-
cumb; either Europe will be Prussianized, or it will be
freed to work out its destinies by racial development.
CONFUSION OF TONGUES
January 17, 1917.
ONE of the minor difficulties that have hampered
the progress of the peace correspondence has been
the diversity of tongues. The Teutonic alliance,
perhaps, was not seriously embarrassed in expressing
itself, because its power is centralized and its proposal
was quite indefinite. But the Entente nations, in order
to make their remarkably candid profession, had to com-
bine in one utterance the ideas of ten independent gov-
ernments, representing in languages English, French,
Italian, Russian, Portuguese, several Balkan tongues and
dialects, and Japanese. The note had to be examined
in each capital; it was finally put into French in Paris,
and we received a version in English. Altho the most
scrupulous care must have been devoted to the transla-
tions, experts find faulty rendering and confusing varia-
tions. These difficulties are enhanced by the fact that
translations even technically exact convey different
impressions to different peoples. For there are diversi-
ties not in language alone, but in national spirit, in the
complex influences of historical and spiritual develop-
ment. And finally, as between belligerents and neutrals,
there is a chasm of thought which only the most far-
reaching sympathy can bridge so as to bring the two
into intellectual contact.
Apart from the avowal of aims by one side in the
war, the outstanding result of the extraordinary inter-
change is that the antagonists are apparently further
205
206 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
apart than ever before. While there is much contro-
versy as to the merit of this or that document, belliger-
ents and neutrals seem to be agreed that hopes of an
early peace have receded, and that the war must pro-
ceed to unimagined limits. To what degree, if any,
this result is due to President Wilson's intervention it is
impossible to determine. Since he undeniably accom-
plished a great service to the world, in leading one group
to state clearly its objects, credit for his initiative is his
due as much as criticism of his defects in manner is
the right of his countrymen. Nevertheless, discretion
is as useful a quality as courage, and in diplomacy par-
ticularly there is required a nice discrimination in the
use of words. When the purpose, as in this instance, is
to clarify and illuminate a situation, ambiguity is intol-
erable and dangerous. Considered solely as a peace
effort, was the president's move helpful? Speculation
on this point might range far, but it would come back,
we think, to this proposition : if he had held his hand,
the warring governments assuredly would not be further
apart than they are now. Germany had made a bold
proposal to enter negotiations with her enemies. They
were preparing to reply, and, despite violent and con-
temptuous expressions from unofficial sources, they
could not avoid a serious response. The Allied govern-
ments could not afford to flout the world and their own
peoples by ignoring a peace declaration, however offen-
sive its form. The situation was of unparalleled delicacy.
The Allies could not consider only their dreadful sacri-
fices in the past and the military and economic situation
in the present; they had to contemplate the immeasur-
able costs of a future shaped by their decision. It was
into this momentous situation that President Wilson sud-
denly projected himself. And his note, while manifestly
designed to create an atmosphere of accord, in three
CONFUSION OF TONGUES 207
vital respects was framed so as to incite distrust and ill-
feeling. First, it was dispatched without private notifi-
cation to the governments addressed, a formality cus-
tomary and obviously desirable ; it was even hastened so
as to forestall an utterance by the British premier. A
matter of American concern only is the fact that the
people of this country were committed without warning
to an extraordinary act of intervention. Attorney Gen-
eral Wickersham finds this disturbing:
Under no government would it have been possible for
such a communication to be made without any premonition
on the part of the electorate and without knowledge on their
part of any surrounding circumstances which would make
such a proceeding desirable in the interests of the country.
A second fault in the note as a device of conciliation
was its incontestable effect in strengthening the position
of one group of belligerents against the other. Its hasty
issuance in advance of the Allies' reply to Germany could
have had no other effect, and the unconcealed satisfac-
tion in Berlin and among Germans in this country
increased the resentful distrust of the opposing nations.
No one now suspects President Wilson of any such
design. Nevertheless, the most ordinary judgment
might have foreseen that the inevitable result would be
to give force to Germany's demand for a conference at a
time when such an arrangement would be wholly to the
advantage of the side in military ascendency. The third
and most damaging defect was, of course, the reference
to "objects virtually the same," imperfectly qualified
in the phrase, "as stated by the statesmen in general
terms." Never was an incautious expression more diffi-
cult to overtake with explanatory comment. When the
utmost emphasis had been put upon the modifying
clause, the fact remained that President Wilson drew
no distinction between the assertions and policies of
208 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
those who broke the peace and those who united to repel
attack. To attain such dizzy heights of impartiality one
must ignore facts which every human being who can
read knows.
Because of these indiscretions it is not fantastic to
believe that President Wilson, instead of smoothing the
way toward peace, actually intensified existing animosi-
ties. Especially was his utterance calculated to make
the Allies more hostile toward Germany when they found
that her audacious demand had apparently enlisted the
support of the most powerful neutral. Mr. Wilson's
remarkable assumption that it is neutrals who chiefly
desire peace laid him open to two rejoinders whose very
simplicity is deadly. Those who are fighting and dying
for their ideals, said the main note, "have as profound
a desire as the government of the United States to ter-
minate the war as soon as possible"; and the Belgian
reply put the thought still more deftly : "This govern-
ment desires as much as Mr. Woodrow Wilson to see the
present war ended as early as possible." From Belgium
this is a singularly eloquent retort. The reply was
essentially a rebuke also, because it demonstrated how
impossible is that peace which President Wilson found
it so easy to recommend. This was one thing we had in
mind when we spoke of the deeper divisions in the lan-
guages of nations. Both Mr. Wilson and the Allies are
sincere, but they speak in different tongues, because they
view conditions from different planes — the plane of
observation and the plane of experience. "It may be,"
he said, "that peace is nearer than we know, that the
terms of the belligerents are not so irreconcilable as
some feared." How could such expressions be trans-
lated to peoples who are pouring out their blood in the
absolute knowledge that their ideals and objects and
those of the enemy are irreconcilable? His animating
CONFUSION OF TONGUES 209
idea, too, was that peace — the cessation of the war —
was the thing supremely desirable. Their answer is
that justice — according to their conception of justice —
is infinitely more important. The whole essence of the
note was summarized in a sentence by Lloyd George :
Knowing well what war means, knowing especially what
this war means in suffering, in burdens, in horrors, the
Allies have still decided that even war is better than peace at
the price of Prussian domination over Europe.
It may be said that such sentiments come glibly
from statesmen, especially if they represent ambitious
empires; that truer conceptions prevail among pacific
people who have no lust of national aggrandizement. Let
us, then, call another witness:
If there is a country which has a right to say that it has
taken up arms to defend its existence, it is assuredly Belgium.
Compelled to fight or to submit to shame, she passionately
desires that an end be brought to the unprecedented suffer-
ings of her population. But she could only accept a peace
which would assure her, as well as equitable reparation,
security and guarantees for the future.
"War better than peace," peace at any price unac-
ceptable— has paganism, then, returned to earth to mock
at the idealists of pacifism ? What ! will men lay down
their lives, will women give their sons and husbands,
will whole peoples endure privations and sacrifices for
the sake of justice, when they could have tranquillity
by abandoning it? Incredible! Yet there exist such
men and women, millions of them ; and if civilization is
restored to Europe, it will be because they hold that
peace without righteousness would be even more disas-
trous and dreadful than war.
THE "GUILT OF BELGIUM" AGAIN
January 19, 1917.
FOR a people noted for a certain skill in controversy,
the Germans have been singularly unfortunate in
their spokesmen during the war. We have in mind
not so much the violences of the controlled press and
banal absurdities like the "Hymn of Hate" as the
official utterances. The defect is due, no doubt, to the
fact that south Germany, the source of the intellectual
vigor of the nation, has been submerged by Prussianism.
For the Prussian system of advocacy is doomed always
to make a bad case worse, so much so that its most
energetic protestations of virtue infallibly serve as
demonstrations of guilt. Perhaps the most curious thing
to observe is the fatal fascination which leads the
imperial government to revive, at the most inopportune
times, subjects whose discussion must damage the Ger-
man cause. After two years and a half, during which
the evidence has been analyzed to its remotest implica-
tions, Berlin still uses the preposterous formula of "a
war forced upon us." But a more astonishing sign of
delusion is the making of an appeal to the sympathy of
neutrals by traducing the name of Belgium. In issuing
the recent statement simultaneously with the Entente
reply to President Wilson, the obvious design was to
break the force of the enemy utterance by counter-
charges which would divide public attention. Perhaps
the strategy was sound, but the execution was deplor-
able, for as a fact Germany's plea had no effect whatever
210
THE "GUILT OF BELGIUM" AGAIN 211
except to emphasize the contrast between her vague
recriminations and her opponents' frank response to the
American request.
That which gives the note its only serious claim to
attention, however, is the passage in which the German
government once more assails the honor of the nation
whose land it has seized, whose property it has shame-
lessly stolen and whose people at this very hour it is
brutally maltreating. When the kaiser invokes the
"holy wrath" of his subjects against England and Prance
and Russia the sentiment is intelligible, altho ridiculous.
But how shall one fathom the reasoning which suggests
to German statesmanship that the way to attract neutral
sympathy is to malign those whom that statesmanship
has robbed and enslaved? It is sufficiently baffling to
find that Germany is sensitive about criticism of "the
measures taken in Belgium in the interest of military
safety" and "offers energetic protest against these
calumnies." Perhaps the authors of this disclaimer
believe that Belgian civilians were not put to death, that
Louvain was not burned, that none of the historic infa-
mies of the occupation in the early days were really
committed. But what is their impression concerning the
slave-raids which are being carried on today ? Are these
also "calumnies"? The vital matter, however, is the
repetition of the revolting charge that Belgium was not
the heroic defender of international faith, but a betrayer
of sacred obligations. These are the words :
The imperial government is unable to acknowledge that
the Belgian government has always observed the duties
which were enjoined upon her by her neutrality. Already,
before the war, Belgium, under England's influence, sought
support in military fashion from England and France, and
thus herself violated the spirit of the treaty which she had to
guarantee her independence and neutrality.
212 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Because this atrocious fabrication is revived in a
formal address to neutral nations, and because some oif
the facts may have been forgotten, we intend to set
down once more the irrefutable record of Germany's
guilt. Mere mention of certain facts will suffice, because
even Prussianism does not deny them. Belgium was
declared "a perpetually neutral state" by treaties of 1831
and 1839, signed by Great Britain, Austria, France,
Prussia and Russia. They guaranteed that in war her
territory should be inviolable, while -Belgium for her
part was "bound to observe such neutrality toward all
other states." The arrangement was reaffirmed in the
Franco-Prussian war of 1870, when Great Britain
obtained a formal pledge from both sides to respect Bel-
gian sovereignty. Yet, on the night of August 2, 1914,
Germany presented a twelve-hour ultimatum at Brussels,
demanding that Belgium permit the German forces to
pass and attack France, another guarantor of her neu-
trality, and threatening otherwise to treat Belgium as an
enemy. When she refused to abandon her nationality
and her sworn duty, her martyrdom began. Up to this
point there is no controversy. The German chancellor
publicly admitted that the invasion was "contrary to
law," was undertaken against "just protests," was a
"wrong." The only justification was "necessity," altho
that was based upon the utterly false pretense that
France — which had just expressly pledged to respect
Belgian neutrality — was "prepared" to commit the per-
jured action which Germany actually did commit. But
the German slander now repeated is based upon facts
learned after that confession. In Brussels the invaders
found documents recording that in 1906, and again in
1912, the British military attache had discussed his gov-
ernment's plan to send 100,000 troops into Belgium "in
THE "GUILT OF BELGIUM" AGAIN 213
case Belgium should be attacked." But in the very cor-
respondence upon which Germany makes her vicious
assault is this official record:
The landing of the English troops would take place on
the French coast in the vicinity of Dunkirk and Calais. The
entry of the English into Belgium would take place only
after the violation of our neutrality by Germany.
Furthermore, there was an explicit declaration by
Belgium that she would protest against such help, while
she would actually resist any British incursion, even tho
it were designed to anticipate a German violation. In
other words, Belgium was scrupulously faithful to her
obligations of neutrality, against any and all countries
that might challenge it or seek by force to protect it.
The statement that she "sought military support" is
false ; the support was offered to her — but it was to be
given only in the event of, and following, a German inva-
sion. Great Britain was a guarantor of Belgian neu-
trality, and that she planned to fulfill that obligation was
as creditable to her as Germany's repudiation of her own
part in the compact was infamous. That the German
staff had long planned an instant invasion of Belgium
in case of war was so far from a secret that the project
was- discussed in the imperial military textbooks and
revealed in the building of elaborate military railroads,
with vast yards for the handling of troop trains at the
very frontier of the doomed state. If "perfidious"
Britain was culpable, it was not because she examined
the problem of making good her pledged word, but that
she failed to take adequate measures in the face of a
certain threat. As to the German slur against France,
the answer is this statement by the French minister at
Brussels, dated August 1, 1914 :
I am authorized to declare that in the case of inter-
national conflict the government of the republic will in all
214 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
cases respect the neutrality of Belgium. If this neutrality
shall not be respected by another Power, the French govern-
ment might, for the purpose of its own defenses, have to
modify its attitude.
As a fact, not a French soldier entered Belgium
until the German invasion was far advanced. The
record stands, therefore, that Belgium was absolutely
true to her neutrality; that France did not violate it,
that Great Britain did not, and that Germany did. And
now, having extracted from this act of perfidy all pos-
sible advantage, she has the hardihood to accuse her
victim and defame those whom she betrayed ! "Twice,"
says the imperial statement, unctuously, "Germany
offered to guarantee the integrity and independence of
the kingdom" and "to spare it the terrors of war." But
the "guarantee" twice offered was predicated upon the
repudiation of another guarantee twice affirmed ! It may
be that another than a Prussian mind could originate
such a proposal; but certainly no other would solemnly
recall the circumstances as evidence of fidelity and gen-
erosity. "Upon her and those Powers which instigated
her," ends the Berlin note, "falls the responsibility for
the fate which befell Belgium." This is the answer of
German statesmanship to an indictment for a hideous
wrong committed before the eyes of all mankind; this
is the plea by which it seeks to awaken neutral con-
demnation against those who have united to overthrow
Prussianism !
Touching some of the objects stated by the oppos-
ing governments there may be doubts. But if even their
schemes of dismemberment and annexation have caused
np outburst of dissent, it is because the heart of the
world is hardened by the spectacle of the despoiler of
Belgium, with bloodstained hands, flinging insults upon
the prostrate victim.
STRANGE VIEWS OF PEACE
* January 23, 1917.
THERE is no doubt that a considerable number of
Americans agree with the opinion expressed by
President Wilson that the European war is mere
"madness" and that "with its causes and objects we are
not concerned." It is not surprising, therefore, that a
New York newspaper should put forth this remarkable
concept of the peace problem :
Sir Sam Hughes is quoted as saying: "Peace? Canada
is not fighting for peace. Canada is fighting for human
liberty, and we'll fight till that is secured."
Bosh! Whose liberty? Belgium's? But the Germans
are ready to get out of Belgium and to pay Belgium its bill
of damages. Besides Belgium, the Germans have military
possession of Rumania and Servia. The people of Rumania
never had any liberties at all. And Servia is far from being
a democracy. But Germany is willing to withdraw from both.
Every time we hear this kind of sentimental tommyrot
uttered and applauded we realize more fully the good com-
mon sense of the president in asking the belligerents to sub-
mit a bill of particulars.
There are, we say, not a few to whom this will
seem an utterance of wisdom, of that direct common
sense which pierces thru the mists of partisan argument
and illuminates the heart of a question. Why pretend
that Belgium's freedom is at stake when that country
could have release and reparation tomorrow? Why
indulge in "sentimental tommyrot" about human liberty
when Germany is ready to come to a businesslike under-
standing with her enemies on the basis of her conquests
215
216 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
to date ? Unfortunately for the value of the suggestion,
neither the premises nor the conclusions are sound. If
the Germans are ready to evacuate and reimburse Bel-
gium, and to withdraw from Rumania and Servia, they
have been singularly reticent about it. The courteous
demand of President Wilson, backed by the opinion of
the whole world, has not been able to extort such an
avowal from them. And meanwhile influential leaders
in the empire openly proclaim that Belgium must be
annexed or reduced to political and economic servitude ;
must be rendered powerless ever again to resist or delay
a German military campaign. But even if complete lib-
eration and restoration of Belgium were conceded, by
what process of reasoning could that be regarded as a
settlement of the fundamental issues of the war and a
guarantee of future peace ? Germany would still be Ger-
many— with the addition of a justifiable sense of tri-
umph and military supremacy; Prussianism would still
be the guiding spirit of her government — and strength-
ened by an overwhelming demonstration of power;
Belgium would still be a weak neighbor — with a popula-
tion terrorized by the memory of a long agony and the
contemplation of ineffaceable ruins ; and the guarantee of
her security, if such were given, would still be "a scrap
of paper." Grievous as the sufferings of Belgium have
been, the injury done to her1 is but an incident in the
towering crime of treacherous aggression. If the
invaders could restore life to every Belgian slain and
rebuild every devastated Belgian home, an immeasurable
offense would still be unexpiated, a stupendous wrong
to humanity unatoned. Towns can be rebuilt, exiles
repatriated, sovereignty restored. But what shall give
sanction to a new oath sworn upon the ruins created by
violation of the old? How shall international faith,
shattered by deliberate repudiation, be made once more
STRANGE VIEWS OF PEACE 217
the security of nations ? Another recent utterance will
illustrate the strangely distorted conceptions held by
those who support Germany's demand for peace at her
chosen time. It is from an article by John W. Burgess,
professor emeritus of political science and constitutional
law at Columbia University. While strongly pro-Ger-
man— he has eulogized the kaiser, lauded militarism and
defended the invasion of Belgium — he ,is manifestly
sincere and is a scholar of wide experience and repute.
Yet this is his idea of how the war should be settled :
If anything had been necessary to prove the wisdom of
the original German proposal for trusted representatives of
the belligerent nations to gather around the council board
and suggest to each other, face to face, terms of peace and
discuss the same until an agreement should be reached, cer-
tainly the answers of the Allies to the German note and to the
note of President Wilson furnish this proof in fullest measure.
The German government evidently foresaw and attempted to
forestall a useless1 and harmful campaign of recrimination
in the public press * * *.
It is entirely evident that the only hope for a speedy
peace is the assembly of the trusted representatives of the
nations at war around the council board, where the personal
contact of large-minded men may soften the hatreds bred
by nonintercourse and misunderstanding, and where face to
face discussions and deliberations shall take the place of
recrimination in the public prints.
For an expert in historical research — he says that
for fifty years he has been studying international affairs
— Professor Burgess seems to have a singularly
restricted point of view. Possibly he has been so intent
upon the perusal of diplomatic documents that he has
not had time to estimate the human and economic and
moral forces involved. He has not yet discovered that
this war is a clash of hostile civilizations, of conflicting
theories of human society. To him it seems merely
the result of deplorable misunderstandings and animosi-
218 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
ties between statesmen. The embattled peoples, the
struggle of irreconcilable principles of government, the
maintenance or the repudiation of international faith,
the rights and liberties and aspirations of unnumbered
millions of human beings — such things do not trouble
his vision. The whoje titanic upheaval is to him but a
species of madness, to be quelled by friendly conversa.-
tions among eminent politicians around a council table — a
matter of adroit negotiation, of individual accommoda-
tion, of compromise, barter and diplomatic huckstering.
No doubt the professor has as much sympathy as any
one for the afflicted peoples ; but what do they know of
the subtleties of statesmanship, how can they judge the
delicate issues of international politics? These are the
concerns of their betters — of those same "trusted repre-
sentatives" who precipitated the conflict by their hole-
in-corner intrigues.
In this view peace depends, not upon smashing
projects of aggression, establishing justice and enforc-
ing respect for national rights, but upon getting a col-
lection of high-well-born negotiators face to face. If
Prince Muenchner-Schwarzkopf discovers that the Right
Honorable the Earl of Hammersmith is a reasonable
sort of person, and if the sultan's delegate finds that he
can sit between the representatives of the czar and the
French republic without having his pocket picked, every-
thing can soon be arranged. The peoples of the various
countries may have the infatuated idea that they are
giving their lives for principles, but the only real bar to
peace is that their respective statesmen have not had
a chance to dissolve their personal misunderstandings
and comfortably reorganize Europe upon a basis of
mutual accommodation. The professor has permitted
his judgment to be affected too much, we fear, by his
researches into the peace movements of the past. His
STRANGE VIEWS OF PEACE 219
picture faithfully /represents the manner of settling
other wars — he visualizes another congress of Vienna or
of Berlin, when "trusted representatives" haggled in
secret over the spoils and made those precious settle-
ments that produced this dreadful conflict. If ever there
was an event in human history which demanded wide
and untrammeled discussion, if ever there was a war
whose issues needed candid exposition and whose peace
terms should be the product of the thought of all man-
kind, it is this. The thing most needed is public con-
troversy, and even "recrimination in the public press"
between the two groups of governments serves a pur-
pose in revealing responsibility and disclosing national
designs.
It is the prevalence of such views as we have quoted
that gives timeliness and value to the lucid exposition
of the issues which has been made by the British foreign
secretary. Among the voluminous state papers pro-
duced by the war there is none that has approached it
in closeness of reasoning and in forceful assertion con-
veyed in moderate language. It is not needful to indorse
every detail of the proposed settlement as expounded
by Mr. Balfour to recognize that his presentation of the
fundamental factors in the peace problem is unanswer-
able. Candid as the joint note of the Entente govern-
ments was, this utterance clarifies the whole question.
He explains in the simplest terms the charge that Ger-
many forced the war, and the remedies which her oppo-
nents believe will reduce the chances of future aggres-
sions. But he admits that territorial rearrangements
and treaties alone provide no security for lasting peace —
"so long as Germany remains the Germany which over-
ran a country it was pledged to defend, no state can
regard its rights as secure if they have no better pro-
tection than a solemn treaty." A whole volume of his-
220 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
tory, too, is compressed in the comment upon the Ger-
man system of making war : "The staffs of the Central
Powers are well content to horrify the world if at the
same time they can terrorize it." But the vital point
urged is that mere cessation of the war would be a dis-
service to the world — that "such a peace would repre-
sent the triumph of all the forces which make war cer-
tain and make it brutal." "If existing treaties are no
more than scraps of paper," it is asked, "can fresh
treaties help us?"
The two essential obstacles to peace are that Ger-
many has proclaimed her alliance the victor and that her
people still uphold the vicious system which struck
down international faith in order to gain a military
advantage. Tho her terms were ever so "moderate,"
to negotiate with her now would be to acknowledge that
the most hideous wrong, if successful, is tolerable, and
to make a mockery of all peaceable methods for the main-
tenance of national rights and the preservation of world
order. That permanent peace would be promoted by
such a device as giving Austria's only seaport to Italy is
worse than doubtful, and there are other proposals
which appeal no more strongly to the impartial mind.
But upon the basic proposition that a peace made with
Germany while she is victorious and unrepentant would
be worse than continued war, the Allies are supported
by the logic of history and the moral judgment of the
world.
THE PEACE DICTATOR
January 25, 1917.
HE outstanding fact concerning President Wilson's
latest intervention in the European war seems to
-*- us to be this — that by a single arbitrary action,
unsupported by any public demand or official advice and
in defiance of strong sentiment, he has taken it upon
himself to reverse the policies of three presidents of
the United States, not the least eminent among our
chief executives. George Washington abandoned to dis-
credit the autocratic procedure of delivering presidential
messages to the senate in person. After more than a
century, Woodrow Wilson has revived it. James Monroe
established the doctrine of excluding European inter-
ference in the political and territorial affairs of the
western hemisphere. After it has stood the test of
eighty years, Woodrow Wilson has discarded it. Abra-
ham Lincoln set up the principle that foreign dictation
to belligerents fighting for irreconcilable principles was
harmful and intolerable. After sixty years Woodrow
Wilson has destroyed it.
Ever since the last reply to his note was received
there has been a nervous expectancy of further activi-
ties, and thoughtful Americans, aware of his eccentric
habits of thought, braced themselves for a shock. But
his most infatuated admirers and his most distrustful
critics were unprepared for the revolutionary utterance
which he prepared secretly and delivered unwarned.
Even by sympathetic observers the action is described
221
222 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
by such doubtful characterizations as "bold," "momen-
tous," "startling," "amazing." Our own judgment is
that it has conferred no benefit upon the world, while
it has dangerously compromised the future of the United
States.
The first thing requisite to an understanding of the
address is to observe that Mr. Wilson discusses two dis-
tinct problems — the settlement of the war and the
project of establishing permanent peace thereafter. It
is unnecessary to state this because the celebrated facil-
ity of the speaker in the uses of language was not equal
to the task of separating the two matters. As a fact,
they are bafflingly involved in the carefully chosen
phrases. As to the first problem, he disavows any right
to name the terms for ending the war, and then pro-
ceeds to dictate them. As to the second, he lays down
"fundamental and essential" principles which must be
embodied in the peace treaty if the United States is to
become a party to the "concert of power" which he has
decided must be established. These radical assertions
illustrate very strikingly the wavering of the mind which
represents itself as guided by immutable principles and
unchanging conviction. For two years President Wilson
has been emphasizing the complete aloofness of this
country from the war. He has declared that "with its
causes and objects we have no concern." So recently as
December 18 he wrote to the belligerents that "the terms
upon which it is to be concluded the American people
are not at liberty to suggest" ; even in this latest state-
ment he says "we shall have no voice in determining
what those terms shall be"; but almost in the same
breath he says, "it makes a great deal of difference
(to the United States) in what way and upon what
terms the war is ended." And he declares, "without
reserve and with the utmost explicitness," his own. ideas
THE PEACE DICTATOR 223
on the matter. If it be granted that this country has a
right to dictate, some of the generalities are highly con-
ceived. The peace must be "just and secure," founded
upon "equality of rights" and upon tfie principle that
"governments derive all their just powers from the con-
sent of the governed." But in the application of these
sentiments Mr. Wilson is less happy.
"Statesmen everywhere are agreed that there
should be a united, independent and autonomous Poland."
Such looseness of statement would discredit an irrespon-
sible newspaper; from a high official it is contemptible.
Statesmen are more widely apart upon the problem of
Polish nationality than upon any other issue of the war.
If "united" Poland means that section which Germany
and Austria propose to erect into a kingdom, the set-
tlement is repudiated by Russia ; if it means the inclusion
of Posen and Polish West Prussia and Galicia, the Cen-
tral Powers must first be crushed. "Inviolable security
of life, worship and social development should be guar-
anteed to all peoples who have lived hitherto under the
power of governments devoted to a faith and purpose
hostile to their own." This implies the tearing apart of
Europe in an impossible project of rearranging nationali-
ties and religions that have become entangled thru cen-
turies of migration and intermingling; more than that,
it implies the withdrawal of European governments from
Asia and Africa, even of Japan from Korea. In such
casual terms does Mr. Wilson "frankly uncover realities."
It occurs to him that "every great people should be
assured a direct outlet to the great highways of the sea,"
and he adds that recommendation, which may mean that
Russia should have the Dardanelles, or that Austria
should resist the demand of Italy for Trieste, or that
Poland should have Danzig, and Switzerland a navy. He
is very sure that "freedom of the seas" is requisite ; and
224 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
since the seas are absolutely free in time of peace, his
remarks can be directed only at their control by naval
forces in time of war, and amounts td a demand that
sea power be paralyzed. But the peculiar intellectual
processes of Mr. Wilson, and his fatal propensity for
originating inept phrases, are best shown in his assertion
that the peace "must be a peace without victory." He
attempts to qualify this by alleging th^t both sides have
implied the same thought; whereas, each has explicitly
declared that victory alone" can bring a just settlement.
But his own amplifying words show that he demands a
cessation of the war upon inconclusive terms:
Victory would mean peace forced upon the loser, a vic-
tor's terms imposed upon the vanquished; it would leave a
sting, a resentment, a bitter memory. Only a peace between
equals can last.
That these phrases have so intensely irritated Euro-
pean peoples as to injure the cause of peace is unfortu-
nate ; but we are still more concerned over the fact that
they are false in logic and immoral in significance. They
have in them the same essential fallacy which pervades
the doctrine of peace at any price. They imply that
victory in itself is vicious, regardless of the cause, just
as pacifism holds that resistance, even to wrong, is
wicked. "Victory would mean peace forced upon the
loser." That is obvious. Likewise the punishment of a
malefactor means obedience forced upon a violator of
law. If President Wilson still maintains that neither
side was the aggressor, that both are equally guilty of
the crimes against Servia and Belgium, and that there
is nothing to choose between the nations which repudi-
ated law and faith and those which defend them, his
words are intelligible. But if he sees no issue of right
or wrong involved, his assumption that he speaks "on
behalf of humanity and the rights of all neutral nations"
THE PEACE DICTATOR 225
is monstrous. Moreover, since Germany and her allies
are at this moment victorious, his phrase is addressed
to their opponents — they are the nations which must
make peace without victory. And that is manifestly
impossible, because any such peace would leave Ger-
many triumphant.
The peace he demands must be "between equals."
The manner of equality he does not specify; but since
he recognizes no issue of right on either side, it must be
supposed that they are to agree as equals in morality
and observance of the principles of international justice ;
in other words, Belgium stands on the same plane as
Germany, and France is to be considered the counterpart
of Turkey. Such features of the address have caused
bitter accusations of pro-Germanism against the presi-
dent. These are unjust, for his sympathies are really
the other way; his weaknesses are simply a distorted
conception of the meaning of the war and a blindness
to its deepest significance. He believes that his judg-
ment rises superior to that of millions who are giving
their lives for principle, and that he has a nobler vision
of what humanity needs. None the less, his action is
manifestly a tremendous aid to Germany. In arguing
that peace must come soon, in demanding settlement
without a decision and in emphasizing the abstraction of
"freedom of the seas" he supports explicitly the main
contentions of Germany since she began her world-wide
propaganda to avert her defeat. Even more clearly is
his action hostile to the opponents of Germany. The
central thought in the note of the Entente governments,
developed with deliberate care in the supplementary com-
munication of Mr. Balf our, was that there can be and will
be no peace until the Teutonic alliance has been defeated.
That they have been wounded is of less importance to
us than the fact that America, founded to advance the
226 THE WAR PROM THIS SIDE
cause of human liberty and justice, is placed in the posi-
tion of subordinating concrete issues of right and wrong
to projects of an abstract internationalism. Nor is it
inspiriting to reflect that this dissertation upon the
proper methods for safeguarding all humanity comes
from an administration that has failed to protect its
own citizens from lawless aggression, and that the
scheme for reorganizing the world upon a basis of
order, peace and justice is a product of the genius which
has been impotent before the violence of a turbulent
neighbor.
It is becoming wearisome to repeat, after each fresh
indiscretion by Mr. Wilson, that he means well. Sin-
cerity is no adequate defense for recklessness of tem-
perament, for arrogance of judgment, for an infatuated
belief in formulas, for an itching meddlesomeness; it
makes those qualities, on the contrary, so much the more
dangerous. If any hopeful American thinks that the
president's persistent intervention has advanced the
prospects of a just peace, let him study the developments
in Europe. If any one thinks that the action has served
the interests of America, let him examine, as we shall
do tomorrow, the proposal that the United States become
a party to the quarrels of all the world.
MILLENNIUM BY PROCLAMATION
January 26, 1917.
THOSE "very frank and explicit" propositions of
President Wilson touching peace terms having
become involved, like his other illuminating utter-
ances, in hopeless controversy as to their meaning,
Americans may turn to the other feature of this extraor-
dinary address. This was the pledge that, provided
the war ends "without a victory," so that the settlement
is indecisive, the United States will join a world-wide
"league for peace." Obviously, it is a matter of infinitely
greater importance, designed to change the whole course
of our history and the direction of our development, and
threatening the very existence of our institutions. It is
astounding, we must repeat, that in a democratic coun-
try the chief executive should take it upon himself to
commit the nation to such a revolutionary procedure.
For the president was emphatic in making his proposal
official. "I am speaking," he said, "as the responsible
head of a great government." Moreover, he sent copies
of the address in advance to be presented to foreign
Powers. An inquiry into the scope of the plan meets
varying interpretations. One officer of the League to
Enforce Peace indignantly denies that the idea would
compel us to make war upon a nation defying a decree
of the international alliance; the purpose would be, he
says, merely to "enforce delay." Mr. Taft, head of the
league, likewise disavows the only function which could
make the scheme really effective. But what these gen-
227
228 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
tlemen think and say is unimportant. President Wilson
is the sponsor for the project, and his declarations are
conclusive :
The United States is willing to become a partner in any
feasible association of nations formed to realize these (the
league's) objects and make them secure against violation.
I am sure the people would favor our joining a universal
association to maintain the inviolate security of the seas, and
to prevent any war, begun either contrary to treaty covenants
or without warning and full submission of the causes to the
opinion of the world — a virtual guarantee of territorial
integrity and political independence. — Address in Washing-
ton, May 27, 1916.
We are ready to use all our force to maintain peace
among mankind. The starting of wars can never again be
the private concern of any one nation. We must use all our
force, moral and physical, to uphold a league of nations, to
uphold the peace of the world. — Address in Omaha, October
5, 1916.
In the measures to be taken to secure the future peace
of the world, the people and government of the United States
are vitally and directly interested. Their interest in the
means to be adopted to relieve the smaller and weaker peoples
of the world of the peril of wrong and violence is quick and
ardent. They stand ready, and even eager, to co-operate in
the accomplishment of these ends with every influence and
resource at their command. — Note to belligerents, December
18, 1916.
Peace must be followed by some definite concert of
power. It is inconceivable that the people of the United
States should play no part in that great enterprise. That
service is to add their authority and their power to the author-
ity and force of other nations to guarantee peace and justice
thruout the world. * * * If peace is to endure, it must be
a peace made secure by the organized -major force of man-
kind.— Address to the senate, January 22, 1917.
This means, incontestably, that the United States
will assume, proportionately to its population and wealth
and area, a share of the responsibility of policing all the
earth and of a "virtual guarantee of territorial integrity
MILLENNIUM BY PROCLAMATION 229
and political independence"; that to that extent it will
defend small nations against aggression and uphold
"peace and justice thruout the world" ; and that to these
ends it will devote "all its force, moral and physical."
Equally clear is the obverse — that all other nations will
have a corresponding right and obligation to supervise
the foreign affairs of this country; that any injury
against us will have to be adjudicated by European and
Asiatic governments, and that if we reject their findings
we shall be coerced by their armies and navies. The plan
involves surrender of the Monroe Doctrine. Mr. Wilson
offers the fantastic plea that he is proposing "that the
nations should with one accord adopt the doctrine of
Monroe as the doctrine of the world"; but if the
United States is to participate in controlling Europe
and Asia and Africa, it follows necessarily that the other
Powers will have equal authority in this hemisphere. To
cite one plain example, the Monroe Doctrine has kept
European nations out of Mexico; the Wilson Doctrine
wciuld invite them in. Possibly the Monroe Doctrine
should be abandoned; but it ought to be abandoned
openly and without any false pretense that it is being
safeguarded or extended. It is remarkable that the
league plan evokes anthems of praise from many paci-
fists, altho Mr. Bryan, for one, roundly condemns any
suggestion that international decrees be enforced. Presi-
dent Wilson has been quite frank about this obligation:
It will be absolutely necessary that a force be created so
much greater than the force of any nation now engaged or
any alliance hitherto formed or projected, that no nation,
no probable combination of nations, could face or with-
stand it.
The Teutonic alliance commands perhaps 10,000,000
soldiers; their opponents, half as many more. These
figures suggest the size of the requisite "major force"
230 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
and the contribution that the United States, as the
wealthiest of nations, with a vast area and a population
of 100,000,000, would be called upon to make. And lest
there be any illusions that the world league would use
only moral suasion, there is this warning from Viscount
Grey, formerly British foreign secretary:
The nations must be prepared not to undertake more
than they are prepared to uphold by force, and to see when
the crisis comes that it is upheld by force. We say to neu-
trals who are occupying themselves with this question that
we are in favor of it. But we shall ask when the time comes
for them to make any demand on us for such a thing: "Will
you play up when the time comes?" It is not merely a sign
manual of sovereigns and presidents that is required to make
a thing like that worth while.
If anything could be more depressing, more sicken-
ing, than the current chatter about a federation of the
world and a ready-made millennium, it is the nonsensical
theory that the reign of force, revived by the most
powerful alliance, save one, that the world has ever seen,
is to be ended by moralizing admonitions, and universal
peace is to be established by resolutions. President Wil-
son is candid enough, at least, to acknowledge that naval
and military coercion must be the foundations of the
project. But neither he nor any other theorist of paci-
fism seems capable of facing tjie facts which this revo-
lution would involve — that it would mean the entangle-
ment of America in every international squabble, racial,
political or religious, around the globe, the participation
of Europe and Asia in the affairs of this continent, and
the maintenance of stupendous armament. It would
mean that there would be not a day in the year when
the United States was not a party to some distant con-
troversy; it would mean that we must preoccupy our-
selves with the interminable problems of nationality in
central Europe and western Asia and northern Africa;
MILLENNIUM BY PROCLAMATION 231
it would mean that ultimately American soldiers would
be drafted into European trenches.
Nor do the visionaries recognize that a "league to
enforce peace" has been tried and has, failed. Germany,
France, Great Britain, Austria and Russia were bound
by solemn covenant, not to preserve peace thruout the
whole world, but merely to protect the sovereignty of
one small nation, Belgium. Yet the league did not save
Belgium from martyrdom, and after two years and a
half the nation has not been restored, altho 15,000,000
troops have been flung into the cause. President Wil-
son's idea has precisely the same weakness that wrecked
the league which guaranteed the peace in Belgium — it
cannot provide against faithlessness except by piling up
force; and we have before our eyes an example of how
easily millions can be enlisted for a cause founded upon
perjury and aggression. If all nations were devoted to
the same ideals and aspirations, and maintained the same
institutions, even then differences of temperament and
language and economic necessity would create colossal
difficulties in the way of world federation. But when
one contemplates the irreconcilable conflict between the
habits of thought and principles of government of all
the teeming countries of the earth, the idea becomes
grotesque.
When all else has been taken into account, there
remains the certainty that a world league would be an
incitement to alliances more secret and more selfish than
any that have hitherto afflicted mankind. Every issue
arising would be made the subject of desperate intrigue
by the nations directly concerned to enlist support for
their respective contentions, and the certain result would
be rivalries and animosities worse than before.
MYSTIFICATION
January 29, 1917.
IF BY some incredible chance the latest state paper
of President Wilson should vanish from human
knowledge, and reappear, as an anonymous pro-
duction, for the edification of a future age, its author-
ship would not long remain in doubt. Students of this
period of American history would recognize not only the
unmistakable marks of a literary style which has become
famous, but a quality which sets Mr. Wilson's utter-
ances apart from those of the other statesmen of his
time. This is their obscurity. The involutions of his
reasoning and the ambiguities of his diction darken what
they should illuminate. A familiar cynicism is that the
chief use of speech is to conceal thoughts; in the case
of Mr. Wilson the faculty, despite his utmost efforts,
becomes a device to becloud the obvious and baffle inter-
pretation. The defect is most noticeable in his recent
address because of the contrast between the intent and
the result. With almost painful care, he aimed to
achieve precision of statement and clarity of exposition,
but succeeded only in creating new controversies, not
only as to the wisdom of his action, but as to the mean-
ing of his neatly fashioned phrases. It is curious that
such a deficiency should mark one who has been
acclaimed as a practiced expert in the uses of language;
a master dialectician. He is believed to have all human
history at his finger tips, and to be steeped in the sub-
tleties of speech. Yet it is a fact that no other states-
232
MYSTIFICATION 233
man is so liable to be misunderstood ; certainly none has
done more to obscure plain issues and to lead discussion
into impenetrable jungles of disputation.
The note addressed to the belligerents on December
18 was a striking example. To this day it is not known
whether it was a move toward peace, a threat, an offer
of mediation, an effort to end the war or a desperate
expedient to avert the conflict from the United States.
British opinion, having disciplined itself into indors-
ing a responsive reply to the note of last month, found
it difficult to welcome so soon afterward another admoni-
tory communication. For a day or two it tried to com-
bine praise for the president's idealism with resentment
for his customary maladroitness of expression. "Peace
without victory" harshly drowned all the resonant
phrases celebrating those principles for which Britons
believe they fight. It was agreed that the address was
admirable as "an abstract pontifical statement of future
international morality." Meanwhile, it seemed to many
to be violently pro-German, while a member of the cabi-
net was able to say, "Our aims are the same as Presi-
dent Wilson's; what he is longing for, we are fighting
for." French writers somewhat mockingly commend the
speaker for voicing sentiments which have inspired
France for more than a hundred years, but they confess
themselves quite unable to fathom the philosophy
which urges compromise with the embattled enemies of
those principles. "How will it be possible to guarantee
the future," asks one, "if we are declared incapable of
taking care of the past ?" And another remarks : "Mr.
Wilson's scheme is simplicity itself, except that it
requires a new type of human being." Officially, Rus-
sia "'gladly indorses the communication," as embodying
the ideals to which the empire is devoted, but the ablest
newspaper in Petrograd declares itself "unable to pene-
234 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
trate the inner meaning" of the speech. As for Ger-
many, these typical comments will show how lacking
in precision were the statements which Mr. Wilson
described as being of the "utmost explicitness" :
The message was inspired by preconceived anti-German
ideas. Application of its principles would mean the destruc-
tion of Germany.
His ideas are identical with the principles underlying
German policy for a long time and expressed in the peace
offer of the Central Powers.
So far as he means anything, his position is favorable
to the Entente.
They are beautiful words, which are immediately dis-
pelled in fog when an effort is made to discover a practical
meaning in them.
The principles laid down for future peace are as accept-
able as those put forth in the Entente reply, which were
impossible.
It corresponds much more closely to the idea expressed
by the Central Powers than to the senseless demands of our
enemies.
There was no doubt at the German embassy in
Washington, however, where it was said that Mr. Wilson
had supported the three fundamental points in the Ger-
man position — an early peace, a drawn war and "free-
dom of the seas." But the confusion abroad has been
no more marked than that at home. While a faithful
organ of the administration complains that "much skill
and ingenuity have been devoted to misunderstanding
the address," the truth is that far greater ingenuity is
required to expound it intelligently. The same paper
furnishes a striking instance, when it argues that the
ending of the American civil war was "a classical
example" of "peace without victory"! The surrender
at Appomattox was unconditional; peace was imposed
by sheer force, without treaty or negotiation; the
defeated government was abolished, and its adherents
MYSTIFICATION 235
compelled to accept another allegiance. And a friendly
interpreter says this is the settlement which Mr. Wilson
recommends to Europe !
When we turn to congress to learn what the presi-
dent's utterance meant, we find hopeless contradiction.
It was "a magnificent contribution to international
thought," "the noblest utterance that has fallen from
human lips since the Declaration of Independence," "a
giant's stride in world comity"; also, "it would make
Don Quixote wish he hadn't died so soon," and it "implies
surrender of our independence." One member, pressed
for an opinion, desperately said, "I heard the address,
but cannot comprehend it," and fled. Other Americans
differ as sharply. One eminent expert in international
law finds the speech "epoch-making," while another
thinks that "unless the president is acting on informa-
tion received from the belligerents, it is just a sermon."
Gifford Pinchot says it flagrantly "supports the Ger-
man demands," while Oscar Straus is sure Mr. Wilson's
peace "would include the ideals for which the Allies are
fighting." Elihu Root, ablest of analysts, expresses
sympathy with the terms outlined because, he says,
"they involve the absolute destruction and abandonment
of the principles upon which the war was begun" by the
Teutonic governments. But when he comes to the
"league for peace" proposal he is baffled. "I hope," he
says plaintively, "that that paragraph means what I
hope it means."
As a whole, then, Mr. Wilson's essay in explicitness
is singularly defective, and the failure is emphasized
when one examines the specific statements. No one
has more than the remotest idea what he means by "a
united, independent and autonomous Poland," "freedom
of the seas," or the right of all nations to "direct outlets
to the highways of the seas." If it be argued that he
236 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
had no right to be precise on these matters, the answer
must be that suggestions which merely increase con-
troversy are less helpful than silence would have been.
If he could afford to avoid all mention of Belgium, surely
he could restrain himself concerning other factors in
the problem. A diplomatic effort toward peace must
be judged by its effect, and when it produces hopeless
misunderstanding rather than a softening of controversy
its value may be doubted.
"The peculiarity of the president's deliverances,"
says Dr. David Jayne Hill, "is that they cannot be
derived from experience and do not contain any pre-
vision of consequences." This is an acute judgment,
illustrated by many parts of the record of the last four
years. But the utterances have another peculiarity.
Despite his ill-success, President Wilson's command of
the resources of language is not to be denied, and, there-
fore, there must be some other explanation than lack
of skill. We find it in the fact that he has shown that
words whose meaning is absolutely clear to all civilized
human beings convey no such significance to him — or
at least that he can readily bring himself to disregard
it. So long as his interpretation of "strict account-
ability" mystifies a sardonic world, there is small hope
that such phrases as "peace without victory" and "disen-
tangling alliances" will commend themselves as either
conclusive or enlightening.
THE BLOW FALLS
February 2, 1917.
AHEMARKABLE thing about Germany's resump-
tion of methodical murder, as announced in the
note dated January 31, is that the hideous action
created surprise in this country. President Wilson, it
is declared, was "incredulous" when the first outline
of the note reached him. "Washington Astounded by
the Sudden Act," read a headline in an administration
organ. "The unexpected move," says a dispatch,
"seemed to stun members of congress, who, in the light
of recent events, had turned their thoughts rather
toward peace." Yet there has not been a development
in the war more clearly foreshadowed, more certain in
its approach. That the German autocracy, defeated and
des'perate, would attempt wholesale piracy and assassi-
nation, would be willing to destroy civilization itself,
rather than face its deluded subjects, was known to
every rational observer. "Peace with the world, or war
with America," has been the rallying cry of the empire's
baffled and bloodstained militarism; the coming cam-
paign of slaughter was threatened in the speeches of
statesmen, the demand for peace and the proclamations
of the kaiser. Fifteen weeks ago we stated only the
obvious when we said:
Germany yielded to the United States as a matter of cold
calculation, and will reverse her position at any time when it
seems necessary and expedient to do so.
And a full month ago we based upon facts patent to
every reader this explicit warning:
237
238 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Germany's endeavors to force a diplomatic settlement
with her enemies have so completely dominated public
thought that there is a vague idea that the worst of the war,
at least, is over, and that even if her overture fails the future
can hold nothing more terrible than the past. Yet it is cer-
tain that her proposal constitutes only one-half of her pre-
pared program. She is ready for an alternative procedure,
and final rejection of her efforts will be the signal for more
desperate, more sanguinary and more ruthless methods of
attack. * * * Prattle about President Wilson's "noble
efforts for peace" does not alter the fact that his note was
essentially and properly a warning that this nation is "draw-
ing nearer to the verge of war." And it does not alter the
fact that the country faces the peril uninformed, unaroused
and unprepared.
There is a condition still more ominous than the
drugging of the public mind with false representations
of security, and the neglect of preparation to meet a
peril long foreseen. Two years of temporizing, of empty
bluster and craven retreat, have left this government
bankrupt in moral force. It confronts today precisely the
same choice that it confronted two years ago — resolute
championship of law and justice, or submission to mur-
derous aggression. Submission served then to postpone
the conflict ; it will serve even the poor cause of a shame-
ful peace no longer. It would not now be a device of
safety, but only an added infamy to conquest by criminal
brutality. Unless the spirit of manhood and justice is
extinct in this nation, there will be no toleration of any
proposal to palter with international outlawry. The one
hope of this country and of humanity is that American
leadership can link the neutral nations of the world in a
program of united sentiment and action, by which they
may overcome and bind in chains the hellish Thing which
has leaped at the throat of civilization.
THE WAR AGAINST NEUTRALS
February S, 1917.
TWO of the strangest diplomatic documents
exchanged during this momentous period in the
world's affairs will never see the light. Their con-
cealment is, perhaps, no serious loss to the historian or
to the sum of human knowledge; yet one is curious to
know what was the message of birthday felicitation
which President Wilson sent to the kaiser last week, and
how that monarch responded to the compliments of his
"great and good friend." For at the very hour when
the words of good will were received from Washington,
his imperial majesty was preparing to deliver to the
American republic a declaration of war against it and
against civilization, a declaration based upon perfidy,
phrased with every ingenuity of insult, and backed by
a program of savagery unparalleled in the annals of
enlightened races. One effect of the German action is to
reduce the controversy to the simplest terms. There is
no longer any room for debate over technicalities and
interpretations of the law concerning contraband, neu-
tral rights, freedom of the seas, armed merchantmen or
the obligations to rescue non-combatants. Germany has
now avowed the prosecution of that war of indiscrimi-
nate assassination which for two years she has been
waging with hollow protestations that its horrors were
unintentional. She merely proclaims that her campaign
of terrorism and murder is to be systematized and
extended.
239
240 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Simplification of the issue makes only four docu-
ments closely relevant. First, is the American ulti-
matum of April 18, 1916, which announced that diplo-
matic relations would be severed unless Germany should
"immediately declare and effect an abandonment" of
submarine lawlessness. The response was a pledge to
observe the rules of law and humanity, but with a reser-
vation; unless the United States should compel lifting
of the Allies' blockade "the German government would
then be facing a new situation, in which it must reserve
to itself complete liberty of decision." This placing of
a price upon recognition of American rights and respect
for American lives was promptly rejected, President
Wilson serving this notice:
The United States cannot for a moment entertain, much
less discuss, a suggestion that respect by German naval
authorities for the rights of American citizens upon the high
seas should in any way or in the slightest degree be made
contingent upon the conduct of any other government af-
fecting the rights of neutrals and non-combatants. Responsi-
bility in such matters is single, not joint; absolute, not
relative.
By ignoring this communication Germany signified
that her ostensible submission to law was only tempo-
rary, and would be repudiated as soon as she found it
expedient to do so. And "a new situation has been
created," she now says, by disclosure of the Allies' terms
of peace, and she purposes to destroy all shipping which
she can reach with torpedoes and mines, regardless of
any rules or any injury to neutrals. The murderous
program is comprehensive, and presumably efficient. All
the waters around Great Britain and France and most
of Holland, and virtually the entire Mediterranean, are
designated as "barred zones," in which vessels will be
sunk indiscriminately, without warning and without any
provision for the safety of occupants. "Neutral ships
THE WAR AGAINST NEUTRALS 241
plying within the zones will do so at their own risk."
Nothing in the arrangement is more remarkable than
the studied effrontery of the offer to the United States.
Germany will permit — subject to "mistakes" by subma-
rine commanders — one American vessel weekly to and
from Falmouth, provided they are painted with vertical
red and white stripes from water-line to superstructure,
fly a flag designed by the German government, follow
the narrow path where official murders will not be
attempted, and sail under guarantees by the American
government that they carry no contraband — that term,
as defined by Germany, including virtually every com-
modity human beings need or can use.
The announcement presents such a complete picture
of the official soul of Germany that the accompanying
note is of subordinate interest. But it reveals qualities
of arrogance, hypocrisy and criminality which give it
pre-eminence even over the other documents from the
same course. The program of assassination directed
against neutral nations is accompanied by expressions of
high regard for the freedom of the seas, "which has
always formed part of the leading principles of Ger-
many's political program." Mention is made of the
desire "to maintain friendly neighborly relations" with
Belgium, where even now German slavers are driving
the helpless people into brutal bondage. Unrestrained
lawlessness and an ambitious scheme of murder are
adopted as "a benefit to mankind" and "in order to serve
the welfare of mankind in a higher sense." And to all
this is added the crowning insult of a recommendation
that the United States shall "view the new situation
from the lofty heights of impartiality, and assist" —
presumably by submission to the infamous threats — "to
prevent further misery." As shocking as anything, per-
haps, is the shameless avowal now made that the German
242 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
government has never ceased to plan for this revolting
procedure; that those statesmen who posed as the
restraining influence upon elements eager for frightful-
ness have been themselves its ready instruments; and
that the German people exult in being ruled by the
exponents of calculating ferocity. The pretense that the
employment of murder has just now been "forced" upon
Germany is, of course, an impudent invention; for the
horrible device has been used for two years, and the
extension has awaited merely the assembling of a suffi-
cient number of weapons.
In its relation to the world at large, the campaign
has a meaning which must be clearly recognized. This
measure is directed, not against the enemies of Ger-
many, but against those nations with which, because of
their tolerance, she is still officially at peace. It is a war
against neutrals. For many months Germany has made
unrestricted war upon the shipping of Great Britain and
her allies. Instances where she has shown regard for
law and humanity have been exceptional. They have
little more to fear from her open resort to methodical
slaughter. The only new development is to be that neu-
trals will be subjected to the same assaults. These facts
are supported by Berlin's own boasts. Only three days
ago it was announced that more than 4,000,000 tons of
enemy shipping has been destroyed during the war; in
December were added to the list 152 vessels, with aggre-
gate tonnage of 329,000. And the records show that
most of them were sunk in utter defiance of law, and
with the loss of hundreds of lives. The actual contrast
between the past and present becomes even less distinct
when it is recalled that Germany proclaims she has
destroyed 401 neutral vessels of 537,500 tons gross. A
vital feature of the situation confronting the world is,
we repeat, that Germany not only has declared in prin-
THE WAR AGAINST NEUTRALS 243
ciple a war upon civilization, but that in actual practice
her new measures add nothing to the perils of belligerent
shipping, but are designed to exterminate neutral ship-
ping. The one other change in tactics, is the announced
purpose to sink hospital ships, which seems to indicate
that militarism has actually produced in official Germany
that sort of perversion which is manifested in blood lust.
Otherwise, the outburst is an avowal of desperation. Her
first dream of conquest shattered, her eastern forces at
the limit of their advance, her western armies doomed
to await the shock of a terrific offensive, anol her people
reduced to economic privation, Germany is making one
last, frantic thrust for victory at any price. It is a
dreadful choice, not alone for the world, but for the
people once admired by all mankind. If she succeeds,
there is an end of law and safety and all the institutions
of civilized intercourse among nations. If she fails, she
will stand at the bar of justice impotent and abhorred,
without a friend in all the world to plead her cause.
It is of little use now to contemplate this country's
pa**t in bringing about the impending catastrophe, yet
the) record should not be ignored. For two years the
United States has pursued a policy whose end was plain
to every rational being, yet whose follies were supported
by blind partisanship and infatuation in the face of
developments ever more threatening. The American
people have been committed to demands without sin-
cerity and to concessions without reason or justice ; not
one crime against them or mankind has been expiated,
not one sound principle has been established, and in the
ultimate crisis the country finds itself without authority,
without credit, without safety or the means of attaining
it. And in all the record, we are persuaded, there is no
action comparable in unwisdom to the ill-timed, illogical
and futile intervention undertaken by President Wilson
244 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
by his so-called peace notes and speeches. If he did not
recognize the imminence of Germany's resort to sub-
marine savagery, which was clear to all the world, he is
unequal to the responsibilities of his office. If he did
know the facts, his projection of a visionary scheme of
a league of nations and his superficial eloquence upon
the subject of future world peace were flagrant pretense.
It would be preposterous to say that President Wil-
son created the crisis, but it is obvious — as Germany
bluntly admits — that he hastened it. What action the
government now contemplates the public cannot know,
but it is certain that any course designed to resist an
intolerable aggression and defend the rights of the
United States and of humanity will be loyally supported
by the American people. But just as the issue is greater
than this country, so must the means of meeting it be
based upon wider than national considerations. This new
war is against all the neutral nations of the world, and
they must unite to overcome the common enemy or else
abandon the civilization whose final representatives they
are.
THE PRUSSIAN MIND
February 6, 1917.
THRUOUT the entire conflict in Europe the psy-
chology of Germany's attitude and procedure has
been a baffling study, and never more so than in
the latest crisis, precipitated by her desperate procla-
mation of war against the neutral world. The subject
is one upon which Americans should inform themselves,
not by any means to seek other grounds for enmity than
now unhappily exist, but in order to understand a force
which profoundly affects the present controversy and
will go far to determine whether a peaceable solution
can be attained. Our conviction, which is familiar to
most of those who have followed our discussions during
the last thirty months, is that in so far as the judgment
of the German people has been subordinated to the
inspiration and guidance of Prussianism, it is essentially
defective. It has "blind spots." Remorselessly logical
in working out the implications of its own premises, it
fails to discern that often its premises are wrong. Even
when it does make such a discovery, it readily produces
a new set of facts and embarks upon a new course of
reasoning which leads to a satisfactory result. And
above all, it is quite incapable of recognizing the exist-
ence of different standards of conduct, or recognizes
them, at least, only to dismiss them as non-German and,
therefore, negligible. Thus it might be conceivable that
another government should have sunk a Lusitania or
killed an Edith Cavell ; but it is incredible that any other
245
246 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
government or people should have termed one deed of
blood a "lesson" to reckless neutrals or the other a vindi-
cation of justice. Nor can it be imagined that from any
capital save Berlin would the project of indiscriminate
destruction and assassination now under way be char-
acterized as an effort "to serve the welfare of mankind
in a higher sense."
The violation of Belgium was manifestly a product
of perverted thought and policy, yet it was less strange
than the attempts to justify it, which are painstakingly
continued to this day. The methodical defiance of law
and the recourse to barbarous and inhuman devices of
warfare could have had no other effect than to move all
civilized people to abhorrence, yet German statesmen
have continued solemnly to address the world as repre-
sentatives of a superior culture, and their people have
exulted in each new horror, as tho it were a proof of
genius which mankind must respect and admire. That
American public men should have been "incredulous" and
"stunned with amazement" when the imperial order for
sea ruthlessness was promulgated denotes a singular lack
of discernment and of familiarity with a record that has
flamed across the vision of mankind for thirty months.
They seem to have been struck with the idea that this
was a new phase of Prussianism, a dreadful novelty
for which the minds of men were totally unprepared.
Yet, if ever an event was plainly foreshadowed, it was
this ; and if ever a government carried to a logical con-
clusion the fundamental principles of its polity, it is that
which is driving the German empire to disaster.
Where is there a shred of evidence to suggest that
this hideous device marks a change in German thought
or purpose? This is the same Germany as that which
plunged forsworn across the frontiers of a peaceful
neighbor; which invoked "military necessity" to justify
THE PRUSSIAN MIND 247
the terrorizing of civilian populations, the massacre of
women and children in an unarmed passenger ship, the
raining of bombs upon defenseless and sleeping villages,
the employment of lawless weapons in battle to blind
and torture enemy troops; which has extorted from a
famishing people stupendous tribute and revived the
miseries of Assyrian enslavement to break the spirit of
a nation subjugated by perfidy and brute force. America
and Spain and Holland are no more neutral, no more
entitled to immunity from assault, than was Belgium.
The ships which now are being barbarously destroyed,
and the seamen who are now being hunted with stealthy
ferocity, are no more clearly under the protection of
international law than were the Lusitania and the
Arabic and the Sussex and their passengers and crews.
Germany can be convicted of any offense except incon-
sistency or deception; even the intention to repudiate
her pledge was avowed in the making of it. And this is
identically the same Germany, too, that was compli-
mented in a famous communication upon her "humane
aii'd enlightened attitude" and her unswerving "influence
upon the side of justice and humanity" ; the same Ger-
many which but recently was entitled to demand "peace
without victory" and a place in negotiations as "an
equal" ; the same Germany whose adherence to a world
"league for peace" was invited as a guarantee of re-es-
tablished law. But we have wandered a little from the
subject of the curious intellectual processes of German
statesmen and other representatives of the nation's
thought. Some very striking examples are to be found
in recent utterances. We have already mentioned the
robust declarations for "freedom of the seas" and the
"rights of neutrals" which marked the proclamation of
the enlarged murder zones. Quite as remarkable was
this assertion:
248 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
The imperial government could not justify before its own
conscience, before the German people and before history the
neglect of any means destined to bring about the end of the
war.
The specific means not overlooked, of course, is the
wholesale destruction of ships and crews, including those
of neutral nations. The imperial government seems
unconscious, and probably is, that it has studiously neg-
lected several measures to attain the desired end. Some
of them might have been adopted in the beginning —
such as restraining Austria and keeping faith with Bel-
gium. Some would have tended to increase the prospects
of peace at later periods in the war — such as the libera-
tion of the Belgians and abandonment of the practice of
impoverishing them by forced levies and crushing them
by slave raids. Observance of the ordinary dictates of
humanity toward enemies and neutrals might have
increased the chances of an early settlement. In gen-
eral, among the means neglected have been honor and
justice and an elementary regard for the rights of
human beings. Unless we are to regard as a studied
insult the offer to pass one American ship each way
weekly, provided the vessels were painted with red and
white stripes — floating advertisements of national deg-
radation— we must refer that astonishing proposal to
the eccentricities of the German mind; for any other
would scorn to address a government that would consent
to send forth craft as shamefully bedizened. Unmistak-
ably German, too, was the avowal of the imperial chan-
cellor the other day of the reasons which prompted the
extended campaign of ruthlessness. For months he had
accepted the homage of the world as the humane oppo-
nent of this measure ; but new conditions, he was forced
to admit, had overborne his virtuous feelings. There
had been a change, he said, and soberly went on:
THE PRUSSIAN MIND 249
Where has there been any change? Why, in the first
place, the most important fact is that the number of our
submarines has been very considerably increased as compared
with last spring, and thereby a firm basis for success has
been estabished.
The other reasons do not matter. This in itself sup-
plied the logical and sufficient justification for the mur-
derous undertaking. Surely it must have been the good
chancellor who indited, as representative of the Triple
Alliance which launched this war upon the world, that
quaint paragraph in the recent note wherein "the Ger-
man people repudiate all alliances which serve to force
the countries into a competition for might and to
involve them in a net of selfish intrigues !" A staff cor-
respondent of the New York World now in Berlin fur-
nishes another example of the unintelligible mode of
German reasoning. A few hours before President Wil-
son took his inevitable action, the writer cabled that
thruout all circles there was a serene conviction
that America would submit to unrestrained submarine
lawlessness. "The fate of Rumania," one newspaper
sagely observed, "has been too instructive," and it added
with complacence that the "concessions" made — in the
matter of painting American ships with the red-and-
white badge of poltroonery, for example — would allay
any neutral restiveness. Such delusions seem to us
abnormal, but they must be taken into account as
factors in our national problems. Originating in dis-
torted German ideas, the entire war has been marked
by like misconceptions, and now they confront in baffling
manner the safety of the whole world.
INEVITABLE
February 7, 1917.
A/THO the break with Germany has been almost
unanimously approved by the people of this coun-
try, and altho there has been manifested even a
sense of welcome relief from long-endured uncertainty
and humiliation, no rational citizen can regard the possi-
bilities of the action, necessary as it was, without sober
apprehension. President Wilson justly said he "could
do nothing less" ; short of an abdication of sovereignty
and a betrayal of humanity he had no alternative. Yet
the preservation of human rights and liberties has ever
demanded sacrifices, and the nation may be called upon
to pay a heavy price for its championship of principle.
It is encouraging, therefore, to note that the sudden
crisis not only has invigorated the spirit of the Amer-
ican people, but has enlightened their judgment. For it
has disclosed with vivid clearness the vital meaning of
the struggle which for thirty months has convulsed the
earth. That audacious challenge which sped from the
war clouds of Europe has illuminated like a lightning
flash the issue that confronts civilization — the existence
of a powerful and remorseless system animated by a
soulless ideal and founded upon a philosophy at war
with reason. The beginning of the conflict may be traced
to a score of causes, and its increasing bitterness to
many influences ; every observer will recognize the work-
ings of racial hostility, political rivalry, commercial and
territorial ambition, the passionate desire to curb aggres-
250
INEVITABLE 251
sion and release peoples from enslavement. But deeper
than all these things lies the heart of the contest — the
irreconcilable antagonism of autocracy and democracy.
The issue was clear, indeed, from the beginning. It was
demonstrated as conclusively in the historic act of per-
fidy which began the war as it is in the final repudiation
of law which now shocks the world. On August 11, 1914
— eight days after the assault upon Belgium had mysti-
fied mankind by its sheer iniquity — this newspaper gave
an interpretation which every event from that hour to
this has supported:
The lesson that is to be written in blood and fire for the
world to read is plain. It is that in the twentieth century
autocracy is an intolerable anachronism, a menace to civiliza-
tion, a burden upon humanity. This war is its death-grapple
among enlightened nations. The result will be the doom of a
system which gives to despotic governments control over the
peace of nations and inflicts upon the race a war1 against
which the judgment of the whole world revolts.
The most obvious fact concerning the present threat
to world order is that it is no sudden development of
abnormal conditions, but the logical and infallible prod-
uct of forces which have been at work since the remote
times of tribal society, but which survived chiefly in
central Europe. From its betrayal of international faith
and violation of a peaceful state, thru all the exempli-
fications of lawlessness and desperation down to the
latest defiance, the government of Germany has never
deviated from a chosen path, has followed consistently
the dictates of a false philosophy. What we have seen,
what we see now, is autocracy manifesting itself. Medi-
eval in inspiration, it is essentially and implacably hos-
tile to that instinct of human liberty which expands
with the spread of enlightenment. Existing only thru
subjugation of the individual spirit, it requires the
enslavement of civic intelligence and authority to its
252 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
will. Upholding and upheld by the doctrine of force, it is
ever in rebellion, passively or actively, against the
restraints of international morality and law. Pursuing
the ideal of power, not of justice, it recognizes no prin-
ciple save might, no tribunal save the "necessities" of
its own purpose. We do no wrong to the German doc-
trine in these rough elucidations. "Democracy," wrote
one of the empire's eminent spokesmen the other day,
"is a swindle." Another, a scholar and historian,
emphasizes the difference:
It is not a case of petty variation. It is the irreconcilable
antagonism of the two conceptions of life, which have ever
fought and are still fighting for mastery in the world's civil-
ization.
The value of the present crisis is that it impresses
upon us the inevitableness of its coming. It was pro-
jected from the beginning. "The Germany of today,"
wrote Dr. David Starr Jordan two years ago, "is an
anachronism; her scientific ideals are of the twentieth
century, her political ideals hark back to the sixteenth.
A great nation which its own people do not control is a
derelict on the international sea — a danger to its neigh-
bors and a greater danger to itself." Given a people
highly intelligent and efficient, yet drugged with the
theory that they can progress only thru submission of
their will to that of an ambitious autocracy, and what
result could there be but this war upon the institutions
of free humanity ? There is no mystery in the revelation
of Germany as a rebel against law, for her theory of gov-
ernment is at enmity with the spirit of the age, and both
cannot prevail. And that theory has not been enforced
by imperial authority alone, it has been inculculated by
those who mold the thought of the nation. So long ago
as September, 1914, we described the menacing system
that now overshadows our peace:
INEVITABLE 253
All that monstrous deification of absolutism and force ; all
that scorn of democracy; all that anachronistic doctrine of a
people chosen of God to rule the earth; all that brazen,
trampling, merciless militarism which subordinates the laws
of morality and of civilization to the purposes of national
aggrandizement — these are the products of a philosophy which
emanates from the cloisters of German scholarship.
It is the inspiration of the militarist cult; of the con-
tempt for treaties as "scraps of paper" and for international
pledges as "mere words"; of the invoking of "military neces-
sity" to justify lawlessness. * * *
In support of these policies the basic principles of a ma-
terialistic philosophy have been invoked. These teach that
in international affairs, as in nature, the law of the survival
of the fittest is supreme, hence force is the ultimate test; that
the importance of national growth outweighs all so-called
ethical considerations; that militarism and autocracy are the
true weapons of a conquering civilization, and war the noblest
means of national expression.
It is to the honor of liberal nations that they are
shocked by the sanguinary cynicism of the latest attack
upon their rights, yet it is the product of a sure sequence.
Militarism has not changed; autocracy has not degen-
erated ; they are simply carrying to a logical conclusion
their fundamental ideas; it was inevitable that their
orbit should cross that of democracy and that the two
forces should meet in deadly collision. The American
people are witnessing now a demonstration of the truth
of what we said twenty-seven months ago :
Militarism teaches that might makes right; that the only
true test of national greatness is brute force ; that the mailed
fist is the emblem of a triumphant civilization. It holds that
the strong alone have the right to exist, and that the weak
must be thrust aside in the interest of evolution toward more
vigorous types. Such abstract virtues as sympathy and gen-
erosity and justice it derides as symptoms of weakness, to be
humored in times of peace, but to be stamped out ruthlessly
in the test of war. It inculcates the atrocious theory of a
supernation, the intolerable doctrine that some particular peo-
ple or race, by reason of superior force, has the right to
254 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
impose its institutions or its civilization upon other nations or
upon the world. It crushes initiative, subverts liberty and
reduces a people to be the slaves of a barrack-room despotism.
It means Bonapartism plus twentieth century science and a
perverted modernism. It exhausts the resources of ingenuity
to make a nation read, think, write, talk, dream and act war;
and then, when the war it has worked for comes, it whimpers
that a malignant world is persecuting the only champions of
peace. It mocks at neutrality, puts "military necessity" above
international law and scorns solemn treaties, making its
international policy that of a fraudulent bankrupt. Where
obligations of honor and the rights of others obstruct its path,
it "hacks a way thru." Between it and democracy there is
irreconcilable antipathy. One or the other must disappear
from this world.
The war was not thirty days old when we expressed
our judgment in terms that might be repeated today:
Autocracy is wholly devoid of international morality. Its
leaders have no conception of or regard for the moral aspects
of the relations between the peoples of the earth. To German
statesmen the loftiest conception of power is that huge war
machine which is thundering across Europe. To them diplo-
macy is also a machine, remorseless, soulless — a force that can
ignore the facts of human nature and the basic aspirations of
the human heart. It is because of this distorted vision of
Germany's leaders that she finds herself in her hour of trial
alone, her destiny committed to the doubtful theory that an
engine of war, tho the most powerful the world has ever seen,
is mightier than law and morality and the eternal principles
of justice.
The crisis of February, 1917, is but a develop-
ment of the crisis of August, 1914. And America, as
the chief exponent of the democratic principle, was
bound sooner or later to face the ordeal of defending it.
There is no more security for her in 3000 miles of ocean
than there was for Belgium in a treaty-guarded frontier.
So long as armed and ambitious autocracy exists, democ-
racy is in peril.
ANOTHER "SCRAP OF PAPER"
February 13, 1917.
EVERY American possessing a shred of national
spirit, or even of self-respect, must have felt a
sense of personal anger over the German govern-
ment's insulting detention of Ambassador Gerard. The
incident was the more infuriating, perhaps, because its
insolence and treachery were overshadowed by its dull-
witted stupidity, which happily made it so contemptible
that it did not rise to the dignity of an act of war. The
unprecedented action was regarded, in fact, more as a
manifestation of boorishness than as a move of hostility.
Having earned the moral detestation of the world by
studied inhumanity, the German authorities could hardly
be"expected to observe the amenities of decent inter-
course, particularly toward a people they had affronted
by their barbarous threats. Their own country is, per-
haps, the worse sufferer, in that they have represented
it as the cad among nations. Yet the wretched proceed-
ing had a serious motive. Germany is not wasting time
or energy in devising idle insults. Her violation of the
immemorial rights of an ambassador — which are sacred
even after a war has begun — was intended to coerce the
United States into acquiescence in a German demand.
The imperial government took this shabby means of
exerting pressure to force reaffirmation of a treaty be-
tween the two countries, for the strengthening of its
own military designs. And the startling fact is that the
convention which Germany sought by these atrocious
255
256 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
methods to establish makes her murderous submarine
campaign a flagrant and perfidious crime against the
other party to the agreement. Nothing more charac-
teristic of the processes of Prussian thought has been
observed than the demand for renewed recognition of a
treaty which in one part serves Germany's interests,
while in the other part it brands her as a violator of
solemn engagements. Berlin dispatches passed by the
censor during last week repeatedly emphasized the pur-
pose of the government to treat Americans in Germany
virtually as hostages for German subjects in the United
States, and also to use their presence as a means of
extorting compliance with the treaty demand. These
extracts reveal the design :
It is stated authoritatively that Germany will propose to
Ambassador Gerard a special rectification of the Prussian-
American treaties of 1799 and 1828, allowing nationals in
case of war nine months in which to settle their affairs and
leave hostile countries. A representative of the foreign office
pointed out that the treaties were still in effect, and contained
an unusual clause that they should not be invalidated by the
outbreak of hostilities. Germany would certainly hold to
these treaties, he said, and there would be no question of
interning Americans here. * * *
Both governments have repeatedly referred to articles of
the treaties as bases for certain contentions, so there is no
doubt they would be valid in case of war. * * *
The German foreign office has asked (ex) Ambassador
Gerard to sign a protocol reaffirming the treaties of 1799 and
1828. Mr. Gerard replied that he was no longer in a posi-
tion to negotiate any diplomatic instrument. * * * Mr.
Gerard has not yet received his passports, and there is no
certainty when this formality will take place. For delay in
the departure of other Americans, it is understood that the
treaty of 1828 is responsible. The imperial government
apparently sets great store by it. * * *
Foreign Secretary Zimmermann made it clear that the
government laid emphasis upon this treaty, and desired spe-
cific assurance that the American government would recog-
nize it as binding in the event that war ensued.
ANOTHER "SCRAP OF PAPER" 257
Germany's well-known regard for the sanctity of
treaties in general, and these in particular, was
expressed with passionate vehemence .upon receipt of
false reports that the United States had seized interned
German ships and put their crews under restraint. One
Berlin paper's denunciation was quite withering:
The breach of diplomatic relations will probably be made
the occasion for leveling against us again charges of "break-
ing treaties" in order to mobilize the indignation of the world
against our "shameful" acts. The United States itself has
been guilty of an unjustified breach of treaty in confiscating
German property and condemning German subjects to com-
pulsory detention. It has violated the treaty of 1799 and the
general principles of the law of nations, before Germany has
undertaken anything which could give the slightest shadow of
a pretext for such action.
Aside from the fact that the United States has done
none of the things charged, the assertion of Germany's
unsullied innocence and undeviating friendship was a
truly Prussian accompaniment to the reports of tor-
pedoed passenger ships that appeared in the same issue.
But the important matter concerns the terms of the
treaties to which appeal is made. The New York Sun
has carefully elucidated their salient provisions. There
were three instruments, signed in 1785, 1799 and 1828.
The last one superseded the other two, but continued in
force certain of their articles, thus :
The twelfth article of the treaty concluded between the
parties in 1785, and the articles from the thirteenth to the
twenty-fourth, inclusive, of that which was concluded at Ber-
lin in 1799 * * * are hereby revived with the same force
and virtue as if they made part of the context of the present
treaty.
One of the provisions of the treaty of 1799 thus
revived, and the one about which Germany is now so
solicitous, is this :
258 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Article 23. — If war should arise between the two con-
tracting parties, the merchants of either country when resid-
ing in the other shall be allowed nine months to collect their
debts and settle their affairs, and may depart freely, carrying
off all their effects without molestation or hindrance.
Special immunity of this kind is assured to "schol-
ars, cultivators, manufacturers," etc.; also "all others
whose occupations are for the common benefit of man-
kind." It is the German idea that the sacred "effects"
include the interned ships, and that all Germans of mili-
tary age in this country are to be sent home, in case of
war, to carry on, in the imperial army, their occupations
"for the benefit of mankind." The provision is strength-
ened by this declaration:
Neither the pretense that war dissolves all treaties, nor
any other, whatever, shall be considered as annulling or sus-
pending this or the next preceding article; on the contrary,
the state of war is precisely that for which they are provided,
and during which they are to be as sacredly observed as the
most acknowledged articles in the law of nature and of
nations.
Germany's vociferous appeal to these provisions is
intelligible, and does credit to her foresight. But there
is another which she characteristically ignores. The
treaty of 1828, as noted, revives with precisely the same
force Article 12 of the treaty of 1785, negotiated with
Prussia by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and
John Adams. And that solemn agreement reads :
Article 12. — If one of the contracting parties should be
engaged in war with any other Power, the free intercourse
and commerce of the subjects or citizens of the party remain-
ing neuter with the belligerent Powers shall not be inter-
rupted. On the contrary, in that case, as in full peace, the
vessels of the neutral party may navigate freely to and from
the ports and on the coasts of the belligerent parties, free
vessels making free goods, in so much as all things shall be
adjudged free which shall be on board any vessel belonging to
the neutral party, altho such things belong to an enemy of
ANOTHER "SCRAP OF PAPER" 259
the other ; and the same freedom shall be extended to persons
who shall be on board a free vessel, altho they should be ene-
mies to the other party, unless they be soldiers in actual serv-
ice of such enemy. >
We invite the reader to study attentively this com-
prehensive engagement, which is an integral and insep-
arable part of that very treaty to which the German
government now demands that the United States shall
adhere. It is the pledge of Germany that in this war
American commerce "shall not be interrupted"; that
American vessels, "as in full peace, may navigate
freely"; that goods on such vessels, even if enemy-
owned, shall be free from molestation, and that pas-
sengers and other persons thereon, excepting only enemy
soldiers "in actual service," shall be likewise immune.
And the demand for reaffirmation of the treaty — for the
sake of the provision concerning German subjects and
property in America in case of war — is made by the gov-
ernment which has declared that it will ruthlessly
destroy American ships and murder American citizens if
they venture into a designated part of the high seas!
Whether the treaty of 1828 is now valid we do not
know. It is said that the seamen's act, recently enacted,
terminated all treaties containing conflicting provisions,
and that an offer to Germany to continue the treaty in
amended form was ignored. Both governments, how-
ever, have cited the ancient convention in disputes aris-
ing from the war. In any event, we think, no time
should be lost in reaffirming the instrument of 1828,
if only for the purpose of emphasizing the conscious,
deliberate and inveterate perfidy of the government
which has the audacity to claim the benefits of the
treaty while barbarously violating its obligations.
THIS COUNTRY IS IN WAR
February 14, 1917.
THOSE who have been mystified by the "calmness"
of the American people in the present crisis do not
take into account a singular delusion which is mani-
fest not only in the attitude of the public, but in the
utterances and actions of officials. This is the theory,
which amounts to a contented conviction, that the coun-
try is still at peace; that war, while an ominous possi-
bility, has not yet directly involved the United States.
President Wilson himself gave currency to the belief
when, in the face of Germany's declaration that Ameri-
can ships or citizens overtaken in a certain part of the
high seas would be destroyed, he said "we do not desire
any hostile conflict with the imperial government," thus
implying that the murder threat was not a hostile act.
Secretary Lansing, as recently as last Saturday, assumed
the existence of peace when he said there was "hope
that we may not be forced into the conflict."
"If any nation attacks us, we ought to fight," says
that sturdy patriot, Mr. Bryan; but he is sure that
"none has yet challenged us." The pacifists are busy
with mass meetings and resolutions and delegations urg-
ing the president to "keep us out of war" and demanding
that there be "no war without a referendum." All these
expressions are based upon the assumption that the
issue is still within the control of the American govern-
ment; that so long as it remains passive or undecided
the country is free from war. The German government
260
THIS COUNTRY IS IN WAR 261
has no such illusions ; despite its affected "surprise" and
"regret" over the refusal of the United States to accept
the submarine campaign, it knows that Germany is mak-
ing war against this nation. For months the cry in that
country has been, "Peace with the world or war with
America," and the chancellor announced the choice
when he proclaimed the new policy and declared, "We
stake all." German statesmen and newspapers have
boldly discussed and discounted armed resistance by the
United States to those definitely hostile declarations in
the note to Washington:
Within the barred zones all sea traffic forthwith will be
opposed. * * * Neutral ships plying within the barred
zone do so at their own risk. * * * All ships met within
that zone will be sunk.
Ambassador Bernstorff had no doubts. When
informed that diplomatic relations had been severed he
said, "I expected it. My government expected it. The
United States could do nothing else." And the latest
dispatches from Berlin say there is "little or no expecta-
tion" of maintaining the pretense of peace. But opinions
and interpretations, however exalted their sources may
be, are not conclusive. War is not a state of mind, nor
a condition which prevails only when it is recognized
and proclaimed according to precise formulas. It exists,
or it does not. And the truth is that fourteen days ago
Germany declared war against the United States, and
that during that period this country has been subject
to every hostile activity of which Germany at the
moment is capable. Mr. Bryan denies it, the busy paci-
fists close their eyes to it, the administration refuses,
from laudable motives, to admit it. But it is a concrete,
unmistakable, irrefutable fact, nevertheless. To the
normal mind, Germany's declaration itself is sufficient
to reveal the theory of peace as an extraordinary delu-
262 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
sion. In plain terms she announced her purpose to
destroy American ships and kill American citizens,
engaged in lawful and peaceful errands on the high seas.
By stating certain conditions which would give them
immunity she emphasized the hostility of her inten-
tions ; for thereby she made clear that submission to her
lawless decree was the sole means of avoiding direct,
sanguinary attack. What she has made known is that
in a designated area of the high seas American vessels
will be sunk on exactly the same terms of British or
French ships, and American citizens will be slain in pre-
cisely the same manner as British or French citizens.
She makes no distinction between Americans and her
declared enemies; wherein, then, is there any distinc-
tion between the war which she wages against Britain
and France and the "peace" which she maintains toward
the United States?
History, curiously enough, presents an almost exact
parallel to this intolerable condition, resulting in a war
conducted without being officially recognized as such.
For three years, 1798-1800, France and the United States
were engaged in an almost continuous struggle at sea;
ships were captured and sunk, battles were fought, hun-
dreds of merchant and naval seamen were killed — yet
there was never a declaration of war, and the supreme
court held that the operations "did not at any time
amount to open and public war."
Those who cling today to the idea of a fictitious
peace, however, will reject arguments and analogies;
they will still urge that war is not war until the govern-
ment of the United States admits the definition. There-
fore we must deal in facts, not words. Here is one:
German submarines, in pursuance of a program lately
enlarged, have already killed more than 200 American
citizens. If that is not war, what is? Germany has
THIS COUNTRY IS IN WAR 263
systematized and extended her campaign so that Amer-
ican ships and their occupants are to be destroyed in
the same manner and on the same terms as enemy-owned
vessels and their crews. If such measures are not
"actual hostilities," what are they? The effect of her
proclamation, accompanied by acts of criminal and indis-
criminate destruction, have been to blockade American
ports, paralyze American overseas commerce, hold up
American mails, forbid the sailing of American ship-
masters and passengers upon lawful voyages. If a cor-
don of submarines lay at the mouth of each of our har-
bors, with published orders to sink at sight all vessels
emerging therefrom, the action might be more theat-
rically hostile, but the effect would hardly be more com-
plete. If this lawless blockade, this prohibition of traffic,
this avowed methodical arrangement of destruction, do
not constitute war, what is lacking ? The government is
awaiting an "overt act." Prohibition of lawful com-
merce, enforced by threats of murder and by the killing
of Americans, apparently does not meet that definition.
Tlien what will? The slaying of a score or a hundred
Americans on the passenger steamship California cer-
tainly would have been regarded as a hostile action. But
it was thru no omission by Germany that that crime was
not committed — the intention of the torpedo was
"overt," if the result was not. Incidentally, an "overt
act," as defined, would affect one American ship, per-
haps one American life. Is the existing state of war
more endurable because it affects all American ships
and all American travelers having lawful errands in the
murder zone? "If," the president has said, Germany
should "destroy American ships and take American lives,"
all necessary means will be employed "for the protection
of our seamen and our people." Would the measures be
immoral if they were undertaken to avert such a crime
264 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
instead of to prevent a repetition of it ? Would the vic-
tims have been any less entitled to protection from
threatened assault than those who followed them ? And
how could protection overtake those who might be far
at sea when the necessary "overt act" justified the
action ?
We do not impugn the sincerity of the policy of
"watchful waiting," but we doubt its efficacy, for the
reason that we utterly reject its presumption that war
against this nation does not exist. When was war
against Belgium begun ? Was it when the first German
troops followed the ultimatum across the frontier, or
was the country at peace until an unspecified number of
Belgian civilians had been killed ? "Keep us out of war,"
plead the pacifists, blind to the fact that we are in war.
War is here — in our very harbors, where American com-
merce is prostrate and American sovereignty in abey-
ance. To surrender would not be to avert war, but to
yield to it; we should not be keeping out of war, but
keeping out of resistance to war. That may be the pur-
pose of the American government and its people ; but if
they do not want to face an aggressor, they should at
least have the honesty to face a fact.
A WAR MADE BY PACIFISM
February 16, 1917.
WAS it because they are constitutionally opposed
to preparedness, or because they are incapable of
discerning the clearest meaning of plain facts,
that the pacifists were caught unawares by Germany's
"sudden" proclamation of a program of active hostility
toward the United States? Their "emergency" peace
committees, their hastily called mass meetings, their
half-baked resolutions and their excited recourse to
every threadbare scheme of mischievous agitation indi-
cate a deplorable lack of foresight. We could have told
them — we did tell them — that this crisis was inevitable.
We suspect, indeed, that we taxed the patience of
our readers, as we did our own, by laborious cita-
tions of fact showing that the clash was being made cer-
tain, and that it would be due not alone to Germany's
lawlessness and desperation, but also to the course of
the United States, in so far as that course was dictated
by idealistic pacifism in the presidency, infatuated
pacifism in the cabinet, political pacifism in congress and
miscellaneous pacifism thruout the country.
The truth is that no term was ever so egregiously
misapplied as the term pacifist. Implying one who pro-
motes peace, it is used to designate those who are the
busiest and most pestiferous promoters of strife. It is
because of their pernicious advocacy of a false doctrine,
more than any other influence, that the nation now
finds itself face to face with war, helpless to avert it and
265
-
266 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
impotent to meet it. To describe as "peacemakers" those
whose activities undermine justice and invite aggression
is a preposterous misuse of language. To Americans of
rational understanding and unimpaired memory the
assertion that the pacifist fallacy governed the admin-
istration during the controversy with Germany, and that
it encouraged the aggression which has culminated in
open war, will need no further proof than reference to
the record. By pacifism we mean the base, immoral and
utterly fallacious theory that acquiescence in wrong is
the best way to avoid strife ; that abandonment of chal-
lenged rights brings safety and submissiveness turns
aside aggression.
To show how clearly war was foreshadowed and
invited by this policy, let us glance at the events in their
order and quote from our obvious warnings. When the
atrocious advertisement warning Americans not to sail
on the Lusitania was published, after an American had
been killed on the Falaba and the Gulflight had been tor-
pedoed, this newspaper said : "We must decide whether
'strict accountability* means what it says, or was only a
conversational phrase." Pacifism decided, and the mur-
der of 115 American men, women and children was met
with a paper demand for disavowal and reparation and
an announcement that this nation would "omit no word
or act" necessary to maintain its rights. When Ger-
many responded with impudent evasions and falsehoods,
Mr. Bryan's pacifist infatuation sent him scuttling out
of office; he had demanded "strict accountability" and
had promised to "omit no word or act" necessary to
enforce it, but he confessed by his resignation that his
signature was a shameful false pretense. At that time —
twenty months ago — we said of his policy:
The inevitable result was that Germany exhibited increas-
ing lack of respect for the United States, and finally inaugu-
A WAR MADE BY PACIFISM 267
rated a series of acts which steadily increased in arrogance
and hostility. The policy of surrender, far from promoting
peace, invited a constantly renewed aggression, the surest
provocative of war. * * * It will be strange now if the
attitude of Berlin does not become more truculently insupport-
able ; it is not inconceivable that his act may inspire such pro-
found contempt for the United States that another sacrifice of
American citizens will be planned and consummated, and that
his mad project for the "prevention of war" will bring that
catastrophe upon us.
The note which Mr. Bryan shrank from signing
repeated the American demands and said this nation con-
tended for "the high and sacred rights of humanity."
This was a noble and resonant utterance, but Germany,
aware of the X'ociferations of the pacifists, was moved
merely to novel forms of insult. She proposed to stop
murdering Americans if they would travel in ships
painted according to a design dictated by Berlin and
obedient to orders of submarine commanders as to their
course in the high seas. Still trying to reconcile defense
of rights with the craven spirit of pacifism, the adminis-
tration replied with another note, announcing that fur-
ther assassinations would be considered "deliberately
unfriendly." But by this time the "hyphen" and pacifist
propagandas for surrender were in full swing, and Ger-
many felt she had nothing to fear. Any intelligent
observer might have written what we wrote at the time
—in July, 1915 :
The most active peace propagandists have given tacit
acquiescence to the defiance of international law, and thereby
have consented to the destruction of that without which world
peace is impossible. They think to bring the vision nearer by
condoning the piecemeal destruction of the code which alone
stands between civilization and the supremacy of brute force.
* * * What other effect could these policies have upon
Germany than to convince her that there did not exist in this
great nation a single sentiment or conviction to which she
need defer? The present condition puts to confusion the
268 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
theorists who believe that peace is to be attained and main-
tained by "a conciliatory attitude," by "avoiding strife" or by
meeting aggression with a demeanor of meekness and sur-
render. Our penalty is that our freedom from war is now at
the mercy of a ruthless belligerent.
It was because of the intrigues of pacifism that Ger-
many felt secure in making her answer — the torpedoing,
without warning, of the westbound unarmed passenger
ship Arabic, with two American victims. The crime was
so monstrous that Germany thought it wise to interpose
a pledge which might avert a crisis until she had
enough submarines; so she promised that "liners will
not be sunk," etc. Yet the end was so plain even then
that we said — this was September, 1915 :
The policy pursued in Washington, far from being surety
for peace, is pushing this nation steadily toward war; every
move brings the United States nearer to the time when it
must accept one of two alternatives — war or utter and humili-
ating abandonment of its rights. Germany will decide the
issue of peace or war just as she defines and delimits at will
the rights of American citizens. * * * The president,
with the best intentions, has put this nation in an impossible
position, for he has delivered a series of ultimatums which
necessitated the possible use of force, while absolutely deter-
mined not to use force — that is, to "keep the country out of
war" by threatening Germany with war. This policy, called
our protection against being drawn into the conflict, is almost
irresistibly carrying us in that direction. * * * To issue
ultimatums without the disposition or the means to enforce
them is so far from being a policy of peace that it is the
surest preliminary to war — or abject surrender.
The murder of an American consul in the sinking of
the Persia brought 1915 to an ominous close, and in the
following February Germany renewed her threats to
sink all ships. At this time partisanship and pacifism
coined the phrase "safety first" to represent their ideal.
This policy we denounced as the moral atrocity which it
A WAR MADE BY PACIFISM 269
is, "even if the doctrine were effective in the purpose
which it proclaims." But, we added:
All history shows that therein its failure is infallible.
The nation which brands itself with the stigma of seeking
safety first is as false to itself as to humanity. Such a policy
not only debases character ; it inflames those whom it seeks to
conciliate. The nation professing it awakens contempt, in-
vites humiliation and courts the very destruction which it has
bartered its soul to avert.
A few days later the Sussex horror revealed anew
Germany's criminal purpose, yet the pacifists continued
their malignant work, and we offered this accurate fore-
cast of what they must accomplish :
They imagine that strife is to be stilled by self-betrayal
and wrong paralyzed by submission. And they seem incapable
of realizing that at this moment they threaten the peace and
the very existence of this nation.
Long before this the infamous doctrine had found
spokesmen in congress, and if Germany still had left any
respect for the United States, it must have evaporated
when she saw American representatives arguing for
the formal withdrawal of this government's protection
from citizens traversing the high seas where she had
laid out her murder zone. But this was not all. As a
test of public sentiment here, she sent over, in the guise
of a merchantman, a sister of the submarine that sank
the Lusitania; and when this evoked expressions of
gratitude from the pacifists, who hailed the event as
a signal of friendship and a triumph of peaceful enter-
prise, she dispatched a war submarine on an errand of
piracy in American waters. Its depredations were con-
doned as "perfectly legal," even tho American passen-
gers— men, women and children — were driven to open
boats from an unarmed steamship, forty-two miles from
land; and the pacifists openly rejoiced that peace had
270 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
been made sure by this convincing evidence of American
friendship. We could only reiterate our warning of
the inevitable result:
The reopening of the submarine controversy has been
immeasurably hastened by the fact that this government is
taking down, one by one, the bars which it erected against the
outlaw of the seas, in pursuance of the deluded idea that thus
the nation is "kept out of war."
As we have said before concerning such quotations
from our own columns, they are not marked by any
mysterious prophetic faculty; the reasoning in them
was elementary, the conclusions and predictions obvious.
Pacifism has accomplished, by its senseless infatuation,
the evil result which it professes to combat. Even if it
tended to reduce the possibility of war, it would still be
odious, for it ignores justice. But while mouthing
against a mythical militarism in this country, it has
encouraged aggression from a real militarism abroad;
while paralyzing the defenses of America, it has
strengthened the arm of an enemy ; while chattering of
the blessings of peace, it has, by urging national abase-
ment, taken the surest means of inviting war. For it has
taught Germany to despise the United States as both
feeble and false, and a nation with that repute can never
know security in this world. .
A DIALOGUE IN THE "BARRED ZONE"
February 20, 1917.
WE HAVE no correspondent aboard that excep-
tionally favored neutral passenger ship which is
carrying the late German ambassador, his suite
and some 200 other fortunate subjects of the kaiser
toward the fatherland. Nor have we any strong reason
to believe that such a discussion as is outlined below is
likely to take place. But, granting the existence of the
correspondent and of the circumstances imagined, one
may regard the conversation as plausible, and may fancy
that the wireless dispatch reporting it would read sub-
stantially as follows:
% ON BOARD STEAMSHIP FREDERICK VIII (off the
northwest coast of Ireland) , Feb. — th. — After the harassing
delay at Halifax and the monotonous days in midsea, even so
somber an experience as entering the "barred zone" pro-
claimed by the imperial German government has had a stimu-
lating effect upon the spirits of the passengers. All are
thrilled by the thought that we are traversing an area ever
to be distinguished in the annals of naval warfare. For we
are now in that grim region where hidden death, swift and
remorseless, stalks every craft afloat upon the waters.
The formalities of visit and search at Halifax were
rigorous, but were endured with resignation because they
were a necessary factor in obtaining the safe conduct which
guarantees the occupants of this ship against attack or mo-
lestation by the enemies of their government. The voyage
thence to this point has been without incident, except for
scrutiny and release by watchful patrols in the western
Atlantic. Now comes the dramatic experience of passing
unharmed — it is to be hoped — thru the double blockade of
British cruisers and German submarines.
L 271
272 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
It is very singular to reflect that this ship is the first to
enjoy such immunity for many months, and is the last that
will enjoy it, undoubtedly, for many months to come. British
sea tyranny concedes a safe path for a shipload of Germans,
while Germany would unhesitatingly destroy, in the same
part of the high seas, a vessel bearing as many Britons or
Americans. This circumstance is a tribute to the power of
both the belligerent nations which has occasioned lively com-
ment in the saloon and smokeroom.
It was my privilege to be present this afternoon during
a conversation of curious interest, which illuminates the some-
what baffling subject. Having the honor of Count von Bern-
storff's acquaintance, I was standing with him at the star-
board rail, where we were trying, with glasses, to catch a
glimpse of the Irish coast thru the mists and rain-squalls. A
fresh young voice calling "Good afternoon, Excellency," inter-
rupted us, and the count turned to greet a friend, the 14-year-
old daughter of the former German consul in a middle west-
ern city. Ever the most courteous of men, the ambassador
smiled a welcome into the eager face of the child. She is a
favorite with all the passengers, and particularly with the
eminent diplomat, whom she has made quite a confidant.
"Won't you tell me something, Excellency?" she said.
"I heard our stewardess telling mamma that now we are in
the 'barred zone.' What is a 'barred zone'?"
"That is a war term," answered the count. "It is a part
of the sea which all ships are forbidden to enter. If they do,
they may be sunk by our submarines. It is a part of the
war, little fraulein."
"Oh, yes — the ships of the English, our enemy?"
"All ships. It is necessary."
"Oh, Excellency! Then will this ship be sunk?"
"No, my dear. This ship is an exception. Our brave sub-
marine commanders know it is coming. They will let it pass
because it has you on board, and other German children, and
their papas and mammas, and the emperor's ambassadors and
consuls."
"How splendid! But the English — don't they have a
barred zone, too?"
"They have," said Count von Bernstorff, grimly.
"Then will they sink us?"
"No. You see, fraulein, it is different, quite different.
The English do not need to destroy vessels like this. They
DIALOGUE IN THE BARRED ZONE 273
have a great fleet, while we — well, our fleet is needed in the
Kiel canal, and so we must use submarines, and we must
sink all ships except this one. But why trouble your pretty
head about this dreadful war, little one?"
"Oh, but I know a lot about it! I have been at school
for six years in our home in America, and I read the papers,
until a few weeks ago, when papa said we must go to Ger-
many. But I am so glad the English will not sink us. Per-
haps they will capture us! Wouldn't that be exciting?"
"Very," said the count, gravely. "But they will not
capture us. We have a safe conduct."
"What is that, Excellency?"
"Why, the English have given us perm — that is, the United
States demanded that we have the right to sail to our home
thru the English blockade — which is against the law, you
know — and England yielded."
"The Germans do not give safe conducts, do they Excel-
lency? I remember the Lusitania — it was on my birthday —
and there was a little girl from our school and her mother on
board. I was so sorry for her and for the other children.
But it had to be done, for my papa said so. And those were
not children of consuls, were they?"
;. "No, fraulein. War is a terrible thing ."
"But once I read in the newspaper of a ship that was
sunk — it was called the Persia. And there was one of our
consuls — I mean, an American consul — on board, and he was
killed. He did not have a safe conduct, did he?"
"No. You do not understand. War is cruel ."
"Yes, but it is not cruel to us. Isn't that good?"
"Well, persons in our position — those we call diplomatic
and consular officers — have certain privileges. International
law and custom protect us, and ."
"Oh, look, Excellency! What is that?"
Out of the mists there suddenly appeared a swift gray
craft with four funnels; the steamship slowed down, and the
stranger swung around on a parallel course with ours. There
was a short, sharp interchange by megaphone between the
two ships ; then a boat came toward us, a ladder was lowered,
and four men clambered up. Two others, wrapped in blan-
kets, were carried. The boat rowed away, the steamship's
engines speeded up, and presently the other craft sheered off
and was lost in the haze.
274 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
"That was a British destroyer," said Count von Bern-
storff. "We shall meet many of them. No, they will not
molest us; they have their orders. * * * So, as I was
saying, international law protects us. Besides, altho we are
officials, we are not combatants — that is, we do not fight.
Ah, steward!" to a man hurrying along the deck, "what men
were those?"
"Survivors from a Norwegian grain ship, Excellency.
Torpedoed. Six of a crew of twenty-nine picked up by the
destroyer day before yesterday, two of them badly injured.
No trace of the others. We are to land them at Kirkwall,"
and he hastened on.
Count von Bernstorff leaned on the rail and looked
thoughtfully out over the sea. The little girl was silent for a
time; then she turned a wistful face toward her friend.
"I wish," she said, "that the law which protects us had
protected those poor men. Had they broken the law, Excel-
lency?"
"They broke the orders of the emperor by entering this
part of the sea," he answered.
"Then they did very wrong," said the) child, seriously.
"Only — the law cannot protect sailors from our submarines,
but it protects us from English warships. I do not under-
stand!"
Count von Bernstorff put his hand on her shoulder and
patted it comfortingly.
"Be thankful, little fraulein," he said, "that you do not
understand." And he muttered something under his breath —
I was not sure, but it sounded. as tho he had said, "Out of
the mouths of babes ."
Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the mist had been clearing.
A fresh breeze sprang up from the northwest, and presently a
great yellow shaft of light from the setting sun behind us shot
thru the clouds and illumined the waters. And as the curtain
of haze rolled back an extraordinary sight came into view.
The sea that we had thought to be empty was alive with
ships on all sides. Half a mile to the southward a fleet of
trawlers was busy in the hazardous work of mine-sweeping.
Beyond them hovered watchful destroyers, darting hither and
thither, smoke pouring from their funnels. Northward the
scene was the same. Directly ahead a pair of destroyers
accommodated their speed to ours, and showed us the way,
their snapping signal flags spelling out reassuring directions.
DIALOGUE IN THE BARRED ZONE 275
So we steamed on our course thru hostile waters, wards
of an enemy's honor, shepherded by his grim fighting craft,
our path cleared and guarded by his vigilance.
A strange and moving experience, this solicitude from an
adversary, this sense of sanctuary amid the pitiless exigencies
of war! We were within range of a hundred guns; a score
of torpedo tubes might have launched missiles that would rip
open our defenseless hull; and we were as safe from them as
tho we lay in a German harbor.
Yet were we of greater worth, or more justly under the
protection of international law, than those Norwegian sailors
whose ship was riven beneath them by a hidden bolt, or than
the helpless women and children who sank to agonizing death
with the Lusitania?
"What means this singular discrimination of fate? Is
there at work in our behalf some mysterious force more potent
even than 'military necessity,' more significant than terror-
ism? Or is that which we are witnessing so simple a thing as
a manifestation of what law is, what international honor de-
mands, what the faith of nations and the principles of hu-
manity impose upon civilized peoples? Is not this the best
way to prove that a nation 'fighting for its existence' has an
existence worth preserving?"
I thought at first that these musing words came from
Count von Bernstorff; but when I turned to answer him, I
found that he had gone. So they must have been the utter-
ance of my own thoughts.
THE EVILS OF DELAY
February 28, 1917.
AlESIDENT of Harrisburg notifies us that he will
no longer read this journal, "because of the unwar-
ranted, unpatriotic and un-American stand The
North American has taken against President Wilson."
"Every move that the president has made for months,"
he adds, "has been unjustly criticised by your paper."
The name of the writer is Morgenthaler. Our regret
over losing a reader is tempered, therefore, by grati-
fication over evidence of a sensitive loyalty on the part
of a citizen whose sympathies in the present crisis might
be divided. Instead of resenting, as some German-
Americans have done, this newspaper's stand for
national rights against foreign aggression, he accuses it
of failing to support the president. But we do not
recall having criticised any "move" made by the presi-
dent toward maintenance of the nation's rights. From
the time when he demanded "strict accountability" for
submarine outrages down to the day when he dismissed
the German ambassador we indorsed every measure he
announced to prevent invasion of American sovereignty
and to guarantee protection to American life and prop-
erty. It has not been the administration's moves, but
its immobility, that we have deplored; we have not
criticised its declared policy, but its failure to put that
policy into effect.
When notice was given two years ago that the
United States would exact "strict accountability" for
276
THE EVILS OF DELAY 277
threatened crimes against its rights and the laws of
humanity there was not an American, of respectable
instincts who did not echo the demand — even William J.
Bryan affixed his pacific name to the document which
embodied it. When, three months later, more than a
hundred American men, women and children were mas-
sacred in the Lusitania horror there was only one
thought — the time for the accounting had come. Ameri-
cans, facing the clearest issue that ever confronted a
people, stiffened their resolution for the certain test —
a summons to defend sovereignty, law, life, all the things
that make this a nation. And what they got was an
admonition concerning the virtue of being "too proud to
fight," followed by a renewal of the correspondence with
the arrogant aggressor. It would be distasteful and
futile to tell over again the tale of demands and evasions,
new outrages and new devices to delay the decision which
every day became more inexorably pressing. Yet the
people never failed to give loyal support to each declara-
tion ; if there was a lessening of enthusiasm and even a
diminishing realization of the actuality of the perils
overshadowing the country, it was not because the presi-
dent's utterances lacked vigor, but because the govern-
ment made no move, even in the way of preparation, to
fulfill their implications. The severance of diplomatic
relations was, of course, an exception. But even that
was not voluntary, in that the action was withheld
despite many incidents which would have justified it, and
was taken at last only when Germany's murder decree
left absolutely no alternative. President Wilson at the
same time announced, with commendable frankness,
what the next step would be — he would, when events
justified the measure, ask congress for authority "to use
any means that may be necessary for the protection of
our seamen and our people in the prosecution of their
278 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
peaceful and legitimate errands on the high seas." This
was on February 3. He made the request on Monday,
February 26. That delay, filled with doubts and dis-
putations, with uncertainty and contradiction, has been
but another example, and the most striking, of the
administration's habit of shrinking from decision.
Germany had exhausted the power of language to
make her proclamation of lawless war against neutral
rights explicit and all-inclusive. She left not a loophole
for misunderstanding, compromise or negotiation. And
the effect of her hostile campaign was immediate —
American transatlantic commerce was paralyzed as com-
pletely as if her fleet invested our harbors. Yet this
utter extinction of this nation's rights at sea was repre-
sented as merely a threatening condition, which would
not become a fact requiring concrete treatment until it
had been manifested in an "overt act," such as the illegal
destruction of American vessels and lives. Meanwhile,
the government of the United States would not extend
to American shipping the protection without which it
dared not venture from our ports; thus, by the simple
expedient of submitting to exclusion from the sea the
injury of an isolated "overt act" was avoided, while
the far more serious "overt act" of a lawless blockade,
enforced by a murderous threat, was tacitly accepted. It
was perfectly obvious from the beginning that Ger-
many's aim, which was to sweep American commerce
from the Atlantic, would be accomplished just as effect-
ually if sailings were suspended thru terrorism as it
would be if the ships were torpedoed ; it was equally clear
that this method would be more agreeable to her.
Hence, every postponement of advertised sailings, every
announcement that the cabinet had "deferred decision"
as to giving the ships lawful protection, was, in effect, a
THE EVILS OF DELAY 279
submission to invasion, and tended, moreover, to impair
the principle at stake by implying doubt of its justice.
Even the brutal precision of Germany's decree did
not discourage the habit of seeking comfort from an
avowed enemy. Altho Austria had formally declared
her adherence to the program of submarine ruthlessness,
the American ambassador was instructed to inquire
whether the Vienna government really meant what that
implied. He reported that there were no reservations, and
that, furthermore, if hostilities between Germany and
the United States resulted, this country might con-
sider itself at war with Austria also. Whereupon, it is
declared, the ambassador was directed to ask whether
this notice, too, was to be accepted literally. Such a pol-
icy may appeal to thoughtless sentimentalists as a mani-
festation of exemplary patience and self-restraint, but as
a means of meeting aggression based upon the efficacy
of fear it has palpable perils. To question and quibble
over the meaning of a threat so explicit as that issued
froVn Berlin could not be regarded by the prosecutors of
the submarine campaign as anything but a confession of
timidity or a revelation of disunion; and to consume
three weeks in arguing as to whether lawful methods of
defense against lawless attacks should be employed must
be to cloud the ultimate decision with doubt.
It cannot be too often repeated that the issue, the
law and the needful action were alike plain from the
beginning. To await an "overt act," as was said the other
day, was to make peace or war depend upon an incident,
while permitting the principle to be obscured. Attempted
evasion by keeping American ships in port would be, not
to avert war, but to refuse to resist war. And the pro-
cedure of arming vessels for the prosecution of "peace-
ful and legitimate errands" was as plainly justified by
law and immemorial practice on February 3 as it is
280 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
today. It had to come to that, or abject surrender of
national rights and abandonment of law, in the end ; and
temporizing could have no other effect than to incite in
the German government a stronger contempt and in the
German people a fiercer demand for implacable destruc-
tion. No less deplorable has been the inevitable result
of procrastination in this country. When the president
severed diplomatic relations with Germany the Ameri-
can people, as they had done so often before, rallied to
him in united support. Pacifism and pro-Germanism in
congress subsided before the sweep of sentiment for the
defense of national rights and established law. Then fol-
lowed the days and weeks of inaction and vacillation, the
imprisonment of ships and the timorous controversy as
to when and how they might resume their lawful under-
takings. Public confidence was weakened, the clamors
of pacifism and disloyalty grew more strident, and in
congress, which had been ready to back the executive in
any resaonabl-e policy of national defense, the repre-
sentatives of hyphenism boldly championed the murder-
ous submarine campaign and decried the rights of the
nation they were sworn to serve. Now that President
Wilson has once more taken a definite step, we look for
a revival of unity and national spirit. There is, at
least, a decision which will inspire loyalty and force
an open alignment, instead of a policy of temporizing
which created uncertainty and encouraged secret
intrigue.
KEEP
March S, 1917.
ON THE day following Germany's declaration of her
submarine murder policy, an eminent British
author quoted from a classical source an observa-
tion which he considered apt to the occasion. "Ten years
after the birtli of Christ," he said, "a Latin author
wrote : The character of the Germans shows a terrible
mixture of ferocity and infamy. They are a people born
to lie.' ' Whether the quotation was authentic or not
seems to us immaterial, since disclosure of the Berlin
plot to incite Mexico and Japan to make war upon the
United States. Any such indictment of a people is, of
course, absurd. But if the ancient writer had specified
German statesmanship, and could return to earth today,
he would be astonished, we think, at the moderation of
his estimate, or, rather, at the progress made in ferocity,
infamy and mendacity during the 1900 years of his
absence.
The first effect upon the American mind of this
revelation of calculating criminality was, naturally, to
inspire profound indignation and disgust. The plot was
so monstrous, it revealed a statesmanship so hideously
false, that one turned from the spectacle of the imperial
government pilloried by its own treachery as from
something indecent. Yet there was one feature which
relieved the revolting baseness of the picture ; this was
the solemn stupidity, the ineffable and imbecile folly of
its inspiration and execution. No one can doubt that
281
282 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
the banditti who masquerade as a government in Mexico
could be — and have been — bribed to harass the United
States; nor is it incredible that under certain circum-
stances Japan might seek to force a settlement of her
grievances against this country. But where, outside of
Bedlam or Potsdam, would this fantastic scheme be con-
ceived— conquest thru the debauchery of a pompous and
puerile despot and thru the seduction of the proudest
nation in two hemispheres by the empty promises of an
outlawed and thrice-perjured government? The results
of German intrigue in Mexico have been palpable for
months, and documentary evidence touching this part
of the plan occasioned no shock of surprise. But history
would lack an interesting chapter if it did not record the
sentiments of Japan concerning the tactful suggestion
that she forswear herself and squander all her gains in
the war in order to achieve the honor of an alliance with
Carranza and the kaiser. The preposterous design was
not wholly, however, the result of unbalanced despera-
tion. We have no doubt whatever that it appealed to the
authorities in Berlin as a perfectly logical and hopeful
enterprise. It presents but another manifestation of
the fatal defects of Prussianism — an atrophied moral
sense and a total incapacity to understand the psychol-
ogy of normal-minded nations. Those statesmen who
imagined that Japan's honor and self-interest could be
purchased by a German offer conveyed thru Mexico are
the same ones who thought they could buy the soul of
Belgium, who believed the British to be craven and the
French decadent, and who confidently expected that one
of the first results of the war would be seizure of Canada
by the United States.
There are two circumstances, however, which will
make this crime memorable in the annals of interna-
tional perfidy. One is that the victim was to be a nation
KEEP 283
which for two years had endured German insults and
injuries without resistance ; and the other is that while
the foul plot was being prepared, and long after it had
been secretly launched, the German government was
expressing sentiments of loyal friendship for the United
States and of sorrow that Americans had misjudged
German policy. This point will be made clear by a glance
at the chronology of events. The German "peace offer"
to her enemies was made on December 12, and was fol-
lowed six days later by President Wilson's speech urging
both sides to state their terms. The Entente rejection
was published on January 11, and almost immediately
Germany decided upon her long-prepared campaign of
indiscriminate destruction and murder. For on January
19 the details were so far perfected that Foreign Secre-
tary Zimmermann instructed the German minister in
Mexico to arrange for a Mexican-Japanese war against
the United States, in the event that this country did not
submit to violation of its rights and the murder of its
citizens. It is not soothing to American pride to recall
that three days later President Wilson advocated set-
tlement of the European war upon the basis of "peace
without victory" and "freedom of the seas," two of the
cardinal demands of Germany. A copy of his address,
indeed, had been cabled to the American ambassador in
Berlin on January 15, four days before the treacherous
message was sent to Mexico. On January 24 the
imperial chancellor sent for Mr. Gerard, and during an
hour's conference expressed his profound sense of grati-
fication that the United States had taken a position of
"high humanitarianism." At the same time the con-
trolled press of the empire echoed these praises. It has
not yet been disclosed whether the debauchery of the
Mexican government was consummated, but it is sig-
nificant that on January 31 Germany felt all was ready
284 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
for her challenge to civilization. She then issued her
monstrous decree announcing a policy of murder "to
serve the welfare of mankind in a higher sense." And
the same statesmen who had begun, twelve days before,
an attempt to incite a mercenary war against the United
States penned these lying words :
Sincerely trusting that the people and the government of
the United States will understand the motives for this deci-
sion and its necessity, the imperial government hopes that the
United States may view the new situation from the lofty
heights of impartiality, and assist, on their part, to prevent
further misery and unavoidable sacrifice of human life.
On February 3 President Wilson announced the
severance of diplomatic relations, and one can imagine
the guffaws that must have echoed thru the imperial
offices when those there read Mr. Wilson's generous
expressions of confidence in their honor:
I refuse to believe that it is the intention of the German
authorities to do in fact what they have warned us they will
feel at liberty to do. I cannot bring myself to believe that
they will indeed pay no regard to the ancient friendship
between their people and our own.
Yet hypocrisy had still its part to play in deluding
the German people with hints of American enmity. So
Zimmermann unctuously told them that "President Wil-
son's decision has surprised and disappointed us." Count
von Bernstorff, in Washington, was more honest or less
discreet, for his comment upon his dismissal was : "Well,
I expected it; my government expected it; the United
States could do nothing else." It adds, of course, an
exceptional touch of infamy to the whole proceeding
that the treacherous communication was actually sent
thru the German embassy in Washington. Insolence and
hypocrisy went still further. Three days before diplo-
matic relations were broken, orders from Berlin pro-
cured the criminal crippling of German vessels intrusted
KEEP 285
to the protection of the United States at the beginning
of the war. And for a week after the break the govern-
ment which had sought to incite war against the United
States had the hardihood to hold the American ambassa-
dor a virtual prisoner, in an attempt to force recognition
of certain provisions in an ancient "treaty of amity"
which would be to Germany's advantage ! On February
10 the Zimmermann who indited the Mexican note com-
plained bitterly that the clouding of German-American
relations was due to "British lying dispatches," and two
days later the Swiss minister in Washington conveyed
the final affront in a message from the conspirators that
they were "willing to negotiate, formally or informally,
with the United States." It remained only for the
imperial chancellor, Von Bethmann-Hollweg, to complete
the revelation of unredeemed hypocrisy. On February
27 he said to the reichstag that the United States had
broken off relations "brusquely" ; in contrast, presum-
ably, with the ceremonious politeness of the submarine
murder proclamation, issued without an hour's warning.
"No authentic communication about the reasons for this
step reached me," said the chancellor, with gentle mel-
ancholy, and he added this sorrowful rebuke for Amer-
ican truculence:
For more than a century friendly relations between us
and America have been carefully promoted. We honored
them — as Bismarck once put it — as an heirloom from Fred-
erick the Great. We regret the rupture with a nation which
by her history seemed to be predestined surely to work with
us, not against us.
There was unconscious but grim satire in the chan-
cellor's citation of Frederick the Great. For that mon-
arch, the real founder of the German empire, was the
author of the false and cynical philosophy which still
guides German policy. Events today show with what
286 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
fidelity Berlin is following the precepts which Frederick
bequeathed in writing to his successors, for among them
are these:
Statesmanship can be reduced to three principles: First,
maintain your power, and, according to circumstances,
increase and extend it; second, form alliances only for your
own advantage; third, command fear and respect even in the
most disastrous times.
Do not be ashamed of making interested alliances from
which only you yourself can derive the whole advantage. Do
not make the foolish mistake of not breaking them when you
believe that your interest requires it. Above all, uphold the
following maxim: "To despoil your neighbors is to deprive
them of the means of injuring you."
Nor is kaiserism today false to the precepts of Bis-
marck, who wrote:
That any one should act in politics out of complaisance
or from a sentiment of justice others may expect from us, but
not we from them! Every government takes solely its own
interests as the standard of its actions, however it may drape
them with deductions of justice or sentiment.
Rational Americans, therefore, will hardly be sur-
prised by the latest evidence of what militaristic autoc-
racy means, because it is in perfect harmony with every
other move it has made. The really sickening feature
is the revelation that Germany's is the Uriah Heep
among governments, that she is dishonored by a states-
manship which snivels while it betrays and lies in the
face of friendship which it means to stab.
PROOF NOT NEEDED, BUT USEFUL
March 5, 1917.
fT^HE stolid cynicism of Herr Zimmermann's admis-
sion that Germany did try to incite war against
-*- the United States assures him of a certain eminence
in history — not inferior, perhaps, to that which the
imperial chancellor achieved by his "scrap of paper"
utterance. These two statesmen between them have
rendered valuable service to posterity by their complete
revelation of what Teutonic Kultur means to its official
exponents. Still more distinct is the benefit which the
avowal has conferred upon the United States. No one of
balanced mind and honest judgment doubted the authen-
ticity of the dispatch sent from Berlin to Mexico City;
the internal evidence of the document was persuasive,
and the guarantee of the government at Washington was
absolutely convincing. Yet German officialdom has a
hardened villainy, and a robust denial would not have
been surprising. And while this would have been worth-
less against the documentary evidence, it would have
given seditionists here an excuse to continue their
defense of the outlawed and perjured government.
It was well, however, that the verification was delayed
long enough to permit the accomplices of autocracy
to disclose their sentiments. The exposure of Germany's
treacherous undertaking was hardly more shocking or
more enlightening than the indecent chorus which it
evoked from the agents of kaiserism. Pacifists darkly
hinted that the plot was an invention of "the munitions
287
THE WAR FfcOM THIS SIDE
trust" and the "war-makers." Pro-Germans in congress
charged that the president was the tool of intriguing
enemies of the slandered Teuton. German- American
disloyalists denounced the proof of Berlin's perfidy as a
criminal fabrication, designed to create enmity against
America's dearest friends. Senators of the United
States did not scruple to insinuate that the president was
assisting a monumental and palpable fraud. "This would
not be the first time," said O'Gorman, of New York,
"that a belligerent has resorted to forgery to line up
support against an enemy." Smith, of Michigan, boldly
declared his belief that the dispatch was "a forgery and
a sham." But among German-American newspapers and
propagandists the defense of Berlin was vindictively
anti-American. "Either the note is falsified or miscon-
strued by the state department or the White House,"
said the Detroit Abend Post. It was "only one item
of the series of noisy phenomena," declared the New
York Herald, and "the doubt of its authenticity was by
no means dispelled by Secretary Lansing's explanation."
The New York Staats Zeitung was more cautious, but
was not sure that the evidence had not been "made in
London." "If such a note exists," declared Ludwig
Nissen, a leader of German- Americanism, "it was forged
for the purpose of driving this country into war with
Germany. There are thousands of English propagan-
dists in this country who would do anything to earn their
pay by fomenting such a war." Herman Metz, another
of the same stripe, rashly added to his denunciation
a certificate of character for maligned German states-
manship. He said :
There is nothing Teutonic about the note. Zimmermann
would not have signed such a dispatch, had it been written;
Von Bethmann-Hollweg would not have signed it. It is bunk.
Do you think that German officials would have referred to the
PROOF NOT NEEDED, BUT USEFUL 289
submarine campaign as "ruthless warfare"? It is a fool
proposition from beginning to end, intended to stir up feeling
here. It was probably made in London. »
But the most impudent of the champions of kaiser-
ism was George Sylvester Viereck, editor of a New York
weekly called the Fatherland, which thruout the war has
defended every German atrocity and incited hostility to
the American government. His status was shown in
the summer of 1915, when he sent to a German agent a
"statement for June," showing $250 received and $1500
still due, and advising that payment be made thru a
lawyer, "whose standing as my legal adviser would
exempt him from any possible inquiry." This is the
same Viereck who said of the Zimmermann note:
The alleged dispatch is obviously faked; it is impossible
to believe that the German foreign secretary would place his
name under such a preposterous document. It is unquestion-
ably a brazen forgery, planted by British agents to stampede
us into an alliance. It is an impudent hoax. If Germany
were plotting against us, she would hardly adopt so clumsy a
method; the statesmen of Berlin would hardly offer an alli-
ance based upon such ludicrous propositions. The creaking
of the machinery of the British propaganda is clearly per-
ceptible. The American people are willing to be thrilled,
but refuse to be humbugged.
And the answer to all these mouthings is Zimmer-
mann's avowal that the German government betrayed
the hospitality and long-suffering patience of the United
States by sending, thru its embassy in Washington, an
order directing the incitement of war upon this country
if it dared to resist intolerable aggressions. German
officialdom not only coolly confessed the treachery, but
exhibited all the "folly" which its abject supporters had
declared to be incredible. A more interesting disclosure,
however, is that these propagandists are afflicted with
the -same mental blindness as afflicts the government
they serve. They are surprised, altho no one else is,
290 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
to find that German statesmanship is precisely the cyni-
cal, immoral, treacherous and almost unbelievably stupid
institution which they proclaimed it would be if it had
produced this wretched plot. What they considered, or
pretended to consider, "clumsy," "a brazen forgery," "a
fool proposition" and "an impudent hoax" is, of course,
a natural and characteristic manifestation of that sys-
tem which they have the hardihood to serve behind the
shelter of American citizenship. It may be that "the
British propaganda" has all the genius with which these
infatuated adherents of kaiserism endow it ; but it would
be beyond the capacity of any "forger" to invent a
proposal bearing so indelibly as this one did the marks
of German official reasoning and morality.
Only the dullest or most perverse mind could argue
that this project, fantastic and monstrous as it seemed,
was incredible, in the face of the record of the last two
years and a half. Why should it be supposed that a gov-
ernment which argued that the neutrality of Belgium
was "only a word," and described a treaty bearing its
own signature as "a scrap of paper," would shrink from
inciting a foul attack against a nation which it hated as
only the perpetrator of causeless injury can hate the vic-
tim ? Upon what ground should one think that this plot
would be too base a device for the government which had
methodically violated and dishonored every principle of
law and humanity? Was there anything in the crimes
against Belgium, in the Lusitania horror, in the long
succession of brutal outrages at sea and seditious opera-
tions in the United States, or in the infamy of the sub-
marine proclamation, to suggest that Germany would
be delicate about devising treachery against a country
toward which she professed intentions of peace?
A LITTLE STUDY IN PACIFISM
March 9, 1917.
AjMOST side by side in a newspaper we find two
news reports concerning the senate filibuster
which are as significant, in their way, as the scorn-
ful denunciation visited upon the plotting senators by
the legislatures, press and people of their home states.
One tells of the enthusiasm in Germany for "these fine
Americans who remained uncontaminated by Wilson's
blind devotion to England," and whose example "will
make a deep impression." That the old congress
adjourned without action on the defense bill, says one
leading journal, "cannot but influence the next congress,
new" members of which have to thank the pacifists for
their elections." The other report quotes a telegram
sent to each of the senatorial plotters by a peace society
in New York, expressing "grateful recognition of the
courage and devotion with which you have served the
cause of peace and democracy."
It is not at all remarkable that the scene which
most Americans considered disgraceful should cause
both the Germans and the pacifists to exult. For their
aims regarding the United States in this matter are abso-
lutely identical — both want to avert war between the
two countries, and both urge as the proper means to
that end the acquiescence of the United States in a law-
less and sanguinary decree. Upon this point militarism
and pacifism are in perfect agreement. Nor will your
ardent pacifist be incensed, or even disturbed, if he
i 291
292 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
is charged with being an accomplice of pro-German prop-
aganda. He believes that he stands for an ideal far
loftier than patriotism, far broader than the area of the
United States ; American citizenship he considers a con-
venient and not dishonorable privilege, but what really
elevates his soul is the consciousness that he is a citizen
of the world. Hence he is able to divest himself of such
primitive ideas as national honor, national rights and
international justice, and to recognize the essential one-
ness of humanity, the bonds of brotherhood which link
the purveyors of assassination to their victims. But his
most familiar attribute is his devotion to what he calls
peace, a condition which is triumphantly revealed in the
existing relations between Germany and the United
States — on the one side murderous aggression and on
the other submission. He is frankly for peace even in
this guise, and at any cost. And it is just here that his
processes of reasoning become most baffling. For he
follows the idea that peace is to be attained by the singu-
lar expedient of encouraging war. This is shown clearly
by the pacifist compliments to the filibustering senators
upon the ground that they "have served the cause of
peace." Served it how? By preventing the arming of
American ships? They have not done so. By making
it impossible for the United States to protect its rights ?
They have not. All they accomplished was, as President
Wilson said, to make this country for the time being
"helpless and contemptible." And the infallible result is
to bring war nearer by inciting new outrages and grosser
invasions of sovereignty.
But a still clearer revelation of pacifism was the
"grateful recognition" of the service of these men "to
the cause of democracy." Even an intellect clouded by
this perverse doctrine can discern, we must suppose, that
the essential principles of democracy under our sys-
A LITTLE STUDY IN PACIFISM 293
tern are government by duly elected representatives,
majority rule, and, above all, free expression. Now how
did the recreant senators stand as to the*se things ? The
measure they foully struck down was passed by the
house by a vote of 403 to 13 — more than thirty to one.
It was supported in a signed statement by seventy-six
senators out of ninety-six. Yet, by shabby trickery, by
methods of willful despotism and chicane that would
not be tolerated in the Prussian diet, they prevented a
vote, strangled the will of the senate, made it impossible
for the congress of the United States to take action one
way or the other. If they had opposed the measure to
any extent and had voted against it, they would have
been merely bad Americans. When they blocked the
right of expression they were false to democracy itself
and at open enmity with the fundamental principles of
the republic.
The incident is merely typical of the vagaries of the
pacifist mind, the distortions of its eccentric reasoning.
Other examples appear in the news from day to day. A
Professor Muzzey, of Columbia, offers this outline of a
national policy : "Before going to war I would wait until
they -had sunk seven ships. Yes, I would wait until they
had sunk seventy times seven ships — and then I wouldn't
go to war. They can't insult the American people; the
American people are the only ones who can insult them-
selves." A delegation of Harvard men told senators in
Washington that we should "conquer our enemies by
good will," and that even in case of invasion our duty
would be non-resistance. These sentiments are plain
enough. Monstrous as they appear, they are real. Paci-
fists believe that the United States should "waive" or
"suspend" or even abandon its rights to send ships across
Germany's lawless "barred zone" on the high sea. Let
us imagine this doctrine in effect and examine the devel-
294 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
opments. Supposing Germany found that her murder
campaign lagged, and that she needed a wider range;
she would thereupon extend her "barred zone" to mid-
Atlantic. Naturally, the United States would have to
recognize that. If such an extension proved insufficient,
a decree might follow that any American ship leaving
its port would be sunk at sight ; and we could not more
justly object to that than to the present prohibition.
Even this measure might not bring Great Britain to
terms, and Germany conceivably would announce that
she must, "in order to serve the higher interests of
humanity," forcibly suppress all American industries
serving her enemies. This would necessitate armed inva-
sion— -and pacifism would counsel submission. If the
next step were a German occupation of the national
capital, what then ? And if the next were suspension of
the republic and appointment of the crown prince as vice-
roy of this country, what then ? These speculations are,
of course, fantastic — but not more so than pacifism
itself. What we are trying to find out is, at what point
might resistance be made. There are pacifists who
declare that it would be our duty to submit even to the
overturning of the government by an invader, in order
that our "vicarious sacrifice in the cause of peace" might
lead the world out of the morass of war. But most of
them see no further than the proposition that we sur-
render our rights at sea. In the matter of logic, how-
ever, there is nothing to choose between the two classes.
One holds that we would advance the ideals of justice
and Christian civilization by abandoning them to destruc-
tion, and the other imagines that the surrender of some
vital rights would protect others.
The theory is appealingly stated by a peace commit-
tee of the Society of Friends. National honor, they say,
"is maintained by patience and self-control," and "peace
A LITTLE STUDY IN PACIFISM 295
will come when some great nation dares to stake all upon
persistent good-will." Now, they declare, is "America's
supreme opportunity." It may fairly be said that the
United States has staked all upon good-will for thirty-
one months, for it has submitted to wrongs ranging from
trespass to murder without taking action. And the
result — are we nearer to peace? Are our rights safer
and our sovereignty more secure? Have We placated
Germany? Have we inspired her to more moderate and
civilized behavior ? Have we advanced the cause of inter-
national justice and peace? "Between nations, as
between individuals," urge these sincere folk, "the rights
of all are securely defended by mutual confidence, not
suspicion ; by universal co-operation and law, not by pri-
vate armed defense." As an expression of hope this is
admirable ; as a statement of fact it is, we think, defect-
ive. There is not, and cannot be, mutual confidence
between nations when one side persistently makes war
upon the other. As for "universal co-operation and law,"
whet defense are they so long as armed might repudiates
and defies them? And to what extent is law re-estab-
lished by those who urge that no effort be made to
enforce it — that, on the contrary, its most ruthless viola-
tions be condoned? An English pacifist, speaking in
New York the other day, showed that the doctrine causes
the same imperfect modes of thought abroad. He found
the ideals of both sides in the war equally just, and
advocated "peace without victory" and internationalism.
Some one asked him what would happen to the mon-
archical systems in Europe in that case, and he made
this reply:
The kings won't stand in the way when the people make
up their minds. We have dealt with them before in Eng-
land— we have cut their heads off.
A robust answer for an advocate of non-resistance.
But the most curious feature of it was the speaker's
296 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
hallucination that it was pacifism that overthrew the
Stuarts and established democracy in Great Britain.
"We," he says, "know how to deal with kings." He would
see nothing incongruous in comparing himself and his
associates to the stern Ironsides of Cromwell, those hardy
souls who thought justice was worth fighting for, whose
motto was "Trust God, but keep your powder dry !" But
perhaps the most illuminating manifestation of pacifism
was the action of its convention a few weeks ago, when
thirty-three societies first passed a resolution to resist
war for any purpose whatsoever, and then another ad-
vocating no war without a referendum — which amounted
to a declaration that the people should express them-
selves, and, if the verdict was for war, it should be over-
ruled. Even some of the delegates called the proceed-
ing "puerile, foolish and dangerous."
It is only by examining such evidences that one may
learn what pacifism means and is. And the more we
study it the more justice we find in an estimate we
offered a year ago:
In the ordinary relationships of life pacifists are not
abnormal ; many of them have a genuine feeling for democracy
and humanity. But in respect to this passion they are imper-
vious to facts; they live in a world of exalted and baseless
visions; they pursue distorted ideals thru a phantasmagoria
of perverted sentiments. * * * In all its aspects pacifism
is hopelessly unsound and essentially vicious. It is at enmity
not alone with loyalty and patriotism and the ideals of this
republic, but with justice itself. Assuming to represent rea-
son, it invokes folly and confxision. Exploited as the one
force that can eradicate war, it is a serious obstacle to that
achievement; for it is the one thing in this world that tends to
make peace unattractive and conceivably could make it
revolting.
ACTION AND DELAY
March 12, 1917.
OUTLINES of a definite policy concerning the crisis
with Germany have appeared at last, in the call-
ing of an extra session of congress and the
announcement that American merchantmen bound for
the "barred zone" will be armed for defense. Whether
these moves are considered as bringing war nearer, or as
being dictated by a war already in operation against the
United States, is a matter of minor consequence com-
pared to the fact that an actual clash is imminent. We
are inclined to emphasize this point because a great
many Americans, influenced by months of optimistic iner-
tia in Washington, cannot bring themselves to recog-
nize the reality. Much of the significance of recent
events lies in their dates, and a chronological review will
assist understanding of the situation and its probabili-
ties. On February 3 President Wilson announced to
congress that diplomatic relations with Germany had
been severed as a necessary result of her proclamation
of a lawless submarine war against American and other
neutral shipping. When convinced of Germany's pur-
pose, he said, he would ask for authority "to use any
means necessary for the protection" of this country's
rights at sea. On February 26 he requested authority
"to supply our merchant ships with defensive arms and
with the means of using them, and to employ any other
instrumentalities or methods that may be necessary."
A bill embodying the first provision, but not the second.
297
298 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
passed the house of representatives by a vote of 403 to
13. The senate was ready to pass a measure including
all the president asked, but a dozen members were able,
because of the short time remaining before the end of
the session, to prevent a vote. On March 4, after this
check to his plans, President Wilson denounced the fili-
buster as having made the United States government
"helpless and contemptible." He argued, however, that
"it would not cure the difficulty" to call an extra session,
because "the paralysis of the senate would remain," and
he urged that "the rules of the senate shall be so altered
that it can act." On March 8 the senate — only three
members dissenting — adopted a rule curtailing the power
of obstructionists by providing that two-thirds of the
membership may always force a vote. On March 9
President Wilson proclaimed an extra session, to
assemble on April 16, at the same time letting it be
known that the arming of ships for defense would pro-
ceed forthwith.
Five circumstances standing out in this record
should be noted : First, following the decisive procedure
of a severance of diplomatic relations there was a period
of twenty-three days — February 3-26 — during which
the administration hesitated, neither ship owners nor
members of congress being able to obtain any clear
information as to the government's policy. Second, a
struggle arose between the president and congress over
the form of authorization of measures of national
defense, this culminating in the calamitous filibuster and
failure of the bill. Third, the senate promptly met the
accusation of the president, by altering, within four days
— March 5-8 — rules which it had maintained for a hun-
dred years. Fourth, President Wilson with even greater
promptitude — within twenty-four hours — disclosed the
policy of arming ships and summoned an extra session.
ACTION AND DELAY 299
Fifth, he provided for a further delay of five weeks —
March 9-April 16 — before the government of the United
States can exert its full power to meet the supreme crisis
in its history.
It could be discerned at the time, and has been dem-
onstrated since then, that the three weeks of inaction
and uncertainty which followed the breaking of relations
must produce complications, and it must be said that
most of the difficulties that developed may be traced to
that delay. If the circumstances justified Ambassador
von BernstorfFs dismissal — and they assuredly did —
they justified the immediate taking of measures of
defense. Certainly there was no ambiguity in Germany's
declaration of submarine war; "all ships found in the
barred zone," she had said, "will be sunk" without warn-
ing, and she particularly specified neutral vessels. Yet
for more than three weeks this lawless purpose was
allowed to stand unchallenged, American shipping was
driven from the sea, American ports were virtually
blockaded by an illegal prohibition, and daily the threats
of Germany grew more arrogant and direct.
Besides intensifying the foreign peril, the attitude
of the administration created a menacing domestic situ-
ation. The dispute between the executive and legis-
lative branches of the government arose over two mat-
ters— the extent of authority demanded by the presi-
dent, and his avowed determination to deal with the
problem after March 4 without the advice or co-op-
eration of congress. Some members objected to the
grant of power asked; many more were convinced that
an extra session should be summoned at once. If Presi-
dent Wilson had taken the logical course of requesting
the authority from congress at the time when he
announced the severance of diplomatic relations, it
would have been given to him almost without question.
300 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
But as the delay extended from days to weeks, with
uncertainty manifested in contradictory reports concern-
ing the arming of ships and the appearance of the presi-
dent before congress, the pro-Germans and their allies
were encouraged and were enabled to foment discord.
Even those members of congress most loyal to him and
most inclined to give him all he asked found it difficult
to reconcile his sudden activity with his long inertia.
During many months, they said, the administration had
permitted outrages to pile up, and for three weeks had
remained silent and inscrutable in the face of unmasked
peril; and then the president came rushing to congress
in the last days of an expiring session, when the legis-
lative machinery was already clogged, with a demand for
action such as might justify serious debate. And even
then the executive had no clear message to deliver. The
president asked authority to act "should that become
necessary," and said that the method remained to be
chosen "if occasion should indeed arise." So late as
March 5, indeed, he was still in apparent doubt as to
the situation, for he said "we stand firm in armed neu-
trality," whereas no move to realize that policy had been
made, except for his unsuccessful appeal to congress.
It was as a result of this confusion and working at cross
purposes that "a little group of "willful men" were able
to prevent action entirely.
Turning to the more serious aspect of the problem,
it is recognized, of course, that "armed neutrality" is
hardly more than a phrase ; in practice, the sending out
of American merchantmen armed fore and aft, and with
trained gunners authorized to resist submarine attack,
means war, unless in the extremely doubtful event that
Germany tacitly abandons her loudly advertised pur-
pose. Her proclamation was explicit enough, but devel-
opments since it was issued have stiffened her inten-
ACTION AND DELAY 301
tions. She has won enough success to make her impla-
cable, and, so far as the United States is concerned, she
has read fear and helplessness in the we"eks of hesitating
inaction. Her readiness to accept war, and her expecta-
tion of it, were shown by the fact that in advance of her
announcement she undertook her intrigue for a Mexican-
Japanese alliance. It would be idle to recount again
the errors in policy which made the present sinister
condition of affairs inevitable. And besides, even these
mistaken expedients might be excused in part as meas-
ures which it was hoped would avoid actual conflict.
But that which cannot be defended is the neglect, dur-
ing the two years of acute controversy, of preparation to
enforce the demands or even to defend the nation against
further wrongs.
Need for the employment of all the government's
power now is obvious and urgent. The country has no
adequate army, and the appropriation for the army that
does exist failed in the recent session. Provision has
been made for new naval construction, but the ships
already available are insufficiently manned. Only prompt
co-operation of the executive and legislative branches
can effectually hasten defensive work. Yet President
Wilson compels a delay of five weeks.
BAGDAD, A GERMAN DEFEAT
March U, 1917.
AMONG all the dramatic contrasts of the war, none
excels in vivid appeal that which is suggested by
the fall of Bagdad. Behind the picture of a tri-
umphant army entering the city of the caliphs looms
another, of humiliation and defeat. From such grim
scenes does fate fashion the tale of war. Thousands of
those to whom the news would bring exultation will
never hear it. Their bodies lie in fever-ridden swamps
or in shallow graves scooped from the desert sands ; their
bones bleach along the thousand-mile pathway of a
broken army into captivity. And somewhere in Anatolia,
that inhospitable fastness of the Moslem in Asia Minor,
the survivors are enduring the torments of privation
and disease in Turkish prison camps. Theirs are only
the bitter memories of an adventure that failed, of a
sacrifice to heedlessness and incompetence. They had
glimpsed the golden minarets of "the glorious city" in
the glow of seeming victory, only to watch the vision
fade, and to be driven into bondage thru the gates they
had hoped to pass as conquerors. All the stirring events
in other fields of the world conflict have not been able
to dim the fascination of these remote campaigns in
mid-Asia. For more than two years the wastes of Meso-
potamia, for centuries silent and solitary, have been
filled with the clamors of war, and every movement of
the contending forces has disturbed the dust of pre-
historic ages. Over the buried capitals of forgotten
302
BAGDAD, A GERMAN DEFEAT 303
empires the tides of strife have ebbed and flowed; the
region that saw the birth of the human race and all the
barbaric splendor and cruelty of its youth sees now a
new and remorseless struggle for its control; the land
that was furrowed with the chariot wheels of Assyrian
and Babylonian princes, of Persian kings and Grecian
conquerors and Roman centurions, is tracked by the
death-dealing machinery of modern science, and the
rivers that welled forth from the biblical paradise are
highways for flotillas of destruction. Thru the brief
words of the day's dispatches one may peer into fathom-
less depths of antiquity. Some musings of many months
ago are recalled :
* * * of fighting columns that tramp over the graves
of cities entombed by time; of wireless signals thrilling
beneath the sky that looked down upon the canals and hanging
gardens of imperial Babylon; of trenches dug in the dust of
peoples whose life-story can be guessed but fragmentarily
from rude scratches in tablets of clay. The shadows of wheel-
ing aeroplanes cross and recross the path that Abraham
"traversed when he heard the call in Ur of the Chaldees and
set forth to claim the inheritance of Canaan, covenanted to
him and to his seed forever. Gunboats trouble the waters of
Eden, within sight of the place where Nebuchadnezzar fell
from majesty to become as a beast of the field; where Bel-
shazzar saw the livid letters of his doom start out from the
wall of the banquet room ; when Semiramis held her legendary
court, and Sennacherib led his hosts to battle; where Darius
the king "called with a lamentable voice" to know whether
Daniel had been delivered from the lions; where Cyrus over-
threw the Babylonian dynasty and imposed upon the world
the changeless laws of the Medes and Persians; where Alex-
ander halted to contemplate the wonders of his conquests and
died, ruler of the earth, at thirty-two.
But it is not alone for the antiquity of the land
that the fall of Bagdad appeals to the imagination. That
city is itself one of the milestones on the pathway of
human history. It was the center of wealth and culture
304 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
when Europe was benighted; there was the source of
Oriental romance and legend which have enriched the
literature of the world; there was the heart of Islam
and the capital of its far-flung empire, which today,
after twelve centuries, we see dissolving before the
blasts of universal war. And the event is of still more
compelling interest because it signifies another mighty
change in the world map — the shattering of Germany's
tremendous project of Eastern power, the snatching
beyond her grasp of the coveted scepter of Asiatic
dominion. It is not strange that Great Britain exults
in this dramatic triumph. For it not only avenges the
humiliation of Gallipoli and erases the disaster of Kut-
el-Amara, but proclaims to the Mohammedan world that
British power is still mighty and that the holy places
of the faith have passed from the custody of the Turk
and the shadow of Teuton domination.
That Bagdad would be one of the chief objectives of
the war was made known to readers of this newspaper
less than twenty days after the conflict began with the
invasion of Belgium. We showed that Germany's goal
was in the East ; that her aim was to erect a federation
of states, stretching from the North sea to the Bos-
porus, and thereby to command a highway extending
thru Asia Minor and Mesopotamia to the Persian gulf
and the frontier of India ; that this was the challenge of
the world's greatest military power to its mightiest
naval power — to create an overland empire across two
continents and wrest from Great Britain and her allies
the overlordship of the Eastern world. The accuracy of
the forecast was shown in the adherence of Turkey, with
its titular control of Islam, and the systematic subju-
gation of the Balkan peninsula. But long before Berlin
had been linked to Constantinople, the struggle for
supremacy at the remote end of the projected empire
BAGDAD, A GERMAN DEFEAT 305
was under way. Great Britain, having sent forces to
guard the oil fields at the head of the Persian gulf,
undertook to sever the taproot of German expansion in
that region by seizing control of the valleys of the Tigris
and Euphrates and of the ancient seat of Moslem power,
300 miles above the mouth of the rivers. For nearly a
year this great enterprise was carried on without
attracting the attention of the world, until, on Septem-
ber 29, 1915, the expedition drove the Turks from Kut-
el-Amara, less than 100 miles from Bagdad. Two months
later a dashing advance had reached Ctesiphon, a life-
less ruin which marks the place where there stood, 2400
years ago, the splendid palaces of Parthian kings. Bag-
dad and victory were but eighteen miles distant, beyond
a defenseless plain.
But Germany reached across the continents to
strike a crushing blow. One of her greatest soldiers,
Von der Goltz, was in command, and suddenly the British
found themselves forced to recoil under the battering
attacks of Turkish reinforcements that poured out from
the city. Outnumbered, outmaneuvered, their ranks
thinned by the losses from battle and disease during a
year's campaigning in the desert, they were driven back
to Kut-el-Amara. There General Townshend, with 10,000
men, made a stand, the rest of the force — as many
more — retreating down the river to join new columns
which were on their way up from the gulf. Relentlessly
the Turks closed in, and early in December had the
encampment besieged. The relief expedition, fighting
with desperate courage, had progressed by January 24,
1916, to within eight miles of the beleaguered garrison,
but was flung back. Another attempt brought it within
twenty-two miles, but again the Turks held firm. At
the end of April, after nearly five months of heroic
resistance, the surrounded British were starved into sur-
306 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
render, and the 9000 men and officers were sent upon
the terrible march of 1000 miles to the prison camps of
Anatolia. The disaster was worse than that of Gallipoli,
for there the defeated army was extricated. In the
Orient, where power alone commands fealty, failure can-
cels all obligations, and British prestige had received a
staggering blow. Thruout the whole Eastern world
spread the news that the Turks and their allies had
humbled the English, and that the kaiser, new "pro-
tector of the faithful," was to be the lord of Asia.
Great Britain knew that at any cost her supremacy
must be reasserted. The defeat had been due to the
fatal misconception that sent a force of 20,000 or 30,000
men to conquer a vast province held by a courageous foe
with the backing of the strongest military power in
Europe, and to hold a line of communication across 300
miles of swamp and desert. The lesson was a bitter one,
but it was well learned. When General Maude began
his main advance toward Bagdad last December, he led
120,000 troops, equipped with powerful artillery, a
strong fleet of gunboats and an elaborate system of
transport and supply. The progress of the forces on
land and by the rivers was swift and sure. Again and
again the Turks made a stand, but always they were
driven back, and on February 26 the British were in
control of Kut-el-Amara, where Townshend and his gar-
rison had been overwhelmed ten months before. From
this point the advance was dazzlingly rapid. Ctesiphon
was reached in ten days, and there the fatal check of
November, 1915, was wiped out by the routing of the
Turks from their intrenchments. Without allowing the
defenders an instant's rest, the British commander flung
his cavalry in pursuit ; after seventy-two hours of cease-
less fighting the Tigris was bridged and crossed, and
last Sunday the victorious army marched into the
BAGDAD, A GERMAN DEFEAT 307
ancient capital of the caliphate. For reasons of senti-
ment, strategy and political influence this is one of the
outstanding events of the entire war. , Bagdad is more
than a populous city, more than a commercial center
commanding ancient caravan routes between West and
East, more than the projected terminus of a transcon-
tinental railroad. Its possession gives command of
Mesopotamia. For five centuries it was the seat of the
caliphs, and is sanctified by the tombs of prophets of
the ancient faith. It is a symbol of military power, of
religious headship, of imperial dominion. What its fall
means we told when it was first threatened sixteen
months ago:
When Germany holds the Berlin-Constantinople section
of her Berlin-to-Bagdad railroad line, she may find that her
adversary holds the other end, from Bagdad to the gulf. If
the British capture that city, they will control the lower
valleys of the region thru which passes the overland highway
of the future from Europe to the East. When the terms of
peace come to be written, Bagdad will weigh as well as Con-
stantinople and Brussels.
Combined with the British advance from Egypt into
Palestine, and with the Russian sweep thru Persia into
Mesopotamia, the event seems to forecast the final over-
throw of the Turkish power; certainly it signifies the
weakening of Germany's arm, which once was able to
thrust back her enemy from the very gates of the
ancient city, yet now must submit to its loss without
striking a blow.
GERMANY'S DEFEAT IN RUSSIA
March 17, 1917.
EVENTS in three widely separated fields darken the
shadow of defeat looming upon the path of Ger-
many. Forced retirement of the line in France
signifies paralysis of her power of sustained offensive
and the necessity of hoarding a diminishing supply of
troops. The fall of Bagdad dissipates the grandiose
dream of a Teutonic empire in the East. And the revolu-
tion in Russia strikes from beneath the German autoc-
racy one of its strongest props. Here are three develop-
ments of profound significance. And the most ominous
for Germany, strangely enough, is the upheaval which
has overthrown the Slavic czar. For while it reveals
the dissension and violence of civil strife, its vital mean-
ing is that the domination of Russia by German intrigue
and bureaucratic treachery is at an end, and that Ber-
lin's hope of attaining a separate peace with one of her
mightiest enemies has been shattered. The shortening
of the line in France is a concession to necessity. The
loss of Bagdad is a check to important plans of imperial
expansion. But the revolution in Russia is a Teutonic
disaster, military and political. The collapse of czarism
may even presage the downfall of Prussianism, if the
deluded and exploited German people have a spirit equal
to that of the awakened Slavs. That the war would give
new impetus to the forward movement of democracy was
apparent from the beginning, and, as we remarked more
than sixteen months ago, this effect was most clearly
308
GERMANY'S DEFEAT IN RUSSIA 309
foreshadowed in Russia, where the people were still
enslaved by absolutism, a regime medieval in its falsity,
rapacity and incompetence. And at tfce same time we
showed that the empire needed liberation from German-
ism as much as from despotism. In November, 1915, we
wrote :
Reform or revolution — that will be the narrow choice that
will confront the Romanoff dynasty. If Germany were to be
wholly triumphant, the Russian despotism would be strength-
ened. For German influence has always been the backbone of
Russian reaction and the most effective obstacle to demo-
cratic movements in the nation; Berlin has supported autoc-
racy as assiduously in Petrograd as in Vienna and Sofia and
Constantinople.
It is to be borne in mind, therefore, that the revolu-
tion has had a dual inspiration — to break the shackles of
absolutism by establishing the forms of constitutional
government and a free parliament, and to liberate Rus-
sian nationality from the enslaving power of a German-
ized bureaucracy. The immediate purpose, of course, is
to .prevent the betrayal of the nation by pro-German
treachery and to insure prosecution of the war until
Russian territory has been freed of invaders and until
the ideals of the people are realized. To understand this
stupendous movement one must glance at the develop-
ments in Russia during the war. When the conflict
began, the democratic movement was already in full
tide, but the aggression of Austria and Germany pro-
duced a spirit of unity such as the empire had never
before known. Venerating the czar as the divinely
appointed head of the state and the church, the people
were inspired also by passionate loyalty to "holy Russia."
Patriotism was intensified by the manifesto of the sover-
eign, in which he invoked the names of justice and lib-
erty. The durna, summoned to co-operate in defense of
the empire, thrilled with devoted enthusiasm. Even the
310 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Nihilists proclaimed adherence to the policies of the
government for the safeguarding of the nation.
But these bright hopes were soon extinguished.
One of the tragedies of the first year of the war was the
betrayal of the people who put their trust in the worth-
less pledges of a medieval despotism and a rapacious
bureaucracy. Made arrogant by military successes, the
government dishonored every promise. Poland and Fin-
land were not freed ; the duma was mercilessly repressed
whenever it attempted to do more than vote appropria-
tions; the press was gagged, and every popular move-
ment to obtain justice was crushed by police tyranny.
But even worse than these things was the actual betrayal
of the army by grafting incompetents and German
intriguers in high places. War funds were stolen, enor-
mous supplies disappeared or were diverted from the
front. Within a few months the reserves of ammunition
were exhausted, while nothing had been done to organize
production. Germany, fully aware of these conditions,
which had been brought about largely by her agents,
struck when Russia's strength had been fatally under-
mined. When her guns began to hammer the Russian
line it broke, for the simple reason that it was without
means of defense. Russian batteries had no shells to
fire; Russian reserves were sent empty-handed into the
trenches. When supplies did reach the front, enor-
mous quantities of shells and cartridges were found not
to fit the weapons for which they were sent. Germany
took Warsaw with comparative ease because her well-
equipped troops were faced by Russian regiments armed
only with clubbed muskets. No censorship could keep
these ghastly evidences of treachery from the people.
Every soldier sent unarmed into the trenches, every crip-
pled fighter crawling back to his home village, became a
witness against autocracy, a living testimony to the
GERMANY'S DEFEAT IN RUSSIA 311
betrayal of the people by their masters. Yet thru all
the time of anguish the nation remained faithful to the
czar, and again and again gave him opportunity to free
it and himself from the "dark forces" of German con-
spiracy. But he lacked the wisdom, or the strength, to
meet the issue. Sometimes showing signs of patriotic
independence, he always slipped back into association
with the enemies of the people. Exposure of actual
treachery in a minister of war led to the dismissal of
Premier Goremykin in February, 1916, but there was
sinister meaning in the choice of his successor — Boris
Sturmer, a Baltic Prussian.
No soonei had this alien marplot assumed power
than rumors arose that Russia would soon make a sep-
arate peace. This was the confident prediction of Berlin,
and all the resources of its world-wide propaganda were
employed to disseminate it abroad. German agents in
the United States spread the idea industriously. "I know
from reliable sources," said Professor Muensterberg, of
Harvard, last October, "that Russia is half bankrupt and
starving, and will be ready for a separate peace before
spring. The result will be an alliance between Germany,
Austria, Russia and Japan." And only a few days ago a
Berlin statesman made the same prediction. For nine
months the nation struggled against the throttling grip
of the reactionary government. By sheer persistence,
the people took over themselves the supplying of the
armies, and this vital work was organized on a tre-
mendous scale thru the zemstvos, or local councils. But
it was not until November last that the duma was able
to break the strangle-hold of the German bureaucracy.
Sturmer was overthrown. For the first time in Russian
history a government had succumbed to the populace.
And the most significant fact was that the result was
achieved thru the support of the parliament by the
312 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
leaders of the army and navy. These forces had always
been the instruments of autocracy, but they had learned
that it was only the sacrifices of the people which had
overcome the betrayal of the defenders of the empire by
their masters. The victory, however, was inconclusive.
Alexander Trepoff , the new premier, was a progressive,
but he was compelled to surround himself with reaction-
aries, and the loyalists realized they must fight on. Their
ablest champion was Paul Miliukoff, chief of the Consti-
tutional Democrats, who formed a coalition of the lib-
eral forces in the duma and so commanded a majority
of that body. Late in December there was a violent
attack on the government, and the muttered impreca-
tions upon the "dark forces" plotting a betrayal of the
country became louder. Russia was awake at last.
Then came one of the most dramatic events that
ever marked a revolution. On the night of December
29 a motorcar drove up to a house in St. Petersburg ; two
young men entered the house and dragged from it the
muffled figure of a man. The captive was taken in the
car to the lonely garden of a mansion some distance
away. Shots were heard, and when the police arrived
they found the snow in the garden trodden as by a
struggle and stained with blood. The body of the victim
was never found, but his identity was known thruout all
Russia within a few days. He was Gregory Rasputin, a
fanatical monk, who had become the closest confidant
and adviser of the czar and was notoriously an accom-
plice of the reactionary and pro-German cliques in the
government. The midnight assassination proved how
desperately in earnest were those who had declared war
upon the secret enemies of Russia. The executioners
could have been named by scores of public men, but they
were never arrested. This act seems to have infuriated
the czar beyond restraint, for he had a superstitious ven-
GERMANY'S DEFEAT IN RUSSIA 313
eration for the monk. On January 9 he dismissed Tre-
poff and named as premier Prince Golitzine, the most
implacable reactionary in the empire and a Russian of
Prussian birth and instincts. Golitzine's attitude was
revealed in two statements. One, made publicly, was
to the effect that all efforts must be bent to winning the
war, and there would be "no time for progressive ideas
or reforms." The other, which he was reported to have
made privately, was that the duma "would never be quiet
until it had had a beating." But the duma was not tak-
ing beatings. The spirit that moved it was illustrated
in a speech which had been delivered in December by
a deputy, once a bitter reactionary, who had been trans-
formed, by witnessing the treachery of the government,
into a foe of the bureaucracy. He said :
The disorganization behind the army is being created
with the help of the German party, which works tirelessly
among us, and with the help of those fallen elements of our
public who consider it right to serve the enemy. While mili-
tary campaigns are being planned at the imperial headquar-
ters, an incomprehensible campaign is being waged here for
the German cause. It is necessary that the duma, represent-
ing the entire country, shall raise its voice against the por-
tentous and evil decomposing of our national life.
The infatuated reactionaries and pro-Germans tried
to hamper the democratic organizations which were
managing the supplies for the army. Protopopoff, min-
ister of the interior and the real power in the cabinet,
whose partisanship for Germany was openly boasted in
Berlin, waged open warfare against these bodies, send-
ing police to disperse their conferences and arrest work-
ing men participating in the war industrial committees.
The betrayal to Germany was in full process, and on
March 11 came the final preliminary in a ukase dismiss-
ing the duma. The answer was decisive. The liberal
majority met in secret on Monday, March 12, and
314 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
decreed that a provisional government should be formed.
A dispatch was sent to the czar, who was at the front.
"The hour has struck," it said, "when the will of the
people must prevail." When leaders of the army
adhered to the revolutionary cause the end was in sight,
and a few days of rioting, which resulted in the deser-
tion of whole regiments to the side of the people, con-
summated the overthrow of the absolute regime.
What this means to the Russian people is obvious.
It marks the opening of a new era, an era of democracy
in the historic stronghold of despotism. There may be
some further upheavals, but the barriers are down, and
the tide of liberty will not be turned back. The event
means, too, that Germany has to reckon with an aroused
and united nation instead of with a government con-
trolled by her own plotters. But a far more startling
possibility is a sympathetic movement in Germany itself.
Czarism and kaiserism have supported one another.
It is not without significance that on the very day that
the czar was driven from his throne, the kaiser's chan-
cellor announced that after the war the German empire
must be reorganized so as to give the people a greater
share in the government.
THE GERMAN CANKER IN RUSSIA
March 19, 1917.
ONE of the least noted, but not the least important,
of the documents of the war was a ukase issued
in August, 1914, by the unlamented "autocrat of
all the Russias." He decreed that the capital should
henceforth be known as Petrograd instead of St. Peters-
burg. The new designation was politely adopted by the
world, but to most non-Russians the change of the name
from the Teutonic to the Slavic form seemed trifling. It
had the appearance merely of a concession to patriotic
sentiment. Yet it had a profound meaning. It was
meant to signify the end of German domination and the
beginning of a new era — an era of Russia for the Rus-
sians, of a government and people working in harmony
for true Slavic development. If Nicholas II had fulfilled
the promise of that act, it is probable that there would
have been no revolution, or at least no overturning of
the throne. It was because he faltered and vacillated,
and finally abandoned his high resolve, that he was
deposed and the government seized by the people.
The outstanding fact in Russian history during the
last two centuries has been, of course, the misrule of the
country by a medieval autocracy, and the slow, painful
struggles of the nation to liberate itself. But behind
this lies the main cause — the ascendency of Germanism
in the government, supported by a purblind dynasty and
an infatuated autocracy. For 200 years the nationalism
of Russia has been strangled by the parasitic growth,
315
316 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
and it was to root up this evil, which was actually
betraying the nation in time of war, that the people rose
and smote czarism to the dust. And it was because the
ruler had permitted himself to become a part of the alien
system that the dynasty fell with the rotten government.
Nothing could have been more abnormal than the per-
sistent policy of imposing upon the Russians the rigid
formalism of Prussian autocracy. That system made of
Germany a powerful state because the Germans are tem-
peramentally docile and feel helpless without strong
leadership. They have never developed a determined
demand for liberalization of their government. But of all
the peoples of the earth — and this is a fact not widely
recognized — there is none so democratic as the Russian
people. By instinct and tradition they have always
clung to the ideal of self-government. Left to them-
selves, they invariably revert to the simple forms of
tribal life. And even their long submission to autocracy
was inspired, not by admiration for despotism, but by
the vision of a "people's czar," who should some day
arise to liberate them from the tyranny of undemocratic
rule. The ideals of mankind, as defined by the French
revolution, were liberty, equality and fraternity. West-
ern Europe and America have won liberty in varying
degrees ; but it is among the Russian people that the prin-
ciples of equality and fraternity have been most nearly
realized. The long conflict between these aims and Prus-
sianism makes one of the strangest chapters in history.
For centuries before the founding of the Russian
state the Slavs lived in small, self-governing communi-
ties, all members of which were free and equal; they
bowed to no feudal chiefs; their local affairs were
decided by assemblies of heads of families and elders of
the tribes. And in this respect the character of the vast
majority of the people remains unchanged. The first
THE GERMAN CANKER IN RUSSIA 317
move toward a state was the inviting of three princes of
the Northmen, in the ninth century, to establish order
in the land; under them and their descendants it was
divided into scores of independent principalities. But
these divisions often were really military republics, and
princes who attempted to encroach upon the liberties of
the people were summarily expelled. In the thirteenth
century a contest for supremacy between the leading
republic, Novgorod, and the autocratic grand duke of
Moscow was interrupted by the Mongol incursion, and for
more than 200 years the Russian princes ruled under
the Tartar yoke. In time the Moscow princes became
the chief representatives of the Oriental power, and,
having wrested control from the degenerate Mongols,
they established the autocratic czardom of Moscovy.
Yet even in those days autocracy was tempered by popu-
lar forms, remnants of the pure democracy which had
existed before the Asiatic invasion. Vast numbers of
Russians refused to submit to the repugnant system,
however, and emigrated to found the military demo-
cratic republics of the Cossacks of the Dnieper, the Don,
the Volga and other remote regions. The introduction
of serfdom, in the sixteenth century, led to a condition
of violence and anarchy for many years, until a national
assembly elected as czar Michael Romanoff (1613), head
of a trusted noble house.
But the founder of the Russian empire was Peter
the Great (1682-1725), the last sovereign whose official
title was czar. In 1721, at request of the senate, he
assumed the title of emperor, and his successors have
been czars only in popular speech. Peter broke the power
of the aristocracy, subjugated the church and made the
monarchy really absolute, while giving the people a
measure of local self-government. But his policy of
"Europeanizing" the servants of the state created of
318 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
them a bureaucratic nobility, separated by a great gulf
from the taxpaying, subject populace ; and this division
was responsible for the generations of evil which fol-
lowed. His planting of the capital at his new-built city
of St. Petersburg emphasized the separation of the gov-
ernment from the people and made possible that Ger-
manic invasion which was to bring such fatal results.
For his great projects of reform Peter needed strong,
able men who would help him to curb the native aristoc-
racy, and he found them among German barons of the
Baltic lands, who were accustomed to tyrannize over sub-
ject races. And they were followed to the Russian
capital by hordes of adventurous foreigners. In suc-
ceeding reigns the Teutonizing of the Russian court and
government was hastened by the intermarriage of the
ruling houses with branches of German royal families.
In the wake of these high-born immigrants came hordes
of German teachers and professional men, who soon
monopolized the positions of privilege. The Russian
Academy of Sciences became so German that it pub-
lished its works in that language. German schools were
favored. Russian schools were restricted, and even
down to the beginning of the present war there were
many trades and professions reserved exclusively to the
Germans.
Thus the Russian empire became virtually a Ger-
manic power, whose forces were employed to serve the
interests of German rulers. The evil reached a climax
under the Empress Anna (1730-1740), when her German
favorite, Biron, instituted a reign of terrorism against
all Russians suspected of anti-German and national feel-
ings. The reign of Catherine the Great marked a revival
of nationalism and the spread of local self-government.
Yet she invited in vast numbers of German colonists and
gave them extraordinary privileges over her own peo-
THE GERMAN CANKER IN RUSSIA 319
pie. Worse still, she yielded to Prussian tempting and
agreed to the criminal partition of Poland, an act which
completed the political enslavement of Russia to Prussia
and Austria in matters of foreign policy. Under Paul I
and Alexander I the Germanization of the empire pro-
ceeded relentlessly. The latter sovereign, in particular,
was an abject worshiper of Prussianism. Twice he pre-
pared to grant his people a liberal constitution, and twice
was dissuaded by the Teutonic bureaucrats, while the
absorption of power by the alien interests was increased.
Nicholas I (1825-1855) was patriotic, but considered
it his duty to model the government upon the
"efficient" Prussian model ; the only result was to make
the Germanized bureaucracy more oppressive. Baltic
Germans rose still higher in favor, because of their abso-
lute loyalty to the ruling powers and their devotion to
autocracy. Russian diplomacy became a closed career
for those of Russian birth or name. For nearly forty
years the foreign policy was guided by Nesselrode, a
German, who contemptuously refused even to speak the
language of the country, and always the policy was
framed to serve the interests of Prussia and Austria.
Alexander II (1855-1881) was an earnest liberal and
humanitarian, as shown in his emancipation of 43,000,-
000 Russian serfs and his extension of such vital reforms
as municipal self-government and religious tolerance.
Unhappily, however, he inherited a fallacious belief in
the civilizing mission of Prussianism and a confiding
trust in the Hohenzollerns, which made him an easy dupe
of Kaiser William I and of Bismarck. He supported
every Prussian scheme of aggrandizement, even the war
of 1870 against France. His successor, Alexander III
(1881-1894), was as firm an autocrat, yet was patriotic
enough to throw off the German yoke and make an alli-
ance with republican France. During his reign, never-
320 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
theless, Germany was able to penetrate still further into
Russian life by putting thru vast projects of colonization
in Russian territory, while she plotted to Germanize
Turkey and the Balkans and shut Russia from the sea
for all time. Under the emperor just deposed these
measures were intensified. The colonization plans were
carried on more extensively, the government became
more and more Germanized, and thruout the empire the
pan-German propaganda was openly conducted. A
•subtle means of influence was the persistent preaching
of the doctrine, to the Russian conservatives, that only
Russo-German friendship could save the monarchy from
the forces of democracy. It was the influence of the
Teutonized bureaucracy that obstructed and hampered
every project of liberalization which Nicholas undertook.
These were the "dark forces" that the Russians
always confronted in their struggles toward freedom.
Autocracy in Germany would never consent to demo-
cratic advance in Russia ; it upheld czarism as the surest
defense of kaiserism. But in carrying their designs to
the extent of practicing war treachery the plotters over-
reached themselves. Not only has their power to betray
the nation been paralyzed, but the tide of democracy
has isolated Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Turkey,
the last autocracies in Europe.
DEMOCRACY'S WAR
March tl, 1917.
HE Russian revolution at any time would have been
an event of far-reaching import, but at no other
-•- period in the world's history could it have had so
stupendous an effect as now. That the crudest and the
most benighted despotism in Europe has fallen, and that
170,000,000 human beings have freed themselves from
the tyranny of kingcraft, are facts which will loom large
in the record of our generation. But there are secondary
results of even wider significance. There has been con-
summated a moral revolution, a great enlightenment of
mankind. The world war, overshadowing all other mani-
fest,ations of the time, has taken upon itself completely
the character of a death struggle between autocracy and
democracy. From the beginning, indeed, this meaning
of the tumult of nations was discernible, but now the
truth is revealed before the eyes of all men. The Rus-
sian people have liberated themselves from the yoke of
medieval absolutism; they have freed Europe and civil-
ization from the possibility of a triumph of kaiserism;
and, above all, they have clarified the fundamental issue
of the mighty conflict. What we are witnessing now is
the fulfillment of this newspaper's interpretation offered
in the first week of the war :
The lesson that is to be written in blood and fire for the
world to read is plain. It is that in the twentieth century
autocracy is an intolerable anachronism, a menace to civiliza-
tion, a burden upon humanity. This war is its death-grapple
among enlightened nations. The result will be the doom of a
321
322 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
system which gives to despotic governments control over the
peace of nations and inflicts upon the race a war against
which the judgment of the whole world revolts.
Even earlier than this — on August 1, 1914, two days
before the invasion of Belgium had loosed the great woe
— we could foresee dimly the course of events and wrote :
Will allies be true to allies? The czar and the kaiser
stand for the same ideals of government. Is it possible that
these two may be forced to an agreement? * * * The very
autocratic ambition that stirs Russia to action now may find
itself defeated by victory. For the Slav is an idealist and a
dreamer. This war will put the Slav into touch with the
western world. His allies are liberals and republicans. Vic-
tory over the Germans may strengthen the prestige of the
czar, but it will quicken the thoughts of his people and turn
their minds to larger liberty. A group of Slav republics is
not an impossibility as the eventual result of the conflict.
For two years and a half this theme has been
emphasized in our discussions of the issues of the war —
the irrepressible conflict between autocracy, as repre-
sented by Germany and her alliance, and democracy, as
represented by Belgium, France, Great Britain and their
supporters. Yet always there was the qualifying circum-
stance that one of the chief enemies of the Central
Powers was Russia, a government steeped in oppression
and tyranny, typifying the sway of dynastic ambition
and the rule of the knout. From the beginning this
anomaly has been a check upon the flow of neutral sym-
pathy toward the cause of the Entente Allies. Even
among Americans who gave whole-hearted moral sup-
port to wronged and heroic Belgium, to republican
France and to liberal Britain, who saw in those nations
the defenders of civilization against a menacing militar-
ism, there have been perturbing doubts concerning the
participation of Russia. And there were Britons, as well,
who deplored the association. More than two years ago
DEMOCRACY'S WAR 323
George Kennan, an American authority on Russian
affairs, noted this palpable feeling of unrest:
In a recent discussion an Englishman visiting the United
States remarked to me: "Some of us Englishmen feel a little
ashamed of our alliance with a despotic and semibarbarous
power like Russia. It seems to be a sort of compromise, for
selfish advantages, with the forces of evil." Many Americans
who sympathize with the Allies have said to me, under the
influence of the same thought : "It is a pity that such civilized
nations as the English and the French should have to fight
beside such semibarbarous allies as the Russians. If the
forces of the Triple Entente win, won't the victorious and
uncivilized Russian be as dangerous a menace to Europe as
the Germans have been?"
"Great Britain, France and Germany are all three
committing a crime against civilization for the benefit
of Russia," said George Bernard Shaw. "If we on this
side should smash Germany, we shall have to defend her
from Russia." And only a few weeks ago a New York
newspaper favorable to Germany utilized the same idea :
ft It is an astonishing thing that democratic England and
republican France should be fighting to make autocratic Rus-
sia the dominant Power of the world, but that is exactly what
they are doing. They are sacrificing their life's blood not
merely to give Russia all of Asia, but to give her an enormous
preponderance of power and possession in Europe.
Another New York journal, ardent in sympathy for
the Allies' cause, remarked that the depth of the world-
wide feeling against Prussianism was illustrated by the
fact that "millions who have never thought of Russia
except with loathing and dread are looking to the ter-
rible Cossack — save the mark! — to save the world from
the nearer menace." Needless to say, the German propa-
ganda made full use of the just prejudice of liberty-
loving peoples against the Muscovite absolutism. Sys-
tematically and continuously the advocates of kaiserism
preached Germany's war as a holy crusade against
324 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
"Asiatic barbarism" and pictured the Prussian autocracy
as the unselfish defender of western civilization against
"the Slav peril." The kaiser himself, the imperial chan-
cellor, the Prussianized professors in Germany and the
United States and all the organized promoters of pro-
Germanism everywhere cried aloud in warning against
the "onrushing Slavic world" and denounced the "race
treachery" of those who were upholding the eastern
"barbarians" against Teutonic "Kultur." And it cannot
be denied that this subtle pleading was effective. When
Asquith and Grey and Lloyd George and Bryce and
Poincare and Briand testified that the Allies were fight-
ing the battle of democracy and small nations, their ene-
mies raised a derisive shout and asked how an alliance
with the Russian czar served the cause of liberty, how
the rights of the weaker peoples were being advanced by
strengthening the government which tyrannized over
Poland and Finland and a score of cruelly subjugated
races. The saving facts were, of course, that the spirit
of the Russian people has been democratic from time
immemorial ; that they, if not their rulers, were animated
by ideals of liberalization, and that the war must event-
ually give them an opportunity to express themselves.
As Mr. Kennan wrote in the article we just mentioned:
There is a sharp distinction between the Russian govern-
ment and the Russian people. I should describe Russia as a
semienlightened, progressive and liberty-loving nation, which
happens at present to be barbarously governed by a selfish
and unprogressive oligarchy. In other words, the "semibar-
barism" of which some Englishmen are ashamed is in the
government, not in the people.
Thus the designation of Russia as an autocracy
was never more than a half truth ; the people submitted
to the system under duress, not, as in Germany, with
contentment and slavish admiration. Every one who
ever intelligently studied Russian history has found that
DEMOCRACY'S WAR 325
from its beginnings until today the Slavs have ever had
liberty and democracy as their ideals. Czarism was
founded upon, inspired by and maintained for the benefit
of kaiserism. The despotic government of Russia was
not Slavic, it was Teutonic. The people were misruled,
not by a native tyranny, but by a transplanted Prussian-
ism ; their armies and the nation were being betrayed by
the intrigues of an alien bureaucracy. And those who
created the myth of a "Slav peril" knew that so long
as they controlled the Russian government Slavdom
would be paralyzed, while liberation of the people would
make schemes of conquest unthinkable.
What form the new government will finally take
has not been decided, but that it will be democratic in
spirit is made sure from the program announced, which
includes liberty of speech and of the press, abolition of
all social, religious and national restrictions, a general
amnesty for victims of tyranny on account of political
activity and the convoking of a constituent assembly on
the, basis of universal suffrage. The fall of the great
citadel of absolutism is a tremendous victory for the
Russian people; but the immeasurable gain is to the
cause of human freedom thruout the world. For the
alignment in the war is now clear-cut and uncompromis-
ing— the democracy of Europe and the democratic senti-
ment of all mankind against the autocracies of Germany
and her deluded allies.
March 22, 1917.
IT WAS in the intolerance of his youth that Rudyard
Kipling exhibited his epigrammatic skill and his
superficiality by writing this estimate: "Let it be
clearly understood that the Russian is a delightful per-
son till he tucks in his shirt. As an Oriental he is
charming. It is only when he insists upon being treated
as the most easterly of western peoples instead of the
most westerly of easterns that he becomes a racial anom-
aly extremely difficult to handle." One forgives the
arrogance of the remark for the excellence of the tale
which the young Anglo-Indian introduced with it. But
how curiously it reads today, when "the most westerly
of eastern peoples" has calmly reached up and pulled a
tremendous despotism from power, with less bloodshed
and bluster than many other nations have expended to
achieve incomparably smaller results. The Russian has
tucked in the badge of his Orientalism in a manner to
awaken the startled respect. of those boasting superior
"culture." The occasion would be historic even if it
meant only that a people of 170,000,000 had liberated
themselves from the sway of an archaic and tyrannical
system of misgovernment. But this Slavic upheaval,
as we remarked yesterday, has wider effects. It estab-
lishes finally the character of the war as a struggle of
democracy against autocracy; by clarifying this funda-
mental issue it adds enormously to the strength of the
cause of civilization ; and it will hasten peace because it
326
RUSSIA AWAKENS GERMANY 327
completes the moral isolation of the false philosophy
which the Teutonic peoples and their allies have followed
with idolatrous fidelity.
Czarism for two centuries has been" at once the tool
and the support of kaiserism. Now that the one has been
destroyed, is it credible that the other will endure ? The
possibility of a revolution in Germany, and the nature
of it if it should come, have suddenly become engross-
ing subjects of speculative thought. How much of pro-
phetic truth was there in that striking cartoon we
printed day before yesterday — the German soldier as
"The Thinker," brooding upon the news from the Eastern
empire that was, wondering whether his mighty strength
must always be expended for the glorification of an all-
powerful State ? It must be said that until Europe was
shaken by the reverberating collapse of the Prussian-
ized autocracy in Petrograd there were few signs of a
desire for political emancipation in the kaiser's domin-
ions. Indeed, the extraordinary military strength of
the nation was founded upon a system which exalts
the State above the citizen; which makes the ideal of
government not justice, but power. "The idea of an
emperor," wrote Professor Muensterberg, "is that he
is the symbol of the State as a whole, independent from
the will of the individuals and, therefore, independent of
any elections ; the bearer of the historic tradition, above
the struggle of single men. For the German, the State
is not for the individuals, but the individuals for the
State." The Germans, as we wrote more than two years
ago, found their greatest cause for pride in their abso-
lute unity; there was not heard among them any voice
speaking for humanity or in condemnation of the phil-
osophy that exalts militarism and provokes aggression.
Yet this boasted unity we found to be ominous for civili-
zation. "In this day of democracy," we said, "the abso-
328 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
lute surrender of individualism to an autocratic State,
so that among a whole people there is no variation of
thought or utterance upon the mightiest and most com-
plex problem that ever confronted the world, is a painful
spectacle, from which humanity will derive no inspira-
tion and to which it will pay no admiring tribute." Still
more apt to the conditions of today was the survey we
made of German history, which showed that during
300 years, when every other country in Europe, all of
America and half of Asia had had their great, impulsive
movements toward democracy, there had never been in
Germany a successful revolution, nor an apparent desire
for one. Even such forms of popular government as do
exist there, and the institutions which have given Ger-
many leadership in social progress, have been conferred
upon the people by their rulers, who thereby have solidi-
fied their own power.
It is for these reasons that the repercussion in Ger-
many from the overthrow of czarism is suggestive. Even
while the throne of the Romanoffs was crashing down,
carrying with it the Prussianized bureaucracy, auda-
cious demands were being uttered in the face of German
imperialism, and the kaiser's chancellor himself was cry-
ing a warning to the forces of absolutism and reaction.
According to plausible account, on Wednesday of last
week, the chancellor happened to walk into the lower
house of the Prussian diet — of which he is minister
president — in the midst of an acrimonious debate upon
recent aggressive moves by the "conservative" forces
of junkerdom. A contest between the reactionary and
liberal elements has been under way for months, the
latter declaring that, after the war, privilege must be
curbed, and the former sullenly resisting. The "Tories"
recently made two threatening moves. In the upper
chamber they introduced a bill strengthening the inheri-
RUSSIA AWAKENS GERMANY 329
tance laws benefiting the landed aristocracy, and a little
later rejected a bill providing for members of the lower
house their customary daily "salary." * The purpose was
to serve notice that the reactionaries would "stand pat"
against all reforms. The chief demand of the liberal
forces is for a more just electoral system. It is true
that the imperial reichstag is chosen under universal
suffrage; but the emperor can dissolve it at will, he
nominates and dismisses all officials, the ministers are
responsible to him alone, and the legislature has no con-
trol whatever over the policy of the empire. Indeed,
it has less power than the English parliament had under
Charles I. The Prussian system is even less democratic.
The diet of that kingdom is indirectly elective, but the
franchise is ingeniously arranged to perpetuate the sway
of privilege. The voters are divided into three classes,
according to taxation paid, in such a way that the gross
taxation paid by all three classes is the same ; and each
class in a district elects a proxy to vote for the legis-
lator. Of 300,000 voters in a district, 2000 may be of
the first class — they poll 200 votes each ; 10,000 may be
of the second class — they poll thirty votes each; and
the remaining 288,000 citizens poll one vote each ! The
practical result is that 4 per cent of the population out-
votes overwhelmingly 96 per cent. These facts explain
the struggle that has now become acute. As the chan-
cellor entered the chamber the leader of the National
Liberals was declaring that the people demanded an
end to this intolerable system, not after the war, but
at once. The Progressive party leader echoed the
demand, and roundly criticised the minister president
for making merely vague promises. It was in reply to
this that Von Bethman-Hollweg, speaking extempo-
raneously and with thundering emphasis, made the
330 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
speech that was regarded as an echo of the tumult in
Petrograd. In it he said:
After the war we must establish equal rights and par-
ticipation for all in the work of the State. We shall be con-
fronted with gigantic tasks, and the entire people must solve
them. Woe to the statesman who does not recognize the signs
of the times; who believes that after this war catastrophe he
can take up his work at the same point at which it was inter-
rupted! I will devote my last effort to the carrying out of
this idea of making our people strong.
This challenge and warning to the privileged classes
created a commotion thruout the empire. In the cham-
ber where it was delivered the succeeding debate was
furious, as these utterances will show:
We must abolish the herrenhaus (the upper chamber, or
house of lords) , which is a millstone around the neck of prog-
ress. It wants the people to be commandeered into war and
out of it, and that things afterward should remain as they
were. That is impossible. The people demand peace. We
are no longer serfs whom the king may buy and sell or order
us to bleed and die at the word of command. We are a nation
that has reached political manhood.
The nation is bleeding for the sins of those in power.
It is high time for an operation to remove this appendix
(the herrenhaus) of the body politic. Absolutism has hurled
Germany into the horrors of this war and turned the whole
world against us. This feudalistic system of government
must go.
Militarism bears the responsibility for the bloodshed in
Europe, and only when militarism and despotism are removed
will the people breathe freely. The revolution in Russia
should be a warning to our rulers. The German submarine
war is opposed to the laws of humanity and to international
law.
These are not quotations from editorials in The
North American; they are sentences taken from the
speeches of members of the Prussian diet eight days ago.
And they are echoed in the enlightened press of the
empire. Says the Socialist organ Vorwaerts :
RUSSIA AWAKENS GERMANY 331
Only with liberty and justice can the best forces of the
nation unfold. And after the world catastrophe, the fact is
that without maximum internal liberty we cannot continue to
exist at all. The chancellor made the strongest thinkable argu-
ment that liberty is a national necessity demanded in the
interest of German self-preservation.
The less radical Berliner Tageblatt says this:
The old one-sided Prussian spirit will at last be banned
from the Prussian government. There can be no doubt that
the chancellor has the will to live up to his words. But the
power of reaction is great. The kaiser himself has experi-
enced that, and many of his social, economic and political
wishes came to naught because the junkers would have none
of them. Bethmann has laid down a course not only for him-
self, but possibly for his successor. He has imposed the duty
of fulfilling his promise on every succeeding government.
Surely, as we said in the first week of the war, "the
leaven of the age is working," when the disciplined sub-
jects of German autocracy will thus openly question the
sanctity of privilege and the supremacy of the State
over the citizen. The despised Russian moujik may be
th6 liberator of his enemies as well as of himself, and
Prussianism may pass away in Berlin as it has in Petro-
grad. Yet the future is not wholly clear. How effectual
the awakened demand for liberalization in Germany will
be, and what conditions there are which will hamper its
expression and may limit its achievements, are subjects
we shall discuss within a day or two.
GERMANY'S SHACKLED
DEMOCRACY
March 27, 1917.
fTHHERE is a somewhat remarkable aptness to cur-
rent events in an observation we made during the
-*- first week of the war. The theme was "The Doom
of Autocracy," and it was introduced by the following
paragraph :
Overthrown by the avenging allies almost a century ago,
Napoleon uttered this singular forecast : "In a hundred years
all Europe will be Cossack or republican." There is still time
for fulfillment — time enough, as events now move. From
their better vantage ground the people of today can deter-
mine which force will prevail. The facts of the hour declare
that Europe will not be Russianized. It is the other alterna-
tive that will justify the vision of the great Corsican. From
the flaming brand thrust into the face of civilization will be
lighted fires that will consume dynasties.
It is curious to note that the Napoleonic prophecy
has found its greatest realization in the nation which
he thought might subjugate the continent — Europe has
not become Cossack, while Russia herself is teaching her
neighbors republicanism. Naturally, the upheaval there
turned the attention of the world upon the last great
stronghold of autocracy remaining. What effect would
the collapse of czarism have upon the more massive and
more powerful institution of kaiserism? If the terror-
ized and benighted masses of Russia could so easily over-
turn a venerated dynasty, what might not be accom-
plished by the intelligent German people? Perhaps it
332
GERMANY'S SHACKLED DEMOCRACY 333
was expectation, rather than facts, which gave rise to
recent rumors from neutral European countries concern-
ing "a situation in Germany of the utmost gravity, due
to food shortage, strikes and general discontent over the
war," with troops being withdrawn from the battle-
fronts to overawe the murmuring populace. An anony-
mous German writer who has repudiated the absolute
regime goes so far as to predict that the emperor will
soon abdicate in order to forestall revolution. There is
no doubt that the German people are to some degree dis-
satisfied and depressed, even a little restive. The sub-
marine campaign lags, Bagdad falls, the western armies
retreat, and day by day the economic privation grows
more severe. In such circumstances the most efficient
system of government loses its glamour. But we credit
the report of William Bayard Hale, that there are no
visible symptoms of revolution. Such liberalization as
Germany may attain will come, we think, in a manner
different from the Russian uprising. As we showed the
other day, the movement toward more democratic insti-
tutions in the empire is openly supported. What we are
to discuss now is how effectual the demand is likely to
be, and "what conditions there are which will hamper its
expression and may limit its achievements."
During the first eighteen or twenty months of the
war, the imperial regime in Germany manifestly was
strengthened. Autocracy seemed to justify itself by a
succession of dazzling triumphs in military and admin-
istrative science. The swift subjugation of Belgium and
northeastern France was a victory hardly dimmed, in
the German mind, by the check at the Marne. Soon
Russia's offensive power was broken, Servia was con-
quered, Bulgaria and Turkey added to the alliance. Then
followed the humbling of Great Britain at Gallipoli and
Bagdad, some not discreditable naval exploits, and the
334 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
occupation of Rumania. These successes gave new vigor
to the teaching that only an efficient autocracy, served by
a disciplined, submissive people, could carry the Teu-
tonic cause to triumph or protect the nation from infe-
rior, but desperate, foes. But as the miseries of a third
war winter approached, these brilliant results palled.
The German people were surfeited with victories; and
when it dawned upon them that they were winning
everything except the peace which they craved, they
turned with irrepressible eagerness to speculate upon
how the war, with its costly triumphs, might be brought
to a close. Those who examined the problem coldly
reduced the possible methods to four. First, peace would
certainly follow a decisive German victory ; but that hope
had long been abandoned by the thoughtful. Second, it
would be forced automatically by a crushing German
defeat; but that was unthinkable. Third, it might be
attained thru a compromise, "peace without victory";
that conception was attractive and plausible, until it
was dissipated by the enemy's peremptory rejection of
the offer. The fourth road to peace, it appeared, lay
thru democratization of the government of the empire.
This, it was conceded, would go far to bring a settlement,
by ending talk of conquest and by making the hostile
democratic nations more willing to discuss terms. Thus
the liberal movement in Germany is bound up with the
consuming desire of the people for peace, rather than
with deep-rooted aspirations for political freedom.
Nevertheless, the chancellor's recent pledge of electoral
reforms was given in response to sturdy demands based
upon principle as well as upon expediency. The ideas
behind the propaganda are somewhat chaotic as yet,
but two quotations will suggest what they are. Philip
Scheidemann, Socialist leader, speaks plainly:
GERMANY'S SHACKLED DEMOCRACY 335
It does not require many words to explain why almost
the whole world is against us. It sees among our enemies
more or less developed forms of democracy,, and in us it sees
only Prussians. We have always answered by pointing to the
absolutism of Russia; but now czarism is gone. In Asia the
empire of the mandarins opposed every reform. Here similar
spirits seek to build like Chinese walls and hinder progress.
Russia, too, promised reforms "after the war"; but the war
lasted too long. Why postpone till tomorrow what is abso-
lutely necessary today?
More significant, perhaps, was the earlier state-
ment by Foreign Secretary Zimmermann :
It would be useless and dangerous to deny that the trend
of political thoupht in Germany today is toward liberalization.
The important feature of the change will be the erection of
direct responsibility of government to the people thru their
representatives in the reichstag. Under the present system
there is actually no such responsibility. The chancellor owes
responsibility only to the kaiser, by whom he is created.
Such utterances as those of Zimmermann and Beth-
mann-Hollweg are portentous. They signify that at
this moment a "revolution" is impending in Germany,
even tho it has the doubtful character of being super-
vised by representatives of the established order. Con-
ceivably it might gather a momentum which would carry
it beyond their paternal guidance; but few well-
informed observers expect any such dramatic upheaval
as swept the Romanoff despotism into oblivion. There
are several reasons why a revolution of that type is
unlikely. In the first place, the forces of reaction are
formidable in numbers, and infinitely more enlightened
than those which misruled Russia. The Conservative
party, representing the "landocracy," and the National
Liberals, who correspond to our stand-pat high protec-
tionists, are strongly intrenched, and the privileges for
which they fight are buttressed by complicated laws.
Their temper is obdurate; many of them would rather
336 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
see Germany crushed than Germany freed. Rejection
of the peace offer last December intensified the devotion
of the German people to their system, personified in the
kaiser, whose unquestioned ability gives him prestige
apart from the historic virtue of his office. The radical
program of the Russian revolutionary government is
being used to warn the cautious Germans against wan-
dering after the strange gods of unbridled democracy.
A Berlin paper is horrified by the spectacle of "the
extirpation of a national system sanctified by a thousand
years," and many Germans will agree that an evil which
is hoary must also be venerable. A m^e practical dis-
couragement lies in the circumstance thm a few months
ago every German citizen between the ages of 18 and
60 years was drafted by law into the service of the
State, those unavailable for military duty being assigned
to civilian employment under government orders. Agi-
tation which might be permitted to private citizens
becomes a grave offense in conscripts of the State.
But aside from all this, the German temperament
and habit of thought are unfavorable to revolution as
it is understood by other races. The people are of a
docile disposition, not because they lack virility, but
because they have been sclwoled for generations in a
belief, which has become a settled conviction, that an
all-powerful State and a disciplined populace are the ideal
elements for producing national unity, prosperity and
power. Their extraordinary economic progress they
refer to this system, and even their social progress has
been accomplished upon the initiative and under the
strict control of an almost untrammeled monarchism.
We showed once that during the last 300 years Germany
alone, of all the civilized nations on the globe, had never
had an effective revolution. And the reason for this
singular condition is clear to those who have observed
GERMANY'S SHACKLED DEMOCRACY 337
the German character in this country. Nine-tenths of
the former subjects of the czar in the United States,
we suppose, hailed the overthrow of Russian absolutism.
But the vast majority of German-Americans are still
devoted admirers of kaiserism.
Two predictions may safely be made. If Germany
should win the war, democracy will be extinct in that
empire for a generation. If she should be decisively
defeated, it will take a great stride forward. For autoc-
racy cannot survive a war that is not victorious. Let it
stand empty handed before that desperate people — with
no Calais, no Bagdad, no "freedom of the seas," no
indemnity, nothing but death, debt, disease and despair
— and its days are numbered. More likely than either
of these results, we think, is a peaceful, orderly "revolu-
tion" conducted by the properly constituted authorities.
"The democratization of Germany," cables Mr. Hale, "is
certain to proceed along the lines sketched by the chan-
cellor in his historic speech" ; that is, freedom sufficient
to Satisfy the moderate aspirations of the well-disci-
plined Germans will be handed down to them by a benev-
olent autocracy. The German people have shackled
themselves to the chariot wheels of a soulless militarism ;
and if they free themselves, it will be only when the
system they have venerated is doomed by the militant
democracies of other races.
BELATED DEFENSE
March 29, 1917.
IF A visitor newly arrived from Mars were to survey
the present state of public affairs in the United
States, he would be profoundly impressed, we doubt
not, by the tremendous activities of the nation in prep-
aration for war. He would find military posts and naval
stations busy, recruiting offices alert and crowded,
arsenals and shipyards resounding with the clamor of
industry. In Washington he would be made aware of
bureaus and departments working day and night; of
composite boards and committees and councils of defense
deep in their multifarious tasks ; of cabinet officers hold-
ing portentous conferences; of captains of industry and
transportation perfecting vast plans of co-operation
with the government. And he would see the president
devoting himself with consuming patriotism and energy
to the directing of all these vast enterprises — issuing
orders and proclamations, conducting vital diplomatic
negotiations, summoning forth the latent resources of
the nation, dictating measures of vigilance and mobiliza-
tion, personally inspiring his subordinates to haste, and
yet more haste. The magnitude and earnestness and
visible progress of the activities stir the imagination of
any one who contemplates the operation of the mighty
forces; and the average citizen, scanning the daily
reports of great plans, developments and achievements,
goes about his affairs with a comforting consciousness
that the problem of safeguarding the nation is in process
338
BELATED DEFENSE 339
of solution. And the work being accomplished is really
stupendous. The government executives, the army and
navy chiefs and the civilians called to their aid are per-
forming prodigies toward putting the country in a pos-
ture of defense.
Yet how many Americans realize that the remorse-
less factor of time makes a mockery of most of these
projects; that the country is virtually as defenseless
as it was two years ago; that if Germany could strike
today, there is not enough military and naval power at
the command of the United States to make a respectable
resistance? How many of the citizens whose hearts
swell with pride in the strength of America realize that
all the potential power of wealth, the industrial skill, the
newly awakened patriotism, the inventive genius and the
vast resources of this land, and all the frantic, eleventh-
hour concentration of the government, would not protect
us for a day if a well-equipped enemy could reach us?
How many have asked themselves what would be the
result to us if the rampart of French and British troops
in France were to break and the British fleet were to be
dispersed ? Here we are, busily engaged upon our ordi-
nary affairs of business and pleasure ; buying and selling,
entertaining ourselves with the stirring news of the
day, hanging out our flags, making patriotic speeches,
cheering at mass meetings, writing solemn editorials
about America's championship of civilization — just as
tho it were not patent to every intelligent human being
that the country is hardly more ready for war than is
China ; just as tho what we wrote on August 28, 1915,
were not as true today as it was then, nineteen months
ago:
The appalling condition of defenselessness into which this
country has sunk is a fact which no longer can be thrust aside.
The United States is hopelessly unready to defend its terri-
340 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
tories and its liberties, and an attack by any first-class Power
would infallibly mean humiliating surrender or overwhelming
disaster. This assertion is not based upon the theories of
imperfectly informed alarmists, but upon the irrefutable state-
ments of qualified experts.
Secretary Daniels' recent appeal to the newspapers
to get recruits for the navy and the marine corps is
suggestive of the conditions, but any examination of
the country's completed defenses yields facts to make
the stoutest patriot gasp. Let us glance at the army.
A year and a half ago — and the improvement since has
been moderate — the Scientific American found that our
total mobile force, regulars and militia, consisted of
90,000 men. And "in case of invasion we should need
380,000 stationary volunteer coast-guard troops and
500,000 mobile troops to meet the enemy wherever he
might land." As a fact, wrote the investigator, "we
would have no coast-guard troops, and it would take
thirty days to collect our 90,000 mobile effective regulars
and militia." The government now plans raising the
regular army to 250,000, increasing the militia to 400,-
000, and calling 500,000 volunteers. Toward this force,
approximately 1,000,000 men, it has a regular army of
about 60,000; the national guard, numbering 100,000
and invigorated by the training on the Mexican border,
and a virtually unlimited supply of possible volunteers.
Recruiting, which had been almost negligible recently,
has been stimulated by the war situation. Every post-
master in the United States was made an agent, but the
results were not impressive — a total of 495 new soldiers
from this source in the six months ending February 1.
An army of 1,000,000 men would require 25,000 officers ;
we have in the regular army a few more than 7000.
Three weeks ago the war department directed regimental
commanders to designate from the enlisted men of each
unit sixty men for commissions. A month before that
BELATED DEFENSE 341
the department announced the need for "a large corps
of reserve officers," of whom "fewer than 1000 had been
commissioned," and urged eligible citizens to take exam-
inations. "There is no reason," it said, "why any eligible
man should hesitate to apply for a commission on
account of being deficient in technical military matters."
There are fewer than 800 field guns ready for service,
hardly one-fourth the number that would be needed;
1325 machine guns out of 17,000 required, and 750,000
rifles instead of the necessary 1,500,000. Three months
ago Secretary Baker declared that there were "plenty of
arms for a force of 1,000,000 men," but General Crozier,
chief of ordnance, estimated that by June 30 next we
should have only 850,000 rifles. Then, why not stop
the making of arms for Europe, asks the intelligent
reader, and turn those plants to making rifles for our
own soldiers? Such a change would consume months.
No two European rifles are the same, and all are differ-
ent from the American type. In order to procure abso-
lute uniformity, large numbers of special machine
attachments must be made. The plants, said General
Crozier, could not be working to capacity inside of a
year. For 1,000,000 men a billion rounds of small arms
ammunition would be needed at the start, and a reserve
of twice as much maintained. There are 350,000,000
rounds available, and the capacity of the only govern-
ment manufactory is only 80,000,000 rounds a year.
And it would take months to equip new plants to mul-
tiply the output.
Plans for mobilizing the fleet on a war basis, estab-
lishing a coast patrol and protecting commerce, were
completed on February 28 ; but it would take six months,
said a Washington dispatch to the New York World, to
put the plans in operation. At that time there were
twenty-two battleships and seventy-five other warships
342 THE WAR PROM THIS SIDE
out of commission, without crews or ammunition ; many
had not had steam up for months and would need exten-
sive repairs. It would take sixty days to put them in
commission, and four months to make them fit for fight-
ing. For coast patrol work, it was decided to build a
flotilla of high-speed, light-draft motorboats. Contracts
for these vessels cannot be completed under five months.
And the 10,000 men they will need are still to be enlisted.
The navy's shortage of men is 27,000. An official advisory
committee on aeronautics has reported that adequate
defense will require 4000 aeroplanes and 2400 aviators
— a force which ought to be available in 1919! There
are only twelve plants in the United States capable of
producing the machines. And it takes nine months of
training to make an efficient military aviator. Mobili-
zation of the country's industrial and transportation
resources is an undertaking to which the ablest experts
are devoting themselves with splendid results. But
nothing was done toward this until a few weeks ago,
and it is declared that it would take five years, at the
present rate of progress, to co-ordinate the systems and
enable the nation to exert effective military power and
at the same time maintain its productive capacity.
We have just touched upon some of the palpable
deficiencies in national defense. They are not secret.
The facts we have cited are taken from published offi-
cial reports and from news dispatches printed since war
became threatening. And they represent conditions
which cannot be soon overcome by any amount of
devoted energy. With time, the United States could
make itself impregnable; if time is not granted, there
will be a heavy price to pay for neglect. For the incred-
ible fact is that all our active preparation has been
accomplished or begun within the last sixty days. For
more than two years and a half the involvement of this
BELATED DEFENSE 343
country in war has been a steadily increasing probability,
and for a year — since the ultimatum to Germany — it has
been a virtual certainty. Yet, until the beginning of
the avowed campaign of extermination a'gainst American
commerce there was made no effectual move to safeguard
the nation's sovereignty and safety. A policy of inertia,
of waiting, of false optimism, of dependence upon hol-
low "diplomatic victories," of cold discouragement for
every plea and project looking to preparedness, finally
brought the country face to face with conflict unarmed.
The ominous truth was told in vigorous words recently
by Senator Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey :
We are the custodians of fabulous wealth, without the
organized power to protect it. We have 25,000,000 homes,
and are unable to say that one of them is secure. We deal in
paper leagues to enforce peace on a world intrenched in steel.
We dabble in rudimentary theories of defense against pos-
sible entmies who have developed the art of ruthless war into a
deadly science. The demands of national honor and the safety
of our homes have been discussed at leisure, and in thirty
months of debate no definite plan of defense has been formu-
lated. We have shrugged our shoulders and stuffed our
pockets.
"The surest way for a nation to invite disaster," said
Theodore Roosevelt, "is to be rich, aggressive and
unarmed." And no country, as we have said before, ever
made the invitation more emphatic, in all three respects,
than has the United States.
AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR
March SO, 1917.
WHEN a great throng gathered at New York city
hall recently to greet former Ambassador Gerard
upon his return from Germany, he paid a high
tribute to President Wilson, "who will stand in American
history," he said, "beside Washington and Lincoln." No
doubt the words were sincere ; but as the speaker looked
into the eager faces of his countrymen he was impelled
to put aside the compliments of oratory and speak the
solemn truth. And this is what he said, in his very next
sentence, of the record made by the equal of Washing-
ton and Lincoln :
When I came back to this country it was a positive shock
to me to find that in the two years in which the world has
been on fire we have done nothing to prepare for even a
reasonable means of national defense. I have seen the Ger-
mans take more prisoners in one afternoon' than there are
men in the entire United States army.
This curious association of conflicting ideas is not
uncommon. There are innumerable Americans who
admire the high motives and lofty patriotism of Presi-
dent Wilson, yet who are profoundly shocked by his con-
sistent neglect of national defense during two years and
a half when activity was demanded by every considera-
tion of reason and was made urgently necessary by his
own foreign policy. Beyond these general perils, war
became virtually inevitable when the United States defi-
nitely and irrevocably challenged the announced military
purposes of Germany. This was in February, 1915.
344
AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR 345
From the day when President Wilson justly declared
that this nation would exact "strict accountability" for
invasions of its rights, there were only three ways in
which conflict could be averted — by early triumphs of the
Allies; by surrender of Germany to the United States,
or by abandonment of the American demands. Yet for
exactly two years the government, while reiterating its
demands, made no move whatever toward preparing for
the certain crisis which would leave no choice except
submission or war. Until sixty days ago the policy
remained that which The North American described on
August 28, 1915:
Obstinate resistance to measures of preparation has
been maintained while the government has been compelled
actually to threaten war against the strongest military Power
in the world. Six months ago President Wilson justifiably
warned Germany that she would be held to "strict accounta-
bility" for aggressive acts. He declared this country would
"omit no word or act" to uphold its rights. He gave notice
that further injury would be considered an "unpardonable
offense" and "deliberately unfriendly."
' There never has been in history, we think, a more striking
example of temerity than has been furnished by the United
States during the last half year in formulating demands
which at any time may involve it in war, while neglecting
the most elementary precautions to enforce its high-sounding
words or even to resist further aggression.
There were no measures taken to exact "strict
accountability." The government was fully prepared to
"omit no word," but was not ready to perform any act.
It had no means, and sought none, for punishing an
"unpardonable offense," or resisting practices "deliber-
ately unfriendly." Its policy was clearly set forth in
the forcing out a year ago of Secretary of War Garrison,
who had given warning again and again that "the coun-
try is not prepared to defend itself — is not even prepared
to prepare," and the substitution of Mr. Baker, a pro-
346 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
nounced pacifist and an opponent of adequate military
training. Finally came the ultimatum of April 19, 1916,
for which there was no alternative. But when President
Wilson notified Germany that continuance of her law-
less attacks would mean a severance of diplomatic rela-
tions, that action introduced merely a new period of
inertia and neglect of preparation. Even Germany's
announcement that her pledge would be withdrawn at
her pleasure made no change. There followed ten months
of precarious "peace," interrupted from time to time by
such plain threats and open hostilities as the sinking of
American ships and the torpedoing of passenger vessels
within sight of the American coast, and by the special
journey of Ambassador Gerard from Berlin to Washing-
ton to give warning of the inevitable. The policy out-
lined by the president in December, 1914, was rigidly
followed. "We shall not turn America into a military
camp," he had said. "There is another sort of energy
in us ; it will know how to declare itself and make itself
effective should occasion arise." The theory of the
administration was expressed by Secretary of State
Bryan, who said that "if this country needed 1,000,000
men, and needed them in a day, the call could go out
at sunrise, and the sun would go down on 1,000,000 men
in arms." It was manifested in President Wilson's
rebuke that advocates of preparedness were "nervous"
and "excited," and that any defensive arrangements
"might create very unfavorable international impres-
sions." To this policy the government adhered, despite
the urgent pleas of newspapers, of military experts, of
eminent public men, of organizations of patriotic citi-
zens. And there was not even the excuse of ignorance,
for on September 13, 1915, the president himself had
given this warning: "We are all hoping and praying
that the skies may clear, but we have no control of that
AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR 347
on this side of the water, and it is impossible to predict
any part of the course of affairs." Thus the nation was
driven headlong to its fate, making imperious demands
and issuing threatening ultimatums without the first
rudiments of preparation to exact fulfillment of them.
But measures of defense were finally undertaken —
after Germany had begun openly and systematically the
war she had conducted intermittently for two years;
after the United States had taken the fateful step of
severing diplomatic relations! Historians will find it
difficult to believe that this government took not one
active step to perfect the country's defenses during
twenty-four months of steadily increasing menace, and
undertook its first work in this direction after hostili-
ties had begun. Germany declared her submarine war
on February 1, and two days later President Wilson dis-
missed her ambassador, a preliminary foreshadowing
war. It was then, and not before, that the government
began to put in motion the forces that are to create the
country's defenses. Let the reader mark the dates of
these activities. On February 9 the war department
asked bids for material to make 500,000 military uni-
forms, and requested from congress an appropriation of
$1,573,950 to construct a submarine base at the Atlantic
end of the Panama canal. "Ten more trucks," it was
proudly announced, "were engaged in hauling material
for erection of a new fortification at Rockaway Point,"
a vital feature of the defense of New York. Submarine
nets were ordered for the protection of various harbors.
The council of national defense was called to meet on
February 12, nine days after relations with Germany
had been severed. It forthwith named seven committees
to plan mobilization of the country's resources, a task
that will consume many months. On February 16 it
was made known that work had not yet been begun on
348 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
two new battleships authorized in March, 1915, and four
battle cruisers authorized in August, 1916. Several hun-
dred recruits for the army began drilling at Governor's
island — with broomsticks — and the war department
advertised for civilians to become reserve officers, "tech-
nical military experience" being unnecessary. On Feb-
ruary 19, two years after the demand, for "strict account-
ability," army and navy chiefs were directed to make
an "immediate appraisement" of the nation's fighting
forces for the information of the president. On Feb-
ruary 23 he sent to congress the war college staff's bill
for universal military training, with this "recommenda-
tion : —
As yet I am not prepared to say officially that the need
of the country can reasonably be said to be for so great an
establishment, nor can we yet, without further study and
deliberation, be confident that the means suggested are the
most appropriate to the need which it shall be determined
wise to foresee.
On February 26 the assistant secretary of the navy
made a public appeal for 750 motorboats and 10,000 men
as a naval reserve coast-defense force. "There is no
question," he said, "of training these men for next year
or the year after, but immediate creation of a fighting
force out of nothing." Two days later — four weeks after
Germany's proclamation of a war of extermination
against American commerce — the first steps were taken
to procure anti-submarine guns, bids being opened for
2400 3-inch guns and several thousand one-pounders.
On March 10, five weeks after he had dismissed the Ger-
man ambassador, President Wilson let it be known that
he favored equal military training for all citizens. Secre-
tary Daniels two days later consulted shipbuilders about
the construction of 200 high-speed motorboats. Keels
of forty of them were laid at Brooklyn Navy Yard, and
the first will be delivered "in sixty to seventy days" —
AT THE ELEVENTH HOUR 349
about June 1. On March 21 Secretary Baker appointed
a board of experts to standardize the manufacture of
munitions; this was seven weeks after war became a
fact, and two years and one month after it had been
recognized as a probability. At the same time — and for
the first time — plans were made to hasten the manu-
facture of aeroplanes, the existing capacity of the coun-
try being so small that only sixty-four of 366 machines
ordered in 1916 were delivered. In a real war there
would be need for 4000 airplanes and 2400 aviators ; and
it takes nine months' training and uses up one and a half
machines to make an efficient pilot.
It would b'j futile to continue a recital in which
every detail only adds emphasis to the appalling unreadi-
ness of this country to defend itself; every citizen may
read for himself, in the news from day to day, the evi-
dence of long neglect and belated activity. Much criti-
cism has been leveled against the foreign policy of the
government, by those who believe that it has lacked
vigor and by those who hold that it has been needlessly
provocative. The judgment of most Americans will be,
however, that the government could not do less than
insist upon American rights, as it has done with impress-
ive eloquence. The grave charge lying against this
administration is not that it upheld the nation's rights
and sovereignty, but that it obdurately refused to pre-
pare for their defense, and thus has brought them and
the safety of the republic into peril.
AMERICA SPEAKS
April 4, 1917.
TO FEW leaders of men has it been given to make
a declaration so momentous, so charged with the
destiny of nations, as that which Woodrow Wilson
was called upon to make to congress and to the world
on Monday night. And from none of them, in our judg-
ment, have the compulsion of events and the force of
conscientious conviction brought an utterance more
powerful in appeal or nobler in spirit. When the history
of these dark days comes to be written by those whose
understanding will be clearer than ours can be, a docu-
ment of imperishable value and inspiration will be that
sober yet exalted utterance, voicing the ideals of a gen-
erous people and the fundamental aspirations of all
enlightened mankind. It is not needful to see in it evi-
dences of superhuman genius or miraculous insight, for
it was the authority of the speaker's office which gave
dynamic force to his words; it is tribute high enough
to say that he proved worthy of the tremendous respon-
sibility imposed upon him as the spokesman for 100,000,-
000 people and for the sacred cause of democracy.
During the last two years and a half many Amer-
icans have been bewildered and depressed by the vacillat-
ing counsels and hesitant policies of their chosen leader,
but all these feelings will be swept away by his splendid
vindication of this nation's historic spirit and mission.
Americans today will stand straighter, think clearer and
grasp more firmly the heritage of their citizenship by
350
AMERICA SPEAKS 351
reason of his ringing interpretation of their decision.
They will respond to the dread summons he has been
forced to give, not because they are covetous of war
nor heedless of its perils, which may mean "many
months of fiery trial and sacrifice," but because he has
set before them an ideal worthy of their traditions,
because he has done that which gives new life to the
wasting soul of the nation.
It is the tone of the address, no less than its matter,
which calls to the spirit of America as deep calls unto
deep. Solemn yet eager, stern yet chivalrous; vibrant
with the restrained passion of a forbearing people
impelled at last to action; innocent of rancor, yet con-
suming in its condemnation of wrong manifest and unre-
pentant ; filled with lofty patriotism, yet breathing devo-
tion to the broader ideals of humanity and civilization,
it is an utterance fit to arouse the most indifferent and
give new vigor to the most ardent. In diction and logic
it is as direct as former declarations were involved.
Instead of vague questioning, there is sharp assertion;
instead of prolix dissertation, statements of clear mean-
ing and austere justice; instead of plausible but attenu-
ated theories, a definite and decisive program of action.
Here may be read how a democracy makes war — not
from desire, but from compulsion ; not for lust of world
power nor to impose its culture upon other nations, but
in defense of its rights, in service to justice, in cham-
pionship of the liberties of mankind. If for nothing
else, the statement of America's cause would be notable
for its blasting indictment of Prussianism's lawlessness,
perfidy and inhumanity. In measured but remorseless
phrases Germany is shown to be waging "a warfare
against mankind." Ruled by "an irresponsible govern-
ment" which is a "natural foe to liberty," that empire
has come to represent the worst evils of autocracy, of a
352 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
soulless militarism, of a policy which employs savagery
against foes and treachery against friends. That gov-
ernment has lost all title to consideration as it has lost
all semblance to an institution of world order. "In the
presence of its organized power there can be no assured
security for the democratic governments of the world."
It is "running amuck." These are things which have
been said a thousand times by publicists and the press
representing democratic peoples. Discernment of the
irreconcilable antagonism between the two philosophies
of government has been the inspiration of our war dis-
cussions since the first week of the conflict. But now
the truth is declared by the spokesman of the greatest
republic in the world, and there is stamped upon Prus-
sianism the final stigma of outlawry. Yet the president
had the equitable instinct to differentiate between the
government and the people of Germany. Perhaps the
concession was more generous than just, for the Ger-
mans still prostrate themselves before their blood-
stained autocracy. But it is true that the quarrel of
the United States is with Prussianism, and not the least
of the benefits from the great declaration may be the
convincing of the German people that their moral isola-
tion is due to the intolerable system they support. Of
more direct service to his countrymen was President
Wilson's statement of their decision. Like the sweep
of an invigorating breeze which dissipates fetid vapors
was his answer to the advocates of surrender: "There
is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable of mak-
ing; we will not choose the path of submission, and
suffer the most sacred rights of our nation and our
people to be ignored or violated." And again, as he
voiced the sense of solemn responsibility which the
fateful action stirred :
AMERICA SPEAKS 353
It is a fearful thing to lead this great, peaceful people
into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars,
civilization itself seeming to be in the balance, But the right
is more precious than peace.
Alluring and blessed are the benefits of peace —
prosperity and ease, tranquillity of mind, orderliness of
life, the opportunity to carry on freely the tasks of an
upward-moving civilization. But it may be purchased
at too heavy a cost. America could not afford to pay
for it the price of a sovereignty surrendered, a law
betrayed, a righteous cause abandoned to criminal
aggression. Once and for all the advocates of pacifism
have had their answer. In the measures he recom-
mended the president was no less vigorous and explicit
than in his statement of the issues. Because the cause
is as sacred as justice itself and as broad as all human-
ity, he declared for a war that should express to the
uttermost the righteous determination of this people
and should enlist all of their resources. He urged no
war of private revenge or of mere national defense, but
a war whose aim is to establish law and peace, which
must be insecure so long as Prussianism is uncurbed.
National safety, if no higher consideration, demands that
the sacrifices to be exacted from America shall not be
in vain. The suggestion of a league of nations to make
future peace secure was revived by the president, but
with a change which lifted a visionary project into the
realm of reason. Americans would never consent that
their country should enter such an association when
membership would mean involvement in all the remote
quarrels arising from the intrigues of ambitious autoc-
racies. But President Wilson's plea now is for a league
to be "maintained by a partnership of democratic
nations." And there would be no place for a Prussianized
state, for "no autocratic government could be trusted
to keep faith within it or observe its covenants."
354 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
No rational American can contemplate the future
without sober reflections. Participation in any war
means suffering and sacrifice; this one may bring bur-
dens hardly to be borne. Yet the choice has been made
with deliberation, after unexampled efforts to find an
easier way, thru concession and conciliation. Thus it
was that the president, speaking the thoughts of his
own heart, voiced also the ideals of his countrymen.
They fight because they must ; because self-preservation
is linked with honor, safety with justice, the mainte-
nance of national rights with the cause of civilization.
They fight with clear conscience and clean hands. It
has been remarked that this month has been fateful in
the history of America. It was in April, 1775, that the
shot heard round the world rang out at Lexington; in
April, 1846, was fought the first engagement in the war
with Mexico; on April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter was
attacked; on April 25, 1898, war was declared for the
liberation of Cuba; on April 19, 1916, the ultimatum to
Germany foreshadowed the ranging of this nation on
the side of civilization against the despoiler. But no
date will be held in higher honor in the annals of Amer-
ica than that on which its people declare, in the words
of their leader:
We shall fight for the things which we have always
carried nearest our hearts — for democracy, for the rights of
those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own
governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations,
for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free
peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and
make the world itself at last free.
GREAT WORDS DEMAND GREAT
DEEDS
April 6, 1917.
EVEN if President Wilson's address to congress had
not borne its own evidence of greatness, its world-
wide effect would promise it a high place among
the history-making documents of this momentous period.
Only one thing is needed to give it imperishable renown
as a declaration of vital principles. If it is translated
into action, it will be graven upon the memory of man-
kind like one of the great charters of human freedom ;
lacking that, it will be recalled only as one striking epi-
sode among a multitude. If elegance of diction and
surejiess of logic were the standards of comparison, any
of Mr. Wilson's notes to Germany, or any of his previous
addresses to congress, would be as admirable as this.
But the notes were essentially nothing more than bril-
liant essays in legal and moral controversy, and the ear-
lier speeches but adventurous flights of suggestion and
inquiry. One exception must be noted. The message sent
a year ago, to the effect that diplomatic relations would
be severed unless Germany abandoned her murderous
submarine policy, was an ultimatum. For the first time
a distinct course of action was announced, and from that
day war between the two countries was inevitable, unless
Germany were overcome by her enemies. With this
single exception, each of the president's utterances prior
to his address of last Monday left a way open for retreat.
Even the severance of diplomatic relations was accom-
355
356 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
panied by an assurance that the speaker "could not
believe" Germany to be deliberately hostile; even
the request for authority to mount guns on merchant-
men and establish "armed neutrality" was modified by
the assurance, "I am not now proposing or contemplat-
ing war or any steps that need lead to it."
But one will search the final utterance in vain for
any qualifying clauses of this nature, any sign of hesi-
tating judgment or faltering will. The president spoke
with relentless precision words which set the feet of this
nation irrevocably in the path of a righteous war. His
charges against Germany were remorselessly exact, his
statements of principle uncompromising, his recommen-
dations of action explicit. Where formerly he had testi-
fied, in the face of a calculated atrocity, to "the humane
and enlightened attitude of the imperial German govern-
ment in matters of international right," he now indicted
that government as a foe to liberty, a menace to civiliza-
tion, an irresponsible and inhuman force which must be
destroyed. Where he had argued that the aims of both
groups of nations were ostensibly the same, he now
found that one represents justice and freedom, the other
criminal aggression and enslavement. Where he had
counseled acceptance of "peace without victory," lest
continued conflict with wrong should injure mankind
beyond repair, he took his stand upon the truth that
civilization cannot know security until Prussianism is
overcome by the united force of enlightened nations.
And where he had urged a peace league to include all
governments — an impossible association of kaiserism,
czarism and democracy which would spawn intrigue and
treachery and war — he turned to the rational demand
for a concert of power which should unite the free
nations as the guardians of world order. The program
he outlined was no less clear — the declaration of a state
GREAT WORDS DEMAND GREAT DEEDS 357
of war; prosecution of it with all the resources at the
country's command, and the fullest co-operation with
the nations now battling with the German peril.
To the dullest mind this tremendous utterance must
appeal as epoch-making. And in a sense it is so, if for no
other reason than that it lays the foundation for a struc-
ture that should make this age illustrious — a federation
of nations, not linked by racial sympathies or ambitious
policies, but united for the common good upon the funda-
mental basis of devotion to democratic institutions. Yet
the fact remains that the declaration, even tho it voices
in inspiring terms the convictions and aspirations of a
great people, even tho it awakens hopes among multi-
tudes in other lands, in itself stands only as an expres-
sion of sound doctrine and lofty ideas. Grant that it
reveals noble conceptions and far-reaching vision, it will
mean exactly so much as action in support of it accom-
plishes, and nothing more.
^At this moment President Wilson is indubitably the
most commanding figure in world affairs. Adulation
rises to him thruout the continents, and myriads of men
hail his words as the proclamation of a new era of human
freedom. But suppose — if this were thinkable — that he
should conceive that the promulgation of great thoughts
and principles were the end, instead of the beginning, of
his mission ; suppose that in contentment with the great
service of having spoken nobly for humanity he
should fall short of fulfilling the obligations of leader-
ship; suppose that inefficiency in congress or slackness
of fiber in the American people should result in a paraly-
sis of the mighty force just now called into being — what
would remain of that splendid declaration, except the
echo of resounding words ? Let it be understood that we
do not offer these chilling suggestions with any motive
of disparagement. We yield to none in admiration for
358 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
the forthright courage of the president's stand and in
ardent purpose to support it. Yet only the utmost loy-
alty of service and sacrifice can give vitality to the cause
so valiantly asserted.
The noblest document in human history is the Dec-
laration of Independence. From its immortal words
people unnumbered have caught inspiration, and genera-
tions yet unborn will be uplifted by its majestic utter-
ances. But if the men who penned it had done no more
than to declare their principles, what would it be except
a half -forgotten memento of a vision, an example of
well-turned rhetoric? Why does the world honor these
men? Not merely because they had a sublime idea, but
because they gave all they had to realize it; not only
because they enunciated a faith, but because they
devoted to its establishment their lives, their fortunes
and their sacred honor. Without Lexington and Valley
Forge, there would be no State House for us to venerate,
no liberty for us to enjoy and defend. Without leader-
ship that shall drive this government today to great
deeds, without unity and willingness on the part of the
American people to make sacrifices for the cause they
have championed, all that the president has so magnifi-
cently declared must become a mockery, and the world
must find itself betrayed by false hopes. A policy com-
mensurate with the colossal problem of saving civiliza-
tion at the eleventh hour, and the prosecution of that
policy with crusading zeal and relentless efficiency —
these are the imperative needs. They will not be easily
met. Neither the administration nor congress has
revealed hitherto a capacity for dealing even with great
national problems, and this one has factors of unparal-
leled magnitude and menace. Sinister forces, moreover,
are gathering to exert their hampering and harassing
influences upon the projects of protecting national rights
GREAT WORDS DEMAND GREAT DEEDS 359
and championing law and democracy. Their opposition
is based upon two subtly dishonest appeals. They cloak
disloyalty under the pretense, first, that they will sup-
port to the uttermost a "defensive" war, which they
would restrict to resistance against actual invasion of
American soil ; and second, that under no circumstances
should the United States commit itself to "entangling
alliances" with foreign nations. These two pleas will be
pressed with tireless ingenuity and with every imagin-
able scheme to awaken prejudicial fears. Yet they are
transparently false and vicious, and loyal Americans
should be prepared to repudiate them whenever they
are made.
The rights and the sovereignty of this government
and its people have been as flagrantly and as dangerously
assaulted on the high seas as they would be if German
troops were intrenched on the American coast. The law-
less sinking* of American ships and the methodical mur-
der of American citizens are as definitely acts of war as
woyld be the dropping of bombs on Philadelphia. The
first requirement of a defensive war is to strike the ene-
my, and if the United States must send ships to the
North sea or troops to France, in order "to bring the
government of Germany to terms," those will be as
clearly acts of defense as are the patrolling of American
waters and American railroad lines. The government
may be trusted not to make any "entangling alliances"
which would commit this country to the support of
schemes of territorial aggrandizement or political aggres-
sion. But the American who resists an open, clearly
defined and energetically fulfilled arrangement of co-op-
eration with the forces already engaged with Germany
is either dishonest or misled.
If there is any meaning in what President Wilson
declared, and if there is any logic in the events of the
360 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
hour, the United States is summoned to defend not only
its own rights, but the institutions of democracy and
civilization. For two years and a half, at untold cost
in blood and treasure, nations have been fighting to over-
come the intolerable menace of a world power based
upon autocracy and militarism; and now, when the
greatest of republics at last takes its stand with the
defenders of human liberty, it is urged that it conduct
a private war and repudiate the cause for which they
sacrifice themselves. When Russia, in czarism, had its
counterpart of the cruel and rapacious system which
makes Germany an international danger, there was some
merit in maintaining the tradition of aloofness. But the
Russian people have clarified the issue and made the
war absolutely a test as to whether autocracy or democ-
racy shall survive ; and this nation would be false to its
first principles if, having declared at last for the cause
of justice and freedom, it did not stand shoulder to
shoulder with those whose sufferings have served it.
Aside from considerations of sentiment and justice,
national safety itself dictates this course. Following an
isolated policy, the United States not only would fatally
weaken the nations ranged against Germany, but would
endanger its own future. The first line of American
defense today lies in the British fleet and the troops of
France, Britain and Belgium, who hold the trenches from
the North sea to the Swiss border, and to deny them
active aid would be to serve the enemy that threatens us.
HOW ARE WE TO WAGE WAR?
. April 7, 1917.
E United States is now actually and irrevocably
in war and at war. The last permissible debate as
-1- to its participation ended with the action of the
house of representatives early yesterday morning; con-
troversy will be revived only by the deluded or the dis-
loyal. The one duty of government and people hence-
forth is to prosecute the war with energy, intelligence
and undivided purpose. At first glance the problem,
while clearly formidable, will appear to offer its own
solution. This country has a population of 100,000,000 ;
it possesses vast reserves of money, credit and natural
resources; its industries are tremendous and highly
organized, and it is geographically remote from the scene
of conflict. Victory depends simply upon developing
latent forces and bringing them to bear with reasonable
dispatch. But the devising of a method of doing this
presents the most stupendous and intricate problem that
ever confronted the nation.
Two general theories of procedure are advocated,
and they are in irreconcilable conflict. One holds that
the sole issue lies in Germany's invasion of American
rights at sea, and that all cause of war would disappear
the instant that Germany offered, or was compelled, to
abandon the sinking of American ships and the murder-
ing of American citizens. Hence, the United States
should confine its activities to the conduct of a "strictly
defensive" war ; it should proceed independently, remain-
361
362 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
ing absolutely aloof from other belligerents; should do
no more than guard the American coasts, protect Amer-
ican shipping and prepare to defend American territory
against possible danger. Moreover, consent by Germany
to recognize and respect American rights should be the
signal for making a separate peace and the withdrawal
of the United States from the conflict. This view has
had ardent support. Only a few weeks ago Representa-
tive Lenroot, of Wisconsin, who voted finally for the war
resolution, made the following plea:
We will vote to maintain our liberties upon the sea. But
that does not mean that we will vote a general declaration
of war; it does not mean that we will intervene in the Euro-
pean conflict, nor send our men to European trenches, nor
participate in the settlement of European questions. When
Germany shall again respect our rights our quarrel with her
will be over, and we will be ready to make peace, regardless
of European nations or European quarrels.
Mr. Lenroot is an independent and courageous
patriot. Yet at that time he was misled into saying just
what pro-Germans advocate. This is from the leading
American newspaper apologist for kaiserism:
If Germany offered to cease submarine attacks without
warning upon merchantmen, there would be nothing for us
to do in honor and self-respect but to accept that offer and
make peace, regardless of what the Allies did or were about
to do * * * Let us insist that our fleets and our armies
be used to fight only for America! We want no allies. We
will have use for every American dollar and ship and soldier
in defending America!
This is to be the last device of pacifism, the last
ditch of disloyalty — the plausible demand that the
United States shall wage only a "defensive" war, by
which is meant an isolated war, without either joining
our resources to those of Germany's other adversaries
or making use of their organized power; a war to be
abandoned without regard to world issues involved. Dia-
HOW ARE WE TO WAGE WAR? 363
metrically opposed to this program is that which recog-
nizes that Germany, as President Wilson has said, is
making "warfare against mankind"; that while mili-
tarism and autocracy remain uncurbed all democracies
are in peril, and that the object must be "to bring the
German government to terms and end the war." This
program requires that the United States should make
common cause with the democracies of Great Britain,
France, Belgium, Italy and Russia against the confed-
erated autocracies of Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and
Turkey ; should ally itself with them, not politically, but
in a military sense, for the duration of the war, and
should arrange the closest possible co-operation of effort
against the common enemy. This is the policy which
the government has adopted; which, indeed, it has
already put into effect. Decision could not await the
formal action of congress, and this course was so mani-
festly sound that tentative arrangements had been made
for co-ordinating American, activities, so far as possible,
with those of the forces already in the field. One of the
most noteworthy features of President Wilson's address
was his clear enunciation of the program:
It) (declaration of war) will involve the utmost prac-
ticable co-operation in counsel and action with the govern-
ments now at war with Germany, and, as incident to that,
the extension to those governments of the most liberal finan-
cial credits, in order that our resources may so far as pos-
sible be added to theirs. * * We should keep con-
stantly in mind the wisdom of interfering as little as possible,
in our own preparation and in the equipment of our own
military forces, with the duty of supplying the nations
already at war with Germany with the materials which
they can obtain only from us or by our assistance. They are
in the field, and we should help them in every way to be
effective there.
The logic cf these proposals is manifest. No mat-
ter how much force there may be in the tradition of
364
our "isolation" and the sentiment for keeping this nation
from "foreign entanglements," the demand of existing
conditions is imperative. The United States, one of
the weakest nations of the world in military equipment,
is at war with the strongest military Power. Acting
independently, the United States could not possibly over-
come Germany; could not, indeed, exert any appreciable
pressure upon her. It could not operate against her
submarines or against her troops except in co-operation
with her other antagonists, and she has no merchant
marine afloat which might be attacked. Some unity of
action, therefore, is a strategical necessity. Such an
arrangement is no less vital to national safety. We have
seen what Germany considers a "peaceful" attitude
toward the United States; from this may be deduced
what she would deem justifiable in the event that, hav-
ing subdued the Entente alliance or having made peace
with it, she faced the United States alone. All the sooth-
ing arguments for an "independent" or "limited" or
"restricted" war, conducted as tho there were nothing
more at stake than the lawless attacks upon American
ships, are palpably unsound and dangerous. Even if
this nation could wage a war of this kind, it is incon-
ceivable that Germany would do so. Her wars are not
limited. And neither is her hatred. And it is incon-
ceivable that she would be more relenting toward the
United States, after it had become an avowed enemy,
than she was while it was submitting to outrage or try-
ing the experiment of armed neutrality.
Expediency forbids any paltering with the facts;
altruism itself would not justify such a course. Ger-
many undefeated means the United States doomed to
resist, alone and unaided, that which the greatest coal-
ition in history has not yet been able to overcome. It is
the idlest folly to believe that acceptance of a German
HOW ARE WE TO WAGE WAR? 365
pledge, even if such a concession were thinkable, would
dissipate the peril ; it would, on the other hand, intensify
it. Germany would not consent to stojp sinking Amer-
ican ships even to keep American friendship ; from this
may be estimated what she would do at the first oppor-
tunity in return for American hostility. German defeat,
then, is vital to American safety ; there can be no turn-
ing back now. All available means must be used to
accomplish that end; and they must be used at the
earliest possible day and in the manner which will give
them the greatest force. If the United States could do
most toward defeating Germany by independent action,
that would be our logical course. But it is obvious that
we cannot even strike a blow, for we lack the oppor-
tunity. Association with those already in contact with
the enemy is therefore imperative. We serve ourselves
by putting our resources, which they lack, behind their
organization, which we have not. This means "team
work" by the navies of the United States, Great Britain
antf France in patrolling the submarine murder zones.
It means the extension of credit; organization of the
supply of food, munitions and other needed materials;
the building of ships, and the mobilization of our indus-
trial resources in the common cause.
It means, also, the raising of a great army. And it
means the employment of an army in Europe, if that
should become necessary. This is against American tra-
dition, and it is against American desire; but tradition
and desire must give way if compulsion arises. We struck
Spain first in the Philippines, and if it would best serve
American defense to strike Germany in Belgium or
France, there we must strike her. Obviously, such action
must take into account the requirements of territorial
protection; the possibility of invasion must always be
kept in mind. But the best way to prevent an attack is
366 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
to make one. The one means of making the United
States secure is to defeat Germany, and it may be found
that the place to do that is in Europe. No hasty adven-
ture of this kind need be expected. With our financial
and material resources at their command, the forces
now in the field probably can hold the line; and in any
event an American expedition could hardly be made
ready for trench war, nowadays an intricate science, for
many months. A force just large enough to give the
American flag a place in the battlefront of democracy
might be sent, however. This would be a symbol of
America's whole-hearted enlistment in the cause; an
inspiration to those already fighting and a final emphasis
to the condemnation of the German government by
civilization.
The idea upon which the American people must lay
hold is that they are committed now, thru no fault of
their own, to the greatest and most exacting enterprise
of their history, and that they cannot emerge from it
successfully unless they put into it all their energy.
This nation would be not only unworthy of the cause it
has championed, but would be false to its own safety,
if it did not determine to do everything that is necessary
to accomplish the defeat of Germany, without which
"there can be no assured security for the democratic
governments of the world."
THE MISSION OF AMERICA
April 9, 1917.
AL.L Americans are stirred by the consciousness
that the United States is at war with the greatest
military Power in the world, is a participant in
the most colossal conflict in human history. But there
are varying interpretations of the significance of this
tremendous fact. The majority of citizens discern that
the nation has embarked upon a momentous enterprise,
but they face the grim undertaking with a serene cour-
age which does not question the future. Others, a class
by no means small, refuse to take the situation seriously.
They conceive that the peril will presently be dissipated
by .some sort of negotiation, or by some dramatic mili-
tary gestures ; or, at the worst, by the extension of our
credit to other nations fighting Germany, and by inten-
sified production of munitions and other war materials
for them to use. In a third group are those who realize
that the United States confronts the gravest and grim-
mest ordeal of its existence, which will test its strength
of sinew and of soul as never before.
No living person knows how long this war will
last. There are now, and will be again, vague rumors of
peace moves. But there is just as much reason now
to prophesy three years of conflict as there was when
Kitchener startled his countrymen with such an estimate
thirty months ago. The entrance of the United States
gives virtual assurance that the ultimate outcome must
be the defeat of Germany ; yet well-informed observers
367
368 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
are agreed that the participation of this country by no
means guarantees an early termination of the struggle.
If we were prepared to defend ourselves and maintain
our rights, as we should be ; if we had heeded the warn-
ing which events thundered at us with ever-increasing
clamor for two years and a half, a mere declaration of
our purpose to uphold justice would have broken the
hardy spirit of lawlessness and dictated the re-establish-
ment of order. The end of the war would be in sight,
and the world would have escaped the bloodshed which
now must ensue. But heedlessness and delusion blinded
us, and for this there is a price to be paid. It is inspir-
iting to read the impressive estimates of our vast war
resources, and the ardent welcome which the hard-
pressed antagonists of the common enemy give to our
promised aid. But the important estimate is not that
which is held by Americans or by the Allies, but that
which is held by Germany. And Germany holds our
military power in utter contempt; she knows that she
has nothing to fear from it for twelve months, perhaps
for twice that time. Her experts are aware of the
United States' mighty financial and economic power ; but
most of that, they say, has been at the disposal of her
enemies since the beginning, and cannot be brought to
bear directly upon her in the near future. Germany
scorns not only our armed strength, but our national
spirit. She believes that American manhood and
womanhood have a flabby fiber; that the nation has a
commercialized conscience and a sordid soul.
Even before the decision of America, this newspaper
felt no serious doubt as to the ultimate outcome of the
struggle. In man-power and economic strength and
means of supply the Allies outmatch the four autocra-
cies, and in scientific mobilization of their resources they
have approached Germany's marvelous accomplishments.
THE MISSION OF AMERICA 369
A Teutonic triumph, therefore, could not be calculated,
altho the extent of the defeat to be inflicted, and the
nature of the settlement that would be made, could not
be estimated. Our optimism, we confess; was stimulated
to some degree by an unshaken belief in the eternal jus-
tice of things, as well as by considerations of the prac-
tical factors. We had faith that the civilization built
upon the principles of democracy and the rights of man,
ideals which have been expanding thru nineteen hundred
years of mankind's upward striving, was not to be over-
thrown, at this late day, by a philosophy which belongs
to the Dark Ages. And the addition of America's tre-
mendous moral and material force makes the end still
more certain. Yet no one can soberly study the events
of the past and the prospect of the present without
bringing into view the possibility that the United States
may be called upon to take upon itself the chief burden
of a cause which has all but exhausted its first defenders.
Even in the darkest view of the future there is,
nevertheless, the promise of material benefits which far-
seeing observers are calculating. Out of this time of
peril, they discern, the nation will at last emerge pre-
pared, as it should have been years ago, to discourage or
resist aggression from any quarter, a free republic ready
to maintain its freedom. It should be a cause for thank-
fulness that even now the protection of the navies and
the troops of Britain and France gives us opportunity to
construct our belated defenses. It is urged that national
military training, which never could have been made
possible except under the compulsion of unavoidable
war, will not only promote the country's safety, but will
upbuild the physical vigor of the people. And the daily
record of the examination of recruits shows that this
measure will not come too soon to check deterioration.
370 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Great advantages will flow from the development
of national control over transportation and other quasi-
public enterprises; from the stimulated conservation of
natural resources ; from the elimination of waste and the
co-ordination of effort; from more intelligent and scien-
tific direction of agriculture ; from the reorganization of
our vast industrial power, which will put us abreast of
the revolutionary achievements that necessity dictated
in Great Britain and France, and so will give us the
equipment and momentum that will be needed to carry
us thru the relentless commercial contest to follow the
war. Out of the stress and strife, it may be believed,
will emerge a people rid of the intolerable weakness of
hyphenism; the great American republic will stand
before the world a nation instead of a conglomeration
of racial fragments, the home of a loyally united people
instead of an international boarding house. The mere
enumeration of these advantages which will come in
compensation for the sacrifices of war is impressive, and
some of them have a nature vital to America's existence.
We are not unmindful of all the practical good which
they will accomplish. But there are in view facts of
infinitely greater import, the contemplation of which
might well uplift the soul of Americans with heroic
inspiration.
The participation of the United States in the world
war, upon the platform set forth by President Wilson in
his address to congress, has made it possible for this
nation to confer immeasurable benefit upon the world.
For the judgment thereby expressed is to be the judg-
ment of humanity and of history, and the issue thereby
declared is to stand clear in the vision of mankind to
remote ages. So long as men write and read and think,
there will nevermore be any doubt as to why this war
afflicts the earth. White books and green books and all
THE MISSION OF AMERICA 371
the studied controversies of diplomacy will be but for
the research of the laborious student; the orations of
imperial statesmen and the fulminatiqns of imperial
professors will be scanned merely as curious records of
human prejudices and infatuation. Towering above and
obscuring them all will stand the monumental fact that,
after two years and eight months, the leading neutral
and the greatest republic in the world was driven by
sheer conviction to outlaw and everlastingly condemn the
intolerable institution of Prussianism, giving the final
and irrefutable demonstration that this is a war to
decide whether autocracy or democracy shall govern the
destinies of the race. That issue, indeed, was manifest
from the beginning to all who did not fasten their atten-
tion upon minor causes. Before a shot had been fired,
while the teeming ranks of continental armies were not
fully assembled, two days before the violation of Bel-
gium signalized the colossal rebellion against law, this
newspaper predicted that the struggle then opening
would mean "an upheaval of democracy," and charged
the catastrophe to "unbridled autocracy." And before
the conflict was a week old we declared the obvious truth
which is today the world verdict:
The lesson that is to be written in blood and fire for the
world to read is plain. It is that in the twentieth century
autocracy is an intolerable anachronism, a menace to civiliza-
tion, a burden upon humanity. This war is its death-
grapple among enlightened nations.
Democracy is a guarantee that war, when it is waged,
shall be waged for liberty, not for territorial greed or lust
of conquest ; in defense of human rights, not for the glorifica-
tion of ambitious rulers and a besotted statesmanship. The
leaven of the age is working. The mighty convulsion will
shake into new alignment the powers of the world and the
forces of mankind. Unless all signs fail, it will mean the
stern curbing of imperial aggression, perhaps the extinction
of imperial systems. Great new republics may arise upon
372 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
the ruins of despotic institutions. For the tide of democracy
will not be stayed, and autocracy will be submerged with the
futile barriers it has erected to guard its medieval privileges.
Commerical rivalries, clashing political ambitions,
racial animosities — all of these things, and many more,
had their influence in precipitating the appalling conflict.
But ever clearer emerged the basic cause — the irrecon-
cilable antagonism between autocracy and democracy.
Again and again we declared that only one of these could
survive ; there was not room for both upon this earth, and
in the end the alignment must be between these two
systems of government, of one of which this nation is
the chief exponent. This was our unchanging interpre-
tation, maintained thru months when ignorance and
pacifism were urging that America was supremely
blessed in being "isolated" from an "insane and mean-
ingless" war; when the popular concept was expressed
in the heedless phrase, "Oh, let them fight it out, it's
none of our affair"; when the president of the great
American republic was admonishing his countrymen to
be "neutral even in thought," was declaring that "with
the causes and objects of the war we are not concerned,"
and was arguing that there must be "peace without vic-
tory," a peace arranged between autocracies and democ-
racies treating "as equals.".
All civilization has thrilled to the noble expression
of the truth in President Wilson's great utterance of
last week — "the world must be made safe for democ-
racy" ; "in the presence of autocracy's organized power,
there can be no assured security for the democratic
governments of the world"; "a steadfast concert for
peace can never be maintained except by a partnership
of democratic nations." But these truths have shone
undimmed thru the murk of war from the very begin-
ning. The single aim and inspiration of Prussian mili-
THE MISSION OF AMERICA 373
tarism was to prepare against the day when it might
suddenly overwhelm democracy and enthrone absolutism
as the ruling philosophy of government. The imperish-
able service America has performed is 'to demonstrate,
at the peril of sacrifices which no mind can foresee, what
is that issue which has locked the nations of the earth
in deadly combat in this, the most enlightened age of
human history. So much has been accomplished by the
mere decision and declaration. Of still greater import
will be the result of this nation's active participation —
an alliance of the democratic peoples of the world to
meet at their Armageddon the confederated forces of
autocracy. Without America this battle to re-establish
and make secure the structure of human liberty was
impossible. Without America the dream of world peace
was vain, for that can never be realized until democracy
rules the earth. With America, the alignment is irrevo-
cable and irresistible. For autocracy has summoned into
the field against itself a force mightier than fleets and
armies — it has challenged an indestructible idea, which
for nineteen centuries has been the ever-expanding
inspiration of mankind. Nor has there been, since the
beginning of that era, an event of greater moment for
humanity than the resurgence of democracy amid the
ruins of its hopes. Like its great Teacher and Martyr,
the cause of justice has had its grim Golgotha and its
triumphant resurrection, promise and proof of a glorious
immortality.
GERMANY CAN FORCE PEACE
April 10, 1917.
HERE is an arresting and hope-inspiring paradox —
peace was never so easy of accomplishment,
never lay so ready to the grasp of those who
alone can command it instantly, as in this hour when
the fiery circle of war threatens to inclose the entire
earth and when the embattled nations are nerving them-
selves for a struggle to the death. Just when the issue
has narrowed to a single principle, concerning which
no compromise can be imagined and no mercy shown;
just when great new forces have been added to the battle
line and the prospect is for a conflict more pitiless and
more prolonged than seemed possible, just then is it
revealed that there is one simple decision by which the
war could be ended forthwith. The choice lies with the
German people. If they were to do what the Russian
people did — were to take control of their own govern-
ment— there is no power in earth or hell that could pre-
vent the coming of peace within thirty days. This is
no visionary estimate. It is self-evident. Civilization
is in arms against Germany because that empire is the
citadel of autocracy ; with a Germany freed of kaiserism,
a Germany democratized, it would have no quarrel that
could not be settled justly, generously and peaceably.
This is the message that is thundering from the guns
on the great battle-front and echoing from every enlight-
ened nation. The truth is finding lodgment even in Ger-
many, where a people oppressed with woe and sitting
374
GERMANY CAN FORCE PEACE 375
in darkness look wonderingly at the glimmering idea,
not yet fully comprehending its stupendous meaning.
The dullest imagination can pictyre what would
happen if some day soon the news were to speed from
Berlin that absolutism had been overthrown, junker-
dom cast down and self-government substituted for the
monstrous anachronism of an all-powerful, irresponsible
State. Russia would silence her guns to hail a sister
nation. The United States would turn joyfully from
the stern business of war to welcoming the prospect of
restoring an ancient friendship. In Great Britain,
France, Italy, all the world, distrust and aversion would
give place to confidence and admiration, and the impla-
cable demand for vengeance to a universal cry for peace.
Peace! That is the agonizing dream of the tormented
and desperate German people. And they could have
it tomorrow — not a peace of enslavement, but peace with
honor, peace with safety, peace with that "free exist-
ence" which they crave, peace with liberty to develop
their precious Kultur to glories it could never attain as
the instrument of a besotted militarism ; peace with no
shadow except the inextinguishable sorrow they must
endure for the losses inflicted upon them by the autoc-
racy they still cherish. And this they might attain, not
by suffering further sacrifices, not by piling up their
dead in greater and more futile heaps, but by merely
asserting their manhood and intelligence, by taking into
their own hands the control of their destinies. The
decision rests with them: the alternative they know.
Democracy, aroused at last, has passed irrevocable
sentence — kaiserism must go. Hohenzollernism must
end, for "in the presence of its organized power there
can be no assured security for the democratic govern-
ments of the world." What America has said is the
judgment of mankind. It has been a matter for won-
376 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
derment that the nations battling with Germany did
not long ago proclaim that peace would be made only
with the German people. There were two reasons for
avoiding an explicit and official declaration — first, it
would have strengthened kaiserism among its subjects,
and second, it would have made difficult a refusal to con-
sider really moderate terms offered by the imperial
government. The idea, nevertheless, has been strongly
intimated. The Allies have said that they were fighting
for the liberation of all peoples, including the Germans.
It was vital, said Mr. Balfour in his note, that Prussian-
ism "should fall into disrepute among the Germans
themselves." When they accepted terms, said Lloyd
George, they would find that "they have attained self-
government for themselves." It would be impossible,
declared the speaker of the house of commons, to make
peace with the German government "as at present con-
stituted." The leader of the British Socialists was far
more emphatic:
It is unthinkable that the Entente would conclude a
lasting peace with the Hohenzollerns. The peoples of the
allied countries would repel the thought of such a peace.
Revolution in Germany and the fall of the dynasty seems the
only way to the reconstruction of Europe on a stable basis.
President Wilson spoke for democratic civilization
when he said that peace must be secured by a league of
democratic nations, because "no autocratic government
could be trusted to keep faith within it or observe its
covenants." But the most direct message is that which
Germany has heard from liberated Russia. A united
utterance from Russian workmen and soldiers a week
ago implored the Germans to "throw off the yoke of
autocratic rule," so that the two peoples might "stop
this awful war." And to this popular expression is now
added the official declaration of the Russian minister of
GERMANY CAN FORCE PEACE 377
justice: "If the German people are about to follow our
example and dethrone their emperor, we can do no other
than warmly applaud, for that would offer the possibility
of entering upon preliminary negotiations." Despite
the censorship and the disciplined habit of thought
among Germans, realization of the truth is rapidly tak-
ing possession of their minds. This is shown not only
in a new boldness of utterance among the few really
democratic elements, but in the furious resentment of
the reactionaries and the hasty maneuvers of autocracy
to forestall revolution by concessions. "It does not
require many words," the Socialist leader in the reichs-
tag wrote recently, "to explain why almost the whole
world is arrayed against us. It sees among our enemies
more or less developed forms of democracy, and in us it
sees only Prussians." "We regard a German republic
as an inevitable development," said another. "History
is now marching with seven-league boots." Vorwaerts,
the party organ, voices stern demands:
Democracy against autocracy! The freedom of nations
against the lust of conquest ! It rings thru the world. In the
eyes of most of the earth's inhabitants Germany appears as
a tyrant, our enemies as bringers of freedom. Thru the
Russian revolt and America's declaration this storm of the
public opinion of the world has become a tempest. We are
fighting for home and hearth, but not for antiquated condi-
tions whose elimination has been promised us; and if there
are things that make this fight for life more difficult to us,
then — away with them ! The bringing about of that national
freedom which exists in other nations, even monarchies, is
the political offensive we need if the pressure of the moral
attack against us is not to become too great.
Yet against the movement signified by these expres-
sions there is ranged a tremendous force of opposition.
Bourbonism is the same under every sky — it never
learns, it never yields until it is too late. "The perils
threatening Germany's future," cried one organ of the
378 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
autocracy, "would be formidably increased if a demo-
cratic State were to arise in Russia." And every expo-
nent of the old order is bitterly resolved to concede noth-
ing or else to concede only so much as will satisfy the
docile people and undermine the cause of genuine liberal-
ization. Chief among these latter are the kaiser, his
chancellor and some other powerful figures in the auto-
cratic regime. They openly proclaim that electoral
reforms and other measures to make the government
more responsive to the nation will be taken — after the
war. And the controlled press dutifully applauds the pro-
gram emboided in a proposed "people's kingdom of the
Hohenzollerns," which the emperor himself has been
"graciously pleased" to advocate. These devices would
be transparent enough, even without elucidation. But
the spokesmen for autocracy emphasize the fact that the
concessions are meant "not only to maintain, but to
strengthen, the bonds between ruler and people." The
studied phraseology of the discussion is suggestive. Such
terms as "democracy" and "popular government" are
avoided as tho they were unknown in the German lan-
guage; autocracy always refers to its design as "the
new orientation of policy." But its most effective appeal
is made by irritating the nerve of nationalism. Noth-
ing in President Wilson's address has aroused more
savage resentment than his differentiation between the
German government and the German nation. "The
kaiser and his people are one," has always been the
response of devoted Germans to Americans who wished
to absolve the nation from the odium of autocracy's
crimes, and this is still the defiant answer. "The Ger-
man people," cries a leading paper, "see in President
Wilson's words nothing but an attempt to loosen the
bonds between the people and princes of Germany so
that we may become an easier prey for our enemies.
GERMANY CAN FORCE PEACE 379
What slave soul does he believe exists in the German
nation when he thinks that it will allow freedom to be
meted out to it from without ?"
The truth is, of course, that precisely that compul-
sion may have to be applied. The German people have
had the same chance as others to liberate themselves;
they still have it. But if they refuse, the alternative
is that civilization will accomplish it for them, and that
the benefit will come to them only thru great anguish.
Russia has shown them one way to freedom and peace ;
America shows them the other. Surely their brothers in
this country could perform no better service to their
fatherland than by urging it to choose the easier and the
nobler way. For Germany is encircled now by a force
more powerful by far than the "iron ring" which she
believed she could break. Over against every line where
her troops are intrenched, democracy is encamped in
relentless vigil ; and autocracy will sooner turn back the
slow-revolving wheels of time than it will overcome the
ide£ against which it made audacious war.
WHAT IF RUSSIA MADE PEACE?
April 17, 1917.
THAT is a very singular battlefield scene pictured
in a dispatch from Petrograd: "At many points
on the Russian front Austrian soldiers came out
of their trenches carrying parcels of peace pamphlets,
which they tried to get the Russians to accept. Shrap-
nel drove them back." The incident may seem absurd,
yet it is a symptom of a situation which has serious con-
cern for the United States and for the world. Just as
desperately as she is fighting to escape military disaster
in the west, Germany is striving to achieve diplomatic
victory in the east — to coerce or cajole the new govern-
ment in Russia into negotiating a separate peace that
would break the iron ring of democracies encircling the
Central Powers. It is hardly too much to say that upon
the course of Russia depends the outcome of the war.
And the matter is of the greater concern to America
because this country can do more than any other to
avert action which might have disastrous results. When
one considers the magnitude of the change wrought in
Russia — the sudden liberation of 170,000,000 people, of
a score of races, from a system rooted in the habit of
centuries — one marvels that the new regime has been
so steady and so strong. There never was a revolution
so tremendous and so tranquil. Yet its very complete-
ness has produced dangers. This new-born democracy
found itself burdened with a staggering inheritance from
autocracy — military inefficiency, shortage of food, muni-
380
WHAT IF RUSSIA MADE PEACE? 381
tions and other supplies, and a transportation system
almost paralyzed by mismanagement.
Problems political as well as military and economic
faced the untried government. To the vast mass of the
people liberty was a dazzling boon which they accepted
with reverent joy; but in the minds of those who had
preached red revolution thru bitter, hopeless years it
awakened a more insatiate ambition. They want to re-
construct the entire social order as rapidly and as ruth-
lessly as they and the more moderate progressives recon-
structed the governmental system. Toward the pro-
visional authorities they are distrustful, intolerant and
aggressive. At a time when the need is for a more reso-
lute patriotism, they are preaching with intensified pas-
sion the doctrine of internationalism. These radicals are
Socialists before they are Russians. They would betray
the nation to Germany in the serene conviction that
thereby they were serving humanity. Since that end
was being promoted by the Russian autocracy, the revo-
lution was a staggering blow to kaiserism. But when
the Germans had recovered from the shock they turned
with chracteristic efficiency to the devising of means to
extract advantage from the defeat. At first the Prus-
sianized mind refused to accept the accomplished fact —
czarism must soon be restored. "It is absolutely impos-
sible," solemnly declared an eminent professor of the
University of Berlin and a privy councilor, "for the revo-
lutionary committee and the duma to work together long.
It is opposed to all reason. It is impossible to deny the
possibility of a counter-revolution in favor of the old
regime." But more practical ideas gained ground — what
could not be obtained from a seduced autocracy must be
snatched from a disorganized democracy. Affairs in
Russia were palpably in confusion. The effect of sudden
freedom on a people long suppressed would be to encour-
382 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
age license and political turbulence. The army, conscious
of its part in destroying absolutism, would cast away
discipline and repudiate authority. Most of all, the war
sufferings of the people would awaken among them a
passion for peace, which for the first time would find free
expression. There probably was a good deal of truth,
therefore, in the Berlin dispatches, which reported that
the Russian situation commanded far greater interest in
Germany than did the war preparations of the United
States. The newspapers were filled with hopeful intima-
tions that an offer of "generous terms" would soon
detach Russia from her allies. When the Austrian
premier made a new peace suggestion two weeks ago, the
semi-official comment in Berlin was that "it now lies with
Russia to return an answer." More recently the Socialist
organ, Vorwaerts, has renewed the invitation :
In the hands of the liberated Russian people now lies the
decision regarding peace and war. Matters between the
Central Powers and Russia can be settled without a further
drop of blood being shed. Neither Germany nor Austria-
Hungary wishes to humble Russia or keep a bit of her terri-
tory. We wish for peace, and the statement of the pro-
visional government shows that the same feeling in Russia
is very great.
This newspaper statement is especially significant
because Prussianism relies upon Socialism to bring about
a settlement which will perpetuate autocracy. The Ger-
man Socialists have never failed to uphold kaiserism dur-
ing the war, and they are now exerting their utmost en-
deavors to undermine the democratic coalition against
Germany by appealing to their Slav "brethren." And
that this movement is promoted by the imperial govern-
ment was shown last week, when a special train was pro-
vided to carry across Germany a company of Russian
WHAT IF RUSSIA MADE PEACE? 383
revolutionaries who had long been in exile in Switzerland,
extremists of this type being the readiest instruments
for the German peace intrigue.
A glance at the political situation in Russia is neces-
sary to illuminate these movements. The revolution was
the joint achievement of two parties, the "Council of
Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies" and the duma organ-
ization. The former, made up of labor unions, Socialists
and radicals of various types, did the active work of
inciting the army and the people against the autocracy.
The latter, organized nationally thru the zemstvos, com-
prises men of liberal and democratic convictions, whose
aim, however, has been to democratize the government,
but not to overturn the entire social order. This party
had long been in political insurrection, and, when czarism
was overthrown, it had the machinery ready to set up
the new government. The present ministry represents
a coalition, the "reds" having been persuaded finally to
hold in abeyance their demand for the creation of a full
Socialist republic, and to co-operate with the duma party
for the period of the war. The sudden acquirement of
liberty of speech and action, nevertheless, has had an
intoxicating effect upon the radicals, who have modified
their pledge of loyalty to the government by declaring
that they will ignore its authority when, in their judg-
ment, its decrees override popular freedom. Workmen
spend so much time in union meetings and agitation for
greater privileges that industries have become disorgan-
ized, and pacifists insist upon their right to send com-
mittees to the front to harangue the troops in behalf of
peace at any price. Thus there are at work, promoting
the very policy of internal strife and dishonorable peace
which cost autocracy its life, elements which helped to
overturn that discredited regime. Naturally, German
agents are aiding the propaganda.
384 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
n s ^ »i
™ !
It is plain, therefore, that there is active in Rus-
sia a determined element which would make terms
with Prussianism. In this emergency the vital need
is that the government be supported in every pos-
sible way by the nations which have only a foreign enemy
to fight. The United States has given invaluable aid,
in the stirring tribute to free Russia offered by Presi-
dent Wilson in his last address to congress, and espe-
cially in the prompt recognition of the new regime. But
the problem of stabilizing the system created overnight
in the midst of war is a stupendous one, and help must
be given generously in other forms than words. "Rus-
sia," says the premier, "needs administrative, mechan-
ical and engineering experts to assist in the vast work
of reorganizing the muddle created by the autocratic
regime. We need war materials and railway rolling
stock." And she needs money. All these things the
United States can supply. And there is no more urgent
task before this nation. It should send to the Russian
people such a ringing message of encouragement as will
rally them in solid support of their democratic govern-
ment, and such practical aid as will hasten the effective
mobilization of the country's resources. The commis-
sion which the president has in mind to send cannot be
dispatched too soon, nor the arrangements for forward-
ing supplies too liberal. Germany will spare no effort
to break down the democracy on her eastern frontier.
Her success might be fatal to the cause of civilization ;
in any event it would inflict upon her opponents — among
them the United States — a defeat more costly than a
year's campaigns. To prevent such a catastrophe, every
resource of this nation might well be pledged.
OUR FLAG IN THE TRENCHES
April £0, 1917.
HERE is a fact which may be taken as evidence of
the weakness or of the strength of democracy,
according to the point of view: While earnest
folk have been arguing laboriously as to whether this
country should send troops to Europe, and while the
government of the United States has been making plans
for a large army to be employed a year or two hence, if
necessary, and issuing urgent appeals for recruits to fill
up the depleted ranks of the regular army and the
national guard, 100,000 Americans have volunteered to
go to the trenches, upon the mere announcement of a
private citizen that he hoped to lead such a force. Once
the great decision of war was made, the overshadowing
national problem became the choice of means for bring-
ing the power of this nation to bear upon the enemy.
Plans vital to this end are being worked out with encour-
aging vigor. There is to be close co-operation with the
governments already in the conflict ; they are to have all
the financial, industrial and economic support which
American resources can provide. Because of the char-
acter of their needs and the relative unpreparedness of
the United States in other respects, these matters are
the most urgent. But the military program is, likewise,
of vast extent. The regular army and the national guard
are to be enlisted to war strength — this will require
about 300,000 men — and 500,000 troops in addition are
to be raised by selective conscription.
385
386 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Yet it is the official judgment that none of the total
force of more than 1,000,000 shall be sent into action
for at least a year. Practical reasons of undoubted
weight are cited in support of this policy. It would
mean, nevertheless, that for twelve months, perhaps the
most critical of the war, America would be represented
by its wealth, not by its citizenship ; and it might mean
that the flag of the world's greatest republic would never
reach the battle-front at all. No one, we suppose, has so
imperfect an understanding of what the colossal struggle
is that he believes the United States could soon add
decisive strength to the armies now fighting in France.
It must be conceded that we have neither the trained
men sufficient to swing the balance, nor the means of
transporting them. But the fact remains that the send-
ing of an American force to the front would have a moral
effect translatable in military terms. The most serious
reverse Prussianism has suffered since the battle of the
Marne was the president's declaration to congress a fort-
night ago ; every word had the power of an armed host.
And in the same way, every American soldier in France
would be multiplied, because his presence would signify
to Germany and the world democracy's sentence of out-
lawry against autocracy. It is for this reason, and not
from visionary belief that America can turn the tide
in the field, that leaders in the European democracies
hail the suggestion. A French statesman said recently :
The moral factor involved would be more important than
the military aid. This war is a struggle of liberal, progressive
nations to overthrow a reactionary governmental system. It is
of the highest moral importance that the United States, the
most progressive Power in the world, should be represented
in this new army of crusaders.
"The appearance in Europe of even one American
division," says Lord Northcliffe, "would be a sign and
portent of America's devotion to the cause of freedom.
OUR FLAG IN THE TRENCHES 387
France and the world will never forget the day when a
division flying the Stars and Stripes shall make its way
to the fighting line at Verdun or on the'Meuse." Nearer
still in sympathy with American ideals and understand-
ing of the American character, Viscount Bryce states
clearly the meaning of such a contribution :
Even a small American force would have. an immense
moral effect. The German government would see less hope
than ever of success. The German people, hitherto deceived
and kept in the dark by their rulers, would turn the sooner
against the military class whose arrogance and cruelty, they
would see, have turned the whole world against them.
Finally, American support of the idea has been pow-
erfully expressed by Elihu Root, a citizen whose services
as secretary of war and secretary of state will long out-
live in memory his disservice in political affairs:
Ono thing that ought to be done at the earliest possible
day is to send an American army, great as it may be or small
as it must be, to the battle lines of France and Belgium, so
that the whole world will know that America is willing to
fight for the principles of American freedom; so that the
Stars and Stripes shall float beside the tricolor of France, the
meteor flag of England and the banner of the new Russian
democracy; so that no one may have any doubt that we are
willing to fight with our friends in a cause in which we have
so much to gain and so much to lose.
There are, indubitably, objections to the plan. Pro-
Germanism, which could exult over the Lusitania mas-
sacre, cloaks its hostility under pretended concern lest
Americans "die in a European quarrel." Pacifism is
aghast at the suggestion that the place to fight for jus-
tice is where its enemy seeks to slay it. And narrow-
minded patriotism holds that the United States should
wait until its territory, as well as its sovereignty, is
invaded. But none of these pleas, whether of disloyal
interest or sincere delusion, should deter the nation from
giving this convincing testimony of its championship of
388 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
civilization. Objections on military grounds are more
serious, and require careful consideration. "For every
trained man sent abroad at this time," says a war depart-
ment official, "the army will have been deprived of the
services of a hundred trained men for two years hence.
The vital need is the raising of an immense army and the
training of it. We cannot neglect this work for the sake
of sentiment." Great Britain, it is pointed out, nearly
wrecked herself and her allies by sending her trained
troops to the front at the beginning, and depriving her-
self of their invaluable services for the training of the
vast levies that were necessary. The logic of this posi-
tion is impressive, and if the factors in the problem were
as rigid as represented, there could be no question of
undermining the nation's resources and impairing its
defenses in order to achieve any moral or psychological
effect, however far-reaching it might be. But the diffi-
culties had been foreseen and conquered. There was
one man in the United States, and only one, who had the
vision, the capacity and the power of leadership to make
possible the realization in this manner of America's
ideals.
Theodore Roosevelt's accomplished plan for the rais-
ing of a division to serve in France has been but one item
in his extraordinary service to his country during the
war. It is but the concrete expression of that ardent
spirit of patriotism and humanity that made his voice
the voice of true Americanism when the soul of the
nation was drugged with false doctrine. Yet it will be
remembered of him that during all the months when
he was championing, almost alone among our leaders,
the cause of national rights and international justice,
and preaching the need of defensive preparedness, he
was tirelessly organizing a force that might carry the
standard of his country to the field of honor. Thus it
OUR FLAG IN THE TRENCHES 389
was that when the inevitable war began he had ready
for enlistment 22,000 picked men, eager to prove their
faith in him and in America even unto death. And thus
it was that he could formulate a program which meets
every objection raised against the proposal of an early
expedition. Having personally pledged his loyal service
to the president and to all military commanders who
should be placed over him, he was able to offer for dis-
patch within sixty to ninety days, "an infantry division
of three three-regiment brigades and one divisional
brigade and one divisional brigade of cavalry, together
with an artillery brigade, a regiment of engineers, a
motorcycle machine-gun regiment, an aero squadron, a
signal corps, supply service, etc." — 22,000 men selected
from 100,000 applicants, every one fit to undergo inten-
sive training in France for the grim work of the trenches.
No achievement of sheer leadership ever excelled this.
But far more important is the fact that the plan of
which this is a part would obviate the dangers justly
feared by the military experts.
Colonel Roosevelt urges the raising of 100,000 vol-
unteers— to include his division — "not in the smallest
degree as a substitute for, but as the necessary supple-
ment to, the obligatory system." He would, moreover,
have the enlistment restricted absolutely to men who
would not be taken under the conscription law and could
not be expected to enter the regular army or the militia.
Three regular army officers for each 1000 men — sixty-
six officers in all — would be the trifling extent of his
drain upon the experts whose services are vital in the
creation of the main armies of the republic. From the
day when Colonel Roosevelt's plan was first made known
it has been assailed by ignorance and partisanship.
Critics sneered that he was "going off half-cocked"—
and the answer is the revelation that his force is ready
390
for mobilization within two months. They charged that
he was embarrassing the government — and the answer
was his visit to the White House to offer loyal support,
and his powerful advocacy of the president's entire pol-
icy. They complained that he threatened to disrupt the
military program of the general staff — and the answer
is a proposal which adds strength to it. Sentiment and
strategy alike urge that at the earliest day American
patriotism and energy can accomplish it, the flag of this
nation shall be in its appointed place on the firing line.
For our sins of neglect and self-indulgence we must
suffer the reproach of being unable to send it there with
a force that would be decisive ; but let us send it, if only
as a symbol of our faith and high resolve ! Let us send
it in the spirit which Theodore Roosevelt has so splen-
didly interpreted:
We owe this to humanity. We owe it to the small nations
which have suffered such dreadful wrong from Germany.
Most of all, we owe it to ourselves, to our national honor and
self-respect. For the sake of our own souls, for the sake
of the memories of the great Americans of the past, we must
show that we do not intend to make this merely a dollar war.
Let us pay with our bodies for our souls' desire. Let us
without one hour's unnecessary delay put the American flag
on the battle front in this great world war for democracy
and civilization and for the reign of justice and fair dealing
among the nations of mankind.
April SO, 1917.
IF THE spirits of the dead could return at will to
mingle consciously with the living, there are two
illustrious figures from the past who would assur-
edly visit Philadelphia this week and contemplate with
serene joy a scene that will link their great day with
ours. At the side of Joseph Jacques Cesaire Joffre,
marshal of France, when he receives a sword of honor
from the citizens of the republic's birthplace, would be
the invisible presence of Benjamin Franklin, the diplo-
matist and statesman who won the friendship of France
for the struggling colonies, and of Marie Joseph Paul
du, Metier, Marquis de Lafayette, the gallant soldier
whose service in the cause of American independence
cemented the indissoluble bond of sympathy between the
two peoples.
Overshadowing reasons of state required that
Washington should be the chief goal of the French
leader's journey ; but sentiment and historic fitness will
give to his appearance in Philadelphia a memorable char-
acter. This was the home, and it is the burial place, of
Franklin, the brilliant envoy whose democracy charmed
the most aristocratic court in Christendom; here the
very spirit of his political philosophy and civic prin-
ciples is the ideal of a newspaper descended from his
own. It was to this city, the seat of government, that
Lafayette hastened to offer his sword to the Revolution,
and to receive from the congress, at 19, a commission
391
392 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
as major general in the Continental army. And it was
the torch of liberty lighted at the old State House that
was to set the soul of France aflame and fit her for the
great mission she is now consummating as the champion
of law, justice and democracy. It is inspiring to this
newspaper, descendant of that which expressed the
genius of Franklin and chronicled the founding of the
nation, to have a part in offering the city's tribute to the
most distinguished citizen of our sister republic. But
every Philadelphian, every American, will feel that the
greater honor is conferred upon those who give. For
this man who comes to us is more than a soldier, more
than a great national leader; in that modest, massive,
indomitable personality we shall see France. Too many
Americans have pictured her as a devotee of careless
frivolity and luxury and self-indulgence, a graceful,
coquetting, wholly adorable yet inconsequent figure
among the nations. They know now that the concep-
tion which saw France in the boulevards and race tracks,
in tinsel gayety and alluring extravagance, in political
irresponsibility and philosophical skepticism, was an
utter distortion. They know that France is to be found
in her sturdy, industrious, resolute citizenship ; that her
passion is a devoted patriotism and humanity; that her
spirit is sternly inflexible and her soul unconquerable.
It is of these qualities that Joffre is the product
and personification. He represents the France of serene
courage, of heroic service, of dauntless sacrifice. Let
pacifism take what comfort it may from the fact that
the world recognizes in a soldier the symbol of a great
nation's faith and idealism. But Joffre is more than the
embodiment of France; he is a reflection of democracy
itself. His career, spanning the gulf between obscurity
and world-wide honor, exemplifies the power of the inde-
structible idea that underlies that principle. And, like
A SOLDIER OF DEMOCRACY 393
that of many other leaders who have risen from the
people, it is almost colorless in its simplicity.
The marshal of France was born in January, 1852,
in Rivesalte, a mountain village in the most remote cor-
ner of France, near the Mediterranean end of the
Pyrenees. Some of his ancestors were Spanish — the
name was originally Gouffre — and he delights, when he
visits the old home, to chat in the ancient Catalan lan-
guage. The son of a cooper — as was Ney, his illustrious
predecessor — and the third of eleven children, his pros-
pects in life were not brilliant. Nor did he show any
of the signs of military genius ; the man destined to com-
mand millions of troops in the bloodiest war in history
is remembered as a youth singularly gentle, retiring and
sweet-tempered. Yet there was in him some instinct
which led him to break loose from his environment. At
15 he competed for a place in the national training school
for artillery officers, and passed fourteenth among 132
applicants. It is odd to record that his one failure was
in Qerman. More significant was his passion for mathe-
mathics, which was characteristic also of Napoleon and
Grant and Lee. He commanded a battery at the siege
of Paris in 1870, and after the war helped to reconstruct
the fortifications, beginning a long and useful career as
a military engineer. Promotion was steady, but slow.
Serving in Indo-China, Madagascar, Formosa, Africa
and France, he rose to be major in 1889, lieutenant
colonel in 1894, colonel in 1897, brigadier in 1901, and
general of division, the highest peace rank, in 1906.
Three years later he was made a member of the general
staff, and in 1911 was made its vice president, in supreme
command of the French armies in peace and war, his
title, upon the outbreak of hostilities, to be generalis-
simo. Forty-four years of service, thirteen campaigns
and a record of steady but not dramatic professional
394 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
successes — this was the history of the new commander-
in-chief of the republic's forces. The French were
inclined to be impatient over the appointment; Joffre
had none of the striking fame and popularity of such
dazzling leaders as Pau and Castelnau. But those men
themselves recognized that what the country needed
was precisely the genius for organization, the deep
patriotism and the zeal for democracy which animated
the almost unknown Joffre.
The world knows that he saved France from Ger-
many at the battle of the Marne ; but a greater achieve-
ment was that he saved France from herself, during
the three years preceding the war. When Joffre took
command, in 1911, the nation was sunk in lethargy and
pessimism and sinking toward degeneracy. The people
distrusted their political leaders, the army, even them-
selves. They were terrorized by Germany, yet lacked
the spirit to prepare for defense. They had permitted
their foreign minister to be dismissed at the demand of
Berlin. A sense of national impotence and impending
disaster produced fitful outbursts of civil strife and
anarchy. Alcoholism was spreading, race suicide was
becoming a peril; a craven spirit of pacifism pervaded
the cities, while appeals to patriotism were met by ugly
sneers ; sabotage developed to a dangerous extreme, and
syndicalism threatened to disrupt the social order.
Statesmen as courageous and far-seeing as Joffre by
stupendous effort aroused the people at last to a sense
of national self-respect and duty, but none of them
accomplished more for the country than he did by
re-creating the army of France and breathing into it a
living soul. It was due to his administration that evils
of laxity and political favoritism were stamped out,
every department reorganized, the whole structure of
national defense solidified, and it was the invisible force
A SOLDIER OF DEMOCRACY 395
of his personality, his justice and his tireless passion
for efficiency that swiftly eliminated the distrust between
the nation and its army, and in less thap forty months
welded them into that magnificent force against which
the mighty German machine, after preparation of forty
years, could not prevail. Of his career as commander-
in-chief in the war it is needless to speak. His great
work came to an end, as the work of all men must.
But he held the supreme post longer than any leader
of France's allies or enemies; he saw Sir John French
and Von Moltke and Von Falkenhayn displaced. This
son of a humble cooper had a Belgian king and a British
field marshal as his aides, and dominated for two years
and four months a 400-mile battle-front in the most
colossal conflict in human history. His rewards have
been worthy of his service. He has the devoted admira-
tion of his countrymen and imperishable renown thru-
out the world — and a title which does not yield in glory
to that of the president of the republic. To be a marshal
of France was always a brilliant honor, but not before
in centuries has it been unique. Francis I had two,
Henry III had four, Louis XIV had twenty. The rank
had long lapsed when Napoleon revived it to dazzle the
imagination and stimulate the ardor of his leaders, and
he conferred the coveted baton lavishly. But its glories
were dimmed in 1870 by the failure of Bazaine and the
mediocrity of other holders, and flickered out with the
second empire. Altho the title was retained in the law
of 1873, the conditions under which it might be con-
ferred were not formally settled, and the republic was
nearly half a century old when it revived the supreme
honor as the only fit decoration for the national savior.
Field marshals there are on every front and in every
capital of Europe. But there is only one marshal of
France, and that is the gentle, unassuming, sweet-tern-
396 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
pered, white-haired man from whose brain leaped the
thunderbolt attacks that shattered German hopes at
the Marne.
Philadelphians will see a physically big man ; a figure
benignant in appearance; suggesting health and nor-
mality rather than commanding genius or overpowering
force. They will see a man of kindly habit and tranquil
mien, with nothing to suggest the relentless will needed
to devise and enforce decisions which mean life and
death to millions, nothing to suggest the swaggering
arrogance of militarism. And what they see will be the
real Joffre, as real as that silent, remote figure which
for two years directed the battle of civilization, decree-
ing death to vast numbers of his beloved countrymen
in order that their nation and its ideals might live. For
the holder of the proudest title in Europe is a product
of democracy, and to that principle his simple soul pays
instinctive fidelity. Napoleon gave to his glittering
marshals peerages, even royal rank. Bernadotte he
raised to the throne of Sweden; Murat he made king
of Naples; Junot became duke of Abrantes; Massena,
duke of Rivoli and prince of Essling; Soult, duke of
Dalmatia; Lannes, duke of Montebello; Ney, duke of
Elchingen and prince of the Moskowa. But if Joffre
shares one title with them, there is another which he
would not exchange for all the others. To the army of
the republic he is "Papa" Joffre — not the commander-in-
chief alone, but the friend, the trusted and high-minded
and tender-hearted countryman of every poilu. Imperial
France could make kings, but it could not make citizens
like this.
It is recorded that during the terrible days of
the retreat, when the tide of invasion was rolling
remorsely nearer and nearer to the capital, when the
government had been removed to Bordeaux and all
A SOLDIER OF DEMOCRACY 397
France was grimly facing the possibility of overwhelm-
ing disaster, there was one place where tranquillity
reigned. In Rivesalte the village folk read the disquiet-
ing bulletins gravely, yet without fear. "It will be well,"
they said. "We have our Joffre." And then came the
change — the sudden stiffening of the line, the thrilling
order of the commander-in-chief, the swift onslaughts,
the sweeping back of the invaders to take refuge in
the trenches where they were to be held two years. "You
see," said the Rivesalte folk, "we still have our Joffre."
And that evening they celebrated. They did not parade
or shout or exult; but they came in little groups, men
and women and children, and they laid flowers on the
doorstep of the house where their Joffre had lived, until
the threshold was banked high with the fragrant testi-
monial of love to a good neighbor and a good citizen.
We cannot hope to equal the simple and gracious
sentiment of that spontaneous act ; our tribute must be
more impersonal, more formal. Yet the Philadelphians
who join in it may feel, and we think they would like
the recipient to feel, that there goes with this jeweled
emblem of military glory a proffer of admiration and
love for a dauntless people, whose spirit is personified
in the presence of Joseph Joffre, marshal of France and
soldier of freedom.
THE SUBMARINE PERIL
May 3, 1917.
A RESPONSIBLE European statesman a few days
ago made the public assertion, "We have won the
war." It was suggestive that he stated this as
an accomplished fact, and not in the customary form
of a prospect of the future. Still more surprising is
the circumstance that the speaker was vice chancellor
of the German empire, the defeat of which is commonly
believed to have been made infallible by the addition
of the great power of the United States to the opposing
coalition. It was a strangely confident estimate to
make, in view of the terrific battering which Germany
is receiving on the western front and the sullen restless-
ness of some of her populace. But it was based upon a
theory which, if sound, would make temporary military
reverses and domestic discontent relatively unimportant.
Blockaded, suffering sharp economic privation, her
armies forced to retreat to avert disaster and then com-
pelled to fight desperately to hold the new line, Germany
still boasts, "We have won the war." The meaning is
that she has won by pursuing relentlessly a policy of
piracy and murder what she could not win by legitimate
warfare. The immorality and inhumanity of the ruth-
less submarine campaign are subjects that need no
further discussion. The vital question is, what basis is
there for the German boast? How much of the vice
chancellor's statement was bluff, designed to encourage
the sorely tried subjects of autocracy and turn their
398
THE SUBMARINE PERIL 399
gaze from the slaughter of the battlefields, and how
much of it was sinister truth ? Can the submarine men-
ace be overcome, and if so, how? These are matters
worth examining, especially because it is becoming
clearer day by day that only the United States can turn
the scale against the stealthy assassin of the seas. Just
as truly as if submarines were sinking American ships
off Sandy Hook or the Delaware capes, their operations
are threatening the interests and the safety of this
country.
Study of the facts will convince any impartial
observer that the danger is far more serious than most
persons had foreseen. The announcement that after
January 31 last all ships would be attacked on sight,
regardless of their ownership or destination or the safety
of their occupants, created less a sense of alarm than
of loathing for the government which would resort to
such barbarism. Germany had so long been sinking
vessels in defiance of the rules of law and the require-
ments of humanity that the avowal of systematic crim-
inality seemed important chiefly because it meant the
involvement of the United States in the war. This
optimistic feeling was increased by the confident state-
ments of the British and French admiralties that ade-
quate provision had been made to meet the long-threat-
ened move. But for three months piracy has been eating
steadily and remorselessly into the shipping of both the
Allies and the neutral nations, no conclusive solution to
the problem has been found, and at last the candid admis-
sion is made that unless there is devised a counteracting
device which is swift and sure, Great Britain and France
will face privation, if not famine, and a serious weaken-
ing of their military capacity. And obviously such a
calamity would mean dire peril to the United States. It
will be enlightening to glance at the concrete results of
400 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
the campaign of ruthlessness, and no less interesting to
trace the psychological effects upon the nations con-
cerned, as revealed in the carefully phrased official com-
ments.
The German government had planned to sink 1,000,-
000 tons of enemy and neutral shipping a month. On
February 19 the vice chancellor, giving no figures, said
the campaign was "certain of success," while Vice
Admiral Capelle said, "the results have surpassed expec-
tations." The North sea, he added, had been virtually
cleared of shipping, neutral vessels being held in port;
and "not even one U-boat" had been lost. "Complete
realization" of the plan was assured. A week later the
chancellor gave a similar report. "The results thus far
have been very satisfactory," said Foreign Minister Zim-
mermann on March 9. An official statement of March 11
declared that losses were small, while the increase in the
number of submarines was "continuous and uninter-
rupted." At the end of March the navy chief repeated
that the number of U-boats destroyed was lower than
had been expected, while in February, he declared, they
had sunk 781,500 tons of shipping. It was the opinion,
nevertheless, of Captain Persius, a naval expert, that
hope of bringing Great Britain to starvation was vain,
because the people could live on their reserve supplies
until July, when new crops would be available. What
he looked for was that the loss of 500,000 tons of ship-
ping a month would bring peace by convincing England
that continuance of the war was unprofitable. On April
27 the report was that "the reduction of tonnage at the
disposal of hostile nations is taking place with mathe-
matical certainty," while only six submarines had been
lost in two months. The campaign, it was said, had "hit
a vital nerve of the enemy." Last Saturday it was
announced that in February and March alone 1,600,000
THE SUBMARINE PERIL 401
tons of shipping had been destroyed, 1,000,000 of it Brit-
ish. And it was then that the vice chancellor said : "If
we remain true to ourselves, keep calm, maintain our
nerve and internal unity, we have won the war."
No less striking than the optimism in Germany was
the scornful confidence among the Allies. It was
announced that at the beginning they were "fully pre-
pared" for the onslaught, Britain alone having a fleet of
4000 submarine chasers in service. "More lives will be
lost," said a French expert, "heavier material losses will
be suffered, but the campaign cannot win the war."
Lord Beresford, on February 13, said 4,000,000 tons
had been lost since the beginning of the war, but 3,000,-
000 tons had been replaced. The situation, he said, was
serious, but there was "not the slightest reason for
panic," and the danger would be "under control within
six weeks." The admiralty expressed "the utmost con-
fidence" of dealing with the problem.
Official figures showed the sinking of 234,696 tons,
February 1-18, an average of 10,900 a day. At this rate
it would take three years to destroy the British merchant
marine, even if no new ships were built. The Germans
were "far behind their schedule." On March 6 the offi-
cial report said the February losses total 460,000 tons.
While there had been 18,000 arrivals and departures
from British ports, only 123 British vessels had been
sunk. The German campaign had "failed by 50 per
cent." The British government took neutral corre-
spondents on a tour of the chief ports, in order to dem-
onstrate that shipping was almost normal and the sup-
plies of food enormous. An official review of the first
six weeks, issued March 14, said losses were being "stead-
ily reduced," and that it would take a year to destroy
half of Britain's shipping. "We have practically ceased
to worry about submarines," said a dock superintendent.
402 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
There were those, however, who early recognized the
possibilities of peril. Sir Edward Carson, head of the
admiralty, said on February 21 that the situation was
"grave," and the government's drastic order limiting
imports, issued in March, gave a hint of the condition.
The first information given by the Balfour mission was
that the vital needs of the Allies were "ships and food,
in ever-increasing quantities." Last week officials began
to tell the grim truth. Lord Devonport, the food con-
troller, said :
Our shipping is being depleted every day in large volume,
and altho our existence depends thereupon, it is a wasting
security. Unless we exercise self-denial in the consumption
of bread, we shall not get thru to next harvest without severe
privation and all that that implies.
The report of April 25 sent a thrill of alarm thru
the country. It showed shipping arrivals and departures
reduced to 5200 for the week, and the sinking of forty
ships of more than 1600 tons each — the greatest loss
suffered since the campaign began. "We have not yet
found a way of dealing with the submarines so as to
remove the danger of their being an enormously impor-
tant factor in determining the outcome of the war,"
announced the president of the board of trade. "The
losses are appalling," said Lord Beresford on Tuesday.
The ominous meaning of these facts for the Allies and
for the United States is obvious — unless the submarine
menace can be overcome by destruction of the craft, or
the losses of shipping counteracted by American efforts,
the campaign of lawlessness and murder will win. Presi-
dent Wilson stated the sober truth in his proclamation
of April 15:
We must supply ships by the hundreds to carry to the
other side of the sea, submarines or no submarines, what will
every day be needed there. The food and the war supplies
THE SUBMARINE PERIL 403
must be carried across the seas no matter how many ships
are sent to the bottom. The places of those that go down
must be supplied, and supplied at once.
Ships and food — these alone can avert disaster. To
meet the former need, American ingenuity is applying
the principle of standardization that made Henry Ford
famous. Major General Goethals, for the government,
is directing the establishment of a shipyard. system that
will turn out 320,000 tons of shipping a month. Within
a few weeks the keels of the first ten vessels will be laid,
and when the plants are working at full capacity one
3000-ton ship will be launched every twenty-four hours.
These craft will be of wood, all of identically the same
dimensions and design ; each will have a cargo capacity
of 5000 tons. The theory is that by sheer numbers the
food-carrying fleet will baffle the efforts of the sub-
marines to prevent the supplying of our allies with food
and war materials. The plan is magnificent in concep-
tion and likely to succeed — if France and Britain can
hold out for six months longer. The German hope is
that they cannot do so. "The wooden ships which the
United States intends to build to save England," sneers
the imperial vice chancellor, "will come into use only
when there is nothing more for them to save." He does
not mention, of course, another factor — the circum-
stance that Germany is far worse off than her enemies.
But to this grim posture the war has come— hunger will
decide, and upon the United States rests the responsi-
bility of determining the result. What a ghastly com-
mentary it would be upon our policy of inaction and
unpreparedness if our feverish efforts were too late !
SEND ROOSEVELT TO FRANCE!
May 7, 1917.
E general staff has reluctantly approved the send-
ing of at least a division of American troops to
-•- France without unnecessary delay. Only an excep-
tionally potent influence could induce this powerful body
thus to reverse its judgment. The change was due to
the urgent representations of the French and British
envoys. The "higher command" of the United States
army comprises a small group of military experts, whose
function is to formulate war plans, including the raising
of armies and the disposition of forces for defensive
or offensive action. Their work is of a nature highly
professional and technical. They deal with human beings
as abstract figures in mathematical problems. They
make abstruse calculations in which the resources of
the nation and the lives of its citizens are factors to
be weighed and measured with cold detachment as so
much material force and charted in blue prints accord-
ing to the rigid requirements of strategy. These men
know the intricate details and far-reaching possibilities
of modern warfare only by study of lifeless reports;
they have had no actual experience with its vast and
novel developments. Yet in their field of work — which
is important, altho restricted — they are undoubtedly con-
scientious and able. Their confidence in their own judg-
ment is natural, but they showed wisdom in yielding
to the united recommendation of the Allied missions.
Its source could not fail to make an impression. Back
404
SEND ROOSEVELT TO FRANCE! 405
of the appeal were Balfour, a statesman of ripe experi-
ence who has "a sound grip on the fundamentals of naval
and military policy" ; Viviani, prime minister of France
during the period of her most terrific trial and still a
strong leader in the republic; trained experts in every
branch of warfare, and, finally, Marshal Joffre, the pre-
mier soldier of Europe and one of the great military
figures of all time, who has commanded in battle more
troops than our general staff has ever had the audacity
to mobilize on paper.
The conflict of opinion that existed at first is readily
to be explained — the two groups have been engaged upon
different problems, have dealt with different circum-
stances, have had experience with different needs. The
general staff has faced the necessary task of creating an
army where none existed, of drawing plans on paper for a
great, new machine ; and they have put into that work all
the knowledge they have of the technical requirements of
numbers, equipment, training, and so on. To their minds
an army is so many units — brigades, divisions, corps —
with mathematically computed supplies of guns, rifles,
aeroplanes, food. On these concrete matters the Euro-
pean visitors are perhaps not less adept ; but they also
take into account psychology, national sentiment, human
emotions — impalpable forces to which the professional
mind of the strictly technical expert is impervious, yet
which exert a tremendous influence in the struggle of
nations against nations. The French and British leaders
know — none better — how vital to victory are money and
guns and ammunition and transport and masses of men ;
but during nearly three years of desperate conflict they
have learned how potent a thing is moral force, the ele-
ment of dramatic and sentimental appeal. They know
that the day upon which an American detachment landed
on British or French soil, on its way to the front, would
406 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
mark a strengthening of the Allied cause greater than
that to be derived from the capture of a dozen towns
and villages.
No recent news from Washington has met heartier
approval than the announcement that an American army,
if a relatively small one, will be dispatched to France as
soon as transport can be arranged. The response shows
that overwhelming sentiment for the enterprise had '
already crystallized. And equally manifest is the grow-
ing strength of the demand that the first detachment
shall include the division enrolled by Theodore Roose-
velt and ready for mobilization at thirty days' notice.
Naturally, the project is urged by his political sup-
porters and those who stood by him in his two-year cam-
paign to arouse the spirit of Americanism. But it is
indorsed also by the majority of his political opponents
and by millions of others. The opposition is numer-
ically small but disproportionately powerful. It includes
malignant partisan enemies, who see in every public act
of Roosevelt a political maneuver. Composite types of
these are found in the congressmen whose vision does
not extend beyond the boundaries of their districts; in
state machine bosses and hidebound administration poli-
ticians. The general staff is opposed to recognition of
Colonel Roosevelt, for reasons more creditable but hardly
more conclusive. He does not fit into their blue-print
plans, any more than did the sending of early assistance
to the French. They want to wait a year, and then dis-
patch a force so large that its weight would be decisive.
According to their system of computation, a Roosevelt
division of 20,000 sent now would amount to just one-
fiftieth of the 1,000,000 they plan to send twelve months
hence — an insignificant and valueless contribution! It
is a matter of common knowledge that the Allied envoys,
while necessarily making their request in general terms,
SEND ROOSEVELT TO FRANCE ! 407
believe that the sending of Colonel Roosevelt with the
first division would be of incalculable benefit. But the
members of the general staff are not impressed, because
the plans they have worked out with rule and compass
and adding-machine do not disclose moral influence as a
factor in military operations. To the opposition of the
staff must be added that of President Wilson.
The demand for enlistment of the Roosevelt divi-
sion has gained such momentum that it could not be kept
out of the debates in congress, where his enemies checked
it only by resort to the false charge that it was inter-
fering with conscription. Yet in the senate the plan
was supported by every Republican except the discred-
ited La Follette, and by many Democrats. It is now in
conference, and is not likely to be adopted ; but the issue
will be fought out again in both houses. If political
enmity is to defeat the demand of the American people
and the request of their Allies, it is well that the foreign
representatives should be here to observe how the
deplorable result is achieved, how antagonistic the action
is io the sentiment of the nation. For they know that
if there would be inspirational and practical aid in the
mere addition of a small American force to the millions
already at the front, its influence would be vastly multi-
plied by the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt, former
president of the United States, the greatest civic figure
in the world today, the foremost exponent of democracy ;
who was first among American leaders to interpret the
true significance of the war and champion the principles
for which the Allies fight.
They know what it would mean to hard-pressed
Britain and bleeding France to see this champion of
human liberty leading thru the streets of their capitals
the vanguard of America's legions ; what it would mean
to Belgium, whose cause he so valiantly espoused ; what
408 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
it would mean to uncertain Italy and the mangled peoples
of the Balkans. They know what grim notice it would
convey to the deluded Germans and the wearied Aus-
trians and the restive Hungarians that the uttermost
resources of this mighty nation are pledged to the over-
throw of militarism. They know what a thrill of enthu-
siasm it would send along the trenches, where for nearly
three years men have fought and died while waiting
vainly for a sign that the great republic would come to
the defense of democracy. Above all, they know what
magic would be wrought in Russia, where folly and
fanaticism threaten to drive the nation into anarchy and
a shameful peace, yet where every moujik knows the
name of the great advocate of freedom and justice. And
they know how the will of America would be strength-
ened and her spirit uplifted by the spectacle of her fore-
most private citizen, the veritable human symbol and
expression of this people's ideals, leading his country-
men to the battle-front of liberty. The European envoys
could not with propriety suggest the sending of any par-
ticular person. But never did diplomats more clearly
disclose their desires than these men did by urging that
"even a division" of American troops be sent to the firing
line forthwith. The message they brought was this:
For the sake of France and Belgium, for the sake of
civilization, for the sake of America's honor and her soul,
send troops, send them now, and send with them the one
man who before the whole world stands as the exemplar
of virile democracy.
WHAT THE WAR MEANS TO US
May 11, 1917.
FROM the swift current of the war news we snatch
out for examination two fragments of exclamatory
driftwood, both of them curiously illustrative of
American habits of thought :
HARTFORD, Conn., May 4.— "Unless the United States
marshals all its resources, both military and industrial, and
does it immediately, there is a great probability that we shall
see German troops in this country within a year," said Judge
Burpee, chairman of the state military emergency board, on
his return from the conferences of the national council of
defense at Washington.
NEW YORK, May 5.— William L. Saunders, chairman
of the naval consulting board, said today that a solution had
b,een found for the submarine problem, and that the menace
would soon be removed.
We cite these opinions — the accuracy of both of
which has been questioned — chiefly to suggest that the
Connecticut alarmist seems to us to have contributed
the more valuable estimate. For, even if an invention
to paralyze the submarine has been found, it could not
be put in operation for months, while the war might
be lost in the next hundred days ; a public sense of the
possibility of a German invasion, on the other hand,
would be wholesome. The truth is that to the vast
majority of Americans the conflict in which their coun-
try is engaged is still remote. They are not ignorant of
what it may mean to them, yet they choose not to face
the facts. They refuse to think in terms of war, or to
recognize war as an actuality.
409
410 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
The attitude is due in part to American optimism
and self-confidence, but the failing is a common one.
Paris did not take the German irruption seriously until
the French government had moved to Bordeaux. As
for the British, they made "Business as usual" their
stolid slogan, when their army was being cut to pieces,
and indignantly resisted curtailment of their cherished
"personal liberties" even while the shadow of irremedi-
able disaster was creeping upon them. So it is here.
The aggressions and crimes of Germany inevitably pro-
duced in the American mind a determination to fight
for national sovereignty ; but it seems to be outside the
nature of a democratic, prosperous, self-centered people
to visualize what war means until the truth is forced
upon it by actual demonstration. Thus when Presi-
dent Wilson, in his fine declaration of the country's pur-
pose, said that there might be "many months of fiery
trial and sacrifice ahead of us," these words were
accepted as mere oratorical flourishes, a not unpleasant
touch of the somber in a situation of dramatic interest.
The chorus of praise from the Allies for America's
idealism, and the flattering estimates of America's power,
were exhilarating enough to overcome any sense of
impending peril or privation. The prompt creation of
a colossal war loan raised confidence still higher, and
autocracy was pictured as fleeing in disorder from the
devastating assault of America's wealth. Yet every one
knows that seven times $7,000,000,000 would not defeat
Germany if that financial power could not be translated
in terms of supplies, and those supplies delivered. The
United States navy is justly celebrated, but it obviously
cannot do what the fleets of Britain and France have
been powerless to accomplish. The American imagina-
tion is stirred by plans for an army of 1,000,000 a year
WHAT THE WAR MEANS TO US 411
hence, and of 5,000,000 in three years ; meanwhile, the
war may be decided in three or four months.
In a word, this country is up against the most gigan-
tic task that ever faced a nation, ancf lacks virtually
everything except raw resources, the development of
which must consume time; and it must pay for its
unreadiness by sacrifices of blood and treasure which
no man can compute. Let us face the situation squarely.
And first of all, let us examine the popular theory that,
because Germany's defeat is assured, the United States
need contribute nothing except money and "moral force."
A general survey shows that Germany is beaten on land,
but at sea has a chance of winning thru — victory by foul
means, but victory, nevertheless. No "indictment by
the civilized world," no "crack in the Hindenburg line,"
would avail anything against submarine successes that
paralyzed Britain or France or both of them.
Now a. glance at the main battle-fronts — what is
their promise of a war in which America will command
victory without effort? In Mesopotamia, the Turks are
undeniably defeated, and the brilliant campaign that
won Bagdad has been pushed northward with success.
But these gains will become of real value only in the
event of an Allied victory in Europe. A British Bagdad
by no means balances a German Antwerp. The Mace-
donia line remains inert and uninspiring. Not only are
there no signs of a move against the Teuton-Bulgar
forces in Servia and Rumania, but it is possible that
transport losses will imperil the Allied line and compel
withdrawal of the entire Balkan expedition. Italy has
done nothing for many months, and is unlikely to accom-
plish much this year. The government is dependent
upon the United States for money and food, and faces
a sullen public opinion. From Russia no substantial aid
can be expected ; the betrayal of a separate peace, thru
412 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
the fatuous maneuvers of the scatter-brained fanatics
now dominating the provisional regime, is a possibility
not remote. There remains the western front, where
the spring offensive has been checked — temporarily at
least — by the Hindenburg defense. Great battles rage
there almost continuously, and for the most part with
French and British gains. But the most hopeful fore-
cast does not see the invaders driven this summer further
back than the Meuse — and beyond that is the Rhine line
of fortifications. Here, again, the submarine factor
intrudes — time is not now fighting for the Allies, but
against them.
On the whole, nevertheless, the military situation
is promising. It is at sea that real peril looms. All the
navies of the world are powerless against the submarine
when it is employed lawlessly, murderously and remorse-
lessly. Ships and food the Allies must have if they are
to live and fight; ships and food the submarine is
destroying with results that are admitted to be "appall-
ing." Already France and Britain are alarmed by the
diminishing flow of supplies — and submarines are being
launched more rapidly than they are being sunk. Ger-
many and her allies are suffering also, of course, but
that they can be starved into surrender before distress
in France and Britain becomes acute is unlikely. Her-
bert C. Hoover, who knows European food conditions
better than any other living man, says Germany can
fight for two years longer. The people are groaning
under punishment, but still are hypnotized by autocracy.
"There will be no revolution," is the repeated warning
of former Ambassador Gerard, who knows the infatua-
tion and docility of the German mind. And there are
the submarines and Russia's chaos to encourage the
nation's hopes.
WHAT THE WAR MEANS TO US 413
What is the one unavoidable conclusion from all
these facts — Great Britain overtaxed, France heroically
bleeding to death, Italy feeble and uncertain, Russia for
the present worse than useless ? It is, we think, that if
this war is to be won it must be won by the United
States ; and that it will not be won by beautiful invoca-
tions to democracy and liberty, by magnificent loans or
dazzling plans for action a year hence, but only by stern,
unremitting work on the part of an efficient government
and a united people, by privation and sacrifice and woe
grimly endured.
For what is it that we must do, we well-fed, com-
fortably housed people, by whom peace and security and
abundance have come to be regarded as privileges never
to be interrupted? We must take from our stores of
food products, already insufficient to meet the imperious
demands of our luxurious standard of living, and help
to feed the millions of our allies who have fought so
long the fight that has become ours. We must send
shiploads of food to sea, while our own markets clamor
for 'it and while we feel ourselves the pinch of scarcity.
To do this we must develop our agricultural resources
with unheard-of energy, and must bring our habits of
living under hard discipline. We must join in the cease-
less hunt for the sea assassins, which means that war-
ships will be lost and brave men slain. We must build
millions of tons of shipping, even tho it be necessary to
disrupt a dozen industries to do it. We must supply to
our allies an unending stream of money, munitions, coal,
steel, oil, railway supplies — not, as before, at their risk,
but at our own. And we must, beginning forthwith
and continuing indefinitely, create and send thru the
death zone to the battle-front armies of infantrymen, of
artillerymen, of engineers, of aviators, of surgeons, with
all the vast equipment they will need. The United States,
414 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
in short, must take upon itself at once most of the finan-
cial and economic burden of the greatest war in history,
and at the same time prepare to assume also the chief
military burden — to attain commanding power in a sci-
ence which has become the most deadly and exacting
known to mankind.
That we shall win is certain. To doubt that would
be to doubt right and justice and eternal truth, to dis-
card our faith in humanity and its high destiny. We shall
win because we must ; because failure would destroy the
ideals of law and honor among nations and enslave the
world to brute force; because defeat would mean a civ-
ilization Prussianized and democracy doomed. No higher
cause ever summoned a nation, none was ever more
worthy of the last full measure of a people's devotion.
That the men and women of America will pass thru the
ordeal triumphantly is sure. But they will meet it with
greater strength and emerge from it the sooner if they
recognize now the magnitude of the task they have
undertaken, and dedicate themselves from the beginning
to its faithful performance, however severe the trial of
their fortitude may be.
"DARKEST RUSSIA"
May 14, 1917.
AjTHO the French revolution was one of the
epochal events in the history of human freedom, its
name always brings first to mind, not the liberation
which glorified it, but the Terror which degraded it. In
like manner, it would seem, the Russian revolution is to
have a dual fame — as the rising of a people against des-
potism, and as an exhibition of national incompetence
more deplorable than the bloodiest irruption of violence.
Even in the worst excesses of the tumbrel and the guil-
lotine there was a tragic dignity, but the spectacle in
Russia today is one from which democracy might well
turn in humiliation. Liberty in a burst of sanguinary
fury over ancient wrongs may still bear the semblance
of an enraged goddess ; Liberty drooling and grimacing
in a clown's cap and bells is of all sights the most lament-
able. Because every move in the descent of the mighty
Russian mass toward anarchy means a heavier burden
upon the United States and greater sacrifices for this
nation, it is well that Americans should understand how
their hopes have been destroyed and how little a separate
peace between Russia and Germany would add to the
peril which we face at this moment.
The overthrow of czarism and its Prussian support
was the joint work of intelligent liberalism and fanatical
radicalism. The former was represented by the duma,
which provided the statesmanship, and the latter by the
Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies, which pro-
415
416 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
vided the force by its influence with organized labor and
the army and all the elements of Socialism. The duma
appointed a ministry to exercise the powers of a pro-
visional government pending the framing of a new con-
stitution by an assembly to be elected by the people. The
radicals, clinging to their ideal of establishing a com-
pletely socialized state, have declined to participate in
this arrangement, but have given their support to the
temporary regime — a support which has become domina-
tion. The sudden liberation of a nation of 170,000,000
who had been in political and economic slavery to autoc-
racy inevitably created problems of the greatest com-
plexity, and the difficulties were immeasurably increased
by the country's involvement in war. All the old forms
had been swept away in the tempest of the revolution,
and those which were improvised were wholly inade-
quate to withstand dissension. There began almost
immediately a contest between the temporary govern-
ment— which had ample power theoretically but lacked
the means of enforcing its decrees — and the Council of
Workmen's and Soldiers' Deputies, which declared itself
the sole author of the revolution and the sole guardian
of popular rights and usurped the functions of a sort of
super-government, possessing the power to dictate but
acknowledging no responsibility. The Council — as we
shall call it for the sake of brevity — found it easy to
obtain mastery. The revolution had produced among
the teeming millions of Russia a form of intoxication.
Simple-minded, visionary and for the most part illiter-
ate, the people translated the magic word freedom in the
most primitive and personal terms. To them it meant
that every peasant was instantly to become a land-
owner ; that the worker was to be his own employer ; that
the soldier was emancipated from compulsory military
service and even from the restraints of discipline.
"DARKEST RUSSIA" 417
Thus it was that no sooner had the absolutism of
the Romanoffs collapsed than the absolutism of an unin-
telligent populace was erected in its place. All over the
country little republics were set up, landlords were sol-
emnly abolished and the delighted peasants divided up
the lands. Industries vital to the economic life of the
nation and to the prosecution of the war were paralyzed,
while the workers, manipulated by adroit leaders, under-
took to settle domestic and foreign policies by parades
and mass meetings. And the army, under the same
inspiration, was utterly disorganized. "We, the people
of England," began the famous proclamation of the three
tailors of Tooley street. With equal solemnity, and with
very little more warrant, this irresponsible Council has
arrogated to itself the right to speak for Russia. Its
sway is due, first, to the fact that it controls the politics
of the industrial centers, which gives it a compact force ;
it represents not more than 15 per cent of the population,
but its organization is concentrated where it is most
effective, while the peasantry, four-fifths of the popula-
tion, is incapable of united action. But by far the more
important source of the Council's power lies in the fact
that the workers control the industries and railroads —
munitions and transportation, the two vital necessaries
of a nation at war. These circumstances explain the
extraordinary efforts of the provisional government to
conciliate the Council, which again and again has com-
pelled the real authority in Russia to take action pal-
pably against the national interest. It is interesting to
trace the successive assumptions of this group of zealots,
whose principles range from conservative Socialism to
extravagant syndicalism and downright anarchy, down
to the present open campaign for a treacherous peace
with Germany.
418 THE WAR PROM THIS SIDE
It first appeared in the news on March 20, five days
after the czar's abdication, in a plausible report showing
that rumors of its interference in the government were
"baseless." But only four days later the organized rad-
icals began to show their teeth. The Council, hearing
that the Romanoffs were to be permitted to leave the
country, prepared to order troops to prevent the move.
A member explained, with grim humor:
Defying the provisional government? Far from doing
that, we are part of it, representing the great mass not other-
wise represented. The government asks our advice — and
sometimes, as in this case, we volunteer it!
The conflict became sharper early in April, when
the Council announced that it was its "prerogative to
ignore governmental authority when in its opinion such
authority overrides popular freedom" — as interpreted by
the Council. "We let the bourgeois classes form the
government," boasted a leader, "because we knew we
could count upon the proletariat." On April 16 the
Council formally gave modified approval to the program
of the government, but called upon the "revolutionary
democracy" to be ready "vigorously to suppress any
attempt by the government to elude the control of
democracy." A note by the provisional government to
the Allies, renewing its oft-made pledges to stand firmly
by Russia's treaty engagements, precipitated an open
clash on May 3. The Council ruled that the pledge of
"war to a victorious conclusion" was offensive to the
proletariat, and that the government should immediately
withdraw the note and declare for peace "without annex-
ations or indemnities" — which is the formula Germany
is dangling before Russia thru her serviceable Socialist
lackeys of kaiserism. When this conflict had been com-
promised by a government "explanation," the Council —
which, it is to be remembered, has no legal authority
"DARKEST RUSSIA" 419
whatever — announced the establishment of its own
"department of international relations" and actually
compelled the government to agree that fhe body's cable
messages should be sent at state expense ! These aston-
ishing maneuvers have resulted, of course, in conditions
approaching anarchy. The responsible government is
browbeaten and terrorized by a group of radicals backed
by workers and soldiers, who are heedless of anything
but the expansion of their new-found personal liberty.
In the absence of a parliament, the irresponsible Council
seeks to conduct the affairs of state by means of parades,
dem6nstrations and mass-meeting resolutions, inciting
the workers to constantly renewed demands and arbi-
trarily dictating domestic and foreign policies. But the
most shocking result has been the disorganization of the
army facing an enemy intrenched deep on Russian soil.
The revolution, as already noted, shook the military
establishment to its center, and for several days the
troops, altho showing no tendency to actual mutiny, were
largely out of control. The Council sent emissaries to
the front to explain that the upheaval did not mean that
military service was abolished ; but, when the first excite-
ment had been quelled, it deliberately undertook to
"democratize" the army by encouraging a program which
would infallibly disrupt the armed forces of the nation.
This news dispatch of April 20 will illustrate :
General Gurko, commander on the western front, has
issued a proclamation to the soldiers declaring that the elec-
tion, arrest and dismissal of officers by soldiers' committees
is an undesirable practice and threatens serious consequences.
Three days later the minister of war issued a "frank
appeal" to the soldiers urging them not to leave the
front without permission. The troops were deserting
in shoals — not from motives of treason, but because they
had heard that lands were being distributed, and that
420 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
men not at their homes would miss the allotment. The
simple-minded peasants could not be restrained by their
officers, but they always promised to come back as soon
as they had got their land. Even as late as April 30
an official of the war office cheerfully admitted that "sol-
diers are still going home and elsewhere without leave,"
but he added quaintly, "there is not the slightest danger
that the armies at the front will be weakened." It was
in the face of these conditions that our sapient state
department gravely assured us that there was no danger
of a separate peace, while Ambassador Francis was
"pained and provoked" by the suggestion that Russia
might not keep faith with her allies.
The truth is, of course, that for all practical pur-
poses a separate peace between Russia and Germany is
in effect. While desultory fighting may be resumed, it
would be folly to expect any offensive by the Russian
army. It is an undisciplined mass, and Napoleon him-
self could not put into its disintegrated elements the
unity and enthusiasm without which a strong operation
is impossible. And back of it is a government which
has only the semblance of power, its existence dependent
from day to day upon the whims of an organization of
zealots who are incapable of patriotism and whose con-
ception of democracy is a travesty upon the name.
RUSSIA'S CHAOS
May 15, 1917.
IT IS a poor illustration that can't be used on both
sides of an argument, so we quote once more Kip-
ling's acrid characterization: "Let it be clearly
understood that the Russian is a delightful person till
he tucks in his shirt. As an Oriental he is charming.
It is only when he insists upon being treated as the most
easterly of western peoples instead of the most westerly
of easterns that he becomes a racial anomaly extremely
difficult to handle." Contemplating the workmanlike
overthrow of czarism, we cited this remark as singularly
superficial and unjust. We must confess, however, that
the Muscovite has not tucked in the badge of his Ori-
entalism in a manner to satisfy the requirements of
enlightened civilization. And, besides presenting an
inappropriate figure in the highways of the world, he is
obstructing traffic to a threatening degree. We dis-
cussed yesterday the extraordinary political situation
which has paralyzed the power of Russia as a member
of the alliance waging war to curb German autocracy.
The provisional government, appointed by the duma to
administer affairs until a new constitution can be framed
by representatives of the nation, has the most precarious
hold on power. Its members, including the ablest leaders
of liberal thought, pledged themselves from the begin-
ning to faithful fulfillment of the nation's engagements
with the Allies, because it is obvious that the security
and progress of Russia depend upon the breaking of
421
422 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
Prussian militarism. But against this and virtually
every other rational program of action there has arisen
a menacing force of fanaticism, which has attracted to
itself every element of discontent, class hatred and dis-
loyalty. The Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Depu-
ties has usurped the functions of the duma. Represent-
ing only a small fraction of the population, it has been
able to impose its will by means of its influence with
organized labor and the army, the two absolutely vital
factors in national defense. It has nullified govern-
mental decrees, disorganized industry and utterly de-
stroyed military discipline, with the result that it has
relieved Germany and Austria of all fear of co-operation
between their western and eastern antagonists.
Except that the Teutons have not yet gained access
to the stores of food in the interior of Russia, they have
attained most of the advantages of a separate peace — an
unintelligent revolutionary group confers upon them that
which czarism was overthrown for secretly offering. But
now unbalanced radicalism has gone further. It is openly
demanding, and using all its powers to compel, a peace
conference based upon the precise principles which Ger-
many professes and which would give her victory in the
guise of a generous accommodation of all issues. It is
possible that the Russian promoters of the scheme engi-
neered by the kaiser's trained Socialist retainers deceive
themselves, but it is certain that they deceive no one else.
They pretend to abhor the idea of a separate peace ; their
aim, they protest, is a general peace which shall secure
the rights of all peoples. But in effect their propaganda
increases the strength of the Central Powers and makes
so much the more difficult the struggle of the world's
democracy against military despotism. A month ago the
Council adopted one of its peremptory demands in a reso-
lution declaring that the provisional government "must
RUSSIA'S CHAOS 423
endeavor to induce the other allies to repudiate the
forcible annexation of territory and also any money
indemnities." What Russia has done in the war to give
her a right to dictate to the other nations fighting Ger-
many, and whence this irresponsible group of radical
visionaries derives its authority to override the Russian
government, are questions less important than the fact
that the Council echoes the demands of Berlin. It went
a step further ten days ago, when it demanded that the
government repudiate its pledge of fidelity to the anti-
Teutonic alliance, and sought to carry the point by organ-
izing a turbulent demonstration against the foreign min-
ister. Treaties with the Allies, it declared, must be held
in abeyance, and the government must "take active steps
toward ending the war." Further, the Council appealed
to "the revolutionary democracy to rally around" the
anti-government organization, and urged "the peoples of
all the belligerent countries to force their governments to
enter upon negotiations for peace." And it had the
effrontery, after browbeating the provisional authorities,
to utter threats against Russia's allies. "Now that the
question has been settled here," declared the leader, "our
aim must be realized abroad. We must know the atti-
tude of the democracies of our allies." Last week came
the launching of the plan for a peace conference under
the auspices of international Socialism, the project
backed by the German government. "We must fight for
peace by breaking the determination of the govern-
ments," declares the Council, "and force them to com-
mence negotiations. All workers of all countries must
embody the will for peace."
It is worth while recalling that Socialism failed
lamentably in its boast that it would prevent the long-
threatened war. And now it has undertaken a mischiev-
ous campaign to obstruct a just settlement. Kaiserism
424 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
has been well served by its army and its murderous sub-
marines and its disciplined people, but it has had no more
useful agency at its command than German Socialism,
which condones every measure of aggression and ruth-
lessness used by autocracy and then appeals tearfully to
the ties of international brotherhood in order to gain by
seduction the fruits of national criminality. It is revolt-
ing to the rational mind to find the Council, an utterly
arbitrary and undemocratic organization, confidently
invoking the aid of "the proletariat" in other countries,
but this is just the kind of false sentimentality that
international Socialism has been trying to promote for
years. International brotherhood is a fine and inspiring
thing in theory. But when one group of nations under-
takes to destroy law and enthrone force, a higher duty
demands fulfillment, and that is patriotism, defense of
the liberties of mankind and the principles of interna-
tional good faith. How paltry is the appeal to selfish
and unpatriotic class cohsciousness, compared to the bond
that links the democracies of the world in a real brother-
hood for the championship of law and honor and human-
ity ! The Russian fanatics are incapable of understand-
ing this, of course. They are blind even to the fact that
while they are mouthing about democracy and the sacred
will of the proletariat they are serving the ends of kaiser-
ism and putting the rope of Prussianism about their own
necks. Germany triumphant — as she would be if she
dictated the peace outlined by this infatuated Council —
would mean the blighting of Russia's hopes and the rule
of autocracy in Europe for another half century.
It is a deplorable and desperate situation which
Russia presents to the allied democracies. The floor
leader in the first duma, now a member of the faculty of
Yale, gives solemn warning that a separate peace — or its
equivalent, a disorganized Russian army — is imminently
RUSSIA'S CHAOS 425
threatened, and that such a German victory would mean
a five-year war for the United States, Great Britain and
France. The mission headed by Elihu JRoot faces a stu-
pendous, almost hopeless, task; indeed, there is danger
that the betrayal will be accomplished or Russia involved
in civil war before the envoys reach the scene. Their
understanding of the situation no doubt is clear and their
powers ample. But it is obvious that their most important
function will be to demonstrate that the United States
has recognized the provisional government, not any irre-
sponsible organization of hare-brained disunionists, and
that neither during the war nor afterward will this coun-
try deal with a Russia dominated by those destructive
influences. It is to be hoped, at least, that the commis-
sioners will not be swayed by the optimistic opinions of
the American ambassador in Petrograd, who has assured
the stat3 department that "all Russia needs to defeat the
Germans is a plentiful supply of munitions, financial
credit and railway equipment" — as tho these things
wquld be of any use to a nation whose government is
terrorized, whose public affairs are dominated by a
society of half-baked visionaries and whose armies are
rotten with sedition.
Americans will take pride in the fact that from this
country two answers to the arrogant appeal of the Coun-
cil have expressed in ringing terms the sentiments of
workers and of Socialists who know what democracy and
liberty mean. The message of the American Federation
of Labor was a forceful presentation of the cause for
which this nation fights. And the ablest Socialist leaders
in the United States have cabled to the party in Germany
that the democracies of the world will not be satisfied
until the end of autocracy is signalized by the overthrow
of kaiserism. Yet how are these truths to reach the
minds of that great, helpless people over yonder? How
426 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
can light penetrate the vast region of darkness? How
can the victims of delusion who are pushing Russia
toward the abyss be made to understand that the democ-
racy they think to serve is shamed and wounded by their
self-willed course ? The spectacle of Russia is a terrible,
yet fascinating, one. Her mighty mass hangs menac-
ingly over the path of liberty, and at any moment the
avalanche may descend in thunderous ruin. Yet no pre-
caution now possible can avert the peril. Civilization can
only brace itself for a longer and costlier struggle, made
necessary because liberty is misunderstood and misused
by those who ought to be its strongest champions.
A STRANGE IDEA ABOUT
MR. WILSON
May 17, 1917.
fT^HERE could not be stronger evidence of the sta-
bility of this republic and the healthful vigor of its
-*- democracy than is to be found in the united support
given to President Wilson in the great task laid upon
him. From thj time when he ended a long period of
uncertainty by uttering in memorable words the judg-
ment and the decision of the American people, his leader-
ship has commanded the undivided and ardent allegiance
of his countrymen. Injudicious admirers are not satis-
fied with this, however. They are not content that the
admirable declaration of the cause of democracy, and the
policy of action which it introduced, should counterbal-
ance the two-year record of inertia which preceded them.
They are inclined to insist that President Wilson, mis-
judged by the heedless and maligned by the envious, was
always moving steadily toward this goal ; that the appar-
ent indecision which bewildered public thought and con-
fused the common judgment was really a subtle device
of super-statesmanship, designed to lead the nation to
make the choice which Mr. Wilson's sagacity has dis-
cerned from the beginning to be wise and necessary. No
sooner had the chorus of "He kept the country out of
war" been drowned by the clamor of martial preparation,
than there arose among his partisans an admiring refrain
celebrating the fact that he had led the country into war.
He is represented as the misunderstood, but far-visioned,
427
428 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
statesman who labored for two years to fit the nation
for its part in the conflict, gradually instilling in his
unresponsive countrymen a spirit of high resolve, and
acting at last when he was quite persuaded that slow-
moving public opinion had come abreast of his advanced
position. This astonishing theory is promoted with an
emphasis that gives the movement the proportions of a
propaganda. It is urged in speeches, in letters to news-
papers, in editorials and other political writings. The
president's "wise patience," his "political prudence" and
his "penetrating foresight" are subjects of lavish eulogy.
We shall quote two characteristic and influential utter-
ances. Partisans have given great prominence to a
tribute from an eminent political opponent, Joseph H.
Choate :
Some of us in the past have criticised the president;
some of us long hesitated and doubted, thought that watchful
waiting would never cease. But now we see what the presi-
dent was waiting for, and how wisely he waited. He was
waiting to see how fast and how far the American people
would keep pace with him and stand up to any action that
he proposed.
The New Republic, a discriminating and sometimes
impartial commentator, states the theory even more
boldly:
In so far as the country is united at the present time,
its unity must be attributed to Mr. Wilson's method of allow-
ing the dogmatic opposition to war to be gradually dissipated
by its own futility, and of allowing the feeling of the inevi-
tability and necessity of war to accumulate until it became
irresistible.
The argument is plain. It is that President Wilson,
possessed of broader vision, keener perception and deeper
conviction than his countrymen, was aware from the
beginning that the United States must enter the war in
defense of its own rights and the principles of demo-
A STRANGE IDEA ABOUT MR. WILSON 429
cratic civilization ; that he desired the nation to take this
path of high duty and of service to humanity, but was
compelled to dissemble his purpose until such time as
public opinion should become enlightened enough and
aroused enough to support his policy. It is clearly
implied that his task was to arouse a sluggish people to
a sense of their peril and their duty, and to inspire a
backward national thought with sentiments of virile
Americanism and ardent championship of international
justice. Such a conception would be appropriate enough
in a complimentary speech from a foreign visitor ; but for
Americans to express it in the face of events so recent
and familiar reveals on their part a low estimate of public
intelligence.
There are no reservations in our loyal adherence to
the president's leadership, and it has been our judgment
that the errors and deficiencies in his past course might
be left for the scrutiny of history. But we must object
to the studied promotion of a theory which has no foun-
dation in fact and which is intolerably unjust to the
American people. It is refuted by a record so well
known as to require only the briefest review. If the
case rested upon the state papers of President Wilson
concerning the war, it might have a shadowy merit. The
strong notes to Germany, altho they were worse than
meaningless without action to fulfill their implications,
derived historic importance finally when measures to
enforce the demands were undertaken. But if these
were designed as preliminaries to war, they made the
boast that he had "kept the country out of war" a mon-
strous deception. The argument requires, however, that
we should take into account all of the president's utter-
ances. Did they signify a purpose to inject martial
ardor into the national mind? Can there be extracted
from them, by any process of intellectual chemistry, evi-
430 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
dence that he was resolved himself to vindicate the prin-
ciples of justice at any cost, but was waiting and hoping
for the people to reach his high level of decision ? Let
us see.
One of the earliest of the presidential utterances
upon the war was a solemn injunction that Americans
should be "neutral even in thought." At that time a
peaceful nation was being ravaged by an invasion which
struck at the very foundations of international law and
thereby threatened the safety of this republic. The
American people waited for a sign. Filled with generous
indignation, they felt that there should be at least some
formal expression of abhorrence for the crime, some pro-
test that would keep the case of violated law open for
adjudication. But they were told that the greatest
neutral country, inheritor and guardian of human liberty,
should remain silent, and that its citizens should not only
express no opinion, but should hold none. The Lusitania
massacre stirred deep anger. The crime was so cause-
less and barbarous, the injury to the United States so
direct and criminal, that then, if ever, a leader might
have counted upon united support in any measure of
defense. But the righteous wrath of the people was
chilled by the disdainful recommendation that the nation
show itself "too proud to fight." Whenever public re-
sentment against aggression flamed up, Mr. Wilson had
ready admonitory suggestions that Americanism was
best expressed in "self-control." The resistance of Euro-
pean democracies to Prussianism was represented by him
as "war madness," and it was loftily predicted that pres-
ently those infatuated peoples would "turn to America
and say, 'You were right and we were wrong; you kept
your heads when we lost ours.' "
Do these utterances suggest that President Wilson
was "allowing the dogmatic opposition to war" to evapo-
A STRANGE IDEA ABOUT MR. WILSON 431
rate? Or that he was, on the contrary, doing his best
to obscure the plain issue and lull the nation into a sense
of contented indifference and security ?^ It is said that
he was "waiting" for the people to come up with him.
Yet when he was invited to speak at Independence Hall
on July 4, 1915, this was his reply in declining: "This
is, perhaps, the very time when I would not care to
arouse the sentiment of patriotism." If his vision was
so much clearer than that of the public, his confessions
of indecision were strangely emphatic. He found the
time "of very great perplexity," the issues those upon
which "no man is wise enough to pass judgment." "We
are all hoping that the skies may clear," he said, "but
we have no control of that on this side of the water."
But definite and conclusive was his declaration after the
life and death struggle of democracy had raged for
twenty-two months: "With the causes and the objects
of the war we are not concerned ; the obscure fountains
from which its stupendous flood has burst forth we are
not interested to search for or explore."
He was waiting, it is argued, for the people to
indorse his judgment for war. Yet his main charge
against the party opposing his re-election was that "if
the Republican party is put into power our foreign policy
will be radically changed — the certain prospect is that
we shall be drawn into the European war." And his
own campaign textbook devoted one-third of its 500
pages to celebrating his courage and success in restrain-
ing the war sentiment of the nation, which his eulogists
now say he longed to arouse. But they do not realize,
apparently, that the fiction they are propagating would
convict the president, if it were true, of outrageous neg-
lect of duty, if not of a betrayal of trust. He knew, they
proclaim, that war was inevitable, necessary and desir-
able. Yet for two years and a half he not only failed to
432 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
take measures for the upbuilding of national defense,
but sought by ridicule and invective to discourage proj-
ects of preparedness. If he was merely waiting for
public opinion to justify him in committing the nation
to participation in a titanic conflict, what shall be said
of his failure to provide weapons of defense? Down to
the very time of the war declaration, his every utterance
was calculated to discredit American service to democ-
racy. He found the aims of the two groups of bellig-
erents, as stated by them, "virtually the same." He
insisted that there must be "peace without victory."
In the face of Germany's final announcement of her
murder policy he "could not bring himself to believe"
that it was genuine. He sought authority to defend
American rights and protect American lives "if occasion
should arise" — when those rights were being violated
every hour and when the murder of 200 Americans was
unavenged.
Our support of President Wilson in the present crisis
is cordial and sincere, and to revive this controversy for
partisan reasons is furthest from our desire. We have
a genuine concern, however, to resist a propaganda which
seeks to enhance his political fame at the expense of the
truth and of the American people.
THE REJECTION OF ROOSEVELT
.May SI, 1917.
TO MOST Americans the action of President Wilson
in overriding the will of congress and rejecting the
division raised by Theodore Roosevelt for service in
France was a surprise ; to many of them, no doubt, it was
a shock. In order not to interfere with the government's
military policy the newspapers have withheld informa-
tion respecting the plan, which was almost in the nature
of a political conspiracy, to prevent utilization of the
former president's services and of the tremendous power
of his leadership. But those who have followed closely
recent events at the capital would have been surprised
if the president had followed the course urged by con-
gress and heartily indorsed by public sentiment in the
United States, in France and in Great Britain. During
all the time that the proposition was before congress he
opposed it relentlessly but secretly, employing every
influence at his command as chief executive and as party
leader to compel adverse action. He had determined
from the beginning that the nation and the cause it has
championed should not have the benefit of Colonel Roose-
velt's ability and personality, but naturally he was
anxious that the burden — or the odium — of rejecting
the division should be borne by congress rather than by
himself. When the proposal was negatived by the house
committee on military affairs, he hastened to thank the
chairman for reporting the bill "free from any feature
that would embarrass the system of draft upon which
433
434 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
it is based" — by which he meant to discredit the Roose-
velt plan, altho it did not interfere with, but supple-
mented, the conscription program. Two weeks later he
was gratified by rejection of the proposal in the house,
170 to 106. But the arrival of the British and French
commissioners, whose eagerness to have Roosevelt sent
to France not even their diplomatic reserve could conceal,
created such sentiment that the senate adopted, 56
to 31, an amendment authorizing the Roosevelt division.
Renewed obstruction from the White House followed,
but the influence of the attitude of the foreign envoys
could not be stifled, even by the device of "toning down"
the formal statement of Marshal Joffre, and on May 12
the house reversed itself. By a vote of 215 to 178 it
repudiated the action of its own conferees in stand-
ing out against the senate amendment, and directed them
to take the army bill back to conference with the
Roosevelt plan included. The senate, overwhelmingly
in favor of the project, naturally agreed, and the bill
went to the president with the feature which he disliked
and feared indorsed by both chambers. This put upon
him the responsibility of killing the plan himself.
The motives actuating President Wilson in this
affair will always remain, of course, a matter of con-
troversy. A great many citizens will sincerely contend
that his action was inspired by the loftiest convictions
of patriotism. As many more will find in it calculating
politics and nothing else. Others, perhaps a majority
of the people, will feel that he was under both influences
— that he sought to serve plausible military considera-
tions, and at the same time to gratify an instinct of par-
tisanship, if not of vindictivenes?. The president was
quite within his powers in rejecting the proffer. But
this circumstance makes it all the more desirable that
the reasons he saw fit to give the public should b€
THE REJECTION OF ROOSEVELT 435
subjected to scrutiny and analysis. In the interest of
historical accuracy, it has been found, Mr. Wilson's state-
ments always require close examination. We may say
to start with that none of his state papers revealed more
clearly his adroitness in controversy. In every detail
of tone and phraseology the statement is calculated to
belittle and discredit the proposal which provided the
one hope of invigorating the spirit of the nation, while
at the same time to enhance the president's repute as
a Spartan patriot. There is a candid avowal of personal
judgment in the first words. "I shall not avail myself,"
says Mr. Wilson, "of the authorization * * * added
with a view to providing an independent command for
Mr. Roosevelt.' What he meant, but what it would be
too much to expect him to say, was that he would not
permit the nation to avail itself of that proposal ; would
not permit France and Great Britain and Italy and Rus-
sia and Belgium to have the aid and inspiration of the
presence at the front of a former president of the United
States, the foremost living American and the one private
cit'izen in the world whose leadership is capable of
making tens of thousands of men willing and eager to
brave death for principle.
It would, argues the president, "seriously interfere
with the prompt creation and early use of an effective
army, and would contribute practically nothing to the
effective strength of the armies now engaged against
Germany." The first assertion is disingenuous, the
second, gratuitous. The Roosevelt division would not
interfere with creation of the drafted army, because it
would not contain a man subject to conscription. As to
the slur that it would add nothing to the strength of the
Anglo-French line, that is totally unsupported by evi-
dence and is in defiance of reason. The 25,000 regulars
who are to be sent are no younger, on the average, are
436 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
no more intelligent, and certainly no more brave or
devoted than the same number who would go at Roose-
velt's call. The latter, too, have had military experience,
and would not be more unfamiliar with the novelties of
trench warfare than those who exclusively recommend
themselves to Mr. Wilson's military judgment. How
sincere were the president's smooth compliments to
Colonel Roosevelt's "distinction" and "gallantry" cannot
be known. But he was singularly obscure in the slight-
ing remark that to permit the former president to serve
"would no doubt have a very fine effect politically and
make a profound impression." What political effect did
Mr. Wilson have in mind? If he meant to imply that
his own political fortunes would be impaired, or those
of Colonel Roosevelt would be enhanced, this expression
was contemptible. We think, we hope, that rather his
idea was that there would be a wholesome effect upon
the popular mind in this country and in Europe, but that
this consideration must be put aside. If this is the inter-
pretation to be put upon the phrase, it reveals anew the
most serious defect in the president's character as a
war leader; for the "political effect" which he slurs
would be worth more at this time than an army corps.
"This is not the time or the occasion," he insists,
"for any action not calculated to contribute to the imme-
diate success of the war." Yet the judgment of con-
gress and the American people and the Allies is that the
Roosevelt division would have a more immediate and
more beneficial effect than any other contribution this
country could make. For to its military value — assuredly
equal to that of regulars who are no more familiar with
modern warfare — would be added incalculable moral
force. But even regarding concrete facts, Mr. Wilson's
attitude is no more admirable. He asserts that he acts
"under expert and professional advice from both sides
THE REJECTION OF ROOSEVELT 437
of the water," and according to the judgment of "men
who have seen war as it is now conducted." The impli-
cation is that the Allied missions discountenanced the
sending of a division in which Roosevelt would have a
command. It is notorious, on the contrary, that the
foreign visitors laid all the stress diplomatically permis-
sible upon the value which the former president's appear-
ance on the battle-front would have. Mr. Wilson is safe
in representing otherwise, for they are not here to
express their opinions, and could not do so with pro-
priety if they were. As a fact, however, there is evi-
dence to refute his representation. A week ago the
New York Times, a strong opponent of Colonel Roose-
velt and his division, printed a cabled interview with
"one of the military authorities of France," in which
he said :
Your problem is to render yourselves as useful as pos-
sible. Roosevelt in America seems to be the man, as Kitchener
was in England — the man capable of raising an army. If
there is any one else, get him, too; but get somebody. Roose-
velt, we understand, is indifferent as to the grade he occupies.
What is important is to get him or somebody here with the
men.
More direct and authoritative was a statement from
the French commander-in-chief, General Petain. While
he did not mention Colonel Roosevelt's name, his request
was based upon the one volunteer project under way.
He said:
We look to America to send volunteers immediately. If
no further time is lost in calling for volunteers, it is calcu-
lated that the first troops can arrive in France in three
months with their equipment, and three months later they
would have sufficient instruction to enter the line of combat.
Far more audacious is Mr. Wilson's expressed solici-
tude for the opinions of the general staff of the Ameri-
can army. For nearly two years and a half he and his
438 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
entire administration flouted and obstructed every sug-
gestion of that body — in the f ederalizing of the national
guard, in opposing universal military training, in decry-
ing conscription, in discrediting and denying the staff's
urgent recommendations for preparedness. And in
ordering General Pershing and a division of regulars to
France, President Wilson overrules the judgment of the
staff as directly as he would if he accepted the Roosevelt
division ; for those experts have maintained firmly that
the sending of any small force would be useless and
would seriously hamper the work of raising the great
drafted army. Colonel Roosevelt, the president says,
wanted to have assigned with him "many officers of the
regular army who cannot possibly be spared from the
too small force of officers at our command for the duty
of training regular troops." In this there is evasion
which is close to deception. In his formal outline of his
plan, sent to the chairmen of the military committees
of congress, Colonel Roosevelt explicitly said he would
ask for the detail of "two officers for every 1000 men" —
less than fifty in all. General Pershing will take with
him 500. More than that, all his troops will be regulars,
every one of whom, as well as the officers, would be valu-
able for training drafted recruits. There is no way of
estimating to what extent, if any, President Wilson was
influenced in his action by personal or political motives.
But the military reasons he alleges are utterly inade-
quate and specious.
STIFLING PATRIOTISM
May 22, 1 91 7.
NO OFFICIAL statement of national importance
that we can recall was ever more swiftly dis-
credited than that in which President Wilson put
forth his carefully framed explanation for rejecting the
services of Theodore Roosevelt and his division of vol-
unteers for France. Indeed, the two military reasons
he gave were refuted instantly by well-known facts.
Colonel Roosevelt wanted, said the president, officers of
the regular army who "cannot possibly be spared." Yet
he had asked for only fifty, while the force to be sent
under Major General Pershing will include more than
500". The president's second military excuse was that he
was determined to be guided in all matters by "expert
and professional advice." Yet in sending 25,000 regular
troops to the trenches at this time he overrides the
almost unanimous judgment of the army general staff.
These two reasons being palpably unsound, more weight
is given to the theory that the president was either ani-
mated in great part by political motives, or else was
misled by a sincere error of judgment. To what extent
he was influenced by politics is far less important. than
the revelation he has made that he totally misconceives
the essential character and need of the war. The deplor-
able thing he has done is to rebuff and chill that spirit
of ardent patriotism which was just beginning to assert
itself in American thought, and to retard immeasurably
439
440 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
that awakening of the nation without which the war
can never be prosecuted with vigor or to victory.
Seldom has a national leader made so fatal a dis-
closure of self-delusion. President Wilson was emphatic,
even loftily censorious, in condemning the Roosevelt
project of a volunteer division made up of selected,
exceptionally fit men outside the ages specified in the
draft law. But in one burst of candor he revealed the
heart of his policy. "The business now in hand," he said,
"is undramatic, practical and of scientific definiteness
and precision." Here, in a dozen words, is outlined with
vivid clearness the narrow and unseeing leadership which
dulls the edge of American patriotism. Here is made
manifest one of the chief reasons why the people of this
country lack enthusiasm for a war which their judgment
persuades them is just and necessary. Despite the fine,
impulsive service of large numbers of the population, it
is obvious to every careful observer that to this day the
great masses are not spiritually enlisted for the war.
They are convinced that the United States is upholding
vital principles ^ they are willing that congress should
vote their money in colossal sums ; they give countenance
to the necessary arrangements of alliance with other
nations fighting for civilization ; they even submit to the
drastic innovation of a nation-wide draft. But they
have not been uplifted to the point where they are con-
scious of being individually and personally concerned in
the conflict, where they fervidly dedicate themselves to
achieve victory at any cost. The hesitant attitude has
been shown in the deficiency in enlistments, which
remain below the required number, despite an unprece-
dented campaign of publicity and expenditure. What
is the cause of this attitude of observant quietude, of
conviction without enthusaism?
STIFLING PATRIOTISM 441
There is only one explanation. For two years and
a half the American people were instructed that their
paramount duty was to be individually, as well as nation-
ally, neutral concerning the issues of the war. With
its causes and objects, they were admonished, they
should have no concern. It was an outburst of madness
from which they were happily isolated, and their sole
function was to be to heal the wounds of strife utterly
remote from their affairs. Then, quite suddenly — or so
it seemed to the masses of the people — President Wilson
committed the nation to the fullest participation in the
conflict. He gave to the country and the world his con-
clusions in a statement of masterly logic and force. His
decision was sound. It was based upon considerations
of the highest patriotism and humanity. It was unan-
swerable in its justice. But it was reached by the pre-
cise and calculating processes of intellectual examination.
The expression was coldly judicial, and for that reason
the more powerful in its effect upon the opinion of the
world. But there was not in it a glint of the feeling,
the ardor, the inspiration which stirs the souls of men.
The reason is that the government has made the
war, according to President Wilson's ideal, "a business,
undramatic, practical, of scientific definiteness and pre-
cision." It is a remote and uninspiring project of formal
proclamations and blue prints and statistical undertak-
ings. To the official mind, the cause which should bring
Americans leaping to its defense is embodied in acts of
congress and the printed forms for registering drafted
soldiers. Sentiment is not recognized in Washington.
There must be no appeal to patriotic emotion, no act
or utterance to thrill the public mind and unlock the
latent energies of patriotic zeal. Americans yielded to
the commandiiig logic of President Wilson's declaration.
After that, they waited for a summons that should uplift
442 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
their hearts and fire their souls. And what they have
got is the admonition that "this is no war for spon-
taneous impulse; it means grim business on every side
of it." When they yearned for stirring words of inspira-
tion, they were told that "we had gone into this war
with no special grievance of our own." If there is no
grievance in the defiance of national sovereignty, in the
murder of peaceful citizens, in a war of extermination
against democracy, they ask themselves, why are we
called upon to give our lives, or the lives of those dear
to us? The truth is that President Wilson has not the
power to inspire his countrymen, for the reason that he
is temperamentally incapable of entering into their
aspirations and emotions. His leadership commands
respect, but it does not enlist devotion. Lincoln could
call for volunteers and raise the song of an aroused
people, "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hun-
dred thousand strong!" A nation singing is a nation
marching to victory. But can one imagine legions spring-
ing to arms with the cry, "We are coming, Father Wood-
row" ? If that were possible, it would be discouraged as
sentimental, dramatic, impractical. Soldiers are wanted
to dig trenches and learn the manual of arms, not to
march against the enemy with songs on their lips and
fire in their hearts! &••
"We have entered this war with no special griev-
ance." That may be highly moral, but it is spoken in a
language which the people do not understand. They
would fight to the death for their homes, the rights of
their nation, the safety of their institutions. But they
are asked to fight for an abstract principle, to go thru
hell for the sake of stern duty, while discarding every
invigorating sentiment and emotion. This was the folly,
the injury to the nation, which lay in the rejection of
the services of Theodore Roosevelt — that his leadership
STIFLING PATRIOTISM 443
and the ardent patriotism of his followers would have
supplied that which this government is totally incapable
of supplying. Just as Roosevelt in his ^personality and
his convictions expresses the American* people, so that
force which he enlisted would have put the nation on
the firing line as no number of West Pointers and regu-
lar troops can do. Major General Pershing is unques-
tionably an able soldier and a practiced military leader —
Colonel Roosevelt would have been delighted to have him
command the division in which he himself would be a
subordinate. He is skilled in tactics ; no doubt he could
excel Roosevelt easily in solving problems of engineering
and field technique and artillery practice. But who will
pretend that his presence on the battle-front would have
one-tenth the moral effect — on the people of France and
Great Britain and Germany and the United States — that
the presence of Theodore Roosevelt would have? Divi-
sion commanders there are in France by the score, by
the hundred. Among them General Pershing will be a
respectable figure, he may even attain prominence. He
will gallantly and adequately represent the intelligence
and skill of the American army. But will he represent
America? Will he personify the spirit and the soul of
this nation, its passion for democracy and its purpose
to defend at any cost that cherished principle ? What
thrill will there be in his name for the hard-pressed
troops of France and Belgium and Britain ? How much
will his presence on the firing line mean to the German
people, who had been told that America was to send
there the man who embodies as no one else does that
cause which this nation has made its own?
To considerations like these, it must be recognized,
the mind of President Wilson is impervious. To him
the war is "undramatic, practical, of scientific definite-
ness and precision" ; it has nothing in it like psychology
444 THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
or emotion or human appeal. God help the man, does
he think that practical reasons or the summons of the
British general staff brought men from Canada and Aus-
tralia by the hundred thousand to die in the trenches of
France? Does he conceive that the Boers, a few years
ago in arms against the empire, or the Irish, with their
bitter memories, joined hands with Britain in response
to an act of parliament or the precise arguments of
logicians? Can he not see that what roused them was
the sense of the dramatic which he scorns, the sentiment
which he shuns, the passion which he deplores? This,
we say, was the almost miraculous fitness of Theodore
Roosevelt — that he would carry to the battle-front of
democracy the hearts of his countrymen ; that from the
hour he and his division set sail, the soul of this nation
would be aroused, eager, implacably resolved on victory.
Never, to such a degree, will it be stirred by the sending
of regulars, however brave, led by professional army
officers, however brilliant.
The awakening of America must come by some
other means. It must be deferred until the lists of
casualties begin to mount up, until the hospital ships
steam back into our ports with their loads of broken
men. Then the spirit of the nation will rise ; then Amer-
icans will realize what this war means; then the pulse
of the nation will beat high and its mighty power will
be stirred to the depths. The rousing in this country
of the spirit of sacrifice and of victory is sure. All the
more deplorable is it that it must come this way, because
a blind leadership rejects the one means of enlisting in
the war the hearts and the souls of the American people
as well as their bodies.
A GREAT "DISCOVERY"
May 23, 1917.
IT IS a commonplace observation that the convert is
ever the most zealous in the faith. Similarly, when
an obvious fact at last penetrates the skull of one
who has obdurately denied its existence, it appears to
him in the light of a miraculous discovery, which he
must vociferously expound to a benighted world. The
government in Washington, for example, startles the
country with the revelation that Germany had long
planned, and thus far has achieved, military and eco-
nomic domination of southeastern Europe, as the foun-
dation of a scheme of world empire.
• This disclosure is made with impressive detail in
a two-column dispatch purveyed by the Associated Press,
but inspired and sanctioned by official authority. Every
assertion in it is true and every deduction sound. But
the astonishing thing is that they are represented as
recent discoveries. Germany's plans, it is said, are here
"revealed for the first time," and "hitherto obscure
features of German policy" have become known "only
within the last few weeks."
We do not know whether Washington's air of excite-
ment is real or assumed, but in either case it is a curious
phenomenon. For there is just about as much news in
the project of a Teutonic sphere of influence or customs
union or economic confederation covering central Europe
as there would be in the announcement now that Servia
had been invaded.
445
446
THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
The facts deserve all the prominence which the gov-
ernment and the newspapers have given them; we feel
that they should even have the further emphasis of
repetition. For this reason we reprint the essential
parts of the Washington dispatch, paralleled by extracts
from editorials appearing in The North American during
the last two years and ten months. The reader will be
able to observe how much of novelty there is in the gov-
ernment's revelations:
From
WASHINGTON
May 20, 1917. — Germany's
next peace declaration, expected
to suggest a program of terri-
torial renunciation on the east
and west, is regarded here as
largely answered beforehand by
information revealing for the
first time the full scope of the
imperial government's aspira-
tions for conquest in the south.
This information discloses as
one of the primary aims of the
war a plan for the consolidation
of an impregnable military and
economic unit stretching from
the North sea to the Mediter-
ranean, cutting Europe perma-
nently in half, controlling the
Dardanelles, the Aegean and the
Baltic, and eventually forming
the backbone of a Prussian
world empire.
In the light of German his-
tory the plan shows how implic-
itly the kaiser has followed out
the "blood and iron" politico-
economic methods of Bismarck
for the development of Prussian
power. Considered in view of
From
THE NORTH AMERICAN
August 20, 19 H. — So far as
the German empire is concerned
the real issue is defined in a
single term — Pan-Germanism.
Back of the racial idea, back of
militarism, back of imperial
unity and industrial expansion,
lies this splendid vision of Teu-
tonic domination of Europe and
of the world. It is the policy of
Bismarck developed and adapted
to modern conditions. He war-
red against Austria, against
Denmark, against France — al-
ways, he declared, for the de-
fense of Teutonic institutions,
but always with the result that
Prussia's boundaries were ex-
tended. Now once more the
people are inspired to fight for
"racial preservation," but the
goal is commercial and political
supremacy. Pan-Germanism, the
mightiest international force of
modern times, is not at its heart
a movement to preserve a
threatened race, but to make it
supreme; not to defend Ger-
many, but to subjugate the
A GREAT "DISCOVERY" 447
From WASHINGTON From THE NORTH AMERICAN
—Continued —Continued
the present war map it shows world. "The Germans consider
that the major portion of the feasible a great confederation of
kaiser's war program has been states, including Germany, Aus-
accomplished, regardless of what tria-Hungary, the Balkan states
disposition 's made of conquered and Turkey, which would con-
territory in France, Belgium trol territory from the North
and Russia. sea to the Persian gulf. A rail-
A full realization of this situ- way from Constantinople to Bag-
ation adds new force to the re- dad would establish a shorter
peated declarations of allied route to India than via Suez."
statesmen that the German November 4, 1914. — The policy
peace maneuvers are in reality of Pan-Germanism embraces an
war moves, and that a prema- extension of Teutonic influence
ture peace would only give Ger- thru the Balkans and Turkey
many a resting period in which into Asia Minor and thence to
further to Prussianize and pre- the Persian gulf. The German-
pare for a greater world war built Bagdad railway is an am-
the territory to the southeast bitious link in the chain, and the
which she has conquered under reorganization of the Turkish
the guise of a friendly alliance, army and navy by German offi-
How minutely defined is the cers has been an important fac-
German plan and how accurate- tor, together with the vast Ger-
ly if is being carried out have man loans. Great Britain's in-
become fully apparent only with fluence at Constantinople began
the opening up during the last to wane sixteen years ago, when
few weeks of several new ave- the kaiser made his theatrical
nues of information. The re- pilgrimage to the tomb of Sal-
turn of American diplomatic adin, and, turning to the Otto-
agents from the Central Em- man governor, said, "Say to the
pires, the visit of the British 300,000,000 Moslems of the
and French war missions, de- world that I am their friend."
tailed confidential reports of the March 31, 1915. — It was in the
recent frank expressions in the Balkans that the great war be-
reichstag and in the German gan, and there, in all likelihood,
press and the deductions of it will be decided. The side that
American agents abroad have wins the Balkans wins the war.
supplied the explanation of more October 19, 1915. — The spec-
than one hitherto obscure fea- tacular dash from the Danube
ture of the German policy. toward the Bosporus is the
In her southeastern conquests working out of the basic
it is apparent Germany has fol- strategy of German world policy,
448
THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
From WASHINGTON
— Continued
lowed almost in toto the long-
established plan of the Pan-Ger-
man league, whose propaganda
has been regarded outside of
Germany as the harmless activ-
ity of extremists, too radical to
be taken seriously. As early as
1911 the Pan-German league is
said to have circulated a definite
propaganda of conquest, with
printed appeals containing maps
of a greater Germany, whose
sway from Hamburg to Con-
stantinople and then southeast-
ward thru Asiatic Turkey was
marked out by boundaries vir-
tually coincident with the mili-
tary lines held today, under Ger-
man officers, by the troops of
Germany, Austria - Hungary,
Bulgaria and Turkey.
Adhesion of the German gov-
ernment itself to such a plan
was not suspected by the other
Powers. How closely the Ger-
man government did adhere to
the plan has been demonstrated
clearly, it is considered now, by
the course of the war. Emperor
William chose war as the means
of establishing the broad path-
way to the southeast which was
essential for the realization of
a greater Germany. * * *
Bulgaria's declaration of war
on the side of Germany was ac-
tuated by a German diplomatic
coup which in itself is regarded
as further evidence that a clear
road thru to the Dardanelles
was considered in Berlin as a
From THE NORTH AMERICAN
— Continued
in which the invasion of France,
the raiding of England and the
hammering of Russia into help-
lessness have been but prelimi-
nary details. The goal of the
Germans was not Paris or Lon-
don or Warsaw, but Constanti-
nople; not the absorption of
neighboring territory, but the
opening of a highway to the
illimitable East; not the mere
domination of Europe, but the
carving out of a colossal empire
whose shores should be washed
by the North sea and the waters
of the Indian ocean. * * *
The essential details of Pan-
Germanism are, first, the erect-
ing of a confederation of states
including Germany, Austria-
Hungary, the Balkan nations
and Turkey; second, a German-
controlled railroad from Con-
stantinople to Bagdad, and third,
the gaining of a strategic posi-
tion which would enable Ger-
many to imprison Russia and
split the British empire in twain
at Suez.
February 4, 1916. — Germany
has extended her political and
military influence from the
North sea to Asia Minor.
* * * While she must con-
tinue to suffer the economic
pressure exerted by enemy sea
power, it would be a fatal error
to regard her unofficial peace
proposals as a sign of weaken-
ing will. She wants peace, not
because she is losing, but be-
A GREAT "DISCOVERY"
449
From WASHINGTON
— Continued
primary and imperative pur-
pose of the war. In the case of
Turkey, German domination is
believed here to be even more
complete than in Austria-Hun-
gary and Bulgaria.
These developments throw a
new light on many events be-
fore the war. Among them is
the long-unexplained declaration
of Emperor William at Damas-
cus in 1898 that all Moham-
medans might confidently regard
the German emperor as "their
friend forever." There also is a
complete understanding now of
Germany's eagerness to obtain a
concession for the Bagdad rail-
road, an artery of communica-
tion now indispensable to the
German operations.
Fitting in squarely with an
actuating desire for conquest to
the southeast is the general Ger-
man military policy during the
entire war. It is noted that even
at the expense of recessions on
the eastern and western fronts
Germany took pains to overrun
Serbia, Montenegro and Ru-
mania and to keep in check all
allied attempts to strike from
Saloniki at the road to the Dar-
danelles. * * *
All of this is taken as reveal-
ing the point of a premature
peace which should leave the
German southeastern domains
unbroken. * * * There is
every evidence that the govern-
ment understands in concrete
From THE NORTH AMERICAN
— Continued
cause she is winning; not be-
cause she fears defeat, but be-
cause she desires to capitalize
her victories.
February 8, 1916. — What are
the terms which appear to the
Germans to be logical? Evacu-
ation of Belgium and France,
without indemnities ; partition
of Servia, Montenegro and
Albania; an independent Poland
under a German prince; recog-
nition of a German protectorate
over Turkey. The real heart of
the matter is that Germany de-
mands recognition of her politi-
cal supremacy over Servia,
Montenegro, Bulgaria and
Turkey, with the right to extend
her commercial domains thru
Asia Minor with Turkish con-
sent. * * * Germany's
Balkan victories and her virtual
absorption of Turkey make it
utterly impossible for Great
Britain to stop the war while
she has a battleship or an army
corps left.
December 15, 1916. — It seems
to us quite clear that Germany's
peace proposal is logical and es-
sentially honest. She wants
peace, ardently desires peace.
And why not? She has won all
the things — excepting only the
"freedom of the seas" — for
which she made war upon
Europe and civilization. Her
purpose is the erection of an
overland empire stretching from
her "German ocean" to the Per-
450
THE WAR FROM THIS SIDE
From WASHINGTON
— Continued
form the crucial southeastern
element of the situation and re-
alizes the enormity of the strug-
gle that must be won before the
world is made "safe for democ-
racy."
From THE NORTH AMERICAN
— Continued
sian gulf. "Look," as her peo-
ple say, "at the map." The em-
pire is there — Germany, Aus-
tria-Hungary plus Servia, Ru-
mania subjugated, Greece a
humble satellite, Bulgaria and
Turkey well rewarded and de-
voted allies.
The world has marveled that the government of the
United States is only now preparing for the conflict
which was foreshadowed from the beginning. But not
less remarkable, we think, is the fact that it has taken
two years and ten months to discover what the war
is about.
North American, Philadelphia
The war from this side
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