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The World War
and
Its Consequences
Being lectures in the course on Patriotism delivered at
the University of Pittsburgh during the
summer session of 1918
By
William Herbert Hobbs
Professor of Geology in the University of Michigan
Author of "Earthquakes," "Characteristics of Existing Glaciers,"
Earth Features and their Meaning," etc.
"
With an Introduction by
Theodore Roosevelt
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
•ffmfcfcerbocfcer press
1919
\
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COPYRIGHT, 1019
BY
WILLIAM HERBERT HOBBS
ftnfcfcerbocfcer press, flevo ]&orft
Co
MAJOR-GENERAL LEONARD WOOD, U. S. A.
MEDAL OF HONOR
THE AMERICAN LORD ROBERTS
WHO SOUNDED IN UNWILLING EARS AND TO AN ATROPHIED NATIONAL
CONSCIOUSNESS THE CALL TO ARMS OF THE COMING CONFLICT,
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
BY THE AUTHOR
INTRODUCTION
TT is the literal truth that if I could choose only one
book to be put in the hand of every man and woman
in the United States at this time, I would choose the
book of Professor William Herbert Hobbs. The book
does not deal with the military operations of the war,
but it states with entire truthfulness and fairness and
with a fearlessness and deep insight which are beyond
praise, exactly what the conditions are that have made
Germany a menace and horror to the whole world;
exactly what the conditions are that led to this nation's
culpable failure to perform its duty during the first
two and a half years of the world war; and exactly
what is most needed at the present moment from this
nation in order that it may do its national and inter-
national duty.
When I say that this book tells the truth I especially
allude to the fearlessness with which the writer tells
all, or almost all, of the whole truth — without which
the half truth may be the veriest falsehood. I am not
vouching for the accuracy of every detail of fact —
there are one or two unimportant items I could myself
point out as erroneous.1 But the essential and vital
tiath is here set forth as in no other volume of which
I have knowledge. No one but a very able man, a
1 Since corrected. — W. H. H.
vi Introduction
very fearless man, and a deeply patriotic American,
could have written this volume.
Professor Hobbs shows the growth of the spirit in
Germany which has made Germany a world danger,
sketching the facts in outline, but presenting those
that are essential in that language of burning indigna-
tion which befits the real historian in such a matter-
for in writing history, no less than in conducting the
affairs of a nation, impartiality is as far as the poles
from neutrality. Impartiality means justice, means
truth-telling, and therefore means the capacity for
fiery, indeed white-hot indignation against wrong.
Neutrality at best is a drab-colored, selfish, and insig-
nificant virtue, even when it is a virtue; and it is
often a particularly obnoxious vice — just as it was, on
the part of so many of our politicians from the Presi-
dent down, and of so many of our professors and other
professional intellectuals, of the New Republic and
Nation type, during the first two and a half years of
the war. Professor Hobbs exposes the German propa-
ganda in this country and boldly shows the hideous
wrongdoing by the pacifist propaganda which went
hand in hand with it. He speaks with reserve of the
actions of the Administration — it would probably be
inexpedient to tell the whole truth about the Admin-
istration's conduct until after the close of the war.
But he does truthfully set forth a portion of the mis-
conduct of those of our public men in whose hands lay
the leadership of public affairs during the vital years
with which he deals. A particularly refreshing feature
of the book is the fine and well-deserved series of
tributes to General Wood's actions, and to men like
the late Congressman Gardner.
I repeat that there is no book published since the
Introduction vii
outbreak of the war which quite so well deserves a
place on the reading table of every wise and patriotic
American.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
NEW YORK,
October 15, 1918.
TO A PATRIOT
Not his the craven's role, nor any share
In spiritless delay unleaderlike.
Far-seeing, long he warned us to prepare
Our thews for righteous combat — and to strike !
Exiled from France by malice partisan,
Upon her shrine he laid with solemn pride
Four sons, each to the core American.
One fell in godlike battle. Far and wide
The nation mourned, and rendered homage vast
To father and to son, mirrors of bold
Lincolnian knighthood. Honor, ye who cast
Ballots of freedom, men of freedom's mold!
Under such leaders rise and smite the foe,
Within, without, till victory's banners glow.
HARRY TORSEY BAKER.
IX
PREFACE
HPHE lectures of this book were delivered to audi-
ences of university students having a nucleus
of school teachers and school superintendents, and
were designed primarily to afford access to that reser-
voir of fact upon which every teacher must draw who
would present adequately and convincingly the sub-
ject of patriotism. At the outset such teaching must
be aimed at correcting error and dispelling the illusions
which have been maliciously foisted upon a people so
absorbed in making a fortune as not to have noted
either the source of these doctrines or their pernicious
character.
The world war, whose prodigious bulk dwarfs
every other consideration, was, as regards its origins,
veiled at first and obscure to all save the more discern-
ing; but the evidence has now been unloaded upon
us in such overwhelming volume that we are submerged ;
and, though convinced, we are some of us unable out
of the welter of facts to reconstruct a clear picture.
It is this which the lectures of the present volume
have attempted to supply. They have been but little
modified since they were delivered, and the direct perso-
nal manner of presentation has generally been retained.
The lecture upon "Our Debt to France/' was delivered
as a Bastille Day address before a mass meeting of
citizens as well as to the class in patriotism, and it
therefore assumed more the form of an oration.
xi
xii Preface
With the war has come a veritable library of ma-
terial covering the wide range from official documents,
through hundreds of special works and thousands of
tracts and pamphlets, to tens of thousands of news-
paper articles, many of them of the greatest value.
The briefer articles which under other circumstances
might be regarded as fugitive, have been given such
wide circulation as to be within the reach of all, and
in the bibliographies at the conclusion of each lecture
I have included some of the more important of them.
It has appeared to me to be my duty to speak with
the utmost candor concerning those tendencies which
carry a menace to our national life; and I have not
hesitated to use the names of individuals who from
positions of influence or responsibility, either unwit-
tingly or from design, have misled the people in this
crisis. Some have now become aware of their error,
though comparatively few have made any serious
attempt to retrieve the consequences of their acts, and
there is a far larger number who have merely adopted
a disguise now that the open hawking of their wares
has become unprofitable or even dangerous.
I am indebted to my friend, Professor Claude H.
Van Tyne, for reading the manuscript to correct possible
historical errors.
W. H. H.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN,
ANN ARBOR,
September 28, 1918.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. — THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE
WAR ....... i
II. — THE LAUNCHING OF THE WAR, THE RECORD
OF TWELVE DAYS . . . .21
III. — THE PLOT AGAINST DEMOCRACY; (a) THE
EARLIER STAGES. .... 48
IV. — THE PLOT AGAINST DEMOCRACY; (b) THE
FINAL PREPARATIONS . . . .64
V. — OUR DEBT TO FRANCE . . 86
VI. — THE MILITARY MASTERS OF GERMANY . 98
VII. — THE DISCIPLINE OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN
GERMANY . . . . . in
VIII. — How GERMANY PREPARED FOR WAR BY
PEACEFUL PENETRATION . . .129
IX. — THE "GREATER EMPIRE" OF GERMAN EX-
PANSION— " DEUTSCHTUM IM AUSLAND" 149
X. — How GERMANY MAKES WAR — ATROCI-
TIES UNDER SYSTEM . . . .163
XI. — GERMAN CONSPIRACIES AGAINST THE
UNITED STATES . . . . .187
xiii
xiv Contents
PAGE
XII. — AMERICA'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE WAR
— THE PREPAREDNESS MOVEMENT 213
• XIII. — PACIFIST PROPAGANDA AND ITS CONSE-
QUENCES ...... 254
XIV. — "PEACE WITHOUT VICTORY' . . . 273
H
XV. — THE 'FREEDOM OF THE SEAS" . 289
XVI. — GERMAN PREPARATIONS FOR THE NEXT
WAR ....... 315
XVII. — THE PEACE TERMS OF DEMOCRACY . 331
XVIII. — INTERNATIONALISM VERSUS A LEAGUE OF
THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONS . . 367
XIX. — THE TEACHING OF PATRIOTISM . . 386
AFTERWORD . . . . . .418
INDEX ....... 425
The World War and Its Consequences
The World War and Its
Consequences
THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE WAR
"The good old rule
Sufficeth them, the simple plan
That they should take who have the power,
And they should keep who can."
Rob Roy.
"Gegen Demokraten
Hilfen nur Soldaten."
("Against democrats
The only help is soldiers.")
Prussian palace proverb dating from the
1848 uprisings.
T AWYERS are accustomed to speak of the ultimate
*~< or fundamental, as opposed to the proximate
or immediate causes of an event. In non-
technical language, we speak of the occasion versus
as opposed to the deeper and generally less vso^^ll
evident cause. This cause, often hidden
or only obscurely revealed in the background, is far
more difficult to outline, but it is correspondingly more
vital and important. It is often best described as a
characteristic or tendency, an unsatisfied longing or
2 The World War
ambition which at last becomes overmastering and
rushes to a climax.
I shall not make pretense of adopting a quasi- judi-
cial attitude and of trying a case which has already
been adjudicated in the supreme court of civilization
to the entire satisfaction of all save the culprits in the
tragedy; but I shall attempt rather to show by a re-
cital of significant facts and events in their sequential
relationship how the world tragedy which culminated
in the assault of 1914 was as inevitable as the rising
of the sun, and as evident to the unbiased and thought-
ful observer as the result in a problem of mathematics.
Several nations of the first rank have appeared upon
the world's stage in this supreme drama, but the prin-
German cipals have been unquestionably Germany
and and England, with whom have been aligned
respectively the forces of autocracy and de-
mocracy ; for, despite its monarchical trappings, Eng-
land is as genuinely democratic a nation as is the
United States itself. Germany, on the other hand,
has appeared in the disguise of a constitutional govern-
ment, though it has been more absolute than any
government, save only the Turkey of Abdul Hamid
and, doubtfully, the Russia of Nicholas II.
I shall assume, what will later be shown and what is
universally accepted to-day, that this war was "made
thof *n Germany' during something more than
Prussian a generation, and I shall lay bare the main-
springs of Prussian policy as I unfold in
outline the growth of the Prussianized Germany of
to-day from the diminutive margrave of Brandenburg
of the latter part of the fifteenth century. This in-
significant province surrounding the site of Berlin
possessed a barren soil and a warlike people. Under
The Historical Background of the War 3
the Great Elector of Brandenburg, Further Pomerania
and Magdeburg were acquired by conquest, and under
Frederick William II., who sold the royal jewels and
the family plate to secure an invincible military ma-
chine, old Hither Pomerania as well; so that by 1718
Prussian territory had been more than trebled.
Before the end of the century, another conqueror
came to the throne, and this time a military genius
in the person of Frederick the Great, who Frederick
ruthlessly wrested Silesia from Austria and theBase
began the shameful partition of Poland. It was
this disciple of Machiavelli who said, 'I first of all
take, I always find pedants to prove my rights,"
and again in a speech from the throne, "All written
constitutions are only scraps of paper.'1 Frederick
has been misnamed "the Great" but should be known
as "Frederick the Base," for there is nothing uplifting
or ennobling to be recorded of him. We in the United
States have done well to remove to a well-merited place
of concealment his statue, which was presented by
Kaiser Wilhelm and set up at the War College in
Washington.
When Frederick died in 1786, his country's territory
had been doubled by conquest during his lifetime.
Under his successor, Frederick William III., the rape
of Poland was continued, the Rhine Province was
gathered in, and under Frederick William IV., Hohen-
zollern and the Jahde District.
In the manner described, the Prussian race of Slavic
strain had between 1477 and 1864 appropri-
ated, one after the other, various provinces, dreamers
many of which were inhabited by people of
Germanic race. These Germans and others,
living in what is now South Germany, had already
4 The World War
at various times in the past been loosely held together
for longer or shorter periods by strong military leaders,
and notably during the existence of the so-called Holy
Roman Empire, aptly characterized as "neither holy,
Roman, nor an empire."
It has been peculiar to this German race to develop
dreamers of world empire. Such were Genseric. King
of the Vandals, and Theodoric the Great in the fifth
century of our era, Charlemagne in the eighth century,
and three Holy Roman emperors, Frederick Barbarossa
and Frederick II. in the twelfth century, and Charles
V. in the sixteenth century. Frederick the Great of
Prussia and William I. and William II. of Prussianized
Germany appear therefore as merely extending to
greater lengths the long procession of German would-
be world conquerors.
The modern period of Prussian conquest followed
hard upon the great awakening of democratic spirit
Bismarck which culminated in the insurrections in
and the Europe in 1848; and had it not been for
German
struggle for the genius and the iron will of Bismarck,
Bbert* who had seized the reins of power in Ger-
many (i),1 it is possible that that nation might have
achieved its liberties. It was the Iron Chancellor
who screwed up the courage of the Prussian King,
William I., who returning from his refuge in England
was timorously watching the parliamentary activities
of his subjects and letting ''I dare not wait upon I
would." It was in this mood that his Mephistopheles
came to him in the person of the "man of blood and
iron" and reasoned with him.
Says Bismarck in his memoirs: "I succeeded in con-
1 Initial figures within parentheses refer to numbered references at
ends of chapters.
The Historical Background of the War 5
vincing him [the king] that so far as he was concerned
it was no question of liberal or conservative of this
or that shade, but rather of monarchical Bismarck's
rule or parliamentary government, and that influence
the latter must be avoided at all costs, if wuiiami.
even by a period of dictatorship' (2, vol. i.,
p. 296).
When later, the Danish question came up and it
was proposed that Prussia should join with Austria
in seizing the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, the
king was fearful of assuming the risk and ' ' stuck to
his motto, ' I have no right to Holstein. ' "I reminded
the king,'" says Bismarck, "that every one of his im-
mediate ancestors, not even excepting his brother, had
won an increment of territory for the state . . . and
I encouraged him to do likewise'1 (2, vol. ii., p. 10).
After the first addition to the kingdom had been made
under King William, Bismarck records with much
satisfaction in his diary, the king's 'frame of mind,
so far as I could observe, underwent a psychological
change; he developed a taste for conquest" (2, vol. ii.,
p. 20).
The crushing of the resistance of Denmark by the
combined forces of Germany and Austria was the
matter of a few days only, but it is interest- Bismarck's
ing to follow the steps in the quarrel over advance
plans for
the spoils which brought on the war of 1866, the Franco-
steps all of which had been skillfully engi- Prussian War
neered by Bismarck with an eye upon the next war of
1870, already clearly envisaged in his brain. Nowhere
are the mainsprings of Prussian policy so clearly revealed
as in Bismarck's own memoirs, where they stand out in
all the nakedness of a barefaced and shameless confes-
sion. Since the makers of the present war have been
6 The World War
clumsy imitators of Bismarck in their attempt to extend
the program of conquest, it is important to follow his
recital with care.
After the decisive defeat of Austria at the battle of
Koniggratz, the Austrian Emperor, Francis Joseph,
Bismarck's begged Napoleon III. to intervene, and
struggle offered in return to cede Venetia to France.
and The Prussian General Staff and the Prussian
staff at King William, flushed as they were with
Nikolsburg
victory, were for crushing Austria completely
by another battle. Bismarck, however, with the Franco-
Prussian War already planned for the future, desired
Austria's neutrality and eventually her alliance. His
struggle at Nikolsburg against the king and the military
party was the greatest in his career, and was achieved
through utilizing the humanitarian impulses of the
Crown Prince Frederick, later Frederick III. and the
one decent monarch in the long line of Hohenzollerns
from the Great Elector to the present German Kaiser.
Bismarck tells us that, fearing he had lost in this
vital issue, he was considering throwing himself out
of the window. Then
"I heard the door open, although I suspected that the
person entering was the Crown Prince, whose room in
the same corridor I had just passed. I felt his hand on
my shoulder, while he said : ' You know that I was against
this war. You considered it necessary and the responsi-
bility for it lies on you. If you are now persuaded that
our end is attained, and peace must now be concluded,
I am ready to support you and defend your opinion with
my father. ' He then repaired to the King and came back
after a short half-hour, in the same calm, friendly mood,
but with the words : ' It has been a very difficult business,
but my father has consented. ' " (2, vol. ii., p. 53.)
The Historical Background of the War 7
His ends achieved in this second premeditated war
of aggression, which had brought to Prussia the prov-
ince of Hanover, all preparations were now made to
crush France, and as the question of the succession to the
Spanish throne came opportunely to hand, Bismarck ad-
vocated a Hohenzollern prince unacceptable to France.
The friction aroused between the two countries over the
proposed succession was, to Bismarck's great disgust,
much mitigated through the influence of the Prussian
Queen, who in tears implored King William to avert war.
Believing that he had lost in his effort to launch a
war against France, Bismarck now decided to resign
as Chancellor. The king being at Ems, Bis-
Bismarck's
marck invited von Moltke and von Roon, the falsification
military heads of the army, to dine with him. of
It was at this dinner that Bismarck purposely
falsified the Ems telegram from the king and thus pre-
cipitated the war in which France was crushed. Even
this forgery has been imitated not once but many times
in the present war, and we can best have the account
in the Chancellor's own words :
'Having decided to resign, in spite of the remonstrances
which Roon made against it, I invited him and Moltke
to dine with me alone on the I3th, and communicated to
him at table my views and projects for doing so. Both
were greatly depressed, and reproached me indirectly with
selfishly availing myself of my greater facility for with-
drawing from service. . . . During our conversation I
was informed that a telegram from Ems . . . was being
deciphered. When the copy was handed to me ... I
read it out to my guests, whose dejection was so great
that they turned away from food and drink. On a repeated
examination of the document I lingered upon the authori-
zation of His Majesty, which included a command, imme-
8 The World War
diately to communicate Benedetti's fresh demand and its
rejection both to our ambassadors and to the press. I
put a few questions to Moltke as to the extent of his con-
fidence in the state of our preparations, especially as to
the time they would still require in order to meet this
sudden risk of war. He answered that if there was to be
war he expected no advantage to us by deferring its out-
break; . . . while at a later period this advantage would
be diminished; he regarded a rapid outbreak as, on the
whole, more favorable to us than delay.
"All these considerations, conscious and unconscious,
strengthened my opinion that war could be avoided only
at the cost of the honor of Prussia and of the national
confidence in it. Under this conviction, I made use of the
royal authorization communicated to me through Abeken,
to publish the contents of the telegram; and in the pres-
ence of my two guests I reduced the telegram by striking
out words, but without adding or altering. . . . The
difference in the effect of the abbreviated text of the Ems
telegram as compared with that produced by the original was
not the result of stronger words but of the form, which made
this announcement appear decisive, while Abeken' s version
would only have been regarded as a fragment of a negotiation
still pending and to be continued at Berlin.
"After I had read out the concentrated edition to my
two guests, Moltke remarked : ' Now it has a different ring; it
sounded before like a parley; now it is like a flourish in answer
to challenge. ' I went on to explain : ' // in execution of
His Majesty's order I at once communicate this text, which
contains no alteration in or addition to the telegram, not
only to the newspapers, but also by telegraph, to all our em-
bassies, it will be known in Paris before midnight, and not only
on account of its contents, but also on account of the manner
of its distribution, will have the effect of a red rag upon the
Gallic bull. Fight we must if we do not want to act the part
of the vanquished without a battle. Success, however, essen-
tially depends upon the impression which the origination of the
The Historical Background of the War 9
war makes upon us and others; it is important that we should
be the party attacked, and this Gallic over- weening and touch-
iness will make us, if we announce in the face of Europe,
so far as we can without the speaking-tube of the Reichs-
tag, that we fearlessly meet the public threats of France.'
'THis explanation brought about in the two generals a
revulsion to a more joyous mood, the liveliness of which
surprised me. They had suddenly recovered their pleasure
in eating and drinking and spoke in a more cheerful vein.
Roon said: 'Our God of old lives still and will not let us
perish in disgrace. ' Moltke so far relinquished his passive
equanimity that, glancing up joyously towards the ceiling
and abandoning his usual punctiliousness of speech, he
smote his hand upon his breast and said : ' If I may but live
to lead our armies in such a war, then the devil may come
directly afterwards and fetch away the "old carcass." ' "
(2, vol. ii., pp. 96-98, 100-102.)
The Franco-Prussian War, as Bismarck had clearly
foreseen, left the French Empire crushed; for, as he
well knew from the reports of his spies,
France was unprepared and was living in unprepared
a fool's paradise. When Napoleon III. had was crushed
by the war
inquired of his Minister of War if everything
was ready, that official had replied that if the war
were to last an entire year, the French army would
not need so much as a gaiter button. But General
Failly cried out: 'We need everything.'1 "We are
in want of everything," echoed Marshal Bazaine.
For defending herself against German aggression,
Bismarck at Versailles imposed upon France in her
humiliation a punitive war indemnity of The ra e
five billion francs, or one billion dollars, and <>f
further, against the bitter protest of the
inhabitants, robbed France of the rich Rhine provinces
of Alsace and Lorraine.
io The World War
It seems to have been believed by Germany that
after meeting these enormous penalties France would
be unable to recover; but when after five years the
nation had struggled up from beneath its burdens,
Bismarck sought means to provoke a new war, declar-
ing that he would now " bleed her white," and it
was the firm stand of England and Russia that alone
stood in his way. Though the hate engendered by
these ruthless acts and threats played a r61e in con-
tributing to the causes of the present war, a larger
factor was the desire of Germany to remove what
she with guilty conscience regarded as a menace to her
security.
France no doubt desired restitution, but revanche
as a national policy had been abandoned by France
The policy years before the war of 1914 was launched;
of revenge an(j £Qr ^ reasori) jf f or no other, that the
comparison of German and French increments in
population since 1871 had revealed only too clearly
its utter hopelessness.
That the success of Bismarck's wars had secured for
him a popular approval in Germany is abundantly
manifest to any one who has visited Germany
Popular
support of since 1871. From commanding hilltops the
hard features of the man of blood and iron,
cast in massive bronze, look down upon a
people as thoroughly Prussianized as nearly a half-
century of Kultur could make them. It matters little
that one who offered opposition would find himself
in difficulties; the amazing result has been reached.
We in America can measure the transformation which
has been accomplished, if we but compare the German
immigrants of the '48 period with those who have
come to us since 1871.
The Historical Background of the War 11
There is, so far as I know, no evidence that Bismarck
himself looked forward to definite early conquests be-
yond those which he had consummated, and Bismarckian
which, as he so often expressed it, had welded p°"cy
after 1871
together the German Empire. He knew that
Germany was in need of strengthening herself indus-
trially and commercially ; and he even at first discour-
raged embarking upon a colonial policy lest this should
distract attention from the necessary internal develop-
ment, now that the different German kingdoms, duchies,
and principalities had been united into one empire.
There is evidence that Bismarck largely overlooked,
at least at the outset, the full measure in which the
Alsace-Lorraine acquisition was to be the Aisace.
making of modern industrial Germany; for Lorraine
it is inconceivable that he would otherwise
for a moment have doubted the wisdom of industrial
. , -. ., . ,, -1 £ development
including the provinces among the spoils of
the war. Probably there were very few, if any, who
realized at that time the full importance in the future
economy of Europe of the iron ores of Lorraine ; though
to-day it is a well-established fact that the economic
development of a great Power is impossible without
adequate deposits of both coal and iron. Germany was
already well supplied with coal, particularly in West-
phalia, but had small deposits only of iron. Great
Britain was at the time, by reason of her developed re-
sources of coal and iron, the foremost industrial state.
In the language of Talleyrand, Germany's chief
industry was war, but the advance of tech-
nical science has been changing the character C0ai in the
of war and making it directly dependent, not
only upon man-power and skillful training,
but even more upon industrial development in the
12 The World War
modern sense — the great industries dependent upon
iron and steel production.
Lorraine brought to Germany the deposits which are
chiefly responsible for her phenomenal development
during the last generation. Let us examine for a
moment the figures. In 1870, Germany produced
but a million tons of pig iron annually, to three and
a half millions produced in France. In 1913, her
production was thirteen million tons of pig iron, and
the production of iron ore in the annexed territory of
Lorraine was 21,136,000 tons, or three fourths that of
the entire country. Even this production has been
enormously increased during the war, but this story
belongs to a later chapter.
It is of some interest here to recall that the "green
border" which von Moltke drew upon the map in the
fall of 1870 to outline the new international
of Prussian frontier, did not, as he had intended, include
efficiency ^j ^ vaiuaoie Ore that was known at that
time. German efficiency here broke down,
and some shaking of the mailed fist in the face of
France was found to be necessary before the prelimi-
nary draft of the Treaty of Frankfort could be so modi-
fied as to seize all that was then in sight. Even here
fate favored France, for the ores which Germany re-
jected because supposed to be valueless have, through
the subsequent invention of the Thomas-Gilchrist
process of ore reduction, become more valuable even
than those which were acquired by Germany. These
rich phosphorous ores lie in French Lorraine within the
Briey-Longwy basin close to the border, and in con-
sequence we hear from German officials that it is their
purpose to demand as a condition of peace that these
immensely rich ore deposits shall remain in their hands.
The Historical Background of the War 13
The development of the Lorraine ores by Germany
has in the period since 1871 transformed the nation
from an agricultural to an industrial state, — Germany
what the German historian Lamprecht has transformed
into a
aptly termed a 'tentacular state," because tentacular
it is reaching out in all directions beyond its
borders to draw in capital and raw materials (3), and
to secure markets. In 1871 , Germany's population was
four fifths agricultural, whereas in 1913 out of sixty-
seven millions of Germans, scarcely seventeen millions
lived by agriculture (4). In the early ages of the last
century, German emigration exceeded two hundred
thousand annually, but it has long since been negligi-
ble, and though her own normal increase in population
had been eight hundred thousand a year, Germany had
continued to bring in some seven hundred thousand
Slav laborers to work the farms of East Prussia, not to
mention Italians, Croats, and Poles. These laborers
have taken the place of the Germans who have deserted
the farms for the factories. Even before the war, the
Krupp works alone employed seventy- three thousand
workers, Thyssen thirty thousand, and Mannesermann
fifteen thousand.
Said Lamprecht in 1904:
' Today every nerve is strained to maintain the position
of Germanism in the world and to advance it.
rrM • • • 111 Germany's
his requires that our economic life should be danger from
united, all forces acting as a whole, like an army. over-rapid
11 1-1 development
. . . The sea must no longer be merely a high-
way for our commerce and the nursing mother of our
national economy, but the battlefield of our struggles with
the nations and the cradle of a new freedom'" (3).
Germany must now dispose of large quantities of
highly specialized manufactured products, and she
14 The World War
has an enormous appetite for capital, which is immedi-
ately absorbed in the further expansion of industrial
plants through the remodeling of machinery, etc. The
great industrial firms depend upon the industrial
banks, these upon central banks, and these latter in
turn upon the Deutsche Bank, the financial center of
the nation (4).
Customers are no less essential than capital and raw
materials to the life of a tentacular state like Germany.
German It is her foreign trade which has paid, not
industrial on^y £or faQ enormous outlay of her indus-
development »
and the food trial plants, but for about one third of her
food supply drawn in peace times from out-
side her borders. Once poor, she has suddenly waxed
rich, with all the obnoxious characteristics of the nouveau
riche here superimposed upon normal Teuton boorish-
ness and brutality. In 1895, according to Dr. Helffe-
rich, director of the Deutsche Bank and lately Minister
of Finance, the income from fortunes in Germany was
estimated at five and a fourth billions of dollars, whereas
in 1913 this sum had increased to from ten to twelve and
a half billions. In 1 9 1 3 the national wealth of Germany
was by the same authority estimated at eighty billions
of dollars.
Under the influence of the German tentacular state,
Russia had become both a market and a purveyor of
Foreign German farm labor, the latter by the terms
nations as of the treaty concluded at the end of the
purveyors
to Germany's Russo-Japanese War. France had been both
Germany's bank and her purveyor of iron ore.
Britain had lately refused to loan money for German
enterprises, and had thus become, even more than be-
fore, the great rival to be crushed.
Professor Paul Arndt, writing, in 1908, on the dan-
The Historical Background of the War 15
gers of German participation in world-wide trade,
showed how her industrial development had made her
dependent upon foreign countries, so that if interna-
tional relations should be disturbed, she would have
workmen without food and a great depreciation of
capital.
As Germany's industries expanded with such fever-
ish haste, her mines could no longer supply sufficient
iron ore for her capacious maw. In 1913, she
imported no less than fourteen million tons
of iron ore in addition to the thirty-five appetite
for iron ore
million tons which she mined within the
German Customs Union, which included Luxembourg;
and she was continually reaching out to acquire new
ore properties. The Casablanca crisis of 1911, which
nearly precipitated the world war, grew to a large
extent out of the German desire to acquire the valuable
Moroccan iron deposits, though this fact has been
little referred to (5 and 6).
Says one of the keenest and most thorough students
of economics in France, M. Henri Hauser:
"I have shown how the over-rapid industrialism of
Germany has led by a mechanical and fatal process to the
German war. . . .
" It is an industrial victory, a forced marriage of German
coal and foreign iron, the reduction of nations into vassals
who are to play the part of perpetual customers of the
German work-shops. . . . The victory of Germany meant
for them security of iron supplies and enlarged markets,
which meant Briey, Aymetz, Casablanca, and Bagdad. "
(4» P- 30-)
Some measure of the expanding markets of Germany
is afforded by the export trade, which in 1890 was
valued at $875,000,000 and in 1913 at $2,500,000,000.
i6 The World War
In March, 1888, the old Kaiser, Wilhelm I., slept
with his fathers, and his son, "Frederick the Noble,"
came to the throne, a dying man, to reign
Accession of • + 11
ii. ninety-six days and be in turn succeeded
and dimissai ^y ^ son William II., the present Kaiser.
of Bismarck
William ascended the throne June 15, 1888.
The regime of Bismarck continued for less than two
years to end in a clash with the Emperor in March,
1890; a clash which was given an apt characterization
by London Punch in the now famous cartoon, ' ' Drop-
ping the Pilot."
It is perhaps an open question in how far the new
Kaiser initiated, or since what time he became a sup-
porter of the plans for world conquest of the
Germany
throws off German military leaders. Poultney Bigelow,
Kaiser's playfellow in childhood and for
twenty-five years favored with an unusual
degree of intimacy, believes that the idea gradually
gained ascendancy over the Kaiser, and that he threw
off the mask in 1 896, after the completion of the Kiel
Canal, in the now famous telegram sent to President
Kruger of the Boer Republic, a message which brought
from England the immediate response of the mobilized
Flying Squadron (7, p. 130). The Kaiser now set
out to challenge Britain's command of the sea, and
originated the slogan, Deutschland's Zukunft liegt auf
dem Wasser (" Germany's future lies upon the water"),
a decision which was the starting point of the ruin-
ous competition in naval armaments which has since
prevailed.
To treat with any fullness the historic background
of the present war would require a book rather than
a lecture ; and I shall now content myself with merely
setting down in chronological order a list of events,
The Historical Background of the War 17
all interlocked and interrelated, which have led up to
the great tragedy through which we are now passing.
For this purpose it will be necessary to go chronology
back to the beginning of modern and Prus- , of ******
~ leading up
sianized Germany, which dates from the cor- to the
onation of William I. in the Hall of Mirrors world war
at Versailles in the presence of war-drunk generals
and princes of now federated German states :
1871. Treaty of Frankfort, which annexed Alsace
and Lorraine to Germany and imposed upon France a
punitive war indemnity of a billion dollars.
1874. The gentlemen's agreement of the three auto-
cratic kaisers of Germany, Russia, and Austria.
1875. Bismarck's plan to strike France down again
and this time " bleed her white," a plan frustrated by
England and Russia.
1878. Treaty of Berlin at conclusion of the Russo-
Turkish War, by which the Turkish provinces of Bosnia
and Herzegovina inhabited by Serbs, were placed under
the tutelage of Austria.
1882. Triple alliance formed between Germany,
Austria, and Italy according to Bismarck's plan.
1888. Coronation of William II. as German Em-
peror.
1889. Kaiser Wilhelm visits Turkey and declares
himself the protector of the Mohammedan world.
Beginning of the new Drang nach Osten.
1890. Dismissal of Bismarck and beginning of per-
sonal government by the Kaiser.
1896. Completion of Kiel Canal. Open defiance of
England in the Kaiser's telegram to President Kruger.
Dual alliance between France and Russia formed to
meet the menace of chauvinistic Germany.
1904. Russo-Japanese War entered upon by Russia
1 8 The World War
at instigation of German Emperor, with the result of
leaving Russia weakened.
1905. The rapprochement of France and England
through the settlement of the Moroccan question and
other causes of friction. Kaiser Wilhelm visits Morocco
and dramatically defies Moroccan arrangement.
1906. Algeciras Conference of the Great Powers to
settle the Moroccan crisis, in which settlement Ger-
many and Austro-Hungary become isolated.
1908. Tearing- up of the treaty of Berlin through
annexation by Austria of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
while Germany stands by "in shining armor.' Coup
d'etat of the Young Turks. Bulgaria declares her
independence and takes an Austrian colonel as ruler
with the title of Tsar.
1911. Caillaux, French Premier, now on trial for
treason, makes secret arrangements with the Kaiser
favorable to Germany. The German mailed fist
displayed at Agadir precipitates a crisis, which is
averted by the Guild Hall speech of Lloyd George and
the joint action of French and British banks. Tripoli
is seized by Italy in a war declared upon Turkey.
1912. Peace signed at Lausanne between Italy and
Turkey. First Balkan War of the allied Balkan States
drives Turkey almost out of Europe and disrupts the
balance of power. Germany's three-year military
service act is passed and the French Ambassador at
Berlin notifies his government that this German action
looks toward war in the near future.
1913. Second Balkan War is started by Bulgaria
at the instigation of Austria and is ended by the Treaty
of Bucharest, which leaves Bulgaria in worse state
than before. Three-year military service promulgated
in France following as a natural consequence that of
The Historical Background of the War 19
Germany. Germany responds by an additional sup-
plementary military act.
REFERENCES
1 . BIGELOW, POULTNEY, The German Struggle for Liberty, a History,
1806-1848, 4 vols., N. Y., Harpers, 1903-1905.
2. VON BISMARCK-SCHOENHAUSEN, PRINCE OTTO, Bismarck the
Man and the Statesman (Trans.), 2 vols., N. Y., Harpers, 1899
(especially vol. i., pp. 80, 288, 296; and vol. ii., pp. 9-13, 20,
53, 85, 95-98, 100-102, 114, 121, 149, 274, 333).
3. LAMPRECHT, KARL, Zur jungsten deutschen Vergangenheit, vol. ii.
4. HAUSER, HENRI, Economic Germany, pp. 33. London, Nelson, 1915.
5. TARDIEU, ANDRE, La mystere d'Agadir.
6. FULLERTON, WILLIAM MORTON, Problems of Power, a Study of
International Politics from Sadowa to Kirk-Kilisse, pp. 323,
N. Y., Scribners, 1913.
7. BIGELOW, POULTNEY, Prussian Memories, 1864-1914, pp. 197,
N. Y., Putnams, 1915.
8. BIGELOW, POULTNEY, Genseric — King of the Vandals, and First
Prussian Kaiser, pp. 207, N. Y., Putnams, 1918.
9. VON BUELOW, PRINCE, Imperial Germany, pp. 342, N. Y., Dodd,
1914.
10. SAROLEA, CHARLES, The Anglo-German Problem, pp. 384, London,
Nelson, 1912.
11. SEIGNOBOS, CH., 1815-1015. From the Congress of Vienna to the
War 0/1014 (Trans.), pp. 56, Paris, 1915.
12. CRAMB, J. A., Germany and England, pp. 152, N. Y., Dutton, 1914.
13. JOHNSON, D.W., The Perils of Prussianism, pp. 53, N.Y., Putnams,
1917.
14. DAVIS, WILLIAM STEARNS (in collaboration with WILLIAM AN-
DERSON and MASON W. TAYLOR), The Roots of the War, pp. 557,
N. Y., Century, 1918.
15. VON BERNHARDI, F., Germany and the Next War, pp. 300, N. Y.,
Longmans, 1912.
16. ROBERTSON, J. M., Britain vs. Germany, an Open Letter to Professor
Eduard Meyer of the University of Berlin, pp. 124, London,
Unwin, 1917.
17. MUIR, RAMSAY, Hammond's New Historical Atlas for Students,
3d ed., pp. 62, pis. 65, N. Y., Hammond.
18. JUDSON, HARRY PRATT, The Threat of World Policies, Univ. of
Chicago War Pap., No. i, pp. 28, Chicago, 1918.
19. THAYER, W. R., Germany vs. Civilization, Notes on the Atrocious
War, pp. 238, Boston, Riverside Press, 1916.
20 The World War
20. TREVELYAN, GEORGE MACAULAY, "Austria-Hungary and Servia,"
Fortnightly Review, vol. ciii., June, 1915, pp. 978-986.
21. GIBBONS, HERBERT ADAMS, The New Map of Europe, pp. 418,
N. Y., Century, 1915.
22. GIBBONS, HERBERT ADAMS, The New Map of Africa, pp. 503,
N. Y., Century, 1916.
23. TURNER, E. R., "The Causes of the Great War," Am. Polit.
Sci. Rev., vol. ix., 1915, pp. 16-35.
24. COOK, SIR EDWARD, How Britain Strove for Peace — a Record of
Anglo-German Negotiations, 1898-1914, pp. 39, N.Y., Macmillan,
1914.
25. MURRAY, GILBERT, The Foreign Policy of Sir Edward Grey,
1906-1915, pp. 127, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1915.
26. ARCHER, WILLIAM, The Villain of the World Tragedy, pp. 46,
London, Unwin, 1916.
27. FULLER, GEORGE N., "Democracy and the Great War," pp.
234, Bull. 20, Dept. Pub. Instr., Lansing, Mich., 1918.
II
THE LAUNCHING OF THE WAR, THE RECORD
OF TWELVE DAYS
' The triumph of the Greater Germany, which some day must domi-
nate all Europe, is the single end for which we are fighting." — Proclama-
tion of June, 1915, by Kaiser Wilhelm II.
"A Grey man came and said: 'You know,
Your treaty guarantees them, so '
' I said to him, I said it plain,
'Then we must tear it up again.'"
Malice in Kulturland.
"In view of these indisputable facts, it is not surprising that the
whole civilized world outside of Germany attributes to us the sole
guilt for the world war." — PRINCE KARL LICHNOWSKY, lately German
Ambassador at London.
WE have seen that the ultimate cause of the present
war is to be traced to German ambitions for world
domination, a program consistently carried
The desire
out by the Hohenzollerns since the time of the for a « place
Great Elector, and brought to its crowning
realization under Bismarck in the aggressive wars of
1864, 1866, and 1870 — wars by which Bismarck acquired
new provinces for Prussia while welding the congeries of
German states into the German Empire. William II.,
coming now to the throne and making the discovery that
the valuable undeveloped and particularly tropical coun-
tries of the world had been largely acquired by England
21
22 The World War
and Prance while the German states were distracted
by religious wars, covets this 'place in the sun' for
Germany. The plot to secure the desired territory
through aggressive wars was set forth by the Pan-
German Union in a political tract published in 1911
and by General Bernhardi in his Germany and the Next
War, which was published in 1912 (i). The more
important events which led up to the launching of this
war have been set down in order in the preceding
chapter.
Having prepared the explosive material, it remained
only for Germany at the proper moment to apply the
fuse or fulminate to set off the charge. This
The oppor-
tunity to was done in the summer of 1914 through
utilizing the opportune assassination at Sara-
jevo of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne. The assassination, which
occurred on June 23d, naturally caused a wave of in-
dignation to sweep over Europe and occasioned much
disquietude in European chancelleries, where the pos-
sibilities of serious danger to the peace of Europe were
at once appreciated.
The Austrian papers immediately charged the mur-
der to a Serbian conspiracy This charge was in-
dignantly denied by the Serbian press, which made
countercharges based upon the fact that one of the
murderers had been regarded in Serbia as a dangerous
character. Serbia had before endeavored to expel
him from her own territory, in doing which she had
encountered opposition from Austria. Both the Ser-
bian royal family and the Serbian Government at
once sent messages of condolence, and canceled fes-
tivities scheduled for the day in Belgrade, the Serbian
capital.
The Launching of the War 23
Without giving notification to Serbia, Austria held
a secret investigation within the prison at Sarajevo
where the criminals were incarcerated; con-
Austna's
cerning which examination, purporting to ex- secret
tend over nearly a month, no findings were
made public or even communicated to diplomats, with
the apparent exception of those of Germany. Even
from Italy, the third partner in the Triple Alliance,
all knowledge of what was going on was carefully
withheld. There is abundant evidence that an at-
tempt was made to dispel any disquietude on the part
of the several Entente allied governments, and in a
number of instances diplomats of the Entente group
were given definitely to understand that in case the
investigation should reveal that Serbia had been in-
volved in a conspiracy against Austria, the demands
upon her would be moderate.
On the 23d of July, a month after the assassination,
the world was almost stupefied under the shock of
the publication by Austria of a formidable
The ulti-
ultimatum delivered to Serbia at 6 P.M. of matumto
that day, making demands for a satisfactory
answer within forty-eight hours under penalty of a
break of diplomatic relations. The demands upon
Serbia included an admission of guilt in a ' ' submersive
movement ' ' born under ' ' the eye of the Serbian Govern-
ment," with the object of detaching territory from
Austria, a movement alleged to be fostered by Serbia
and participated in by her officials. The Austrian
demands required that Serbia make public this admis-
sion in the most humiliating manner possible, through
announcing it as an order of the day to the army.
By demanding, further, that Serbia remove any of-
ficers which Austria might see fit to name, and consent
24 The World War
to the cooperation of Austrian officials in suppress-
ing any political movements directed against Austria
within Serbian territory, Serbia was to be required to
surrender the powers of a sovereign state. Sir Edward
Grey has said that he ' * had never before seen one state
address to another independent state a document of
so formidable a character" (2, p. 21). The newspaper
Die Post of Berlin remarked of the Austrian ultimatum
with approval: "Every sentence is a blow of the fist
in the face of the Serbian Government" (2, p. 21).
The history of the twelve days after the launching
of the ultimatum the student should follow in the official
reports, especially those of France and Britain, which
are not only much the most comprehensive of any but
the best edited. The best general summaries are by
the able lawyer, Mr. James M. Beck, in his The Evidence
in the Case (3), and by the distinguished literary and
dramatic critic, Mr William Archer, in The Thirteen
Days (2). In order to familiarize his readers with the
diplomats involved in the correspondence, Beck pub-
lishes a list of ''The Witnesses," and in Archer's dis-
cussion the material is particularly well ordered and
admirably concise.
There is in the long wait subsequent to the assas-
sination and in the quieting assurances, followed as
they were by the discharge of this bombshell
over Europe, a most disquieting suggestion
handicap of design. This amount 3 to conviction when
the Allies . .
we note carefully the time chosen for firing
the charge. Some of those most concerned on the
side of the allied nations were just then absent from
their posts and inaccessible. If Austria were to de-
clare war upon Serbia, Russia, before acting in her
r61e of the protector of Serbia, must know whether
The Launching of the War 25
she can have the support of France. France in turn
must know where England is to stand. Now the
sending of the ultimatum was so timed that Presi-
dent Poincare and M. Viviani, the French Premier and
Minister of Foreign Affairs, had just embarked from
St. Petersburg on their return to France, and they
could not reach Paris until after the expiration of the
ultimatum. Had the time been chosen either twenty-
four hours earlier or a few days later, the conditions
would have been vastly more favorable for them.
Moreover, M. Pachitch, the Serbian Premier, was
absent from his post, and though at once recalled, a
third of the time allowed by the ultimatum expired
before he could reach Belgrade. M. Schebeko, the
Russian Ambassador at Vienna, having "received an
assurance from Count Berchtold [the Austrian Minis-
ter of Foreign Affairs], that the demands on Serbia
would be thoroughly acceptable," had actually taken
a fortnight's leave of absence.
It is impossible to believe that the time chosen for
launching the ultimatum was not especially selected
with reference to these obvious handicaps
\ Count
to the allied governments — the whole affair Porgach's
was, in other words, a trap set with full
knowledge and carefully adjusted, though most clum-
sily disguised. Count Forgach, who doubtless pre-
pared the ultimatum, had been the Austrian Ambas-
sador at Belgrade, was known as a successful agent
provocateur, and it had been proven of him in the trial
of Dr. Fried jung at Agram (2, p. 20), that he had
forged documents against Serbia. The methods em-
ployed at the Austrian legation at Belgrade, under the
direction of Count Forgach as Austrian Ambassador,
bear close resemblance to those of the Imperial German
26 The World War
Embassy at Washington under Count von Bernstorff ,
and illustrate what we may now feel quite certain is
the well-established system of the German Govern-
ment.
Berlin gave out that the whole affair concerned
only Austria and Serbia, and if in consequence a puni-
„ ,. , tive war were to be inaugurated by Austria,
Berlin's
previous it should be ;' localized"; further, that in
pursuance of this policy she had no more
denied but advance knowledge of the nature of Austria's
ultimatum than did the other chancelleries
though she was in any case bound by her alliance to
support Austria. There is, however, abundant evi-
dence that Germany was fully informed in advance, and
while the whole subject cannot be gone into at this
stage, I may cite a telegram from Sir Edward Grey,
the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, sent on July 25th
to Sir Horace Rumbold, the British Charge at Berlin:
"The German Ambassador [Prince Lichnowsky] read me
a telegram from the German Foreign Office saying that his
Government had not known beforehand, and had had no
more than other powers to do with, the stiff terms of the
Austrian note to Serbia, but once she had launched that
note Austria could not draw back " (4, p. 25).
To show that this claim was false, the French Minis-
ter at Munich the day the ultimatum was sent noti-
fied his government that the President of the (Bavarian)
Council told him that the contents of the note were
known to him and in his opinion they could be accepted
by Serbia. Sir Maurice de Bunsen, the British Ambas-
sador at Vienna, on July 3Oth telegraphed Sir Edward
Grey:
The Launching of the War 27
"Although I am unable to verify it, I have private in-
formation that the German Ambassador knew the text of
the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia before it was dispatched,
and telegraphed it to the German Emperor. I know from
the German Ambassador himself that he indorses every line
of it." (4, p. 14.)
That keen publicist , Maximilian Harden, has declared :
'If it were for a moment conceivable that the German
Chancellor did not know to the last detail what Austria was
about to demand of Belgrade, if it were conceivable that
such a bombshell as the note to Serbia came as a surprise
to us, then we should have to confess that we were not the
allies of Austria but her lackeys " (2, p. 26).
The whole question must be dismissed as a clear
case of Teuton lying, with which the world is already
too familiar.
Returning to Belgrade in haste upon learning of
the ultimatum, the Serbian Premier appealed to Rus-
sia, and M. Sazonof announced to the press Serbia's
that 'Russia cannot remain indifferent to reply
the dispute," and to Vienna he applied for an exten-
sion of time. In combination with the representatives
of France, Italy, and Germany, Sir Edward Grey en-
deavored to bring about with Germany a four-Power
mediation between Vienna and St. Petersburg. Ger-
many under various pretexts flatly declined to partici-
pate. All chancelleries of the Powers save those of
Germany and Austria labored assiduously for peace.
Of this the evidence is overwhelming. Sir Edward
Grey in England and M. Sazonof, the Russian Minister
of Foreign Affairs, have left a record which is everlast-
ingly to their credit and that of the countries which
they represented. M. Viviani, French Premier, in
28 The World War
adopting the extraordinary precaution in the interest
of peace of keeping the French 'covering troops'" on
the French-German frontier a distance of ten kilo-
meters behind the boundary, probably went farther
than was justifiable in view of the known character
of the German Government, and he has since been
severely condemned for thus leaving his country open
to the German invasion.
Counseled by all the Entente chancelleries to con-
cede everything that was possible, Serbia handed her
reply to the Austrian Ambassador a few minutes before
the expiration of the ultimatum. In this reply she
conceded all the demands with the exception of those
which invaded her sovereign rights, and these she
agreed to submit either to the Hague Peace Tribunal,
or to a conference of the Powers. Baron von Gieslingen,
the Austrian Ambassador at Belgrade, on being handed
the reply, stopped scarcely long enough to read it,
declared it unsatisfactory, and in three quarters of an
hour had left by train for Vienna with his entire staff
and the equipment of the legation. Sir Edward Grey
has expressed to Count Mensdorff, the Austrian Am-
bassador at London, the opinion that, 'the Serbian
reply involved the greatest humiliation to Serbia that
he had ever seen a country undergo' (2, p. 63).
Austria, unable to complain of its tone or contents,
declared the Serbian reply to be a sham and insincere.
After the reply to the ultimatum, events moved
rapidly with England and Russia laboring for peace
supported by France and Italy. From the
Did Germany
attempt to start Russia maintained, what was clear to
all neutral nations, that the matter was not
merely between Austria and Serbia, but a European
question, and on July 25th she stated that in the inter-
The Launching of the War 29
est of peace Russia would be quite ready to stand aside
and leave the settlement of the question in the hands
of England, France, Germany, and Italy. England
also made this proposition, though well recognizing
that if Germany should refuse to join it, it would be
barren of results. This Germany refused to do, saying,
11 the matter was a domestic one for Austria," and that
11 Germany could only be guided by her duties as an
ally" of Austria.
On July 26th Russia asked Austria, and later Ger-
many, to move to change some of the demands upon
Serbia, a request which was not answered by Austria
and was refused by Germany. England then asked
France, Italy, and Germany to have representatives
meet in London for conference. Germany refused.
On the 27th France urged that England, France, and
Germany again request Serbia and Austria not to
invade each other's territory, and that time be given
for negotiations. Germany refused. On the same day
Russia asked Germany to urge Austria to accept
England's suggestion of a conference. This was met
with a refusal. The German Chancellor told England
that he had started mediation, but that Austria had
replied that it was too late. No record has been pub-
lished of any such interchange.
On the 28th Austria declared war upon Serbia, and
now the Kaiser, who to the apparent disappointment
of the German Foreign Office had unexpect- The Kaiser's
edly returned from his cruise in Norwegian part
waters, at 10.45 P.M. in the evening telegraphed to
King George and also to the Czar that he would use
his influence with Austria to bring about an under-
standing with Russia. There is no published record
of his having done so.
30 The World War
On the 3Oth, England, France, and Italy urged Ger-
many to suggest some method by which war could be
averted. Germany's only answer was that she had
asked Austria what would be satisfactory to her and
had received no reply. No such communications ap-
pear in the record.
The social-democratic party in Germany, which at
the Reichstag election of 1912 cast more than a third
of the votes of the empire, stated in an editorial of
this date in their organ, Vorwdrts :
". . . the proofs are unfortunately within grasp that
the camarilla of war barons is again at work, without the
slightest qualm of conscience in order to cover all activities
of the government and bring about what is monstrous —
the world war, the world conflagration, the devastation of
Europe. . . .
"It is not a question of Germany's honor and future,
but of a senseless war of adventure which must be stopped
as quickly as possible!
"The influence of Germany upon Austria is therefore
the paramount issue." (5.)
On the 3ist, Austria, for some reason not yet quite
clear, agreed to discuss matters with Russia, and her
offer was at once accepted with the sugges-
Austria, at <-»<->
eleventh tion that all the Great Powers be invited to
way'oniyto a conference and that London be named as
be blocked the place of meeting. With full knowledge of
this, the Kaiser at midnight the same day sent
Russia an ultimatum with twelve-hour limit for reply,
demanding that she immediately demobilize the Rus-
sian army on both the German and Austrian frontiers.
There is no evidence that the Russian army had been
mobilized against Germany, and only the day before the
The Launching of the War 31
Czar had given the Kaiser his promise that the Russian
army would take no action so long as negotiations con-
tinued. At the time of sending the ultimatum Germany
declared martial law — really a state of war — in Ger-
many, and demanded of France with an eighteen-hour
limit for reply, whether France would remain neutral in
a war between Germany and Russia.
Replying to the Kaiser on August ist, the Czar
stated that he would like the same guarantees from
Germany that he had already himself given, and re-
ceived the reply: 'I have shown yesterday to Your
Government the way through which alone war may
be averted. An immediate, clear, and unmistakable
reply of Your Government is the sole way to avoid
endless misery."
On this day England pointed out to Germany that
Austria and Russia were both willing to negotiate,
and that unless Germany wanted war, she should not
press matters. This being met by refusal to act, no
further attempts could be made by the Entente govern-
ments.
Because of the enormous advantages to the nation
which in the event of war first accomplishes its mobiliza-
tion, the question of what action the differ- rhe question
ent Powers concerned actually took looking of mow-
toward mobilization is here of the utmost
importance. Austria mobilized at least a portion of
her army on the night of July 25th, after she had
received from Serbia the reply to her ultimatum, and
it is abundantly evident that she mobilized against
Russia as well as against Serbia; although the Kaiser
declared in a telegram to the Czar on July 29th that
this mobilization was against Serbia only. Austria
proclaimed general mobilization on July 3ist. Russia's
32 The World War
mobilization, by reason of her inadequate communica-
tions, was exceedingly slow and required about twice as
much time as Germany's. On July 25th Russia de-
cided to mobilize against Austria thirteen army corps,
though the time of being made effective was left to
M. Sazonof. On the 26th the German Ambassador
at St. Petersburg, Count Pour tales, was told by M.
Sazonof and by the then Russian Minister of War, that
"if Austria crosses the Serbian frontier," the four
military districts which face Austria will be mobilized,
but that ''not a single horse or reservist had been called
up." After Austria's declaration of war upon Serbia,
M. Sazonof announced on July 28th that mobilization
in four southern districts would be proclaimed the
next day, and mobilization orders were actually dis-
patched to these thirteen army corps on the night of
the 29th. Partial mobilization in Russia was appar-
ently proclaimed on the 3Oth, and general mobiliza-
tion at one o'clock on the morning of the 3ist.
In Germany Kriegsgefahrzustand (state of danger of
war) was proclaimed July 3ist and complete mobiliza-
tion on August i st. The evidence that mobilization
really took place much earlier belongs to a later chapter.
The French Cabinet decided upon mobilization on
July 3 ist and carried it out on August ist, though
troops were everywhere kept ten kilometers behind the
frontier.
The European Powers involved in the war have
generally published statements of their respective cases
in collections of documents which have each
fo/the8' been designated by a definite color. The
Great Powers offcc{ai documents which in this manner were
stated
promptly revealed to the world by the allied
governments number 531 (many of them counted more
The Launching of the War
33
than once), those by the Central Powers twenty-nine
(German White Book), these latter being mostly of rela-
tive unimportance. After a delay of six months, not-
withstanding the fact that her case most needed
presentation to the world, Austria issued her Red Book
with seventy-nine documents. Italy after her entry
into the war issued the Italian Green Book, and
Belgium sent out a second Gray Book. The initial
presentation of war documents may be summed up
as follows :
ENTENTE ALLIES
English White Book
French Yellow Book
Russian Orange Book
Belgian Gray Book
Serbian Blue Book
Documents
161
1 60
79
79
JL
531
CENTRAL POWERS
Documents
29
German White Book
29
The French Yellow Book, which was edited by M.
Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador at Berlin, is
the most complete and satisfactory of all these books,
with the British White Book standing next in value.
Some of these documents possess such great human
and historical interest, that they will here be given in
their chronological order with but little explanatory
matter.
On July 27th, M. Jules Cambon, the French Am-
bassador of Berlin, asked Herr von Jagow,
the German Minister of Foreign Affairs,
'if he had taken note of the reply of Ser-
bia to Austria which the Serbian Charge
d' Affaires had delivered to him that morn- to «"imatum
ing. I have not yet had time," he said (4, p. 191).
German
lack of
34 The World War
On July 3Oth, M. Sazonof made a final proposal to
Austria :
"If Austria, recognizing that her dispute with Serbia has
assumed the character of a question of European interest,
sazonofs declares herself ready to eliminate from her
proposal to ultimatum the clauses which are damaging to
the sovereignty of Serbia, Russia undertakes to
stop all military preparations" (4, p. 288).
This offer was without effect.
On July 29th, the German Chancellor made to Great
Britain the offer that if Britain would remain neutral
in the war, she (Germany) would on her
Germany's
attempt to part agree not to rob France of territory.
bribe England Sir Edward Qoschen, the British Ambassador
at Berlin, promptly asked Herr von Jagow if the French
Colonies would be similarly respected; and to this
von Jagow refused to commit himself. To this offer
of the German Government Sir Edward Grey on July
30 th dispatched the following reply:
"His Majesty's Government cannot for a moment enter-
tain the Chancellor's proposal that they should bind them-
selves to neutrality on such terms.
"What he asks us is in effect to engage to stand by while
French colonies are taken and France is beaten so long as
Germany does not take French territory as distinct from
the colonies.
"From the material point of view such a proposal is
unacceptable, for France, without further territory in
Europe being taken from her, would be so crushed as to lose
her position as a Great Power, and become subordinate to
German policy.
"Altogether apart from that, it would be a disgrace for
us to make this bargain with Germany at the expense of
The Launching of the War 35
France, a disgrace from which the good name of this coun-
try would never recover.
'The Chancellor also in effect asks us to bargain away
whatever obligation or interest we have as regards the
neutrality of Belgium. We could not entertain that bargain
either. ' (4, p. 77.)
When Germany's ultimatum was on July 3ist dis-
patched to Russia, Baron von Schoen, the German
Ambassador in Paris was instructed to inform the
French Government of this step and to ask whether
France would agree to remain neutral in the event of
a war between Germany and Russia. The French
Minister replied to this with the statement that France
would do * ' that which her interests dictated ' ' (4, p. 434) .
M. Viviani, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs,
on July 3 ist admirably summed up the Ger-
man attitude toward the negotiations in a summary of
the negotia-
circular which was dispatched to all French tions with
ambassadors :
"Nevertheless the constant attitude of Germany, who,
since the beginning of the conflict, while ceaselessly pro-
testing to each Power her peaceful intentions, has actually,
by her dilatory or negative attitude, caused the failure of
all attempts at agreement, and has not ceased to encourage
through her Ambassador the uncompromising attitude of
Vienna; the German military preparations begun since the
25th July and subsequently continued without cessation;
the immediate opposition of Germany to the Russian for-
mula, declared at Berlin inaccep table for Austria before that
Power had even been consulted; in conclusion, all the im-
pressions derived from Berlin bring conviction that Ger-
many has sought to humiliate Russia, to disintegrate the
Triple Entente, and, if these results could not be obtained,
to make war. " (4, p. 221.)
36 The World War
On July 3 1st, Sir Edward Grey took his political life,
so to speak, in his hands in making a proposal
offer to to Prince Lichnowsky, the German Ambas-
sador, which is recorded in the following
remarkable note sent to the British Ambassador at
Berlin:
"I said to the German Ambassador this morning that if
Germany could get any reasonable proposal put forward
which made it clear that Germany and Austria were striving
to preserve European peace, and that Russia and France
would be unreasonable if they rejected it, I would support it
at St. Petersburg and Paris, and go the length of saying that
if Russia and France would not accept it His Majesty's
Government would have nothing more to do with the conse-
quences ; but, otherwise, I told German Ambassador that if
France became involved we should be drawn in" (4, p. 86).
The above document indicates rather clearly that
it was not Belgium alone which brought about inter-
vention by Great Britain. Later, in an interview with
the French Ambassador in London, Sir Edward Grey,
said: "The neutrality of Belgium might be, he would
not say a decisive, but an important factor in deter-
mining our attitude. ' '
There is much evidence that Germany up to the
end believed Russia would hold back from war as she
Germany's had done in 1908-09 and refuse to come to
SafRussIa ^e defense °^ Serbia (2, p. 64). On July
would not 25th, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs
gave to the British Charge in Berlin the
4 * opinion that the crisis could be localized. ' ' In Vienna
the British Ambassador reported to his government that
Herr von Tschirschky, the German Ambassador, be-
lieved "Russia will keep quiet during the chastisement
The Launching of the War 37
>
of Serbia. ' ' In this and other similar dropped opinions,
a system of suggestion from Berlin is apparent (6, p. 2).
Prince Lichnowsky tells us in his remarkable memo-
randum that Herr von Jagow, in answer to a warning
from him to the effect that the whole project was
"adventurous and dangerous," said that 'Russia
was not ready; there would doubtless be a certain
amount of bluster, but the more firmly we stood by
Austria the more would Russia draw back'' (7, p. 67).
A very amusing proof that this view was strongly
held in the German Chancellery came to light when,
on August ist, the German Ambassador to Russia
delivered Germany's declaration of war. After the
oral statement to M. Sazonof, Count Pourtales took
from his pocket the official statement to hand to the
Russian Minister, a mere matter of formality. What
was the amazement of the latter upon opening the
paper after the German Ambassador had withdrawn,
to read in it a very friendly note thanking " Russia
for having acceded to the demands of the Imperial
Chancellery of Berlin." On bringing the attention
of Count Pourtales to this strange document, it was
found that he had made a mistake in taking the paper
from the wrong pocket, and he thereupon handed over
the declaration of war in due form (6, p. 4).
On August ist, Italy informed Germany that "as
the war undertaken by Austria was aggressive and did
not fall within the purely defensive character
Italy indi-
of the Triple Alliance . . . Italy could not take catesthat
part in it " (4, p. 228). The communication not £f™£
of this welcome news to France permitted on Germany's
part
that country to withdraw the French troops
from the Italian frontier and thus greatly strengthen the
French position at a most critical moment.
38 The World War
Sir Edward Grey on August 2d officially notified the
French Ambassador at London that if the German
Events of fleet came into the Channel or into the North
August ad gea to un(jertake hostile operations against
France, the "British fleet will give all the protection
in its power" (4, p. 235).
On the same day 'very early' German troops in-
vaded Luxembourg (really as now known on the pre-
ceding day), and Sir Edward Grey notified the French
Ambassador of England's attitude toward Belgium and
Luxembourg. England felt obligated to defend Bel-
gium's neutrality, alone if necessary ; but that of Luxem-
bourg only in concert with other Powers (4, p. 235).
On this day also German troops (5th Mounted
Jaegers) penetrated French territory more tnan ten
kilometers, killed a French soldier, and carried off
horses. This was protested at Berlin, and it was
probably intended to provoke France to declare war.
On August 2d at seven o'clock in the evening a "very
confidential' letter was sent to the Belgian Govern-
ment by Germany in which it was stated
that Germany had "reliable information'
to bribe that French forces intended to march against
Belgium
Germany through Belgium, and feared that
Belgium would be "unable without assistance to repell
this attack" and consequently preferred to anticipate
it. Germany further declared :
1. If Belgium will maintain friendly neutrality her
integrity and independence will be assured at the end
of the war.
2. Germany will evacuate Belgian territory on
conclusion of peace.
3. Germany will pay her way and compensate for
damage.
The Launching of the War 39
4. If Belgium opposes, Germany will consider her
an enemy.
A reply to this proposal was demanded within
twelve hours (4, p. 309).
Very early in the morning on August 3d (1.30 A.M.),
Herr von Below, the German Ambassador to Belgium,
upon instructions from Berlin, had burst in upon the
Belgian Secretary-General of Foreign Affairs, to say
that French dirigibles had thrown bombs, and that
a French cavalry patrol had crossed the border. The
Belgian official inquired "Where?' The answer was
"in Germany.'1 Baron van der Elst then observed
that in that case he could not understand the object
of the communication. Herr von Below replied "that
these acts, which were contrary to international law,
were calculated to lead to the supposition that other
acts contrary to international law would be committed
by France'1 (4, p. 312).
These alleged depredations have since been shown
to be fictitious, but the interview has its comic as well
as its tragic side (2, p. 192).
On August 3d, Belgium replied to Germany's ultima-
tum in a document which Archer has well characterized
as in :< marked and illuminating contrast' Belgium's
with Germany's demands (2, p. 194). "On reply
the one side, menace, bribery, chicanery; on the other
side, sincerity, honesty, and unswerving, though un-
menacing resolution.'1 The reply in part follows:
'The Belgian Government, if they were to accept the
proposal submitted to them, would sacrifice the honor of
the nation and betray their duty towards Europe.
" Conscious of the part which Belgium has played for more
than eighty years in the civilization of the world, they
40 ; The World War
refuse to believe that the independence of Belgium can only
be purchased at the price of violation of her neutrality.
"If this hope is disappointed, the Belgian Government
are firmly resolved to repel, by all the means in their power,
every attack upon their rights. " (4, p. 312.)
Belgium's protection from invasion as a recompense
for her 'perpetual neutrality' had been guaranteed
Belgian through an agreement of the Powers in 1830,
neutrality confirmed in 1831 and 1839 with the Great
•
Powers, including Prussia. In 1870 Prussia joined
with France and England in reinsuring Belgium's
neutrality. In 1911 and in 1913 the German Foreign
Secretary stated that 'the neutrality of Belgium is
determined by international convention and Germany
is resolved to respect those conventions' (8, p. 279).
On August 2, 1914, in answer to a request for a new
declaration of Germany's attitude toward Belgian
neutrality, Herr von Below, the German Ambassador
replied "that up to the present he had not been in-
structed to make us an official communication, but that
we knew his personal opinion as to the feelings of
security which we had the right to entertain towards
our earlier neighbors ': (4, p. 309).
Better than any one else, William Archer has stated
the case as regards Germany's attitude toward Belgium :
"No one maintains that all treaties should be binding
for ever. Had Germany denounced the treaty of 1839, and
given fair warning that she did not intend to be bound by it,
her cause would have been truculent but upright. But that
was not the course she took. She lied up to the last moment,
in order to take Belgium as nearly as possible unprepared.
History has doubtless aets of equal baseness to show, but I
think it would be difficult to point to an outrage at once so
The Launching of the War 41
deliberately planned, so treacherous in method, and so
vast in scale." (2, p. n.)
Upon Belgian territory being violated by Germany,
King Albert appealed to King George of England in
the following memorable words :
"
Remembering the numerous proofs of Your Majesty's
friendship and that of your predecessor, the friendly attitude
of England in 1870, and the proof of friendship King Albert's
you have just given us again, I make a supreme wfi to
appeal to the diplomatic intervention of Your
Majesty's Government to safeguard the integrity of Bel-
gium" (4, p. 107).
At the outbreak of the war Germany took an action
which recalls her successful American propaganda to
prevent America's entry upon her responsi-
bilities in the war, when she said through egandaby
American pacifists and German propagan-
dists that America by entering the war
would really aid Germany through stopping the ship-
ment of munitions to the Allies. To the British press
she communicated the argument that British neutral-
ity would really not injure France, but would, on the
contrary, give her as much strategic and even more
diplomatic help. Any help by land, she urged, would
be negligible 'considering the enormous numbers
engaged," and Germany would agree to make no attack
on France "in the north" (2, p. 196). Does this argu-
ment sound familiar to Americans ?
As Germany began to launch her armies against
Belgium, she spread many fake stories of aggression
(6), none of which she ever took the trouble later to
attempt seriously to substantiate, and the French
42 The World War
Ambassador at Berlin was instructed by his govern-
ment "to draw the attention of the Foreign Office to
the German campaign of false news which is beginning '
(4, p. 240).
At 6.45 P.M. of August 3d Baron von Schoen handed
the German declaration of war to the French
Manner of
declaring Minister of Foreign Affairs. After reciting
France various alleged violations of neutrality by
France, the declaration went on to say:
"In the presence of these acts of aggression the German
Empire considers itself in a state of war with France in
consequence of the acts of this latter power " (4, p. 240).
To her own undoing in a military sense, France had
kept her "covering troops' ten kilometers behind her
frontier, notwithstanding the fact that Germany had
invaded her territory killed a Frenchman, stolen horses,
and taken possession of her vitally important ore de-
posits two full days before declaration of war. We
shall return to this in a later chapter.
At six o'clock in the morning of August 4th Germany
officially declared war upon Belgium, though Belgian
Germany's territory had already been invaded. The Ger-
beiated man Ambassador in London was requested
excuse for
invading to 'dispel any distrust' by assuring the
British Government that "Germany would
under no pretense annex Belgian territory. ... Ger-
many had to disregard Belgian neutrality it being for
her a question of life and death to prevent a French
advance."
In the German Reichstag the Chancellor confessed:
"We are faced with the necessity of self-defense; and
necessity knows no law.
The Launching of the War 43
"Our troops have occupied Luxembourg and have per-
haps already entered Belgium. This is contrary to the dic-
tates of international law. . . A French attack
^nwm
upon our front in the region of the lower Rhine chancellor's
might have been fatal. We were therefore com- Reichstag
confession
pelled to override the legitimate protests of the
governments of Luxembourg and B elgium . For the wrong —
I speak frankly — the wrong that we are thus doing, we will
make reparation as soon as our military object is attained.
"Any one in such great danger as ourselves, and who is
struggling for his supreme welfare can have only one thought :
how to hack his way through." (2, p. 199.)
Later, awkward attempts were made to cover up
this frank admission of guilt. The German authorities
in taking possession of the Belgian capital discovered
there the record of a conversation entered into between
Colonel Bernadiston, the British Military Attache,
and the Belgian general, Ducarne, concerning measures
which might be taken for joint action in case Belgium
should be attacked by Germany. This 'conversation,"
which was purely defensive and was never ratified,
was by the German Government modified through
quite as serious changes of its intent as characterized
Bismarck's falsification of the Ems telegram in 1870.
In the German translation of the above conversation,
a translation which was published in the semi-official
organ, the Norddeutscher Allgemeine Zeitung, there
appeared (i) an omission, (2) a slight addition, and
(3) a false translation which fully altered the meaning.
In the translation the phrase, 'in case Belgium was
attacked by Germany," was left out, there was inserted
before the date at the end the word "concluded' (ab-
geschlossen) , and the word ' ' conversation ' ' in the original
was changed into "agreement." Thus the document
44 The World War
appeared in Germany as an agreement or treaty con-
cluded between Great Britain and Belgium and without
any regard to the defense of Belgium's neutrality, as
had been clearly indicated and stated (9, p. 95).
Upon receiving news of the German declaration of
war upon Belgium, Sir Edward Grey directed Sir
England Edward Goschen, the British Ambassador
stands by at Berlin, to repeat the demand for a satis-
factory reply to England's request that
Belgian and French territory be respected, and if
reply was not received by twelve o'clock, midnight,
to ask for his passports and say "that His Majesty's
Government feel bound to take all steps in their power
to uphold the neutrality of Belgium and the observance
of a treaty to which Germany is as much a party as
ourselves" (4, p. 159).
It was in presenting this demand that the now famous
The scrap ' ' scrap of paper ' ' declaration was made by the
of paper Imperial German Chancellor. The conversa-
tion was reported by Sir Edward Goschen as follows :
"I found the Chancellor very agitated. His Excellency
at once began a harangue, which lasted about twenty
minutes. He said that the step taken by His Majesty's
Government was terrible to a degree; just for a word
'neutrality' — a word that in wartime had so often been
disregarded — just for a scrap of paper Great Britain was
going to make war on a kindred nation who desired nothing
better than to be friends with her. All his efforts in that
direction had been rendered useless by this last terrible
step, and the policy to which, as I knew, he had devoted
himself since his accession to office, had tumbled down like
a house of cards. What we had done was unthinkable; it
was like striking a man from behind while he was fighting
for his life against two assailants. He held Great Britain
The Launching of the War 45
responsible for all the terrible events that might happen.
I protested strongly against that statement, and said that,
in the same way as he and Herr von Jagow wished me to
understand that for strategical reasons it was a matter of
life and death to Germany to advance through Belgium and
violate the latter 's neutrality, so I would wish him to under-
stand that it was, so to speak, a matter of ' life and death '
for the honor of Great Britain that she should keep her
solemn engagement to do her utmost to defend Belgium's
neutrality if attacked. That solemn compact simply had
to be kept, or what confidence could anyone have in engage-
ments given by Great Britain in the future." (4, p. in.)
It had unquestionably been Germany's policy under
von Bethmann-Hollweg to so maneuver as to keep
England out of the struggle until France Germany's
and Russia had been disposed of, and the specific
Chancellor's vexation over his failure is eas- England
ily to be comprehended, particularly as he a teap
had to answer to his royal master. We may content
ourselves for the present by citing the frank statement
of General von Bernhardi :
"A pacific agreement with England, is, after all, a Will-o-
the-Wisp which no serious German statesman would trouble
to follow" (i).
The startling revelations in the memoirs of Prince
Lichnowsky. German Ambassador at London, which
were published in 1918, supply us with an
excellent summary of this entire period of
mi s>* charge
the negotiations. They condemn Germany against
as the arch-culprit, guilty of planning and Germany
launching the war, and this with a certainty which
no testimony from unfriendly sources could have done.
The Prince's conclusions as to the question of guilt are:
46 The World War
"As appears from all official publications, without the
facts being controverted by our own White Book which,
owing to its poverty and gaps, constitutes a grave self-
accusation:
"i. We encouraged Count Berchtold to attack Serbia,
although no German interest was involved, and the danger
of a world war must have been known to us, whether we
knew the text of the ultimatum is a question of complete
indifference.
"2. In the days between July 23 and July 30, 1914,
when M. Sazonof emphatically declared that Russia could
not tolerate an attack upon Serbia, we rejected the British
proposal of mediation, although Serbia, under Russian and
British pressure, had accepted almost the whole ultimatum,
and although an agreement upon the two points in question
could easily have been reached, and Count Berchtold was
even ready to satisfy himself with the Serbian reply.
"3. On July 3Oth, when Count Berchtold wanted to give
way, we, without Austria having been attacked, replied to
Russia's mere mobilization by sending an ultimatum to
Petersburg, and on July 3ist we declared war on the Rus-
sians, although the Czar had pledged his word that as
long as negotiations continued not a man should march — so
that we deliberately destroyed the possibility of a peaceful
settlement.
"In view of these indisputable facts, it is not surprising
that the whole civilized world outside of Germany attri-
butes to us the sole guilt for the world war." (7, pp. 80.)
REFERENCES
1. VON BERNHARDI, P., Germany and the Next War, pp. 300, N. Y.,
Longmans, 1912.
2. ARCHER, WILLIAM, The Thirteen Days, July 2j-August 4, 1914,
pp. 244, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1915.
3. BECK, JAMES M., The Evidence in the Case, pp. 200, N. Y., Putnams,
1914.
4. H. M. Stationery Office, Collected Diplomatic Documents Relating
to the Outbreak of the European War, pp. 561, London, 1915.
The Launching of the War 47
5. DILLON, E. J., A Scrap of Paper, pp. 220, London, Hodder, 1914.
6. Le mensonge du 3 Aout, 1914, pp. 396, Paris, Payot, 1917.
7. LICHNOWSKY, PRINCE KARL, German Ambassador's Revelationst
pp. 122, N. Y., Putnams, 1918.
8. SEYMOUR, CHARLES, The Diplomatic Background of the War,
1870-1914, pp. 311, Yale University Press, 1914.
9. OSSIANNILLSON, K. G., Sven Hedin, Nobleman (Trans.), pp. 223,
London, Unwin, 1917.
10. New York Times, "Why the war? The Official Documents and
Other Diplomatic Correspondence Relating to the European
War, " New York, 1914.
11. STOWELL, E. C., The Diplomacy of the War of 1914, 2 vols., Boston,
Houghton, 1915.
12. HEADLAM, J. W., A History of Twelve Days, July 24th to August
4th, 1914, pp. 412, London, Unwin, 1915.
13. SCHMITT, B. E., England and Germany, 1740-1914, pp. 524, Prince-
ton University Press, 1916.
14. NYSTROM, ANTON, Before, During, and After 1914 (Trans.), pp. 368,
New York, Scribners, 1916.
15. WILLMORE, J. S., The Great Crime and its Moral, pp. 323, London,
Hodder, 1917.
16. ROSE, J. HOLLAND, The Origins of the War, pp. 201, New York,
Putnams, 1915.
17. WYATT, HORACE, Malice in Kulturland (humorous and illustrated
by Tell after Tenniel), pp. 84, New York, Dutton, 1917.
1 8. GAUVAIN, AUGUSTS, Les origines de la guerre, pp. 333, Paris, Colin,
19. WILGUS, HORACE L., The Tragedy of Thirteen Days in 1914, pp.
63, Anaddress before the Mich. Bar Assoc., June 28, 1918. 1918.
Ill
THE PLOT AGAINST DEMOCRACY
"The Kaiser and the Chancellor
Were walking hand in hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such lots of foreign land;
4 If this were only Germanized, '
They said, 'It would be grand!'"
Malice in Ktdturland.
"In reality, then, the endless concessions made to Germany by
France, Russia, and Great Britain, with the best intentions, have simply
tempted them to claim more and more. That is why it is just and
reasonable to conclude that the concessions hitherto made by the
present Allies, under the influence of the pacifists, have acted as a
constant aggravation of German ambitions, from which the war has
resulted. In the last analysis, pacifism created the peculiar atmosphere,
indispensable to the growth and development of the poisonous plant,
Pangermanism." — ANDR£ CH£RADAME.
A. THE EARLIER STAGES
IN the last lecture was discussed the launching of
the war as revealed in diplomatic documents
Evidence of which passed between the chancelleries of
Germany's the Great Powers, chiefly during the twelve
plot aside
from official days between July 23 and August 4, 1914.
The most cursory examination of these docu-
ments indicates that the attitude of Germany had not
been in the direction of peace and mediation, as was
claimed by her; and a careful study of them leads to
a definite conviction that she did everything with
reference solely to a realization of her ambitions for
48
The Plot against Democracy 49
world power and conquest. Whatever seemed to point
in any other direction must now be ascribed to her
desire to mislead the world concerning her motives and
intentions.
So soon as we look deeper into the sources lying
outside the official documents, we are met with such
an accumulation of evidence indicating hypocrisy and
naked depravity, as has perhaps never been equaled
in the history of the world. It is therefore proper for
us to treat the subject, even though it concerns the
authorized official acts of a so-called ''Christian state,"
in the same way that one does the gruesome and but
half-concealed details of common murder. Our attitude
in unearthing the evidence must, therefore, be that of
the detective in a murder case, who has no respect
whatever for statements, assertions here solemnly
made by Germany's rulers or by her duly authorized
representatives, unless these statements are supported
by the facts.
In presenting the evidence I must assume the atti-
tude of a prosecuting attorney supported by a large
body of reputable witnesses, a considerable
State's evi-
mass of depositions, and three repentant denceinthe
defendants who have turned the state's
evidence. These latter are no less important person-
ages than the German Imperial Ambassador to Great
Britain, the multimillionaire 'steel king' and former
friend of the Kaiser, and a former director of the great
Krupp steel works at Essen, the largest in Germany.
In addition to these witnesses, Herr Liebknecht, the
German socialist leader, has added his confession. My
brief in this case will of necessity be long in order to
cover all the charges in the indictment.
The subject of Germany's guilt can be approached
50 The World War
from either of two angles: on the one hand, the veri-
fied statements of the German Kaiser and officials, as
well as those of German approved publicists; on the
other hand, the actions themselves. In murder trials
it is deemed important to show that a motive for the
crime has existed, and to support this, if possible, by
statements made by the defendants. So soon as we
apply this method to Germany we encounter such an
overwhelming array of evidence that, for lack of
space, we are compelled to exercise discretion in
rejecting what is only a little less important than the
rest.
We have seen how for the period before 1870, the
date of the welding together of the German Empire,
The plan the will to power was dominant from the
bHto?** beginning, and was personified in Bismarck,
Kaiser's the maker of Prussianized Germany. After
speeches William n had - dropped the pilot" and
taken over the reins of power, we have only to read
his speeches to be disillusioned if we have ever been
doubtful of Germany's intentions. I quote :
"Germany's greatness makes it impossible for her to do
without the ocean; but the ocean also bears witness that,
even in the distance and on its farther side, without Ger-
many and the German Emperor no great decisions dare be
taken" (i, p. 5).
"Our German Fatherland [to] whom I hope it will be
granted, through the harmonious cooperation of princes and
peoples, of its armies and its citizens, to become in the future
as closely united, as powerful, and as authoritative as once
the Roman world-empire was, and that, just as in the old
times they said ' Civis romanus sum,' hereafter, at some
time in the future they will say, ' I am a German citizen '
(2, p. 21).
The Plot against Democracy 51
These speeches of the Kaiser were delivered as long
ago as 1900. A few years later he said:
"The Great Emperor [William L] with his great aides
laid the basis, the cornerstone of the building; it is for us to
build upon it. ... A great future awaits us if Germans
we are but determined to make it so. the " salt of
"God would never have taken such great
pains with our German Fatherland and its people, if He had
not been preparing us for something still greater. We are
the salt of the earth." (i, p. 5.)
After the outbreak of the war the emperor's speeches
were, if anything, even more truculent, as the two fol-
lowing examples will show :
" I am the instrument of the Almighty. I am His sword,
His agent. Woe and death to all those who shall oppose my
will! Woe and death to those who do not believe in my
mission ! Woe and death to the cowards !
"Let them perish, all the enemies of the German people!
God demands their destruction, God, who by my mouth,
bids you to do his will!
"The triumph of the Greater Germany, which some day
must dominate all Europe, is the single end for which we
are fighting." (i, p. 5.)
In 1894 there was organized in Germany the Pan-
German Union (Alldeutscher Verband) to promote ex-
pansion of the empire by conquest. In
the following year this union issued a tract German
entitled Greater Germany and Central Europe
about the Year 1950 (3). It was in the year 1895
that Germany's Baltic Canal was completed within
the territory wrested from Denmark, a work which
52 The World War
since it permitted Germany's warships to slip into
the Baltic or the North Sea at will, greatly increased
the strategic possibilities of Germany in the exercise
of naval power. When now the Jameson raid occurred
in British South Africa, Germany threw off the mask
and in effect sent a challenge to England through her
telegram of sympathy and support to President Kruger.
On this occasion Germany was promptly cowed by the
almost immediate mobilization of the British "Flying
Squadron," and she nursed her wrath as she planned
still larger programs of naval construction, first made
public in 1898.
In 1911 the scheme of conquest which had been
outlined by the Pan-German Union in 1895 was de-
veloped with greater fullness in a work purporting to
be written by Otto Richard von Tannenberg, but
believed to be inspired and probably the work of the
Kaiser or his representative. The book is entitled
Greater Germany the Task of the Twentieth Century (4).
A few extracts from this inspired work of the Pan-
Germans will reveal its mainsprings :
. .
Our fathers have left us much to do. In compensation,
the German nation holds a position among the European
Powers that permits it at once to reach its goal
berg's by a single rapid rush. At the present time, the
"Greater^ German nation finds itself in a position similar
to that of Prussia at the beginning of the reign
of Frederick the Great. He raised his country to the rank
of a great European Power. It is Germany's task today to
pass from the position of a European Power to that of a
World War.
'The German people must take possession of Central
Africa, from the mouth of the Orange River to Lake Tchad,
and from the Cameroon Mountains to the mouth of the
The Plot against Democracy 53
River Rovuma. They must take possession of Asia Minor;
of the Malayan Archipelago in Southeastern Asia; and
finally of the southern part of South America. Only then
will Germany possess a colonial empire that will correspond
to her actual power.
"A policy of sentiment is folly. Enthusiasm for human-
ity is idiocy. Charity should begin among one's compatriots.
Politics is business. Right and wrong are notions needed
in civil life only.
'The German people is always right, because it is the
German people and because it numbers 87,000,000. (4,
P- 78.)
The figure given for the German people has gener-
ously included a supposed twenty millions outside of
Germany. Now the significance of the political tract
of which the above extracts are samples, is that it is
at least semi-official, the junker or governing class
being almost all Pan-German, and because the plans
of conquest here outlined have been shown to reflect
the German Government's colonial ambitions — the
scheme of the great central block in Africa, Asia Minor,
the Malayan intrigues, and the great movement in
Southern Brazil, Argentine, and Chili. The same may
be said to characterize the work as a whole.
Next in influence to the Pan-German Union was the
semi-official Flatten- Verein or Navy League, with its
million members, a league organized in 1898
when the German plan for sea power first ' and the
began to take shape. That year is further Drang0ns*°*
made notable by two great departures in
German policy: (i) Germany set out to challenge
England's supremacy upon the sea on which her life
as a sovereign power rested; and (2) the Kaiser jour-
neyed to Constantinople and Damascus in order to
54 The World War
carry out alliances with "the unspeakable Turk" and
to declare himself the protector of Islam, a step which
marks the opening of the German movement of ex-
pansion towards the Persian Gulf. This Drang nach
Osten took more tangible form during the succeeding
year in the concession to Germany for the Bagdad
railway project.
The challenge to England of Germany's great naval
program was well understood throughout Germany,
though it was little heeded among the common people
of England. The Kaiser said openly, 'Germany's
future lies upon the water," and to his brother, Prince
Henry, he telegraphed: 'I will never rest until I have
raised the German navy to the position which the
German army holds to-day.'1 Since the German army
was superior to any in Europe, this sentence carries
no ambiguity of meaning.
The year 1898, the date of announcing Germany's
great septennial naval program, was also the year of
the Spanish-American War. It will be re-
German
forecasts membcred that the Kaiser sent to Manila
a fleet more powerful than Admiral Dewey's,
and this advantage was made use of by the German
Admiral von Diedrichs to annoy the American admiral
in many petty ways. Americans have not forgotten
that von Diedrichs even went so far as to sound Cap-
tain (afterwards the late Admiral) Chichester, who
was in command of the British squadron, by asking
him what would be his attitude if he (von Diedrichs)
should attempt more serious interference with Dewey's
plans. The reply came promptly: "That is known
only to Admiral Dewey and myself." It was at about
this time that Captain Count von Goetzen of the Ger-
man fleet and a personal friend of the Kaiser is said
The Plot against Democracy 55
to have made the statement to Major H. A. Barber,
U. S. A., that "in about fifteen years" (1913) Germany
would declare war, take Paris in about two months,
and then obtain her real object in the crushing of
England, and that "some months after we finish our
work in Europe'1 Germany would take New York
and probably Washington and hold them "for some
time' for an indemnity; and also for the purpose of
'taking charge of South America."
Fully matured plans for the landing of a German
army upon the Atlantic coast of the United States
were worked out in great detail some three years later
by Freiherr von Edelsheim of the German Great
General Staff (5).
There have been times when special opportunity
seemed to presage for Germany an earlier realization
of her ambitions than that called for in the
O AS»f A +
plans of the Pan-German Union, which piottings
were based on the certain conditions after °f.the
Kaiser
the fleet had been brought to great strength
in capital ships, and after other premeditated plans
had been carried through on the basis of the then
existing alliances of European Powers.
Such an opportune occasion was created in 1904.
The Kaiser was at the time egging on the Russian
Emperor to fight Japan, both because Japan was the
ally of England and because Russia would by the war
be weakened in a military sense and thus require a
smaller number of German troops to be neutralized
in the defense of Germany's eastern frontier. The
secret correspondence which went on at this time be-
tween the Kaiser and the Czar was discovered by the
Revolutionary government and recently made public in
communications by Hermann Bernstein (6). This
56 The World War
correspondence shows that the Kaiser tried to nullify
the Dual Alliance of France and Russia through con-
cluding a secret treaty between Germany and Russia
and embroiling Russia with England.
In the light of this correspondence the Dogger Bank
episode, in which Admiral Rojestvensky's fleet of
war vessels en route to the Far East fired
Bank episode upon and sunk British trawlers, with the
in a new result that two British fishermen were killed
light
and six wounded, now takes on a new aspect.
It has been shown upon the authority of the Echo de
Paris that Germany assured Russia Japanese torpedo
vessels were planning to attack the fleet at the place
where the Dogger Bank episode actually occurred,
though it is known that no Japanese vessels were in
European waters at all. So many statements by
alleged witnesses have been made that torpedo boats
of some nationality were actually seen in the vicinity
and were believed to be German, that the German
Government felt it necessary on November i, 1904,
to declare officially that "according to telegraphic
information from the North Sea naval stations,
there were no German torpedo boats in the neigh-
borhood of the Dogger Bank on the night in ques-
tion." Knowing Germany as we do now, we place
little reliance upon this statement and interpret it
to mean that large torpedo boats, which would
be classed as destroyers, were probably present,
since the statement agreed in reporting large torpedo
boats.
The 'Willy-Nicky' secret correspondence shows
that the Kaiser labored diligently to embroil Russia
with England over Germany's coaling of the Russian
fleet, apparently to the end that the Dogger Bank
The Plot against Democracy 57
episode might result in an explosion and bring on
war (6).
As a sort of sequel to the annexation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina by Austria in 1909 in defiance of the
Treaty of Berlin, Bulgaria acquired her inde-
pendence of Turkey with an Austrian colonel secret
as her ruler, who as Ferdinand I. assumed "sSglrla
the absolute title of Tsar. It has now been
stated in the Paris Temps of February 29, 1916, that
without the knowledge of Austria, Germany at some
time before the present war concluded a secret treaty
with Ferdinand of Bulgaria. According to M. Gabriel
Hanotaux, the eminent French historian, it is a ques-
tion of a treaty ' 'binding the fate of Bulgaria to that
of Germany, militarily, economically, and politically.
B ulgaria entered into the German federation . ' ' Charles
I. of Austria in his present difficulties is finding that
there is a Prussia to the south of him as well as to the
north, and that in reward for her aid to Prussia Bul-
garia is, rather than Austria, to have the opportunity
of expansion to Salonica and the south in the event
that Prussian plans of conquests are realized (7).
Under the able guidance of M. Delcasse, the French
Minister of Foreign Affairs, France and England were
able in 1911 to compose their differences
in various parts of the world, notably in
Newfoundland, Egypt, and Morocco, and
n 1911
to come to an understanding — the Entente
Cordiale. Almost immediately this coming together
of the two western European Powers was defied in a
most spectacular manner through Germany's sending
of her gunboat Panther to Agadir in Morocco. Through
this affront she was able to force the resignation of
M. Delcasse, but the Guild Hall speech of Lloyd
58 The World War
George, the then British Chancellor of the Exchequer,
served notice upon Germany that the coalition was
solid, and French and British bankers took concerted
action against Germany, which once more cowed her
and compelled her to nurse her wrath without having
accomplished her purpose.
It seems altogether likely that, as a consequence
of this clash, the preparations for Germany's assault
took on such definite form that the date of consumma-
tion and all larger issues were at this time fully pro-
vided for. All schoolhouses constructed in Germany
after 1911 were built with special reference to their trans-
formation into hospitals and provided with elaborate
water connections and extra partitions stored in reserve.
It was in 1911 that there was issued the great tract
of the Pan-German Union which has been cited, and
General von the character of the coming war was now
preached to the German people by General
von Bernhardi of the German Great General
Staff with a frankness which is nothing short of astound-
ing. This will be clear if I cite a few paragraphs from
many similar ones in his Germany and the Next War and
his How Germany Makes War, the first of which passed
through many German editions with the evident sup-
port of the government :
"Our next war will be fought for the highest interests of
our country and of mankind. This will invest it with
importance in the world's history. ' World power or down-
fall' will be our rallying cry." (8, p. 114.)
'It is impossible to change the partition of the earth, as
it now exists, in our favor by diplomatic artifices. If we
wish to gain the position in the world that is due to us,
we must rely on our sword, renounce all weakly visions of
peace." (9, p. xiii.)
The Plot against Democracy 59
' ' Especially in a State which is so wholly based on war as
is the German Empire, the only manly principle of keeping
all our forces on the stretch must never be abandoned out of
deference to the effeminate philosophy of the day " (8, p. 261) .
"Above all things, it [German policy] must be ready to
seize the psychological moment and take bold action if the
general position of affairs indicates the possibility of realiz-
ing political ambitions, or of waging a necessary war under
favorable conditions'" (8, p. 275).
'If we attack France or Russia, the ally would be com-
pelled to bring help, and we should be in a far worse position
than if we had only one enemy to fight. Let it then be the
task of our diplomacy to so shuffle the cards that we may be
attacked by France, for then there would be reasonable
prospect that Russia for a time would remain neutral."
(8, p. 280.)
'France must be so completely crushed that she can
never again come across our path " (8, p. 105).
Though this book accomplished its purpose in edu-
cating the German people to accept the war, it was
nevertheless after the war had been launched a source of
serious embarrassment to the German Government. To
F. C. Walcott of the Belgian Relief Commission, General
von Bernhardi said in an interview: 'Do you know,
my friends nearly ran me out of the country for that.
They said, ' You have let the cat out of the bag. ' I said,
'No, I have not, because nobody will believe it' ' (10).
It was in 1912 that sealed war codes and orders
were issued to one, and presumably to all, ocean liners
in the German merchant marine, these war sealed war
orders to be opened whenever a message orders issued
r t .to merchant
was received having reference to some dis- vessels in
ease and signed "Siegfried." It was the
use of this war code by Captain Polack of the Kron-
60 The World War
prinzessin Cecilie, when en route from New York to
Germany with a great consignment of gold, which en-
abled him to interpret a wireless message and return
to New York in time to escape possible capture by
British cruisers at the outbreak of the war. This
incident is interesting particularly for the reason
that though the wireless message which conveyed
the information was received at ten o'clock in the
evening (11.45 P.M. Greenwich time) of July 3ist
it read: "War has broken out with England,
France, and Russia. Turn back to New York." Now
war did not break out with France until three
days later, and with England till four days later.
It was in evidence in the Federal Court which
tried the case of the disposition of the vessel's cargo,
that the word 'Siegfried," which was signed to the
message, meant, "The Board of Directors of the
North German Lloyd Steamship Company" (n, p.
946).
In June, 1912, Germany made an extraordinary
addition to the strength of the German army, already
much the most powerful in Europe. Among
other things this bill increased the period of
army bill army service from two years to three, so that
of 1912 J
a much larger number of highly trained men
would come under arms at one time. The financial
burdens entailed by this bill were so heavy, that to
quiet complaints it was whispered about that it would
not be a continuing burden since matters would now
be settled. France realizing its peril through this
obvious threat of an early war, duly reported by the
French Ambassador at Berlin, attempted in some mea-
sure to meet the menace by enacting a similar law
in France. It was not, however, until the following
The Plot against Democracy 61
year and after three ministries had fallen one after
the other, that the three-year term for the French
army was even authorized. Furthermore, the French
law could not become effective as regards men actually
in training by the summer of 1914, whereas Germany's
army law would then be in full effect. Yet no sooner
did news of the French act reach Germany than a new
Wehrbeitrag, or Supplementary Defense Act was passed,
providing still larger additions to the army and de-
fense on an additional appropriation of no less than
$250,000,000 (12, p. 128). It is this supplementary
legislation by Germany that has been utilized to pro-
pagate the German lie that France acted first and
that Germany only followed her lead in army increases.
The secret document secured by the French and pub-
lished below shows how Germany's plan of the sup-
plementary army bill is related to the action by the
French Government.
In April of 1913, a secret memorandum dealing with
the strengthening of the German army came Th ecret
into the hands of the French, and since it memorandum
clearly reveals the plans of the German ""nfagtito
Government, citations from it will be found German
instructive. It is dated ''Berlin, March 19,
1913":
'(2) . . . At that time [Agadir, 1911] the progress made
by the French army, the moral recovery of the nation,
the technical advance in the realm of aviation and of
machine guns rendered an attack on France less easy than
in the previous period. Further an attack by the Brit-
ish fleet has to be considered. This difficult situation
opened our eyes to the necessity for an increase of the
army. This increase was from this moment considered as
a minimum.
62 The World War
"(3) • • • On the other hand, France was strengthened
by a new Loi des cadres; it was accordingly necessary to
anticipate the date of execution contemplated by
Government
molding the new military law.
of public "Public opinion is being prepared for a new
opinion . . . 1-1 u
increase in the active army, which would ensure
Germany an honorable peace and the possibility of properly
ensuring her influence in the affairs of the world. The new
army law and the supplementary law which should follow will
enable her to attain this end.
" It is our sacred duty to sharpen the sword that has been
put into our hands and to hold it ready for defense as well as
for offense. We must allow the idea to sink into the minds of
our people that our armaments are an answer to the armaments
and policy of the French. We must accustom them to think
that an offensive war on our part is a necessity, in order to
combat the provocations of our adversary. We must act
with prudence so as not to arouse suspicion. . . . We must
so manage matters that under the heavy weight of powerful
armaments, considerable sacrifices, and strained political
relations an outbreak should be considered as a relief, be-
cause after it would come decades of peace and prosperity,
as after 1870. . . . We must not arouse the mistrust of
our financiers, but there are many things which cannot be
concealed. ' (12, p. 130.)
"We must not be anxious about the fate of our colonies.
The final results in Europe will settle their position. On
„ . . the other hand we must stir up trouble in the
Uprisings
planned in north of Africa and in Russia. ... It is, there-
fore, absolutely necessary that we should open up
relations, by means of well-chosen agents, with
influential people in Egypt, Tunis, Algeria, and Morocco, in
order to prepare the measures which would be necessary in
the case of a European war. Of course in case of war we
should openly recognize these secret Allies. . . .
"Risings provoked in time of war by political agents
need to be carefully prepared and by material means. They
The Plot against Democracy 63
must break out simultaneously with the destruction of the
means of communication; they must have a controlling
head to be found among the influential leaders, religious or
political. . . .
"However this may be, we must be strong in order to
annihilate at one awful swoop our enemies in the east and
west. But in the next European war it will also The date of
be necessary that the small states should be the assault
forced to follow us or be subdued. . . . This
will probably be the case with Belgium and Holland.
"The arrangements made with this end in view, allow us
to hope that it will be possible to take the offensive immediately
after the complete concentration of the army of the Lower Rhine.
An ultimatum, with a short time limit to be followed im-
mediately by invasion, would allow a sufficient justification
for our action in international law." (12, p. 137.)
This illuminating document, issued seventeen months
before the assault planned by Germany was carried out,
fixed clearly the date of the consummation in the lines
which I have italicized above, as will be shown in the
next lecture in connection with other evidence.
NOTE. The references for this and the succeeding Chapter are printed
together at the conclusion of Chapter IV.
IV
THE PLOT AGAINST DEMOCRACY— Continued
"I first of all take; I always find pedants to prove my rights." —
FREDERICK II. ("the Great") of Prussia.
"In 1912 the Kaiser called together the Captains of Industry of
Germany, revealed to them the plan of assault, and secured their co-
operation by the promise of loot. The rich empire of England, with
India, Australia, and Canada was parceled out in concessions, and
development promised from the Imperial Bank of Germany at the
low interest rate of three per cent." — AUGUST THYSSEN, German "Steel
King," Confession of 1918.
"// is not true that Germany is guilty of having caused this war.
Neither the people, the government, nor the Kaiser wanted war.
Germany did her utmost to prevent it; for this assertion the world
has documentary proof." — NINETY- THREE OF THE MOST DISTINGUISHED
GERMAN PROFESSORS.
"The German professors have been styled 'the intellectual body-
guard of the Hohenzollerns, ' and, indeed, if they are not an ornament
of free science, they are certainly a source of satisfaction to our Govern-
ment. ' ' — HERMANN FERNAU.
B. THE FINAL PREPARATIONS
HERE are three dominating reasons why the year
1914 was chosen by Germany for her great as-
sault: (i) the Baltic Canal at Kiel, which had
Reasons for ^ ,
the choice been built as a war measure when Germany s
T
naval policy favored small capital ships, and
which had to be deepened and widened to
permit the passage of her dreadnaughts and super-
dreadnaughts built after Togo's victory of the Straits
64
The Plot against Democracy 65
of Shimonoseki, was to be completed in June, 1914;
(2) the army bill of 1911, the great three-year army
bill of 1912, and the special supplementary army bill
of 1913 were all to become effective in the summer of
1914, whereas the new army increases authorized by
France in 1913 to meet Germany's increases of 1912
would not then be ready, furthermore, the new univer-
sal service law in Belgium would at that time become
effective for only about two army corps (eighty thou-
sand men) instead of between three hundred thousand
and four hundred thousand men when in final operation ;
(3) important strategic railways of Russia, which under
the terms of the Dual Alliance were to be built by
Russia for the defense of her western frontier, would
not at that time be constructed.
According to the report of General Kuropatkin
made in 1900, Austria had eight railways feeding the
Austro-Russian frontier, to Russia's four; and the
German-Russian boundary, though supplied by but
five railways of approach on the Russian side, had
seventeen on the German side, besides one which
paralleled the frontier and linked all together (13,
P- 99)-
In 1912, Kaiser Wilh elm called together the German
captains of industry, revealed to them the plan of
assault, and secured their cooperation by captains of
the promise of loot. The rich empire of industry toid
and bribed
England, with India, Australia, and Canada, by promise
was here, it is claimed, parceled out in con-
cessions, and capital for development was promised
from the Imperial Bank of Germany at the low inter-
est rate of three per cent. This has all been set forth
in the letter of confession of the great 'Steel King,"
the German "Andrew Carnegie," Herr August Thyssen,
66 The World War
which confession was made public in a letter of Janu-
ary, 1918. (14). Herr Thyssen says :
"I am writing this pamphlet because I want to open the
eyes of Germans, especially of the business community, to
facts. When the Hohenzollerns wanted to get the support
of the commercial class for their war plans, they put their
ideas before us as a business proposition. A large number
of business and commercial men were asked to support the
Hohenzollern war policy on the ground that it would pay them
to do so. Let me frankly confess that I am one of those who
were led to agree to support the war plan when this appeal was
made to the leading business men of Germany in 1912-13. I
was led to do so, however, against my better judgment. . . .
"I was personally promised a free grant of 30,000 acres
in Australia and a loan from the Deutsche Bank of £150,000
at 3 per cent, to enable me to develop my business in Aus-
tralia. Several other firms were promised special trading
facilities in India, which was to be conquered by Germany,
be it noted, by the end of 1915. . . .
"These promises were not vaguely given. They were
made definitely by Bethmann-Hollweg on behalf of the
Emperor to gatherings of business men, and in
Promises of many cases to individuals. . . . All particulars
by Chan- of these promises were entered in a book at the
ceiior and Trades Department.
direct "But not only were these promises made by
the Chancellor; they were confirmed by the
Emperor, who, on three occasions, addressed large private
gatherings of business men in Berlin, Munich, and Cassel
in 1912 and 1913. I was at one of these gatherings. . . .
'The Emperor was particularly enthusiastic over the
coming German conquest of India. 'India,' he said, 'is
India to be occupied by the British. It is in a way governed
given over by the British, but it is by no means completely
governed by them. We shall not merely occupy
India. We shall conquer it, and the vast revenues that the
The Plot against Democracy 67
British allow to be taken by Indian princes will, after our
conquest, flow in a golden stream into the Fatherland. In
all the richest lands of the earth the German flag will fly
over every other flag. ' . . .
" According to the promises of the Hohenzollern, victory
was to have been achieved in December, 1915. . . ."(14.)
After reading this outline of the Kaiser's cold-blooded
program of conquest and pillage, we may profitably
listen to the address of this "Christian Emperor" to
his troops upon the Somme battle front :
"Comrades, it is your especial privilege to fight against
the English. . . . The English built up during the years
before the war the combination of countries which at a given
signal fell upon us, attacked us, the most peaceful and peace-
desiring people in the world. The English led us to believe
they were our friends, when they were actually plotting our
destruction."
But what induced Herr Thyssen to divulge these
damning facts concerning the German plan of conquest ?
When success had not been achieved as
promised, the German captains of industry
were by the government called upon both magnate
for subscriptions to the war fund and for
immense loans. Herr Thyssen refused these demands
and by indirect methods his immense properties, esti-
mated to be worth fifty millions of dollars, were in
consequence confiscated by the German Government.
Most of the other magnates preferred to submit. It
has often been pointed out that Thyssen is not a typical
German, and this judgment has now been confirmed,
for otherwise he would have submitted without protest
to the authorities.
68 The World War
Dr. W. Muehlon, formerly a director of the great
Krupp plant at Essen, has made revelations regarding
confidences which were made to him by Dr.
Confessions
of Dr. Helfferich, in 1914, when the latter was
"on> director of the Deutsche Bank, and also by
&n ex™ •*
director Herr Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach. When
£ tF 9
Dr. Muehlon reported the confidences of
Helfferich to von Bohlen, the latter seemed surprised
that Helfferich should have possessed the information
and, according to Muehlon, said: ''After all, these
government people can never keep their mouths quite
shut"; adding that "he had himself been with the
Kaiser during the last few days. The Kaiser had
spoken to him too about his conversation with the
Austrians and its result, but had so emphasized the
secrecy of the matter, that he [von Bohlen] would not
have ventured to tell even his own board of directors.
But as I already knew about it, he could tell me that
Helfferich's statements were correct." Helfferich 's
statements show conclusively that Germany possessed
full information that in eight days' time Vienna would
deliver a very strongly worded ultimatum to Serbia
which would have a quite short time-limit, and would
demand "punishment of a number of officers, dissolu-
tion of political associations, criminal investigations
in Serbia with the cooperation of officials of the Dual
Monarchy. In fact, immediate satisfaction will be
demanded on a number of definite issues, failing which
Austria-Hungary will declare war on Serbia."
Dr. Muehlon adds that the ultimatum was issued
at just the time predicted. After it had been sent,
Dr. Muehlon saw Helfferich again and was told by
him that the Kaiser's Scandinavian cruise was only
a blind (15).
The Plot against Democracy 69
In the same year that the business men of Germany
were taken into the confidence of the German Govern-
ment, in 1912, an Italian Ambassador, be- The plot
lieved to be safe and Prussophile, was also secretly
revealed to
secretly informed. This supposedly safe man an Italian
was the Marquis Garroni, the Italian Am- statesma*
bassador to the Sublime Porte. The information
was conveyed to the marquis, probably without the
knowledge of the German Government, by Count von
Wangenheim, the German Ambassador at Constan-
tinople, a diplomat who has indiscreetly given away
other secrets of his government and is now reported
to have met his death in a mysterious manner. Mar-
quis Garroni, who was a warm personal friend of the
powerful pro-German Italian statesman, the former
Prime Minister Giolitti, did not notify his government.
In response to a popular demand he is now in disgrace,
since Giolitti, after keeping his secret, finally made it
public and it appears in the press dispatches from Milan
of April 8, 1918.
During the Balkan War of 1913, Austria asked Italy
to join her in an attack upon Serbia under the terms
of the Triple Alliance. This request was
Austria's
submitted through San Giuliano during the sounding
absence of the Premier Giolitti. The request concernfng
was turned down by Italy, but the facts were attack <>n
first made public in a speech by Signor Gio-
litti in the Italian Chamber of Deputies on December
5, 1914 (12, p. 401). The reply sent to Austria was:
' If Austria intervenes against Serbia it is clear that a
casus fcederis cannot be established ; it is a step which
she is taking on her own account since there is no ques-
tion of defense, inasmuch as no one is thinking of
attacking her."
70 The World War
In the same year the Kaiser in the presence of Count
von Moltke divulged the plan of conquest to King
King Albert Albert of Belgium, who presumably gave
of Belgium ftiQ information either directly or indirectly
18 told -r^ -r^
to the French Ambassador at Berlin, by
whom at least it was promptly communicated to the
French Government (12, p. 142). At this interview
Count von Moltke supported the statements of his
royal master and added: 'This time the matter must
be settled, and your Majesty can have no conception of
the irresistible enthusiasm with which the whole Ger-
man people will be carried away when the day comes."
Now I was myself in Budapest in 1912 as the guest
of an Hungarian nobleman since killed in the war.
He told me that it was the plan of the Austro-Hungarian
Government to punish Serbia after the Balkan War of
that year had ended ; and that even then the Austrian
army was mobilized with two Austrian army corps
operating with the German army upon the French
frontier in Alsace. This information, which I after-
wards confirmed from other sources, thus appears
to-day as the revelation of a sort of dress rehearsal for
the present war; since it will perhaps be remembered
that two Austrian army corps, and only two, partici-
pated in the initial operations upon the Western Front
in the fall of 1914 (16, p. 8).
In the secret German memorandum which came into
the possession of the French Government in the spring
_. „ of 1913 (see ante, p. 61), the hope is expressed
Xne Exccp-
tionai Grand that ' ' it will be possible to take the offensive
immediately after the complete concentra-
tion of the army of the Lower Rhine/1 This somewhat
cryptic statement was cleared up when in May, 1914,
"Exceptional Grand Maneuvers" were announced in
The Plot against Democracy 71
which five hundred thousand troops would take part,
and which were to assemble close to the French frontier
in August of that year.
Such grand maneuvers are preceded by the bringing
together of large bodies of troops, and an interesting
sidelight upon these maneuvers of the army The Luxem-
of the Lower Rhine has now been supplied bourger Loeh
by our own minister at The Hague, whose piscatorial
interests were here of use. His contribution to the
subject is likewise most illuminating in connection with
the German invasion in force of Luxembourg and the
French ore fields two days before the declaration of war.
Mr. Van Dyke had been lunching at the home of
Mr. Eyschen, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg,
and the German and French ministers to that Grand
Duchy were also present as guests. Our minister
reports: 'Mr. Eyschen said to me: 'You have heard
of the famous Luxembourger Loch ? It is the easiest
military road between Germany and France.' Then
he continued with good humor to the two gentlemen at
the ends of the table : ' Perhaps one of your two coun-
tries may march an army through it before long. ' (17.)
Mr. Van Dyke goes on to say:
"A couple of days after the luncheon, at the beginning of
June, I saw a curious confirmation of Eyschen's hint.
Having gone just over the German border for a German
bit of angling, I was following a very lovely little troops
river full of trout and grayling. With me were ^western
two or three Luxembourgers and as many frontier in
Germans, to whom fishing with the fly — fine le' 191<
and far off — was a curious sight. Along the east bank
of the stream ran one of the strategic railways of Ger-
many, from Koln to Trier. All day long innumerable
trains rolled southward along that line and every train was
72 The World War
packed with soldiers in field gray — their cheerful stolid
bullet-heads stuck out of all the windows. ' Why so many
soldiers,' I asked, 'and where are they all going?' 'Ach!'
replied my German companions, ' it is Pfngstferien ' [Pente-
cost vacation], and they are sent a changing of scene and
air to get.' My Luxembourg friends laughed. 'Yes, yes,'
they said. 'That is it; Trier has a splendid climate for
soldiers. The situation is Kolossal for that.' When we
passed through the hot and dusty little city it was simply
swarming with the field-gray ones — thousands upon thou-
sands of them — new barracks everywhere; parks of artillery;
mountains of munitions and military stores. It was a veri-
table base of operations, ready for war.
"Now the point is," continues our minister, "that Trier
is just seven miles from Wasserbillig on the Luxembourg
frontier, the place where the armed German forces entered
the neutral land, August 2, 1914. ' (17.)
It seems unnecessary to add anything to this little
vignette of Dr. Van Dyke, further than to draw atten-
tion to the significant fact that the German troops
were wearing the new war uniforms of field-gray about
two months before the actual outbreak of the war.
These uniforms had not at that time been issued to the
army officially, but in order to cross the boundary at
the time they did there would be no easy opportunity
to make the change.
There is evidence that the Archduke Francis Ferdi-
nand, heir to the Austrian throne in succession to the old
Archduke ^^ decrepit Kaiser Francis Joseph, was op-
Francis posed to Germany's plan of conquest. Some
this evidence has been recently brought
to the together by M. Gabriel Hanotaux, the dis-
tinguished French historian (18). He cites
Baron Jehan de Witte: "Francis Ferdinand, the heir
The Plot against Democracy 73
presumptive to the throne, has given proof in many
circumstances that when the day comes he will be equal
to his task. It is for this reason, without doubt, that
the Prussophiles, after having pretended for a long
time to ignore him, to-day show him a ferocious
hate."
The Pan-German plot, in addition to the conquest
of Europe, aimed at the complete subordination and
domestication of Austria, for which purpose the secret
compact with Ferdinand of Bulgaria had been made,
and the Archduke appears to have comprehended and
resisted.
On June I2th, a fortnight before the murder of the
Archduke, the German Kaiser accompanied by Grand
Admiral von Tirpitz, paid a visit to him in his castle
at Konopisht in Bohemia. Nothing but rumor is
available concerning what passed between them at
the meeting, but the Kaiser's remark when the news
of the assassination reached him is most significant.
So is likewise the fact that the always efficient police
force of Sarajevo was instructed by the military authori-
ties not to make any special arrangements for the
Archduke's protection, and the military made none
themselves (19). The Archduke rode from the rail-
road station to the city hall without an escort, and
though a bomb was then thrown at him without
success and he made protest, he was allowed to drive
away from the hall without an escort, and with his
wife he was then killed by revolver shots of the assassin
Princip (19).
The military authorities were never punished for
their neglect, and the assassin who threw the bomb
had the preceding winter at Belgrade been protected
from the Serbian police authorities by the Austrian
74 The World War
officials, who, contrary to the Serbian view, said they
did not regard the man as dangerous. The fact that
the power in the Austrian Foreign Office was the
unscrupulous Count Forgach, guilty of forgery in the
Friedjung case, has lent to the whole affair a most
sinister aspect.
The news of the double murder of the Archduke and
his morganatic wife reached the German Emperor at Kiel
Murder of on board his yacht Meteor where were many
the Archduke guests with him including Prince Lichnowsky,
the German Ambassador to Great Britain.
Says Lichnowsky in his memoirs :
"His Majesty expressed regret that his efforts to win the
Archduke over to his idea had thus been rendered vain.
Whether the plan of pursuing an active policy against
Serbia had been determined upon at Konopisht, I cannot
know.
"As I was uninformed about views and events at Vienna,
I attached no far-reaching importance to this event. Not
until later was I able to establish the fact that among the
Austrian aristocrats a feeling of relief outweighed all other
sentiments. One of His Majesty's other guests on board the
Meteor was the Austrian Count Felix Thun. Although the
weather was splendid, he lay all the time in his cabin suffer-
ing from seasickness. When the news arrived, he was well.
He had been cured either by the shock or the joy. ' (20,
p. 58.)
There appeared in the Berliner Tageblatt an extract
from Souvenirs of Edgar von Schmidt-Pauli, who reports :
"The young prince Louis Windischgratz learning in
his castle at Saros-Patak the news of the death of the
Archduke, cried out, according to witnesses, 'It is
war!' The Prince knew what was going on and this
The Plot against Democracy 75
exclamation was in some way the confession of the
plot" (21).
The charge that the murder of the Archduke was
actually plotted by the German Kaiser because Francis
Ferdinand would not consent to Austria's The Kaiser
joining in the war has been made public anassassin
by Dr. Vasile Lucaciu, head of the Roumanian Mission
to the United States. His statement is that the Arch-
duke was cunningly put out of the way by assassins
hired by the Kaiser and Count Tisza, then the premier
of Austria-Hungary.
The evidence is not yet sufficient to convict, but the
motive has been proven, and the character of the
accused has been shown to be capable of the murder.
No one who has carefully traversed the evidence given
above, in which the German Government is shown to
have been committed to the assault, will retain any
scruples against charging the German Kaiser and his
accomplices with this lesser crime, since he is already
convicted of the greater.
At a war council held at Potsdam on July 5, 1914,
with the Kaiser presiding and with the principal cabinet
officials of both empires and the ambassadors,
" The Day "
captains of industry, bankers, etc., present, definitely
the date of entering upon the war was af^e0dtsda°m
definitely fixed. The Kaiser personally asked on July s,
each one present whether he was ready for
the war. All answered "yes" except the financiers,
who said they needed about two weeks more in order
to sell foreign securities and float loans. Count von
Wangenheim, the German Ambassador at Constanti-
nople, reported upon this council to the American Am-
bassador who was his colleague at Constantinople (22,
p. 170; 23). This leaky diplomat is the same who
76 The World War
told Marquis Garroni of the German plot as early as
1912, and he has now been reported to have mysteri-
ously died. Mr. Morgenthau, our Ambassador, states
further that all the world's stock exchanges indicate
clearly that the German bankers used the fortnight
interval between the date of this council meeting and
the launching of the war to dispose of their foreign
stocks, and that prices declined rapidly. The markets
were at the time greatly puzzled by this circumstance
and assigned it doubtfully to various causes. Within
this interval securities of international market fell on
the New York Exchange as follows: Union Pacific,
155^-122}^; Baltimore and Ohio, 91^2-81; United
States Steel, 61-50^; Canadian Pacific, 194-185^;
Northern Pacific, m%-io8.
According to the report of a speech by Hugo Hasse,
made in the German Reichstag and printed in the
Leipziger Volkszeitung of July 20, 1917, there were
discussed and decided upon at this Potsdam Council
of July 5th, all the important points in the Austrian
ultimatum to Serbia promulgated something like a
fortnight later, and it was definitely decided also to
assume the risk of a war with Russia (24) .
Prince Lichnowsky in referring to this council says
in his memoirs :
"I learned at the decisive conversation at Potsdam on
July 5th the inquiry addressed to us by Vienna found abso-
Prince Lich- ^u^e assent among all the personages in authority;
nowsky's indeed, they added that there would be no harm
if a war with Russia were the result, so, at any
rate, it is stated in the Austrian protocol which Count
Mensdorff, Austrian Ambassador, received in London.
Soon afterward Herr von Jagow was in Vienna to discuss
The Plot against Democracy 77
everything with Count Berchtold, Austrian Foreign Minis-
ter" (20, p. 61).
Herr von Jagow in his reply denies that he was in
Vienna, but does not controvert Lichnowsky's other
statements. When the Prince left London on the
declaration of war, he was treated like a departing
sovereign and the Austrian Ambassador appeared at
the railway station with his staff. The Prince says:
1 'To the English he [Mensdorff] said that it was not
Austria, but we, who had wanted the war" (20,
p. 76).
When the Prince reached Berlin he was made the
scapegoat. He says : ' ' It was made out that the whole
business was a British trick which I had not understood.
In the Foreign Office, I was told that in 1916 it would
in any case have come to war. But then Russia would
have been 'ready' and so it was better now." (20,
p. 71.)
The German Imperial Ambassador to the United
States, returning from Germany after the Potsdam
Conference, gave an interview to Edward Marshall
which was published in the New York Times of August
30, 1914. With tears in his voice the Count said:
"As I left my native country the only instruction which
was given to me was to tell the people of America the truth
and nothing but the truth, and to hold nothing in reserve.
These things I shall attempt to do. My frankness is that of
a nation which has nothing to conceal, nothing to excuse."
Germany has claimed that she did not mobilize her
army until five o'clock on the afternoon of August I,
1914 (12, p. 413). What are the facts? It is first of
all well to keep in mind that mobilization in France
78 The World War
or Germany has normally required six to seven days
to complete, whereas in Russia the interval is four-
teen to eighteen days, or more than twice
Germany as long a time. Inasmuch as the effect
He about of fae onset may be decisive, it is obvious
mobilization?
that this question of the date of mobilization
is of the utmost importance.
The very efficient intelligence department of the
French War Office has collected an immense amount
of material bearing upon this subject, material which
has been published in a work entitled The Lie of the
Third of August, 1914 (25). The lie referred to is the
quite obvious one of Baron von Schoen who on the
date named prefaced his formal presentation of Ger-
many's declaration of war upon France by a list of
fifteen alleged violations of neutrality by France.
In large part based upon the material of this French
work, a somewhat full discussion of the German mobi-
lization is available in English (26).
The "Exceptional Grand Maneuvers' of Germany
to mobilize five hundred thousand men, was announced
The "EX- in May, 1914, to take place in August upon
ceptionai the French frontier; and it has already been
Maneuvers" described on the evidence of United States
of 1914 Minister van Dyke how troops in field-gray
were seen massed on the German frontier of Luxem-
bourg in early June. They were then provided with
barracks, and a first-class military base had already
been established at Trier, a point only seven miles
from the entrance to the Luxembourger Loch, the great
military route into France. In the spring of 1914 vast
supplies of corn, beds, and hospital stores were col-
lected, and an embargo was laid upon automobile tires
throughout Germany.
The Plot against Democracy 79
The French Ambassador in Berlin, M. Jules Cambon,
reported to his government that secret mobilization
took place in Germany on July 2 1 st. On the
Secret
24th the colonels of regiments at the great mobilization
military base of Metz upon the French fron-
tier gave their officers the secret instructions,
divulged only on the eve of war, as to the special
duties of 'covering troops." Upon the same day
machine guns were mounted upon the railway station
at Diisseldorf. On the following day, July 25th, the
military took over the railway stations throughout Ger-
many, and between the 25th and 2 7th cavalry, artillery,
and infantry moved by train to the Belgian frontier.
On this date the French Minister of Foreign Affairs
telegraphed the French Ambassador in London :
"The whole i6th corps from Metz, reinforced by a part
of the 8th from Treves and Cologne, is occupying the fron-
tier at Metz on the Luxembourg side. The I5th army corps
from Strasbourg has closed up on the frontier. Reservists
have been called back by tens of thousands. This is the
last stage before mobilization whereas we have not called
back a single reservist." (12, p. 82.)
On the 27th of July barbed wire was laid on the
frontier, and five classes of reservists numbering in
the aggregate 1 ,250,000 men were called up.
Since the peace strength of the German
army was between 800,000 and 900,000 men, mobilized
V*A J U* y £ f LU
this indicated that about 2,000,000 men were
already mobilized upon this date, a date on which
Germany was assuring the British Government of
her readiness to mediate (12, p. 192).
Throughout the 28th and 29th of July German
8o The World War
troops in field-gray were passing through Frankfurt,
and on the 29th thirty military trains passed between
Metz and Treves. Upon this day, also the Ersatz
received preliminary mobilization notices, thus making
3,500,000 men who were then either wholly or partially
mobilized. Reservists were constantly arriving from
adjoining countries, and at Port Said a North German
Lloyd steamer due to sail for Marseilles waited under
orders to "embark reservists.'3
It was on the 2Qth of July that the war council met
at Potsdam and Count Pourtales, the German Ambas-
Potsdam sador at St. Petersburg, was instructed to
war council inform the Russian Government of ' ' the de-
on the 2Qth . ••«••<•«
threatened cision of his government to mobilize if Rus-
mobiiization not stop her 'military preparations,"
preparations which appear to have been limited to the
Austrian frontier.
On the 3Oth of July at one o'clock in the after-
noon, the Lokal Anzeiger ', Berliner Neueste Nachrichten,
"Premature" Deutsche Zeituug, Deutsche Nachrichten, and
announce- Deutsche Warte, all simultaneously published
mobilization a special edition announcing that mobiliza-
on juiy 3oth tion had been prociaimed. The edition was
at once seized, and at 2 P.M., the German Foreign Office
telephoned to the French and Russian embassies to
say that the news was false. The Russian Ambassador
was told that the paper had been printed in advance
"to be ready for all eventualities," yet all gave out the
same news at the same time and all were under rigid
control of the Government. What really changed the
Government's intention is not known with certainty,
but it is significant that two hours before the ' ' special '
appeared, the Berlin correspondent of the Wiener
Zeitung wired his paper that he had 'received from
The Plot against Democracy 81
one of the Emperor's staff" the news that mobilization
had been proclaimed.
On July 3 1st, the German Government announced
something new, a "State of Danger of War'1 (Kriegs-
gefahrzustand) as it was reported to Paris,
but, curiously enough, "State of War' as tionof
announced at Berlin (Das Reichsgebiet . . .
wird hierdurch in Kriegszustand erkldrt) . Did of War "
some bright mind think out this new de-
ception just as the special edition was being issued?
It would be interesting to know.
This stage of siege (Burgfrieden) had the effect to
take away all civil rights of the German people, and
though the Chancellor in proclaiming it gave formal
assurance that the state of siege would not continue
beyond the period of mobilization, it continued to 1917
at least (27, p. 54).
The Kriegszustand proclamation was issued between
six and twelve hours before Germany could have known
of the Russian mobilization. There is here Germany
an interesting instance of the manipulation Hedtoher
of German documents in order to deceive
the German people. In the English version of the
German Government's case against Russia, which is
issued by the German Foreign Office, it is stated that
Russian mobilization was already ordered "during
the afternoon of the 3ist of July," a statement which
is correct. The German edition, prepared for the
use of its own people, states that this mobilization
occurred earlier, namely, in the morning (Vormittag).
At midnight of the 3ist Germany's ultimatum was sent
to Russia demanding of her that she demobilize at
once and give notice in twelve hours under penalty of
Germany mobilizing. On the following day, Germany
82 The World War
declared war on. Russia without mentioning mobiliza-
tion, which was perhaps wise under the circumstances,
since she had already mobilized no less than 2,000,000
of men five days before, and an additional 1,500,000
three days before.
On the 2d of August, two days before war was de-
clared, the German troops which had so long been
massed at Trier (see ante p. 72) advanced through
the neutral territory of Luxembourg and occupied the
iron district there, and then crossing into France they
advanced upon the French forces at Longwy and
occupied the French iron district as well (12, p. 131).
Thus, two days before the declaration of war Germany
had the entire iron area of France and Luxembourg, as
well as that of Lorraine, firmly in her grasp. France
has accomplished the modern miracle of her defense
against Germany under the handicap of the loss of
most of her iron-producing district, and been forced
to bring much of her iron from her colonies across the
Mediterranean and from other sources.
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Own Mouths, pp. 255, New York, Appleton, 1917.
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Aims of the Germans in their Own Words, pp. 171, Com. of Pub.
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3. Grossdeutschland und Mittel-Europa um das Jahr 1950, pp. 17,
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4. VON TANNENBERG, OTTO RICHARD, Grossdeutschland die Arbeit des
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6. BERNSTEIN, HERMANN, "Willy- Nicky Correspondence," Detroit
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7. New York Times, July 14, 1918.
8. VON BERNHARDI, P., Germany and the Next War, pp. 300, New
York, Longmans, 1912.
The Plot against Democracy 83
9. VON BERNHARDI, P., How Germany Makes War, p. xiii.
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14. THYSSEN, AUGUST, The Hohenzollern Plot, Herr Thyssen's Reve-
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17. VAN DYKE, HENRY, Fighting for Peace, pp. 286-287, Harper's Mag.,
Sept., 1917.
18. HANOTAUX, GABRIEL, New York Times, July 14, 1918.
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von Jagow's Reply, pp. 122, New York, Putnams, 1918. (See
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22. MORGENTHAU, HENRY, "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story,"
The World's Work, 1918 (Potsdam Council on pp. 170-171).
23. Potsdam Conference of July 5, 1914, New York Times, July 19,
1917-
24. Report on the Potsdam Council of July 5, 1914, New York Times,
July 29, 1917.
25. Le mensonge du j Aout, 1914, pp. 396, Payot, Paris, 1917.
26. WILSON, H. W., "New Light on Germany's Treachery," pp.
1204-1214, Nineteenth Century, June, 1917.
27. FERNAU, HERMANN, The Coming Democracy, pp. 321, New York,
Dutton, 1917.
28. CHERADAME, ANDRE, The Pan-German Plot Unmasked, with an
Introduction by the Earl of Cromer, pp. 235, New York, Scrib-
ners, 1917.
29. STOWELL, E. C., The Diplomacy of the War of 1914, pp. 470-471,
Boston, Houghton, 1915.
30. FERRERO, GUGLIELMO, "Where, When, and by Whom Was the
War Decided upon " (Trans.), pp. 1051-1058, vol. ii., New York
Times "Cur. Hist."
84 The World War
31. DILLON, E. J., A Scrap of Paper: The Inner History of German
Diplomacy and her Scheme of World-wide Conquest, pp. 220,
London, Hodder, 1914.
32. GAUVAIN, AUGUSTE, Les origines de la guerre, pp. 333, Paris, Colin,
33. WYATT, HORACE, Malice in Kulturland (humorous), illustrated by
Tell after Tenniel, pp. 84, New York, Dutton, 1917.
34. VIGILANS SED &QUUS, German Ambitions as they Affect Britain and
the United States of America, pp. 132, New York, Putnams, 1903.
35. GWATKIN, H. M., "Britain's Case against Germany, a Letter to
a Neutral," The Nation (London), October 14, 1916 (reprints
by Unwin, 1917, pp. 15).
36. OSSIANNILLSON, K. G., Sven Hedin, Nobleman (Trans.), pp. 223,
London, Unwin, 1917.
37. TREVELYAN, GEORGE MACAULAY, "Serbia and Southeastern
Europe," pp. 119-127, Atlantic Monthly, July, 1915.
38. PARKER, SIR GILBERT, The World in the Crucible, pp. 422, New
York, Dodd, 1915.
39. WILE, FREDERIC WILLIAM, The Assault, pp. 413, Indianapolis,
Bobbs-Merrill, 1916.
40. GERMAN, A., / Accuse, pp. 445, New York, Doran, 1915.
41. WISTER, OWEN, The Pentecost of Calamity, pp. 148, New York,
Macmillan, 1915.
42. HOBBS, W. H., Dr. Kuehnemann's American Tour, Detroit Free
Press, June 13, 1918.
43. JOHNSON, D. W., Plain Words from America, a Letter to a German
Professor, pp. 48, London, Hodder, 1917.
44. GRANDE, JULIAN, "Muehlon Expresses German Cynicism,"
New York Times, May 17, 1918.
45. Ninety-three Professors of Germany " To the Civilized World," pp.
185-192, New York Times "Cur. Hist, of the War," vol. i., No.
i, 1914.
46. Eleven Distinguished Germans, Truth about Germany — Facts about
the War, p. 86, no place or date.
47. ANDLER, CH., Pan-Germanism, its Plans for German Expansion
in the World, pp. 81, Paris, Colin, 1915.
48. DURKHEIM, E., and DENIS E., Who Wanted War! The Origin
of the War according to Diplomatic Documents, pp. 62, Paris,
Colin, 1915.
49. British Foreign Office, "Events Leading to the Rupture of Rela-
tions with Turkey," pp. 77, London, Misc. Doc., No. 13, 1914.
50. Members of the Oxford Faculty of Modern History, Why we are
at War, Great Britain's Case, pp. 264, Oxford, Clarendon Press,
The Plot against Democracy 85
51. German War Practices, Bureau of Public Information, 1918.
52. BANG, J. B., Hurrah and Hallelujah, New York, Doran, 1916.
53. ARCHER, WILLIAM, Gems (?) of German Thought, pp. 264, New
York, Doubleday, 1917.
54. GAUSS, CHRISTIAN F., The German Emperor as Shown in his Public
Utterances, pp. 329, New York, Scribners, 1915.
55. CHAPMAN, JOHN JAY, Deutschland uber Alles, pp. 102, New York,
Putnams, 1914.
56. HURD, ARCHIBALD, An Incident of War, by Order of the Kaiser,
pp. 16, London, Canston & Sons, 1916.
V
OUR DEBT TO FRANCE
(Delivered at Johnstown, Pa. on Bastille Day, July 14, 1918.)
"To thee, sweet France, we eager turn,
Land where the deeds of old still burn,
Land where the soul's supreme emotion
In glorious action is exprest,
Land where the patriot's deep devotion
Includes a love for all who yearn
To see their country's wrongs redrest,
To thee, sweet France, we turn!"
Ode to France, by RAYMOND WEEKS.
"France, fortunate among nations, has conserved the good and
rejected the evil experienced in her national progress. The dark
passions of the Revolution have utterly disappeared, giving place to
the spirit of liberty, equality, fraternity, truly expressed in the national
life and uniting France and the United States by unbreakable bonds."
— GEORGE ELLERY HALE.
"The unspeakable sacrifices willingly borne by France with so
much stoicism give her the right to speak with authority to the
allied Powers, which she has saved from an irreparable disaster."—
GUGLIELMO FERRERO.
"Let me go back to France!
Ill stifle in this ease,
This doing as I please —
Let me go to France!
"They call! They're calling me to come!
But I forget — you cannot hear
The voices ever in my ear!
' I am so tired of war, ' you say?
86
Our Debt to France 87
Yes, yes — I, too; but so are they —
War- weary are they every one.
But tell them, tell them that I come!
You've not been there — how could you know
The memories that haunt me so!
If I could make you understand
You'd take me gently by the hand,
And point the way,
To-day!"
E. LOUISE WHITING.
IT is, I am sure, for all of us a proud moment when
with England and her self-governing common-
wealths, America celebrates for the first BastilleDay
time in history upon the French national an American
holiday the liberation of France from auto-
cratic rule; a rule which has recoiled behind the de-
fenses of the Kaiser's empire and his vassal states.
It is an event which I hope will be perpetuated in a
regularly recurring celebration; and it is, I trust, an
augury of the coming alliance of democratic peoples
against autocracy, whether seated upon a throne or
lurking in disguise in a constitutional livery.
Great as have been its sacrifices, the world war has
brought us its spiritual uplifts of the greatest signifi-
cance and importance. Tried in the fire,
The purged
the pure metal of our civilization has sepa-
rated from the dross. More than of any
other warring nation, however, the purged soul of
France shines forth in splendor to a world that pays
homage as never before in the history of mankind.
It is the verdict of a contemporary writer that 'no
nation in all history, in any episode of its life, has
received in so large a measure the love and admiration
of mankind, as France has received since the war be-
gan. . . . No nation has ever borne itself with finer
88 The World War
dignity, greater simplicity, clearer loyalty, in the face
of universal homage."
Throughout recorded European history it has been
preeminently upon French soil that the tides of bar-
barian hordes, sweeping across Europe and
repeatedly threatening to blot out its civilization, have
turned back
on French recoiled and rolled backward in defeat. In
the second century of our era when the
Teutons and Cimbri were carrying all before them,
they were turned back at Aix, and thus were preserved
for centuries the Greek and Roman civilizations; in
the fifth century at Chalons upon the Marne, Attila,
'The Scourge of God," with hordes of fierce Huns at
his back, met defeat and disaster; only a half-century
later the West-Gothic barbarians under Alaric were
defeated at Poitiers ; there and at Tours near by Charles
Martel, in the eighth century, rolled back the Saracen
hordes and thus saved Europe from Mohammedan
domination. In 1792 the citizen armies of the newly
organized French Republic faced the armies of Prussian
autocracy and defeated them in the decisive battle of
Valmy.
And now in our own day, in battles incomparably
greater than any which have preceded them, France,
at first almost unaided, has been the savior
France the
adamantine of our civilization from the baseness and
«
treachery of the modern Hun. In doing
this she has fought our battles as well as her own.
Well has the poet sung of her:
"Take courage, France!
'Tis not in vain
That ancient glories
Still remain !
Our Debt to France 89
Since times of old,
Thou art the adamantine wall
Where tides barbaric beat and fall ;
And backward to their source are rolled.
If France another nation were
Prophetic bards would cry to her :
'Awaken from their sepulchre
Thy Roland and thine Oliver! '
But France's heroes are not dead.
Theirs is no asphodelian bed.
No couch of dreams with poppies spread
Enslaves their noble limbs !
Clad in the soldier's red and blue,
Marching they sing the hymn of hymns,
The splendid Marseillaise,
That binds their present courage to
A thousand yesterdays!"
'Today the world has become convinced," says the
greatest of Italian contemporary historians, 'that if
France had not resisted like an anvil the
France
furious blows of the God Thor, mad with theanvu
rage, Europe would not have escaped the
German hegemony."
Is there one of us who can forget those ever-memo-
rable days of early fall in the opening year of the war,
when each succeeding day, borne down by a
* The invasion
terrible and consuming anxiety, we scanned of France
the headlines of our news columns only to
find that an overwhelming superiority in men and
guns had carried the Teuton hordes yet another stage
forward in their apparently resistless advance upon
Paris? And then — we were at first hardly able to
comprehend it — when the tide had reached the ridge
beyond the Marne, its advance lost headway, the
90 The World War
French retreat came to a halt, and the indomitable
Joffre issued the order to his armies to advance
or die.
Manoury, commanding the sixth army upon the
left flank, finds General Boelle at Nanteuil pressed
Therecoaof hard and in danger of being turned by von
v<m Kluck Kluck, and he sends him the order upon
no account to move a step backwards, but upon the
contrary to advance, and if necessary be slain where
he stands. Boelle has, however, not waited for special
orders, but has advanced, certain of being cut to pieces,
and found before him a faltering enemy with von Kluck
already beginning his retreat.
Upon such a far-flung battlefront a retreat before
the left flank is not at once felt in the center, where
Fochthe the incomparable Foch, cool in every emer-
incomparabie gency, is in command. He is, in the opinion
of Joffre, 'the greatest strategist of Europe and the
humblest," and an admiring world has confirmed this
verdict upon the Maine, the Yser, and the Somme,
in Picardy and in Champagne. Foch's line is driven
in and the vitally important F£re-Champenoise is lost,
but he is not discouraged. ' It will be recaptured, the
situation is excellent," he reports to Joffre. "I am
ordering that the offensive be resumed." This report
was as far as possible removed from bravado, for,
Napoleon-like, Foch had discerned that the now dry
marshes of St. Gond upon his front were but lightly
held by the enemy, and rallying his men to deliver a
smashing blow at the vulnerable point, he brings about
a decision; and the Teuton supermen, defeated and
still uncomprehending, fall back to the Aisne before a
pursuing foe which they had been taught to despise.
Civilization had again been saved by France!
Our Debt to France 91
"You who have faith to look with fearless eyes
Beyond the tragedy of a world at strife,
And trust that out of night and death shall rise
The dawn of ampler life;
" Rejoice, whatever anguish rend your heart,
That God has given you for a priceless dower,
To live in these great times and have your part
In Freedom's crowning hour.
" That you may tell your sons who see the light
High in the heavens, their heritage to take —
* I saw the powers of darkness put to flight !
I saw the morning break.' '
Now that France had forced the Hun to recoil upon
the Aisne, he strikes out fiercely on the Yser and again
at Verdun, trusting to desperate assaults to «Tneyshaii
strike down his foe before Britain, caught not pass"
unprepared, can raise and train an army. In very
truth France has been the anvil to receive the hammer
blows of the infuriated Thor. The battle cry of the
French at Verdun, Us ne passeront pas (They
shall not pass) has become the battle cry of freedom
in this Armageddon of the world.
Latest of all, from the very cradle of liberty in America
has come an awakening from pacifist dreamings to
accept the nation's responsibilities in this
The tardy
mighty struggle; and now in a belated and awakening
desperate rush we are somewhat clumsily
striving to provide those sinews of war which should
have been made ready as enjoined upon us by our
first President, the great " Father of his Country."
The debt we owe to France for shielding us from the
enemy while we were hesitating and finding excuses,
is one that we can never adequately repay — the oppor-
92 The World War
tunity has gone forever. Hundreds of thousands of
her bravest and best have, without a murmur, laid
down their lives to preserve our liberties; and let no
one be deceived into the belief that although our
soldiers are fighting with a gallantry beyond all praise,
we are even to-day playing more than a minor r61e in
the great battles upon French soil. The casualty lists
give the lie to the popular misconception. When from
a total of some ten thousand these have mounted into
the tens of thousands a week, as they do for Great
Britain, then may we believe that we are at last playing
our part in the war. The country is, I am firmly
convinced, big enough to welcome the facts, and it
will rise to its responsibilities the better for knowing
them.
Though our debt to France for the victory of the
Marne above all, and our indebtedness to England
"Paid in fuii and Italy and to Belgium and Serbia can
in the wood never be epaid, we have it in our power to
of your sons" , t . , ... . .
help mightily in ways not yet appreciated.
The allied nations of Europe are to-day straining
almost to breaking beneath their financial burdens,
and I cannot forbear to echo the suggestion already
put forward with an accolade of applause that we
at once proceed to write across the face of our
loans to these allies : ' ' Paid in full in the blood of your
sons.'
If the awful present now somewhat dims the past
in our vision, at least it can be said of us that we have
The old debt not been unmindful of the debt we have long
to France owed to France for her part in achieving
our independence when the same bitter struggle against
autocracy was going on in England with a German
king upon the throne. We have, however, sometimes
* Our Debt to France 93
forgotten that Burke, Pitt, and Fox warmly advocated
the cause of the American Colonies in the British Parlia-
ment, that many officers in the British army, supported
by a popular approval, flatly refused to serve against
the colonists, and that volunteers for the ranks were
so hard to secure that King George hired from German
princelings the thousands of soldiers which under the
name of Hessians were sent against the colonists in
America.
In this extremity we appealed to France, and she
sent fleets and men with her splendid leaders, Marshal
Rochambeau and Marquis de Lafayette.
* Washington's
But for the French fleet in Chesapeake Bay acknowiedg-
and Rochambeau at Yorktown the result of
our struggle might have been different. Writing to
Rochambeau General Washington declared: "To the
generous aid of your nation and to the bravery of its
sons is to be ascribed, in a very great degree, that
independence for which we have fought." Our grati-
tude as a people found expression in 1 784 when Marquis
de Lafayette returned to the United States as the
guest of the nation.
To-day — July the I4th — the anniversary of the fall
of the Bastille, with its long record of tyranny and
oppression the very symbol of autocratic rule France,
in France, we now pay homage to our sister B«t«"a. ami
nation, who is again shielding us from the m fraternal
forces of reaction let loose upon the world. alliance
England no longer ruled by George III., with full civil
liberties now guaranteed to her people by the Reform
bills, and drawn closer to France through the common
peril and the alliance of her armies, she now joins with
us in the celebration both of the 4th and of the I4th
of July.
94 The World War
It is certainly a remarkable coincidence that so
many liberty anniversaries should recur in the month
Thejui °^ Juty- Besides our own Independence
liberty an- Day upon the 'glorious 4th' and Bastille
Day upon the I4th of the month, our demo-
cratic self-governing neighbor to the north of us
celebrates upon the 2d of July, Dominion Day, the
anniversary of the founding of her union. Even in
England the anniversary of Runnymede and Magna
Charta is separated by little more than a fortnight,
and Garibaldi, the popular liberator of Italy, was born
upon the 4th of July.
It is a happy augury, also, of the permanence of the
present alliance against personal as opposed to demo-
cratic government, that our flags are all
, and composed of the same three colors. The
blue of tricolor of France, the British standard and
democracy
its modifications in each of the British self-
governing commonwealths, like our own star-spangled
banner have only the three colors — the red, white, and
blue. The black ' ' Jolly Roger ' ' of pirate crews appears
in the flag of Prussia, the "black- white," and in that
of Germany, the " black- white-red."
Do I hear some soft-hearted but weak-minded
citizen saying, that when peace has been signed all is
at once to be forgotten and forgiven, that
International- , « .11 • .11 1 . * . , 1 1
ism the tne millennium will have arrived with human
latest disguise nature transformed and selfishness and greed
of pacifism
eliminated, and that we may then beat our
swords into plowshares ? Are we to take the modern
Hun at once to our bosoms and in a spirit of amity and
good will entwine the " black- white-red" with the "red,
white, and blue"? The pacifists to whom we chiefly
owe our present troubles have been heard urging this,
Our Debt to France 95
and with mock meekness are calling themselves "in-
ternationalists," now that the word pacifist has become
unpopular. In this bleating of the lamb our ear detects
a certain raucousness, and beneath the woolly exterior
we fancy we can make out the familiar figure of the Beast
of Berlin, his bulging proportions somewhat flattened, it
is true, but still recognizable under the sheep's clothing.
Are we to replace the Stars and Stripes over our
schools and in the windows of our homes by an inter-
national flag in which the red, white, and blue of democ-
racy have been combined with the Prussian black, with
a broad yellow streak through the center? No! a
thousand times NO !
Internationalism is pacifism under a fresh disguise,
and it is to-day the greatest menace before this nation
and the world. Henceforth the "blond beast' after
his 'lustful roving' must be quarantined for a safe
period before being admitted to the society of the
democratic and God-fearing nations.
So painfully have we learned our lesson, that no
respect is accorded to nations nor to alliances which
have not the power to defend their liberties, The citizen's
that henceforth we shall see to it that the obligation
to serve
rights of a citizen to a voice in the councils with the
of his country shall be based upon a willing-
ness to serve the nation with the colors under a demo-
cratic form of military training and service.
By a strange perversity of fate the neglect of our
responsibilities until the eleventh hour of the struggle,
has through the lesser drain upon our mili- prance ha§
tary resources left us with a reserve of power w.on the
and a corresponding possibility of wielding it dominate
which is not possessed by those nations that
have borne the burden and heat of the day. To our
96 The World War
shame be it said that there are some among us who
boastfully proclaim that we shall insist upon the use
of this club or obtain a dominating position in the
coming peace councils. Guglielmo Ferrero, the great
Italian historian, has said with much force and with
entire justice: 'The unspeakable sacrifices willingly
borne by France with so much stoicism give her the
right to speak with authority to the allied Powers
which she has saved from an irreparable disaster.'1
With humility for our past and with resolution for
the future, we are big enough to accord to France this
right and to vow that whatever other ad-
justment may be fixed upon at the conclu-
mustbe s^on of peace, Alsace-Lorraine, "more French
restored
even than France herself," shall be restored.
To the field of iron ore in Lorraine ruthlessly taken
from France in 1871 and married to her own coal
deposits, Germany owes her phenomenal advance in
the last generation and the industrial domination of
Europe during the last decade before the war. In
restoring to France that which rightfully belongs to
her, we shall draw the fangs of the German monster
and protect the world in future from his venom. In
addition, in order to insure the proper development of
this ore by France, she must be given in reparation for
the ruthless and wanton — aye, bestial — destruction
of the occupied portion of her territory, a part of those
enormous reserves of coal which in Germany's hands
have compelled the unwilling neutrality of her neigh-
bors under a threat to withhold their necessary supply.
Such a disposition as has been indicated is as necessary
to the rehabilitation of glorious France as it is to secure
the peace and prosperity of the world.
And in that rehabilitation of the devastated portion
Our Debt to France 97
of France it is particularly the duty of us in the United
States in some small measure to repay our debt to
France. The larger bill must eventually be paid by
Germany, whose thefts must first of all be restored and
also whose man- power must be harnessed to the task
of a rapid building up of the ravished territory. The
great garrisons which must long be maintained in
Germany, and the armies of the victors upon her
western frontier, it is our special duty to supply, while
those who fought as we stood aloof return to rebuild
their broken homes and reestablish their arrested in-
dustries. The army maintained as a safeguard against
Germany on the borders of France can be actively
employed in this work of restoration.
An American poet, Professor Raymond Weeks, of
Columbia University, has, in the concluding verses
of his splendid Ode to France, voiced what Our tribute
should be our tribute to-day: *° France
"And now when foes beset thee,
Shall we, thy sons, forget thee!
Lo! we who swore thee
Our love, adore thee !
Our hosts surround thee,
Our swords inbound thee.
We serried march before thy bleeding feet,
And with unflinching hearts thy foes shall meet.
Yea, we shall die ! but thou shalt ever live,
Remembering us thy children, who could give
To Liberty and thee
All that the soul may have or hope to be
This side of silence and the silken veil.
In ecstasy we cry,
Even as those who die :
'Hail, thou sweet France, our mother!
Hail! all hail!'"
VI
THE MILITARY MASTERS OF GERMANY
"The rise of Prussia and the unification of Germany were the work
of the Princes. They gave to the one a sham constitution, and bestowed
upon the Empire an organic law which was careful to prescribe the
model for military uniforms, but overlooked fundamental rights of
person and of property and provided an appointive federal council
which under the scheme arranged can nullify every act of the repre-
sentatives of the people. The Germanic birthright of independence
and individual initiative was surrendered. The rights of man have
vanished before the divine right of the state, and the divine right of the
state is personified in the King and Emperor." — GUSTAVUS OHLINGER.
"The military masters of Germany denied us the right to be neutral.
They filled our unsuspecting communities with vicious spies and
conspirators and sought to corrupt the opinion of our people in their
own behalf." — Flag Day Address of PRESIDENT WILSON.
THERE has long been a popular misconception par-
1 ticularly prevalent in America that Germany
German ^as a democratic government. Germany is
••democracy" or has been, classified as a constitutional
iage monarchy such as is Great Britain. There
is a most popular little German text entitled Im
Vaterland, which was "made in Germany," literally
as well as figuratively; and until recently this text
had been widely used in the schools and colleges of the
United States (i). In this text, which has largely
contributed to the prevalent misconception, there oc-
curs a dialogue between a boy and his uncle, in which
the conclusion is reached that the governments of
98
The Military Masters of Germany 99
Germany and the United States are practically the
same. German propagandists have told us that Ger-
many's government is "the most democratic in the
world," and Dr. Kuno Francke of Harvard University,
one of the most dangerous, because most astute, of
German propagandists, has in a recent issue of Harper's
Magazine characterized the German system as 'that
wonderful union of monarchical leadership and social-
ized popular activity which has proved the salvation
of the country in these years of unparalleled trials."
This autocracy he has described in the same article as
;'a deceptive misnomer for what is in reality a rule of
experts supervised by popular assemblies ' (2).
To make use of a term which the war has given us,
the democratic aspect of the German Government is
entirely camouflage, that is to say, fake. This aspect
was given it by Bismarck in order to make the people
contented while being allowed to play at government,
and this more especially in the states of the then late
South German Confederation which were in process
of being Prussianized.
It was Bismarck who said: "I look for Prussian honor
in Prussia's abstinence before all things from every
shameful union with democracy." In actual German
fact, appearances to the contrary notwith- Government
standing, it may be doubted if there was absolute
then, as there certainly is not now, a nation m Europe
having so absolute a government as Germany. Having
a high average of education it has seldom been necessary
to display the iron hand of government before the
German people, as has been the case in Russia and
Turkey; but in the last resort the government's power
would be exercised quite as firmly and relentlessly.
Germany could, however, never have been accorded
ioo The World War
her high place among the nations of the world if this
deceit had not been perpetrated.
The most conclusive proof of the truth of what has
been said is to be found in the following facts: (i) That
the elective house of the German Parliament, the
Reichstag, has never yet succeeded in bringing about
any reform which the German ruling class had deter-
mined to prevent; (2) that any citizen who has allied
himself with the liberal party has thereby been cut off
from social position and from obtaining a career; and
(3) rewards such as decorations, titles, etc., which alone
give standing in German communities, are denied to
all save the loyal supporters of the government's
policies.
The German constitution was written under the
direction of Prince Bismarck, and was given to the
German people as a favor rather than as a
The German
electoral right. The people were never asked nor
permitted to ratify it, and it may for this
reason be withdrawn at the will of the sovereign.
The parliament consists of two houses, the Bundesrat,
or Federal Council, and the Reichstag, or Imperial Diet;
the former a house of princes and nobles appointive
under the sovereigns of the twenty-five federated states
of the empire, the latter elective from voting districts
unchanged since before the transformation of Germany
from an agricultural to an industrial state; in other
words, since the founding of the empire in 1871.
As a consequence, the thinly inhabited rural districts
with their peasants under the arbitrary control of the
landed proprietors, who in Prussia are called Junkers,
have generally overwhelmed the vastly more numerous
and relatively progressive voters of the cities and towns.
Notwithstanding this handicap the Social-Democrats
The Military Masters of Germany 101
have in recent years formed a large majority in the
Reichstag. Electoral reforms which have long been
called for, and which in a hazy way have now been
promised for some indefinite future time, would never
avail to give the reins of government into the hands
of the people, as was in fact brazenly declared by the
Chancellor even when promising the reforms.
The root of the matter lies far deeper and is to be
found in the plan of the constitution itself (3, vol. ii.,
P- 355)- We read much in the newspapers Legislative
concerning the Reichstag and next to nothing p°.wer
of the Bundesrat. The former has been in house
aptly characterized as a "debating society' of princes
and as a 'hall of echoes,'1 and the government has
humored it by giving over large space in the state-
controlled press to reports of its deliberations.
The real business of the government is carried on
in secret in the Bundesrat, which has sixty-one members
divided most unequally between the twenty-five states
of the empire. Prussia with the "Crown Land' of
Alsace-Lorraine has twenty votes, Bavaria six, Saxony
and Wurttemberg, four each ; and the remaining states
either three, two, or one, but generally one each. It
should be noted, however, that the delegates from each
state vote, not as individuals, but en bloc as directed
by their sovereigns; twenty of them as the Kaiser
orders. And under Article 78 of the Constitution
only fourteen votes are necessary for a veto to any
legislation.
The Reichstag consists of 395 members elected for
terms of five years by the voters of the empire, who
are men of twenty -five years or over, the xhe"Haii
majority of whom have therefore been two of Echoes"
or three years under the brutalizing discipline of the
102 The World War
Prussian drillmaster. There is, however, one apparent
real power which is vested in the Reichstag — in con-
junction with the Bundesrat it votes new appropria-
tions on the proposition of the Chancellor, since though
it has nominally the power to initiate legislation through
petition of the Bundesrat its petitions have generally
been ignored.
Says Abbe Wetterle, long a member of the Reichstag:
"All the work of the Reichstag is done behind the scenes.
Our party leaders are augurs who have learnt to look at each
other in public assembly without laughing; but, surrounded
by the mystery of their private confabs, they are hand and
glove together. . . .
'The three readings of an important Bill always gave us
the same chromatic scale. First reading: furious declara-
tions and the solemn announcement of an opposition that
nothing would shatter; second reading: a scattered retreat
on a barely modified text, but with a few noisy counter-
attacks. Third reading: a perfect understanding, general
embracings, reciprocal congratulations, and unanimous ap-
plause." (4, pp. 84, 86.)
All old appropriations continue indefinitely without
the consent of the Reichstag being required. Now it is
conceivable that the Reichstag might successfully oppose
the government, but in practice it has been found im-
possible to do so. When in the past the Reichstag has
refused to vote the government's appropriation bills,
the Kaiser has promptly prorogued the body, thus
bringing on new elections, and by methods which will
be better understood after the next chapter, it has been
able to impose its will. No one familiar with German
methods can doubt for a moment that if these partly
open, partly subterranean methods of electing a new
The Military Masters of Germany 103
Reichstag favorable to the government should be un-
successful, the precedent set by Bismarck in governing
Prussia for four years without a parliament would be
followed in Prussianized Germany.
The kingdom of Prussia comprises no less than two
thirds of the territory and almost two thirds of the
population of Germany. For this reason The Prussian
the Prussian legislature, on which the Ger- Landtag
man legislative system is modeled, is quite as important
to consider as the Imperial Parliament itself.
The Prussian Landtag consists of the Herrenhaus
or House of Lords and the Abgeordnetenhaus or Prus-
sian Diet. The Herrenhaus has its composition deter-
mined by royal ordinance, and, through the King's
(Kaiser's) power to create peers, can be given any
complexion desired. As a matter of fact, it is largely
composed of the lords of the landed estates, the Prus-
sian Junkers, who are the pillars of autocracy of the
nation and who form a nucleus of the officers in the
German army.
The lower house of the Landtag is elective but wholly
undemocratic, for the reason that the electoral fran-
chise is distributed according to wealth; a rich man
having the equivalent, sometimes of one hundred,
sometimes of one thousand, workingmen's votes. In
the Prussian Landtag elections of 1900 the Social-
Democrats cast a majority of all the votes and were
able to elect seven delegates out of nearly four hundred
(5. P- 10).
Most outrageous of all, voting in Prussia is not secret
— it is not even by ballot — but oral. A high order of
courage is required for a peasant in the presence of his
employer, or even of the omnipresent official and re-
porter, to vote contrary to the will of the government,.
104 The World War
particularly since it may well mean eviction from his
home (6, p. 12).
The same inequalities of representation, owing to
the retention of a set of voting districts little modified
since 1858, characterize the Prussian Landtag and
the Imperial Parliament alike. In the year 1903
conservative votes to the number of 324,157 elected
143 representatives, whereas a nearly equal number
of Social-Democratic votes, 314,149, did not elect a
single member of the house (5, p. 12).
An additional cause for the dominance of the lower
House of the Prussian Landtag over the German Reich-
stag is found in the small attendance at the sessions
of the Reichstag of members from other states than
Prussia. To recruit their membership, political parties
have offered seats in the Reichstag to members of the
state legislatures, but the power exercised in the federal
legislature is so much less than it is in the parliaments
of the individual states, that these members have
seldom attended the sessions in Berlin. When an
important vote is to be taken in the Reichstag, the
Prussian members are called by telephone, since the
Abgeordnetenhaus sits at Berlin.
After an indemnity had been provided for the mem-
bers of the Reichstag during the Chancellorship of von
Biilow, one thousand marks, or one third of the entire
allowance, was made for the period after Easter, when
the members' chief anxiety has been to return home
as quickly as possible. Accordingly he has, as a rule,
been ready to pass the government's legislation as
expeditiously as possible. Says Abbe Wetterle" :
'The pass on the railways in the Empire also served as
a bribe. When the end of the session drew near, the Chan-
The Military Masters of Germany 105
cellor informed the members — in this case without any
beating about the bush — that if, before leaving, they voted
such and such a Bill to which the government attached
special importance, the Reichstag would not be closed but
merely adjourned, which meant that during the holidays
the members could continue to travel at the expense of the
public. Rarely did the majority resist this tempting pros-
pect; and it was thus that the Imperial Parliament was
adjourned three years in succession, which constituted a
record." (4, p. 42.)
Even the Bundesrat, in which the powers of govern-
ment might appear to reside, wields a theoretical
rather than an actual power — it is in reality The absoiute
a council of diplomats and nothing more. power of
the Kaiser
The Kaiser is its president, and in regard to
it entirely independent. His powers are 'divine"
and hereditary, and he is responsible to no earthly
authority. By Article 2 of the Imperial Constitu-
tion the Kaiser represents the Empire internationally,
he has the right to declare war and conclude peace,
to enter into alliances and treaties, to accredit and
appoint envoys. Though declaration of war by the
Emperor requires the consent of the Bundesrat, Article
68 of the Imperial Constitution, and the Prussian law
of June 4, 1851, as well, give the Kaiser and King the
right without the consent of the Bundesrat to declare
a "defensive' war whenever the nation is threatened
in any quarter (7, p. 52). Since officially all Prussia's
and Germany's wars have been "defensive," the power
to declare war resides in the Kaiser.
The present war the Kaiser declared against Russia
on August i, 1914, and it was on August 4th he first
called the Bundesrat together for formal confirmation.
Article 68 of the Constitution of the Empire also gives
io6 The World War
the Kaiser the power whenever he deems it necessary,
to declare a state of siege, Burgfrieden, which extin-
guishes all civil rights. As already stated, such a
state of siege was declared on July 30, 1914, with the
promise that it was to continue only during mobiliza-
tion, but like most Teuton promises it has not been
kept and has been in force throughout the war.
The Imperial Chancellor is the Kaiser's assistant
and representative, being appointed by him and hold-
ing office even in defiance of the people
" so long as the Emperor wills. The other
ministry ministers (War, Marine, Finance, etc.) are
in Germany
merely department administrative heads
without voice in the government. In reality the
Imperial Chancellor is not the German but the Prus-
sian Minister of Foreign Affairs (7, p. 57). Bethmann-
Hollweg, lately the Imperial Chancellor, rudely told
the people's representatives in the Reichstag, ' ' I do not
serve Parliament." When, following upon the no-
torious Zabern scandal in the army, the Reichstag cen-
sured the Government by the overwhelming vote of
293 to 54, the Government responded by ignoring the
matter and promoting the army officers who had out-
raged the people. When the Chancellor was asked
by the Social- Democrats in the Reichstag why he did
not resign after a vote of censure, as they do in France,
he replied contemptuously that even little children knew
the difference between France and Germany (5, p. 6).
According to Hermann Fernau, the first nineteen
articles of the German Imperial Constitution might
be replaced by the single sentence: 'The German
Emperor is the God-appointed absolute lord of Ger-
many," and the practical result would be the same
(7, p. 58). From Article 20 on there appear to be
The Military Masters of Germany 107
limitations set by the Reichstag — "the democratic
honey with which the democratic South German states
were caught for the German idea of unity under Prussian
hegemony" — but supplementary legislation under the
skillful guidance of Bismarck soon removed what little
democracy there had seemed to be in these articles.
Since the beginning of the world war, some minor
concessions by the government, generally more ap-
parent than real, have been promised. Says Fernau,
'The German Government needs the Reichstag as
an advertisement and emblem of its modernity. For
the purpose of ruling, it has as little need of it as a
tradesman has of the opinion of his employees as to
the working of his business" (7, p. 55).
With a gift for portraying events which gives to
his narratives an unusual vividness and charm, Abbe"
Wetterle, who was for sixteen years a deputy
from Alsace, has supplied us with a descrip- between
tion of the opening of the Reichstag by the
Kaiser, a ceremony which reveals the gap
separating the popular house in the German Imperial
legislature from its supreme master (4, p. 32) . He says :
'I was present at the opening sitting of the Reichstag,
The ceremony took place in the White Room at the Im-
perial Palace. We were shown up to it by a back staircase.
All those of my colleagues who were officers of the reserve
had put on their uniforms. The throne, a very modest one,
was situated opposite us, raised a couple of steps from the
ground between two windows. It was surmounted by a
canopy. On the left stood the members of the Federal
Council, in gold embroidered coats, covered with decorations.
On the right were the generals in full-dress uniform. Along
the wall the Palace Guard, in uniforms dating back to the
days of Frederick presented arms, whilst the officers, with
i o8 The World War
little three-cornered hats on their heads, held beribboned
shepherd's crooks.
" I have described elsewhere the grotesque procession which
precedes the Emperor on the occasion of these official cere-
monies— a procession with heralds-at-arms wearing embroid-
ered dalmaticas, a swarm of pages in knee breeches and pink
doublets, and generals carrying on cushions the insignia of
imperial dignity.
"The Emperor, who wore a scarlet cloak over his white
cuirassier's uniform, saluted ceremoniously as he passed by.
He was followed by the princes of his family. The Crown
Prince took his place on the first step of the throne to the
right of his father. Then William II. after putting on his
helmet, which up to then he had carried under his arm, took
the Crown speech from the Chancellor's hands and began to
read it with a nasal twang. He laid stress on the principal
phrases by roaring a little louder and casting an authoritative
glance at the assembly. Whereupon the members of the
Reichstag showed their appreciation by loud cries in chorus of
lsehr richtig! sehr richtig/' (hear! hear!).
"When the reading of the speech was over, the Chancellor
declared the session of the Reichstag open, and whilst the
audience vociferated the 'hoch! hoch! hoch!' required by
Court etiquette, the Imperial procession formed anew and
disappeared. The ceremony was as paltry as it was amusing.
The members had the look of little boys on whom a severe
schoolmaster had imposed an imposition and had no right to
resist. In fact, the Reichstag cannot send the Emperor an
address in reply to the speech from the Throne" (4, p. 32).
The government posts in Germany are almost
numberless, for the reason that most of the
Bureaucracy great utilities, including railroads and tele-
inthe graphs, are state-owned. For all the higher
government
and more responsible positions, only the no-
bility with their traditions of autocratic rule are eli-
The Military Masters of Germany 109
gible. The execution of government business is thus
carried on by a great interlocking mechanism which
extends into every part of the Empire, provided with
checks and balances, elaborate records, and furnished
with a system of spies so extensive that every citizen
of the state can be placed under special surveillance
if necessary. Tale-bearing, frowned upon by Anglo-
Saxons everywhere, is in Germany exalted into a pa-
triotic virtue which greatly aids autocracy in main-
taining its strangle-hold upon the people's liberties.
Of a nation whose chief industry is war, to quote
Talleyrand on Prussia, it is after all the army upon
which the Kaiser depends for support of his Thearmy
autocratic rule, as he has so often said in the bulwark
his public speeches. Referring to the reign
of his grandfather, the Kaiser said: 'The only pillar
on which the realm rested was the army. So it is
to-day!' An American soldier on being sworn into
the service of his country makes oath to " defend the
Constitution of the United States against all enemies,
foreign and domestic." The German soldier swears
'to render unconditional obedience to the orders of
the Emperor." Lest there might still be misunder-
standing, paragraph 108 of the Prussian Constitution
expressly states: :'A swearing in of the army upon the
constitution of the country does not take place"
(7> P- 79)- There have been many propagandists in
America, among them German professors who of course
knew better, who have asserted that the German army
is democratic. Says Fernau: "It is without parallel
in the world's history that a dynasty contrived, not
merely to retain in the modern world all its absolute
feudal powers, but also to take advantage ot modern
progress to enhance them still further, without in
no The World War
return giving the serving and paying portion of the
nation a democratic government' (7, p. 91).
REFERENCES
1. Int Vaterland, pp. 414, Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 1910.
2. FRANCKE, KUNO, "Germany in Defeat," pp. 880-881, Harper's
Magazine, November, 1917.
3. LOWELL, A. LAWRENCE, Governments and Parties of Continental
Europe, 2 vols., pp. 377 and 455, Riverside Press, 1896. (The
German text of the Imperial Constitution is in vol. ii., pp. 355-
377-)
4. WETTERLE, ABBE, Behind the Scenes in the Reichstag, Sixteen Years
of Parliamentary Life in Germany, pp. 256, New York, Doran,
1918.
5. HAZEN, CHARLES D., The Government of Germany, pp. 16, Com-
on Pub. Inf., War Inf. Series, No. 3, 1917.
6. "The American Wife of a titled German, Militarism in German
Social Life and how Prussianism Warps Men and Women,"
Independent, Nov. 16, 1914, pp. 231-232 and Dec. 14, 1914,
pp. 401-403.
7. FERNAU, HERMANN, The Coming Democracy, pp. 321 (Chaps, ii.
and iii. particularly), New York, Dutton, 1917.
8. HILL, DAVID JAYNE, "Impressions of the Kaiser, the Kaiser's
Methods of Personal Control," pp. 20-39, Century Mag., June,
1918.
9. ORTH, SAMUEL, "Kaiser and Volk," ibid., Nov., 1917.
VII
THE DISCIPLINE OF THE INDIVIDUAL IN
GERMANY
"It was on the seventh day of June, 1914, that Frankfurt assembled
her school children in the opera house, to further their tastes and
understanding of Germany's supreme national art. Exactly eleven
months later, on May 7, 1915, a German torpedo sank the Lusitania;
and the cities of the Rhine celebrated this also for their school
children. . . .
"For forty years German school children and university students
sat in the thickening fumes that exhaled from Berlin, spread everywhere
by professors chosen at the fountain head. Any professor or editor
who dared speak anything not dictated by Prussia, for German
credulity to write down on its slate, was dealt with as a heretic.
"Out of the fumes emerged three colossal shapes — the superman,
the super-race and the super-state: the new Trinity of German worship."
— OWEN WISTER.
HP HE dominating position of the army over the
civil administration of the state, is in Germany
recognized by a system of caste which in all The military
ceremonials gives to the lowest sub-lieutenant caste
of the army precedence over even the most distin-
guished civilian representatives, including scientists,
artists, and musicians with international reputations.
Poultney Bigelow, the Kaiser's playfellow and for
twenty-five years a favorite at court, tells us in his
delightful Prussian Memories:
" It was my fortune to have met Virchow under most favor-
able circumstances and to have exchanged views with him on
matters of English and American political life, but I did not
in
H2 The World War
know the degraded rank assigned to him by Prussian high
society until we met at a great court function where thousands
of military uniforms glittered and clattered in the light of as
many chandeliers. Wandering through these great rooms in
search of another world than that of barracks, I espied a short
figure, topped by a noble dome and keen eyes peering from
behind gold-rimmed spectacles. He had shrunk away into a
window alcove where his academic robes suggested the shabby
gown of a verger when contrasted with the gaudy dress of
orthodox courtiers. And this was the head of Germany's
greatest university, the man who could not have set his foot
upon the soil of any civilized country without being hailed
by grateful millions as the first of scientists and one of the
world's benefactors. Here he was beaming with kindliness
and emitting an aura of spiritual vitality incomparably
superior to a wilderness of gold lace and Red Eagle decora-
tions; yet not a courtier would have dared stop and speak to
him for fear of social contamination." . . .
"The wife of Professor Helmholtz said to me in angry tones :
1 For social purposes I would rather have the youngest Prus-
sian lieutenant in the Berlin garrison as husband than my
illustrious excellency of a scientist.' (i, pp. 73, 75.)
The army officer in Germany is encouraged to assert
a domineering attitude and to elbow off the sidewalk
any who do not stand aside; such occurrences having
been notably common in the case of foreigners who have
been naturally unfamiliar with the reverence
"Kaiser's which in Germany obtains for the ''Kaiser's
Coat." The practice extends even to the
private soldiers, who elbow women off the footpath
if it is thought they are not ladies of rank, although
out of uniform they would not dare to attempt such
an indignity. An American woman who married a
Prussian nobleman and who, without disclosing her
identity, has favored us with an illuminating insight
Discipline of the Individual in Germany 113
into Prussian conditions, tells us how she was annoyed
by such insults from German soldiers (2). Her hus-
band, properly incensed when told of it, said: 'When
you meet the fellows, stop short, point to the gutter
and say 'Hinunter' (get down there)." She followed
his advice, and after one frightened look, the warriors
were walking in the dirty rivulets of gutter water.
Among those savage tribes in which war is the chief
industry, as it is in Germany, the woman occupies
a menial position, and the same is character-
istic of the Fatherland to-day. This is of position
course familiar from experience to any one of women
in Germany
who has ever traveled in Germany, and
sometimes to those also who have not, but who have
known German immigrants that have come to America.
In connection with the International Geological Con-
gress that was held in Toronto in 1913, there were
extended transcontinental excursions undertaken at
the conclusion of the congress, and many German
delegates brought their wives with them. When asked
how they had enjoyed the excursions, these gallant
lords of creation modified their praise by the statement
that their wives had somewhat objected to the upper
berths in the sleeping cars.
What is almost a daily experience for one traveling
in Germany is charmingly described by the German
baroness who has already been cited, and
she has in addition revealed to us the reason Of «
for the inferior position of woman in the all- fodder"
~ in Germany
dominating militarism in Germany:
"As I was sailing down the Elbe one day, the clock in the
church tower of a village which the boat was passing struck
twelve. A young peasant couple laboring in a field looked up.
ii4 The World War
As the last stroke ceased, the man threw down his hoe and
sauntered to a dog cart waiting in a field road close by. Seat-
ing himself in the cart, he drew a pipe from his pocket and
began smoking. The woman picked up his hoe, placed it
beside him in the cart; then advancing to the front of the
vehicle, she harnessed herself in alongside of the dog, and
bending under their joint load, she plodded homeward. To
me such sights were common, but one of a group of American
passengers exclaimed aloud, saying: 'Why, that big man is
actually going to let himself be drawn by the little woman,'
' Madam,' said a lady-in-waiting of Princess Matilda, who had
boarded the boat at Pillnitz, ' I think you must be American,
to make such public offensive remarks. In America you may
neglect your men, having plenty of them. But here in Ger-
many it behooves women to take care of their men. Our men
are precious. They are soldiers / ' (2 , p . 403) .
Far back in the past and deep in the shades of the
German forests, the Teuton and the Anglo-Saxon
Teuton sprang from a common stock. Along the
versus trail of the Anglo-Saxon we find such land-
marks of liberty as Magna Charta, the Bill
of Rights, the Reform Bills, and the Declaration of
Independence, and at the hither end peoples that
would rather die than live in slavery.
The Teutons can show in their history only the so-
called "War of Liberation" from subjection to Napo-
leon, to survive under the Williams, the Fredericks,
and the Frederick Williams of the House of Hohen-
zollern; followed by the "flashes in the pan of 1832-
1848," and by a race which to-day for its contentment,
for its docile submission to tyranny, and for the pride
in its submission, has not its like upon the face of the
globe. How is this to be explained ?
Is it not in part at least because the Saxon tribes
Discipline of the Individual in Germany 115
which under Arminius had conquered the Roman
legions, were later so largely exterminated by the
armies of Charlemagne; as well as because under him
and his successors, oppression under petty princes
replaced the government by public assemblies? Now
schooled for centuries to abject submission to a govern-
ment by "divine right," whatever sparks of individ-
ualism may still smoulder, are easily extinguished when-
ever they are fanned into flame by special acts of tyranny.
In order fully to comprehend the meekness and
docility of the German people under the rule of their
military masters, one must go back of the The8y8tem
mere forms, or even of the practices, of the of discipline
German Government regarded merely as a political
structure; for the explanation is to be found rather in
the social, religious, and educational system of Ger-
many. Each of these forms of activity and develop-
ment is a discipline under strict government control,
a schooling which, surmounted by the military disci-
pline that is so nearly universal, casts all in a common
mold stamped by the government seal. Eventually
individuality under the operation of the system is
replaced by a servile obedience. Art, music, the drama,
science, and literature, even the songs of the people;
are all alike under government control and regulation.
Thinking is, as it were, taken out of the people's
control — it is a government monopoly.
The principal idea factory of Germany is naturally
located in Berlin, and the promulgation of ideas is
carefully regulated both as to time and con- The idea
tent. Should the matter be urgent, it can factory
be managed only through the Nachrichtendienst, the
Special News Service which supplies approved copy to
the German newspapers, whose editors are encouraged
n6 The World War
to rephrase, but are prevented from altering the mean-
ing by a penalty of confiscation of property and the
imposition of prison sentences. Where time serves
the government ideas are further promulgated through
the publication of numberless small brochures, paper-
covered tracts in which the ideas are set forth by com-
petent writers who are usually university- trained men.
The same ideas are further attractively written up in
the many periodicals, and in books of which the number
is legion. Under various disguises, if the reason be
sufficient, these ideas are introduced into books no
matter of what subject they treat.
A rather remarkable instance of German war pro-
paganda is afforded by the 'Universal Edition' of
Beethoven's sonata, which has been pub-
lished at Leipsic, in the best style and issued
at a surPrisingly l°w price. The twenty-
four pages of music are accompanied by a
preface of seventy pages of closely printed text written
by Heinrich Schlenker and devoted to the war. From
this preface the following is taken :
"This study of the sonata Op. in was written during the
first year of the world war. In the supreme distress of this
war, so criminally imposed upon the German people, Bee-
thoven, with a few other great names, appeared to us as a
truly tutelary and consoling spirit; as the most precious talis-
man of a nation whom the adverse powers, themselves so
belated, had dared to insult by calling it barbarian.
"In this world war Beethoven has taken part in many a
battle: He has won victories. Harder battles are preparing
and those also Beethoven will help us to win."
This introduction to Beethoven's sonata then goes
on to assail each one of the allied nations in turn:
Discipline of the Individual in Germany 117
making out the French to be a people 'devoid of all
sincerity, of all intelligence, of all culture of life";
the English to be inhuman, lying, disgusting, "the
great criminal among nations"; the Italian "a bandit
and a braggart"; the Russian a beast; and the Ameri-
cans a "rabble of shopkeepers without culture'1 to
whom the Germans in torpedoing the Lusitania ad-
ministered "a legitimate slap upon the cheek of the
Yankee " (3). The climax seems now to have been
reached in coupling the Lusitania outrage with Bee-
thoven's immortal sonata.
This remarkable example of German propaganda,
though published at Leipsic, is subsidized and recom-
mended by the Imperial and Royal Department of
Public Instruction of Austro-Hungary, which will
add to the prestige lent the work by its pretentious
dress and by the masterpiece of music to which it is
attached.
The idea factory at Berlin early perceived the ad-
vantage of instilling into the minds of the German
people, the notion that they are superior Thecult
to other races and peoples; for which purpose of the
their phenomenal industrial growth since
1870, the acknowledged efficiency of German ad-
ministration, particularly municipal administration, the
high development of musical art, and the fame of Ger-
man schools and universities; lay ready at hand. Not
content with the exploitation of these more or less
legitimate claims to superiority along certain directions,
other ideas nothing short of ridiculous were soon coupled
with them. Such were, for example, the assumed supe-
riority of mentality associated with the German type
of head, the dolychocephalic cranium (with which go
blue eyes and fair hair) to the br achy cephalic skull
ii8 The World War
with its black hair and eyes common among the Latins.
This cult gave a new interest to head measurements
and became the business of a new branch of anthropo-
logy— anthropometry — in which Germans had no
difficulty in maintaining the foremost position and
in which real science was prostituted to Kultur
Politik.
Did not the easy victories of 1870 prove beyond
question this superiority claimed for Germany? Ger-
mans of high position in the universities readily took
up this propaganda so flattering to their egotism; and
Woltmann, Reimer, and the renegade Englishman,
Houston Stuart Chamberlain, all descanted at length
upon German superiority 'on a scientific basis."
School textbooks and encyclopedias have conspired
to disseminate this particular humbuggery. Both
comparative philology and European history have by
other groups of the Kaiser's ''bodyguard" been utilized
in order to show that most of the great men of history
have been Germans, and that those countries which
Germany would like to annex were all once German
and thus constitute a sort of Germania Irredenta. As
good a Frenchman as Lafayette, no less a Spaniard
than Murillo, and the Italian Leonardo da Vinci, were
all in reality Germans. Shakespeare was really Ger-
man, and Reimer has reached the conclusion that
Jesus of Nazareth was likewise German. Upon Ger-
man atlases the North Sea appears as the German
Ocean. The well-known Meyer's Konversations-Lexi-
kon gives, on its chart showing the distribution of Ger-
man dialects, Belgium, Holland, and a part of the
Channel coast of France. Belgium does not speak
French, but lower Frankish, according to German
professors (4, p. 190).
Discipline of the Individual in Germany 119
No one in Germany is entirely immune from the
emanations of the idea factory at Berlin. The Official
News Service, the better to serve its ends,
issues to professors in universities, to clergy- !W
men and to schoolmasters in Germany a officially
f 4.T~ f ' U' "U 4.' i "edited"
synopsis of the foreign news in which articles
taken from the foreign press are 'condensed and
summarized" (5, p. 56). In these abstracts a speech
by Senator LaFollete or by the late Senator Stone,
or a pacifist editorial from the New York Nation
or The New Republic takes large space and naturally
crowds out expressions and citations which would
correctly represent the views of the American people.
Errors which cannot have been unintentional have
repeatedly appeared in the Wolff News Bureau, all
of whose news, according to an official announcement
of August 2, 1914, newspapers are authorized to
publish 'because it has been submitted for the ap-
proval of the Official News Service."
In the German Fatherland teachers in the public
schools and pastors in the churches are state officials
paid from the treasury. If either were to
disseminate liberal views, he would be re- "
on
ported, and if he persisted, his career would
be ended. Tale-bearing is in Germany in-
culcated and made compulsory in the school, as it is
in the army ; and officials are often honest only because
they would be reported if they were not. Both teachers
and preachers are charged with the education in loyalty
to the state, and the discipline under each is essentially
military. A preacher who did not exalt His Majesty
the Kaiser with sufficient unction, and who did not
enjoin absolute fidelity to the government's policies,
would be waited upon by the military officer in com-
120 The World War
mand of the district and his duty in this respect sharply
brought to his attention. Repeated lapses would lose
him his position.
At school restraint is seldom relaxed even during
the recess periods, the play as well as the study being
under surveillance, the physical exercise being under-
taken to a considerable extent by marching in twos or
fours.
The life of the citizen in Germany is kept always
under restraint by the multitude of major and minor
verboten prohibitions made known through placards
which stare at him in every public place.
'Verboten," 'Streng verboten' and 'Strengstens ver-
boten," indicate a chromatic scale of prohibitions for
which there is a corresponding acceleration of the
penalty, which ranges from a fine of perhaps two
marks (fifty cents at par) to imprisonment for a longer
or shorter term; and any infraction of the regulations
is almost certain to be met by apprehension and
punishment. The German baroness who has already
been cited, tells us how, when driving, with no other
vehicle in sight, her coachman turned to the left (instead
of to the right) in order to avoid a puddle, was seen
by a mounted policeman and held up. An American
lady at the Pension Goermann in Dresden washed a
lace handkerchief and hung it to dry on the balustrade
of the balcony outside her window on the third floor.
She was soon waited upon by a police official and a
fine demanded for infraction of the rule which forbids
exposing washing on the street front. So numerous
are the regulations that police officials carry a large
pocket volume in which the regulations are numbered
and elaborately classified.
It is highly probable that a far-seeing autocratic
Discipline of the Individual in Germany 121
government appreciates that this constant nagging for
minor offenses eventually inculcates obedience by
unconscious habit, just as military drill does, and is
intended to do, in the army. This is the real secret
of the docility and submissiveness of the German
people under the tyranny of their German masters.
From his cradle the German imbibes the Teuton
idea of unquestioning obedience to the rule of the state
through the lullaby songs; this is continued in the
patriotic songs which he later becomes familiar with;
as it is also in the crashing harmonies in which are
described the doings of the savage heroes of the Nibe-
lungen legends which constitute his national music.
The names of these barbarian heroes he naturally
attaches to his defense lines in battle. These uncon-
scious influences, added to the rigid discipline of home,
church, and school, is capped by the brutality of the
drill sergeant in the barracks in the production of the
finished product of German Kultur.
Abbe Wetterle in his inimicable manner has repro-
duced a scene at the Berlin Opera House
Reverence
which sets forth the attitude of the people in for the
the presence of the Prussian War Lord :
"In the boxes and dress circles the diplomatists, high offi-
cials, and general officers posed in their shining uniforms, side
by side with their wives and daughters, all of whom, in low-
necked dresses, had donned their finest jewellery. The scene
was marvelous, and yet I was to carry away a mournful
impression of that evening. Indeed, as soon as the Emperor
and his guests arrived the whole house rose. Silently the men
bent themselves double and the women made a deep bow,
after which, on the curtain rising, a chilly silence reigned
during the whole performance. There was no applause except
when the Sovereign gave the signal; no private conversation
122 The World War
even in a low voice. Moreover no one followed the actors'
play. All eyes — in which one could read veritable devotion-
were directed toward the Imperial box. After two hours of
that torture I was glad to find myself once more under the
Lindens, in the midst of the crowd, which, notwithstanding
the cold, was standing there gazing at the wall ' behind which
something was happening' ' (6, p. 34).
By the use of titles, from Oberkellner (headwaiter) ,
and Schumacher (cobbler) to Excellenz (Excellency),
the highest of honorary titles; respectability
and social rating is determined for those
ability in Germans who are outside the ruling military
Germany
caste. The title of a husband extends to
his wife, and Frau Commerzienrat Meyer is quite as
likely to insist upon the use of the title as would her
husband. In so well regulated a national family as
modern Germany there is, however, little danger that
such an affront will be given as to forget and fail to
use the legitimate title. I well remember when a
student at the University of Heidelberg the professor
under whom I was doing special work was, by the
Grand Duke of Baden, given the honorary title of
Geheimerbergrat (Privy Counselor of Mines). Early
the next morning and before the regular lecture by the
professor, with all other students I was notified of the
honor conferred and properly coached lest through
inadvertence I should offend the professor by addressing
him merely as Herr Professor Doktor, as before had
been our custom.
There are many rungs in the ladder of honorary
titles, each higher rung being made through prefixing
an apparently superfluous adjective to the last. Thus
in sequence there are Rat (Counselor) , Geheimrat (Privy
Counselor), Hof (geheim) rat (Court Privy Counselor),
Discipline of the Individual in Germany 123
Wirklicker Hofrat (Really and Truly Court Privy
Counselor) and at the top of the ladder Excellenz
(Excellency) which is awarded but sparingly. The
great chemist Bunsen was the only Excellency which
I remember to have seen at Heidelberg at the time I
was a student there.
Not only has the social ladder many rungs, but
there are many ladders to indicate the different lines
of activity, and each has the same scale of successive
steps, so that one additional name must be added to
the titles above given ; such, for example, as Commerzien
(Business), Sanitats (Medical), Justicien (Law), Bau
(Architectural), etc. To an American these titles
doubtless sound very silly, but in Germany they have
the highest importance and value. A man of ability
who does not receive a title does not make a career,
and he is probably not wholly acceptable to the govern-
ment. He, or far more likely his wife, is likely to
institute a pretty rigid examination in order to deter-
mine in what he has offended or failed to show the
proper zeal, to the end that the stigma may be removed
(5 and 7).
The professors in the universities have been aptly
characterized as the 'intellectual bodyguards of the
Hohenzollerns. " If the slightest doubt of
The intel-
the correctness of this designation ever lectuai
existed, it has now been dispelled by the
behavior of German professors during the war ; above
all by the action of the ninety-three intellectuals who
signed the notorious declaration ' ' to the civilized world '
that Germany had had no part in making this war
together with only less palpable falsehoods. Although
most of these professors probably desired to subscribe
to the document, it would have been difficult for them
124 The World War
to avoid doing so. Professor Adolf von Baeyer, the
distinguished chemist of the University of Munich
who heads the list, has since died and his lecture as-
sistant has been in America and delivered lectures.
It is reported upon good authority that this assistant
reported of von Baeyer that he was called up on the
telephone by a government official and merely notified
that his signature was being affixed to the document.
But, I am told, it is well known that the German
university professor is permitted entire freedom of
thought in his teaching. Yes, in all matters except
those which pertain to the policies and practices of the
German Government. It is notorious that the German
professors of philosophy and history, such, for example,
as Hegel, Ranke, Sybel, Treitschke, Mommsen, and
the present-day professors Lamprecht and Delbriick
have specially glorified the part in the world which
has been played by the House of Hohenzollern. Said
Ranke, 'the true destiny of Prussia is to be and re-
main a military monarchy.'1 Rome was, according
to Niebuhr, 'the model of national development.'
Among them all there have been found none to glorify
the heroes of the Revolution of 1848 who fought for
freedom from autocratic rule. A German who were to
attempt such praise would thereby end his career.
Poultney Bigelow, the Kaiser's friend for twenty-five
years, devoted himself for a number of years to a care-
ful study of the history of Germany with the aid of
every facility which the Kaiser could afford him. He
was thus enabled to produce his four volume History
of the German Struggle for Liberty, but only at the cost
of offending and forever losing favor with His Majesty
the Kaiser — he had dared to tell the true story without
regard to the feelings of the Hohenzollern rulers.
Discipline of the Individual in Germany 125
The supposed preeminence of German scholarship
is to a very considerable extent based upon: ist, the
excellence of their teaching methods; 2d,
the freedom of entrance into their universi-
ties as opposed to the antiquated and formal scholarship
requirements which, until recently, have been
insisted upon at French and English universities (8) ;
3d, the many well-written and comprehensive reference
manuals, Handbucher, prepared upon each subject in
the German language; and, 4th, the military exploita-
tion for advertising purposes of German science at
international congresses and committees. The most
distinguished of German intellectuals have, with the
support and encouragement of the German Govern-
ment, attended these meetings in considerable numbers,
and by carefully correlating their papers they have
been able to produce a telling effect.
So soon as we review the field of scientific discovery
and invention, we find that Germany's part is but small
compared to that of France or England or even of
America ; and this was to have been expected by reason
of her sacrifice of individuality to organization. This
fact has been brought out by a well-known American
scientist. Dr. W. J. Holland, in a pamphlet, Germany
and Science (9).
The state course in discipline provided for the Ger-
man citizen reaches its climax in military service under
the Prussian drill sergeant, and what little
individuality has survived to this point the
under the operation of the system, is now drm
1-11 1 11- T-» •< sergeant
likely to be obliterated. Even the docile
German people have been stung to protest by the fright-
ful brutalities of the barrack yard. Striking in the
face, kicking, and insulting with abusive language are
126 The World War
among the lesser and commoner occurrences; while
pricking with swords and being compelled to drink
the contents of cuspidors are the severer abuses of this
system. The facts have been established beyond all
question by the trial of Rosa Luxemburg (10). And
that the government desires to retain the system with-
out essential modification is equally certain. It is
but carrying out the dictum of Frederick the Great,
who believed that a soldier should fear his officer more
than he does the enemy. Such a training is, more-
over, essential to an army which, instead of being led
into battle, is driven in by its officers. The system
is responsible for a large percentage of suicides of sol-
diers under training, and by perhaps an equal number
among those who are trying to escape the ordeal through
a success in studies which will permit them to serve as
officers and acquire social standing as well. The pitiful
story from this side is told by the baroness whom I
have so often cited (2, p. 401). Little wonder that after
the crowning work of tyranny by the drill sergeant
the German citizen is ready to accept what the govern-
ment supplies without any attempt to secure his liber-
ties by a hopeless opposition. The experience of Karl
Liebknecht may serve him as a sufficient warning.
An American who does not know Germany from expe-
rience, should familiarize himself with the German
system through the writings of the Countess von Arnim
(n) or by reading the recent book Christine (12).
Let no one be deceived into thinking that we have
not been fighting the German people as well as the
We are House of Hohenzollern. It is beyond doubt
^a* there are many in Germany not in sym-
pathy with the military party, but it is,
in my belief, equally true that if an untrammelled
Discipline of the Individual in Germany 127
referendum were possible in Germany to determine
whether the nation desired to replace the monarchy
by a republic, the monarchy would win.
A generally well-informed writer who has helped to
disseminate this misleading doctrine of the bad Ger-
man Kaiser and the good German people, has, after
a sojourn with the democratic German refugees in
Switzerland, completely altered his opinion. He now
quotes one of these refugees as follows: "Help can
come only from one place, from Bethlehem — Beth-
lehem, Penn. But you do not realize it fully. They
will cheat you yet, those Junkers. Having won one-
half of the world by bloody murder, they are going to
win the other half with tears in their eyes, crying for
mercy" (13).
Whether this be true or not, nothing save a crush-
ing military defeat will bring serious disaffection in
the army, and without this destruction of the bulwark
of Kaiserdom no democracy is even conceivable in
Germany.
REFERENCES
1. BIGELOW, POULTNEY, Prussian Memories, 1864-1914, pp. 197,
New York, Putnams, 1915.
2. "The American Wife of a titled German, Militarism in German
Social Life, and How Prussianism Warps Men and Women,"
Independent, Nov. 16, 1914, pp. 231-232, and Dec. 14, 1914,
pp. 401-403.
3. R. L. S., New York Times, April, 1918.
4. FERNAU, HERMANN, The Coming Democracy, pp. 321, New York,
Button, 1917.
5. CURTIN, D. THOMAS, The Land of Deepening Shadow, pp. 337
(Chaps, iii-viii. particularly), New York, Doran, 1917.
6. WETTERLE, ABBE, Behind the Scenes in the Reichstag, pp. 256,
New York, Doran, 1918.
7. GERARD, JAMES W., My Four Years in Germany, pp. 448, New
York, Doran, 1917.
128 The World War
8. See, however, Science and Learning in France, with a survey of
Opportunities for American Students in French Universities , an
Appreciation by American Scholars (John H. Wigmore, editor),
pp. 459, Society for American Fellowships in French Universities,
1917.
9. HOLLAND, W. J., Germany in Science, the German Claim to Scienti-
fic Leadership Refuted, pp. 22, Pittsburgh, 1917.
10. ALTSCHUL, CHARLES, German Militarism and its German Critics,
pp. 45, Com. Pub. Inf., War Inf. Series, No. 13, March, 1918.
11. RUSSELL, MARY ANNETTE (Countess von Arnim), Elizabeth and
her German Garden, pp. 175, New York, Macmillan, 1899.
12. CHOLMONDELEY, ALICE (pen name), Christine, pp. 250, New York,
Macmillan, 1917.
13. BOHN, FRANK, "Views of the German Exiles," New York Times,
Aug. i, 1918.
14. WILE, FREDERICK WILLIAM, Men around the Kaiser, the Makers
of Modern Germany, pp. 261, Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1914.
15. BEAUFORT, J. M., Behind the German Veil, pp. 368, Hutchinson,
1916.
1 6. HOLMES, EDMOND, The Nemesis of Docility — a Study of German
Character, pp. 264, London, Constable, 1916.
17. CLARK, VICTOR S., "The German Press and Public Opinion,"
pp. 1-9, Ail. Month,, July, 1918.
1 8. VIERECK, GEORGE SYLVESTER, Confessions of a Barbarian, pp. 207
(Chaps, i.-vii.), New York, Moffat, Yard & Co., 1910.
19. BEVAN, EDWYN, German Social Democracy during the War, pp. 280,
London, Allen & Unwin, 1918.
20. JOUBERT, WILFRED A., " Neighbor Hans," pp. 166-174, Ail. Month.
Feb., 1918.
21. CHADBOURNE, PHILIP HEMENWAY, " Tribus Germanicus, Personal
Experiences with Tribal Psychology," pp. 607-614, Atl. Month.,
Nov., 1918.
VIII
HOW GERMANY PREPARED FOR WAR BY
PEACEFUL PENETRATION
:
"Nothing more fantastic yet real, more splendid or squalid, more
sublime or base, has been conceived by the most imaginative writer
of fiction. It is a gorgeous vision of which many of the elements are
ugly, base, and repulsive, a vision which seizes and fascinates the imagi-
nation while it chills the moral sense of the spectator." — E. J. DILLON.
"Long before the war the German Government, through its agents
in this country sought to control practically every important and
essential industry. It was part of her plan to colonize, subdue, and
control the world. She planted a great industrial and commercial
army on American soil, and that army had become so large and so
powerful that when the war broke out in 1914, Germany believed it
would be strong enough to keep America out of the war." — A. MITCHEL
PALMER, Alien Property Custodian of the United States, 1918.
HOW by making her army the strongest in Europe
and by setting out to challenge England's
supremacy upon the sea, Germany laid her
plans for the great war, we have already preparation
seen; as we have how she made special
supplementary military preparations for launching
the war in the summer of 1914. These were, however,
but a part of her preparations; for Germany's claim
has been that war is but a more acute phase of a contest
to the death which is carried out along commercial
and other lines, and that the complement to strength-
ening at home is to weaken the enemy state.
Of the extent to which these latter methods have
9 129
130 The World War
been carried, or better, the depths to which they have
sunk ; the world has known comparatively little. Even
writers of wide reputation in the fields of commerce
and industry would appear to have been quite oblivious
to them, though the considerations are of the utmost
importance. The Paris Figaro probably expressed
fairly the prevailing opinion in France when it said
that, bad as were the present conditions, it was after
all better to have two million barbares casques fighting
in their country than to have fifteen million barbares
masques operating peacefully within their borders.
Having had the opportunity in successive visits to
observe the workings of Germany's peaceful penetra-
tion in Switzerland, Italy, and France, and to a less
extent in other countries where German peaceful
penetration has been in progress, such as Russia and
Egypt; the pithy characterization of Figaro appears
to me to be fully warranted by the facts.
More than to any one else we owe to Henri Hauser,
the distinguished French economist, such awakening
Peaceful as has come to this peril in German coin-
penetration mercialism; though Schwob, Andrillon, Gray,
Leon Daudet, Vergnet, and McLaren (i) have each
sounded a warning. The English or American who
would become familiar with this subject is recommended
to consult especially Hauser 's Germany's Commercial
Grip on the World, and his Economic Germany (2) ; as
well as A. D. McLaren's Peaceful Penetration (i),
Wallace's Greater Italy (3), and Dr. Dillon's From the
Triple to the Quadruple Alliance (4).
The object of the German methods is to reduce the
rival state to a condition of economic vassalage, through
a combination of methods which have been collectively
described as "peaceful penetration' or "commercial
How Germany Prepared for War 131
infiltration. ' ' This object is achieved most easily in the
case of states contiguous to Germany, though, thanks
to her excellent subsidized merchant marine, Germany
has extended her penetration even to the most distant
countries. Her success has been most marked in the
case of Italy, though only less so in Switzerland, France,
Holland, Belgium, and Russia; and among more distant
countries, in Egypt, Brazil, Argentine, Chili, Australia,
and the United States. Says Hauser :
"Another twenty years of this universal peaceful pene-
tration and all the adverse forces would have been neutral-
ized, strangled by the presence in every national organization
of the agents of German expansion. Another twenty years
and the syndicate of five or six great Berlin banks would have
assumed the economic direction of the world."
This statement, strong as it is, seems to be fully
warranted by the facts; though the German system
carried with it its special dangers which might even
have wrecked it, and this necessity to save the system
from disaster was perhaps even a contributing cause
of the great war.
The fundamental condition which permits of exten-
sive peaceful penetration, is a dominance in the pro-
duction of iron and steel, the basis of modern
industry ; and for this the state must possess
its own developed resources of coal and iron. resources
As regards the former, Germany's superiority
in Europe has long been overwhelming. B ef ore the war
Germany produced annually 191,000,000 tons of hard
coal and an additional 82 ,000,000 tons of lignite or brown
coal. It has already been explained how Germany's pov-
erty in iron ores was remedied by the rape of Alsace and
Lorraine in 1871. From an annual production of iron
132 The World War
ore which was only 1,000,000 tons in 1870, Germany's
yield in ore soon passed that of England, and in the
year before the war was 28,000,000 tons from her own
territory and an additional 7,000,000 tons from Luxem-
bourg, which was included in her Customs Union.
Her ever more ambitious iron industry was bringing
in an additional 14,000,000 tons of imported ore in
order to serve her capacious maw. This mighty
transformation of her industries was largely concen-
trated within the six-year period between 1894 and
1901 . The consumption of coal per capita of the popu-
lation increased in this period nearly one half and that
of iron more than one half. The production of iron
had at the end of this interval increased from 5,000,000
to 8,000,000 tons and that of coal from 95,000,000 to
136,000,000 tons (2).
Now it is necessary to credit the German people
with certain praiseworthy qualities for this achieve-
The win ment in development, which is a little short
to power o£ astounding. For it there were necessary
wise foresight and that patient persevering industry
which the German people possess in larger measure
perhaps than any other. There was also requisite a
degree of organization of a distinctly military character,
which is possible only in a people reduced to the posi-
tion of slaves by the disciplinary processes described
in the last chapter; and there was essential, further,
a concentration of technical knowledge and skill. This
latter is largely the product of the eleven German
polytechnic schools, which every year have twelve
thousand students and yield about three thousand
engineers to German industry.
Most important of all, however, has been that will
to power of the German state which has subordinated
How Germany Prepared for War 133
every other consideration to a conquest of the world,
by methods which are equally detestable whether in
one or the other of the closely coordinated fields of
peaceful and military penetration.
Now the effect of Germany's revolution of industry
has been to employ in her workshops millions of her
citizens who before had been devoted to TheTenta-
agriculture. In order to feed itself, workers cular state
must be brought by the state from outside German
territory in order to operate the deserted farms, unless
it is to purchase all its food abroad through the sale
of its merchandise. Germany has followed both
courses, bringing in each year more than seven hundred
thousand laborers, mainly from Russia, and importing
large quantities of food products from overseas.
Through excessive over-production of the products
of her workshops during the last decade before the
war, Germany had become more and more dependent
upon outside markets, and in consequence was feverishly
seeking to reach out in new directions after customers.
She thus became a "tentacular state" — an octopus of
industry. It is necessary clearly to comprehend this
condition in order to appreciate the spur behind her
missionaries of industry in developing the base methods
of her commercial infiltration.
What then, are these methods? The question can
best be answered by considering the case of Italy, since
she has been the greatest victim. Says Dr. Methods of
E. J. Dillon, one of the keenest and best- ?«•*»*»
informed writers upon European affairs :
'Nothing more fantastic yet real, more splendid or
squalid, more sublime or base, has been conceived by the
most imaginative writer of fiction. It is a gorgeous vision
134 The World War
of which many of the elements are ugly, base, and repulsive,
a vision which seizes and fascinates the imagination while
it chills the moral sense of the spectator. The central action
centers around a bank which, created almost out of nothing,
wormed itself into the economic organism of the kingdom,
grubbing up capital as it wriggled forward, undermined
native industries and institutions, seized and bereft them
of their national character, teutonized their direction and
activity, but left them their pristine shape and color; and
in this way caught in its clutches production and distribu-
tion, metallurgical works, steamship companies, financial
institutions, municipalities, electoral constituencies, in-
fluential press organs, chiefs of parliamentary parties and
Cabinet Ministers, and swayed the nation's policy, nego-
tiating peace, ending war, imposing neutrality, and exer-
cising suzerain rights in the guise of the accomplishment of
patriotic duty. No more astounding phenomenon has been
revealed to the world's view by any period of human history. ' '
(4. P- 74-)
As Dr. Dillon points out, the German activities
looking toward the penetration of Italy, began with
The forms the banking institution, and has ever since
of activity centered around it. This has also quite
generally been true in the other fields where there has
been German penetration. The four most important
methods of insinuation into the affairs of the rival
state have, according to Hauser, been German banks,
cartels, transportation systems, and those peculiar
subterranean activities which are grouped under the
term, German state action.
The Banca Commerciale Italiana (Italian Commercial
Bank) was founded in Italy in 1895 by a
group of German financiers using a capital
of four million dollars, a most modest sum
for what it was planned to accomplish. This bank
How Germany Prepared for War 135
early took advantage of the compliant Italian law
governing the formation of joint stock companies, and
it is said to have formed no less than 793 of them, the
majority not quoted on 'change, but representing an
aggregate invested capital of $779,634,000. The con-
trol of such an amount of capital in Italy confers con-
trol of the state. With stock so widely scattered,
fictitious majorities were easily secured by the three
German Jews, Joel, Weil, and Toepliz, who have
managed the affairs of the bank. The thirty million
dollars of the recent stock of the Banca Commerciale
were distributed in a way to calm suspicions and to
give this financial octopus a seeming Italian character.
By clever manipulation of such enormous resources,
the Italian stock exchange can be affected at will and
thousands of families impoverished in consequence.
Special advantages were extended by the bank to
German merchants, while independent concerns were
boycotted, their financial status affected by unfavor-
able statements made in high quarters and furnished
by the 'secret and confidential information bureau";
so that credit would be denied them. Individuals,
institutions, and joint stock companies were silently
struck down by these fiches d1 informations, and ruin
followed as a matter of course.
'By these and kindred methods," continues Dillon,
'Italian industries were besieged and stormed or forced to
surrender at discretion. In the latter case they Growth of
were taken over and dealt with as 'tied houses,' power
being allowed to eke out a more or less stagnant existence,
on condition that they followed the German lead and con-
tributed to the realization of the German plan. And as
every fresh victory added to the power as well as the pres-
tige of the Teuton institution, the campaign ended in the
136 The World War
subjugation of every enterprise of importance in the King-
dom. Metallurgical factories, shipbuilding works, steam-
ship companies, greater and lesser electrical works, almost
all fell under the control of the Banco, Commerciale which laid
down such rules for their activity as were conducive to the
success of the broad scheme of interpenetration." (4, p. 78.)
The great business trusts of Germany differ from
those in the United States, supposedly the home of the
trust, in that thev maintain a close relation-
cartels
ship to the state and are, in fact, its wards.
These state-supported syndicates, or cartels, are a
vital part of the system of penetration. Among them
are the Hamburg-American and North German Lloyd
Steamship Companies, the Allgemeine Elektrizitdts
Gesellschaft, the Siemens & Halske Company, the great
Krupp establishment, etc. Through the agency of the
shipping companies, the tentacles of the German octopus
are extended to the remotest portions of the earth, so
that Australia and the South American republics have
been among the worst victims of peaceful penetration.
The method by which the cartels operate in the foreign
country is to sell their products there at rates low
enough to stifle competition, the while recouping them-
selves by a higher profit exacted of the docile Germans
at home. These Germans are in no position to object,
even if they know of the working of the system; and
it is in any case preached to them that their duty is
to submit uncomplainingly to anything which makes
for the extension of Deutschtum in the world.
By devious methods the press of the invaded state
is brought under the influence of Deutschtum, the
The foreign German language press, particularly, being
press control often secretly owned in Germany and its
proprietorship disguised in various ways.
How Germany Prepared for War 137
By May, 1914, in order still further to enlarge the
powers of German propaganda through the medium of
the press, Dr. Hammann, head of the Official Dr Ham_
News Service of the German Government, mann's special
had completed the organization of a special
bureau for poisoning the foreign press. The operation
of this bureau is illustrated by the following incident:
One of the best known woman newspaper reporters of
Norway was asked by the head of this bureau if she
would not like to do some easy work which would re-
quire little time and for which she would be well paid.
Upon asking for particulars, she was informed :
"Germany wishes to educate other countries to an appre-
ciation of things German. Within a year, or at most within
two years, we shall be doing this by sending to foreign news-
papers articles which will instruct the world about Germany.
Of course it is not advisable to send them directly from our
own bureau; it is much better to appear to have them come
from the correspondents of the various foreign newspapers.
Thus, we shall send you articles which you need only copy
or translate and sign." (5, p. 93.)
Perhaps the most noteworthy of pro-German cor-
respondents of the American newspapers has been
William Bayard Hale, D.D., of the Hearst
Syndicate, who later headed the German ized foreign
Information Bureau in America and who corresp°nd-
ents
was afterwards shown to be a German spy
and agent by papers captured by the police in the
office of Franz von Igel, von BernstorfFs accomplice
in New York. Other Germanized American press
correspondents have been James O' Bonn ell Bennett,
whose shamelessly pro-German and anti-American
articles sent from the entourage of von Hindenburg
138 The World War
have continued to appear in American papers, Karl
Heinrich von Weigand, the special correspondent of
the New York World; and Carl W. Ackermann, who
since his return to this country has claimed conversion
to an American viewpoint.
Those German language newspapers of the United
States which before the war had eked out a precarious
existence, after the outbreak of hostilities in Europe
became strangely prosperous and were able to main-
tain their own special correspondents at the German
capital. Some of them, notably a Cleveland news-
paper, upon investigation proved to be owned in Ger-
many, with the ostensible proprietor and editor a
trustee only. George Sylvester Viereck, editor of
Viereck's Weekly, and until its suppression by the
government, of Fatherland, has confessed that he
received $100,000 from the German Imperial Ambas-
sador for the distribution of pro-German pamphlets
at a cost of less than $25,000. Louis N. Hammerling,
self-elected President of the Association of Foreign
Language Newspapers and the head of a New York
advertising agency, received from the German Govern-
ment $205,000 for placing advertisements favorable
to Germany in both foreign and English language
newspapers as part of a campaign conducted in 1915
against the manufacture and shipment of munitions
by the United States. He has since been under arrest
in connection with anti-American activities.
I have been informed by one of the best American
newspaper business men that he was approached and
given carte blanche to buy up any and all struggling
American periodicals with a generous bonus for himself.
The proposition was turned down, but as this occurred
more than a year ago, it suggests that the political bias
How Germany Prepared for War 139
of certain of our literary political journals be carefully
scrutinized with this in mind. Some of them, it is
true, could not be made worse than they had been, and
it is a fact of sinister import that with the exception
of Harvey's War Weekly and The Villager we have not
a single well-known weekly political journal which
represents a sturdy American viewpoint on the war.
Most discouraging of all, the great Hearst newspaper
Syndicate with newspapers in cities and towns stretch-
ing from one end of the country to the other, has been
from the start under strong German influence. When
the rising spirit of the country had required it to
tone down its praise of Germany, the guns of the
Syndicate were turned upon England in accord with
the then intensified motif of German propaganda.
So gross have been the statements which the Hearst
newspapers have directed against Great Britain, that
the British Government was compelled to stop the
transmission of Hearst news over their cable system.
Notwithstanding its strong anti-American attitude, the
Hearst Syndicate has been permitted to operate with-
out interference, though less powerful organizations
have been ruthlessly suppressed. According to the
Tribune, among the Hearst employees have been Albert
Sander, dramatic critic of the Deutsches Journal, a con-
victed spy master; Hans von Stengel, writer on the
same paper who has been interned; William Bayard
Hale, secret head editor of German propaganda for the
United States, and from his intimacy with President
Wilson jokingly referred to by Germans as 'the
kitchen entrance to the White House"; Albrecht de
Montgelas, art critic of the Chicago Examiner and an
interned German propagandist; Arthur W. Mateikat
writer for the Deutsches Journal and the friend of
140 The World War
Sander; and Theodore Sutro, editor-in-chief of the
Deutsches Journal and the high official of the National
German-American Alliance who defended this disloyal
organization before the Committee of Inquiry of the
United States Senate. Mr. William R. Hearst, the
proprietor of the syndicate, has been friendly to Jere-
miah O'Leary, indicted Sinn Feiner, and with Bolo
Pasha, executed for high treason in France (6).
Attacks upon the Hearst papers by patriotic speakers
in the Council of National Defense have been stopped
by Secretary Baker, and as a consequence Dr. James
A. B. Scheerer, Chief Field Agent of the State Councils
Section, has resigned and published an open letter (7).
Germany's aim in penetration of alien countries has
been to gain control of what may be called key indus-
tries. Foremost among these are the iron
Control
o* metai and steel industry, and next in order the
other metal industries of production and
trade. Herr Thyssen, the great German iron-master,
had his mines, iron smelters, and docks in British
India, in Holland, on the Black Sea in Southern Russia,
and in France in the Calvados district of Brittany.
Under fictitious names he was able to work his way
also into the Minette area of France. Says Hauser :
"At the same time he (Thyssen) sent his divers to Dinette
to search for ore under the sea : He planted his agents in the
mining and metallurgical company of Calvados, started
under some one else's name the company of mines and
quarries at Flamanville, and then the powerful company of
smelting and steel works of Caen. By these operations he
gained the double advantage of buying ore from us and
selling coke to us. With the iron of Lorraine and Nor-
mandy and the coal of Westphalia, Germany could be the
mistress of the world. " (2, p. 19.)
How Germany Prepared for War 141
Australia, one of the richest repositories of metals
to be found anywhere in the world, discovered after
the outbreak of war in 1914 that the entire Australia's
vast metal industry of the country was in pUght
the grip of German capital, with contract arrangements
restricting the sale to certain agents, who were sending
the ore to Europe for treatment. It was soon discov-
ered that while these agents were nominally in London
and had English names, they were in reality Germans
living at Frankfort-on-the-Main. For some months
after war had been declared the British Government
was buying Australian lead, zinc, and copper through
this German agency, whereby Germany had been
getting its zinc for about one third the price paid by
Great Britain.
To meet the intolerable situation in which Australia
found herself, she was forced to pass the War Pre-
caution Act, under the operation of which The war
every German contract was annulled, every Precaution
German trademark cancelled, and every
company given three months' notice to strike every
German shareholder, whether naturalized or not, off
their registers (i, p. 55).
In this year of grace 1918 it has been discovered that
the Becker Steel Company of America with a plant at
Charleston, West Virginia, producing a special "high
speed" steel of great value, instead of being an Ameri-
can institution as claimed, is held in trust for the
Aktien Gesellschaft of Willich, Germany. The Vice-
President of the company made report to the Alien
Enemy Custodian that the property was entirely
American owned. Investigation showed, however,
that it was owned in Germany, and the President of
the Company afterwards admitted that of the 5297
142 The World War
shares of stock 5000 were owned in Germany. It came
out also that 33,075 pounds of the rare and valuable
tungsten used for special steels had been shipped from
this firm to Germany on the merchant submarine
Deutschland when it came to this country in 1915.
In addition to the metal trades there are other in-
dustries which are properly designated key industries ;
since they are industries on which the con-
tinued normal life of the state depends. Such
monopolized are water supply and electric lighting
by Germany
and the various other enterprises generally
classed as public utilities. In all countries where Ger-
man penetration has been in progress, the absorption
of these industries has nearly always gone on, though
generally under disguises of one sort or another so
that the German ownership would not be suspected.
The "group system" of infiltration of men has been
for a well-trained German artisan to obtain a post
below his station in the office of a foreign company,
and through ingratiating himself with the company
by means of his superior ability, to get others inducted
into the firm upon the same basis as himself, until at
length a group of Germans has been formed and
acquires control. These men are all spies who send
to the Fatherland the secrets of the Company, and
should they be unsuccessful in acquiring control, they
are in position to start a competitive concern and ruin
the original company. For their purpose the method
of the cartel already described is resorted to, capital
being supplied to run the business, at a loss if necessary,
until the original firm has been destroyed. Much use
is made both of fictitious names and of genuine names
which correspond in character to those common in the
country invaded. To illustrate the working of the
How Germany Prepared for War 143
system in Switzerland, Hauser has supplied the fol-
lowing data concerning certain Swiss firms in German
control: Soci'ete Anonyme pour V Industrie de V Alu-
minium (Neuchatel) with a staff of eight Germans,
one Austrian, and six Swiss; Banque des Chemins de
Per Orientaux (Zurich), with a staff of eight Germans,
one Frenchman, one Belgian, one Austrian, and five
Swiss; Banque pour Entreprises Electriques (Zurich)
with a staff of fifteen Germans and nine Swiss; and
the Societe des Valeurs de Metaux (Bale), with a staff
of ten Germans and five Swiss (2, p. 21).
The cotton and wool industries are of foremost
importance, and their products are especially so for
Germany, which must provide such goods cotton and
even when normal conditions of trade are w°o1
broken by blockade. Four years after war had begun
and a year and a half after the entry of the United
States, it was first discovered that the great Forstmann
& Huffmann Company and the Botany Worsted Mills
at Passaic, New Jersey, two of the largest wool concerns
in the United States, were in reality German concerns
owned in Leipsic; and that by false statements they
had deceived the government authorities and been
permitted to continue operating during the war, pur-
chasing their wool in Australia through parties who
lent themselves to the enterprise for a consideration,
and shipping uniforms to Germany by way of Sweden
as a consequence of additional false statements given
to the government (8).
The basis of most chemicals used in various industries,
especially the dyes which play so large a Chemicais
rdle in the manufacture of textile fabrics,
is coal-tar, a by-product from the distilla-
tion of coal to produce gas and coke. Germany's great
144 The World War
resources in coal gave her opportunities which she was
quick to grasp by developing a system of education in
technical chemistry unrivaled in the world. A result
has been that she had acquired what has amounted to
a world monopoly of the production of fine chemicals,
pharmaceutical preparations, dyes, and explosives;
all so interlocked and interrelated in their manufacture,
involving such an outlay of capital, such a highly
trained personnel, and so many years to perfect the
industry, that in normal times of peace her lead over
the world could hardly have been overcome.
This has occurred notwithstanding the fact that the
basal discoveries upon which the dye industry has been
founded, those of aniline-violet and fuchsine, were
not German, but English and French. In this field
also the poison gas of deceit covered the advance of
peaceful penetration into French territory. At Neu-
ville-sur-Sa6ne under a French name the Badische
Sodafabrik was actually manufacturing the madder
dye for the red trousers of French uniforms. Simi-
larly the Compagnie Parisienne des Couleurs d* Aniline
was nothing but a branch of the German firm of Meister,
Lucius & Bruning (2, p. 20).
The war has served a useful purpose and given other
nations the necessary opportunity to, in part, make up
Germany's lead in the dye industry. Her monopoly in
that field has now been broken, though it will still be
many years before the technically trained staffs can be
provided to operate upon equal terms with Germany.
Now the basis of high explosives is phenol, which
is produced in connection with the dye in-
Manufacture
of war dustry, and it is little likely that a nation
whose principal business is war had overlooked
the advantage of building up a great system of chemical
How Germany Prepared for War 145
plants, which, when the foreign demand for dyes and
drugs had been cut off by war conditions, could be
quickly transformed into producers of tri-nitro-toluol
(T.N.T.) the high explosive which must then be pro-
duced upon a prodigious scale for war operations.
Germany's great plant for the production of guns
and shells, that of the Krupp's at Essen, utilizing as
it has the Lorraine ores and operating in connection
with the great chemical plants, has given Germany
an unrivaled position both in the manufacture and in
the sale of war materials. From a military standpoint
there are in this many obvious advantages. Through
the low cost of large scale production, it is temporarily
to the advantage of neighbor states in peace times to
purchase war materials from Germany, but in doing
this they leave themselves without the means of pro-
duction when it has suited Germany's purpose to turn
and rend them. Germany on the other hand, in the
event of war, possesses the plants and the skilled
workmen ready at hand for any increased production,
and this without interfering with other industries..
The methods of the German state in guiding and
stimulating commercial infiltration into its neighbor
states, have been so many and so devious
German
that a few only can be mentioned. Her state
embassies and consulates, existing by the
courtesy and favor of friendly states, have been made
the headquarters of her spy system and of subterranean
operations which to-day are sufficiently characterized
by the designation "German." Falsification of trade-
marks to secure successful competition with firms which
depend upon refinement in art, notoriously lacking in
Germany, has been one of the commonest of these
methods, and it has reacted most heavily upon France,
10
146 The World War
the very embodiment of refinement in manufacture.
The securing of trade secrets by introducing men under
false names and pretenses, has been another common
and well-established method of German penetration.
Soon after the German occupation of Shantung,
China, in 1905, there occurred a wholesale boycott
A to cott °f American goods which extended through-
Of American Out the Chinese Empire. Large placards in
the Chinese language appeared warning the
people not to purchase American goods. In this there
was much that puzzled the American firms engaged in
the Chinese trade, for no sooner did the goods come
ashore from the ships than they were found to be labeled
in Chinese characters as American, so that no Chinaman
should purchase under misunderstanding,
Mr. Gustavus Ohlinger, who has done so much to
enlighten Americans, concerning Teuton propaganda
in the United States, was at the time of the Chinese
boycott practicing law in Shanghai. To try a law case
in a court where the German language was used, he
went to Tsingtau, the capital of the German conces-
sion, and being taken for a German was treated accord-
ingly. He was invited to an inspection of the Imperial
German Printing Office, where to his stupefaction he
saw the posters and labels used to boycott American
goods actually being printed upon the presses of the
German Government. Thus the boycott of our goods
proved to be not primarily Chinese, but German, and
this contemptible practice had been resorted to as a
means of securing the business for Germany. Such a
revelation of perfidy makes one despair of means of pro-
tection against a "friendly" nation which practices the
method of the outlaw in peace as well as in war (14).
The spy system of the German banks operating
How Germany Prepared for War 147
within a foreign state has been connected up with the
military espionage, and has in fact constituted much
the most important part of the espionage The spy
system. Consider for a moment the oppor- system
tunity of control by the Banco, Commercials over
electrical industries which it owns in Italy. At any
hour of the day or night "electrical trouble" can occur,
either with or without assistance, and in consequence
all institutions, including fortresses and barracks, can
be entered by German agents under special privilege.
Or consider the way in which German Fire Insurance
Companies on pretext of inspecting the property to
see whether regulations are complied with, can insin-
uate their agents into places from which the govern-
ment desires for obvious reasons that they be excluded.
It was the German Fire Insurance Companies in
America which gathered much of the information and
compassed many of the explosions in munition plants
before their business was taken from them. Of a
Teuton it is only necessary to know that the oppor-
tunity for advantage exists, since no ethical standards
are likely to deter him from making use of it.
REFERENCES
»
1. McLAREN, A. D., Peaceful Penetration, pp. 224, London, Constable,
1916.
2. HAUSER, HENRI, Economic Germany, Germany's Industry Regarded
as a Factor Making for War (trans.), pp. 33, London, Nelson, 1915.
Germany's Commercial Grip on the World. Her Business Methods
Explained (trans.), pp. 259, New York, Scribners, 1917.
3. WALLACE, WILLIAM KAY, Greater Italy, pp. 312, New York, Scrib-
ners, 1917.
4. DILLON, Dr. E. J., From the Triple to the Quadruple Alliance,
Why Italy Went to War, pp. 242, London, Hodder, 1915.
5. CURTIN, D. THOMAS, The Land of Deepening Shadow, pp. 337,
New York, Doran, 1917.
148 The World War
6. MACGOWAN, KENNETH, " Hears-s-s-s-t Coiled in the Flag."
Six articles reprinted from the New York Tribune (Sunday)
of April 28, May 5, 12, 19, 26, and June 2, 1918, p. 32.
7. New York Times, June 25, 26, 1918.
8. See numerous articles printed in New York Times in July and
August, 1918.
9. ZIMMERMANN, Dr. ALFRED, "Fomenting Revolution in British
India," New York Times, Feb. 28, 1918; 3:3, ibid., Oct. 18,
1918.
10. Low, SYDNEY, Italy in the War, pp. 316 (chaps, xiii.-xv.), New
York, Longmans, 1916.
11. BENSON, E. F., Crescent and Iron Cross, pp. 240, New York, Doran,
1918 (esp. pp. 139-181).
12. "Palmer would pay German Debts Here," New York Times, Nov.
7, 1918.
13. HERZOG, S. The Ftiture of German Industrial Exports, pp. 196,
New York, Doubleday, 1918.
14. Personal communication which I am authorized to use.
IX
THE "GREATER EMPIRE' OF GERMAN EX-
PANSION— DEUTSCHTUM IM AUSLAND
•
" Thousands of your fellow-countrymen are living in all parts of the
world, German wares, German knowledge, German business energy,
traverse the ocean. The earnest duty, then, devolves upon you to
form a strong link with this Greater Empire, binding it to the Empire
at home." -WILLIAM II., on the 25th Anniversary of the foundation
of the German Empire.
'To speak German is to remain German." — LUDWIG FULDA.
"For if the German who intends to remain there [in America] does
not become a citizen, he has no vote at the elections, no influence of
any kind on the conduct of the nation's political affairs. He must
become an American; he is permitted, however, and can and ought
in heart, thought, nature, and act to remain a German." — HERMANN
ONCKEN.
VI 0 WHERE has the aim of modern Germanism
been more concisely stated than in the Kaiser's
speech above cited. To accomplish this end Deutschtum
of keeping German emigrants loyal to the imAusland
Fatherland and making of them purveyors of German
industry and commerce as well as German propagan-
dists, has been one of the prime objects of German
penetration. The chief end and aim of all these ef-
forts has been to retain the use of the German lan-
guage among those Germans who have emigrated,
experience in many parts of the world having shown
conclusively the truth of the assertion that to continue
to speak German is to remain German.
149
150 The World War
German schools, and especially German church
parochial schools, throughout the world have therefore
been assiduously cultivated, and a list of all such
schools is published in Germany. This has been one
of the most sinister influences in the modern history of
democracies, supported as it has been by professors of
the German language in the adopted country, these
professors having been little better than German agents
when they have not been so in fact.
It was soon learned by Germany that in coming
under other than strictly German influences, the Ger-
man emigrants began to realize that their
* allegiance belonged to the new homeland
exploited where they had cast in their fortunes. The
in America
most potent influence in giving them this
viewpoint has been the public school.
To meet this obstacle in her path Germany organ-
ized, in foreign countries, the German societies and
Lokals where Germans would assemble, keep up the use
of the German language, and see about them the colors
and the pictures of the Fatherland, especially the por-
traits of the Kaiser and the members of the royal
family. The drinking of beer, Germany's national
beverage to which they were habituated, has been a
potent bond of union. Turnvereine (gymnastic socie-
ties) , Schutzenvereine (rifle clubs) , army reserve societies,
and cooperative life insurance companies, such as the
Arbeiter: have all been utilized to the full in order to
keep emigrated Germans from becoming good citizens
of the countries where they have thrown in their lot.
Within the United States the local German- Ameri-
can Alliances were federated into the National German-
American Alliance, which has not merely served to
supply organization and stimulation to Deutschtum
German Expansion 151
im Ausland, but has maintained close connections
with the Fatherland and been the potent means of
preventing: a proper fusion within the nation's
The National
" melting pot. This organization was re-
cently investigated by a Committee of In-
quiry of the United States Senate, as a result
of which it was found to have fostered disloyalty and
has been in consequence broken up (i). Some state-
ments taken from its Official Bulletin, which is not
distributed to the public but which figured in the
evidence, will be of interest :
"The National Alliance leads the battle against
Anglo-Saxonism, against the fanatical slaves of poli-
tical and personal liberty' (Official Bulletin, vol. vii.,
No. 9, p. 4).
In a pamphlet published by the Alliance in 1911,
which was entitled The Chronological History of the
National German-American Alliance of the United
States, these statements occur :
"Furthermore, the National German- American Alliance
aims to bring about this unity of feeling among the popula-
tion of German origin in America, and even if it only
approximates its aim, the centralization of the German-
American element, it will, nevertheless, have accomplished
as great a work as was performed in 1871 by Bismarck. . . .
"The National German- American Alliance has succeeded
in consolidating the German element in the United States.
• • •
'For years, quietly but steadfastly, German- American
ideals have thus been brought to the foreground by the
unification of the German-American efforts in American
public life." (i, p. 161.)
To ease the consciences of those Germans in foreign
countries who had sworn or would swear allegiance to
152 The World War
their new country in accepting its citizenship, Germany
at the instigation of Professor Delbruck of the Uni-
versity of Berlin enacted in 1913 the out-
bruck law rageous law of dual allegiance. This law said
aie "aLce ^n e^ect : ' ' ^ou may pretend to be a citizen of
your new country in order to reap the advan-
tages and opportunities which go with citizenship, but
you can really retain your fealty to the German Father-
land." In his Historical and Political Essays and
Speeches, Hermann Oncken, Professor of Modern
History at the University of Heidelberg, says of this
law: ;'For if the German who intends to remain there
(in America) does not become a citizen, he has no vote
at the elections, no influence of any kind on the con-
duct of the nation's political affairs. He must become
an American; he is permitted, however, and can and
ought in heart, thought, nature, and act to remain a
German/1
Kuno Francke, now Professor Emeritus of Germanic
Languages at Harvard University, and a naturalized
American citizen, wrote the following poem, published
in the German text Im Vaterland, which children in
our schools are, from instructions in the preface, re-
quested to commit to memory:
"Oh, Germany, of all thy children
None love thee so much as we,
We that be far from thee,
Germans across the sea."
In August, 1915, a party of two hundred Boston
Germans, most of whom were American citizens, sat
down to dinner on the interned steamship Kronprin-
zessin Cecilie lying in Boston harbor, pledged their
loyalty to the Kaiser by wireless, and in reply received
German Expansion 153
a message. Their names were printed in the Providence
Journal (2, p. 9).
As a consequence of the outrageous Delbruck law,
citizenship of German-Americans, German-Brazilians,
etc., is without value in indicating allegiance, save
only where words and actions alike indicate that the
man who has accepted the citizenship is no longer a
German but, on the contrary, a man of honor.
The oft-quoted statement that German professors
constitute the intellectual bodyguard of the Hohen-
zollerns, has been verified not only in the
J The German
Fatherland but in the adopted country. professor
Professor W. W. Florer of the German again
Department of the University of Michigan, though
born an American citizen, has been for a number of
years preceding the war the notoriously active head
of the "educational' work of the National German-
American Alliance in the State of Michigan. It was
he who managed the American tour of Dr. Eugen
Kuehnemann, who came to the United States in 1915
in succession to Dr. Dernberg as the Kaiser's special
agent for propaganda purposes (3, p. 24).
Taking advantage of the fact that the head of the
Michigan Branch of the Sons of the American Revolu-
tion was an ardent pacifist, Professor Florer
A wolf in
got himself appointed the State Manager of sheep's
"An Americanization Movement," under
which deceptive title he preached German kultur while
organizing many new branches of the S. A. R., and his
chief later became a vice-President of the national
body. Coming under criticism for the pro-German
doctrines he was preaching, as the spirit of the nation
rose, Florer now got himself appointed State Historian
by the same plastic, officials of the State organization.
154 The World War
Praise of Germany being now unpopular, Florer
marched in step with the new motif of German propa-
ganda and under the aegis of the Sons of the American
Revolution he lectured in many parts of the State on
the history of the American Revolution. Other lec-
tures upon the same subject were reported in the Official
Bulletin of the German-American Alliance to have
been given under the auspices of the University of
Michigan Extension Department (3, pp. 10, 31).
These "history" lectures of Professor Florer ignored
the part of France in achieving our independence,
stirred up hatred against England, and through failing
to mention the part of the Hessians and magnifying
the part played by German- Americans, there was left
upon his audiences the impression that American
independence had been achieved by Germans. In one
of his statements he even claimed that our American
Revolutionary fathers drew their inspiration from
Schiller, who at the time was seventeen years of age.
Some of Professor Florer 's later meetings stopped little
short of riots, so intense was the feeling against him.
In the spring of 1914, a few months only before the
outbreak of war, Professor Florer managed a great
celebration at Ann Arbor in glorification of
A premature
Bismarck modern Germany, the celebration being
given ostensibly under the auspices of the
Michigan Schoolmasters' Club then in session at the
seat of the State University. This event was staged
on April 1st, the anniversary of the birthday of the
Iron Chancellor. The German Consul-General came
from Chicago to deliver the principal address, the
German Mannerchor was brought from Detroit,
many German organizations, the Schoolmasters' Club
and the University all joined in the celebration upon
German Expansion 155
the campus of the University. Since the date chosen
for the celebration was the ninety-ninth, and not the
one hundredth anniversary of Bismarck's birthday,
the falling of the date upon ''All Fool's Day" is full
of suggestion, and one is inclined to ask who it was
that made the original suggestion for the meeting.
Was it Professor Florer, or some one higher up who had
full knowledge of the German plans for the late sum-
mer of 1914, plans which made it inadvisable to delay
the event until the true jubilee anniversary of the man
of "blood and iron."
In the summer of 1914, the British Association for
the Advancement of Science held its annual meeting
in Australia. Certain distinguished scien-
. . Professors
tists of other countries were specially invited as Germany's
to attend, and quite unusual courtesies were
extended to them. On the authority of McLaren,
we learn that this cordial hospitality was utilized by
the German guests, Professors Graebner, Penck, and
Pringsheim, to secure late military information for
the German Government. Graebner and Pringsheim
remained in Australia until after war had been de-
clared, and when ready to return to Germany they
requested permission of the Australian Government,
on the ground that they were international scientists
and therefore neutral, making much of 'the cosmo-
politan character of science ' ' and its high moral claims.
In short, they protested too much, and suspicion be-
came aroused. When permission was promised them on
condition that they would take the oath of neutrality,
their evident reluctance to do so greatly strengthened
the suspicions. Their correspondence was thereupon
intercepted and revealed them as spies. (4.)
Professor Penck of Berlin University, the foremost
156 The World War
of German geographers, had taken the oath of neutrality
without demur and had accordingly been permitted
to sail for England. As a consequence of discovering
the quality of his colleagues, his baggage was over-
hauled before he had reached England and was found
to contain more complete information concerning
Australia's military operations than had the intercepted
correspondence of his colleagues (4). All were alike
spies collecting material for that conquest of Australia
which the Kaiser a full two years before had forecast
in glowing term to Herr Thyssen and the other German
captains of industry.
Professor Penck, who has long been known to me
personally, has more than the normal allowance of that
German form of good comradeship which for want of
an equivalent expression we call Gemuthlichkeit, and
save only that he is a Teuton with corresponding ideals
and ethics, there would be no reason whatever to
suppose that he is not a gentleman and a man of honor.
Germany's preparations for this war have included
as a not unimportant guarantee of neutralization of
potentially hostile elements, the setting up
kinglets of of kinglets with pro-German sympathies
upon the thrones of the Balkans — a region
where, in the language of Wyatt, "raising trouble
was an easy thing to do."
Thirty years ago, almost daily, I saw the then Crown
Prince Constantine of Greece in his white Stiirmer
going about among his duelling corps brothers of the
Heidelberger Saxo-Borussen. When I then read, first,
of the attentions showered upon him during his visit
to Berlin, and, later, of his marriage with the Princess
Sophia, sister of the Kaiser, little did I dream that the
inevitable consequence was to be the future success
German Expansion 157
of Prussian intrigues so far as the Balkan region was
concerned. Before the war had been launched, a
Hohenzollern favorable to Germany had been seated
upon the throne of Roumania, and a retired Austrian
colonel known for his selfish greed and his overmastering
ambition, had become the Tsar of Bulgaria. Tsar
Ferdinand had signed a secret compact with the Kaiser
which required that, contrary to the known sympathies
of his subjects, he should attack their friends and
benefactors in Europe and cooperate in binding Austro-
Hungary to vassalage under the German Empire (5).
As regards more advanced nations, the methods
employed by Germany for securing either neutrality
or support, according as conditions might
determine, were of a wholly different nature, tools in
and fitted to the local conditions. Every
nations
inherent weakness of the state, whether
actual or potential, was studied by experts; and plots
were laid to exploit these weaknesses to the utmost.
In every way possible the spirit of nationalism was
destroyed, and the integrity of the nation was to be
broken down if at all possible.
In Italy it was Giolitti, in France Caillaux, who
was chosen for the agent, whereas in England Lord
Haldane, perhaps unconsciously, played the hand of
Germany and effectually prevented that preparation
which the war cloud already looming up indicated should
be made at once if at all. In the United States, William
Jennings Bryan and David Starr Jordan shared the
honors as the dupes who between them were by their
efforts pretty effectually to neutralize all the attempts
of far-seeing and patriotic men to draw the only correct
conclusion from the signs of the times.
In England one of the greatest soldiers of his day who
158 The World War
will by posterity be accorded the title of a great patriot,
threw age-long traditions to the wind, and, eight years
Haidaneism before the storm broke, sent out a clarion call
in England to arm or perish — a call which resounded
from one end of the empire to the other. The pacifist
government of Great Britain, properly shocked by
these methods of Lord Roberts, undertook to suppress
him. The people also showed only too clearly that
they preferred to believe the agreeable doctrines of the
pacifist, Norman Angell, author of The Great Illusion,
whose writings claimed to prove war an impossibility,
and pointed to the almost ideal conditions of Belgium
— a nation rich, prosperous, and unprepared.
Lord Haldane, then the British Minister of State
for War and much under the spell of German achieve-
ments, administered a rebuke to the veteran Field
Marshal and threatened to take away his pension if
he did not desist from his warnings. Haldane was
later continued in the Asquith Ministry as Chancellor
of the Exchequer, until, when the storm predicted by
Lord Roberts had broken, an aroused people forced
him into retirement.
All the influences inimical to the country's welfare,
were in France marshalled behind Caillaux, now on
Defeatism trial for high treason. For years no French
in France Government had dared to oppose this power-
ful dictator, who had held the highest offices in the
state, and had employed them to further Deutschtum.
After the defeatist movement had nearly wrecked the
great cause in 1915 and 1916, and the Painlevy Minis-
try had proven itself either too weak or too cowardly
to oppose the dictator, an aroused public sentiment
brought again into power the 'old tiger' Georges
Clemenceau, and the nation was saved. Bolo Pasha
German Expansion 159
and Duval have now paid their penalty before a firing
squad in the forest of Vincennes, and the trials of
Humbert and even Caillaux are now scheduled in
sequence, with promise of more interesting, even if still
more humiliating disclosures.
Yet not even France could show such control of
her affairs of state by agents of the German invaders
as did Italy, for no country was so securely oioiittism
bound through the ownership of all her mitaiy
national industries. The Banca Commerciale behind
which were the reins of power, mixed in all social and
political affairs. It had its representatives in the
Curia and in fact everywhere. Germanophile candi-
dates for office received its powerful support, and
means were at hand to make the road a thorny one
for any candidate bold enough to oppose it. A poli-
tical boss of great ability in the person of Signor Giolitti
was the facile tool of the Banca Commerciale and,
thanks to this support, he was absolute dictator in
Italian politics. Thrice premier of the kingdom and
his nominee always in control whenever he chose to
take a vacation, Giolitti allowed no Cabinet to exist
which he did not approve. Dr. Dillon is authority
for the statement that Giolitti, without doubt upon the
instigation of the Banca Commerciale, proposed to the
Salandra Ministry the appointment, as Italian Minister
of Foreign Affairs, of an Austrian Jew named von
Schlangel, a man without diplomatic experience and
with no qualifications whatever for the post, though
known to be favorable to the Teuton empires. Dillon
says further :
'Giolitti was the legislature, the executive court,
the commercial interests, to a great extent the army,
and therefore the nation" (6, p. 132).
160 The World War
The chief nationalist organ of Italy, the Idda Nazio-
nale expressed this as follows :
"The Parliament is Giolitti; Giolitti is the Parlia-
ment; the binomial expression of our shame" (7).
Giolitti left the nation's defenses in an antiquated
condition and, according to Sydney Low, his War
National Minister was so strongly pro-German that
defense he refused to make the army reforms which
were demanded by Generals Cadorna and
Porro(8).
To quote Dillon again:
'That in spite of this knowledge and the further con-
viction that an Austrian campaign against Italy would
have found their nation without a single Ally to back her,
King Victor's Government left the National Defenses in
such a plight that they no longer deserved the name of
"defenses," throws light upon some of the differences be-
tween the temperament of the allied people and that of the
Teutons. But that Signer Giolitti, who was chiefly re-
sponsible for this neglect, should have afterwards invoked it
in conversation with the king as a clinching argument
against intervention, betrays the presence of an ethical
twist in that statesman's mentality of a kind which was
reasonably taken by the nation to disqualify him for the
post of its principal trustee." (6, p. 117.)
To keep Italy from entering the war the Kaiser sent as
his special envoy the most astute of German statesmen,
^_. Prince von Bulow, who was married to an
Prince
vonBiiiow's Italian lady of high rank and who went in
the full and apparently justified belief that
Italy could be kept neutral. Says Dillon :
"It was the utter rottenness of the parliamentary system
in Italy and the subjection of the legislature, the great
German Expansion 161
commercial and industrial interests, and the court to one
man who looked upon international politics as mere manure
for the soil he was cultivating that inspired Prince von
Bulow with confidence in the success of his mission" (6,
p. 129).
'Italy's active participation in the war was the work of
the nation, not of the government. Had the decision been
left to the parliament, to the acknowledged
^ The people
leaders of the people, to the Cabinet, or even to. wrest control
all three combined, it must have fallen out from the
frr T-» • 1-1 government
differently. . . . But the nation, wroth with
the representatives who had misrepresented it, wrested
from them for a moment the powers they had bestowed and
reversed their decision" (6, p. vii.).
"It was the work of a moment. . . . Wrought to white
heat by the strange behavior of its official spokesmen, the
Italian people rose up in its millions, disowned them and
imposed its own will on the Cabinet."
Well might the Teuton plotters in their discomfiture
recall that saying of Bismarck that "we cannot foresee
the cards held by Providence so clearly as to anticipate
historical development through personal calculation."
Germany's methods of peaceful penetration where
the Greater Empire is being extended, have been con-
sidered at such length because, with the conclusion of
peace, the same menace to the world will be resumed
unless drastic measures to forestall it are taken, both
in the terms of peace and afterward. Says Hauser:
'If we refuse to investigate why our rivals have beaten
us, and how we shall be able to withstand them, our sons
will have died in vain on the Marne and the Yser. The
economic struggle will be resumed to-morrow, and all the
more bitterly because the German people will need to make
good their losses. If we do not take care, the spider will
162 The World War
weave its web again; it will speedily take its revenge, and
we shall wake up in ten years to find ourselves enslaved
once more by the people whom we had conquered" (9,
p. 14).
REFERENCES
1. National German- American Alliance, Hearings before the Sub-
Committee of the Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate,
65th Congress, 2nd Session, S 3529, Washington, 1918, pp. 698.
2. The Providence Journal, "A few Lines of Recent American History,"
pp. 23, 1917.
3. National German- American Alliance, 5 Official Bulletin, n, pp.
24, 25, 29, 36; 7 Official Bulletin, 10, pp. 31 (a confidential publica-
tion).
4. McLAREN, A. D., Peaceful Penetration, pp. 224, London, Button,
1917
5. " Austria in a Trap, M. Hanotaux Thinks," New York Times, July
14, 1918.
6. DILLON, E. J., From the Triple to the Quadruple Alliance, Why Italy
Went to War, pp. 242, Hodder, London, 1915.
7. May 15, 1915.
8. SYDNEY Low, Italy in the War, pp. 316, New York, Longmans, 1916.
9. HAUSER, HENRI, Germany's Commercial Grip on the World, her
Business Methods Explained, pp.259, New York, Scribners, 1917.
X
HOW GERMANY MAKES WAR— ATROCITIES
UNDER SYSTEM
"Sons of Germany, to arms; Forward. This is the hour of joy and
glory.
'Wheresoever you turn, you enter; wheresoever you enter is Ger-
many.
"Oh, horsemen of ours, spur, rear, sweep all away before you. Your
will, spur of your horse, is like winged victory. That timid flesh you
trample under foot is made to fatten the fields that shall be yours and
your sons.
"Sons of Germany, to arms! The great hour is here!
"Life does not end; it passes and changes without cease. The life
of the vanquished is absorbed by the victor; the life of the slain belongs
to the slayer. See then how you can gather together upon the breast
of your sacred Fatherland the life of all the world!
"Stoop not to effeminate pity for women and children. Often the
son of the vanquished was afterward victor. What is victory worth
if to-morrow comes revenge! What father would you be if you killed
your enemy and left alive his son?
"Sons of Germany, to arms! Forward! Smite! Shatter! Over-
throw! Pierce and lay waste! Burn!
"Kill! Kill! Kill!
'The road of glory lies open before us!"
Battle song found on German prisoners.
it
llt is not true that we trespassed in neutral Belgium ... It is not
true that the life and property of a single Belgian citizen was injured
by our soldiers without the bitterest self-defense having made it neces-
sary. ... It is not true that our troops treated Louvain brutally. . . .
It is not true that our warfare pays no respect to international laws. . .
"Have faith in us! Believe that we shall carry on this war to the
end as a civilized nation, to whom the legacy of a Goethe, a Beethoven,
and a Kant is just as sacred as its own hearths and homes.
"For this we pledge you our names and our honor." — To the Civilized
World, by Professors of Germany.
163
1 64 The World War
manner in which Germany makes war may
1 be studied: ist, in her official manual (Kriegsge-
brauch im Landkriege) written as a book of
methods of instructions for her officers in the field; and
approaching in tke Speeches of the Kaiser, as well as the
the subject
statements made by various German military
authorities; 2d, through examining the history of
Germany's wars, particularly the Franco-Prussian
War, the Boxer and Herrero rebellions, and the present
world war; and 3d, by the replies of her leaders in
answer to charges made against the conduct of German
armies of invasion and occupation and during retreat.
By whichever method we choose to approach the
subject, the picture is clear; and the conclusions
reached are marred by no embarrassing uncertainties.
These conclusions have, it must be said, nothing what-
ever in common with the findings of the ninety-three
German intellectuals whose statement is cited under
the heading of this chapter.
The literature of the instructions to army officers
is considerable, but it is also terse and consistent;
that of the historical record is vast and uniformly
damning; while the German attempts to explain and
mitigate are few and specious, though wonderfully
illuminating.
To gain a clear impression concerning what is ex-
pected of officers in the field, it will be sufficient to
German c^e m sequence instructions from the Su-
conduct of preme War Lord, from high officials of the
official German Great General Staff, from the official
book of instructions; and, since traditions
count so heavily in all armies, from the great German
heroes of the past.
When the German expeditionary army was departing
How Germany Makes War 165
for the Far East to join in putting down the Boxer
Rebellion, the Kaiser issued to it these instructions,
as printed in the Weser Zeitung before the censor had
modified the wording of the address :
"Let all who fall into your hands be at your mercy.
Just as the Huns a thousand years ago under B order
the leadership of Attila gained a reputation in of the
virtue of which they still live in historical
tradition, so may the name of Germany become known in
such wise in China that no Chinaman will ever even dare
to look askance at a German."
Lieutenant-General Baron von Freytag-Lorenhoven,
Deputy Chief of the German Great General Staff, in a
work just issued says with apt pertinence: 'Only
under the absolute command of a war lord can an army
achieve a really vigorous development. It cannot be
emphasized too often what an immense debt the Prus-
sian army — and therewith all Germany — owes to the
Prussian kings" (i, p. 179).
The German troops in China certainly carried out
to the letter these instructions of their War Lord and
conducted themselves so outrageously that vigorous
protests had to be lodged with their commander, Count
von Waldersee, by the officers in command of the
British, French, and American troops connected with
the expedition. Herr von Bebel said in the Reichstag:
" An expedition of revenge so barbarous as this has never
occurred in the last hundred years, and not often in history;
at least nothing worse than this has happened in history,
either done by the Huns, by the Vandals, by Genghis
Khan, by Tamerlane, or even by Tilly when he sacked
Magdeburg."
166 The World War
t
But we must continue to examine the war instruc-
tions. It is affirmed in the Kriegsgebrauch im Land-
kriege:
"But since the tendency of thought in the last century
was. dominated essentially by humanitarian considerations
The book of which not infrequently degenerated into senti-
instructions mentality and flabby emotion, there have not
been wanting attempts to influence the development of
the usages of war in a way which was in fundamental
contradiction with the nature of war and its object. At-
tempts of this kind will also not be wanting in the future,
the more so as these agitations have found a kind of moral
recognition in some provisions of the Geneva Convention
and the Brussels and Hague conferences.
"By steeping himself in military history an officer will
be able to guard himself against humanitarian notions;
it will teach him that certain severities are indispensable
to war, nay more, that the only true humanity very often
lies in a ruthless application of them."
To meet the case where inhabitants take up arms,
the manual quotes Napoleon :
"Burn down a dozen places which are not willing to
submit themselves. Of course not until you have first
looted them; my soldiers must not be allowed to go away
with their hands empty. Have three to six persons hanged
in every village which has joined the revolt; pay no respect
to the cassock." (2, pt. i., p. 10.)
In 1906 there was issued at Berlin the Military
Interpreter for Use in the Enemy's Country, in
« Military which French translations of various placards
were included, together with orders having
blanks to be filled in and used in French-speaking
How Germany Makes War 167
countries (France or Belgium). Two examples of
these will suffice to indicate their character:
"On account of the destruction of the bridge at -
I order: The district shall pay a special contribution of
ten million francs by way of amends. This is brought to
the notice of the public who are informed that the method
of assessment will be announced later and that the payment
of the said sum will be enforced with the utmost severity.
The village of - will be destroyed immediately by fire,
with the exception of certain buildings occupied for the
use of the troops."
Another form is the following :
"I have to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated the
seventh of this month in which you bring to my notice
the great difficulty which you expect to meet in levying
the contributions. ... I can but regret the explanations
which you have thought proper to give me on this subject;
the order in question which emanates from my Govern-
ment is so clear and precise, and the instructions which
I have received in the matter are so categorical that if the
sum due by the town of -- is not paid, the town will be
burned down without pity. ' (2, pt. i., pp. 10-11.)
The above were among the forms actually used in
Belgium and France, though they had been printed
eight years before. The record of the atro-
cious acts committed during this war by and fright-
German troops is so vast, and covers so
extended an area, that our first duty would
seem to be to make known the original sources of
information, now accessible in large part at least in
every library of considerable size (see references at
end of this section) .
First of all it should be stated that much of the
:68 The World War
evidence concerning German atrocities is of an official
system of character, and that, generalizing, it may be
atrocities sai(j to differ in bulk and in refinement of
the Higher cruelty, rather than in degree or in kind,
command £rom ^^ ^{ch characterized Germany's
armies of invasion in 1870-1871 and in earlier cam-
paigns.
With few and minor exceptions only, it may be added
that all these atrocities, which partake of a common
character though occurring on fronts as remote from
each other as Belgium and Serbia and Poland and
France, were carried out under explicit orders from the
Higher Command, so as to accord with a unified system
which was as efficient and thorough as it was diabolical
and unrelenting.
This system of frightfulness underwent changes to
accord with different conditions, such as those during
invasion and later during occupation; and it also bore
a definite relation to the success of the German cam-
paigns at the time.
It happens that strikingly similar narratives of
gripping realism have been supplied for the period of
simultaneous invasion of France and Poland
Experiences
of two by the German hordes, and in each case the
American narrator is an American woman married to
women
a European nobleman. The reader who has
stood aghast at the simple and unquestionably truth-
ful recital by Baroness Huard of horrors in France
described in My Home in the Field of Honor (3), should
take up When the Prussians came to Poland as told by
Madame Turczynowicz (4). Madame Huard's beau-
tiful chateau at Villers was occupied as the headquar-
ters of General von Kluck in the advance upon Paris
in 1914, and that of Countess Turczynowicz as head-
How Germany Makes War 169
quarters for a time of Field Marshal von Hindenburg
during the German advance into Poland.
These two narratives by American women who have
each returned to America and told their gripping stories
by word of mouth to tens of thousands of their com-
patriots, make the best possible introduction to this
phase of the subject. In both instances the invading
occupants of the chateau or residence were of the
German nobility, and the disgusting and wanton
methods by which they befouled ladies* garments and
bed "linen, as well as the dishes in the pantry, do not
admit of citation. One must read the original accounts
which are rendered with so much reserve and delicacy
that one is compelled to read partly between the
lines. German efficiency classified all house furnish-
ings, and vans carried away as loot everything of
value for which transportation to Germany was avail-
able. The remaining portion, including grand pianos,
was smashed up with axes.
The documentary evidence of German atrocities
is now available from every front : Belgian, French,
Serbian, Polish, Armenian, Roumanian, etc.; official
and men of the highest standing in the documents
different governments concerned have collaborated
both in the compilation and in vouching for the accu-
racy of the findings reached (see references at end).
The elaborate Belgian reports have been compiled
under the direction of Viscount Bryce, who was for
many years the British Ambassador at Washington
and who is well and favorably known in the United
States.
Yet even more valuable as evidence is that which
the Germans themselves have unwittingly given us.
German preparations for this war, complete as they
The World War
were, did not take adequate precautions respecting a
possible defeat, such as they sustained at the Marne
on their initial invasion of France. German
atrocities soldiers had been bidden by Art. 75 of the
from German Rules for pield Service of the German Army
evidence
to keep a diary while on the march, doubt-
less because of its possible use in supplying informa-
tion to the military authorities. These diaries taken
from prisoners at the first Battle of the Marne, have
been preserved in Paris, and together they constitute
such a damning record of frightfulness that the German
authorities have not dared even to seriously con-
tradict it; but have, on the contrary, been obliged
to admit that the evidence is genuine.
Professor Joseph Bedier of the College de France,
well and favorably known to Americans as a ripe
scholar, and more intimately because of his visits to
the United States, has translated, with much painstak-
ing care, some forty, and later an additional series, of
these German soldiers' diaries; and he has in addition
reproduced for those who know German, numerous
facsimile illustrations of the more vital portions of the
diaries with all their smudges, erasures, and
Samples of
the soldiers* Corrections (5, 6).
A few samples only of these incriminating
German records must here suffice :
" August 26th. The pretty village of Gu£ d'Hossus in the
Ardennes has been burnt, though innocent of any crime, it
seemed to me. I was told a cyclist had fallen off his machine,
and that in doing so his gun had gone off, so they fired in his
direction. Thereupon the male inhabitants were simply con-
signed to the flames. It is to be hoped that such atrocities
will not be repeated (Diary of a Saxon officer, unsigned, in
the I78th Regt, XII Army Corps, I Saxon Corps)."
How Germany Makes War 171
This same officer three days earlier had made an
entry into a house at the village of Bouvignes near
Dinant, which he thus describes :
'There was the body of the owner on the floor. Inside
our men destroyed everything like Vandals. Every cor-
ner was searched. Outside in the country, the sight of
the villagers who had been shot defies all description. The
volley had almost decapitated some of them.
"Every house had been searched to the smallest corner
and the inhabitants dragged from their hiding places.
The men were shot; the women and children shut up in a
convent, from which some shots were fired. Consequently,
the convent is to be burnt." (5, p. n.)
Private Philipp of Kamenz, Saxony, ist Company,
ist Battalion of the same regiment as the last, describes
apparently the same scene and thus corroborates the
officer :
"In the evening, at 10 o'clock, the first battalion of the
I78th Regt. went down to the village that had been burnt
to the north of Dinant. A sad and beautiful sight, and
one that made you shudder. At the entrance of the vil-
lage there lay about fifty dead bodies strewn on the road.
They had been shot for having fired on our troops from
ambush. In the course of the night, many others were
shot in the same way, so that we could count more than
two hundred. The women and children, lamp in hand,
were obliged to watch the horrible scene. We then ate
our rice in the midst of the corpses because we had not
tasted food since morning. ' (5, p. 12.)
The diary of Private Hassemer of the VIII Corps
has an entry for September 3, 1914, which refers to the
village of Sommepy on the Marne :
1 72 The World War
"Horrible Massacre. The village burnt to the ground.
The French thrown into houses in flames, civilians and all
burnt together."
On the first page of an unsigned notebook is this
entry:
" Langeviller, August 22d. Village destroyed by the nth
battalion of the pioneers. Three women hanged on trees.
The first dead I have seen."
On the last page of the same diary :
'In this way we destroyed eight houses with their in-
mates. In one of them two men with their wives and a
girl of eighteen were bayonetted. The little one almost
unnerved me, so innocent was her expression. But it was
impossible to check the crowd, so excited were they, for
in such moments you are no longer men, but wild beasts."
Diary of Private Paul Glode, 9th battalion of the
Pioneers, IX Corps :
"Aug. 12, 1914. . . .- Mutilation of the wounded is the
order of the day."
Diary of Private Moritz Grosse, I77th Infantry, in
entry describing the sack of St. Vieth and Dinant :
*
'Throwing of bombs in the houses. In the evening
military chorale: Nun danket alle Gott (The well-known
church hymn, 'Now God be Praised ')." (6, pp. 21, 37.)
The above are but samples illustrating what took
place in hundreds of instances. An official list has
been compiled and shows that in the province of
Brabant 5833 houses were burned down, 15,024 were
pillaged, 839 of the inhabitants were murdered, and
How Germany Makes War 173
2 1 10 taken as prisoners into Germany. In the province
of Lie"ge, 3553 houses were destroyed, and in the pro-
vince of Namur, 5243; making in all 14,629. Of the
606 inhabitants massacred at Dinant in August a list
has been published (7, vol. ii., p. 144).
It is entirely possible that in some instances shots
were actually fired by civilians at the invading soldiers,
though no clear proof has yet been furnished. Franc-
It is, however, certain that the mayors of the tireurs?
towns in nearly all cases gave warning to the people
that such action would bring terrible reprisals. There
is in addition reliable testimony that in Lie"ge the
shooting was started by German soldiers going to the
upper stories of a building which was entirely occupied
by soldiers and thereupon shooting from the windows,
which shooting served as a signal for the burning,
murdering, and pillaging to begin (8, p. 208).
Contrary to The Hague Convention and to the war
practices of all nations since the time of the Thirty
Years' War, enormous war indemnities were Exaction of
exacted from the Belgian people throughout indemnities
German occupation. In December, 1914, the Belgians
were notified that one hundred million dollars would be
exacted of them during the following year in addition
to all of the regular taxes which they were paying with
their industry interrupted, and with the invaders being
fed and payment rendered in bons de guerre, payable
after the war — ' ' scraps of paper. ' ' To meet protests the
Governor-General gave the promise that no further con-
tribution would be levied and that requisitions upon the
population for the feeding of troops would thereafter
be paid for in money. It is needless to say, neither
promise has been kept. The following year another one
hundred million dollars was exacted, and this was later
174 The World War
increased to one hundred and twenty million dollars
a year.
The clearest evidence that the atrocities took place
by order, and not that of the immediate commanders
Atrocities only but of the High Command in Berlin,
by order jg supplied both by the grouping into periods
of the dates when atrocities were chiefly perpetrated,
and by the localization of the devastated villages
within definite zones which had a significant arrange-
ment.
Belgium was invaded by German troops early on
the morning of August 4th ; but as all speed was being
made to reach the forts, atrocities did not begin until
the 5th. The massacres on the frontier and before
the forts of Embourg, Boncelles, Chaudfontaine, and
Fleron, took place between the 5th and the 8th of the
month.
After August 8th, there ensued a week of apparent
calm, during which the German Government having
shown of what it was capable when 'lust-
massacres fully roving," made a fresh proposal to the
a warning Belgian Government in which it recognized
to secure
compliant that the Belgian army had 'upheld the
to torsion honor of its arms in the most brilliant fashion
by a heroic resistance to greatly superior
forces," and the German Government 'begged his
Majesty the King and the Belgian Government to
avert from Belgium the horrors of war!' Upon re-
ceiving Belgium's second refusal, the German Gov-
ernment informed the Belgian Government through
diplomatic channels, ' ' that the war would now assume
a cruel character" (einen grausamen Charakter). In
consequence, on the I4th pillage, incendiarism, and
massacre began again, and, to quote the language of
How Germany Makes War 175
Gustave Somville, "for ten days the beast unchained
raged through all the invaded provinces' (8, p. 13).
As regards the distribution of the places ravaged by
the German soldiery in Belgium, a deep underlying pur-
pose is revealed so soon as these localities are plotted
upon the map. Says Irvin S. Cobb :
"But I was an eye-witness to crimes which, measured
by the standards of humanity and civilization, impressed
me as worse than any individual excess, any Frightfuiness
individual outrage, could ever have been or can so distri-
buted as to
ever be; because these crimes indubitably were warn
instigated on a wholesale basis by order of officers everyone
of rank, and must have been carried out under their personal
supervision, direction, and approval. Briefly what I saw
was this : I saw wide areas of Belgium and France in which
not a penny's worth of wanton destruction had been per-
mitted to occur, in which the ripe pears hung untouched
upon the garden walls; and I saw other wide areas where
scarcely one stone had .been left to stand upon another;
where the fields were ravaged ; where the male villagers had
been shot in squads ; where the miserable survivors had been
left to die in holes, like wild beasts.
'Taking the physical evidence offered before our own
eyes, and buttressing it with the statements made to us,
not only by natives, but by German soldiers and German
officers, we could reach but one conclusion, which was that
here, in such and such a place, those in command had said
to the troops : ' Spare this town and these people. ' And
there they had said: 'Waste this town and shoot these
people. ' And here the troops had indiscriminately spared
and there they had indiscriminately wasted, in exact
accordance with the word of their superiors." (9, p. 32.)
The atrocities connected with the invasion of Bel-
gium had had for their primary object the terrorizing
176 The World War
of the population, so that no uprising could occur when
every soldier that could be spared was taking part in
the initial onsets at the Marne and along
the right flank of the German army in
Belgian Northern France. The atrocities occurred
martyrdom
within nearly parallel belts distributed over
the country so that some of them came near enough
home to all of the inhabitants, even though not all
were sacrificed.
The Battle of Ypres ended, the onset was over, and
the campaign now assumed for the first time the more
stabilized condition of trench warfare; whereupon the
first phase of Belgium's martyrdom came likewise to
an end. For Germany, the Belgian problem was now
primarily one of administration — what Gardiner has
called the period of semi-peaceful occupation (10, p.
40).
Gardiner thinks that at this time Germany held the
belief that she could win the war, and that she there-
fore directed her administration of Belgium on the basis
of later annexation.
The period of systematic spoliation of Belgium was
inaugurated in June, 1916; and Gardiner has seen in
^ -, * this an evidence that the German leaders
The period
of Belgian now for the first time abandoned the hope
of annexation of Belgium; largely as a con-
sequence of the sudden change in the military situa-
tion — the great drive of Brussiloff on the Eastern Front
and the seizure of the initiative on the Western Front
with the Franco-British push on the Somme. This
third phase of German atrocity, if less bloody than the
first, has been far more terrible in its permanent con-
sequences; for it has aimed at nothing less than the
destruction of the entire commercial structure of Bel-
How Germany Makes War 177
gium and the social annihilation of her people. Says
Brand Whitlock, the American Minister to Belgium :
'They have dealt a mortal blow to any prospect they
may ever have had of being tolerated by the population
of Flanders; in tearing away from nearly every humble
home in the land a husband and a father or a son and
brother, they have lighted a fire of hatred that will never
go out; they have brought home into every heart in the
land, in a way that will impress its horror indelibly on the
memory of three generations, a realization of what German
methods mean — not as with the early atrocities. . . .
but by one of those deeds that make one despair of the
future of the human race, a deed coldly planned, studiously
matured, and deliberately and systematically executed,
a deed so cruel that German soldiers are said to have wept
in its execution, and so monstrous that even German
officers are now said to be ashamed." (n, p. 7.)
Governor-General von Bissing in an interview given
to Frederick C. Walcott of the Belgian Relief Commis-
sion, has shed a flood of light upon the plans General
of the German Government during this third von Biasing's
phase of German occupation of Belgium.
Says Walcott :
'I said to him: 'Governor, what are you going to do if
England and France stop giving these people money to
purchase food?' He said: 'We have got that all worked
out and have had it worked out for weeks, because we have
expected this system to break down at any time.' He
went on to say, ' starvation will grip these people in thirty
to sixty days. Starvation is a compelling force, and we
would use that force to compel the Belgian workingmen,
many of them very skilled, to go into Germany to replace
the Germans, so that they could go to the front and fight
against the English and the French. As fast as our railway
12
1 73 The World War
transportation could carry them, we would transport
thousands of others that would be fit for agricultural work,
across Europe down into southeastern Europe, into Meso-
potamia, where we have huge, splendid irrigation works.
All that land needs is water and it will blossom like the
rose. The weak remaining, the old and the young, we
would concentrate opposite the firing line, and put firing
squads back of them, and force them through that line,
so that the English and French could take care of their
own people.' " (2, pt. i., p. 55.)
Can it be believed that when von Hindenburg came
into power, this Governor-General received a reprimand
for having been too lenient in his treatment of the
Belgian people under his charge ?
The defeat of the Marne, as the German military
leaders knew full well, spelled ruin to their well-laid
plans to crush France in the onset, plans
of the*" which General von Bernhardi had informed
German people in repeated editions of
Lakes F
his Germany and the Next War required an
immediate success. The German people were told of
a "strategic retreat," the first of several such retreats
concerning which the world was to be advised. At
this trying moment while smarting under defeat, came
the, to them, consoling news of Hindenburg's first
victory in the Battle of Tannenberg, where two entire
army corps of Russians were entrapped among the
Mazurian Lakes and hills of East Prussia and almost
completely destroyed. Though they surrendered, al-
most the entire eighty thousand were by machine gun
fire fiendishly forced into the lakes and swamps and
either drowned or otherwise destroyed. This is one
of the most revolting episodes in all history and would
be hard to parallel. Here is one of the protests sent
How Germany Makes War 179
to United States Ambassador Gerard by German sol-
diers who were eye-witnesses to the slaughter:
'It was frightful, heart-rending, as these masses of
human beings were driven to destruction. Above the
terrible thunder of the cannon could be heard the heart-
rending cry of the Russians : '0 Prussians! O Prussians!'
— but there was no mercy. Our captain had ordered:
'The whole lot must die; so rapid fire!' As I have heard,
five men and one officer on our side went mad from those
heart-rending cries. But most of my comrades and the
officers joked as the unarmed and helpless Russians shrieked
for mercy while they were being suffocated in the swamps
and shot down. The order was: 'Close up and at it
harder!' For days afterward those heart-rending yells
followed me and I dare not think of them or I shall go mad.
There is no God, there is no morality, and no ethics any more.
There are no human beings any more, but only beasts.
Down with militarism.
' This was the experience of a Prussian soldier at present
wounded, Berlin, Oct. 22, 1914.
'If you are a truth-loving man please receive these
lines from a common Prussian soldier. " (2, pt. i., p. 19.)
There is here no space to tell of the barbarities which
were carried out by the Germans upon other than
these two fronts, though they differed in no Monotonous
essential respect. It may even be doubted uniformity
.. * of the
if any perpetrated by German troops in atrocities
on
Belgium quite equaled the horrors of the
city of Kalish upon the Polish frontier when it was
invaded in the first days of August, 1914, and where
the German commander without any pretended ex-
cuse in resistance offered, bombarded for three days
with modern artillery a peaceful town of fifty thousand
inhabitants. Belgium's case came before the world
i8o The World War
first because of the bearing of its preliminary diplomatic
exchanges upon the issues of the war, and because its
horrors could not be concealed.
The simultaneous ravishments of Serbia and Poland
were probably on the whole even more terrible, and
the retarded horrors of Armenia, Roumania,
Diabolical
devices for Ukraine, and the other Russian provinces,
like the devastation wrought during the
Hindenburg retreat in Picardy in the early spring of
1916, arrived in a world that had already "supped full
of horrors," and was correspondingly hardened to them.
There are phases of these atrocious acts so revolting
that they cannot even be told, and for a time they were
actually kept from the French people who had members
of their families within the devastated areas, lest they
should go mad. Human ingenuity seemed to have
outdone itself in finding diabolical devices of destruc-
tion. Miss Katherine Olmstead, a Red Cross nurse
lately returned from Roumania, has related how in
villages of that unhappy country which has been forced
to a 'peace" with Germany, few fighting men were
left, but only the children and a few young women
who were making the almost hopeless attempt to keep
the starving children alive in improvised orphanages.
Here, in the form of shining balls, pencils, and toys of
various descriptions, bombs were systematically given
out to the children by German agents, and in handling
them the children were either blown up or horribly
mutilated. These cases came to the hospitals in num-
bers on definite days, indicating that an agent had
been through the village. As reported by the children,
the agent was usually a woman. Similar devices for
mutilation have been reported from the devastated
area of Picardy.
How Germany Makes War 181
As in the case of the Armenian atrocities, carried
out with German approval, the object in destroying
old and young, women and children alike, may reason-
ably be interpreted to indicate a desire to avoid the
necessity of incorporating into the German empire
new crown-lands with hostile populations, such as
those of Posen, Schleswig-Holstein, and Alsace-Lorraine.
Says a recent witness from the devastated region of
France:
"Children of seven have seen more of horror in three
years than most old men have read about in a lifetime.
. . . They have been in villages where the The case of
dead lay in piles and not even the women were the children
spared. They have been present while indecencies were
worked upon their mothers. They have seen men hanged,
shot, bayoneted, and flung to roast in burning houses.
The pictures of all these things hang in their eyes. . . .
'Night is the troublesome time. The children hide
under the beds with terror. The nurses have to go the
rounds continually. If the children would only cry, they
would give warning. But, instead, they creep silently
out beneath the sheets and crouch against the floor like
dumb animals. Dumb animals! That is what they are
when first they are brought in. ... They have been
fished out of caves, ruined dugouts, broken houses. They
are as full of skin-diseases as the beggar who sat outside
Dives' gate, only they have had no dog to lick their sores.
They have lived on offal so long that they have the faces
of the extremely aged. And their hatred! Directly you
utter the word 'bodies' all the little nightgowned figures
sit up in their cots and curse. When they have done
cursing, of their own accord, they sing the Marseillaise."
(12, p. 193.)
The wholesale murders which occurred in Armenia
when Germany exercised all save nominal authority
1 82 The World War
over Turkey, were on so vast a scale that the earlier
massacres under Abdul Hamid sink into insignificance.
Armenian The best estimates place the victims of the
annihilation jate massacres at near one million souls, with
some additional tens of thousands of young girls forced
into the harems and compelled to accept Islam as their
religion, as well as other tens of thousands of orphans
of tender age who were doubtless to be raised as jani-
zaries to swell the Moslem armies of the future.
Of these massacres and atrocities we have the testi-
mony of a German eye-witness, Dr. Martin Niepage,
Higher Grade Teacher in the German Technical School
at Aleppo.
11 'Ta'alim el Aleman' (the teaching of the Germans)
is the simple Turk's explanation to everyone who asks him
about the originators of these measures. . . .
"Mohammedans, too, of more sensitive feelings — Turks
and Arabs alike — shake their heads in disapproval and do
not conceal their tears when they see a convoy of exiles
marching through the city, and Turkish soldiers using
cudgels upon women in advanced pregnancy and upon
dying people who can no longer drag themselves along.
They cannot believe that their government has ordered
these atrocities and they hold the Germans responsible
for all such outrages, Germany being considered during
the war as Turkey's schoolmaster in everything. Even
the mullahs in the mosques say that it was not the Sublime
Porte but the German officers who ordered the ill treat-
ment and destruction of the Armenians. . . .
"The object of the deportations is the destruction of the
whole Armenian nation. . . .
"Only just before I left Aleppo last May (1916) the
crowds of exiles encamped at Ras-el-Ain on the Badgad
Railway, estimated at twenty thousand women and chil-
dren, were slaughtered to the last one." (13.)
How Germany Makes War 183
Can a nation which befouls or poisons wells in enemy
country, murders helpless prisoners, bombs hospitals,
and sinks hospital and relief ships, and turns over the
women of a captured district to the pleasure of its
soldiery; can such a nation be regenerated and made
fit for the society of the civilized world, even through
the chastening of a crushing military defeat? The
education of generations is not destroyed by a single
disillusionment, however thorough and salutary it
may be.
REFERENCES
a. General
1. VON FREYTAG-LORINGHOVEN, BARON, Deductions from the World
War, New York, Putnams, 1918.
2. MUNRO, DANA C., SELLERY, GEO. C., and KREY, AUGUST C.,
Editors, German War Practices, pt. I, Treatment of Civilians;
pt. 2, German Treatment of Conquered Territory, pp. 91 and 64,
Com. Pub. Inform., January and March, 1918.
3. HUARD, FRANCES WILSON, My Home in the Field of Honor, pp.
302, New York, Doran, 1916.
4. TURCZYNOWICZ, LAURA, When the Prussians Came to Poland,
The Experience of an American Woman during the German Inva-
sion, pp. 281, New York, Putnams, 1916.
5. BEDIER, JOSEPH, German Atrocities from German Evidence, pp.
40, Paris, Colin, 1915.
6. BEDIER, JOSEPH, How Germany Seeks to Justify her Atrocities,
pp. 48, Paris, Colin, 1915.
7. Official Committee of Government, Reports of the Violations of the
Rights of Nations and of the Laws and Customs of War in Bel-
gium, vols. i. and r., London, 1915.
8. SOMVILLE, GUSTAVE, The Road to Liege, The Path of Crime, August,
1914, pp. 296, New York, Doran, 1916.
9. COBB, IRVIN S., Speaking of the Prussians, pp. 80, N. Y., Doran,
1917.
10. GARDINER, J. B. W.f German Plans for the Next War, pp. 139,
N. Y., Doubleday, 1918.
11. WHITLOCK, BRAND, The Deportations, pp. 8, London, Unwin, 1917.
12. DAWSON, LT. CONINGSBY, Out to Win, pp. 206, London, Lane,
1918,
1 84 The World War
13. NIEPAGE, DR. MARTIN, The Horrors of Aleppo Seen by an Eye-
Witness, pp. 24, London, Unwin.
14. SCOTT AND GARNER, The German Code, pp. 15, Com. Pub. Inform.,
War Inform. Ser., No. II, Feb., 1918.
15. LAVISSE AND ANDLER, German Theory and Practice of War, pp.
48, Paris, Colin, 1915.
16. NIEMEYER, TH., "International Law in War" (translated by J.
S. Reeves), pp. i-io, Mich. Law Review, vol. xiii., 1915.
17. BRYCE, VISCOUNT, Evidence and Documents Laid before the Com-
mittee on Alleged German Outrages, pp. 296, N. Y., Macmillan,
18. BRYCE, VISCOUNT, Report of the Committee on Alleged German
Outrages, pp. 61, N. Y., Macmillan, 1915.
19. NINETY-THREE PROFESSORS OF GERMANY, "To the Civilized
World," pp. 184-192, New York Times "Cur. Hist, of the War,"
vol. i., No. i, 1914.
20. KELLOGG, VERNON, "The Capture of Charleville," pp. 289-299,
All. Month., Sept., 1918.
21. The Crimes of Germany, being an Illustrative Synopsis of the
Violations of International Law and of Humanity by the Armed
Forces of the German Empire, based on the Official Inquiries
of Great Britain, France, Russia, and Belgium. With preface
by Sir Theodore A. Cook, special supplement of "Field,"
London, pp. 104.
b. Belgium
22. MERCIER, CARDINAL, An Appeal to Truth, pp. 32, London, Hodder,
23. MALCOLM, IAN, Scraps of Paper, German Proclamations in Belgium
and France, pp. 37, London, Hodder, 1916.
24. CAMMAERTS, EMILE, Through the Iron Bars, Two Years of German
Occupation in Belgium (illustrated with cartoons by Louis
Raemaekers), pp. 72, London, Lane, 1917.
25. TOYNBEE, ARNOLD J., The German Terror in Belgium, pp. 160,
N. Y., Doran, 1917.
26. VAN DYKE, HENRY, "The Werewolf at Large," Scribner's
Mag., Oct., 1917.
27. DAVIGNON, HENRI, Belgium and Germany, Texts and Documents,
pp. 152, Nelson, 1915. See also underGeneral above.
c. France
28. French Commission, German Atrocities in France (translation of
official report), pp. 32, 1915.
How Germany Makes War 185
29. French Commission, Frightfulness in Retreat, pp. 76, London,
Hodder, 1917.
30. The Deportation of Women and Girls from Lille, pp. 81, N. Y.,
Doran, 1916.
31. TOYNBEE, ARNOLD J., The Deportation of Women and Girls from
Lille, with Extracts from Other Documents . . . Relating to
German Breaches of International Law during 1914, 1915,
1916, pp. 81, N. Y., Doran, 1916 (?).
d. Serbia
32. REISS, R — . A., How Austria-Hungary Waged War in Serbia,
pp. 48, Paris, Colin, 1915.
e. Poland
33. TOYNBEE, ARNOLD J., The Destruction of Poland, A Study in Ger-
man Efficiency, pp. 30, London, Unwin, 1915. Also No. 4, above.
/. Armenia
34. TOYNBEE, ARNOLD J., Atrocities, the Murder of a Nation, London,
Hodder.
35. BRYCE, VISCOUNT, The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire, 1915-18, Documents presented to Viscount Grey, pp.
684, H. M. Stationery Office, London, 1916.
g. Roumania
36. Official Report, Microbe Culture at Bukarest, Discoveries at the
German Legation, from Roumanian Official Documents, pp.
16, London, Hodder, 1917.
h. Submarine Warfare
37. MUNRO, D. C. and OTHERS, German War Practices, Com. Pub.
Inform., 1918.
38. HART AND LOVEJOY, Handbook of the War for Public Speakers,
pp. 29-36, 1917.
39. HILL, G. P., The Commemorative Medal in the Service of Germany,
pp. 32, N. Y., Longmans, 1917.
40. LUXBURG, COUNT, "Spurlos Versenkt," New York Times, Jan. 15,
1918, 1 : 4 and Feb. 28, 3 : 3.
*. Sinking of Relief and Hospital Ships
41. "Germans Sink Relief Ships," New York Times of March 6-12
and April 10, 1916.
42. The War on Hospital Ships, pp. 20, London, Unwin, 1917.
1 86 The World War
j. Treatment of Prisoners
43. British Foreign Office, The Treatment of Prisoners of War in
England and Germany during the First Eight Months of the War,
pp. 36, H. M. Stationery Office, London, 1915.
44. British Foreign Office, Correspondence between H. M. Government
and the U. S. Ambassador respecting the Treatment of Prisoners
of War and Interned Civilians in the United Kingdom and Ger-
many, respectively, pp. 87, Misc. Doc., No. 7, 1915.
45. British Foreign Office, Reports on the Treatment by the Germans of
British Prisoners and Natives in German East Africa, pp. 31,
ibid., No. 13, 1917.
46. British Foreign Office, Correspondence with the U. S. Ambassador
respecting the Treatment of British Prisoners of War and interned
Civilians in Germany, pp. 64, ibid., No. 19, 1915.
47. British Foreign Office, Correspondence with the U. S. Ambassador
respecting the Execution of Miss Cavell at Brussels, p. 15, ibid.,
No. 17, 1915.
48. The Murder of Capt. Fryatt, pp. 47, London, Hodder, 1916.
49. MUGERDITCHIAN, MRS. ESTHER, From Turkish Toils, a Narrative
of an Armenian Family's Escape, pp. 45, N. Y., Doran, 1918.
XI
GERMAN CONSPIRACIES AGAINST THE
UNITED STATES
"The most potent influence, however, in Kuitur-politik has been the
men who, in constantly increasing numbers, have come to occupy posi-
tions in our universities, colleges, and private schools. Being by virtue
of their profession, less exposed to assimilative influences, they form the
outposts of Germanism in the United States. . . .
"It is for the descendants of those Germans who fought under Her-
kimer at Oriskany; of those who followed Muhlenberg; of those who
over the trenches of Yorktown heard the opposing commands given
in their native tongue, and finally saw the garrison march out to the
tune of German music; of those who fought under Schurz and Sigel
in the Civil War; to rebuke these prophets of disunion and to turn
the aspirations of their countrymen in the direction of true American
nationalism." — GUSTAVUS OHLINGER in Their True Faith and Allegiance.
•""["""HE basis of all earlier hostile movements directed
by Germany against the United States, may be
said to have been the Monroe Doctrine, The Monroe
originally framed to stand in the way of Doctrine
-r T erected as a
encroachments on this continent by the Holy barrier to
Alliance, a bulwark of autocracy in Europe.
This Alliance had been arranged by the King of Prussia
with the Emperor of Austria and the Czar of Russia,
with a view mainly to check the growth of republican
tendencies throughout the world (i).
President Monroe's policies for safeguarding the
Western Hemisphere from encroachments by this
league of autocrats was taken on information furnished
187
1 88 The World War
by Lord Canning, the British Prime Minister at the
time, and transmitted to Mr. Rush, our minister at
the British capital. Great Britain thus stood
sponsor at the birth of the doctrine and has
the doctrine ever keen fae bulwark of its defense. Our
at its birth
own Admiral Mahan, the greatest of author-
ities upon sea power, wrote:
"What, at the moment when the Monroe Doctrine was
proclaimed, insured beyond peradventure that immunity
from foreign oppression of the Spanish-American colonies
in their struggle for independence? The command of the
sea by Great Britain backed by the feeble navy but impos-
ing strategic position of the United States."
It has been, quite naturally, Prussia, and later
Prussianized Germany, that have resented the adop-
tion of this doctrine by the United States as a definite
national policy; and on more than one occasion Ger-
many has allowed it to be understood that at the proper
time she should challenge its efficiency by putting it
to the test of a military decision. Occasions have
arisen when she might have made good her threat
save only that Great Britain with the powerful British
navy has stood in her way. Comparatively few
Americans realize the debt they owe to this bulwark of
their defense in the benevolent protection of the
British Empire.
A source of serious friction between Germany and
America arose in the eighties ot the last century over
questions of sovereignty in the Samoan
Islands, and on March 16, 1889, the squad-
rons o£ fae ^wo countries were facing each
°
other in the open roadstead of Apia, Samoa,
ready for action, when a typhoon caught both and
war
German Conspiracies against the U. S. 189
Germany's
desire for
strategic
positions
in the
Caribbean
dashed them to destruction upon the coral reefs — a
dramatic incident which led both to the Treaty of
Berlin and to the foundation of the new American
navy. This providential intervention of the hurri-
cane has been rendered memorable by Robert Louis
Stevenson in a somewhat remarkable summary of the
event entitled A Footnote to History.
When America had begun to evince an interest in
the construction of an American isthmian canal, Ger-
many simultaneously became interested in
the strategic positions within the Ameri-
can Mediterranean. The Hamburg- American
Steamship Company by methods of peaceful
penetration acquired properties and estab-
lished a port of call in the important harbor of St.
Thomas, properties now taken over by the United
States as a war measure; and rumors had been frequent
that Germany had been negotiating with Denmark for
the purchase of this and neighboring Danish islands,
which are now at last in American possession. Ger-
many's warships have made elaborate surveys of
strategic harbors in Hayti and San Domingo.
When in 1897 the police authorities of Port au Prince
had arrested a German named Luders, Germany sent
warships, bombarded the city, and compelled "The
apologies accompanied by the immediate aTt^at
payment of an indemnity of twenty thousand Por* au
dollars. Count Schwerin, the German Charge,
admitted that the Haytian authorities were legally
in the right in arresting Luders, since he had attacked
the police; nevertheless on direct orders from Berlin,
the Charge took the peculiarly arrogant German
ground that no German of standing should ever be
arrested by any ordinary person. In humiliation
190 The World War
Hayti was forced to submit, and though Germany did
not at the time see fit to offer direct challenge to the
Monroe Doctrine through taking possession of Haytian
territory, there is little reason to doubt that she would
have done so if it would not have involved a clash
with the British fleet.
In the following year, when the intolerable conditions
in Cuba had forced the United States into a war with
Spain, Germany did her utmost to bring
hostility about a coalition of European Powers for
intervention on behalf of Spain; but in this
American she was foiled by the firm stand taken by the
War
British Government, an incident among many
which explains the intensity of German hatred of
England. To an Englishman who later reported the
conversation to Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, the British
Colonial Secretary, the Kaiser said at this time: 'If
I had had a larger fleet, I would have taken Uncle
Sam by the scruff of the neck" (2).
When Dewey had destroyed the Spanish fleet in
Manila Bay, he established and proclaimed a blockade,
assigning anchorages for the fleets of foreign
f powers in accordance with international
at jaw Admiral von Diedrichs commanding
Manila
a German squadron of war vessels somewhat
stronger than the fleet of Admiral Dewey, in defiance
of all recognized conventions, thereupon refused to
observe the regulations which had been laid down.
Friction reached a dangerous stage when one of the
German cruisers actually landed supplies for the
Spanish garrison. This might even be regarded as
constituting an act of war, and it is reported that
Dewey sent what was practically an ultimatum to
the German Admiral. Thereupon von Diedrichs ap-
German Conspiracies against the U. S. 191
preached Captain (since the late Admiral) Chichester,
in command of the British squadron, and inquired
what his attitude would be in case of a clash between
the German and American squadrons. The prompt
reply was: 'That is an affair known only to Admiral
Dewey and myself." Later, when military operations
were begun against the city of Manila and Dewey had
put his squadron in position opposite the forts, Admiral
von Diedrichs moved the German squadron into position
to attack the American fleet. The British squad-
ron commander thereupon moved his ships into posi-
tion between the German and American squadrons.
Admiral von Diedrichs needed no further explanation
as to what kind of support had been promised to the
American Admiral, and shortly thereafter sailed away
(3, p. 115, also 4).
In May, 1901, Mr. John Hay, the United States
Secretary of State, received information that German
warships had been inspecting, probably with
* The Vene-
a view to occupation as a naval base, the zueian
Santa Margherita Islands which lie off the difficulty
Venezuelan coast and are among the most valuable
strategic positions within the Caribbean. It was in
the following year that Germany sent warships to
collect the long outstanding indebtedness of Venezuela,
and she was at first able to induce Great Britain and
Italy, who were similarly affected, to cooperate with
her. Upon representations made by the United States
Department of State, England and Italy consented to
have the outstanding difficulties adjusted by arbitra-
tion, it having been intimated to them that any occupa-
tion of Venezuelan territory would be regarded as a
violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Germany declaring
that her occupation of Venezuelan territory would be
192 The World War
"temporary' only, proceeded to bombard the coast
and sink Venezuelan ships; but she stopped just short
of occupation. President Roosevelt was compelled
to serve what was in effect an ultimatum upon Ger-
many, and with very bad grace she then consented
that the matter should be adjusted by The Hague
Conference (2, p. 284).
A growing menace to the Monroe Doctrine had come
about through the attempts by Germany to estab-
lish colonies within the rich republics of temperate
German South America, especially Argentine, South-
colonization ern Brazil, and Chili. These German colo-
plans in . .
south mes are truly states within states, since the
Germans have maintained social and in-
dustrial relationships wholly apart from the loyal
Argentine and Brazilian people, and they have been
closely bound to the Fatherland, not only by main-
taining their own speech, churches, schools, and news-
papers, but by heavily subsidized German steamship
lines running to Hamburg and Bremen. Through
these methods of peaceful penetration such control
has been acquired of the great banking and industrial
institutions, as has given alarm to the governments
of these republics, an alarm which has now been more
than justified by the events of the war.
As long ago as 1900 Professor Remsch, now the
American Minister at Pekin, wrote:
"Should Germany, therefore, on account of complica-
tions in South America, find herself called upon
to the to defend the rights of her colonists, she would
Monroe undoubtedly take the necessary steps, even
though this might interfere with the main-
tenance of the Monroe Doctrine by the United States."
(5, p. 284.)
German Conspiracies against the U. S. 193
Gardiner gives the numbers of Germans now in
South American countries as follows: Brazil, 400,000;
Argentine, 60,000; Chili, 15,000; Uruguay, 5,000;
Venezuela, 5,000; and Paraguay, 3,000 (3, p. 122).
The political tract issued by the Pan-German Union
in 1911, believed to have been officially inspired, says
of these South American colonies :
"Germany will take under her protection the republics
of Argentina, Chili, Uruguay, and Paraguay, the southern
third of Bolivia . . . and also that part of southern Brazil
in which German culture prevails. . . . Chili and
Argentine will preserve their language and their autonomy,
but we shall require that German be taught in the schools
as a second language. Southern Brazil, Paraguay, and
Uruguay are countries of German culture and there German
will be the national tongue." (3, p. 123.)
It was in Argentine that the German Charge d'Af-
faires, Count Luxburg, was recently discovered to
have been secretly advising his government «sPurios
concerning the times of sailing of Argentine versenkt"
vessels and recommending that they be " sunk without
trace," notwithstanding the fact that the two govern-
ments were still on friendly relations.
Had the world war not intervened when it did, the
German challenge to the Monroe Doctrine in these re-
publics must sooner or later have resulted in war with
the United States ; and if a pacifist American Govern-
ment should have chosen to ignore the peril to its life,
it must have meant merely a postponement of the issue
with greatly increased hazards.
Of all the German conspiracies which have been
directed against America, the most serious has been
that insidious Kultur movement which has been quietly
194 The World War
conducted through the medium of the continued use of
the German language. European nations generally have
The Kuitur recognized the truth that under normal con-
movement ditions to continue the use of a language as
the habitual speech of the people is to remain bound to
the mother nation where that language prevails. This
is true not of German only but of every language as
well, and each of the larger Balkan states has had its
own peculiar trouble over Kuitur movements. One of
the conditions of peace concluded between Serbia and
Bulgaria at the end of the second Balkan War was that
no Bulgarian Kuitur propaganda was thereafter to be
permitted in Serbia.
As has been already pointed out, the German Kuitur
movement in the United States has been conducted
chiefly through the German language parochial schools,
the German departments in American colleges and uni-
versities, the German language newspapers modeled
upon Bismarck's ' ' reptile press, ' ' and the many German-
American societies in which the language and atmos-
phere have been those of the Fatherland. Mention
should be made also of the German bookstores, of
which the great Germania in Milwaukee has exercised
a powerful influence.
After Count von Bulow's tour as Imperial Chan-
cellor, it became a custom in Germany to speak of
Germania the "lost" Germans of the Fatherland who
irredenta must be redeemed, and propaganda efforts
were redoubled to prevent the assimilation of German
emigrants in the United States, by far the largest body
represented in Germania Irredenta.
An enthusiastic and loyal American teacher of the
German language, Professor John F. Coar, who had
been wholly misled as to the sinister intentions of the
German Conspiracies against the U. S. 195
German Government, visited Germany during the years
1911 and 1912 and lectured in many German cities
as the representative of the Germanistische The plot
Gesellschaft. To his amazement he was in- revealed
formed by the head of the society for Deutschtum im
Ausland that the Kultur movement in America had
for more than ten years been directed each year by
more than forty secret agents who had been com-
missioned to work mainly for two distinct purposes.
These purposes were: (i) The introduction of the
German language into the public schools, whenever
possible as a school language, and to increase the
number and effectiveness of the German language
parochial schools; and (2) consolidation of the Ger-
man-American vote to the end that it might hold the
balance of power and bring about at least benevolent
neutrality in favor of the Fatherland in the coming
war. Perhaps even more significant than the impart-
ing to him of this secret information upon the supposi-
tion that he was "safe," is the fact that when Professor
Coar allowed this menace to his country to become
known in America — a menace which had been confirmed
to him in Berlin by two of the returned spies — he was
in effect boycotted by one American-German depart-
ment after another, prevented from obtaining a reput-
able American position, so that he finally gave up the
fight and became connected with the University of
Alberta, Canada (6).
German emigrants in the United States have been
encouraged to keep together and found com-
munities and districts within which they can in the work
constitute the entire population. More than of
elsewhere this has been true of the State of
Wisconsin, where in more than one community I
196 The World War
found it necessary to speak the German language in
order to be understood at all.
It was in Wisconsin that an incident occurred which
will one day be looked back upon as a starting point
of a great movement for the Americanization of the
nation, if this nation is to remain true to the ideals
and to the steps taken by the Fathers 'in order to
form a more perfect union."
Taking advantage of the ignorance of the English
language among the German farmers in Jefferson
County, Wisconsin, Chicago swindlers mas-
ignorance .. . ,
of English querading as government census takers were
language a^je fo TCfo them of eight thousand dollars,
a menace
through securing their signatures to promis-
sory notes represented to be census forms to be filled
out. William Dempster Hoard, afterwards governor
of the State, was, shortly subsequent to the swindle,
appointed the Government Census Agent for this
section, and in carrying out his work encountered
such difficulties as impressed upon him the menace
to our liberties harbored by this evil of foreignism.
Almost his first act, after he had been elected
governor, was to have a bill drawn, since famous
as the Bennett Bill, which aimed to abolish the
The Bennett foreign-language school. The opposition to
this movement in a state so largely popu-
lated by people of foreign extraction, shook the com-
monwealth to its foundation. The governor was
promptly warned by his party leaders that if he per-
sisted in his efforts he would wreck both his party and
his own political career. He remained firm and was
able to secure the enactment of the Bennett Law,
whereupon a delegation of German-Lutheran pastors
waited upon him and demanded that he should not
. German Conspiracies against the U. S. 197
enforce the law, and upon his refusal to accept their
domination, no stone was left unturned to accomplish
his defeat at the next election. In this they were
successful, and the Bennett Law, enacted now twenty-
five years ago, was repealed after remaining in force
for only two years (7, p. 180).
The war in which we are now engaged has proven
the wisdom of this stanch patriot and pioneer of
Americanization, and the name of William Dempster
Hoard should be held in reverence as that of a man
who was ready to sacrifice personal preferment to the
welfare of his country.
Baron von Holleben, the German Ambassador to
the United States at the time of the Venezuelan diffi-
culty, was particularly active in conspiracies
against the United States. In presenting
German colors to the Chicago German ans.in
America
Veterans and Soldier Societies he said:
"Greetings from the German Emperor! That is the
cry with which I come before you. His Majesty, my most
gracious master, has ordered me to hand to you to-day the
colour which has been desired by you so strongly and for
so long. . . . This colour is to be the symbol of German
faithfulness, German manliness, and German military
honour. His Majesty asks you to accept the colour as
a token of that unity which should prevail among all German
soldiers, to act also abroad in accordance with the sentiments
of German loyalty and German sense of duty, and to take for
your maxim, the word of that great German, Bismarck, ' We
Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world, ' Now let
the colour flutter in the wind. In this moment of enthu-
siasm, let us all sound the cry that is now on the lips of
every German soldier. 'His Majesty, German Emperor,
William II., Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! ' " (8, p. 227,
also 9.)
198 The World War
Following the signal failure of the Venezuela threat
during President Roosevelt's administration, Baron
von Holleben sought to stir up the people
Baron von
Hoiieben's of the United States against England by
stating that Sir Julian Pauncefote, the
British Ambassador, had led the attempted coalition
against the United States at the outbreak of the Span-
ish-American War. This shallow deception, was based
upon the fact that Sir Julian had been the dean of the
diplomatic corps, and as such it had been his duty to
transmit the message to the President. This decep-
tion proved a fiasco, for the American people already
knew well at the time the part England had played on
their behalf both at the beginning and during the war.
The fact that Sir Julian had since died and no reply
could be offered, made the attempt at deception par-
ticularly obnoxious, and when its failure had become
apparent, Holleben was at once recalled (2, p. 293).
Quite different tactics, intended now to produce good
feeling toward Germany, were undertaken. The
Kaiser presented to the American nation
XliG Kniser's
gift of statue the statue of Frederick the Great, great at
theFGrtrtiCk *east as a military leader, who, it was put
forward, had been a great admirer of General
Washington, and, contrary to the facts of history, was
claimed also to have sent a sword to Washington with
the message : ' To the greatest general from the oldest
general. " This statue proved to be a white elephant,
since it could not well be refused; and it was finally
disposed of by setting it up in front of the war college
on the Potomac outside the monumental portion of
the city.
Arrangements were carried out for an exchange of
professors between the American and German univer-
German Conspiracies against the U. S. 199
sities. In Berlin the American exchange professors
were shown such attentions that some of them have
never since succeeded in orienting themselves Exchange
correctly in reference to German-American processors
relationship. The Kaiser himself at first attended
their lectures delivered at the University of Berlin,
though in 1913 Prince August Wilhelm represented
him. It has been reported of the Kaiser that when
America failed to respond to the intensive German
propaganda of 1914-15, he exclaimed in vexation:
"And to think that I have sat through all those
lectures."
As has already been pointed out, the German alli-
ances of the various states of the Union were federated
in the National German- American Alliance, Or anized
an organization which, as the result of an Germanism
.... , . ! . . rin America
investigation by a special committee of
inquiry of the United States Senate, has been shown to
have fostered disloyalty and been broken up. There
have, however, been many other societies formed to
promote Deutschtum in America. Of the 268 chapters
of the Pan-German Union, two have been located in
the United States; one of them at New York and one
at San Francisco (10, p. 5). The aims of this League
are officially stated to be, * to support and foster Ger-
man national aspirations in all countries," and it
'acknowledges as fellow-countrymen all who are of
German descent and who loyally hold to the German
language and German civilization. . . . There is
but one goal: the creation of a common conscious-
ness among Germans everywhere in the world." (10,
p. 6.)
There was formed also a German American Teach-
ers' Alliance which has fulfilled
200 The World War
"the first duty of a German in a foreign land, which is
that he shall use the German language and live the Ger-
man manner. ... Is it not the duty of Ger-
German-
American mans to prevent every emigrant from being lost
Teachers' to ^g German nation, to see that all those who
Alliance .
emigrate have the firm intent not only to spread
German civilization, but to strengthen it where it already
exists ? Every German emigrant , no matter from what class,
high or low, should be made conscious of this : that he is a
missionary in the widest sense of the word." (10.)
Those who have any doubt concerning the real
purpose and the actual effect of the German- American
The German press, should read the declaration of the
JuipiMn* Alldeutscher Blatter, the official organ of the
America Pan-German Union:
"It is urgently necessary," said this organ in 1910, "to
adopt some measures to prevent the further decline of the
German press in America, in order that the German nation
may suffer no further harm."
This applies especially to the small papers, for
"they more than any others keep the German spirit alive.
With the extinction of every one [each one? — W. H. H.]
of them an entire and definite group of people is lost for-
ever to Germanism." (10.)
The same organ says of the German churches and
church schools:
'The German- American societies and the churches and
church schools in which German is taught or used work
to the same end; and we may rejoice to know that the
Catholic as well as the Evangelical clergy . . . are engaged
in noble emulation to preserve the German language and
German Conspiracies against the U. S. 201
German sentiments in the hearts of their congregations."
(10, p. 8.)
The organ of the Society for Germanism in Foreign
Countries confirms the above expressed opinion of the
German school in the following language:
The Father-
'The most effective means for perfecting land in
German nationality abroad is the school.
German schools abroad should not only preserve Ger-
man nationality among the children of German
emigrants, but should impart German Kultur to the
children of other nationalities also." Another writer
adds touchingly of the German language school : ' ' With-
in its sacred walls the strange land is transformed for
children, teachers, and parents into the German Father-
land" (10, p. 10).
Dr. Julius Goebel, Professor of German at the Univer-
sity of Illinois, in an address delivered in Munich in
1904 declared that the German language
and German culture are the best means of
preserving German nationality, and that
'the possession of them alone is sufficient to
prevent the process of Americanization' (10,
p. 12).
Only when the war had broken upon us did the full
fruition of German conspiracies in America become
apparent. Until the Dernberg campaign
of propaganda had brought its disappoint-
ment, Germany had waited in the hope of becomes
revealed as
active support from the entire German- headquarters
American element of the population. When
1 IT •pllclWlCt*
this hope had vanished, and following not
only all precedents but its right and duty, America
took contracts for munitions of war to be shipped
German-
American
professor
opposes
American-
ization
Embassy
202 The World War
abroad, the Imperial German Embassy at Washington
and every German consular office in the United States
became revealed as parts of one interlocking military
machine organized to accomplish incendiary and
other destruction of the plants engaged in the produc-
tion of war materials, as well as of the steamships
which were used to transport such materials abroad.
The two attaches of the Imperial German Embassy,
Captain Boy-Ed and Captain von Papen, from their
branch office in New York City, directed as
Destruction
of lives and the Ambassador's lieutenants all this vast
dkected from wor^ °f murder and destruction, which
German opened January 18, 1915, with the dynamit-
ing of the plant of the Roebling Chain Com-
pany at Trenton, N. J., an explosion which with
the resulting fire caused a loss of $1,500,000. From
that time until February, 1917, when Count von Bern-
storff was handed his passports, and when the outrages
fell off notably in number, no less than sixty -eight
great plants had been destroyed with a loss of 146
lives and 153 persons injured. No less than thirty-
two large vessels and thirty-seven lighters carrying
munitions had taken fire either at their docks or at
sea. The money loss represented by this riot of de-
struction has never been computed, and perhaps never
can be; but the two largest explosions, those of Black
Tom and the Canadian Car and Foundry Company
at Kingston, N. J., amounted to $25,000,000 and
$16,000,000 respectively. The fire at the Bethlehem
Steel Company's plant on November 9, 1915, destroyed
eight hundred big guns and caused a loss of $2,000,000.
Several other big fires entailed losses of from one to
three millions of dollars each, (n.)
It is hardly too much to say that the course of the
German Conspiracies against the U. S. 203
war might have been different, and with it the whole
future of the United States, but for the remarkable
achievements of the Providence Journal in
deciphering the German codes, fathoming the tive work
German plots, and placing all this knowl- "Providence
edge at once in the hands of the government
authorities. Says the conservative Boston Transcript:
' The Providence Journal is entitled to the thanks of the
country for the remarkable success of the inquiries into the
German spy system and the German propaganda in this
country which it has conducted. The Journal's discov-
eries have been the basis for about three quarters — possibly
a larger proportion than that — of the government's pro-
ceedings against the German plotters: the scalps of Boy-
Ed and von Papen hang at its tepee door; and it was upon
the Journal's information that most of the judicial proceed-
ings now pending were taken. ... It has performed a
work that will be remembered in the history of the war. "
(10.)
The undoubtedly great achievements of the staff of
the Providence Journal, directed by that genius of the
science of criminology, John R. Rathom,
German
surpass in compelling interest the best efforts spies spied
of writers of fiction. Some of the most
interesting episodes, in particular how Mr. Rathom
succeeded in placing his men in confidential positions
within the Imperial German Embassy at Washington
and at the Hamburg-American Steamship Company's
offices in New York City, have been told in Mr.
Rathom' s public addresses; but the full story, the
publication of which was begun in The World's Work
of February, 1918, was stopped after the first number
had appeared.
204 The World War
The Journal's first successes were due to the high-
power wireless plants operated by it, which took off
thousands of messages received and sent by the Say-
ville Wireless Station, through studying which the
Journal succeeded in deciphering the German code.
Much more would have been accomplished had
the government shown a greater willingness
government to act upon the information supplied by
leniency Mr. Rathom. Sayshe:
" The sympathetic and kindly attitude of those in author-
ity who prefer not to intern spies, who prefer not to shoot
traitors, is rapidly creating a condition, which, if permitted
to continue, will mean the maintenance in the very heart
of our civil and commercial life of a danger that will destroy
half of our war value to ourselves and the Allies. Can
any sane man believe that the German language daily press
of the United States is any less traitorous at heart to-day
than it was the day before war was declared? Why are
dozens of treasonable sheets of this kind, owned and run
by men who are known to the government to be traitors,
permitted to continue publication?'
Speaking of the Secret Service of the United States
and of the Bureau of Investigation of the Department
of Justice, Mr. Rathom says that the sum paid annu-
ally to these vitally important bureaus of the govern-
ment "is actually less than the amount of money paid
by Ambassador von Bernstorff per month for German
secret service operations in the city of New York alone.
The financial loss entailed by the Baltimore fire was
probably four times the entire annual cost of both of
these bureaus."
German conspiracies have been aimed not alone at
American munition plants and freighters, but have been
German Conspiracies against the U. S. 205
intended also to mislead the people of the United States
into the belief that it was their duty upon moral
grounds to put a stop to a business which The German-
was described as a "traffic in human lives'1 American
Alliance in
and which was ' ' all that prevented an early various
peace, ' ' the nature of such a ' ' German peace ' '
being at the time less clearly understood than it is
to-day, now that Russia and Roumania writhe under
the heel of the Hun.
To accomplish this purpose of forming a public
opinion in favor of placing an embargo upon munitions,
many schemes were hatched in the secret
J Manufacture
counsels of the German- American Alliance. of public
A common hatred of England had in 1907
led to an unholy rapprochement between the German-
American Alliance and the Ancient Order of Hiber-
nians, a bond which was further strengthened in 1910.
In 1915 the Alliance joined with the Irish in the cele-
bration of St. Patrick's Day (12).
It was believed to be necessary for the success of
the various undertakings, that the name of the German-
American Alliance should not appear in what's in
these movements in favor of an embargo, a name?
and with a wholly characteristic Teuton psychology
the plan was adopted of using liberally the terms
"peace," "neutrality," "friend," "independence,"
"truth," etc.; for the exact opposites, namely, "war,"
"partisan," "enemy," "slavery," and "falsehood."
The American Independence Union was organized
in Washington under a citizen of German birth with a
view to promote ' ' true and purposeful inde- AmeriCan
pendence of Great Britain and the observ- independence
ance of genuine neutrality by the prohibition
of the export of munitions." The request had earlier
206 The World War
gone out from the Alliance to all local branches to form
themselves into "Neutrality Leagues'5 and to use
names of Anglo-Saxons for the official positions, in
order to conceal the German sympathies of the leagues.
When now it was found to be impossible to do this,
since practically all officers had German names, the
request went out for the officers to resign in favor of
others with less obvious antecedents (12).
Early in 1915 Franz von Rintelen, now in prison for
his crimes, came to America with almost unlimited
financial credit, as the Kaiser's special agent
"Labor's
National to hinder the shipment of munitions to the
Allies. He proceeded at once to poison the
press, corrupt labor, hire thugs to burn,
dynamite, and assassinate; in most of which efforts
he was successful. As his chief lieutenant he selected
David Lamar, the "wolf of Wall Street," who organ-
ized "Labor's National Peace Council" to bring about
strikes and block the manufacture of munitions (13,
P- 303).
To the everlasting credit of the labor unions be it
said that as a body they repelled the advances of Lamar
and refused to accept the liberal bribes which he offered ;
and their president, Mr. Gompers, has from the begin-
ning taken a stand which reflects the highest credit
upon him (12, p. 83). The I. W. W.'s, or Industrial
Workers of the World, seem, on the contrary, to have
early formed an alliance with German agents, so that
these initials have already acquired the significance of
plotter or traitor. A very considerable body of them,
including their leader, Hay wood, have now been tried
and sentenced to imprisonment for longer or shorter
terms.
The leaders in Labor's National Peace Council
German Conspiracies against the U. S. 207
proved upon investigation to be the same as those in
the American Embargo Conference, which had been
formed the same year, and concerning which Hen-
Albert, the German financial agent in America, had
been informed that the German element will be kept
in the background so that the organization may "have
to all outward appearances a purely American char-
acter" (n).
When in the spring of 1916 President Wilson appeared
before Congress to present the menace of the sub-
marine, all local branches of the German- The telegram
American Alliance, as well as other individuals barrage
believed to be pro-German, were urged from the head-
quarters of the Alliance to dispatch telegrams to
members of Congress enjoining upon them action in
favor of Germany. No less than nine telegram forms
were sent to be signed and forwarded in rotation, all
expense being guaranteed. One of these forms urged
standing like a rock against criminal folly, another
voiced sympathy for the "real sufferers," while a
third purported to come ' ' from the wives and mothers
in your district." Between one and two hundred
thousand of such telegrams were sent, which must
have entailed an expense of nearly a quarter of a mil-
lion dollars; but since the whole plot was transparent
and crude, it probably accomplished no result beyond
revealing the audacity of the German plotters.
Later in 1915 the "Friends of Peace" was organized
at Chicago for the purpose of putting an embargo
upon the shipment of munitions, and at "Friends of
San Francisco was held the "Neutrality Peace"
of Peace Convention" of German- American and Irish
societies. The "American Truth Society," which had
been organized by Irish-Americans some years before
208 The World War
in order to free the United States from English influ-
ence, now took on a new lease of life as the German-
Americans came in as members. Other organizations
with similar purposes were the ' German- American
Literary Defense Committee," the 'German Univer-
sity League" (composed of those who had studied at
German universities, of which Professor Learned of
the University of Pennsylvania was secretary), the
"Intercollegiate League of German Clubs," and the
"Teutonic Sons of America'1 (12, p. 72).
Early in the war the German agents were very success-
ful in exploiting well-known pacifists and inducing
them to support the German cause through
The Ford
Peace advocating peace, such propaganda having
no effect upon the people of the Central
Empires, although successful in breaking down the
morale of the allied nations. Their greatest success,
and it is one of the vitally important events of the
war, was to induce Henry Ford, the well-known multi-
millionaire manufacturer of automobiles, to embark
upon his colossal misguided efforts to bring about an
early or "German'' peace. As elsewhere described in
these lectures, a considerable number of the most effi-
cient German agents came into relations with Mr.
Ford, among them David Lamar, Edward Rumely,
and Madam Schwimmer, and induced him to embark
upon his notorious Peace Argosy, to attempt to in-
fluence Congress, to oppose preparedness, etc. Foolish
and ridiculous as the Argosy appeared, it accomplished
the purposes of the Kaiser's agents, who were thus
able to consolidate the pacifist elements of Europe
and America and align them on the side of the German
cause (14).
As a prelude to the war, German pamphleteers
German Conspiracies against the U. S. 209
mailed both to intellectuals in the allied countries and
to the larger contingent of clergymen and teachers,
political tracts the measure of which can
best be described in terms of tonnage; but
this bombardment was augmented enor- by Ge™1"1
pamphlets
mously both in quantity and in intensity of
expression so soon as the storm had broken in the
summer of 1914.
The British censorship, by reason of the thoroughness
which it took on after the blockade of Germany had
been finally established, was able to accumulate a
large library of this material ; and Mr. Harry Melville,
its librarian, has arranged and carefully studied some
two thousand specimens from the collection. Accord-
ing to him this material falls into the following groups
on the basis of its objects. The apparent objects are:
"i. To draw attention to the perfection of German
methods of organization.
"2. To give an exaggerated impression of the successes
achieved by Germany in the war.
"3. To neutralize, as far as possible, the bad effects
produced by earlier excesses.
"4. By more subtle touches to indicate the growth of
dissension among the Allies and modifications in the atti-
tude of neutrals toward the ultimate result of the war.
"5. To misrepresent, as far as possible, through the
distortion of past expressions of opinion by writers of the
allied nations, and by the employment of renegades, to
deal with such topics as the treatment of subject races by
the Allies." (15, p. 6.)
The German Presse Abteilung zur Beinflussung der
Neutralen (Section of the Press for Influencing Neutrals)
had to do with the publication and distribution of the
14
210 The World War
Kriegs Kronik, printed in five languages ; the Welt im
Bild, issued in twelve languages; and the Hamburger
Press section Nachrichten, sent out in three languages. The
to influence Continental Times, purporting to be estab-
lished for "Americans in Europe," was so
gross in its falsehoods that its value was probably small.
A clever device was adopted in the Gazette des Ar-
dennes, published in Charleville, which by including
lists of French prisoners aimed to find readers in the
occupied portions of France. A similar purpose was
served by the Russki Vyestnik, printed for distribution
among Russian prisoners of war in Poland.
In Turkey texts for use in the German schools were
filled with propaganda through the choice of selections
school in readers, while the German propaganda
used with German-speaking clergymen is
sufficiently indicated by the titles of pamphlets; such,
for example, as Katholismus und Weltkrieg (Catholicism
and the World War), Jesus und der Krieg (Jesus and
the War), and Die Bibel als Kriegsbuch (The Bible as
a War Book).
That a nation which has sold itself to the devil will
unwittingly defeat its own purposes through the pecu-
Teuton ^ar sta^e °^ mind which it engenders in its
psychology own agents, may perhaps be best illustrated
by an excerpt from one of the above-men-
tioned propagandist papers, the Kriegs Kronik:
"A traitor has just been shot, a little French lad [ein
Franzosling] belonging to one of those gymnastic societies
which wear tricolor ribbons [i.e., the Eclaireurs, or Boy
Scouts], a poor little fellow who in his infatuation wanted
to be a hero. The German column was passing along
a wooded defile, and he was caught and asked whether
German Conspiracies against the U. S. 211
the French were about. He refused to give information.
Fifty yards farther on there was fire from the cover of the
wood. The prisoner was asked in French if he had known
that the enemy was in the forest and did not deny it. He
went with firm step to a telegraph post and stood up against
it, with the green vineyard at his back, and received the
volley of the firing party with a proud smile on his face.
Infatuated wretch! It was a pity to see such wasted
courage.' (16, p. 189.)
Any comment seems unnecessary.
REFERENCES
1. MAHAN, A. T., The Monroe Doctrine in Naval Administration and
Warfare, pp. 357-409, Boston, Little, 1908.
2. THAYER, WILLIAM ROSCOE, Life and Letters of John Hay, vol. ii.f
pp. 448, Boston, Houghton, 1908.
3. GARDINER, J. B. W. (Military Critic of the New York Times),
German Plans for the Next War, pp. 139, N. Y., Doubleday, 1918.
4. KURD, ARCHIBALD, An Incident of War, by Order of the Kaiser,
pp. 1 6, London, Causton & Sons, 1916.
5. REINSCH, P. S., World Politics at the End of the Nineteenth Century,
pp. 366, N. Y., Macmillan, 1900.
6. COAR, JOHN F., "German Propaganda before the War," New York
Times, Sept. 7, 1916, and personal communications.
7. HOBBS, WILLIAM HERBERT, "A Pioneer Movement for American-
ization," pp. 666, The Outlook, April 24, 1918.
8. WITTE, E'MIL, The Revelations of a German Attache, pp. 264, N. Y.,
Doran, 1916.
9. FABRICIUS, "Germany's Policy toward the United States," pp.
54-67, Fortnightly Review, Jan., 1915.
10. SPERRY, EARL E., The Tentacles of the German Octopus in America,
pp. 19, National Security League, Patriotism through Education
Series, no. 21, 1917.
11. "A Few Lines of Recent American B istory , " pp. 23 , The Providence
Journal, 1917.
12. OHLINGER, GUSTAVUS, Their True Faith and Allegiance, with a
foreword by Owen Wister, pp. 124, N. Y., Macmillan, 1915.
13. STROTHER, FRENCH, "Fighting Germany's Spies," vii., pp. 303-
317, World's Work, July, 1918.
14. HOBBS, WILLIAM HERBERT, "Henry Ford's Campaign against
Preparedness," Detroit Free Press, June 30, 1918.
212 The World War
15. KOCH, T. W., "British Censorship and Enemy Publications,"
pp. 9, Library Journal, Sept., 1917.
16. WILLMORE, J. S., The Great Crime and its Moral, pp. 323, London,
Hodder, 1917.
17. SKAGGS, WM. H., German Conspiracies in America, with an intro-
duction by T. Andrea Cook, pp. 332, London, Unwin, 1915 (?).
1 8. SPERRY, EARL E., German Plotting in the United States, pp. 162-
170, Committee on Public Information, also New York Times
Cur. Hist., Oct., 1918.
19. GERARD, JAMES W., My Four Years in Germany, pp. 448, N. Y.,
Doran, 1917.
20. VIERECK, GEORGE SYLVESTER, Confessions of a Barbarian, pp.
207 (chaps, i.-vii.), N. Y., Moffat, 1910.
XII
AMERICA'S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE WAR
—THE PREPAREDNESS MOVEMENT
"Brethren, how shall it fare with me
When the war is laid aside,
If it be proven that, I am he
For whom a world has died?
14 That they did not ask me to draw the sword
When they stood to endure their lot,
That they only looked to me for a word,
And I answered I knew them not."
The Neutral, by RUDYARD KIPLING, 1916.
4 The sacred rights of man are not to be searched for in old documents
and musty records. They are written as with a sunbeam in the whole
volume of human nature by the hand of Divinity itself and can never
be erased by mortal power." — ALEXANDER HAMILTON.
4 There is a rank due to the United States among nations which will
be withheld, if not absolutely lost, by the reputation of weakness. If
we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it, if we desire to
secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising pros-
perity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war." —
GEORGE WASHINGTON.
"Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. No personal signifi-
cance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial
through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the
latest generation. We, even we here, hold the power and bear the
responsibility. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope
of earth." — ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
213
214 The World War
UIZOT, the great French historian, once asked
James Russell Lowell how long he thought the
The tradi- American Republic would endure. 'So long
tionsofthe as the ideas of its founders continue to be
fathers
dominant, was Lowell s reply. Upon the
meaning of these words many a loyal American might
well have pondered during that long period of hesita-
tion before America saw clearly that it was her duty
to play her part in the great conflict which had en-
gulfed the world. "No sound man can doubt," said
Washington, "that the most pacific policy on the part
of the Government will not prevent it from being en-
gaged in war more or less frequently. " Said Alexander
Hamilton: "The rights of neutrality will only be
respected when they are defended by an adequate
power," and Monroe declared: "A defenseless position
and distinguished love of peace are the surest invita-
tions to war."
When in the summer of 1914 the World War burst
upon the world, the attitude assumed by the United
States Government was one of aloofness.
The official _, . .. , . . ,
American The proclamation of neutrality which was
outbreak^ issued bY President Wilson on August 19,
war was one 1914, contained a feature novel to such docu-
ments, in that the American people were
enjoined to maintain neutrality of thought and sym-
pathy as well as of action. Said Mr. Wilson in this
proclamation: "We must be impartial in thought as
well as in action, must put a curb upon our sentiments
as well as upon every transaction that might be con-
strued as a preference of one party to the struggle
before another' (i, p. 2).
Speaking of the war in an address delivered May
27, 1916, President Wilson said: 'With its causes
America's Attitude 215
and its objects we are not concerned. The obscure
fountains from which its stupendous flood has burst
forth we are not interested to search for or explore"
(2).
The attempt to show that the war, instead of having
been started by Germany, was made by diplomats,
has been cleverly and assiduously worked by the Ger-
man agents, more especially in two books, How Diplo-
mats Make War, by a British statesman (Francis
Neilson), published by the pro-German publisher,
B. W. Hiibsch, and Two Thousand Questions and
Answers about the V/ar, published by the Review of
Reviews Company, and endorsed by George Creel,
Director of the Committee on Public Information (3).
In an address delivered as late as October 27, 1916,
Mr. Wilson said:
"Have you ever heard what started the present war?
If you have, I wish you would publish it, because nobody
else has, so far as I can gather. Nothing in particular
started it, but everything in general. There had been
growing up in Europe a mutual suspicion, an interchange
of conjectures about what this government and that govern-
ment was going to do, an interlacing of alliances and un-
derstandings, a complex web of intrigue and spying, that
presently was sure to entangle the whole of the family of
mankind on that side of the water in its meshes." (4,
p. 355-)
The invasion of Belgium by the German armies
took place August 4th, and the Imperial Chancellor
in a speech to the Reichstag a few days later The invasion
made the admission that this invasion was °fBelsium
in violation of international law (n, p. 199). The
guaranteeing of the neutrality of Belgium had been
216 The World War
entered into in 1839 by Great Britain, Prussia, France,
Austria, and Russia; and though not a signatory to
the treaty, the United States was the only Great Power
not at war and in a position to register its protest with-
out the imputation of a hostile bias due to a belligerent
attitude. Wholly apart from any outraged national
feeling, international traditions demanded that a for-
mal protest at least should be made, but none was
vouchsafed.
The reign of frightfulness and the wholesale murder
of innocent citizens in the invaded countries had begun
August 5th. In Belgium the atrocities perpetrated
by the armies of invasion and occupation occurred
chiefly in the periods August 5-8 and August 11-14
(5). A Belgian commission visited the United States
and laid before the President the documentary evi-
dence of these crimes against international law and
against humanity, but no protest was made. When
the Kaiser had on September 7th requested of Mr.
Wilson "an impartial opinion' with regard to the
war, the President replied: '. . . I am honored that
you should have turned to me for an impartial judgment
as the representative of a people truly disinterested
as respects the present war. ... I speak thus frankly
because I know you will expect and wish me to do so
as one friend speaks to another," and continued to
the end without protest against Germany's acts (6).
Every war of considerable dimensions has imposed
hardships upon neutral nations through restrictions
upon freedom of commerce, and it was alto-
interference
with neutral gether inevitable that Great Britain's neces-
sity of cutting off from Germany the materials
of war should interfere seriously with American trade.
International law has been a growth in which in-
America's Attitude 217
novations which are in harmony with the spirit, though
not necessarily with the letter, of existing laws, have
become incorporated with the consent of nations
through recognition of the justice of these changes.
During the blockade of the Southern States in the
Civil War, the letter of the law was violated, though
its spirit was maintained, when British ships carrying
contraband to Jamaica and Mexico for reshipment into
the- Confederate States, were adjudged to be carry-
ing contraband. In the settlement of the Springbok
case in the United States Supreme Court, the doctrine
of 'continuous voyage'1 was advanced and this has
since become incorporated into international law.
This doctrine is that goods conveyed to Jamaica, for
example, if really destined for the ports of the states at war
through transshipment of cargoes, were subject to the same
limitations as ships sailing directly for belligerent ports.
Under the conditions of a war of continental dimen-
sions in which whole peoples became involved, it was
inevitable that further extensions of this
doctrine should be made if its spirit was to required
be maintained. The small neutral states lB^*5*i"
tensions
contiguous to Germany were being made use of this
of to import supplies of all kinds, so that
continuous ' ' transport, ' ' rather than continuous voyage,
aptly describes the modifications which had obtained.
In the friction which soon developed between Ameri-
can shippers and the British Government, Mr. Wilson
adopted an attitude which held the scales The scales
with the greatest nicety between interfer- balanced
ences with commerce upon the one hand, between
and brutal destruction of innocent lives an™*he
upon the other. French opinion of this Allies
attitude was thus expressed :
218 The World War
"... like Colonel Roosevelt the French feel that the
Germans have forfeited the right to the same treatment
as that accorded to the Allies ... a right which Wilson
persists in giving them. Thinking that he ought to have
acted sooner and more vigorously, they blame America
for what they consider the President's pusillanimity. " (7.)
An American college president of German ancestry
and training, who has described himself as a ' de-
hyphenated " American, has thus characterized this
attitude :
"To say that England and France are fighting our bat-
tle in behalf of freedom and justice is to state a truism.
Yet Mr. Lansing impartially measures out multitudinous
words of protest to England about mail bags and cotton
bales with the same carefully calculating passion with
which he addresses Germany on the subject of murdered
infants." (8.)
As the year 1914 was drawing to a close, Mr. Wilson
addressed a particularly vigorous note to the British
Government upon the subject of restraints
to collect of American trade, concerning which the
damages of Washington correspondent of the New York
Great Britain
Times had this to say:
"The language of the note is emphatic and its meaning
is so plain that no opportunity is afforded of misunder-
standing the position assumed by this country. ... In a
word the position of the United States is that of 'the
innocent bystander ' injured in the fray. . . .
"From President Wilson himself it was learned to-day
that this Government felt that it had cause to claim heavy
damages from the British Government for the restrictions
on and the interference with American trade. . . . Per-
haps the most important statement that came from the
America's Attitude 219
White House was that it was the purpose of the United
States to seek damages in every case where there had been
interference with American trade and commerce, and it
was clear that the belligerent nation was wrong." (9.)
The Administration early took the position that no
special measures looking to the national defense were
called for by the outbreak of the war, even Movements
though within the army and navy and in a toward
considerable section of the American people, defense
the feeling was strong that not a moment opposed
should be lost in setting the national house in order
with reference to a possible or probable involvement
in the war.
Shortly before the outbreak of the war, General
Leonard Wood, our ranking general and warning
most distinguished soldier, said in a public ^^J^d
address at the University of Ohio : wood
"You hear much talk about our tremendous military
resources — 'undeveloped resources' is the term most com-
monly used, and used with a certain sense of satisfaction
by those who understand nothing of what preparation
means. Undeveloped military resources are just about as
useful in time of war as an undeveloped gold mine in Alaska
in a panic in Wall Street. It is a valuable asset if you
have time to develop it, but not otherwise, and it will not
help you during the crisis. You have just seen a great
war with the decisive battles fought in the first month.
Wars are coming that way. Modern wars come quickly
and when they come upon us, whoever our antagonist may
be, he will take advantage of the fact that we are never
ready, and war will be made with more than usual prompt-
ness in order that we may not be able to assemble even
such scanty organized and trained resources as we have."
When the war had broken out General Wood sounded
220 The World War
his warning with even greater persistence and power,
and from the side of the navy, Admiral Fiske, our
greatest naval strategist, with the able assistance of
Admiral Winslow and others, repeatedly pointed out
the peril to the nation if it continued in its present
defenseless condition. Without exception, so far as
I am aware, those who had ventured to warn the nation
were demoted or otherwise made to suffer for their
patriotic devotion.
In the face of all these warnings Mr. Wilson delivered
to a joint session of Congress on December 8, 1914,
m.t , four months after the outbreak of the war,
Mr. Wilson's
assurance an address in which he advised a mild en-
couragement and increase of the National
Guard. He then went on to say:
"More than this carries with it a reversal of the whole
history and character of our policy. More than this,
permit me to say, would mean merely that we had lost
our self-possession, that we had been thrown off our balance
by a war with which we have nothing to do, whose causes
cannot touch us, whose very existence affords us oppor-
tunities of friendship and disinterested service which should
make us ashamed of any thought of hostility or fearful
preparation for trouble. . . .
"But I turn from the subject. It is not new. There
is no need to discuss it. We shall not alter our attitude
because some amongst us are nervous and excited. We
shall easily and sensibly agree upon a policy of defense.
The question has not changed its aspects because the
times are not normal. . . . Let there be no misconception.
The country has been misinformed. We have not been
negligent of national defense." (10, p. 21.)
Despite this assurance of the Executive that no need
existed for looking to the defense of the nation, there
f America's Attitude 221
were those outside military and naval circles who saw
clearly the danger and who realized from the outset
that the conflict "raging in Europe was the America's
age-long struggle of democracy against au- peril
tocracy, and that if America remained true to her
traditions, no pacifist President could keep the nation
from eventually becoming involved in the maelstrom.
The peril to America was that a decision unfavorable
to us would be reached in Europe, and that, having
refused to fight in alliance with the other democratic
nations, the war would come to America after our
natural allies had been destroyed and be there fought
out single-handed.
For two and a half years America assumed the atti-
tude of the "innocent bystander" injured in the fray,
and it was not until we had drifted willy- For two
nilly into the struggle, that the President years the
finally recognized that it was the irrepres- regarded
sible conflict between autocracy and demo- the war as
a struggle
cracy which had involved the world. In among rivals
his peace note of December 20, 1916, Mr.
Wilson said through his Secretary of State in addressing
the allied nations : ' He [the President] takes the liberty
of calling attention to the fact that the objects which
the statesmen of belligerents on both sides have in
mind in this war are virtually the same " (i i).
As the general commanding the Department of the
East, General Leonard Wood, clearly forecasting the
future, established the so-called Plattsburg ThePiatts-
camps for the training of officers, it being bur«camP8
clear to military men that the greatest difficulty in
the way of hurriedly bringing together an army on our
involvement in the war would be to supply the ne-
cessary officers. At Plattsburg barracks upon Lake
222 The World War
Champlain, under the fiction of field maneuvers by a
small body of regular troops, properly qualified ci-
vilians were received as "visitors" and underwent an
intensive training in the military art. The red-blooded
element in the population, and especially the college
trained men, responded loyally to this call, and it
can truthfully be said that the later work of organizing
the National Army was enormously facilitated by the
training of the Plattsburg camps.
The various defense societies, whose tireless efforts
crystallized public sentiment, included the Navy League
w k (12)> the National Security League (13), the
the defense American Defense Society (14), the Ameri-
can Rights League (15), the Conference
Committee on National Preparedness (16), the National
Committee on Patriotic and Defense Societies, and
some others of lesser note. The Navy League had been
founded in 1902 during the Administration of President
Roosevelt and with his active cooperation. In Janu-
ary, 1918, it counted fifty thousand members. The
American Defense Society came into existence almost
immediately after the outbreak of war, while the
National Security League held its first meeting Decem-
ber 14, 1914, and claims one hundred thousand mem-
bers. The American Rights League has had for its
head and its inspiring genius Major George Haven
Putnam, who had been one of the founders of the
National Security League, and it has accomplished an
inestimable service through the great mass meetings
held in the national metropolis at critical moments
when it was essential to arouse the conscience of the
nation.
All these societies existed without any encourage-
ment from the Administration, with whom their differ-
America's Attitude 223
ent point of view was frequently found in conflict. The
Navy League particularly and the American Defense
Society were, by methods sometimes direct, sometimes
indirect, rebuked either by the President or by the
secretaries of War or Navy. The leaders of the Ameri-
can Rights League were by name charged by the
New York World, regarded as speaking for the Admin-
istration, as guilty of insufferable insolence. That
the combined efforts of all these societies to arouse the
conscience of the nation and by the dissemination of
correct information to show the absolute need of early
defensive preparation, performed a service of inestim-
able value, there cannot be the slightest doubt. That
conscription was accomplished so easily when with
our entry into the war the President removed his
opposition, must be chiefly credited to their efforts.
So far as possible access to knowledge bearing upon
questions of defense was closed to the public. On
February 23, 1915, a general order was issued sources of
to officers of the army which enjoined them informftioij
J upon national
from 'giving out for publication any in- defense
., . . . . 1 closed to the
terview, statement, discussion, or article on people by
the military situation in the United States
or abroad."
It becoming known that both the General Staff of
the army and the General Board of the navy had
submitted reports concerning necessary national de-
fense, the first great congress of the National Security
League held at Chicago, November 27, 1915, — a con-
gress at which no less than three ex-secretaries of war
took part in the discussions and in passing the resolu-
tions — adopted strong resolutions urging "That the
complete recommendations of the Navy General Board
and General Staff of the Army be made public at once
224 The World War
for the information of the people." The only reply
vouchsafed to this request was a formal note from the
President's secretary acknowledging the receipt of the
communication. The same request was urged by
the American Defense Society, and in the dispatches of
November 16, 1915, it was given out after a cabinet
meeting that, against the advice of the then Secretary
of War, Mr. Wilson refused to make these reports
public. His attitude was reported to be that as head
of the government he was responsible for the general
policies urged for the various departments, and that
his decisions should be given out in advance of the
recommendations of the experts.
The American attitude towards the war in the
earlier stages has been ably summed up by the Hon.
Elihu Root, ex-Secretary of War, in the following
paragraph :
"Ordinary knowledge of European affairs made it plain
that the war was begun not by accident but with purpose
which would not soon be relinquished. Ordi-
comment on narY knowledge of military events made it plain
America's from the moment when the tide of German
invasion turned from the Battle of the Marne
that the conflict was certain to be long and
desperate. Ordinary knowledge of history — of our own
history during the Napoleonic wars — made it plain that
in that conflict neutral rights would be worthless unless
powerfully maintained. All the world had fair notice
that, as against the desperate belligerent resolved to con-
quer, the law of nations and the law of humanity inter-
posed no effective barriers for the protection of neutral
rights. Ordinary practical sense in the conduct of affairs
demanded that such steps should be taken that behind
the peaceable assertion of our country's rights, its independ-
America's Attitude 225
ence and its honor, should stand power manifest and
available, warning the whole world that it would cost too
much to press aggression too far. The Democratic Govern-
ment at Washington did not see it. Others saw it and
their opinions found voice." (17, p. 76.)
No voice was so clear and impelling as that of the
ex-President, Colonel Roosevelt, who for thirty-five
years had preached the need of preparing Thevocalized
the national defense, and who during his conscience
administration as President had, against
strong opposition, accomplished more for the army
and navy than any other Executive. Until it became
manifest that Mr. Wilson's attitude was to be one of
aloofness, Mr. Roosevelt held his peace; but once the
pacifist attitude of the Administration had been clearly
revealed, he became the vocalized conscience of the
American nation in the greatest crisis of its history.
Taking no interest in the national defense and re-
garding the war in Europe as without direct relation to
America, as he explained in his address to
PfiftCG
Congress of December 8, 1914, Mr. Wilson activities
early interested himself actively in attempts ?f.the ^d'
ministration
to bring about peace between the warring
Powers. The first preliminaries to such an effort were
undertaken on the initiative of Count von Bernstorff,
who at a dinner with the banker, James Speyer, gave
out the cryptic pronouncement that ' 'while he had no
advices from his government since leaving Berlin, he
recalled a conversation with the Imperial Chancellor,
in which the latter said he believed the Emperor would
be able to discuss measures of peace through media-
tion' (18). The date of this statement is significant,
for it is that of the first setback to Germany in the
226 The World War
Battle of the Marne and preceded by a few hours only
the victory of the French and the beginning of the
German retirement to the Aisne. Germany's first
peace drive therefore, like her later ones, was timed to
occur after a reverse to her fortunes. When the retreat
on the German right flank was fully under way on
September 7th, the Kaiser sent to Mr. Wilson the
remarkable request for "an impartial opinion' con-
cerning the war. After Secretary Bryan had had
a meeting with the Imperial German Ambassador,
Ambassador Gerard was on September 7th requested
to make an inquiry of the Kaiser if he would confirm
the statement said to have been made to his Chancel-
lor. Two days later the President proclaimed a day
of prayer for peace, but on the same day word was
received from the British Foreign Office through diplo-
matic channels that the Entente nations had agreed
not to make peace without common consent, and that
what the Entente Powers 'wanted was no temporary
truce but a permanent peace in Europe so that the
world could be insured against a sudden outbreak of
war after Germany had recouped herself." Thus the
Entente Powers were able to block the initial peace
drive of Germany put forward by the American
President.
In the summer of 1915, the President, according to
report, was busily engaged at his summer home at
Cornish, N. H., in efforts to bring about peace and
stop the war. The New York Times of July 3, 1915,
said :
"President Wilson spent most of to-day studying in
quiet seclusion the general European question, including
the possibility of bringing about peace. He had before
America's Attitude 227
him confidential reports of Colonel E. M. House, Ambas-
sador Gerard, Secretary Lansing, and other officials. He
has been gathering these reports for several months, and
is now taking the opportunity offered by freedom from
minor worries to go over them and familiarize himself with
the foreign situation. He will obtain additional informa-
tion about the possibilities of peace in Europe soon after
his return to Washington. . . . He has already received
several delegations proposing various peace plans, and is
understood to be ready to give careful consideration to
any proposal of a practical nature."
Late in November of the same year a Woman's
Peace Mass Meeting was held in Washington, and
twenty thousand duplicate telegrams, said to have
been paid for by Mrs. Henry Ford, were sent to the
President imploring peace, the same appeal being pre-
sented in person by spokeswomen, one of whom was
Madam Schwimmer, a secret agent of the Central
Powers (19). Mr. Wilson's peace note to the Allies
issued on December 19, 1916, and the " Peace without
Victory' message of January 22, 1917, will be fully
discussed in a later lecture.
Following the Lusitania and other submarine out-
rages of the spring of 1915, the President became
convinced that some measure of prepared- The defense
ness for defense of the nation was necessary, programs
and he therefore directed letters to the General Staff
of the army and the General Board of the navy asking
that recommendations be submitted, and on July 3Oth
both reports were placed in his hands. As has already
been stated, the information contained in these reports
was withheld from the public notwithstanding the
urgent requests of the several defense societies.
228 The World War
The President's plan of defense was first made known
to- the public in a speech at the banquet of the New
York Manhattan Club early in December,
Mr. Wilson's J
defense IQIS- In this speech the President said:
"No thoughtful man feels any panic haste
in this matter. The country is not threatened from
any quarter. ..." Of his program he said, a program
which involved some strengthening of the National
Guard and naval increases: "Has any better plan
been proposed than this program which we now place
before the country? In it there is no pride of opinion.
It represents the best professional and expert judgment
of the country. ' (20.)
It was only after the opening of Congress, when all
responsible committees on military affairs in both
The sup- houses had been committed to a special
pressed brand of defense measure, that the President
reports
at last permitted the recommendations of
the experts to be made public; and it was later to be
discovered that the reports put forward as the defense
recommendations of what was necessary in the opinions
of the General Board of the navy and the General
Staff of the army, were in reality not the original
reports, but others which had been submitted under
the express stipulation by the President that they
should not exceed a definite sum. This evident at-
tempt to mislead the public so exasperated Mr. Henry
A. Wise Wood, President of the Society of Aeronautical
Engineers and a member of the Naval Consulting
Board, that on December 22, 1915, he resigned from
the board and published a caustic open letter to the
Secretary of the Navy which had the effect of forcing
publication of the original reports (21).
The suppressed original report of the Navy General
America's Attitude
229
of Mr.
Wilson's
naval
program
with that of
the experts
Board, when published, was found to have called for
the laying down in the first year of construction of
four dreadnoughts and four battle cruisers, comparison
whereas the pared-down report which had
been submitted October 12, 1915, and given
to the public as the original one, reduced
the number of battle cruisers to two, retained
the full number of dreadnoughts, but made large
contractions in the program for auxiliary vessels.
Mr. Wilson's program, of which in his speech at the
Manhattan Club he had said "it represents the best
professional and expert judgment of the country/1
cut the number of capital ships in half, and therefore
called for but two dreadnoughts and two battle cruisers
in place of four each, the number stated to be neces-
sary by the General Board of the navy.
The House Naval Committee (Democratic) actually
increased considerably the President's estimates for
the navy, while the minority report of the
same committee (Republican) increased the congress
increase
estimates of the original report of the Navy
General Board, though modifying the pro-
portion of capital ships in favor of two dreadnoughts
and six battle cruisers (22). Of all the programs for
naval expansion, that recommended by the Adminis-
tration was by far the smallest, and in fact only about
half what was urged as absolutely necessary by the
most competent body of naval experts in the country
presided over by Admiral Dewey.
In the Senate the navy bill as passed by the House
was modified in the direction of large increases, and
after long delays in conference, Mr. Wilson's oppo-
sition was withdrawn, whereupon the bill promptly
passed in a form providing for a three-year building
230 The World War
program to include ten dreadnoughts and six battle
cruisers.
In army legislation the Administration likewise
opposed the recommendations of the trained experts
Army of the General Staff, and through supporting
legislation fae vicious plan of the lobby of Adjutant-
Generals of the National Guard, he brought about the
resignation of Mr. Garrison, the Secretary of War,
whose place was soon taken by the pacifist, Newton D.
Baker.
Throughout the period preceding our own entry
into the war, Mr. Wilson opposed the principle of
conscription, which to produce a national army was
consistently advocated by every defense society with-
out exception. A delegation of patriotic citizens from
Maryland who waited upon the President to advocate
this principle of defense, received what they regarded
as a "scolding' for venturing to do so, as fully dis-
cribed in Washington dispatches of January 25, 1917.
When at last the nation had drifted into the war, the
soil which had been so carefully prepared by the defense
societies bore fruit, and the country at once accepted
the conscription idea, so that its application was looked
upon as an act involving the highest duty and honor
of citizenship, rather than a humiliation and shame.
It early became apparent that it was Mr. Wilson's
plan to take entire charge of foreign affairs without
any restrictions in the constitutional checks
Governing *
without the of Senate confirmation. The method by
which this was accomplished was to appoint
his own secret diplomatic agents quite apart from the
regular diplomatic service — agents who reported to him
directly and who had no constitutional checks upon
their action. This attempt to govern without the Con-
America's Attitude 231
stitution is of such vital importance that I propose to
quote quite fully from the opinion of one of our ablest
jurists, Mr. James M. Beck, who says:
"In a most important crisis of history Mr. Wilson has
gone far to exclude the Senate from any adequate partici-
pation in the foreign policies of the government,
and as this usurpation of power has not been constitution
followed by any protest from the body whose .a"8cr*J
of paper"?
constitutional prerogative has been thus im-
paired, it leaves the thoughtful student of our history to
wonder whether the Constitution may not hereafter prove,
with the steady growth of power in the Executive, little
more than a ' scrap of paper. '
"To the Framers of the Constitution there were no pro-
visions of greater importance than those which required
joint action by the Executive and the Senate in determin-
ing the foreign policy of the Republic. To them this
concurrent authority marked the principal distinction be-
tween a monarchy and a republic.
"In 1787 every then existing government except our
own regarded the foreign relations as peculiarly the pre-
rogative of the Crown and not of the Legislature. Autocracies
The King, Emperor, or Czar made treaties, gi^r°[er
appointed and received Ambassadors and minis- relations to
ters, declared war and made peace. ... the monarch
' This expansion of executive power, which has proceeded
in violation of both the letter and the spirit of the Constitu-
tion, has had many instances in our history, but it has never
been carried to the same length as in the Administration of
Woodrow Wilson. His foreign policy both with respect
to Mexico and to the European states has been a continu-
ous and palpable violation of the Constitution, and the
fact that this has been accompanied with little protest on
the part of the people and has had an apparent acquiescence
on the part of the Senate, shows how unstable even a
232 The World War
written Constitution may be, and how far our constitutional
compact can be bent by the ambition of a self-centered
Chief Executive.
" Mr. Wilson has brought about the very condition which
the framers of the Constitution sought to prevent in claim-
Mr. Wilson m& and exercising almost all the powers with
usurped reference to foreign relations that the Crown
powers did ^ the time of George m>
'Mr. Wilson without consulting Congress or the Senate
determined to destroy the then existing de facto government
of Mexico, not only by refusing to recognize it but also to
prevent through diplomatic means any further continued
recognition of it by any foreign nation. As a result of this
attitude, the originally feeble insurrection of Carranza,
largely restricted to the northern part of Mexico, became
more formidable, and Mr. Wilson thereupon, without the
consent of the Senate, sent two diplomatic representatives
to Mexico, one John Lind, to drive Huerta from power,
and the other William Bayard Hale, to confer in the name
of the Chief Magistrate, and therefore in the name of the
country, with Carranza. . . .
'If this unjustified assumption of power were true as
to Lind's mission to Huerta, it was even more objection-
Hale as a^^e *n t*16 matter of Hale's mission to Carranza
Mr. Wilson's and Villa. The aid which was thus given to the
insurrectionists and the moral support thereby
afforded to the unspeakable Villa was a violation of the
spirit of the Constitution even though it may not have
been of its letter. . . .
"The President without the authority of Congress or
Mr. wason the Senate virtually, if not technically, made
virtually war against the de facto government of Mexico,
without* an^ made it so successfully that it finally suc-
Congressionai cumbed with the result that Mexico has since
been in a state of chronic anarchy .
"A still more striking instance of this usurpation of
power is the appointment by the President of Colonel
America's Attitude 233
Edward M. House to be Ambassador Plenipotentiary
and Extraordinary to all Europe. The law never created
any such position and without the action of colonel
Congress this new position of Paramount House
Ambassador has no legal justification what- ^*™£)
ever ....
"If the President, obedient to the Constitution, had
recommended to Congress the creation of such a position,
there can be little doubt that the proposition would have
been promptly voted down, for it is altogether unlikely
that Congress would sanction the creation of an office
whose incumbent would have a roving commission to all
the capitals of Europe, especially at a time of such serious
international complications as at present. . . .
'If Colonel House has any previous experience which
qualifies him to be the Ambassador to all Europe in the
most trying crisis of all history, the world knows
it not. All it knows of this mysterious figure House's
in American politics is that he was a successful antecedent
political intriguer in Texas and that later he be-
came the unofficial adviser of Mr. Wilson in the selection of
his Cabinet and the shaping of his policies. He has never
been elected by the American people to any position of
consequence. . . .
" Although Colonel House may have all the qualifications
of Franklin, Talleyrand, and Metternich combined, the
fact still remains that in accrediting him as a diplomatic
representative of this country to all the belligerent nations,
Mr. Wilson has exercised the very power which the Con-
stitution of our country expressly withheld from him. . . .
Is the Constitution a 'scrap of paper'?" (24.)
When the utter failure of Dr. Dernberg's campaign
of propaganda in America had been brought home
to the German Government, submarine warfare was
begun. On February 4, 1915, Germany declared a
234 The World War
war zone about the British Isles and stated, ''Every
enemy merchant ship found in the said war zone will
be destroyed without its being always pos-
The sub- .
marine sible to avert the dangers threatening the
crews and passengers. ... It cannot always
be avoided to strike even neutral ships in attacks that
are directed at enemy ships."
To this obvious defiance of international law Mr.
Wilson made a reply in language which admitted of
Germany no doubt that America was to resist with
to be held force any infringement of her rights upon the
account- high seas. He said, 'if the commanders of
German vessels of war . . . should destroy
on the high seas an American vessel or the lives of
American citizens . . . the United States would be
constrained to hold the Imperial Government of Ger-
many to a strict accountability for such acts of their
naval authorities.'1 This was a most statesmanlike
official paper and was widely commended in the Ameri-
can press and in speeches and interviews of influential
American citizens who fully comprehended what was
involved.
On March 28, 1915, the British merchantman Falaba
was sunk with the loss of an American life. This
outrage was followed on May ist by the sinking of the
American merchant ship Gulflight, and on May 7th
the world stood aghast at the frightful outrage, de-
liberately planned and perpetrated, of the sinking of
the great British liner Lusitania with the loss of more
than a thousand non-combatants including women
and children and 114 Americans.
The destruction of the Falaba and the Gulflight
together constituted a defiance of both threats con-
tained in the President's message of February loth,
America's Attitude 235
while the Lusitania outrage by its vast proportions
shocked the entire world, which waited in suspense
for Mr. Wilson's leadership to be displayed. « TOO proud
Three days later he appeared in Philadel- to fight"
phia to speak on ' 'The Meaning of Americanism" and
the entire country followed every word of his speech
in which occurred these significant passages:
'The example of America must be the example not
merely of peace because it will not fight, but of peace
because peace is the healing and elevating influence of the
world and strife is not. There is such a thing as a man
?.rft is such a thing as a nation
O Lct^ /<~ Bothers by
Leadership
r. Colonel
_ ten he said :
LcJL^CiQjf ^-/
-, C7 \> ;urbed. He
// ^"^ msiness and
ty. That is
ial to either
ppeal to his
ength and of
v :e him shake
jhtedness, or
/ f I die at need,
j — nd Yorktown
and Gettysburg and Shiloh did and dared and died.
'But if, upon the other hand, with great rhetorical
ingenuity and skill, you furnish that man with high-sound-
* r
rr
234 The World War
war zone about the British Isles and stated, 'Every
enemy merchant ship found in the said war zone will
be destroyed without its being always pos-
marine sible to avert the dangers threatening the
crews and passengers. ... It cannot always
be avoided to strike even neutral ships in attacks that
are directed at enemy ships."
To this obvious defiance of international law Mr.
Wilson made a reply in language which admitted of
Germany no doubt that America was to resist with
to be held force any infringement of her rights upon the
account- high seas. He said, 'if the commanders of
German vessels r>f ~ —
on the hig / / Ir^^^^^J
American J? ' s*
constrained , ^J*J~J> (
many to a y Jo
naval auth ^ •
official pape
can press ai JP / - £
American ci
involved.
On March ' '
was sunk v>
outrage was C./~? ' ^ -
American m / / fj
the world st \^^ $/f^r~^ ^*~Y V1
liberately pla
the great Bri
than a thou ^ J L±Jl (Til -
and children ;
The destru VAJ.W \j-u,ijw,gni
together constituted a defiance of both threats con-
tained in the President's message of February loth,
America's Attitude 235
while the Lusitania outrage by its vast proportions
shocked the entire world, which waited in suspense
for Mr. Wilson's leadership to be displayed. « TOO proud
Three days later he appeared in Philadel- to fight"
phia to speak on "The Meaning of Americanism" and
the entire country followed every word of his speech
in which occurred these significant passages:
"The example of America must be the example not
merely of peace because it will not fight, but of peace
because peace is the healing and elevating influence of the
world and strife is not. There is such a thing as a man
being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation
being so right that it does not need to convince others by
force that it is right." (4, p. 260.)
It would undoubtedly be incorrect to say that by
the vast majority of American citizens these lines
were not read with a feeling of distinct relief, Leadership
even though it was recognized that righteous- lacking
ness had been sacrificed to soft expediency. Colonel
Roosevelt expressed the situation created when he said :
'The average man does not want to be disturbed. He
doesn't want to be called upon to leave his business and
his family, and do a distinctly unpleasant duty. That is
natural enough. Nevertheless, you can appeal to either
of the two soul-sides of that man. If you appeal to his
deepest sense of duty, to all that he has of strength and of
courage and of highmindedness you can make him shake
off his sloth, his self-indulgence, his short-sightedness, or
his timidity, and stand up to do and dare and die at need,
just as the men of Bunker Hill and Trenton and Yorktown
and Gettysburg and Shiloh did and dared and died.
' But if, upon the other hand, with great rhetorical
ingenuity and skill, you furnish that man with high-sound-
236 The World War
ing names to cloak ignoble action or ignoble failure to act,
then it is so natural as to be pardonable in the average
man to accept the excuse thrust upon him and to do the
ignoble thing which the man who ought to be his leader
counsels him to do." (25, p. 36.)
"President Wilson having failed to seize the event,"
says William Morton Fullerton, 'to be the constitutional
guide and prophet of the nation which would have fol-
lowed him any whither, as it follows any President who has
the gift of leadership, was compelled to devise belated
methods of saving the honor of his country and of conserv-
ing its traditions." (17, p. 138.)
Encouraged by the American Government's failure
to follow up words by acts, the German Government
Drifting continued its work of destruction until by
into war April I, 1917, a total of 226 American lives
had been sacrificed, not including twenty-four children
born of foreign parents on American soil (26). When
in the spring of 1917 we were drifting rapidly into war
and Mr. Wilson was hesitating over the armed ship
issue while American vessels were blockaded in Ameri-
can ports, I wrote in a public address what I take the
liberty of repeating here.
"The country stands together for assertion of its rights,
as the contempt and obloquy everywhere heaped upon the
Paltering La Follette-Stone group of Senators have
before duty eloquently testified. But thoughtful men -are
now pondering more and more seriously another question,
and one of sinister import. What if the President should
continue to falter and to persistently refuse to act in
defense of American rights and to safeguard our citizens
murdered with ever-increasing frequency and ruthlessness
by the German Government? The month and more that
America's Attitude 237
has now elapsed since Germany blockaded our merchant
shipping in our own ports through her latest campaign
of murder upon the high seas, seems to these men a long
time for splitting hairs as to whether each new outrage
may, or may not be, an 'overt act' of war in the sense
implied by a particular note of Mr. Wilson, and it may
well be questioned how long the nation will remain content
with an exegesis of his notes as a substitute for drastic
action."
General Grant has remarked significantly in his
Memoirs of the plotting against the government which
went on unrebuked during the last months of Buchan-
an's Administration, as events were rushing on towards
the great cataclysm of the Civil War: "Meanwhile,
the Administration of President Buchanan looked
helplessly on and proclaimed that the General Govern-
ment had no power to interfere, that the nation had
no power to save its own life' (27). When it became
necessary to supply and to reinforce the little garrison
of Major Anderson at Fort Sumter, President Buchanan
refused to act, and his Secretary of State, General
Lewis Cass of Michigan, after a stormy Cabinet ses-
sion, did not hesitate to express his conviction that
such a course led directly to national ruin, and he
forthwith resigned his portfolio.
As President Wilson still continued to falter, a great
mass meeting was called by the Ameri- The spirit
can Rights League, met in Carnegie Hall, of 1917
and adopted the following resolutions :
'Resolved, That whereas the sinking of the Laconia
by a German submarine and the plotting against our na-
tional safety by the German Government constitute the
crowning infamies of two years of continuous warfare
238 The World War
against the American people, and present to them an issue
which no sophistry can conceal, no half -measures satisfy;
and
"Whereas, The failure of the present government boldly
to meet this issue and faithfully to discharge the obliga-
tions arising from it would convict the American nation of
being too timid to defend the lives of its women and chil-
dren, too base to defend the honor of its flag, and too selfish
to bear its share of the burden of protecting its own rights
and the rights of humanity; therefore, be it further
"Resolved, That while urging the arming of American
vessels, we recognize that such action can in no wise meet
the situation created by overt acts of war like the sinking
of the Laconia, since it leaves unfulfilled the fundamental
obligation of the government to protect the lives of Ameri-
can citizens and to maintain the honor of the American flag ;
"Resolved, That in our opinion it is the further duty of
the President, without hesitation or delay, to take what-
ever action may be required to assure the immediate parti-
cipation of the United States in the necessary task of pro-
tecting neutral lives, as well as neutral commerce, by
clearing from the seas the piratical submarines of the
German navy."
The content of the speeches and their reception at
this great meeting showed unmistakably that the spirit
which had animated the nation in 1776 and in 1860
had not left it.
Is there no parallel between the events of Buchanan's
day and ours? True, we look in vain for a Lewis
An earlier Cass in the present Cabinet, but Baker and
parallel Daniels were both represented in the Cabinet
of President Buchanan. History has appraised the
conduct of Buchanan, and the judgment is not one likely
to be envied. Then, as now, the cry was raised,
"Stand by the President," and the loyal men of the
America's Attitude 239
North demurred; but when in Lincoln a leader had
arisen, these same men stood ready and "gave the last
full measure of devotion."
Shortly after this meeting in Carnegie Hall and
during the impending crisis, I made statements in a
public address which to present clearly the situation
then existing I herewith reproduce:
" In the absence of a rule of cldture which puts a premium
upon filibustering tactics, why was it necessary for Mr.
Wilson to inject into the waning hours of a sacred
dying Congress a question of authority not se- rights of
riously challenged and believed to be already musty
possessed; and why should this issue of arming records
American merchantmen have been coupled with a demand
to vest in the Executive dictatorial powers throughout the
period of the next seven months ? Should one be asked to
trust additional powers to ah Executive who will not use
those he has, even when the life of the nation may be at
stake? Why when all but a twentieth of the people's
representatives in Congress have given their support to
the armed ship measure, and the country has responded
with an even greater approach to unanimity, why does Mr.
Wilson conveniently discover an antiquated law which
only upon the strictest possible construction might stand
in the way of action? 'The sacred rights of man,' said
Alexander Hamilton, 'are not to be searched for in old
documents and musty records. They are written as with
a sunbeam in the whole volume of human nature by the
hand of Divinity itself and can never be erased by mortal
power.'
'Does Mr. Wilson seem to have been greatly troubled
either by law or by precedent when without advice and
contrary both to the traditions of the nation and to the
sentiments of the vast majority of his countrymen, he
gave America's official endorsement to 'peace without
240 The World War
victory,' and 'the freedom of the seas'? Why, when the
flurry of the opposition filibuster in Congress had died
down and the pro-German Senators were receiving their
proper reward from an outraged people, did we hear nothing
of the Laconia outrage, the crowning 'overt act' which
admitted of no mitigating circumstances or excuses, such
as have been deemed by the President to apply to children
and negroes, or to citizens that were not killed but only
shelled during their efforts to escape in open boats on a
wintry sea ?
'Why, I say again, does the President persistently
refuse to call the new Congress in special session? Are
there then no emergency measures which will
Hesitancy
in calling not brook delay? Have we no need of an army
congress an(j are no^- army experts, the National Guard,
together
and all defense societies in entire agreement to
urge immediate introduction of universal military training
and service? Do we not need at once a thousand officers
and at least fifty thousand men for our navy? Can these
be obtained without congressional action, and must we,
having waited two years and a half in peril, continue the
delay until next November before the questions can be
even considered?"
When by a process of drifting America in the spring
of 1917 had, willy-nilly, been forced to declare that
~v ^ . a state of war with Germany was already in
The Admin-
istration's existence by virtue of that country s acts,
Administration made a sudden and
of front complete change of front. Forgetting that
"nothing in particular, but everything in
general" had started this war, Mr. Wilson now, in
that telling phraseology of which he is the conspicuous
master, advanced the view which had been so well
expressed by Major Gardner in his opposition to the
Administration, that the conflict raging in Europe
America's Attitude 241
was the age-long and irrepressible struggle between
autocracy and democracy, — as indeed it had appeared
to most patriotic Americans to be from its beginning.
Yet the semiofficial though anonymous book extrava-
gantly endorsed by the director of the official press
bureau (65) went to much pains to show that the war
had assumed this aspect only when Mr. Wilson had
led America into it in the spring of 1917 (66).
America's official attitude toward the war during
the period of her participation in it is far too for-
midable a subject to be treated with any
Activo
fullness in the closing paragraphs of a single participation
chapter, and a few outstanding facts can ^ the war
long delayed
alone be touched upon.
All that had been predicted by the defense societies
concerning the handicaps of going into war unprepared
was now more than verified. Nearly everything in the
way of preparation of the national defense had to be
started at the beginning and without adequate plans
on which to work. The navy rose first to the task
before it and achieved a record of organization which
has merited the highest praise; though the naval
program of 1916, at least in so far as construction of
its capital ships was concerned, failed utterly of its
purpose because it had been left until too late. The
demand for structural steel and for skilled workmen
in other war activities soon halted construction in this
direction, which thereupon lapsed until the termination
of hostilities.
As regards the army, fully fifteen months had elapsed
before any considerable part could be taken in the
fighting at the front.
Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Wilson from the
beginning and generally throughout the war had re-
16
242 The World War
fused to take counsel with the representatives of the
Republican party, or even with those members of his
own party who had been conspicuous in ad-
vocating national preparedness for this in-
to the support evi table conflict, and though he insisted on
of the war
conducting the war as a personal rather
than as a national effort, with but few exceptions
the senators and congressmen of both parties, like the
people generally, stood squarely' behind him in all real
war measures. When the armistice with Germany
had been signed after nineteen months of America's
official participation in the war, a Democratic leader
upon the floor of the United States Senate declared
that the Republicans had given the Administration
better support in his war measures than had the mem-
bers of his own political party.
Had America been permitted to enter the war im-
mediately after the sinking of the Lusitania, or had
America's she even met this atrocious attack upon
too*IteVfodr ker r^nts witn adequate preparations and
the great entered the conflict when she did, the allied
thes spring nations would not have been compelled to
of 1918 sweat blood through two more long years
and pay the frightful toll in human life in the dark-
est hours of their trial during the spring months of
1918. With such American military forces only as
were thrown into the battles of midsummer, the tide
must have turned with the opening of the German
spring offensive in Picardy. This interval between
the opening of the offensive and the turning of the
tide is three short but terrible months, — from March
to early June. As it was, only one division of American
troops was at the front when the drive opened on March
2ist, and there were but three divisions in reserve (67).
America's Attitude 243
With the rout of Gough's Fifth British Army in the
spring drive, the cause of civilization came nearer to
utter collapse than at any other time since
the initial German onset in the fall of 1914, at
and it was at the eleventh hour and with i
hordes of Huns still driving on a few miles
only from the Paris-Calais life-line that strong French
forces arrived under General Fayolle and stopped the
gap in the lines.
Halted at this threatened point, the German tide
again surged forward and quickly overwhelmed other
British armies in Flanders, but with their 'backs to
the wall" once more with the timely succor of French
forces dispatched by Foch the British retreat was
halted upon the slopes of Mount Kemmel.
It was the promise of early aid from American troops
which had arrived in France and were undergoing their
training, which permitted the generalissimo The turning
to meet with assurance the next German of the tide
drives in the Champagne and about Compi&gne,
though at terrible cost in casualties. Again in the
first week of June there developed a crisis of the first
magnitude when the Germans had renewed their as-
sault along the Marne in the Champagne salient. The
French line was broken at Chateau-Thierry where
nearest to Paris, and though the American troops were
not yet ready, the American commander in this des-
perate situation was allowed to throw into the gap a
small body composed largely of Marines and Regulars
with a result which the world knows (68). By their
magnificent courage and their heroic resistance against
the very flower of the German army the drive was
halted, the exhausted French troops were wonderfully
inspirited, and, largely because of the changes brought
244 The World War
about in the morales of the opposing armies, the
turning of the tide of war may perhaps be said to date
from this action. Every true American has cause for
pride in the splendid fighting qualities displayed by
American troops in this as in all later actions, especially
at the driving in of the German salient in the Cham-
pagne, the pinching out of the St. Mihiel salient, and
in the slow but determined advance through the
Argonne and along the Meuse to achieve the capture
of Sedan.
There appear to have been three principles of action
adopted by the Administration which have stood in
Thre< the way of the country's rising to the possi-
bilities of which its splendid spirit gave
promise, and this notwithstanding the seri-
of the Admin- ous handicap in lack of preparation. These
istration ' _ ,
were (i) Mr. Wilson s evident determination
to conduct the war as a personal rather than as a
national effort and to exclude from counsel and from
positions of power and responsibility all save his own
devoted political followers (69) ; (2) a failure to realize
that the element of time had become the greatest of
all factors determining success, and that it would be
far better to rush all available equipment to the front
rather than to spend time in experimenting for some-
thing which might prove to be superior; and (3) the
refusal to replace officials found to be inefficient, and
to stubbornly oppose all efforts to uncover inefficiency,
waste, or worse, even though undertaken with the
most patriotic motives and with the object of hasten-
ing our active participation in the war.
From the above considerations it resulted that
when after nineteen months of our participation in the
war, hostilities had been brought to an end by the
America's Attitude 245
signing of the armistice, not a single field gun, tank,
or pursuit aeroplane of American manufacture was in
use at the front (70), all this equipment
having been supplied at great sacrifice by down of
our Allies (71) ; and the machine guns, shells, the War
Department
and gas had also in large part been supplied
from the same source. Our supply of rifles had been
much delayed through the decision to rechamber the
Enfield rifle for use of American ammunition, and a
consequent re-arming with the unmodified Enfield
became necessary when American troops were brigaded
with the British armies. The American-made Lewis
machine gun used with such success by the British
armies, though immediately available for manufacture
in quantity, was rejected for an experimental new
weapon which in its lighter model at least did not
reach the front in time to replace to any considerable
extent the French machine gun which it had been
necessary to adopt.
The failure of the War Department to equip the
National army was met, as we have seen, by France,
upon which country had devolved also the replacement
of 2500 or more guns lost by Italy in the debacle which
followed the break through the Julian Alps in the fall
of 1917.
Though Secretary Baker had promised to have five
hundred thousand American troops in France early
in 1918, there were on March 2ist only four divisions
in France. In this supreme crisis the British The transport
Premier made a direct appeal to Mr. Wilson "«i**cie»
to rush American troops to the front, and received
the quick response that the troops would be sent if
England would transport "her share." At great
sacrifice British ships were withdrawn from many
246 The World War
lines and two hundred thousand tons of essential car-
goes per month were in consequence given up by Great
Britain, already handicapped by the use of her merchant
marine for war purposes. The fact of greatest impor-
tance, however, is that the troops were transported,
and for the Fourth of July Secretary Baker was able
to send out the heartening message to the American
nation that a million American troops were already in
France. His official report thus communicated to the
public on Independence Day included a congratulatory
reply from the President, but neither his report nor
the President's letter betrayed the fact that the feat
accomplished was mainly British rather than American
(72). Washington dispatches for months had exploited
the "transport miracle " (73), likewise without men-
tioning the part of Great Britain, and this fact became
public through a reported speech of Assistant Secre-
tary Roosevelt at a banquet in London late in July (74) ,
and in the speech of the British Premier in the House
of Commons early in the month of August (75).
No reference to America's attitude toward the war
could overlook the fact that as early as January 14,
An official 1917> Mr. Wilson had created an official
press bureau press bureau independent of Congress and
under his immediate control. This bureau had been
placed in charge of George Creel, and has been respon-
sible both for the suppression of vitally important
news which the public should possess, and for the dis-
semination of much misleading information, always it
is believed, in praise of the Administration's conduct
of the war (76) . This bureau bears a close resemblance
in its organization and purpose to the Official News
Service of the Imperial German Empire conducted by
the notorious Dr. Hammann, and it can fairly be said
America's Attitude 247
that it is out of harmony with the traditions of the
American Republic.
When the masterful strategy of Foch and the superb
fighting qualities of the armies under his command
were fast driving the invaders out of France
Complete
with their morale visibly weakened, the victory
German government appealed to Mr. Wilson
to mediate with the Allies for peace. This in
effect he promptly did, asking Germany to state whether
she was ready to accept his peace program of "four-
teen points"; a program which made no mention of
any reparation even to Belgium, echoed Germany's
insistent demand for freedom of the seas in war, flew
squarely in the face of the Paris Pact of the Allied
Nations signed in June, 1916, and providing for an
economic alliance against Germany, and was in other
essentials sufficiently vague for their acceptance (77).
Their acceptance was so prompt as to excite suspicion,
and though the demand for unconditional surrender
became ever more insistent, an armistice was brought
about which though it yielded military concessions
amounting to a surrender, yet permitted the Ger-
man armies to go home acclaimed by the populace
and claiming that they were undefeated. It thus
failed to achieve a moral regeneration of a predatory
nation (78).
REFERENCES
1. The Problems of Neutrality when the World is at War, Part I, "The
Submarine Controversy"; Part 2, "Restraints of Trade Con-
troversy," pp. 430, House Docs. 64th Cong., no. 2111, Washing-
ton, D. C., 1917.
2. Congressional Record, vol. liii., p. 8854.
3. ANON, Two Thousand Questions and Answers about the War, pp.
352, New York. First published by Doran but after its char-
acter was revealed republished by Review of Reviews Co., 1918
248 The World War
(cf. pp. 1-2), also New York Tribune, Sept. n, 1918, and Detroit
Free Press, Sept. 17, 1918.
4. ROBINSON, EDGAR E.f and WEST, VICTOR J., The Foreign Policy of
Woodrow PF#$0n,/p/j-ip.z7,pp.428,NewYork, Macmillan,i9i8.
5. SOMVILLE, GUSTAVE, The Road to Liege, The Path of Crime,
August, 1914, pp. 296, New York, Doran, 1916.
6. American Journal of International Law, vol. viii., pp. 857.
7. New York Times, Nov. 16, 1915, 1:7.
8. SCHERER, DR. JAMES A. B., New York Times, April 20, 1916, 12,7-8.
9. New York Times, Dec. 30, i: i. Also ibid., 3: I.
10. Congressional Record, vol. Hi.
11. New York Times, Dec. 21, 1916 (also Detroit Free Press, Sept.
17, 1918, p. 2, col. 5).
12. "The Navy League's Mission," reprinted from Sea Power, Oct.
1916, pp. n. Also, Fourteenth Annual Rept. of the Navy
League of the United States, pp. 12, Washington, D. C., 1917.
13. The National Security League, Before the War, During the War,
After the War, Nov., 1918. Published by the National Security
League: America at War, a Handbook of Patriotic Education
References, edited by Albert Bushnell Hart. BATES, MRS. LIN-
DON W., Make America Safe. CHURCH, SAMUEL HARDEN, Fight-
ing the Dragon. COULTON, G. G., Democracy and Compulsory
Service. ELY, RICHARD T., The United States and the World
War. HART, ALBERT BUSHNELL, and LOVEJOY, ARTHUR O.,
Handbook of the War for Readers, Speakers and Teachers. HEN-
SHAW, F. W., The Cause and Meaning of this War. LOVE, H. K.,
National Security as it Involves the Preparation and Use of the
Citizenry. MCELROY, ROBERT McNurr, PH.D., The Ideals of
our War. MATHEWS, SHAILER, Democracy and World Politics.
O'DONNELL, T. J., The Relation between the Declaration of Inde-
pendence and the World War. OLIVER, FREDERICK SCOTT, Policy
and Armaments. OPPENHEIMER, FRANCIS J., The Failure of
Pacifism. PUTNAM, GEORGE HAVEN, Litt.D., The Defense of
the Republic. STANCHFIELD, JOHN B., Some Suggestions on the
Perils of Espionage. SPERRY, EARL E., Ph.D., German Octopus
in America. STIMSON, HENRY L., The Basis for National Mili-
tary Training. STRAUS, HON. OSCAR S., National Solidarity and
International Unity. WILLIAMS, TALCOTT, How the German Em-
pire has Menaced Democracy. WHITNEY, CASPAR, The Critical
Year. A Plan of Universal Selective Training.
14. THOMPSON, C. S., Report on the Formation of the American Defense
Society, pp. 15, New York (Am. Defense Soc.), 1915. The
American Defense Society, History, Purpose, and Accomplish-
ments, pp. 32, New York, 1918.
America's Attitude 249
15. Published by American Rights League: BEER, GEORGE Louis,
America's Part among Nations. ROWLAND, CHARLES P., Amer-
ica's Foreign Policy. CANFIELD, GEORGE F.f Aiding the En-
tente as an American Policy. COUDERT, FREDERIC R., British
Trade Restraints and Peace Prospects. ROOT, ELIHU, Words
without Deeds — Moral Treason. FORMAN, L. L., Is Germany
Fulfilling Nietzsche? FORMAN, L. L., The Natural History of the
Neutral. PUTNAM, GEO. HAVEN, To the American People.
The Nation (London), "Germany's Conduct of the War."
DOUGHTY, WM. H., JR., Why We Should Fight Germany now.
HIBBEN, JOHN GRIER, America Faces Momentous Year. MAN-
NING, WILLIAM T., America's Part in the World War. CABOT,
RICHARD, The Duty of America. JOHNSON, DOUGLAS W., The
Peril of Prussianism. An Address to the Russian People.
CHERADAME, ANDRE, The United States and Pan-Germanism.
JOHNSON, DOUGLAS W., A Letter to a German Professor. HALL,
EDWARD H., A New Declaration of Independence. DAVISON,
CHARLES STEWART, Treason. WILSON, HUNTINGTON, A Per-
manent Alliance of English-Speaking Peoples. PUTNAM, GEO.
HAVEN, Labor and the War. KNAPP, GEORGE L., Britain and
America. CHURCH, SAMUEL HARDEN, The Danger of Peace
Discussion. GARDINER, J. B. W., How Germany is Preparing
for the Next War.
1 6. Work of the Conference Committee on National Preparedness (Henry
A. Wise Wood, chairman), New York, pp. 32, 1918.
17. FULLERTON, W. MORTON, Hesitations, the American Crisis and
the War, pp. 163, New York, Doubleday, 1916.
18. New York Times, Sept. 13, ii., 1:4.
19. New York Times, Nov. 27, 1915, 1:3.
20. New York Times, Dec. 5, 1915.
21. New York Times, Dec. 24, 1915.
22. "Mr. Wilson's Defective Program," New York Tribune, Jan. 16,
1916. Also Detroit Free Press, June I, 1916.
23. Afterwards revealed as a German agent. See New York Times,
July 15, July 27, and Aug. 9, 1918.
24. BECK, JAMES M., "Is it a Scrap of Paper?" New York Times,
Feb. 27, 1916, iv., i.
25. STREET, JULIAN, The Most Interesting American, pp. 55, New York,
Century Co., 1915.
26. Congressional Record, April 5, 1917.
27. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, vol. i., pp. 226, New York,
Webster, 1885.
28. Addresses of President Wilson, Jan. 27~Feb. 3, 1916, Govt. Print.
Off., Washington, D. C., House Docs. 64th Cong., No. 803.
250 The World War
29. GEORGE, DAVID LLOYD ("On Transportation of American Army
to France"), New York Times, Aug. 8, 1918, p. 2.
30. Report of Senate Committee on Military Affairs regarding air-
plane investigation, New York Times, Aug. 25, 1918. Also
Hughes investigation of delay in air-craft production, New
York Times, Nov. i, 1918.
31. O'SHAUGHNESSY, EDITH, A Diplomat's Wife in Mexico, pp. 356,
New York, Harpers, 1916.
32. "The Lusitania Correspondence," Amer. Journ. Intern. Law,
spec, suppl., vol. ix., pp. 129 ff., 133, 138, 149, 155; vol. x.
See also ALBERT BUSHNELL HART in Wake up, America!
33. 'The Lusitania Case," vol. ii., pp. 409-457, 817-839, New York
Times "Cur. Hist, of War." The "Lusitania," Opinion of
Court, U. S. Dist. Court, Southern Dist. of New York.
34. JONES, JOHN PRICE (Introduction by Roger B. Wood), America
Entangled, the Secret Plotting of German Spies in the United States
and the Inside Story of the Sinking of the "Lusitania," pp. 224,
New York, A. C. Laut, 1917.
35. DOYLE, A. CONAN, "A Policy of Murder," vol. ii., pp. 546-548,
New York Times, Current History of the War, June, 1915.
36. ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, The Strenuous Life, pp. 225 (chapter on
"Military Preparedness and Unpreparedness"), New York,
Century Co., 1900.
37. ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, America and the World War, pp. 277,
New York, Scribners, 1915.
38. ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, Fear God and Take your Own Part, pp.
414, New York, Doran, 1916. Also, The Great Adventure, pp.
204, New York, Scribner, 1918.
39. ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, An Autobiography, pp. 615 (chapters on
" The War of America the Unready " and "The Peace of Right-
eousness"), New York, Macmillan, 1913.
40. HILL, DAVID JAYNE, Americanism, What It Is, pp. 280, Chicago,
Appleton, 1916.
41. BEER, GEO. Louis, "The United States at War," Round Table,
Sept., 1917.
42. MCELROY, R. M., The Ideals of our War, pp. 14, Nat. Secur.
League, Pat. through Educ. Series, No. 5, 1917.
43. ODELL, REV. JOSEPH H., "Peter Sat by the Fire Warming Him-
self," pp. 10, Atl. Monthly, Feb., 1918.
44. BECK, JAMES M., The War and Humanity, a further discussion of
the ethics of the world war and the attitude and duty of the
United States, with a foreword by Theodore Roosevelt, pp. 360,
New York, Putnams, 1917.
45. ROBERTS, LORD, A Nation in Arms, pp. 222, London, Murray, 1917.
America's Attitude 251
46. OLIVER, FREDERICK SCOTT, Ordeal by Battle, pp. 487, New York,
Macmillan, 1916.
47. GARDNER, AUGUSTUS P., "Pitfalls in the Path of Preparedness,"
pp. 238-247, Proc. Cong. Constr. Patriotism, Washington, Jan.
25-27, 1917.
48. WOOD, LEONARD, The Military Obligation of Citizenship, pp. 76,
Princeton Univ. Press, 1915.
49. GREENE, FRANCIS VINTON, The Recent Military Situation in the
United States, pp. 102, Scribners, 1915.
50. MAXIM, HUDSON, Defenseless America, pp. 380, Hearst's Intern.
Library Co., 1915.
51. WOOD, ERIC FISHER, The Writing on the Wall, the Nation on Trial,
pp. 211, New York, Century Co., 1916.
52. FORTESCUE, CAPT. GRANVILLE, Address, pp. 299-304, Proc. Nat.
Sec. League Congr., Washington, Jan. 20-22, 1916.
53. HOBBS, WILLIAM HERBERT, "The Biggest Neutral Country
Unprepared," New York Times, July 16, 1915. "The Need of
Trained Reserve Army Officers," Outlook, vol. civ., pp. 278-
281, Oct., 1916. "Henry Ford's Campaign against Prepared-
ness," Detroit Free Press, June 30, 1918.
54. GARDNER, AUGUSTUS P., Why Congress is Reluctant to Develop
the Navy, pp. 8, Bull. No. 59, Navy League, 1916.
55. WALKER, J. BERNARD, The Rise and Decline of the U. S. Navy, in
its Relation to the International Situation, Bull. No. 51, Navy
League, 1916.
56. BALLOU, SIDNEY, Comparisons of Naval Strength, pp. 13, Bull. No.
48, Navy League, 1916.
57. Information Concerning Some of the Principal Navies of the World,
pp. 28, Office of Naval Intelligence, Oct., 1915, Govt. Print. Off.
58. Proceedings of the National Congress under the Auspices of the Nat' I
Secur. League, Washington, Jan. 20-22, pp. 407, New York, 1916.
59. "How the War Came to America"; official survey of the causes
that led the U. S. to enter the great conflict, Com. on Publ.
Inform., also, vol. vi., pt. 2, pp. 305-306, New York Times
"Cur. Hist, of the War."
60. National Service Handbook, corrected to July 30, 1917, Com. on
Publ. Inform.
61. MERZ, CHAS., First Session of the War Congress, Com. on Publ.
Inform., War Inform. Series, No. 10, 1917 (outline of legislation
enacted).
62. GREENE, GENERAL FRANCIS V., "Lessons of Our One Year of
War," New York Times Mag. Suppl., April 7, 1918.
63. BAKER, NEWTON D., "Aeroplane Plans," New York Times,
Oct. 5, 1917, 1:5. "Annual Report," ibid., Dec. 15, 1917,
252 The World War
1:6; Dec. 15, 2:4. "Demotion of General Wood," ibid.,
March 26, 1917, 1:5; March 26,2:4, and March 26, 10:1;
also March 27, 3: I.
64. WOOD, HENRY A. WISE, Trifling with the War, pp. 20, New York,
1918.
65. Committee of Public Information created by President Wilson,
January 14, 1917.
66. Two Thousand Questions and Answers about the War, pp. 352,
New York, Review of Reviews Company (Doran), 1918, pp. 1-2.
67. Speech by Lloyd George in the British House of Commons, New
York Times, Aug. 8, 1918. Rept. of Gen. Pershing, Nov. 20, '18.
68. OTTO H. KAHN, When the Tide Turned, pp. 18, privately printed,
1918.
69. ARTHUR D. HOWDEN SMITH, The Real Colonel House, New York,
Doran, 1918, pp. 239-242.
70. General Pershing's Report of November 20, 1918. Also " Declares
Army Has Fallen down in War Work," New York Times,
January 20, 1918. "Chamberlain Repeats his Charges," ibid.,
January 25, 1918. " McCormick's Story Issued," ibid., January
26, 1918. "Hitchcock Attacks War Dallying," ibid., February
5, 1918. "War Secretary Favors Wider Powers," ibid., Febru-
ary 7, 1918. "Our First Year in the War," by General F. V.
Greene, ibid. (Mag. Sec.), April 14, 1918.
71. ' ' Orville Wright Says Ten Thousand Aeroplanes Would End War, ' '
New York Times (Mag. Sec.), July I, 1917. "Aircraft Program
Progressing Well," ibid., January n, 1918. "Storm in Senate
over War Delays," ibid., March 27, 1918. "Truth about Air-
planes," North American Review's War Weekly, August 10,
1918. "Aircraft Failure Evidence Bared," New York Times,
August 25, 1918. "Senators Speak of Airplanes," N. A. R.
War Weekly, August 31, 1918. "Hughes's Investigation of
Delay in Aircraft Production," New York Times, November i,
1918. "Only Two Eagles Built to Nov. i" (Admiral Taylor's
Report), Detroit Free Press, December 7, 1918.
72. "Million Yanks now in France," Washington Dispatch of July 3,
1918.
73. "Not as Advertised," New York Tribune, April n, 1918. "U. S.
Transport of Troops Big Feat of War," New York Times, Aug.
4, 1918. "The Transport Miracle" (editorial), New York
Times, Aug. 5, 1918. "British Transport Half of U. S. Army,"
London Press Dispatch of Aug. 5, 1918. "Where Credit Is
Due," N. A. R. War Weekly, Nov. 9, 1918.
74. "British Cordial to F. D. Roosevelt, 60 Percent, of our Troop-Ships
British," Charles H. Crasty in New York Times, July 31, 1918.
America's Attitude
253
75. New York Times, Aug. 8, 1918.
76. "Accuse Creel's Men of Air Propaganda," New York Times,
March 28, 1918. "Creel Denounced in House and Senate,"
ibid., April 10, 1918. "Creel's Speech Proved by Reporter,"
ibid., April 16, 1918. "Says Creel Misled Public," ibid., July
13, 1918. "Fordney Attacks Wilson and Creel," Detroit Free
Press, September 10, 1918. "Creel Assails U. of M. Expert,"
Detroit Free Press, Sept. 13, 1918. "Publishers Suppress Pro-
German War- Book," National Security League, Communication
to Press, Sept., 1918. "Creel Defense False," Detroit Free
Press, Sept. 17, 1918. "Senator Poindexter Attacks Creel
Committee," New York Times, Oct. 22, 1918. " Now Unmuzzle
the Press," N. A. R. War Weekly, Nov. 9, 1918.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, "Wilson's Fourteen Terms Peril," Detroit
Journal, Oct. 17, 1918. "Roosevelt Fears more Note- writing,"
New York Times, Oct. 10, 1918. See also "Wilson Invites Foe
Camouflage, ' ' Detroit Free Press, Oct. 11,1918. " Simonds Says
Danger Lurks in Peace Plan," ibid., Oct. 20, 1918. "Enemy
Democracy only Sham," ibid., Oct. 20, 1918.
78. HAROLD WILLIAMS, "No Change yet Seen in German Spirit,"
New York Times, Nov. 22, 1918.
XIII
PACIFIST PROPAGANDA AND ITS
CONSEQUENCES
"'Blessed are the peacemakers,' not merely the peace-lovers; for
action is what makes thought operative and valuable. Above all the
peace prattlers are in no way blessed. On the contrary only mischief
has sprung from the activities of the professional peace prattlers, the
ultra-pacifists, who with the shrill clamor of eunuchs preach the gospel
of the milk and water of virtue and scream that belief in the efficacy
of diluted moral mush is essential to salvation." — THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
"The undisputed facts prove, then, that in order to win the war,
pacifism — the propagandists of which are comparatively few in number,
but as noisy as they are ill-informed — must be combated in the allied
countries as vigorously as Pan-Germanism, of which it is the most
potent auxiliary." — ANDRE CHERADAME.
" But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet
and the people be not warned, if the sword come, and take any person
from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will
I require at the watchman's hand." — EZEKIEL, xxxiii, 6.
"When statesmen are laying out policies, and moralists are setting
up systems, it is worth their while to make certain that they are not,
in fact, engaged upon an attempt to make water flow uphill; above
all that their ingenious new aqueducts will actually hold water, which
in this instance they certainly did not." — FREDERICK SCOTT OLIVER
in Ordeal by Battle.
TT is the gift of prescience which differentiates the
statesman from the mere politician — the states-
vision in man's vision ranges beyond the horizon
political which has closed in about his less favored
or more time-serving colleague, and his
policies are in consequence both more far-reaching
and more discerning.
254
Pacifist Propaganda 255
Though less in the public eye and without such large
direct control over the course of events, the scholar
has even better opportunities to survey what for
those below his vantage point lies hidden beyond the
horizon. The ability to make out the remoter out-
lines, blurred as they are by distance, and to reproduce
them for the benefit of those less fortunately placed,
should belong particularly, it would seem, to the
historian and to the trained student of political science
and economics.
Through having traversed the long journey to our
present position, these students have again and again
been privileged to observe how special racial
characteristics or dominant national ideals -
and ambitions have borne fruit in conse- »»« national
. tendencies
quences of vast importance, and according
as these have been foreseen and provided for, or have
been overlooked and neglected, they have . brought
about the triumph or the downfall of nations.
Of political and social science it is as true as it is of
physical science that, given certain conditions, definite
results must follow. The occasion and the time, as
well as many of the details of the consummation, it
may not be possible to forecast, but the general result
will hardly admit of doubt.
To one who would examine into conditions in Europe
a full decade before the outbreak of this world war,
it must have been revealed that Germany
Watchmen
was making her preparations for vast con- failed
quests, and there could be little doubt as to waring
her intended victims. In one of the most
indiscreet but also illuminating and damning of auto-
biographies in all history, the iron chancellor revealed
in their essential outlines the mainsprings of Prussian
256 The World War
policy. The brutally frank speeches of William II.
when read in connection with German official and semi-
official publications, notably General Bernhardi's
Germany and the Next War, should have convinced
any unbiased inquirer that the ideals of Frederick the
Great and Bismarck were those of Prussianized Ger-
many to-day.
The failure of our intellectuals to visualize this
alarming situation and to send out a warning in time
to meet it with adequate preparation, will ever remain
one of the most amazing, as it is one of the most tragic,
of all the facts connected with this terrible war. Yet
it may fairly be said that, if we except professors of
the German language and literature, no classes among
American scholars have been so blinded to actual
conditions or include among their numbers more paci-
fists and pro-Germans, than the trained students of
history and economics. Schooled in the interpreta-
tion of events, the responsibility was upon them to
sound a warning which, though it might go unheeded,
could not be misunderstood.
Not only was no warning sounded by American
history professors generally, but prominent members
of the profession labored diligently to mis-
leaders of lead the public and to keep the nation from
preparing, even after Armageddon had broken
out in Europe. Ferdinand Schevill, professor of
history at the University of Chicago, issued a pam-
phlet in which he said of the war :
"Only passion will put the blame on the Kaiser. . . .
That this 'war lord' has for twenty-six years conscien-
tiously watched over the peace of Germany and splendidly
led her along all the paths of human labor ought to check
Pacifist Propaganda 257
the hasty conclusion of at least those who pride themselves
upon forming their opinions squarely on the facts." (i.)
James Westfall Thompson, professor of European
history at the same institution, viciously attacked the
British White Book in an elaborate attempt to show that
it had been falsified in order to make Germany the
culprit in the war (2). James G. McDonald, assistant
professor of history in the University of Indiana,
defended Germany's violations of international law,
the invasion of Belgium, and the Belgian atrocities.
Of the invasion of Belgium he said:
'This action is defensible both on the basis of the
accepted theory of international relations — self-interest —
and of that of the not infrequent practice of the great states
of Europe. When to this defense we add the plea of abso-
lute necessity — a plea made with the greatest sincerity by
the German people — it is easy to understand why Germany
felt no twinge of conscience when she invaded the neutral
soil of Belgium." (3.)
Of all Americans, Professor John W. Burgess of
Columbia University, a historian and university dean
who had been decorated by the Kaiser, made
J Attempts
perhaps the most flagrant of all un-American to defeat
statements (4). Dr. Carlton J. H. Hayes, w***™*
associate professor of history at Columbia University,
used his influence against compulsory military train-
ing and in a letter to the Senate Military Committee
said: 'It is un-American and inhuman. It will lead
in time straight to war' (5, p. 559). Dr. Edward
P. Cheyney, professor of European history in the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania, made the journey to Wash-
ington in order to aid in defeating the Chamberlain
Bill, and in his hearing before the committee said:
258 The World War
'Invasion has been almost unknown in history as a
cause of war. No one of the wars in which our country
has been engaged has been brought about by inva-
sion' (5, p. 574). William I. Hull, professor of his-
tory and international relations at Swarthmore College,
said before the same committee :
" For us to resort to conscription and compulsory military
training would be to prove recreant to our country's best
traditions; and even worse, it would be to destroy the
greatest opportunity which has ever come to any nation to
induce the world to apply exclusively the judicial instead
of the military method of settling disputes between nations "
(5, P. 577)-
Edward B. Krehbiel, professor of European history
at Stanford University, and associate of Dr. Jordan
in pacifist propaganda, in an address delivered at
Columbia University, according to press reports ''at-
tacked the activities of the American Defense Society
which he characterized as the propaganda of fear
fostered by it and related organizations."
The above passages have been cited in order to indi-
cate, in the light of what has since occurred, how a
very considerable number of our American historians
have falsely read the facts of history. There have, of
course, been an even larger number in the profession
who had clear vision, but the showing is none the less
a reflection upon history scholarship.
Some men there were in England who correctly read
the signs of the times. Speaking in Albert
Englishmen Hall in IQOO, Lord Salisbury called upon the
of clear British people to arm and prepare them-
vision , . , . ,
selves for war, for a war which might be on
them at any hour, a war for their very existence as a
Pacifist Propaganda 259
nation and as a race. For eight years before the storm
broke that great British soldier, Field Marshal Lord
Roberts, went up and down the land sounding a clarion
call to the nation to arm or perish, even though the Min-
ister of State for War in the British Cabinet was joining in
the general condemnation and threatening him with loss
of his pension. Roberts 's aide in this campaign was
Frederick Scott Oliver, author of the life of Hamilton,
and his Ordeal by Battle is perhaps the greatest book of
the ante-bellum preparedness period. Mr. Kipling's
solemn warning in The Five Nations fell upon deaf ears.
One representative of the universities, the historian
and erstwhile student of von Treitschke at Berlin,
to rouse the nation to its peril delivered to a small
but distinguished audience those remarkable lectures
which, published soon after his death as Cramb's
Germany and England, will long remain both a literary
classic and a historical landmark.
Yet history must record that the feeble voice of the
dying Cramb was completely drowned in the clamor
of the British pacifists, and that the books
embodying the fallacies of the arch pacifist,
Norman Angell, were sold in editions seldom clamor of
. - - pacifists
before equaled and translated and repub-
lished in almost every language of the known world
(6). They set forth with much specious reasoning
that wars could not again be waged because of inability
to finance them, and attention was directed to the
enviable position of Belgium — rich, prosperous, and
unprepared for defense.
While the British nation was thus being put to sleep
by this powerful soporific, the American people were
being drugged yet more effectively. The National
Educational Association at recurring annual meetings
260 The World War
received fresh infections of poison through the addresses
of Dr. David Starr Jordan, greatest of the false prophets
in the intellectual field.
Dr. Jordan is an authority on fish, and there is
noticeable a certain fishy quality in all his writings
upon the subject of peace. It has been said
lauds" of Prussia on high authority that her chief
Germany jn(iustry is war, but Dr. Jordan in addressing
the National Educational Association in 1910, on the
subject of "War and Manhood," says of Germany that
"she is 'military' but not 'warlike' " (7). Now Dr.
Jordan goes on in his discussion to show that England
and France have suffered in the past because they
have been warlike, whereas the good Germany has
reaped the natural reward of a peaceful disposition (7).
With no contrition for having preached his false
doctrines, we find Dr. Jordan at the annual meeting
of the National Educational Association in
1915 taking for the subject of his presiden-
tjai address the "Teacher and War" and
during war
rehearsing the same old platitudes (here
extended over ten pages of text) that wars are to be
deplored, and that they reduce the physical stock of
the nations taking part in them (8). Nowhere is
there recognition of the fact — and it is the only fact
of real importance, since we are all agreed upon the
other points — that a nation which does not desire war
may yet be attacked without provocation or otherwise
be forced into it. One does not need to have been
president of a great university to know now that this
great war has been forced upon a nation in the manner
described, and by Jordan's "un warlike" Germany.
Every pupil in the first grade of school is aware of this,
and it is therefore difficult to concede to Dr. Jordan
Pacifist Propaganda 261
an honesty of purpose in continuing to preach his
delusion, the more so as the German propagandists
have looked upon him as a principal asset in their
resources.
While our educational system was thus being poisoned,
in almost continuous performance upon the lecture
platform, William Jennings Bryan, with A pacifist
ample mouth and powerful lungs, was thun- barnstormer
dering the praise of his favorite nostrums — his thirty
peace treaties — German " scraps of paper"; his Bol-
shevik defense army of a million men grown mushroom-
like over night — we have observed our army in France
righting with French artillery, French machine guns,
tanks, and aeroplanes; and his plan to entice the
German army into the interior of our country to be
there overwhelmed by embattled farmers armed with
pitchforks — we have observed the result of this plan
in Russia and Roumania.
At the Lake Mohonk Conference on International
Arbitration, which was held in 1916, two full years
after the terrible struggle had been launched in Europe
and while we were looking on and refusing to bear our
part, Mr. Bryan offered three reasons why we should
not enter the conflict. They will ever remain sordid
and contemptible, notwithstanding the cant in which
they were paraded. These are his reasons :
'The first is that we cannot go into this war without
imposing a very heavy burden upon a generation yet un-
born, aye upon many generations. If we
., .,.,. . Bryan'i
judge the possibilities in regard to our ex- reasons for
penses by what has already occurred in Europe, ke«Pine out
of war
we must know that we cannot possibly take part
in the war without contracting an enormous war debt. . .
'In the second place no man can tell how many men
262 The World War
it would cost us. It has already cost them three million
in killed, and nearly ten million in wounded. . . .
"The third objection is that we would forfeit an oppor-
tunity that never came to any other nation before, since
time began. We are the greatest of the neutral nations;
we are the one to which the world is looking to act as
mediator when the time for mediation comes." (9.)
This ignoble and coldly calculating discussion of
profit and loss, without so much as a suggestion that
"Moral we may have a moral obligation or duty to
mush" perform, now merges into a flight of oratory
in which we catch the expressions 'lifting the world
out of the black night" and "love and brotherhood,"
though Mr. Bryan's plan is as far removed from uplift
as it is from love and brotherhood. But he has cast
off his moorings and is now soaring and bellowing,
'I crave that honor for our nation ; more glorious than
any page of history that has yet been written. This
is the day for which the ages have been waiting," and
other "moral mush" ad nauseam.
To meet this wholesale propaganda of error the
universities supplied in the earlier stages no outstand-
cham ions *n& figures to refute the arguments which
of Pre- were being put forward. Two sturdy cham-
pions there were in Colonel Roosevelt and
General Leonard Wood, the former the vocalized
conscience of the American people and the latter the
Lord Roberts of the American preparedness movement ;
and in the House of Representatives, the Honorable
Augustus P. Gardner early took up the fight against
apathy and unbelief.
It will be profitable to inquire why the clear vision
and courageous utterance which the nation had a
right to expect from its own intellectuals, and espe-
Pacifist Propaganda 263
cially from its university professors, was so sadly
wanting in this crisis.
To me it has long seemed that our system of training
in research, through its elevation into a fetich of the
cult of open-mindedness, has in a measure
The cult
taken from the student his power to evaluate, of "open-
and the discernment, and even more the '
courage, necessary to arrive at a decision. Non-
essentials have been magnified and hopelessly entangled
with really vital considerations, and it is the exceptional
man only who has been able to rise above the system
and by penetrating through the accumulated rubbish
of unessentials fix his attention unerringly upon the
heart of the problem (9a). It is sometimes almost piti-
ful to observe in lectures this protracted balancing of
unessentials without the ability to reach a decision,
and the parading of it before the public as though it
were a badge of distinction. This inability to arrive
at decisions explains why so many business men have
declared that too much education destroys initiative.
In no small measure accountability for the blind-
ness and apathy of American intellectuals in relation
to the war must be charged to the literary Literary-
and political review which for more than political
reviews
a generation has held the field practically pacifist*
unchallenged in the esteem of the American
scholar. Admittedly of high literary merit — the firm
basis of its hold upon the university professor — the
New York Nation has consistently preached the doc-
trine of pacifism and been the determined foe of military
preparedness. With the outbreak of the war the time
seemed ripe for the launching of a political and literary
weekly which should have the courage to face issues
squarely and to lead in a forward movement based
264 The World War
upon a recognition of our responsibilities in a world
where civilization was threatened with annihilation.
The New Republic, with its flippant, self -satisfied air
and its generally aimless rhetoric, has but aggravated
the existing situation. An attack upon the pacifist
suggestion of submission to Germany causes it fairly
to sputter its disapproval, but by reversing the page
one encounters again the normal complacency as in
serio-comic vein the editor regrets the government's
suppression of an abominably seditious publication.
There was fiddling, or so it has been claimed, while
Rome was burning. Late in the war has appeared
The Villager, which, though of modest proportions, is
ably edited, thoroughly American, and deserving the
support of loyal citizens.
So offensive has been the pacifism of Oswald Garri-
son Villard, proprietor of the Nation and until recently
of the New York Evening Post, that the
Oswald
Garrison editor of the former journal and the associate
editor of the latter have both felt compelled
to resign. When President Wilson, abandoning his
policy of 'peace without victory," declared himself
for "force without stint," Mr. Villard, who is believed
to have been at one time in close relations with the
President, described the change of front as ;< disap-
pointing." The New York Times has stated that Mr.
Villard was also on terms of intimacy with the German
Ambassador, and worked through him to prevent this
country from entering the war, publishing from time
. to time in his papers what purported to be the personal
views of Count von Bernstorff (10).
The changes wrought in mental attitudes due to the
war, under clever German leadership, added a number
of active recruits to the ranks of the ultra-pacifists.
Pacifist Propaganda 265
In them the horrors of war produced no other reaction
than a desire to stop bloodshed, wholly without ref-
erence to the question of righteousness in- Later
volved or of disaster to the world. Most prophets
prominent of these pacifists were Jane Ad-
dams, Robert Marion La Follette, and Henry Ford.
The influence of Miss Addams has naturally been
very great among the women of the country, and the
voice of Senator La Follette was heard not only in the
American Congress and upon the American lecture
platform, but it was carried across the ocean to give
Europe a false index of American sentiment and feel-
ing. Germany saw to it that La Follette's speeches
were featured in the German press, and it has been
reported by members of the American mission to Russia
that the collapse of that great country and its present
degradation through concluding a false peace, was
promoted by La Follette's speeches utilized to deceive
the ignorant Russian moujiks.
The case of Henry Ford is so remarkable and his
influence through the free use of his immense for-
tune has been so great, that it calls for special
Henry Ford
consideration. Of a very impressionable the dupe of
temperament and easily exploited through
his abnormal penchant for peace vagaries, he was early
selected by German agents as an easy mark for their
intrigues. Bernard H. Ridder, editor of the New Yorker
Staats-Zeitung, Jeremiah O'Leary, Sinn Feiner indicted
for sedition, David Lamar, now serving a prison sen-
tence as the lieutenant to the German head-spy, von
Rintelen, Edward A. Rumely, and Madam Schwimmer,
German agents; they were all among his advisers (n).
The first important fruit of the efforts of these Ger-
man agents, if Mr. Ford's contributions to the anti-
266 The World War
preparedness movement are not to be so credited,
was the • 'peace argosy," already described, which
The peace sailed for Europe endorsed by "Labor's
argosy National Peace Council," a von Rintelen-
Lamar product, but condemned and ridiculed by sane
men everywhere.
To indicate how effective Mr. Ford's activities have
been in aiding the German cause, though doubtless
Ford's unconsciously and as a dupe, it will be suffi-
prindpai cient to cite a few of his doings in their
anti-pre-
paredness chronological sequence. In September, 1915,
he contributed one million dollars to defeat
preparedness, and later he raised to ten million dollars
his contributions for peace propaganda. In the same
month he came out in open opposition to the United
States loan to the Allies, thus making common cause
with the Germans, and he was reported to have said
that he would withdraw his deposits from any bank
which subscribed to the loan.
In December, 1915, Mr. Ford had letters sent to
every Senator and Representative in Congress urging
them to inaugurate a campaign against patriotic songs,
preparedness plays, and munition workers.
In February, 1916, Mr. Ford spent hundreds of
thousands of dollars in the most colossal attempt which
Ford nbeis ^s uP°n record to influence the public by
the Navy any one individual through the lavish use
of money. He bought up whole pages of
advertising space in newspapers and magazines of all
political complexions and from one end of the country
to the other, in which he printed false statements
concerning the preparedness movement and instituted
libels against the Navy League of the United States
(ii).
Pacifist Propaganda 267
In May of the same year Mr. Ford was reported in
an interview to have declared that he did not believe
either in patriotism or in the flag; and in October the
Democratic National Headquarters announced that
he would print advertisements in five hundred news-
papers in order to advance Mr. Wilson's campaign
for reelection upon the ground that he had kept us
out of the war.
Nearly a year after the sinking of the Lusitania,
Mr. Ford excused it upon the ground that Americans
should have kept off the ship. The Navy
J Ford excuses
League having sued him for his libelous "Lusitania"
charges printed throughout the country as
advertisements, Mr. Ford found himself, when con-
fronted in court, unable to substantiate his charges and
tried to retire upon the lame excuse that he had be-
lieved them to be true. The Supreme Court of the
District of Columbia thereupon sustained the Navy
League in its demurrer (n).
In July, 1918, Edward A. Rumely, owner of the
New York Evening Mail, and for six years a close friend
of Mr. Ford, became revealed as a secret paid agent
of the German Government, and Mr. Ford now ap-
pears as having attempted to shield him from the
authorities (12).
In all fairness it must be acknowledged that once
the war was upon us, the pacifist element among the
intellectuals drew comfort and support from
Influence
the neutrality proclamation which enjoined oftheAd-
upon the American people neutrality of ministration
thought as well as action. We may well consider the
wise saying of Confucius coming to us over a stretch
of twenty-five hundred years: "A wise man is impar-
tial, not neutral; a fool is neutral but not impartial."
268 The World War
Some months later (December, 1914), Mr. Wilson ap-
peared before a joint session of Congress and declared
that the nation was adequately prepared and that the
causes of the war could not touch us. These blows
fell most heavily upon the universities, of which thought
is supposed to be in some sense a specialty and where
the expression of it under ordinary circumstances is
hampered by but few restrictions.
By presidents and governing boards at some institu-
tions, professors were now forbidden to express them-
selves concerning the causes and issues of
Restrictions
by Univer- the war, or else to maintain a strictly neutral
attitude. Was it in consequence of such
injunctions that an address dealing with the causes
of the war delivered by a distinguished professor of
history elicited from a woman of notoriously German
sympathies the comment, ;<it was fine, he balanced
things so beautifully"? Could praise be more damn-
ing? We see the past centuries of British history
carefully combed to gather incidents which might be
thought to offset the barbarities of the modern Hun.
We are confident that Britain's mistake in regard to
the American colonies, when she was struggling under
a German king to achieve her own independence of
autocratic rule, was not overlooked by the speaker.
It is highly probable also that he did not state to his
audience that for the opportunity to address them he
was indebted to England's fleet, long our bulwark
against the enemy and at the moment blocking the
German ports.
In order best to describe the character of defeatist
pacifist books, which are an important asset to the
literature German cause, I shall briefly mention one
which is a discussion of peace terms and one of wholly
Pacifist Propaganda 269
different character in the field of fiction. Professor
Thorstein Veblen's An Inquiry into the Nature of Peace
and the Terms of its Perpetuation professes to balance
over against the other the relative advantages of accept-
ing subjugation under a dynastic power like Germany,
and on the other hand, resisting with consequent losses
of life and property. The decision is given in favor of
subjugation and slavery (13).
The most successful of all defeatist works of fiction
is probably the brilliant Le Feu of Henri Barbusse, a
book widely read in this country under the translated
title of Under Fire (14). This book, which has had a
phenomenal sale, was denounced by the sound press
of Paris; and Le Temps, L'Echo de Paris, Le Petits
Parisien, La Victoire, and other standard newspapers
submitted protests to the censor for having passed it.
The censorship was at the time under the care of
Malvy, Caillaux's Minister of the Interior, who has
since been on trial for treason. L'Humanite, a socialist-
internationalist newspaper, and the Bonnet Rouge
newspaper Dejaitiste financed by Caillaux and Bolo
Pasha, gave it high praise. The propaganda carried
by Le Feu is insidious for the reason that it gives the
impression of realism and represents the poilu as devoid
of any higher virtues. It would hardly be possible
to deny that squads of French soldiers like that of
Corporal Bernard could be found in the French army
and particularly among the territorials; but it is clear
that it gives no proper picture of French army condi-
tions, as has been well pointed out by many distin-
guished Frenchmen, and with especial force by Major
Eckenf elder (15). Barbusse has since been editing
an internationalist newspaper in Paris.
Many who were pacifists before the war have since
270 The World War
seen their error, and are now among the most patriotic
of our American citizens ; but with others their
Effect of
the war on pacifism is in a state of suspended animation ;
and the vast majority have advanced only
so far as to aver that this war must be won in order
to end all wars — the old bogy which has cropped up
in the case of practically every long and exhausting
war in the course of human history. More ominous,
however, they have learned nothing from their past
errors concerning their own fallibility of judgment,
and they now seem confident that they are to be the
ones who alone are to constitute the council for settling
terms of peace at the conclusion of the war, and with
it the after-war problems.
Still other pacifists remained in status quo and were
found ready to lend their aid to Germany by prattling
of peace and demanding of the allied governments that
they should declare their peace terms even more defi-
nitely, and at a time when, with the Huns still at large,
all talk of peace was abhorrent. These offenders have
seen to it that their speeches were timed in exact syn-
chronism with the Kaiser's need of peace propaganda
(16). They were ably seconded by many others dis-
tributed in the various allied countries, who were found
urging that all hatred of the Hun be suppressed and
that the Sermon on the Mount, literally interpreted,
should be our guide in concluding terms of peace.
With the irruption of Bolshevikism, which is spread-
ing from its Russian origins over Europe and cross-
ing the Atlantic, the pacifists are flocking to its
standard.
Pacifist Propaganda 271
REFERENCES
1. SCHEVILL, FERDINAND, Germany and the Peace of Europe, pp. 15,
Germanistic Society, Chicago, No. I, 1914.
2. THOMPSON, JAMES WESTFALL, Russian Diplomacy and the War,
pp. 1-16, ibid., No. n.
3. MCDONALD, JAMES G., German "Atrocities" and International
Law, pp. 1 6, ibid., No. 6.
4. BURGESS, JOHN W., The Causes of the European Conflict, pp. 15,
ibid.t No. 2, 1914 (?).
5. Hearing before a Sub-committee of the Committee on Military
Affairs, pp. 1178, 64th Congr., 2nd Sess., S. 1695, I9I7-
6. LANE, RALPH NORMAN ANGELL (NORMAN ANGELL), The Great Illu-
sion, pp. 388, New York, Putnam, 1910.
7. JORDAN, DAVID STARR, War and Manhood, pp. 61-71, Nat. Educ.
Ass'n, Proceedings and Addresses, vol. xxxviii., 1910.
8. JORDAN, DAVID STARR, The Teacher and War (Presidential
Address), pp. 38-48, ibid., vol. xliii., 1915.
9. BRYAN, WILLIAM JENNINGS, The Proposal of a League to Enforce
Peace, Inter. ConciL, No. 106, Sept., 1916. Mr. Bryan's Peace
Plan, World Peace Foundation, 1913. Also, The Forces that
Make for Peace, Addresses, ibid., 1912. Also, Mr. Bryan's De-
fense, pp. 645-662, New York Times "Cur. Hist.," vol. ii., 1915.
9a. MAYER, WILLIAM ROSCOE, History — "Quick or Dead," AH.
Monthly, Nov., 1918, pp. 635-643.
10. New York Times, July 31, 1918. See also, HARRE, T. EVERETT,
"Shadow Huns and Others," Nat. Civ. Federation Review, Dec. 5,
1918.
11. "Ford Assailed as Foe's Dupe," Detroit Free Press, June 23, 1918
(City ed.), and June 30, 1918 (Michigan ed.).
12. North American Review's War Weekly, August 3, 1918.
13. VEBLEN, THORSTEIN, An Inquiry into the Nature of Peace and the
Terms of its Perpetuation, pp. 367, New York, Macmillan,
1917 (publication stopped, cf. Detroit Free Press, Feb. 10, 1918,
and New York Times, March 17, 1918).
14. BARBUSSE, HENRI, Under Fire (Le Feu), pp. 358, New York,
Dutton, 1917.
15. ECKENFELDER, MAJOR, New York Times, May 19, II., 2:6.
1 6. New York Times, August I, 1918.
17. HORNADAY, WILLIAM T., Awakel America, Object Lessons and
Warning, pp. 197, published under the auspices of the American
Defense Soc., New York, Moffat, 1918.
1 8. Official Documents Looking toward Peace, Series I and II, pp. 44
and 27, International Conciliation, Nos. HO-III, 1917.
272 The World War
19. CHERADAME, ANDRE, " Pacifism as an Auxiliary of Pan-German-
ism," pp. 275-285, Atlantic Monthly, Aug., 1918.
20. VAN TYNE, CLAUDE H., "Norman Angell," New York Sun, Dec.
6. 1915; "Pacifists Scored for War Vagaries," Detroit Free
Press, April 15, 1917.
21. "The Caillaux Case," New York Times, Mag. Sec., Jan. 20, 1918.
22. HOBBS, W. H., " The American Intellectual and the War," Detroit
Free Press, April 7, 1918 (also in New York Tribune}.
23. New York Times, Aug. 6, 1915, 9: 3.
24. KIPLING, R up YARD, The Five Nations, pp. 213, New York, Double-
day, 1903-
25. GEROULD, KATHARINE FULLERTON, The Remarkable Rightness of
Mr. Kipling, pp. 12-21, All. Month., January, 1919.
PACIFIST, PRO-GERMAN, OR ANTI-ENGLISH LITERATURE
26. HILLQUIT, -MORRIS, Socialism in Theory and Practice, pp. 361,
New York, Macmillan, 1910.
27. JASTROW, JOSEPH, "A Pacifist's Defense of America's War," pp.
199-208, North Am. Rev., Aug., 1917.
28. KREHBIEL, E., "Is Nationalism an Anachronism?" pp. 247-250,
Survey, vol. xxxvi., 1916.
29. KREHBIEL, E., America and the New World State, pp. 305, New
York, Putnam, 1915.
30. A British Statesman (FRANCIS NIELSON), How Diplomats Make
War, pp. 382, New York, Huebsch, 1916 (pernicious anti-
English propaganda).
31. STODDARD, LOTHROP, and FRANK, GLENN, Stakes of the War, pp.
377, New York, Century, 1918. (Clever pro-German propa-
ganda. Statistics very misleading.)
32. ANON., Philip Dru, Administrator, a Story of To-morrow, 1920-
1935, pp. 312, New York, B. W. Huebsch, 1912. (The author,
who the publisher intimates is a political boss and "a man
prominent in political councils," makes his hero become presi-
dent and dictator of the United States, in which office he re-
writes the constitution along socialist lines and eventually,
through a system of intrigue masked as democracy, reorganizes
the world according to the Pan-German program.)
XIV
" PEACE WITHOUT VICTORY "
'We accepted the war for an object, a worthy object. The war will
end when that object is obtained. Under God, I hope it will not end
before that time." — ABRAHAM LINCOLN, in reply to a proffered "peace
without victory" between North and South.
"One is frequently asked whether France is tired of the war. In a
sense she is, as is the whole world, including those who instigated it. But
France has left others to prate of peace. Those waves of gray, helmeted
men who twice have swept Northern France leaving a spume of blood
on their inevitable retreat, have to reckon with a spiritual force which
they neither understand nor consider at its proper value." — NINA L.
DURYEA, September, 1918.
"Our aims are the same as President Wilson's. What he is longing
for, we are fighting for, our sons and brothers are risking their lives for,
and we mean to secure it." — Speech of ANDREW BONAR LAW of the
British Cabinet on January 24, 1916, in reply to President Wilson's
"Peace without Victory" message.
"Before the war one of our easy theories was that the devil was
almost extinct — that he was only the child of misfortune or accident,
and that we should abolish him by passing ringing resolutions against
him. That has proved an expensive miscalculation. We find now that
the devil is very much alive, and very much what he always was — that
is to say, immensely industrious, a born organizer, and better at quoting
Scripture for his own ends than most honest men. His industry and
organization we all can deal with, but more difficult to handle is his
habit of quoting Scripture as soon as he is in difficulties." — RUDYARD
KIPLING, 1918.
is 273
274 The World War
'"FHERE is much that is alluring about the catch-
phrase "peace without victory," particularly to
"Peace communities having the heritage of Chris-
without tian teachings centered about the literal
Victory "
an alluring interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount,
catch-phrase ^^ fts doctrines of non-resistance and for-
giveness of enemies. More than we realize, England
and America could trace their pacifism to the literature
of church and Sunday school instruction; for "peace
without victory' is the very foundation of all our
war-time pacifism. The part of the churches in Anglo-
Saxon countries in unwittingly fostering pacifism is a
story that has never been told, though in his Atlantic
article with the expressive title "Peter Sat by the Fire
Warming Himself," the Reverend Joseph H. Odell has
supplied the introduction (l).
Were a permanent peace without victory at all
possible, it would have much to recommend it; but
Peace I propose to show, what all history confirms,
without that peace without victory has always meant
merely a breathing spell in which to prepare for a
temporary ^ greater conflict. What might perhaps
be considered an exception to this rule — our war with
England in 1812 — is so in appearance rather than in
fact, since all conditions of that conflict were abnormal.
The United States had quite as much cause to be at
war with France as with England, and that she was not
actually fighting France is to be explained by her grati:
tude for French aid during the Revolutionary War, as
well as by the rancor against England which still sur-
vived from that conflict. In fighting England she
threw in her lot to aid the cause of autocracy against
democracy in the great struggle of Napoleon for domina-
tion of Europe; and it was because England had that
" Peace without Victory" 275
far greater struggle upon her hands that she signed the
Treaty of Ghent some two weeks before the battle of
New Orleans was fought. Thus the only apparent
exception to the general rule that a peace without
victory is not permanent, is shown to be illusory.
Let us now consider for a moment the last great
struggle for vast conquest as a guide to the one in
which we are now engaged. After long
years of exhausting war a peace without e
victory — the Peace of Amiens — was in 1802 victory"
of Amiens
duly concluded by Great Britain with Napo-
leon. This peace lasted less than fourteen months
and was for Napoleon of the greatest advantage as a
breathing opportunity. After the war had been re-
sumed he rose to his greatest power, and it was another
twelve years before he was decisively defeated in the
crushing victory of Waterloo, though the battle of
Leipsic marked the turning of the tide against him.
Though Napoleon was crushingly defeated, the result
has been lasting peace between France and England
and now an alliance of these great democratic nations
which carries rich promise for the future.
The American Civil War between North and South
may further serve to enforce the lesson, for though it
ended in victory which settled, we trust for
all time, the issues at stake, the same efforts
were made in high quarters to prevent this during the
\ Civil War
through an inconclusive peace, and it was
only because Lincoln set himself like a rock against
a peace without victory that these efforts failed of
success. Horace Greeley, one of the most influential
of the Copperheads, as Northern pacifists were then
called, was the editor of the New York Tribune, the
great exponent of public opinion in the North, which
276 The World War
was disseminating the insidious poison of anti-war
propaganda.
By a coup d'btat executed by Napoleon III., France
had gone back temporarily to an empire, and the
_ , autocrat and arch-conspirator, Napoleon the
Napoleon III.
would offer Little, was already at work plotting with
Austria to defy the Monroe Doctrine through
setting up a kingdom in Mexico. When the dark days
of 1863 had come on, and before the tide had turned
at Gettysburg, Napoleon determined to mediate for
a compromise between North and South. It is only
because of England's refusal to cooperate with him
that he was, to quote his own language, 'obliged to
postpone to a more suitable opportunity the offer of
mediation, the object of which was to stop the effusion
of blood and to prevent the exhaustion of a country
the future of which cannot be looked upon with indiffer-
ence' (2, vol. viii., p. 266).
Considering their source, it is difficult to regard
these beautiful sentiments as sincere, but they have
been loudly applauded by American Copperheads.
When at a later period mediation was actually
offered, Lincoln's answer was decisive (3). 'We
accepted the war," he once declared, "for an object,
a worthy object. The war will end when that object-
is attained. Under God I hope it will not end until
that time."
In the London dispatches of January 26, 1917,
Frederic Harrison gave out that there had been found
J . in the archives of the United States an un-
Frederic
Harrison's published offer of mediation of our Civil
War which came from the Emperor Dom
Pedro of Brazil, the language of which was quite simi-
lar to that used by President Wilson in his "peace with-
" Peace without Victory" 277
out victory' note of December 31, 1916. According
to this satire the Brazilian Emperor wrote :
"I speak in the name of humanity and the neutrals of
South America, whose industry and commerce are seriously
affected by this most unaccountable war between the states
of North America. The Confederate States assure me
they are quite ready to discuss terms of peace. . . . When
the aggressive Federals can show the same attitude, peace
will be made. It is inconceivable that the mighty state
of which I am Emperor should have no part in that enter-
prise. . . . There must be peace, I say, without victory.
. . . Both of you want the same object and neither of
you can get all you want. . . .
' The foundation of peace is the equality of states whether
they are slaveholding or not, and equality implies freedom.
I speak for the friends of humanity in every nation. My
voice is that of true liberty throughout the world. These
are Brazilian principles, Brazilian policies and they are the
sacred principles of mankind."
Mr. Harrison makes Lincoln say to his Secretary:
"Take no notice of this hypocritical swagger. The
devil might as well preach a sermon that the only
Godly peace was to give men and nations free play to
break the dead decalogue."
During the present war Germany has made skillful
use of neutrals to advance her peace propaganda.
In that remarkable series of revelations to
Dr. Davis, the Kaiser's American dentist, peace drives
this fact is made very clear. Shortly after "motive
the first unsuccessful peace note of the Kaiser
-which was in reality no peace offer at all — Prince von
Pless said to Dr. Davis, as we are told,
"of course they refused it! ... We knew they would
refuse it! We wanted them to refuse it. If they hadn't
278 The World War
refused it, we would have made our terms so harsh that
they would have had to refuse it. But it accomplished its
purpose just the same; it got the French and English into
hot water trying to explain to their people why they
didn't make peace when Germany was willing to do so. In
this way we may be able to split the Allies. Russia is
going to quit anyway. There is going to be a revolution
and we'll be able to throw all our forces on the Western
Front and crush the enemy there." (4.)
This is not only in part good prophecy, but it
is an excellent characterization of the Teuton peace
methods taken collectively. Those who have played
most effectively the Kaiser's hand in the peace
game, have been in the earlier stages President Wil-
son and, somewhat later, in addition, His Holiness
Pope Benedict XV.
On December 12, 1916, the Central Powers sent out
the peace dove in the form of three notes. Of these,
two were issued from Berlin, one of them addressed
to the Entente Allies through the neutral nations,
and the other to the Pope ; the third came from Vienna
and was addressed to the Entente allied nations. In
the first of these, that from Berlin to the Entente
allied nations, it is declared :
'The four allied powers [Central Powers] have been
obliged to take up arms to defend justice and the liberty
of national evolution. The glorious deeds of their armies
have in no way altered their purpose. . . .
'If in spite of this offer of peace and reconciliation this
struggle should go on, the four allied Powers are resolved
to continue to a victorious end, but they disclaim respon-
sibility for this before humanity and history." (5.)
" Peace without Victory" 279
In the message to His Holiness it was further said :
"Certain of our own strength but realizing Europe's
sad future if the war continues; seized with pity in the
face of the unspeakable misery of humanity, the German
Empire, in accord with her allies, solemnly repeats what
the Chancellor already has declared, a year ago, that
Germany is ready to give peace to the world by setting
before the whole world the question whether or not it is
possible to find a basis for an understanding." (5.)
Commenting upon these notes, which offered no
program whatever, Premier Lloyd George stated with
entire justice in a declaration made on December 19,
1916:
'The very speech resounds with the boast of the
Prussian military triumph; the very appeal
for peace was delivered ostentatiously from George's
the triumphal chariot of Prussian militar-
ism "(6).
A week after the German note, President Wilson
on December 20, 1916, issued his first "peace President
without victory note, ' ' which held the balance wuson's
so clearly in behalf of the German position of December,
that in transmitting it Secretary Lansing said : IJ>l6
'The suggestion which I am requested to make the
President has long had it in mind to offer. He is somewhat
embarrassed to offer it at this particular time, because it
may now seem to have been prompted by a desire to play
a part in connection with the recent overtures of the Central
Powers. It has, in fact, been in no way suggested by them
in its origin. ..." (7.)
The note goes on to say:
' In the measures to be taken to secure the future peace
of the world, the people and government of the United
280 The World War
States are as vitally and as directly interested as the govern-
ments now at war. Their interests, moreover, in the means
to be adopted to relieve the smaller and weaker peoples
of the world of the peril of wrong and violence is as quick
and ardent as that of any other people or government.
"The leaders of the several belligerents have, as has
already been said, stated their objects in general terms.
But stated in general terms they seem the same on both
sides." (7.)
In a communication to the Detroit Free Press made
at the time, I offered the following criticism of this
and other portions of the President's note, and I take
the liberty of quoting from it here:
"I seethe with indignation as I read the language of Mr.
Wilson as communicated by his Secretary of State. He
(the President) takes the liberty of calling at-
of Germany tention to the fact that the objects which the
her statesmen of belligerents on both sides have in
enemies . . . .
the same mind in this war, are virtually the same, as
according stated in general terms to their people and to
to Mr. Wilson , ,
the world. Are there then no principles involved
and is the war, after all, nothing more than a selfish struggle
to conquer territory?
"Let any one who has read the correspondence which
passed between the European chancelleries at the outbreak
of war assert this, if he can; or let any one who has lived
in France before the war and has taken note of the spirit
almost of martyrdom of the French people, feeling sure
that they were to meet an attack from Germany and
believing that they must be crushed by it. Who can look
back over the war and believe that anything other than
an unexpected combination of favorable circumstances pre-
vented the early elimination of France from the conflict ?
'This was clearly and proudly predicted by German
military writers before the war, and orders found upon
" Peace without Victory'* 281
German prisoners prove conclusively that the plans of the
German Great General Staff were made on this assumption.
"But the President continues in his note: 'Each side
desires to make the rights and privileges of weak peoples
and small states as secure against aggression
or denial in the future as the rights and privi- wouldep^**c*
leges of the great and powerful states now at small states,
i * mr
war.' Do they indeed! Was it in pursuance "wiison
of such noble ideals that Germany tore up her
treaty and carried out the rape of Belgium, and is it upon
the same humanitarian grounds that she is even now, while
sending out the peace dove, deporting Belgian citizens for
enforced military labor and drafting the Poles into her
armies in contravention of The Hague Convention?
"After two years of the war, with an ultra-neutral heart-
lessness, Mr. Wilson declared before the League to Enforce
Peace, 'With its [the war's] causes and its ob-
jects we are not concerned. The obscure
fountains from which its stupendous flood has with the
burst forth we are not interested to search for MY'wns™n
or explore. ' . . .
"Americans, I know, are accustomed to think that they
live in a country where government rests with the people.
Yet with perhaps nine-tenths of the American
A blow in
people in sympathy with the Allies it is possible the interest
for an American President to strike a blow in the of Gcrmany
interest of Germany which I believe future historians will
rightly characterize as of the utmost seriousness in giving
official sanction to Germany's contention and marked by
an entire effacement of moral values." (8.)
After we had entered the war Mr. James M. Beck,
in a public address, made the following comment upon
the Wilson peace note and its consequences:
'When President Wilson attempted to bring about a
'peace without victory,' the United States reached the
282 The World War
lowest ebb of its influence. Exciting only contempt
in the Central Powers, this abortive attempt to force a
compromise of issues which admitted of no
compromise had almost destroyed the last
M. Beck on vestige of good will which the Allies had re-
^oetewilson tained for the United States. Had the war
then ended by some sudden and extraordinary
reverse to the cause of the Allies and a 'peace without
victory' thus resulted, the United States would have
occupied not only a contemptible position in the eyes
of civilization, but would have stood for many years to
come in a position of the very greatest peril." (9.)
Eleven days after the promulgation of the peace
note by Mr. Wilson, the allied governments issued
their formal reply to Germany's overtures, from which
the following extract is taken:
"Fully conscious of the gravity of this moment,, but
equally conscious of its requirements, the allied govern-
ments, closely united to one another and in perfect sym-
pathy with their own peoples, refuse to consider a proposal
which is empty and insincere." (10.)
On January 10, 1917, the allied governments made
Re i of their reply to President Wilson's peace note
the allied m which they reminded him that they had
governments
to Mr. wa- on various occasions made known m general
terms their aims in the war, but added :
"Their objects will not be made known in detail
with all the equitable compensation and indemnities
for damages suffered until the hour of negotiations'
They then proceeded to rehearse with somewhat
more of definiteness than before, the general principles
for which they were fighting, and on the iyth of the
u Peace without Victory" 283
month they somewhat further amplified their statement
in a new note to President Wilson (12).
On January 22, .1917, with the barest notification for
Senate and House to meet in joint session The«Peace
to hear a message from the President, Mr. without
Wilson appeared before them and read his message to
appeal for the twin doctrines of "peace Congress
without victory" and "freedom of the seas." Said the
President :
'The statesmen of both of the groups of nations, now
arrayed against one another, have said, in terms that could
not be misinterpreted that it was no part of the purpose
they had in mind to crush their antagonist. But the
implications of these assurances may not be equally clear
to all. . . .
' They imply first of all that it must be a peace without
victory. It is not pleasant to say this. I beg that I may
be permitted to put my own interpretation upon it and
that it may be understood that no other interpretation was
in my thought. I am seeking only to face realities and
to face them without soft concealments. Victory would
mean peace forced upon the loser, a victor's terms imposed
upon the vanquished. It would be accepted in humilia-
tion under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice and would
leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory, upon which
terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as
upon quicksand. Only a peace between equals can last;
only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a
common participation in a common benefit." (13.)
One can scarcely believe that these sentiments were
expressed by a historian of reputation and in the year
1917.
Three days after Mr. Wilson delivered his peace
message to Congress, he was answered by Representa-
284 The World War
tive Augustus P. Gardner of Massachusetts, pioneer
of preparedness, who upon our entering the war sur-
rendered his seat in Congress in order to
the colors, and who has already paid
Gardner's "the last full measure of devotion' to his
reply
country. I shall always account it my good
fortune to have heard this rather remarkable address by
Mr. Gardner, which was delivered before the Congress
of Constructive Patriotism of the National Security
League held in the city of Washington. I believe this
address gives the first clear statement of the issue
between democracy and autocracy, later made use of
(first on April 2d) with such telling effect by Mr.
Wilson. Said Mr. Gardner:
"You cannot have a lasting peace in Europe until the
fundamental question at issue is settled. The irrepressible
conflict is there. Either autocracy or democracy must
go down in ruins, before we can have lasting peace. In
the small compass of Europe, there can no longer be the
two systems existing side by side; one or the other must
go down, and God help us if we hold the scales of neutrality
with such nicety that we incline them toward autocracy's
side." (14.)
Mr Wilson message to Congress, Mr. Wilson
charges that even went so far as to say that the assur-
by anied1 ances of the statesmen upon both sides in
statesmen the conflict had implied a peace not secured
imply "peace . .
without by victory. To this claim I made comment
a few days later in a communication printed
in the New York Tribune in which I said :
"Is it possible that the President has not read the answer
of the Allies to his own Peace Note, which concludes with
the declaration: 'The Allies are determined, individually
" Peace without Victory" 285
and collectively, to act with all their power and to consent
to all sacrifices to bring to a victorious close a conflict upon
which they are convinced not only their own safety and
prosperity depend, but also the future of civilization
itself."' (15.)
Fortunately for us all and for the world, President
Wilson has now, we hope for all time, left these notions
of an inconclusive peace behind him (16); Mr. wnson's
and, master of style as he is, he has given awakening
us some of the most brilliant state papers from a liter-
ary standpoint that exist anywhere in the world. The
laws of nature are, however, inexorable, and mischief
once done is never retrieved; so that I cannot wholly
agree with Mr. James M. Beck, that brilliant and
intensely ardent American patriot, when he says:
"There are phrases and phrases. 'Too proud to fight*
was, we will now all agree, a deadly phrase. It not only
humiliated this nation in the eyes of the world, but it sapped
the spirit of the people by presenting to them a false paci-
ficism. An even deadlier phrase was 'Peace without
Victory' which sowed the seeds of disintegration not only
in Russia, but in the peoples of its allies. These unfor-
tunate platitudes may well be forgotten in the later utter-
ances of the President when in felicitous language he held
up to the American people the great ideal of justice."
Mr. Wilson did, however, continue to keep the dis-
cussion of peace before the world by outlining peace
terms supposed to be satisfactory to the allied nations,
first expressed in fourteen points and later in five prin-
ciples; and though he never again openly advocated
in definite terms a peace without victory, it should be
sufficiently obvious that any discussion of peace does
infinite harm until our objects in the war have been
obtained.
286 The World War
Germany's plans for a peace without victory were,
in the middle of August, 1917, again put forward by
the Vatican. The unfortunate aspect of
The Vatican
sends out these overtures, which outlined a program,
was that Germany in no way obligated her-
self by what His Holiness put forth. His terms pur-
ported to offer peace on the basis of restitution of
Belgium, Serbia, and Roumania, with a "peaceful solu-
tion'1 of Alsace-Lorraine, Trent, Trieste, and Poland.
There were to be no annexations or indemnities except
for Belgium and Serbia. German colonies were to be
returned in exchange for the occupied portions of
France. "Freedom of the Seas' and disarmament
were however insisted upon (17)-
The situation precipitated by this pronouncement
by the Pontiff of the Catholic Hierarchy, was a most
delicate one, since it threatened to arouse sensibilities
based on deep religious feeling.
Without going into any discussion of terms, but
merely calling attention to the obvious fact that
Germany could not be trusted, and hence
Mr. Wilson's *
reply to no terms of peace could even be considered,
President Wilson made reply to His Holiness.
This was a very wise disposition of the matter, and
with this disposition of it it is hoped that the discussion
of inconclusive peace through exchange of notes or in
messages by rulers, has come to an end (18).
Says a recent writer in one of the best summary state-
ments that has been put out :
"One and all we desire nothing more than to see the end
of this nightmare, but anyone who, in this or the allied
countries raises his voice to support the conclusion of peace
on conditions other than such as would make it impossible
for the Central Powers to renew their attempts to subjugate
" Peace without Victory" 287
the world, to Germanize it, and trample it under the heel
of a military despotism — in other words, anyone who advo-
cates a ' Peace without Victory, ' is either wholly incapable
of realizing the issues at stake or he is the enemy's accom-
plice. Unconsciously or consciously he is working for his
own damnation, and what is worse, for the damnation of
those who come after." (19.)
We may fittingly conclude this lecture by citing
from the public declaration made in 1917 by NO false
a group of distinguished American religious peace
leaders :
'We need to be reminded that peace is the triumph of
righteousness and not the mere sheathing of the sword.
To clamor for an ending of the present war without insur-
ing the vindication of truth, justice, and honor, is not to
seek peace but to sow disaster.
"We feel impelled to warn our brethren against those
who cry, ' Peace, peace, ' when there is no peace. The
just God, who withheld not his own son from the cross,
would not look with favor upon a people who put their
fear of pain and death, their dread of suffering and loss,
their concern for comfort and ease, above the holy claims
of righteousness and justice and freedom and mercy and
truth. Much as we mourn the blood shed in Europe, we
lament even more that supineness of spirit, that indiffer-
ence to spiritual values, which would let mere physical
safety take precedence of loyalty to truth and duty. The
memory of all the saints and martyrs cries out against such
backsliding of mankind. Sad is our lot if we have forgotten
how to die for a holy cause.
'We solemnly declare to you our conviction that the
question of all questions for our immediate consideration
is this : Shall the ancient Christian inheritance of loyalty to
great and divine ideals be replaced by considerations of mere
expediency (20)."
288 The World War
REFERENCES
1. ODELL, REV. JOSEPH H., "Peter Sat by the Fire Warming Him-
self," pp. 10, All. Month., Feb., 1918.
2. NICOLA Y and HAY, Abraham Lincoln, a history, vol. viii., pp. 266.
3. RHODES, JAMES FORD, History of the United States, vol. iv., pp.
513-520, New York, Macmillan, 1904. Also RAYMOND, H. J.,
Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 332-343, 571.
4. Pittsburgh Chronicle Telegraph, Aug. 6, 1918. Also in book form,
DAVIS, ARTHUR N., The Kaiser as I Knew him, pp. 301, New
York, Harpers, 1918.
5. New York Times, Dec. 13, 1916, p. i.
6. Ibid., Dec. 20, 1916.
7. Ibid., Dec. 21, 1916.
8. "Asserts 'Peace' Sounds Menace," Detroit Free Press, Jan. 14,
1917, pt. I, pp. 15.
9. New York Times, April 8, vi., p. 9. Also BECK, JAMES M., "The
Higher Law," The Amer. Bar Assoc. Journ., pp. 656-680, Oct.,
1918.
10. New York Times, Dec. 31, 1916.
11. Ibid., Jan. 12, 1917.
12. Ibid., Jan. r8, 1917.
13. Ibid., Jan. 23, 1917.
14. GARDNER, AUGUSTUS P., Pitfalls in the Path of Preparedness, pp.
241-242, Proceedings Congress Constructive Patriotism, Natl.
Security League, Washington, 1917.
15. "Made in Germany," New York Tribune, January 31, 1917.
1 6. Unfortunately this hope, expressed in the summer of 1918 proved
without foundation, for Mr. Wilson showed himself at all times
ready to respond to every stimulus from Berlin, and when the
decision of arms was going against Germany in the late fall of
1918, proved a serious embarrassment to the allied Powers who
stood for unconditional surrender.
17. New York Times, Aug. 15, 1917; full text, ibid., Aug. 17, 1917.
18. Written in August, 1918, before the full crop of diplomatic notes
with Germany concerning " unconditional surrender " based on
accepting the House- Wilson peace terms.
19. WILLMORE, J. SELDEN, The Great Crime and its Moral, pp. 323,
London, Hodder, 1917.
20. "No False Peace," a warning by American religious leaders, pp.
4, Am. Rights League, Bull., No. 23, Feb., 1917.
21. CHERADAME, ANDRE, The United States and Pan-Germania (A
Warning to America), pp. 107, Scribners, 1918.
22. MOORE, FREDERICK, Defeat, Compromise, or Victory, pp. 115-120,
Scribner's Mag., July, 1918.
XV
THE "FREEDOM OF THE SEAS"
'Freedom depends on the freedom of the seas, and freedom of the
seas depends on the liberation of Ireland." — COUNT zu REVENTLOW,
editor of the principal Pan-German organ in Berlin.
"Germany has to solve two problems — the freedom of the seas and
the opening of the route to the southeast. And these two problems
can only be solved through the destruction of England." — Imperial
Chancellor MICHAELIS of Germany in secret memorandum to Austria.
" They [the Germans] fight the good fight for the freedom of the seas,
for the freedom of nations. Their victory is the true hope of civiliza-
tion itself." — DR. EUGEN KUEHNEMANN, the Kaiser's special repre-
sentative in America for propaganda purposes.
'You dare to say with perjured lips:
'We fight to make the ocean free' —
You whose black trail of butchered ships
Bestrews the bed of every sea
Where German submarines have wrought
Their horrors ! Have you never thought
What you call freedom men call piracy?"
Mare Liberum, by HENRY VAN DYKE,
U. S. Minister at The Hague.
"The freedom of the seas is the sine qua non of peace. . . . These
[peace without victory and freedom of the seas] are American principles
and American policies. And they are also the principles and policies
of forward-looking men and women everywhere, of every modern
nation, of every enlightened community. They are the principles of
mankind and must prevail." — PRESIDENT WILSON in address to the
United States Congress, on January 22, 1917.
ii 289
290 The World War
THE doctrine of the freedom of the seas originated
with Hugo Grotius, the founder of international
origin of law, who in 1608 brought out anonymously
the doctrine his ^are Ljberum. The doctrine of rightful
control of the sea was set forth by John Selden in 1635
in his Mare Clausum, so that Grotius and Selden came
to be regarded as the fathers of the respective doctrines
of freedom of the seas and of rightful control of them
(i> P- 536).
Since the days of Grotius many volumes have been
written to cover the several phases of this interesting
but complicated question ; such, for example, as block-
ade, contraband, and privateering. It has remained for
Mr. Arthur D. Howden Smith in his unconsciously hu-
morous biographical work entitled The Real Col. House
to point out that the one and only originator of the ex-
pression, ''The Freedom of the Seas, "is, "so far as can
be determined, ' ' his hero, adding by way of confirmation,
"no previous mention of it has yet been found' (2, 3).
Notwithstanding the many ramifications of the
larger question involved in the freedom of the seas
NOW a both in peace and in war, we are not called
catch-phrase upon to enter here upon their discussion,
against since the expression has been used by Ger-
many during the present war as an alluring
ready-made catch-phrase to stir up latent hostility
against Great Britain because of her blockade of the
German Empire. It is Britannia, who according to
the popular expression "rules the wave"; and inas-
much as England has since Nelson's great victory off
Trafalgar been the undisputed Mistress of the Seas
now for more than a century, it is chiefly pertinent
for us to inquire what measure of freedom of the seas
she has permitted.
The " Freedom of the Seas" 291
Obviously the question of the freedom of the seas
must be considered, on the one hand, for times of peace,
and on the other, for war conditions. It
cannot be denied that in the now remote
past Great Britain has not been free from peace and
blame for imposing unjustified hardships
upon her neighbors through the compulsion of her
fleets; but, on the other hand, it cannot justly be
claimed that within the last century she has used her
control of the sea to the disadvantage of her neighbors,
save only as her naval supremacy has inevitably given
weight to her counsels in negotiation, exactly as have
under like circumstances the armies of her rivals.
Least of all has Germany the right to complain,
inasmuch as England has permitted her to develop
a great navy and merchant marine with the TO « The
but thinly veiled purpose to rob England Day"
of her trade and, so soon as the time is ripe, to destroy
both Britain's sea power and her independence as a
sovereign state. Germany has even been allowed to
trade without any restrictions whatever in the British
colonies, where by underground as well as by legitimate
methods she has robbed the mother country of her
markets ; and all the while upon every ship of the Ger-
man navy the last toast at dinner has been 'To the
Day' -the day of the defeat and annihilation of the
British navy.
The Hamburg-American and the North German
Lloyd Steamship lines, exercising their special privi-
leges under the peculiar German cartel system, have
offered their patrons in the trans-Atlantic service
inducements which the English lines, somewhat ham-
pered by traditions, have not been able to meet; and
year after year the German lines have prospered at the
292 The World War
expense of the British in the lucrative tourist business
as well as in freight traffic.
Germany's plans to destroy her rival having been
so clearly indicated, it has been frequently suggested
Baiting of to Great Britain that her safety has required
England that she 5^^ the German fleet before it
be grown too formidable. But Britain is not governed
by a war lord — with her parliamentary government
such an issue has been practically out of the question.
The opportunity to destroy the German fleet has been
offered England had her methods been other than
what they are.
Since Germany has in peace time enjoyed absolute
freedom of the seas, and has been permitted without
Germany any restramt whatever not only to conduct
has freedom legitimate trade but to carry out bold con-
of the seas . . - . , ,
during spiracies against her neighbor; we must in-
peace terpret her insistent and vociferous demand
for the freedom of the seas as applying to war condi-
tions. This is almost equivalent to saying that England
must give up her navy and thus leave herself open to
attack.
But says Admiral Mahan :
"For what purposes, primarily, do navies exist? Surely
not merely to fight one another — to gain what Jomini
calls 'the sterile glory' of fighting battles in order to win
them. If navies, as all agree, exist for the protection of
commerce, it inevitably follows that in war they must aim
at depriving their enemy of that great resource; nor is it
easy to conceive what broad military use they can subserve
that at all compares with the protection and destruction
of trade." (4, p. 128.)
In a pamphlet widely circulated among German-
Americans for propaganda purposes, Professor Eugen
The " Freedom of the Seas" 293
Kuehnemann, the Kaiser's special envoy to the United
States for propaganda purposes in succession to Dr.
Dernberg, has in a pamphlet entitled Deutsch-
land, Amerika und der Krieg presented an definition
alluring picture of that millennium which is
to come after England's control of the seas has been
wrested from her. I have translated the following
portions :
"Let but Germany conquer in this war, then France,
England, and Russia will be held back forever from their
desires to attack Germany. There would therefore be
peace in Europe. . . . The evolution of the German
democracy, which is a matter of the last decade, would
come to fruition. . . . The English pretension to world
domination would encounter the unconquerable resistance
of the German fleet. There would be found upon the
European continent an upright friend of America; for
the German fleet together with the American fleet would
in equal rank hold the balance of power upon the sea against
England. The time of world empire would be past; the
time of the independent, strong free peoples would begin;
and now the possibility would be created for the evolution
of new kinds of activity in which free peoples would peace-
fully and independently work together for the common aims
of humanity. Such forms of activity are impossible so
long as law upon the sea is rendered null and void at the
will of a Power like England. . . .
"Germany is not a world empire. It simply asserts
its right to exist. Any conflict between Ger-
many and America is not to be thought of.
Germany is conducting this war for the inde- freedom of
pendence of the nations and for the freedom ^a^etae
of the seas. The German might is being exerted world a
in this war for these ideas of independence, and Freedom"
it is therefore a struggle for the highest interests
of civilization. The English struggle is for English
294 The World War
world empire, the Russian for a Russian world empire,
the French for revenge and to regain the old French splen-
dor. They all want to destroy Germany, which came last
into the race for territory and because of its virtue is such
a burden to them, and by its mere existence stands in the
way of the destructive plans of the world powers. The
German war of 1914-15 is the grander continuation of the
American war for independence. Just as America against
English usurpation made its part of the world into a
new home of freedom, so is Germany against Russian
and English usurpation to make the world into a home of
freedom.
"Never was there a better cause; never in a war was
there a clearer conscience. The victory of
German ...
victory to Germany is in the interest of the independent
"conserve nations. It is in the interest of civilization, and
civilization" . , .
in the interest of America.
After a three-page-long defense of the sinking of
the Lusitania, the pamphlet concludes with these
heroics: 'They [the Germans] fight the good fight
for the freedom of the seas, for the freedom of
nations. Their victory is the true hope of civilization
itself." (5.)
The course of the present war has supplied a new and
forceful demonstration that England's independent
England's existence rests upon her ability to maintain
existence control of the sea. Unable to nourish her
on seea population from her own soil, it has been the
supremacy prime object of the German submarine cam-
paign to cut the life-line which the British navy has
maintained with the world's granaries. It has been
fully realized on both sides that once this line should
be severed, Britain's doom would be sealed; and every
other consideration has been made subordinate to the
The " Freedom of the Seas" 295
one object, of Germany to destroy England's commerce,
and of Britain to conserve it.
Germany standing before the world, despite Dr.
Jordan's claim that she is unwarlike, as the great
exemplar of militarism, it has been her
Militarism
contention that ;'navalism' is just as great versus
a menace to the world. Inasmuch as all
history proves the compelling power of sea control,
it is well to examine this doctrine.
Naval power, while it may be exerted against rival
naval power, has a range of action which ceases at the
shore, save only when backed by superior military
power. Though powerful for defense, it is all but
powerless for successful offense against well defended
coast fortifications. Its most important function,
and it is against this which Germany's propaganda is
chiefly directed, is strangulation through blockade,
but this function happily becomes effective only gradu-
ally, so that the possibility of dangerous sudden
strokes against an unprepared enemy is at least mini-
mized.
With an understanding of Teuton psychology, it is
easy to comprehend that mental attitude which cries
so vociferously for freedom of the seas. Britain's
Germany well knows, as the world apparently 8ea p°wer
• . . in this war
does not, what the supremacy of the Bntish
navy has meant to the Allies during this war. The
world generally comprehends that, except for the
submarines, defying as they have all laws of warfare,
Germany's war and merchant ships alike were early
destroyed or driven from the sea; and, if interned in
neutral ports, they have later been largely taken
over by her enemies.
It has, on the other hand, been only partially real-
296 The World War
ized what the blockade of the Central Powers has
meant to Germany, even with the small neutral
The grip nations upon her borders cowed by the
ofthe mailed fist into being her purveyors, in so
blockade
far as the Allies have either permitted this
or been unable to prevent it.
It is because the compulsion of sea power is exerted
slowly and silently that it fails to impress those who
are not held in its grip. By no one has this impelling
influence of control of the sea exerted through block-
ade been so convincingly set forth as by our own
Admiral Mahan, the greatest of all authorities upon
sea power, in his masterful description of the condition
of France after the destruction of her fleet at the
battle of Trafalgar. Says Mahan:
"Amid all the pomp and circumstance of the war, which
for ten years to come desolated the continent, amid all the
tramping to and fro over Europe by the French armies and
their auxiliary legions, there went on unceasingly the noise-
less pressure upon the vitals of France — that compulsion,
whose silence, when once noted, becomes to the observer
the most striking and awful mark of the working of sea
power."
It is a dread of the compelling power of blockade
which runs through all German writings on Welt-
politik — the dread of the British fleet in opposing Ger-
man ambitions for the hegemony of Europe (6).
Closely associated with the German interpretation
of freedom of the seas is that of naval disarmament,
Naval dis- an^ among the pacifists of other nations this
armament peculiar propaganda is fostered by Germany,
though it is not permitted in the Fatherland.
As must be clear to any student of history, sea power
The "Freedom of the Seas" 297
has more than once saved the world from military
conquerors. This has been true in the days of Charle-
magne, Charles V., Philip II., Louis XIV., and Napoleon
I. If the advocates of freedom of the seas do not
succeed in deluding the world, a new and notable
instance is promised in the case of William II. Every
diminution of sea power of necessity increases the
importance of armies. Says Archibald Kurd, the
well-known authority on naval topics :
'The Germans, strategically at the disadvantage in a
geographical sense, believe that if they can prevail on the
nations to limit the use of sea power, they can secure world
domination for their armies. There is no country which
they could not invade from the sea — England, France,
Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Spain among the
European Powers, and on the other side of the Atlantic
the American republics. Their propaganda against 'naval-
ism' is intended to facilitate oversea expeditions. Their
fleet having failed to place 'the trident in our fist,' let
navies be shorn of their value, and then the peoples of the
world will neglect them and there will be no obstacle to the
progress of Weltpolitik. That is their thought." (7, p. 9.)
But the imposition of the blockade upon Germany
does not tell the full story of what the British fleet has
accomplished in this world war. Few have
correctly interpreted the significance of two
*
actions taken by Great Britain just before French
coasts
the outbreak of the war. The British First
Fleet had been at battle maneuvers in the summer
of 1914, and would have been dispersed at their close
but for the action taken by Winston Churchill, the
then First Lord of the Admiralty. Entirely upon his
own initiative and because of the menace of the world
situation, he did not issue the order for demobilization,
298 The World War
a brave act for a minister to take, since it would
have wrecked his political career had not events so
clearly justified it that it was later confirmed by
the Cabinet. Through his bold initiative arose one
of those circumstances which cannot be foreseen and
provided against by an enemy, and it is one which had
much to do with the breakdown of Germany's plans.
On July 27, 1914, M. de Fleuriau, French Charg6
d'Affaires at London, telegraphed to his government:
"The attitude of Great Britain is confirmed by the post-
ponement of the demobilization of the fleet. The First
Lord of the Admiralty took this measure quietly on Friday
on his own initiative; to-night, Sir Edward Grey and his
colleagues decided to make it public." (8, p. 187.)
On the same day Sir Edward Grey telegraphed to the
British Ambassador at St. Petersburg to dispel the
notion that England would stand aside in the impending
war. Said he :
i
"This impression ought, as I have pointed out, to be
dispelled by the orders we have given to the First Fleet,
which is concentrated, as it happens, at Portland, not
to disperse for maneuver leave.*' (8, p. 41.)
It was this first bold action by Winston Churchill,
afterwards confirmed, which made possible a second
taken by the Cabinet, an act which was fraught with
vast consequences. On August 2d after the meeting
of the British Cabinet, M. Paul Cambon, French
Ambassador at London, sent the following message to
his government; a message which can have had few
parallels in history for its heartening effect upon a
nation at a great crisis trembling lest without aid it
was to be crushed by its adversary. The message read :
The " Freedom of the Seas" 299
"I am authorized to give an assurance that, if the Ger-
man fleet comes into the Channel or through the North
Sea to undertake hostile operations against French coasts
or shipping, the British fleet will give all the protection in
its power." (8, p. 235.)
•/•• •
This simply worded message carried with it the
whole naval power of Great Britain and, best of all,
France knew that a British promise once given was not
a 'scrap of paper." It was this protection of her
coasts which prevented the destruction of French ship-
ping, the closing of her harbors, and the landing of
German flanking expeditions to disperse and weaken
the French military forces. Without it France could
not long have held out ; for it was this protection of her
frontiers on north, west, and south, combined with that
to the southeast, afforded by the welcome assurance
of Italian neutrality (9), that alone made possible the
early victory of the Marne. Said M. Viviani in report-
ing the message of M. Cambon to the French Chamber
of Deputies:
"From now onwards, the British fleet protects our north-
ern and western coasts against a German attack. Gentle-
men, these are the facts. I believe that a simple recital
of them is sufficient to justify the acts of the government
of the Republic." (8, p. 262.)
Since it is clear that Germany's insistent demand for
freedom of the seas would, if conceded and insured,
result in a substitution of German for British
German
control of sea communications, what effect versus
might such a substitution be supposed to
have upon the welfare of nations? To ask supremacy
the question is to answer it, now that the world
300 The World War
has been permitted to read German aims and motives
as in an open book. The advantage of a war lord
in control of the state, measured by purely military
considerations, is that decisions can be made and
action taken overnight, so to speak, and without any
restraint imposed by the people; and extensive prepa-
rations can be carried out secretly even though they
involve vast treasure and require a long time for their
completion. In a democratic state governed by a
parliament, no such measures could be carried out.
Even though the safeguarding of Belgian neutrality
had been the very basis of British policy through-
out centuries, Sir Edward Grey, in transmitting to
the French Ambassador the promise of the coopera-
tion of the British fleet, felt obliged to add to his
message :
'This assurance is of course subject to the policy of
His Majesty's Government receiving the support of Parlia-
ment, and it must not be taken as binding His Majesty's
Government to take any action until the above contingency
of action by the German fleet takes place." (8, p. 235.)
Ambassador Cambon added in his report to his
government :
' The protection of Belgian neutrality is here considered
so important that Great Britain will regard its violation
by Germany as a casus belli. It is especially British inter-
est and there is no doubt that the British Government,
faithful to the traditions of their policy, will insist upon
it, even if the business world, in which German influence
is making tenacious efforts, exercises pressure to prevent
the government committing itself against Germany." (8,
P- 235.)
The " Freedom of the Seas" 301
The history of sea power shows us that, before the
period of British naval supremacy, the seas of the
world were not free to the nations even in Freedom
times of peace. In 1493, when the Papacy
was the supreme arbiter in international came in with
affairs, a practical monopoly of the seas was "^
given to Spain and Portugal, then in the supremacy
heyday of their sea power, and for a century thereafter
the ships of other nations ventured to sea only at their
peril. This domination of the sea in times of peace
was broken with the destruction of the Spanish Armada,
though the Dutch supremacy upon the sea succeeded
to the Spanish, and still retained a monopoly in sea
trade over all waters east of the Straits of Malacca.
After the victories of the British navy over that of
the Dutch in the seventeenth century, the open
seas of the world have been available for the ships of
all nations alike, and it may fairly be said that the era
of the freedom of the seas in time of peace is thus
coincident with that of British naval supremacy (10,
p. i).
Though there was freedom to use the seas during
the early British supremacy, Americans familiar with
their country's history are well aware that there were
some very irritating and unjust exactions imposed upon
the merchantmen of rival nations up to the early part
of the nineteenth century. The impressment of Ameri-
can seamen into the British service, though in part
justified by the harboring of British deserters and
slackers on American vessels, was the cause of our
second war with Great Britain. The former British
exaction of a salute to the King's ships, which had been
a time-honored custom, was, however, voluntarily
abandoned at the close of the Napoleonic wars, when
302 The World War
British sea power was at its zenith and undisputed.
Says Professor Reeves :
'That England has at times used her sea power arro-
gantly no American is apt to deny. At the same time, to
the securing of what freedom the seas possessed in the
century between 1814 and 1914, while her sea power was
undisputed, England made the principal contribution.
The oceans have been policed, the slave-trade destroyed,
non-belligerent visitation and search repudiated, impress-
ment of alien seamen surrendered, trade and navigation
made free. Notwithstanding Britain's power, the inter-
national commerce and carrying trade of other nations
increased to the point of successful rivalry. What would
strike at these things is miscalled the freedom of the seas.
The infamous misdeeds of the submarine have made less
for the freedom of the seas than did the guillotine for
liberty. The guillotine at least gave warning before it
struck, and its purveyors spared innocent and helpless
children." (i, p. 543.)
The fact that Great Britain has not misused her
control of the seas to break up the commerce of her
neighbors, is no doubt in some measure to
trade and be ascribed to the Anglo-Saxon ideals of fair
freedom of play. It is perhaps quite as much to be
the seas
explained, however, by the fact that as the
one great Power which had adopted the policy of free
trade, England has seen no advantage to her national
prosperity in ruining her trade rivals, who must also
be her customers. Were the seas to fall under the
domination of a nation which aims to build up its
state upon the destruction of its rivals, there is little
reason to doubt that the mare clausum in peace times
which prevailed in earlier centuries would once more
become a fait accompli.
The " Freedom of the Seas" 303
But why should we develop this subject at such
length? Are not all the allied nations agreed that
destruction of Britain's naval power, either president
through a forced disarmament or through wasonan
advocate of
making safe the transit of the enemy s goods the German
at sea in time of war, would actually favor
Germany's fortunes and bring disaster to the cause
of the Allies ? It is because of this that the freedom of
the seas has been throughout one of Germany's princi-
pal peace terms, and one which will unquestionably be
put forward at the peace council. Most unfortunate
of all, in defiance of every sound opinion represented
in the allied countries, Mr. Wilson in his "peace without
victory' message to Congress has echoed Germany's
cry for the freedom of the seas. Said the President:
"
And the paths of the sea must alike in law and in fact
be free. The freedom of the seas is the sine qua non of
peace, equality, and cooperation. No doubt a
somewhat radical reconsideration of many of the German
r policy
rules of international practice hitherto sought advocated
m
to be established may be necessary in order to
* to Congress
make the seas indeed free and common in practi-
cally all circumstances for the use of mankind, but the motive
for such changes is convincing and compelling. There
can be no trust or intimacy between the peoples of the world
without them.
'The free, constant, unthreatened intercourse of nations
is an essential part of the process of peace and development.
It need not be difficult to find or to secure the freedom of
the seas if the governments of the world sincerely desire
to come to an agreement concerning it.
"It is a problem closely connected with the limitation
of naval armaments and the cooperation of the navies of
the world in keeping the seas of the world free and safe."
(II.)
304 The World War
Mr. Wilson goes on to say that peace without victory
and freedom of the seas are both of them "American
„ ™., principles and American policies." We need
Mr. Wilson *,
declares not take time to refute this claim concerning
peace without victory, since the President
American himself appears now to have repudiated it;
but it is evident that the freedom of the seas is
still advocated by the President, by his one confidential
adviser, Colonel House (2), and his director of the of-
ficial press bureau, George Creel (12).
It is indeed true that the blockade of the American
colonies during the Revolutionary War, and of the
States during the War of 1812, gave an early trend to
American public sentiment against the power of block-
ade exercised by Great Britain. But this policy was
later entirely repudiated, and during both the American
Civil War and the Spanish War it was the blockade
by naval power, in the first instance of the Confederate
States and in the second of the Spanish colonies, which
brought victory to the American arms. These facts
are so self-evident that they should be known to every
schoolboy, and one is astounded by the evidence that
Germany's and America's policies respecting the freedom
of the seas are the same.
Says Admiral Mahan of sea blockade:
"Blows at commerce are blows at the communications
of the state; they intercept its nourishment, they starve
its life, they cut the roots of its power, the sinews of its
war. While war remains a factor, a sad but inevitable
factor of our history, it is a fond hope that commerce can
be exempt from its operation because in very truth blows
against commerce are the most deadly that can be struck;
nor is there any other among the proposed uses of a navy,
as for instance the bombardment of seaport towns, which
The " Freedom of the Seas" 305
is not at once more cruel and less scientific. Blockade such
as that enforced by the United States Navy during the
Civil War, is evidently only a special phase of commerce-
destroying; yet how immense — nay, decisive — its results."
(4. P- I33-)
But the President goes still further and says that
peace without victory and freedom of the seas "are
also the principles and policies of forward-looking
men and women everywhere, of every modern nation,
of every enlightened community. They are the
principles of mankind and must prevail" (n). For
the future welfare of the world let us pray that the
President has here misjudged both the nation's tradi-
tions and the American people.
That Colonel House, the President's confidential
adviser and his secret political envoy to European
courts, is the real exponent of the President's coionei
policy of freedom of the seas, is proven by * °ncntof
the chapter upon the Freedom of the Seas Mr. Wilson's
in the inspired biography of Colonel House
which appeared in the spring of 1918 in the columns
of the New York Evening Post and has since been issued
in book form (2). According to this biography,
Colonel House in the spring of 1915 traveled as the
President's special political envoy from one European
chancellery to another, moving majestically and dis-
pensing the veriest pearls of wisdom to trained Euro-
pean statesmen with lifetimes of diplomatic experience
behind them, and doing it all with the gracious air
of a prince bestowing a gold-piece upon a lackey.
Says a critic in commenting upon it, 'There rise in-
stinctively to mind, in reverence and in awe, the words
of Browning, 'Is it God?' Surely this cannot be a
306 The World War
mere man, a mortal man. . . . Not even a Superman
could be so wise, so great, so strong'' (13).
At the German chancellery Colonel House actually
offered the freedom of the seas, and later in England
House the affront of requesting that Britain de-
offers iiver herself over to her enemy by accept-
reiieffrom ing the doctrine. The biography tells its
blockade own story an(j should not be modified by
one jot or tittle. According to his faithful Boswell,
Colonel House undertook to argue with the German
officials at the Foreign Office with this result:
'They gave him fair words, but no satisfaction, until
he extended, as a fisherman casts his bait, a certain phrase
of five words: 'The Freedom of the Seas.' ... It met
with prompt response.
'Ah,' said the German statesmen, ' you mean the general
recognition of the Declaration of London ? '
"But Colonel House meant much more than this. He
meant a literal, unlimited freedom of the seas, which would
imply the safety of merchantmen in enemy ports upon the
declaration of war, the safety not only of food cargoes,
but cargoes of actual contraband; the uninterrupted pro-
gress of the world's ocean-borne commerce, in the midst
of the most widely dispersed war. (2, 188.)
There follows upon this a specious forecast of the ef-
fect of such a policy :
"Accepted by the belligerent nations, it would have the
immediate result of confining the war to a struggle between
fleets and armies and exempting from harm non-combatants
and neutral nations, while the economic structure of civiliza-
tion would survive almost unimpaired. . . .
" 'But for what would navies be used then?' demanded
the Germans.
" 'For defense against invasion,' returned Colonel House.
The "Freedom of the Seas" 3°7
"A vista opened before the eyes of the leaders at Berlin
which they had abandoned hope of seeing. Perhaps
they were purely selfish and cynical in their acceptance
of this doctrine of idealism; perhaps they thought only
of the nullification of the preponderating naval power of
Great Britain, and the abolition of the blockade which
was cutting off Germany from her sources of raw mate-
rial. But Colonel House saw much farther than they
did. . . .
"At any rate the immediate effect of his suggestion of
the doctrine in Berlin was to obtain the prompt
and enthusiastic assent of Germany. ' I believe accepts
you have thrown the first thread across the House
chasm which bars us from peace,' said one of
the greatest men in Germany.
"Having achieved his purpose in Berlin, Colonel House
returned to London to take up the far more arduous task
of arguing the British leaders into an appreciation of the
advantages which would accrue to them from accepting
the new idea. Imagine his vexation, when, upon his arrival
in London, he encountered reports in the English news-
papers of boastful speeches in favor of 'the freedom of
the seas, ' as he had outlined it, which had been delivered
in the United States by Ambassador von Bernstorff and
Dr. Bernhard Dernberg, the former German Colonial
Secretary and chief propagandist in America. The first
act of the German Government after Colonel House out-
lined his doctrine had been to cable instructions to their
agents in the United States to bolster it by a vigorous
campaign of propaganda. . . .
"Colonel House had the utmost difficulty in House
breaking down the wall of natural suspicion Mpre*
which met him at every turn when he undertook of Seas ••
to preach his doctrine. . . . to England
'What do you mean by it?' they would say. 'The
freedom of the seas ? Is not that what England has always
fought for since the days of the Armada ? Is not that what
308 The World War
the British navy is maintained for? Or do you mean that
we should surrender our coaling stations and ports and
colonies which are open to all the nations of the world as
well as to our own shipping?'
"In fact, despite all the opposition which his sugges-
tion encountered. . . . Colonel House's efforts soon bore
fruit. . . . But in the moment of fruition Colonel House's
plans were destroyed by the news that the Lusitania had
been sunk. ... By that deed Germany ruined the pro-
mising chances of escape from the British blockade which
Colonel House had offered her. There was nothing for
him to do but return home." (2, p. 190.)
•
Is there anything in humorous fiction to compare
with this Odyssey of Colonel House in which he offers
to Germany a relief from the British blockade through
England's adoption of his "novel' policy of the free-
dom of the seas, endeavors to induce England to accept
the policy, and then having all lost through the untimely
destruction of the Lusitania?
But comedy is here subordinated to the tragedy of
the situation. Due to this fortunate revelation by the
modern Boswell, we now know some lines of modern
history which would else be veiled from us. The offer
by Colonel House to the German Government of "free-
dom of the seas" in the grossest 'form in which this
policy had been conceived by Germany, now appears
revealed as the common origin of the propaganda in
its favor which was disseminated by von Bernstorff,
Dernberg, and Kuehnemann on the one hand, and of
Mr. Wilson's address to Congress on the other. Says
Dr. Kuehnemann:
"The German war of 1914-1915 is the grander continua-
tion of the American War for Independence. Just as
The " Freedom of the Seas"
309
Comparison
of German
and Ameri-
can inter-
pretations
America against English usurpation made its part of the
world into a new home of freedom, so is Germany against
Russian and English usurpation to make the
world into a home of freedom. . . . The
victory of Germany is in the interest of the
independent nations. It is in the interest of
civilization and in the interest of America. . . .
They [the Germans] fight the good fight for the freedom
of the seas, for the freedom of nations, their victory is the
true hope of civilization itself." (5.)
Says President Wilson :
'The freedom of the seas the sine qua non of peace,
equality and cooperation. . . . These are American prin-
ciples and American policies and they are also the principles
and policies of forward-looking men and women every-
where of every modern nation, of every enlightened com-
munity. They are the principles of mankind and must
prevail." (n.)
As regards " freedom of the seas," the late Admiral
Mahan of the United States Navy says in his The
Interest of America in Sea-power, Present and Future:
' It is a fair deduction from analogy that two contend-
ing armies might as well agree to respect each other's
communications as two belligerent states to guarantee
immunity to hostile commerce."
Even though it is necessary to take issue with the
President of the United States, I must assert that
neither peace without victory nor freedom of
the seas is American policy. If either of them diplomacy
seems to be so to-day, it is only because of
what happened on the 22d of January, 1917.
Upon that date, the two Houses of the American Con-
gress were engaged in deliberations according to their
310 The World War
regular programs. Suddenly, without previous warn-
ing, a message from the White House is handed to
the presiding officers, their gavels halt proceedings,
and announcement is made that the Congress will
immediately assemble in joint session to listen to a
message from the President. Reviving the ancient
custom of royalty in delivering a 'Speech from the
Throne,'" a custom long since abandoned in our Con-
gress, the President makes his appearance and, mount-
ing the rostrum, delivers the twin doctrines of 'peace
without victory" and "freedom of the seas."
While our lawmakers are still gasping with astonish-
ment, and the faithful are beginning to voice their
praises, the President disappears, enters his car and
returns to the White House. The press has already
been provided with copy to be released at this moment,
and the ocean cables, already cleared, are busy carry-
ing the new American doctrines to every part of the
civilized world. And the world literally halts as it
reads the message in astonishment.
The newspapers of Germany again exhibiting that
"German stupidity' of which Colonel House com-
plains so bitterly, are more than exultant. Count
von Bernstorff, once more conveniently forgetting that
established custom requires an ambassador to refrain
from comment in such matters, gives to the press an
interview filled with the most inordinate praise.
In England where they are still hoping against hope
that America will at last realize her responsibilities
The effect and come to the rescue of civilization, the
abroad papers are silent, save only the pacifist
journals, which are full of praise. Of Mr. Wilson's
desire for peace as expressed in the message, Andrew
Bonar Law of the British Cabinet makes the comment :
The " Freedom of the Seas" 311
'What he is longing for we are fighting for, our sons
and brothers are risking their lives for, and we mean
to secure it." To Mr. Wilson's reflections upon the
motives of the allied nations in the world war, the
Paris Temps replies that they are exercising a most
sacred responsibility in the maintenance of right and
duty, and adds: 'The nations struggling for indepen-
dence, dignity, and existence, feel hurt when their
reasons are brought into question." By the process
which I have thus described, Germany's doctrine of
the freedom of the seas was on the date of the 22d of
January, when the unrestricted submarine warfare was
less than a fortnight away, made officially an American
doctrine. We thus allied ourselves for the time being
with the German submarine to break the strangle hold
of the British blockade upon the German Empire.
Yet this pro-German and anti-English policy has
been retained by Mr. Wilson as the second of his four-
teen terms of peace put forward in the program of
January 8, 1918, to which he has since frequently
referred as though it were still authoritative, and
demanded that Germany "accept'1 it before her
'unconditional surrender." The Frankfurter Zeitung
tells its readers: 'President Wilson encourages us to
make sacrifices, but it is also he who will fight for the
freedom of our trade and the freedom of navigation,
and will thereby fight for exceedingly valuable pieces
of the German future'5 (14).
We cannot afford to forget that it was the silent
but continual pressure of naval blockade
which not only accomplished the downfall of American
Napoleon and saved the world for democ- policy
the same
racy, but in our own recent history that of
the Southern Confederacy as well, and of Spanish
312 The World War
tyranny on the American continent. It was not prima-
rily the shock of armies which brought about the sur-
render of Lee at Appomattox, but a strangulation of
the entire economic life of the South, a grip deadly
in its embrace and one which extended eventually to
the Confederate armies and lowered their material
efficiency and their morale.
Without supplies of cotton, woolens, rubber, copper,
oil, grease and fats, foodstuffs, and other needful raw
materials, Germans have been living on a reduced diet
and forced to dress in paper substitutes for clothing;
and they look forward with dread to the coming winter.
Paper bandages have replaced cotton in their ^hospitals,
elaborate devices of springs the tires of their motor
transports, iron has taken the place of brass in their
shells, and an inferior substitute the cotton of their
explosives. All these unsupplied needs inevitably
reduce efficiency, as they induce mental and moral
deterioration — they eventually undermine the morale
of the armies.
When we read of the magnificent victories of the
incomparable Foch and his splendid armies while
driving back the German hordes, we are apt to see only
the dramatic mise en scene and the glaring circumstance
of the battle, quite overlooking the half -veiled causes
which have contributed to this great result. The
resistance of the Germans to the allied advance we
know to have been desperate around Montdidier, at
Morlancourt, and on the spur above the Somme at
Chipilly. It was by a slight overbalance in efficiency
and morale that the scales were turned in each instance,
and of this the British blockade is the one underlying
cause.
The compelling power of blockade has in modern
The " Freedom of the Seas" 313
•
times, it is pleasant to record, been generally exercised
in the cause of democracy, and geographic conditions
have determined that unless misled by a Blockade in
false and vicious pacifism, it will be in the the interests
future as well; since the nations whose nat-
ural defense is indicated as to a large extent that of sea
power are the English-speaking commonwealths and
the other democratic countries now allied with them.
The absolute monarchies are now intrenched in the
heart of Europe, and they are not by nature destined
to become strong upon the sea, save only through a
course of action which points unerringly to aggression
and conquest.
REFERENCES
1. REEVES, JESSE S., " Two Conceptions of the Freedom of the Seas,"
pp. 535-543, Am. Hist. Rev., vol. xxii., 1917.
2. SMITH, ARTHUR D. HOWDEN, The Real Colonel House, pp. 306,
New York, Doran, 1918 (appeared first in installments in the
New York Evening Post in the spring of 1918).
3. PHENIS, ALBERT, "Who is Colonel House and What are his
Views?" Manufacturers Record, Oct. 31, 1918. HOBBS, W. H.,
"Reviews Colonel House," Detroit Free Press, Nov. 25, 1918.
4. MAHAN, A. T.f The Interest of America in Sea Power, Present and
Future, pp. 314, Boston, Little, 1898.
5. KUEHNEMANN, DR. EUGEN, Deutschland, Amerika und der Krieg
(translation in part in Detroit Free Press of June 13, 1918).
6. VIGILANS SED ^EQUUS, "German ambitions as they Affect Britain
and the United States of America," reprinted from the Spectator,
pp. 132, New York, Putnams, 1903.
7. HURD, ARCHIBALD, // there Were no Navies, pp. 22, London, Trus-
cott, 1916.
8. Collected Diplomatic Documents relating to the Outbreak of the
European War, pp. 561, London, H. M. Stationery Office, 1915.
9. Ibid., pp. 140 (No. 152).
10. MUIR, RAMSAY, Mare Liberum, The Freedom of the Seas, pp. 18,
London, Hodder, 1917.
11. "President Wilson's 'Peace without Victory' message to Con-
gress," New York Times, Jan. 23, 1917, p. I.
12. Two Thousand Questions and Answers about the War, pp. 352,
The World War
New York, Doran (copyright by Review of Reviews Co.), 1918.
(An expurgated edition was published by Review of Reviews Co.,
after the book's character had become known.)
13. JOHNSON, WILLIS FLETCHER, "The Greatness of Colonel House —
Some other Choice Fiction," New York Tribune.
14. New York Times, Oct. 18, 1918.
15. HOBBS, WM. H., "Made in Germany," New York Tribune, Jan.
16. CORBETT, SIR JULIAN, The League of Peace and a Free Sea, pp.
15, London, Hodder, 1917.
17. MURRAY, GILBERT, "Britain's Sea Policy," a reply to An American
Critic, pp. 732-735, Atlantic Monthly, 1916.
1 8. Naval War College, The Declarations of London of February 26,
1909, pp. 193, Govt. Printing Office, 1910.
19. BENTWICH, NORMAN, The Declaration of London, pp. 179, Effingham
Wilson, 1911.
20. ADAMS, CHAS. FRANCIS, Seward and the Declaration of Paris, a
Forgotten Diplomatic Episode, April to August, 1881, pp. 61,
Boston, 1912.
21. HURD, ARCHIBALD, The Command of the Sea, pp. 244, Chapman
and Hall, 1912,
22. "German Approval of Free Seas," New York Times, Oct. 18,
1918.
XVI
GERMAN PREPARATIONS FOR THE NEXT
WAR
"Any one who has any familiarity at all with our officers and generals
knows that it would take another Sedan, inflicted on us instead of by
us, before they would acquiesce in the control of the army by the
German Parliament." — PROFESSOR DELBRUCK of the University of
> Berlin.
'There was a period of the war . . . when here and there, in the
English press, the phrase cropped up that there were 'two victors'
in the war — England and Germany. Behind this lay the idea that
English policy might rest content, in case of need, with a 'drawn' war.
From the English point of view, however, this was a piece of lazy and
confused thinking. They know better to-day: and they are perfectly
right when they say that if the game between them and us ends in an
apparent 'draw' it is we who will be the victors £nd they the van-
quished."— PAUL ROHRBACH, in Deutsche Politik, November 25, 1916 (i).
"It is thus that the mineral districts of Lorraine, to which we are
already indebted for not having been annihilated in the present war,
will protect us in the future war and permit us to assure the welfare of
the Empire and at the same time spare the blood of the people." —
Memorandum submitted to the German Government by Associations
of Iron and Steel Manufacturers and Metallurgists in December, 1917.
AT the outset it was pointed out that the present
war was launched by Germany as the first of
a series planned for conquest of territory,
and that it had for its initial object the
crushing of France while Russia was being
held in check. Later, the great eastern
neighbor was to be reduced to such a condition of
impotence as would result in peace terms favorable to
315
The world
war first
of a series
planned
316 The World War
exploitation while making preparations for the next
war in the series.
Italy, the lightly held partner in the Triple Alliance,
Germany hoped to have either as a partner or as a
neutral, and she hoped against hope — though it is
hard to believe that she could have expected — that
England would be so blind to her own danger as to
keep out of the conflict. Of all this, as well as of Ger-
many's disappointment that her plans went awry, we
have new, though somewhat superfluous confirma-
tion in the confidences of Count von Wangenheim
made to Mr. Henry Morgenthau, the American Ambas-
sador at Constantinople (2).
The earlier German plans have been so deranged by
the surprises of this war, and most of all by the wholly
The next unexpected, but to her most welcome, collapse
war of Russia, that we may from now on ignore
them as having been so far modified as to
be of little future significance. That a "next war"
is planned by Germany in order to reconquer all terri-
tory which must be given up, as well as to achieve the
objectives not yet realized, there is not the shadow of
a doubt. This war has not yet been preached openly
in Germany, because to do so would be to acknowledge
defeat, and this acknowledgment would seriously af-
fect the morale of the German people, but in the
writings of political leaders and generals, as well as
in the preparatory movements already inaugurated,
the plans are revealed as though in an open book.
All that is necessary for their realization is an in-
conclusive peace, followed by almost a score of years
of preparation, unless fate should in the meantime
provide her an unexpectedly favorable combination
of circumstances. In the succinct expression of the
Germany Planning the Next War 317
British Premier, "we cannot seek to escape the horrors
of war by laying them up for our children."
Chancellor Michaelis in 1916 sent to Austria a secret
memorandum containing this paragraph :
"The motive of all Germany's acts is the lack of territory,
both for the development of commerce and colonization.
Germany has to solve two problems — the free- The
dom of the seas and the opening of the route Michaeiis
to the southeast. And these two problems can
only be solved through the destruction of England." (3,
p. 19.)
The late Governor-General of Belgium, General von
Bissing, in a memorandum which has since been pub-
lished, has developed the strategic importance of Bel-
gium for a future war, from which memorandum the
following extracts have been taken :
'I must also refer to the fact that the Belgian industrial
districts are of great value, not only in peace, but in the
event of war. The advantages which we have
. . . . Memoran-
been able during the present war to obtain from dum of
Belgian industry by the removal of machinery General
and so on, are as important as the disadvantages
which our enemies have suffered through lack of this addi-
tion to their fighting strength. . . .
' Belgium's king can never consent to abandon his sover-
eignty or allow it to be restricted. . . . We can read in
Machiavelli that he who desires to take possession of a
country will be compelled to remove the King or Regent,
even by killing him.
' These are grave decisions, but they must be taken. . . .
"For years to come we must maintain the existing state
of dictatorship." (4, p. 16.)
To Cornelius Gurlitt, the art critic, General von
318 The World War
\
Bissing wrote in 1917: 'Peace cannot be secured by
agreements on paper, but only by positive and adequate
guarantees' (4, p. 25).
In December, 1917, the Association of German
Manufacturers of Iron and Steel and the Association
iron and of German Metallurgists addressed a joint
future wars memorial to the German Government as
well as to the German high military command. In this
memorial it was demanded that Germany annex the
French "minette" iron deposits of French Lorraine, by
reason of their 'extreme importance for German na-
tional economy and for the conduct of future wars."
The demand is made that the territory annexed be
extended so far westward as to place the ore fields
beyond the range of French artillery, since only in
this way can France be prevented from checking Ger-
many's future wars (5, App.).
Pointing out that the future life of Germany's de-
posits of iron is not more than fifty years, the conclu-
sion is reached in this memorandum :
"Let no one believe that Germany in peace time will
be able to assure herself iron reserves in a future war. And
Exhaustion no one are ° Preen( on s own respons-
of Germany's bility that such iron reserves would be sufficient.
iron ore "During the first forty months of this war,
Germany in order to meet the needs of her national defense,
spent over 50,000,000 tons of iron and steel [corresponding to
nearly three times that amount or 150,000,000 tons of iron
ore. W. H. H.]
"We do not have the right to count that in a future war
we shall have the good fortune a second time to be able to
exploit the territories occupied and to increase our resources
of first materials. [As already explained this was accom-
plished by invasion two days before war was declared.
See ante p. 82. W. H. H.]
Germany Planning the Next War 319
The future
war less a
question of
man power
than of
machines
"For the future war it is necessary that we dispose of
considerable resources in German ore, for the richer an
industrial nation is in iron ore the greater it is feared by
its enemies.
"In the future it will not be masses of men
grouped in gigantic armies that will decide the
war, but above all defensive and offensive instru-
ments of perfected technique placed at the dis-
position of the combatant in sufficient quantities
and constantly renewed. (3, p. 35.)
"It is thus that the mineral districts of Lorraine, to
which we are already indebted for not having been annihi-
lated in the present war, will protect us in the future war
and permit us to assure the welfare of the Empire and at
the same time spare the blood of the people."
The same theme has been developed even more fully
by Dr. J. Reichert of Berlin in an article which appeared
in Weltwirtschaft and has been translated
and commented upon by the distinguished
French historian and economist, Henri Hauser twenty
(6, 7, 8). Says Reichert: years
"Picture now the future, can Germany in a future war
resist the French menace in Briey-Longwy? [The iron
ore district of French Lorraine. W. H. H.) And can
the economic position of Germany in the advance of the
world be reestablished if Germany depends on foreign iron?
This is equivalent to saying: ' Can Germany later make once
more a war like this one ? '
Reichert expresses his conviction that the enemies
of Germany could not make war again on an With Briey
adequate scale before 1940, and then only in German
J . wars could
the event that there was no interference with continue
their assembling of the materials of war. '
It is his belief also that unless Germany is permitted
The future
war will
320 The World War
to acquire the iron deposits of French Lorraine she
will be unable after 1960 to conduct a war on the
scale of this one owing to the exhaustion of her own
ores in annexed Lorraine; but with the accession of
the French ores which it is her purpose to retain, she
could make such wars for several decades longer.
Reichert continues:
"To return Briey-Longwy to France is to leave the most
vulnerable point of the Western Front without defense.
It would then be a miracle if Germany in a new war could
resist a coalition and defend the blast furnaces and factories
against the attack of escadrilles and army guns of long
range. That is what the next war and those to follow it
would be without Briey-Longwy."
Says Hauser in commenting upon these conclusions :
"That is why Herr von Schoen in 1914 was charged to
demand of us Toul and Verdun. That is why the Crown
Prince has thrown his troops on Souville and Douaumont.
That is why Germany — it must be prevented — will defend
Briey to the end." (8, p. 35.)
It should be borne in mind that these extracts are
from the most authoritative sources in Germany, and
that they are declarations made as recently as Decem-
ber, 1917.
In order clearly to understand the German program
for the next war, it is necessary to return to the con-
sideration of the spoliation of Belgium, which
Belgium to
began in June, 1916, after German plans
^or a second time had gone awry and it had
ruined become evident that a decisive victory for
economically , . ., - _
her was impossible, Russia not having at
that time collapsed. General von Bissing's testament,
Germany Planning the Next War 321
from which citations have already been made, indicates
rather clearly that he was feeling under the necessity
of defending against strong opposition, his view that
Belgium must on no account be relinquished; and
Gardiner has advanced reasons for believing that the
wholesale despoliation of Belgium was brought about
as a result of the German Government having reached
the decision that since this is the sine qua non of the
Allies' conditions of peace, Belgium would in any case
have to be relinquished.
The manner of the despoliation indicates that the
primary object was to ruin Belgium economically, and
after the war bring her under domination of Germany
by the methods of peaceful penetration, here greatly
intensified. Says the Belgian official report :
'The purpose of this entire system of destruction is
double: First, to supply deficiencies in German industry;
second, to put an end to Belgian competition and later to sub-
ject Belgian industry to that of German when the time comes
for refitting the factories with machinery after the war."
The obvious result of economic domination by Ger-
many will be that, either with or without military
penetration, as may be found necessary, Belgium will
sooner or later become annexed to Germany in name
as well as in fact, and thereafter military preparation
will be made against England for the launching of the
next war.
In ancient times it was a practice of barbarous tribes
to surround their territory with a tract in which the
inhabitants had all been killed off and in The German
which all means of sustaining life had been
removed by a thorough ravishment of the country.
Such a zone of devastated territory made any attack
21
322 The World War
from without extremely difficult, and these frontier
belts of wasted territory were known as marches.
The shifting, though generally stabilized, western
battle front of Germany, under the bombardment of
modern artillery and through the excavations made for
elaborate trench systems, has lost its protecting mantle
of sod and been transformed into a field of mud with
the rich agricultural soil washed down into the streams.
There has thus been produced a great scar stretching
across Northern France into Flanders; a scar of war
which it will require generations to efface. During
the Hindenburg retreat in the spring of 1916, a veritable
marches of a grander scale was produced within which
every structure was blown up by dynamite, wells were
defouled with filth, fruit trees girdled, and devastation
wrought upon a scale of thoroughness which has no
parallel in human history.
In addition to the desire to ruin the property of an
enemy we may see in this the deeper design of the
formation of a protective frontier zone looking toward
future wars; the more so since the zone coincides well
with the Calais-Bale line which Pan-Germans assert
must in future be the frontier of Germany upon the West.
The experiences of the past have shown that wher-
ever conquered nations of markedly different ideals
or cultures come under the control of a
No more . , , . ., J .
conquenng power, their assimilation is a
practical impossibility. Even if the men
should all be exterminated, the women train
the children to hate their oppressors. Attempts to
colonize the Polish provinces of East Prussia with
German immigrants have been so unsuccessful, partly
because when Germans have intermarried with the
Polish women they have almost invariably acquired
Germany Planning the Next War 323
Polish sympathies. The conclusion has been reached
that under such arrogant and domineering rulers as
the Teutons, without complete annihilation of the sub-
ject races, insoluble problems like those of the French in
Alsace-Lorraine, of the Poles in Posen, and of the Danes
in Schleswig-Holstein, will be inevitable. Germans
have declared that hereafter they propose to have no
new problems of this character; and the atrocities of
Armenia, Roumania, and Serbia, characterized as they
have been by the destruction of women and children
quite as much as of men, are correctly interpreted only
when this consideration is taken into account.
Most far-reaching plans to achieve a decisive victory
in the next war, which in Germany have now been
under way since the summer of 1916, have
1_ - 1-^1 1.1 - -j. • A • 1 Raisingof
been given little publicity in America; where "cannon
we are as yet only beginning to appreciate
the horrors of war, and where we have not braced our-
selves firmly to meet the shock to our ideals which any
thorough study of German culture necessitates. Let it
not, therefore, be forgotten, that we are involved in a
struggle for our very existence as a race, and that there
can be no valid excuse for longer withholding a knowl-
edge of the methods by which Germany is seeking to
provide the man-power with which to conduct the
next war.
Five principal methods are now resorted to in Ger-
many with a view to increase the man-power of the
Empire. The first of these in order of time
New method
has been the wholesale ravishment of the o
women of France and Belgium, and the
sending into Germany of the offspring from
this official and bestial debauchery, to be there raised
in government institutions similar in their general
324 The World War
character to foundling asylums. There is every paral-
lel save one between this system and that by which the
Turks between the fourteenth and nineteenth cen-
turies produced the nucleus of their famous bodies of
soldiery known as janizaries. The young and healthy
children were at a tender age taken from their Chris-
tian mothers and raised by the government in institu-
tions where they acquired the religion and the culture
of Islam.
In the deportations from the French and Belgian
towns and cities the comely and healthy among the
German young women have been systematically
"orderlies" selected by the officers as "orderlies' to
serve them, thus relieving a considerable body of sol-
diers for the German front. The facts in this connection
have been established by a wealth of unimpeachable
testimony.
In the second place, the men deported from the
occupied portions of Belgium, France, Poland, Ser-
bia, and Roumania, will never be allowed to return
to their homes, unless the Allies are able to compel
it ; and, either of their own will or under compulsion,
many of them will form liaisons with the women of
Germany, thus increasing the man-power of the
country.
I now approach, not without reluctance, the princi-
pal method which Germany has devised to increase
her population, a method which is coming
or « sYcond- to be known as that of 'secondary' or
ary" "lateral" marriages. At the beginning of
marriages
the war Germany contained about eight
hundred thousand more women than men, but that
excess of females has now, through the battle losses,
been more than trebled. To the German mind bent
Germany Planning the Next War 325
on efficiency there is here a great waste of human
material. As a patriotic duty to the Fatherland, the
people are being urged to increase, multiply, and re-
plenish the earth, as enjoined in the Scriptures, with
no more regard to family ties than has been shown
for international law (3, p. 75).
According to Gardiner, military critic of the New
York Times, a leaflet which is being circulated on the
German front with the cooperation of the officers,
reads as follows :
"Soldiers, a grave danger assails the Fatherland by
reason of the dwindling birth rate. The cradles of Ger-
many are empty to-day; it is your duty to see
that they are filled. Ma5ried men
instructed
'You bachelors, when your leave comes to contract
marry at once the girl of your choice. Make
bachelor
her your wife without delay. women
'The Fatherland needs healthy children.
'You married men and your wives should put jealousy
from your minds and consider whether you have not also
a duty to the Fatherland.
'You should consider whether you may not honorably
contract an alliance with one of the million of bachelor
women. See if your wife will not sanction the relation.
Remember all of you that the empty cradles of Germany
must be filled." (3, p. 78.)
According to Gardiner, this does not, however, indi-
cate the full extent to which the system has gone, for
soldiers on furlough are given a card which must be
countersigned by an official to certify that the soldier
has proven his patriotism in the way indicated before
he returns to the front.
A pamphlet published in Cologne runs as follows:
326 The World War
'Women in all classes of society who have reached a
certain age are, in the interests of the Fatherland, not only
instructions authorized but called upon to enter into a see-
to women ondary marriage which is supported by personal
inclination. Only a married man may be the object of this
inclination, and he must have the consent of his married
wife. This condition is necessary in order to prevent the
mischief which otherwise might surely be expected.
' The offspring of these lawful secondary marriages bear
the name of their mother, and are handed over to the care
of the state, unless the mother assumes responsibility for
them. They are to be regarded in every respect as fully
equal members of society. The mothers wear a narrow
wedding ring as a sign of their patriotism. The secondary
marriage will be dissolved as soon as its object has been
obtained." (3, p. 77.)
On a number of German prisoners captured during
the last two years, the following circular letters have
been found :
"On account of all able-bodied men having been called
to the colors, it remains the duty of all those left behind,
Free lances ^or ^ sa^e °^ ^e Fatherland, to interest them-
in charge selves in the happiness and health of the married
women and the maidens, by doubling or even
trebling the births.
'Your name has been given us as a capable man, and
you are herewith requested to take on this office of honor,
and to do your duty in a proper German way. It must
here be pointed out that your wife or fiancee will not be
able to claim a divorce ; it is in fact hoped that the women
will bear this discomfort heroically for the sake of the war.
You will be given the district of *** . . .
"Should you not feel capable of carrying on the task
allotted to you, you will be given three days in which to
name someone in your place. On the other hand, if you
Germany Planning the Next War 327
are prepared to take on a second district as well, you will
become ' Vrek Offizier ' and receive a pension.
"An exhibition of photographs of women and maidens
in the districts allotted to you is to be seen at the office of
-. You are requested to bring this letter with you.
Your good work should begin immediately. A full report
of results to be submitted by you after nine months." (3,
p. 78.)
There is yet one further development of this new
German system of preparing for the next war. The
burgomasters of German towns must provide Arrangements
a list of all war widows in their communities, for cripples
a list of cripples is furnished by the authorities,
and advertisements are placed in special papers to
obtain wives for the cripples. Says Gardiner:
' Thus, playing the r61e of Cupid, the beneficent govern-
ment will bring together Venus and Adonis, and, as stated
in official instructions, sow the seed of a new generation
which will in the fullness of its manhood take upon its
shoulders the national defense" (3, p. 80).
The evidence comes from Germany that the women
of the Fatherland have responded to this demand upon
them and that all Germany is to-day becoming trans-
formed into a great human stud-farm. The number of
illegitimate births increased twenty-five per cent, be-
tween 1916 and 1917. The whole social fabric based
upon the sacredness of the family relationship is in
Germany rent through and through. This is not po-
lygamy, it is not even concubinage, it is state-wide,
promiscuous prostitution. In the German Empire is
now set up a national brothel of gargantuan propor-
tions with its motto in glaring electrical illumination,
"For the Fatherland."
328 The World War
That this system is efficient in producing "cannon-
fodder," there is not the shadow of a doubt. All
history bears witness to the value of janizaries
as soldiers, even though under Turkish con-
ditions they were sometimes a danger to the
J
soldiers . . .
state. With German methods of training,
they would differ little from the present-day German
soldiers, unless they were to have longer training and
correspondingly greater efficiency. That they would
be under rigid discipline goes without saying.
As soon as we have passed the first shock of this
newest evidence of wholesale German debauchery, we
Must other shudder as we inquire whether the allied
nations nations will be forced to meet it by similar
follow .
Germany's methods of secunng race efficiency in war.
example Germany defied international law and intro-
duced asphyxiating gases into warfare; and in self-
defense the allied nations have been compelled to fol-
low her example; as they have also in a number of
other practices contrary to international law. The
danger of Germany's 'secondary marriages' is most
acute for France, which of the Allies is most impover-
ished in man-power, and is compelled to live next to
and always exposed to the invasions of the Hun. One
refuses to consider this phase of the matter until we
have become convinced that Russia is not to find her-
self after the splendid initiative by th e Czecho-Slovaks
and with the aid of the allied nations, long held back by
America's hesitation, to free herself from German con-
trol. With Russia reestablished as a bulwark on the
eastern front, with the iron ores of Lorraine restored to
France, and with the present alliance of the democratic
nations continued with military service, there is still
hope for the continuance of the established civilization.
Germany Planning the Next War 329
It must never for one moment be lost sight of that
if Germany is allowed to retain her hold upon the
Ukraine, Poland, and the Baltic provinces
of Russia, including now Finland, that her "o^a con-
janizary armies will be swelled enormously, quered
and as a consequence, one after the other, the
remaining disintegrated states of the former Russian
Empire will fall under her sway, and then India and
Egypt and later even remoter nations will be incor-
porated in the German World Empire.
With such vast resources — mineral, agricultural, and
man-power — no coalition of nations could possibly
stand against her. That is why the saving of Russia
is the greatest of all our problems to-day.
The obvious plan of Germany to place her depend-
ence upon janizary armies, has fixed the date of the
next war, if she is permitted to launch it, Dateof
as not much before 1940. Upon her system, Germany's
each year of delay after 1934 would greatly
increase her effective strength; since the products of
the 'secondary marriages'1 would begin to become
available for military service about that time. It will
be interesting to recall that this date of 1940 is spe-
cifically mentioned by Reichert as the time before
which, as he expresses it, enemies would not be able to
attack Germany; but no one need be deceived as to his
meaning.
This convincing demonstration that the "good Ger-
man people'1 have joined with the 'bad German
Kaiser," not only in the responsibilities of this war
but in the next war as well, to be secured for them
through an inconclusive peace, should forever set at
rest that delusion, unfortunately given currency in
one of Mr. Wilson's state papers (9), that we are not
330 NThe World War
fighting the German people. It is at the same time
the greatest of all reasons why we must never stop
short of absolute and crushing victory over Germany,
to carry with it the restoration of Alsace-Lorraine and
the Ukraine, without whose supplies of iron the fangs
of the German monster could not be drawn.
REFERENCES
1. "The New German Empire, a Study of German War Aims from
German Sources," pp. 1-32, Round Table, March, 1917.
2. MORGENTHAU, HENRY, "Ambassador Morgenthau's story,"
World's Work, August, 1918.
3. GARDINER, J. B. W., German Plans for the Next War, pp. 39, New
York, Doubleday, 1918.
4. General von Bissing's Testament, a study of German ideals, pp.
36, London, Unwin, 1917.
5. HEADLAM, J. W., The Issue, pp. 159, Boston, Houghton, 1917.
6. REICHERT, DR. J., Weltwirtschaft, December, 1917.
7. HOBBS, WILLIAM H.f " The Achilles Heel of the German Monster,"
New York Times, April 4, 1918; "The Crack in Germany's
Armor," p. 286, Independent, May 18, 1918.
8. HAUSER, HENRI, "La question de Briey-Longwy, et la paix alle-
mande," L 'Action Nationale, vol. iii., pp. 17-25, April 25, 1915.
9. Flag Day Address, 1917.
10. "Official Text of Belgium's Protest against Deportations," pp.
676-677, New York Times, "Current History," January, 1917.
11. KRUTSCH, P., "Die Lebensdauer unserer Erzlagerstatten und die
Versorgung Deutschland mit Eisen und Manganerzen nach dem
Kriege," Zeit. f. prakt. Geologic, 26 Jahrg., 1918, pp. 11-15,
19-23.
XVII
THE PEACE TERMS OF DEMOCRACY
"The permanent peace of the world can be secured only through the
gradual concentration of preponderant military strength in the hands
of the most pacific nations." — JOHN FISKE.
"If in France they think that the reestablishment of peace can only
be made possible by the restoration of Alsace-Lorraine, and if necessity
should oblige us to sign such a peace, the seventy millions of Germans
would very soon tear that peace to tatters." — MAXIMILIAN HARDEN.
'Your brothers of Alsace and of Lorraine, separated now from the
common family, will preserve for France, far away from their homes,
a filial affection until the day when she will come back to take her place
there." — Protest of the Deputies from Alsace and Lorraine in taking
their departure from the French Assembly, 1871.
" It is certain . . . that if, twenty years after the conclusion of peace,
France should succumb as a result of the remote consequences of the
war, Germany would rule Europe. . . . This situation of the French
population is so serious that it will make real and definitive victory
for France impossible, unless the conditions of peace imposed by the
Allies shall bring about in Europe such a condition that Germany
shall not be able to profit by her superiority in numbers by renewing
her attacks on France." — ANDRE CHERADAME, December, 1918.
NO attempt to consider the subject of peace terms
which are to conclude the war could be expected
to come within the compass of even a large
volume; and a small library might be, and of *he
as a matter of fact is, written upon the
subject. There are, none the less, certain fundamental
ideals and principles which must be kept always in
mind, and whose "application it will be the task of the
Peace Conference to make.
331
332 The World War
Fortunately, as has already been stated, a library
consisting of several hundred special reports, which
cover every phase of the technical side of
Assembling J
of the those questions likely to be involved, is al-
ready available (i). This is, however, know-
ledge and information only.
Those questions which are to be decided at the Peace
Conference call for ripe judgment and a political vision
which is able to see the true relation between
Men of
vision cause and effect. There is here no place for
the mushy idealism of the pacifist, living as
he does in a land of dreams and wholly incapable of
learning from his past miscarriages of judgment (2).
Of all the considerations of this vast subject none can
bear comparison with this in its weighty importance.
Divergent interests will clash, not only between the
victors and the vanquished, but between the repre-
sentatives of the allied nations at the council table;
and, both unconsciously and through design, unessen-
tials will be so piled over and about the really vital
issues as to hide them from all but the more discerning.
At the very outset one is halted by the obvious fact
that terms of peace in the sense in which that expression
is ordinarily interpreted is here inapplicable.
Terms' are items or articles set down in
not agreed order upon paper, which the "High Con-
tracting Parties' bind themselves solemnly
to observe and to make the guiding principle of action ;
the basal assumption being of course that they are in
honor bound, and this not alone to satisfy their own
national self-respect, but in order to conserve a reputa-
tion which is a distinct asset of their resources.
Even savages have shown this sense of honor, and
the peace signed between William Penn and the Ameri-
"
The Peace Terms of Democracy 333
can Indians was faithfully kept on both sides through-
out generations. It has remained for Germany in
following the traditions and the control of Prussia,
to sink below the level of the lowest savage and to
forfeit every right to the respect of the civilized world.
Maximilian Harden, the most influential mouth-piece
in modern Germany outside the government organs,
said:
"We will go back to the times of savagery when man
was a wolf for his fellow-man. . . .
'If in France they think that the reestablishment of
peace can only be made possible by the restoration of Alsace-
Lorraine, and if necessity should oblige us to sign such a
peace, the seventy millions of Germans would very soon
tear that peace to tatters." (3.)
Terms of peace under these conditions it would be
madness to agree upon — they must be imposed, and for
this a peace with victory is the sine qua non.
It would properly put the seal of the verdict of the
civilized world upon the wantonness and bestiality of
Germany's conduct in the war, unparalleled in history,
if the German envoy at the peace conference were to
be excluded from the council table, and the decisions
of the conference be sent to him in the form of com-
munications.
It is, moreover, difficult to see how the allied nations
can, after imposition of peace, receive the diplomatic
and consular officials from the Central Powers, since
the diplomatic service depends upon the observance
of a sense of honor as between gentlemen; and the
world has now been a witness to the spectacle, not of
the prostitution of a single German office, or even of
those collectively accredited to any one country, but
334 The World War
of the entire machinery of the German Foreign Office,
working as one vast conspiracy hatchery against
friendly nations.
Had they come from the Kaiser's own Chancellor,
the counsels of the British pacifist, Arnold Bennett,
"Have faith could not be more dangerous to the future
in human peace of the world. One of his latest articles
nature,"
now preached speaks of the "new spirit' which must rule
by pacifists at the peace Conference.
"That new spirit," he says, "is the sole reality for which
we are fighting, and we have to realize this always and
strive night and day to realize it more deeply. We want
democracy, but democracy can only prosper in an atmos-
phere of mutual trust, an atmosphere from which suspicion
and determination to get the better of everybody else at
any cost are absent. The root of democracy is a large and
kindly faith in human nature." (4.)
A professor in a well-known New England univer-
sity, whose pacifism is likewise in a state of suspended
animation only, has been touring the country ostensibly
in the interests of a government war activity, and carry-
ing to the American people a message not unlike that of
Arnold Bennett.
It must be agreed that Germany's contention that
she be permitted to become corsair of the seas through
admission of the principle of their entire freedom in
time of war, as advocated for her by Mr. Wilson and as
already pointed out in an earlier lecture, is to be denied.
Reparation and indemnity for damages inflicted in
defiance of international law upon occupied
Reparations
andindem- territory, and also in the sinking of ships,
must be imposed; though it is little likely
that any penalizing war indemnity such as Germany
The Peace Terms of Democracy 335
exacted from France in 1871, or Japan from China
at the conclusion of the Chino- Japanese War, will
meet with general favor. The vast sums of money
exacted from Belgium and other occupied states upon
various pretenses must be made good to them with
interest. Alsace-Lorraine must be restored, Poland
reconstituted, and the Czecho-Slovaks must be re-
warded for their long and heroic struggle for liberty
through elevation of their country into a self-gov-
erning state (5, 6). These and many other questions
of like nature have been discussed in public declara-
tions, particularly by Premier Lloyd George and others
in response to the insistent demand of the pacifists,
reinforced by the messages of Mr. Wilson, following
close as these latter did upon the call from Germany
for the allied peace terms. These statements, as has
already been pointed out, have worked much mischief
and will surely return to plague the Allies, as was in
fact well realized in Europe. Attention has already
been drawn to the fact that in Mr. Wilson's statement
of war aims delivered January 8, 1918, Germany's
war cry of "freedom of the seas" is included (2). To
ratify such a proposal at the Peace Conference and
thus destroy the main influence of navies, I have al-
ready pointed out, will be to seal the doom of the allied
nations.
Most important of all is it that the peace terms fixed
upon be secured by suitable guarantees. This expres-
sion has been often used, though I think in peace
a somewhat vague way, because the nature guarantees
of the guarantees has been hard to define. First and
foremost, it goes without saying that Germany's navy,
if intact, will as a measure of safety and as a partial
reparation be taken from her.
336 The World War
It will be necessary, further, to take account of Ger-
many's development into an industrial or tentacular
state, as has been discussed in a preceding lecture,
with full consideration of her peculiar underground
methods of peaceful penetration, if restraints are to
be imposed to afford stability and permanency to the
terms of peace.
It has been pointed out that both the feverish indus-
trial development of Germany and her peaceful pene-
tration of her neighbors were possible only because of
the vast deposits of iron which she wrested from France
and smelted with the coal of her own vast deposits.
With the iron ores taken from her and restored to
France, where they rightfully belong, together with
sufficient coal of smelting qualities to permit of their
successful working, Germany will be held in leash and
kept from new forays upon her neighbors. This is,
therefore, the foremost in importance of all peace
guarantees.
If, however, Germany should be permitted to retain
her hold upon Ukraine with its vast deposits of both
Russia coa^ anc^ iron> the same danger that she
must find would use these deposits for preparing a
future war would continue to exist. Simi-
larly, if the Baltic provinces and Finland are not re-
leased from her grasp, her power would be extended
over Sweden and the iron ores of Swedish Lapland,
both by means of a continuous land communication
and from making of the Baltic a closed sea. It is for
this reason, and also because the development of the
vast agricultural, labor, and military resources of the
disintegrated provinces of the former Russian Empire
would supply great elements of military power, that
the rehabilitation of that great country in entire in-
The Peace Terms of Democracy 337
dependence of Germany is, next to the restoration
of Alsace-Lorraine, the most important of all peace
conditions.
Next in importance to the restoration of stolen terri-
tory in the East and West, the ravished lands to the
southeastward along the corridor of the
Balkans must be restored and afforded such Bagdad plan
protection that they may develop without must be
_ frustrated
the danger of later falling a prey to German
greed and exploitation. Said the late Chancellor
Michaelis in a secret message to the Austrian Govern-
ment: 'Germany has to solve two problems — the
freedom of the seas and the opening of the route to the
southeast, and these two problems can only be solved
through the destruction of England."
More than for the Balkan states themselves, such an
imposition upon Germany is essential m order to break
her hold upon the vassal state of Turkey, and through
Asia Minor to maintain a strangle hold upon the valley
of Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf. This grandiose
plan for conquest of India and Egypt through the
valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris, and by the sub-
marine to menace the sea routes to India and Australia
from a base upon the Persian Gulf, had already ad-
vanced far toward realization when the war was launched
in 1914. The only safeguard for the world is here to
break the " corridor route" in the Balkans.
Asia Minor is rich in mineral resources, but its
culture is Turkish, and it will probably remain in
Turkish hands. The shattering of the Teuton scheme
of Mittel-Europa is, however, essential to a permanent
peace, and I shall later return to this topic.
As a result of the war the German colonies in Africa,
in the Pacific, and in China have been taken from her
at
338 The World War
by the Allies; largely by the armies of the South
African republics, by the British naval units of
Australia and New Zealand, and by the
The former
German army and navy of Japan. Germany has
declared that these colonies must all be
given back to her; whereas the commonwealths which
have taken possession of them insist that they will
never submit to having Germans again in occupa-
tion of colonies upon their borders in which to carry
out new treacheries. It has been insisted with great
force that the former dangers from German intrigue
were but small compared to the new menace which
would arise with the certainty that submarine bases,
easily concealed, and aeroplane stations would cer-
tainly be added.
Moreover, Germany has never used her colonies for
the good of the natives, but has cruelly treated and
terrorized them. This has been shown by many
travelers (7) and natives have fled wherever possible
to neighboring English colonies.
The contrast of the German with the British colo-
nizing methods has never been more clearly exposed
contrast than by the Kaiser, when in 1913 he set forth
of German to ^he German captains of industry the
and British
colonizing German scheme for conquest of India. As
methods reported by Herr Thyssen :
'The Emperor was particularly enthusiastic over the
coming German conquest of India. 'India,' he said, 'is
occupied by the British. It is in a way governed by the
British, but it is by no means completely governed by
them. We shall not merely occupy India. We shall
conquer it, and the vast revenues that the British allow
to be taken by Indian princes will, after our conquest,
flow in a golden stream into the Fatherland. In all the
U
The Peace Terms of Democracy 339
richest lands of the earth the German flag will fly over
every other flag." (8.)
General Smuts, the late commander-in-chief of the
British forces in East Africa and the representative
from Africa in the British War Council, has said :
'The conquered German colonies can be regarded only
as guarantees for the security of the future peace of the
world. This opinion will be shared, I feel sure, General
by the vast bulk of the young nations who Smuts
form the dominions of the British Empire. . . . ^British
Voluntarily they joined in this war and to their seif-govem-
efforts is largely due the destruction of the m«comm°a-
wealths
German colonial empire. . . . They should not
be asked to consent to the restoration to a militant Germany
of fresh footholds for militarism in the southern hemisphere,
and thus to endanger the future of their young and rising
communities who are developing the waste places of the
earth." (9.)
That General Smuts 's fears are well-grounded will
be clear from a citation from Professor Delbruck in
the Preussischer Jahrbucher:
'If our victory is great enough, we can hope to unite
under our hand the whole of Central Africa with our old
colony Southwest Africa. . . .
"All these territories together have over one hundred
million inhabitants. United in a single ownership, and
with their various characteristics supplementing one an-
other, they offer simply immeasurable prospects. They
are rich in natural treasures, rich in possibilities of settle-
ment and trade, and rich in men who can work and also
be used in war." (9.)
34° The World War
Emil Zimmermann says:
" German Africa will make us a world power by enabling
us to exert decisive influence upon the world
netivesfor political decisions of our enemies and of other
Germany's powers, and to exercise pressure on all shapings
of policy in Africa, Asia Minor, and Southern
Europe." (9, p. 317.)
General Smuts continues his statement :
''This Central African block, the maps of which are now
in course of preparation and printing at the Colonial Office
in Berlin, is intended in the first place to supply the eco-
nomic requirements and raw materials of German industry;
in the second and far more important place, to become the
recruiting-ground for vast native armies, the great value of
which has been demonstrated in the tropical campaigns
of this war, and especially in East Africa ; while the natural
harbors on the Atlantic and Indian oceans will supply the
naval and submarine bases from which both ocean routes
will be dominated, and British and American sea-power will
be brought to naught. The native armies will be useful in
the next great war, to which the German General Staff is
already devoting serious attention. . . ." (9, p. 315.)
The rehabilitation of Belgium, Northern France,
Serbia, Roumania, and Northern Italy; countries
which have been in German occupation, and
the larger areas of all the allied European
wood of nations, will, after the frightful exhaustion
your sons "
of the war, constitute a task that will call
for wise judgment, for vast treasure, and for a deep
devotion. The first step for America — and it can be
regarded as a portion only of her debt to the nations
that have borne the burden of the conflict and saved
her from an irreparable disaster — is to follow the coun-
The Peace Terms of Democracy 341
sel of Mr. James M. Beck and write across the face of
the American loans : "Paid in full in the blood of your
sons." Exception should be made in the case of
Russia, which has betrayed the cause of the Allies
and which has, moreover, vast resources which once
developed will make of her a rich nation. A mortgage
upon these resources to repay the vast loans of France
should also be made a condition of peace.
It is unquestionably the duty of the United States
to join in the mutual trade conventions of the Allies
(10), and, in so far as this can be done, to Mutual
make common cause with them against Ger-
many. There will in some quarters be a strong against
prejudice against this latter course, but in no Germany
other way can the necessary reparations and indemni-
ties due our Allies who have suffered from Germany's
crimes be guaranteed.
All treaties with Germany have been annulled by the
war, and it is difficult to see how new ones can be made
to replace them. The substance of the ar-
rangements made by the allied nations in Of Germany
the Paris pact of Tune, 1916, is common fron«fa-
•* ' . . yored nation"
action to meet through tanrr discrimination, treaty
boycott, or otherwise all inroads of Germany
upon their trade; to forego all ' 'favored-nation"
relations with the enemy for an indefinite period;
to conserve for themselves "before all others' their
natural resources during reconstruction; and to make
themselves independent of enemy countries both in
raw materials and in manufactured products (10).
This last clause relates particularly to those materials
of which Germany has held the monopoly, notably pot-
ash, dye stuffs and chemicals, and optical glass (n).
Unless America is to play directly into the hands of
342 The World War
Germany, she will be forced to ally herself economi-
cally as well as militarily with the democratic nations.
As significant of what Germany had planned to impose
upon us, it is interesting to note the disclosures of the
semi-official Koelnische Zeitung of January 10, 1918,
a time when Germany was fairly drunk over the unex-
pected good luck of the collapse of Russia. The terms
which she proposed to dictate to the United States
were outlined to be: (a) the Monroe Doctrine to be
renounced; (b) restrictive immigration legislation to
be repealed; and (c) the exaction of a guarantee that
import duties on German goods should not exceed a
minimum fixed by Germany herself. The last item is to
secure raw material for Germany's industry to be paid
for in German manufactured products. It is through
the control of raw materials by the allied nations in
Europe and the United States that guarantees for the
payment of indemnities can be secured, and it is diffi-
cult to see how they can be obtained in any other
way.
It is well to enforce by repetition the fact that all
other considerations pale into insignificance in compari-
Restoration son with the absolute necessity that Alsace-
of Aisace- Lorraine be restored to France, and that
Lorraine
and Russian Russia be helped upon her feet and made a
rf^erman*06 bulwark against German expansion to the
most vital eastward. This latter issue is one which
seems now to rest in the lap of the gods, and the ele-
ments for a satisfactory discussion of it are hardly yet
available; though the indications are distinctly more
promising since the United States has finally decided to
act with the allied nations against the Bolsheviki under
German control.
As regards Alsace-Lorraine, German propaganda is
The Peace Terms of Democracy 343
responsible for so much misconception that it seems
best to give the subject very special consideration, in
doing which I shall make large use of material Lorraine
published by Professor Hazen of Columbia iron ore
University (12). Before taking up the historical dis-
cussion of the subject, however, I must again reinforce
hat has been pointed out in earlier lectures, that in
the restoration of Alsace-Lorraine to France, the allied
Powers will draw the fangs of the German monster,
and this far more than is possible in any other way
(13-16) . In the year before the war that portion of the
"minette" area of iron ore which is found in annexed
Lorraine produced more than 21,000,000 tons of ore,
and that in France an additional 14,000,000 tons. In
Luxembourg, just over the frontier, there was produced
an additional 7,000,000 tons, so that the district as a
whole produced 42,000,000 tons of iron ore, equiva-
lent to about one third that tonnage of pig iron.
In order to smelt this ore it is necessary to have
coal of a peculiar coking grade, and although there is
found in Lorraine a large deposit of coal,
^ t F Poverty of
it is ill adapted to the iron industry. One France
of the most difficult problems of the rehabili-
tation of France will be the supply of coal for smelting
purposes. Germany has vast surplus coal supplies
which she has used to maintain a sometimes unwilling
neutrality of the neighboring small states, and, it
should be added, an open or clandestine purveying
of food and other necessary supplies during the period
of the war under a threat to withhold coal shipments.
A confidential memorandum which was presented to
the German Government in March, 1915, on behalf
of six of the most powerful industrial and agrarian
organizations in the Empire contained this significant
344 The World War
paragraph: 'Coal is one of the most decisive means
of political influence. The neutral industrial states
are obliged to obey those belligerents who can assure
them their provision of coal." (16, p. 55.)
The main supply of German coal is found in West-
phalia in the heart of the great Rhenish industrial
district. How a sufficient supply of this coal is to
be given over to France without leaving it open to
seizure by Germany or else expatriating large bodies
of German citizens, it is difficult to see, but it is neces-
sary to meet the issue in some way; if for no other
reason in partial reparation for the wanton devastation
of Northern France. Perhaps the easiest way to
accomplish this, if the consent of Belgium can be
obtained, would be for the latter country to cede to
France Belgian mining districts on her western frontier
near Lens in return for German coal districts beyond
her eastern frontier. In such an event, it would
doubtless be necessary or desirable to remove to new
homes both Belgian and German inhabitants.
Potash is one of the essential plant foods, and potash
for fertilizing purposes had, up to the present war,
been profitably produced only at German
deposits mines. In her Stassfurt potash district of
Northern Germany, that country had a
practical monopoly of potash ores; and it has even
been the proud boast of Professor Wilhelm Ostwald,
the distinguished German chemist, that Germany
could starve the world through withholding potash.
Nothing even approaching this condition has been
realized, though hardships have been produced in some
agricultural pursuits, notably that of tobacco culture,
which fortunately cannot be considered as an altogether
essential one.
The Peace Terms of Democracy 345
Now though comparatively little is said about it,
and though only one mine with a small annual output
has been permitted by Germany to operate, full knowl-
edge is now available concerning a great bed of potash
in upper Alsace between the Vosges and the Rhine
and near the town of Mulhouse. This locality is
but a few miles distant from the present battle front
in Alsace. The great deposit of potash, though dis-
covered in boring for oil in 1904, was not exploited till
1910, but it has been thoroughly located by borings
and found to underlie an area eighteen miles by twelve,
the ore being in two beds at depths of six hundred and
eight hundred meters (17). These veins of potash
are much richer than those of the well-known Stassfurt
deposits, and as they lie in the broad plain of the
Rhine with the Rhine-Rhone canal nowhere more
than a mile or two distant, the shipment of the ore will
be comparatively easy. Much the greater portion
of the product from the north German potash mines
is used for fertilizer, and of this Germany used in 1909
about one half (2,059,600 metric quintals), the United
States 1 ,484,777 metric quintals, or about one third, and
all other countries the remaining355, 879 metric quintals.
With potash fertilizer withheld from its soil now for
four years, the loss to the fields in the United States
has already been keenly felt, and the attempt will be
made to make up these losses after the war has come
to an end.
Now the Alsatian deposits of potash are very exten-
sive, and it has been estimated on good authority that
if the world consumption of 1909 could be
Alsatian
assumed to continue without change, the potash
Alsatian deposits would supply the world
for nearly five centuries. Inasmuch, however, as the
346 The World War
world's demands are expected to increase enormously,
the Alsatian deposits alone could hardly be expected
to last more than forty years if the sole source of
potash. They are, however, vast, and as America's
demands will be so large, the suggestion has been
made that United States fabricated ships might after
the conclusion of peace carry the needed supplies of
smelting coal to France for a number of years at least,
or until other sources of supply are opened up, and bring
return cargoes of potash to the United States (18).
German controlled propaganda has been active in
an attempt to prove that the Rhine provinces of Alsace
and Lorraine were really German in culture
Alsace-
Lorraine before they became French, and as a conse-
quence much misconception and confusion
of thought has arisen. The original inhabitants of
these provinces were Celtic, not Teutonic, and the
dolichocephalic skulls which have been unearthed in
the provinces have no other significance than to show
that Hun and Teutonic barbarians have more than
once passed over the district in great invasions of
French soil.
Christianity filtered into the region in the third
century, and Teuton invasions after several attempts
succeeded in the fifth century in gaining control, and
were continued for several centuries. During this
period there was a blending of racial stocks.
From the victory of the Franks over the Allemans
came the reintroduction of Christianity, and on Christ-
i mas -^ay °^ t^ie year ^°° A>D* Charlemagne
Roman " was crowned Emperor at Rome. After his
death there succeeded the Holy Roman
Empire, which claimed sovereignty and held a loosely
exercised authority over a vast region including what
The Peace Terms of Democracy 347
is now Alsace-Lorraine, though at the time merely a
congeries of feudal states each of small extent. This
Holy Roman Empire, which was a German Empire,
did not include France, and it was destroyed by French
armies under Napoleon in 1 806. It was vastly different
from the German Empire of the twentieth century.
Says Professor Hazen :
"But the reader should not for a moment imagine that
the German Empire of the Middle Ages was the father of
the German Empire of to-day, and that the latter is the
lawful legatee of the former. It may satisfy the historic
sense of modern Germans to see in the Hohenzollerns in-
heritors and incarnators of the secular traditions of the
Hohenstauffen and the Hapsburgs. Such conception can
only appear fallacious to the student who is interested in
seeing the past as it was, and not in complacently burnish-
ing a grandiose and flattering legend." (12, p. 27.)
The Holy Roman Empire contained no less than 350
states of all sorts, and at any time between 800 and
1800 A.D. it represented, to quote Hazen, Practical
"only a maximum of pretensions, a minimum independence
of power." The polyglot aggregations of
small states in what is now Alsace-Lorraine under
Empire
developed no German national feeling at
this time, and they were so far from the control of the
Hapsburg emperors that they were in fact largely inde-
pendent. According to Hazen, their experience at
this time was in reality "a school of independence and
self-reliance." In the Alsatian states the speech was
generally German, though in the Lorraine districts
it was French. Both these Rhine provinces became
involved in the Thirty Years War, and when it had
ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, much of
348 The World War
the territory of Alsace became a part of France, and
the remainder through the expansion of French terri-
tory under the Louis's; so that early in the eighteenth
century, or eighty years after the Peace of Westphalia,
Alsace had become French.
The duchy of Lorraine had early become practically
independent of the Empire through the payment of a
sum of money, and in 1736 it was given to
Stanislaus Lesczynski, the father-in-law of
under Louis XV., who made his capital at Nancy;
Stanislaus
with which change the administration and
the culture of the province became French. When
Stanislaus died in 1766 the province became French in
fact, although at the time assimilated. Says Hazen:
"No pear ever fell to the ground more naturally, more
quietly, at its moment of complete maturity' (12,
P- 44)-
France, in striking contrast to the well-known
Teutonic methods, made a wise use of the newly ac-
Frenchruie quired Rhine provinces, disturbing them as
madf little as possible, allowing the Alsatians to
prosperous continue their use of the German language,
and requiring no military service. The
provinces thus came to enjoy a large prosperity and
played no small part in the French Revolution.
It is this free development of their ideals in the white
heat of the Revolution which has stamped the French
culture upon the Rhine provinces and made
The French , , •. i v 1 • 1
Revolution them, as it has even been claimed, more
in the French than France herself. In one century
provinces
they lived more than in many earlier centu-
ries. That greatest of all national hymns, the Marseil-
laise, was composed at Strasbourg and was first sung
there by its composer, Rouget de Lisle.
The Peace Terms of Democracy 349
'When the final crisis of this great century occurred,
when action succeeded thought, when revolution succeeded
philosophy, the people of Lorraine were among the most
eager to salute the new day, with its gospel of liberty,
equality, and fraternity" (12, p. 50).
In March of 1 790 the citizens of Strasbourg, The
the capital of Alsace, sent an address to the Strasbourg
* . «
National Assembly of France in these words :
'To this spot, where our fathers gave themselves regret-
fully to France, we have come to cement by our oaths our
union with her. We have sworn and we swear again to
shed even the last drop of our blood to maintain the con-
stitution."
When the revolutionary wars began in 1792, the
Alsatians and Lorrainers flocked to the volunteer
army. Many came to be famous generals, among them
Kellermann, Kleber, Lefebvre, Rapp, and Ney. The
names of no less than twenty-eight of them are inscribed
upon the Arc de Triomph in Paris.
In June of 1792 the people of Strasbourg planted
the tricolor over the Rhine frontier against Germany,
with this inscription: 'Here begins the land « The Land
of liberty." of Liberty
In 1870 de Coulanger, French historian and at one
time professor of history in the University of Stras-
bourg, wrote to Professor Mommsen at Berlin :
'Do you know what made Alsace French? It was not
Louis XIV., it was the Revolution of 1789. Since that
moment Alsace has followed all our destinies, she has lived
our life. All that we think she thinks, all that we feel she
feels. She has shared our victories and our defeats, our
glory and our mistakes, all our joy and all our sorrow."
(12, p. 63.)
350 The World War
General Foy after visiting Alsace in 1821 exclaimed:
' If ever the love of what is great and generous should
grow weak in the hearts of the people of old France, her
people should cross the Vosges and visit Alsace, there to
renew their patriotism and their energy."
With great enthusiasm the city of Strasbourg cele-
brated in 1848 the two hundredth anniversary of the
Peace of Westphalia, by which it had become
Celebration r J
of the Peace annexed to France. In his address upon
lha this occasion the mayor said :
"Surely we no longer need to make a solemn and public
profession of our inviolable attachment to France. France
does not doubt us, she has confidence in Alsace. But if
Germany still cherishes chimerical illusions, if she thinks
that the persistence of the German tongue in our country-
side and cities is a sign of irresistible sympathy and attrac-
tion toward her, let her undeceive herself. Alsace is just
as French as Brittany, Flanders, the country of the Basques
— and she wishes to remain so."
In the Franco- Prussian War of 1870 the Alsatians
and Lorrainers fought against Germany with the great -
The Rhine es^ determination and desperation; and the
provinces in great battles of Wissembourg, Worth, Mars-
the Franco-
Prussian la-Tour, and Gravelotte were fought upon
her soil. The fortresses of Metz and Stras-
bourg long held out against siege.
The bombardment of Strasbourg was directed sys-
tematically, not at the fortifications, but against public
and private buildings and women and children. General
Werder, whose name by the Alsatians has been twisted
into Morder (murder), adopted terrorist methods in
order to bring the people to surrender. The Art Mu-
The Peace Terms of Democracy 351
seum, two public libraries containing precious manu-
scripts, and one of the great churches went up in flames.
The cathedral roof took fire and shells ruined much
of the carving as well as the stained glass windows.
Later, the Palace of Justice, the Prefecture, and the
Theatre were one after the other destroyed. As soon
as a building would take fire a storm of shells would
be turned upon it, so that the flames could not be extin-
guished. Says Hazen:
' What caused the greatest indignation among the Stras-
bourgers was the fury shown in the destruction of their
public buildings and particularly their cathedral, which
was not destroyed accidentally but intentionally and
without military justification." (12, p. 77.)
At the outbreak of the War of 1870 German profes-
sors of note issued their manifestoes, much as they
have done in the present war. Professor Wagner of
the University of Leipsic wrote: "Alsace and Lorraine
must be incorporated in a healthy and vigorous state,
in Germany, in Prussia, marching at the head of
Imperial Germany"; and this pronouncement ended
with the peculiarly Prussian touch: "God wills it."
When, after the fall of Paris, France lay writhing
before the conqueror, Bismarck demanded of France
a punitive indemnity for defending herself Memorial
against aggression, an indemnity so huge as presented
to surpass all precedent, and in addition he National
demanded the cession to Germany of Alsace
and Lorraine. Thereupon the deputies from these
provinces presented in the National Assembly the
following declaration :
< <
Alsace and Lorraine do not wish to be alienated from
France. Associated for more than two centuries with
352 The World War
France, in good fortune and in bad, these two provinces,
ceaselessly exposed to the blows of the enemy, have con-
stantly sacrificed themselves to national greatness; they
have sealed with their blood the indissoluble pact which
attaches them to the French Unity. Threatened to-day
by foreign pretensions, they affirm in the midst of obstacles
and dangers, under the very yoke of the invader, their
fidelity.
"All unanimously . . . have signified to Germany and
to the world the unchangeable will of Alsace and of Lor-
raine to remain French." (19, p. 771.)
But the iron fist of Bismarck was already hammering
upon the table, and the Assembly in unanimous sym-
pathy with this protest but "with death in
Valedictory r
of the their souls," signed the cession of territory
that had to be. Thereupon the deputies
of the two provinces concerned signed a new protest
and ;< immediately afterward left the Assembly in
poignant silence.'1 This protest read:
"Once again we declare null and void a pact which dis-
poses of us without our consent. . . .
'Now as we leave this place where our dignity does not
permit us longer to remain, and in spite of the bitterness
of our sorrow, the supreme thought that we find in the
bottom of our hearts is gratitude to those who for six
months have defended us, and unchangeable affection to
the Motherland from which we are violently torn away.
' We shall follow you with our good wishes and we shall
wait with complete confidence in the future until regener-
ated France takes again the course of her great destiny.
'Your brothers of Alsace and of Lorraine, separated
now from the common family, will preserve for France,
far away from their homes, a filial affection until the day
when she will come back to take her place there." (19,
p. 772.)
The Peace Terms of Democracy 353
By Article II of the Treaty of Frankfurt in which
terms were imposed upon France, citizens of the
provinces were given until October i, 1872, The
to decide whether they would emigrate and "^s168"
leave behind for confiscation by the German Govern-
ment all which they possessed and held dear. Vast
numbers of school teachers, particularly, and all but
six of the judges left the provinces. At the end of
1872 only twenty per cent, of the officials were natives.
Before the date set sixty thousand had immigrated,
and an additional one hundred thousand were pre-
vented from doing so; but it has been estimated that
eventually by one means or another four hundred
thousand had left the country.
What was the hardest of all to bear, and what drove
many away, was the thought that their sons would
one day be liable to mobilization in the German army
and be obliged to fight against France.
Amid all the horrors of this present war, for mental
anguish there are few to be compared to that of the
Alsatians and Lorrainers who have been driven into
battle against their friends; and not only those nor-
mally eligible to service have been mobilized, but as
a means of solving the Alsace-Lorraine question through
extermination of the " protestors " and to prepare the
way for a possible plebiscite for settlement of the fate
of the provinces at the conclusion of peace, many who
were long past military age or physically unfit for
service have been sent to the shambles. Daniel
Blumenthal, former mayor of Colmar in Alsace, who
escaped from the country, gives it as his belief that
more than thirty thousand Alsatians in the German
army have already deserted to the French (20, p. 55).
Says M. Escard, referring to the emigrations after
33
354 The World War
annexation to Germany: 'What the emigration has
cost us in population amounts to hundreds of thousands ;
in money to billions ; in capacity and intelligence no esti-
mate can be made. The loss is irreparable" (12, p. 103).
Germany incorporated the conquered provinces as a
"crownland' (Reichsland) , gave it the outward dress
of a legislature which was at first uni-cameral
an(* ruled by a President-Superior. In 1879
in the some so-called ' ' concessions, ' ' which however
Reichsland _. ., ., , A
affected no real changes, were made. A new
constitution was given and the ruler took the name of
Statthalter, always a personal appointee of the Kaiser.
The provinces were allowed to send fifteen delegates
to the Imperial Reichstag. Though the elections
were under German surveillance, this entire delegation
went repeatedly to Berlin as so-called 'protestors,"
as in 1874, 1881, 1884, and 1887. Of the 314,000 votes
cast in 1887, 247,000 were cast for protestors; 82,000
more than in 1884 notwithstanding the fact that Ger-
man "colonization" had been vigorously pushed in the
provinces. This is a significant commentary upon
the effect of German methods of administering con-
quered territory.
The protestors presented to the Reichstag in 1874
the following memorial :
We beg the Reichstag to decide :
_ . . ,. ' That the populations of Alsace-Lorraine
Reichstag
memorial incorporated in the German Empire without
ofthe their consent through !;he Treaty of Frankfort
protestors
be given an opportunity to say what they think
about said incorporation." (19, p. 777.)
To this memorandum Bismarck made reply in the
Reichstag that Alsace-Lorraine had not been annexed
The Peace Terms of Democracy 355
for the sake of Alsatians and Lorrainers; that Germany
was indifferent to their lamentations and their anger,
and that the provinces were taken from Bismarck's
France solely to further the interests of reply
the Empire.
In 1885 Prince von Hohenlohe succeeded to Man-
teuffel as Statthalter and applied the " mailed fist" with
great severity. Dissolution of societies, in-
. J . The " mailed
numerable imprisonments, strict censorship asfofvon
of the press, and special passports, were
some of his methods of suppression.
In the Memoirs of Prince von Hohenlohe there is a
significant passage under date of May 8, 1888, which
indicates that Bismarck hoped through these German
repressive measures to drive the inhabitants revealed
of the provinces to revolt, so that he might
have the excuse for declaring martial law. "Memoirs"
"Since last spring," writes the Statthalter, " ... we
have introduced a number of more or less vexatious meas-
ures, which have aroused much ill-feeling. Prince Bismarck
thereupon desired me to introduce the system of compul-
sory passports against France. ... He informed me
that our Ambassador at Paris would not be allowed to
vise any pass without previously asking permission, so that
infinite delays would arise in consequence. There is no
doubt that this measure would not only excite general
surprise, but would also embitter the local population.
It seems that Berlin desires to introduce these irritating
measures with the object of reducing the inhabitants of
Alsace-Lorraine to despair and driving them to revolt, when
it will be possible to say that the civil government is useless
and that martial law must be proclaimed." (12, p. 137.)
Is it any wonder that the Alsatians hate the Germans
with an insatiable hatred? Is it strange that in 1890
356 The World War
the Imperial Chancellor, Count von Caprivi, was
obliged to admit that "after nineteen years of annexa-
tion German influence has made no progress in Alsace " ;
or that in 1 914 in the first days of this war, German gen-
erals said to their soldiers upon entering the provinces :
"Here we are in the enemy's country" (19, p. 780).
In 1911 the so-called "reforms" of the new constitu-
tion of the Reichsland were promulgated, but they
"R rms " were a hollow mockery, since they but tight-
in Aisace- ened the reins of the government. The
legislature was made bi-cameral and three
delegates (appointed by the Kaiser through his Statt-
halter), were sent to the Imperial JBundeswt. This
but illustrates the saying of Balzac: "There is one
instrument the Germans have never learned to play,
that instrument is liberty."
When now we read in the press dispatches, as we
have read during this war, that the Legislature of
Alsace-Lorraine has declared by a large
majority its devotion to the cause of Ger-
many, it is but necessary to recall that the
bi-cameral Legislature is modeled upon the
Landtag of Prussia, and that therefore it could by no
possibility express the will of the people.
In a series of striking communications entitled
' America after the war " and published anonymously in
the New York Times, one who signed him-
Menace of
Mittei- self "An American Jurist," has early in the
present year [1918] exploited Germany's
well-known plan of Mittel-Europa in a way to give
the impression that this plan would be in the interest
of America (21).
To this insidious doctrine, which involves the reten-
tion of the Dual Monarchy of the Hapsburgs as a part
The Peace Terms of Democracy 357
of the German Empire, the complete subjugation of the
Balkans, and the taking over by Germany of the entire
former Turkish Empire, I made reply at the time in
the same metropolitan journal. Even though this
was written before the entire collapse of Russia, I
think I may repeat the essential parts of the discussion
here. After pointing out that the author of the articles
took no account of the contrasted democratic and
autocratic ideals which have actuated the two opposing
groups of warring powers, my reply went on to say:
' My other chief criticism relates to the following state-
ment found in Chapter IV. of the series :
' That at the end of the war the alliance The t( Central
between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Block "and
Ottoman Empire will not be disrupted is most
probable. It is a natural alliance, dictated by the interests
of the German Empire, Austria, and Turkey. The alliance
ought not to be offensive to America.'
"The jurist goes on to give as the reason for the last
statement that it will insure the continuance of the Entente
coalition sympathetic to America.
"In this quoted paragraph is involved what in Germany
is considered the chief issue of the war, now that the initial
plan of immediate subjugation of France and Russia has
been defeated. Should a premature peace be secured upon
this basis, semi-official German publicists express the belief
that the objects of the war will be eventually realized.
Quite unwittingly, no doubt, our American jurist has
presented the German viewpoint in almost the German
phraseology.
"In order to reply to his statements — he has
passed over the subject almost without discus- Of arguments
sion — it is only necessary to cite facts quite of "Ameri-
can jurist "
generally known. We will consider the three
points seriatim:
358 The World War
' I . The so-called Alliance of the Central Powers is no
longer in existence, having been replaced by a feudal
empire governed from Berlin.
'2. This feudal empire is not dictated by the interests
of Austria and Turkey, but by those of Germany alone, as
is perhaps sufficiently evidenced by the bitterly hostile
feeling which it has stirred up both in Vienna and Con-
stantinople.
"3. Far from this condition not being 'regarded as
offensive to America, ' or ' its continuation hostile to the
best interests of America, ' it is believed, upon the contrary,
to be the chief menace to our existence as a nation.
"There is in America to-day little understanding of the
real significance of Germany's scheme of Mittel-Europa,
her ' central block ' of states ranged on the axis of the con-
tinent along the 'corridor route' of the Balkans and the
Bagdad Railway, the scheme of 'Hamburg to the Persian
Gulf,' which under many catch phrases has long been
preached in Germany. The German documents of most
interest are curiously not to be found in the libraries of
New York City, but are fortunately reviewed with some
fullness in the translated writings of Andre* Cheradame, the
authority of twenty years of experience and study of the
question upon the ground in all the countries involved.
[The Pan-German Plot Unmasked, Berlin's Formidable
Peace Trap of the "Drawn War,' with an introduction
by Lord Cromer, Scribners, 1917, pp. 235; and Pan-
Germanism, the Disease and Cure, Atlantic Monthly
Press, 1917, pp. 129.] (23-24.)
'With measurable assurance it is now possible to fore-
cast that if Germany's vast peace intrigues should score
Germany's no additional successes, she will agree eventually
scheme to relinquish, in order to secure the peace for
which her people are clamoring, all the occupied territory
of Belgium, France, Serbia, Roumania, Italy, and Monte-
negro; provided that she is permitted to retain her strangle
hold upon the 'central block,1 including the Ottoman Empire,
The Peace Terms of Democracy 359
With equal assurance we may predict that she will on these
conditions have triumphed, though with some delay in the
realization of her conquests. This will be true because:
(i) she will be able to recruit her armies even when all
conquered enemy territory has been relinquished, upon
the basis of a population of more than one hundred and
seventy millions of people, as against the seventy millions
in the Germany of 1914; (2) in Asia Minor and Mesopo-
tamia are to be found most of the staples for the lack of
which, blockaded, she is now in distress — food-stuffs,
cotton, wool, and petroleum, and (3) the Entente coalition
now arrayed against her, if once broken, could not in a
generation be realigned to oppose her. Her reacquisition
therefore, of all relinquished territory would be accom-
plished gradually and progressively through economic
pressure of the Zollverein, and in the last resort by military
force if necessary.
'My second point, that a vassal Ottoman Empire
would make the future Germany self-supporting under
blockade, is perhaps in need of further explana-
• ... - Ottoman
tion. Let me, therefore, in the capacity of a Empire
geologist and geographer develop the subject, would supply
Mesopotamia, the delta of the Tigris and Eu-
phrates rivers, is to-day a desert only because of the blight
of Turkish control. In this broad valley were the tradi-
tional Garden of Eden and the flourishing empires of
antiquity. Bagdad was once the cotton mart of the
world.
"Fertile and with abundant supply of water, it is an
axiom of applied science that the deltas of the world are
its great producing areas — its granaries and its The Delta
fiber storehouses, to supply man's most vital ofMeso-
needs of food and clothing. The four hundred
millions of China dwell upon the deltas of the Hoang and
Yangtze rivers, the three hundred millions of India upon
the deltas of the Ganges, Irrawaddy, and Brahmaputra, the
teeming masses of Egyptians upon the Nile delta, and
360 The World War
the most dense population of Europe, upon the deltas of the
Rhine and Schelde in Belgium.
"Engineering works and efficient management are all
that are necessary for a reclamation, so rapid as almost to
Reclamation surPass belief. The plans have already been
ofMeso- drawn by Sir William Willcocks, the genius of
the Nile irrigation projects, which will transform
the Mesopotamian valley into a vast plantation for cereals
and cotton, the fifteen per cent, of lime in the Mesopota-
mian soil adapting it to easy reclamation as compared with
the dense clays of the Nile. [Sir William Willcocks's The
Irrigation of Mesopotamia, Spon. London, 1911, pp. 136,
and atlas.] It has been shown that the ancient canal
systems of Assyria and Babylon can be utilized and modern
irrigation works be installed with only moderate outlay.
' The recent development of irrigation plants in a district
of India transformed the country so rapidly that the whole
Phenomenal scneme was jeopardized because the railroad
results of could not handle the produce. The engineers
°^ General Maude's army in Mesopotamia have,
by the construction of a barrage twenty miles
in length, reclaimed a relatively small area along the lower
Tigris, upon which have already been raised the cereals,
poultry, and dairy products sufficient to supply the entire
army, so that the shipment of excess products to England
is a matter of the near future. (25.)
"It is the Turks alone who have prevented the develop-
The blight naent of Mesopotamia, and after referring to his
of Turkish pride of race in what has been accomplished in
contro1 Egypt, Sir William Willcocks has penned this
scorching denunciation :
" 'How should I have felt if, in traversing the deserts
and swamps which to-day represent what was before the
Arab conquest the richest and most famous tract in the
world, I had thought that I was a scion of a race in whose
hands God has placed, for hundreds of years, the destinies
of this great country, and that my countrymen could give
The Peace Terms of Democracy 361
no better account of their stewardship than the exhibition
of two mighty rivers flowing between deserts to waste them-
selves in the sea for nine months of the year, and desolating
everything in their way during the remaining three? No
effort that Turkey can make can be too great to roll away
the reproach of these parched and weary lands, whose cry
ascends to Heaven. '
"In the hands of British engineers the disastrous floods
have now for the first time in many years been prevented.
Though it might require a century to reclaim
the hill country of Palestine from the blight of tnmsforma-
Turkish control, the transformation of Mesopo- tionof
j. • -11 u L 1-1 • • Mesopotamia
tamia will come about like veriest magic.
"Already northern Mesopotamia from Nisibin is joined
to Constantinople by the German-owned Bagdad Rail-
road across Asia Minor, through the now completed tunnels
of the Taurus mountains. [Morris Jastrow, The War and
the Bagdad Railway, Lippincott, 1917, pp. 166, and map.]
Relatively easy construction remains in order to extend the
railway to tap the naphtha region of Kerkuk and reach
Bagdad and the Persian Gulf beyond.
"From Constantinople the Balkan Railway follows the
valleys of the Maritza and Morava, the time-honored and
unique 'corridor route' through Bulgaria and The"Com-
Serbia to Austria, a route now in German pos- dor Route "
session throughout as a result either of ' alliance ' or conquest.
Since long before this war German publicists have hardly
attempted to conceal their delight that once in full posses-
sion of this interior route, the shortest to India, Germany
would be in a position to challenge England's hold both
upon India and Egypt.
"Excepting only the possible German conquest, one
after the other, of the disintegrated parts of the Russian
Empire before a strong nation can arise to unite them, no
war problem carries such a menace as the unholy feudal
empire of Mittel-Europa, the now consolidated stronghold
of absolute government. Though she has not triumphed
362 The World War
over her enemies, Germany has conquered her allies, though
the full significance of this is hardly grasped as yet.
'The solution will be reached when the anachronism of
the Hapsburg Empire, in which 21,000,000 Germans and
Magyars tyrannize over 28,000,000 grouped in
Necessity .
of break-up alien nations, is broken by the independence of
of ottoman the Czechs in Bohemia and by the union of the
Jugo-Slavs in Bosnia and Herzegovina with
their brothers in Serbia. President Wilson seems to refer
to this in his recent war-aims message to Congress, in which
he says: 'The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place
among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured,
should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous
development.' Such development, it hardly needs be
said, cannot exist under either the Hapsburg Empire of
1914 or under the Germany which is to-day the overlord."
(22.)
How important this scheme of Mittel-Europa has
been regarded by Germany is indicated in a secret
memorandum sent .by the late Chancellor Michaelis
to the Austrian Government, which reads: "Germany
has to solve two problems — the freedom of the seas and
the opening of the route to the southeast." The entire
central block of states from northern Germany to
southern Mesopotamia was bound firmly together
by the Berlin to Bagdad Railway, largely completed
at the outbreak of the war.
In order to checkmate the scheme of Teuton Mittel-
Europa from the economic as well as the military side,
there exists the necessity for a rail route
The rail . . ... ^
route along uniting the countnes of southern Europe for
commercial advantages. The project, of
Paul Claudel (26) is for a railway running in
a general east -west direction across southern Europe
The Peace Terms of Democracy 363
closely in correspondence with the 45th parallel; a
scheme which has been supported by George Hersent,
a well-known authority upon public works. From
France this railway would make connections with the
Ukraine and Russia, passing on its way through the
rich valley of the Po in Northern Italy and along the
ancient trade route to Belgrade and to Bucharest and
Odessa. Branch lines would connect with Salonika,
Constantinople, and Bagdad. Through giving the
democratic nations a trade route of their own, they
would have the power to meet the exactions hitherto
imposed by Germany, and promote their own trade
with Switzerland, the Balkan states, and Russia. From
Ukraine France could perhaps obtain needed coal, and
the road would be an important element in the defense
on the part of the great allied Powers of the small and
helpless states of the Balkan Peninsula.
REFERENCES
1. SMITH, ARTHUR D. HOWDEN, The Real Colonel House, New York,
Doran, 1918, chap, xxiii., " Preparing for the Peace Conference."
2. "Creel Defense False," Detroit Free Press, December 17, 1918,
p. I.
3. Cited from Le Temps, of Feb. 9, 1916.
4. BENNETT, ARNOLD, "Sermon on the Mount must Govern Rela-
tions with Others," New York Times, Aug. 4, Sec. I., 3: I.
5. MASARYK, J. F., and SMETENKE, J. F., The Voice of an Oppressed
People, pp. 48, Bohemian Nat'l Alliance, Chicago.
6. NAMIER, LEWIS B., The Czecho-Slovaks, an Oppressed Nationality,
pp. 24, London, Hodder.
7. BIGELOW, POULTNEY, Prussian Memories, pp. 197, New York,
Putnams, 1915. FRANK WESTON, D.D., Bishop of Zanzibar,
The Black Slaves of Prussia, pp. 23, Boston, Houghton, 1918.
8. THYSSEN, AUGUST, The Hohenzollern Plot, privately reprinted
from New York Times, by J. G. Butler, Youngstown, Ohio, pp. 8.
9. SMUTS, GEN. JAN, "East Africa," pp. 309-318, Cent. Mag., July,
1918.
364 The World War
10. Recommendations of the Economic Conference of the Allies held at
Paris, June 14-17, 1916, pp. 8, London, H. M. Stationery Office,
1916.
11. MARCOSSEN, ISAAC F., The War after the War, pp. 272, London,
Lane, 1917.
12. HAZEN, C. D., Alsace-Lorraine under German Rule, pp. 246, New
York, Holt, 1917.
13. ENGERAND, P., L'Allemagne et le fer, les frontieres Lorraines et
la force allemande, pp. 309, Paris, Pen-in et Cie, 1916.
14. ENGERAND, FERNAND, Ce que VAttemagne voulait ce que la France
aura, le mineral de Briey — la houille de la Soar. Introduction
de M. Gabriel Hanotaux, Membre de 1'Institut, Preface de
M. Maurice Barre's, Paris, 1916 (Petite Bibliotheque de la
Ligue de Patriots, vol. iii., pp. 86).
15. HOBBS, WM. H., "The Achilles Heel of the German Monster,"
New York Times, April 4, 1918. Also, " The Crack in Germany's
Armor," p. 286, Independent, May 18, 1918.
1 6. HAUSER, HENRI, "La paix allemande et la question de Briey-
Longwy," V Action Nationale, vol. iii. (N.S.), April 25, 1918,
pp. 17-25. Translation in large part under title "French
Fields of Metal hold Teuton Failure," in Detroit Free Press,
Sept. i, 1918, pp. 1-2. See also, "Politicus, Alsace-Lorraine,"
Fortnightly Review, March, 1918, pp. 384-395.
17. "Mines de potasse dans la Haute Alsace," Bull, de la Socie"te
Industrielle de Mulhouse, vol. Ixxxii., No. 4, April, 1912, pp.
207-300, pis. 1-14.
18. New York Times, March 17, 1918, Sec. X., pp. 6. (The destruc-
tion wrought by Germans at the French mines will require
several years to restore.)
19. KLEIN, ABB£ FELIX, "The Truth about Alsace-Lorraine," pp.
769-780, Harper's Mag., May, 1918.
20. BLUMENTHAL, DANIEL, Alsace-Lorraine, pp. 60, i map, New York,
Putnams, 1917.
21. An American Jurist, America after the War (reprinted from the
New York Times), excluded by U. S. Govt. from army camps.
22. HOBBS, WM. H., " Mittel-Europa as a Menace to us" (a reply to
"An American Jurist"), New York Times, Jan. 17, 1918.
23. CHERADAME, ANDRE, Pan-Germanism, the Disease and the Cure,
pp. 219, Atl. Mont. Press, 1917.
24. CHERADAME, ANDRE, The United States and Pan-Germania,
pp. 170, New York, Scribners, 1918.
25. PARFIT, CANON, Mesopotamia; The Key to the Future, pp. 41,
London, Hodder, 1917.
26. Cited by CHALEMEAU in The New France, under title "Mittel-
The Peace Terms of Democracy 365
Europa of the Allies and the Project of Paul Claudel," pp.
89-91, New York, 1918.
27. JOHNSON, D. W., "The R61e of Political Boundaries," Geogr. Rev.,
vol. iv., 1917, pp. 208-213.
28. CORNISH, VAUGHAN, Naval and Military Geography of the British
Empire (considered in relation to the war with Germany), pp.
140, London, Rees, 1916.
29. LODGE, HENRY CABOT, Speech in the Senate of the United States,
Aug. 23, 1918, pp. 5-7, Washington, 1918.
30. Official Documents looking toward Peace, Series I and 2, Jan.-Feb.,
1917, International Conciliation, Nos. 110-111, pp. 40 and 27.
31. PUTNAM, RUTH, Alsace-Lorraine from Ccesar to Kaiser, 58 B.c.,-
1871 A.D. (with maps), pp. 208, New York, Putnams, 1915.
32. HANSI, L'histoire d' Alsace, pp. 102 (humorous), Paris, Floury, 1915.
33. ROLLESTON, T. W., Ireland and Poland, a Comparison, pp. 22,
London, Unwin, 1917.
34. NAUMANN, FRIEDRICH, Central Europe (trans)., pp. 354, London,
King, 1916.
35. HEADLAM, J. W., The Dead Lands of Europe, pp. 331, New York,
Doran.
36. RAMSAY, SIR WM., "A War of Commerce to Follow," pp. 189-
192, New York Times, "Current History," vol. ii., 1915.
37. HEADLAM, J. W., The Issue, pp. 159, Boston, Houghton, 1917.
38. TOYNBEE, ARNOLD J., Turkey, a Past and a Future, pp. 85, New
York, Doran, 1917.
39. British Palestine Committee, Palestine, a tract of 26 pages issued
Nov. 24, 1917.
40. MOULTON, HAROLD GLENN, The War and Industrial Readjust-
ment, pp. 15, Univ. of Chicago war papers, No. 5, April, 1918.
41. HAUSER, HENRI, Economic Germany, pp. 33, London, Nelson, 1915.
42. GARDINER, J. B. W., German Plans for the Next War, pp. 129,
New York, Doubleday, 1918.
43. WETTERLE, ABBE, Behind the Scenes in the Reichstag, pp. 256,
New York, Doran, 1918.
44. ZIMMERN, A. A., The Economic Weapon, pp. 13, New York, Doran,
1918.
45. McCuRDY, CHARLES A., M.P., A Clean Peace, the War Aims of
British Labour, complete text of the official war aims memoran-
dum of the Inter-Allied Labour and Socialist Conference held
in London, Feb. 23, 1918, pp. 26, New York, Doran, 1918.
46. HERZOG, S., The Future of German Industrial Exports, pp. 196,
New York, Doubleday, 1918.
47. Cvijic, JOVAN, "The Geographical Distribution of the Balkan
Peoples," Geogr. Rev.t vol. v., 1918, pp. 345-361.
366 The World War
48. ROMER, EUGENIUS, "Poland, the Land and the State," Geogr.
Rev., vol. iv., 1917, pp. 6-25.
49. WALLIS, B. C., "The Peoples of Austria," ibid., vol. vi., 1918,
pp. 52-65.
50. GALLOIS, LUCIEN, "Alsace-Lorraine and Europe," ibid., vol. vi.,
1918, pp. 89-115.
51. BECK, JAMES M., The Reckoning, a discussion of the moral aspects
of the peace problem and of retributive justice as an indispens-
able element, pp. 225, New York, Putnams, 1918.
52. CHERADAME, ANDRE, The Essentials of an Enduring Victory (with
maps), pp. 259, New York, Scribners, 1918.
53. EDWARDS, GEORGE WHARTON, Alsace-Lorraine, Penn Publishing
Co., 1918.
54. BASHFORD, J. L. (Translator), The Hatzfeldt Letters, New York,
Button, 1905, p. 278.
55. Royal Society of Literature, The Political Aims of the British
Empire in the War, pp. 22, London, Milford, 1918.
56. REPUBLIQUE FRANCHISE, Tableau des Conditions Economique de la
Paix Allemande, pp. 41, Paris, Imp. Nat., 1918.
57. HAUSER, HENRI, Les Regions Economiques, Preface de M. Cle-
mentel, pp. 75, Paris, Grasset, 1918. (Plan to organize recon-
struction.)
58. BECKER, CARL L. (Compiler), America's War Aims and Peace
Program, pp. 52, Com. Pub. Inf., No. 21, Nov., 1918.
59. SIMONDS, FRANK H., "Problems of Peace," pp. 33-41, Independent,
Jan., 1919.
60. REUSS, RODOLPH ERNEST, Histoire d 'Alsace, pp. 371, Paris, Boivin,
1912 (6th ed.).
61. VIDAL DE LA BLANCHE, PAUL, La France de Vest (Alsace-Lorraine),
pp. 280, Paris, Colin, 1918.
XVIII
INTERNATIONALISM VERSUS A LEAGUE OF
THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONS
"It [Internationalism] is an attempt to reduce all integers to ciphers
and then add them up and find the sum of perfection. It hopes to
make everybody a nobody, and then suddenly produce the perfect
man and the perfect state." — WILLIAM E. ELLIS.
"The rule of law and the equality of all before it, an untrammeled
and compelling public opinion, self-government as against autocracy
and bureaucracy, the absence of a military spirit and caste, and the
stress laid upon individual right as against the undue claims of a state,
are some of the fundamental features uniting in one common civiliza-
tion all the English-speaking peoples." — GEORGE Louis BEER.
"The British Empire is not founded on might or force, but on moral
principles — on principles of freedom, equality, and equity. It is these
principles which we stand for to-day as an Empire in this mighty
struggle." — GEN. JAN CHRISTIAN SMUTS.
"We must be free or die, who speak the tongue
That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold
Which Milton held." — WORDSWORTH.
THE war has been a great educator, and the ques-
tions of greatest moment to-day are, first, in
how far the knowledge gained is to be per- The world
manent ; and, second, what proportion of our war an
educator
people have been affected by this salutary
course of instruction.
If we look back over our history for the answer, the
result is far from encouraging. Again and again have
disasters enforced lessons, and though these were to
some extent appreciated at 'the time, such knowledge
367
368 The World War
has not generally survived its generation against the
assaults of the Fourth of July orator and the professional
pacifist barn-stormer built on the Bryan model.
For the moment the word pacifist has become un-
popular; now that those who did not raise their boys
international- to De soldiers, have seen them, all too late
ism the new for anv early issue of the war, departing
pacifism 1
from their homes for the front. But what s
in a name, after all? Will not internationalist serve
as well, and without drawing attention to its now
unpopular antecedents?
It would seem almost as though pacifism is peculiar
to no race or time, but is, rather, something constitu-
tional depending upon a paucity of red cor-
puscles in the blood — a kind of pernicious
mental and moral anaemia — and hence not cured by
even the most powerful of remedies; but, like that
dread disease, characterized by an optimism which
nothing can shake.
Every long and exhausting war, if we may trust the
historians, has brought with it a wave of aversion for
The "last war, with which has come inevitably the
war " conviction that it is the last war of the long
series. Being, then, the last war, there is of course
no reason why visionary schemes which the past has
conclusively shown to be impracticable, may not now,
under the wholly changed conditions, become the
great cure-alls for human ills.
The condition when the series of wars between the
rival Mediterranean states of antiquity had come to
their end is thus described by Admiral Mahan :
"When Carthage fell and Rome moved onward, without
an equal enemy against whom to guard, to the dominion
Internationalism vs. League of Nations 369
of the world of Mediterranean civilization, she approached
and gradually realized the reign of universal peace, broken
only by those intestine social and political dis- The warning
sensions which are finding their dark analogues in the fail
in our modern times of infrequent war. As
the strife between nations of that civilization died away,
material prosperity, general cultivation and luxury flour-
ished, while the weapons dropped nervelessly from their
palsied arms. The genius of Caesar, in his Gallic and Ger-
manic campaigns, built up an outside barrier, which like a
dike for centuries postponed the inevitable end, but which
also, like every artificial barrier, gave way when the strong
masculine impulse which first erected it had degenerated
into that worship of comfort, wealth, and general softness,
which is the ideal of the peace prophets of to-day. The
wave of the invaders broke in — the rains descended, the
floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon the house, and
it fell, because not founded upon the rock of virile reliance
upon strong hands and brave hearts to defend what was
dear to them." (i.)
It seems, according to the psychology of the late
pacifists, that the thing which could not possibly
happen, did happen, and, for this reason, psychology
it could not have been foreseen by anyone, of pacifists
however wise — even by the pacifists themselves. We
are now, therefore, facing the exception which merely
proves the rule that wars cannot be waged in modern
times by reason of the great expense, the great derange-
ment of the economic system, etc., as duly set down
aforetime by Norman Angell, et al.
The formula of the pacifist seems now
to be that national ideals, built as they are common
upon cultures which have their roots far multiple of
. . nationalities
back in the past, are to be given up; and
hereafter all is to be thrown into a common receptacle.
24
370 The World War
One of the most dangerous advocates of internation-
alism, because of the power of her pen, writes from
Paris under the fire of the 8o-mile gun and makes one
of her characters in a story speak her thought :
"Nationalism is the seed of war. Dulce et decorum is
death for an ideal, but not for a geographical boundary!
Christ died for people, not for nations. We must learn to
think of ourselves not as French or Americans or Germans,
but as we were born — just poor little naked humans!
When we do that the foolishness of war will end. ... An
allied victory will greatly strengthen nationalism. . . .
" It is a Hope ! Eons off perhaps, but a Hope. The hope
of the upward curve of the spiral after it has dipped into
the primeval. Back again, these people say, to the begin-
nings of things, to wash us clean of an unreality which has
mistaken geographical boundaries for spiritual values. . . .
Then up — up — up toward the singing heights." (2.)
Miss Deland has been too long confined among the
miseries of a great city in war time, and should go out
into the mountains and inhale the fresh air until she
has rid herself of such morbid notions.
We may confidently expect that such a mixing in
the human species of mental and moral strains extend-
ing from the highest to the lowest, will yield a product
not essentially different from that which on the physi-
cal side is to be observed among the lower animal s-
the pariah of its class, the least common multiple of
all dogs, the yellow cur.
I have been much impressed by the advice which a
father, after seeing much of the world, has given his
son who has received a commission in the United States
Army. The father writes from abroad :
Internationalism vs. League of Nations 371
;'I should write you frankly about what I consider the
three greatest menaces of the present hour. As a good
soldier of the coming day, you should be prepared for them ;
for they are especially threatening the high-spirited youth
of many lands.
'Perhaps, recalling the many speeches you have heard
me make upon America's duty to the whole world and the
perils of our provincialism, you will think it inter-
strange that I put first the danger to civiliza- nationalism
tion from the current 'internationalism.' I can danger than
imagine what your radical young professor of
social science would say to my indictment! But he lives
in a world of books, and I have just come out of Russia.
He knows the theory; I know the thing. And this cult of
'internationalism,' which is sweeping sentimentalists in
many lands away from whatever moorings they once had,
is, bluntly, a worse menace to the whole world's welfare
than Prussianism itself.
"It is an attempt to reduce all integers to ciphers and
then add them up and find the sum of perfection.
'It hopes to make everybody a nobody and then sud-
denly produce the perfect man and the perfect state. . . .
"It was in Russia, which is fairly rotten with this specious
idea, that I came to see clearly that 'internationalism' is
fundamentally a vast disloyalty. It breaks old The awful
allegiances and offers none that are new or better. lesson of
For up to date the only way a man can be loyal
to the race as a whole is by loyalty to that section of it of
which he is a part. . . . These poor dreamers acted as if
they thought they could build up humanity by wrecking
Russia. If I am not mistaken, it will yet prove the great-
est disservice ever done by one nation to the whole world.
While it may be only the mist that precedes the sunrise,
I very much fear that it is a fog of death." (3.)
I have quoted at such length because Mr. Ellis is
speaking to his son out of a great experience of what
372 The World War
this menace to the world really is; and I wish his
counsel might be read by every young man whether
in or out of the army service. How few of
of German us stop to think what we would do were we
loss of in- to ke robbed of those ideals which we hold
dividualism
none the less tenaciously because they are
subconscious and seldom expressed in words. What it
means for a people to surrender its individuality and
become cogs in a state machine with ideals and volition
relinquished, we are now learning from the public
spectacle of Germany running amok.
As the surrender of the institution of the family is
now in Germany being added to that of the individual,
we may expect to see the nation sink to depths not yet
sounded. It will be the aim of Germany to drag the
world down with her, and the peculiar raucous timbre
of the Teuton vocalization is distinctly recognizable
in the cry of internationalism.
We of the English-speaking nations may well pause
to consider how much we owe to the ideals which we
The power cherish for our country — ideals which are a
of ideals composite of the most self-denying acts of
our bravest and best. How many a man has been
true to his ideals under temptation because of the
fear of putting a stain upon the shield of his country;
and it is a commonplace that once a man loses his self-
respect, his descent is swift and sure.
What has man, indeed, to live for in this world except
his family and his country ? It may, indeed, be possible
to embody the devotion to a country in a military
hero like Napoleon- — never so remarkably portrayed
as in the words and music of Schumann's Die beiden
Grenadiere. Such idolatry is, however, foreign to the
English-speaking peoples, and I have been amazed to
Internationalism vs. League of Nations 373
find the song of Kaiserism included among the musical
selections of a patriotic meeting.
In the democratic state, the family, the home, and
the nation are linked together, and a striking illustra-
tion of this was afforded by the history of the
J J Link between
Pilgrims in New England. Because of their family and
hardships and their meager resources, they
were driven to a communal life, which, however, had to
be abandoned for the reason that the colonists were soon
found to be losing interest in their enterprise. The in-
centive to make a home for himself and a woman, a home
where a man may enjoy with his wife the fruits of his
labor, and where he is ever striving to better his condi-
tion— the great driving power in human life — was lacking
in the communal state. It is an impelling force, the
mainsprings of which are love and ambition; and it is
this which gives hope and which arms the man to face
the hard condition of his lot with fortitude and without
complaint. With a vision which now seems prophetic,
Mr. Kipling has revealed this ideal of the family home
as the impelling force in our civilization, and it is the
answer to the Kaiser-bred cult of internationalism, as
it is being preached to-day. Though somewhat long
and not as well known as it should be, I shall take the
liberty of quoting this poem of Mr. Kipling entitled
An Imperial Rescript:
"Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser
decreed,
To ease the strong of their burden, to help the weak in
their need;
He sent a word to the peoples, who struggle, and pant, and
sweat,
That the straw might be counted fairly and the tally of
bricks be set.
374 The World War
' The Lords of Their Hands assembled ; from the East and
the West they drew —
Baltimore, Lille, and Essen, Brummagem, Clyde, and
Crewe.
And some were black from the furnace, and some were
brown from the soil,
And some were blue from the dye- vat ; but all were wearied
of toil.
"And the young King said: 'I have found it, the road to
the rest ye seek,
'The strong shall wait for the weary, the hale shall halt
for the weak;
'With the even tramp of an army where no man breaks
from the line,
' Ye shall march to peace and plenty in the bond of brother-
hood— sign ! '
'The paper lay on the table, the strong heads bowed
thereby,
And a wail went up from the peoples: 'Ay, sign — give
rest, for we die ! '
A hand was stretched to the goose-quill, a fist was cramped
to scrawl,
When — the laugh of a blue-eyed maiden ran clear through
the council-hall.
"And each one heard Her laughing as each one saw Her
plain —
Saidie, Mimi, or Olga, Gretchen, or Mary Jane.
And the Spirit of Man that is in Him to the light of the
vision woke;
And the men drew back from the paper, as a Yankee
delegate spoke:
"'There's a girl in Jersey City who works on the telephone:
'We're going to hitch our horses and dig for a house of
our own.
Internationalism vs. League of Nations 375
' With gas and water connections, and steam-heat through
to the top ;
'And W. Hohenzollern, I guess I shall work till I drop.'
"And an English delegate thundered: 'The weak an' the
lame be blowed!
'I've a berth in the Sou'-West workshops, a home in the
Wandsworth Road;
' And till the 'sociation has footed my buryin' bill,
'I work for the kids an' the missus. Pull up! I'll be
damned if I will ! '
"And over the German benches the bearded whisper ran:
' Lager, der girls und der dollars, dey makes or dey breaks
a man.
'If Schmitt haf collared der dollars, he collars der girl
deremit ;
'But if Schmitt bust in der pizness, we collars der girl
from Schmitt.
" They passed one resolution : ' Your sub-committee believe
' You can lighten the curse of Adam when you've lightened
the curse of Eve.
' But till we are built like angels — with hammer and chisel
and pen,
'We will work for ourself and a woman, forever and
ever. Amen. '
;'Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser
held-
The day that they razored the Grindstone, the day that
the Cat was belled,
The day of the Figs from Thistles, the day of the Twisted
Sands,
The day that the laugh of a maiden made light of the
Lords of Their Hands." (4.)
In this poem of an Imperial Rescript Mr. Kipling
a full quarter of a century ago, with a gift peculiarly
376 The World War
his own, has forecast the hollow mockery of inter-
nationalism, and shown us how it strikes at the very
foundations of our social structure. In some
Basis of
later peace form or other this dogma will be at the bot-
tom of the next peace drive, already due,
and the hope of the world must be that the lesson of
the Soviet program and the "peace" of Brest-Li tovsk
has not been lost upon the world.
Like internationalism, there has been proposed as
a cure-all for all our troubles, the League to Enforce
The League Peace i the one is a remedy demanded by
to enforce the proletariat, the other the formula of the
peace
cloistered intellectuals. Both schemes aim
to do away with war; but the men who know most of
war, the professional and notably the experienced
soldiers, are conspicuously out of sympathy with both
programs. It is easy to raise the cry that the soldier
by accepting the doctrine of a League to Enforce Peace
would destroy his means of livelihood; but it is even
easier to answer, for no one hates war as does the man
who knows most about it.
The League to Enforce Peace includes in its mem-
bership many persons of high distinction, and it
owes much of its prestige to the standing of its head,
Ex-President Taft, who has steadily grown in popular
esteem. Since in his capacity as President of the
League, Mr. Taft as late as 1916 has clearly and con-
cisely set forth its objects, we may make his statement
the basis of discussion. He says:
"The plan contemplates an international agreement
signed by as many powers as can be induced to sign it.
The first provision is for a permanent Court of Justice
International, with jurisdiction to consider and decide all
controversies of a justiciable character arising between two
Internationalism vs. League of Nations 377
or more members of the League, the power of the Court
to be extended to passing upon questions finally and in a
binding way upon whether the issue presented is
a justiciable one and, therefore, within the juris-
diction of the Court. The second provision is the purposes
that all questions not of a justiciable character,
leading to differences between two or more mem-
bers of the League, are to be presented to a Commission
before which evidence is to be introduced, arguments are
to be made, and then the Commission is to recommend
something in the nature of a compromise. The third pro-
vision is that if any one member of the League, violating
its pledged faith, shall begin hostilities against any other
member of the League before the questions creating the
trouble have been submitted either for decision by the Court
or for recommendation by the Commission, then all the
other members of the League agree to defend the member
prematurely attacked against the one who begins the hos-
tilities; and to use, first, economic means, and then military
force for that purpose. The fourth plank provides that
international congresses shall be convened with represen-
tatives from all members of the League, who shall consider
the subject of International Law, shall extend it in a
legislative way and submit the changes thus agreed upon
to the nations constituting the League. If there is no
objection within a year, then the rules changing or extend-
ing existing International Law shall be considered as rules
for the decision of the permanent Court." (5, p. 4.)
Now a proper criticism of this scheme is that it would
be very beautiful if it were at all practical. It is an
almost ideal arrangement for a world of nations all
actuated by a genuine desire to avoid war on any and
all occasions. Unfortunately the world is not so con-
stituted, and until selfishness and greed can be elimi-
nated, we may as well give up laying plans for the
378 The World War
millennium. A glance across the Atlantic does not
make us optimistic concerning an early realization of
Utopia.
The permanent Court of Justice International should
without question be set up for those nations which
court of are "truly democratic; for the history of the
justice past fifty years has shown, notably in the
International J J J
case 01 the fisheries and sealing disputes
between the United States and Great Britain, that when
non-militaristic nations have a genuine desire to settle
their justiciable quarrels amicably, it can generally be
accomplished by this means.
The plan to let the International Court rather than
the individual nations decide what questions are justi-
ciable and submit them to a commission for compromise
settlement, is a transparent attempt to cover up in
verbiage an irrepressible difficulty not to be disposed
of by such artifices.
The late Augustus P. Gardner in his brutally frank
but equally convincing manner has stated some obvious
facts as they relate to the practical phases of this
question. Said Major Gardner:
:<And now comes along another plan of the dove for
clipping the talons of the hawk — a League to Enforce
Representa- Peace> with an International Court composed
tive of a judge from Japan, and a judge from Ger-
^omments many> and a judge from China, and a judge from
upon the Russia and a judge from Heaven knows where,
to settle international disputes; and an inter-
national army and navy to back up the decrees. That
is the proposition. Vague and ill-considered as is this
proposal which has been so deftly flung out, it has never-
theless dampened the ardor of the people for the pre-
paredness movement, because there is no sense in going
Internationalism vs. League of Nations 379
ahead with a preparedness program if eternal peace is on
the way. . . .
'I wonder whether we would be willing to submit the
Monroe Doctrine to arbitration. I am not sure but we
would; we are getting pretty wobbly. After
peace has been declared in Europe, suppose that ^Doctrine
Germany goes before the International Court and the
and says : ' Here, Mexico is cheating us out of a
lot of money. The United States says that it will not
collect the money for us, and furthermore it says that we
must not send our troops to collect our money for ourselves.
Is that right?' How is the International Court going to
decide ? Is it going to decide in favor of the Monroe Doc-
trine, or is it going to decide in favor of the various nations
which have interests in Mexico ? What are we going to do
about it if the Court decides against us? Are we going to
enforce the Doctrine? If so, we had better map the plan
out, so that there will be no question about our enforcing
it, before we agree to enter an International League to
Enforce Peace. The President [Mr. Wilson] very clearly
sidesteps that issue. He tells us we are to have a Monroe
Doctrine of the World.
'The Monroe Doctrine for this continent is dangerous
enough, but God save us from a Monroe Doctrine of the
World, which would force us at the bidding of a group of
international lawyers, to take every foreign quarrel upon
our shoulders." (6.)
But how about the international police that is to
enforce peace? Mr. Taft tells us that after much
consideration, it was concluded that we
. . An Inter-
OUght not to be over-ambitious' along that national
line. Mr. Bryan says: 'I prefer to have
this nation a moral power in the world rather than a
policeman." But suppose the international police
is provided for, and is called out to meet a quarrel of
380 The World War
Germany with a neighbor, or far more probably an
assault without preliminaries of any kind. Does the
study of the present war lead to the belief that a non-
descript force summoned together from various nations
and continents would arrive before all was over; and,
even if it did arrive, would be of the slightest effective-
ness against a force fitted out in secrecy and launched
with every detail provided for? To ask the question
is to answer it.
As regards the difficulties in the way of securing
united action on the part of the various governments
concerned, we have only to make a study of the ' ' con-
cert" of the Great Powers provided for in the Treaty
of Berlin for the purpose of keeping peace in the Bal-
kans and interposing a barrier to the Armenian atroci-
ties of the late Sultan Abdul Hamid. The "concert"
resulted in continuous dissonance, for Germany invari-
ably sided with the Turk, and the other Great Powers
were powerless to act. I recommend to the League
to Enforce Peace a careful study of this chapter of
history. The agents of the Powers who were stationed
with the Turkish officers in command of the vilayets,
in order to see that the terms of the treaty were faith-
fully complied with, came to be called in the local
expression "Yes Effendis" — "Yes Sirs."
A wise man has said: 'The permanent peace of the
world can be secured only through the gradual concen-
A" balance tration of preponderant military strength
of power" in the hands of the most pacific nations."
democratic It is the old doctrine of 'balance of power'
nations with a vitally important addition, and one
which aims to place the alliance upon the sound basis
of a common aim and purpose. The war now raging
has by a wholly natural process aligned in opposition to
Internationalism vs. League of Nations 381
the aggressive autocratic nations those nations which
are for the greater part at least pacific and democratic.
This may at least be said of the nations that are now
playing the principal r61es in the European conflict.
A central nucleus among the Entente nations is now
the group which is bound together by a common
1 81
language, common historical antecedents, An inner
and common purposes — the group of actu- league of
• the English-
ally great and potentially greater common- speaking
wealths of self-governing states, miscalled peoples
the British Empire, and with them the United States
of America.
That the unquestionably divergent tendency inher-
ent in differences of speech may under the storm and
stress of exceptional world strife become subordinate
to the converging influence of a great and ennobling
common purpose, was demonstrated in the indissoluble
union of German-speaking Alsace with French-speaking
Lorraine — a union welded in the fierce heat of the French
Revolution. Have we not in this a hopeful augury
that the nations of French and English speech, and
perhaps also Italian, are in future to be joined in the
bonds of the greater league of democratic nations —
a "league to enforce peace' which, based on demo-
cratic systems of military training, will have in their
common purpose and high ideals the necessary element
of permanence?
Nothing augurs so strongly for the early realization
of this happy consummation as the joint celebration
this year throughout the English-speaking
countries and in France of the great mile- celebration
stones of liberty, the fall of the Bastille and of liberty
anniversaries
the Declaration of Independence. "An inti-
mate like-mindedness," says Professor Dunning with
382 The World War
much force, "is the indispensable factor in permanent
international amity."
In this group of democratic nations Italy is already
a partner for the war, and it is to be hoped that she
itaiy a will remain when the war is over; for there
partner |s no ju)ar ^o fai§ jn j^ {^ea\s of government.
The smaller martyred nations of Belgium, Roumania,
and Serbia, in their helpless condition, must for a time
at least be the wards of the league pledged to their
protection against aggression and absorption. All
will hope that the liberty -loving Czecho-Slovaks will
arise a powerful and independent nation, of which their
splendid achievements in the past no less than in the
present are rich in promise. As regards the great inert
mass of Russia, it is as yet too early to say whether the
sun of our hopes is rising or sinking; albeit our future
and that of the world as well is inextricably bound up
with the fate of that vast and unhappy country.
There remain among the so-called civilized nations
Germany and the other autocracies which are now her
Germany vassals, all entrenched in the heart of Europe
and her an(j extending their territory through recent
outside conquests down through the corridor of the
the league Balkans to and beyond the Bosphorus into
Asia. What is to be their relation to the proposed
league of the democratic nations ? Are we to take the
modern barbarians to our bosoms at the conclusion of
their wild riot of destruction, with the great human
stud-farm of Germany already producing cannon-
fodder for the next war in a program of conquest quite
as much accepted by the German people as by their
military leaders? If we do we thereby seal our doom
and that of those who come after us.
Yet the League to Enforce Peace aims at no exclu-
Internationalism vs. League of Nations 383
sions. Says Mr. Taft: 'The plan contemplates an
international agreement signed by as many powers
as can be induced to sign it' (22); and Mr. Wilson in
speaking before that body on May 27, 1916, refers
specifically to 'a universal association of nations."
Upon this vitally important subject France has the
greatest right to be heard, for not only has she of all
the larger nations suffered most from German aggres-
sion, but geography has ordained that she shall be
ever exposed to invasion from her barbarous enemy to
the eastward. Premier Clemenceau's paper, now the
L'Homme Libre, says with great force: "What head
of a state would ever consent to put his name at the
foot of a treaty with that of the criminal and lying
Hohenzollerns ? ' The more moderate Paris Temps
is equally condemnatory :
"So long as Germany remains what she is, she excludes
herself by her own act from any society of nations which
she cannot herself control after the Prussian manner. To
try and convince her by argument of the necessity of giving
up the religion of force and relinquish the spirit of war is
illusory.
"A society of free nations, inveterately allied against
the powers of prey, is a reality which may be foreshadowed
with confidence as a normal stage in evolution, but to try
to create a league in which would be found alike free men
and serfs, victims and executioners, those who have suffered
and those who have not expiated their crimes, would be
a blunder." (7.)
That these undoubtedly correct reflections of the
French attitude are shared by those other martyr
nations, who, though small, have the best right to be
heard at the peace council, there is little reason to
doubt.
384 The World War
REFERENCES
1. MAHAN, A. T., The Interest of America in Sea Power, Present and
Future, pp. 120-121, Boston, Little, 1898.
2. DELANO, MARGARET, "War-time Reflections in Paris," pp. 169-
177, Harper's Mag., July, 1918.
3. ELLIS, WILLIAM T., "Gassing the World's Mind," pp. 668-670,
Outlook, April 24, 1918.
4. KIPLING, RUDYARD, "An Imperial Rescript," Barrack Room Bal-
lads, 1893.
5. The Proposal of a League to Enforce Peace, International Concilia-
tion, No. 106, Sept., 1916, pp. 3-20.
6. GARDNER, AUGUSTUS P., Pitfalls in the Path of Preparedness,
pp. 241-242, -Nat. Sec. League, Washington, 1917.
7. "Germany in League? Never, says Paris," New York Times,
June 25, 1918.
8. GOTTHEIL, RICHARD, "In the Way of a Teutonic Alliance," New
York Times, August 24, 1916.
9. BEER, GEORGE Louis, The English-speaking Peoples, their Future
Relations and Joint International Obligations, pp. 322, New
York, Macmillan, 1917.
10. WILSON, HUNTINGTON, A Permanent Alliance of the English7
speaking People, American Rights League, Bull., No. 38, De-
cember, 1917, pp. 8.
11. KNAPP, GEORGE L., Britain and America, American Rights League,
Bull., No. 41, February, 1918, pp. 8.
12. MAHAN, A. T., "Possibilities of an Anglo-American Reunion."
North American Review, November, 1894 (included in The
Interest of America in Sea Power, pp. 107-136).
13. MAHAN, A. T., "Motives to Imperial Federation," included in
volume Retrospect and Prospect, pp. 89-135, Boston, 1902.
14. MAHAN, A. T., The Interest of America in International Condi-
tions, pp. 212, Boston, Little Brown, 1910.
15. BEER, GEORGE Louis, "America's Place in .the World," Yale
Review, 1917-18, pp. 229-248.
1 6. SPARGO, JOHN and others, The Allied Cause is the Cause of
Socialist Internationalism, an address to the socialists of all
lands issued on behalf of the Social Democratic League of
America and the Jewish Socialist League, New York, April
6, 1918, pp. 15.
17. SISSON, EDGAR, The German-Bolshevik Conspiracy (includes re-
port of a special committee headed by Professor J. Franklin
Jameson on the genuineness of the documents), Com. on Pub-
lic Inform., War Inf. Ser., No. 20, Oct., 1918, pp. 30.
Internationalism vs. League of Nations 385
1 8. A Declaration of Interdependence, Commemoration in London,
in 1918, of the 4th of July, 1776, pp. 31, New York. (Addresses
by Viscount Bryce, Winston Churchill, A. Meighen, Geo. Haven
Putnam, H. S. Canby, Gen. John Biddle, and Admiral W. S.
Sims.)
19. CHAMBERLIN, T. C., "World-organization after the World War —
An Omninational Confederation," Journ. Geol., vol. xxvi., 1918,
pp. 27.
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, and PUTNAM, GEORGE HAVEN, An Alli-
ance of the English-speaking Peoples of the World, Am. Rights
League, Bull., No. 44, Dec., 1918, pp. 4.
The Common Cause, Britain's Part in the Great War, pp. 32, The
Library of War Literature, 511 Fifth Ave., New York.
Mr. Taft in December, 1918, changed his attitude and spoke for
a league of the Democratic Nations only (Detroit Free Press,
Dec. n, 1918).
23. WALLING, WILLIAM ENGLISH, Bolshevism Self -revealed, League for
National Unity, i Madison Avenue, New York.
XIX
THE TEACHING OF PATRIOTISM
"We can with justice say that public and national morality is largely
the reflection of the education of our youth." — GENERAL LEONARD
WOOD.
"We have never even named the foundations of their liberty to
American youth. Much less have we told them the story of the storms
which for centuries raged around the building of those foundations,
nor of the blood and sacrifice and suffering which went into the con-
struction; and we have never mentioned the subject to immigrant
citizens. . . . We do not even take the trouble to bring to American
citizens the knowledge of the history of the rights which make them
free. If we did it would become a religion arousing all Americans at
any sign of danger."— Lucius B. SWIFT.
"Military history is much obscured by the survivor, the historian
and the journalist. They are virtually banded in an unholy alliance
to tell us everything except what we really ought to know." — R. M.
JOHNSTON.
MOST of us are now agreed that we are engaged
in a war to defend our liberties and those of
Uninstructed our allied nations against autocratic domina-
the issue of tion, and that the issue has been the same
this war
was not from the beginning; yet a little more than
perceived two years agOj after the war had already
been raging nearly as long a time, Mr. Wilson won his
reelection to the presidency because he had kept us
out of the struggle.
How is it that we understand the issue now, but did
not then? The issue itself has not changed from what
it was at the beginning; for the purposes of Germany,
386
The Teaching of Patriotism 387
even if not perceived before the war was launched,
could not be covered up after attention had been focused
upon her conduct by the conflict itself. The answer
is that we have received an expensive course of instruc-
tion through chastisement, instruction which, had it
been given at the proper time in the public schools,
would have spared us both a great sacrifice and a
national humiliation.
We must first of all correct much misconception con-
cerning what the history of this country has been.
The cult of pacifism and the anti-prepared-
ness movement could never have availed to
leave us unprepared, after having been shielded in
teaching
for two and a half years by the allied Powers
in Europe, but for the fact that our history instruction
in the public schools had led us to suppose that the
American military policy of trusting to the vicious
volunteer system with its raw levies raised after,
rather than before war, had been uniformly successful
in the past.
Technically it is true that the American nation has
never lost a war, and out of this, coupled with our
vicious teaching, has come the idea that we
Past success
are invincible even without preparation. in war
But as General Wood has expressed it, "This
country has never engaged single-handed in a war
with a nation of the first class prepared for war" (i,
p. 76). And he goes on to say:
'We have no markedly superior military virtues; as a
people, the blood of all peoples runs in our veins. We live
under a form of government which tends to develop indi-
viduality and self-confidence, good qualities if coordinated
and harmonized by discipline. But there is nothing which
indicates peculiar or superior military excellence, and there
388 The World War
is nothing in our military history upon which we can found
such an assumption. We have splendid material for
soldiers, if trained, but without training that material is
relatively of little value.
'There seems to be a general impression that, having
blundered through our past wars with a hideously un-
necessary expenditure of life and treasure, somehow or other
we shall continue to blunder on successfully, regardless of
lack of preparation on our part or of thorough organiza-
tion and preparation on the part of our possible antagonists.
Such an opinion is absolutely unwarranted." (i, p. 76.)
The impression gained from our school histories is
that, despite our raw levies of troops and local militia
Land battle* comPanies» with which our campaigns have
ofRevoiu- generally been fought, we have almost in-
tion and the -11 1 • •• , t
war of 1812 vanably won glorious victones upon the
discredit- field, and even with odds against us in num-
bers. This is as far as possible from being
true. Regarded as a whole, our military history is
one to look back upon with shame, and it is so looked
upon by competent American military critics. Says
General Emory Upton, author of that most valuable
work, The Military Policy of the United States, and the
greatest of our military historians :
" Up to the Mexican War there was little that was glorious
in our military history. In the Revolution, the Continen-
tals and Regulars often displayed a valor deserving of vic-
tory, but which was snatched away by the misconduct of
undisciplined troops.
"In the War of 1812 the discipline and victories of the
Navy alone saved the country from dishonor. On the
land the historian of the army was glad to slur over need-
less disasters, to dwell on the heroism in the open field
displayed by the Regulars at Chippewa and Lundy's Lane.
The Teaching of Patriotism 389
The Mexican War was a succession of victories. The
Volunteers as well as the Regulars were disciplined troops.
" The Rebellion began with the defeat at Bull Run, but the
multitude of subsequent battles proved that the valor of dis-
ciplined American troops, be they Regulars or Volunteers,
cannot be excelled by the best armies of Europe." (2, p. 5.)
Even the Revolutionary spirit of patriotism of which
so much has been made was far from being general,
and the desertions traceable to panic and cowardice
took on appalling proportions. All this record of mili-
tary inefficiency and worse is traceable not to any
inferior quality of our people, but solely to the vicious
policy which in defiance of Washington's counsel we
have followed from the beginning.
In the War of the Revolution, with a total enroll-
ment of nearly 400,000 soldiers, against something
more than a third of that number of the Washington's
enemy (3, p. 40), the greatest force of colo- opinion
nial troops available at any time was 89,000, and at no
time was Washington able to secure an effective force of
20,000 men ( I , p. 99) . Says Washington in a letter to the
President of Congress, bearing date of August 20, 1780:
"Had we formed a permanent army in the beginning,
which by the continuance of the same men in service, had
been capable of discipline, we never should have had to
retreat with a handful of men across the Delaware in 1776,
trembling for the fate of America, which nothing but the
infatuation of the enemy could have saved; we should
not have remained all the succeeding winter at their mercy,
with sometimes scarcely a sufficient body of men to mount
the ordinary guards, liable at every moment to be dissi-
pated, if they had only thought proper to march against us;
we should not have been under the necessity of fighting
Brandywine, with an unequal number of raw troops, and
39° The World War
afterwards of seeing Philadelphia fall a prey to a victorious
army; we should not have been at Valley Forge with less
than half the force of the enemy, destitute of everything,
in a situation neither to resist nor to retire; we should not
have seen New York left with a handful of men, yet an
overmatch for the main army of these states while the
principal part of their force was detached for the reduction
of two of them; we should not have found ourselves this
spring so weak as to be insulted by five thousand men,
unable to protect our baggage and magazines, their security
depending on a good countenance and a want of enterprise
in the enemy; we should not have been the greatest part
of the war inferior to the enemy, indebted for our safety
to their inactivity, enduring frequently the mortification
of seeing inviting opportunities to ruin them pass un-
improved for want of a force which the country was com-
pletely able to afford." (i.)
Our school histories tell us of the wonderful burst
of patriotism which came at the outbreak of the
Revolution, and that this was nowhere so
The Revolu-
tionary marked as in New England. Let General
Washington tell us of the real condition
when he was trying to raise troops in New England.
On November n, 1775, he wrote that officers sent in
their names in expectation of promotion, and that
others stood aloof to see what advantages were to come
to them. Soldiers would not enlist until they knew
just what officers they were to have. Writing on
November 28, 1775, he said:
4<I am sorry to be necessitated to mention to you the
egregious want of public spirit which reigns here. Instead
of pressing to be engaged in the cause of their country,
which I vainly flattered myself would be the case, I find
we are likely to be deserted in a most critical time."
I
The Teaching of Patriotism 391
A little later he wrote :
"Such a dearth of public spirit and such a want of virtue,
such stock- jobbing and fertility in all the low arts to obtain
advantages of one kind or another in this great change of
military arrangement, I never saw before, and pray God's
mercy that I may never be witness to again" (i, p. 94).
Our grammar school histories have also greatly
distorted the attitude taken by the mother
England's
country in the Revolutionary War, and thus attitude
done much to arouse antipathy and hatred.
Says George L. Knapp:
'Our school histories tell us of the strong pro- American
stand of Burke and Fox, but they do not tell us that the
sentiments of these intellectual giants were shared by hosts
of lesser men. Yet such was the case. The war was forced
on the colonies by the Tories, and by the King as foremost
of Tories; but the great majority of the non-Tory popula-
tion of Britain deplored and condemned it. Camden wrote
to Chatham in 1775: 'The landed interests are almost al-
together anti-American, though the common people hold
the war in abhorrence, and the merchants and tradesmen
for obvious reasons are likewise against it. ' (4.)
Said Sir George Trevelyan, the distinguished author
of The American Revolution:
"The war was marked by a feature unique in English
history. Not a few officers of every grade, who were, for
the most part, distinguished by valor and ability, flatly
refused to serve against the colonies. And their scruples
were respected by their countrymen in general, and by the
King and his ministers as well. . . . The American war,
from the outset to the finish, was an open question in
English society. A general or colonel who had refused to
392 The World War
take a command lived pleasantly and comfortably among
his country neighbors." (5, pt. ii., vol. ii., p. 211.)
Our war with England in 1812 was, as regards land
Military battles, far the most disgraceful from a mili-
of tary standpoint of all our wars, though you
WarofiSxa :* J
will find in our texts a somewhat different
story. Says General Leonard Wood of this war :
"
We had apparently learned very little from the lessons
of the Revolution. The war, taken as a whole, was a series
of disasters and reverses on land, many of them
of 1812 highly discreditable in character. Our record
generally a£ sea was much better, and we gained many
disgraceful
notable successes. . . . The gallant action at
Lundy's Lane, where there was a strong nucleus of Regu-
lars, and minor successes on the Thames formed the bulk
of our creditable actions on land during the period of the
war." (i, p. 130.)
The battle of New Orleans, though one of the most
remarkable victories in our entire military history,
General Wood does not here include, for the reason
that it had no bearing upon the issue of the war, being
fought two weeks after peace had been signed at Ghent.
It probably reflects our school teaching of history
that until I passed through the village and heard men-
tion of the battle of Bladensburg I did not
of Americans know that such a battle was included in our
atBiadens- history, though it was one of the most
disastrous that America has ever suffered.
A column of 1500 British troops after an exhaustive
march from the Chesapeake toward the American
capital here met five thousand fresh American troops
of the Bryan variety, mostly militia hastily gathered
to oppose them. The President and the Cabinet
The Teaching of Patriotism 393
officials had gone out from Washington to view the
battle, but after a mere show of making a stand and
having had but eight men killed and eleven wounded,
almost the entire five thousand, including the President
and Cabinet officials, joined in a general stampede and
allowed the enemy to sack the national capital. There
can have been few military engagements so disgraceful
in the world's history, but the price paid would not
have been so great had we learned its lesson (2, p. 14).
At Detroit 1800 Americans surrendered without a
fight to 720 British and 600 Indians. At Plattsburg
13,000 Americans fell back before 2000
Battles of
British. We had enrolled in this war more Detroit and
than 500,000 men to meet 67,000 sent against
us, our enemies moreover fighting on foreign soil.
Both Admiral Mahan and Woodrow Wilson, the
latter writing when a professor of history, have de-
clared that America should in 1812 have America
entered the great struggle against autocracy should have
which Great Britain was then waging in France, not
Europe. The British Orders in Council England
which irritated the American colonists, and which were
as a matter of fact withdrawn before the war began,
were no more obnoxious than Napoleon's Berlin and
Milan decrees, which forbade commerce with Great
Britain on pain of confiscation of the vessels; but the
colonists still retained the old rancor against England
and gratitude toward France. Even the impressment
of American seamen, which was the main cause of our
entering the war, had some sort of justification. In
order to maintain the great blockade fleet which was
pressing upon the vitals of France, British seamen in
great numbers were essential, and the slackers were
fleeing to the colonies, where each American port did
394 The World War
a thriving business in false naturalization papers.
There was naturally much resentment in England, and
a, strong temptation under these circumstances for a
British captain to disregard all documents and seize
men on American vessels whom he believed to be in
reality British subjects.
It is worth recalling that the Treaty of Peace signed
at Ghent made no mention of the impressment of
seamen which had been the main cause of the war,
though Britain herself voluntarily relinquished it, its
incentive having disappeared with the fall of Napoleon.
During the first year of the Civil War there were
few battles in the sense in which that term is used
The abroad by military men, but only conflicts
American between armed mobs. Gradually an army
Civil War
and a competent body of officers were trained
on both Northern and Southern sides.
The number of deserters from various causes through-
out the war is one which almost surpasses belief. The
official records of the War Department show that one
year after the war began there was one Union soldier
absent for about every five present, a year later one
man was absent for about every three present, in the
third year one was absent for every two and a half
present, and in the last year one absent for less than
two present. This is very surprising, since the number
of desertions increased when the army was in other
respects gaining greatly in efficiency (6).
The South early was driver, to conscription; and
when, later, the North had adopted the system, it
was able with its much greater resources to overcome
the South. The North sent two and a half million
of soldiers against about a million from the South.
When the war closed we had, North and South, an
The Teaching of Patriotism 395
army of seasoned troops which could, if combined,
have met with success any army in Europe; and it
was a recognition of this fact which promptly halted
the menace to the Monroe Doctrine which had been
raising its head in Mexico due to the machinations of
Napoleon III. Not only this lesson that the posses-
sion of an effective military force may settle a dispute
which must otherwise lead to bloodshed, is here en-
forced, but also the lesson that a nation is not mili-
taristic merely because it possesses armed forces of
great efficiency. The great army which, at the close
of the war, passed in review at the National Capital,
melted away imperceptibly into the homes of the
country; which gives the lie to the statement that we
put ourselves in jeopardy in a truly democratic country
through providing the military forces necessary for
our defense — and not for defense only in the narrower
sense of the term, but in order to play our part in the
world's struggles for freedom and the rights of man
wherever they may be waged.
It is the opinion of a competent military historian
that had the North possessed an army of 60,000 men,
the Civil War would have been stopped at its very
inception (7, p. 21), instead of costing us at the North
alone, besides all the lives lost in the conflict, the
stupendous sum of $5,371,079,778 and an additional
$4,457,974,496 expended in pensions — nearly $10,000,-
000,000 in all (3, p. 150).
The official attitude of Britain and that of the
British aristocrats was during the Civil War in sym-
pathy with the South; and for permitting Theattitude
the Alabama and other Confederate cruisers of Great
to fit out in her ports in defiance of neutrality
laws, Britain paid, when the so-called "Alabama claims '
396 The World War
were adjusted, a penalty beyond all reason — a sum so
large that millions of dollars still remain unclaimed in
the United States Treasury.
It was altogether natural that the planter class in
the South and the British landowners should be in
sympathy, but, further, the blockade of the South by
the Union navy cut off from England the cotton supply
for her mills and thus brought poverty and actual
starvation to thousands of the Lancashire spinners. It
is to the eternal credit of the British working people
that their love of liberty and their hatred of slavery
triumphed over their hardships and suffering. Mr.
Charles Francis Adams wrote in May, 1861: "The
feeling toward the United States is improving in the
higher circles here. It never was otherwise than
friendly among the people at large." Charles Darwin
wrote to Asa Gray: 'I have not seen nor heard of a
soul who is not with the North." There was later,
after the Northern defeats, a serious doubt whether
the North would ultimately conquer, and Darwin
then wrote to Gray : ' ' I hope to God that we English
are utterly wrong in doubting whether the North can
conquer the South."
The effect of the blockade of the South upon the
cotton industry of Britain was terrible. Says Knapp:
" I have no hesitation in saying that the Federal blockade
of the South caused more distress in many dis-
tricts of Britain than the Germans have been
of the cotton able to produce with all their submarines. It
was distress that struck less deeply at the national
life, to be sure, but it was bitter and terrible." (4.)
When conditions were at the worst, Spurgeon stood
up in his great tabernacle and prayed: "God bless the
U
The Teaching of Patriotism 397
North: give victory to her arms," and the vast con-
gregation responded with a mighty "Amen."
On December 31, 1863, at a great mass meeting of
the distressed workingmen of Manchester, a resolution
of sympathy was passed and forwarded to President
Lincoln, to which he replied :
'Under the circumstances I cannot but regard your
decisive utterances upon the question as an instance of
sublime Christian heroism, which has not been
... . T, . Lincoln'*
surpassed in any age or in any country. It is letter to the
indeed an energetic and reinspiring assurance of Manchester
the inherent power of truth, and of the ultimate
and final triumph of justice, humanity and freedom. I do
not doubt that the sentiments you have expressed will be
sustained by your great nation; and on the other hand,
I have no hesitation in assuring you that they will excite
admiration, esteem, and reciprocal feelings of friendship
among the American people. I hail this interchange of
sentiment, therefore, as an augury that whatever else may
happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country or
my own, the peace and friendship which now exist between
the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make
them, perpetual." (8, p. 496.)
It is a pleasure to be able to record that private citi-
zens in the North sent several shiploads of food to
Liverpool for the relief of the starving workmen (9, p. 2).
It has recently been well said of national character-
istics :
'We of America do not like England as well as we do
France, and probably never will. She is not so likable a
party. France is the most artistic of nations. National
England, like ourselves, still suffers from the character-
art-destroying blight of Puritanism. The French
have a marvelous gift for straight thinking, but they state
398 The World War
their conclusions diplomatically. The English are not
even as straight thinkers as we are, but if they have any-
thing unpleasant to say, they are the straightest talkers on
earth. We are sensitive without being shy, and they are
shy without being sensitive; we are obstreperous and they
are crusty; we are eager to be admired and they take it
for granted that everybody admires them. . . . But we
trust them and wish them well, and they do the same by
us; and the British Empire and the American Republic
have more interests in common and more ties to bind them
together than any two wholly separate states have had
since the sun of liberty set on Ancient Greece." (4.)
Many will say that I should not dwell upon the un-
pleasant facts in our history, and will urge rather that
I recall those more agreeable incidents, the
individual acts of heroism which make inter -
esting reading and listening and draw the
people's attention. It is more than prob-
able that a publishing house anxious to introduce its
history texts into the schools, would not choose to
insert in its books such incidents as the disgraceful
battle of Bladensburg. School committees when con-
stituted as they have often been in the past in many
of our large cities, from whence of course the publisher's
profit is derived, would be inclined to reject such a text
in favor of a less true but more creditable record. None
the less we have our false teaching of history to blame
that platform orators like Mr. Bryan have been able
to declare to the accompaniment of thunderous ap-
plause that we in America can raise an army of a
million men overnight for the purpose of repelling in-
vasion, though sixteen months after the declaration
of war on Germany our army in Europe had been
fighting with borrowed artillery, borrowed machine
The Teaching of Patriotism 399
guns, borrowed rifles, borrowed aeroplanes, borrowed
shells, etc., and in fact almost all of its equipment.
This series of lectures will have been delivered in
vain if it has not been made clear that our nation
cannot assimilate its immigrants of alien Language
stock unless there is maintained for all the instruction
people alike the use of the language in which
our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence
have been written, and which has ever been the official
language of the country. The foreign-language pa-
rochial school, which aims to maintain the use of the
language and culture of a foreign state, has no proper
place among our institutions, and it should be abolished
without further delay. Despite all pretense it has
been established and it exists to-day for the purpose of
fostering foreignism within our borders (10).
As regards the teaching of German in the higher
grades of our public schools, I believe that though
plausible arguments might be set up for retaining such
teaching, the consideration of the morale of the nation
at this time is the crucial argument for its abolishment.
It very likely will return, but not with its late greatly
exaggerated importance in the curriculum. It will
then assume its natural and proper value, and, most
important of all, it will be taught by those who are
one hundred per cent. Americans.
Autocratic governments go to much trouble to im-
part to their youth in the schools the high virtues
which are assumed to inhere in emperors,
No patriotic
kings, and princes, to the end that they may instruction
command the allegiance of their subjects;
whereas we in America, who enjoy a heritage of liberty
beyond all price, make not the slightest effort to trans-
mit the knowledge of more than one, or at most two,
4OO The World War
incidents of our long and glorious history. Even
these are usually set forth in a manner to mislead, and
so as to take away the power of gauging their true
importance. Our youth are taught that they inherit
their religious liberties from the Pilgrim fathers who
were compelled to flee from England, and their politi-
cal liberties from their Revolutionary ancestors who
fought the tyrannical England. Their far greater heri-
tage as Anglo-Saxons and as members of the English-
speaking race is not so much as mentioned.
There are at least nine inalienable rights which have
been purchased through the bitter struggles of men to
The ri hts whom the liberties acquired for those who
wrested from came after counted far more than their own
personal safety. These rights are: (i) the
right of representative government; (2) the right of
settling disputes in courts of law; (3) the right of trial
by jury; (4) the right of habeas corpus; (5) the right
of free speech; (6) the right of free schools; (7) the
right of a free press; (8) the right of exemption from
taxation except as imposed by act of one's own Parlia-
ment ; (9) the right of freedom of worship.
Some of these rights of free men go back in their
origin to our early Anglo-Saxon ancestors who lived in
the heart of the German forests, and they have been
for longer or shorter periods lost, and then recovered
only at great cost. Others were won in Old England
through the courageous acts of men whose names are
inscribed upon the honor roll of the ages; and still
others, and comparatively few, have been achieved for
us Americans since our ancestors came to this country.
Powerful autocrats have appeared in all ages who
would wrest from the people their dearly bought liber-
ties; and it is that people only which knows the price
The Teaching of Patriotism 401
of its liberties that can be trusted to defend them
against usurpation. All the liberties above
enumerated are to-day the common heritage
of the English-speaking race, and we have a race
patriotism
right to point with pride to this undeniable
fact. This is our English-speaking race patriotism.
Notwithstanding our noble heritage, we have brought
up our children to hatred of England, encouraged in
this by the Irish and German elements in
Hatred of
our population. Through clever selection of England
the reading exercises printed in the texts
of secondary schools, and through a distortion of the
facts in our histories, this seed has been sown and has
borne bitter fruit. The influence of the beautiful
love story of "Evangeline" in Longfellow's poem, which
describes the deportation of a village of Acadian farm-
ers quite without notice has played a not inconsider-
able r61e in fanning this flame of hatred. Where should
one look for description of the many incidents which have
shown that blood is thicker than water and that England
has proven herself the true friend both of America and
of human liberty? Where is there recognition of the
fact that our peace and prosperity for generations we
owe to the support given the Monroe Doctrine, almost
our only national policy, by the British Government,
whose navy has been the mistress of the seas?
The debt which we owe to England has been both
justly and forcefully presented by an Ameri- America»g
can lawyer, Mr. Lucius B. Swift, of the debt to
Indianapolis bar, in a little pamphlet en-
titled America's Debt to England, in which we read:
"They [the rights of free men] did not come like summer
breezes. .Most of them came in storm and stress. The
autocrat is always and everywhere. He did his best to
26
402 The World War
master the English-speaking race and failed. For many
centuries Anglo-Saxon skies resounded with combat for
liberty. . . .
' The German in Germany learned nothing of this. Dur-
ing all those centuries, liberty was dumb in Germany; the
only sound was the sound of the glory of a ruler passing by.
The German who lands upon the shores of America to-day
finds here that liberty the germ of which his ancestors in
the German forests had and lost, and which the Angles,
the Saxons, and the Jutes carried into England and handed
down to us. The German ought to cry out: 'At last I
am home again ! I here enjoy the full growth of that liberty
which was lost in Germany but which the English-speaking
race with its strong arm has preserved for all the modern
world!' No other race had such a record. Other races
have their own reasons for pride, but this record is the
peculiar and the crowning glory of the English-speaking
race." (n, p. 13.)
Since then Lexington and Concord, important as
they are in marking milestones on the road of progress,
The people do not ^x tne starting point of our liberties,
against we need to study the early and greater battles
in the history of the rights of man. Every-
one should know that representative government
comes to us across a stretch of fifteen hundred years
from the German forests, where it flourished in the
hundred-moot, the shire-moot, and the folk-moot,
corresponding to the increasingly large assemblies of
the people. From there it was carried to England, to
be lost under the Norman Conqueror but recovered in
the Council of the Norman kings; so that the English
people developed the English Parliament, upon which
the American Congress, with important modifications,
was eventually modeled. The fight to maintain
parliamentary government in England against reac-
The Teaching of Patriotism 403
tionary kings who would rule in defiance of it was a
long and stormy one, but against Charles I. the people
rallied under a Cromwell and Charles was sent to the
block. Long before this, however, the English people
had demanded of their king a written record of the
rights which they had already held for centuries and
hich they had ever guarded against invasion by kings.
When the Magna Charta was presented to King John
at Runnymede, he declared: 'I will never grant such
liberties as will make me a slave," and it
was only when the people rose in their might
that he signed. Like other autocrats he then regarded
the document he had signed as a scrap of paper. He
therefore brought in foreign troops in order that he
might have his will, and for eighty years the struggle
for democracy against autocracy went on in England
until at last Edward I. surrendered to the people. This
right of the people, and not the king, to rule, our fore-
fathers brought with them to America, and every
immigrant arriving at our shores comes into full en-
joyment of this priceless privilege.
Before the revolution in France it had been the
custom through making use of so-called lettres de cachet
to throw into prison persons whom the king The right
or his powerful courtiers did not like. Men of habeas
innocent of any wrongdoing languished in
the Bastille, unless or until, perchance, some powerful
friend took an interest in their fortunes. A similar
practice obtained in England in early times, and even
to-day in Germany there is so-called * ' preventive arrest' '
which accomplishes the same purpose. To-day in
English-speaking countries no man can be lawfully
detained in prison save on the judgment of his peers;
but how few of us have been taught how this right
404 The World War
of habeas corpus was obtained, and how after the right
of citizens to imprison a man at their will had been
taken away, another fight had to be waged before the
king was forced to obey the same law as his subjects?
It was a struggle lasting 464 years from the signing of
Magna Charta to 1679, when the right was at last
wrung from kings that not even their orders could
stand against a writ of habeas corpus. When the Ameri-
can Constitution incorporated the right of habeas
corpus, it was thought not to need definition, but to-day
it carries little meaning to our American youth unless
they have been taught its significance either in the
schools or at home.
The reason our Revolutionary forefathers raised
such a storm of protest against the Stamp Act and
were even willing to go to war rather than
without* De taxed without representation, was be-
cause their English fathers and grandfathers
tion
had throughout centuries carried out the
same fight in the old country in order to make sure
that they should never be taxed save through laws
which they or their representatives had had a part
in making; and this fight, carried over to American
soil, was finally settled at Yorktown. It was because
a German King and his reactionary minister, Lord
North, oppressed the colonies, that the Revolutionary
War was fought against the will of the majority of the
British people, and the victory of Yorktown is to be
ascribed quite as much to the tiiumph of the anti-Tory
party in Britain in that year as to purely military
considerations. Said Washington: " American Free-
dom is at stake; it seems highly necessary that some-
thing should be done to avert the stroke and maintain
the liberty which we have derived from our ancestors.'
The Teaching of Patriotism 405
Says George L. Knapp of the American colonists :
"Partly because they were drawn from the most radical
part of the British population, partly because of the oppor-
tunities afforded by their New World environment, they
had gone farther than their brethren of the old home, but
they were marching on the same road. ... ' British rights
shall ne'er be lost, ' ran a line of the song which celebrated
the Boston Tea Party; and British rights the colonists
were battling for when they started the fight which took
them out of the British Empire." (4, p. i.)
The settlement of disputes in courts of law, the trial
of a man for his life by a jury of twelve men, and the
whole structure of the common law built courts of
up to protect the lives and property of citi- law and
. . . trial by jury
zens against aggression, is our inheritance
from England. We need to enforce these truths by
frequent repetition until the value of this heritage of
liberty of the English-speaking race is fully realized.
The right of free speech, or criticism of rulers who
defy either the law or the expressed will of the people,
is one that has been dearly bought, and
. The ngtt
many brave spirits have well-nigh suffered of free
martyrdom to secure it. John Hampden
languished in prison for his bold defiance of tyranny,
even though he was a man of abundant means. When
King Henry unlawfully demanded contributions of
money, fixing the amount each man should pay, Alder-
man Reed defied the King and as a punishment was
put in the army on perilous duty. When Charles
levied special taxes unlawfully, Richard Chambers, re-
fusing to pay, was called before the King in counsel,
where he roundly scored the monarch for being more
oppressive even than the Turks. He was heavily
fined and sent to prison (n).
406 The World War
Even in modern times there has sometimes grown
up the idea, carefully fostered by rulers, that no criti-
Lincoin °*sm O]^ ^e men *n contro^ °f tne government
and free should be permitted, even though they act
contrary to the will of the people; and in
war times autocrats have taken advantage of the special
powers conferred upon them to brand such criticism
as disloyalty, however much it may have been called
forth by mismanagement or by defiance of constitu-
tional checks. We have, fortunately, the example of
Abraham Lincoln who, during our war with Mexico,
did not hesitate from his seat in Congress to castigate
President Polk for unwarranted acts committed in
the conduct of that war. In a speech delivered by
Lincoln, 'January 12, 1848, he said of a part of President
Polk's message that it "is from beginning to end the
sheerest deception." He then asks the President to
answer certain questions and continues: 'Let him
answer fully, fairly, and candidly. Let him answer
with facts and not with arguments. Let him remember
that he sits where Washington sat, and so remembering,
let him answer as Washington would answer. Let
him attempt no evasion, no equivocation.'1 One of
the best generals, he goes on to say, "for insisting upon
speaking unpalatable truths' has 'been driven into
disfavor if not disgrace by the President" and he ends
by saying that the army has done well but that the
President has blundered his work (12).
In an autocratic country like Germany, though
education is extended to the people as a whole, it is
Free education of a rather rudimentary character
schools focused upon obedience to authority and
not leading to the higher callings, to the professions,
or to commissions in the army. In the Volkschule,
The Teaching of Patriotism 407
which alone is open to the common people, the use of
German, arithmetic, religion, and some geography and
history are taught for eight years; after which course
of study the German boy enters some trade.
The boy of an aristocratic family, on the other hand,
goes to the aristocratic school — the Realgymnasium —
where there is a tuition to be paid, where foreign lan-
guages, higher mathematics, and science are taught,
and where the plan of the curriculum is so organized
as to lead to the University. The graduates of the
Gymnasium go into the professions, into the legions of
positions of the bureaucratic government service, or
else receive commissions in the army. Eight per cent,
only of the population receive this higher education
of the ruling class, and the other ninety-two per cent,
the education of the Volkschule which leads to nothing
above the social rank of the boy's father. In English-
speaking countries this barrier between classes is
removed, most of all in America and in the self-govern-
ing colonies of Great Britain, where the pioneer life
of the new country broke down the last barriers between
classes (13).
One and all, the rights of free men to-day, be they
of electing their rulers, of being tried by their peers,
of habeas corpus, free speech, free schools, or « x am ^0
free press ; they all have this in common that state "
they have been wrung from rulers who wished to im-
pose their personal rule upon the people. "L'6tat,
c'est moi" — I am the state — said Louis XIV., and at
all times since the people's liberties have been won at
such cost, there have arisen men in high office who
have by devious means tried to win back for themselves
a personal in place of a popular rule; for the people,
though familiar with their rights when they are cor-
408 The World War
rectly labeled, have sometimes been slow to detect en-
croachments which have been made under disguises.
Had we but trained our youth by placing before their
vision the terrible conditions which resulted from
personal rule in France and England in former days,
they would grow up jealous to guard their rights as
free men against every encroachment. We should
then see clearly, as some of us I fear do not, the sinister
portent in America to-day, the danger that we shall
emerge from this war shorn of our liberties as a people,
with a personal rule established in place of our popular
one; a danger that is now keenly felt by many far-
seeing Americans.
In my home city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and else-
where I have seen large and expensively printed posters
exhibiting an excellent portrait of President
dent versus Wilson against the background of an Ameri-
can flag, printed in color, and below in letters
that stood out strongly, " STAND BY THE PRESIDENT."
This poster had been printed in Ohio in defiance of
the law of that State which forbids the printing of any
face or design upon the national emblem, and was
being exhibited in the State of Michigan where it is
contrary to the flag law even to exhibit such a design.
I subsequently journeyed to Pittsburgh, and being
compelled to stop over in Mr. Baker's home city of
Cleveland, I saw in a shop window a heavy and ex-
pensive window poster with the President's portrait
printed upon it, with the words, "OUR PRESIDENT,
RIGHT OR WRONG, HE'S RIGHT." This vicious motto
was so clearly an attempt to substitute "President"
for 'Country' in the well-known saying credited to
Commodore Decatur: 'My country, right or wrong,
but right or wrong, my country," that it came to me
The Teaching of Patriotism 409
as a distinct shock. Arriving at Pittsburgh I saw in a
large shoe-shining establishment kept by Greeks, another
fine picture of Mr. Wilson printed against a patriotic
but rather lurid background of eagle, flags, etc., and
with relatively small pictures of George Washington
and Abraham Lincoln flanking it on either side. In
large letters which were wound about Mr. Wilson's
portrait, was the motto: "AMERICA, WE LOVE THEE."
The idea conveyed here is as clearly that the country
is now Mr. Wilson as it was in the two other posters,
or in the saying of Louis XIV., "I am the state."
The idea of personal, as opposed to popular, govern-
ment has now been so sedulously conveyed in other
ways that to oppose the President, even when
he is clearly in the wrong and when his error
may mean our undoing as a nation, is to incur loyalty "
his hostility and become subject to his charge
of "disloyalty."
A representative in Congress whom from years of
personal acquaintance I know to be one of the most
patriotic and loyal of American citizens and who has
been endorsed by the National Security League, for
opposing some of Mr. Wilson's views was charged
openly with disloyalty by the President, who advocated
the election of J. E. Davies, the President's personal
friend opposing Mr. Lenroot in his campaign for
United States Senator from Wisconsin. To bring
about Mr. Lenroot's defeat the Vice-President of the
United States campaigned Wisconsin charging him
with disloyalty. Public advertisements addressed by
the Democratic leaders to the soldiers at Camp Grant
were worded as follows :
"To the Wisconsin soldiers at Camp Grant: Tuesday,
April 2, you are entitled to vote for United States Senator
410 The World War
from Wisconsin to succeed Paul 0. Husting. President
Wilson, your Commander-in-Chief , desires all loyal Ameri-
cans to vote for Joseph E. Davies for United States Senator.
Davies's election means joy at Washington and gloom at
Berlin. Davies's defeat means gloom at Washington and
joy at Berlin." (14.)
When this advertisement was publicly called to the
attention of the Secretary to the President, it was
entirely ignored in a long letter which was sent in reply.
For supporting the President in his campaign,
Henry Ford, pacifist and enemy's dupe, defender of the
call to Lusitania outrage, a man of wealth who
service of spent millions to defeat preparedness of the
nation and large sums of money to re-
elect Mr. Wilson to the office of President upon the
ground that he had kept the country out of the war-
Henry Ford is personally endorsed by the Administra-
tion and requested to become a candidate for United
States Senator. Colonel House, whose pacifism is clearly
outlined in his inspired biography recently published
(15), is ordered to prepare data for the Peace Con-
ference and will as a consequence almost automatically
become the American delegate to that Conference.
On January 14, 1917, before we entered the war, the
Administration founded a Bureau of Public Informa-
bureau ti°n an(^ placed it in charge of George Creel,
of public who has stated publicly his pride that the
information . .
United States made no preparations for this
war while the conflict raged for two and a half years
before we were forced into it. Under his control false
and misleading information has been repeatedly given
out to the public concerning the conduct of the war,
information highly colored from a political viewpoint;
and this source of misinformation has been supple-
The Teaching of Patriotism 411
mented by many official statements of the Secretary
of War. Mr. Creel's distortion of the news has been
repeatedly denounced upon the floors of Congress and
in the public press, but the opposition to renewing
his appropriations unless he was made responsible to
Congress was suppressed by the Administration and
he continues to report directly to the President.
Referring to the punishment which the government
has meted out to those few newspapers which pub-
lished the full report of the sub-committee Suppression
of the Military Affairs Committee of the of important
United States Senate which investigated the
aviation scandal, to the submission to censorship of the
Associated Press and the other news agencies, and to
the fear of small newspapers to give out any independent
report from fear of coercion, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge
has stated:
'In the light of these various facts it appears that the
United States has already reached that period of darkness
which was feared by many of us who predicted on the floor
of the Senate would arise if extra-constitutional powers
were granted to the Government. If it is possible to pre-
vent the full text and meaning of such a report as that
of the Senate sub-committee on Aviation from reaching all
classes of American voters, then how are our people, for
it is emphatically their war, to be sure that any of the
information being served to them is reliable?"
At our next national election in the fall of 1920, the
patronage evil will be enormously expanded. Here-
tofore largely restricted to the army of post-
office employees, whose vote can be influenced
to favor the party in power, this patronage of
patronage
evil will then apply also to the railroads,
express companies, telegraph and telephones, a vastly
412 The World War
enlarged army and navy, and to the great body of
labor generally. As if to forecast the character of
this menace, there has gone out from the Democratic
National Headquarters a letter signed by its Financial
Chairman, F. A. McNamee, in which the people are
enjoined to elect as senators and representatives to
Congress men ' ' who are one hundred per cent. American,
in accordance with the aims of the Administration"
Had we but a coalition-cabinet for counsel in direc-
tion of the war, as has every other allied nation, our dan-
ger would be far less serious, but none save-
Republicans . - .
excluded faithful Administration Democrats have been
direction allowed in positions of authority and direc-
ofwar tion until the rule was recently broken in
the case of Mr. Charles M. Schwab, the new
head of the Emergency Fleet Corporation. Men of
great force and ability of the opposite party, such as
ex-Presidents Taft and Roosevelt and General Leonard
Wood, have in various ways been prevented from
taking any large part in the war, and General Wood
particularly has been relentlessly persecuted by the
Administration.
The obvious will of the people has been openly defied
in demoting the most distinguished soldier and the
Persecution highest ranking officer of the United States
of General Army, and the most distinguished Admiral of
the navy has been retired from power; both
of them having dared to be earnest advocates of pre-
paredness at a time when the Administration was tell-
ing the country that it was already adequately prepared.
The people's protest against the repeated acts taken
to humiliate General Wood has been voiced in no
uncertain tones by ex-President Taft, and even the
The Teaching of Patriotism 413
President's semi-official organ, the New York World,
has condemned this exhibition of petty spite. Said
Mr. Taf t :
'When we entered the war in April, 1917, the public
supposed that General Wood would be consulted and given
an important place in the organization of the army. In-
stead he was relieved from duty at Governor's Island and
sent to Charleston. It is now known that this was per-
sonally directed by the Commander-in-Chief, probably
for the purpose of indicating displeasure at General Wood's
criticism of the policy of non-preparation." (16.)
Referring to the order which was sent to General
Wood upon the eve of his sailing for Europe, an order
which relieved him from his command without any
explanation, President Taft says: "The country is
seriously disappointed that General Wood has not
been permitted to go abroad with the division which
he has been training' (17).
When the rule of seniority in determining promo-
tions in the navy had been replaced by one based upon
fitness, the fear was expressed that this would Advancement
leave the service open to personal favoritism of the
rrvi /•» r President's
by those in authority. The first act of personal
the President under the new ruling was to physl
advance his personal physician, who was admittedly
without special qualification for promotion, to the
rank and pay of a rear-admiral in the United States
Navy. So outrageous was this act that the Senate at
first flatly refused to confirm the appointment, though
it was later compelled to do so under pressure from the
Administration.
The great syndicate of the Hearst newspapers, which
has adopted the policy of aiding our enemies and
"
414 The World War
stirring up hatred of England, has been protected, and
government speakers on the war have been kept from
The press publicly attacking this dangerous organiza-
danger Hon. On behalf of the syndicate the govern-
ment made intercession with Great Britain to remove
the ban which had been placed upon the Hearst news
by the British cable service (17).
Congress has been effectually prevented from exer-
cising its will in opposition to the President, however
The « dis- much in the right it may be, through a com-
bination of methods of which the Administra-
tion label of "disloyal* is by far the most
effective. In many States the President has inter-
vened to denounce or to endorse candidates for Con-
gress or the United States Senate, according as they
have opposed or have favored his policies (18).
These are some, but they are by no means all of the
indications that an autocrat has already assumed
personal government through taking advantage of the
opportunity afforded by the war to seize all the reins
of power.
In delivering a course of lectures on patriotism in
this great crisis, I should be false to my trust if I did
not warn you, with all the earnestness of which I am
capable, of this glaring menace to our liberties. My
action is far removed from party politics. I would
draw your attention to the fact that though Mr. Wilson
has asked that politics be adjourned for the period of
the war, the opposing political party, though not al-
lowed to participate actively in the conduct of the
war, is supporting the President loyally, and that the
opposition to him has largely come from the more
independent element in his own political party.
Colonel Henry Watterson, veteran Democrat and
The Teaching of Patriotism 415
late editor of the Louisville Courier -Journal, in a
recent editorial said:
"That war involves autocracy I understand well enough,
but in the field, not in the White House; over the interna-
tional situation, not over our domestic affairs. The Presi-
dent, though Commander-in-Chief of the Army, is still the
servant of the people, and should hold himself to the
Constitution, and be held to it, not above it. Else wise we
have a Diaz." (19.)
It is, I believe, my duty to urge you to be watchful
of a man who would make government personal, who
would, with much beautiful speech concerning keeping
the world safe for democracy, force us into an autocracy
while our attention is temporarily distracted by the
immediate menace of a world autocrat in Europe. If
this warning seem to any of you to be treason, I can
only say, "Make the most of it."
REFERENCES
1. WOOD, GENERAL LEONARD, Our Military History, its Facts and
Fallacies, pp. 240, Chicago, Reilley & Britton, 1916.
2. UPTON, GENERAL EMORY, Epitome of Upton's Military Policy of
the U. S.t pp. 23, U. S. War Department, Government Printing
Office, 1916.
3. HUIDEKOPER, FREDERIC L., The Military Unpreparedness of the
United States, a history of American Land Forces from Colonial
Times to June I, 1915, Introduction by Major-General Leonard
Wood, pp. 735, New York, Macmillan, 1915.
4. KNAPP, GEORGE L., Britain and America, American Rights League,
Bull., No. 41, Feb., 1918, pp. 8.
5. TREVELYAN, SIR GEORGE OTTO, The American Revolution, vol.
ii., pt. ii., pp. 211.
6. MUNSON, MAJOR EDWARD L., Military Absenteeism in War, with
special reference to the relation of the Medical Department
thereto. Reprint from Military Surgeon, May, June, and July,
1912, Washington, D. C., Association of Military Surgeons,
1912, pp. 77.
416 The World War
7. JOHNSTON, R. M., "The Ounce of Prevention, Switzerland versus
Belgium, with a lesson for the United States," pp. 17-23,
Century Magazine, vol. Ixviii., 1915.
8. RAYMOND, HENRY J., The Life and Public Services of Abraham
Lincoln, pp. 808, New York, Derby, 1865.
9. PUTNAM, GEORGE HAVEN, Labor and the War, American Rights
League, Bull., No. 40, 1918, pp. 2.
10. HOBBS, WILLIAM H., "A Pioneer Movement for Americanization,"
The Outlook, April 24, 1918, p. 666.
11. SWIFT, Lucius B., America's Debt to England, the Failure to Teach
the Foundations of Liberty, pp. 31, Indianapolis, 1917.
12. ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, "Lincoln and Free Speech," pp. 7-8,
Metropolitan Magazine, May, 1918. See also New York Times,
Jan. 25, 1918.
13. JUDD, CHARLES H., Democracy and American Schools, University
of Chicago War Paper No. 7, 1918, pp. 15.
14. Letter of Will H. Hays, Chairman, Republican National Com-
mittee, to Secretary Tumulty, and the latter's reply, New York
Times, Sept. 13, 1918. See also Senator Lodge on "News
Suppression," New York Times.
15. SMITH, ARTHUR D. HOWDEN, The Real Colonel House, New York,
Doran, 1918, chapters xvii. and xxiii.
1 6. New York Times, May 21, 1918, Detroit Free Press, Sept. I and 7,
1918. See also "The Amazing Case of General Wood," Scien-
tific American, June 15, 1918, p. 542.
17. New York Tribune, June 23, 1918; New York Times, June 25,
August 5 and 8, 1918.
1 8. Editorial in Detroit Free Press, September 7, 1918.
19. WATTERSON, HENRY, Louisville Courier- Journal, Feb. 21, 1918.
20. STOCKTON, RICHARD, JR., Peace Insurance, Chicago, McClurg,
1915, chap, x., "The Military History of the United States,"
pp. 143-158-
21. OLIVER, FREDERICK SCOTT, Alexander Hamilton, an Essay on
American Union, pp. 502, London, Constable, 1906.
22. FISKE, JOHN, The War of Independence, pp. 200, Cambridge,
Riverside Press.
23. HATCH, Louis CLINTON, The Administration of the American Re-
volutionary Army, pp. 229, New York, Longmans, 1904.
24. UPTON, GENERAL EMORY, The Military Policy of the United States,
Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1912, pp. 495.
25. BRECK, EDWARD, Lessons in American History, Navy League
Pamphlet No. 65, 1916, pp. 12.
26. READ, CONYERS, England and America, University of Chicago
War Paper No. 6, pp. 14.
The Teaching of Patriotism 417
27. BARRY, RICHARD, "Senator Lodge on News Suppression," New
York Sunday Times t September i, 1918, Editorial Section, p. 3.
28. "Vote of Confidence in President Moved," New York Times,
Oct. 1 8, 1918.
29. POWERS, H. H., America and Britain, pp. 76, New York, Mac-
millan, 1918.
30. DICKSON, HARRIS, The Unpopular History of the United States by
Uncle Sam Himself, pp. 162, New York, Stokes, 1917.
31. WEST, HENRY L., Federal Power, its Growth and Necessity, pp. 216,
New York, Doran, 1918.
27
AFTERWORD
NEW YEAR'S DAY, 1919
HP HE attempt to deal with the history of any period
A of storm and stress while it is in progress, comes
under the handicap of the hurried march of events,
and never so much as now in the greatest crisis of
history.
The lectures reproduced in the foregoing pages, with
the exception of XII., were written and delivered in the
months of July and August, 1918. As they have gone
into type during the closing months of the year, in a few
instances the tense of verbs has been changed from the
future to the past where events referred to have passed
into history. In addition, the lists of references have
been extended by the admission of new material, but,
in the main, — and this is true especially of the later
lectures, — they have been left in the form in which they
were delivered, even though much might have been
added in the way of amplification. It is a satisfaction
to be able to say that in little would their character
have been changed by the inclusion of events which
have transpired during the succeeding four and one
half momentous months.
The menace of internationalism in its Russian form
of Bolshevism, which was developed in lecture XVIII. ,
has been shown to be perhaps as great even as was
Prussianism, which, now defeated in the field, we
418
Afterword 419
devoutly hope is to be given the coup de grdce at the
peace council.
Mr. Wilson's delay in joining with the allied nations to
intervene against Russian Bolshevism, and his evident
desire to foist state socialism upon the United States
through retaining control of certain great public utili-
ties while upon various pretexts he is seizing others —
these and other acts have caused him to be acclaimed in
France as the leader of socialist elements, which doubt-
less hope to exploit his influence to their advantage in
opposition to the French Government.
The autocratic claims against which in August last
I made protest have since assumed more offensive
forms, notably in the President's request that in the
elections to the Reconstruction Congress the people
should vote for those senators and representatives that
have supported without questioning the Wilson Ad-
ministration, whatever may have been their attitude
upon vital war issues. This request of the President
was made a paramount issue at the polls and received
the rebuke which it merited in the defeat of most of
those candidates for reelection whom the President
had specifically named as falling within this category,
as it did by the defeat of the ultra-pacifist, Henry
Ford, for whose election to the United States Senate
the Administration and an important department of
the government had labored assiduously.
The harmony so essential to success in the delibera-
tions of the peace council has been threatened by Mr.
Wilson's evident desire to dominate and to insist that
his formula of " fourteen points,' deftly flung out a
full year ago, shall have the authority almost of Holy
Writ. His utterances, official and unofficial, and the em-
anations from the official press bureau, have conveyed
420 The World War
the impression that the responsible representatives
of the allied governments and the American people-
nay, even the land and sea forces of the United States,
who are forbidden to express an opinion — approve
these principles. While steadfastly refusing to further
enlighten the American Congress concerning the na-
ture of these principles, and appointing himself the
head of the nation's peace delegation, in defiance of
traditions and of the protest which has been voiced,
Mr. Wilson has journeyed to Europe in great state,
where he has courted and has received the deference
and the attentions usually paid to crowned potentates.
France and England have each in turn given to their
formal receptions of the head of the American Republic
a degree of distinction and a wholeheartedness of
expression which must be a source of satisfaction to
every patriotic American, — an expression which is an
evidence that the drawing together of the democratic
nations in this supreme crisis has rested upon a sure
foundation.
Heretofore, the allied governments have said little
regarding their peace terms, leaving to Mr. Wilson a
monopoly of the field; but as I write on this opening
day of the New Year, the festivities and the shoutings
are approaching an end, and for the first time the
substance of the allied peace terms begins to emerge.
Returned to power in the first general elections since
before the war, and by the overwhelming majority of
no less than two hundred seats in Parliament, with
pacifists and socialists swept into retirement, Premier
Lloyd George now speaks as never before with the
firm backing of an undivided British nation. The
German doctrine of freedom of the seas, exploited by
Mr. Wilson as one of his fourteen points, was made a
Afterword 42 1
distinct issue in these elections, and now that its repudia-
tion has been determined upon, may be considered as
effectually disposed of. On an earlier occasion, Lloyd
George has made clear that his idea of a league of
nations is the one already in existence.
In the French Chamber Premier Clemenceau has out-
lined some of the French peace aims, and in no uncer-
tain terms has declared against freedom of the seas, and
against the universal league of nations espoused by Mr.
Wilson, but in favor of that league of democratic na-
tions which the war has brought into being — a league
which he has described by the old term of balance of
power.
Against noisy opposition the "old tiger' stood up
on the tribune and declared :
'People say, 'Premier Lloyd George has spoken, Presi-
dent Wilson has spoken, but you have said nothing.' I
have given explanations whenever you have asked me. But
it isn't because Mr. Lloyd George has spoken, or because
Mr. Wilson has arrived from America with elevated thoughts
that I am obliged to explain myself and keep running to the
rostrum.
"France has an especially difficult situation. It was the
country nearest Germany. America was far away and
took her time to come into the war. England came at once
at the call of Mr. Asquith. We suffered and fought, our
men were mowed down and our towns and villages were
destroyed.
'There is an old system of alliances called the 'balance
of power.' It seems to be condemned nowadays, but if
such a balance had preceded the war; if England, the
United States, France, and Italy had agreed, say, that who-
ever attacked one of them, attacked the whole world, the
war would not have occurred. This system of alliances,
422 The World War
which I do not renounce, will be my guiding thought at the
Peace Conference, if your confidence sends me there. '
The vote of confidence which followed developed an
altogether overwhelming majority, and so the socialists'
attempt to form a cleavage in favor of Mr. Wilson's
program proved to be a noisy but futile fiasco. At the
first opportunity, in a speech made at Manchester, Mr.
Wilson flung back the retort — did he speak by ' * divine
right" as when before the joint houses of Congress he
declared that Peace without Victory was American
principle and American policy?- 'the United States
. . . will join no combination of Powers which is not a
combination of all of us."
But here upon the impasse which had arrived the
news camouflage closed in remorselessly. An article in
the "Thunderer" implied soothingly that Mr. Wilson's
idea of the League of Nations — one to include Germany,
Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, China, etc. — and that of
Clemenceau were really the same ; and the news columns
began to fill with accounts of the preparations for the
next lap of the President's triumphal march, this time
into Italy. Secretary Daniels now issues the absurd
statement that unless we form a universal league of
nations as urged by Mr. Wilson, we must resign our-
selves to the prospect of having 'incomparably the
biggest navy in the world " ; a threat which one of
Mr. Wilson's staff writers had already given out was
'the pistol in his hip pocket' which was to bring
Europe to terms.
Germany, eagerly listening for dissensions within the
allied council and hoping for the entry of a wedge be-
tween the victorious Powers, hears the noisy outburst
of the socialists in the French Chamber, but can derive
Afterword 423
little comfort from the result of the vote of confidence
or from the British general elections, which have given
the Government the most solid backing which British
history records.
On the heels of these reports from England and
France comes one from Italy that the socialist elements
have been signally defeated in the Italian Chamber,
and that the Orlando-Sonnino ministry, working in har-
mony with France and England, has come out of the
parliamentary crisis with flying colors.
Thus not only freedom of the seas and the universal
league of nations seem sure to be turned down at the
Peace Conference, but those reparations from Germany
which were so conspicuously lacking in the fourteen
points are now certain to be exacted. Another obnox-
ious 'point,' the demand that no economic barriers
shall be erected against Germany, is also likely to be
defeated. As long ago as June, 1916, the allied nations
reached unanimous agreement upon this question,
which they will insist upon in order to insure that the
ravaged territory shall be reclaimed and their own
peoples rehabilitated.
But if the fourteen points are meeting with little
favor in the allied conference, they have been en-
thusiastically espoused in Germany by such notable
pan-German leaders as Count von Bernstorff and Dr.
Mathias Erzberger, and by the German press generally.
A memorandum signed by no less than 846 German pro-
fessors— nearly four times the number that signed the
notorious declaration "to the civilized world, "is urging
haste in concluding peace upon the ground that the new
American Congress will come into power after March 4th
and "likely will be dominated by Republican Imperial-
ists who will oppose Mr. Wilson's fourteen points."
424 The World War
In short, the prospect of the opening year is that
those nations which have fought the war through at
sach untold sacrifices, will, without domination by
pacifist or socialist influences, succeed in concluding a
peace which will force the world villain among the
nations to expiate his crimes, will permit the rehabilita-
tion of the ravaged countries at the expense of the
criminal rather than of his victims, and will be able
to safeguard the future by the imposition of suitable
guarantees.
A clever attempt has been made to discredit the
Allies by showing that they are actuated in the
peace programs by selfishness and greed, and that
America alone is moved by altruistic motives. This
propaganda has originated in the same quarters as did
the notion that the diplomacy of the Allies was re-
sponsible for the war; and it is certain to meet the same
contempt on the part of all those who are correctly
informed and who are not swayed by race prejudice.
While the future is not yet assured, and though it is
still possible that much that has been gained in the
war may yet be lost at the peace table, the New Year
of 1919 has lifted the curtain before a distinctly en-
couraging outlook for the world.
INDEX
Ackermann, Carl WM cited, 138
Acquired territory, German plans
to exterminate alien cultures
in, 322
Adams, Charles Francis, cited on
British feeling toward America,
396; cited, 314
Addams, Jane, an ardent pacifist,
265
Agadir, crisis of, 18; incident, 51
Alabama claims, 395
Albert, King of Belgium, his
appeal to King George, 41;
receives confidence concerning
German plot, 70
Algeciras Conference, 18
AUdeutscher Verband, see Pan-
German Union
Alsace-Lorraine, wrested from
France, 9; future not foreseen,
118; should be restored to
France, 96; protest of deputies
from, on leaving French Cham-
ber, 331, 352; German propa-
ganda concerning, 342 ; necessity
of restoring to France, 342;
culture of, 346; under the Holy
Roman Empire, 346; French
rule in, 348; during French Re-
volution, 348; the Strasbourg
address, 349; in Franco-Prus-
sian War, 350; declaration of
the deputies from, in 1871, 351;
valedictory of the deputies
from, in 1871, 352; the emigres
from, 353; in world war, 353;
government of by Germany,
354; election of "protestors"
by, 354; German propaganda
concerning, 356; a union of
provinces with differences of
speech, 381
Altschul, Charles, cited, 128
America, tardy awakening of, 91
American Bar Association Journal
cited, 288
American Civil War, cost of,
395
American Defense Society, work
of, 222; requests the President
to publish reports on defense,
223
"American Embargo Conference,"
207
"American Independence Union,"
organized to prevent shipment
of munitions, 205
American Journal of International
Law cited, 248, 250
American religious leaders against
a false peace, 287
American Rights League, work of,
222; cited, 249, 288
American Truth Society, an Irish
organization, 207
American wife of titled German,
cited, no, 127; cited on insults
of soldiers, 112; cited on the
place of German women, 113;
cited on German prohibitions,
1 20
Americanization, pioneer work in,
195
Anderson, William, cited, 19
Andler, Ch., cited, 84, 184
Angell, Norman, apostle of paci-
fism, his baneful influence, 158
Anglo-Saxon stock largely exter-
minated in Germany, 114
Archer, William, cited on German
attitude toward Belgium, 40;
cited, 20, 24, 46, 85
Army, German, undemocratic,
1 08 ; exalted social position of its
officers, 112; tyranny of drill
sergeants, 125
425
426
Index
Army, United States, General
Staff's report published, 228,
229; delay in participating in
the war, 241
Arndt, Professor Paul, cited, 14
Arnim, Countess von, see Russell,
Mary Annette
Asia Minor will probably remain
Turkish, 337
Atrocities, German, under system,
163; under pretext of reprisals,
167; in relation to success of
campaigns, 168; ordered by
High Command, 168, 174; evi-
dence from soldiers' diaries, 1 70;
summary of, for Belgium, 172;
threat of, given to Belgium, 174;
eystem in, shown by times and
places, 174, 175; in Belgium,
three stages of, 176; uniformity
•of system, 179; special devices
of destruction, 180; against
women and children, reason for,
181 ; effect on the children, 181 ;
in Armenia, 181; types of, 183;
in Belgium, dates of, 216
Australia, peaceful penetration in,
141
Austria, secret investigation of
assassins, 23; ultimatum to
Serbia, 23; declares war on
Serbia, 29; consents to discuss
matters with Russia, 30 ; ultima-
tum to Serbia, advance know-
ledge of, in Berlin, 68
Autocracy in government, 408
B
Baeyer, Professor Adolph von,
cited, 124
Bagdad Railway, state of comple-
tion of, 361
Baker, Newton D., Secretary of
War, opposes attacks on Hearst,
140; pacifist, made Secretary of
War, 230; fails to keep promise
concerning troops sent to France
245; announced "miracle" of
transport as American achieve-
ment, 246; disseminates mis-
leading information, 411; cited,
251
Balance of power of democratic
nations, advantages of, 380
Balkans must not be absorbed by
Germany, 337
Ballou, Sidney, cited, 251
Balzac, Honore" de, cited on Ger-
man conception of liberty, 356
Banco, Commerciale Italiana, its
part in peaceful penetration,
134; methods of, 135; its use of
spies, 146; its control of Gio-
litti, 159, 1 60
Bang, J. B., cited, 85
Barber, Major H. A., cited on
German plans, 55
Barbusse, Henri, defeatist book
by, 269; edits internationalist
newspaper, 269; cited, 271
Barry, Richard, cited, 417
Bashford, J. L., cited, 366
Bastille Day, an American holi-
day, 87
Bates, Mrs. Lindon W., cited, 248
Battle of Bladensburg, a stain in
our military record, 392
Battle song, German, 163
Beaufort, J. M., cited, 128
Beck, James M., cited on uncon-
stitutional rule of Mr. Wilson,
231; his comments on Peace
without Victory note, 281; on
phrases of Mr. Wilson, 285;
proposed to cancel loans to
Allies, 341; cited, 24, 46, 249,
250, 288, 366
Becker, Carl L., cited, 366
Becker Steel Company of West
Virginia, a German institution,
141
Bedier, Joseph, cited on German
atrocities, 170; cited, 183
Beer, George Louis, cited on
common characteristics of Eng-
lish-speaking peoples, 367; cited,
249, 250, 384
Beethoven's sonata, ' Universal
Edition" of, 116
Belgium, reply to German ulti-
matum, 39; neutrality guaran-
teed, 40; government not moved
by German threat of atroci-
ties, 174; period of spoliation
of, 176; invasion of, Ameri-
can attitude toward, 215; neu-
trality of, traditional British
policy to defend, 300; its spolia-
tion by Germany a preparation
Index
427
Belgium — Continued
for next war, 320; its despolia-
tion inspired by plan of future
economic control, 321; Ger-
many's plans of future annexa-
tion, 321
Below, Herr von, German Am-
bassador to Belgium, cited, 39,
40
Benedict XV., His Holiness, his
peace overture, 278; receives
peace note from Central Powers,
279; issues peace program for
the Central Powers, 286
Bennett, Arnold, his pacifist pro-
paganda, 334; cited, 363
Bennett, James O'Donnell, Ger-
manized press correspondent,
137
Bennett Law in Wisconsin, 196
Benson, E. F., cited, 148
Bentwich, Norman, cited, 314
Berchtold, Count, Austrian For-
eign Minister, cited, 46
Bernardiston, Colonel, conversa-
tion with General Ducarne, 43
Bernhardi, General F. von, cited
on relations with England, 45;
his campaign to prepare Ger-
man people for the war, 58;
revealed Germany's plans in his
writings, 256; cited, 19, 22, 46,
82,83
Bernstein, Hermann, cited on
secret correspondence, 55 ; cited,
82
Bernstorff, Count Johann von,
comparison with Count For-
gach, 26; German Ambassador
at Washington, interview after
Potsdam War Council of July
5, 1914, 77; his bribing of news-
paper men, 138; starts first
peace balloon, 225; relations
with Oswald Garrison Villard,
264; makes speeches for " free-
dom of the seas," 307, 308
Bethmann-Hollweg, Herr von,
German Chancellor, his con-
fession in Reichstag, 42; his
"scrap of paper" declaration,
44; his policy as Chancellor, 45;
his complicity in German plot,
66; his attitude on Zabern affair,
106
Bevan, Edwyn, cited, 128
Biddle, General John, cited, 385
Bigelow, Poultney, cited on
William II., 16; cited on caste
system in Germany, in; his
History of the German Struggle
for Liberty, 124; cited, 19, 127,
363
Bismarck-Schoenhausen, Prince
Otto von, wields power through
King William of Prussia, 4;
against democracy, 5; struggle
with King William at Nikols-
burg, 6; falsification of Ems
telegram, 7; imposed punitive
war indemnity on France, 9;
tries to provoke France to war
in 1875, 10; policies approved
by German people, 10; policy
after 1871, n; fails to foresee
future of Alsace-Lorraine, n;
dismissed by Kaiser, 16; gave
Germany a camouflage of free
government, 99; German con-
stitution written under his
direction, 100; governs Prussia
without constitution, 103; re-
moves democratic phases of
constitution, 107; celebration of
birthday of, at Ann Arbor,
Mich., 154; cited on anticipating
Providence, 161; reveals main-
springs of German policy, 255;
demands of France Alsace-
Lorraine, 351 ; his brutal repres-
sion of Alsace-Lorraine, 354;
cited, 19, 50
Bissing, Governor-General von,
reprimanded for leniency, 177;
cited on plan of German de-
portations, 177; cited on Bel-
gium with reference to a future
war, 317, 318; significance of his
program for Belgium, 320
Blumenthal, Daniel, cited, 364
Bohn, Frank, cited, 128
Bolshevism, its spread from
Russia, 270; its menace, '418;
aided by Mr. Wilson's delay to
join with Allies in intervening
in Russia, 419
Bosnia placed under tutelage of
Austria in 1878, 17
Botany Worsted Mills, of Passaic,
N. J., a German institution, 143
428
Index
Boy-Ed, Captain, German At-
tache" at Washington, manager
of German conspiracies, 202
Breck, Edward, cited, 416
Briey-Longwy, iron basin, 12;
iron district, seized by Ger-
many before declaring war, 82
Britain, attitude toward American
colonies, 93
British Foreign Office cited, 84,
1 86
British Palestine Committee cited,
365
Bryan, William Jennings, as Ger-
many's tool, 157; pacifist barn-
stormer, 261; cited on inter-
national police, 379; cited, 271
Bryce, Viscount James, cited, 184,
185, 385
Buelow, Prince von, Germany's
envoy to keep Italy neutral, 160;
cited, 19
Bulgaria, secret treaty with Ger-
many, 73
Bundesrat, character of, 100; real
seat of legislation, 101; really
controlled by Kaiser, 105
Bunsen, Sir Maurice de, British
Ambassador at Vienna, cited, 26
Bureaucracy, German, 107
Burgess, Prof. John W., makes
un-American statements, 257;
cited, 271
Burgfrieden, in Germany, 81;
state of siege, declared in Ger-
many, 1 06
Cabot, Richard, cited, 249
Caillaux, French politician, as
Germany's tool, 157, 158; on
trial for high treason, 159
Cambon, M. Jean, French Am-
bassador at London, reports on
support of Britain in war, 298,
299, 300
Cambon, M. Jules, French Am-
bassador at Berlin, cited, 33;
reports secret German mobiliza-
tion, 79
Cammaerts, Emile, cited, 184
Canby, H. S., cited, 385
Canfield, George F., cited, 249
"Cannon fodder," its conservation
in Germany, 113; see Man-
power, German
Caprivi, Count von, Imperial
German Chancellor, cited on
German influence in Alsace, 356
Cartel, its use in peaceful penetra-
tion, 136, 142; aids German
shipping in competition with
Britain, 291
Casablanca, crisis of, in 1911, 15
Cass, General Lewis, resigns from
Buchanan's Cabinet because of
Buchanan's pusillanimity, 237
Causes of the war, ultimate vs.
proximate, I
Chadbourne, Philip Hemenway,
cited, 128
Chamberlain, Houston Stuart,
cited as exponent of Kultur, 118
Chamberlin, T. C., cited, 385
Chancellor, German, direct repre-
sentative of the Kaiser, 106
Chapman, John Jay, cited, 85
Charlemagne, dreamer of world
empire, 4
Che'radame, Andre", cited on paci-
fism, 48; cited on France's
future in relation to the peace,
331; cited, 83, 249, 272, 288,
364, 366
Cheyney, Prof. Edward P., tries
to defeat compulsory military
training, 257
Chichester, British Admiral, sup-
ports Dewey at Manila 54, 191
Chinese boycott of American
goods a German trick, 146
Cholmondeley, Alice (pen-name),
cited, 128
Church, Samuel Harden, cited,
248, 249
Church schools, German, in United
States promote disloyalty, 200
Churchill, Winston, First Lord of
the British Admiralty, acts to
guard Entente, 297, 298; cited,
385
Clark, Victor S., cited, 128
Claudel, Paul, cited on European
trade route on 45th parallel, 362
Clemenceau, Georges, arouses
France to put down defeatism,
158; view of his organ on ad-
mitting Germany to League of
Index
429
Clemenceau — Continued
Nations, 383; declares himself
against Freedom of the Seas and
Universal League of Nations,
422
Coal, in relation to German
development, n; German sup-
plies of, necessary to rehabilita-
tion of France, 96; German
production of, 131; poverty of
France in, 343; German, pos-
sible disposition of, 343
Coar, John F., cited on German
conspiracies, 194; cited, 211
Cobb, Irvin S., cited on German
system in atrocities, 175; cited,
183
Committee on Public Information
cited, 252
Concert of Powers, effect of, 380
Conference Committee on Na-
tional Preparedness, 222, 249
Congressional Record cited, 247,
248, 249
Conscription during American
Civil War, 394
Conspiracies, German, see German
conspiracies
Constantine, King of Greece, as
Heidelberg Corps student, 156
"Continuous Voyage," principle
of, 217
Conversation, on Belgian defense,
falsification of, by Germany, 43
Cook, Sir Edward, cited, 20
Cook, Sir Theodore A., cited, 184
Corbett, Sir Julian, cited, 314
Cornish, Vaughan, cited, 365
Coudert, Frederic R., cited, 249
Coulanger, de, French historian,
cited on effect of French Revo-
lution in Alsace, 349
Coulton, G. G., cited, 248
Cramb, J. A., his warning to
Britain, 259; cited, 19
Creel, George, endorses work of
propaganda hostile to the Allies,
215, 241; advocate of Freedom
of the Seas, 303; gives out
through his official news bureau
misleading information, 410;
proclaimed his pride in lack of
preparation for war, 410; cited,
246, 253
Curtin, D. Thomas, cited, 127, 147
Cvijic, Jovan, cited, 365
Czar Nicholas of Russia, reply to
Kaiser's telegram, 31
Czecho-Slovaks, importance of
their rise as independent state,
328; should become indepen-
dent state, 335
D
Daniels, Josephus, declares Amer-
ica must accept Mr. Wilson's
plan or have "biggest navy,"
422
Danish question, 5
Darwin, Charles, cited on British
opinion during American Civil
War, 396
Davies, J. E., Mr. Wilson's candi-
date for United States Senator
in Wisconsin, 409
Davignon, Henri, cited, 184
Davis, Arthur N., cited, 277, 288
Davis, William Stearns, cited, 19
Davison, Charles Stewart, cited,
249
Dawson, Lt. Coningsby, cited, 183
Defeatism in France, 158
Defense Societies, American, their
efforts to arouse the nation to its
peril, 221, 222
Deland, Mrs. Margaret, cited on
internationalism, 370; cited, 384
Delbruck, Professor, his law or
dual allegiance, 152, 153; cited
on control of the German army,
315; cited on former German
colonies, 339
Delcasse', M., French Foreign
Minister, his resignation forced
by Germany, 57; brings about
Entente Cordiale, 57
Deltas of rivers, their r61e in
human economy, 359
Denis, E., cited, 84
Deportations, French and Belgian,
plan of, 177
Dernberg, Dr. Bernard, effect of
his campaign of propaganda,
201; cited on failure of his
propaganda campaign, 233 ;
preaches Freedom of the Seas,
in American propaganda, 307,
308
430
Index
Desertions in American Civil War,
394
Detroit Free Press cited, 248, 249,
252, 253, 271, 272, 288, 313, 363,
364, 416
Deutschtum im Ausland, 149;
see Greater Germany
Dewey, Admiral George, annoyed
by German Admiral, 54; affair
with German Admiral at Man-
ila, 190; his defense program,
229
Diaries of German soldiers,
samples of, 170
Dickson, Harris, cited, 417
Diedrichs, Admiral von, his an-
noyance of Dewey at Manila,
54; friction with Dewey at
Manila, 190
Dillon, E. J., cited on peaceful
penetration of Italy, 129, 133;
cited on peaceful penetration,
130; cited on Giolitti's attitude,
159; cited on Italian parlia-
mentary system, 160; cited, 47,
84, 147, 162
Discipline of the individual in
Germany, in
Docility of German subjects, cause
Of, 121
Dogger Bank episode interpreted,
56
Doughty, Wm. H., Jr., cited, 249
Doyle, A. Conan, cited, 250
Drang nach Osten, 54
Dreamers of world empire, Ger-
man, 3
Dual Alliance, 65
Ducarne, General, conversation
with Colonel Bernardiston, 43
Durkheim, E., cited, 84
Duryea, Nina L., cited on spiritual
force of France, 273
Dye industry, German, in relation
to manufacture of war mate-
rials, 144
Dynamite outrages in America,
work of German agents, 202
E
Eckenfelder, Major, his strictures
on Le Feu, 269; cited, 271
Economic barriers against Ger-
many, 341
Edelsheim, Freiherr von, his plans
to invade the United States, 55;
cited, 82
Edwards, George Wharton, cited,
366
Ellis, William E., cited on inter-
nationalism, 367; cited on dan-
ger of cult of internationalism,
371; cited, 384
Elst, Baron van der, Belgian
Secretary of Foreign Affairs,
cited, 39
Ely, Richard T., cited, 248
Engerand, Fernand, cited, 364
England and Germany, 2
English-speaking race patriotism,
401
Evening Post, the New York,
pacifistic attitude of, 264
Expansion of patronage, danger
in, to people's liberties, 411
Eyschen, M., Prime Minister of
Luxembourg, 71
Fabricius, cited, 211
Federal Council, German, see
Bundesrat
Ferdinand, Tsar of Bulgaria, con-
spired with Germany, 157
Fernau, Hermann, cited on Ger-
man professors, 64; cited on
German constitution, 106; cited
on German army, 108; cited,
no, 127
Ferrero, Guglielmo, cited on
French sacrifices, 86, 96; cited,
83
Figaro, Paris, cited on peaceful
penetration of France, 130;
cited, 83
Fire insurance companies, Ger-
man, their part in munition out-
rages, 147
Fiske, Admiral Bradley A., gives
warning of America's defense-
less condition, 220
Fiske, John, cited on essentials of
peace, 331; cited, 416
Fleuriau, M. de, French Charg£
at London, reports on Fleet
disposition, 298
Florer, Professor W. W., activities
of, in German propaganda, 153;
Index
Florer — Continued
anti-British lectures by, 154;
manages monster Bismarck cele-
bration, 154
Flatten- Verein, see Navy League
Foch, General Ferdinand, at first
battle of Marne, 90; his master-
ful strategy, 247
Food problem of Germany, 133
Ford, Henry, his peace argosy,
208; a dupe of Germany, 265;
partial list of his pacifist activi-
ties, 266; libels the Navy
League, 266; loses libel suit by
Navy League, 267; Mr. Wilson's
candidate for United States
Senator from Michigan, 410;
defeated for United States
Senator from Michigan, 419
Ford, Mrs. Henry, said to have
furnished money for peace
telegram barrage, 227
Forgach, Count, agent provoca-
teur, 25; forges papers, 74
Forman, L. L., cited, 249
Fortescue, Captain Granville,
cited, 251
Foy, General, cited on patriotism
of Alsace, 350
France, depredations of, alleged
by Germany, 39; the soul of, 87 ;
repeatedly halts barbarian in-
vasions, 88; invasion of, in 1914,
89 ; the anvil to receive blows of
Thor at Verdun, 89, 91; cele-
brates Independence Day, 93;
has won right to dominate peace
council, 95; our debt to, 86, 92,
97
Francis Ferdinand, Archduke of
Austria, assassination of, 22;
opposed German plot, 72; re-
fused protection when assas-
sinated, 73
Francke, Kuno, cited on German
Government, 99; cited on Ger-
man allegiance, 152; cited, no
Franco-Prussian War planned by
Bismarck, 5; leaves France
crushed, 9
Franc-tireurs, evidence for charges
of, in Belgium, 172
Frank, Glenn, 272
Frederick Barbarossa, dreamer of
world empire, 4
Frederick the Great, on army
discipline, 126; made friend of
American democracy by propa-
ganda, 198; cited, 64
Frederick III., of Germany, aids
Bismarck, 6
Freedom of the Seas, demanded in
Germany's peace program of
August, 1917, 286; demanded
by German leaders, 289; doc-
trine founded by Grotius, 290;
origin of the idea ascribed to
Colonel House, 290; a catch-
phrase directed against Britain,
290; exists in peace times, 292;
danger to democracies if doc-
trine should be adopted, 297;
in peace the result of British
sea control, 301; formerly did
not obtain during peace, 301;
its relation to British policy of
free trade, 302; early American
policy concerning, 304; exposi-
tion of doctrine by Colonel
House, 306; Germany accepts
it as offered by Colonel House,
307; Britain rejects it when
offered by Colonel House, 307;
not in the interest of democra-
cies, 313; should not be included
in peace terms, 334; partial
justification of former British
impressment of American sea-
men, 303; rejected by British
and French, 420
French Army, increase of, 60
French Commission, cited, 184,
185
Freytag-Lorenhoven, General
Baron von, cited on War Lords
in war, 165; cited, 183
"Friends of Peace," a German
organization, 207
Frightfulness, German, see Atroci-
ties
Fulda, Ludwig, cited, 149
Fuller, George N., cited, 20
Fullerton, William Morton, scores
Wilson's lack of leadership, 236;
cited, 19, 249
Gallois, Lucien, cited, 366
Gardiner, J. B. W., cited on Ger-
432
Index
Gardiner — Continued
man atrocities, 176; cited on
Germans in South America, 192;
cited on secondary marriages,
325, 327; cited, 183, 211, 249,
33°> 365
Gardner, Augustus P., his policy
later adopted by Mr. Wilson,
240; pioneer of preparedness,
262; attacks Peace without
Victory attitude of Mr. Wilson,
284; his criticism of the League
to Enforce Peace, 378; cited,
251,288,384
Garner, James Wilf ord, cited, 1 84
Garrison, Lindley M., resigns as
Secretary of War, 230
Garroni, Marquis, Italian Am-
bassador at Constantinople, plot
confided to, 69; cited, 76
Gauss, Christian F., cited, 85
Gauvain, Auguste, cited, 47, 84
Genseric, King of the Vandals, 4
George, David Lloyd, affirms
Entente solid, 57; explains the
transport "miracle," 246; his
comment on German peace note
279; cited on Peace without
Victory, 317; cited as favoring
continuation of the present
league of nations, 422; cited,
250
Gerard, Ambassador Jas. A.,
cited on Massacre of Mazurian
Lakes, 179; cited, 83, 127, 212
German-American Alliance, Na-
tional, see National German-
American Alliance
German- American Literary De-
fense Committee, 208
German-American press, dis-
loyalty of, 200
German-American Societies, in
Kultur movement, 200
German-American Teacher's Al-
liance, promotes disloyalty,
199
German Army, increases of, 60, 61 ;
exceptional grand maneuvers,
70,78
German churches, in United
States, promote disloyalty, 200
German Colonies, contrasted with
British, 338; the future dis-
position of, 338
German conspiracies, against the
United States, 187; in West
Indies, 189; against United
States in war with Spain, 190
German language, as a tool of
German Kultur, 194; in Amer-
ica, menace in use of, 196
German people, their responsi-
bility for the war, 126; support
the war, 327, 329; lost their
liberties, 402
German professors, agents of
German propaganda, 150; their
memorial to the "civilized
world, " 163 ; in America, agents
of Kultur, 196 ; exchange system
with United States, 198; issue
manifestoes in 1870, 351; their
memorandum urging haste in
making peace, 423; cited, 64
German refugees, opinion of, 127;
agencies of German propaganda,
150
German scholarship, its pre-
eminence disputed, 125
German University League, 208
German veterans, in America,
loyalty to Germany, 197
German War Practices, cited, 83,
85
German women, their place in the
social scale, 112
Germania Irredenta, see Greater
Germany
Germany, transformed into a
tentacular state, 13; and the
food problem, 14; national
wealth of, 14; over development
of industry a menace, 15; iron
mines do not supply her de-
mand, 15; expanding markets
of, 15; welding of the Empire,
21 ; her claim that she mediated
with Austria, 28; her attitude in
Austro-Serbian crisis, 29; pro-
claims state of war, 31 ; thought
Russia would hold back from
war, 36; offer to Belgium, 38;
invasion of French territory by,
38, 42; her propaganda in
England, 41; fake stories of
aggression by, 41, 42; promises
England not to annex Belgian
territory, 42; her navy's chal-
lenge to England, 54; her threat
Index
433
Germany — Continued
met at Agadir, 58; prepares
definitely for war in 1911, 58;
issues sealed codes to ocean
liners, 59; secret memorandum
on army increases, 61; her
assault dated in advance, 63;
her reasons for launching war
in 1914, 64; masses troops on
French frontier July 25, 1914,
79; lies to her own people, 81;
invades France August 2, 1914,
82; system of government, 100;
polytechnic schools of, their
place in peaceful penetration,
132; her methods of influencing
rival governments, 157; her
methods of war, 164; her hostile
attitude toward United States
in War with Spain, 190; her
dread of British sea power, 296;
her plans for a series of wars of
conquest, 315; her "next war,"
German policy concerning, 316;
her Foreign Office a conspiracy
hatchery, 333; her plans aimed
at the United States, 342; out-
side the League of Nations, 382 ;
school system of, 406; derives
little comfort from the opposi-
tion developing to Mr. Wilson's
views, 422
Gibbons, Herbert Adams, cited, 20
Gieslingen, Baron von, cited, 28
Giolitti, Signer, Italian Premier,
keeps German plot secret, 69;
Italian political boss, as Ger-
many's tool, 157, 159
Goebel, Professor Julius, disloyal
utterances of, 201
Goetzen, Captain Count von,
cited, 54
Gompers, Samuel, checkmates
German intrigues, 206
Goschen, Sir Edward, British
Ambassador at Berlin trans-
mits demand of his government,
44
Gottheil, Richard, cited, 384
Graebner, Professor, revealed as
German spy, 1 55
Grande, Julian, cited, 84
Grant, General U. S., cited on
drifting into war under Presi-
dent Buchanan, 237; cited, 249
Great Britain, supports America
in War with Spain, 191; inter-
ference with neutral trade, 216;
her achievement in troop trans-
port, 246; mistress of the seas
since Trafalgar, 290; her exis-
tence dependent on sea control,
294; Germany's hopes con-
cerning, 316; attitude of during
American Civil War, 395;
hatred of, taught in American
schools, 401; our debt to, 401;
the fight for liberty in, 403
"Greater Empire" of Germany,
149
Greater Germany, methods of ex-
tending, 1 1 8, 194
Greeley, Horace, for peace without
victory, 275
Greene, General Francis V., cited,
251
Grey, Sir Edward, cited on Aus-
trian ultimatum, 24; reports
information from Lichnowsky,
26, 27 ; cited on Serbian reply to
ultimatum, 28; reply to German
Chancellor's proposal, 34; pro-
posal to Germany of July 3ist,
36; cited on British attitude
toward Belgian neutrality, 36;
notifies France of British atti-
tude toward neutrality of Bel-
gium and Luxembourg, 38;
announces attitude of British
fleet, 38; his demand on Ger-
many to respect foreign terri-
tory, 44; dispels notion that
Britain will stand aside, 298
Grotius, Hugo, founder of doc-
trine of freedom of seas, 290
"Group System" in commercial
infiltration, 142
Gurlitt, Cornelius, cited, 317
Gwatkin, H. M., cited, 84
H
Haase, Hugo, member of Reichs-
tag, reveals doings at Potsdam
War Council, 76
Haldane, Lord, as Germany's tool,
157, 158
Hale, George Ellery, cited, 86
Hale, William Bayard, German
agent, 137; head of German
434
Index
Hale — Continued
propaganda, 139; Mr. Wilson's
confidential ambassador to Villa,
232
Hall, Edward H., cited, 249
Hamilton, Alexander, citation
from, 213, 214; cited on rights
of man, 239
Hammann, Dr., head of German
News Service, 137
Hammerling, Louis N., cited as
German agent, 138
Hanotaux, Gabriel, cited on Bul-
garia's secret treaty, 57; cited
on assassination of Archduke
Ferdinand, 72; cited, 83, 162
Hansi, see Waltz, J. J.
Harden, Maximilian, cited on
unreliability of German word,
33 1 .3331 cited, 27
Harre", T. Everett, cited, 271
Harrison, Frederic, his satire on
peace without victory, 276
Hart, Albert Bushnell, cited, 185,
248, 250
Hatch, Louis Clinton, cited, 416
Hauser, Henri, cited on peaceful
penetration, 130, 131; cited on
Herr Thyssen's activities, 140;
cited on future peaceful pene-
tration, 161; cited on German
plans for future wars, 320; cited,
15, 19, 147, 162, 330, 364, 365,
366
Hay, John, cited in connection
with Venezuelan difficulty in
1901, 191; cited, 288
Hayes, Professor Carlton, J. H.,
works against compulsory mili-
tary training, 257
Hays, Will H., cited, 416
Hayti, German methods in, in
1897, 189
Hazen, Chas. D., cited on Alsace-
Lorraine, 343; cited on Holy
Roman Empire, 347; cited on
French Revolution, 349; cited
on bombardment of Strasbourg,
351; cited, 110,364
Headlam, J.W-. cited, 47, 330, 365
Hearst Syndicate, pro-German
activities of, 139; protected by
the government, 413
Hearst, William Randolph, under
German influence, 139, 140
Helfferich, Dr., German Minister
of Finance, confidences of, 68;
cited, 14
Helmholtz, Professor, his low posi-
tion in German social life, 112
Henry, Prince, cited, 54
Henshaw, F. W., cited, 248
Herzog, S., cited, 148, 365
Hibben, John Grier, cited, 249
Hill, David Jayne, cited, no,
250
Hill, G. F., cited, 185
Hillquit, Morris, cited, 272
Hindenburg, General von, guilty
of German atrocities, 168
H. M. Stationery Office cited, 46,
83, 186, 313, 364
Historians, American, their mis-
reading of signs of the times,
256
History teaching, distorted in
secondary schools, 387
History texts, necessity of re-
vising, for secondary schools,
398
Hoard, William Dempster, pioneer
in Americanization, 196, 197
Holland, W. J., cited on position
of German Science, 125; cited,
128
Holleben, Baron von, German
Ambassador at Washington,
intrigues of, 197, 198
Holmes, Edmond, cited, 128
Holy Roman Empire, 4
Hornaday, William T., cited, 271
House, Colonel E. M., cited as
adviser of President Wilson
on peace policy, 227; his rov-
ing ambassadorship unconstitu-
tional, 232; his previous record,
233; advocate of freedom of
the seas, 303 ; exponent of Mr.
Wilson's doctrine of freedom of
the seas, 305; offers Germany
release from British blockade,
306; picked by Mr. Wilson for
peace delegate, 410
House Documents, 64th Congress,
cited, 247
House Naval Committee (Demo-
cratic), increases Mr. Wilson's
naval estimates, 229; Republi-
can minority greatly increases
naval estimates, 229
Index
435
Rowland, Charles P., cited, 249
Huard, Baroness (Frances Wil-
son) , cited on German atrocities
in France, 1 68; cited, 183
Hughes, Charles E., cited, 250
Huidekoper, Frederick L., cited,
415
Hull, Professor WiHiam !•» con-
demns conscription, 258
Hurd, Archibald, cited on German
antagonism to British sea power,
297; cited, 85, 21 1, 313, 314
Idea factory, the, of Germany, 115
Im Vaterland cited, 98, no
Imperial Diet, German, see Reichs-
tag
Imperial German Embassy in
Washington, head office of
German conspiracies, 202
Indemnities exacted by Germany
in occupied territory, 1 72
Industrial Workers of the World,
treasonable activities of, 206
Intellectuals, American, their lack
of prescience, 256; blindness of,
263
Intercollegiate League of German
Clubs, 208
International Law, extensions of,
in American Civil War, 217
Internationalism, disguised paci-
fism, 94; the new pacifism, 368;
supported by Germany, 372 ; in-
volves loss of ideals, 372
Iron and coal, necessary to peace-
ful penetration, 131
Iron mines of French Lorraine
seized by Germany, 82
Iron ore, importation of, by
Germany, 15; Moroccan, 15;
German production of, 132 ; Ger-
man prospective exhaustion of,
318, 319; its relation to future
German wars, 318; Swedish,
must not be absorbed by Ger-
many, 336; of Ukraine, impor-
tance of, in future wars, 329
Iron ore of Lorraine, in relation to
German development, 1 1 ; in-
crease in production of, by
Germany since 1870, 12; pro-
duction of, 343
Italian Commercial Bank, see
Banca Commerciale, Italiana
Italy, announces neutrality, 37;
refuses to join Austria in attack-
ing Serbia, 69; people wrest
control from government, 161;
declares neutrality, 299; Ger-
many's hopes concerning, 316;
in League of Nations, 382
Jagow, Herr yon, German Minis-
ter of Foreign Affairs, cited, 33
Jameson, Professor Franklin, cited,
3?4
Janizaries, future German, in
next war, 328
Jastrow, Joseph, cited, 272
Johnson, Douglas W., cited, 19,
84, 249, 365
Johnson, Willis Fletcher, cited,
3H
Johnston, R. M., cited on educa-
tion in correct views of military
history, 386; cited, 416
Jones, John Price, cited, 250
Jordan, David Starr, as Ger-
many's tool, 157; his pacifist
propaganda, 260; cited, 271
Joubert, Wilfred A., cited, 128
Judd, Charles H., cited, 416
Judson, Harry Pratt, cited, 19
July anniversaries, 94
Kahn, Otto H., cited, 252
Kaiser, German, has power to
declare war, 105
Kellogg, Vernon, cited, 184
Kinglets, in Balkans, favorable to
Germany, 156
Kipling, Rudyard, The Neutral,
213; cited on pacifist attitude,
273; reveals mockery of inter-
nationalism, 373; An Imperial
Rescript, 373; cited, 384
Klein, Abbe" Fe"lix, cited, 364
Kluck, General von, guilty of
German atrocities, 168
Knapp, George L., cited on dis-
tress in Great Britain due to
blockade of South, 396; cited
on national characteristics, 397;
436
Index
Knapp — Continued
cited on attitude of Britain in
Revolutionary War, 391; cited
on inherited liberties of Ameri-
cans, 405; cited, 249, 384, 415
Koch, T. W., cited, 212
Krehbiel, Professor Edw. B.,
attacks work of American De-
fense Society, 258; cited, 272
Kreigsgefahrzustand, declared in
Berlin, 8 1
Krey, August C., cited, 83, 183
Krunprincessin Cecilie, case in
Federal Court, 59
Kruger telegram, interpretation
of, 1 6
Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach,
Herr, confidences of, 68
Krupp Works, labor employed at,
13
Krutsch, P., cited, 330
Kuehnemann, Professor Eugen,
his propaganda in America, 153;
claims freedom of the seas is
Germany's aim in the war, 289 ;
cited on Germany's aims, 292;
makes American speeches for
freedom of the seas, 308 ; cited,
313
Kultur, effect of, in Germany, in,
H5
Kultur movement, German, in
America, 193; in the Balkans,
194
Kuropatkin, General, cited on
Russia's communications, 65
' ' Labors' National Peace Council, ' '
organized for German propa-
ganda purposes, 206
Lafayette, Marquis de, 93
La Follette, Robt. M., an aid to
the Kultur movement, 119;
baneful influence of his pro-
German attitude, 265
Lamar, David, German agent,
206; in relation to Henry Ford,
208; adviser of Henry Ford, 265
Lamprecht, Karl, cited on ten-
tacular state, 13; cited, 19
Lancashire spinners, their distress
during American Civil War, 397
Landtag, Prussian, character of,
103; relation to Reichstag, 104
Lane, Ralph Norman Angell, see
Angell, Norman; effect of his
pacifist writings, 259; cited,
271, 369
"Last War," the, an illusion
following every exhausting war,
368
Lateral marriages, see secondary
marriages
Lavisse, E., cited, 184
Law, Andrew Bonar, his comment
on Mr. Wilson's "peace without
victory" message, 273, 310
League of English-speaking peo-
ples, nucleus of democratic na-
tions, 381
League of Nations, French atti-
tude toward admitting Ger-
many to, 383
League to Enforce Peace, the plan
of, 376; criticism of, 377; of
value if set up for peace-loving
nations, 378; universal, 382
Lenroot, Irvine L., opposed by
Mr. Wilson for senator, 409
Liberty anniversaries, joint cele-
brations of, in 1918, 381
Liberty landmarks, few, in Ger-
many, 114
Lichnowsky, Prince Karl, cited
on Russian attitude as inter-
preted at Berlin, 37; his con-
demnation of Germany, 45;
reports Kaiser's reception of
news of Archduke's assassina-
tion, 74; report on Potsdam
War Council of July 5, 1914, 76;
cited, 21,26, 36, 47, 83
Liebknecht, Karl, experience of,
126
Lincoln, Abraham, cited, 49 ; cita-
tion from, 213; his leadership,
239; cited on peace without
victory, 273; his firm stand
against peace without victory,
275, 276; his letter to Manches-
ter workingmen, 397; cited on
freedom of speech toward the
President, 406
Lind, John, his mission to Mexico,
232
Lloyd George, David, see George,
David Lloyd
Index
437
Loans, American, to Allies, pro-
posed disposition of, 340
Lodge, Henry Cabot, cited on
news suppression, 411; cited,
365, 416
Lorraine, its history, 348
Lorraine iron ore, cause of Ger-
many's military power, 315;
Germany's plans concerning,
with reference to next war, 318
Love, H. K., cited, 248
Lovejoy, Arthur O., cited, 185,
248 '
Low, Sydney, cited on Giolitti's
attitude, 160; cited, 148, 162
Lowell, A. Lawrence, cited, no
Lowell, James Russell, cited, 214
Lucaciu, Dr. Vasile, Head of
Roumanian Mission to United
States, accuses Kaiser of Arch-
duke's assassination, 75
Lusitania, excuse for sinking, 294;
sinking of, interferes with
Houses 's plans to induce Britain
to release Germany from block-
ade, 309
Luxburg, Count, German Charge",
his conspiracies against Argen-
tine, 193; cited, 185
Luxemburg, Rosa, trial of (army
methods), 126
Luxemburger Loch, 71,78
Me
McCurdy, Charles A., cited, 365
McDonald, Professor Jas. G.,
defends Germany's violations of
international law, 257; cited, 271
McElroy, Robert M., cited, 248,
250
McLaren, A. D., cited on peaceful
penetration, 130; cited on Ger-
man spies, 155; cited, 147, 162
McNamee, F. A., Financial Chair-
man Democratic National Com-
mittee, proclamation by, 412
M
MacGowan, Kenneth, cited, 148
Mahan, Admiral A. T., cited on
Monroe Doctrine, 188; cited
on purposes of navies, 292 ; cited
on effect of sea blockade, 296;
cited on sea blockade, 304;
cited on disastrous effect of
freedom of the seas, 309; cited
on the effect of peace after the
Punic Wars, 368; held the
United States should have
fought France in 1812, 393;
cited, 211,313, 384
Malcolm, Ian, cited, 184
Manning, William T., cited, 249
Manoury, General, at the Marne,
90
Man-power, German, for future
wars, 323
Manteuffel, Statthalter of Alsace-
Lorraine, revelations in his
memoirs, 354
Marches, the German, with re-
ference to future wars, 321
Marcossen, Isaac F., cited, 364
Marshall, Edward, cited, 77
Masaryk, J. F., cited, 363
Massacre of Mazurian Lakes, 178
Mateikat, Arthur W., cited, 139
Mathews, Shailer, cited, 248
Maxim, Hudson, cited, 251
Mayer, William Roscoe, cited, 271
Meighen, A., cited, 385
Melville, Harry, librarian of Ger-
man propaganda material, 209
Mensdorff, Count, Austrian Am-
bassador at London, charges
Germany with wanting tne war,
77; cited, 28
Mercier, Cardinal, cited, 184
Merz, Chas., cited, 251
Mesopotamia, in peace times, 337;
reclamation of, 360; British
transformation of, during the
war, 361; in German hands a
menace to India, 361
Michaelis, Imperial German
Chancellor, asserts Germany's
claim to the freedom of the
seas, 289; German Chancellor,
cited on Germany's motives in
the war, 317
Military Affairs Committee of
United States Senate, its report
suppressed, 411
Mittel-Europa, its destruction es-
sential to peace, 337; a menace
to America, 356, 357; in Ger-
man plan of a peace by negotia-
tion, 359
438
Index
Mobilization, by Austria, 31; by
Russia, 31, 32 ; by France, 32 ; by
Germany, 32; by Germany,
truth about, 77; by Germany,
premature proclamation of, 80
Moltke, Count Hellmuth von,
collaborated in falsification of
Ems telegram, 7; his "green
border," 12; German Chief of
Staff in 1914, confides war plot
to King Albert, 70
Monroe, James, 214
Monroe Doctrine, cause of Ger-
man conspiracies, 187; spon-
sored and defended by Great
Britain, 188; threatened by
Germany in 1902, 191; threat-
ened by German plans in South
America, 192, 193; threatened
by Napoleon III., 276, 395; in
relation to League to enforce
Peace, 379
Montgelas, Albrecht de, German
propagandist, 139
Moore, Frederick, cited, 288
Morgenthau, Henry, American
Ambassador at Constantinople,
reveals German plot, 76; cited,
83, 330
Moroccan question, adjusted be-
tween France and England, 18
Moulton, Harold Glenn, cited, 365
Muehlon, Dr. W., confession of,
68; cited, 83
Mugerditchian, Mrs. Esther, cited,
1 86
Muir, Ramsay, cited, 19, 313
Munro, Dana C., cited, 83, 183,
185
Munson, Major Edward L., cited,
415
Murray, Gilbert, cited, 20, 314
N
Nagging, as part of German
scheme, 121
Namier, Lewis B., cited, 363
Napoleon I. of France, cited on
suppression of insurrections,
166
Napoleon III., tries to mediate for
peace without victory in Ameri-
can Civil War, 276 "
Nation, the New York, aid to
German Kultur, 119; ultra-
pacifist organ, 263
National Committee on Patriotic
and Defense Societies, 222
National Defense Societies, their
predictions fulfilled, 241
National Educational Association,
its relation to pacifist propa-
ganda, 259
National German-American Alli-
ance, stimulated disloyalty, 150;
Chronological History of, 151;
Official Bulletin of, 151, 154;
activities of, in Michigan, 153;
disloyalty of, 199; broken up as
result of Senate investigation,
199; propaganda by, against
shipments of munitions, 205;
disguises of, 205; joins with
Ancient Order of Hibernians,
205; its telegram barrage, 207;
cited, 162
National Security League, The,
vainly requests President to
publish reports on defense, 223;
cited, 248, 251
National Service Handbook cited,
251
Nationalism bound up with
family and home, 373
Naumann, Friedrich, cited, 365
Naval power, limitations of, 295;
exerted in interest of democracy,
297
Navy, British, its part in winning
the war, 295; its protection of
French coasts, 297
Navy League, German, described,
53
Navy League, United States,
work of, 222 ; libeled by Henry
Ford, 266
Navy, United States, General
Board's report, 228; published,
229
Neilson, Francis, ascribes cause
of war to English diplomatists,
215; cited, 272
"Neutrality Leagues" organized
by German-American Alliance
for propaganda purposes, 205
New Republic, The, aid to Ger-
man Kultur, 119; a pacifist
organ, 264
Index
439
New York Times cited, 47, 82,
83, 127, 148, 162, 185, 248, 249,
250, 251, 252, 253, 271, 272, 288,
313, 314, 330, 364, 365, 384,
416, 417
New York Tribune cited, 248, 249,
252, 272, 288, 416
Next war, Germany's, date of, in
plans, 329
Nicolay, John G., cited, 288
Niemeyer, Th., cited, 184
Niepage, Dr. Martin, cited on
German atrocities in Armenia,
182; cited, 184
Ninety-three Professors of Ger-
many cited, 84, 184
North American Review's War
Weekly cited, 252, 271
Notestein, Wallace, cited, 82
Nystrom, Anton, cited, 47
O
Odell, Rev. Joseph H., cited on
attitude of the Church, 274;
cited, 250, 288
O'Donnell, T. J., cited, 248
Official documents concerning
outbreak of war, 33
Official Documents Looking toward
Peace cited, 271
Official press bureau, see Com-
mittee of Public Information
Ohlinger, Gustavus, cited on Ger-
man constitution, 98; cited on
Chinese boycott of American
goods, 146; cited on German
professors in America, 187; cited,
211
O'Leary, Jeremiah, adviser of
Henry Ford, 265
Oliver, Frederick Scott, cited on
the pacifist policy, 254; his part
in British preparedness move-
ment, 259; cited, 248, 251, 416
Olmstead, Katharine, cited on
atrocities in Roumania, 180
Oncken, Hermann, cited on dual
allegiance, 149, 152
Oppenheimer, Francis J., cited,
248
"Orderlies," German, with refer-
ence to future German man-
power, 324
Orth, Samuel, cited, no
O'Shaughnessy, Edith, cited, 250
Ossiannillson, K. G., cited, 47, 84
Ostwald, Professor Wilhelm, cited
on potash famine, 344
Ottoman Empire in relation to
Germany, 359
Oxford Faculty cited, 84
Pacifism, its relations to Church
instruction, 274; perennial, 368
Pacifists, their reactions during the
war, 269 ; psychology of, 369
Palmer, A. Mitchell, cited on
peaceful penetration of United
States, 129; cited, 148
Pan-German Union, its aims, 51,
52 ; two chapters of, in United
States, 199; on German press
in United States, 200
Papen, Captain yon, German
attache" at Washington, mana-
ager of German conspiracies,
202
Parfit, Canon, cited, 364
Paris pact of June, 1916, 341
Parker, Sir Gilbert, cited, 84
Parochial schools, German, agen-
cies of German propaganda, 150;
agents of Kultur, 196; foreign-
language, fosters foreignism,
399
Patriotic instruction called for,
399
Pauncefote, Sir Julian, British
Ambassador at Washington,
German intrigue against, 198
"Peace argosy," of Henry Ford,
208; endorsed by Labor's Na-
tional Peace Council, 266
Peace Council calls for men of
practical sense, 332
Peace guarantees essential to per-
manent peace, 335
Peace of Amiens, a peace without
victory which favored auto-
cracy, 275
Peace terms, to be imposed, 332;
should include full reparation,
334; should restore Lorraine
iron deposits to France, 336;
of the Allies, disclosed, 420
Peace without victory, not per-
manent, 274; interpreted by
440
Index
Peace without victory — Continued
Germany as a victory for her,
315; view of, by Lloyd George,
316; in relation to Germany's
"next war," 316
Peaceful penetration, German, re-
lation to military preparation,
129; methods of, 133, 136; the
part of cartels in, 136 ; by foreign
press control, 136, 137; "group
system" in, 142; absorption of
chemical industries in, 143; ab-
sorption of cotton and wool in-
dustries in, 143; in relation to
manufacture of war materials,
144; German state activities,
145; its use of spy system, 146;
falsification of trademarks in,
146; boycott of rival goods,
146; in the West Indies, 189;
German, in South America, 192 ;
danger from, after war, 336
Penck, Professor Albrecht, re-
vealed as German spy, 155
Personal government, by Mr.
Wilson, 409
Phenis, Albert, cited, 313
Pless, Prince von, his interpreta-
tion of Germany's peace offer,
277
Poland, rape of, by Frederick the
Great, 3
Potash, use of German product,
345; deposits in Alsace, 344, 345
Potsdam Conference, of July 5,
1914; cited, 83
Pourtales, Count, German Am-
bassador at Petrograd, his
manner of delivering declara-
tion of war on Russia, 37; cited,
32
Powers, H. H., cited, 417
Press, German, section to in-
fluence neutrals, 210
Pringsheim, Professor, revealed as
German spy, 155
Professors, German, intellectual
bodyguards of Hohenzollerns,
123, 124; agents of German
propaganda, 150; as German
spies, 155
Prohibitions in the German sys-
tem of government, 120
Propaganda, German, by pam-
phlets, 209
Providence Journal discovers and
checks German conspiracies,
203; cited, 162, 211
Prussia, growth of, 2; acquires
Hanover, 7
Prussian Constitution cited on
army, 109
Putnam, Major George Haven, his
work in arousing the nation,
222; cited, 248, 249, 385, 416
Putnam, Ruth, cited, 365
Raemaekers, Louis, cited, 184
Ramsay, Sir William, cited, 365
Rathom, John R., discovers and
reveals German plots, 203;
scores government leniency to-
ward German plotters, 204
Raymond, H. J., cited, 288, 416
Read, Conyers, cited, 416
Realgymnasium, German, 407
Rebellion, Boxer, German atroci-
ties in, 164, 165
Rebellion, Herrero, German atro-
cities in, 164
Reeves, Professor Jesse S., cited
on British sea policy, 302;
cited, 313
Reichert, Dr. J., cited on Ger-
many's future wars, 319; cited,
33<>
Reichstag, German, has never
successfully opposed govern-
ment, i oo; its composition, 101;
proposed electoral reforms, 101 ;
character of its deliberations,
102; manner of opening, 107
Reinsch, Paul S., cited on German
plans in South America, 192;
cited, 2ii
Reiss, R. A., cited, 185
Responsible ministry lacking in
Germany, 106
Reventlow, Count zu, asserts
German demand for the free-
dom of the seas, 289
Review of Reviews Co. cited, 247
Rhine Province, acquisition of , by
Prussia, 3
Rhodes, James Ford, cited, 288
Ridder, Bernard H., indicted for
sedition, 265
Index
441
Rights of man, wrested from auto-
crats, 400; listed, 400; habeas
corpus, 403; taxation without
representation, 404; heritage
from England, 404; courts of
law, 405; free speech, 405; free
schools, 406
Rintelen, Franz von, German
agent, 206; head-spy of Ger-
many in America, 265
Roberts, Field Marshal Lord,
calls Britain to prepare for war,
158; warned Britain to prepare
for war, 259; cited, 250
Robertson, J. M., cited, 19
Robinson, Edgar E., cited, 248
Rochambeau, Marshal, 93
Rohrbach, Paul, cited on effect
of a compromise peace, 315
Rojestvensky, Admiral, cited, 56
Rolleston, T. W., cited, 365
Romer, Eugenius, cited, 366
Roon, General von, collaborated
in falsification of Ems telegram,
7
Roosevelt, Franklin D., Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, gives
credit to Britain for troop
transport, 246
Roosevelt, Theodore, his action on
Venezuelan difficulty with Ger-
many, 192; cooperates in or-
ganizing the Navy League, 222 ;
the vocalized conscience of the
American people, 225; con-
demns Wilson's false leadership
after Lusitania outrage, 235;
cited on peace prattlers, 254;
conspicuous champion of pre-
paredness, 262; prevented from
taking important part in war
service, 412; cited, 250, 253, 416
Root, Elihu, his comment on Mr.
Wilson's attitude on the war,
224; cited, 249
Rose, J. Holland, cited, 47
Roumanian official report cited,
185
Royal Society of Literature cited,
366
Rumbold, Sir Horace, cited, 26
Rumely, Edward A., friend and
adviser of Henry Ford, 208, 265
Russell, Mary Annette, cited, 128
Russia, importance of reestablish-
ment independent of Germany,
328; the menace of, if conquered
or exploited by Germany, 329;
must not be exploited by Ger-
many, 336; should be compelled
to meet financial obligations to
France, 341; must be helped
upon her feet, 342; the awful
lesson of, 371; its uncertain
future, 382
Russo-Japanese War and Ger-
man labor problem, 14
Salisbury, Lord, British Premier,
warns Britain to prepare for
war, 258
Samoan crisis with Germany in
1889, 188
Sander, Albert, cited as German
spy master, 139 «
San Giuliano, Marquis di, Italian
statesman, refuses to join Aus-
tria in attacking Serbia, 69
Sarolea, Charles, cited, 19
Sayville wireless station, use of,
for German plots, 204
Sazonof, M., his final proposal to
Austria, 34; receives Germany's
declaration of war, 37; cited,
27, 32, 46
Scherer, Dr. James A. B., attacks
Hearst attitude and resigns
from National Defense Council,
140; cited, 248
Schevill, Professor Ferdinand, ex-
onerates German Kaiser, 256;
cited, 271
Schmitt, B. E., cited, 47
Schoen, Baron von, German Am-
bassador at Paris, presents ulti-
matum, 35; hands declaration
of war to France, 42 ; his charges
against France, 78 ; his demand
on France of Toul and Verdun
interpreted, 320
School texts, German, in Turkey,
2IO
Schwimmer, Madam, influences
Henry Ford to undertake peace
enterprises, 208, 265
Scott, George Winfield, cited, 184
"Scrap of paper" declaration of
German Chancellor, 44
442
Index
Sea blockade, effect of, on morale,
3ii
Sea Power cited, 248
Secondary marriages, German pre-
paration for next war, 324
Secret Service, United States,
break down of, for lack of funds,
204
Seignobos, Ch., cited, 19
Selden, John, on Closed Sea, 290
Sellery, Geo. C., cited, 83, 183
Senate Committee on Military
Affairs, cited, 250
Serbia, official attitude in crisis,
22; hands Austrian Ambassador
reply to ultimatum, 28
Seymour, Charles, cited, 47
Simonds, Frank H., cited, 366
Sims, Admiral W. S., cited, 385
Sisson, Edgar, cited, 384
Skaggs, Wm. H., cited, 212
Smetenke, J. F., cited, 363
Smith, Arthur D. Howden, de-
clares Colonel House originator
of "Freedom of the Seas" idea,
290; cited, 252, 313, 363, 416
Smuts, General Jan Christian,
cited on former German Colon-
ies, 339, 340; cited on British
Empire, 367.; cited, 364
Social ladder, 'German, 122
Society for Germanism in Foreign
Countries fosters disloyalty,
201
Somville, Gustave, cited on Ger-
man system in atrocities, 175;
cited, 183, 248
Sons of the American Revolution,
utilized for German propa-
ganda, 153
Spargo, John, cited, 384
Sperry, Earl E.f cited, 211, 212,
248
Speyer, James, dinner of, where
first peace balloon was launched,
225
Spies, German, in America, 195
Spies on German people, 108
Spurgeon, British divine, prays
for success of Northern arms,
396
Spy system, German, its use in
peaceful penetration, 146
Staats-Zeitung, New Yorker, organ
of German propaganda, 265
Stead, H. W., cited, 83
Stengel, Hans von, German agent,
139
Stevenson, Robert Louis, cited on
Samoan crisis, 189
Stimson, Henry L., cited, 248
Stockton, Richard, Jr., cited, 416
Stoddard, Lothrop, 272
Stoll, Elmer E., cited, 82
Stowell, E. C., cited, 47, 83
Strasbourg, sends address to Na-
tional Assembly of France, 349 ;
Mayor's address in 1848, 350;
bombardment of, in 1870, 350
Straus, Hon. Oscar S., cited, 248
Street, Julian, cited, 249
Strother, French, cited, 211
Submarine outrages, Germany's
war zone declaration, 233; Mr.
Wilson's threat, 234; early
sinkings, 234; Mr. Wilson's
backdown, 235; toll of, 236; the
Laconia case, 238, 240
Superman, cult of, in, 117
Sutro, Theodore, German sym-
pathies of, 139
Swift, Lucius B., cited on teaching
of patriotism, 386; cited, 416
Taft, William Howard, cited on
plan of League to Enforce Peace,
3?6, 379> 382; prevented from
part in war, 412; cited on perse-
cution of General Wood, 412
Tale-bearing, its part in German
system, 108, 119
Talleyrand-Pe'rigord, Charles
Maurice de, cited on Prussian
character, n
Tannenberg, Otto Richard, von,
cited, 82
Tardieu, Andre*, cited, 19
Taylor, Mason W., cited, 19
Temps, Le, cited, 363
'Tentacular State," the German,
133
Teutonic sons of America, 208
Thayer, William Roscoe, cited,
19, 82, 211
Theodoric the Great, dreamer of
world empire, 4
Thompson, C. S., cited, 248
Index
443
Thompson, Professor Jas. W.,
attacks Great Britain's attitude
on the war, 257; cited, 271
Thyssen, August, employment of
labor, 13; cited on Kaiser's
confidences, 66; reasons for
confessing plot, 67; his peace-
ful penetration of France
and Russia, 140; cited, 64, 83,
363
Tirpitz, Grand Admiral yon,
aceompanies Kaiser on visit to
Archduke, 73
Tisza, Count, accused of assassina-
tion of Archduke, 75
Titles, their place in German
scheme, 122
Toynbee, Arnold J., cited, 184,
185, 365
Transport "miracle," the, 245,
246
Treaty of Frankfort, modification
of, because of iron ore, 12;
terms of, 17
Trevelyan, Sir George Otto, cited
on British sympathy with the
colonies in 1776, 391; cited, 20,
«4» 415
Trier, German base prepared at,
in June, 1914, 78
Tripoli seized by Italy, 18
Tschirschky, Heir von, German
Ambassador at Vienna, cited,
36
Tumulty, Secretary, cited, 416
Turczynowicz, Madame Laura de,
cited on German atrocities in
Poland, 1 68; cited, 183
Turkey must be released from
control by Germany, 337
Turner, E. R., cited, 20
U
Ukraine should be released from
German grasp, 336
Ultimatum, Austrian, to Serbia,
time of promulgation, 24, 25;
reply to, 28
University Boards curb freedom
of speech, 268
Upton, General Emory, cited on
our military history, 388 ; cited,
415, 416
Van Dyke, Henry, American
Minister at The Hague, cited
on German preparations to
invade France, 71; on freedom
of the seas, 289; cited, 83, 184
Van Tyne, Claude H., cited, 272
Vatican, see Benedict XV.
Veblen, Thprstein, pacifist book
by, 269; cited, 271
Venezuela, German aggression in,
191, 197
Verboten (prohibited), its place in
the German scheme, 120
Viereck, George Sylvester, cited
as German agent, 138; cited,
128, 212
Vigilans sed ^Equus (pen-name),
cited, 84, 313
Villager, The, stands for Ameri-
canism, 264
Villard, Oswald Garrison, his
pacifistic and pro-German ac-
tivities, 264
Viviani, M., French Premier, his
summary of German attitude,
35; reports to French Chamber
on British support, 299; cited,
25,27
Volkschule, German, 406
Vorwaerts, organ of Social Demo-
crats, attitude in Austro-Serb-
ian crisis, 30
W
Wagner, Professor, at Leipsic,
cited on future of Alsace-
Lorraine, 351
Walcott, Frederick C., interview
with General Bernhardi, 59;
cited on Belgian deportations,
177
Waldersee, Count von, conduct in
China, 165
Walker, G. Bernard, cited, 251
Wallace, William Kay, cited, 147
Wallis, B. C., cited, 366
Wangenheim, Count von, Ger-
man Ambassador at Constan-
tinople, confides German plot,
69; confides plot to American
diplomat, 75
444
Index
War Council, German, of July 5,
1914, 75; of July 29, 1914,80
War Department, its breakdown
in the war, 242, 245
War, Franco-Prussian, German
atrocities in, 164
War instructions, German, to
officers, 1 66
War Lords, German, their rela-
tion to efficiency in war, 164
War of 1812 with England, the
United States fought against
democracy in, 274
War Precaution Act, Australian,
141
Washington, George, tribute to
France, 93; citation from, 213,
214; cited to refute prevailing
notions of Revolutionary War,
289; cited to refute prevailing
notion of the "Spirit of '76,"
390, 391
Watterson, Colonel Henry, cited
on autocracy of Mr. Wilson,
414; cited, 416
Weeks, Raymond, cited, 86, 97
Weigand, Heinrich von, New York
World correspondent, 138
West, Henry L., cited, 417
West, Victor J., cited, 248
Weston, Frank, cited, 363
Wetterle", Abbe", cited on work of
Reichstag, 102; cited on bribery
methods in Reichstag, 104; cited
on the gulf between Kaiser and
people, 107; cited on German
reverence for the Kaiser, 121;
cited, 1 10, 127,365
Whiting, E. Louise, cited, 86
Whitlock, Brand, cited on German
atrocities, 177; cited, 183
Whitney, Caspar, cited, 248
Wigmore, J. H., editor, cited on
science and learning in France,
128
Wile, Frederick William, cited,
84, 128
"Will to Power, " the German, 132
Willcocks, Sir William, cited on
reclamation of Mesopotamia,
360
William I. of Germany develops
taste for conquest, 5
William II. of Germany, new
naval policy of, 16; throws off
mask, 16; visits Morocco, 18;
desires "place in the sun, 21;
his part in Austro-Serbian
crisis, 29, 30; sends ultimatum
to Russia, 30; reply to Czar, 31 ;
cited on German ambitions, 50,
51; advises Russia to attack
Japan, 55; tries to embroil
Russia with England, 56; se-
cret treaty with Bulgaria, 57;
his revelation of plot to Cap-
tains of Industry, 65; speech on
battle front lays blame for war
to English plot, 67 ; confides plot
to Helfferich and Krupp, 68;
Scandinavian cruise a blind, 68 ;
divulges war plot to King
Albert, 70; visits Archduke
Ferdinand, 73 ; receives news of
Archduke's assassination, 74;
presides at Potsdam War Coun-
cil of July 5, 1914, 75; declares
war on Russia without consult-
ing Bundesrat, 105; manner of
opening Reichstag, 107; cited on
"Greater Empire" of Germany,
149; advises committing atroci-
ties in Boxer Rebellion, 165;
utters threat against United
States, in War with Spain, 190;
presents statue of Frederick the
Great to United States, 198;
cited on disappointment over
failure of exchange professor
system, 199; attends lectures
by American professors at Ber-
lin, 199; asks Mr. Wilson for
impartial opinion on the war,
216; his first peace drive, 226;
his defeat as a result of British
sea power, 297
Williams, Harold, cited, 253
Williams, Talcott, cited, 248
Willmore, J. Selden, cited, 47,
212, 288 '
"Willy - Nicky " correspondence,
5^
Wilson, Huntington, cited, 83,
349, 384
Wilson, Woodrow, flag day
address of, cited, 98; his neu-
trality proclamation, 214; as-
cribes the war to diplomacy
rather than to German ambi-
tions, 215; says America is not
Index
445
Wilson, Woodrow — Continued
concerned with the war, 215;
gives the Kaiser impartial opin-
ion on the war, 216; threatens
Britain over trade interfer-
ence, 218; stubbornly opposes
movements looking toward the
National defense, 219; declares
American defense satisfactory
in 1914, 220; declared objectives
of both sides virtually the same,
221; continues to regard Amer-
ica as an "innocent bystander"
in the war, 22 1 ; closes sources of
information on national defense,
223; opposes defense societies,
223; refuses to make public the
reports on necessary national
defense, 224; first effort toward
peace in September, 1914,
225, 226; proclaims day of
prayer for peace in 1914, 226;
peace activities of, in summer
of 1915, 226; requests boards
of experts to prepare reports on
national defense, 227; publica-
tion of his defense program,
228; his naval estimates in-
creased by House Naval Com-
mittee, 229; comparison of his
defense program with that of
the experts, 229; his naval
program greatly enlarged by
United States Senate, 229;
governs without the Constitu-
tion, 230; opposes army legisla-
tion recommended by the Gen-
eral Staff, 230; opposes prin-
ciple of conscription, 230; his
"strict accountability" threat,
234; his "backdown" to Ger-
many in "too proud to fight"
speech, 235 ; scored by Roosevelt
for "too proud to fight " speech,
235; his lack of leadership
scored, 236, 239; dangerous
faltering over armed ship meas-
ure, 237; his drifting policy
assailed by the American Rights
League, 237; comparison of his
policy with that of Buchanan,
238 ; his change of front on entry
into war, 240; refuses to take
counsel with Republicans, 241;
receives united support in real
war measures, 242; his policies
which delayed active participa-
tion in the war, 244; creates an
official press bureau, 246; acts
to defeat unconditional surren-
der of Germany, 247; his cam-
paign for reelection advanced
by Ford money, 267; gives
comfort and support to pacifists,
267; opposes preparedness by
declaring nation prepared, 268;
plays hand of Germany in peace
offers, 278; issues "peace with-
out victory" note, 279; his
"peace without victory" note
criticized, 280; comments of the
Allies on his "peace without vic-
tory" note, 282, 283; continues
peace discussion during our par-
ticipation in the war, 285; his
apparent awakening to dangers
of peace without victory, 285;
replies to Pope's peace offer on
behalf of Central Powers, 286;
cited on freedom of the seas, 289 ;
advocates German policy of free-
dom of the seas, 303 ; autocratic
manner of making his doctrines
accepted as American, 309;
comparison of his policy of
freedom of the seas with that
of Dr. Kuehnemann, 309; his
policy of freedom of the seas
endorsed by Germany, 310, 31 1 ;
misunderstood attitude of Ger-
man people, 329 ; his peace over-
tures caused much mischief,
335; includes doctrine of free-
dom of the seas in peace terms,
335; sidesteps Monroe Doctrine
in peace league, 379; advocates
universality of League to En-
force Peace, 383; cited on War
of 1812, 393 ; versus the country,
408; his abuse of the "disloy-
alty label," 409; his reelection
advanced by Ford money, 410;
makes his physician a Rear-
Admiral, 413; controls Congress,
414; asks that politics be ad-
journed during the war, 414;
asks people as patriotic duty to
vote for those who support him,
419; acclaimed by French so-
cialists, 419; his attempt to
446
Index
Wilson, Woodrow — Continued,
dominate at peace table, 419;
says his "14 points" are
approved, 420; visits Europe in
state and courts royal honors,
420; his "14 points" espoused
by Germany, 422; declares
America will not join any but
a universal league of nations,
422; cited, 249
Winslow, Admiral, warns of Amer-
ica's defenseless condition, 220
Wisconsin, Americanization in,
195
Wister, Owen, cited on German
Kultur, in; cited, 84
Witte, Emil, cited, 211
Wolff News Bureau, agent of
official German news service,
119
Woman's Peace Mass Meeting,
227
Wood, Eric Fisher, cited, 251
Wood, General Leonard, dedica-
tion to, iii; gives warning of
America's defenseless condi-
tion, 219; originator of the
"Plattsburg camps," 221; the
American Lord Roberts, 262;
says public morality is matter of
education, 386; cited on our
military history, 387; cited on
history of our War of 1812, 392;
• persecution of, 412; cited, 251,
415
Wood, Henry A. Wise, forces
publication of suppressed de-
fense reports, 228; cited, 249,
252
Wood, Roger B., cited, 250
Wordsworth, William, cited on
love of freedom of English-
speaking peoples, 367
World, the New York, opposes
defense societies, 223
World War, an educator, 367; an
expensive course of instruction,
387
Wyatt, Horace, cited, 47, 84
Zabern affair in Reichstag, 106
Zimmerman, Dr. Alfred, cited, 148
Zimmermann, Emil, cited on
former German colonies, 340
Zimmern, A. A., cited, 365
Selection from the
Catalogue of
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Complete Catalogues sent
on application
The Reckonin
A Discussion of
The Moral Aspects of the
Peace Problem and of
Retributive Justice as an
Indispensable Element
By JAMES M, BECK
Late Assistant Attorney-General of the U. S.
Author of "The Evidence in the Case." "The War and
Humanity,'* etc.
12°. $1.60 net. By mail, $1.65
The author of "The Reckoning " is well-known not only as
a distinguished jurist, but as a publicist whose views are
entitled to the thoughtful consideration of all patriotic citizens.
His previous books — "The Evidence in the Case" and "The War
and Humanity " — have been translated into many languages,
and have been accepted on both sides of the Atlantic as con-
tributions of the highest authority to a study of the causes of
the war.
In "The Reckoning," Mr. Beck discusses the problems of
peace, particularly in their ethical aspect. He makes a forci-
ble plea for retributive justice, and argues that the Prussian
Empire of Bismarck should be destroyed by the elimination
of Prussia. He discusses in detail the fourteen terms of
peace proposed in January last by President Wilson (terms
which have since, in part at least, been modified), and in a
careful analysis, he presents certain difficulties in the way of
the scheme for the proposed League of Nations.
The whole world is now discussing the problems of peace,
and this book is so timely that it can fairly be said of it, as
Victor Hugo said of the "History of a Crime/'" it is more than
opportune ; it is imperative."
The
Political Conditions
of Allied Success
By
Norman Angell
Author of "The Great Illusion," etc.
1&. $1.50 net. By mail, $1.65
A plea for democratic internationalism.
"If we scattered democracies," says the author,
14 are to use our power effectively against a group
of states geographically contiguous, and unified
militarily and politically by the predominant
power of one member, we must achieve a unifica-
tion equally effective.
" That unity we have not attained, even for the
purposes of the war, because we have refused to
recognize its necessary conditions. It is impossible
on the basis of the old policies, the European
statecraft of the past."
Mr. Angell points out how this unity may be
achieved.
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York London
11 16
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