jy p -BY- Jffelen ^ariieii iSri'd^fman Reprinted from The Standard Union, Brooklyn, N. Y. THE FATHERLAND New York 1915 IG TOWARD PEACE -BY- JVelen Siartlett i^rid^fman Author of AN AMERICAN WOMAN'S PLEA FOR GERMANY Reprinted from The Standard Union, Brooklyn, N, Y, Germany, 191 5. ^. £^ i ^ o a realization of his own power. Lajpat Rai, a member of the Lahore City Council, and one of the six delegates sent to England last summer by the Indian National Congress to take up various important matters on Indian affairs with the Secretary of State for India, in the New York "Times" of Feb. 21, '15, voices the feeling some of us have been aware of for years. Almost two decades ago, when it was not uncommon to see the British masters beat with sticks the native servants, we were told in India, and by the Indians, how England squeezed the life out of her victims; how she "milked" their ancient land for the benefit of the British Isles till conditions had become intolerable — that the day of reckoning must be at hand. In view of this, the words of so sound a thinker, lawyer and patriot as Lajpat Rai are full of meaning, as are those of Basanta Koomer Roy, the friend of Rabin- roth Tanjore — not to speak of lectures resulting from a recent so- journ in India, by our own Prof. William R. Shepherd, of Columbia University. The Indian lawyer admits honestly that India's attitude toward the war is neither altruistic nor disinterested; that as a result of her loyalty "she hopes for a radical readjustment of her political relations with England"; that allowed for the first time to fight against the white man she has been taught in France her own strength; that "moderate India hopes to gain self-government by the good will of Great Britain, extremist India hopes to win it in spite of Great Britain" ; but that the goal of both is the same, and "it will add to the glory of Great Britain if India gets it without bloodshed." The yeast is working, the handwriting is on the wall! Already England's opposition to Russia's entrance to the Mediterranean is withdrawn. Great Britain's pride is paying dear these days for her past sins and selfishness. It is the irony of fate that the Empire's Indian subjects should be regaining their ancient courage in the battle against the Germans; that they are realizing what they can do and demand through an infraction of all previous rules of war! Their leaders say they will be a source of strength to the British Empire if dealt with justly and liberally. But what if they are not? Promises. English promises, diplomatic promises in time of need, are made to be broken. Therefore, will India have the power and the courage to re- cover that independence and that sword of which she has so long been deprived? Her own princes, content with nominal power, who fur- nish the money to send the troops to Europe, in their supine accept- ance of national enslavement are perhaps their country's worst enemies. The Indians are not by nature warlike; yet now they have seen a great light, and the spark of patriotism once aglow — well, I've beheld it myself on Indian soil, and it stirs one; a calm, im- passive man transformed, through the appeal of his country's wrongs, into something resembling the sacrificial flame, with eyes lit like stars. The "allies" in these parts certainly are queer. They seem fever- ish and unhealthy. Why should they so suddenly gee excited over a truism? Not only did the Germans, in the period of Germany's pov- erty and weakness, when it was the distracted battleground of all Eu- rope, come to the United States to better themselves financially, but so did and do the English, the Irish, the Scandinavians, the French, the Italians, the Russians, the Jews, the Poles; and most of them become citizens — all save the English, who return with their "pile" to England almost as unfailingly as the Chinese to China. The majority, particu- larly the Germans and the Irish, constituting half our republic, are as loyal Americans as any among us who had the luck to arrive, or cur ancestors for us, in the dim past of the seventeenth century, to wrest a hard living from rocky New England, for pure love of freedom, after English oppression became unbearable. That was the ideal immi- gration, that and the French Huguenot, but who shall say the other, by far the larger, has not proved to a young and growing nation in need of all help every whit as valuable? In America, as in other countries, there are those who don't know and those who won't know. Among them are the Americans, the "only" Americans in their own eyes, who keep asking through the press why, if they are so fond of the old country, our German citizens fail to return and fight for her — though the Germans are not timid nor these ink-slingers brave. As a matter of fact there are thousands of caged Germans here impatient to join the colors, but unable to do so because of English warships. Most of them, however, are not yet American citizens (nor may they ever want to be after all these insults), and as for those who are, while it is proper and natural for them to sympathize with Germany in her liovir q| trial. indeed they would be inhuman did they not, it seems hardly good form to imperil allegiance to the new country by joining the army of the old. One respects the ardent patriot chafing under the restraint of the enemy and eager to get away; one feels for the German-Amer- ican under the galling verbal fire of those who do not understand — who are too prejudiced to take a rational view of the war; but for the dyed-in-the-wool American subjects who go forth into a foreign con- flict, as some now in the countries of the Allies add themselves to an already preponderant offensive — well, for such as these, in a war like this, with the United States in no sense involved, one is at a loss for words. Some Americans who have been here a little longer than their German friends seem publicly to assume towards them the attitude of a host — and a very rude host at that. Among these are one or two of the "simon-pure" variety who help along a silly political scare by advocating the boycott of all with Teutonic terminations to their names! Then there are those who industriously sum up what America has done for the Germans while conveniently forgetting what the Germans have done for America. SeMom in national affairs Is there a "give" without a "take," and here the German-American, with a half century of splendid achievements back of him, stands on solid ground. Whatever the chance offered by a new land, this immigrant has repaid his obligation tenfold. The sons of that nation whose stride forward in every line of activity has been the marvel of the age are not the ones to accept opportunity without rich return. Not only in our great material progress are we heavily indebted to German thought, science and endeavor (and by and by may be still more so in economic and political advance), but in art and hygiene. Says one of German blood herself, though an active American citizen : "As individuals and as a nation the Germans have plenty of faults, but the virtues far outweigh the shortcomings. The Germans came here, of course, to better their conditions, but they gave more than they received. For one thing, the United States is indebted to them almost entirely for the great musical advance. Three thousand German clubs are modelled on the Maennerchor idea alone. Physical culture was introduced to this country through the humble Turner Vereins. Almost every German who immigrated to America from 1830 to 1880 joined a Maennerchor and a Turn Verein — the one for musical culture, the other to keep his body strong and his blood clean. The Kindergarten idea, now universal, is of German origin, and the first teachers were Ger- mans. As workers in any field, the demand for them always has been great, and in case of competition preference has been shown for a nationality whose integrity, efficiency and vigor are understood by all." Still, no matter how much, in this crazy year, we may deride or applaud these people, we must eventually lose them, according to one prominent German-American who came here in 1865, and who writes : "While I share your belief in the benefits that might follow predomi- nant Gennan influence in our country, I regret to say this cannot hap- pen — because German immigration ceases. Germany is now able, through better conditions, to hold her children, while airecting them, in the future, when superfluous, to the colonies of which she is in need. Our sons and daughters, too, are different from their parents, and their children in turn will be still farther removed. So it goes on." The German Emperor, alas! needs a word of sympathy and im- derstanding in our time quite as much as did Lincoln in his. Napoleon in his, Frederick the Great in his, Savonarola in his, and all supreme and soHtary spirits in all times. Denunciation is cheap and easy, but appreciation, particularly by the simple, often keen and true, like the eyes of a child, is far more difficult to obtain. The following letter is from the pen of a brave and modest soldier whose English may be a little odd, but whose heart is all right. It is dated Oct. 26, 1914, a time when the American papers were printing endess fairy-tales from England about the German people's disloyalty to the German Emperor, and in its picturesque homeliness reveals plainly how one young fellow, and with him inevitably millions of others, were and still are thinking and feeling: Since I heard from you, heavy clouds of danger have gathered round our loved Fatherland, through this terrible war arranged against ua by nearly all the world. You cannot imagine the great hatred that moves the whole German nation, inflamed by such a base attack. We do not condemn the French or the poor Allies— they are the unhappy misled— all our holy oath of revenge belongs to the perfidious and criminal English. Nobody In Germany, I assure you, once wished this war. Therefore, the people stood up as one man, assembled around our sublime Kaiser, to fight, conquer, or die, never resting till the enemies, so numerous, shall be vanquished. An officer in the Kaiser's army, I am proud to be permitted to fight with him. Our affairs are progressing favorably. We carried battle and death into the hostile countries, and to-day no soldier of the whole band of conspirators stands on the Fatherland's soil. I beg you to say to all your friends how brave and confident are the German people in every way. Do not believe the lies of the Englishmen, and be sure we .shall at last be the victors, for our sword Is drawn in a high and holy cause. We feel we cannot fail. A little seamstress up the Hudson, when handed the red booklet entitled "An American Woman's Plea for Germany," declined it with thanks, exclaiming: "Humph! Plea for Germany! Germany needs no plea!" These are the people, counted by the million, of whom the Em- peror well may be proud, as are they, so passionately, of him — the man of all men for his people and his time ; the man to carry Germany safely through. In his sense of responsibility, his belief in divine right, his strange mystical trend, and his power to make the dream come true; above all, in his proud isolation, undaunted before the coalition implacably arrayed against him — is there not something about the German Em- peror to-day which recalls another Emperor and moment a century ago? In the little village of Laffrey, the Great Exile took heart; he once more faced a world at bay, and even then might have shown himself supreme had it not been for the ancestors of this Man of the Hour. May the strength both of Bonaparte and Bluecher unite in Wilhelm the HohenzoUern and lead him to the victory for which so many pray! Almost precisely a century ago, March 7, 1815, Napoleon I. crossed the hamlet of Laffrey, in Dauphine, on his escape from exile in Elba. Inscribed on a placard nailed to a humble dwelling there are words more beautiful, in their sad simplicity, than even the famous "Here Died Wolfe Victorious" : for they proved but the prelude to that living death so soon to follow. Realizing, as he again met his own people, that it was now but a call from soul to soul. Napoleon spoke : 1 Soldats! Je suis votre Empereur, Ne me reconnaissez-vous pas S'il en est un parmi vous Qui veuille tuer son General. 7 Mars. 1815. And this is the man whom the French in derision, and to the detriment of both, such is their inappreciation of a glorious past, com- pare to the Kaiser they loathe. It is the privilege of a young American to recall to mankind this touching episode — to do for France what she no longer seems able to do for herself : LAFFREY. By Amy S. Bridgman. The dust of all the decades since thy deathless day Lies deep on thee, O shabby little street! Thy ragged, unkempt walls are squalid, poor and gray, And, all-uncaring, countless casual feet Heve trampled where he trod — thine Eagle-Emperor! Still, A sacred Something sits with brooding wmgs Above the spot and, vibrant, beatmg back from hill To purple hill, an echoing voice still rings "Voila!" Uncaged, he holds the moment once again, In talon-grasp, almost Jehovah's place Usurps. Supreme, once more, this soaring man of men With great "I AM!" thrills through the narrow space. Laffrey! My fancy paints no other hour so great In all his hurtling flight. One royal tone: The soldiers sA'erve aside; Grenoble unbars her gate. Immortal, truly, thy Napoleon! TIE mjrm tide. March, 31, 1915. Americans lately have been receiving letters and appeals from authoritative Englishwomen, declaring that thousands upon thousands of aU classes in England are opposed to the war. and iniplormg us m America to aid in bringing about peace. These communications show not only distrust of the British Foreign Office, and sympathy for Uer- many, holding her the victim rather than the instigator of the present state of things, but with rare courage put the blame where it belongs— on England. The appeals for help are signed not only by the English but by well-known women on the Continent, and include the bociai Democrats of Russia and even a French mother of soldiers m France. It would seem as if the Peace Conference at The Hague next month, bringing so many earnest women together, must be productive of re- suits • Yet as one listener put it. after an exhortation the other day in Boston by Rosika Schwimmer: "If only she or anybody else could tell us one definite thing to DO !" . , , "What CAN we do ?" was the question put to a busy woman, wtio answered promptly: . j • • "Nothing; the only thing that will bring about peace is— a decisive victory for the Allies." "What about a decisive victory for the Germans f "Oh they can't win!" was the reply. "They can't win by any chance against them at all. If they did. the world wouldn't let them." There's fairness for you, as well as an Irish bull ! Italy was pronounced by the same open mind as sure to fight for the Allies. , . ,. "And turn traitor to her own!" was the indignant response.^ The Triple Alliance is almost as old as the German Empire, and Italy has repeatedly profited by its aid. recently in the conquest of Tripoli. She was in dire need of this colony for her overflowing popu- lation drifting steadily away to the two Americas, which France promised to obtain for her "peacefully." but when she failed to keep her word it was Germany and Austria who brought the quarry down. So many falsehoods are afloat these days that no one can be sure of anything ; but if it be true that Italy thinks of taking French leave of the Triple Alliance to join the Triple Entente she fully deserves all that fate may have in store for her. For the Lord himself has a way of settling such scores. Witness the turn of affairs in the Balkans. A traitorous Servia left Bulgaria bleeding. Now Servia bleeds while Bulgaria holds the Golden Key! It is commonly said that Germany cannot win against such over- whelming odds. Yet mere matter hardly counts beside such a wonder- ful demonstration of spirit, such a whirlwind of patriotism, as now grips the whole German Empire. Compare with this the general Russian un- easiness or an England divided against itself. Germany is founded on a rock; she fights for a real thing; for her unity, so hard won — indeed, for her life. It is truth against falsehood, faith against doubt, and no sophistry on the part of her enemies can make it otherwise. Person- ally I have every hope and confidence that this great national uprising will not be in vain — for it renews one's faith in humanity. But should Germany prove equal to her almost superhuman task this is certain: the parties who now assert that victory is impossible for her will just as stoutly maintain that she won through sheer brute force! Make a note of that. It's my own patented prediction. No small responsibility for this furious injustice rests upon a group of newspapers in New York, to whom all European affairs are vague forms in a mist. An article in the "Atlantic Monthly," October, 1908, by a New York editor, asking the question, "Is an Honest News- paper Possible?" contains the following interesting paragraph. It is an open secret that the reference was to the "Times" : One typical New York newspaper . . . has at least the potentiality of being a good morning daily. Its foreign news is exceptionally well handled at the sending end. It is, however, very badly edited, giving every indication that the news is consigned to the hands of some one who has not had the indispensable preparation of residence and worlc abroad. There is obvious inability to translate European thought into American terms. . . . What is lacking, both in the news and editorial departments, is the note of authority. The main editoria.ls and the empty financial article are all futile argument. . . .The consequence is that the editorials, like the foreign cables, look as if they were put in by a shovel. These words are seven years old, and within that time a mechanical improvement in the treatment of foreign news has been apparent, yet in all essentials the same conditions prevail. Germany herself could not have voiced her dissatisfaction with this newspaper, which leads all the rest in malign influence and horrid intent, more emphatically. Says one of the brightest writers on this subject: Millions of Americans are congenitally incapable of grasping anything concerning foreign affairs because they hide their heads in the sand; they allow their minds to be fuddled with grandiloquent platitudes and reverberating tub-thumpings; they allow dead politicians to do their think. ing for them, and are afflicted with that crowning curse of America— the co-educational mind. I sometimes think that, so far as America is concerned, Thomas Jefferson and thought lie buried in the same grave. The mere fact that so much attention was paid to the diplomatic books of all colors shows the intellectual state of America. Diplomacy is merely skillful deception, and no nation, Germany included, would publish any diplomatic correspondence unless it bore out its own contention. Then, too, the childish prattle about Kaisers and Kings and military cliques and militarism, the advocacy of democracy as a cure-all, and the parrot-like repetition of "War Is Hell," make one wonder if our statistics about educa- tion are not heavily padded. , ^ „ If war is hell, the United States was conceived and born in hell, grew to manhood in hell and was indissolubly united in hell. Treitschke is right when he says all states owe their existence and growth to war, but few Americans are honest enough to admit it. 12 As proof of the bias of the majority of American newspapers, one v/ide-awake citizen calls attention to the "remarkable fact that in the present controversy between the United States and England they have taken sides against their own country, have upheld the illegal acts of another country causing great loss to their own, and seem op- posed to the policy of their own Government." Are we becoming last as first an ignominious tail to England's imperial kite ? It was not for this that our forefathers fought and bled and died. The average American has no conception of events as they really are taking place in Europe. He does not realize that for weeks and months nothing favorable to the Germans or unfavorable to the Allies was allowed to get by the British censor, the source of all our vitiated views. He does not know, as do we with friends on the ground, that the pillaging of the Germans was not a circumstance to that of the French, who robbed their own countrywomen, running through the villages crying out that the enemy was upon them and all valuables must be surrendered for safekeeping, which proved so safe that men, money or trinkets were never seen again, as the victims testify. He does not know the true story of the sacking of Saarburg, in Alsace, at the beginning of hostilities, when noncombatants were corralled in the church, which becam.e the target for French guns, and two men came out alive! These are the heart-rending incidents ; but also he does not know the sweet and tender things, one that instead of loafing and drinking while resting between battles, awaiting orders, the energy of the Ger- mans constructed a superb granite monument, sixty feet high, for those who had fallen, and on which were carved the dead heroes' names. Nor does he know how every man and woman in the Fatherland stands ready to sacrifice life and property, the prosperous caring for the poor, some supporting four families, while to do this women give up their jewels, "and do it joyfully," says one, "realizing that mere things are nothing, but principle and patriotism everything." Nor do Americans know that it was the German soldiers of this slandered army who taught the children of Belgium and France, hitherto knowing only a dull foregathering in church, the spirit of Christmas which from time immemorial has come out of Germany. Every camp not only had its tree decorated as best might be with cakes, chocolates, toys and what not from home, distributed to the tales of Kriss Kringle, but the children, holding back at first, afraid of the brute Germans, at last were hanging about the necks of the lusty fel- lows, who wept upon their heads for thinking of their own babies or brothers and sisters at home. All this is not hearsay, but the actual facts, as told by those on the spot, in personal letters escaping the fate of previous communica- tions, and now just beginning to find their way to relatives and friends in the United States. IS Si BY THE ENEi. "Sir Edward Grey is now an idol of the British people, because of his conduct of various diplomatic affairs before and during the war. His maneuvering of Germany into a position of aggressiveness, his work in keeping Italy out of the line of the Triple Alliance, his coup in binding France and Russia not to conclude a separate peace, and his success in blocking Germany's efforts in the Balkans have brought to him enthusiastic support from all parties." This is a special cable dispatch to the New York "World" of April 2. Eyes open wide at the notion that Sir Edward Grey is a popular idol, supported by all parties for that musty diplomacy, seek- ing not the right but the wi!y thing, which by just men, even within the Empire itself, is so deeply deplored. But to begin with the last first. So far England has had no suc- cess whatever in blocking Germany in the Balkans, for the excellent reason that she is in full accord with the desire of Bulgaria to remain neutral, and almost equally so with the policy of Roumania. If fight they must, either or both, not likely will it be with the Entente, unless Germany is "in articulo mortis," or quite, quite dead. As for the coup preventing a separate peace by France or Russia, only another evidence of England's determination to make others suffer for her — to do her dirty work for her, as the Crown Prince bluntly puts it — that was a sinister trick the chief effect of which will be to prolong the misery of the war. The efforts of England, despite her heavy weeping over the broken Belgian treaty, to induce Italy to go and do likewise, are strenuous enough to be worthy of a better cause. Yet as Italy here- tofore has shown herself neither knave nor fool, let us hope she may not now. What clearer proof of Germany's absolute honesty than this frank admission from the lips of the enemy that Grey was successful in maneuvering her "into a position of aggressiveness"? Here she is borne out, by incontrovertible evidence, in her chief contention: that she did not want this war ; that she was drawn into it through loyalty to her distressed ally; that the conversion of a strictly local affair into a huge cataclysm is due entirely to the duplicity of England. Germany's best friend could say no more for her than this stupid Englishman ! American editorials on the Bismarck centenary gravely approve the one quality in the great chancellor which was least commendable: his ability to make the enemy SEEM to provoke war ! What is this if not an unconscious tribute to the Germany of to-day, who at last rec- ognizes a higher diplomacy — that based not on intrigue and decep- tion, the stronghold of Metternich and Machiavelli, but on the TRUTH. In a world at war calumnies run riot. Polite France was never so rude and unjust as to-day. She asserts, among worse things, that Ger- many has grown humble, and egotistically attributes it to the failure to enter Paris, That Germany has grown humble, as should all in the hour of grief, may be true, but that she longed to conquer France a second time the British White Book itself refutes. Its pages make plain that Germany desired to fight neither France nor England, nor any other who did not interfere with Austria's duty to her dead. Germany begged from England the guarantee of French neu- tra'ity; she had no quarrel with France, no wish to stir up the em- bers of 1870 — she coveted nothing that France could give. All she demanded was that, if forced to battle with Russia, her rear should not be imperilled. Failing to capture Paris, the French assert, the German soldiers lost morale and their leaders heart. Nobody cares much for a twice- told tale, nor are these the times when to take the capital is to win the war. Yet there are elderly gentlemen who honestly believe the Kaiser made an engagement to dine in Paris on Sept. 7, 1914! But to keep every hostile foot off the Fatherland, to fight the Fatherland's battles on the enemy's soil, each German strove to do, and has done. That is the cardinal principle of modern defensive war, and Wilhelm II. had no idea other than defense unless the god of bat- tles should prove uncommon kind. Towards England the feeling is different. To see your own kins- men turn against you is hard. By aiding Austria in her manifest right Germany had stirred up against herself half of Europe; and when added to this came the treachery of her own blood well, like the rest of us, she is human. The Russian menace, always very real to such a tenaciously "white" race, sank into insignificance beside this. Hence the bitter personal feeling, totally different from the racial distaste for and national fear of the encroaching Slav. Her own blood had failed her, had joined with the ever-present alien and still more distant ones, had defied every law of family and country. Thus Lissauer's "Chant of Hate" was born, so wicked, yet so won- derful and thrilling — "the" poem of the war. "Bismarck ,as I read him. ... is striving with strong faculty by patient, grand and successful steps, towards an object beneficial to Ger- mans and to all other men. That noble, patient, deep, pious and solid Germany should at length be welded into a Nation, and become Queen of the Continent, instead of vaporing, vainglorious, gesticulating, quarrel- some, restless and over-sensitive France, seems to me the hopefulest public fact that has occurred in my time." No, this is not from some ultra German patriot in 1915, but from Thomas Carlyle, hero of English letters in the illustrious reign of Victoria! 15 TRimi FROM ENGLIIi, An Englishwoman, whose beautiful home in London since the be- ginning of the war has been a refuge for English, German and Belgian alike, writes Feb. 16, 1915 : "The sheer madness of the whole thing is so apparent that one would think the fool might see it. The people are blinded by fear of each other, and in this state the politicians lead them where they will. The worst feature of the war is not the fighting, but the bitterness and hate and distrust among the people at home. The soldiers largely re- spect one another and despise the mean and slanderous talk of the press. But the politicians and war-mongers know it serves their pur- pose. "I am glad public opinion in America is swinging back in the di- rection of Germany. I do not believe it is Germany who stands in the way of Peace — a just Peace. I believe that if Britain and her allies de- sired a just Peace it could be gained in a month, or at least an armistice could be declared, and I hope the neutral nations will combine in pres- sure upon the belligerents to bring this about. Why should they stand meekly by while Russia and England, to satisfy their greed and pride, penalize the whole world ? "Economic pressure in Germany is killing more babies, not only in Germany but in England, than men who have been killed in the war. Our poor people are always hungry, and infant mortality has gone up with a bound. Ours probably is much higher than that of Germany, because the Germans are so well organized and are controlling and con- serving their supply, whereas our people are wholly unprotected, an easy prey to those who are exploiting them. "The Society of Friends I am hoping may be stirred to action, for they could do what would be possible to no other body. I met one of their most prominent peace workers, and she told me that if she could see the German Emperor she felt she should go down on her knees to him and beg him to forgive us. There are thousands of people here who are opposed to the war, but I think not many who feel like that, though I do myself ! "I believe America could help much, unofficially, if she would; that a well-conceived scheme initiated there would tremendously strengthen the hands of many here — of all who are longing to make themselves heard and felt in regard to the desirability of invoking an armistice and calling a Conference of Europe to settle terms of peace." l6 The same writer follows this with another letter, dated March 27, from which are taken these almost sibylline words : "I am much interested in what you say about the desire to see vengeance visited on Germany. I have no doubt Germany will suffer for the evil she has done — and is suffering. We all are suffering and will suffer unless we unite to change our ways of thought and living. And America will not escape unless she too learns her lesson and sets herself the task of putting her house in order. "I pray she may not blunder into the hopelessly mad course that the European countries have pursued in their policy toward one an- other. Surely it must be plain to every one now that, if we are to pre- serve the Western nations from annihilation, there must be a complete change from the policy of barbaric selfishness, now the accepted prin- ciple in the foreign offices of each and all the nations. And that change will not reach political relations until i* comes actively into the lives of the people, so that they firmly determine to see it expressed not only in private but in national life as well. Substitute the idea of service for selfishness and see where all this glad abandon of courage and devotion and self-sacrifice will carry us ! "It could be done. That all these immeasurable spiritual forces are now turned to destruction is simply the result of the hypnotism by which the youth and beauty of our races are led to commit acts from whose sheer hideousness the soul recoils in horror. "We have been living our lives and thinking our thoughts and developing our nations on the principle that Christ was not wise, whereas now it is abundantly plain for those who will see that there is NO OTHER WISDOM. I can see the Evil One gloating over hij success at playing the "angel of light," and the fact that, unlike Christ on the mount of temptation, we have failed to discover his disguise. Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. When shall we gather into our hearts the courage to embark on the 'great adventure' of really following Him even though it lead us to our Calvary?" »7 liAORE TRUTH FROM ENGLAND, A British subject of high social and political rank writes the following out of the fullness of his heart. He is neither an Irishman nor a Bernard Shaw, but he is plainly impressed by England's guilt in permitting the war to take place, her madness in prolonging it, and the contributory foolishness of America. The letter is dated Paris, March 21,1915: "I am glad the people in the States are at last becoming more im- partial. They now are able to perceive how the Allies by their false news and hypocritical propaganda have been misleading them. They begin to comprehend, as your press dispatches show, that they may be caught in the toils of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Japan took Kaio- Chau with the condition that she restore it to China, but now she wants to keep it, and England seems quite willing, provided her own interests are safe. "What does this mean? That in a few years Japan will swallow China whole ; then one day annex the Philippines, and with the help of England, Canada and Mexico maybe California — while America, with all her dollars, will be helpless. So many Americans, absorbed in their personal interests, do not see that every bullet sold to Europe may in the near future be used against their kin and skin, if the Allies ever obtain a crushing victory. "Germany is condemned as a breaker of treaties, but what about the Allies? England and France offered Turkish islands to Greece if she would support them with a few thousand men. Again, poor Italy is trying to save her honour by being neutral, but England is intriguing constantly (she has bought up many politicians) to make the distracted kingdom break her treaty, while for that old rag of a Belgian treaty John Bull kicked up such a row. "I hope Italy remains neutral, but if she must intervene, certainly not on the side of the Entente — for she can gain nothing, and nobody ever will trust her again. By joining England she could get no more than a bit of Austria, which would not much improve her position, but if even now she actively aids her own Alliance, there is her old province of Savoy held by the French, and she might get Tunisia, per- haps Malta, and thus become Mistress of the Mediterranean. "Many do not know that the provinces of Trent and Trieste, while Italian speaking, never belonged to Italy ; so that if Austria cedes them to her it will be for political reasons, not prior claims. It was other- i8 wise with Alsace-Lorraine, They were German possessions, through the heirs of Charlemagne, from the ninth century — and some claim Teutonic occupation almost back to Caesar's time — until the seven- teenth, when the Grand Monarch got in his fine work. The 'rights' of France, therefore, are not ancient at all, but comparatively modern. "You may smile, but I believe Christ has been incarnated in the German Emperor and his people. Even should Germany come out something less than victorious, this war will result in great benefit to the world. In any event German thought and science can never be de- stroyed, but will live on earth as did Christianity in spite of the Roman Empire. French art, French thought, penetrated to the heart of Russia when Napoleon with all his legions failed. "Warn America against England and Japan! If America does not want this war let her suspend just for three months all commerce with England — and particularly this sad traffic in munitions which, as we incline to idealize her, is shocking us so. Stop this and see how nuickly Peace will reign!" »9 STRONG HDS. (From a Contributor to The Outlook, February 17, 1915.) I am not a German-American, since I and my parents were bora in America, but I sympathize heartily with Germany. I cannot speak German, have never visited Germany, and am bound to her by no sen- timental ties. Nor am I among those who believe that America can do no wrong. There are a great many things about England and the English that I admire, and I think the British Empire is a splendid thing for the world in a number of respects. With the honest, hard-working common people of England I have no quarrel. But with a system which allows a Prime Minister, unknown even to other members of his Cabinet, to sign a treaty which binds his nation to engage in war, I can have no sympathy. Who started the war? is a question I refuse to worry about. I firmly believe that the war was begun by Russia, with the connivance of England and France. England's policy has always been one of a modified Donnybrook Fair — if you see a head, get some one to hit it for you. I have yet to see a logical explanation of the French loans of billions to Russia — loans upon which France lost in interest (consider- ing what she could obtain from better investments) over forty million dollars annually. The money, of course, went to arm and reorganize the Russian armies as rapidly as possible. In 1916 or 1917 the Russian hordes would be ready, and France ,Russia and England would force war on Germany. Germany knew this, and, as she had a better chance of coming out victoriously, or at least putting up a better fight now than later on, I, for one, do not blame her if she brought on this war. If she is beaten she will be no worse off than if she had stupidly allowed her known enemies to prepare thoroughly for her destruction. And now as to Belgium. Belgium could have saved herself from the horrors of war, but she was afraid of the wrath of France and England should she allow the Germans to cross her territory; for she thought, with almost all the rest of the world, that the Allies would make short work of Germany. She staked her all on the wrong horse and lost. When Maeterlinck tells an Italian audience that Belgium stood up without hope and sacrificed herself for the cause of justice, he insults the intelligence of the world. Belgium was given to understand that France and England would come to her aid if she were invaded ; that the war would be fought along the Liege-Namur line, and from there the invasion of Germany would take place. And with this under- standing Belgium fought. So Belgium lies crushed and bleeding, with a broken heart, a vic- tim of misplaced confidence — another of England's dupes. And Eng- land, to cover her duplicity and impotence, unloosens her forces of canting, sniveling hypocrites upon the world. And if this war results in putting an end to the buffer state idea it will have accomplished at least one good purpose. For Belgium is only a buffer state, formed chiefly through the aid of England to pro- tect herself from France and Germany. Hence English crocodile tears. It will be a blessing if Belgium becomes a part of an empire able to protect it from further harm. Belgium, by right, ought to be a part of Germany, or at least a member of the customs union. A word with those whose chauvinism takes the form of glorifying democracy and sneering at aristocracy and monarchy. We in America can afford to put up with the extravagance, inefficiency and mediocrity of our Government, since we possess a rich, undeveloped continent, geographically separated from strong foreign foes. But for Germany to adopt democracy would be to commit economic suicide; and it would mean such an intellectual and sentimental wrench as would be involved in a change from Catholicism to Protestantism or the re- verse. There have been various suggestions as to what should be done to Germany should the Allies be successful. If the Allies wish to cripple her permanently and make of her a secondary Power, all they have to do is to insist that Germany adopt a democratic form of government. And so I hope and pray that Germany will be victorious, for the following reasons: I sympathize with her naturally, because she is the foully slandered imder dog. If Germany wins, it will be a triumph of efficiency and fore- sight over the muddlers-through and the wasters. It will be a triumph of a land of homes over a land of race sui- cide and selfishness ; and figuratively, it will be a victory of Sparta over decadent Rome. The world needs a Germany, a believer in masculinism, to counter- act the effeminacy, namby-pambyism, skim-milkism, and doormatism that are leading to degeneracy and decay. Prof. Usher says he wishes England to win because she allows us to keep Porto Rico, and because the English navy maintains the Monroe Doctrine. If that be true, we are nothing but a kept Nation; and therefore I wish Germany to win because we will then have to pay our own way and stand on our own feet. Austria-Hungary, 1914-1915 O land of many tongues, ivith past Chequered, and present overcast; Land of the Danube rolling strong Its wooded bariks and cliffs along; Land of broad plains and mountains high, Of wheat and vines and friendly sky. Where peasants, gay ivith song and dance, Suggest a more exotic France; Hast thou not since the long ago Suffered enough of toil and woe? Hast thou not guarded Europe well From onsets of the Infidel, Clifflike amid the mad waves' toss, EasteJii Bulwark of the Cross? Hast thou not oft, though scarce through lust Of conquest, staggered in the dust Of sore defeat, and in the gloom That wraps the Hapsburgs' line of doom? Couldst thou not turn another page Of history in this onward age. And, peaceful, give thy peoples laws And progress, ivith the world's applause? Ah, no! before thy portals sate Incarnate Murder, Greed, and Hate, And, ere thou couldst avert the blow, The crown of all thy hopes lay loiv! Then in just anger, deep, not rash. Thou struck' st, and lo! the armed clash Of jealous nations ayisxtrered. Now Thou battiest ivith undaunted brow And hand of steel, ivhile at thy side Thy great Ally, in all the pride Of patriotic strength doth stand. Faithful, impregnable, and grand! Strike on, strike on, and show the loorld Thy fearless banner high unfurled; Let him who will thy course decry, Thy valor is thy best reply; May PrzemysVs heroic fall Prove but a louder battle call; And, when subsides the din of arms, Resume, Austria, thy charms Through suffering heightened, and once more Let Music rule the Danube's shore! W. P. TRENT. 23 Jtanuscript completed April 7, 1915. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: SEP 20U2 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township. PA 16066 (724)779-2111 5066 I