1 ! ! ..... , : j AMERICA'S STAKE i TlSJ EUROPE T t . ^=TjS= Charles UarveyFahs Class _ Book._ GpightlS? CQEXBIGHT DEPOSHi WORLD PROBLEM DISCUSSION SERIES AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE CHARLES HARVEY FAHS ASSOCIATION PRESS New York: 347 Madison Avbnub 1921 Copyright 192 r, by The International Committer of Young Men's Christian Associations Printed in the U. S. A. DEC22'ZI ©GI.A680929 PREFACE The second volume in the "World Problem Discussion Series," lere offered, has been prepared on the same general plan as 'America's Stake in the Far East," and with the same methods of lse in view as in the case of the first book of the series. The hearty ind wide acceptance of the book on the Far East would seem to lemonstrate a felt need for this type of publication. These chapters of questions here offered were not intended to >e all-inclusive or too deeply penetrative into the complex tangle )f things. They are an attempt to provide helpful aid and stimulus o groups and individuals here and there who, perplexed and dis- urbed by the baffling European situation, feel hopeless in any ittempt to think into the question of what America can or ought to >e doing at this time. Yet America is facing and must make great lecisions, and these should be decisions for the people and, so far is may be, by the people. If democracy is to find its way to cor- >orate judgment about great international issues, any dispassion- ite attempt whatsoever to state the questions in ways that will help he lay mind to grasp them and to formulate worthy opinion with eference to their solution ought not to be without value. Certain limitations in the book must be recognized. In the irst place, the chapter subjects do not include by any means all he problems of American-European relationships. America's re- ationships to Scandinavia, to France and the other Latin nations, o the Balkans, to the new states of Central Europe, might have lad specific treatment. Yet to have done so would have made a >ook too elaborate and expensive and would have defeated the ends or which it was prepared. Moreover, within the scope of the haptens that are offered, the scholar and the expert will doubtless vish that more of the historical and technical questions bearing on iconomics and diplomacy and on national and international de- r elopment or retrogression had been called forth. The reference naterials offered in connection with each chapter are clearly in- .dequate both as to amount and as to content. It would require or each of certain of the chapters reference materials as voluminous :s the complete contents of this book, if these materials were to ie at all comprehensive. The reader may look in vain in the ref- rence materials for illuminative quotations concerning many of he questions raised. Yet within the necessary limits of space, it is toped that 'sufficient reference citations are offered to be of sub- tantial help to those who use the book. Most of the major issues iii iv PREFACE are touched upon, if not fully discussed from various angles, in the quotations offered. Many of the current periodicals, especially the weekly and monthly reviews and magazines, are rich with in- formation and opinion regarding these matters. A final limitation grows out of the fact of rapidly changing conditions and situations. No assurance is possible that many questions here raised will not speedily be matters of history only. Yet the attempt has been made to appraise the questions with reference to the probability that they will continue to be pertinent for some time to come, and to eliminate those which would seem to be of only passing significance. Given such limitations as those mentioned, it is clear that the book ought not to be evaluated other than with reference to its intended purpose — a contribution to the effectiveness and help- fulness of personal consideration and group discussions of certain outstanding questions in American-European relations. That it can make such a contribution is the confident hope of those who have shared in its preparation and publication. As in the case of "America's Stake in the Far East," the questions are based on rather extended research in books and cur- rent periodicals. The questions once formulated, the writer had the highly helpful collaboration of Mr. Harrison S. Elliott in choosing and arranging those most likely to be useful in the conduct of forums and discussion classes. Further aid was given, moreover, through the careful and penetrating criticism of Mr. Jay Urice, who had just returned from a six months' journey through twelve of the countries of Europe, in each of which he had opportunity for sensing those aspects of Europe's post-war life likely to be of the most significance for America. For the choice and abridgment of the reference materials the writer only is responsible. Charles Harvey Fahs. New York City, November i, 1921. CONTENTS PAGE 'reface iii I. What is America's Present Stake in Europe? i II. Should America Reassert Her Former Isolation from European Affairs ? 3 III. How Long Ought America to Share in European Relief ? 1 7 IV. Should We Cancel Europe's War Indebtedness to Us? 35 V. What Part Should America Take in Bringing About the Economic Recovery of Europe?.. 51 VI. Are the European Loyalties of Our Cosmo- politan Population a Menace to America?.. 66 VII. What Attitude Should Be Taken Toward Immi- gration from the Distressed Lands of Europe ? 80 /"III. Of What Concern to Uncle Sam Are John Bull's Woes or Welfare ? 92 IX. What Should Be the American Attitude Toward Germany ? 108 X. What is the Bearing of Russia's Distress on America's Destiny? 123 XI. Must America Help to Clean Up Europe and Europe's Dependencies? 137 XII. Should America Seek to Influence European Colonial Policies? 152 illl. How is the World Different Since the World War? 168 XIV. What Can an American Do About It? 182 Suggestions for the Chairman of the Discussion Group or Forum 184 Bibliographical Note 186 CHAPTER I WHAT IS AMERICA'S PRESENT STAKE IN EUROPE? Sources of Information Concerning Overseas Subjects i. Where do you get your information about Europe? How re- liable is it ? 2. What books, magazines, and newspapers have you been reading? What help did each give you toward a better under- standing of the situation in Europe? 3. What difference do you find the origin of a newspaper dis- patch may make in its reliability? How far does propaganda tend to color the news? 4. What special correspondence do you feel is most reliable? What periodicals seem to have the most reliable information about conditions in Europe? 5. What magazines and newspapers appear to be the most biased by the special parties, groups, or interests they respectively represent ? [. Reactions of the American Mind to Facts and Discussions 1. In your newspaper reading of the last six months what Euro- pean questions do you recall as having been most featured in the headlines? 2. What seem to be the major friction and distress points in Europe ? 3. As you read the current periodicals, on what questions do you find them differing most as to the part America should take in European affairs? 4. On these questions on which there is such a difference of opinion, Americans must take some attitude. List these ques- tions in the order of their importance, as you estimate their significance. 5. Is the average American interested in these questions ? Why ? Why not? Why, if at all? Ought he to be interested more than he is? By what process can he be made to be more truly and intelligently interested? I AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE 6. How is the average American to come to some trustworthy judgment on these large questions and on ways of solving them ? 7. Just how important do you feel it to be that trustworthy in- dividual and social judgment on these questions should be arrived at in a democracy? Why? Shall we leave these ques- tions to the experts in Congress and in the President's Cabinet or is an informed and disciplined public opinion desirable and essential? What are the reasons for your opinion? 8. What part does free discussion of the essential problems in American foreign relations and policy play in the formation of public opinion? What part should it play? CHAPTER II SHOULD AMERICA REASSERT HER FORMER ISOLATION FROM EUROPEAN AFFAIRS? I. The Issue Facing America 1. Why do many Americans wish the Nation to return to a policy of isolation from European affairs? From just what would America desire to protect herself by reasserting this isolation ? 2. Are the American people desirous of avoiding international responsibilities? If so, why? 3. What evidence is there that America has experienced a re- vulsion of feeling toward European affairs ; what evidence that she is still willing to take her part in international coopera- tive enterprises? Is international cooperation possible without an accompanying possibility of the development of international political complications ? 4. What considerations lead many people to feel that the main- tenance of her traditional isolation, if possible, would best enable America to fulfill her mission to the world? What do you think as to this point of view? 5. Should America attempt to reassert her former "splendid isolation' from European affairs ? II. Considerations Bearing Upon America's Answer A. The Historical Basis for America's Traditional Policy of Isolation 1. On what grounds did Washington urge aloofness from Euro- pean affairs on the part of the new Republic ? To what extent are these reasons valid today ? 2. To what extent did the enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine imply that America would not take part in European affairs? What considerations led to the declaration of this policy? To what extent do these considerations still hold? 3. Just what has isolation meant in the past ? What was the first great break in America's traditional situation with respect to world affairs? 4 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE 4. Did the entrance into the world war mark a sudden change of policy or had America been gradually, and perhaps uncon- sciously, shifting from the policy of isolation from European affairs before the beginning of the World War? On what evidence do you base your answer? B. The Possibility of Maintaining an Isolated Position in the World 1. What does America need for her well being that she does not have within her own borders or can not obtain in the Western Hemisphere ? 2. Do America's chief political problems at present have to do with foreign affairs? Give reasons for your opinion. 3. How, if at all, is the United States concerned with the indus- trial situation in Europe and in other parts of the world ? What bearing does the industrial situation in any nation have on politics ? 4. What bearing do the European interests of our immigrant population have upon America's isolation from Europe? Can we deal adequately with the immigration problem apart from vital contacts with European governments? 5. What change has the war brought with respect to America's financial position among the world powers? Do Europe's economic ties with America seem to you to lessen or to increase the difficulties incident to any attempts on the part of America to maintain an isolated national life? Why? 6. Just how much of a protection from the distresses and tu- mults of Europe do you feel the Atlantic ocean is for us ? Have modern conditions of communication and transportation, as some claim, broken down the effectiveness of the Atlantic as an "estranging sea"? 7. Do you feel that the great war with its resultant settlements has increased or decreased the probability that America may again be drawn into war because of European difficulties ? 8. What elements in the present situation make isolation pos- sible, what seem to make it impossible? Upon the whole, do you feel that America can or can not maintain an isolated position with respect to European affairs in the sense that all "entangling alliances" can be avoided? C. A Policy of Isolation — Honorable or Dishonorable? 1. What obligation, if any, is upon America to "carry on" in REASSERTING ISOLATION FROM EUROPE 5 seeking to achieve the aims of the war after having helped to bring the war to a conclusion ? z. What does Europe really need that we have or could give? How necessary are these to her ? 3. Some say that America has thus far side-stepped her moral responsibilities in respect to the situation. Does there seem to you to be an ethical lack in America's attitude toward inter- national affairs? \. Should we in the United States look after our own industrial affairs and pay little attention to what is happening in other nations, or are we obligated to join with other civilized nations in an attempt to solve the larger industrial questions internation- ally ? What bearings do the international contacts and relation- ships of labor organizations have on this question? 5. How can America make the greatest contribution to world life : by working out her own democratic ideals so far as pos- sible apart from world contacts, or by taking a place of ag- gressive leadership in the family of nations? 5. Does it seem to you possible for us to take an active and effective part in the reconstructive processes in Europe and still keep our national birthright of independence with respect to political action? Why or why not? 7. What considerations should guide America in determining the degree of leadership she should take in seeking to better conditions among the war-stricken peoples overseas? III. America's Answer to the Question of Isolation 1. If war is to be prevented in the future, can America best help to this end by seeking to isolate herself so far as possible, or by entering as fully as possible into international life and af- fairs? Why? 2. Should America utilize her unparalleled economic situation as a leverage against war-making processes? If so, how can this best be done? 3. Should we insist on the ''open door" in trade everywhere? Should we make good that insistence where necessary by force of arms? How offset the danger that the part we take will be determined by the urge of our ambitious commercial classes and not out of a genuine desire to provide equal opportunity in commerce for all nations? 4. Ought America under any circumstances to assume responsi- 6 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE bilitieS for newly freed nationalities of Europe which may need protection against the aggression of selfish neighbors or cooperation in organizing their economic and political life? Under what circumstances and with what acceptance of respon- sibilities should it be done? 5. Which is the more important for the future of America and of the world : a. The further development of American life and ideals as those of a self-sufficient national and social entity, perhaps inspiring and even extraordinarily helpful to the rest of the world, but so far as possible separated from it ; or, b. The full participation of America in world problems and activities and in the international outreachings toward a larger world life, even losing its own life in some measure on behalf of the larger social whole? 6. What things arc" we now doing as a nation which seem to you in the direction of assuming a permanent relation to European affairs? Should this tendency be hastened? If so, what in your judgment are the next steps to be taken? 7. Just what is possible in evoking an intelligent public opinion on America's relationships to Europe? 8. If there is a real summons to a world task, how can the national sense of that fact be stimulated, the growth of self consciousness as to national mission and destiny be hastened? INFORMATION AND CURRENT OPINIONS ON QUESTIONS AT ISSUE The Case for Isolation Political, Economic, and Defensive Self-Containedness A stronger case could be made for the political and economic isola- tion of America than for that of any other country, partly because . . . she has within her political domain all the resources of national well-being; partly, also, because it is of supreme importance that the great experiment oi democracy should not he unduly hampered by ex- cessive inpourings of ill-assimilable foreign blood, and by dangerous contacts with obsolete or inapplicable European institutions. ... A reasoned argument could be addressed to prove that the economy of national security and progress for this country lay along the lines of political, economic and defensive self-eontainedness. . . . Many must be led to support this policy, not on grounds of seliishness. because they desire to conserve for America alone her great opportunities, and not REASSERTING ISOLATION FROM EUROPE 7 mainly from fear, lest America should be embroiled again in the dan- gerous quarrels of distant European nations, but because they are ani- mated by that pure desire, which has animated so many generations of high-minded Americans, that American democracy should grow to its full stature by its own unaided efforts and save the world by its example. — J. A. Hobson, "The Morals of Economic Internationalism," pp. 28-30. Thinking in Terms of America If we are to be drawn into all the intrigues and broils of the rest of the world our own home problems must go unsolved. Let us attend to our own business for a while, and insist that the rest of the world attend to theirs. . . . Let us think for a while in terms of America — wrongs are here to be righted — let us right them; problems are crying for solution, let us solve them. Let us promote, so far as we can, peace and the general welfare of the world, but let us think of America first and prosper Amer- ica first and above all promote the peace and welfare of our own people at home. This republic has cost too much in blood and treasure to permit it to go down in a red sea of horror, wrecked on the rocks of Bolshevism and anarchy. — Senator Frank Willis, of Ohio, address at Madison Square Garden, New York City, March 18, 1921. America's Distrust of Europe Two million odd Americans saw Europe in the years 1917-1919, and very few will ever forget what they saw. Bloodshed, racial hatred, animosities that had their roots back behind Genghiz Khan and Julius Caesar, dynastic pride, secret diplomacy, religious bigotry, and a passion for self-determination which, once aroused, did not stop with races or peoples but raged in towns and hamlets until it almost seemed that there could not be a sizable village without an army, a navy, and goodness knew how many cabinet ministers, all praying for American assistance in the noble task of extirpating their next-door neighbors, the ex-cabinet ministers, and their other next-door neighbors — those-who-might-possi- bly-aspire-some-day-to-become cabinet ministers. The economic back- ground was hunger and pestilence and Bolshevistic horror, class hate or race hate, abetted by religious hate, fanned by politicians and "patriots" and every hamlet crying out, "When will America come to set us free?" It was not a lovely spectacle. It was a very disillusioning spectacle. Small wonder that men came back and cried out, "America to herself. Let Europe stew in the poisonous juices of her own passions. Let us keep America clean and unpolluted for our children. Let us remember Washington and Monroe and reject the League of Nations along with every other insidious attempt to embroil us in the selfishness of European diplomacy." 8 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE Natural conservatism and the lack of a trained personnel fitted for the exacting work of colonial or imperial administration are conditions which might after a considerable period be overcome. They are matters of purely domestic concern. More important for Europe to understand is the American's distrust of Europe, bred in him by a study of her end- less succession of racial, religious and dynastic controversies, and forti- fied by his experience of the war of which Germany was the architect but for which all the nations of Europe undeniably furnished the ma- terials and tools. This quality of American distrust may in the last analysis be a form of self-righteousness. But for better or worse, noble or ignoble, the trait exists. On being invited to participate in European questions the American feels that he is being asked to take a hand in a game with players who, if they are not unscrupulous, are at least so much more astute and experi- enced than he that he is sure to lose. Excessive modesty is not commonly believed in Europe to be the besetting sin of Americans. In com- mercial matters they do not fear European competition or rivalries. But in statecraft, the American is afraid the wily European and the even more wily Oriental is going to "slip something over on him." The Peace Conference has emphasised this feeling. ... In the matter of mandates, America cannot help remarking that the mandates she was urged to assume were in localities where she could not profit and where she must of necessity spend large sums of money. Armenia was eagerly pressed upon us as a suitable field for a display of America's administra- tive talents. We were not urged to take the mandate of Syria or Meso- potamia. Both of those countries may become sources of profit to their mandatories. Syria has the ports of the rich hinterland of Asia Minor, Mesopotamia has oil, Armenia has massacres and starvation ! This distrust has been at the bottom of America's refusal to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and accept her share of the varied burdens of world administration. The elimination of this distrust is the task for the next generation of European statesmen if for the good of mankind they genuinely desire American cooperation. . . . The obstacles are by no means insuperable. On the contrary time and honesty will win the most sceptical, but cynicism and corruption will only drive America into a deeper and deeper isolation. — Round Table, June, 1921, pp. 566-568. The Question of Entangling Alliances America's Traditional Policy of Isolation It may be questioned whether the word "isolation" ever correctly described the foreign policy of the United States. From its very begin- ning it either voluntarily entered into, or was involuntarily drawn into, many world-problems. Its so-called "policy of isolation" consisted largely in its disinclination, to use Washington's words, to "implicate REASSERTING ISOLATION FROM EUROPE 9 itself by artificial ties in the ordinary" — meaning thereby the local — concerns of European politics. In its early days of weakness it did not desire to become the shuttlecock of European politics. Of that it had had bitter experience in the colonial wars which preceded the foundation of the American Republic. It did not object to alliances so much as to "entangling alliances," and by this oft-quoted expression it meant such contractual obligations by treaty alliances as would impair its freedom of action in future crises or contingencies. Assuming that "isolation" does truly define the past policy of America ; yet, from the time of the Spanish-American War, when, in another Treaty of Paris, the United States voluntarily assumed respon- sibilities in the far Orient, the policy of isolation was definitely aban- doned. . . . I agree that the United States, as a master-state of the world, has world-wide obligations from which it cannot escape without moral suicide. That America will play a great part in the future destinies of civilization, I do not doubt; but it will play a greater and more beneficent part if it does not dissipate its moral influence and impair its disinter- ested character as a great and friendly arbiter by intermeddling in the local concerns of Europe. As President Monroe's Secretary of State said just a century ago . . .: "// may be observed that for the repose of Europe as well as of America, the European and American political systems should be kept as separate and distinct from each other as possible." — James M. Beck, Fortnightly Reviezv, April, 1920, pp. 529, 530. Linked to the Vicissitudes of Our Neighbors We have inclined to think that the rest of the world was the sport of destiny, but that we, somehow, were insured against fate. If we are pinched enough and worried enough to make us feel that, in spite of isolation and riches and the position for the moment of being the great creditor nation of the world, we are still inseparably joined to the rest of mankind, and linked, willy-nilly, to the vicissitudes of our neighbors, it may bring us to a bolder spirit about joining with them to make the world safer and more salubrious for all hands. To be so fortunate that we dare not be neighborly for fear of catching something harmful or losing something valuable is to be not really in a strong position, but in a weak one. — E. S. Martin, Harper's Monthly Magazine, January, 1921, p. 264. The Possibility of American Isolation Varied and Wonderful Resources The Americans have much justification in calling their great land "God's own country." Providence has been exceedingly kind to them. It has concentrated the most varied and the most wonderful resources within the boundaries of the Great Republic, and its citizens have io AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE turned the great gifts of Nature into wealth with energy ami with wis- dom. The United Stales possess halt the world's eoal and halt the world's iron ore, the two minerals which form the twin basis oi modern industry. Their water powers are so gigantic that a tithe would suf- fice to electrify all their machinery and all their railways. In its huge rivers and in its extraordinary chain of lakes the Republic possesses the most wonderful system of inland waterways in the world. To complete their lines of communication, the Americans have opened up their country by means of a vast railway system, the mileage of which is almost twice as great as that of the British Empire. The American Republic extends through a variety of climes. Its plains and valleys yield enormous crops, and its mountains vast quan- tities of timber. Among the nations of the world the United States are by far the largest producers of coal, iron ore. copper, silver, petroleum. cotton, maize, wheat, oats, tobacco, etc. The American climate is extremely stimulating. American energy is largely due to the tonic properties of the air. Owing to the great wealth of their natural re- sources, and the boundless energy of the inhabitants, the United States, which only a few years ago were chiefly an agricultural country, have become by far the greatest industrial community in the world, and they wish to become the greatest commercial and seafaring nation as well. They produce more eoal. more iron, more steel, more machinery, and infinitely more motor cars than all the other States of the world com- bined, and they are by far the largest producers in the world of leather, boots, silks, furniture, and of other manufactured goods too numerous to mention. The United States have vast advantages over all the other countries of the world. Within a compact area they have boundless resources, the exploitation oi which has only begun, and the American race possesses at the same time the enthusiasm and the energy of youth and that sober ripeness of judgment which is usually found only in older nations. Men oi such a character and possessed of such resources are apt to go far. — Politicus, Fortnightly Review, December, 1920, pp.931, 03 j. Understanding Post-war Developments in Europe let no American feel that he can escape all relationship to post- war developments in Europe. That is impossible, and being impossible, we should at least aim to understand those developments sufficiently to recognize something of their significance to us and judge of our respon- sibilities to the outside world. The future of Europe is going to be largely shaped by the wisdom or the lack of wisdom that we in America show in our grasp of European affairs, in the way we seize our world opportunities and in the sincerity with which we discharge our world obligations and render service where service is due. If we are narrow, provincial, selfish, all those qualities will react on our own future. If REASSERTING ISOLATION FROM EUROPE n we are wise, broad and generous with our help, our recompense will he beyond measure. — Frank A. Vanderlip, "What Happened to Europe," pp. '72, i73- Water-tight Compartments and the War We cannot longer he confined in isolated, water-tight compart- ments of selfish nationalism. Four years of war brought the whole world together in a common cause as previous centuries had failed to do. Forty millions of young men were drawn together from the cities, towns, and villages of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. They tra- versed new lands and seas, new continents of thought and experience ; they exchanged new ideas. They fought together in France, Italy, Russia, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Egypt, and East Africa. Many entered as boys who returned as men ; they left home as provincials, to return with a cosmopolitan consciousness of Everybody's World. The world not only fought together in a common cause ; for the first time it thought together and acted together. The resources of the earth were made common property, the harvests of agriculture, the products of industry, shipping and railways, coal and iron, were all found to belong to Everybody's World. Masses of men learned the value of social control. The individual had to recognize humanity; nationalism had to break its shell and emerge into a world of internationalism. — Sherwood Eddy, "Everybody's World," pp. 20-21. The Hermitary Seclusion of America Impossible I assert that the system of international relations under which we and our fathers have lived has broken down; that its collapse was due to the change of economic, commercial, financial, social and political conditions in the modern world ; that any attempt to reestablish it will be rendered nugatory by the continued existence of these conditions; that the sound instinct of the plain people of the world in all nations yearns and clamors for a new and better world-order ; and that if this instinct is disregarded and overridden by statesmen the gravest conse- quences are certain to ensue. The world cannot go back to the 19th century system of a European balance of power and the hermitary seclusion of America. How can the balance of power be reestablished in Europe when Germany has been vanquished and when Russia, and Austria-Hungary, and Turkey have been disintegrated and resolved into their constituent parts and replaced by numerous independent nationalities? And how can America resume her ancient isolation after the war in which it has been demon- strated that, owing to new methods and means and instrumentalities of warfare, on land and sea and in the air, no great nation can probably ever again remain neutral but must, in defense of its interests and security and for the maintenance of law and justice, be inevitably drawn into 12 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE the conflict whenever two or more great nations of the modern world resort to the dread arbitrament of war? — Dr. Jacob Gould Schurman, Forum, March, 1920, p. 320. Ties That Bind The world is strangely knit together to-day by rapid transportation and communication and by the frontier-crossing agencies of credit, contract, capital, and corporate organization. There is hardly a single national problem, political or economic, that does not have its inter- national implications. Just now we are in great danger of ignoring this cardinal principle of modern politics and present-day economics. On every hand there are bankrupt and peevishly partizan minds counseling us to sit tight as the resolute defenders of a hermit American- ism. One can only pity these strangely sundered persons whose bodies live in the twentieth century, their minds in the sixteenth. They seem to think that nations are isolated compartments, with the laws of cause and effect operating within their sealed frontiers. But in the modern world the laws of cause and effect are inter-state laws. . . . We are still shut up to an inexorable choice between these two alternatives: we must become either the plaything of world forces or a partner in their control. A policy of isolation is as dead as the dodo. No sane man wants America to underwrite an unstable and inflam- mable Europe. . . . The one thing we must realize is that we cannot formulate our international policy without venturing outside the easy radius of the parish pump. No man can think intelligently in national terms to-day without thinking in world terms. — Glenn Frank, Century Magazine, June, 1920, p. 210. A Policy of Isolation — Honorable or Dishonorable? Facing National Responsibilities America owes it to herself, as one of the great civilized and civiliz- ing Powers of the world, to face her moral responsibilities in relation to vast world-problems. Your countrymen may regard the tradition of "non-intervention" as purely a domestic question with which no other nation or people has any right to intermeddle. They must bear with me if, with profound deference, I venture to dissent. The United States of America cannot shake herself free from moral responsibility and its im- plications by giving to the question at issue this narrower interpretation. Just as no individual in civilized society can live to himself, however much he might desire to do so, so no State can live to itself in the comity of nations. The law of action and reaction is ceaselessly at work, and is it not a species of moral cowardice to try to evade the natural conse- quences of the operations of natural laws? In short, do not America's REASSERTING ISOLATION FROM EUROPE 13 status and growing influence in the world make this merely "domestic" aspect of the question an impossihle one? This apparent unreadiness on the part of the United States of America to bear her fair share of the "White Man's Burden" comes to us as a painful disappointment after our hopes had been kindled by her whole-hearted intervention in the war. — D. Henry Rees, Fortnightly Re- view, April, 1920, p. 520. Serving Europe Through Guarding National Self-interests Europe is a very old Europe. Its psychology is different from our psychology; its people are the inheritors not only of an ancient and rich civilization and a fine tradition but of rivalries and hatreds which are almost immemorial, which are bone of the bone and blood of the blood of the people. We have a community of interest with Europe but not an identity of interest. It is in serving herself and guarding her own interests that America will best save Europe from herself. — Hon. Medill McCormick, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July, 1921, p. 169. People of Destiny To some extent, and I think in an increasing way, the old su- premacy which Europe had is passing westward. Europe is stricken, tired, and poor. America is hearty, healthy, and rich. Intellectually, it is still boyish and young and raw. There is the wisdom as well as the sadness of old age in Europe. We have more subtlety of brain, more delicate sense of art, a literature more expressive of the complicated emotions which belong to an old heritage of civilization, luxury, and philosophy. But I look for a Golden Age of literature and art in Amer- ica which shall be like our Elizabethan period, fresh and springlike, and rich in vitality and promise. I am bound to believe that out of the fusion of races in America, and out of their present period of wealth and power, and out of this new awakening to the problems of life out- side their own country, there will come great minds, and artists, and leaders of thought, surpassing any that have yet revealed themselves. All our reading of history points to that revolution. The flowering time of America seems due to arrive, after its growing-pains. Be that as it may, it is clear, at least, that the destiny of the Ameri- j can people is now marked out for the great mission of leading the world to a new phase of civilization. By the wealth they have, and by their power for good or evil, they have a controlling influence in the reshap- ing of the world after its convulsions. They cannot escape from that power, even though they shrink from its responsibility. Their weight thrown one way or the other will turn the scale of all the balance of the world's desires. People of destiny, they have the choice of arrang- ing the fate of many peoples. By their action they may plunge the i 4 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE world into strife again or settle its peace. They may kill or cure. They may be reconcilers or destroyers. They may be kind or cruel. It is a terrific power for any people to hold. If I were a citizen of the United States I should be afraid — afraid lest my country should by passion, or by ignorance, or by sheer carelessness, take the wrong way. I think some Americans have that fear. I have met some who are anxious and distressed. But I think that the majority of Americans do not realize the power that has come to them, nor their new place in the world. They have a boisterous sense of importance and prestige, but rather as a young college man is aware of his lustiness and vitality without considering the duties and the dangers that have come to him with manhood. They are inclined to a false humility, saying: "We aren't our brothers' keepers, anyway. We needn't go fussing around. Let's keep to our own job and let the other people settle their own affairs." But meanwhile the other people know that American policy, American decisions, the American attitude in world problems, will either make or mar them. It is essential for the safety of the world, and of civilization itself, that the United States should realize their responsibilities, and fulfill the destiny that has come to them by the evolution of history. To those whom I call the People of Destiny I humbly write the words, "Let the world have Peace." — Philip Gibbs, Harper's Magazine, June, 1920, pp. 10, 11. America's Answer to the Question of Isolation One of the Trustees of Civilization Those who would have us maintain a "splendid isolation" overlook one of the noblest attributes of man, which is also one of the outstanding traits of the American character. I mean gratitude. The world, indeed, needs many things which America alone can give it. But does not America owe that same world a debt of gratitude for most of its own inheritance? Whence came our boasted liberties, but from our British ancestors who won for us the Magna Charta and the writ of habeas corpus? Where did we get the glorious ideal of the equality of men, which was the inspiration of our Revolution, but from the French, whose philosopher Rousseau first dreamed it? History tells our debt, in that great struggle, not only to the flaming Lafayette, but also the Polish patriot Kosciuszko, and to the German drill-master Steuben, who lent their swords to us. Think of our debt to the Old World in the arts. The architecture of the Washington Monument is borrowed from Egypt; the beautiful Lincoln Memorial, by which we express our reverence for the Great Emancipator, came from Greece; the Capitol at Washington, the symbol of our free institutions, reveals our debt to Rome. Our operas come from Italy and Germany and France; the songs we sing our children REASSERTING ISOLATION FROM EUROPE 15 to sleep with come from the British Isles. Shakespeare moulded the very tongue in which we speak ; and our most profitable inner processes of thought and reason follow rules laid down by Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Bacon. Gutenberg gave us the printing press, a Scotchman gave us steam, a Swede dynamite, a Chinaman the compass, a Jew the pre- vailing religion. Certainly, as Tennyson sang, America is "the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time." Surely we cannot be indifferent to the distress of our kinsmen over- seas. I have seen them in their sorrows born of the late war. Children hungry, women borne down with anxiety and grief, men gaunt and desperate for remunerative work. All look to us for aid — not merely the aid of money, food, and the materials of labor, but more for the spiritual energy to renew the processes of life. . . . In determining our course of action our gratitude to our brethren in Europe, Asia, and Africa, the descendants of the peoples who gave us all we have, should be supplemented by our own deep sense of duty as one of the present Trustees of Civilization, and by our deep considera- tion and love for our own future generations. We must bequeath to them a broadened horizon, a spirit of tolerance, a reputation for Samari- tanism — and of Crusaders — a reputation that, when our test came, we not only were not found wanting but also did our full duty — voluntarily and not under compulsion. So looking both backward and forward it is our task to assist as effectively as we can in a sane, evolutionary reconstruction of the war- stricken peoples. — Henry Morgenthau, World's Work, January, 1921, pp. 236, 237. Building a New World I have been studying in a rapid and exhausting way, but with extra- ordinary opportunities of knowledge, the most important question in the whole world, upon which the future of civilization, and especially of our European life, largely depends. It is the question of what the United States of America will do under the new leadership which has come to her with Mr. Harding, and what part her people will play in international policy. Whether we like it or not it is certain that America has in her hands the great decision as to whether white civilization in Europe as we know it, and as most of us like it, will progress in an orderly way to a higher plane of development in peaceful industry, with a little more comfort for plain folk, with a good margin for the little things of art and beauty which make up the joy of life, greater security against the menace of war, and a relief from the deadening weight of armaments, or whether it will fall, as some European nations have already fallen, into decay and disease, poverty stricken, underfed, staggering and fainting through a jungle darkness. 16 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE If America withdraws into herself, holding herself aloof from the world problems, demanding full payment of her loans, refusing extension of credit, and hardening into antagonism against the Allies in the war, it will be impossible, I am sure, to heal the wounds of Europe. We can- not do without American grain, fats, raw material and manufactured goods. Who thinks so is a fool, without any knowledge of world con- ditions. More than that, Europe needs the moral support and 'judgment and friendliness of the United States. The League of Nations is at pres- ent, in spite of the good efforts of many good men, utterly impotent to deal with the vital problems of world peace and health, or to enforce its decisions upon conflicting nationalities, interests, and rivalries, so long as the most powerful nation in the world today stays outside the family council. That is as clear as sunlight to a thinking mind. On the other hand, the entry of the United States into a league of peoples, or at least a world council called to consider the way of recovery and a rebuilding of international relations, would make real what is now unreal, and give immense strength to any common agreement. America could impose her will and her ideals, have the support of the peoples, even against the desire of their Governments. She could support her will by strong argument, because we are all so deeply in her debt, and in the future will need, desperately, her surplus food supplies, on easy terms. Do not let us forget also that the United States of America, being made up of human beings, might be more than aloof and disinterested in the welfare of Europe, which is bad enough because it checks the chance of quick recovery. Her people might become unfriendly, hostile — swept by passion, if we played the fool with them, nagged them beyond patience, by a series of blunders, the stupidities of statesmen, the tit for tat game in the Press. She can take a clear choice between the part of destroyer and the part of builder. In a little while she could raise the greatest army in the world, in a little while she will have the biggest navy. She could destroy the last chance of civilized progress in Europe, and having done that would be herself destroyed. But that choice is hers if she likes to take it, and the power is hers. She can choose, as I believe she will, the part of Builder. It is her national quality. Her people are builders and not destroyers. They have already built a great New World, splendid and strong in spite of evil elements. Under her new leadership she could help to build another New World, better than her own, ours as well as hers, that New World to which we all look forward with the coming of youth. Will she do that? In what way will she help in reconstruction and the new building in the ruins that were made? — Sir Philip Gibbs, Rcviczu of Reviews, (English Edition), March, 1921, pp. 169, 170. CHAPTER III HOW LONG OUGHT AMERICA TO SHARE IN EUROPEAN RELIEF? I. America's Concern for the Distress In Europe 1. At what points in Europe has there been the greatest distress and danger of starvation? 2. Why so long after the close of the war is the food supply of Europe so low? What is the matter with Europe? 3. Why has there been so much of physical distress and even of starvation following the war? How much of this distress has been an inevitable result of the destructive processes of the war; how much has been due to the way the Treaty making processes were handled ; how much to the retaliative measures and trade restrictions enforced by the victors toward the van- quished ? 4. What claim has Europe on America for free food supplies? How long is this claim likely to remain valid? II. Considerations Bearing on America's Continuation of Euro- pean Relief. A. What America Has Done 1. What relief has America given Europe? What agencies have been at work? What have been their methods? 2. How does America's response compare with that of other na- tions? Has America hardened her heart against needy Europe? What is the basis of your judgment? 3. What conditions has America laid down? Has she found free feeding wise? B. The Outlook for the Future 1. According to the most reliable estimates, what is the present extent of starvation and distress? Why does the need for re- lief continue? Are we giving charity in a way to perpetuate the need for charity? 2. Why can not the European nations and peoples be self-sus- taining with respect to food supply? If the European nations 17 18 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE must in large part buy food with manufactures, what would this argue with respect to the necessity for easy and prompt communications between the nations? Would the present tem- per of these people make for such relationships? 3. With approximately enough food in the world to go around why is it so difficult to get food to the peoples who need it most ? 4. To what extent should new physical distresses constitute a new claim? C. Principles Applicable to Relief Work 1. Ought America to feed Europe gratuitously? Will continued gifts of food and other supplies tend to stiffen the determination of European peoples to achieve self help or tend to produce habitual dependence on outside aid? Should the United States apply the same principles and methods to charity in Europe which are applied to charity towards individuals at home? 2. If American relief work in Central and Eastern Europe is rendered more difficult at every step by artificial barriers erected by each national group against all international contacts and communications, does or does not that fact lessen our obliga- tions to feed the starving and to relieve the distressed ? Should relief enterprises be conditioned on an effective cooperation of the governments concerned? 3. Of what value, if any, is relief work, if there can be developed in the stricken nations no positive constructive policies looking towards the reestablishment in each case of economic life and activity ? 4. Ought relief to be granted primarily to particular classes, such as children and mothers with young children? If these only are to be saved, will it not necessitate continued outside help for long periods? 5. Ought relief to be granted on the basis of undeniable need, or allocated according to probability of particular nations or regions again becoming self-sustaining as already evidenced by efforts toward production ? Ought relief be withheld from regions in which there seems little hope of bettering conditions in general? 6. Should the relief enterprises be conditioned on the adoption of a government policy in the nation helped which shall be in accordance with the best economic ideals of other parts of Europe ? SHARING IN EUROPEAN RELIEF 19 D. Relief for Student Groups 1. Ought special consideration in relief work be given to groups having exceptional promise of leadership in the future of the needy nations, such as the student class? Of two persons equally in need, is there moral justification in our choosing to aid the one who seems to us likely hereafter to be of largest usefulness to society? 2. With whole nations in need, should we aid the students of these countries in order to keep them at their studies ? Why or why not? Is the continual production of an educated class sufficiently essential to national welfare to justify students re- maining in the Universities, when they might be giving their full energy to restoring the economic self-sufficiency of the peoples? If they were giving a large amount of time to self- help would this change your answer? 3. If student relief is to be given from America, what con- ditions, if any, of self-help would you feel should be required? Are these being met ? 4. Granted that such aid to students were given by nations better situated economically, such as the United States, what attitude with respect to the use of knowledge and efficiency so gained would the donors of such help have a right to expect of those who had been aided to get an education ? E. International Significance of Relief Work 1. What effect is the relief work likely to have upon the fellow- ship between nations and upon the development of world wide solidarity? 2. What special significance in international relations is there likely to come from developing a greater solidarity among the students of various nations because students in the more favored lands are cooperating to help their fellow students in the more needy nations? 3. If America should fail to do her part in meeting Europe's needs, would it or would it not tend to develop antagonisms between her and other nations? III. America's Obligation. I. In view of all the data this study has given, what do you think should be America's attitude toward suffering Europe? What sort of relief should America provide and for how long? 20 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE 2. How does America's responsibility in this regard compare with that of other nations? 3. If there is no reasonable hope of permanently improving con- ditions, does it or does it not still seem that it is worth while to feed the starving? 4. What leverage with reference to the improvement of physical, economic, social, and moral conditions in Europe is America likely to acquire through the extensive relief operations? Would it be worthy and honorable for Americans to regard the secur- ing of such leverage one of the motives for feeding the starv- ing in Europe? Why? Why not? INFORMATION AND CURRENT OPINIONS ON QUESTIONS AT ISSUE America's Concern for the Distress In Europe Affecting the Destinies of Nations The mere bestowal of alms has not been the chief function of American philanthropy overseas. It has reached the roots of inter- national economic life and affected the destinies of republics and em- pires. The social stability and physical well-being, and therefore the moral attitude of coming generations, are bound up in the consequences of our beneficence. Thus it is interwoven with the statesmanship of these troubled times. Never before has helpfulness been so fraught with significance. Moreover, the relief machine is still working. — Isaac F. Marcosson, Saturday Evening Post, April 30, 1921, p. 21. Preserving the Foundations of Society The work of these great associations, the Red Cross, the Relief Administration, the Friends' Service Committee, and Jewish Joint Dis- tribution Committee, and all the others, is a work in protection of your children and of my children. For some time in the future, unless these children are preserved and cared for, our children will be infected by them. Those children are the real wastage of the war, this mass of undernourished, underfed, mentally, morally and physically destitute children. Twenty years from now they will form the basis of civilization of Eastern Europe. They must be saved, and they must be built up morally and physically. It must be done if we are to preserve the founda- tion of society in Eastern Europe, and above all it must be done if we are to preserve the love of humanity in the United States. These chil- dren are no more my children than they are your children. They are the obligation of every man and every woman in the United States after he has cared for his own children and his neighbors' children. They are a charge upon the heart and upon the conscience of America. The SHARING IN EUROPEAN RELIEF 21 completion of this task is indeed the completion of a great chapter in our national history, a chapter for which our children will remember our generation with gratitude. The abandonment of this mass of chil- dren would bring a shock not alone to our national honor abroad, but a shock to those of us who believe in the ideals of the American people, and a shock to our children for three generations. I would rather have the American flag implanted in the hearts of these fifteen million chil- dren than flying from any citadel in Europe. — Herbert Hoover, Ameri- can Relief Administration Bulletin, February 1, 1921, p. 2. The Argument from Self-interest It would not be difficult to elaborate economic and sociological reasons to justify American aid in this crisis [the feeding of needy children in Central Europe]. With our rapidly increasing surplus of manufactured goods on the one hand, and with Europe still and for many years to come not actually but potentially our principal market, we have a direct interest in restoring as soon as may be the economic life and concomitant buying power of Europe. The moral factor in this reintegration of European life is as large a factor as are material resources. The factor of political stability is likely to make slow progress in countries in which the present unrest is aggravated by the grief and despair of millions of parents who see their children starving. Today, the American flag, made by the children themselves as a spontaneous expression of their gratitude, is as familiar to millions of children in Europe as is the flag of their own countries. But I need not labor the argument of self-interest to Americans when human life and the happiness of children are involved. The con- science and humanity of our people have not failed. They will not now. — Herbert Hoover, World's Work, December, 1920, p. 131. Help Europe or Participate in Europe's Misery Wle are going to find out that we can no more escape the influence of the European situation of today than we were able to escape the war itself. You cannot have one half of the world starving and the other half eating. We must help put Europe on its feet or we must participate in Europe's misery. — Henry P. Davison, Chairman of the Board of Governors, League of Red Cross Societies, Survey, April 24, 1920, p. 137. Aspects of American Relief Activities It was not alone a problem of finding foodstuffs for starving popu- lations of the ravaged regions. It was the problem of finding a large margin of foodstuffs and other supplies for the whole of Europe — Allies, liberated peoples, neutrals and enemies. In a mass of at least two hun- dred million persons formerly under enemy domination it was a problem 22 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE of finding absolute economic rehabilitation. Further than this, it was also a problem of warding off Bolshevism on one side and reaction on the other, in order that the newborn democracies could have an oppor- tunity to grow. In the race toward economic chaos the European Allies were not far behind the enemy. Central Europe had broken down on the home front rather than on the fighting front. Germany could have halted a year on the Rhine but for the economic collapse within her borders. With the break-up of the old order came the dissolution of the organization of the old channels of communication. A system of trans- portation closely knit by economic relation and mutual necessity was suddenly broken up. River craft and railway rolling stock were hoarded by each state ; telegraph and postal intercourse were wrecked ; every frontier was the scene of more or less military friction until at one moment twenty-five little wars were in progress. The map was literally torn to pieces. Many of the new governments were without experience or even the existence of departments for the conduct of transportation or the distribution of supplies. Thus we faced an utter economic demoral- ization, made more acute by petty jealousies and innumerable barriers of race, caste and creed. Through this exhaustion the whole of Europe faced a famine the like of which has not been since the Thirty Years' War, when a third of the population died of starvation. It was necessary for us to provision the people, to erect actual de- partments within the various governments, to furnish them advisers, to take over the operation of thousands of miles of disintegrated railway systems, to open rivers and canals for traffic, to stimulate the production of coal and other primary commodities, to control their distribution through large areas, to find a basis for exchange of surplus commodities from one state to the other, to obtain the disgorgement of surpluses into famine areas, to resort to border barter on a national scale where currencies had broken down, and finally, that most important of all labors, to save the children and to stamp out contagious diseases. — Her- bert Hoover, quoted by Isaac F. Marcosson, Saturday Evening Post, April 30, 1921, p. 22. The Quakers in Germany The Society of Friends has represented a large number of the American people in the feeding of the children of Germany since Febru- ary, 1920. Beginning then in a small way . . . they quietly enlarged their operations until in June, 1020. they reached a maximum of 632,000. children. The figures fell during the summer holidays to 150,000. When the winter of 1920-21 came on they gradually increased until by the end of May, 1921, 1,000.000 children were partaking of the food which America sent. The organization by which this great undertaking has been carried SHARING IN EUROPEAN RELIEF 23 on is simple and efficient. The country is divided into convenient dis- tricts, each under the supervision of one or more Americans. The central office is in Berlin. The occupied areas are included in the opera- tions, the feeding of the children in the British occupied area being financed through the English Friends. Some 40 Quakers, who are paid by the home committee only their expenses, suffice for the direction of the work. Nearly 25,000 Germans cooperate with them in the actual performance of the service. The German Government has given its official recognition to this philanthropic bit of internationalism by giving the use of a central ware- house in Hamburg, by supplying free railroad transportation for both the food and the workers, and by furnishing the flour and sugar of the ration, which constitute nearly one half its value. The local cooperation has been equally cordial. All overhead ex- penses in the cities and towns where the children are fed have been borne by the municipalities. They have equipped the necessary kitchens, given local transportation, and furnished and staffed the feeding centers. Because of these great contributions in Germany to the work, a dollar given in America has been doubled, rather than diminished, by the time it reached the child for whom it was intended. Lack of funds has made it impossible to feed all of the children of Germany, even if it were deemed desirable; nor has it been possible even to feed the neediest children fully. Only a supplementary meal served directly to the children who have been selected by medical examination has been permitted by the funds available. Race, nationality and religion have played absolutely no part in this purely humanitarian work. Commendation has been bestowed upon it unstintedly by Catholic and Protestant alike. Jew and Gentile have supported it. The Jewish Joint Distribution Board in America contrib- uted for it $100,000 in a lump sum to the American Friends Service Committee. Countless letters of gratitude from the mothers as well as from the children that benefit by the feeding have been received. — Friends' Service Committee Report. The Basal Problem in Permanent Relief [Hoover] is a square built man with a massive clean-shaven face, broad forehead and brown eyes ; he has the simplicity of a peasant and the brain of a scientist who sees the problems of life without passion, without preconceived ideas, without sentiment but in their essential truth. He spoke first of the state of Europe. The condition of Austria, he said, was worse now than a year ago, fed by charity which he was still organizing in America, but not being healed of its social disease, for charity could do no real good, though it was a duty tQ do what it could in rescuing. . . . 24 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE America had "pulled out" after spending a billion and a half dollars upon the relief of the stricken countries, and for a time he had organ- ized a system of credits and supplies which had helped to keep Central Europe from certain starvation. But he could do nothing with European statesmen. They would agree on a reasonable conclusion when assem- bled around a table, and then go away and do nothing to carry out the idea — do everything to thwart it. All the new states get busy putting up frontiers against each other, with customs dues and all kinds of barriers to free intercourse and exchange. The Poles would not help themselves, and endless intrigue pre- vented recovery and health. From the Poles in America ioo million dollars had been sent to Committees, and if that money had been used as credit for food supplies, the starving population would have been well nourished; but the money was passed through the clearing houses of London and Paris so that Poland received perfumes, soaps, luxuries for her profiteers, instead of food for her people. In Serbia there is an immense store of surplus food which would be easy of transport to the stricken populations of Central Europe. But Serbia will not sell it eastwards. She seeks higher profits and sends it to Italy, France, and England, while food for her neighbors had to be sent all the way from America to keep them alive. "Europe must unite on economic lines or perish," said Mr. Hoover, and he does not speak lightly, or use careless phrases. These words on his lips are a sentence of death, if Europe does not heed his warning. — Sir Philip Gibbs, Review of Reviews (English Edition), March, 192 1, pp. 170, 171. Demonstrating a Method to the World The influence of the people of America was never before so potent in Europe as it is to-day, and there is no question of greater importance than how this influence is to be used. The effect of the work of many American organizations and of many American men and women in Europe is helping to lay the foundation of that better order of which we have all been talking for so many years and of that peace and mutual trust which is the greatest need of the world to-day. One often hears the term "peaceful penetration" used with a sin- ister significance, but these people working abroad have found a method of "peaceful penetration" that is not sinister. They are working their way through and are clearing the way as they go; they are quietly demonstrating a method to the world. It was in speaking of a method and policy similar to this in spirit that Abraham Lincoln said : "We — even we here — hold the power and bear the responsibility. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed ; this cannot fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God SHARING IN EUROPEAN RELIEF 25 must forever bless." — John Lovejoy Elliott, Survey, October 2, 1920, p. 46. The Outlook for the Future Children Innocent of the War America . . . has played a leading part in helping the children, and will surely continue. No permanent help is in sight and no one can be sure when it will come. . . . There are two reasons why I hope [child relief] will go on. First, of the many good elements in human nature, none is so good as the response to children, and the richest nation of the world will not desert the children of the world at this time of their greatest need; and secondly, the effect of helping these little people is producing an in- calculably great effect upon all peoples. Many may believe it is just that the Germans and Austrians should bear the brunt of the results of the war, but only a depraved and perverted hatred can wish to visit the penalties of starvation upon the children. Of course none of these children were responsible for the war. The youngest of them who suffer most have never even heard of it ; yet there are millions of children who will carry the marks not of battle, but of hunger and starvation, in their minds and bodies and character long after all those who made the war have passed away. It is because this injury to the next generation is so unjust that it is so dangerous. It is the memory of unjust punishment that remains longest in the mind of the individual. It is the memory of undeserved suffering which keeps alive resentment and hatred through generations of history. The children of the world are innocent of this war and the best way to prevent another is to see to it that their bodies and minds are not warped and distorted, but are helped by the better spirit which should have come with peace. — John Lovejoy Elliott, Survey, October 2, 1920, P. 45- Europe's Inability to Care for Its Children It is a fortunate thing for the Europe of tomorrow that the memory of children is short. If they could remember what they have seen and felt in the six years just past and what millions of them are suffering now, they could not build the next world with faith. Wars and all social disasters fall most heavily upon the children who never make wars, and stay longer with them. After the period of homelessness and starvation which is not over yet for millions in eastern Europe there is still to come a period of reconstruction, when the necessity for reestab- lishing economic and political institutions will push the needs of the children aside. No matter how much they want to, the countries of Europe cannot take adequate care of their children for years to come. In the meantime, as a result of six years, the children are facing a 26 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE crisis which will put many of them beyond the reach of tardy help. This crisis is not altogether a matter of food. It is partly the need for other creature comforts, partly the need of education and partly the need for repairing damage already done to their minds and bodies. All figures as to the general situation of child life in Europe are necessarily rather hazardous estimates. Their accuracy is least in re- gions where the need for help is obviously greatest. If the map of Europe were shaded to show where distress is most acute the blackest belt would lie along the western borders of Russia, and run from the Baltic Sea south and east to Constantinople. It would cover the eastern portions of Esthonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Aus- tria, Hungary, Serbia, Rumania, and Ukrainia. It would not be so black in the west but even in France, Belgium and Italy, where country districts have been devastated, it would still show great need. Real information as to the present state of child life in the eastern part of Europe is impossible, however, because at times like these when care and protection fail the children, the ordinary social agencies for investigation and information also fail to record the disaster. When doctors and nurses are lacking as a result of war and epidemics, the information which their knowledge would have accumulated is also lacking. A solitary Red Cross hospital may be an outpost against a flood of misery and menacing disease. Doctors there may know that its doors are besieged by crowds of pleading mothers whose children can be saved only by their skill. But no one on such a staff can under those circumstances undertake to say how many are ill, how many thousands more may be out of reach of all help. — Major Lyman Bryson, Forum, January, 1921, pp. 25, 26. Relative Need of Different Areas The Czecho-Slovakian Government has already stated that it will require no more assistance. Poland will need help. Theirs has been the greatest suffering of the war and this was extended by the Bolshevik invasion of last spring. This has been the greatest center of all our effort — with a desire to help the Polish people, not only from suffering but toward the road to freedom. . . . In proportion to the other areas, such as Poland and Austria, the undernourishment and disease among German children are very much less. Germany, with double the population, has one-half the total of undernourished children of Poland. But some of the German industrial areas are in a very bad way. The agricultural sections are not so badly off, but the mortality of children in German industrial sections has been indeed an awful spectacle. It has been the attitude of most of our countrymen, except in the case of some extremists, that we are not fighting women and children and that we would make no discrimination between children of enemies and children of friends. . . . SHARING IN EUROPEAN RELIEF 27 So far as Austria is concerned I can see no daylight ahead. Where an ethnical state has been created whose population, through the pro- cesses of economic development, has been raised beyond its agricultural states, you have a hopeless set-up when this intercourse is interrupted. This is precisely what has happened with Austria. She is isolated in the midst of plenty by racial prejudices and recollections of former tyranny. If it is possible to reestablish her old economic relationships with her neighbors by the breaking down of the barriers of race and custom she can get on her feet. The whole economic fabric for the upper Danube naturally radiates from Vienna. If Vienna can again become the commercial center of this region she can exist. If not, there will be an excess population of one million people, who must go hungry. Pending something being done, the Austrian children must be fed, and that is what we are doing. In Vienna alone during the winter just ending, we have served three hundred fifty thousand children, or 85 per cent of the child population. I believe that in time economic necessity will overcome such racial and other prejudices as exist between Austria and her neighbors. You must remember that the reerection of a vast machine of economic life cannot be accomplished in a few years. In Poland . . . there would have been a return to normal condi- tions by this time but for the Bolshevist invasion, which set the country back to where it was at the time of the armistice and created a whole new area of ruin and desolation. . . . The Russian refugees present a dilemma for which there is no solution so far as I can see until the Bolshevik Government falls. In addition to more than two hundred thousand Russian children there are eight hundred thousand adults — the Intelligentzia — scattered all the way from Helsingfors to Constantinople. If these men and women are not kept alive there will be no nucleus out of which to build the future Russia. The Russian problem remains one of the greatest in all Europe. — Herbert Hoover, quoted by Isaac F. Marcosson, Saturday Evening Post, April 30, 1 92 1, pp. 34, 36. Appeal for Russia from Maxim Gorky Moscow, July 13, 1921. To All Honest People : The corn-growing steppes are smitten by crop failure, caused by the drought. The calamity threatens starvation to millions of Russian people. Think of the Russian people's exhaustion by the war and revo- lution, which considerably reduced its resistance to disease and its physical endurance. Gloomy days have come to the country of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, . . . and other world-prized men, and I venture to trust that the cultured European and American people, understanding the 28 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE tragedy of the Russian people, will immediately succor with bread and medicines. . . . Maxim Gorky. — New York Times Current History, September, 1921, p. 1032. Probability of Recurrent Famines in Russia The urgent appeal to "all honest men" to come to the rescue of Russia's starving millions, which Maxim Gorky sent out . . . has served to concentrate universal attention on the world's most pressing problem. How immediate and insistent is this problem may be realized from the patent fact that Europe cannot settle down to normal life and restore production while Russia remains "an economic vacuum," and that the threat of vast epidemics and of the incursion of famished hordes is a very real one. . . . It is evident that sending in food from the outside, essential as this is ... , can relieve only an infinitesimal portion of Russia's suffering millions. The present emergency will be only the prelude to more ter- rible famine conditions in 1922 and 1923, unless there is a radical change. Russia, formerly the great food producer, must be enabled to feed herself. For this she needs seed, implements, and railroads. But there is no use in attempting to furnish these things while a system persists which nullifies all constructive effort and which destroys faster than the people can build. While the dead hand of the Communist rule continues to grip the country there is no hope to avert further horrors. Mr. Hoover expresses this clearly when he says that such food shortages "will be recurrent every year until there is a much further change in the economic system." — Jerome Landfield, Reviezv of Reviews, pp. 267, 269, 270. The Restoration of Economic Order Essential It is, of course, only too obvious that the marshalled charity of the world, governmental and unofficial, will not alone heal the disease from which Europe is suffering. Increased production and the restora- tion of economic order out of political and economic chaos are the only solutions of the problem that now almost defies the ingenuity of those who face it. — William Goode, British Director of Relief in Europe, quoted in The Survey, April 24, 1920, p. 137. Principles Applicable to Relief Work Self-relief Wherever Possible The most evident conclusion to be drawn from the world's adven- tures in charity is that no aid extended to an individual or a nation, when the recipient is able to effect self-relief, can prove permanently beneficial. Insofar as any charity tends toward pauperism, insofar as SHARING IN EUROPEAN RELIEF 29 any charity breeds a train of new demands, the world would be better off without it. This thought has been the underlying, stabilizing guide in the conduct of the various relief programs that my American colleagues and I have directed during the past six years. In Belgium the feeding of more than 7,000,000 destitute persons, necessitating credits of more than $900,000,000, was carried on with simple machinery, at no time re- quiring the presence within the country of more than fifty Americans and functioning always in such manner as to elicit the services of able and public-spirited men and women throughout the 2,600 communes. This system of local committee management, with its motivating im- pulses of community pride and community obligation, did much more than insure efficiency at the time. It enabled the Commission for Relief in Belgium, as soon as conditions permitted the withdrawal of American aid, to leave behind a cohesive, nationwide network of civic and child welfare committees. The death rate for children in Belgium when we ceased operations there had been brought to a lower figure than at any time before the war, and the Belgian and French personnel of 55,000 was so enthusiastic that our withdrawal caused no cessation. In all the operations of the European Children's Fund, the same precautions have been taken : first, to supply only vitally necessary and locally unobtainable food; second, to make possible early with- drawal from the field with no consequent let-up of child welfare ac- tivity. . . . We must not, for Europe's sake, feed any portion of Europe beyond the time when it is within the power of local charities and local gov- ernments to perform the whole task. But, whether the interval be one winter or two, we cannot as Americans fail, when we are the sole hope, to do our part in the alleviation of a more appalling misery than his- tory has yet recorded. — Herbert Hoover, American Relief Administra- tion Bulletin, December 31, 1920, pp. 2, 4. Emergency Relief, Constructive Remedy and Prevention In the popular mind there is an idea that relief and economic meas- ures for stabilizing order consist in handing out something, and letting it go at that. The aims and purposes of this American action in Europe have been projected on far different lines. Broadly, the charitable part of these measures must fall into three phases — emergency relief, con- structive remedy, and prevention. There is all that host of cases result- ing from disaster, from sickness, from unemployment, from loss of breadwinners, which must be met instantly. With this relief must march those constructive remedies which carry the unfortunates on to the road of self-support. Beyond these are the vital measures of prevention by the upbuilding of the physical and moral well-being of the children, the 3 o AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE minimizing of unemployment, the encouragement of thrift and the im- provement of conditions of living and lahor. All these elements have entered into the shaping of our action in Europe. One dominating idea from the start has been to stimulate self-help. Whenever we have entered a country the first task has been to call the people together and create organizations among them for carrying out the work of succor. Our preliminary instruction has in- variably been : "Help yourselves." We have made them pay the local cost of operation. Local money passes current for local expense. We have simply supplied the skill and experience in the development of administration. Nothing so inspires hope amidst suffering as the real- ization that self-help is not impossible. The result of impressing this gospel of self-help is that in Central Europe alone there are today more than twenty-five thousand highly organized local institutions recruited solely from among the people themselves and capable of coping with any emergency. They provide a central point around which civic, social, political and philanthropic in- terests can rally. They represent one permanent aftermath of the Ameri- can relief work because they were primarily formed to conduct relief under our auspices. . . . While Europe will not get back to normal in thirty years, we must bear in mind that the standard of living in large areas there is hopelessly below ours, and the problem is to get these people back to their own minimum standard. — Herbert Hoover, quoted by Isaac F. Marcosson, Saturday Evening Post, April 30, 1921, pp. 22, 36. Basis for American Relief in Russia I have read with great feeling your appeal to Americans for charit- able assistance to the starving and sick people of Russia, more particu- larly the children. . . . The American Relief Administration, a purely voluntary association and an entirely unofficial organization, of which I am Chairman, together with other cooperating charitable American organizations supported wholly through the generosity of the American people, have funds in hand by which assistance for the children and for the sick could be undertaken immediately. This organization has pre- viously several times in the last year intimated its willingness to under- take this service as one of simple humanity, disengaged absolutely from any political, social or religious motives. However, for obvious admin- istrative reasons it has been and is compelled to stipulate for cer- tain undertakings. Subject to the acceptance of these undertakings we are prepared to enter upon this work. We are today caring for 3,500,000 of children in ten different coun- tries and would be willing to furnish necessary supplement of food, clothing and medical supplies to a million children in Russia as rapidly SHARING IN EUROPEAN RELIEF 31 as organization could be effected. The administrative conditions that we are obliged to make are identically the same as those that have been established in every one of the twenty-three countries where operations have been conducted one time or another in care of upward of eight million children. The conditions are that the Moscow Soviet authorities should give a direct statement to the Relief Administration representatives in Riga (a) that there is need of our assistance; (b) that American representa- tives of the Relief Administration shall be given full liberty to come and go and move about Russia; (c) that these members shall be allowed to organize the necessary local committees and local assistance free from Governmental interference; (d) that they shall be given free transporta- tion of imported supplies with priority over other traffics, that the au- thorities shall assign necessary buildings and equipment and fuel free of charge; (e) that in addition to the imported food, clothing and medi- cines the children and the sick must be given the same rations of such local supplies as are given to the rest of the population; (f) that the Relief Administration must have the assurance of non-interference of the Government with the liberty of all its members. On its side the Relief Administration is prepared as usual to make a free and frank undertaking, first, that it will within its resources supply all children and invalids alike without regard to race, creed or social status; second, that its representatives and assistants in Russia will en- gage in no political activities. I desire to repeat that these conditions are in no sense extraordinary, but are identical with those laid down and readily accepted by the twenty- three other Governments in whose territories we have operated. — Tele- gram from Herbert Hoover, in answer to the appeal of Maxim Gorky made in behalf of starving and sick men, women and children in Soviet Russia. New York Times, July 25, 192 1. Principles Followed in Student Relief 1. All relief work is conducted as far as possible on sound economic lines, no student being helped without careful examination of his financial and other needs. Students pay to the utmost of their ability for whatever they receive. 2. Self-help is in every possible way encouraged. 3. Close cooperation is followed with existing agencies, both in raising money and in administration on the field, to avoid overlapping. The aim is, by careful correlation of effort and the minimum of over- head expense, to secure the maximum relief for the maximum number of students in so far as this is possible without (a) endangering the principle of self-help, and (b) without losing sight of the importance of developing human personal contacts. In every field effort is made to 32 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE work in accordance with the national spirit and methods, and to make use of indigenous workers and agencies. 4. Relief is administered impartially, without regard to race, na- tionality, or creed, or any other criterion than proven need. — "Student Friendship Fund, 1921-22," p. 18. Relief for Student Groups Student Relief Projects The general European Student Relief scheme was formally launched in August, 1920, by the unanimous decision of representatives of students of thirty-nine nations gathered at Beatenberg, Switzerland, as the Execu- tive Committee of the World's Student Christian Federation. During the fall of that year campaigns for funds and supplies were carried on in the different countries, and further organization of the relief efforts in the respective fields was undertaken. A fund of approxi- mately $480,000 was contributed by the students of America. Contribu- tions were made by twenty-five other countries. In cooperation with the American Relief Administration the work expanded progressively until April of 192 1, when the full program was in operation in the following eleven countries of Central and Eastern Europe: Asia Minor, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Esthonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Turkey; also in France and Switzerland among foreign students. The operations have touched 120 different institutions of higher learn- ing, with an attendance of 250,000 students. Help has been given in one form or another to some 70,000 students. Through measures of physical relief and means for self-help adminis- tered by the World's Student Christian Federation in cooperation with the American Relief Administration many thousands of worthy students have been lifted from despair and placed in position to complete their education. The work has been the more effective in that the recipients of relief are doing all that is within their own power to maintain them- selves. The majority of the students in most of the countries served are giving part time to whatever employment comes to their hands, no matter how pitifully small the compensation. Relief operations have been conducted in eleven countries on the basis of contributions from students in more than twice that number of countries. The immediate results have been large ; the permanent re- sults cannot be estimated ; but certainly the moral and spiritual results will far outweigh all others. This is an inevitable conclusion when it is considered that the students of upwards of forty nations have been drawn together in a common effort to pool their available resources to save part of their number from physical and intellectual starvation, and to build stronger and more lasting foundations for the world relationships of the future. The service has transcended all barriers of race, nation- SHARING IN EUROPEAN RELIEF 33 ality, language, creed, or political animosity. — "Student Friendship Fund, 1921-22," pp. 12-13, 6-7. Opinions of Outstanding Leaders The hope of the future in Europe lies in the education of the coming generation, and it is certainly a privilege if in America we can help at least to feed and clothe the young men and women of these devastated lands so that they may pursue their studies without the gnawing anxiety in their hearts as to where or how they can ohtain sufficient food to keep them barely alive. — Dr. John Grier Hibben, President of Princeton Uni- versity, "Student Friendship Fund, 1921-22," p. 11. The fate of democratic movements in Central Europe is largely in the hands of the student classes. Thousands of the best type are strug- gling under almost unbearable physical conditions, paying a heavy price for necessary training. They need friendly encouragement expressed through food, clothing, books, and medical supplies, in order to continue the struggle to fix democratic ideals in Europe and replace hatreds with good will. — Professor Thomas W. Graham, Oberlin College, "Student Friendship Funds, 1921-22," pp. 10, 11. I had ample opportunity of observing how the contributions of our Universities and Colleges are distributed among the needy members of the University of Vienna and other seats of learning in Central Europe. I am convinced that the machinery of distribution on the spot is thor- oughly efficient and most economically worked. The objective of the work is actually attained ; the universities of Central Europe are being materially aided to keep open their doors. Relief is fulfilling a noble pur- pose in keeping alight the torch of learning in countries where its bril- liancy has been overshadowed by the national disaster. I am absolutely certain that this work is helping powerfully towards drawing together again nations naturally friendly to each other but estranged by war. — Sir Maurice de Bunsen, former British Ambassador to Vienna, "Student Friendship Fund, 1921-22," pp. 9, 10. A Characteristic Question and a Telling Reply The speaker has concluded his address and invites questions. After the usual painful silence, a voice is at last uplifted. Student. But what's to be the end of it all? We can't go on feed- ing them forever. Why don't these fellows get out and work? Speaker. Carefully collected statistics show that practically every student in Poland, Austria and Esthonia, and at least 65 per cent of students in Hungary and fifty per cent in Germany are doing wage-earn- ing work : that where they are not working, it is either because they can- not find work to do, or because they are physically unfit: that the work they do rarely brings in enough to support them while studying. In 34 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE Latvia eighty per cent of the students in the University of Riga are work- ing in Government offices or other places of business. So universally do students earn their living that the University recognizes the system, and no classes are held between 9 a. m. and 3 p. m. Student. Yes, they're teaching and clerking, and that sort of thing, I suppose. But. what I want to know is — do they work with their hands? Speaker. They certainly do. There are considerable difficulties, un- fortunately, with the Trade Unions. No student, for instance, in some countries, can get employment as a printer, unless he joins the Printers' Union, and the unions oppose all admission of "intellectuals." Never- theless, in spite of all obstacles, the Austrian, German and Polish statis- tics show students working not only as teachers, typists, and clerks, but also as mechanics, woodcutters, harvesters, casual laborers, farm laborers, night watchmen, coal-heavers, builders, chauffeurs, street car conductors, shoemakers, workers in film factory, film actors, lithographers, musicians in cinematographs, restaurants and cafes, shoeblacks, basket-weavers, navvies, gardeners, typesetters and waiters, and in factories of all kinds. Women students have done waiting, sewing, knitting, dressmaking, em- broidery, making preserves, picking and drying vegetables, millinery, fine ironing, reading aloud, convalescent nursing, telephone operating, taking charge of hotel linen, canvassing, collecting bills for landladies. — "The Way Out," World's Student Christian Federation, European Student Relief Series No. 13. CHAPTER IV SHOULD WE CANCEL EUROPE'S WAR INDEBTEDNESS TO US? I. The Present Situation i. European nations owe the American government ten billion dollars together with accrued interest. Why did America loan money to Europe? 2. In what form are the debts held? How do they compare with the external loans of our former "Allies"? 3. On what basis and with what conditions were these loans made? Did America drive a hard bargain? 4. What would be the annual interest credit to the United States on these debts? How much has been paid? Why are interest payments being postponed? What effect does this non-payment of interest have on government taxes in America? 5. Is this indebtedness increasing? If so, how and why? 6. What shall America do about this indebtedness? Should she cancel Europe's war indebtedness to her? II. Information Essential to an Intelligent Discussion of This Question A. The Bearing of American Loans on European Recovery. 1. Is Europe able to pay the debt? 2. It is stated that Great Britain is of all the European nations the most able to pay her debt. Does it seem to you that it would be necessary for Great Britain to capture the carrying trade of the world if she is to remain solvent and if her vast debt is to be paid ? 3. What danger, if any, is there that the debtor nations may repudiate their obligations to this country? In what condition would this leave international credit and finance? 4. Would or would not the cancellation of the debts owed to America tend to encourage a repetition of mad war prepara- tions? Why do you think so? 5. In the light of the discussion of the above questions, sum- 35 36 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE marizc what effect you think America's insistence upon the legal conditions of the loans is likely to have upon: a. The solvency of the various Allied nations. b. The Allies' reparation demands upon Germany. c. Progress in disarmament. 6. How heavy a sacrifice would you be willing for European na- tions to make, as in lowered standards of living or the forcing of a larger percentage of women and children into industry, or the establishment of longer hours of labor, in order to pay their debts to us? B. The Bearing of the Payment of the German Reparations Upon Europe's Anility to Pay. 1. Can France pay England and America without the help of the German indemnity ? 2. Can England pay America if France is unable to pay Eng- land? 3. Can Germany pay the reparations unless she recovers her nor- mal economic position with respect to industry and interna- tional trade? 4. Even if she is able, will Germany pay the reparations without coercion ? 5. Is America more interested in the economic recovery of the Central Powers or in the coercive measures of the Allied Powers with respect to the payment of the reparations ? Should we, in order to secure the payment of the debts due us, aid Germany and Austria in recovery or the Allied Powers in co- ercion, or do both ? 6. Under which circumstances are the Central Powers the more to be feared: if bankrupt, helpless, starving, resentful, and aflame with revolutionary agitation, or if vigorous, self-reliant, restored economically, aggressive and powerful in world trade, and possibly again truculent with the spirit of revenge? C. The Bearing of the Loan Cancellations Upon America's Welfare. 1. It is claimed that the European nations must capture a large share of world trade if they are to pay their debts to the creditor nations. Which would be worth more to the United States: the full payment of principal and interest upon present debts at a sacrifice of our growing position in world trade, or CANCELLING EUROPE'S WAR DEBT 37 a larger share in world trade but with perhaps only a partial collection of the indebtedness? Why? 2. European nations claim that they cannot pay the debts except for the most part in the form of goods exported to the United States. Can we import the vast quantities necessary without swamping our own industries? Suppose Europe were able to pay in gold and silver, would this or would this not be to our advantage ? Why ? 3. What effect would America's insistence upon the legal con- ditions of the loans be likely to have upon Europe's sentiment with regard to America? 4. What has been the total effect of the cancellation of the Chinese indemnity upon America's status in the Far East and upon her world relations? Would or would not a similar atti- tude upon the part of America in the present case be likely to have equally favorable results? 5. Summarize what you think the United States would gain and what she would lose by the cancellation of Europe's debts to her. 6. Would you feel these effects of gain or loss would be enhanced if American merchants who have sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goods on long time credits would also cancel those outstanding private debts? Why? Why not? D. The Moral Obligation of America in View of Europe's Heavier Losses of Life During the War. 1. Some say that in the early years of the war the Allies really were fighting our battles for us and that since the war cost the Allies so tremendously in man power the least we can do to show our gratitude is to help by cancelling the war debts owed to us. What do you think ? 2. How far should we go in meeting the Allies' loss of man power by some appropriate release of money power? 3. Do you feel that the obligation to cancel debts, if upon America at all, is alike and the same with respect to the debts of all the associated and Allied powers? 4. Did France have more at stake than we? Did France get more out of the war? How far is it true that our nation made its appropriate contribution? What, if anything, do we owe France and the other Allied nations for their losses in man power ? 38 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE 5. Summarize what you feel the moral obligation of America to be, in view of Europe's heavier losses. III. The Basic Motive or Principle on which America's Pro- cedure with Respect to Debts Due Us Should Be De- cided 1. What relative weight should the following have in deciding America's attitude? a. America's interests. b. Europe's needs. c. Noblesse oblige. d. That which will best promote wholesome international re- lationships. 2. Should there be an attempt at equitable adjustment of loss and of gain as between the associated victorious powers, now that the war is over? 3. If moral obligations exist but are not alike for all these powers, ought America to work out some basis of equity, and clear accounts by crediting Great Britain, let us say, in part at least, on the basis of any cancellation by her of debts due her from other Allied countries? 4. How much of the loan would we cancel if our motive were the quickest possible rehabilitation of Europe? IV. What America Should Do About the Debt 1. In view of all the considerations before you, do you feel America should a. Insist on the legal conditions of the payment of the debt? b. Make these conditions less difficult through postponement of interest payments and through helping Europe in every other practicable way to economic rehabilitation? c. Cancel part of the debt? d. Cancel all of the debt? e. Demand the transfer to the United States of important colonial areas, as those in the West Indies, or elsewhere, in lieu of debt payments? f. Demand the transfer to the United States of important units in the system of world communications, such as cables, in lieu of debt payments ? 2. If she were to cancel part or all of the debt, what conditions CANCELLING EUROPE'S WAR DEBT 39 should she lay down, if any, as regards existing debts between European nations? 3. Should America use her loans as a leverage in diplomacy in order to bring about continental and colonial adjustments which may be more to her liking than those now in force? If so, how could she do this most effectively ? Should any ease- ment in terms of payment of principal or interest be conditioned on reduction of armaments and the disbanding of armies on the part of our European debtors? 4. It has been proposed by some that Great Britain should turn over to the United States her West Indian possessions as partial or entire payment of Britain's debt to us, thus giving the United States a larger control of the approaches to the Panama Canal. Do you think such an adjustment of the debt as between the two nations would be honorable, practicable, and desirable ? Why? Consider this both from Great Britain's and from America's point of view, and from the point of view of the inhabitants and property holders of the areas concerned. 5. What attitude on our part with respect to the debt will best conserve the largest interests of Europe and America? 6. Would you be willing to have the United States accept con- siderable sections of colonial Africa in lieu of debt payment? Why? Why not? INFORMATION AND CURRENT OPINIONS ON QUESTIONS AT ISSUE The Facts In the Case Debts of Foreign Governments Due to the United States An official statement issued in July, 1921, gave the schedule of foreign debts due to the United States at that time as follows: Obligations held for advances under Liberty Bond Acts — interest at o per cent. Country Amount Belgium $347,601,566.23 Cuba 9,025,500.00 Czecho-Slovakia 61,256,206. 74 France 2.950,762,938 . 19 Great Britain 4,166,318,358.44 Greece 15,000,000.00 Italy 1,648,034,050.90 Liberia 26,000. 00 Rumania 23,205,819.52 Russia 187,729,750.00 Serbia 26,175,139.22 Obligations received from Secretary of War and Secretary of Navy on account of sale of surplus war materials. Country .. Total Belgium $27,588,581 . 14 Czecho-Slovakia 20,621,094.54 Esthonia 12, 213,377. 88 France 400,000,000. 00 Latvia . Lithuania Poland Rumania Russia Serbs, Croats and Slovenes 2,521,869.32 4,159.491.06 59,636,320.2s 12,922,675.42 400,082.30 24,978,020.99 Total. $9,435,225,329.24 Grand Total $565,048,413.80 40 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE Obligations held by the United States Grain Corporation. Country Principal Payable Armenia $3. 93 1,505.34 Austria 24,055,708.92 Czecho-Slovakia 2,873,238.25 Hungary 1,685,835.61 Poland 24,353,590.97 Total 156,899,879.09 Obligations received by treasurer from Ameri- can Relief Administration. Country Principal Payable Armenia Czecho-Slovakia. Esthonia Finland Latvia Lithuania Poland Russia $8,028,412.15 6,428,089. 19 1,785,767.72 8,281,926. 17 2,610,417.82 822,136.07 51,671.74936 4,465,465 . 07 Total $84,093,963 • 55 The grand total of original obligations, as enumerated above, is $10,141,267,585.68. To this is to be added the unpaid interest, which on July 1, aggregated in excess of $1,000,000,000, making the entire obligation on July 1 in excess of $11,200,000,000. — New York Times Current History, August, 1921, p. 802. Government and Private Loans Our foreign debt at this time amounts to about $11,000,000,000. We have loaned to different Governments of Europe about $10,000,000,- 000, and there is now unpaid interest upon the loans of nearly $1,000,- 000,000. So the foreign debt represents about $11,000,000,000. In addition to that, we have made loans to about $5,000,000,000 in the way of loans on securities by individuals or corporations. — Speech of Sena- tor William E. Borah in the Senate of the United States, July 25, 1921. Inter-allied Loans Loans to France Italy Russia Belgium Serbia and Jugoslavia. Other Allies Total . By United Kingdom $2,540,000,000 2,335,000,000 2,840,000,000 490,000,000 100,000,000 395,000,000 $8,700,000,000 By France $ 175,000,000 800,000,000 450,000,000 100,000,000 250,000,000 $1,775,000,000 — John Maynard Keynes, "The Economic Consequences of the Peace," p. 271. One general principle . . . for inter-Allied financial relations during the war was that advances from one to another were considered as loans, not as grants. A second general principle was that each Govern- ment should bear the whole cost of all the expenses incurred on behalf of their own nationals, military or civilian, no matter where it was in- curred. It was only by this means that efficient control and economy could be hoped for. Transport would be more economically managed if the Government whose troops were being transported nominally paid the cost, than if the transportation was nominally free. Munitions and food would not be wasted to such an extent if the Government whose CANCELLING EUROPE'S WAR DEBT 41 troops used them actually paid Ear them, as if another Government was responsible for paying. The value of a gun is never so well realized when it is received as a gift as when it is purchased. In the interests of economy it was essential that each consumer should pay for all his consumption. — R. Trouton, Economic Journal, March, 1921, p. 40. Europe has been buying from the United States a quantity of goods incalculably greater than the quantity of goods that Europe has been selling to the United States. This means that Europe has fallen deeply into debt. . . . For a few months the United States Treasury found the money and transferred it to foreign governments under the authority of Congress, which had authorized loans up to . . . $10,000,000,000. When, however, this limit was reached, Europe, in making her purchases from America, had to depend on banks and long credits with exporters and manufacturers. These accumulating debts had no government guarantee behind them and they have to be negotiated in the open money market. In one way or another, American capital has been tied up more and more closely in these European credits until, here also, as with the United States Treasury, a limit was reached. It became more difficult to place European "promises to pay" in the United States and this meant that such paper fell to a discount. — P. W. Wilson, Review of Review's, April, 1921, p. 394. The Debts Should Be Paid Foreign Liquidation to Pay Dekts The war gave Great Britain tangible assets in the removal of a formidable rival's naval and mercantile fleet and competition in world markets, and in a remarkable increase in her colonial holdings, while it gave us nothing at all. In the matter of mandates we' were offered nothing of value. We were not asked to share in the German indemnity, German colonies, German cables, German ships. Since the day we entered the war no European statesman has talked to us the way he has talked to his European associates. It is expected among the other nations that the booty — or, if you want to call it by a milder word, the advantages of victory — be shared. The premiers of the Big Three have never held a single meeting in which profit-sharing has not been discussed. But when they come to talk to us, they never mention the subject matter of the powwows among themselves. They take on an aggrieved tone, chide us for our back-sliding from idealism and generous desire to bear the world's burdens, and remind us constantly that they look to us for moral leadership, and that there is no salvation without our aid. The proposal that we forgive them their debts has not been coupled with an offer to grant us free trade with their colonies and protectorates, 42 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE to give our trade a fair dial in the mandated territories, to consider out of their embarrassment of colonial riches the cession of any lands to Uncle Sam. Ordinarily, when a debtor cannot meet his obligations, interest payments, and amortization of principal, he looks around among his assets, and offers something to his creditor for a postponement of inter- est payment or a diminution of the principal. In other words, if he has anything to liquidate, he liquidates. When a nation owes money to another nation, and cannot pay the interest, it is the rule for the creditor nation to take steps against the debtor nation. — Herbert Adams Gibbons, Century Magasine, April, 1921, pp. 780, 781. Reservoirs of Wealth that Can Be Tapped I woidd hold to the payment of our debt, not only to bring order, disarmament and economy to Europe, which cannot find it for itself nor through any political instrument or treaty as yet devised, but also because I hold that there are means of payment. . . . There are terri- tories, transferable territories, within the American hemisphere, po- tentially valuable to us and I believe without economic value to their present sovereigns. There are cables, not only those which belonged to ( iermany but others, the present ownership of which can be liquidated in order that they may be transferred to America in part payment of the debt. Anyone who has studied the present state of international com- munication in its bearing upon the making of world influence or the development of world commerce is driven inevitably to the conclusion that discrimination is practiced against the United States and that even though it were not, practically the United States suffers by reason of the foreign ownership of four-fifths of the means of communication throughout the world. Finally . . . there are in the world, and outside the confines of Europe, reservoirs of wealth from which revenue can be drawn for payment of the foreign indebtedness to the United States. There are east of us and south of us vast fields of wealth awaiting the intelligence and energy of civilized man for their exploitation, the result of which through the labors of the citizens and subjects of the creditor states can find their way into the treasury of the Great Creditor — the United States.- -Senator Medill McCormick, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July, 1921, pp. 168, 169. American Maintenance of Foreign Armaments We are now under this process [of deferring interest payments on the Allied debts to the United States] in fact lending foreign governments about $1,000,000 a day; in that we are forgiving the interest or deferring it we are, in fact, imposing upon the American taxpayers the burden of taking care of our taxes and of continuing to lend to foreign govern- CANCELLING EUROPE'S WAR DEBT 43 ments at the rate of nearly $1,000,000 a day. To the extent which the foreign governments can in good faith meet this debt and the interest upon it, we should inform them that we expect that to be done. The policy should be a definite, a positive and a firm policy; otherwise it will never achieve anything. . . . The effect of military expenditure by the Allied Powers is that the taxpayer of the United States is not only bearing the burdens with reference to our own armaments, but the American taxpayer is, in fact, carrying the burden for the armaments of France and England also. . . . So long as this debt remains unpaid and the interest remains unpaid, and the American taxpayer must meet the taxes that are imposed upon him because of the deferment of interest and the payment of the principal, we are taking care of the entire armaments of the United States and of our late Allies. . . . I recognize that those countries have their obligations and their difficulties and adversities now the same as we have ; but I insist that there should be the best evidence of the best of faith upon the part of these governments in meeting their debt, and that the United States should insist upon that policy without equivocation or apology. With reference to this debt ... it is there. The evidence of it is there. It is a legal obligation. It is just as binding as if it were in a bond. It is subject to call. We may ask for it now just the same as we could if we had a bond and it was due. There is no possible loss. . . . It will be vastly to the advantage of the United States if it remains just as it is now until we shall have determined whether the world can get rid of its armaments, or whether we are to go forward over this road which we are now traveling, and which leads inevitably to bankruptcy or war, or possibly both. . . . So vital and so commanding is the question of disarmament I would utilize all the power that this great Republic can command to change the program relative to armaments which is now being carried forward; and if I could use this vast debt, if the obligations which it imposes could be commanded to that end, I would not hesitate to do it. I would be considerate, I would be courteous, to all nations, but I would be brutal in the exertion of all power at my command before I would see humanity further tortured and civilization destroyed by keeping up this barbarous system of crushing armaments. — From a speech by Senator Borah before the Senate of the United States, July 25, 1921. The Debts Should Be Cancelled Distributing the War Burdens It is difficult to fathom the attitude of mind current in a nation, which willingly renders the utmost assistance possible, comprising men and munitions, on one part of the war front without expecting or 44 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE receiving any material recompense in return, yet at the same time, else- where on the same front, renders less assistance, in the form of ma- terials alone, hut in this case demands pound for pound of the cost of such assistance, even going so far as to charge interest until the deht is paid. One might imagine that the Allied nations delighted in sacri- ficing the lives of their own men, and were actually prepared to pay for this privilege, inasmuch as they charged for the costs of war only when the lives of their own men were not at stake. An American may deny that the purchase of wheat by France was an expense of the American Government which should in equity be borne by that Government, but this is nevertheless the case. France had millions of men under arms, which in an isolated world containing only France and the Central powers would have been impossible, because these millions of men would have starved from lack of food caused by the shortage of labor due to the mobilization of this vast army. But in the world as it actually is this huge mobilization of French troops was possible, because America acquiesced in the existence of this vast army and supplied the food and munitions necessary to keep it and France alive. The world was divided into two armed groups. The greater, which was ultimately victorious, was divided into many sections, some of which provided mainly men, others mainly munitions and food. Now that the conflict is over, one section of the group should not attempt to transfer part of the burden of the war already borne by it to another section which has already borne a greater burden. Those sections which have suffered least from the devastation and loss of life entailed by the war should, if anything, bear a correspondingly greater proportion of the financial burden than that borne by those crippled by the loss of many lives. Yet should payment of inter-Allied debts be exacted the very reverse will be the case. . . . It would be almost impossible to elaborate a scheme which would distribute the burden of the war equitably among the Allies. But un- doubtedly the most unjust way imaginable would be for the present creditors to extort payment of their debts from the present debtors. Arguments can even be adduced to show that there would be some de- gree of accuracy in the distribution of the war burden if all inter-Allied debts were converted into credits of equal magnitude. Roughly speaking, the debts were incurred by those countries which had the higher propor- tion of men under shell-fire, and were made in favor of those countries which were doing proportionately less fighting, and which were for this very reason able to supply the other material requisite to the conduct of war. The examples of France and America bear this out. The former did most fighting and is the biggest debtor, the latter did least fighting and is the biggest creditor. The loss of human life is approximately proportionate to the numbers engaged. And this loss is by far the greatest burden of war. . . . CANCELLING EUROPE'S WAR DEBT 45 It has been said that an equitable valuation of war burdens would be well-nigh impossible. Yet it might be possible to make one which took account of work done for war purposes, of lives lost and maimed, of devastation, of respective populations and national dividends, of degrees of currency inflation, of payments received for reparation, of the value of mandates under the Treaty of Versailles. But, when all this was done, it would not be fair to open credits in accordance with the findings of the calculation, because allowance should also be made for the importance of the war to each Ally. The war should in fairness fall more heavily (say) on France than (say) on America, because upon the defeat of Germany depended the existence of France as a nation, while the importance to America of the defeat of Germany was less vital. But, in fact, the burden of the war would be still the heavier upon France, even if debts were cancelled, because France has suffered so very much more from the war, apart from the question of inter-Allied debts. When all the aspects of the question are taken into account, it will perhaps be the nearest approach to justice if all the debts are can- celled. It is true that France will still remain the greatest sufferer, but then she was the most vitally concerned. On the other hand, if the debts are left to stand as they are at present, the grossest injustice will be perpetrated. — R. Trouton, Economic Journal, March, 1921, pp. 43-45. Restoring the Purchasing Power of Europe The big business men especially, and financial experts like Mr. Hoover, see that the United States are hurt, and will be more hurt later, by the collapse of the European market. The wave of unemployment is now serious in America, and due, as they see, not a little to the col- lapse of the European exchanges and the lack of markets for their sur- plus supplies. Many of their big bankers are seriously considering the possibilities of wiping out their European debts, not for any sentimental reason but from the sheer business necessity of restoring the purchasing power of Europe. They are indeed agreed on that, as I know, and their only hesita- tion in carrying out such an immense act of renunciation is the diffi- culty — almost the impossibility — of persuading their people that it is the way of commonsense and self interest, as well as the way of gener- osity and honor. — Sir Philip Gibbs, Review of Reviews (English Edition), March, 1921, pp. 170, 171. Noblesse Oblige So long as Honor holds its ancient hallowed place, So long we stand as debtor, Europe, in thy place! 4<"> AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE The stricken fields of France still bleed from open wounds, The livid sears in Flanders have not healed, In No Man's Land the pines still echo back the sounds Of crashing waves 'gainst walls that never yield, The smoldering ruins of humble homes, The graves of heroes still unknown, The skeleton cathedral domes, The drooping weed on sculptured stone, Still testify of priceless sacrifice for Right — Still signalize the meanness of unrighteous might. A hundred thousand sturdy sons of England's best, With backs against a spattered wall faced Hell ; As many thousand crosses plead for them at rest, Where yesterday they proudly fought so well. And thousands more, yes, millions more. From school and shop, from hut and hall. From factories' forge, from village store, Fast followed on, in turn to fall. Till every blade of grass seems drenched in blood And every placid stream a crimson flood. Along the Somme, at Ypres, Amiens, Verdun, On Alpine heights, in submerged wintry sea, Fair youth kept tryst with death, though God knows all too soon That justice might be sure, democracy be free. They counted not their lives as dear, They scorned to boast of what they did, They never doubted triumph near, They knew that right could not be hid. For Belgium, Italy, fair England, sunny France, Men leapt to die as maidens spring to dance ! And yet — great God, forgive ! — men tell of what they owe — Of billions due from Europe, even now — As if deep lines of care and withering woe Had not been stamped for us on her sad brow ! Great God forgive, great God forget, If ever once we think of gold — If in our selfishness we let Some tale of petty greed be told. So long os Honor holds its ancient hallowed place, So long we stand as debtor, F.urope, in thy place! — Francis Bourne Upham, New York Times, May 19, 1921. CANCELLING EUROPE'S WAR DEBT 47 Varied Considerations with Respect to the Debt Settlement of the Debt Question an Extraordinary Task The settlement of the inter-Allied indebtedness in such a manner as to satisfy the fair and equitable contentions of all the parties is not only the most important but the most gigantic task which any body of statesmen ever have been obliged to wrestle with. On the successful solution of the question depends for many years to come the peace and prosperity of the entire world. It can neither be viewed as financial merely or as purely political ; nor can it be considered from the interests of any one of the different parties alone, without determining the effect upon all the others. In short, the economic rehabilitation of the world depends largely upon a wise and sound settlement of this puzzling problem. The Allies would not have won the war when they did but for the splendid spirit of cooperation and mutual respect and confidence then exhibited. This spirit seems, for the moment, to have disappeared; it must be conjured back before we can hope to obtain guarantees of peace and stability. — Paul Fuller, Jr., Forum, April, 1921, pp. 413, 414. A Surplus of Imports Inevitable If European and other countries pay their debts to the United States . . . the United States must have a surplus of imports rather than a surplus of exports as prior to the war. In fact, if the principal of the debt is neither increased nor decreased and only the interest is paid, the United States must accept a surplus of imports and have a so-called "unfavorable" balance of trade. That is what some call the penalty and what others consider the advantage of being a creditor country. Americans are likely to hold up their hands in horror when the flood of imports begins to arrive. The cry for protection may be even louder than it is now from some sections. But why should a country or a man object to having a debtor pay his debts? He must pay, if he pays at all, in goods or in money ; and of what use is the money unless we can pur- chase goods (imports) with it? — Roy G. Blakey, Ph.D., Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 192 1, p. 205. European Debts and Armaments It has seemed unfair to many that we should be requested to re- linquish the vast debts due us while the borrowers continue to spend enormous sums on armaments. Preparedness in the form of armaments is an insurance not of peace, but of victory in the war it frequently invites, for the inevitable rivalry arouses apprehension, apprehension creates fear, and fear hatred. There is a general realization that another great war within a generation threatens not only the existence of na- 48 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE tions, but the prevailing economic system as well. — Edwin M. Borehard, Yale Review, April, [921, pp. 524, 525. Settlement on Large-minded Lines " ["he man in the street" in America is not lacking in generosity. He is fully conscious of the heroism and the sacrifices of the Allies. He does not mean to drive a hard bargain. It is not in his nature to insist on his pound of flesh. He appreciates that this is no ordinary debt, and that it cannot he treated as if it were. Moreover, he realizes quite well that his own country cannot return to a state of "normalcy" until a reasonable approach at least to an economic equilibrium will have been established in Europe. He recognizes that among the prerequisites for that all too long delayed consummation is some kind of a settlement of the inter-Allied debt on large-minded and liberal lines, and American cooperation otherwise in the problem of European readjustment. He is bewildered and disillusioned, and the possibly naive faith which animated him has undergone a somewhat rude shock. In order to be predisposed toward those accommodations on America's part which are indispensable to a satisfactory financial settlement and to- ward that comprehensive and broad-gauged co-operation which the situ- ation calls for, he will have to become affected with the impression of an attitude in Europe more nearly approaching than seems to him the existing state of things those conceptions which he believed the Ameri- can nation was aiming and aiding to realize when it set out on its crusade to Europe in the spring of 1917. — Otto H. Kahn, in letter to the Times of London, quoted in New York Times,, May 1, 1921. Cancellation Repugnant to Americans It is very easy to figure out that the United States might really be better off in many respects, in the long run, if she would immediately cancel that debt and immediately begin to ship goods to Europe in the accustomed quantities ; but it is useless to talk of cancellation — it is not feasible. The thought of cancelling that debt is repugnant to the Ameri- can. Indeed, any political party proposing it or attempting it would be destroyed by the consuming wrath of the American people, ever patient, enduring, silent but very watchful. The American people would never consent to cancelling a debt owed them by imperial powers without some conditions being imposed with the concellation that there should be a very great modification of the ideals, the purposes and the methods of imperialism. — Senator Joseph Irwin France, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July, 1921, p. 171. Payment of the Debts in Dollars Taking our Allied debtors as a whole, these governments which now CANCELLING EUROPE'S WAR DEBT 49 owe us in the aggregate approximately ten billion dollars of principal and one billion dollars of accrued interest, can not procure this amount of dollars for purposes of repayment. . . . If these nations could devise ways and means of procuring the neces- sary dollars, the process would involve us in very serious economic disadvantages. ... To put Great Britain under pressure to pay in dollars would be to provide a powerful stimulus for Great Britain to constitute herself the world's carrier, the world's banker, the world's insurer, and one of the world's great exporters. Only by maintaining such a position could Great Britain effect the dollar payments which we contemplate. As the exertions of a capable debtor under pressure from his creditor are generally more effective than those of a complacent creditor, it is probable that the stimulus which we will thus supply will turn the scales against us in our own efforts to create a merchant marine and to establish banks and insurance companies for foreign business. If countries other than Great Britain were capable of paying the dollars which they owe us, it would be only because they could sell their goods cheaper than the same goods could be sold by American in- dustry. The cardinal fact for us to bear in mind is that the ten billion dollars wherewith the Allies could pay their obligations can be secured only from America. The Allies must get them from us before they can pay them to us; and if the Allies do secure these dollars, it will be because the American public is buying foreign goods and using foreign services when otherwise they would be using American goods and American services. We can, therefore, readily reconcile ourselves to the Allied incapacity to pay us in dollars, as such payment would be largely at the expense of American industry, American capital and American labor, all of which could not but be very seriously affected by the American public utilizing on a vast scale foreign goods and foreign services. If, therefore, the Allies owing dollars to the American Treasury probably can not secure the dollars wherewith to pay in full, and if it would be undesirable for us to permit them the opportunity to secure such a vast amount of dollars from the American public, we naturally turn to the alternative of an unconditional cancellation, in whole or in part, of the debts. Such a step would appear to me to be unfortunate, primarily because of its effect on the value of international obligations. Whether we should have contributed gratis the food, equipment, muni- tions, et cetera, now represented by the notes which we hold, is an academic question. We did not do so. On the contrary, the Allies agreed to give a quid pro quo, and have delivered to us signed obliga- tions to do so. If these obligations are now cancelled without our re- ceiving any equivalent value therefor, it establishes a precedent which undermines every international obligation. The credit and borrowing power of every nation of the world will be affected, and a powerful im- 50 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE petus will be given to the demand of extremists that all war obligations, such as liberty bonds, should be wiped out. . . . The obligations of the Allies which we hold constitute a great trust to be held and employed by our government for the benefit of the Ameri- can people. It is not a power to be abused, any more than it is a power to be abandoned. It is a power which should be used in the way which will in the long run produce the greatest gain to the American people. The greatest gain is not necessarily one which can be measured by the yard stick of dollars and cents; nor is a gain any less valuable because it involves benefit rather than burden to others. If we would secure the greatest gain to the American people, let us first formulate a sound national policy. Then let us sit down in conference with the Allies and endeavor to secure their adhesion to international settlements which will render possible the carrying forward of our national policy. If such a settlement can be arrived at and if we regard their debts to us as in part discharged by the benefits which such a settlement would confer, this would not be an abandonment of our rights. Rather, we will have attained the highest form of realization. — John Foster Dulles, Former Financial Adviser for the Peace Conference, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, July, 1921, pp. 174-177- CHAPTER V WHAT PART SHOULD AMERICA TAKEJN BRINGING ABOUT THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY OF EUROPE? I, America's Problems in Relation to the Economic Situation in Europe i. Number the following in the order of their seriousness in causing the continuance of the economic chaos in Europe : a. The destructive processes of the war. b. The terms of the Peace Treaty. c. Retaliatory and restrictive trade measures. d. The various attempts at revolutionary economic and social reconstruction, such as radical socialistic movements. 2. Is the European chaos more or less serious than was to be expected in view of the enormous forces of destruction let loose? What is the reason for your opinion? 3. Europe made the mess. Does this free America from any obligation to help clean it up? Why or why not? 4. If America had signed the Peace Treaty and had joined the League of Nations what particular contribution, if any, do you feel we might have made to the amelioration of European con- ditions that we have failed to make? How far is America to blame for what has happened since the war? 5. If a Continental asked you the present attitude of America toward the economic recovery of Europe, what would you reply? What are the reasons for the existing attitude? 6. To what extent should America go in endeavoring to secure the economic recovery of Europe? II. Considerations Bearing upon America's Course of Action A. The Possibility of Europe Getting on Her Feet Unaided. 1. Just how badly off is Central Europe with respect to the necessities of life? Just what do these countries need most? What has Germany left on which to build? Do you expect that Germany may be driven to capitulate to the Bolshevik movement centering in Russia. 51 52 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE 2. What is the probability that the European nations and peo- ples can in the near future become self-sustaining with respect to food supplies? 3. Some say that the feeding of Europe's hungry folk by Amer- ica is essential to her economic recovery. Others say that the realization on the part of Europe that she is entirely dependent on her own endeavors would tend to hasten self-sustaining economic life. With which viewpoint do you tend to agree? Why? 4. To what extent are the European nations dependent for their purchase of food upon the sale of manufactured goods to countries outside of Europe? What would this argue with respect to the promotion of trade relations ? 5. Does or does not the temper of the needy peoples of Europe give hope for rapidly developing self help? Why or why not? 6. In the light of these facts, what outside help, if any, do you feel Europe needs, if she is to get on her feet economically? B. America's Stake in Europe's Economic Recovery. 1. What is America most solicitous about with reference to participation in European reconstructive efforts? a. Loss of our present economic primacy? b. Loss of investments already made? c. Loss of sums that might yet be advanced on credits? d. Misuse of funds already advanced as loans? e. Perpetuation of wrong social, political, and economic con- ditions in Europe? f. Dumping of European cheap manufactured goods on the American market? 2. Which is for the best interests of America — a competitive or a cooperative trade policy in relation to Europe ? Is any other than a competitive policy possible under present conditions? If we must compete with Europe in world trade, from a posi- tion of purely economic self-interest should we welcome or fear European commercial and industrial rehabilitation? Why? 3. Is there any way that America can escape the outreaching effects of the European economic chaos? How? C. Possibilities Open to America for Aiding Europe. 1. What bearing do America's efforts at providing physical HELPING EUROPE'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY 53 relief to suffering populations in Europe have upon this ques- tion of economic recovery ? 2. Will economic help alone be sufficient? If not, what other kinds of help could we render that would bear on the economic need ? 3. The fluctuation of money values has been a serious factor in the economic chaos. What, if anything, can America do to help stabilize the currencies of European countries? 4. What devices are being worked out in America to extend credits to Europe? Would you be ready to commend these projects to the investing public? Why? Why not? Just what considerations bearing on this question seem to you to be most urgent ? 5. Is or is not America's formal participation with the nations of Europe, either in some league of nations, or in some other in- strument of effective international action, essential to Euro- pean economic rehabilitation? 6. Bitter-end commercial and political rivalry between European countries is said to be one real cause of delayed economic re- covery. In what ways might America help to prevent this? In connection with any aid given would America have a right to make stipulations regarding economic procedure between Europe's nations? 7. There has been in America considerable sentiment against the resumption of trade relations with the former enemy na- tions. Some claim, however, that trade restrictions would se- riously delay the economic recovery of Europe and would react unfavorably even upon the Allied nations. To what ex- tent are normal trade relations with the former enemy nations essential to Europe's business prosperity? 8. Upon the whole, if America were to aid Europe, which possi- bility open to her seems the most hopeful of results? D. Conditions America Might Lay Down. 1. If we are to extend further credits to Europe what require- ments should be made as to the use of such credits? 2. Should we insist that these credits be not used to release money for armaments ? What can we say regarding disarming to struggling nations in danger from selfish aggression on the part of neighboring nations? 3. What kind of authority do you believe would be most re- 54 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE spected and most helpful as exerted by any outside power seek- ing to help in reconstructing Europe's economic fabric and so to help in saving what of European civilization can be sal- vaged ? 4. In seeking, as an outside Power, to aid in reconstructing European economic life which of the following will give America greatest promise of the effective helpfulness and in- fluence ? a. The authority of our armed forces and of our stable gov- ernment. b. Our world-wide prestige as a nation. c. Our part in the world war. d. Our enormous economic resources. e. Our experience in great commercial organizations ("big business"). f. Our reputation for altruism based on vast relief projects. g. The debts owed us by Europe. h. Our democratic idealism and our known self-restraint with respect to imperialistic tendencies. 5. Just how potent is America's influence in Europe? 6. Under what conditions do you feel America would be ready to enter whole-heartedly into reconstructive projects and en- terprises ? III. America's Course of Action 1. The war brought America to a position of leadership in economic status and world trade. This position will inevitably be challenged by European nations, if their economic recovery is fully achieved. In the light of the considerations already ex- amined, should America at all costs seek to maintain this lead- ership or is a return to an approximate pre-war status desirable ? What ought to determine our decision? 2. How far would enlightened self-interest suggest that Amer- ica go towards helping Europe economically? How far would genuine good will, based on Christian neighborliness, call us to go? Which should decide? Why? 3. What share should America take in Europe's economic re- habilitation ? Just how are we to relate ourselves as a nation to European affairs so as to make our largest contribution in wise and helpful ways? HELPING EUROPE'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY 55 INFORMATION AND CURRENT OPINIONS ON QUESTIONS AT ISSUE The Economic Situation in Europe Obstacles to Economic Recovery When the Great War ended in November, 1918, the finance, indus- try and commerce of every belligerent country and of most European neutrals were in different degrees disorganized, broken and reduced. The destruction of wealth and of the human and other instruments of production lie outside all accurate computation. But the loss of life in the fighting forces can hardly be estimated at less than thirteen mil- lions, for Europe alone perhaps twelve millions. If we add losses of civilian life from massacre, disease and famine, and other causes con- nected with the war, that figure may reasonably be doubled. Further, add the many millions of totally or partially disabled lives, the lowered vitality of whole populations, the retardation in the birth rate, and the quantitative and qualitative disturbance of the sex equilibrium in its bearing on the future population, and we get some comprehension of the immensity of the loss of labor power in Europe. The destruction of property in the war areas of Belgium, France, Russia, Poland, Serbia, Italy, Roumania, and parts of Austria is roughly computed by an American authority at thirty thousand million dollars, Belgium and France accounting for more than half this cost. This sum is probably excessive, being necessarily based upon calculations likely to err upon that side. But in any case agriculture, mines, factories and other productive instruments suffered grievously from pillage and destruction in the invaded countries. On a far wider scale was the loss of productive power in all the warring countries by the letting down of most forms of roads, buildings and machinery, the depletion of stocks in agriculture and manufacture, damage of railways and other transport, failure of fuel supplies, and last, but not least, the dislocation and sus- pension of the currency and exchange system. . . . The economic disease from which in different measures the whole of Europe is suffering has certain common symptoms. Everywhere is a shortage of coal, cereals, textiles, housing, transport, and international money. Of all these articles there is not only a national but a European shortage, and not only a European shortage, but a world shortage. When we learn the world's output of coal is 170 million tons below the 1913 output — a drop of over 12 per cent — and that the wheat supply of the world is reduced by at least 20 per cent below the pre-war supply, we recognize that the vital interest of every nation depends upon getting their share of these reduced supplies. Since every industrial European country depends for a considerable part of its necessary grain, and every country except Britain for much of its necessary coal, upon imported 56 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE supplies, the possession of adequate international purchasing power is of primary importance. And it is precisely lure that the peril of the situation for Europe grows continually graver. Only an adequate possession of credit enables the more dependent countries to satisfy their vital needs from foreign sources. Coal and credit, the sources of in- dustrial and commercial power, must be utilized not along lines of most profitable ownership, but according to pressure of human need, if Europe is to escape catastrophe. The failure of recuperative forces is evident enough. If we ask what are the causes of this failure we are confronted with a morbid complex of economic, political, and moral factors rooted in ill-will and a refusal to set in operation the healing currents of cooperation. A brief enumeration of the principal obstacles to restoration must here suffice. First, the maintenance or resumption of war conditions in various parts of Europe after the Armistice. The retention of a close blockade of Germany and Austria for months after the Armistice, the still later blockade of Hungary, the long smouldering warfare in the Balkans and in Turkey; and still more injurious in its economic re- action, the policy of war and the blockade of Russia, at once disabling the internal economy of that country and depriving the rest of Europe of access to the largest available surpluses of some essential raw ma- terials; such are the main items in this count. Three distinguishable economic injuries are attributable to this failure to make peace: — 1. The waste of man-power, materials, and money in maintaining and operating large military forces which ought to have been available for work of economic restoration. 2. The fresh ravages of territory, with death, destruction and pil- lage, as in Hungary, Poland and Russia. 3. The paralyzing effect of these wars and fears of wars upon the effort and the foresight needed for effective reconstruction. We next come to the evil reactions of the Peace Treaties upon the economy of Europe. Here the pursuance of certain political and military objects by the victorious Allied Governments involved the sudden forcible break-up of established economic systems and of commercial relations. At a score of different points the Peace Treaties thrust a ram-rod into the delicate machinery of economic intercourse, upon the maintenance of which the prosperity, the very lives of large populations depended. The tragic case of Austria severed from her agricultural and industrial supplies, her urban millions left to slow starvation or to insufficient charity, is the most terrible result of allowing politicians and soldiers to tamper with an economic system which they do not understand. . . . Some deliberately set themselves to devise elaborate means of weakening and retarding the economic recovery of Germany, regardless HELPING EUROPE'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY $7 of the fact that this crippling policy meant a reduction of wealth-produc- tion in which the whole of impoverished Europe would share, either by ordinary process of trade or in payment of indemnities. The libera- tion of the science, technique, and industry of the German people for early effective industry was perhaps the greatest single agency in the economic recovery of Europe. By the deprivation of her main supplies of coal and shipping, the uprooting of her foreign market, the multi- farious interferences with her internal economy of transport and finance, the Treaty of Versailles did its utmost to retard this recovery. But lest these injuries to the material resources of Germany should not suffice for this task of retardation, the Allied Governments inserted a moral obstacle even more disabling. By their persistent refusal to fix the amount of the indemnity they . . . sapped the incentive to productive effort in the people of Germany. Turning from these positive obstacles to economic restoration due to the refusal to make a good peace, I next arraign the Allied Govern- ments for failure to adapt the measures they employed for rationing food, coal, materials, transport, and credit, during the emergency of war, to the equally great emergency of the early years of peace. The League of Nations, which they had formally incorporated in the terms of peace, was an obvious instrument for this emergency organization of the vital resources of Europe. ... If Peace be the first condition of economic revival, and a League of Nations be the accepted instrument for secur- ing Peace, the undertaking of this task of reconstruction by an Economic Committee of the League would have done more than any other action to furnish that initial force of moral confidence which this new experi- ment in internationalism so urgently required. This failure to set about the cooperative policy of organizing the depleted resources of Europe for the common safety set every nation to devise separate and often very noxious means of dealing with its own commerce and finance. By tariffs, embargoes, subsidies and other artifices, the several Governments have striven to reduce external com- merce to a minimum, throwing each people as far as possible upon their own impaired resources and reducing the total productivity of Europe by diminishing the efficiency of international trade. This maintenance of war, blockades, and large military forces, with their attendant insecurity of life and property, this expensive govern- mental interference with industry and commerce by controls, prohibi- tions, subventions, and the like, have led almost all the Governments into further adventures in inflation of their currency, with the crippling effects of this financial dishonesty upon prices and the distribution of wealth. High taxation, rising prices, depreciated currency, fluctuations of exchanges, are generally disturbing influences in the internal economy of every country. They are directly responsible for much of the social 58 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE unrest which continually breaks out in political revolts or industrial conflicts. These financial, industrial and commercial disturbances take shape in reduced production, much profiteering, and a distribution by processes of economic violence. Under such circumstances capital feels unsafe and saving is discouraged, foresight and business calculation are impracticable, and the life of whole populations is reduced to a scram- ble for the bare means of present subsistence. Finally, this failure of the European peoples to get an effective peace, social and political security, rising productivity and improvement of internal finance, has a disastrous effect upon their commercial and finan- cial relations with non-European nations, the owners of those surpluses of wealth and credit which are so urgently required to help Europe in restoring its broken economic system. Europe cannot restore that system without the liberal and continuous cooperation of America. That effective assistance cannot be obtained for a Europe which appears to be unable or unwilling to make peace, or to set herself to steady industry and remedial methods of currency and finance. America will not come in to help redress the balance of such a Europe, and the failure of such help is a final obstacle to Europe's economic resurrection. This citation of the separate obstacles to economic recovery gives but an imperfect picture of the paralyzing influence of their concurrent action. Nor does it adequately represent the general disintegration and enfeeblement due to the breakdown of the exchanges and the inter- national money famine from which the greater part of Europe is suffer- ing. In once prosperous countries we witness today the rapid dissolution of highly complex economic organisms into low forms of primitive pro- duction, eked out by barter. In social pathology the disease may rank as general paralysis, a failure to function on the part of the nerve centres of the economic system. The full extent of the danger only now appears, when the hectic energy and artificial prosperity left by the war have died down, leaving a bewildered world struggling to restore out of its broken fragments the delicate and complex fabric of industry, commerce and finance which the Great War and the Bad Peace have brought to ruin. — J. A. Hobson, in "The Needs of Europe: Its Economic Reconstruction," pp. is, 20-23. Marshal Foch's Opinion It is most likely that the United States is partly responsible for the present uneasiness of the world. It should have ratified the peace treaty with us. By keeping apart from us America has helped to promote dis- orders in Central Europe and prevented the establishment of the economic equilibrium. — Marshal Foch, quoted by Norman Hapgood in the Yale Review, October, 1920, p. 42. HELPING EUROPE'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY 59 Europe's Need of Help The Break-down of European Civilization Excepting France and Switzerland, Continental Europe no longer has a clear vision of how it can and should govern itself. It no longer believes in any universally respected principle of authority; and in the dire uncertainty in which it is enveloped, it allows itself to be seduced easily by revolutionary frenzies, and to be drawn into crazy adventures. The world-war has caused the ruin of many things; but how little all the others count in comparison with the destruction of all principles of authority ! If Europe had governments of some strength and of recognized authority, the work of reconstruction would be easily and quickly done, with the tremendous resources that Western civilization has at its disposal. But, ruined by the war, sunk in profound destitution, at grips with all sorts of difficulties — political, economic, military, diplo- matic — caused by the war, and without governments capable of govern- ing, the larger part of Europe may well be involved in a long period of anarchy. . . . The principle of authority is the master-key of all civiliza- tion ; when political systems disintegrate into anarchy, civilization rapidly disintegrates in its turn. . . . Three countries are today in a relatively better condition: the United States, Great Britain, and France. They have won the war, although at fearful cost; they are richer than the others; and they have governments that continue to function amid the general anarchy. France seems especially favored, from this standpoint. She is preparing to reap the fruit of her century-long travail ; for she has the good fortune to find herself with a democratic government, which is "carrying on" at this extraordinary epoch, when democratic government is the only possible one outside of dictatorship and tyranny. But for this very reason, these countries should employ their wealth, their strength, and the comparative good order they enjoy, in assisting the other countries to reconstruct upon the only possible foundations their states and their wealth. Let them not allow themselves to be seduced, by the illusion of power, into isolating themselves in the rising flood of anarchy ! This anarchy may well result in a general disruption of civilization in two thirds of Europe, and it will not be long before they will be swallowed up in the immense void. Europe will be saved, or will perish, as a whole. . . . The political anarchy that the downfall of all principles of authority may let loose upon Europe today would be added to the most complete intellectual anarchy that Europe has ever known. Each faction, or group, which, in the revulsions of this anarchy, should possess itself of supreme power for a single day, would consider itself entitled to recon- struct the whole world on new principles: the state, morals, aesthetics, the family, and property ! Imagine the utter confusion that would 60 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE result from such performances! — Guglielmo Ferrero, Atlantic Monthly, March, 1921, pp. 420, 421. Primary Problems One's first impulse upon looking into this bedlam of disease, starva- tion, and industrial ruin [in mid-Eastern Europe] is to throw up the hands in blank despair. No problem of civilization so nearly hopeless has ever been presented for solution to the mind of the world. Yet it must be solved. Time alone can solve some aspects of it. Some of these countries are doubtless destined to a generation or more of grind- ing poverty, low birth rate, high death rate, and the emigration of all who can or are allowed to leave. Those who remain will have to strain every faculty of brain and nerve and muscle in an unequal struggle with the grimmest kind of economic disadvantage. It is at best a sad and foreboding outlook. But the civilized world must not, cannot, now admit that it is helpless to aid. One thing is immediately within the power of western Europe and America to grant. Never in history has Patrick Henry's cry been so fraught with significance in human destinies — "Peace, peace, and there is no peace." Until these countries know that the war is over, that the strong civilized nations are united upon a plan for the preservation of peace, there can be no release from the burden of mili- tary preparation. Even worse, there can be no adequate step taken to wipe out the plague of typhus. Endemic disease under modern condi- tions can be fought only with the united resources of mankind, backed by supplies and, if need be, by military power, to enforce quarantines and to distribute properly the doctors, nurses, and medical supplies. Until typhus is eradicated, orderly progress in industry and agriculture alike is impossible. Sick men, starving men, dying men, are not the in- struments of productive labor. . . . The foregoing picture makes doubly plain the necessity, the urgency, of a league of nations. Call it what one will, organize it as may be, but some association of the civilized nations of the world must quickly be brought into being, clothed with vast authority and allowed to settle the primary problems of the new nations. These problems are first peace; second, limitation of armaments; third, the eradication of disease; fourth, the mining and allotment of coal; fifth, the allocation of rail- road rolling stock; sixth, the determination of taxation systems based upon a definite statement of indemnities. These things settled, the questions of credit, of raw materials, of the resumption of industries, and the finding of markets, difficult questions though they are, are not beyond the mentality and the energy of these peoples. Failing some such solution of this gigantic problem, civilization itself is in peril, American prosperity is likely to be a delusion, and our fancied isolation and immunity from the entanglements of Europe HELPING EUROPE'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY 61 may prove to be a fantastic dream. — French Strother, World's Work, August, 1920, p. 348. Outstanding Necessities in Reconstruction This Conference considers that the conditions precedent to an adequate economic reconstruction of the world are: a cessation of military operations in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, with the conse- quent reduction of expenditure on armaments; the cessation of all blockades and restrictions for purely political purposes upon economic intercourse ; the enlargement of the area of free trade by specific treaties between States, particularly those of the late Austrian, Russian, and Turkish Empires. . . . This Conference is gravely concerned with the existing financial situation which now shows symptoms of complete breakdown, not only in Russia and in the Central Powers, but in the Entente Nations as well, and desires to direct the attention of the peoples and Governments of every nation to the urgent need of cooperative measures in order to create the credits which Europe requires, to restart her industries and to restore her productive power. . . . This Conference is convinced that the financial danger cannot be overcome until measures are taken to restore production in Russia and to restart trade relations with that country. This Conference desires to record its conviction that Europe cannot obtain either credit guarantees or the credits themselves until the various nations reduce their military outlays, make a real effort to curtail their governmental expenditure, endeavor to restore the equilibrium to their budgets, and thus indicate their intention to stop the issue both of paper currency and of governmental loans for other than productive purposes. . . . The Conference considers that the League of Nations should itself act as trustee for any international loan that may be created, and for the expenditure of the credits obtained by such loans for productive purposes, and not in order to meet governmental expenses or budget deficiencies. This Conference urges the desirability of appointing an International Council, representative of the countries concerned, to advise as to the production and distribution of food, coal, and other indispensable raw materials, with a view to ensuring the satisfaction of vital needs and to securing the largest possible production throughout the world. This Conference is of opinion that the League of Nations can never be an effective instrument for reconstruction until it has admitted all States desirous of membership. The Conference further urges that having so admitted all such States, the League's first activities should be directed towards assisting in the economic reconstruction of the world by agreement, and in the provision of a Court before which all 62 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE questions justiciable in their character may be brought for decision. — Resolutions adopted by the International Economic Conference called by the Fight the Famine Council, and held in London, October 11-13, 1920. "The Needs of Europe: Its Economic Reconstruction," pp. 10, II. The Future of Continental Civilization at Stake To bring together the countries whose economic unity has for the moment been smashed into fragments, to set free the productive forces that are now hampered by prejudice and jealousy, to renew, restore and develop intercourse by road, railway and river, to facilitate trade by currency agreements, this is a work upon the success of which depends the future of Continental civilization. — Samuel Hoare, Nineteenth Century and After, March, 1920, p. 422. America's Relation to European Recovery America Launched in the World's Currents There is not a credit in Europe . . . that does not need to be weighed and its chance of repayment carefully appraised, but it will not do for America to say that she will keep her dollars at home henceforth and get into no further entangling foreign financial alliances. One American financier in Europe summed up his view of the situation by saying that he would advise his partners henceforth to keep very close to shore. My reply was that keeping close to the shore might result in having a hole stove in his boat. America cannot keep close to the shore. We are launched, whether we like it or not, in the world's currents. We have moral responsibilities that should and will appeal to us; but if we look at the situation only on the narrowest of material grounds, and look with clear vision, we will understand how involved is our civiliza- tion with the civilization of Europe, and we will comprehend what it will mean if by failing Europe in her hour of great need we permanently injure the fabric of civilization there. — Frank A. Vanderlip, "What Happened to Europe," pp. 98, 99. Conditions of American Economic Aid for Europe In my judgment . . . America can be induced to join whole-heart- edly with the European States in the common problems of rebuilding the economic structure of the world — on conditions. Among these conditions are, I believe: 1. The cessation of imperialistic military operations. . . 2. The revision through administration, if not by verbal modifica- tions, of those provisions of the Paris Treaties which have made our people believe that the United States would, if they ratified these docu- ments, be used to further the territorial and commercial ambitions of the Allied Powers rather than to preserve the peace or to restore the HELPING EUROPE'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY 63 economic life of Europe. Foremost among these provisions are — (a) those dealing witn reparation, (b) those artificially thwarting the re- newal of economic intercourse. 3. Such modifications in the Covenant as (a) the immediate ad- mission to the Council and to the Assembly of Germany and of the other former enemy States, (b) strengthening of the mandate provision in such a way as to make certain that the nations holding mandates may not use them for selfish nationalistic purposes. I do not say that America's full cooperation in the work of recon- struction is contingent with the technical acceptance of each and all of these terms. But what she has a right to require as the price of her full participation is the purification of the Paris settlement and the rectification of the worst features of the post-war arrangements as the only guarantee that "the peace of victors" has become an instrument capable of restoring the industrial life of the world. If you here in Britain can induce your Government to throw the full weight of its influence in favor of these modifications, you will make our task of persuading America to come into the European settle- ment infinitely easier. America cannot live alone, does not want to live alone. If we can be persuaded that the war is in fact over, that our assistance will not be used primarily to maintain British, French or Italian ascendance; if we can know that your efforts will go towards the upbuilding of European life everywhere, then, and only then, the spirit of idealism which uplifted our people in 1917 and 1918 may again be roused, and this time lead us to throw our full strength into the work of reconstruction. — J. G. MacDonald, in "The Needs of Europe: Its Economic Reconstruction," p. 117. How America Can Aid The world today looks to the United States as the one solidly forti- fied nation in the realm of finance and trade. No other country has to a like extent the great power needed to meet the present emergencies. This fact is receiving general and a constantly extending degree of recognition in our own country. We have come to realize thoroughly that Europe must have food, raw materials and machinery before she can hope to return to normal health in finance and trade, and that she must have a considerable time extended to her before she can pay for these products. We recognize that this implies thrift and the saving of investment funds in large amounts here in order that they may be available in rehabilitating the industries of Europe. Many now see that depreciated exchange can be restored only through Europe's resumption of normal production and exporting. We know that great markets for our own raw products are now stagnant because of idle factories in France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere. Fur- 64 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE thermore, markets in South America and the Orient, which would other- wise be absorbing our manufactured products continuously, are stricken for the same reason. Their products, wheat and wool, hides and skins, and metals, which normally are in urgent demand in Europe, move but slowly. The whole intricate machinery of world trade is clogged by the prostration of economic life in the countries so seriously devastated by the war. This economic life must be quickened promptly. Since the armistice, the minds of men in all parts of our country have had time to comprehend the course of events and the meaning and needs of the present critical period. As with the war itself, full realiza- tion has been slow in spreading among the people. It is by no means universal now. Leaders do exist, however, and others, with the inter- national outlook, will no doubt be effective in stimulating the action that seems to be required. There are evidences of clear recognition of the demands of the situation in many quarters. . . . In the South, the cotton interests are preparing to sell their product abroad and to finance sales by long-term loans through corporations or- ganized under the new Edge Act. Most significant of all is the . . . meeting in Chicago, where a powerful group of bankers decided to or- ganize a one hundred million dollar corporation under the same Act. This . . . corporation is to be devoted specifically to promoting foreign trade by means of long-term investment loans. Large as will be the corpora- tion that is planned, and its resources would imply operations involving more than one billion dollars in credits, it will not be too large for the urgent present demands. The method by which credits will be established is simple enough, although the problem of selecting acceptable collateral abroad for loans is one that will require high technical skill and sound judgment Such loans as may be made will be in the form of dollar credits in American banks, available to pay for goods exported to the borrowers. The question as to how far the investing public will absorb the debentures based upon this collateral of foreign securities and other properties still remains to be answered. The answer will depend largely upon how thoroughly the American people understand that their own prosperity is involved in such a movement. It is encour- aging to note that the subscriptions to the New Orleans Edge Law corporation have been promptly made and are ample in amount. The strength of the banking interests behind the Chicago plan should inspire confidence. When the public understands that the proposed in- vestments abroad will, in effect, act as a priming to force into full action the now halting machinery of world trade, immediately creating markets for stocks that are now moving slowly or not at all, there should be a country-wide response when subscriptions for Edge Law debentures are offered. Every class — merchant, manufacturer, farmer and laborer — should be interested. HELPING EUROPE'S ECONOMIC RECOVERY 65 This method of aiding Europe partakes in no way of the character of charity. This form of help is sane, self-respecting and businesslike, and is apparently the most effective way by which manufacturers and merchants abroad may obtain the equipment and supplies that will per- mit them, in due time to liquidate their debts here in full. — Francis H. Sisson, Vice-President, Guaranty Trust Company of New York, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 192 1, pp. 151-153- Setting Ourselves to the Task of Cooperation If we intend to remain in the society of the world, which is the only conceivable choice, then we should set ourselves intelligently to the task of cooperation. Securities representing European obligations will be best offered to our people through corporations formed in this coun- try, which will assume the investigation of the foreign offerings, with the performance of whatever acts are necessary to safeguard the invest- ments after they are made, and which will put up a reasonable margin of their own capital as an additional guaranty. Such corporations can distribute the risks, on the principle of insurance, their own obligations representing varied investments, as each bond represents mortgages upon many farms. . . The plan of operations proposed by all of these corporations is that of first investing their own capital in foreign securities, and then pledg- ing these securities in the hands of responsible trustees, as the basis of their own bond issues. The purchaser thus will buy the obligations of an American corporation, backed by a deposit of foreign securities, with the additional protection furnished by the capital of the American corporation. . . . Of course there will be people who will say that we have no credit to spare for Europe, and that securities based upon foreign obligations cannot be sold in this country. That was said two years ago, and we have actually granted something like $4,000,000,000 of credit in foreign trade since then. It is evident that we cannot go on granting credit for all kinds of purchases and upon mere book accounts, which in the end throw the exporters back upon the banks. But we have idle shops, idle workmen and bursting granaries, and when it is recognizedUhat the loans which we are asked to make will represent labor which otherwise will be unemployed and surplus products which otherwise cannot be sold, the proposal will be seen in a different light. We may lose enough by the demoralization of industry to have put Europe on its feet. We are impelled by our own interests to aid the recovery of Europe. There never was a better demonstration of the great truth that the economic law and the moral law are in complete harmony. — George E. Roberts, Vice-President, National City Bank of New York, American Review of Reviews, May, 1921, p. 513. CHAPTER VI ARE THE EUROPEAN LOYALTIES OF OUR COSMOPOLITAN POPULATION A MENACE TO AMERICA ? I. The European Connections of America's Immigrant Popu- lation i. What are some of the storm centers of Europe concerning which there are agitation and propaganda in this country? 2. What influences are being brought to bear upon immigrants by the countries of origin to keep them interested in political, social, and economic movements in Europe? 3. What seems to be the present attitude of European govern- ments toward the assumption of American citizenship by their nationals ? 4. In what ways, if any, should the apparent efforts on the part of some of our immigrant population to maintain dual alle- giance be considered a source of concern to the United States? II. The Effects of the Connections of Immigrants 1. What interests in Europe has America resulting from the great migrations from European countries to the United States? 2. When immigrants transfer their residence to America, do they transfer their loyalty to this country? Would you feel that it is safe to generalize on this point? What evidence have you growing out of your own experience and observation bear- ing upon this? 3. When the World War broke out, what European nationalities were most loyal to their former European origins? How did they manifest this loyalty? What problems, if any, did this make for America ? 4. What contribution to the welfare of their national groups in Europe have immigrants to this country felt that they could and should make? How has this affected their American loy- alty, if at all? Has it been helpful, or otherwise, to the Euro- pean countries concerned? Would you like to see immigrant groups in America help Europe's economic rehabilitation by 66 LOYALTIES OF AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS 67 sending large sums from their savings to relations and friends in the lands of their origin? 5. What bearing, if any, does allegiance to overseas ecclesiastical organizations and authorities have upon the acceptance by our immigrants of basic American ideals? 6. It is held that we already have such a large percentage of foreign-born people that no matter how much we now restrict immigration we are bound continually to be involved in Euro- pean struggles because of the strong sympathies of our present cosmopolitan population. What do your observations and study lead you to believe in regard to this? 7. What bearing have the European connections of our immi- grant population upon America's possibilities of isolation? 8. By and large, what advantages and what disadvantages have come to America as the result of the European connections of her cosmopolitan population ? III. The Attitudes Americans Should Take 1. What stand should a loyal American take with reference to overseas sympathies and loyalties of our people of European birth? 2. Do you feel that incoming immigrants can and ought com- pletely to disassociate themselves from old world political, so- cial, and cultural relationships, as part of the process of Ameri- canization? If they cannot, or at any rate do not, do so, what bearing will this fact be likely to have on American foreign relationships ? 3. Just what attitude toward old world cultures and affairs would you like to see immigrants in America take ? How would you go about trying to get these immigrants to take that attitude? Why? Would your method be likely to succeed? INFORMATION AND CURRENT OPINIONS ON QUESTIONS AT ISSUE America's Immigrants and Their European Connections America an Instrument of European Nationalistic Wishes Members of the "oppressed and dependent" nationalities of Europe bring to America forms of the Freudian "baffled wish" and of the "in- feriority complex." They are obsessed by the idea of the inferior status of their group at home, and wish to be a nationality among other nationalities. Their organizations here seek to make America a re- 68 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE cruiting ground for the battle in Europe. Consequently they wish first of all to save their members from Americanization, to send them home with unspoiled loyalty, or to keep them a permanent patriotic asset working here for the cause at home. They regard America as merely the instrument of their nationalistic wishes. Their leaders wish also to get recognition at home for their patriotic activities here, and superior status on their return. They speak of the penetration of America by their own culture. ... At the same time the material position of the leaders of these groups — the editors, bankers, priests — depends on keep- ing the group un-American. We find that the aims of these nationalists are often more explicitly and naively stated in communications sent to Europe than in their American publications. . . . Another group of political idealists, embittered against the social order represented by the state and by private property, perhaps dis- gusted with humanity, are the propagandists of some revolutionary scheme — Bolshevism, Anarchy, Communism — for the redistribution of values. They continue in this country a struggle against organized so- ciety which they had been carrying on at home. They bring here and exploit grievances and psychoses acquired under totally different con- ditions.— Robert E. Tark and Herbert A. Miller, "Old World Traits Transplanted," pp. 92-94, 96, 97, 99, 100. Foreign Control of American Immigrants Before the war, Europe, prosperous, powerful and sure of its fu- ture, was content to have millions of its emigrants go to America to help build a greater America, in the belief that when an emergency call came they would return home. The war revealed to European nations how great in men and resources and in ambition and power was this country which they had helped to build. It also revealed to them the great difficulty of holding the allegiance of their own immigrants when once they had learned our language, had acquired new homes and citizenship, and had invested their savings in the United States. Necessarily, then, Europe, so sorely in need as it is today of money and markets, savings and leadership, and so insecure as to future peace, while it favors the emigration of its people to relieve the economic strain, however, is not greatly in sympathy with assimilation or Ameri- canization of her emigrants in immigration countries. Rather is she bent upon a policy of race separation by which each country not only hopes, but will eventually plan, to keep its nationals united wherever all immigrants are urged to become citizens. The first step in the future immigration policy of Europe is to en- courage all residents belonging to the minor nationalities in any given country to emigrate. This is best exemplified in the movement to expel Hungarians from Czecho-Slovakia and Jews from all European coun- tries. This, in addition to economic pressure, explains the great rush LOYALTIES OF AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS 69 toward the United States and to other immigration countries. The new immigrants are refugees, not only from the war, but also from the new European policy by which each country wishes to keep its racial strain pure. In case of future wars, each European nation will try to lessen the risk of disloyalty or treason from within, for each realizes that there may come a time when it may eventually stand alone, dependent wholly upon itself. . . . They think now not so much in terms of peace as of future wars, and plan accordingly. The second step by European nations in this policy of race separa- tion, as opposed to the American policy of assimilation, is the recall of nationals which began soon after the war had ended. This recall has two objects in view: first, to obtain information at first hand concerning the immigration country, its resources and opportunities, and to benefit by the immigrant's knowledge and savings; second, to infuse him with a new sense of nationalism and devotion, in order to further the fiscal and industrial plans of his native country. The third step in this policy is the encouragement of emigration and its control after arrival in the new country. . . . Foreign nations mean to control the interests of these immigrants in new countries in the following ways: 1. They mean to protect them and win their gratitude. . . Many countries have already enlarged the powers of their consulates in the United States to protect their immigrants; and they are supporting societies and homes and movements to look after their nationals. ... 2. They mean to control the interests of their im- migrants by obviously advancing their economic interests, by securing in advance concessions of free land, farm equipment, commercial oppor- tunities and investments. 3. They mean to exercise this control through education, by means of the establishment of schools, and by supporting the foreign language press through advertising, and by fostering the establishment of cultural societies; all for the purpose of perpetuating the language, ideals, culture and interests of the native land of the immi- grants. They mean to promote such control through commercial or- ganizations and to use intelligently their nationals in trading companies to advance the sale of goods in the United States and to help them to secure new markets. . . . They mean, at least, to consider the advisability of giving their nationals abroad representation in the home country. Thus we may see presently the racial societies in this country selecting such representatives to attend conventions and sittings in the native country. To accomplish all this, foreign nations will, therefore, favor the establishment of immigrant banks, and of branch banks in immigration countries where the native language is spoken, thus to stimulate the transmission of money home and of investments in the homeland. They believe that if the pocket-book of the immigrant can be safely tied to the homeland all will be well. ;o AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE Should the carrying out of these plans be less successful in some immigration countries than in others, European nations will then divert their emigrants to the more favorable countries. Kranccs Kellor, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January, 1921, pp. 303 305. America's Inheritance op Europe's Oppression Problems In America we have inherited all the oppression problems of Europe and 675 Factories destroyed (metallurgical, electrical, me- chanical) 21,000 Textile factories destroyed 4,000 Alimentary factories destroyed or stripped 4,000 Townships destroyed J >659 Townships, Ya destroyed 707 Townships half destroyed 1,656 Railways destroyed, kiloms 8,000 Bridges destroyed 5,000 Highways destroyed, kiloms 52,000 Land devastated (about one-half cultivated), acres.. 9,386,000 Mines in northern France, years required to repair. . 10 Reduced production of these mines annually, tons. . . .21,000,000 ATTITUDE TOWARD GERMANY 113 Justice . . . would take off the burden from France and put it upon Germany. That is impossible. But it is not impossible to compel Germany to do all that she can do to repair the wrong which she has committed. Thus full reparation from Germany to France is demanded alike by justice to France and good will to Germany. There is no place in Christian philosophy for the spirit of revenge. But there is place in Christian philosophy for stern and exacting jus- tice. . . . Good will would desire for Germany that as a nation she should awake to a realization of her national sin and her national shame ; and, because she realizes the wrong she has committed, should voluntarily endeavor to repair the evil she has done. If she does not, then good will for Germany demands that she be compelled to repair that evil, whatever it may cost her. In the infliction of that cost may be one evidence of good will, for, if repentance is always followed by attempted reparation, it is also true that reparation enforced by a superior power often awakens a tardy repentance. It is not desirable for either Ger- many or the rest of the civilized world that she should be received back into the world's fellowship until she repents of her crime. A revived conscience is for her far more important than a revived trade. It is no spirit of good will for Germany which desires to treat her as a civilized nation before she becomes a civilized nation. It is a spirit of laziness. It desires to avoid the difficult and disagreeable task of com- pelling an unrepentant sinner to repair the cruel wrong she has done. . . . She cannot give back to France the noble monuments of past cen- turies so wantonly destroyed. What she can do must be left to be de- cided, not by popular vote, but by experts. But the public opinion of all the civilized nations of the globe should unitedly insist that no cost can be too great for Germany to pay unless it is so great that she cannot pay it. . . . In 1914 petty wisdom, self-indulgence, and heartlessness won the victory in Germany. But not without some protest against the war by Germans. . . . Loyalty to those who maintained their loyalty to justice and liberty under such difficulties demands that we should prove that the representatives of self-indulgence and heartlessness were wrong and the representatives of justice and liberty were right. The English, French, Italians, and Americans are not all saints; the Germans are not all devils. We owe to the lovers of liberty in Germany, however few, a stern and uncompromising hostility to the enemies of liberty in Germany, however many or strong or rich they may be. Sternly demand reparation ; cordially welcome every sign of a new and better life; to this both justice to France and the spirit of good will toward Germany summon us. In the spirit to which Abraham Lincoln summoned America to enter in the work of national reconstruction be it ours to enter on the greater work of international reconstruction to 114 AMERICA'S STAKE IX EUROPE which wc are now summoned. — Lyman Abbott, LL.D., Outlook^ March ici. [921. The dominant thought of the American people throughout Amer- ican participation in the war was that German militarism must be destroyed forever. This thought, which inspired soldiers and civilians alike in their efforts to attain victory, was the result of the succession of events which had gradually taught the masses oi our people that our fate as a tree nation was at Stake from the inception of German ag gression upon France and Belgium, because that aggression was aimed at all human liberty, bather the aggressor was to be vanquished and kept disarmed, making a renewal of the onslaught impossible, or the State of armed peace in which Europe bad lived as it on the brink of a volcano since Prussia's attacks on her neighbors began sixty years ago must inevitably be extended to us and keep us not only trained tor war but armed to the teeth at all times, lest a conflagration started in one corner of the world should reach the edifice of our national well- being, and endanger its existence. That way lies ruin, under the weight of taxation superadded to existing war debt to pay tor another war of even greater proportions. By the Treat) of Versailles it is provided that Germany shall be disarmed and shall remain disarmed. It is vital to every tree nation that the treaty in this respect shall be lived up to in letter and spirit. The fate of limitation of armaments, that is to say. of the maintenance of armaments at a reasonable minimum, is at stake. Unless the authors of the most stupendous aggression on human liberty since the beginning of time are kept in a state of disarmament it is idle to expect that any free nation will risk its fate on the outcome oi vague hopes of human good-will lacking the foundation of an existing condition of safety. — Maurice 1 eon. Review o tvs, February, to.t. p. 159. We must not be asked to dwell upon the horrors of the Rhine when our hearts are still heavy with the sorrow of the Marne. We must not be asked to bury our grievances before we have finished burying our dead. We must not be asked to grasp the bloody hands so recently lifted to slay the civilization of the world while our duty calls us to hold up the hands of those who saved that civilization. We must not be asked to relapse into a sterilized neutrality which makes us forget the difference between right and wrong. We must not be asked to take part in splitting the spirit of the Allies by compromising with the incorrigible criminality of the common enemy. . . . We do not persist in the feelings which the war aroused because we hate, but rather because we love. Tis not alone because we hate the great, iron, ruthless machine which Germany drove across the fair bosom of the world — vet God knows we do hate it — but rather because ATTITUDE TOWARD GERMANY 115 wc love those fine traditions of liberty and justice whose altars we builded here in this far away place, on these distant shores. It is not alone because we hate that grim, grisly, organized war party at the head of the German Government who, with their long, lean fingers clutched at the very throat of an unarmed civilization — yet God knows we do hate it — but it is rather more because we love that civilization which they would have destroyed, and do not intend that it shall ever be sub- jected again to the danger and menace of such a lust for power. I he real difficulty is the war never came to an end. It was truly an armistice. Nobody was ever punished, nobody ever made to suffer, except those youths of all countries who died in their country's nam". The great criminals back of the war, the great conspirators who plotted it and the great devils who executed it, have been allowed to retire in quiet and security, to write books teeming with falsehoods concerning its causes and conduct. — Martin W. Littleton, address at meeting of the American Legion, Madison Square Garden, New York Gity, New York Times, March 19, 192 1. Nobody can call the Treaty of Versailles perfect; but why should we expect this, of all human acts, to be perfect? Every one of us can criticize details of it, and could wish that some of the problems had been handled differently. Most of the sentimentali ever, who now belabor us, have as their underlying complaint that it is too severe on Germany. They forget that there are millions of men and women, mostly silent, whose complaint is that it is not severe enough on Ger- many. These millions may be wrong, but the fact of their opinion was a factor in the settlement. Their conscience, their sense of justice, their ideas of fair play and of mercy, were outraged during the war by the brutal crime , of Germany. Even in the fighting they felt that they were not merely defeating an enemy, certainly not outwitting a rival, but were judging a criminal. If they were sure that there was any sign of repentance, they would feel easier in their mind in accepting a full policy of concilia- tion. It is truly said that men cannot be judges of sincere repentance, which, after all, is a quality of the heart. But there are "outward and visible signs" of any inward state. While nobody can ever be sure of the reality of repentance, everybody is sure that it cannot be without, at least, certain outward marks. All theology, from the time of the Schoolmen, has asserted that for repentance there must be these three elements — contrition, confession, and satisfaction. A man must express sorrow, admit guilt, and offer amendment as far as possible. The only regret expressed by Germany is for failure ; the only confession is of mistake, not of crime; and there is a universal attempt to avoid all restitution. We go over the details of the agreement to which Germany gave n6 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE her signature. One was that the French flags were to be returned — and they were burned in Berlin to avoid the wound to pride. Another was that the fleet was to be handed over — and it was sunk at Scapa Flow. . . . Nothing has been done except in response to the threat of force. Every possible evasion has been resorted to. This may be an argument against the Treaty. If so, it is an argu- ment against all treaties, and we may as well deal with them as scraps of paper. . . . Many men throughout all the nations would be less fearful of the future, if they were convinced that the present German government has been purged of all militarist spirit. It is part of that government's punishment that only time will remove such suspicions. It is to be noted that, so far, there is no information of a repeal of the obnoxious law of double allegiance, which authorizes a German to give pretended allegiance to another government while secretly remaining a German citizen. Frank assurance of the sincerity of German purpose, which would reestablish confidence, would do much to make this earth a place where self-respecting nations could live. — Hugh Black, Atlantic Monthly, February, 1921, pp. 265, 266. Germany Should Be Helped Germany's Welfare Essential to Europe's Recovery Whatever may be our feelings, Germany cannot be wiped out. The Germans have passed through these trials before. They had the Thirty Years' War and the Seven Years' War. They can be reduced, but they cannot be extinguished. The military party is quietly in control, but the Hohenzollerns will never come back. You can feel that the Germans are not at heart demo- crats. It will take a generation to change the spirit of a Germany brought up under military rule, and it will take two generations for the Germans to think for themselves politically. But despotism is broken down. . . . To help the world we must help Germany; the whole body suffers because Germany is so important a member. The patient is Europe, and at first examination his heart is very weak. Strengthen that and the other organs will get strong. We don't say it out of love, but Germany is the heart of Europe. . . . The Germans are the only people with location and ability to put order back in Russia, and if Germany is set going again she will look to Russia for profitable development rather than to western competition. The Germans will colonize industrially in Russia, and they are the only people to do it. The only hope for Russia is through com- merce. . . . It will be a span for more than one generation before Germany can ever fight again with her own men. Her man power is gone and cannot ATTITUDE TOWARD GERMANY 117 be reproduced in a generation. Not for thirty years can she contemplate war, and then another thirty years would be required to prepare for it. . . . There is no camouflage concerning the pinched legs of the children of the upper Rhine which told me the primary truth. If the children have been pinched in that rich valley, they cannot be better off toward Vienna. You can read the history of the war in the faces of the people as well as in the little legs of the children thirty months after the Armistice. You can then understand the desperate game that Germany played with her women and children after the first defeat at the battle of the Marne settled the issue. The Germans put the food to the front to brace the fighting line, and starved the women and children to sterility. Enter any German home even in the upper classes and you will find the women still pinched, shrunk and under weight. Walk down the Unter den Linden with in- tention to count the war-wounded and you are shocked, not at the number of one-legged or one-armed or disfigured, although these are more plentiful than in France or England, which conceals its hospital scars, but you are shocked at the number of idiots, the shell-shocked and the nervously strained. I not only saw them, but I had other people count them. When I asked the American journalists in Berlin for an estimate of how many people counted in the streets showed the shock of war either in limb or in countenance, they replied that they had estimated on the average every other person. . . . Germany must be considered for many years as ruined in man power, child power and mother power, but not in lands, buildings or ma- chinery, although the lands have been under-fertilized for many years and are not now producing as formerly. — C. W. Barron, Barron's, June 6, 192 1. Public and statesmen alike must learn the meaning of the word "interdependence." . . . Not merely must enemy restoration be permit- ted, but constructive arrangements in the way of access to raw ma- terials, to the sea across neighboring states, must be made for ensuring that result, so that the enemy be not pushed to enforce it by a revival of his power. Means of honest livelihood, on condition of good behavior, must be offered the criminal in order that he shall not be compelled to resort to dishonest means. All these things must be done, not primarily for the welfare of the criminal but for the welfare of society; for our welfare. — Norman Angell, Contemporary Review, January, 1920, p. 44. A Duty Owed to the Vanquished There is a . . . duty that we owe to the vanquished. No country will lie crushed forever; and they too, whenever they show that it is n8 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE possible to trust them, must necessarily be admitted to the comity of nations. Every one who pays any attention to the facts of the case must necessarily see that this is so. Now, it is possible to pour contempt upon our fallen enemy, and to continue our reproaches so that he will become further embittered, and will secretly plan future revenges and prepare means to execute them. Those for whom your only attitude is contempt, are not likely by that treatment to be made fitter for the duties which you are already demanding of them in view of future days. The need for self-respect in the vanquished is as important almost as the need for bread, and it were well if we were on the outlook for all opportunities of fostering it. We should welcome all expressions of a change of mind in our former enemies. We should, as soon and as far as it is possible to do so, trust them to act on different principles in the future. In the meantime this will only be possible when it is safe- guarded by sufficient guarantees of good faith; but everything should certainly be done to hasten the time when that intolerable situation will be over, and we shall all be striving for a common future of human well-being. — John Kelman, "Some Aspects of International Christian- ity," pp. 26-28. The Upbuilding of Democracy in Germany Those of us who have had occasion to study the situation in Ger- many since the revolution have realized full well that the men who represent sentiment for democracy as it exists in the German people need encouragement. Unless the hands of these democratic leaders can be upheld there will be neither reparation nor permanent peace. If we wish to take really constructive steps abroad, then we must see to the upbuilding of democracy in Germany. This is the hope of world peace. In showing that group of men some support in the problems of their people and our high sense of charity for children, America is supporting that only hope of peace. — Herbert Hoover, quoted by Isaac Marcosson, Saturday Evening Post, April 30, 1921. Material and Moral Conditions of Survival It is hard to say how Germany can work itself out of its present calamitous condition. The evils of the situation have made such head- way that they cannot be overcome except with foreign help. The only country in a position to extend a large credit to Germany is America. . . . Everything would have been different and better if the blockade had been lifted with the Armistice, and raw materials permitted to reach us. The eight-months' Armistice blockade is what crushed Germany beyond hope. . . . Healthy democratic progress is . . . dependent in Germany upon a recovery of economic health. . . . We must have raze materials and credit. Unless ive do obtain them we are in constant danger of Bol- ATTITUDE TOWARD GERMANY 119 shcvism on the one hand and of counter-revolution on the other. Either of these would precipitate the final and complete ruin of Germany and constitute a common peril for all Europe; for the counter-revolution would ultimately result in Bolshevism. . . . There is general fear in Germany that peace will not he possihle for our people, but that we still face a moral prolongation of the war, only conducted by a different method. This fear lies like a weight of lead upon every German heart, and will continue to do so until some of the most oppressive conditions imposed by the Treaty have been revised. Until that happens, and so long as Germany's economic life is rendered insecure by those conditions, and the whole situation is thus imperiled, the possibility of a desperate revolt continues. The German people understands full well that, for a long period to come, it is doomed, not only to the hardest toil, but also to a meager and impoverished way of living. It is resigned to this, and feels that it is able to survive such conditions, thanks to its new democratic and social organization, but only if its obligations are made endurable, and are clearly defined, and are fundamentally just. Should it be otherwise, even democracy has no future in Germany; for a healthy plant can grow only in healthy soil and healthy air. . . . Before Germany is judged by foreign countries, their peoples must be made to understand that, even before the war and throughout the war, there were two Germanys — a military Germany and a democratic Germany. Military Germany is crushed and will not revive. A person who is intimidated by the spectre of it. threatened resurrection either does not know the present conditions in Germany, or he wishes to utilize the peace in Germany to continue the war against that country. Demo- cratic Germany, however, will not be able to survive unless her former opponents, who were able to win complete success in the war only after the United States joined their coalition, grant her the material and moral conditions that make such survival possible. — Paul Rohrbach, Atlantic Monthly, May, 1920, pp. 693, 696, 697, 699. I should . . . say, as an honest American, that Germany's defeat was due to my country's participation in the war, that the present situa- tion in Germany is predicated on this complete defeat, and that, there- fore, my own country is, in part, responsible for the situation. We can not wash our hands of the consequences. The more lofty our talk the greater our responsibility. If we desire disarmament, honestly and truly mean what we have all along professed and still profess as a democratic nation, then it is our solemn duty, now too long neglected, to see to it that the vicious principle we hoped to crush by defeating Germany be not practiced against Germany by any of those to whose mercies we left a defeated foe. I know, it is human to feel and to assert that the fate now meted out to .Germany was planned by Ger- [20 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE many in respect to France and possibly other nations. But this Eeeling and this assertion is sheer Colly as an argument, 1 can sympathize with the French people's apprehension of German "revanche" and 1 can well understand how this apprehension might be played upon by certain persons. Given similar conditions, we Americans should feel as the French feel, and be even more easily betrayed by an appeal to our apprehensions. In my heart there is no accusing voice against the French people. But tor this very reason it is the more imperative to speak plainly, — John Firman Coar, Weekly Review, September to, 1921, P. 228. Hope for New Life in Germany Stoxs OF RENEWED VITALITY The deeper student of character does not lose heart. Bent the na- tion may he. broken it is not. Signs of renewed vitality show among the ruins. Devotion to work is on the increase: piece-work is no longer in disfavor; overtime is readily undertaken; the output of coal is rising, and the balance oi trade improving. These outward symptoms all point to the same fundamental fact, namely, that Germany, in spite of her poor endowment in point of raw materials — one-third of these cut off by the Peace Treaty — is not shaken in point of the ability of her people. The war has not sapped her capacities, technical, commercial, or organ- izing. Habits of industry and skill are an heritage of the German people, such as are nowhere excelled. Her abilities, having been de- prived of their military outlet, are free to expand in works of peace. Before the war Germany was the great workshop of Continental Europe. Europe, impoverished by the war. cannot recuperate without setting this workshop in operation once more. — Gerhard Von Schulze-Gaevernitz, Conti°mpo>\vy Review, December, [920, pp. 802, 803. A Return to Native Idealism German} was terribly defeated, much more so. 1 feel, than Amer- icans realize. She is not penitent in the sense that many Americans, particularly "bitter enders." would hope to see. but we must remember that the Germans have been a proud people and they can hardly be expected to throw overboard at once their national pride which hail been developing in logical steps through the past century's growth oi their empire. There are members oi the old militaristic group and pan-Germans who unquestionably, as individuals, have in mind some form of revenge and who would, if they were able, restore the monarchy and develop a great army and navy. Hut those oi us engaged in bringing American relief to innocent children and mothers have been in close touch with great masses of the population and have learned to know people of the working class as well as the burgher and educated classes. 1, for one, ATTITUDE TOWARD GERMANY 121 feel reasonably sure that this great majority are through with the war and as long as they are able to maintain democracy in government, they will never allow their fatherland to develop again the top-heavy military structure which caused their downfall. I believe it would be impossible for any one of the seven political parties, which now thrive in Germany, to prosper if it espoused the cause of militarism and maintained it as a plank in its party platform. The only possibility of such a militaristic development would be through a reaction to a Communist or Bolshevik regime which might follow the present Socialistic one. . . . Yet a Communist development is unlikely, in spite of the propaganda which is continually poured into that section of Germany just west of Poland, and even if Poland itself proves too weak to withstand its tide. The rank and file of the working people in Germany are close enough to see Bolshevism as it is practiced in Russia. We found them taking to heart the report of the delegation which had been sent there to study the system and which reported unfavorably. And they have also taken to heart the failure of the recent soviet experiment in Italian industries. Rather we found the people turning, not eastward to a militant Bol- shevism, but back into their own essentially native idealism. Germany is groping to find again the trail of true culture. — D. Robert Yarnall, Survey, March 19, 192 1, pp. 882, 883. Holding Out Hopes of Magnanimity The thirst for learning [in Germany] since the close of the war has become abnormal. Students attending the universities are one-third in excess of the capacity. They are young men and women drawn from every class and welded together by an almost painful enthusiasm for democracy. The sacrifices which they make to gain an education some- times reach the point of martyrdom. ... It is to such people that the American and British Friends are ministering. They realize that, if there is ever to be peace between the sons and daughters of the nations who fought, the peace must commence in the heart. . . . The youth of Germany have established an invisible system of trenches in every home, every school, every university. Though they may not know it and would perhaps disown it, they are banded together to withstand that same intolerance of autocracy which hurried lovers of freedom from the ends of the earth that it might be crushed on the Western Front. These new armies which are re-winning the old battle have given themselves a name ; they call themselves the Freie Deutsche Jugend — the Free Youth of Germany. Their ranks are made up of girls as well as boys. In isolated instances they are organized, but for the most part they are knights-errant. . . . There are three points in their movement which deserve to be made emphatic. The first is that they are absolutely correct in their assertion 122 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE that the children of the Allies were never at war with the children of Germany. The second is that the Free Youth of Germany are fighting for precisely the same ideals for which the Allies fought, and are doing their fighting on German soil where it will be most effective. The third is that they are showing a spirit of regeneration which, if it is en- couraged, will become the national spirit of tomorrow. For the safety of the world, if for no less selfish reason, their movement deserves the Allies' consideration. . . . Very naturally while middle-aged Germany is caviling over repara- tions and eluding engagements, the charitably disposed publics of the Allies are unwilling to respond to appeals for help. Their old war hatreds have no sooner shown signs of subsiding than some new cause is given by Berlin for suspicion and offense. In spite of this, the point which cannot be made too emphatic is that it is middle-aged Germany, the contriver of the war, which is creating these offenses. Young Ger- many is no party to them. It is just that a distinction should be made between the new and the old. The new is fighting our battle for us. In the universities it is fighting the professors who insist on teaching reactionary doctrines. The students being young, are sick and tired of the glorification of the old, bad past. They insist on starting with today and looking forward. If we desire it, we can have them for our friends. Not to desire it would be a crime which is unpardonable. We fought a war which we said was to be the last; if through our lack of generous response we fling the youth of Germany back into the arms of the reactionaries, we are preparing a future war. Quite apart from decency and humanity, it is statesmanly and economic to hold out hopes of magnanimity. If we hoard foodstuffs today and insist on a policy of revenge, we shall be expending tomorrow on shells a thousand times the money we have saved. The rejected idealist is the least forgiving antagonist and the Free Youth of Germany are a volcano of idealism. They deserve our sympathy. They sincerely want to be our friends. They have rejected their own elders and look to us for guidance. They are young birds who have been wounded. They have never spread their wings. In listening to their talk, all the time one has the picture of fledglings trying to lift themselves from the ground. To destroy a bad world was necessary; but to help build a good one is braver. As far as young Germany is concerned, the hour is ripe for relenting. If we allow it to escape us, it will not be ourselves, but our children who will have to bear the consequences. — Coningsby Dawson, "It Might Have Happened to You," pp. 145, 147, 149. CHAPTER X WHAT IS THE BEARING OF RUSSIA'S DISTRESS ON AMERICA'S DESTINY? I. Present Conditions in Russia 1. What seem to you to be the present outstanding facts with regard to conditions in Russia? Where do you get your in- formation ? Do you consider it reliable ? Why does the world seem to have had so little definite information about what has been happening in Russia? 2. How do different groups with which you may be related feel about Russia's present condition? 3. Just why has the rest of the world been so bitter against Russia? What justification, if any, do you feel there has been for this attitude ? II. Soviet Government, Promise, or Menace?* 1. What is the Bolshevist idea? 2. What steps led up to the establishment of the present regime ? 3. When you hear the word Bolshevism what does it mean to you? Just what are meant by the Bolshevist regime and the "dictatorship of the proletariat"? 4. How does Soviet government differ from commonly accepted forms of government? 5. Why is it under suspicion by other governments? 6. What effect have the pronouncements of the dominant Com- munist party respecting other governments had on the Amer- ican public and official mind? 7. How far are conditions in Russia due to Bolshevik leader- ship? How far to the military collapse and the downfall of orderly government under the autocracy? How far to the blockade and the counter-revolutionary efforts since Russia withdrew from the ranks of the Allies? *The questions under this section are likely to prove too technical for profitable discussion in the average forum. They are inserted as indicating topics which should be kept in mind in reading current periodicals, and also to meet the needs of such classes and forums as may have occasion to use them. 123 I2 4 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE 8. How far do you ascribe the tragic famine conditions in Rus- sia to natural causes, and how far to social and economic breakdown incident to revolutionary upheavals profoundly af- fecting Russian life in its every phrase and in every community ? 9. What are the democratic and undemocratic features of the Constitution of Federated Soviet Republics? 10. Should the Soviet experiment be opposed as a menace or should the Russian people be given a chance to work out the experiment ? 11. To what extent has the Soviet principle of government been realized ; to what extent has it been invalidated by military measures and official usurpations ? III. Effect of Allied Policies on Russia* 1. What has been the policy of the Allied powers toward Russia? Why have they assumed an antagonistic attitude to the Bolshevik regime? 2. What has been the effect upon conditions in Russia of the blockade and the stimulation of counter-revolutions by influ- ences outside Russia? 3. Upon the whole what factors lead you to believe that the Allied treatment of Russia has been justified; what factors lead you to doubt the wisdom of the Allied attitude? IV. Significance of Events in Russia 1. How does Russia bulk in importance in world territory and affairs? Take into consideration comparative population, po- tential food production, potential trade demands, geographical position between the Occident and the Orient, and the impli- cations of Russian political, social, and economic experiments. 2. "Russia is the decisive factor in the history of the world at the present time. You may abandon Russia, but Russia will not abandon you. You cannot remake the world without Rus- sia." Do you feel that what is happening in Russia is of little or of profound significance for the rest of the world? Why? V. America, Friend or Foe of Russia? 1. Just what has been America's official attitude toward Russia? ♦The questions under this section are likely to prove too technical for profitable discussion in the average forum. They are inserted as indicating topics which should be kept in mind in reading current periodicals, and also to meet the needs of such classes and forums as may have occasion to use them. AMERICA AND RUSSIA 125 How far does America's official attitude seem to have been justified by succeeding events? 2. Is it best after the overthrow of autocracy in Russia that the Russian people should struggle through experimentation to discover for themselves what type of government best suits their needs, or that some sort of government should be set up and undergirded by force from without rather than that strife, bloodshed and suffering should go on indefinitely? Ought Rus- sia to be left to flounder her way through to some sort of political or social order without interference from without, re- gardless of disorder, suffering and starvation ? 3. What should be done with Bolshevist propagandists in Amer- ica? How far do you feel that there is in America a tendency toward a movement essentially Bolshevist in nature? Do you sympathize with it or fear it? What responsibility, if any, is upon Russia for the presence of radical tendencies in American life? Why? 4. What guiding principles do civilized nations follow in decid- ing whether to recognize a new and revolutionary government ? 5. What attitude should America take toward the Bolshevist regime ? a. Starve it out by cutting off trade. b. Put up barriers against its spread. c. Actively try to overthrow it. d. Give a chance for free experimentation with the idea that it may throw light upon improved types of governmental and economic systems. 6. A vast people, suffering unspeakably and beyond comprehen- sion, staggers towards death individually and nationally, under a leadership regarded by many outside Russia as sur- passingly and prophetically great, and by others as terribly and tragically brutal, selfish and mistaken. What measure of claim does the situation have upon our sympathy and help? How best can we help? INFORMATION AND CURRENT OPINIONS ON QUESTIONS AT ISSUE Difficulties in Knowing and Understanding Russian Affairs Search for News Punishable By the simple but sufficient process of making independent search for news in Russia punishable by torture, imprisonment or death, the 126 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE whole of Russia and Siberia — S,66o,ooo square miles and with a popu- lation of 180,000,000 — is shut oft from the civilized world. It would have once seemed incredible that the stretch from Vladivostok should furnish no information to any newspaper except through men who are "under control," who see only what is shown them. — Review of Reviews, March, 1921, p. 246. An Unsolved Mystery If Russia is. in Berdyaeff's words, "even for us Russians an un- solved mystery." it becomes evident how extraordinarily difficult it is for foreigners even with that first-hand experience of the Russian people and Russian conditions during recent decades, without which there cannot be even a basis for independent judgment, to pronounce upon the situation as it is today. — J. Y. Simpson, Nineteenth Century and After, January, 1920, p. 76. Even Statesmen Without Solid Knowledge Our ignorance of what Bolshevism in Russia really represents is appalling. For more than two years the public has been mainly fed on the wrong kind of propaganda. The propaganda we really need would show that what the Bolsheviks are doing in Russia does not and never can bring paradisal conditions. Now. to effect this, facts are necessary, and these remain mostly unknown to the general public, though not only to the public. Even our statesmen have not much solid knowledge about the situation in Russia. — V. PoliakofF, Nineteenth Century and After, September, 1920, p. 432. No Freedom of Press, Speech ok Action Such information as the Soviet Government sends abroad is either visionary or false. The details furnished by escaped prisoners or re- leased foreigners are pretty certainly colored or prejudiced. . . . Un- fortunately the great majority of such newspaper correspondents as have been admitted to Soviet Russia . . . have had their records care- fully investigated beforehand by competent Bolshevik authorities, who have felt sure that under the guidance assigned them these reporters would send out nothing detrimental to the Bolshevik cause. . . . Very few have come out of Russia recently who have had oppor- tunities to judge men and events, who have been allowed to see the entire horizon and thus been capable of drawing unbiased conclusions. The true state of affairs is so pathetic in its utter failure and so terrible in its results to innocent millions that it would scarcely be be- lieved were it to be laid bare in its awful reality. There is no freedom of press, speech nor action. — John A. Gade, North American Review, January, 192 1, pp. 56, 57. AMERICA AND RUSSIA 127 Soviet Government: Promise or Menace? Bolshevism and Soviet Government Bolsheviks. A nickname originally applied to the majority at the second congress of the Russian Socialist Party in 1903, as opposed to the Mensheviki, or minority. At that time the two wings differed merely on the subject of party administration; in the course of time, however, the breach between the two kept ever widening. The Mensheviks advo- cate social transformation through a process of gradual reform and education of the masses, while the Bolsheviki are International Com- munists, their program including a revolution of the proletariat of all countries and government control by, and in the interest of, the prole- tariat, to the exclusion of all others. — "New International Year Book, IW" P. 93- The word Bolshevik, which means "belonging to the majority," was originally applied to the left or radical wing of the Russian Socialist- Democratic party at the time of the split in 1903. — Savel Zimand, "Mod- ern Social Movements," p. 229. The word Bolshevism ... is used to describe the policy and actions of a certain group in Russia; it is used to characterize a certain phil- osophy of society; and it is used to describe an active world movement based on this philosophy. — Henry C. Emery, "Bolshevism : A World Menace," p. 1. The term Social Democracy is unscientific. . . . Mankind can only pass from capitalism into socialism, that is, public ownership of the means of production and the distribution of products according to in- dividual work. Our party looks farther ahead than that : socialism is bound sooner or later to ripen into communism, which banner bears the motto "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." The second part of the term Social Democracy is scientifically wrong. Democracy is only a form of authority. We . . . are opposed to every form of authority. — Lenin and Trotzky, "The Proletarian Revo- lution in Russia," pp. 153, 154. The Soviet state established in Russia in November, 1917, has . . . assumed authority to the extent of a virtual dictatorship, supposedly only for the transition period, during which it claims as its mission to eradicate the causes of social inequality by making all citizens workers by either head or hand. . . . The political structure of the Soviet state is roughly as follows: Every factory and group of peasants elects its local soviet, or council. These units are represented in the town and district Soviets, which in turn send delegates to the all-Russian Congress of Soviets. The dele- gates can be recalled at any time. This congress, held at least once a uS AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE year, appoints a Central Executive Committee of 200 members, giving proportionate representation to the various political parties. The Ex- ecutive Committee appoints the commissaries, in charge of foreign af- fairs, education, finance, justice, etc., who form the Council of People's Commissaries, or cabinet. The economic soviet organization is centralized in the Supreme Council of Public Economy, a cabinet department, whose membership of 69 consists of 30 representatives from industrial unions, 20 from re- gional councils. 10 from the Central Executive Committee, 7 from the Council of People's Commissaries, and 2 from the cooperatives. The Supreme Council appoints three delegates to the Central Board of Management of each of the principal industries organized on a national scale. — Save! Zimand, "Modern Social Movements," pp. 229, 230. Soviets are not identical with Bolshevism, and do not necessarily imply the dominance of Bolshevik theories and policies. The present Soviet state is, however, dominated by Bolshevik theories — Savel Zimand, "Modern Social Movements," p. 229. Bolshevism a Menace to the World If we could contrive for a moment to cease to be deluded by the sound of words; if we could bring ourselves to look at things instead; we should see that democracy is in deadly peril. It is menaced with utter subsidence and complete overthrow. Throughout the enormous realm in Europe and in Asia now dominated by the ruthless fiends who serve the Russian despots, a tyranny has been established at once more savage, more penetrative, and more all-embracing, than any known previously amongst men. And wherever Bolshevism triumphs in future, wherever anarchy usurps the place of order, there the like sequel will inevitably ensue. This is the unending lesson of history, repeated from century to century, and yet ignored. — H. F. Wyatt, Nineteenth Century and After, February, 1920, p. 375. Nicholas Lenin and others now dominating the Russian Soviet Gov- ernment, have frankly and repeatedly announced, both in the years before they attained their present power and after, that their ultimate aim is to force the world into one great International Communist Republic, wiping out all national boundaries. Preliminary to this, all existing "capitalis- tic." that is to say non-Communist, governments in the world must be overthrown. The government of the United States is frequently specifically mentioned. — William English Walling, "Sovietism," p. 165. An apt description of the situation wherever the Bolsheviks succeed in establishing their domination was contained in the remark of a Russian friend of mine — "In our Russia there is no God, no religion, no czar, no money, no property, no commerce, no happiness, no safety, only freedom." AMERICA AND RUSSIA 129 And this is the wonderful new civilization we are asked to accept in exchange for our own. Peasants and manual workers are coerced as never before, industry is ruined, commerce reduced to a primeval con- dition of barter, and the population cowed and held in subjection. — R. Courtier-Forster, Nineteenth Century and After, March, 1920, p. 529. Let us get to rock bottom at once and make it clear that Bolshevism is not national, but anti-national. "Break down the frontiers," such is the keynote of the ambition of the Bolshevik leaders. To Lenin and Trotzky the names "Russia," "Germany," "France," etc., are mere geographical expressions. "Perish Russia," said Lenin as he seized the government of that ill-starred country. His dream is not confined to Russia, because he aims at setting up Soviet Governments in Washing- ton and in London, in Ottawa and in Simla, as he has done in Petrograd and in Moscow. — A British Staff Officer, quoted by George Aston, Fortnightly Review, August, 1920, p. 239. Some Bolsheviks Are Builders of a New World Order The revolution in Russia has been the awakening out of sleep of the millions on the European and on the Asiatic side of the Ural Mountains. For the moment it is dominated and obscured by the actions of a few, the predominant section of the Bolsheviks, who have attempted to im- pose their will upon its mighty forces. But amongst the Bolsheviks there are real communists, real idealists, real builders of a new world order. These men, now in a minority, want peace, want cooperation, they want to build and not to destroy. If we get a real peace with Russia it is these men who will prevail, a regime of cooperation with other men of goodwill will be set up, and the rule of force, terror, and bloodshed will be ended. And Russia and Siberia, by industrial, political, and health organization, and by education, will be brought into the comity of the Western civilization of the world. The future of the world depends on the vividness and actuality of the conceptions of international cooperation and human brotherhood in political affairs. The Russian, with his fine artistic sense and his subtle appreciation of spiritual realities, has much to teach us and much to add to the world's store of good. Ours is preeminently the duty to make the future of international cooperation possible by insisting, against any and every enemy, on peace. — L. Haden Guest, Joint Secretary of the British Labor Delegation to Russia, Nineteenth Century and After, November, 1920, pp. 907, 908. The Forward March of the Russian Nation What will be achieved . . . from out of the turmoil and travail of revolution is that Russia will have made twenty years' progress in 130 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE five years, that the stirring of the minds of the people by the events of today will leave a definite mark on the forward march of the Russian nation, that when the lava has ceased to flow and the volcano's glare grows less and less lurid in the eastern sky, the vineyards will once more give forth their luscious fruit, a new fertility will spring up throughout the neighboring lands, and a happier, better and enlightened Russia will emerge from out of the womb of suffering. Such will be the true accomplishment of the revolution. . . . Progress through convulsion, evolution through turmoil, seems to be the destined fate of Russia. By turning her face to the East she could find repose, but a repose that would only mean stagnation and decay. The cry is to the West, the law is advance or die. And thus she plunges onward, laughing at the warnings of those wiser than herself, confident of her extraordinary energy when once roused, disillusioned again and again, but struggling more and more fiercely to bridge the gulf to the West. . . . For extremism is the elixir of life to a Russian. And Lenin is as extreme as Peter the Great. History will surely link their lives to- gether as the men who sought to graft a Western civilization on an Eastern people, and who brought progress to Russia through a stupen- dous convulsion. — Herbert Bailey, Fortnightly Reviezv, October, 1920, pp. 571, 572. A Gigantic Effort of Creation In spite of the physical misery, ... in spite of much intolerance and much callousness, in spite even of the suppression of political liberty, I had the sense [while in Russia] that I was watching a gigantic effort of creation. . . . The positive work of the Revolution, whether one saw it in the factory, the farm or the school, is an epic triumph, not only over foreign enemies and the armed reaction, but also over these darker forces in the untaught Russian soul. ... I think that this Revolution will live to vindicate itself in history as the greatest effort of the con- structive human will since the French made an end of feudalism. Among . . . forces our own civilization has thrown up as yet none which can compare in efficacy with the egoistic motive of private gain. In Russia a social principle has, by violence, indeed, and a contemptuous disregard of democracy, made for itself an opportunity, which it uses with master- ful will. It has broken the power of wealth to control men's lives. It is acting, even when it coerces them, for the sole good of the masses. It is making, even if it be destined to overthrow, a superb monument to the human will. To evolve a victorious army from an invertebrate rabble, to rouse a lazy and apathetic nation, amid poverty and suffering, to a task which demanded an almost insane courage, to conceive the daring ambition of making a ruling caste out of young, unschooled work- men, was in itself an act of audacity to which time has no parallel. AMERICA AND RUSSIA 131 Beyond the bravery of this struggle there lies a much vaster design — to change the entire economic structure of this half-continent, and with it the mind of a race. There are those who believe that initiative, am- bition and the creative will are evolved only by the hope of personal gain. Here is initiative, here is the will to reshape and create, on a scale to which all our civilization together offers no parallel. Its actual achievement will be hampered by the original poverty and intellectual immaturity of Russia; it may be frustrated by the criminal enmity of Western politicians. ... It is, in a land where a feeble and dilatory civilization had touched as yet only a minute minority of a gifted population, a great and heroic attempt to shorten the dragging march of time, to bring culture to a whole nation, and to make a co- operative society where a predatory despotism, in the act of suicide, had prepared the general ruin. — Henry Noel Brailsford, "The Russian Workers' Republic," pp. 205, 206. Significance of Russia in the World's Life Gigantic Resources The Russian Empire within its limits of 1914 was forty times as large as the German Empire. It was more than twice as large as the United States. It was larger than the United States, China and India combined. Russia is very sparsely populated and has room for a gigantic population. The number of its inhabitants has increased from 45,000,000 in 1815 to 174,000,000 in 1913. Russia may become the greatest human reservoir in the world, and man power determines military power. The principal characteristic of the Russian people is its docility. The Rus- sians might comparatively easily be made to fight Germany's battles. Besides, Russia possesses gigantic resources which can be developed to an almost unlimited extent. Before the war she produced 51 per cent of the world's rye, 25 per cent of the world's oats, 33 per cent of the world's barley, 22 per cent of the world's wheat. She possesses by far the largest agricultural plain in the world. She might, therefore, produce far more food than the United States, Canada and Argentina combined. In 1913 Russia had 34,000,000 horses, 51,000,000 cattle and 74,000,000 sheep. She might, therefore, furnish unlimited numbers of military horses and equally unlimited quantities of meat, fat, leather and wool in case of a blockade. She has vast deposits of coal, iron ore, copper, zinc, salt, etc., and she produced in 1913 more petroleum than Rumania, Galicia, Mexico, the Dutch East Indies and British India combined. In her southern provinces she raises vast quantities of cotton, etc. — J. Ellis Barker, Fortnightly Review, August, 1920, pp. 206, 207. A Necessity to the Economic Existence of Europe Europe needs the food which Russia can supply. Russia is neces- 132 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE sary to the economic existence of Europe, and the interest of the United States is almost equally involved. Until the products of Russian agri- culture flow freely once more into the channels of European trade the whole economic life of the world will be deranged. While it is of more immediate and vital importance to European nations, the quick restora- tion of Russia to her position as a great food-exporting nation is very important to the United States. There can be no real solution of the great problem presented by the high cost of food until Russia's products again find their way into the world market. There is not a wage-earner's family from Maine to California whose interests are not affected. It is not an exaggeration to say that what is called the Russian problem enters into the grocery bill of every American household. — John Spargo, "Russia as an American Problem.'' pp. 14. 15. A Germinating Field of Social and Political Experiment Russia is now the center of general attention, a germinating field of social and political experiment. ... In her recent past, in her present, and in her future she is closely woven into the general life of the globe. Intellectually, politically, socially, she lives with all the rest of the world, despite blockades; and the rest of the world lives with her. — Gregory Zilboorg. in Introduction to "The Passing of the Old Order in Europe," p. 11. America, Friend or Foe of Russia? Greatest Sufferer Among Great Nations Russia, continental, colossal, chaotic, appeals to us out of the depth of its starving agony. As Armenia among the smaller nations, Russia has suffered most of all the great nations of the world. After a thou- sand years of oppression, five centuries of czardom, and five years of war and its aftermath, can we blame this great people, generations be- hind the rest of Europe in progress, for blindly striving for liberty? The French Revolution sought the overthrow of political oppression, while the Russian Revolution has tried to sweep away at one stroke both political and social injustice and to establish a new social order. Can we Anglo-Saxons, who in England fought for our Magna Charta of liberty, and in colonial America resisted the least featherweight of injustice in the Stamp Act, blame this mass of struggling humanity for trying to throw off their bitter yoke of bondage? Behind all the fog of misrepresentation and the smoke of battle, the Russian people, re- nouncing the injustice of Bolshevism, may work out for all humanity a social solution such as the French Revolution worked out in the po- litical sphere. Russia today needs not words but deeds, not empty sympathy but practical help. ... If we go to her aid with no selfish or ulterior motive, AMERICA AND RUSSIA 133 with no desire for foreign exploitation, but for the welfare of her own people, we shall find that no nation on earth will so eagerly and grate- fully accept our help. If we cannot believe in Russia, we cannot believe in humanity. To be defeated there would be to be defeated everywhere. We are members one of another. The class hatred of an unjust, tri- umphant Bolshevism would be a menace to the world, while a democratic Russia will help to make the world safe for democracy. Let us not for a moment forget that the future of the Anglo-Saxon nations is bound up with the welfare of Russia. — Sherwood Eddy, "Everybody's World," pp. 244-246. Opportunity for American Leadership The year and a half spent in revolutionary Russia had shown how great is the responsibility, how wonderful the opportunity of America for leadership among men the world over who love and strive for in- tellectual and political freedom. Among the peasants and soldiers at the front, America had seemed to stand for a wonderful land where freedom was a fact, and all things were arranged as in some fairy land of legend. The small dealers, railroad workers and clerks who ma to * up what we should call the middle class were always ready to talk for hours about democratic America. The Bolsheviki themselves looked upon America as less to be feared than other nations, as a country where at least an experiment in freedom had been tried and from which sympathy for their own great experiment could be expected. But it was particularly among the Intelligentzia — always excepting the ex- treme monarchists — that America was looked to for example and guid- ance. The men from whose ranks I had become convinced must come the future leadership of Russia looked across the Atlantic for help. But they did not look blindly. The failures of America and her short- comings were perhaps clearer to them than a patriotic American might wish. Whether or not America should retain the moral leadership which Russia seemed to be offering her freely and hopefully depended on two things, first, that she should continue to stand for the things which make for freedom, justice and social progress within her own borders; and second, that she should be willing to take her place in the family of nations as a responsible and active champion of honesty and fair dealing among all the people of the world. As I lived among the educated people of Russia and saw their looks turned toward my coun- try, now in hope, now in the bitterness of disappointment, it seemed incredible that America should turn aside from the leadership that it lay in her choice to take or leave. An America resisting all social change, satisfied with her progress thus far and willing to stand still, taking the best thought of two centuries ago as the ideal to follow blindly in the new age, an America turning away from all risk and responsibility connected with world affairs — such an America could do i 3 4 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE much to dash the hopes and break the spirit of men whose hearts were set upon the creation of a free Russia. — William Adams Brown, Jr., "The Groping Giant : Revolutionary Russia as Seen by an American Democrat," pp. 197-198. Diplomacy Should Be Responsive to Public Opinion It was the war spirit of the world and not the viciousness or the blindness of the Allies which dictated . . . the policy of the Allies in Russia. That policy was the real tragedy of the war. In that policy for better or for worse, the plain people of America have borne little part. . . . Ours has been the sin of omission and the deadlier sin of ignorance. If open diplomacy is to mean anything ... it means that diplomacy should ... be responsive to public opinion. If it means anything, it means that public opinion should be aroused as well as informed. It must mean this, community by community, if it is to mean anything in the nation as a whole. The very people who shoulder the load of civic upbuilding in our American cities are the people who must take the wider neighborhood of the world to heart. They must put into it all some of the vision and social values that go into their domestic reforms, so that foreign policy shall hinge not alone on the bonds of France or the oil fields of Baku, but on the education, the health, the good-will of every people with whom we must keep house in this disordered world. They must put into it some of the flint and steel of our militant civic and political reforms, for forces of another order are abroad. They must have a hand in the policy-making toward Russia. . . . They must make up their minds on the issues that enter into that policy. . . . They can not leave these to the fragmentary League of Nations, to Allied premiers or even to high-minded administrations at Washington ; they must take their stand and make it known. — William Allen White, Survey, June 5, 1920, p. 346. The Basis for Considering Trade Relations The Government of the United States views with deep sympathy and grave concern the plight of the people of Russia and desires to aid by every appropriate means in promoting proper opportunities through which commerce can be established upon a sound basis. It is manifest to this Government that in existing circumstances there is no assurance for the development of trade, as the supplies which Russia might now be able to obtain would be wholly inadequate to meet her needs, and no lasting good can result so long as the present causes of progressive im- poverishment continue to operate. It is only in the productivity of Rus- sia that there is any hope for the Russian people, and it is idle to expect resumption of trade until the economic bases of production are securely AMERICA AND RUSSIA 135 established. Production is conditioned upon the safety of life, the recognition by firm guarantees of private property, the sanctity of contract and the rights of free labor. If fundamental changes are contemplated, involving due regard for the protection of persons and property and the establishment of con- ditions essential to the maintenance of commerce, this Government will be glad to have convincing evidence of the consummation of such changes, and until this evidence is supplied this Government is unable to perceive that there is any proper basis for considering trade relations. — Statement of Secretary of State Hughes, declaring the Administra- tion's rejection of the Soviet trade proposals, Washington, March 25, 1921. A Modern Civilization Near Final Collapse Russia, which was a modern civilization of the Western type, least disciplined and most ramshackle of all the Great Powers, is now a modern civilization in extremis. The direct cause of its downfall has been modern war leading to physical exhaustion. Only through that could the Bolsheviki have secured power. Nothing like this Russian downfall has ever happened before. If it goes on for a year or so more the process of collapse will be complete. Nothing will be left of Russia but a country of peasants ; the towns will be practically deserted and in ruins, the railways will be rusting in disuse. With the railways will go the last vestiges of any general government. The peasants are abso- lutely illiterate and collectively stupid, capable of resisting interference but incapable of comprehensive foresight and organization. They will become a sort of human swamp in a state of division, petty civil war, and political squalor, with a famine whenever the harvests are bad; and they will be breeding epidemics for the rest of Europe. They will lapse towards Asia. The collapse of the civilized system in Russia into peasant barbar- ism means that Europe will be cut off for many years from all the mineral wealth of Russia, and from any supply of raw products from this area, from its corn, flax, and the like. It is an open question whether the Western Powers can get along without these supplies. Their cessa- tion certainly means a general impoverishment of Western Europe. The only possible Government that can stave off such a final collapse of Russia now is the present Bolshevik Government, if it can be assisted by America and the Western Powers. There is now no alternative to that Government possible. There are of course a multitude of antagonists — adventurers and the like — ready, with European assistance, to attempt the overthrow of that Bolshevik Government, but there are no signs of any common purpose and moral unity capable of replacing it. And more- over there is no time now for another revolution in Russia. A year more of civil war will make the final sinking of Russia out of civilization 136 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE inevitable. We have to make what we can, therefore, of the Bolshevik Government, whether we like it or not. Any country or group of countries with adequate industrial re- sources which goes into Bolshevik Russia with recognition and help will necessarily become the supporter, the right hand, and the con- sultant of the Bolshevik Government. It will react upon that Govern- ment and be reacted upon. It will probably become more collectivist in its methods, and, on the other hand, the rigors oi extreme Communism in Russia will probably be greatly tempered through its influence. The only Power capable of playing this role of eleventh-hour helper to Russia single-handed is the United States of America. Other Towers than the United States will, in the present phase oi world-exhaustion, need to combine before they can be of any effective use to Russia. Rig business is by no means antipathetic to Communism. The larger big business grows the more it approximates to Collectivism. It is the upper road of the few instead of the lower road of the masses to Collectivism. The only alternative to such a helpful intervention in Bolshevik Russia is, I firmly believe, the final collapse of all that remains of modern civilization throughout what was formerly the Russian Empire. It is highly improbable that the collapse will be limited to its boundaries. Both eastward and westward other great regions may. one after an- other, tumble into the big hole in civilization thus created. Possibly all modern civilization may tumble in. — II. G. Wells, "Russia in the Shadows." pp. 171 -170. CHAPTER XI MUST AMERICA HELP TO CLEAN UP EUROPE AND EUROPE'S DEPENDENCIES? I. The Situation Facing America i. What epidemics and other types of health menace have come to America from other areas of the world? Just how serious have these epidemics been ? 2. What are the major epidemic diseases, and where are they now prevalent ? To what extent are they a menace to America ? 3. What progress has been made towards the understanding of these great diseases? What progress has been made towards their localization or elimination? 4. What seem to be the chief agencies and the speed rate in the spread of epidemics? What bearing does migratory labor have on international health? 5. America faces questions like these : a. How can America protect herself against plague conditions ? Is quarantine adequate or must we help to fight them at their sources? Can great epidemics of disease be confined and isolated ? b. What obligation, if any, has America on humanitarian grounds, to help relieve plague and disease conditions in other parts of the world? Which phase of the question, that of self-interest or of altru- ism, seems to you to be of more importance? Why? II. Some Essential Considerations to an Intelligent Discussion of These Questions A. America's Danger from European Epidemics. 1. What conditions with respect to disease have been developed in Europe by the backwash of the great war? 2. What areas and kinds of disease infection in Europe are to be feared today by America? 3. What particularly has been the situation in Russia, Poland, and Austria with respect to typhus and cholera? 137 138 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE 4. How much danger is there that these disease and plague areas in Europe will be sources of contagion for America? B. European Colonies as Sources of Contagion. 1. What is the situation as to plague and disease conditions in Europe's colonies and dependencies? 2. What is the bearing of unsanitary conditions upon the con- tinuance of these conditions? 3. In what measure does the physical health of the world de- pend upon sanitary and healthful conditions in colonial, pro- tectorate, and mandatory areas? How far are unsanitary and disease conditions in these areas a menace to the rest of the world? How far do they challenge our compassion and self- denying service on the basis of human suffering and need? 4. In what measure do the cost of tropical products, and the achievement of great engineering enterprises which open up the tropics to world commerce, turn upon sanitary achievement in tropical areas? 5. In what ways has the introduction of colonial administration and foreign trade tended to solve the problem of health and sanitation? In what ways has it increased the difficulties? 6. Can the races of the tropics be depended upon to maintain necessary sanitary regulations or should these regulations be guaranteed by the races of the temperate zone with or without the consent of the tropical groups? What bearing does this have upon the problem of the self-government and the self- determination of peoples? 7. Exactly in what ways is America interested in the adequate sanitary control of tropical colonies by the European nations to which these colonies belong? How can we best safeguard these interests? C. The Possibility of Stamping Out Plagues at Their Sources. 1. Where and when may a disease be said to be endemic? When may a disease be called pandemic ? 2. Just what bearing does the educational uplift of the backward peoples have on the problem of improving sanitation in the areas they occupy? 3. If you were a medical missionary, summoned by multitudes needing physical help and healing, would you feel your major CLEANING UP EUROPE 139 task would be to heal the sick or to teach sanitation and health promotion ? Why ? 4. Do you regard medical missionary work as pure benevolence, or as fully justified, in the long run, as an expression of en- lightened self-interest on the part of so-called Christian na- tions? Why? In this connection, would you take the same at- titude towards educational missions? Why? Why not? III. Conclusion 1. In the light of these facts concerning disease, what answer would you give to the two questions raised at the outset of the chapter? a. How can America protect herself against these plague conditions ? Is quarantine adequate or must we help to fight them at their sources? Can great epidemics of disease be confined and isolated? b. What obligation, if any, has America on humanitarian grounds, to help relieve plague and diseased conditions in other parts of the world? 2. How can America most economically and effectively protect herself against plagues originating elsewhere? a. By quarantine at our borders, or by aiding in the elimina- tion of diseases where they are endemic? b. By general educational processes, or by specific medical research and sanitary measures? c. By private benevolence or by government action? IV. Practical Steps to Be Taken 1. What have been the lessons from the notable contributions to international health which have already been made by the United States, such as our achievements in dealing with yellow fever and malaria in Panama, and with leprosy in Hawaii and the Philippines? How were these achievements brought about? 2. What is the League of Nations doing to fight disease? 3. What seem to be the relative effectiveness of the three great methods of fighting epidemic diseases : sanitation, quarantine, attacking foci of the disease? 4. How much of the load of world sanitation would you expect to be carried by Europe under post-war conditions as you know them? 140 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE 5. In what measure do you feel the load should be carried by America? Can we afford to sanitate the earth, or any con- siderable part of it outside our own borders? 6. In what measure is international cooperation through some such channel as the Red Cross Association a necessity if world results in fighting disease are to be achieved? 7. In what measure would you like to see medical missions re- cruited and aided? Why? Would you like to see our best doctors go to the neediest areas of the earth or stay in Amer- ica ? Why ? V. Possibility of Success 1. Which great evil do you feel humanity is most eager to destroy — war or disease? Which do you most fear as an enemy to future progress and happiness on earth? 2. How much hope does the progress already made give of final success with regard to each ? 3. Do you feel that particular diseases may sometime become extinct on the earth? Why do you hold to this opinion, and how is the result to be brought about ? INFORMATION AND CURRENT OPINIONS ON QUESTIONS AT ISSUE Where Dangers Threaten World Prevalence of Various Diseases Prevalence of cholera, typhus fever, and yellow fever was reported for the period ended June 30, 1920, in areas in which these diseases have been recognized as endemic. Some unusual outbreaks were noted. Plague made its appearance in Mexico at Tampico and Vera Cruz. Occurrence of cholera was reported on a vessel from Shanghai, August 7, 1919. Plague was reported on five vessels from July to December, 1919, and on two vessels in the months of February and March, 1920. . . . The information contained in the Public Health Reports is based merely on reports received from medical officers of the Public Health Service and American consuls. The statements of disease prevalence are of value as indicating areas of prevalence and the unusual occur- rence of outbreaks rather than as supplying accurate data of the extent of the prevalence. Cholera. Countries in which cholera was reported present: Europe — Greece, Poland, Russia, and Turkey. Asia — Ceylon. China, Chosen (Korea), India, Indo-China, Japan, Java, Mesopotamia, Siam, Straits Settlements, Sumatra, the Philippine Islands, and Asiatic Turkey. CLEANING UP EUROPE 141 Plague. Countries in which plague was reported present: Europe — France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Russia, Spain, Turkey. Asia — Ceylon, China, India, Indo-China, Java, Mesopotamia, Siam, Straits Settlements, Syria. Africa — Algeria, British East Africa, Egypt, Sene- gal, Union of South Africa. South America — Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru. Mexico — Tampico, Vera Cruz. Insular — Azores, Hawaii. Typhus Fever. Countries in which typhus fever was reported present: Europe — Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czecho-Slovakia, Danzig, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey. Asia — China, Chosen (Korea), Japan, India, Mesopotamia, Siberia, Syria. Africa — Algeria, Egypt, Tunis. South America — Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru. Mexico — Chihuahua, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Saltillo, San Luis Potosi. North America — Canada. Yellow Fever. Countries in which yellow fever was reported pres- ent: Central America — Canal Zone, Colombia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Salvador. Mexico — Campeche, Merida, Vera Cruz. South America — Brazil, Peru. — "Annual Report of the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service of the United States for the fiscal year 1920," pp. 221-230. The Menace of Typhus The facts [as to the growing menace of typhus in Poland and east- ern Europe] may be briefly stated. They have been obtained from the leading public health authorities in Europe and America, especially convened to consider the purpose; from the Office international d'hygiene publique ; from a special Commission of the League of Red Cross Societies; from the Medical Commissioner of the League of Nations . . . ; and from other sources. All these witnesses draw the same picture ; all draw it in the darkest colors. In Russia the disease seems to be epidemic. . . . Scarcely a town or village has escaped; and . . . half the doctors engaged in fighting the disease have died. . . . From this vast center of infection the disease is carried westward by an increasing stream of immigrants. Prisoners returning to their homes, refugees flying for safety, crowd the railways. Two millions of these unfortunate persons have passed the Polish Disinfection Stations since the Armistice, and doubtless many more have entered Poland without being subject to medical examination. They are pouring into a country in parts already overcrowded, where every circumstance — material and moral — combines to favor the spread of infection. . . . On what ground, it may be asked, should all the world be called on to alleviate a misfortune which, however great, is nevertheless confined to Eastern Europe? The answer is threefold. In the first place, all the world has, directly or indirectly, some in- 142 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE terest — often a very great interest — in restoring the war-worn and plague-stricken areas of Poland and Galicia to a normal condition of well-being. It is safe to say that this object can never be accomplished while the population is under the menace of this terrible disease. In the second place, if the plague be allowed to spread unchecked from Russia into Poland, it will assuredly spread from Poland to her western and southern neighbors. In Central Europe every circumstance — moral and material — favors the disease. A population weakened by war and famine is living in conditions which, even were it vigorous and well-fed, would make resistance to infection difficult or impossible. As infection spreads it becomes harder to deal with, and no European country, not perhaps even an island like Great Britain, can count itself wholly safe if Poland be allowed to succumb. In the third place, there is the claim of humanity. Poland has not brought this misfortune on herself; she is the victim of circumstances for which she is not responsible. She has done, as our authorities in- form us, all within her power to help herself. In helping herself she has greatly helped others; and she deserves not merely their sympathy, but their aid. It should, moreover, be noted that the evil wrought by typhus can- not be measured merely by statistics of mortality. The disease is one which attacks with peculiar severity men in the prime of life. It is thus the breadwinner of the family who is stricken down by death or long- drawn illness, and whole families become a charge on the community through the misfortune of a single member. Even those nations, therefore, who suppose themselves to have no direct interest in the prosperity of Poland and to be in no measurable danger from the spread of the epidemic, may yet, on reflection, feel moved to lighten the load of undeserved misfortune which presses so heavily on those unhappy regions. — Letter from the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, O.M., M.P., making a further appeal from the Council of the League of Nations to the Mem- bers of the League. League of Nations Official Journal, September, 1920, pp. 366-368. America Cannot Claim Isolation from Disease Disease knows no frontiers. The political divisions which man has created are non-existent in its forward march. It sweeps on, regardless of the conventional ports of entry and of man-made regulations. Trains in their transcontinental journeys, ships in their voyages about the Seven Seas, even the atmosphere itself in its restless currents, serve as the medium of travel by which the scourge of one section may reach the health of another. Disease and sickness are world-wide. Both their cause and their remedy are the same in one place as in another. The lessons learned in the tragedy, say, of Poland, may well be the salvation of the United CLEANING UP EUROPE 143 States. The gains of science in its ceaseless struggle amidst the ravages of a disease must be instantly reported to sections still only threatened. What above all is needed is a means first to universalize new methods of prevention and cure the moment they become discovered, and second to assure the cooperation of all states in a concerted attack upon an incipient plague. America can not claim isolation from this world problem. To . . . quote Mr. Davison, "America is just as unsafe as Europe from typhus and the white plague now spreading over the world with lightning rapidity." Every ship that comes to our shores, every immigrant that enters our portals, every home-coming American traveler indeed, may bring the dread disease. We have only one method of insurance, namely, to cooperate with other nations in stamping disease out at its starting point and in spreading knowledge of disease prevention and insulation. It is not enough that each nation of itself have good health laws and protev-.ive machinery. All its good efforts may easily be vitiated by the carelessness of another state in allowing a plague to generate which may sweep over half the world before it is beaten down. The danger of contagion can of course be reduced, but it can never be avoided. The great scourges which have in the past ravaged the world have done so because they suddenly became too powerful for local authorities to handle and set out for wider fields of conquest. — Arthur Sweetser, "The League of Nations at Work," pp. 164-166. Health Maintenance as a World Problem Fighting Diseases at Their Sources Accurate observers noted long ago that influenza in its epidemic form did not constitute an exception to the common rule governing epidemic diseases, but was obviously associated with persons and their migrations. . . . In Eastern Russia and Turkestan, influenza spreads with the pace of a caravan, in Europe and America with the speed of an express train, and in the world at large with the rapidity of an ocean liner; and if one project forward the outcome of the means of inter-com- munication of the near future, we may predict that the next pandemic, should one arise, will extend with the swiftness of the airship. More- over, not only is the rate of spread determined by the nature of the transportation facilities of the region or the area, but towns and villages, mainland and island, are invaded early or late or preserved entirely from attack according as they lie within or without the avenues of approach or are protected by inaccessibility, as in instances of remote mountain settlements and of islands distant from the ocean lanes or frozen in during winter periods. . . . Epidemic diseases in the commonly accepted sense have fixed i n ami RICA'S S i \m>. IN EUR( >PE locttiona the so-called endemic homes oi the diseases. En those homes they survive without usually attracting special attention often over long periods oi time Bui from time to tune, and Eoi reasons no1 entirely clear, these dormant Eoci ol th<' epidemics take an unwonted activity, the evidence ol which Is the more frequent appearance of cases ol the partlculai disease among the native population, and sooner or latei .in extension ol the disease beyond Its endemic confines, rims there are excellent reasons fot believing that an endemic focus oi poliomyelitis [Infantile paralysis] has been established in novthwestern Europe from which the recent epidemit waves have emanated. Similarly, there are excellent reasons for regarding the endemic home ol Influenza to be eastern Europe, and in particulai the border region between Russia and rurkestan. Many recorded epidemics have been shown more 01 less clearly to emanate from that area, while the epidemics oi recent history have been traced there with i high degree oi conclusiveness Prom this eastern home, on intervals usually of two oi three decades, a migrating epidemii influenza begins, moving east ward and westward, with the greatei velocity in the latter direction, Now since the combating oi these two epidemic diseases, when Hi' \ became widely and severely pandemic, is attended with such ven great difficulty and is oi such dubious success, and this notwithstanding the prodigious public health contests which are waged against them, il WOUld seem as il an elloit ol central lathei llian pel iphei al eon trol might i>e worth discussion According to this proposal, an effort al control amounting even to eventual eradication oi the diseases in the regions ol i tu'ii endemic survival would be undertaken, an effort, indeed, not occasional and intensively spasmodic, as during the pandemic ex curslons, but continuous ovet relatively lone, periods, in the hope thai the teed beds, as it were, oi the diseases might be destroyed. rii.it such an effort at the eradication oi s serious epidemic disease may t" - carried through successfully, the experience with yellow fevei evidentlj proves tn attacking that disease, the combat was not put on until its epidemii spread had begun and mini new territory such as New Orleans, Jacksonville ami Memphis, had been invaded; but the attack was made on its .omees al Havana. Panama aiul now Guayaquil, to which endeinu points the extension into new and nenlial tetiitorv had been t i seed i a^ not disregard the essential fact, in bringing tins suggestion forward, that the control at its sources oi yellov* fevei is quite another and probably fai slmplei problem than the control in their endemic foci oi poliomyelitis and influenza it is, perhaps. iuuuvessar\, to go t.u into the reasons whj the lattei would doubtless prove to be far more dim" 'nit oi accomplishment than has been the former. I am not now en gaged in piesenting a plan ol operation 01 proposing that the attempt ai eradication he made immediately Oui knowledge oi all the facts CLEANING UP EUROPE 145 . . . may still be too imperfect for immediately effective action. But the very magnitude of the problem of these otherwise uncontrollable epi- demic diseases invites to an imaginative outlook which, while perhaps non-realizable today, may not, in view of the rapidly advancing knowledge of the infectious diseases, be hopelessly out of reach tomorrow. Nor am I insensible to the labor and cost in money and talent which the setting out of such an ambitious enterprise would entail. But here, at least, is a world problem of such proportions and nature as to invite the participation of all the scientifically advanced countries in a common effort to suppress one of the most menacing enemies of civilized man and of human progress. In proposing to strive for the high achievement, not merely of parrying the blows struck by destructive epidemics, but of rendering them impotent to strike in the future, we may pause for a moment to reflect on the different ways in which peoples react to great calamities, such as those brought by war and by disease. As the results of a great and devastating war, revolutions in governments supposed the most stable may occur; no such result follows on still more devastating epidemics. The recent epidemic of influenza claimed, possibly, more victims than did the great war, and the losses to the world in emotion spent, treasure consumed, and progress impeded are incalculable ; yet, through a for- tuitous circumstance of psychology, from the one calamity the world emerged chastened, perhaps even bettered, while from the other, because of a depth of ignorance amounting often even to fatalism, mankind may largely miss the deep meaning of the lesson. — Simon Flexner, M.D., Journal of the American Medical Association, September 27, 1919, PP- 950-952. Cleaning Up the Tropics Europe in the throes of post-bellum chaos, as evidenced by revo- lutions, political intrigues, piracies, strikes, foul murders, religious tur- moil, promoted by so-called lovers and agents of freedom, has but little time for literary or scientific work, be it medical or other. Hunger reigns and all else is forgotten in the scramble for food. For five years the study of everything of the nature of science has been devoted to producing engines of destruction and to practicing the art of medicine in alleviating the human ailments caused by them. The science of medicine as regards research and the advance of sanitation has had to be dropped, for the laboratories have been emptied of their workers, and investigations set aside for the art of war. Nor is there likely to be, nor can there be, a speedy recovery from this calamity to scientific advancement. In few countries is the machinery available whereby regeneration can be for the moment accomplished. . . In Britain and in the United States of America has it been alone possible to carry on even a semblance of investigation and tropical 146 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE work, apart from observations in the field; and now that the great fight is finished both countries are setting earnestly to work in the sphere of tropical medicine to "make good." The subject chiefly to the fore is the application of knowledge, accumulated during the past twenty years, to the eradication of disease in tropical lands. The pursuit of the subject has assumed an economic interest far beyond anything heretofore in existence. Labor in tropical countries has recently assumed a new aspect. The coolie is of more value today than even five years ago. His wages have had to be in- creased in some cases to double and treble the pre-war scale. Foods and fibre of all kinds coming from warm climates are produced at enhanced price and therefore cost the consumer more. Uncontrolled disease due to deficient hygienic and sanitary measures will foster still higher wages. For the labor market of the world is not inexhaustible, as at one time it was thought to be. Disease lessens the labor available ; it cur- tails the individual power of production, thereby requiring an extra number of laborers to reach the desired end in a given time, involving a greater, perhaps a ruinous, expense in the accomplishment. The French found labor the crucial point in their attempt to finish the Panama Canal. Disease was so rife in the sphere of the canal that it exhausted the available labor supply of the world so that the work could not be finished. For the same reason in every military or ex- ploratory mission in a tropical country that has been undertaken, the excess of laborers required, owing to the ravage of disease, has from time immemorial required a retinue of "camp followers" largely outnumbering the active elements of the force. As an example, it is well known that on the West African coast military expeditional forces have always to engage three times the number of non-combatants actually required for work and baggage carrying, owing to the incapacity arising from infec- tion by guinea-worm alone. And, as in military, so in economic work the number of laborers that have to be employed owing to disease is at a far higher level than would otherwise be required were preventable ailments eliminated from, or even lessened amongst, the workmen's ranks. . . . Granted therefore that the question is focused to the problem of the prevention of disease in tropical lands, how and by whom is that to be accomplished? As suggested above, Europe, indeed the world, is in a state of mental chaos and economic turmoil. Few countries have the machinery, the men, or the money to tackle the all-important prob- lem at present. The United States of America and Britain are the only two available countries and both are ready and willing to take up the white man's burden. During the war, even, scientific missions have been sent out from both countries to investigate, to report, and to deal scientifically with various questions of epidemiology, but only to a limited degree owing to the circumstances of war. Both are, however, CLEANING UP EUROPE 147 now contemplating extended efforts in the prevention of disease. — Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, January 15, 1920, pp. 23, 24. The Great Reservoirs of Epidemic Disease The countries we usually speak of as non-Christian are the coun- tries which form the great reservoirs of epidemic disease — as in plague, cholera, yellow fever, malaria, typhus fever, small-pox and the para- sitic intestinal diseases. So our efforts toward control of these diseases are not limited in their benefits to the countries where the efforts are put forth, but all the world is directly benefited by the elimination of chances of infection in each of these diseases. Take for instance the plague. There have been for ages four cen- ters where the fire of plague has smouldered, occasionally breaking forth in great conflagrations. One center is on the eastern slope of the Himalayas from which the great Hongkong epidemic in 1894 came. The western slope of these same mountains has another center, probably connected with the first. This was the source of the Bombay epidemic in 1896 and the disease is still left in Bombay. The third source of plague exists from about the center of Arabia to Mesopotamia. From this area the Black Sea and Persia were infected. The fourth great endemic area is in the interior of Africa, near the source of the White Nile in Uganda. Each center is the very heart of a non-Christian country. The havoc wrought by plague is hardly to be comprehended in complacent America. Its inroads in India alone since 1892 have been terrible. In 1907 over one million persons died of plague in that country. In the winter of 1910-1911 one of the most virulent epidemics of modern times occurred in Manchuria, the mortality being over 90 per cent of those sick with the disease. Carefully planned preventive measures organized and backed ade- quately have demonstrated the possibility of exterminating plague in these very countries where it is most common. The efforts of the United States against plague in Manila have been so successful that plague has disappeared in that city. There is no good reason why we might not apply similar methods of proved success in these smouldering centers and save untold and uncounted deaths in the future from a preventable disease. — Reginald M. Atwater, M.D., Missionary Review of the World, October, 1919, pp. 751-752. World Sanitation, a Twentieth Century Possibility World-wide sanitation ! The phrase sounds visionary, fatuous, unreal. A few years ago one would have regarded it as impossible of attainment. But great things have happened in the last five years and they are to lead to even still greater. Scientists already can see that world sanitation is not an impossibility. Statesmen and men of business 148 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE are going to regard it as a necessity. In spite of wars, in spite of com- mercial struggles, in spite of political boundaries, in spite of differences in races and language, religion and social customs, there is one thing which is bound to draw the human race together — the desire to conquer disease. The basis of our present hopeful view of world-wide sanitation is that the human race is learning that communicable diseases can be largely eradicated by cooperation, by helping one another. This is true both nationally and individually. . . . Improved means of communication brought cities and nations closer together and in so doing they have speeded up the transmission of disease from one part of the world to another. In early days diseases traveled by caravan ; now they travel by steamship, by railroad, by train, and by automobile. Studies of epidemics in past and present times give effective confirmation of this accelerated spread of disease. The great influenza pandemic of 1918 was perhaps the greatest example of all time that the world is bound in bacterial bonds. . . . War, famine, and pestilence have been the world's great scourges. War has not been prevented, thus far, and whether it can ever be pre- vented remains to be seen. World-wide transportation is gradually preventing famine, by equalizing food distribution. Sanitation can largely do away with the "pestilences that walk in darkness" — for where there was darkness there is now light. The successful fight of the western world against such diseases as small-pox, diphtheria, typhoid fever, and yellow fever shows what can be done in the eastern world against cholera, typhus fever, and plague. Even malaria, which circles the tropics, can be conquered in time, and tuberculosis, the chief cause of death in so many countries, is already gradually declining. The situation is full of hope. . . . It has been recognized for a very long time that certain diseases follow the routes of commerce and travel. The "cholera routes" from Asia to Europe have become famous in sanitary literature. Some dis- eases, like typhus fever, travel over land; others, like plague, travel by water, infected rats spreading the disease from country to country through shipping. Diseases travel as the people travel. This leads to a second opportunity of control, protection of routes of trade, an oppor- tunity already recognized by the nations of the world and crystallized in the quarantine regulations of many countries. An International Sanitary Convention relating to quarantine matters was adopted by the nations of the world in 1903 and has since been revised. It has done much to prevent the conveyance of disease from one country to an- other. A map of the world showing the railroads and steamship lines will illustrate how closely the world is bound together by the ties of com- merce. A hundred years ago almost none of these rapid transportation lines existed. What will transportation be one hundred years hence and CLEANING UP EUROPE 149 what, then, will be the health conditions of the world, unless universal sanitation comes to the rescue? A third principle is that of attacking the foci of disease. We have seen this method illustrated by the attacks against yellow fever in Panama and in certain countries of Central America and South America. One by one strongholds of the yellow fever mosquito have surrendered until scarcely one is left. Yellow fever has been almost obliterated from the western continent. In the same way, by the introduction of water- purification plants in large cities which are centers of travel, typhoid fever in the western world has decreased not only in those cities but in many other places. At present cholera is firmly established at a number of particular spots, notably in India. These hotbeds of cholera should be attacked with vigor. Fortunately we have a new, effective and cheap weapon with which to attack cholera — the chlorination of water. Many eastern world supplies are also potent agencies for the spread of typhoid fever and dysentery. Some diseases amenable to sanitation are so widespread that the problem seems almost hopeless. For centuries malaria has held the Mediterranean lands in its thrall. The Anopheles mosquito has modi- fied the course of civilization. Science knows that malaria can be con- quered. The nations bordering the Mediterranean may once more come to the forefront by controlling the mosquito. The extermination of malaria must of necessity be slow, but it can be done in a century, and a century is not long in the life of the world. Malaria must be attacked at many points, wherever opportunity offers. While the League [of Nations] should endeavor to stimulate pro- grammes of attacks on disease by the strategy suggested, it should, of course, be ready to respond to outbreaks of disease in various parts of the world as revealed by the intelligence service, and this will often involve problems of sanitation. Every such outbreak should be utilized, as far as possible, to secure some permanent sanitary movement. . . . World-wide sanitation is possible, but it will not come until there are sanitarians in every land and climate. The work must be started by men already skilled in sanitation who, in the spirit of the Red Cross, are willing to go from place to place, studying conditions, teaching public health, and inciting communities to utilize the principles of modern science. But each country and each nationality must have its own sanitary engineers just as it must have its own physicians, men who speak the language of the place, who know its people and their habits, its climate and the thousand and one details which comprise what we call "local conditions." Some countries have many competent men ; some countries have so few that they can be counted on the fingers ; some countries have none. Who is to supply this great need for men? The answer is the great universities and technical institutes of the world, with their medical and engineering schools and schools of hygiene and 150 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE public health. In these schools men must be taught the broad principles of public health science, and must be trained in the detailed subjects necessary to make them competent to practice as sanitary engineers, laboratory workers, health executives and the like. — George C. Whipple, Chief, Department of Sanitation, General Medical Department, League of Red Cross Societies, International Journal of Public Health, July, 1920, pp. 38, 39, 45. 53-55- Essential Conditions of Progress It is often said that if all available knowledge about the causes of disease were actually applied the world over, millions of lives could be saved every year. This statement is true, but it may easily mislead. One is likely to infer that enough public health officers and sanitary engineers could usher in a hygienic millennium. But the thing is by no means so simple. The public authorities at best can control wholly or in part only about 20 per cent of the diseases by which people are crippled or killed. Typhoid, scarlet fever, small-pox, and malaria can be either entirely prevented or kept from spreading; but tuberculosis, measles, diphtheria, pneumonia, influenza, and many other maladies are either less perfectly understood or do not respond so readily to control efforts. Valuable as this community protection against contagious diseases is, it must be remembered that about 80 per cent of the menace to life is not dealt with, at any rate directly, by public authorities. The idea of prevention, then, will have limited influence until it is accepted not merely as a government policy but as a guiding principle in individual lives. Education of whole communities and nations, changes in habits of thought, a new attitude toward disease and toward medical service, are essential conditions of progress. — George E. Vincent, Ph.D., LL.D., "The Rockefeller Foundation: A Review for 1920; The Program for 1921," pp. 4, 5- The Spread of Knowledge and Education The experience of man's conflict with disease on a world scale, and over centuries of time, has taught him that there is a general method, and there is a particular method of prevention. The general method includes attention to the universal needs of a healthy life for all men — food, clothing, water-supply, cleanliness, housing, land drain- age, sanitation and public education in hygiene, each in its broadest mean- ing. The particular method is concerned with the application of the specific or technical means necessary to tally with the particular channel of circumstances which conveys the infection — food, water, "carrier" and "contact" in cholera (rats in plague, mosquitoes in malaria and yel- low fever) — or with that which counteracts the virus by inoculation, CLEANING UP EUROPE 151 by vaccine, by anti-toxin or by disinfectant. He only is the wise physi- cian who uses both — first the former method, then the latter. The pre- ventor of famine, the bestower of cheap bread, the irrigator, the land drainer, the true social reformer, the educator — these are the pioneers who, by making the ordinary and daily life of man a better and more wholesome thing, lay the foundations upon which the sanitarian and physician can build. ... Of all means of prevention the spread of knowledge and education is the supreme. There must be continuous and more applied research into the conditions which favor the origins and incidence of all tropical diseases, for their prevalence is a matter of the gravest concern. — Sir George Newman, K.C.B., Chief Medical Officer, Ministry of Health for Great Britain, in Introduction of the "Reports on Public Health and Medical Subjects," No. 3, Plague, Cholera, and Yellow Fever, 1914-1917, p. xv. In the past, medical missionaries have of necessity concerned themselves so largely with the alleviation and cure of disease that time, money and effort have not been available for a large scale prevention of disease. In the past the missionaries who have contributed so much and so untiringly to the betterment of the bodies of men as well as to the redemption of their souls would have been unfaithful to their respon- sibility had they not given all they had to relieve the appalling need about them. In these days of applied statesmanship in the missionary enter- prise it is quite natural that we should begin plans for a comprehensive campaign of prevention of the disease we have labored so long to arrest and cure. The time has come when missionary equipment justifies this new emphasis. Will not the net result of our ministry of healing be greater and more satisfactory if we spend more effort in the anticipation and prevention of disease? Medical missionary effort in the past has contributed much of great value to the present situation. Had it not been for that which the pioneers have done in the past hundred years we should be unable now to organize any plans for the control and prevention of disease. It is this background on which we must build a system of education of the public in health, hygiene and sanitation, collection of statistics of birth, death and disease, organization of quarantine when epidemic disease occurs, construction of sanitary water supplies and sewage systems and a host of other measures calculated to prolong life and make disease less frequent. — Reginald M. Atwater, M.D., Missionary Review of the World, October, 1919, p. 750. CHAPTER XII SHOULD AMERICA SEEK TO INFLUENCE EUROPEAN COLONIAL POLICIES? I. The Present Colonial Situation 1. What and where are the principal colonies of the European nations ? 2. What changes in colonial possessions and outreach were made by the war? 3. What are the major points of controversy with regard to European colonial policies? 4. Is America sufficiently concerned with European colonial problems to justify her taking part actively in European affairs? II. Bearing of European Colonial Policies Upon World Tension 1. How have the European colonies been acquired? 2. What were the dominant motives which led to their acquisi- tion and development? 3. Have the nations been activated solely by a policy of nar- row self-interest in developing their colonies? If not, what other factors have played a part? What evidence of these? 4. What is economic imperialism? To what extent has this been the driving consideration in European colonial adminis- tration ? 5. How does Europe's attitude toward colonies differ from that of the United States, if at all? Does there seem to you to be a difference between the ideals of colonial administration as held by the various colonial powers of Europe? Under which flag would you rather live if you were a European settling in an Asiatic or African or island colony? Under which flag if you were a yellow, a brown or a black man? 6. Wliat difference, if any, is there between the imperialistic policy of European powers as applied to Asia and that applied to Africa? 7. What bearing has European colonial policy had upon inter- national jealousies and wars in Europe? 152 INFLUENCING COLONIAL POLICIES 153 8. In what measure does the title to colonial empire, on the part of European nations, rest upon the possession of superior force ? 9. What, if any, has been the moral justification for Europe's taking forcible possession of the great areas which have been the homes of the darker peoples? III. America's Interest in European Colonial Policies 1. Which of the European colonies are of marked importance to American trade : a. Because they are sources of raw materials? b. Because of their buying power? 2. Are we likely to be able to compete with Europe in respect to the cheaply manufactured products called for by these peoples? What will be the effect upon American trade, if any, of special commercial privileges asserted by the dominant powers in de- veloping colonial areas, both as to selling manufactured goods and in restricting access to undeveloped resources and to raw materials ? 3. Where and how are the colonial policies of European nations most likely to react unfavorably upon America? In discussing this question take into account particularly the effect of these policies upon the growth of democracy among the backward peoples, upon race relationships, and upon religious animosities. 4. Which of these colonies are likely to affect America politi- cally ? How ? 5. If repressive social or political conditions growing out of colonial administration were to lead to revolution or war in outposts of European powers, would America be likely to be involved? If so, why and how? What attitude would you expect the Negroes of the United States to take toward the exploitation or mistreatment of African Negroes by European colonials in Africa? 6. We now remember with gratitude the cooperation given from Europe to the American colonists in their struggle for free- dom. What concern, if any, should Americans have with respect to nationalistic aspirations within the colonies and spheres of influence of present European nations? 7. What effect would vicious or questionable colonial policies be likely to have on the effectiveness of mission work manned 154 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE and supported by American agencies among backward peoples in Europe's colonies? Could the American government legit- imately interest itself in European colonial policies in this con- nection? Why? Why not? IV. Colonial Policies and a New World Order i. What responsibilities, if any, has one nation to another for the character of its colonial policy? Has one nation a right to interfere in the colonial policies of another? Give reasons for your answer. 2. Do you feel that a colonial power may reserve special privi- leges for itself in its colonies? Why, or why not? 3. What evidence is there, if any, of an awakening national con- science in nations having the control of backward peoples? How might a less favorable attitude affect America's welfare ? 4. What are the elements in the mandatory principle, as pro- posed under the League of Nations? Does it represent a new attitude toward backward peoples, or is it merely another name for policies already in effect? 5. What promise, if any, is there of improved government for areas to be administered under the League of Nations man- dates ? 6. Should the mandate principle of trusteeship be applied also to the older colonies? Why, or why not? 7. If the principle of trusteeship is fully accepted, how speedily, if at all, is this likely to do away with the whole system of overlordship of less-favored and backward peoples by the stronger and more advanced nations? 8. To what extent is a spirit of national self-sacrifice and world brotherhood essential if colonization is to be consistent with the new world order? In what ways is it of concern to America, whether Europe develops this spirit in dealing with its colonies and subject peoples? 9. What are the chief changes necessary in the present colonial policies, if a stable world order is to be set up? 10. Where would you expect the altruistic purpose and the economic self-denial to be found which would work to put into effect these ideas of democratic idealism? How could such purpose and self-denial be best utilized in order to secure re- sults most to be desired? INFLUENCING COLONIAL POLICIES 155 V. What America Has a Right to Demand Regarding the Co- lonial Policies of European Nations 1. What attitude should America take toward the commercial exploitation of their colonial areas by European Powers in their endeavor to hasten their own economic recovery? 2. Under what circumstances would one nation be justified in bringing moral pressure to bear upon another for the ameliora- tion of abuses within areas under the influence or control of that other nation, such as forced labor in the African colonies, the opium trade in the Orient, lynchings in the United States, etc. ? 3. Can we, and should we, assume an attitude of neutrality or of indifference when great ethical questions arise affecting the physical and moral destinies of large numbers of people under alien governments? Give reasons for your opinion. Are we ready to acknowledge the principles appealed to as being of universal application? 4. What rights for religious propagandism and missionary en- deavor should America claim within areas and among peoples under European control ? 5. What attitude toward the independence of small nations and of colonial peoples should America take? Why? 6. In what ways, if any, should America take a hand in the colonial policies of Europe? 7. What kind or type of international or world organization would give America the largest possible opportunity for releas- ing in action our altruistic purpose and democratic idealism as these reach out toward backward peoples under European colonial rule. INFORMATION AND CURRENT OPINIONS ON QUESTIONS AT ISSUE European Colonial Policies and the World Tension The Second Era of Vast Colonial Expansion During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the leading na- tions of the world engaged in a remarkable territorial expansion — an expansion with an imperialistic tendency. The age of exploration and discovery which produced a Columbus and a Cortez was reproduced again in an era which gave forth a Stanley and a King Leopold II. Africa was to be to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries what the Americas had been to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Between the 156 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE years 1884 and 1900, France and Great Britain each acquired over 3,500,- 000 square miles of territory in the Dark Continent — an amount equal to the whole of the United States including Alaska — while the Kaiser and the King of Belgium were marking out 1,000,000 and 900,000 square miles respectively for themselves. This expansion, however, was not confined to Africa; it spread to Central Asia, to the Far East, to the Philippines and the distant isles of the Pacific. There was an intimate connection running through the whole movement ; and the activities of Russia in Turkestan and Man- churia, of France in the Sudan and Madagascar, of England in Nigeria and South Africa, and of Germany in East Africa and Samoa, must be carefully studied in order to grasp its real significance. — Norman Dwight Harris, "Intervention and Colonization in Africa," pp. I, 2. Motives Leading to the Control of Africa Today Europe is controlling Africa. No definite policy led her there, and no single motive. If the New Jerusalem has twelve gates by which the nations of the earth may enter, not less varied have been the impulses that flung Europe into Africa. She has not marched in deliberately, she has tumbled in, sometimes landing on her feet, as often falling prone. Commerce has sometimes been her guide, eager for rapid wealth, or new markets for her home productions. Too often commerce has worn a religious grin, saying in the mystic language of the past she would "plant the cross on every headland," and in the blunt language of today, she would teach the natives "the dignity of labor." But honestly and plainly, she wished to make her pockets bulge. Empire has forced Europe in, to defend her trade routes, to pre- serve her hinterland, to guard her frontiers. And let us remember that philanthropy too has compelled her to action. Then she became the unwilling servant of clamorous public opinion which called her to heal open sores, to save helpless people from menacing danger. By whatever gate Europe entered, she is there, and can justify herself only in so far as she fulfils her trusteeship for Africa. — Rev. Donald Fraser, "Christ and Human Need, 1921," p. 37. Superior Force and Colonial Possession The political organisms of Europe, as they existed in 1914, were determined partly by a succession of wars through centuries and partly by the working out of economic laws. The title to virtually all of the colonial possessions of Europe overseas rests on superior force. Euro- pean colonial possessions were gained by the waging of wars. Titles passed from European states who could not defend their colonies to more aggressive European states who ousted the former possessors by fighting. A study of the evolution of Europe into states and of the ex- INFLUENCING COLONIAL POLICIES 157 pansion of Europe outside of Europe is a necessary antidote to the plausibly expressed and glibly repeated programs of politicians and partisan writers for remaking the map of Europe and the rest of the world. When one comes to appreciate the influence of economic factors in determining political boundaries and colonial expansion, wars appear most often as results rather than causes, and conflicting national propa- gandas are seen to be the efforts of rival traders to extend market areas. — Herbert Adams Gibbons, "The New Map of Asia," pp. 540, 541. Britain and the Races of the Middle East The relations between Englishmen and the races of the Middle East, Arabs, Jews and Egyptians, will in all probability determine the future relations between Eastern and Western civilization. If these relations develop on the lines of racial antagonism, or racial subjection, or if they result in a revival of religious prejudices and religious ani- mosity, not only will trouble ensue for Britain as an Empire, but the possibility of European and Asiatic civilization assisting each other to- wards peace, solvency, and progress, will be endangered. Nothing can exaggerate the importance of the problems now before us in the Middle East; even the problems of Central Europe are tem- porary, and comparatively local, when compared with what may be the permanent results of a wise, or unwise, policy in any one of the Near Eastern countries. The whole of Europe and the whole of Asia are involved, and upon us lies the chief and greatest responsibility; and upon the way in which our trust is fulfilled we shall be judged by his- tory. — W. Ormsby Gore, Nineteenth Century and After, August, 1920, P- 2 37- India's Administration and the World's Unrest None can understand the foreign policy of Great Britain, which has inspired military and diplomatic activities from the Napoleonic Wars to the present day, who does not interpret wars, diplomatic con- flicts, treaties and alliances, territorial annexations, extensions of pro- tectorates, with the fact of India constantly in mind. . . . In the fifteen provinces of India under direct administrative control, and ruled by British law, live two hundred and fifty millions, mostly Aryans. The protected states of central India, whose rulers have man- aged to preserve their thrones and a semblance of independence, contain seventy millions. . . . India is the foyer for political unrest throughout Asia, the repercussion of which is influencing profoundly the entire world. Interwoven with the course of events in India are the problems of Persia, Central Asia, Siberia, and China. Within the limits of India, seventy million Mohammedans proclaim their inability to remain in- different to what is going on in the Mohammedan world. — Herbert Adams Gibbons, "The New Map of Asia," pp. 4, 40, 41. 158 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE European Power and the Backward Peoples European eminent domain is the doctrine of the Ucbermensch put into practice. Races, believing in their superiority, imposed by force their rule and Kultur upon inferior races. European eminent domain has no justification, unless one believes either (a) that our particular idea of civilization is so essential to the world's happiness and well- being that it must be built up and spread and maintained by force ; or (b) that "superior races" have the right to exploit, or at least to direct, the destinies of "inferior races"; or (c) that the bestowal of material blessings upon people is adequate compensation for denying them the right of governing themselves. — Herbert Adams Gibbons, "The New Map of Asia," pp. 554, 555. Colonial Policies and Economic Imperialism Importance of International Economic Policy There is no statesman or writer in any European country today who would contest the political axiom that the power of the State can be and should be used upon the world outside the State for the economic purposes of the world within the State. It is almost impossible to visual- ize the total effect which the acceptance of this axiom in the last sixty years has had upon the world. It has turned whole nations into armies, and industry and commerce into weapons of economic war. It has caused more bloodshed than ever religion or dynasties caused in an equal number of years, when gods and kings, rather than commerce, were the "greatest of political interests." It was the chief cause of the war which we have just been fighting, and which in Asia men already talk of as the first act in the passing of the civilization of Europe. It has proved infinitely stronger than the other two great currents in nine- teenth-century history, democracy and nationalism, for everywhere in Europe democratic have yielded to economic ideals, and nationalism, wherever it has appeared, has applied itself most violently to economic ends. Within Europe the form and method of national commerce and industry have been moulded by it, and it has built the barriers and set the limits of all international intercourse. These are only some of its more beneficent results upon the lives of Europeans, but its effects have been almost more violent outside Europe. For it has converted the whole of Africa and Asia into mere appendages of the European State, and the history of those two continents, the lives which men live in Nigeria or Abyssinia, in India and Siam and China, are largely deter- mined by the conviction of Europeans that "commerce is the greatest of European political interests." It is a safe prophecy that the importance of international economic policy will not decrease, but will increase, during the next fifty years, INFLUENCING COLONIAL POLICIES 159 and that the history of the twentieth century will be very largely de- termined by the international economic policy which follows the war. It would be foolish to attempt to prejudge the question whether that policy will be moulded only by passion and instinct, or whether it is amenable to the control of reason. But if policy and man's destiny are in any way to be subject to the control of his reason, then certainly we want to know what external economic ends we desire the State to pursue, which of those ends the State can attain, and what means are available for their attainment. — Leonard Woolf, "Empire and Commerce in Africa," pp. 10, II. Exploiting Asia and Africa for Europe's Profit The policy of Economic Imperialism includes colonial policy and the acquisition by the Europeanized State of exploitable territory, the policy of spheres of influence, and the policy of obtaining economic control through other political means. These various kinds of policy are all distinguished by one important characteristic; they all aim at using the power and organization of the European form of State in the economic interests of its inhabitants in lands where the European form of State has not developed. I call it imperialism because the policy always implies either the extension of the State's territory by conquest or occupation, or the application of its dominion or some form of political control to peoples who are not its citizens. I qualify it with the word economic because the motives of this imperialism are not de- fense nor prestige nor conquest nor the "spread of civilization," but the profit of the citizens, or of some citizens, of the European State. . . . Between 1880 and 1914 the States of Britain, France, and Germany each acquired an immense colonial empire outside Europe. These em- pires were empires in the literal sense of the word : they were founded by conquest, sometimes openly acknowledged, and sometimes disguised under various synonyms for civilization. The territories acquired were incorporated, usually against the wishes of their inhabitants, in the European State, and the inhabitants were subjected to the autocratic rule of the European State. The territory acquired by the British State in this way was about 3^4 million square miles, and the population sub- jected to its rule was about 46 millions. The French State acquired 4 million square miles, and a population of over 50 million; the German State 1 million square miles, and a population of 15 million. . . . The European State has gone to Nigeria, the Cameroons, and the French Congo, to Tonkin, the Yangtse Valley, and Kiao-Chau, impelled by certain economic beliefs and desires. Only by turning back the pages of history with some care and minuteness can we discover exactly what in each case those desires and beliefs were. Then when we have done this, we must again look forward and with the same care and minute- ness examine the economic results to see whether they have confirmed the 160 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE beliefs and fufilled the desires. We shall be concerned with the details of history, trade, industry, and finance. And details too often become merely the fog of history which is used to obscure from human beings the inevitable consequences of their own thoughts and actions. Our in- quiry will be useless unless we manage to maintain through these details some vision of the problem as a whole. The real vision is one of mil- lions of Europeans suddenly applying to millions of Asiatics and Africans the power and machinery of the modern European State. The problem and the inquiry cannot be confined to a question only of economic ends and means. On the coasts, in the forests, and along the rivers of Africa, State meets State, and the effect of the clash of those meetings falls both socially and economically on the populations of those States far off in Europe. Those populations through their policy, their desires and be- liefs, are sowing in African forests, but they reap sometimes in Euro- pean cities, and sometimes even upon European battlefields. We cannot therefore ignore the possibility that by sowing dragons' teeth in Africa we may reap a most bloody crop of armed men in Europe as well as a most lucrative rubber crop in Africa. In other words, we cannot isolate the question of what we desire to get in Africa and Asia from what we desire to get in London. Paris, and Berlin. But further, it is not possible entirely to leave out of the vision, much as we may wish to do so, the millions of Africans and Asiatics to whom the power and machinery of the modern European State is being applied for economic ends. The effects of that application are themselves economic and social and po- litical, and they therefore have a reflex economic, social, and political effect upon the populations of the European State. We cannot isolate the question of what we want to get in Africa and Asia entirely from the question of what we want the African and Asiatic to get. — Leonard Woolf, "Empire and Commerce in Africa," pp. 19, 24, 25, 45, 46. The Policy of Grab in Africa Africa is one of the finest fields for the study of economic imperial- ism, of the interaction between European policy and commerce in non- European countries. ... In Africa, for the most part, Germany, France, and Britain took what they wanted openly, and the territories and peoples, which they took by the right of conquest, they incorporated openly and at once within their empires. In the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Siam, and China, the real nature of the application of the European State's power for economic ends is continually concealed under the most intricate systems of diplomatic fictions. We have sovereign States which are no longer States or sovereign, independent rulers who are neither rulers nor independent, a network of "protectorates," "spheres of influence," "perpetual leases," "peaceful penetration," "concessions," "diplomatic pressure" or "advice," all of which are designed to conceal the powerful, but often clumsy, movements of that Leviathan, the European State, INFLUENCING COLONIAL POLICIES 161 in its encroachments upon Asia. ... In Asia, the European State, in order to further its economic interests, had to destroy a political and social system which even the European realizes is a "civilization" of sorts, and which the Asiatic sometimes stubbornly regards as just as civilized as, or even more civilized than, European civilization. ... In Africa there was no old or intricate civilization to resist the European, and the gulf between the African and the European is so immense that it has been accepted as a postulate, not only of policy but of morality, that for the good of the world the "uncivilized" must be placed openly and completely in the power and under the government of the "civilized." There was therefore nothing either to resist the force or to disturb the conscience of the European when once he had got the belief that he ought to subdue and govern the African and had conceived the desire to acquire the African's territory. Occasionally, as in Abyssinia, Uganda, and Dahomey, the African had developed an organization of govern- ment which the European had to recognize as a "kind of civilization," but it was always so "barbarous and cruel" that it had to be destroyed by force, and in all Africa only the Abyssinian proved capable of suc- cessfully meeting force by force. ... It is true that the question whether Africans should be ruled by Frenchmen, Germans, Englishmen, Portu- guese, Belgians, or Italians has caused the most difficult and dangerous international situations, but the policy pursued in nearly all cases, and by all the States concerned, has been comparatively simple and direct. It is the policy of grab. — Leonard Woolf, "Empire and Commerce in Africa," pp. 53-55. Jeopardizing Future International Peace The African question has not been settled either for white man or black man by the partition of Africa among four or five European States. If the same economic beliefs and desires continue to govern our policy and shape our actions as they have done in the past, the social results within Africa, and the international results outside it, can be predicted with considerable certainty. The States which possess territory there will attempt to reserve it for economic exploitation by their own subjects. . . . Meanwhile the citizens of non-possessing States who see them- selves apparently shut out of rich markets and denied access to the stores of raw materials will, as in the past, refuse to believe that God has chosen only four or five peoples to bear the white man's burden of lu- crative imperialism, and will determine to take the first opportunity of upsetting the status quo. International relations will again, uncon- sciously perhaps, be firmly established on a foundation of rivalry, cu- pidity, aggression, fear of aggression, and force. The land-owning nation, knowing that it won and holds what it owns solely by the right of force, will also know that the landless nation will, when the oppor- tunity presents itself, challenge that ownership by appealing once more 162 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE to force. The peace of the world will depend upon a shifting balance of power, or rather upon the calculations of a few statesmen and soldiers as to whether the balance has at last shifted to their side. For if any- thing is certain in international politics, it is that you cannot base inter- national relations in one quarter of the world upon right and law and cooperation, and in another quarter upon economic hostility and force. You cannot combine the ideal of a League of Nations in Europe and America with the ideals of economic imperialism and Machtpolitik in Africa and Asia. If the power of the European State is to be used to promote the economic interests of its citizens, the final test of power or force will not be made in Africa and Asia, but upon the old graves in the battlefields of Europe. — Leonard Woolf, "Empire and Commerce in Africa," pp. 355, 356. America's Interest in European Colonial Policies Equality of Commercial Opportunity for All If you believe that foreign markets are not and will not be in the future an important factor in American prosperity, you will not agree with what I write here. But if you think that fostering American commerce is the business of our State Department, and that the foreign offices of other nations make trade supremacy the chief goal of their diplomacy, a study of the map of the world will give the motive for mak- ing the independence of small nations a corner-stone of our foreign policy. Before 1914 the world was pretty well fenced off against our commerce — monopolies in French colonies, preferential tariffs in British and German colonies, and the European powers in Africa and Asia struggling against one another for protectorates and spheres of influ- ence. They avoided wars by compromises, but these agreements froze out all outsiders. We did not care, because our trade with Africa and Asia was trifling, not worth making a fuss about. We could not upset the status quo of 1914. We had no right to attempt that. But what we could have done and should have done at Paris was to stipulate that no other nation should increase its colonies and protectorates and spheres of influence, as a result of the war we helped to zvin, without giving guaranties for equality of American trade. Better still, defense of the independence of countries like Egypt and Persia, a change in whose status was attempted because of the war, was the best policy for our Government to follow. Idealism and practi- cal interests coincide here ; if we prevent little states from being in- corporated in the political system of European powers, we preserve for American capital and American commerce equality of opportunity in these countries. — Herbert Adams Gibbons, Century Magazine, March, 1921, p. 656. INFLUENCING COLONIAL POLICIES 163 European Colonial Policies Provocative of War The use of the State's power in Africa to support the economic interests of its citizens and to acquire African territory has poisoned international relations at their source during the last forty years. . . . The fact that this policy more than once brought the world to the verge of a European war, and was a very material cause in pushing it over the brink in 1914, is perhaps not the most important point. The important point is that so long as policy is dominated by this hostility and competition of economic imperialism, and the power of the State is controlled and directed by the profit-making desires, there can be internationally no stability or security, no real harmony or cooperation. European policy in Africa may not have been the immediate cause of the Great War, but you cannot have a policy such as Europe pursued in Africa between 1880 and 1914 without great wars. — Leonard Woolf, "Empire and Commerce in Africa," p. 321. Exploitation of Foreign Subject Peoples A few Western nations wield political and economic control over the vast areas of Africa and Asia which contain the chief supplies of vegetable and mineral dyes, cotton, rubber and various other metals, foods and textile materials. The business firms favored by these Powers, acting separately or in agreement, will be able to organize the required quantities of cheap submissive labor on the spot for the plantations, mines, and the collection and preparation of the exportable commodities. The railways and roads, the docks and shipping lines will be in their hands, together with the commercial and financial apparatus for export- ing the tropical and other products to the home countries, where bodies of well-paid, short-houred and contented Western workers, employees of the great combines, will by scientific manufacture transform them into serviceable shapes for consumption. If the hitherto untapped and un- cultivated resources of Africa and Asia, South America and the Pacific Islands can thus be placed at the disposal of the business syndicates of the Western industrial countries, capitalism may be able to "square" labor in these countries, by making it a partner in a great sweating- system which will substitute the exploitation of foreign subject peoples for that of the Western working classes. — J. A. Hobson, "Problems of a New World," pp. 183, 184. Colonial Policies and a New World Order The Mainspring of the World's Activities The best way in which the strong can help the weak is by making them strong enough to help themselves. The white races are not strong because they are white, or virtuous because they are strong. They are 164 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE strong because they have acquired, through a long course of thought and work, a mastery over Nature and hence over their weaker fellow- men. It is not virtue but knowledge to which they owe their strength. No doubt much virtue has gone to the making of that knowledge — virtues of patience, concentration, perseverance, unselfishness, without which the great body of knowledge of which we are the inheritors could never have been built up. But we late-born heirs of the ages have it in our power to take the knowledge of our fathers and cast away any goodness that went to its making. We have come into our fortune ; it is ours to use it as we think best. We cannot pass it on wholesale, and at one step, to the more ignorant races, for they have not the institutions, the traditions, the habits of mind and character, to enable them to use it. Those too we must transmit or develop together with the treasure of our knowledge. For the moment we stand in the relation of trustees, teachers, guides, governors, but always in their own interest and not ours, or rather, in the interest of the commonwealth of which we and they, since the opening of the high seas, form an inseparable part. It has often been thought that the relation of the advanced and backward races should be one purely of philanthropy and missionary enterprise rather than of law and government. It is easy to criticize this by pointing to the facts of the world as we know it — to the existing colonial empires of the Great Powers and to the vast extension of the powers of civilized governments which they represent. But it may still be argued that the question is, not Have the civilized powers annexed large empires? but Ought they to have done so? Was such an exten- sion of governmental authority justifiable or inevitable? Englishmen in the nineteenth century, like Americans in the twentieth, were slow to admit that it was. . . . But in both cases they have been driven to accept it by the inexorable logic of facts. What other solution of the problem, indeed, is possible? The progress in knowledge and in the control of their environment made by the civilized peoples has, in fact and inevitably, led to their leadership in government also, and given them the predominant voice in laying down the lines along which the common life of mankind is to develop. If we are to look for the mainspring of the world's activities, for the place where its new ideas are thought out, its policies framed, its aspirations cast into practical shape, we must not seek it in the forests of Africa or in the interior of China, but in those busy regions of the earth's surface where the knowledge, the industries, and all the various organizations of government and control find their home. Because or- ganization is embodied knowledge, and because knowledge is power, it is the Great Powers, as we truly name them, who are predominantly responsible for the government of the world and for the future of the common life of mankind. — Alfred E. Zimmern, "Nationality and Gov- ernment," pp. 146-148. INFLUENCING COLONIAL POLICIES 165 A Sacred Trust of Civilization I like to trace the hand of God in history. It is easier to so do when the gathering years give us long vistas, and we see how God is working His purposes out. In the story of Africa you can see God's protecting hand over this helpless child of His. There was a time when national conscience was not roused as it is today to recognize in some measure, that men must carry Christian principles with them, in trade and empire. Then the interior was closed by ignorance and dread. But where we touched the Continent we defiled it. There we found the slave-trade, we flooded the land with fire-arms, we besotted it with rum. What we touched we cursed, but God protected His Continent by closing it. Then came the Evangelical Revival and the agitation of Wilberforce and his company. By the time that men were beginning to recognize the sa- credness of human personality in whatever skin he may be clothed, there came the era of the great explorers, led by David Livingstone . . . ; and the interior was revealed, a Continent not barren but rich in land and people. After this came the sudden scramble for Africa, followed by the Berlin and Brussels Treaties, which preserved the people whom Europe was to administer from some of the evils which were ruining the old colonies, from slavery, from fire-arms, from ardent spirits. And the contracting nations undertook to give free opportunity to education and to religious worship. The great war has caused an- other shuffling of responsibility in Africa, and large tracts of the Con- tinent have changed hands. But national conscience has been awakened still further, and not only are the old evils banned and religious liberty guaranteed, but the mandates declare that "the well-being and develop- ment of these peoples is a sacred trust of civilization." Now we must not rest until this clause is the guiding principle of all the old colonies which Europe administers, as well as of the man- dated territories. Everything depends on how we fulfill the trusts that, through various causes, have come into our hands. — Rev. Donald Fraser, "Christ and Human Need, 1921," pp. 37, 38. By Blessing Africa, Bless the World The main features of the new Africa should be, whether within or without the mandated areas : Relationship to European or American Powers — Trusteeship. Fundamental Article of Administrative Policy — No color bar. Sovereignty — Vested in the inhabitants. Land Policy — Secure and adequate tenure for every native tribe. Labor Policy — Complete freedom of contract. Commercial Policy — No discriminating barriers reposing upon race or color. Franchise Policy — "Equal rights for all civilized men." 166 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE Education Policy — Elemental for all and open door for the highest. Religious Policy — Freedom for missionaries ; by example and pre- cept encouragement to Christian faith. This policy of nine points applied to Africa would sweep away the miasma of injustice which is everywhere afflicting relationships and re- tarding progress, and would give to the "Dark Continent" the very breath of a new life, and by conferring such blessings upon Africa the whole world would itself be blessed. — John H. Harris, "Africa: Slave or Free?" pp. 241, 242. No Exploitation or Racial Discrimination A group of nations such as the British Empire should live together like a family in which there would be no thought of the exploitation of weaker races or of discrimination against any peoples on purely racial grounds, still less of victimizing any of them by traffic in injurious prod- ucts, such as alcohol or narcotics. The single aim of the stronger and more advanced members of such a family should be to assist the progress of the others in prosperity, good government, freedom, and every other good thing. — From an appeal to the British Government by Christian Leaders in Church and State in Great Britain, Church Missionary Re- view, March, 192 1, pp. 74, 75. A Moral Mandate from Humanity Henceforth the temporary government of one people by another must be regarded as a sacred trust for the welfare of the governed. In past times peoples were regarded as the spoil of the war. Individuals and nations alike could be enslaved. The League of Nations proposes to give a mandate to certain Powers which must render a strict account of their stewardship. But all other possessions are under a moral mandate from humanity. Colonies or possessions must be no longer fields for selfish exploitation, but for development toward self-determination. The searchlight of full publicity will be turned with all its fierce glare upon America's administration of the Philippines, upon Japan's responsibility in Korea, and upon Britain's relation to India, Egypt, and Ireland, upon the colonies of France, the administration of Turkey and the Near East, the welfare and integrity of China. Neither America, Britain, nor Japan should be allowed to plunder or exploit China, because she is for the moment helpless. Fair protestations and platitudes will no longer hood- wink the public. The world is concerned for justice, not only in the former German colonies, but in all colonies. Has the war made us Pharisees and have we believed all our own propaganda? Can any honest man deny that there are other colonies and possessions governed more unjustly and selfishly than German colonies ever were? As Abra- ham Lincoln said, " You cannot fool all of the people all of the time." INFLUENCING COLONIAL POLICIES 167 All the exploited peoples must henceforth have their place in Every- body's World. — Sherwood Eddy, "Everybody's World," pp. 18, 19. Public Opinion and the Doctrine of Mandates Governments which take over any uncivilized territory should take them over as a responsibility and under certain conditions, and should be under an obligation to prove to the Council of the League of Nations, year by year, that they are fulfilling these obligations. And roughly, these obligations would come under two great heads. First of all to show that the revenue raised in the country is spent for the good of the country, and next to show that while you are promoting the ma- terial development of those at present undeveloped countries in Africa, you are not resorting to any methods which go to cause hardship to the population or injury to your own character. It is much better that the development of these countries should go slowly than that you should resort to such things as forced labor in order to make the development go fast, and I would like it to result, that this doctrine of mandates should be made a reality by the public opinion of the different countries, and should be a new guarantee against some of the abuses which have taken place in previous years in uncivilized parts of the world. — Viscount Grey, Address at a Conference on International and Missionary Questions, Glasgow, January, 1921. Relations Between Advanced and Backward Peoples The government of dependencies is a trust. Dependencies there- fore cannot properly be treated as the preserve of the ruling Powers. All other nations have an equal title to trade and communicate with them, subject to whatever restrictions are necessary to the welfare of the inhabitants. As the world is knit more closely together the principle of the open door will become of increasing importance. The responsible nation must obviously be free to impose whatever dues on foreign com- merce may be necessary to the prosperity of the dependency itself, but it clearly should not take advantage of its position of trust to take for itself privileges which it withholds from others. The problem of the relations which should subsist between the advanced and backward peoples is thus seen to be one of immense com- plexity. As years go by and the backward races advance it is likely to increase in urgency and in difficulty. The attitude in which the nations approach it is therefore of vital importance. . . . Mankind is one great family. Its members are in every stage of development, but the conduct of one section reacts continuously and directly on every other. Under present conditions, the most civilized members have no option but to make themselves responsible for the maintenance of peace, order, and liberty within the earthly habitation in which all reside. — P. H. Kerr, M.A., "International Relations," p. 181. CHAPTER XIII HOW IS THE WORLD DIFFERENT SINCE THE WORLD WAR? I. Is the World Better as a Result of the World War? 1. What were some of the declared aims for going into the war? What reasons did the various nations give? 2. During the war, in what ways did Americans expect the world to be different, if the war was won? 3. Can we count on new ideals and a new conscience in world affairs, now that the war is over? II. Looking the World Situation Squarely in the Face 1. Do some nations seem to you to show an increase, and others a decrease in the spirit of imperialistic nationalism since the world war? How would you group the principal nations in these respects? On the whole did the war discredit or tend to stimulate the imperialistic spirit? 2. Is there more or less democracy in the world today than before the war? What is the basis for your judgment? 3. Do the European nations seem to you to be projecting their after-the-war life and activities on a selfish or on an unselfish basis ? 4. Do you find nations today transcending national barriers and interests more or less easily than before the war? Do strong national interests make for or against a better world? 5. How are the facts as to the size of standing armies today as compared to the days before the war? Is militarism on the decline or on the increase in the world? 6. Many felt that the world war was a war to end wars. Do you believe that this confidence was justified? 7. The war permitted expression to long repressed nationalistic ambitions on the part of oppressed peoples. Upon the whole has this outburst been for the good of Europe and of the world? Has the creation of various small nations tended to hinder or to promote better international relations? 8. "There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. 'Tis an illusion which 168 IS THE WORLD DIFFERENT? 169 experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard." — Washington's Farewell Address. — Has there come since Wash- ington's day a new recognition of the essential interdependence of nations, with a consequent justification of "real favors" be- cause of enlightened self-interest, or does Washington's prin- ciple still hold as continuingly valid? 9. Some say there has been such a reaction from the idealism of the war, that only selfish appeals will call a response. What do you think? 10. As you think over the world situation, what things lead you to be more optimistic, and what lead you to be more pessimistic, than you were before the war? Is there an outlook for a better world order? III. America's Place in Developing a New World Conscience 1. To what extent was Europe under obligation to America for idealistic leadership before the war? Have the same ideals which led America to enter the war been operative in her post- war and peace-making duties? How vital was America's con- tribution ? 2. At the present time is America the rallying point for re- actionaries or for progressives in international affairs? Why do you think so? 3. Does or does not America's standing among the nations justify her in attempting to seek to develop among the nations more worthy world relations? 4. What steps might be taken to create a new conscience in international affairs among American citizens? What can the average American citizen do? Is the trouble with the average citizen one of knowledge, or one of purpose? How would you go to work to develop a finer purposed citizenry as well as one better informed with respect to international matters? 5. What part, if any, should America take in promoting better relations among other nations and a more worthy conscience among these nations with respect to world affairs? INFORMATION AND CURRENT OPINIONS ON QUESTIONS AT ISSUE Is the World Better Since the War? The Greatest Upheaval in History The World War, which ended formally with the Treaty of Ver- sailles, was the greatest political and economic upheaval in recorded lyo AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE history. None of the convulsions and revolutions of the past, not the break-up of the Roman Empire, the Crusades, the Turkish and Mongol irruptions, the Saracen conquests, the discovery of America, the Napoleonic wars, not even the Black Death, touched so many peoples and so large a portion (indeed, it was practically the whole) of the habitable globe. In the ebb of this cosmic wave it is natural to ask ourselves whether finer structures will not be builded upon the wind- swept and water-worn wreckage. Humanity, we feel, should emerge from an ordeal so terrific nobler, purer, wiser, better. The Old World having broken down rather badly, it seems that there ought to be a New World, with all the latest modern improvements. Let the dead past bury its dead. It is for us, purged by sacrifice and suffering, to set our faces to the future, and to turn from the hatreds and prejudices, the obsolete barbarisms, the clumsy expedients, the spiritual dullness, which led us to calamity. It is natural ; and in this, at any rate, there is nothing new. Men and nations, escaping with their lives from a dan- gerous malady, are usually in the repenting, reformative, and on the whole, cheerfully expectant, mood. This is the common sequel to a great war. It is felt that the dreadful experience must not be repeated. The "war to end war" has been fought ; never again shall civilization be guilty of a sin so stupid and so savage. Pacifism grows popular, and the soldier is pushed into the background as an unseemly anachro- nism. . . . Let our vision of the New World be chastened. We have not made a sudden break with the past, and its inheritance is with us, whether we choose to disclaim the legacy or not. Our international perplexities, and our social disorders, have geographical, economic, ethnological, and historic origins, from which we cannot cut ourselves loose at a stroke. Every age has its own burdens ; and when we get rid of some that have long weighed upon the shoulders of humanity we find them bowed under a new load. But also each has its own special agencies and instruments ; and in this of ours we have one, beyond the reach or imagination of our predecessors, in the modern development of applied science. . . . The New World will have its own problems to face, and gradually, and in one fashion or another, it will resolve some of them. But do not let us imagine that it can create an earthly paradise, wherein we shall fleet the time pleasantly, without effort and without strife. . . . The New World will only be the Old World, modified, matured, and, we hope, amended ; but still a world of conflict, of strenuous effort, of duties often irksome, of constant struggle against evil and dangerous forces, against materialism, selfishness, and greed. Before men and nations there will still lie obstacles and impediments that cannot be overcome without fortitude, endurance, self-sacrifice, and vigilant dis- cipline. All that is worth saving in the Old World came that way. For IS THE WORLD DIFFERENT? 171 the New World also is there any other? — Sir Sidney Low, in "Is It a New World?" pp. 98, 99, 105, 106, 107. The War Has Worsened Mankind Turn where one will, one finds only that the war has worsened mankind. Those who speak of the heroic virtues which are born on the battlefield, which spring, like the Phoenix, out of the ashes of war, are uttering the most stupid claptrap. The dominion of darkness has spread over Europe, and a slimy progeny of cruelty, of bestiality, of insensibil- ity, of egoism, of violence, of materiality, has crawled into the light of day — a noisome brood, of which it will be long before we can dispos- sess ourselves. — Sisley Huddleston, Atlantic Monthly, May, 1920, p. 594. Already a New World Certainly it is to be a new world ; and our wisdom is to understand, and to throw our whole strength into, the new creation. That demur and hesitation would be our ruin. To drift back would undo us. With a strong faith, and as clear a vision as we can obtain, we must march forward. It already is a new world. . . . Though it cannot come into being at a stroke, and the birth pangs are prolonged ; though France in her natural anxiety is too fearful as yet to embrace the remedy, and America in her splendid isolation hesitates to embark on the troubled waters of European politics, the word has gone forth, it is penetrating all lands and all classes. The differences of nations are in the future to be settled by law, not by force ; the armed forces of the world are to be employed to police the world, not for mutual aggression and national ambition. It is a new world struggling to be born. — Rev. R. F. Horton, D.D., in "Is It a New World?" pp. 115, 116. The Struggle Between Materialism and Idealism Watch those signs in different countries of the struggle between idealism and materialism : bear in mind that your part in your own country is to use all your influence to induce your own country to respond to the ideal side in order that you may strengthen it in other countries, and if you can do that then you will be doing something to help that which . . . [is] essential to make a better world — getting the different countries together. No country can make a better world alone. In the leading countries of the world at this moment, you have a struggle between idealism and materialism showing itself. The question of which will win, which will dominate the policies of the countries, de- pends enormously in every country on the response which is made from other countries. — Viscount Grey, Address at a Conference on Inter- national and Missionary Questions, Glasgow, January, 1921. 172 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE Humanity's Corporate Will Yet to Be Born You cannot call the age a new one if it reproduces so many of the vices of its predecessor ; the only thing to do is to try patiently and painfully to improve here and cut off there, hoping almost against hope that humanity, which alters so little through the ages, may learn lessons from past experience, and discover how best to heal its own wounds. We cannot improve society at large, unless we begin with improvement of the individual ; the responsibility rests on each of us to cultivate our own garden and get rid of weeds. From a wider point of view we can look at large institutions as helpful in the cause of reform. Some will ask us to trust to Science and realize facts ; others bid us to turn once more to the ancient founts of inspiration, and give the Christianity of Christ a fresh trial. But the one thing we must not do is to fold our hands and say that "the struggle nought availeth." Despair cuts the sinews of effort and closes the battle before it has properly begun. Nor must we abandon our old ideals. It is true, of course, that they have not turned out so efficacious as we had hoped, and their partial failure is a potent source of discouragement. But perhaps we have taken a wrong view of their value. Ideals are not forces. They have no dynamic energy unless they are conjoined with a will. Aad the corporate will of humanity still waits to be born. — An Editorial in the London Telegraph, reprinted in "Is It a New World?" pp. 277, 278. The Inexhaustible Heroism of Mankind I believe that the world's future rests upon those who find it still possible to believe. Those only are traitors today who despair. For on what have we to build? We have a knowledge that we never had before of the inexhaustible heroism of which mankind is capable. We now know that men, ordinary human, average men, at the best time of their lives, between eighteen and forty-five, are ready to go out and die for their country, which has in many cases done so tragically little for them; or for a great ideal, the sort of thing that it seemed almost hopeless to appeal to a few years ago. Who dares to despair of hu- manity in the face of such a truth as that? It is not a thing we theorize about any longer ; it is not a desperate hope to which we forlornly cling. It is a solid fact. We can get millions of men to throw away every- thing, either to defend their country or for something greater still, for a great ideal. And on that we have to build. — Miss Maude Royden, "World Brotherhood," p. 242. Capacity for Sacrifices That on due occasion all classes can yet answer to the call of human need, the self-forgetfulness of war-time has made manifest. If that spirit can be kept alive and turned to the larger ends of world-wide IS THE WORLD DIFFERENT? 173 good, it will soon bring a new day upon the earth. Whether the new order desired by multitudes will now appear, depends finally upon whether those multitudes have sufficient capacity for sacrifice to send new life coursing through the exhausted veins of humanity. — Harry F. Ward, "The New Social Order," p. 384. The Wail of Pessimism Gives No Guidance Is it nothing that in our day, out of the distress and anguish, there has come to birth an actual League of Nations, organized for the ex- press purpose of preserving the world's peace? True, our pessimists are not pleased with it. It is still weak and puny, and may be snuffed out of life. The attitude of America toward it may decide its fate. Nevertheless, whatever its destiny, it is the most significant and tre- mendous happening of history. It was born of desperate need; but the age that seeks to realize the vision cannot be a time of unmitigated gloom for the moral life of man. Obviously we are not going to get much help from our pessimists in making this new organization of human society a reality. Out true attitude surely should be one of reso- lute endeavor to do the best we can in our distressful situation, and encourage each other in good. If ever there was a hopeful sign in our world of strife, it is the practical attempt to get the nations together, in order to eliminate war. No one who has sought to speak to the soul of man can ever be satisfied with attainment. At the best, achievement lags lamely after aspiration. I too could make an indictment of my generation. Only I feel that courage and patience are more needed today than any other qualities. It would not be amiss, either, if we showed a little sympathy for the men to whom we have given the settlement of such vast problems. They too, like us, are doubtless often groping in darkness. It is good to have an alert public opinion to correct and check, and, if need be, to chastise them; but the mere wail of pessimism gives no guidance. To sit in the scorner's chair is the easiest, and on the whole the most futile, pose to assume. — Hugh Black, Atlantic Monthly, February, 192 1, p. 267. Cooperation to Temper Competition Before 1914 there were those who believed that war would prove a stimulating and ennobling influence on nations. But the reverse has happened. The lessons of the war have not been learned, and if this war has failed to teach these lessons, what else can teach them? This is why thoughtful men are despondent, and why some comfort must now be sought for, some remedy against the recurrence of the calamities we have suffered must be devised. Every civilized nation, since the fortunes are inextricably involved 174 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE with the good or evil fortunes of every other, is bound for its own sake to take an interest in the well being of the others, and to help them, in whatever way it finds best, to avoid or to escape from disasters. The greatest of disasters is war, greater in its consequences than an earth- quake in Sicily or a famine in China. . . . The prevention of wars in the future is for the interest of every country that holds a great place in the world and is proud of its historic past and of what it has already done for mankind. In the State, the better feelings have had less power, because men do not feel toward other States as they feel toward their neighbors and acquaintances. If that sentiment, coupled with the feeling that all nations are the children of one Father in Heaven, were to lay hold of the peoples of the world and make them regard the peoples of other countries as fellow citizens in the commonwealth of mankind, would not the attitude of States toward one another be changed for the better? Would not the sense of co-operation temper the eagerness of com- petition and reinforce the belief that more is gained for each and all by peace than has been gained or ever will be gained by war? Each of us, as individuals, can do little, but many animated by the same feeling and belief can do much. What is democracy for, except to represent and express the con- victions and wishes of the people? The citizens of a democracy can do everything, if they express their united will. What all the nations now need is a public opinion in every State which shall give more thought to international policy and lift it to a higher plane. — Viscount Bryce, Address at the Institute of Politics, Wil- liams College, New York Times, August 27, 1921. Facing the World Situation Squarely Learning How to Achieve Brotherhood The story of the crimes committed against our common brotherhood in the lifetime of this generation is past all telling. Europe today stinks and reeks with the odor of follies and brutalities which have degraded our common humanity, and left the peoples sore, angry, and ashamed. The outlook for the apostles of internationalism is as dark as it ever was. And yet at least it has been shown beyond all contradiction that nothing but internationalism will ever make the life of the human race a noble or even a tolerable thing. At last we know the worst about every other conception. At last we are beginning to see that if the whole enterprise of humanity on this little globe is not to end in shame and defeat we must learn how to achieve brotherhood. — The Rev. A. Herbert Gray, M.A., D.D., "The Christian Adventure," pp. 48, 49. IS THE WORLD DIFFERENT? 175 Booty and the Faint Allurements of the Ideal Let us admit the truth, however bitter it is to do so for those who believe in human nature. It was not Wilson who failed. The position is far more serious. It was the human spirit itself that failed at Paris. It is no use passing judgments and making scapegoats of this or that individual statesman or group of statesmen. Idealists make a great mistake in not facing the real facts sincerely and resolutely. They be- lieve in the power of the spirit, in the goodness which is at the heart of things, in the triumph which is in store for the great moral ideals of the race. But this faith only too often leads to an optimism which is sadly and fatally at variance with actual results. It is the realist and not the idealist who is generally justified by events. We forget that the human spirit, the spirit of goodness and truth in the world, is still only an infant crying in the night, and that the struggle with darkness is as yet mostly an unequal struggle. Paris proved this terrible truth once more. It was not Wilson who failed there, but humanity itself. It was not the statesmen that failed so much as the spirit of the peoples behind them. The hope, the aspira- tion for a new world order of peace and right and justice — however deeply and universally felt — was still only feeble and ineffective in comparison with the dominant national passions which found their ex- pression in the Peace Treaty. Even if Wilson had been one of the great demi-gods of the human race, he could not have saved the Peace. Know- ing the Peace Conference as I knew it from within, I feel convinced in my own mind that not the greatest man born of woman in the history of the race would have saved that situation. The great Hope was not the heralding of the coming dawn, as the peoples thought, but only a dim intimation of some far off event toward which we shall yet have to make many a long, weary march. Sincerely as we believed in the moral ideals for which we had fought, the temptation at Paris of a large booty to be divided proved too great. And in the end not only the leaders but the peoples preferred a bit of booty here, a strategic frontier there, a coal field or an oil well, an addition to their population or their resources — to all the faint allurements of the ideal. As I said at the time, the real Peace was still to come, and it could only come from a new spirit in the peoples themselves. — General the Right Honor- able Jan Christian Smuts, Premier of the Union of South Africa, New York Evening Post, March 2, 1921. At a Turning Point in History We stand at this moment at one of the turning points in the world's history, and the next few years may well be more critical than even the years of war. Mankind must now take either a big step forward or a big step back. For, as the issues of the immediate future begin to define i;6 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE themselves it is becoming increasingly evident that everywhere the lists are being cleared for one supreme contest, between those who believe selfishness and force to be the dominating factors of life and those who take as their aims justice and brotherhood. This issue is becoming evident in the internal politics of many states and in the industrial world, and, since the nations are now bound together as never before, it must be hammered out in every country, and in every sphere of life. With these internal conflicts the conflict on the international plane is closely bound up, but here the issues at stake are most stupendous, and there is less possibility of compromise. So long as any considerable number of nations are determined on warlike policies the rest are almost com- pelled to follow suit. Here the world as a whole must choose one way or other. The issues of the years immediately in front of us are so over- whelming and the moving forces of the world so vast and apparently so intangible that the efforts of any individual with regard to them seem well-nigh futile. But great things are linked with small and only as individuals are faithful in the small things can advance be made possible. In the fight which is now opening out every man will be forced to take his stand on one side or the other. Neutrality or unconcern means dis- aster. — Bolton G. Waller, "Towards the Brotherhood of Nations," pp. 200, 201. Historical Perspective Stimulates Hope Whoever looks back three or six or nine centuries cannot doubt that in the civilized communities as a whole men's habits and moral standards have risen. Outbursts of crime and sin recur from time to time, but they come less frequently and are visited with a sterner con- demnation. That the knightly virtues of courage and honor have suf- fered no decline is evident. The spirit of the citizen soldiers who in 1914 came willingly to give their lives for a cause, in which the fortunes of mankind as well as of their own countries seemed to be at stake, shone forth with a light brighter than in any former war. In this some consolation for many sorrows may be found. No government demands so much from the citizen as Democracy, and none gives so much back. Any free people that has responded to the call of duty and come out of a terrible ordeal unshaken in courage, undimmed in vision, with its vital forces still fresh and strong, need not fear to face the future. The statesmen and philosophers of antiquity did not dream of a gov- ernment in which all men of every grade should bear a part : democracy was for them a super-structure erected upon a sub-structure of slavery. Modern reformers, bolder and more sanguine, called the multitude to power with the hope and in the faith that the gift of freedom and responsibility would kindle the spirit self-government requires. For IS THE WORLD DIFFERENT? 177 them, as for Christian theologians, Hope was one of the Cardinal Virtues. Less has been achieved than they expected, but nothing has happened to destroy the belief that among the citizens of free countries the sense of duty and the love of peace will grow steadily stronger. The ex- periment has not failed, for the world is after all a better place than it was under other kinds of government, and the faith that it may be made better still survives. Without Faith nothing is accomplished, and Hope is the mainspring of Faith. Throughout the course of history every winter of despondency has been followed by a joyous springtime of hope. Hope, often disappointed but always renewed, is the anchor by which the ship that carries democracy and its fortunes will have to ride out this latest storm as it has ridden out many storms before. — Viscount Bryce, "Modern Democracies," Vol. II, pp. 669-670. World Plunderers or World Builders Let us not look to force. Force is against us, and there is no sillier spectacle than the sight of the weak appealing to force against the strong. We have no force. We have only the power of putting facts and ques- tions before the public opinion of the world. Then the world — that is to say, chiefly, the electorates of the great nations — will be able to say whether they wish their governments to do justly or unjustly, to be world-plunderers or world-builders, whether all mankind are to be cit- izens of the "one great city," or whether some are still animals . . . which may legitimately be hunted for their skins. — Professor Gilbert Murray, Century Magazine, May, 1921, p. 38. Learning the Business of International Control Autocracy has now passed, and democracy has entered to rule the world. Open diplomacy is its demand, and, within certain limitations, who is to deny it the right that the real ruler, the people, should know? The new governing democracies are generous. They mean what is right. They are honest. They wish for peace. They abhor war, but they are most imperfectly informed. In every country you will find the people, even in the democracies, holding that their country is always right. For them there is only one side to every question, and that is their country's side. They must learn that the idea of justice is not only justice to them- selves, but justice to others; that liberty is not only that they shall be free, but that they shall be glad that others are free. They must learn that, in international affairs, just as in family affairs and neighborhood affairs, respect for the feelings and the preju- dices of others is a condition of having one's own feelings and prejudices respected. i;8 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE They must become internationally minded ; they must learn that it is not what a nation does for itself, but what a nation does for humanity, that makes it great. They must learn that in God's good world the way to sustain the heights of prosperity is not to pull down others and climb over them, but to help all up together to united success. This will be a long, slow process. It is not merely difficult to as- similate knowledge into millions and millions of minds of all degrees of capacity, but it is the slow, difficult task of molding character, for it is a matter of character as well as a matter of knowledge. Human nature does not change, but human standards of conduct change, and among the plain peoples of the earth, if we are to attain peace and justice, standards of conduct must change. It is a matter of growth. How can this be done? How can this mighty change be brought about ? Well, by education ; but how to educate those who are blind, who cannot see? The deaf who cannot hear, how can they hear? . . . In all my public experience I have never known the interest to be so great in questions of right and wrong, of expediency and of wisdom in international affairs, as it is today. If the democrats of the world are to control international affairs they must make it their duty to learn the business, for without such comprehension they will run sadly amuck. — The Hon. Elihu Root, Ad- dress at the Institute of Politics, Williams College, New York Times, August 27, 1921. America and a New World Conscience Getting Trade or Giving Peace Many have been vociferous in condemning certain individuals in the war and at Paris. But now it is our turn. Is America going to sit as the international Dives, with the beggared world knocking with gaunt and bony hands at our gates of brass? We have said that others have failed us, but is America now going to fail the world? ... Is our aim merely to get the world's trade or to give the world peace? — Sherwood Eddy, "Everybody's World," p. 256. Furthering International Constructive Action We can bring peace and prosperity to the world by furthering international constructive action, and by substituting it for the methods of cutthroat policies. No European government could take the chair at the board where nations must meet to frame a policy of reconstruction. Our conditional abstention so far has proved disastrous to the world and harmful to our interests. No settlement can be reached if the chief creditor is absent from the board. If we evade what is our duty, we fail, as a nation, at a crucial moment in the world's IS THE WORLD DIFFERENT? 179 history. Our power and our prestige lay this obligation upon us. . . . — Atlantic Monthly, April, 1921, p. 534. The Merchant and Diplomatist as Missionaries We must realize that the merchant and the diplomatist are mission- aries wherever they go, spreading the service either of God or of the devil across the lands ; and we must begin our attempt at the influencing of the ends of the earth in our own offices, and beside our own firesides and cradles, from which these missionaries are to go forth. — John Kel- man, D.D., "Some Aspects of International Christianity," p. 143. Hope for a World Redeemed from War The world's wealth for the world's wants: unless this maxim can in some effective way be realized, no such escape has been made from the pre-war policy of greed and grab as will furnish a reasonable hope for a world redeemed from war — a world clothed and in its right mind. Is it not the larger and the longer hope and interest of America to live as a great partner in such a society of nations, rather than to live a life of isolated prosperity, perhaps the sole survivor in the col- lapse of western civilized states? — J. A. Hobson, "The Morals of Eco- nomic Internationalism," p. 67. Ideal Achievements Involve Practical Goals The war proved that the world-life was so emphatically one that you could not leave a half of it pagan and Christianize the remainder. The Christian forces, therefore, may not run away from the full task of Christianizing our entire civilization. Else the Kingdom of God perishes. . . . There is no more signal way, by which this positive Christian con- quest of the world can be set forward just now, than by making sure that we carry over into the tasks of peace these greatest ideal achieve- ments of the war. . . . — the rare idealism with which America came into the war; the deepening sense for millions of men of the supremacy of the intangible values ; the unexampled extent to which men volun- tarily carried their cooperation for a great cause ; the demonstration on a world scale of the capacity of men for sacrifice ; and the resulting new revelation of common men, with its new basis of democracy. . . . Every one of these great achievements is itself a challenge to in- dividuals, to communities, to institutions, to classes, to the whole nation, to preserve it, to apply it, to fulfil it. For spiritual values like these can truly go on only as they are incarnated in human lives. Moral and religious education has here ... a supreme opportunity. These ideal achievements all involve certain definite practical goals. They mean, in the first place, that there is just one way in which America can be true to her own highest achievement, and that is by 180 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE "carrying on" along the line of that achievement now ; by showing now a like idealism, a like unselfishness, a like willingness to take her full share of world responsibility. . . . These great ideal achievements mean, also, that the forces of right- eousness can count on the permanent power of the ideal sacrificial appeal to men; that they are not, therefore, to make the mistake of pitch- ing their appeal too low ; that, on the contrary, they are to see that what men want from the ideal forces, from the Christian Churches, is not easy terms or "sissy" tasks, but a great worth-while program and a man's job. Men know, too, that this cannot be without cooperation of a kind and on a scale that rivals the marvelous cooperation of the war. The in- dubitable fact, moreover, that spiritual values are always personal sug- gests that the churches themselves must never forget that even the churches, as institutions, are means, not ends; that they are made for the highest service of men, not men for them; that they are justified only by their fruit in personal lives; and that they should in themselves illustrate that brotherhood of free and reverent personalities which is the goal of human progress. — Henry Churchill King, LL.D., "A New Mind for the New Age," pp. 186-189, 191, 192. The Cause of the Future The building of the better world will for some of us mean tasks which are overwhelming, and sacrifices from which we might well shrink. Some must go out into the dark places of the earth, and as educators or civil servants, traders or missionaries, spend their lives in unceasing toil and discomfort working with and helping forward a backward race, which may show little gratitude in the end. Others must be ready as statesmen or journalists to speak the truth to which men do not wish to listen, to stand for causes which they will laugh at, to be accused of lack of patriotism, to spend their lives misunderstood and vilified by their fellow countrymen. Some must be ready to bear mone- tary loss rather than accept gain from what would hurt brethren whom they will never see. All must be ready to strive for what in the years before us may seem a hopeless cause, to fight in what may seem a hope- less battle already lost. For it is possible, nay likely, that the years im- mediately ahead will be bitterly disappointing to any who hope for a rapid reconstruction. Against the warnings of men best qualified to speak, against the dictates of justice and of right, the nations are still pursuing policies economically unsound and morally wrong; and as many of our friends have paid by their lives for the mistakes and crimes of earlier statesmen, so may many more of this and the next generation have to pay for the crimes and follies of the statesmen of today. We may see Europe or the world follow the wrong road for twenty years with another world-war at the end of it. Another world-war may in IS THE WORLD DIFFERENT? 181 fact prove necessary before men learn their lesson. If this be so, if the world definitely choose the wrong road, will we be ready to choose the right? Will we be ready to continue to fight in a battle where we can never hope to see victory, fortified only by the knowledge that it is God's battle and that the cause we stand for is the cause of the future? — Bolton C. Waller, "Towards the Brotherhood of Nations," pp. 186, 187. The Remedy for Europe All Europe is sick and broken, materially, morally, spiritually. You [Americans] see from the outside; I, from within. Europe, with all her civilization and pride, is sick at heart, on the verge of perishing. Your soldiers will have the same tale to tell you: the peasant in Europe is a beautiful soul, but his leaders, the learned, have misled him. They made the world war and are now preparing another. War is in their spirits. . . . "It is much better to have a gram of good-will than a kilogram of knowledge," a Montenegrin has said. Charitableness has perished in Europe. You are giving us bread and clothing. But if you should feed only three million bodies, there would be only three million war-ma- chines. Give us also more of your spirit. — The Right Rev. Nicholai Velimirovich, D.D., Bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church, quoted in the Boston Evening Transcript, February 12, 1921. CHAPTER XIV WHAT CAN AN AMERICAN DO ABOUT IT? I. The Helpless Feeling of the Average American i. What things seem to make it difficult for the average Amer- ican to know where to take hold in playing his part in America's relation to Europe? 2. Are these questions so difficult that the average American has no right to hope to have an opinion ? Must he pass the questions on to experts to be handled? What right, if any, has the or- dinary citizen to opinions and convictions on international questions ? 3. What sources of information do you find most reliable? Which do you distrust ? How can one determine the reliability of a publication or a source of information? Why is it so difficult to get reliable information? 4. Suppose an ordinary citizen had a clear conviction regarding some question on America's relation to Europe, what, if any- thing, can he do to make his opinion effective? 5. If a citizen of average ability came to you saying he was genuinely concerned about certain European questions and asked you to suggest how he might help, what suggestions could you give him? What can the average American do about it? II. How Public Information and National Policy Regarding European Affairs Is Being Determined 1. To what extent does the national election give an opportunity for the true expression of public opinion? Did or did not the election in 1920 register America's wishes regarding European relations ? 2. In what ways do election campaigns make great issues clearer, and in what ways do they tend to make them more confused? 3. What methods are open to the average citizen for influence on congressional action? Appraise their effectiveness and their true worth. 4. Number the following in the order of importance as methods and agencies of influencing public opinion and national action : 182 WHAT CAN AN AMERICAN DO ABOUT IT? 183 The Daily Press. The Pulpit. The Public Schools. Public Lectures. Commercial and other Con- ventions. The American Legion. Chambers of Commerce. Weekly Journals of Opinion. Monthly or Quarterly Mag- azines and Reviews. Books of Scholarly and Sci- entific Value. Rotary Clubs and other sim- ilar organizations. Foreign News Correspond- ence and Agencies. Propaganda pamphlet and leaflet literature. Public Forums and Assem- blies. Legislative Bodies. Utterances of leading Public Men. Moving Picture Theatres. Poster and Bill-board Adver- tising. Political Campaigns. 5. Is public opinion on international questions at present a democratic expression of the real thought and judgment of the people, or does it reflect propagandist views of special groups who for one reason or another seek to mould this opinion to particular ends? What is the basis for your opinion? 6. What are the most effective channels for making the public opinion felt? 7. What, if any, new channels or methods are needed as regards international questions if American opinion and action is to be democratically determined and expressed? III. Possibilities Open to the Average American 1. Which of the following seem to you worth using as methods to help form American public opinion and action with reference to European problems and affairs ? Talking matters over with your neighbors and friends. Writing letters to the newspapers. Letters and telegrams to Congressmen. Participation in public forums and gatherings for discussion. Voting. Joining the army. 2. How effective and real is public opinion in determining Amer- ica's course of action? What can the average citizen do to help form it? 3. Even if no immediate opportunity for action seems available does it or does it not seem worth while and important to be- come informed on these questions? Why? SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CHAIRMAN OF THE DISCUS- SION GROUP OR FORUM The questions at the "beginning of each chapter were planned for use in the discussions of the general problem of the chapter. There are manifestly more questions than can be used in any single discussion, so the leader or chairman will need to select those which seem most pertinent, revise them, add others of his own — in short, make up his own list of ten to twenty questions. In his preparation for conducting the discussion, the chairman should note the general order of the questions. Usually the ques- tions are divided into three general sections. Even where there are more sections, the same general plan has been followed. The first section is headed variously as follows: Issues Facing America America's Concern for the Distress in Europe The Present Situation Present Problems in Anglo-American Relations, etc. The questions in this section are intended to bring out the actual situation America is facing, and to make more specific and vivid the problems America faces. Questions of this sort will be found valuable to introduce the discussion. The next general division is headed variously as follows : Considerations Bearing Upon America's Answer Information Essential to an Intelligent Discussion of the Questions Considerations Bearing Upon America's Course of Action Principles Determining Our Action, etc. These questions deal with such information as is necessary for an intelligent discussion of the problem, and they also give a basis for the consideration of the various viewpoints held at present as to the solution. Care must be taken to select these questions and state them so that there will be more than the mere giving of in- formation. There should be comparison of points of view and dis- cussion back and forth as to the reasons for various suggested solutions. The leader should see to it that contrasting points of view have fair presentation even though he does not agree with certain of these viewpoints. The purpose of this section of the dis- cussion is to get the necessary information and the various view- 184 SUGGESTIONS FOR CHAIRMAN OF GROUP 185 points regarding the solution of the problem so fully discussed that there is an intelligent basis for reaching a conclusion. The third section in each of the chapters is headed variously: America's Answer to the Question of Isolation America's Obligation What America Should Do About the Debt America's Course of Action America's Attitude The purpose of this section is to head up the discussion in some united opinion or conviction of the group as to the attitude or course of action America should take and as to the personal atti- tude the members of the group wish to take on the main problem. A conclusion of this sort is highly desirable, and if sufficient time is given, even a large forum will think and discuss its way through to some united conviction or convictions. Nevertheless, the dis- cussion will not be considered a failure if it does not so result. The questions are very complex and difficult and some of them will require years for solution. If the forum discussion has resulted in a clearer understanding of the issues involved, and has made the group more intelligently critical of suggested solutions, it will have been worth while. Any person who has gone through such a process will read more intelligently, will be less swayed by prejudice or propaganda and will be a more discriminating voter and citizen. Thus the questions follow a general plan as follows : I. Problem. Questions to make the issues in the main prob- lem clear and vivid. II. Solution. Information necessary to the intelligent dis- cussion of the problem and current opinions suggested for the solution of it so that members of the group may discuss the problem in the light of the facts, and with as much help from experience as possible, and with the major viewpoints held clearly before them. III. Action. This represents the conclusion the group comes to both as to personal attitude or action, and as to the attitude or course of action of America on the problem. The actual carrying out of the conclusion reached will take place through cooperative move- ments in the community or the nation, and through ■the new alertness and greater intelligence of the group members as citizens, and through their part in in- fluencing public opinion and action. In the reference material in each chapter headed "Current Opinions and Information on the Questions at Issue" will be found 186 AMERICA'S STAKE IN EUROPE quotations on each section of the questions and with somewhat the same general headings as those in the questions. These quotations are selected with the idea of introducing the absolutely essential information and of representing opinion held by any considerable group in America. The data can be introduced in the discussion by special assignment to members of the forum for report at the proper time, by making assignment for general reading and depending upon the forum members giving voluntarily in the discussion the material they have gained through their reading, or by special report by the chairman. Of these methods the first two are most useful because the less part the chairman takes in the discussion, the better. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE The leading weekly, monthly and quarterly magazines and reviews are rich in materials bearing on particular aspects of the various problems raised in "America's Stake in Europe," and on certain chapters little is to be found outside of periodicals. For access to articles in current magazines, see the "Readers' Guide" and the "International Readers' Guide," to be found in almost every public or college library. No single book covers this whole field of discussion. The "Statesman's Year Book" (N. Y. : Macmillan, $7) will give essential facts with respect to European countries and their colonies. Frances Kellor's "Immigration and the Future" (N. Y. : Doran, $2.50) is of notable worth for the chapters on Im- migration. For American-British Relations, A. G. Gardiner's "The Anglo-American Future" (N. Y. : Seltzer, $2) and Owen Wister's "A Straight Deal or the Ancient Grudge" (N. Y. : Macmillan, $2) will be useful. Coningsby Dawson's "It Might Have Happened to You" (N. Y. : Lane, $1.25) bears closely on the discussion of atti- tude toward Germany. Of the titles on Russia perhaps Samuel Gompers' "Out of Their Own Mouths" (N. Y. : Dutton, $2), Ar- thur Bullard's "The Russian Pendulum" (N. Y. : Macmillan, $2), and H. G. Wells' "Russia in the Shadows" (N. Y.: Doran, $1.50) will help as much as any. On the question of colonial policy probably Herbert Adams Gibbons' two books, "The New Map of Asia" and "The New Map of Africa" (N. Y. : Century, $3 each), together with Leonard Woolf's "Empire and Commerce in Africa" (London: Allen & Unwin, 20s.) will offer most help. Parts of "Is It a New World?" (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 7s. 6d.), a re- print of a discussion by numerous writers which appeared in the London Telegraph in 1920, would prove stimulating in the con- sideration of questions raised in Chapter XIII. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: jim onrj PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATIOI 1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS !l II II I 007 705 480 7