V W ^ ( 1^17 7 I D 525 .R67 Copy 1 THE GERMAN WAR ITS MORALS AND ENDS By SAMUEL RUSSELL WASHINGTON 1917 PREFATORY NOTE This article was written shortly after the outbreak of the German War. It has been amplified by interlineations, insertions, and ad- ditions which account for any lack of sequence in its structure. April 30, 1917. Copyright. 1917, by Samuel Russell / m-i 1917 'O)CI.A4G9040 > <•> THE GERMAN WAR ITS MORALS AND ENDS FROM AN AMERICAN VIEWPOINT If the German advance on Paris had heen accomplished, the whole world would now know that the army entry into France was not pri- marily I'or defense, but was essentially an expedition of premeditated plunder and conquest. The world is well agreed as to the international wrong of the entry and presence of the Germans in Belgium. Had Belgium, indeed, with English money and French engineers, built defensive works on her German frontier as high as the defenses of Helgoland, it would not have given Germany the slightest justifica- tion, in either morals or law, for her perfidious violation of Belgium's neutrality. But what shall we say of the rights and morals of the Germans in France ? Surely the national and territorial rights of France are as valid against unprovoked aggression as are those of Bel- gium. And we should remember that France stands united, con- tained, and resolute in the defense of lier country against the tres- passer ajid invader. For her there will be a heritage of gloiy and honor for all the time to come. France was not guilty of any act provocative of the present war. She scrupulously withheld her troops from the frontier until the initial hostile acts upon the part of Germany. And at the break of war the French objective was neither Belgium nor Luxembourg, which were legal barriers against belligerents, but the German frontier in the Vosges countn'. If the motive for the French movement towards Alsace was revanche, the motive for the German movement through Belgium tow^ards France Avas greed and aggrandisement. And re- vanche is assuredly a higher motive than greed. Revanche is not wholly unrelated to justice, while greed runs only to pillage, piracy, and plunder. French revanche, moreover, was essentially a fine and chivalrous sentiment which of itself would not have eventuated in war. With Germany rested the issue of peace or war. Germany chose war. And this devtcher Krieg, in German morals, is a legitimate and proper business operation, which not only justifies itself, but all acts whatsoever which are expedient or plausibly necessary for its effectual prosecution. The rape of France was the moral and material basis of the industrial wealth of Germany. That military expediency re- quired the seizure of the paths which converge on Paris is the German reason for the ruin she has wrought in Belgium. All that Prussia has she has taken with the sword. Prussian policy and philosophy are an interpretation of the historical experience of the Prussian State, which has taken no account of the rights or relations of other states. And (3) 4 THE GERMAN WAR so the German Krieg has become the traditional method of German acquisition and aggrandisement. Indeed, hriegen in German col- loquial speech denotes precisely this. And what does Germany want? She wants to make war and have other nations remain neutral, while she slays and destroys where she will. This is all that Germany asked of Great Britain, of France, of Russia, and of her quondam ally, the kingdom of Italy. Germany has not in good faith advanced one just reason for her waging of war. Her real reason is the prosecution of her premeditated plan to throw Europe into chaos for the purpose of adding to her territorial domains l)y the wreck and slaughter of her neighbors. This war is an atrocity made in Germany. It lacks even the ele- ments of a fair game with its seditious spies, incendiary bombs, and submarine torpedoes by which Germany has pushed her ubiquitous nose into the affairs and security of other nations until she has made of herself an international offense. Do the Germans think by these means to cower and conquer the nations? Of course they cannot do it. They are only laying up for themselves a store of wrath and eon- tempt that justly or unjustly will be visited upon their childrens' children, and froim which they may only be redeemed by a repudiation of the creed and the craft of those who prepare war and contrive offen- sive engines of death and devastation. There will be a new mind in Germany by the time the cripples she has made in this war have dis- appeared from her sight. For the gentle German there will then ])e no more of glory in the Sieges Alee. The only excuse advanced by Germany for choosing war which is at all adequate as a justification for her belligerent trespasses, is that Germany was surrounded by a world of enemies Mdio had avowed her destruction. And in the indigenous and radical tongue of the Ger- man, uncorrupted and unmollified as it has been, by the language and comity of Eome, an enemy is literally a fiend to be hated and de- stroyed. The Germans have certainly become fiends in their enmity toward the nations against which they have made war. And this fiendish animus, which seems to be a natural project of the German conscience and imagination, is by them freely ascribed to those na- tions which as belligerents are opposed to Germany in the present war. As I heard one simple and sincere German put it: '^Sie vwJlm die deutsche Sprarhe ganz vernichtenJ" It is true that the German grunts, and that his guttural speech has no consonance with the tongue of any other nation, but this does not justify the lie that the European powers were in a coalition to promote offensive measures for the de- struction and partition of Germany, which lie has been reiterated by Germans in all degrees, from Kaiser to Knecht, until they seem to be- lieve it to be the truth. And it is for this lie that Germany pro- fessedly wages this atrocious war, and fills eartli and air and sea with fiends who wield the implements of death and ruin. The Germans have made of war a religion, the professors of which for forty years have stood in rostnim and pulpit as the preceptors of the people. The whole people, in all degrees, have thus been impregnated with a culture of brutal materialism. The crime of Germanv is the crime of the THE GERMAN WAR 6 German race. It may make of the Kaiser a scapegoat, but the ini- quity put upon him is the iniquity of the nation. It is to be hoped that this false philosophy will die with the present generation of Ger- mans. It cannot be dissipated by exposition or moral suasion. It will die only with those who profess it. It is an untoward condition rliat the biggest bigot* in Germany are professors in the universities. Let the Germans sit on the fatherland. No other nation wants any part of it. But it must be remembered that Schleiswig, Posen, and Lorraine are not proper parts of the German fatherland. Indeed, the military problem of this war is to drive the German army back to Germany. To the German militarist, Belgium has become the stake in this German game of blood and murder. But Germany must not be permitted to hold Belgium for ransom or to enlarge her borders by war. The Germans say that they have won Belgium by blood. Let them, then, hold it by blood uutil the blood run out. ' For if Ger- many be permitted to hold by convention that which she has taken by force, there will be no territorial security for any nation except that of major force and arms. The German conscience is perfectly ad- justed to the morality of war as a lawful status between nations, but is converted to none of the rules which relate to war as a lawful status. The German is insensible to blows. The German does not ratiocinate in terms which are common to the community of civilized nations. German Macht may, therefore, be impressed with neither reason nor terror. It yields only to superior force. The German government has yet to learn that the German, as he goes out into the lands of other nations to settle or sojourn, should respect and sustain the established governments of the lands where he would settle. He cannot cari'y his KoiserUfhe allegiance into new countries and rightfully enjoy 'the liberty and securitv of settlement that have been his in tlie British dominions and elsewhere in the civil- ized world. The Germans must keep the Kaiser, his KuUur, Krupps, and PoIiM' in the fatherlanrl. The maintenance by the German government of seditious spies and depredatory agents in foreign coun- tries is a grievous wrong against tlie people of German nativity and descent who have made their homes and allegiance in such countries. No right of the German state was threatened or challenged prior to the war. Her every right was freely accorded. Germany's com- merce was expanding on every sea, and was as free as the commerce of Holland and Denmark. Neither Holland nor Denmark cares how many ships of war England marshals in her navy, yet every battle- ship that Germany builds and eyerj soldier she arms is a cause of dread and terror to her neighbors. There is a saying that Britannia rules the waves, but in justice it should also be said that Great Britain, in her police of the seas has, in contemporarv times at least, and under the normal status of peace, upheld the right of every nation to the freedom of the seas, and there is no nation, not excepting Germany, which has any real apprehension that Great Britain will ever use her naval power to make war for the destruction or restriction of the mari- time liberties and rights of other nations. Great Britain's police of the seas has been a beneficent and unrequited service to the world. 6 TBE GERMAN WAR Indeed, the nations know that Great Britain is worthy to be trusted with power; but there is hardly a government in Europe, Asia, or Africa that can or will or dare trust the imperial government of Ger- many. There is no field of tolerance in America, Asia, or Africa for German imperial politics. And there is assuredly some adequate cause for this other than the devilish einhreisungs diplomacy of Eng- land. Great Britain has held Gibraltar, Malta, Aden, and Singapore in effectual trust for the maritime liberty of all nations. And if Great Britain presently held Heligoland and Gallipoli, and controlled the estuary of the Elbe, the Kiel Canal and the Dardanelles would be as free and secure to the world's lawful maritime trade as are the Suez Canal and the Straits of Malacca. In the midst of German cant about the freedom of the seas, the greatest maritime need of Europe today is the neutralization of the Kiel Canal and the Dardanelles. It is an altogether salutary condition that the seas should not be free to any nation that unjustly makes war and disturbs the peace of the world. Germany's commerce before the war could not have been more free if she had within her navy all the dreadnaughts that plow the 36*38, and her commerce would be equally as free if she had none. But the Germans claim that the British were envious of the commercial and industrial progress of Germany. It is only just to say however, that whatever her misgivings as to the expansion and extension of German trade, England would never have made war for any such cause. Great Britain has not in either historic or contemporary times wronged Ger- many. There is no justification for the desperate hatred of England with which the German people have been so insidiously impregnated, except that England has interfered with Germany's war. It was only to stay the destructive hand of Germany in Belgium and France that Great Britain intervened, as was her interest and her right. And for this cause the Germans rage and chant their liymn of hate and say : "Wir haben nur einen, einzigen Feind. Goff, strafe England." The Germans seem too desperate to understand that the good will of the world is worth more for the extension of their commerce than the hate of England, the port of Antwerp, and all the glory that could be won in an hundred battles on the plains of Poland. Before the declaration of the Congress, tliat the United States was in a state of war with Germany, the most hopeful sign for an ultimate peace was the anxiety then manifested by the Germans for some justi- fication in the free opinion of America. It is greatly to be regi'etted, however, that the German political mind and conscience is so peculiar that it seems to afford no common point of understanding or articula- tion with the enlightened political conscience of America. And the Germans in America could render no greater service to their bellig- erent brethren than to partake and reflect American opinion in the fatherland and to convince their brethren that American opinion is not engendered by envy, hate, and jealousy, or because the German cable has been cut, as is assiduously asserted in Germany. This American opinion is not prejudice; it is a reasoned and impartial judgment upon the truth and the fact. America has been neutral in THE GERMAN WAR 7 fact, but America has not been neutral in opinion.* She has refrained from partisan acts, but she has not stilled the processes of thought, of conscience and of reason. Neutrality in opinion is but an euphonious phrase. It denotes a solecism. A neutral opinion is no opinion at all. America, in response to the dictates of her conscience and her interests, has come into the war at the critical and cardinal hour. She will see the Entente through, and share in the eternal glory of the liberty and peace which will be won for all the people of the earth. The Germans in America seem to be sincerely in favor of peace and against war ; but they are not mindful that the immediate provocation to war and the necessary protection of our country was found in the *The following aiticle was written at the time of the German outbreak In 1914. It was in the pres.s on August 6th. It is given here as an ex- ample of spontaneous opinion in America upon the x-eeeipt of cable dis- patches, that Germany had violated the neutrality of Belgium, Luxem- bourg, and Switzerland, and had killed unoffending natives of Holland, near Masstricht. The references to Switzerland and Holland it develops were not true, but this does not qualify the premise of fact! "The Gebman War. "One must have respect for the sturdy virtues of the German people, and it is with just such appreciation of the German people that we say that the imperial govei-nment of Germany deserves the reprobation of the civilized world. There can be no peace in Europe until solemn treaties between nations are scrupulously observed. The German government, in its wilful violation of the neutrality of Belgium, of Lxixemburg. and of Switzerland, has perfidiously broken its faith with the world, and stands without honor among the nations. Germany should be compelled to make full reparation for the consequences of her perfidious acts. "The first step for permanent peace in Europe is an authoritative delim- itation of national territorial boundaries and their maintenance by inter- national treaty and police. No frontier should be entered by a foreign military force except upon a warrant from an international court which shall precisely define the powers to be exercised. "The armed action of Germany in the present posture of affairs in Eu- rope is an International crime without the semblance of justification or excuse. The Kaiser's talk about clean hands and divine right is blas- phemj'^ in view of the unprovoked slaughter of the unoffending people of Holland and Belgium. And for what is Germany fighting? For her allies? She cares no more for her allies than for her enemies. She cares only for her own aggrandizement, and this she would pursue by force and arms without regard to international law or justice, or the rights of nations. "The whole policy and tradition of Prussia is founded upon the use of force for territorial aggrandizement. By this means the domains of the Elector of Brandenburg have been extended to Prussia. Silicia, Schleiswig- Holsteln, Hanover, Pomerania. and Alsace-Lorraine. "Germany is against judicial nrbitration of international questions. She believes in the arbitrament of the sword and in the exercise of military force to maintain and extend her dominions. Her attitude is a menace to peace and civilization, and it is the business of the world to put her through such a course of correction and contrition as shall cause her to have adequate respect for the rights of men and decent comity in her rela- tions with other nations. "At this date, the Ambassador of Austria remains at London. England and Austria are technically in a state of peace. The purpose of Austria in her armed entry into Servia for the chastisement of the Serbs has been accomplished. Austria should now withdraw her troops from Sen^ia. ac- cording to her stated intention, and leave the (Jerman Csesar to his per- sonal war with the world." 8 THE GERMAN WAR acts and attitude of Germany and in the determination upon our part that the bearers of the spiked helmet should not find footing upon our coasts. The Germans should direct their peace appeals to the Kaiser. He is the one who can quit the war. The most refractory factor in the war is that the belligerent Ger- mans are so sincere in their bigotry as to believe that they are defend- ing the fatherland and fighting for their national existence, when, in fact, they are waging a trespassing and predatory war for the destruc- tion of neighboring nations. There is no cure for the sedentary big- otory with which the Germans are obsessed but to have their heads fixed so as to permit some penetration into their consciences of the wrongs of which they are guilty in their acts and attitude toward other nations. And Gerniany, too, must have it brought home to her, the meaning of her boast that she is sufficient for herself in peace and in war. In view of this boast there was certainly no reason in either morals or law why America should have intervened to prevent any na- tion from the exercise of its natural right of defense against German aggression in the present war. But Germany should rather be reminded of the many millions of American money and of unrequited service advanced to the succor of the victims of her cruelties and extortions in Belgiimi, Poland, and x\rmenia, for all of which Germany has a moral duty of indemnification. And Germany should further be re- minded that belligerent outlawry has no right to propose the compro- mise of the public law of nations for the accommodation of its atro- cious schemes. The United States has consistently and persist- ently, since the founding of the government, contended for the ac- knowledged rights of innocent persons and goods upon the high seas, and cannot, therefore, in honor consent to any diminution or abate- ment of these rights for the accommodation of Germany and her outrageous enterprises.* America fought one war to determine tliat a (lerman prince upon the throne of Great Britain should not impress and imprison American sailors and citizens upon the high seas, and America is now to fight *A neutral vessel may carry contraband to the ports of a belligerent, sub- ject to the risks of stoppage, visit, and search, and of capture by a public belligerent vessel. If the neutral vessel, upon visit and se.nrch, be found to have an enemy destination and to be carrying contraband, the neutral vessel may be seized and taken into port, and by this process be brought within the jurisdiction of a court having power to administer and enforce maritime law. Upon the judicial ascertainment of the fact that the ves.sel had an enemy destination and was carrying contraband, the contraband part of the cargo may be condemned, and if the cargo be contraband in excess of one-half of the same, then the vessel itself may be condemned. Merchant vessels of enemy nationality may. of course, be taken as prize wherever encountered, but as these vessels are private, and not public vessels, the owners of the same are entitled to have the (luestion of prize adjudicated in a court having maritime jurisdiction, which, of course, requires that the vessel be taken by a prize crew, or be towed into port for tbis purpose. A private neutral vessel has no right to resist the public armed vessel of a belligerent which halts her for the puri^ose of visit and search. If the neutral vessel may escape, she may do so, but if she come within the power of the belligerent public vessel, and is commanded to halt, and refuses to do so, she may then be taken by force, and if necessary be sunk. THE GERMAN WAR 9 another war to determine that Germany shall not murder American sailors and citizens upon the high seas. In 1(S12, it was the liberty; in this year of grace, it is the life of her citizens which America must by force defend. The presence of submarines in tlie seas is unlawful except as they are engaged in belligerent operations against public enemy ves- sels. It is, therefore, the right of the American Government to use every effective means and weapon to clear the paths of commerce in the Atlantic Ocean from the presence and menace of German submarines. The submarine is not being used as an instrument of war. If it were, it would seek the public armed vessels of the enemy. It cannot be- come an instrument of maritime police or for the exercise of the privi- lege of stoppage, visit, and search to which, by the law of nations, neu- tral shipping may be subjected by a belligerent upon the high seas. The submarine is an instrument of stealth and murder. Those who employ it against merchant shipping, Avhether of belligerent or neutral nationality, have no status in law or morals other than that of felons It is clear that the submarine, acting within the limitations imposed by the nature of the thing itself, cannot become a proper instrument for the exercise of the privilege of visit and search to which private neutral ves- sels may, bj' the law of nations, be sub.1ected by a belligerent. The sub- marine does not pursue the public methods of approach which are indis- pensable to the exercise of maritime police. Tlie submarine, with respect to merchant shipping, cannot, therefore, be accorded the status of a public armed vessel. The methods of the submarine are those of stealth, and the only effective exercise of its power the inevitable murder of private per- sons who do not constitute any part of the public force of the enemy. The submarine, with respect to its operations against public armed vessels of enemy character, is engaged in legitimate acts of war, but such belligerent operations cannot, within the rules of war. be made against non-com- batant persons constituting the crews and passengers of neutral ships, or even of private enemy ships. The willful and delil>erate murder of non- combatant crews and passengers is a violation of the laws of war, even as between nations in a public state of war with each other. The illegal character of a submarine attack is accentuated in cases of attack upon non-combatants of neutral nationality. Such attacks are not authorized in the law of nations even as against belligerents, and, where perpetrated, constitute proper ground foi' reprisals of drastic cliaracter. The avowed acts of the German Government in the killing of American nationals upon the high seas would, under the law of retaliation which has the sanction of German profession and practice, be adequate ground for the condemnation and execution of an equal number of German subjects who might be found within the power and jurisdiction of the United States. Indeed, in con- formity with Germnn methods, America might seize a thousand prominent Germans as hostages, and iov every American life unlawfully taken on the high seas, execute a German of equal wealth and rank in expiation there- for. A series of outrageous attacks upon the lives of American citizens has been perpetrated by the German Government during the course of the war. These acts of stealth and murder would have been beyond the justification of the law of war, even if a state of war had been formally declared be- tween the United States and Germnny. As acts perpetrated by a bellig- erent upon a neutral, they are wholly without the pale of the law, and the vessels and men which perpetrate them are entitled to none of the rights and benefits of belligerents, but have the status of common criminals who are without the right of defense against any person or power which may apprehend them or destroy them. 10 THE GERMAN WAR and pirates. The issue between the United States of America and the imperial government of Germany, stripped of its plainest terms, is whether or not Germany shall be permitted, under the guise of bel- ligerent rights, to murder non-combatants of either belligerent or neu- tral nationality upon the public waters of the high seas. There is neither justification nor excuse for such a practice under the law of nations. It is without precedent in the practice of nations which profess an adherence to international law. The interference with enemy trade by capture and blockade is a legitimate means of war. There are, however, neither pains, penalties, nor punishments of a personal nature prescribed by the law of nations for the carrying of contraband or the violation of blockade. The forfeitures are wholly by the condemnation and confiscation of property. But the condemna- tion, and, a fortiori, the destruction of American ships carrying con- traband, is in contravention of the Prussian-American Treaty of 1785. The murder of non-combatants is, therefore, a felonious practice which cannot be tolerated under any circumstances or justified from any premise of law, morals, or necessity. This is no time for sentimental conmiiseration with the German people. If the British blockade accentuates their hunger for peace sufficiently to induce them to quit the war, it will be entirely justified in good morals as it is justified in principle by the law of nations. Neither the British blockade nor the British Admiralty order of November 8, 1914, defining a military area in the North Sea was the initiation of ruthless naval warfare. It was quite proper for the British government to advise neutral merchant shipping of the dan- gers to be encountered in entering the North Sea, which were inci- dental to British naval activities and precautions in that area. The damages which have been suffered by neutrals in these circumstances have been incidental to belligerent naval operations, and are very dif- ferent in legal and moral quality from the damages which have been wilfullv inflicted upon neutrals, as in the case of the stealthy and deliberate destruction of American life and goods by German sub- marines. To assume the risk and perils of entering a military area is quite a different thing than to become the object of the predatory and piratical enterprises of the German navy. The Prussians claim to have a just grievance against the Russians, and say with an air of injury that they have been the innocent victims of Cossack cruelties. They should remember, however, that Germany declared war on Eussia, and that Eussia had no alternative but to fight. It is true that Eussia was mobilizing her forces for the relief of Serbia, but Germany preferred to declare war than by a word to recall Austria from her armed trespass against Serbia's territory and sovereignty. The tragedy at Sarejevo. Avhich overcame the Thron- folger of the Archduchy of Austria and opened the succession to an archduke more acceptable to the Austrian court, is not a cause which even extenuates Germany's guilt in forcing the hand of Austria to war at the very time the entente powers were seeking Germany's media- tion to accommodate the acute situation between Austria and Serbia. In anv view of the case between Russia and Prussia, it must be said THE GERMAN WAR 11 that Russian militar\- methods are not so refined in barbarism and cannot be worse in morals than those of Prussia. Indeed, we know that the systematic and despotic repression of the Russian nation has been the work of the German bureaucracy which has dominated the civil administration of Russia. But this war means much for the the emancipation of the Russians. They will claim Russia for them- selves, and for them there is promise of a progress which shall be a realization of the culture of the humanities rather than that of war — a culture that will take due account that liberty is of the essence of the happiness of human life. German virtue and culture have been freely enough acknowledged and disseminated in the world. But what the world wants of these, it will come and take. Germans of the older generation, known for their human culture, were indeed among the kindliest of men, but the bloody Jcriegs-krazy German aus grosser Zeit is of a brutal breed, which must be taught that the world has no need for that Kultur which is projected from Krupp cannon. If the contemporary German could rid his psychological anatomy of this Krieg and Sieg business he would become a more tolerant human, and have greater capacity to acquire a decent respect for the virtues and rights of the men of other nations. He might then understand why it is that Alsatians, Savoyards, and Algerians, though of German, Italian, and African blood, would live and die for France and why it is that a century has not sufficed to reconcile the Poles, Czechs, and Serbo-Croats to German denationalizing domination. Some Germans have gratuitously made pretense that in this war Germany would avenge and redeem Ireland, Wales, and the Vatican ; but it need hardly be said that neither Ire- land, Wales, nor the Vatican would accept or tolerate the offices and intervention of German arms in their domestic relations mth Great Britain and the kingdom of Italy. For the erratic Irishmen who car- ried on a treasonable traffic with Germany there is only pity and re- gret. The patronizing pretense of sympathy toward an Irish republic is especially preposterous from Germany, which presently stands in the way of the extirpation of the bloody despotism of the Ottoman Turks and the constitution of a civilized Christian government in Asia Minor and Armenia. There should be no truce with the Turk. His political power must be terminated. And with the reduction of the political sovereignty of the Turk there must, for the world's good, he an extirpation from Africa and Asia of the politics of the Germans, his patrons and sponsors. The war should not end until this be con- summated : for neither the Teuton nor the Turk have contributed any- thing to the liberty or happiness of the submerged races under their political domination. Governments, on the other hand, which pro- mote the liberty and welfare of the people who dwell within their territories, may cause nations of different bloods and tongues to live in peace and fraternity and loyalty together. This, indeed, is the prime and legitimate function of all liberal governments. And so it may be said that the liberalization of governments is really more to be desired than the nationalization of governments. And in this process may be found one of the true ways of peace. But for the heteroge- 12 THE GERMAN WAR nous nations oi central Europe, it would seem that the federation of liberalized and nationalized states promises most for that political equilibrium wiiich is necessary for European peace. This might well be consummated in a Balkan federation extending from the Adriatic to the Aegean, with (.Constantinople as the federal capital, the city itself, to the line of the Thachala forts, to either constitute federal territory or to become a free metropolitan state. The w^6rld has no interest in the extension of the dynastic authority of the house of HohenzoUern. It is more concerned with the libera- tion and progress of men and nations which may, in the nature of things, only be realized by the free unfolding of the virtues and cus- toms of the men of every race upon the basis of national tradition and the inspiration of national ideals. The fraternity of nations and the federation of states must be by the processes of liberty and custom, and not by the proclamations of imperial authority. Whatever there is of good in the language, religion, or culture of any nation should have right and liberty to exist in the world for the good of all nations. The assimilation of the tongues and customs of men must also be by the processes of liberty and convenience. And to Great Britain's honor, it must be said that she has not for an hundred years laid a destructive hand upon the language, religion, or customs of any na- tion within her political dominions. The federation of nations and dependencies which we call the British Empire has, therefore, become the greatest political factor for liberty and peace in the Eastern world today. And Britain's empire was builded by centuries of exploration, colonization, and adventure which stand in contrast with the seden- tary occupations and periodic outbreaks of the Germans in the father- land. Whatever may be the virtuous aspirations of the Mohammedan races to political independence, there are none which would willingly exchange British political tutelage for German imperial tyranny. Indeed, if Persia, ^tlesopotamia, and Arabia were to come voluntarily within the protection of the British Empire, with their foreign affairs regulated through the British foreign office at London, they would assure as in no other practicable way their territorial integrity and internal peace. Germany has a transcendent understanding of the utility of force, but is without an adequate appreciation of political morality and comity. Her mechanical diplomacy takes no account of moral forces. The only virtue she respects in other nations is her estimate of their power to fight. Her Weltpolitilc is foimded upon a careful calculation of her relative military strength as measured against that of other nations in war. In the view of German military politics, Japan sacri- ficed a great opportunity in the Pacific because she did not strike the United States before the completion of the Panama Canal. It should be said for Japan, however, that her territorial interests are in Asia, not in America, and that neither in Asia nor tow^ard America will Japan become the tool of German intrigue and malice. And yet with the avowal of such opinions and the contem])lation of possibilities for the destruction of the great cities on our Atlantic seaboard, Germany stupidly wonders why her foreign politics is not popular in America. THE GERMAN WAR 13 The contemplation of schemes of this kind is inconsistent with frank and friendly inteniational relations. It was altogether natural that the German diplomatic attaches who had abused the comity and courtesy of the United States to plot murder, arson, and sedition should have said, upon their expulsion from the country, that they had done their duty as officers of the German army. A government whose mind and policy runs to such nefarious calculations is bound to provoke distrust and antipathy. The bitter complaint of the Ger- mans, because of the refusal of the world to acknowledge with grati- tude and homage Germany's forbearance of forty years to employ her military power for the destruction of other nations, is founded upon the peculiar German conscience that these nations have enjoyed peace and liberty not by their own right, but by grace of German sufferance and forbearance. And the Germans cannot understand why this for- bearance should have brought them the distrust rather than the good will of the world. And because of this distrust, Germany would have been balked in the Balkans, if only the will of the people and the views of the liberal statesmen of the Balkan nations could have prevailed over the dishonest dynastic diplomacy of the German princes who rule them, and who wickedly connived at the slaughter of the Serbs, whose national spirit rises like a holy flame from the ruins of their beloved land to enlighten the dawn of the day when nations shall not be forced to shed their blood to defend and enjoy their natural territorial rights and sovereignty. In the view of the military masters of Priissia this war is a legiti- mate German game. By the rules of the game they claim that the WAS has been won on points of strategy by Hindenburg's manoeuvres. And they are chagrined and provoked to anger because their adver- saries are so unprofessional as to keep up the fight. But it should be clearly understood that the issue of this war lies between the victory of Germany and the peace of the world. The war cannot stop imtil Germany quits. Germany must get out of the war business. And for this cause it is more just that Great Britain enhunger Germany for the sake of peace than that Germany destroy neutral life and goods for the sake of victory. The nations of the Americas are now ready for a normal state of international peace under their own system and auspices. The entente powers and neutral states of Europe, together with their dominions in Asia and Africa, are now ready for interna- tional peace in the eastern continents upon the basis of a permanent recognition and respect for each other's territorial and political rights. But Germany will not be prepared to enter the entente of Europe and a normal status of peace in her relations Avith the European states until German powder and predatory passion burn themselves out in the blood and horror and destruction of this wicked war. And what- ever may be the cost, the European states may just as well settle this question of German hegemony at this time as twenty years hence, for Germany has predetermined to bring the issue to the arbitrament of the slaughter field. The continental nations of the entente have been withstanding a terrible pressure of German fire and force, but Ger- many keenly knows that even if her stock of men and munitions be 14 THE GERMAN WAR progressively replenished, she will remain in sequestration so long as Great Britain closes the seas to her commerce. This accounts for the desperate virulence of German Zeppelin and submarine attacks upon innocent people in the towns and boats of England. But as force and terror may never conquer the spirit of nations once free, Germany can gain no permanent peace by these means. Germany, indeed, can slay and destroy, but she must be brought to understand that enlightened humanity in these days has no more respect for fighting nations than for fighting men, and that the world refuses to be ruled by holy fright of Wilhelm der Ziveite. heroicomic Emperior of Europe, Admiral of the Atlantic. Protector of the Pontiff. Provocateur of the Jehad, Preserver of Turkey, Vindicator of Ireland, Patron of unser Gatf undt Allah, and projector of the Kaiserliche Knltur. The standards of yesterday may not be suffered to obtain today, else there should be no moral progress in the world. And in its moral aspects, this war is a conflict between rationalism and biology, be- tween the mind and the beast that is in men. The teeth of the beast must be drawn. There can, therefore, be no peace with German Schrerklichkeit and Siegeslust. For these the cure is not arbitra- tion : it is eradication. Tliis, indeed, is a tremendous problem, and calls for the persistent exertion of moral as well as material forces. Germany knows full well that no international conference will give her anything of profit or of glory from this atrocious war, and that force and fraud will not avail at the council table of nations. Her plan will be to fight to a truce in the expectation of retaining the lands she holds by trespass and arms. This was the ultimate purpose of the movement against Verdun^to make of the Meuse a new frontier against France. The recent German overtures for peace parlors were but an attempt for a truce upon the present status, with Germany in military occupation of Belgium, Serbia. Montenegro, Poland, Rou- mania and Courland. But the war must go on. The futility of thn German MachtpoJiliJi- and KneqskuU must be demonstrated before all the world, even if the war go on until Germany be disarmed and neu- tralized. The German Gei