] 1 n 1 [ lulifll ..-■.. • .- : v s.r The Crucifixion of Public Opinion From the American Point of View By S. IVOR STEPHEN Profusely Illustrated Published by THE NEUTRALITY PRESS. CHICAGO 1916 J\5Z3 COPYRIGHTED 1916 8T S. IVOR STEPHEN A oSP PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA MflR -6 1916 CU428105 To the immortal memory and sublime spirits of (Beorge Washington, Oljomas Jefferson, anb ^Abva\)am ^Lincoln this great triumvirate of American patriots, fearless, sincere, and unfettered fighters for the American ideals of Liberty, Freedom, Justice, and Equality, this humble volume is most rev- erently dedicated by The Author. " r i 1 HE United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name during these days that are to try mens souls. We must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that might be con- strued as a preference of one party to the [struggle before another/' X#oo6row Libert. Washington, August 18, 191^. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. xxxrv. XXXV. XXXVI. Page. What Is the Press ? : '•:••• 13 Absurdity of News • • • 15 Truth in Journalism 1? Hotbed of Toryism • 2l No Muzzles for Americans 23 The Headline Ananias 24 Attack on Liege 2 8 Traitorous Italy 35 "Offensive Victories" 37 Crown Prince and Press Bullets 40 The Kaiser 42 The Kaiser, a Shining Example of Labor, Prayer and Purpose 44 T. R 47 Hyphen Defies Roosevelt 50 Francis Joseph 1 52 Fish Stories 53 Dum-Dum Bullets 56 Russian Debacle 57 Louvain 64 The Cathedral of Rheims 67 The Battle of Lodz ?° Textbooks 71 Zeppelins & Zeppelies 74 '•Kitchener, the Butcher" 77 British Atrocities 79 "Remember the Baralong" 82 Harper's Weekly 85 "Who Said Rats?" 88 Lusitania 89 Arabic ^ 2 Dollar Humanity 9 *> Moral Neutrality 98 Presidential Powers 100 A Cabinet of Nobodies 104 Are We Afraid of England ? 107 "Chartered Liars" H° 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS— Continued Chapter. Page. XXXVII. England's Debt to the American Press 115 XXXVIII. Vindications 118 XXXIX. The Atrocious Cossack 120 XL. The Horror of Russian Rule 123 XLI. "Poor Little Belgium" 125 XLII. The Cause of the War 128 XLIII. Belgians and the Congo 130 XLIV. Tommy Atkins Wants Socks 134 XLV. "The Female of the Species" 135 XLVI. Edith Cavell 138 XLVII. The American Janus 144 XLVIII. Look Who's Here! 147 XLIX. Perfidious Albion 151 L. Wilhelm, the Dauntless 153 LI. "Christian" England 155 LII. Misuse of "Old Glory" 160 LIII. The Hearst Papers 163 LIV. England, Destroyer of Nations and Commerce 166 LV. Doping Uncle Sam 172 LVI. The Real Menace Among the Hyphens 176 LVII. The Real Danger 179 LVIII. England's "Big Stick" 182 LIX. England, Our Enemy 185 LX. The Loan 186 LXI. The "Billet-Doux" to England . 188 LXII. Big Words— That's All! 194 LXIII. " The Crack in the Bell 197 LXIV. Poor Little Greece 200 LXV. Champions 203 LXVI. "Amerika Ueber Alles" 206 LXVII. Erin Go Bragh! 211 LXVIII. "If You See It in the Sun, It's So" 215 LXIX. Not Yet, But— 216 LXX. Editor Jefferson 218 LXXI. Sentimental Dr. Eliot 220 LXXII. Dr. Constantin Dumba 222 LXXIII. Journalism a la "Mud" 224 LXXIV. Americans First and Last 225 Preface T The Author. HE contents of this volume have been delivered in lecture form in several cities of the United States. The lectures have met with such uni- versal reception and approbation that the lecturer and respectively the author, deemed it his patriotic duty to put his lecture in book form and make its contents known and accessible to the patriotic citizens of this country who believe in the doctrines as embodied in the speeches, writings and deeds of our great American presidents, George Wash- ington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jack- son and Abraham Lincoln. The author of this impretentious volume claims no credit for originality of its contents, as these were gathered, collected, culled and reprinted from sources more authoritive arid authen- tic, more competent and weighty, than any personal opinion or utterance could have conveyed to the average American reader who bases his patriotism on the real principles of democracy, on the real ideals of American Freedom, Liberty, Justice, Equality, and Fair Play. The writings of our illustrious president, Thomas Jefferson, have given the author particular inspiration in the preparation of this book, but contemporary writers, authors, and editors, American as well as foreign, have with their writings, speeches and comments, greatly aided the author in presenting the issue for which the writer of this book — in purely American spirit — is breaking the lance. — 9 — To Mr. Jeremiah A. O'Leary, President of The American Truth Society and a fearless champion of American rights, the author is especially grateful for the assistance given to him in preparation of his material. The writings, opinions and comments of the talented and brilliant editors of the "Fatherland" and respectively of the virile publication "Issues and Events," both intrepid champions of the creed "America First" and American liberty and free- dom from the tyranny of English dictation, have been a great stimulus and help in compiling this volume. The author wishes also to acknowledge his thanks for the valuable material which he found in the writings of such eminent and famous English writers and essayists as George Bernard Shaw, Aleister Crowley, Frank Harris and others. Wherever it was possible to give credit for an article, opin- ion and historical data as reprinted in this book, it is given here. In instances where the source of information and quota- tions could not be ascertained the writer herewith gratefully acknowledges the material so gained and used and presents this volume to the great patriotic reading commonwealth of the United States with the earnest hope and desire that the con- tents of this book will serve as a lesson, as a sermon, as enlight- enment for those who — misguided by an unpatriotic, anglophile, hence un-American press, and a mercenary inclined clique of American plutocracy have taken a stand and viewpoint in the great crisis — that is raging now in Europe — contrary to all prin- ciples, creed and ideals that are typified in the immortal per- sonalities of our three greatest Americans, Washington, Jeffer- son and Lincoln. American hearts, believing in these three great figures of American history will throb and beat in unison with the purpose of this book — Americans, accepting, following and promulgating the sham patriotism of the hirelings and "chartered liars" of a capitalistic anglophile press, and repudiating the doctrines and ideals for which a Washington, a Jefferson and a Lincoln fought, do not deserve to live under the protection of the Stars — 10 — and Stripes, nor to have a place in the sun which shines upon the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. The author of this volume has endeavored to sustain his contention and plea, "Justice for the Teutons," with witnesses of such American patriotism which founded, protected and maintained our country of these United States, with witnesses who represent the greatest and by all of us Americans — native or "hyphenated" — universally worshiped figures of America's glorious history, also with witnesses taken from the "dear cousins" camp, as not one single Teutonic or Hungarian writer or authority is quoted in this volume in the defense of the Teutonic cause. The befuddled, prejudiced and piteously ignorant mind of the anglophile editorial pen which accuses some of the publica- tions printed in the English language of Teutonic tendencies, by the same false logic, might just as well proclaim "Old Glory" to be a Prussian regimental standard. The crucifixion of Public Opinion in America by some of tlie Press lias been the most flagrant violation of all laws of neu- trality. For these reasons the author submits his plea for "Justice for the Teutons" to the supreme jury of the American reading public with the trust and confidence that after all the nation which a Washington, a Jefferson, a Madison, a. Lincoln, a Grant, a Cleveland choose for Uncle Sam's friend must be the nation for Americans to stand by — and the nation which a Washing- ton, Jefferson, Lincoln and all our other patriotic and great American presidents fought as a foe must be and still remains Uncle Sam 's foe, notwithstanding the cry of the distressed ' ' dear cousin" and opportunist that "blood is thicker than water." THE AUTHOR. 11 — CHAPTER I What Is the Press? The public hears much about the liberty of the press from the press. The sacredness of" the freedom of the press is much dinned into its ears — by the press. But it hears little of the responsibility of the press — from the press. It hears little con- demnation of the defamatory and destructive misrepresentation practiced by the press, little criticism of false reports, flaunted ignorance, news discolored by interest, canards, "it is alleged/' and the like — from the press. Every newspaper has an ax to grind ; at least one — sometimes many. And the public must do the turning of the grindstone. As a matter of fact : what is the press ? Whoever has the price of type and presses may issue a sheet of alleged information and sell it to the public, and it may con- tain anything which his self-interest dictates. If he takes the precaution not to actually libel an individual, he escapes all re- sponsibility, and the only control which is exercised over his operations is that exercised by his readers, who, if they like not his "news" or the opinions he expresses, may discontinue the purchase of his paper. Otherwise he may print what he will; he may misrepresent facts willfully or carelessly; he may distort and exaggerate; he may suppress ; he may publish canards and inventions ; he may pour out an unending stream of falsehood and deceptions; he may discolor the truth, play upon prejudice, and poison, in any way he sees fit, the stream of public opinion. All this he may do in the name of "freedom of the press" and none may stop him. It may be well inquired by what virtue does such sacredness inhere in the ownership of type and print- ing presses? What sets apart the newspaper owner from the rest of mankind and permits him unbridled license ? Such grotesque perversions of liberty must finally undermine the whole structure of liberty, for when liberty is so much abused, when liberty ceases to mean, not the safeguarding of proper rights, but the permission, the license to assail the help- less and to pervert the public mind, some day overdrastic regu- lation will be demanded which will in turn be subversive of liberty. Thus one extreme breeds another, and the policy of 13 14 NEUTRALITY absolute and unrestricted freedom to whoever puts type to paper will bring the extreme of regulation when the reaction sets in. Regulation of the press, however, is an obnoxious procedure, when those who have the power to regulate are perfectly free to exercise whatever regulation they see fit. Here again liberty becomes license and the press suffers, and with it those who are entitled to know the truth about events of concern to themselves as members of the social body, for suppression is equally as dan- gerous as exaggeration, both being forms of irresponsibility. The public does not realize the enormous power of the press to misguide public opinion, when it determines to do so. The average reader imagines that public opinion, as far as it is formed by newspapers, is formed by the editorial columns of the papers. This is an entirely inadequate view. The editorials of a newspaper, in fact, have very little force in moulding public opinion, for the reason that readers in general only read edi- torials which are in accord with their own existing views. This applies particularly to the papers in large cities where the read- ers are of higher intelligence. When editorials controvert the convictions of the reader, the reader ceases to read them and buys a paper which reflects in its editorials his own opinions. It is in its news columns that the newspaper has its greatest power over public opinion. Espe- cially is this the case in America. If it publishes as a fact, for example, the " news' ' that German soldiers are guilty of out- rages, public opinion takes an anti-German tinge far more quickly than that from any number of anti-German editorials. The fact that no such outrages have in reality occurred is un- known to the readers. Their "public opinion" is consequently based upon the falsehood circulated as a truth. A continued policy of misrepresentation results in the forma- tion of a more or less violently marked ' ' public opinion, ' ' which is a great force for evil, since it is acting upon false premises. The public thus acts contrary to reason and truth, and to its own ultimate disadvantage, sidetracked by editorial self-interest. It is not only, however, in actual falsehoods that newspapers pol- lute public opinion, but in importance and tone given to the published matter. This is accomplished by means of headlines of a sensational and misleading character, by the use of different sizes of type, and in the relative prominence and location on the pages of the paper of the various items. A headline is the greatest achieve- ment of American imaginative art. It is the perfect flower of NEUTRALITY 15 fancy! Like a nebulous nothing floating in the midst of no- where, it is without meaning or significance in itself and inno- cent of relationship to anything else — least of all the news which follows. Its only importance is the strange fascination it exercises over the average citizen. One glance at a headline, and, dazzled by its garish charms, he sees not truth hidden in her corner, or cares not if he sees. The manipulation of these devices, though unconscionable enough before the war, has become so flagrant since that even the editors themselves appear to sicken of it. The public, nevertheless, having its avenues to the truth largely closed, cherishes its views founded on falsehood and lives in its little newspaperly created fool's paradise of misin- formation. The examples of the headlines with its "news" given in this volume, or, rather, lack of news that is "dished up "to the public of this country through the press, which regards its own freedom with such awe, will serve, to demonstrate how little re- spect the press has for truth and how ready it is to deceive its own readers. The publishing of misinformation does not stop at news alone, but also includes the publication of fake photo- graphs. CHAPTER II Absurdity of News. "War has just been declared. The American press seems to think that everything is topsy- turvy in Europe, and that there is no reason why it should not let itself go and join, metaphorically, at least, in the awful pan- demonium reigning on the other side of the water. One's brain fairly reeled before the staggering array of aosurdities that stared one in the face, when one tried to get an idea of the war from an American standpoint. The war caught thonsands of Americans in Europe. Censor- ship was strict in European papers, and Americans were nat- urally "mad" for news from their country. They wanted to see what their own press had to say in the matter. The nearest and the most easily available paper, the Paris edition of the 16 NEUTRALITY New York Herald, gave most Americans the first inkling and the first bitter taste in regard to the attitude of the home press. It must be confessed that all blushed before they were through! One read in this paper — in the very first days of the war — that the Germans had terrible defeats in Silesia; the Crown Prince had been murdered (for about the sixth time) ; Vienna is full of smallpox and in a panic appealing to the aged Emperor for peace ; cholera was raging in Berlin ; every German from sixteen to fifty-five years of age had been draftd into the army; the German soldiers, starving and exhausted, were re- volting against their officers ; the officers were a drunken, carous- ing crowd, kicking and whipping their men ; Hungary revolting ; the Magyars roasting their Slav brethren alive, and all such rot! It seemed that particularly the English-speaking New York press hurled itself like vultures upon Germany. There was no Belgian invasion then and no Louvain. French aviators had flown across the German border and dropped bombs on two un- defended German cities. The German Emperor had given France and Russia two days of grace to consider whether they wanted war or not. But there was no holding back the New York press. As there were no German atrocities to record, they created them. Glar- ing headlines stretched across the first page announcing that German soldiers were killing American tourists in the streets of Berlin, and American women were stripped of their clothing and publicly exhibited at railway stations by German officers. With this was linked a policy of keeping the American people in ignorance of what was actually transpiring on the battle- field. The press informed the public that the German war ma- chine had gone to pieces, that the German army was battering out its brains against the forts of Liege, where 20,000 Teutons had found their graves at the hands of "the brave Belgians in one day." The facts were that the Liege forts had long been reduced and the Germans were marching victoriously upon Brussels and sweeping all before them. But in the columns of the New York press appeared, day after day, the same devoted headlines an- nouncing Belgian victories, with full particulars how the forts were still holding out against the invaders. Then came Louvain ! The Berlin atrocities against harmless American travelers were suddenly relegated to oblivion, and the great sympathetic heart of America was made to throb with pity for the poor peo- NEUTRALI T V 17 pie of Louvain, who were "ruthlessly slaughtered by the Ger- man barbarians. ' ' It is an axiom that a lie will travel miles while truth is put- ting on its boots. It was evident after the second day of the war that the American public opinion was to be systematically drugged into a state of comatose receptivity to hostile repres- sions of Germany and the Germans. That serious, self-respecting Americans felt ashamed, hu- miliated, is but mildly expressing their sentiments. It didn't take them long to see that the press of New York City was in a veritable orgy of cant! "Right" struggling gallantly against 'armed might!" as the headlines cried, "against tyranny, against barbarism!" The Allies put their puny force against Hi. -Hordes of 1111118!" Who wouldn't feel humiliated over the impossible conglom- eration of nonsense which was and is being dished out by many of our best papers and magazines regarding this world-war. It is all very well for Americans to be proud of the freedom of their press, but no particular credit redounds to them if they allow this freedom to degenerate into unbridled license. "It's better not to know so much than to know so many things what ain't so," as the saying goes. CHAPTER III Truth in Journalism. The late Joseph Pulitzer, proprietor and editor of the New York World, once said: "Accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a woman." Carrying out the simile, the journalist, like Caesar's wife, should be above suspicion. Accuracy, as Mr. Pulitzer denned it, meant more than conforming exactly to truth or to a. standard. To him it meant a passionate devotion to those ideals of conduct which inspire men to think noble thoughts, to do things worth doing for the pure joy of service. "Truth," then, is the motto that should be emblazoned on the shield of the student of journalism. And when he comes to sit at your feet in the Interpreter's House, to learn from you how to apply the motto, will you not say to him : ' ' First of all, to thine ownself be true and it must follow, as the night the day, thou can'st not then be false to any man." Newspaper men ought to remember the words of the great journalist, says "The Editor and Publisher," who taught that 18 NEUTEALITY it wasn't enough, to refrain from publishing fake news, not enough to take ordinary care to avoid mistakes, and that any publishers who could do no better should be ashamed to own a paper. This man, with his big heart, that understood all, be- cause he had suffered, stood always for clear white honesty in all departments of the newspaper business. He made sure of only one thing, that he was right, and then he went ahead, re- gardless of consequences. To what extent his son and heir, the present editor of the New York World, has lived up to the teachings of his father, this book will try to show. The attitude of the New York World in this war is so much more astonishing, as Pulitzer was a Hun- garian of Jewish faith, and his son, therefore, is the son of a Hungarian Jew, of which he ought to feel proud. The average American newspaper reader, after reading such headlines: "German Atrocities in Belgium," "Women and Children Wantonly Maimed," "Red Cross Nurses Have Their Feet and Hands Cut Off," "Towns Sacked and Burned," ' ' Prussians Bite Off Noses of Servian Soldiers, ' ' and looks forth upon the welter of confusion in which the world's greatest war has involved the civilization of Europe, apparently must be growing more and more bewildered. The average American reader's swift impression was based entirely upon sympathy with the victims of the horrors of war, and those victims were placed very conspicuously in the Amer- ican eye through the accident of geographical position. The American has been stirred by tales of atrocity in the eastern as well as the western theatre of this conflict, tales which revealed helpless women and children as the chief sufferers from sav- agery. These tales, though unfounded and unverified, created sympathy. But sympathy, while creditable as an impulse, is of less im- portance than a judicial attitude of mind in determining the relation of facts to one another, when those facts determine the supreme crisis in the annals of humanity. When one possesses the essential facts underlying this war in Europe one can bestow sympathy intelligently and effectively. It's easy to appreciate perfectly the effect upon the American mind of the tales of the horror with which the world has been filled throughout the first few weeks of the war by some of the press. Americans understand the attitude of their newspapers in the United States toward weaker nations and helpless peoples. NEUTRALITY 19 One realizes the sanctity in the American mind of treaty obligations. These considerations account to all of us, to some extent, for that generous impulse which ranged Americans on the side that first presented its case, and presented it with rare cunning, preventing the other side giving his version by cutting off all his cable communications. The sincerity of this impulse caused Americans, in fact, to forget for a time even the great inconveniences they endured from the economic consequences of so great a struggle. There was a natural anxiety for hosts of relatives and friends exiled in the theatre of war. These things made their impression. Profounder, however, was the impression growing out of the moral factors in the case. The people of the United States asked themselves: "Who could be responsible for such a crime against humanity as was comprised in the outbreak of the war? Whose overpowering ambition took the world back to Napoleonism?" The writer will endeavor to show how heavily all the avail- able evidence was made to tell against Germany. Foremost as the self-appointed champion of international honor stood Eng- land, protesting against an attitude that made a solemn treaty ' ' a mere scrap of paper. ' ' Russia was introduced next as ' l the disinterested friend of helpless little Servia. ' ' Austria-Hungary has despatched "a provocative ultimatum." France, wounded already by the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, was invaded ' ' to promote a fresh scheme of spoliation." The Great Powers might have been cast for parts in a tragedy by Schiller, so dramatic were the values. The "heavy villian" was invariably Germany. The explanation is simple. England had constituted herself stage manager, taking the precaution to give Germany a silent part by the obvious expedient, as stated above, of cutting her cable communication. The device might have failed but for the London censor. All that reached him from Berlin was conscientiously edited or con- scientiously suppressed. America was spoon-fed with English versions of whatever Germany had to say for herself. Judg- ment, in the first few weeks of the war, went almost by default ; at any rate, it was based on sympathy rather than upon facts judicially ascertained. The entire press of the United States seemed to be under the vassalage of the English censor, and particularly the New York press has seen fit, on account of its capitalistic relations, to stim- ulate, produce and glory in the creation of a great deal of rabid 20 NEUTRALITY anti-German sentiment. The sentiment was artificial and mostly "newspaper talk." For the sake of discussion, it might be said that there has been two distinct parties in the United States, the British, or War Party, and the Peace Party. With the Brit- ish, or War Party, seemed to be allied a large amount of finan- cial interests and this capitalistic pressure has been brought to bear through their accustomed channels on the Metropolitan press. The press, supposedly the powerful instrument for spreading the truth, became, in the hands of a few unscrupulous persons, a tool for the dissemination of false statements which had no parallel. One realized this forcibly in the war news of the daily papers. Despicable, however, as the use of the press for spreading false reports may be, it is almost harmless compared with the attempts to shape the public opinion of whole nations by lies cunningly planned and systematically circulated. Oscar Wilde once wrote an article on ■ * The Art of Lying. ' ' Well, his coun- trymen have made great progress in this art since his time! England had a great deal of financial interest in the United States, and, as mortgage and bond holders, they were able to dictate the policies of some newspapers. The moneyed men are seldom men of courage. What pains them most is the loss of a few dollars. Generally speaking, the capitalists have backed England, and if Eng- land should lose in this war they would lose their cherished dollar. England did with money what money could do, She and her agents did all in their power to stimulate anti-German sentiment in the United States, and the press of the Metropolis was the best factor to use for their purpose. Mr. Wm. J. Bryan, ex-Secretary of State, speaking at a great mass meeting in Madison Square Garden, New York, with a sincerity and fervor rarely equaled even in his famous cam- ' paigns, cut deeply into the prevailing hyprocrisies of the New York newspapers. "I have been in politics for a quarter of a century, " he said, "and I have never yet known the New York press to take the side of the American people in any question. ' ' And in this greatest of crises the whcle American press, tak- ing its lead from New York, has been guilty of ignoring and misrepresenting the sentiments of the people. When the people protested it was sought to silence them by charges of disloyalty. The effort will be more hazardous now that Bryan has said "Each citizen is at liberty to express his opinion as to whether NEUTRALITY 21 or not there should be war. Not only is the citizen at liberty to express his opinion on the subject, but, in view of the efforts of a portion of the press to force the country into war, it is his duty to enter his protest now. Upon this question every cit- izen has a right to speak. ' ' CHAPTER IV Hotbed of Toryism. Accusing thus the newspapers of New York City, one only has to read American history to find out how fully just and true Mr. Bryan's statement is. New York City is today the same stronghold of toryism and English snobbery it was in the days of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. In the dark days of 1776 and of 1861 the so-called public opinion of New York and the newspapers of the city opposed the national and patri- otic cause. Washington distrusted the New York City merchant class. In 1861 Abraham Lincoln was caricatured as an ape by the metropolitan press, inspired by London. For fifteen decades the New York City newspapers, or the majority of them, had been led in international politics, and in the world's business, by London. Their real influence in the United States is small, and steadily receding in the West, which controls the country in public affairs. The favor of certain New York City newspapers is disastrous to all national aspirants for public honors. The delegation from New York State, the largest, is the most impotent in Congress. The voice of New York City is local and does not even control the commonwealth of the State of New York, to say nothing of the United States of America. The Irish emigrants of New York in 1776 were the first to enroll in the revolution, and George Washington became a member of the first Irish Eevolutionary Society in New York, the Sons of Saint Patrick. Without the support of the Irish, the colony of New York would not have embraced the American Constitution. When the Declaration of Independence was submitted, New York was loyal to England. Thomas Jefferson announced his distrust of New York. George Washington, satisfied of the de- votion of Philadelphia and Boston, determined that he would transfer his headquarters from New York, and relied on the intrepid Irish patriots for support. He took charge of a hostile 22 NEUTRALITY commonwealth. (See Woodrow Wilson's "History of the Amer- ican People," page 243, Vol. 2.) There were enough tory sympathizers to lose him New York, and, fearing treachery on the part of the residents, Washington retreated from New York in the fall of 1776. "These are the times that try men's souls," said Thomas Paine, in December, 1776. Confident of New York, the British followed Yfashington to the Delaware. So there was no wonder that in the New York of 1914 min- isters a la Rainsford, a la, Parkhurst, preached on David and Goliath, and publishers invoked Jack the Giant Killer! The odds were ten to one! The great mathematician in the New York Times tower was proving it, that one Englishman is a match for sixteen Germans ! Lies, ignorance, stupidity and the most frightful exaggera- tions characterized the otherwise normal and sane press of the City of New York. Everybody believed what he wanted to be- lieve, and most persons seemed to resent the truth, if it failed to fit in with the gossip and rumor already read and accepted, because, the paper which prints the news which is "fit to print," because the paper which says: "If you see it here, it's so," because the paper which carries the motto on the top of its edi- torial page: "From first to last, the truth in editorials, news, and advertisements," said so, and that settled it! And anybody who dared to argue, who dared to protest, who dared to contradict or to enlighten, was a "hyphenated bar- barian," who, if he thinks as he does, has no business to be in these blessed United States. - ' Eaus mit ihm ! ' ' Every German, Austrian, Hungarian and Irishman was a liar, beginning with Ridder and Viereck, editor of the Staats-Zeitung, and respec- tively of the Fatherland, to the last beer-slinging bartender of Teutonic East Side ! "Bans mit ihm!" became the slogan. The "d d for- eigner ! ' ' yelled the tory press. There was no use for argument and glorious historical proofs of tried and proved loyalty of these "d d foreigners," alias "hyphenated Americans," to this, their adopted country of America. It should and must be stated right here at the beginning of this narrative, and stated once and for all, that there could be no question of the patriotism and loyalty of the German- Amer- icans to the country of their adoption, in which they form a powerful element. But, although the German or Austria-Hun- garian Americans are loyal Americans, they do not feel that, NEUTRALITY 23 even under the present conditions, they have forfeited the right of free speech. It is the fundamental principle of democracy that each and every citizen shall be privileged to state, freely, frankly and fearlessly, his opinion in regard to governmental measures and policies. American suffrage is based upon that theory. The native or hyphenated-American who believes that the policy of the present administration is not to the best interests of the country of his birth or adoption has an absolute, unqualified right to say so. He has the privilege not only of saying so, but, as an American citizen, the duty of manifesting his opinion and registering it at the polls. CHAPTER V No Muzzles for Americans. Criticism of the administration is not criticism of the form of government. The fact that numerous newspapers throughout the country have not hesitated to criticize the administration of the United States Navy by the Secretary of the Navy, ap- pointed by Woodrow Wilson — which is in itself a reflection upon the judgment and wisdom of the Chief Executive — has not ex- posed those newspapers to charges of disloyalty. Why, then, should President Wilson's policy in regard to the protection of American shipping against British aggression, in regard to the creation of an embargo upon the shipment of munitions of war — which, in view of existing conditions on the seas, cannot but fail to lend material aid to one group of bel- ligerents to the disadvantage of the other — and in regard to his foreign policy, generally, be exempt from discussion? Criticism by the German-American, Hungarian, Polish or Irish press in such matters is no more an indication of disloyalty than criticism of the Unitecl States Navy or of our Mexican policy by the Anglo-American press. Probably no one would resent more indignantly than would Mr. Wilson himself the suggestion that an American may not criticize the President with full freedom, so long as he does it courteously. The recent case of Assistant Postmaster Burkitt of Winnetka, 111., amply proves it. We have had a President who required his admirers to follow him like trained dogs ; but we do not understand that the pres- ent President lays such an exaction upon his friends. Even that 24 NEUTRALITY blatherskite in Oyster Bay admitted in his Plattsburgh speech that ' ' it is defensible to state that we stand by the country, right or wrong. It is indefensible for any free man in a fiee re- public to state that he will stand by any official, right or wrong. ' ' ' ' The President has the right to have said of him nothing but what is true ; he should have sufficient time to make his position clear. But as regards supporting him in all public policies, and above all in international policies, the right of any President is only to demand public support because he does well, because he serves the public well, "and not merely because Tie is Presi- dent/' and when America's "great lawyer, statesman and ora- tor," Mr. Joseph Choate, in his speech at the Pilgrims' ban- quet, says, "We are placed in a peculiar position in this coun- try. We are neutral, but the Constitution guarantees the free- dom of speech, so I can speak for myself," one must accord this privilege to every American citizen, hyphenated or not, because if it's Roosevelt's right, it's also theirs; if it's Choate' s right, it's also theirs. They're no more Americans than any other hyphenated Ger- man, Irish, Hungarian or Anglo-American, and the Constitution of the United States makes no distinction between the accidental American and the one who's an American by his own free will and choice. Acting upon this constitutional and inalienable right of free speech and in the spirit of this law, the writer of this volume has prepared and compiled its contents as an an- swear and lessen the "chartered liars" of the "Al-lies" press. The government of the United States is not a personal gov- ernment. Criticism of the private or official acts of the man who happens to be the President of the country are not to be looked upon as attacks upon the government itself — which is the people's. CHAPTER VI The Headline Ananias. The immortal headlines, pictures and cartoons of the American newspapers, and particularly of the New York papers in the early time of this great war, are not extreme ex- amples, and are woefully inadequate to indicate the full extent of the devoted service to "Untruth" performed by the gifted imaginers of these inexhaustible fictions, these modern Ananiases of newspaperdom. NEUTRALITY 25 It's regrettable to state that the same practices prevailed in all sections of the country, among all classes of papers, and that "time dulleth not the edge of the weapon." It has been truly said that the greatest achievement of the English navy was the cutting of the American-German cable; equally true it is that the supreme strategic achievement of the Allies was the capture of the New York press. The reading matter which followed the headlines, the editorials and the car- toons combined in an effect as baneful as that of the headlines. At the date of compiling this book, it was difficult to secure ex- amples of the headlines in a form which permits of photograph- ing; but their nature is sufficiently displayed here, if, indeed, it needs demonstration to the American people. Americans are all familiar to nausea with the glaring bloody- red announcements of victories which have never occurred, the villainous accusations of atrocities never committed, the treach- erous attempts to create a feeling of enmity between this coun- try and Germany and Austro-Hungary, and the diminuendo, pianissimo, shrinking-violet style of printing the truth about German victories, German practices and the German attitude toward this country. At this late hour of the war, it is, of course, physically and mechanically impossible to give the reader a thoroughly up-to- date "show" of the screamingly funny "headline campaign" of our neutral ( ?) New York press, but the few that are repro- duced here will, with their humor, amply demonstrate what ' ' fools these mortals be, ' ' particularly if they happen to be New York City newspaper editors or headline writers. FRENCH AEROPLANE RAMS GERMAN BALLOON— TWENTY-SIX DEAD The first headline is from the New York World. One need not to be reminded what the late Joseph Pulitzer said in regard to "truth in journalism," and one can judge for himself to what extent his son and heir, the present proprietor and editor of that paper, follows the teachings of his father, who was considered one of the greatest journalists of this country. Joseph Pu- litzer, father of the present owner and editor of the New York World, earned his first wages in America as a reporter of a German newspaper in St. Louis. The above headline tells how a French aeroplane rammed a Zeppelin. Of course, the object of this story was to create 26 N EUTEALITY admiration for the French. But, unfortunately, the Germans have not been conducting the war according to our papers, and later the German government officially denied the truth of this absurdity. At the outset it should be borne in mind that all dispatches containing war news which are sent from London, Paris, Eome and St. Petersburg — now Petrograd and soon probably Wil- helmsburg — are censored by the government officials, and that therefore these governments, since they permit their publica- tion, are responsible for the statements made. This situation places a very serious aspect upon the condi- tions existing in this war. While the lies were perhaps invented by the respective newspaper correspondents in order to furnish copy, they received the sanctions of the respective censors of the various governments and therefore became the lies of the gov- ernments themselves. FRENCH AVIATOR DESTROYS DIRIGIBLE, LOSING HIS LIFE IN THE AIR The N. Y. Herald. It will be observed that the New York World was not the only paper which published this falsehood. The New York Herald was even more industrious in edifying its readers with the same lie. Other papers followed suit. As they received their news from the same source, they were all equally vic- timized. BRITAIN ON VERGE OF WAR WITH GERMANY. GERMANS INVADE HOLLAND. FIGHT AT SEA— GOLD OUTFLOW STOPS BILLION MORE MONEY. The N. Y. World. This statement in the World was a deliberate falsehood, hav- ing for its object the creation of prejudice against Germany, due to an invasion of Holland, a friendly nation, without just cause. The lie is so much more grotesque as we know that Hol- land's neutrality was never impaired and up to this hour Hol- land remained neutral. NEUTRALITY 27 FRENCH WARSHIPS SINK AND CAPTURE GERMAN CRUISERS The N. Y. Herald. The next lie of importance was the report of the capture of the Goeben and Breslau and the sinking of the Panther, On August 5, 1914, the New York Herald published the ac- count, giving pictures of the unfortunate cruisers. These pic- tures were published to carry further conviction to the minds of the readers, so as to emphasize the lie. GERMAN BATTLE CRUISER GOEBEN CAPTURED BY THE FRENCH The N. T. Tribune. This as early as August 5th. The New York Tribune no doubt was delighted with this news and gave it great prom- inence. It's the Tribune which carries as its motto on top of its editorial page : ' ' From first to last, the truth in editorials, news and advertisements." One may judge for oneself how the Tri- bune lives up to its motto. PARIS HEARS FRENCH FLEET SINKS TWO GERMAN CRUISERS This is from the conservative and truthful New York Sun, trying hard to emulate its neighbor, The Tribune. The Sun boasts very proudly that "If you see it in the Sun, it is so." One has grave doubts now about the seriousness of this boast. There was a time when, if one read it in the Sun, it was so, but now it is not so, or, rather, " sometimes so and sometimes not so." In fact, all the newspapers printed this lying item and gave it great prominence. Then, later, they were compelled to raise these very ships, repair them, and permit them to escape into the Dardanelles, where for some time they have been mak- ing things interesting for England and her allies. CHAPTER VII Attack on Liege. KAISER'S ARMY MEETS DEFEAT IN BELGIUM. BELGIANS WHIP GERMANS, REFUSING TO GIVE UP LIEGE. The N. Y. World. The headline indicates the opening engagement of the war — "The Attack Upon Liege." It has been officially stated by Germany that the attacking forces upon Liege were smaller than the defending forces. It was contended by the "foremost New York newspaper war experts" that it would take months for the Germans to capture these forts, so confident were they in the ability of the French engineers — who had aided in their construction. Yet, strange to say, these forts were captured in less than four days, in one of the most remarkable military achievements in the history of the world. In the attack, Ger- many sprung her first great surprise of the war, the famous 42-centimeter gun. The newspapers never expected this. For some reason or other, strange to relate, Germany did not take the American press into its confidence, and, of course, "news we must have," said the editors; so they gave credence to the English and Belgian and French reports, whether true or not. The Germans have, no doubt, used very bad judgment in handling the American press during the war in not inform- ing them of their plans before they executed them. In accord- ance with the old American custom, they should have given the plans of their strategy to these newspapers before hand, though it is well known that the German general staff has given Ameri- can newspaper correspondents and American military attaches more latitude for free movement and observation on the differ- ent scenes of war than the Allies. For months after the beginning of the war England and her Allies would not tolerate the presence of war correspondents with their armies ; they even refused to allow American military attaches to be present in the war zone. The few subjoined headlines mark the beginning of the cam- paign of "little Belgium," whose people are pictured as the 28 NEUTRALITY 29 most "courageous and gallant fighters" the world has ever known. Though the German official report repeatedly stated that the resistance of the Belgium army was not commensurate to its size and to the number of soldiers, or as far as the quality of their fortifications — which were pretty strong — was con- cerned. The Evening Sun on Aug. 5, 1914, announced in bold and blackest typed headline : BELGIUM BEATS GERMANS ; ENGLISH ARMY TO AID HER It's rather odd that the war didn't stop right then and there after the Belgians accomplished this heroic feat. As for the "aiding English army," the Belgians are still on the look- out for them. The N. Y. World, on August 6th, announces the Kaiser's army's defeat in Belgium with this headline: GERMANS LOSE THOUSANDS IN BELGIUM. Following below with another pipe dream, the headline artist says : BRITAIN LOOKS TO VANQUISH NAVY IN NORTH SEA She's still looking. BELGIANS OVERWHELM THE GERMANS ATTACKING LIEGE N. Y. Herald, Aug. 7, 1914. KAISER SHOT 100 SOCIALISTS, AMONG THEM THE SOCIALIST LEADER, HERR LIEBKNECHT Well, Well! As far as it is known Herr Liebknecht is still around and "kicking." GERMANS LOSE 25,000 MEN AT LIEGE. N. T. Herald, Aug. 8, 1914. ASKS FOR ARMISTICE TO BURY DEAD. 30 NEUTEALITY GERMANS HURLED BACK AT LIEGE. BELGIANS INFLICT HEAVY LOSS N. T. Tribune, Aug. 6, 1914. GERMANY SENDS AN ULTIMATUM TO ITALY. It imist have been lost in transit, or the Italian Government apparently has not answered this ultimatum yet. BATTLESHIP FLORIDA IN WAIT FOR VATERLAND And the Vaterland is still at Hoboken. Apparently our Government or the newspapers misinterpreted the desire of the Yaterland to "keep clean" an attempt to escape. Further down, one reads: ROUT OF GERMANS IN BELGIUM TURNED INTO A SLAUGHTER The "rout" was on the other foot — of course. KAISER FORCES ADMIT LOSS OF 25,000 BEFORE LIEGE. N. Y. Sun, Aug. 8, 1914. This is one of the spots which the war has cast on "The Sun." BELGIANS FORCE MANY GERMANS TO SURRENDER, LONDON HEARS N. V. Herald, Aug. 9, 1914. Now we come to the truth, and it's funny to observe how it was treated by our press. The Herald : "LIEGE HAS FALL- EN, KAISER HEARS," and a second headline: BERLIN HEARS A REPORT THAT LIEGE HAS FALLEN The clauses of doubt, "Kaiser Hears" and "Berlin Hears," which have been added to the truth, are interesting. Contrast- NEUTRALITY 31 ing this with the positive affirmation with which false reports favorable to the Allies are stated, one can draw the just con- clusion. KAISER IS SAID TO HAVE PROCLAIMED VICTORY AT LIEGE The N. Y, Sun, Aug. 9, 1914. The Sun also has its doubts. Here is another opportunity of comparing the way the Sun treats the news of the Allies and the Germans. Although the capture of Liege was a momentous matter of news, it was placed third in the headlines. The first statement was that FRENCH TROOPS INVADE GERMANY AND CAPTURE ALTKIRCH No clause of doubt has been added to that headline. KAISER TELLS BERLIN LIEGE HAS BEEN CAPTURED The N. Y. Times, Aug. 9, 1914. The Times was for once fairer about this than the Sun. It realized that the matter was of prime importance and gave it right of way in its headlines; nevertheless, it did not take any responsibility such as it took when it stated: FRENCH INVADE ALSACE, in the remainder of the headlines relative to the event. LIEGE FORTS SILENCE BIG GUNS OF GERMANS. The N. Y. World, Aug. 14, 1914. No doubt, the World meant that the silence of the forts caused the " silence of the guns." HOLLAND FLOODS LANDS TO STOP INVASION. This is what we might call a lie of the "first water." The N. Y. World shows wonderful aptitude in dignifying its news fabrications. 32 NEUTRALITY GERMAN GENERAL SHOT AT LIEGE The N. Y. World, Aug. 16, 1914. The N. Y. "World came to the conclusion that a dead German was a good German. At any rate, the publication of General Von Emmich 's picture gave the American people a good opportunity to observe the face of what is apparently a very strong char- acter. It might also be observed that this strong character seems to be the typical face of German officers. Apparently, German militarism develops "some" strong character. As the photographs were taken long after the above date, Von Emmich must have risen from his grave to attend this jollifi- cation. *^B» ^i S *:& jBjt • i - ^SEipygl ■ ^HB ' *?*T^Sr ■ :W f . - .. _ 1 General von Emmich. *Dec 20th, 1915 General von Emmich Toasting His Fellow Officers at a Celebration of His Victory. LIEGE FORTS STILL HOLD OUT, PARIS IS TOLD. The N. T. World, Aug. 19, 1914. This is exactly ten days after the fall of Liege. Apparently the wish was the father of this headline. Poor Paris, she has been told many things since. Another headline states: THREE MORE ZEPPELINS HAVE BEEN DESTROYED IN BELGIUM If it would have stated 300, it would have been equally true. *Since these lines were written Gen'l Von Emmich died. (Ed. Note). NEUTEALITY 33 GERMANS LOSE 20,000 IN LIEGE TRAP. The N. Y. Tribune, Aug. 11, 3914. This was, of course, fiction pure and simple. The Tribune seems to make of this war a specialty of fiction. No wonder Richard Harding Davis was at that time its chief correspondent. BELGIAN RESISTANCE FORCES GERMANS TO MAKE WIDE DETOUR NORTH OF LIEGE The N. T. Tribune, Aug. 15, 1915. GERMANS ARE IN RETREAT AFTER ANOTHER VAIN ASSAULT AT LIEGE These headlines were published five days after Liege was captured, and the Tribune itself published previously the real account. This is presumably the significance contained in the clause of doubt. GERMANS RUSH FORTS AT LIEGE WITH GRENADES The N. Y. Sun. This is a headline from the Sun, of August 15, 1914. It shows that the Sun, together with its neighbor, the Tribune, was still carrying on the attack upon Liege five days after its capture. Apparently, the Sun used English or Russian artillery, or perhaps both, in its attack. The next lie is about a mysterious battle which was fought in the North Sea between the British and German fleets. Of course, this battle had been "devoutedly" wished for by the British, but for some reason or other, the "rats," as Mr. Win- ston Churchill has called them, have not seen fit to come out of their holes. Of course, in this plan, the Germans again failed to consult with our newspaper strategists — and as a result, they were left high and dry with this announcement of naval victory fought and won. 34 NEUTRALITY THE GREAT BRITISH AND GERMAN FLEETS ARE FIGHTING IN THE NORTH SEA AND LON- DON HEARS THAT ENGLAND IS WINNING The N. Y. Herald, Aug. 7, 1914. This report goes into more detail. It reads: " Dispatches from London say that the big fight of the cen- turies is on, the information coming to London press from the Admirality, which, however, later on refused either to confirm or deny the report. Presence of wounded men in port prove that an engagement, possibly decisive, is being fought." The motive for this report was the announcement that the British cruiser Amphion was sunk by a mine, causing a loss of 131 men. BRITISH CRUISER STRIKES MINE —131 OF CREW ARE LOST The N. Y. Sun, Aug. 7, 1914. NINETEEN GERMAN WARSHIPS REPORTED SUNK IN BATTLE The Sun contained a more specific report of this mysterious battle, which was never fought. It stated that "nineteen" Ger- man warships were reported sunk, in its headlines, and it also stated "that fishermen tell of fighting between Germans and British." It might be observed, that fishermen don't always tell the truth. But apparently, in this particular instance, the Sun was much impressed with their veracity. The report of this battle is one of the most remarkable fabrications of New York's journalistic perversity of the war. CHAPTER VIII Traitorous Italy. GERMANY AND AUSTRIA NOW THREATEN WAR ON ITALY The N. Y. World, Aug. 9, 1914. One of the most persistent sources of falsehoods during the present war has been the attitude of Italy up to May 23rd, 1915, when Italy actually declared war on Austria-Hungary. Here we have a headline of August 9th, stating that Germany and Austria, now threaten war on Italy. This was another lie made out of whole cloth. The Sun has repeatedly fixed the date of Italy's entrance into the conflict, but apparently the Ital- ians waited 10 months before they decided to gratify the editor of the Sun. These newspaper reports about Italy furnish us a successful contrast with the similar reports circulated by England concerning our own affairs prior to the War of 1812. In 1791 William Short wrote to Thomas Jefferson that: "It is published in the English newspapers that war is inevitable between the United States and Spain, and that prep- arations were being made every day on both sides." To which Jefferson replied: "It would be an impossible task for us to go through the London newspapers and formally contradict all their lies, even those relating to America, On our side there has certainly been no preparations made for war against Spain, nor have I heard of any on their part but in the London newspapers. ' ' Apparently, the manufacturing of lies is an old and favorite industry of England, and — it has justly been suggested — a very profitable one. ITALY, THROUGH A SECRET PACT, WOULD FIGHT FOR THE ENGLISH The N. Y. World, Aug. 23, 1914. It is well known now that English money caused Italy to break its treaty with her Allies and friends, though thi3 headline is dated as early as August 23rd. That historical crime which will be of everlasting shame to Italy didn't take place until 35 36 NEUTRALITY nine months later, which proves again the veracity of the New York papers. The Green Book, published by the Italian Government, in justification of her brutal attack on her loyalty to Austro- Hungary, is a most ridiculous document. Therein the world is told that Austria had disregarded her treaty obligations by declaring war on Servia without simultaneously offering Italy territorial compensation — since, according to the treaty of alli- ance, an extension of Austro-Hungarian territory in the Balkans was only to take place after consultation with Italy. Such cant S Such hypocrisy surpasses even that of the English. The man in the street has won! English and French money have won, and have dragged into the dust the honor of a nation which will be stained forever. History will judge! It does not for- get. Poor misled, misguided Italian people! For things which they might have ob- tained without a single blow, they're now making the heaviest sacrifices in life in blood and money, simply to please corrupt statesmen, hired agents and a morally corrupt, degenerate poet in the hire of the English. Italy's dastardly, and in history almost unparalleled, crime of declaring war against her former loyal and true ally of Austro-Hungary is the more to be condemned, as it was only a few months before the outbreak of the war, or to be more pre- cise, on the 16th of March, 1914, when the King of Italy, on board of the German Imperial Yacht Hohenzollern in the Bay of Naples, toasted the German Emperor in the following words: 1 ■ My people and I recognize and greet in your majesty the loyal, true and staunch friend. The ties which for so many years fortunately and happily united our two countries with that of our illustrious ally and friend, Austro-Hungary, were up to this day the mightiest bulwark for the peace of Europe ! ' ' And when, on the 2nd of August, 1914, the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, Francis Joseph I, notified Italy that in con- The Stab in the Back. NEUTRALITY 37 sequence of the Russian mobilization, Austria-Hungary is forced to mobilize its army, King Victor Emanuel wired back, that, respecting his treaty with the Triple Alliance, Italy will main- tain toward her ally "a hearty and friendly attitude.' ' The "hearty, friendly attitude" consisted in stabbing Austria-Hun- gary in the back, by declaring war on her, when she was mostly distressed. The next events of importance are the reports in the press of Germany's marvelous advance through Belgium and France, culminating in a tremendous drive or thrust forward to a point southeast of Paris. It is now known that in this advance the French and British retreat was a veritable rout. CHAPTER IX 1 ' Offensive Victories. ' ' FRENCH CHECK GERMANS WITH HEAVY LOSS IN BELGIUM The N. Y. World, Aug. 17, 1914. At this time the French, considering that discretion was the better part of valor, were falling back in precipitate flight. ALLIES TAKE OFFENSIVE IN 100-MILE BATTLE. The N. T. World, Aug. 24, 1914. This statement was directly contrary to the facts, except that all their " offensives " before and after the above date and headline were very " offensive " to their own people and armies. Just let's remember Neuve Chappelle and the offensive at Loos. ENGLISH HELD LINE UNTIL FRENCH GAVE WAY. The N. Y. World, Aug. 25, 1914. It is remarkable how about 85,000 English soldiers could hold their ground, while about a million and a half of French- men were compelled to run away. It was news of this character which was sent broadcast by British news agencies, which almost caused dissension between England and France. France refused to permit British news agencies to libel the valor of her troops. 38 NEUTRALITY When the authentic news of the French retreat was pub- lished, it appeared that the British troops, being on the left, ran faster than their French allies. During this retreat the newspaper headlines read: RETREAT BECAME MORE GLORIOUS THAN VICTORY Although the honors of the war were apparently with the Germans, by reason of their advance, the newspapers of New York did not hesitate to give them to the Allies. A feature of this headline is, that it does not indicate which French it referred to — whether to General French, Commander of the English army, or his ally, the French soldier. "If You See It in the Sun It's So" — so she tells us in a very funny headline of August 14th: TOMMY ATKINS IN RETREAT IS A FINE FIGHTER. We readily believe that — Tommy Atkins always fights in the rear. Let the poor little Belgian or "Frenchy" do the fight- ing in the front. ' ' After you, my dear Alphonse. ' ' BELGIAN LEFT WING CRUSHES GERMAN FORCES IN THE OPENING ENGAGEMENT OF BATTLE FOR PASSAGE TO FRANCE The N. Y. Herald, Aug. 13, 1914. This statement was directly the contrary to the actual fact. PARIS SAYS THE GERMAN ATTACK HAS BEEN CRUSHED AND DRIVEN BACK IN THE OPENING ATTACK OF THE ALLIES' ARMIES The N. Y. Herald, Aug. 16, 1914. This must have come from Mr. James Gordon Bennett him- self, the owner of the New York Herald, who resides in Paris. No doubt, Mr. Bennett preferred this headline to the actual fact, which was that the French battle front was crushed and driven back by the opening attack of the Germans. Considering the fact that Mr. James Gordon Bennett — after expatriating himself — has lived in Paris for the past thirty-five years, publishing a very successful paper there, it would be rank ingratitude on his part not to talk and write as he does. "Loyalty" to our friends and benefactors is a commendable virtue, and Mr. Bennett is practicing it to the best of his ability. The Battle of the Marne was in reality not a battle as de- scribed by the press. This fact becomes clearer daily. A study NEUTRALITY 39 of the German advance in the light of their present positions in- dicates that the German advance was a thrust forward on the left flank of the Allies to force back their lines for the purpose of compelling them to uncover the impregnable positions the Germans now occupy and have occupied since their withdrawal from the Marne. It is clear now that the German strategy comprehended first the obtaining, and latterly the holding of the present lines and to fortify them for the purpose of resistance — whilst it at- tacked England by way of the Straits of Dover, and protected itself from Russia on its east front. At the present time Germany holds one-sixth of France, including its greatest manufacturing districts, its greatest min- eral resources, and its great champagne industry. The burden of the offensive is, therefore, upon France and her ally. This they have not been able to maintain, as one knows. As a result of the successful strategy on the part of Germany all the deso- lation and devastation of war have been inflicted upon foreign, and not on German soil, as per N. Y. Herald report, reading : GRAND DESOLATION, NARROW DEFILE BETWEEN VERDUN AND MONTMEDY AFFORDS ONLY AVENUE OF ESCAPE FOR GERMANS The withdrawal of the German army from the Marne was and is a remark- able achievement, so all mili- tary experts agreed. It was accomplished with compara- tively small losses and with practically no disorder. The fact that Von Kluck's army drove east and south of Paris indicates that its objective was not Paris, but the occu- pation of the present Ger- man line. If, of the retreats reported in cur papers, one- tenth were true, the eastern army by this time would be camping in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. The personality of Gen- eral Von Kluck is a living refutation of the accusations General von Kluck. 40 NEUTRALITY that the German army is not a democratic institution. Von Kluck is the son of a humble, poor letter carrier, and a self- made man in every sense of the word. It was unfortunate that he was wounded, but from latest reports, he 's well again. CHAPTER X Crown Prince and Press Bullets. Here is the way the German withdrawal from, the Marne was reported by the New York press : LONDON HEARS THAT GERMAN CROWN PRINCE AND THE IMPERIAL GUARD ARE ANNIHILATED The N. T. Herald, Sept. 8, 1914. The German Crown Prince is still very much alive and the Im- perial Guard is yet in existence. The killing of the Crown Prince has been a very pleasant enterprise of our Press, and according to their reports, the Crown Prince would have to have the nine lives of a cat to survive the many deaths that have been attributed to him since the beginning of the war, and yet at the present mo- ment he is well and in good spirits at the head of his army in France. YOU CAN HAVE 24 HOURS TO GET OUT OF FRANCE The N. Y. Herald, Sept. 9, 1914. CROWN PRINCE FRIEDRICH WILHELM. This was an ultimatum by Mons. James Gordon Bennett of the Paris Herald to Germany. Mons. Bennett must have felt bad that morning ; maybe one of his dogs got sick ! The headline was published under date of September 9th. Well, the 24-hour limit has long since expired, and Germany's soldiers are still there ! This may account for the reason why NEUTRALITY 41 the Herald and its pink sister — the ' ' Tel-a-lie-gram ' ' — have declared war on Germany, German-Americans, Hungarians, IrishAmericans, and all lovers of truth and justice. DEFEAT OF KAISER'S RIGHT BECOMES ROUT— BATTERED, BEATEN, BROKEN The N. T. Herald, Sept. 12, 1914. Lying by prose evidently became ineffective to the Ananias headliner of the Herald, so he resorted to alliteration — "poetica licentia" — one of the prerogatives of poetry. It must be ob- served that at no time during a retreat of the French or British, or both, did the newspapers publish such a decisive and peremp- tory headline, such as we have here. It cannot be said that this headline shows a "neutral" spirit, particularly in view of the fact that the withdrawal of the Ger- mans from the Marne was conducted in an orderly manner, and was not in any sense a retreat such as characterized the with- drawal of the French, English and Belgians from Belgium and Northern France. GERMAN CROWN PRINCE IS REPORTED DEAD. The N. T. Herald, Sept. 13, 1914. This is another announcement by the Herald that the Crown Prince has been killed again. MAD BULL DASH TO VICTORY OR DESTRUCTION, FLIGHT OR CAPTURE The N. Y. Herald, Sept. 14, 1914. This is an announcement of the Kaiser's fate. His only open courses are a "ma,d bull dash to victory, or destruction, flight or capture. ' ' Apparently, the Kaiser has means of escape which are unknown to the Allies. PALL OF GLOOM HANGS OVER GERMAN PEOPLE ; SOCIALISTS WOULD DETHRONE KAISER The N. T. Herald, Sept. 15, 1914. Funny stuff — isn 't it ? Both of these statements are wild and ridiculous falsehoods. At no time have the German people lost confidence in their ruler, and of all the German people who have been loyal and faithful to the Kaiser, the Socialists are the most loyal. 42 NEUTEALITY BRITANNIA RULES THE AIR AS WELL AS THE SEA. The N. Y. Herald of same date. Americans are very much in doubt as to the truth of this statement at the present time, in view of the marvelous exploits of German submarines ; the sinking of the battleships Audacious and Formidable, of the Lusitania, Arabic, Hesperia, and hun- dreds of other ships ; and the recent visits of Zeppelins and aero- planes to Dover, Dunkirk, Whitby, Scarborough, Hartlepool, and last, but not least, to ' c deah old London. ' ' CHAPTER XI The Kaiser. Americans all read the outrageous and slanderous, highly insulting reports that have been printed in this our so-called "neutral" press about the Kaiser. It will be to the everlasting shame of the vilifiers of this great arid noble man and monarch, to the everlasting disgrace of those papers that gave space and opportunity to the infamous attacks of these pro-British sym- pathizers, who place the entire responsibility for this deplorable war on the shoulders of the German Emperor. They who hold this view claim that the German Emperor wanted the Avar. They compare him to Napoleon, who tried to conquer the world a hundred years ago. They call him the great "War-Lord," the permanent menace of peace, the com- mon enemy of all civilized nations. This view at one time was held by a large part of the public and the press of this country. Even one of the professional apostles of Christian love, Dr. C. H. Parkhurst, of New York, expressed this view in the most drastic terms in one of our dailies. According to him, the German Emperor "ought to be shot, as a policeman shoots a mad dog. The German nation should be annihilated. Her claws should be clipped and her teeth filed and enough of her fortifications dismantled to render her harmless, and as heavy a war indemnity imposed as will drive her to absolute penury." That men of the cloth, like this leap-frogging, candy-peddling Parkhurst, clothed in the respectable garment of a Protestant Minister, should have the impudence to use the expression he did, in regard to the Kaiser, ought only fill with disgust and contempt everybody, and particularly the members of the church where their minister officiates. yf- WILHELM II. NEUTRALITY 43 The author hopes that the reader will bear with him in his efforts to show what some great writers some of our papers and some of the vilifiers had to say about this very same Kaiser be- fore this war broke out. Mr. Aleister Crowley, the great English writer and poet, says: "It was my purpose to expose the infamous pretense, which, however, is not too inane to dupe even clean-sighted Englishmen in their hysteric hour — the pretense that the Kaiser is a "mad dog," a homicidal maniac, a man like Nebuchadnez- zer in the Hebrew fable, or like ' ' Attila, the scourge of God, ' ' or Tamerlane. ■ It is a lie. The Kaiser has always been, and is to- day, a man of peace. He has indeed lived up to the maxim ' ' Si vis pacem, para bellum," and, loaded with the legacy of hate which the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine had thrust upon his shoulders, he could do no less without offering the breast of Ger- many to the ravisher. A lamb to the slaughter, indeed, with La Revanche in every mouth ! What could he do, with men yet alive who remembered Jena and the ceaseless raids and ravages of Bonaparte? But in a hundred crises he kept his head; he kept the peace. He had plenty of chances to smash France forever ; he did not take them. An ambitious prince might have put a relative on the throne of Louis XIV while France was torn by the Boulanger affair, the Panama scandal, the Dreyfus horror, when Diogenes might have gone through France with a modern searchlight for his lantern without finding a single man who was not a traitor to his country, or at least to the Republic, and the most trust- worthy man of affairs was he, who could be trusted to put the ' ' double-cross ' ' on every one. The Kaiser never stirred. It would have been easy to destroy the Russian menace at the time, when Japan was straining the sinews of the Tartar giant, or when the Moscow Revolution showed that the Tsar could not trust his own soldiers, and the Imperial Guard, hastily summoned from St. Petersburg, shut up the garrison of Mos- cow in the Kremlin, trained their own guns upon them, and disarmed them. The Kaiser did nothing. He kept tlie peace." Thus an eminent Englishman's view of the Kaiser. But he's not alone in his land to hold such view. The Archbishop of York, addressing a mass meeting in London, stated: "I resent exceedingly the gross and vulgar way in which the German Emperor has been treated in British newspapers, particularly in some of our 44 NEUTRALITY comic papers. I have a personal memory of the Em- peror, very sacred to me, which makes me feel that it is with great reluctance that he felt himself compelled to accept the fact that owing to the conduct of our ministers, he had involved himself in war with England, and I believe I still can speak with admiration and charity about the great German people and its exalted ruler." Whom will Americans rather believe — the Archbishop of London or that " candy" minister of Madison Square? In the 1915 January issue of the Sunset Magazine appeared an article by Sir Gilbert Parker, one of England's foremost and celebrated writers. In this article Sir Gilbert writes: 1 ' The maker of this world war is the Kaiser and the Kaiser is mad. I do not mean that he is a lunatic, but I do mean that he's the victim of Megalomania, an advertising agent and a Bombastos Furioso, " etc., etc., and continuing in this strain the article covers several pages. In 1913, in June, the same Sir Gilbert Parker had this to say about the same Kaiser: "The highest praise that I can offer concerning Emperor William II is that Tie would have made as good a King of England as our history has provided, and as good a President of the United States as any since George Washington. It was said of the Emperor William that he was mediaeval in his war spirit, but he has proved himself to be a modern keeper of the peace. The world owes the Emperor William a debt of gratitude. He might have found cause to reap advan- tage from European embroilment of his own making, but he has proved himself among the most civilized internationally patriotic of rulers," Quite another story, isn't it? CHAPTER XII The Kaiser a Shining Example of Labor, Prayer and Purpose. Lord Argyle, the great Englishman and a most intimate friend of his King, George the Fifth, speaking at a meeting in London, said: "The German Emperor's life has been worthy of his father and of his mother, and no higher praise can be rendered in grateful acknowledgment of a great career— great with the abounding blessings of peace through steadfastly striv- ing for strength, and duty done for his people and his justice to NEUTRALITY 45 his neighbors. This generation of Germans has good reason to be proud and to love their patriotic Emperor." Last, but not least, let us quote another popular English- man, the well known author and playwright, philanthro- pist, Jewish leader and so-called " empire-builder, ' ' Mr. Israel Zangwill. He's credited also with having been mainly instru- mental in forming a distinctly Jewish regiment, composed of the most intelligent Jews of London. Mr. Zangwill is the leader of the great Zionist movement, purporting the establishment of the new Jewish kingdom in Palestine. Mr. Zangwill is very much thought of in England, not only as a great literary genius, but also as a patriot. He's equally well known in America and there are few of us who have not read his works or saw his play, "The Melting Pot," so success- fully produced in New York City. In an article contributed to the New York American on January 16, 1915, he characterizes the Kaiser a "Shining Example of Labor, Prayer and Purpose." One wonders what the English thought of Zangwill after the publication of that article, and his American Jewish friends wonder also whether he'll offer the Jewish throne in Jerusalem to one of his Cossack friends. It has been suggested that the publisher of the New York Times is an eminently fit person for the job. "Adolphus" I. is a good Jew and seems to know much about how to run empires. Times readers are sure he could ably fill the job, and what he does not know he may learn from his ally and friend, Nicolaus the First of Petrograd, Managing Director of "Pogrom & Co., Unlimited — chartered and financed in London for the exploitation of a special brand of civiliza- tion and liberty. Marconi shares taken in exchange ! ! " Some of our American editors and American statesmen had, prior to the outbreak of this war, their own ideas and opinions about this "monster" called the Kaiser. An editorial from our neutral N. Y. Sun may be of timely interest. And we all know "if it's in the Sun it's so." The editorial appeared April 16, 1906. It's entitled: "The United States arid Germany." It- reads as follows: "A profound impression seems to have been produced in Germany by the speech made by Mr. Roosevelt the other day to German veterans in Washington, the speech in the course of which he recognized the sincere love of peace attested by the German Emperor through his representatives at the Morocco Conference. 46 NEUTRALITY " There is no doubt that the President's (Roosevelt) cordial and laudatory words reflected the feeling of the great body of his countrymen, which has undergone a signal change since events have indicated that there is no reason to impute schemes of aggression and conquest to the German sovereign. Of antip- athy to the Germans as a people — or to their Emperor William, there has never been a trace in the United States. "If we except the English, the Scotch and the Irish, there are no human beings so closely allied to us by blood, language, literature, institutions, laws and customs as are the natives of the Fatherland; while, as for their sovereign, we scarcely need recall the fact that English is his mother tongue. But while naturally we should be drawn to the Germans by so many affini- ties, we have been for a time repelled by the suspicion that Emperor William II was a menace to the peace of the world. ' l Nor would he assert, we imagine, that there is no pretext for the distrust. The seizure and retention of Kiaochau bore wit- ness to a, Far Eastern policy diametrically opposed to our own wish to uphold the political independence and territorial integ- rity of China. (The Sun may be more contented now since Kiaochau is in the hands of the Japs. — Author's note.) "There has also been a disposition, perhaps unjust, on this side of the Atlantic, to hold the Emperor responsible for the avowed desire of the German colonial party to acquire a foot- hold in the New World either by the purchase of an island in the Caribbean, or by the assumption of a protectorate over the large German settlement in the Brazilian province of Rio Grande de Sal. "It is -also true that we have shared to a certain extent the misgivings entertained in France, at the time when most of Russia's military strength had been diverted to the further end of Asia, lest the German sovereign should seize the opportunity to gain possession of Holland or by some other high handed act upset the balance of power in Europe. "For these reasons we viewed with satisfaction the estab- lishment of an 'Entente cordiale' between France and Great Britain, together with the growing disposition of Italy to treat the Triple Alliance as a dead letter and to cast in her lot with the French Republic. "It was not, however, that Americans liked the Germans less, but that they loved peace more. As we look back over the past two years, we must admit that there was but little NEUTRALITY 47 ground for the uneasiness with which we weighed the utter- ances and watched the movements of the Emperor William II. "Had that sovereign really been actuated by the lawless and unscrupulous ambition which impelled Frederick the Great to ravish the Austrian province of Silesia, he would have laid his grasp on Holland or crossed the French frontier within a week after the battle of Mukden. That was the psychological moment. , , "None knew it better than himself, and beyond a doubt he would have turned it to account had he held human life and international peace as lightly as he was accused of holding them. The fact that he put away temptation, though it came to him in most seductive guise, should have convinced fair- minded onlookers that William II is not only a great man; he is a good man." . , Thus the Sun in 1906. Most of us are well acquainted with what the Sun of 1914 and 1915 thinks, said and published about this very same Kaiser of 1906. The author's personal regard for the Sun forbids him to make any comments about the con- temptible conduct it has shown towards the Kaiser and his people in this great crisis, and he leaves it to the readers of the Sun to be the judges of the paper's double-faced attitude and policy. CHAPTER XIII T. R. The above quoted editorial was based upon a speech made by Theodore Roosevelt, who was at that time our President. In view of the recent utterances of this man, it may be interesting to us to know what he thought and said of the Kaiser. The "Tough Rider" of San Juan Hill said: "The one man outside this country from ivhom I obtained help bringing about the peace of Portsmouth teas his Majesty, William II. From no other nation did I receive any assistance, but the Emperor, personally, was of real aid in helping to induce Russia to face the accomplished fact and come to an agreement with Japan — an agreement the justice of which to both sides was conclusively shown by the fact that neither side was satisfied with it. This was a real help to the cause of inter- national peace, a contribution that far outweighed any amount of mere talk about it in the abstract, for in this, as in all other 48 N E U T E A L I T Y matters, an ounce of performance is worth a ton of promise." Thus spoke President Roosevelt in 1906. Eight years later the private citizen Roosevelt, when he opened his mouth, proved himself to be a cheap blatherskite, unprincipled demagogue and worthy president and founder of the Ananias Club. There's a Hungarian proverb which says : ' ' From a foolish hole a fool- ish wind blows." As Roosevelt likes the Hungarians and in fact everything Hungarian, including their ' ' goulash, ' ' he 11 also appreciate the above quotation. In Roosevelt's opera bouffe heroics the world discerns again the fantastic vaporings of the reincorporated General Bourn of Offenbach of comic opera fame. The only vestige of dignity retained by him is the memory that he at one time filled the presidential office. His gross igno- rance is graphically exposed by a paper fighting on his side now, the New York Sun, which takes him to task for preaching the doctrine that the United States are committed to go to war with Germany because of their obligations under the Hague treaty, when, as a matter of fact, France and England refused to sign the articles whose obligations Col. Roosevelt says we have failed ''with criminal timidity" to fulfill. Col. Roosevelt, who has time and time again been accused by the press and his fellow-citizens of "stealing" the Panama Canal Zone from Colombia and who, repeatedly, declared that the Kaiser liad done more to bring about peace between Russia and Japan than any otlier man, has since had intermittent relapses into fits of abuse directed against the Kaiser for invading Bel- gium, and is now busy raising an army to rush to the aid of England as soon as Wall Street and the Money Trust give the signal for war. Roosevelt and his paladins, Root, Lodge, Bacon, Choate, Ben- nett, and the rest, are secretly agitating for war, and have prom- ised that when England has been sufficiently weakened to need help, the United States will come to her rescue with her fleet. Oh, yes, she will ! ! "With ' ' Admiral ' ' Roosevelt on the bridge, navigating the River of Doubt. Without knowing it, those of the Americans who are in active sympathy with the German and Austro-Hungarian cause may have good reason to thank Providence that Theodore Roosevelt is not now the tenant of the White House in Wash- ington. This rough citizen's remarkable change of attitude toward Germany, an attitude popularly supposed to be one of sincere NEUTRALI T Y 49 appreciation of German culture and friendship for the German Emperor, to one of pronounced antagonism, marked by clam- orous appeals to the passion of the American people, over the violation of Belgium neutrality, is clearly explained by the light of these revelations, for, of course, as ex-president he must know of the coalition against Germany, and he must have admitted Prof. Eliot, Prof. Usher and ex- Ambassador Bacon into his confidence. Prof. Usher was formerly assistant Professor of History at Harvard, and there we have the connection one with the other. This, too, may explain the passage in Bryan's letter to Count Bernstorff of April 22, 1915: "That the relations of the two Governments with one another cannot wisely be made a subject of discussion with a third government, which cannot be fully in- formed as to the facts, and which cannot be fully cognizant of the reasons for the course pursued." Neither can the plain American people be made fully cog- nizant of what's going on in the White House— though we're supposed to have a government of the people, for the people and^by the people! Empty phrases and hollow mockery!! President Wilson has declared not once only, but many times, that the voice of the plain people could not he heard in Washington; that the truth is seldom heard in those political circles ; that the environment is highly unfavorable to any right appreciation of the common people's desires and opinions. That is the truth. And never was that more true than in this critical time. But the plain people have not forgotten that counsel. They remember that advice. They believe in it. They adhere to it. "Not in Washington, amid the jealousies and f awnings and schemings of paid agents and flexible politicians; not in the rooms of clubs and the corridors of glittering hotels ; not in the board rooms, where rich directors knock knees under the mahog- any ; not in newspapers whose owners are knit by ties of finance and matrimony to aristocracies and huge interests across the sea; not in such environments is heard the true voice of the American people. ' ' That voice is heard in the shop, in the street car, at the factory door, in the village street, in the farm house, and where men in the homely garb of labor meet to talk and to conjecture. Let him who would hear what the voice of the workers has to say in this time of anxiety, go among the men who work. 50 N E U T R A L I TT There stands the record — Lexington and Bunker Hill and Valley Forge and Saratoga and Yorktown and New Orleans and the long roster that begins with Manassas and ends with Appomattox, and recites those fields of battle upon which our fathers struggled with one another until all the world stood still and amazed to see their dauntless and equal valor. Let these memories penetrate the foggj^, muddled and fever- struck brain of that "has been" of Oyster Bay. One may just as well dismiss him, with the public statement of Mr. Garri- son, Secretary of War, in which he relates that one night in a dingy railway station in western Nebraska, he heard four rough and rugged ranchmen, who had just got a newspaper, discussing the "Garrison and Eoosevelt controversy." Finally, one of them said: "Teddy reminds me of an old bull on my ranch. He has but one eye and one horn. He can 't fight, but he bellows all the time. ' ' CHAPTER XIV Hyphen Defies Roosevelt. The ' ' Irish Voice ' ' says : "T. R. left the jungle of South Africa some time ago and came to America. Whilst in the jungle he mingled with bray- ing, rip-roaring, shrieking animals and he has been braying, rip- roaring and shrieking ever since. His latest roar was to the effect that America should enter the European war on the side of his dearly beloved "Kink." His latest shriek was that the "Hypenated American must go." . . . If T. R. knows anything about the history of the German and Irish- Americans in America, he knows that they were ever the most loyal defenders and the most sterling citizens of which America can truly boast. This is American history and on this ground they fear no man, much less a 'Teddy.' . . This modern Falstaff, who lied about the River of Doubt, who hunted wild game in Africa well guarded by lion tamers, moving picture cameras and pale-faced Anglo-Hottentots, was a political accident. Of all the Presidents, he was positively the worst. He is a political swashbuckler who is again attempt- ing to wade to his desire through seas of mud. He has long posed as a 'man of blood and iron,' but it's known he has been nearer the man of Tennessee coal and iron. " . . . It's no wonder that he yells for the Allies. It's due to one of their creatures, the Russian Czolgosz — who killed McKinley — what made Roosevelt President. NEUTRALITY 51 "We have heard enough of Eoosevelt. He would prefer calling 'Buck' O'Neill, the real hero of San Juan Hill, an Anglo- Saxon instead of an Irish- American, not giving America the benefit of the hyphenation. The Afro-American troops which saved the Rough Rider Regiment from extermination and gave Roosevelt a chance to shoot fleeing Spaniards in the back, he would prefer to call 'niggers.' Because the 'Hyphens' believe in and fight for these truly American things, ' T. R. ' says they are a menace to America and must go. Not wishing to give them a. chance to go the way of their people who fought for and helped to build America, he shouts : "To h with you. ' ' This politician of the township of Oyster Bay held office from the time he quit school till the country kicked him out good and hard and had he possessed one grain of modesty, had not his hide been thicker than the hide of a rhinoceros, he would have stayed where he was kicked. And to think that this fel- low's mug done in oil adorns the clubroom of a Hungarian re- publican club — and to think that Hungarian and German voters voted for him ! — God forgive them ! Having learned the views of one ex-President on the Kaiser, permit us to quote the view of another ex-President — that of Wm. H. Taft. Mr. Ta,ft said: "The truth of history requires the verdict that, considering the critically important part which has been Emperor William's among the nations, he has been, for the last quarter of a century, the greatest single individual force in the practical maintenance of peace in the world. ' ' Pretty good testimonials, and ought to be accepted in any court of jurymen composed of decent, intelligent and honest Americans. As for the cheap, vulgar language exercised in some of our press in denouncing the Kaiser, it can only be said that the Emperor can well stand such vituperation, since it is deeds that count, not violent, vulgar words. For William II, by his broad patriotism and keen intelligence, in agriculture, municipal organization, manufactures and commerce, in the Empire's power to fight efficiently and defend itself at this juncture from six belligerent powers — maintaining at the same time half a century of absolute peace — he, reviled, and traduced and equally adored, Jias done for the prosperity of Germany more than any one man, hardly excepting Father Washington himself, for these United States. . . . CHAPTER XV Francis Joseph I. "Chevalier sans Peur et sans Eeproche." Praise and justice is due to the venerable, noble ally and friend, the Emperor and King of Austro-Hungary. Francis Joseph enjoys the benefits of a situation created and strengthened by his predecessors. Since a youth of eighteen — he ascended the throne in 1848 — he has won the hearts of his subjects. He has slied the seeds of kindness and lias reaped the •most magnificent harvest of love that ever surrounded a popular monarch. It is not easy tp sum up the venerable monarch 's qualities ; the most striking are his chivalrous spirit, his high sense of duty combined with admirable self-denial for the good of his people, his broad-minded conceptions of social and political evolution, Ms tolerance for human shortcomings, save such as are contrary to the principles of honor. Francis Joseph might aptly be described as the last crowned knight. In many respects, his ideals are those of the times when the "chevalier sans peur et sans reproche" incorporated all that was noble and worthy in the eyes of our forefathers; yet, he has understood the requirements of modern life and whatever his own inclinations may have been, he has promoted and encouraged changes which enabled Austria-Hungary to keep apace with the nations of Western Europe in all fields of civilization, culture, liberty and activity. 52 i'i iii i i i ii ii i iM i ii i i i iiii w nw MMK FRANCIS JOSEPH I. CHAPTER XVI Fish Stories. GERMAN RIGHT AND CENTRE BOTH IN RETREAT BEFORE ALLIES FORCED TO ABANDON WOUNDED BRITISH CAPTURE 11 GUNS. This is from the Sun of September 12th, and one notes the great importance which the Sun gives to rather vague and gen- eral news. A little later it will be shown, for the purpose of contrast, how the papers announced the fall of Maubeuge with 40,000 prisoners and 400 cannon. An intensely funny headline in the New York Sun of Sep- tember 5th reads: CZAR STARTS 800,000 MEN TOWARD BERLIN. The only redeeming feature of the asininity of this headline artist is that it's true. Most of the 800,000 men have reached Berlin — as prisoners of war— along with another million more who started later, but the Sun has evidently forgotten to chron- icle the arrival of them in the gay capital of Emperor William. There is a daily in New York Avhieh, because its newspaper publishing does not pay, tries to enrich its exchequer by selling fish. Hence also the abundance of fish stories in its columns. This paper is the New York Globe. Not to be outdone by its rival, the Sun, in regard to the movement of the Czar's army towards Berlin, it announced this "fishy" story: ON TO BERLIN, CRY OF ARMY OF THE CZAR. AFTER CROSSING THE VISTULA, VICTORIOUS RUS- SIANS WILL GO STRAIGHT TO GERMAN CAPITAL, SAYS COL. OSNOBICHIN, RUSSIAN MILITARY AT- TACHE AT PARIS— STORY OF GERMAN RETREAT. "Paris. — Colonel Osnobichin, Russian military attache here, is quoted by the Journal as having remarked in an interview that he could say without indiscretion that other armies were about to invade western Prussia. After crossing the Vistula, he said, the Russians would march straight to Berlin. 54 NEUTRALITY In this headline from the New York Globe, the wish was father to the thought. Col. Osnobichin, sitting in Paris, an- nounced that the Russians would march straight to Berlin. They may do this yet if they keep retreating, by the simple expedient of retreating straight around the world until they back into Berlin from the west. GERMANS WHO MENACED PARIS NOW IN PRECIPITATE FLIGHT. GUNS, SUPPLIES ABANDONED The N. T. Sun, Sept. 13, 1914. This is some more exaggeration on the part of the Sun and it furnishes an excellent comparison of how the Sun headlined the German withdiawal from the Marne; in contrast with the announcement which we read before, that "Tommy Atkins was a fine fighter in retreat, ' ' characterizing the attitude of the Sun toward the British retreat — which was concededly a precipitate one. In other words, the Sun has reversed the facts in both instances. CRACKLING OF GERMAN DEFENSE MEANS RETREAT FROM FRANCE The N. Y. Sun, Sept. 22, 1914. CENTRE WEAKENS— RIGHT IN PERIL DESPITE BAY- ONET CHARGES— REPORT GEN. VON KLUCK MOVED HEADQUARTERS BACK TO MONS. This is again sensationalism in the headlines of the sup- posedly conservative Sun. It is remarkable how even those who boast of their conservatism, become wildly excited in moments of hope and speculation. It must be observed that this headline is also editorial comment. From the authentic facts of history, which we have in our possession today, we know that there was nothing in the withdrawal of the German Army from the Marne which justified such speculation. With that headline before us, it must be patent, in view of the authentic facts that we have today, that the object of pub- lishing such headlines was: First. To create a wild hysterical, unreasoned public opin- ion in favor of the Allies which would produce for them some practical benefits — by the inflaming of the American public NEUTRALITY 55 mind to such an extent as to make it possible for certain British influences in the United States to precipitate the United States into the war on the side of the Allies ; or, Second. Failing in this, to make the United States a base of supplies for the Allies to carry on their war against Germany, using the English Merchant Marine as the transports for the supplies. While these efforts have failed in the first instance, it must be conceded that they have succeeded in accomplishing their purpose in the second. The capture of Maubeuge was one of the greatest triumphs of the German army in the war. Maubeuge was one of the strongest French positions and strongholds on the Belgian fron- tier. The Germans report that in the capture of this great fortress they took 40,000 prisoners and 400 guns. It is inter- esting to observe how the New York Herald has attached to this report the clause of doubt — "Berlin says." It is remark- able how these lying newspapers refused to take responsibility for the truth. MAUBEUGE, BIG FRENCH FORTRESS ON THE BELGIAN FRONTIER, TAKEN, BERLIN SAYS The N. Y. Herald, Sept. 10, 1914. This account was published on an inside page of the Her- ald, and furnishes an excellent illustration of how the news- papers have minimized the reports of great German victories. According to accepted rules in newspaper offices, this account should have been printed — particularly in view' of the standard set by the papers in announcing Allied questionable victories on the front page — in big black headlines. Knowing the so-called "neutrality" of our papers, it does not require a great effort of the imagination to picture the size of the headlines which would have announced to the American people a similar victory on the part of the Allies. MAUBEUGE FALLEN, BERLIN REPORTS. This is a headline from the New York Tribune. It was lo- cated on the fourth page. The Tribune has treated this news with the same contempt as the Herald. Apparently, the news- papers have an agreement upon this matter, or, if not an agree- ment, a mutual feeling which is as effective as a perfect under- standing. 56 NEUTRALITY The Tribune is manifestly a pro-British newspaper. In order to indicate this point, one has only to read the speech of the late Whitelaw Reid, owner of the New York Tribune, made before a Chamber of Commerce dinner in London, in which he said: "The time has visibly drawn near when solidarity of race t if not of government, is to prevail." There are other parts of this speech indicating that the Tribune has allied itself on this side of the propaganda, hav- ing for its object the destruction of the sovereignty of the United States and the creation of a new world empire known as "The British- American Union. " It is not, therefore, a matter of surprise that the New York Tribune deliberately falsifies reports of Allied defeats and minimizes German victories. CHAPTER XVII Dum-Bum Bullets. All will remember the consternation that was created throughout the entire civilized world when it became known that "Dum-Dum" bullets were found on the English. Of course, the English denied that they ever used "Dum- Dum" bullets and offered the cheap excuse that they could not understand how they ever happened to be given to their troops, as they were intended for game shooting. To our disgrace, be it said, it was found that the bullets were manufactured by an United States Cartridge Factory, located in Bridgeport, Conn. Mr. James O'Domiell Bennett, of the Chicago Tribune, writes in an article to his paper: "Of the 60,000 Dum-Dum bullets, I do not speak from hearsay, I helped to open and helped to photograph several boxes of these diabolical missiles. The 60,000 Dum-Dum bullets packed in reinforced boxes that were piled high in the mayor's office at Maubeuge." What is most important in this matter is the voluntary and frank confession made under oath by a colonel of the Gordon Highlanders who was captured by the Germans and on whose person as well as on others who were captured and are now prisoners in Germany, these "Dum-Dum" bullets were found. Col. Gordon testified : "It was used at Plymouth with revolver ammunition. It. was flat-nosed. As I was in doubt about it being correct am- NEUTRALITY 57 munition and being unable to obtain any information from superior authority concerning the matter, I put my revolver ammunition in the ground four days before the Mons (August 23) engagement, which was the first time I met the German Army. At the same time, I placed my revolver in my heavy baggage and never carried it again. The revolver ammuni- tion was of the same pattern as issued to me and the other officers of the Gordon Highlanders in June last to fire their annual revolver course." (Signed) W. E. Gordon, Colonel, Gordon Highlanders, A. D. C. to the King. The bullets having been found on Englishmen, the New York Times, in an article of Sunday, the 7th of February, 1915, writ- ten by Colonel La Carde, says : ' ' The Dum-Dum bullet is not so bad as it is painted. " Of course, found on the English "it is not so bad, ' ' but one can imagine how ' ' bad ' ' it would have been had it been found on German soldiers. The Times' hypocritical attitude in this dastardly crime needs no further comment. The double-facedness of this "Janus" of the American press is beyond all criticism. CHAPTER XVIII The Russian Debacle. The Russian advance in East Prussia during the early weeks of the war furnished excellent material for the headline jugglers. This is how the World described the effect upon Berlin : WEALTHY DESERT BERLIN AS VICTORIOUS RUSSIANS SWEEP THROUGH PRUSSIA The N. T. World, Aug. 27, 1914. This news item came from London. Some quotations culled from Thomas Jefferson about London, as a source of news, are very enlightening. In a letter to a Mrs. Cosway in 1786 Jef- ferson writes : "Vfhen you consider the character that is given our coun- try, by the lying newspapers of London, and their credulous copiers in other countries, when you reflect that all Europe is made to believe that we are a lawless banditti in a state of abso- 58 NEUTRALITY lute anarchy, cutting one another's throat, and plundering without distinction, how can you expect that any reasonable creature would venture among us. ' ' Apparently London has not changed in this respect, because it is picturing Germany now as it once painted our country. Upon another occasion Jefferson said, speaking of a false item of news emanating from English sources : "This, I suppose, the compilers took from English papers, tJiose infamous fountains of falsehood. It is not surprising that our newspapers continue to copy from these newspapers, although any one who knows anything of them, knows that they are written by persons who never go out of their garret or read a paper. "What the English newspapers said of remonstrances, so far as I can learn from those who would have known it, or who would have told it to me, is false, as everything is false, that these papers ever did say or ever will say. ' ' Again Jefferson said, relative to American news editors and writers : "These authors have been led into an infinitude of errors, probably by trusting to the English papers. It is impossible to resort to a more impure source." American newspaper editors will hardly fail in their duties towards their readers if they heed and follow a Jeffersonian advice. THE RUSSIANS' ADVANCE IS IRRESISTIBLE AND OVERWHELMING The N. Y. Herald, Aug. 26, 1914. That is the Herald's opinion of the Russians' advance. It will be seen a little later how it suited the German plans. It was proved by contrast, how they dignified the Russian ad- vance in great headlines, whilst they suppressed its collapse by small headlines and accounts hard to find. The most re- markable part of these news items is that it showed the pre- paredness of Russia. It is quite evident that the ability of Russia to advance any distance in East Prussia and the tem- porary inability of the Germans to prevent it, shows previous preparation on the part of Russia, which not even the method- ical and perfect German mobilization could prevent for a very short period. NEUTRALITY 59 RUSSIANS EXPECT TO OPEN ROADS TO VIENNA AND BERLIN The N. Y. Sun, Sept. 4, 1914. They were opening and closing them ' ' all right-all right, ' ' as the Germans put their Russian prisoners to build and repair roads. Perhaps the most glaring suppression of information ever practiced by American newspapers was in the case of the battle between the Germans and Russians near Tannenburg— Ortels- Dur g — Gilgenburg. Only an inkling of the extent of this conflict reached the public. Through German sources finally the news percolated that 93,000 prisoners had been taken. Finally, it became known that the Russian dead alone totaled 150,000. This battle has been described by the Imperial Chancellor as the greatest battle in the history of the world. It is as- serted that a German Army of 85,000 men under General Von Hindenburg destroyed a. Russian Army of 285,000 men, cap- tured 93,000, killing 150,000, and put the remainder to flight— with comparatively small losses. It is therefore of extreme im- portance from the American viewpoint to know how the news- papers reported this wonderful battle. The story goes that after the battle of Tannenburg the Czar put a price of 200,000 rubles on the head of General Von Hindenburg, brought to him dead or alive. When Von Hinden- burg was told of this, it is said he remarked: "I thank his Majesty, the Czar of all Russians, for his high compliment in valuing my head so dearly— I wouldn't give thirty cents for his." 30,000 RUSSIANS TAKEN, SAYS BERLIN. This is from the New York Herald of September 1st, 1914. It will be noticed that this is what might be called a minor account. It is located in the second column of the paper in a very obscure place. The Herald of September 2nd is abso- lutely silent upon this great victory, while its issue of September 3rd belittled it. GERMANS TAKE 70,000. The N. Y. Tribune, Sept. 2, 1914. Adding the clause of doubt, ' ' they say. ' ' 60 NEUTRALITY RUSSIANS ROUTED BY GERMANS IN PRUSSIA. Said the New York Tribune next day. This account was published on the second page in the middle of the second column. It will be observed that this account is a confirmation of the great German victory from the Russian General Staff and yet it was not given the right of way in the great headlines of the paper. The New York Times published the account upon the second page, bottom of fifth column. It is quite apparent that the Times, together with its contemporaries, did not desire that the American people should regard this great victory as of any importance. One can imagine the importance that would have been given to such a victory if it had been won by the Rus- sians over the Germans. Considering that the publisher of the New York Times is himself a German Jew, it has for a long time been a mystery why the New York Times has been the most active champion of the allied interests in America. The mystery has since been cleared up. The Times did not wait for Germany to violate the neutrality of Belgium before it began to open its batteries on everything German. There was no Belgian invasion when the Times began its championship of England and her allies. It was several days ahead of Sir Edward Grey's shrewd move to shift the responsi- bility for the war upon the shoulders of Germany. Everything that England and her Allies have done was and is right. With the Times it has been, consistently, not " America first," but "England first," and Germany last, as stated above. The mystery has been cleared since — just men- tion "Marconi" and see the Times get furious. In order to gain a clear conception of what the Times has done during the past shameful year, Mr. Charles A. Collman a well-known journalist and author, in an article, printed in the Fatherland, gives conclusive proof that during this war Mr. Ochs has been printing in his New York Times a daily series of ' * fake stories in furtherance of an ignoble end. " " The Turks are shooting their German officers, ' ' and ' ' There is panic in Con- stantinople. " Nobody has been trying to deceive the Times. These are all "special cable dispatches" from its English cor- respondents in Athens, Geneva, Rome, Cairo, Copenhagen, Petro- grad. NEUTRALITY 61 "But this fake news is directly contradicted by the truthful reports sent in by the neutral American correspondents of the American Associated Press. "At the very time when the lying English correspondent says that the Turkish Sultan is fleeing from Constantinople, the Sultan gives an interview in his palace in Constantinople to the American Associated Press correspondent, praising in un- measured terms the Germans, whom the English would have us believe are being "shot by the Turks." "Why does Mr. Ochs subordinate the honest American dis- patches of the Associated Press and play up the "fake" news of the venal British propaganda ? If his correspondent in Pat- erson or Albany were to send in "fake" stories, he would dis- charge him on the spot. Why then, does he not discharge his English correspondents, who have been sending him "fake" despatches ? "Is this intelligent journalism? Yes, because it is corrupt journalism. These fakes, printed in the New York Times, sus- tain the waning British credit, and incidentally sustain Mr. Ochs himself. — "There's a reason!" . . . SAY GERMANS TOOK 70,000 RUSSIANS. On Sept. 2d the Times published the above account of this great battle containing more details. This account was pub- lished upon the third page, third column. It should be noted here that the number of Russians cap- tured, according to the official reports which we have received, actually amounted to 93,000. This battle extended several days, w r hich explains the difference in figures, as reported on Sept. 1st and September 2nd. GREATEST DAY OF BATTLES IN HISTORY ENGAGES SIX MILLION MEN The N. T. Sun, Sept. 2, 1914. The Sun is one of the few papers which printed this news upon its front page. It asserted that 120,000 Russians were killed and 70,000 taken prisoners, but although the Sun apparently was much impressed with this tremendous vic- tory, it gave it only secondary importance in its headlines. 62 NEUTRALITY On September 3rd, the Sun again ran an account of this battle saying: GERMANS HAVE CAPTURED 70,000 RUSSIANS, ST. PETERSBURG SAYS It is rather interesting to study this headline. It is a veri- fication of the German report from St. Petersburg; yet, the Sun has placed it in the smallest type of all its headlines on the page. Yet the Sun was the only New York paper that print- ed an account of any eye witness of the battle. The Sun writes : 1 ' The Russian position was practically this : On the out- side the land sloped up toward the surrounding enemy : on the inside was a network of swamps and lakes; on the fourth side, escape was possible only through swamps and boggy streams. Then followed one of the most frightful battles of history, a battle which caused some of the German officers to go mad from its very horrors. The Germans closed in, concentrating a terrible fire on the Russians, who were unable to maneuver their guns, which sank in the mud. Horses and men became embogged. The nature of the region caused the Russians to break up into helpless groups, many of which forced their way further and further into the awful swamps." The Sun was the only paper to print this description and the readers of the other papers remained in ignorance of one of the most terrible scenes of warfare in human history and a Russian disaster of unparalleled magnitude up to that date. Later, worse things came, but the very worst is yet to come. When the Russians occupied Lemberg our "neutral" Press could not find adequate expression to glorify this "victory of Russian arms," which was really not a victory of arms, as Lemberg was starved out. But when later the Russians were kicked out of Lemberg by the Austrian and German forces the same New York papers sneeringly referred to the small im- portance of Lemberg as strategical importance in the Eastern Zone of the war. The New York Press, one of the Munsey publications, for instance, had this to say editorially: " While Lemberg falling more than half a year after it seemed to have come securely into possession of the Russians must be scored as a magnificent WBBMBmBBMm GENERAL VON HINDENBURG. NEUTRALITY 63 feat of Germany's matchless military machine, it cannot bring the Berlin War Party nearer the ultimate triumph, it cannot even shake off that innumerable Russian mass from the flank of Prussia itself, not to forget the shattered Austria, now less capable of self-support than before the Czar's vast armies rolled into Galicia like the sweep of the measureless sea. "The Kaiser cannot for- ever beat back the Russians with his legions in the East and fight out this war in the rest of Europe, where it must be fought out. He cannot leave the East to the guar- dianship of the helpless Aus- trians without having to per- form over again the task he is just now performing tri- umphantly in Galicia and on the Czar's frontier; for the inexhaustible Russians will come back; they will always come back. ' ' What must one think of this editorial "Boob" as a military expert ? The editor of this paper makes his annual pilgrimage to the wonderful healing springs of Carlsbad, in Austria— to have his own "shattered" health repaired. One wonders when he gets there the next time — whether he'll find the Austrians i ' helpless " to do him any good. . . . , — Philadelphia Evening Ledger. "GOOD NIGHT." CHAPTER XIX Louvain. On August 29th, the world was startled by the report that the Germans had "wantonly" burned Louvain. It afterward developed that German soldiers were slaughtered upon the streets of Louvain by the treacherous populace whose safety had been assured by the Belgian authorities. Under the rules of war the Germans were justified in burning the city for their own protection. The Sun in bold headlines said : LOUVAIN BURNED BY THE GERMANS; ONLY THE HOTEL DE VILLE SAVED The statement was not true. Other great public buildings and objects of art in Louvain were preserved by the Germans. It may be a matter of interest to the present generation of American people to consider in connection with the charges made against the Germans in the burning of Louvain, the burn- ing of Washington, the capitol of our country, by the British. The New York Evening Sun wrote a scathing, scur- rilous anti- German editorial on this subject, which of course omitted any reference to the burning of Washing- ton by the English in 1814. Commenting upon this act of outrage and infamy, Jef- ferson said: "In Europe the transient possession of our capital can be no dis- grace. Nearly every capital there was in possession of its enemy, some often and some long. But diabolical as has been that enemy, he burned neither public edifices nor private dwellings. It was reserved for England to show that Napoleon in atrocity was an infant compared to her ministers and her generals. ' ' 64 The Burning of Washington by the English. NEUTRALITY 65 Thomas Jefferson's opinion of English warfare is at least of as much moral value to Americans as that of the editor of the New York Sun. Sir A. Conan Doyle, of Sherlock Holmes fame, is using his tremendous detective and deductive power, which is so ably reflected in his "Sherlock Holmes" stories, to champion Eng- land's cause; which, considering the fact that he is an English- man, is only to his credit, but one article of his printed in the London Chronicle and entitled, "A Policy of Murder and How Prussia Has Degraded the Standard of Modern Warfare," can hardly be claimed as a creditable work on his part, because the venom and vitriol of the language which he used passes all understanding. Mr. James O'Donnell Bennett, the celebrated war correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, has taken it upon himself to answer Sir Arthur's article, and referring to the chapter of Louvain, Mr. Bennett says : "Toward the close of the second paragraph of your article you state that in the Peninsular campaign, to prevent the de- struction of an ancient bridge, the British promised not to use it on condition that the French would forego its destruction" — an agreement, you add, "faithfully kept, upon either side." "And then you ask: Could one imagine Germans making war in such a spirit as this? Think of that old French bridge and then think of the University of Louvain and the Cathedral of Rheims. What a gap between them — the gap that separates civilization from the savage. ' ' "Now may I ask a question or two?" writes Bennett. "Why not think of the exquisite Hotel de Ville at Louvain, which was saved from destruction by fire solely through the heroism, energy, and ingenuity of the German officers, who, though comrades of theirs had been shot in the back by civil- ians firing from attics and from cellar windows, worked to save one of the most precious memorials of ancient times and worked to such good purpose that today the superb structure stands unharmed? I have seen it. "Why not think of the choir stalls, the paintings, and the silver ornaments which German officers removed from the Ca- thedral of St. Peter at Louvain and intrusted to the present Burgomaster of Louvain, who in turn deposited them in the Hotel de Ville across the way? Why not think of the great buildings of the University of Louvain which are not de- stroyed? You say they were, but one Sunday in October, I 66 N E ITT BALI TY saw them standing. It was the library of the university which was destroyed." This is the American Bennett's version against that of the English " Sherlock Holmes." At this juncture it might also be of interest to us Americans to extract a comment from the London press of the days of the revolution in order that we may have a correct idea of the difference between the attitude of the London press to the United States and the attitude of our press at the present time to England. The London Times made the following comment upon the destruction of Washington: Patton's History of the United States, pages 597-598: " Shall England, the mistress of the sea, and dictator of the maritime law of nations, be driven from her proud eminence by a piece of striped bunting, flying at the masthead of a few fir-built frigates, manned by a handful of bastards and out- laws?" " BASTARDS AND OUTLAWS," IN 1812, "OUR DEAR COUSINS ' ' IN 1914-15. This feeling on the part of the London press did not end in 1812. In the Civil War the United States man-of-war San Jacinto, in command of Captain Wilkes, took Mason and Slidell, two Confederate agents, from the British merchant ship Trent upon the high seas, and this is what the London Times said about that incident, referring to Captain Wilkes: "He is, unfortunately, but too faithful a type of a people in whose foul mission he is engaged. He is an ideal Yankee. Swagger and ferocious, built upon a foundation of vulgarity and cowardice, these are his characteristics, and these are the most prominent marks by which his countrymen, generally speaking, are known all over the world. - ' To bully the weak, to triumph over the helpless, to trample on every law of country and custom, wilfully to violate the most sacred interests of human nature, to defy as long as danger does not appear, and as soon as real peril shows itself, to sneak aside and run away — these are the virtues of the race which presumes to announce itself as the leader of civilization and the prophet of human progress in these latter days. By Captain Wilkes let tlie Yankee breed be judged" (Boston pa- pers and Providence Journal please copy! Author's note.) This description of the Americans by the London Times has been the standard of every English newspaper, novelist and NEUTBALITY 67 author all those years past. In order to bring this quotation more up-to-date, another quotation from the London Times concerning the Venezuela question in 1895 is very timely. It says: "The Americans have always shown themselves to be a sen- timental and excitable nation. They have a very hazy notion of what the Monroe Doctrine really is, but nevertheless they are quite willing to enter upon a holy war in defense of it. We must reckon with this feeling and be prepared for the eventual- ites it may cause; but we must not allow it to influence our settled policy." These quotations are from President Wilson's favorite news- paper, the London Times. . . . CHAPTER XX The Cathedral of Rheims. It was asserted in September that the Germans - wantonly" destroyed the ancient cathedral at Rheims. It now develops that the French had used the cathedral as a point of observa- tion to conduct the French artillery fire against the Germans, and that the Germans after waiting five days, fired just two shots, one of which struck the tower where one observer was stationed and the other struck the roof, inflicting but slight damage, which can be easily repaired. This incident was used by the English agencies to stir up great public resentment against the Germans all over the world; yet it was justified by the acts of the French them- selves, and by the absolute necessity of the laws of war. This is another excellent incident to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the British, the destroyers of Washington, the capitol of our country. . . . This is the way the papers handled the bombardment of the Cathedral. SHADOWY INTERIOR OF THE RHEIMS CATHEDRAL TURNED INTO FIERY FURNACE BY GERMAN SHELLS says the Herald in bold type. The statement was an absolute falsehood. 68 NEUTRALITY FRANCE APPEALS TO ENTIRE WORLD AGAINST GERMANS' ACT OF VANDALISM The N. T. Sun, Sept. 22, 1914. The Sun has quoted the words ' ' act of vandalism, ' ' with the apparent object of claiming irresponsibility. The very fact that they put these words in quotations should have suggested itself to the editor as a neutral journalist, to refrain from publishing them at all. The alleged destruction of the Rheims Cathedral created a terrible " hullabaloo " and mawkish sentiment in the American press or rather in some of the papers priding themselves to be American. The Germans were accused of the most terrible vandalism known in the history of the world. ' i The Huns ! ■ ' "Barbarians!" "The Vandals!" Later on it turned out that the cathedral was only slightly damaged and can easily be repaired. Mr. James O'Donnell Bennett of the Chicago Tribune in his letter to Conan Doyle continues as follows : "Think of that old French bridge," you say, "and then think of the Cathedral of Rheims. Why not think, in this con- nection, of the three parlementaires which the Germans sent to the French, requesting them not to use the towers of the Cathe- dral as a point for signaling to the French batteries the effect of their fire ? One of these parlementaires never came back. As a final warning the Germans blew down a smokestack near the Cathedral, and when they finally opened on the tow- ers, so as to drive away the men who were signaling, they used very thin shrapnel. Days later, I saw the towers still standing, and the statement as to the parlementaires I had from the German officers of Iiigh rank, in whose speech I found nothing to warrant me in calling them liars offhand." Statements and interviews in French and English publica- tions are quoted as confirming the assertions that last Septem- ber, electric projectors were used on the cathedral tower under a Red Cross flag and that a telephone station likewise was established there ; also that soldiers were housed in the cathe- dral and acted as a guard, closing the doors when shelling of the cathedral began. One of the affidavits sets forth tha.t after the cathedral started to burn French sentries kept the populace from the square and ordered all doors closed. It is asserted that even the Sisters of Mercy were locked up in the burning church NEUTRALITY 69 with about 100 men and not released until some hours after. Priests begged the sentries to let the wounded be transported and finally this was effected. "And in view of the fact that the Germans had almost begged the French not to use the towers of the cathedral at Rheims, as points for signaling to their batteries,' ' writes Mr. Bennett, "I thought it rather a splendid thing that, in spite of the refusal, the Germans did not demolish the towers. That their guns were not trained on the towers, I had proof in the late afternoon of Sept. 29th, when I walked along the ram- parts of Fort Brimont, about five miles from Rheims, and again on the glorious afternoon of Sunday, October 25th, when I stood on the heights of Fort Berru, about four miles from Rheims. "The truth is that in the protection and conservation of historic edifices not a nation in Europe is more systematic as to the method or more pious as to the spirit than Germany is. ' ' The wonderful accomplishment of Captain Weddingen, of the U-9, who destroyed within an hour three great British warships, the Cressy, Aboukir and La Hogue, forms a brilliant chapter in the naval history of the German nation. The Her- ald's Sept. 23, 1914, account of this wonderful victory reads: GERMANS SINK THREE BRITISH CRUISERS IN NORTH SEA, AT COST OF TWO SUBMARINES To the great regret of the entire world Cap. Von Wed- dingen, this intrepid and noble hero of the German navy, after- wards met his death in a battle between his and an English ship. TWO GERMAN SUBMARINES SENT TO BOTTOM AFTER SINKING THREE BRITISH CRUISERS The N. Y. Tribune, Sept. 23, 1914. The most remarkable feature about these two headlines is that the three cruisers were sunk by one submarine, proving that the British news agencies resorted to a great lie in order to minimize the tremendous effect of this wonderful achieve- ment of German naval skill and efficiency. 70 NEUTBALITY The American people could not ask for clearer or more con- vincing proof of the desire of our papers to minimize great German accomplishments. CHAPTER XXI The Battle of Lodz. The Evening Sun reported the battle of Lodz under head- line: RUSSIANS FLEE IN POLAND; GERMANS WIN GREAT VICTORY. The battle of Lodz was another great triumph of the German arms against the hordes of Russian soldiers. Readers prob- ably remember the flaring, crying, bold headlines of the Al- lies press, stating how the Russian "ring of steel" is clos- ing around the German army which, defeated, annihilated, ground in the dust, meant the finish of the German defense in the eastern scene of war. The Germans were supposed to be completely surrounded and how the Russians announcing from Petrograd the great capture of Von Hindenburg's army, announced their tremen- dous victory in advance. But it happened just the other way. The facts were that several German army corps literally cut their way through the so-called i ' Russian ring of steel ' ' and cap- tured in their effort, 42,000 prisoners, besides inflicting heavy losses on the Russians, with the result that Lodz — the great manufacturing city of Russia — called the Manchester of Rus- sia, became the prize of the Germans. This great victory was reported on the back and last page of the Evening Sun. Had it been a Russian victory the front page wouldn't have been big enough for the spread of the joy. FATE OF GENERALS WHO HAVE MET DEFEAT ON BATTLEFIELDS The N. T. Sun, Aug. 23, 1914. It's the headline write-up of Gen. Von Emmich. It dis- cusses in a general way the fate of other generals who, like Von Emmich, committed suicide when he failed in his great NEUTRALITY 71 task, referring, of course, to his "failure" to capture Liege. The Sun terms Von Emmich's achievement "a failure," which in reality was one of the greatest military exploits in history. This "suicide" story greatly amused Gen. Von Emmich, who was nicknamed by his soldiers, ' ' Gen. Smiles. ' ' He was one of the most jovial, good natured men and adored by his troops. The real facts are that he directed the first attack on Liege at six o'clock of the evening and next morning he was "boss" of the city. His suicide was of course a fake. CHAPTER XXII Textbooks. The New York Herald says it expects recognition for its great accomplishments during the war, and therefore it has an- nounced to its readers that : THE HERALD IS TO BE USED IN SCHOOLS AS A WAR TEXTBOOK This is the headline announcing that remarkable fact. In London, it will certainly prove a very welcome text book, but as for the American schools, one may rest quiet and not worry about its introduction. From the sanctity, cleanliness, uprightness of an American schoolroom to the New York Herald editorial or business offices or that of its "Paree" edition, there's a long, long way. It's even longer than to Tipperary. . . . The New York Herald is not alone in its pious desire. Collier's Weekly wants also to be used as text book in the Pulitzer School of Journalism. It better be sent to the museum of ancient history, and it will always be treasured among the relics of the great war by every collector of curios. According to Collier's Weekly of such early date and issue as the 12th of June, 1915, Galicia is lost to the Austrians and Kaiser Francis Joseph is advised to pack up his belongings and vacate Vienna. Until one reads Stanley Washburn's article, "TTte Fall of Peremysl" (note the Petrograd improved spelling), one did not fully appreciate the importance of that misspelled fortress in 72 NEUTEALITY the game of war. Collier's Weekly gravely asks, "and did the taking of Peremysl mark a turning point in the great war?" Doubtless! Brought up to date, it did. But Collier's Weekly had not heard of the turning point on June 12, and so it still believed the Petrograd reports of great victories, although the Austrians and their German allies had recaptured it ten days before. Washburn tells his American readers in this funniest of all war articles yet, that the Russian officers ' ' typify the delicacy ' ' of something, presumably the delicacy with which they cut off prisoners ' noses and perform other delicate surgical operations on the helpless. Washburn closes his amusing record under "Franz- Josef's last Chapter," with this: "The fall of Peremysl dispelled the last hope of the Aus- trians of holding on to Galicia, and with its collapse has tumbled the last chance of holding together in that province resistance to the new Russian regime. At last it (Przemysl) came to typify the whole Austrian cause in Galicia, and in its fall the whole scheme of campaign went crushing to earth. The blow has destroyed all confidence in ultimate victory." The cartoon here reprinted from the Herald of Au- gust 27, 1914, entitled: "Decorations to Burn" and below "Dynamite for Ba- bies" is silly and coarse. This is the Herald's fun as inspired by ' ' Paree ! " " Dou- ble cross for the King of Bel- gium" it says under the pic- ture. Well, the only ' ' double cross" the King of Belgium ever got came from the flag of England. The cartoon is supposed to be a quasi-ironical compli- ment by the Herald to the wonderful accomplishment of Count Zeppelin. It is also supposed to teach the Amer- ican youngster what barba- rians, what "baby killers" the German soldiers are! One's afraid that Mons. Ben- The N. T. Herald, "DYNAMITE FOR BABIES." NEUTEALITY 73 nett didn't go far enough in his "educational" pursuit; his pa- per as a " textbook'' in American schools may not be complete, so the additional illustration of "baby killers" will help to en- lighten the American youngster of the real type of German "baby killers." Depicted in this picture German soldiers are seen feeding Polish and Russian children "to death" by giving them piping hot Hungarian goulash. The Germans feed, not starve, their enemies — that's where they differ from "humani- tarian" English. N, German Soldiers Feeding Russian Polish Children. By the attempted German blockade the British government will not allow a German woman to obtain food from the United States with which to feed her children, in spite of the fact that it is buying rifles in the United States with which to kill her husband, but English history is full of cruel barbarity, and wild temperament of the English soldier. What a contrast to him the German soldier. Bismarck said : "The Germans are like bears; they do not attack of their own accord, but they fight like mad when they are attacked in their own lairs. An appeal to fear will never find an echo in the Ger- man's heart. The German is easily betrayed by love and sym- pathy, but never by fear. The Germans will not start the fire. Some other nation may, but let any nation that provokes Ger- many beware of the furor teutonicus. We Germans fear God, but nothing else in tlie world; and the fear of God induces us to love and seek peace. "Our soldiers are worth kissing; every one so fearless of death, so quiet, so obedient, so kindly with empty stomachs, wet clothes, little sleep, torn shoes, friendly to all ; no plundering and wanton destruction, they pay for all they can and eat moldy bread. Our people must have a deep fund of religion, otherwise all this could not be as it is." The prophetic words came true, as recent history proves it. CHAPTER XXIII Zeppelins and Zeppelies. Count Zeppelin is the fa- mous inventor of the famous Zeppelin airship. His air- ships have become the "bo- geyman" of London and Paris. "Here comes the Zeppelin!" rings the cry and out goes every light in London and Paris. The cities become pitch dark except for the searchlights playing on every available roof and church tower, anxiously look- ing for the dreaded "Zep- pelin." . Before going further into the discussion of the merits or demerits justifying the use of this new weapon of war- fare, it may not be amiss to go back a few years in our _own history and observe what our good old Thomas Jefferson has said in regard to implements of war, particularly when it came to fight the English. ' ' They 're the only real foes we ever had to fight," says he, and Thomas Jeffereson knew them like a book. In writing to Kobert Fulton, Jefferson said : "I consider your torpedoes as very valuable means of de- fense of harbors and have no doubt that we should adopt them to a considerable degree. As we cannot meet the British with equality of physical force, we must apply it by other devices. ■ ' Accordingly, I hope this honor is reserved for you, and that either by subaqueous guns, torpedoes, or diving boats, you will accomplish it by the aid of government. I confess I Jiave more hopes of the mode of destruction by the submarine titan any other : No law of nature opposes it." These are the words of Thomas Jefferson. We have so far no record of what President Wilson thinks of this statement of Jefferson, which betrays so much keen foresight. It must be 74 Count Zeppelin. NEUTRALITY 75 borne in mind that a submarine in 1812 would have been far more destructive than a Zeppelin in 1915. Yet, it has been stated in the public press repeatedly that our present president is opposed to Zeppelins, while here we have a statement from Mr. Jefferson — as good an American as ever lived — preaching the good American doctrine "that neces- sity knows no law." Of course, Mr. Wilson thinks otherwise, judging from his submarine attitude towards Germany. Lest we forget, the quotation of a little incident from our own war of 1812, taken from Lester's History of the United States, may prove very enlightening to Americans ; an incident showing that England of today is the same old England and tJiat the leopard cannot change his spots. Lester writes : "It is with regret that we are obliged in this war, as we did in that of the Revolution, to recount so many instances of violations of faith and such frequent resorts to atrocities and massacres. The English employed and paid the Indian sav- ages for perpetuating the shocking barbarities. "During an engagement of a detachment of the American army, under Gen. Winchester, with the main body of the British army, under Col. Proctor, the American commander was taken ; but his soldiers were doing their duty on the field and had a fair chance of winning the battle. "Partly terrified by a threat of Col. Proctor, of letting loose the savages for another general massacre on our helpless fron- tier population, and influenced partly by the promise that Proc- tor had made, that if the Americans would surrender the fron- tier population should be protected, they laid down their arms as soon as they received this assurance with the order of their captive commander to sur- render. "The dastard liar, who professed to represent the chivalry and honor of Eng- land, turned them out for butchery unarmed! The war whoop rang on the night air and 500 Americans were brained by the tomohawk. Most of them were young men from the best families of Kentucky. That foul treach- Instigated by the English Indians ery has never been forgotten Massacre 500 Americans. or forgiven and it never will be by Western men. ' ' 76 NEUTRALITY Alas! Eastern Americans, judging by their newspapers, seemed to have forgotten it. President Madison, in his message to Congress of June 1, 1812, said : ' ' In reviewing the conduct of Great Britain toward the United States, our attention is necessarily drawn to the war- fare just renewed by the savages on one of our extensive fron- tiers — a warfare which is known to spare neither age nor sex and to be distinguished by features peculiarly shocking to hu- manity" . . . Again Lester in his history writes: "But the British name was to receive a deeper stain from another cause. From the outset one of the main reliances of Great Britain in the prosecu- tion of the American war was the employment of savages of the soil. This dreadful policy was clearly and fully determined on, when the war began. It was never departed from ; it was never modified; it was steadily persisted in to the end," and it is steadily persisted in to this date. The New York Times, referring to the Zeppelin raids on London, says : "Instead of bearing fruit in mass meetings demanding that the war end, Germany's air raids on England may serve only to stimulate recruiting. ' ' How about this, Lord Derby ? ! Well, the deuce of it. What are the blooming Britishers kick- ing for ? If the Zeppelins stimulate recruiting, one would think they would welcome them, instead of trying to shoot them down. Heaven only knows they need some recruiting, judging from their activity in this country and since the Irish boys got wise and prefer to emigrate to us instead of offering themselves as cannon fodder to the "Jack Johnsons," as they call the 42 cm. German guns. The English, in fact, are beginning to boast that they will soon have their own Zeppelins. They better call them Zeppelies — it will rhyme better with "AL-lies!" Some of the amiable fictions of which the present war has been productive is the English pretense of abhorrence and dis- may over the ruthless conduct of the war by the German army. No one has yet discovered how any war can be made agreeable to the enemy. Gen. Sherman said, "War is hell," and Gen. Sheridan once approvingly quoted a French authority which said that "the only rule of war was to leave the civil population in the enemy's country nothing but eyes to weep over the war; also to produce such a state of devastation that a crow in cross- ing would starve to death. ' ' NEUTRALITY 77 The German campaign in Belgium and France has been singled out by some Americans, and especially the virtuous press of Gotham, as most shocking to their sensitive souls, and we have been given to understand that Great Britain has always conducted war with pathetic regard for the feelings of her ene- mies This is one of the fictions that has been assiduously fos- tered and is quite often repeated by weU-meamng individuals in this country who study the war from the headlines of the "Al-lies" New York press. CHAPTER XXIV "Kitchener, the Butcher." Let us survey England's benevolent manner of conducting war In the Boer War the London Standard printed a Pretoria dispatch, saying: "The Boers sniped a train at Bronkhurst yesterday on the line between Pretoria and Middleburg. Two of its occupants were wounded. In accordance with Lord Rob- erts' warning, all the farms were fired within a radius oi ten miles. ' ' This case differed entirely from the cases in Belgium A couple of Boers fired at a military train, perfectly within their rights as warriors, and every farmhouse within ten miles m every direction was committed to the flames m retaliation by the English. The following account of the sacking of Dullstroom was writ- ten by Lt Morrison of the Canadian Artillery, and published in the London Truth: "During the trek our progress was like the old-time forays in the highlands of Scotland, two centuries ago We moved on from valley to valley lifting cattle and sheep, burning, looting and turning out the women and children to sit and weep in despair beside the ruins of their once beautitul f fiTTnsteads . "It was the first touch of Kitchener's iron hand— a terrible thing to witness. We burned a track about six miles wide through those fertile valleys. The column left a trail of fire and smoke behind it that could be seen at Belfast. Nobody who was there will ever forget that day's work. "On the steps of the church a group of women and children were huddled. The women's faces were very white, but some of them had spots of red on either cheek and their eyes were 78 NEUTRALITY blazing. As I stood looking, a woman turned to me and pathetic- ally exclaimed : ' Oh, how can you be so cruel ! ' I sympathized with her and explained that it was Kitchener's order and had to be obeyed. 1 ' But, all the same, it was an extremely sad sight to see the little homes burning and the rose bushes withering up in the pretty garden, and the pathetic groups of homeless and dis- tressed women and little children weeping in abject misery and despair among the smoking ruins as we rode away. - ' This is exactly what the Russians have been doing during this war. We all know who were their masters and teachers in their dastardly acts of devastation and burning. Gen. French, who is now commanding the English troops in France and sending the savage Indian hill tribes against the Germans, was shifted from his command in the Boer War for barbarous warfare. This very same English gentleman was the loudest in his coarse denunciation of the German defense act which prompted the execution of Miss Cavell, the English nurse, when she was caught red-handed as one of the most desperate spies. One of the most disgraceful records of infamy is that of the shooting of women and children in the Boer War by English soldiers. These helpless beings were gathered in concentration camps to the number of thousands and slowly exterminated. The number of deaths during the month of September, 1901, was 1,964 children and 328 women. There were then 54,326 children and 38,022 women under Kitchener's tender care. The London Daily News said : ' ' The truth is that the death rate in the camps is incomparably worse than anything Africa or Asia can show. There is nothing to match it even in the mortality figures of the Indian famines, where cholera and other epidemics have to be contended with. ' ' No wonder that Kitchener earned himself the "heroic" title of ' ' Kitchener the Butcher ! ' ' These measures met with no more ardent supporter than Lord Winston Churchill, the former Lord of the Admiralty, who wrote to the London Post : ' ' There is one way to overcome the resistance of the Boers, and that is by a prolonged process of attrition. In other words, we must kill them out so as to teach their children to love us." A brief extract from a letter of President Steyn, of the Or- ange Free State, to Kitchener, in August, 1901, throws a strong NEUTRALITY 79 light on English humanity: "Your Excellency's troops have not hesitated to turn their artillery on these defenseless women and children to capture them when they were fleeing with their wagons or alone, whilst your troops knew that they were only women and children, as happened only recently at Gras-pan on the 6th of June, near Reitz, where a women and children's camp wa,s captured and retaken by us whilst your excellency's troops took refuge behind the women; and when reinforcements came they fired with artillery and small arms on that woman laager. I can mention hundreds of cases of this kind, etc. ' ' Will John Revelstoke Rathom, Esq., editor of the Providence Journal, born in the land of the kangaroos and growing rich in the United States, kindly paste President Steyn's letter to Kitchener into his hat before he opens his wide mouth denounc- ing Teutonic warfare? For the editors of other pers this letter may also furnish "good copy." Al-lies" pa- CHAPTER XXV British Atrocities. How about the unspeakable cruelties in India? The sub- joined cut is a reproduction of the celebrated picture by Verest- chagin! Verestchagin 's picture, "India Pacata," possesses a peculiar interest. It was called by the artist "Blown From the "India Pacata." Cannon's Mouth," and, as we gaze on it, we behold a strangely impressive tragedy, representing the execution of rebel Hindus, who are thus punished for their love of country and their hatred for British rule. 80 NEUTEALITY In defense of this unusual punishment it is claimed that, according to Hindu religion, death would be no deterrent, be- cause the Brahmans believe in immortality. Therefore, their bodies were blown to pieces so as to destroy every chance of re- incarnation. An Indian ( Hindu) patriot writes : "The British power is based on perfidy, treachery, brutality, and brigandage. Remember the massacre of the Egyptian, Fellaheen soldiers on the field of Tel-el-Kebir, the cold-blooded and wholesale slaughter of the Soudanese at Omdurman, the butchery of the Thibetans on the road to Lhasa, the Denshawai hangings in Egypt, the massacre of poor Peruvians in Putu- mayo, the shooting down of Hindustanee laborers in British Guiana, whose poverty engendered by British oppression, had driven them to work in exile for British exploiters in a foreign land, the hanging of Indian women and the blowing off of In- dian patriots from tlie mouth of cannon during the In- dian War of Independence of 1857, the hanging and imprison- ment of Indian patriots, the Cawnpore killings, cruelty to the Indian political prisoners in the jails and in the Andaman Is- lands, the violation of Indian women, the practicing of inden- tured slavery in the tea-plantations in India, the horrors of the Boer concentration camps, and many more infamous acts, then you will learn to judge of the truth of the British "justice and fair play ! ' ' ' ' The Britishers have been violating the treaties and solemn pledges given to the princes and the people of India. They ar- rest patriots without accusation and deport them without trial, outrage the right of asylum, and deny political prisoners the right of defense by counsel, suborn perjured witnesses, and de- fend the torture of the innocent people by their police, put down public meetings, and suppress freedom of the press. All the infamies, which they denounce when committed by other coun- tries, are being perpetrated by them in Hindustan. And these are the people who pretend to support the rights of the Bel- gians, and trumpet to the world to be the upholders of 'liberty and civilization ! ' ' ' Mr. Wilfred Scarven Blunt, a prominent English writer on "British Atrocities in Egypt/' writes: "Ona cross solidly constructed at fifteen paces from the gib- bet they are preparing the punishment of flagellation. The first sufferer strips to the waist, passes his head in the iron collar, and on his bare torso the kurbash descends rhythmically to the sound NEUTRALITY 81 of the voice that counts the blows ; the bronze skin tumefies, splits in places, the blood spurts out; it is sickening, horrible. A sec- ond man who succeeds him cries out still more desperately ; the third one is literally contorted under the la.sh; he loses con- sciousness. Meanwhile the man hanged has given up the ghost. The second condemned follows with the same assured step as his predecessor. The executions continue. The floggings go re- morselessly on ; the new ropes redden as they la-jsh into the flesh. Yusef Huseyn's legs, in the hanging, are broken. Mohammed Gorbashi is undressed, crucified, and flogged fifty lashes. He gets maddened on receiving the twelfth. His voice is not well heard, for a soldier is ordered to press his head down in the opening of the cross again. While Mohammed Dervish Yohran is hanged, the executioner puts the rope round his neck and ad- ministers it wrongly. The condemned man is not strangled well, so he cries out on the cruelty of the world. The British Govern- ment ordered that the relatives of those punished in this way should be compelled to witness the spectacle, and they were brought up under armed escort, Sir E. Grey approved these proceedings." Wouldn't the Times or Herald kindly reprint this? Put it in your dirty pipes, Horatio Bottomley or John Bull Lord Northcliffe of the "Daily Liar," or Johnny Eathom of the Providence Journal, and smoke it before you bellow of ' ' German murderers, ' ' holding out your hat for contributions for the erection of a monument for that Cavell woman spy, or shamelessly holler about humanity. One should like, also, to suggest to the Sunday editors of the New York Times, Sun, Herald and other "Al-lies" papers the reproduction of the Verestchagin painting with Mr. Blunt 's vivid pen picture of "British Atrocities." It would certainly prove a handsome, enlightening, valuable, and most timely Sun- day supplement for their anglophile readers and a particular souvenir for Mr. Bryce, the atrocity expert. The Boers have only the bitterest memories of Generals French and Kitchener — "Kitchener the Butcher," they called him, but of the same breed and characteristics as those is the ex- British Sea-Lord, Lord Fisher, who is described as follows by a recent writer : "As a British delegate to the 1899 Hague Convention he startled everybody by his ruthless views about the conduct of war. No German or Frenchman of either military or naval prominence has, thank goodness, ever approached the brutality of this 'purely English' mind, for let us not forget that this 82 NEUTRALITY quality made Fisher the successor of the Prince of Battenberg, who was accused of the lack of such a 'purely English' mind." This is what Lord Fisher had to say when The Hague Con- ference tried to establish more humane methods of warfare: "War should be made as hellish as possible. When you have to wring a chicken's neck, you don't give the chicken intervals for rest and refreshment." "When the treatment of captured sub- marine crews was being discussed, Lord Fisher, this "pure Brit- isher, ' ' shocked the assembly by barking : ' ' Submarines ! If I catch any in time of war I will string their crews up to my yard arm!" On another occasion this "noble" Lord gave the following advice to his brother admirals how to make war : "If you rub it in both at home and abroad that you are ready for instant war, with every unit of your strength in the first line and waiting to be first in, and hit your enemy in the belly and kick him when he is down, and boil your prisoners in oil (if you take any) and torture Ms women and children, then people will keep clear of you." — (Norman Angell's "Great Illusions," page 350, American edition.) A fine noble sample of the English gentleman ! ! And this is the type we Americans are asked to call our ' ' dear cousins. ' ' CHAPTER XXVI "Remember the Baralong." This is the "navalism" which placed captured German sail- ors in the bow of the Amphion, while she was searching for mines, so that they might surely be killed, should anything hap- pen. What a contrast to German navalism, which thinks of the safety of the prisoners first, before putting up a last fight, as, for instance, the auxiliary cruiser Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse did in African waters. She first transferred her captured ene- mies, then she went fighting to her certain doom. What a con- trast between the brutal words of Lord Fisher and the generous action of the German commander of the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. Another very apt illustration of the "pure English mind" and their ' ' humanitarian ' ' mode of warfare was f runished at the same Hague Conference by the British delegates when the sub- ject of the use of asphyxiating gases, recently so successfully and cleverly adopted by the German Army in their western campaign, came up for discussion. During this debate of pro- hibiting axphyxiating gases Germany was gladly willing to agree NEUTRALITY 83 to forbidding them, but England objected, and a majority of the American delegates followed Admiral Mahan and General Crozier in supporting England. Admiral Mahan urged in an address to the conference that asphyxiating an enemy on land was no worse than asphyxiating him at sea, by drowning ; that the more deadly wars became, the more unbearable they were made, the shorter they would be. Ambassador White objected upon grounds of humanity, but he was outvoted by the other American delegates. Finally Germany was quasi compelled to act in this matter in accord with the views of a majority of the peace delegates of Great Britain and the United States at the last Hague Confer- ence, and because Germany is more efficient and thorough in the application of these gases towards her enemies, English newspapers, supported by their American allies, are yelling 1 ' Murder !" What should be said of that recent dastardly, foul, cruel and wanton murder upon the sailors and captain of the German sub- marine by the crew and "gallant" English sailor captain of the REMEMBER THE BARALONG. -Chicago Abendpost. The Spirit of 1776 to Wilson, 'What Are You Going to Do About This?" 84 NEUTRALITY Baralong? The atrocious crime was committed under the pro- tection of the American flag under the eyes of Americans. The Nicosian, an English freighter carrying mules from New Orleans for the English army, was stopped by a German sub- marine in the Irish Sea, and after the men of the Nicosian had disembarked, the Baralong, an English man-of-war, came along as a relief ship flying tlie American flag, and murdered over twenty German sailors in cold blood — which sailors went to their death feeling that they had been attacked by an American ship flying the flag of the United States. Heaven only knows how dark, how filthy England's history is of such bestial crimes, but the Baralong case will long be remembered by the sailors sailing the seven seas as one of the foulest blots on the dirty escutcheon of Albion's fleet. The subjoined illustration is a reproduction from the New York Herald and is entitled : SURVIVAL OF THE "DARK AGES." showing militarism as a snake with the Kaiser's head and helmet, saying : "LAST SEEN IN THE SWAMPS OF EASTERN FRANCE." ' ' This cartoon was pub- lished at the time that the Herald gave the Ger- mans " twenty -four Jiours to get out of France." It was supposed tha.t the Ger- mans were retreating pre- cipitately from France and Belgium, back to their fortifications in Germany. Certainly this cartoon was not published for the purpose of edifying the American people. On the contrary, it apparently was published for the pur- pose of creating prejudice and passion, and to destroy all regard for truth, jus- tice and American "fair play," and decent regard for the exalted ruler of a great friendly nation. ..■US? SEEX."!?* THE SW AMPS OF EASTERN, FRAN — N. Y. Herald. NEUTBALITY 85 The most infamous cartoon of all, which brought remon- strances from all over the world, many other papers, and par- ticularly the New York Sun, severely censured it, is entitled : " PREPARING FOR GUESTS." It shows a picture of the devil, with a German diction- ary in his hand. The explan- atory text reads: "Satan, Esq., I shall certainly be obliged to perfect myself in the German Language." The name of the evil genius who drew this cartoon is Ridgeway Knight of Paris, France. This self-styled gen- tleman certainly was not a very chivalrous knight. A paper which sinks so low that it will publish such a scur- rilous picture may call itself anything it likes, except American. It is British jour- nalism in its most hideous spirit and operations! . .The cartoon indicates that the devil speaks in English, which, according to the New York Herald, is apparently his mother tongue. Preparing for Guests. — N. Y. Herald. CHAPTER XXVII Harper's Weekly. Another similarly contemptible cartoon appeared in Har- per's Weekly. It was just as scurrilous and dirty a piece of work of the dirty mind of its creator and of its publisher. It meant another insult to the millions of Germans in this country and in Europe! It was so rotten in its spirit and conception that it was officially discussed in the Congress of the United States. The issue we refer to is that of Xmas, 1914. Representative Taggart, on the floor of the House, attacked the shameless publisher of Harper's Weekly in the following words: "This is the Christmas number of the magazine, and I want to call the attention of the House to the leading carica- 86 NEUTEALITY ture that is in the middle of it — an insult to the 30,000,000 peo- ple of German blood in the United States, the brave people who live in nearly every State in this Union, who control every doubtful State in national elections, and who own more than half of the property in the Northern States. "And yet the Christmas greeting to them is a caricature of a German soldier breaking in the door of an humble cottage with the butt of his rifle, with intent to commit murder. And this is labeled with an ancient holy name, ' Kris Kringle, ' a little German child's way of saying in German the name of the Christ child. I want the people of that heroic blood who may take the trouble to read my remarks to go to the public library in what- ever town they reside, call for this magazine and look at the blasphemous and horrible Christmas greeting that it has of- fered to one-third of the American people. "I want to say that if there was a crayon artist among the members of this House, and he would bring in materials here and proceed to caricature any brave people or any soldier who is fighting for his country in the snows of Europe at this time, and hold him and his people, and the tenderest sentiment of their hearts, up to ridicule and contempt, I would vote to expel him from this House of Representatives. This is a neutral na- tion and this is a neutral House of Representatives. "We in the House are requested by the highest authority to keep our mouths shut about this war, and yet the editor of one of these publications can insult the most industrious and prosperous part of our people, and not only insult them, but convince them that he end hundreds of others, on account of their manifest partiality in favor of one empire as against an- other, are in the pay of one of the belligerents. I hope this par- tiality will not continue until we wake up some morning and find this nation aflame with anger." During the period of this great war Harper's Weekly has conducted a most bitter, scurrilous and highly offensive cam- paign against the German nation. Its eulogies of the "noble," "human" and highly "civilized" English nation are so much funnier, so much more hypocritical as Harper's Weekly, during the strenuous days of our Civil War was blowing its horn as being one of the strongest Union newspapers, with the best in- terests of a united nation closely at heart. It was as bitter against England as it is today against Germany, which is proved by the verses it published on May 9, 1863, which read as follows : NEUTRALITY 87 WE WILL REMEMBER. "We will remember it — England's 'neutrality' — We who have witnessed her cowardly craft ; Friendly in seeming, a foe in reality, Wiping her eyes while she inwardly laughed. "We will remember when 'round us were lying Thousands of gallant men, wounded and dead, Rebels on all sides our pathway defying — 'Down with our Rival!' was all England said. "We will remember her sham aristocracy, Cheerful and jubilant over our falls, Helping when treason would stifle democracy, Turning a deaf ear to Liberty's calls. "We will remember, with lasting emotion, When her starved workmen were gasping for breath, While stores of grain WE sent over the ocean, Her ships came laden with WEAPONS OF DEATH ! "We will remember the KEOKUK sinking, Riddled with balls Neutral England had sent ; We will remember her laughing and winking, Feasting arch-traitors on board of the TRENT. "We will remember it when we are stronger; When once again we stand saved and erect, Her neutral mask shall shield England no longer, By her foul deeds she'll know WHAT TO EXPECT !" Well, did Harper's remember? How could it with the soft- brained editors that are conducting the degenerated, unpa- triotic, decadent publication today. It is well known that Mr. Norman Hapgood, editor of Harper's Weekly, is descended from a respectable Jewish family named Habgut, but the name was anglicized to cover up its origin. CHAPTER XXVIII "Who Said: Rats?" Sometimes cartoons are very expressive. The Tribune of Sept. 2, 1914, published one which undoubtedly and with irony suggests the truth. It pictures the Kaiser offering his merchant ships to Uncle Sam, and Uncle Sam says, l 'I guess I can't afford the international lawsuits that go with them." No ! not with the law firm of Choate, Root, Coudert & Co. It might be observed that if a Jef- ferson, a Lincoln or a Cleveland were President of the United States that we probably would have had the ships today, and that a Jefferson, a Lincoln or a Cleveland would take care of the lawsuits afterward. The New York Sun occasion- ally has a sense of humor, as is shown in the reproduction of this cartoon. This pictures Ad- miral Von Tirpitz holding the British Lion in a very tender spot and is entitled: "Who Said Rats?" The Hon. Lord Winston Spencer Churchill, for- merly Chief of the Admiralty, now kicked out of office, who has first used the expression of rats as applied to thw German fleet, is now known and called "the official rat catcher" of England. Speaking at a great meeting in Liverpool, this specimen of an English Admiral and "gentleman" said: "If the German Navy does not come out and fight, they will be brought out like rats in a hole." No comment is necessary on this sample of the King's English as spoken in these days by the men who are "misguiding" English destinies. England's navy must be proud of her former First Lord of the Admiralty and his fine form of speech. The most uneducated and humble corporal wearing Emperor Wilhelm's army uniform would be ashamed of himself using such language ! 88 "Who wiS rtiw" -N. Y. Evening Sun. NEUTRALITY 89 Well, the rats did come out and the English feline is hiding and ashamed to show the bites these little rats inflicted and con- tinue to inflict upon her. Nice, lovely, efficient "rats" they were, these "U" fellows, commonly known as German subma- rine boats. The "Ratcatcher" of England did dig them out with his squeaky voice, and what they did made history. No man in British politics has cut a poorer and more lament- able figure than this noble specimen of decadent British aris- tocracy. And no sailor, soldier, statesman in British politics has been the target of more denunciatory criticism for inability, inefficiency and amateurish mediocrity than this "rat catching" Lord Churchill. His above quoted prophecy that if the German ships did not come out and fight "we would dig them out of their holes like rats;" his prediction that if Zeppelins came to England they would be surrounded by a "swarm of hornets," and his claim at Dundee, where he went to speak before his constituency after his clash with Admiral Fisher, that the British on the Gallipoli peninsula were "within a few miles" of a great vic- tory, are typical instances of this noble Englishman's form of oratory. A worthy crony of his "noble" brother, sailor Lord Fisher. On Trafalgar day he made another mistake, according to his alert critics, when he wrote : ' ' Through our long delays the enemy has seized a new initiative in the near east. ' ' To sum up, he made an ass of himself, and was compelled to retire into the trenches, where he '11 furnish good fodder for some German cannon. . . . CHAPTER XXIX Lusitania. Much as one regrets the staggering loss of life in the Lusi- tania disaster that startled the world, the facts in the case can only justify the action of the Germans. Legally and even morally there was no basis for any protest on the part of the United States. The Lusitania was a British ship. British ships have been instructed by the Admiralty to ram submarines and to take active measures against the enemy. Hence every British ship must be considered in the light of a warship. The Lusitania flew the ensign of the British Naval Reserves before the submarine warfare was initiated. Since that time she has hoisted many a flag, including the Stars and Stripes. Ac- 90 NEUTEALITY cording to a statement issued by the advertising manager of the Cunard Line, the Lusitania, "when torpedoed, was entirely out of tJie control of tlie Cunard Company and operated under the command of the British Admiralty." "No American has the right to offer his body as a shield ... on a vessel carrying ammunition of war." — From the resolutions adopted at Madison Square Garden by One Hundred Thousand Friends of Peace. The Lusitania carried contraband of war from this country to England. If this contraband had reached its destination it would undoubtedly have killed far more Germans than the total number of passengers lost on the Lusitania. As a matter of fact, it did actually kill the passengers by precipitating the sinking of the ship. There can be no doubt that the ship would not have sunk for hours, if explosions from within had not hastened its end. Every passenger on a boat carrying contraband of war takes his life into his hands. The explosives in the hold of a ship, nat- NEUTRALITY 91 urally, constitute a graver peril to passengers than the shots of German torpedoes. England, awakening to the peril of her "in- vincible navy" by these "rats" of the sea, began hollering and yelling about privateering and other buncomb. The American press took up her cry and came pretty near involving us in a war with Germany. The reasons why the United States should not renounce her "undoubted right" to employ privateers are thus clearly set forth by President Jefferson, in a paper dated July 4, 1812: "What is warf It is simply a contest between nations trying to see which can do the other most harm. Who carries on the war? Armies are formed and navies manned by individuals. How is a battle gained? By the death of individuals. What produces peace ? The distress of individuals. "What difference to the sufferer is it that his property is taken by a national or private armed vessel? Did our mer- chants, who have lost nine hundred and seventeen vessels by British capture, feel any gratification that the most of them were taken by his majesty's men-of-war? War, whether by land or sea, is constituted of acts of violence on the persons and prop- erty of individuals; and excess of violence is the grand cause that brings about peace. "In the United States every possible encouragement should be given to privateering in time of war with a commercial na- tion." Jefferson, who went on record with these words, can not be accused of being less of a good American or less human than the present holder of the presidential chair. As a peaceful merchant vessel it is well known that the Lusi- tania was a somewhat bristling proposition. This fact was rec- ognized as long as two years ago, when the New York Tribune called attention to the fact that "the Lusitania will be the first British merchantman for more than a century sailing up the Lower Bay with black guns bristling over her sides. ' ' In its issue of June 10, 1913, the Tribune published the fol- lowing article, which between the lines indicates a certain hos- tility to the British policy of arming merchantmen : ' ' The rea- son why the crack liner Lusitania is so long delayed at Liver- pool has been announced to be because her turbine engines are being completely replaced, but Cunard officials acknowledged to the Tribune correspondent today that the greyhound is being equipped with high-power naval rifles, in conformity with Eng- land 's naval programs. ' ' 92 NEUTKALITY That sufficiently convicts the pro-English New York Tribune and her assumed horror and virtuous indignation in the name of ' ' humanity ' ' in regard to the Lusitania and other boats sunk by German submarines. Mr. Eichard Harding Davis, in the November, 1914, Scribner's, in an article entitled -'The Germans in Brussels," stated: "But when, on the third day, we came on deck the news was written against the sky : Swinging from the funnels, sailors were painting out the scarlet and black col- ors of the Cunard Line, and substituting a mouse-like gray. Overnight we had passed into the hands of the Admiralty, and the Lusitania liad emerged a cruiser." Mr. E. H. Davis would make a good witness for the German embassy in establishing the truth that the Lusitania was in- deed a warship and not an innocent passenger ship, in view of the fact that a poor waiter, who happens to be German, is lan- guishing in jail now on a trumped-up charge of perjury for hav- ing made substantially the same statement. CHAPTER XXX Arabic. As for the Arabic, she was virtually a floating arsenal and was barricaded both for attack and defense in the manner of a ship of war. The New York World reported that the crew had trained themselves as riflemen and that on its last trip from Liverpool to New York they had launched a raft in the ocean which was used for target practice. The World announced that the crew was quite confident of destroying any submarine that might come the ship 's way. The New York Times told the following significant fact con- cerning the Arabic's last sailing from this port: "The Arabic was painted a dark gray color, known as 'war gray,' as a pro- tection during her journey through the war zone and in further anticipation of submarine attacks. The after wheelhouse was barricaded with a rampart of sandbags to protect the steering apparatus from shell fire. ' ' If any American lives were lost the fault rests upon the shoulders of our own government, which should have warned Americans not to take passage on English men-of-war and Eng- lish merchant ships armed to attack German submarines. Neither the Lusitania nor the Arabic were entitled to protection as merchantmen. The Arabic was not a passenger ship, but a COUNT VON BERNSTORFF. NEXJTBALITY 93 sniper of the sea. It is openly acknowledged that she had a crew of 100 riflemen effectively trained to "pot" submarines. This fact in itself takes her out of the class of ships entitled to protection under international law. Our American troops shot snipers at Vera Cruz. For the same reason, and with the same justification, Germany destroyed the Arabic. There is no difference between a sniper on land or sea. The adjustment of the cases arising from the sinking of the Lusitania, Arabic and other boats is due, not to the "diplomatic victory" of our President or his Secretary of State, but to the noble, self-sacri- ficing and forbearing attitude of the German Emperor and his American Ambassador, Count Von Bernstorff. It is this attitude which saved this country from the horrors of war with Germany, and every man, woman and child of the United States ought to feel heartily grateful that it was Ger- many with whom we had this unjustified quarrel and not Eng- land. It is horrible to contemplate what would have happened if England would have been the recipient of the notes we addressed to Germany. The reason which the President advanced for his demand was the "rights of humanity." Needless to say, this found a responsive chord in every American heart, for who of us would not make war, if war there must be, as humane and little destructive as possible ? So much, moreover, has been said and written on this subject since the United States has been a nation, that most people had the right to assume that we are also officially on record as having defended this position. That is, however, not the case. The United States has never defended this position and is on record as recently as 1899 as having taken the very opposite principle. Every European chancellery doubtless possesses a copy of the instructions issued to the American delegates to the first Hague Conference, and if one could see the grim smile of amusement on the faces of the foreign diplomats who compare these instructions with President "Wilson's appeal for a less de- structive warfare, even the most sanctimonious would probably feel somewhat ashamed. In the call to the Conference several articles were included which proposed that no "new firearms of any description" and "no new explosives," etc., should be introduced either on land or sea; and in Article 4 it was expressly stated that the use of "submarine or diving torpedo boats shall be prohibited." But 94 NEUTEALITY the instructions given the American delegates by the Govern- ment of the United States expressly and implicitly stated, that; "Tlie expediency of restraining the inventive genius of our people in the direction of devising means of defense is by no means clear, and, considering tlie temptations to which men and nations may be exposed in a time of conflict, it is doubtful if an international agreement to this end would prove effective. The dissent of a single powerful nation might render it altogether nugatory. The delegates are, therefore, enjoined NOT to give the weight of their influence to the promotion of projects the realization of which is so uncertain." This was the official American attitude at The Hague Con- ference. When other nations wished to restrict the use of the most destructive machines and weapons and to introduce in war some of the ' ' rights of humanity, ' ' the United States interposed its veto. It does not matter that the wishes of the majority of the American people were thereby wantonly disregarded. It was their own government which acted, and it did so in accordance 'with the powers which the people had intrusted to it. The action was that of the government. The responsibility rests with the people. When America in a peaceful conference was asked to defend the "rights of humanity" America refused and threw its whole tremendous moral weight against it, and now when, in the vicissitudes and sea ambuscades of this war, American citizens have been killed, even without direct inten- tion, Washington has shown active resentment, by threatening Germany. . But it seems that this resentment does not apply to the mur- ders of American citizens committed day after day, under cir- cumstances of malignant cruelty in another part of the world and much nearer to home. We do not know upon what theory Mexicans are permitted to murder American men and American women, unless actual murder upon land is not a crime calling for the same resentment shown toward "murder" committed on the seas. Perhaps our learned State Department has discovered that a murder committed in the next dooryard is not so heinous as a murder committed on the other side of the street. Perhaps brigands and horse thieves have certain inalienable rights to rob and kill which are not possessed by organized gov- ernments and civilized peoples. Perhaps — but why perhaps ? NEUTRALITY 95 The shameful truth remains that men and women of our own kith and kin are shot down or subjected to worse savagery and that no hand is stretched from their own government either to shield them or to punish their villainous murderers and tor- mentors. A civilized belligerent nation across the sea, engaged m des- perate conflict with a powerful alliance of other civilized na- tions, sinks one of the ships of its enemy, carrying enemy sol- diers and enemy ammunition, and in doing so causes the deaths of Americans voyaging on that enemy ship through waters for- mally declared to be war zone. Our government, without loss of time and in great indigna- tion, remonstrates in high terms and makes its willingness to use force to prevent a repetition of the incident clearly apparent. Mr. Wilson omits no word and declares his instant readiness to perform any act which will safeguard American lives and American property against German attack. Mr. Wilson vir- tually says to Germany: "Americans shall travel on such am- munition transports, if they like." No matter whether other steamers, free of war material, are available, if our foolhardy citizens prefer to go aboard of ships whose freight means death or .mutilation to a. hundred thousand of your sons, their presence must protect those ves- sels from attack! Yes, if one solitary American has had his passage given him by the Cunard Company to sit for six days on a load of dynamite, that load is sacred from assault, though meant for your destruction. Monstrous, is it not? The pres- ence of a half dozen hired Yankees would thus guarantee safe arrival of enough material to kill a German army corps! And at that very instant, and long before and ever since American citizens were being cruelly slain and abominably out- raged in Mexico, for no other reason than they were Americans and that the men had property and the women honor which these rapacious and lustful villains coveted. And neither at that time, nor at any time before nor at any time since, has Mr. Wilson ceased to omit the words and the acts necessary to safeguard those American men and women in the possession of their property, their lives and their dead honor. Upon what principle — unknown to plain men— Mr. Wilson thus proceeds one way in one case involving American lives and rights and a diametrically opposite way in another case involv- ing American lives and rights, one is unable to say or even to guess. 96 NEUTRALITY "Why a German belligerent may not even attack an enemy ship, carrying men and ammunition meant to destroy German lives, if that attack imperils American citizens, and why a Mex- ican belligerent can shoot, stab, hang and mutilate American citizens and rob American men of their property and American women of their honor, without effective rebuke and without the faintest show of force to protect them, is a question which we cannot answer and which we refuse even to attempt to answer, ' ' says Hearst's New York American, and justly so. The dastardly crime, horror and butchery of nineteen Americans at Santa Ysabel took place after these lines were written. CHAPTER XXXI Dollar Humanity. "Humanity!" A mighty fine phrase on the lips of blood- thirsty Americans trafficking in war material and piling up for- tunes in blood money. Judas Iscariot of old certainly had more •!r.*«> i l£.-x>*s. : PEACE WENT OUT FROM BETHLEHEN PAL. HELL GOES OUT FROJ BETHLEHEM PA. m. "O! Little Town of Bethlehem!" honesty left than that Schwab in Bethlehem, not Palestine but Pennsylvania, and other captains of industries of his ilk, for Juda,s after he committed his dastardly crime hung himself, be- cause, he said: "I have betrayed innocent blood.' ; And that is exactly what the Schwabs, the Morgans and their friends, traders in blood money and their defenders are doing. FERDINAND, CZAR OF BULGARIA. NEUTRALITY 97 Our appeal to humanity must read like a travesty to those Germans, Austro-Hungarians, Turks and others whose brothers and sons have been slain or maimed by American bullets. Be- cently the "American Machinist," a publication of Cleveland, printed an advertisement of a new machine for the production of shrapnel. In the advertisement it was stated that the shrap- nel in question bursts into smaller particles than any other kind of shrapnel, and that the fragments are poisonous. The advertisers boasted that there was no antidote in exist- ence, and that the soldiers wounded by even the smallest splinter would die in great agony within a few hours. Did the Lusitania carry such shrapnel? We do not know. But can we blame Germany if she sinks every boat carrying to her enemies such hellish devices? Would the United States permit such traffic to go on against herself if it could possibly help it? What right have we to prate of "humanity" — while we gain sordid profit from instruments of torture and murder? The murder of 184 innocent American citizens in Mexico evidently does not weigh so heavily with the administration as the accidental death of a smaller number of American snobs on an English warship. Oh, no! the wholesale killing of American men, the bar- barous raping of innocent American women, the loss of millions of American invaded property has nothing to do with "human- ity," but the deliberate suicide of a few most un-American joy riders is a terrible violation of the laws of ' ' humanity, ' ' as inter- preted by those who put gain in blood money above the con- science of their wretched souls and their absolute lack of love and brotherhood. To what else does it amount than to the utter lack of every decent human instinct, the lack of self-respect, religion and conscience, this unheard-of traffic in murder implements, this wholesale manufacture and exportation of arms and ammuni- tions? To help to kill and actually murder thousands upon thousands of Austro-Hungarian and German boys serving for the glory of their "Fatherland" is, according to our illustrious head of the nation, not inhuman, but the drowning of a few unpatriotic, pleasure-bent Americans is against all the laws of ' • humanity ! ' ' Shame on us ! It would be "unneutral," claims the bribed, blood-polluted "Al-lies" press, and by others it is argued, and the argument seems to have weight with the President, that it would be an un-neutral act toward England to forbid the exportation of arms and munitions of war. We understand that British public men 98 NEUTRALITY take this same view. Times change, and theories of neutral duty change with them. Students of English history know the conditions which confronted Victoria when she ascended the throne. What was particularly a revolution had been soothed by the reform bills passed under popular pressure, near the end of William's reign. But there was discontent at home and greater discontent in the colonies. In Canada this discontent found expression in armed uprisings in insurrection. Naturally, insurrection in Canada could hope for success, if it could hope at all, only by procuring arms and munitions from the United States. The view of neutral duty which our government then took is best expressed in the statutes as enacted, which will be found in the Statutes of the United States, year 1838 : "Be it enacted, tliat the several collectors, naval officers, etc., of the United States shall be . . . required to seize and detain any vessel or any arms or munitions of war which may be provided or prepared for any military expedition or enterprise against the territory or dominions of any foreign Prince or State," etc. There was no record of any British objection to this statute of 1838 on the ground of un-neutrality. On the contrary, now, the lawful right of the United States to permit the exportation of arms and munitions of war is undoubted, but the lawful right of the United States to FORBID the exportation of arms and munitions of war is also undoubted. There is no legal violation of neutrality in either case. CHAPTER XXXII Moral Neutrality. The only question for us to ask ourselves and to answer is whether we want to keep on with the business of making money out of wholesale murder or whether we feel that we should stop it. This is a moral question, not a "judicial nicety." It is a question to be decided, not in courts of law, but in a far higher court — in the Supreme Court of Conscience. There's a moral neutrality. Hall on International Law says: "A neutral nation is in general bound not to furnish munitions of war to a belligerent, but there is no obligation upon it to prevent its subjects from doing so." NEUTRALITY 99 "A neutral nation, likewise, though it cannot itself loan money to one of the belligerents, is, by the best authority, under no obligation to restrain its subjects from doing so." ''But while a neutral nation is under no legal obligation to restrain its citizens from selling munitions or loaning money to a belligerent, is it not under a moral obligation to do sot Are we other than unneutral when we permit our factories to work day and night manufacturing deadly missiles to be used by the allies in killing Germans? "Are we not both unneutral and asinine when we encourage the continuance of this reprehensible traffic by loaning Great Britain and France the money with which to pay for the arms? The Allies will get the American-made guns, the makers of the guns will get their pay from the Americans who buy the bonds, and the fool purchasers of the bonds will get what is coming to them — they will get left." In a statement recently issued by one of the most distin- guished clergymen in this country, Dr. Aked, of San Francisco, the immorality of our traffic in arms is emphasized with peculiar distinction and force. "What ought we to do?" demands the eminent preacher, and as answer he says : "We should prohibit the exportation of arms and ammuni- tion on grounds of humanity, we should refuse to feed the con- flagration of civilization to secure financial profit for ourselves. On grounds of public policy we should prevent the further growth and insidious influence of great social forces directly interested in the continuance and spread of war. On grounds of neutrality and national honor, we should escape from a situa- tion so uneven, which puts the sincerity of our high professions in a dubious light. ' ' "Early in the war President Wilson set the influence of the government against the raising of war loans in this country. We ought at that time to have applied the same principle to the exportation of arms. Today far more malignant resistance will meet such a proposal. It is commonly assumed that so powerful a trade can no longer be curbed. If that is true, the better self of the nation is once more helpless against mercenary interests. ' ' . ' In that case we ourselves now have a war party which dom- inates our politics. A strong protest from the moral forces of the nation would put that question to test. We cannot afford to cry out against war and to get rich on war. America cannot afford to garnish the outside of the cup with peace congresses 100 NEUTRALITY while the inside of the cup is filled with the red wine of war profits." Dr. William Bayard Hale justly says: " There are some moral situations which are so clear that it is a mockery to at- tempt to becloud them. To pray for peace while at the same time we manufacture ammunition with which to make war, to pretend to be neutral in a quarrel between two parties while we give arms into the hands of one party — to do these things is to abandon all decent pretense to national sincerity. ' ' "I do not believe the thoughtful people of the country ac- quiesce in the immorality and dishonor of hiring out its machine shops and its workmen as mercenaries for the bloody business of war. I do not believe the people of this country acquiesce in the preposterous dictum that, because a war is now going on, the United States is not free to alter its own export laws. Every reason — moral, economic — -recommends that we should cleanse our hands of an abominable crime for which history will shame us." It is well known that Dr. Hale was President Wilson's spe- cial representative in Mexico. Dr. Hale visited the revolution- ary chiefs in Northern Mexico and held a series of conferences with General Carranza and his staff. These conferences were followed shortly afterward by the abolition of the embargo on arms and munitions of war, which had placed the revolutionists at a disadvantage. CHAPTER XXXIII Presidential Powers. Dr. Hale, who is one of the best-known editors and publicists in America, is also the author of "A Week in the White House" with President Eoosevelt and of a biography of President Wil- son. Dr. Hale enjoys the confidence and most intimate friend- ship of Wilson to a degree second to none, and for this reason the subjoined communication addressed to the Hearst papers are of particular significance and ought not to be omitted from this volume. Dr. Hale's article says: "No one knows better than does the present President of the United States that the form of government of which he is the administrative head is far from perfect. No one has been more eloquent in declaring the advisability of altering it in a number of important, indeed essential, features. NEUTEALITY 101 "In one particular Mr. Wilson was accustomed, long before the Presidency came his way, to heap reprobation upon the sys- tem which he is now administrating; namely, the particular of its irresponsibility to the people. We talk of popular govern- ment, but we have never tried popular government, Professor Wilson used to tell us; and he would point to the fact that a Congress elected in November of one year ordinarily met for the first time in December, thirteen months later. "But what especially impressed Mr. Wilson, the student of government, is the fact that the chief executive of the Union, during his term of office, is responsible to nobody. In the whole range of governmental systems there is to be found no such functionary as the American President — neither a ruler nor the minister of a ruler, and yet both ; wielding the prestige of a. sov- ereign without enjoying the transcendent prerogatives of sov- ereignty, whilst at the same time exercising the authority of a prime minister without being restrained by responsibility to rep- resentatives of the people. "Mr. Wilson, whose ambition for the Presidency was awak- ened by reading reports of the British Parliament, has always applauded the idea that the President's Cabinet should be made responsible to Congress, like the British ministry. He has not, however, proposed such a, step since becoming President. In- deed, the plan would be difficult to graft upon the American system. The Cabinet might resign if an administration measure were defeated in Congress, but in what case would that leave the President? "The fact of the matter is we are muddling along under a governmental system that was exceedingly ill thought out and we have simply to make the best of it through the exercise of such genius as we fondly persuade ourselves we possess and such common sense as we are actually masters of. ' ' The country owes little to Theodore Roosevelt, but it should not begrudge him gratitude for some of the things he said in his even unusually maladroit speeches at Plattsburg the other day. Mr. Roosevelt said : ' It is not defensible for any free man in a free republic to say that he will stand by any official, right or wrong. The right of any President is only to demand public support because he does well, and not merely because he is President. ' Mr. Roosevelt is right. "The legend, 'The King can do no wrong/ means, in mod- ern phraseology, that if wrong has been done the King could not have done it; or, in other words, that when the King has 102 NEUTEALITY done wrong, his ministers take the blame. But the President of the United States is Ms own ministry. It is absurd to claim for his person inviolability sacrosanct beyond the person of any citizen, or for his sentiments infallibility beyond the degree to which they appeal to the reason of the citizens. "Nor is there, in any but the most abject quarters, any real disposition to do this. "What is practically important, however, is the fact not that the people are forbidden to criticize the President, but that they are powerless to restrain him. "For instance, while the President may not technically de- clare war, nothing is more certain than that he can actually bring about war. He can assume positions, he can issue state papers, he can pursue, during months of critical gravity, a course of conduct toward foreign governments of which the country may not approve and of which it may be kept in igno- rance. 1 ' This has been the case during the last twelve months. The conduct of the foreign relations of the United States has been carried on by Woodrow Wilson, acting practically alone. " It is a testimony to the high character of the President, but it is no credit to the intelligence of the country, that this has been suffered; especially is a testimony to the incompleteness and inefficiency of our constitutional processes. In a truly dem- ocratic country, every act of the Department of Foreign Affairs would be challengeable and would be challenged by the opposi- tion party. Thus the administrative head of the Nation would have had the benefit of advice and criticism, and the country would in large measure have been preserved from the danger of secret international intrigue or ill-advised international sym- pathies. 1 ' It is true that no safeguards have as yet been invented such as totally to abolish this danger. Sir Edward Grey in 1912 negotiated with France an arrangement which bound the Brit- ish Government to support France with her navy if France was attacked by Germany — an arrangement of which the British parliament was ignorant, and on learning of which for the first time on the brink of war to which it led, three members of the British ministry resigned their portfolios. "It is, of course, necessary that diplomatic affairs should be carried on by individuals especially charged with the duty. It is not necessary that they should be handed over to the unas- sisted wisdom, or the unchecked unwisdom, of one man. NEUTRALITY 103 "No man is wise enough to direct of liis own will, and with- out reference to the understanding , wisolom or desires of the people, the foreign relations of a 7iation like the United States. 1 ' Woodrow Wilson is a man of exceptional talents and high character. It is not too much to say for him that few presidents in our history have been better equipped (except in the item of actual participation in public affairs) for the high office to which he has risen. "But Woodrow Wilson is not above human error. Wisdom will not die with him. However moist his lips with the waters of Helicon, however odorous his garments with the vapors of Parnassus, Mr. Wilson is also numbered among the mortals. "Moreover, with all his ability and character there are cer- tain quite special limitations which sit upon Mr. Wilson's fitness to handle alone a crisis such as we are passing through. "He is not, of course, an authority on international law; nor could he pretend to any particular knowledge of international relations, historical or contemporaneous, save such as may have come to him while in office. He is not a student of the map. He is not a traveled man. He has never written nor spoken, as far as can be remembered, on the political affairs of other nations. 1 ' Except as to one nation only. "Mr. Wilson's one passion is English political history. The lives of the English political worthies have been his life-long study. Since his boyhood days he has been writing and speaking about Kichard Cobden, John Bright, Burke, Brougham. The incidents of English political life are vivid in his memory and imagination. His deals of political organization and conduct are drawn from England. "He has a keen love for English literature. Whenever he had a chance he has spent a vacation in England, whose scenery he delights in, enshrining as it does all the literary and historical associations which furnish and adorn his mind, and whose people he sincerely admires, finding among them congenial acquain- tances and friends. When unable to go to England he has re- treated to Bermuda, the nearest point at which glimpses of English life can be enjoyed. This is natural and laudable in one whose mother was born in England and all four of whose grandparents were British subjects. "On the other hand, Mr. Wilson has never been in Germany. He has no knowledge of the German language. He is unfamil- iar with the literature of Germany ; he has not drunk at its f oun- 104 NEUTBALITY tains of philosophy; has not heard its songs nor listened to its stories. The events and figures of German history are for him dim shadows in the pantomime of time. "Not that there is anything in the least reprehensible in this. But it explains a good deal. "And it renders it all tJie more necessary that, in the pres- ence of a controversy between English and German ideas, Mr. Wilson should take pains to secure from others the knowledge which he has not within himself. CHAPTER XXXIV A Cabinet of Nobodies. "But with whom does the President consult? " It is the most serious criticism upon Mr. Wilson that he has never shown a disposition to surround himself with high class men. This was the best-founded of the charges against him when he was the head of Princeton University. His cabinet is a cabinet of nobodies. As a gathering of political curiosities it might be notable. As a council of national direction it is contemptible. There is not in it a single man whom the coun- try's judgment called to his seat. "There is not in it a single man, who, apart from his office, would be listened to with any special respect in a gathering of a dozen average men of affairs anywhere. Mr. Lansing's tal- ents as a diplomatic, attache are perhaps respectable, but it would be quite absurd to suggest that this suddenly discovered and swiftly promoted subordinate is a statesman. The newly appointed Counselor of the Department of State is totally, abso- lutely and unblushingly devoid of the slightest qualification for his office. The First Assistant Secretary is a bucolic politician of the Far West, utterly uninitiate of world affairs. The Sec- ond Assistant Secretary, veteran of long and honorable service, is physically handicapped ; and the Third Assistant is a precious -darling of London drawing-rooms, perfectly competent to adjust White House etiquette to the ceremonial practices of the Court of St. James. "Moreover, two of the Cabinet's ten members were born sub- jects of the King of England. "Lacking competent permanent advisers, did the President seek extraordinary advice in a great emergency? In the pres- NEUTRALITY 105 ence of a crisis, the like of which has faced few Presidents, has Mr. Wilson summoned the greatest and best men of the nation to council? Has he done what Lincoln did when the clouds of 1862 grew black? What the Premier of Britain has been doing? What prudence would dictate to any head of any nation at such a time — gather about him representatives of the wisdom of the people ? "No. For days after the Lusitania tragedy Mr. Wilson cut himself off from all human contact and communication. The circumstantial narrative of the isolation during that fatal week of a self-sufficient man, moving in lonely thought through the silent corridors of the White House, while a nation of a hun- dred millions waited upon his decision, was given out by his secretaries with apparent pride in the detachment of their master. "That isolation was not temporary. It was characteristic. It is the permanent condition in which Mr. Wilson lives. The very office of the Presidency renders its holder almost hopelessly out of touch with popular sentiment ; kings and presidents hear precisely what it is known they wish to hear. But never was President so cut oif from knowledge of the people 's thoughts as is this graduate of the college cloister, whose admirers' chief delight is to picture him as an enigma and a superior being. "President Wilson is far more of a man than his friends would make him out. He is neither an enigma nor a superior being. He is a sorely troubled man, with something of the pride of the mental aristocrat, but with more of the humility of the conscientious Christian upon whose heart rests a heavy responsi- bility. He is, unfortunately, one of those many men who, through no fault of their own, go through life without acquiring friends. He has rarely had the good fortune to be well-advised and has become skeptical of advice and indisposed to ask it. The fact that his life has been passed among juniors contributes to this indisposition to invite advice. There is no phrase that occurs so constantly in Mr. Wilson's writings as the phrase, 'Taking counsel.' Every page of his writings, private and official, displays the author recommending 'counsel.' The curi- ous iteration is a paradoxical 'testimony' that the author has never enjoyed that to which his mind is so constantly allured. "It is true that no living sovereign would have dared shut himself up to decide alone, uncounselled, the vast issue of peace and war involving two hemispheres. Mr. Wilson was not con- 106 NEUTBALITY temptuous of advice; he was not accustomed to advice, and did not know where to turn for it. 1 ' Can it be doubted that if the President had consulted the common sense of the country he would have spared himself the terrific anxieties which have tortured him since he rashly laid upon Germany the demand that she abandon her submarine activity — a demand the folly of which only the obscuring mercy of delay and the fact that a government whose armies were gaining daily victories could afford to be conciliatory, have worked together to efface? ' ' Fortune has now opened to President Wilson a rare oppor- tunity. A kind Providence has saved tJie country from tJie immediate catastrophe which his dangerous policy invited. A respite has come for the German crisis. With a magnanimity which few expected from it, the Kaiser's government has taken toward the President's expectations a position of high gener- osity and friendliness. It accedes to them, freely and fully. At the same time, without stipulation, it suggests that the United States make to Great Britain representations parallel to those to which it has acceded. "The suggestion is just. It throws upon the United States government a duty which should he immediately set about in the most generous measure of good faith. "The President has now another opportunity at last to take counsel of the wisdom of the people — that wisdom he has so often eloquently apostrophized, but with which he has done so little to acquaint himself. If he will consult it he will learn that it demands the vindication against England also of our violated dignity — the assertion now against England of the right of American citizens to sail the seas with lawful cargoes — a right which for a year has been trampled upon by the British government, not as an impulsive war measure, but with calcula- tion and persistency, viciously and contemptuously. ' ' There is a great deal of excuse for England's arrogant dis- regard of our rights and our protests in the action and attitude of an influential minority of Americans, including many of our metropolitan papers, which are more English than American. It is these "hyphenated" Americans who have caused the gen- eral impression in England and Europe that America's neu- trality is a polite fiction, that in reality America is a silent ally of England, and that our notes of protest to England are merely formalities designed to preserve the appearance of neutrality. CHAPTER XXXV Are We Afraid of England? The Congress now in session may consider an embargo and will probably bring England quickly to the realization that we mean to have our rights respected. But do we mean to defend our rights against England? Will our government dare take against England an attitude for our rights as strong as it did against Germany? Has it really come to this, thai we're afraid of England? Since when have we Americans become cowards showing the Ci white feather" just because England happens to have a few more ships or because she has the Japs for her ally? Surely these cannot be the reasons. Or will not our hyphenated citizens of British descent be able to stop any action which Eng- land might resent? It almost looks that what the English want, they'll get! Look at that 500 million dollar loan! If there was in the history of nations a pronounced instance of turning the other cheek also, and turning it for a commission of one-half of 1 per cent, it waj3 witnessed in the City of New York, with city and country banks following J. P. Morgan, Jr., as sheep follow their bell wether over a precipice. "It is a safe bet," said an incredulous sport, "that if Morgan and his 'skin- dieate' were next month to pass in their checks, no British bond would be found among their assets. ' ' What except unfairness have we received commercially from England since the war broke out ? To our remonstrances against England's repeated violations of international law, by inter- ference with our commerce, England's practical reply has been to continue the practice. Cargoes of wheat shipped from New York to a Mediterranean port, cargoes of cotton to Rotterdam and cargoes of meat to Copenhagen have been seized by Great Britain on the ground that their ultimate destination was German mills and German stomachs. Cargoes of beef, seed and cotton cloth and toys from Rotterdam for New York have been seized by Great Britain to the extent of $150,000.00, on the ground that they "originated" in Germany. Under the British doctrine British cruisers might seize all American goods coming from or destined to any country that had a German frontier. For we keep turning the other cheek. Plutus shakes hands with Moloch, and we help Britains to mur- der Germans. We make munitions for the Allies and loan them 107 108 NEUTEALITY money with which, to buy food while they continue the throat- cutting. All for a commission of one-lialf of 1 per cent. It is amazing that the British should go through the form of borrowing our money. Why don't tliey just take it? The American financiers who did put 500 million American gold dollars into the war chest of Great Britain are neither neutral nor patriotic Americans. As things are going, and with no guilt of blood on our hands, the financial domination of the world is surely coming within our grasp. The British pound, the French franc, the Russian ruble are falling in value com- pared with the American dollar. Thus a great and favorable exchange profit comes to the legitimate manufacturer and producer of the United States. These Wall Street financiers propose that we shall actually strip ourselves of the one huge innocent advantage of the war in order to secure the payment of blood money to the makers of the weapons of murder and to prolong indefinitely the grief and guilt of war. Against this unpatriotic, this unprofitable, this un-neutral, this inhuman course of proposed conduct we protest in tlie name of neutrality, in the name of patriotism, in the name of human- ity, and, finally, in the name of civilization, itself thus menaced and imperiled and rapidly being brought face to face with the destruction of all its gains through so many wonderful centuries of the white man's struggles and achievements. If we believe in the God to whom we pray, in the religion which we profess, in the principles of the beneficent government under which we live, let us do no single thing to prolong this dreadful war. Let us, on the contrary, inspired with a deep sense of duty and devotion, do everything that can be done honorably and impartially to end this dreadful war. President Wilson, in his address before the Daughters of the American Revolution, defining "Neutrality," said: "Neu- trality is a negative word. It is a word tliat does not express what America ought to feel. America has a heart, and that heart throbs with all sorts of intense sympathies ; out America has schooled its heart to love the things that America believes in, and it ought to devote itself only to the things that America believes in, and, believing that America stands apart in its ideals, it ought not to allow itself to be drawn, so far as its heart is concerned, into anybody's quarrel." NEUTRALITY 109 Very fine sounding words and phrases on paper ! But have we lived up to them? If America's heart throbs for " sym- pathies and ideals," does that mean that it should sympathize with the killing of thousands and thousands of soldiers and sympathize with belligerent efforts to starve out a nation's women and children? If ' ' the American heart ought not to allow itself to be drawn into anybody's quarrel," why in the name of Heaven has and is America trying to butt into Germany's quarrel with Eng- land? "Humanity itself is America's cause," said Mr. Wilson in another part of the same address. Well, if the attitude of the American press and that of the government of which the President of the nation is the head and heart conforms to this sentiment, God deliver us from such "humanity!" Continuing, Mr. Wilson says: "Some of the best stuff of America has come out of foreign lands, and some of the best stuff in America is in the men who are naturalized citizens of the United States. I would not be afraid upon the test of "America first" to take a census of all the foreign-born citi- zens of the United States, for I know that the vast majority of them came here because they believed in America, and their belief in America has made them better citizens than some peo- ple who were born in America." Who were and are the "some people?" one may ask. Are they the English, who very rarely become American citizens, or are they the Germans and Austro-Hungarians, who have given the best in them in the preservation and maintenance of this, our country of America? Now every one who knows the inter- national situation knows that France and Italy are the two coun- tries which not only allow but solemnly uphold the principle of dual citizenship while Germany clearly rejects it. France and Italy hold that the man who is born on their soil can never lose his native citizenship, and if he becomes naturalized in America, he remains a Frenchman or an Italian nevertheless and has to serve with the army of his country if he happens to be on his native soil when a war breaks out. Germany takes exactly the opposite ground. A German who has become naturalized in America has lost by virtue of that act his German citizenship. It is true that the German law allows in exceptional cases dual citizenship with special permission of the home government, but this permission never applies to the United States of America, because the naturalization act there includes a direct renouncing of the native allegiance. Those exceptional permissions are 110 NEUTRALITY given especially in semi-civilized lands where the commercial man goes for a limited time but is at a commercial disadvantage when he does not take up citizenship for the period of his stay. There are millions of German-born American citizens today, not one of whom is at the time a German citizen, while French and Italian-born American citizens are by the law of their native land at the same time Frenchmen arid Italians. To present this international dual citizenship as if the Allies had nothing to do with such a doubtful practice, but as if the Germans were the sinners is a distortion of the political truth from which other men would shirk even when the aim is to stir up courage for the buying of bonds in the war loan. CHAPTER XXXVI " Chartered Liars." To what extent the "neutrality" of the in normal times clean, healthy and sane American press has been polluted, what sinister and baleful influence was wrought upon the average American newspaper reader by the insidious, dirty, under- ground, bribed and " chartered liars" of the " Al-lies" press, our newspapers amply proved. Addressing Conan Doyle, and an- swering his infamous and scurrilous article, which already has been alluded to, and which was published in the London Chron- icle, Mr. Bennett, war correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, says: "Unscrupulous correspondents, too, have been a deplorable factor in this war. Of few of them. I regret to say, country- men of mine, who have written and got printed in America the most hideous charges against the Germans, the American Min- ister to Belgium, Mr. Whitlock, said to me: "These men are rats and a disgrace to journalism." "I violate no confidence when I add that this diplomat's sym- pathies, though he had not publicly expressed them, were with the Belgians. But he none the less hated lies about the enemies of Belgium. I mention the case of these correspondents be- cause you speak of the consistent systematic lying of the Ger- man press. ' ' "The Germans are not liars! They are so loyal to the truth that their loyalty sometimes lapses into gross bluntness of speech. They call a spade a spade, and their bluntness some- times leads them to use a crude word when another would do NEUTRALITY 111 as well. They consider a lie not clever, but ignominious, and their point of view was given with beautiful terseness one day by a certain Alfred Mannesman, who was storming about some peculiarly hideous slander which had appeared in an Euro- pean journal which the Germans call "The Daily Liar." (Mr Bennett is referring to the Daily Mail of London.— Auth. note.) "These chartered liars whom Minister Whitlock denounced and who were getting their lies printed in England and Amer- ica wrote things that for falseness and scurrility and bombast I have not seen even faintly approached in the least trustworthy sheets of Germany. "Just one more point. In a document addressed a few days a<"0 by British women living in Aachen Ho his Britannic Maj- esty's Government,' I find this sentence: 'The British women in Germany submit that up to the present they have been treated with the greatest forbearance and consideration by the German authorities, as befitted the representatives of this great nation. /'That is a testimony from your own people. My testimony is the testimony of an American who loves England and who has not a drop of German blood in his veins. What things I have seen I have set down because I believe that what raises the man of my calling above the level of a, scribbler is the telling of the truth." . . . One of those correspondents christened by Ambassador Whitlock "rats" and "chartered liars" is known in the field of journalism as a war correspondent, in the field of fiction as a successful author, and enjoys the confidence of the publishers as well as of the reading public, at least he has until now. He served in this war as one of the war correspondents of the New York Tribune, whose motto, printed on the editorial page of the paper, is: "From first to last the truth, editorially, m news and advertisements. ' ' The New York Tribune took particular pride in having this man as its war correspondent. It advertised him on all the high and by wavs of New York City and elsewhere, in glaring bold electric lights, on electric advertising signs and on all available roofs or walls where it could place its "ad. The "news" that this man sent his paper was nothing else but a tissue of lies— pure fiction filled with venom, hatred, bitterness, calumny— libel directed against the^ Germans and their brave and true allies, the Austro-Hunganans ! But the glory didn't last long, because the "rat" had to come home. 112 NEUTEALITY He was quickly recalled, as the paper soon found out the cal- ibre of its highly paid, overrated and overadvertised journal- istic buccaneer. Finding his usefulness as war correspondent gone he col- lected his lies and published them in book form under the title "With the "Al-lies!" He is at present in Paris, acting as messenger boy for our Rough Rider to the President of the French Republic. The other "liar," who has since also returned to America, is trying to eke out a living by writing rotten, silly, lying, con- temptible war stories for the daily which also has a motto read- ing : "If you see it in the Sun it 's so. " This literary hack, so justly termed by our Ambassador Whitlock and appropriately called by Mr. Bennett, of Chicago Tribune fame, "chartered liar," furnished this paper a story entitled: "The Kissing of the Sword." Under this headline it was stated that high-voiced women of title were chattering over their tea cups in the smartest hotel in Munich, when into their midst swaggered the Crown Prince Ruppert of Bavaria, with his sabre newly sharpened and his abdomen girt for war. His wife is represented as running to him, kissing his sabre and shouting: "Bring it back to me covered with blood — that I may kiss the sword again!" And other high-voiced women nocked to kiss the sword. This dime novelism only needs to be mentioned to have its absurdity made evident. The idea of a crown princess of Ba- varia meeting her husband in a second-rate hotel is ridiculous to begin with, for her to kiss his sword in public is a perform- ance impossible outside of a moving picture or in the "news" columns of some of the dailies, and by its obvious improbability the story confounds itself. Yet the public, in its haste, does not stop to criticize such matter. Doubtless, millions of Amer- icans still allow themselves to believe that this luridly described affair really took place. Its absolute falsity is demonstrated by the fact that the wife of Crown Prince Ruppert died in October, 1912, two years before this war broke out. So one can judge how well the term "chartered liar" applied to the writer of that story. His sec- ond story published in the same paper relates to a young Aus- trian girl who, according to the story of this man, was shot by the Austrian authorities for warning her brother, who is in America, not to return and join the army. NEUTRALITY 113 This penny-a-liner claimed that he got the story from a Catholic priest, who investigated the matter and verified the truth of it. As soon as the story was printed the enterprising and widely read German paper, the German Herold, in New York, offered $50.09, to be given to any charity that ''rat" may designate, if he will substantiate and prove his story in any manner that is satisfactory to his employers' editorial depart- ment. The editors of the "Fatherland" offered another additional $50.00 to him or to any charity, and challenged him to prove the story. And what happened? This "chartered liar" answered those papers' challenge by refusing to give the names, alleging that, as the relatives of the young man and the family of the girl are still living, he must refuse to give the girl's or the young man's name, and said: "For those who know him and the high position he occupies in New York and Rome, his word suffices." He might have qualified this statement by saying that those who know him and the "positions he is usually found in" ought to enlighten anybody as to how much truth there is in any of his stories and how much credence is to be placed in the work of such a journalist and "war correspondent." No doubt, how- ever, he will continue to favor the gullible public with sundry fabrications of his diseased brain as long as there is a paper willing to pay for the rot. One day last summer, during the exposition days of San Francisco, large, glowing posters appeared on the boards, fences and houses of that beautiful city, announcing a lecture in the Shriners' Auditorium by the "most illustrious and celebrated war correspondent," the "only one who has been with the French and English general staff and the sole accredited 'eye- witness' of the battles at the Marne and Flanders!" Curiosity led a few to attend the lecture. The hall was sparsely filled with a "handful" of New England spinsters and some cadaverous-looking males. At the entrance to the lecture hall flyleaf s and pamphlets were thrust into everybody's hands advertising a palmist and announcing that the receipts of the evening would be devoted to the founding of a "new occult mag- azine. ' ' Well, to make a long story short, out came this "eyewit- ness'^ with a monocle in his right eye, and of all the rot, of all the silly, foolish and lying stories that have ever been told or written by the so-ealled "war correspondents" of our "Al-lies" 114 NEUTRALITY press, this fellow's "war stories" certainly deserved and earned the Victoria Cross. It was positively disgusting to contemplate how an Ameri- can newspaper man and writer of some standing, which he un- doubtedly possesses, can sink so low in his own estimation and self-respect as to treat a seemingly intelligent, sane American audience to such ghost stories about the Kaiser, Kaiserin and everybody else close and near to the German Court and people. But what can one expect of a man who gets his earnings and makes a living out of such literary efforts as are contained in the book entitled: "How to Eat and Get Thin in Three Months for One Dollar/' while he himself looks like a perambu- lating beer-barrel. The third "knight" in the trio of these press musketeers is the correspondent of the New York World, who has collected his impressions into a volume entitled "Fighting in Flanders." This ' ' liar ' ' states that he arrived in Belgium without the slight- est sympathy for any of the belligerents, but that he was com- pletely converted to the Belgian cause by the spectacle of Ger- man atrocities in that country. As regards his testimony of the massacre of women, children and old men at Aerschot and Vilvorde, his statements, he says, are ' ' absolutely incontrovertible. ' ' At Vilvorde he saw the Ger- mans take an old man, hang him by the hands to the beams of his home and then burn him alive, etc., etc. . . . relating stories of the most revolting character. . . . Soon after the story was published a court investigation was promptly insti- tuted, with the result that the World report was judicially branded with deliberate falsehood. The first Belgian to repudiate the story wa$ Xavier Buiseth, mayor of the town of Vilvorde, who, having been duly sworn and informed of the nature of the examination, testified that the whole story was an atrocious fake. Another witness was the interpreter, Josef van Balbergh, of Vilvorde, who under oath declared that this man's stories are absurd, false and lying. This Belgian official witness said: . . . "Nor did I hear of any women and children and old men being 'massacred' in Vilvorde or its suburbs; in fact, no one in Vilvorde was shot or otherwise killed, nor were any women and children killed in any of the suburbs by German troops. In the suburbs of Hou- than several residents were killed during the fighting, but it was their own fault." NEUTRALITY 115 The reader may judge for himself from this testimony of unimpeachable witnesses to what length this man of the New York World did go to poison American sentiment. In whose interest is the New York World working? It is easily guessed. Lies of this kind just related or similar, deliberate or based upon complete ignorance of conditions, prepare the mind of the public for the more sinister suggestions of another class of writers who did and do provoke hostile feelings and activities between friendly nations. . CHAPTER XXXVII England's Debt to the American Press. The formation of public opinion in the United States, as well as throughout the rest of the world by means of inventions disseminated by the British government through the English and French press and news agencies with their cable system, was and is responsible for the American attitude in this war! George Moore, in the San Francisco Examiner, writes: * ' Europe knows America and Americans misunderstand Europe through news bearing the London date. Negro burning, the Camorra, bull fights, the Dreyfus case, the Russian Jew slaugh- ters, pass to and fro as "news" through London. Since the establishment of the Triple Entente, London remade the French character for the world. 1 ' On the date of the Entente 's beginning, the myth of French decadence became the miracle of French renaissance. From the same moment the 'Russian Bear' that walks like a man was transformed by Dr. Dillon (war correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph — author's note) and a host of lesser English, into a simple Christian hero. Everyone remembers the English- told story of the Japanese-Russian war. That story drove us mad with admiration for the Japanese, England's allies. 4 ' From London the news poured into our papers always for Japan, until we served as England's tool to help humiliate Russia by a disastrous peace and hated the Japanese since the next day after the treaty was signed. During the Russo-Jap- anese war the British system of press misinformation "fed up" the newspapers of the United States with pro-Japanese matter. We were, consequently, admiring our "little brown brothers," an admiration which has sensibly cooled since the truth of the 116 NEUTEALITY relation of the United States and the Japanese had dawned upon the public. "Now that Russia is an ally of England, Dr. Eliot, ex-presi- dent of Harvard, is trying to have us believe that in the brief time since the massacres of Kishinef, Russian civilization has been so greatly improved that Russia may today be considered ' ' the torch bearer of enlightenment. ' * The enormous effect on public opinion of such lies cannot be estimated. The misrepresentation is furthered by the dis- honesty of our daily press, the greater part of which publishes all the lies which emanate from London, and even goes so far as to discant in lengthy editorials upon the "news" topics so published. For the most part this is an exhibition of stupidity, as most of the editors swallow what comes through the cables without investigation, so long as it is sensational enough. When, however, the real truth transpires, such news, if printed at all, is given some obscure position on an inside page in small type, while the original report of which it is the cor- rection appeared under bold headlines, on the front page. The editors credit the public thus with a lack of intelligence by no means complimentary — indeed, they place the public on a plane of stupidity even beneath their own. Such reports and inspired editorials, however, cannot be but of temporary injury to Germans and German- Americans who are inferentially included in the besmirching process. Eventu- ally, the papers which circulate such matter will be discredited. The reputation of the British nation, so long known to history as "Perfidious Albion," will attach to its sycophants in this country, and the newspapers which report and often deliber- ately amplify and elaborate upon the false information sup- plied, will come to be known — if they are not already known — as "the subsidized organs of the British government." It's a fact that but for the baleful influence of the Eng- lish press the true extent of Germany's power, both intellectual and physical, would have been known and appreciated, and that if it had been a restraining influence would have been exerted by this 'country which would have caused the Allies to hesi- tate, and which might even have prevented the war. England, self-centered and selfish, has refused to reognize the progressiveness and accomplishments of Germany, and the press of the United States, as well as of other countries, has underestimated Germany in every way, and has consequently NEUTEALITY 117 been in a false position before its readers which, it still seeks to justify by fanning anti-German prejudice. The press of this country allowed itself to be led by the notoriously lying and defamatory press of England. What it was, whether money, influence, or merely the fact that the lan- guage of both is English, that made the United States press a willing and subservient ally of England, is hard and difficult to define and to state. The fact was and is that our press joined in the "cant" and became the powerful ally of England's perfidy. The English newspapers readily admit it and gloat over it. For instance the London Chronicle of October 21, 1914, openly states that: "The debt that England owes tlie newspaper world of America cannot be estimated. Tlie editors of tlie best journals have been fearless and very shrewd champions of the Allies* cause. It is these editors who have made the German monster a reality to the American people and this quietly and with the most deadly effect. ~We have no better Allies in America than the editors of the great papers." At the beginning of the crisis, Germany was not understood, and only now is the press awakening to the true state of condi- tions and realizing the error of trusting so blindly a country so cynical and destructive as England. Better late than never." For years past the reports of the Berlin correspondents of the Times and of the London Daily Mail have been a perfect disgrace. The correspondent of the latter represented also the New York Times, and so one can understand what ails the editor in the tower of the New York Times Building. The writer knew this correspondent personally. Many a "confidential" talk did he have in regard to what that corre- spondent called the "next big blow out" and what this un- scrupulous man — by the way, he's an American — with the in- vention of positive and negative lies has achieved is well nigh impossible to believe. The doors of all the municipal, state and government offices were always open to him, he played the social lion, he was feted by the mighty and by the rich, and enjoyed the hospitality of "everybody who's anybody" in Ber- lin. But his heart was black; he was a spy and a traitor. It was often asked why the German people did not whip this base vilifier across the frontier of their country. The answer was "he is an American" and Americans were always liked in the capital of William II. The second reply given was: ''There is 118 NEUTRALITY no law in Germany against lying," and, consequently, the fellow was allowed to carry on his nefarious work, to the detriment of the Germans, as they found out too late. The lordly "boss" of this newspaper "rat" has an interest in at least one New York paper, though the paper is denying it; and is also one of the biggest stockholders in the Novoja Vremja, Russia's leading paper. He began and continued to send these "atrocity" stories about the Germans and Austro- Hungarians, which all his and the "Al-lies" American papers spread, printed and reprinted to satisfy the morbid taste and curiosity of the average unthinking American reader. It is not to be wondered, then, that the American public, with its sentimental heart, with its painful susceptibility for the unfortunate and unhappy victims, turned with wrath against the Germans. And "those who knew" always contributed the anti-German sentiment in this country primarily and princi- pally to this cause! One who knows the Americans well will hardly make himself to believe that the question of Belgian neutrality alone could have provoked in the heart of the aver- age level-headed American business man the anti-German feel- ing which made of every German a "barbarian," a "vandal" and "a Hun!" CHAPTER XXXVIII Vindications. It is known now that the atrocity stories were fakes, hallu- cinations of sensational penny-a-liner and irresponsible news- paper reporters calling themselves "war correspondents," but who weren't any nearer to the war theatre, any nearer to a battle scene, than the average reader of this volume is just now. The real, the genuine war correspondent, the newspaper man and reporter who took his work seriously and could measure up to the great responsibility of his profession and of his duties in a calamity, in a crisis of the kind such as this war is, reported no atrocities because he saw none, he heard of none because there were none. The statement as printed below emanates from five highly respected, decent and brilliant American war correspondents. The statement should have sufficed forever to stop the publica- tion of so-called atrocity stories. It reads: "We are also unable to confirm rumors of mistreatment of prisoners or of non-combatants with the German columns. This NEUTRALITY 119 is true of Louvain, Brussels and Luneville while in Prussian hands. We visited Chateau Soldre, Sambre and Beaumont without substantiating a single wanton brutality. Numerous investigated rumors proved groundless. Everywhere we have seen Germans paying for purchases and respecting property rights as well as according civilians every consideration. After the Battle of Biars (probably Bars), a suburb of Namur, we found Belgian women and children moving comfortably about. Refugees with stories of atrocities were unable to supply direct evidence. . . . The discipline of the German soldiers is ex- cellent, as we observed. To the truth of these statements we pledge our professional and personal word. Signed: James O'Donnell Bennett, Chicago Tribune; John T. McCutcheon, Chicago Tribune; Roger Lewis, Associated Press; Irwin S. Cobb, Saturday Evening Post; Harry Hansen, Chicago Daily News." The United States Government, through a special commis- sion composed of eminent, reliable and trustworthy Americans, had these atrocity charges investigated, only to find that there were no atrocities committed on Belgians or English by Ger- mans or by any of their allies. Here's the statement of the U S. Government as it was sent to the papers for publication: "WASHINGTON, JAN. 27.— INQUIRY IN BRITAIN FINDS NO OUTRAGES DONE TO BELGIANS. THOU- SANDS OF CHARGES MADE AGAINST GERMANS IN- VESTIGATED BY GOVERNMENT AND FOUND BASE- LESS." ' ' Of the thousands of Belgian refugees who are now in Eng- land not one has been subjected to atrocities by German sol- diers. "This, in effect, is the substance of a report received at the State Department from the American Embassy in London. The report states that the British Government had thoroughly in- vestigated thousands of reports to the effect that German sol- diers had perpetrated outrages on the fleeing Belgians. During the early period of the war, columns of British newspapers were filled with these accusations. "Agents of the British Government, according to the report from the American Embassy at London, carefully investigated all of these charges; they interviewed the alleged victims and sifted all the evidence. "As a result of the investigation the British Foreign Office notified the American Embassy that the charges appeared to be 120 N E U T E A L I T Y based upon hysteria and natural prejudice. The report added that many of the Belgians had suffered severe hardships, but they should be charged up against the ' ' exigencies of war rather than the brutality of the individual German soldiers. ' ' Of all the papers printed in English in New York, the New York American was the only one that reprinted this report. The "neutral" Times never carried a line of it; in fact, on the same day when this United States Government statement was printed in the New York American, the Times gave a whole col- umn of space to a Belgian "lunatic," who recited again his woes in regard to atrocities committed by Germans on his "poor little Belgians. ' ' So Americans know now — if they didn't know before — or if they still have any doubts — what these atrocity stories amounted to. The bubble bursted long ago and it 's high time now for them to make up for the cruelty some of them have exercised upon the character and heart of those noble sons of Germany and Austro-Hungary who are shedding their rich, wholesome and untainted blood for a just cause — for their country, for their mothers, fathers and children, sacrificing their lives with un- daunted courage, with unparalleled heroism for real freedom and liberty, and not for the humbug, sham article that perfidi- ous, hypocritical England is shouting about in its own, as well as in its allied lying American press. This report of the United States Government serves also as a flat repudiation and denial of the charges and nefarious accu- sations of Mr. James Bryce, former English Ambassador to America, who has published a book about German atrocities. The United States Government brands him as a base, low villi- fier and one of the most sinister liars of English diplomacy. CHAPTER XXXIX The Atrocious Cossack. And yet, if it is said that there were no atrocities at all, it is not stating the facts exactly. There were no atrocities com- mitted by the Germans, but there were plenty and the most hor- rible, terrifying and unspeakable cases committed by the faith- ful ally and friend of England, the Kussians. Mr. Bayard Swope, a special correspondent of the New York World, was sent by his paper to investigate especially these stories committed by the brutal vodka-sodden Cossacks on the NEUTRALITY 121 eastern scene of war, in Austrian Galicia and East Prussia. Mr. Swope is known as one of the most reputable, brilliant and abso- lutely truthworthy newspaper men in New York City. His statements are unquestionably true and incontrovertible. Returning from the war scenes in Europe, his report in the Sun- day edition of October 31, 1914, created a tremendous impres- sion, and must have given cause to the publisher of his paper, for some hard thinking. The headlines of Mr. Swope's report read as follows : "Cossacks guilty of wildest atrocities World Man finds. Even looted Russian towns. In personal investigation in East Prus- sia Jte learns that villages were burned without cause, pien, boys and women slain after being tortured, and wives and daughters outraged. Aged pauper only man spared in one place, witnessed death of his friends." This summary of the material contained in the report will give Americans an adequate idea, of the stories themselves. There were so revolting in their nature that they surprised everyone and even the callous World saw them unfit to reprint. Those beastly Russians, who ran away from battles and gave up the strongest fortresses in the world with hardly a struggle, are well known as past masters at burning and destroying the homes and crops of the wretched Polish peasants and at driving tens of thousands of noncombatant men, women and children to die of exhaustion and starvation along the devastated highways and in the vast swamps of the unhappy regions through which these poltroons, murderers are fleeing before the numerically in- ferior but heroic forces of the victorious Hungarians and Ger- mans. Americans have read for many months how the British press bureaus related and reprobated German "atrocities" in Belgium and how faithfully "Al-lies" papers in America reprinted them. But we have yet to hear from any British newspaper or English press bureau, statesman, orator or military officer a single word in condemnation of the savage and awful cruelties which the Russians have inflicted, and still are inflicting, upon the helpless folk in Galicia, Poland and the Baltic provinces. Much has been said and printed about "poor little Belgium,'' but mighty little has reached the American reader about "poor little Prussia" or Galicia! One can imagine the fervid indignation and horror with which the London press agencies would describe these savage 122 N E TJ T K A L I T Y orgies of cruelty and destruction, if England were in alliance with Germany, fighting Eussia. . . . As for the persecution of the Jews, it is, as everybody knows, ancient history. The Pogroms in Eussia, which have been so often and so vividly described and so profusely illustrated in the New York World and in the New York Times, should have had sufficiently restraining influence with the Jewish proprietors of those papers, especially of the Times, not to ally himself and his valuable widely read paper with the eternal enemy and foe of his race and coreligionists. Under the known circumstances one would expect that prom- inent Jews — in fact, all Jews in neutral lands, especially those in free America, to give their sympathies to Germany, even if Eussia, that enemy of all civilization, were not arrayed upon the side of Germany's enemies. . . . Descriptions by Benjamin Segal, in his excellent book, "The World War and the Fate of the Jews," rend the heart of everyone. For instance, "30,000 old Jewish men, as well as women and children, were driven by the Eussians in front of their lines at Nadworna, so that the Austrian bullets would strike them first." Says Mr. Charles A. Collman in the Fatherland: "Mr. Ochs, do you remember how, some months ago, you featured the story of an English ship captain who arrived here and said : 'At my home in England are two golden-haired Belgian chil- dren, whose hands have been cut off by German Huns. Such fiendishness is inconceivable. ' ' ' Men in New York sent a cable despatch that day to the captain's wife in England. She sent back word indignantly that there were no such golden-haired children at her home, nor had she ever heard of them. "Did you then, Mr. Ochs, print an editorial on this story, condemning the English dastard who would circulate so base a tale against a brave and noble race % NO, YOU WOULD NOT FEATURE THE TEUTH. "Mr. Ochs, you published in extenso the Bryce charges of atrocities against the Germans, and the faked Armenian atroc- ities of this 'atrocity expert;' you printed the Belgian charges of atrocities against the Germans, the French charges, even the Eussian charges. But when the German Government printed its volume, with affidavits of the sickening enormities practised N E U T E A L I T Y 123 by Russians agains the German populations of East Prussia, you suppressed the book! 1 ' Why did you suppress it, Mr. Ochs ? I shall tell the public why. You knew that the English at the very beginning of the war raised the atrocity cry, because they feared the enormities their allies, the Russians, would commit and the barbarities their own Indian and African mercenaries are perpetrating in France to-day. They raised a false clamor to conceal the truth. You feared to publish the German charges against the Russians, BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT BY THEIR PUBLICATION, AMERICAN SYMPATHY MIGHT BE AWAKENED FOR THE GERMAN RACE." And that wouldn't do for Mr. Ochs just now. CHAPTER XL The Horror of Russian Rule. Do the publishers of the New York press or any other papers in the cause of the Allies, and herewith naturally in the cause of Russia, realize what Russia's victory would mean? Do Americans realize that it means the embodiment of every- thing Americans abhor, the destruction of everything Ameri- cans and western Europeans, true to their ideals, hold sacred? It means the trampling down of religious liberty, the reign of darkest spiritual tyranny; it means the crushing of free thought, of free intellectual intercourse, of personal liberty; it means the omnipotence of stupid and cruel police organization, which may throw one into prison and transport one to Siberia on a mere suspicion without even the formality of a trial — nay, without even taking the trouble of letting one know why one is collared. The farce of a drama existing on sufferance does not miti- gate that state of things. The heroes of Russian thought, whom the writer admires as much as anyone can, are powerless against it. They represent what Russia may or may not grow into in a century or so. As a matter of fact, Russian rule means a hor- ror of darkness Jiardly conceivable in our century. The extension of that rule over civilized countries is Russia's object in the present war, and the support given to her by Eng- land and France is called by these powers a ' ' struggle for civil- ization." Bah. . . . 124 N E U T E A L I T Y Blinded by our own natural sympathy for a land of common tongue, we forget in America who the real victors would be were the Allies to win the struggle. It would not be England, though she might increase for a time her colonial possessions at Germany's expense. It would not be France, for even if she regains her lost prov- inces she will find them no more an integral part of her life. The real victor will not be the patient Russian peasant, but the narrow, bigoted Asiatic oligarchy which in triump will trample upon every aspiration and every attempt to free Russia from her yoke. We are told by the American press that all will change if Russia wins. Did Russia change after the Crimea? Did the oligarchy change after the Turkish war? Did the oligarchy change after the Japanese war? No one wants to crush the Russian people who have given us Tolstoy and Verestchagin. But Russia's victory would mean darkest tyranny! It is per- fectly disgusting. . . . They fed us, these philanthropic " neutral" American news- papers, with stories of "poor little Belgium" until our bellies ached ; but of poor little Poland, of poor little Prussia, of poor little jews who were hung — not shot — in the forests of Lemberg, in the forests of Lodz by those merciless cossacks, and whose poor little bodies were dangling by the hundreds from the snow-cov- ered branches of the trees, these "human" American neutral papers had nothing to say. Does the average American know of any relief commission for the ' ' poor little Prussians ? ' ' No, he does not ; neither does the writer. Yet, the misery, the pain, the suffering, the famine in food, clothes and other necessities of life is much larger, a hundred- fold more appalling in Galicia and all other Polish provinces ruined by the Russian armies than in "poor little Belgium!" About the time those horrible deeds occurred there was in one of the Sunday newspapers a halftone picture taken from a group of Galician peasant women assembled about a wooden shack, waiting patiently for a dole of black bread and salt. They were barefooted and some of them had beastlike faces, torn with suffering grief. We fear our American women would be barefooted and show beastlike faces if ever our homes were ravaged by Russian Cos- sacks, or by their Japanese allies. In the same paper Lloyd NETJTKALITY? 125 George was boasting that Britain would win the war, not by the valor of British arms, but by starving women sucli as these. These ragged Galician peasant women knew that an Austro- German regiment had captured on that spot, from the Kussians, boxes of ammunition ' ' Made in America. ' ' They knew who had sold these arms to the Russians via Archangel. Oh, it is known by this time over the world. They had come from Britain 's am- munition agent, the death-peddling Schwab and his partner, the "great American citizen," Morgan, who thereby was earning his 2 per cent. . . . But these ragged, wretched Galician peasant women were also wives and mothers. They also had seen their sons and hus- bands stricken down. Think of this picture, American mothers, wives and girls, when you're getting up your benefit entertain- ments for the Allies. Please don't misunderstand the writer of these lines. He doesn't begrudge the millions Americans sent to the Belgians in food, clothes and money, etc., but he thinks occasionally of that "poor little Pole," of that "poor little Galician," of that "poor little East Prussian" man, woman or child who suffers, who fights the pains of hunger and cold, though they are sufferers not on their own fault, while the Belgians brought their misery upon themselves, through their own fault aiid conduct. Yes, through their own fault ! CHAPTER XLI "Poor Little Belgium." All the cant of the English and the "Al-lies" press in New York is mere hypocrisy, sham and humbug. Didn't Sir Earl Grey himself, who justly earned and deserves the title of "the greatest criminal of the age," declare and admit in answer to the German Chancellor's latest explanation of the "Scraps of Paper," that England did not go to war merely and only on account of tJie violation of Belgium's neutrality, and the London Times editorially sustained Grey's contention, reiterating his statement in its issue of May 12, 1915. Most of us knew that long ago ! Everybody seems to know that in Europe, from the schoolboy to the historian. It is only here in America that there still exists doubt about it. The ' ' Al-lies ' ' papers don 't want to know, and if they do they prefer to lie about it. 126 NEUTRALITY As G. Bernard Shaw states it: "No unofficial Englishman worth his salt wanted to snivel hypocritically about our love of peace and our respect for treaties and our solemn acceptance of a painful duty and all the rest of the nauseous mixture of schoolmaster's twaddle, parish magazine cant and cinematograph melodrama with which we were deluged. ' ' Those who insist that neutrality , is real and sacred are committed by the facts to the following proposition : "1. Germany has not violated Belgian neutrality. She has made war on Belgium, which her guaranty of Belgium's neu- trality has in no way abrogated her right to do; and her guar- anty of Belgium's neutrality still stands in spite of the war and actually entitles her to treat the violation of it by another power as a casus belli. "2. France and England have violated the 'neutrality of Belgium by invading Tier and fighting on her soil, though they do not war upon her. "3. Germany offered to keep the peace with Belgium on condition of that right of way which Great Britain was the first to demand and enforce by war in China. "4. Great Britain and France would not guarantee Bel- gium's neutrality, except on a condition which they knew would not be fulfilled, and which in any case Belgium could not con- trol, namely, that Germany would keep peace with Belgium. "5. Germany offered peace in Belgium. 6. Great Britain offered war peremptorily. I defy any international jurist to put a credible complexion on these propositions except by showing that they were the reductio ad absurdum of the theory of neutrality and by admit- ting that Belgium might as well have been a free country as a neutralized one for all the use that the guaranty proved. And it is because I am not duped by that theory that I have set my- self to discredit the Belgian pretext for war and to induce our ministers and newspapers to drop it. . . . "Many take the standpoint, especially in neutral countries, that England hesitated until the last moment before going into the war, and that the violation of Belgium's neutrality was the last drop which caused the goblet to overflow. This theory has since been exploded by a report from the Belgium Minister in St. Petersburg, M. de l'Escaille, to his government, dated July 30, 1914, which has been found in Brussels. "This document states that the assurance of English support gave the war-party in Russia the majority. This was five days i .- DR. VON BETHMAN-HOLLWEG. NEUTRALITY 127 before Germany had violated Belgian neutrality and while the German ambassador was still discussing the question of Belgian neutrality with Sir Edward Grey. How is this evidence of M. de l'Escaille's report to be squared with the pretension of Sir Edward Grey in the English Blue Book, that to the last he never undertook any obligation to Russia to assist her against Germany? The answer is very simple. "It is quite true that a formal treaty did not exist between England and Russia, any more than between England and Prance, notwithstanding the leading men in St. Petersburg as well as in Paris were assured that England in case of war would be on their side. Grey's fault is not tliat he gave them a prom- ise of help, but that he failed to declare that England would not be on their side. That, and that alone, would have conserved the peace. ' ' There we are. This is from one of England's own and most famous writers. Does anyone want any better witness than George Bernard Shaw to sustain the English view ? Among the documents found in Brussels by the victorious German troops was not only the tell-tale military convention be- tween representatives of Great Britain and Belgium by which Belgium bartered away her neutrality, but the complete reports made by Count de Lalaing, Belgian minister to London ; Baron Greindl, Belgian minister to Berlin, and M. A. Leghait, Belgian minister to Paris, the series running from February 7, 1905, to April 26, 1912, after which the reports are rendered by Baron Beyens at Berlin and Baron Guillaume at Paris, concluding July 2, 1915. These papers contain the complete history of every impor- tant diplomatic move made at the three principal capitals as re- corded by trained observers reporting ronfidentially to their gov- ernment. Equally interesting is the truthful G. Bernard Shaw in an- other article, written in answer to a communication from a Miss "Winstanley to one of the London dailies : "It must certainly be a great comfort to Miss Winstanley," writes Mr. Shaw, "that we're at last making some amends by shedding our blood like water to make Russia the most formidable military autocracy in Europe; but she will remind me now that for centuries after the Hun peril passed away, Austria and Hungary stood between us and oriental savagery. 1 ' Think of what we owe to Sobieski, without whose valor we should all now be Christian slaves, tugging painfully at the oars 128 NEUTEALITY in the galleys of Tripoli and Algiers! Yet we're actually mak- ing war on Hungary! Truly, we're a hopeless people flying from one ingratitude to another. And the Germans ! All those brave Hessians, who won so many laurels for English captains from Marlborough to Burgoyne. Where would the Protestant religion be without Martin Luther? Oh shame! Oh England, where is thy blush ? ' ' CHAPTER XLII The Cause of the War. Hillaire Belloc, another of England's most prominent writers, a critic of great might and independence, whose polit- ical and economic opinions are widely quoted, says: "The struggle is primarily and essentially a struggle between two con- flicting theories of life and government, which have the conti- nent of Europe for their theatre, and of which the Prussians upon the one hand and the French upon the other are the pro- tagonists and have been the protagonists for now more than three generations. ' ' That, as one perceives, does away with the "Al-lies" press' sanctimonious theory that England went to war on account of Germany's violation of Belgium's neutrality. Hillaire Belloc has recently pointed out again and again that the real cause of England's participation in the present war is "her determina- tion that she shall never have a rival across the Narrow Seas. ' ' Belloc says when France expanded to a great and powerful empire, England ceaselessly intrigued, leagued and fought till France was ruined, not for the liberty of Europe, but that there might be n.o powerful rival across the Narrow Seas, with Ant- werp as its port. Even with Antwerp out of the question, England would brook no powerful rival across the Narrow Seas, so France was crushed. Even with the Narrow Seas out of the question, Eng- land would brook no rival anywhere, so at various times Spain has been ruined by piracy and the maritime prosperity of the United States destroyed by treachery. Hillaire Belloc is also hailed asa" great militarist and fore- most expert on warfare." The writer doubts very much that he's all that. Everything he forecasted proved a fiasco for the Allies and he is only one of the many English and American so-dubbed "military experts" or superman whose precious wis- NEUTRALITY 129 dom has enabled the English to execute sueh masterly retreats. A month after the war he declared that Germany was with- out cotton and consequently would be compelled to surrender within six weeks. It seems that without cotton Germany could not win, for cotton is an essential ingredient to the manufacture of gun powder. A year has passed since Belloc laid down the law, and everywhere the Germans are victorious. Furthermore, they have more powder and shells than all the Allies combined. "What about the ' indispensable' cotton? How could Ger- many get along without such an absolute necessity ? ' ' But that is a state secret. Perhaps the Germans shaved off the beards of their Russian prisoners and thus foiled Hillaire. If that is their method there can be no end to the supply. In one of his recent military articles he consoles his readers with the statement that ' ' there is indefinite space through which the Russians can retire. ' ' Well, one is sure they are welcome to their "indefinite" space. Nobody wants to deprive them of it, not even the heroic Gen. Von Hindenburg. ' ' Old Top ' ' Hillaire has really caused the world some hilarity. Frank Harris, the well-known and famous English writer, in his book on "Searchlights of the War," says: "To blame Germany for the war is mere hypocrisy — sorrowful cant ! Ger- many did not want tlie war! Germany is the leader of civiliza- tion. In the last twenty years Germany has done more for civil- ization and humanity than any other nation on earth." And continuing, — paying as he says, "well-deserved tribute to her great achievements," he also remarks: "Every day the New York papers say the Allies have won 62 yards, 3 feet and 7 inches. Then on Sunday comes the news that the Germans have regained all that and more! German Militarism! Pooh! They're only more efficient; that's all!" . . . In a letter which appeared in Mr. Cecil Chesterton's maga- zine, called "The New Witness," on Oct. 1, 1914, a former mem- ber of the British parliament, Mr. F. Hugh 'Donnell, who for many years was foreign editor of several of the leading English periodicals, writes as follows : "It is really unnecessary for me to go into the Belgian ques- tion at present. England made war on Germany without any reference whatever to Belgium. The Belgian affair came later. It has been utilized for public consumption. It was a fine pre- text! Not only was England to strike at Germany the instant that a German fleet appeared in the channel, but France was to be thereby liberated from all anxieties which would prevent her 130 NEUTRALITY from attacking Austria in the Mediteranean with the- united forces of the French navy. ' ' This article is highly interesting as coming from a British member of Parliament and having found admission into the columns of an English paper. This paper is owned and edited by the same Cecil Chesterton who challenged Mr. Sylvester Vie- reck, the brilliant editor of The Fatherland to a debate in re: The Cause of the War! The debate took place in New York, the 17th of January, 1915, at the Cort Theatre, and resulted in a " total knockout" of Mr. Chesterton. CHAPTER XLIII Belgians and the Congo. One could quote many more English writers and historians, the best that England has — and she has few good ones — uphold- ing the German view in regard to the cause of the war and in regard to the assertions of those "knownothing" editors of the American "Al-lies" papers, that England went to war on ac- count of "poor little Belgium." The testimony of the many great well-known and influential English writers and editors ought to have at least as much weight and influence in the determination of this vital question as the hypocritical assertions of the puny, ignorant and, with European political conditions and constellations, wholly unac- quainted editors of the American "Al-lies" press. Yet our American press, by printing only what partisan, prejudiced and inspired London said and desired, by ignoring facts and refraining from thought or investigation, has suc- ceeded in arousing many of our people to the horror of Ger- many's "violation of Belgian neutrality!" They ignore, too, the fact that Belgium had forfeited the role of a puny ward of the nations. Even in 1864 Belgium had sent troops to assist France in her attempt to set an emperor on the throne of Mexico — violat- ing Mexican neutrality, flouting the Monroe doctrine, defying the United States and outraging the cause of liberty. Belgium had a great army, great fortifications — directed only against Germany — and a great African empire. Belgium was a self- reliant state. She decided her own acts — and her own fate. That is, her rulers decided. NEUTRALITY 131 A few years ago the English press, pulpit and forum rang with charges of monstrous brutality. England was aroused against "the most barbarous crimes ever committed," so Eng- land said. The American press then, as now, echoed the charges, and American literary men wrote books to prove the English point. And who were the objects of this campaign of denuncia- tion ? The Belgian people ! And why? Because the Belgian King owned the great rub- ber forests of the Congo, which had suddenly vastly increased in value through the multiplication of automobiles ; and it pleased England to discover dreadful atrocities committed by Belgians in the Congo. Chief of these atrocities was the cutting off of hands; there were numerous photographs to prove it, though, strangely enough, in this day, when the charge has been trans- ferred to the Germans, England has failed to produce a single photograph of a Belgian with a hand cut off; and didn't the very same Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who at present is so strenu- ous and venomous in his denunciations of German methods of warfare, and who, during the war, with all the might force and intellect of his pen and word, champion the Belgian cause, write of the very same Belgians,, in 1909 : ' ' The Belgians have been given their chance. They have had nearly twenty-five years of undisturbed possession, and they have made the Congo a hell upon earth. They cannot disasso- ciate themselves from this work or pretend that it was done by a separate state. It was done by a Belgian King, Belgian soldiers, Belgian financiers, Belgian lawyers, Belgian capital, and was en- dorsed and defended by Belgian Governments. It is out of the question that Belgium should remain on the Congo." Are the Belgians of 1914 any better or any different, any more human than they were in 1909 ? It is an incontrovertible fact that the war is due to the jealousy of England of Germany's growing naval, commercial and industrial power, her great commercial, industrial and eco- nomical growth in the last forty years, and it must be stated here, with a.11 the emphasis and sincerity words can convey, that the fault is all England's and only England's. Because, while she didn 't start the trouble, she knew it was going to be started and she didn 't try to stop it. Two words from Earl Grey cabled to Russia — yes, two words only: "Stop Mobilization," would have averted the wa.r. But England did want war. She got it; she got it where "the chicken got the axe," and there's more coming. She didn't care 132 NEUTRALITY any more about poor little Belgium, than one cares about the Chinese coolie working on the docks of Shanghai. She cared a lot for her own skin, and sicked Belgium on to fight. Belgium fought and lost. She deserved losing, because she was false and anything but neutral. She was England's cat's paw, an ally, a secret ally, to smash Germany. Had Belgium remained neutral in heart and spirit, she'd be there now, un- harmed and untarnished. But she conspired with England against Germany, as the documents found in the military archives of Brussels and Antwerp conclusively and firmly prove. These documents plainly state that England had the inten- tion to invade Belgium — whether Belgium wanted it or not — in case of war between Germany and France. These documents also prove that the Belgian government made an agreement with the hypothetical German invasion. These documents plainly but convincingly prove that the Belgian Government was deter- mined from the outset to join the enemies of Germany. So, where does her neutrality come in ? Belgium played the part of a dirty sneak, of a squealer, of a false friend, who shakes you by one hand, but is ready to plunge the knife into your vitals as soon as you turn your back. She got just what was coming to her and her government. Her "gallant" king deserves sympathy from no one, no matter how much we may sympathize with the millions of unfortunates who suffer on account of the duplicity of the Belgian military gov- ernment, with their king at the top. Her folly, her criminal association with England, saved for the time England! How does England repay the Belgian nation's self-sacrifice? Shaw says: "What have we done for Belgium? Have we saved her soil from invasion? Were we at her side with half a million men when the avalanche fell on her ? Or were we safe in our own country praising her heroism in paragraphs which all contrived to convey the idea that the Belgian soldier cried: 'Where are the English?' "The reply was a mass of concrete as large as a big room, blown into the air by a German siege gun, falling back and crushing him into the earth. We have not succeeded in saving Belgians from the worst horrors of war. We have not protected Belgium. Belgium has protected us at the cost of being con- quered by Germany. NEUTRALITY 133 t i I am afraid many of us have a rather complacent impres- sion that France and Britain came in a very handsome way to the rescue of brave little Belgium, and that it is a noble trait in their character that we upheld the Treaty of London (1839) these seventy-five years for Belgium's benefit. At the battle of Waterloo the British lay down snugly behind the ridge and placed the Belgian brigade on the exposed forward slope of it to be hammered to pieces by the terrible cannonade and then to be cut to ribbons by the charges that afterwards routed the artil- lery of our own. . . . ' ' Sympathy ? Yes, and quantity of sympathy. Compliments to her heroism? Yes, dithyrambs galore. Reinforcements? By all means; the British and French guns are raining shells on Belgian villages and towns as liberally as the Germans — in fact, they now boast of having established a superiority in artillery, which means that no German can live within range of their howitzers and of the famous soixante quinze. "Splendid! But no Belgian can live within that range, either; and the net result is that there are seven million Bel- gians deprived of their means of livelihood in their own country (not counting refugees who have left it), who must perish of simple starvation, unless a million pounds a month, or five mil- lion dollars, or twenty-five million francs, are forthcoming to feed them. ' ' This is from an English writer's pen, and not a German or German- American or Hungarian- American 's say. This indict- ment of Belgium comes from one of her best friends and not from a foe. All the Ridders of the Staats Zeitung or all the bril- liant Vierecks of The Fatherland could not have penned a more condemning indictment of England than Shaw conveys to us. Germany's most famous writer, with the bitterest hatred in his heart for England, couldn't have written a more powerful, a truer and more pathetic expose of England's perfidy towards the Belgian nation, "The Savior of England." What is Eng- land doing for the portion of Belgium which is not in Germany's hand or only partially so ? England takes good care to destroy, to devastate, to bombard, to burn. She is bombarding what remains of the Belgian coast towns, and burning wherever and what she can lay her hands upon. Were it not for the vigilance of the Germans and sincere desire to save for the Belgians what can be saved, Belgium would long ago have fallen prey to the vandal destruction of her English friends and benefactors. Shame on England — eternal shame! CHAPTER XLIV Tommy Atkins ¥/ants Bocks. Were it not for the great big-hearted generosity of this country, what would have become of the millions of starving sufferers, homeless and misguided people? Eich England, "the richest nation of the earth," with billions of gold sterling sov- ereigns hoarded in the mighty vaults of the Bank of England — rich England, cames to us with hat in hand, pleading: "Please help — help poor little Belgium. We can't do it; really, we can't, don't you know. We must look after our own; so please, dear Yankee cousins, come along ; give a few millions to these poor lit- tle Belgians. Poor because we made them so ! " Aye! they even go further in their impudence. They beg for their own, "The Prince of Wales Fund!" And to think that there are enough idiots among Americans to make contribu- tions to the "Prince of Wales Fund," when our own people wander around homeless, jobless and hungry! But, of course, if you do not contribute to the "Prince of Wales Fund," you cannot sit at luncheon with the Queen of England at her pal- ace, as her guest, like a certain American lady whose brother is publishing a paper in New York. No wonder that that paper - is pro-English! There's no miracle in that, is there? It is not so very long ago that many Americans received a very handsomely engraved card signed by several women of the nobility of England with the request to contribute something towards a fund with which to buy socks for ' ' Tommy Atkins. ■ ' The request was made to appeal to ' ' all patriotic Americans, who must make Tommy Atkins ' cause their cause ! ' ' Fancy! sane, self-respecting Americans contributing money to cover the ' ' tootsie-wootsies ' ' of heroic Tommy Atkins ! ' ' Rich England," begging money in America to put socks on their soldiers! Why not go barefooted? If the Scotch can die for "poor little Belgium" barelegged, why can't Tommy Atkins go barefoot to heaven or to the other place? There are no socks needed in either place, according to the pictures we have of these places. Another beautifully engraved and worded begging letter reached the "dear cousins" of America a few weeks ago. The beggars were the foremost members of English female aris- tocracy. Lady Forbes Robertson is chairman of the committee which asked us Americans for contributions to erect and build a 134 NEUTRALITY 135 hospital in England for the wounded and convalescent heroic ' ' Tommy Atkins. ' ' SOME gall ! Oh, yes, these "noble" women of England. It behooves us not to speak ill of women generally, no matter what the provoca- tion might be, but one can't very well overlook certain facts in regard to the activities of some of the English women during the course of this war. It is sufficiently deplorable that even the most prominent English writers and poets, such as Rudyard Kipling, do not hesitate to employ their brilliant talents and genius to dip their pens into the venom of hatred and write about their German foes as they do right along during these strenuous days. Among the latest accusations that Kipling hurled upon the Germans in his latest contribution to literature was "that Ger- mans compel girls to plow in graveyards and steal the wine of old women and the patents of inventors," but the vilest and most unbelievable accusation that Mr. Kipling makes against the German soldiers is that "at the word of command they drowned women and children, raped women in the streets, and denied the property and persons of their captives." 1 ' These statements of Rudyard Kipling do him no credit and the English cause no good, for he has indulged in extremes of statement and in degraded comparisons that are not only un- warranted, but will not carry conviction. At a later day, when the madness of the hour and undue hatred of England's foes have passed from his brain, will he not feel that he debauched his splendid intellect in stooping to misrepresent England's enemies, ' ' says the Los Angeles Times. CHAPTER XLV "The Female of the Species." The scurrilous, dirty, unwomanly contributions of the Eng- lish women about their German sisters are the more unpardon- able because everything they wrote is false, libelous and un- worthy of them. One might peruse volumes of literature per- taining to this war, written by German women of all classes, professional writers and others in different callings and voca- tions in life, but one has yet to find anything offensive or libel- ous about the English women. To illustrate the spirit which fills the heart and brain of some of the English women, it may not be amiss to give two or three 136 NEUTRALITY samples, but these are sufficiently enlightening, to the effect that the feminine world of England is not far behind that male por- tion of libelous accusers and vilifiers which fill with rotten twaddle and filthy lies the pages of English as well as American newspapers and current literature. What must one think of this daughter of fair Albion who wrote this letter ? : "Ring-Bert-Yardley, "Birmingham, England, Sept. 28, 1914. "My Dear Brother: "I am pleased to hear you are in good spirits. "I wish I was with you. I would like to be a nurse. I am sure I could kill one or two Germans. But good luck from Alice and your affectionate sister, (Signed) JENNY. The letter is addressed to Richard Reading, Esq., Queen's Hotel, Antwerp, and forwarded to "Corps Mitrailleuse, 4 Co., St. Anne, Antwerp, Belgium. ' ' Isn't Jenny adorable? The above letter inspired the famous German poet, Gerhart Eauptman, author of "The Sunken Bell," to write a, poem which, translated by George Sylvester Viereck, the editor of "The Fatherland," runs as follows: RICHARD READING'S SISTER. Lo, Jesus, this man's sister: She Is lesser than the beasts that prey. Hyena-like, with stealth to slay, She '& prowl about a wounded man, Under the hood of Charity, ' Garbed as a good Samaritan. A tearing she-fox, she would creep On helpless Germans in their sleep. Have mercy on Thy Judgment Day Upon this soul's iniquity, Lord, for the least, The vilest beast Bears no such a load of infamy. Her name among the damned is Jane. Make her an angel without stain. In the first days of the war, there was a poor German news dealer by the name of Adolph Boehm, living at 275 Fulham NEUTRALITY 137 Road, London, who had several news stands in Kensington dis- tricts, counting many in the neighborhood, male and female, members of the nobility, among his customers. Shortly after the war broke out the poor German news dealer, suspecting what was in store for him and for the other Germans residing and doing business in London, tried to collect little sums of money due to him for newspapers and for articles delivered to his noble patrons. Here is one of the letters he received from a lady of English " nobility," and this is what she says: "Considering my husband lias lost one eye through your rotten country, I refuse to pay you a farthing. I am only sorry I do not owe you more. Nothing owed you could ever make up the misery your countrymen have caused us. (Signed) Marion Hope. Marion Hope is the wife of Captain Hope and niece of Lord Rosebery. Is it thinkable that even the most humble German scullery maid would write a letter like this? The English "Mi- lady," of course, thought that it was a clever way to repudiate a debt and to pay a newspaper bill with the "eye of her hus- band." ..." The Countess of Warwick, one of the foremost members of English aristocracy, is heralded and advertised by the American press, and particularly by the Hearst papers to which she is a regular society contributor, as a particular authority on good costumes, society manners and good breeding. A little while ago the Countess of Warwick saw fit to air her views concerning the "depravity of German women as a result of the war." That was an uncalled-for slur at her sex, biased and false as hell. The German women in the fatherland, from the palace at Berlin to the lowliest cottage in the most obscure village in the Empire, are, first of all, notably virtuous, paragons of vir- tue when compared to the polluted degenerates who rub elbows with royalty in London. Frugal and industrious, scrupulously clean in person and morals, modest in the home and prudently discreet in their con- duct in public, German women are shining examples of what noble womanhood should be; an example for the screeching, howling, immodest, maniacal suffragettes of England to pattern from. The writer knows whereof he speaks, for he has had an op- portunity to study German women in their German homes, and it is a fact incontrovertible that their industry, modesty, and 138 NEUTRALITY virtue have not deserted them nor suffered by contact with men and women of other nationalities in the United States. An unprovoked, bitter and palpably false attack by a mem- ber of England's proud nobility on German womanhood would be ridiculous if it were not so serious, with the little affairs of Oscar Wilde, Lady Bollingbrook and the estimable Prince of Wales, afterwards King of England, still fresh in our memories. Oscar Wilde, the son of an English lord and lady, admitted to court circles and hobnobbing with the Prince of Wales, while his effeminate degeneracy was contaminating an already denied atmosphere, was no worse than his noble associates in London. And who is this that attacks the characters of German women? The wife of a, descendant of Robert Rich, the first Earl of Warwick, who was the sword-bearer for Cromwell, the bloody, bigoted butcher of infamous memory, whose soldiers tortured and murdered maidens and matrons because they could not destroy the virtue of the women of Erin. A proud record, truly, and one worth recalling by the Countess of Warwick. CHAPTER XLVI Edith Oavell. The sad case of another Englishwoman — that of the nurse, Edith Cavell — created quite an excitement in America. The English press left no stone unturned to arouse American sym- pathy and passion for their "heroine. " America was indescrib- ably shocked and horrified to learn that the barbarous Germans shot a woman, because she happened to be a spy. Sympathizers with the case forgot that the spy is the most dangerous foe an army can deal with. They forgot, or they did not know, that it is a long-recognized rule of warfare that when caught the spy — male or female — must be executed. American "Al-lies" editors forgot that Nathan Hale, the American patriot, was hanged by the English for a similar crime. American "AL-lies" editors forgot the Mary Surratt case of civil-war fame, and that on her account our own hands are not very clean either. American "Al-lies" newspapers forgot, or didn't know, or didn't want to know, or tell of the execution of the two German women — for similar crimes — by the "gallant and chivalrous" French in Nancy and Bourge, early in March of this year. When the French authorities executed Ottilie Moss and Margarete Schmidt, the two German women, they forgot to notify the NEUTRALITY 139 "Al-lies" press of America of their "noble" conduct of war- fare, and if they did this very same press didn't seem to be a bit shocked. The indignant, shocked, horrified editors of the "Al-lies" press of America, those great worshipers and pro- tectors of "woman," led by the chivalrous, virtuous knight of Herald Square, New York, and Avenue de l'Opera, Paris, did not know, or if they did know, "forgot" to inform their readers of the execution of a Mrs. Julia Van Warterghen in Antwerp on Aug. 18, 1914, by the Belgian authorities ! What made this execution more shocking and horrid, more inhuman and bestial, is the fact that Mrs. Warterghen at the time of her execution was about to become a mother. But when the Germans do the same thing, that is a "horse of another color." Frenchmen or Belgians kill- ing women spies are ' ' gallant, chivalrous gentlemen. ' ' Ger- mans killing one self-con- fessed, dangerous spy mas- querading in tlie virtues garb of a Samaritan are "barbar- ians" and beyond the pale of civilization! What damnable- cant ! What damnable hypoc- risy! What degree of official- ity in the art of killing women and children, within the countries with which England is at war has attained and what national genii the Eng- lish are when it comes to executing women let the monument erected at Bloemfontain and unveiled Dec. 16, 1913, speak for itself. The monument bears the inscription : ..jicricUia A REMINDER TO THE WORLD. Erected by the Boers in South Africa In Memory of 26,663 WOMEN AND CHILDREN Who died in the concentration camps during the war 1900-1902. 140 NEUTEALITY H ■■ "• • • HHhK'. '.';.■;:';'.'■'■' - ' ''..'";:.. ""'' ; fv:" : ,■..,..':,,.■::;; ^«w ; ar ..■■■■->■ ..;• ;. ■;-■-?■%:'■■■■:■,.'-'■■. . J.x^i^w* '■' ■ ■ ■ ■■■■■ ... NATIONAL MONUMENT ERECTED AT BLOEMFONTEIN BY THE BOERS IN SOUTH AFRICA IN MEMORY OF 26,663 WOMEN AND CHILDREN VICTIMS OF ENGLISH BRUTALITY. NEUTEALITY 141 The "Al-lies" press conveniently overlooked, in the Cavell case, that her execution was — as all such executions are — a ne- cessity of war. The regulations of the United States Federal armies dwell explicitly on this point. On April 24, 1863, among General Orders, Number 100, is the following ruling: ' ! Section 102. The law of war, like the criminal law regulating other offenses, recognizes no difference on account of the sex of the culprit, concerning the spy, the war traitor, or the war rebel." No discrimination was shown Mrs. Surratt on account of her sex. She was hanged by order of the Government. It was in her house Wilkes Booth and the other conspirators planned the assassination of President Lincoln. Mary Surratt was a "lady" of southern birth. She was found guilty by a military commission composed of the following American gentlemen and officers : Gens. Hun- ter, Ekin, Kautz, Foster, Home, Lew Wallace, Harris ; Col. Clen- denin, Col. Tompkins, Col. Burnett, Gen. Holt, and Judge Advocate Bingham, of receiving, harboring, concealing, and assisting rebels, sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead, sentence approved by President Johnson. The following are a few of the opinions of the press, prob- ably the ' ' Al-lies ' ' press of the day : "The execution of Mary Surratt is the foulest blot on the history of the U.S. A.' ' "It was a violation of the most sacred provisions of that constitution whose enforcement was the vaunted purpose of the war. ■ ' "The annals of modern times will be searched in vain to find a parallel. ' ' "Not a single redeeming feature relieves the deep damna- tion of her taking off." "It was illegal, unjust, unhumane, unholy; it was mean; it was all of these in the highest and lowest degrees." "It resembled the acts of savages and not of men." When the "gallant, chivalrous" French or Belgian Allies killed those German women, wouldn't the above quoted expres- sions of our press have been in order? Why weren't these printed? Why didn't our sanctimonious Ambassador, Brand Whitlock, jump into the limelight of publicity then, and why didn't he give us a lachrymose account of the affaires as he did in the Cavell case. Why? 142 NEUTRALITY Our "Al-lies" press had nothing to say when German women were killed, but the execution of the Cavell woman received the widest publicity. Why? Because: England controls the cables and news channels, and has a censor who carefully suppresses all news of the shooting of Ger- man spies in the Tower, or in France, giving neither their names nor sex, but simply recording the accomplished fact. Nothing is allowed to reach the outside world regarding the infamous treatment of German women and children in London or Paris, hounded like wild animals and driven to the brink of starva- tion while husbands and fathers are being slowly tortured to death in English, French or Russian concentration camps. The Times and papers of its ilk have no space to record the killing and torturing of German women by the "gallant Allies " or the persecution of the Jews in Russia, but they have columns for Armenian atrocities and pages devoted to the execution of a legal death sentence in the case of an English woman. The fact is deplorable, but it is not half as deplorable as the atrocities committed on German women and children in the streets of London. Let us quote Mr. Adolph Brougier — a Frenchman — on this subject: "The condition of German women and children in London is frightful beyond description. Nobody will employ them, and necessity has driven them to street beggary. And nearly all of them are respectable and refined people who never dreamed of being placed in such a frightful position. ' ' The condition of the German women and children is simply pitiable. I don't know wha.t is to become of them. The hatred of the English is so great that the nation has become perfectly callous toward these miserable wretches. Even educated Eng- lishmen admit this. The violence of the lower classes, when- ever the condition of these unfortunate women and children is mentioned, is simply indescribable." Aren't these unfortunate German women and children just as deserving of America's charity as the wretched poor women or children of "poor little Belgium?" Did we send any money, any clothes, any food, any socks or anything else to these un- fortunate German and Austro-Hungarian women and children who, reduced to pitiable poverty and starvation, wander around in the streets of London begging for food — begging for the bar- est necessities of life? We did not! And the hungry German woman and child in the streets of London, Paris, or in the devastated Prussian and NEUTRALITY 143 Polish villages were in as much need of our succor as those un- fortunate Belgians. But which of the two are nearer to us? Which of these two nations ought to appeal more to us and de- serve* more our sympathies ? Belgium, the friend of England — "our eternal foe" — or Prussia, our old, dear and tried friend and ally? The history of the United States bears out this con- tention. . . . Is there one single incident in the history of our nation be- fore the outbreak of this war when there ever was even a mis- understanding, far less a quarrel, or broken relations between Germany and ourselves? Never! Germany has always been Uncle Sam's friend. In fact, Germany was the first friend this nation ever had since it became a nation. And once a friend, always remained a friend. Frederick the Great, then King of Prussia, who alone recognized the United States of America as entitled to a place in the family of independent nations; and the first treaty of Commerce entered into by this country was with Prussia.. The Prussians were the first ones who thought Uncle Sam good enough, honest enough, straight enough, square enough to do business with. This act constituted the treaty of 1828, which is at present so much discussed in our diplomacy in the cases of the Frey and Falaba. The grateful acknowledgment of this treaty, which is preserved among the state papers in Washington as "a treaty memorable in the history of the world and precious as a monu- ment of the principles with which our country entered upon her career as a member of the great family of independent na- tions/' was made by President John Quincy Adanns in a mes- sage to Congress, dated March 15, 1828, and no time seems so fitting as this to present it to the American people as a reminder that the founders of this country were able to obtain, as Presi- dent Adams says, ' ' the sanction of but one great and philosophi- cal though absolute sovereign in Europe to their liberal and enlightened principles." They could obtain no more as a re- minder that they owe some respect, some gratitude and some little tribute of sentimental friendship to that German State which was the first to admit their country to "the great family of independent nations." That German State was Prussia! AND WHAT FREDERICK THE GREAT, THEN KING OF PRUSSIA, WAS TO UNCLE SAM IS WILLIAM II, THE PRESENT KING OF PRUSSIA, TO UNCLE SAM IN 1916! CHAPTER XLVII The American Janus. What does "NEUTRALITY" mean? It means: "Refraining from interference in a contest. Friendly to each of two belligerents, or at least not taking the part of either. A state or nation that refrains from aiding or interfering between the belligerent parties in a war." Has the United States and its press — with its noble excep- tions — acted in this spirit ? It has not ! When we sell war ma- terial to any of the belligerents, we are aiding and abetting and sustaining his bloody programme. What we get out of it is blood money. Our mission should be to help to preserve, to bring peace. Prejudice has blinded many of our journalists and -perverted their otherwise good judgment. It is a perversion to say that a refusal to sell munitions of war to England "helps Germany." It is our duty to be neutral, and acts of omission or refusal to supply war material is conducive to pure neutrality. To be really neutral, we must act upon the situation as it exists at the time of our action. We know that we can supply the Allies only and that our materials (for the prosecution and lengthening of this war) cannot be delivered to Germany or Austria. Knowing this, we violate with our eyes open and we deliberately join in an alliance against one side. It is a griev- ous error and one which may have terrible consequences. To cover up the results of a mistaken tariff policy which has brought disaster and distress we are willing to accept blood money for war material where we should be strictly neutral. Granted that international law permits neutrals to furnish munitions and funds to belligerent nations, is international law acknowledged to be perfect and the ultimate standard for the conduct of nations? Did we not operate under a higher law at the "Boston tea party" and in our fight for Cuba's free- dom? If there ever was a time to rise above precedent, be just, magnanimous and humanity's friend — it is now. For the sake of sordid dollars our country is accessory to tlie most destructive, merciless war of the ages, a war not of defense, for honor or humanity, but of national ambition and greed, in which property, art, architecture, civilization, men, women, children, and, it would seem, the very hope of heaven, 144 NEUTRALITY GERMANY HAY NOT INJURE AMERICAN SH1PS.N0R INTERFERE V/ITH AMERICAN! COMMERCE. GERMANY MAY NOT KILL AMERICANS WITH IMPUNITY THE UNITEO STATES WILL MAINTAIN THE RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES OF AMERICANS TO TRAVEL ON SHtPS OWNED BY GREAT 6RITM ENGLAND -MAY TAKE POSSESSION OP AMERICAN SHIPS AND CONFISCATE /.MER1CAN GOODS MEXICO MAY SlAY AMERICANS WITH UMPUNiTY. ANY LOAN TO „ GERMANY OR. TO AU STRIA* WOUL.D BE INCONSISTENT WITH THE SPIRIT OP NEUTRALITY.", THE UNITED STATES WILE NOT MAINTAIN- THE RIOHTS .ANt> PRIVILEGES OP AMERICANS WHO> TRAVEL PR tiWE M MEXICO., . THE BEST PRACTISE OF NATIONS IN THE MATTER OF NEUTRALITY IS TO PROHIBIT THE SHIPMENT OF ARMS TO THE FIGHTING FORCES IN MEXICO ANY &AH TO ENGLAND ^OULD KtfTBEJKCOa&fSTEHT Y/iTHKH!* SRRIT OF NElffRAUtt. THE BEST PRACTISE ^ OF NATIONS IN THE^ MATTER OF NEUTRALITY IS TO PERMIT AND ENCOURAGE. THE SHIP- MENT OP ARMS. TO THE FITTING FORCES . OF EUROPE^ WE PRAY TO GOD TO RESTORE PEAC£. WE j>o oufc- W0RS7 TO PROLONG YH£ WAR . £ — Hearst's American. JANUS OF DEMOCRACY. 146 NEUTRALITY are ruthlessly sacrificed to bloody Mars. Judas paid dearly for those thirty pieces of silver and these will be the dearest millions Americans ever gathered for their vaults. The law of retribution has not been suspended. It is still operative throughout the whole world. Those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. The Civil War took full measure, shaken down, running over with tears and blood from this na- tion for the practice, and for toleration of the practice, of black slavery in this land; and we are again being weighed in the balance, and full justice will be meted out. Neither an individ- ual nor a nation can do wrong and get away with it. Retribu- tion comes even to the third and fourth generation. It is com- ing even now in the loss of a measure of self-respect, in the fact that as a result of the furnishing of munitions and making this huge loan our national sentiment, like our Liberty Bell, is cracked. Is this the spirit and meaning of "Neutrality?" If it is, it certainly bears the face of "Janus," which is double-faced. Not only that, the press, and through the press a large portion of the misguided, ill-advised American people, has taken side with the allies, displaying the rankest partisanship and making itself guilty of the grossest ingratitude toward a nation to which we owe more than to all the other nations combined. Taking part of the English, of the Russians, of the Serb, against the Ger- mans ! Shame and disgrace upon us ! What have the Germans done to this country that she should stand now in the midst of this country's storm of abuse and hatred? What has she done to align the hatred, the condemna- tion of the press ? Looking back upon the forty-four years that Germany has lived, it cannot be said that in this period she essentially enlarged her possessions, nor can it be said that she has been a particularly bad sinner. The crime was that this German Empire worked while others celebrated; that she grew stronger; that she achieved things that others had been unable to achieve. Without a certain diplomacy the affairs of great nations cannot be run. But there is a limit. When hypocrisy is not consistent with the interests of the country it becomes a crime. One could understand that with the rapid growth of Ger- many a certain discontent could result in England, but what concern is that of ours? "Let George do it!" Let England war against such competition, but let her do it by moderately decent means. What is "Hecuba" to us? NEUTRALITY 147 Take business: One does not surround and isolate the com- petitor, cut his telephone and brand him before the world as a criminal. But that is what they did to her. They cut her cable and then they said: "Don't you know that those scoun- drels are already bankrupt, the Berlin castle is burning, the Kaiser has fled, he will settle in Canada, etc., etc.?" Then came the atrocities upon atrocities 1 , and when we hear how everywhere efforts were made to slander the Germans as a common, very inferior race, it is indeed difficult to keep her from hating England. But Germans do not bark; they fight. And if they could or would not fight hard, no talk, no docu- ments would help them. When the final account is drawn up nobody asks who started the war, but who won the war! Win they will because win they must. Germany owes it to her soldiers on land who are doing such wonderful, such un- heard of, such undreamed of acts of bravery, heroism and self- sacrifice, and to those on the water, to those brave and gallant marine boys and heroes of her ships, who are burning to give their lives for their Fatherland. To them she owes much of her confidence. Germany's fleet is England's worry, and this worry will not die until England dies — or at least ceases to rule the waves and the old song "Britannia Rules the Waves" be- comes obsolete and a myth. Yes, Germany will win — no matter how many more will join the hordes of the Allies — and in spite of all the wishes of the ' ' Al-lies ' ' press to the contrary ! . . . CHAPTER XLVIII Look Who's Here! i i The Allies! "Carrying civilization to the Rhine!" It is to laugh ! That 's a fine brand of civilization, isn 't it, dear editors, that that Cossack, Fiji or Sikh has undertaken to carry to the Rhein*? You're good judges of civilization — it's your business, it 's your calling to teach, to instruct, to elevate, to uplift human- ity, to rescue it from the dark ages of stupidity, of bigotry, of savagery — it's your cabling to spread civilization, to improve mankind ! It makes one shriek with laughter to hear our Joseph Choate, our former ambassador to England, say at the Pilgrims' dinner to the visiting foreign delegates who came to rob us of our money : * ' And when I see men fighting for liberty, justice and 148 NEUTEALITY civilization, my heart is there. When I see nations resorting to dubious courses and brutality, my heart is against them. This is a contest between liberty and slavery, between law and order and militarism seeking to dominate all Europe. We welcome 'The Allies Carrying Civiliza- tion to the Rhine." THE BRITISH BRAND OF CIVILIZATION. My name is Tommy Atkins And I'm a husky chap, My Comrade is a Cossack And my partner is a Jap. We're going with some Gurkas And likewise with some Sikhs, Some black Algerian Turcos, And other colored freaks. And with all the bloomin' virtues For which you know we shine. We are carrying CIVILIZATION To the people on the Rhine. these gentlemen who have come to do us a very great service.' ' Ha ! ha ! ' ' To do us a very great service ' ' by taking our hard- earned dollars from us. Here are the friends of Mr. Choate! Look at this picture ! Is this the civilization, is this the kind of culture he means when he's hollering "Hooray, for the Allies!" There isn't a decent fellow in the whole bunch outside of the "Poilu," the brave French soldier, and even he looks ajshamed to be found in this company. Poor France! Jiow site wishes she were out of it. She knows that by tradition, by honor, by his- tory, by valor and prestige, she does not fit in this picture. "Come, help us, Uncle Sam," bellows the big brutish Eng- lish bulldog. "We're only 32 of us!" Count them! English- French, Russian, Japanese, Servians, Italians, Montenegrins, Portuguese, Turcomans, Inamites, Yakuts, GTonds, Bengalese, Belgians, Cossacks, Scotch. Fijis, Welshmen, Zulus, Canadians, Burmese, Australians, Rajputs, Sikhs, Kypheri, Tartars, Ushegs, Kalmaks, Kerghis, Baludii, Basutas, and last but not least, some foolish, misguided Irish! Yes, 32 of them, representing all col- ors of the rainbow, fighting to down, to crush German civiliza- tion and culture ! Can they do it ? No ! A thousand times no, because it isn't in them!! NEUTRALITY 149 It's bad enough that that bunch of cutthroats has recently been augmented by the sons of beautiful, artistic Italy ; it's sad enough that because the gold of England purchased a. bank- rupt poet and a pack of greedy newspapers thousands of Pietros and Enricos are staring with sightless eyes from the^ sun- bleached slopes of the Tyrolese Alps, but the saddest thing to contemplate is to see the brave "Poilu" of glorious France the heroic sons of the "Grand Nation," fighting alongside their eternal foe and archenemy, England, instead of against them, which should be really their proper and historical place. Aleister Crowley, the famous English writer, states: "No- body can understand the mystery of Prance's participation in this unholy alliance with England and Eussia. One motive is the recovery of that lost glory, and of that supreme position m Europe. The other consideration has to do with the vast sums transmitted from Paris banking houses to Petrograd, Moscow and Odessa. "When Russia leads the war to Armageddon, France must follow. Hesitation would entail the cancellation of the enor- mous indebtedness, a flat repudiation. A stroke of the- auto- cratic pen in Petrograd can bring the French to bankruptcy, and well they know on which side their bread is buttered. I for my part feel but the deepest sympathy for her, because I love her, and it makes me sad to think what a fall she has had since those splendid days under Richelieu and Louis XIV. "It seems but yesterday when she dictated policies to every chancellory! No merely earthly splendor seems at all compar- able with hers from the age of Mazarin to that of the French Revolution. Then comes the Napoleonic glory, and we have Talleyrand triumphant at the congress of Vienna. The third Napoleon continues the magnificent procession. "Paris is always the Queen City of the world, reigning in un- disputed sway over men and manners, over arts and sciences, the home of beauty and delight. How shocking the collapse when a united Germany, frugal, domesticated, pious, comes be- tween exquisite France and the glories she has lost. It is an old, old story of Cinderella stepping out of the kitchen to eclipse her proud sister. "I know Germany. I spent many a month there every year, and I know how intellectual Germany thinks and feels about France. There's no prejudice, hatred feeling of 'Revanche, disdain or contempt in Germany against France. Just to the contrary, the fine arts of France, her culture and painting have 150 NEUTRALITY become a. cult with the Germans. The appreciation of Rodin was first initiated in Germany. 1 ' They venerate Anatole France ; Flaubert, Balzac, Maupas- sant produce the same effect upon them as though they were the flowerings of German art and creation. They adore the folk lore of southern France. You can find passionate admirers of Mistral in little German towns, in German alleys and garrets. It is the world's loss that France and Germany are not united politically. France and Germany ought to be the Keepers of the Light, the bulwarks of continental freedom and culture. But, alas! fate has decreed otherwise." Americans are accusing Germans of being barbarians. The accusers are, strangely enough, the kind of people who ride on German ships, attend concerts of German music, go to Bayreuth, visit German theatres, German libraries and German universi- ties, and are saved from death by German physicians. Many are the Americans who owe their health and probably their lives to the skill and science of the German doctors. In a certain number of a popular ten-cent magazine, there's another case of calculated mendacity and barefaced lying with the sole object of misleading and poisoning public opinion. The responsibility for the article rests as much with the editor as with the contributor. The author in question states that, "the attitude of Schles- wig-Holstein itself toward Germany in her present struggle is perhaps best indicated by the fact that Prince Albert of Schles- wig-Holstein, a lieutenant-general in the German army, has re- signed his commission and has joined the British forces in their operations against his former chief and suzerain." And an inquiry on the subject brought forth the following reply from the German military attache : "I want to state that Prince Al- bert of Schleswig-Holstein is with the German army in France, and holds a high position in the second army. ' ' There was no difficulty in eliciting this information. The same source of information was open to the editor. It is open to any editor who prefers truth to fiction. The editor and pro- prietor of this magazine owns several newspapers in different cities. One of his papers is published in New York and his bit- ter denunciation of Germans, Austrians and Hungarians outbids in hatred and vilification even his neighborly fellow publishers. Now this editor goes every year to Germany and Austria in search of health. He is to be met every summer in Carlsbad, NEUTRALITY 151 wkere much honor and consideration is shown to him as to the editor of a great American newspaper. And a great editor he is. It was announced some time ago, in large black letters, in his and other papers, that this editor has given $25,000 to the Eng- lish Red Cross and $25,000 to the French Red Cross. One searched in vain for his contribution to the German or Austrian Red Cross; yet this editor goes yearly to Austria, and then to Germany to gain health and vigor— which enables him for the rest of the year to earn the $50,000 or more with which he endowed the Red Cross organizations of the allies, without giving one cent to the organization one member of which looks tenderly after his health, when he seeks rest, repose and cure at the wonderful springs of that celebrated health resort of Austria. Wonder what the "barbarian" Austrian and German doctors will say to him when he appears before them again after the war seeking cure and rest ? CHAPTER XLIX Perfidious Albion. Referring to the thirty-two varieties of the allies, the Jap is the most interesting to us Americans. Speaking of the "Entente," Mr. Crowley says: "To think of an alliance with the treacherous monkeys of Japan, the thieves and pirates of the East! Who makes the shoddy imitations of European and American machinery, forges the names of famous firms, sticks at no means to steal trade! Who, under cover of alliance with England, fostered in China a boycott of all Eng- lish goods? "Only yesterday Japan was at the throat of Russia— or at least trod heavily on one big toe. Today in Tokio they sing the Russian national anthem, and cheer the ambassador whenever he appears Why not? Of course. It is natural, it is human ; it is all in order. But it is fickleness and treachery ; it is hypocrisy and Jiumbug. Diplomacy is of necessity all this ; but at least let us mitigate the crime of confession ! Human nature is never so bad when it is not shackled by morality of emasculate idealists. "Does any person who knows the Far East believe, even in an opium dream, that Japan had any quarrel with Germany, or any care for her alliance with England? Kiao-Chau was an easy enough prey; well, then, snatch it, and chance the wrath of schoolmarmed America and the egregious Wilson. But for 152 NEUTBALITY? God's sake, and by the navel of Daibutsu, and the twelve ban- ners of the twelve sects of Buddha, let us spit out the twaddle about honor, and justice, and oppressed China, and the sanctity of alliance ! ' ' Of the English, his own nation, Crowley adds: "England, the home of liberty, the refuge of the oppressed, the star of hope of the little nations. I suppose that any nation about whom they sang 1 ' ' They 're hanging men, and women, too, For wearing of the green, ' would suppress the song by yet more hangings. The English are cynical enough to sing it themselves ! The English are ever on the lookout for atrocities. Bulgarian atrocities, Armenian atrocities, Tripolitan atrocities, Congo atrocities, and now Ger- man atrocities. One notices that the atrocity of the atrocitators varies with their political objectionability. The parable of the mote and the beam was made for England, surely. "German atheism! from the compatriots of Shelley, Thom- son, Bradlaugh, Morley, and John Burns. "German sensuality! from the fellow-citizens of Swinburne, Rossetti, Keats, and a. dozen others. German blasphemy! when the Kaiser invokes the God of Battles. As if the success of British arms were not prayed for daily in the churches, the name of God invoked in the addresses to the soldiers, and the very motto of England, ' Dieu et mon droit ! ' God and my duty ! It is true the Kaiser was first to make so emphatic an insistence that God was his ally ; it seems that England has the old literary grievance against those ' qui ante nos nostra dixerunt ! ' "Indeed, 'saevitia!' ' ' German militarism ! Ha, ha ! A strange rebuke from Eng- land, whose saner citizens at this hour are cursing themselves that they did not have conscription twenty years ago. Have Englishmen forgotten their own Royal family? " 'The very dogs in England's court They bark and howl in German. ' "Edward VII. spoke English with an accent; and at the first hour of war with Germany we found the first Lord of the Admiralty a German Prince! Until this year England Jtas never been at war with Germany in the course of history since the Conquest. Our very speech, half German, bete&yeth us. All this is finished. The German is a. Hun, and a vandal, and a monster, and a woman torturer, a child-murderer. NEUTRALITY 153 1 ' Oh perfidious Albion ! what a disgrace, what a sham ! The Huns, we cry ! And then we lure Algerians, not only of Arab, but of negroid and negro stock, into line. We make India gush out a venomous river of black troops, the desperate Gjhoorka, whose kukri is thrust upward through the bowels; the Pathan, whose very women scavenge the battlefield to rob, murder and foully mutilate the dead ; the Shikh, the lithe Paniyabi ; aye, the Bengali even, whose maximum of military achievement is the ' Black Hole of Calcutta!' " CHAPTER L Wilhelm, the Dauntless. Continuing, Mr. Crowley says : ' ' Against the Boers we Englishmen did not dare employ sav- age troops. Europe would have risen in arms at the abomina- tion. Today we do it, because all armed Europe is already either for us or against us. And, with all that, we use the Japanese ! Can we complain if the German papers say that the Kaiser is fighting for culture, for civilization, when the flower of the allied troops are black, brown, and yellow heathens, the very folks whom we have stopped from hook-swinging, suttee, child-murder, human sacrifice and cannibal feast? From Sene- gambia, Morocco, the Soudan, Afghanistan, every wild band of robber clans, come fighting men to slay the compatriots of Kant, Hegel, Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Beethoven, Wagner, Mozart, Durer, Helmholtz, Hertz, Haeckel, and a million others perhaps obscurer, no less noble, men of the Fatherland of music, of philosophy, of science and of medicine, the land where education is a reality and not a farce, the land of Luther and Melancthon, the land whose life blood washed out the Ecclesiastical tyranny of the Dark Ages. And then came the Triple Entente. ' ' Germany was held like a deer in a lion's jaws. Austria, her only friend, was being ruined by insidious politics even more surely than by open attacks. Barred in the Adriatic, barred in the Baltic, the Teuton had but one small strip of reasonably open coast. That the Kaiser made the coast the greatest naval base in the world was held to be a ' menace. ' ' ' And since the ' Entente ' the ordeal of the Kaiser has been Promethean. Insult after insult he has had to swallow; injury upon injury he has had to endure. The Kiao-Chau adventure, 154 NEUTEALITY harmless and rational, was balked, then sterilized, then counter- poised. The colonies did not prosper. England built like a maniac against his navy ; Churchill deliberately pulled his nose by the impudent proposal for limitation of armaments. "Agadir was a fresh humiliation; for a few acres of unin- habitable jungle on the Congo he had to surrender all interest in Morocco, a country he had nursed for years. It is still a diplomatic secret, and I must not betray it. But who financed Italy in her Tripolitan adventure, and why ? And who is financ- ing her now — in this war? "The last straw was the Balkan war. Blotted was his one hope of escape to the East; Turkey was torn to pieces before his eyes, and he could not stir a finger to prevent it. Austria still blocked in the Adriatic, Italy alienated from the Triple Alliance, the Slav expanding everywhere, Constantinople itself threatened, Roumania turning toward Russia, he must have felt like a victim of that maiden of armor and spears that once exe- cuted justice on the weak. 1 ' What was his only success ? The formation of the Kingdom of Albania — a kingdom ' pour rire, ' a kingdom a la Gilbert and Sullivan, Prince William of Wied less like a cat on hot bricks than like a spider on a glowing shovel. He never possessed so much as his capital in peace. And all this had been accom- plished without Wilhelm drawing sword or firing cannon. . . ' ' Here then stood Wilhelm, dauntless. Diplomacy had failed ; his one ally was handicapped by domestic unrest; he was iso- lated in Europe; England was increasing her navy at a pace which he could never beat ; France with her three-year law, was proposing to increase her army by 50 per cent at a stroke ; Rus- sia was turning the flank, pushing on through the Balkans sub- tly and surely. "And fhe Kaiser answered, l I am fhe servant of God; I stand for peace. And let him that draws fhe sword perish by tJie sword!' "And the Triple Entente gathered closer and chuckled: ' Aha ! he dare not fight. ' Let us frighten the garotte ! So Servia plots and executes the crime of Serajevo. Austria, its aged Em- peror smitten again, and most foully, demands imperatively the disclosure of the accomplices of the assassins. Servia replies in terms of evasion, evasion impudently cynical. Austria stirs. Russia replies by mobilizing. Before Austria has moved a man or a gun, Russia mobilizes. All things conspired ; he would make one final effort for peace by threatening Russia. NEUTRALITY 155 ' ' And then he suddenly knew that it was no good. Nothing was any good ; nothing would ever be any good again. Sir Ed- ward Grey, the hypocrite of all hypocrites, spoke for peace, spoke of neutrality, in the House of Commons at a moment when thousands of British troops were already in Belgian waters, and the fleet, concentrated and ready for action, already held the North Sea. France withdrew her troops from the frontier to hoodwink Wilhelm, 'so as to avoid any possibility of incidents which might be mistaken for aggression, ' while her Algerian and Senegambian troops were on the water, halfway to Marseilles. "William knew that this time there was no hope of peace. Abdication itself would hardly have saved Germany from a long- prepared, carefully-planned war, a war whose avowed object, an object in the mouth of every man in the street, was the destruc- tion of Austria., the dismemberment of Germany. They had got him. "Even a worm will turn; even a Quaker will fight if he's cornered. Wilhelm struck. And he struck hard ! " . . . CHAPTER LI ' ' Christian ' ' England. On a certain day of January, 1915, an editorial appeared in the New York Herald under the caption: "Deutchland ueber alles. " In normal times the New York Herald is one of the best all around newspapers printed in America and its edi- tor, Mr. James Gordon Bennett, is known as one of the greatest journalists in America — but the trend of thought in that edi- torial in its impudence and distortion of facts brands it as such a grotesque display of editorial asininity that one must wonder how it happens to emanate from the New York Herald's editorial sanctum. Will the Herald or Sister "Pinky" answer these questions? What nation fought us in 1812 ? Who burned Washington, D. C. ? Who armed the Indians to murder and scalp settlers of the far West? Who conspired, plotted, pirated during our Revolutionary War? Who built the Alabama? Who defied our Monroe Doctrine in 1889, in Venezuela? Who objected to our fortifications in Panama? 156 N E U T E A L I T Y THE GREAT BRITON. "The Union Jack napping its folds over every Subject Province of England, is the Emblem of Death by Starvation! It is the famine flag. In India, a3 in Ireland, it is the Ensign of Desolation." NEUTRALITY 157 Whose ambassador is Sir Lionel Garden, the man who dared to insult President Wilson? Who seized the American ships, the John D. Rockefeller, the Brindilla and the Platuria, the Hocking, the Genessee, and other American ships flying the Stars and Stripes bound for neutral ports? Who has been and is right along interfering with our ship- ping, seizing ships, foodstuffs and all other products sold and shipped by the United States citizens to neutral countries? Who is strenuously objecting to the United States buying and building ships in order to have a merchant marine and a respectable, efficient navy ? Who is disregarding American passports, dragging American citizens off the boats flying the Stars and Stripes and putting American citizens into concentration camps and prisons? Who was it that called us ''bastards and pirates" in 1812? Who took Persia, India, Egypt by force, and rules them with- out their consent ? Who took Gibraltar from Spain? Who is the oppressor of Ireland ? Who crushed the freedom of the Boer States and who is re- sponsible for Boer General Beyer's statement that every Boer farm and homestead was another Louvain ? Who starved millions of Indians ? Who killed, maimed and starved thousands of Boer women and children ? Who's General is Kitchener, called the " Butcher?" What nation is called "perfidious Albion" by the French? Who broke her solemn treaty with Denmark and bombarded Copenhagen? ,, ■-, _ Whose aviators dropped bombs on the undefended and open German cities, Dusseldorf and Freiburg? < ^ What nation stood for a certain brand of "civilization in the Indian mutiny in 1857 when she tied Hindus to the mouths of cannon and blew them into ' ' smithereens ? " What nation stood for "civilization" (?), "freedom" (?), and "liberty" ( ?) when Scotch borderers shot the Irish m Dub- lin?" Who was refusing to send a minister or ambassador to the Servian court after the assassination of the ruler? Will the Herald and poor little "Pinky" kindly answer these questions ? 158 NEUTRALITY The answer ought to be a very easy one. Every American or European schoolboy is able to answer them, as there's but one answer to all these questions, and the answer is: " ENG- LAND.' ' Should the dear editors of the "Al-lies" papers, including the kangaroo editor of the Providence Journal, John Revelstoke Rathom, Esq., doubt the correctness of that answer, be they ad- vised to turn to the late Labouchere, verily a good Englishman and one of the great editors of London. Mr. Labouchere ought to be a competent authority in this matter, being known as one of England's great statesmen, orator, and member of Parliament from 1865 to 1880. Mr. Labouchere, in his world-wide publica- tion, The Truth, gave the answer when he wrote and published the poem entitled "Where Is the Flag of England?" For the edification and enlightenment of some of the "Al- lies" editors and particularly for the benefit of the English-born German baiter, John Revelstoke Rathom, the intrepid champion discoverer of bomb plots, who's running the Providence Jour- nal — the poem is reprinted here. Where Is the Flag of England? By HENRY LABOUCHERE The Flag of the Double Cross. And the winds of the world made answer! North, South, East and West — Where'er there is wealth to covet Or land to be possessed; Where'er are savage nations To coddle, coerce or scare, You may look for the vaunted emblem — The flag of England is there. NEUTRALITY 159 Ay, it waves o'er the blazing hovels, Whence its African victims fly To be shot by explosive bullets, Or to wretchedly starve and die! Or where the beachcomber harries The isles of the southern sea, From the peak of his hellish vessel, The English flag flies free. The Maori, full of hate, curses With his fleeting, dying breath, And the Arab hath hissed his curses As he spat at its folds in death. The hapless fellah hath feared it On Tel el Kebir's parched plain, And the blood of the Zulu hath dyed it With a deep, indelible strain. It has floated o'er scenes of pilage And flaunted o'er deeds of shame; It has waved o'er the fell marauder As he ravished with sword and flame; It has looked on ruthless slaughter And assassination, dire and grim, It has heard the shrieks of its victims Drown even the jingo hymn. Where is the flag of England? Seek the land where the natives rot Where decay, and assured extinction Must soon be the people's lot. Go! search for the once fair islands Where disease and death are rife, And the greed of callous commerce Now fattens on human life. Where is the flag of England? Go sail where rich galleons come With their shoddy and "loaded" cotton, And opium, Bibles and rum. Seek the land where brute force reigneth And hypocrisy hath its lair, And your question will thus be answered — For the flag of England is there. 160 NEUTRALITY This is a testimony of character by one of England's own and famous great editors. Enough said! Won't "Sir" John Revelstoke Rathom need a new hat and chest measurement upon reading this "By Jove, jolly clevah" delineation of his country, referred to on another page. And the bunting itself. What does it show? A DOUBLE CROSS. Exactly what the flag means : Double-crossing every- body, everywhere, every time! England evidently awoke to the fact that her double-cross flag won't do any more, so she looked around trying to find a new flag which promised more safety, more respect and less worry for her empire. Presto! she appropriated the best looking one and which appealed to the protection of her decadence and degeneracy best. It is the flag of Uncle Sam! "Old Glory!" The Stars and Stripes of the United States! England thinks and says to herself: What does a little "bunting" amount to between "dear cousins?" There is the English beast, "The Mistress of the Sea," clutching and holding in its paws the flag of the United States, which insures her a "free sea," denied and dis- puted to her old "double-cross" bunting by Germany's clever and efficient submarine fleet. CHAPTER LI I Misuse of "Old Glory." The German Government has made so far public, through the German Embassy, the following memoranda on the misuse of the American flag by British vessels since the beginning of the German submarine war: February 3 — An unknown freighter sailed from Dover to Norelight, near Sheerness, under the American flag. February 7 — The Lusitania passengers report that, by order of the British Admiralty, the American flag was hoisted when near the Irish coast. February 11 — The Orduna sailed in danger zone under the American flag. April 23 — The Dunedin, which arrived at Newport News on April 22, when on the sea, hoisted the American flag in order to escape a German submarine. NEUTEALITY 161 *«• * •*>■ -N. Y. World. "SAFETY FIRST," 162 NEUTBALXTY May 30 — An unknown steamer hoisted the American flag when near Gallop fireship and seemed to have Swedish nation- ality marks on her bow. June 3 — The Carnavon sailed on April 21 under the Amer- ican flag and the name of " Texan.' ' (Eeport is confirmed by Captain Horace Jefferson of Brooklyn, N. Y., master of Steam- ship Southerland of Savannah.) The Carmantshire (or Carbavonshire), when entering Bahia, is declared to have had her port of register altered from " Bel- fast' ' to "Boston," United States of America. And last, but not least, the Barajong, to which the writer referred to on another page. In addition, the German Government gives long lists of viola- tions of other neutrals ' distinctive marks, as follows : Seven British ships misused Danish flag; Greek, one misuse of flag; Dutch, seventy-one; Norwegian, thirteen; Swedish, twenty-one; Spanish, four. In all European naval circles, particularly in those of the neutral countries, it is well known that the British admiralty gave orders to the masters of merchant ships and commanders of her war fleet to use neutral flags when and wherever they are in danger. These orders and instructions are marked "Confiden- tial" and one of them reads as follows: "British shipping is instructed to maintain a sharp watch for submarines and show either the flag of a neutral country or none at all so long as the ship is in the vicinity of the British Isles. The British flag must be shown on meeting British or allied warships. House flags must not be carried and marks and home ports must be effaced. * ' Flags which should be used according to the above are the following : American, Holland, Scandinavian, Norwegian, Span- ish, but preferably American. Carrying neutral flag, use also false names. Crossing the channel show no flag at all. ' ' How tJie mighty have fallen! England hides tremblingly under the American flag ! John Bull has become John Sneak! What a cowardly attitude for a boastful nation which prides itself on being mistress of the sea ! Poor, humiliated Britannia is evidently not "ruling the waves" any more, but, instead, is 1 * waving the rules ' ' of every decency of naval warfare. CHAPTER LI 1 1 The Hearst Papers. The adjoining cartoons are characteristic of the Hearst papers in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta. ^i -Hearst Papers. "BUSINESS IS BOOMING!"— SAYS MR. WILSON. 163 164 NEUTRALITY Newspaper readers all through the country are, of course, aware of the tendency of the Hearst papers. They know, also, that to have the first news, the best news, at all cost, and irre- spective of where the news comes from, made the Hearst papers, — Hearst Papers. TAKING A SPORTING CHANCE. wherever they are published, the newsiest, and, for that reason, the widest-circulated papers. Mr. Hearst, not wishing to yield to anyone in the matter of news, and to make his papers interesting to the million readers of his various publications, buys and prints all the news he can get. But whatever the shortcomings are in the quality and reliability NEUTEALITY 165 of his news, the Hearst papers, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, are American, and Hearst at least lives up to his slogan: "An American paper for American people." The Hearst papers breathe Americanism in spirit and deed. The whole tendency of the Hearst papers has always been to hold up American spirit and American institutions. He has fought, and is fighting, in favor of an American merchant ma- rine; he fought in favor of free tolls for coastwise shipping through the Panama Canal ; openly and fearlessly advocated the fortifications of the canal and, with all the power and eloquence, reason, justice and patriotism, fought, and continues to fight, servilism to England and the subjugation of our national pride, spirit and achievement to arrogant Great Britain. Hence, in this war, while keeping to neutrality as much as possible editorially, the Hearst papers favored the Teuton cause, the German ideals and German aspirations. He has repeatedly called to task our London ambassador, who is playing the "page" for England and to England, for his verbal indiscre- tions, which did not sound and did not spell American. The Hearst papers fearlessly attacked the President for his pro-British attitude. Though printing the news as it came from London and Paris and off the lying typewriters of Petrograd, the Hearst papers very frequently warned its readers to beware of false news, of the exaggerations whenever they had reason to doubt the correctness of the London-inspired lying news service. """William E. Hearst has been denounced as a yellow journalist. Yet to this greatest crisis in world's history, perhaps the greatest in our own history, his newspapers are sane in the midst of in- sanity. He has been denounced as a demagogue, yet while his brother editors are appealing to the "mob" and attempting to inflame and embitter the mob mind, he dares face the storm and counsel moderation. He has been denounced as unprincipled, a, mere journalist faker out for the money ; yet at a time when the richest and most powerful interests in the country are desperately concerned in prolonging the war there is not money enough at their disposal to influnce the course of his newspapers. He has been denounced as shallow, as a mountebank, yet al- most alone among the great editors of the country he is one with the imagination to grasp the full horrors of this war, the insight to prove its meaning, the vision to foresee its fearful conse- quences to the race. He has even been denounced as a. ' * traitor, ' ' 166 NEUTRALITY yet today it is the stalwart Americanism of his newspapers, un- tainted either by Anglicism or Teutonism, that most distin- guishes them from other newspapers published. "Many times," concludes the World-Herald of Omaha, "we have been unable to agree with Mr. Hearst to indorse his meth- ods. It has said at times some pretty harsh things of him. But he appeals to us today, this hour of trick and danger, as a better American, a better Christian, a true lover of humanity, a braver man than any of those whose habit it has been to sneer at and belittle him. "It is to Mr. Hearst's credit — and when the frenzy of war subsides it will be a monument to his name — that he has the courage to preach the gospel of peace and love at a time when other great newspapers with which his own must compete are appealing to hatred and anger and standing as the champions of war. ' ' The Hearst papers have given considerable very valuable space to outside contributors, who wished to voice their senti- ments, air their feelings, opinions and affiliations in and with momentous questions of the bloody battle in Europe and out of the many highly enlightening, very well informed and best but not least patriotic communications the one, written by George W. 'Reilly and published in all the Hearst papers on the 25th of August, 1915, created quite a sensation and much commentary discussion. The absolute correctness of the historical data and the patriotic American spirit — akin to the writings of our George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and other real American patriots — which emanates from every line and sen- tence of Mr. O'Reilly's eminent and brilliant communication — makes it not only worthy, but highly imperative of reproduction in this volume. CHAPTER LIV England, Destroyer of Nations and Commerce. Mr. O'Reilly addresses himself to the editor of the New York American, and says : "England Jias onade cotton contraband of war and has ille- gally interfered with its free shipment by the United States. Cotton is one of the chief products of this country. Cotton is one of our main articles of commerce. NEUTRALITY 167 — L. A. Times. BLACKHANDING AMERICA. "Our right under international law to export cotton unham- pered by England } s interference is undeniable, unquestionable, even undented and unquestioned. England does not prohibit 168 NEUTRALITY our exportation of cotton to neutral nations as a measure of right, but as a measure of might. "She sweeps this important article of the commerce of this country from the seas without ruth and without right, because she cares to do so and because she can do so. She inflicts this severe blow with the might of her marine power, upon a great staple product of this country because she is fearful of Ger- many, and. second, because she is jealous of the United States. "England guards her commerce as she guards her life, be- cause she has intelligence enough to realize that her commerce is her life. She has never allowed any nation to build up a com- merce to compete with hers. She would not permit Germany to build up a rival commerce. She plotted war with Germany and leagued the nations against Germany to undermine, hamper and eventually destroy her chief commercial rival. "England will not allow the United States in this era of our opportunity to build up a rival commerce. Twice before, in the short history of the country, England has set out to destroy our commerce and both times she succeeded in destroying it. "In the early years of the nineteenth century our commerce was supreme upon the seas. Our new-born American flag flaunted in the furtherest harbors. Our goods were distributed wherever the waves rolled and the winds blew and we carried as our commerce not only the products of our own country, but a large share of the products of other countries as well. "Then England began, as she is beginning now, to interfere with our commerce in every possible way, illegally, illegitimately, vigorously, vindictively. She closed the ports of herself and her allies upon us. She blacklisted our goods with orders in council. She robbed us of our neutral rights then as she is do- ing now. She held up our ships in high-sea piracy and robbed them of their seamen. She finally forced us into war to defend our lately won liberties. Then with the same arrogance and in- solence of naval power that she is using and abusing today, she pillaged what remained of our commerce afloat and as a final act of contempt and defiance burned and gutted the capitol of our nation and the White House of our President. "Again in the years preceding our Civil War our commerce had regained its supremacy. Our clipper ships were the ad- miration of the world, our Yankee skippers sailed undaunted the most distant seas. But during our Civil War England took ad- vantage of our dangers and difficulties. Illegally and illegiti- NEUTRALITY 169 mately again, in violence and in violation of trade and treaty rights, she allowed the building of hostile vessels in her yards and the fitting out of pirate privateers in her ports to prey upon our commerce and destroy it. "Yet we are not the unusual objects of England's antag- onism. We are not the specially selected subjects of England's envy and enmity. President Wilson, professor of English his- tory and also English professor of history, could tell you if only he loved his mother country less and his adopted country more, that it has been the persistent policy of England throughout the centuries to destroy every nation which sought to rival her com- merce, to challenge her empire of the oceans. "In the sixteenth century Spain, with a courage and an en- terprise which other nations did not possess, set out to find new roads across uncharted seas, new lands and new riches for itself and for the world. America was discovered, the Father of Wa- ters was found, the western shores of the Pacific were first beheld, the earth was circumnavigated, unknown lands explored, undreamed of wealth revealed, all by expeditions under the flag of Spain: "England trailed enviously and hungrily behind. "What Spain found England stole. The wealth Spain wrested from the earth England robbed from her at sea. "The Raleighs, the Drakes, and all the lusty pirates whom we have been taught by English textbooks to reverence as heroes were commissioned to prey upon Spanish commerce and rob the Spanish galleons of their gold. Queen Elizabeth, as able as she was unscrupulous, welcomed those sea rovers upon their successful return, sliared in the plunder of their piracy and rewarded them with knighthood in accordance with the royal custom of her race. "At last Spain, pillaged of the profits of her energy and en- terprise, went to war with England and was beaten, her armada and her commerce were destroyed. "England once more by force and fear held hegemony of the seas. "In the seventeenth century Holland, by patience and per- sistence, by courage and constancy, created a splendid commerce with the Far East. The venturesome ships of this brave little country sailed from the north to the south seas around the Cape of Good Hope and up into the Indian ocean. They carried the goods of Europe and brought back the wealth of the Orient. Their trade was vast and valuable and England coveted it. 170 NEUTRALITY ''England found excuse for war, as usual, and tJie wealth which little Holland had so hardly won was taken from her with that smug mixture of prayer and piracy that is so character- istically English. All that ivas best in Holland's commerce and colonies England acquired — in the interest of those "free insti- tutions" and of that "higher civilization" which England takes so much pride — and profit — in representing. "In the eighteenth century it was France which forged to the front as a commercial and colonizing country, and which was fought and defeated, her commerce destroyed and her colonies appropriated by England. "In the nineteenth century it was the United States, as we have seen, whose commerce and prosperity were the objects of England's greed and jealousy. "In the twentieth century it was Germany. _ ''Therefore, England will not make peace "until Germany's militarism is destroyed" and England's navyism is left supreme to dominate the seas and render all other nations subject on the waters, which constitute three-fourths of the earth's surface and as much of the world's opportunity. "The surprising thing in all this series of historical events is that no nation has learned the lesson of them. "England has always found and always finds some nation to help her pull her chestnuts out of the fire, some catspaw to help her appropriate another nation's commerce and colonies. "In England's war against France in 1815 it was Germany which was allied with England and which gave the decisive blow which eliminated France as England's rival. In 1915 it is France which is allied with England and which is doing much more than England herself to eliminate Germany from Eng- land's path to world power. One would think that the nations of Europe would see the folly of continually fighting each other to further England's vaulting ambitions toward the control of the world in her own interest. "But before we criticise others let us make sure that we are awake to our own folly. "Is not England using us as a catspaw also? Is not England employing us to destroy her rival, Germany, and to establish herself more firmly in the hegemony of the seas — her seas and OUR seas? "Are we not being HIRED to injure Germany just as Ger- man Hessians were once HIRED to fight against us? NEUTRALITY 171 "ARE WE NOT BEING BRIBED TO SACRIFICE OUR OWN BEST INTERESTS AS WELL AS OUR MORAL SCRUPLES AND TO SEND ARMS TO ENGLAND SO THAT THEN SHE CAN EXTERMINATE THE GERMANS AND OBLITERATE GERMANY AND POSSESS HERSELF OF GERMANY'S COMMERCE AND COLONIES? "ARE WE NOT STRENGTHENING ENGLAND AND HER ALLY, JAPAN, IN THEIR CONTROL OF THE OCEAN HIGHWAYS WHICH LEAD TO OUR VERY DOORS? ARE WE NOT AS FOOLISH AS THE MOST FOOLISH OF THE EUROPEAN NATIONS WHICH DRAG ENGLAND'S CHESTNUTS OUT OF THE FIRE TO THEIR OWN INJURY? "Have we not had sufficient experience of how England em- ploys Tier command of the seas? If we have not had sufficient experience in the past, are we not having it now? "Do we not see how our neutral commerce is being destroyed, how a chief staple of our production is being vitally injured? Worse than all, if we are patriotic and liberty -loving citizens, do we not see how our rights are being invaded and violated? "We can send our arms to England because England needs them to murder Germans and to establish herself more firmly as empress of all the sea and mistress of most of the land, but we cannot send our peaceful products to neutral nations. We cannot exercise OUR RIGHTS because they interfere with Eng- land's AMBITIONS AND AGGRESSIONS. "ABE WE AN INDEPENDENT NATION OR AN ENG- LISH COLONY? HAVE WE A PRESIDENT WHO IS A BRITISH SUBJECT OR AN AMERICAN CITIZEN? Have we any moral and any political virtue, or are we subject to bribery in our moral sentiments, and submissive to bullying in our political attitudes? "ARE WE QUITE SURE THAT THIS IS AFTER ALL 'THE HOME OF THE BRAVE AND THE LAND OF THE FREE?' If so, now is the time to demonstrate our bravery and assert our FREEDOM. England has stopped our ship- ment of cotton. LET US STOP OUR SHIPMENT OF ARMS. Let us proclaim our moral courage, our political independence. Let us clearly define and courageously defend our rights. "Let us be worthy of our ancestors, who fought for freedom and won it, who contended for 'principle' and established it. "Let us reaffirm the inspiring words of Pinkneys { MIL- 172 NEUTKALITY LIONS FOR DEFENSE, BUT NOT ONE CENT FOR TRIBUTE.' "Let us be righteous and also just, independent and also im- partial. "Let us say to Germany and England ALIKE, 'There are our RIGHTS; defy them if you dareV "GEORGE W. O'REILLY." CHAPTER LV Doping Uncle Sam. While the "Al-lies" papers, in these strenuous and warlike days, have forgotten everything that they have ever written and preached about the "yellow peril/ ' and talk only about the "German peril' ' — " Militarism, ' ' they dub it — the Hearst papers have constantly kept before their readers the great dan- ger that faces the United States in the alliance of England with the Japs. The Chicago American says: "The intrusion of Japan into the European war is a matter to excite the especial interest and attention of the American public. Japan has no quarrel what- ever with Germany or Austria, no reason, as far as surface indications are concerned, for injecting herself into the Euro- pean situation. What, then, was the secret or subterranean reason for Japan's action? "Great Britain has often assured the government and the people of the United States that no such intimate alliance with Japan existed, but the plain facts and Japan's frank acknowl- edgment are incontrovertible. The action of Japan is wholly inexplicable upon any other assumption. "The Japanese have shown a strange antagonism towards the United States in the Philippines, in Honolulu, in Mexico, and now they manifest an ambition to take possession of German China as well as of the German islands in the Pacific. The attitude of Japan and her procedure against Germany is a warning. Might we not over night have a war on account of the secret treatise between Japan, England, and Russia ? ' ' The American who cannot see the menace of Japan, who is unable to perceive that that able, dangerous Power is sleep- lessly preparing its military and naval strength to try conclu- sions with the white man for the dominance of the Pacific and the ultimate dominance of the world, is blind — hopelessly, blankly blind. NEUTRALITY 173 Representative Gardner, in his speech in Congress on Jan- uary 21, 1915, speaking about the unpreparedness of our coun- try, asked: "Supposing official Japan wakes up some fine morning and finds her people are murmuring louder and louder that America must treat them as equals or they will know the reason why? I don't think the wisest of us can look very far into the future nowadays. Suppose the Japanese do demand equal treatment? What are we going to do? "Why not take our heads out of the sand ? ' ' Yes, why not take our heads out of the sand and look around and discover who is on the side of Japan! It is not Germany! It is England and Russia, and particularly the "dear Cousin" John Bull, with his ' ' absolute control ' ' of the sea. The cartoon entitled "Doping Uncle Sam" con- veys an interesting thought. England 's con- trol of the American har- bors. St. John's and Hali- fax are within striking dis- tance of the coast of New England. British cruisers are seen daily off Sandy Hook and at other point along our coast. The Brit- ish fortified coaling sta- tions block up absolutely the Gulf of Mexico and the Panama Canal. In the South the chain of forti- fied coaling stations com- mence with the Bermudas, just about opposite Char- leston, the Bahamas, com- manding the straits betweet Key West and Havana; Jamaica, the entrance to the Caribbean Sea. Then there are Barbadoes and Trinidad ; ships must pass on the way from the United States to South America. Out of 350,- 000 miles of cables in the world more than 300,000 are British owned and controlled. Great Britain has fortified the sea by her possesion of any number of islands and of fortresses on for- eign soil. She has a fringe of islands all around the United Doping Uncle Sam. 174 NEUTRALITY States, with. Bermuda, Jamaica, Barbadoes, Trinidad and Brit- ish Guiana, not to forget Halifax and Vancouver, and controls the entrance to the Panama Canal by these islands and the pas- sage through the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific by her com- mand of the Falkland Islands. She does the same in the Pacific and on the China coast by Weihaiwei, Shanghai, and Hongkong, and all around Africa by the occupation of Zanzibar, Cape Town, St. Helena, and Lagos. So, not a word of uncensored news, even regarding markets and market conditions, can go through, and the United States is as thoroughly isolated as were she in the moon. That's a. fine eventuality to reckon with on that "nice and fine morning, ' ' when Japan will ask you f or something and Eng- land will stand behind her as a true and loyal ally to back her up. WAKE UP, AMERICA!— Wake up! you "Al-lies" papers and don't forget that in fighting England's claim of absolute rulership of the seas, Germany is fighting for the United States as well as for all other neutral countries! And if ever it comes to "the day" that we will have to face Japan, don't forget Baron von Steuben, the drill-master of George Washington's army; don't forget General Muhlenberg, who dropped his stole in the pulpit and won fame alongside Washington; don't forget De- Kalb, meeting a hero 's death in our great cause of independence ; don't forget Herkimer and his Mohawk Valley Germans who won the famous battle of Oriskany ; don 't forget David Zeigler, the first mayor of Cincinnati, and for six weeks the commander- in-chief of the American army; don't forget Jacob Leisler, the vice-governor of the Province of New York, who paid the penalty to England as the first American rebel; don't forget the famous fighters of later generations, Generals Custer, Rosencranz, Sie- gel, Schurz, Osterhaus, Admiral Schley, and Colonel Willich, the Pennsylvania and New York in the Revolution; and last, but not least, the 250,000 German volunteers in the army of the Union in our Civil War ! ! They were all hyphenated German- Americans! Weren't they?" Evidently the editors of the "Al-lies" press have suddenly lost their memories ; evidently, the great historian and author of "The History of the American Nation," Mr. Woodrow Wilson, now President of the United States, has also forgotten those names and American history connected with them. Unaccount- able, unexplainable, aye, ridiculous — if it were not so serious — NEUTBALITY 175 is therefore the President's speech, made at the silver jubilee Celebration of the Daughters of the American Revolution. In view of his authorship of the above-mentioned work, and in view of he being the President of all Americans, his criticism of those citizens who do not agree with the one-sided course of his anglophile administration was utterly out of place and made in bad taste and bad faith. THE MENU. "What Is Tour Order, Honorable Sir? Will You Have Manchuria, Indo-China, Hong Kong, Phillipines, Pacific " CHAPTER LVI The Eeal Menace Among the Hyphens. In times like this it is not ta.ctful that Wilson should ques- tion the loyalty of any citizen who has sworn under oath his allegiance to the United States. It is not within his province and many citizens of foreign birth will rightfully consider his remarks as personal insult. This is especially the case when the pro-British leanings of President Wilson and his cabinet are so decidedly evident that even British newspapers have described the adminstration's attitude as a V convenient neutrality." Our illustrious President, in his caustic speech, seems to have been very much troubled physically, soulfully, and in three or four other ways, because a large portion of our population was born on soil contiguous to the Rhine or Danube. The word " Hy- phen" seems to have soured his temper very much. Were his thoughts probably with that Jiyplienated Englishman who killed Lincoln, with the Jiyplienated Frenchman who killed Garfield or the Jiyplienated Russian who killed McKinley? The hyphen, which at present is receiving much top-of-col- umn-next-to-reading-matter free advertising, seems to make the President's back itchy where he can't reach it to scratch. Like a bad-debt collector, it bobs up, here and there, with a sudden- ness that would make the speed of the electric spark appear like a snail 's pace. It has got into everything the good man eats and drinks. It stalks on the golf-links, creeps into his state papers, runs riotously through his diplomatic correspondence, peeps through keyholes, looks over the transoms and hides under his bed. If it keeps this up much longer, says the ' ' Irish Voice, ' ' it will cause our President to say something in a moment of anger which he will not be able to explain away before Novem- ber, 1916 ; at least, he may rest assured that whatever he says he will not be allowed to forget. Before this European war we did not hear very much about the hyphen. During the recruiting days of 1776, 1812, 1861 or 1906 we do not remember of anyone throwing a fit over the hyphen. Some men who carry the hyphen are the men who car- ried a rifle when our national existence was threatened by the very nation which the President is now trying to placate by abusing the hyphen. The men of the hyphen were not the men behind the guns when England came to conquer, and remember this, and tell it 176 NEUTEALITY 177 to your children, that it was the men of the liyplien who made, the United States a Free and Independent Nation, established an asylum for the oppressed of every alien land, gave civil and religious liberty to the Puritanically oppressed, and made it possible that some day even a Woodrow Wilson might be the President of the results of their efforts. What is there to be said in regard to the utterances of our learned President contained in his most remarkable speech, made before the Manhattan Club on November 4, 1915. Surely, no speech like that has ever been made by an American President ! One thing is certain, that to the American citizens of German, Hungarian, Austrian or Irish descent the insinuation of lack of loyalty will be very irritating, this insinuation coming from a person who, through his descent and actions, shows a decided bias and prejudice. The President said : "The only thing within our own borders that has given us grave concern in recent months has been that voices have been raised in America professing to be the voices of Americans which were not in deed and in truth American, but which spoke alien sympathies, which came from men who loved other countries better than they loved America ; men who were partisans of other causes than that of America and had forgotten that their chief and only allegiance was to the great government under which they lived. These voices have not been many, but they have been very loud and very clamorous. They have proceeded from a few who were bitter and who were grievously misled. ' ' Precisely, Mr. President! But whose voices were these? The voices of such men as Choate, Schwab, Eliot, Bennett, Mor- gan, Ochs, Reid and many others who manufacture ammunition — sell war material and foodstuffs to the Allies, or are conduct- ing newspaper enterprises in favor of "Al-lies!" The President said: "The vast majority of those who have come to take advantage of her (America's) hospitality have united their spirits with hers as well as their fortunes. These men who speak alien sympathies are not their spokesmen, but are the spokesmen of small groups whom it is high time the nation should call to a reckoning." Precisely, Mr. President! And for this very same reason such spokesman as that kangaroo editor who is befouling the pages of the Providence Journal should have been "called to a reckoning" long, long ago. His "small groups" are the groups of Wall Street men and the group of men earning their blood money in the ammunition arsenals of Bethlehem, not of Pal- 178 NEUTBALITY estine, but of Pennsylvania. The Bethlehem of the good book tells another story. "Voices Which. Spoke Alien Sympathies. ' 5 — Wilson. The President said : ' ' The chief thing necessary in America . . . is that that real voice of the nation should sound forth unmistakably and in majestic volume, in the deep unison of a common, unhesitating national feeling. I do not doubt that upon the first occasion, upon the first opportunity, upon the first definite challenge, that voice will speak forth in tones which no man can doubt and with commands which no man dare gain- say or resist." Precisely, Mr. President! "The voice will speak forth" next November, and ' ' No man can doubt it ! ' ' The ' ' first opportunity NEUTRALITY 179 upon the first definite challenge" is coming, and some "hy- phens" will be glad and ready to have "an opportunity" to express at the polls that there are men left in America who will declare that "the glory of America is that she is a great spir- itual conception" and not an attitude of hypocrisy. CHAPTER LVII The Real Danger. The real danger of our country lies in the attitude and spirit of those Anglo-Saxon hyphenates who are always telling us that "blood is thicker than water" and singing patriotic songs about "hands across the seas." Can they be depended on to fight if British insolence should finally force us to declare our independence of England for the third time? How many of them have Tory blood in their veins and would discover a thou- sand excuses why a third war with Great Britain would be un- holy revolution against "the mother country" and would refuse to fight? "Hands across the sea," a fine phrase manufactured in Britain some years ago by a self-esteemed diplomat who saw the advantage of consolidating the relations between his country and the United States. It was taken up by all the people in the "right little, tight little isle," but the current events show that this phrase is the rankest kind of hypocrisy. The English care no more about us than they do about Hottentots in Africa, as is plain when we interfere with their greed for trade or gold. "Blood is thicker than water," another phrase hatched up in Britain to pull the wool over the Americans' eyes. It is rank hypocrisy, too. They have come over here and asked for an immense loan of Americans to finance the bloody conflict in which they are en- gaged. Without our money, our foodstuffs and our munitions of war they would -soon be walloped just as badly as the Rus- sians on the eastern frontier, and Germany would be triumphant in the great war. We have generously loaned them this money, and for what will they use it? Mostly to grab our trade while the war is going. on. In the prejudice, hypocrisy and greed of those who stretch hands "across the sea" to us and who acclaim the thickness of their blood with ours they are going further than forbidding us to ship our goods to neutral countries in order that they may 180 NEUTEALITY grab the trade in their greed, in that they are forbidding their manufacturers and merchants to sell goods to Americans except- ing under a binding pledge that they will not be resold to any other person, corporation or firm excepting upon the direct and specific permission of the English. The goods must be con- signed to the respective governments and must be sent by way of Great Britain or its colonies. Very gratifying to American pride, isn 't it ? "We can't ship wool to Germany, Austria, Holland, Denmark, Norway or Sweden, because we are forbidden to do so by the British Admiralty. "We can ship wool to England, France, Russia and Japan, but it must be shipped via England or some English colony. That is to say, our right to compete with British trade in the markets of the world is subject to permission of the British Admiralty. And apparently our government is so poor in spirit that it assents to this doctrine. Would President Washington, President Jackson or Presi- dent Lincoln have submitted to such treatment of their country ? Blood thicker than water? Yes, and blacker than pitch, and more poisonous than the venom of a rattlesnake. Hands across the sea? Yes, to throttle every American industry the big paw can choke the life out of and to grab every bit of American trade that the big paw is capable of grasping. Hypocrisy of the rank- est kind it is. The hyphen that "wearies" us now is not the German hy- phen, or the Austro-Hungarian hyphen, or the Irish hyphen, or the Senegambian hyphen, but the hyphen that has hyphenated the American administration to England, the hyphen that has driven the American flag from the high seas, the hyphen that sends the Chicago packers to Washington to protest against the piratical seizures of their cargoes, billed to neutral nations, the hyphen that has brought down on our heads the ridicule of the neutral and belligerent, of the fool and the intellectual, of the civilized and the savage. The hyphen that is liable to land us in the ditch of disgrace is the Morgan-Root-Choate-Reid-Eliot- Rathom-English hyphen. The aliens in this country, who love other nations better than they iove the United States, are NOT the so-called hyphen- ated aliens, but the English aliens, the alien sponges who come here and absorb everything and return nothing, not even a desire for citizenship, except through pressure — by the law of the land or by contempt from the bona-fide citizens. NEUTRALITY 181 When a paper like the New York Globe, in its insolence, tries to besmirch the patriotic character of the German, Austro- or Hungarian American, and talks about his Anglo-Saxon and "American Americans, ' ' the Globe better take a few lessons first in the history and development of this great and good country; in the upbuilding and uplifting of which the hyphen- ated Germans, Austrians and Hungarians always have done, and will always do, their share — and if, in the Globe's efforts to learn something, it's not capable to rise to the qualification of editing a real American newspaper and comprehend what real " neutrality' ' means, then the Globe better get out. of the newspaper business, in which it is a failure, and stick to the fish business, in which it seems to be quite resourceful and suc- cessful. A cable dispatch was printed in the newspapers the other day saying that while Europe is fighting and America selling war material, "Japan is feverishly engaged in ship building and has now under way 168,000 tons of shipping!" The Japanese are not building ships for amusement or be- cause they are fond of salt air. The same desperate energy that the little people have always shown is at work now. At the San Francisco Exposition one could see the wonderful ships moved by hand power that the Japanese nobles built for battle years ago, before they knew anything about Europe, be- fore they had heard of steam. All the bottled-up energy of centuries now let loose in Japan goes into steamship building, army drilling, preparing for war, subduing China, making one great Japanese-ruled empire of Asia, its wealth and its millions. Why does Japan work in this way? We Americans feel safe, peaceful and conceited as we sell to Europe tools with which they murder each other and as we say to ourselves, ' ' We are too big to be in danger. ' ' We would feel differently if we knew that Japan, represent- ing all Asia, all the yellow people, had decided that the moment had arrived to make the attack, to make both sides of the Pacific Japanese. Some think and say that she could not land. Indeed, she might. At present she has a treaty of friendship with England and fighting Germany in the East, she has earned English gratitude. CHAPTER LVIII England's "Big Stick." Suppose that England should come out of this great war victorious and naturally coldly indifferent to the United States. In her heart she feels that we ought to have been fighting with her and resents our neutrality. Suppose England and her allies were victorious in Europe; suppose that little Japan, ruling and using China, should say to the English, "We helped you. The least you can do is sit still while we go over and take the conceit out of Uncle Sam." Does anyone think the English would offer any great opposi- tion to that suggestion? Does anyone think the English would be any more worried by news of what the Japanese were planning, or doing, to us than we have been worried about the attacks upon England? Could we blame the English if they said, "We are sorry, but we must remain severely neutral, as you did"? Could we expect, could we be quite sure that the English would use all their energies to keep the Japanese from attack- ing us across the Canadian border? And have we any reason to believe that the Japanese, ' ' fever- ishly building ships," would have much trouble persuading the Mexicans to let them land and attack us on the Mexican border? When the American Consul at Tampico used every effort to retain Admiral Mayo and the Des Moines at Tampico, for the protection of more than 2,000 American men, women and children, even to the extent of commanding, by liis consular authority, that the Americans be not left to almost certain mas- sacre, the Admiral steamed away, following instructions from Washington. That the expected massacre did not follow was due to the action of Captain Kohler of the German cruiser Dresden, later of the Karlsruhe, who, on his own initiative, offered asylum to American women and children. When commanders of other for- eign cruisers in this port refused to join him in dispersing the mobs that threatened Americans, this captain, "in the name of humanity," notified Governor Zaragoza that if American blood was shed he would land his marines with machine guns and sweep the streets. This was none too soon, for at that very time the mob was 182 NEUTRALITY 183 making its third and most determined attack upon the Hotel Southern, wherein were concentrated 150 Americans, of whom fifty were women and children. And lo, behold! When later on the very same Dresden was sunk by the English fleet the "Al-lies" papers gloried in announcing, in the biggest, blackest type, the sad fate of that boat which served as an asylum for the hard-pressed Ameri- can men, women and children. But, of course, that was " neu- trality" of the ''Janus" double-faced American kind. . It is the opinion of the foremost authorities on the Panama Canal that that body of water has put the United States in a position where it can no longer dodge the issues of world pol- itics. They call attention to May, 1913, when United States soldiers day and night manned the guns in Manila Bay, when the harbor was mined, troops sent out and the country on the verge of war with Japan. They say that since then England has been interceding with Japan over the California question and that the price of her intercession was the giving up of our rights in the Panama Canal. They point out that in June, 1913, a month after the Manila incident, President Wilson demanded from Congress the revocation of the coasting privilege and said that he "really would not know how to handle matters of a more delicate char- acter in case Congress might refuse to gratify his wishes about the Panama Canal." Major Von Herwarth, one of the foremost German military writers, charges that in this case England used Japan as a club over the United States. The disclosure of the May situation in Manila confirms the President's desire to avoid any friction with England. Von Herwarth says that he avoided it for a time, but only for the time. And the price he paid was high. He pointed out that the British Government announced through Winston Churchill that it would be the policy of that country to control the world's petroleum sources around important strategic places. Japan has put her big neighbor, China, on her knees; she has driven Russia back into Asia; she is now driving Germany out of the East, and when she is ready she will strike us. Our Philippines are within striking distance of Japan; she can deliver her blow with her army and navy inside of two days; her potential armies are already in Hawaii, and we are depending on luck and friends to supply what our neglect has deprived us of. Our canal is still unfortified ; our fleets are on 184 NEUTRALITY the Atlantic; our Pacific possessions, like onr Pacific coast, are practically defenseless, and we refuse to make our army a re- spectable force and waste our money in the sinkholes of the South. " Truth' ' says, moreover, that while we think little of our Pacific possessions now, some of us being glad to give them away, we would all fight like wildcats if they were taken from us by force. And what could be more true, at least to those who know Japan and the Japanese well, than these words: "The best way to keep Japan pleasant and peaceful is to provide a well-equipped army and navy, big enough and efficient enough for all emergencies. Then the painful and bitter griev- ances she has against a big, fat, rich, unprepared country will be mere trifles between well-armed, well-equipped friends. A country like America, that has a long tongue and an uncivil one, should have a long sword, a long purse and a long memory ; and she should keep her eyes open. "Japan is a nice, smooth-spoken, courteous country, but as a matter of taste I prefer to walk behind and not before her." The Shalers, Eussells, Holts, Gulicks, Jordans et id omne genii prate and prose to us of Japan's altruistic and peaceful yearnings of eternal friendship with the white peoples, and par- ticularly with us white people grouped under the American flag. And each of them is a fool of his own degree. Japan means to seize China as she seized Korea, with lies on her lips and cruel determination in her heart. She means to establish her hegemony in Asia, to eke out her poverty with China's untold millions of raw wealth; to grow and to strengthen herself while mad Europe wastes her strength and wealth. Then Japan will strike and strike desperately for the hege- mony, not of Asia and the Pacific, but of Asia and the Pacific of America, with the consequent domination of the whole world. "Patient, cautious, faithless, having neither any fear nor any scruples; destitute of honor or morality; cunning and be- yond question fanatically courageous ; hating the white man and all his ways and works in her heart of hearts, Japan stands upon the threshold of the coming centuries, a menacing and portentous figure of incarnated militarism and conquest," says Hearst's Chicago American. CHAPTER LIX England Our Enemy. "IN SPITE OF TREATIES ENGLAND IS STILL OUR ENEMY," said Thomas Jefferson, and it ought to remind Mr. Wilson, the New York Times, the New York Sun, the New York Tribune and the American Tory mouthpieces of the British For- eign Office that General George Washington and Thomas Jeffer- son fought the same enemy, against whom Germany and the Ger- man people are today defending their national existence — the same enemy who attacked us again in 1812 and wantonly burned the National Capitol and looted the White House, treacherously destroyed our commerce in 1865 and openly attacked the Mon- roe doctrine in Venezuela — the enemy whom Dr. Eliot, Theo- dore Roosevelt and the Boston school of statement today urge us to aid with our army and navy, as thousands of manufac- turers of guns, powder and munitions of war are aiding, and to whom the Washington administration is giving comfort under a proclamation of neutrality interpreted for them by Mr. Spring-Rice, the British Ambassador. The pages of American history are blank, eloquently blank, on one point: England's share in the making of the United States. What we are as a nation, we have had to wrest from her in cruel war. England did not discover this continent. It settled New England and old Virginia; that is all. New York was not founded by England, nor was New Orleans, nor St. Louis, nor Louisiana, nor Delaware, nor Rhode Island, nor the Mohawk Valley, nor Pennsylvania, nor Wisconsin, nor Minnesota, nor California ! Germans, Austro-Hungarians and others had their share in the settlement of this country. They helped to develop it, cul- tivate it, educate it and fight for it. They helped to make its history and are entitled to something more than toleration. Above all, they are entitled to representation and a voice in the official deliverances of this government on the great questions which concern the future welfare of the country for which our ancestors shed their blood. In our educational system German influence has been para- mount from the kindergarten to the university. Christopher Dock wrote the first treatise on pedagogy which appeared in 185 186 NEUTEALITY America. The Germans devised Sunday schools. It may inter- est those who believe that all culture came from New England to know that the first young ladies' seminary in the United States was established by the Moravians at Bethlehem, Pa., in 1749. In 1793 such a school was proposed at Plymouth, Mass., but the proposal was defeated, because in such a school women might become more learned than their future husbands. Women teachers were first employed in Pennsylvania high-grade schools. The first normal school department in America was established at Nazareth Hall, a Moravian institution, in 1807. "Intellectu- ally, Germany lias been to us a motherland." 1 ' They say we are an English nation, ' ' writes the He v. Wil- liam Griffis, D. D., "and they attempt to derive our institutions from England, notwithstanding that our institutions which are mostly truly American were never in England. Our historians copy English models, and think that in our political develop- ment we are English." CHAPTER LX The Loan. Dr. John William Burgess, greatest authority on interna- tional law, whose text books are in all universities, says that the "English constitution is like the Russian constitution," and surely Dr. Burgess is sufficient authority for all of us. He ought to know what he is talking about, and knows at least as much as our graduated editors from the Pupin school of Pulitzer journal- ism. This is what Prof. Burgess says of the $500,000,000 Allies ' loan : "Stripped now of all jugglery, hocus-pocus and hypocrisy, the transaction proposed by the Anglo-Franco Borrowing Com- mission to the Government, the capitalists and the people of the country is a loan, a loan without collateral, a war risk, the ulti- mate payment of which by the borrower will probably depend upon the ability of the Anglo-Franco-Russ combine to crush Germany and Austria-Hungary, kill the resisting part of their population, and reduce the rest to poverty and want for all time by the collection of a huge and continuous war indemnity from them; and every man who takes a dollar of this proposed loan makes himself selfishly interested in the success of such a pro- gram. NEUTEALITY 187 "There is not the slightest evidence in sight that they will crush the Central Empire and make them pay a war indemnity with which to cover this proposed loan, to say nothing of future loans, and there are many ominous signs of social revolution in both Great Britain and Russia. "The ultimate result of all this would be the most gigantic and sweeping transfer of the wealth of this country — that is, what might be left of it — from the pockets of the men of small and moderate means into the coffers of the few enormously rich which the history of this or any other country has ever known. ' ' The spirit of these sound financial and political utterances and patriotic warnings must have gone through the mind of our President when the loan sought in this country was a Ger- man one, because the Democratic campaign book — the supposed bible of our strenuously and faithfully democratic President declared : "It is inconsistent with the spirit of neutrality for a neutral nation to make loans to belligerent nations, for money is the worst contraband. It commands all other things." Now that the Allies sought and got the loan, our God-fear- ing Mr. Wilson has changed his faith — changed his God and is worshiping with a new Bible in his hand, the text of which he takes, as he himself admitted it, "from the columns of the Lon- don Weekly Times." Would George Washington, would Jefferson, would Abraham Lincoln, would Cleveland, or a McKinley be found on the side of England against Germany, if they were alive today? No! Would George Washington, would Abraham Lincoln be sup- plying arms and ammunition and loaning money to the English if they were alive today ? We all know they would not, so why should the present holder of the chair in the White House act differently — he the author of the "History of the United States' ' and twice chronicler of all the perfidy and crimes Eng- land committed, and continues to commit, against our com- merce, laws, safety, peace and flag? CHAPTER LXI The "Billet-Doux" to England. While Mr. Wilson was in a frightful haste to dispatch the government notes and bully Germany with them for her alleged wrong doings, it took one year to dispatch a pleasant note to England reminding her that we are still a nation. The President took a long time to voice American sentiment and American determination in denying Great Britain's right to supervise, hinder or destroy our commerce with neutral, friendly nations. No American will for a moment admit the preposterous as- sumption of England that a belligerent power has the right to intercept and destroy the commerce of neutral nations. The amazing thing is that the Administration has permitted this illegal and intolerable thing to be done for more than a year without any determined assertion of our rights or any effective veto upon the injurious practice. It does seem that American commerce might have been pro- tected by the American Government without waiting until that commerce had been effectually crippled. It does seem that our government might have interfered to stop these practices of belligerents without waiting until the belligerents had done all the damage to our commerce which they were inclined to do. For these many months the commerce of the United States with Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Holland has been driven from the seas by the British navy. Had we been at war with Great Britain she could not have destroyed our trade with these neutral and friendly nations much more completely. The British government has assumed that the high seas are British territory and that they can be used by America and other countries only by permission of and under the regula- tions of the British Admiralty. Every morning we must take our hats off to the English con- sul and call and inquire what liberties we may enjoy during the next 24 hours. We cannot send a ship load of produce to any point of the compass unless that ship has England's 0. K. nailed to its manifest. Vessels flying the American flag are held up by England on the high seas, convoyed into an English 188 NEUTEALITY 189 port and ship and cargo confiscated and the owners told to go to the devil for redress. England censors the note sent by our government to England but accentuates the phrases of the notes sent to Germany or Austria ! England wants the sound hyphen tooth extracted, but will not allow the forceps of diplomacy within a mile of her own rotten molars. This is a damnable, intolerable assumption. It strikes straight at the heart of our sovereignty. It is a far more dan- gerous blow at our dignity and our rights than isolated injuries inflicted unintentionally by Germany upon a ship here or there. And if Senator John Sharp Williams were an American at heart he would remember that! That any power should assume the hegemony of the oceans is unendurable. That's Germany's contention, and that's why she is fighting. The interests of the United States are clearly with Germany. German triumph means the handing to the United States the supremacy of the seas; for, standing between Europe and the Orient, the United States should be the clearing house of three continents. It means relieving any apprehension whatever of German colonization in South America, that great bugaboo of British invention. It means the bottling up of Russian naval ambitions, which with that country 's greater sources would soon, in conjunction with its ally, Japan, threaten the United States. The United States cannot and will not endure the assump- tion of sea hegemony by England, remember this, Senator Williams ! We did not endure it in 1807 or after ! We shall not endure it in 1916 ! Wouldn't it be a good example if the Administration would only show a flash here and there of true Americanism and less crooking of the knee hinges to the decaying kingdom of King George ? England threatened and Cleveland said : ' ' Keep your battleships away from South America if you wish to have them stay on the surface of the ocean. The water is deep down there.' ' And England said he was only joking. The zeal of true Americanism was stamped on the bill for damages which we sent to England at the close of the Civil War. The Alabama claims were as nauseous to England as a dose of unadulterated castor oil is to a kid, but she had to "down" it. The first bill we sent in that case needed no second " representation. ' ' When Napoleon the Third was ordered out of Mexico it did not become necessary to send a second " rep- resentation' ' either. At the first order to "git," he "got." 190 NEUTEALITY Spain would not listen to reason and McKinley shot her to pieces. France once owed us a bill and for several years we tried to collect it, but received only promises. Then a true American, Andrew Jackson by name, took the foremanship of the government. He sent the bill, accompanied by a few signifi- cant remarks, such as : " If the amount called for in this bill is not found in return mail, by the Eternal, I am coming over there in person and make the collection. ' ' It came, and Jackson set out the best vintage he had and said: "Boys, have one on me. I knew I'd make them French pay up." This might be said much more elegantly but much less to the point. It may be ungrammatical, but it is true Amer- icanism. How many times would the shippers of America have to plead with Andrew Jackson for protection? Just once, and not that once, if Jackson was the first to get the particulars. The highest quality in the character of a people is love of justice. In the emphatic words of President James Madison: "It has been the glory of the United States to cultivate peace by observing justice and to entitle themselves to the respect of the nations at war by fulfilling their neutral obligations with the most scrupulous impartiality. ' ' Have we done it? We cannot be impartial toward the nations now at war unless we demand of, and enforce upon, Great Britain the same re- spectful consideration of American rights that we demanded of and enforced upon Germany. Did we do it? As it was in the days of President Madison, so it must still continue to be the glory of the United States to cultivate peace by observing justice. And what is justice but an even hand, like treatment and fair play to one and to all ? ^ In Mexico they are killing American men, women and chil- dren; they took Private Richard Johnson of the third United States Cavalry Regiment, abducted him from American soil, tortured and then slaughtered him. They carried his severed head on a pole as a triumphant trophy of American weakness. What has Mr. Wilson done about it? Nothing! And we are daily asked to admire the " determination ' ' with which our President maintains American honor and rights! Has it been maintained against the shameless interference on the part of England against our commerce, against our rigJits to use tlie sea? In the face of the current clamor against the hyphenated citizenship, is there nothing to be said against that kind of hyphenated neutrality which, placing us practically by the side NEUTRALITY 191 of Great Britain as an ally, secures from her no respect for our rights upon the high seas as a neutral nation? Must we stand for this ? Is this what our forefathers fought for ? Is this that much-heralded American independence ? And must, or shall, we American citizens stand by an administration which, instead of protecting the honor of the flag, is dishonoring it by its subservience to English dictation and arrogance? "Al-lies" papers in America urge the people to ''support the President whatever he may do. ' ■ Is this the duty of democ- racy? Why should the people meekly resign their wills and reasoning powers to a man who but three years ago was a pri- vate citizen, and who, we hope, will soon again become one? Has the American republic lost its right to criticise one who is, after all, its servant? Why all this breathless waiting to see what the President will say? Why not indicate to him plainly what we expect him to do, to earn his salary and keep the coun- try out of peril? "Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, That he hath grown so great?" "If Americans see that their Chief Magistrate is leading them into the wake of Italy and other fatally misguided states, which have been bribed or bullied by Great Britain into fighting for her, tliey should impeach him for betraying their real in- terests. It is time for those whose ancestors originally fought for independence from the British yoke, and later for the pres- ervation of the Union which England longed to see destroyed, to call those Anglophiles by their right name," writes John L. Stoddard in a letter addressed to and printed in the well-known, brilliant periodical called The Vital Issue — now renamed Issues and Events. The writer's opinion is that he may not be im- peached by Congress, but he will not escape the impeachment of history. Frank S. Monnett, former attorney-general of Ohio was not very unjust when he said: "Some unseen forces have now gained power again in the government. A professor of theoretical peace and the apostle of greater liberty has fallen into the camp of the Philistines. He is dining with his feet under the mahogany of the Manhattan club. He is listening to the ambassadors of the plutocrats and of the monopolies. He is now drinking in the applause of those who would weed out of the country the hyphenated American and the thrifty German. He has out-Heroded Herod in asking for a one billion appropriation for the next ten years to out- 192 NEUTKALITY rival England, Germany and France combined in magnificent military display of obsolete dreadnoughts. "We must save the president and his advisers if we can from the apostles of hate, from the beneficiaries of blood money, from the malefactors of racial hate. If he will not heed we must rise with such mighty protest that he and his ilk will be forever driven from public life." "No economist or writer has yet demonstrated that a neu- tral nation is justified in using all her corporate powers, her financial aid, her manufacturing plants, her railroads, her bank- ing interests, to turn out destructive munitions of war for the express purpose of snuffing out the lives of a. people with whom we have no quarrels, for the simple and sole purpose of getting an enormous temporary profit for a few favorite plunderers. ' ' The British order in council forbids the United States to ship any goods of any kind, contraband by the recognized law of nations, or not contraband, to Germany, Austria or Turkey, or to buy any goods from either of those countries. In addi- tion, the United States is forbidden to ship manufactured goods or foodstuffs to Italy, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark or any other neutral country when, in the opinion of British naval officers, these shipments might afterwards find their way from the neutral country to Germany or Austria. We must go back over one hundred years to find a parallel to this extraordinary assumption that one power has dictatorial authority over the commerce of the high seas. In 1807 the Brit- ish Government, by orders in council, forbade the United States to ship any goods to any country in Europe, except Sweden, on the ground that goods shipped to any other country might be of use to Prance in her war with Great Britain. The indignation aroused in this country was great. The first reply to the British orders was made in December, 1807, when Congress instructed President Jefferson to lay an embargo, forbidding foreign commerce of any hind. The embargo re- mained in force throughout the year 1808, when it was suc- ceeded by the non-intercourse law, by which American trade was permitted with all countries except Great Britain and France, each of these antagonists having assumed to forbid American commerce with the other. And now, again, after the lapse of more than one hundred years, this nation is face to face with the same pretensions, the sa/me decrees and orders, the same insolent suggestions, the same NEUTEALITY 193 intolerable seizure of its peaceful trading ships which roused our fathers to hot indignation and to war. Not one single con- dition is changed, except that Germany has taken the place of France as the antagonist of England. And as the conditions are the same, so it is clear that the possible courses of action are the same which were open to our fathers. We cannot submit to orders of foreign powers, permit our neutral commerce to be destroyed, our flag to be insulted and de- graded, to the office of disguising foreign ships and become con- temptible in the eyes of the whole sneering world. We can declare war upon any power that molests commerce voyaging under the American flag. We declared war upon the same motive in 1812 ! What has the President of the United States in the year of our Lord of 1915 done — on the same issue? He sent a note! A note of "protest." Such a dear lovely note ! A "billet doux" could not be more tenderly worded. It took almost one year to compose this letter of love. To the Kaiser the note was scowling, malevolent, glowering and threatening ; to King George, smiling, apologetic, like the love missive of a lovesick schoolboy to his girl "protesting" because she flirts with another fellow, but at the same time not "kicking" enough to anger her. Anyone who never saw Mr. Wilson or his handsome features would think that the President of the United States is a modern Janus. His neu- trality has two faces. One sweet, benevolent, turned smilingly towards England; the other sour, hard, glaring furiously to- wards the Kaiser. Why were threatening notes sent to Germany about question- able rights when weak protests go to England concerning the recognition of our sovereignty and independence? Now, where do we find that energetic protest against England to keep her hands off the neutral trade of the United States? Where is the hint that an energetic action will follow if our claims are not granted? The tame tone of the note will encour- age England to continue its illegal acts, rather than to stop them. Mr. Lansing convinces England that no action will fol- low the words and in America it excites suspicion that the note rather will lull us into security, as it will intimidate England. Even the New York World gets excited about the tame tone of the note. This pro-British paper said : ' ' On such a showing of outrage as is here made, the terms of the American protest, which are lawyer-like throughout, must be 194 NEUTRALITY regarded as exceedingly temperate. To gain a military advan- tage more or less important, Great Britain has become a grievous offender against laws, against its own cherished principles, against several of the small nations of Europe, which it has as- sumed to champion and against the best and most powerful friend that it has among the neutrals of the earth. It has not killed Americans, it has killed American rights. It has done more than seize American property; IT HAS SEIZED THE OPPORTUNITY THUS WANTONLY GAINED TO EXTEND ITS OWN TRADE." Obviously, our most furious opponents begin to perceive that our point of view was right, that " America first" not only should be preached, but also practiced. CHAPTER LXII Big- Words— That's All! An editorial in Hearst's Chicago Examiner sums up most cleverly, most justly and most patriotically the moral as well as the practical value of the note. The editorial is headed : ' ' Fine Diplomatic Note Amounts to Nothing If Not Enforced" — and reads as follows: "The note to England is all that a note ought to be, with two exceptions. One of these is that it was finished, dated and deliv- ered nearly a year after it should have been. The other is that nothing in the tone or wording of the note would lead England, or America either, to suspect even that the administration means to DO ANYTHING to compel Eng- land to let our commerce alone. Mr. Lansing's thunder is very well-hebaved thunder. It roars no louder than Mr. Bryan's suckling dove. No one can fail to be struck by the marked difference in the tone of the acrid and peremptory notes dispatched to Germany and to Austria by Mr. Wilson's direction and the tone of this polite communication. Possibly this is due to the fact that it took the State Department the better part of a year to write the note to England. Time is a great smoother of bad temper. The aggressions of Great Britain upon our neutral commerce and neutral rights began in August, 1914, were increased by an Order in Council dated October 29, 1914, and passed all bounds of comity and international law after March 11, 1915. On that date, the British Government practically abrogated the law of nations, annulled the Declaration of Paris, the decv- NEUTEALITY 195 sions of The Hague Conferences, the provisions of the Declara- tion of London and all the contentions of British Foreign Affairs Minister during the Boer war and the Russo-Japanese war, and assumed dictatorship over all commerce of all nations. This included our own commerce with neutral nations and their commerce with us. And that dictatorship England has enforced with a high hand for eight months, TO THE PRACTICAL DESTRUC- TION OF OUR TRADE WITH THE NEUTRAL KINGDOMS OF HOLLAND, DENMARK, SWEDEN AND NORWAY, and to the heavy injury of American importers who have purchased noncontraband goods from Germany and Austria in good faith and under every guarantee of international law. From March 11, 1915. to June 17, 1915, there were seized and taken into the British port of Kirkwall ITWC \HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-SIX NEUTRAL AMERICAN, DUTCH AND SCANDINAVIAN SHIPS CARRYING AMERICAN CAR- GOES. . And here we have Mr. Secretary Lansing, on October 41, 1915 firmly but gently representing to the British Government that the government of the United States considers the conduct of the British navy toward American ships to be quite rude. We suspect that Sir Edward Grey, after some time, will reply that he deeply regrets that His Britannic Majesty s gov- ernment is unable to take the sarnie view of the case as that taken by the government of the United States, and suggests that the matters at issue be referred to an arbitration tribunal at The Hague after the conclusion of hostilities. Whereupon, since the Department of State, under Mr. Wil- son's direction, has never shown the slightest inclination to pro- tect American commerce against BRITISH aggression bij either a menace of force or of retaliation, we suppose that Mr. Lansing ivill be directed to draw up another note. By which time either the war will be over or there will not be any American seagoing commerce left to protect. The note to England is an absolutely accurate presentation of our wrongs and injuries. But that is all it is. It will get our commerce nowhere until England is pleased to let our commerce go on its voyages. And it will get our commerce nowhere because nobody, eit tier in England or at home, has any reason to he }l^\^tJ h ^NC ministration will take a step or lift a finger TO MAKE ENG- LAND keep hands off our commerce. 196 NEUTKALXTY We know of nothing more foolish in the world than big words with no purpose to bach them up. The administration's attitude toward England's indefensible and intolerable aggressions upon our peaceful commerce irre- sistibly reminds us of the military practice of the Aleut tribes , who wage war by squatting on opposite banks of a creek and making faces at each other until one side or the other is ex- hausted. We have never had an administration more fertile of fine phrases than the present administration. It flows with a full flood of words on any provocation, or on no provocation. The ultimatums and notes that have been issued in the past three years are legion, because no man can number them. And the absurd and almost irritating thing is nothing has ever corne of them, if we except Germany's very clever diplo- matic concession to American public opinion. Vltimatums to Mexico filled the air for months. Notes to England were for a time thick as blackberries. They were "very solemnly assured" and "very firmly told" and "very vigorously warned" what might happen if they continued to do this or that. Mexicans kept right on butchering Americans, and British cruisers kept right on seizing American ships, and NOTHING HAS HAPPENED to either one of them. The administration TALKS of protection to American lives and property in Mexico, but no American's life or property IS PROTECTED in Mexico. The administration TALKS of protection to American ships and American cargoes on the high seas, but no American ship or cargo IS PROTECTED on the high seas. The Examiner highly approves of the language of the note to England. It sincerely hopes that the note will not turn out to be ONLY LANGUAGE. We hope that for once the administration will ACT upon its statement. But we fear that it is hope of the kind which, when it has been long enough deferred, maketh sick the heart. Yet, surely if ever a high-spirited and strong people had occasion given them to expect their government both to speak and to act vigorously and peremptorily, the manifold injuries and aggressions inflicted upon our commerce and the contempt directed at our independent sovereignty by the British Admir- alty during twelve shameful months have given that occasion. "What the American people want from its President is not rhetoric, but ACTION/' CHAPTER LXIII The Crack in the Bell. A few months ago the country was given another chance to see, to be thrilled and to be educated by the triumphal tour to San Francisco of the greatest and most treasured relic of our liberty and independence from English tyranny — the tour of the Liberty Bell! Liberty Bell. "The Liberty Bell," said Speaker Champ Clark in his San Francisco address on Liberty Day, "is a precious relic of the days that tried men's souls, ineffably dear to the heart of every American worthy of his rich heritage of freedom — a most highly prized physical accessory of the most stupendous and beneficent political drama in the entire history of the human race. From its brazen throat rang forth the startling message to all nations, kindreds and tongues that here in this western world a handful of brave and self-respecting people, weary of tyranny from across the sea, were establishing a new government. ' ' The Government was that of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland and the other patriotic presidents, who understood the full meaning of the message that the voice of that bell conveyed to every American man, woman and schoolboy. What message do the acts of the British Govern- ment depicted on the illustration convey to us? Is this our liberty and freedom which we rung from "the tyranny from across the sea?" Not to the mind of any patriotic American. No wonder that the bell is cracked ! . . . "Neutrality is neutrality," says the "neutral" New York World. "It can play no favorites. It can recognize no special privileges. It can discriminate in favor of neither Greek nor Trojan. Any other kind of neutrality would be a living crime 197 198 NEUTEALITY ^ against the great principles of international justice, for which the United States and Great Britain are the chief trustees for civilization." "Great Britain the trustee of the great principles on inter- national justice." Now wouldn't that make a horse laugh! "The Tyranny from accross the sea." ■ ^ ne New York World has irom the beginning of the war," says "The Fatherland/ "perverted the legitimate activities of Germany's repre- sentatives into sinister con- spiracies against the peace of this country. "The New York World in its news columns and in its editorials makes itself the ad- vocate of murder on a large scale by opposing the embargo on the tools of destruction, hollering, 'NEUTRALITY IS NEUTRALITY.' "Well, if the faith of his ancestors is not entirely dead in Mr. Pulitzer, we would like to call to his attention three commandments which his newspaper evidently ignores : "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. "Thou shalt not steal. "Thou shalt not kill. * ' Evidently, the New York World regards the ten command- ments as a scrap of paper." Acting upon her wonderful conception of "neutrality," the World, as well as some of its contemporaries, who belong to the same highly principled neutral gang that taught us that when the Allies "advance" they "hurl back the Germans," but when the Germans "advance" the allies retain their posi- tions. When the Austrians took possession of Belgrade the Servi- ans "evacuated" the town, leaving it in command of the Aus- trians. There was no "great military achievement" in captur- ing it, but when the Kussians took Lemberg, which they sub- sequently lost, it was captured by "a stroke of military genius." — N. World XL S. to J. B. — Drop it — didn't you hear the Liberty Bell ring? NEUTRALITY 199 When General Joffre "retreats," he merely "changes his posi- tion" to a more advantageous one; when General von Kluck retreats, his forces are "most disgracefully and disastrously routed." The German Crown Prince has been captured nine- teen times and killed twenty-three times. The Kaiser was dying with cancer one day, lost his blue coat next day, and was nearly captured at Warsaw the third day. The "Al-lies" papers tell us that: Austria has signed a treaty of peace with Russia, and the Russians, having captured 4,000,000 Germans, are "marching on Berlin 8,000,000 strong." The World seriously states: "Sir Edward Grey and Premier Asquith have already decided to give Germany the same plan of home rule as has been accorded to Ireland." According to the World, Times, Herald, Sun and other "Al- lies" papers, if England sinks a German fishing boat, "Brit- tannia rules the waves," but when Germany torpedoes an Eng- lish cruiser Germany "waives the rules" of civilized naval warfare. These papers tell us the Turks have forced Moham- medanism on the whole German Empire and the Kaiser has ordered the churches destroyed and mosques built in their places. Schools are being established in Belgium by the "Allies" for the 10,000,000 "handless" children. They will be taught how to sew, cook, plow, etc., with their feet, and as it won't do for the Kaiser to shoot 100 more socialists, and the Bavarians don't want to fight the Prussians, nor are the Hungarians will- ing to rebel against the Austrians, and because these papers lack further atrocity stories of the "Barbarians," they say that the six sons of the Kaiser have mutinied, refusing obeisance to the "War Lord!" Next, we shall hear the Empress is getting a divorce ! Lies, lies, and nothing but lies! The most absurd and fake stories, distorted, malicious, prejudiced and partisan news, which come by the way of England 's monopolized cable to New York, where they receive a slimy unction from the Herald and the World, the Sun, the Press, or to Boston, where the debased helot who directs the British Transcript, casts his verbal whitewash over the maligned, misunderstood Cossack, or to Providence, where that Australian hireling is conducting his nefarious work as an agent provocateur. Ah! the immortality of the lie! This upas tree has the habit of the banyan, whose branches take root in the soil, then spring hideously aloft as trunks. And in these black colon- 200 NEUTEALITY ades the reason of these editors has been erring for over a year. Not even the sharp, bright sword of the German " Michel' ' has availed to cut through the horrible thickets. . . . CHAPTER LXIV Poor Little Greece. The most flagrant exposition of the double-faced Janus-like " neutrality " of the "Al-lies" papers was the manifestation of the treatment by this press of the violated neutrality of Greece. At the hour of this writing the Allies landed their hordes upon Greece's soil, an act which constitutes a gross breach in Greece 's neutrality. It amounts to an insolent, impu- dent, contemptible and unnecessary action on the part of the Allies. We remember the outcry of horror and indignation that swept through the American press like a Texas cyclone because Germany, forced by the dire necessity of self-preservation, was forced to disrespect the theoretical neutrality of Belgium. We remember how effectively England and her allies used our press to arouse the sympathy of civilized mankind, and par- ticularly our sympathies for "poor little Belgium." The Ger- man declaration that England and France intended themselves to use Belgium as a highway of invasion was not only ridiculed by the American press, but branded as a sheap contempt- ible excuse for their "barbar- ' conduct. lan Now that the shoe is on the other foot, that the Allies, in spite of their sanctimonious declarations that powerful nations owe it to the weak and smaller nations to respect their independence, liberty and neutrality — and in spite of the energetic protest of the Greek Government — have themselves most wantonly and arrogantly abused their power to invade neutral Greece — the American "Al-lies" press — Vital Issue. Allies Violating the Neutral- Extra : ity of Greece Not a Word!" Am. Ed.: "Psht! NEUTEALITY 201 so far failed to comment editorially on this violation— failed to cry out with a bleeding heart in sympathy for the poor little Macedonians ! ' ' It simply goes to prove that to the " Al-lies" press of Amer- ica the violation of Belgium's neutrality by the Germans was a hideous offense against Freedom, Liberty and Civilization, but the violation of Greece's neutrality by the Allies is a highly commendable proceeding and a "brilliant strategic move. Almost nothing appeared in the "Al-lies" P]^.?*,^* to this disgraceful breach of neutrality. Every Al-lie paper kept silent about it and vainly did we try to find editoria 1 com- ment in papers like the New York Times, Sun, Herald, Tribune, or in any other "Al-lies" papers, which never stopped their miserable, hypocritical howling and crocodile tears about the well-known "scrap of paper." And it is sad to think and to contemplate that there exist self-respecting, thinking, in- telligent American men or women who still allow them- selves to be guided and misled by these editorial Pharisees. Yet the abuse of Greece is far worse than the occupation of Belgian territory. Salonica is not adjacent to Great Britain or to France, neither country has a claim nor interest to that section, and the Greek Government has never ^ intri- gued against them, as did Bel- gium against Germany. There is not the slightest excuse for _ Fair piay N Y the action of the ' ' strange alii- J0HN BULL THE benevolent. ance" and it must be con- demned as the most damnable manifestation of brutal force. This is a disgraceful state of affairs, and proves more con- clusively than anything else the bias, prejudice and partiality of^ome of our journals when they should perform their destined function of bringing news impartially and disseminating know- eldge about its meaning. It proves also again that some of our vaunted free press is 202 NEUTBALITY no longer free, but has allowed itself to be hired. The editors of many papers are no longer free men, but slaves. There remained in New York one or two papers which tried to preserve occasionally their normal sense of journalistic de- cency for actual facts and news. TJie Evening Post is one of them. Its publisher, Mr. Oswald Villard, is of German birth and was originally called Hilgard, a very respected name and fam- ily in the Rheinish provinces. The Evening Post, of course, had its lapses, too, but never- theless it has been trying very hard, despite the false reports from London, Paris and St. Petersburg, to tell the truth. When the German Government published documents discovered in Brussels proving the existence of, say, at least collusion between Belgium and the Allies, the Evening Post editor contended that this was not known to the invaders when they trampled upon "poor" Belgium; that, therefore, this late discovery could not be seriously considered as affecting the moral issue involved. If this recent argument of the Evening Post proves anything at all, it will prove that, when England violated Greek neutral- ity, it knew it was violating the neutrality of a friend, just as we now know it had reason to be convinced that if it would succeed in landing in Belgium first it would meet a friendly reception! It also proves that the Germans met a very hostile reception. In one instance we see Germany seeking admission, asking, imploring and guaranteeing immunity to a nation it had reason to suspect of being an enemy ; in the other we see England vio- lating the neutrality of a friendly nation and trying to bully it into a war which may spell ruin! The Post editor says : ' ' The population of Salonica received the Allies' troops in somewhat different spirit from the way Liege received the Germans.' ' According to this standard of morals, a criminal should go free if he can prove that his victim submitted to a violation it was unable to prevent. With the advent of Italy 's entry into the war, the New York Evening Post said that the methods used by the Allies to influ- ence public • opinion in Italy will some day make "interesting reading." Would the Post be interested in the methods used by the Allies to influence public opinion in America? Or is the Post interested in those methods? Mr. Villard, editor of this paper, made a very interesting speech before a large gathering at Stockbridge, Mass., and MOHAMMET V. Sultan of Turkey NEUTRALITY 203 wound up his speech by saying: "America is my country, and the love I bear for another land shall never blind me to its wrong doing, as, under heaven, my patriotism shall never make me defend America when she offends the laws of heaven or of Tn an • Has Mr. Villard been consistent in the practice of this prin- ciple? We have our doubts about it. CHAPTER LXV Champions. A very interesting piece of the headline artist's skill is this one from the St. Louis Globe Democrat: ALL DARDANELLES FORTS ARE REDUCED BY ALLIED WARSHIPS lemotrat ALL DARDANELLES FORTS REDUCED BY Gateway to Constantinople U Opened in Anglo-French Bombardment GERMANS CAPTURE BIG RUSSIAN PORT BY STORM —St. Louis Globe Democrat. The St. Louis Globe Demo- crat is among the papers which assisted the allied war- ships to reduce all — note all- the Darlanelles forts and made the momentous discov- ery that the gateway to Con- stantinople was open; that was some months ago. Doubtless this headline is kept standing and is used at frequent intervals. Perhaps the Globe Democrat's editors might be induced to make the trip through the Dardanelles on a warship flying the English or French flag, seeing that the forts are all reduced and the gateway open. And if the Allies will not put a warship at their disposal, we will gladly take up a popular subscription to charter a yacht to take said editors through the gateway to Constantinople, under the English or French flag. The Globe- Democrat belongs to the Pulitzer family of papers. 204 NEUTRALITY FORCING THE DARDANELLES. The colossal military and naval blunder, the cowardly retreat from; the Dardanelles on part of the allied forces, is past history. It has proved to the world the wonderful vitality, efficiency, and military genius of the rejuvenated Turkish Empire, the heroic valor and fighting qualities of the brave Turkish soldier and sailor. Military experts, naval strategists, laymen and civilians of all countries are simply "flabbergasted" at the pitiful sight of the stupidity and inefficiency of the strategic board of the combined English, French and Russian war offices — and strange to relate, that there are still people — particularly in America — NEUTRALITY 205 who pretend to believe that the allies can win this war. "Wer's glaubt der wird selig." The above illustration shows another conception of the forcing of the Dardanelles, which comes nearer depicting the truth. The "liar of liars" has purposely been left last. This is the champion of all of them. It is so much ashamed of itself that it is continually blushing; hence its name. "Pinky," also known in the tenderloin of New York as the Evening Telegram and owned by Mr. James Gordon Bennett of Paris, France. This paper announces, among his many other jokes: GERMANY ENLISTS PRIVATEER FLEET; MAIL STEAMSHIPS SHELLED; ESCAPED RUSSIAN GUARDS WINS LONG FIGHT Again it says : NO PROTEST ON FLAG ISSUE ; GERMAN DESPAIR PROVED BY USE OF WOMEN AS SOLDIERS At the top we have an announcement of an extraordinary item of news. The Germans, it seems, have enlisted a privateer fleet. February 22nd is the date of this "atrocity," and in the months that have elapsed since then the German privateer fleet has been living a life of the strictest retirement. It is not presumable, however, that any of the habitues of Broadway, Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue, between 28th and 50th Streets, New York, the only people who ever read the Evening Telegram, is endowed with memory or with spirit enough to question any of the ''pink un's" pronouncements. It will be noticed that another Russian victory is achieved in this issue. The result, presumably, was the usual advance toward the rear. It states further that the Germans are in despair. They are, according to Mr. Bennett, using women as soldiers. If it was German women who shortly after this won the battle at Neuve Chapelle, they are better fighters than the English suffra- gettes. These headlines are — as every New Yorker whose business calls him even occasionally to the Rialto knows — very mild examples of the headline art as practised on Pinkyk Square. CHAPTER LXVI "Amerika Ueber Alles." The "NEW YORKER STAATS - ZEITUNG," Ameri- ca's leading German paper, has been waging a valiant campaign for truth. Its English articles in "The "War From Day to Day" have attracted widespread attention for their cleverness, lucidity, accurate and expert discussions about the war. That the German element of our population has played a prominent part in promoting American progress and civiliza- tion is denoted by the fact that this influential German news- paper has existed and flourished in New York for four score years. The recent celebration of its eightieth anniversary by the "New Yorker Staats-i.eitung " reveals a success founded on the patronage of a large, thriving, capable, useful and progressive body of German reading people. But for these patrons the paper could not have become the prosperous disseminator of news or the powerful leader of opinion that it is. But it has deserved every particle of its prosperity, for it has aimed to bring about the highest development of German- American life and activity. Under the management of Mr. Her- man Ridder, who died recently, and his sons, the Staats-Zeitung has yearly made itself more worthy of approval and support by German-Americans. Besides being one of the ablest newspaper men in the country, Mr. Herman Ridder was a publicist of great ability and influence, and will not be forgotten soon. He was in the vanguard of those American citizens who believe in America first, first over Germany, but first also over England. He was a good fighter and he loved a good fight. 206 NEUTEALITY 207 Nevertheless, the abuse heaped upon the German name and the betrayal of the interests of the United States by the "Al-lies" press hastened his end. The torch that has fallen from his hand has been taken up by his sons. Vol. Ill, No. 5— September 8th, 1915 Price 5 Cent* Fatherland AWeekly < t .u- Bat. U. S. Pm Of I Baying the Moon. THE FATHERLAND— This paper gains both momentum and popularity as the war progresses. 208 NEUTEALITY Mr. George Sylvester Viereck. Mr. George Sylvester Vier- eck, the famous editor of this paper, with the other editors of the Fatherland, were ex- posed to abuse and villifica- tion by American editors all over the country. Some tried to laugh the paper out of ex- istence, some endeavored to curtail its usefulness by vituperation. As The Fatherland gained in strength and support, and its columns became the me- dium through which some of the greatest thinkers in Eu- rope and America undertook to stem the tide of falsehood (it flourishes to the present day), efforts were made in Washington to find causes for sup- pressing the paper. Its fearlessness in attacking persons in responsible places soon became a thorn in the side of the English agents disburs- ing corruption funds right and left to create sentiment in favor of floating French, English and Russian war loans and to ship ammunition to the Allies. Their willing tools in the Capital be- gan "to look up the law" that would justify some course of action looking to the garroting of The Fatherland and the inter- ment of its editors for the duration of the war in some federal prison for seditious conduct. Their experience will make good reading in after years in connection with the history, showing the influence of the Ger- man-American element in the affairs of the United States, and future generations may ponder upon the political vagaries of an administration that seriously contemplated the arrest of American citizens for holding opinions not approved in govern- ment circles. The activity of The Fatherland extended in every direction. But for this American citizens handicapped with a German name might even be languishing in English concentration camps. Mr. Viereck has been a valiant and fearless champion of justice NEUTRALITY 209 for the Teutons and unfettered liberty for Americans. May his work live and prosper. The Vital Issue, now called ISSUES AND EVENTS, is another brilliant periodical in the English language devoted to ISSUES & EVENTS PUBLISHED WEEKLY Vol. III. No. 20 NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 13, 1915 FIVE CENTS MISS RAY BEVERIDGE A Victim of British Intrigue the cause of justice to the Teutons. The paper has been making a great fight for "fair play" for Germany. The cartoon shows John Bull trying to steal the Declaration of Independence out of Mr. Bryan's pocket. They appear to be having a very pleasant time. The above illustration gives a good picture of Miss Bev- eridge, an indefatigable worker in the German cause. 210 NEUTRALITY From VitRl Issii© John Bull Trying to Steal the Declaration of Independence. * « * * * * « 3^n 23uU jitttttl Stifles MfgrriimtlGtgllf4r HSStafiaMc twtn Htl» 34.| trtft - *rt» ttmt; .s— - - THE GERMAN HEROLD is another lively and enterpris- ing German paper in New York City of wide circulation. gg &frlttjfryirgt c SCiliidcnrucfpfl Don mttipoli licgnnn! Jfotono" tDirde ytoornt — (o fltn lleScrlcBmbc in 9.Rolto! Sifti « jtn riidlm:a»n6^8iifl^»»^^^--;?w|ti«fWg 1 SitaiMilat 51 ki g«B k. etti|i |i«. IS 8»I*hltt bail »B«[ In Ilk K?S=£=! c *l |m -'" , «"- ■**■'* lifrn etrlln. J s^c^^ir^ ttu- wtl tiftt. gm stftrtlgL M«lli« tMa fcW»lll feSSK» Umrtl an nu t Crftwl ax » i h ibii>» in »M i j^^jjjjpjgPj^jMgjjjQj^-fc^. — -j; ,.. ._*«—■ ^^ ^ — - i" *^ •■""■"X— ip i*>Mna««^' THE CHICAGO ABENDPOST. This leading German paper of the middle west has conducted a strong, unprejudiced and valiant fight for "Amerika first," and has in its sane, force- ful editorials conclusively proven how American interests are in common wth teutonic successes. CHAPTER LXVII Erin Go Bragh! The Gaelic American. ILLEGAL RECRUITING DONE IN BRITISH CONSULATE; ENGLAND WORRIED OVER CASEMENT'S WORK A great Irish- American newspaper giving its full sympathy and support to Germany. Normally, it is devoted to the cause of Irish independence ; now, it fights for Germany. In its strong, virile editorials it condemns England's cause and has repeat- KEWSPAPERS CONSPIRE TO P80V0KE A WOT 'Srlj&ju SvSS jSmEHJjSS 6MAT RtSd SfefiM K TERlACE S»K)EK >iB>iit> ,;- ~*''-^--" ,; ~ '•— — 'iVSA»— J1~.S '•"** **'— •"**■ *«*"*^ ■""^iisHHP edly stated that all reports from Ireland indicate that the re- cruiting in Ireland makes no progress; on the contrary, that Irish immigration to the United States increases, lest general conscription be introduced under the British flag. This paper has a nation-wide circulation, and has tremendous influence among its constituents in the United States. The headline says: " England Worried Over Casement's Work." The Casement affair created one of the greatest sen- sations in the diplomatic world. It proved once again to the entire civilized world that England, claiming to fight for "humanity," "liberty" and "civilization." is willing even to commit murder and assassination to secure her special brand of "culture." But, fortunately, the British plot to murder Sir Roger Casement failed. 211 212 NEUTRALITY As the daily press, particularly the "Al-lies" papers, failed to give this case the deserved publicity, it may not be amiss to re-tell the story here. Sir Roger Casement expected to leave Berlin in February, 1915, for Christiana, Norway, to lay the proofs before the Nor- wegian Government of a conspiracy to capture and return him to England or kill him, the chief conspirator being Mansfield De. C. Findlay, the British Minister to Norway, who endeavored to bribe a servant in the employ of Sir Roger, one Adler A. Christenson, a Norwegian, who was to receive at least $25,000 as a reward for his treachery and betrayal of his master, if suc- cessful. Sir Roger Casement has shown copies of the correspondence exposing the conspiracy to the German Foreign Office and pho- tographic copies were sent by Sir Roger to his friends on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. He is regarded by the British Gov- ernment in exactly the same light as Robert Emmett and other patriots who were swung to their death from British scaffolds. If captured and brought to England this patriotic Irishman will be charged with high treason to the Crown and executed. Fearing that the difficulties of capturing him could not be sur- mounted, the British Minister to Norway instructed Christen- son to lure Sir Roger Casement to a point on the coast, where a British ship could run in and get him, "or, still better, knock him on the head." Announcement was officially made from the Berlin Foreign Office that the discovery of the conspiracy has been submitted to the American Ambassador and were sent to Secretary of State Bryan, at Washington. England must get rid of Casement at any cost, for he represents the true spirit of Irish nationality, which is the faith and hope of the sons and daughters of the Celts and Gaels throughout the world. The English spy system has been developed to an extraor- dinary degree. There are few pages of Irish history free from the sinister story of the spy and the informer. Where the sys- tem of paid spies fails, the lure of British gold to bribe the serv- ants of illustrious Irishmen to betray their masters is a com- mon occurrence in the history of the British Empire. The serv- ant of Sir Roger Casement proved incorruptible; otherwise an- other Irish patriot would have been destroyed. Speaking of assassins, it may be recorded that since August, 1914, England, tJie past master of assassination, and her "sedu- NEUTEALITY 213 lous ape" allies have, to their discredit, the following success- ful assassinations : Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife; Jean Jaures, the French Socialist leader ; the Boer General, Delarey ; the Italian Foreign Minister, San Giuliano; King Carol of Roumania; the great Russian Count Witte; Dr. Costa, the Portuguese states- man. Attempted assassinations were as follows: Sir Roger Case- ment, envoy of the Irish Nationalists; King Constantine of Greece; Enver Pasha and Talaat Bey, leaders of the Young Turks. ... Quite a record for a Christian nation fighting for "cviiliza- tion," "freedom," "liberty" and the Cossack brand of "cul- ture!" But it is the same old England of 1776, of 1812, of the Crimean war, and of the rape of the Boer Republic ! Same old story ; same old John Bull. It is hard to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Another headline from the Gaelic American : GREAT MASS MEETING IN TERRACE GARDEN. It was the greatest outpouring of Irish- Americans New York has ever seen. It was a wonderful manifestation of our Irish citizens in favor of the Teuton cause. The New York Times felt very sore about this German meeting and headlined its re- port thus : "DIE WACHT AM RHEIN" SUNG TO THE IRISH. GERMAN CHOIR CROWDS CELTS OFF THE STAGE AT ANTI-REDMOND MEETING. It is very apparent that the object of this headline was to stir up resentment and hostile feeling which some unthinking Irishmen might have against the Germans. In other words, its object was to start a row, hoping that the Irish and Germans, who are fast coming together to secure justice, liberty and freedom, might be separated. Nobody present at that meeting could recall of having seen the Germans trying to crowd the Irish off the stage. As a matter of fact, a German choir had been requested to sing, and the speakers gave way until their song was finished. The speaker of the evening, Mr. Jeremiah A. O'Leary, an Irish- American, is a very successful lawyer in New York, an author 214 NEUTRALITY Mr. Jeremiah A. O'Leary, President of "The Ameri- can Truth Society." of note and a forceful orator. As president of the Truth Society, Mr. O'Leary is an ardent worker for the Irish cause, a fearless, devoted cham- pion of Germany in this struggle and an uncompromising American patriot, fighting with word and pen for American liberty from English dic- tation. THE IRISH WORLD is the oldest Irish-American newspaper in Amer- ica. Its sympathies are with Ger- many, and, although a supporter of John Redmond before the war, it has denounced him since for his treason to the highest ideals of the Irish race. The illustration shows a cartoon of "T~he Same Old John Bull" flogging and beating with a knout, a gagged, poor, down-trodden, help- less Ireland ! CHAPTER LXVIII ''If You See It In the Sun It's So." "BRITISH BEGIN CAMPAIGN FOR WORLD'S TRADE," says the New York Sun, in one of its lucid and honest moments, proving that it can occasionally tell the truth. It announces the fact that the British have begun a campaign for world trade. This perhaps furnishes a little light upon the cause of the European war. Their present conflict with the United States is an indication that they have taken advantage of the situation to grab all they can get. Upon this point it may prove of interest to interject another little sidelight of Jefferson's mind upon British trade propen- sities. This is from a letter written to John Jacob Astor, who founded the American fur trade in the northwest. Jefferson writes: "It would be an afflicting thing, indeed, should the British be able to break up your settlement. Their bigotry to the bastard liberty of their own country and habitual fertility of every form of freedom in any other would induce the at- tempt. They would not lose the price of a bale of fur for the liberty of the whole world." This well-founded statement of our immortal Jefferson and Great Britain's recent activities during this war towards our commerce ought to have a very decisive influence upon our government when entering into new commercial treaties and alliances with England, because, as Jefferson states it jepeat- edly: "In spite of treaties England is still our enemy!' 3 SEES WORLD PEACE ONLY IF UNITED STATES JOINS ENGLAND This also from the New York Sun, showing how some Ameri- can papers are permitting British publicists to use their col- umns for the purpose of carrying on an infamous campaign in American public opinion which would make it easy for the United States to join England in the present war. This is one of a series of articles written by Harold Begbie, an English literary hack and bitter German hater. This insidious work about the United States joining England has been going on for some time in this country, promoted and fostered by ^sucn men as Carnegie, Hammond, Eliot, Gompers, Morgan, Choate, 215 216 NEUTRALITY Depew, Root, Reid of the Tribune, and others of the same ilk. "Great Americans" they are all called, and in reality, in their sentiments, they are more British than the British themselves. They constituted themselves to execute the will and testament of the late Cecil Rhodes, named the "Great Empire Builder." It is well known that Cecil Rhodes left in his testament a legacy devoted : "To and for the establishment, promotion and development of a secret society the true aim of which and object whereof shall be the extension of British rule throughout the world; the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United King- dom and of colonization by British subjects of all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labor and en- terprise, and especially the occupation by British settlers of the entire continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Canada, the whole of South America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore pos- sessed by Great Britain; the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan; THE ULTIMATE RECOV- ERY OF THE UNITED SfATES OF AMERICA AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE; the inau- guration of a system of colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed members of the EMPIRE, and finally the FOUNDATION OF SO GREAT A POWER AS TO HEREAFTER RENDER WARS IMPOSSIBLE AND PROMOTE THE BEST INTER- ESTS OF HUMANITY." In other words, after she owns the whole earth, she will con- descend to let us have peace, but not until then! CHAPTER LXIX Not Yet, But— That some of the compatriots of Cecil Rhodes, of Choate, of Morgan, of Root, of the Reids have not failed to profit by the spirit and advice of the above legacy is manifested by the trade announcement in the illustration. It says: "For the Colonies the 'Allenbury Foods'— South Africa, UNITED STATES, Australia, Canada." This is an advertisement taken from The Chemist and Druggist, a British publication of January 30, 1915, in the year of the independence of the United States, the one hun- NEUTRALITY 217 dred and thirty-ninth. Note how the advertiser announces sail- ings to the Colonies, in which he includes the United States of America. Let the Administration contemplate this picture and sorrowfully think of those happy days when the United States was a free and independent nation. Our government is trying its very best to carry out the testament of Sir Cecil Rhodes and our "Al-lies" papers, with the Sun, the Times and the Tribune as leaders, who are always willing to lend their columns for the discussion of an event- THE UNITED STATES AS A BRITISH COLONY. 218 NEUTEALITY uality where the United States may become an integral part of the British Empire. Incidentally, may be mentioned here that the London Daily Mail, commonly called the " Daily Liar," Lord Northcliff 's paper, was founded with money furnished by Cecil Rhodes. . . . Some of our conservative " Anglo-Saxons " have attempted to disparage the standing of Jefferson by the statement that he was a ' ' radical. ' ' According to these elements of our people, if a house is on fire we should not inform the occupants. If burglars are in a building, we shoulcTnot spread an alarm. But it was Patrick Henry who sounded the better American doctrine that, " Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." It might be observed here in passing that if British conservatism had pre- vailed in the American Eevolution, the United States would now be a British dependency. CHAPTER LXX Editor Jefferson. Some suggestions which have been made by Thomas Jeffer- son in regard to certain newspapers, blaming also the readers for supporting such papers, are very timely today. Jefferson says: " Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some way as this : Divide his paper into four chapters, heading the first TrutJi; second, Probabilities; third, Possibilities, and fourth, Lies. The first chapter would be very short, as it would contain little more than authentic papers and information from such sources as the editor would be willing to risk his own reputa- tion for their truth. The second would contain what, from a mature consideration of all circumstances, his judgment should conclude to be probably true. This, however, should rather con- tain too little than too much The third and fourth should be professedly for those readers who would rather have lies for their money than the blank paper they would occupy. "Such an editor, too, would have to set his face against the demoralizing practice of feeding the public mind habitually on slander, and the depravity of taste which this nauseous ail- ment induces. Defamation is becoming a necessity of life, inso- much that a dish of tea in the morning or evening cannot be digested without this stimulant. Even those who do not believe these abominations, still read them with complaisance to their NEUTRALITY 219 auditors, and instead of the abhorrence and indignation which should fill a virtuous mind, betray a secret pleasure in the pos- sibility that some may believe them, though they do not them- selves. It seems to escape them that it is not Tie who prints hut he who pays for printing a slander, who is its real author." This suggestion is just as timely today as it was when Jef- ferson wrote it, and if the modern reader would only take the hint and act accordingly, many a newspaper would have to go out of business and its editor and proprietor be relegated to the farm or to the bench where he belongs, instead of trying to mould public opinion as a newspaper editor, for which post he does not possess the intellect and knowledge. The world has never seen as much lying as is going on today in the press of the United States ; nor such bitterness and cal- umny. If the whole matter were not so terribly serious, it would really be comical how naively, not only the yellow press, but even papers that consider and style themselves serious and intelligent, reprint the most ridiculous news items, pictures, cartoons ; and how heedlessly and stupidly they jump at conclu- sions. The headlines have fully proven this contention. One must admit that they look silly in view of what Germans did really accomplish. How different the German reports; short, precise, to the point and, what's supreme in the\m f they contain the truth. Not one single item came from Germany, not one single war report in the last twenty months, which was not true, which was not justified and substantiated by the real events following. Lord Loreburne, a prominent member of the Eng- lish Parliament, had to admit himself this fact. And if you ask why, it's because of the many noble qualifications and manly traits the Germans possess, one is particularly characteristic, and that is, that the Germans are not liars. ^ They consider a lie not clever hut ignominious. Quite a humorous verification of these above statements is a little piece of verse published in The Scoop, the offi- cial organ of the Chicago Press club. It humorously but aptly characterizes the way the American papers received the news from the different war zones. The verses read as follows : The German soldiers, strenuous men, In peace and War and thunders, Have not been killed by French or Russ, But by newspaper blunders. Ten thousand they must die a day (They cut such funny capers) ; "• 220 NEUTBALITY They do not die from cannon balls, But from big wads of papers. Ten thousand dying day and night, According to the guesses — They dip them all in printer's ink, And squeeze them in the presses. Five million Germans in the war, With officers and chattels, What will the press soon do for men To fight the German battles? The German, every inch a man, Is doing some good walking, He's fighting now to beat the band, And lets us do the talking. Now news comes flying through the air,- Although they've cut the cables, The Germans found the wireless, And that has turned the tables. CHAPTER LXXI Sentimental Dr. Eliot. Another humorous side in this serious crisis of Europe man- ifested itself in the attitude of some of our public and scientific men. Dr. Eliot, ex-president of Harvard University, for in- stance, from whom one may expect a little intelligence and knowledge of history, is very bitter in his denunciation of the Germans until he is confronted with facts. This aesthetic gentle- man who dislikes football games on account of their roughness does not hesitate, according to newspaper reports, to declare from a public platform that, should the Allies need and ask the help of this country, it would at once become our "sentimental" duty to throw in our lot with them. Sentimental Dr. Eliot! One might just as well look for sentimentality in a codfish. Considering that what he calls ' ' his sentimental duty" is nothing but silly rot, his utterances are impudent, highly offensive, and scandalous. The humor of the attitude of this self-appointed dictator of public opinion is the fact, though, that being a witness at one of the sessions of the Federal Industrial Relations Commission, and asked by the chairman what he thinks of certain economical and sociological institutions of Germany in comparison with ours, "Sentimental" Eliot said: "The Germans are very much ahead of us. They seem to have started first and everything they have done is, from NEUTRALITY 221 a business as well as humanitarian standpoint, the best." Par- ticularly refers this sentimental Dr. Eliot to accident insurance and workingmen's compensation act, and the many other activies of German genii in the fields of industry, commerce, sci- ence, art and literature. This statement of the feeble ex-president of Harvard, who in 1913 praised German civilization to the skies and in 1914 fairly challenged the laurels of a Billingsgate fishwife or that of his crony, the " great" T. R., in denouncing Germany, was the more surprising as his utterances, public and private, in word and print, betrayed an uncommon, virile denunciation of the German Emperor and the German nation, and no greater champion of England's cause than Dr. Eliot could be mustered out in this country. It ought to interest the average American reader to see and read for himself Dr. Eliot in his ' 'Janus" like doublefacedness, of which a few illustrations are given below : ELIOT IN 1913. From an address delivered by Charles W. Eliot at the dinner of the German Publication Society, May 9, 1913, New York. Published by the Irving Press, New York: "Two great doctrines which had sprung from the German Protestant Reformation had been developed by Germans from seed then planted in Germany. The first was the doctrine of universal education, developed from the Protestant conception of in- dividual responsibility, and the sec- ond was the great doctrine of civil liberty, liberty in industries, in so- ciety, in government, liberty with or- der under law. These two principles took their rise in Protestant Ger- many ; and America has been the greatest beneficiary of that noble teaching:. "The Teutonic peoples set a higher value on truth in sp&ech, thought, and action than any other people. They love truth; they seek it; thev woo it. They respect the man who speaks and acts the truth even to his own injury. The English Bacon said of truth: 'It is the sovereign good of human na- ture.' That is what all the Teutonic people believe. They want to found their action on fact, not fancy ; on the truth, the demonstrated truth, not on imaginations. I say that there is a fine bond of union, a real likeness of spirit, a community in devotion and worship among all the Teutonic peo- ples." ELIOT IN 1915. From the book, "The Road Toward Peace, ' ' by Charles W. Eliot. Houghton Mifflin Com- pany, Boston and New York : Liberty. "The Government of Ger- many is the most autocratic in Europe. The German people do not know what political and social liberty is. They have no conception of such liberty as we enjoy. . . . The civil- ized world can now see where the new German morality be efficient, be virile, be hard, be bloody, be rulers— would land it. Germans do not know how free peoples regard the sanc- tity of contract, not only for business purposes, but for political purposes, to say noth- ing of honorable obligation. ■ ' 222 NEUTRALITY Intelligent Americans will draw their own conclusions from the above excerpts of the writings of the sentimental doctor. No comments are necessary except the declaration that a man, par- ticularly of the standing of this college professor, who blows one day hot and the next day cold, is an idiot. Sapienti sat ! CHAPTER LXXII Dr. Constantin Theodor Duinba. The case of the late Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, Dr. Dumba, created quite a heated discussion in our press. The "Al-lies" yelled themselves hoarse in their wild cry that the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador at Washington has been guilty of "a monstrous crime." What this crime is no one seems to know. At any rate, the New York World has published some letters of Dr. Dumba and these letters clearly reveal that Dr. Dumba was "not neutral." It appears that the Ambassador was very " pro- Austrian." This attitude of his had shocked the Tory press of the land tremendously. The pirated correspondence of Dr. Constantin T. Dumba, reprinted with such relish by the New York World, greatly reflects to the credit of that excellent diplomat. It is monstrous to think that many Austro-Hungarians, either unwittingly or compelled by dire need, should be forging weapons of death in American factories against their own brethren at home. These unfortunates are guilty not only of fratricide, morally, but of treason, legally, if they are still citizens of the dual monarchy. They forfeit forever the opportunity of returning to their native land even for a visit; they also forfeit whatever property they may hold or inherit in Austria-Hungary. Germany has not only warned her citizens against the com- mittal of such a crime, but she has established a bureau where her sons who find themselves in such a tragic predicament may seek both aid and advice. Dr. Dumba 's project for organizing a similar welfare bureau, according to the advice of the highest legal authorities, was entirely within his rights ; in fact, it was unquestionably his duty. The New York press has lost the last vestige of shame attacking Dr. Dumba on this account. Since when is it a crime to prevent the commission of a crime ? Since when is it wrong to save a man from staining his hands with the blood of his brothers ? DR. CONSTANTIN THEODOR DUMBA. NEUTEALITY 223 "Where is the man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, native land." Our government's attitude was utterly unreasonable and ut- terly unjust. The criminal code of the United States threatens with prosecution all American citizens who in time of war aid or abet the enemy either in the United States or elsewhere. If the United States were at war with Japan, American mechanics working in Austrian ammunition plants manufacturing war sup- plies for the enemy of their country would be guilty of treason. It would be the duty of the American Ambassador to call their attention to their offense. No American Ambassador worth his salt would refuse to obey his duty, even at the risk of being per- sona non grata at the court of Vienna. Dr. Dumba has done no more than an American Ambassador would have done in a parallel case. He appealed solely to Austro-Hungarian citizens ; he did not appeal to American citizens. Austria, unlike France and Italy and Mr. Lansing, does not recognize the principle of dual allegiance. Dr. Dumba has done no wrong; he merely made a suggestion to his government. If the Ambassador had attempted to foment a strike, the United States would have been justified in stepping in, but his communication to his own government should be re- garded as privileged. While Dr. Dumba merely submitted a theoretical brief to his Government, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice has actually, through Sir Richard Crawford and other agents, hampered the industries of our country. Yet Dr. Dumba was given his passports while Sir Cecil may continue to abuse American hospitality and to con- spire against the prosperity of our country. Is there any man with red blood in his veins who blames Dr. Dumba for his desire to interfere with the shipment of death-dealing implements to the enemies of his country? CHAPTER LXXIII Journalism a la "Mud." The mud-throwing utterances of one newspaper to the detri- ment of the other as practised during this war cast a very sad and lamentable light upon the character of our press. The ever alert periodical, The Fatherland, allows itself some very char- acteristic reflections in regard to the working form of one of our newspapers in an article entitled, "Journalism a la Mode." It says: "New York newspapers are following the example of Henry Ford in giving employment to ex-convicts. If one can judge by recent events all of the second-story men and pickpockets who have been recently released from prison are on the payrolls of the metropolitan dailies. ' ' One can imagine the following command being given by the city editor: " 'I want all you second-story men to go up to the Fritz- Carlton. You know who's up there, don't you? Sure, Bern- storff and his gang. I want you to wait until you're sure they're out of their rooms. Then you're to jimmy your way into the rooms break into trunks and bureau drawers and take all pa- pers and private correspondence which you think will be of in- terest to our readers. And don't you report back here until you get those papers, do you hear ? All right, beat it. ' ' l Calling the light-fingered gentry to the desk, the city editor gives the following order : " 'I want you dips to catch the eleven o'clock train for Lenox, Mass. Attaches of the Austrian embassy are summering there. I want you to mingle in the crowd at the horse show up there this afternoon, and get next to that embassy bunch. They're carrying some important correspondence in their pock- ets which will be of interest to our readers. Don't report back here until you get those letters. If necessary, waylay them. ' "The City Editor musing: 'That was a great idea of the boss in hiring those jail birds. Since they've been with us our circulation has jumped 50,000.' " Hounded by such newspapers Dr. Dumba left Washington, but his sacrifice will not be in vain. His departure has concen- trated the attention of the world upon the infamy of our con- duct. It has opened the eyes of Austro-Hungarians in our mu- 224 NEUTEALITY 225 nition plants to the enormity of their offense. History will judge between Dr. Dumba and those who are driving him out. The verdict will not be against Jtim! CHAPTER LXXIV Americans First and Last. In conclusion, let it be emphasized and reiterated with all the power that these words can convey that whether German- Aus- trian or Hungarian- Americans they are Americans first and last! Far better Americans than those who are selling out the independence of this country to Great Britain. The Mor- gans, the Pages, the Lodges, the Eliots, the Putnams, the Col- liers, the Choates, etc., who are doing what they can, as the servile tools of England, to enthrone Eussia and Japan upon the ruins of German civilization. They are betraying the United States by doing what they can to bring the "Yellow Peril" upon us. They are doing what they can to erect Russia into a still mightier Colossus. They followed the same tactics when England destroyed the Dutch republic in South Africa. But for our supplies, our guns, our mules and the recruiting in American ports, by British army officers, the Boers would never have been conquered. Their ruin is upon our heads. Senator Hale protested in the Senate. He was told to have a care. "Has it come to this, that the word liberty may no longer be uttered in the halls of Congress save in a whisper?" asked the Maine Senator. These degenerate Americans are bending their necks in meek humility while English warships are blockading our harbors, searching neutral ships for Amer- ican cargoes, seizing American citizens and placing them in jeopardy of their lives. We repeat : For very little more than this we went to war with England in 1812. They are not neutrals. They are the secret allies of England and Japan. And we believe this to be a betrayal of the United States, a crime against humanity, a stain upon civilization. They are prolonging the war. The death and blood of thou- sands of young Germans and Austro-Hungarians, Bulgars and Turks will be upon these men and the men building submarines and casting guns for the Allies. Every nation in war has the right to crush the spirit of its enemy and starve it into submission if it can. We are denying 226 NEUTKALITY this right to Germany, for we are sending food, arms, ammuni- tion, money — in fact, everything, by the shipload to the enemies of Germany in order that they may go on fighting and killing. It is exactly what England proposed to do in onr Civil War, out of sympathy for the South, and the offer was indignantly re- jected by Secretary Seward. No American, native or adopted, who loves his country should allow himself to be intimidated by our unneutral press. The ad- ministration at Washington is not a divine institution and must go in good time, as the Roosevelt regime went, unless it strikes into paths of true neutrality. We will not see our country dragged into a murderous war for the benefit of Morgan and his entourage. We will not only protest, but will plainly tell the politicians and our government officials that we will not submit quietly to having our patriotism impugned without calling to political account the men who have the power to stop this agita- tion against citizens of German, Austro-Hungarian blood — citizens whose forefathers fought and died for the preservation of our institutions, while the English element sought the con- genial shelter of Canada in every crisis that called for manhood. Patriotic, right-thinking Americans, whether native or adopt- ed, want PEACE, not war ! For war, that is what J. Pierpont Morgan wished when he appointed himself Britain's war agent. That is what his asso- ciates in the Money Trust wished, and their cringing satellites in Wall Street, who feed upon their crumbs. That is what the war-mad British bankers in Wall Street wished, and the pro- British editors and writers with their poisoned pens. It is what William E. Corey, of the Steel Trust, wished when he came back from his home in France and cried for war ; it is what Otto T. Bannard of the New York Trust Company wished when he went to London and said that the "President must take radical steps ;" it was what James Gordon Bennett wished when he cabled from his home in Paris, urging mob attacks upon men of German blood ; it is what Adolph S. Ochs wishes, when he incites race hatred in his sheet, ruled by the Money Trust; it is what Mr. Choate wishes when he welcomes the representatives of all the black and yellow races and bids them " welcome 7 ' to our shores, at the entrance of which Liberty is enlightening the world. We oppose the participation of our beloved America in the European war on the side of any of the belligerents ; we oppose the truckling of our nation's official servants to any foreign NEUTRALITY 227 power ; we refuse to sanction the prolongation of the European slaughter by American aid, financial or otherwise; we believe America should keep her hands off in this present war and there- by become an example for the world to follow; we are opposed to American institutions becoming anglicized— we want America to be America and we insist that American truths be taught Amer- ican children without regard to the insidious influences of the ill- gotten money of any Anglo-maniac, whether it be the money of a Rhodes, a Carnegie or a Morgan. FAIR MINDED, PATRIOTIC, TRUE AMERICANS PRO- TEST AGAINST THE CRUCIFIXION OF PUBLIC OPIN- ION BY AN UNNEUTRAL AND UN AMERICAN PRESS. We demand that an end be put to all this. We demand that American neutrality shall mean what it says. We demand, above all, that the United States cut loose from the leading strings of Great Britain. We demand an embargo on the exportation of all arms and ammunition. We demand as American citizens that no fellow human beings should be slaughtered with powder and ball manufactured in this country and killed in flagrant de- fiance of our boasted neutrality under a shifty construction of those laws of a higher humanity which are called the laws oi justice and fair play. -END- Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: ^ 2001 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 1 6066 (724) 779-2111