Copy 1 Light and Truth AFTER The World Tragedy A POLITICAL AND ETHICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EUROPEAN WAR of 1914-1919 By J. ANTHONY STARKE ADVANCE PUBLISHING CO. 44 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK Light and Truth AFTER The World Tragedy - A POLITICAL AND ETHICAL ANALYSIS OF THE EUROPEAN WAR of 1914-1919 By j/ANTHONY STARKE Author of these Political Pamphlets THE TRUE SITUATION (1896) Gold Standard vs. Free Silver NATIONAL EVOLUTION (1908) Electoral, Immigration and Office-Tenure Reform SHALL THIS REPUBLIC LIVE? (1912) The Three-cornered Party Contest and the Author's General Reform Program New York, August 1st, 1921 ADVANCE PUBLISHING CO. 44 EAST 23rd STREET NEW YORK For Sale direct by the Publishers Commission Orders placed with Book Stores will be promptly filled Price — TWO D O L L A R S — Postpaid Copyright, 1921 By J. ANTHONY STARKE, New York All Rights Reserved German and Spanish Translations in Preparation by the Author NOV -3 1921 ©C1A629230 LIST OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 7 A. ANTE-WAR POLITICAL CONDITION OF EUROPE. I. 1639-1793 15 II. 1793-1815 19 III. 1815-1870 24 IV. THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR, 1870-1871 27 V. THE PROBLEM OF ALSACE-LORRAINE 31 VI OTHER POLITICAL EVENTS CONTRIBU- TORY TO THE WAR CONDITIONS OF 1914 (1854-1914) 35 A. The Russo-Turkish and Balkan Questions 36 B The Unification and Development of Italy 42 C- Germany's Phenomenal R'se to World p ower — Her Oriental Expansion Policy 44 D. Austria's Political Character and Destiny 55 E. The Ensuing Combinations of the Pow- ers — The Triple Alliance — Germany, Austria, Italy. The Triple Entente — England, France, Russia 61 VII MORAL DELINQUENCY AND SPIRITUAL INERTIA AS ESSENTIAL FACTORS OF THE WAR ^ B. OUTBREAK AND COURSE OF THE WAR. VIII. RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR— The Great Conspiracy — The British Propaganda. 79 IX. THE FOOD BLOCKADE — Its After-War Effects 98 X. ITALY, GREECE AND ROUMANIA IN THE WAR — Those Irredentas 103 XL AMERICA IN THE WAR 110 A. American Neutrality — Sentimental In- fluences. — International Rights on the High Seas — The U-Boat Warfare — Sinking of the Lusitania — The Psycho- logical Moment Neglected 110 B. The American Anti-German Propaganda — The German Anti-American Propa- ganda — Our Disinterested Motives — Political Effects of the War Upon America 126 XII. THE INVASION OF BELGIUM AND THE ENEMY COUNTRIES — The Belgian Atrocities — The Devastation Charge Against Germany 151 XIII. THE DEFEAT OF GERMANY AND HER ALLIES 160 A. Strain upon Germany — Democracy's Opportunity — The Wilson Gospel — Military Puzzles Explained — America Turns the Tide to Victory — The Aftermath 160 B. The Armistice. Abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II. — The Reaction of Des- pair — A New Germany Revealed — The Modern Drift — A New Philosophy of Life Needed — The German State. . 185 C. Austria, Turkey and Bulgaria in the War — Self-Determination of Nations — Poland — Opportunities for Retalia- tion ' 211 XIV. PEACE AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.. 224 A. The Peace and League of Falsehood — The Future Armies, and Disarma- ment — The War a Fiasco — Ireland's Title to Independence — America's Disappointment and Awakening 224 B. War and Civilization — Misleading Illu- sions — A "Natural View" of Life as the Remedy — The True Historical and Ethical View of War 236 XV. THE SUMMIT — The Nineteenth Century — Progress or Decay — The Philosophy of "Rationalism" vs. Supernatural Re- ligions — Its Practical Application. . . . 247 XVI. AFTER-PEACE CONCLUSIONS— The League of Nations and America — Modification of the Treaty — Revelations from Paris — President Wilson's Position — Ger- man and other War Publications — Present Situation in Europe — England and France Show their Hand at Last — Final Summary of the Moral Aspect of the War — The Russian Drama. . . . 267 NOTE. The main occurrences of the war being still vividly in the public mind, a consecutive reading of this book is not strictly necessary. With this point in view, the separate articles were each made as complete as pos- sible. This plan accounts for the occasional repetition of statements which may be found. taken place since peace was signed enable us to clearly recog- nize and analyze the true realities which precipitated the war, their historical background and all the attendant economic and social factors which combined brought on the terrible complica- tion. In the light of such examination we begin to realize to what a distorted state of emotion and astonishing perversion of reasoning powers the entire world, almost, had been brought during the war by the nefarious methods which inaugurated and accompanied the upheaval. Truth was dethroned by black deceit; all normal feeling and judgment became stifled; un- reasoning passion was given free run! Our examination will also disclose those disturbing social and ethical tendencies which were active in Europe for years and contributed their share to the conflict and its strange ending. In its turn, the war has given to these non-political questions an increased importance which will make them, perhaps, its greatest resulting problems. In this way we will endeavor to establish the correct relationship between the war and all the facts of political and social life and the individual man. No other, narrower, examination of this world catastrophe can have any value of true information and furnish us with real guiding lessons for the future. In order to reach this com- bined view on the political and social side of the problem and a well-balanced estimate of the conflict as a whole, it will be necessary to present the war to a large extent from the point of view of Germany and her allied powers in order to check our present preponderating impressions with the other side of the case. We have been given the Entente represen- tation of the war so exclusively, almost, that it becomes nec- essary for us also to know the German view and relations of the war in all its factors if we are to arrive at a correct judgment on the struggle and our own part in it. We must, 'therefore, aim to be impartial, hide nothing and spare no one, whether it be on our side or on that of the enemy. Great deeds of valor, ability, devotion and sacri- fice have been done by all the nations engaged in the war! From the merely physical and intellectual point of view the war is for all concerned a testimonial of merit! All the same, when we include also the moral and ethical factors and grasp the commotion as a whole the war is for all its actors and the world at large a picture of horror, shame and remorse ; the bright individual spots are extinguished by the revolting moral outrage of this unwarranted and monstrous fratricide! It compels us to denounce the political motives and methods which led to and reigned during the war and reign to-day in the most scathing terms which language can find. The war was a nauseating mass of falsehood and low sordid cunning — an ethical fraud — and a maze of incomprehensible aberration! This Gordian knot of foul conceits, calumnies and lies must be cut asunder by fearless strokes of dissecting criticism till the truth shall stand revealed and the guilty be ^xposed! In this iniquitous war gigantic, relentless and often barbarous physical forces and methods were projected into the arena and sustained by equally unnatural, corrupt moral impulses. There was an absence, on all sides, of grand purposes, of honest and true enmities, of real enthusiasm for a just cause or noble ideal; instead there were the low designs of material ambitions, lust of power for its own sake, all covered by a web of false pretenses. This war lacked even the brutal nobility of openly avowed conquest or of a fanatical religious or general senti- mental object; it was, from beginning to end, the war of meanest motives of all history — the war of cold," cruel political and material calculation — the negation of all our moral and religious pretensions — -a crushing accusation against all man- kind! It is absolutely necessary that this base character of the war be revealed to all peoples at this time — now — not in twenty years hence — if we wish to prevent an early similar or even more awful atrocity. The hideous character of the war is particularly illustrated by the cynical cunning with which its perversity was sought to be hidden to the great majority of men in all countries by an organized system of hypocritical pretense, on the part of the Entente powers, of being engaged in a conflict for liberty, justice, human rights and civilization against a barbarous people and autocratic Kaiser who had risen to destroy these! What a nightmare of an idea! — mendacious and unbelievable on its very statement. With us in America, alas! this cruel deceit became transformed into an exalted but false illusion and inspiration which led us into war and in its course cost us over a hundred-thousand lives, heavy material sacrifices and deep suffering, and has brought us mostly burdens and disappointment. This book is not a history of the war in the ordinary sense. The reader is assumed to be acquainted with the general course of events, diplomatic and military. Reference to these is made only as appears necessary to illustrate the author's point of view and elucidate his deductions. The general trend of these has been indicated in the preceding statements and may be formulated more specifically, as to the political issues of the war, as follows: 1. To show that the official advanced war motives of America against Germany were founded on imperfect information , and skilfully aroused prejudices, and that they were colored and sustained by an idealism which, while genuine as far as the large body of the people was concerned, had been artificially inspired by an interested clique which wanted war for a variety of reasons, of which some were as sordid as those of the European En- tente powers. 2. To repel with all possible emphasis the charge that Germany had plotted and started the war for motives of political aggrandizement and a general policy of "world conquest," and to roll back this infamous charge of her sole responsibility upon its authors and restore the name of Germany, as to this important issue, to the estimation in which it was held before the war. 3. To disprove the charge of "systematic and official cruelty" and "wanton destructiveness" in the conduct of the war by the Central powers beyond the general war practice of other nations in an enemy country, and to expose and denounce the unprincipled exaggeration with which this charge has been exploited for sentimental purposes in the allied countries, particularly in America. 4. To protest against the annihilating terms of peace im- posed upon Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Turkey, but particularly upon Germany, and to arouse a sentiment for their immediate revision on lines of what is politically 10 just under the conditions of Section 2 and reasonably pos- sible of fulfillment. The admission of the joint responsi- bility by all the powers involved must become the basis of the peace revision. Also to insist that in regard to economic questions and territorial adjustments a settle- ment be made in agreement with natural geographical and true racial boundaries and approved by a free plebis- cite of the populations affected. 5. To bring about gradually through the realization of the fact that the world was enslaved by a mistaken concep- tion of the origin and nature of the war, the conviction that a great wrong has been done to Germany and her allies, and that, in reparation of this wrong, not only should the Treaty of Versailles be revised, as stated in Section 4, but these stricken countries be rehabilitated as speedily as possible and their present acute distress relieved. 6. In America to stimulate by word and example a soften- ing of the aspersity and prejudices which were aroused by the war against our fellow-citizens of German birth or descent, and who were compelled to suffer much un- deserved abuse and heavy material losses. In these respects the war recollection should be buried as speedily as possible. It would be thoroughly wrong, un-American and most regrettable if the former relations of mutual esteem and confidence were not promptly restored with our German-American and other late "enemy" fellow- citizens, in business as well as socially. We see from the preceding that the just determination of these political questions is not a matter of mere interested argument as to "who is right and who is wrong" for its own sake but a necessary procedure for helping the world out of the evil consequences of the war. We cannot expect to arrive at this result until a just peace is determined on the basis of truth; until this is done all settlements made will prove mere makeshifts. We may, naturally, wish to squirm out of our own responsibilities in the premises, and also to assist our friends to do the same, but it will not avail! As a final dispo- 11 sition of the war issues and results, the Treaty of Versailles is an international calumny and must be wiped out, cost what may in hurt feelings of national pride and violation of opinions and sentiments with which we have deceived ourselves! There can be no real peace, no world regeneration, no new prosperity and new comity among the nations until this treaty is rewritten on the basis of war facts now established beyond all doubt. The day for acknowledgment has come! The importance of the social and ethical questions related to and focused by the war conditions is now fully recognized; they have become the absorbing intellectual problem of the world, from philosophers and doctrinary preachers to statesmen and the educated of all nations. The author's views on these questions are presented in scattered instalments in connection with the text subjects of articles XII B, XIII B, XIV and XV. In regard to socialism of every kind and degree, its further spread on the lines and aims now followed is deprecated, the movement being, in the opinion of the writer, defective in several important respects in its fundamental theory and im- practical in application on a large scale through not taking sufficient account of the general laws of nature and the limita- tions of human nature and individual character. Socialism will require to purify and strengthen its system in the direction stated in the text to enable it to place its promise to mankind upon a firmer footing. Above all, socialism and all the other present surging movements of life reform, political reform and industrial reorganization should be divorced, as to their ethical foundation and purpose, from supernatural beliefs and be founded upon a natural system of life philosophy, called "rationalism" by the author, and set forth in the book at the various points mentioned. The opinion is expressed that super- natural religion and related schools of thought should not be made the source and guide of our code of practical life ethics for the individual and society. The author makes the attempt, in all earnestness, to show that the false morality which pro- ceeds from these phantastic beliefs, and which produced a fatal inertia of spiritual outlook as applied to political relations, was in reality the ultimate cause of the war. By their power of distorting man's conception of his own nature they promote, 12 instead of restrain and suppress, the low selfish impulses of our animal character. Religion, as we understand it in its practical aim, has not succeeded to enthrone the virtues which it counsels and has not brought the real brotherhood of man — not after several thousand years of work. Such progress as has been made towards these ideals is due almost entirely to the advance of man's natural intelligence — which carried the advance in religious thought with it — and must now carry us out of it. The fault is not in the purpose but in the mistaken fundamental idea and in the method of teaching. It is these which are responsible for the lamentable, barren results shown to-day in the moral and social chaos which pervades the world. The reader should thoroughly understand that the author's ideas are not the result of any narrow antagonism to religion as such but of a deep conviction that our everyday morality needs a less illusory foundation, one more convincing and, therefore, more authoritative and in better agreement with the quality of 20th century intellect. The war has been a terrible destroyer, not only of human lives and material possessions but of beliefs, hopes, illusions and false ideals of every kind, in regard to man's nature and the problem of existence. Surely, our life philosophy must be reconstructed! The childish myths about a "soul" apart from the body, of a "conscious life" after death, of the belief - in "divine providence," in "eternal justice" and in a "pre- determined destiny" as to our position and course in life and the occurrences in the world in general must be dismissed as a nebulous inheritance from the infancy of man and incom- patible with this age. Nothing, certainly, has been more thoroughly demonstrated by the war than the utter untenability and emptiness of these beliefs! These propositions will, no doubt, seem very extreme to many but they are not out of proportion to the existing world malady, neither is there any- thing new in them; doubt about the supernatural is as old as mankind itself. What we have stated is impartially deduced from the facts of life and is held as incontrovertible in ever widening circles ; now the war and the ghastly exhibition it has made of man has given to these views a glaring vividness and convincing basis of truth. We seem to have walked in a 13 wrong direction; the illusory and supercilious character of our thought and feeling — the whole false pretense of our life and living — stand to-day exposed and must be remodeled if civilized society is not to succumb! In the article entitled "The Summit" the conclusions out- lined above are pursued further, and the attempt is made to focus not only the war and our immediate life interests but the position of our civilization as a whole in the light of larger history and of the great cosmic laws to which human existence is subordinated. In this view civilization is seen to come and go in- ascending and retreating waves of achievement, now carried by this people or part of the world and now by an- other. It is also revealed that stagnation and retreat are mainly caused by the failure of the moral philosophy (religion, if you prefer) of a particular t'me, and in a lesser degree by the exhaustion of the physical and mental powers, by external subjection or other material agencies. Applying this deduction to our own time, we are brought to the conclusion that such a failure and retreat of civilization is vividly indicated by the actuality of the war's occurrence and the general conditions of our day. These, and certain parallel physical symptoms which are plainly in evidence, are a warning to us that the civilized western world may have reached the crest of such $. wave of historical development. Shall we fall and fail utterly or, after a period of stagnation and travail, rise again to new heights of achievement? 14 A. ANTE-WAR POLITICAL CONDITION OF EUROPE I. 1639-1793 These six Introductory Articles were written to furnish the reader with the historical outline indispensably necessary to enable him to comprehend the political and general situation in Europe as it existed at the time just previous to the war. Without these facts fully understood, he would not be able to gauge correctly the political, racial and economic factors which entered into the motives and objects of the war on the part of the several nations involved. The American reader needs this information particularly because foreign history and geography are not taught to any great extent in our public schools, such study being reserved for the higher colleges. We also lack in our public life the animated intercourse which exists in Europe between men for discussing history and pending political questions and which gives even to the Eu- ropean of ordinary education a fair grasp of past and current events. When we join to this deficiency the circumstance that the average American is too far removed in his interests to feel a very keen concern in the political affairs of Europe, except during some great event like the war just closed, it becomes evident that we may easily fall victims to false infor- mation spread before us in times of agitation or actual hostili- ties by those interested to suppress the truth, and who may wish to work upon our national pride, racial sympathies or humanitarian impulses for their own selfish purposes. The greatest event still intimately connected with the political history of Europe as the shaping influence of modern conditions is the French Revolution of 1789-1795. In its tempestuous course the revolution aroused the opposition of 15 the other European states, trembling for the established social and political order of the world, and this brought on the "wars of the French Republic." These, in turn, produced General Napoleon and the defeat of the external enemies of France, yet ultimately led to the fall of the French Republic. The military savior turned dictator and the republic was suc- ceeded by the empire and Napoleon as emperor, in his astound- ing career of military and political triumphs. These ended in his own defeat and eclipse at Waterloo, followed by the Congress of Vienna and the final, second, peace of Paris in 1815. The settlement there made in regard to the boundaries and sovereignties of the different countries involved in the long struggle — France, Austria, independently and also as nominal head of the German Empire, Russia, England, Holland, Scandinavia, Spain, Sardinia, and Prussia and a number of smaller independent German States forming the Germany of that day — is the foundation and starting point of modem po- litical Europe. It is not necessai'y for the purpose of this book to dwell in much detail upon the events of the wars of the French Revolution, of those preceding it and of the Napoleonic era. The reader who desires to inform himself thereon may study up on the story of these stirring times from any of the standard books of history. But it is necessary for our future argument on the war just closed to recite at least the salient facts of Germany's unfortunate position and acute sufferings in these many wars at the hands of France. This recital will trace the origin of the deep-seated resentment which the Germans feel towards the French in consequence of these aggressions and depredations. We must go back to the time of Louis the XIV of France and Frederick the Great of Prussia, in fact still further back to Louis the XIII and his famous cardinal-minister, Richelieu, to find the record that sections of Alsace, a part of Germany since the Middle Ages, were first seized by the French, in the year 1639, in the course of the complications which arose out of the thirty-years' war of the Reformation (Luther and Protestantism — 1618-1648). About ten years later, in the peace of Westphalia (1648), which terminated that historic religious conflict, these first gains of France in Alsace were 16 confirmed to her and reluctantly conceded by prostrate Ger- many, exhausted by the long war. Early in the reign of Louis the XIV, concurrent with the time of the Great Elector of Brandenburg (founder of the Prussian dynasty) , the second incursion of France into the upper Alsace and into the Palatinate, and beyond the Rhine into the Frankish countries, took place, conducted by the feared general Turenne. He devastated these sections in a barbarous manner, burning and pillaging as he went, and ex- tending his raids all along the rivers Saar and Moselle, in Lorraine (1674-1678). In the peace of Nymwegen (1679) new districts of Alsace were claimed by the French and also the first tentative hold obtained over parts of Lorraine. These successes, made relatively easy by the weakness and lack of unity of the small German princes who ruled over these coun- tries, emboldened Louis the XIV to make additional demands. He proceeded to issue his famous "decrees," — a sort of com- pulsory declaration of political adherence — and had them pro- mulgated by the bribed and overawed "Reunion Councils" which he had set up. In pursuance of these steps he boldly seized a series of additional towns, villages and country dis- tricts of Alsace. In the very midst of ostensible peace he had his general fall upon the free German city of Strassburg with a strong force, disarm the defenders and compel them, upon their knees and under pain of instant death, to swear allegiance to France (1680). All these robberies of German lands had to be conceded — under protest — by the disconcerted and divided German and Austrian rulers of these parts, unable to defend themselves against their powerful enemy, and were assigned to the French in the peace of 1684. But still greater trials were in store for Alsace and Loi*raine and the unfortunate Rhine countries which formed the buffer states between France, on the one side, and Austria and Prussia beyond. A fourth invasion, dictated wholly by mon- archical ambitions and entirely devoid of provocation on the part of Alsace or Germany, occurred in the so-called "Orleans War" for the succession to the rule of the Palatinate (1690- 1697), in which dispute Louis the XIV was determined again to have his ambition prevail. The German empire, Austria, 17 the Netherlands, Spain and Savoya were involved in this con- tention. In order to prevent these enemies invading French territory, the French war minister, Louvois, ordered the sys- tematic and merciless devastation of the Rhine countries and Alsace. The work was done so well that it required fifty years for the afflicted districts to recover from the ruin wrought by the relentless French general Melac, who had charge of the operations. The famous fortress-castle of Heidelberg on the right side of the Rhine, a structure of immense strength and ramified extent, was undermined and almost entirely blown up. To this day the shattered round-tower of the castle is a mute witness to these outrages. The bridge acros the river Neckar, at Heidelberg, was also blown up and the greater part of the town laid in ashes. Many other isolated strong- holds were similarly destroyed. The cities of Worms and Speier, in the Palatinate, shared the fate of Heidelberg; the inhabitants were driven out, and the houses and the venerable old cathedrals burned and all but destroyed. In the town of Mannheim the citizens themselves were compelled to raze the fortification walls under pain of death. In the country districts, fields and vineyards were uprooted, barns and stocks of produce burned, cattle mutilated — all by orders of the wanton French government and its generals, drunk with power! The countries arrayed against France were unable to stem the tide against the mighty French monarch with his well- equipped armies, skilful commanders, abundant supplies; and in the peace of Ryswick (1697) all previously acquired parts of Alsace-Lorraine and the Palatinate, and many new conquests made in this latest raid, including several important towns and districts on the right bank of the Rhine were confirmed to France as the prize of overwhelming main force overriding right and tradition and the nationality of the populations af- fected. This settlement of force lasted undisturbed for nearly a hundred years. The Alsatians became Frenchmen outwardly,' but retained their Teutonic national character, language and customs as before. In 1793, however, new disturbances began in Alsace-Lorraine when, at the beginning of the wars of the French revolution, as already related, German and Austrian coalition troops crossed the Rhine to put down the revolution and its reign of blood horrors. In the course of this invasion of France and its progress toward Paris, the Germans held these their old native lands again for about a year. But the able French generals of the revolution soon turned the scales against the Germans and Austrians and broke their hold in Alsace completely. In the disastrous peace of Basel (1795) France won back all and more than she had ever held before of Alsace and Lorraine. The whole west bank of the Rhine, including Holland, had to be abandoned to her and Germany was compelled to accept the Rhine as "the natural frontier" between the two countries. It was, once again, a victory of might over right; nothing could withstand the fierce spirit of the French in the years of the revolution! Soon thereafter, however, the cities of Heidelberg and Mannheim, which had been ceded in the above peace to France, were retaken by Austrian troops after a violent period of siege and destruction, and rejoined to Germany. All this perpetual warring and taking of lands and cities had, from the beginning (in 1639), been a mere game of superior power and covetous conquest on the part of France, in which the inhabitants of the affected districts had no voice and could but submit and suffer. The acceptance of this degrading peace of Basel, of 1795, illustrates well how a defeated enemy may be compelled by force of political circumstances to submit to onerous terms of armistice and peace, although not entirely crushed. Austria and Prussia were not exhausted, but were confronted by greater troubles brooding in Poland at this time and to meet which it was necessary for them to conserve their strength by a temporary peace with France. II. 1793-1815 Nothing further occurred to affect the political status of Alsace-Lorraine till 1870. But it is necessary for our general argument to present a similar rapid sketch of the further military visitations to which the Rhine countries and entire Germany were subjected at the hands of their imperious and unceasing enemy, France. In the years from 1793 to 1799, 19 during the wars of the French Republic and following the peace of Basel (as already related), all southern Germany, from the Rhine to the heart of Bavaria and even into the Tyrol and Upper Austria, was intermittently overrun by the French, accompanied by battles, siege, fire and pillage. Anyone acquainted with these countries knows that to this day there is scarcely a town or city within them that has not got "its legends and its ruins" to point to as reminders of the passage of the "French scourge" of those days! With the year 1800 and the seizure of complete power by Napoleon as First Consul of the Republic, the Napoleonic era began. From its commencement, in the military sense, by a new raid into Bavaria by the French general Moreau, which culminated in the battle of Hohenlinden (1801), and thence through the entire Napoleonic gamut — invasion of Hanover (1801) — second invasion of South Germany, capitulation of the fortress of Ulm and battle of Austerlitz (1805) — formation of the compulsory "Rhinebund" and dissolution of the German empire, the frightful battle of Jena, surrender of the principal fortresses of Prussia and entry into Berlin, all in 1806 — the "bloodiest" of all battles, that of Eylau on the borders of Poland (1807) — surrender of the Silesian fortresses and battle of Friedland, also in 1807 — Napoleon's triumphal conclave in the city of Erfurt (1808) — territorial spoliation of Sweden (1809) — the battles of Aspern and Wagram, also in 1809 — the campaign against Russia, battle of Borodino and the memorable "retreat from Moskau" in flames (1812) — (five hundred thousand went, eight thousand came back) — the com- bats of "the liberation," ending with the world-battle of Leipzig, the dissolution of the forcible and hated "Rhinebund" and of the Napoleonic creation of the kingdom of Westphalia (1813) — entry into Paris by the triumphant coalition allies (1814) — Elba, the Congress of Vienna, and finally, WATER- LOO (1815) — Germany, to its remotest parts, was the battle- field in these tremendous conflicts, Germany had to sustain and quarter the French armies and give them through-passage into Austria, Italy, the Netherlands and Russia! Let the reader study the full account in any textbook of history and fully picture all this in his mind and grasp the 20 magnitude of the trials heaped upon the German people for a continuous period of twenty years by the ambitions of this overbearing neighbor-nation, France, and the unscrupulous schemes of a military adventurer, Napoleon the First, and consider that all this had occurred without any provocation whatever having been given by them! Even those who will not read the detailed history of the Napoleonic wars can form an idea from the above rapid recital of events — a succession of wars and battles which in number, magnitude and intensity had never before been crowded together into the space of fifteen years — what this must have meant for Germany, who had to bear the phys'cal brunt of it all, quite independent of the political humiliation and spoliation which she had to suffer. It left her crushed and exhausted from every angle. In the second peace of Paris (November, 1815) France, at last defeated by the coalition against her, was retrenched to her borders of 1790, which included Alsace and parts of Lor- raine, but without the additional territories which had been ceded to her in the peace of Basel of 1795. Considering all the historical facts, this magnanimous settlement was one of the most remarkable political concessions of all times! Here was plainly the opportunity for Prussia, in her hour of triumph, to take revenge for the many wrongs and sufferings inflicted upon her and all Germany, especially the southern parts thereof, by France, and to make the claim for the return of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany as independent German principalities and members of the greater empire. England, Austria and Russia were willing to entertain this proposition — but Prussia repelled the temptation! She hesi- tated to sow the seeds of a new war over the possession of these countries. Napoleon, the firebrand and usurper, who had victimized France almost as much as he had all the other countries of Europe, being gone, Prussia did not desire that France should be too deeply humiliated and torn. Regrettable, fateful generosity! — but in spite of wars there existed at that time a close intellectual sympathy between Germany and France in philosophy, arts and letters which justly claimed its expression by this lenient political peace. It is not necessary to establish in detail all the political 21 interests connected with this perpetual strife between France and Germany, from 1639 to 1815, and to determine the exact responsibility in each case. France was brutally aggressive, without question; but some blame also attaches to the lack of unity, vaccillation of policy and bartering covetousness of the German kings and princes. These were much left to follow their own separate interests, in the absence of a strong political direction on the part of the nominal German empire and Kaiser. The authority of both was more titular than real and concertedly effective. Austria, which held the imperial power, and whose ruler was also, therefore, the emperor of all Ger- many, was through her territorial and dynastic relations with Italy, Spain, the Netherlands — and even with France — not in a position to carry on an effective and strictly German imperial policy apart from her own interests. The indisputable fact remains that from the reign of Louis XIII to the end of the revolution, from 1639 to 1797, the French were always the aggressors in these wars and that their object was the forcible acquisition of the left bank of the Rhine, and general dictation over the German countries immediately east thereof. This is the verdict of impartial history. But under Napoleon I this traditional "objective" of France was quickly widened out to obtaining political domination over entire Germany and secur- ing actual "administrative occupation" of large areas on the right bank of the Rhine, notably of the entire provinces of Westphalia and Hanover. From the above it should be apparent to the reader that for a period of 175 years, from 1639 to 1815, Germany suf- fered with but little intermission a continuous campaign of attack and destruction from her turbulent and haughty neigh- bor, France. These violations were dictated solely by lust for increased power and wealth; there was an entire absence of active provocation on the part of the German princes of these districts or by the powers of the empire or the inhabitants of the territories in question. No claim of race identity or close relationship even, or of political preferences of the people of Alsace and Lorraine, the Bavarian Palatinate or the western Rhine provinces were ever advanced by France as a justifica- tion of her policy of aggression. All these peoples were origi- 22 nally pure German in stock, language and customs; they remained so in overwhelming proportion even up to 1870. The ethnological proof of this is incontrovertible; one needs but to read the family names, those of the towns and cities, rivers, mountains and woods of Alsace and Lori-aine to be convinced! Will the people of the United States, after reading these plain and true statements, begin to understand the deep resent- ment felt by the Germans against the French, their implacable enemy and despoiler for three centuries? The story we have given is the one which the German boy and girl hears from the lips of father and mother when they are gathered around the fireside and are old enough to understand! France has no such story of unprovoked wrong from the Germans to tell its children — not even to-day! It is this story which sinks into the young blood and heart of German children, from the Rhine to the Baltic, and lurks and boils; this story which we must understand — be willing to understand — to comprehend the German frame of mind and point of view in regard to France in general and Alsace-Lorraine in particular. And at this very hour a new story of unheard-of rapacity and national strangulation of Germany by France is being added to the old ! The above recital explains the action of Germany in 1871, of rejoining these provinces to the new empire; it also explains the attitude and temper of her people in the great war just ended and which, in the light of their experiences, was but a deliberate attempt to throw them down once more, to rob them again of Alsace-Lorraine, to destroy the successful State which they had built up in scarce more than forty years, that it may no longer be a thorn in the side of their jealous enemies! It is well to keep all this in mind to allow us to correctly appraise the French claims at the "peace table" not only for the return of Alsace and Lorraine, but for the annexation of the entire German left bank of the Rhine! How shockingly these "out- rageous claims" clashed with the pretended idealism for liberty, justice, humanity and nationality which was so adroitly put forward as the war motive of the Entente allies! Has America forgotten with what execration the English- man was regarded in this country for the one hundred years 23 or more following the war of the American revolution? Yet the history of our contention against England bears no com- parison in the degree of aggravation and injury to that of Germany against France! Except that the superficiality of our knowledge of the history of Europe excuses us somewhat, we should be truly ashamed of the unmerited villification dealt out to Germany by America in the Alsace-Lorraine argument with its cry of "the crime of 1871" and the persistent mis- representation of this question during the war and to this day! III. 1815-1870 From 1815 to 1870 no military actions took place between France and Germany. It was a period of reaction from the political ideas of the French Revolution and of internal political commotions followed by monarchical restorations in almost every country of Europe. Between 1840 and 1850 a new period of agitation for democratic institutions set in, not only in France but in Germany and other countries. In the course of these convulsions France became a republic for the second time, under the presidency of Louis Napoleon, nephew of the Great Napoleon, who soon imitated his uncle by making himself emperor of the French (1852), and reigned as such till 1870. In all other directions, also, Napoleon III aimed to revive the glories of the former French empire in pomp, political dictation, wars of conquest, in general vainglorious- ness and opulence of life, and he succeeded very well. France was once more at her height, Paris again the mistress of elegance, the pinnacle of ostentatious civilization. The great International World's Fair at Paris, in 1867, was the triumph of Napoleon's reign, the scene of political fraternization among all the peoples and of their homage at the feet of France. To some simple minds it seemed as if the millennium had come ! In Germany, during this period, a wonderful spirit of national revival had arisen, a striving for concentration, union of effort and progress, political and material. After the re- publican movements of 1848, in different parts of the country, and the reaction which followed in favor of firmly governed monarchial states on the pattern of Prussia, the several in- 24 dependent kingdoms and principalities vied with each other to bring all their administrative institutions, the universities, colleges and art academies, public school instruction, the physical training of the young and the military service to the highest development. All intellectual pursuits — literature, art and music — flourished. Prussia gradually took the national leadership; her predominating size of territory and rapid material progress, the ability of her kings and statesmen, her magnificent military organization on the basis of universal conscription service pointed her out as the leader to bring about a new united German fatherland — the dream of the several peoples of the disjointed German nation, from poets and scholars to princes and peasants ever since the terrible Napoleon I had set his heavy foot upon them. Austria seemed disqualified for the task of active national leadership because of her largely slavic composition and Italian interests, if for no other reason. External political events marched rapidly apace towards new and favorable constellations. In 1864 Prussia and Austria were jointly drawn into a war with Denmark about the succession to the partly Danish and partly German provinces of Schleswig and Holstein. After a tortuous course of diplo- matic negotiations, followed by hostilities, Denmark lost the fight at both ends and agreed to the surrender of these pro- vinces to the victors. This conflict ended with an acrimonious dispute between Austria and Prussia about the division of occupation and administration of the two provinces. This laid the foundation for the war of 1866, although both Schles- wig and Holste.'n were ultimately conceded to Prussia by Austria and incorporated into her dominions. The double success of Prussia in this war, in which her new military organization had demonstrated its superiority in actual war- fare for the first 'time, and her diplomacy, under the leadership of Bismarck, had won the victory over Austria, established her predominant position in Germany beyond question. Soon her plans for the reconstruction of the North-German union or "Bund" upon a more effective basis, eliminating Austria, led to serious internal constitutional agitations in Germany itself, during 1864-66, and, together with the Schleswig issue, finally 25 to the war between Prussia and Austria and to the fratricidal strife between the different smaller German States and Prussia, in 1866, many of which still vacillated in their "leanings" between Prussia and the hereditary Austrian authority. The dangers and uncertainties of these times of external conflict and internal fermentation towards a new national life weighed heavily upon the German patriotic heart; all that had been hoped for, striven for, bled for in the war with Denmark seemed to hang in the balance! Unfortunately the far-seeing and practical ideas of the king of Prussia, William I, of Bismarck, of von Moltke, for bringing about a strong and united Germany were not fully comprehended ; events came too rapidly for the stolid mind of the mass of the people; their irresistible consequences would have to be pounded into the heads of princes and people alike with cannon shots and saber cuts! The military campaign of the war of 1866 between Prussia and Austria developed rapidly. In the famous battle of Koeniggraetz, or Sadowa, in Bohemia, the Austrians suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Prussia. Her star now flamed in the zenith! The victory resulted in the immediate and complete elimination, thenceforth, of Austria from German national political affairs. Those North-German and South- German States which had risen against Prussia's uncompre- hended plans were now quickly defeated, in their turn, by Prussia. The states of Hannover, Nassau and Kurhessia were annexed and incorporated into her dominions and their rulers dethroned, under liberal compensations. The kingdom of Saxony and most of the central Saxon principalities now en- tered into the perfected political union, or "Bund," with Prussia and came under her complete leadership. The South-German states of Baden, Wurttemberg, Bavaria and Hessia retained their constitutional independence but entered into a close mili- tary convenion with Prussia in order to create a uniform army- system for the whole country. These political arrangements provided the general foundation and paved the way for the one and united German Empire which came five years later. As a fact, the unification of the military service and revenue customs, establishment of a federal judicial system and con- 26 certed internal legislative action had resulted, practically, in a "united new Germany" even at that time, 1866-1870. (The contemporaneous war, in 1866, between Austria and Italy font, the latter's final deliverance from foreign rulers and her c