Ese Tb Pee Atle SE BE , YOASEIY BIO BASH BG! py eee Te BULLETIN NO. 10 ae - SEPTEMBER 1, 1916 “Words without Derds Moral Creazon EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS. DELIVERED BY ELIHU ROOT In Carnegie Hall, New York City, February 15, 1916 ‘Reprinted by kind permission of Harvard University. Press from Addresses on International Subjects by Elihu Root Copies of this and other Bulletins may be had on application to the American. Rights League, N. Y. Branch, 45 Cedar Street, New York City _ UNIVERSITY OF Sa aa ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN OAK STREET LIBRARY FACILITY Words without Deeds * K * * *K As to the policy of threatening words without deeds. When Germany gave notice of her purpose to sink merchant vessels on the high seas without safeguarding the lives of innocent passengers, our government replied on the tenth of February, one year ago, in the following words: “The Government of the United States * * * feels it to be its duty to call the attention of the Imperial German Government, with sincere respect and the most friendly sen- timents but very candidly and earnestly, to the very serious possibilities of the course of action apparently contemplated under that proclamation. “The Government of the United States views those pos- sibilities with such grave concern that it feels it to be its privilege, and indeed its duty in the circumstances, to request the Imperial German Government to consider before action is taken the critical situation in respect of the relations between this country and Germany which might arise were the Ger- man naval forces, in carrying out the policy foreshadowed in the Admiralty’s proclamation, to destroy any merchant vessel of the United States or cause the death of American citizens. “* * * Tf such a deplorable situation should arise, the Imperial German Government can readily appreciate that the Government of the United States would be constrained to hold the Imperial German Government to a strict account- ability for such acts of their naval authorities and to take any steps it might be necessary to take to safeguard American lives; and property and to secure to American citizens the full enjoyment of their acknowledged rights on the high seas.” By all the usages and traditions of diplomatic intercourse those words meant action. They informed Germany in unmis- takable terms that in attacking and sinking vessels of the United States and in destroying the lives of American citizens lawfully traveling upon merchant vessels of other countries, she would actiat-her peril. They pledged the power and courage of Amer- ica, with her hundred million people and her vast wealth, to the protection of her citizens, as during all her history through the days of her youth and weakness she had always protected them. 2 / Y? K Gu) 488 6784) On the 28th of March, the passenger steamer Falaba was tor- pedoed by a German submarine, and an American citizen was killed, but nothing was done. On the 28th of April, the American vessel Cushing was attacked and crippled by a German zroplane. On the first of May, the American vessel Gulflight was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine, and two or more Americans were killed, yet nothing was done. On the 7th of May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine, and more than one hundred Americans and eleven hundred other non- combatants were drowned. The very thing which our government had warned Germany she must not do, Germany did of set pur- pose and in the most contemptuous and shocking way. Then, when all America was stirred to the depths, our Government ad- dressed another note to Germany. It repeated its assertion of American rights, and renewed its bold declaration of purpose. It declared again that the American Government “must hold the Imperial German Government to a strict accountability for any infringement of those rights, intentional or incidental,’ and it declared that it would not “omit any word or any act necessary to the performance of its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United States and its citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise and enjoyment.” Still nothing was done, and a long and technical correspond- ence ensued ; haggling over petty questions of detail, every Ameri- can note growing less and less strong and peremptory, until the Arabic was torpedoed and sunk, and more American lives were destroyed, and still nothing was done; and the correspondence continued until the Allied defense against German submarine warfare made it unprofitable and led to its abandonment; and the correspondence is apparently approaching its end, without secur- ing even that partial protection for the future which might be found in an admission that the destruction of the Lusitania was forbidden by law. The later correspondence has been conducted by our State Department with dignity, but it has been futile. An admission of liability for damages has been secured, but the time for real pro- tection to American rights has long since passed. Our govern- ment undertook one year ago to prevent the destruction of Ameri- can life by submarine attack, and now that the attempt has failed 3 and our citizens are long since dead and the system of attack has fallen of its own weight, there is small advantage in discussing whether we shall or shall not have an admission that it was un- lawful to kill them.* The brave words with which we began the controversy had produced no effect, because they were read in the light of two extraordinary events. One was the report of the Austrian Am- bassador, Mr. Dumba, to his government, that when the Ameri- can note of February 10th was received, he asked the Secretary of State, Mr. Bryan, whether it meant business, and received an answer which satisfied him that it did not, but was intended for effect at home in America. The other event was the strange and unfortunate declaration of the President in a public speech in Philadelphia the fourth day after the sinking of the Lusitania that “a man may be too proud to fight.””’ Whatever the Austrian Ambassador was in fact told by the Secretary of State, the impression which he reported was supported by the events which followed. Whatever the Presi- dent did mean, his declaration, made in public at that solemn time, amid the horror and mourning of all our people over the murder of their brethren, was accepted the world over as presenting the attitude of the American government towards the protection of the life and liberty of American citizens in the exercise of their just rights, and throughout the world the: phrase “too proud to fight” became a by-word of derision and contempt for the Goy- ernment of the United States. Later, in another theatre of war—the Mediterranean—Aus- tria, and perhaps Turkey also, resumed the practice. The Ancona and then the Persia were destroyed, and more Americans were killed. Why should they not resume the practice? They had learned to believe that, no matter how shocked the American Gov- ernment might be, its resolution would expend itself in words. They had learned to believe that it was safe to kill Americans,— and the world believed with them. Measured and restrained expression, backed to the full by serious purpose, is strong and respected. Extreme and belligerent expression, unsupported by resolution, is weak and without ef- fect. No man should draw a pistol who dares not shoot. The * For events since delivery of this speech see p. 11. 4 government that shakes its fist first and its finger afterwards falls into contempt. Our diplomacy has lost its authority and influence because we have been brave in words and irresolute in action. Men may say that the words of our diplomatic notes were justified; men may say that our inaction was justi- fied; but no man can say that both our words and our inaction were wise and creditable. Moral Treason I have said that this government lost the moral forces of the world by not truly interpreting the spirit of the American de- mocracy. “AMERICANISM” The American democracy stands for something more than beef and cotton and grain and manufactures; stands for some- thing that cannot be measured by rates of exchange, and does not rise or fall with the balance of trade. The American people achieved liberty and schooled them- selves to the service of justice before they acquired wealth, and they value their country’s liberty and justice above all their pride of possessions. Beneath their comfortable optimism and apparent indifference they have a conception of their great republic as brave and strong and noble to hand down to their children the blessings of freedom and just and equal laws. They have embodied their principles of government in fixed ‘rules of right conduct which they jealously preserve, and, with the instinct of individual freedom, they stand for a government of laws and not of men. They deem that the moral laws which formulate the duties of men toward each other are binding upon nations equally with individuals. Informed by their own experience, confirmed by their observa- tion of international life, they have come to see that the inde- pendence of nations, the liberty of their peoples, justice and hu- manity, cannot be maintained upon the good nature, the kindly feeling, of the strong towards the weak; that real independence, real liberty, cannot rest upon sufferance; that peace and liberty can be preserved only by the authority and observance of rules 5 aN of national conduct founded upon the principles of justice and humanity; only by the establishment of law. among nations, re- sponsive to the enlightened public opinion of mankind. To them liberty means not liberty for themselves alone, but for all who are oppressed. Justice means not justice for them- selves alone, but a shield for all who are weak against the aggres- sion of the strong. When their deeper natures are stirred they have a spiritual vision in which the spread and perfection of free self government shall rescue the humble who toil and endure, from the hideous wrongs inflicted upon them by ambition and lust for power, and they cherish in their heart of hearts an ideal of their country loyal to the mission of liberty for the lifting up of the oppressed and bringing in the rule of righteousness and peace. THE CRUSHING OF BELGIUM To this people, the invasion of Belgium brought a shock of amazement and horror. The people of Belgium were peaceful, industrious, law abiding, self-governing and free. They had no quarrel with anyone on earth. They were attacked by overwhelm- ing military power; their country was devastated by fire and sword; they were slain by tens of thousands; their independence was destroyed and their liberty was subjected to the rule of an in- vader, for no other cause than that they defended their admitted rights. There was no question of fact; there was not a plausible pre- tense of any other cause. The admitted rights of Belgium stood in the way of a mightier nation’s purpose; and Belgium was crushed. | When the true nature of these events was realized, the people of the United States did not hesitate in their feeling or in their judgment. Deepest sympathy with down-trodden Belgium and stern condemnation of the invader were practically universal. Wherever there was respect for law, it revolted against the wrong done to Belgium. Wherever there was true passion for liberty, it blazed out for Belgium. Wherever there was humanity, it mourned for Belgium. As the realization of the truth spread, it carried a vague feel- ing that not merely sentiment but loyalty to the eternal princi- ples of right was involved in the attitude of the American peo- 6 ple. And it was so; for if the nations were to be indifferent to this first great concrete case for a century of military power trampling under foot at will the independence, the liberty and the life of a peaceful and unoffending people in repudiation of the faith of treaties and the law of nations and of morality and of humanity—if the public opinion of the world was to remain silent upon that, neutral upon that, then all talk about peace and justice and international law and the rights of man, the progress of humanity and the spread of liberty, is idle patter —mere weak sentimentality; then opinion is powerless and brute force rules and will rule the world. If no difference is recognized between right and wrong, then there are no moral standards. There come times in the lives of nations as of men when to treat wrong as if it were right is treason to the right. OUR RIGHT AND DUTY TO PROTEST The American people were entitled not merely to feel but to speak concerning the wrong done to Belgium. It was not like in- terference in the internal affairs of Mexico or any other na- tion; for this was an international wrong. The law protecting Belgium which was violated was our law and the law of every other civilized country. For generations we had been urging on and helping in its development and establishment. We had spent our efforts and our money to that end. In legis- lative resolution and executive declaration and diplomatic corre- spondence and special treaties and international conferences and conventions we had played our part in conjunction with other civilized countries in making that law. We had bound ourselves by it; we had regulated our conduct by it; and we were entitled to have other nations observe it. That law was the protection of our peace and security. It was our safeguard against the necessity of maintaining great arma- ments and wasting our substance in continual readiness for war. Our interest in having it maintained as the law of nations was a substantial, valuable, permanent interest, just as real as your interest and mine in having maintained and enforced the laws against assault and robbery and arson which protect our personal safety and property. Moreover, that law was written into a solemn and formal con- (: vention, signed and ratified by Germany and Belgium and France and the United States, in which those other countries agreed with us that the law should be observed. When Belgium was invaded that agreement was binding not only morally but strictly and tech- nically, because there was then no nation a party to the war which was not also a party to the convention. The invasion of Belgium was a breach of contract with us for the maintenance of a law of nations which was the protection of our peace, and the interest which sustained the contract justified an objection to its breach. There was no question here of interfer- ing in the quarrels of Europe. We had a right to be neutral and we were neutral as to the quarrel between Germany and France; but when, as an incident to the prosecution of that quarrel, Ger- many broke the law which we were entitled to have preserved, and which she had agreed with us to preserve, we were entitled to be heard in the assertion of our own national right. With the right to speak came responsibility, and with re- sponsibility came duty—duty of government towards all the peaceful men and women in America not to acquiesce in the destruction of the law which protected them; for if the world assents to this great and signal violation of the law of nations, then the law of nations no longer exists and we have no pro- tection save in subserviency or in force. And with the right to speak there came to this, the greatest of neutral nations, the greatest of free democracies another duty to the cause of liberty and justice for which America stands; duty to the ideals of America’s nobler nature; duty to the honor of her past and the hopes of her future; for this law was a bul- wark of peace and justice to the world; it was a barrier to the spread of war; it was a safeguard to the independence and lib- erty of all small, weak states. It makes the progress of civil- ization. If the world consents to its destruction the world turns backward towards savagery, and America’s assent would be America’s abandonment of the mission of democracy. YET WE ACQUIESCED Yet the American Government acquiesced in the treatment of Belgium and the destruction of the law of nations. Without one word of objection or dissent to the repudiation of law or the 8 breach of our treaty or the violation of justice and humanity in the treatment of Belgium, our government enjoined upon the people of the United States an undiscriminating and all-embrac- ing neutrality, and the President admonished the people that they must be neutral in all respects in act and word and thought and sentiment. We were to be not merely neutral as to the quarrels of Europe, but neutral as to the treatment of Belgium; neutral between right and wrong; neutral between justice and injustice; neutral between humanity and cruelty; neutral between liberty and oppression. AND APPROVED Our government did more than acquiesce ; for in the first Lusi- tania note, with the unspeakable horrors of the conquest of Bel- gium still fresh in our minds, on the very day after the report of the Bryce Commission on Belgian Atrocities, it wrote these words to the Government of Germany: “Recalling the humane and enlightened attitude hitherto assumed by the Imperial German Government in matters of - international right, and particularly with regard to the freedom of the seas, having learned to recognize the German views and the German influence in the field of international obligation as always engaged upon the side of justice and humanity,” etc., etc. And so the Government of the United States appeared as ap- proving the treatment of Belgium. It misrepresented the people of the United States in that acquiescence and apparent approval. It was not necessary that the United States should go to war in defense of the violated law. A single official expression by the Government of the United States, a single sentence deny- ing assent and recording disapproval of what Germany did in Belgium would have given tothe people of America that lead- ership to which they were entitled in their earnest groping for the light. It would have ranged behind American leadership the conscience and morality of the neutral world. It would have brought to American diplomacy the respect and strength of loyalty to a great cause. But it was not to be. The American Government failed to rise to the demands of the great occasion. Gone were the old love of justice, the old passion for liberty, the old sympathy with the op- pressed, the old ideals of an America helping the world towards 9 a better future; and there remained in the eyes of mankind only solicitude for trade and profit and prosperity and wealth. OUR VITAL ERROR The American Government could not really have approved the treatment of Belgium, but under a mistaken policy it shrank from speaking the truth. That vital error has carried into every effort of our diplomacy the weakness of a false position. Every note of remonstrance against interference with trade, or even against the destruction of life, has been projected against the back- ground of an abandonment of the principles for which America once stood, and has been weakened by the popular feeling among the peoples of Europe, whose hearts are lifted up by the impulses of patriotism and sacrifice, that America has become weak and sordid. Such policies as I have described are doubly dangerous in their effect upon foreign nations and in their effect at home. It is a matter of universal experience that a weak and apprehensive treatment of foreign affairs invites encroachments upon rights and leads to situations in which it is difficult to prevent war, while a firm and frank policy at the outset prevents difficult situations from arising and tends most strongly to preserve peace. On the other hand, if a government is to be strong in its diplomacy, its own people must be ranged in its support by leadership of opinion in a national cause worthy to awaken their patriotism and devo- tion. 7 | We have not been following the path of peace. We have been blindly stumbling along the road that, continued, will lead to inevitable war. Our diplomacy has dealt with symp- toms and ignored causes. The great decisive question upon which our peace depends, is the question whether the rule of action applied to Belgium is to be tolerated. If it is tolerated by the civilized world, this nation will have to fight for its life. There will be no escape. That is the critical peint of defense for the peace of America. When our government failed to tell the truth about Belgium, it lost the opportunity for leadership of the moral sense of the American people, and it lost the power which a knowledge of that leadership and a sympathetic response from the moral sense of the world would have given to our diplomacy. 10 Note :—Some six weeks after the delivery of this speech Ger- man submarine warfare was vigorously resumed, the steamers Englishman (Mar. 24), Sussex (Mar. 24), Manchester Engineer _(Mar. 27) and Eagle Point (Mar. 28) being among the victims. In its Note of April 20 regarding the Sussex our Government said: “Unless the Imperial Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of sub- marine warfare against passenger and freight-carrying vessels, the Government of the United States can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations altogether.” In response, the German Note of May 4 announced that sub- marine attack on merchant vessels without warning had now been forbidden, but added: “‘The German Government does not doubt that the Government of the United States will now demand and insist that the British Government shall forthwith observe the rules of international law universally recognized before the war. * * * * Should steps taken by the Government of the United States not attain the objects it (i.e. the German Government) de- sires—to have the laws of humanity followed by all belligerent na- tions, the German Government would then be facing a new situa- tion in which it must reserve to itself complete liberty of decision.” This means that when it is her good pleasure Germany will again take up her submarine barbarities, if indeed she has not already done so. On August 15 the Marquis of Crewe in- formed the House of Lords that since the date of this German promise four British and three neutral ships had been sunk without warning by submarines almost certainly German, while high probability of the same fate rested over the sinking of a number of others. A