D MC3 THE GREAT ISSUE JOHN FARWELL MOORS Class . Book.. iiCl-l I a itN? JO CORCRIGHT DEPOSm THE GREAT ISSUE THE GREAT ISSUE DISCLOSED BY THE LEADERS AND THE PLAIN PEOPLE IN EUROPE AND AMERICA BY JOHN FARWELL MOORS BOSTON MARSHALL JONES COMPANY MDCCCCXIX COPYRIGHT, 1919 BY MARSHALL JONES COMPANY J/4U rights reseri'eJ By permission of the New York Times THK UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A. m 28 1919 ICI.A5 1 17 71 'Vw'O TO Mr WIFE THE GREAT ISSUE >• THE GREAT ISSUE The President's Attitude Before the European War TO understand the part being played by America in the world drama of today one should draw aside the cur- tain on President Wilson at the beginning of his first Administration, facing the sus- picion and hatred of Latin America for this country. He soon faced also the scorn of influential men here, who could see only what Mr. Hughes called "weakness and vacillation" and "a confused chapter of blunders" in the two invasions of Mexico, in the retreat from Vera Cruz, in the em- bargoes and repeals of embargoes on arms, in the support of now one alleged bandit, now another, and in the refusal to recog- nize the Dictator, Huerta, when England, France, and Germany — great nations gov- erned by the old diplomacy — recognized him. The attacks on American citizens and their property were held to be the only real [II] THE GREAT ISSUE concern of this country. Yet in those de- spised days the foundations were being laid of America's present world leadership. And the conflict of ideals then was the precursor of the greater conflict now. In four addresses before the war in Eu- rope had shed its lurid illumination on the world, President Wilson expounded his con- ception of a new and just diplomacy. Eight days after his first inauguration he said: " One of the chief objects of my Administra- tion will be to cultivate the friendship and deserve the confidence of our sister repub- lics of Central and Latin America." Typ- ical expressions in the other addresses are:* "The peace, prosperity, and contentment of Mexico mean more to us than merely an enlarged field for our enterprise. We shall yet prove to the Mexican people that we know how to serve them without first think- ing how we shall serve ourselves. Human rights, national integrity and opportunity, as against material interests, that is the main issue which we now have to face. I know what the response of America will be, be- cause America was created to realize a pro- * Many of the quotations have been condensed. [12] THE GREAT ISSUE gram like that. We are the friends of con- stitutional government in America; we are its champions, because in no other way can our neighbors, to whom we wish to make proof of our friendship, work out their own development in peace and liberty. The United States will never again seek an ad- ditional foot of territory by conquest." From these addresses conservatives se- lected two words, " watchful waiting," and ignored the rest. His Attitude After the Outbreak of War After the outbreak of war in Europe " red-blooded" Americans became more ex- asperated with him. But he went his way unperturbed, steadily developing his con- ception of the mission of America. On December 8, 1914, he said: "We are a true friend of all nations. Therein lies our greatness. We are the champions of peace and concord. It is our dearest hope that this character and reputa- tion may presently, in God's providence, bring us an opportunity seldom vouchsafed [13] THE GREAT ISSUE any nation, to counsel and obtain peace in the world and reconciliation and a healing settlement." On May 19, 191 5, addressing newly nat- uralized citizens, just after the Lusitania had been sunk, he spoke of America as " the hope of the world " and said: " My urgent advice to you would be, not only to think of America first, but also to think first of humanity. America was cre- ated to unite mankind by those passions which lift, not by the passions which sep- arate and debase. You were drawn across the ocean by some vision of a new kind of justice." From this speech, four words, " too proud to fight," were selected for derision. On January 6, 1916, he spoke of the "solid, eternal foundations of justice and humanity. These are the things for which the world has waited with prayerful heart. God grant that it may be granted to America to lift this light on high for the illumina- tion of the world." How little impression these aspirations made on influential men at the time may be [14] THE GREAT ISSUE deduced from the following sonnet pub- lished by a foremost American writer, on Washington's Birthday, 1916: TO WOODROW WILSON Not even if I possessed your trust in speech Could I make any (fit for use) fit you : You've wormed yourself beyond descrip- tion's reach ; Truth if she touched you would become untrue. Satire has seared a host of evil fames, Has withered emperors by her fierce lam- poons; History has lashes that have flayed the names Of public cowards, hypocrites, poltroons; You go immune. Cased in your self-esteem The next world cannot scathe you, nor can this; No fact can stab through your complacent dream, Nor present laughter nor the future's hiss. But if its fathers did this land control Dead Washington would wake and blast your soul. At the opening of the Presidential cam- paign in 1916, war with Mexico was held to be inevitable, and conservatives were more [15] THE GREAT ISSUE bitter than ever over the President's hand- ling of European w^ar problems. The tone of his addresses, however, gives no indica- tion of the rising storm. He did not be- lieve that America ought to fight for any of the traditional reasons but as Robinson and West in " The Foreign Policy of Wood- row Wilson" point out: "He was well aware that on the principles he had laid down, his country might inevitably be drawn into war." Thus on February 26, he said : "When we seek safety at the expense of humanity, I will believe that I have been mistaken in what I have conceived to be the spirit of American history." And on April 17, he said : " America will have forgotten her traditions whenever she fights merely for herself under such circum- stances as will show that she has forgotten to fight for all mankind. The only excuse that America can ever have for the assertion of physical force is that she asserts it in behalf of humanity." In addresses on May 27 and Memorial Day, one sees the germs of the fourteen points. [16] THE GREAT ISSUE <' The peace of the world," said he, " must henceforth depend on a new and more wholesome diplomacy. Every people has the right to choose the sovereignty under which they shall live. Small states have a right to enjoy the same respect that great nations expect. The world has a right to be freed from every disturbance of its peace that has its origin in aggression. The United States is willing to become a part- ner in any feasible association formed to realize these objects. I shall never con- sent to an entangling alliance, but I would gladly assent to a disentangling alliance, which would disentangle the peoples of the world from those combinations which seek their own separate interests, and unite the peoples of the world to preserve peace on a basis of common right and justice." Enter Mr. Charles E. Hughes On June lo, Mr. Hughes, because of "a national exigency transcending merely par- tisan considerations," shut behind him the door of the United States Supreme Court and became the Republican candidate. Said he: [17] THE GREAT ISSUE " I Stand for an Americanism that knows no ulterior purpose, for a patriotism that is single and complete. We have suffered in- calculably from the weak and vacillating course which has been taken with regard to Mexico. We utterly failed to appreciate and discharge our plain duty to our own citizens. We demand adequate provision for national defense and we condemn the inexcusable neglect that has been shown in this matter of first national importance." Senator Harding, Chairman of the Re- publican Convention, in 1916, said in his keynote address: ^'The Republican policies afford the ample means (for naval defense) without conscious burdens upon the people. Under any system security is economy itself. Justice points the way through the safe channel of neutrality." The Republican platform said: "We believe in maintaining a straight and honest neutrality between the belliger- ents in the great war," and gave as the pur- pose of preparedness "to make certain the security of our own people within our own borders." [18] THE GREAT ISSUE While Mr. Hughes and the Chairman of the Republican Convention and the Repub- lican platform were thus consistently up- holding the principle of "safety first," Colonel Roosevelt charged President Wil- son with having "taught us to put 'safety first,' safety before duty and honor, to put that materialism which expresses itself in mere money-making, and in the fatted ease of life, above all spiritual things, above all the high and fine instincts of the soul," and said of Mr. Wilson's Administration: " From the standpoint of national honor and interest it stood on an even lower level than the Administration of Buchanan. No Administration in our history has done more to relax the spring of the national will and to deaden the national conscience." In those tense days, with the outcome of the campaign in the gravest doubt, the President steadily refused to go to war with Mexico, though his opponents incessantly urged that not to intervene was a disgrace. Colonel Roosevelt's description of Mr. Wil- son's dealings with Mexico as " a shameless history" expressed the view of the most in- [19] THE GREAT ISSUE fluential men in America. With impunity, the Colonel called the President worse than Pontius Pilate. "Hundreds" (of Ameri- cans), said he, "have been killed, and Mr. Wilson has watched their fortunes as disin- terestedly as if they had been rats pursued by terriers." In the face of bitter and wide-spread criticism Mr. Wilson expounded his Mexi- can policy thus: "The easiest thing is to strike. The bru- tal thing is the impulsive thing. Do you think the glory of America would be en- hanced by a war of conquest in Mexico? Do you think that any act of violence by a powerful nation like this against a weak neighbor would reflect distinction upon the annals of the United States? We have the evidence of a competent witness, the first Napoleon, that force had never accom- plished anything permanent. Force will not accomplish anything permanent, I ven- ture to say, in the great struggle on the other side of the sea. The permanent things will be accomplished afterward when the opin- ion of mankind is brought to bear upon the issues." [20] THE GREAT ISSUE '' Some gentlemen say they want to help Mexico, and the way they want to help her is to overwhelm her with force. That is the long way as well as the wrong way. After fighting, you have a nation full of justified suspicion and animated by well-founded hostility and hatred. You will have shut every door, as it were, of steel against you. I will try to serve America by trying to serve Mexico herself." ''The people of Mexico are striving for the rights that are fundamental to life and happiness — fifteen million oppressed men, overburdened women, and pitiful children. Some of the leaders of the revolution may often have been mistaken and violent and selfish, but the revolution itself was inevi- table and is right. Mistakes I may have made in this perplexing business, but not in purpose or object." In his speeches, Mr. Hughes emphasized "dominant Americanism," "America first and America efficient," and " firmness." Of our European diplomacy he said : " Instead of whittling away our formal statements by equivocal conversations, we needed the [2l] THE GREAT ISSUE straight, direct, and decisive representations which every diplomat and foreign office would understand." Commenting on this passage, the New York Sun said: "We get a new light on the enormity of the damage wrought by Mr. Wilson in occasional flashes of insight like this." One may contrast Mr. Wilson's address of June 28: " ' America first ' means nothing until you translate it into what you do. America should be ready to vindicate at whatever cost the principles of liberty, of justice, and of humanity. You cheer the sentiment, but do you realize what it means? It means that you have not only got to be just to your fellowmen, but that as a nation you have got to be just to other nations. It comes high. It is easy to think first of the national interest of America, but it is not easy to think first of what America, if she loves justice, ought to do in international afifairs. I believe that at whatever cost America should be just to other peoples and treat other peoples as she demands that they should treat her. That I am ready to fight for at any cost to myself." [22] THE GREAT ISSUE The National Hughes Alliance In October the National Hughes Alliance published a series of advertisements, over the names of twenty-seven prominent citi- zens, including Theodore Roosevelt, Wil- liam H. Taft, Joseph H. Choate, Robert T. Lincoln, and Elihu Root. The following extracts indicate their tenor: FLAG OR RAG Mexico is either a nation or a mob to be estimated and dealt with by standards of civilization or to be treated as an ungovern- able barbarian. Every species of shame that can be heaped upon a proud Republic has been inflicted upon us by a people whose de facto head the successor of Washington and Lincoln de- lights to honor with the consideration due only to political and moral equals. THEREFORE VOTE FOR CHARLES E. HUGHES WE ARE NOT PREPARED FOR PEACE Our business is BUSINESS. Year by year it becomes more apparent [23] THE GREAT ISSUE that the markets of the world must be kept open to American industries. We cannot extend our trade farther than we are able to defend it. The rivalries that begin in commerce end on battlefields. The history of war is green with international jealousies. Every great conflict in modern times had its origin in some question of property rights. We are now universal competitors and are destined to grow constantly stronger rivals for a power which other people will not surrender without a trial of wit and will and, if needs be, force. We know our temper and our intents and we neither challenge defiance nor hurl it, in the creation of an army and the upbuilding of a navy sufficiently impressive to guaran- tee respect for our potency. THEREFORE VOTE FOR CHARLES E. HUGHES Let us contrast what President Wilson said on October 26: " A great many men are complaining that the Government of the United States has not the spirit of other Governments, which [24] THE GREAT ISSUE is to put force, the army and the navy of that Government, behind investments in foreign countries. Just so certainly as you do this you join the chaos of hostile and competing ambitions." Thus we see the issues drawn. Mr. Wil- son conceived America as the servant of mankind. Mr. Hughes's "out-and-out one hundred per cent Americanism" and his "America first and America efficient" meant the assertion of American rights. The advertisements of the Hughes Alliance implied that these rights were to be main- tained, even at the expense of others, with almost Teutonic indifference. America Enters the War From the address of January 22, 1917 — sometimes called the greatest State paper ever written — the critics selected for de- rision three words, " peace without victory." Later, they dwelt on the President's abrupt change of view, as they conceived it, in his war address of April 2. In reality, the war had become clearly a war for humanity and [25] THE GREAT ISSUE justice, and, therefore, as he had said, Amer- ica must enter it. The two addresses are parts of a consistent and expanding pro- gram. He himself affirmed this on April 2 : " I have the same objects in mind that I had on January 22." In the earlier address, his object was justice guaranteed by a "concert of power." In the later address, his object was justice to be maintained "against selfish and autocratic power," and "a universal dominion of right by a concert of free peoples." Thus, while the means had changed, the ends had not changed. In the earlier address, he sought a peace "worth guaranteeing that will win the approval of mankind." "A victor's terms" (as in the case of Mexico) " would leave a bitter memory on which peace would rest as on a quicksand." In the later address, he first emphasized the fact, consistently urged afterward, that "we have no quarrel with the German people. It was not on their impulse that their Gov- ernment acted in entering the war. We are glad to fight for the ultimate peace of the world and the liberation of its people, the German peoples included." [26] THE GREAT ISSUE The People Versus the Statesmen The Flag Day address of June 14, 1917, develops his conception of "the military masters of Germany." Their "extraordi- nary insults and aggressions " had forced us into the war. "But," he repeats, "we are not the enemies of the German people. We are vaguely conscious that we are fight- ing their cause as well as our own. The military masters under whom Germany is bleeding see clearly to what point fate has brought them. If they are forced back an inch, their power will fall to pieces like a house of cards. If they fail, the world may unite for peace, and Germany may be of the union." In his reply to the Pope, his address to Congress December 4, 1917, his declaration of his fourteen points, and his speeches of April 6, July 4, and September 27, 191 8, the ideas with which his diplomacy began finally crystallize. His reliance on prin- ciples is unchanged, whether the outlook is dark or bright. "When the German people have spokes- men whom we can believe and these spokes- [27] THE GREAT ISSUE men in the name of their people accept the common judgment as to what shall be the basis of law, we shall be free to do an un- precedented thing — to base peace on gen- erosity and justice — justice done to every nation, our enemies as well as our friends. I should be ashamed in the presence of affairs so grave to use the weak language of hatred. What we seek is the reign of law, based on the consent of the governed, and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind. Plain people still fear they are getting what they ask for in statesmen's terms of territorial arrangements and di- visions of power, not in terms of broad- visioned justice and mercy and peace and the satisfaction of those deep longings that seem the only things worth fighting a war for that engulfs the world." "A supreme moment of history has come. The eyes of the people have been opened and they see. The hand of God is laid upon the nations. He will show them favor, I devoutly believe, only if they rise to the clear heights of His own justice and mercy." On September 27 he invited the leaders of the allied governments to say frankly [28] THE GREAT ISSUE whether they thought him mistaken in his interpretation of the issues involved in the war, as if he foresaw that the end was near. Opposition of Conservatives Conservatives here tolerated what seemed to them the President's academic phrases, while he and they were alike primarily pro- war, satisfied that the sword was mightier than the pen. But as victory approached and his conceptions seemed possible of fulfillment, they welcomed quite opposite views from Senator Lodge, for example: "The only peace for us is one that rests on hard physical facts. No peace that satis- fies Germany in any degree can ever satisfy us." Senator Lodge did not wait for the Presi- dent to reply to Maximilian's first appeal, but interposed: "There is only one thing to be done. That is to put Germany in such a position by physical guarantees that she cannot break out again. Put her behind the bars." Throughout the vital diplomatic ex- changes, leading to the surrender of the [29] THE GREAT ISSUE Germans, conservatives here were con- vinced that only the interpositions of Mr. Lodge saved the situation. While the Presi- dent was gathering the fruits of his reiter- ated offers of justice and mercy to the Ger- man people, Mr. Lodge was publicly in- sisting on " retributive justice," and was saying: "I regretted that the President asked questions inviting discussion. If we are to end this war as it ought to be ended, are we not ready to take the onus of carry- ing it on till that end is reached?" The Boston Transcript cried: "The Germans will not have to wait another note from Mr. Wilson to ascertain the answer of America to their 'offer of peace.' The answer was delivered yesterday by Mr. Lodge. The nation hails him as its spokesman." One may contrast the opinion of Cardinal Mercier, whose land escaped being further laid waste by a needless continuation of war: "The triumph of justice is complete. Your President is one of the greatest states- men of all times. The Germans' dark plotting and treacherous diplomacy were completely foiled by President Wilson's magnificently honest and implacably just messages." [30] THE GREAT ISSUE With empires crashing, revolutions flar- ing up, millions starving, and a new world order trying to struggle into life, Colonel Roosevelt responded to the President's ap- peal for support that the nation's " inward unity of purpose" might be "evident to all the world " by urging the election of a Re- publican Congress, that Europe might see that the " fighting men," and not the " rheto- ricians " were uppermost. Such an outcome would assure our allies that America was determined to speed up the war (it was all over in a fortnight) and "serve notice on Germany and her vassal States that they would have to deal henceforth with the resolute and straightforward soul of the American people, and not merely with the obscure purposes and wavering will of Mr. Wilson." In Scrihner's for November, within a fortnight of the complete triumph of jus- tice, according to Cardinal Mercier, Mr. Lodge said : "No peace coming from Germany must be considered at all. Our business is to put her back into a padded cell. We must go to Berlin and make peace there." [31] THE GREAT ISSUE Senator Poindexter apparently shared his view, for he said : " If the President undertakes to agree with Germany before her army is con- quered, he should be impeached." The attitude of minor American conserva- tives during the triumph of justice may be gauged by the following from a conserva- tive editorial: " The crawling and unclean thing that the world calls Germany strikes back today in another attempt to drag deeper into the bog of reptilian diplomacy the Government that it enticed a fortnight ago into a contami- nating correspondence, etc." The President of the Middlesex Club asked publicly: "What is there in the rec- ord of the United States which should lead the Germans to the conclusion that we are the only people yellow enough to consider negotiations of peace at this time?" With the winning of the war, the Presi- dent's purposes, including the fourteen points, came to the very front of the stage. Dr. E. J. Dillon in the Fortnightly for [32] THE GREAT ISSUE October gives a transatlantic view thus: "Mr. Wilson is in grim earnest about his scheme of vs^orld salvation. If he can but lay its foundations, he w^ill have established a stronger claim on the gratitude of the human race than any man yet born of woman." The Republicans began at last to discuss these points. Colonel Roosevelt said: "Many, probably most, of the four- teen points are thoroughly mischievous," adding that he did not want "gunmen" in the league. Senator Lodge exclaimed: " Can you imagine our forming a league with Germany one of the members?" Sena- tor Cummins became ironical: " Let us for- get the League of Nations which is to rule the earth in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount." And they all cried that only two words, "unconditional surrender," should be tolerated in discussing the issues of the war. The contagion of hate has spread rapidly among those calling themselves Christians and once shocked by the German " Hymn of Hate." In October the Atlantic Monthly published "The Duty of Hate," by an American professor of ethics. Most culti- vated Americans have sympathized with [33] THE GREAT ISSUE this view. A Japanese scholar writes: " In our dealings with the Huns we are dealing with degraded devils." A former teacher writes: "Germany must not be merely cut down, but uprooted before a safe foundation for Christian peace can be built." A corre- spondent of the New Republic put the mat- ter thus : " Cannot the Allies hand out to the Germans what the Germans would hand out to us if they could win? Kill every German willing to fight for the war lords, and when through let Germany rot." In Life an Amer- ican soldier leans nonchalantly against the ruins of Berlin. The caption is : " And then we can talk peace." Beside the headlines, "Austria Begs for Mercy," the Middlesex Club proclaimed this "creed": "We mili- tant Republicans stand for relentless prose- cution of the war. Those who have sowed the seeds of war must taste its bitter fruits on their own soil." Even after the armistice the President of the club publicly boasted of this creed. On November 6, the American people "repudiated" Mr. Wilson in the Congres- sional elections, but the Allies formally ac- cepted most of his program. Austria had been pried loose from Germany. The Ger- [34] THE GREAT ISSUE man people had realized that we were fight- ing their battle, and on November ii, sur- rendered, accepting the President's fourteen points, dismissing their masters, and throw- ing themselves on the mercy of their former enemies. Maximilian said in his valedic- tory: "The victory for which many had hoped has not been granted. But the Ger- man people has won this greater victory over itself and its belief in the right of might." Simultaneously, we were told that Hoover would be sent to Europe to feed both friend and foe. Even at this supreme juncture the old conflict of ideals continued. The paper which announced "Kaiser abdicates" also gave these views from the reactionary Premier of Australia: "There is talk of the Kaiser's abdication. Does he take us for fools? Now that they (the Ger- mans) are beaten they whine about democ- racy. The whole thing is a sham. No statesmen can be permitted to rob us of the advantage so hardly won." A financial item said: "Securities identified with Mexican products have been strong. Carranza knows that not only the United States but Great Britain are prepared to force protection of their property, now that war is over." [35] THE GREAT ISSUE David and Goliath Here we see the Goliath with whom David had gone forth to battle. At the moment when the goal seemed to have been reached it was made plain that from the uttermost ends of the earth the forces of reaction were arrayed against the President, while it was equally plain that at home the very first lessons of his Mexican policy had not been learned. On NovemiDer ii the President could say: "The object of the war is attained. Armed imperialism is at an end, its il- licit ambitions engulfed in black disaster." America and the Allies had "united to set up such a peace as will satisfy the longings of the whole world for disin- terested justice. They have a mind in the matter, not only, but a heart also. The vic- torious Governments have by unanimous resolution assured the peoples of the Central Empires that everything possible will be done to supply them with food." But the next day Senator Lodge rejoined : "'Judge not that ye be not judged, for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be [36] THE GREAT ISSUE judged and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.' They (the Germans) are entitled to have the same measure meted out to them that they meted out to France." The President, furthermore, said: "With the fall of the ancient empires has come political change not merely, but revo- lution. To conquer with arms is to make only a temporary conquest. The nations that have learned the discipline of freedom are now about to make conquest of the world by the sheer power of example and friendly helpfulness." Senator Lodge would have none of such helpfulness and scouted the President's con- ception that there was " a broad distinction between the Imperial Government and the German people." On November i8, these two champions of the opposing views were ranged against each other thus: The Presi- dent issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation in which he reasserted, " Complete victory has brought us the promise of a new day in which justice shall replace force and in- [37] THE GREAT ISSUE trigue among nations," while Senator Lodge introduced a bill requiring every one with the hardihood to sell anything German to display a sign, " Dealer in German Goods." The President's offers of good-will to the German people, if they should do what they have done, and the unanimous offer of food were as ignored by the many disciples of Senator Lodge as if these disciples had never heard of the "scrap of paper." The radio appeal, picked up in the heavens, from three German women to Mrs. Wilson and Miss Addams, sent apparently in the belief that good-will had been reestablished, and ask- ing that rolling stock needed to transport food be not taken away, disclosed in the newspapers a prevalent American view: Female Correspojident No. I. A man told me he had talked with several women about the letters from Germany appealing for food lest the German women and chil- dren starve, and every one said, "Let 'em starve." I would destroy Cologne Cathe- dral, not in malice or passion, but in stern and silent vengeance. Female Correspondent No. 2. The ef- frontery of the appeal to Mrs. Wilson makes me sick with disgust. [38] THE GREAT ISSUE Male Correspondent No. I. What if the food situation in Germany is desperate? Let the " good " German people suffer the consequences of their own barbarity. Male Correspondent No. 2. If Germany got what she deserves, the wolves would stare out of the windows into desolation. Male Correspondent No. J. The mawk- ish sentimentality of some folks makes a really kind man sick at the stomach. Male Correspondent No. 4. Give us more of your editorials denouncing the slime. The Attitude of English Liberals English liberals had met in London, October 10, in answer to the invitation contained in Mr. Wilson's speech of Sep- tember 27. At this meeting, Viscount Grey called "firm and wise" that first letter to Maximilian which Mr. Lodge had " re- gretted" and his disciples had deplored. Viscount Grey added : " I am quite content to await further developments." He said that the League of Nations had been laid down by Mr. Wilson "on the soundest lines." When Germany surrendered, Mr. Asquith pointed out that it was not until [39] THE GREAT ISSUE President Wilson in April, 1917, put the meaning of the war in a few phrases and boldly made a distinction between the Ger- man people and their Government that the possibility was admitted of such events as vv^ere then occurring. And Premier Lloyd George asked : " Are we to lapse back into the old national rivalries, animosities, and competitive armaments, or are we to initiate the reign on earth of the Prince of Peace? We must not allow any sense of revenge to override the fundamental principles of righteousness." Bitterness Grows A week after " inward unity of purpose " had been denied Mr. Wilson, Senator Lodge said of an antagonistic speech made by himself: "That speech was printed in the Italian, French and English papers, all commenting on it favorably." Presently a typical dispatch from Paris spoke of the American " squabble," and one from Lon- don of " the American controversy," and said: "The intentions attributed to Wilson by Roosevelt" had led to fears that "unless the air should be cleared the echoes of the [40] THE GREAT ISSUE controversy will help play Germany's game of a division among the Allies." "Wilson Chills Senate" was the typical headline of a conservative paper when the President addressed that peace-ratifying body before starting on his pilgrimage to Europe. The language of the conservative press on the eve of his departure was of a kind which might have been used of a male- factor. The effect abroad was portrayed in the headline: "France Amazed by Attacks on Wilson." Senator Reed (Democrat) ex- pressed the opinion that a League of Na- tions would be treachery to this country worse than that of Benedict Arnold. Sena- tor Knox introduced a bill which assumed that we fought the war only to defend our rights on the sea and to " remove the Ger- man menace to our peace," and that we should forthwith retire from the scene, post- poning " any project for any general League of Nations." Senator Cummins exasperated because no Senator was a member of the Peace Commission, introduced a bill pro- viding that eight Senators should unoffi- cially accompany the peace delegates to Paris. Senator Sherman, indignant at the President's leaving the country, wanted the [41] THE GREAT ISSUE office of President declared vacant. Colonel Roosevelt contributed : " As for the fourteen points, so far as the American people have expressed any opinion on them, it was on November 5 when they rejected them. What Mr. Wilson says of the fourteen points is sheer nonsense." All the critics disregarded the acceptance by our enemies of these fourteen points as the basis for the peace settlement. Up to the moment of the President's embarkation they insisted that he was flagrantly deserting his post. Europe's JV el come When, however, this explorer looking for a new world had, like Columbus, crossed the seas and had reached a continent where famine, anarchy, and murder reigned in the place of empires, great throngs, reaching out their arms, welcomed him as no leader of men had ever before been welcomed. In allied Europe, in Germany and Austria, and even in far-off India millions had seen the light which he had shed on the issues of the war, and now looked on him as the prophet-statesman of the world. The Presi- dent of the Municipal Council at Paris and [42] THE GREAT ISSUE the Prefect of the Seine respectively called him "the upright man whose conscience fashioned his policy" and "the arbiter of the fate of civilization." Figaro says of him: "He deliberates in the light of Heaven, slowly and solemnly, before tak- ing sides, but when the prayer, which separates him for a moment from the com- munity of mortals, has come to an end, then all the virtues of action wake in him to form a swift and irrevocable de- cision." In England, for a time, at least, reaction became more in evidence. Mr. Lloyd George seeking reelection demanded an indemnity to England alone of $40,000,000,- 000. How tremendous the issue is there as well as here is portrayed by Mr. L. P. Jacks in Land and Water in these eloquent words : "We can, if we choose, play the part which Germany intended to play. Our salvation depends on our not playing it. But the temptation is great. It looks at times as though, having the giant's strength, we meant to use it as a giant. Is that worthy of the glorious dead? These men did not lay down their lives for British trade. They died for Justice, and we owe =t to [43] THE GREAT ISSUE them to see that Justice is established on the earth. It is not established yet. All that is accomplished so far is the overthrow of injustice; a great step towards the goal but not the goal itself. The work of our dead is not finished; it is just begun." The London Nation expresses its appre- ciation thus: "The President is the only ruler who, from the beginning of the war, has consistently laid down any moral doc- trine concerning it, or has sought to con- struct a settlement consistent with the good, not of one nation or set of nations, but of all. This design is in full harmony with the spirit of the political evangelism of America." The President said, September 27: "The counsels of plain men have been more simple and straightforward than the coun- sels of sophisticated men." In the critical weeks which have followed the signing of the armistice millions of plain men every- where have shown that they have seen a new light. It is a light which shone in "The New Freedom," published before there was any war and scoffed at but not read by sophisticated Americans; in the long and bravely unselfish waiting while weak [44] THE GREAT ISSUE Mexico struggled toward self-government; in the slowness to anger before the momen- tous issues of the war were fully disclosed; in the illuminating interpretation of those issues when we at last bent ourselves to the burdens of the war; in our complete un- selfishness now as heretofore; in the calm and consistent assertion of fundamental principle, in high places and in low, on every occasion since an American President first set foot on European soil. The Conflict Now "Gentlemen," said Mr. Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference in urging a League of Nations, " the select classes of mankind are no longer the governors of mankind. The fortunes of mankind are now in the hands of the plain people of the whole world. Satisfy them and you have justified their confidence, not only, but have estab- lished peace. Fail to satisfy them, and no arrangement that you can make will either set up or steady the peace of the world. As I go about the streets here I see everywhere the American uniform. These men came into the war after we had uttered our pur- pose. They came as crusaders — not merely [45] THE GREAT ISSUE to win a war, but to win a cause. I am responsible to them and I, like them, must be a crusader for those things, whatever it costs, and whatever it may be necessary to do in honor, to accomplish the object for which they fought." This insistence on fundamental principle has stood unshaken amid the Babel of dis- cordant voices, from Russia, from Italy, from France and, at times, from England. From time to time, the old order seems about to reestablish itself permanently. The old conceptions, the old struggles of force with force, the old ambitions, the old lusts for power and territory die hard. The counter-lusts of wrathful men make for anarchy and destruction so widespread as to threaten the whole structure of civiliza- tion. With the world thus strained, thou- sands of sophisticated Americans who be- lieve themselves Christians and pray in great churches that they may be brought " to that fair city of peace, whose foundations are mercy, justice and good-will," rise from their knees only to demand an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Under the guise of "retribution" they would inflict the ven- geance which the Almighty has reserved [46] THE GREAT ISSUE for Himself. They call across the ocean that the President does not represent the American people, that he was repudiated at the last election. They threaten to undo on his return whatever he may seem to have accomplished. Their vision has been nar- rowed to one conflict, that between them, the righteous, and the Germans, the unright- eous. New conflicts, however, already con- front them, the conflict between themselves and the Bolsheviki, between themselves and those with whom they disagree at home. The real issue has not followed exclusively the trenches of Northern France. It has always been, is now and ever will be in the hearts of men — everywhere. " If the light that is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness." [47]