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INVALID EUROPE 
 
 Some Impressions of Recent Travel 
 
INVALID EUROPE 
 
 Some Impressions of Recent Travel 
 
 By 
 
 Alfred F. S eligsberg 
 
 Boni and Liveright 
 
 Publishers New York 
 

 Copyright, 1921, 
 By Boni & LivERiGHT, Inc. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
 MAR 18 IQ?! 
 0)CI,A611390 
 
TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Foreword 
 
 I. England 
 
 II. France 
 
 III. Germany 
 
 IV. Italy . 
 V. The Sick Man of Europe 
 
 VI. The Prospect 
 
 PAGE 
 
 9 
 
 21 
 40 
 
 73 
 107 
 128 
 141 
 
INVALID EUROPE 
 
 SOME IMPRESSIONS OF RECENT TRAVEL 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 RETURNED to New York in the 
 middle of September, 1920, after 
 a two months' visit to England and 
 the continent of Europe, with impressions more 
 deeply engraved upon my mind than at first I 
 realized. During the first two weeks after my 
 return I had a recurrence of what I must call 
 nightmares, for the impression which they 
 brought was more acute than that following an 
 ordinary dream. Each time I dreamed that 
 I was in Europe, and was unable to return to 
 America. My consequent distress was extreme, 
 and my subsequent joy was proportionately 
 
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 great when I awoke to find myself in a pleasant 
 little flat on the west side of Central Park. To 
 a certain extent I am a believer in the Freudian 
 theory of dreams, and I asked myself what pre- 
 vious sensation or experiences could have in- 
 duced the sleeping illusion which so greatly dis- 
 turbed and distressed me. 
 
 I had left America towards the end of June, 
 most anxious to see for myself conditions in 
 Western Europe, where I had not been since 
 the Fall of 1914, after having passed the first 
 months of the great war in Paris, the South of 
 France and Italy. From the latter country I 
 had been fortunate enough to travel in com- 
 fort to my native shore at a time when many 
 Americans were stranded in other countries, or 
 were experiencing the greatest difficulty in ob- 
 taining decent accommodations at fabulous 
 prices. Like many of my countrymen I had for 
 many years prior to the war passed my summers 
 abroad, while up to my twentieth year I had 
 lived chiefly in Europe, where, in consequence 
 
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 of my father's premature death abroad, my 
 family had settled. My preliminary education 
 I had received in German schools, and I was 
 fortunate enough to become well acquainted 
 with the languages, customs and viewpoint of 
 the western part of the European continent. 
 In fact, when I returned to my native country 
 and entered an American college, my mind and 
 habits had become Europeanized to an extent 
 which would scarcely be approved by the aver- 
 age American patriot. 
 
 After leaving my German school and coming 
 under the influence of the liberal thought of 
 Harvard, my views towards German civiliza- 
 tion and culture underwent a great change. 
 Not that I failed to appreciate the beauties of 
 German literature and music, the achievements 
 of German science and research, the masterful 
 development of German trade and commerce, 
 the unique powers of organization of the peo- 
 ple, and the kindliness, or gemiitlichkeit, of the 
 South Germans, among whom I had passed a 
 
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 large part of my childhood. But I was commenc- 
 ing to realize an aversion, which had been grad- 
 ually developing during the later period of my 
 sojourn in Germany, to certain features of Ger- 
 man life and civilization. Above all was I 
 antagonized by the growing ascendancy of the 
 military caste, which was evident even to the 
 perception of a child by the attitude of the 
 officer class in public places. Nor did I fail 
 to perceive as a youth the autocratic and bureau- 
 cratic methods of government which excluded 
 all but a few privileged classes from participa- 
 tion in public affairs, a topic which in our little 
 American household was one of almost daily 
 discussion. 
 
 My subconscious aversion to these matters 
 was aggravated, and, so to speak, crystallized 
 by an incident which is as fresh in my mind to- 
 day as if it had happened yesterday. My 
 mother was denounced to the authorities by a 
 discharged butler of having indulged at the 
 family table in condemnation of certain repres- 
 
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 sive measures promulgated by Bismarck; and 
 only the fact of our American citizenship saved 
 her from arrest and prosecution. My whole 
 being was so influenced by this incident that, 
 although I still retained my love for German 
 literature and music, I avoided, for more than 
 twenty years prior to the outbreak of the war, 
 going to Germany unless compelled to do so for 
 a short visit by the exigencies of business or 
 private affairs. It happened, therefore, that for 
 many years before 1914 my summers were spent 
 in England, France, Italy and Switzerland, 
 and, strange to say, despite my German name, 
 and despite the fact that my family, though not 
 of Teutonic blood, had lived for centuries in 
 Germany, I became in my personal friendships, 
 business coimections and artistic associations to 
 a large extent Latinized. 
 
 I must beg the reader's indulgence for mak- 
 ing this slight personal digression, and for men- 
 tioning events in my own life which are quite 
 unimportant and inconsequential except to my- 
 
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 self. I am doing so simply in order to furnish 
 a background to the mental picture which I 
 had formed of Europe, and which to a certain 
 extent would color my own views. I sailed 
 for England in the early summer of 1920, thor- 
 oughly convinced by the various newspaper re- 
 ports and articles, as well as by the comments 
 of certain travellers with a reputation for so- 
 briety of statement, that I should find Europe 
 in a more or less demoralized state, that even 
 in its superficial aspects it would be greatly 
 changed, and that things would be much less 
 agreeable than they had been before the war. 
 But I found it far less changed outwardly than 
 I had expected, and social life, especially on the 
 surface and as it affected the traveller and visi- 
 tor, seemed very little different from what I 
 had found it before the great war. 
 
 Above all, the American traveller especially 
 tender of his own material comfort is likely to 
 be agreeably surprised; he will be disposed to 
 wonder at the reports he has read of European 
 
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 desolation, ckstruction, poverty and disease. 
 Especially will he recognize, as he has never 
 recognized before, the omnipotence of the dol- 
 lar. The exchange value and strength of 
 American currency are such that no matter 
 where the American wanders in Europe he car- 
 ries with him something almost as magical as 
 Aladdin's lamp or Ali Baba's "Open Sesame." 
 The power of the dollar may be, and is, consid- 
 erably less in England than it is in France, 
 Italy and especially in Germany and Austria. 
 But, no matter where he goes in Europe, he is 
 enabled through the strength of his currency to 
 obtain all the comforts and, indeed, almost all 
 of the luxuries he may desire, and at far less 
 cost than in his own country ; and in some parts 
 he can almost live upon his exchange, so to 
 speak. Thus it is that at first he is compelled 
 to think that affairs cannot possibly be as bad 
 in Europe as they have been painted, for nat- 
 urally he regards things as he finds them him- 
 
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 self, and not as they influence the lives of oth- 
 ers. 
 
 It simply comes to this, that if you have the 
 wherewithal, that is the purchasing power, there 
 is probably no part of Europe where you can- 
 not get practically all you want, for there is no 
 country where there is an utter absence of those 
 things which make up one's daily needs and 
 which contribute to one's comfort. Even the 
 average middle-class American of modest means 
 will find himself almost a plutocrat when he 
 exchanges his dollar draft for the currency of 
 whatever European country he may be visit- 
 ing. He might well be tempted in the circum- 
 stances into extravagances of which he would 
 not dream under normal conditions. Plainly 
 stated it means that if you have the money you 
 can live as well in most countries of Western 
 Europe today as you could before the war. The 
 hotels are as spacious and luxurious as ever; the 
 restaurants are as glittering and gay, and pre- 
 sent attractive and ample menus for the most 
 
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 part; the health resorts and watering places are 
 as beautiful and well cared for, and offer the 
 old allurements. The theatres are not much 
 less attractive, although there is some falling off 
 in the performances ; the racecourses, the casinos 
 and cabarets are, if anything, more crowded 
 than before the war, and there is a recrudescence 
 of frenzied, feverish gambling, the inevitable 
 reaction from the years of war; and one thing 
 which the war could not change is the delight- 
 ful European climate, free from excessive heat 
 and bright with sunshine. The crops are plen- 
 tiful, and the famous vintages of France and 
 Italy even more enticing than of yore to the 
 palates of the victims of prohibition. 
 
 Being somewhat of an Epicurean, I am free 
 to confess that I enjoyed most of the attrac- 
 tions, aesthetic and material, which Europe was 
 able to offer, especially during the last three 
 weeks of my stay on the Continent, which were 
 spent partly on the picturesque shores of the 
 Bay of Biscay, and partly in the rugged fast- 
 
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 nesses of the Eastern Pyrenees, which I found 
 especially and peculiarly charming. 
 
 Why then, I asked myself, should I return to 
 America to be tormented by such a nightmare 
 as I have described^ It is true that I realized 
 that certain phenomena of European life sad- 
 dened me — the evidences, too often apparent, 
 of the fearful struggle which had laid waste 
 some of the fairest spots in France and Italy, 
 taken toll of so many millions of lives, and 
 filled the existence of the living with sorrow 
 and desolation. Still this hardly accounted for 
 the very real and actual distress which gripped 
 me in the helplessness of my dream, and for the 
 joyful relief with which I awoke. Again I 
 asked myself what had impressed my subcon- 
 scious self more than anything else, and was 
 likely to cause the sense of fear that I could 
 not return to America*? Suddenly it came to 
 me in the happiness and peacefulness of Ameri- 
 can life, in the sense of brotherliness and friend- 
 ship which I found among my fellow citizens, 
 
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 and which almost unconsciously I had missed 
 in my travels through Europe. 
 
 The European Continent today is a seething 
 hell of hate; life is oppressed by a pall of vin- 
 dictiveness and mutual distrust. Wherever one 
 goes each country seems to hate some other 
 country. The French hate the Germans and 
 distrust the English. The Germans above all 
 hate the French and Poles, and fear the Eng- 
 lish. The Italians have all their old distrust 
 and dislike of the Austrians, and hate the Jugo- 
 slavs, while they bitterly resent the lack of 
 gratitude of the French, and feel that the Allies 
 in general have ill-repaid their sacrifices. 
 
 It is this atmosphere of hate and distrust 
 which pervades the entire continent, and which 
 subconsciously oppresses your very being, mak- 
 ing you aspire towards a freer, purer air, where 
 you may breathe without absorbing the con- 
 taminating and soul-destroying influences of 
 suppressed vindictiveness. 
 
 However much, then, one may be disposed to 
 
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 deprecate the usual bombastic references to the 
 land of the free, and to God's own country, one 
 cannot help heaving a deep sigh of relief on 
 returning to a civilization which is, at any rate, 
 free from the fearful antagonisms and the sul- 
 len suspicions which are now consuming the 
 soul of Europe. 
 
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/. England 
 
 T no time has the difference between 
 English and Continental civiliza- 
 tion been more apparent than today. 
 Britain should not be regarded as a part of the 
 European continent either geographically or 
 spiritually. The glorious isolation which was 
 her ancient boast, and which was largely her 
 defence during the war, remains one of Eng- 
 land's strongest bulwarks, and sustains her as 
 part of that civilization which is the hope of the 
 world for the immediate future. In spite of all 
 superficial differences, never have American and 
 English civilizations been more closely in ac- 
 cord than they are today. Whatever differences 
 exist between the two countries are due rather 
 to geographical conditions and historical devel- 
 opments than to any real disparity in life and 
 
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 thought. Fundamentally, social life and inter- 
 course and the broad attitude towards the rights 
 of man are the same in both countries. 
 
 In describing the conditions prevailing in 
 European countries too much stress has, I think, 
 been laid by certain newspaper correspondents 
 on such things as the cost of living, over- 
 crowded houses and hotels, darkened streets due 
 to the dearth of fuel, and the absence of the 
 old amenities. All these conditions, while 
 sometimes not as bad as reported, though bad 
 enough, are transitory. They are part of the 
 inevitable aftermath of the war, of five years 
 of superhuman effort which has sapped, if not 
 exhausted, the strength of mankind, stemmed 
 the slow and ordered process of humanity, de- 
 stroyed idealism and disturbed the economic 
 and social equilibrium of human existence. 
 But, I repeat such conditions are transitory and 
 sometimes more superficial than real. One 
 must dig deeper in order to find those funda- 
 mental conditions which determine a country's 
 
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 true state of health. The permanent conse- 
 quences of the war and a country's prospect of 
 recovery cannot be judged by transitory phe- 
 nomena, but are predicated largely upon basic 
 causes, such as the geographical situation of the 
 country, the physical strength and the moral 
 fibre of its people. Such factors will ultimately 
 determine a nation's will and ability to recuper- 
 ate, to restore that which has been physically 
 destroyed, and to rebuild the social and 
 political fabric; to make good the loss in human 
 material and to repair the damage to psychic 
 ideals; in other words, to find again the path 
 of peaceful progress and to regain dynamic 
 force and speed. 
 
 Examining these underlying conditions in 
 England one will find that they are surprisingly 
 sound. Above all, she has freed herself from 
 that incubus of hatred which burdens the mind 
 of peoples in time of war. Of course, there is 
 still an undercurrent of bitterness towards the 
 Germans, chiefly on account of their methods 
 
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 of fighting, and their abuse of hospitality prior 
 to the war, when they availed themselves of 
 the proverbial freedom and lack of suspicion of 
 Englishmen to fill the country with spies and 
 betrayers. This bitterness has recently mani- 
 fested itself in regard to the attempted 
 rapprochement between certain Oxford pro- 
 fessors and those of German universities, which 
 the Times and others seem to regard as un- 
 timely, especially in view of German impeni- 
 tence. But the spirit of English sportsmanship 
 induces the people, now as always, to give the 
 beaten foe a chance. England is unwilling to 
 be a party to any attempt to suppress the legiti- 
 mate development of Germany along the lines 
 of free commerce and fair opportunity. This 
 attitude is not only the result of fairness, but 
 also comes from the conviction that a recon- 
 struction of the world's intellectual and 
 economic machinery is only possible by and 
 with the inclusion and cooperation of Germany. 
 Even the most casual observer must be im- 
 
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 pressed with the firm and determined will of 
 the English people to recover whatever ground 
 has been lost through the war, and, wherever 
 possible, to convert that loss into a gain. In- 
 deed, during the war England made a big effort 
 throughout the world to secure the commerce 
 which Germany had lost as the result of the 
 blockade. Herein was shown remarkable pre- 
 vision, not only in taking ultimate victory for 
 granted, but in making the fullest possible 
 preparation for it. The existing conditions of 
 trade between England and South America are 
 in themselves proof of British wisdom, energy 
 and timely preparation. All that Germany has 
 lost England has gained, and more. The only 
 formidable rival which she has found in South 
 America is the United States. In meeting this 
 competition England, of course, has one great 
 advantage. Up to the outbreak of the war, 
 despite the determined and threatening compe- 
 tition of Germany — which there was no at- 
 tempt to fight fiscally by duties, bounties or 
 
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 subsidies — England led the world commer- 
 cially. London was the financial center of the 
 world, by reason of its well-established system 
 of international banking. The British pound 
 sterling was the unit of monetary value the 
 world over, and the far-reaching English system 
 of international trade and bill discounting made 
 London the center or clearing house of com- 
 mercial transactions in the form of acceptances 
 and credits. 
 
 London long ago acquired an intimate knowl- 
 edge of all the ramifications of foreign trade, 
 of the standing of the different countries and 
 their governments, and of the reliability of 
 their principal financial institutions and firms. 
 The English banker or merchant before the war 
 was a real cosmopolitan, in constant contact 
 through the cable and correspondence, and 
 often personally, with the bankers, merchants 
 and traders the world over. He had his finger 
 on the financial and commercial pulse of every 
 
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 country with which he had intercourse and 
 dealings. 
 
 The question of banking credit is always 
 more or less a personal one, and the English 
 banker generally had a very good idea as to 
 the standing of those with whom he was deal- 
 ing; he knew just where he would be justified 
 in giving credit and where it would be wise to 
 refuse it. But lately he has lost a monopoly 
 of this knowledge and its corresponding oppor- 
 tunities and advantages, for a formidable com- 
 petitor has come into the field. Of course, I 
 refer to the United States, practically the only 
 other country which can make a bid for the 
 commerce of the world. Nevertheless the Lon- 
 don banker or exporter still finds himself in 
 the enviable position of having, through the 
 knowledge and experience acquired by genera- 
 tions of predecessors, a big start over his New 
 York competitor, who, so to speak, has to begin 
 at the bottom and lay the foundations of his 
 international trade. 
 
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 There is yet another advantage on the side 
 of England which cannot be gainsaid. London 
 is more favorably situated geographically to 
 finance the world's trade. Europe and, of 
 course, the wide stretching overseas dominions 
 and dependencies of Britain turn naturally to 
 London for the completion of the details of 
 large and complex lEinancial transactions. The 
 average trader the world over has been so ac- 
 customed to look to London that it is difficult 
 for him to turn his eyes elsewhere and adapt 
 himself to different financial standards and 
 methods in connection with his trade accept- 
 ances, discounts and credits. It will take a 
 great deal of effort on the part of New York 
 bankers to wean the world of the habit of think- 
 ing in pounds and to induce it to think in dol- 
 lars. Nevertheless the British banker fully 
 realizes that the large finances of the world, in 
 the shape of international loans, will have to be 
 negotiated, for the time at least, in New York, 
 since America is the only country with sufficient 
 
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 capital to make huge advances or establish big 
 foreign credits. All the same, England will put 
 up a strong fight for its supremacy as an ex- 
 porter and a financier of international trade. 
 
 The sagacity and cool judgment of the Eng- 
 lish financier are observable in another direc- 
 tion. While England undoubtedly will make 
 a bid for Russian trade, and is already estab- 
 lishing herself in a position to act promptly and 
 efficiently when normal conditions are resumed, 
 it realizes that Germany has not only the best 
 geographical situation in regard to Russia, but 
 has also a distinct advantage over other coun- 
 tries in having acquired, through at least a gen- 
 eration of experience, knowledge of Russia's 
 real needs; and that, having lost her colonies 
 and the bulk of her shipping trade with foreign 
 countries, Germany must naturally look to 
 Russia as an outlet. The only possible oppor- 
 tunity for Germany today is in the direction 
 of the East, overland, and England is willing 
 to let her have a fair chance in that direction, 
 
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 that is, of course, so long as she refrains from 
 political intrigue and any attempted coalition 
 for future offensive purposes. 
 
 On the whole, England's commercial posi- 
 tion and outlook seem most favorable, once 
 she has got over the internal troubles which she 
 would appear to regard much more calmly and 
 philosophically than those who look at them 
 from a distance. This should not make one 
 forget the staggering burden of debt and cur- 
 rent expense which the country is shouldering. 
 I admit that I was astonished to observe the 
 irrepressible cheerfulness with which the Eng- 
 lishman pays his taxes. While the indirect 
 taxes, in the shape of customs and excise, are 
 heavy enough in all conscience, the income tax 
 is positively enormous, especially on moderate 
 incomes. It is true that the percentage of the 
 tax on very large incomes is not so large as it 
 is in the United States; but after all there are 
 very few such incomes in England, as com- 
 pared with this country, and the burden which 
 
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 is laid on English millionaires is only borne by 
 a very few individuals. Take, however, what 
 may be called the moderately large income of 
 $50,000. It is taxed in England more than 
 double, and nearly treble, what it is in this 
 country. It is positively stimulating, if I may 
 be allowed to say so, to see the cheerfulness 
 with which the Englishman goes on paying his 
 cost of the war, instead of attempting to cast 
 the burden on posterity. And he has been do- 
 ing this from the very commencement of the 
 conflict. The manner in which England has 
 financed the war by paying a large part of the 
 cost through direct taxation, rather than by 
 means of loans, has not only given the English- 
 man confidence in his ability to meet his finan- 
 cial obligations, but has inspired similar confi- 
 dence throughout the world. 
 
 Of course England has other troubles than 
 those which are financial. Above all is the 
 labor situation. But we should remember that 
 this is not peculiar to Great Britain. Every 
 
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 country, where there is a highly developed in- 
 dustrial organization, has its labor difficulties, 
 notably the United States, Germany and 
 Northern Italy. We hear a great deal of the 
 comparative freedom from labor troubles of 
 France. This is due to the fact that France 
 is above all an agricultural country, made up 
 very largely of small landholders and a frugal 
 and industrious peasantry, while its industries 
 are not as large or as highly organized as those 
 of other countries. In France we still have 
 the individual artisan, who very often is a 
 specialist and artist at his work. Labor in the 
 mass is only to be found at a few centers, 
 such as the coal mines of the Pas-de-Calais, the 
 textile industries of northern France, the silk 
 industry of Lyons, the glove-making of Gre- 
 noble, the porcelain of Limoges, and the steel 
 industry of Central and Eastern France. But, 
 as I have said, France has no great manufac- 
 turing industries comparable with those of the 
 United States, Great Britain or Germany. 
 
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 This, however, is to digress. Reverting to 
 England, the labor question occupies the public 
 mind before anything else, but although the 
 situation was regarded as menacing during my 
 visit, and increased in gravity after I left, I 
 doubt not that the Government and the people 
 will find a way out without any serious 
 bouleversement. 
 
 A good illustration of the difficulties with 
 which England is beset came within my own 
 experience before I set foot in the country. 
 I left New York at the end of June, 1920, on 
 board a British steamer. As we were steaming 
 down the bay, I noticed that the vessel was 
 going very slowly, and, as I learned, at half 
 speed. At the Quarantine Station we were de- 
 layed more than six hours, the reason being 
 that about a dozen English stokers had suc- 
 cumbed to the superior attractions of Ameri- 
 can wages, and had deserted at the last moment. 
 The consequence was that the agent of the line 
 had to scour the city for substitutes, who were 
 
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 found with no little difficulty. These newly- 
 engaged men had to be brought to the Quar- 
 antine Station for embarkation, together with 
 a delegate of the New York Stokers' Union, 
 and the unfortunate captain, in addition to the 
 responsibilities and anxieties of navigating his 
 ship, had to contend with the problem of pay- 
 ing his new hands the higher wages demanded 
 by the Stokers' Union, and at the same time 
 pacifying the English stokers who had stuck to 
 their job, and were in receipt of considerable 
 less money than the newly engaged men. This 
 was only one of many evidences I came across 
 of the changed situation with respect to labor 
 and capital. 
 
 Leaving questions of economics and finance, 
 it is worth while to glance at the social condi- 
 tions of England. We were constantly hearing 
 during the recent conflict that things could 
 never be the same again, and certainly the war 
 
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 has been a great leveller even in that most con- 
 servative of countries, where custom and 
 tradition stood for so much, and where class 
 distinctions prevailed to such a large extent. 
 It has certainly lessened that almost reverential 
 regard for rank and social and titular distinc- 
 tions which once existed. A man to be highly 
 regarded in England today must have a good 
 deal more than birth and money. People ask 
 what he has done rather than who he is, and 
 gauge his intrinsic value, instead of judging 
 him by externals. There is also a certain 
 change apparent in the manners of the mass of 
 the people. The former somewhat reserved 
 and dignified mien of the average Britisher 
 has given way to a more brusque and less 
 courteous demeanor. The same thing is appar- 
 ent in another social stratum, that is the 
 domestic or servant class. 
 
 I was going to say that one misses the 
 deferential attitude of those who attend to 
 one's needs, not only in private houses, but in 
 
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 hotels, restaurants and railway stations. This 
 class displays a more assertive, if not less polite 
 and willing manner. To the average American 
 the change is not unwelcome, for we as a people 
 are accustomed to more or less informal inter- 
 course with subordinates and employees, while 
 our domestic servants often become a good deal 
 more than household attaches and drudges. I 
 am aware that in England there was a very dis- 
 tinct class of domestic servants who were the 
 friends as well as the attendants of those who 
 employed them. This applied to the great 
 houses, especially in the country, where the 
 servants were usually born upon the estate even 
 unto the third and fourth generation. They 
 were as proud and jealous of the family tradi- 
 tions as the head of the house, and often more 
 so, and theirs was the very perfection of per- 
 sonal service and devotion. But the war 
 claimed a great number of these, of both sexes, 
 as it did of all other classes, and the exquisitely 
 ordered life of the English country house is, 
 
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 I am told, passing away. Certainly my own 
 experience and observation convinced me dur- 
 ing my stay in England that the war had 
 brought great social changes, and none more 
 apparent in the small affairs of daily life and 
 intercourse than in the manners and service of 
 domestic, hotel and restaurant attendants. 
 
 Another noteworthy change is that which is 
 evident in the outward appearance of the Eng- 
 lishman. Once he had the reputation, rightly 
 or wrongly, of being the best dressed man in 
 the world, of wearing better clothes of better 
 cut and better material than his fellows in 
 other countries. It was easy enough before the 
 war to gauge an Englishman's social class and 
 condition by the cut and style of his clothes. 
 Not so now. Outside of a very few smart city 
 men and West End dandies, the high hat has 
 disappeared from the streets, and with it the 
 morning coat, or, as we call it, the cutaway. 
 This fact, trivial in itself, to my mind shows 
 that the average Britisher is far less attentive 
 
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 than he used to be to external trappings and 
 sartorial details which tended to assert his 
 position in the social scale. He regards clothes 
 today more as a necessity than an adornment, 
 and he wears a business suit of easy cut and a 
 soft hat where once he would have been horri- 
 fied at the thought of appearing in anything 
 but the silk or plug hat and the frock or morn- 
 ing coat. It is a sign of the times not to be 
 ignored, showing that convention and tradition 
 play a much less important part in the social 
 life of England than they used to. 
 
 On the whole life in London is fairly un- 
 changed. The streets are less brilliant, owing 
 to the almost complete absence of the former 
 splendid equipages of the aristocracy, and even 
 the smart set are not so well dressed, although 
 in the big hotels and restaurants like the 
 Carlton and the Savoy the dinner hour still 
 displays an assemblage of brilliant-looking 
 English women perfectly turned out, or at any 
 rate wearing their clothes with that easy dis- 
 
 [38] 
 
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 tinction which is given to the women of few 
 other countries. The street traffic seemed tame 
 beside that of New York; the thoroughfares 
 are not like Fifth Avenue in the afternoon and 
 Broadway at night, compact with human be- 
 ings; and there is nothing like the continuous 
 procession of splendid automobiles that we wit- 
 ness here. Compared with Paris, London still 
 seems immense and overwhelming, but New 
 York easily tops them both, and has taken first 
 place in population, wealth and boundless 
 activity. I also observed on my return that 
 the New Yorker had superseded the Britisher 
 sartorially, and is, on the whole, a much better 
 dressed man ; while as for the women, nowhere 
 else in the world can such varied, bewildering 
 and well-clad beauty be seen, no matter where 
 one may stray on Manhattan Island. 
 
 r-sc*! 
 
//. France 
 
 ROSSING the Channel and arriving 
 in France one immediately realizes 
 that a great change has taken place. 
 In England the old gold sovereign and half 
 sovereign have disappeared, and a man has no 
 longer any use for the sovereign purse which 
 he kept at the end of his chain, those coins 
 having been replaced by one pound and ten 
 shilling notes. Nevertheless, there is still an 
 abundance of small change. The half crown, 
 the two shilling piece, the shilling, the sixpence 
 and coppers, as of old, circulate easily and 
 abundantly, the only trouble being that, as 
 prices are higher, you have to carry more of 
 these coins about with you, and their weight is 
 apt to be burdensome and their bulk a nuisance. 
 But on reaching Boulogne by the same com- 
 
 [40] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 fortable little packet boat which made the 
 crossing before the war, you find a very differ- 
 ent state of things from a monetary standpoint. 
 I had a distinct shock when on walking down 
 the pier I changed one of the new five franc 
 notes which I had obtained at a London money 
 changer's. Stopping at a stall to purchase 
 some fruit, I was handed back for my note 
 change amounting to three francs seventy-five 
 centimes, as follows: Two one franc notes, two 
 fifty centime notes, and three postage stamps 
 for twenty-five cents each I I admit that I was 
 annoyed at such unaccustomed small change. 
 But on a moment's reflection I realized the dire 
 straits to which French finances had been 
 brought when the people were compelled to 
 content themselves with such nondescript and 
 precarious currency as fifty centimes notes and 
 postage stamps. If also one considers that the 
 French fifty centimes note only represents three 
 cents in American money, the position is 
 brought home to one with additional force. 
 
 [41] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 The condition of France in this respect ap- 
 plies in varying and far greater degrees to 
 Germany, Austria, Italy and other recently 
 belligerent countries in Europe. The Cham- 
 bers of Commerce in the various countries are 
 complicating matters not a little by issuing their 
 own currency in small denominations, some in 
 the form of banknotes, others in metal coins of 
 aluminium, tin and different cheap alloys. 
 Thus you are faced by an additional incon- 
 venience, for should you leave one city or town 
 for another, say fifty miles distant, the money 
 which you take away with you from the place 
 you are quitting will be unacceptable in that to 
 which you are going. One is constantly chang- 
 ing one's currency and small change in travel- 
 ling about Europe, and needless to say that sort 
 of thing is often extremely inconvenient. 
 
 I vividly recall my relief when I crossed the 
 frontier into Spain, and there found an abun- 
 dance of coins, instead of a lot of small notes 
 and stamps scarcely more valuable than cigar 
 
 [42] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 coupons. It was a very real pleasure to handle 
 once more the good old five peseta silver pieces; 
 also two and one peseta coins, as well as cop- 
 pers in abundance. As the Western American 
 would say, I felt that I was once again handling 
 real money. The comparative solidity of Span- 
 ish finances at the present time is reflected in 
 the literal hardness of its money. This, I need 
 scarcely point out, is a striking reversal of 
 the conditions which once prevailed. Spain, 
 formerly the Cinderella of Europe, and, as Lord 
 Salisbury once described her, a decaying nation, 
 is now commercially more prosperous than any 
 of her neighbors, and revelling in a currency 
 which has a value more than double its French 
 equivalent. 
 
 Bad as French finances are, living conditions 
 in France, at any rate for the traveller, do not 
 seem greatly changed. Prices are, of course, 
 higher, as they are in every country, but I found 
 that the fall in the exchange value of French 
 currency is not entirely offset by the rise in 
 
 [43] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 prices. I may add, too, that in countries where 
 the currency is at its lowest, as in Germany 
 and Austria, the actual living cost for an Ameri- 
 can visitor is also at its lowest. Thus I have 
 found the cost of living lower in France than 
 it is in England, and lower in Germany than 
 it is in France. What the real living conditions 
 are among the poorer classes — which are by no 
 means the laboring classes — it is easy enough to 
 imagine. I heard a great deal of grumbling on 
 the part of the better paid working men, whose 
 largely increased earnings should more than off- 
 set the increased cost of living. But it is the 
 professional classes and the clerks who suffer 
 most, for while the cost of living has risen enor- 
 mously, in many cases their pay has been 
 stationary, and how some of them manage even 
 to exist is a mystery. The one large class 
 throughout Europe which seems to have suf- 
 fered least is the peasantry, who, of course, 
 exist mainly on what they themselves produce, 
 
 [44] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 while at the same time they are able to dispose 
 of their surplus at excellent prices. 
 
 Returning to Paris, as we are most of us 
 still very willing to do, life in that city is on 
 the whole as attractive as ever, though scarcely 
 so brilliant. Like London, the city is poorly 
 lit, the streets are less thronged, and one sees 
 comparatively few automobiles. Nor are the 
 women so well dressed. Still, the little Paris- 
 ienne retains her old coquetry and undeniable 
 chic. The racetracks seem more crowded than 
 ever, seaside resorts, like Deauville and 
 Biarritz in summer and Monte Carlo and Nice 
 in winter, attract the same sort of people as 
 of yore, in almost the same numbers, and 
 gambling is higher and more reckless than for- 
 merly, thanks to war fortunes and the rich 
 foreigner. Paris is trying almost desperately 
 to maintain its old prestige, and there is a defi- 
 nite effort on the part of the authorities, not 
 excepting the Government, to attract and enter- 
 tain the traveller and to separate him from his 
 
 [45] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 money on the same old lines, enticing him by 
 the old allurements, aesthetic, gastronomic and 
 sexual. 
 
 • ••••• 
 
 Turning to the other side of the picture, and 
 examining underlying conditions, one finds they 
 are distinctly less favorable in France than in 
 England. France has undoubtedly been most 
 hurt by the war. The French newspapers, in- 
 spired it is believed by the Government, have 
 expatiated, and continue to do so, upon the 
 courageous and energetic efforts of France in 
 the all-important matter of reconstruction. We 
 read reports of the many miles of railroad track 
 which have been relaid, the long stretches of 
 roads which have been repaired, and the many 
 hundreds and thousands of houses which have 
 been rebuilt. I saw enough to convince me 
 that France has set about this work as earnestly 
 and energetically as possible, and it is encourag- 
 ing and stimulating to realize that Govern- 
 ment and people are doing their utmost to 
 
 [46] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 repair the actual physical damage resulting 
 from a ruthless war; the work done by indi- 
 viduals in many cases being not short of won- 
 derful. I am afraid, however, that less 
 attention is being paid to a matter which most 
 vitally affects the ultimate recovery of France. 
 To my mind the most serious loss which it has 
 suffered is that of its manhood, and it is much 
 more important that a strong effort should be 
 made to make good that loss than it is to repair 
 railways and roads and rebuild cities and 
 towns. 
 
 The greatest problem which France has to 
 face during the next decade is that of increas- 
 ing its population by the most natural means. 
 The difficulty is enhanced by the fact that for 
 years France has deliberately been the out- 
 standing exponent of the Malthusian doctrine, 
 which it has carried to a dangerous extreme, 
 as for years before the war the population of 
 the country was steadily declining. This, to 
 speak plainly, has been partly due to unsound 
 
 [47] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 private economics, and partly to the self- 
 indulgence and indifference of a large section 
 of the people to their responsibilities as affect- 
 ing the interests of the community. 
 
 In Paris itself the lack of men is not so 
 apparent, as a large city necessarily attracts 
 persons both on business and pleasure bent; and 
 there is a large movement to Paris from the 
 provinces, just as there is a large influx of peo- 
 ple into New York from all over the States. 
 But as soon as you get out of Paris you become 
 painfully conscious of the scarcity of men, 
 especially young men. There are fewer por- 
 ters at the railway stations, fewer male waiters 
 in the hotels and restaurants, and fewer clerks 
 of the masculine sex in the shops and offices. 
 In the post and telegraph offices most of the 
 clerks are women, and in a railway restaurant 
 there is so little attendance of any kind that 
 one has literally to fight for one's food and 
 snatch what one wants. 
 
 I had to stay in Bordeaux overnight, and felt 
 
 [48] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 it my duty to make a pilgrimage to that Mecca 
 of gastronomes, Le Chapon Fin, which I feel 
 justified in calling the premier restaurant in 
 France. What was my surprise to find that, 
 outside of two head waiters, the still delicious 
 viands and choice vintages of the chateaux of 
 Bordeaux were served by waitresses garbed in 
 white, like the well-known feminine figures 
 which dispense hot griddle cakes at the Childs 
 Restaurants in New York. 
 
 The vital question affecting France's future, 
 then, is the replenishment of its human material. 
 Before this every other consideration fades into 
 insignificance, and it is saddening to the friends 
 of the country to realize that it is not yet awake 
 to the fact. The record of the last two years 
 has been the reverse of encouraging, for the 
 excess of deaths over births has been, if any- 
 thing, increasing, and that way lies national 
 decay. The question becomes additionally 
 grave when it is remembered that but for the 
 war the young men whose lives have been lost 
 
 [49] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 would be now fulfilling their function as pro- 
 genitors of the coming generation. The crucial 
 point with regard to the repopulation of 
 France is no longer the continued resistance to 
 large families; the immediate danger lies in the 
 fact that there are not sufficient young men to 
 maintain the previous birth rate, small as it 
 was. 
 
 Two elements, however, are strongly in favor 
 of the French; one is the peculiar, almost 
 unique, reserve force which has invariably en- 
 abled this people to rise to noble heights in 
 periods of great emergency. The French are 
 a peculiarly easy-going people, careless to the 
 verge of cynicism in matters of ordinary every- 
 day concern. But, when aroused to a sense of 
 national need and great collective effort, they 
 have always proved their ability to respond to 
 the call of duty. I remember the first days 
 of the war in Paris, when I saw the nation, 
 whose lack of organizing power has often been 
 animadverted upon, carry through the mo- 
 
 [5°] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 bilization of the army with a precision and 
 promptitude which excited the admiration of 
 the severest critics. The same traits of deter- 
 mination, resourcefulness and devotion to a 
 high cause were manifested by the French 
 again and again throughout the war. The 
 second point which is in favor of the ultimate 
 recovery of France is its uniquely advantageous 
 geographical position. The large stretches of 
 sea coast on the Atlantic seaboard, the English 
 Channel and on the sunny shores of that large 
 basin which may justly be called the cradle 
 of modern civilization, the Mediterranean, help 
 to make it the most favored of all European 
 nations. It is rich in natural resources which 
 call forth the best energies of man, and which 
 of themselves tend to the rearing and main- 
 tenance of a fine and sturdy population. 
 There are the rich vineyards of the south 
 and the spreading wheatfields of Central 
 France; there are the lush meadows and pas- 
 turages of Normandy, and the many fertile 
 
 [51] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 patches on the hills and mountains which are 
 turned to such splendid account by an indom- 
 itably industrious peasantry; and there are the 
 wide navigable rivers; while the mineral re- 
 sources of the north, east and center, when 
 properly developed, are an assurance of great 
 future wealth. These resources, combined with 
 the energies of one of the most industrious 
 and frugal people on earth, justify hopes for the 
 future, if only France will recognize its greatest 
 and most immediate need, which is the restora- 
 tion and maintenance of its population at a 
 ratio equal to that of other great and progres- 
 sive countries. 
 
 French history for the last hundred years 
 presents a curious paradox. When we compare 
 the French body politic of today with that of 
 the ancient regime^ we find, if I may say so, 
 that the head has changed but that the trunk 
 has remained pretty much the same. The king 
 and his ministers have been replaced by a presi- 
 
 [52] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 dent and his cabinet, the latter responsible to 
 an elected Chamber of Deputies. But, for the 
 rest, the French administrative system is the 
 same today as it was under the Bourbons of 
 old, a wholly centralized bureaucracy, ap- 
 pointed and controlled from Paris. There is 
 practically no system of local self-government 
 in France. This fact peculiarly accentuates the 
 difference between the Latin and Anglo-Saxon 
 forms of government. In Great Britain, and 
 still more in the United States, the smallest 
 political divisions exercise their own executive 
 and legislative functions, and attend to their 
 local concerns through their chosen administra- 
 tors and officials. But in France a compara- 
 tively small group of men in Paris have the 
 power to run the entire country. It is true 
 that these men change from time to time, but 
 even in this respect there is little alteration, 
 and a study of the personnel of the different 
 cabinets during the last twenty years reveals 
 constant recurrence of the same names, demon- 
 
 [53] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 strating beyond peradventure that the central- 
 ized government of the country is kept as far 
 as possible in the hands of a small group. 
 
 This system is aggravated by the fact that 
 the French government has long had a sus- 
 piciously close connection with the French 
 financiers, in fact one might say that the Gov- 
 ernment has depended very largely on the 
 approval and support of the great banks of the 
 country, whose headquarters are, of course, in 
 Paris. In no country has there been a more 
 obvious and dangerous association between gov- 
 ernment and high finance than in France. 
 Moreover, there has been an extremely sinister 
 connection in France, and, it may be added, in 
 some other European countries, between dip- 
 lomatic negotiation and private financial enter- 
 prise. With no desire to revive the past, or to 
 stir up muddy waters, one cannot fail to recall 
 the circumstances attending the making of the 
 Suez Canal, the construction of Turkish rail- 
 ways, the Panama scandal, and above all, the 
 
 [54] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 placing of huge Russian loans on the French 
 market. The French Government decided to 
 help Russia, and, as usual, the big bankers and 
 financiers were called into counsel in order to 
 find money for the needs of that country in 
 maintaining a government whose avowed ob- 
 jects and methods at home and abroad were, 
 or should have been, totally alien to a nation 
 whose fundamental doctrines are liberty, equal- 
 ity and fraternity. The bankers readily enough 
 worked up enthusiasm among the many thou- 
 sands of small investors, who purchased mil- 
 lions of Russian bonds, to their present grievous 
 disappointment and heavy loss. The French 
 banker, in fact, served as intermediary between 
 government and people. What abuses such a 
 condition of affairs may lead to is only too 
 apparent. And it is the Government of France, 
 supported by the bankers, which today is most 
 opposed to the recognition of the Russian gov- 
 ernment because the latter objects to the re- 
 payment of loans raised for objects which many 
 
 [55] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 outside the ranks of Bolshevism, and strongly 
 opposed to that political creed, regard as a 
 perversion of either public or private funds. 
 While some of the French opposition to the 
 present day Russian government is due to a 
 perfectly natural antagonism to the principles 
 of communism, a great deal more must be 
 ascribed to the desire of the investor to protect 
 his threatened interests. 
 
 A third member in the partnership existing 
 between the Government and high finance is 
 the newspaper press of Paris. In no other coun- 
 try have the bankers and financiers used the 
 newspapers for the purpose of placing their 
 securities and forwarding their schemes to such 
 an extent as in France. The expenses of any 
 flotation in that country are heavily increased 
 owing to the large sums which are expended 
 in the subvention of the newspapers. These 
 not only include the amounts spent in actual 
 advertising, but are made up of sums expended 
 for what we should call puffs in the form of 
 
 [56] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 editorial comment, or news calculated to stimu- 
 late public interest in a flotation. To what an 
 extent the newspaper press of Paris is depend- 
 ent on this very dubious means of existence is 
 illustrated by the bon mot of the late Henri 
 Rochefort, the well-known chauvinist journal- 
 ist of the latter part of the nineteenth century. 
 One of his journalistic enterprises was "LTn- 
 transigeant," a four-page sheet, which did not 
 carry too many advertisements or enjoy too 
 large a circulation. A friend asked Rochefort 
 one day how he managed to keep things afloat. 
 He shrugged his shoulders and said, "C'est la 
 cinquieme page," "It is the fifth page." And 
 it is the "fiTth page" which still makes the 
 money for many of the French papers, includ- 
 ing some of those which ought to be far above 
 suspicion of this sort of thing. 
 
 The disastrous connection between politics 
 and high finance is also discernible in the inter- 
 nal affairs of the country. Up to a few months 
 ago the French system of taxation, was entirely 
 
 [57] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 in favor of the rich man. While England and 
 America from the first raised a large part of the 
 national revenue and war funds by means of a 
 progressive income tax, bearing most heavily 
 on the largest incomes, France has only very 
 recently resorted to this method. Years too 
 late it imposed a tax on war profits, after 
 every other country had led the way, and, as 
 a result of the lapse of time, the country will 
 only be able to get back a small proportion of 
 the swollen gains of the profiteer. The larger 
 part of French taxation has borne most heavily 
 on the consumer — the poor man. Everything 
 he eats, drinks, wears and needs most in his 
 daily life has been taxed up to the hilt, and 
 state monopolies of a very antiquated char- 
 acter have been retained in most objectionable 
 form. One easily realizes how unprogressive 
 and unfair France has been in its methods of 
 taxation and its provision for the cost of the 
 war when one makes comparison of its policy 
 with that of England and the United States. 
 
 [58] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 In those countries the burden has been laid 
 where it can best be borne, indeed it can be said 
 that America has gone to the other extreme, 
 and has imposed on the largest incomes and on 
 the profits of corporations taxes of such exces- 
 sive character that their justice as well as their 
 wisdom may fairly be questioned. 
 
 But to resume, the excuse advanced for the 
 French policy of taxation has been the fear of 
 disturbing the financial equilibrium and de- 
 stroying the morale of the country by means of 
 new and unaccustomed taxes. The Govern- 
 ment, owing to the pressure of the bankers and 
 the unwillingness of rich financiers and other 
 wealthy men to bear their fair share of the 
 financial burdens of the country, has been com- 
 pelled to resort to the more than doubtful 
 means of making up the annual and ever- 
 increasing deficit by large loans at constantly 
 rising rates of interest. At the same time the 
 Government has been disingenuous and lack- 
 ing in moral courage, for it has withheld from 
 
 [59] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 the people the true position, and raised false 
 hopes as to indemnities which would be forth- 
 coming from Germany. Of course Germany 
 should pay all that is in her power, in order to 
 make good to some extent the mischief she has 
 wrought. But what that country ought to pay 
 and what it can and will pay are two different 
 things, and that is a matter which French states- 
 men seem unable to understand, or, at least, 
 unwilling to face. 
 
 It is but ordinary justice that the sufferer 
 of unprovoked assault and terrible injuries 
 should receive compensation from the assailant, 
 and everyone with a sense of fairness hopes 
 that France will obtain ultimate compensation 
 for its sufferings and losses. But it does seem 
 improvident and foolish for a government to 
 disguise its position and to discount its hopes 
 and expectations by issuing an additional and 
 extraordinary budget, in which it takes credit 
 for problematical indemnities to be ultimately 
 collected from Germany, thus lulling the people 
 
 [60] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 into a false sense of security and wellbeing. 
 To the failure of the Government to reveal to 
 the community the real financial position may 
 be attributed in very large measure the spend- 
 ing mania which had taken hold of so many of 
 the French people. The French are by nature 
 conservative and thrifty, the stocking of the 
 French peasant is proverbial. The American 
 traveller, like myself, during his passage 
 through the country, during last summer was 
 likely to be surprised at the change which had 
 overtaken the people. Everyone seemed to be 
 joining in the dance, and high prices no longer 
 deterred or affrighted. The people were ever so 
 much more restless than they used to be, and 
 were rarely content to remain where they be- 
 longed. There seemed to be a veritable mania 
 for travelling in France. The great railway 
 stations and trains were crowded with people 
 flitting here or there ; you had to book your seat 
 days in advance and then you were compelled 
 to travel in crowded compartments and forego 
 
 [6i] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 the ordinary comforts to which you were ac- 
 customed. To a certain extent this wave of 
 extravagance may be attributed to the super- 
 abundance of cheap paper currency, which 
 seemed somehow or other to have destroyed the 
 old sense of values. There was a sort of sub- 
 consciousness of the inherent lack of value of 
 the sheaves of notes with which everj^one had 
 to fill his wallet and pockets. Money had lost 
 its solid backing and substantial power. To 
 some degree also the wave of extravagance was 
 due to the general sense of uncertainty which 
 leads to a dread of tomorrow and bids people 
 live only for today. The same phenomenon, I 
 am told, was observable in Germany in the 
 Fall and Winter following the signature of the 
 Peace Treaty. After the wave of restlessness 
 and recklessness had subsided, the people were 
 left in a condition of utter depression, which is 
 still tragically apparent. Let us hope that 
 France will not pass through a similar experi- 
 ence after all the woes she has already endured. 
 
 [62] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 There are two outstanding facts in Western 
 Europe arising from the war which have a 
 greater significance and bearing upon the future 
 peace of the world than anything else. They 
 are on the one hand the devastation in North- 
 eastern France and its effect upon French 
 national sentiment; and on the other the sense 
 of defeat and the depression in Germany, com- 
 bined with the resistance to what the German 
 people believe to be the injustice of the peace 
 treaty, and their bitter resentment against the 
 French, who are believed to be mainly respon- 
 sible for the harshness of the terms imposed at 
 Versailles. 
 
 For the next decade at least these sentiments 
 will have to be reckoned with, and upon their 
 appeasement or aggravation the course of events 
 will very largely depend. In the one case, how- 
 ever, time will help to heal the physical 
 wounds of the war, and to whatever extent this 
 reparation is helped by Germany France is 
 
 [63] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 likely to respond. But herein lies danger, io^ 
 while Germany can gradually reduce the re- 
 sentment of France by making good the damage 
 wrought during the war, the antagonism of the 
 German people is likely to be correspondingly 
 increased as a result of the heavy burdens im- 
 posed upon them. 
 
 It seemed to me that a visit to Western 
 Europe would be incomplete without personal 
 inspection of the conditions which are at the 
 root of French hatred and German bitterness. 
 I had read many magazine articles and news- 
 paper reports descriptive of the ravages com- 
 mitted by Germany and I had seen innumer- 
 able photographs and film pictures of ruined 
 cities and towns and devastated areas. But 
 nothing which I had read or seen conveyed 
 more than a faint impression of the reality. I 
 may add at this moment that I had also read 
 and heard much in the course of conversation 
 as to conditions in Germany, but there, as in 
 France, verbal or pictorial descriptions but 
 
 [64] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 poorly convey a sense of things as they are, the 
 reality being far more terrible than can be con- 
 jured up even by a vivid imagination. When 
 one sees the stark ruins of hundreds of villages 
 and towns, the shell-torn and untilled fields, 
 the treeless landscape, and the miserable cabins 
 or shanties in which the survivors are forced 
 to live, it is not difficult to account for and 
 excuse the bitter feelings which the recent con- 
 flict has created in the minds of the French 
 people. No matter how much one may deplore 
 and deprecate the existence of this hatred, no 
 matter how much you may desire to see the 
 growth of a more forgiving spirit, one cannot 
 close one's eyes to the tremendous and often 
 totally unnecessary injury which has been 
 wrought, and admit that the French attitude to- 
 wards Germany is only human and the natural 
 reaction of a grievously outraged nation. 
 
 It would, of course, in the end be much 
 better for France if a peace could be brought 
 about which would lead ultimately to relations 
 
 [65] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 of greater cordiality with Germany, thus help- 
 ing to lay securer foundations for the future of 
 Europe and of the world. But I doubt very 
 much whether any other country which has 
 suffered as France has would feel or behave 
 differently. Let us suppose that England had 
 suffered from an invasion which had devas- 
 tated the fair fields and park lands of Kent 
 and Sussex, caused the destruction of cathedrals 
 and churches and of priceless and irreplaceable 
 historic monuments which are the pride of the 
 country, and also led to shocking and even more 
 irreparable loss of life — let us imagine all this, 
 I say, and then ask whether England would 
 feel quite as leniently disposed towards Ger- 
 many as she now evidently does'? Might she 
 not be even more bitter and irreconcilable 
 than is the France of today, and possibly be 
 slower still to extend the hand of friendship to 
 the invader? 
 
 I decided to start at Strassburg and work up 
 in a northwesterly direction to Verdun, follow- 
 
 [66] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 ing as far as possible the battle line from the 
 Vosges to the famous fortress. At Strassburg I 
 took a good look around, and the thing that 
 struck me most was the difference between 
 Alsace and Lorraine. The latter, especially the 
 western part, is French in origin, language and 
 manners. The charming old episcopal city of 
 Metz, lying on the banks of the Moselle, is 
 thoroughly French in its general architecture 
 and especially its beautiful Gothic cathedral, 
 which might stand in Tours or Orleans. There 
 are French names all over, and everywhere one 
 hears the French idiom. The only parts of 
 Metz which are German are the wide streets 
 and parkways laid out during the German 
 occupancy, and the massive railway station, the 
 architecture of which is peculiarly Teutonic. 
 Strassburg, so typical of Alsace, is, on the other 
 hand, German in its architecture. The old 
 streets of the city suggest Nuremberg or Roth- 
 enberg, the appearance of the inhabitants is 
 German, and everywhere one hears the German 
 
 [67] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 language in the Alsatian dialect. The Alsatian 
 has a peculiar character. Although he pros- 
 pered greatly under German rule and govern- 
 ance, he never ceased to chafe beneath what he 
 considered the German yoke. But he is not 
 happy yet under French rule, although un- 
 doubtedly he prefers it to German domina- 
 tion. What many Alsatians would like best is 
 that the province should be erected into an 
 independent state, precarious as this position 
 might be. But at least Alsace would be self- 
 determining and self-respecting and no longer 
 the pawn of rival nations. 
 
 I started out on my visit to the battlefields 
 from Strassburg. Just to prove my statement 
 as to the peculiar conditions prevailing in 
 Alsace, I may mention that I found that the car 
 in which I was to travel was of German make 
 — an Opel — and my chauffeur was a charming 
 young Alsatian, who had been forced into mili- 
 tary service by the Germans, and who had 
 served on the Russian front. He could hardly 
 
 [68] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 speak or understand a word of French, and it 
 seemed a dubious prospect to be guided by a 
 driver who did not know either the language 
 or the localities of the country which we were 
 about to visit, having never been west of the 
 German-speaking districts of his native prov- 
 ince. Still, everything passed off pleasantly, 
 with the exception of a few harsh looks at 
 Verdun, where he asked my advice in German 
 about the road. 
 
 The battlefields of the Vosges present a truly 
 tragic appearance. The wooded mountains 
 and the lovely valleys at a distance look so 
 peaceful that by contrast the ravages of four 
 years' war when seen at close range are all the 
 more shocking. As you pass along the road 
 you still see striking evidences of the struggle 
 — the Red Cross stations, the wire entangle- 
 ments, the trenches, and the roadside dotted 
 with crosses marking the graves of French and 
 German soldiers intermingled. At one point 
 we struck a cemetery where eight hundred ofH- 
 
 [69] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 cers and soldiers of a French chasseur regi- 
 ment were buried, and it was saddening to see 
 it clinging to the side of a wooded mountain. 
 It impressed me even more than the large ceme- 
 teries which one sees near Verdun, where the 
 slaughter was so tremendous. It was the 
 afternoon of a beautiful summer day, when 
 nature was at her brightest and best, and the 
 contrast of a procession of broken-hearted par- 
 ents and wives trudging up the hill in the dis- 
 tance, far away from the railway, all of them 
 on the same sad mission of seeking the grave 
 of a lost son or husband, was overwhelmingly 
 pathetic. There are other signs of the pro- 
 longed warfare in these regions. The tops of 
 some of the mountains and hills are absolutely 
 bare. We Americans are accustomed to the 
 sight of hills which have been denuded by for- 
 est fires, but the sight of some of the Vosges 
 mountains is immeasurably sadder when one 
 reflects upon the terrible sufferings and sacri- 
 fices of the soldiers high up on the peaks and 
 
 [70] 
 
 ^ 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 hill tops, far from human habitation — suffer- 
 ings endured for four long years, with unbroken 
 courage. 
 
 We passed through Luneville, and after a 
 night's rest at Nancy started early in the morn- 
 ing for our main objective. Leaving Toul one 
 strikes the battle line near St. Mihiel. The 
 road from Mihiel to Verdun is a veritable Gol- 
 gotha. One passes village after village abso- 
 lutely razed to the ground, and you seek almost 
 vainly for any sign of life or human habitation, 
 until you are astonished at finding in some re- 
 mote corner a miserable little shanty of wood 
 and corrugated iron, where the old inhabitants 
 are stubbornly clinging to their patch of native 
 soil. I visited some of these cabins, and was 
 astonished at the indomitable courage and com- 
 parative cheerfulness with which the tenants 
 faced the future. One fact which particularly 
 struck me was that the destruction of their 
 homes was taken by them as the inevitable 
 accompaniment of war. The very victims of 
 
 [71] 
 
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 German aggression seemed to harbor less re- 
 sentment than the French in the uninvaded 
 regions, or even the Americans, who had merely 
 read of the ruthlessness of the enemy. 
 
 On returning to Paris I found that other 
 American travellers had noted the same thing, 
 and I tried to account for this peculiar state 
 of mind. I believe the explanation lies in the 
 fact that the personal intercourse between the 
 German soldiers and the French peasantry in 
 the invaded regions was at times more or less 
 friendly, and individual resentment was modi- 
 fied by small touches of human nature; while 
 at a distance the observer judged the situation 
 in the light of cold reasoning, influenced only 
 by abstract ideas of justice and right. I men- 
 tion such individual experiences and reflections 
 as a distinct exception to the general feeling, 
 the outstanding nature of French sentiment be- 
 ing a consuming indignation and intense hatred, 
 behind which is that strong element of fear for 
 the future. 
 
 [72] 
 
///. Germany 
 
 ENTERED Germany from Metz. 
 To pass from France into Germany 
 is like passing from day into night. 
 Despite the devastation, despite the frightful 
 human loss, and despite the heavy financial 
 burden and difficulties of existence, life on the 
 whole in France is normal in its human rela- 
 tionships, in its hopeful outlook, in its burdens 
 and griefs, and in its pleasures. Not so in 
 Germany. As you enter that country you feel 
 at once that you are among a people whose life 
 does not bear its normal aspect. They are 
 sullen and depressed, listless and almost hope- 
 less. Everything they say and do serves to 
 indicate that they are uncertain of the future. 
 Above all they have the psychology of a thor- 
 oughly beaten people. This I know is contrary 
 
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 to the general idea, but I speak of that which 
 I experienced. I had known Germany in its 
 great days. I had seen its beautifully cared 
 for, clean cities, thronged with an active, 
 happy, proud and prosperous people. I re- 
 turned to find the streets of the same cities 
 comparatively deserted, their old spick and span 
 appearance gone, while the people one met 
 were sad and almost silent, and there were few 
 traces among them of the old portliness and 
 prosperity, in fact the majority looked flabby 
 and shabby. The very trains which convey you 
 from the frontier are changed beyond recog- 
 nition. There are no longer the spotlessly clean 
 railway carriages, the ample, comfortable seats, 
 the efficient and smartly dressed conductor. 
 The velvet covers of the seats have been cut 
 away, the Germans say by the returning sol- 
 diers; also the curtains, and in their place one 
 finds coverings of material which is a mixture 
 of hemp and paper, harsh to the touch, un- 
 pleasing to the eye, but beyond all doubt dur- 
 
 [74] 
 
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 able. The leather straps have also been re- 
 moved and are replaced by straps of a compo- 
 sition similar to the coverings. As you proceed 
 on your journey you see many other evidences 
 that the splendid organization of the country 
 has crumbled under the pressure of the times. 
 While the day carriages are uncomfortable and 
 none too clean, there are hardly any dining 
 or sleeping cars, the service is greatly reduced, 
 and the trains run more slowly, but — a rem- 
 nant of the old spirit of punctuality — they still 
 run on fairly good time. The stations present 
 a neglected appearance, being, like the streets, 
 not as clean as of old. 
 
 One thing which particularly struck me was 
 the comparative lack of vehicular traffic on the 
 streets throughout Germany. During my stay 
 there I do not believe I saw a dozen private 
 automobiles, and those probably were owned 
 by schiebers, as the profiteers are called in Ger- 
 many. The spending wave which had spread 
 all over Germany during the months just pre- 
 
 [75] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 ceding and following the signature of the peace 
 treaty at Versailles, had receded and left the 
 country high and dry. The people seemed abso- 
 lutely exhausted and discouraged. Nothing in 
 the social life of Germany was perhaps more 
 striking to one who knows the country than the 
 desertion of the beer gardens, which were for- 
 merly the gathering places of the people and 
 the scenes of family and convivial parties. The 
 quality of the beer was miserable, though some- 
 what improved, they say, over last year. But 
 it was still a byword and a shame instead of, as 
 it once was, the pride of patriotic and sociable 
 Germans. 
 
 As you sat down to take your first meal in 
 Germany you were likely to receive a severe 
 shock, at least that was my experience. The 
 waiter at your hotel, the best in the place, would 
 serve you breakfast on a table covered with a 
 paper cloth, he would hand you a paper napkin, 
 he would pour out a cup of coffee innocent of 
 the bean of Brazil or Java. You would vainly 
 
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 search for sugar, but would ultimately find in a 
 small dish a speck of saccharine. During last 
 summer the black bread was still being rationed 
 to the people by the old war system of cards. 
 White bread could be obtained without cards. 
 I tasted both and I am fain to confess that I 
 did not know in either case what I was eating. 
 Whatever you eat in Germany today conveys 
 much the same impression. I recall buying 
 some peppermint "Life Savers" at the railway 
 station at Mainz. They were the usual little 
 white tablets with a hole in them, but that was 
 all the resemblance they bore to the American 
 article of the same name. They were innocent 
 of sugar, although they were sweetened, while, 
 as to peppermint, the taste was ingeniously 
 imitated. The only things one can be certain 
 about in Germany today are vegetables, which 
 not even Germans can imitate. The meat, un- 
 less you go to a first class restaurant, and are 
 willing to pay extravagant prices, is of doubt- 
 ful descent. I would especially warn epicures 
 
 [77] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 against that former pride of the German 
 butcher — the sausage. Humorists in the past 
 have referred to a sausage as a mystery. It is 
 hard to say how they would define it today in 
 Germany. Everything one eats has a peculiar 
 flavor, and you are never quite sure of the in- 
 gredients. In the end you become a greater 
 admirer than ever of German inventiveness. 
 The German cuisine of today is the triumph of 
 synthetic chemistry and culinary vicariousness. 
 The reader should not assume, however, for 
 one moment that there is an utter absence in 
 Germany of any single article, whether neces- 
 sity of life or luxury, which we are accustomed 
 to consume. Everything is obtainable for 
 money, and the American with the exchange in 
 his favor can, without much trouble, indulge 
 all his gastronomic caprices. The conditions 
 which we have described, apply, however, to 
 the people at large, who are not sufficiently rich 
 to afford the tit-bits obtainable through illicit 
 trade at exorbitant prices. 
 
 [78] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 What I have said about substitutes and mas- 
 querades in the matter of food can be said about 
 many other things in daily use in Germany. 
 You find ersatz, as they style these substitutes, 
 everywhere and in almost everything, and so 
 much has already been written on the subject 
 that further reference to it may be regarded as 
 tiresome. However, when the lack of many of 
 the articles in ordinary use to which one is 
 thoroughly accustomed begins to affect your 
 personal comfort, you cannot refrain from 
 thinking and talking about the extraordinary 
 and unpleasant things you find in their place, 
 and the matter is profoundly impressed on your 
 mind. 
 
 I have mentioned the paper table cloths and 
 napkins, and I may say that during my entire 
 stay in Germany I did not see, except in some 
 private houses, a single linen or cotton table 
 cloth or napkin. An English friend had an 
 experience which I was happily spared. Stop- 
 ping for the night at one of Cologne's leading 
 
 [79] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 hotels, he was forced to sleep between paper 
 sheets! As one passe? the shop windows or 
 enters the shops you notice everywhere articles 
 made from substitute materials, such as clothes 
 and underclothes made from pulp, tobaccoless 
 cigars and cigarettes, fruitless jams, creamless 
 butter, leatherless boots, and so on. All these 
 things forcibly draw one's attention to the lack 
 of the ordinary necessities and utilities of life. 
 The lack of coal is also plainly in evidence. 
 To this is due the fewer trains and their reduced 
 speed. The German people anticipate the ap- 
 proaching winter with dread. A dear friend 
 of mine, daughter of a naturalized American 
 citizen, who is married to a German dwelling 
 in a palatial private house, was compelled last 
 winter to live in one room, as she had not suf- 
 ficient coal to heat any of the others. I was 
 told by merchants that the lack of fuel is also 
 making itself apparent in the big industries, 
 and is responsible for a greatly diminished pro- 
 duction; while industrial progress is also seri- 
 
 [80] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 ously retarded by a scarcity of raw materials 
 and the increasing acuteness of labor troubles. 
 
 As to the labor situation, that is only one 
 phase of the altered conditions in Germany, and 
 is indicative of the change which has taken 
 place in the German mind in matters of disci- 
 pline and organization. Those of us who knew 
 Germany during the last twenty or thirty years 
 before the war were impressed or annoyed — 
 according to our point of view — by the perfect 
 and, as some thought, excessive discipline which 
 prevailed throughout the empire, under which 
 the word verboten was the order of the day. 
 The stiff bearing of the German officer, the 
 mechanical regularity of the soldier, the cold 
 correctness of the policeman, the formality of 
 other officials and the implicit obedience of the 
 public to regulations were all the indicia of the 
 subordination inculcated in the German people 
 from infancy. 
 
 For decades they had been trained in their 
 homes, in their schools and universities, as well 
 
 [81] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 as, of course, in the army, to do precisely as 
 they were told — no more and no less — and 
 obedience was with them a second nature. But 
 all this seems to have disappeared, and with 
 it, to a large extent, the really beneficent effects 
 of perhaps the most efficient national organiza- 
 tion the world has ever known. Certainly the 
 officials are slacker in their appearance and 
 demeanor, and are less efficient, while they are 
 more amenable to bribery. On the railways 
 and in the other public services in Germany 
 you expected something like perfection, and 
 you got it, but not so today. The fear is that 
 in these and other respects the country may go 
 from bad to worse, unless the inherent spirit 
 of the people comes to the rescue. 
 
 With the loss of discipline and the absence 
 of the former good order has come a relaxation 
 of the rigidity marking social distinctions and 
 intercourse, a matter by no means to be re- 
 gretted, for in this respect the Germans were 
 absurd, and the various official and social 
 
 [82] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 grades were innumerable and baffling to all but 
 those who lived in the country. The war, here 
 as elsewhere, has proved a great leveller. The 
 community of misery and suffering, the uni- 
 versal despair caused first by defeat and then 
 by what they consider the harsh terms of the 
 peace treaty have brought the German people 
 together and swept away many of the former 
 class distinctions. 
 
 Outside a few profiteers there seem to be 
 scarcely any rich people left. Today it is a 
 question of the degree of poverty and not of 
 prosperity. Taking dinner one evening with 
 some friends residing in a splendid mansion, I 
 admired the surroundings. My host smiled 
 rather sadly, and told me that the ownership of 
 a large private establishment today was not an 
 asset but a liability. He was a man who be- 
 fore the war would have been considered rich, 
 with a fortune of 4,000,000 marks, or, at the 
 old rate of exchange, a million dollars. Under 
 the new capital tax he will be called upon to 
 
 [83] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 surrender to the government about half his for- 
 tune, leaving him 2,000,000 marks, and on the 
 income from the balance he will have to pay an 
 annual tax amounting to about 50 per cent, 
 thus leaving for his living expenses a quarter 
 of his former income, and this in a depreciated, 
 if not worthless, currency. 
 
 I had to smile recently when I read Captain 
 Tardieu's argument that the Germans were the 
 least heavily taxed people in the world. This 
 is not merely incorrect as to actual figures, but 
 becomes ludicrous when you consider the 
 heavily-reduced purchasing power of German 
 incomes. The comparative valuelessness of the 
 currency is itself a tax. The only people in 
 Germany who are well off are the rich profiteer 
 and the working man — the same classes which 
 have prospered elsewhere. The hatred of the 
 profiteer in Germany is even greater than it is 
 in the other belligerent countries. A French 
 merchant at present living in Frankfort told me 
 of his experience when travelling on the railway 
 
 [84] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 in a first class compartment. The train stopped 
 at a wayside station where another train was 
 on the opposite platform, and the occupants 
 who were working men hurled at the French- 
 man the opprobrious epithet of "Schieber" be- 
 cause he was travelling first class, a luxury only 
 indulged in by the profiteer. I had a like ex- 
 perience when making a short trip in a private 
 automobile, and my friends hastened to explain 
 to me that none but a profiteer could afford 
 to ride in a motor car. This was forcibly 
 brought home to me when in Frankfort I ven- 
 tured to take a taxi. The taximeters on public 
 motor cabs have not been changed in Germany, 
 and the fares indicated are the same as before 
 the war. However, today in Berlin you have to 
 pay just eight times the amount indicated on 
 the meter, and in Frankfort I paid ten times 
 the fare shown by the meter. There is a similar 
 increase in the prices of almost everything one 
 needs. When an American pays forty marks 
 for the wing of a chicken he figures that he is 
 
 [85] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 only paying sixty cents in his own currency, and 
 is disposed to be pleased with his bargain. But 
 the unfortunate German who receives his in- 
 come in marks cannot afford to pay such prices. 
 This accounts for the deserted appearance of 
 the restaurants, beer gardens and other public 
 resorts. The German today must stay at home 
 and live strictly according to his pocket book, 
 and exactly how he does it he alone knows. 
 
 On one occasion I entertained two guests at 
 a restaurant, one of whom was a German 
 woman and the other French, We each had a 
 pork chop, which I found on looking at the 
 check cost eighty-one marks. Before the war a 
 pork chop would have cost about three marks. 
 For a bottle of inferior Rhine wine, which 
 would have cost about four marks a few years 
 ago, I paid forty marks, and so on through the 
 menu. For some little antique embroidered 
 bags, which before the war might have cost as 
 much as 150 marks apiece, I paid 2500 marks I 
 These few but salient examples serve to show 
 
 [86] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 the general trend of prices, and demonstrate the 
 problem by which the Germans are faced. 
 Small wonder that they are discouraged and 
 depressed. 
 
 One of the most important questions in Ger- 
 many today is whether there is a real and abid- 
 ing change in the political spirit of the country. 
 I think that this may be safely answered by a 
 distinct affirmative. To commence, barring a 
 small circle of militarists and reactionaries, the 
 people have lost faith in the house of Hohen- 
 zollern. The cowardly behavior of the late 
 Emperor has placed the remnant of his sup- 
 porters in the position of apologists, although 
 the Germans as a whole believe that the Allies 
 have exaggerated his personal responsibility for 
 the events which immediately led up to the war. 
 Nevertheless they feel that he and his family 
 are thoroughly discredited. This sentiment 
 naturally helps the evolution of Germany to- 
 wards real democratic institutions, and, 
 
 [87] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 although the people regard the present govern- 
 ment as rather weak, I noticed very few symp- 
 toms of a desire to return to former conditions. 
 The war has taught Germans that if they are 
 to keep pace with the great democratic countries 
 of the world they must adjust their psychology 
 in accordance with modern political thought. 
 
 Of course all great changes in the body 
 politic are essentially slow in maturing, except 
 in the case of actual revolution, and even then 
 it is long before a country really settles down 
 to an established political and governmental 
 system. No one can foretell whether or not a 
 reactionary coup may not result in the tem- 
 porary reestablishment of a monarchical form 
 of government in Germany. It took France 
 nearly one hundred years to put its present 
 institutions on a firm and abiding basis. There 
 were three monarchical coups d'etat^ and three 
 republican overthrows within eighty-one years, 
 before the existing form of government could 
 be regarded as permanent; and it is well within 
 
 [88] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 memory how the first decade of the present 
 third republic was shaken by monarchical plots 
 and clerical and military disturbances, all of 
 a reactionary character. It would be flouting 
 experience to expect the current of political life 
 in Germany to continue to flow in its present 
 channel without some cross currents and im- 
 pediments tending to divert it. Most students 
 of present-day conditions in Germany seem con- 
 vinced, however, that any serious reactionary 
 movement will only be of a temporary nature, 
 while the character of the people is not such 
 as to justify the belief that there will be a 
 strong tendency in the opposite direction of 
 communism. 
 
 In considering this subject one must also 
 give attention to the question of German mili- 
 tarism. That Germany is a chastened and 
 altered country cannot be doubted. I had oc- 
 casion to travel on the left side of the Rhine, 
 as well as within the restricted zone on the 
 right bank, and also in the unrestricted zone in 
 
 [89] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 the remainder of Germany, and was thus able 
 to observe the military aspect of the country 
 under various conditions. The change from 
 the old regime was extraordinary, and out- 
 wardly at least there is no country in Western 
 Europe which is less militaristic. I recall only 
 having seen one officer of the old regular army. 
 I also saw some soldiers, but very few, of the 
 new army with the green insignia, who are more 
 like gendarmes, their functions being chiefly 
 those of police. As far as I could judge from 
 outward signs and tokens, and I was by no 
 means casual in my observations, the German 
 army as I had known it no longer exists. No 
 doubt, the old military spirit still exists in 
 army circles and to a certain extent in the 
 population at large. Inculcated as it was by a 
 century of training, it cannot be expected to 
 disappear at once without leaving some linger- 
 ing traces behind. The Germans, even outside 
 the military classes, have not lost belief in the 
 necessity of any army, and many I know think 
 
 [90] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 that the Versailles treaty has not left the coun- 
 try a force sufficiently strong to cope with 
 possible internal risings and disorders. On the 
 whole, however, the German viewpoint with 
 reference to the necessity of a standing army 
 does not differ much from the attitude of other 
 continental peoples. I remember of old, when 
 I remonstrated with Germans on the size of 
 their army and the cost of their vast military 
 establishment, I was always met with the same 
 argument, namely, that owing to the position 
 of Germany, hemmed in on one side by France 
 and on the other by Russia, a large army was 
 absolutely essential. A similar geographical 
 argument is used by France today, and also by 
 Poland, which points on one side to Germany 
 and on the other to Russia, as a reason for main- 
 taining big military establishments. Unfor- 
 tunately experience goes to show that armies 
 which are kept up ostensibly for defensive pur- 
 poses are, at some time or another, invariably 
 used for offense. But although I deprecate the 
 
 [91] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 tendency to reactionary militarism in present- 
 day France, I do not wish to compare its spirit 
 with that of the old German militarism. French 
 militarism at worst is a feeble thing compared 
 with the spirit of old Germany. It is rather 
 the expression of a proud people trained by 
 centuries of warfare. It is also to a certain 
 extent a political and almost cynical gesture, 
 indicative of a conviction of the futility of more 
 peaceful methods. German militarism was 
 arrogant, aggressive and feudal in its character 
 and development. French militarism is mainly 
 motivated by the desire for self -protection, and 
 who shall say that this desire is wrong after 
 all that France has endured*? But I do not 
 think that French fears are well founded. 
 While the Germans want and will strive to 
 maintain an army not greatly inferior to any 
 one of their neighbors, I do not believe that 
 during this generation, which has known the 
 unspeakable horrors of war and seen the 
 futility and worse of aggression, they will dare 
 
 [92] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 again to embark on a course such as that which 
 bathed Europe in blood and left a great part 
 of it in ruin and despair. Germany will be 
 long in resorting to her old methods and tactics. 
 She is not only beaten, but she has had a ter- 
 rible lesson. 
 
 While the question of the guilt of the war 
 is considered by the rest of the world as res 
 judicata, as we lawyers say, in Germany the 
 visitor is still invited to discuss the matter. 
 The Germans insist that although Germany as- 
 sumed the position of aggressor, she was really 
 fighting a defensive war, a war which had been 
 forced upon her, and that, seeing the obvious 
 intention of those who hemmed her in, she 
 chose her own time, instead of being forced to 
 fight when it suited her enemies to begin. It 
 is, of course, the old threadbare argument of 
 the so-called "iron ring" which Edward VII 
 had forged around Germany, which, as was 
 alleged, not only prevented her due develop- 
 
 [93] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 ment but was really an aggressive and threat- 
 ening gesture. 
 
 To anyone who like myself had spent the be- 
 ginning of the last week of July, 1914, in Ger- 
 many, and the second half of that week in 
 France, arguments of this nature seem the 
 merest casuistry or sophistry. During the ex- 
 citing days following the Austrian ultimatum 
 to Serbia I had talked with many Germans, and 
 found that they were all anxious to back up the 
 Kaiser's defiant attitude, and were only too 
 ready to resort to the sword as the arbiter. 
 The French, on the other hand, hoped against 
 hope that war would be averted. The distress 
 of the people was truly pathetic. The desire of 
 the French for the maintenance of peace was 
 undoubtedly strengthened by their realization 
 that they were no match for German prepared- 
 ness. But no matter how much we may wonder 
 at the peculiar perversion of reasoning which 
 permits the Germans to regard themselves as 
 fighting a defensive war, I believe that they are 
 
 [94] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 really sincere in this attitude of mind. More- 
 over, it must be remembered that it had been 
 artfully and sedulously led up to and fostered 
 long before the war by the military party and 
 junkers. 
 
 Another question which quite naturally pre- 
 occupies the Germans, and which is a constant 
 subject of conversation, is the social and eco- 
 nomic future of their country. The German 
 upper and middle classes are as fearful of Bol- 
 shevism as the same classes in other countries, 
 and it is absolutely erroneous to think that they 
 are ready to compromise or cooperate with the 
 Russian Bolshevists in order to free themselves 
 from the pressure of the Allies. At least this 
 was the situation when I was in Germany last 
 summer, and I have no reason to think there 
 has been any alteration. It will, I believe, con- 
 tinue unless the country is absolutely driven to 
 desperation. While the labor situation is in 
 some respects more acute even than it is in the 
 entente countries, and while relaxation from 
 
 [95] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 the former bureaucratic despotism of which I 
 have made mention has to some extent encour- 
 aged the more unruly elements, the German 
 character as a whole has sufficient stability and 
 inherent conservatism to permit tlie prediction 
 that the country will pull through without 
 revolution. 
 
 In this connection, however, we should not 
 forget that Germany is facing a truly terrible 
 winter. The fuel and food situation is critical 
 and menacing. The Allies in their own inter- 
 ests, as well as those of Germany, will do well 
 to pursue a humane course. In this case charity 
 is synonymous with wisdom, and neither begins 
 nor ends at home. I have mentioned the fear 
 which exists in the allied countries of an even- 
 tual alliance between Germany and Russia. I 
 believe that under existing conditions this is a 
 practical impossibility, unless the Germans are 
 driven into a comer from which there is no 
 other outlet. In that event Germany might 
 turn to the sociological elements of Bolshevism, 
 
 [96] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 and seek some sort of a political alliance with 
 the Soviet government, but such a contingency 
 strikes me as extremely remote. 
 
 I had misgivings as to how I, an American 
 citizen, would be received in Germany. I may 
 say at once that there is hardly any feeling 
 against Americans. I was indeed surprised to 
 find that Germans did full justice to the mo- 
 tives of America in entering the war, and were 
 ready to admit that the German policy had 
 left this, country no other alternative. They 
 even seemed ready to admit that America in no 
 way desired or attempted to derive material 
 benefit from the war. The Germans feel, how- 
 ever, that the fourteen points, on the strength 
 of which the armistice was applied for, have 
 proved a snare and a delusion. But many 
 seemed willing to admit that deviation from 
 these points was due less to the fault of Presi- 
 dent Wilson than to his inability to resist the 
 cumulative and almost irresistible force of allied 
 pressure at the Peace Conference. The only 
 
 [97] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 point on which I discovered the existence of 
 real resentment against America was as to the 
 continuance of the blockade after the armistice. 
 One and all regarded this as an unnecessary 
 cruelty, prolonging the hardships which had 
 been so long endured by millions of suffering 
 women and children. 
 
 It may sound paradoxical, but the country in 
 which I found the greatest appreciation of 
 America's effort in the war was Germany. The 
 German people feel that the final effort of 
 America, coupled with the stranglehold of the 
 British blockade, was the real cause of their col- 
 lapse. Their willingness to ascribe their defeat 
 to these causes is perhaps partly due to the 
 fact that they wish to give as little credit as 
 possible to France. They feel that they could 
 have beaten the French, not only because of 
 their own numerical strength, but also on ac- 
 count of their vastly superior organization. 
 There is also comparatively little feeling 
 against the English nowadays, although the 
 
 [98] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 Germans say that Britain has walked off with 
 the lion's share of the spoils of war, including 
 the German colonies. 
 
 But the feeling against France is bitter in the 
 extreme. The old racial hatred between the 
 Frenchman and the Teuton is, of course, a 
 prime factor; but in addition the Germans are 
 convinced that the French are absolutely bent 
 on ruining them politically and industrially. 
 The occupation of the left bank of the Rhine 
 is a rankling sore, and the French troops are 
 regarded with aversion. The Germans are will- 
 ing to admit that the American and British 
 troops in their country are behaving rather 
 well, but it can be readily understood that such 
 occupation is resented under any and all con- 
 ditions. The use by France of black troops in 
 the occupied districts is regarded as a deadly 
 insult, while the rather clumsy way in which 
 the French have fomented secessional move- 
 ments has caused additional indignation and 
 bitterness.. 
 
 [99] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 Germany holds, justly or unjustly, that 
 France is mainly responsible for the harshness 
 of the Versailles treaty. All these things, 
 coupled with the conviction of the Germans 
 that they could have defeated the French by 
 themselves, make the character of the treaty a 
 great menace for the future. This is even 
 recognized by many Frenchmen. I remember 
 one of them, who was connected with one of 
 the numerous missions to America during the 
 war, deploring the character of the treaty. He 
 argued that France should either have insisted 
 on a Carthaginian treaty, or have consented to 
 a treaty which would have resulted in the 
 establishment of fairly friendly relations be- 
 tween his country and Germany. I believe his 
 judgment to be absolutely correct, as France 
 is not sufficiently strong to enforce the treaty 
 as it stands without the aid of other countries. 
 The fact is she must either resolve on the 
 destruction of Germany, which is impossible, 
 or arrive at a tnodus vivendi. Many of the 
 
 [loo] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 present woes of Europe are due to the inherent 
 weakness and defects of the Versailles treaty. 
 As one result France is seeking alliances with 
 whatever nation she regards as a strategic factor 
 in a future war, and the smaller nations, en- 
 couraged by the French attitude, are exploiting 
 the situation in order to further their own ends. 
 The provision of the peace treaty forcing 
 Gennany to make huge monthly deliveries of 
 coal to France is pressing with great severity 
 on the defeated nation. Of course, it is only 
 just that Germany should make good the wan- 
 ton and deliberate destruction of the coal mines 
 in northern France. Still, when the Germans 
 see not only all commercial activity held up, 
 but when in addition the great lack of fuel is 
 a menace to health and life, it is possible to 
 understand their state of mind. It is, I know, 
 very difficult to hit the juste milieu in this as 
 in many other matters arising from the war, 
 and we know that if the Germans had won they 
 would not have erred on the side of leniency. 
 
 [101] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 Instinctively you feel that between two victims 
 of the war, both short of coal, the one which 
 is guiltless should suffer least, if suffering is 
 to be added to that already endured. But, on 
 the other hand, one cannot help feeling pro- 
 found commiseration with the innocent victims 
 in Germany who are facing a winter at least 
 as dark and cold as any that has gone before. 
 
 The coal question leads us to the Saar occu- 
 pation. The Saar today is under a Commission 
 which is theoretically controlled by the League 
 of Nations, but is actually administered by the 
 French. At the termination of a period of 
 fifteen years a plebiscite is to be held, in which 
 all residents of the district of the proper age 
 will have the right to vote. I passed through 
 the Saar territory on my way from Metz to 
 Mainz. When the train stopped at Saar- 
 briicken I stepped from my carriage for the sole 
 reason that I wished to set foot on ground con- 
 trolled by the mystical League of Nations. On 
 the platform I asked a group of people whether 
 
 [102] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 it really was the territory controlled by the 
 League, and a young lad of fifteen who was 
 standing by interposed and volunteered the 
 statement that in a few years it would again be 
 German. It was to my mind an illuminating 
 instance of the state of local feeling. The Ger- 
 mans bitterly resent the fact that provision for 
 a plebiscite should have been included in the 
 treaty, as they regard the territory as absolutely 
 German. The only reason for such a provision 
 they attribute to a faint hope of the French of 
 weaning the German population of the Saar 
 from their allegiance to the fatherland. To my 
 thinking the provision is as futile as it is vicious 
 and vexatious. 
 
 But the greatest source of aggravation in 
 Germany is the manner in which the question 
 of indemnities or reparations has been treated 
 at the Versailles conference and elsewhere. 
 Germany is absolutely at a loss to figure out 
 her eventual liabilities. A prominent member 
 of the New York Stock Exchange had a long 
 
 [103] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 talk with one of the leading financiers of Ger- 
 many. The latter, about as competent and 
 well informed a person as anybody in his coun- 
 try, asked the American, "What do you think 
 is going to happen to us?" My New York 
 friend was thoroughly taken aback, and all he 
 could reply was, "How should I know if you 
 don't?" This is typical of the terrible uncer- 
 tainty and fear of the future which prevail in 
 Germany. I am convinced that the people of 
 the country, who are among the most industri- 
 ous in the world, will never get to work in the 
 old way until they know the size of the bill 
 their country is called upon to pay, and that an 
 entire population will not devote their lives to 
 the fulfilment of conditions which they regard 
 as so exacting as to be well nigh impossible. 
 
 The argument which is used in connection 
 with the coal question applies to indemnities. 
 From the point of view of abstract justice Ger- 
 many should be made to pay the damage caused 
 by her aggression in France and Belgium. But 
 
 [104] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 it is foolish to disregard the human and prac- 
 tical side of this question, A nation will not 
 work in order that the whole of its surplus 
 products may be turned over to its former 
 enemies, no matter how just may be the claims 
 against it. I believe the Germans are as ready 
 and willing to work as ever, but they must 
 first see that their labor will in some measure 
 ensue to the benefit of their families and of 
 their country, otherwise there is no incentive 
 either for the nation or the individual. 
 
 I suppose that these remarks will cause some 
 persons to assail me as pro-German, but I have 
 to risk whatever opprobrium still attaches to 
 that epithet. I may say, however, that my dis- 
 like of the Germany of old has by no means 
 changed. I feel as bitter as ever at the man- 
 ner in which Germany violated Belgium and 
 laid waste the fair fields and beautiful old cities 
 of France; and my whole spirit rebels at the 
 shocking disregard of human right involved in 
 the deportations. I am still of opinion that a 
 
 ['°5] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 German victory would have set back civiliza- 
 tion for generations, if not for centuries. Still, 
 after having seen the German masses in their 
 misery, after noting the physical deterioration 
 of the people who were once as prosperous in 
 appearance as they were in fact, and after 
 noting the profound depression which has over- 
 taken all classes, I cannot help feeling for them 
 a deep commiseration. 
 
 When you have beaten a foe in open fight 
 you are willing to give him a chance to rise and 
 recover, and I do not see why nations should 
 not in this respect follow the example of indi- 
 viduals. I am firmly convinced that the world 
 has nothing to fear from Germany for many 
 years to come, and that more and better things 
 might be hoped from her by extending towards 
 her a forgiving and conciliatory attitude. 
 Leniency in this case is, I believe, the counsel 
 of wisdom. A Germany given a fair chance 
 will be much less of a menace to the world than 
 an oppressed and embittered people. 
 
 [106] 
 
IF. Italy 
 
 HERE has been so much misunder- 
 standing and misrepresentation with 
 |^8| respect to Italy that it is the duty of 
 anyone who knows the Italian people and un- 
 derstands the situation to contribute to the 
 clarification of public opinion. There is a 
 great deal of resentment in Italy at the treat- 
 ment she has received from the Allies, and I 
 fear that not a little of it is justified. Italy 
 feels that she was neglected during the war, 
 that she did not receive sufficient food and mu- 
 nitions from those better furnished in these re- 
 spects than herself, and who had them to spare. 
 In addition she feels that she did not receive 
 proper military help at the period of her great- 
 est emergency, and that this was only given to 
 her after the disaster of the Carso, when the 
 
 [107] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 Allies realized the perils to their cause involved 
 in the situation. In addition there is dissatis- 
 faction in Italy at the manner in which she was 
 treated at Versailles and after, and the Italians 
 realize to their chagrin that France and Great 
 Britain got all the plums and Italy the lemons. 
 Of course the English got the major part of the 
 German shipping and the pick of the German 
 colonies through the euphemistic medium of 
 mandates. France recovered Alsace-Lorraine, 
 had the promise of large indemnities, got Syria, 
 with the probability of eventual aggrandize- 
 ment in Africa, and a commanding position in 
 Europe. Italy, on the other hand, has thus far 
 recovered only the Trentino and Trieste, both 
 of which she might have had from Austria with- 
 out war, and simply as the price of continued 
 neutrality. 
 
 Italian resentment is especially directed 
 against France, as it is felt that the French have 
 not duly appreciated the immense service which 
 Italy conferred on their country at the outset 
 
 [108] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 of the war. The mere fact of Italy's firm decla- 
 ration of neutrality at that time was a tremen- 
 dous help to France, and may indeed have saved 
 the situation for her and the Allies. I myself 
 was in Paris in the days just preceding and fol- 
 lowing the declaration of war, and can testify 
 to the keen anxiety of the French as to the 
 Italian attitude, and the joyful relief with 
 which the news of Italy's declaration of neu- 
 trality was received. I particularly recall a 
 procession of Italians on the boulevards of 
 Paris, carrying their colors through excited and 
 wildly cheering masses of people. 
 
 The second great service rendered by Italy 
 to France, was the opportunity afforded her to 
 clear the Southeastern frontier of men and mu- 
 nitions just prior to the first battle of the 
 Marne, and to mass them where they were most 
 needed. In the first days of September, 1914, 
 passing through Nice on my way to Milan, I 
 had a conversation with a French artillery offi- 
 cer who had been stationed on the Italian bor- 
 
 [109] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 der, and he told me that his own force was 
 entirely without guns or munitions of any kind, 
 all available supplies having been sent north 
 to the battle front, and that he and his men ex- 
 pected to leave for the same destination at any 
 moment. Nothing, to my mind, showed more 
 clearly the help rendered to France by Italy's 
 neutrality at the most critical period of the Ger- 
 man invasion. 
 
 Much has been said in Germany and Aus- 
 tria, as well as in the allied countries, to im- 
 pugn the motives of Italy in entering the war. 
 In the former Central Empires the Italians were 
 called traitors because they finally took up arms 
 against the other members of the Triple Al- 
 liance. The Alliance was at best only one be- 
 tween the Governments, and never between the 
 peoples. The Austrians always hated and dis- 
 trusted the Italians, and the Italians cordially 
 reciprocated these sentiments, and with good 
 reason. The chief of the Austrian General 
 Staff, General von Hoetzendorff , was , frankly 
 
 [no] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 outspoken in his anti-Italian sentiments just be- 
 fore the war, and for years before the manner 
 in which Austria fortified its Italian frontier 
 against possible attack was perhaps the best 
 commentary on the insincerity and insecurity of 
 the Alliance on both sides. 
 
 The Italian people never could forget the 
 misery they endured beneath the Austrian yoke. 
 Anyone who has friends in Lombardy will to 
 this day be regaled with tales of cruelty and 
 oppression endured by the Italians during the 
 Austrian occupation. Anyway, the Alliance 
 was only a defensive treaty at best, and the 
 casus fcederis never arose, as Germany and Aus- 
 tria were the attackers and not the attacked in 
 the late war. The secretive and treacherous 
 manner in which the Central Empires proceeded 
 in their diplomatic negotiations and warlike 
 preparations before the war, keeping Italy as 
 much in the dark as any other country, clearly 
 absolves the latter from any charge of 
 treachery. 
 
 [Ill] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 Likewise in the allied countries have the mo- 
 tives of Italy in entering the war been cruelly 
 and ungratefully misjudged and misrepre- 
 sented. She is accused of corrupt and merce- 
 nary motives, and of having held out until she 
 could drive the best bargain possible. The time 
 when Italy actually entered the war, May, 
 1915, is the strongest proof of the falsity of 
 this charge, because at that time the Russian 
 debacle was developing. If Italy had really 
 wished to drive a bargain she could at that time 
 have made a much better one with Austria, as 
 the Trentino, and probably Trieste, might have 
 been had for the asking, and merely as the price 
 of neutrality, thus sparing Italy the enormous 
 sacrifice of blood and treasure which she in- 
 curred by entering the war on the side of the 
 Allies. However material the policy of the 
 Government may have been — and in this re- 
 spect I am strongly disposed to believe that 
 Italy's detractors have, as usual, overstated their 
 case — the people can be absolved from any such 
 
 [112] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 charge. Like all other peoples, the Italians 
 have their faults. They may be too excitable 
 and impulsive, but they are genuine in their 
 sentiments and ingenuous in their expression. 
 I spent part of the months of September and 
 October, 1914, in Italy, and was in Milan 
 during the terrible days of the first battle of 
 the Marne and the siege of Antwerp, and I can 
 testify to the passionate indignation of the 
 Italian people at Germany's violation of Bel- 
 gian neutrality and the ruthless conduct of the 
 war by the Prussian army. The Government 
 may have hesitated, and in fact they did, at en- 
 tering the war, but they were swept off their 
 feet by a wave of popular sentiment which 
 there was no resisting. No greater wrong has 
 ever been done to the sentiments of a proud 
 people than the slurs which have been cast 
 upon Italy's motives for entering the war. 
 
 Of course, the greatest source of Italian irri- 
 tation is the Fiume question. The issue has, I 
 believe, received too much prominence, and has 
 
 [113] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 been exaggerated on both sides. As in most 
 other human questions, and especially interna- 
 tional disputes, there is some justice on either 
 side. President Wilson's desire to give the 
 Jugo-Slavs an outlet for their commerce at 
 Fiume was undoubtedly sincere, and to some 
 extent justified. But his attitude and actions 
 were indiscreet, to say the least, especially in 
 appealing to the Italian people over the head of 
 their chief representative at the Peace Confer- 
 ence. In doing this he took his own personal 
 popularity with the Italians — which up to that 
 time was undoubted — too much for granted, 
 and adopted a provocative and tactless course. 
 He ignored the fact that Fiume itself is Italian 
 from a historic and ethnographic standpoint. 
 Here again I may be permitted to point out that 
 there should be a distinction made between the 
 motives of the Government and the sentiments 
 of the people. The demand for Fiume by the 
 former was an afterthought, and was only ad- 
 vanced when it was realized that Trieste would 
 
 [H4] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 lose its commercial preeminence if the adjacent 
 port of Fiume was handed over to the Jugo- 
 slavs, who command the immediate hinterland, 
 and would divert practically all their trade to 
 Fiume. The issue, as far as the Italian people 
 are concerned— differentiating them from their 
 Government — is entirely one of racial senti- 
 ment and national pride, and is free from the 
 ulterior motives which certain people are so 
 fond of attributing to Italy in this as in other 
 respects. 
 
 It is greatly to be deplored that so much fuss 
 should have been made over the Fiume issue at 
 a time when the liberal aspirations of our Presi- 
 dent could have been so much better employed 
 with another question relating to the settlement 
 of the Italian borders. If there was one point 
 on which Mr. Wilson should have taken a firm 
 stand it was with respect to the issue presented 
 to him by the Tyrol. Those familiar with the 
 north-eastern portion of Italy prior to the war 
 realized the ultimate necessity of modifying the 
 
 [115] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 then existing border line. From every point 
 of view the retention of the Trentino by Aus- 
 tria was unjust and indefensible. Ethnographi- 
 cally, linguistically and sentimentally the peo- 
 ple of the Trentino belong to Italy. Moreover, 
 so long as Austria was in possession of this ter- 
 ritory, Italy, from a military point of view, 
 had a loaded pistol pointed at her heart, and 
 was at the mercy of her neighbor. Many of us 
 who have sojourned on the sunny shores of the 
 lovely Lake of Garda, in the midst of Lom- 
 bardy, foresaw the impossibility of the contin- 
 uance indefinitely of Austrian rule in this beauti- 
 ful and typically Italian region. It was a per- 
 petual affront, a menace of the mailed fist, and 
 it was almost as repugnant to impartial foreign 
 sentiment as it was to that of Italy itself. A 
 perpetual black cloud seemed to hang over the 
 northern part of this lovely region. 
 
 The frontier line of the Tyrol, as drawn by 
 the Treaty of St. Germain, errs almost as much 
 on the other side. The northerly part of the 
 
 [ii6] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 Tyrol is absolutely German in language, de- 
 scent and customs. No people on the face of 
 the earth have made a braver fight to preserve 
 their individuality and independence than the 
 mountaineers of the Tyrol. Their national 
 hero, Andreas Hofer, is the embodiment of their 
 sentiment of self-determination. There could 
 be no more striking instance of the stultification 
 of the professed sentiments of the allied gov- 
 ernments to preserve the territorial integrity 
 and to protect the interests of small races than 
 was manifested in the handing over of the Tyrol 
 to Italy. 
 
 It is undeniable that the frontier as drawn by 
 the Treaty of St. Germain runs across the 
 highest mountain crests, and theoretically 
 speaking this would be the ideal military border 
 line, as it gives an advantage to neither people. 
 It is equally certain, however, that the linguis- 
 tic and racial line running somewhere south of 
 Bozen is from a military standpoint a frontier 
 sufficiently formidable to protect both sides in 
 
 [117] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 case of warlike emergency. If one considers 
 how the frontier of the Vosges, and the fort- 
 resses by which it was guarded from Belfort to 
 Verdun, successfully withstood assaults extend- 
 ing over more than four years, little doubt can 
 be entertained that Italy would receive ade- 
 quate protection from invasion without subject- 
 ing the Tyrolese to a foreign yoke. 
 
 How easily nations seem to forget! The 
 Italians were for years bemoaning the fate of 
 their oppressed brethren of the Trentino, and 
 here they are themselves creating a new Irre- 
 denta ! No one who has ever passed a summer 
 in the Tyrol and has known its charming peo- 
 ple, with their simple faith and loyal adherence 
 to their nationality, can help sharing the indig- 
 nation to which Lord Bryce has given such forc- 
 ible and eloquent expression. 
 
 • ••••• 
 
 The prospects of Italy's commercial recovery 
 are regarded with a good deal of pessimism in 
 Europe, but it may safely be asserted that the 
 
 [118] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 position is by no means so hopeless as some 
 people seem anxious to assume. It is true, of 
 course, that compared with her associates in the 
 war Italy is a poor country. She has a large 
 public debt, she has a great deal of cheap paper 
 money, and, aside from these temporary fac- 
 tors, lacks many things in the way of natural 
 resources — timber, for instance, the supply of 
 which has been practically exhausted by thou- 
 sands of years of wasteful cutting. There is 
 no coal, and, barring a small deposit in the Isle 
 of Elba, no iron. On the other hand, the coun- 
 try has a superb situation. Protruding as it 
 does into the Mediterranean, it is ideally situ- 
 ated to catch the trade between the western 
 countries of Europe and those of the Near East. 
 Its raw silk industry is second to none, the 
 plains of Lombardy hum with the activities of 
 many prosperous industries, while the agricul- 
 tural wealth of the south permits in normal 
 times a not inconsiderable export of surplus sup- 
 plies of wine and oil. 
 
 [119] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 Withal, Italy has a population which though 
 at present not as active as in normal times is 
 both industrious and frugal. From one point 
 of view Italy differs markedly from its Latin 
 neighbor across the Alps, and that is that its 
 population is not only increasing but is over- 
 flowing to such an extent that it is compelled 
 to seek a constant outlet by means of emigra- 
 tion. Being industrious and thrifty, the Italian 
 prospers abroad more than most, and the annual 
 remittances to Italy by its faithful and frugal 
 sons and daughters who have emigrated are an 
 important source of national prosperity. Of 
 course, we must not forget one of Italy's great- 
 est assets, and that is the unfailing attraction it 
 presents to the tourist and traveller, on account 
 of its magnificent and unique historic monu- 
 ments, as well as its beautiful scenery and cli- 
 mate. Thousands of people are annually at- 
 tracted from all over the world, and leave a 
 great deal of money behind them. No other 
 country can approach Italy in these respects, and 
 
 [120] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 when conditions once again become normal Ital- 
 ian travel will present its old attractions, and 
 the steady flow of foreign money into the coun- 
 try will be resumed. 
 
 As to the social and political unrest, con- 
 cerning which the American papers were so full 
 in the summer of 1920, while there were many 
 and great exaggerations with respect to riots 
 and risings, all Italians are agreed that their 
 country is on the eve of great changes. The 
 calmest and best judges, however, feel confident 
 that these will be accomplished without revo- 
 lution. It is not generally realized that for 
 years Italy has been the most democratic coun- 
 try on the European continent. It is a kingdom 
 in name only. Its whole political and social 
 structure is singularly free from social distinc- 
 tions and caste prejudices and privileges. The 
 discussion of public affairs is absolutely un- 
 trammelled, and in the north particularly is 
 marked by a high level of seriousness and intel- 
 ligence. In this connection one must always 
 
 [121] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 bear in mind the vast difference which exists 
 between southern and northern Italy. In the 
 latter, especially in the valley of the Po and 
 the adjacent territory, the people, including the 
 peasants, have had the benefit of a century of 
 public education; while its industries are highly 
 developed and among the finest in Europe. 
 The industrial and public life of northern Italy 
 compares favorably with that of the most ad- 
 vanced countries. In the south, where progress 
 has been retarded by generations of Bourbon 
 tyranny and clerical misrule, conditions remain 
 primitive and often mediseval. There one finds 
 large estates on which feudal conditions still 
 exist. The problems which face the south are 
 entirely different from those which have to be 
 met by the north. In the latter, industrial con- 
 ditions are much the same as they are in Brit- 
 ain or America, and social problems will prob- 
 ably be met in much the same manner in all 
 three countries. The large land holdings in 
 southern Italy will present in the future a diflfi- 
 
 [122] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 cult problem. But Italy, after all, is not the 
 only country which will have to face that 
 question. Much the same conditions prevail in 
 Spain, and in an aggravated degree. For in- 
 stance, large industrial and radical centres like 
 Barcelona and Bilbao exist almost side by side 
 with agricultural provinces owned and con- 
 trolled by feudal lords of immense domains, 
 and not very different in their outlook from 
 their ancestors of the middle ages. I repeat, in 
 this respect conditions in Spain are even more 
 serious than they are in southern Italy, the 
 chasm which divides the upper from the lower 
 class being much wider and deeper in Spain. 
 
 This vexed question of large landed posses- 
 sions exists in Scotland, the eastern provinces 
 of Germany, Poland and Hungary, although 
 the precise position in the last named country 
 since the war is not quite clear, reliable in- 
 formation being lacking. Large estates and a 
 dispossessed, impoverished peasantry constitute 
 an anachronism at the present time, and it is 
 
 [123] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 one which will surely be removed by the com- 
 ing generation. In this connection France is 
 the most advanced country in Europe. Its 
 large estates were divided into small parcels 
 during the revolution at the end of the i8th 
 Century, and much of the social stability of the 
 country is due to the existence of a prosperous 
 and contented peasantry which owns and tills 
 its own soil. 
 
 We need not be surprised, then, to find great 
 changes in all countries where large estates still 
 exist, for they are offensive to the spirit of the 
 times. Their ownership in the opinion of many 
 is much more objectionable than the accumula- 
 tion of personal treasure, such as cash, stocks 
 and shares, pictures, jewels and so on. When 
 the people are excluded from the soil, they feel 
 that they are the victims of a wrong done at 
 some time or another in the history of the 
 world, a wrong which should be righted today. 
 It is to be expected, then, that the next gen- 
 eration will be marked by a determined effort 
 
 [124] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 on the part of the peasantry of Europe to do 
 away with the old systems of land tenure. The 
 change need not necessarily be a revolutionary 
 one. 
 
 It is true that Russia has recently divided 
 the land among the peasants in revolutionary 
 fashion, but we must remember the terrible 
 conditions which prevailed there for so many 
 generations, and the complete collapse of the 
 nation following its withdrawal from the war. 
 On the other hand, a gradual change has been 
 brought about in England by Lloyd George 
 by means of a land tax, the imposition of which 
 at the time made him an object of hatred and 
 fear by the land-owning class, many of whom 
 now acclaim him as a patriot. We must not 
 forget also that an honest attempt has been 
 made by the British Government to solve in a 
 forcible but orderly manner the question of 
 absentee landlordism in Ireland, doing justice 
 to the landlord as well as to the tenant. How 
 economic questions of similar difficulty may be 
 
 [135] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 variously solved is demonstrated by a compari- 
 son of the methods by which the problems of 
 Russian serfdom and American slavery were 
 settled. In one country the slaves were freed 
 entirely without recompense to the owners, 
 while in the other the landed proprietors re- 
 ceived payment from the state, extending over 
 a period of years. How this complicated and 
 troublesome question of land tenure will be 
 settled in European countries cannot be pre- 
 dicted. Different methods will probably be 
 resorted to in different countries, and possibly 
 final results may differ likewise. 
 
 As to the changes in industrial ownership 
 and control, Italians seem to be agreed that the 
 masses will no longer be satisfied with things 
 as they are, or even with a system of profit 
 sharing merely, but will require a measure of 
 control of the industries in which they are con- 
 cerned. What shall be the extent or form of 
 that control has yet to be decided. The process 
 is in the making, and for the time being no 
 
 [126; 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 doubt there will be a great deal of discussion, 
 and perhaps occasionally a certain amount of 
 disorder and idleness. But eventually a way 
 of settling the question in a practical manner 
 will assuredly be found. If in this respect Italy 
 is able to show the way to other nations she 
 will place the world, which is already so largely 
 in her debt, under another obligation and will 
 add to her claims upon civilization the inaugu- 
 ration of a second — a social — renaissance. 
 
 [127] 
 
V. The Sick Man of 
 Europe 
 
 OR generations the Turk has been 
 called the sick man of Europe. He 
 was never so sick as he has been since 
 the close of the war. But although almost in 
 the throes of dissolution, he is by no means 
 dead, or even moribund. His corrupt and fes- 
 tering body, or what remains of it, has been re- 
 moved to Asia, where he occasionally shows 
 some of his old vitality by the slaughter of a 
 few thousand Armenians. But another and 
 much bigger sick man is now occupying the at- 
 tention of the world, and that is the European 
 continent itself. We are standing at the bed- 
 side of the patient, wondering if he will re- 
 cover, and if so when. Many of us are pre- 
 scribing remedies without making a careful 
 
 [128] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 diagnosis, that is, without inquiry into the ori- 
 gin and cause of his complaint and deciding its 
 true character. The disease from which Europe 
 is suffering is a very old one — thousands of 
 years old. If the patient were an individual 
 we should diagnose his complaint as homicidal 
 mania. 
 
 Since the memory of man the history of con- 
 tinental Europe has been one uninterrupted 
 course of internecine strife and slaughter. The 
 alleged motives or reasons for war have been 
 many. Sometimes it has been the sheer love of 
 conquest and aggrandizement, at others the 
 dynastic ambitions of ruling families have called 
 to arms nations which had no other reason for 
 disagreeing or fighting. Again, the reasons 
 have been religious — save the mark I and yet 
 again they have been commercial and sordid; 
 while in many cases strife has arisen from racial 
 antipathies and rivalries. However it all may 
 have been. Gibbon, in his "Decline and Fall," is 
 able to point out that there is only one period 
 
 [129] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 in European history when there was a com- 
 paratively lengthy interval of peace, that being 
 under the Flavian emperors of Rome. Except 
 for that golden century there has hardly been a 
 lull in the strife down to the present day, save 
 for the shortest possible periods, when fighting 
 came temporarily to a standstill through sheer 
 exhaustion. 
 
 All races and nations of Europe seem to have 
 been equally guilty. Whoever was for the time 
 being on top, and felt himself sufficiently strong 
 — that is, stronger than his neighbor — would 
 start in, and go on subjugating other tribes and 
 nations until he was made to stop by someone 
 stronger still or more audacious. Whether it 
 was Charles the Eighth or Francis the First of 
 France, Louis the Fourteenth or the First or 
 Third Napoleon; whether it was the great Elec- 
 tor of Prussia or Frederick the Great, or Wil- 
 liam the First or Second of Germany; whether 
 it was Charles the Fifth or Maria Theresa of 
 Austria; whether it was Phillip the Second of 
 
 [130] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 Spain; or Catherine II of Russia; or whether 
 it was Gustavus Adolphus or Charles the 
 Twelfth of Sweden — all were possessed in vary- 
 ing degrees by the same demon of territorial 
 greed and self-aggrandizement. The list could 
 be largely extended, covering all periods of 
 European history. For the last fifty years the 
 Germans have gradually realized that they 
 were the strongest of the European nations, not 
 only numerically, but also because of their pow- 
 ers of organization and preparation. Led by 
 their late Kaiser, they followed 
 
 . . . the good old rule, the simple plan. 
 That they should take who have the power. 
 And they should keep who can. 
 
 From time to time, when they thought the occa- 
 sion was favorable, they would attack ruth- 
 lessly. The reader will probably say that after 
 all Europe did not differ from other parts of 
 the world. It may even be admitted that 
 Europe was better than the rest, but then it 
 
 [131] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 claimed to be the most civilized, and should 
 have been superior to the unbridled passions of 
 savage peoples. Returning to the sick man 
 simile, the pathological history of the patient is 
 indeed profoundly discouraging, and the prog- 
 nosis is scarcely more favorable, for after five 
 years of the most terrible warfare ever known 
 there are still nations not only ready but eager 
 to resort to arms rather than to peaceful arbitra- 
 ment, and who prefer slaying their opponents to 
 taking counsel with them. 
 
 Up to the last war Europe could freely in- 
 dulge its penchant for internecine strife, and 
 could weaken its material, intellectual and 
 spiritual resources without fear that some other 
 power in the world outside might take its place. 
 The present conditions, however, are different. 
 There are now great and growing civilizations 
 outside of Europe, and, if Europe continues to 
 follow the old course of self-destruction, they 
 will be ready to take the leadership in humanity 
 and in all those things which make for material 
 
 [132] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 and moral progress. Great Britain, which in 
 this respect must not be regarded as a European 
 state, especially as the greater part of its terri- 
 tories and interests lie outside Europe, and that 
 other big English-speaking nation, the United 
 States of America, are today world powers, 
 ready to pick up the tattered, bemired banner 
 of civilization and carry it forward on the path 
 of peace and progress. The many causes which 
 contribute to warfare in the small European 
 states are non-existent in the United States and 
 the dominions of the British Empire. They are 
 less densely populated, there are no dynastic 
 ambitions and jealousies, there is no greedy de- 
 sire on the part of one country to profit at the 
 expense of the other, but, on the contrary, they 
 are growing up side by side in mutual peace and 
 concord, and they are more certain that as the 
 years pass the future of the world will very 
 largely depend upon them. The terrible waste 
 in human material and ideals of which Europe 
 has allowed herself to be the victim for so many 
 
 [133] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 centuries will be spared to these newer com- 
 munities, and who knows if the passing of the 
 hegemony of the world into the control of the 
 English-speaking peoples has not already com- 
 menced ? 
 
 Surely one is justified in asking whether the 
 last war has taught Europe any lesson when one 
 sees and hears many of the things which are 
 happening on the continent. I recall how on 
 the first day of French mobilization, one of my 
 best friends in France, a talented painter, who 
 had passed some seasons in New York, came to 
 bid me good-bye just prior to his call to arms. 
 He was a man of advanced political views and 
 a strong anti-militarist. When he shook hands 
 with me for the last time he said, "Well, we are 
 going to fight, and we will bring back from the 
 war the United States of Europe." I dined 
 with the same friend in one of the Bohemian 
 restaurants of Paris on the eve of my return to 
 America this summer. He had served through- 
 
 [134] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 out the war, and had received both the French 
 and Italian croix de guerre, and an English 
 decoration for distinguished service. His old 
 political ideals had gone, the war had made him 
 a rampant nationalist, and his United States 
 of Europe had disappeared in the smoke of can- 
 non and German poison gases. 
 
 And, alas, this typifies the European attitude I 
 The continental countries seem to have learned 
 little or nothing from their terrible experiences 
 of the last five or six years. The diplomatists 
 still speak and think in mediaeval, or at least 
 what we consider antiquated terms. Alliances, 
 balances of power, spheres of influence, — all the 
 old terms crop up and the same selfish notions 
 prevail. The Machiavellian code is still the 
 handbook of European chancelleries. The re- 
 cent treaties have certainly not improved the 
 temper or brightened the prospects of Europe. 
 The Versailles treaty may truly be called a 
 double-edged sword. It was forged by old 
 Clemenceau, the hardness of its steel having 
 
 [135] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 been tempered to a small degree by Wilsonian 
 alloy. France has in it obtained a weapon which 
 alone she is unable to handle. As I have said, 
 in order to enforce the treaty, France must find 
 alliances. But where? The present French 
 policy seems to be based entirely upon the neces- 
 sity of finding help somehow from somewhere. 
 In order to secure military and economic allies 
 she has given encouragement to some of the 
 smaller nations in southeastern Europe, not 
 only in their aspirations for independence but 
 for selfish aggrandizement. On the other hand, 
 the small nations make France's emergency 
 their opportunity. France also embarks in 
 perilous warlike adventures, as for instance 
 when, in order to weaken Soviet Russia, she 
 turned to the reactionary and now thoroughly 
 beaten Wrangel and helped him to continue his 
 fight against Russia; while she encouraged and 
 assisted Poland when all the other powers stood 
 aloof for the wisest and best of reasons. 
 
 Everywhere, indeed, one finds proofs that 
 
 [136] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 the European nations have learned but little, 
 if we are to judge from the actions of their rep- 
 resentative statesmen, with a few notable ex- 
 ceptions. The Poles, having for more than a 
 century suffered from the woes of a foreign and 
 divided rule, at length find themselves united, 
 only to forget all the lessons of the past, and are 
 willing and anxious to extend their rule to ter- 
 ritory to which they have no valid claim, and 
 in which their people are in a decided minority. 
 The Italian readiness to occupy the Tyrol and 
 thus create another Irredenta is an illustration 
 of the same deplorable tendency to forget or 
 ignore the lessons of the past. 
 
 As a fact the European continent politically 
 is in as hopeless a position today as it was be- 
 fore the war. The treaty of St. Germain has 
 destroyed the old Empire of Austria-Hungary, 
 and has substituted a territorial arrangement 
 the wisdom of which is doubted even in France. 
 Heterogeneous as the Empire of the Hapsburgs 
 was, there were in it elements of stability which 
 
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Invalid Europe 
 
 one looks for in vain in the new arrangement, 
 or rather disarrangement. The old regime pro- 
 vided some sort of protection for Central and 
 Western Europe against the discordant ele- 
 ments of southeastern Europe. We have today 
 in its place a series of small and acutely im- 
 poverished states, created somehow to fit in 
 with that famous and much abused formula of 
 self-determination. The Balkan disease, which 
 was fonnerly confined to the peninsula from 
 which it took its name, has now spread to the 
 borders of Germany, Switzerland and Italy. 
 Of course the structure of the old Austrian 
 Empire could not last, but it was not altogether 
 without its merits, for the Austrians and Hun- 
 garians at least recognized each other, while 
 they permitted the Poles to participate in the 
 government, at the same time sternly suppress- 
 ing all other Slavic elements. But for a sem- 
 blance of order something approaching chaos 
 has been substituted. Many of the best minds 
 in Europe think that a solution of the difficulty 
 
 [138] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 would have been to set up a tripartite state, 
 recognizing the three racial elements of the old 
 Empire — the German, Hungarian and Slavic — 
 on the basis of the Swiss Republic, in which 
 Germans, French and Italians live peacefully 
 and contentedly under one government. 
 
 At the outbreak of the conflict in 1914 we 
 were confidently told that it was going to be a 
 war to end war, that the world could not pos- 
 sibly permit a renewal of such an enormous 
 sacrifice of blood and treasure, and that there 
 would be a general disarmament of nations. 
 What a sad disillusionment we have undergone 
 since November, 1918 1 How pitifully we have 
 been disappointed in the belief that war would 
 be a homeopathic remedy for militarism ! The 
 peace settlement has not given us disarmament 
 except for the Central Powers. As to the Allies 
 and the rest of the world, we get occasional 
 vague promises of eventual disannament, when, 
 as, and if the League of Nations may so de- 
 cree. Meanwhile we see practically the whole 
 
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Invalid Europe 
 
 of Europe, outside Germany and Austria and 
 their associates in the war, an armed camp, 
 while nothing has been done in the United 
 States, except to reduce the army to "normal" 
 size. Britain and the United States not only 
 maintain but talk of increasing their navies ; the 
 Poles and Jugo-Slavs are creating new armies, 
 and the other countries are at least maintaining 
 their forces in statu quo. Allowing for the fact 
 that because of the existing unsettlement the na- 
 tions are maintaining their establishments with a 
 view to the immediate future, it must still be 
 admitted that the outlook is distinctly discour- 
 aging. Wherever we look in Europe today we 
 see merely the peace of exhaustion, and not 
 the peace which arises from an honest desire to 
 live on terms of amity and accord, one nation 
 with another. You instinctively feel that 
 whenever the nations recover their old-time 
 strength they will again be ready to spring at 
 each others' throats. 
 
 [140] 
 
FI. The Prospect 
 
 HAT then is the remedy for invalid 
 Europe? We have been told by 
 many advanced thinkers that the 
 present bourgeois governments are quite inca- 
 pable of establishing international relations 
 which will make for better things, and there- 
 fore that a reorganization on the basis of radi- 
 cal internationalism is the one and only remedy. 
 Such a clear thinker as Anatole France sees the 
 only hope for the world in such a movement. 
 We are willing to admit, and indeed we have 
 endeavored to demonstrate, that the present 
 governments still represent the old ideas. 
 Nevertheless one must ask oneself with much 
 misgiving whether radical governments would 
 be likely to do much better than those which 
 now exist, at least as far as international rela- 
 
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Invalid Europe 
 
 tions are concerned'? The Bolshevists and So- 
 cialists of all countries are willing to fraternize 
 at present, this being probably due to the fact 
 that they are at this moment the exponents of 
 a minority idea and organizers of a class war 
 which compels adherents of the faith in each 
 country to stick to each other. But as soon 
 as the Socialists become the government of a 
 country, and represent the national expression 
 of the whole people, they fall apparently into 
 the old errors of national assertiveness and ag- 
 gressiveness. The best illustration of this is 
 furnished by the recent history of Poland, 
 where its President, Pilsudski, and its peasant 
 premier, Witos, represent the Socialists. No 
 country in recent times has offended more in the 
 matter of imperialistic tendencies than this very 
 Socialist government of Poland with respect to 
 Russia, Lithuania and Ukrainia. 
 
 The attack of Poland on Russia and the at- 
 titude of the Bolsheviki toward Poland both 
 prove that radical governments can give as 
 
 [142] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 strong an expression to nationalism as their con- 
 servative predecessors. We are likewise faced 
 by the fact that the radical government of 
 Czecho-Slovakia is ready to resort to arms 
 against the Socialist government of Poland, on 
 account of the frontier dispute in connection 
 with Teschen. 
 
 The roots of the disease obviously lie deeper 
 than in forms of government, and it is hardly 
 fair to lay all the blame at the doors of the 
 bourgeoisie. The true fons et origo mali is to 
 be found in old racial feuds, kept alive for cen- 
 turies by recurring disputes over frontiers, com- 
 mercial rivalries and ingrained antipathies. 
 The last, and as many believe the supreme rem- 
 edy for the European sick man is a League of 
 Nations. I was rather disappointed when I was 
 in Europe to find that the various peoples took 
 so little interest in this matter. The fact is 
 that the European is so thoroughly used to the 
 settlement of international questions through 
 old-fashioned diplomatic methods, and failing 
 
 [143] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 these by the sword, that a movement which 
 seeks to abolish both, and to apply open nego- 
 tiation, fair dealing and even-handed justice to 
 the larger affairs of nations seems like a Utopian 
 dream. What a difference from the attitude 
 of the United States I When I returned here 
 last September I found the man in the street 
 discussing the pros and cons of the League of 
 Nations with the most intense interest; it was 
 the principal topic of the political campaign, 
 and practically every American was in favor of 
 some sort of international arrangement to pre- 
 vent war. I felt that I was truly in a new 
 world. It proved to me, if proof were neces- 
 sary, that my fellow countrymen were not the 
 gross materialists they are so often depicted as 
 being by the European press, but that rather are 
 we a nation of idealists. 
 
 It is unreasonable to expect that wars will 
 automatically cease just because a League of 
 Nations comes into existence. The institution 
 of tribunals and courts of law has not elimi- 
 
 [144] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 nated crime, but they tend greatly to diminish 
 it by punishing the criminal; and by inspiring 
 a spirit of wholesome fear of consequences on 
 the one hand, and by attempting reform on the 
 other mankind is led to a better life. The es- 
 tablishment of a League of Nations should have 
 similar results. It would seek to prevent and 
 control recalcitrant and outlaw nations which 
 prefer taking up the sword to taking counsel one 
 with another; and, partly by means of repres- 
 sion, economic and otherwise, and partly 
 through education it would lead the nations to 
 apply in their dealings with each other the code 
 of ethics which actuates individuals in civilized 
 life. An agreement to enforce peace through 
 an association of nations represents the great 
 ideal of the world, and it would be a culmina- 
 tion and realization of the Christian idea, peace 
 on earth and good will towards men. 
 
 It is not only a necessity, but the most logi- 
 cal step in the evolution of human society. The 
 development of the spirit of human gregarious- 
 
 [145] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 ness has led from smaller to larger complexes. 
 The savage, living in the woods and knowing 
 none but his mate and offspring, was driven by 
 the dangers surrounding him into the formation 
 of villages, which again developed into tribes, 
 from which still larger aggregates were formed, 
 such as counties, duchies, kingdoms, and the 
 modem state or nation. At each development 
 of a larger sociological organization doubtless 
 the same arguments against progress were ad- 
 vanced by the conservatives of their time. The 
 nobles of the middle ages resisted with all the 
 power they could muster the formation of the 
 larger states as tending to diminish their own 
 power and authority. The whole of European 
 mediaeval history is taken up with the resistance 
 offered by the feudal lords to the central power 
 which represented the larger sociological unit. 
 And now we find nations opposing the idea of 
 yielding to a League a small part of their free- 
 dom of action. 
 
 Some years ago, when reading one of the 
 
 [146] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 books of General von Bemhardi, perhaps the 
 most outspoken apostle of German militarism, 
 I was amused and shocked by the argument that 
 the State was responsible only to itself, denying 
 the possibility of anything ever controlling the 
 State. What a strange idea to be entertained by 
 a thinking person — that anything on this earth 
 of human device has reached a final state of 
 evolution in which not only amendment but 
 criticism is inadmissible and out of the question ! 
 Apart from the disappointment and disillusion- 
 ment which Bemhardi must have suffered as the 
 result of the late war and the overthrow of 
 Hohenzollernism, he should have learned that 
 there is something much higher than the State, 
 and that is the moral idea of humanity, which 
 idea must in the end control the actions of the 
 State. This moral idea, in order that it may be 
 exercised efficiently, should find concrete ex- 
 pression in a contract between nations, just as 
 the State has been slowly established by a series 
 of agreements on the part of the individuals 
 
 [147] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 constituting it. If the conduct of nations in the 
 future is to be regulated for the common good 
 of the world, it can only be by binding agree- 
 ments. 
 
 The liberal thought of the world, and of 
 America particularly, greeted the idea of a 
 League of Nations with the utmost enthusiasm. 
 It was regarded as the only worthwhile result 
 of the terrible war. It offered to a suffering 
 humanity the hope of things better than the 
 world had ever known. Europe itself cannot 
 possibly go on without some sort of a league. 
 The map of the continent has been greatly 
 changed by recent events and treaties. Large 
 areas of the old Russian and Austrian empires 
 have been divided into smaller units, many of 
 them on a lower plane of civilization than the 
 former nations as a whole, and some sort of a 
 power outside must be formed which will be 
 able to control their more dubious activities. 
 Otherwise we shall have once more a Europe 
 harrassed by a continual series of wars between 
 
 [148] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 the little states, with the ultimate danger of 
 larger ones being involved. The most con- 
 firmed reactionary would, I imagine, scarcely 
 wish to see a return to the old and hopelessly 
 discredited system of a balance of powers 
 through alliances, or so-called European con- 
 certs, whose performances in the past were the 
 reverse of harmonious. An association of na- 
 tions based on broad lines of international eth- 
 ics is urgently needed in Europe, not only to 
 protect but to control the smaller states and to 
 prevent the larger ones from ultimately flying 
 at each others' throats. 
 
 We now approach the questions which most 
 concerns ourselves — What is America to do in 
 this business — for we are in it and cannot get 
 out of it — what is our duty to progress and civi- 
 lization, and also what is our duty as regards 
 the protection of our own intersts^ 
 
 There is an almost unanimous sentiment in 
 America in favor of our entering some form of 
 a League. This admits of no doubt, the recent 
 
 [149] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 Presidential election notwithstanding. The 
 Democratic candidate, influenced by the Presi- 
 dent, attempted to make the League of Nations 
 the main issue of the campaign. He failed, 
 however, to do so, owing to the fact that the 
 Republican party as a whole refused to accept 
 this issue. The result of the election can in no 
 way be construed as an expression by the Ameri- 
 can electorate of its desire not to become a party 
 to an international agreement of some sort, 
 whether it be a League or Society of Nations, 
 or whatever other terminology you may wish 
 to employ, looking toward the prevention of 
 war. 
 
 That, on the other hand, a large majority of 
 the people of the United States is opposed to 
 the League as contained in the treaty of Ver- 
 sailles is equally indubitable. The political 
 discussions of the subject in the Senate and 
 public forum have unfortunately become ob- 
 scured by the fact that Mr. Wilson, in refusing 
 the assistance of the majority party, evoked a 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 feeling of passionate partisanship, which pre- 
 vented unprejudiced consideration of the ques- 
 tions relating to a revision of the League of 
 Nations as it stands. To our mind the greatest 
 objections to that League are the undemocratic 
 character of its constitution, and the fact that 
 it is tacked on to an objectionable treaty and is 
 designed to guarantee that treaty's enforcement. 
 The League of Nations as constituted by the 
 Treaties is really an old-fashioned alliance be- 
 tween the five major powers, who hold a major- 
 ity vote in the council of the League. America 
 can render good service to the world if it con- 
 ditions its entry into the League on a modifica- 
 tion of its constitution which will lift it into the 
 realms of a real society of nations, in which the 
 smaller states can enter without fear of domina- 
 tion by the larger ones. Thus only can the 
 League secure the confidence of the world and 
 develop into a mighty instrument for good. 
 The main objection, however, to it is the fact 
 that it has been inextricably bound up with a 
 
 [151] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 Treaty, the signatories of which are to all in- 
 tents guarantors of the territorial arrangements 
 of that Treaty, the folly and injustice of some 
 of which are becoming every day increasingly 
 obvious. Shantung, the Tyrol and the Saar are 
 surely sufficient reasons for America's holding 
 aloof, and from refusing to underwrite such dis- 
 astrous arrangements I 
 
 But the Treaty, however faulty it may be, 
 is an actuality; it has been ratified by most of 
 the European nations and Japan, and it is the 
 present groundwork of European reconstruc- 
 tion. No matter how much we may deplore 
 the result of Mr. Wilson's efforts, we are con- 
 fronted — to quote the words of one of our great 
 presidents — with a condition and not a theory. 
 The world needs peace, every other considera- 
 tion must at present cede to that pressing fact. 
 America is the only outstanding nation which 
 is still technically at war with the Central Pow- 
 ers, and haste should be made to do away with 
 this anomalous and ridiculous state of affairs. 
 
 [>52] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 But America's acceptance of the Treaty plus the 
 League should be rigidly qualified in such man- 
 ner as not to impose, even by implication, upon 
 her a contingent liability as guarantor of the 
 status quo established by the Treaty. 
 
 Anyone who has been in Europe during the 
 present year must feel convinced that it would 
 be a mistake, if not a crime, to bind ourselves 
 to participate in conflicts with which we have 
 no concern. This country can render much 
 greater service to the world by keeping aloof 
 from distinctly European quarrels and using its 
 material and moral influence as and when its 
 sense of justice and right dictates. Article X, 
 so far as America is concerned, may, after our 
 last election, be considered as an academic ques- 
 tion. No decision of the American electorate 
 was ever wiser, although the road by which the 
 decision was reached may be considered as 
 rather dubious. When the League of Nations 
 is no longer in danger of being used to enforce 
 inequitable and unwise provisions, then event- 
 
 [153] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 ually some arrangement may be reached which 
 will impose upon the nations an obligation 
 somewhat similar to the rejected article. 
 
 The history of human society and political 
 life is the surrender of unbridled action in some 
 form or another. The very idea of law is the 
 circumscription of the right of the individual to 
 do as he pleases, and the acceptance of a modi- 
 fied form of human conduct which differentiates 
 license from liberty. Each time that the indi- 
 vidual's right to do as it pleases him is further 
 circumscribed a distinct chafing at the new form 
 of restraint becomes obvious. The best as well 
 as most recent instance of this is to be found in 
 the plaints of the victims of prohibition. States 
 are similarly affronted and annoyed by the cir- 
 cumscription of their freedom of action. Again, 
 the best illustration of this may be found in the 
 history of our own country, when for decades 
 the southern states resisted what they regarded 
 as an infringement of their own sovereign 
 rights. 
 
 [154] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 Eventually, however, a way must and will be 
 found to give a League of Nations the power 
 essential for the enforcement of its decisions. 
 But in such a matter it would be best to proceed 
 with caution, and this step, as far as America 
 is concerned, lies in the future. 
 
 The English-speaking peoples have a great 
 and solemn duty before them. Of all the na- 
 tions representing western civilization they are 
 the only ones which have emerged from the re- 
 cent terrible conflict with their vigor compara- 
 tively unimpaired. The continental countries 
 have suffered such serious physical damage, 
 such terrible losses of man power, and such 
 enormous economic disasters, with subsequent 
 distress and disorganization, that for at least 
 a generation to come their efforts must be di- 
 rected mainly to their own physical and finan- 
 cial restoration. An invalid who is confined to 
 his own chamber, enduring physical pain and 
 great weakness, can hardly be expected to take 
 an active, altruistic interest in what is going 
 
 [155] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 on outside. He is mainly preoccupied by the 
 thought of getting well. 
 
 The condition of continental Europe may 
 well be compared with that of a man in a sick 
 chamber — an invalid. It is unreasonable to ex- 
 pect a manifestation of active interest in ex- 
 traneous affairs and in the great ideals of hu- 
 manity from nations which are engaged in a 
 painful struggle for existence and survival. 
 The English-speaking races, on the other hand, 
 are still strong and hearty. Their position in 
 the world is sound and secure. Together they 
 should and must take the lead in the movement 
 which makes for the betterment and permanent 
 happiness and accord of the human race. The 
 future paths of the two great divisions of 
 Anglo-Saxon civilization lie parallel with each 
 other, and there is no reason why they should 
 ever cross. One cannot expect two great peo- 
 ples to agree on every conceivable point. Mem- 
 bers of the same family are rarely unanimous. 
 Brothers and sisters have their petty quarrels 
 
 [156] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 * 
 
 and disagreements, but, unless they are very 
 unkind or ill-conditioned folk, those disagree- 
 ments rarely become violent. Nations, repre- 
 senting vastly larger interests, must necessarily 
 be faced on occasions by divergencies. But the 
 attitude of one towards the other can and 
 should be, in the main, one of cooperation as 
 well as, now and then, friendly criticism. 
 
 From the American point of view there are 
 various questions on which many of our citizens 
 differ widely from the British viewpoint. It is 
 hardly necessary to state that almost all Ameri- 
 cans sympathize keenly with the Irish, and de- 
 plore the failure of the British Government to 
 effect a settlement of the Irish question. How- 
 ever, we should be fair enough to recognize the 
 immense difficulties which underlie that ques- 
 tion, and the undoubted desire of the British 
 public, as well as of many of the ruling classes 
 of the country, to find some solution which not 
 only will satisfy the widely divergent sections 
 of the Irish population, but will also safeguard 
 
 [157] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 the interests of England, which might otherwise 
 be gravely jeopardized. Our great republic can 
 keenly sympathize with the legitimate aspira- 
 tions of the Irish, and still cooperate with the 
 great friendly power to whose wisdom and fair- 
 ness we can trust for the ultimate solution of 
 this difficult problem. 
 
 If we plead for Britain and America to stand 
 together as joint leaders in the forward march 
 of humanity, we do so in no spirit of imperial- 
 ism or vainglory, or from any overweening sense 
 of superiority over other nations, which was the 
 motive of all the braggings of pan-Germanism; 
 but because we believe that Anglo-Saxon civi- 
 lization, having emerged from the war as the 
 strongest factor in the future of the western 
 world, with comparatively little physical or 
 moral loss, should contribute its very best for 
 the benefit of the human race now and in the 
 days to come. Its present duty is to do every- 
 thing in its power to hasten the day when na- 
 tions will no longer be willing to resort to the 
 
 [158] 
 
Invalid Europe 
 
 settlement of their differences and disputes by 
 force of arms, but will gather together in peace- 
 ful council for the adjustment of disagreements, 
 with, in the last resort, an international tribunal 
 able and enlightened enough to render just de- 
 cisions, and, if necessary, strong enough to en- 
 force them. 
 
 THE END 
 
 [159] 
 
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