i 1 AND MANY HE ^WAR NOT A DEFENSE BUT AN J^XPLANATION I Dr. BernhJirdDERNBUI^G Lale Colonial Secreiary of ihe GERMAN EMPIRE ', ^P^^: ^ X l fcU I W «^*-«»! iH^.^-.v-Vi^ "Wee: '^A Devoted to Fair Play for GERMANY^ndAUSTHIA 1123BroiidwaxNewYorkajy ^1 PBR COPY ^- •*f^*rMfff^^^^^04r0fi «9S9d^9«$«s9$«si9SiS9^0969«ei^. ^i^^^ccggga^^^^gpg^^^sfggcgggc^ ^/MMyyziZfSiiszMzmi^zi^^ . The German White Book (The ONLY Authorized Translation) C It telU how Russia and her ruler betrayed Germany's confidence and thereby caused the European w^ar. C It explains how^ this Franco-German conflict might have been avoided. C And in the appendix the official communique anent negotiations be- tween Prince Lichnowsky and Sir Edward Grey, will be found. There are 32 pages in this new and vitally interesting book caUed " The German White Book." Every peige is of absorb- ing interest. For example: Do you know that for the third time in the last six years Servia has led Europe to the brink of a world- war? This book tells how. Wouldn't it interest you to know more about the secret mobilization of Russia prior to the declaration of war? Then order this book now— Price, 10 cents. There are many original lelegranu and notes included in the pages of " The German White Book." It would be impos- sible to find a more authentic, truthful and actual account of the cause of this great and unfortunate European conflict. You need this book. Read the first page and you'll lose yourself completely to your surroundings. Remember the price is only lO Cents THE FATHERLAND 1123 BROADWAY NEW YORK Dr. BERNHARD DERNBURG Startled the world by his administration of Germany's Colonial Possessions. Dr. Dernburg's tremendously able replies made to the enemies of the fatherland has startled all thinking people and will shortly be issued in pamphlet form. These powerful pleas for Germany's cause were like the shots of the mighty German siege guns and with equal thoroughness demolished their house of lies. Dr. Dernburg's articles have created a sensation everywhere. They are perhaps the most important contribu- tions to the literature of this war. We have collected these great argu- ments together and because we want everj'one to read Dr. Dernburg's impressive appeal will retail this booklet for ONLY lO CENTS Send your order NOW and be sure that you will receive one. Any one can afford one of these pamphlets — Everyone ought to have one. Do not let ten cents stand between you and the satisfaction you will derive from reading Dr. Dernburg's writings. THE FATHERLAND 1 1 23 Broadway New York GERMANY AND THE WAR Not a Defense but an Explanation — BY DR. BERNHARD DERNBURG Late Colonial SecreUiy of tha Genoaii Empire POPULAR EDITION ISSUED BY THE FATHERLAND A Weekly devoted to Fair Play for GERMANY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 1123 Broadway, New York City ^. 6^^ INTRODUCTION Little need be said to introduce Dr. Bernhard Dcrn- burg to the American public beyond the high com- mendation contained in an editorial introduction io one of the articles herein presented which appeared in the New York "Sun" of September /j, ipi4, as follows: "Hcrr Bernhard Dcrnburg, the author of this article {'The Causes of the War'), ivas recently the German Secretary of State for the Colonies. He is one of the most prominetrt Germans in this country to-day. Herr Dernburg received his early business training in New York, and his selection by the Kaiser in ipo6 as the head of the Colonial Office, to succeed Prince von Hohenlohe-Langenburg, zvas one of the sensations of the Empire, critics ascribing it to 'the Kaiser's impulsive erase for Americanism. The public generally approved the appointment and he became in a day the strong man of the Government. "The following article was submitted to Prof. IViUiam M. Sloane, former Roosevelt professor in Berlin Uni- versity, and was defined by him as a very fair and adequate presentation of the German point of view." The various articles zvere contributed at intervals to the Nezv York "Sun," "Tim.es" and other papers, with the exception of Mr. Marshall's article, printed in the form of an interview with the distinguished German statesman shortly after his arrival in America. Frederick F. Schrader. GERMANY AND THE WAR GERMANY, A NATION OF PEACE Record of Forty-three Years — Covets No Foreign Territory — Beneficent Rule of African Colonies — No Shot Fired in Generation By Edward Marshall. The following article is from the pen of Mr. Edzvard Marshall and was printed in the New York "Times" of September 6, 1914, a fciv days after Dr. Dernburg's arrival in the United States In the interest of the Red Cross Society. That Germany has no ambition toward colonial extension, despite the assertions of her enemies to the contrary, was, as far as international politics go, the most important statement made to me by her late Sec- retary of State for the Colonies, Herr Bernhard Dem- burg, who, next to the Ambassador, who last Sunday expressed his views at length in the Times, ranks as the most noteworthy German in the United States at present. He spoke with authority and interest upon Germany's colonial policy in relation to her present exterior pos- sessions, and, more especially, detailed the plans of the Red Cross for the care of the sick and wounded who will soon become the greatest of the mighty conflict's problems. Inasmuch as his visit to the United States was undertaken for the purpose of enlisting the good will of the American nation in this humanitarian work, his utterances upon this subject are of especial interest. He knows this country well, and declares himself proud that he secured here his business education. His tutors may well be proud of their distinguished pupil, for, before gaining his political honors, which have been many and distinguished, he had been a figure of considerable eminence in the European financial world, having been an important figure in the Deutsche Bank, Germany's greatest financial institution, and pres- ident of the Berlin Bank of Commerce and Industry, a vastly important organization with forty-five millions capital. In 1906 he was appointed by the Emperor director in the Imperial Ofiice of Foreign Affairs, and, when he be- came Imperial Secretary of State for the Colonies, he held the post for four full years. This at the time was an important post in the German Cabinet and imposed upon Herr Dernburg the duty of the creation of the Ministry. He is now a Privy Councilor and was made a life member of the Prussian House of Lords last year. So he speaks with high authority upon any subject which he may choose to discuss. He is best known to Germany, however, as a philan- thropist and promoter of advanced sociological science, which explains his deep interest in the work of the Red Cross. Since quitting public office he has divided his time about equally between colonial work and the study of tenement house conditions. He is President of the Ber- lin Association for the Housing of the Poor. He is an honorary Doctor of Laws in the University of Konigs- berg and of Political Economy in the University of Munich. Puzzled at American Attitude. I found him, as I had found the (ierman Ambassador, very greatly puzzled by the extent of anti-German feel- ing in the United States, very firmly of the opinion that his nation has been sadly misrepresented in the pub- lished accounts of events in Belgium, very much dis- tressed, but very far from dismayed, by the fact that unforeseen and unavoidable complications in relations with Russia have involved Germany in a war with France and England. "The false impression of the German character, Ger- man aim and German method which is being so persist- ently circulated in this country is most distressing to us all," he said. "We do not deserve to and we do not wish to go down into history as heartless, brutal combatants. Our invasion of Belgium was an act necessary to the pres- ervation of our national existence, and, while we have regrets to voice, we have no apologies to make for it. "If you should see a mob, bent on destruction, ap- proaching your home, you would not hesitate to hurry across a neighbor's lawn in your effort to prevent the spoliation of your property. "If that neighbor opposed your necessary passage with his fists, you would use your own, much as you might regret the necessity, and doubtless your regret would be doubly keen, as our was, in regard to Bel- gium, if that neighbor chanced to be a small man, weak. GERMANY AND THE WAR and certain to be overwhelmed by your superior phys- ical force. "But this would not prevent you from the protection of your own. It did not prevent us. The process which we followed was inevitable in the circumstances. "The Belgian resistance, which we were forced to crush, surprised us beyond measure. It was futile and suicidal. It has placed us in a false position with those who do not take the trouble to read between the lines of the dispatches for the purpose of securing accurate and just information. For Germany has no means of putting the true story of events before the world at present. "The most depressing exterior detail of the Belgian episode certainly has been the general American mis- understanding of the facts. I am under a great debt to America. I first came here twenty-seven years ago, and I have never lost the deep admiration for America and Americans which was my original impression. "My American training has been of infinite value to me and. I think I may say, has been of value to Ger- many. "When I first found myself confronted by Germany's colonial problems I was immensely aided by the exam- ple America had offered of developing new country by means of railroad construction undertaken without re- gard to the financial risk entailed. "You have been wonderful in these matters. Where to-day is wilderness you lay a double line of steel, and to-morrow railway stations have been built at intervals which seem quite reckless in their brevity. But next year each station is surrounded by its prosperous town ! "Any anti-German sentiment in the United States be- comes doubly distressing because so many of the Ger- man race have profited by this and other of your orig- inal, progressive, and even daring methods. I cannot believe that America, as a whole, will not very soon give us more favorable judgment. "I have come here to make arrangements for co- operation between the Red Cross Society of Germany and that of the United States. I have been welcomed and assisted in a manner which must warm my heart with a whole-hearted sympathy for the unimaginable suffering which the war is giving rise to. The officials of your American Red Cross Society are very ener- getic, and Miss Boardman, its president, is wonderful. "Of course, the Germans will do what they can to facilitate the work of all whose humanitarian impulses lead them toward lending us assistance in these hours of great distress. "The work will be effective in an unprecedented measure, because of your whole-souled cooperation, and because the German preparations have been for years upon a large scale, for the Red Cross in Germany is not an exclusively war-time organization. It is kept in practical and immensely valuable operation in times of peace. "Vast stores especially designed to facilitate its war work have thus been accumulated, and I never have seen anything more inspiring than the spirit which the German women are displaying as they bend to the great task before them. Empress's Unflagging Work, "The Empress, who is at the head of this, has been an indefatigable worker in its behalf. A special order, with three classes, known as the Order of the Red Cross, shows the imperial appreciation of the work's importance. "In order that the organization may not become in- eiScient in time of peace and may ever be useful, it maintains a great number of hospitals, convalescent homes, sanitaria for the care of consumptives, etc. It fights tuberculosis on a great scale, especially along preventive lines. "It appoints and maintains visiting nurses to go to the homes of the indigent, and in many vk^ays does good work in time of peace, which may be taken as an indication of what now may be expected of it in war time. "Almost every German wife and mother and prac- tically every German woman of means considers it her bounden duty to belong to it. It constantly keeps sev- eral hundred nurses in Africa and the Eastern Ger- man possessions. "At the head of the Colonial Division is Frau von Stephan, the wife of our distinguished Postmaster General, who founded the International Postal Union. Its headquarters are in Berne. "Enormous stores of everything which may be re- quired in the care of the wounded and sick are con- tinually kept on hand, and these are distributed through- out the empire. The fact that the organization works for the relief of suffering humanity in time of peace as well as in time of war keeps these supplies con- tinually fresh and usable. "The organization, although made up principally of women, is supported, that is, supplemented, by the Order of St. John of the Hospital of Jerusalem, the membership of which is exclusively male, and is made up, mostly, of the nobility. "The actual ambulance service — the first care of the wounded — is a part of the army establishment. Its doctors are very well mounted and must take the field. Among the second reserve — men with slight physical defects — are a sufficient number of physicians to be capable of looking after the ambulance service and the first care of the wounded. "But we need all the help we can get in subscrip- tions, large and small. "All Germany is offering the world a wonderful illus- tration of what undivided national spirit can do in time of crisis. From the moment when our Emperor, in his speech from the throne, announced that thenceforward no diversities of parties or creeds must hamper Ger- many, the unification of the national spirit has been com- plete. " 'I ask the leaders of all branches of political thought to come forward and put their hands in mine,' said he. "He has the use of one arm only, and that one must have wearied, though his heart must certainly have warmed, at the response which followed. "Then, for the first time in the history of that great structure, the national anthem was sung there. It was GERMANY AND THE WAR impressive. There was no pageantry or ceremony, but all were pledged for Germany. "Well, this marvelous unanimity of public thought is as much in evidence among the women of the nation, who are actively participating in the Red Cross work of mercy, as it is among the men, who principally think of other phases of the national crisis. "Before that memorable afternoon, and the Emperor's brief but historic speech had passed into history, offers of any number of private houses in the best parts of Berlin had been made to the Red Cross. "My own home is now a hospital. My family is liv- ing in its basement. The balance of the structure is devoted to the sick and wounded. "War is terrible, but the spirit which this war — this unjust and wicked, this utterly unsought war — has aroused in Germany is beautiful. "To me, who am familiar with the facts, the reports which have been published in this country, attributing heartlessness and cruelty to the German troops and populace, are so grotesque that they make me wonder if I read right. I cannot understand this talk of German cruelty. It never has been exhibited in the German character. It is not there. "America should fee! sure of that, and there are those among your most distinguished citizens who do feel sure of it. The most eminent of your medical doctors and surgeons have studied with us. They would not go to a nation of barbarians to be instructed in the art of healing ! We have done much for science. Why should we suddenly have turned into tigers? "And what of our adversaries? Is everything they do above the possibility of criticism? "They are bringing into Europe to help them in their fight against us the uncivilized from India, and rank as their allies the yellow Japanese ! Somewhat Inconsistent. "While they are denouncing us for cruelties which never have occurred, they are fighting side by side with Russia, whose treatment of the Jews they have but just left off proclaiming and condemning. With that race whose revengeful Siberian political convict system has been the scandal of the world for generations they have linked hands cheerfully, joining in their quarrel with us — a quarrel in which we stood for civilization and advance. I am as greatly puzzled as I am distressed by the whole unexampled tragedy. "May eighth, but a few months ago, I was in London. I was greeted there by many friends. The Berlin Chamber of Commerce had been invited to the visit by the London Board of Trade. The speeches were so en- thusiastic, so full of good feeling, that I told myself: 'This is the beginning of an era of a better German- English feeling!' And now the nations are at war I "One day, later in the same month, I had 300 British workingmen in my garden in Berlin for tea. War had been declared when I received through the mail their engrossed testimonial of thanks. "I am amazed by their abrupt reversal of colonial policy. When I was Colonial Secretary for Germany I had many dealings with the British Colonial Office, and the officials of the two nations were agreed that in dealing with the yellow races of Asia and the black races of Africa all Europe should work with complete una- nimity of purpose, maintaining white prestige. Unworthy of White Men. "Now we find the English calling Japanese and In- dians, the French calling the Senegalese and others, and the Riissians calling the Cossack hordes to help them win from us thirty-five square miles, this being the whole of our Asiatic territory. "We Germans do not know how to handle such a situation. We feel that the conduct of our enemies has amounted to a reversal of the dignity of the white man. "It seems incredible to us that European nations should add to the horrors of a European war by calling to their aid the Mongolian and Ethiopian, whose ideals are low or non-existent, who are really worse barba- rians than we have been unjustly charged with having shown ourselves to be in Belgium. "It has been said that Germany is dazed. That she is not, for she is utterly alert and comprehends the situ- ation as it is, but she has been almost incredulous in her astonishment at the whole unbelievable affair. "For forty-three years, although we have maintained a large and very powerful standing army, we have taken no inch of ground save through peaceful arrange- ment with the other nations, who have taken their full share of that to be divided. "The German people do not covet any inch of foreign territory on the surface of the earth. Germany's Am- bassador said to Sir Edward Grey that if England would stand neutral, Germany, after her inevitable victory over France, would not claim a hectare of French ter- ritory. After the German victory which is no less as- sured now than it was then, we shall, of course, con- sider matters with no regard for that suggestion, for England did not stand neutral. But that was our prop- osition. "I am especially anxious to emphasize in my state- ment to the people of America, ahhoiigh, of course, they know it, the fact that we are not at war because of any greed for anything belonging to our neighbors. Germany was very busy and utterly contented with her own affairs when she was forced into this unjustifiable war." I asked for some prediction as to what might come in Belgium. "The spirit of Germany in her dealings with weaker peoples never has been other than kindly and helpful," was the answer. "I am sure that it never will be other- wise. My own experience with German sentiment in regard to colonial affairs entitles me to speak of this with real authority. Colonial Development. "When I took office, German colonial affairs were rather muddled. It was loudly proclaimed that Ger- many would never make her colonies profitable. I care- fully considered this very definite problem. GERMANY AND THE WAR "Presently I saw that this point was of no impor- tance. It became generally known and accepted in Ger- many that the colonies must be developed slowly, and that a long time would elapse before they showed any return for the vast sums which we must spend on them. "Almost from the start Germany realized that if we wished to receive from our colonies the raw stuffs and products which they could produce and we, at home, could not, we should have to give them, both in justice and in wisdom, our assistance along that road of racial and social progress which they could not start upon nor travel on alone. "That has been Germany's consistent method with her colonies. We have made free gift to them of all our knowledge, exterminating the scourges which had decimated them before we rescued them, bettering their conditions in every possible particular, and have been quite content to wait long and patiently for such return for these services as they may be able to render some time. "Brutal with our colonies? No! Was it brutality or elevated civilization which led us to send to Africa for the relief of suffering native populations the cele- brated Dr. Koch, who discovered the cholera bacillus and the dread secret of the sleeping sickness and aided England in her efforts toward extermination of the cattle fever? He spent about a year on Tse-Tse Island, in Victoria Nyanza, where the sleeping scourge had killed off every single native resident. "After Koch's discovery we called in Ehrlich, the discoverer of salvarsan, who helped to stop the progress of the plague, compounding a special and very effective remedy. We constructed great hospital camps, in which all those who were attacked were isolated, to the pres- ervation of their neighbors, if not to their own salvation. "Germany spends more than $1,000,000 a year in medical service in her colonies. Is this the evidence of ruthlessness and greed ? I cannot believe America will think so. "I, myself, made arrangements of an international character for the fight against the sleeping sickness, which was endangering the whole interior of Africa. I was the first Colonial Secretary of any European coun- try to go to Africa. It was not an easy journey; it had none of the peculiarities of a pleasure jaunt. "I penetrated 800 miles from the coast, spending thirt)'-one days, practically on foot, covering 400 miles. With the assistance of the missions vast good was ac- complished with the native women, who were being decimated by a venereal scourge, were giving birth to unhealthy children, and up to that time had refused to let a doctor touch them. Social System in Colonies. "That was not the work of the 'mailed fist,' was it? Can the world believe that it was done by the same men capable of such atrocities as those with which my countrymen have been credited in Belgium? "The next German task was the introduction of a more enlightened social system in its colonies. Slavery already had been abolished in all German territory, although in another part of Africa King Leopold of Belgium — the nation which we are accused of having treated with such wanton cruelty — for his personal profit was conducting operations which became the scandal of the world, largely through the enterprising humanity of American investigative publications. "I have no wish to say one word in disparagement of unhappy Belgium, but it is historical fact that they used their African possessions as a commercial proposi- tion, without regard to the accepted tenets of civiliza- tion, while Germany did not, never has, does not thus use hers. We actually made war upon white planters whom we found to have been practically enslaving the blacks. "Our next procedure was to make the blacks familiar with improved farming implements — at the expense of Germany — and to instruct them in improved methods of cultivation. "The English had had great experience in coloniza- tion and we went to them for aid and for instruction, which they freely gave to us. We joined hands with the British Cotton Growing Association, in Manchester, in efforts to educate the blacks up to productive labor. "We were very grateful for the help which England plainly very gladly gave us. That experience with England, with which I was so intimately associated, is one of the many things which makes the present situa- tion seem to me to be so utterly incredible. Improving Condition of Natives. "Presently, as a part of that same German policy with weaker peoples, which is said to be so brutal, a great committee was formed in Germany for the pur- pose of furthering the economic condition of our col- onies, black and white. "We distributed many hundreds of tons of cotton seed every year, we even more widely introduced im- proved agricultural implements, entirely superseding in all German territory the man-drawn plow, and we estab- lished many model farms. We passed stringent laws regarding sales of land to white men, considering first, in all this legislation, the native's needs. "And since I took office, eight years ago, not a shot has been fired in any German colony, save when an expedition was sent to the Island of Yap, where a German administrator had been nnirdered. It was on this island that the English allies, the Japanese, recently destroyed a German Marconi tower. "The result of all this work has been an enormous increase in the wealth of native peoples under German control. I myself have built in Africa 3,200 miles of railway, following the American method of financing, the improvements being paid for by taxes from both whites and blacks who reaped the benefit. Not one complaint ever has been heard in connection with this great enterprise. '■\Vith the exception of the cost of small military establishments, all these colonies now are absolutely self-supporting, and last year their export trade was five times what it was in 1906. Even the chiefs, who have lost somewhat of prestige, are enthusiastic over German management and are flocking to our support. This is literally true. GERMANY AND THE WAR No Colonies Taken By Force. "There was a certain comfort in being at the head of Germany's Colonial ottice, due to the fact that none of her colonies was taken by force. While England was forcibly appropriating Egypt, shelHng Alexandria, in- vading Persia with armed and fighting men and sub- jugating the two great Boer republics in a war which cost 250,000 lives and $11,000,000,000; while France was slaughtering the harmless and almost affectionate little Antananarivos in Madagascar and violently subjugat- ing Tunis, Morocco, and Indo-China; while Russia was capturing Turkestan by means of bayonet and bullet, and having two great wars, those of 1878 and 1904 — while the nations now at war with us and charging us with inhumanity to man were doing these things and many more which I have not enumerated, Germany was making not one armed efifort at expansion. "Since 1870 German acquisition has been of three kinds. The first is represented by our African colonies, which were allotted to us by the Congo Conference; the second is represented by our purchase of the Marian and Palan Islands, and the third is represented by Kiao- Chau and part of the French Congo, leased or ceded to us by agreement. "We have been accused of provoking war by our maintenance of a large standing army. "Germany had been the battle ground of Europe for centuries when Bismarck saw that such an army would be the only guarantee of peace. "As such we maintained it, and only as such ; and as such it was effective until the existent European cataclysm swept right and reason to one side and filled fair lands and wonderful cities with disorder and destruction. Mission to America. "My mission to America is that of a confident sup- pliant, pleading the cause of humanity. We felt that since nearly all the people of Europe, which in time of former wars had been able to care for its own war terrors of disease and wounds, are now engaged in conflict, we were now justified, in this time of our incredible emergency, in an appeal for assistance to the only great nation in the world not actually involved in the vast conflict. "It is true that Europe to-day finds most of its nations deep in warfare — Germany, England, France, Russia, Austria, Servia, and Montenegro, Japan and Turkey are involved, and it is said that Italy may be. "It is a cataclysm. Only the United States, Switzer- land, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the Latin Amer- icas are free from strife, and of the Latin Americas, Mexico, at least, is not at peace exactly. "We felt that a great emergency had arisen, that outside help to war victims was more necessary than at any other time in the world's history. Besides, the United States has become known as the most generous nation of the world; her citizens are famous for their philanthropic activities. "We know that in the last analysis we shall not be denied your friendship now, and that nothing is more impossible than that you should fail to rise, with effi- ciency and generosity, to help us meet this great emergency. "Germany has freely shown her friendship for this country in the past. The nations have been drawn to- gether by their advanced scientific interests, by what amounts to an interlocking higher educational system of which the main and highly progressive feature is the exchange professorship plan. "Nothing could be more natural than that when, beset on every side, we find ourselves likely to be un- able to care in the most efficient possible manner for our own sick and wounded, and likely to find upon our hands the many of those of our enemies who surely soon will be added to our great responsibilities, we should turn to you. Our experience in 1870 taught us your splendid spirit. "Prussia was the first European nation to conclude a treaty of commerce and friendship with you. It was signed in 1786. An enormous number of Germans, since then, have emigrated to this country and from among them you have drawn true American patriots of great achievements. As to German Cruelties. "Incidentally, why cannot America find a good basis for judging whether or not the German nature is capable of such cruelties and outrages as those with which it has been charged, by passing in review her German-American citizens? "Could such tales as have been told of us be safely believed of them without incontestable proofs? In one sense the United States is the largest German colony in existence. In all our colonial possessions are but 23,000 Germans. In the United States are more than 3,000,000 Germans, aside from Americans of German descent. "By the way, these statements answer the absurd contention that Germany, finding herself too thickly populated, is reaching out for new domain. It is far ' less densely peopled than is Belgium, and England's -4 population is denser than Germany's. "Perhaps less than any other the German Red Cross organization would find itself under the necessity for an appeal to outside sympathy and help were it not suddenly confronted by such conditions as the world has never duplicated. Our Red Cross is so well organ- ized that every gift sent to it will immediately and without waste be applied to the necessary work of mercy. "It is an independent society under the Geneva Con- vention, but it has an Imperial Commissioner, who is always delegated in time of peace, at present Prince Salms-Baruth, Grand Marshal of the Court of the Emperor. He works in cooperation with the German Women's Patriotic League, a large organization that has its committees in every city iu the empire." GERMANY AND THE WAR WHAT ENGLAND AIMS AT Plans to Engage United States in War in German Trade, Thereby Incapac- itating This Country From Becoming Mediator English statesmen proclaim that the war must be fought to the last man ; that it must be long and ex- haustive ; that it should be fought by applying the bit- ter pangs of starvation to 120,000,000 of Germans and Austrians, by cutting oft' all credit, by the destruction of German and Austrian oversea commerce, by taking Germany's share of the world's trade and shipping. All these are, maybe, very effective weapons, and English experience has certainly been that the longer a Continental war lasts the deeper Continental Powers get entangled, the more they get tired and weary, the better the chance has always been for Great Britain to strengthen her own position. She is practically im- mune from the consequences of war as far as the per- sonal comfort of her peoples goes. She can go on and hold her theatres open, run her races and her sports. The sea is open to her; she is not afraid or in danger for her provisions. Her army is not a national army. They are very good trained soldiers, who, excepting a small propor- tion of volunteers, make war a profession, and if Eng- land succeeds in keeping the unemployed quiet they suf- fer no great hardship. On the other hand, every long European war has given Great Britain the opportunity of adding very largely to her possessions oversea. The history of British coaling stations and fortresses abroad is the history of long Continental wars, where every possible antagonist was kept busy. So she got, as it is well known here, Canada after France had become ex- hausted in the seven years' war in 1763. She got as a result of the Napoleonic wars, when neither France nor the Netherlands, nor any other European nation could defend their possessions, the isles of Malta, Cey- lon, Trinidad. She got, as a consequence of the Russo- Turkish war, for her neutral attitude, the Isle of Cy- prus. In 1705 she took Gibraltar during the war of Spanish Succession. She made good use of the Turks' exhaustion in getting Alexandria in 1882. She got Madras as a result of the French being entangled in European difficulties in 1765 and 1799. And Jamaica became British because the Spaniards could not hold it in 1656. The same happened with New York, then New Amsterdam, in the struggle with Holland that lasted over twenty years. This list could be amplified to any desired length. England always kept her sea power free, and when the Continental Powers were engaged made good use of it. So it is that British statesmen have come to the conclusion that the longer a war lasts the better for her. She may now try to capture the German possessions oversea, make such arrangements with Portugal as she thinks to her interests, get an option on the Congo from Belgium as a reward for her services, provided the war lasts long enough. Britain's Selfish Policy. It is a very admirable policy from the point of self- interest. Thus do British statesmen reckon that the longer the war lasts the more the German trade can be deviated from its present channels, the more the German fleet will come into decay, the surer German business can be captured. But it would not seem wise to pronounce such a programme as loudly as it is being done, since such a policy is always carried on better without much noise, but that policy evidently has got to serve various ends. In the first place it is intended to tide the English public opinion over a number of difficulties which are arising now and which will more certainly arise in the future also in England as a consequence of the war. English trade with its best customer, Germany, is cut ofif. So is its Belgian trade, on which it depends for its vegetables and fruit. So is a large part of France, which seems to be more or less commercially paralyzed. She cannot keep up her trade with Russia through the Baltic, and the harbors in the White Sea and the far East commence now to freeze up. Her stock exchange is closed. And the consequence of all this will be a great deal of dissatisfaction in the mer- chant community, and more so in the laboring com- munity, because a great many industries must needs stop. Cotton has gone down to a price unthought of. It is a sure indication that the cotton industry in con- tinental Europe and also in Lancashire is working on a very reduced scale. Wood pulp and paper are miss- ing and the issue of newspapers is thereby in danger. Aniline dyes it does not get any more from Germany, which is a serious matter to the Bradford trade, .^nd all of the many necessities which Englishmen have been accustomed to which come from the Continent or from France will after a while commence to fade. So it must be held out to the English people that if they only hold out in a war much longer than any- body else they will greatly profit by it. GERMANY AND THE WAR Trying to Drag U. S. In. But all this is more or less British concern, and I would not trouble about it at all if this proclamation of policy was not also intended to have certain effects on the United States. Please understand that I am not discussing the ethical side. But I must talk of the effects.. The American people are invited by the Eng- lish — and all her, emissaries are trying to move the United States people to participate in the English cru- sade against German trade and German shipping — and they hold out to them that this is the time when the German trade, either with England or with South America or with China, could be had for the asking; that the British were great benefactors to the Amer- ican people in inviting them to share; and that America was acting much against her interests if she did not follow this kind invitation. I wish now to examine the situation of America in this matter, but I would say* right at the start that I am not so pretentious as to try to give any advice on this matter and that I am examining the situation solely to make clear the conclusions to which I came. American business men know what they have got to do. They will not let themselves be influenced by an opinion, even if it comes from a man who has been in business for more than thirty years with all the peo- ples of the globe. But since it seems to be a popular feeling that the British indication o«ight to be followed', I may perhaps be permitted to speak in a popular way as to what I personally think to be the case. Americans believe that now is the time to get a big merchant marine ; that they ought to have one and they ought to have it now. I fully agree that America ought to have a good merchant marine, but whether this time is any better than any previous time, and whether if in the short time occasioned by the locking up of the Ger- man fleet an American merchant marine can be put on a permanent paying basis, I have my grave doubts. It has been contended that the navigation act, now re- pealed, has stood in the way. As far as I understand, this navigation act originally was meant to encourage American shipbuilders, as it does not permit foreign- built vessels under the American flag, and that Amer- ican-built ships should have American crews. As to this latter point I am not quite certain. The only ob- stacle to an American merchant marine has not been German competition, because by far the greatest ship- ping business in the world has been done in English bot- toms, and* there must be other causes which have pre- vented a merchant marine from existing. These causes are found in the fact that shipbuilding in the United States, as manufacturing is in general, is much more expensive ; that wages in the United States, especially those of skilled workmen, are very high, a situation that Americans are proud of because it shows a better distribution of wealth and more comfortable living of the people in the lower walks of life. Americans Are Handicapped. Now, by buying German ships locked up. even if the belligerents would permit it, cheap vessels might per- haps be got. But then comes the cost of maintaining and manning these ships, which must be done by Amer- icans. As these men must be paid on the American standard, the ships run with American provisions, it stands to reason that the running cost will greatly ex- ceed that of the competing Britishers. Besides, there are no docks or wharves ; there is no agency system, no intimate knowledge of trade conditions and so on. All this will probably cost much more than the ships themselves. I feel, therefore, safe in predicting that any mer- cantile marine trade that can be taken away from Ger- many will not go to the United States, but to such countries as can compete in industrial and manual wages with England, perhaps Sweden, Norway and Holland. But most of it will be taken by England itself. The moment for this mercantile marine seems to be, there- fore, not much better than any previous time. But there is another side to the case, which I must allude to. I have spoken of the British possessions oversea. They form a chain around the coast of all nations that makes any commercial shipping dependent upon the permission of Great Britain. That was the reason why Germany tried to build up a very strong navy. The statement seems to be very wide, and must therefore be proved. I invite your readers to take a map of the world and follow my explanation. To-day, to commence at the north, the Baltic is bottled up by the English command of the sounds. No Swedish, no Finnish, no Russian, no Danish, and no German ship can to-day go out without being stopped and searched. The same is the case with the North Sea. It is locked in the north by the British command of the Orkneys and Shetlands ; locked in the west by the British com- mand of the Channel. No ship, either German, or Bel- gian, or Dutch, or French, can to-day come out of the North Sea without British permission. The Mediter- ranean is controlled by the possession of Gibraltar, and of Malta, and of Suez, and of Cyprus. No ship, neither Turkish, nor Greek, nor Austrian, nor Italian, nor French, can get to the high seas without British in- spection and permission. England's Control of the Seas. British stations on the coast of Africa are equally numerous ; the Gold Coast and Largoa and the Island of St. Helena and the Cape on the west side; Durban and Zanzibar and Port Sudan on the east side. The Red Sea is absolutely closed by the British possession of the Island of Perim and the rock fortress of Aden. In the Persian Gulf there is Bushir and Koweit, two English strongholds. On the way to China there is Ceylon and Singapore. On the coast of China you have Hongkong and Shanghai, which is practically British, and Wei-Hei-Wei. In the South Sea there is British New Guinea and New Zealand and Fiji and the Tonga Islands. So that practically in all these seas Great Britain can permit or forbid oversea trade. Any nation engaged in mercantile shipping must take these things into account, but for the United States there is a very special reason. The Panama Canal is a main asset of American oversea trade, and the activ- ities of the pro-mercantile navy people have mostly South America in view. Now. while it is quite true that on the north there is the long land Canadian fron- tier, that is in no way a danger to the United States, lO GERMANY AND THE WAR there are also in the north a number of British coal- ing stations. They can and do control the entrance to American harbors. There you have St. John and Halifax within easy reach of New England. British cruisers are now constantly patrolling the mouths of your harbors of New York or of Delaware. And then commences that marvellous chain of British fortified coaling stations that block up absolutely the Gulf of Mexico and the Panama Canal. It commences with the Bermudas, just about opposite Charleston; the Ba- hamas, commanding the straits between Key West and Havana; Jamaica, the entrance of the Caribbean Sea. And then you have Barbados, Trinidad, &c., that ships from the United States must pass on their way to South America. And it is not much better on the west side, where from the port of \'ancouver the whole American west coast is skirted. Now Germany would not build up a big mercantile business in the foreign trade without being able to protect it. At present there is a strong German fleet. So strong that together with the American fleet it could give weight to any representations against an overbearing or arrogant policy on the part of Great Britain, such as the United States have repeatedly no- ticed. But when the German mercantile trade is out of business and if at British demand the German navy is dismantled, then the United States cannot have .a mercantile marine without a navy that can single- handed cope with the British, and that is the more dif- ficult as the British navalism, which is much more dan- gerous to the world at large than the so-called German rnjTitarrsm, demands that two British ships shall always exist for one of any nation whatsoever. And while it may be said that the world is doing now its oversea trade on British tolerance, there is the certainty that it can in future only do it by British permission if the British programme of destroying Germany and its fleet in a long struggle is realized. English Invitation "A Bribe." To my mind a strong central Power in Europe is in- dispensable for the American trade, be it on American or foreign ships. In other words, the invitation by Great Britain to share in the destruction of German trade, to assist them in prolong'mg the war, which of all the countries that are now struggling they think they can stand the longest, is just an allurement and a bribe, which, if taken, will in the end result in an .\merican mercantile marine unable to compete on busi- ness lines and which will necessitate, in case the Ger- man navy be destroyed, the United States to build at least as many ships, man, equip and maintain them as German ships are being destroyed. I repeat, therefore, the existence of the strong Ger- man fleet and of Germany as a strong central Power has already now been necessary to put a check to British ambition, and it will be more so in the future, whether a mercantile marine is built or not. Now about getting the trade. This is not an easy thing. Of course, there is some considerable busi- ness between the United States and South America, which is being cleared through English and continental banks. It is absolutely correct that, especially when these continental banks cannot do the service, Amer- ican banks should go to South America, and aided by the new Federal. Reserve Board* legislation, establish clearing houses of their own. But as to capturing any considerable trade I have my doubts. The trade is divided into import and export trade. As far as ex- ports from South America go they are mostly of raw products of which America buys as much as she hap- pens to want. The biggest export item from Brazil to the United States is coffee. In future the United States are not going to drink more coffee and there- fore buy more than they have done so far. They won't buy more wool, nor anything that is going beyond their wants, so there is nothing to be gained on this side. But there is $50,000,000 German trade in South Amer- ica in imports. Some of that might possibly be got. But as all is in specialties, in small things, dry goods, &c., it is costly to establish special business houses, with_ very large show rooms and great stocks of articles. It takes time to find out what the people want. It takes more time to find out, and it costs a lot of money to find out who deserves credit and who does not. And then comes the question of competition. Why didn't the United States have this trade before? Because of the higher cost of living and the higher cost of labor in these States, and because the mass of the people in South America must buy cheap things. They haven't enough money. So I expect that America will find that whatever trade can be got away from Germany will fall to Great Britain's share, and that a very considerable disappointment will follow a very silly move. -\fid the same holds good with China and the far East. The biggest competitor is Japan. And Germany, al- though very well equipped with textile industries, has not been able to get any trade from within Japan or Lancashire. The main importation from the far East is cotton goods. The people are too poor to buy high grade goods, and German exports are mostly of the same line as in South. America. Moreover, the whole amount of their exports is quite insignificant. Well, then, why do I tell you this? The reason is very obvious. While these inducements are held out ; while even the Prime Minister of Russia asks .'Vmerica to go ahead and grab German trade, the best customers that buy your high grade goods and vour raw products remain cut off from business. Five hundred million dollars of German trade, the same amount of French, Belgian and Austrian trade ; even the Russian trade is perfectly locked up, and there is no outlet for the exportation of such staple products as cotton, oil, copper and wheat, all of which the United States wishes to export. The American people lose very much more by the locking up of the European trade than they could possibly gain by getting a share in the German oversea trade. England wants that overseatrade itself, so its Ministers say, and it knows full well that America can get possibly only a very small share: But the consequences are much more far-reaching. There is an organized effort by any number of British writers to prejudice the United States against Ger- 'many. All^ the news is more or less tainted in that direction. ^The fact that Germany is carrying on war in foreign lands gave rise to all sorts of tales of bru- GERMANY AiND THE WAR II talities, atrocities, etc. I wonder if the British or French would not attack German houses if they were defended by German soldiers, or would not retaliate if they would be fired upon from behind by German civilians. The idea is that the sympathy of the United I States should be taken away from Germany by playing I on the sentimental and human side of the American \j public, a side which I fully appreciate. But now comes the supplementary movement of try- ing to engage America in a war on German trade. And, while the unsympathetic feeling will certainly be resented ni Germany to some extent, the endeavors to get away with the German trade will widen very much the gulf between the two peoples and will get up a very bad feeling in Germany, which is not good be- tween two cultivated peoples who have been their very best customers for a hundred years. But that is just the game that is being played. I think it my duty in German as well as in American interests to explain this fully. There has been a commercial friendship and a political one between the two countries for 150 years, from the time when Lee, Benjamin Franklin, John Quincy Adams and others were in Europe to solicit recognition and trade arrangements for the American colonies struggling for their freedom, and they went to Frederick the Great in efforts to open the Prussian harbors to the American privateers. Germany Always Friend of U. S. Ever since the treaty of commerce and amity, drawn on very broad lines and full of the best humanitarian principles, of 1786, down to the present time, there have never been any difficulties, never been any serious busi- ness misunderstandings, never any war between the two countries. Hospitality on the part of the United States to our German immigrants, the liberality on the part of German science and culture to American wants have characterized the relations. We have never had a war, as England had with the United States; never had difficulties such as the Alabama case, the Panama case and the counteracting of American tendencies in Mexico, and the challenge of the Monroe Doctrine in the Venezuela business. But the ultimate tendency of the English programme is, however, yet another one. It is directed to inca- pacitate 'the United States to play a mediatory role in this war. The neutrality proclamation of the President has been the wisest document written in a long time, both in words and in spirit. But the President is only the exponent of the American people. If a gulf can be opened between Germany and America, if the Ger- mans won't trust the. American people and its Presi- dent, then there can be no effective mediation. It can- not be expected of our people to choose an umpire that has in words or in act shown himself biassed in the favor of our antagonist. It is just as impossible as to have a one-sided referee in a baseball game. So the movement intends to sidetrack the President's en- deavors and thereby further prolong the struggle, and I had to expose this whole matter because I think the tendencies of the President are very noble and there is a beautiful role, and one befitting the great American nation and its peaceful and progressive spirit in store for you, and I wish you to succeed in putting a stop when the time comes to one of the most grewsome aspects the world ever had. I know Americans are very angry with my people because of their belief that Germany might have pre- vented the war. But if I conceded for argument's sake, which I do not, that this might be true, the public should not allow itself to be kept busy with this topic, because for the moment it is of no prac- tical importance, but it should recognize that even for America, and just for America, there are very great issues at stake, matters of supreme national importance, and that they must be looked squarely in the face. 12 GERMANY AND THE WAR British Naval Stations form a Chain around the Coast of all Nations that makes Commercial SI GERMANY AND THE WAR »3 Dependent on the Permission of Great Britain. (Note their Location around the United States.) 14 GERMANY AND THE WAR THE CAUSES OF THE WAR The End of Struggle Can Come Only When the Truly Progressive Nations Settle a Peace on an Honest and Equitable Basis When I arrived in New York, a fortnight ago, I was greatly surprised on reading in the papers big headings such as "The Kaiser's War," "The Kaiser's Army," "The Kaiser Beaten," etc. I thought at first that this was only a sort of abbreviation and that the "Kaiser's" name stood as a symbol for the whole of Germany in this war forced upon our nation. I soon had to see, however, that something quite different was meant and that a large portion of the American people were of the opinion that the Emperor was more or less responsible for the breaking out of the war, and that the German people, whom they all knew to be good and peaceable, had been dragged into it in conse- quence of autocratic institutions peculiar to Germany, and as a sequel to militarism rampant in Germany. I consider it therefore of interest to explain here the constitutional basis on which our institutions rest. The German Empire is a Union composed of all the States which formerly belonged to the German Federation, with the exception of Austria-Hungary. The Eleventh Article of the German Constitution says : "The Union shall be presided over by the King of Prussia, whose title is to be 'Deutscher Kaiser.' " There is a great similarity with the Constitution of the United States, which is also a Union of a number of Independent States, who have given part of their sovereignty in favor of the Union. While the Kaiser represents the Empire in its foreign relations, he may not declare war in the name of the Empire without the consent of the Bundesrat, representing these single States forming the Empire, except when German territory is attacked. In this Bundesrat of 54 equal votes, the Emperor, in his capacity of King of Prussia, has only 17 votes. It follows that the Emperor could not, and as a matter of fact has not, declared war on his own account, but that he had to have, and in fact had, the consent of his allies, represented by the Federal Council. This con- sent was unanimous. This is a much greater check than the control placed by the Constitution of the United States on the President, who of all great rulers i of the earth concentrates in himself the greatest power. The German Kaiser can no more than the President of the United States make war at pleasure. Emperor Not a "War^Lord." Neither is the Emperor what is called here, "The War-Lord." He has not the disposal, that is, the absolute command over the forces, of the entire Ger- man army. Article 66 of our Constitution says that the German Princes, more especially the Kings of Bavaria, Wiirtemberg and Saxony, are the Chiefs of the troops belonging to their territory (six army corps of twenty-four) ; they nominate the officers for these troops, they have the right to inspect these troops, etc. Consequently the absolute disposition of the German army passes on to the Kaiser only in the moment when the consent of his allies, viz.: the States who with Prussia form the Empire, has been obtained for the declaration of a war. But there is a further and much heavier check on the Emperor's doings. All measures providing ways and means for conducting war must be passed by the Reichstag. The Reichstag is a body elected on the most liberal ballot law that exists any- where, more liberal even than the ballot law of the United States for the election of a President. The German law, ever since 1867, has been a one man one vote, universal, secret and direct ballot law. The German people are represented as directly and demo- cratically in the Government as the American people are in theirs. The right to vote does not depend either on a census or on any educational test. Any German being 25 years and over may vote. The Reichstag con- sists of 397 members. The conservatives, the so-called "War Party," from which most of the officers are be- ing recruited, is in a hopeless minority, about 55. There are no Social Democrats and about 100 Liberals, so that in fact there is a Liberal majority in the German Reichstag. Notwithstanding this composition, this Reichstag has voted unanimously the necessary laws and credits for conducting the present war, and although the Social Democrats reject war on principle in their pro- gramme, they have endorsed unanimously the policy of the Empire, as set out to it by the Emperor's Chan- cellor. Not the "Kaiser's War." I say this to prove that this war is not a "Kaiser's war," because he cannot make a war, but it is the "German people's war." A modern war, according to Prince Bismarck's great speech in 1887, with its enor- mous armies comprising whole peoples, cannot be under- taken with safety nor carried through with success ex- cept by the full consent and enthusiastic assistance of the whole nation. Americans returning from Germany will tell you that this consent and enthusiasm are there in the highest degree and that there has never been GERMANY AND THE WAR 15 juch u uiiuy of the German people between princes and people, between parties and creeds as there is in these trying times, where no less than seven nations have ] joined hands to down our people. But I hear the reply that the consequences of mili- tarism all prevailing and all dominating in Germany have brought about militarism in the other European nations until matters reached such a tension that one clay the string had to snap and that it has snapped now. My reply to this is that Germany has not created nor luululy fostered militarism in Europe, that militarism in Germany forms but a very small part of our general activities, and that the maintenance of an army and navy was forced upon us by circumstances, by the history of our country and by our neighbors. We have not the strongest navy and never aspired to have it. Neither have we numerically the strongest army, as can be seen from American papers, which speak of eight to ten million Russian soldiers, while Germany is being credited with one-half that number. Nor did we start standing armies or navies at all. Ever since the Hapsburg Dynasty withdrew more or less from the old German Empire to develop its own dominions, Austria and Hungary, the "Holy Roman Empire," a term that has been the ridicule of the world for centuries, which is in fact but the territory of modern Germany, has been the cockpit and battle- ground for all the big wars that European nations, fight- ing for supremacy, have invariably chosen. Every student of history knows that in the Thirty Years' War (1618—48), for a full human life time, the French, the Danes, the Swedes, the Poles, the Austrians and Croats, even Spaniards, have fought their battles on German soil. A once flourishing and prosperous coun- try was so utterly devastated that at the end of that war it had only one-sixth of its former inhabitants. Everybody further knows that as a sequel to this de- plorable condition Louis XIV. was able to tear Alsace- Lorraine from Germany, to which it had belonged for more than eight hundred years, and that in connection with the Swedes and Poles he carried on war against little Prussia on German soil. Goethe, Vifho studied in 1770 in Strassburg, the capi- tal of Alsace, says in his "Wahrheit und Dichtung" that it must not be wondered at that the Alsatians had become so little French, in view of the short space they had belonged to France. During the next century we have the same picture. Everybody knows of the celebrated "Kaunitz combina- tion," when Russia and Austria in alliance with France and the Holy German Empire fought Frederick the Great for seven long years between 1756-63, all on German soil. And only forty years later Napoleon carried on his wars for the supremacy of France in Europe again on that same battlefield, where Germans and Austrians, Russians and Swedes gave each other a rendezvous in their fights against France for another seven long years, from the battles of Jena to those of Leipzig and Hanau. It was, and is, the situation of Germany in the middle of Europe, especially as long as she was so powerless and torn up into a number of small States, that makes it so convenient to settle all the troubles of the whole of Europe on its territory. England's Sway of the Seas. England has had a large standing navy ever since the times of Henry VIII., in the sixteenth century, and it has used that navy to maintain its absolute sway of the sea by always fighting the next best man, be /V it the Frenchman, the Spaniard, the Dutchman or the Russian. Russia and Austria have had their armies for centuries back, and so had Spain and especially France. There was no German army because there was no uni- fied Germany. We had a Prussian army only recon- structed in 1863 and the minor forces of 25 small States. After having destroyed Napoleon's power better days would have been expected for my country, but quite the reverse was the case. Three great diplomatists combined to keep Germany in her weakened condition, Prinz Metternich, the Austrian Prime Minister ; Prince Talleyrand, the versatile French envoy, and Lord Palmerston. The Napoleonic war ended with the A'ienna Congress in 1815. Germany was kept in her powerless and defenceless position under the name of the "German Federation." Holland, and later on Bel- i gium, which later had formed, up to 1830, the southern part of Holland, were constituted neutral buffer States, in order that England would have no reason to fear any Power on the other side of the Channel, and France managed to have herself surrounded on all parts with absolutely innocuous neighbors. Austria's jealousy of Prussia in connection with the English and French aspiration did not permit the German race to become a nation and a unity. When Belgium seceded from Holland the Powers selected a King who was both the son-in-law of the King of France and the uncle of the Queen of England, and therefore strongly affiliated with these two coun- tries. The German Federation, in which Prussia had just one vote out of seventeen, was purposely made an unworkable machine, requiring the unanimity of votes for all important measures. This was the situation that Bismarck found when in 1852 he was appointed Prus- sian Envoy to the Federation at Frankfort. He very soon perceived the absolute helplessness and the con- sequent misery of Germany, so he decided that if the German people were to become a nation and a power commensurate to its population and resources, Austria's ^ dominion had first to cease. This was brought about by the war of 1866. The Norddeutscher Bund followed and the common war with France welded Germany into an empire. History, however, had taught Bis- marck that this Empire could only live and prosper, wedged in as it was in the middle of Europe between ' the great Powers, if it had an army strong enough to defend its frontiers against any attack and invasion; that it had to do as its neighbors had done before, viz., to create and maintain a large standing force for its preservation and its peace, and for the possibility of developing its international advantages and prosperity. Germany Military Purely Defensive. So the German military, as well as its naval force, have been created on purely defensive lines, its alli- ances have been concluded for defensive purposes only, and Germany holds the record for keeping peace within and outside of Europe for the last forty- four years.' It has never coveted its neighbors' territory nor its It GERMANY AND THE WAR colonies, it has never gone to war either in or out of Europe, and that is much more than can be said of. any of its neighbors and antagonists. Let us pass them in review. Since 1870: England has conquered Egypt, shelled Alexandria, taken by force two Boer republics; it has added to its sphere, by force, southern Persia, and by intimidation a part of Siam. France has conquered Tunis, she is fighting for Morocco, she has made war on Madagascar, has tried to take the Sudan and conquered Indo-China in bloody war. Russia has fought the Turks in 1878 and the Japanese in 1904, she has torn from China the northern part of Manchuria and all of Mongolia, she has made war on Turkestan, she has bagged northern Persia, she has formed and fomented the Balkan com- bination and has all along proved herself the most aggressive European Power. All that time Germany has added to its territory only certain colonial possessions, all ceded to her by peace- ful agreement and by common consent of the great powers. Willed Grass, a Lene Lenape chieftain, in his petition of 1852 to the Legislature of New Jersey for compensation to his tribe for the extinguishment of their fishing rights, declared : "Not a drop of our blood you have spilled in battle, not an acre of our land you have taken but by our consent." That is the case of my country in its territorial ac- quisitions since 1870 with respect to the European Powers. Germany has proven herself the most peace- ful European Power, even Spain and Italy not excepted, and the militarism plays a very much smaller part in the German national life than with any other nation. Americans in their love for fair play have frankly acknowledged the great strides that my country has made in the arts of peace, in science and technics, in trade and industry. We had better things to do than to think of how to attack other countries. We have built up a large merchant marine, the second largest in the world ; we built up a foreign trade second only Y. to the trade of England, which continues to be the clearing house of the world. We have developed uni- versities, which are visited by students from all parts of the world. Our legislation is made in the interest of the laboring man. Germany has been the first to introduce compulsory national insurance to ward off the consequences of accident and sickness, of old age, widowhood, etc. Our technical advances are undis- puted. Germany's World Markets. The electrical, and more so our chemical industries, have conquered the world's markets. German dyes and German medicines, Salvarsan, the Behring Serum and others are wanted everywhere. Germany was the first country to accomplish compulsory primary education, and the works of its painters and artists are known the world over. One of the greatest accomplishments fi- nally has been that by developing agriculture as a fine art we have made our country self-sustaining and nearly independent from outside food supply. In all this work the Kaiser has been most active and inter- ^ \ ested, he has always been recognized as a lover of ' ' peaceful development. Has it not been significant that he should have been placed oti the list Of candidates for the Nobel prize of peace? All this activity, however, presupposes a state of peace in the world; it would be insane to start so many enterprises if the idea of an aggressive or provoked war had been in the mind of the Emperor or of the people. It cannot be denied that all this has been the work of the last forty years. Before that time Ger- many was known and ridiculed in a way as a country of "poets and thinkers." Are they not the same people who have been doing so much since for civilization? Why didn't they develop these characteristics before? For the reasons I have just set forth. Without unity, liberty and security from outside interference these characteristics would not have been developed. A people that must always be afraid of being over- run from all parts, of being made a hostage of the Powers contesting for European supremacy, can do nothing in the works of peace, nothing in the acquisi- tion of property and means, which are the basis of all great commercial and industrial advance. The same claim can be made with regard to the German Colonies, which have been developed on humanitarian lines and become a valuable addition to our home production. That such a marvellous development, such a continu- ous increase in wealth, such an unrelenting competition with the older people for the markets of the world, should create the envy of our neighbors cannot be wondered at, and that they, therefore, should seize an opportunity to give what they call "a lesson to Ger- many" is not very remarkable. Now for the reasons of the present war. The world has become more democratic within the last half century, the power and influence of the dy- nasties have been replaced to a great extent by the all- prevailing spirit of nationalism and of racial assertion the world over. It is the people who now control the trend of European and of American politics also. The stronger the nationalism or racial feeling becomes^ the less are the rulers in control. This has happened espe- cially in Russia, w-hich, though autocratic as she is to her constitution, has forced the Czar to unroll the banner of Pan-Slavism. Pan-Slavism means the rally- ing of all people of Slav race under the dominion or protectorate of the White Czar. How far the Pan- Slavism has forced upon Russia the protectorate of the Balkans may be seen from the following quotation from the English white paper document No. 139: Evidence of Pan-Slavism. Sir G. Buchanan to Sir Edward Grey: "M. Sazonoff informed the French Ambassador and myself this morning of his conversation with the Aus- trian Ambassador. He went on to say that during the Balkan crisis he had made it clear to the Austrian Government that war with Russia must inevitably fol- low an Austrian attack on Servia. It was clear that Austrian domination of Servia was as intolerable for Russia" as the dependence of the Netherlands on Ger- many would be to Great Britain. It was, in fact, for Russia a question of life and death." You see: It was a matter of life and death to Rus- sia that Servia should not be attacked. Everybody knows that a great many Slav peoples are components of the Austrian Empire. Out of a total population (in GERMANY AND THE WAR 17 1910) of 51,000,000 in Austria-Hungary no less than 20,500,000 are Slavs. The contention of Pan-Slavism, that the Servians and all Slavs must be dependent on Russia and that all Slavs would be protected by Rus- sia, did mean nothing less than the breaking up of Austria. That is what Austria most bitterly resents in her ultimatum. Whether this war came now, as a consequence of the murder of the Austrian Crown Prince, or at some later time, is without importance. Come it must, in any event, if not to-day then to-morrow, as long as Mr. Sazonoff's theory was upheld, and no international me- diation, no court of arbitration of whatever nature would have prevented the clash as long as the Russian theory was maintained and the Russian prestige de- manded such theory. But that such is the Pan-Slavism theory and has been since at least 1878 every reader of the Russian press can testify to. I quote from the New York TiDics of September 10, 1914: /" RECASTING EUROPE'S MAP. Russian View as to the Final Division of Territories. "PETROGRAD, Sept. 8th.— The 'Pretch' argues that the war must be terminated in such a way thatit^ shall leave no vengeful association on either side. The change in the map of Europe must be final and no nationality must be opposed in the satisfaction of its legitimate ambitions. This ideal is, however, irrecon- cilable with the evidence of an empire like Austria- Hungary. It is also irreconcilable with the hegemony of Prussia in Germany. Further, it is irreconcilable with the division of Poland and the Treaty of Bucha- rest. "The unification of Russia, Italy, Germany, Rumania and Servia must be completed. France must recover what has been taken from her and Bulgaria also. "A hundred years' fight for the principle of nation- ality must finish with a decision free from all compro- mise and therefore final. "These ideas seem to have many advocates in this country." Austria Is Germany's Only Ally. The national existence of Austria can never be arbi- trated upon. It is not too much to say that even the Czar, had he wanted to, could not have prevented this development. The breaking up, however, of Austria- Hungary cannot be tolerated by Germany. Austria is the only aid that Germany has for the purpose of de- fence which can be relied upon. The breaking up of the Dual Monarchy and the absolute isolation of Ger- many would have made her an easy prey to her neigh- bors whenever they chose to attack her. Sir Edward Grey has said of France that she had to take a hand in the struggle as a consequence of a fixed alliance and as a matter of national honor. That is quite so. Whether this French policy is wise or not, need not be discussed, but France has certainly fared very badly for binding herself for good and all to a Power which is ruled by racial instinct and whose aims and aspirations she cannot in the least control. -i By loaning to Russia 10,000.000,000 of francs she has enabled her to go to war, and she is not only the cre- ator of Russia's war machine but also the battlefield for Russian aspiration and the hostage of Germany for Russia's good behavior in the future. The English theory has always been for centuries back to keep all Europe in an equilibrium of forces, to have her divided in two camps with opponents matched as evenly as pos- sible, so that she should always have a free hand and on whichever scale this hand was pressed that the scale would go down. That England was very much averse to going to war and that the endeavors of Sir Edward Grey were very serious and very active to avoid the clash, just as incessant as those of the German Em- peror and his Chancellor, must be readily believed and understood. But when it had once been decided that Russia could not be held back in spite of these en- deavors, and as France had been dragged in, England j had to take a hand because of this theory of equilibrium. J 38,000,000 Germans Against 40,000,000 French. | In 1870 there were 38,000,000 Germans fighting against 40,000,000 of French. At the return of Alsace- Lorraine to Germany the ratio was reversed. Ger- many had 40,000,000, France had 38,000,000. But while Germany, making great progress in its population and without addition of territory, has now more than 66,000,000 of inhabitants, France has remained abso- lutely stationary, with 40,000,000 inhabitants; it was clear from the start that in a European struggle France must be crushed by the sheer weight in numbers and that the European equilibrium which was the stock theory of England would thereby go forever if Eng- land did not take a hand in the matter. It is very often said that England entered into war in consequence of the violation of Belgium's neutrality. Sir Edward Grey, whom I have known for a long while and always considered a superior diplomatist, and a gentleman, has never stated that the breach of the Belgium neutrality was the reason, and even less the on^ly reason, for England's going to war. His theory as expressed in his great speech in the House of Commons on August 3 is contained in his quotation from Mr. Gladstone's address to the House of Commons on August 8, 1870. This quotation runs: "There is, I admit, the obligation of the treaty . . . but I am not able to subscribe to the doctrine . . . that the simple fact of the existence of a guarantee is bind- ing on every party to it, irrespectively altogether of the particular position in which it may find itself at the time when the occasion for acting on the guarantee arises. The great authorities upon foreign policy . . . as Lord Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston, never to my knowledge took that rigid, and if I may venture to say so, that impracticable view of the guarantee. The cir- cumstance that there is already an existing guarantee in force is, of necessity, an important fact, and a weighty element in the case. . . . There is also this further con- sideration, the force of which we must all feel most deeply, and that is, the common interests against the unmeasured aggrandizement of any Power whatever." This means in so many words that the neutrality treaty did not obligate England to uphold it and that it was Mr. Gladstone's as well as Sir Edward Grey's opinion, that it should be upheld only if and because i8 GERMANY AND THE WAR ' the particular interest of England cotnnianded it. That it means also this, that the guarantee was not binding upon Germany either, if its particular position did not permit of her holding it. Germany has offered Bel- gium integrity and indemnity, which she refused. Her particular position necessitated marching through Bel- gium, and this, according to Mr. Gladstone, she had a right to do. Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, the great Eng- lish labor leader, attacking Sir Edward Grey in the Labor Leader of Manchester, comments very bitterly on this theory. He says (see N. Y. Evening Post of Sept. 8) : "Germany's guarantee to Belgium would have been accepted by Mr. Gladstone. If France had decided to attack Germany through Belgium Sir Edward Grey would not have objected but would have justified him- self by Mr. Gladstone's opinions." Why England Defended Belgian Neutrality. Every unbiassed reader of the above quotation will agree to this. The salient point is that, to use Mr. Gladstone's words, England was afraid of "an unmeas- ured aggrandizement of Germany" and that is why she resolved to defend the Belgian neutrality. This was her interest, and such is Mr. Gladstone's theory, which Sir Edward Grey declares rules the British attitude. England has been the foremost power in the world for many hundred years, and Sir Edward Grey did not mean to bargain away lightly this inheritance. This is also the reason why they demanded of Ger- many that she should not attack any of the French coasts after France, with English consent, had previ- ously withdrawn her fleet from the Mediterranean. Sir Edward Grey says in the same speech : "The French coasts are absolutely undefended. The French fleet is in the Mediterranean, and has been for some years concentrated there because of the feeling of confidence and friendship which has existed between the two countries." He goes on to say : "My own feeling is this, that if the foreign fleet, en- gaged in a war which France had not sought (which is not very true. — Dr. D.) and in which she had not been the aggressor, came down the English Channel and bombarded and battered the unprotected coasts of France, we could not stand aside," &c. So England thought it necessary to prescribe to Ger- many from which side to attack France, neither from the sea, because the coasts were undefended, nor from Belgium, because Belgian neutrality was an essential element in England's policy of the equilibrium. If two locomotives are crashing into each other the buffers are the first parts to go, and if a clash came between England and Germany, necessitated because England had to take up the defense of France, it must not be wondered at that the first thing to go was the buffer-State intended purposely to keep the two Powers separate and England with a weak neigh- bor on the North Sea. This is to my mind the his- tory of the development of the present struggle. It is the Pan-Slavic agitation and the necessity of the Czar to uphold Russia's prestige which forced its hand to take issue with Austria. It was a necessity for Ger- many, and I may add here her bounden duty, under the written obligation of the Treaty of 1878, to come to the help of Austria and protect her from destruc- tion and dismemberment. Qermany True to Her Pledges. Whoever says that Germany should have forsaken Austria if she did not take Germany's counsel to crouch before Russia's pretenses asks her to commit an act of breach of the most solemn obligations and subscribe to the "Scrap of Paper" theory that is so much at- tacked. As a matter of fact the scrap of paper theory is not a German but an English invention, as proved above. But not only the treaty with the Dual Mon- archy, but the hostile attitude of her neighbors, forced Germany to stand by Austria. That France would come in was a foregone conclusion (they have the same treaty with Russia as we had with Austria) and how and why England's interests dictated her to assist France I have just tried to expose. This trouble has been pending over Europe for a number of years. It is ridiculous to proclaim Russia, the land of pogroms and Siberian horrors, as a progressive European Power, as a shield of Liberalism and as the land of growing liberty. It is rather unfortunate, and I do think it is being regretted very much by England, that their com- mon interest with France has forced it to become allies to Russia. I believe that the end of all this struggle can only be accomplished when the truly progressive nations of the West, led by Germany and England, join hands to render to Europe her peace on an honest and equitable basis. How this will come about depends upon the spirit of the various peoples. Germany did not want this war, it was forced upon her. Austria felt it as a national necessity ; it surely did not want it. France did not want the war ; there was too much at stake. England did not wish the war, because she could have been absolutely contented with the state of Europe be- fore the outbreak of the war. It was the Pan-Slavic tendency that got the better of saner views of the Rus- sian Czar that started the ball rolling. In this light it is needless to ask whether the differences between Aus- tria and Servia could have been arbitrated or not. They are questions of national existence and honor which do not lend themselves to arbitration. The Pan-Slavic theory which wants to bring every Slav under the rule of the Czar is threatening to break up Austria and even wipe it off the European slate. That Servia was used as a wedge and driven into his neighbor's living body, the documents attached to the Austrian ulti- matum prove this conclusively. It is equally useless to try to prove that Germany committed a great wrong by breaking Belgian's neu- trality. Mr. Gladstone settles that question once for all in the negative and Sir Edward Grey is with him. All this is a very sad state of affairs and has been leading to very serious consequences. But it is of no use to stickle at incidents in order to shirk the great issue. The great issue has been and is now whether the Slav is to rule from the Japanese Sea to Berlin and further west, or whether Germany, even fighting with her civilized Western neighbors, is to stand up to main- tain European civilization and save it from the Rule of the Knout. GERMANY AND THE WAR 19 A REPLY TO LORD BRYCE International Treaties and Making of "White Books" When I first came to New York about thirty years ago in quest of business training and a general educa- tion abroad, there were two books that then had newly appeared which guided me in my endeavors to be- come familiar with American ideals and institutions. One book was Carl Schurz's "Henry Clay," and the other James Bryce's "The American Commonwealth." Both books made very deep impressions on me, and I felt indebted to the authors ever since. Mr. Bryce's splendid career has now found a fitting end in his being called into the House of Lords, but his love and his likings are still American, as are some of his ideals. And so he has now let himself be heard in the New York press on the all-pervading topic of the war. Mr. Bryce has been against the war. He has worked for many years in the interest of a good understanding between Germany and England and has given to this task much time and thought. I have come across his work often enough. For five years and more I have been annually visiting England, receiving English visit- ors of all walks of life with the one purpose, and, as I can say without indiscretion with the full concur- rence of my government, in trying to smooth out the somewhat ruffled relations and put the two peoples, the strongest in Europe, on a friendly basis, in all sincer- ity and with no ulterior aims. So what has happened has been a great disappointment to Lord Bryce, to my- self and to the German Government, and I can well understand the outburst of the Imperial Chancellor, reported by Sir Edward Goschen, that the policy to which he had devoted himself since his accession to office had tumbled down like a house of cards. .^nd that is the attitude of most well-meaning Ger- mans; I dare say of the great majority of my people; and of its government, I can, as a member of the Ger- man Ministry for four years and as a close friend of most of the members of the present administration, voucli for this fact. I have got to say this because Mr. Bryce, in his admirable argument, takes his text from the book of Von Bernhardi, which has been widely circulated in this country as proving the reckless, hos- tile and immoral sense of the German people ; that they believe might is right ; that they revel in the greatness of war, which made them the authors of the present world struggle. And I can say to Lord Bryce what he himself, in his great endeavor for fairness, hints at, that neither Von Bernhardi nor the followers of the school of Treitschke nor the disciples of Nietzsche are the guiding spirits of the conscientious and painstaking men that conduct the affairs of Germany. Neither are their teachings the gospel of the German voter — fully -v one-third of the German population, as represented by the ballot, is Socialist, has never voted a budget on ac- count of the war expenditure contained therein ; has been preaching internationalism, republican ideas and a state of the future on communistic lines. More than one-third of the German population is Catholic, polit- ically organized for the upholding of the equal rights of Catholics with Protestants, true children to their Roman Church. They are certainly not imbued with the un-Christian idea of the superman, and I, there- fore, do not consider Lord Bryce justified in connect- ing the German people, and its attitude toward the war, with Mr. von Bernhardi and men cited by him. Book Condemned in Qermany. The book when it appeared of course made some stir in Germany, but it was widely condemned for its '' very extreme views and as likely to lead to some mis- understanding of the German feeling. Gen. von Bernhardi, who is not a common person- ality, thought he had reason to write his book because of the efifeminate tendencies that he saw in Germany; because of the materialistic trend of life and the strife ^ for wealth that he observed; because of the lack of proportion between the growing German population and its territory ; because of the small share she had in such countries oversea that might lend themselves to colonization or could secure trade. He saw how this world had been divided up since 1870; how the French, with 39,000,000 inhabitants in the home country and 207,000 square miles, had been adding an oversea empire of nearly 3,000,000 square miles and nearly 60,000,000 people ; how England, having 45,000,000 population in the home country and 120,000 square miles, had been adding 3,200,000 square miles with about 95,000,000 people in the same period; how Russia had taken nearly all of the continent of Asia north of the neutrality line drawn by the English-Rus- sian treaty of 1907 ; how Japan had been doubling its territory in habitable and fertile country and gaining influence over twice as much in Manchuria, which it practically controls; how even Belgium, of only 11,000 square miles and a home population of 7,500,000, ac- quired the Congo, with 900,000 square miles and 9,000,- 000 natives ; while Germany, with 208,000 square miles ^ at home and 65,000,000 people, got about 1,100,000 / V 26 GERMANY AND THE WAR square miles with a population of 13,000,000 people, almost all of which was tropical land unfit for colon- ization, half of it arid land unfit for production. I know the story of that struggle because I have stood Vj in it. It is wrong to accuse Germany of coveting its neigh- j bors' territory, but in the lands newly acquired by Europeans she felt that she had not her due share. England Always Stood in the Way. When I was in England talking "good understand- ing" my friends used to say: "Dear fellow, it's all very well, but then, with your fast increasing population, 66,000,000, where formerly only 40,000,000 lived, you will overflow some day, and that is the day we are afraid of." But when, in reply to this argument, Ger- mans sought to get some share in the undivided part of the world, get some sphere of influence, it was in- X variably England who stood in her way and invariably frustrated any attempt of Germany to better her posi- tion. This is the story of Morocco, which she played into the hands of the French, who have no need for expansion. This happened in Persia and Mesopotamia, where Germany looked only for a field of commercial endeavors, to permit Germany some slight advantage which the English were convinced she must have or flow over. This British attitude is best expressed in the words of a member of the House of Lords that he spoke to me in 1908: "It is a fixed policy of Great Britain, ever since the egregious blunder committed in returning the Ionian Islands, that she will never part with an island or harbor she has ever laid hands on." That is the attitude as regards colonial expansion. Now comes their attitude toward trade. England declares that the empire is a free-trade country and that all the peoples can do business with her on the same terms without preference to British goods. That is true as long as it lasts, and if Mr. Chamberlain had had his way, England would now be protective. But it isn't even true. It is only true as regards England herself. British Preferential Tariffs. The imperialism that has been fostered for years and years has caused preferential tariTs to be intro- duced in all the British dominions up to t^t, per cent, in Canada, 15 and 10 per cent, in the Cape and Aus- tralia. The closing of the Indian market to free trade has been demanded as late as 1913. The Persian mar- ket m the north has been closed by Russia in breach of all treaties. German goods are systematically being driven out from Egypt under British direction. So Von Bernhardi felt that Germany was being fettered m the development of her population bv want of ade- quate oversea possessions that could make a home for white men and in the extension of its industry that could only keep the people busy at home. This British policy would mean that Germany would have to send her people out into English or other coun- tries, lose them to the German nationality and make them subjects of other States. It was not that Ger- many coveted by force or by treaty any English pos- Ni session or French possession, but she found herself in the division of the free parts of the world against the fence while at the same time her markets got nearer and nearer. Von Bernhardi felt with a great many Germans that they were intentionally being provoked that they would be forced to fight one day for their very existence. That is why men like Bernhardi tried to arouse the sleepers, awake the country, by preach- ing the necessity of war and its ethics. He felt fur ther that war was as unpalatable to the Germans as to other nations, and he therefore pictured the greatness and the necessity of it. His teachings are not new. In England and America Walter Bagehot is revered as a great economist and patriot. Read what he says ■ Conquest improved mankind by the intermixture of strengths. The armed truce which was then called peace improved them by the competition of training and the consequent creation of new power." And further on: "Yet on the whole the energy of civilization grows by the coalescence of strength and by the competition of strengths. You will find this in his work "Physics and Politics" in the chapter entitled "The Use of Con- flict." So Von Bernhardi did not describe the Ger- man people as they were but as he wanted them to become; he doesn't reproduce the policy of the German people. But the argument is introduced by Lord Bryce to show the teaching of might is right in Germany and that as a consequence the breaking of the Belgian neutrality on that question has led Great Britain into war, and he bases his argument on the expressions in the so-called White Books. To these White Books Americans give a great deal of credit. I cannot fol- low. 1 know how they are made up. How White Books Are Made Up. They generally show the correspondence of two States in times of peace, and the utmost pains are , taken on both sides to eliminate such correspondence j as does not serve the purpose for which the White J Book IS issued-generally to give desired impressions of a certain situation. I cannot imagine that White Books m time of war should be edited on any other principles. So, of course, everything is left out that does not appear useful. You can see that in the English White Book There IS a dispatch from Sir Edward Goschen to Sir Edward Grey, dated August 8, issued as an addendum to the V\ hite Book issued earlier in the month. On August 8 Sir Edward Goschen was already in London The despatch has possibly been published to get in the "scrap of paper" expressions of the Chancellor But there IS another addition. Sir Maurice de Bunsen who left \ lenna about August 10, makes a despatch dated September i, relating conversations and happenings that, if they had been important, and such they s&emed to be, ought to have been report(Sided. "Americans object to the violation of treaties." So do the Germans. We have always kept our treaties, and mean to do so in the future. The fact with Bel- gium is that her neutrality was very one-sided ; that, as can be proved, as early as the 25th of July Liege was full of French soldiers, that Belgian fortifications were all directed against Germany, and that, for years past, it was the Belgian press that outdid the French press in attacks against Germany. But I can give Mr. Eliot here some authority that he has so far not chal- lenged. When Sir Edward Grey presented the Eng- lish case in the House of Commons on the 3rd of August, he declared that the British attitude was laid down by the British government in 1870, and he ver- bally cited Mr. Gladstone's speech, in which he said he could not subscribe to the assertion that the simple fact of the existence of a guarantee was binding on every party, irrespective altogether of the particular position in which it may find itself at the time when the occasion for acting on the guarantee arises. He called that assertion a "stringent and impracticable" view of the guarantee, and the whole treaty a "com- plicated question." So Mr. Gladstone, and with him Sir Edward Grey, has held the Belgian neutrality treaty not binding on every party, when it was against the interest which the particular situation dictated, when the war broke out. It was the interest of Great Britain to maintain the treaty, and that is why she acted. It was against German interest to maintain the treaty, and that is why she broke it. That is the British and not the German theory, and I could verv well rest my case here. My theory is with the German Chan- cellor, that I greatly regret the necessity of violating I the Belgian neutrality, after Belgium had chosen to I repel the German overtures for a free passage. It is quite certain that the breach of the Belgian neutrality by Germany was used in Great Britain as a powerful instrument to influence the public sentiment. Every war must be borne by national unity, and it is I the duty of the nation's leaders to secure such unity '• by all practicable means. But has it been forgotten that the attitude of Sir Edward Grey caused such ex- cellent men as Lord Morley, John Burns, and Sir John Trevelyan to leave the Cabinet, where they were looked upon as the best and most liberal members of the ruling combination? Bernard Shaw says of Great \ Britain that she has never been at a loss for an efifect^ ■ ive moral attitude. Such an attitude is a powerful weapon in diplomatical and actual warfare, and it must be resorted to, if the necessity arises. But that cannot blind us to the fact that the British government allowed the political interest to be the paramount consideration in this Belgian neutrality matter. The German in- terest for not acting on the guarantee was just as strong as the English to act for it. The proof is found in the English "White Paper." I cite the famous reprint of The Times (Dispatch No. L48 of Aug. 2, to Paris). Here Sir Edward Grey says: "We were considering whether we should de- clare violation of Belgian neutrality to be a casus belli." "Treaties Must Not Be Overrated." I am an ardent believer in all international arrange- ments to prevent difficulties and wars between nations, and I rejoice with the American people in the signal success this policy is now having in this country. But international treaties must not be overrated. There are questions which cannot be settled by them. It is too difficult to explain just the nature of such situations as arose in Europe, so I may be permitted for once to ask this question : "Does Prof. Eliot believe that the majority of the American people think that the unwrit- ten Monroe Doctrine could be made the subject of arbitration, whether it had a right to exist or to be enforced? I must emphatically say, no, it could not. It can be as little arbitrated upon as a matter of re- ligion or personal morals." Mr. Eliot thinks a happy result of the war would be that American institutions should prevail in Germany thereafter. Why should Germany only become a rep- resentative republic ? 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