515 C6 915 opy 1 D 515 .Co 1915 Copy 1 THE . . . American Verdict on the War: A REPLY TO THE APPEAL TO THE ^ CIVILIZED WORLD OF 93 GERMAN PROFESSORS BY Samuel Harden Church. President Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh TOGETHER WITH THE APPEAL AND THE NAMES OF THE SIGNERS This letter has been printed in nearly all the princi- p;)I languages of the world and circulated broadcast throughout the neutral countries of Europe, and among the allied nations; while a special edition in the Ger- man language is now being distributed by British avia- tors among the German people in peaceful flights across the German borders. Innumerable requests for the pamphlet bv Americans, who have, in some cases, ex- pres.^ed the desire for hundreds of copies for circulation among friends, have led to its publication in America. THE NORMAN, REMINGTON CO. PUBLISHERS BALTIMORE, MD. Price 15 Gents Copyright 1915 BY The Norman, Remington Co. -Cs ^^ ^ FOREWORD I was moved to write my letter on the German War because "The Appeal to the Civilized World," to which it is a response, had been sent to me by a valued friend, Dr. Fritz Schaper, of the University of Berlin. In making this reply I felt it to be a duty to place before Dr. Schaper, and before the German people, an expression of the views which were almost overwhelmingly entertained by the American people, in order that public opinion might exer- cise its largest influence in the restoration of peace. I have not yet received a reply from Dr. Schaper, although General von Dickhuth, Governor of the German province of Thorn, in East Prussia, has written to me that my letter duly reached its destination in Dr. Schaper's hands ; and other German friends have assured me that they, too, have read it. I can only add now that if the safeguards of the World's peace and dignity are indeed ultimately to be found in an International Court, and in an International Military Power which shall be charged with the enforcement of that Court's decrees, then it seems high time that the neutral Governments of North and South America, including of course our own, should unite with those of Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Switzerland in a mighty League of Peace, and constrain the warring nations to stop the conflict, the German armies to retire at once from the violated soil of Belgium and France, and the guilty nations to be assessed due penalties. Such a League of Peace, to be joined later by all the nations now at war, would forever end the encroachment of powerful states upon weaker ones, and we would then see human rights placed above the ar- rogance of nations. S. H. Church. Pittsburgh, February 20, 191 5. MAR -5 1915 O>CU306156 Reply to the German Professors, BY SAMUEL HARDEN CHURCH. President Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg. Author of "The Life of OHver Cromwell." NINETY-THREE of the most prominent men of Ger- many, distinguished in various branches of science, art, education, and literature, have recently circu- lated broadcast throughout America a letter entitled, "An Appeal to the Civilized World," in which they attempt to change public opinion in the United States on the subject of war. In this letter they state that Germany was not responsible for the outbreak of the war; that she did not violate the neutrality of Belgium; that she did not de- stroy Louvain ; that her soldiers have not oppressed the Belgian people nor committed any atrocities ; and that mili- tarism is the only safeguard of German civilization. Mr. Church, the President of the Carnegie Institute, at Pitts- burgh, and author of a book that has won distinction in America and Europe, has made reply to the German ap- peal, as follows : 4 Pittsburgh, U.S.A., November 9, 1914- Prof. Dr. Fritz Schaper, Berlin, Germany. My Dear Doctor Schaper: I have received with your compHments and autogra])h a printed letter addressed "To the Civilized World," and signed by ninety-three of the most distinguished names in German art, science and literature, your own among them, and I assure you that a communication so endorsed will receive my most profound consideration. To me those ninety-three names are tremendously potent and influen- tial. I have the honor of a personal acquaintance with some of these gentlemen, yourself and Prof. Adolf von Harnack, and a few others, while many of these men have done their work with such universal scope that they must not count themsehes as Germans only. l:)ecause they belong to the whole world, and the whole world esteems and re- veres them for their eminent services to humanity. The •plays of Hauptmann and the music of Humperdinck are, I am sure, as well known in America as in Germany. Many of us have sat at the feet of Ehrlich and Eucken as Paul sat at the feet of Gamahel. In our great institutions of science, art, and learning, such as our Carnegie Institute, we look upon Bode as a source of final judgment in his field of work. Max Reinhardt is at the head of a new movement in theatrical production which has reached the American stage. Siegfried Wagner is a precious name .to us all by inheritance. Rontgen, Wassermann, Behring, and the other signers have promoted learning and ameliorated human suffering. You yourself have, through the sugges- tion made by your Emperor, been a guest in Pittsburgh at the dedication of the new building of the Carnegie Institute, amidst a group of illustrious men gathered here from all over the world, the German section, as I remember with feelings of deep friendship, having included General von Loewenfeld, General Dickhuth, Dr. von Ihne, Dr. von Moeller, Dr. Koser, and yourself, all of them, in response to our urgent request, bringing with them, as our most pre- cious guests, their wives or daughters, except alas ! General von Loewenfeld. who, winning his way to the head of armies, told me he had not yet been able to win a wife. But I have reminded him that while there is life there is hope. Need I say more to prove to you how deep is the sym- pathy, affection, and gratitude which I and all my country- men cherish towards the people of the German Empire? Need I say how our hearts bleed for them in this time of dreadful calamity, or how much we hope and pray that peace may soon return to the troubled bosom of the Father- land? Why, the very texture of our nation would make us true to Germany in all her moral rights, because we have at this moment eight million people of German birth or German parentage in our population, and these citizens are among the very best in this country. Therefore, in a peculiar sense, we hold Germany in our heart of hearts, for she is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. But in the same way we cherish the people of all other races, ex- cept, alas, those from Asia, and one day, in God's own time, we shall grow big enough in a spiritual sense to re- ceive the children of Asia with equal hospitality. But we are a cosmopolite nation, and besides having those eight million Germans we have absorbed thirteen millions from Great Britain, 300,000 from France, 3,000.000 from Russia, 2,000,000 from Austria, 25.000 from the Balkans, and 100,- 000 from Belgium. All told we have 32,000,000 of foreign birth and foreign parentage in our 100,000,000 population. so that our blood and fibre comprises the whole human family. Could we be lacking in sympathy for Germany, then, in this awful war? And could we take sides unjustly or from prejudice when all those who are engaged in the ter- rible conflict are our veritable brothers in the one family of God's children? Our excellent President Wilson, beloved and esteemed by our whole people, has charged us all to maintain an impartial neutrality, and that I believe we are earnestly striving to do ; but we are, at the same time, in like manner, earnestly striving to find the right and to con- demn the wrong, because neutrality can never mean indif- ference. You will .remember that Dante, in the Inferno, found a hell beneath- all other hells prepared for those timid beings who insisted on being neutral in the everlasting fight between good and evil. This war is a fight between those forces of good and evil, and I believe that the American people, having divested themselves of prejudice, are devot- ing themselves to a study of the evidence in order that pub- lic opinion may conform to the facts. In the course of this study your letter "To the Civilized World" becomes a sub- stantial part of the testimony. In your letter you say that your enemies, "by their lies and calumnies, are endeavoring to stain the honor of (lermany in her hard struggle for existence — in a struggle which has been forced upon her." It gives me a feeling of pity to note the importunity with which the people of Germany are seeking the good opinion of America in this strife. It is greatly to their credit that they wish to stand right in the judgment of this nation. But Germany need have no fear that American public opinion will be jierverted by the lies and calumnies of her enemies. We are all going deeper than the surface in our search for the truth. Your letter speaks of Germany as being in a struggle "which has been forced upon her." That is the whole question; all others are subsidiary. If this struggle was forced upon Germany, then indeed she stands in a position of mighty dignity and honor, and the whole world should acclaim her and succor her, to the utter confusion and punishment of the foes who have at- tacked her. But if this outrageous war was not forced upon her, would it not follow in the course of reason that her position is without dignity and honor, and that it is her foes who should be acclaimed and supported to the extreme limit of human sympathy? I believe, dear Doctor Schaper, that the judgment on this paramount question has been formed. That judgment is not based upon the lies and calumnies of the enemies of Germany, nor upon the careless publications contained in the newspapers, but upon a profound study of the official correspondence in the case. This correspondence has been published and disseminated by the respective Governments concerned in the war; it has been reprinted in full in our leading newspapers, and with substantial fullness in our magazines, and has been republished in a complete pam- phlet form in one hugh edition after another by the "New York Times," and again by the American Association for International Conciliation ; and the public demand for this indisputable evidence has not yet been satisfied, although many millions of our people have read it. These documents are known officially as (i) The Austro-Hungarian note to Servia. (2) The Servian Reply. (3) The British White Paper. (4) The German White Book. (5) The Russian Yellow Book. (6) The Belgian Grey Book. They contain all the letters and dispatches which each govern- ment desired to publish to the world as its own justifica- tion for being at war. And, by tlie way, every man who studies these papers will regret two things : first, that Ger- 8 many has not dared to publish her correspondence with Austria, and, second, that Austria has not dared to pubhsh her correspondence with Germany. If the world were in possession of this suppressed evidence, its judgment on the question of guilt would doubtless be greatly facilitated. But, in so far as they have been printed, all of these docu- ments are before me as I write this letter. I cannot help wondering whether they have been circulated in Germany ; I cannot help wishing that the German people might have the opportunity which my countrymen have had of reading these state papers in their fullness. Was this war forced upon Germany? What do the official documents prove? Well, we all know that Austria, away back in 1908, made seizure of the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A thing like that enrages the human spirit ; and the brains of some men will not act normally under such extreme provocation. In May, 1914, the Austrian Crown Prince went into these provinces. The people looked upon him as an invader, a usurper, a conqueror, a tyrant, and he was assassinated. It was a detestable act, condemned and ab- horred by just men everywhere. T condemn it, detest it, and abhor it. But it was the penalty which any man would pay who would flagrantly invade a conquered province under like circumstances. There is always a hot-head ready to murder a tyrant, and a tyrant is one who makes himself a conqueror for his own aggrandizement. In the eyes of those subjugated people, the Crown Prince w'as a tyrant. Austria at once assumed to hold Servia responsible for this murder, and dispatched an ultimatum containing ten drastic conditions which were more exacting upon the dignity of .Servia than any demand that was ever before made by one nation upon another. Yet Servia yielded to all except in part as to Articles 5 and 6. In Article 5 the Imperial scheme of Pan-Germanism was developed — insidiously broached, it is true, but still it was put before Servia as a definitive part of the plan of Austro-German expansion. Servia was required "to accept the collaboration in Servia of representatives of the Austro-Hungarian government in the suppression of the subversive movement directed against the territorial integrity of the (Austrian) monarchy." This brief clause is full of hidden meaning. The phraseology is so elastic that its acceptance by Servia would have given Austria the opportunity to extend its purport so that it would cover practically any kind of interference in Servian affairs for the ostensible purpose of suppressing any "subversive movement." Already Austria had ravished Servia of two of her precious jewels, and was laying her plans now to despoil her of more. In Germany's "White Paper" we read- an undisguised acknowledgment that the main object of Austria's war on Servia was to assert a con- trol in Servia over all policies which Austria might regard as having any inimical effect upon such territory as should now belong to Austria or would hereafter be annexed. It would be difficult to conceive of anything that would be a more fatal impairment of the sovereignty of Servia than for her to yield to this harsh demand. Yet she replied with patience and dignity, consenting "to admit such col- laboration as agrees with the principle of international law, with criminal procedure, and with good neighborly rela- tions." It is well that we should keep in mind the avowed ob- ject of Germany and Austria in making this significant de- mand upon Servia, in order that we may be able to avoid the error of assuming that the Austrian war on Servia was merely a punitive expedition on account of the assassination of the Crown Prince of Austria. When these minatory lO conditions were published, Russia, as one of the great pow- ers of Europe, naturally felt that she had a historical basis to claim, and she did emphatically claim, a right to a voice in determining whether the sovereignty of the kingdom of Servia should be permanently impaired. Germany well knew that an insistence upon this condition would make a general war inevitable ; yet she proclaimed her insistence from the house-tops, and defied Russia to interfere. Again, Article 6 contained the unprecedented condi- tion that Austrian jurists should sit in the Servian court before which the assassins were to be tried, and even here Servia agreed to submit in effect, although calling attention to the extremely reasonable fact that such participation by Austria was contrary to the laws of Servia. If her replies on any part of the ultimatum were not satisfactory to Aus- tria, Servia candidly oft'ered to hold further conversations on the subject, or to refer the matter to The Hague Court, or to the great powers of Europe. In this transaction Servia showed a disposition towards reparation and towards peace, which the civilized world has been trying for many years to inculcate into the foreign relations of all nations. Servia had just passed through two wars, and her strength was ex- hausted. But Austria, conscious all the time that good faith would have enabled her to reach an agreement in a con- versation of thirty minutes, was resolved to make war, and in this resolve the German Emperor and the military party in Germany upheld her, as candidly acknowledged in their official declarations. The German White Book is very frank on this subject. It says: "We were able to assure our ally (Austria) most heartily of our agreement with her view of the situation, and to assure her that any action that she might consider it necessary to take in order to put an end to the movement II in Servia directed against the existence of the Austro-Hun- garian monarchy would receive our approval." You will see, my dear Doctor Schaper, that it never entered into the minds of the Emperor and his advisers to refer the question to The Hague Court or to discuss it in a concert of the powers of Europe. What w^e are trying to do, you will remember, is to find out who began the war. So the German statement proceeds : "We were fully aware in this connection that warlike moves on the part of Aus- tria Hungary against Servia would bring Russia into the question, and might draw us into a war in accordance with our duty as an ally." I hope you will read that last quotation with extreme care. Does it not prove by German declaration alone that all these myriad thousands of good German working men who have been slaughtered in their invasion of other lands have died, not because the Fatherland was in peril, but be- cause ambitious schemes of the dynastic houses of Haps- burg and Hohenzollern demanded the sacrifice? In the English White Paper we have all the telegrams which were exchanged between the English Foreign Office over the signature of Sir Edward Grey and the diplomatic officials of the other powers, including the Imperial Chan- cellor of Germany. These telegrams to and from her own foreign office are, curiously enough, not included by Ger- many in her presentation of the case. On July 24th Sir Ed- ward Grey, through the British Ambassador at Berlin, pro- posed a conference between Germany, Italy, France and England in the event of the relations between Austria and Russia becoming threatening, and he repeated this sugges- tion the next day to the German Ambassador at London. The Emperor returned suddenly to Berlin on July 26th .(he was not "away on his vacation when the war broke out," as has been stated by his defenders in America time 12 and time again), and Sir Edward Grey repeated his urgent appeal for a conference of accommodation. So on the next day the EngHsh Ambassador at BerHn telegraphed Sir Ed- ward Grey "Secretary of State says that conference you suggest would practically amount to a court of arbitration, and could not, in his opinion, be called together except at the request of Austria and Russia. He could not, there- fore, fall in with your suggestion, desirous though he was to cooperate for the maintenance of peace. I said I was sure that your idea had nothing to do with arbitration, but meant that representatives of the four nations not directly interested should discuss and suggest means for avoiding a dangerous situation. He maintained, however, that such a conference as you proposed was not practicable." Was Germany anxious to avoid war? Did she make the slightest elTort to avert it? Do we see her being at- tacked? W^ere her "jealous neighbors" oppressing her? On the contrary, Germany stood steadfastly upon her as- surance that Austria was justified in making war on Servia, and that if Russia interfered, she would fight Rus- sia. Then who began the war? And once again, why did these German husbands, sons and fathers die ? And all this time England and France and Russia and Italy were striv- ing mightily to hold back Austria from beginning a con- flict which they all knew, as Germany knew, would destroy the peace of the world. They all pleaded for further con- ference, but Austria was obdurate, being upheld to her un- compromising attitude by Germany, and on July 27tli she began her war on Servia. Returning to the German White Book, we read that after Austria had attacked Servia, Russia began to mobilize her army, as she had all along declared that she would do, for action against Austria if it became necessary. W^e then come upon one of the most extraordinary communications 13 which has ever been written. It is a telegram from the German Emperor to the Czar, and says : "The unscrupu- lous agitation which has gone on for \ears in vServia has led to the revolting crime of which Archduke Francis Ferdinand was the victiqi Undoubtedly you will agree with me thalt we two, you and I, as well as all sov- ereigns, have a common interest in insisting that all those morally responsible for this terrible murder sliall suffer deserved punishment." We begin to see now why those German soldiers have died, and why those German women are weeping. A prince, no matter whether he was a usurper and an invader, has been shot. Therefore let all Hell break loose in Europe! And those of us who have been shocked when bombs have been hurled at emperors, are now astounded to behold that emperors, in emulation of the most despicable anarchists, have themselves hurled bombs at defenseless women and children in Antwerp and in Paris. The Czar replied: "A disgraceful war has been de- clared on a weak nation ; the indignation of this, which I fully share, is immense in Russia. I foresee that soon I can no longer withstand the pressure that is being brought to bear upon me, and that I shall be forced to adopt meas- ures which will lead to war." The Emperor answered thus : "I cannot consider Aus- tria's action a disgraceful war. Austria knows by experi- ence that Servia's promises, when they are merely on paper, are quite unreliable." I cannot help asking you, dear Doctor Schaper, if the world has not come to know that there are other promises which, when they are merely on paper, are quite unreliable? Does not one such paper bear your Emperor's signature? Has not your Emperor declared that his solemn and sacred 14 guarantee of Belgium's neutrality is nothing but a scrap of paper England now asked whether Germany, in. the event of war, would guarantee that she would not despoil France of her territorial possessions, and Germany replied that she could not give such guarantees. And in answer to a last effort on the part of England to protect France from dis- memberment and spoliation, the Emperor sends this amaz- ing telegram to the King of England: "My mobilization cannot be countermanded because I am sorry your telegram came so late. But if France offers me neutrality, which must be guaranteed by the British fleet and army, I shall of course refrain from attacking France and employ my troops elsewhere. I hope that France will not become nervous. The troops on my frontiers are in the act of being stopped by telegraph and telephone from crossing into France." "My mobilization!" It is the Emperor, then, who has mobilized. The time may come, dear Doctor Schaper, and you and I ought to hope that it will come soon, when there will be neither Kings nor Emperors with power to mobilize armies as a child plays with toy soldiers! In a certain event, says the Emperor, "I shall refrain from attacking France"^ — and mark what follows! "- — and employ my troops elsewhere." The Emperor is determined to make war, either on France, or "elsewhere." And then : "I hope France will not become nervous." Now what should make France nervous?. "The troops on my frontiers are in the act of being stopped by telegraph and telephone from cross- ing into France." There we have it all ! The telegram from England came too late ; the German Emperor has mobilized ; his armies are already crossing the French Frontiers, but France must not become nervous! Poor France! already shaking with the tread of a million invaders, she must not get nervous I ' 15 The final step, then, appears to be an ultimatum, on July 31st, from the Imperial German Chancellor giving Russia twelve hours to cease her mobilization. But Russia continued to make her preparations, and the war broke out on August I St. Who began it? Was it England? Scarcely so, for England, in so far as her army is concerned, had yielded to the popular plea for arbitration ; she was not ready for war and will not be ready for another six months. Was it France? Was it Russia? Not one of the ninety-three dis- tinguished men who have sent me this letter, if they will read the evidence, will say so. Nominally it was Austria, who, by her unreasonable and inexorable attack on Servia, began the War, but Austria was supported, controlled and guided at every step by Germany, who, in her turn, gave notice to the powers of Europe that any interference with Austria would be resented by Germany to the full limit of war. For what, then, have these brave German soldiers died? Alas ! Not one of all those among her slaughtered battal- ions could answer that question, in the last moment of his agony. The men who have fallen among the allies have died on their own soil, defending their countries against in- vasion, but all your sons have died in a foreign land with- out a cause. The next point in your letter reads thus : "It is not true that we trespassed in neutral Belgium." Have these ninety-three men studied well the letter they have signed? Could intellects so superbly trained deliberately certify to such an unwarranted declaration? Once again I ask, are the people of Germany being supplied with the evidence which is given to the rest of the world? Has any one of my ninety-three honored correspondents read the guilty statement made by Imperial Chancellor von Bethman-HoU- i6 weg in the Reichstag on August 4th? I fear not^ for in that statement the Chancellor said: "We were compelled to override the just protests of the Luxemburg and Belgian governments. Our troops have occupied Luxemburg and perhaps are al- ready on Belgian soil. Gentlemen, that is a breach of international law. It is true that the French govern- ment has declared at Brussels that France is willing to respect the neutrality of Belgium, so long as her oppo- nent respects it. France could wait, but we could not. The wrong — I speak frankly — that we are committing we will endeavor to make good as soon as our military goal has been reached." Again, I am impelled to wonder whether any of you gentlemen are aware of the fact that your Imperial Chan- cellor himself made an appeal for the good opinion of the American people, which was published in the American newspapers on August 15th, in which he again acknowl- edges this crime against Belgium in the following words: "Necessity forced us to violate the neutrality of Belgium, but we had promised emphatically to com- pensate that country for all damage inflicted." What will the good conscience of the German people say when, in spite of its passion in the rage of war, it grasps the awful significance of the confession of its Imperial Chancellor? What necessity? Who would ever have at- tacked you if your Emperor had not marched his troops across the frontiers of his peaceful neighbors? "The wrong that we are committing." The wreck and ruin of a country that has done you no injury, the slaughter of her sons, the expulsion of her King and government, the blackmail of her substance, the destruction of her cities, with their happy homes, their beautiful monuments of historic times, and the priceless works of human genius! 17 "The wrong that we are committing." Worst of all, when the desperate and maddened populace, seeing their sons slain and their homes in flames, fired from their win- dows in the last instinct of nature, your troops, with bar- baric ferocity, put them to the sword without distinction of age or sex ! The wrong ! Why do you deny it against the shameful acknowledgment of the official voice of Germany? Oh, Doctor Schaper, if these conditions should ever be re- versed and these foreign soldiers should march through the streets of Berlin, would not you, would not all of my ninety-' three correspondents, if they saw their homes battered in ruins and their sons dead in the streets, would not they, too, fire from their windows upon the merciless invaders? I am sure I would do so ! When our American troops were recently dispatched t6 Mexico, not to conquer, not to make war, but to restore peace and good order and the authority of law, some of the people of \'era Cruz fired at them from their windows, and twenty-three of our young soldiers were killed. At last they fired back at the sharpshooters, but they did not destroy the city, nor kill the innocent, and even those among the sharpshooters who were captured were not executed, but were admonished to good behavior, and set free. I almost wish that America had the power and the will to go into Belgium and France, to thrust back these wicked invaders, and restore peace and good order and the authority of law there. Such a power is surely going to be organized, one of these days, by the humane people of all the world, and after that a nation which under- takes to prepare death and hell for all mankind, as your nation has done during these past twenty-five years, will be restrained as a public enemy. Yet the gross savagery that took us to Mexico is mild indeed when we compare it with the barbaric destruction and murder that is being pursued by your troops in those two countries. i8 If Germany is not guilty, then, Doctor Schaper, in God's name, why are your armies in Belgium? Why are they in France? If you had waited until you had been at- tacked, you would never have found your nation at war. Your Imperial Chancellor says that you have violated in- ternational law and that you will endeavor to make good the wrong you are committing. Why, Doctor Schaper, all the gold you could give to France and Belgium in a thou- sand years, and all the penitential prayers you could utter in every hour of a thousand years, together with the con- trition of a shamed and broken heart, would not repair your ruin of two nations by fire and slaughter, nor dry up the ocean of human tears which have accompanied your hideous invasion. People sometimes ask us : "W^ould you rather have the Slav than the German?" And the reply is always to the same effect : "Yes, since we have seen the German at war, we would rather have the Slav, rather the Turk, rather the Hottentot !" Your communication makes other denials, that you "have not injured the life and property of a single Belgian citizen without the bitterest self-defense having made it necessary," and that your troops "have not treated Louvain brutally." The judgment here also must rest upon the facts, and the facts are too well known to justify their repetition, and argument would be wasted. I do, however, bring one witness against you on this charge, and one only. It is your Emperor. Hear him! "My soldiers have destroyed Lou- vain because of the trespass of the people, and the lives and property of many innocent persons have been sacri- ficed. My heart bleeds for Louvain !" You likewise make denial of atrocities, not justified by warfare. Well, here in Pittsburgh, we have received a let- ter from one of our Red Cross nurses who is serving in Belgium. Among those under her care is a boy who, brave lad, fired from his window at the troops who were ravaging his country, and had both hands cut off by your soldiers. And was not the Burgomaster of Termonde slain because he defended his daughter against the attack of a German officer — a guest in his own house? Another story reaches me to-day from one of my own business correspondents formerly living at Brussels but forced to flee to Nantes, who tells me that your soldiers shot the Cashier of the Na- tional Bank of Belgium and his two sons, because he re- fused to give them the combination of his safe. Common tales like these seem only too well authenticated. But why make denial of individual atrocities when we have them in such wholesale instances as those "at Louvain, Alost and Termonde ? Our people look upon war itself as an atrocity, debasing a nation that provokes it as much as private mur- der debases the criminal who instigates it. Your Emperor was admired as one of the greatest men in the world. But what will be the fame that he leaves to posterity? Oh, what a fall is there! His inexcusable provocation of war has stung humanity to the innermost depths of its soul. Be- sides drenching Europe with human blood, he is giving her a new population of weeping widows and bereft mothers, of fatherless children, and of men without arms and legs. A heritage of hate ! And then you conclude your letter by defending Ger- man militarism. Well, that would bring us back again to the question of how the war began. No candid mind can doubt that the responsibility for the war rests entirely upon Germany because of her encouragement of Austria to at- tack Servia, knowing, as Germany knew, that a European conflagration would result. For Austria is only a ram- shackle empire, bound together by a rope of sand, not able to assimilate various races into one homogeneous nation, as we assimilate them in America, because her government is not a government of equal rights, and she couM never do 20 anything either good or l)ad, on her own initiative, in a masterful way. But there are causes l)ack of this. Your referenpe to Ciernian mihtarism brings to mind the conviction that this war began potentially twenty-five years ago, when Emperor William II. ascended the throne, declared himself Supreme \\ ar Lord, and [)rocceded to pre- pare his nation for war. His own children were raised from their babyhood to consider themselves soldiers and to look forward to a destiny of slaughter; and here in America we know even his daughter only by her photograph in a colonel's uniform. And as with his own children, so all the youth of his empire were brought up. Compulsory military service made every man a soldier. I have been in Germany and have everywhere noted the lack of national tranquility, for the streets were at all times full of soldiers ; the eye caught noth- ing but the flash of shining helmets and polished breast- plates; the ear heard nothing but the clanking of sabres and the jingling of spurs. Horses were chafing their bits and beating the air with impatient hoofs. And all this constant noise and panoply of war has poisoned the imagination of the German people, and the surging spirit of conflict has got itself into their blood. A man wearing the Kaiser's uniform became at once a member of an exclusive class. A waiter cjuestioning a score with a drunken officer was stabbed to the heart, the soldier's uniform making the act a good defense. A lame shoemaker, living in a conquered province, who muttered words against the Kaiser's troops, was cut down with a sabre, and the officer who committed the cowardly assault was effusively praised by the German Crown Prince. A man in humble station, who sought^to greet with familiar approach a former friend now in officer's uniform, was killed for his impudence, the murderer even writing a letter to his victim's mother justifying the crime. I have myself 21 seen German officers elbow gentle women on the street to make more room for themselves. I have seen others of them raise their glasses to the day when they would be at war. And in every day of every year of the twenty-five the Emperor has, by his incendiary speeches, inflamed the pub- lic ardor for this potential war. Men who proposed sub- stantial ways of peace were sneered at for their interfer- ence. When the working classes of the world began to stagger under the taxation for prospective war (about 75 per cent, of the revenues of all governments going into these wasted expenditures) the English cabinet proposed a cessation of further preparation for one year, but the Em- peror's answer to this humane suggestion was to add four battleships to his fleet and three hundred thousand men to his army, immediately requiring France to lengthen out her term of service from two years to three. Your General von Bernhardi said: "Eft'orts to secure peace are extraordinarily detrimental to the national health." The very professors in your universities have helped instil into the minds of your young men this doctrine that war was inevitable. Going far away from your great philoso- pher, Kant, who, in his Categorical Imperative, has taught us all a new golden rule, the national spirit of Germany has been fed on the sensual materialism of Nietzsche, on the undisguised bloodthirst of General von Bernhardi, on the wicked war dreams of Treitchske. and on the weak morahty of von Biilow ; and in every scrap of evidence that we can gather from your Emperor, his children, his soldiers, his statesmen, and his professors, we behold that Germany held herself a nation apart from the rest of the world and superior to it. and predestined to maintain that superiority by war. In contrast to this narrow and de- structive spirit of nationalism, we in America have learned 22 the value of humanity above the race, so that we cherish all mankind in the bosom of our country. And right here, dear Doctor Schaper, may I say that the statesmanship of Germany has been constructed upon one false principle which is mainly responsible for all the woes that this German war has brought upon the world? Your military rulers have inculcated in the hearts of your people the belief that the German flag must follow Germans in their emigration. Hence you claim to require colonies. Then your Emperor tells his people that Germany is above all— have you not a song to those words?- — ^he teaches them that they are above the rest of our poor humanity, and they believe it. Well, there are, as I have said, eight million Germans in America who do not require the Ger- man flag in order to insure their utmost felicity. There are other thousands of them in Canada, in Brazil, in Ar- gentina, and elsewhere around the globe, always safe and happy without the German flag. When Americans adopt other countries they do not carry our flag with them. Is it not absurd and mischievous, then, to hold to the doctrine that Germans henceforth must continue to live under the German flag, wherever they go? Is not the wild dream of Pan-Germanism at the bottom of this great crime? Is there not a higher destiny, to be born, perhaps, out of this war, that humanity is greater than any race, and that governments in conflict with that destiny must perish? Then, again, your military class, desiring to hold the government in their own hands, are promulgating the idea that the common people of Germany are incapable of what English and Americans call self-government. "No people," says your General von Bernhardi, "is so unfitted as the Ger- mans to direct their own destinies." Well, I cannot help wondering what the reckoning will be between the German people and their rulers when this war is over. There is a 23 fine line in Bulwer's play, "Richelieu," which fits this case : "Oh, if men will play dark sorcery with the heart of man, let them who raise the spell beware the fiend !" These war dreams, this German solidarity, this Pan- Germanism, this mendacious diplomacy, this policy of being armed to the teeth, this false principle of the state above the individual, the still more fallacious sentiment of Ger- many above humanity, the contempt of your military rulers for human life, their eager wish to destroy the whole body of property which marks the progress of mankind — all this has made the world afraid of you. Your insatiate ' spirit has terrified us all. Your General Stafif have even published a plan for attacking America. If you beat down the Brit- ish Empire, why will not our turn come next ? And so, at last, my dear Dr. Schaper, we find our- selves shocked, ashamed, and outraged that a Christian na- tion should be guilty of this criminal war. When I say that we hate this conflict and that we execrate the German mili- itarists who made it, I am uttering the opinion of the great majority of the American people, including hundreds of thousands of our German-American cftizens. There was no justification for it. Armed and defended as you were, the whole world could never have broken into your borders. And while German culture still has something to. gain from her neighbors, yet the intellectual progress which Germany was making seemed to be lifting upT^ier own people to better things for themselves and to an altruistic service to mankind. Your great nation floated its ships in every ocean, sold its wares in the uttermost parts of the earth, and enjoyed the good favor of humanity, because it was trusted as a humane state. But now all this achievement has vanished, all this good opinion has been destroyed. You cannot in half a century regain the spiritual and material benefits which you have lost. 24 Oh. that we might have again a Germany that we could respect, a (lermany of true peace, of true progress, of true culture, modest and not boastful, forever rid her of war lords, and her armed hosts, and turning once more to the uplifting influence of such leaders as Luther, Goethe, Beet- hoven and Kant ! But Germany, whether you win or lose in this war, has fallen, and the once glorious nation must con- tinue to pursue its course in darkness and murder until con- science at last bids it withdraw its armies back to its own boundaries, there to wait for the world's pardon upon this inexpiable damnation. I believe you will forgive me for suggesting that, if the ninety-three men who have w'ritten me this letter would exercise their great influence upon the conscience of their own countrymen to stop the war, recall your armies, and plead for peace upon terms which would take full cogni- zance of the wrongs your Emperor and your Imperial Chan- cellor have confessed — then would you be doing a real serv- ice to humanity surpassing all the achievements of your lives. Many good things are sure to come out of this wicked war. The best of all will be peace. I belong to all the peace societies, and have observed that the men of peace used to speak with bated breath and walk with timid step, fearful of the glance of fighting men. But from this time forward, I predict that peace is going to be the most militant thing on this earth, enforcing law and order with the high hand of authority, and trampling under foot the petty maj- esties who would ever again try to develop great empires upon the dead bodies of poor working men and simple peas- ants. Then shall we find humanity greater indeed than any part of it which may be called a nation. I desire, in closing this very candid response to your letter, to express my profound sympathy for the German 25 people. I mourn with you for the good and brave men whose lives have been needlessly thrown away in an interna- tional debauch of murder and robbery; I weep, as you do, with the precious women whose hearts have been broken by an insupportable loss; I pity the poor little children, a million and more of them, who must grow up without the love and care of a father. I wish that I might do or say something that would help to assuage the grief of the Ger- man people, but no human hand can lighten, such a stag- gering burden of affliction. With my thanks for your letter, and my compliments to the other gentlemen whose names are signed to it, with a profound wish that permanent peace may soon come to this troubled world, and assuring you of my unshaken friendship and esteem, I am, dear Doctor Schaper, Always faithfully yours, S. H. CHURCH. 26 TO THE CIVILIZED WORLD As representatives of German Science and Art, we hereby protest to the civihzed world against the lies and calumnies with which our enemies are endeavoring to stain the honor of Germany in her hard struggle for existence — in a struggle which has been forced upon her. The iron mouth of events has proved the untruth of the fictitious German defeats, consequently misrepresenta- tion and calumny are all the more eagerly at work. As heralds of truth we raise our voices against these. It is not true that Germany is guilty of having caused this war. Neither the people, the government, nor the "Kaiser" wanted war. Germany did her utmost to prevent it; for this assertion the world has documental proof. Often enough during the 26 years of his reign has Wilhelm II. shown himself to be the upholder of peace, and often enough has this fact been acknowledged by our opponents. Nay, even the "Kaiser," they now dare to call an Attila, has been ridiculed by them for years, because of his stead- fast endeavors to maintain universal peace. Not till a nu- merical superiority which had been lying in wait on the frontiers, assailed us, did the whole nation rise to a man. It is not true that we trespassed in neutral Belgium. It has been proved that France and England had resolved on such a trespass, and it has likewise been proved that Bel- gium had agreed to their doing so. It would have been sui- cide on our part not to have been beforehand. It is not true that the life and property of a single Bel- gian citizen was injured by our soldiers without the bitterest self-defense having made it necessary ; for again, and again, notwithstanding repeated threats, the citizens lay in ambush, shooting at the troops out of the houses, mutilating the 27 wounded, and murdering in cold blood the medical men while they were doing their Samaritan work. There can be no baser abuse than the suppression of these crimes with the view of letting the Germans appear to be criminals, only for having justly punished these assassins for their wicked deeds. It is not true that our troops treated Louvain brutally. Furious inhabitants having treacherously fallen upon them in their quarters, our troops, with aching hearts, were obliged to fire a part of the town as a punishment. The greatest part of Louvain has been preserved. The famous Town Hall stands quite intact; for at great self-sacrifice our soldiers saved it from destruction by the flames. Every German would of course greatly regret, if in the course of this ter- rible war any work of art should already have been de- stroyed or be destroyed at some future time, but inasmuch as in our love for art we cannot be surpassed by any other nation, in the same degree we must decidedly refuse to buy a German defeat at the cost of saving a work of art. /■/ is not true that our warfare pays no respect to in- ternational laws. It knows no undisciplined cruelty. But in the east the earth is saturated with the blood of women and children unmercifully butchered by the wild Russian troops, and in the west, Dum-Dum bullets mutilate the breasts of our soldiers. Those who have allied themselves with Russians and Servians, and present such a shameful scene to the world as that of inciting Mongolians and Ne- groes against the white race, have no right whatever to call them'selves upholders of civilization. It is not true that the combat against our so-called mil- itarism is not a combat against our civilization, as our ene- mies hypocritically pretend it is. Were it not for German militarism, German civilization would long since have been 28 extirpated. For its protection it arose in a land which for centuries had been plagued by bands of rol)l)ers, as no other land had been. The German army and the German people are one, and to-day this consciousness fraternizes 70 mill- ions of Germans, all ranks, positions and parties being one. We cannot wrest the poisonous weapon — the lie — out of the hands of our enemies. All we can do is to proclaim to all the world, that our enemies are giving false witness against us. You, who know us. who with us have protected the most holy possessions of man, we call to you : Have faith in us ! Believe, that we shall carry on this war to the end as a civilized nation, to whom the legacy of a Goethe, a Beethoven, and a Kant, is just as sacred as its own hearths and homes. For this we pledge you our names and our honor. Adolf von Baeyer, Professor of Ohemistrj', Munich. Prof. Justus Brinkmann, Museum Director, Hamburg:. Prof. Peter Behrens, Berlin. Emil von Behring, Professor of Medicine, Marburg. Wilhelm von Bode, General Director of the Rojal Museums, Berlin. Alois Brandl, Professor, President of the Shakes- peare Society, Berlin. Luju Brentano, Professor of National Economy, Munich. Johannes Conrad, Professor of National Economy, Halle. Franz von Defregger, Munich. Richard Dehmel, Hamburg. Adolf Deissmann, Professor of Tlieulogy, Berlin. Prof. Wilhelm Doerpfeld, Berlin. 29 Friedrich von Duhn, Professor of Archaeologj-, Heidelberg. Albert Ehrhard, Professor of R. Catholic Theology, Strassburg. Prof. Paul Ehrlich, Frankfort-oii-the-Main. Karl Engler, Professor of Chemistry, Karlsruhe. Gerhard Esser, Professor of R. Catholic Theologrj', Bonn. Rudolf Eucken, Professor of Philosophy, Jena. Herbert Eulenberg, Kaiserswerth. Heinrich Finke, Professor of Historj', Freiburg. Emil Fischer, Professor of Chemistry, Berlin. Wilhelm Foerster, Professor of Astronomy, Berlin. J. J. de Groot, Professor of Ethnography, Berlin. Fritz Haber, Professor of Clieniistry, Berlin. Ernst Haeckel, Professor of Zoology, Jena. Max Halbe, Munich. Prof. Adolf von Harnack, General Director of the Royal Library, Berlin. Gerhart Hauptmann, Agnetendorf. Karl Hauptmann, Schreiberhau. Gustav Hellmann, Profesisor of Meteorology, Berlin. Wilhelm Herrmann, Professor of Protestant Theology, Marburg. Andreas Heusler, Professor of Northern Philology, Berlin. Ludwig Fulda, Berlin. Adolf von Hildebrand, Munich. Eduard von Gebhardt, Dus'seldorf. Ludwig Hoffmann, City Architect, Berlin. 30 Engelbert Humperdinck, Berlin. Maximilian Lenz, Professor of History, Hamburg^. Leopold Graf Kalckreuth, President of the German Confedera- tion of Artists, Eddelsen. Arthur Kampf, Berlin. Fritz Aug. V. Kaulbach, Munich. Theodor Kipp, Professor of Jurisprudence, Berlin. Felix Klein, Professor of Mathematics, Goettingen. Max Klinger, Leipsic. Alois Knoepfler, Professor of History of Art, Munich. Anton Koch, Professor of R. Catholic Theology, Munster. Paul Laband, Professor of Jurisprudence, Strassburg. Karl Lamprecht, Professor of History, Leipsic. Max Liebermann, Berlin. Franz von Liszt, Professor of Jurisprudence, Berlin. Ludwig Manzel, President of the Academy of Arts, Berlin. Josef Mausbach, Professor of R. Catholic Theology, Munster. Georg von Mayr, Professor of Political Sciences, Munich. Sebastian Merkle, Professor of R. Catholic Tlieology, Wurzburg. Eduard Meyer, Professor of History, Berlin. Heinrich Morf, Professor of Roman Pliilology, Berlin. Friedrich Naumann, Berlin. Albert Neisser, Professor of Medicine, Breslau. Philipp Lenard, Professor of Physics, Heidelberg. Walter Nernst, Professor of Physics, Berlin. 31 Wilhelm Ostwald, Professor of Chemistry, Leipsic. Bruno Paul, Director of School for Applied Arts, Berlin.- Max Planck, Professor of Physics, Berlin. Albert Plehn, Professor of Medicine, Berlin. Georg Reicke, Berlin. Prof. Max Reinhardt, Director of the German Theatre, Berlin. Alois Riehl, Professor of Philosophy, Berlin. Karl Robert, Professor of Archaeology, Halle. Wilhelm Roentgen, Professor of Physics. Munich. August Schmidlin, Professor of Sacred History, Munster. Gustav von Schmoller, Professor of National Economy, Berlin. Reinhold Seeberg, Professor of Protestant Theology, Berlin. Martin Spahn, Professor of History, Strassburg. Franz von Stuck, Munich. Hermann Sudermann, Berlin. Hans Thoma, Karlsruhe. Wilhelm Truebner, Karlsruhe. Karl Vollmoeller, Stuttgart. Max Rubner, Professor of Medicine, Berlin. Richard Voss, Berchtesgaden. Fritz Schaper, Berlin. Adolf von Schlatter, Professor of Protestant Theology, Tubingen. Karl Vossler, Professor of Roman Philology, Munich. Siegfried Wagner, Bayreuth. 32 Wilhelm Waldeyer, Professor of Anatomy, Berlin. August von Wassermann, Professor of Medicine, Berlin. Felix von Weingartner. Theodor Wiegand, Museum Director, Berlin. Wilhelm Wien, Professor of Physics, VVurzburg. Ulrich von Wilamowitz- Moellendorff, Professor of Philology, Berlin. Richard Willstaetter, Professor of Chemistry, Berlin. Wilhelm Windelband, Professor of Philosophy, Heidelberg. Wilhelm Wundt, Professor of Philosophy, Leipsic. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS lllllllliillli'lllllllllllillllllllll 015 900 860 5 "Our excellent President Wilson, beloved and esteemed by our whole people, has charged us all to maintain an impartial neu- trality, and that I believe we are all earnestly striving to do; but we are, at the same time, in like manner, earnestly striving to find the right and to condemn the wrong, because neutrality can never mean indifference. You will remember that Dante, in the Inferno, found a hell be- neath all other hells prepared for those timid beings who insisted on being neutral in the everlast- ing fight between good and evil. This war is a fight between those forces of good and evil." S. H. CHURCH LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 015 900 860 5 %