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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10078 ***
+
+PLAIN WORDS FROM AMERICA
+
+A LETTER TO A GERMAN PROFESSOR
+
+BY
+
+Professor  DOUGLAS W. JOHNSON
+
+Columbia University, New York
+
+1917.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHER'S NOTE.
+
+
+_The following letter, written by Professor Douglas W. Johnson, of
+Columbia University, is in reply to a letter, pleading the cause of
+Germany, which he received from a German correspondent. Professor
+Johnson's letter appeared in the "Revue de Paris" of September_, 1916.
+
+
+
+
+PLAIN WORDS FROM AMERICA
+
+_February_, 1916.
+
+Your two letters, with enclosed newspaper clippings, and your postal
+card were duly received. I can assure you that my failure to reply more
+promptly was not meant as any discourtesy. The clippings were gladly
+received, for I am always anxious to read what prominent Germans regard
+as able and convincing presentations of their side of disputed matters.
+Your own letters, particularly the long one of July 9, were read most
+carefully. I appreciate your earnest endeavour to convince me of the
+righteousness of your country's cause, and am not unmindful of the time
+and trouble you spent in preparing for me so carefully worded a
+presentation of the German point of view touching several matters of the
+profoundest importance to our two Governments.
+
+My failure to reply has been due to a doubt in my own mind as to whether
+good would be accomplished by any letter which I could write. I could
+not agree with your opinions regarding Germany's responsibility for the
+war, nor regarding her methods of conducting the war; and it did not
+seem to me that you would profit by any statement I might make as to the
+reasons for my own opinions on such vital matters. Your letters clearly
+showed that you wrote under the influence of an intense emotion--an
+emotion which I can both understand and respect, but which might well
+make it impossible for you to accord a dispassionate reception to a
+reply which controverted your own views. With your country surrounded by
+powerful foes, with your sons deluging alien soil in an heroic defence
+of your Government's decrees, with the nation you love most dearly
+standing in moral isolation, condemned by the entire neutral world for
+barbarous crimes against civilisation, you could hardly be expected to
+write with that scientific accuracy and care which would, in normal
+times, be your ideal.
+
+For this reason I have not resented much in your letters which would
+otherwise call for earnest protest. I feel sure, for example, your
+assertion that I and my fellow-countrymen derive our opinions of German
+conduct wholly from corrupt and venal newspapers, or usually from a
+single newspaper which doles out mental poison in subservience to a
+single political party, was not intended to be as insulting as it really
+sounded. Your emotion doubtless led you to make charges which your sense
+of justice and courtesy would, under other circumstances, condemn. I
+believe also that in a calmer time you would not entertain the sweeping
+opinion that "the daily press has become one of the direst plagues of
+humanity, an ulcer in the frame of society, whose one object it is, for
+private ends (wealth, political influence, and social position), to pit
+the races, nations, religions, and classes against one another." I
+realise that some of our papers are a disgrace to the high calling of
+journalism; I believe that some sacrifice honour for gain and that some
+are subservient to special interests; but the roll of American
+journalists is honoured by the presence of many names which command
+respect at home and abroad because of a long-standing reputation for
+honesty, fearlessness, and distinguished service in the cause of
+humanity. To one such name was added at our last commencement the degree
+representing one of the highest honours which Columbia University has to
+bestow upon a man of lofty ideals and honourable achievement. The paper
+edited by this man is among those most extensively read by myself and
+hundreds of thousands of other Americans who demand to know the truth.
+However low may be the moral plane of some newspapers, your
+characterisation of all newspapers as mere business concerns, founded
+and carried on with the purpose of enriching their owners, and
+supporting certain special interests, "quite regardless of their effect,
+beneficial or the reverse, upon the real public interests of their own
+country, regardless of truth and justice," is not at all true of the
+class of papers read by the majority of intelligent Americans. I am not
+sufficiently familiar with a large number of German newspapers to make
+assertions as to their standards; but, in spite of the smaller amount
+of freedom allowed to the press in your country, I can scarcely imagine
+that conditions are bad enough to justify your sweeping condemnation of
+all newspapers.
+
+If you had stopped to consider the radically different relations
+existing between the press and the Government in Germany and in America,
+you would scarcely have fallen into the error of asserting that a
+considerable proportion of our papers, in common with those of other
+nations, have "laboured in the employ or at the instigation of" the
+Government, "with all the implements of mendacity and defamation, to
+spread hatred and contempt for Germany." Unlike your own, our press is
+wholly free from Government control. Any attempt on the part of our
+Government to dictate the policy of any newspaper would be hotly
+resented, and would be doomed to certain failure. Americans do not
+believe in the German doctrine that the press must be "so far controlled
+as is requisite for the welfare of the community," and hold that
+absolute freedom of speech is essential to true liberty. There is no
+censorship of the American press. You have a censorship which all the
+outside world knows has been wonderfully effective in keeping some
+important facts from the knowledge of the German people. No American
+paper can be suppressed because of what it prints. You are, of course,
+well aware that, on more than one occasion, German papers have been
+suppressed for certain periods because your Government did not believe
+that what they said was for the good of the country. I enclose a message
+received by wireless under German control which is only one of the many
+announcements telling of suppression of your papers. It does not alter
+the situation to say that censorship and suppression are necessary for
+the good of the Fatherland, and that the papers in question deserved to
+be suppressed. The vital fact remains that your newspapers are not free
+to publish anything they like. Ours are thus free. Every issue of your
+papers must be submitted to your police, so that your rulers may control
+what you write and read. Not a paper in America is submitted to any
+official whatever. You cannot read anything which your Government
+believes it wise to keep from you. We can read everything, whether the
+Government likes it or not. Americans believe there can be no truly free
+press, and no real unfettered public opinion, with the possibility of
+punishment hanging over the press of a country. Where the police,
+representing the ruling power, controls the press there is no true
+liberty. Whatever else may be said against the American press, it must
+be admitted that it is free from Government control. It is not
+necessary, therefore, to inquire whether the American Government has
+employed or instigated the public press to attack Germany, since, even
+if it desired to do so, it would not dare make the attempt.
+
+There are many other statements in your letters which can only be
+explained as the result of writing under stress of intense emotion; you
+would probably wish to modify many of these were you writing under
+happier circumstances. It is not my desire, however, to dwell upon this
+phase of your correspondence. I do not for a moment doubt your
+sincerity, and believe you were yourself convinced of the truth of all
+you wrote. My purpose in writing this letter is to accept in good faith
+your expressed wish for a better understanding between two peoples who
+have long been on friendly terms with one another, and to contribute
+toward this end by removing, at least so far as we two are concerned,
+one serious misunderstanding which now exists.
+
+As you are well aware, the American people, with the exception of a
+certain proportion of German-born population, are practically unanimous
+in condemning Germany for bringing on the war and for conducting it in a
+barbarous manner. You, together with hosts of your fellow-countrymen,
+believe this unfavourable opinion is the result of the truth being kept
+from the American public by improper means. It is, of course, a
+comforting thought to you that when the whole truth is known we will
+revise our opinions and realise that Germany acted righteously, and was
+not guilty of the crimes which have been charged against her. But, as a
+scientific man, devoted to the search for truth, no matter where it
+leads you, you would not want to deceive yourself with such a comforting
+assurance if it were founded on false premises. If, therefore, you
+really want to know the conditions under which American opinion of
+Germany's conduct has been formed, I will endeavour to describe them
+with the same calmness and careful attention to accuracy which I
+earnestly endeavour to observe in my scientific investigations. In
+discussing this vitally important matter, I will first endeavour to
+picture the American opinion of Germany and the Germans before the war,
+since this was the background upon which later opinions were formed. I
+will then explain the sources of information which were open to
+Americans after the war began; and will next describe how this
+information produced an American opinion unfavourable to Germany, as
+observed by one who has read widely and watched the trend of his
+country's thought with keen interest. If this analysis is successful in
+convincing you that American opinion does not rest on English lies, is
+not the result of a venal press controlled by British gold, but has a
+far more substantial foundation, then my letter will not have been
+written in vain. If you are not convinced, but prefer to retain the
+comforting belief that if America only knew the truth it would applaud
+Germany's actions, then I shall, at least, have the satisfaction of
+knowing that I earnestly endeavoured, in good faith, to return the
+courtesy which you showed me when you wrote so fully, by telling you
+with equal fulness the truth as I see it.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+First, then, let me picture the background of public opinion toward
+Germany and the Germans as I saw it before the war began. Inasmuch as
+one's vision may be affected favourably or unfavourably by his personal
+experiences, it is only fair that I state briefly my own experiences
+with people of German birth or parentage. One of my earliest
+recollections is of a German maid in our household who taught me to make
+my wants known in the German language, and also taught me to love her as
+I did members of my own family. In college, one of my two favourite
+professors and one of my college chums were of German parentage. Both
+these men are still valued friends, and both believe in the
+righteousness of Germany's cause. I have spent parts of three summers in
+Germany, and have many German friends, both in America and in Europe.
+The two Europeans in my special field of science for whom I have the
+greatest personal affection are German professors in Berlin and Leipzig
+respectively. I have more personal friends in the German army than in
+the Allied armies. My sister is married to a professor of German
+descent and German sympathies. Surely, therefore, if personal
+relationships prejudice me at all, they should prejudice me in favour of
+Germans and things German.
+
+In my opinion, the American estimate of Germany and her citizens prior
+to the war was, in general, most favourable. Certainly America looked
+with admiration upon the remarkable advance achieved by Germany in the
+short space of forty years. To your universities we have always
+acknowledged a great debt. We have profited much by your advances in
+economic lines and admired the combination of scientific research and
+business which made your countrymen efficient in many lines. The large
+number of your people who have emigrated to America have, in the main,
+made good citizens, and we have welcomed them as among the best of the
+foreigners who flock to our shores. German music and German musicians
+find nowhere a more cordial welcome than here where admiration for their
+achievements is unstinted. Nor have we forgotten the heroic services of
+the many Germans who laid down their lives in defence of our flag, that
+the Union might live. The Germans' love of honour and family has touched
+the American heart in a tender spot, and many of my acquaintances admit
+that with no other foreigners do they establish such intimate and
+affectionate relations as with their German friends.
+
+This admiration and friendship has not blinded us to certain defects in
+the German character, any more than has your friendship for Americans
+closed your eyes to our defects. The bad manners of Germans are
+proverbial, not only among Americans, but all over the world; so much so
+that certain German writers, admitting that Germans as a nation are
+ill-mannered, have sought to find in this fact an explanation for the
+world-wide antagonism toward Germany's policy in the war. I do not
+believe, however, that, so far as American sentiment is concerned, there
+is any considerable element of truth in this explanation. It is true
+that we do not like the lack of respect accorded to women by the average
+German; that the position of woman in Germany seems to us anomalous in a
+nation claiming a superior type of civilisation; that the bumptious
+attitude of the German "intellectual" amuses or disgusts us; and that
+the insolence of your young officers who elbow us off the sidewalks in
+your cities makes us long to meet those individuals again outside the
+boundaries of Germany, where no military Government, jealous of their
+"honour," could protect them from the thrashing they deserve. It is also
+true that, at international congresses, excursions and banquets,
+attended by both men and women representatives of all nations, the
+Germans have gained an unenviable reputation for bad manners because
+they have pushed themselves into the best places, crowded into the
+trains ahead of the women, and generally ignored the courtesies due to
+ladies and gentlemen associated with them. But, in spite of our full
+recognition of this undesirable national trait, I doubt whether any
+great number of Americans have permitted a dislike of German manners to
+affect their opinion as to German morals in the conduct of war, though
+some do hold that lack of good manners is a characteristic mark of
+inferior civilisation. On the whole, we have been inclined to be
+tolerant of German rudeness, regarding it as in part due to the rapid
+material development of a young nation, and possibly as, in part, the
+result of over-aggressiveness fostered by a military training.
+
+It is only fair to say, also, that our admiration of Germany's
+achievements in art, literature, and science never led us so far as to
+accept the claim of superiority in these lines advanced by many Germans
+on behalf of their country. The insistence with which this claim has
+been reiterated and proclaimed abroad by Germans, often with more of
+patriotism than of good taste, may have led a part of the public to
+believe it. But the more intelligent and thoughtful portion of the
+people, accustomed to analyse such claims by careful comparison with the
+products of non-Teutonic civilisation, has been unable to find any
+adequate basis for the assumed superiority. Indeed, while intelligent
+and fair-minded Americans are not slow to recognise Germany's great
+contributions to the world's art, literature, and science, they believe
+that, with the possible exception of music, greater contributions have
+been made in these lines by France, England, and other nations. In the
+realm of invention, we fully appreciate the skill and resourcefulness
+manifested by the German people in adapting new discoveries to their own
+needs; but we cannot deny the fact that most of the discoveries which
+have played so vital a part in the development of modern civilisation
+have been made, not in Germany, but in other countries.
+
+In regard to municipal government and various forms of social
+legislation, we have long recognised the high position held by your
+nation. But in the more vital matter of the relation of the individual to
+the supreme governing power, we have always held, and still believe,
+that Germany is sadly reactionary. For half a century your professors,
+in the employ of an educational system controlled by a bureaucratic
+Government, have taught what we condemn as a false philosophy of
+government. Your histories, your books on philosophy, your whole
+literature, glorify the _State_; and you have accepted the dangerous
+doctrine that the individual exists to serve the State, forgetting that
+the State is not the mystical, divine thing you picture it, but a
+government carried on by human beings like yourselves, most of them
+reasonably upright, but some incompetent and others deliberately bad,
+just like any other human government. We believe that the only excuse
+for the existence of the State is to serve the individual, to create
+conditions which will insure the greatest liberty and highest possible
+development to the individual citizen. It has never seemed to us
+creditable to the German intellect that it could be satisfied with a
+theory of government outgrown by most other civilised nations. That you
+should confuse efficiency with freedom has always seemed to us a tragic
+mistake, and never so tragic as now, when a small coterie of human
+beings, subject to the same mistakes and sins as other human beings, can
+hurl you into a terrible war before you know what has happened, clap on
+a rigid censorship to keep out any news they do not want you to learn,
+then publish a white book which pretends to explain the causes of the
+war, but omits documents of the most vital importance, thereby causing
+the people of a confiding nation to drench the earth with their
+life-blood in the fond illusion that the war was forced upon them, and
+that they are fighting for a noble cause. Most pitiful is the sad
+comment of an intelligent German woman in a letter recently received in
+this country: "We, of course, only see such things as the Government
+thinks best. We were told that this war was purely a defensive one,
+forced upon us. I begin to believe this may not be true, but hope for a
+favourable ending."
+
+Certainly in what you wrote to me you were thoroughly sincere and
+honest; yet your letter was full of untrue statements because you were
+dependent for your information upon a Government-controlled press which
+has misled you for military and political reasons. How can a nation know
+the truth, think clearly, and act righteously when a few men, called the
+"State," can commit you to the most serious enterprise in your history
+without your previous knowledge or consent, and can then keep you in
+ignorance of vitally important documents and activities in order to
+insure your full support of their perilous undertaking? Such is the
+thought which has always led America to denounce as false the old theory
+of "divine right of kings," long imposed upon the German people in the
+more subtle and, therefore, more dangerous form of "the divine right of
+the State." Our conviction that such a government as yours is
+reactionary and incompatible with true liberty, and that it stunts and
+warps the intellects of its citizens, has been amply confirmed by
+extended observation in your country, and more particularly by the
+unanswerable fact that millions of your best blood, including
+distinguished men of intelligence and wealth, have forsaken Germany to
+seek true liberty of intellect and action in America, renouncing
+allegiance to the Fatherland to become citizens here. Some of them
+still love the scenes of their childhood, but few of them would be
+willing to return to a life under such a Government as Germany
+possesses.
+
+To summarise what I said above: Americans, prior to the war, admired the
+remarkable advances made by Germany in recent years in economic and
+commercial lines; held in high regard your universities and many of your
+university professors; loved your music, and felt most cordial toward
+the millions of Germans who came to live among us and share the benefits
+of our free institutions. The prevalence of bad manners among Germans we
+regretted, but made allowance for this defect; and we did not fail to
+recognise that some Germans are fine gentlemen of the most perfect
+culture, while most of them have traits of character which we admired.
+
+We recognised the immense value of Germany's contributions to art,
+literature, and science, but did not consider Germany's contributions in
+these lines as equal to those of other nations. We never have regarded
+German culture as superior, but rather as inferior, to that of certain
+other countries; and the Germans' loud claims to superiority have seemed
+to us egotistical and the result of a weak point in the German
+character. For your form of government and the philosophy of history
+taught by your university professors we could never have much admiration
+or respect. Both seemed to us unworthy of an intelligent, civilised
+people, and sure to lead to disaster. Your military preparations,
+evident to every observant visitor, have long caused us to distrust your
+Government and to consider your country a menace to the world's peace.
+In a word, we admired and loved your people, although we considered them
+neither perfect nor even superior to other people; but we disapproved
+and distrusted your reactionary military Government.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+Such was our attitude when the war burst upon the world. Since that time
+what opportunities have the American people had to form an intelligent
+opinion as to who was wrong and who was right? What sources of
+information have been open to us, what means of getting at the facts?
+Have we been drowned in English lies, as several of your professors have
+written me is the case? Have we relied on one corrupt party newspaper,
+as you intimate is our habit? Have we been dependent on a press bought
+up with English gold, as is continually asserted by the German press?
+
+In the first place, we have relied in part upon our previous knowledge
+of the German Government and the German people. The hundreds of
+Americans who have studied in your universities, the thousands who have
+visited your country, and the millions who have come into close contact
+with Germans in this country, all have a pretty good idea of the German
+type of mind, German standards of national morality, German virtues and
+defects. Americans have, of course, used this information in reaching a
+conclusion as to the truth or falsehood of charges against Germany. I
+talked with some of our American professors just as they landed on the
+pier in New York fresh from a summer in Germany which was cut short by
+the outbreak of the war. They came direct from your country and were as
+fully informed of the German points of view right up to the declaration
+of war as were any of your citizens. Many Americans who have spent
+months and even years on German soil, and who know the country and the
+people intimately, have made us well acquainted with German standards
+and German methods of thinking.
+
+It is true that since the war began much of our news has come through
+cables controlled by the Allies; but Americans have too much common
+sense to accept such reports as final. News from biassed sources is
+always accepted with reservation, and not fully believed unless
+confirmed from independent sources. Furthermore, Americans have never
+lacked for first-hand information from Germany. Direct wireless reports
+from your country to several stations in America have given us a
+valuable check on cable reports. German papers come to us regularly, and
+are continually and extensively quoted. Germany has sent special agents
+to this country to represent her side of every issue. The speeches and
+writings of these agents have been published repeatedly and at length in
+almost every paper in our country from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
+American correspondents in Germany and in the war-zone have told as much
+as your censors would permit concerning what they saw of Germany and
+Germany's army. Many Americans have returned from Germany during the
+war, and have published their experiences and impressions. Some of them
+have seen your army at work, suffered from its inhumanity, and been
+subjected to outrages and indignities by the civil officials of your
+Government. Others were dined and honoured as notable guests and given
+unusual opportunities for seeing as much as your officials wanted them
+to see. Both have offered valuable first-hand testimony as to the
+behaviour of the German nation at war. Your university professors and
+other prominent citizens of your country have written us circular and
+private letters without number, presenting Germany's arguments in every
+conceivable form. Your Ambassador and other officials of your Government
+have been most active in keeping first-hand information before the
+American public. Thousands of your reservists, unable to cross the sea
+in safety, remain in this country to talk and write in behalf of their
+Fatherland.
+
+In addition to all this, Germany's cause has been most vigorously
+championed by many Germans and German-Americans long resident in
+America. Münsterberg and others have published numerous articles and
+books in Germany's favour. Every possible plea to justify Germany's
+position has been enthusiastically spread abroad by the German-American
+press, and with that love of "fair play" which is a widely-recognised
+characteristic of Americans, even those papers which believe Germany
+responsible for the war and its worst horrors, have printed volumes of
+material from pro-German authors in order that the whole truth might be
+known by a full and free discussion of both sides of every question. I
+have read many pro-German articles in the _New York Times_, the _New
+York Sun_, the _Outlook_, and other papers and magazines opposed to
+German policy--articles by Münsterberg, Kuno Franke, Von Bernstorff,
+Dernburg, and other staunch defenders of Germany. The columns of our
+papers are freely open to every authoritative champion of the German
+cause, no matter what the editorial policy of the papers may be. Never
+was fuller and freer opportunity for defence accorded to anyone than has
+been given to the friends of Germany to present in print to the American
+public every possible justification for Germany's acts. Only the
+grossest ignorance of the actual facts could ever lead anyone to make
+the charge in good faith that the truth about Germany has been
+concealed from Americans. Your letter did not contain a single statement
+or argument that has not been printed over and over again in papers from
+one end of America to the other by various defenders of the German
+cause. Germany's official documents issued in defence of her position at
+the beginning of the war, her charges of atrocities against her enemies
+and her supposed proofs of the falsity of atrocity charges against the
+Germans, have all been published fully and widely, although you seem not
+to be aware of this fact.
+
+Still further, in addition to the legitimate publicity in favour of
+Germany related above, there has been forced upon the American public
+the most stupendous propaganda which the world has ever witnessed.
+Millions of dollars have been spent by German agents in a colossal
+endeavour to shape public opinion. America has been literally deluged
+with leaflets, pamphlets, books, articles, and advertisements,
+subsidised by these propagandists. Money has been lavishly spent in
+every form of appeal which might be expected to turn American sentiment
+against the Allies and in favour of the Teutons. Contributions have been
+widely solicited to finance this propaganda, and one of my colleagues in
+Columbia is among those bearing German names who, in published letters,
+have refused to support this moneyed campaign, engineered by German
+agents. Strikes have been organised in our factories, newspapers have
+been subsidised, labour orators have been employed to incite trouble,
+all with gold supplied from Teutonic sources. Ambassador Dumba was
+forced to leave this country because of the capture of secret letters
+revealing plots to organise strikes in our munitions factories, to buy
+up orators to incite workmen to discontent, and to pay newspapers for
+advancing the German propaganda. For all of this the Austrian Government
+was to supply the necessary funds. German spies now in our prisons have
+admitted that they were sent here by high German officials and provided
+with ample supplies of money to engage in secret plots against our
+neutrality with the object of stopping munition shipments. German
+officials in this country have admitted handling millions of dollars in
+illegal operations carried on in defiance of our laws and in insolent
+disregard of international diplomatic courtesy. Our courts have
+convicted and sentenced to 18 months' penal servitude three high German
+officials of the Hamburg-American Steamship Line for a conspiracy to
+help German warships in defiance of our laws. These officials admitted
+spending nearly two million dollars of German gold in this illegal work.
+Our detectives estimate that German authorities have spent twenty-seven
+million dollars in America alone to influence us against the Allies, to
+stir up trouble against us in labour circles, and to foment a revolution
+in Mexico to our embarrassment. Our Government asked that the German
+Military and Naval Attaches be removed from this country because of
+their insolent violations of our neutrality, by activities in connection
+with which they handled immense sums of German gold for the propaganda
+to influence us against England and in favour of Germany.
+
+For every pamphlet, paper, or article sent to me by English, French,
+Russian, and Italian organisations I get several dozen from German
+organisations. I get but a few circulars a month from Allied countries.
+Not a week passes that I do not receive many from German sources.
+America has been flooded with German propagandist literature; very
+little ever comes from other countries. Full-page advertisements, paid
+by German agents, have appeared repeatedly in American papers, urging
+the merits of Germany's case. I have never seen one on behalf of the
+Allies. All over New York City, before I left for my summer vacation,
+were giant posters on the billboards, put there by a pro-German society,
+urging the people to ask President Wilson to stop the exportation of
+arms to Germany's enemies. I have never seen one poster of any kind put
+up by friends of the Allies. Indeed, America has been so deluged with
+German propaganda and German-paid advertisements, and requests for money
+to carry on the propaganda in favour of Germany, that the whole nation
+has become heartily sick of it, and has urged the Government to expel
+from the country some of your agents who have been particularly
+offensive in carrying on such a propaganda among our citizens. German
+gold, not English gold, has been lavishly used to influence American
+opinion. Our Government has had to employ a special detective force to
+discover and destroy the many plots in which German and Austrian gold
+has been lavishly used to influence opinion and action in America; and
+from other neutral countries comes abundant evidence that the same
+stupendous propaganda, to turn opinion and action in favour of Germany,
+has been carried on everywhere, with an audacity and utter disregard of
+cost which has astonished the world. In the face of such facts as these
+the German outcry against "English gold" has seemed wholly insincere,
+and little less than ridiculous.
+
+Finally, American opinion has been based more than all else on Germany's
+official communications, directly addressed to our Government, on
+certain acts which Germany has admitted, and on the nature of the
+defence and excuses offered by the German Government in palliation of
+those acts. You must not forget that the many lengthy notes addressed by
+your Government to Americans have been published in full in American
+papers. The outcry against English gold, against cable dispatches
+altered by the English, and against corrupt newspaper publishers cannot
+be raised in connection with diplomatic correspondence transmitted
+direct to your Ambassador here. This authentic, official correspondence
+has given us an excellent measure of the standards of morality and
+humanity which actuate the present German Government. Our opinion of
+Germany has been profoundly influenced by these official documents.
+
+Germany has committed certain acts which are freely admitted by your
+Government. A nation, like a man, is judged by its deeds. After all
+excuses and explanations are made, the deeds remain. Americans have read
+the excuses and the explanations fully and repeatedly; and with these
+excuses and explanations in mind have formed an opinion of the power
+responsible for the deeds. No English gold, no manipulated cable
+dispatches can have had anything to do with that opinion. The deeds
+themselves have been the supreme force in shaping American opinion of
+Germany. Germany has defended the many acts which have brought down upon
+her the contempt and opprobrium of the entire civilised world. As you
+well know, one of the best tests of a man's morals is the kind of a
+defence he offers for his acts. Americans have read most carefully the
+many defences offered by your Chancellor, your Minister of Foreign
+Affairs, your Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, your official
+spokesmen sent to this country, and your Ambassador here; and in the
+notes sent officially and directly to our Government by your
+Government. We have formed an opinion of the moral standards of the
+Government which makes and approves of such defences.
+
+I believe you must, in sincerity and frankness, admit that the American
+public has had many sources of information open to it in forming its
+opinions about Germany. Indeed, with a free press, a large German
+population absolutely free from censorship or restrictions of any kind,
+and a Government which does not need to suppress facts for military or
+political reasons, we are in a far better position to learn the whole
+truth about Germany than are the German people themselves.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+
+Having outlined some of the many sources of information upon which
+Americans have relied in forming their opinions of Germany and her
+actions in this war, I now will state what the American opinion is in
+regard to some of the vital issues which have been raised. In doing
+this, I will not endeavour to explain that opinion, to criticise it, nor
+to defend it. Neither will I give you my personal opinion on the several
+points, for my own personal opinion is of slight consequence when we are
+discussing the attitude of an entire nation. If you desire, I will be
+glad to tell you, on some other occasion, just how far my own opinions
+coincide with the collective opinion of the country at large, and just
+where I differ from that opinion. My object at present is simply to
+interpret American opinion to you as it exists to-day. When I say
+"American opinion," I mean, of course, the opinion of the vast majority
+of our people. A significant proportion of the German-born population
+and a very small proportion of native Americans (usually those married
+to Germans or otherwise connected with Germany) disagree with the
+opinions cited. But over 90 per cent. of our population may safely be
+said to hold the views described as "American" below.
+
+In the first place, Americans, in general, make a distinction between
+the German Government and the German people. They realise that certain
+features of the Prussianised Government have never appealed favourably
+to the Bavarians, the Saxons, and other elements of the German
+population. I do not mean by this that Americans believe any part of
+Germany is disloyal to the Government. On the contrary, they believe the
+German people as a whole are supporting the Government and its acts with
+devotion, and that, therefore, the German people as a whole are
+responsible for whatever acts the Government commits. But Americans
+recognise the reality of Prussian leadership in the policy of your
+country. They do not believe the German people wanted the war; but they
+do believe the military Government, under Prussian control, wanted the
+war, planned for it with infinite skill and efficiency for many years,
+and brought it about when they believed the time was ripe.
+
+Americans have no doubt whatever that the insolent ultimatum to Servia
+was delivered for the purpose of provoking war, and that Austria would
+never have dared send it were it not for the fact that the German
+Government "assured her a free hand" in advance, as has been officially
+admitted by your Government. The fact that Austria refused to make
+public the full evidence on which she based her accusations against the
+Servian Government, added to the fact that she made these accusations
+after a secret investigation in which the defendant had no
+representation, has shocked not only America but the entire world; and
+has convinced the world, as a whole, that Austria and Germany were more
+guilty of wrongdoing than was Servia.
+
+Americans have studied carefully the official documents issued by the
+different Governments concerning the origin of the war, and have had the
+advantage of seeing all the papers which each has published. The
+official papers issued by England, Germany, France, Austria, and the
+other Governments have been printed in full in pamphlet form, and have
+been eagerly studied by the whole nation. Edition after edition has
+been exhausted by a people eagerly seeking to learn the truth. In
+Germany there has been no such eagerness to learn the truth by careful,
+critical study of the official sources of information, and leading
+Germans have regretfully admitted that too many of the German people
+were content to accept their Government's statements as the truth,
+without attempting to use their own intelligence in the matter. In the
+opinion of Americans the official documents, and especially the
+admissions made by your Government in its attempted defence, prove that
+the German Government forced the war in order to satisfy the ambitions
+of the military party which has long been in control. When you have a
+chance to read certain documents which your Government does not let you
+read now, you can form an impartial judgment as to whether or not
+Americans and the other neutral peoples have been unjust in deciding
+that Germany is responsible for the war. Until that time you will, of
+course, feel that the judgment of the world does your country a terrible
+wrong. The Government which caused the war is not going to let its
+people read things which would shake their confidence, and cause them to
+weaken in their support of the war!
+
+If Germany really exercised a moderating influence at Vienna, and strove
+to avert the war, the State papers exchanged between Berlin and Vienna
+would clearly prove this, if published. Germany has every reason to
+publish those papers and prove her sincerity, if she tried to prevent
+the war. On the other hand, both Germany and Austria have every reason
+to keep those papers secret if they were jointly planning the war. They
+have kept the papers secret. Not one word of the vital correspondence
+between the two Teutonic capitals has ever been made public. Even your
+own people are entirely ignorant as to what exchanges really took place
+in the critical days preceding the declarations of war. You only know,
+and the world only knows, that Germany made the vague general assertion
+that she was "exercising a moderating influence at Vienna." You can
+hardly expect the world to believe such a vague generality when the
+documents which would prove its truth or falsity are carefully
+suppressed. Why are they suppressed? Americans, in common with the rest
+of the world, are convinced that your Government does not dare publish
+them because it would prove the guilt of Germany more conclusively than
+do the admissions contained in papers already made public.
+
+It is the practically universal opinion, not only in America, but in
+other neutral countries as well, that the repeated excuses and shifty
+evasions by which Berlin rejected every plan for mediation, arbitration,
+or any other programme which would tend toward a peaceful solution of
+the crisis, combined with Berlin's acknowledgment that "a free hand was
+assured" to Austria, and the further fact that all correspondence
+between Berlin and Vienna is carefully suppressed, are amply sufficient
+to convince any fair-minded, unprejudiced man that the Berlin Government
+is primarily responsible for the war. The fact that Germany has for
+years published a voluminous war literature, has taught her people to
+think and live in terms of war, and was fully prepared with enormous
+reserves of materials when war came; whereas the Allied countries were
+notoriously unprepared and in no condition to ward off the first blows
+of a surprise attack, to say nothing of fighting an offensive campaign,
+is generally considered enough to create a strong presumption that
+Germany and not the Allies wanted war. The official correspondence of
+the _ante-bellum_ days is full of suggestions for arbitration,
+mediation, and other plans to preserve the peace, coming from the Allied
+countries. Americans have searched in vain for a single plan for a
+peaceful solution coming from Germany. On the contrary, your own version
+of the negotiations shows only a persistent rejection by Berlin of every
+peace plan, and a dogged determination to support Vienna in her assault
+on Servia--an assault which, following the robbery of Bosnia and
+Herzegovina by Austria under Germany's protection, could not be endured
+by a civilised world, and was, therefore, certain to cause war.
+
+When Servia, urged by the Allies to yield as much as possible in order
+to prevent war, acceded to eight out of ten of Austria's humiliating
+demands and agreed to arbitrate the two involving her national
+sovereignty, the world saw that the Allied countries did not want war,
+and were willing to suffer great humiliation for the sake of preventing
+it. Americans do not consider that any fair-minded man possessed of
+ordinary commonsense can honestly believe that nations seeking to
+provoke war with Germany would have urged their _protégé_ to make a
+humiliating surrender to insolent and unjust demands. If there were any
+truth in the assertion that the Allies were trying to force war on
+Germany, they would have advised Servia to resist, not to yield. When
+Austria, backed by Germany, declared war on Servia, despite Servia's
+abject and complete surrender on eight points and willingness to
+arbitrate the other two, there no longer existed outside of Germany and
+Austria the slightest doubt that Germany was forcing the war to achieve
+the aggrandisement which has been taught for years in your country as
+the natural destiny of Germany.
+
+Germany's guilt in forcing the war is recognised not only by Americans
+and other neutral peoples, but by hundreds of thousands of Germans who
+live in neutral countries and thus have a chance to learn more of the
+truth than is possible in the belligerent countries. Germans who were
+in Germany when the war broke out, but who have since come to America,
+have told me personally that, after learning the whole truth, they can
+no longer doubt Germany's responsibility for the catastrophe. Germans
+who have left here to go back and fight for the Fatherland admitted to
+me in private conversation that they knew Germany forced the war, and
+that the Kaiser and the Prussian military party were alone to blame. I
+know Germans who are liberally supporting the Allied cause because they
+believe the defeat of Prussianism is essential to a civilised Germany.
+Even your rigid censorship has not prevented our receipt of occasional
+letters from Germans, in which they admit the uncertainty of Germany's
+claim that the Allies forced the war. A considerable element of
+independent thinkers in Germany have had the wisdom to realise the
+perfectly obvious truth that no Government is willing to admit
+responsibility for the war, and that therefore your Government's
+assertion that it did not start the present conflagration can carry no
+weight until the whole truth is revealed to the German people, and they
+are thus given the opportunity to form an intelligent judgment, like
+men, instead of being forced to believe mere assertions and partial
+evidence, like children. To-day you believe in the innocence of the
+Prussian military power; but few people in the rest of the world doubt
+its guilt. Tomorrow, when the war is over, and you can get an outside
+view of the whole question, you will have the chance to form an
+intelligent judgment as to what nation History will for ever record as
+the one guilty of this fearful crime against humanity.
+
+The violation of Belgian neutrality shocked Americans as it did the rest
+of the civilised world, and turned the tide of sentiment against Germany
+more strongly than ever. Americans are practically unanimous in
+regarding the belated excuses of your Government, to the effect that
+Belgian neutrality was already violated by the Allies, as mere clumsy
+subterfuges, trumped up to stem the terrible tide of universal
+condemnation heaped upon Germany for this crime against an innocent
+people. Nothing that any German can ever say or write will efface from
+the memory of the world the uncontrovertible fact that your Chancellor
+officially admitted your country's guilt in this matter. "The wrong--I
+speak openly, gentlemen--the wrong we have done Belgium will be righted
+when our military ends are accomplished." In these words your Chancellor
+blundered out a truth which has for ever silenced all your apologists
+for the crime. American opinion considers it discreditable and futile to
+invent charges against French soldiers on Belgian soil and French
+aviators flying over Belgian territory; and to try to make out a case in
+defence of Germany--when your Chancellor has officially admitted
+Germany's guilt. Americans have no doubt that on the basis of the
+well-known facts of the case, supplemented by your Chancellor's
+admission of guilt, History will for ever record Germany's brutal
+disregard of her treaty obligations and her murderous assault on a
+small, innocent nation as one of the most terrible crimes ever committed
+by a nation claiming to rank high among civilised peoples.
+
+The plea that "military necessity" justified the destruction of an
+innocent people, that the invasion of Belgium was necessary as a measure
+of "self-defence," Americans consider as striking proof of the essential
+barbarity of the German Government. A man who would shoot down an
+innocent girl in order to get at another man would be condemned as the
+worst kind of a brute. A Government which slaughters an innocent and
+peaceful people in order to get at an enemy Government is universally
+regarded by Americans as the worst type of a barbarous Government. No
+truly civilised Government could be so brutally selfish as to protect
+itself by inflicting the horrors of fearful war upon a helpless and
+unoffending people.
+
+You dismiss the question of atrocities by asking if Americans can
+believe that such Germans as I know would commit such awful deeds. The
+reply to this is that, while Americans realise that there are many
+Germans who would rather die than do a cruel act, Germany possesses a
+military Government which has convinced Americans and the rest of the
+world that, under the plea of "military necessity," it will commit the
+most barbarous crimes. History demonstrates that a military Government
+stifles the finer instincts of the people which support it. Many Germans
+struggled to overthrow the military clique in Germany, and some of them
+are among the most gentle-hearted, kindly souls it has ever been my good
+fortune to meet. Others have exalted the military and the idea of war;
+and while boarding in the home of a German army officer I witnessed
+heartless and cruel acts which I do not believe could have occurred in
+any other civilised country among people of the same education and
+intelligence. Unfortunately, Americans see no opportunity to doubt the
+barbarous behaviour of the German army; and in the debate over the
+Zabern affair some of your best citizens rebelled against military
+brutality--but the punishment meted out to the military offenders was
+nullified by your military Government. In the present war that same
+Government has admitted and justified unspeakable atrocities under the
+plea of "military necessities." Americans do not believe every lie
+wafted on the wings of gossip; but when your book of instructions to
+army officers expressly breaks down every safeguard for civilised
+warfare by justifying "exceptions" to the rules governing such warfare,
+Americans cannot fail to conclude that your Government is more barbarous
+than that of any other country claiming to be civilised; for other
+countries do not now recognise the right of armies to make such
+exceptions. Your Government, in trying to defend itself against the
+storm of world-criticism, has admitted and justified the slaughter of
+innocent hostages as a "military necessity." No other civilised country
+does this; and Americans consider the German Government both brutal and
+barbarous for permitting this utterly inhuman practice. American
+soldiers in Vera Cruz were killed by franctireurs; but our Government
+would hang any American officer who permitted the murder of innocent
+hostages on that account. Your Government justifies and excuses such
+measures; therefore Americans have been forced to conclude that your
+Government is less civilised than are the Governments of America,
+England, and France, which forbid such conduct.
+
+Your Government executed a woman of noble character, and defends its act
+as perfectly legal and a "military necessity." Americans are quite
+willing to admit that Miss Cavell may have been guilty of the charges
+brought against her. Yet the entire world stood horrified when the
+Government of Germany, with due legal form, committed a crime against
+womanhood and against humanity, which for centuries will make Germans
+blush for shame when the name of Miss Cavell is mentioned. Englishmen
+blush at the memory of Jeffreys, but no Englishman ever defends that
+fiendish butcher of women. Americans blush at the memory of Mrs.
+Surratt; but few Americans will defend her execution. The fact that
+Germans have risen to defend the Cavell atrocity led many Americans to
+conclude that the brutalising influence of militarism has made the mass
+of the German people less humane than are the peoples of other
+countries, since they defend what other peoples condemn.
+
+Your Government has bombarded unfortified seacoast towns which Americans
+know from personal observation, both before the war and during the
+bombardment, were not defended in any way. Mothers and babies were blown
+to shreds, but no military damage was done in most cases. Dozens of
+helpless old men, women and children were killed for every soldier
+slain. The same is true of your Zeppelin raids. Americans believe these
+acts are committed for the purpose of stirring up enthusiasm among the
+German populace. They believe such acts are in defiance of the rules of
+civilised warfare, that they are utterly inhuman and barbarous, and
+that a nation which approves and applauds such senseless slaughter is
+less civilised than other modern nations. The British Government has
+steadfastly refused to accede to the clamour of a few of its citizens
+who urge a policy of wholesale reprisals against German open towns.
+Americans honour this respect for the rules of civilised warfare and
+regret that even occasionally France has yielded to the provocation for
+reprisal raids against such a place as Freiburg. The fact that Germany
+began the slaughter of babies and women in defiance of the rules of war,
+and has kept it up in frequent raids by warships, Zeppelins, and
+aeroplanes, whereas the Allies have very seldom attacked open towns, and
+then only as occasional reprisals following peculiarly barbarous German
+attacks, has won for Germany the condemnation, and for the Allies the
+commendation of the civilised world.
+
+The _Lusitania_ atrocity removed from the minds of the American people
+the last possible doubt as to the essential barbarity of the German
+Government. No other Government pretending to be civilised has ever
+shocked the entire world by such a sickening crime against humanity. It
+is utterly inconceivable that the American nation could descend so low
+in the scale of humanity as to order the deliberate destruction of an
+English ship bearing hundreds of innocent German women and children
+across the seas. But if such a thing were conceivable, you could not
+find in the American navy an officer who would obey the inhuman order.
+Nor do Americans believe that the English or French Governments could
+ever disgrace their countries' honour by such a barbarous act. I am
+shocked and surprised that a man of your position and intelligence can
+find it in his heart to defend an act which has for ever stained the
+fair name and honour of your country.
+
+I read with amazement your assertions that the _Lusitania_ was armed,
+that she carried ammunition in defiance of American laws, and that our
+official inspection of her was careless. Your own Government has itself
+abandoned the false charge that the _Lusitania_ carried guns, and no
+longer makes such a ridiculous claim; while the German reservist who
+pretended to have seen the gun has admitted that he lied and is now
+serving a term in prison for perjury. You are not familiar with American
+shipping-laws which expressly permit the carrying of certain types of
+ammunition on passenger vessels, and you are, of course, quite ignorant
+as to what inspection of the vessel was made in New York, for you were
+in Germany at the time. Your assertions were made wholly on the basis of
+the false statements furnished you in Government-controlled papers. You
+had no means of determining the truth or falsity of the statements, on
+the basis of reliable and impartial evidence; yet you did not hesitate
+to make assertions which your own Government now practically admits were
+not well founded. The fact that the learned men of Germany have
+throughout the war violently supported the German position by reckless
+charges and wild assertions, paying no regard to the necessity of basing
+such charges and assertions on impartial evidence, instead of accepting
+with child-like simplicity the unsupported statements of the German
+Government, has destroyed the confidence of Americans in the ability of
+the German educated men to think and reason fairly and honestly about
+the war.
+
+The manifestos of the German professors, issued to Americans, did much
+to alienate American sympathy from Germany; for the bitterness and
+unreasoning fury of the documents, combined with the entire absence of
+evidence to support the many reckless statements made in them, did much
+to convince Americans that the German position was not capable of
+honest, logical, dispassionate, manly defence. There has never at any
+time been any such outbreak of fury and bitterness among the English or
+French people. While there are individual exceptions, taken as a whole
+the press, pamphlets, and private letters of the English and French,
+dealing with the war, have from the first been characterised by a
+self-control and calm determination, which in the case of the French
+has especially astonished Americans; for we expected the French to be
+more excitable. Taken as a whole, the Teutonic literature has from the
+first been characterised by an uncontrollable bitterness and violent
+denunciation of the enemy and of neutrals; which has also surprised
+Americans, for we expected you to be more logical and self-contained
+than the French, instead of less so.
+
+Americans believe that the German people are a great people, capable of
+great and good things. They honour and admire the Germany which finds
+her best expression in the literature, music, and science which has
+justly made you famous. But they distrust and abhor the German
+Government which has made the name of Germany infamous. The heroic
+bravery of the German soldiers dying for their Fatherland, and the
+heroic fortitude of the German women who bear and suffer--all fail to
+evoke any enthusiasm in this country, or in other neutral countries,
+because of the stain which the German military Government has put upon
+their sacrifices. Your greatest victories bring no world honour to your
+armies because of the cloud of dishonour which hangs over every
+achievement of the German military machine. There is no enthusiasm, and
+very little praise, for the captors of Warsaw and Vilna, for Americans
+remember that it was German soldiers who murdered innocent hostages from
+"military necessity," who destroyed much of Louvain from "military
+necessity," who violated every rule of civilised warfare and humanity in
+Belgium from "military necessity," who executed a noble English nurse
+from "military necessity," who wrecked priceless monuments of
+civilisation in France from "military necessity," who have dropped bombs
+from the sky in the darkness upon sleeping women and children in
+unfortified places, and slaughtered hundreds of innocent non-combatants
+from "military necessity," who sent babes at the breast and their
+innocent mothers shrieking and strangling to a watery grave in mid-ocean
+from "military necessity," and who have defended every barbarous act,
+every crime against humanity on the specious and selfish plea that it
+was justified by "military necessity." Your Government has robbed your
+soldiers of all honour in the eyes of the world by making them the
+instruments of a military policy which the rest of the world unanimously
+condemns as brutal and barbarous.
+
+It seems to thoughtful Americans who know Germany and Germans best, that
+the highest duty of intelligent German professors like yourself is not
+to attempt the hopeless task of converting the rest of the world to an
+approval of the methods of the German Government, but rather to use your
+whole influence to establish a German Government which shall have a
+decent respect for the opinions of the rest of the world, and shall
+restore Germany to the place it used to have among civilised nations.
+Your greatest enemy is not the Russian, nor the French, nor the British
+Government. They might defeat you in war, but they never could take away
+your honour. Your greatest enemy is the Government which has dragged the
+fair name of Germany in the mire of dishonour, shocking the moral
+instincts of the whole world by acts no other civilised country would
+think of committing. Your greatest enemy is the Government which stifles
+your individual development by making you the obedient tools of the
+"State," which smothers your free thought by a muzzled press under
+police control, which makes your learned men ridiculous in the eyes of
+the world by training them to blind, unthinking support of the
+Government and credulous belief in whatever falsehoods it chooses to
+impose upon you for military and political purposes, which hurls you
+into a disastrous war without your knowledge or consent, and which
+brings down upon you the contempt of the whole world for crimes you
+would not yourselves commit, but which you must forsooth defend "for the
+good of the State."
+
+Americans believe that a Government which provokes a war and deceives
+its people to secure their support, should be destroyed; that a
+Government which breaks its treaties and murders an innocent neutral
+nation, shooting innocent hostages to prevent sniping by those whose
+homes are violently attacked, should be destroyed; that a Government
+which systematically and repeatedly bombards unfortified towns and
+villages, killing hundreds of innocent women and children, should be
+destroyed; that a Government which torpedoes unarmed passenger ships,
+drowning helpless men, women, and children by the thousand in shameful
+defiance of law and every instinct of humanity, should be destroyed;
+that a Government which in cold blood executes a woman nurse like Miss
+Cavell should be destroyed; that a Government which ruthlessly destroys
+works of art and monuments of civilisation and levies crushing
+indemnities on captured cities, in defiance of the well-established laws
+of war, should be destroyed. In the opinion of Americans, a Government
+which did any one of these things would not be fit to exist in a
+civilised world. A Government which has done all of them and much more
+that is equally barbarous and brutal, must, in the opinion of the
+American people, be utterly destroyed.
+
+Americans hoped for many long years that the German people would
+themselves throw off the incubus of the military Government which was
+crushing out their individuality and making their country an object of
+distrust and fear to all those interested in the progress of
+civilisation; but if you will not rid yourselves of the monster which
+has dishonoured and disgraced you before the world, then, in American
+opinion, the safety of the world and the future of Germany require that
+the present German Government shall be destroyed through military
+defeat. For this reason the American people are praying earnestly for
+Allied victory. While there is a sincere effort to maintain the
+technical neutrality enjoined by the President, there is no neutrality
+possible on the moral issues involved. Americans may not violate the
+neutrality of the nation by giving concerted military support to the
+Allies; but they are practically unanimous in giving their whole moral
+support to the nations engaged in the necessary task of destroying the
+monstrosity of Prussian militarism. Every aid which they can render the
+Allies without violating national neutrality is being given, not because
+they do not admire the German people, but because the destruction of the
+present German Government is regarded as the essential first step in
+enabling the German people to return to the place of honour they once
+held in the world. Americans would regard ultimate German victory as an
+intolerable disaster to civilisation; and they will never be satisfied
+until the German armies are decisively defeated. They believe that the
+ultimate defeat of Germany is assured, and that the least suffering will
+result to the German people if they will themselves repudiate the
+Government which brought upon them their present sufferings, and will
+start anew with a modern Government responsible to the will of the
+people.
+
+         Sincerely yours,
+
+               DOUGLAS W. JOHNSON.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10078 ***