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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10078-0.txt b/10078-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8d8f5f --- /dev/null +++ b/10078-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1015 @@ +*** 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 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f9a0103 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10078 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10078) diff --git a/old/10078-8.txt b/old/10078-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a162af0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10078-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1441 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Plain Words From America, by Douglas W. +Johnson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Plain Words From America + +Author: Douglas W. Johnson + +Release Date: November 14, 2003 [eBook #10078] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLAIN WORDS FROM AMERICA*** + + +E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Brett Koonce, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +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 PLAIN WORDS FROM AMERICA*** + + +******* This file should be named 10078-8.txt or 10078-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/7/10078 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/10078-8.zip b/old/10078-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..25f7868 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10078-8.zip diff --git a/old/10078.txt b/old/10078.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fba3d47 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10078.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1441 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Plain Words From America, by Douglas W. +Johnson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Plain Words From America + +Author: Douglas W. Johnson + +Release Date: November 14, 2003 [eBook #10078] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLAIN WORDS FROM AMERICA*** + + +E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Brett Koonce, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +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. Muensterberg 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 Muensterberg, 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 _protege_ 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 PLAIN WORDS FROM AMERICA*** + + +******* This file should be named 10078.txt or 10078.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/0/7/10078 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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