diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19693-doc.doc | bin | 0 -> 351232 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19693-doc.zip | bin | 0 -> 112557 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19693.txt | 4522 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 19693.zip | bin | 0 -> 93009 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
7 files changed, 4538 insertions, 0 deletions
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/19693-doc.doc b/19693-doc.doc Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a525eb4 --- /dev/null +++ b/19693-doc.doc diff --git a/19693-doc.zip b/19693-doc.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a58053 --- /dev/null +++ b/19693-doc.zip diff --git a/19693.txt b/19693.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db1d548 --- /dev/null +++ b/19693.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4522 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fighting For Peace, by Henry Van Dyke + +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: Fighting For Peace + +Author: Henry Van Dyke + +Release Date: November 1, 2006 [EBook #19693] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING FOR PEACE *** + + + + +Produced by Don Kostuch + + + + + +[Transcriber's Notes] +Chapter numbers and subheading are both Roman numerals. +The chapter headings are preceded with the word "Chapter". + +Text has been moved to avoid breaking sentences across page boundaries. + +Other Gutenberg books on World War I are: + +"Sergeant York And His People" +by Samuel Kinkade Cowan. +http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19117 + +"History of the World War +An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War" +by Richard Joseph Beamish. +http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18993 + + +This is a list of unfamiliar (to me) words. + +apologue + Moral fable; an allegory. + +arbitral + Relating to arbiters or arbitration. + +bahn + Pathway. + +Belial + Spirit of evil personified; the devil; Satan; worthlessness. + +billet-doux + Love letter. + +chatelaine + Mistress of a castle or fashionable household. Clasp or chain for + holding keys, trinkets, etc., worn at the waist by women; woman's + lapel ornament resembling this. + +confabulations + Conversation; discussion. + +Credat Judaeus Apella! [non ego] + "Let the Jew Apella believe it; not I". + Roughly, "tell it to someone else, not me." + +escutcheon + Shield or similar surface showing a coat of arms. + +flagitious + Shamefully wicked, persons, actions, or times. + Heinous or flagrant crime; + +grandiloquently + Speaking or expressed in a lofty style; pompous, bombastic, turgid, + pretentious. + +identic + Identical in form, as when two or more governments deal simultaneously + with another government. + +lycanthropy + In folklore, ability to assume the form and characteristics of a wolf. + +Mare Liberum + Body of navigable water to which all nations have unrestricted access. + +mendax + Given to lying. + +miching mallecho + Sneaky mischief. + +Mittel-Europa + German term approximately equal to Central Europe. + +non possumus + We cannot. + +obeisance + Movement of the body showing respect or deferential courtesy; bow, + curtsy, or similar gesture. + +passier-scheine + Pass; permit. + +persona grata + Acceptable person or diplomatic representative. + +poilus + French soldier, especially in World War I. + +Potsdam + Capital city of the federal state of Brandenburg in Germany, southwest + of Berlin. Berlin was the official capital of Prussia and later of the + German Empire, but the court remained in nearby Potsdam, and many + government officials also settled in Potsdam. The city lost this + status as a second capital in 1918, when World War I ended and the + emperor Wilhelm II was deposed. + +refractory (persons) + Hard or impossible to manage; stubbornly disobedient. + +sagacity + Sound judgment. + +schmuck + Obnoxious, contemptible, clumsy or stupid person. + +schrecklichkeit + Frightfulness; horror. + +soubrette + Maidservant in a play displaying coquetry, pertness, and a tendency to + engage in intrigue. Flirtatious or frivolous young woman. + +trepanning + Using a small circular saw with a center pin mounted on a strong + hollow metal shaft that is attached a transverse handle: used in + surgery to remove circular disks of bone from the skull. + +ululation + Howl, as a dog or a wolf; hoot, as an owl; to lament loudly and + shrilly. + +Vallombrosa + Resort in central Italy, near Florence; a famous abbey. + +vicegerent + Person appointed by a head of state to act as an administrative deputy. + +voluble + Continuous flow of words; fluent; glib; talkative: articulate, + garrulous, loquacious. + +[End Transcriber's Notes] + + + +BY HENRY VAN DYKE +Fighting for Peace +The Unknown Quantity +The Ruling Passion +The Blue Flower +---------------------- +Out-of-Doors in the Holy Land +Days Off +Little Rivers +Fisherman's Luck +--------------------- +Poems, Collection in one volume +--------------------- +The Red Flower +The Grand Canyon, and Other Poems +The White Bees, and Other Poems +The Builders, and Other Poems +Music, and Other Poems +The Toiling of Felix, and Other Poems +The House of Rimmon + +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS + + + +FIGHTING FOR PEACE + +BY +HENRY VAN DYKE +D.C.L. (OXFORD) +RECENTLY UNITED STATES MINISTER TO HOLLAND + +NEW YORK +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS +1917 + +Copyright, 1917, by Charles Scribner's Sons +Published November, 1917 + +[Illustration: Scribner's Logo] + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + +FOREWORD + +I. FAIR-WEATHER AND STORM SIGNS + +II. APOLOGUE + +III. THE WERWOLF AT LARGE + +IV. GERMAN MENDAX + +V. A DIALOGUE ON PEACE BETWEEN A HOUSEHOLDER AND A BURGLAR + +VI. STAND FAST, YE FREE! + +VII. PAX HUMANA + + + +FOREWORD + +This brief series of chapters is not a tale + + "Of moving accidents by flood and field, + Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly breach." + +Some dangers I have passed through during the last three years, but +nothing to speak of. + +Nor is it a romance in the style of those thrilling novels of secret +diplomacy which I peruse with wonder and delight in hours of relaxation, +chiefly because they move about in worlds regarding which I have no +experience and little faith. + +There is nothing secret or mysterious about the American diplomatic +service, so far as I have known it. Of course there are times when, like +every other honestly and properly conducted affair, it does not seek +publicity in the newspapers. That, I should suppose, must always be a +fundamental condition of frank and free conversation between governments +as between gentlemen. There is a certain kind of reserve which is +essential to candor. + +But American diplomacy has no picturesque meetings at midnight in the +gloom of lonely forests; no confabulations in black cellars with bands +of hireling desperadoes waiting to carry out its decrees; no disguises, +no masks, no dark lanterns--nothing half so exciting and melodramatic. +On the contrary, it is amazingly plain and straightforward, with plenty +of hard work, but always open and aboveboard. That is the rule for the +diplomatic service of the United States. + +Its chief and constant aims are known to all men. First, to maintain +American principles and interests, and to get a fair showing for them in +the world. Second, to preserve and advance friendly relations and +intercourse with the particular nation to which the diplomat is sent. +Third, to promote a just and firm and free peace throughout the world, +so that democracy everywhere may live without fear. + +It was the last of these three aims that acted as the main motive in my +acceptance of President Wilson's invitation to go out as American +Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg in the summer of 1913. It was +pleasant, of course, to return for a while to the land from which my +ancestors came so long ago. It seemed also that some useful and +interesting work might be done to forward the common interests and +ideals of the United States and the Netherlands--that brave, +liberty-loving nation from which our country learned and received so +much in its beginnings--and in particular that there might be +opportunity for co-operation in the Far East, where the Dutch East +Indies and the Philippines are next-door neighbors. But the chief thing +that drew me to Holland was the desire to promote the great work of +peace which had been begun by the International Peace Conferences at The +Hague. This indeed was what the President especially charged me to do. + +Two conferences had already been held and had accomplished much. But +their work was incomplete. It lacked firm attachments and sanctions. It +was left to a certain extent "hanging in the air." It needed just those +things which the American delegates to the Conference of 1907 had +advocated--the establishment of a Permanent Court of Arbitral Justice; +an International Prize Court; an agreement for the protection of private +property at sea in time of war; the further study and discussion of the +question of the reduction of armaments by the nations; and so on. Most +of these were the things of which Germany had hitherto prevented the +attainment. A third International Peace Conference was necessary to +secure and carry on the work of the first two. The President told me to +do all that I properly could to forward the assembling of that +conference in the Palace of Peace at the earliest possible date. + +So I went to Holland as an envoy of the world-peace founded on justice +which is America's great desire. For that cause I worked and strove. Of +that cause I am still a devoted follower and servant. I am working for +it now, but with a difference. It is evident that we cannot maintain +that cause, as the world stands to-day, without fighting for it. And +after it is won, it will need protection. It must be Peace with +Righteousness and Power. + +The following chapters narrate some of the experiences--things seen and +heard and studied during my years of service abroad--which have forced +me to this conclusion. To the articles which were published in +Scribner's Magazine for September, October, and November, 1917, I have +added two short chapters on the cause of the war and the kind of peace +America is fighting for. + +The third peace conference is more needed, more desirable, than ever. +But we shall never get it until the military forces of Germany are +broken, and the predatory Potsdam gang which rules them is brought low. + + + +Chapter I + +FAIR-WEATHER AND STORM SIGNS + + +I + +It takes a New England farmer to note and interpret the signs of coming +storm on a beautiful and sunny day. Perhaps his power is due in part to +natural sharpness, and in part to the innate pessimism of the Yankee +mind, which considers the fact that the hay is cut but not yet in the +barn a sufficient reason for believing that "it'll prob'ly rain +t'morrow." + +I must confess that I had not enough of either of these qualities to be +observant and fearful of the presages of the oncoming tempest which +lurked in the beautiful autumn and winter of 1913-14 in Europe. Looking +back at them now, I can see that the signs were ominous. But anybody can +be wise after the event, and the role of a reminiscent prophet is too +easy to be worth playing. + +Certainly all was bright and tranquil when we rolled through the +pleasant land of France and the rich cities of Belgium, and came by +ship-thronged Rotterdam to The Hague in the first week of October, 1913. +Holland was at her autumnal best. Wide pastures wonderfully green were +full of drowsy, contented cattle. The level brown fields and gardens +were smoothly ploughed and harrowed for next year's harvest, and the +vast tulip-beds were ready to receive the little gray bulbs which would +overflow April with a flood-tide of flowers. On the broad canals +innumerable barges and sloops and motor-boats were leisurely passing, +and on the little side-canals and ditches which drained the fields the +duckweed spread its pale-emerald carpet undisturbed. In the woods--the +tall woods of Holland--the elms and the lindens were putting on frosted +gold, and the massy beeches glowed with ruddy bronze in the sunlight. +The quaint towns and villages looked at themselves in the waters at +their feet and were content. Slowly the long arms of the windmills +turned in the suave and shimmering air. Everybody, in city and country, +seemed to be busy without haste. And overhead, the luminous cloud +mountains--the poor man's Alps--marched placidly with the wind from +horizon to horizon. + +The Hague--that "largest village in Europe," that city of three hundred +thousand inhabitants set in the midst of a park, that seat of government +which does not dare to call itself the capital because Amsterdam is +jealous--was in especially good form and humor, looking forward to a +winter of unhurried gayety and feasting such as the Hollanders love. The +new Palace of Peace, given by Mr. Andrew Carnegie for the use of the +Permanent Court of Arbitration and its auxiliary bodies, had been opened +with much ceremony in September. Situated before the entrance of that +long, tree-embowered avenue which is called the Old Scheveningen Road, +the edifice has an imposing exterior although a mixture of architects in +the process of building has given it something the look of a glorified +railway station. But the interior is altogether dignified and splendid, +more palatial, in fact, than any of the royal residences. It is lined +with costly marbles, rare Eastern woods, wonderful Japanese tapestries, +and adorned with gifts from all the nations, except the United States, +which had promised to give a marble statue representing "Peace through +Justice," to be placed on the central landing of the great Stairway of +Honor, the most conspicuous position in the whole building. The promise +had been standing for some years, but not the statue. One of my first +minor tasks at The Hague was to see to it that active steps were taken +at Washington to fulfil this promise, and to fill this empty place which +waits for the American sculpture. + +Meantime the rich collection of books on international law was being +arranged and classified in the library under the learned direction of M. +Alberic Rolin. The late roses were blooming abundantly in the broad +gardens of the palace. Thousands of visitors were coming every day to +see this new wonder of the world, the royal house of "Vrede door Recht." + +Queen Wilhelmina was still at her country palace, Het Loo, in +Gelderland. It was about the middle of October that I was invited there +to lunch and to have my first audience with Her Majesty, and to present +my letter of credence as American Minister. + +The journey of three or four hours was made in company with the Dutch +Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonkheer Loudon, who represented the +Netherlands at Washington for several years and is an intelligent and +warm friend of the United States, and the Japanese Minister, Mr. Aimaro +Sato, a very agreeable gentleman (and, by the way, an ardent angler), +who now represents Japan at Washington. He talked a little, and with +great good sense and feeling, of the desirability of a better +understanding and closer relations between the United States and Japan. +I liked what he said and the way he said it. But most of our +conversation on that pleasant journey, it must be confessed, was +personal and anecdotic--fish-stories not excluded. + +The ceremony of presenting the letter of credence, which I had rather +dreaded, was in fact quite simple and easy. I handed to Her Majesty the +commendatory epistle of the President (beginning, as usual, "Great and +good friend") and made a short speech in English, according to the +regulations. The Queen, accepting the letter, made a brief friendly +reply in French, which is the language of the court, and passed at once +into an informal conversation in English. She speaks both languages +fluently and well. Her first inquiry, according to royal custom, was +about family matters; the number of the children; the health of the +household; the finding of a comfortable house to live in at The Hague, +and so on. There is something very homely and human in the good manners +of a real court. Then the Queen asked about the Dutch immigrants in +America, especially in recent times--were they good citizens? I answered +that we counted them among the best, especially strong in agriculture +and in furniture-making, where I had seen many of them in the famous +shops of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Queen smiled, and said that the +Netherlands, being a small country, did not want to lose too many of her +good people. + +The impression left upon me by this first interview, and deepened by all +that followed, was that Queen Wilhelmina is a woman admirably fit for +her task. Her natural shyness of temperament is sometimes misinterpreted +as a haughty reserve. But that is not correct. She is, in fact, most +sincere and straightforward, devoted to her duty and very intelligent in +doing it, one of the ablest and sanest crowned heads in Europe, an +altogether good ruler for the very democratic country of the +Netherlands. + +We settled down in the home which I had rented at The Hague. It was a +big, dignified house on the principal street, the Lange Voorhout, which +is almost like a park, with four rows of trees down the middle. Our +house had once been the palace of the Duchess of Saxe-Weimar, a princess +of the Orange-Nassau family. But it was not at all showy, only +comfortable and large. This was fortunate for our country when the rush +of fugitive American tourists came at the beginning of the war, for +every room on the first floor, and the biggest room on the second floor, +were crowded with the work that we had to do for them. + +But during the first winter everything went smoothly; there was no hurry +and no crowding. The Queen came back to her town palace. The rounds of +ceremonial visits were ground out. The Hague people and our diplomatic +colleagues were most cordial and friendly. There were dinners and dances +and court receptions and fancy-dress balls--all of a discreet and +moderate joyousness which New York and Newport, perhaps even Chicago and +Hot Springs, would have called tame and rustic. The weather, for the +first time in several years, was clear, cold, and full of sunshine. The +canals were frozen. Everybody, from grandparents to grandchildren, +including the Crown Princess Juliana, went on skates, which greatly +added to the gayety of the nation. + +At the same time there was plenty of work to do. The affairs of the +legation had to be straightened out; the sending of despatches and the +carrying out of instructions speeded up; the arrangements for a proposed +international congress on education in the autumn of 1914, forwarded; +the Bryan treaty for a year of investigation before the beginning of +hostilities--the so-called "Stop-Look-Listen" treaty--modified and +helped through; and the thousand and one minor, unforeseen jobs that +fall on a diplomatic chief carefully attended to. + + + +II + +Through all this time the barometer stood at "Set Fair." The new Dutch +Ministry, which Mr. Cort van der Linden, a wise and eloquent philosophic +liberal, had formed on the mandate of the Queen, seemed to have the +confidence of the Parliament. Although it had no pledged majority of any +party or bloc behind it, the announcement of its simple programme of +"carrying out the wishes of the majority of the voters as expressed in +the last election," met with approval on every side. The +"Anti-Revolutionary" lion lay down with the "Christian-Historical" +lamb; the "Liberal" bear and the "Clerical" cow fed together; and the +sucking "Social-Democrat" laid his hand on the "Reactionary" adder's +den. It was idyllic. Real progress looked nearly possible. + +The international sky was clear except for the one big cloud, which had +been there so long that the world had grown used to it. The Great Powers +kept up the mad race of armaments, purchasing mutual terror at the price +of billions of dollars every year. + +Now the pace was quickened, but the race remained the same, with Germany +still in the lead. Her new army bill of 1912 provided for a peace +strength of 870,000 men, and a war strength of 5,400,000 men. Russia +followed with a bill raising the term of military service from three to +three and a half years; France with a bill raising the term of service +from two to three years (but this was not until in June, 1913). Great +Britain, with voluntary service, still had a comparatively small army: +in size "contemptible," as Kaiser Wilhelm called it later, but in morale +and spirit unsurpassed. Evidently the military force of Germany, which +lay like a glittering sword in her ruler's hand, was larger, better +organized and equipped, than any other in the world. + +But might it not still be used as a make-weight in the scales of +negotiation rather than as a weapon of actual offense? Might not the +Kaiser still be pleased with his dramatic role of "the war-lord who kept +the peace"? Might he not do again as he did successfully in 1909, when +Austria violated the provisions of the Congress of Berlin (1878) by +annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Germany protected the theft; and +with partial success at Algeciras in 1906, and after the Agadir incident +in 1911, when Germany gained something she wanted though less than she +claimed? Might he not still be content with showing and shaking the +sword, without fleshing it in the body of Europe? It seemed wiser, +because safer for Germany, that the Kaiser should follow that line. The +methodical madness of a forced war looked incredible. + +Thus all of us who were interested in the continuance and solidification +of the work of the peace conferences at The Hague reasoned ourselves +into a peaceful hope. We knew that no other power except Germany was +really prepared for war. We knew that the effort to draw Great Britain +into an offensive and defensive alliance with Germany had failed, +although London was willing to promise help to Berlin if attacked. We +remembered Bismarck's warning that a war against Russia and Great +Britain at the same time would be fatal, and we trusted that it had not +been forgotten in Berlin. We knew that Germany, under her policy of +industrial development and pacific penetration, was prospering more than +ever, and we thought she might enjoy that enough to continue it. We +hoped that a third peace conference would be assembled before a general +conflict of arms could be launched, and that some things might be done +there which would make wilful and aggressive war vastly more dangerous +and difficult, if not impossible. So we were at ease in Zion and worked +in the way which seemed most promising for the peace of the world. + +But that way was not included in the German plan. It was remote from the +Berlin-Baghdad-Bahn. It did not lead toward a dominant imperial state of +Mittel-Europa, with tentacles reaching out to ports on every sea and +strait. The plan for another Hague conference failed to interest the +ruling clique at Berlin and Potsdam because they had made "other +arrangements." + +Very gradually slight indications of this fact began to appear, though +they were not clearly understood at the time. It was like watching a +stage-curtain which rises very slowly a little way and then stops. +Through the crack one could see feet moving about and hear rumbling +noises. Evidently a drama was in preparation. But what it was to be +could hardly be guessed. Then, after a long wait, the curtain rose +swiftly. The tragedy was revealed. Flames burst forth from the stage and +wrapped the whole house in fire. Some of the spectators were the first +victims. The conflagration still rages. It will not be put out until the +flame-lust is smothered in the hearts of those who kindled and spread +the great fire in Europe. + + + +III + +I must get back from this expression of my present feelings and views to +the plain story of the experiences which gradually made me aware of the +actual condition of affairs in Europe and the great obstacle to a +durable peace in the world. + +The first thing that disquieted me a little was the strange difficulty +encountered in making the preliminary arrangements for the third peace +conference. The final resolution of the second conference in 1907, +unanimously recommended, first, that the next conference, should be held +within a period of eight years, and second, that a preparatory committee +should be appointed two years beforehand, to consider the subjects which +were ripe for discussion, and to draw up a programme which could be +examined in advance by the countries interested. That, of course, was +necessary. No sensible government will go into a conference blindfold, +without knowing what is to be talked about. + +But in 1914, when the matter came into my hands, the lapse of time and +the negligence of the nations (the United States included) had made it +too late to fulfil both of these recommendations. If one was carried out +the other must be modified or disregarded. The then Secretary of State, +Mr. Bryan, instructed me to endeavor to have the conference called in +1915, that is, within the period of eight years. After careful +investigation and earnest effort, I reported that it could not be done +at that date. The first thing was to get the preparatory committee, +which would require at least two years for its formation and work. +Toward this point, then, with the approval of the President, I steered +and rowed hard, receiving the warmest sympathy and most effective +co-operation from Jonkheer Loudon, the Netherlands Minister of Foreign +Affairs. Indeed the entire Dutch Government, with the Queen at the head, +were favorable. Holland naturally likes to have the peace conferences at +The Hague. They add to the dignity of the country. The honor is +well-deserved, for Holland may fairly be called the fountainhead of +modern international law, and has produced many of its best expounders, +from Grotius and Bynkershoek to Asser. Moreover, as a side +consideration, these meetings bring a multitude of visitors to the +country, some famous and many profitable, and this is not bad for +business. So the movement is generally popular. + +My own particular suggestion toward getting the required "preparatory +committee" seemed to its author to have the double advantage of +practical speed and representative quality. It was to make use, at least +for the first steps, of a body already in existence and in which all the +nations were represented. But there is no need of describing it, +because it did not go through. I was not so much stuck upon it that any +other fair and speedy plan would not have received my hearty backing. + +But the trouble was that, push as hard as we would, there was no plan +that would move beyond a certain point. There it stood still. Washington +and The Hague were earnest and enthusiastic. St. Petersburg was warmly +interested, but showed a strong preference for its own plan, and a sense +of its right to a leading place as the proposer of the first conference. +London and Paris seemed favorable to the general idea, and took an +expectant attitude toward any proposal of organization that would be on +the level and fair for everybody. Berlin was singularly reserved and +vague. It said little or nothing. It did not seem to care about the +matter. + +I talked informally with my German friends at The Hague. They were +polite and attentive. They may have had a real interest in the subject, +but it was not shown so that you could notice it. They expressed +opinions on the value of peace conferences in general which I am not at +liberty to repeat. The idea of a third conference at The Hague may have +seemed beautiful to them, but it looked as if they felt that it was +lacking in actuality. Possibly I did not understand them. That was just +the trouble--I could not. It was all puzzling, baffling, mysterious. + +It seemed as if all our efforts to forward the calling of the next +conference in the interest of permanent peace brought up dead against an +invisible barrier, an impassable wall like the secret line drawn in the +air by magic, thinner than a cobweb, more impenetrable than steel. What +was it? Indifference? General scepticism? Preoccupation with other +designs which made the discussion of peace plans premature and futile? I +did not know. But certainly there was something in the way, and the +undiscovered nature of that something was food for thought. + +The next jolt that was given to my comfortable hope that the fair +weather in Europe was likely to last for some time was a very slight +incident that happened in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, to which small +sovereign state I was also accredited as American Minister. + +The existence and status of Luxembourg in Europe before the war are not +universally understood in America, and it may be useful to say a few +words about it. The grand duchy is a tiny independent country, about +1,000 square miles of lovely hills and dales and table-lands, clothed +with noble woods, watered by clear streams, and inhabited by about +250,000 people of undoubted German-Keltic stock and of equally undoubted +French sympathies. The land lies in the form of a northward-pointing +triangle between Germany, Belgium, and France. The sovereign is the +Grand Duchess Marie Adelheid (of Nassau), a beautiful, sincere, +high-spirited girl who succeeded to the crown on her father's death. The +political leader for twenty-five years was the Minister-President Paul +Eyschen, an astute statesman and a devoted patriot, who nursed his +little country in his arms like a baby and brought it to a high degree +of prosperity and contentment. + +Like Belgium, Luxembourg was a neutralized country--the former by the +Treaty of 1831; the latter by the Treaty of 1867; both treaties were +signed and guaranteed by the Great Powers. But there was a distinct +difference between the two neutralities. That of Belgium was an armed +neutrality; her forts and her military forces were left to her. That of +Luxembourg was a disarmed neutrality; her only fortress was dismantled +and razed to the ground, and her army was reduced and limited to one +company of gendarmes and one company of infantry. Thus Belgium had the +right, the duty, and the power to resist if her territory were violated +by the armed forces of a belligerent. But Luxembourg was made powerless +to resist; she could only protest. + +Remember this when you consider the fates which fell on the two +countries. Remember how the proud and independent little duchy must have +felt beforehand, standing without a weapon amid the mighty armed powers +of Europe. + +It was in February or early in March, 1914, that the Grand Duchess sent +out an invitation to the Diplomatic Corps to attend a court function. We +all went gladly because of the pleasantness of the land and the good +hospitality of the palace. There were separate audiences with Her Royal +Highness in the morning, a big luncheon given by the Cabinet and the +city authorities at noon, a state dinner in the old Spanish palace at +night, and after that a gala concert. It was then that the incident +occurred. I had heard in the town that thirty military officers from the +German garrison at Trier, a few miles away on the border, were coming, +invited or self-invited, to the concert, and the Luxembourgers did not +like the idea at all. Well, the Germans came in a body, some of them +courteous and affable, the others stiff, wooden, high-chinned, and +staring--distinctly a foreign group. They were tactless enough to +propose staying over the next day. A big crowd of excited Luxembourgers +filled the streets in the morning and gave every sign of extreme +dissatisfaction. "What were these Prussian soldiers doing there? Had +they come to spy out the land and the city in preparation for an +invasion? Was there a stray prince or duke among them who wanted to +marry the Grand Duchess? The music was over. These Kriegs-Herren had +better go home at once--at once, did they understand?" Yes, they +understood, and they went by the next train, which took them to Trier in +an hour. + +It was a very trivial affair. But it seemed to throw some light on the +mentality of the German army. It also made me reflect upon the state of +mind of this little unarmed country living next door to the big military +machine and directly on the open way to France. Yet we all laughed and +joked about the incident on the way back to Holland in the train. Only +the French, German, Italian, and Belgian Ministers were not with us, for +these countries have separate missions in Luxembourg. + +At The Hague everything pursued its tranquil course as usual. Golf set +in. The tulips bloomed in a sea of splendor. I strove at the footless +task of promoting the third peace conference. It was not until the +season of Pentecost, 1914, that I went to Luxembourg again, intending to +gather material for a report on the flourishing steel industry there, +which had developed some new processes, and to get a little +trout-fishing on the side. During that pleasant journey two things +happened which opened my eyes. + +The first was at a luncheon which Prime Minister Eyschen gave me. It was +a friendly foursome: our genial host; the German Minister, Von B.; the +French Minister, M.; and myself. Mr. Eyschen's wine-cellar was famous, +and his old Luxembourg cook was a wonder; she served a repast which made +us linger at table for three hours. The conversation rambled everywhere, +and there were no chains or padlocks on it. It was in French, English, +and German, but mostly in French. One remark has stuck in my memory ever +since. Mr. Eyschen said to me: "You have heard of the famous +'Luxembourger Loch'? It is the easiest military road between Germany and +France." Then he continued with great good humor to the two gentlemen at +the ends of the table: "Perhaps one of your two countries may march an +army through it before long, and we certainly cannot stop you." Then he +turned to Herr von B., still smiling: "Most likely it will be your +country, Excellenz! But please remember, for the last ten years we have +made our mining concessions and contracts so that they will hold, +whatever happens. And we have spent the greatest part of our national +income on our roads. You can't roll them up and carry them off in your +pocket!" Of course we all laughed. But it was serious. Two months later +the French Minister had to make a quick and quiet flight along one of +those very roads. + +A couple of days after the luncheon, at the beginning of June, I saw a +curious confirmation of Eyschen's hint. Having gone just over the German +border for a bit of angling, I was following a very lovely little river +full of trout and grayling. With me were two or three Luxembourgers and +as many Germans, to whom fishing with the fly--fine and far off--was a +new and curious sight. Along the east bank of the stream ran one of the +strategic railways of Germany, from Koln to Trier. All day long +innumerable trains rolled southward along that line, and every train was +packed with soldiers in field-gray--their cheerful, stolid bullet-heads +stuck out of all the windows. "Why so many soldiers," I asked, "and +where are they all going?" "Ach!" replied my German companions, "it is +Pfingstferien (Pentecost vacation), and they are sent a changing of +scene and air to get." My Luxembourg friends laughed. "Yes, yes," they +said. "That is it. Trier has a splendid climate for soldiers. The +situation is kolossal for that!" + +When we passed through the hot and dusty little city it was simply +swarming with the field-gray ones--thousands upon thousands of them--new +barracks everywhere; parks of artillery; mountains of munitions and +military stores. It was a veritable base of operation, ready for war. + +Now the point is that Trier is just seven miles from Wasserbillig on the +Luxembourg frontier, the place where the armed German forces entered the +neutral land on August 2, 1914. + +The government and the "grande armee" of the Grand Duchess protested. +But--well, did you ever see a wren resist an eagle? The motor-van (not +the private car of Her Royal Highness, as rumor has said, but just an +ordinary panier-a-salade), which was drawn up across the road to the +capital, was rolled into the ditch. The mighty host of invaders, having +long been ready, marched triumphantly into the dismantled fortress, and +along their smooth, unlawful way to France. I had caught, in June, +angling along the little river, a passing glimpse of the preparation for +that march. + +But what about things on the French side of the border in that same week +of June, 1914? Well, I can only tell what I saw. Returning to Holland by +way of Paris, I saw no soldiers in the trains, only a few scattered +members of the local garrisons at the railway stations, not a man in +arms within ten kilometres of the frontier. It seemed as if France slept +quietly at the southern edge of Luxembourg, believing that the solemn +treaty, which had made Germany respect the neutrality of that little +land even in the war of 1870, still held good to safeguard her from a +treacherous attack in the rear, through a peaceful neighbor's garden. +Longwy--the poor, old-fashioned fortress in the northeast corner of +France--had hardly enough guns for a big rabbit-shoot, and hardly enough +garrison to man the guns. The conquering Crown Prince afterward took it +almost as easily as a boy steals an apple from an unprotected orchard. +It was the first star in his diadem of glory. But Verdun, though near +by, was not the second. + +From this little journey I went home to The Hague with the clear +conviction that one nation in Europe was ready for war, and wanted war, +and intended war on the first convenient opportunity. But when would +that be? Not even the most truculent government could well venture a +bald declaration of hostilities without some plausible pretext, some +ostensible ground of quarrel. Where was it? There was none in sight. Of +course the danger of a homicidal crisis in the insanity of armaments was +always there. And of course the ambition of Germany for "a place in the +sun" was as coldly fierce as ever. The Pan-Germanists were impatient. +But they could hardly proclaim war without saying what place and whose +place they wanted. Nor was there any particular grievance on which they +could stand as a colorable ground of armed conflict. The Kaiser had +prepared for war, no doubt. The argument and justification of war as the +means of spreading the German Kultur were in the Potsdam mind. But the +concrete and definite occasion of war was lacking. How long would that +lack hold off the storm? Could the precarious peace be maintained until +measures to enforce and protect it by common consent could be taken? + +These questions were answered with dreadful suddenness. The curtain +which had half-concealed the scene went up with a rush, and the missing +occasion of war was revealed in the flash of a pistol. + + +IV + +On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the +Austro-Hungarian crowns, and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenburg, were +shot to death in the street at Serajevo, the capital of the annexed +provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to which they were paying a visit +of ceremony. The news of this murder filled all thoughtful people in +Europe with horror and dismay. It was a dark and sinister crime. The +Crown Prince and his wife had not been "personae gratae" with the +Viennese court, but the brutal manner of their taking off aroused the +anger of the people. Vengeance was called for. The two wretched +murderers were Austrian subjects, but they were Servian sympathizers, +and in some kind of connection with a society called Narodna Obrana, +whose avowed object was to work for a "Greater Servia," including the +southern Slavic provinces of Austria. The Government of Austria-Hungary, +having conducted a secret inquiry, declared that it had proofs that the +instructions and the weapons for the crime came from Servia. On the +other hand, it has not been denied that the Servian Minister at Vienna +had conveyed a warning to the Government there, a week before the +ceremonial visit to Serajevo, to the effect that it would be wise to +give the visit up, as there were grounds for believing that an +assassination had been planned. We knew little or nothing of all this at +the time, in The Hague. Anxiously we waited for light under the black +cloud. It came like lightning in the Austro-Hungarian note to Servia of +July 23, 1914. + +It was made public the next day. I remember coming home that evening +from a motor-drive through the dead cities of the Zuyder Zee. Taking up +the newspaper in the quiet library, I read the note. The paper dropped +from my hand, and I said to my son: "That means an immense war. God +knows how far it will go and how long it will last." + +This Austrian ultimatum was so severe in matter and in manner as to +justify the comment of Sir Edward Grey: "Never have I seen one state +address to another independent state a document of so formidable a +character." It not only dictated a public confession of guilt; it also +made a series of ten sweeping demands on Servia, one of which (No. 5) +seemed to imply a surrender of independent sovereignty; and it allowed +only forty-eight hours for an unqualified, complete acceptance. + +Russia promptly declared that she would not object to the punishment of +Servians for any proved offense, but that she must defend the +territorial integrity and independence of Servia. Italy and France +suggested an extension of time for the answer. France and Russia advised +Servia to make a general acceptance of the ultimatum. She did so in her +reply of the 25th, reserving demand No. 5, which she said she did not +understand, and offering to submit that point, or the whole matter, to +the tribunal at The Hague. Austria had instructed her minister at +Belgrade to reject anything but a categorical submission to the +ultimatum. When the Servian reply was handed to him he said that it was +not good enough, demanded his passports, and left the capital within +half an hour. Germany, vowing that she had no knowledge of the text of +the Austrian note before it was presented and had not influenced its +contents (which seems incredible, as I shall show later), nevertheless +announced that she approved and would support it. + +Verily this was "miching mallecho," as Hamlet says. It meant mischief. +Austria was inflexible in her purpose to make war on Servia. Russia's +warning that in such a case she could not stand aside and see a small +kindred nation subjugated, and her appeals for arbitration or four-power +mediation, which Great Britain, France, and Italy supported, were +disregarded. Behind Austria stood Germany, proud, menacing, armed to the +teeth, ready for attack, supporting if not instigating the relentless +Austrian purpose. Something vast and very evil was impending over the +world. + +That was our conviction at The Hague in the fateful week from July 24 to +August 1, 1914. We who stood outside the secret councils of the Central +Powers were both bewildered and dismayed. Could it be that Europe of the +twentieth century was to be thrust back into the ancient barbarism of a +general war? It was like a dreadful nightmare. There was the head of the +huge dragon, crested, fanged, clad in glittering scales, poised above +the world and ready to strike. We were benumbed and terrified. There was +nothing that we could do. The monstrous thing advanced, but even while +we shuddered we could not make ourselves feel that it was real. It had +the vagueness and the horrid pressure of a bad dream. + +If it seemed dreamlike to us, so near at hand, how could the people in +America, three thousand miles away, feel its reality or grasp its +meaning? They could not do it then, and many of them have not done it +yet. + +But we who were on the other side of the sea were suddenly and rudely +awakened to know that the bad dream was all too real. On July 28 Austria +declared war on Servia. On the 29th Russia ordered a partial +mobilization of troops on the Austrian frontier. On the same night the +Austrian troops entered Servia and bombarded Belgrade. On the 31st +Austria and Russia ordered a general mobilization. + +Then Germany, already coiled, struck. + +On August 1 Germany declared war on Russia. On the 2d Germany invaded +Luxembourg and France. On the 3d Germany declared war on France. On the +4th Germany invaded Belgium, in violation of her solemn treaty. On the +5th Great Britain, having given warning to the Kaiser that she meant to +keep her promise to protect the neutrality of Belgium, severed +diplomatic relations, and on the 6th Parliament, by a vote of +extraordinary supply, formally accepted a state of war with Germany, the +invader. + +So the storm signs, foreshadowed in fair weather, were fulfilled in +tempest, more vast and cruel than the world had ever known. + +The Barabbas of war was preferred to the Christ of righteous judgment. + +The hope of an enduring peace through justice receded and grew dim. We +knew that it could not be rekindled until the ruthless military power of +Germany, that had denied and rejected it, was defeated and brought to +repentance. + +Thus those who loved true peace--peace with equal security for small and +great nations, peace with law protecting the liberties of the people, +peace with power to defend itself against assault--were forced to fight +for it or give it up forever. + + + +Chapter II + +APOLOGUE + +The man who was also a Werwolf sat in his arbor, drinking excellent +beer. + +He was not an ill-looking man. His fondness for an out-of-door life had +given him a ruddy color. He was tall and blond. His eyes were gray. But +there was a shifty look in them, now dreamy, now fierce. At times they +contracted to mere slits. His chin sloped away to nothing. His legs were +long and thin, his movements springy and uncertain. + +The philosopher who came to pay his respects to the man who was also a +Werwolf (whom we shall henceforth call MWAW for short) was named +Professor Schmuck. He was a globular man, with protruding china-blue +eyes, much magnified by immense spectacles. The fame of his book on +"Eschatological Problems among the Hivites and Hittites" was world-wide. +But his real specialty was universal knowledge. + +Yet on entering the arbor where MWAW was sitting, this world-renowned +Learned One made three deep obeisances, as if he were approaching an +idol, and stammered in a husky voice: "Highly Exalted!--dare I--?" + +"Ah, our good Schmuck!" said MWAW, turning in his chair and recrossing +his legs. "Come in. Take place. Take beer. Take breath. Speak out." + +The professor, thus graciously reassured, set forth his errand. + +"I have come to you, Highly Exalted, to inquire your exalted views on +the subject of Lycanthropy. Your Exaltedness knows--" + +"Yes, yes," broke in MWAW, "old Teutonic legend. Men become wolves. +Strongest and fiercest breed. Eat people up. Frighten everybody. Ravage +countryside. Beautiful myth! Teaches power is greatest thing. Might +gives right. Force over all!" + +"Certainly, Highly Exalted," said Schmuck humbly, "it is a +wonder-beautiful myth, full of true idealism. But what if it lost its +purely mythical quality and became historical, actual, contemporaneous? +Would it not change its aspect? Would not people object to it? Might not +the Werwolf get himself disliked?" + +"Perhaps," answered MWAW, smiling till his eyes almost disappeared. "But +what difference? Ignorant people, weak people, no account. Werwolf is +stronger race, therefore superior. Objections silly." + +"True, Exaltedness," said Schmuck. "It is the first duty of every ideal +to realize itself. Yet in this particular matter the complaints are very +bitter. It is said that great numbers of helpless men and women have +been devoured, their children torn in pieces, their farms and gardens +ravaged, and their houses destroyed by Werwolves quite recently. Shall I +deny it?" + +"No," growled MWAW. "Don't be a fool. It is too well known. We know it +ourselves. We are the wolf-pack. Don't deny it. Justify it. That's your +business. Earn your salary." + +Schmuck was as nearly embarrassed as it is possible for a professor to +be. + +"Willingly, Exaltedness," he stammered. "But the trouble is to find the +basic arguments. Even among the Hivites and the Hittites, I have not yet +discovered any traces--" + +"Nonsense," snapped MWAW. "Hivites and Hittites are dead. WE are alive. +Justify US. Think!" + +"Pardon, Highly Exalted," said Schmuck, "I was trying to think. The +first justification that occurs to me is the plea of +necessity--biological necessity." + +"It sounds good," grunted MWAW. "But vague. Explain." + +"A biological necessity is a thing that knows no law. It is the inward +urge of every living creature to expand its own life without regard to +the lives of others. It is above morality, because whatever is necessary +is moral." + +"Excellent," exclaimed MWAW. "We have felt that ourselves. Continue." + +"Now, doubtless, the Highly Exalted are often hungry." + +"Always," interrupted MWAW, "say always!" + +"Always being hungry," droned Schmuck, "the Highly Exalted may feel at +certain times the craving for a certain kind of food in order to obtain +a more perfect expansion. To need is to take. Is it not so?" + +"It is," said MWAW, "and we do. Find another argument." + +"Self-defense," replied Schmuck. + +"Too old," said MWAW. "Worn out. Won't go any more." + +"But as I shall put it, Highly Exalted will see a newness in it. The +best way to defend oneself is by injuring others. Sheep, for example, +when gathered in sufficient numbers are the most dangerous animals in +the world. The only way to be safe from them is to attack them and +scatter them. Especially the small flocks, for that prevents their +growing larger and becoming more dangerous. Particularly should the +sheep with horns be attacked. Sheep have no right to have horns. Wolves +have none. But even the hornless sheep and the lambs should not be +spared, for by rending them you may frighten and discourage the horned +ones." + +"Capital," cried MWAW, springing up and pacing the arbor in excitement. +"Just our own idea. Frightfulness increases force. We like to make +people afraid. We feel stronger. Essence of Werwolfery. Give another +argument, excellent Schmuck. Think once more." + +"The Highly Exalted will forgive me. I cannot, momentarily, bring forth +another." + +"What!" snarled an angry voice above the trembling professor. "Not think +of the best argument of all! Forget your creed! Deny your faith! +Wretched Schmuck! Who gave you a place? Who feeds you? Who are WE?" + +"The Lord's Anointed!" murmured Schmuck, falling on his knees. + +MWAW drew himself up, stiff as steel. His eyes blazed through their +slits like coals of fire. + +"Right!" he cried. "Right at last. That is the great argument. Use it. +WE are the Chosen of God. WE are his weapon, his vicegerent. Whatever WE +do is a brave act and a good deed. Woe to the disobedient!" + +He held out his hand and lifted the professor to his feet. + +"Stand up, Schmuck. You are forgiven. Take more beer. To-night I follow +biological necessity. More work to do. But you go and tell people the +truth." + +So Schmuck went. Whether he told the truth or not is uncertain. At all +events, it was in different words. And the Werwolfery continued. + + + +Chapter III + +THE WERWOLF AT LARGE + +I + +In the days immediately before and after the breaking of the +war-tempest, the servants of the United States Government in Europe were +suddenly overwhelmed by a flood of work and care. The strenuous, +incessant toil in the consulates, legations, and embassies acted +somewhat as a narcotic. There was so much to do that there was no time +to worry. + +The sense of an unmeasured calamity was present in the background of our +thoughts from the very beginning. But it was not until later that the +nature of the disaster grew clear and poignant. As month after month +hammered swiftly by, the meaning and portent of the catastrophe emerged +more sharply and penetrated our minds more deeply, stinging us awake. + +A mighty nation which "rejected the dream of universal peace throughout +the world as non-German" (the Crown Prince, Germany in Arms); a nation +trained for war as a "biological necessity in which Might proves itself +the supreme Right" (Bernhardi, Germany and the Next War); a nation which +had been taught that "frightfulness" is a lawful and essential weapon in +war (Von Clausewitz); and whose generals said, "Frankly, we are and must +be barbarians" (Von Diefurth, Hamburger Nachrichten), while their +philosophers declared that "The German is the superior type of the +species homo sapiens" (Woltmann); a nation whose Imperial Head commended +to his soldiers the example of the Huns, and proclaimed, "It is to the +empire of the world that the German genius aspires" (Kaiser Wilhelm, +Speech at Aix-la-Chapelle, June 20, 1902)--a nation thus armed, +instructed, disciplined, and demoralized had broken loose. Another +Attila had come, with a new horde behind him to devastate and change the +face of the world. In the tumult and darkness which enfolded Europe, the +Werwolf was at large. We could hear his ululations in the forest. The +cries of his victims grew louder, piercing our hearts with pity and just +wrath. + + +II + +But even when the most dreadful things are happening around you, the +regular and necessary work of the world must be carried on. Your own +particular "chore" must be done as well as you can do it. + +As the trouble drew near and suddenly fell upon the world, the burden of +enormously increased and varied duties pressed heavily upon the American +representatives abroad. The first thing that we had to do was to make +provision for taking care of our own people in Europe who were caught +out in the storm and the danger. + +That was a practical job with unlimited requirements. No one, except +those who had the distracting privilege of being in the American +diplomatic and consular service in the summer of 1914, knows how much +work and how many kinds of work rushed down upon us in a moment. +Banking, postal, and telegraph service, transportation, hotel and +boarding-house business, baggage express, the recovery of missing +articles and persons, the reunion of curiously separated families, +confidential inquiries, medical service (mainly mind-healing), and free +consultation on every subject under the sun--all these different +occupations, trades, and professions were not set down in our programme +when we came to Europe, nor covered by the slim calf-bound volume of +Instructions to Diplomatic Officers which was our only guide-book. But +we had to learn them at short notice and practise them as best we could. +No doubt we often acted in a way that was not strictly protocolaire. +Certainly we made mistakes. But it was better to do that than to sit +like bumps on a log doing nothing. The immediate affair in hand was to +help our own folks who were in distress and difficulty and who wanted to +get home as quickly and as safely as possible. So we tried to do it, +making use of the best means available, and praying that heaven and our +diplomatic colleagues would forgive any errors or gaffes that we might +make. We preserved a profound respect for etiquette and regularity. But +our predominant anxiety was to get the things done that had to be done. + +Take an illustration. Excuse the personal references in it. + +From the very beginning it seemed clear to me that one of the greatest +difficulties in the first days of war would be to secure a supply of +ready money for American travellers in flight. As a rule they carried +little hard cash with them. Paper money would be at a discount; checks +and drafts difficult, if not impossible, to negotiate in Holland. +Moratoriums were falling everywhere as thick as leaves in Vallombrosa. + +So I went directly to my friend Foreign Minister Loudon, and asked him a +plain question. + +"Would your Government be willing to help us in getting American +travellers' checks and drafts on letters of credit cashed if I should +indorse them as American Minister?" + +He answered as promptly as if the suggestion had already been formed in +his own mind--as perhaps it had. + +"Certainly, and gladly! Those pieces of paper would be the best +securities in the world--short-term notes of the American Government. If +you will get the authority from Washington to indorse, the Bank of the +Netherlands will honor the checks and drafts; and if the Bank hesitates +the National Treasury will cash them." + +I cabled to the Department of State asking permission to make the +indorsements (a thing hitherto expressly forbidden by the instructions +to diplomatic officers), and explaining that I would take in each case +the best security obtainable, whether in the form of a draft on a letter +of credit or a personal note of hand with satisfactory references, and +that no money should be drawn except for necessary living expenses and +the cost of the journey home. The answer came promptly: "You have the +authority to indorse." + +So a system of international banking between two Governments was +introduced. I believe it was absolutely a new plan. But it worked. + +Then another idea occurred to me. The letters of credit were usually +drawn on London or Paris. In both cities a moratorium was on. Why not +make the drafts directly on New York? Why not call on the signer of the +letter of credit for the money instead of calling on the addressee? This +would cut out any possibility of difficulty from the moratorium. + +This also was a new method. But it seemed reasonable. We tried it. And +it worked. A visiting committee of New York bankers to whom I related +this experience later laughed immensely. They also made some remarks +about "amateurs" and "audacity" which I would rather not repeat. But +upon the whole they did not seem shocked beyond recovery. + +So it happened, by good fortune, that there was never a day in The Hague +when an American fugitive from the war, homeward bound, could not obtain +what cash he needed for him to live and to get to the United States. But +not money to buy souvenir spoons, or old furniture and pictures. "Very +sorry," we explained, "but our Government is not dealing in antiquities +at present. It is simply helping you to get home as quickly and +comfortably as possible. Please tell us how much money you need for +board and passage-money and you shall have it." + +Except three or four chronic growlers and a few passionate antiquarian +ladies, everybody took it good-humoredly and cheerfully. I think they +understood, though not always clearly, that our Government was doing +more for its citizens caught out in a tempest than any other government +in the world would have done. + +When the Tennessee arrived in the latter part of August with $2,500,000 +in gold for the same purpose, it was another illustration of our +Government's parental care and forethought. We received our share of +this gold at The Hague. The first use we made of part of it was to take +up the American checks and drafts on which the Bank of the Netherlands +had advanced the money. Then we sent the paper to America for collection +and repayment to the National Treasury. I have not the accounts here and +cannot speak by the book, but I think I am not far out in saying that +our loss on these transactions was less than five per cent of the total +amount handled. And we banked for some very poor people, too! + +I never had any idea, before the war broke out, how many of our +countrymen and countrywomen there are roaming about Europe every summer, +and with what a cheerful trust in Providence and utter disregard of +needful papers and precautions some of them roam! There were young women +travelling alone or in groups of two or three. There were old men so +feeble that one's first thought on seeing them was: "How did you get +away from your nurse?" There were people with superfluous funds, and +people with barely enough funds, and people with no funds at all. There +were college boys who had worked their way over and couldn't find a +chance to work it back. There were art-students and music-students +whose resources had given out. + +There was a very rich woman, plastered with diamonds, who demanded the +free use of my garage for the storage of her automobile. When I +explained that, to my profound regret, it was impossible, because three +American guest cars were already stored there and the place could hold +no more, she flounced out of the room in high dudgeon. + +There was a lady of a different type who came to say, very modestly, +that she had a balance in a bank at The Hague which she wanted to leave +to my order for use in helping people who were poor and deserving. +"Please make as sure as you can of the poverty," said she, "but take a +chance, now and then, on the deserts. We can't confine our kindness to +saints." This gift amounted to two or three thousand dollars, and was +the foundation of the Minister's private benevolence fund, which proved +so useful in later days and of which a remnant has been left for my +successor. + +An American wrote to us from a little village in a remote province of +the Netherlands saying that his remittances from home had not arrived +and that he was penniless. He added by way of personal description: "My +social position is that of a Catholic priest with nervous prostration." +We helped him and he proved to be all right. + +A rising comic-opera star, of engaging appearance and manners +(American), who was under a temporary financial obscuration because her +company in Holland had broken up, came to ask us to assist her in +getting to Germany, where she had friends and hoped to find work. We did +it with alacrity. Then she wrote asking us to forward certain legal +papers in connection with a divorce which she contemplated. We did it. +Then she sent us some of her newspaper articles and a lot of clippings +from German journals, requesting us to transmit them in the Legation +pouch to America. This we politely declined, with the plea of "non +possumus". Whereupon she was furious and denounced us to the German +authorities and the German-American press. + +An American lady whose husband was dying in Hamburg came in desperate +distress with her daughter, to beg us to aid them in getting to him. We +found the only way that was open, a little-known route through the +northeast corner of Holland, procured the necessary permits, and enabled +the wife and daughter to reach his bedside before he died. + +A poor woman (with a nice little baby), husband, a naturalized American, +was "somewhere in Argentina," wanted to go to his family in one of the +northwestern States. She had no money. We paid her expenses in The Hague +until we could get into communication with the family, and then sent her +home rejoicing. + +These are a few examples of the ever-recurring humor and pathos which +touched our incessant grind of peace work in war times at The Hague. +Thousands and thousands of Americans, real or presumptive, passed +through the Legation--all sorts and conditions of men, asking for all +kinds of things. + +Our house was transformed into an Inquiry Office and a Bureau for First +Aid to the Injured. There was often a dense throng outside the front +door, filling the street and reaching over into the park. Two Dutch boy +scouts, capital fellows in khaki, volunteered their assistance in +keeping order, and stood guard at the entrance giving out numbered +tickets of admission so that the house would not be choked and all the +work stopped. + +You see, Holland was the narrow neck of the bottle, and the incredible +multitudes of Americans who were scattered about in Germany, Austria, +Russia, and parts of Switzerland, came pouring out our way. There was no +end to the extra work. Many a night I did not get my clothes off, but +took a bath and breakfast in the morning and went ahead with the next +day's business. No eight-hour day in that establishment! + +It would have been impossible to hold on and keep going but for the +devotion and industry of the entire Legation staff, and the splendid aid +of the volunteers who came to help us through. Professor George Grafton +Wilson, of Harvard, was our Counsellor in International Law. Professor +Philip M. Brown, of Princeton, former Minister to Honduras, gave his +valuable service. Professor F. J. Moore, of the Massachusetts Institute +of Technology, took charge of the registration bureau. Hon. Charles H. +Sherrill, former Ambassador to the Argentine, and Charles Edward +Russell, the Socialist, and his wife, were among our best workers. +Alexander R. Gulick was at the head of the busy correspondence +department. Van Santvoord Merle-Smith, Evans Hubbard, and my son ran the +banking department. These are only a few names among the many good men +and women who helped their country for love. + +My library was the Diplomatic Office, to which the despatches and the +passports came; the Conference Chamber, where all vexed questions were +discussed and decided; the Court of Appeal, where people who thought +they had not received fair treatment could present their complaints; and +the Consolation Room, where the really distressed, as well as the +slightly hysterical, came to tell their troubles. Some of them were +tragic and some comic. The most agitated and frightened persons were +among the fat commercial men. The women, as a rule, were fine and steady +and cheerful, especially the American-born. They met the adventure with +good sense and smiling faces; asked with commendable brevity for the +best advice or service that we could give them; and usually took the +advice and were more grateful for the service than it deserved. + +So the days rolled on, full of infinitely varied cares and labors; and +every afternoon, about five o'clock, the whole staff with a dozen or a +score of our passing friends, went out under the spreading chestnut-tree +in the back garden for a half-hour of tea and talk. It was all very +peaceful and democratic. We were in neutral, friendly Holland. The big, +protecting shield of "Uncle Sam" was over us, and we felt safe. + + +III + +Yet how near, how fearful, was the fierce reality of the unpardonable +war! Belgium was invaded by the Germans, an hour or two away from us. At +any moment their troops might be tempted to take the short cut through +the narrow strip of Dutch territory which runs so far down into Belgium; +and then the neutrality of Holland would be gone! The little country +would be part of the battle-field. Holland has always been resolved to +fight any invader. + +All through August and September, 1914, that fear hung over the Dutch +people. It recurred later again and again--whenever a movement of German +troops came too close to the borders of Holland; whenever a newspaper +tale of impending operations transpired from Berlin or London. Once or +twice the anxiety rose almost to a popular panic. But I noticed that +even then the stock-market at Amsterdam remained calm. Now, the Dutch +are a very prudent folk, especially the bankers. Therefore I concluded +that somebody had received strong assurances both from Germany and Great +Britain that neither would invade the Netherlands provided the other +abstained. + +But all the time there was that dreadful example of the "scrap of +paper"--the treaty which had been no protection for Belgium--to shake +confidence in any pledge of Germany. And all the time the news from just +beyond the border grew more and more horrible. Towns and villages were +looted and burned. Civilians were massacred; women outraged; children +brought to death. Heavy fines and ransoms were imposed for slight or +imaginary offenses. (They amounted to more than $40,000,000 in addition +to the "war contribution" exacted, which by August, 1917, had reached +$288,000,000.) Churches were ruined. Priests were shot. The country was +stripped and laid waste. All the scruples and rules by which men had +sought to moderate the needless cruelties of war were mocked and flung +aside. Ruin marked the track of the German troops, and terror ran before +their advance. + +On August 19 Aerschot was sacked and 150 of its inhabitants killed. On +the 20th Andenne met the same fate and the number of the slain was 250. +On the 23d Dinant was wrecked and more than 600 men and women were +murdered. On the 25th the university library at Louvain was set on fire +and burned. The pillage and devastation of the city and its environs +continued for ten days. More than 2,000 houses were destroyed, and more +than 100 civilians were butchered. Time would fail me to tell of the +industrious little towns and the quaint Old World hamlets that were +wrecked, or of the men and women and young children who were tortured, +and had trial of mockings and bonds and imprisonment, and were slain by +the sword and by fire. Is it not all set down by sworn witnesses in the +great gray book of the Kingdom of Belgium, and in the blue book of the +committee of which Lord Bryce was the head? Have I not heard with my own +ears the agony of those whose parents were shot down before their eyes, +whose children were slain or ravished, whose wives or husbands were +carried into captivity, whose homes were made desolate, and who +themselves barely escaped with their lives? + +Find an explanation for these Belgian atrocities if you can. What if a +few shots were fired by ignorant and infuriated civilians from the +windows of houses? It has not been proved. But even if it were, it would +be no reason for the martyrdom of a whole population, for the +destruction of distant and unincriminated towns, for the massacre of +evidently innocent persons. + +Was it the drink found in the cellars of the houses that made the German +officers and soldiers mad? Perhaps so. But that makes the case no +better. It was stolen drink. + +Was it the carrying out of the cold-blooded policy of "frightfulness" as +a necessary weapon of war? That is the wickedest excuse of all. It is +really an accusation. The probable truth of it is supported by what +happened later, when the Germans came to Poland, and when the Turks, +their allies and pupils in the art of war, slaughtered 800,000 Armenians +or drove them to a slow, painful death. It means just what the title of +this article says. The Werwolf was at large. + +The first evidence of this spirit in the German conduct of the war that +came to my personal knowledge was on August 25. Two or three days +before, our American Consul-General in Antwerp, which was still the +temporary seat of the Belgian Government, had written to me saying that +he was absolutely destitute and begging me to send him some money for +the relief of his family and other Americans who were in dire need. The +Tennessee was lying off the Hook of Holland at that time, and there were +several of our splendid army officers ready and eager for any service. +One of the best of them, Captain Williams, offered himself as messenger, +and I sent him in to Antwerp, with three thousand dollars in gold in a +belt around his waist, on August 24. He had a hard, slow journey, but he +went through and delivered the money. + +That very night, while he was in the city, a Zeppelin air-ship, the +first of its devilish tribe to get into action, sailed over sleeping +Antwerp dropping bombs. No military damage was done. But hundreds of +private houses were damaged and sixty destroyed. One bomb fell on a +hospital full of wounded Belgians and Germans. Scores of innocent +civilians, mostly women and children, were killed. "In a single house," +writes an eye-witness, "I found four dead: one room was a chamber of +horrors, the remains of the mangled bodies being scattered in every +direction." + +Mark the exact nature of this crime. The dropping of bombs from aircraft +is not technically illegal. The agreement of the nations to abandon and +prohibit this method of attack for five years unfortunately expired by +limitation of time in 1912 and was not renewed. But the old-established +rules of war among civilized nations have forbidden and still forbid the +bombardment of populous towns without due notice, in order that the +non-combatants may have a chance to find refuge and safety. This German +monster of the air came unannounced, in the dead of night, and, having +wrought its hellish surprise, vanished into the darkness again. This was +a crime against international law as well as a sin against humanity. + +My captain returned to The Hague the next morning, bringing his report. +He had seen the horror with his own eyes. More: with the care of a true +officer he had made a map of the course taken by the air-ship in its +flight over the city. That map showed beyond a doubt that the aim of the +marauder was to destroy the principal hospital, the hotel where the +Belgian Ministers lived, and the palace in which the King and Queen with +their children were sleeping. + +I cabled the facts to Washington at once, and sent the map with a fuller +report the next day. I felt deeply (and ventured to express my feeling) +that the United States could, and ought to, protest against this clear +violation of the law of nations--this glaring manifestation of a spirit +which was going to make this war the most cruel and atrocious known to +history. The foreboding of a return to barbarism has been fulfilled, +alas, only too abominably! + +In every step of that downward path Germany has led the way, by the +perfection of her scientific methods applied to a devilish purpose. + +Take, for example, the use of poisonous gas in warfare. This was an +ancient weapon, employed long before the beginning of the Christian era. +It had been abandoned by civilized nations, and was prohibited by one of +the Hague conventions, for a period of five years. But that period +having expired, and the convention being only a "scrap of paper," +Germany revived the ancient deviltry in a more scientific form. On April +22, 1915, she sent the yellow clouds of death rolling down upon the +trenches of Ypres, where the British defended the last city of outraged +Belgium. The suffocating horrors of that hellish method of attack are +beyond description. The fame of this achievement of spectacled barbarism +belongs to the learned servants of the predatory Potsdam gang. But we +cannot blame the Allies if they were forced reluctantly to take up the +same weapon in self-defense. + + +IV + +The real character and the inhuman effect of the German invasion were +brought home to us, and made painfully clear to our eyes and our hearts, +by the amazing tragic spectacle of the flood of refugees pouring out of +Belgium. + +It began slowly. When the quaint frontier town of Vise, surrounded by +its goose-farms, was attacked and set on fire on August 4, there were +many families from the neighborhood who fled to Holland. When Liege was +captured on the 7th after a brave defense, and its last fort fell on the +15th, there were more fugitives. When Brussels was occupied without +resistance on the 20th there were still more. As the invasion spread +westward and southward, engulfing city after city in widening waves of +blood, the tide of terror and flight rose steadily. It reached its +high-water mark when Antwerp, after the Germans had pounded its outer +and inner circle of forts for nine days, was bombarded on October 7 and +captured on the 18th. + +Nothing like that sad, fear-smitten exodus has been seen on earth in +modern times. There was something in it at once fateful, trembling, and +irresistible, which recalled De Quincey's famous story of The Flight of +a Tartar Tribe. No barrier on the Holland border could have kept that +flood of Belgian refugees out. They were an enormous flock of sheep and +lambs, harried by the Werwolf and fleeing for their lives. + +But Holland did not want a barrier. She stood with open doors and arms, +offering an asylum to the distressed and persecuted. + +I do not believe that any country has ever made a better record of wise, +steady, and true humanitarian work than Holland made in this matter. It +is not necessary to exaggerate it. Naturally, Belgium and Great Britain +bore by far the largest part of the financial burden of caring for the +refugees. Regular subsidies were guaranteed for this purpose. But +Holland gave freely and generously what was more important: a prompt and +sufficient welcome and shelter from the storm; abundant supplies of +money for immediate needs, food and clothing, a roof and a fire; +personal aid and care, nursing, medical attendance--all of which these +bewildered exiles needed desperately and at once. + +This is not the place, nor the time, in which to attempt a full report +of the humane task which was suddenly thrown upon Holland by the deadly +doings of the German Werwolf in Belgium, nor of the way in which that +task was accepted and carried out. I shall note only a few things of +which I have personal knowledge. + +Going along the railway line which leads to Antwerp, I saw every train +literally packed with fugitives. They had come, not in organized, +orderly companies, but in droves--tens of thousands, hundreds of +thousands. They were dazed and confused, escaping from they knew not +what, carried they knew not whither. It is well for the poet to say: + + "Be not like dumb, driven cattle"; + +but what can you do in a case like this except run from hell as fast as +you can and take the first open road? + +The station platforms were crowded with folks in motley garments showing +signs of wear and tear. Their possessions were done up in bags and +shapeless bundles, rolled in pieces of sacking, old shawls, +red-and-white-checkered table-cloths. The men, with drawn and heavy +faces, waited patiently. The women collected and watched their restless +flocks. The baby tugged at its mother's breast. The little sister +carried the next-to-baby in her arms. The boys, as usual, wandered +everywhere undismayed and peered curiously into everything. + +The crowds were not disorderly or turbulent; there was no shrieking or +groaning. There were, of course, some of the baser sort in the vast +multitude that fled to Holland--street rowdies and other sons of Belial +from the big towns, women of the pavements, and other wretched +by-products of our social system. How could it be otherwise in a throng +of about a million, scooped up and cast out by an evil chance? But the +great bulk of the people were decent and industrious--no more angels +than the rest of us can show per thousand. + +I remember a very respectable old couple, cleanly though plainly clad, +waiting at the station of a small village, looking in vain for a chance +to board the train. Everything was full except the compartment reserved +for us. We opened the door and asked them to get in. The old gentleman +explained that he was a landscape-gardener, living in a small villa with +a small garden, in a suburb of Antwerp. + +"It was a beautiful garden, monsieur," he said with glistening eyes. "It +was arranged with much skill and care. We loved every bush, every +flower. But one evening three German shells fell in it and burst. The +good wife and I" (here a wan smile) "thought the climate no longer +sanitary. We ran away that night on foot. Much misery for old people. +Last night we slept in a barn with hundreds of others. But some day we +go back to restore that garden. N' est-ce pas vrai, cherie?" + +Rosendaal, the Dutch custom-house town on the way to Antwerp, claims +15,000 inhabitants. In two nights at least 40,000 refugees poured into +that place. Every house from the richest to the poorest opened its doors +in hospitality. The beds and the floors were all filled with sleepers. A +big vacant factory building was fitted with improvised bunks and straw +bedding. Two thousand five hundred people were lodged there. Open-air +kitchens were set up. The burgomaster and aldermen and doctors and all +the other "leading citizens" took off their coats and worked. The best +women in the place were cooking, serving tables, nursing, making +clothes, doing all they could for their involuntary guests. + +In the picturesque old city of Bergen-op-Zoom--famous in history--I saw +the same thing. There a large tent-camp had been set up for the overflow +from the houses. It was like a huge circus of distress. The city hall +was turned into an emergency storehouse of food: the vaulted halls and +chambers filled with boxes, bags, and barrels. When I went up to the +bureau of the burgomaster, his wife and daughters were there, sewing +busily for the refugees. + +I visited the main hospital and the annexes which had been established +in the schoolhouses. Twice, as we climbed the steep stairs, we stood +aside for stretchers to be carried past. They bore the bodies of people +who had died from exposure and exhaustion. + +In one ward there were a score of the most ancient women I have ever +seen. They had made the flight on foot. God knows how they ever did it. +One of them was so weak that she could not speak, so short of breath +that she could not lie down. As she sat propped with pillows, rocking +slowly to and fro and coughing, coughing, feebly coughing her life out, +she looked a thousand years old. Perhaps she was, if suffering measures +years. + +Another room was for babies born in the terror and the flight. A few +were well-looking enough; but most of them were pitiful scraps and +tatters of humanity. They were tenderly nursed and cared for, but their +chance was slender. While I was there one of the little creatures +shuddered, breathed a tiny sigh, and slipped out of a world that was too +hard for it. + +It was part of my unofficial duty to visit as many as possible of the +private shelters and hospitals and workrooms and the public camps, +because the Belgian Relief Committee and other friends in New York had +sent me considerable sums of money to use in helping the refugees. In +the careful application of these funds I had the advice of Mr. Th. +Stuart, President of the "Netherlands Relief Committee for Belgian and +Other Victims of War," and of Baron F. van Tuyll van Serooskerken, a +great friend of mine, whom the Queen had appointed as General +Commissioner to oversee all the public refugee camps. + +Three of these, Nunspeet, Ede, and Uden, were improvised villages, with +blocks of long community houses, separate dormitories for the unmarried +men and for the single women, a dining-hall, a chapel, one or two +schoolhouses, a recreation-hall, a house of detention for refractory +persons, one hospital for general cases, and another for infectious +diseases. It was all built of wood, simple and primitive, but as +comfortable as could be expected under the conditions. The chief danger +of the camps was idleness. In providing work to combat this peril the +Rockefeller Foundation and the committee of the English "Society of +Friends" were of great assistance. Each of these camps had accommodation +for about 10,000 people. + +The fourth camp was at the ancient city of Gouda, famed for its great +old church with stained-glass windows and for its excellent cheese and +clay pipes. This camp was the earliest and one of the most interesting +that I visited. It was established in a series of exceptionally large +and fine greenhouses, which happened to be empty when the emergency +came. Somebody--I think it was the clever Burgomaster Yssel de Scheppe +and his admirable wife--had the good idea of utilizing them for the +refugees. It seemed a curious notion, to raise human plants under glass. +But it worked finely. The houses were long and lofty; they had concrete +floors and broad concrete platforms where the "cubicles" for the +separate families could easily be erected; steam heat, electric light, +hot and cold water were already "laid on"; it was quite palatial in its +way. A few wooden houses, a laundry, a kitchen, a carpenter-shop for the +men, and so on, were quickly run up. There was a bowling-alley and a +playground and a schoolhouse. The people could go to church in the town. +Soon twenty-five hundred exiles were living in this queer but +comfortable camp. + +But it was evident that this refugee life, even under the best +conditions that could be devised, was abnormal. There was not room in +the industrial life of Holland for all these people to stay there +permanently. Besides, they did not want to stay, and that counts for +something in human affairs. The question arose whether it might not be +wise to let them go home. Not to send them home, you understand. That +was never even contemplated. But simply to allow them to return to their +own country, at least in the regions where the fury of war had already +passed by. I suggested to Mr. Stuart that before you allow poor folks to +"go home," you ought to know whether they have a "home" to go to. So we +took my motor in October and made a little tour of investigation in +Belgium. + +That was a strange and memorable journey. The long run in the dripping +autumn afternoon along the Antwerp Road, where the miserable fugitives +were still trudging in thousands; the search for lodgings in the +stricken city, where most of the streets were silent and deserted as if +the plague had passed there, and the only bustling life was in the +central quarter, where "the field-gray ones" abounded; the closed shops, +the house-fronts shattered by shells, the great cathedral standing in +the moonlight, unharmed as far as we could see, except for one shell +which had penetrated the south transept, just where Rubens's "Descent +from the Cross" used to hang before it was carried away for safety--I +shall never forget those impressions. + +The next morning, provided with permits which the German Military +Commandant had very courteously given us, we set out on our tour. The +journey became still more strange. The beautiful trees of the suburbs +were razed to the ground, the little villas stood empty, many of them +half-ruined. (Perhaps one of them belonged to our friend the +landscape-gardener.) We could see clearly the emplacements for the big +German guns, which had been secretly laid long before the war began, +concealed in cellars and beneath innocent-looking tennis-courts. The +ring-forts surrounding Antwerp were knocked to pieces, their huge +concrete gateways, their stone facings, their high earthworks, all +battered out of shape. + +Town after town through which we passed lay half-destroyed or in +complete ruins. Wavre, Waelhem, Termonde, Duffel, Lierre, and many +smaller places were in various stages of destruction, burned or +shattered by shell fire and explosives. The heaps of bricks and stones +encumbered the streets so that it was hard to pick our way through. The +smell of decaying bodies tainted the air. The fields had been inundated +in the valleys; the water was subsiding; here and there corpses lay in +the mud. Old trenches everywhere; thousands of rudely heaped graves, +marked by two crossed sticks; miles on miles of rusty barbed-wire +defenses, with dead cows or horses entangled in them, slowly rotting, +haunted by the carrion crows. + +Yet there were some people in the countryside. Now and then we saw a +woman or an old man digging in field or garden. We stopped at the front +yard of a little farmhouse, where the farmer's wife stood, and asked her +some directions about the road. She gave them cheerfully, though the +house at her back was little more than a mass of ruins. + +"Were you here in the fighting?" we asked. + +"But no, messieurs," she answered with a short laugh. "If I had been +here, I should not be here. I ran away to Holland and returned yesterday +to my house. But how shall I creep in?" She pointed over her shoulder to +the pile of bricks. "I am not a cat or a rat." + +They are indomitable, those Flemish people. At Lierre we were very +hungry and searched vainly for an inn or a grocery. At last in one of +the streets we saw a little baker-shop. The upper story was riddled and +broken. But the shop was untouched, the window-shade half up, and +underneath we could see two loaves of bread. We went in. The bare-armed +baker met us. + +"Can you sell us a little bread?" + +"But certainly, messieurs, that is what I am here for. Not the window +loaves, however; I have a fresh loaf, if you please. Also a little +cheese, if you will." + +"Were you here in the fighting?" + +"Assuredly not! It was impossible. But I hurried back after three days. +You see, messieurs, some people were returning, and me--I am the Baker +of Lierre." + +He said it as if it were a title of nobility. + +At Malines (Mechelen) the devastation appeared perhaps more shocking +because we had known the russet and gray old city so well in peaceful +years. Many of the streets were impassable, choked with debris. One side +of the great Square was knocked to fragments. The huge belfry, Saint +Rombaud's Tower, wherein hangs the famous carillon of more than thirty +bells, was battered but still stood firm. The vast cathedral was a +melancholy wreck of its former beauty and grandeur. The roof was but a +skeleton of bare rafters; the side wall pierced with gaping rents and +holes; the pictured windows were all gone; the sunlight streamed in +everywhere upon the stone floor, strewn with an indescribable confusion +of shattered glass, fallen beams, fragments of carved wood, and broken +images of saints. + +A little house behind the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the roof +and upper story of which had been pierced by shells, seemed to be +occupied. We knocked and went in. The man and his wife were in the +sitting-room, trying to put it in order. Much of the furniture was +destroyed; the walls were pitted with shrapnel-scars, but the cheap +ornaments on the mantel were unbroken. In the ceiling was a big hole, +and in the floor a pit in which lay the head and fragments of a German +shell. I asked if I might have them. "Certainly," answered the man. "We +wish to keep no souvenirs of that wicked thing." + + +V + +I do not propose to describe the magnificent work of the "Commission for +Relief in Belgium." It is too well known. Besides, it is not my story; +it is the story of Herbert Hoover, who made the idea a reality, and of +the crew of fine and fearless young Americans who worked with him. +England and France furnished more money to buy food; but the United +States, in addition to money and wheat, gave the organization, the +personal energy and toil and tact, the assurance of fair play and honest +dealing, without which that food could never have gotten into Belgium or +been distributed only to the civil population. + +Holland was the door through which all the supplies for the C. R. B. had +to pass. The first two cargoes that went in I had to put through +personally, and nearly had to fight to do it. My job was to keep the +back of the United States against that door and hold it open. It was not +always easy. I was obliged to make protests, remonstrances, and polite +suggestions about what would happen if certain things were not done. + +Once the Germans refused to give any more "safe-conduct passes" for +relief ships on the return voyage. Of course, that would have made the +work impossible. A German aircraft bombed one of these ships. I put the +matter mildly but firmly to the German Minister. "This work is in your +interest. It relieves you from the burden of feeding a lot of people +whom you would otherwise be bound to feed. You want it to go on?" "Yes, +certainly, by all means." "Well, then, you will have to stop attacking +the C. R. B. ships or else the work will have to stop. The case is very +simple. There is only one thing to do." He promised to take the matter +up with Berlin at once. In a couple of days the answer came: "Very +sorry. Regrettable mistake. Aviator could not see markings on side and +stern of ship. Advise large horizontal signs painted on top deck of +ships, visible from above. Safe-conducts will be granted." + +When this was told to Captain White, a clever Yankee sea-captain who had +general charge of the C. R. B. shipping, he laughed considerably and +then said: "Why, look-a-here, I'll paint those boats all over, top, +sides, and bottom, if that'll only keep the ---- Germans from sinkin' +'em." + +From a million and a half to two million men, women, and children in +Belgium and northern France were saved from starving to death by the +work of the C. R. B. The men who were doing it had a chance to observe +the conditions in those invaded countries. They came to the Legation at +The Hague and told simply what they knew. We got the real story of Miss +Cavell, cruelly done to death by "field-gray" officers. We got full +descriptions of the system of deporting the civil population--a system +which amounted to enslavement, with a taint of "white slavery" thrown +in. When the Belgian workmen were suddenly called from their homes, +herded before the German commandant, and sent away, they knew not +whither, to work for their oppressor, as they were entrained they sang +the "Marseillaise." They knew they would be punished for it, kept +without food, put to the hardest labor. But they sang it. They knew that +France, and England too, were fighting for them, for their rights, for +their liberty. They believed that it would come. They were not conquered +yet. + +Here I must break off my story for a month. It has not been well told. +Words cannot render the impression of black horror that lay upon us, the +fierce indignation that stirred us, during all those months while we +were doing the tasks of peace in peaceful Holland. + +We were bound to be neutral in conduct. That was the condition of our +service to the wounded, the prisoners, the refugees, the sufferers, of +both sides. We lived up to that condition at The Hague without a single +criticism from anybody--except the subsidized German-American press in +the United States. + +But to be neutral in thought and feeling--ah, that was beyond my power. +I knew that the predatory Potsdam gang had chosen and forced the war in +order to realize their robber-dream of Pan-Germanism. I knew that they +were pushing it with unheard-of atrocity in Belgium and northern France, +in Poland and Servia and Armenia. I knew that they had challenged and +attacked the whole world of peace-loving nations. I knew that America +belonged to that imperilled world. I knew that there could be no secure +labor and no quiet sleep in any land so long as the Potsdam Werwolf was +at large. + + + +Chapter IV +GERMANIA MENDAX + +I + +The truth about the choosing, beginning, and forcing of this abominable +war has never been told by official Germandom. + +Now and then an independent German like Maximilian Harden is brave +enough to blurt it out: "Of what use are weak excuses? We willed this +war, ... willed it because we were sure we could win it." (Zukunft, +August, 1914.) But in general the official spokesmen of Germany keep up +the claim that their country was attacked and forced to fly to arms to +protect herself. + +"Gentlemen," said the Imperial Chancellor to the members of the +Reichstag on August 4,1914, "we are now acting in self-defense. +Necessity knows no law. Our troops have occupied Luxembourg and have +possibly already entered on Belgian soil. [A little earlier in the +speech he confessed that they had also invaded France.] Gentlemen, that +is a breach of international law. The French Government has notified +Brussels that it would respect Belgian neutrality as long as the +adversary respected it. But we know that France stood ready for an +invasion. France could wait. We could not .... The injustice we +commit--I speak openly--we will try to make good as soon as our military +aims have been attained. He who is menaced as we are, and is fighting +for his all, can only consider the one and best way to strike." +[Footnote 1] (The word which Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg actually used +was "durchhauen", which means "to hew, or hack, a way through.") + +[Footnote 1: Out of several translations of this speech I have chosen as +the fairest the one printed by the American Association for +International Conciliation, November, 1914, No. 84.] + + +It was against such weak excuses as this, against the vain pretext that +the German war-lords were the attacked instead of the attackers, that +Herr Harden made the frank protest which I have quoted above. + +Meantime the falsehood of the tales of French preparation for invasion +and of actual violations of German territory has been exposed by the +evidence of Germans themselves. General Freytag-Loringhoven, in his +essay on "The First Victories in the West," has shown that the French +high command was taken off its guard by the swift stab through +Luxembourg and Belgium, and could not get the Fifth Army Corps to the +Douai-Charleroi line until August 22. The municipal authorities of +Nuremburg have declared that they have no knowledge of the dropping of +bombs on that city by French aviators. + +The falsehood of the Chancellor's promise that Germany would "make good +her injustice" to Belgium after attaining her military aims is +foreshadowed to-day. (September 27.) The newspapers of this morning +contain a semi-official press statement in regard to a note verbale +handed by the Foreign Secretary to the Papal Nuncio at Berlin. Germany, +if this statement is correct, now proposes to spoil the future of +Belgium by splitting the nation into two administrative districts, +Flemish and Walloon, thus injecting the poison-germ of disunion into the +body politic. She also demands "the right to develop her economic +interests freely in Belgium, especially in Antwerp," and a guarantee +that "any such menace as that which threatened Germany [from Belgium!] +in 1914 shall be excluded." This is the German idea of making good an +injustice by committing a fresh injury. It is in the style of a +highwayman who says to his victim: "I will reward you by letting you go. +But I must keep the big pearl, and you must permit me to break both your +arms." [Footnote 2] + +[Footnote 2: For further confirmation of these ideas see the Memoir of +the late General von Bissing, former Governor-General of Belgium, +published by the Bergisch-Markische Zeitung, May 18, 1917, and by Das +Grossere Deutschland, May 19, 1917. + +"History now shows us that, neither prior to, nor at the outset of +hostilities, were people able to rely to any great extent on a neutral +Belgium, and, should we attach a certain importance to these historic +truths, we shall not, however, on the conclusion of peace, suffer +ourselves to allow of the revival of Belgium as a neutral state and +country. An independent or neutral Belgium, or a Belgium whose status +would be fixed by treaties of another kind, will be, as before the war, +under the inauspicious influence of England and France, as well as the +prey of America, who is seeking to utilize Belgian securities. There is +only one way to prevent this, viz.: by the policy of force, and it is +force that should achieve the result that the population, at present +still hostile, should become used to German rule and submit to it. +Moreover, it will be necessary, through a peace assuring us the +annexation of Belgium, that we should be able to protect, as we are now +compelled to do, the German subjects who have settled in this country, +and the protection we shall be enabled to afford them will be of special +service to us in the struggle about to take place in the world's market. +It is only by reigning over Belgium that we shall be able to utilize +(verwerten), with a view to German interests, Belgian capital in savings +and the numerous Belgian joint-stock companies already existing in enemy +countries. We ought to have control over the important enterprises that +Belgian capital has founded in Turkey, the Balkans, and China. . . ."] + +[End Footnote 2] + + +Somewhere I have read a Latin line--the name of whose author has slipped +my memory--which seems to fit the case perfectly: "Quidquid non audet in +historia Germania mendax!" [Footnote 3] + +[Footnote 3: I have taken the references which follow, as far as +possible, from Official Diplomatic Documents, edited by E. von Mach, The +Macmillan Co., New York, 1916. The comments and footnotes in this volume +are untrustworthy, but the texts are presumably correct, and it is +polite to judge the Germans from their own mouths. The book is quoted as +Off. Dip. Doc.] + + +II + +THE AUSTRIAN ULTIMATUM TO SERVIA + +In the latter part of 1916 the New York Times published an admirable +series of articles, signed "Cosmos," on The Basis of Durable +Peace.[Footnote 4] With almost every statement of this learned and able +writer I found myself in thorough accord. But the fourth sentence of the +first article I could not accept. + +[Footnote 4: These articles are now published in book form by the +Scribners.] + + +"The question as to who or what power," writes Cosmos, "is chiefly +responsible for the last events that immediately preceded the war has +become for the moment one of merely historical interest." + +On the contrary, it seems to me a question of immediate, vital, decisive +interest. It certainly determined the national action of France, Great +Britain, and Italy. They did not believe that Germany and Austria were +acting in self-defense. If that had been the case, Italy at least would +have been bound by treaty to come to the aid of her partners in the +Triple Alliance, which was purely a defensive league. But she formally +declined to do so, on the ground that "the war undertaken by Austria, +and the consequences which might result, had, in the words of the German +Ambassador himself, a directly aggressive object." (Off. Dip. Doc., p. +431.) The same ground was taken in the message of the President of the +French Republic to the Parliament on August 4, 1914 (Off. Dip. Doc., p. +444), and in the speech of the British Prime Minister, August 6, the day +on which the Parliament passed the first appropriation for expenses +arising out of the existence of a state of war (British Blue Book). + +The conviction that the ruling militaristic party in Germany, abetted by +Austria, bears the moral guilt of thrusting this war upon the world as +the method of settling international difficulties which could have been +better settled by arbitration or conference, is a very real thing at the +present moment. It is shared by the Entente Allies and the United +States. It is one of those "imponderables" which, as Bismarck said long +ago, must never be left out of account in estimating national forces. It +will hold the Allies and the United States together. It will help them +to win the war for peace under conditions for Germany which may not be +"punitive," but which certainly must be "reformatory". + +Understand, I do not imagine or maintain that the primary or efficient +causes of this war are to be found in any things that happened in 1914 +or 1913. They are inherent in false methods of government, in false +systems of so-called national policy, in false dealing with simple human +rights and interests, in false attempts to settle natural problems on an +artificial basis. + +All nations have a share in them. They go back to Austria's annexation +of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908; to the Congress of Berlin in 1878; to +the Franco-Prussian War in 1870; to the Prusso-Austrian War in 1866; to +the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. Yes, they go back +further still, if you like, to the time when Cain killed Abel! That was +the first assertion of the doctrine that "might makes right." + +But the "occasional cause" of this war, the ground on which it was +brought to a head and let loose by Germany, was the Austrian ultimatum +to Servia, presented on July 23, 1914, at 6 P. M. + +This remarkable state-paper, so harsh in its tone, so imperious in its +demands, that it called forth the disapproval even of a few bold German +critics, was apparently meant to be impossible of acceptance by Servia, +and thus to serve either as the instrument for crushing the little +country which stood in the way of the "Berlin-Baghdad-Bahn," or as a +torch to kindle the great war in Europe. I do not propose to trace its +history and consequences in detail. I propose only to show, by fuller +proofs than have hitherto been available, that Germany must share the +responsibility for this flagitious and incendiary document. + +On July 25, 1914, the German Ambassador at Petrograd handed an official +"note verbale" to the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs which stated +that "The German Government had no knowledge of the text of the Austrian +note before it was presented, and exercised no influence upon its +contents." (Off. Dip. Doc., p. 173.) Similar communications were +presented in France and England. + +This barefaced denial that the German Government knew what would be in +the Austrian ultimatum, or had anything to do with the framing of it, +was a palpable falsehood. It was discredited at the time. The antecedent +incredibility of the statement has been well set forth by Mr. James N. +Beck, in his vigorous book, The Evidence in the Case.[Footnote 5] New +evidence has come in. I intend here to present briefly and arrange in a +new order the facts which prove to a moral certainty that the German +Government knew beforehand what the content and intent of the Austrian +ultimatum would be, and what consequences it would probably entail. + +[Footnote 5: The Evidence in the Case. Putnams. New York, 1914, pp. 31-46.] + +(1) Austria was the most intimate ally of Germany, admittedly dependent +upon her big friend for backing in all international affairs. The German +Ambassador in Vienna, Herr von Tschirsky, and the Austrian Ambassador in +Berlin, Count Szogyeny, were in close consultation with the Governments +to which they were accredited during the weeks that followed the crime +of Serajevo, June 28-July 23. It is absolutely incredible that Austria +should not have consulted her big friend in regard to the momentous step +against Servia, altogether impossible that Germany should not have +insisted upon knowing what her smaller friend was doing in a matter of +such importance to them both. You might as well imagine that the board +of managers of a subsidiary railway would block out a new policy without +consulting the directors of the main line. + +(2) On July 5, 1914, it appears that a secret conference was held at +Potsdam at which high officials of the German and Austrian Governments +were present. It is not possible to give their names with certainty--not +yet, perhaps never--because these gentlemen come and go in the dark. But +the fact of the meeting was brought out publicly in the speech of Deputy +Haase in the Reichstag, July 19, 1917, and not contradicted. Whatever +may have been the ostensible object of this conference, it is impossible +to believe that the most important affairs in the world for Austria and +Germany at that moment, namely the nature of the ultimatum to Servia and +the possible eventuality of a European war, were not discussed, and +perhaps decided. + +(3) On July 15, 1914, the Italian Ambassador to Turkey, Signor Garroni, +had an interview with the German Ambassador to Turkey, Baron Wangenheim, +who had just come back from a visit to Berlin. The German diplomat said +that he had been present at a conference where it had been decided that +the ultimatum to Servia was to be made of such a nature that it could +not be accepted, and that this would be the provocation of the war which +would probably ensue. Shortly afterward these statements were narrated +by Signor Garroni to Mr. Lewis Einstein, attache of the American Embassy +at Constantinople, who carefully noted them in his diary. + +(4) On July 22, 1914, the British Ambassador in Berlin sent a despatch +to his Government which indicated for the first time clearly the +attitude which the German Government had decided to take. I therefore +quote it in full. + +"Last night I met Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and the +forthcoming Austrian demarche at Belgrade was alluded to by his +Excellency in the conversation that ensued. His Excellency was evidently +of opinion that this step on Austria's part would have been made ere +this. He insisted that the question at issue was one for settlement +between Servia and Austria alone, and that there should be no +interference from outside in the discussions between those two +countries. He had therefore considered it inadvisable that the Austro- +Hungarian Government should be approached by the German Government on +the matter. He had, however, on several occasions, in conversation with +the Servian Minister, emphasized the extreme importance that +Austro-Servian relations should be put on a proper footing. + +"Finally, his Excellency observed to me that for a long time past the +attitude adopted toward Servia by Austria had, in his opinion, been one +of great forbearance." (Off. Dip. Doc., p. 56.) + +This shows that Germany knew what Austria was doing, approved her plan, +and had resolved that there "should be no interference from outside in +the discussion"--in other words, Germany would allow no other nation to +prevent Austria from doing what she liked to Servia. Could Germany have +taken this absolutely "committal" position if she had been ignorant of +what Austria intended to do? + +(5) On July 23, 1914, the crushing Austrian ultimatum, having been +prepared in the dark, was sent to Servia and delivered in Belgrade at 6 +P. M. On the same day, and almost certainly at an earlier hour, the +German Chancellor prepared a circular confidential telegram to the +Ambassadors at Paris, London, and Petrograd, instructing them to tell +the Governments to which they were accredited that "the action as well +as the demands of the Austro-Hungarian Government can be viewed only as +justifiable. . . . [If the demands were refused] nothing would remain +for it, but to enforce the same by appeal to military measures, in +regard to which the choice of means must be left to it." (Off. Dip. +Doc., p. 60.) + +Is it credible that the German Government would have pronounced a +judgment so important, so far-reaching in its foreseen consequences, if +it had had no previous knowledge of the "action and demands" of Austria? + +(6) On July 23, 1914, the French Minister at Munich telegraphed his +Government as follows: "The President of the Council said to me to-day +that the Austrian ultimatum, the contents of which were known to him, +seemed to him couched in terms which Servia could accept, but that, +nevertheless, the actual situation appeared to him serious." (Off. Dip. +Doc., p. 59.) + +How did this gentleman in Munich come to know about the ultimatum, while +the gentlemen in Berlin professed ignorance? + +(7) On July 25, 1914, the Russian Government was officially informed +that: "Germany as the ally of Austria naturally supports the claims made +by the Vienna Cabinet against Servia, which she considers justified." +(Off. Dip. Doc., p. 173.) + +This was a very grave declaration, in view of the public announcement +which the Russian Government had made on the same day: "Recent events +and the despatch of an ultimatum to Servia by Austria-Hungary are +causing the Russian Government the greatest anxiety. The Government are +closely following the course of the dispute between the two countries, +to which Russia cannot remain indifferent." (Off. Dip. Doc., p. 170.) + +Certainly Germany would not have come to the serious decision of giving +unqualified support to the claims of Austria as against the expressed +interests of Russia, unless she had long known and had full time to +consider those claims and what they would involve. + +(8) On July 30, 1914, the British Ambassador in Vienna telegraphed to +his Government: "I have private information that the German Ambassador +knew the text of the Austrian ultimatum to Servia before it was +despatched, and telegraphed it to the German Emperor. I know from the +German Ambassador himself that he indorses every line of it." (Off. Dip. +Doc., p. 330.) + +(9) Count Bernstorff, German Ambassador at Washington, published an +article in The Independent, New York, September 7, 1914. In this article +he answered, officially, several questions. The first question was: Did +Germany approve in advance the Austrian ultimatum to Servia? The answer +was: "Yes. Germany's reasons for doing so are the following, &c." + +(10) The German Government has itself acknowledged that it was consulted +by Austria in regard to the attitude to be taken toward Servia, and the +possibility of ensuing war if Russia intervened to protect the life of +her little sister state. Germany accepted the responsibility and pledged +support. "With all our heart we were able to agree with our ally's +estimate of the situation, and assure him that any action considered +necessary to end the movement directed against the conservation of the +monarchy would meet with our approval." (German Official White Book, p. +4; Off. Dip. Doc., p. 551.) + +This is a carte blanche of a kind which no great government could possibly +give to another without a definite understanding of what it involved. + +Here the summary of the evidence that Austria was not playing "a lone +hand" ends--at least until further confidential documents and +information about secret meetings are dug up. + +Meantime the Imperial German Government maintains its plea of "not +guilty." It still denies all previous knowledge of, and all part in, the +nefarious Austrian ultimatum to Servia which precipitated the world war. + + +The denial is both impudent and mendacious. + + "Credat Judaeus Apella!" + + +III + +THE RUSSIAN MOBILIZATION + +It has been loudly asserted and persistently maintained by the Potsdam +gang that the cause of this abominable war was the mobilization of +Russia in preparation to maintain the sovereignty of her little sister +state Servia if necessary. "Germany," it is said, "earnestly desired, +from the purest of motives, to 'localize the conflict'"--which means +in plain words to let Austria deal with Servia as she liked, without +interference--rather a one-sided proposition, considering the relative +size of the two parties in the benevolently urged single combat. "But +Russia rashly interfered with this beautiful design by declaring that +she could not remain indifferent to the fate of a small nation of +kindred blood, and by calling up troops to prevent any wiping out of +Servia by Austria, to whom Germany had already given carte blanche and +promised full support. This was a wicked threat against the life and +liberty of Germany. This was an action which rendered the great war +inevitable." So say the German authorities. + +The subtitle of the official German White Book reads: "How Russia and Her +Ruler Betrayed Germany's Confidence and Thereby Made the European War." +[Footnote 6] + +[Footnote 6: I quote from a copy of the original pamphlet, given to me +with the compliments of Herr von Muller, German Minister at The Hague. +Professor von Mach in his Off. Dip. Doc. does not reproduce this +title-page.] + +This is the Potsdam contention in regard to the cause of the war. The +documents indicate that it is a false contention, based upon +suppressions of the truth. This is what I intend to show. + +I hold no brief for the late Imperial Russian Government. Doubtless it +was shady in its morals and tricky in its ways. + +The telegrams recently discovered by an excellent American journalist, +Mr. Herman Bernstein, and published in the "New York Herald," show that +the late Czar Nicolas and the still Kaiser Wilhelm were plotting +together, a very few years ago, to make a secret "combine" which should +control the world. When that plan failed, no doubt the vast power and +resources of Russia, under an absolute imperial Government, were +regarded by the equally autocratic Government of Germany with jealousy +and distrust, not to say fear. No doubt Russia was an actual and +formidable obstacle to the Pan-German purpose of getting Servia out of +the path of the "Berlin-Baghdad-Bahn". + +Grant all this. Pass over, also, the interminable and inextricable +dispute about the precise meaning and application of the terms +"mobilization," "partial mobilization," "complete mobilization," +"precautionary measures," "Kriegsgefahr," an so on. That is an +unfathomable morass wherein many deceptions hide. In that controversy +each opponent always charges the other with lying, and a wise neutral +doubts both. It seems to be true--mark you, I only say it seems--that +the first great European Power to order partial mobilization was +Austria, July 26, 1914. (Off. Dip. Doc., p. 197.) On July 28 the order +for complete mobilization was signed, war was declared against Servia +(pp. 272, 273), and on July 29 Belgrade was bombarded (p. 354). + +On July 29 Russia ordered partial mobilization in the districts of +Odessa, Kief, Moscow, and Kasan, and declared that she had no aggressive +intention against Germany. (Off. Dip. Doc., p. 294.) The Russian +preparations obviously had relation only to Austria's war on Servia +which was already under way. + +On July 30 Germany had effected her "covering dispositions" of troops +along the French border, from Luxembourg to the Vosges, part of which by +chance I saw in June (see p. 36 ff.), and on the same day the Berlin +semi-official press announced that a complete mobilization had been +ordered. (Off. Dip. Doc., pp. 324, 342.) This announcement was +contradicted and withdrawn later on the same day by government orders. + +On July 31, at 1 a.m., the Austrian order of complete mobilization, +which was signed on the 28th, was issued. (Off. Dip. Doc., p. 356.) +Later in the same day the Russian Government ordered complete +mobilization and the German Government proclaimed a state of +Kriegsgefahr, "wardanger." (Off. Dip. Doc., pp. 356-357.) At seven +o'clock in the evening of the same day Germany sent an ultimatum to +France, and at midnight an ultimatum to Russia. + +On August 1 she declared war on Russia, and on August 3 she declared war +on France, having previously invaded French territory and sent her army +through neutral Luxembourg. + +Now in all this the German Government tries to make it appear that it +was simply acting on the defensive, taking necessary steps to guard +against the peril threatened by the military measures of Russia. + +The falsity of this pretense is easily shown from two facts: First, the +Russian Government was all the time pleading for a peaceful settlement +of the Austro-Servian dispute, by arbitration, or by a four-power +conference. Second, definite offers were made to halt the Russian +military measures at once on conditions most favorable to Austria, if +Austria and Germany would agree to an examination by the Great Powers of +Austria's just claims on Servia. + +On the first point, I do not propose to retell the long story of the +efforts supported by France, England, Italy, and Russia herself, to get +Germany to consent to some plan, any plan, which might avert war by an +appeal to reason and justice. To these efforts Germany answered in +effect that she could not "coerce" her ally Austria. + +But one document in this line seems to me particularly interesting--even +pathetic. It is a telegram sent by the late Czar Nicolas to his Imperial +Cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm. It is dated July 29, 1914, and reads as follows: + + +"Thanks for your telegram which is conciliatory and friendly, whereas +the official message presented to-day by your Ambassador to my Minister +was conveyed in a very different tone. I beg you to explain this +divergency. It would be right to give over the Austro-Servian problem to +The Hague Tribunal. I trust in your wisdom and friendship." + "NICOLAS." + + +This telegram is not contained in the "German White Book." But Professor +von Mach gives it in his "Official Diplomatic Documents" (p. 596). + +I have been unable to find in any book, pamphlet, or collection of +papers a trace of the Kaiser's answer. Probably he did not send one. + +On the second point I propose to quote only the three definite proposals +which were before the German Government on July 31, 1914. + +Sir Edward Grey, the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, had been +trying with the cordial help of the Russian Foreign Minister, Sazonof, +and the President of the Council of France, M. Viviani, to formulate a +plan of averting general hostilities which would meet the approval of +Germany. + +(1) On July 29 Sir E. Grey had an official conversation with the German +Ambassador in London and laid before him a proposal in regard to the +halting of military measures, described in the following words: + +"It was of course too late for all military operations against Servia to +be suspended. In a short time, I supposed, the Austrian forces would be +in Belgrade, and in occupation of some Servian territory. But even then +it might be possible to bring some mediation into existence if Austria, +while saying that she must hold the occupied territory until she had +complete satisfaction from Servia, stated that she would not advance +further, pending an effort of the Powers to mediate between her and +Russia." (Off. Dip. Doc., p. 307.) This proposal was telegraphed to +Berlin on the same day, and from there to Vienna. So far as I know no +answer to it has ever been received, though King George V warmly +supported the proposal in a personal telegram (July 30) to Prince Henry +of Prussia, and begged him to urge it upon the Kaiser. + +(2) On July 30 Sazonof in the name of the Czar presented to the German +Ambassador at Petrograd, and telegraphed for delivery to the Foreign +Offices at Berlin and Vienna, the following proposal: + +"If Austria, recognizing that the Austro-Servian question has assumed +the character of a question of European interest, declares herself ready +to eliminate from her ultimatum points which violate the sovereign +rights of Servia, Russia undertakes to stop her military preparations." +(Off. Dip. Doc., p. 341.) + +The German Foreign Minister von Jagow, without waiting to consult +Vienna, replied "that he considered it impossible for Austria to accept +the proposal." (Ibid., p. 342.) Austria said nothing at all! + +(3) On July 31 practically the same proposal, modified on the suggestion +of Sir E. Grey and M. Viviani, was renewed by Russia. As presented to +Berlin and Vienna it read as follows: + +"If Austria consents to stay the march of her troops on Servian +territory; and if, recognizing that the Austro-Servian conflict has +assumed the character of a question of European interest, she admits +that the Great Powers may examine the satisfaction which Servia can +accord to the Austro-Hungarian Government without injury to her rights +as a sovereign State or her independence, Russia undertakes to maintain +her expectant attitude." (Off. Dip. Doc., p. 370.) + +No answer from Austria, who had ordered a general mobilization at one +o'clock in the morning of that day! + +No answer from Germany, except the prompt proclamation of Kriegsgefahr, +and the declaration of war on Russia on August 1! + +Thus three successive opportunities of putting a stop to further +military preparations of Russia on the simple condition that Austria +would go no further, but be content with what she already had occupied +as a guarantee for reparation from Servia--three golden occasions of +preserving the peace of Europe--were brushed aside by Germany +practically without consideration. + +Yet the marvellous people at Potsdam go on saying that it was the +Russian military preparation that brought this war down on the +world!--that Germany always wanted peace, and worked for it! + +Why then did she not accept the proffered chance of staying the progress +of Russian preparations when it lay within her power to do so by lifting +a finger? + +Because she did not wish the chance. Because she wished Austria to go on +with the subjugation of Servia. Because she wished Russia to be forced +to go on with her measures to intervene for the rescue of Servia from +extinction. Because she wished herself to go on with her design of +putting her own incomparable military machine at work to force her will +on Europe. Because she wished to have a false excuse to cover her own +guilt in making the war by saying: "Russia did it." + +The Potsdam gang forgot one thing. Most liars forget something. + +They forgot that by refusing the opportunity for peaceful settlement +which would have removed their excuse for making war, they would furnish +the proof that their excuse was false. + + + +Chapter V + +A DIALOGUE ON PEACE BETWEEN A HOUSEHOLDER AND A BURGLAR + +The house was badly wrecked by the struggle which had raged through it. +The walls were marred, the windows and mirrors shattered, the pictures +ruined, the furniture smashed into kindling-wood. + +Worst of all, the faithful servants and some of the children were lying +in dark corners, dead or grievously wounded. + +The Burglar who had wrought the damage sat in the middle of the dining- +room floor, with his swag around him. It was neatly arranged in bags, +for in spite of his madness he was a most methodical man. One bag was +labelled silverware; another, jewels; another, cash; and another, +souvenirs. There was blood on his hands and a fatuous smile on his face. + +"Surely I am a mighty man," he said to himself, "and I have proved it! +But I am very tired, as well as kind-hearted, and I feel that it is now +time to begin a Conversation on Peace." + +The Householder, who was also something of a Pacifist on appropriate +occasions, but never a blind one, stood near. Through the brief lull in +the rampage he overheard the mutterings of the Burglar. + +"'Were you speaking to me?" he asked. "As a matter of fact," answered +the Burglar, "I was talking to myself. But it is the same thing. Are we +not brothers? Do we not both love Peace? Come sit beside me, and let us +talk about it." + +"What do you mean by Peace," said the Householder, looking grimly around +him; "do you mean all this?" + +"No, no," said the Burglar; "that is--er--not exactly! 'All this' is +most regrettable. I weep over it. If I could have had my way unopposed +it would never have happened. But until you sit down close beside me I +really cannot tell you in particular what I mean by that blessed word +Peace. In general, I mean something like the status quo ante bel-" + +"In this case," interrupted the Householder, "you should say the status +quo ante furtum--not bellum [the state of things before the burglary, +not before the war], You are a mighty robber--not a common thief, but a +most uncommon one. Do you mean to restore the plunder you have grabbed?" + +"Yes, certainly," replied the Burglar, in a magnanimous tone; "that is +to say, I mean you shall have a part of it, freely and willingly. I +could keep it all, you know, but I am too noble to do that. You shall +take the silverware and the souvenirs, I will take the jewels and the +cash. Isn't that a fair division? Peace must always stand on a basis of +equality between the two parties. Shake hands on it." + +The Householder put his hand behind his back. + +"You insult me," said he. "If I were your equal I should die of shame. +Waive the comparison. What about the damage you have done here? Who +shall repair it?" + +"All the world," cried the Burglar eagerly; "everybody will +help--especially your big neighbor across the lake. He is a fool with +plenty of money. You cannot expect me to contribute. I am poor, but as +honest as my profession will permit. This damage in your house is not +wilful injury. It is merely one of the necessary accompaniments of my +practice of burglary. You ought not to feel sore about it. Why do you +call attention to it, instead of talking politely and earnestly about +the blessings of Peace?" + +"I am talking to you as politely as I can," said the Householder, +moistening his dry lips, "but while I am doing it, I feel as if I were +smeared with mud. Tell me, what have you to say about my children and my +servants whom you have tortured and murdered?" + +"Ah, that," answered the Burglar, shrugging his shoulders and spreading +out his hands, palms upward, so that he looked like a gigantic toad, +"--that indeed is so very, very sad! My heart mourns over it. But how +could it be avoided? Those foolish people would not lie down, would not +be still. Their conduct was directly contrary to my system; see section +417, chapter 93, in my 'Great Field-Book of Burglary,' under the title +'Schrecklichkeit.' Perhaps in the excitement of the moment I went a +little beyond those scientific regulations. The babies need not have +been killed--only terrified. But that was a mere error of judgment which +you will readily forgive and forget for the sake of the holy cause of +Peace. Will you not?" + +The Householder turned quickly and spat into the fireplace. + +"Blasphemer," he cried, "my gorge rises at you! Can there be any +forgiveness until you repent? Can there be any Peace in the world if you +go loose in it, ready to break and enter and kill when it pleases you? +Will you lay down your weapons and come before the Judge?" + +The Burglar rose slowly to his feet, twisting up his mustache with +bloody brass-knuckled hands. + +"You are a colossal ass," he growled. "You forget how strong I am, how +much I can still hurt you. I have offered you a chance to get Peace. +Don't you want it?" + +"Not as a present from you," said the Householder slowly. "It would +poison me. I would rather die a decent man's death." + +He went a step nearer to the Burglar, who quickly backed away. + +"Come," the Householder continued, "let us bandy compliments no longer. +You are where you have no right to be. You can talk when I get you +before the Judge. I want Peace no more than I want Justice. While there +is a God in heaven and honest freemen still live on earth I will fight +for both." + +He took a fresh grip on his club, and the Burglar backed again, ready to +spring. + +Through the dead silence of the room there came a loud knocking at the +door. Could it be the big neighbor from across the lake? + + + +Chapter VI + +STAND FAST, YE FREE! + + +I + +From the outset of this war two things have been clear to me. + +First, if the war continued it was absolutely inevitable that the United +States would be either drawn into it by the impulse of democratic +sympathies or forced into it by the instinct of self-preservation. + +Second, the most adequate person in the world to decide when and how the +United States should accept the great responsibility of fighting beside +France and Great Britain for peace and for the American ideal of freedom +was President Wilson. + +His sagacity, his patience, his knowledge of the varied elements that +are blended in our nationality, his sincere devotion to pacific +conceptions of progress, his unwavering loyalty to the cause of liberty +secured by law, national and international, made him the one man of all +others to whom this great decision could most safely be confided. + +The people of the United States believed this in the election of 1916. +They trusted him sincerely then because "he kept us out of the war" +until the inevitable hour. No less sincerely do they trust him now when +he declares that the hour has come when we must "dedicate our lives and +our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have" +(President's Message to Congress, April 2, 1917), to defend ourselves +and the world from the Imperial German Government, which is waging "a +warfare against mankind." + +In the quiet, but never idle, American Legation at The Hague there was +an excellent opportunity to observe and study the incredible blunders by +which Germany led us, and the unspeakable insults and injuries by which +she compelled us, to enter the war. + +Our adherence to the Monroe Doctrine was, at first, an obstacle to that +entrance. Believing that European governments ought not to interfere in +domestic affairs on the American continents, we admitted the converse of +that proposition, and held that America should not meddle with European +controversies or conflicts. But we soon came to a realizing sense of the +ominous fact that Germany was the one nation of Europe which openly +despised and flouted the Monroe Doctrine as an outworn superstition. Her +learned professors (followed by a few servile American imitators) had +poured ridicule and scorn upon it in unreadable books. Her actions in +the West Indies and South America showed her contempt for it as a "bit +of American bluff." Gradually it dawned upon us that if France were +crushed and England crippled our dear old Monroe Doctrine would stand a +poor chance against a victorious and supercilious Imperial German +Government. As I wrote to Washington in August, 1914, their idea was to +"lunch in Paris, dine in London, and spend the night somewhere in +America." + +Another real barrier to our taking any part in the war was our sincere, +profound, traditional love of peace. This does not mean, of course, that +America is a country of pacifists. Our history proves the contrary. Our +conscientious objections to certain shameful things, like injustice, and +dishonor, and tyranny, and systematic cruelty, are stronger than our +conscientious objection to fighting. But our national policy is averse +to war, and our national institutions are not favorable to its sudden +declaration or swift prosecution. + +In effect, the United States is a pacific nation of fighting men. + +What was it, then, that forced such a nation into a conflict of arms? + +It was the growing sense that the very existence of this war was a crime +against humanity, that it need not and ought not to have been begun, and +that the only way to put a stop to it was to join the Allies, who had +tried to prevent its beginning, and who are still trying to bring it to +the only end that will be a finality. + +It was also the conviction that the Monroe Doctrine, so far from being +an obstacle, was an incentive to our entrance. The real basis of that +doctrine is the right of free peoples, however small and weak, to +maintain by common consent their own forms of government. This Germany +and Austria denied. The issue at stake was no longer merely European. It +was worldwide. + +The Monroe Doctrine could not be saved in one continent if its +foundation was destroyed in another. The only way to save it was to +broaden it. + +The United States, having grown to be a World Power, must either uphold +everywhere the principles by which it had been begotten and made great +or sink into the state of an obese, helpless parasite. Its sister +republics would share its fate. + +But more than this: it was the flagrant and contemptuous disregard of +all the principles of international law and common humanity by the +Imperial German Government that alarmed and incensed us. The list of +crimes and atrocities ordered in this war by the mysterious and awful +power that rules the German people--which I prefer to call, for the sake +of brevity and impersonality, the Potsdam gang--is too long to be +repeated here. The levying of unlawful tribute from captured cities and +villages; the use of old men, women, and children as a screen for +advancing troops; the extortion of military information from civilians +by cruel and barbarous methods; the burning and destruction of entire +towns as a punishment for the actual or suspected hostile deeds of +individuals, and the brutal avowal that in this punishment it was +necessary that "the innocent shall suffer with the guilty" (see the +letter of General von Nieber to the burgomaster of Wavre, August 27, and +the proclamation of Governor-General von der Goltz, September 2, 1914); +the introduction of the use of asphyxiating gas as a weapon of war (at +Ypres, April 22, 1915); the poisoning of wells; the reckless and +needless destruction of priceless monuments of art like the Cathedral of +Reims; the deliberate and treacherous violation of the Red Cross, which +is the sign of mercy and compassion for all Christendom; the bombardment +of hospitals and the cold-blooded slaughter of nurses and wounded men; +the sinking of hospital ships with their helpless and suffering +company--all these, and many other infamies committed by order of the +Potsdam gang made the heart of America hot and angry against the power +which devised and commanded such brutality. True, they were not, +technically speaking, crimes directed against the United States. They +did not injure our material interests. They injured only our souls and +the world in which we have to live. They were vivid illustrations of the +inward nature of that German Kultur whose superiority, the German +professors say, "is rooted in the unfathomable depths of its moral +constitution." (Deutsche Reden in Schwerer Zeit, II, p. 23.) + +But there were two criminal blunders--or perhaps it would be more +accurate to call them two series of obstinate and stupid offenses +against international law--by which the Potsdam gang directly assailed +the sovereignty and neutrality of the United States and forced us to +choose between the surrender of our national integrity and a frank +acceptance of the war which Germany was waging, not only against our +principles and interests, but against the things which in our judgment +were essential to the welfare of mankind and to the existence of +honorable and decent relations among the peoples of the world. + +The first of these offenses was the cynical and persistent attempt to +take advantage of the good nature and unsuspiciousness of the United +States for the establishment of an impudent system of German espionage; +to use our territory as a base of conspiracy and treacherous hostilities +against countries with which we were at peace; and to lose no +opportunity of mobilizing the privileges granted by "these idiotic +Yankees" (quotation from the military attache of the Imperial German +Embassy at Washington)--including, of course, the diplomatic +privilege--to make America unconsciously help in playing the game of the +Potsdam gang. + +The second of these offenses was the illegal, piratical submarine +warfare which the Potsdam gang ordered and waged against the merchant +shipping of the world, thereby destroying the lives and the property of +American citizens and violating the most vital principle of our +steadfast contention for the freedom of the sea. + +The message of the President to Congress on April 2, 1917, marked these +two offenses as the main causes which made it impossible for the United +States to maintain longer an official attitude of neutrality toward the +German Government, which "did what it pleased and told its people +nothing." The President generously declared that the source of these +offenses "lay not in any hostile feeling or purpose of the German people +toward us." That was a magnanimous declaration, and we sincerely hope it +may prove true. + +But practically the difficulty lies in the fact that at the present hour +several millions of the German people stand in arms, on land that does +not belong to them, to maintain the purpose and continue the practices +of the Potsdam gang. It is a pity, but it is true. The only way to get +at the gang which chose and forced this atrocious war is to go through +the armed people who still defend that choice and the atrocities which +have emphasized it. + +Forgiveness must wait upon repentance. Repentance must be proved by +restitution and reparation. Any other settlement of this world conflict +would be a world calamity. For America and for all the Allies who are +fighting for a peace worth having and keeping, the watchword must be: +Stand fast, ye free! + + +II + +The offenses against the neutrality of the United States which were +instigated and financed by the Potsdam gang were enumerated by the +Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives in the +first week of April, 1917, and amounted to at least twenty-one distinct +crimes or unfriendly acts, including the furnishing of bogus passports +to German reservists and spies, the incitement of rebellion in India and +in Mexico, the preparation of dynamite outrages against Canada, the +placing of bombs in ships sailing from American ports, and many other +ill-judged pleasantries of a similar character. + +The crown was put on this series of blundering misdeeds by the note of +January 19, 1917, sent from the German Foreign Office (under cover of +our diplomatic privilege, of course) to the German Minister in Mexico, +directing him to prepare an alliance with that country against the +United States in the event of war, urging him to use Mexico as an agent +to draw Japan into that alliance, and offering as a bribe to the +Mexicans the possession of American territory in Texas, New Mexico, and +Arizona. (See War Message and Facts Behind It, p. 13. Published by the +Committee on Public Information, Washington, Government Printing Office, +1917.) + +The fact is, we have only just begun to understand the real nature of +the German secret service, which works with, and either under or over, +the diplomatic service. + +It is certainly the most highly organized, systematic, and expensive, +and at the same time probably the most bone-headed and unscrupulous, +secret service in the world. + +Its powers of falsification and evasion are only exceeded by its +capacity for making those mistakes which spring from a congenital +contempt for other people. + +At The Hague I had numerous opportunities of observing and noting the +workings of this peculiar system. The story of many of them cannot be +publicly told without violating that reserve which I prefer to maintain +in regard to confidential communications and private affairs in which +the personal reputation of individuals is involved. But there are two or +three experiences of which I may write freely without incurring either +self-reproach or a just reproach from others. They are not at all +sensational. But they seemed at the time, and they seem still, to have a +certain significance as indications of the psychology of the people with +whom we were then in nominal friendship. + +Three requests were made to me for the forwarding of important +communications to Brussels under cover of the diplomatic privilege of +the American Legation. The memoranda of the dates and so on are in the +Chancellery at The Hague, so I cannot refer to them. But it is certain +that the requests came shortly after the beginning of the war, in the +first or second week of August, 1914, and the content and purport of +them are absolutely clear in my memory. + +The first request was from Berlin for the transmission of a note to the +Belgian Government, renewing the proposition which the Potsdam gang had +made on August 2: namely, that Belgium should permit the free passage of +German troops through her neutral ground on condition that Germany would +pay for all damage done and that Belgian territory would not be annexed. +(Off. Dip. Doc., p. 402.) King Albert had already replied, on August 3, +to this proposition, saying that to permit such a passage of hostile +troops against France would be "a flagrant violation of international +law" and would "sacrifice the honor of the nation." (Off. Dip. Doc., p. +421.) After such an answer it did not seem to me that the renewal of the +dishonorable proposal was likely to have a good effect. Yet the Berlin +note was entirely correct in form. It merely offered a chance for +Belgium to choose again between peace with the friendship of Germany and +dishonor attached, and war in defense of the neutrality to which she was +bound by the very treaties (1831, 1839) which brought her into being. I +had no right to interpose an obstacle to the repetition of Belgium's +first heroic choice. I pointed out that, not being accredited to the +Belgian Government, I was not in a position to transmit any +communication to it. But I was willing to forward the note to my +colleague the American Minister in Brussels, absolutely without +recommendation, but simply for such disposal as he thought fit. +Accordingly the note was transmitted to him. [Footnote 7] + + +[Footnote 7: My colleague, Honorable James W. Gerard, Ex-Ambassador to +Germany, has referred to this in his very interesting book, "My Four +Years in Germany," p. 136.] + +What Whitlock did with it I do not know. What answer, if any, Belgium +made I do not know. But I do know that she stood to her guns and kept +her honor intact and immortal. + +The second request was of a different quality. It came to me from the +Imperial German Legation at The Hague. It was a note for transmission to +the Belgian Government, beginning with a reference to the fall of Liege +and the hopeless folly of attempting to resist the German invasion, and +continuing with an intimation of the terrible consequences which would +follow Belgium's persistence in her mad idea of keeping her word of +honor. In effect the note was a curious combination of an insult and a +threat. I promptly and positively refused to transmit it or to have +anything to do with it. + +"But why," said the German counsellor, sitting by my study fire---a +Prussian of the Prussians--"why do you refuse? You are a neutral, a +friend of both parties. Why not simply transmit the note to your +colleague in Brussels as you did before? You are not in any way +responsible for its contents." + +"Quite so," I answered, "and thank God for that! But suppose you had a +quarrel with a neighbor in the Rheinland, who had positively declined a +proposition which you had made to him. And suppose, the ordinary +post-boy services being interrupted, you asked me to convey to your +neighbor a note which began by addressing him as a 'silly s-- of a +b----,' and ended by telling him that if he did not agree you would +certainly grind him to powder. Would you expect me to play the post-boy +for such a billet-doux on the ground that I was not responsible for its +contents and was a friend of both parties?" + +"Well," replied the counsellor, laughing at the North American +directness of my language, "probably not." So he folded up the note and +took it away. What became of it I do not know nor care. + +The third request was of still another quality. It came from the +Imperial Austro-Hungarian Legation, which very politely asked me to +transmit a message in the American diplomatic code to my colleague in +Brussels for delivery to the Austro-Hungarian Legation, which still +lingered in that city. The first and last parts of the message were in +plain language, good English, quite innocent and proper. But the kernel +of the despatch was written in the numerical secret cipher of Vienna, +which of course I was unable to read. I drew attention to this, and +asked mildly how I could be expected to put this passage into our code +without knowing what the words were. The answer was that it would not be +necessary to code this passage; it could be transmitted in numbers just +as it stood; the Austro-Hungarian charge d'affaires at Brussels would +understand it. + +"Quite so," I answered, "but you see the point is that I do not +understand it. My dear count, you are my very good friend, and it +grieves me deeply to decline any requests of yours. But the simple fact +is that our instructions explicitly forbid us to send any message in two +codes." + +The count--who, by the way, was an excellent and most amiable man-- +blushed and stammered that he was only carrying out the instructions of +his chief, but that my point was perfectly clear and indisputable. I was +glad that he saw it in that light, and we parted on the most friendly +terms. What became of the message I do not know nor care. + +It was about the 1st of September, 1915, that I came into brief contact +with the case of Mr. J. F. J. Archibald. This gentleman was an American +journalist, and a very clever and agreeable man. We had met some months +before, when he was on his way back to America from his professional +work in Germany, and he had been a welcome guest at my table. But the +second meeting was different. + +This time Mr. Archibald was returning toward Germany on the +Holland-America steamship Rotterdam. When the boat touched at Falmouth, +on August 30, the British authorities examined his luggage and found +that he was carrying private letters and official despatches from Doctor +Dumba the Austrian Ambassador at Washington, from Count Bernstorff the +German Ambassador, and from Captain von Papen his military attache. Not +only was the carrying of these letters by a private person on a regular +mail route a recognized offense against the law, but the documents +themselves contained matter of an incriminating and seditious nature, +most unfriendly to the United States. The egregious Doctor Dumba, for +example, described how it would be possible to "disorganize and hold up +for months if not entirely prevent," the work of American factories; and +the colossal Captain von Papen, in a letter referring to the activities +of German secret agents in America, gave birth to his eloquent and +unforgettable phrase, "these idiotic Yankees." The papers, of course, +were taken from Mr. Archibald at Falmouth, but he was allowed to +continue his voyage to Rotterdam en route for Berlin. + +Before his arrival, however, a cablegram came from the Department of +State at Washington instructing me to take up his regular passport which +was made out to cover travel in Germany; to give him an emergency +passport valid for one month and good only for the return to the United +States; and to use all proper means to get him back to New York at the +earliest possible date. + +Having found out that he was lodged at a certain hotel I sent him a +courteous invitation to call at the Legation on business of importance. +He came promptly and we sat down in the library for a conversation which +you will admit had its delicate points. + +He began by saying that he supposed I had seen the newspaper accounts of +what happened to him at Falmouth; that he was greatly surprised and +chagrined about the matter; that he had been entirely ignorant of the +contents of the documents found in his possession; that he had +imagined--indeed he had been distinctly told--that they were innocent +private letters relating to personal and domestic affairs; that he did +not know there was any impropriety in conveying such letters; that if he +had suspected their nature or known that they included official +despatches he would never have taken them. + +I replied that his personal statement was enough for me on that point, +but that it seemed to throw rather a dark shadow on the character and +conduct of his friends in the German and Austrian Embassies who had +knowingly exposed his innocence to such a risk. I added that it was +probably with a view to obtaining his help in clearing up the matter +that the Department of State had instructed me to take up his passport. + +"But have you the legal right to do that?" + +"Under American law, yes, unquestionably." + +"But under Dutch law?" + +"Probably not. But I hope it will not be necessary to invoke that law. +Simply to inform the Dutch Foreign Minister of the presence of an +American whose passport had been revoked but who refused to give it up, +would be sufficient for my purpose." + +He reflected for a moment, and then said, smiling: + +"I don't refuse to give it up. Here it is. Now tell me what I shall do +without a passport. + +"Thank you. Fortunately I have authority to give you an emergency +passport, good for a month, and covering the return voyage to America." + +"But I don't want to go there. I want to go on to Berlin." + +"Unfortunately I fear that will be impossible. Your old passport is +invalid and will not carry you over the Dutch border. Your new passport +cannot be made out for Germany. Your best course is to return home." + +"I see. But have you any right to arrest me and send me to America?" + +"None whatever, my dear sir. Please don't misunderstand me. This is just +a bit of friendly advice. 'Your country needs you.' You naturally want +an early chance to tell Washington what you have told me. The Rotterdam +is a very comfortable ship, and she sails for New York the day after +to-morrow. I have already bespoken an excellent room for you. Do you +accept?" + +"Yes, and thank you for the way you have put the matter. But do you +think they will arrest me when I get to New York?" + +"Probably not. But to help in forestalling that unpleasant possibility I +will cable Washington that you are coming at once, of your own free +will, and anxious to tell the whole story." + +So he went, and I saw him off on the Rotterdam, a pallid and downcast +figure. I pitied him. It seemed strange that any one should ever trust +that unscrupulous, callous, thick-pated diplomatic-secret-service +machine which is always ready to expose a too confiding and admiring +friend to danger or disgrace in order to serve its imperious +necessities. + +Holland, of course, owing to its geographical situation, was a regular +nest of German espionage. Other spies were there, too, but they were +much less in evidence than the Germans. Of the tricks and the manners of +the latter I had some picturesque experiences which I do not feel at +liberty to narrate. The Department of State has been informed of them, +and has no doubt put the information safely away with a lot of other +things which it knows but does not think it expedient or necessary to +tell until the proper time. + +But there is no reason why the simple little tale of the futile attempt +to plant two German spies in my household at The Hague should not be +told. One of the men in our domestic service, a Hollander, had been +obliged to leave and we wanted to fill his place. This was difficult +because the requirements of the Dutch army service claimed such a large +number of the younger men. + +The first who applied for the vacant place professed to be a Belgian. +Perhaps he was. On demand he produced his "papers"--birth-certificate, +baptismal registry, several Passier-scheine, and so forth. But down in a +corner on the back of one of the papers was a dim blue stamp--"Imperial +German Marine." What was the meaning of this? What had the Potsdam +High-Sea Fleet to do with this peaceable overland traveller from +Belgium? Voluble excuses, but no satisfactory explanation. I told him +that I feared he was too experienced for the place. + +The second who applied was an unquestionable Dutchman, young, good- +looking, intelligent. Papers in perfect order. Present service with a +well-known pro-German family. Previous service of one year with a lady +who was one of my best friends--the wife of a high government official. +I rang her up on the telephone and asked if she could tell me anything +about A. B., who had been in service with her for a year. A second of +silence, then the answer: "Yes, a good deal, but not on the telephone, +please. Come around to tea this afternoon." Madame L. then told me that +while the young man was clean, sober, and industrious, he had been found +rummaging among her husband's official papers, in a room which he was +forbidden to enter, and had been caught several times listening at the +keyhole of doors while private conferences were going on. + +It seemed to me that a young man with such an uncontrollable thirst for +knowledge would not be suited for the very simple service which would be +required of him in our household. + +Afterward, traces of both of these men were found which led unmistakably +to the lair of the chief spider of the German secret service at The +Hague. The incident was a very small one. But, after all, life is made +up of small incidents with a connected meaning. + + +At the time when I am writing this (September 24, 1917) the moral +character of the tools of the Potsdam gang has again been stripped naked +by the disclosure of the treachery by which the German Legation in +Argentina has utilized the Swedish Legation in that country to transmit, +under diplomatic privilege, messages inciting to murder on the high +seas. Argentina has already taken the action to be expected from an +American Republic by dismissing the German Minister. What Sweden will do +to vindicate her honor remains to be seen. Her attitude may affect our +opinion of her as a victim or a vassal of Potsdam. + +There are two points in the disclosures made on September 23 by the +Department of State which bear directly upon this simple narrative of +experiences at The Hague. + +The fetching female comic-opera star, Ray Beveridge, discreetly alluded +to in the third chapter (p. 71), was secretly paid three thousand +dollars by the Imperial German Embassy in Washington to finance her +artistic activities. So, you see, I was not far wrong in forwarding her +divorce papers to Germany and refusing to transmit her newspaper +correspondence to America. She was a paid soubrette in the Potsdam +troupe. + +The affable and intelligent Mr. Archibald, alluded to in this chapter +(p. 169), received on April 21, 1915, according to these disclosures, +five thousand dollars from the Imperial German Embassy in Washington for +"propaganda" services. If I had known this when he came to me in +September, it is possible that I should have been less careful to spare +his feelings. + + +III + +The record of the German submarine warfare on merchant shipping is one +of the most extraordinary chapters in history. Americans have read it +with appropriate indignation, but not always with clear understanding of +the precise issues involved. Let me try to make those issues plain, +since the submarine campaign was one of the causes which forced this war +upon the United States. (President's Message to Congress, April 2, 1917, +paragraphs 2-10.) + +In war all naval vessels, including of course submarines, have the right +to attack and destroy, by any means in their power, any war-ship of the +enemy. In regard to merchant-ships the case is different, according to +international law. (See G. G. Wilson, International Law, paragraphs 1l4, +136, New York, 1901-1909.) + +The war-vessel has the right of "visit and search" on all +merchant-ships, enemy or neutral. It has also the right, in case the +cargo of the merchant-ship appears to include more than a certain +percentage of contraband, to capture it and take it into a port for +adjudication as a prize. The war-vessel has also the right to sink a +presumptive prize under conditions (such as distance, stress of weather, +and so forth) which make it impossible to take it into port. + +But here the right of the war-vessel stops. It has absolutely no right +to sink the merchant-ship without warning and without making efficient +provision for the safety of the passengers and crew. That is the common +law of civilized nations. To break it is to put one's self beyond the +pale. + +Some Germanophile critics have faulted me for calling the Teutonic +submarines "Potsdam pirates." A commissioned vessel, these critics say, +which merely executes the orders of its government, cannot properly be +called a pirate. + +Why not? Take the definition of piracy given in the New Oxford +Dictionary: "The crime of robbery or depredation on the sea by persons +not holding a commission from an established civilized state." + +There's the point! Is a nation which orders its servants to commit deeds +forbidden by international law, a nation which commands its naval +officers to commit deliberate, wanton, dastardly murder on the high seas +(case of Belgian Prince, July 31, 1917, and others), is such a nation to +be regarded as "an established civilized state"? + +Were Algiers and Tunis and Tripoli "civilized states" when they sent out +the Barbary pirates in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries? We +thought not, and we sent our war-ships to whip the barbarism out of +them. + +Commodore Stephen Decatur, in 1815, forced the cruel and cowardly Dey of +Algiers to sign a deed of renunciation and a promise of good conduct, on +the deck of an American frigate, under the Stars and Stripes. + +A hundred years ago the glory of the American navy was made clear to the +world in the suppression of the pirates of North Africa. To-day that +glory must be maintained by firm, fearless, unrelenting war against the +pirates of North Germany. + +A commission to do a certain thing which is in itself unlawful does not +change the nature of the misdeed. No nation has a right to commission +its officers to violate the law of nations. + +But the Germans say their submarines are such wonderful, delicate, +scientific machines that it is impossible for them to give warning of an +attack, or to do anything to save the helpless people whose peaceful +vessel has been sunk beneath their feet. The precious, fragile submarine +cannot be expected to observe any law of humanity which would imperil +its further usefulness as an instrument of destruction. + +Marvellous argument--worthy of the Potsdam mind in its highest state of +Kultur! By the same reasoning any assassin might claim the right to kill +without resistance because he proposed to commit the crime with a dagger +so delicately wrought, so frail, so slender, that the slightest struggle +on the part of his victim would break the costly, beautiful, murderous +weapon. + +Again, these extraordinary Germans say that merchant-ships ought not to +carry weapons for defense; it is too dangerous for the dainty U-boat; +every merchantman thus armed must be treated as a vessel of war. But the +law of nations for more than two centuries has sanctioned the carrying +of defensive armament by merchant-ships, and precisely because they +might need it to protect themselves against pirates. + +Shall the United States be asked to rewrite this article of +international law, in the midst of a great war on sea and land? Shall +the government at Washington be seduced by cajolery, or compelled by +threats, to rob the merchantmen of the poor protection of a single gun +in order that they may fall absolutely helpless into the black hands of +the prowling Potsdam pirates? That would be neutrality with a vengeance! +Yet that is just what the Imperial German Government tried to persuade +or force the United States to do. Thank God the effort was vain. + +These were the matters under discussion when I was called to Washington +in February, 1916, for consultation with the President. The long and +wearing controversy had been going on for months. Every month notes were +coming from Berlin, each more evasive and unsatisfactory than the last. +Every week Count Bernstorff and his aides were coming to the State +Department with new excuses, new subterfuges, and the same old lies. The +President and Secretary Lansing, both of whom are excellent +international lawyers, found their patience tried to the uttermost by +the absurdity of the arguments presented to them and by the veiled +contempt in the manner of the presentation. But they kept their tempers +and did their best to keep the peace. + +On two points they were firm as adamant. First, the law of nations +should not and could not be changed in the midst of a war to suit the +need of one of the parties. Second, "the use of submarines for the +destruction of commerce is of necessity, because of the very character +of the vessels employed and the very methods of attack which their +employment of course involves, incompatible with the principles of +humanity, the long-established and incontrovertible rights of neutrals, +and the sacred immunities of non-combatants." (President Wilson's +Address to Congress, April 19, 1916.) + +It was on my return from this visit to Washington that I had an +opportunity of observing at close range the crooked methods of the +Potsdam gang in regard to the U-boat warfare. Arriving at The Hague on +March 24, 1916, I found Holland aflame with helpless rage over the +recent sinking of the S.S. Tubantia, the newest and best boat of the +Netherlands-Lloyd merchant-fleet. She was torpedoed by an unseen +submarine on March 15. + +An explanation was promptly demanded from the German Government, which +denied any knowledge of the affair. Holland, lacking evidence as to the +perpetrator of the crime, would have had to swallow this denial but for +an accident which furnished her with the missing proof. One of the +Tubantia's small boats drifted ashore. In the boat was a fragment of a +Schwarzkopf torpedo--a type manufactured and used only by Germany. This +fragment was forwarded to Berlin, with another and more urgent demand +for explanation, apology, and reparation. + +The German newspapers coolly replied with the astounding statement that +there had been two or three Schwarzkopf torpedoes in naval museums in +England, and that this particular specimen had probably been given to a +British submarine and used by her to destroy the good ship Tubantia. + +Again Holland would have been left helpless, choking with indignation, +but for a second accident. Another of the lost steamship's boats was +found, and in it there was another fragment of the torpedo. This +fragment bore the mark of the German navy, telling just when the torpedo +was made and to which of the U-boats it had been issued. + +With this bit of damning evidence in his bag a Dutch naval expert was +sent to Berlin to get to the bottom of the crime and to demand justice. +He got there, but he found no justice in that shop. + +The German navy is very systematic, keeps accurate books, makes no +accidental mistake. The pedigree and record of the Schwarzkopf were +found. It was issued to a certain U-boat on a certain date. Undoubtedly +it was the missile which unfortunately sank the Tubantia. All this was +admitted and deeply regretted. But Germany was free from all +responsibility for the sad occurrence. The following amazing reason was +given by the Imperial German Government. + +This certain U-boat had fired this certain torpedo at a British +war-vessel somewhere in the North Sea ten days before the Tubantia was +sunk. The shot missed its mark. But the naughty, undisciplined little +torpedo went cruising around in the sea on its own hook for ten days +waiting for a chance to kill somebody. Then the Tubantia came along, and +the wandering-Willy torpedo promptly, stupidly, ran into the ship and +sank her. This was the explanation. Germany was not to blame. (See the +official report in the Orange Books of the Netherlands Government, July, +1916, December, 1916.) + +This stupendous fairy-tale Holland was expected to believe and to accept +as the end of the affair. She did not believe it. She had to accept it. +What else could she do? Fight? She did not want to share Belgium's +dreadful fate. The Dutch Government proposed that the whole Tubantia +incident be submitted to an international commission. The German +Government accepted this proposal en principe, but said it must be +deferred until after the war. + +I wonder why some of the Americans who blame Holland for not being in +arms against Germany never think of that stern and awful deterrent which +stands under her eyes and presses upon her very bosom. She is still +independent, still neutral, still unravaged. Five-sixths of her people, +I believe, have no sympathy with the German Government in its choice and +conduct of this war. At least this was the case while I was at The +Hague. But the one thing that Holland is, above all else, is pro-Dutch. +She wants to keep her liberty, her sovereignty, her land untouched. To +defend these treasures she will fight, and for no other reason. I have +heard Queen Wilhelmina say this a score of times. She means it, and her +people are with her. + +Seven Dutch ships were sunk in a bunch in the English Channel by the +Potsdam pirates on February 22, 1917. Holland was furious. She stated +her grievance, protested, remonstrated--and there she stopped. If she +had tried to do anything more she stood to lose a third of her territory +in a few days and the whole in a few weeks--lose it, mark you, to the +gang that ruined Belgium. + +But the position, and therefore the case, of America in regard to the +German submarine warfare was quite different. She was one of the eight +"Big Powers" of the world. She was the mightiest of the neutrals. + +Her rights at sea were no greater than theirs. But her duties were +greater, just because she was larger, more powerful, better able to +champion those rights not only for herself but also for others. + +She would not have to pay such an instant, awful, crushing penalty for +armed resistance to the brutalities of the Potsdam gang as would +certainly be inflicted upon the little northern neutrals if they +attempted to defend themselves against injustice and aggression. + +Their part was to make protest, and record it, and wait for justice +until the war was ended. America's part was to make protest, and +then--her protest being mocked, scorned, disregarded--to stand up in +arms with France and Great Britain and help to end the war by a victory +of righteous peace. + +But did we not also have objections to some of the measures and actions +of the British blockade--as, for instance, the seizure and search of the +mails? Certainly we did, and Secretary Lansing stated them clearly and +maintained them firmly. But here is the difference. These objections +concerned only the rights of neutral property on the high seas. We knew +by positive assurance from England, and by our experience with her in +the Alabama Claims Arbitration, that she was ready to refer all such +questions to an impartial tribunal and abide by its decision. Our +objections to the conduct of the German navy concerned the far more +sacred rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." + +The murder of one American child at sea meant more to us than the +seizure of a thousand cargoes of alleged contraband. + +No one has ever accused the British or French or Italian sailors in this +war of sinking merchant-ships without warning, leaving their crews and +passengers to drown. On the contrary, British seamen have risked and +lost their lives in a chivalrous attempt to save the lives even of their +enemies after the fair sinking of a German war-ship. + +But the hands of the Potsdam pirates are red with innocent blood. The +bottom of the sea is strewn with the wrecks they have made. "The dark +unfathom'd caves of ocean" hide the bones of their helpless victims, who +shall arise at the judgment-day to testify against them. + +On May 7, 1915, the passenger liner Lusitania, unarmed, was sunk without +warning by a German U-boat off the Irish coast. One hundred and fourteen +Americans--men, women, and little children, lawful and peaceful +travellers--were drowned-- + + "Butchered to make a [German] holiday." + +The holiday was celebrated in Germany. The schools were let out. The +soldiers in the reserve camps had leave to join in the festivities. The +towns and cities were filled with fluttering flags and singing folks. A +German pastor preached: "Whoever cannot bring himself to approve from +the bottom of his heart the sinking of the Lusitania--him we judge to be +no true German." (Deutsche Reden in Schwerer Zeit, No. 24, p. 7.) A +medal was struck to commemorate the great achievement. It is a very ugly +medal. I keep a copy of it in order that I may never forget the +character of a nation which was not content with rejoicing over such a +crime but desired to immortalize it in bronze. + +The three strong and eloquent notes of President Wilson in regard to the +Lusitania are too well known to be quoted here. The practical answer +from Potsdam (passing over the usual subterfuges and falsehoods) was the +sinking of the Arabic August 19 and the murder of three more Americans. +Then the correspondence languished until the torpedoing (March 24, 1916) +of the Sussex, a Channel ferry-boat, crowded with passengers, among whom +were many Americans. Then the President sent a flat message calling down +the Potsdam pirates and declaring that unless they abandoned their +nefarious practices "the United States had no choice but to sever +diplomatic relations with the German Empire altogether" (April 18, +1916). + +This brought a grudging promise from Germany that she would henceforth +refrain from sinking merchant-vessels "without warning and without +saving human lives, unless the ship attempted to escape or offer +resistance." How this promise was kept may be judged from the sinking of +the Marina (October 28), with the loss of eight American lives, and of +the Russian (December 14), with the loss of seventeen American lives, +and other similar sinkings. + +During all this time Germany had been building new and larger submarines +with wonderful industry. She had filled up her pack of sea-wolves. On +January 31, 1917, she revoked her flimsy pledge, let loose her +wolf-pack, and sent word to all the neutral nations that she would sink +at sight all ships found in the zones which she had marked "around Great +Britain, France, Italy, and in the Eastern Mediterranean." (Why We Are +at War, p. 23, New York, 1917.) The President promptly broke off +diplomatic relations (February 3), and said that we should refrain from +hostilities until the commission of "actual overt acts" by Germany +forced us to the conviction that she meant to carry out her base threat. + +The overt acts came quickly. Between February 3 and April 1 eight +American merchant-ships were sunk, and more than forty American lives +were destroyed by the Potsdam pirates. + +The die was cast. On April 2, 1917, the President advised Congress that +the United States could no longer delay the formal acceptance of "the +status of belligerent which had been thrust upon it." On April 6 +Congress took the necessary action. On the same day the President +proclaimed that "a state of war exists between the United States and the +Imperial German Government." + +Back of this momentous and noble decision, in which the hearts of the +immense majority of Americans are with the President, there are +undoubtedly many strong and righteous reasons. Some of these I have +tried to set forth in the first part of this article. But we must never +forget that the specific reason given by the President, the definite +cause which forced us into the war, is the German method of submarine +warfare, which he has repeatedly denounced as illegal, immoral, +inhuman--a direct and brutal attack upon us and upon all mankind. These +words cannot be forgotten, nor is it likely that the President will +retract them. + +They set up at least one steadfast mark in the midst of the present +flood of peace talk. There can be no parley with a criminal who is in +full and exultant practice of his crime. Unless the U-boat warfare is +renounced, repented of, and abandoned by the Potsdam pirates, an +honorable peace is unattainable except by fighting for it and winning +it. [Footnote 8] + +[Footnote 8: Belgian Relief ships sunk: S.S. Camilla, Trevier, Feistein, +Storstad, Lars Kruse, Euphrates. Haelen, and Tunis (the last two shelled +but not sunk). + +Hospital ships sunk: Britannic (probably but not certainly torpedoed); +Asturias, March 24. 1917; Gloucester Castle, March 30; Donegal, April +17; Lanfranc, April 17 (with British wounded and German wounded +prisoners). + +Among the neutral nations Norway alone has lost more than six hundred +ships by mines and torpedoes of German origin. The dance of death still +goes on.] + + +IV + +Only a little space is left for writing of my retirement from the post +at The Hague and my experiences thereafter in England and France. + +The reader may have gathered from the tenor of these chapters that the +work at the legation was hard and that the situation was trying to a man +with strong convictions and the habit of expressing them frankly. My +resignation was tendered in September, 1916, with the request that it +should not be made public until after the re-election of President +Wilson, which I earnestly desired and expected. My reasons for resigning +were partly of a domestic nature. But the main reason was a personal +wish to get back to my work as a writer, "with full freedom to say what +I thought and felt about the war." + +The German-American press has tried to start a rumor that I was recalled +to Washington to explain my action on a certain point. That is +absolutely and entirely false. The government never asked for an +explanation of anything in my conduct while in office, or afterward. On +the contrary, the President has been kind enough to express his approval +of my services in terms too friendly to be quoted here. + +In November, after President Wilson had been triumphantly chosen for a +second term, I ventured to recall his attention to my letter of +September. He answered that he would "reluctantly yield" to my wishes, +but would appreciate my remaining at The Hague until a successor could +be found for the post. Of course I willingly agreed to this. + +In December the name of this successor was cabled to me with +instructions to find out whether he would be acceptable to the Queen and +the Government of Holland. Her Majesty said that this gentleman would +certainly be persona grata, and I cabled to Washington to this effect. + +Early in January a message came from the Secretary of State saying that, +as all was arranged except the final confirmation of the appointment, I +might feel free to leave at my convenience. Having cleaned up my work +and left everything in order for my successor (including the lease of my +house), I took ship from Flushing for England on January 15, 1917. + + +The voyage through the danger zone was uneventful. The visit to England +was unforgettable. + +Everywhere I saw the evidences that Great Britain was at war, in +earnest, and resolved to "carry on" with her Allies until the victory of +a real peace was won. + +Women and girls were at work in the railway stations, on the trams and +omnibuses, in the munition factories, in postal and telegraph service, +doing the tasks of men. We shall have to revise that phrase which speaks +of "the weaker sex." + +By night London was + + "Dark, dark, dark, irrecoverably dark." + +But it was not still, nor terrified by the instant danger of Zeppelin +raids. Every time a German vulture passed over England dropping bolts of +indiscriminate death, it woke the heart of the people to a new impulse, +not of fear but of hot indignation. + +By day the great city swarmed with eager life. Business was going on at +full swing, though not "as usual." Women were driving trucks, carrying +packages, running ticket-offices. Men in khaki outnumbered those in +civilian dress. Wounded soldiers hobbled cheerfully along the streets. +The parks were adorned with hospitals. Mrs. Pankhurst spoke from a +soap-box near the Marble Arch; not now for woman-suffrage--"That will +come," she said, "but the great thing to-day is to carry on the war to a +victory for freedom!" + +Oxford--gray city of the golden dream, Learning's fairest and most +lovely seat in all the world--Oxford was transformed into a hospital for +the wounded, a training-camp for new soldiers, a nursery of noble +manhood equipped for the stern duties of war. + +Every family that I knew was in grief for a dear one lost on the field +of glorious strife. But not one was in mourning. The great sacrifice was +bravely accepted as a part of the greater duty. + +The friends with whom I talked most--men like Lord Bryce, Sir Sydney +Lee, Sir Herbert Warren, Sir Robertson Nicoll, Sir William Osler--were +lovers of peace, tried and well-known. All were of one mind in holding +that Britain's faith and honor bound her to accept the war when Germany +violated Belgium, and that it must be fought through until the Prussian +military autocracy which began it was broken. + +There were restricted rations in England; but no starvation and no sign +of it. There were partisan criticisms and plenty of "grousing." The +Britisher is never contented unless he can grumble--especially at his +own government. But there was no lack of a real unity of purpose, nor of +a solid, cheerful, bull-dog determination to hang on to the enemy until +he came down. It is this spirit that has enabled a nation, which was +almost ignorant of what military preparedness meant, to put between +three and four million troops into the field in defense of justice and +liberty. + + +At the end of January I went to France, eager to see with my own eyes +the great things that were doing there and to taste with my own lips the +cup of danger. That at least I was bound to do before I could come home +and urge my countrymen to face the duty and brave the peril of a part in +this war. + +Paris was not so dark as London but more tragic. After Belgium and +Servia the heaviest brunt of this dreadful conflict has fallen upon +France. She has suffered most. Yet on the faces of her women I saw no +tears and in the eyes of her men no fear nor regret. + +If Britain was magnificent, France was miraculous! Loving and desiring +peace she accepted the cross of war without a murmur. Her women were no +less brave than her men. She wears the hero-star of Roland and the +saintly halo of Joan of Arc. + +After meeting many men in Paris--statesmen, men of letters, +generals--and after visiting the splendid American Ambulance at Neuilly +and other institutions in which our boys and girls were giving their +help to France in the chivalric spirit of Lafayette, I went out toward +the front. + +The first visit was under the escort of Captain Francois Monod to a +chateau beyond Compiegne, where Rudyard Kipling with his family and I +with my family had passed the Christmas week of 1913 together, as joyous +guests of the American chatelaine Mrs. Julia Park. She has given the +spacious, lovely house for a military hospital. And there, while the +German guns thundered a few kilometres away from us and a German sausage +balloon floated in the sky, I watched the skilful ministrations of +French and American doctors and nurses to the wounded. + +One thought haunted me--the memory of Kipling's only son, nineteen years +old, who was with us in that happy Christmastide. The lad was reported +"missing" after one of the battles between Loos and Hulluch. For six +months I sought, with the help of Herr von Kuhlmann, German Minister at +The Hague, to find a trace of the brave boy. But never a word could we +get. + +The second visit was to the battle-field of the Marne under the escort +of Captain the Count de Ganay. We motored slowly through the ruined +towns and villages. Those which had been wrecked by shellfire were like +mouthfuls of broken teeth--chimneys and fragments of walls still +standing. Those which had been vengefully burned by the retreating +Germans were mere heaps of ashes. Most of our time was spent around the +Marais de St. Gond, where the French General Foch held the Thermopylae +of Europe. + +Four times he advanced across that marsh and was driven back, but not +beaten. The fifth time he advanced and stayed, and Paris was forever +lost to the Germans. Think of the men who made that last advance and +saved Europe from the Potsdam gang. Their graves, carefully marked and +tended, lie thickly strewn along the lonely ridges of all that +region--humble but immortal reminders of glorious heroism. + +The third visit was with the same escort to the fighting front at +Verdun. + +The long, bare, rolling ridges between Bar-le-Duc and the Meuse; the +high-shouldered hills along the river and around the ruined little +city; the open fields, the narrow valleys, the wrecked villages, the +shattered woodlands--all were covered with dazzling snow. The sun was +bright in a cloudless sky. A bitter, biting wind poured fiercely, +steadily out of the north, driving the glittering snow-dust before it. +Every man had put on all the clothes he possessed, and more; pads of +sheepskin over back and breast; gunny sacks tied around the shoulders. +The troops of cavalry, the teams of mules and horses dragging +munition-wagons or travelling kitchens or long "75" guns, clattered +along the iron surface of the Via Sacra--that blessed road which made +the salvation of Verdun possible after the only railway was destroyed. +Endless trains of motor-lorries lumbered by. The narrow trenches were +coated with ice. The hillside trails were slippery as glass. In the deep +dugouts small sheet-iron stoves were burning, giving out a little heat +and a great deal of choking smoke. The soldiers sat around them playing +cards or telling stories. + +But there! What I saw in that shell-pitted, snow-covered, hard-frozen +amphitheatre of heroism cannot be described in these brief paragraphs. +The serenity, cheerfulness, courtesy, and indomitable courage of the +French poilus defending their own land; the scenes in the trenches with +the German shells breaking around us and the wounded men being carried +past us; the luncheon in the citadel with the commandant and officers in +a subterranean room where the motto on the wall, above the +world-renowned escutcheon of Verdun, was "On ne passe pas"--"They don't +get by"; the dinner with the general and staff of the Verdun army, in a +little village "somewhere in France," and their last words to me, "On +les aura! Ca peut etre long, mais on les aura!"--"It may take long, but +we shall get them!"--all these and a thousand more things are vivid in +my memory but cannot be told now. + +One scene sticks in my mind and asks to be recorded. + +The hospital was just back of the Verdun lines. Its roofs were marked +with the Red Cross. Twenty-four hundred beds, all clean and quiet. Wards +full of German wounded, cared for as tenderly as the French. "Will you +see an operation?" said the proud little commandant who was showing me +through his domain. "Certainly." A big, husky fellow was on the +operating-table, unconscious, under ether. One of the best surgeons in +France was performing the operation of trepanning. I could see the +patient's brain, bare and beating, while the surgeon did his skilful +work. Other doctors stood around, and three nurses, one an American +girl, Miss Cowen, of Pittsburgh. "Will the man get well?" I asked the +surgeon. "I hope so," he answered. "At all events, we shall do our best +for him. You know, he is a German--c'est un Boche!" + +On August 20, 1917, that very hospital, marked with the Red Cross, was +bombed by German aeroplanes. One wing was set on fire. While the nurses +and helpers were trying to rescue the patients, the bloody Potsdam +vultures flew back and forth three times over the place, raking it with +machine guns. More than thirty persons were killed, including doctors, +German wounded, and one woman nurse. God grant it was not the American +girl! Yet why would not the killing of a French sister under the Red +Cross be just as wicked? + + +Here I break off--uncompleted--my narration of the evil choice of war +and the crimes in the conduct of war which have made the name of Germany +abhorred. + +The Allies, from the beginning, have pleaded for peace and fought for +peace. America, obeying her conscience, has joined them in the conflict. + + +But what do we mean now by peace? We mean more than a mere cessation of +hostilities. We mean that the burglar shall give back all that he has +grabbed. We mean that the marauder shall make good all the damage that +he has done. We mean that there shall be an open league of free +democratic states, great and small, to guard against the recurrence of +such a bloody calamity as the autocratic, militaristic Potsdam gang +precipitated upon the world in 1914. + +In the next chapter I shall discuss briefly the practical significance +of this kind of peace and the absolute preconditions which must be +realized before any conference on the subject will be profitable or even +safe. + +The duty of the present is to fight on beside France, Great Britain, +Italy, Belgium, Servia, Roumania, and, we hope, Russia, "to bring the +Government of the German Empire to terms and end the war." + +To talk of any other course is treason, not only to our country but to +the cause of true Peace. + + + +Chapter VII + +PAX HUMANA + +I + +The trouble with the ordinary or garden variety of pacifist is that he +has a merely negative idea of peace. + +The true idea of peace is positive, constructive, forward-looking. It is +not content with a mere cessation of hostilities at any particular +period of the world's history. It aims at the establishment of reason +and justice as the rule of the world's life. It proposes to find the +basis of this establishment in the freely expressed will of the peoples +of the world. + +The men and women who do the world's work are the sovereigns who must +guarantee this real peace of the world. + +That is what we are fighting for. Not pax Romana, nor pax Germanica, nor +pax Britannica, but pax Humana--a peace which will bring a positive +benefit to all the tribes of humanity. + +Since the choice by the Imperial German Government, in August, 1914, of +war as the means of settling international disputes, the Allies have +been fighting against that choice and its bloody consequences. Every one +of them--Great Britain, France, Italy, Russia--had pleaded for +arbitration, conference, consultation, to avert this fearful conflict of +arms. But it was in vain. + +The United States of America, forced by the flagrant violation of its +neutral rights to take an active part in the war, and led by its vital +sympathies to the side of the Allies, committed by honor and conscience +to the duty of fighting for a real peace of mankind, must carry on this +war until its humane and democratic object is attained. To do less than +that would be to renounce our place as a great nation, to deny our faith +as Americans, and to expose our country to incalculable peril and +disaster. + +But now that all the nations of the earth have begun to realize the +horror of this abominable German war, and to desire its ending, it is +necessary for us, in conjunction with our friends of peaceful and +democratic purpose, to consider, first, the conditions under which peace +may be discussed with the Imperial German Government, and, second, the +terms on which a peace may possibly be concluded. + + +II +THE CONDITIONS OF A PEACE CONFERENCE + +We should distinguish clearly between the conditions which must be +fulfilled before we can honorably enter into any talk of peace with our +adversary, the begetter and beginner of this war; and the terms which +the Allies and the United States and the other nations at war with +Germany would put forward in such a conversation as a just and durable +basis for the establishment of peace. + +This distinction is essential. The conditions are antecedent and +indispensable. Until they are fulfilled we cannot talk with the enemy, +except in the language which he has chosen and forced upon us--the stern +tongue of battle by land and sea. + +Germany grandiloquently claims to be the first to propose a +peace-conference as a substitute for the horrors of war. (See the +Kaiser's note of December 12, 1916. [Footnote 9]) + + + +[Footnote 9: This note contains not the slightest reference to the +nature of the suggested peace. Its tone conforms to the orders which the +Kaiser issued to his army on the same day: "Under the influence of the +victory which you have gained by your bravery, I and the monarchs of the +three states in alliance with me have made an offer of peace to the +enemy. It is uncertain whether the object at which this offer is aimed +will be reached. You will have meanwhile, with God's help, to continue +to resist and defeat the enemy." It was not a proposal of peace. It was +a proclamation of victory--German victory--and an invitation to +surrender.] + +She forgets the many proposals for such a conference which were made to +her in the fateful month of July, 1914, by Servia, France, Great +Britain, Italy, and Russia--all of which she contemptuously brushed +aside in her scornful will to war. She forgets the offenses against +international law and against the plain precepts of humanity which she +has committed since that time and which have earned for her the +indignation and mistrust of mankind. She forgets that her so-called +proposal for a peace conference contained no suggestion of the terms of +peace which she was willing to discuss. She forgets that such a proposal +is a mere hypocritical mockery. No sane person, no intelligent nation, +would enter into a conference without knowledge of the things to be +considered. + +This last point lies at the base of President Wilson's note of December +18, 1916, suggesting that the belligerent powers, on both sides, should +"avow their respective views as to the terms upon which the war might be +concluded and the arrangements which would be deemed satisfactory as a +guarantee against its renewal or the kindling of any similar conflict in +the future." This note, I believe, was sent to all the American +Ambassadors and Ministers in Europe, with instructions to communicate it +to the Governments to which they were accredited, whether belligerent or +neutral. + +Here is a point at which I can throw a little new light upon the +situation. I handed the note, as I was ordered to do, to the Dutch +Minister, without comment or recommendation. Almost immediately the +German-subsidized press in Holland began to assail the Dutch Government +for refusing to support President Wilson's note. It seemed to me that +this was a falsehood, unjust to Holland, injurious to our Government, +which had not asked for support. Therefore I made the following +statement to the press on January 9, 1917: + +"The Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs is absolutely correct in saying +that I handed him President Wilson's note of December 18 without any +request or suggestion that the Netherlands Government should support it. +I did so because I was so instructed by my Government. I was told to +transmit the President's note simply as a matter of information. No +request was added. The reason for this is because America understands +the delicate and difficult position of the Netherlands Government, in +the midst of the present war, and will not urge nor even ask it to do +anything which it does not judge to be wise and prudent and helpful. I +have done my best to promote this right understanding of the position of +Holland in the United States, and I shall continue to do so. I have no +knowledge of any instructions from Washington in regard to the manner of +delivering the President's note in Spain. + +"What I cannot understand is the general misunderstanding of that note. +It expressly declared that it was not an offer of mediation nor a +proposal of peace. It was simply a suggestion that the belligerents on +both sides should state the terms on which they would be willing to +consider and discuss peace. The Entente Powers have already done this +with some clearness, and will probably soon do so even more clearly. The +Central Powers have politely, even affectionately, but very practically, +declined the President's invitation to state their terms. There is the +deadlock on peace talk at present. When both sides are equally frank the +world can judge whether the peace which all just men desire is near or +far away." + +The accuracy and propriety of this statement have never been questioned +by the Department of State. On the contrary, it was practically affirmed +by the President in his address to the Senate on January 22, 1917, when +he said: + +"On the 18th of December last I addressed an identic note to the +Governments of the nations now at war, requesting them to state, more +definitely than they had yet been stated by either group of +belligerents, the terms upon which they would deem it possible to make +peace. I spoke on behalf of humanity and of the rights of all neutral +nations like our own, many of whose most vital interests the war puts in +constant jeopardy. + +"The Central Powers united in a reply which stated merely that they were +ready to meet their antagonists in conference to discuss terms of peace. + +"The Entente Powers have replied much more definitely and have stated, +in general terms indeed, but with sufficient definiteness to imply +details, the arrangements, guarantees, and acts of reparation which they +deem to be indispensable conditions of a satisfactory settlement." Here, +then, we come within sight of the first of the conditions which are +absolutely precedent, at least so far as America is concerned, to any +discussion of peace. + +1. Germany must answer President Wilson's note of December 18, 1916. She +must state her terms of peace, maximum or minimum, frankly and +unequivocally. + +Germany asserts that she is waging a defensive war. She must tell the +world what she is defending. That she has never been willing to do. + +Germany asserts that she is victorious thus far. She must say what she +thinks her "victories" mean, and what they entitle her to claim and +keep. + +In brief, Germany must lay her cards on the table. If she wants +peace--and certainly she needs it,--she must be willing to say what she +means by it. + +2. The second condition precedent to any discussion of peace terms with +Germany has been clearly defined by President Wilson in his reply to the +note issued by His Holiness Pope Benedict. + +That reply was thoroughly sympathetic and conciliatory. Among its frank +and strong paragraphs there was one which must be particularly noted: + +"We cannot take the word of the present rulers of Germany as a guarantee +of anything that is to endure unless explicitly supported by such +conclusive evidence of the will and purpose of the German people +themselves as the other peoples of the world would be justified in +accepting. Without such guarantees treaties of settlement, agreements +for disarmament, covenants to set up arbitration in the place of force, +territorial adjustments, reconstitutions of small nations, if made with +the German Government, no man, no nation, could now depend on." + +Understand--this is not a flat refusal to treat with the House of +Hohenzollern in any circumstances, which the more rabid and less +thoughtful newspapers of England have urged. It is merely a statement +that the rulers of Germany must have behind them a sufficient and +explicit mandate and guarantee of the people of Germany before we can +trust them. + +We do not presume to interfere in the internal affairs of the German +Empire. The people of that empire have a right to say how they shall be +ruled. If they like the Hohenzollerns, good! + +All that we ask is some clear, democratic guarantee of the German people +behind the word of its chosen Government. + +Does this mean a complete reformation of the German Empire, which in +effect now consists of twenty-two hereditary kings, princes, dukes, and +grand dukes, with the Kaiser at the head? Does it mean a constitutional +remoulding of the empire? + +That would be a long process. The people of Germany are well +disciplined. There is small prospect of a revolution in that country +unless war compels it. + +What is it that we are pledged by President Wilson's statement to insist +upon as a precondition of any peace conference with Germany? Simply +this--that behind the word of the Kaiser there must be the word of the +German people. + +That word must be given in advance and in a way which will satisfy both +the Allies and the United States. It is for the German people to find +the way. + +We cannot honorably talk peace with Germany until that way is found. + +3. The third condition antecedent to a conference on peace is the +renunciation and abandonment of the German submarine warfare upon +merchant shipping. + +On this point I do not speak with any kind of authority or official +sanction. What I say is based, indeed, upon words uttered with the +highest authority. But the conclusion drawn from them is merely my own +judgment and has no force beyond that of the reasoning that has led me +to it. + +The American position in regard to this submarine warfare--its +illegality, its inhumanity--has been clearly and eloquently defined by +our Government again and again. + +"The Government of the United States has been apprised that the Imperial +German Government considered themselves to be obliged, by the +extraordinary circumstances of the present war and the measures adopted +by their adversaries in seeking to cut Germany off from all commerce, to +adopt methods of retaliation which go much beyond the ordinary methods +of warfare at sea, in the proclamation of a war zone from which they +have warned neutral ships to keep away. This Government has already +taken occasion to inform the Imperial German Government that it cannot +admit the adoption of such measures or such a warning of danger to +operate as in any degree an abbreviation of the rights of American +shipmasters or of American citizens bound on lawful errands as +passengers on merchant ships of belligerent neutrality; and that it must +hold the Imperial German Government to a strict accountability for any +infringement of those rights, intentional or incidental. It does not +understand the Imperial German Government to question those rights. It +assumes, on the contrary, that the Imperial German Government accept, as +of course, the rule that the lives of non-combatants, whether they be +of neutral citizenship or citizens of one of the nations at war, cannot +lawfully or rightfully be put in jeopardy by the capture or destruction +of an unarmed merchantman, and recognize also, as all other nations do, +the obligation to take the usual precaution of visit and search to +ascertain whether a suspected merchantman is in fact of belligerent +nationality or is in fact carrying contraband of war under a neutral +flag." (The Secretary of State, Washington, D. C., to the German +Minister for Foreign Affairs, May 13, 1915.) + +"The fact that more than one hundred American citizens were among those +who perished" (reference to the sinking of the Lusitania) "made it the +duty of the Government of the United States to speak of these things and +once more, with solemn emphasis, to call the attention of the Imperial +German Government to the grave responsibility which the Government of +the United States conceives that it has incurred in this tragic +occurrence, and to the indisputable principle upon which that +responsibility rests. The Government of the United States is contending +for something much greater than mere rights of property or privileges of +commerce. It is contending for nothing less high and sacred than the +rights of humanity, which every government honors itself in respecting +and which no government is justified in resigning on behalf of those +under its care and authority." (The Secretary of State, Washington, D. +C., to the German Minister for Foreign Affairs, June 9, 1915.) + +"If a belligerent cannot retaliate against an enemy without injuring the +lives of neutrals as well as their property, humanity, as well as +justice and a due regard for the dignity of neutral powers, should +dictate that the practice be discontinued. If persisted in it would in +such circumstances constitute an unpardonable offense against the +sovereignty of the neutral nation affected. . . . The rights of neutrals +in time of war are based upon principle, not upon expediency, and the +principles are immutable. It is the duty and obligation of belligerents +to find a way to adapt the new circumstances to them." (The Secretary of +State, Washington, D. C., to the German Minister for Foreign Affairs, +July 21, 1915.) + +"The law of nations in these matters, upon which the Government of the +United States based that protest" (i.e., against the German declaration +of February, 1915, declaring the danger zone around Great Britain and +Ireland) "is not of recent origin or founded upon merely arbitrary +principles set up by convention. It is based, on the contrary, upon +manifest principles of humanity and has long been established with the +approval and by the express assent of all civilized nations. . . . It +has become painfully evident to it (the Government of the United States) +that the position which it took at the very outset is inevitable, +namely--the use of submarines for the destruction of an enemy's commerce +is, of necessity, because of the very character of the vessels employed +and the very methods of attack which their employment of course +involves, utterly incompatible with the principles of humanity, the +long-established and incontrovertible rights of neutrals, and the sacred +immunities of non-combatants." (The Secretary of State, Washington, D. +C., to the German Minister for Foreign Affairs, April 18, 1916.) + +"But we cannot forget that we are in some sort and by the force of +circumstances the responsible spokesmen of the rights of humanity, and +that we cannot remain silent while those rights seem in process of being +swept away in the maelstrom of this terrible war. We owe it to a due +regard for our own rights as a nation, to our sense of duty as a +representative of the rights of neutrals the world over, and to a just +conception of the rights of mankind to take this stand now with the +utmost solemnity and firmness." (President Wilson's Address to Congress, +April 19, 1916.) + +"The present German warfare against commerce is a warfare against +mankind. It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, +American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to +learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations +have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has +been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation +must decide for itself how it will meet it." (President Wilson's Message +to Congress, April 2, 1917.) + +The United States cannot go back on these words. They are fundamental in +our position. I do not know whether the Allies have formally indorsed +them or not. But that makes no difference. It seems to me that for +America, with her traditional, unalterable devotion to the doctrine of +Mare Liberum, as Grotius stated it, there can be no peace conference +with a Government which is in active and flagrant violation of that +principle. + +I think that for us at least--we do not venture to speak for the Allies, +though we believe they sympathize with our point of view--there can be +no peace parley with Germany until she renounces and abandons her +atrocious method of submarine warfare on merchant shipping. + +Here, then, are the three conditions which ought to be fulfilled before +we can honorably enter a conference on peace with the Imperial German +Government. The first is a legitimate inference from the statements of +the President. The second has been positively laid down by the +President. The third is drawn, purely on my own responsibility, from his +words. + +First, Germany should frankly declare the aims with which she began this +war, and the purposes with which she continues it on the territories +which she has invaded. + +Second, Germany must offer adequate guarantees that in any peace +negotiations her rulers shall speak only and absolutely with the voice +of the people behind them--in other words, with a democratic, not an +autocratic, sanction. + +Third, Germany ought to give a pledge of good faith by the abandonment +of her illegal and inhuman submarine warfare on the merchant shipping of +the world. + +Is it likely that the predatory Potsdam gang will be willing to accept +these three conditions soon? + +I frankly confess that I do not know. Germany is in sore straits. That I +know from personal observation. But I know also that she is +magnificently organized, trained, and disciplined for obedience to the +imperial will. She will carry her fight for world empire to the last +limit. + +When that limit is reached, when the German people know that the attempt +of their rulers to dominate the world by war has failed, then it will be +time to talk with them about the terms of peace. + + +III + +THE TERMS OF PEACE + +This is a long subject; and for that reason I mean to make it a short +chapter. + +1. A discussion of peace terms with our enemy, the Imperial German +Government, is neither desirable nor safe under the present conditions. + +Until that Government is disabused of the delusion that it has won, is +winning, or will win a substantial victory in this war, it is not likely +to say anything sane or reasonable about peace. A pax Germanica is what +it is willing to discuss. + +But that is just what we do not want. To enter such a discussion now +would be both futile and perilous. + +It would probably postpone the coming of that real pax humana for which +the Allies have already made such great sacrifices, and for which we +have pledged ourselves to fight at their side. + +But meantime it is wise and right and useful to let the German people +know, by such means as we can find, that we have not entered this war in +the spirit of revenge or conquest, and that their annihilation or +enslavement is not among the ends which we contemplate. + +An admirable opportunity to give this humane and prudent assurance was +offered by the Pope's proposal of a Peace Conference (August, 1917). +President Wilson, with characteristic acuteness and candor, made good +use of this opportunity. While declining the proposal clearly and +firmly, as impossible under the present conditions, he added the +following statement of the peace purposes of the United States--a +statement which approaches a definition by the process of exclusion: + +"Punitive damages, the dismemberment of empires, the establishment of +selfish and exclusive economic leagues, we deem inexpedient, and in the +end worse than futile, no proper basis for a peace of any kind, least of +all for an enduring peace, that must be based upon justice and fairness +and the common rights of mankind." (President Wilson's Note to His +Holiness the Pope, August 27, 1917.) + +Thus far (and in my judgment no farther) we may go in an indirect, +third-personal discussion of the terms of peace with our enemy. + +2. On the other hand, a full discussion of the terms of peace with our +friends, the allied nations, will be most profitable--indeed, it is +absolutely necessary. + +The sooner it comes--the more frank, thorough, and confidential it +is--the better! + +The Allies, as President Wilson said in the address already quoted +(January 22, 1917), have stated their terms of peace "with sufficient +definiteness to imply details." + +These terms have been summed up again and again in three general words: + + RESTITUTION, + REPARATION, + GUARANTEES FOR THE FUTURE. + +It is for us to discuss the details which are implied in these terms, +not with our enemy, but with our friends who have borne the brunt of +this German war against peace. + +Nothing which would make their sacrifice vain could ever satisfy the +heart and conscience of the United States. + +We cannot honorably accept a peace which would leave Belgium, +Luxembourg, Servia, Montenegro, Roumania crushed and helpless in the +hands of their captors. + +We cannot honorably accept a peace which would leave our sister-republic +France hopelessly exposed to the same kind of an assault which Germany +made upon her in 1870 and in 1914. + +We cannot honorably accept a peace which would leave Great Britain +crippled and powerless to work with us in the maintenance of the freedom +of the sea. + +We cannot honorably accept a peace which would leave the Italian demand +for unity unsatisfied, and the new Russian Republic helpless before its +foes. Such, it seems to me, are the principles which must guide and +govern us in the coming conference with our friends about the terms of +peace. + +In regard to the right of the peoples of the world, small or great, to +determine their own form of government and their own action, we are +fully committed. This principle is fundamental to our existence as a +nation. President Wilson has reaffirmed it again and again, never more +clearly or significantly than in his address to the Senate on January +22, 1917. + +"And there is a deeper thing involved than even equality of rights among +organized nations. No peace can last which does not recognize and accept +the principle that governments derive all their just powers from the +consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists to hand +people about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were property. + +"I take it for granted, for instance, if I may venture upon a single +example, that statesmen everywhere are agreed that there should be a +united, independent, and autonomous Poland, and that henceforth +inviolable security of life, of worship, and of industrial and social +development should be guaranteed to all peoples who have lived hitherto +under the power of governments devoted to a faith and purpose hostile to +their own." + +This "example" must be interpreted in its full bearing upon all the +questions which are likely to come up in the conference in regard to the +terms of peace. + +There is one more fixed point in the terms of a peace which the United +States and the Allies can accept with honor. That is the formation, +after this war is ended, of a compact, an alliance, a league, a +union--call it what you will--of free democratic nations, pledged to use +their combined forces, diplomatic, economic, and military, against the +beginning of war by any nation which has not previously submitted its +cause to international inquiry, conciliation, arbitration, or judicial +hearing. + +Here, again, experience enables me to throw a little new light upon the +situation. In November, 1914, on my way home to America for surgical +treatment, I had the privilege of conveying a personal, unofficial +message to Washington from the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sir +Edward (now Viscount) Grey. Remember, at this time America was neutral, +and the "League to Enforce Peace" had not been formed. + +This was the substance of the message: "The presence and influence of +America in the council of peace after the war will be most welcome to us +provided we can be assured of two things: First, that America stands for +the restoration of all that Germany has seized in Belgium and France. +Second, that America will enter and support, by force if necessary, a +league of nations pledged to resist and punish any war begun without +previous submission of the cause to international investigation and +judgment." + +This was the message that I took to Washington in 1914. Since that time +the "League to Enforce Peace" has been organized in America (June 17, +1915). In my opinion it would be better named the "League to Defend +Peace." But the name makes little difference. It is the principle, the +idea, that counts. + +This idea has been publicly approved by the leading spokesmen of all the +allied nations, and notably by President Wilson in his speech at the +League banquet, May 27, 1916, and in his address to the Senate, January +22, 1917, in which he said: + +"Mere terms of peace between the belligerents will not satisfy even the +belligerents themselves. Mere agreements may not make peace secure. It +will be absolutely necessary that a force be created as a guarantor of +the permanency of the settlement so much greater than the force of any +nation now engaged in any alliance hitherto formed or projected that no +nation, no probable combination of nations, could face or withstand it. +If the peace presently to be made is to endure it must be a peace made +secure by the organized major force of mankind." + +Consider for a moment what such an organization would mean. + +It would mean, first of all, the strongest possible condemnation of the +attitude and action of Germany and her assistants in plotting, choosing, +beginning, and forcing the present war upon the world. + +It is precisely because she disdained and refused to submit the +Austro-Servian quarrel, and her own secret plans and purposes to +investigation, conference, judicial inquiry, that her blood-guiltiness +is most flagrant, and her criminal assault upon the world's peace cries +to Heaven for punishment. + +Moreover, such an organization of free democratic states would mean a +practical step toward a new era of international relations. It would +amount, in effect, to what Premier Ribot, in his recent address at the +anniversary of the battle of the Marne, called "a league of common +defense." It would be a new kind of treaty of alliance--open, not +secret--made by peoples, not by monarchs--an alliance against wars of +aggression and conquest--an alliance against all wars whose beginners +are unwilling to submit their cause to the common judgment of mankind. +Such an open treaty of defense would practically condemn and cancel all +secret treaties for offensive war as treasonable conspiracies against +the commonwealth of the world. + +But would the organization of such a league of nations to defend peace +make war henceforward impossible? + +No sane man, who knows the ignorance, the imperfection, the passionate +frailty of human nature entertains such a wild dream or makes such an +extravagant claim. + +All that the league can hope to do is to make an aggressive war, such as +Germany thrust upon the world in 1914, more difficult and more +dangerous. All that it purposes is to set up a new safeguard of peace, +based upon justice, and supported by the common faith, the collective +force, and the mutual trust of democratic peoples. + +That is one of the things--yes, I think it is the most important +thing--for which we are now fighting with the Allies against Germany and +her assistants: + + PEACE WITH POWER. + + +These pages have been written as a voluntary contribution to the cause +of our country in this righteous war against war. I should have been +happier if my active service at the front could have been accepted. But +since my age made that impossible I have tried, and shall go on trying, +to do what I can in other ways to help our fight for real peace. + +I close this bit of work with the noble lines of Tennyson: + + "I would that wars should cease, +I would the globe from end to end + Might sow and reap in peace, +And some new Spirit o'erbear the old, + Or Trade refrain the Powers +From war with kindly links of gold, + Or Love with wreaths of flowers. +Slav, Teuton, Kelt, I count them all + My friends and brother souls, +With all the peoples, great and small, + That wheel between the poles. +But since our mortal shadow, Ill, + To waste this earth began-- +Perchance from some abuse of Will + In worlds before the man +Involving ours--he needs must fight + To make true peace his own, +He needs must combat might with might, + Or Might would rule alone." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fighting For Peace, by Henry Van Dyke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING FOR PEACE *** + +***** This file should be named 19693.txt or 19693.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/6/9/19693/ + +Produced by Don Kostuch + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/19693.zip b/19693.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..26a16fe --- /dev/null +++ b/19693.zip 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..45ec8f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #19693 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19693) |