WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN
I remember a picture exhibited in the Academy at London, some
years ago, representing a custom of the wars of the Middle Ages.
A great fortress besieged, frowns down on the plain under the
cold moonlight. From its towering walls the useless mouths are
thrust forth--if refused food by the enemy, to die--the children,
the maimed, the old, the halt, the blind, all those who cannot
help in the defence, who consume food needed to strengthen the
weakened garrison.
Every country of the world to-day is in a state of siege, is
conserving food and materials, but not yet has Germany sent forth
her useless mouths, to Holland, to Scandinavia and to Switzerland,
a sign that not yet is the pinch of hunger in the Empire imperative.
Since I arrived in America in March, 1917, I have been like
Cassandra, the prophetess fated to be right, but never believed.
I said then Germany would never break because of starvation, or
fail because of revolution, and that her man-power was great.
We have not made sacrifices enough in this war, there are too
many useless mouths. I believe that there are in the States of
New York and Pennsylvania alone 175,000 professional chauffeurs,
a great number of them employed on automobiles not used for
business or trucking. And then think of the thousands of skilled
mechanics employed in garages and factories repairing and making
mere pleasure vehicles. If all these chauffeurs (nearly all with
some knowledge of machinery) and mechanics were put at work
building ships or making rifles there would be no loss to the
country, but certain overfed women and their poodles would have
to walk, greatly to the advantage of their health and figures.
Private automobiles disappeared very quickly in Germany. At first
a man who could not reach his business in any other way was
allowed to use his own automobile but even these soon went out of
commission and then bicycles were forbidden except for rides to
and from business, work or school. A few ramshackle taxicabs
still survive in Berlin at the railway stations, driven by benzol
instead of gasoline and shod with spring tires. No one can keep a
taxi waiting, it is subject when waiting to be commandeered by
the first comer.
Gradually as we realise the gravity of the conflict our lives
will become more earnest and luxuries will be given up to meet
the changed condition. There must be a committee who will tide
over the workers in luxury industries and help them to learn new
war trades. This was done in Germany by the great organisation of
the Woman's Service. Already Fifth Avenue dressmakers have
dismissed many of their workers, who, being without resources,
should receive assistance and advice until they have learned
other trades.
Our farmers are entitled to cheaper labour. Why should not enemy
aliens work our farms? We do not propose to make the Austrian and
German and Hungarian women agricultural slaves as the Germans
made the Russian women caught by the war within the borders of
Germany, nor have we the right, I believe, to force civilian
prisoners to work. But we can give these civilian men instead of
meat twice a day, now given them, the same food which the Germans
give their prisoners, until the enemy aliens volunteer to work in
our fields. They should, of course, work as in Germany under
guard. They should be used also in mines, factories, etc. The
sooner we use every ounce of war energy, the sooner we shall beat
Germany and obtain a lasting peace.
Eventually forced by the hopelessness of the economic situation,
the nerve of Germany will break. There is a suicide point in the
German character. The German has been sustained since the war by
victories somewhere. No defeats were brought home to the German
people. Viewed from inside the German Empire what are the loss of
a few villages on the West front or even of distant colonies
compared to the conquest of Belgium, of the richest part of
France, of thousands of square miles of Russia, of Roumania,
Montenegro and Serbia? With the exception of a very small bit of
Alsace the war is being fought far from German territory. The
German can swagger down the streets of the capitals of his
enemies, in Brussels, Belgrade, Bucharest, Warsaw and Cettinje
and Prussian greed exacts tribute from rich cities from Lille on
the West to Wilna far within the frontiers of Russia.
Our President has never faltered. He will convince the Germans at
last that we are unfaltering, in the war, that nothing can swerve
us from our goal,--the destruction of the autocracy which looks
on war as good and seeks the dominion of the earth. When the
Germans grasp that, then will come the suicide point.
There is nothing in the war for the German who is not a noble or
a junker, an officer or an official. German victory will only
bend the collar of caste and servitude, low wages and militarism
tighter on the German neck. Sooner or later the deceived German
will discover this; revolution will not come during the war, but
after it, unless it closes with a German peace, or unless in
anticipation of revolt, rights are granted to the people.
We cannot stop, we cannot bear the burden of the debts of this
war and at the same time burden ourselves with future military
preparation to meet a confident conquering Germany ready to carry
the sword into South America. Whatever the sacrifice, we must go
on.
And for each country and for the Allies as a whole there is one
word, Unity.
When all had signed our Declaration of Independence, Benjamin
Franklin said, "And now we must all hang together or we all
shall hang separately."
Russia has, for the moment, failed and unless she recovers
herself she will pay the penalty by submission to German rule.
Is there a defect in the Russian character? Is persistency
lacking? In 1760, the Russian troops had taken Berlin. If Russia
had gone on strongly with the war, the power of Frederick the
Great might have been broken. But apparently the Russian troops
simply turned around and went back to Russia. In 1854, in the
Crimean War, after a long siege and bitter losses, the French,
Turks, English and Sardinians succeeded in taking one Russian
city, Sebastopol, in the extreme southern part of Russia. With
this exception, Russian territory was intact and yet the Czar
Alexander II, shortly after the death of Nicholas, begged for
peace. As a result the Black Sea was made for a time neutral and
no state could have warships or arsenals on it with the exception
of small gunboats for police purposes.
In 1878, after the Russo-Turkish war, when the Russian troops
were in sight of the minarets of Constantinople, the Russians
allowed themselves to be bluffed by the diplomats of Europe from
obtaining the fruits of victory.
Secretly or openly, Germany will propose to the world to take her
pay from the skin of the Bear, from the conquered territories of
Russia which remain in her possession. The inhabitants of those
territories would have to become the slaves of Prussia as did
the inhabitants of Belgium and Northern France. Prussians of
Russia paid the agitators to talk about peace without indemnities.
Germany, since the first days of the war, has been taking
indemnities not only in money, but in property and in labour from
the conquered countries. Belgium alone has been compelled to pay
a tribute of forty-million francs a month (lately sixty million)
to her conquerors and vast sums have been exacted from Lille and
other conquered cities. Property, including machinery, has been
seized and transported to Germany in the effort, not only to
obtain a temporary advantage, but to destroy forever factories
that compete with German manufacturers.
Especially do the German autocrats hope to obtain the so-called
Baltic provinces as a spoil of war. Of Courland, Livonia and
Esthonia now largely occupied by the German invaders, Courland
and Livonia were originally possessions of the Teutonic Knights,
then became a part of Poland and finally passed to Russia. The
three provinces were governed semi-independently, until 1876,
when they became in all respects an integral part of the Russian
Empire. The land in the provinces is held by great landowners,
mostly of German blood--and the mass of the population belongs to
the Lutheran Church. The peasants have been kept down by the
lords of the soil, whose sympathies turn to Germany.
In 1913-1914 I met in Berlin several landlords from these
provinces who acted in Berlin and were treated in Berlin like
Germans, although subjects of the Russian Czar. So backward were
these provinces in liberty under their German landlords that it
was not until 1848 that the infamous "right of the lord" (_droit
du Seigneur_ or _Jus primæ noctae_) was abolished.
What Tannenberg has to say about Courland, Livonia and Esthonia
is well worth studying. He writes:
"The most precious portions for us of the Russian
heritage are the German Baltic provinces,
Courland, Livonia, Esthonia.
"To the north in Esthonia and in the northern part
of Livonia live the Esthonians. In the South, the
Livonians of the Lithuanian branch. Esthonians and
Livonians are Lutherans and form the principal
part of the population. There are 250,000 Germans.
But the civilisation is German and gives to the
whole country a German stamp. In the rural
districts, the great landlords, the ministers of
the Gospel and the school masters are German. In
the cities the middle classes are Germans. But the
workingmen are Esthonians or Livonians. The
Russians are only represented in the large cities
by officials.
"It was in the middle of the twelfth century that
the first German settlements were made at the
mouth of the Dina. In 1201, Riga was founded, and,
in 1202, the Order of the Knights of the Sword. In
1237 this Order was united with the powerful Order
of the Teutonic Knights. There was no thought then
of the Muscovites. From Marienburg to Riga it is
five hundred kilometres, from Koenigsburg to Riga,
three hundred and fifty, to Moscow eight hundred
and fifty. Moscow was then going through a very
difficult period. In 1225, the battle of the
Kalka took place which put an end to the power of
the great Russian Princes.
"From Riga to Kalka, Dantzig, Stettin and Lubeck,
there was sea communication. The all powerful
merchant marine of the Hanseatic League was at its
height...."
Tannenberg describes how these provinces finally became part of
Russia and adds:
"Courland, Livonia and Esthonia became the model
provinces of the whole Empire. The German nobility
furnished Russia with its generals and its high
officials: the University of Dorpat was founded
and was the model of the high schools created
later in Russia.... The University of Dorpat
exchanged its professors with the other German
high schools of the Russian Empire. The students
of the Baltic provinces passed several terms in
the German Universities of the South and East of
Germany and then returned to Dorpat to undergo
their examinations to enter in the service of the
Baltic or Russian State.
"One encounters constantly in our literature
allusions to the Baltic provinces. Kant, the
philosopher of pure reason, published his work at
Riga.... In the time of Goethe students from
Courland and Livonia visited the great of Weimar.
Richard Wagner commenced at Riga his theatrical
and musical career."
Tannenberg speaks of the revolution after the defeat by the
Japanese of the Russian troops in these provinces when the
castles of the German Barons were besieged by the people and
says, "The cry of indignation resounded through all Germany. A
military German intervention was generally expected. Against all
expectation nothing of the kind happened." ... "When the Russian
Government finally got control the Russian troops treated the
rebels mildly and it was finally the sparkling on the horizon of
five million German bayonets that hastened matters so well that
superficially, at least, order was re-established."
Speaking on the annexation of those provinces to Germany he says:
"There is no money to be seized in the East but
there is something which is of more value than
cash and that is lands, lands of colonisation for
new German peasants." And he points out that the
Baltic provinces are about the same size as
Bavaria and Württemberg, but in Bavaria and
Württemberg there are eight and a half millions of
inhabitants while the Baltic provinces support a
little over two millions.
"The Baltic provinces have always occupied an
important place in the thought and sentiments of
the German people. The public as a whole does not
inquire if it's true that only fifteen per cent of
the population is German. For the public they are
simply the German provinces of the Baltic and the
German people are right, because since seven
hundred years the proprietors of the land there
are Germans and the civilisation has always been
German."
Should Germany be allowed to seize these provinces, to increase
her population and man power enormously, a second great war like
this one will not be far off and Russia, deprived of what Peter
the Great called "His window on the Baltic," will lose her place
as an European Power.
The Germans will endeavour, during any peace negotiations, to
keep their troops there in the hope that they will be permitted
to occupy these provinces or that, if a vote should be taken to
determine to which country the inhabitants wish to be annexed,
the latter would be coerced through the German landlords, and by
the use of money and terror made to appear as desirous of
annexation to Germany.
Prince Münster, who had been in this section during the war, told
me once how easy it was to observe that the more prosperous
sections of the population were German and how anxious these
people were to become Germans. In this case I think he was right
to the extent that the feudal landlords of the Baltic provinces
believe that as Prussian Junkers they would have a greater chance
to continue to oppress the people than as Russian citizens,
especially citizens of a new Russian republic.
The Allies must guard against any move which can add to the man
power of the Central Powers, and this reason alone is sufficient
reason never to permit the Arabs and Syrians, who have been so
oppressed by the Turks, to suffer again under the rule of the
Young Turks.
The world must not be disturbed again by Prussian dreams of world
conquest, nor must Jerusalem and the Holy Land, towards which the
eyes of all Christians have turned for twenty centuries, be
voluntarily given back to the Turks.
To allow the Germans access to Bagdad is to invite trouble--a
second attempt of the Kaiser to don the turban and proclaim a
Holy War in the interest of the fat merchants of Hamburg and
Frankfort.
If this were an old time war, when sly diplomats sat at a green
table, exchanging territories and peoples like poker chips, we
might consent to the partition and destruction of Russia as most
natural. But this war is between two systems, and wars either
will be continued or cease hereafter. We who hope for the end of
war cannot permit Germany to add to her man power any part of the
rapidly multiplying population of that great territory which we
now call Russia.
It is probable that Russia will go through the stages of the
great French Revolution. We have had already the revolution made
by the whole nation, Duma, army, and the control of the
respectable moderate Republicans. The period of the Jacobins, the
extremists, has come, too, and we must in the end expect the
appearance of the military leader, a strong man who will bring
order. That is what will happen, for Russia cannot remain a
nation under the control of any government which cheerfully
consents to dismemberment of her territory. Perhaps Trotzky will
be clever enough to transform himself into a patriotic militant
leader, if not, then he will not long remain at the head.
All these movements of lesser so-called nationalities are
fostered by Prussian propagandists.
The region of the Ukraine, in Southern Russia, is supposed to be
clamouring for freedom and independent existence. Long before
the Russian revolution, I and all the diplomats of Germany were
flooded with newspapers, pamphlets and literature about the
longing of the Ukraine--all as plainly issued by the Germans as
if they had been stamped with the Royal arms of Prussia and the
seal of the General Staff.
The Lithuanians, too, stir uneasily. There is, perhaps, more in
their claim; they request the world not to confuse them with the
Poles and they protest against incorporation with Poland. But
should a number of little states be created, sliced from the map
of Russia, they would enjoy but a short independence before
falling, one by one, into the maw of Prussia.
Every one sympathises with the Poles and hopes for the
establishment of a really free and independent Poland, and not a
Poland under the rule or protection of either Austria or Germany.
It will be a great experiment, because in the past the great
state of Poland, one of the greatest in Europe, was broken
because of the incapacity of the Poles to rule themselves. Their
armies showed great bravery, the Polish cavalry, winged like
angels, terrified enemy cavalry horses and charged often to
victory; but the Polish aristocrats, camped with thousands of
retainers at the place where the King was elected, sat patiently
waiting for the highest bidder before giving their votes.
And the King once elected, the Polish diet accomplished nothing,
because any noble who voted against a proposition could defeat
it. This was the so-called "liberum veto" so fatal to Poland.
Katharine of Russia, that clever, wise, dissolute but great
German Princess, placing a puppet favourite on the Polish throne,
insisted on the retention of the "liberum veto" in the Polish
Constitution, because she knew that by the mere existence of this
asinine institution Poland could be counted on to commit suicide
for the benefit of the watching spoilers, Russia, Prussia and
Austria.
But a new, real Poland would not be governed by its aristocracy,
and under a democratic government the splendid Polish race could
be trusted to work out successfully their political salvation.
Should the strong man fail to appear in Russia and the Bolsheviki
continue to rule, then the confusion of Russia may not prove an
immediate help to Germany.
In the first place, no one now works in Russia; the population
will be in want of food and will not have any great surplus to
export; and it will be a long time before Germany can draw any
material help from the Steppes of incompetency. Had Russia
immediately settled down to a new form of government, the case
might have been different, but now Germany or some power in
Russia must first organise that vast country for production under
new conditions before Germany can begin to profit from the
withdrawal of Russia from the war except, perhaps, in that
important factor--the release of German troops from the Eastern
frontier. But as time passes the Germans may use food from
Russia to bribe northern neutral nations into an alliance with
the Central Empires.
Revolutions are contagious. In 1848, the movement started in
France spread all over Europe. The burdened horse on the road
evinces a tendency to get out of hand at the mere sight of
another horse cavorting about a pasture. The Germans are in
blinders and driven by heavy hand, but forgotten as liberty is in
Germany, the German Michael, the peasant chained to the soil, the
hard-driven, poorly paid worker of the cities, at least, will
exhibit a spirit of uneasiness, when across the line he sees
Ivan, the Russian moujik, capering about, free from restraint and
running things at his own sweet will. The yoke fits tight to
Michael's neck, the German Kaiser drives hard from his All
Highest Place; but no Emperor seemed more secure than the head of
the Romanoffs, and the very fact that the chains of the yoke seem
so strong may make the driven cattle all the more ready to toss
the yoke aside when knowledge of power comes to the lower castes
of Germany and Austria.
* * * * *
On the question of war Prussia is a civilisation as different
from that of France, Great Britain and America as is China.
Ministers of the Gospel, professors, poets, writers, teach war;
the necessity, the glory, the nobility of war. Long before
Nietzsche wrote and Treitschke taught war as a part of the
Prussian creed the teachings of these mad philosophers expressed
an indigenous feeling in Germany. It is not some abstract
belief to be studied. It is a vital, burning, ever-present
question which affects deeply, intimately, every man in this
world. For until the Prussians are made weary of this belief and
converted to a milder life, there is no woman in any corner of
the earth, however remote, who may not have to see her son or
husband go out to die in the fight against Prussian aggression,
who may not, if this fight fails, be dragged away with her
daughters to become slaves or endure that which is far worse than
slavery.
[Illustration: REPRODUCTION OF A POST CARD CELEBRATING THE
PROWESS OF THE ZEPPELIN, SOLD IN GERMANY]
[Illustration: ZEPPELIN POST CARD OF PATRIOTIC SENTIMENT SOLD IN
GERMANY POPULARIZING THE AIR RAID ON DEFENSELESS CITIES]
If the Prussian people themselves cling to their Gods of War, if
Kaiser and Crown Prince fulfil their ideals, if the Prussian
leave the reins in the hands of these warlike task masters and
refuse to join the other peoples in stamping out the devil of
war, then the conflict must go on, go on until the Germans get
their stomachs full of war, until they forget their easy
victories of the last century, until their leaders learn that war
as a national industry does not pay, until their wealth and their
trade has disappeared, until their sons are maimed and killed and
their land laid waste, until the blinders fall from their eyes
and they sicken of Emperor and Crown Prince, of the almost
countless Kings and Grand Dukes and Princes, Generals and
Admirals, Court Marshals and Chamberlains and Majors and
Adjutants, Captains and Lieutenants, who now, like fat, green,
distended flies, feed on the blood of Germany. What is there in
war for any one but those men of froth at the top? It is this
infernal king business that is responsible; so much of the king
tradition is bound up with war that a king with power feels that
he is untrue to the traditions of his ancestors if he fails at
some period of his career to give the court painters and the
court poets and the court historians a chance to portray him as a
successful warrior.
The British air minister recently announced that reprisal raids
were to be made on German towns. Who is not sorry for the poor
people who may suffer, but the war must be brought home to them.
They have made no protest while Zeppelins killed babies and women
and children in the "fortress" of London. The "fortress" of
London, indeed! First the Germans attack an open town, contrary
to every rule, and then, when guns are mounted to ward off future
attacks, the Germans christen the town a "fortress" and claim the
right to continue this slaughter of non-combatants.
Postcards were sold and eagerly bought all over Germany showing
the Zeppelins bombing towns. When some German father sits by the
hospital bed of his dying daughter, who sobs out her life torn
with a fatal wound, let him tack one of these postcards over the
bed and in looking on it remember that "he who lives by the sword
shall perish by the sword," that it was at the command of the
Kaiser and the Crown Prince when they thought only the German
Zeppelins could make a successful air raid that these massacres
were ordered and that the German people at the time yelled their
approval of deliberate dastardly murder.
"Te Deum" has been always the favourite psalm sung in cathedrals
for all Christian conquerors, but neither psalms nor the paid
pastor's praises of the Emperor will satisfy the German people,
who have made awful sacrifices for intangible victories.