For the first time in history a nation has organized lying into a
science and taught deceit as an art.
At the very time when the diplomats of the world have refused any form
of secrecy and insist upon publishing all international treaties and
doing everything in the open, Germany has organized lying into a
national science. Even Maximilian Harden, editor of _Zukunft_, openly
acknowledges this in one of his editorials reproduced in the papers of
Denmark and Holland.
Harden comes right out in the open. He tells the German people that at
the beginning of the war it was necessary to say to the world that
Germany was fighting a defensive war, that her back was against the
wall, that those wicked enemies named England and France, Russia and
Belgium were leaping upon her like wolves.
Of course, says Harden, at first that was good diplomacy, but now that
we are successful, "Why say this any longer? Let the Kaiser and his
Chancellor tell the world plainly that we decided upon this war
twenty-five years ago; that during all of these years we were preparing
cannons and shells; that we drilled ten million men against 'Der Tag';
that we wanted this war, that we planned this war, that we forced this
war and that we are proud of it."
With one stroke Harden has torn off the mask. He exhibits the Kaiser as
the prince of liars. If his words mean anything, they mean that what has
long been surmised is absolutely true, namely, that Germany wished some
one would kill the Austrian Prince and Princess so as to start the war,
for which Berlin had prepared everything, down to the last buckle on the
harness of the horses.
General von Bissing is not less open. Dying men are not apt to tell
lies. When he saw that the end was coming the Governor-General of
Belgium prepared what he called his "last will and testament."
As a close and intimate friend of the Kaiser, he left a letter with his
will asking the German Government carefully to consider his wishes. He
says plainly that all of the statements that Berlin never intended to
annex Belgium were pure camouflage. He urges the Berlin office to flatly
declare its purpose never to give up a foot of the Belgian coast nor an
acre of the conquered territory of north France and Belgium.
"It is of no consequence," he says, "that we have given a solemn pledge
not to annex Belgium. Why not tell the world that we will have failed in
the one thing for which we set out if we evacuate Belgium? We need
Belgium's coast line for our shipping."
He adds that Germany has used twenty-three million tons of Belgian coal
and has taken as much more iron ore out of France's basin in Briey. "We
cannot live and compete with France and England if we give up the coal
and iron mines that we have conquered and the harbours that we have
won."
Having affirmed, therefore, that the German Government lied at the
beginning in claiming that they entered Belgium fighting a defensive
warfare, General von Bissing cast about for some one behind whom he can
hide as a screen and who can be used as an authority for lying. He finds
his guide and leader in "The Prince," written by Machiavelli. That book
has often been called the treatise on the art of lying. Never was such
cunning exhibited. Never was the father of lies invoked with such skill
as by the German leaders. In their sight truth is contemptible,
kindness is weakness, honour is a figment.
But the individual, the city, or the empire that builds its life on lies
builds its house on sand. Soon the rains will descend and the floods
come, the winds will blow, and the house will fall, and great will be
the fall of it.
The German is like a thirsty man who tries to quench his thirst by
drinking scalding water. He is like a hungry man who tries to satisfy
his appetite by eating red-hot coals.