in which Apponyi distinguished himself and which Vasily and Novikof
followed with great interest, we make a call on Maurus Jókai. An attack
of indisposition prevented him from taking part in the Conference, but
he is well enough to receive us. He lives in a villa of his own, not
large but very beautiful, and surrounded by a garden. He shows us all
his treasures,—his worktable, his books, and the gifts which he received
at his Jubilee; among them the splendid offering from the Hungarian
nation, the de luxe edition of his complete works, for the publication
of which subscriptions of a hundred thousand gulden were paid in
advance,—a gift of honor presented to the poet by his fellow-countrymen.
Two very interesting hours. Jókai tells us much about his life. He gives
me his photograph inscribed with his name.
In the evening a gala performance of the opera _Bank-Ban_, by Erkel[14];
Bianca Bianchi trills like a nightingale.
September 25. Final session. Closing banquet in the festival hall of the
Exposition. Eight hundred participants. On both sides of the vestibule
stand Haiduks in gala uniform. At the table of honor, with the leaders
of the various foreign groups, are Beernaert, Passy, Stanhope, Descamps,
and others; and the Hungarians, Szilagyi, Szell, Apponyi, Szapary,
Berzeviczy, Franz Kossuth, and Mayor Ráth as host. My neighbors are the
English General Havelock and Count Koloman Esterhazy. After the toast to
the King, offered by the mayor, Koloman Szell toasts the members of the
Conference, “the masters and banner bearers in the greatest question in
the progress of civilization.”
The exercises were not at an end even on the last day of the Conference.
The participants were invited to help celebrate the opening of the “Iron
Gate,” which was to take place in the presence of the Emperor. On the
twenty-sixth of September, in the evening, two special trains took us to
Orsova, where comfortable quarters were assigned to each and every
guest. On the morning of the twenty-seventh, radiant with unclouded
sunshine, we all went aboard the special steamboat _Zriny_, which,
occupying the fourth place in the column, accompanied the imperial ship
down the Danube; the second boat carried the generals, the third the
diplomats. After the flotilla reached the Kazan pass, the imperial ship
cut through a cable of flowers stretched across the Danube canal—the
“Iron Gate” was opened.
“This festal occasion,” said Emperor Franz Joseph, “which brings us
together to celebrate a great work of public utility, fills me with
happiness, and in the conviction that this work will give a powerful and
healthy impulse to the peaceful and advantageous development of
international relations, I drink to the happiness and prosperity of the
nations.”
The four steamboats now moved slowly past and sailed back to Orsova.
L
OTHER EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1896
Jingo criticism of Budapest · A prophetic chapter from _Schach der Qual_
· A poem by Hoyos and a letter from Nathaniel Rothschild · Visits of the
Tsar · Extracts from diary · Correspondence between the Austrian Peace
Society and the English Department of Foreign Affairs · Treaty of peace
between Menelik and Italy
Again at Harmannsdorf. The days at Budapest had left a joyous feeling of
exultation. The meeting had given conspicuous testimony to the growth of
the movement and to the impression that it was making in powerful
political circles. Perfectly amusing and indeed comical in its malicious
perversion of facts, its absolutely bottomless ignorance, was an article
in the jingo press that I found in a mountain of press notices which had
collected at home during our absence. The _St. James Gazette_ of
September 18 wrote:
There are more important transactions in progress at this moment in
Europe than the Seventh Peace Congress, which has just met in the
Grand Hall of the Municipal Palace in Budapest. None are more odd, or,
in a way, better worth looking at. The good men who have met on the
initiative of a most excellent lady, the Baroness Bertha von Suttner,
author of “Down with Arms,” and creator of the Peace Congress,
represent the fine flower of all that vaguely well-meaning, emotional,
and unpractical class of persons which is to be found in most
countries, and nowhere in finer feather than among ourselves. To see
that there is something wrong in the world, and to propose a remedy
which, on inquiry, turns out to be a radical change in human nature,
is the same thing with them. They are active in many fields, or, to
speak with more accuracy, they talk at large on many subjects; but
they are nowhere seen in more complete beauty than when in congress
assembled for the purpose of speaking of peace.... Carlyle wanted to
know the meaning of the moralist who, in the conflict between Gods and
Giants, put out his hand armed “with a pair of tweezers.” At this
moment, when it is really not too much to say that all Europe is “a
town of war, the people’s hearts yet wild, brimful of fear,” the good
Baroness Bertha and like-minded persons come forward at Budapest with
their pair of tweezers.... The value of the Baroness von Suttner’s
picnic becomes fully conspicuous when we turn, etc., etc.
I sent Alfred Nobel a careful account of the events at Budapest, and
corresponded also with Egidy about them. I worked steadily on my book,
_Schach der Qual_, an imaginative story. A chapter in it is called
_Frohbotschaft_ (“Good Tidings”). It describes an “international
conference for securing peace.” In his opening address the chairman
speaks these words:
This meeting is called together at the initiative of one of the most
powerful sovereigns of Europe, and after the assent to its principal
object has been obtained from all the other governments; and almost
all countries, great and small, with very few exceptions, have
declared their agreement and are here represented.
The book was begun in 1895 and was published by Pierson at the beginning
of 1897, so that the words here cited cannot be a reminiscence of the
Hague Peace Conference, which was first summoned in 1898 by “one of the
most powerful sovereigns of Europe”; but they are a prophetic
announcement of it. This was a coincidence rare enough to make it worthy
of remark.
Other incidents that interested me during the year 1896 I find jotted
down in my diary:
October 2. No letter from Hoyos in a long time. He must be ill. I hope
he will soon be well again, the splendid man! There are not many in our
aristocracy who are so free and grand and magnanimous in their thoughts,
and who are so entirely opposite to reactionary—almost socialistic. Note
this example of it: Lately a collection was taken for the unemployed.
Hoyos added the following verses to his contribution:
_Sammlung für die Arbeitslosen_
For the unemployed, collections,—
Coal, old clothes, and doles of bread,
Linen, hose,—they’re no corrections
For the want so widely spread!
Do not mitigate starvation;
See that hunger you expel;
Then you’ll make the demonstration
That you love your neighbor well.
Give not alms to your poor neighbor;
Stop the source of poverty;[15]
Do not limit, hamper Labor;
Make its course forever free!
In the Code’s indwelling spirit
Let not Law o’er Duty stand;
Let them the same place inherit;
Let all men the Law command!
October 10. The Emperor of Russia has been in Vienna. From there he went
to Breslau, Balmoral, Paris. The result of it is _Pax et Robur_. So at
least some remark; others say the result is _Revanche_; still a third
think that everything remains as it was before. But this last is not
correct. It has brought about something new, to wit,—that in divided and
split-up and hostile Europe the sovereign of one country travels to
another and goes everywhere as a friend and is everywhere received as a
friend. Indeed, if Europe were a civilized complex of states, that would
be as natural and as much a matter of course as it is for a landed
proprietor to make a series of visits among all the neighboring
families. Not in half a century, perhaps, has the word “peace” been so
frequently, so emphatically, so solemnly, so universally repeated in
speeches and newspapers as it has been in consequence of this journey.
That shows the tendency of the _Zeitgeist_; but it is still far from the
peace that we mean. For the whole affair abounds in contradictions,
especially the contradiction that exists between the new tendency and
the old institutions, views, and political constellations still
intrenched in power. Here is a monster of contradiction, such as the
history of the world has never before displayed: two mutually opposed
shields loaded with explosives; two hostile guardians of the peace, or
two peaceable guardians of enmity,—_Dreibund_ and _Zweibund_. Why not
equally well _Fünfbund_?
October 15. Already 165,000 men in all have been sent to Cuba. The
Spanish Ministry of War intend to dispatch 40,000 more, because yellow
fever and other diseases have already greatly reduced the number of the
effective. A loan of a milliard is planned.
October 18. Rear Admiral Tirpitz has elaborated a naval budget of
150,000,000 marks. The _Post_ writes: “Tirpitz has made use of a long
leave of absence, under orders from the supreme authority, to formulate
from the strategic-technical standpoint a plan for organizing our fleet
so that from the military standpoint it shall correspond to the demands
of the present time.” When shall we ever plan from the ethical-humane
standpoint how circumstances may be shaped so that from the standpoint
of the philosopher they may correspond to the demands of a better
future?
November 9. Yesterday our beloved Rudolf Hoyos departed this life at his
Castle Leuterburg in Silesia. Ever more and more numerous the graves!
November 10. Telegram from Washington: “The English ambassador
Pauncefote lays before Secretary of State Olney the proposals for the
Anglo-American treaty pertaining to the settlement of all future
controversies through arbitration.”
This news may announce the dawn of a new epoch of civilization. Yet our
“serious” politicians do not touch upon it in their leading articles.
The following letters were exchanged between the Austrian Peace Society
and the Department of Foreign Affairs at London on this occasion:
Austrian Peace Society
Vienna, November 17, 1896
My Lord Marquis:
The Committee of the Austrian Peace Society venture to express to your
Lordship their deep gratification in the treaty passed at Washington,
November 9th. This is the greatest triumph which the cause of
civilization has hitherto attained, and posterity will never forget
the part which, in this happy achievement, is due to your Lordship’s
wisdom and energy.
We have the honor to be, respectfully
Baroness Bertha Suttner (president)
Prince Alfred Wrede (vice president)
To the most Honorable
the Marquis of Salisbury
London, Foreign Office
London, Foreign Office
November 21, 1896
Madam:
I am directed by the Marquis of Salisbury to acknowledge the receipt
of your letter of the 17th inst., expressing the gratification of the
Austrian Peace Association in regard to the negotiation between Great
Britain and the United States on the question of arbitration, and I am
to express his Lordship’s thanks for your communication.
I am, Madam, your most obedient humble servant
F. H. Villiers
The Baroness of Suttner, Vienna
November 20. The papers are full of the Bismarck disclosure.[16] The
explanations given right and left in the Reichstag by Prince Hohenlohe
and Herr von Marschall set a limit to further extension. Yes, much was
certainly disclosed in this affair, and particularly the rascally face
not of this or that politician but of that folk-cheating intrigante
called “high politics.”
November 25. Good news. Italy and Menelik have concluded peace. Only a
few days ago the Trieste _Picolo_ learned from a diplomat of high rank
that the chances for a treaty of peace with Menelik were small; he was
unwilling to submit to the condition that he should not put himself
under the protection of any European power. “Let the Roman government
circles take into account the probabilities that the prisoners must be
left to their fate(!) and hostilities resumed.” But the diplomat of high
rank was fortunately mistaken. The treaty of peace is signed. In a
letter which Menelik on this occasion addressed to the King of Italy he
said that it was a pleasure for him, on the twentieth of November, the
Queen’s birthday, to be able to restore their sons to the Italian
mothers; and thus he showed a tenderer feeling for the prisoners than
the above-mentioned Roman government circles.
According to the tenor of the treaty Italy renounces the (falsely
interpreted) treaty of Utshili, and the two belligerents resume their
former boundaries. Consequently the _status quo ante_—why, therefore,
the great sorrow, the gigantic expenditures, the heaps of corpses
mutilated and putrefying in the torrid sun? Why? why?
LI
ALFRED NOBEL’S DEATH AND WILL
News of his death · His last letter to me · The will · Letter from
Moritz Adler · The will is contested · Letter from the executor ·
Emanuel Nobel’s noble act · Fortunate solution · Distribution of the
peace prize up to date
December 12. Alfred Nobel is dead.
I recorded this loss in my diary with this single line. The news—I found
it in the newspapers—was a bitter blow to me. The tie of a twenty years’
friendship was snapped. The last letter which I received from Nobel was
from Paris, dated the twenty-first of November, and ran as follows:
Paris, November 21, 1896
Dear Baroness and Friend:
“Feeling well”—no, unhappily for me, I am not, and I am even
consulting doctors, which is contrary not only to my custom, but also
to my principles. I, who have no heart, figuratively speaking, have
one organically, and I am conscious of it.
But that will suffice for me and my petty miseries. I am enchanted to
see that the peace movement is gaining ground. That is due to the
civilizing of the masses, and especially to the prejudice hunters and
darkness hunters, among whom you hold an exalted rank. Those are your
titles of nobility.
Heartily yours,
A. Nobel
The ailing heart on which he touches playfully brought him to his death.
On the tenth of December—he was then at his villa in San Remo—he was
suddenly snatched away by angina pectoris. No one was with him when he
died; he was found in his workroom—dead!
Some time after the report of Alfred Nobel’s death the newspapers
announced that he had left his millions for benevolent purposes, a part
to go towards promoting the peace movement. But the details were
lacking. I received, however, from the Austrian ambassador in Stockholm
a copy of the will; and the executor of it, Engineer Sohlmann, entered
into correspondence with me. So I became accurately informed as to the
provisions of this remarkable last will and testament:
After payment of legacies to relatives, amounting to about a million
crowns, the residue of the property—thirty-five millions—was set aside
for the formation of a fund, from the interest of which five yearly
prizes should be assigned to such as had contributed some notable
service to the benefit of mankind. These were specifically:
1. For the most important discovery and invention in the realm of
physics;
2. For the most important discovery and invention in the realm of
chemistry;
3. For the most important discoveries in the domain of physiology or
medicine;
4. For the most distinguished productions of an idealistic tendency in
the realm of literature;
5. To that man or woman who shall have worked most effectively for the
fraternization of mankind, the diminution of armies, and the promotion
of Peace Congresses.
The Stockholm Academy is intrusted with the assignment of the first
four prizes, the Norwegian Storthing with that of the fifth.
After the publication of the provisions of the will I received the
following letter from the faithful collaborator on my _Review_, Moritz
Adler, the author of the valuable essays _Zur Philosophie des Krieges_
(“The Philosophy of War”).
Vienna, January 4, 1897
My dear Madam:
Allow me to congratulate you with all my heart on the New Year’s
delight which the splendid Nobel foundation must have given you, of
course modified by the drop of wormwood which the death of such a
spirit and heart mixed with the nectar. _Multis ille bonis flebilis
occidit_ can be truthfully said of this great man now passed away. He
left behind no sanitary train for future gladiatorial baiting of the
nations, for it was far from his idea to wish to put to sleep the
consciences of the mighty and to make them believe that he thought it
possible for the disgrace to be repeated. He has not founded a
hospital, either, for the other sick, who are not innocently condemned
by society to wounds and death. But millions in days to come will
rejoice in brighter life and health, and perhaps not one in a thousand
will ever suspect that he owes it to Nobel alone that he is not a
cripple or a candidate for an infirmary. Could we have believed it
possible that Mammon, Mammon sprung from dynamite, should be so
ennobled? I am happy to have lived until this day; it has been the
richest joy of my life.
I kiss your hand with the profoundest respect.
Moritz Adler
Indeed, yes; this foundation was a deep gratification to me; again
something new had come into the world: not the donors of alms, nor the
lawgivers, least of all the conquerors, have been held up as the
benefactors of mankind, but the discoverers and explorers, and the poets
inspired by high ideals, and, in the same category, the workers in the
service of international peace. Already the news of this last will and
testament has aroused general attention; and every year, at the time
when the prizes are awarded, this sensation will be repeated. It has
been openly declared to the world, not by an overexcited dreamer, but by
an inventor of genius (an inventor of war material into the bargain),
that the brotherhood of nations, the diminution of armies, the promotion
of Peace Congresses, belong to the things that signify most for the
well-being of mankind.
Thus a guiding star is fixed in the sky, and the clouds that have
hitherto obscured it are breaking away more and more; the name of this
star is Human Happiness. But as long as men legally threaten one
another’s lives, as long as they are at feud instead of being helpful
one to another, there will be no universal happiness. Yet it must and
will come. The increasing spirit of research puts into man’s hand a
nature-controlling power which can make of him a god or a devil.
“Here you have a material,” said the living Nobel to his own generation,
“with which you can annihilate everything and yourself as well....” But
the dead Nobel compels us to look at yonder star and says to future
generations, “Grow nobler, and you will attain happiness.”
It was five years before the distribution of the prizes began. It took
this length of time because a lawsuit which was brought by certain
members of the Nobel family against the validity of the will had to be
decided, and then the estate had to be liquidated. If the then head of
the family, Emanuel Nobel, had joined the rest in the protest, the will
would have been broken, to his own great advantage; but Emanuel Nobel
refused his consent to this step. He declared that his uncle’s will was
sacred to him, and he took the ground that it must be faithfully carried
out in all respects, even in regard to the fifth clause, which was
especially endangered.
A letter dated April 13, 1898, from the executor of the will, brought me
interesting particulars regarding the whole matter. Mr. Ragnar Sohlmann
wrote:
... As you will have learned from the papers, certain members of the
Nobel family have been attempting to break Herr Nobel’s will in the
Swedish courts, and especially on the ground that no residuary legatee
is constituted. The Nobel fund as created by the will itself lacks the
necessary elements—so they claim—for performing its functions,—that is
to say, administrators.
To this we shall reply that all necessary elements have been provided
by the will, namely, the capital, the scope of action, and the
institutions designated to perform the action,—the Swedish Academy and
the Norwegian Storthing. The mere organization—so we shall
urge—belongs evidently to the task conferred upon the executors and
the Academy.
Originally the complainants conceived the plan of bringing the suit
before a French court by endeavoring to prove that Herr Nobel’s legal
residence was not in Sweden but in Paris. They regarded the French
laws as more favorable to their claims than the Swedish, and this
undoubtedly would have been the case. We have so far succeeded in
preventing the execution of this plan, and only a few days ago the
highest court of Sweden rendered the decision that Bofors was Herr
Alfred Nobel’s legal residence.
The fact that Herr Emanuel Nobel, of St. Petersburg, and the whole
Russian branch of the family decline to take part in the suit forms a
very important factor in the coming trial. This circumstance assures
the fulfillment of the will in so far as it concerns the corresponding
portion of the property. In consequence, the will may be regarded as
established regarding eight twentieths of the whole estate. That
diminishes also the chances for a judicial declaration of the
invalidity of the remaining twelve twentieths.
The chief danger for the will lies in the actual animosity which at
the present time obtains between Sweden and Norway, and in the fear
here entertained—even among the members of the government—that the
whole thing might give rise to further irritation between the two
countries. The conservatives especially believe—or pretend to
believe—that the Norwegian Storthing might use the prize to “bribe”
other countries to oppose Sweden. And they have certainly been given
some ground for their fears by the appointment of Björnson, who is
regarded as Sweden’s worst enemy and is on the committee which is to
award the prizes. The truth of the matter is that the members of the
Nobel family who are trying to break the will are supported by the
conservatives here, even by some members of the government.[17]
So far my correspondent, who indicated that these communications were
confidential, not designed for publication. Of course, as long as the
matter was undecided I did not give out the above information; but now,
since the lawsuit was long ago decided in favor of the validity of the
will, and the accompanying circumstances have become an open secret, I
may be permitted to regard the injunction of privacy as removed. But it
is a matter of universal interest to see how picayune politics
everywhere harbors suspicions and enmities, and how, in general, the
“conservatives” are distrustful of the peace movement and kindred
matters. Now the Swedish-Norwegian controversy has been settled;
Björnson is no longer counted as an enemy of Sweden. He received from
the hand of the King himself the Nobel prize for literature, and, in
company with Emanuel Nobel, dined at the royal table, on which occasion
Oscar II conversed in the most friendly spirit with the Norwegian bard.
The first distribution of the prizes took place on the tenth of October,
1901, the anniversary of Nobel’s death. At commemorative exercises in
Stockholm the King himself delivered to the laureates the four prizes
assigned by the Swedish Academy. The peace prize was awarded by the
Nobel committee of the Storthing.
In the eight years that have passed since then the peace prize has been
awarded as follows: 1901, Frédéric Passy and Henri Dunant;[18] 1902,
Élie Ducommun and Albert Gobat; 1903, William Randal Cremer; 1904,
Institut du droit international; 1905, Bertha von Suttner; 1906,
President Theodore Roosevelt; 1907, Ernesto Teodoro Moneta and Louis
Renault; 1908, K. P. Arnoldson and M. F. Bajer.
LII
FIRST HALF OF THE YEAR 1897
From my collections of letters · Signing of the Anglo-American
arbitration treaty · The ratification fails by three votes ·
Insurrection in Crete · The concert of the powers · Outbreak of the
Turko-Grecian War · Extracts from diary · The letter “to all good men”
from Fortress Montjuich · Letter from Prince Scipione Borghese · Our
literary labors · My audience with Emperor Franz Joseph I · Text of the
petition submitted