artificially engendered belligerency, owing its inspiration to a
subtle propaganda conducted through a portion of the press known
to be under the direct influence of Lord Northcliffe, there was no
demand for war with Germany among the people in general over the
various issues that had arisen. The McLemore resolution in the House
was defeated through the direct intervention of the administration
under whip and spur. It requested the President to warn American
citizens to refrain from traveling on armed ships of any and all
powers then or in the future at war.
In the Senate the Gore resolution declaring “that the sinking by
a German submarine without notice or warning of an armed merchant
vessel of her public enemy, resulting in the death of a citizen of
the United States, would constitute a just cause of war between the
United States and the German Empire” was laid on the table by a
vote of 68 to 14. It had been designed by Senator Gore to put the
issue squarely up to the Senate. Senator Stone in the Senate said,
referring to the original Gore resolution warning American citizens
to keep off armed merchant vessels: “The President is firmly opposed
to the idea embodied in the Gore resolution. He is not only opposed
to Congress passing a law relating to this subject, but he is opposed
to any form of official warning to American citizens to keep off
so-called armed merchantmen. If I could have my way I would take some
definite step to save this country from becoming embroiled in this
European war through the recklessness of foolhardy men.”
A few days before, the Senator, chairman of the Committee on Foreign
Relations, had returned from an interview with the President which
had convinced him even then that war was impending.
In various parts of the country test votes of whole communities
showed an overwhelming sentiment in favor of peace. W. J. Bryan had
resigned as Secretary of State because “the issue involved is of such
moment that to remain a member of the Cabinet would be as unfair to
you (the President) as it would be to the cause which is nearest my
heart, namely, the prevention of war.”
Perhaps the best indication whether the war was popular or not is
that supplied by the number of volunteers who offered themselves
for service from April 1, 1917, to April 6, 1918, in eleven eastern
States, as follows:
Connecticut 4,263
Delaware 807
Maine 2,491
Maryland 4,029
Massachusetts 19,253
New Hampshire 1,364
New Jersey 10,145
New York 44,191
Pennsylvania 45,687
Rhode Island 2,496
Vermont 645
-------
135,371
The number of enlistments in the remaining States was in proportion.
The President had been elected because “he kept us out of the war.”
In his nominating speech ex-Governor Glynn of New York assured the
country that, if elected, Mr. Wilson would keep us out of war.
It became the campaign slogan. The Democratic National Committee
published full-page advertisements in the daily press. On November 4,
1916, it printed in all the papers a full-page display with a cartoon
under the caption, “Mr. Hughes Would Name a Strong Cabinet,” showing
a council of ten Roosevelts in Rough Rider attire, with slouched hats
and spurs, and in every possible attitude of vociferous belligerency,
intended to show the kind of cabinet that Mr. Hughes would select.
In heavy type these lines appeared: “You Are Working--Not Fighting!”
“Alive and Happy--Not Cannon Fodder!” “Wilson and Peace With Honor
or Hughes With Roosevelt and War?” “The Lesson is Plain: If You Want
War Vote for Hughes; If You Want Peace With Honor Vote for Wilson and
Continued Prosperity. It Is up to You and Your Conscience!”
It latterly became known that though Hughes had repeatedly declared
himself clearly on the issues in the course of his campaign speeches
his remarks on this subject were not reported. All reference to the
European situation and his views thereon were suppressed.
The city of Milwaukee gave Wilson 6,000 majority over Hughes. He
carried the assured Republican State of Ohio on the issue that he
would keep us out of the war and the decisive vote was given by
California under the belief that with Wilson peace would be assured.
The defeat of Hughes secondarily must be attributed to Colonel
Roosevelt. The latter’s personality fell like an ominous shadow
across the path of the Republican candidate. Roosevelt was satisfied
with nothing short of immediate war, and, nominally fighting Wilson,
was in effect making the election of Hughes impossible. Repeatedly
proven to have lost his power of influencing political results in his
own State of New York, in New England and other sections, he still
was able to decree the defeat of the candidate of his own party by
inspiring popular fear of his future sway over him.
In Washington it was known that preparations for war with Germany
were long under way. Secretary McAdoo, the President’s son-in-law,
was understood to have entered into a secret arrangement with Brazil,
during his visit there, for the seizure of German ships when the hour
to strike should have arrived. The administration in 1916, months
before the election, passed through Congress appropriations for
military purposes larger than those provided in the German budget for
1914, the year of the war:
United States, for 1917 $294,565,623
German Empire, for 1914 294,390,000
------------
In excess of Germany $ 175,623
The national election occurred in November, 1916. Three months later,
early in February, 1917, Count Bernstorff, the German ambassador, was
handed his passports and relations with Germany were broken off. The
announcement came like a bolt out of a clear sky. The President was
not to be inaugurated until March 4 following. Within a month of his
formal inauguration he announced that we were in a state of war with
the imperial German government.
The events that followed were marked by a complete surrender of
Congress and the domination of the Executive over the Legislative
branch of our government. The President was invested with dictatorial
powers; political traditions and the time-honored admonitions of
the founders of the government were disregarded and overruled. A
Cabinet order had already decreed that American citizens forswearing
their allegiance in order to serve in the British army were not to
lose their standing as American citizens. Now armies of conscripts
were made ready to be sent a distance of 3,000 miles to fight for
the safeguarding of democracy in Europe and to protect us from an
invasion, possible only by ships which were subsequently pronounced
by the Secretary of the Navy to be restricted by their bunker
capacity to operations in European waters.
A sudden mad fury seized the people, following a visit of Lord
Northcliffe, marked by numerous conferences with publishers during
a trip West. The press became unanimous, with the exception of
the Hearst papers, on the question that Germany must be crushed.
During the floating of the $500,000,000 loan to England and France
pending our neutrality, full page advertisements had been generously
distributed to papers throughout the country by the Morgan banking
interests. In mining regions, in steel-producing sections, in great
industrial centers, in cities having large packing interests or sugar
refineries, local interests prevailed to influence sentiment for war
as a means of profit and prosperity. Public opinion was soon rendered
so completely unfit for sober reflection by the continued propaganda
directed from Wall Street and British and French publicity centers
in this country that a wave of hate against people of German descent
swept everything before it. The Germans were not wanted, and papers
like the New York “Sun” declared that Germans were not human beings
in the same sense as other members of the family.
Yet, shortly prior to the election, a member of the Cabinet and
others in the confidence of the administration had come to New York
to confer with those whom they regarded authorized to speak for the
German element to prevail upon them to influence the so-called German
vote in favor of the Democratic candidate, and in one case, at least,
a post of honor was tentatively promised to one such spokesman by an
agent direct from the highest source.
The crowning event of the raging spirit of repression was the passage
of the Overman bill creating the Espionage act, considered elsewhere,
under which every liberal paper was tampered with in one form or
another, and public assembly, the right of petition, freedom of
speech and the press became a memory.
A vigorous reaction against the President set in during the fall
of 1918. Down to that period he had practically had a free hand in
dealing with the conduct of the war and with the European situation.
There had been a protest by Senators against the disregard shown
that body by the President in the initial negotiations at Paris,
but so completely had the Executive dominated the high legislative
body, his treaty-making partner, that the protest took the discreet
form of a round-robin, which in turn was not only disregarded, but
characterized as a presumption to hamper the action of the President.
The November election of 1918 was coming on. The President in Paris
issued an appeal to the voters to elect a Democratic Congress to
strengthen his hands. Diplomatically, steps were inaugurated to
insure the end of the war by the voluntary abdication of the Kaiser
in time to influence the elections with the news of a crushing
victory over Germany. The name of Minister Nelson Morris at
Stockholm, Sweden, as also the name of Senator James Hamilton Lewis
of Illinois, was brought into connection with rumors of negotiations
looking to the surrender of Germany on the basis of the Fourteen
Points in time to enable the news to be flashed to America on the eve
of the election as the crowning achievement of the President. But the
psychological moment passed. The elections occurred on November 7,
the German debacle four days later.
Although it was well understood that a victory was at hand, the
Republicans swept the country. The great Democratic majorities were
reversed, not only in the House, but in the Senate. The Republican
leaders interpreted the result as an endorsement of their party, but
it was really a popular vote of protest that could find no channel of
expression other than the Republican party because of its opposition
to the administration on party policies, though in accord with it on
many of the radically oppressive measures of domestic policy in the
prosecution of the war.
With the Republicans in control of both branches of Congress, the
President’s dominating influence began to wane rapidly. When it
began to be apparent that his visit to Europe, where he had been
hailed by millions as the Moses of the New Freedom, was marked by
one concession on his part after another to the superior statescraft
of Premiers Lloyd George and Clemenceau and that his famous Fourteen
Points had been reduced one by one to zero, the magic slogan, “Stand
by the President,” was forgotten. Some one said that on his way to
Utopia he had met two practical politicians.
A year preceding men were arrested for failing to stand by the
President, as treason to the institutions of the country; now the
tide had turned, the rallying cry had lost its force. The country
was witnessing the spectacle of its President stepping down from
his pedestal to play the game of European politics in the secrecy
of a closet, not with his equals, but with mere envoys of sovereign
powers, guided by radically different interests from our own.
Thence on the President was at open war with the Senate, which had
been kept in ignorance of the peace negotiations and discovered that
a draft of the League of Nations covenant, including the treaty with
Germany, had been in the hands of the Morgan banking group while the
high treaty-making body of our government had been ignored in its
demand for information.
A few courageous Senators, notably Reed of Missouri, Democrat, and
Borah of Idaho and Johnson of California, Republicans, began to
analyze the treaty, and showed that while Great Britain was accorded
six votes the United States would have but one vote in the League,
and that China had been ravaged by the ceding to Japan of the
Shantung Peninsula as the price of her adherence to the League of
Nations. Senator Knox directed attention to the ravagement of the
German people by the terms of the treaty, and, though a conservative,
evidenced the vision of a statesman and patriotic American.
The outlook for the treaty began to darken from day to day. The
administration was still confident, and statements from the White
House declared the treaty to redeem all of the Fourteen Points of
the President’s peace program. But the constant assaults upon it by
Senators Reed, Borah and Johnson in speeches in various parts of the
country eventually aroused the administration to its danger.
A conference with the President was brought about at the White House
in the summer of 1919, at which the Chief Executive expressed himself
ready to answer all questions, and a committee from the Senate waited
upon him to submit a series of inquiries. It was in the course of
this interview that the following colloquy occurred:
=Senator McCumber: “Would our moral conviction of the unrighteousness
of the German war have brought us into this war if Germany had not
committed any acts against us without the League of Nations, as we
had no League of Nations at that time?”=
=The President: “I hope it would eventually, Senator, as things
developed.”=
=Senator McCumber: “Do you think if Germany had committed no act of
war or no act of injustice against our citizens that we would have
got into the war?”=
=The President: “I do think so.”=
=Senator McCumber: “You think we would have gotten in anyway?”=
=The President: “I do.”=
The Republican leader in the House of Representatives, Representative
Mann, in 1916 had declared “Wilson is determined to plunge us into
war with Germany.” Three years later the admission that we would have
been in the war even “if Germany had committed no act of war or no
act of injustice against our citizens” came from the White House, and
Senators stood appalled at the revelation.
The President’s frank admission that the administration would have
drifted into war regardless of what Germany had done or might do, is
strangely in accord with statements contained in the great historic
work on the World War by the former French Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Hanotaux, who writes:
=Just before the Battle of the Marne, when the spirits
of many of the leading politicians in France were so
depressed that they were urging an immediate peace with
Germany, three American ambassadors presented themselves
to the government--the then functioning ambassador, his
predecessor and his successor--and implored the government
not to give up, promising that America would join in the
war.=
“=At present there are but 50,000 influential persons in
America who want it to enter the war, but in a short time
there will be a hundred million.=”
The description makes it easy to identify the three diplomats who
gave France this assurance; they were Robert Bacon, Roosevelt’s
ambassador; Myron T. Herrick, Taft’s ambassador, and William G.
Sharp, Wilson’s ambassador to Paris. This promise was given in
September, 1914. There had then been no alleged outrages against
American rights. The U-boat war had not been started. The Lusitania
was not sunk until May, 1915. Obviously, then, the sinking of the
Lusitania, the U-boat raids, and other alleged offenses, were mere
pretexts of these “50,000 influential persons” in a propaganda to
precipitate their hundred million fellow-citizens into the bloody
European complication.
No compromise now seemed possible. The Senate was determined to take
charge of the treaty, and the President prepared to appeal to the
country by a series of speeches which carried him through the West as
far as the Pacific Coast. During the trip he denounced the opposition
Senators with strong invective, culminating in violent outbreaks of
temper. But apparently his spell over the public mind, the seduction
of his phrases, had been broken. Suddenly came the news of his
physical breakdown, followed by his immediate return to Washington
under the care of physicians, and a long period of confinement with
the attendance of various specialists. Still he continued to direct
the fight in the Senate for the ratification of the League of Nations
and the treaty with Germany without the crossing of a “t” or the
dotting of an “i.”
On November 19, 1919, the question came to a vote on a resolution
of Senator Underwood, resulting in the defeat of the administration
measure by a vote of 38 for and 53 against it. The only Republican
voting with the administration was McCumber of North Dakota, seven
Democrats voting against ratification with the Republicans. They
were Gore of Oklahoma, Reed of Missouri, Shields of Tennessee, Smith
of Georgia, Thomas of Colorado, Trammell of Florida and Walsh of
Massachusetts.
=English Opinion of Prussians in 1813-15.=--The British, as is well
known, revise their opinions of other nations according to their own
selfish interests. The ambition of England to crush Prussia is in
strong contrast to England’s gratitude to Prussian military genius
for saving Wellington from annihilation by Napoleon at Waterloo. The
sinister years of 1806-13 speak an eloquent language. The Corsican
conqueror thought he had crushed Prussia for all times. He had
stripped Prussia of half her territory and trampled the rest under
the hoofs of his cavalry. But Prussia was not dead, and from 1813 to
1815 Prussia was the wonder of the world. The London “Times” said:
“Almost every victory that led to the fall of the conqueror was a
Prussian victory. At Lutzen and Goerzen always the Prussians. At the
Katzbach, always the Prussians; at Grossbeeren and Leipzig, always
the Prussians; in the battles in France, always the Prussians, and
finally at Waterloo, always the Prussians. The Prussian soldier has
proved himself the best soldier of these campaigns.”
=Espionage Act, Vote on.=--By a vote of 48 to 26, the Senate, on
May 4, 1918, adopted the conference report on the Espionage Act. It
accepted all recommendations of the conference, even to the extent of
rejecting the France amendment, designed to protect from prosecution
newspapers and other publications whose criticism of the Government
was shown to be not based on malice.
The actual count showed the result as follows:
AYE: Democrats--Ashurst, Bankhead, Beckham, Chamberlain, Culberson,
Fletcher, Gerry, Guion, Henderson, Hitchcock, Hollis, Jones, of New
Mexico; King, Kirby, Lewis, McKellar, Myers, Overman, Owens, Phelan,
Pittman, Pomerene, Ransdell, Salisbury, Shafroth, Sheppard, Shields,
Simmons, Smith, of Georgia; Smith, of Maryland; Smith, of South
Carolina; Swanson, Thompson, Tillman, Trammell, Underwood, Walsh and
Williams.
Republican--Colt, Fall, Jones, of Washington; Lenroot, McCumber,
McLean, Nelson, Poindexter, Sterling and Warren. Total, 48.
NO: Democrats--Hardwick and Reed--2.
Republicans--Borah, Brandegee, Calder, Curtis, Dillingham, France,
Gallinger, Gronna, Hale, Harding, Johnson, of California; Kenyon,
Knox, Lodge, McNary, New, Norris, Page, Sherman, Smoot, Sutherland,
Wadsworth, Watson and Weeks--24. Total, 26.
=Exports and Imports to and from the Belligerent Countries,
1914.=--The following figures are taken from the “Statistical
Abstract of the United States, 1915.”
Exports to-- Imports from--
Austria-Hungary 1913 $ 23,320,696 $ 19,192,414
1915 1,238,669 9,794,418
France 1914 159,818,924 141,446,252
1915 369,397,170 77,158,740
=Germany 1914 344,794,276 189,919,136=
1915 28,863,354 91,372,710
Italy 1914 74,235,012 56,407,671
1915 184,819,688 54,973,726
Russia 1914 31,303,149 23,320,157
1915 60,827,531 3,394,040
United Kingdom 1914 594,271,863 293,661,304
1915 911,794,954 256,351,675
1913 415,449,457 120,571,180
Canada 1914 344,716,081 160,689,790
1915 300,686,812 159,571,712
The table shows that the normal trade with Germany was the largest
next to that with the United Kingdom, and that Germany took more of
our products than Canada. It shows that Germany was not only one of
our best customers but that the balance of trade was largely in our
favor, the excess of American exports to Germany over imports in 1914
amounting to $154,875,140, or nearly as much as our entire exports to
France in 1914.
The following table shows how the British arbitrary rule of the seas
cut down our trade with the Scandinavian countries, all but that of
Norway, whose neutrality was largely in favor of England. The figures
are for the nine months ending March.
1915 1916
Denmark, exports and imports $ 63,103,962 $44,046,752
Netherlands, exports and imports 101,892,382 72,469,008
Norway, exports and imports 32,401,556 37,259,135
Sweden, exports and imports 65,880,749 43,156,027
=Under the Espionage Act--A Chapter of Persecution.=--The sudden
decision of our government to enter the European war, on April 6,
1917, found the German element wholly unprepared for the outburst
of bitter hate which in the course of a few weeks threatened to
overwhelm every standard of sense and justice. Though a minority
element, it approximated closely the dominant Anglo-American element;
it far outnumbered every other racial element, and it was not
conscious of anything that justified its being relegated to a class
apart from the American people as a whole.
The German element had fought for the independence of America in the
Revolution to the full limit of its quota, which was considerable;
it had outstripped every other element in furnishing troops for the
Union army; it had stood loyally by the government in every other
crisis of its history, and it was not aware that the Germans living
3,000 miles away under a government of their own had ever followed
any policy save one of pronounced friendship for the United States.
Having no political adhesion among themselves, having never
contemplated the possibility of being turned upon by their fellow
citizens, fostering the spirit of conviviality, sociability, and
cultivating song and art rather than politics, they had relied
confidently on the impartiality of laws of the land to protect them
in their rights as well as to exact the performance of their duties
as American citizens.
Their forefathers had been foremost in the winning of the West;
more than any others they formed the far-flung battle line that
encountered the invasion of the red hordes in the French-Indian
wars; more of their number had perished in Indian massacres,
from Canajoharie to New Ulm, than of any other race; they could
defiantly challenge any other element to show a greater influence
in educational, cultural and general academic directions, and in
the words of that truly great American woman, Miss Jane Addams, the
German American element was entitled to be heard.
It is unfortunately an Anglo-American trait to be easily lashed into
a fanatical mob spirit by prominent spokesmen, in singular disregard
of its avowed democracy. The history of our country teems with
examples of unbridled violence against any non-conforming spirit that
ever developed. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote:
The influential classes, and those who take upon themselves
to be the leaders of the people, are fully liable to all
the passionate error that has ever characterized the
maddest mob. Clergymen, judges, statesmen, the wisest,
calmest, holiest persons of their day, stood in the inner
circle round about the gallows, loudest to applaud the work
of blood, latest to confess themselves miserably deceived.