is painful to the bystander, as he feels that it is making fools of
brave men, must have a tendency to throw back to earlier types. These
Germans have been trained in peace and upon the theory of books. In all
that vast host there is hardly a man who has stood at the wrong end of a
loaded gun. They live on traditions of close formations, vast cavalry
charges, and other things which will not fit into modern warfare. Braver
men do not exist, but it is the bravery of men who have been taught to
lean upon each other, and not the cold, self-contained, resourceful
bravery of the man who has learned to fight for his own hand. The
British have had the teachings of two recent campaigns fought with
modern weapons--that of the Tirah and of South Africa. Now that the
reserves have joined the colors there are few regiments which have not a
fair sprinkling of veterans from these wars in their ranks. The Pathan
and the Boer have been their instructors in something more practical
than those imperial grand manoeuvres where the all-highest played with
his puppets in such a fashion that one of his Generals remarked that the
chief practical difficulty of a campaign so conducted would be the
disposal of the dead.
Boers and Pathans have been hard masters and have given many a slap to
their admiring pupils, but the lesson has been learned. It was not show
troops, General, who, with two corps, held five of your best day after
day from Mons to Compiègne. It is no reproach to your valor, but you
were up against men who were equally brave and knew a great deal more of
the game. This must begin to break upon you, and will surely grow
clearer as the days go by. We shall often in the future take the knock
as well as give it, but you will not say that we are a slow army if you
live to chronicle this war, nor will your imperial master be proud of
the adjective which he has demeaned himself in using before his troops
had learned their lesson.
*The South African Lesson.*
The fact is that the German Army, with all its great traditions, has
been petrifying for many years back. They never learned the lesson of
South Africa. It was not for want of having it expounded to them, for
their military attache--"'im with the spatchcock on 'is 'elmet,'" as I
heard him described by a British orderly--missed nothing of what
occurred, as is evident from their official history of the war. And yet
they missed it, and with all those ideas of individual efficiency and
elastic independent formation which are the essence of modern
soldiering. Their own more liberal thinkers were aware of it. Here are
the words which were put into the mouth of Güntz, the representative of
the younger school, in Beverlein's famous novel:
"The organization of the German Army rested upon foundations which had
been laid a hundred years ago. Since the great war they had never
seriously been put to the proof, and during the last three decades they
had only been altered in the most trifling details. In three long
decades! And in one of those decades the world at large had advanced as
much as in the previous century.
"Instead of turning this highly developed intelligence to good account,
they bound it hand and foot on the rack of an everlasting drill which
could not have been more soullessly mechanical in the days of Frederick.
It held them together as an iron hoop holds together a cask, the dry
staves of which would fall asunder at the first kick."
Lord Roberts has said that if ten points represent the complete soldier,
eight should stand for his efficiency as a shot. The German maxim has
rather been that eight should stand for his efficiency as a drilled
marionette. It has been reckoned that about two hundred books a year
appear in Germany upon military affairs, against about twenty in
Britain. And yet, after all this expert debate, the essential point of
all seems to have been missed--that in the end everything depends upon
the man behind the gun, upon his hitting his opponent and upon his
taking cover so as to avoid being hit himself.
After all the efforts of the General Staff, the result when shown upon
the field of battle has filled our men with a mixture of admiration and
contempt--contempt for the absurd tactics and admiration for the poor
devils who struggle on in spite of them. Listen to the voices of the men
who are the real experts. Says a Lincolnshire Sergeant: "They were in
solid square blocks, and we couldn't help hitting them." Says Private
Tait (Second Essex): "Their rifle shooting is rotten. I don't believe
they could hit a haystack at 100 yards." "They are rotten shots with
their rifles," says an Oldham private. "They advance in close column,
and you simply can't help hitting them," writes a Gordon Highlander.
"You would have thought it was a big crowd streaming out from a cup
tie," says Private Whitaker of the Guards. "It was like a farmer's
machine cutting grass," so it seemed to Private Hawkins of the
Coldstreams. "No damned good as riflemen," says a Connemara boy. "You
couldn't help hitting them. As to their rifle fire, it was useless."
"They shoot from the hip, and don't seem to aim at anything in
particular."
*Not Books That Count.*
These are the opinions of the practical men upon the field of battle.
Surely a poor result from the 200 volumes a year and all the weighty
labors of the General Staff! "Artillery nearly as good as our own, rifle
fire beneath contempt." That is the verdict. How will the well-taught
parade schritt avail them when it comes to a stricken field?
But let it not seem as if this were meant for disparagement. We should
be sinking to the Kaiser's level if we answer his "contemptible little
army" by pretending that his own troops are anything but a very
formidable and big army. They are formidable in numbers, formidable,
too, in their patriotic devotion, in their native courage, and in the
possession of such material, such great cannon, aircraft, machine guns,
and armored cars as none of the Allies can match. They have every
advantage which a nation would be expected to have when it has known
that war was a certainty, while others have only treated it as a
possibility. There is a minuteness and earnestness of preparation which
are only possible for an assured event. But the fact remains, and it
will only be brought out more clearly by the Emperor's unchivalrous
phrase, that in every arm the British have already shown themselves to
be the better troops. Had he the Froissart spirit within him he would
rather have said: "You have today a task which is worthy of you. You are
faced by an army which has a high repute and a great history. There is
real glory to be won today." Had he said this then, win or lose, he
would not have needed to be ashamed of his own words--the words of
ungenerous spirit.
It is a very strange thing how German critics have taken for granted
that the British Army had deteriorated, while the opinion of all those
who were in close touch with it was that it was never so good. Even some
of the French experts made the same mistake, and Gen. Bonnat counseled
his countrymen not to rely upon it, since "it would take refuge amid its
islands at the first reverse." One would think that the cause which
makes for its predominance were obvious. Apart from any question of
national spirit there is the all-important fact that the men are there
of their own free will, an advantage which I trust that we shall never
be compelled to surrender. Again, the men are of longer service in every
arm, and they have far more opportunities of actual fighting than come
to any other force. Finally they are divided into regiments with
centuries of military glories streaming from their banners, which carry
on a mighty tradition. The very words the Guards, the Rifles, the
Connaught Rangers, the Buffs, the Scots Greys, the Gordons, sound like
bugle calls. How could an army be anything but dangerous which had such
units in its line of battle?"
*History Repeating Itself*.
And yet there remains the fact that both enemies and friends are
surprised at our efficiency. This is no new phenomenon. Again and again
in the course of history the British armies have had to win once more
the reputation which had been forgotten. Continentals have always begun
by refusing to take them seriously. Napoleon, who had never met them in
battle, imagined that their unbroken success was due to some weakness in
his Marshals rather than in any excellence of the troops. "At last I
have them, these English," he exclaimed as he gazed at the thin, red
line at Waterloo. "At last they have me, these English," may have been
his thought that evening as he spurred his horse out of the débacle. Foy
warned him of the truth. "The British infantry is the devil," said he.
"You think so because you were beaten by them," cried Napoleon. Like von
Kluck or von Kluck's master, he had something to learn.
Why this continual depreciation? It may be that the world pays so much
attention to our excellent right arm that it cannot give us credit for
having a very serviceable left as well. Or it may be that they take
seriously those jeremiads over our decay which are characteristic of our
people, and very especially of many of our military thinkers. I have
never been able to understand why they should be of so pessimistic a
turn of mind, unless it be a sort of exaltation of that grumbling which
has always been the privilege of the old soldier. Croker narrates how he
met Wellington in his later years, and how the Iron Duke told him that
he was glad he was so old, as he would not live to see the dreadful
military misfortunes which were about to come to his country. Looking
back, we can see no reason for such pessimism as this. Above all, the
old soldier can never make any allowance for the latent powers which lie
in civilian patriotism and valor. Only a year ago I had a long
conversation with a well-known British General, in which he asserted
with great warmth that in case of an Anglo-German war with France
involved the British public would never allow a trained soldier to leave
these islands. He is at the front himself and doing such good work that
he has little time for reminiscence, but when he has he must admit that
he underrated the nerve of his countrymen.
*Assurance Beneath Pessimism.*
And yet under the pessimism of such men as he there is a curious
contradictory assurance that there are no troops like our own. The late
Lord Goschen used to tell a story of a letter that he had from a Captain
in the navy at the time when he was First Lord. This Captain's ship was
lying alongside a foreign cruiser in some port, and he compared in his
report the powers of the two vessels. Lord Goschen said that his heart
sank as he read the long catalogue of points in which the British ship
was inferior--guns, armor, speed--until he came to the postscript, which
was: "I think I could take her in twenty minutes."
With all the grumbling of our old soldiers, there is always some
reservation of the sort at the end of it. Of course, those who are
familiar with our ways of getting things done would understand that a
good deal of the croaking is a means of getting our little army
increased, or at least preventing its being diminished. But whatever the
cause, the result has been the impression abroad of a "contemptible
little army." Whatever surprise in the shape of 17-inch howitzers or
900-foot Zeppelins the Kaiser may have for us, it is a safe prophecy
that it will be a small matter compared to that which Sir John French
and his men will be to him.
But above all I look forward to the development of our mounted riflemen.
This I say in no disparagement of our cavalry, who have done so
magnificently. But the mounted rifleman is a peculiarly British
product--British and American--with a fresh edge upon it from South
Africa. I am most curious to see what a division of these fellows will
make of the Uhlans. It is good to see that already the old banners are
in the wind, Lovat's Horse, Scottish Horse, King Edward's Horse, and the
rest. All that cavalry can do will surely be done by our cavalry. But I
have always held, and I still very strongly hold, that the mounted
rifleman has it in him to alter our whole conception of warfare, as the
mounted archer did in his day; and now in this very war will be his
first great chance upon a large scale. Ten thousand well-mounted,
well-trained riflemen, young officers to lead them, all broad Germany,
with its towns, its railways and its magazines before them--there lies
one more surprise for the doctrinaires of Berlin.
*The Need of Being Merciless*
*By Maurice Maeterlinck.*
*From The London Daily Mail.*
At these moments of tragedy none should be allowed to speak who cannot
shoulder a rifle, for the written word seems so monstrously useless and
so overwhelmingly trivial in face of this mighty drama that will for a
long time and maybe forever free mankind from the scourge of war--the
one scourge among all that cannot be excused and that cannot be
explained, since alone among all scourges it issues entirely from the
hands of man.
But it is while this scourge is upon us--while we have our being in its
very centre--that we shall do well to weigh the guilt of those who
committed this inexpiable crime. It is now, when we are in the awful
horror, undergoing and feeling it, that we have the energy and
clearsightedness needed to judge it. From the depths of the most fearful
injustice justice is best perceived. When the hour shall have come for
settling accounts--it will not be long delayed--we shall have forgotten
much of what we have suffered and a censurable pity will creep over us
and cloud our eyes.
*Will Seek Sympathy.*
This is the moment, therefore, for us to frame our inexorable
resolution. After the final victory, when the enemy is crushed--as
crushed as he will be--efforts will be made to enlist our sympathy. We
shall be told that the unfortunate German people are merely the victims
of their monarch and their feudal caste; that no blame attaches to the
Germany we know that is so sympathetic and cordial--the Germany of
quaint old houses and open-hearted greetings; the Germany that sits
under its lime trees beneath the clear light of the moon--but only to
Prussia, hateful, arrogant Prussia; that homely, peace-loving Bavaria,
the genial, hospitable dwellers on the banks of the Rhine, the Silesian
and Saxon--I know not who besides--have merely obeyed and been compelled
to obey orders they detested, but were unable to resist.
We are in the face of reality now. Let us look at it well and pronounce
our sentence, for this is the moment when we hold the proofs in our
hands; when the elements of the crime are hot before us and should
out--the truth that will soon fade from our memory. Let us tell
ourselves now therefore that all we shall be told hereafter will be
false. Let us unflinchingly adhere to what we decide at this moment when
the glare of the horror is on us.
*No Degrees of Guilt.*
It is not true that in this gigantic crime there are innocent and guilty
or degrees of guilt. They stand on one level, all who have taken part.
The German from the north has no more especial craving for blood than
the German from the south has especial tenderness and pity. It is very
simple. It is the German from one end of the country to the other who
stands revealed as a beast of prey that the firm will of our planet
finally repudiates. We have here no wretched slaves dragged along by a
tyrant King who alone is responsible. Nations have the Government they
deserve, or rather the Government they have is truly no more than a
magnified public projection of the private morality and mentality of the
nation.
If eighty million innocent people merely expose the inherent falseness
and superficiality of their innocence--and it is a monster they maintain
at their head who stands for all that is true in their nature, because
it is he who represents the eternal aspirations of their race, which lie
far deeper than their apparent transient virtues--let there be no
suggestion of error, of intelligent people having been tricked and
misled. No nation can be deceived that does not wish to be deceived. It
is not intelligence that Germany lacks. In the sphere of intellect such
things are not possible, nor in the region of the enlightened,
reflecting will. No nation permits herself to be coerced into the one
crime man cannot pardon. It is of her own accord she hastens toward it.
Her chief has no need to persuade. It is she who urges him on.
We have forces here quite different from those on the surface--forces
that are secret, irresistible, profound. It is these we must judge, must
crush under heel once for all, for they are the only ones that will not
be improved, softened or brought into line by experience, progress, or
even the bitterest lesson. They are unalterable, immovable. Their
springs lie far beneath hope or influence. They must be destroyed as we
destroy a nest of wasps, since we know these never can change into a
nest of bees.
Even though individually and singly Germans are all innocent and merely
led astray, they are none the less guilty in mass. This is the guilt
that counts--that alone is actual and real, because it lays bare
underneath their superficial innocence, the subconscious criminality of
all. No influence can prevail on the unconscious or subconscious. It
never evolves. Let there come a thousand years of civilization, a
thousand years of peace, with all possible refinements, art, and
education, the German spirit which is its underlying element will remain
absolutely the same as today and would declare itself when the
opportunity came under the same aspect with the same infamy.
Through the whole course of history two distinct will-powers have been
noticed that would seem to be the opposing elemental manifestations of
the spirit of our globe, one seeking only evil, injustice, tyranny,
suffering, the other strives for liberty, right, radiance, joy. These
two powers stand once again face to face. Our opportunity is to
annihilate the one that comes from below. Let us know how to be pitiless
that we have no more need for pity. It is the measures of organic
defense--it is essential that the modern world should stamp out Prussian
militarism as it would stamp out a poisonous fungus that for half a
century had poisoned its days. The health of our planet is the question.
Tomorrow the United States and Europe will have to take measures for the
convalescence of the earth.
*Letters to Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler*
*By Baron d'Estournelles de Constant.*
_Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University, has
permitted_ THE NEW YORK TIMES _to have the extracts printed
herewith from letters sent to him since the beginning of the war by
Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, Senator of France, and Member of
the International Court at The Hague._
*First Letter.*
PARIS, Aug. 15, 1914.--* * * Today I am full of grief to feel myself
impotent before the murderous conflicts now going on in Belgium and at a
number of points on our northern and eastern frontiers, while awaiting
the great battles and hecatombs which will follow; my thought is full of
these terrible calamities willfully brought about; so many precious
lives already wiped out or soon to be; so much avoidable mourning which
one neither can nor wishes now to avoid!
In France there is not a single family which has not given without
hesitation all its children of military age to fight for the repulse of
the invader. All the men from Créans, of ages 20 to 48 years, have gone,
with one exception, and he is now going; and meanwhile no work has
ceased because of their absence. In all the communes, in all the hamlets
of the whole of France, the women, the children, and the men over 48
have assumed all duties, in particular the gathering of the harvests,
which I see already finished as in normal times. * * *
When one thinks that Servia alone, even though exhausted by two
atrocious wars, is sufficient to hold in check imperial Austria; when
one sees Italy remain neutral, and in reality hostile to Austria, and
Russia open slowly, inexorably, her reservoir of men, resources, and
infinite energy on the eastern frontier of Germany, one asks truly if
the Pan-Germanists have not been the veritable plague of God for their
country; the Fatherland, which men like Goethe, Kant, and Beethoven had
made so cultured, so glorious, and which asked only to live and to
prosper, the Pan-Germanists have isolated only to deliver it to the
execration of the world. It was the same in France formerly, when she
ceded to chauvinistic influences.
*Second Letter.*
PARIS, Sept. 3, 1914.
* * * May you never witness such calamities as have fallen upon Europe.
The visions of horror, which formerly we evoked in order to terrify the
world and to try to conjure them away, are now surpassed; and we are
only at the commencement of the war! The trains, thronged with youth and
enthusiasm, which I saw leave are now returning crowded with the
wounded. They have filled all the hospitals, the barracks which had been
left empty, the lyceums, and the schools throughout France. In but a few
days they have arrived everywhere in the south, the west and the centre
of the country. At La Flèche alone we have five improvised hospitals
with 1,200 beds. Créans is a hospital annex, and so it is in all the
villages and in the dwellings which can provide one or more beds. The
wounded who occupy these beds are happy, very happy. One of them, who
has only a broken leg, but who thinks of the thousands of his comrades
who remain wounded upon the fields of battle, said to me, "I am in
heaven." * * *
The worst of all, (I have always said it, but it is even worse than I
had thought,) the worst is that each of the combatants, for the most
part incapable of cruelty under ordinary conditions, is now devoted to
the horrible work of hatred and of reprisal; and even more than the
combatants, their children, their orphans, all those who are to remain
in mourning. * * *
As far as France is concerned, our first reverses have served to exalt
the national spirit and to fortify the unanimous resolution to conquer
or to die. It is important that this be well understood in the United
States and that it be given due consideration if it is desired to
intervene without irritating the most noble scruples. * * *
It is the Prussian military system of domination with its contagion
which has done the harm and which ought to disappear, and that system
itself is the fruit of Napoleonic imperialism. The struggle is always,
and more now than ever, between imperialism and liberty, between force
and right. May you in the United States profit by this lesson, so that
you may avoid falling into the European error. * * * It is barbarity
triumphant. But that triumph will be only momentary, and all agree at
the conclusion of this terrible drama on having a United States of
Europe with disarmament, or at least with armaments limited to a
collective police force.
*Third Letter.*
PARIS, Sept. 8, 1914.
* * * You have comprehended that France is struggling for justice and
peace. Be sure that she will resist even to the last man, with the
certainty that she is defending not herself alone but also civilization.
Never have I suspected to what degree of savagery man can be degraded by
unrestrained violence. I had believed that the world could never again
see the time of the Massacre of the Innocents; I deceived myself; we
have returned to barbarity, and the Prussian Army leaves us no
alternative between victory and extermination; should she become
mistress of Paris, which I doubt, and of the half of France, she will
find the other half which will bury her under its ruins. * * *
The English troops march on our roads, stop at Clermont-Créans! Oh,
miracle! I see among my compatriots the worst chauvinists, those who
openly desire for me the fate of Jaurès, those who fought me in 1902
with cries of "Fashoda" or "Chicago," hasten to meet the English
soldiers in order to aid and acclaim them, in this country still full of
the memories and the ruins of the hundred years' war! It is because the
English troops are also defending the land of liberty, theirs as ours
and as yours. Every one except the Prussians comprehend this, and this
it is which exalts their souls! * * *