The German Army and Navy on the watch--Four million German men in the
field--Thousands of volunteers join the colors to fight for Germany's
existence, among them the flower of her scientific and artistic life.
There can be no greater contrast than that between the United States and
Germany in one of the most important questions of existence with which a
State is confronted. In its whole history the United States has never
had a foreign hostile force of invaders upon its territory, foreign
armies have never laid waste its fields. Until late in the last century,
however, Germany was the battlefield for the then most powerful nations
of Europe. The numerous German States and provinces, too, fought among
themselves, often on behalf of foreign powers. The European great powers
of that day were able, unhindered and unpunished, to take for themselves
piece after piece of German territory. In the United States, on the
other hand, it was years before the steadily increasing population
attained to the boundaries set for it by nature.
Our Bismarck was finally able, in the years from 1864 to 1871, to create
a great empire from the many small German States. As he himself often
remarked, however, this was possible only because his policies and
diplomacy rested upon and were supported by a well trained and powerful
army. How the German Empire came into being at that time is well known.
A war was necessary because of the fact that the then so powerful France
did not desire that North and South Germany should unite. She was not
able to prevent this union, was defeated and had to give back to us two
old German provinces which she had stolen from the Germans. The old
Field Marshal von Moltke said not long after the war of 1870-71 that the
Germans would still have to defend Alsace-Lorraine for fifty years more.
Perhaps he little realized how prophetic his words were, but he and
those who followed him, the German Emperors and the German War
Ministers, prepared themselves for this coming defensive struggle and
unremittingly devoted their attention to the German Army.
From 1887 on there had been no doubt that in the event of war with
France we should have to reckon also with Russia. This meant that the
army must be strong enough to be equal to the coming fight on two
borders--a tremendous demand upon the resources of a land when one
considers that a peaceful folk, devoted to agriculture, industry, and
trade, must live for decades in the constant expectation of being
obliged, be it tomorrow, be it in ten years, to fight for its life
against its two great military neighbors simultaneously. There are,
moreover, the great money expenditures, and also the burden of universal
military service, which, as is well known, requires every able-bodied
male German to serve a number of years with the colors, and later to
hold himself ready, first as a reservist, then as member of the
Landwehr, and finally as member of the Landsturm, to spring to arms at
the call of his supreme war lord, the German Emperor. A warlike,
militant nation would not long have endured such conditions, but would
have compelled a war and carried it through swiftly. As Bismarck said,
however, the German Army, since it is an army of the folk itself, is not
a weapon for frivolous aggression. Since the German Army, when it is
summoned to war, represents the whole German people, and since the whole
German people is peaceably disposed, it follows that the army can only
be a defensive organization. If war comes, millions of Germans must go
to the front, must leave their parents, their families, their children.
They must. And this "must" means not only the command of their Emperor,
but also the necessity to defend their own land. Did not this necessity
exist, these sons, husbands, and fathers would assuredly not go gladly
to the battlefield, and it is likewise certain that those who stayed at
home would not rejoice so enthusiastically to see them go as we Germans
have seen them rejoicing in these days. Again, then, let us repeat that
the German Army is a weapon which can be and is used only for defense
against foreign aggressions. When these aggressions come, the whole
German folk stands with its army, as it does now.
The German Army is divided into 25 corps in times of peace. In war times
reservists, members of the Landwehr, and occasionally also of the
Landsturm, are called to the colors. The result is that the German Army
on a war footing is a tremendously powerful organ.
Our opponents in foreign countries have for years consistently
endeavored to awaken the belief that the German soldier does his
obligatory service very unwillingly, that he does not get enough to eat
and is badly treated. These assertions are false, and anybody who has
seen in these weeks of mobilization how our soldiers, reservists, and
Landwehr men departed for the field or reported at the garrisons,
anybody who has seen their happy, enthusiastic and fresh faces knows
that mishandled men, men who have been drilled as machines, cannot
present such an appearance.
On the day the German mobilization was ordered we traveled with some
Americans from the western border to Berlin. These Americans said: "We
do not know much about your army, but judging by what we have seen in
these days there prevails in it and all its arrangements such system
that it must win. System must win every time." In this saying there is,
indeed, much of truth--order and system are the basis upon which the
mighty organization of our army is built.
Now a word concerning the German officer. He, too, has been much
maligned, he is often misunderstood by foreigners, and yet we believe
that the people of the United States in particular must be able to
understand the German officer. One of the greatest sons of free America,
George Washington, gave his countrymen the advice to select only
gentlemen as officers, and it is according to this principle that the
officers of the German Army and Navy are chosen. Their selection is
made, moreover, upon a democratic basis, in that the officers' corps of
the various regiments decide for themselves whether they will or will
not accept as a comrade the person whose name is proposed to them.
One sees that the German Army is not, as many say, a tremendous machine,
but rather a great, living organism, which draws its strength and
lifeblood from all classes of the whole German folk. The German Army can
develop its entire strength only in a war which the folk approve, that
is, when a defensive war has been forced upon them. That this is true
will have been realized by our friends in the United States before this
comes into their hands.
The German fleet is in like manner a weapon of defense. It was very
small up to the end of the last century, but has since then been
consistently built up according to the ground principles which Mr.
Roosevelt has so often in his powerful manner laid down for the American
fleet. The question has often been asked, what is there for the German
fleet to defend, since the German coastline is so short? The answer
is that the strength of a fleet must not be made to depend upon the
length of coastlines, but upon how many ships and how much merchandise
go out from and enter the harbors, how great oversea interests there
are, how large the colonies are and how they are situated, and, finally,
how strong the sea powers are with which Germany may have to carry on a
war and how they are situated. To meet all these requirements there is
but one remedy, namely, either that our fleet shall be strong enough to
prevent the strongest sea power from conducting war against us, or that,
if war does come, it shall be able so to battle against the mightiest
opponent that the latter shall be seriously weakened.
Germany, as especially the Americans know, has become a great merchant
marine nation, whose colonies are flourishing. Furthermore, since the
land's growing population has greatly increased its strength in the
course of the last years, the mistrust and jealousy of Great Britain
have in particular been directed steadily against the development of our
ocean commerce, and later of our navy. To the upbuilding of the German
Navy were ascribed all manner of plans--to attack Great Britain, to make
war on Japan, &c. It was even declared by the English press that Germany
intended to attack the United States as soon as its fleet was strong
enough. Today, when Great Britain has needlessly declared war upon us,
the Americans will perhaps believe that our fleet was never planned or
built for an attack on any one. Germany desired simply to protect its
coasts and its marine interests in the same manner in which it protects
its land boundaries. It is realized in the United States as well as here
that a fleet can be powerful only when it has a sufficient number of
vessels of all classes, and when it is thoroughly and unremittingly
schooled in times of peace. We have tried to attain this ideal in
Germany, and it may be remarked that the training of the personnel
requires greater efforts here, since the principle of universal service
is also applied to the fleet, with a resulting short term of service,
whereas all foreign fleets have a long term of enlistment.
The nominal strength of the German fleet is regulated by statute, as is
also the term--twenty years--at the expiration of which old vessels must
automatically be replaced by new ones. This fleet strength is set at
forty-one line-of-battle ships, twenty armored cruisers and forty small
cruisers, besides 144 torpedo boats and seventy-two submarine vessels.
These figures, however, have not been reached. To offset this fact,
however, almost the whole German fleet has been kept together in home
waters. Great Britain's fleet is much stronger than ours, but despite
this the German fleet faces its great opponent with coolness and
assurance and with that courage and readiness to undertake great deeds
that mark those who know that their land has been unjustifiably
attacked. It is utterly incorrect to say, as has been said, that the
German naval officers are filled with hatred for other navies,
especially for the British. On the contrary, the relations between
German and English officers and men have always been good, almost as
good as those of the Germans with the American officers. It is not
personal hatred that inspires our officers and men with the lust for
battle, but their indignation over the unprovoked attack and the
realization that, if every one will do his best for the Fatherland in
this great hour, it will not be in vain even against the greatest naval
power. We, too, are confident of this, for strenuous and faithful effort
always has its reward, and this is especially true of our fleet
organization. The United States realizes this as well as we, for it,
too, has built up a strong and admirably trained fleet by prodigious
labor. As is the case with the German fleet, the American Navy also is
not built for aggression, but for defense.
Neutrality by the Grace of England.
Janus, a mighty god of the ancient Romans, was represented as having two
faces. He could smile and frown simultaneously.
This god Janus is the personification of neutrality according to English
ideas. Neutrality smiles when violated by England and frowns when
violated by other powers.
The United States got a taste of England's neutrality when, a century
ago, the English impressed thousands of American sailors, taking them
from American ships on the high seas, when they searched neutral ships
and confiscated the enemy's property on board of them, until Congress in
Washington voted for the declaration of war against England.
In the great civil war, 1861 to 1864, England had counted on the victory
of the Southern States; she recognized them as belligerents and supplied
them with warships. This was not considered by England a breach of
neutrality until the Minister of the United States declared, on Sept. 5,
1863, that unless England desisted war would result. England yielded.
But, according to the old German proverb, "A cat cannot resist catching
mice," she secretly permitted the fitting out of privateers (the
Alabama) for the Southern States and was finally forced to pay an
indemnity of $15,000,000. England gained, however, more than she lost by
this interpretation of neutrality, for by the aid of her privateers
American maritime trade passed into English hands and was lost to the
Americans.
May God's vengeance fall on Germany! She has violated Belgium's
neutrality! the English piously ejaculate. They call themselves God's
chosen people, the instrument of Providence for the benefit of the whole
universe. They look down upon all other peoples with open or silent
contempt, and claim for themselves various prerogatives, in particular
the supremacy of the sea, even in American waters, from Jamaica to
Halifax.
England's policy has always been to take all, to give back nothing, to
constantly demand more, to begrudge others everything. Only where the
New World is concerned has England, conscious of her own weakness,
become less grasping, since Benjamin Franklin "wrested the sceptre from
the tyrants," since the small colonies that fought so valiantly for
their liberty rose to form the greatest dominion of the white race.
In the Summer of 1911, during the Franco-German Morocco dispute, the
English were determined to assist their old enemies, the French, against
Germany, and stationed 160,000 troops along their coast ready for
embarkation. For the French coast? No, indeed! For transportation to
Antwerp, where the English were to unite with the French Army and
combine in the destruction of the German forces. But things did not
reach that stage. England was not ready. England and France were
resolved not to respect the neutrality of Belgium--the same England that
solemnly assures the world that she has never at any time or place
committed a breach of neutrality. England has observed neutrality only
when compatible with her own interests, which has not often been the
case. Her whole dissimulating policy is much more questionable than our
one breach of neutrality, committed in self-defense and accompanied by
the most solemn promises of indemnity and restitution.
England and France did not give up their plan of attacking Germany
through Belgium, and by this means won the approval of the Muscovites.
Three against one! It would have been a crime against the German people
if the German General Staff had not anticipated this intention. The
inalienable right of self-defense gives the individual, whose very
existence is at stake, the moral liberty to resort to weapons which
would be forbidden except in times of peril. As Belgium would,
nevertheless, not acquiesce in a friendly neutrality which would permit
the unobstructed passage of German troops through small portions of her
territory, although her integrity was guaranteed, the German General
Staff was obliged to force this passage in order to avoid the necessity
of meeting the enemy on the most unfavorable ground.
The Germans have not forgotten the tone in which the French and Belgian
press reported the frequent excursions of French Staff officers and
Generals for the purpose of making an exhaustive study of the territory
through which the armies are now moving, and who were received with open
arms in Belgium and treated like brothers. Belgium has become the vassal
of France.
In our place the Government of the United States would not have acted
differently. "Inter arma silent leges"--in the midst of arms the laws
are silent. Besides, England had interfered beforehand in Germany's plan
of campaign by declaring that she would not tolerate an attack upon the
northern coast of France.
The German troops, with their iron discipline, will respect the personal
liberty and property of the individual in Belgium, just as they did in
France in 1870.
The Belgians would have been wise if they had permitted the passage of
the German troops. They would have preserved their integrity, and,
besides that, would have fared well from the business point of view, for
the army would have proved a good customer and paid cash.
Germany has always been a good and just neighbor, to Belgium as well as
to the other small powers such as Holland, Denmark and Switzerland,
which England in her place would have swallowed up one and all long ago.
The development of industry on the lower Rhine has added to the
prosperity of Belgium and has made Antwerp one of the first ports on the
Continent, as well as one of the most important centres of exchange for
German-American trade.
Without Germany Belgium could never have acquired the Congo.
When England meditated taking possession of the Congo, claiming that
great rivers are nothing but arms of the sea and consequently belong to
the supreme maritime power, King Leopold turned to Germany for
protection and received it from Bismarck, who called the Congo
Conference of 1884-5 and obtained the recognition by the powers of the
independence of the Congo State.
The struggle of the German States in Europe has some points in common
with the struggle of the Independent States of North America (from 1778
to 1783), for it is directed chiefly against England's scheming
guardianship, and her practice of weakening the Continental powers by
sowing or fostering dissension among them.
While continually protesting her love of peace, England has carried on
no fewer than forty wars during the latter half of the nineteenth
century, including the great Boer war. She has long imperiled, and in
the end has succeeded in disturbing, the peace of Europe by her
invidious policy of isolating Germany. Germany, on the other hand, has
proved herself since 1871 to be the strongest and most reliable security
for the peace of Europe.
The policy of sowing dissension, practiced by England more industriously
than ever in recent years, cannot possibly meet with the approval of the
peace-loving citizens of the United States, and should be condemned on
merely humanitarian as well as commercial grounds.
England aims at being mistress of the Old World in order to occupy
either an equal, or a menacing, position toward the New World, as
circumstances may dictate. For this purpose she has encouraged this war.
The German Federated States of Europe are defending themselves with
might and main, and are counting in this struggle for existence on the
good-will of the United States of America, for whose citizens they
cherish the friendliest feelings, as they have proved at all times. All
Americans who have visited Germany will surely bear witness to that
effect.
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