enumerated, let us deal boldly with the situation created by the
existence of such vast numbers of men in good physical condition, who
are not being utilized. The best war asset and labor asset in this
country is the mass of young men from eighteen to twenty-one. This
draft law explicitly and unjustifiably excepts this class, although
in the Civil War most of the soldiers entered the army when they were
under twenty-one. Let us proclaim as our policy that while this war
lasts no man shall be excused from doing the full duty which the
Nation finds it necessary to demand from him. Make all the young men
from eighteen to twenty-one immediately liable to service, permit no
exceptions for any men, no matter how wealthy, who are not already in
the army. Use as many of the men thus taken as are necessary to fill
the camps when the present drafted men of the national army leave them.
Use all the others, and use these men, too, until the camps are ready
for them, as labor which the Nation shall mobilize for farm work or any
other work which it is imperative to do, and mobilize all the alien
labor now in the country in similar fashion.
THE LANSDOWNE LETTER
DECEMBER 2, 1917
Lord Lansdowne’s proposal is for a peace of defeat for the Allies and
of victory for Germany. Such a peace would leave oppressed peoples
under the yoke of Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria. Such a peace would
leave the liberty-loving nations of mankind at the ultimate mercy of
the triumphant militarism and capitalism of the German autocracy.
It merely makes such a peace worse to try to hide the shame of the
defeat behind the empty pretense of forging a league of nations,
including Germany, to secure future peace. Such a peace would mean
that Germany saw her unspeakable brutality and treachery crowned by
essential triumph and therefore would put a premium upon her repeating
the brutality and treachery at the earliest convenient moment. It is
mere hypocrisy to promise to put a stop to wrongdoing in the future
unless we are willing to undergo the labor and peril necessary to stop
wrongdoing in the present. In our own country nothing but harm was
done by the worthy persons who, a couple of years ago, formed a league
to enforce peace in the future, while at the same time they nervously
declared that they would have nothing to do with enforcing peace by
stopping international wrong in the present. Lord Lansdowne’s proposal
to hide the admission of present defeat behind the camouflage of
pretended international peace agreements for the future is unworthy of
his distinguished services and reputation.
Our people ought never to forget that Germany respects nothing but
strength and the readiness and ability to use it. Germany has made a
fetish of able brutality. She regards with utter derision the pacifists
and pro-Germans in this country. She will use them as her tools and pay
them when necessary, but if through this aid she was able to conquer
this country after previously separating us from our allies, she
would with utter indifference break these tools and throw them on the
scrap-heap with the rest of the American people.
There is but one safe course to follow, and that is to fight this war
through to victory at no matter what cost. This Nation should declare
war on Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria, this week. Let us definitely
announce that our aims include restoring and indemnifying Belgium,
giving back Alsace and Lorraine to France, creating a Poland which
shall include all the Poles and a greater Bohemia and a great Jugo-Slav
commonwealth and restoring Rumanian Hungary to Rumania, and Italian
Austria to Italy, and driving the Turk from Europe and freeing Armenia
and Syria and Arabia. After victory let us join in any arrangement to
increase the likelihood of future international peace, but let us treat
this as an addition to, and never as a substitute for, the preparedness
which is the only sure guarantee against either war or measureless
disaster. Therefore let us at once introduce as our permanent national
policy the system of universal obligatory military training of all our
young men.
THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
DECEMBER 5, 1917
The President has in admirable language set forth the firm resolve
of the American people that the war shall be fought through to the
end until it is crowned by the peace of complete victory. He states
unequivocally that our task is to win the war, that nothing shall turn
us aside from it until it is accomplished, and that every power and
resource we possess will be used to achieve this purpose. He states
that there shall be no peace until the war is won. He says that this
peace must deliver, not only Belgium and Northern France, but the
peoples of Austria-Hungary, of the Balkan Peninsula, and of Turkey in
Europe and Asia from “the impudent and alien dominion of the Prussian
military and commercial autocracy.” He emphatically states that we have
no purpose to wrong the German people or subject them to oppression,
but merely to prevent others from being oppressed by them. He states
that if Germany persists in adherence to her present rulers and their
policies, it will be impossible, even after the war, to treat her as
other nations are treated, but that, although we intend to right the
wrongs inflicted by Germany on other nations, we have no intention to
inflict similar wrongs on Germany in return. He says that the mind of
the Russian people has been poisoned by the rulers of Germany, exactly
as the latter have poisoned the minds of their own people.
To all of this the heart of the American people will answer a devout
amen. The message is a solemn pledge on behalf of this Nation that we
shall use every energy we possess to win the war, and that we shall
accept no peace not based on the complete overthrow of Germany. The
American people must now devote themselves with grim resolution and
whole-hearted purpose to the effective translation of this pledge into
action, for, of course, the sole value of such a promise lies in the
manner in which it is actually made good. The people must back the
Government in every step to carry into effect this pledge and must
tolerate no failure in any official charged with the duty of carrying
it into effect.
I shall shortly discuss the proposals of the President in reference to
Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria. But in this editorial I wish merely,
as one among the countless Americans to whom the honor and welfare
and high ideals of America are dear, to say amen to the President’s
expressed purpose to wage this war through to the end with all our
strength and to accept no peace save that of complete victory.
FOUR BITES OF A CHERRY
DECEMBER 7, 1917
In his recent message to Congress President Wilson stated that in
order “to push our great war of freedom and justice to its righteous
conclusion we must clear away with a thorough hand all impediments to
success,” and added, “The very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our
way is that we are at war with Germany, but not with her allies.” He
recommended that we declare war on Austria, and added, “The same logic
would lead also to a declaration of war against Turkey and Bulgaria.”
But inferentially and for reasons not apparent he advised against such
action.
The President is entirely right in stating that our failure hitherto
to declare war on the allies of Germany has been a very embarrassing
obstacle to our success, and he is entirely right in advising a
declaration of war against Austria. Incidentally I wish to point out
that this is precisely what I insisted upon in these columns two
months ago, and what I had elsewhere advocated six months ago, and it
is worth while remembering that the Administration papers then assailed
me for urging the course which, although there has not been the
slightest change in the situation, the President now urges.
There was no justification whatever for failure to declare war
on Austria when we declared war on Germany, and there is now no
justification for failure to declare war on Bulgaria and Turkey when
we declare war on Austria. There is no use in making four bites of a
cherry. There is no use in going to war a little, but not much. The
President has sent a message pledging support to Rumania, but it is
worse than an empty form to send such a message unless we forthwith
declare war on Bulgaria. The President has appointed a Sunday for the
special expression of sympathy with Armenia, but such expression of
sympathy is utterly meaningless unless we go to war with Turkey. The
Austro-Hungarian and Turkish empires must be broken up if we intend
to make the world even moderately safe for democracy. There must
be a revived Poland, taking in all the Poles of Austria, Prussia,
and Russia; a greater Bohemia, taking in Moravia and the Slovaks;
a great Jugo-Slav commonwealth, including Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia,
and Herzegovina, while the Rumanians in Hungary should become part
of Rumania and the Italians in Austria part of Italy. The Turk must
be driven from Europe and Christian and Arab freed. Only in this
manner can we do justice to the subject peoples tyrannized over by
the Germans, Magyars, and Turks. Only in this way can we remove the
menace of German aggression, which has become a haunting nightmare
for all civilizations, especially in the case of small, well-behaved,
liberty-loving peoples.
By declaring war on Germany’s allies we do not commit ourselves to
asking anything that is not just for our own allies. But by failing to
declare war on Germany’s allies we are ourselves guilty of injustice to
our own allies.
THE RED CROSS CHRISTMAS MEMBERSHIP DRIVE
DECEMBER 12, 1917
Next week, the week before Christmas, the Red Cross wishes to add ten
million new members to the five million members it already possesses.
Last June the Red Cross War Council asked the people of the United
States to raise one hundred millions of dollars for Red Cross work, and
the people responded by raising one hundred and nineteen millions. The
purpose now is to increase threefold its membership.
This is the people’s war. All people should, so far as possible, share
the burden and the glory. The whole fighting manhood of the Nation,
without any exception save in the interest of the Nation, should be
trained to arms and made ready for the front. The Liberty Loans should
be taken by every one so that the bondholders of the Nation may be
the people of the Nation, and now this Red Cross membership campaign
is one more Nation-wide effort to bring home to all our people their
obligations to this country and to suffering humanity.
We must realize that every single individual in this country is
derelict to his duty unless according to his capacity he does his part
in helping organize for the war. Individual effort alone will not avail
and Germany’s strength has come from her keen realization of this fact.
We must have an organized Nation, both at the front and at home. There
can be no organization without discipline, and the Red Cross is one
of the great agencies through which we can make progress toward such
self-discipline.
The Red Cross does not ask for the new members primarily because of
the money they bring. The money will do great good, for the need is
pressing; but even more important than the money will be the effect if
on Christmas morning the Red Cross can flash around the world the news
that ten million more Americans have joined its ranks and thereby put
themselves unqualifiedly behind our army and navy.
The Red Cross has done an extraordinary work abroad and is doing an
extraordinary work at home. Abroad it is in every way supplementing
the army and navy medical corps in Europe and is accumulating enormous
hospital supplies for the use of our soldiers and sailors. It has sent
over a million dollars in money and stores to Italy. It is giving
both military and civilian relief in France. It is supplying over
thirty-five hundred French military hospitals and two thousand French
civil hospitals with surgical dressings, drugs, and supplies. It is
helping to care for half a million tuberculosis victims and restore
a million and a half French refugees to normal life. At home it is
helping to care for the dependent families of our soldiers and sailors.
It has organized fifty-seven army and navy base hospitals, over a dozen
of which have already been sent to France. Its useful activities in
different lines are well-nigh innumerable.
This is the work the Red Cross has done and is doing for America and
the world. Now let all Americans in their turn stand by the Red Cross
and help in its Christmas membership drive.
BEING BRAYED IN A MORTAR
DECEMBER 18, 1917
President Wilson speaks in military matters through his Secretary of
War. The sole importance of the Secretary of War’s report comes from
its being the official declaration of the President. I discuss it as
such.
According to the reports in the New York World, the Secretary of
War states that “he does not favor universal military training as a
permanent policy.” Mr. Wilson’s secretary, therefore, takes what is in
effect the position of Mr. Bryan, which was picturesquely phrased as
being that a million men can at need spring to arms overnight. The
Administration’s attitude is less picturesquely expressed, but it is
precisely as futile and as unspeakably mischievous from a standpoint
of permanent national interest. Moreover, it is taken at the very
time when the disastrous effect of the Administration’s policy of
complete unpreparedness is being shown by the admissions of General
Crozier on the first day of the congressional investigation. Mr.
Baker’s report, Mr. Bryan’s theory, and the things already shown by
the congressional investigation dovetail into one another. They stand
in the relation of cause and effect. The Administration now officially
and complacently announces that the policy which at this very moment
has proved disastrous is to be persevered in for the future, therefore
assumes complete responsibility for every blunder and delay, and for
all the misconduct, and announces that these blunders and delays and
all this misconduct have taught us nothing, and that we are to amble
onward in the same futile path until disaster overtakes. Mr. Wilson’s
Administration officially declares that we shall persist in our own
folly until we are brayed in the mortar of dreadful calamity.
If the Administration frankly and manfully acknowledged its evil errors
in the past and championed a policy which would prevent the repetition
of these errors in the future, I would think only of the future and not
of the past, but now it is necessary to emphasize the past in order to
avoid disaster in the future.
We are in the eleventh month since Germany went to war with us. We have
not yet built an aeroplane fit to match the speedy battle planes of our
foes. We have not built a heavy field gun; on the contrary, we have
had to draw on burdened friends to give us artillery. In the training
camps of the national army the artillery regiments still have about
ten wooden guns for every old field piece, and they have none of the
modern guns they are to use in the war. There are rifles only for every
third or fourth man. Until ten months had elapsed there was no target
practice save for a few specially selected units. The troops still
have only wooden machine guns and the trench mortars they themselves
improvise.
Until ten months had elapsed they lacked even the necessary warm
clothing. They have endured entirely needless suffering and hardship.
Our troops in France have received thousands of coffins, but an
insufficient number of shoes. At this moment not more than one tenth of
our soldiers, taken altogether, are fit to go to battle. Nine tenths of
our gallant and fine-spirited men are still without the training, arms,
and equipment that would permit them to meet any trained foes. After
ten months of war and the expenditure of huge sums of money, we are
still absolutely unable to defend ourselves and owe our own safety only
to the fleets and armies of our war-worn allies.
This condition is due solely and entirely to the policy of
unpreparedness to which the Administration adhered for two and one
half years when even the blind ought to have read the lesson of the
great war. The Administration now announces that we are not to alter
this policy and that we are to continue the do-nothing policy of
refusing to help. If the American people follow the lead thus given
them, they will be guilty of criminal folly.
RENDERING A GREAT PUBLIC SERVICE
DECEMBER 20, 1917
Senator Chamberlain has rendered a public service by presenting the
bill to provide universal obligatory military training for all the
young men of the Nation. Senator Wadsworth has rendered a public
service by pushing the senatorial investigation of our lamentable
military unpreparedness. Congressman Medill McCormick has rendered a
public service by showing that we have heavily burdened our war-worn
ally, France, by demanding from her the guns which it was inexcusable
in us not previously to have built.
These three services all hang together. Senator Chamberlain’s proposal
is to supplant selective conscription after war has begun by universal
service, which would probably mean the avoidance of war altogether. It
was grave misfortune that at the outset of this war we did not call for
a million volunteers and at the same time put all the young men between
nineteen and twenty-two into the training camps. There has been some
very gross favoritism in granting exemption and, moreover, the men
between twenty-two and thirty-one include a high percentage of married
men and of others who ought not to go to war at present. This unwise,
wasteful, and inefficient system should not be patched up. The Nation
sorely needs, both as a war measure and as a permanent policy, the
immediate introduction of universal military training and service for
all our young men as proposed above.
Senator Wadsworth and Representative McCormick are in straightforward
fashion showing the inevitable results of the policy of unpreparedness
which we have followed for three and a half years, and which the
Administration, through Secretary Baker, now actually advocates as
our permanent policy. Senator Wadsworth has shown, beyond possibility
of anything except willful misrepresentation, that he has no partisan
purpose whatever and that the investigation is designed solely to
rouse the Government and the public to greater efforts in speeding up
the war. The Committee on Military Affairs of the Senate is showing
no partisanship. They realize that we cannot win the war merely by
announcing programmes. They realize that we have a long road to
travel and that we have made a slow start. They wish to help the
Administration, and in order to do this it is imperative to tell the
truth.
Some of the fault for the present situation is due to the shortcomings
of individuals during the last ten months, but the major part is due to
our failure as a Nation to embark on the policy of preparedness three
and a half years ago. Nine tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.
Now our people must brace themselves to face unpleasant truths. There
is not the slightest reason for discouragement. If we choose, we can,
through our governmental representatives, quickly remedy the defects
and then exert with decisive effect our tremendous latent powers. But
we need to know the truth and then to act with instant and resolute
efficiency and with single-minded patriotism.
A BETRAYAL OF DEMOCRACY
DECEMBER 21, 1917
President Wilson has announced that we are in this war to make the
world safe for democracy. Either this declaration was worse than empty
rhetoric or we are in honor bound to make it good. Indeed, to prove
false to it now is to be guilty of peculiarly offensive hypocrisy.
The only way to make the world safe for democracy is to free the people
over whom Turkey and Austria tyrannize. Every day’s delay in declaring
war on Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria has represented and now represents
a betrayal of democracy and of our allies. It is hypocritical to send
an encouraging message to Rumania and not to declare war on Bulgaria.
It is hypocritical to shed crocodile tears over Armenia and not to
declare war on Turkey.
When President Wilson says, “We do not wish in any way to rearrange
the Austria-Hungarian Empire; it is no affair of ours what they do,”
he is engaged in the betrayal of democracy, and if his present words
are to be taken seriously, then his declaration about making the world
safe for democracy was false and empty rhetoric. Either one statement
or the other must be unsparingly condemned by all honest men. In view
of the last statement there is small wonder that the Austrian Foreign
Minister says that “it is to our interest to nail down” the statement
in question, because it abandons the proposal, or, as the Austrian
minister phrases it, “the catch phrase,” to allow all small states
to determine their own destinies. No wonder that the leading Vienna
paper contemptuously states that President Wilson wishes to act as an
“European peace intermediary,” being one of the leaders who “apparently
consider a warlike noise the best overture to a peace conference.”
There is also no wonder that the Czech Slovaks feel with intense
bitterness about this betrayal. One of their papers in this country
describes how loyally they have supported America and the Allies, and
describes the dreadful butcheries and persecutions of their men, women,
and children in Bohemia, and then asks whether it can be true that
America now really proposes to keep them “under the merciless tyranny
of the Huns.”
This is precisely what President Wilson proposes when he says that
it is no affair of ours to rearrange the Austrian-Hungarian Empire,
or, in other words, no affair of ours to free the Czechs, Slovaks,
Jugo-Slavs, Italians, and Rumanians, who, together with the Poles, make
up the majority of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and who are ground down
by tyranny of the Germans and the Magyars.
The President’s proposal represents three separate betrayals.
It is the betrayal of the Slavs of Austria, to whose cause our allies
have pledged themselves and who form a democratic population oppressed
by a militaristic autocracy.
It is the betrayal of democracy, because we abandon the majority who
are our friends into the hands of a minority, who despise and hate us.
It is the betrayal of the free people everywhere to Germany, for
Germany is now a world menace, chiefly because Austria and Turkey are
her subject allies, and President Wilson’s proposal is to leave them
undisturbed.
A peace without a change of frontiers and without indemnification for
brutal wrongdoing, a peace which does not create an independent and
united Poland and a greater Bohemia and Jugo-Slovak commonwealth, as
well as a greater Italy and a greater Rumania, and which does not free
and indemnify Belgium, would leave every perilous problem of Europe
unsolved. It would be timid and calamitous folly to refuse to touch the
disputed questions which, if left unanswered, are absolutely certain to
invite a future war.
BROOMSTICK PREPAREDNESS--A STUDY IN CAUSE AND EFFECT
DECEMBER 27, 1917
It is earnestly to be hoped that the congressional investigation into
the fruits of our military unpreparedness will keep two objects clearly
in mind. First, the aim must be to speed up the work of efficient war
preparation by doing away with all the present practices that are
wrong. Second, the aim should be to make evident to all our people that
our present shameful shortcomings are due to failure to prepare in
advance and that never again ought we to allow our governmental leaders
to put us in such a humiliating and unworthy position.
It will be quite impossible to get at all the facts of our
unpreparedness. Most officers will be very reluctant to testify to
the whole truth. They know that they will suffer if they do so,
because they have seen the punishment inflicted by the Administration
on Major-General Wood for the sole reason that he dared to tell the
truth about our shortcomings, and dared to advocate preparedness in
advance. For this reason I am not at liberty to quote the generals,
colonels, captains, and lieutenants of the artillery, infantry, medical
corps, and quartermaster corps who have told me of their troubles with
unheated hospitals, insufficient drugs, summer underclothes in winter
weather, lack of overcoats, of shoes, of rifles, of ammunition, of
cannon. But in the camps I visited I saw some things so evident that
no harm can come to any officer from my speaking of them.