By David Starr Jordan.
Late President of Leland Stanford Junior University, now its
Chancellor; Chief Director of the World Peace Foundation since
1910.
_To the Editor of The New York Times:_
In this war what of right and what of wrong? Not much of right, perhaps,
and very much of wrong. But there are degrees in wrong, and sometimes,
by comparison, wrong becomes almost right.
The armed peace, the peace of guns and dreadnoughts and sabre rattlers,
has come to its predestined end. Its armaments were made for war. Its
war makers and war traders, the Pan-Germanists in the lead, have done
their worst for the last nine years. They have been foiled time after
time, but they have their way at last. Their last and most fatal weapon
was the ultimatum. If Servia had not given them their chance they would
have found their pretext somewhere else. When a nation or a continent
prepares for war it will get it soon or later. To prepare for war is to
breed a host of men who have no other business, and another host who
find their profits in blood.
When the war began it had very little meaning. It was the third Balkan
war, brought on, as the others were, by intrigues of rival despotisms.
The peoples of Europe do not hate each other. The springs of war come
from a few men impelled by greed and glory. Diplomacy in Europe has been
for years the cover for robbery in Asia or Africa. Of all the nations
concerned not one had any wish to fight, and Belgium alone could fight
with clean hands.
And this fact gave the war its meaning. The invasion of Belgium changed
the whole face of affairs. As by a lightning flash the issue was made
plain: the issue of the sacredness of law; the rule of the soldier or
the rule of the citizen; the rule of fear or the rule of law. Germany
stands for army rule. This was made clear when, a year ago, she passed
under the yoke at Zabern. However devious her diplomacy in the past,
Britain stands today for the rule of law. The British soldier is the
servant of the British people, not their master.
The highest conception of human relations is embodied in the word law.
Law is the framework of civilization. Law is the condition of security,
happiness, and progress. War is the denial of all law. It makes scrap
paper of all the solemn agreements men and nations have established for
their mutual good.
The rape of Belgium made scrap paper of international law. The sowing of
mines in the fairways of commerce made scrap paper of the rights of
neutral nations. The torture of the Belgian people made scrap paper of
the rights of non-combatants.
War may be never righteous, but it is sometimes honorable. In honorable
war armies fight against armies, never against private citizens. If
armies give no needless provocation, they will receive none. The sacking
of Malines, Aerschot, Dinant--these are not acts of honorable war. The
wreck of Louvain, historic Louvain, the venerable centre for 500 years
of Catholic erudition, at the hands of blood-drunk soldiers was an act
of dishonorable war. It marks a stain on the record of Germany which the
ages will not efface.
"A needed example," say the apologists for this crime. The Duke of Alva
gave the same "needed example" to these same people in his day. For
centuries the words "Spanish blood" struck terror into peoples' hearts
throughout the Netherlands. For centuries to come the word Prussian will
take its hated place.
The good people of Germany do not burn universities. Neither do they
make war for war's sake. They are helpless in the hands of a monster of
their own creation. The affair at Zabern a year ago testifies to their
complete subjugation. All the virtues are left to them, save only the
love of freedom. This the mailed fist has taken away.
The Germany of today is an anachronism. Her scientific ideals are of the
twentieth century. Her political ideals hark back to the sixteenth. Her
rulers have made her the most superb fighting machine in a world which
is soul-weary of fighting. For a nation in shining armor the civilized
World has no place. It will not worship them, it will not obey them. It
will not respect those who either worship or obey. It finds no people
good enough to rule other people against their will.
A great nation which its own people do not control is a nation without a
Government. It is a derelict on the international sea. It is a danger to
its neighbors, a greater danger to itself. Of all the many issues, good
or bad, which may come from this war, none is more important than this,
that the German people should take possession of Germany.