Exchange Professor from the University of Paris at Columbia University.
By Edward Marshall.
In the American press French views of the great war's significance have
been less common than British views and far less frequent than German
views. Therefore, this talk with M. de Lapredelle, Exchange Professor
from the University of Paris at Columbia, will have especial interest.
This very distinguished Frenchman, although but 43 years old, has won
high eminence in his native land, especially in the domain of
international law, which is his branch at the University of Paris. Also
he is Directeur de Recuel des Arbitrages Internacioneaux, he is the
editor of The International Law Review in Paris, he is a member of the
Committee on International Law for the French Department of Justice, he
is a member of the French Committee on Aerial Navigation, he is General
Secretary of the French Society of International Law, and he occupies
other important posts and bears other important scholastic honors.
He is a cautious conversationist, as might be expected of one who has so
deeply delved into the most cautious of all professions, but in the mind
of the thoughtful reader this should add to the value of his utterances,
which, as expressed in the following columns, were carefully revised by
him before going into type.
I asked M. de Lapredelle to estimate the great war's probable effect
upon education.
"Of course it is too early to guess intelligently," he replied, "for the
effect of the war will be dependent entirely upon the results of the
war, and, while we of the Allies have no doubt of our ultimate victory,
it is the fact that victory has not been won as yet by either side.
"In talking with you my impulse is to assume what I feel in my
heart--the certainty of German defeat, but I must not do that, although
all the letters which I get from the front and from Paris express a
growing confidence in the victory of the Allies.
"But it is too early to attempt intelligent detailed prophecy as to the
effect of the great struggle upon the world's philosophy, or upon any
other phase of its intellectual development.
"Almost certainly, however, a reaction against certain Germanic
influences will be apparent after the war ends, for the world will not
want ever to risk repetition of the horrors of this struggle, and it
will be plain that they were the inevitable fruit of Germany's attempt
at intellectual domination.
"This German assumption was due, largely, to their victory in 1870, but
it went far beyond the bounds of reason, far beyond the fields in which
German achievement really had established legitimate supremacy.
"The momentum of victory often has led humanity into excess. It led
Germany into excessive claims of social superiority and into an
excessive assumption of intellectual supremacy. Even in the eyes of
others it gave Germany an unwarranted intellectual prestige.
"Really, the German is not a big thinker; he is an immensely careful
thinker.
"Above everything, the German is an observer--a very diligent
observer--and his mental eyes are likely to be so close to the wall
that he sees only a single brick in it, wholly failing to get a
comprehensive view of the whole structure.
"Germans are very careful students. They attach a vast importance to
detail. I think it is not unfair to say that, with the German, the
smaller, the more minute the detail, the more it interests him. The
German loves to write a big book on a small subject, and, loving it, he
does it well.
"But there are more exalted tasks, as, for example, the writing of big
books upon big subjects, giving the world fresh visions of new and
far-flung vistas. The German loves to catalogue and catalogues almost
with genius; he loves to deliver long lectures upon microcosms.
"Cataloguing and the near-sightedness which may arise from intense study
of the atom, to the exclusion of the collective organism, whether that
collective organism be the human individual or the social mass, may
render immense service to the world, but it never will be the only
service necessary, and, if pursued to the exclusion of all other
investigations, such study is likely to produce an aggravated narrowness
of vision. Narrow vision is certain to eventuate in selfishness.
"The Germans became selfish after this fashion. The present struggle is
the war of selfishness against world advance.
"Innumerable, or at least many, individuals have furnished smaller
parallels to the course which Germany has taken as a nation. The
individual with the truly and exclusively scientific mind is likely to
go too far into abstractions, built from a possible misinterpretation of
minutiae.
"The ideal national intellectual development will combine both fact and
theory, will join rationalism to idealism, and will be far more like
that of certain nations which I shall not name than it will be like that
of Germany. These nations which I shall not name have both.
"In other words, it seems to be the fixed idea of the German that the
German civilization is the only civilization; but it is not the thought
of France or England that their civilizations are the only ones.
"This very lack of what may be defined as national egotism in France and
England enables these nations to work, as Germany does not, for world
science and world development--the growth of civilization as a whole.
"Germany's scientific work is for German science, she thinks
of civilization only as German civilization. The world's other
great nations--and may I say the world's great Latin nations
especially?--internationalize their science and their civilization."
Why the Philosopher Is Important.
"One must be struck by the fact that Germany's critical philosophy
formed the basis of her educational system and, therefore, the basis of
her social system, and that it had in it the basis of the war.
"It cannot be denied, I think, that her education, as well as her
politics and militarism, directly pointed to this great conflict.
Indeed, the industrialism, the politics, the philosophy of Germany all
find their logical expression in present events.
"Hegel was the first, in the beginning of the last century, to insist
upon the ideas which, already being paramount in him, quickly became
paramount in his followers, serving as the basis for the development of
Prussia. To him this represented all and everything; to him divinity on
earth was incarcerated in the State, and, therefore, the development of
the State, not justice, was, in his mind, the object of all law.
"Since this beginning that has been the consistent German viewpoint, and
increasingly so. The glorification of the State has included, of
necessity, the sacrifice of the individual, and this has been conducted
ruthlessly in Germany itself.
"Of course the State which considers it right to sacrifice the
individuals of its own citizenship will be sure to consider it right to
sacrifice the individuals of other nations' citizenships.
"That explains why international law never has been considered binding
by the German; it explains why international law was not considered
binding when Belgium stood in the path of Germany's march toward Paris.
"International law never has bound the German; it never will bind him
until he changes his national psychology.
"Ihering, one of Germany's greatest theoretical jurists and a scholar in
the matter of Roman law, declared, 'Right is the child of might.' He did
not say exactly that right is might, but he defined it as 'the child of
might.'
"That may be taken as the German keynote, for this man is of such great
influence in Germany that his utterances must have an enormous effect.
"Treitschke, the historian, in his teaching in Berlin, naturally drew
some of his inspiration from these two men. For him the State need
consider no law save that which will promote its own expansion.
"Moral law, he holds, need not and must not stand in the way of the
prosperity and growth of States, as it frequently must obstruct the
prosperity and growth of individuals.
"Under this theory the State has two functions--these are, inside the
country, to make law; outside the country, to make war. Germany denies
the right of an extraneous law to decide upon the details of right and
wrong within a country, and that is why Germany defies and even denies
international law.
"If it happens that a treaty which the State has entered into later
proves to be obstructive to some expansion which is thought to be a
necessity of the State's destiny, that treaty may be disregarded with
the full approval of Germany's national morality, although similar
conduct on the part of an individual in Germany would be considered
highly reprehensible.
"The State may bind itself to secure advantage, but, also, it may unbind
itself to secure advantage, and this without consultation with, or the
approval of, the other party or parties to the contract.
"This theory becomes confusing to the student reared in other nations
under different educational influences. It indicates beyond
contradiction that Germany feels no sense of duty toward other nations,
but only an obligation to further her own interests.
"Germany has immense patriotism but no humanitarianism. Her only duty is
to herself. Her national egotism can be characterized by no other word
than selfishness.
"It is a curious phenomenon that at a time when humanitarianism in its
broadest sense has become the keynote of all other of the great nations
it has not become at all the keynote of German civilization."
Teutonic Superexcitation.
"It is impossible that such pride, such a sense of arrogant national
superiority as that which marks Germany, should maintain among a
democratic people; it is possible only to a very aristocratic country.
What has happened is its logical outgrowth in the country which it has
infected.
"In Germany this sense of national pride, of intolerance of others, even
of contempt for others, has been developed until it amounts to
superexcitation. It not only affects Germany's relations to other
peoples, but it affects the relations of Germans to one another.
"Different classes of the German population continually exhibit it in
their dealings with one another.
"It is continually illustrated in those events which have been the
wonder of visiting foreigners--episodes of the contemptuous
ill-treatment of subordinate German soldiers by their superiors. It goes
beyond that, manifesting itself in the treatment of all civilians by the
lowest soldier, and, further still, in the attitude even of the lowest
civilian to all foreigners, even the highest.
"The German individual may not consider himself superior to all
individuals of other nationalities, but he will be sure to consider his
nation so far superior to every other that there can be no comparison
between it and them. His is a peculiar arrogance. It is not at all
personal; it is purely national; but none the less it is arrogance, and
all arrogance is dangerous.
"A hierarchy always exists in aristocratic countries; the hierarchical
idea has been developed further in Germany than elsewhere.
"This has given Germany an unfortunate impulse. If to this impulse we
add that other born of all her various victories since 1866, especially
those which were won while Germany was realizing Bismarck's dream of
triumph 'through fire and blood'--her industrial victories, her
scientific advance, her social progress--and consider the Germanic
tendency toward egotism, we do not find ourselves surprised when we
find, examine, and appraise exactly what we have today in Germany.
"The perversion of national sentiment into national arrogance has been
the definite, although, perhaps, unrealized and unintended, aim of every
educational influence which has been at work in Germany since 1870. It
has amounted to an unparalleled perversion of a nation's sentiment
toward all the outside world.
"This war marks the crisis of this German pride.
"Germany's course throughout has borne all the earmarks of a national
ego-mania. The whole German people, as a nation, not always, perhaps, as
individuals, have fallen victim to the most colossal attack of ego-mania
which the world ever has known.
"Combine this ego-mania with another delusion--the entirely unjustified
conclusion that Germany was the object of a worldwide persecution--and
it is unnecessary to search further for the causes of the war, just as
it is unnecessary to search further for reasons for the combination of
practically all other Europe against Germany.
"What would German victory mean to the world, if German victory came,
save the worldwide dominance of German egotism, imposed at the expense
of every other people? France would not escape, England would not
escape, and, I assure you, you, America, would not escape. German
victory would be far more than a European disaster--it would be a world
disaster.
"Of all the nations in the world perhaps the United States and France
have stood most notably for the ideas of international justice. This
really makes your interest in the outcome of the present war indirectly
as great as ours.
"I cannot see how the people of the United States can feel otherwise
than that not only their hearts but their reason demands victory for the
Allies, not because of any wish for the destruction of Germany, but
because of the wish for the preservation of the world.
"Indeed, it is inconceivable that victory for the Allies can mean
destruction for Germany. It can mean only the destruction of German
militarism, which has brought about the perversion of the German mind.
"No abler mind exists. Its release from the thralldom which has fettered
it would be a vast world service, would, indeed, be a vast benefit to
Germany herself. It is curious, but true, that I believe Germany's own
salvation depends upon her absolute defeat in this great war.
"A few weeks before the war began Prof. Schucking expressed regret that
Germany--that is, the German Government--should be so antagonistic to
international spirit. The fact that he made this expression shows that,
in spite of and beyond military Germany, the intellectual élite, the
cream of the élite in Germany, has remained faithful to the traditions
of the great philosopher, Kant.
"The intellectual élite--the cream of the élite--therefore may be
absolved from all responsibility. Loyalty to the teachings of Kant will
make it possible for the friends of humanity in all nations to join with
Germany for human advancement on the basis of universal justice.
"After the victory of the Allies a new Germany will appear; it will be a
liberal Germany, willing to renounce the narrow Prussian ideals, finding
again the old German ideal in its disinterested form, a Germany which
will be able to join hands with other nations, to help them in taking up
again the works of international civilization, which Prussian Germany
herself brutally brought to an end, with insolent scorn of right--an act
for which she is now paying and must pay the penalty."