LIBERALS AND REASONABLE MEN
I have already expressed a belief that Germany will not be forced
to make peace because of a revolution, and that sufficient food
will be somehow found to carry the population during at least
another year of war.
What then offers a prospect of reasonable peace, supposing, of
course, that the Germans fail in the submarine blockade of England
and that the crumbling up of Russia does not release from the
East frontier soldiers enough to break the lines of the British
and French in France?
I think that it is only by an evolution of Germany herself toward
liberalism that the world will be given such guarantees of future
peace as will justify the termination of this war.
There is, properly speaking, no great liberal party in the political
arena in Germany. As I have said, the Reichstag is divided roughly
into Conservatives, Roman Catholics, or Centrum, and Social
Democrats. The so-called National Liberal party has in this war
shown itself a branch of the Conservative party, and on some issues
as bitter, as conservative, as the Junkers themselves. Herr
Bassermann and Herr Stresemann have not shown themselves leaders of
liberal thought, nor has their leadership been such as to inspire
confidence in their political sagacity.
It was Stresemann who on May thirtieth, 1916, said in the Reichstag
referring to President Wilson as a peacemaker, "We thrust the
hand of Wilson aside." On the day following, the day on which
the President announced to Congress the breaking of diplomatic
relations, news of that break had not yet arrived in Berlin and
Herr Stresemann on that peaceful Sunday morning was engaged in
making a speech to the members of the National Liberal party
in which he told them that as a result of his careful study of
the American situation, of his careful researches into American
character and politics, he could assure them that America would
never break with Germany. As he concluded his speech and sat
down amid the applause of his admirers, a German who had been
sitting in the back of the room rose and read from the noon paper,
the "_B. Z._", a despatch from Holland giving the news that
America had broken relations with Germany. The political skill
and foresight of Herr Stresemann may be judged from the above
incident.
The Socialists, or Social Democrats, more properly speaking,
have shown themselves in opposition to the monarchical form of
government in Germany. This has put them politically, militarily
and socially beyond the pale.
After a successful French attack in the Champagne, I heard it
said of a German woman, whose husband was thought to be killed,
that her rage and despair had been so great that she had said she
would become a Social Democrat; and her expression was repeated
as showing to what lengths grief had driven her. This girl was
the wife of an ordinary clerk working in Berlin.
The Social Democrats are not given offices, are not given titles:
they never join the class of "_Rat_," and they cannot hope
to become officers of the army. Did not Lieutenant Forstner,
the notorious centre of the Zabern Affair, promise a reward to
the first one of his men who in case of trouble should shoot
one "of those damn Social Democrats"?
There is, therefore, no refuge at present politically, for the
reasonable men of liberal inclinations; and it is these liberal
men who must themselves create a liberal party: a party, membership
in which will not entail a loss of business, a loss of prospects
of promotion and social degradation.
There are many such men in Germany to-day; perhaps some of the
conservative Socialists will join such a party, and there are
men in the government itself whose habits of mind and thought
are not incompatible with membership in a liberal organisation.
The Chancellor himself is, perhaps, at heart a Liberal. He comes
of a banking family in Frankfort and while there stands before
his name the "von" which means nobility, and while he owns a
country estate, the whole turn of his thought is towards a
philosophical liberalism. Zimmermann, the Foreign Secretary,
although the mental excitement caused by his elevation to the
Foreign Office at a time of stress, made him go over to the advocates
of ruthless submarine war, lock, stock and barrel, is nevertheless
at heart a Liberal and violently opposed to a system which draws
the leaders of the country from only one aristocratic class.
Dr. Solf, the Imperial Colonial Minister, while devoted to the
Emperor and his family is a man so reasonable in his views, so
indulgent of the views of others, and indulgent without weakness,
that he would make an ideal leader of a liberalised Germany.
The great bankers, merchants and manufacturers, although they
appreciate the luscious dividends that they have received during
the peaceful years since 1870, nevertheless feel under their
skins the ignominy of living in a country where a class exists
by birth, a class not even tactful enough to conceal its ancient
contempt for all those who soil their hands business or trade.
In fact such a party is a necessity for Germany as a buffer against
the extreme Social Democrats.
At the close of the war the soldiers who have fought in the mud
of the trenches for three years will most insistently demand a
redistricting of the Reichstag and an abolition of the inadequate
circle voting of Prussia. And when manhood suffrage comes in
Prussia and when the industrial population of Germany gets that
representation in the Reichstag out of which they have been brazenly
cheated for so many years, it may well be that a great liberal
party will be the only defence of private property against the
assault of an enraged and justly revengeful social democracy.
The workingmen of Germany have been fooled for a long time. They
constitute that class of which President Lincoln spoke, "You
can fool some of the people all of the time"; and the middle
class of manufacturers, merchants, etc. have acquiesced in the
system because of the profits that they have made.
The difficulty of making peace with Germany, as at present
constituted, is that the whole world feels that peace made with
its present government would not be lasting; that such a peace
would mean the detachment of some of the Allies from the present
world alliance against Germany; preparation by Germany, in the
light of her needs as disclosed by this war; and the declaration
of a new war in which there would be no battle of the Marne to
turn back the tide of German world conquest.
For a long time before this war, radicals in Great Britain pinned
a great faith to the Socialist party of Germany. How little that
faith was justified appeared in July and August of 1914 when the
Socialist party tamely voted credits for the war; a war declared
by the Emperor on the mere statement that it was a defensive
war; declared because it was alleged that certain invasions of
German territory, never since substantiated, had taken place.
The Socialist party is divided. It is a great pity that the world
cannot deal with men of the type of Scheidemann, who, in other
democracies, would appear so conservative as to be almost
reactionary. But Scheidemann and his friends, while they have,
in their attempted negotiations with the Socialists of other
countries, the present protection of the Imperial Government,
will have no hand in dictating terms of peace so long as that
government is in existence. They are being used in an effort
to divide the Allies.
As President Wilson said in his message to Russia of May
twenty-sixth, 1917: "The war has begun to go against Germany,
and, in their desperate desire to escape the inevitable ultimate
defeat, those who are in authority in Germany are using every
possible instrumentality, are making use even of the influence of
the groups and parties among their own subjects to whom they have
never been just or fair or even tolerant to promote a propaganda on
both sides of the sea which will preserve for them their influence
at home and their power abroad, to the undoing of the very men
they are using."
There is an impression abroad that the Social Democratic party
of Germany, usually known abroad as the Socialist party, partakes
of at least some of the characteristics of a great liberal party.
This is far from being the case. By their acts, if not by their
express declarations, they have shown themselves as opposed to
the monarchical form of government and their leaders are charged
with having declared themselves openly in favour of free love
and against religion. The Roman Catholic Church recognises in
Social Democracy its greatest enemy, and has made great efforts
to counteract its advance by fostering a sort of Roman Catholic
trades-union for a religious body of Socialists. The Social Democrat
in Germany is almost an outcast. Although one third of the members
of the Reichstag belong to this party, its members are never
called to hold office in the government; and the attitude of
the whole of the governing class, of all the professors,
school-teachers, priests of both Protestant and Roman Catholic
religions of the prosperous middle classes, is that of violent
opposition to the doctrines of Social Democracy. The world must
entertain no illusion that the Social Democratic leaders speak
for Germany.
If the industrial populations had their fair share of representation
in the Reichstag they might perhaps even control that body. But,
as I have time and again reiterated, the Reichstag has only the
power of public opinion; and the Germany of to-day is ruled by
officials appointed from above downwards. All of these officials in
Germany must be added to the other classes that I have mentioned.
There are more officials there than in any other country in the
world. As they owe their very existence to the government, they
must not only serve that government, but also make the enemies
of that government their own. Therefore, they and the circle
of their connections are opponents of the Social Democrats.
All this shows how difficult it is at present for the men of
reasonable and liberal views, who do not wish to declare themselves
against both religion and morality, to find a political refuge.
The Chancellor, himself a liberal at heart, as I have said, has
declared that there must be changes in Germany. It is perhaps
within the bounds of probability that a great new liberal party
will be formed to which I have referred, composed of the more
conservative Social Democrats, of the remains of the National
Liberal and Progressive parties and of the more liberal of the
Conservatives. The important question is then whether the Roman
Catholic party or Centrum will voluntarily dissolve and its members
cease to seek election merely as representatives of the Roman
Catholic Church.
It is perhaps too much to expect that the Centrum party, as a
whole and as at present constituted, will declare for liberalism
and parliamentary government and for a fair redistricting of
the divisions in Germany which elect members to the Reichstag,
but there are many wise and farseeing men in this party; and
its leaders, Dr. Spahn and Erzberger, are fearless and able men.
For some years a movement has been going on in the Centrum party
looking to this end. Many members believed that the time had
come when it was no longer necessary that the Roman Catholics
in order to safeguard their religious liberties continue the
political existence of the Centrum, and attempts were made to
bring about this change. It was decided adversely, however, by
the Roman Catholics. But the question is not dead. Voluntary
dissolution of the Centrum as a Roman Catholic party would
immediately bring about a creation of a true liberal party to
which all Germans could belong without a loss of social prestige,
without becoming declared enemies of the monarchy and without
declaring themselves against religion and morality.
At the Congress which will meet after the war it will be easy
for the nations of the world to deal with the representatives
of a liberal Germany, with representatives of a government still
monarchical in form, but possessed of either a constitution like
that of the United States or ruled by a parliamentary government.
I believe that the tendency of German liberalism is towards the
easiest transition, that of making the Chancellor and his ministers
responsible to the Reichstag and bound to resign after a vote
of want of confidence by that body.
At the time of the Zabern Affair, Scheidemann claimed that the
resignation of the Chancellor must logically follow a vote of
want of confidence; and it was von Bethmann-Hollweg who refused
to resign, saying that he was responsible to the Emperor alone.
It requires no violent change to bring about this establishment
of parliamentary government, and, if the members of the Reichstag
should be elected from districts fairly constituted, the world
would then be dealing with a liberalised Germany, and a Germany
which has become liberalised without any violent change in the
form of its government.
Of course, coincident with this parliamentary reform, the vicious
circle system of voting in Prussia must end.
This change to a government by a responsible ministry can be
accomplished under the constitution of the German Empire by a
mere majority vote of the Reichstag and a vote in the Bundesrat,
in which less than fourteen votes are against the proposed change
in the constitution. This means that the consent of the Emperor
as Prussian King must be obtained, and that of a number of the
rulers of the German States.
In the reasonable liberalisation of Germany, if it comes, Theodor
Wolff and his father-in-law, Mosse, will play leading parts.
The great newspaper, the _Tageblatt_, which Mosse owns and
Wolff edits, has throughout the war been a beacon light at once
of reason and of patriotism. And other great newspapers will
take the same enlightened course.
I am truly sorry for Georg Bernhard, the talented editor of the
_Vossiche Zeitung_, who, a Liberal and a Jew, wears the
livery of Junkerdom, I am sure to his great distaste.
After I left Germany the _Vossiche Zeitung_ made the most
ridiculous charges against me, such as that I issued American
passports to British subjects. The newspaper might as well have
solemnly charged that I sent notes to the Foreign Office in sealed
envelopes. Having charge of British interests, I could not issue
British passports to British citizens allowed to leave Germany,
but, according to universal custom in similar cases and the express
consent of the Imperial Foreign Office, I gave these returning
British, American passports superstamped with the words "British
subject." A mare's nest, truly!
The fall of von Bethmann-Hollweg was a triumph of kitchen intrigue
and of Junkerism. I believe that he is a liberal at heart, that
it was against his best judgment that the ruthless submarine
war was resumed, the pledges of the _Sussex_ Note broken
and Germany involved in war with America. If he had resigned,
rather than consent to the resumption of V-boat war, he would
have stood out as a great Liberal rallying point and probably
have returned to a more real power than he ever possessed. But
half because of a desire to retain office, half because of a
mistaken loyalty to the Emperor, he remained in office at the
sacrifice of his opinions; and when he laid down that office no
title of Prince or even of Count waited him as a parting gift.
In his retirement he will read the lines of Schiller--a favourite
quotation in Germany--"Der Mohr hat seine Schuldigkeit gethan,
der Mohr kann gehen." "The Moor has done his work, the Moor can
go." And in his old age he will exclaim, as Shakespeare makes
the great Chancellor of Henry the Eighth exclaim, "Oh Cromwell,
Cromwell! Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served
my King, He would not, in mine age, have left me naked to mine
enemies." But this God is not the private War God of the Prussians
with whom they believe they have a gentlemen's working agreement,
but the God of Christianity, of humanity and of all mankind.
It would have been easier for Germany to make peace with von
Bethmann-Hollweg at the helm. The whole world knows him and honours
him for his honesty.
Helfferich remained as Vice-Chancellor and Minister of the Interior:
a powerful, and agile intellect, a man, I am sure, opposed to
militarism. Reasonable in his views, one can sit at the council
table with him and arrive at compromises and results, but his
intense patriotism and surpassing ability make him an opponent
to be feared.
Kühlmann has the Foreign Office. Far more wily than Zimmermann,
he will continue to strive to embroil us with Japan and Mexico,
but he will not be caught. Second in command in London, he reported
then that England would enter the war. The rumours scattered
broadcast, as he took office, to the effect that he was opposed
to ruthless V-boat war were but evidences of a more skilful hand
in a campaign to predispose the world in his favour and, therefore,
to assist him in any negotiations he might have on the carpet.
Beware of the wily Kühlmann!
Baiting the Chancellor is the favourite sport of German political
life. No sooner does the Kaiser name a Chancellor than hundreds
of little politicians, Reichstag members, editors, reporters
and female intriguers try to drive him from office. When von
Bethmann-Hollweg showed an inclination towards Liberalism, and
advocated a juster electoral system for Prussia, the Junkers, the
military and the upholders of the caste system joined their forces
to those of the usual intriguers; and it was only a question of
time until the Chancellor's official head fell in the basket.
His successor is a Prussian bureaucrat. No further description
is necessary.
Of course no nation will permit itself to be reformed from without.
The position of the world in arms with reference to Germany is
simply this. It is impossible to make peace with Germany as at
present constituted, because that peace will be but a truce,
a short breathing space before the German military autocrats
again send the sons of Germany to death in the trenches for the
advancement of the System and the personal glory and advantage
of stuffy old generals and prancing princes.
The world does not believe that a free Germany will needlessly
make war, believe in war for war's sake or take up the profession
of arms as a national industry.
The choice lies with the German people. And how admirably has
our great President shown that people that we war not with them
but with the autocracy which has led them into the shambles of
dishonour.