WORLD COMMENT
The developments of the Great War, up to date, do not hold out any hope that Idealism will be respected until the war is finished and the passions of the belligerents are cooled. It is evident that the practical and material problems must first be solved, leaving the ethical ones for later adjustment. It is to be feared, indeed, that the war will settle down not only into a ghastly conflict of blood and destruction, but also into one of retaliation and cruelty, in which all the laws of war hitherto recognized will be ignored and all international law will become a dead letter. The old Latin motto,Inter arma silent leges, is already construed more literally in practice than it was by the pagans of the pre-Christian era. Modern inventions of death-dealing machinery, poisonous gases and explosives, deadly air craft and submarines, have furnished an excuse to declare the former international rules for the conduct of war obsolete, and it is a question if this avowal will not become more pronounced as the war progresses. The world is confronted with the horrible possibility that war will come to mean actually, as it always has in theory, the denial of all humanity, all justice, all fairness, all chivalry, all mercy, and become a struggle to the death not a bit less brutal than that of the wild beasts of the jungle.
The attempted assassination of J. P. Morgan, the eminent financier, was undoubtedly the work of a crank, or a man crazed by too much brooding over the bloody tragedy now enacting in the theatre of the great war. It is the men of prominence who are usually the objects of attacks from the demented. The assassination of Presidents Garfield and McKinley was unmistakably the work of cranks whose murderous instincts had been set aflame by irresponsible newspaper talk and reckless political criticism. The mind of the man Holt who shot Mr. Morgan appears to have been unsettled in much the same manner. The incident tends to emphasize and bring home to every one the necessity for putting a curb upon the tongue and to refrain from vicious war talk. It is a time especially in this country, to soothe instead of to arouse passion. The spirit of neutrality should sit upon the tongue and the pen, preside at the feast, and accompany us in our daily round of duties. Let there be one great country in whichthe demon of strife and murder is not let loose. It is not always possible to protect a man against a crank, but it is possible to restrain the evil speech which breeds cranks.
In the face of such a possibility a peaceful and unarmed nation like the United States is absolutely powerless to interfere with more effect than the twittering of sparrows against the combats of eagles. We may pipe our tunes of peace in Mr. Bryan’s most resonant voice, but the ensanguined nations will not listen. If we fortunately keep out of the war, our reserve of moral force and idealism may be potent at some future day.
Whatever may be the judgment of William J. Bryan’s motives in resigning the position of Secretary of State in President Wilson’s cabinet, there is an almost universal feeling of relief at the accomplished fact. We doubt if there is a single one even of Mr. Bryan’s warmest admirers who would not admit, if brought to an honest confession, Mr. Bryan’s utter incompetency for such a place. President Wilson was doubtless conscious of Mr. Bryan’s failings when he grafted him into his cabinet, but he was moved by political considerations which at the time seemed to be compelling. And there is no doubt that Bryan has been highly useful to Wilson in bringing the Democratic party, to which Wilson was comparatively a stranger, to the support of the administration. Bryan’s services in the Cabinet have been purely political. At the time the appointment was tendered him there was no dream of the outbreak of the great war which has imposed such a burden and strain upon the office of Secretary of State in conducting our foreign relations. There was to be sure the Mexican trouble, which was serious enough, but at the time probably not appreciated at its full gravity. There is a widespread belief that the fundamental mistake of our Mexican policy was due to Mr. Bryan’s impracticable idealism. At that time the President was not fully awake to the weakness of Bryan’s character, and carelessly allowed himself to be committed to a policy of drift and pusillanimity which, instead of saving Mexico from anarchy, has resulted in plunging it into the worst anarchy in its history, and has confronted the United States with possibly the hard necessity of military intervention to save the Mexican people from utter destruction. This is a result that was not sought by Mr. Bryan, but it is a result which his vacillation invited. By the time the European situation developed President Wilson was better acquainted with Secretary Bryan, and he judiciously took the conduct of the State Department, so far as it concerned the European crisis, into his own hands. This has saved us from a fatal involvement which could hardly fail to embroil us with one or more of the belligerent powers. For it is usually weakness and not strength which embroils a country in war when the country is seeking to avoid war. Secretary Bryan displayed such a capacity for blundering, such actual imbecility when it came to grappling with practical questions, that his presence in the State Department always endangered the smashing of diplomatic crockery as the presence of a bull in a China shop endangers the smashing of actual crockery. President Wilson is entitled to credit for seizing the reins of our foreign relations and holding them with a firm hand the moment he became convinced of the utter incompetency and uselessness of the driver he had selected. The retirement of Bryan is a load off the shoulders of his administration which may save it from the utter ruin which threatened it. The country breathes more freely that Bryan has gone. In private life his platitudes and puerile philosophies can do comparatively little harm, notwithstanding his accomplishments as an orator, his personal magnetism, and his apparent sincerity. In their long acquaintance with him on the stumpand the rostrum the American people have come to size him up pretty correctly. They look upon him much as they would upon an actor with a pleasing voice and presence who entertains but does not convince. His exposition of the beatitudes and generally accepted moralities, and his reiteration of common-place and tawdry sentiment passes off harmlessly like a glow of summer lightning so long as he is a private citizen, and we all have to be thankful that he no longer speaks with an official voice.
The arrest of General Huerta on the Mexican border on a charge of violating the neutrality laws of the United States by plotting another Mexican revolution within our borders, adds new spice to the Mexican situation. Perhaps one revolution more or less in Mexico wouldn’t make much difference, but the United States is bound to protect its neutrality and not permit the various factions of Mexican banditti to carry on their operations or to enlist men on our soil. No actual or would-be Mexican leader has as yet displayed sufficient patriotism to subordinate his personal ambitions to the welfare of his country. These leaders are not amenable to advice from Washington, and hence there does not appear to be any way for the United States to enforce order and protect life and property in Mexico short of intervention. However, intervention is not to be thought of for the present. This is a very inopportune time for our country to engage in a military adventure in Mexico. President Wilson, in a speech last winter, asserted that the Mexican people had the same right to cut each other’s throats as the people of Europe had. If that was true then, it is equally true now. The stories of anarchy and starvation among the Mexican people are no doubt greatly exaggerated. We are so informed by a gentleman who has spent the last two years in and near Mexico. He says that the soil of the country is so rich and the skies so kindly that a very little labor suffices to raise ample food, and that conditions in all the towns he visited were orderly and business going on as usual. Most of the men make a business of fighting for some chief, while the women and children do the work and keep the pot boiling. Almost all the casualties are among the belligerents who have adopted fighting as an industry. It was so in Europe during the formative years of the various nations. Mexico’s political development is about that of the twelfth or thirteenth century in Europe. We should wait patiently until some leader arises strong enough to dominate the situation and enforce order, in the mean time bringing to bear such moral influences as we can to hasten the pacification of our sister republic. But we do not think that public sentiment in the United States is ready to approve the shedding of red American blood in a Mexican crusade to compel that people to adopt our ideals.
A woman’s Department of the International Peace Forum, under the leadership of Mrs. Alice Gitchell Kirk, with headquarters at Cleveland, Ohio, has been organized. This Department will have a Bureau in theWorld Courtmagazine, conducted by Mrs. Kirk, who is a well known writer and lecturer who has been prominent in many activities for the promotion of the welfare of her sex and of the rising generation. The purpose of the Department is to promote the cause of National and International Amity by the application of safe and sane principles to world problems; to set clearly before the American people the ideals at issue between American thought and life as compared with the economic, social and political theories which spell revolution and ruin; to exemplify and reinforce the faith of the people in personal initiative as the mainspring of all real social, industrial, political and moral well-being; to encourage the study of the laws of hygiene and so conserve life and promote happiness and usefulness; to promote a loyal adherence to the institutionsby which America has come to be a land of peace, liberty, and progress under law; to uphold the American ideal of home; the dignity of womanhood, and the rights of childhood; the love of country, the supremacy of the flag, and to maintain the everlasting reality of religion as the foundation of civilization.
The wonders that Germany has accomplished in this war, not only in the marching and fighting of her armies, but in civic and industrial organization sets the pace for the world, which all the nations will have to approximate in the immediate future, or fall hopelessly behind. After waging war for a year against five great nations and several small ones, in which the number of men engaged and the expenditure of war material has been unparalleled, Germany shows no signs of exhaustion. She has demonstrated that her people cannot be starved out. She has demonstrated that she has an unlimited supply of men and munitions. While the armies of the opposing nations have frequently suffered from lack of ammunition, the Germans have always had an ample supply notwithstanding the lavishness of their expenditure. And in the civil life the whole people of the country not engaged in military operations have been organized and employed so as to produce the best results in supporting the war. The method, the careful planning, the foresight, displayed by the civil and military administrators have never before been equaled by any nation in the history of the world. The marvelous German efficiency is the natural outflow of this method and foresight combined with the energy of the German character. In comparison with the German method the method of the other nations seems haphazard. Other elements of the German power are industry, frugality and careful attention to details. Nothing is allowed to be wasted. The same marvelous organization and method was displayed by Germany in peace before the present war broke out. The strength that the nation displayed in industry and commerce was no accident, any more than is the strength she is now displaying in war. Here in the United States especially the lesson of Germany should be taken to heart. We need it in peace, and we may need it in war. We have the most vast and varied resources of any nation on earth, and our methods are the most wasteful. Our people possess phenomenal energy, but they waste much of it in frivolity. They have the most abounding wealth, and they dissipate it in extravagance. With the frugality and patience and method and organization of the Germans our nation could lead the world in peace or in war, in science, in education and in ethics.
The invention and application of the submarines and the airships unquestionably call for new rules of warfare on land and sea. The German contention that the submarine cannot be held to the requirement of notice and search required of surface water craft would, if allowed, work against Germany if she had a navy and merchant marine afloat. It is because the German fleets, except the submarines, are practically swept from the seas, that the contention of Germany in regard to the submarines now works almost exclusively in her favor. A prominent American manufacturer, who has had much to do with the development of the modern submarine, asserted, in a recent interview, that the United States should concentrate its naval expenditures on the construction and operation of submarine craft. He avers that with a fleet of five hundred submarines of an approved type, efficiently manned, the coasts and coast cities of the United States could be perfectly protected against armed invasion. With such submarines watching, he says, no hostile ships could approach our coast and every hostile troop transport could be easily sunk. This is a question for experts, but it is evident that the development of submarine warfare is going to lead to greatchanges in the rules of the game. The same may be said with regard to air craft. If a German, French or English aircraft drops bombs behind the enemy’s lines and hits non-combatants, men, women and children, or neutrals, are the nations sending out the aircraft to be held to particular liability? It is evident that the aircraft cannot give notice before the attack, cannot warn the civilians to get out of the way, cannot search the buildings on which they drop the bombs to see if they contain war material. H. G. Wells, the eminent British author, is out with an article in which he declares that the way to beat Germany is through the air; that England must send out aircraft by the tens of thousands and drop explosives all over Germany, blow up their arsenals and ammunition factories, their supply depots of all kinds, and carry the war home to the German people. If such a mode of warfare is adopted by all the nations can any restrictions be placed upon it—and will any restrictions be placed upon the operations of submarine craft?
Some of the weaknesses and inconsistencies of the plan proposed by the Philadelphia League of Peace meeting are succinctly set forth in a communication from Hon. James Brown Scott in this issue of theWorld Court. It will be seen that the approval or adoption of such a plan by the United States would place the government and people of this country in a very equivocal position. To begin with, we should have to discard the advice given by George Washington in his Farewell Address, not to entangle ourselves in the wars and politics of European nations; and in the second place we should have to place the Monroe Doctrine in pawn. We should have either to abandon our independence as a sovereign nation, or else place ourselves in the inconsistent attitude of approving the use of force to coerce other powers while refusing ourselves to be coerced; and by implication we would place ourselves in the rôle of a bully to the weaker nations and of subserviency to the strong powers—unless we want to obligate ourselves to join in a war against the strong powers regardless of our preparedness or ability to carry on such a conflict.
The proposition to furnish a contingent to a posse comitatus to enforce the judgment of a World Supreme Court stands on a very different footing. The League of Peace plan would compel us to furnish a force to compel any other nation to come before the Council of Conciliation. The proposition formulated at Cleveland by the World Court Congress was to first establish the International Court by consent and agreement of the Powers, and then to help furnish a posse comitatus in case of necessity, to execute the decrees of the court. Any nation taking its case before a World Court voluntarily, would thereby tacitly agree to submit to the judgment of such Court, and in case it proved recalcitrant compulsion to compel its submission would be justified legally and morally.
At a recent meeting at Cooper Institute one of the speakers was interrupted with the question: “Is Europe to-day an example of peace by preparedness?” The inference of the question was that preparedness for war, so far from preventing war, tends to breed war. This would be true if all nations would disarm. Europe to-day is not an example of peace by preparedness, but of war through unequal preparedness. Only one nation was thoroughly prepared for war, and that nation, in the conflict thus far, has proved the victor on all the battle fronts. If the other great nations had been equally prepared, there would undoubtedly have been no war. Half measures never led to satisfactory results. France and England and Russia knew, or should have known, that Germany was better prepared for war than any nation in all history ever was before. They made a show of preparation, but when the war began they were not half prepared.They had ample warning which they neglected to heed. They are now reaping the bitter fruit of their folly. Preparedness for war is not an insurance of peace if one potentially rival nation is permitted to so far exceed the others as to outclass them. Preparation for war is useless unless it is adequate.
The promotion of Robert Lansing to be Secretary of State following Mr. Bryan’s resignation is a recognition of the principle of selecting men for public place for demonstrated fitness to perform the duties of the position rather than for political availability. It is not known that Mr. Lansing has any political influence to speak of. But as Mr. Bryan’s assistant he demonstrated the possession of a comprehensive knowledge of international law, sound judgment, and the diplomatic instinct. He has been all along the real Secretary of State whom the President consulted, while Mr. Bryan was merely the figurehead. It is of course an open question whether it would not have been better for the President to appoint a man of national reputation and commanding ability to occupy the chief place in his Cabinet, relying upon Mr. Lansing for the detail and technical work. Such an appointment might have added strength to the Wilson administration, but while Mr. Lansing occupies the place the people of the country will have a comfortable feeling that no foolish mistakes are likely to be made, and that no half baked or hair brained theories will be promulgated to complicate our foreign relations and make our State Department a laughing-stock.
Colonel House, President Wilson’s personal representative, who spent some time in the principal capitals of Europe in the endeavor to ascertain whether there was any tangible peace sentiment which could be utilized by the United States as a basis of mediation, has apparently convinced the President that any movement in that direction would be useless at present. Col. House came in touch with the leading soldiers and statesmen of the various belligerent nations, and he found that no nation was ready to accept any peace terms that the enemy would be likely to offer. One important phase of public sentiment in Germany, as stated by Col. House is the idea that Germany’s most important interests lie in colonial expansion and the incidental development of over-seas commerce, rather than in territorial expansion in Europe itself. To this end Germany, it is believed, will demand as a condition of peace the freedom of the seas—that is, the recognition of the principle that the property, except contraband, of all private owners shall be exempt from seizure on the high seas in time of war. This is a principle for which the United States has always contended. There is no reason why private property on the seas should not be exempt from seizure the same as is private property on the land. Germany’s ambition for colonial expansion may be of vital interest to the United States if that ambition takes the direction of colonial expansion on any part of the American continents. It may be that when peace comes to be arranged our Monroe Doctrine will be subject to closer examination than it ever has been before, and if any disposition is shown by the contracting powers to contravene it, it will be up to the people and government of this country to decide whether they will let down the bars or firmly maintain it. And if we are to maintain it, the question of our physical power to do so will have to be considered.
The decision of the Federal Court in the suit brought for the dissolution of the United States Steel Corporation holds out some hope to business men that the persecution of big business in this country merely because it is big, is to cease. The case has to goto the Supreme Court of the United States, but the decision of this tribunal in the Cash Register Company case leads to the reasonable inference that it will uphold the decision of the lower court in the Steel Corporation case. The essence of the Cash Register decision is that the mere ability to commit the crime of combination in restraint of trade is not equivalent to the commission of the crime. The Cash Register Company, by reason of its bigness, could, had it been so inclined, put smaller concerns out of business by unfair competition; but the evidence adduced failed to prove that it had done so. The lower court gave it a clean bill of health, and the Supreme Court tacitly approved the verdict of the lower court. The government lawyers denounced the Cash Register Company in unmeasured terms virtually on the ground that its size made it a menace to competition, but the courts refused to hold it guilty because it possessed power which it did not exercise.
Nothing could show up in a clearer light the folly of the Government’s persecution of big business. To dissolve a corporation, or to penalize it, simply because it possesses the power to commit an offense which it does not commit, would be equivalent to ordering the arms of a stalwart citizen cut off lest he use his fists to pound some weaker citizen to a jelly. The attitude of this administration towards business, if we judge it by some of the prosecutions for which it stands responsible, is that success in business is an evidence of an evil disposition and a menace to all other business. If the Federal Courts have successfully called a halt upon this piratical attitude towards the country’s industry and commerce, the people of the country have reason to thank God for the Federal Courts.
Any grouping of powers in a League of Peace which leaves Germany out of the account must fail. There is no doubt that peace in Europe could be brought about quickly if Germany would offer moderate terms. For so far as the war has proceeded Germany is actually the victor. If peace were declared now on the basis of the status quo, Germany would be in possession of foreign soil which would vastly increase her resources and her prestige, and would have an army in being and stores of ammunition surpassing that of all the other belligerents combined. If Germany would enter into a League of Peace with the other great powers to compel the peace of the world, there would be no doubt of the ability of such a league to keep any and all nations from war; but with Germany left out, her veto upon any plan of compulsory peace would be sufficient to wreck it. We are only stating the situation as it stands to-day. What changes in it the future will make we cannot predict. It is evident that Germany’s power cannot be materially crippled except by a long war. If the Allies can hold her in check and continue to hold the seas, that may bring about German exhaustion of which there are no signs at present. Such a prolongation of the war will also bring about the exhaustion of the other nations, so that their people will be ready for a just international arrangement to insure universal peace. But even then Germany will be a power to be reckoned with, and any League of Peace or International Bund that aims to be effective will have to include the great Germanic peoples.
Mr. David Jayne Hill, former American Ambassador to Germany, says, in a recent magazine article, that there are two antagonistic schools of thought regarding the application of moral principles to international affairs: First, the Realpolitiker, who hold that international rights have no other basis than superior strength—in brief, that Might makes Right. Second, the Idealpolitiker, who desire to place the entire international system upon the basis of strictly moral conceptions.
It is generally recognized by publiciststhat as a matter of fact there is at present no enforceable international law. There are certain rules for the conduct of war set up, but no means of enforcing them. And as for the matter of declaring war, there is absolutely no recognized restraint. One nation may declare war against another for revenge, for conquest, for subjugation, or for the purpose of restraining and crippling its trade. In short, international law as it exists to-day is nothing more than a system of ethics or public opinion. Public opinion often makes its influence felt in a nation, and may become enacted into enforceable laws. But there is no means of enforcing ethics as between nations, and any nation which feels itself strong enough to do so, may defy world opinion.
An international tribunal for Judicial Settlement, which we might call a World Supreme Court, established by the consent and coöperation of the great powers, could gradually erect a body of international law that would be both ideal and real. This is the only way in which international law will ever come to have any actual, positive, binding force.
In spite of this fact, there are idealists like Former Secretary Bryan who, while insisting that the United States should set up as a sort of moral mentor for the world, nevertheless contend that we should not increase our armament. They proclaim themselves advocates of peace at any price. This may be correct as a mental attitude, but in these strenuous times, when the most powerful nations are appealing to physical force to adjust questions which might better have been settled by diplomacy, the still small voice of moral suasion, though coming from potentially powerful America, is not likely to be heard, above the din of battle. We can record our protests, of course, but so far as any practical measures to enforce humanity are concerned, we are quite powerless. Our government should either keep out of the mess, and wait for returning reason, after the war is over, to pave the way to universal peace through Judicial Settlement—or, we should immediately proceed to place ourselves in a condition of preparedness for war.
Utterances of various Socialist leaders and newspapers in Germany in favor of peace have recently filtered out of Germany, and have aroused considerable interest. The German Socialists differ materially from the Socialists of many other countries, in the fact that they constitute a recognized and responsible political party which has a large representation in the German parliament. The idea has widely prevailed that the German people were absolutely united in favor of carrying on the war to the point of “world domination or downfall,” but now we find men and publications of influence deprecating the idea of conquest and annexation of territory, or an invasion of the liberties of other peoples. They declare that the mass of the German people want peace, and that Germany’s military victories place the German government in a position to negotiate peace with justice and honor.
Whether these utterances represent any deep or widespread sentiment in Germany, we have no means of knowing. But their publication serves to inspire a hope that the implacable purpose of Germany to carry on a war of conquest has been exaggerated, and that discussion of terms of peace might not be premature even now, if some feasible plan were presented.