The road toward peace; a contribution to the study of the causes of the European war and of the means of preventing war in the future

Preface To The Second Edition

This edition differs from the first only by the addition of fi\e new chapters, as follows: Chapter XV contains an exchange of letters with Mr. Salmon 0. Levinson, of Chicago, on the fundamental conditions under which preliminary negotiations for peace might reasonably be opened. Chapter XVI is a letter to the New York Times of May 15, on fidelity to international agreements the tap-root of human progress. Chapter XVII is an address at the Lake Mohonk Conference on May 20, 1915, on the hopes for the future of Europe. Chapter XVIII is a Memorial Day address, delivered by me at Sanders Theatre, Harvard University, on the 31st of May last, on "The Moral Effects of War"; and Chapter XIX is a letter to the New York Times of July 18, on " Some Sure Inferences from Eleven Months of the Greatest of Wars."

Charles W. Eliot.

Asticou, Maine. 19 July, 1915.

Preface

For more than eight years past my mind has turned from time to time to the study of the causes of war, and of the means of preventing war. The first time I discussed in public the means of preventing war was at a meeting of the Canadian Club of Ottawa, on the 23d of February, 1907. The speech I made there is the first chapter in the present volume. In May of the same year, I took part in the discussions at the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration ; and two short speeches which I made then form the second chapter of this volume. At the Lake Mohonk Conference of 1910, I read a paper on " The Fears which cause Increasing Armaments," which appears here as the third chapter. In 1911-12, I went round the world as an envoy of the Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to " procure material for a Report to the Trustees, through the Division of Intercourse and Education, as to what activities may wisely and helpfully be planned in and for the Asiatic countries, that will advance the cause of peace viii PREFACE

and international good-will." In the summer of 1913, I presented to the Trustees a rather full Report of my observations and reflections, accompanied by a considerable number of supporting documents. Selected pages from that Report constitute the fourth chapter. The next three chapters consist each of a letter on the War written to the New York Times. Chapter VIII is an address to the Business Women's Club of Boston on " America's Duty in Regard to the European War." The ninth chapter is a letter to the New York Times on "The Sources and the Outcome of the War." Between November 24 and December 14, I exchanged letters with my friend Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, the eminent financier, each of us writing four letters, and neither of us having any thought of publishing our letters. But, after three weeks of correspondence, it seemed to both of us that the publication of the letters might do some good. This correspondence appears in the tenth chapter. A fifth letter to the New York Times makes the eleventh chapter. I have included in the volume as the twelfth chapter, an address on Forefathers' Day, 1914, before the New England Society in the City of New York; because the Pilgrim ideals, spread

PREFACE ix across the American Continent, account in large measure for the wide difference to-day between the national ideals of Germany and those of the United States. The thirteenth chapter of the book contains an address given on the 15th of January, 1915, before the Harvard Club of Boston on "National E y -ciencybest developed under Free Governments/' but later revised and enlarged. The huge war in Europe is going to put to a supreme test this theory concerning the surest sources of national efficiency. The last chapter consists of a letter to the New York Times in which I endeavored to describe the lessons concerning international relations which the war had taught convincingly down to the 9th of March, 1915. The chapters follow the chronological order.

In an appendix I have placed two addresses I made on the 6th of March, 1902, on the occasion of the visit of Prince Henry of Prussia to Cambridge and Boston.

Charles W. Eliot.

Cambridge, Mass., 15 March, 1915.

Chapter II

Is Force the Rightful Ruler? — International Plans must precede International Action . 10

Force has ceased to be the main reliance in school and home discipline — Prescription is a diminishing element in college discipline — The supreme object in education is to acquire self-control — In government, protective force, which keeps peace, preserves order, and brings help, will always be necessary — Free governments use little force and that a police force — Reduction of armaments is impossible until there exists an International Court and a force behind the Court.

CHAPTER III The Fears which cause the Increasing Armaments 17

The cutting-off of over-seas supplies of food and raw materials — Sudden invasion — The remedies, immunity for private property at sea and a Supreme Court with a force behind it.

Chapter IV

Present and Future Causes of War, Especially in the Orient — Alien Government — Chinese Unity — Japanese Ambitions — The Domination of the Pacific 30

The future causes — The fear of invasion — The exemption of private property at sea — The Occidental xii CONTENTS

desire for ports, concessions, and spheres of influence in the East — The inexpediency of very large units of national territory and government — The sentiment of nationality — The universal objection to alien government — The ambitions of the Japanese — The domination of the Pacific impossible for any one nation, desirable for a combination of strong naval powers — International peace the interest of Japan — Many of the causes of war in time past continue to exist — Promising expenditures for the promotion of peace.

Chapter V

The Great European War — Its Causes, Scope, and Objects — What Gains for Mankind can come out of it 57

The chances of getting some gains for mankind out of the gigantic struggle — Secret negotiations a great mischief — the permanent national executive independent of popular control — the small state in Europe — the larger national units in Europe — The national desire for larger territories and for colonies — Competitive armaments and universal conscription are preparations for war not peace — Militarism is inconsistent with democratic society — the Allies are fighting for freedom and civilization — The American Government must be neutral, but American sympathies and hopes cannot be.

Chapter VI

True National Greatness — are its Foundations Imperialism or Democracy, Fighting Power or Solemn Public Compacts? .... 71

Can the ideals of fighting power and domination be replaced by the ideals of peaceful competition, generous rivalry, and cooperation for mutual benefit — Can civilization enforce the inviolability of treaties and other solemn compacts between peoples?

CONTENTS xin

Chapter VII

Some Grounds for American Sympathy with Modern Germany — Why American Opinion favors the allies in the great war — the Most Favorable Issue of the War .... 81

German commercial and industrial growth since the Franco-Prussian War — Achievements in Letters and Science in the nineteenth century — Administrative efficiency — Why American opinion favors the Allies — Why thoughtful Americans see but one possible issue of the War — For more than a generation the fallacy that Might makes Right has been poisoning the springs of German thought — Americans hope and expect that the present struggle will result in neither World-Empire nor ruin for the German Nation.

CHAPTER Vin

America's Duty in regard to the European War 97

The great disappointments the War has brought to all persons who hoped that the human race was making steady progress in civilization — The destructiveness of the fighting — The violation of treaties and conventions — The abandonment of the chivalrous principle that the strong should protect, not crush, the weak — The disregard of the ameliorations of warfare which international law was supposed to have procured — The development of fierce hatreds between nations — The acceptance by Germany of the dogma that Might makes Right — American neutrality official or legal — Keep the industries going — No hoarding — Least possible reduction of expenditures, except expenditures on luxuries — Neither party will stop fighting till exhaustion threatens — Reasons for the American belief that England, France, and Russia will hold out longest — The obligations of the American people to England and France — Can we think of giving no aid to England or xiv CONTENTS

France if she come near the end of her resources — Americans see whither the German policies and the teachings of the German leaders have led the German people.

Chapter IX

The Causes of the War are Autocratic Institutions, National Desires for Empire, Disregard for Treaties and Conventions, and False Philosophies — Why Germany must be Defeated 114

German desire for World-Empire — The invincible army and navy — The doctrine of military necessity — The religion of valor — What German domination would mean — Germany has never feared Russia — Empire or downfall, victory or ruin, the real mottoes of German leaders — Desirable outcomes of the War — No World- Empire for any race or nation — No chief executives with power to throw their countrymen into war — No secret diplomacy — No conscript armies — A league or Federal Council to prevent war, bring about the reduction of armaments, and secure the liberties of each and all the federated states — The justifiable war — The cause of righteous liberty is the cause of civilization.

Chapter X

Correspondence between Charles W. Eliot and Jacob H. Schiff about the War, between November 24, and December 14, 1914 . . . 129

No lasting peace without the abandonment of Germany's intense desire for enlargement — American public opinion should express itself in favor of an early peace — A group of American publicists might induce the Governments of England, France, and Germany to listen to reasonable terms — The War ought not to stop until Germany sees that its declared policies cannot pre-

CONTENTS XV

vail — Europe should now choose between the German ideal of the State and the Anglo-American — The combatants would not listen now to outsiders advising immediate peace — The United States has no right to any position as umpire — To stop the War now would be to leave humanity exposed to the certain recurrence of ferocious war — Make peace now to stop the destruction of life and capital — The perpetual ceasing of war is impracticable — Free-trade cannot be established throughout the world — The European nationalism of the past fifty years will not cease — England will not abandon her domination of the high seas — If England and her ally Japan come out victorious, the United States will be forced into heavy expenditures for defense — If the Allies are victorious, Russia will become the most powerful nation and England's Nemesis.

Chapter XI

The War an Unprecedented Calamity — Shall its Outcome be an Unprecedented Gain? . .151

Unprecedented scale and destructiveness of the War — The most horrible calamity that has befallen the race — Each Government denies responsibility for it — Real causes are, (1) autocratic governments, (2) conscript armies and large military class, (3) bureaucracy, (4) the lust of empire — Germany has three times added to her territory in Europe by war — Has been aggressive in her search for colonies and in her eager desire for World- Empire — The Emperor as War Lord and Sovereign by Divine Right — The German conception of the State — the Beatitudes and the Religion of Valor — No such thing as World-Empire for any single nation — National militarism to be controlled by an international force under the direction of a European League or Council — ■ The establishment of such a League or Council must precede reductions in national armaments — The examples of Switzerland, Great Britain, and the United States — Peace proposals should be minimum not maximum proposals.

xvi CONTENTS

Chapter XII

The Pilgrims' Ideals — A Free Church in a Free State in 1620 164

Religious liberty and toleration, civil and political liberty, and a chief executive elected for one year — A progressive church in a state created and controlled by free men — Stock in their commercial company paid for either in cash or in personal risk and service — An example of cooperative management — Every able-bodied citizen bore arms — The " United Colonies of New England" an early example of confederation — Europe has never got so far as the Pilgrims in 1643 — The Pilgrims proved that there is no safe substitute for the institution of private property — Compare the teachings of modern Socialism — The Pilgrims practiced "Each for All and All for Each" — The Pilgrim women courageous, capable, and strong — More truth and light are constantly to be won, and it is Truth that makes men free — This faith can rescue Europe from the present horrors and sufferings.

CHAPTER Xin

National Efficiency best Developed under Free Governments 181

The real causes of the War are states of mind, ambitions of princes and peoples, and popular emotions — The potent sentiment of nationality is independent of common language, size of territory, and form of government — Recent tendency toward larger national units — New conceptions of the State — Imperialism — The government of Germany the most autocratic in Europe — The Germans do not know what political and social liberty is, or understand parliamentary or party government — To them political liberty means public incapacity and weakness — The War a conflict between free and autocratic institutions — The exceptional position of Russia — Can the freer nations develop an efficiency

CONTENTS xvn

equal to the German — no liberty in German education — The German estimate of the intellectual and social influence of women — The limitations of German "academic freedom" — German efficiency depends on the subjection of the individual — All the freer nations believe in liberty as an essential element in the development of the individual, and therefore of national efficiency — The improvements in industries have proceeded from the freer countries, and not from the countries despotically governed — Germany cannot claim leadership in useful inventions or in literature, science, philosophy, or poetry — The War will test this theory of national efficiency.

Chapter XV

Proposals on which the War might be Ended: Correspondence with Mr. Salmon O. Levinson 218

(1) There is to be no domination over Europe, or the rest of the world, by any single nation; (2) small states should be made secure in Europe; (3) freedom of the seas and of the channels connecting great seas should be secured by international guaranties; (4) acceptance of the "open door" should be general; (5) enlargements of territory should take place only with the inhabitants' consent; (6) adequate compensation must be made to Belgium; (7) an international council or tribunal for all Europe supported by an international force should be the aim of the negotiations — The great lessons of the war have been already taught — When will they be accepted ?

XVlll CONTENTS

Chapter XVI

The military necessity of sinking enemy vessels — The terrorizing policy of Germany — The doctrine that military necessity absolves a government from keeping international agreements — The German method of conducting war omits chivalry, mercy, and humanity — Neither party will acknowledge defeat until exhausted — Neutral nations can help the Allies to maintain their industries and commerce — Duty of neutrals to defend vigorously all their existing rights.

Chapter XVII

The shock to cherished hopes and expectations concerning the progress of the white race — Six hopeful things: (1) the development of international law; (2) the sense of international obligation; (3) the possibilities of effective cooperation among nations; (4) the international federation or league; (5) the league of peace; (6) an argument for a league of peace based on existing alliances — The existence of at least one strong nation in Europe that regards no agreement as binding in the face of an immediate military necessity — War on the scale now possible and with the existing means of destruction is not an available means of settling international disputes — No nation will risk sudden invasion, but will seek somewhere the means of security — The best means an international council backed by an international force — The Swiss military system affords a means of transition from the armed camps of to-day to national forces strong for defense, but weak for aggression.

Chapter XVIII

The possible good effects of fighting on the patriot soldier — The bad effects on the soldier who fights in the

CONTENTS xix

spirit and by the methods of highwaymen and pirates — Effects of war on the nation at war — A nation may be lifted by war out of selfishness, self-indulgence, and frivolity — Good wars and bad — Wars of resistance to alien rule, for increase of liberty for the people, and of defense against aggressors are good wars — Wars of conquest and aggressive wars for material advantages are bad wars — Resistance to the domination or rule of one nation over another is justifiable and expedient — The Great War in Europe should develop and bring into application the federative principle which the Civil War in the United States confirmed or reestablished.

CHAPTER XIX Some Sure Inferences from Eleven Months of the Worst of Wars

The new methods in warfare — The supremacy of artillery and machine guns — The advantage of the defense over the attack — The new means of rapid transportation — Aerial warfare — The uselessness of forts — Mines and submarines in naval warfare — The impossibility of taking prizes into port — The predominance of land batteries over vessels — A nation which would be strong in war must be strong in manufacturing, and particularly in the metallurgical industries — A large nation cannot be starved — The war is imposing on coming generations intolerable burdens — if Germany succeeds, no small nation can have an independent existence — The best protection of small nations against an aggressive power like Germany is a league of nations which together are stronger than Germany and any probable allies — Given such a league, reduction of armaments, diminution of taxation, and durable peace might ensue — Toward this aim the present alliance of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and Japan is promising — The only way of escape from the present hell is the establishment of a rational international community.

CONTENTS

Appendix

I. President Eliot's address at the special academic session called to confer the degree of Doctor of Laws on Prince Henry of Prussia, March 6, 1902 279

II. President Eliot's address at a banquet given March 6,

1902, by the City of Boston to Prince Henry of Prussia 283

Chapter I The Competitive Arming Of The Nations A Way Of Escape 1

I took a very serious subject for my few minutes' talk to you to-day, when I wrote to your Secretary that I should like to speak about " The Way of Escape from the Competitive Arming of the Nations." Secretary Root alluded to what is to be my text when he spoke before you a few weeks ago. There is, in the history of the United States and Canada, a most extraordinary act, which, I believe, prophesies a way of escape from this monstrous and shameful evil, the competitive arming of the civilized nations against each other. Secretary Root alluded to it as a convention, a convention made in 1817 by the Government of Great Britain and the Government of the United States, to limit the armaments on the Great Lakes for both nations. That was a very ex-

1 An address before the Canadian Club of Ottawa on the 23d of February, 1907.

traordinary document in its form. It was not a treaty ; it was not a law ; it was, as described in the proclamation of James Monroe, President of the United States, an " arrangement " — that was all. The two countries agreed that they would only maintain on the Great Lakes each one vessel of not exceeding one hundred tons and carrying one eighteen-pounder on Lake Ontario, two other vessels on the " Upper Lakes," as they were described, each of the same size and with the same gun, and one other on Lake Champlain. That was to be the absolute limit of the armaments of these two nations on the Great Lakes. Now that " arrangement,'' as President Monroe called it, was made under very extraordinary circumstances. It was the invention of John Quincy Adams. It was presented by him to our then Secretary of State, James Monroe, who, in the following year, became President. But the person who negotiated it on the part of the United States was only Deputy or Under-Secretary of State — it did not attain even the dignity of an " arrangement" by the Secretary of State. It was the simplest possible agreement for an heroic and monumental purpose.

What was the condition of things on the

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Great Lakes at that time? The British Government then had in commission on the Lakes vessels mounting over three hundred guns, and was building at that moment two seventy-fourgun ships on the Lakes — actually building them at the time this arrangement was made. And what was the state of mind of the two nations, calm or excited ? They had just come out of a war, and a war in which fighting on the Lakes bore a great part. Were not these extraordinary conditions under which to make a simple "arrangement" which does not cover twenty lines of printed paper, to secure a perfect peace of ninety years already without once transgressing this extraordinarily low limit of armament upon these Lakes on our borders ? I say that this act prophesies the way of escape from competitive armaments.

If we consider the means of navigation in those days, the time required for voyages across the Lakes, and the dangers on the way, with only wind to propel the vessel, shall we not see that the Atlantic Ocean offers no greater obstacles to such an " arrangement" as this than the Lakes did then? We cross the Atlantic Ocean in six or seven days, with the greatest facility. We mount on what may be called platforms heavy armaments, which are yet capable of proceeding through the roughest ocean in comparative steadiness. Our means for naval fighting on the instant are much greater, relatively to the Atlantic Ocean, than the means of these two peoples were for fighting on the Lakes in 1817. I say, therefore, that in this act of our two Governments there is a prophecy, a hopeful prophecy for the future.

What is the essence of this regulation ? It is simply a self-denying ordinance which secures equal force to the two Governments on the Lakes, and prevents any surprise of one power by the other. And that is just what needs to be done on an international scale. Moreover, this little armament on the Lakes on either side is nothing but a police force. Now, that is exactly what we want all over the world — a self-denying ordinance and a police force furnished by all the civilized nations, combined to maintain a common force.

What is the difference between the police function and the soldier's or the sailor's function in war? I think the chief difference is that in the main the first is protective and the other destructive. Both imply the use of force ; and we are a long way from the time when

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government will not rest on force. At the bottom, the most civilized governments need force as the basis of their power and the means of executing their will. But there may be a great difference between force and force. A police force is, in the main, a protective force. Now and then, to be sure, it proceeds energetically against a criminal, an offender, a disturber of the peace. But far the greater part of the function of the police is protection. It goes quickly to the scene of any catastrophe ; it preserves order on the highways, in crowds, and in industries ; it maintains the peace. You have in Canada a splendid example of the legitimate, the indispensable, the omnipresent police force in your Northwest Mounted Police. There is a force eminently superior to that of the soldier. Any one of these police officers can arrest, — that is a very wholesome power, and it is just what we want between the nations ; we want a force that can arrest the disturber. We want that bulwark for peace — a police force that can prevent disturbance, and deal effectively and finally with the disturber of the peace, whoever he is. He is probably a person temporarily out of his mind. He needs protection from himself, and all the rest of us need to be protected from him. That is the true function of a police force, and that is what the civilized world greatly needs.

But then, you will say, police officers ordinarily act under the direction of a court, if there be an accessible court. It is quite convenient in the wilderness to have a police officer who is himself a magistrate, and that is just what you have provided. But, as a rule, an effective police acts under the orders of a court. There again, we have at The Hague a momentous prophecy of the reorganization of the civilized world to preserve peace, and to protect the productive industries. It is but the shadow, the ghost, you may say, of an effective court as yet ; for behind every effective court must lie force — the police force. That is what the international tribunal will need and must have, to be an effective tribunal. Should we shrink from the prospect of such control, under the findings of an international court with force behind it to compel obedience? We are used to all that in the organization of every one of the civilized nations. In the structure and development of every nation that process, that habit of obedience to the mandate of a court enforced, marks the gathering growth of civil-

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ization. And that is what the group of nations which is to make up the civilized world needs to create — the habit, as a group of nations, of submitting to the mandate of an international court enforced.

Now, we people who have come into this new land, out of the older nations that loved liberty and slowly gained it, always shrink from new submissions. But if we look back upon our own past — and that is the only way to look forward with insight into the future — do we not learn by our own experiences that here lies the way of peace and good-will ? As I survey the numerous experiments of free government on the earth, the whole question of success in free government seems to resolve itself into the amount of good-will which can be developed under free government between the governors and the governed, and between the different classes of men who live together under one form of government. That is the test of success in free government — the total amount of good-will which it develops. Now, our Governments, the United States on one hand and Canada on the other, have been more successful than any other free governments in the world, so far as I know, in developing just that good-will among men.

We have great new strifes in both our countries, new strifes which have grown out of the astounding social and industrial changes of the last forty years. I see at this table one whom I am proud to claim as a graduate of Harvard University, whose business seems to be, as far as I understand it, to get in between the strivers in industrial contests. Now, these strifes have something to teach concerning international strifes. We have had such at their worst in the United States within the last fifteen years, and you have had them here in very serious form. We are both likely to have them in the future ; because not all men on either side of these controversies are men of good- will — and so we are going to encounter this new form of struggle and contention. What is the way out of that? I believe that your House of Commons has been taking some action to-day which looks toward providing the most hopeful way out of these strifes, namely, through publicity — nothing but publicity. In the United States we are in the habit of complaining very much and very often about the publicity which our newspapers give to every fair and every foul happening in the United States. But, gentlemen, in that publicity lies the great hope of the world. It is the

APPEAL TO PUBLIC OPINION BEFORE WAB 9

hope of peace ; it is the guaranty of peace ; it is the way we are to find not only industrial peace, but peace between the civilized nations of the world. We are going to see the limitation of armaments, the international court, the international police force, and the compelled appeal to public opinion before war. That, as I understand it, is just what you are going to do with regard to industrial strifes — to compel appeal to public opinion before war. And there I find the promise of a better day in regard to competitive arming. What a hideous waste that arming is ! Some eminent authorities maintain that the way to preserve peace is to make yourself formidable for war. Gentlemen, that is not the way of the United States and Canada since the year 1817. And is there a more completely successful example to be found anywhere of the way to escape competitive arming?