President Wilson and the moral aims of the war

Front matter

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PRESIDENT WILSON

Contents

I. The Moral Aims of the War ... 9

Frederick Lynch, D.D.

II. President Wilson's Ideal for America . 15

Preface

IN November, 191 7, the National Committee on the Churches and the Moral Aims of the War was organized for the purpose of keeping before the people of the United States the lofty and disinterested character of the aims of the great struggle, so far as our nation was concerned, and especially to create an overwhelming resolution in the hearts of our people to insist that out of this war must come some new international order that shall make such wars as this in which the world is engaged improbable, if not impossible, forever. It was decided that conferences with groups of clergymen and other Christian workers should be held throughout the country, and that the various programmes of this new world order, now everywhere engaging the minds of statesmen and scholars, with chief emphasis upon a League of Nations, should be laid before these groups. Especially was it agreed upon that the aims of this war as expressed in the messages and addresses of the President of the United States should be laid before the people, for they mark a new departure in the history of the world. They

8 PREFACE

are not only moral in their character — they are Christian.

This little book contains editorials written and addresses delivered by myself and others in connection with these meetings, with an appendix containing valuable lists of utterances by President Wilson and others on a League of Nations and the moral aims of the war. I think the extracts from President Wilson's addresses and messages cover nearly all he has said on these particular subjects. When brought together as here they reveal a new epoch in history. It is the first time the head of a great nation has ever said such things. The President of the United States is demanding of the nations the same standard of conduct as that which prevails among all Christian gentlemen.

These various chapters are brought together here especially for the sake of the many clergymen and other Christian workers who are becoming interested in establishing the new world order. It seemed better to print the editorials as originally written and this accounts for some repetition.

New York. F. L.

WE have just been re-reading the various addresses of the President of the United States delivered to Congress and to other audiences since the entrance of the United States into the war. Again we have been impressed with the remarkable fact that in every utterance the moral aims of the war are those which receive chief and almost only emphasis. It is a new thing in history, with one exception, England's declaration of war to uphold the rights of Belgium. There have been innumerable declarations of war and statements of war aims by rulers which dwell upon the vindication of national honour, the preservation of the rights of the nation entering upon the war, the protection of property, the preservation of the lives of citizens, and national defence, but no others which put the service of humanity first, regardless of the gain to the nation itself. To quote from President Wilson's address of November 5, 1916: "Why, my fellow citizens, it is an unprecedented thing in the world that any nation in determining its foreign relations should be unselfish, and my ambition is to see America set the great example."

The United States lost millions of dollars worth of property and hundreds of lives through the ruthless acts of submarines. As the war progressed the country faced endless complications in the future, should Germany triumph. Evil machinations were going on inside our nation itself, and the nation was being used as a tool against the Allies. It would have been perfectly natural for the United States to have gone to war because of all these attacks and of the innumerable violations of her honour. But when at last the President declared war it was not these things he emphasized, and he was meticulously careful to say it was not for gain of territory or for revenge. In every utterance it was moral, ethical, religious aims that were emphasized. This marks a new era in history. It was one of the great steps forward in civilization, when civilization seemed tottering to the ground.

Five aims are mentioned again and again in these addresses. It is well that we should dwell upon these five aims, for they are all moral, religious aims.

i. In almost every address Mr. Wilson says we have entered upon this war to secure democracy for the whole world. "The world must be made safe for democracy." But democracy is a religious thing. It came straight from Jesus Christ. It is born out of the sense of the worth of every human soul as a child of God. It is a corollary of that truth forever on the lips of Jesus, the Fatherhood of God.

Christianity began as a democracy of equal souls in the kingdom of God. And in democracy lies the peace of the world. It is not — it never has been — democracies that originate wars of aggrandizement or of dominion. Mr. Wilson has seen this: "Great democracies are not belligerent. They do not seek or desire war. Their thought is of individual liberty and of the free labour that supports life and the uncensored thought that quickens it." World democracy means world peace, thinks the President, and therefore he puts it as one of the chief aims of this war. But again, democracy is a moral aim. And the desire to win it for the whole world is an act of service, which is a Christian act.

2. We have entered upon this war, says the President, to secure "the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government." Here again we have a moral aim. We are fighting not for territory, not for revenge, but to insure for other peoples than ourselves the right to say what course their nation shall pursue in the common life of the world. The President assumes, and, we believe rightly, that were it left to the people of any nation to determine the nation's policy, they would not vote for aggrandizement, for expansion at the cost of war, or for the despoliation of other peoples.

3. "We shall fight . . . for the rights and liberties of small nations," says Mr. Wilson in his address of April 2, 191 7. And he has said it many times. Here again the United States has set before it a moral aim. We are to make untold sacrifices not for ourselves but for the right of the small and weak nations of the earth to live their own lives without fear of dictation, domination or invasion. They must no longer be mere pawns to be moved about the map as suits the purposes of great and ambitious powers. Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, they are peace-loving nations, and they have the right to pursue their own happy lives without fear or interference. "America seeks no material profit or aggrandizement of any kind. She is fighting for no advantage or selfish objects of her own, but for the liberation of peoples everywhere from the aggressions of autocratic force."

4. In almost every address which Mr. Wilson has made during the last year he has put as the great objective of the war a league of nations pledged to settle its own disputes by peaceful methods and committed, through its united power, to preserve the peace of the world. "We shall fight . . . for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free." (The many utterances of the President to this effect have been collated in Appendix III.) This is simply brotherhood, co-operation, good-will, mutual service, the common life, applied to nations as Christianity has applied them to individuals from the beginning. It is putting the kingdom of righteousness above the selfishness of nationalism. It is the realizing of "each for all, and all for each" in the realm of nations as we have long since realized it among men within the nation. It is establishing a democracy of nations similar to the democracy of men. It is a great, sublime, moral aim.

5. Finally the President has declared that we have entered upon this war to secure a Christian standard of conduct between nations similar to that which obtains among good men. It has not been so in the past. We have had a double standard of ethics, Christian for individuals, pagan for nations. We have said it was wrong for men to steal from each other, but permissible for nations; wrong for men to kill each other, but permissible for the mighty nation to destroy the weaker nation ; wrong for men to settle their disputes by guns and swords, right for nations; wrong for men to seek revenge, the natural thing for nations. We have condemned the man who lives for self alone, for his rights alone, and we have called that man a knave who would seek his rights at the cost of the community's suffering, but we have expected nations to live for self and to plunge the whole world into misery to vindicate their own rights or honour. We have called the man who served most the great man; we have called the nation which could get the most, by any means, the great nation. All this must be changed, says the President. The nations must observe the same Christian rule of conduct that men observe in their relations with each other. In other words, we find the President applying the gospel to nations. When was there ever before a ruler who used such words as these: "We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong done shall be observed among nations and their governments that are observed among the individual citizens of civilized states." "It is clear that nations must in the future be governed by the same high code of honour that we demand of individuals."

II President Wilson's Ideal For America

IN Appendix VI we have brought together thirty-four utterances of President Wilson, chosen from almost as many addresses, on the ideals he cherishes for America. We believe that we run no risk of contradiction when we say that in no collection of utterances on national ideals by any ruler of past or present times could any such selection as this be made. As Mr. Wilson himself has said in one of his addresses: "It is an unprecedented thing in the world that any nation in determining its foreign relations should be unselfish, and my ambition is to see America set the great example." But in every utterance of Mr. Wilson the ideals for America are as unselfish as those that the finest Christian gentleman would set for himself. The American people seem to be just realizing to how high a pitch the President is raising these national ideals. Some are even beginning to get frightened, for there are many individuals who are not as unselfish as Mr. Wilson wishes to have the nation become. He is demanding that the nation act in a

Christian way, become a Christian nation — not in the sense that everybody in it will be Christian, but that it conform as a government to the standards of a Christian gentleman.

It is interesting to note the effect that these ideals are having abroad. At first England was a little sceptical of them. Now her statesmen and prophets are using Mr. Wilson's words, and her labour parties are introducing them into their constitutions. Germany naturally looks upon them as either hypocritical or the vagaries of a visionary and dreamer. No echo of any such sentiments as ideals for nations has yet come from any of her statesmen. It would mean the end of this war — and perhaps of all war — should the German government be willing sincerely to propound these sentiments as the national ideals. But it is a great thing that the ruler of one nation propounds them in his every utterance. It is not too much to hope that the preachers in the churches may follow him, and help to make these really Christian ideals the ideals of the United States. If one will closely study the thirty-four extracts he will find they may be grouped somewhat as follows:

i. "America exists not to serve itself, but to serve mankind." The philosophy of nations has always been that the one aim and purpose of the nation was to serve itself, and generally to serve itself at the expense of other weaker nations. No wonder that the German papers said, when Mr. Wilson uttered just these words in his address of September 28, 1915, that the President was pharisaical. He said: "There have been other nations as rich as we; there have been other nations as powerful; there have been other nations as spirited ; but I hope we shall never forget that we created this nation, not to serve ourselves, but to serve mankind." Nobody could believe that a ruler of a great nation held such ideals for his country. It would be the end of a nation's existence, said the Germans, should it hold such views. But Mr. Wilson insists that this shall be the ideal for America, and he has uttered it again and again.

"Come, let us renew our allegiance to America, conserve her strength in its purity, make her chief among those who serve mankind" ; "We did not set this government up in order that we might have a selfish and separate liberty, for we are now ready to come to your assistance and fight upon the field of the world the cause of human liberty"; "She is fighting for no advantage or selfish object of her own, but for the liberation of people everywhere from the aggressions of autocratic force" ; "For we are part of the world, and nothing that concerns the whole world can be indifferent to us. We want always to hold the force of America to fight for what? Not merely for the rights of property or of national ambition, but for the rights of mankind." And thus one may go on through the addresses. Just as the ideal of the Christian gentleman is service to the weak and needy, so the ideal of the Christian nation should be service to the other nations of the world. And just as the Christian does not count the cost of his service, but is ready to make all sacrifices when the need calls him, so, says Mr. Wilson, the modern Christian nation will count no cost, will make any sacrifice, as America now is doing, when the opportunity to serve the world arrives. Nations have not gone to war before to serve the world. Let us be glad that when America did enter upon her sacrifice it was in service of others, not of herself.

2. The ideal for America which finds commonest expression in the President's addresses is this, that America shall never desire anything for herself that she does not desire for all mankind. This lofty sentiment is as new for nations as Christianity was new for individuals two thousand years ago. We know not where to find it among utterances of rulers and governments outside of the addresses of the President of the United States. Its adoption by all other nations would end war between nations forever. It is the ideal of the Christian community for the community of nations. Its universal adoption will mark the beginning of a commonwealth of nations which shall be as a new order established in the earth. Yet, so far as Mr. Wilson can claim the right to speak for America, it is the American ideal. It shines out in almost every address he has made during the last two years. Sometimes we can hardly believe our own eyes when we read on page after page of a ruler's addresses such words as these: "The interesting and inspiring thing about America, gentlemen, is that she asks nothing for herself except what she has a right to ask for humanity itself"; "In the day to come men will no longer wonder how America is going to work out her destiny, for she will have proclaimed to them that her destiny is not divided from the destiny of the world, that her purpose is justice and love of mankind" ; "No other nation was ever born into the world with the purpose of serving the rest of the world just as much as it served itself" ; "And America will have forgotten her traditions whenever on any occasion she fights for herself under such circumstances as will show that she has forgotten to fight for all mankind"; "The position of America in this war is so clearly avowed that no man can be excused for mistaking it. She seeks no material profit or aggrandizement of any kind. She is fighting for no advantage or selfish object of her own, but for the liberation of peoples everywhere from the aggression of autocratic force" ; "My dream is that as the years go on . . . America will come into the full light of the day when all shall know that she puts human rights above all other rights, and that her flag is the flag not only of America but of humanity."

This is all Christian and we are a long way toward a stable and civilized world when even one nation can make this her ideal, that she desires nothing for herself that she does not desire for all humanity.

3. The other ideal for America which runs through the President's addresses like a thread of fine gold is that she shall, herself, as a nation, act always only as a Christian gentleman would act, and thus convince the world by her example that the time has come when nations must conform to the same standard of conduct as that which obtains between gentlemen within the nation. Nations have souls as well as individuals and there is only one standard of right and wrong for souls. Respectable nations must not in the future do anything respectable men do not do. The same civilization, the same code of honour, the same Christian attitude must obtain among nations in the world as obtains among gentlemen in the community. This is strange gospel to some nations. There are individuals in every nation, even our own, who deny it. But it is the ideal the President of the United States is holding up to the world through the clash and din of this great war. They should be committed to memory by every American: "It is clear that nations must in the future be governed by the same high code of honour that we demand of individuals"; "When I have made a promise to a man I try to keep it, and I know of no other rule permissible to a nation. The most distinguished nation in the world is the nation that can and will keep its promises, even to its own hurt"; "What I intend to preach from this time on is that America must show that as a member of the family of nations she has the same attitude toward the other nations that she wishes her people to have toward each other" ; "We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong done shall be observed among nations and their governments that are observed among the individual citizens of civilized states."

There must henceforth be but one ethic, one morality, the same for men and nations, says our President, and insists that America be the prophet of this new gospel.

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THE CHRISTIAN MEASURE OF GREATNESS

WE use the words Christian measure of greatness deliberately, for the ideal of greatness held by the world is quite antipodal to that given by Christ. Christ was very conscious of this and put his own ideal over against it most emphatically — 'The world says this, but I say . . ." runs all through his words either in direct utterance or by implication. But the line is as sharply drawn after two thousand years as it was in Christ's mind. One has only to talk ten minutes with the first man he meets, or read the first paper, magazine or book he chances upon, or see a play, to realize how far the world's idea of greatness is from Christ's.

Thus the great man from the world's point of view is the man who can get the most. Christ's ideal of the great man is he who gives the most. Christ never sought anything for Himself. His life was one of self-giving. His meat and drink was to do the will of God, and that will was the giving of all He had, even His life, to the world.

The great man from the world's point of view is 22 he who can make others serve him, who can free himself from the necessity of inconvenience and sacrifice, who can make everything minister to his pleasure. Christ's ideal of the great man was he who, forgetting himself, passed his life in ministering, even at the cost of inconvenience, pain and sacrifice, to the needs of the world. "Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Not so shall it be among you ; but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."

The world's ideal of greatness is power. Power is worshiped by the world. Ask the world who are the great men and it answers Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Bismarck. In Germany the great men are the war lords. In America the great men, from the world's point of view, have been our steel kings, our coal barons, our railroad magnates, our famous brokers and financiers, our successful politicians. He is great who has power. Christ never seems to have given any thought to power. Love was to him the distinguishing mark of greatness. The gentle, meek, merciful, ministering man was His great man. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples (that is, share his greatness), that ye have love one toward another." And

Paul, who knew the mind of Christ, puts love as the final test of greatness. Likewise John, who leaned upon Christ's breast, when he comes to write upon Christian greatness has only one word, love, not power.

Another outstanding trait of greatness in Christ's mind was the possession of a great measure of the life of God in the soul. He was greatest who had most of God in him. He closes His last great prayer with the ardent supplication that his disciples may remain "in us," in the Father and Himself. So they shall be great and bear much fruit by abiding in Him and the Father. Humanity becomes great when infused with divinity. Men are great when they are sons of God. Human weakness becomes transfigured into divine greatness when God permeates it. Creatures of time become eternal, the mortal puts on immortality here and now, when God is in possession. The great man, no matter what his station, condition, rank, position, is he who is filled with God. This was what made Christ great, this, with the love and compassion which always flow out of this greatness — that he was God-filled.

We cannot leave this subject without expressing our extreme joy that at last the Christian Church is beginning to demand that nations submit to the same test of greatness it applies to men. In England, France and America the leaders of the churches are everywhere beginning to say that the things which make a man great are those which make a nation great. It is one of the fine fruits of the war. The great nation of the future will be the nation which lives to give instead of living only to get; which lives to serve humanity and the weaker nations of the world instead of living purely for its own rights and privileges ; which speaks for the world in terms of good will, instead of in terms of power; which wants nothing for itself it does not want for other peoples. Great Britain is infinitely greater giving of her life for Belgium than in giving it to acquire South Africa. The United States is infinitely greater going to war for the saving of civilization and the right to live, for all the world, than it would have been in going to war to secure the safety of property or the lives of its own people. When a nation which has nothing to gain for itself makes a great sacrifice, laying down its life for the sins of other nations and to save the nations sinned against, it is measuring up to the gospel standard of greatness.

Nowhere have these gospel ideals of greatness been applied to nations more strikingly than in the various utterances of the President of the United States, made since the outbreak of the European war. Let us rejoice that in these things our nation leads. It will be well to bring some of these applications of gospel greatness to nations to our attention once more:

"We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be insisted that the same standards of conduct and of responsibility for wrong done shall be observed among nations and their government that are observed among the individual citizens of civilized states."

"Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honour steady to a common end and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their own."

(We quote the above sentence because of the striking implication that the great nation, the nation of the future, will prefer the interests of mankind to any interest of its own. This is straight gospel greatness. )

"When I have made a promise as a man I try to keep it, and I know no other rule permissible to a nation. The most distinguished nation in the world is the nation that can and will keep its promises, even to its own hurt."

"The only excuse that America can ever have for the assertion of her physical force is that she asserts it in behalf of the interests of humanity."

"It means that you have not only got to be just to your fellowmen, but that as a nation you have got to be just to other nations. It comes high. It is not an easy thing to do. It is easy to think first of the material interest of America, but it is not easy to think first of what America, if she loves justice, ought to do in the field of international affairs. I believe that at whatever cost America should be just to other peoples and treat other peoples as she demands that they should treat her. She has a right to demand that they treat her with justice and respect, and she has a right to insist that they treat her in that fashion, but she can not with dignity or self-respect insist upon that unless she is willing to act in the same fashion toward them. That I am ready to fight for at any cost to myself ."

"Here is the nation God has builded by our hands. What shall we do with it? Who is there who does not stand ready at all times to act in her behalf in a spirit of devoted and disinterested patriotism? We are yet only in the youth and first consciousness of our power. The day of our country's life is still but in its fresh morning. Let us lift our eyes to the great tracts of life yet to be conquered in the interests of righteous peace. Come, let us renew our allegiance to America, conserve her strength in its purity, make her chief among those who serve mankind, self-reverenced, self-commanded, mistress of all forces of quiet counsel, strong above all others in good will and the might of invincible justice and right."

"The mission of America in the world is essentially a mission of peace and good will among men. She has become the home and asylum of men of all creeds and races. Within her hospitable borders they have found homes and congenial associations and freedom and a wide and cordial welcome, and they have become part of the bone and sinew and spirit of America itself. America has been made up out of the nations of the world and is the friend of the nations of the world."

"We shall, I confidently believe, never again take another foot of territory by conquest. We shall never in any circumstances seek to make an independent people subject to our dominion; because we believe, we passionately believe, in the right of every people to choose their own allegiance and be free of masters altogether. For ourselves we wish nothing but the full liberty of self-government ; and with ourselves in this great matter we associate all the peoples of our own hemisphere. We wish not only for the United States, but for them the fullest freedom of independent growth and of action, for we know that throughout this hemisphere the same aspirations are everywhere being worked out, under diverse conditions but with the same impulse and ultimate object."