War aims & peace ideals; selections in prose & verse

Preface

A TABLE of contents Is the best preface to such a collection as the editors here present, but one explanatory, and perhaps clarifying, statement may be added to the evidence there included. It is no selection from state documents that we have proposed to publish under the title "War Alms and Peace Ideals," State documents have their obvious historical value (and are in addition easy of access); but as a rule they are written to fit an occasion or to attain an objective, and present with complete sincerity neither the aims in war nor the underlying Issues at conflict of the peoples whose ideals they ostensibly express. When the reverse is true, as In the case of the Messages of President Wilson, the difference Is widely recognized and the value of the utterance, whether for politics or for literature, is correspondingly increased.

In general, however, the truth about this war, and all v/ars, their aims and Ideals, is more likely to be found In the franker utterances of private individuals, especially when the authors have the interpretative power that belongs to makers of literature. If this volume, then, has a distinguishing feature. It Is to be sought In the effectiveness, the honesty, and the truth of the highly personal writings here transcribed. They are for the most part neither propaganda, nor "statements for the press." They possess not only historical importance but also a value as criticism and interpretation that justifies their republication.

Complete representation of the thought of all countries involved in this time of upheaval was of course impossible; sometimes, as with America and Great Britain, for lack of space, sometimes, as with Austria and the Balkan States, which on the whole have mutely fought and suffered, for lack of material. But we have chosen carefully from the writings of both friends and enemies those that seemed best to illuminate the ideals that caused or carried on the war.

vi . PREFACE

and will be significant In the future. Much by way of famous name or well-remembered passage has necessarily been omitted; but we have striven to make probable that, at least by implication or reference, all important ideas should find a place. The order chosen for the arrangement of material, with the spokesmen of Germany first and those of America last, roughly corresponds with the chronological sequence whereby these sets of ideals were translated into action and became important for the world.

It is therefore primarily as a book of the literature of the war that we offer this volume, a literature of ideas and emotions, sometimes rising to greatness, sometimes valuable only for the burden of disastrous opinion, but always interesting to the student of human nature and the philosophy of war. Better than any reasoned explanation this collection presents the struggle of 1914-1918, for in quite as real a sense as the clash of armies or the political acts of states, the conflict of ideals here included is the very essence of the war itself.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For valuable advice and encouragement the editors are

indebted to Professor Frank Aydelotte of the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology and to Professor William Lyon

Phelps of Yale.

For permission to reprint copyrighted matter, as specifically indicated below, they are indebted to the following

publishers and authors: —

George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., for chapter X of "Bohemia's Case for Independence" by E. Benes; and an extract from F. Dostoevsky's "Pages from the Journal of an Author."

The Atlantic Monthly Co., for Kartushkiya-Beroza by Alter Brody.

George H. Doran Co., for The White Ships and the Red by Joyce Kilmer.

E. P. Button & Co., for The Spires of Oxford by W. M. Letts, and A Cha?it of Love for E?igland by Helen Gray Cone.

T. N. Foulis, Esq., for selections from "Zarathrustra" and "The Will to Power" in volumes XI and XV of "The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche," edited by Dr. Oscar Levy.

The Houghton Mifflin Co., for one lecture in Gilbert Murray's "Faith, War, and Policy."

B. W. Huebsch for an extract from Karl Liebknecht's "Militarism."

Jarrolds Publishers, Ltd., for a selection from "Germany, France, Russia, and Islam" by Heinrich von Treltschke.

P. J. Kenedy and Sons, for a selection from Patriotism a^id Endurance in Cardinal Mercier's "Pastorals, Letters, Allocations."

John Lane Co., for The Last Boche and The Love of Country in "New Belgian Poems" by Emile Cammaerts.

viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

J. P. Lippincott Co., and William Heinemann, for a chapter from "How Belgium Saved Europe" by Charles Sarolea.

Longmans, Green & Co., for an extract from "Serbia in Light and Darkness" by Nicholas Velimirovic.

The Macmillan Co., for Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight by Vachel Lindsay, Between the Lines by W. W. Gibson, and an extract from "The Pentecost of Calamity" by • Owen Wister.

The Open Court Publishing Co., for an essay in "Above the Battle" by Romain Rolland.

The Oxford University Press for part of a lecture by L. P. Jacks in "The International Crisis in its Ethical and Psychological Aspects" and for Aylmer Maude's translation of "Patriotism and Government" by Tolstoy.

G. P. Putnam's Sons for In Flanders Fields by John McCrae and for extracts from Prince Lichnowsky's Memorandum and a translation from "Treitschke: His Doctrines and His Life."

The Rolls House Publishing Co., Ltd., for chapter X of Bernhardi's "Britain as Germany's Vassal."

The Texas Review for Carl Hauptmann's "The Dead Are Singing," translated by Mary L. Stevenson.

T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., for Henri Bergson's lecture on "Life and Matter at War."

The Yale Review for The War and the British Realms by A. F. Pollard, Italy's Unredeemed Children by Bruno Roselli, To the Russian Soldier by Leonid Andreev, Cossack or Republican by W. C. Abbott, and What the War did for Brewer by William Allen White.

The Yale University Press for an extract from Maurice Barres' "The Undying Spirit of France."

Table Of Contents

I. GERMANY. Page

(a) Militant Culture,

Heinrich von Treitschke, German Claims to

Scene i

The Voice. Oh — General — General — Oh — General

{A Sister of Mercy is seen picking her way over the plain, step by step, swinging a lantern as if hunting for something. From the right come porters, carrying an empty stretcher.)

^A translation of "Allerseelennacht" (All Souls' Night, Hallowe'en). For the English title here adopted and other help the editors are indebted to a very free rendering by Mary L. Stephenson in the Texas Review, April, 1916; but they have made this conform literally to the German text as published in Hauptmann's "Aus dem grossen Kriege" (1915).

A Porter. Merciful Father! It is still as death. Nothing but dead here. {J Doctor emerges from the background and springs over the trenches to the roadway.)

The Doctor. No, there are many wounded among them still unconscious.

A Porter. Thank God, Doctor, that it's such a warm night — Yet the stars shine like diamonds

The Voice. Oh— General— Oh— General _

The Doctor. That man keeps crying the same thmg— The conflagration of Liege won't let him rest.

The Voice. Oh— General— three forts are afire, Generalthree forts afire, General

A Porter. {As they follow the Doctor towards the background with the stretcher.) That voice must be a very long way off. Everything makes itself heard to-night— even the uninterrupted clatter of horses' hoofs from somewhere or other. And over yonder sounds the tramp of marching columns.

The Doctor. {As they disappear in the distance.) Even the very silence cries out

Scene 2

The Voice. Oh-h— Gene— raaal—Oh-h— Gene— raaal—— A Dragoon. {Who is lying near the gun-carriage suddenly tries to raise himself up.) Halt— Halt— you jademiserable scoundrel— whelp ! You'll get a dig from

my spur {He sinks hack again.)

Scene 3

A Lieutenant of the Artillery. {Lifts up his head and begins to stir.) Comrade— Comrade— are you still alive.? Comrade! There was a voice here somewhere nearby— a

^oice . It kept calling— always the same thing—

jade— whelp— ha, ha!— ha, ha!— always the samething

like when your horse— you know— like a shell in the

din of battle— out there— in the battle's roar— where else? Who is that groaning?— where else.? The city is burning — . A powder magazine is exploding — and we have to sleep here— have to sleep here— have to sleep {He lies quiet again.)

The Voice. Oh — General — Oh — General — four forts are afire — General

The Lieutenant of Artillery. {Calling out.) Four forts

are burning, General (Starts up again.) Yes — four

forts are afire — Comrade — Comrade — are you still alive.'* Wake up — so you can see it, too, — do you know the city.'* Have you fainted again.'' Try and support yourself on the spokes — so you won't fall back again

The Dragoon. (Stirs near by.) I am already holding to the spokes, or whatever this is — but can't you reach me your hand — and help me.'' — Quick — or I shall grow giddy again and sink into that roaring stillness — I can't feel my limbs — don't know where my legs and arms are

The Lieutenant of Artillery. — Yes — yes — that's only because you have slept like a rock — after this mad day — . , Just try — I'll raise myself way up — there — and reach you my hand — . You scream — . Ha, ha! — crazy jade — see — now I am raised way up — sitting up here on the edge — . Crazy jade — . Ha, ha! — I sit down here — on the gun-carriage — . You were still dreaming — still dreaming of the frenzied attack you dragoons made —

still dreaming of that wild cavalry charge . Ha, ha!

There, now — I am up on top at last

The Voice. Oh — General — Oh — General.

The Lieutenant of Artillery. If I didn't see my tattered uniform — I could think — (he gazes up at the heavens studded with stars) — that I was stretched out alone on the heath and that the wide starry sky tingled through

me as through a stream — but you are so quiet . Are

you still awake, comrade.'*

The Dragoon. Awake.? — Awake.? — If I am still a — I don't know — I must be wounded — and you — you must be wounded, too

The Lieutenant of Artillery. Perhaps I am — . There is dried blood on my shirt and my uniform is torn into shreds — and I feel something hard on my face, too.

The Dragoon. If only one of us had a match!

The Lieutenant of Artillery. All that stuff's still here. (He fumbles in his pocket and pulls out a match-box and gives him.)

The Dragoon. Smoke a cigarette—. Here's a light .

( The reflection from the burning match lights the faces of both) — Ha, ha! — Some Malchus has cut off your ear — and I can't move my hip . Smoking helps — comrade — do you hear — see — over there — a lot of horses all saddled? — They've gone now — . There they are — neighing . {Distant thunder is heard.)

The Lieutenant of Artillery. {Smoki^ig furiously .) Yes, here we sit, just like after an afternoon cup of tea — and smoke.

The Dragoon. And don't know who we are — . Where are

we really.'' That must be the battlefield . And over

us the stars . I keep on raving — about a crazy jade —

raving . Forward! Courage! Forward! Bringing

death — dying myself — bringing death — dying myself

The Lieutenant of Artillery. {Slipping down from off the gun-carriage, unable to hold on longer.) — What's the matter.? — Why do you scream so.? — Why rave so.? — There — you frighten me. Here I am again on the

ground . Comrade, are you still awake.? Try

hard . Comrade, comrade, force your eyes open .

There . The horses — they are neighing again —

always ready to fight again . They too want to

press on — on, on — always forward . Mount, comrade, ride against the enemy . Their city is In

full blaze . To-morrow we enter as victors .

Wake up! He Is dead — dead! — Sister — Sister

{The Sister of Mercy comes nearer^ searchirig with her lantern. Behind her, the Doctor.)

Scene 4

The Voice. Oh — General — Liege Is burning — General —

Liege is burning

The Sister. Here was someone calling for help.

The Doctor. It is just midnight. The clock in the cathedral

is booming her twelve strokes out across the seething

fires.

The Sister. The night air Is as still as a dead man's breath. The Doctor. Yes, but here was someone calling for

help.

The Sister. Everything is again quiet. Many dead are scattered hereabouts.

The Doctor. That delirious one over there ^ still persistently calls across the plain into the distant night fires — as if his General were near.

The Sister. Many of the dead here still live.

The Doctor. The battle has pushed forward like a ploughshare. No halting — not even night brings surcease to the marching columns which fight on, on until they gain the city. And those sleeping around us here still dream of marching on.

Scene 5 The Lieutenant of Artillery. {Is again awake, tries to

raise himself tip.) Sister — lift me up — please . I

want to sit on the gun-carriage — I have fallen — I don't know how — down here on the ground

The Sister. First, take a swallow of this.

The Lieutenant of Artillery. No, no — my comrade just gave me a cigarette — ^just so it doesn't fall into the straw here — this horribly sultry night — and like as not set the whole world on fire — — •. Ha, ha, ha! There

is enough fire over there is there not, Sister.^ And

you, you are the Doctor.''

The Doctor. You want a cigarette.'' Here's one.

The Sister. But take just one swallow of this. It will revive you.

The Lieutenant of Artillery. {Drinks, then sets it down a

minute.) No — ^I drink like horses — gulp . Ha, ha,

ha! Give it here — more — . {He drinks again and sets it down again.) Yes — ^just as horses drink — take it

away — just like a horse . I am half dreaming all

the time — and half awake . There is one — lying

there who was laughing with me just now — and smoked

with me very companionably . But he's quieted

down — all quiet . Yes — and if I dream again I

shall laugh and laugh — I keep dreaming that Malchus cut oflF one of my ears.

The Doctor. We are going to dress your wound a little — .

The Lieutenant of Artillery. For God's sake, no. The bandage would only bother me — ^and the blood has all dried now — ■ — ■. And besides, I keep dreaming that we are constantly pushing forward — we can't be stopped — .

Four forts are blown up . We push on again .

For we fear God — and naught else •. Press right

on — not stop to rest until — city by city — city by city •. Liege is all ablaze over there

The Doctor. Yes, certainly. Lieutenant, —

The Lieutenant of Artillery. Ha, ha, ha! There's

Liege blazing away

Another Prostrate Soldier. {Half raises himself.) To-morrow we take Liege.

Another Prostrate Soldier. {Raises himself up.) The cities of the enemy must be laid low in dust and

ashes . The wicked, envious creatures must be

destroyed

The Doctor. An uncanny night, this. This mysterious battlefield — the dead not dead — the living not alive —

The Sister. Even the dying rally, open wide their eyes, and cry out that victory shines along the horizon's edge.

Scene 6

The Lieutenant of Artillery. {Wakens again. They have made the officer comfortable.) Sister — Sister •

The Doctor. I hope the porters will soon come.

The Lieutenant of Artillery. {Laughing.) Nights many will pass over the earth. Days many will pass over the

earth . Doctor! — {A solitary, trembling voice in the

distance begins to sing.) "Deutschland, Deutschland, iiber alles— "

The Sister. Uncanny! — this lonely voice — •

The Doctor. It makes me tremble — ^Anguish and happiness in one —

A Nearer Voice. {Tries also to take up the air.) "Uber alles inderWelt— "

The Distant Voice. {Joins in tremblingly.) "Wenn es

stets zu Schutz und Trutze " {The song breaks down

again.)

A New Weak Voice. "Briiderllch" Yes, yes — fraternally —

Another New Voice. "Briiderlich" — Of course — fraternally!

{It grows deathly still again. A powder magazine ex^ plodes in the distance with a thundering din, and the night becomes suddenly illumined. More prostrate soldiers are seen to rouse themselves here and there across the broad night-field.)

The Lieutenant of Artillery. Ha, ha, ha, ha — there — there — it is no vision — no, no — it really is no vision — - the whole wide plain begins to glow like a graveyard on Hallowe'en night — the dead soldiers arise like vaulting flames — • {He too is suddenly seized with the desire to sing.)

{Now more and more shadowy forms are silhouetted against the light in the rear, some standing, some bent over, others half prostrate or with only the head wearily held up; and their voices mingle together from all parts of the stage.)

"Von der Maas bis an die Memel, Von der Etsch bis an den Belt — "

{The voices of the whole battlefield at last seem to swell into the mighty chorus.)

"Deutschland, Deutschland iiber alles, tjber alles in der Welt."

{The shadows sink gently into one another, and the song ebbs slowly away.)

Scene 7 {Porters have meantime arrived, and the Lieutenant of

Artillery is placed upon a stretcher.) The Lieutenant of Artillery. Nights many will pass

over the earth — Do you believe it. Doctor.? The Doctor. {Soothingly.) Certainly, many nights will

yet pass over the earth —

The Lieutenant of Artillery. Many, many days too will pass over the earth — even to-day a new morning will awaken, the sun will again blaze on the horizon, — Ah well — to be sure — {Mysteriously and weightily) 'Tis only once in a while that the blood-drenched night earth reeks like bottom lands in freshet time. . . . {The Lieutenant of Artillery^ accompanied by the Doctor, is carried off. Meantime the Sister bends over another of the wounded. A single, trembling voice strikes up in the distance and sings all alone.)

{During the song the curtain falls.)

(e) THE DISSENT AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM

KARL LIEBKNECHT: CAPITALISTIC MILITARISM

(1906) 1

the proletariat and war

If the function of militarism was above defined as being a national one directed against the foreign enemy it must not be understood to mean that it is a function answering the interests, welfare and wishes of the capitalistically governed and exploited peoples. The proletariat of the whole world cannot expect any profit from the policies which make necessary the "militarism for abroad"; its interests are most sharply opposed to such policies. Directly or indirectly those policies serve the exploiting interests of the ruling classes of capitalism. They are policies which prepare, more or less skilfully, the way for the world-wide expansion of the wildly anarchical mode of production and the senseless and murderous competition of capitalism, in which process all the duties of civilized man towards the less developed peoples are flung aside; and yet nothing is really attained except an

^ Karl Liebknecht, leader of the German radical socialists, was born in 1871, and was killed during the "Spartacus" riots in Berlin, January 15, 1919.

insane imperiling of the whole existence of our civilization in consequence of the warlike world complications that are conjured up. The working-class, too, welcome the immense economic developments of our days. But they also know that this economic development could be carried on peacefully without the mailed fist, without militarism and navalism, without the trident being in our hand and without the barbarities of our colonial system, if only sensibly managed communities were to carry it on according to international understandings and in conformity with the duties and interests of civilization. They know that our world policy largely explains itself as an attempt to fight down and confuse forcibly and clumsily the social and political home problems confronting the ruling classes, in short, as an attempt at a policy of deceptions and misleadings such as Napoleon III. was a master of. They know that the enemies of the working-class love to make their pots boil over the fires of narrow-minded jingoism; that the fear of war in 1887, unscrupulously engineered by Bismarck, did excellent service to the most dangerous forces of reaction; that according to a nice little plan, lately revealed, and hatched by a number of highly placed personages, the Reichstag suffrage was to be filched from the German people in the excitement of jingoism, "after the return of a victorious army." They know that the advantages of the economic development which those policies attempt to exploit, especially all the advantages of our colonial policies, flow into the ample pockets of the exploiting class, of capitalism, the arch-enemy of the proletariat.

They know that the wars the ruling classes engage in for their own purposes demand of the working-class the most terrible sacrifice of blood and treasure, for which they are recompensed, after the work has been done, by miserable pensions, beggarly grants to war invalids, street organs and kicks. They know that after every war a veritable mud-volcano of Hunnic brutality and baseness sends its floods over the nations participating in it, rebarbarizing all civilization for years. The worker knows that the fatherland for which he is to fight is not his fatherland; that there is only one real enemy for the proletariat of every country — the capitalist class who oppresses and exploits the proletariat; that the proletariat of every country is by its most vital interests closely bound to the proletariat of every other country; that all national Interests recede before the common interests of the international proletariat; and that the international coalition of exploiters and oppressors must be opposed by the international coalition of the exploited and oppressed. He knows that the proletarians, if they were to be employed In a war, would be led to fight against their own brethren and the members of their own class, and thus against their own Interests. The class-conscious proletarian therefore not only frowns upon that International purpose of the army and the entire capitalist policy of expansion, he Is fighting them earnestly and with understanding. To the proletariat falls the chief task of fighting militarism in that direction, too, to the utmost, and It is more and more becoming conscious of that task, which Is shown by the International congresses; by the exchange of protestations of solidarity between the German and French Socialists at the outbreak of the Franco-German War of 1870, between the Spanish and American Socialists at the outbreak of the war about Cuba, between the Russian and Japanese Socialists at the outbreak of the war In eastern Asia In 1904; and by the resolution to declare a general strike In case of war between Sweden and Norway, adopted by the Swedish Social Democrats. It was further shown by the parliamentary attitude of the German Social Democracy towards the war credits of 1870 and during the Morocco conflict, as also by the attitude taken up by the class-conscious proletariat towards intervention in Russia.

FUNDAMENTAL FEATURES OF MILITARISM FOR HOME

AND ITS PURPOSE

Militarism does not only serve for defense and attack against the foreign enemy; It has a second task, one which Is being brought out ever more clearly with the growing accentuation of class antagonism, defining ever more clearly the form and nature of militarism, viz., that of protecting the existing state of society, that of being a pillar of capitalism and all reactionary forces in the war of liberation engaged in by the working-class. Here it shows itself purely as a weapon in the class struggle, a weapon In the hands of the ruling classes, serving, in conjunction with the police and law-courts, school and church, the purpose of obstructing the development of class-consciousness and of securing, besides, at all costs to a minority the dominating position in the state and the liberty of exploiting their fellow-men, even against the enlightened will of the majority of the people.

This Is modern militarism, which attempts nothing less than squaring the circle, which arms the people against the people Itself; which, by trying with all means to force upon social division an artificial division according to ages, makes bold to turn the workman into an oppressor and an enemy, into a murderer of members of his own class and his friends, of his parents, sisters and brothers and children, into a murderer of his own past and future; which pretends to be democratic and despotic, enlightened and mechanical, popular and anti-popular at the same time.

It must, however, not be forgotten that militarism can also turn the point of Its sword against the interior national, and even the interior religious "enemy" (in Germany, for instance, against the Poles, Alsatians and Danes), and can moreover be employed in conflicts among the non-proletarian classes; that militarism is a highly polymorphous phenomenon, capable of many changes; and that the Prusso- German militarism has attained a peculiarly flourishing state in consequence of the peculiar semi-absolutist, feudalbureaucratic conditions of Germany. This Prusso-German militarism is endowed with all the bad and dangerous qualities of any form of capitalist militarism, so that it is best suited to serve as a paradigm for showing militarism in its present stage, in its forms, means and eff"ects. As nobody has as yet succeeded, to use a Bismarcklan phrase, in imitating our Prussian lieutenants, nobody has as yet been fully able to imitate our Prusso-German militarism, which has not only become a state within the state, but positively a state above the state.

PRINCE KARL LICHNOWSKY: THE OUTBREAK OF THE

The rage of certain gentlemen over my success in London and the position I had achieved was indescribable. Schemes were set on foot to impede my carrying out my duties. I was left in complete ignorance of most important things, and I had to confine myself to sending in unimportant and dull reports. Secret reports from agents about things of which I could know nothing without spies and necessary funds were never available for me, and it was only in the last days of July, 1914, that I heard accidentally from the Naval Attache of the secret Anglo-French agreement for joint action of the two fleets in case of war.

After my arrival I became convinced that in no circumstances need we fear a British attack or British support of a foreign attack, but that under all conditions England would protect France. I advanced this opinion in repeated reports with detailed reasoning and insistence, but without gaining credence, although Lord Haldane's refusal of the formula of neutrality and England's attitude during the Morocco crisis were clear indications. In addition, the above-mentioned secret agreements were known to the department.

I repeatedly urged that England as a commercial State would suffer greatly in any war between the European great powers, and would therefore prevent such a war by all available means, but, on the other hand, in the interest of the European balance of power and to prevent Germany's Dverlordship, would never tolerate the weakening or destruction of France. Lord Haldane told me this shortly after my arrival. All influential people spoke in the same way.

I then received instructions that I was to induce the English press to take up a friendly attitude if Austria gave the ■'death blow" to the great Serbian movement, and so far as possible I was by my influence to prevent public opinion from opposing Austria. Recollections of the attitude of England during the annexation crisis, when public opinion

^ The conclusion of the autobiographical account of the German ambassador to England in 1914. Written for private circulation, in 1916, this "memorandum" iccidentally got into print, caused a great sensation, and cost the author his seat ,n the Prussian House of Lords.

showed sympathy for the Serbian rights in Bosnia, recollections also of the benevolent promotion of national movements in the time of Lord Byron and Garibaldi — these and other things spoke so strongly against the probability of support being given to the projected punitive expedition against the murderers that I considered it necessary to give an urgent warning. But I also gave a warning against the whole project, which I described as adventurous and dangerous, and I advised that moderation should be recommended to the Austrians, because I did not believe in the localization of the conflict.

Herr von Jagow answered me that Russia was not ready; there would doubtless be a certain amount of bluster, but the more firmly we stood by Austria the more would Russia draw back. He said that Austria was already accusing us of want of spirit, and that we should not squeeze her. On the other hand, feeling in Russia was becoming ever more anti- German, and so we must simply risk it.

This attitude, as I learned later, was based upon reports from Count Pourtales [German Ambassador in Petrograd] to the effect that Russia would not move in any circumstances; these reports caused us to stimulate Count Berchtold to the greatest possible energy. Consequently I hoped for salvation from an English mediation, because I knew Sir Edward Grey's influence in Petrograd could be turned to use in favor of peace. So I used my friendly relations with Sir Edward Grey, and in confidence begged him to advise moderation in Russia, if Austria, as it seemed, demanded satisfaction from the Serbs.