The causes of war

Front matter

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Preface

WE believe we are justified in starting out in this volume upon the fundamental and scientific basis that, if we are to cure a malady, we must understand its cause, — we must properly diagnose the case; that in order to find a remedy for war and build securely on the foundation for a lasting peace, we must understand the underlying causes of conflict. Accordingly, the first part of this work is the outgrowth of the author's interest in, and study of, the causes of war, — with particular reference to the wars of the past half-century. This study naturally and fittingly led to a more intensive study of the European background of the World War, its remote and fundamental as well as its immediate causes.

There was also recognized the need, well nigh universal up to the very present, of a brief suggestive course in book form, for the study of the Great War, — its background, progress and issues, and the peace outlook, which would be suitable for the busy student and the busy citizen, who are simply bewildered in the great mass of unorganized material that confronts them, — and that this should be adapted to the schoolroom as well as the home. Hence the second and third parts of this work.

For the most part, in following out the two-fold plan just mentioned, the author presented his material in his original articles for the schools and the public, year by year and month by month, as the Great War progressed. Necessarily therefore, the chronology and subject-matter as continued in the present treatise are largely as they were written then. This accounts for present-tense verbs and descriptions occurring in a number of places where, if writ-

6 Preface

ten from the present field of view, they would occur in the past tense, etc. But these matters do not materially alter the nature or the accuracy of the book. On the contrary, they show points of view and problems of the recent past that it is well to keep in mind, in our attempt to understand and interpret the present world status, and to follow the tremendous work before the peace conference, in the adjustment of the pending momentous and multitudinous issues of reconstruction.

As mentioned a number of times in the body of this work, the treatment of our subject herein presented is not intended to be exhaustive. Already too much of such material is presented to the ordinary reader. There is a very great amount of information, covering all phases of this war: its causes, the peace movements and propaganda during the war; diplomatic relations of the various governments ; international movements of various sorts and international law, with its violations ; official "books" of the warring and other nations ; the tools, implements, inventions, provisions, regulations, etc., of war; the issues of the war; forms, theories, ideals and practices of the different governments and peoples involved in the war ; finances and financial problems; possibilities in peace terms and arrangements, including the much discussed League of Nations and the Bolshevist movement and danger, — and so on. But in all this there is for the general reader absolutely no systematic organization or uniformity of plan for study or teaching. The author's plan, therefore, is to present as adequately as may be, in a very brief treatment like this, the essential points, so that they may be better grasped and understood by the average reader, and to suggest a wider reading and study for those who may have a little more time.

R. Earl Swindler.

Areata, California

Contents

CHAPTER

PAGE

I .Introduction — Our Schools and a New Patriotism . . . 11

Appendix

I President Wilson's Address at Paris 215

II President Wilson's Address at Boston 223

III President Wilson's Address at New York 233

IV Final Draft of the League Covenant 245

Bibliography 263

Index 265

Chapter I Introduction Otjr Schools And A New Patriotism *

YOU will recall readily the famous poster for the Second Liberty Loan, with the picture of the statue in New York harbor, of "Liberty Enlightening the World." The lady artist who designed this poster received a splendid prize from the United States Government, and she deserved it, for that poster went a long way in raising nearly $5,000,- 000,000, to help make the world "safe for democracy.'' The appeal that "Liberty must enlighten the world" had its effect. But let me tell you, recent convulsions, as in Russia, are teaching us that not only must liberty enlighten the world, but intelligence must enlighten liberty, in order to save the world. Our schools must save the democracy "for which we fight. Our students, by making the most of their education and their American ideals, are to help gain and preserve the blessings of liberty to mankind.

Many of the nations which, up to the present, have been taking leading places in the affairs and problems of the world, can do so no more. The war is sapping their manhood and retarding their institutions that train for greatest worth and usefulness to their fellowmen. Other nations, in their new-found freedom, know not how to use it, because of past oppressions and inexperience in self-government. Never did the world need leaders as it does today ; never did it so need men of vision and of high ideals, men of incorruptible

1 Written February, 1918.

moral fiber and integrity, men of sacrifice and of unfaltering determination in the arduous paths of service. The youth of America should be made to realize that here at once is their rich heritage and their unexampled opportunity. Not with one speck of pride or of superiority should they look upon this situation, but as a privilege to serve unequaled in the history of man. Out of this vision and this great opportunity is to come a new patriotism that has no bounds less than the planet itself.

We must become more familiar with our country's most cherished ideals. We must see to it that our youth are intelligently imbued with those ideals. Only by so doing are we to vitalize our teaching and our training for citizenship in our schools. The principles of democracy are at stake in the world today; and if the major portion of the student's education in these trying times is not the gaining and putting into practice of these principles of patriotism and SERVICE, his education, costly as it is, is a failure. To the extent that his science, his art and his philosophy of history and of life fail to serve these ideals, just to that extent our educational system is serving the same base end as has Germany's in the past generation. Many of our students and teachers do not need this warning; yet there are many others that do, for to be asleep to the real needs and vital test of democracy in this time, is to be playing with our destiny as a free people. The supreme test of mankind today is a test of ideals, of moral and spiritual principles and standards of conduct; and everything material on earth must serve one or the other of these two opposing ideals. The one we hope America will be as ready to stand for as her patriots have always professed for her ; the other we know autocratic powers have always stood for, and have made the lovers of freedom pay the price in suffering and blood. The clearer these principles are held before the younger generation, the safer are American democracy and world liberty to be.

Introduction 13

The provincialism in many circles, and the still prevalent ignorance of the present world conflict afford most convincing evidence of the universal need of enlightenment. And we know whence that training, to be effective, must come — it must come through the education of the youth of our land. We should never forget that it was from the enlightened walls of schools throughout the nations that liberty was born — both religious and political freedom — and this fact answers the question why the schools of the nations have furnished the first martyrs in every great struggle for liberty.

It is truthfully said, that in a democracy, where the people themselves rule, they should always know, before they embark on any great project, why they are going into it. Yet, even today, after the United States has witnessed this titanic world struggle for four and one-half years, not one boy in one hundred can give the essential causes of the war. This is not the student's fault, but the fault of aimless and indefinite teaching and training, for which we are all to blame — even the government of the United States (for it simply reflected the general disinterestedness of the masses of the people) which should have kept us better informed of the facts, from the beginning of the war.

What are these American ideals, for which we now stand and stake our all? What is this liberty and democracy of which we rather flippantly speak in this generation, the selfish side of which we have appropriated so well, but which, nevertheless, is the message of our great republic to the world? The answer has come over and over again in the lives of our great American patriots, in their fervent speeches and their earnest devotion and invaluable service to their country. Their conduct is our creed, and we should therefore study their lives with a new purpose. The answer must likewise come in the present crisis. The war has brought out what sacrifice there is in the great heart of France. It has enabled England to find her soul, and with it a truly new England is born. Likewise must Columbia find her heart and her soul if she would realize her high mission in the world. As never before our citizens must be filled with the conviction that America's lesson is an abiding faith in humanity, and in the growing principles, the institutions and the final triumph of democracy among men; that here we worship principles, not personages, but have the highest regard and greatest reverence for our statesmen who have so nobly embodied those principles — a Washington and a Lincoln, not "sacred majesties" to be bowed down unto, but citizens enshrined in the hearts of their countrymen because of the service they have rendered free government in the hours of its utmost need. Let our boys and girls feel a new thrill of pride in our magnificent Stars and Stripes, because in them they see a new meaning, whether floating in home breezes o'er the peaceful institutions of a free-born people, on the great marts of trade, or on the blood-stained and treacherous field of battle, unfolding to the oppressed peoples of the earth the foundation tenets of American freedom, and giving to all the assurance that true representative democracy, by the grace of God, shall no longer be an experiment, but a triumphant realization, destined to preserve to the nations government by the initiative and consent of the governed.

How much in this day do we really appreciate the country in which we live? How much thought do we give to the blessings she affords us? Does it often come to our minds, that for every pleasure that is ours today, some one in the past has dared to sacrifice comfort and life to give us that pleasure? For centuries our forefathers have been fighting the battles of liberty and pouring out their life-blood that we might be secure in that liberty. They did it, as one has said, that these priceless heritages "might not perish in the graves of the fathers."

How much we owe our ancestors for all that, and how much we are in debt to our country ! God pity the boy or

Introduction 15

girl who, when knowing this, would give nothing in return. It is no idle dream that Uncle Sam is urging us to do our part. Would we curse the generations yet to come by failing to uphold liberty in this crisis ? The words of Patrick Henry are still as applicable as they are eloquent, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" From all over the world comes the statement that never did America fight in a juster cause than she has just been fighting. And that cause she must still uphold. In failing to do our part now, we should be recreant Americans. Rather let us pause in our mad rush for the perishing things of life, to appreciate the compliment the world is today paying to American citizenship.

But our schools must hasten to give to this citizenship a vision which comprehends not only its own state and nation, but is world-wide. Indeed, Columbia's highest resolve must be to be true to the principles that gave her birth, and gave to the world the inspiration of liberty. For it is her privilege, in this "age of ages telling" to move under the impelling conviction that this world cannot remain permanently half free and half enslaved by privileged autocracy; and that the God of human destiny has decreed that it shall become free — that the faith in which American citizenship was born and has been nurtured, the faith in which other peoples have come to believe, and which is now the only hope of the race, shall be realized in fact — and that "government of the people, by the people, for the people," cannot "perish from the earth."

Citizens of America: it is your duty to know the justice of your country's cause. And, you who have not gone to war, it is your privilege and opportunity to serve your country in the highest sense. All this and more, you have the opportunity to stand for those principles that have made America what she is, and so honored throughout the world. Yours is the leadership in these great movements whose watchword is service and whose task is to keep our people at home and at the front true American patriots and citizens, through all the grime and mud and fire and terror of war, and until they all come home.

Only when she realizes that it was in a righteous cause, can a mother be comforted for the loss of her son in France. Only when a father sees that the liberty he holds so dear was at stake, and might have been lost for generations to come, if the enemy had won, can he be reconciled to have sacrificed his valiant son on the altar of war. It is because of these things that the writer, though late as it now is to learn, is attempting to give you the causes of this mighty conflict.

Chapter II General Statement

WITHIN the last generation there has been a world-wide uneasiness and expectancy that has never been equalled in the past. The decade before the present war witnessed the greatest unrest the world had ever known. Statesmen and seers everywhere felt that something was going to happen, but no one knew just what. Now we have learned what was imminent. The recent revolution in Russia and the entrance of United States into this war will prove to be the greatest events of the World War period. It is but the continuation of the fight of the peoples of the earth for their liberties from oppression. It is another powerful link in the mighty chain of which the English revolutions of 1642 and 1688, the American Revolution and the French Revolution were the first links. And men will see, as never before, that the French Revolution of 1789, with the single exception of the present conflict, is the greatest, most tremendous event of modern times.

If there is one thing above all else that the study of hisstory teaches, it is that there is a unity or continuity, in human events and purposes and that man's true progress is through evolution. In this truth is found the explanation of the fundamental causes of war. The revolutions referred to above are a few of the many examples of this fact. It is equally true that revolutions of the people never go backward, ultimately; every one spells progress in the end. We should therefore in view of this fact, keep our faith in democratic Russia, for like France she will recover from her period of anarchy and severe trial — her deception and spoliation by German perfidy — and will come out all right in the end, although it may be generations before she is fully recovered. The very means of oppression, such as absolute monarchies, the "armed peace," under which the nations have groaned, ambition of rulers and of governments, and often war itself — are but the means by which the people may rise. At a terrible cost, it is true; yet, progress is always costly, and in its truest sense the survival of the fittest holds even unto the last.

Whether recognizing this evolutionary principle or not, we know that there has been for years, and still is, among the most intelligent and best classes everywhere, a great cry and longing for world peace — not simply a cessation of military warfare, but an era of peace for weary mankind. This, however, is not to be confused with the present socialistic and pacifist movement, which is wholly abortive, and would be in the interest of the autocratic central powers, and not in the interest of democracy. Yet, despite all we have heard and been taught in recent years concerning peace and the end of warfare, we are learning, what the American people have been slow to learn hitherto, that there are times in the history of nations when, in order to enjoy peace, they must be prepared for war. It would be suicide for any great nation at the present time to act otherwise. One people, in its philanthropic enthusiasm, cannot bring peace to the world, much less any little group of peace advocates. Nor can it guarantee its own peace — it cannot adopt a policy of peace, and say it will have it, whether others will or no. We see this in our own experience now. Indeed, the realization of this fact is one of the reasons why the President and Congress plunged this peace-loving country and non-aggressive American people into the mighty world conflict that rages today. France has been confronted with such a situation in the past, and other examples are not wanting. It amounts to this — as, I have believed for years — that, instead of diminishing the chances of war, the anti-

General Statement 19

preparedness peace tendency may augment these chances, may invite conquest, or as in the case of the United States, because of the aggressions of others, may help to drag an unwilling people into war. There are several nations fighting today that not only did not want war, but did not expect it, and those least prepared have suffered most. War was thrust upon them ; there was really no choice. The nations of the world are so close together and so interdependent in our day that one cannot have peace when others are determined upon oppressive war. The allied nations were unwillingly dragged into war, let me repeat, but thanks to the people's instinct for human liberty, they are in the war heart and soul now, and are in it to crush the inhuman and merciless beast of autocratic and bigoted oppression ! Pity it is that many of us have not seen until now that autocracy has always been the arch-enemy of freedom and human rights, and never could be trusted. Its whole foundation, as history shows, has been laid in hypocritical presumption and class privilege and selfishness, playing upon the innocence and ignorance of its unfortunate and incapable victims.

The trouble with the peace advocates before the war (and all honor to them — God forbid that the teachers of the young should be aught else) it seems to me, has largely been this: they have observed particularly the effects of war, but have done little along the practical line of studying its causes and proposing effective remedies. Not until the present gigantic conflict has there been anything like concerted and serious action on the prevention of war; and still less is the understanding of its causes. Many people, indeed, declare useless any study of the causes of war. With this view, the writer cannot at all agree; it is but blind fatalism, dangerous and utterly helpless in the face of the world situation and of most wars. How are we to apply the remedy — How are we to have peace — if we do not understand the cause? As in the study of medicine and disease,

20 T\e Causes Of War

so in this field, the search for causes is no less indispensable than the search for remedies; and certainly, the scientific method of treatment requires that we find the causes before we apply the remedy. The failure to do this, I maintain, is just the reason why so much that has been said and attempted in the past has been fruitless and disappointing. Men have not made a careful and systematic search into the causes of war. It is remarkable how little space is given to the causes of war in our histories. Generally speaking, they have been examined most superficially — have been strangely neglected. With one breath history instructors are teaching that causes and results are more important than wars themselves, and in the next breath they are hurrying their classes on from the causes to the wars and their results. Better not know the names of battles and leaders than not understand, in some degree at least, why the armies are fighting.

Those who oppose an intensive study of the causes of war, because they think it would increase the warlike spirit from the mere thinking upon the subject, have, it seems to me, a most peculiar and illogical method of reasoning. It is the people's not knowing the causes of wars that has often enabled their rulers to plunge them into conflicts and keep them there. This is true to some extent in the present war, as most of us know, particularly with the central powers. The search for the truth is dangerous only to its enemies. An acquaintance with the causes of war, even modern conflicts in civilized countries, can but lead the people to hate it more! When they see all the greed, the haughtiness, the selfishness, the blasphemous presumption of "divine right" monarchs and privileged classes, and sometimes the ignorance, misunderstandings and honest differences of peoples, that are back of war, they will certainly be greater lovers of peace, and more intelligent workers for it.

Moreover, it must be understood that there can be no real progress toward the peace we covet if we deny that

General Statement £1

there is such a thing as a righteous war. The liberty of American democracy rests on that foundation stone. God has so willed it, and we cannot change it, although we believe it is God's will that some day wars shall cease from the earth. War has often rendered a great service in the past, and even today it must be seen that in the struggle for political and economic independence, as well as that for physical existence and comfort, the necessities and ambitions of the strong will be satisfied at the cost of the weak. We say this should not be. Christianity and our finer instincts are trying to lead us away from it. Nevertheless, it is the physical law of nature, has all our past history as a race back of it, and is the "survival of the fittest," one of the greatest of all biological laws ; and, as Emerson says, the student of history may become more reconciled to this "copious bloodshed of ages past" — bloodshed often, too, in the name of the Prince of Peace — when he reflects that it is a temporary and preparatory state — age-long though it be — and has actively forwarded the culture of man. Nor is this any argument in favor of war as such, today ; it is only a recognition of the service of war in the past. It is folly, it is a manifestation of ignorance of the history of mankind's development, to try to get away from or ignore the benefit of wars in the past. They are the price man has paid for his civilization, whether they be against kings on their "divine right" thrones, autocratic governments, religious bigotry and intolerance, or what not. Civilization has been destroyed by these conflicts, it is true, and is being destroyed; yet, more still of civilization has been preserved and gained, else we could not have democracy and enlightenment today; for man's normal condition throughout the ages, almost up to the present, has been a state of warfare and strife. Through the countless ages of the past these wars have raged. From it all there has come an evolution into the present state; and our faith can but repeat, "as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." In spite of the fact that wars have taken the physically best in all ages, they have sifted humanity, both physically and intellectually, and have found the best for its leaders. War has brought different races and nations of the earth together — at first to blows; but from blows to truce, to trade, to inter-marriage, and finally to peace.

Considerations of this kind help to bring us to a true view of the nature and function of war. We became conscious of the fact that it is mingled with everything, that it is the subject of the greater part of historical treatment, if we take the human race as a whole; that it has, until very recent times, been the chief occupation or employment of the most conspicuous men of the world's long history ; and that, in one form or another, it is the law of nature. With this view, we may study the causes of war intelligently, without prejudice, and be better able in consequence to utilize the knowledge thus gained in applying it to the remedies for war and the "fight for peace." So, the relationship of the causes to the ends of war must never be lost sight of. Also, on the severity of wars, on the degree of their necessity, on the extent to which they go in violating the laws of civilized warfare and outraging the sense of humanity, will depend the opportunity of modifying their character and the probability of an evolution into a world peace. "Civilized" warfare, as practiced by Germany in the present conflict, has become so horrible as to generate one of the most powerful reactionary influences against it. On the other hand, the measure in which wars are inevitable, or have been (and this can be found only by a close study of their causes) will furnish the character and limits of remedial measures.

Chapter III Classification And Comment

IT is manifestly true that in the present day there are only two classes of wars that are justifiable, namely, those for defense or self preservation, and those for liberty or freedom from oppression. Yet, the attempt to classify the causes of war, past and present, is difficult, and results are more or less inaccurate and uncertain. For convenience, however, and for the sake of discussion, they may be grouped as follows:

1. Dynastic affairs. (Have ceased to be fundamental causes.)

2. Religion. (No longer exists as a leading cause.)

3. Love of a people for war. (Becoming rarer.)

4. Colonial expansion. (Recent, but has lost its attraction, except perhaps for Germany.)

5. Racial predominance — tendency to domination by one race in a composite nation, as in Austria-Hungary. (Still a cause for strife.)

6. National or race hatred. (Still strong, as in Germany vs. France and vice versa — inherited from the past, with distrust and misunderstanding.)

7. Growth of nationality — to secure national unity. (Chief cause of most wars in latter part of nineteenth century, and some today.)

8. "Balance of Power," in Europe. (Still a contributing cause.)

9. Imperfection of government — weakness, anarchy, as in Mexico and a few small states in Europe today. (Still a cause and excuse.)

10. Territorial adjustment — tendency to secure natural boundaries.

11. Trade rivalry and commercial motives. (Many of England's petty wars in the past century, also other European countries.)

12. Conquest — ambition of leaders. (Napoleon Bonaparte best modern example.)

13. Great navies and standing armies of Europe — the "armed peace."

14. Suppression of democratic and revolutionary movements of the people, by autocratic governments. (Ever a leading cause, but especially 1820-50.)

15. Desire for political freedom and democracy, national, world-wide, against autocratic governments. (Most recent, and greatest now.)

16. To uphold the principles of international law. (More or less connected with several above.)

We can get some idea of the multiplicity and complexity of the causes of the present war when we note that nearly all of the foregoing causes — all except possibly three — contributed to the conflict. It might be well also to state in passing that this all foreshadows greater problems of readjustment when the fighting ceases and even more complex than the problems of the war, the peace negotiations taking perhaps a longer period than the war itself, for the whole world will be vitally interested and must take part.

One reads in a good many historic works and treatises on peace that wars usually have very trifling causes. This has sometimes been true; and some people think by this means alone to discredit war. Others, on the contrary, are partisans of great causes, and they likewise are sometimes right. Both these tendencies, however, lead to erroneous conclusions, for neither represents the facts of history. So many times the writer has heard men say that the present world war is without cause; from the pulpit, from the lecture platform, from the press — from all ranks of life comes this