THE LOGOTHETE AT LARGE.
WHEN Mr. Roosevelt called President Wilson a " logothete," by which he apparently meant a phrasemonger rather than a reincarnation of a Byzantine functionary, he could scarcely have foreseen the full results of the art of phrasemaking. He sees it now ; or at least he will see it very soon if the reports as to the settlement of the Lusitania ' negotiations are true. It is said, on evidence which comes with the same force and to the same purport from numerous quarters, that Mr. Wilson is about to settle the Lusitama ' affair without exacting from Germany an explicit admission that she committed a crime in sinking the Lusitania.' All that she will say is that " retaliation "—a word used to cover the whole range of illegal submarine warfare as practised against the Allies—is wrong where it may affect the safety of neutrals. An indemnity, of course, will be paid for the loss of Anierican lives, but it was known long ago that Germany would agree to this. Look at the forecasts of the settlement as we may, we cannot escape the conclusion that Mr. Wilson is consenting to a whittling down of all his. manifestoes (for 'such his /Totes were) on behalf of humane practice. For months we have learned his great language " in a series of Notes all designed to show that America was the impartial champion of humanity, and that, though she could not lay upon herself more than the immediate task of speaking for neutrals, what she really had at heart was the standard of decency as it was to be maintained by men of good repute at war both now and in the future. He began by protesting that submarine warfare against .all " merchantmen " was illegal, as of course it is. Now it is to be described as only wrong if neutrals are involved. It may be said that in practice both things are the same ; that in any case the Germans would.have continued to use. their submarines somehow, and that Mr. Wilson has succeeded in binding the Germans in writing to the maxi- mum restriction that could possibly be expected. But that is hardly the point. Here are we fighting this war to save principles of honour, fidelity, and humaneness for the world. It is conceivable that we may fail to save them, but nothing is more certain than that we shall spend many more precious lives and incalculable wealth before we admit failure: We fight in faith and hope, not dreaming that we shall ever really have to sign our names to a deed abasing civilization. Mr. Wilson, if the reports be true, is to be. the first to set his name on a document which does something to whittle down the excellent customs of humane men at war which have built themselves up during a hundred years. American officials have a passion for the written word in international precedents. Will it be possible for them in the future to look upon the prece- dent about to be created and put in writing, and not know that the outworks which protect non-combatants from barbarism in war have been weakened ? We fear that it will be impossible.
Germany in the present situation is like a man charged With murder in a land—for such is international law— where the death penalty cannot be exacted, but murder can be prevented only by binding over a criminal to better behaviour under sundry pains and penalties from his neighbours. The man whom we are imagining is required to admit that the murder which he has committed was " illegal." He answers : " I cannot possibly do that. You must surely see that such an admission would be a terrible humiliation for me. I should lose authority in my own family, whom I have told all along that I committed a hustifiable and even a noble deed. I should weaken my old upon all my friends. There is a limit beyond which no man can go, and you ask me to cross that limit." The counsel then dispute and the judge asks many questions, and at length the prisoner makes an offer. " When I justly killed my man," he says, " there was, as you all i know, an innocent passer-by who happened to be in direst line with my victim when I fired. He also was killed. Now will this satisfy you ? I will not admit that what you call murder was wrong, but I will admit that it was wrong in so far as it involved the death of the passer-by." The judge then retires, and on his return announces that as there is always a risk of a passer-by being present in the crowded streets where the prisoner lives, the prisoner will in effect be restrained from committing murder in future. " Besides," he adds, if we inflicted the humilia- tion upon him against which he has protested, it is only too likely that, so far from acting on the assurance which he has offered us, he would be provoked to new deeds of frenzy: The Court therefore accepts the prisoner's offer:" That is the situation. Can any one pretend that life is not rendered a more precarious thing in a land managed on those lines ? That we do not exaggerate may be shown from Herr von Bethmann Hollweg's statement made to Mr. von Wiegand, the correspondent of the New York World :— " You know that in this entire question I have shown a fair and conciliatory spirit towards your country. I have been and I am willing to concede America everhing that Germany can concede within reason and fairness, within the principles of justice and honour. But I cannot concede the humiliation of Germany and tho German people—the wrenching of the submarine weapon from our hands—even to placate America and to ensure a continuance of thoso cordial relations with your country which every true German values and sincerely desires, except at the price of national humiliation. It is not with a light heart I tell you this, but in doing so I am conscious of the fact I am voicing the sentiment of the united German peoples."
All through the controversy about the Lusitania ' Mr. Wilson has steadily demanded a disavowal in express terms of what he called " the wanton act." That demand is now abandoned. Mr. Wilson has become the victim of his own feats of language ; he is per- fectly sincere, as we have no need to be told, but he is none the less a victim, and to the extent of his victimiza- tion the world will be victimized with him. No—there is a way by which the hands of the clock of civilization, which are being set back, may be thrust on again : the Allies can wipe out all mistakes by winning the war so handsomely that Germany will be physically unable to do as she likes.
One other point in the settlement must .be mentioned. Germany is willing to repeat her pledge " that unarmed merchantmen shall not be sunk without warning, and unless the safety of the .passengers and crew can be assured, provided, of course, that the vessels do not try to escape or. resist." It hardly needs saying that Germany's next diplomatic enterprise will be to try to persuade the United States to demand that British merchantmen shall no longer be armed. Mr. Wilson has already suggested the possibility of refusing armed merchantmen admission to American ports—an admission which was provided for in distinct terms earlier in the war. Merchantmen are not fighting ships and do not want to fight. They carry light guns merely to protect themselves. Their light and inadequate armament was forced upon them by the German plan of assassination at sea. It may be said that assassi- nation without warning is now to cease, and that no one -need be assassinated. But who is to control the conduct of German submarine commanders ? They will lose most of their prey if they really provide for the safety of the passengers and crew. Who, then, is to decide whether a merchantman really tried to escape, or " meant " to ram the submarine ? The German commanders will decide that on the spot—in their own way.
We deeply regret to have felt it our duty to write • in strong disparagement of Mr. Wilson's diplomatic achieve- ment. We have no desire to make his relations with Germany more difficult, much less df-..,.ec want to see hint forced into the war. But we have "of, it)frained—because we could not—from expressing our opinion that his manage- ment of words has caused him to do the world a disservice. And he could have acted so differently ! The American people would follow him anywhere, if lie only said that firmness was necessary. It is on such firmness, that the future of mankind, the future of all Mr. Wilson's own visions, depends. What strong, what passionate, feeling there is at his call is proved by the remarkable number of Life which we have noticed elsewhere.
Previous page
