AMERICA'S LOST OPPORTUNITY.*
WIZEN the Imperial German Chancellor on August 4th, 1914, announced to the Reichstag : Our troops have occupied Luxemburg, and perhaps are already on Belgian soil. Gentlemen, that is contrary to the dictates of international law. . . . The wrong—I speak openly—that we are com- mitting we will endeavour to make good, &e.," he not only proclaimed the destruction of the "scrap of paper" by which Germany, Great Britain, and other European Powers bound themselves to protect the neutrality of Belgium, but he also publicly, flagrantly, and with deliberation informed the world that Germany would not be bound by the international treaty which, with every other Power, great and small, except China and Nicaragua, as co-signatories, Germany had signed less than seven years before that date. The first two articles of that portion of the treaty of the Hague of 1907 which relates to the conduct of war on land (Convention V., chap. 1) are as follows :— "Art. I. The territory of neutral Powers is inviolable. Art. H. Belligerents are forbidden to move across the territory of a neutral Power, troops or convoys, either of munitions of war or supplies."
The United States of America was a signatory of this Code of international law as well as Germany, Belgium, and Luxemburg. Full notice was therefore given of the abroga- tion by Germany of this Code. When the German Chancellor spoke of the "dictates of international law," it was this Code to which he particularly referred. " Necessity " was the excuse, and "necessity knows no law." With this excuse there fell at one blow the whole body of the regulations, custom, and law upon which in time of war civilization and humanity rest. The United States knew it on that fatal day of August, 1914, and she was silent. Germany had given the United States this notice and this excuse in common with the rest of the world.
Many Americans have gone so far as to assert that it was the duty of their country immediately to join with the Allies in declaring war upon Germany for this outrageous and admitted breach of the treaty which she had made with America as with the other nations of the world. Others, again, have asserted that at least America could not remain silent. Qui toed eonsentire videtur. She could not afford a negative atti- tude incalculable evils might befall American citizens if she adopted it. Germany might, presume upon the appearance of acquiescence ; this was a case, they asserted, in which a diplomatic protest in the polite phraseology of which their chief Executive officer is a past-master would have been an asset invaluable to those " interests " of which Professor Nicholson writes in his brochure recently reviewed by Lord Cromer in the spectator : possibly it might have averted the atrocities committed in Belgium by the German armies, and saved the lives of Americans which were lost by the sinking of the • Lusitania ' and other merchant ships, to say nothing of other misdeeds committed by Germany for which "necessity " was her excuse.
War Thoughts of an Optimist is written, as the author says not because he thinks he can write, but because he knows that he cannot remain silent. He makes no apologies for his views ; be feels, on the contrary, that apologies are due from those who fail to entertain them." This quotation, perhaps, suffices to indicate the nationality of the 'writer. He Comes of " old New England stock and revolutionary ancestry," with the "advantages of Harvard College, the Harvard Law School," and of a residence in Canada. From the beginning to the end of this book he leaves no room for doubt as to the stand he would have taken in the war if he had had the direction of the American Government. He is of those Americans who believe that "their country is not a certain number of square miles of more or less fertile land, a certain number of cities and towns, a certain number of industries yielding annually a certain amount of profits. No, America is Bunker Hill and Valley Forge and the little Continental Congress at Philadelphia; she is Gettysburg and Lookout Mountain and Sheridan's Ride; she is Washington and Lincoln and Clay and Daniel Webster; she is Longfellow and Bret Harts and Huckleberry Finn. We who feel thus yield to R0/10 in our love for our country, but we love hor as a living, thinking, growing, eager, erring, inspiriting entity, not as mere latitude and longitude or a place in which to make money. The
• War Thoughts of an Optimist. By Benjamin Apthorp Gould, London; M. Dent and Sons. [29, ed. not.]
United States is the nearest thing to the Golden Rule that has yet happened in nations. We shouted 'Cuba Libre,' and we bled to prove our words. We believe that we should be willing to bleed to prove Belgium a nation, not a road."
Our author also believes that "the struggle to-day is to decide whether democracy or feudalism shall prevail in the world. No amount of special pleading can blind us to this fundamental fact. And we Americans who feel as I do, knowing that our land has been dedicated to democracy, and has until now been the foremost exponent of democracy in the world, believe that the `United States of America ought to be taking a loading part in the defence of that democracy by and for which she lives.
This is the keynote of the book : democracy or feudalism.
That is the issue which must be decided by the war : the democracy of the United States and of England, or the feudalism, the militarism, the autocracy of Germany :— " Political divisions of nations are supremely unimportant so long as the idealisms on which they are founded are the same. The changes of boundaries which will result from this war matter nothing ; the changes in the aspirations of peoples are important. England to-day happens to typify a democracy for which the world is willing to suffer, but this democracy is inherent in mankind, not in England. This war belongs to every free people, and concerns them broadly as much as it concerns England. It is inconceivable that America and Great Britain should ever again come to blows, because both are loyal to the same super- national conception of liberty and of the place of free men in a free world."
For the hyphenated American the writer has nothing but scorn "Again, I repeat that the German-Amerioan is an impossibility. One cannot serve God and Mammon. Until the choioe has to be made between the democraoy of America and the feudalism of Germany, sentiment and association naturally cause the German- sprung to speak kindly of Germany ; once, however, the issue is clear, democracy will, as always, come forth triumphant. Even if there wore not a thousand other reasons, ranging from bleeding Belgium to the Hague Tribunal, why the United States should be aligned with the foes of Kaiserism, this proof of its democracy alone should be compelling. Let us demonstrate that Americans are Americans, no matter under what sky they were born."
One chapter is devoted to "National Honour," in which a graceful compliment is paid to the President's stand upon the question of the Panama tolls. It proceeds :— "Belgium was in honour bound to resist the German invasion of her frontier. Rather than lose her honour she was willing to suffer the uttermost that can come to any nation. Her action and her sacrifice will for ever place her name foremost on the roll of those to whom honour was supreme. Groat Britain was in honour bound to declare war against Germany when Belgium's neutrality was violated, and she has taught the world the value of scraps of paper when they contain a nation's honour. . . . Now that the deepest and most sacred honour of the nation demands that, in the colossal struggle between democracy and absolutism throughout the world, the United States shall make its position clear and unmistakable, Mr. Wilson will not be forgiven for not acting in accordance with the traditions and the nobility of his country."
The ultimate viotory of the Allies, and the rearrangement of the maps of the world resulting therefrom, are predicted in an interesting chapter entitled "At the End of the War," when "the people of Germany will have in the vision of Sir Edward Grey their greatest asset, the most valuable and the hardest to replace of the great men of to-day." " W lien Lincoln was murdered, it was truly said that in him the Con- federacy lost its greatest friend ":— " By far the most important political event since the outbreak of hostilities was the protocol entered into by Great Britain, France, and Russia. This protocol contained two distinct pro- visions, and in the popular mind the fact that the first was more striking has caused the deeper import of the second to be over- shadowed. First, it was provided that no one of the parties to the agreement would make peace without the consent of the other two. This makes it certain that the Triple Entente will win the war. By this the knell of the Kaiser was rung, as the Kaiser himself knows. Secondly, it was provided that no one of the parties, in making peace, would demand terms not satisfactory to the other two. This makes it certain that the peace will be a lasting one. By this the knell of Kaiserism was rung ; but whether the Kaiser himself has the vision to understand it is very doubtful. No greed on the part of any victor shall be allowed to impose conditions s 0 bitter that in the nature of things they can be but temporary, The temperance of concerted wisdom, dominated by the temperance of Grey, will have to prevail." The spirit of optimism breathes in every page of this interesting book. The writer is a democrat who believes in the democracy of the "nations" of the British Empire and of his own country :— "It cannot be. denied that a eystem which makes a war Me the present one possible can no longer be tolerated. . . . I assert
boldly that the remedy has been found, and the greater part of the civilized world is already free from the danger of great war except with the other part. The remedy is democracy, and the safety of the democratic part of the world demands that the other part must be made immune to the war-fever."
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