Germany, The Next Republic? Part 19

The Kaiser throughout his reign has posed as a peace man although he has been first a soldier and then an executive. So when the Big War broke out the Kaiser had a chance to make real what had been play for him for forty years. Is it surprising then that he should urge the people to go on with the war and promise them to reform the government when the fighting was over?

The Kaiser's proclamation itself shows that the Kaiser is not through fighting.

"Never before have the German people proved to be so firm as in this war. The knowledge that the Fatherland is fighting in bitter self defence has exercised a wonderful reconciling power, and, despite all sacrifices on the battlefield and severe privations at home, their determination has remained imperturbable to stake their last for the victorious issue."

Could any one except a soldier who was pleased with the progress of the war have written such words?

"The national and social spirit have understood each other and become united, and have given us steadfast strength. Both of them realise what was built up in long years of peace and amid many internal struggles. _This was certainly worth fighting for_," the Emperor's order continued. "Brightly before my eyes stand the achievements of the entire nation in battle and distress. The events of this struggle for the existence of the empire introduce with high solemnity a new time.

"It falls to you as the responsible Chancellor of the German Empire and First Minister of my Government in Prussia to a.s.sist in obtaining the fulfilment of the demands of this hour by right means and at the right time, and in this spirit shape our political life in order to make room for the free and joyful co-operation of all the members of our people.

"The principles which you have developed in this respect have, as you know, my approval.

"I feel conscious of remaining thereby on the road which my grandfather, the founder of the empire, as King of Prussia with military organisation and as German Emperor with social reform, typically fulfilled as his monarchial obligations, thereby creating conditions by which the German people, in united and wrathful perseverance, will overcome this sanguinary time. _The maintenance_ of the _fighting force_ as a real people's army and the promotion of the social uplift of the people in all its cla.s.ses was, from the beginning of my reign, my aim.

"In this endeavour, while holding a just balance between the people and the monarchy to serve the welfare of the whole, I am resolved to begin building up our internal political, economic, and social life as soon as the war situation permits.

"While millions of our fellow-countrymen are in the field, the conflict of opinions behind the front, which is unavoidable in such a far-reaching change of const.i.tution, must be postponed in the highest interests of the Fatherland until the time of the homecoming of our warriors and when they themselves are able to join in the counsel and the voting on the progress of the new order."

It was but natural that the Socialists should hail this declaration of the Kaiser's at first with enthusiasm.

"Internal freedom in Prussia--that is a goal for which for more than one hundred years the best heads and best forces in the nation have worked. Resurrection day of the third war year--will go down in history as the day of the resurrection of old Prussia to a new development," said the _Vorwaerts_.

"It has brought us a promise, to be sure; not the resurrection itself, but a promise which is more hopeful and certain than all former announcements together. This proclamation can never be annulled and lapse into dusty archives.

"This message promises us a thorough reform of the Prussian three cla.s.s electoral system in addition to a reform of the Prussian Upper House.

In the coming new orientation the Government is only one factor, another is Parliament, the third and decisive factor is the people."

Other Berlin newspapers spoke in a similar vein but not one of them pointed out to the public the fact that this concession by the Kaiser was not made in such a definite form, _until the United States had declared war_. As the United States entered the war to aid the democratic movement in Germany this concession by the Kaiser may be considered our first victory.

As days go by it becomes more and more evident that the American declaration of war is having an important influence upon internal conditions in Germany just as the submarine notes had. The German people really did not begin to think during this war until President Wilson challenged them in the notes which followed the torpedoing of the _Lusitania_. And now with the United States at war not only the people but the Government have decided to do some thinking.

By April 12th when reports began to reach Germany of America's determination to fight until there was a democracy in Germany the democratic press began to give more serious consideration to Americans alliance with the Allies. Dr. Ludwig Haas, one of the Socialist members of the Reichstag, in an article in the Berlin _Tageblatt_ made the following significant statements.

"One man may be a hypocrite, but never a whole nation. If the American people accept this message [President Wilson's address before Congress]

without a protest, then a tremendous abyss separates the logic of Germans from that of other nations.

"Woodrow Wilson is not so far wrong if he means the planning of war might be prevented if the people a.s.serted the right to know everything about the foreign policies of their countries. But the President seems blind to the fact that a handful of men have made it their secret and uncontrolled business to direct the fate of the European democracies.

With the press at one's command one can easily drive a poor people to a mania of enthusiasm, when they will carry on their shoulders the criminals who have led to the brink of disaster."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE NEW OLD PRESIDENT. LONG LIVE AMERICA! LONG LIVE PEACE! LONG LIVE THE AMMUNITION FACTORIES!"]

Dr. Haas was beginning to understand that the anti-American campaign in Germany which the Navy started and the Foreign Office encouraged, had had some effect.

Everything the United States does from now on will have a decisive influence in the world war. The Allies realise it and Washington knows it. Mr. Lloyd-George, the British Prime Minister, realised what a decisive effect American ships would have, when he said at the banquet of the American Luncheon Club in London:

"The road to victory, the guaranty of victory, the absolute a.s.surance of victory, has to be found in one word, 'ships,' and a second word, 'ships,' and a third word, 'ships.'"

But our financial economic and military aid to the Allies will not be our greatest contribution towards victory. The influence of President Wilson's utterances, of our determination and of our value as a friendly nation after the war will have a tremendous effect as time goes on upon the German people. As days and weeks pa.s.s, as the victory which the German Government has promised the people becomes further and further away, the people, who are now doing more thinking than they ever have done since the beginning of the war, will some day realise that in order to obtain peace, which they pray for and hope for, they will have to reform their government _during the war_--not after the war as the Kaiser plans.

Military pressure from the outside is going to help this democratic movement in Germany succeed in spite of itself. The New York World editorial on April 14th, discussing Mr. Lloyd-George's statement that "Prussia is not a democracy; Prussia is not a state; Prussia is an army," said:

"It was the army and the arrogance actuating it which ordered hostilities in the first place. Because there was no democracy in Prussia, the army had its way. The democracies of Great Britain and France, like the democracy of the United States, were reluctant to take arms but were forced to it. Russian democracy found its own deliverance on the fighting-line.

"In the fact that Prussia is not a democracy or a state but an army we may see a reason for many things usually regarded as inexplicable. It is Prussia the army which violates treaties. It is Prussia the army which disregards international law. It is Prussia the army, represented by the General Staff and the Admiralty, which sets at naught the engagements of the Foreign Office. It is Prussia the army which has filled neutral countries with spies and lawbreakers, which has placed frightfulness above humanity, and in a fury of egotism and savagery has challenged the world.

"Under such a terrorism, as infamous at home as it is abroad, civil government has perished. There is no civil government in a Germany dragooned by Prussia. There is no law in Germany but military law.

There is no obligation in Germany except to the army. It is not Germany the democracy or Germany the state, it is Germany the army, that is to be crushed for its own good no less than for that of civilisation."

The United States entered the war at the psychological and critical moment. We enter it at the moment when our economic and financial resources, and _our determination_ will have the decisive influence.

We enter at the moment when every one of our future acts will a.s.sist and help the democratic movement in Germany succeed.

CHAPTER XII

PRESIDENT WILSON

The United States entered the war at a time when many Americans believed the Allies were about to win it. By May 1st, 1917, the situation so changed in Europe that it was apparent to observers that only by the most stupendous efforts of all the Allies could the German Government be defeated.

At the very beginning of the war, when Teutonic militarism spread over Europe, it was like a forest fire. But two years of fighting have checked it--as woodsmen check forest fires--by digging ditches and preventing the flames from spreading. Unlimited submarine warfare, however, is something new. It is militarism spreading to the high seas and to the sh.o.r.es of neutrals. It is Ruthlessism--the new German menace, which is as real and dangerous for us and for South America as for England and the Allies. If we hold out until Ruthlessism spends its fury, we will win. But we must fight and fight desperately to hold out.

Dr. Kaempf, President of the Reichstag, declared that President Wilson would "bite marble" before the war was over. And the success of submarine warfare during April and the first part of May was such as to arouse the whole world to the almost indefinite possibilities of this means of fighting. The real crisis of the war has not been reached.

We are approaching it. The Allies have attempted for two years without much success to curb the U-boat danger. They have attempted to build steel ships, also without success, so that the real burden of winning the war in Europe falls upon American shoulders.

Fortunately for the United States we are not making the blunders at the beginning of our intervention which some of the European nations have been making since August, 1914. America is awakened to the needs of modern war as no other nation was, thanks to the splendid work which the American newspapers and magazines have done during the war to present clearly, fairly and accurately not only the great issues but the problems of organisation and military tactics. The people of the United States are better informed about the war as a whole than are the people in any European country. American newspapers have not made the mistakes which English and French journals made--of hating the enemy so furiously as to think that nothing more than criticism and hate were necessary to defeat him. Not until this year could one of Great Britain's statesmen declare: "You can d.a.m.n the Germans until you are blue in the face, but that will not beat them."

Professor Charles Gray Shaw, of New York University, stated before one of his cla.s.ses in philosophy that there was a new "will" typified in certain of our citizens, notably in President Wilson.

"The new psychology," said Professor Shaw, "has discovered the new will--the will that turns inward upon the brain instead of pa.s.sing out through hand or tongue. Wilson has this new will; the White House corroborates the results of the laboratory. To Roosevelt, Wilson seems weak and vacillating; but that is because T. R. knows nothing about the new will. T. R. has a primitive mind, but one of the most advanced type. In the T. R. brain, so to speak, will means set teeth, clenched fist, hunting, and rough riding.

"Wilson may be regarded as either creating the new volition or as having discovered it. At any rate, Wilson possesses and uses the new volition, and it remains to be seen whether the political world, at home and abroad, is ready for it. Here it is significant to observe that the Germans, who are psychologists, recognize the fact that a new and important function of the mind has been focused upon them.

"The Germans fear and respect the Wilson will of note writing more than they would have dreaded the T. R. will with its teeth and fists."

As a psychologist Professor Shaw observed what we saw to be the effect in Germany, of Mr. Wilson's will.