Chapter 10

4. Conferences between the signatory powers shall be held from time to time to formulate and codify rules of international law, which, unless some signatory shall signify its dissent within a stated period, shall thereafter govern the decision of the judicial tribunal mentioned in Article 1.

There were half a dozen brief speeches in favor of the report. John Wanamaker did not think the report went far enough. He had hoped the conference would send out a message to the warring nations that would make them pause and think. He could not help but favor the report, he added, but felt that it, standing alone without any further action, would be laughed at by those on the other side of the Atlantic.

It is expected the Executive Committee will meet in the near future to adopt plans to carry out the objects of the league. One of the things that probably will be done, according to members of the Executive Committee, will be to start a propaganda in this country with a view to having the United States Senate adopt measures in line with the object of the league. Mr. Taft said today that, judging by its action in rejecting treaties in the past, the chief stumbling block to the aspirations of the league would be the Senate. Steps will also be taken to get European countries interested in the league.

ORGANIZATION.

President.

William Howard Taft.

Vice Presidents.

Lyman Abbott, Edwin A. Alderman, A. Graham Bell, R. Blankenburg, Charles R. Brown, Francis E. Clark, John H. Finley, W.D. Foulke, James Cardinal Gibbons, W. Gladden, George Gray, Myron T. Herrick, John G. Hibben, George C. Holt, D.P. Kingsley, S.W. McCall, J.B. McCreary, Victor H. Metcalf, John Mitchell, John B. Moore, Alton B. Parker, George H. Prouty, Jacob H. Schiff, John C. Schaffer, Robert Sharp, Edgar F. Smith, C.R. Van Hise, B.I. Wheeler, Harry A. Wheeler, Andrew D. White, W.A. White, George G. Wilson, Luther B. Wilson, Oliver Wilson, Stephen S. Wise, T.S. Woolsey, James L. Slayden, David H. Greer, Bernard N. Baker, Victor L. Berger, Edward Bok, Arthur J. Brown, Edward O. Browne, R. Fulton Cutting, John F. Fort, A.W. Harris, L.L. Hobbs, George H. Lorimer, Edgar O. Lovett, S.B. McCormick, Martin B. Madden, Charles Nagel, George A. Plimpton, Isaac Sharpless, William F. Slocum, Dan Smiley, F.H. Strawbridge, Joseph Swain, Edwin Warfield, H. St. G. Tucker.

Executive Committee.

W.H. Mann, John B. Clark, J.M. Dickinson, Austen G. Fox, Henry C. Morris, Leo S. Rowe, Oscar S. Straus, Thomas R. White, Hamilton Holt, Theodore Marburg, W.B. Howland, John H. Hammond, W.H. Short, A.L. Lowell, John A. Stewart, William H. Taft.

German-American Dissent

By Hugo Muensterberg.

The subjoined letter from Hugo Muensterberg, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, is addressed to Augustus J. Cadwalader, Secretary of the National Provisional Committee for the League to Enforce Peace.

Clifton, Mass., June 9, 1915.

Dear Sir: I beg to express my thanks for the courtesy of the invitation to attend the conference of the League of Peace in Independence Hall under the Presidency of the Hon. W.H. Taft. I feel myself, of course, in deepest sympathy with the spirit of justice and peacefulness which has suggested the foundation of such a league. Nevertheless, I beg to be excused from attendance, as I am convinced that this time of international excitement and prejudice is unfit for the crystallization of new forms for the common life of the nations.

I venture, however, to add that I feel in any case grave doubts of the value of any plans which aim to secure future peace by the traditional type of agreements and treaties. We live in the midst of a war in which one belligerent nation after another has felt obliged to disregard treaties and to interpret agreements in a one sided way. Only yesterday Italy, without any reason of vital necessity, annulled an agreement and a treaty which had appeared the firmest in European politics, and which yet failed in the first hour of clashing interests. A psychologist has no right to expect that the national temper of the future will be different.

Moreover, the Supreme Court of the United States has sanctioned the idea, which is shared practically by all nations, that treaties are no longer binding when a situation has changed so that the fulfillment of the agreement would be against the vital interests of the nation. We have learned during the last ten months how easily such disburdening changes can be discovered as soon as the national passions are awakened.

The new plan depends upon only one new feature by which the mutual agreement is to be fortified against the demands of national excitement. The plan of the League of Peace promises the joint use of military forces in case that one nation is unwilling to yield. But the world witnesses today the clear proof that even the greatest combination of fighting forces may be unable to subdue by mere number a nation which is ready to make any sacrifice for its convictions. One hundred and fifty millions are attacked by eight hundred and fifty millions, by joint forces from five continents, which moreover are backed by the economic forces of the richest country in the world; and yet after ten months of fighting one million prisoners, but no other hostile soldiers, stand on German soil. After this practical example the plan merely to join the military forces will less than ever appear a convincing argument in an hour in which a nation feels its existence or its honor threatened. For a long time we heard the claim that the Socialists and the bankers would now make great wars impossible; both prophecies have failed. The threat that the warring nation will have to face the world in arms will be no less futile. But the failure in this case will be disastrous, as the terms of such an agreement would draw many nations into the whirlpool which would have no reason of their own for entering the war.

The interests of strong growing nations will lead in the future as in the past to conflicts in which both sides are morally in the right and in which one must yield. We have no right to hope that after this war the nations will be more willing to give up their chances in such conflicts without having appealed to force. On the contrary, the world has now become accustomed to war and will therefore more easily return to the trenches. The break between England and Russia and finally the threatening cloud of world conflict between Occident and Orient can already be seen on the horizon; the battles of today may be only the preamble. In such tremendous hours the new-fashioned agreements would be cobwebs which surely could not bind the arms of any energetic nation.

But, worst of all, they would not only be ineffective--they would awake a treacherous confidence. The nations would deceive themselves with a feeling of safety, while all true protection would be lacking. The first step forward toward our common goal must be to learn the two lessons of the war of today and to face them unflinchingly; mere agreements do not and can not bind any nation on the globe in an hour of vital need, and the mere joining of forces widens and protracts a war, but does not hinder it. We must learn that success for peace endeavors can be secured only from efforts to avert war which are fundamentally different from the old patterns of pledges and threats. These old means were negative; we need positive ones.

If a psychologist can contribute anything to the progress of mankind, he must, first of all, offer the advice not to rely on plans by which the attention is focused on the disasters which are to be avoided. Education by forbidding the wrong action instead of awaking the impulses toward the right one is as unpromising for peoples as it is for individuals. We must truly build up from within. But a time in which the war news of every hour appeals to sympathies and antipathies is hardly the time to begin this sacred work, which alone could bring us the blessed age of our vision, the United States of the World.

HUGO MUENSTERBERG.

Chant of Loyalty.

By ELIAS LIEBERMAN.

Firm as the furnace heat Rivets the bars of steel, Thus to thy destiny, Flag, are we plighted; One are the hearts that beat, One is the throb we feel, One in our loyalty, Stand we united.

Many a folk have brought Sinew and brawn to thee; Many an ancient wrong Well hast thou righted; Here in the land we sought, Stanchly, from sea to sea, Here, where our hearts belong, Stand we united.

Ask us to pay the price, All that we have to give, Nothing shall be denied, All be requited; Ready for sacrifice, Ready for thee to live, Over the country wide, Stand we united.

One under palm and pine, One in the prairie sun, One on the rock-bound shore, Liberty-sighted; All that we have is thine, Thine, who hast made us one, True to thee evermore, Stand we united.

American Munition Supplies

The Alleged German Plot to Buy Control of Their Sources

_The following dispatch from Washington, dated June 8, 1915, appeared in The Chicago Herald:_

President Wilson and his Cabinet considered today the known fact that German interests, reported backed by the German Government, are negotiating for the purchase of the great gun and munition of war plants in this country.

Secretary McAdoo of the Treasury laid the matter before the Cabinet. He had information from Secret Service agents of the Government who have been following these German activities for some weeks. It is reported today, confirming The Herald dispatch of last night, that the plants for which negotiations are on include that of Charles M. Schwab at Bethlehem, Penn.; the Remington small arms works at Hartford, Conn., and the Cramp works at Philadelphia, which, it is said, Schwab is about to acquire; the Metallic Cartridge Company, the Remington Company, and other munition and small arms works.

Included in the Schwab plant holdings are the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Massachusetts, and the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, where it is reported parts of submarines are being made for English contract, shipment being made through Canada.

This new move of the Germans involves the outlay of hundreds of millions, a gigantic financial operation in the face of war needs and conditions. It is one of the most sensational developments of the present conflict in connection with the United States. Its consummation inevitably would lead this country into serious disagreement, if not conflict, with Great Britain and the Allies.

The latter will demand the fulfillment of their contracts with these concerns. The German move is to prevent this delivery of munitions of war. With the consummation of the purchases, the German owners could refuse to fill these contracts. They will not fear suits for broken contracts.

The whole matter is fraught with such possibilities of danger to this country that Attorney General Gregory and the experts of the Department of Justice have taken up the question with a view to interposing legal obstacles. It may become necessary, it was suggested today, to prevent such a sale on the grounds of public welfare because of strained relations with Germany.

Secretary McAdoo will not disclose who are the agents for the German interests seeking to purchase the munitions plants, or who are the financial backers. The Secret Service men are believed to know these details, having been on the investigation for three weeks. Rich Germans in the United States are believed to be interested.

Charles M. Schwab, head of the Bethlehem Company, came here two weeks ago in response to an urgent summons. He saw Secretary McAdoo, Secretary Daniels, and other officials. At that time it was given out that he was conferring as to details of supplies to be furnished this Government under contracts for new warship construction about to be awarded. It is now understood that Secretary McAdoo sought information as to the negotiations under way at that time for the purchase of the munitions plants in this country by the German interests.

The report of Secretary McAdoo today stirred the Cabinet as deeply almost as the resignation of Secretary of State Bryan. Complete reports were asked and the Secret Service arm of the Government will be required to furnish immediately more complete and detailed information.

_Of the efforts to obtain control of the munitions companies, The Providence Journal of June 9, 1915, reported:_

Acting under the personal instructions of the German Ambassador, several German bankers of New York have been working together for the last week on preliminary negotiations for the purchase of every large plant they can lay their hands on which is now engaged in turning out munitions of war for the Allies.

Count von Bernstorff, Dr. Dernburg, and two well-known German bankers held a conference at the German Embassy in Washington on Tuesday, June 1. At that conference the Ambassador outlined in detail instructions he had received the day before from Berlin to proceed with this propaganda, and he declared to the three men there present that his Government considered the success of the plan as of vital importance, superseding every other phase of the war situation.

The bankers at once returned to New York, and at a meeting next day with Captain Boy-Ed and several other men at the German Club outlined their plan of campaign.

For months past the German Ambassador has been in possession of a list of factories all over the country engaged in turning out munitions of war for the Allies. Last Saturday a concerted movement was begun toward securing a majority control of many of these plants.

When one of the bankers at the conference in Washington asked the Ambassador if he had any conception of the magnitude of the financial problems involved in the scheme he replied that his Government was fully prepared to pay everything necessary, and repeated that the fate of the empire might rest on the success or failure of the plan. He then added these words:

"There is no limit, gentlemen, to the amount of money available."

The activities of the representatives of Count von Bernstorff in this matter have already brought them up to the point of negotiation, or attempted negotiation, with the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, the Remington Arms Company, the Bethlehem Steel Company, and the Union Metallic Cartridge Company.

Government officials, when notified of this new propaganda yesterday, were a unit in declaring it was impossible to believe that such a scheme could be carried through successfully. In the first place, they pointed out that activity of this kind would be a direct violation of the Sherman act, and, secondly, a case of conspiracy would lie against individuals attempting such a movement for wholesale violation of contracts, which would become necessary in order to carry the plan to its successful conclusion.

The moment the German agents in New York began to disclose their purpose, several cunning individuals who have had some slight connection with the contracts for supplying the Allies with various materials have deliberately put themselves in the path of these agents under the pretext that they already had contracts, or were about to be given contracts, and have already mulcted the German Government of many thousands of dollars.

In two specific cases men have talked of having contracts for picric acid--the manufacture of which necessitates the most skilled training, with most expensive and complicated machinery, and which is only being attempted in four places in this country, and were promptly paid off, on their pledge that they would violate these alleged agreements. One of these deals was made in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel last Saturday.

Another case, which is fully authenticated, is that of a Western dealer in horses, who delivered 1,500 horses to the port of New Orleans for the British Government last January. As soon as he ascertained what the German agents were doing, he produced his receipt for delivery of his first and only order, and declared he was now searching for 5,000 horses, in addition, for the British Government. On his pledge to abandon this search, he was given $2,500 by German agents.

The keen anxiety of the German Government, acting through the embassy in Washington, to deprive the Allies of any shipments of war materials that they can possibly stop is based on the result of calculations made in Berlin and forwarded to this country two weeks ago, which profess to show that the Allies cannot possibly arm their increasing forces or secure ammunition for their great numbers of large guns from their own resources, and that they must have the help of this country in order to accomplish their purpose. The German representatives also thoroughly believe that without this assistance the Allies cannot continue and complete an aggressive campaign, driving the Kaiser's armies out of Belgium and France.

_In_ THE NEW YORK TIMES _of June 9, 1915, appeared the following statement of counter-negotiations to checkmate the German operators in America:_

Negotiations for the purchase of arms and ammunition manufactories in this country have been under way for some little time, it is asserted, but so quietly have they been conducted that no hint of them became public until yesterday. Yet, coincident with their disclosure, came yesterday, also, announcement of a contract for the manufacture for the Allies of shrapnel and high explosive shells on the greatest scale yet undertaken by an American corporation, which revealed as could nothing else how carefully these supposedly secret dealings had been discovered, watched, and checkmated by the Allies.

This contract, all but the smallest details of which are said to be settled, is to be taken by the General Electric Company, directors of which admitted that the total involved would be at least $100,000,000 and might run far in excess of this figure. In fact, the order was spoken of as limited more by the capacity of the General Electric's plants than by any restricting order of the Allies.

The significance of this contract does not lie wholly, or even chiefly, in its size, for the American Locomotive Company recently closed a $65,000,000 contract with the Allies for shells. What is considered of especial note is that less than a week ago an official of the General Electric stated emphatically that his company had not taken any orders and was not negotiating for any despite the fact that for some time a proposal to specialize in war orders had been under consideration. Less than a week ago the company had reached a negative decision and less than a week ago there was no reason to suppose that it would rescind this decision.

J.P. Morgan & Co., fiscal agents for Great Britain and France in the matter of war supplies, then entered the field. Charles Steele, a partner in the banking house, is a Director of the General Electric Company and negotiations went forward rapidly. These were conducted with a secrecy which exceeded that even of the German interests with the other arms and ammunition companies, but there are several factors which, it is known, were of prime importance in effecting the General Electric's change of policy.

In the past much valuable time has been lost in the distribution of orders among a score or so of concerns which have had facilities for making shells, ordnance, and so forth. Competitive bidding for parts of contracts has held back the finished product and successful bidders have frequently been handicapped by inability to obtain necessary machinery.

Now plans for accelerating manufacture in all war lines have been launched by David Lloyd George, the new British Minister of Munitions, and in the shadow of his influence J.P. Morgan & Co. have practically brought to a conclusion plans to centre future war orders in a few great companies, with the General Electric Company as the dominant unit.

The extent to which the banking house used its tremendous influence is problematical, but it is history that Mr. Lloyd George has been bringing all pressure to bear to increase England's supplies, and with them the supplies of the remaining allies, since British purchasing agents are, to a large extent, looking after the interests of France and Russia, and it may be inferred that the Morgan firm has been as active as possible in carrying out the wishes of the European nations.

Persons in touch with the progress being made in war orders state that the British authorities have become greatly concerned over their supplies of ammunition at hand and in process of manufacture. While orders aggregating many hundreds of millions of dollars have been placed in this country and Canada, deliveries have been disappointing. Canadian plants got to work early in the war, but the delay in ordering supplies in the United States and other neutral countries has seriously affected the efficiency of the allied armies in France and Poland, it is said.

The experience of the American Locomotive Company is typical of the situation. After negotiations which covered several weeks, the company procured a contract which is said to amount to approximately $65,000,000 for shells. During the discussion of terms, and even before, the Locomotive officials were busy buying the necessary lathes and other machinery, but installation of equipment and the training of men could not be done in a few days. The contract was definitely closed six weeks ago, but the company has only begun to turn out the shells at its Richmond plant, and it was said in authoritative quarters that several weeks more would pass before anything like a substantial output would be possible.

The centring of manufacture in a single, or a few, great plants carries the additional and chief advantage to Great Britain and the Allies, that no efforts of Germany can now cut off their ammunition supply. The stoppage of this supply has been one of Germany's chief concerns since the war began, and by embargo propaganda here and by the attempt to create sentiment she has tried to cut down the supplies reaching the Allies from this country.

Well-founded gossip in Wall Street has had it that early rises in the stocks of munition-making concerns were occasioned not so much by the acquisition of war orders as by efforts of German agents quietly to buy up control of these companies in the open market. These devices failing, it is said, orders for ammunition and other supplies have been placed by Germany with no hope of receiving the goods, but merely to clog the channels against the Allies. With the General Electric and other co-operating companies pledged to the Allies this danger will cease to exist.

The concerns selected to join with the General Electric for what will thus amount practically to a combination of resources for rapid manufacture will be those whose equipment, with a few alterations, can be adapted to the new work.

The General Electric Company, according to a Director, is in a position to begin turning out shells at a high daily rate, and, under present plans, the company will not sublet any of the $100,000,000 order. There are facilities available in the plants at Schenectady, Lynn, Harrison, Pittsfield, and Fort Wayne to carry on the work rapidly and without interfering with the ordinary electrical manufacture now being conducted.

Wall Street offered one of the first evidences that things of moment were occurring in the war supply situation. Bethlehem Steel shot forward 10 points, to 165, a new high record, although Mr. Schwab's company was not mentioned in connection with fresh contracts.