Chapter 2

It is true that since the war began much of our news has come through cables controlled by the Allies; but Americans have too much common sense to accept such reports as final. News from biassed sources is always accepted with reservation, and not fully believed unless confirmed from independent sources. Furthermore, Americans have never lacked for first-hand information from Germany. Direct wireless reports from your country to several stations in America have given us a valuable check on cable reports. German papers come to us regularly, and are continually and extensively quoted. Germany has sent special agents to this country to represent her side of every issue. The speeches and writings of these agents have been published repeatedly and at length in almost every paper in our country from the Atlantic to the Pacific. American correspondents in Germany and in the war-zone have told as much as your censors would permit concerning what they saw of Germany and Germany's army. Many Americans have returned from Germany during the war, and have published their experiences and impressions. Some of them have seen your army at work, suffered from its inhumanity, and been subjected to outrages and indignities by the civil officials of your Government. Others were dined and honoured as notable guests and given unusual opportunities for seeing as much as your officials wanted them to see. Both have offered valuable first-hand testimony as to the behaviour of the German nation at war. Your university professors and other prominent citizens of your country have written us circular and private letters without number, presenting Germany's arguments in every conceivable form. Your Ambassador and other officials of your Government have been most active in keeping first-hand information before the American public. Thousands of your reservists, unable to cross the sea in safety, remain in this country to talk and write in behalf of their Fatherland.

In addition to all this, Germany's cause has been most vigorously championed by many Germans and German-Americans long resident in America. Münsterberg and others have published numerous articles and books in Germany's favour. Every possible plea to justify Germany's position has been enthusiastically spread abroad by the German-American press, and with that love of "fair play" which is a widely-recognised characteristic of Americans, even those papers which believe Germany responsible for the war and its worst horrors, have printed volumes of material from pro-German authors in order that the whole truth might be known by a full and free discussion of both sides of every question. I have read many pro-German articles in the _New York Times_, the _New York Sun_, the _Outlook_, and other papers and magazines opposed to German policy--articles by Münsterberg, Kuno Franke, Von Bernstorff, Dernburg, and other staunch defenders of Germany. The columns of our papers are freely open to every authoritative champion of the German cause, no matter what the editorial policy of the papers may be. Never was fuller and freer opportunity for defence accorded to anyone than has been given to the friends of Germany to present in print to the American public every possible justification for Germany's acts. Only the grossest ignorance of the actual facts could ever lead anyone to make the charge in good faith that the truth about Germany has been concealed from Americans. Your letter did not contain a single statement or argument that has not been printed over and over again in papers from one end of America to the other by various defenders of the German cause. Germany's official documents issued in defence of her position at the beginning of the war, her charges of atrocities against her enemies and her supposed proofs of the falsity of atrocity charges against the Germans, have all been published fully and widely, although you seem not to be aware of this fact.

Still further, in addition to the legitimate publicity in favour of Germany related above, there has been forced upon the American public the most stupendous propaganda which the world has ever witnessed. Millions of dollars have been spent by German agents in a colossal endeavour to shape public opinion. America has been literally deluged with leaflets, pamphlets, books, articles, and advertisements, subsidised by these propagandists. Money has been lavishly spent in every form of appeal which might be expected to turn American sentiment against the Allies and in favour of the Teutons. Contributions have been widely solicited to finance this propaganda, and one of my colleagues in Columbia is among those bearing German names who, in published letters, have refused to support this moneyed campaign, engineered by German agents. Strikes have been organised in our factories, newspapers have been subsidised, labour orators have been employed to incite trouble, all with gold supplied from Teutonic sources. Ambassador Dumba was forced to leave this country because of the capture of secret letters revealing plots to organise strikes in our munitions factories, to buy up orators to incite workmen to discontent, and to pay newspapers for advancing the German propaganda. For all of this the Austrian Government was to supply the necessary funds. German spies now in our prisons have admitted that they were sent here by high German officials and provided with ample supplies of money to engage in secret plots against our neutrality with the object of stopping munition shipments. German officials in this country have admitted handling millions of dollars in illegal operations carried on in defiance of our laws and in insolent disregard of international diplomatic courtesy. Our courts have convicted and sentenced to 18 months' penal servitude three high German officials of the Hamburg-American Steamship Line for a conspiracy to help German warships in defiance of our laws. These officials admitted spending nearly two million dollars of German gold in this illegal work. Our detectives estimate that German authorities have spent twenty-seven million dollars in America alone to influence us against the Allies, to stir up trouble against us in labour circles, and to foment a revolution in Mexico to our embarrassment. Our Government asked that the German Military and Naval Attaches be removed from this country because of their insolent violations of our neutrality, by activities in connection with which they handled immense sums of German gold for the propaganda to influence us against England and in favour of Germany.

For every pamphlet, paper, or article sent to me by English, French, Russian, and Italian organisations I get several dozen from German organisations. I get but a few circulars a month from Allied countries. Not a week passes that I do not receive many from German sources. America has been flooded with German propagandist literature; very little ever comes from other countries. Full-page advertisements, paid by German agents, have appeared repeatedly in American papers, urging the merits of Germany's case. I have never seen one on behalf of the Allies. All over New York City, before I left for my summer vacation, were giant posters on the billboards, put there by a pro-German society, urging the people to ask President Wilson to stop the exportation of arms to Germany's enemies. I have never seen one poster of any kind put up by friends of the Allies. Indeed, America has been so deluged with German propaganda and German-paid advertisements, and requests for money to carry on the propaganda in favour of Germany, that the whole nation has become heartily sick of it, and has urged the Government to expel from the country some of your agents who have been particularly offensive in carrying on such a propaganda among our citizens. German gold, not English gold, has been lavishly used to influence American opinion. Our Government has had to employ a special detective force to discover and destroy the many plots in which German and Austrian gold has been lavishly used to influence opinion and action in America; and from other neutral countries comes abundant evidence that the same stupendous propaganda, to turn opinion and action in favour of Germany, has been carried on everywhere, with an audacity and utter disregard of cost which has astonished the world. In the face of such facts as these the German outcry against "English gold" has seemed wholly insincere, and little less than ridiculous.

Finally, American opinion has been based more than all else on Germany's official communications, directly addressed to our Government, on certain acts which Germany has admitted, and on the nature of the defence and excuses offered by the German Government in palliation of those acts. You must not forget that the many lengthy notes addressed by your Government to Americans have been published in full in American papers. The outcry against English gold, against cable dispatches altered by the English, and against corrupt newspaper publishers cannot be raised in connection with diplomatic correspondence transmitted direct to your Ambassador here. This authentic, official correspondence has given us an excellent measure of the standards of morality and humanity which actuate the present German Government. Our opinion of Germany has been profoundly influenced by these official documents.

Germany has committed certain acts which are freely admitted by your Government. A nation, like a man, is judged by its deeds. After all excuses and explanations are made, the deeds remain. Americans have read the excuses and the explanations fully and repeatedly; and with these excuses and explanations in mind have formed an opinion of the power responsible for the deeds. No English gold, no manipulated cable dispatches can have had anything to do with that opinion. The deeds themselves have been the supreme force in shaping American opinion of Germany. Germany has defended the many acts which have brought down upon her the contempt and opprobrium of the entire civilised world. As you well know, one of the best tests of a man's morals is the kind of a defence he offers for his acts. Americans have read most carefully the many defences offered by your Chancellor, your Minister of Foreign Affairs, your Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, your official spokesmen sent to this country, and your Ambassador here; and in the notes sent officially and directly to our Government by your Government. We have formed an opinion of the moral standards of the Government which makes and approves of such defences.

I believe you must, in sincerity and frankness, admit that the American public has had many sources of information open to it in forming its opinions about Germany. Indeed, with a free press, a large German population absolutely free from censorship or restrictions of any kind, and a Government which does not need to suppress facts for military or political reasons, we are in a far better position to learn the whole truth about Germany than are the German people themselves.

III.

Having outlined some of the many sources of information upon which Americans have relied in forming their opinions of Germany and her actions in this war, I now will state what the American opinion is in regard to some of the vital issues which have been raised. In doing this, I will not endeavour to explain that opinion, to criticise it, nor to defend it. Neither will I give you my personal opinion on the several points, for my own personal opinion is of slight consequence when we are discussing the attitude of an entire nation. If you desire, I will be glad to tell you, on some other occasion, just how far my own opinions coincide with the collective opinion of the country at large, and just where I differ from that opinion. My object at present is simply to interpret American opinion to you as it exists to-day. When I say "American opinion," I mean, of course, the opinion of the vast majority of our people. A significant proportion of the German-born population and a very small proportion of native Americans (usually those married to Germans or otherwise connected with Germany) disagree with the opinions cited. But over 90 per cent. of our population may safely be said to hold the views described as "American" below.

In the first place, Americans, in general, make a distinction between the German Government and the German people. They realise that certain features of the Prussianised Government have never appealed favourably to the Bavarians, the Saxons, and other elements of the German population. I do not mean by this that Americans believe any part of Germany is disloyal to the Government. On the contrary, they believe the German people as a whole are supporting the Government and its acts with devotion, and that, therefore, the German people as a whole are responsible for whatever acts the Government commits. But Americans recognise the reality of Prussian leadership in the policy of your country. They do not believe the German people wanted the war; but they do believe the military Government, under Prussian control, wanted the war, planned for it with infinite skill and efficiency for many years, and brought it about when they believed the time was ripe.

Americans have no doubt whatever that the insolent ultimatum to Servia was delivered for the purpose of provoking war, and that Austria would never have dared send it were it not for the fact that the German Government "assured her a free hand" in advance, as has been officially admitted by your Government. The fact that Austria refused to make public the full evidence on which she based her accusations against the Servian Government, added to the fact that she made these accusations after a secret investigation in which the defendant had no representation, has shocked not only America but the entire world; and has convinced the world, as a whole, that Austria and Germany were more guilty of wrongdoing than was Servia.

Americans have studied carefully the official documents issued by the different Governments concerning the origin of the war, and have had the advantage of seeing all the papers which each has published. The official papers issued by England, Germany, France, Austria, and the other Governments have been printed in full in pamphlet form, and have been eagerly studied by the whole nation. Edition after edition has been exhausted by a people eagerly seeking to learn the truth. In Germany there has been no such eagerness to learn the truth by careful, critical study of the official sources of information, and leading Germans have regretfully admitted that too many of the German people were content to accept their Government's statements as the truth, without attempting to use their own intelligence in the matter. In the opinion of Americans the official documents, and especially the admissions made by your Government in its attempted defence, prove that the German Government forced the war in order to satisfy the ambitions of the military party which has long been in control. When you have a chance to read certain documents which your Government does not let you read now, you can form an impartial judgment as to whether or not Americans and the other neutral peoples have been unjust in deciding that Germany is responsible for the war. Until that time you will, of course, feel that the judgment of the world does your country a terrible wrong. The Government which caused the war is not going to let its people read things which would shake their confidence, and cause them to weaken in their support of the war!

If Germany really exercised a moderating influence at Vienna, and strove to avert the war, the State papers exchanged between Berlin and Vienna would clearly prove this, if published. Germany has every reason to publish those papers and prove her sincerity, if she tried to prevent the war. On the other hand, both Germany and Austria have every reason to keep those papers secret if they were jointly planning the war. They have kept the papers secret. Not one word of the vital correspondence between the two Teutonic capitals has ever been made public. Even your own people are entirely ignorant as to what exchanges really took place in the critical days preceding the declarations of war. You only know, and the world only knows, that Germany made the vague general assertion that she was "exercising a moderating influence at Vienna." You can hardly expect the world to believe such a vague generality when the documents which would prove its truth or falsity are carefully suppressed. Why are they suppressed? Americans, in common with the rest of the world, are convinced that your Government does not dare publish them because it would prove the guilt of Germany more conclusively than do the admissions contained in papers already made public.

It is the practically universal opinion, not only in America, but in other neutral countries as well, that the repeated excuses and shifty evasions by which Berlin rejected every plan for mediation, arbitration, or any other programme which would tend toward a peaceful solution of the crisis, combined with Berlin's acknowledgment that "a free hand was assured" to Austria, and the further fact that all correspondence between Berlin and Vienna is carefully suppressed, are amply sufficient to convince any fair-minded, unprejudiced man that the Berlin Government is primarily responsible for the war. The fact that Germany has for years published a voluminous war literature, has taught her people to think and live in terms of war, and was fully prepared with enormous reserves of materials when war came; whereas the Allied countries were notoriously unprepared and in no condition to ward off the first blows of a surprise attack, to say nothing of fighting an offensive campaign, is generally considered enough to create a strong presumption that Germany and not the Allies wanted war. The official correspondence of the _ante-bellum_ days is full of suggestions for arbitration, mediation, and other plans to preserve the peace, coming from the Allied countries. Americans have searched in vain for a single plan for a peaceful solution coming from Germany. On the contrary, your own version of the negotiations shows only a persistent rejection by Berlin of every peace plan, and a dogged determination to support Vienna in her assault on Servia--an assault which, following the robbery of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria under Germany's protection, could not be endured by a civilised world, and was, therefore, certain to cause war.

When Servia, urged by the Allies to yield as much as possible in order to prevent war, acceded to eight out of ten of Austria's humiliating demands and agreed to arbitrate the two involving her national sovereignty, the world saw that the Allied countries did not want war, and were willing to suffer great humiliation for the sake of preventing it. Americans do not consider that any fair-minded man possessed of ordinary commonsense can honestly believe that nations seeking to provoke war with Germany would have urged their _protégé_ to make a humiliating surrender to insolent and unjust demands. If there were any truth in the assertion that the Allies were trying to force war on Germany, they would have advised Servia to resist, not to yield. When Austria, backed by Germany, declared war on Servia, despite Servia's abject and complete surrender on eight points and willingness to arbitrate the other two, there no longer existed outside of Germany and Austria the slightest doubt that Germany was forcing the war to achieve the aggrandisement which has been taught for years in your country as the natural destiny of Germany.

Germany's guilt in forcing the war is recognised not only by Americans and other neutral peoples, but by hundreds of thousands of Germans who live in neutral countries and thus have a chance to learn more of the truth than is possible in the belligerent countries. Germans who were in Germany when the war broke out, but who have since come to America, have told me personally that, after learning the whole truth, they can no longer doubt Germany's responsibility for the catastrophe. Germans who have left here to go back and fight for the Fatherland admitted to me in private conversation that they knew Germany forced the war, and that the Kaiser and the Prussian military party were alone to blame. I know Germans who are liberally supporting the Allied cause because they believe the defeat of Prussianism is essential to a civilised Germany. Even your rigid censorship has not prevented our receipt of occasional letters from Germans, in which they admit the uncertainty of Germany's claim that the Allies forced the war. A considerable element of independent thinkers in Germany have had the wisdom to realise the perfectly obvious truth that no Government is willing to admit responsibility for the war, and that therefore your Government's assertion that it did not start the present conflagration can carry no weight until the whole truth is revealed to the German people, and they are thus given the opportunity to form an intelligent judgment, like men, instead of being forced to believe mere assertions and partial evidence, like children. To-day you believe in the innocence of the Prussian military power; but few people in the rest of the world doubt its guilt. Tomorrow, when the war is over, and you can get an outside view of the whole question, you will have the chance to form an intelligent judgment as to what nation History will for ever record as the one guilty of this fearful crime against humanity.

The violation of Belgian neutrality shocked Americans as it did the rest of the civilised world, and turned the tide of sentiment against Germany more strongly than ever. Americans are practically unanimous in regarding the belated excuses of your Government, to the effect that Belgian neutrality was already violated by the Allies, as mere clumsy subterfuges, trumped up to stem the terrible tide of universal condemnation heaped upon Germany for this crime against an innocent people. Nothing that any German can ever say or write will efface from the memory of the world the uncontrovertible fact that your Chancellor officially admitted your country's guilt in this matter. "The wrong--I speak openly, gentlemen--the wrong we have done Belgium will be righted when our military ends are accomplished." In these words your Chancellor blundered out a truth which has for ever silenced all your apologists for the crime. American opinion considers it discreditable and futile to invent charges against French soldiers on Belgian soil and French aviators flying over Belgian territory; and to try to make out a case in defence of Germany--when your Chancellor has officially admitted Germany's guilt. Americans have no doubt that on the basis of the well-known facts of the case, supplemented by your Chancellor's admission of guilt, History will for ever record Germany's brutal disregard of her treaty obligations and her murderous assault on a small, innocent nation as one of the most terrible crimes ever committed by a nation claiming to rank high among civilised peoples.