Part 7

Turkey has been and is the tool of Germany, but Germany has permitted her on her own account to perpetrate massacres on the Armenian and Syrian Christians which renders it little short of an infamy now to remain at peace with her. It is hypocritical to express sympathy with the Armenians and appoint messages to be read in the churches about them and yet refuse to do the only thing that will permanently help them which is to declare war on Turkey.

With Austria our present relations are less definable than our relations with any other power. No one can truthfully say exactly whether our attitude is one of peace or war. We have not declared war on Austria and yet we are furnishing money, coal, and munitions to Italy in order to enable her to fight Austria. If we really are at peace with Austria, we are flagrantly violating our duty as a neutral and we ought to be condemned in any international court. But if we are really at war, then we are committing the cardinal crime of hitting soft. If we had gone to war with Austria when we broke with Germany and had acted with proper energy, the disaster to Cadorna would probably not have occurred.

We are now taking part in the general council of our allies. The only way in which to make our part in the war thoroughly effective and our leadership felt to the utmost is whole-heartedly to throw ourself into the war on the side of all our allies and against all their and our enemies.

THE GERMANIZED SOCIALISTS AND PEACE

NOVEMBER 26, 1917

The American Socialist party at the present time is a thoroughly Germanized annex of the Prussianized militaristic and capitalistic autocracy of the Hohenzollerns. Honest social reformers have left it. No patriotic American ought longer to stay in it. It is purely an aid to the capitalist and militarist Hohenzollern party of Germany. It is a bitter enemy of the United States and a traitor to the cause of liberty throughout the world. Its leaders are the supporters of an alien autocracy and are seeking to secure a peace which would immensely benefit this Prussian autocracy. They stand beside the Bolsheviki, whose antics have made Russia at this moment a by-word, both of derision and hope to every believer in despotism and every opponent of liberty throughout the world.

Any man who feels that there is the slightest exaggeration in the above statements would do well to read the articles in which the New York Tribune has recently set forth the connection of Mr. William Bayard Hale with the pro-German propaganda in this country, with the Hearst papers and with the Socialist campaign in New York on behalf of Mr. Hillquit and a peace satisfactory to Germany. These articles should be published in permanent form and circulated as a tract among all decent Americans who still believe that the Germanized Socialist party in America to-day is anything except the foe of America, the foe of democratic liberty throughout the world, and the tool and ally of the autocrats, the capitalists, and the brutal and unscrupulous military chiefs of the Prussianized Germany of the Hohenzollerns.

Exactly as the reactionary is in the end the worst foe of order; exactly as the conscienceless and greedy man of wealth is in the end the worst foe of property and of honest and duty-performing holders of property, so the Anarchist and the wild Socialist, whose doctrines when applied necessarily lead to Anarchy and the I.W.W., and the crack-brained professional pacifists inevitably themselves are the worst enemies of freedom, of true democracy, and of righteousness. It is natural that in this terrible and melancholy world crisis these men should have struck hands with the sordid tools of German intrigue in this country. The masters of Germany find all these men, whatever their nominal differences, united in the evil bond of a common subserviency to German purposes. The German rulers, who at home trample on the Socialists and dragoon the labor organizations and bully the leader of democratic thought, cynically profit by aiding in other countries the men who in the name of social reform seek to overthrow orderly liberty and thereby show themselves the sinister allies of tyranny and despotism.

MOBILIZE OUR MAN POWER

DECEMBER 1, 1917

It has been announced from Washington that, in view of the shortage of labor on the farms, there will be an effort in Congress to permit the importation for temporary use on the farms of Chinese coolies. I do not believe the effort will be successful, and if it were successful it would be one of the greatest calamities that could befall the American people.

Never under any condition should this Nation look at an immigrant as primarily a labor unit. He should always be looked at primarily as a future citizen and the father of other citizens who are to live in this land as fellows with our children and our children’s children. Our immigration laws, permanent or temporary, should always be constructed with this fact in view. No temporary advantages from the importation of Chinese coolies would offset the far-reaching ultimate damage it would cause.

Neither ought we to approve the plan, sometimes set forth by zealous and high-minded men, to get the Government to open up vast tracts of land and farm it with wage labor. This is a proposal to substitute a wage-earning agricultural proletariat for a farming population which owns the land it tills. It is a move in exactly the wrong direction. We ought by law to do everything possible to put a stop to the growth of an absentee landlord class and of huge estates worked by tenant farmers. Methods identical with or similar to those advocated by me, in my recent book, “The Foes of Our Own Household,” point the way to the proper permanent solution of the question.

As a war measure, rather than adopt either of the proposals above enumerated, let us deal boldly with the situation created by the existence of such vast numbers of men in good physical condition, who are not being utilized. The best war asset and labor asset in this country is the mass of young men from eighteen to twenty-one. This draft law explicitly and unjustifiably excepts this class, although in the Civil War most of the soldiers entered the army when they were under twenty-one. Let us proclaim as our policy that while this war lasts no man shall be excused from doing the full duty which the Nation finds it necessary to demand from him. Make all the young men from eighteen to twenty-one immediately liable to service, permit no exceptions for any men, no matter how wealthy, who are not already in the army. Use as many of the men thus taken as are necessary to fill the camps when the present drafted men of the national army leave them. Use all the others, and use these men, too, until the camps are ready for them, as labor which the Nation shall mobilize for farm work or any other work which it is imperative to do, and mobilize all the alien labor now in the country in similar fashion.

THE LANSDOWNE LETTER

DECEMBER 2, 1917

Lord Lansdowne’s proposal is for a peace of defeat for the Allies and of victory for Germany. Such a peace would leave oppressed peoples under the yoke of Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria. Such a peace would leave the liberty-loving nations of mankind at the ultimate mercy of the triumphant militarism and capitalism of the German autocracy.

It merely makes such a peace worse to try to hide the shame of the defeat behind the empty pretense of forging a league of nations, including Germany, to secure future peace. Such a peace would mean that Germany saw her unspeakable brutality and treachery crowned by essential triumph and therefore would put a premium upon her repeating the brutality and treachery at the earliest convenient moment. It is mere hypocrisy to promise to put a stop to wrongdoing in the future unless we are willing to undergo the labor and peril necessary to stop wrongdoing in the present. In our own country nothing but harm was done by the worthy persons who, a couple of years ago, formed a league to enforce peace in the future, while at the same time they nervously declared that they would have nothing to do with enforcing peace by stopping international wrong in the present. Lord Lansdowne’s proposal to hide the admission of present defeat behind the camouflage of pretended international peace agreements for the future is unworthy of his distinguished services and reputation.

Our people ought never to forget that Germany respects nothing but strength and the readiness and ability to use it. Germany has made a fetish of able brutality. She regards with utter derision the pacifists and pro-Germans in this country. She will use them as her tools and pay them when necessary, but if through this aid she was able to conquer this country after previously separating us from our allies, she would with utter indifference break these tools and throw them on the scrap-heap with the rest of the American people.

There is but one safe course to follow, and that is to fight this war through to victory at no matter what cost. This Nation should declare war on Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria, this week. Let us definitely announce that our aims include restoring and indemnifying Belgium, giving back Alsace and Lorraine to France, creating a Poland which shall include all the Poles and a greater Bohemia and a great Jugo-Slav commonwealth and restoring Rumanian Hungary to Rumania, and Italian Austria to Italy, and driving the Turk from Europe and freeing Armenia and Syria and Arabia. After victory let us join in any arrangement to increase the likelihood of future international peace, but let us treat this as an addition to, and never as a substitute for, the preparedness which is the only sure guarantee against either war or measureless disaster. Therefore let us at once introduce as our permanent national policy the system of universal obligatory military training of all our young men.

THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

DECEMBER 5, 1917

The President has in admirable language set forth the firm resolve of the American people that the war shall be fought through to the end until it is crowned by the peace of complete victory. He states unequivocally that our task is to win the war, that nothing shall turn us aside from it until it is accomplished, and that every power and resource we possess will be used to achieve this purpose. He states that there shall be no peace until the war is won. He says that this peace must deliver, not only Belgium and Northern France, but the peoples of Austria-Hungary, of the Balkan Peninsula, and of Turkey in Europe and Asia from “the impudent and alien dominion of the Prussian military and commercial autocracy.” He emphatically states that we have no purpose to wrong the German people or subject them to oppression, but merely to prevent others from being oppressed by them. He states that if Germany persists in adherence to her present rulers and their policies, it will be impossible, even after the war, to treat her as other nations are treated, but that, although we intend to right the wrongs inflicted by Germany on other nations, we have no intention to inflict similar wrongs on Germany in return. He says that the mind of the Russian people has been poisoned by the rulers of Germany, exactly as the latter have poisoned the minds of their own people.

To all of this the heart of the American people will answer a devout amen. The message is a solemn pledge on behalf of this Nation that we shall use every energy we possess to win the war, and that we shall accept no peace not based on the complete overthrow of Germany. The American people must now devote themselves with grim resolution and whole-hearted purpose to the effective translation of this pledge into action, for, of course, the sole value of such a promise lies in the manner in which it is actually made good. The people must back the Government in every step to carry into effect this pledge and must tolerate no failure in any official charged with the duty of carrying it into effect.

I shall shortly discuss the proposals of the President in reference to Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria. But in this editorial I wish merely, as one among the countless Americans to whom the honor and welfare and high ideals of America are dear, to say amen to the President’s expressed purpose to wage this war through to the end with all our strength and to accept no peace save that of complete victory.

FOUR BITES OF A CHERRY

DECEMBER 7, 1917

In his recent message to Congress President Wilson stated that in order “to push our great war of freedom and justice to its righteous conclusion we must clear away with a thorough hand all impediments to success,” and added, “The very embarrassing obstacle that stands in our way is that we are at war with Germany, but not with her allies.” He recommended that we declare war on Austria, and added, “The same logic would lead also to a declaration of war against Turkey and Bulgaria.” But inferentially and for reasons not apparent he advised against such action.

The President is entirely right in stating that our failure hitherto to declare war on the allies of Germany has been a very embarrassing obstacle to our success, and he is entirely right in advising a declaration of war against Austria. Incidentally I wish to point out that this is precisely what I insisted upon in these columns two months ago, and what I had elsewhere advocated six months ago, and it is worth while remembering that the Administration papers then assailed me for urging the course which, although there has not been the slightest change in the situation, the President now urges.

There was no justification whatever for failure to declare war on Austria when we declared war on Germany, and there is now no justification for failure to declare war on Bulgaria and Turkey when we declare war on Austria. There is no use in making four bites of a cherry. There is no use in going to war a little, but not much. The President has sent a message pledging support to Rumania, but it is worse than an empty form to send such a message unless we forthwith declare war on Bulgaria. The President has appointed a Sunday for the special expression of sympathy with Armenia, but such expression of sympathy is utterly meaningless unless we go to war with Turkey. The Austro-Hungarian and Turkish empires must be broken up if we intend to make the world even moderately safe for democracy. There must be a revived Poland, taking in all the Poles of Austria, Prussia, and Russia; a greater Bohemia, taking in Moravia and the Slovaks; a great Jugo-Slav commonwealth, including Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, while the Rumanians in Hungary should become part of Rumania and the Italians in Austria part of Italy. The Turk must be driven from Europe and Christian and Arab freed. Only in this manner can we do justice to the subject peoples tyrannized over by the Germans, Magyars, and Turks. Only in this way can we remove the menace of German aggression, which has become a haunting nightmare for all civilizations, especially in the case of small, well-behaved, liberty-loving peoples.

By declaring war on Germany’s allies we do not commit ourselves to asking anything that is not just for our own allies. But by failing to declare war on Germany’s allies we are ourselves guilty of injustice to our own allies.

THE RED CROSS CHRISTMAS MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

DECEMBER 12, 1917

Next week, the week before Christmas, the Red Cross wishes to add ten million new members to the five million members it already possesses. Last June the Red Cross War Council asked the people of the United States to raise one hundred millions of dollars for Red Cross work, and the people responded by raising one hundred and nineteen millions. The purpose now is to increase threefold its membership.

This is the people’s war. All people should, so far as possible, share the burden and the glory. The whole fighting manhood of the Nation, without any exception save in the interest of the Nation, should be trained to arms and made ready for the front. The Liberty Loans should be taken by every one so that the bondholders of the Nation may be the people of the Nation, and now this Red Cross membership campaign is one more Nation-wide effort to bring home to all our people their obligations to this country and to suffering humanity.

We must realize that every single individual in this country is derelict to his duty unless according to his capacity he does his part in helping organize for the war. Individual effort alone will not avail and Germany’s strength has come from her keen realization of this fact. We must have an organized Nation, both at the front and at home. There can be no organization without discipline, and the Red Cross is one of the great agencies through which we can make progress toward such self-discipline.

The Red Cross does not ask for the new members primarily because of the money they bring. The money will do great good, for the need is pressing; but even more important than the money will be the effect if on Christmas morning the Red Cross can flash around the world the news that ten million more Americans have joined its ranks and thereby put themselves unqualifiedly behind our army and navy.

The Red Cross has done an extraordinary work abroad and is doing an extraordinary work at home. Abroad it is in every way supplementing the army and navy medical corps in Europe and is accumulating enormous hospital supplies for the use of our soldiers and sailors. It has sent over a million dollars in money and stores to Italy. It is giving both military and civilian relief in France. It is supplying over thirty-five hundred French military hospitals and two thousand French civil hospitals with surgical dressings, drugs, and supplies. It is helping to care for half a million tuberculosis victims and restore a million and a half French refugees to normal life. At home it is helping to care for the dependent families of our soldiers and sailors. It has organized fifty-seven army and navy base hospitals, over a dozen of which have already been sent to France. Its useful activities in different lines are well-nigh innumerable.

This is the work the Red Cross has done and is doing for America and the world. Now let all Americans in their turn stand by the Red Cross and help in its Christmas membership drive.

BEING BRAYED IN A MORTAR

DECEMBER 18, 1917

President Wilson speaks in military matters through his Secretary of War. The sole importance of the Secretary of War’s report comes from its being the official declaration of the President. I discuss it as such.

According to the reports in the New York World, the Secretary of War states that “he does not favor universal military training as a permanent policy.” Mr. Wilson’s secretary, therefore, takes what is in effect the position of Mr. Bryan, which was picturesquely phrased as being that a million men can at need spring to arms overnight. The Administration’s attitude is less picturesquely expressed, but it is precisely as futile and as unspeakably mischievous from a standpoint of permanent national interest. Moreover, it is taken at the very time when the disastrous effect of the Administration’s policy of complete unpreparedness is being shown by the admissions of General Crozier on the first day of the congressional investigation. Mr. Baker’s report, Mr. Bryan’s theory, and the things already shown by the congressional investigation dovetail into one another. They stand in the relation of cause and effect. The Administration now officially and complacently announces that the policy which at this very moment has proved disastrous is to be persevered in for the future, therefore assumes complete responsibility for every blunder and delay, and for all the misconduct, and announces that these blunders and delays and all this misconduct have taught us nothing, and that we are to amble onward in the same futile path until disaster overtakes. Mr. Wilson’s Administration officially declares that we shall persist in our own folly until we are brayed in the mortar of dreadful calamity.

If the Administration frankly and manfully acknowledged its evil errors in the past and championed a policy which would prevent the repetition of these errors in the future, I would think only of the future and not of the past, but now it is necessary to emphasize the past in order to avoid disaster in the future.

We are in the eleventh month since Germany went to war with us. We have not yet built an aeroplane fit to match the speedy battle planes of our foes. We have not built a heavy field gun; on the contrary, we have had to draw on burdened friends to give us artillery. In the training camps of the national army the artillery regiments still have about ten wooden guns for every old field piece, and they have none of the modern guns they are to use in the war. There are rifles only for every third or fourth man. Until ten months had elapsed there was no target practice save for a few specially selected units. The troops still have only wooden machine guns and the trench mortars they themselves improvise.

Until ten months had elapsed they lacked even the necessary warm clothing. They have endured entirely needless suffering and hardship. Our troops in France have received thousands of coffins, but an insufficient number of shoes. At this moment not more than one tenth of our soldiers, taken altogether, are fit to go to battle. Nine tenths of our gallant and fine-spirited men are still without the training, arms, and equipment that would permit them to meet any trained foes. After ten months of war and the expenditure of huge sums of money, we are still absolutely unable to defend ourselves and owe our own safety only to the fleets and armies of our war-worn allies.

This condition is due solely and entirely to the policy of unpreparedness to which the Administration adhered for two and one half years when even the blind ought to have read the lesson of the great war. The Administration now announces that we are not to alter this policy and that we are to continue the do-nothing policy of refusing to help. If the American people follow the lead thus given them, they will be guilty of criminal folly.

RENDERING A GREAT PUBLIC SERVICE

DECEMBER 20, 1917

Senator Chamberlain has rendered a public service by presenting the bill to provide universal obligatory military training for all the young men of the Nation. Senator Wadsworth has rendered a public service by pushing the senatorial investigation of our lamentable military unpreparedness. Congressman Medill McCormick has rendered a public service by showing that we have heavily burdened our war-worn ally, France, by demanding from her the guns which it was inexcusable in us not previously to have built.

These three services all hang together. Senator Chamberlain’s proposal is to supplant selective conscription after war has begun by universal service, which would probably mean the avoidance of war altogether. It was grave misfortune that at the outset of this war we did not call for a million volunteers and at the same time put all the young men between nineteen and twenty-two into the training camps. There has been some very gross favoritism in granting exemption and, moreover, the men between twenty-two and thirty-one include a high percentage of married men and of others who ought not to go to war at present. This unwise, wasteful, and inefficient system should not be patched up. The Nation sorely needs, both as a war measure and as a permanent policy, the immediate introduction of universal military training and service for all our young men as proposed above.