s 
 
 (Jermanj 
 
 x. O/ 
 
 
 
 ill 
 
 <^^^ c 
 
What is the German Nation 
 Dying For? 
 
What is the German Nation 
 Dying For? 
 
 By 
 
 Karl Liudwig Krause 
 
 Translated from the German by 
 Adele Szold Seltzer 
 
 New York 
 
 Boni and Liveright 
 1918 
 
Copyright, 1918 
 By BONI & LIVERIGHT, INC. 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
PUBLISHER'S PREFACE 
 
 THE greater part of "What is the German 
 Nation Dying For?" was written while the au- 
 thor was in Germany, and some of the chapters 
 after he had taken refuge in Switzerland, the 
 whole covering a period from as early as 1916 
 to a recent date. 
 
 It is remarkable with what clearness of vision 
 and confidence Karl Ludwig Krause foresaw the 
 final outcome of the war as events are now shap- 
 ing themselves. Though a German himself, he 
 maintained from the very start that a complete 
 military defeat of his own country was needed 
 for the good of the world and of the German 
 people themselves, whom he does not divorce 
 from their government in responsibility for the 
 war. 
 
 He says that the Germans lost once for all at 
 the 1914 Battle of the Marne and might as well 
 have admitted defeat then and there, since the 
 world would never permit Germany's triumph 
 or the realization of her war aims, which he 
 denounces as deadly to progress, civilization 
 and humanity. 
 
 5 
 
 382819 
 
6 PUBLISHER'S PREFACE 
 
 The entrance of America into the war filled 
 Krause with intense joy, and he hailed it as the 
 fulfillment of his prophecy that the world would 
 not allow Prussian militarism to triumph. In a 
 manifesto dated Geneva, June 28, 1918, and ap- 
 pearing in the Freie Zeitung of Berne, Swit- 
 zerland, which he signed in behalf of all the dem- 
 ocratic elements of Germany and which is the 
 latest expression we have from him, he writes 
 that the sole responsibility for the war rests 
 upon the autocratic and military rulers of Ger- 
 many and Austria, that they alone are answer- 
 able for the prolongation of the war, that a re- 
 public must be established in Germany, and that 
 the way to the overthrow of kaiserism can be 
 paved only by a complete military defeat of 
 Germany. 
 
 The manifesto concludes with the following: 
 ' ' Thanks to the big-hearted, unselfish entry of 
 the American nation into the war . . . and 
 thanks to President Wilson's far-sighted policy, 
 dictated by the most humane motives, our demo- 
 cratic war aims for Germany will be achieved. 
 And if all signs do not deceive, the military de- 
 feat is nearer than seemed possible only a very 
 short time ago." 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK 
 
 II. MOBILIZATION 
 
 III. "Now WE'LL GIVE 'En A LICKING" 
 
 IV. MONARCHY OR DEMOCRACY? . 
 V. GERMAN BARBARIANS? 
 
 VI. HERR HELFFERICH .... 
 
 VII. HUNGER 
 
 VIII. ORGANIZATION 
 
 IX. THE LUSITANIA .... 
 
 X. THE CAUSE OF THE WAR 
 
 XL THE OPTIMIST 
 
 XII. NATIONALISM 
 
 XIII. SECRET DIPLOMACY .... 
 
 XIV. "I RECOGNIZE No PARTIES ANY MORE" 
 
 XV. PRUSSIA'S FOREIGN POLICY 
 
 XVI. NATIONAL HYSTERIA 
 
 XVII. LIBERTY 
 
 XVilL "Go FOR THE ENEMY!" . 
 
 XIX. ZABERN 
 
 XX? FLUNKEY SOULS .... 
 
 XXL THE "GREAT TIME" 
 
 XXII. WHY THE GERMANS ARE DISLIKED 
 
 XXIII. THE BEST JOKE OF THE WAR 
 
 XXIV. "GOTT STRAFE ENGLAND!" 
 
 7 
 
 FACE 
 11 
 
 23 
 
 28 
 
 30 
 
 40 
 
 44 
 
 50 
 
 53 
 
 58 
 
 60 
 
 82 
 
 88 
 
 97 
 
 102 
 
 105 
 
 115 
 
 119 
 
 126 
 
 133 
 
 138 
 
 141 
 
 146 
 
 158 
 
 160 
 
8 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XXV. THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND 
 
 THE WAR 164 
 
 XXVI. VICTORY, VICTORY ! 176 
 
 XXVII. LlEBKNECHT 180 
 
 XXVIII. SWEEP BEFORE YOUR OWN DOOR . . 184 
 
 XX^X. THE PAN-GERMANS 189 
 
 XXX. THE CENSORSHIP 194 
 
 XXXI. PRUSSIAN MILITARISM .... 201 
 
 XXXII. ASININITIES 206 
 
 XXXIII. BLUFF! 210 
 
 XXXIV. QUELLE BETISE 222 
 
 XXXV. CONCERNING THE PRUSSIAN SPIRIT , 229 
 
 XXXVI. ENGLAND'S STARVING-OUT OF GERMANY. 235 
 
 XXXVII. RACE HATRED 240 
 
 XXXVIII. OF THE BIRD THAT FOULS ITS OWN NEST. 245 
 
 XXXIX. THE CRASH 250 
 
 XL. WERE THE PEACE PROPOSALS SINCERE? , 259 
 
 XLI. VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG . . . 273 
 
 XLII. MUNCHNER NEUESTE NACHRICHTEN . 277 
 
 XLIII. WHAT Is THE OBSTACLE TO PEACE? . 282 
 
 XLIV. THE ASSASSINATION IN SERAJEVO . . 287 
 
 XLV. FORCING PEACE 293 
 
 XL VI. THE RECKONING 300 
 
What is the German Nation 
 Dying For? 
 
WHAT IS THE GERMAN 
 NATION DYING FOR? 
 
 WHY I WROTE THIS BOOK 
 
 AFTER the utter consternation of the first days of 
 the war passed, a feeling awoke in me that a great 
 wrong had been committed. 
 
 The dogs of war had been let loose. German 
 armies were in Belgium! In a country with which 
 Germany had had no differences and which had done 
 Germany no harm. I could not share in the general 
 rejoicing over the assault on Belgium and the achieve- 
 ments of our 42-centimetre guns. It seemed to me a 
 matter of course that Germany should be able to 
 beat down a small, defenseless nation like the Belgian. 
 
 The German government was forthcoming with ex- 
 planations and excuses; but these only served to ac- 
 centuate my feeling that a very great wrong had been 
 committed, that a contract solemnly sworn to had 
 been violated, that the honor of all mankind had 
 
 11 
 
12 Wh-ir is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 been besmirched and that the culture of the twentieth 
 century had been trampled in the dust. 
 
 I felt myself incapable of adopting the morality of 
 the Prussian government, whereby an alleged strate- 
 gic necessity justified an attack upon a peaceful peo- 
 ple, the massacre of so many innocent men, whose 
 only crime was self-defense, and the destruction of 
 so much of cultural value that can never be replaced. 
 
 This necessity-knows-no-law morality struck me as 
 nothing more nor less than robber morality. To at- 
 tack and kill a man simply for the sake of the more 
 easily breaking into your neighbor's house! And the 
 thing couldn't be made right by declaring that the 
 neighbor had intended, later on, to break into Ger- 
 many. 
 
 It filled me with profound shame and also with 
 rage and indignation that this crime against human- 
 ity was committed not by any state you please, but 
 by the government of a highly civilized nation, the 
 government of my own country. My ancient and 
 only too well-founded distrust of the Prussian sys- 
 tem leapt to life again, and it was this distrust of 
 mine that kept me from unquestionably accepting all 
 the speeches and programs of the diplomats and 
 the catchwords that the "national" press tossed out 
 to the people. On the contrary, I was moved to test 
 
Why I Wrote This Book 13 
 
 the truth of it all, and that is what has led, as it 
 were of itself, to my writing down these rebellious 
 ideas of mine. 
 
 I hope I am right in assuming that there are many 
 more of my countrymen than is commonly supposed 
 who cherish similar ideas. 
 
 There is scarcely a single public occasion that the 
 chancellor does not use to asseverate in deep tones of 
 conviction, with a positiveness excluding contradic- 
 tion, that the whole German people is behind him 
 and that his policy is the policy of every German. 
 And all the officers of the realm in descending or- 
 der, in their "divinely" ordained dependence, echo 
 what he says with an assiduity that cannot but arouse 
 suspicion. What can be the object of this loud trum- 
 peting of the unity of all Germans? Is it to throw 
 dust in the eyes of the outside world and of the Ger- 
 mans themselves? Or is it narrow-mindedness, self- 
 deception carried to an inconceivable degree the self- 
 deception of which we have witnessed so many ex- 
 amples in the course of the war ? 
 
 But if it really is the chancellor's genuine belief 
 that he has the whole German nation behind him, 
 how does he know it? Whence does he derive his 
 knowledge of the people's absolute unity of feeling 
 after he has nailed their mouths shut by means of the 
 
14 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 censorship and martial law and so prevented them 
 from expressing their true opinions ? Does he get his 
 assurance from the hysterical shriekings of the "fa- 
 therland" press? But the "fatherland" press is the 
 mouthpiece of certain circles of men who profit by 
 the war, perhaps also of those who still think they 
 can sleep peacefully because a Bethmann-Hollweg or 
 a Hertling is keeping watch for them. The "fa- 
 therland" press does not speak for the people. 
 
 No and no and no ! The people who toil, the peo- 
 ple who do without, the people who bleed and suffer 
 sorely they are not behind the chancellor. 
 
 But they are not to open their mouths, they are to 
 keep their hearts closed like a grave the contents of 
 which must not be revealed their indignation, their 
 burning wrath against these forgerers, these liars, 
 these suppressors of the truth. 
 
 The people are not behind the chancellor and never 
 were. But those usurers are, those war-promoters, 
 those big landed Junkers, and large shareholders, 
 whose easily acquired millions drop into their laps 
 like ripe plums, the whole military caste, which can 
 now realize its dream of wading knee-deep in blood 
 and destroying and annihilating to its heart's con- 
 tent. That feudal caste which needs war so as to 
 reap in abundance where others have sowed. 
 
Why I Wrote This Book 15 
 
 All such as these stand behind the chancellor. 
 Such alone are Bethmann-Hollweg's and Hertling's 
 " people." They are the only ones who can and may 
 speak. It is their voice alone that the chancellors 
 hear, and what they lack in numbers is compensated 
 for in insistent patriotic din and solemn adjurations 
 to "hold out/' 
 
 They, of course, can hold out, even though the 
 war last another ten years. 
 
 They are the men who keep fanning the flames of 
 the world conflagration, once it was set afire by a 
 handful of insatiable creatures, to boil their soup on. 
 Caesar-madness it was, coupled with sinister blood- 
 thirstiness and the persecution mania of Prussian 
 militarism, which did not hesitate to convert Europe 
 into a charnel-house when it deemed the time ripe for 
 its plans. 
 
 What difference do the millions make who are 
 weltering in blood? What difference all the cripples 
 and blind men? What do the militarists care for 
 the hundreds of thousands who must see their mod- 
 est existence fall into ruins? How many of them 
 had labored for years so as to be free of want in their 
 old age! Everything they worked for devoured by 
 the war, gone forever. The imprecations and curses 
 
16 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 of all these unfortunates, the hatred of millions of 
 men, must descend upon the war monsters. 
 
 What cynicism, in view of the undeniable fact that 
 it was the German government that declared war and 
 instantly proceeded to attack what cynicism to keep 
 insisting obstinately upon the fiction that the father- 
 land was attacked. Even King Ludwig of Bavaria 
 was obliged to say in public in Munich of course, 
 by orders from Berlin that war had been declared 
 against Germany. They constantly keep dishing up 
 the stale lie that we were attacked, and it was only 
 through the quick action, the foresightedness and the 
 boundless wisdom of the government that we were 
 saved from the annihilation to which our enemies 
 had doomed us. 
 
 So they forever din into the people 's ears how inno- 
 cent of the war our government is and how thankful 
 the people should be to their leaders that "the enemy 
 is not in our country." This is constantly being used 
 to extort ever larger sacrifices of blood and money; 
 and afterward it is said hypocritically : ' ' The people 
 are making all these sacrifices quite voluntarily from 
 sheer patriotism." 
 
 The old familiar things are all the time being 
 trumped upon us, France's revanche, England's envy, 
 and Russia's mobilization, so as to conceal the Ger- 
 

 Why I Wrote This Book 17 
 
 man government's own guilt and spur on the poor 
 weary people when they are about to drop to the 
 ground from exhaustion. 
 
 Disgust must fill every one who saw through these 
 catchwords from the very first, before the war, when 
 they necessarily constituted the threadbare pretext 
 for a mad speeding up of armaments. Who can won- 
 der that finally they also had to be held up as the 
 pretext for attacking Europe? 
 
 In truth, there is no greater crime in the history of 
 the world than these cold-blooded preparations and 
 this attack. 
 
 And the chancellor maintains that all the people are 
 following him along this path of blood and guilt. It 
 isn't true! It's a lie! 
 
 And even though it were true and all the people 
 were following him, I am not following him. I can- 
 not. I can no more declare myself in accord with 
 the Prussian government in its assault upon civiliza- 
 tion and culture than I could declare myself in ac- 
 cord with my brother if he committed a crime. 
 
 And I must speak out openly, in spite of the cer- 
 tainty that cowardly revenge will be wreaked upon 
 me. I must speak out, or else choke with repugnance 
 disgust. 
 
 Perhaps it will be said that the other governments 
 
1 8 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 are not innocent either and it is not fair to look for 
 the blame all on one side. It is not my purpose to 
 do so. 
 
 But I may quietly leave it to the members of the 
 enemy nations to allot the portion of blame falling 
 upon their own governments, especially since there are 
 thousands of Germans to help them and violent efforts 
 are made in our country to impute all the blame to 
 the enemy governments. 
 
 For that reason I must be permitted to fix the 
 blame where I see it belongs. 
 
 Because it is impossible, and will remain impossible, 
 to forget that it was not the other nations that de- 
 clared war upon us, but we who declared war upon 
 them; that it was not Belgium which fell upon us, 
 but we who fell upon Belgium. This clinching fact 
 will not be overlooked by any one earnestly seeking 
 the truth. 
 
 So how could I, just at the very moment when 
 Prussian Caesarism was carrying out its long pre- 
 meditated attack, go over to the side of that infa- 
 mous system which oppresses all true liberty, all 
 human progress (in the higher sense) ; which has 
 turned the world into a madhouse, where one nation 
 always sees itself persecuted and threatened and 
 hemmed in by the other nations; which has made an 
 
Why I Wrote This Book 19 
 
 arsenal of Germany and the whole of Europe? How 
 could I go over to the side of such a system when I 
 had always yearned out of the depths of my heart for 
 an end to this barbarism, for the liberation of my 
 people from this degrading Csesarism, for its rise to 
 the ranks of the free nations of the world ? 
 
 No, there is no other position to take in this deci- 
 sive conflict between arbitrary despotism and the 
 people's right to self-determination, between the po- 
 lice club, oppression, force and injustice, on the one 
 side, and liberty, justice and humanity on the other 
 side. 
 
 Now, when Prussianism is making ready to impose 
 its yoke upon other, free nations, and militarism, 
 that ulcer on mankind's body, has broken open and 
 is threatening to destroy all life with its foul cor- 
 ruption, there is no other position, I say, to take. 
 
 No other government in Europe than Prussia, no 
 other government even in our Prussianized Germany, 
 could have got itself to begin such a slaughter of the 
 nations. No other government could have sicked Aus- 
 tria on. This government of a nation of " subjects," 
 of whose dull obedience it was certain, was the only 
 one that dared to discard all responsibility to its own 
 people and to humanity at large. Nowhere but in 
 Berlin could the overture be played to the nocturne 
 
2O What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 that has been piercing the world's ears for nearly 
 half a decade. There in Berlin stood the leader of 
 the orchestra beating time, the "supreme war-lord." 
 
 If he had not wanted the war (he keeps saying he 
 hadn't wanted it), we should not be having war, 
 despite a hundred Servias and Austrias. 
 
 The Bavarian people, and even the Bavarian gov- 
 ernment, have nothing in their being to do with the 
 war. Can you conceive of a declaration of war pro- 
 ceeding from Munich ? The civilization of the Bavar- 
 ian nation, by several centuries older than the Prus- 
 sian, would have made such a hideous thing impossible. 
 But the Bavarians could not help themselves. They 
 had to submit to the disgrace and serve as accom- 
 plices (our lists of losses are eloquent), against their 
 will, of course, but true to obligations undertaken, 
 not by the people who are bleeding to death that's 
 the tragedy of it but by others who assumed the 
 obligations for them. 
 
 This is a fact not to be altered by any of the winged 
 words of Ludwig III, who, after all, is thinking of 
 his crown, nor by any of the agitating, fire-spitting 
 and distorting of the truth done by the "fatherland" 
 press of Munich. 
 
 The Bavarian people know nothing of the blood- 
 
Why I Wrote This Book 21 
 
 thirstiness of their newspapers. They are an inno- 
 cent race, ready to live and let live. 
 
 The spirit of that big-mouthed " fatherland " 
 boastfulness rampant in their press is essentially for- 
 eign to them. It is an importation from Berlin. 
 
 And it is distressing to think that perhaps the 
 Bavarians are judged by their press and that the 
 outside world may believe the Bavarians to be quite 
 in accord with this crime against humanity, even 
 happy over it. Nothing could be farther from the 
 truth. But the ten years of activity of a Munchner 
 Neueste Nachrichten have not been in vain. This 
 newspaper has been able to muddle our people 's sound 
 judgment at least to such an extent that they do not 
 venture openly to tear off the mask from the falsifiers 
 of public opinion. 
 
 The reader of this book will not find polished dip- 
 lomatic expressions, but frank, sharp-edged words and 
 "prohibited" ideas. Many people will be astonished 
 at this from a German, and some, outraged. 
 
 It actually seems impossible to conceive of a Ger- 
 man in any other way than standing stiff and 
 straight, his hands at his trousers' seams, his mouth 
 open, and his eyes turned upward to "the precipi- 
 tous height on which princes are perched." 
 
 If he doesn't do this, but merely says what every 
 
22 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 man in every free country has the right to say, his 
 superiors admonish him. "Be quiet. Don't make 
 a noise. Don't you see, you naughty boy, that your 
 papa is husy this very moment thrashing some for- 
 eign boys who have been annoying him ! Do you want 
 to annoy him, too?" 
 
 Yes, the reader will find something in this book 
 very different from what he sees in the "fatherland" 
 press. But whom would it surprise in a time when 
 every day, every hour, the passions are lashed into a 
 storm because militarism must have it so for its bloody 
 business? It is nothing but a natural reaction if at 
 last the opposite is reached and defense becomes the 
 same as attack. And all the more so when one portion 
 of the people arrogates all rights to itself and chokes 
 and stifles everything not in its own spirit. It is a 
 procedure absolutely unworthy of a civilized nation. 
 It has created an atmosphere of embitterment that 
 defies description. 
 
 The German people see themselves condemned to 
 helplessness and impotence through a refined system 
 of outrageous slavery. But the very extreme of the 
 tension proves that the limit must soon be reached 
 and that the moment of explosion is not very far off. 
 
II 
 
 MOBILIZATION 
 
 IT was on a Monday. We were going into town 
 early in the morning as on every ordinary work day. 
 But this Monday was very different from its predeces- 
 sors. We had always returned to work in the happy 
 holiday mood left by a long summer day spent in the 
 open air and sunlight beside the lake, cares left be- 
 hind, in unrestrained freedom. We had met friends, 
 and passed the time conversing and discussing the 
 thousand innocent occurrences of a safe, peaceful ex- 
 istence. 
 
 But this Monday, as I said, it was all so different. 
 The delightful yesterday was forgotten. At the place 
 that we had spent the Sunday, fortunately, the order 
 for mobilization had not been made known till the 
 evening. And then many a one of us had passed the 
 night without sleeping, in heavy thought. 
 
 There was a peculiarly oppressive atmosphere hang- 
 ing over the crowded boat, a most unusual mood; 
 excited, though whispered conversation on all sides. 
 ' * They began to mobilize yesterday. Now we 're in for 
 
24 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 it in bloody earnest. Who would ever have dreamt 
 of anything of the sort?" 
 
 Was there a single mind that on this Monday could 
 fully grasp the whole tragedy implied in the single 
 word, mobilization? 
 
 A friend of mine was going back to town with his 
 son, a student at the university. The lad seemed to 
 be nervous and excited. I could clearly tell he was 
 all upset when I spoke to him. He thought he would 
 be called to arms immediately. Until then he had 
 lived only for his studies. 
 
 No person knew just what was coming, just what 
 was going to happen in his own life. There were a 
 number of other young people on the ship, all of them 
 very quiet, as though benumbed. Nobody had eyes 
 for the shimmering lake and the mountains rising 
 majestically in the blue air. The scenery found no 
 admirers that Monday. 
 
 In H the trains that met the boat left very 
 
 late. Most of them did not run at all, since another 
 schedule, for which the needs of travelers no longer 
 existed, had been adopted overnight. 
 
 At the railway station in Munich there was in- 
 describable confusion, and all sorts of luggage piled 
 mountain high. A puzzle how it had accumulated so 
 quickly. Men shoving and pushing, calling, question- 
 
Mobilization 25 
 
 ing, hunting about. Some soldiers among them, too, 
 already. A disturbed ant-hill is as orderly as a pa- 
 rade compared with that scene in the Munich railway 
 station. Before you got outside you felt sick and 
 dizzy. 
 
 The streets were not so changed as one would have 
 supposed from the scenes in the station. Every- 
 body was going about his business, except that here 
 and there you saw small groups studying fresh 
 posters. 
 
 "Mobilization," "The Country Declared in a State 
 of Siege," "All Power Transferred to the Military." 
 
 It was impossible to grasp all at once the full im- 
 port of those pregnant words. It came to you only 
 slowly. What did the great black letters mean? 
 Why, apparently, that overnight law and justice 
 had been removed and neither existed any more 
 simply existed no more. 
 
 One stroke of the pen had wiped away without 
 leaving a trace the little bit of respect for human 
 rights that the people had wrested from the despots 
 through years and years of unceasing struggle. One 
 move of a hand had destroyed that for which many 
 a noble soul had given up his life, for which many 
 a martyr had sacrificed his health and happiness be- 
 hind prison walls. 
 
26 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 So now there no longer ruled those authorities 
 whom the people had helped, though in all too mod- 
 est a degree, to create; not ideal authorities, to be 
 sure, yet the people knew them at least and felt at 
 home with them. They were dead and gone. 
 
 The thing that was now to rule the people was 
 militarism, militarism in absolute control. So much 
 was clear from the hard vicious words on the posters. 
 Militarism! No one to be responsible but the man 
 responsible to none, the supreme war-lord. 
 
 Enthroned in secret, in inapproachable obscurity, 
 militarism suddenly held absolute sway. It was only 
 by an act of grace that it did not order the people 
 instantly to go down on all fours and eat the dirt 
 of the streets. 
 
 It disposed of the human race and human destinies, 
 of everything accomplished by humanity, as a bad 
 child disposes of its toys to break and ruin and de- 
 stroy. 
 
 From that day on, therefore, there was neither law 
 nor justice but only cruel force, cruel coercion, bloody 
 brutality reduced to a system. 
 
 It was too much. It was like a blow in the face. 
 It fairly stunned one. A horrid feeling of unrest 
 and anxiety, of being lost, overpowered me. I was 
 
Mobilization 27 
 
 bent to the ground by a melancholy I had never before 
 felt. 
 
 The gentle language of civilization and humanity, 
 the only language dear and familiar to us from child- 
 hood, all of a sudden was no longer spoken or under- 
 stood. This language, which growing intercourse 
 among the nations had spread throughout the world, 
 must at one blow yield to the coarse cries, the harsh 
 commands of the drill ground. The speech that was 
 now to be understood was the speech of undisguised 
 rude brutality. 
 
 Who would ever have said to himself seriously that 
 there still was such a language of violence and that 
 we should ever have to listen to it? We had lulled 
 ourselves in the delicious hope that such barbarism 
 was no more to be experienced in the heart of Europe. 
 A delusion ! 
 
 A strident voice out of the dark, never asking 
 whether the people wanted it or not, gave orders to 
 them to sacrifice their lives, their aspirations, their 
 happiness. The people had no time to reflect. The 
 strident voice simply gave orders, threatening the 
 most awful punishment for disobedience. There was 
 only one alternative, obedience or death. For the 
 country had been mobilized. 
 
Ill 
 
 1 'NOW WE'LL GIVE 'EM A LICKING" 
 
 THIS is one of the most brilliant of the utterances 
 of our ' ' peace ' ' Kaiser. It provides an excellent view 
 into the inner being of this delicate-souled monarch, 
 scarcely equaled by any other of the many "sayings" 
 that he has pronounced in the course of his reign. 
 
 What a lofty tone, what poetic beauty, what ele- 
 gance of diction! And so simple withal, with such a 
 popular ring to it. "Now we'll give 'em a licking." 
 This battle-cry of His Majesty William II sounds like 
 a mighty sigh of relief after too long, much, much too 
 long, a period of foolish peace. The ' ' prince of peace ' ' 
 had had to wait longer than he cared to for the "joy- 
 ous war." 
 
 The valiant German hero and professor, Von 
 Calker, took up this battle-cry with profound rever- 
 ence directly from the mouth of the supreme war- 
 lord, so as to shout it forthwith into the German news- 
 paper world, where it produced an immense amount 
 of enthusiasm. And the press for its part did not fail 
 to prove its worthiness to share in its lord's spiritual 
 
 28 
 
"Now We'll Give 'Em a Licking" 29 
 
 flight. It took up the battle-cry exultingly. It was 
 ready to help ''give 'em a licking. " It immediately 
 adopted the elegant cry as its own, for in a matter of 
 good taste it did not want to lag behind any one, 
 not even behind the Kaiser. 
 
 So now he has been giving them a licking for these 
 many years. To be sure he expected to be done with 
 the job in three months. "By the time the leaves 
 fall we'll be back home victorious," he had pro- 
 phesied. 
 
 Alas and alack, his prophetic gift is no better than 
 his taste. The "licking" has not come to an end yet, 
 and the hides of the licked are turning out to be far 
 thicker and more durable than the imperial licker 
 ever had any idea of. Perhaps in the end the others 
 will not only be presenting their backs for a licking, 
 but will also be doing some licking on their own ac- 
 count. That would be awkward and not according to 
 program but quite comprehensible. 
 
IV 
 MONARCHY OR DEMOCRACY? 
 
 THE apparently inevitable course of political af- 
 fairs in Europe, culminating suddenly in the out- 
 break of the war, makes every thinking man question 
 whether a similar development could have taken place 
 had a democracy instead of a monarchy held sway in 
 Germany. 
 
 I for my part cannot do the German government 
 the favor to seek the causes of the war in all sorts 
 of mystical or cosmic or even economic grounds, as 
 do so many people, and as must be very agreeable to 
 the government; though what is still more agreeable 
 to the government is not to bother about such mat- 
 ters at all, but simply take it on faith that the enemy 
 attacked us and wanted to crush the German nation. 
 
 What is the main tendency innate in the monar- 
 chy? Undoubtedly, its first and foremost endeavor 
 is the same as that which governs every living thing, 
 self-preservation; but self-preservation in all cir- 
 cumstances and by all means. 
 
 A superficial examination of the way the monarchy 
 30 
 
Monarchy or Democracy 31 
 
 and the people have been living side by side in Ger- 
 many within recent years might make it appear that 
 the " self-preservation " of the monarchy was a per- 
 fectly easy matter, since the German is "monarchic 
 to the very marrow of his bones." In reality it was 
 not so easy. The nature of the Prussian monarchy is 
 such that it is built up on entirely different founda- 
 tions, economic, legal, and above all cultural, from 
 those which are commensurate with the needs of a 
 modern civilized nation, a nation that has fully eman- 
 cipated itself from the patriarchal Haroun-al-Raschid 
 sort of rule possible in small countries. 
 
 It had long been out of the question for the mon- 
 arch as the father of his people to acquaint himself 
 with the personal needs of each of his subjects and 
 so look out for their individual welfare. The people, 
 therefore, had to take their affairs into their own 
 hands. 
 
 In consequence, rights came to them that the king 
 and lawgiver had formerly arrogated to himself, as 
 a result of which even the German monarchy is a 
 limited one. The people 's deputies have deprived the 
 monarch of broad provinces of governmental activity, 
 leaving him only a few without restriction. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, these few are the most 
 important and decisive, as the negotiations immedi- 
 
32 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 ately preceding the declaration of war show. The 
 Kaiser has unlimited dictatorship over the entire 
 military power of the state and also the unlimited 
 direction of the foreign policy; which means that 
 he has sole control over the relations of the entire 
 German nation with all other nations. 
 
 This is typical of the position arrogated to itself 
 by the Prussian monarchy in the German state, and 
 is in striking contrast with the situation in all the 
 other great civilized nations. 
 
 The monarchy may regulate the relations of the 
 German nation with neighboring nations entirely ac- 
 cording to its own sweet will. Nobody has the right 
 to say a word. And it is so plain to the view that 
 the monarchy will attend to the business of foreign 
 relations with primary regard for its own self-preser- 
 vation and with only secondary regard for the people 's 
 welfare that no proof is necessary. To be concerned 
 with one's own self-preservation is merely human. 
 Besides, even we Germans have ministers who are re- 
 sponsible to the people, oh, yes, we have but don't 
 let's speak about it. 
 
 At present the monarchy is above everything else 
 " national," the very highest expression, the focus 
 of nationalism. 
 
 In the present status of civilization inonarchism and 
 
Monarchy or Democracy 33 
 
 internationalism are mutually exclusive. Monarch- 
 ism has the most urgent interest to-day in its own na- 
 tion's believing that all the other, especially, of 
 course, the democratic nations are its natural and 
 jealous enemies. The more the monarchical nation 
 hates and despises the democracies, the better for au- 
 tocracy. Because autocracy has learned from his- 
 tory that internationalistic monarchies have proved 
 to possess little lasting quality. Besides, internation- 
 alistic monarchies are impossible now, since no auto- 
 crat would like to be below another autocrat, but the 
 highest of autocrats, and each doubtless thinks himself 
 best fitted to be the highest. 
 
 So, for the sake of the autocrat 's mere security, the 
 people must be kept as remote from internationalism 
 as possible. If their fellow-creatures speak a differ- 
 ent language, they must in no circumstances look 
 upon them as brothers, but as enemies. 
 
 Everything in Germany is pressed into service for 
 this one purpose, the school, the newspapers, and all 
 institutions that are in any way suitable. Later 
 times mayhap will reveal the full extent to which this 
 influencing of the people's minds is carried on. We 
 cannot tell now because those who are in the commis- 
 sion of the monarchy and derive profit from it pursue 
 
34 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 this business with a cunning and a perverse refine- 
 ment that are not easy to conceive. 
 
 These ardent endeavors in the interest of the mon- 
 archy find support in a peculiarly servile trait in the 
 German character. A German is impressed by arro- 
 gance provided it is sufficiently brazen. 
 
 A German would rather obey than think for him 
 self and shoulder responsibility. 
 
 It was this blind faith in authority that made it 
 possible for the German nation to be caught up sud- 
 denly in a war of which it had not dreamed a week 
 before. 
 
 The king of Bulgaria would not dare to put upon 
 his half-civilized people what the Kaiser puts upon 
 us. The Bulgarian government had to work over its 
 people with dozens of manifestoes before they could 
 be got to enter the war and sacrifice themselves for 
 their dynasty, that is, for Ferdinand, who believed 
 he could best secure his throne by joining with the 
 Central Powers and Turkey. Whether or not he spec- 
 ulated correctly, time will show. 
 
 Germany of all the countries of the world is still 
 blessed with such an abundance of kings, princes and 
 grand-dukes that we could easily supply the rest of 
 the world without feeling the loss. And each of 
 
Monarchy or Democracy 35 
 
 these rulers by "divine right" is filled with the ambi- 
 tion to prove his indispensability. 
 
 Then why wonder if their leader in particular 
 wanted to make his power felt in every place in the 
 world where something was going on and if he tried 
 to pursue a policy of guardianship over other na- 
 tions? However, his actual ability in this direction 
 was very moderate, and so nothing came of it all 
 except a constant pestering and threatening of the 
 world. 
 
 Thus it is in the special department of the Prussian 
 monarchy, that is, the foreign policy, that the whole 
 ominous wrong of the absolutistic system came out 
 the wrong of a single man, responsible to no one, 
 having absolute control of a prodigious apparatus 
 ready, when he touches the button, to let loose death 
 and destruction upon the whole world; a man by 
 birth and education removed an infinite distance from 
 the cares and needs of his people and without the 
 least comprehension for them, inspired by the one 
 desire to maintain his house and uphold its glory 
 for all time. 
 
 Oh, the many things that venal satellites found to 
 praise in the monarchy! The monarchy alone guar- 
 anteed the nation's steady development; the mon- 
 
36 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 archy alone was the cause of the country's "tremen- 
 dous economic advance." 
 
 And, by way of contrast, the awful conditions pre- 
 vailing in democratic lands were held up to the Ger- 
 mans their political corruption and their economic 
 decline, or economic stagnation, at least. 
 
 There was no need to adduce proofs. It sufficed to 
 repeat these things often enough. The German pub- 
 lic was already convinced. No one thought anything 
 but that our neighbors were going downhill. And 
 not even this war will give the Germans a much bet- 
 ter insight into the true state of affairs, although it 
 very well could do so. 
 
 As a matter of fact, economic progress is not con- 
 fined to one country, but is common to all and pro- 
 portionate to the degree of civilization in each. And 
 as for the economic development of Germany, I main- 
 tain that it has taken place not on account of but 
 in spite of the monarchical form of government. 
 
 What could we Germans not have achieved had all 
 the brains that were obliged to devise instruments of 
 murder and destruction in the service of the mon- 
 archy been able to devote their strength and inven- 
 tiveness to useful instruments for the improvement 
 of human conditions? The blessings that might have 
 accrued are incalculable. 
 
Monarchy or Democracy 37 
 
 Whole classes of the population in Germany, like 
 the government officials, are completely in the thrall 
 of the monarchy, which is falsely represented to them 
 as the means of their livelihood. 
 
 They all want to be ' * kb'niglich ' '* and never bethink 
 themselves that what makes it possible for them to 
 draw salaries from the government are the taxes that 
 the people pay. The people, therefore, not the gov- 
 ernment, are really their employer. And to keep 
 them anchored fast to the monarchy they are told 
 that they would not find positions in a democracy, as 
 though there were no government employees in the 
 United States, or France, or Switzerland. But 
 enough ignoramuses are found to believe this non- 
 sense. It would be a sad thing for officialdom if it 
 were as superfluous as the monarchy. I wonder if 
 we shall be able to get along without government em- 
 ployees as soon as the king has disappeared. 
 
 Of course, there will be some officials that we shall 
 then be able to dispense with the haughty bureau- 
 crats, for one thing, who think the people cannot 
 walk without their holding on to the leading-strings 
 and who lay down a hundred thousand rules for the 
 way in which, according to their whim, the life of 
 each "subordinate" has to be molded. These petty, 
 
 * Loyal to the Kaiser. 
 
38 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 mean-spirited bureaucrats, these agents of autocracy, 
 will certainly disappear. Of that we may be sure. 
 
 The German people must be set free from this un- 
 worthy guardianship as much as from monarchism 
 itself, and it is to be hoped that before the war is 
 over they will have swept the moldy bureaucracy 
 away like everything else that is rotten and anti- 
 quated and a disgrace to a civilized nation. 
 
 And if, actually, the great German nation cannot 
 succeed in making itself master in its own house, it 
 will find brothers and friends to help. Yes, it al- 
 ready has found them. 
 
 The government tries to make our flesh creep hold- 
 ing our brothers and friends up to us as our enemies 
 and destroyers. They are not. On the contrary, they 
 want to help us drive out once for all that bloody 
 horror, autocracy. They want to hold out their hands 
 to us as friends across all the ruin and desolation 
 wrought by the cold-hearted egoism of the monarchs 
 attempting to save their own rotten existence. 
 
 Our western brothers are not fighting against us, 
 the misguided German people, but against those who 
 are enslaving and oppressing us and who, as though 
 that were not enough, are also trying to enslave and 
 oppress other nations. 
 
 Not until all force will have been removed and end- 
 
Monarchy or Democracy 39 
 
 less rules and regulations and prohibitions will no 
 longer cramp us at every step, will we attain to the 
 height of our possibilities. The nations of the world 
 will wrestle for the palm in open, honorable contest, 
 not as sullen, treacherous enemies. 
 
 But the one and only thing that can help us in 
 this ascent, from which the evil spirit of autocracy 
 has so long held us back, will be the dominion of the 
 free people, a democracy born in this horrible night 
 of blood and death and tears. And freedom is now 
 being born, as truly as there is eternal justice. 
 
 Who can still doubt that the war would have been 
 impossible had a democracy instead of a monarchy 
 ruled in Germany in 1914? 
 
 I for one think it would have been impossible, and 
 I am convinced the weapons will be wrested for ever 
 out of the hands of the guilty. For such a catastro- 
 phe must be the last in the history of civilized hu- 
 manity. 
 
GERMAN BARBARIANS? 
 
 YES, that's what we are, German barbarians. Yet 
 there seems to be a little bit of pity mingled with the 
 repugnance expressed in this epithet which is be- 
 stowed upon us by the democratic nations. 
 
 We have often read about deeds of the ''German 
 barbarians/' and there unmistakably was a tone of 
 painful disillusionment underlying the accounts. Peo- 
 ple had thought the countrymen of a Kant, a Bee- 
 thoven, or a Wagner were no longer barbarians. They 
 now discovered their own mistake. They found that 
 the Germans actually are barbarians. 
 
 One clearly perceives the pain and regret felt by 
 free men that their brothers in the east should be so 
 inconceivably blind as to take them for enemies and 
 attack them, instead of realizing who their enemies 
 actually are. 
 
 And the poor German barbarian even goes and lays 
 down his life for his real enemies, who are also the 
 enemies of all civilization and culture. 
 
 Or am I wrong? Was it not an act of barbarism, 
 40 
 
German Barbarians? 41 
 
 incredible barbarism, to obey the behests of a mad- 
 man and knock European civilization into ruins and 
 suddenly attack peaceful nations with whom the Ger- 
 man nation had no quarrel? Who but a barbarian, 
 could carry out such orders, who but a barbarian 
 would be so unconscious of the atrocity of his conduct, 
 who but a barbarian would not stop to ask whether 
 the thing he was told to do was right or wrong, but 
 would stupidly obey when he is bidden to murder and 
 to destroy what it has taken a thousand years of civ- 
 ilization to build up? That is what barbarians do, 
 barbarians and none else. So we are "German bar- 
 barians. ' ' 
 
 A thousand "fatherland" pens are busily at work 
 trying to twist and muddle the true meaning of the 
 indictment against us. They want to shunt the ques- 
 tion on to another track so as to be able to use it as a 
 means for inciting us against the enemy. It is only 
 for that purpose, only to incite us, that they give the 
 epithet "German barbarians" a meaning it does not 
 possess, a meaning that enables them, as German pa- 
 triots full of moral indignation, to prove that we are 
 not barbarians. How touchingly they tell of a Ger- 
 man soldier who gives a child bread instead of eating 
 the child up, as the- enemies charge our soldiers do, 
 or of how a German soldier takes a child on his arm 
 
42 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 and shows it a picture of his own children; of how 
 our "field-greys" play music in the trenches or sit in 
 the theaters after having brushed the dirt of the 
 trenches out of their clothes. 
 
 These patriots do not see that it is barbarism and 
 nothing else for mere matters-of-course to be cited 
 triumphantly a thousand times as proof that we are 
 not barbarians but know what civilization is. 
 
 None of our enemies, no rational men, in fact, make 
 any such accusations against us, and there is certainly 
 a good bit of barbarism in every penny-a-liner who 
 tries to refute an unmade charge by such common- 
 places and trivialities. Either one of two things is 
 true of him. Either he wants in a barbarous way to 
 incite the nations against each other still more than 
 they are, and shrinks from no perversion of the truth ; 
 or he actually lacks comprehension of the true mean- 
 ing of the indictment. 
 
 But the man who with open eyes followed the 
 events preceding the war can never be blinded to the 
 fact that the signal for the unheard-of barbarism of 
 this war was given by a government that calls itself a 
 German government, even if in actuality it is a Prus- 
 sian government. And nothing can ever make one 
 forget that the vast majority of the German people 
 
German Barbarians? 43 
 
 did not resist the insanity, the barbarism of their 
 government. 
 
 If ever there was a nation whose duty it was to 
 stay the hand of an irresponsible dictator, it was the 
 German nation, the nation that gave the world a 
 Diirer and a Holbein, the nation that blessed human- 
 ity with immortal works of sculpture. But the Ger- 
 mans did not hold the dictator back. They share in 
 the guilt of his barbarism. We Germans are bar- 
 barians. 
 
VI 
 
 HERR HELFFERICH 
 
 HE'S the crier standing outside the theater at the 
 fair announcing the show inside. He's the clown 
 with the big drum. Both in one. 
 
 Walk in, ladies and gentlemen ! Just walk in. The 
 greatest financial transaction in the world going on 
 inside! Can't be beat! Walk in! 
 
 Anybody with money, sign up. Anybody without 
 money, certainly sign up. Every German may and 
 should and must take part, even the poorest. So that 
 when the great crash comes each one will have his war 
 souvenir to remind him of how dear his fatherland 
 has become to him. 
 
 Herr Helfferich's talking apparatus is as phenom- 
 enal as his financial transactions. He is fully equal 
 to the "great time" we are living in, and he stands 
 out prominently from among his Prussian colleagues, 
 even though most of them are by no means tongue- 
 tied. That is why his beneficent activity is not con- 
 fined to "touching" the public. He comes in handy 
 
 44 
 
Herr Helfferich 45 
 
 for all sorts of jobs. The helpful* Helfferieh must 
 help everywhere. 
 
 If a minister has driven his car so hard in the 
 Prussian Landtag or Reichstag that it sticks in the 
 mud and can't go forward or backward, then they 
 hurry up and go fetch Herr Helfferich, and he comes 
 panting, this best and strongest draught horse of the 
 Prussian government does, and pulls the car out of 
 the mud again, and so adroitly that not only the 
 whole world but also His Majesty must behold and 
 laud his achievement. 
 
 No matter what the question in hand, whether ra- 
 tions, or franking the mail for the German princes 
 
 and rulers and their wives, mothers, sisters, daugh- 
 , 
 
 ters, aunts, nieces and seamstresses, or the internal 
 policy of the country, or the U-boat warfare, or the 
 regulations about potash, he can instantly step in, 
 without requiring any technical knowledge of the 
 subject and set everything straight, because all that is 
 ever required is simply to give those disturbers of 
 the peace, the Social Democrats, a good whack on the 
 jaw. 
 
 In every case he needs nothing more than his arro- 
 gance and superciliousness and glib tongue. He 
 makes a speech where another man couldn't say 
 
 * A play upon his name. Heifer means a helper. 
 
46 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 "Boo," and it's lucky for him that the Prussian 
 government considers it correct form for every trace 
 of an idea to be strictly avoided in even the lengthi- 
 est speeches. 
 
 Hence the great and well-deserved applause with 
 which Herr Helfferich 's appearances in the Reichstag 
 are greeted by all friends of the fatherland. 
 
 (Ever since the earliest attempts of "William II, 
 the great orator, the German people know what they 
 owe their intellectual heroes.) 
 
 Herr Helfferich is no less at home why, he is even 
 more at home in the financial affairs of the enemy 
 countries than he is in German financial affairs. 
 
 What accurate knowledge he displays, for instance, 
 of English finances! Remarkable! Just as if the 
 British chancellor of the exchequer had whispered all 
 his secrets in his ear a half-hour before. 
 
 He knows the English are very badly off, very badly 
 off. Who else should know it but Herr Helfferich? 
 The English exchange has sunk to a level, only exceed- 
 ed though, to be sure, by a considerable degree by 
 the German exchange ! The state of affairs in Eng- 
 land is wretched. 
 
 The only thing that could save the English if 
 they are still to be saved at all would be a Herr 
 Helfferich. Of course, with their peculiar insular 
 
Herr Helfferich 47 
 
 shrewdness, they realized this long ago, and from this 
 realization it was only a step to a truly diabolic 
 scheme, an act of force such as would cap all their 
 deeds of violence in this war. 
 
 For several weeks there has already been a secret 
 English commission in Romanshorn in Switzerland, 
 consisting of various tried and resolute robber chief- 
 tains and other financial leaders of the island empire, 
 and also Sherlock Holmes, all disguised as innocent 
 fishermen. They are simply waiting for a favorable 
 wind to set sail across Lake Constance. 
 
 Their sealed orders read to sneak through to Ber- 
 lin and lay hold of Herr Helfferich bodily, dead or 
 alive, preferably alive, and deliver him to the chan- 
 cellor of the exchequer in London. The British want 
 to learn the truth about their finances from him, and 
 if possible secure his services by offering him a daz- 
 zling sum. Fancy! The services of the greatest 
 financier in the world ! Such a truly diabolic scheme 
 could only have been conceived because Herr 
 Helfferich 's fondness for changing positions is well 
 known even in England, and well, who can tell ? 
 
 Once in possession of this great financier, England 
 would win the war, which otherwise is already lost. 
 
 As has been remarked, the English being practical 
 people, were quick to perceive that Herr Helfferich 
 
48 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 understood their finances better than they did them- 
 selves. Besides, they had become convinced that in 
 the whole United Kingdom no man had presented 
 himself who was endowed with such well-developed 
 organs and faculties of speech as Herr Helfferich; 
 which, assuredly, is a serious drawback in the war. 
 
 But if this diabolic scheme of England's fails, a 
 far blacker scheme even than the starving out of 
 Germany, why then England's fate is sealed. Hur- 
 rah! 
 
 The other enemies, of course, are not nearly so 
 well worth Herr Helfferich 's talking about. At the 
 very outset of the war France had not a thing, no 
 money, no men. She probably won't be able to ne- 
 gotiate her next loan, because neither Liechtenstein 
 nor San Marino* can be got out of their neutrality. 
 So that if the loan can't be put across in Austria, 
 which is wading knee-deep in money put across in 
 the same sneaky way that England employed in or- 
 der to snatch a decent chancellor of exchequer from 
 Berlin then all's over with France. 
 
 And Italy? 
 
 Why, Italy since the occupation of Rome in 1870 
 has scarcely seen a scudo, and everybody knows that 
 the reason it cannot hold out against Austria is that 
 
 * Tiny independent countries in Europe. 
 
Herr Helfferich 49 
 
 it has no money to make shells and so has to shoot hot 
 chestnuts. 
 
 So that is the state our enemies are in. Herr 
 Helfferich says so and he knows. 
 
 And our enemies have no Helfferich to help them, 
 while we have. 
 
 Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah I 
 
VII 
 HUNGER 
 
 RUSSIAN prisoners were being led out of Puchheim 
 to work early in the morning. They were surrounded 
 on all sides by soldiers of the landsturm carrying 
 loaded guns. 
 
 On the way a poor devil found a piece of carrot 
 and picked it up and tried to wipe it off quickly on 
 his clothes, so as to eat it. He was hungry. 
 
 A landsturm soldier caught sight of him doing this 
 awful thing and knocked the piece of carrot out of 
 his hand and even abused him and called him greedy. 
 ''They always want to be eating, nothing but eating, 
 all day long." The Russian quickly stooped down 
 and picked the piece of carrot up again. It was no 
 cleaner from having fallen on the ground. Seeing 
 the soldier was about to knock it out of his hand a 
 second time, he hastily stuck it in his mouth, dirt 
 and all. 
 
 The hungry Russian was punished for disobeying 
 the orders of his superior. 
 
 He was guilty of a crime, the crime of simply 
 50 
 
Hunger 51 
 
 wanting to stick something in his mouth. But that is 
 forbidden now in Prussia-Germany. 
 
 This insignificant incident would scarcely be worth 
 the notice if it were not proof of an uncommonly 
 petty, heartless sentiment now general in our coun- 
 try. Just imagine begrudging a hungry fellow-man 
 a dirty bit of carrot for no apparent reason beyond 
 the desire to add to the sufferings of his captivity. 
 The epithet "barbarous" does not properly charac- 
 terize such conduct. As a rule barbarians and sav- 
 ages are kindly creatures. 
 
 Is the whole German nation to be judged by this 
 example? The poor devil of a Russian will be in- 
 clined to do so. Have simple humanity, kind-heart- 
 edness and pity ever actually been characteristics of 
 ours ? Has the German ever been ' ' noble, helpful and 
 good," or has he not? If he has, then have these 
 beautiful human traits been lost to us, have they been 
 stolen from us? Yes, I fear me, they really have 
 been stolen from us. Assuredly we used to be just as 
 kind-hearted and compassionate as other people, and 
 would never have approved of such treatment of a 
 vanquished enemy. We should have been incapable 
 of such a thing. But now we are capable of it. 
 
 We have so accustomed ourselves to the brutal ideas 
 of Prussian militarism that we look upon all noble, 
 
52 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 humane feeling as ridiculous, contemptible weakness. 
 
 All we know now are enemies, enemies everywhere, 
 who, we are told, want to crush us. And so we must 
 try to injure them in every way we can. 
 
 We have nothing but enemies and shall have noth- 
 ing but enemies. Militarism wants it so. Therefore, 
 our hearts have been hardened, and our eyes see evil, 
 and militarism, the enemy of man, has taught us to 
 look upon all the nations as our enemies. 
 
 The landsturm soldier only did his duty accord- 
 ing to the instructions of militarism. He had his or- 
 ders under severe penalty. 
 
 Others who act just as inhumanely as the landsturm 
 soldier are also doing nothing but their duty. The 
 judge who sentenced a girl to prison for smiling at 
 prisoners of war did nothing but his duty. Likewise, 
 another judge who had a woman put in prison for 
 throwing cigarettes to captives. It is the hard, evil 
 force of militarism that has made these people think 
 the way they do. It has bid them hate and has up- 
 rooted every other feeling in their hearts. 
 
VIII 
 ORGANIZATION * 
 
 I CAN 'T help it, it makes me sick, nauseatingly sick, 
 every time I hear or read this word. And yet I'm 
 not sure of not hearing it at any hour of the day or 
 night. If things keep on the same way, I foresee 
 the worst consequences. 
 
 You feel as though you, were in a chicken-yard, and 
 every time a hen is about to lay an egg, and then 
 after she has laid it, she cackles and cackles till your 
 ears ache. She must let the world know how well 
 satisfied she is with her great achievement. 
 
 It is the cackling that seems to be the essential, the 
 kernel of the Prussian organization. Shout, shout! 
 Let the people know all that the organizers are doing 
 for their welfare. The word organization must al- 
 ways be in the people's eyes and on their lips, for 
 nothing else, probably, than as a means of appeasing 
 their hunger through the suggestion that the utmost is 
 being done for them. The thing that is far more vital 
 
 * The word used in Germany for what is called the "food 
 administration" in the United States. 
 
 53 
 
54 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 than publicity, that is, the actual provisioning of the 
 people, falls into the background. Why, of what in- 
 terest can it be to a man whether within the next 
 weeks or months he's going to have enough to eat, 
 provided he has the satisfying feeling that the or- 
 ganizers are plying their job indefatigably. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, it seems that for all its 
 publicity, the Germans do not yet appreciate the 
 Prussian organization as they should, and so the 
 ' ' fatherland ' ' newspapers have to keep pounding into 
 the public how much the Prussian organization is ad- 
 mired all over the world, by everybody from the 
 Samoans to the Zulus and the Patagonians. Accord- 
 ing to these papers, our organization is so great an 
 object of envy that, just to cite one example, the 
 Chinese have already turned yellow with annoyance 
 because they have no such organization. 
 
 As a matter of fact, our organization is one of the 
 greatest absurdities of Prussia at war. And on care- 
 ful observation, the thing that is heralded with a 
 blare of trumpets as one of the most glorious fruits 
 of Prussian ingenuity, turns out to be nothing more 
 than a wretched compromise between the unscrupu- 
 lous covetousness of the Prussian agrarians, who want 
 to exploit this opportunity, and the rulers * doddering 
 fear of the wrath of the starving masses. This high- 
 
Organization 55 
 
 est emanation of our statesmanship, as it is set before 
 us for our admiration, is simply a measure dictated 
 by dire necessity to delay the great crash a little longer 
 yet. 
 
 We may be sure it is not to fatherly concern for 
 our welfare that we owe the organization, but to the 
 fear that need and hunger, if nothing else, may open 
 the people's eyes. 
 
 Anybody who really looks can see that all the 
 famous organization does is perhaps; I am not quite 
 sure save the people from actual death by starva- 
 tion. This and nothing more. 
 
 The living conditions as regulated for us by the 
 organization are such as no nation in the world would 
 stand for. Insufficient bread, not enough potatoes, 
 and scarcely any meat. Thousands of us for the 
 longest time now have not even tasted butter and 
 eggs. The same is true of many other foodstuffs. "We 
 cannot get the things we need most, and often I sim- 
 ply cannot conceive how I and other people manage 
 to exist. Perhaps the thing that keeps us up is the 
 consciousness that we have our glorious organization. 
 Really, one is inclined to believe this. 
 
 When I think what we are with "organization," I 
 am curious to know what we should be like without 
 organization. 
 
56 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 None of our enemies, as we read often enough in 
 our papers, has an organization. And yet, we well 
 know, they have nothing approaching our difficulties 
 to cope with. They have the same things to eat and 
 wear as in peace time, and in abundance, too. The 
 whole difference is that they have to pay higher prices' 
 for some articles, which results from the war's having 
 drawn away labor to a large extent from the produc- 
 tion of necessities in those countries, too. At any 
 rate, none of our enemies is nearly so badly off as we 
 are, and one is almost inclined to wish that we had as 
 little organization as they, so that perhaps we might 
 be a little better off. 
 
 That the organization is a Prussian institution may 
 be observed from the one fact alone that no doubts 
 about it are allowed. You simply must believe in it 
 as in the Gospels. Nevertheless, there are a few un- 
 believers, and here and there you hear low mutter- 
 ings of "Prussian fraud," and "a lot of noise." But 
 only a few unbelievers. Most of us are so Prus- 
 sianized that we have utter faith in it. 
 
 However, there is a Prussian organization that is 
 not a fraud, and that, unlike the food administration, 
 is not a child of pale fear. Nor was it called into 
 being only at the outbreak of the war. It has been 
 ready and equipped for years. And until now it has 
 
Organization 57 
 
 never failed, but has always kept its promises. For 
 it springs from the innermost instincts of Prussian- 
 ism. It is triumphing now. The organization of 
 brute force and bloody oppression. The organization 
 of mass murder and destruction. It has long been 
 crouching ready to leap like a tiger. 
 
 That is the organization, the genuine Prussian or- 
 ganization. But this one does not go in for publicity. 
 It does not need to. It prefers to remain in the dark. 
 
 The other one, however, the one with all the cack- 
 ling and shouting, is nothing but fraud and idle 
 bluster. 
 
IX 
 THE LUSITANIA 
 
 THE Lusitania! It resounds in the world like a 
 cry of anguish and horror. 
 
 Premeditated massacre, carried out in cold blood. 
 The murder of peaceable, unsuspecting men and 
 women. 
 
 What a brutal, bloodthirsty frame of mind a man 
 must be in to perform such a deed ! Words and com- 
 parisons fail one. The thing is simply inconceivable 
 because it runs counter to every instinct of the civi- 
 lized human being. 
 
 The captain of the U-boat that sank the Lusitania 
 is nothing less than a common thug. He's no sol- 
 dier. He's an assassin who leaps out of the dark to 
 stab his innocent victim. 
 
 In times of peace how horrorstruck we used to be 
 if only one perfidious brute, lying in wait for only 
 one person, destroyed only one human life. Here 
 the very same thing was done to 1,400 human be- 
 ings, to women and children. 
 
 58 
 
The Lusitania 59 
 
 Can one picture to one's self the whole frightful 1 
 ness of the deed? 
 
 Husbands, wives, mothers, seeing their dearest dy- 
 ing before their very eyes, beholding their own death 
 upon them, an awful death by drowning; all because 
 a vile murderer willed it so. 
 
 We should never have dreamed that any such thing 
 was possible in a civilized country. Yet there are 
 enough among us Germans who have the courage to 
 justify this cowardly killing of defenseless people. 
 
 We are at war, they say, and it was done from ne- 
 cessity. 
 
 Yes, the necessity of a murderer. Cold, undis- 
 guised murder. Where's the murderer who has not 
 found justification for his crime? 
 
 Others say that the U-boat captain was obliged to 
 carry out the orders of his government. Very well. 
 But that does not exculpate him. It simply means he 
 had accomplices. 
 
 Those who hired the assassin are as guilty as the 
 assassin himself. Mankind turns from such infamous 
 creatures in disgust. 
 
 They are worthy of one another, are the murderer 
 and those who gave him his horrible orders, William 
 II and his servants. 
 
THE CAUSE OF THE WAR 
 
 THE question of the cause of the war is indeed an 
 important one in view of the prodigious sacrifices of 
 human life, of well-being, and of cultural values that 
 this horrible massacre of the nations is demanding. 
 
 So it is very natural that .each government would 
 repel the suspicion of having given occasion for the 
 war, or of being guilty of its outbreak. Nor is any 
 government satisfied with a merely negative attitude. 
 It takes positive steps to prove most convincingly that 
 all the blame attaches to the enemy governments, 
 while, for its part, it was forced into defense so as to 
 save the country and the people from the destruction 
 plotted by the enemy. 
 
 The only documents in this matter to which we Ger- 
 mans have access that are complete and genuine are 
 the manifestoes issued by our government in the 
 course of the war. Of the manifestoes of the other 
 governments all we know are the fragments that our 
 authorities deem advisable to publish here. 
 
 The German government uses every opportunity 
 60 
 
The Cause of the War 61 
 
 that presents itself to ascribe the exclusive blame to 
 England. It does so with ever greater ardor as the 
 suffering that the war causes the German people 
 grows more terrible. Again and again we are told, 
 ''England and England alone is to blame. England 
 wanted to crush Germany and united half the world 
 against her for that purpose." 
 
 But this is in curious contrast to the fact that the 
 immediate cause of the war was Austria's quarrel 
 with Servia, while the declarations of war against 
 Russia and France proceeded from Berlin, as well as 
 the march into Belgium. These are indisputable facts 
 known to everybody, and it is hard to see what Eng- 
 land's part is and just why England must bear sole 
 blame for the war. 
 
 Naturally a statement so oft repeated, which is in 
 contradiction to the actual happenings at the out- 
 break of the war, will eventually arouse distrust in 
 every man who tries to preserve his independence of 
 judgment and has not determined from the start to 
 give up all opinions of his own and accept without 
 reservation whatever the government wishes him to 
 accept. 
 
 The instant that Germany decided to throw down 
 the glove to Russia and France, Austria and Servia 
 stepped completely into the background. And every 
 
62 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 man who knows his European history also knows that 
 Germany's invasion of Belgium was tantamount to a 
 declaration of war against England as one of the 
 guaranty powers for Belgian neutrality in any Euro- 
 pean war. Thus, England was drawn into the con- 
 flict, and the genuine character of the war was in- 
 stantly revealed as a duel between England and 
 Germany with seconds on each side. 
 
 The opposition between the two states, which had 
 never come out clearly before, now of a sudden was 
 quite manifest, in all the sharpness of its outlines. 
 
 People compare the collision between the two states 
 to the explosion of mighty bombs thrown at each other 
 by the hands of Titans; and from the tremendous 
 force of the impact they deduce that the opposition 
 not only was exceedingly strong but also of very 
 ancient date. 
 
 That is not so. Between England and Germany 
 there were none of the causes for friction of long 
 standing such as, chief of all, a boundary line in com- 
 mon ; that source of old grudges lasting for centuries 
 sometimes, as between Germany and Austria and Ger- 
 many and France. 
 
 The opposition between Germany and England is 
 recent, going no farther back, in the main, than the 
 reign of William II. To the careful observer it re- 
 
The Cause of the War 63 
 
 veals an evolution something like the following. 
 From the many public speeches and addresses de- 
 livered by William II since his accession to the 
 throne, the English government eventually and of 
 necessity derived the impression that the Kaiser, in 
 addition to his army, the largest the world had ever 
 seen, was eager to build up a navy too, which would 
 rival and, if possible, excel the English navy. "Our 
 future lies on the water. ' ' 
 
 Naturally a result of the Kaiser's speeches and allu- 
 sions was to produce a feeling of uneasiness in Eng- 
 land. But certainly what must have contributed even 
 more to the English government's disquiet than the 
 Kaiser's public utterances were the things he said to 
 so-called "friends," to whom the high gentleman ex- 
 pressed himself concerning the aims of his policy with 
 a lack of reserve prompted by anything in the world 
 rather than statesmanlike wisdom or diplomatic skill. 
 
 The best example is the notorious interview between 
 William II and an English nobleman. It aroused 
 such a stir, not only in England, but still more so in 
 Germany, that the chancellor, Billow, had to say 
 some very emphatic things to the Kaiser and extract a 
 promise from him to be more cautious in the future. 
 
 In the meanwhile the English followed the Kaiser's 
 speeches and doings with growing distrust and uneasi- 
 
64 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 ness. They knew, of course, that Germany's fate de- 
 pended upon his personal rule, and German diplo- 
 macy as a factor in the determination of the situation 
 was not to be reckoned with, was a cipher, in fact, and 
 the German people at large certainly had no influence. 
 So if it pleased the highest war-lord, war could be 
 brought about overnight. 
 
 Even if Germany's prodigious land force might 
 have been regarded as an instrument in the Kaiser's 
 hands for threatening France and Russia, the sea 
 force, which was being so rapidly strengthened, was 
 aimed undoubtedly against none but England. 
 Against whom else could it reasonably have been 
 used? 
 
 Now, to England free and unhampered traffic of the 
 seas is a question of genuinely vital importance. The 
 people living on the British Isles depend upon the 
 undisturbed and undisturbable supply of necessities 
 from overseas. Consequently the domination of the 
 water is simply a question of to be or not to be to 
 Great Britain. It is of far less significance to Ger- 
 many, purely a matter of prestige as a matter of fact. 
 For nobody in Germany need starve on that account. 
 This the war has shown clearly. 
 
 Moreover England has India and her other colonies 
 to protect, or, at least, has her connections with them 
 
The Cause of the War 65 
 
 to maintain, and the fate of India or of any other 
 of the older colonies means far more to England than 
 the fate, let us say, of Southwest Africa or the 
 Kamerun to Germany. 
 
 No wonder, then, that the speeded increase of the 
 German navy, for which there seemed no necessity 
 based on evident, factual conditions, should only fan 
 the uneasiness and distrust of the English government 
 and turn into certainty the view gaming ground 
 among widening circles of the English people, that 
 all these efforts on Germany's part were directed to- 
 ward the annihilation of the British realm. 
 
 And the German press, for its part, left nothing un- 
 done to make the fears of the English appear well 
 founded and to produce in the people of Great Britain 
 the feeling that the German knife was already at 
 their throats. The notorious pensioned generals like 
 Bernhardi all blew the same horn. 
 
 Of course there was a set of people in England to 
 whom this state of dread and panic was very welcome 
 and who tried their utmost to exploit it to their ad- 
 vantage. The armament industry, in which vast cap- 
 ital is engaged in England as well as elsewhere, made 
 use of this condition of affairs, with the help of a 
 complaisant nationalist press, in part dependent upon 
 the armament capitalists, to whip up passions into 
 
66 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 white heat. But these honorable gentlemen were not 
 concerned so much with war itself as with the coining 
 of fresh millions through increased appropriations for 
 armaments. And the English people, under the lash 
 of the fear thus created in them and magnified a 
 thousandfold, sanctioned whatever was asked of them 
 for new and ever more extravagant preparations to 
 meet the expected attack. 
 
 The next thing that had to be done was to make 
 sure that the naval armament panic in England was 
 properly exploited in Germany. The same state of 
 mind had to be created here, too. The English prep- 
 arations had to be held up as a danger signal to the 
 Germans so as to force them into greater speed in the 
 strengthening of the army and navy. 
 
 The mania for armaments became intolerable. 
 
 Finally the English government realized that af- 
 fairs could not go on that way any longer and that 
 such a competitive race for armaments, if carried on 
 for a length of time, would inevitably result in serious 
 injury to the nations. So it made an attempt to bring 
 about an agreement with the German government by 
 which the naval preparations of both countries were 
 to be restricted. Whatever other endeavors the Eng- 
 lish government may have made can only be surmised, 
 
The Cause of the War 67 
 
 though the repeated visits to Berlin of the sympa- 
 thetic Lord Haldane provided a few sign-posts. 
 
 A is generally known, the attempts of the English 
 government as well ai the peace congresses held at 
 The Hague came to naught. Of who was to blame 
 there can be no doubt. 
 
 In the meanwhile the negotiations long carried on 
 between the English government and France and Rus- 
 sia went so far that an understanding was reached at 
 least with these countries concerning various ques- 
 tions the amicable solution of which had formerly 
 seemed hopeless. 
 
 Edward VII and his ministers had gone to work 
 with great patience and perseverance to remove 
 sources of friction and bury old grudges. 
 
 This policy, which England pursued from its 
 "splendid isolation," was imposed upon Edward VII 
 through fear of a sudden German attack and the wish 
 to be ready for any emergency that might arise from 
 that quarter. It was a policy of reinsurance, purely 
 defensive in its nature. And not to recognize that it 
 was defensive, but to ascribe to it motives of aggres- 
 sion against Germany, implies a considerable amount 
 of nationalist prejudice. 
 
 This is all that the so-called "encircling" policy 
 connected with the name of Edward VII amounted to. 
 
68 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 It is always set down as peculiarly hostile to Ger- 
 many. 
 
 As a matter of fact, Edward VII and his ministers 
 would have been just as glad to reach an agreement 
 with Germany as with Russia or France. 
 
 Yet William II 's awkward and ill-considered 
 speeches made Germany stand there like a cur show- 
 ing its teeth ready to jump at England's legs. And 
 the ".fatherland" press did its share toward inciting 
 the two brother nations against each other. 
 
 The thing that is always given as the cause of the 
 "encircling" policy is England's envy of Germany's 
 commercial development. This is so absurd and so 
 easily disproved that it scarcely requires refuta- 
 tion. 
 
 Germany's tremendous development is a fact. But 
 Germany is not the only country that has developed. 
 The other nations have been progressing, too. How 
 about the United States ? Why should England select 
 Germany in particular as the mark of her envy ? Why 
 should she not be envious of the other countries, too ? 
 Is there any rational basis whatsoever for the assump- 
 tion that England is envious ? The statistics that show 
 how Germany's trade figures keep getting closer and 
 closer to England 's are misleading. The figures given 
 always refer to the mother country alone. Figures 
 
The Cause of the War 69 
 
 for the colonies are almost invariably disregarded. If 
 statistics could be obtained of the trade of the whole 
 British Empire and these compared with the statis- 
 tics of Germany's trade, everybody would instantly 
 see that it is not England that needs to be envious. 
 
 Thus, an unbiased consideration of the facts thor- 
 oughly disproves the assertion of the Berlin govern- 
 ment that England was to blame for the war be- 
 cause of her envy of, and ill-will to, Germany's com- 
 mercial development. On the contrary, the assertion 
 turns out to be a base deception of the German peo- 
 ple, inspired by the desire to appear guiltless of the 
 war in their eyes. 
 
 But the war, we know, is not being carried on with 
 England alone. A number of other countries besides 
 are involved. So, in fixing the blame for the war, it 
 is necessary to consider Germany's relations with 
 these countries, too. 
 
 As for France, it is not to be denied that her people 
 have not yet completely forgotten the extreme humil- 
 iation of 1870. For France was not a state to be 
 looked down upon at that time. She stood at a high 
 degree of cultural development, and all her provinces 
 were closely knit together by historical ties and com- 
 mon traditions of liberty. 
 
 It has now become clear what Bismarck's forcible 
 
70 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 measure really was a mistake, a very serious mii- 
 take, which has robbed the whole of mankind of forty- 
 four years of peace and quiet. 
 
 The pain produced by the amputation of two 
 provinces, which were intimate, vital parts of the 
 French organism, went deeper than we could ever have 
 dreamed. It is not so easy to decide to what state, 
 from a purely political point of view, the two prov- 
 inces belong, as our Pan- Germans would have us be- 
 lieve. In fact, in their opinion, there are even other 
 parts of France that are Germanic, too, and ought 
 really to be taken away from France now. 
 
 At any rate, before 1870, Alsace and Lorraine be- 
 longed to France by the very same right that they 
 now belong to Germany. But what is more important 
 than mere political affiliation with this or that state 
 is the fact that the democratically minded people of 
 Alsace-Lorraine did not cease in the forty-four years 
 after 1870 to dream of their past and look upon them- 
 selves as members of the democratic French nation, 
 while viewing their annexation to Germany as a 
 merely temporary condition. 
 
 They ever awaited with yearning the savior who 
 was to come forth from France and snatch them from 
 the clutches of Prussian despotism. Their ideas and 
 feelings remained French, and they were attached to 
 
The Cause of the War 71 
 
 the French people by the memory of the wonderful 
 period they had lived through together, when they 
 had helped to enthrone human rights, liberty, equality 
 and fraternity. 
 
 Is it conceivable that such sentiments of love and 
 devotion should remain unrequited in France? No, 
 impossible. It was inevitable that the longing to an- 
 nex Alsace-Lorraine to the French fatherland again 
 should never be quite stilled. 
 
 Another factor entered the apprehension that the 
 two provinces lost in 1870 might not be enough and 
 that Germany might some day come again and take 
 by force the land that it needed for its surplus popu- 
 lation. 
 
 And recently new occasions for rivalry have arisen 
 as a result of colonial possessions. Indignation, for 
 instance, ran high in France over Germany 's stepping 
 into Morocco as disturber of the peace when for years 
 she had in a measure been favoring France's expan- 
 sion in North Africa, not for love of her fair neighbor, 
 to be sure, but in order to divert the attention of the 
 French from Alsace-Lorraine. 
 
 The time came when in Germany it was thought no 
 longer necessary so to divert their attention, and the 
 German government, therefore, turned to colonial mat- 
 
72 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 ters which, unfortunately, were taken up in a place 
 where France felt she had inalienable rights. 
 
 In this instance, too, the nationalist press in both 
 England and Germany intervened in the service of 
 the armament capitalists to inflame passions and in- 
 cite France on to ever greater antagonism to Ger- 
 many. As a result, the armament industry flourished 
 in France also, and this, in turn, did not fail to have 
 its reaction upon the increase of armaments in Ger- 
 many and to result in an arming contest between the 
 two states. 
 
 This was the sole purpose of the French armament 
 interests. In bringing about this rivalry, their real 
 and only object had been achieved. Like the English 
 capitalists, all they cared for was the keeping up of 
 warlike preparations, not actual warfare, which in the 
 end might turn out to be disastrous to them, too. For 
 everybody assumed there would be a brief war, and 
 nobody knew what its consequences might be. Unin- 
 termitted arming, however, without war itself un- 
 doubtedly was more in accordance with capitalist in* 
 terests. 
 
 At the same time the agitating done by the press did 
 not perturb the sound, peaceable sentiment of the 
 French people to such an extent that they themselves 
 wanted war. This is a positive fact, of which there 
 
The Cause of the War 73 
 
 can be no doubt. The Germans were asked to believe 
 that the revanche of the French was so extreme that 
 some day they would simply come and attack us. Any 
 man with the least little experience in the affairs of 
 the world knows that that is a downright untruth. In 
 spite of a hundred Alsace-Lorraines we Germans could 
 live in perfect security so far as the French are con- 
 cerned. 
 
 And to be strictly just it must be said even of the 
 French government that it kept its skirts as clear 
 as possible of the doings of the armament interests. It 
 confined itself to what it deemed necessary for pre- 
 serving the country from a sudden attack. Even in 
 the final days before the war it was the French gov- 
 ernment's sole endeavor to preserve peace. In this it 
 went to the utmost limits possible, even to the humilia- 
 tion of its own country, withdrawing its troops inland 
 ten kilometers from the boundary line to show clearly 
 that it never intended to attack, and also to remove 
 every pretext for attack by Germany. 
 
 Even German officers testify to the complete divest- 
 ment of the border of French troops. They pene- 
 trated far into the country and even occupied French 
 barracks without coming upon a French soldier. 
 
 The French government was fully conscious of the 
 
74 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 responsibility it bore toward its own people and the 
 whole of humanity. 
 
 Eussia's attitude to Germany had remained the 
 same, without essential change for years. All that 
 happened was that she began to feel a desire a de- 
 sire expressed with heat by some that at the con- 
 clusion of the new commercial treaty she should be 
 accorded somewhat less unfavorable terms than in the 
 previous treaty. The too great dependence of Russia 
 upon the German market was felt to be burdensome 
 and oppressive. 
 
 It was at this point that a part of the Russian na- 
 tionalist press tried to step in so as to stir up passions. 
 However, the attempt met with little success, so little 
 indeed as to be hardly worth mentioning. This is 
 due to the fact that in the large and sparsely popu- 
 lated country of Russia the press does not wield as 
 much influence as in Germany, France and England 
 and has not the importance that it has in those coun- 
 tries. There were Germans all over Russia, and they 
 were still, as before, by no means unwelcome. 
 
 It cannot be rightly maintained, therefore, that 
 there was a feeling of irritation against Germany, -or 
 that the press was carrying on war propaganda, 
 which is all the more remarkable as Germany's hand 
 in Austria's Balkan policy was clearly recognized. 
 
The Cause of the War 75 
 
 Austria's intentions with regard to Servia neces- 
 sarily aroused Russia's interest to the highest pitch, 
 firstly, in Russia's character as acknowledged Slavic 
 protector of the menaced southern sister-state, and, 
 secondly, to guard against every outlet to the 
 Mediterranean being cut off by the action of Aus- 
 tria. This is a matter vitally affecting Russia, since 
 both in trade by land as in trade across the Black 
 Sea it is very largely dependent upon the good will 
 of foreign nations. 
 
 So it is obvious that Russia would try to find an 
 outward passage for her products past the territory of 
 her Slavic brothers. 
 
 That is why Russia has repeatedly threatened Aus- 
 tria with mobilization. And, each time she did so, 
 she succeeded in achieving her purpose, that is, in re- 
 straining Austria from subordinating all Balkan mat- 
 ters to Austria's own interests and the interests of 
 its ally, Germany. Even in the final stages before the 
 war Russia would have gone no further than mere mo- 
 bilization. How little the Russian government was 
 inclined actually to go to war may be deduced from 
 its attitude throughout the crisis following upon Aus- 
 tria's annexation of Bosnia. 
 
 In all the former junctures Russia had invariably 
 mobilized, but never attacked, fearing to assume re- 
 
76 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 sponsibility for the world conflagration that would 
 inevitably ensue. She mobilized again in 1914, and 
 this time, too, ostensibly for the purpose of curbing 
 Austria from an act of violence, from going too far 
 with little Servia. But now because it was the suc- 
 cessor to the throne that had been murdered, Austria 
 held the highest trump card and was determined to 
 make a clean sweep in the matter of Servia. 
 
 According to the Berlin government, it is to Rus- 
 sia's mobilization against Austria, involving, presum- 
 ably, mobilization also on the German frontier, that 
 we owe the immediate occasion of the war. And Rus- 
 sia 's mobilization, the Berlin government says, was 
 done at England's instigation. 
 
 This can convince none but such as have lost all 
 power of independent judgment. Any man who does 
 his own thinking will still have left unanswered in 
 his mind many questions regarding the outbreak of 
 the war. 
 
 Why did not the German government leave the 
 odium of declaring war to the Russian government? 
 Even a man totally ignorant of the conduct of war 
 knows there is a vast difference between the speed with 
 which a German and a Russian mobilization is exe- 
 cuted. Germany could quietly have gone ahead mo- 
 bilizing as much as she pleased, but anything more 
 
The Cause of the War 77 
 
 than that she should have relinquished to the others. 
 
 One more point that I must investigate is the atti- 
 tude of our own government and the motives of those 
 circles which are so close to the government that it 
 is impossible to tell where the jurisdiction of the one 
 begins and that of the other ends. It is actually true 
 that because of the governmental system obtaining 
 mainly in the controlling state, Prussia, it is beyond 
 one's power to distinguish between them. 
 
 The people themselves, the great laboring masses, 
 as a factor for or against war, may be left out of 
 account. They wanted the war as little as did the 
 people of the other countries, and they have not the 
 least to do with it. The German nation as a whole 
 is behind no other in genuine love of peace. The 
 nationalist agitating done by the ' * fatherland ' ' press, 
 added to what may be called a positively criminal 
 system of nationalist education of the young a con- 
 stant merry-go-round for Germany 's power and great- 
 ness has yet not succeeded in exterminating reason 
 and sense in the German masses, even though it al- 
 most seemed so at the outset of the war. 
 
 We can determine absolutely who it was in Germany 
 that urged war. 
 
 Way and beyond every one else it was Prussian 
 Caesarism, that power which pereeiveci that its pacific 
 
78 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 reputation was gradually turning stale and that mod- 
 ern evolution, brushing past it, was becoming the or- 
 der of the day. It was facing the doom of simply 
 dropping into oblivion some day, in spite of its ora- 
 torical gifts. 
 
 So, having nothing more to hope for from peace, it 
 wanted to step into the limelight again by other 
 means, and it believed that as the conqueror, as the 
 "enlarger of the Empire, " it would once more shine 
 forth resplendent. 
 
 Intimately connected with the Caesar power are the 
 Junkers. They are the real props of the throne, and 
 their interests are absolutely identical with the in- 
 terests of the Prussian monarch. 
 
 The third factor, large industry and capital in 
 general, played about the same role in Germany as in 
 the other belligerent countries, only translated into 
 the Prussian. Their responsibility for the war is on 
 the whole no greater than the responsibility of their 
 colleagues of the Entente. 
 
 Among all the states involved in the war, autocracy 
 and Junkerdom are peculiar to the Prussian state, 
 and autocracy and Junkerdom were interested not 
 only in military preparations, like the armament cap- 
 ital, but also in actual war. 
 
 It is from war alone that the Junkers derive ad- 
 
The Cause of the War 79 
 
 vantage. It is only in war time that they really pros- 
 per. And that ij why we have war. 
 
 These purveyors of foodstuffs to the enormous 
 armies, these agrarians, whose monumental unscrupu- 
 lousness and strapping egoism know no bounds, need 
 the war! But that is not stating the whole. An- 
 other twig has sprouted from the same root of Jun- 
 kerdom the military caste. And the military caste 
 also wanted and needed war. The military caste also 
 was eager to make money and much money. And 
 by far the larger part of the millions required by the 
 war finds its way into the pockets of these noble gen- 
 tlemen. While the people sink into poverty and 
 utter misery, the Junkers enrich themselves. That is 
 why this war is the war of Prussian Junkerdom, and 
 is scarcely likely to end so long as the Junkers can 
 make money out of it. They had been carrying on 
 their preparations long beforehand, and for years it 
 was in their service that the " fatherland" press had 
 to be hammering into the heads of the people the 
 fiction of a fatherland threatened and sore beset by 
 enemies. 
 
 Had Germany not had this feudal caste along with 
 their chieftain, but only the armament capitalists, 
 like the other nations, we should not be having war. 
 
80 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 No, we should not. Humanity would have been 
 spared that horror. 
 
 When the military caste had completed its prepara- 
 tions and was ready for the war that its literary rep- 
 resentatives had long been clamoring for, the war 
 began. 
 
 The vile creatures never for a second shrank from 
 bringing down upon Germany and the whole world 
 death and destruction, poverty and destitution. And 
 as for the great "peace Kaiser," he placed himself 
 at the head of his loyal triarians on their predatory 
 expedition. That was self-understood. 
 
 He who had contributed so much through his 
 senseless speeches to incite the nations against one 
 another wanted nothing better than that they should 
 chop each other to pieces for his sake, for the greater 
 glory of his dynasty and imperial throne. 
 
 And that is the true cause of the war. The last 
 Hohenzollern, the last representative of a decayed 
 monarchy, is fighting for his existence, and along 
 with him the Junkers, whose life and death are linked 
 with his. 
 
 He is sacrificing the whole German nation for his 
 own existence. Walls of corpses, streams of blood, 
 oceans of tears are to save him from the ideas of a 
 
The Cause of the War 81 
 
 new time that laugh to scorn the arrogant assumption 
 of such autocracy. 
 
 He and his Junkers wanted to see the whole of 
 Europe at their feet forever. Therefore the war! 
 That, in the last analysis, is the ultimate cause of 
 the war! 
 
XI 
 
 THE OPTIMIST 
 
 "LONG live the Optimist! For he's the Big 
 Dunce." 
 
 Of course, the Optimist always has been with us, 
 but the war has made him shoot up to his full de- 
 velopment like fruit in a hot-house. 
 
 No clouds of envy ever darken the sunlight of 
 German successes in his eyes. No discordant note 
 ever jars upon his daily rejoicings over German vic- 
 tories. The banners are forever flying in his soul. 
 
 The victorious German arms daily assure him his 
 gay intoxication, and evenings he won't leave his 
 table at the cafe until he can take a few fresh Ger- 
 man victories home to bed with him and lie upon 
 them softly until the next morning. 
 
 It goes without saying that he is a prophet. And 
 what a prophet! When in the first days of the war 
 you discussed its duration with him, it was amazing 
 how he knew the very date of its glorious conclusion. 
 
 The war was going to last only a few months, in 
 fact, only a few weeks. "By the time the leaves fall, 
 
 82 
 
The Optimist 83 
 
 we shall be back home again/' all our enemies will be 
 down on their knees, begging and whining, and every- 
 thing we set out to do will have been accomplished. 
 We at home must hurry so that the triumphal arches 
 are sure to be ready against the return of the victors. 
 
 Nobody doubted the truth of the Optimist's state- 
 ment. He proved so minutely how things must come 
 about in this very way and how every other eventu- 
 ality was utterly excluded, that it would have been 
 a pity to disturb his lovely certainty by petty skep- 
 ticism. 
 
 Our magnificent troops would make short work of 
 the decadent Frenchmen and the English mercena- 
 ries, not to mention the corrupt Russians, who were 
 armed with nothing but clubs and had to be driven 
 forward by their own machine-guns. 
 
 When the leaves had long been lying on the ground 
 and there was not the least sign of the enemy's de- 
 feat or the end of the war, the Optimist forgot all 
 about his prophecy. Of course, he had said nothing 
 of the sort. All he had said was that the war would 
 be over by Christmas. 
 
 But that was a sure thing. No doubt of it, the 
 war would be over by Christmas. Hindenburg him- 
 self had told him so. The Field Marshal had re- 
 plied to an enthusiastic postal sent him by the Op- 
 
84 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 timist and his boon companions at the cafe table, 
 promising to have the Russians completely defeated 
 by Christmas and to enter Petrograd I beg pardon 
 St. Petersburg. 
 
 After Christmas there came no more belated proph- 
 ecies. The final victory, necessarily, depended upon 
 the strategical and tactical position. How stupid, 
 declared the Optimist, were the people who thought 
 they could say definitely beforehand just when the 
 war would end. You see how they "got left" with 
 their foolish prophesyings ? 
 
 But what you could tell for certain was that once 
 Warsaw was captured, the Eussians wouldn't go on 
 and would be begging for a separate peace. 
 
 But after the fall of Warsaw the Russians how 
 odd! kept on, anyhow. So all the other Polish 
 strongholds had to fall, too, and after the fall of 
 each, the Optimist foretold a separate peace with 
 absolute certainty. 
 
 After Poland came Servia and Montenegro, whose 
 Prince Mirko actually gave the Optimist a bit of sat- 
 isfaction; but unfortunately the prince's papa did 
 not agree, and the peace treaty was revoked. 
 
 The east being so unsatisfactory, the Optimist 
 turned to the west. Verdun was to decide the final 
 victory in our favor. 
 
The Optimist 8; 
 
 ' ' Once we take Verdun, the French are checkmate. 
 Anyhow, they have nothing but children of ten years 
 and upward at the front. The younger children are 
 in military training." 
 
 The Optimist has long forgotten Verdun. Be- 
 sides, he doesn't care a cent whether we take this or 
 that worthless place, or none at all. We're con- 
 quering, and victory was in our hands long ago. But 
 the point is that our enemies, who don't know the 
 first thing about tactics or strategy, haven't the sense 
 to realize that they're beaten to a frazzle. 
 
 And what is the Optimist's war aim? Deutsch- 
 land, Deutschland uber alles, uber alles in der Welt. 
 
 We shall dictate peace terms, a German peace, to 
 our enemies, who are completely crushed militarily, 
 politically and economically. 
 
 In spite of our vast superiority, and our absoutely 
 unqualified victory, we will show how magnanimous 
 we are. We can afford to be magnanimous, we 
 are such kind-hearted creatures. All we will demand 
 will be an indemnity of 150 billions with 2 per cent, 
 rebate for cash, and guaranties in real estate, that is, 
 the whole of Belgium, and a strip of northern Prance. 
 Not a very broad strip, no broader at the utmost than 
 to Rheims, and extending to the Atlantic coast. 
 
 But "the fatherland must be enlarged." Servia, 
 
86 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 Montenegro and Albania will bring Germany the so 
 long desired coastland on the Mediterranean. And 
 with that we shall be content, that is, until the next 
 war. 
 
 A German Empire from the Atlantic to the Med- 
 iterranean. We are modest, altogether too modest, 
 because in return for our marvelous victories we 
 ought to have much more territory the whole of 
 France down to Nice and Monte Carlo, and Great 
 Britain, now thoroughly humiliated. But, as I said, 
 we are too modest, much too gentle and kind-hearted, 
 we dreamy German Michels. 
 
 The sweet-souled Optimist and world-conqueror is 
 past the age for military service and he has no close 
 relatives in the trenches. No wonder he is so ready 
 for all the sacrifices of life that the conquest of 
 Germany's world-power may still require. 
 
 And he can "hold out/' too, because he was care- 
 ful to have the right ancestors. A ' ' premature ' ' peace 
 would be a serious mistake. 
 
 Much he cares for humanity or culture. He cannot 
 see that these things, said to be of so much value to 
 mankind, have been threatened by the war. He can 
 still almost always get his beer. 
 
 As for the prosperity of the masses, which some 
 people say has been ruined, why, within three 
 
The Optimist 87 
 
 months after the end of the war it will have recov- 
 ered to such an extent that every skilled laborer will 
 be able to build his own villa. Because business in 
 the enemy countries needs us so badly and is so 
 anxiously awaiting our goods that buyers are already 
 besieging all the stations at the borders awaiting the 
 conclusion of peace to swarm into Germany like lo- 
 custs and carry off whatever they can lay their hands 
 on of course upon cash payment. 
 
 But now, supposing things should not turn out the 
 way the Optimist prophesied, do you think he is 
 going to notice it? I think not, because he's an 
 Optimist and ' ' Long live the Optimist ! For he 's the 
 Big Dunce!" 
 
XII 
 NATIONALISM 
 
 NATIONALISM, it will scarcely be denied, has become 
 one of the mainsprings of the war. 
 
 Only, most of those who admit the truth of this 
 statement do not mean their own nationalism. "We 
 really have none," they say. They always mean the 
 nationalism of other countries. 
 
 You really cannot call German nationalism by that 
 name. It isn't nationalism at all. It is sheer patriot- 
 ism, and altogether justified, even necessary and by 
 no means dangerous patriotism, while the nationalism 
 of other countries is very bad, being in reality chau- 
 vinism, and therefore detestable and also highly dan- 
 gerous. 
 
 Nationalism finds its chief mouthpiece in the news- 
 papers and expresses itself in a thousand different 
 yet always intensely disagreeable ways, stirring up 
 race hatred and scolding and insisting that what the 
 nationalist press of another country considers the good 
 and the only right course is the wrong and the very 
 worst course. 
 
 88 
 
Nationalism 89 
 
 Since the large influence wielded by nationalism 
 upon the relations of the various countries is an es- 
 tablished fact, it is of no small interest to consider 
 the nature of nationalism. But, by way of change, 
 we'll consider our own nationalism for once. There 
 are plenty of German pens busying themselves with 
 other people's nationalism. Besides, our own nation- 
 alism, with great and unnatural modesty, always tries 
 to sail under false colors and work secretly, in the 
 dark. So it will do our nationalism some good to be 
 dragged out into the daylight and given an airing. 
 
 Nationalism in Germany is of highly aristocratic 
 lineage and its connections exceedingly respectable. 
 Monarchism and militarism are its parents, bureaucra- 
 cy, its brother. The members of the family all sup- 
 port one another and confine their doings to a nar- 
 row enclosure. The public schools are the halls where 
 honor is done the German princes. 
 
 In the schools we learn all the details only such 
 details, of course, as are fitted for the ears of sub- 
 jects concerning the various fathers and mothers of 
 the country. These high and mighty ones shine re- 
 splendent, as if illuminated by a Bengal light, and in 
 their honor fireworks are shot off into the air. Most 
 of their deeds border on the divine. Miraculous is 
 their goodness, their wisdom, their nobleness, their 
 
90 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 bravery. Not a ruler among them who ever rose later 
 than four o 'clock in the morning ; and he always kept 
 strictly at his task of ruling without even stopping 
 for lunch, so close to his heart lay the welfare of his 
 subjects. And sometimes even the nights were dedi- 
 cated to the good of the people. 
 
 Next, at a great, yet proper distance, come the 
 achievements of the nation. These by far exceed the 
 achievements of all the other countries taken together. 
 Unfortunately, the democratic nations leave most to 
 be desired. Though no wonder, since the administra- 
 tions of the democracies are very inferior and are 
 run chiefly by venal lawyers and corrupt politicians. 
 
 Mingled with this overestimation of one's own na- 
 tion and contempt for other nations, is a goodly por- 
 tion of hatred of peoples speaking a different lan- 
 guage. 
 
 The "fatherland sentiment" has now been prop- 
 erly implanted in the children's minds. A citizen 
 brought up in this way is capable of anything. He 
 is the dupe of any fraud provided it has "father- 
 land" trimmings. He is "loyal to the Kaiser to the 
 very marrow of his bones, ' ' which indicates a certain 
 softening of the brain. 
 
 Really, the "fatherland" press need not work so 
 hard every day influencing the people's minds. It's 
 
Nationalism 91 
 
 only to make assurance doubly sure. Because very 
 few men display the high degree of independent 
 judgment required to rid their minds of the wrong 
 things put into them by their school teachers when 
 they were children. And what's the use of thinking? 
 It gets you nowhere and only gives you a headache. 
 Besides, everything will stay just the way it is all 
 the same. 
 
 The government, therefore, has nothing to fear 
 from the serious criticism of its own people. More- 
 over, the government is so excellent, so infallible, that 
 it doesn't need any criticism. It is only the conduct 
 of the other governments that deserves criticism, and 
 in the case of these it cannot be too sharp, because out 
 of pure maliciousness they behave in a very ugly, un- 
 just way toward the innocent German government. 
 
 To harbor a sense of justice or decency toward 
 other nations is a grievous wrong bordering on high 
 treason. Nationalism will have it so in its self-love 
 carried to the point of megalomania. Love of one's 
 own country is synonymous with hatred of all other 
 countries. To be logical, a man who loves his mother 
 ought to hate all other mothers. 
 
 The Germans delight in reading a criticism ap- 
 pearing in a foreign newspaper against its own gov- 
 ernment or its own people. They hunt for such criti- 
 
92 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 cism eagerly, and the harsher it is, the truer and 
 better worth notice they take it to be. The ordinary 
 German reads black on white a nation's avowal of 
 its own wickedness, while his * ' fatherland " papers 
 so pleasantly dangle before his eyes the picture of 
 his own country's preeminence. 
 
 This unedifying role which the German press has 
 been playing in the world battle of invectives and 
 suspicions that the nations have been honoring one 
 another with, seems to have assumed a sharper and 
 more conspicuous character at the time when German 
 enterprise in trade and industry began to be under- 
 taken on a large scale. To the earlier inspirers of 
 nationalism, monarchism, chief of all, and militarism 
 and autocracy, a fourth was now added, capitalism. 
 It devolved upon capitalism always to keep the war- 
 chest full, and it may be that without capitalism, 
 nationalism might have died of weakness or been 
 killed by the modern internationalistic development. 
 Of course, there has been nationalism in every era 
 and in every country in which the despots felt the 
 need for strengthening their own positions by inciting 
 race hatreds. Only in earlier times the name was dif- 
 ferent. It was called particularism. The thing 
 has remained the same, except that instead of tribes 
 we now have races. 
 
Nationalism 93 
 
 The identical sort of mad conflict that is now 
 engaging the world once took place within Ger- 
 many itself, each of whose separate "father- 
 lands" was fighting the others just as furious- 
 ly as the nations are fighting in the world-war to- 
 day. And the "practical" politicians of that time 
 thought it just as Utopian a dream to reconcile the 
 many clashing interests and unite all the heads of 
 the various fatherlands into a single confederacy, the 
 German Empire, as many people think it is now to 
 reconcile the antagonistic interests of the nations of 
 the world and form a United States of the World. 
 
 Merely to conceive such a thing was demagogy. 
 Why, the existence, the coronet of a few princes was 
 at stake, at least apparently; and that was no joke. 
 It was fairly clear that one or the other of the dozen 
 princes and rulers would get run over. But none 
 of them wanted the accident to occur to him. Each 
 was quite willing to let that fate befall a "friendly 
 brother and cousin." Finally, evolution, in spite of 
 everything, forced the unification of the German 
 states into a confederacy. To all appearances it 
 hasn't done their majesties and highnesses any too 
 much damage. It was the chief principle, at the so- 
 called unification of the German nation, that as little 
 pain as possible should be inflicted upon the dynastic 
 
94 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 interests, and even the steam-roller Prussia complied 
 somewhat with this principle in the special interests 
 of its own dynasty. 
 
 In all the revolutions from above, the welfare or 
 the interests of the people have had no voice. The 
 German nation at that time was without the suffrage, 
 and still is without it. But slowly, very slowly the 
 page must turn. The German people must see at 
 least that it has to take its fate into its own hands if 
 its object be not to adorn existence for its dynasties, 
 but to make its own life at all tolerable. The world 's 
 present bloody struggle is sure to open the people's 
 eyes. If signs do not altogether deceive, this war will 
 seal the fate of the European dynasties and lead to a 
 world federation. 
 
 For in the last analysis the cause of the present war 
 is this very same endeavor of the German dynasties 
 to maintain their existence. If ever their fears were 
 justified, they certainly are now. Hence the mighty 
 efforts of a nationalism, as it were, out-shrieking it- 
 self, to nail the people fast to monarchism and keep 
 bellowing in their ears that their own interests are 
 at stake, while it is clear as the day that it is only 
 the interests of the dynasties, not his own interests, 
 that our German Michel is defending with his life's 
 blood. 
 
Nationalism 95 
 
 Nationalism could not help but drive the German 
 people into the slaughter of the nations. That was 
 the inevitable, ultimate consequence of its tendency. 
 What it cannot do is pull them up again out of the 
 abyss of blood and corpses into which it has plunged 
 them, if only for the one reason, that it will scarcely 
 survive the end of the war. 
 
 To obtain peace the German people will have to 
 throw nationalism overboard, along with those from 
 whom it receives its orders and along with all the 
 mediaeval rubbish of dynasties and rulers and every- 
 thing connected with them. 
 
 The monarchs and their attaches can look on with- 
 out a quiver of pity while millions shed their blood 
 to save the decaying outlived autocracy. They feel 
 their approaching doom and try to resist by every 
 means in their power. A lot is at stake for them, and 
 when there is a lot at stake, tremendous things must 
 be done to save it. They have never lacked the un- 
 derstanding of this principle. The sums of money 
 that the exploiters of the present juncture spend upon 
 Jthe nationalistic press are indeed ' ' tremendous, " 
 It costs a good deal to manufacture the right public 
 opinion. But it so happens that the interests of the 
 armament capitalists, of the Prussian agrarians, and 
 of the monarch are identical ; and this harmony of in- 
 
96 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 terests is of highly gratifying consequence to the 
 "fatherland" press. 
 
 Will all these strenuous efforts of the combined in- 
 terests be able to delay the catastrophe a little while 
 longer, or not? That is the great question. It is 
 difficult to prophesy. But if there is any sense in 
 the things that happen in the world, then the inno- 
 cent blood that has been shed and the tears that have 
 been wept so needlessly will now turn upon those 
 whose hands are still gory from all the slaughter. 
 They had no right to do this frightful thing. Self- 
 seeking so befogged their minds that they lost all 
 sense of responsibility to their own nation and to 
 the whole of mankind. 
 
 So down with them ! To hell with the vile wretches ! 
 The German nation itself must prepare the fate the 
 monsters deserve. And the nationalism that they 
 invented for the purpose of throwing dust in the 
 people's eyes must in the end serve to open the peo- 
 ple's eyes and show how nationalism has been mis- 
 used, hideously misused, beyond all example in the 
 world's history. 
 
XIII 
 SECRET DIPLOMACY 
 
 Now it is celebrating its triumph, the old mole 
 diplomacy is. Its object has been achieved. It has 
 brought about the world conflagration which no ra- 
 tional man had any longer deemed possible. 
 
 Altogether in secret, responsible to no one but to 
 him who is responsible to none, the imperial lord 
 and prince of peace, as he ironically enough has 
 often dubbed himself, diplomacy has so tangled the 
 threads of international relations that there was no 
 other way left than to use the sword and cut the 
 Gordian knot. 
 
 Prussian diplomacy, under the leadership of the 
 supreme amateur diplomat, has turned out its mas- 
 terpiece ; by which I mean not only the war but also 
 its leading the nation by the nose for years without 
 their observing the sanguinary incapacity of their 
 leaders. 
 
 Naturally we learn nothing of what the laymen's 
 lack of skill has done toward preparation for the 
 catastrophe in the country. It remains a secret. 
 
 97 
 
98 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 But when the cooks had finished their dish and 
 made sure that nothing could be undone, a few 
 wholly superfluous telegrams emanating from His 
 Majesty were read aloud to the people. They made 
 clear to every idiot the snow-white innocence of 
 Germany's diplomacy and the coal-black guilt of 
 the enemy's diplomacy. Telegrams from the Kaiser 
 himself! What condescension to make them known 
 to the German people! Really, a needless compli- 
 ment. Telegrams from the Kaiser's valet would have 
 done just as well. The German people would have 
 been just as ready to believe the valet that His Majes- 
 ty had not wanted the war. 
 
 But these monarch telegrams are a wonderfully 
 beautiful supplement to the monarch meetings, the 
 monarch kissings, and the monarch toastings. 
 
 How breathlessly the German people looked on to 
 see whether the Kaiser accompanied the Czar to within 
 two or three yards of his yacht, or whether the two 
 monarchs had spent a half-hour or three-quarters of 
 an hour in animated conversation. Trickery, mere 
 trickery ! 
 
 Secret diplomacy had never before credited the 
 people with any capacity whatsoever for understand- 
 ing foreign affairs or taking part in them. So what 
 
Secret Diplomacy 99 
 
 a remarkable departure now from its general prin- 
 ciple! The diplomats now credited the people with 
 the ability to form an opinion in ten minutes, from 
 the mere reading of four or five telegrams, regarding 
 the whole diplomatic situation and regarding the 
 question, whether or not there should be war. 
 
 Certainly that was the reason for publishing the 
 telegrams, was it not f Otherwise, they might just as 
 well have remained secret, as did all the other docu- 
 ments in the many years previous. 
 
 Or, perhaps, the ''peace Kaiser" was to be made 
 to appear an even more radiant angel of peace than 
 he had claimed to be ? Who knows ? 
 
 Because really, in a matter involving the life and 
 death of millions, those four telegrams could no long- 
 er make any difference one way or the other. It was 
 all the same whether the people knew or did not know 
 their contents. The vote of each individual had to 
 stand regardless of the telegrams, and had to be 
 whatever secret diplomacy wished it to be. Let any 
 man have dared to speak out differently! 
 
 In home affairs, in which far less important mat- 
 ters are dealt with, matters that in a greater or lesser 
 degree usually lesser affect merely the well-being 
 of the individual, the Reichstag and the press have 
 
ioo What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 ample opportunity to become acquainted with all the 
 pertinent material, and learn each detail so as to be 
 able to adopt the right measures. 
 
 Why not the same in foreign affairs ? Why is every- 
 thing kept secret here and left to the good will of the 
 "highest command," which keeps those politicians 
 informed who carry out its policy so that they may 
 create the proper "public opinion"? But on the 
 whole, the " highest command" does not seek its aids 
 according to ability, from among all suitable classes 
 of the people, but according to the number of ances- 
 tors and the pliability of the spinal column. 
 
 No matter how beastly stupid the gentlemen of 
 long lineage may be, their intellect will do for a 
 secret diplomat. In imperial Germany stupidity, as 
 a matter of fact, seems to be a requirement for the 
 diplomatic profession, to judge by the " successes" of 
 Prussian diplomacy throughout the world. 
 
 Not a single one of all the German "diplomats" 
 and "statesmen" was put in his position because of 
 the people 's confidence in him. The man ' ' responsible 
 to none" had summoned them, and that settled it. 
 
 It is to such a company of irresponsibles and sim- 
 pletons, then, that the great German nation entrusts 
 its fate, entrusts the decisions that involve the lives of 
 millions. 
 
Secret Diplomacy 101 
 
 And still no thunderous cry of "Halt!" has ever 
 been shouted to these incompetents! Verily, my peo- 
 ple, you have the government you deserve. 
 
XIV 
 "I RECOGNIZE NO PARTIES ANY MORE" 
 
 How gracious in His Imperial Majesty, how mag- 
 nanimous! He recognizes no parties any more. He 
 recognized them when it suited him to. 
 
 When it seemed fitting for him and his "divinely 
 ordained ' ' officials to treat them as men of the second 
 class and plague and worry them, he recognized par- 
 ties very well. 
 
 But now that he needs them for cannon-fodder, for 
 fuel for the prodigious holocaust to which he set fire, 
 lie recognizes no parties any more. I wonder whether 
 he still would not recognize them if he came out with 
 a whole skin from the conflagration now consuming 
 the world, if he once more succeeded in exercising his 
 beneficent rule as "peace Kaiser." 
 
 I should be willing to wager ten to one that he 
 would instantly recognize them again, and very well, 
 too the stupid Moors who did their duty and now 
 may go. 
 
 It will ever remain incomprehensible to non-Ger- 
 mans that the men to whom solely the Kaiser's re- 
 
 102 
 
"I Recognize No Parties Any More" 103 
 
 mark applies were enraptured at his not recognizing 
 them. As though nothing else could be expected of 
 them, they were promptly trapped by the simple 
 promise implied in the sentence. They did not do the 
 one thing they should have done smile upon the 
 Kaiser coldly and disdainfully and repudiate the 
 profoundly arrogant assumption sounding in every 
 syllable. 
 
 "We object," is the reply that might have been 
 expected of them. But nothing of the sort. Of course 
 not. On the contrary, they were as happy as children 
 whose strict father rewards them for good conduct by 
 not whipping them. Alas, it is really true that the 
 party whom the Kaiser no longer recognized behaved, 
 not like men who, when the occasion arises, stand by 
 the principles they have sworn to a thousand times 
 over, but like mere children. 
 
 When things became serious and the Social Demo- 
 crats had a chance to prove that they understood 
 their principles and could be true to their convic- 
 tions, they instantly forgot everything that had ap- 
 peared in their organs only two days before and 
 gave credence to the base lie that the fatherland had 
 been attacked. 
 
 They who might have earned the thanks of all man- 
 kind failed us miserably. 
 
104 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 Why should the Social Democratic Fraction have 
 hesitated to excite His Majesty's displeasure? Did the 
 working class elect them to kelp the supreme war-lord 
 drag the workingmen to the shambles? Were they 
 not, on the contrary, set up as representatives of 
 democracy, as a living negation of the very principle 
 of which the Kaiser is the supreme representative? 
 
 They let everything go, all their proud dogmas, all 
 their resolutions and platforms. They became mod- 
 est. Instead of haughtily repudiating the Kaiser's 
 " recognizing no parties," which was wrung from 
 him by necessity, and so remaining true to themselves, 
 they were quite content not to be recognized any 
 more by their imperial lord. 
 
XV 
 
 PRUSSIA'S FOREIGN POLICY 
 
 To make clear all the factors that inevitably led 
 up to the world-war, it is necessary to consider those 
 aims of the Prussian foreign policy which are un- 
 avowed and yet in a historic study force themselves 
 upon one's notice. Though following a noiseless 
 course, they have long been apparent and are fraught 
 with grave consequences. 
 
 Sometimes they were temporarily relegated to the 
 background, but never entirely abandoned, and the 
 underground current was all the stronger the fainter 
 the ripple on the surface. 
 
 The long struggle between Austria and Prussia for 
 sovereignty in Germany finally ended with Prussia's 
 triumph and the forcing out of Austria. 
 
 The South-German states, after much wavering 
 between Austria and Prussia, went over to Prussia. 
 Even France sided with Prussia, thinking her dy- 
 nastic interests would thereby be best safeguarded. 
 For in Austria as well as in France, a centralized 
 government had developed farther than in Germany, 
 
 105 
 
io6 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 where such a development had been hindered by the 
 strengthening of the Prussian state. This was de- 
 cisive for the South-German dynasties, concerned as 
 they were each with the preservation of its own su- 
 premacy. 
 
 Thus Austria was cut off from western and north- 
 ern Europe. And in the south, in Italy, the Pied- 
 montese dynasty exercised an ever-increasing attrac- 
 tion over the small Italian states; which contributed 
 still more to the uncertainty of Austria's position. 
 Gradually she lost all her possessions in the south, 
 too. 
 
 Prussia, then, had attained its object for the present, 
 which was to weaken Austria only to such an extent 
 as to shear her of all potentiality for danger. It had 
 no interest in weakening her still further, nor in in- 
 curring her permanent enmity. On the contrary, 
 what it needed was an Austria reconciled (with 
 claims in the north and west abandoned), because 
 Prussia now cherished much wider aims. 
 
 She had, in fact, assigned the role of pace- 
 maker to Austria, which, of course, Austria never 
 suspected, taking for magnanimity what was purely 
 cold-blooded calculation. 
 
 Prussia could kill two birds with one stone. A 
 hostile Austria must be regarded as a constant men- 
 
Prussia's Foreign Policy 107 
 
 ace to Prussia, if only for the one reason that she 
 might exercise a powerful attraction over the South- 
 German states as soon as she would guarantee them 
 the independence of their dynasties. As it was, the 
 South- Germans felt more drawn to genial Austria 
 than to uncanny Prussia. A rapprochement between 
 Austria and the South-German states would have at 
 least one bad result, if not more, namely, that it 
 would take longer and be harder to Prussianize the 
 South- German states. So some bait had to be held 
 out to Austria that would make her forget the west 
 completely. 
 
 Other territories had to be held out to her which 
 would serve to satisfy her desire for expansion and 
 would at the same time be suited to play a role in 
 Prussia's calculations for the future. 
 
 For this purpose southeastern Europe seemed posi- 
 tively to offer itself. The structure of the states there 
 was loose and incomplete different from in Italy 
 and it beckoned on, though still as to a remote goal, 
 to access to the Mediterranean. A compensation in 
 a sense, therefore, for the losses in Italy as well as 
 in the north. 
 
 For the Adriatic could too easily be cut off. Aus- 
 tria would ultimately have to own territory bordering 
 directly on the Mediterranean. 
 
io8 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 The dear Austrians, of course, were delighted by 
 such kindness, and did not fail to put the proper esti- 
 mate upon the brilliant perspective. Evidently, it 
 never occurred to the Austrians, because they are 
 such dear, innocent people, our dark-skinned brothers 
 are, that Prussia was in secret speculating upon Aus- 
 tria's falling to pieces, and held her for nothing more 
 than a pace-maker in its own race to the Mediter- 
 ranean, and counted upon acquiring the heritage of 
 the Hapsburgs whenever the time should be ripe. 
 
 In the Balkan states, however, the prospects of be- 
 ing swallowed up by Austria naturally aroused alarm. 
 Here, too, there were rulers and dynastic interests, as 
 almost everywhere else in our old Europe. But that 
 did not bother Austria, she being the stronger in 
 every way. However, the Austrians, after their genial 
 fashion, did not go at their object so directly or 
 bluntly. They began by trying friendly bribery of 
 the ever-needy Balkan princes; and they had some 
 successes to record. 
 
 Many of us will still remember His Majesty King 
 Milan of Servia as a gentleman who lived and let 
 live. Why not? He'd be dead by now at any rate 
 even if he hadn't taken a single dollar from Austria. 
 But his son Alexander was far less reliable, and by 
 the time the Obrenovitch dynasty was murdered off 
 
Prussia's Foreign Policy 109 
 
 and gave way to the Karageorgevitch dynasty, the 
 wind was blowing from a different quarter. 
 
 The Balkan question now reached an acute stage. 
 King Peter had been brought up in France and had 
 imbibed French ideas. His government turned to 
 France and to her ally, Russia, which, being a Slav 
 country, was decidedly more sympathetic than half- 
 Teutonic Austria. Greater and greater obstacles thus 
 kept rising up on the road to the Mediterranean. 
 
 The king of Montenegro also turned more and more 
 to Russia. Evidently Russia offered better guarantees 
 for the continuance of the two Balkan dynasties than 
 Austria could or would offer. 
 
 Even if Russia should have been the first seriously 
 to dream of possessing Constantinople, she would not 
 have been likely to begin a war on that account. Be- 
 sides, opposition, even from Rumania and Bulgaria, 
 would have been too great. Yet Russia felt she had 
 to have access to the Mediterranean. The preemi- 
 nent economic significance to her of an outlet to the 
 Mediterranean is self-evident. And what it would 
 be impossible to accomplish by way of a hostile Tur- 
 key might be reached by way of friendly Balkan 
 states. 
 
 It is clear, therefore, that more stood in the way of 
 Austria's expansion in the southeast than merely the 
 
no What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 isolated Balkan states. The great and powerful Rus- 
 sia would also have something to say whenever the 
 question would arise of a change in the Balkan 
 status. 
 
 And it was not Russia alone that felt a watchful 
 eye had to he kept upon Prussia's outpost on the 
 path to the Mediterranean. England had to he on the 
 lookout, too. England had to safeguard her route to 
 India, which led through the Mediterranean and the 
 Suez Canal. 
 
 Austria hy herself would not have met with such 
 decided opposition from England. But in London 
 they knew very well who was hacking Austria up. 
 They were convinced that at the decisive moment, were 
 Austria alone to be reckoned with, an eventual un- 
 derstanding just to both sides lay in the realm of pos- 
 sibility. There was no such confidence with regard 
 to Prussia. Prussia's tendency always to use force 
 and to consider no interests but its own was too well 
 known. Aggressive Prussianism, therefore, had to 
 be kept as far away as possible from England's most 
 important sea route. 
 
 Thus, common interests brought England and Rus- 
 sia together after they had come to an agreement 
 about Persia. England, by the terms of the agree- 
 ment, no longer had anything to fear from Russia in 
 
Prussia's Foreign Policy in 
 
 the Mediterranean; and a further guarantee for se- 
 curity on this score was the lack of aggressiveness in 
 the Eussian national character. Moreover, Russia 
 had no reason for a policy of expansion by force since 
 it had land in superfluity for its population. 
 
 The one thing Russia needed was to be able to con- 
 vey her surplus agricultural products to the sea. 
 
 Consequently, Russia and England were equally in- 
 terested in preventing much change of hands in Bal- 
 kan territory, above all in keeping the South-Slavic 
 nations from slipping into too great dependence upon 
 Austria-Germany or being absorbed by Austria and 
 Germany. 
 
 One line, then, of Greater-Prussian foreign policy 
 leads to the southeast, to the Mediterranean. But 
 another line, of even greater significance, leads to the 
 west, to the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 Here, though the distances are much smaller, the 
 obstacles are far bigger and harder to overcome. 
 There is no Austrian pace-maker here to take over 
 the burden of the more difficult work, and the state 
 lying in the way is no half -civilized Balkan state, but 
 a state inhabited by a highly-civilized, liberty-loving 
 people, who long realized Prussia's intentions and 
 took the utmost possible precautions against them. 
 
 How unqualifiedly right Belgium was in distrust- 
 
ii2 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 ing Prussia is proved by the fact that the very first 
 act in the war was the invasion of Belgium. For the 
 ultimate carrying through of the war, Belgium is not 
 much more important than Switzerland, but Bel- 
 gium lies in Prussia's path to the Atlantic, and 
 Switzerland does not. 
 
 The attack on Belgium descended like a stroke of 
 lightning, revealing the whole situation in a flash. 
 The object of the war and Prussia's war aims are 
 now as clear as the day. 
 
 Nobody, therefore, who does not want to be de- 
 ceived, can possibly be misled by Bethmann-Holl- 
 weg's disgraceful, dishonorable statement that the 
 Germans were obliged to invade Belgium because Bel- 
 gium itself had broken the neutrality. 
 
 Belgium knew very well that there was only one 
 side from which she might be attacked, and she knew 
 just which side that was, and she also knew that 
 sooner or later the attack was bound to come. So 
 she had a perfect right to fortify, and it is absurd 
 to say Belgium broke her own neutrality. No well- 
 informed man believes this monumental lie of the 
 leader of Prussian politics. 
 
 And it goes without saying that England must pro- 
 tect Belgium's neutrality if her own tranquillity, yes, 
 if her very existence is dear to her. 
 
Prussia's Foreign Policy 113 
 
 Simply recall William II 's various utterances and 
 the various hymns of hate that have been chanted 
 against England, and you will understand what a 
 delightful neighbor William with the Mailed Fist 
 would be to England, were he to establish himself in 
 Belgium. A rather restless, disturbing neighbor, with 
 his insatiable imperialism and militarism and marin- 
 ism, this supreme war-lord. 
 
 With William as her neighbor England's security 
 would be so constantly menaced and the country 
 would be so irretrievably swept into militarism that 
 we may well believe England if she maintains that the 
 question of peace is not open to discussion unless Bel- 
 gium is altogether free and independent. 
 
 She would rather go on fighting to her very de- 
 struction. An end in horror is better than horror 
 without end. 
 
 So we have seen what the goal is of the Greater- 
 Prussian foreign policy a single empire of the 
 Hohenzollerns from the Atlantic, or at least the Eng- 
 lish Channel, on the west to the Mediterranean on the 
 southeast, with Turkey annexed. An Antwerp-to- 
 Bagdad empire! 
 
 But the civilization of the world has advanced too 
 far for champions not to be found capable of pre- 
 venting such violent changes of the map. 
 
H4 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 The objects of the Greater-Prussian policy will 
 never be attained to humanity's great blessing. But 
 they will become the doom, and the proper doom, of 
 the man who thought the time had come when he 
 could set his heel on the world's neck. William II 
 will gain nothing but lose everything. 
 
 
XVI 
 NATIONAL HYSTERIA 
 
 THE second district court of Munich condemned an 
 old peddler woman to imprisonment for having thrown 
 a pear to Russian prisoners as they were being led by. 
 
 The entire apparatus of the royal Bavarian tri- 
 bunal with prosecuting attorney, judges, clerks, etc., 
 was brought to bear upon this case of a little old 
 woman whose only crime was having preserved 
 enough human compassion at any rate, considerably 
 more than the highly-educated prosecuting attorney, 
 judges, clerks, etc. to give a little pleasure to poor, 
 half -starved captives. 
 
 A whole series of eminent personages connected 
 with the Bavarian department of justice, who draw 
 their salaries from the pennies paid in taxes by the 
 people, probably for more important ends, had to 
 hold sessions and transact a quantity of business, all 
 for the purpose of finding a verdict in a trifling case, 
 which a single Prussian sergeant could have disposed 
 of just as well. 
 
 As though that were not enough, higher Bavarian 
 115 
 
ii6 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 judges confirmed the verdict, and it was even pub- 
 lished in the papers. This confirmation was the very 
 thing to set forth in the best possible light the great 
 love the judges of Bavaria bear to their fatherland. 
 
 For it is only from the "fatherland" standpoint 
 that a purely rational feeling of compassion for help- 
 less men could be branded as a transgression of the 
 law, as a crime. 
 
 Of course, the reason the little old woman's con- 
 duct was criminal is that she had wanted to do a 
 kind thing to Russians in Germany. Let's consider 
 the reverse of the case. Suppose a little old woman 
 had been kind to Germans in Russia. Something of 
 the like, it is said, often happens. And suppose the 
 Bavarian judges had been called upon to pronounce 
 judgment. Then what? Why, then the crime would 
 have been no crime, but a perfectly natural act of 
 neighborly love. Justice ! 
 
 If to "judge" still means to render a just sen- 
 tence, then the judges who found this verdict of 
 guilty and emphasized it in the deepest tones, have 
 no right to the honorable title of judge. They are 
 hysterical nationalists, chauvinists pure and simple. 
 Had they preserved the qualities required of a judge 
 in all circumstances, sound reason and impartiality, 
 
National Hysteria 117 
 
 they never could have condemned the little old ped- 
 dler woman. 
 
 It would have sufficed for the il justice " of even a 
 military tribunal simply to call the old woman's at- 
 tention to paragraph so and so of the military code, 
 which forbids people in Germany to obey the kindly 
 dictates of their hearts, and to show her that she had 
 transgressed the mandates of this paragraph, and tell 
 her she mustn't do so again, because if she does, 
 then she will be punished. 
 
 That is what Bavarian judges and human beings 
 should have done and ought always to do, and both 
 " justice" and common sense would have been sat- 
 isfied. 
 
 For not the strictest of Prussian regulations could 
 force a Bavarian judge to render judgment contrary 
 to all reason and to every humane sentiment pro- 
 vided, please observe, that he doesn't want to. 
 
 As for the rest, need our Bavarian judges care 
 whether they carry out these vicious laws of the 
 Prussians, a mockery of civilization ? Need they cloak 
 Prussian brutalities with their title? 
 
 I think not, and I am convinced that ways and 
 means can be found of repudiating Prussia's bar- 
 barous impositions, provided we in Bavaria have still 
 retained enough clearness of perception to realize the 
 full monstrosity of such a thing as imprisoning a 
 
ii8 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 little old peddler woman because her heart went out 
 to hungry men. 
 
 However, there is no need to fear repudiation of 
 methods Prussian just yet. My fatherland, don't 
 worry. Our Bavarian judges have turned into hys- 
 terical nationalists, of whom the Prussians may ex- 
 pect even greater things than the punishment of char- 
 ity by imprisonment. 
 
 What will later times have to say of such judicial 
 sentences? What word of condemnation will be 
 strong enough ? 
 
XVII 
 LIBERTY 
 
 A TINY group of Social Democrats is fighting a 
 desperate battle with the Junkers in the Reichstag. 
 You may almost say it is only a single individual, 
 Dittmann, who is carrying on the struggle. He even 
 has against him the majority of his comrades of the 
 parliamentary Fraction. And what are he and his 
 small minority battling for? Nothing but a few 
 ridiculously limited liberties. 
 
 This handful of Social Democrats led by Dittmann 
 is attorney for 65,000,000 people, who lie prostrate 
 on the ground, the spiritual life completely crushed 
 out of them. It is advocating measures whereby the 
 outraged German people may at least open their 
 mouths, at least be allowed to let out a yell of shame 
 and anguish. 
 
 In vain. The Reichstag stuffs its ears and reduces 
 the tiny minority to silence. The Reichstag is not to 
 be won over to the idea of removing the censorship 
 gag from the people's mouths or raising the veritable 
 state of siege into which the people have been put. 
 
 119 
 
120 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 An eloquent instance, this ''representation of the 
 people/' of the fact that the greater number of Ger- 
 mans do not know what it means to want liberty. It 
 shows how thoroughly the Prussian mailed fist has 
 choked out every bit of feeling for liberty. 
 
 There are many more proofs of this condition of 
 affairs, so unworthy of a great nation. But no need 
 to go to the trouble of citing them. Suffice it to recall 
 that the Prussian people are still without the vote. 
 
 The debates in the Reichstag over Germany's state 
 of siege have easily done more than any one other 
 thing to open the eyes of the world to our utter lack 
 of freedom. Does it make us ashamed of ourselves 
 before the other civilized nations? A Chinaman as- 
 suredly would be ashamed. Not so a German. 
 
 There is not a chord in the modern German's soul 
 that could be made to quiver responsive to the word 
 "liberty." If you mention liberty to a German, you 
 find about as much comprehension as if you were 
 talking to a blind man of color. Sometimes he an- 
 swers back, "Why, we're not locked up in prison. 
 We may walk about at large." 
 
 The Eeichstag refuses to raise the state of siege. 
 It apprehends the open outburst of wrath of the la- 
 boring masses. It takes for granted that the masses 
 will instantly arise against their oppressors. 
 
Liberty 121 
 
 The Reichstag is in error. The people born in 
 the yoke of Prussian slavery and too well accustomed 
 to it would never think of such a thing. If they 
 were disposed to, they would have revolted long ago 
 in spite of their state of siege. A prerequisite to a 
 revolt is a sense of the indignity of slavery. The 
 German people have no such sense. They sucked in 
 the spirit of slavery with their mothers' milk. It was 
 drummed into them in school, and every ideal of 
 liberty that a good Creator has implanted in each 
 human breast has withered in them long ago. 
 
 And yet this poor German nation, bent down to 
 the ground under the yoke of oppression, was not 
 always so servile. One opens one's eyes in amaze- 
 ment when one learns from Dittmann's speeches in 
 the Reichstag and from one's own recollections of 
 history, too that we, too, once were a nation that had 
 something like a sense of the dignity of freedom and 
 human rights. That was after the revolutionary year 
 1848. But don't be alarmed. It wasn't very dan- 
 gerous, that German revolution. Yet it was some- 
 thing. 
 
 And actually, yes, actually, that bit of '48 was in 
 itself enough to drive red terror into the hearts of 
 the despots. They promised everything and anything 
 the people wanted. The victory was an easy one 
 
122 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 after other nations had gone before wrestling hard 
 for freedom. After the French had shed their blood 
 not for themselves alone, but for us, too, for all hu- 
 manity, the fruits of their endeavors fell into our 
 laps without our having to take much pains. 
 
 A bit of a disturbance, a few inflammatory 
 speeches, a few trials and imprisonments, and the 
 people got their freedom such as it was. It was not 
 achieved with huge difficulty. 
 
 And while other nations knew how to defend the 
 liberty they had so dearly won, and maintain it in 
 spite of reactionary blows, and achieve an even 
 larger measure of rights, the German nation allowed 
 its easily acquired liberties to be stolen from it one 
 by one, stealthily, secretly, as things are stolen by 
 a thief in the night, until gradually it succumbed 
 so far that it was ripe for the state of siege of 1914 
 and has been suffering that condition now for years. 
 Like a flock of sheep. 
 
 The German nation never perceived its losses in 
 liberty and dignity. It still remains unconscious of 
 them. Why not? The people are not locked up in 
 prison. They may walk about at large. 
 
 So dulled have the people become that they take 
 this state of siege, this orgy of oppression exercised 
 by Prussian militarism gone mad with megalomania, 
 
Liberty 123 
 
 as a perfect matter of course. As long as the Prus- 
 sian military caste desires its continuance, so long 
 will they submit to it. 
 
 The people hear their great Prussian general boom- 
 ing, "We are the Reichstag, we are the chancellor, 
 we are the power of the state, ' ' and they see nothing 
 in it that isn't quite the right thing. What more 
 need be asked of the people? They are even sacri- 
 ficing themselves for the perpetuation of such a state 
 of affairs. 
 
 So we are perfectly justified in asking, Is the Ger- 
 man nation at all qualified to be free ? Is it fit to rule 
 itself? Will it ever become free or know what free- 
 dom is? Who will answer these questions? And if 
 by some miracle, the wish for liberty should ever stir 
 in the German breast, who will show the people the 
 way that leads to liberty? The German government? 
 The government that has robbed the people of all 
 sense of freedom, has corrupted them from childhood 
 and has trampled upon every generous growth; the 
 government whose incapacity for doing anything but 
 oppress and suppress is positively grotesque? Are 
 we to suppose that this government will point the 
 way? May we hope that it will of itself abandon its 
 successful maxim, "Stand straight, keep your mouth 
 shut, and pay taxes"? Certainly not. It has de- 
 
124 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 rived splendid profit from the application of the 
 maxim. But if not the government, then who will 
 come to the rescue? Can those people help the German 
 nation who have been in the outside world and know 
 what liberty is and who behold with deep sorrow the 
 shameful degradation of the German nation? 
 
 They have not much strength. And, besides, they 
 will be allowed no opportunity to enlighten the Ger- 
 mans. On the contrary, they will be reduced to si- 
 lence. 
 
 Or may we hope that after all succor will rise up 
 from out of the people themselves, that the nation 
 will pick itself together and tear the blinkers from 
 its eyes and stretch out its arms? That the millions 
 tortured by misery and starvation will look about 
 and search out those who have been the real authors 
 of their misfortunes? That they will recognize the 
 fraudulent oppressors and will raise their fists and 
 fell them to the ground? 
 
 It seems impossible to expect anything of the sort 
 from a nation that will take anything, yes, anything, 
 without a murmur. 
 
 Every one longs for peace, and no one thinks of how 
 easy it would be to secure peace if only the people 
 went at it in earnest. Nothing more than just a lit- 
 tle bit of '48. How quickly the despots would begin 
 
Liberty 125 
 
 to tremble and see that it is high time to conclude 
 peace. 
 
 As it is, however, they're not in a bit of a hurry to 
 make peace, even though they pretend differently. 
 They are not losing anything by the war, and no mat- 
 ter how long the war lasts, they can hold out, oh, 
 most assuredly they can. 
 
 As long as the people are satisfied to let the war 
 go on, it's all right for the oppressors. 
 
 Ah yes, if only the German people could bethink 
 themselves that once in their history, too, there was 
 a '48 ! Yes, if only they could ! 
 
XVIII 
 "GO FOE THE ENEMY!" 
 
 NOTHING so vividly recalls those delightful, oh, so 
 delightful, innocent, peaceful, pre-war days as this 
 valiant battle-cry of "our young marines, " "Go for 
 the enemy !" 
 
 Those days when there was as yet no danger in ' ' go- 
 ing for the enemy," when you could board a vessel 
 and steam out to meet him on the high seas any time 
 you felt like enjoying the ocean breezes. 
 
 The noble Tartarin de Tarascon could not have de- 
 vised a prettier, more daring battle-cry. Had he 
 emanated from Berlin instead of Tarascon, you might 
 have heard him at his lion-hunts shouting, "Go for 
 the enemy!" 
 
 Unfortunately the author of this battle-cry is 
 shrouded in obscurity. Apparently his extreme mod- 
 esty forbids his stepping out of the dark and receiving 
 the hearty thanks of his favored fatherland. But 
 one can't be going very far out of the way if one 
 looks for him in the proximity of the sublime author 
 of that glorious inspiring battle-cry, "Immer feste 
 
 126 
 
"Go for the Enemy!" 127 
 
 druff . ' ' * He is spirit of his spirit, and there can be 
 no doubt that we owe our incomparable victories in a 
 large measure to these stirring cries. 
 
 Like our ancestors, the ancient Germans, who had 
 battle-cries so awe-inspiring that they froze the mar- 
 row in the enemies' bones, our ' ' field-greys " and 
 "boys in blue" are also well equipped with cries, 
 which, we may assume, make our enemies turn stiff 
 with awe at the fearful beauty of the German lan- 
 guage. 
 
 Our admirals keep insisting obstinately and they 
 seem to be right, unfortunately that our "boys in 
 blue ' ' have no opportunity to "go for the enemy. ' ' 
 
 The enemy doesn't show up, simply doesn't show 
 up just where we should like him to. He goes 
 prowling round in all the waters and simply can't 
 be found. 
 
 He seems utterly to lack courage and apparently is 
 avoiding an encounter. Otherwise he would not be 
 roaming over the whole globe with the exception of 
 the one place where the mines have been laid for 
 him. 
 
 If the enemy were not so frightfully timid, he 
 would approach our harbors. Then we should let our 
 
 * A curt, idiomatic, slangy expression, meaning, "Always go 
 at them hard," of which the Crown Prince is the author. 
 
ia8 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 "boys in blue" loose on him, and after our mines 
 and U-boats had made him turn tail, we should let 
 them "go for" him. 
 
 Then would our sailors show the enemy the stuff 
 they're made of, the spirit that animates them. Then 
 would they pluck the laurels of victory. 
 
 The enemy, of course, maintains that it is our navy 
 which doesn't let itself be seen on the high seas and 
 keeps hugging the harbors, stowed safely away behind 
 the protection of the mines, like a mouse in its hole. 
 A lie, a downright lie! Don't our U-boats venture 
 forth to bold combat often enough, keeping way be- 
 low the surface of the sea? 
 
 Have they not displayed incomparable heroism in 
 sinking hundreds of unarmed merchant and passen- 
 ger vessels and sending women and children to be 
 food for the fishes ? 
 
 Have they not drowned hundreds of thousands of 
 bales of wool? 
 
 And, oh, yes! I mustn't forget. Haven't they 
 sent a few enemy battleships to the bottom, too? Our 
 enemies say they have not and declare that the battle- 
 ships are lying at the docks unscathed. But every- 
 body knows the enemy always lies, while we never do. 
 
 There are excellent satires, but reality is better 
 than the best of them. Isn't it a good satire when a 
 
"Go for the Enemy!" 129 
 
 representative of the press, the " fatherland " press, 
 of course, is invited down to the docks to see with its 
 own eyes that the ships costing millions of dollars 
 are still there and have not been sunk in secret by the 
 English without the public's knowing anything about 
 it? The newspaper men can check them off and go 
 back and give the honored public a true report. The 
 land-lubbers, flattered and touched, always write what 
 the tars think it is advisable to tell them. 
 
 They are always tremendously impressed by what 
 the naval heroes have to say. And the naval heroes 
 must find them an extremely gratifying audience, ig- 
 norant as they are of the meaning of starboard and 
 larboard and all the other delightful nautical terms. 
 
 It is the newspaper man's mission to instruct the 
 public, which is somewhat taken aback by the re- 
 markable role the navy is playing. He is to tell the 
 public that the money expended upon the fleet has 
 been well applied and each taxpayer has got his dol- 
 lar's worth back in what is lying at Kiel and Wil- 
 helmshafen. 
 
 Only "fatherlandless" cavilers could conceive the 
 insolent idea that a fleet of battleships, whose entire 
 activity since the outbreak of the war consists in 
 lying in the harbors in a state of ' ' feverish readiness ' ' 
 
130 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 consuming coal, may not be worth much more than 
 the bad German of the battle-cries. 
 
 It is only ' ' f atherlandless " cavilers who would be 
 impudent enough to think that a fleet costing bil- 
 lions of dollars was built for the purpose of attacking 
 England the hated, attacking her openly and hon- 
 orably; not for the purpose of lying in harbors be- 
 hind barriers of mines in ' l feverish readiness. ' ' True 
 German patriots know very well it is not the costly 
 battleships that are protecting Germany against at- 
 tack by the English, but the far cheaper mines. The 
 battleships themselves would probably, in the twink- 
 ling of an eye, be lying at the bottom of the sea. 
 
 That's what our admirals must think, or else they 
 would send the fleet out "to go for" the enemy. 
 
 It actually seems as though all the ironclads were 
 built chiefly to escort William II on his pleasure-trips 
 to the Mediterranean or the Norwegian coast, and 
 have to be kept safe in haven during these uncertain, 
 dangerous war times until the imperial lord is ready 
 to use them again. 
 
 For all the German battleships that were not in 
 haven at the outbreak of the war have long been 
 resting from their labors at the bottom of the sea. 
 Of course, only because of the enemy's vastly su- 
 perior strength. In reality our sailors were victorious. 
 
"Go for the Enemy!" 131 
 
 Besides, it was an outrage to attack our battleships. 
 
 Has England, the enemy against which our "boys 
 in blue" were to proceed so valiantly, noticed 
 anything at all of the existence of a German sea- 
 power? Not much, it seems. England, now as 
 before the war, still "rules the waves," in spite of 
 the U-boats, those little thugs which all in all can't 
 hurt England any more than a pike can hurt a whale. 
 
 Probably the pompous announcement of the U-boat 
 warfare was designed less for effect upon England, 
 the mistress of the seas, than for effect upon the re- 
 freshing simplicity of the German land-lubber, who 
 was to be inspired with proper respect for the ' ' nerve- 
 racking, feverish" activity of the naval authorities. 
 
 And how about the "great naval victory" in the 
 Skager-Rack? One more such victory, and we are 
 lost. 
 
 Alas, His Majesty now has fewer dreadnaughts to 
 escort him on his pleasure-trips. I have always said 
 it doesn't pay to be so reckless. 
 
 But how could we help ourselves ? Something had to 
 be done. There was always the risk of the Social 
 Democrats not voting more millions for war-credits, 
 unless there was something to show for money already 
 spent. 
 
 The land operations were not going right. The bat- 
 
132 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 tie about Verdun, for which the last appropriation 
 had been required, was not proceeding according to 
 program. So, quick! A few ships and several hun- 
 dred of our sailors sacrificed. That would mean 
 something new again, and would be a " victory" of 
 course a foregone conclusion. 
 
 But the English suffered losses, too. Many more 
 "tons" than we. On our victorious return home we 
 strewed mines for the English fleet, which had wanted 
 to escort the German comrades to safe harbor, and 
 the English, in their hotheadedness, ran into the 
 mines. 
 
 You see, even in retiring you can have victories if 
 you know how to. 
 
 But immediately after the victory, our boys in 
 blue were sent back on furlough and showed off in as 
 many cities as possible so that the people shouldn't 
 say all the men had been lost in the "victory." 
 
 But this marine theatrical, held for the honored 
 public's benefit, is probably the first and the last to 
 be given. Because it is impossible to get at the Eng- 
 lish. They are everywhere except just where you 
 most want them to be. 
 
XIX 
 ZABERN 
 
 WHO still recalls the miniature revolution pro- 
 voked by a silly eighteen-year-old Prussian lieutenant 
 in the ancient Alsatian town of Zabern? 
 
 If the episode were not signally indicative of the 
 character of Prussian militarism, it would scarce- 
 ly be worth mention now in the midst of the world- 
 war. We could afford to forget the great deed of 
 Herr Baron Forstner, although at that time the mat- 
 ter promised to be very serious, and grave damage was 
 done not to the Herr Leutnant, but to the innocent 
 city. 
 
 A little more, and militarism gone mad, thinking 
 it had suffered a tremendous insult, would have taken 
 ruthless revenge upon the citizens of Zabern. It 
 is due certainly not to the military circles, but to 
 the level-headedness of the citizens, that the worst 
 consequences were avoided and the city escaped with 
 only economic damages to suffer. 
 
 Some lack of respect, it was alleged, had been 
 shown a ridiculous immature little fellow of eighteen 
 
 133 
 
134 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 a foolish escapade on both sides. Yet enough to 
 stir militarism to its depths. There was no investiga- 
 tion to discover the real culprit. The incident in it- 
 self sufficed to make militarism arrest and lock up 
 hundreds of innocent passers-by as though they were 
 criminals, and wheel out its cannons and salute the 
 people of Zabern with grape-shot. 
 
 Instead of removing the awkward lieutenant from 
 Zabern as quickly as possible, or, at least, forbidding 
 him to appear on the streets so as not to provoke the 
 excited people still more, the matter was exaggerated 
 to the utmost. The people were to have the brutal 
 Prussian master's standpoint thoroughly rubbed into 
 their skin. 
 
 The lieutenant was made to serve the same object 
 as Gessler's hat. Only the callow Prussian baron 
 played a less innocent, passive role than the Austrian 
 governor's hat. 
 
 The military caste, in all its arrogance, with its un- 
 failing arguments, bayonets and machine-guns, had 
 no interest in finding out which side was right and 
 which side was wrong. It had no interest in an in- 
 vestigation, knowing beforehand what jiidgment to 
 pronounce. His Majesty's uniform deemed it had 
 been insulted, and militarism without hesitation got 
 
Zabern 135 
 
 behind the uniform, no matter how irresponsible the 
 person who had worn it. 
 
 Public opinion in Germany regarding the incident 
 was highly indicative. I cannot recall a single con- 
 demnation of the Herr Leutnant. The steps taken 
 by the military authorities met with universal ap- 
 proval. 
 
 Many were of the opinion that the Alsatians were 
 a common lot and if after several years you could not 
 make good Germans of them by kind treatment (sic), 
 then it was high time to convert them by force. 
 
 I remember reading in the papers remarks upon 
 the way the matter was viewed by the outside world, 
 especially England. "Wonder was expressd that there 
 was such complete failure to understand the methods 
 employed by our military authorities. 
 
 A German having no knowledge of the western na- 
 tions, with their deep-seated democratic feelings, 
 really cannot explain their incomprehension. Such 
 action as was taken with Zabern actually is so remote 
 from the sphere of their ideas that they are incapable 
 of realizing the atmosphere in which a plant like 
 militarism flourishes and bears fruit. 
 
 They did not grasp the importance attached to the 
 symbol of militarism, the uniform with brass but- 
 
136 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 tons. Nor did they understand the sentiment of the 
 German public. 
 
 So remote are the views of free people from those 
 in which we have been bred. 
 
 The Reichstag proceedings in regard to the Zabern 
 affair are as vivid in my mind as though they had 
 taken place yesterday. Why, actually the thing was 
 unheard of never happened before the Reichstag 
 for a moment bethought itself even under the eyes of 
 the supreme command ; bethought itself that it was the 
 "representative of the people/' and made a feeble 
 attempt to handle and dispose of the matter according 
 to parliamentary form. 
 
 The fiasco suffered by this famous body, repre- 
 sentative of 65,000,000 people, was well deserved ; and 
 the Reichstag was even more ridiculous if possible 
 than the eighteen-year-old Prussian lieutenant. 
 
 How the tedious philosopher of a chancellor stood 
 there telling the deputies elected by the great German 
 nation to their faces that he didn't care a rap for 
 their vote of censure. He didn't need the people's 
 confidence, having the confidence of the Kaiser. But 
 one thing he would tell them, he wouldn't have them 
 trying to undermine the supreme command of the 
 supreme war-lord. 
 
 They swallowed it, these excellent representatives 
 
Zabern 137 
 
 of the people did. For a second they were discom- 
 fited, then they smiled, and everything was all right 
 again. 
 
 They humbly took the beating administered by their 
 imperial lord through his servant, the chancellor. 
 
 Bethmann-Hollweg, of course, remained the chan- 
 cellor now, for sure although nearly the whole 
 Reichstag wished his retirement. 
 
 He remained the chancellor, and to him and his 
 lord and to a few other good things we owe the 
 world-war. 
 
 The representative assembly of the German people 
 allowed Zabern to be dished up to it, also this war. 
 What else will it allow? 
 
XX 
 
 FLUNKEY SOULS 
 
 A GERMAN prince was reviewing a group of Eng- 
 lish prisoners who had just been captured. They 
 stood in front of the prince still coated from head to 
 foot witK the mud of the trenches. They must have 
 known the high rank of the man reviewing them 
 from the obsequious manners of his brilliant escort 
 of officers. But it didn't confuse the Englishmen in 
 the least. They paid no attention to His Royal High- 
 ness. They shook out their overcoats and helped each 
 other knock the dirt out of their clothes, and the dust 
 flew. They smoked and chatted and were not in the 
 least disconcerted by the prince's presence. 
 
 Their free-and-easy ways so annoyed His Highness 
 that he turned away angrily, and said to his escort: 
 
 1 'So that's the sort of trash our good German fa- 
 thers have to go scuffling round with." 
 
 Apparently he couldn't conceive of there being men 
 who would not shut up talking at his approach and 
 would not click their heels together and drop their 
 hands to their trousers seams and stand in the stiff 
 
 138 
 
Flunkey Souls 139 
 
 Prussian attitude of attention. He simply couldn't 
 conceive it. 
 
 Fortunately the typical " German father" was 
 standing nearby, the landsturmmann Miiller III from 
 Kyritz on the Knatter. He heard His Highness 's 
 wrathful remark and allowed himself the liberty of 
 adding his most humble spicing to it. He murmured 
 audibly : 
 
 "A good thing we made war on the blackguards! 
 Supposing they had come here and fallen on our 
 women! Just supposing!" 
 
 Thank goodness, he spoke exactly loud enough for 
 His Highness to overhear his remark. The mighty 
 lord turned and silently but graciously shook the 
 hand of the "Kamerad," the German father and 
 landsturmmann Miiller III from Kyritz on the Knat- 
 ter. For many, many years to come Herr Miiller will 
 be vaunting this handshake to his fellow beer-drinkers 
 at the cafe and telling of His Royal Highness 's con- 
 descension. 
 
 Evidently it was more than a Herr Miiller 's good 
 flunkey intelligence could grasp that there are mor- 
 tals in this world who can be as unconcerned in the 
 presence of a real true prince as in the presence of a 
 Lehmann or a Meier. So far from rejoicing that 
 there should be such mortals he showed not the faint- 
 
140 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 est glimmer of comprehension of them. Men who 
 don't stand up stiff and straight in front of a prince, 
 but even dust their clothes out must be awful crea- 
 tures, the sort that rape women, nothing less. 
 
 What a picture of the world he must have in his 
 mind! 
 
 The unconstrained behavior of free men was some- 
 thing beyond this good servant's powers of imagina- 
 tion. And it revolted his flunkey soul that the Eng- 
 lishman saw nothing but a human being like them- 
 selves in the prince. That is why they must have had 
 intentions against the German women, the disre- 
 spectful fellows! If they were not low creatures, 
 capable of any outrage, they would have done just 
 what Herr Muller III would have done. They would 
 have stood at attention with a sheepish look on their 
 faces and not stirred from that attitude until His 
 Highness had honored them with the favor of his 
 address. But they did no such thing. They shook the 
 dust out of their clothes. Consequently they were low, 
 vile creatures. 
 
XXI 
 
 THE " GREAT TIME" 
 
 BEFORE the war the uninitiated could have had no 
 notion of the depths to which political demoralization 
 in Germany had sunk. It took the war itself to show 
 with awful clearness how far gone we were. 
 
 It must be conceded that in this respect Prussia 
 did a thorough piece of work. The achievements of 
 the subventioned "fatherland" press in distorting 
 and trimming up the truth are really stupendous. 
 
 Through contributions from the state and gifts 
 from the allied interests the press has been brought 
 into dependence upon the government and its prof- 
 iteers, and is engaged to support their policy and to 
 influence the minds of the masses. 
 
 This holds true all over the country, in the north 
 as well as in the south. In Cologne you read exactly 
 the same things as in Breslau ; in Hamburg, the same 
 as in Munich or in Stuttgart. 
 
 The people's interests are by no means the same 
 everywhere, and Bavaria, for example, with its old, 
 highly developed civilization and its interest in for- 
 
 141 
 
142 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 eign visitors ought to have an entirely different atti- 
 tude toward the war from the attitude of, say, Konigs- 
 berg, or even the west, with its large manufactures. 
 
 But this actual diversity of interests finds not the 
 slightest expression in the big papers, all molded in 
 the same "fatherland" form. 
 
 All of them, as with one instrument, trumpeted 
 forth the "great time," and none failed to chime in, 
 the leader of the concert beating time in Berlin. 
 
 Taterata, the great time is here ! Taterata, tatera- 
 ta! The blare of trumpets was to drown every other 
 sound. The deadly fright and amazement of large 
 portions of the German workers, all the unexpected 
 and awful things connected with war had to be 
 shouted down by this blazoning forth of the "great 
 time." 
 
 A highly accomplished orchestra, we must admit. 
 No wonder. The rehearsals had been going on for 
 the initiated for years. 
 
 Conceive all the things that this hellish "father- 
 land" din had to deafen our ears to. The crying and 
 sobbing of women whose husbands were being snatched 
 from them and led to certain death ; the wailing and 
 lamentations of mothers whose sons had supported 
 them faithfully and who were now being taken away ; 
 
The "Great Time" 143 
 
 the hopeless grieving of the brides, whose dreams of 
 happiness were lost forever. 
 
 Endless misery, endless woe, all to be shouted down 
 by this hullabaloo about the "great time/' 
 
 They went marching away, the sons, the pride and 
 the joy of their parents, for whom the elders had 
 worked and denied themselves so as to make the lives 
 of the younger ones a little bit easier than their own 
 had been. Will they ever see their sons again? Will 
 their sons ever come back home? Perhaps as cripples 
 or blind men? 
 
 Off they had to go to war, just as they were about 
 to form their lives according to their own wishes, all 
 these millions of young men. Now all was over for- 
 ever. 
 
 Who knows them and who counts them, all these 
 existences, all these hopes that the war has so brutally 
 destroyed ? 
 
 And how many others, who themselves did not have 
 to go to war, were ruined? Even the most modest 
 hopes of an assured old age had to be renounced. 
 
 Hundreds of thousands of salaried men lost their 
 positions and were driven by dire necessity to take 
 badly paid factory jobs, and so were reduced to 
 proletarians. 
 
 Nobody hears the sighs of these unfortunates, no- 
 
144 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 body heeds their woe; for the taterata, taterata of 
 the great time booms in our ears daily. 
 
 But there are others besides the unfortunates, and 
 enough of them, in whose ears the clanging and the 
 tooting make a delightful sound, who are all en- 
 thusiasm, and who join in the concert with the full 
 strength of their lungs. These men have good cause 
 to think it a "great time." "Why blame the share- 
 holders of the companies that manufacture instru- 
 ments of death and destruction for intoning enthusi- 
 astic hymns to the "great time" and to the war, 
 while sticking fat dividends into their pockets? Why 
 should the Prussian agrarians not be making their 
 millions in profit with hurrahs for the ' ' great time ' ' ? 
 Why not rejoice in sympathy with the gentlemen offi- 
 cials who are drawing two or three times the salaries 
 that they used to? 
 
 And the army officers! The officers who had been 
 fed like drones in a beehive and who must occa- 
 sionally in peace times have been made aware of their 
 superfluousness. Ought not the officers do the loud- 
 est trumpeting of all in the "great time" concert? 
 
 At last they realized what for so long had been 
 nothing but a lovely remote dream ! 
 
 ' ' War ! We 're at war ! Thank God ! ' ' 
 
 < ' The thundering of cannon. God, what joy ! " 
 
The "Great Time" 145 
 
 "There's war!" an officer, beside himself with de- 
 light, wrote in the Munchner Neueste Nachrichtm at 
 the outbreak of the war. 
 
 Their ecstasy is easy to understand. They are going 
 to have a high old time. Money as plentiful as peb- 
 bles. Not much danger to them in trench warfare. 
 During assaults they can comfortably remain behind 
 in fact, must remain behind after pricking on the 
 captains of the reserves and their men, who no longer 
 hear or see anything in the frenzy of their excitement 
 and dread. 
 
 Oh, what gay times they have in their officers ' dug- 
 outs ! Champagne flowing in streams and women, a 
 matter that also received its due attention. 
 
 Isn't that what you call a "great time"? 
 
 And militarism knows how to avail itself of the 
 opportunity in other ways, too. 
 
 The sword rules in the land absolutely. A wave of 
 the sword is enough. At last the ideal conditions! 
 The military caste commands and the people obey. 
 It's so simple. Why think and talk about it a whole 
 lot? Commanding and obeying is much simpler. 
 
 And should any man having other opinions resist, 
 woe to him. For the sword is plaintiff and judge in 
 one. The sword can do everything, knows everything, 
 and is everything. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah! 
 
XXII 
 WHY THE GERMANS ARE DISLIKED 
 
 WHY are the Germans disliked? You find this 
 question put very frequently in our papers now, with 
 the answer immediately appended. 
 
 The question is very evidently asked merely in or- 
 der to give the interrogator the chance to make a 
 reply that will be intensely gratifying to himself and 
 his readers. 
 
 In these days when we are practically under mar- 
 tial law in Germany, any one of us who doesn 't mean 
 to answer the question in this satisfying fashion and 
 would really like to get at the bottom of the dislike 
 of us, had better take care not to pose the question 
 in public. He would be made to feel the general 
 dislike of himself, and probably much more else. 
 
 So the answer invariably accompanying the ques- 
 tion cannot but give great gratification to every " fa- 
 therland" heart. The main reason why the Germans 
 are disliked, as set forth in the "fatherland" press, 
 is a very flattering one. Envy, sheer envy. The 
 Germans are envied their brilliant qualities, their stu- 
 
 146 
 
Why the Germans are Disliked 147 
 
 pendous achievements, their successes in all the fields 
 of human activity. 
 
 The Germans are hated because all the other na- 
 tions pale before their glory, as the moon pales before 
 the sun. There you have the reason, and the only 
 reason, why the Germans are hated. So the nations 
 that thought they had other causes for hating us 
 are now instructed as to the right causes. 
 
 We don't deny that the nations either hate us or 
 hold us in contempt. Yet apparently no one has 
 thought of asking why we alone, and not any other 
 nation, is so honored. 
 
 At bottom, it is the same with nations as with indi- 
 viduals. If a man has one neighbor who hates him, 
 that seems quite comprehensible. You can't be 
 friends with the whole world. Even if two or three 
 neighbors hate him, it will still be comprehensible 
 and there still will be no reason for putting unmiti- 
 gated blame upon him. But if none of his neighbors 
 like him, it cannot possibly be the fault of so many 
 people, but the fault of the man whom everybody 
 has an unfriendly feeling for. And certainly such 
 general disapprobation will not be called forth by any 
 particularly noble qualities that the man may possess, 
 but by the very opposite qualities. There must be 
 
148 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 good grounds for the man's being so universally dis- 
 liked. 
 
 It is my purpose, in this chapter, to see if the same 
 does not apply to the German people and to find out 
 whether or not there are valid reasons for our being 
 disliked. 
 
 First I must call attention to the remarkable fact 
 that by no means all Germans are disliked, but only 
 a very well-defined part of them. 
 
 The German of the south, the Bavarian or the 
 Wiirttemberger, observes little of this foreign distaste 
 of him. To be sure he does not figure so prominently 
 in political and economic affairs as, for instance, the 
 Prussian. His connections abroad are not so exten- 
 sive, so that there are fewer sources of friction be- 
 tween him and foreigners. 
 
 Nevertheless, he has ample opportunity to demon- 
 strate that a certain something, possibly his civiliza- 
 tion far older than the Prussian's, keeps him from 
 being as conspicuous in other countries as his north- 
 ern brother. Foreigners find his unassuming man- 
 ners scarcely distinguishable from their own. How- 
 ever that may be, one thing is certain, the German 
 that is disliked is generally a Prussian. 
 
 So, in considering the causes of Germanophobia, we 
 may leave the South-Germans out of account. 
 
Why the Germans are Disliked 149 
 
 There have always been ample opportunities for 
 becoming acquainted with the German's personal pe- 
 culiarities abroad. In the good old times the German 
 traveling journeyman, still, probably, the most agree- 
 able specimen of the German tourist, was known 
 everywhere. And now the figure most frequently 
 seen is that of a petty official or an upper school 
 teacher, or a small tradesman, who wears his oldest 
 clothes traveling, makes a show of soiled celluloid 
 collars and soiled outing linen and always puts on his 
 hobnailed boots when visiting the museums and art 
 galleries. 
 
 Foreigners have come across some few Germans 
 who spend much money with little decency, but more 
 Germans who spend little money with still less de- 
 cency, the sort that are petty and stingy wherever 
 they go, who always haggle over prices, and make all 
 the greater demands in return for their pennies. You 
 can often hear them boasting of how thoroughly they 
 have "done" a dealer. They want to show off their 
 immense shrewdness. They would never give the 
 price a man first asked for an article. No indeed, not 
 until they had beat him down by half. 
 
 They never approve the arrangements of any place 
 they are in, but always scold at the top of their voices, 
 usually for no reason at all, and always want to in- 
 
150 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 struct every one regarding the (often dubious) prog- 
 ress in culture of Jross-Bealihn,* which is the only 
 culture worthy of the human race. 
 
 They can't do enough by way of the most arrogant, 
 insulting disparagement of all foreign conditions, 
 especially the conditions of the locality they happen 
 to be in. "The place won't improve either," they 
 say, "until Prussia has annexed it and given it the 
 right administration. ' ' 
 
 These examples are all signs of lack of culture, 
 wretched taste, and stupid conceit. Another sign of 
 bad taste is a thing that frequently occurs in restau- 
 rants. Often you can hear a whole family, three ta- 
 bles away, discussing in the greatest detail the price 
 paid for a glass of beer somewhere. And am I mis- 
 taken if I call it bad taste when in nearly all the let- 
 ters from the front that are published in the papers 
 the same Russian swarms of lice and the same Rus- 
 sian dungheaps are eternally dished up to us? Of 
 course, the lice are never of home growth, but always 
 a Russian pest. As if every man would not be over- 
 run with lice who has no chance to wash himself or 
 change his clothes for weeks. But, no, the lice must 
 come from enemy soldiers. The enemy soldiers, never 
 we ourselves, are the dirty, lousy ones. Oh, the Rus- 
 
 * Local pronunciation of Gross-Berlin. 
 
Why the Germans are Disliked 151 
 
 sian filth and the poor Russian roads that we have 
 had to suffer from already! 
 
 As if conditions would be any different here had 
 the war invaded our own country and had a frenzy of 
 fright and horror spread over our homes! What 
 would a German road look like after ten thousand 
 munition autos and all sorts of heavy trucks had 
 passed over it? Wouldn't it be rough and dusty and 
 torn to its bed? 
 
 How arrogant and superficial to criticize such things 
 in an unfortunate land where war is raging, to de- 
 plore the absence of "German order/' and not to 
 ascribe the disorder to the great disturber war, but 
 to put the blame for it upon the wretched inhabitants 
 who are driven from place to place. 
 
 Another very important cause for the dislike of the 
 Germans lies in the field of trade and industry. 
 
 For a long time German merchants and manufac- 
 turers have unscrupulously appropriated and ex- 
 ploited foreign models and patterns, as well as foreign 
 inventions. Everybody knows how in Paris German 
 firms carry on a positively unprincipled policy of an- 
 nexation with regard to fashions, instead of taking 
 the trouble to design new styles themselves or pay 
 German artists to sketch models for them. 
 
 Paris fashions are openly copied and the imitations 
 
152 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 are brought here, as genuine Parisian of course, and 
 sold at reduced prices. This is not honorable com- 
 petition, but mean, underhand competition; because 
 if the German firms were to go to the trouble and 
 the expense of doing their own designing, they would 
 not be able to sell their goods at such low figures. 
 
 What is more, German firms compete with the 
 French in their own country, where they sell the 
 articles so unfairly acquired at a cheaper price than 
 can the French merchants, who have to cover the cost 
 of experimenting and making models. 
 
 So here, in this sordid competition practiced by 
 many German merchants, you have one of the main 
 causes of the dislike of the Germans. 
 
 And how about England? Haven't the Germans 
 for years, straight up to the war, done even worse 
 things in England than in France? They have been 
 carrying on industrial espionage in England and 
 stealing models for instruments and machinery. 
 
 The English have resorted to everything within 
 their power to guard themselves against this mean 
 competition. The label "made in Germany" was a 
 last resort of desperation to save British industry 
 from the merciless underbidding that was robbing it 
 of its markets in its own country. 
 
 Examples may be multiplied, but the few I have 
 
Why the Germans are Disliked 153 
 
 given will suffice, and they will stand the test of 
 verification. 
 
 Will a fair-minded man ask the English and the 
 French to love the Germans who imitate their inven- 
 tions and then turn them to use against them? 
 Would we in Germany love members of any nation 
 attempting to do the same thing to us? Scarcely. 
 Remember all we have been saying here against the 
 Japanese. 
 
 You might at least expect that the Germans would 
 be content with profiting by other people's inven- 
 tions and would keep quiet when once in a while the 
 other people turned round and showed indignation 
 at such practices. Not a bit of it! We Germans 
 don't steal ideas, we say. And we launch verbal 
 assaults, and so add insult to injury. 
 
 But the gravest part of the blame for our being dis- 
 liked attaches to our foreign policy. Take the Boers 
 for example. At the outset of the war endless yarns 
 were spun of the Boers' intended revolt against Eng- 
 land and their colossal debt of gratitude to us. We 
 were so sure they were going to pay the debt now. 
 
 But what was the true state of affairs? 
 
 Before the Boer War William II sent President 
 Kriiger a telegram telling him he should not allow 
 the English to do whatever they pleased, and he 
 
154 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 must be sure not to give in, because he, William, 
 would come to their aid in good time. But when the 
 English began to take the matter seriously and 
 Kriiger, placing absolute reliance in Germany's as- 
 sistance, defied England, the German government vio- 
 lated its pledge and left him in the lurch, while the 
 selfsame William II who had incited Kriiger paid not 
 the slightest attention to him, and even sent his 
 grandmother, the queen of England, a plan of war- 
 fare by which the Boers could best be overpowered. 
 
 Although this plan was a product of imperial van- 
 ity and was worth scarcely more than the paper it 
 was written on, it served excellently to reveal to the 
 Boers the character of William II and also the char- 
 acter of the German government. 
 
 It was a painful lesson that Kriiger had learned 
 and it cost him a country laid waste and many thou- 
 sands of lives. For without the certain prospect of 
 the Kaiser's help, he would never have entered into 
 so unequal a conflict with the mighty British realm. 
 
 The German press at that time knew nothing of 
 the wheeling round of the imperial policy and helped 
 the Boers valiantly with its tongue. 
 
 So England came in for a tongue-lashing, oh, what 
 a lashing! 
 
 Until the present war, there has never been a 
 
Why the Germans are Disliked i$$ 
 
 meaner, more venomous campaign of villification car- 
 ried on against any country or any nation than the 
 campaign of the "fatherland" newspapers against 
 England during the Boer War. Did the noise the 
 German press made help the Boers any? Not in the 
 least. Then what have the Boers to be grateful to us 
 for? 
 
 The bottomless vials of hate poured out by the 
 press were of no use to the Boers or any one else. 
 On the contrary, they did an infinite amount of dam- 
 age. They hurt us not only with England but also 
 with the whole world. The Kaiser's perfidious pol- 
 icy, on the one hand, and the furious baiting of the 
 press, on the other hand, gave fresh and powerful 
 impetus to the universal hatred of us. 
 
 Much the same happened in the Spanish-American 
 War. The German government along with the in- 
 spired German press took sides with Spain, in its 
 sympathies, at least, if nothing else, the sole reason 
 for so doing being the fact that Spain was a mon- 
 archy and the United States a democracy. Sufficient 
 cause, this, for the German government with its dynas- 
 tic interests to interpret neutrality as unfavorably 
 as possible to the United States. 
 
 The government could not come out openly on the 
 side of Spain. For this there was no plausible pre- 
 
156 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 text. But what could be done was to damage us, and 
 damage us badly, with the United States. One suc- 
 cess, to be sure, of the imperial policy. 
 
 Nobody in Spain or in America any longer thinks 
 of the Spanish- American War. The two countries 
 are quite reconciled and, strangely enough, much 
 better friends now than Spain and Germany. Odd, 
 isn't it? 
 
 Always and everywhere we find it is the endeavor 
 of the imperial German policy to set everybody 
 against us. And its efforts meet with invariable suc- 
 cess. Then our Philistines show surprise that the 
 whole world hates us, and play injured innocence, or 
 else devoutly chant responses to the press, saying it 
 is the incomparable qualities of the Germans that 
 bring down on them the hatred of the other nations. 
 
 The Eussians and the Japanese, the English and 
 the Boers, the Spaniards and the Americans were all 
 reconciled and the best of friends within a very short 
 time after their wars. 
 
 But Germany, after a lapse of forty-four years, 
 has still not brought about reconciliation or friend- 
 ship with France. France's fault, we keep saying. 
 But Germany even within its own borders cannot 
 make friends of the Alsatians, Danes, and Poles. All 
 it can do is oppress them. 
 
Why the Germans are Disliked 157 
 
 Doesn't all this give us Germans food for thought? 
 
 Is there a sane German who still has the nerve to 
 get up and say, ' ' The one reason why the whole world 
 hates us is that we are successful, and we have every 
 cause to rejoice at being so disliked?" Has any one 
 still got the courage to maintain that not we ar,e to 
 blame but all the other nations? 
 
 I envy the man who dares to say so. 
 
XXIII 
 THE BEST JOKE OF THE WAR 
 
 AFTER the so-called invasion of Memel by the Rus- 
 sians, one of the shoals of princes of the royal blood 
 was sent there to inspect the havoc that had been 
 wrought, and to bring solace to the inhabitants of 
 the undoubtedly beautiful city, and, above all, to 
 assure them of the "never-failing good will of His 
 Imperial Majesty." 
 
 It goes without saying that the imperial good will 
 is the most healing ointment that can be applied to 
 the wounds inflicted by the "Russian hordes." The 
 people then know that the eye of His Majesty is rest- 
 ing upon them benevolently, if only through the me- 
 dium of his representative ; and no praise can sound 
 sweeter in the ears of the good inhabitants of this bor- 
 der city of Prussia than to say of them that "they 
 are loyal to the Kaiser to the very marrow of their 
 bones." 
 
 But undoubtedly what contributed most to comfort 
 them was the prince's scintillating farewell address 
 his father all over again! He expressed his great 
 
 158 
 
The Best Joke of the War 159 
 
 disgust at the Russian outrages and concluded his 
 speech with the ringing words: 
 
 "In view of these horrible atrocities, long live His 
 Majesty! Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah !" 
 
XXIV 
 "GOTT STRAFE ENGLAND!" 
 
 A NEW curse? Good! And emanating, they say, 
 from the highest source, from one who has taken re- 
 ligion and Christianity under his special protection. 
 
 But we are fighting against France, too, and Rus- 
 sia, a world of foes. Why just Gott strafe England? 
 
 There's something behind this curse. 
 
 Each time I hear England so damned, which hap- 
 pens none too seldom, it invariably occurs to me that 
 a marauder must curse like that when rich booty 
 that he is about to swoop down on is at the last mo- 
 ment snatched away from him through the unex- 
 pected intervention of a third party. 
 
 For how did the thing go? How did this neatly 
 contrived "war of defense" begin? Belgium, as if 
 struck by lightning, was felled to the ground, and 
 within a few days was overrun by our armies. France 
 was assaulted, and the German troops penetrated to 
 within forty kilometres from Paris without encoun- 
 tering serious resistance. 
 
 As for Russia, they knew perfectly well in Berlin 
 160 
 
"Gott Strafe England" 161 
 
 that she would need weeks, even months, for mobil- 
 izing her armies sufficiently to be able to get them 
 into real action and carry on an effective offensive. 
 In the meanwhile Paris would have been taken and 
 France overrun like Belgium. 
 
 In brief, the famous Prussian war plan would have 
 been executed, the predatory expedition would have 
 succeeded (Russia could easily be disposed of later, 
 at least in a defensive operation), when all of a sud- 
 den, yes, quite all of a sudden, the Englishman 
 stepped in, not with his pipe in his mouth and his 
 hands in his trousers pockets, as an interested spec- 
 tator, but as an active participant taking up for the 
 parties attacked. And a portion of the army and a 
 corresponding portion of the ammunition, a good bit 
 of what was to help invade France, had to be with- 
 drawn to other parts to meet a possible attack by 
 England on the northwestern coast. 
 
 Alas, the prettily contrived plan came to naught! 
 
 That's why the supreme war-lord curses and swears 
 and says, "Gott strafe England," and the chorus 
 joins in cursing and swearing. 
 
 In Berlin they knew that England would take a 
 positive stand against such an undertaking on the 
 part of Germany, and they were prepared for every- 
 
162 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 thing except this one thing, England's prompt in- 
 tervention. 
 
 They thought that England would hesitate, and 
 that when it saw Belgium and France completely 
 prostrated, it would not enter the war at all but would 
 content itself with trying by diplomacy to prevent too 
 great a mutilation of France. 
 
 Instead of that, England stepped right in. Her 
 action was at that time the one obstacle to prevent 
 Prussian militarism from carrying out its schemes of 
 world-conquest and from laying the world's liberty 
 in chains at the feet of the supreme war-lord. 
 
 The battle of the Marne made it quite clear that 
 the expedition of conquest was frustrated. 
 
 So, if in the future Germany, if the whole world, 
 in fact, will be able to breathe freely again; if our 
 boys, instead of being sacrificed, as millions of them 
 now are, to the Moloch of militarism, will be allowed 
 to live free lives on a free earth, we shall owe it to 
 England's prompt decision. 
 
 If we shall have men in Germany again, men, not 
 merely subjects, we shall owe it to England's un- 
 selfish, big-hearted decision to sacrifice her sons for 
 the world's freedom. 
 
 Those who are now, at the behest of the highest 
 
"Gott Strafe England" 163 
 
 command, cursing England, will then be giving her 
 their thanks. 
 
 The author of the curse, Gott strafe England, knew 
 why he was cursing. He had every reason to curse. 
 He, but not the German people. His horrible, mur- 
 derous "divine right" was at stake. That and noth- 
 ing else. 
 
 But every decent German man should be ashamed 
 to echo the imperial curse. England deserves, not to 
 be cursed, but to be blessed. 
 
 For England, at the cost of infinite sacrifices, swept 
 aside the obstacles blocking the path of the German 
 people to peace and to liberty. 
 
XXV 
 
 THE GERMAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND 
 THE WAR 
 
 ON August 4, 1914, the Social Democratic Fraction 
 in the Reichstag voted in favor of declaring war on 
 Russia and France, and so helped to raise the curtain 
 upon a tragedy, the biggest and bloodiest ever en- 
 acted on the world-stage and fraught with the most 
 awful consequences. 
 
 The Social Democratic Fraction wanted to be be- 
 hind no one in "defense of the fatherland." 
 
 The stage managers, it must be conceded, had been 
 exceedingly skillful in presenting an accomplished 
 fact and so taking the Social Democrats as well as 
 the rest of the world by surprise. It required almost 
 superhuman level-headedness not to succumb to the 
 compelling force of the suggestion. 
 
 There are only a very few of us human beings who 
 possess the firmness and level-headedness necessary 
 for suddenly meeting a critical situation, and evi- 
 dently the Social Democratic Fraction counted none 
 of these few among its numbers; which is the reason 
 
German Social Democracy and the War 165 
 
 why the "defense of the fatherland" came down like 
 a stroke of lightning and set the Socialists as well 
 as the rest of the people afire with patriotism. Very 
 well. Yet why even in the heat of enthusiasm over- 
 look the remarkable fact that the alleged defense of 
 the fatherland began with declarations of war against 
 Russia and France and with the invasion of Belgium? 
 
 No matter how generous an interpretation we may 
 be inclined to make, we shall still find the unquali- 
 fied assent of the Fraction utterly incomprehensible. 
 Assuredly the Social Democrats were better prepared 
 to size up the situation than the general public. And 
 they had had plenty of time to think the thing over. 
 War had been in the air for some time. ' ' There will 
 be war" had passed from mouth to mouth in the days 
 following the assassination of the Austrian Grand 
 Duke. 
 
 With so portentous a political situation impend- 
 ing, the Fraction could have, and ought to have, come 
 to a definite stand; and their stand in no circum- 
 stances should have wavered from what the Social 
 Democrats had always proclaimed was the one thing 
 binding upon them, that is, the resolutions and deci- 
 sions of their congresses. And at their congresses the 
 attitude of the Social Democracy to war in general 
 had been made clear beyond a doubt. One thing the 
 
i66 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 resolutions had brought out very positively, namely, 
 that the question of which side was the aggressor de- 
 pended upon which side declared war. 
 
 In this case it was the German government that de- 
 clared war. The German government, therefore, was 
 the aggressor. 
 
 This should have given the Fraction pause. 
 
 We can understand, of course, that the Fraction 
 feared the government would cripple the party and 
 make trouble for its members should they refuse to 
 vote the war credits. They also had good grounds to 
 fear that the public, under the horrible spell laid upon 
 them, would at the moment not understand their re- 
 fusal, and would even disapprove of it. 
 
 Nevertheless, the Fraction had no right to let this 
 stand in the way of its principles. 
 
 The Russian Socialist members of the Duma held 
 fast to their principles, even though their government 
 had not declared war. 
 
 The sentiment of the masses, which is the only 
 thing that should weigh with Socialists, would soon 
 have swung round in fact, it did and would have 
 veered even sooner had the people seen that the 
 Fraction refused all responsibility for the war. 
 After all, the government would not have dared to 
 do anything serious to the representatives of the la- 
 
German Social Democracy and the War 167 
 
 boring people, and by this time the German Social 
 Democracy would be facing the German people and 
 the whole world, great and unassailable. 
 
 If, in spite of all this the considerations against 
 refusal to vote the war credits had been too great, 
 then the dictate of the hour should have been to with- 
 draw and express neither assent nor dissent. That 
 would have been much the same as refusal and yet 
 would not have brought down on the Fraction any 
 trouble at the hands of either the government or the 
 people, since that's the sort of thing naturally to be 
 expected of Social Democrats. 
 
 And the whole responsibility for the war would 
 have fallen upon the conservative and other parties, 
 while now the Social Democrats have their full meas- 
 ure of it to bear. 
 
 History will always score it against the Fraction 
 as a grave mistake that they did not withdraw and 
 refuse to vote. It was the least they could have done 
 in opposition to the war, and no one in the future 
 will be able to understand how they could march 
 with colors flying straight into the camp of militar- 
 ism and imperialism by sanctioning a war of ag- 
 gression. 
 
 No serious student of politics could have been in 
 
i68 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 doubt as to the magnitude of the war and its dis- 
 astrous consequences to the whole world. 
 
 But the party of "international brotherhood" was 
 guilty of even more disgraceful conduct. Its behavior 
 in gratefully accepting by way of return for its "fa- 
 therland attitude" the assurance of the imperial lord 
 that he recognizes no parties any more, is highly in- 
 dicative of German conditions. 
 
 Well, the serious mistake made by the representa- 
 tives of the German workers, for which millions of 
 workers in other countries must pay with their health 
 and their lives, can no longer be repaired, and in 
 atonement for the vote of that fatal August 4th, we 
 must accept the lame excuse that the Social Democ- 
 racy was not strong enough to have prevented the 
 war. As if anybody had demanded such a thing. 
 
 One would suppose that in the course of the war 
 the Fraction would at least have arrived at a per- 
 ception of its mistake. No such thing. "With the 
 exception of a very few members, they exhibit not 
 the faintest consciousness of wrongdoing. It passes 
 human understanding. 
 
 There ought not to be a single Socialist in politics 
 left who is actually as blind as he was on August 4, 
 1914, and who still, with all that has become known 
 
German Social Democracy and the War 169 
 
 since the outbreak of the war, cannot detect the ag- 
 gressor. 
 
 A Social-Democratic delegate who has not yet re- 
 gained enough impartiality for this no longer de- 
 serves to be called Socialist. Nothing distinguishes 
 him from a national-liberal hero of the tongue, who 
 is ready to conquer the world with other people's 
 property and blood, while himself cautiously remain- 
 ing at home talking a lot of drivel over his beer in 
 the cafe. 
 
 A Social Democrat who asks his French comrades 
 to meet him at least half way so that he may conde- 
 scendingly extend the victor's hand to them, who 
 cannot see that his French comrades actually are in 
 the position of having to defend their fatherland 
 against an invading enemy, and that their case is 
 very different from the case of the German Social- 
 ist such an one has learned nothing from the 
 slaughter, but, on the contrary, has forgotten what 
 little he ever knew. 
 
 There's no more use arguing with a man of that 
 cast than with a Herr Bassermann or a Count Revent- 
 low. One is as hopelessly insane as the other, and no 
 rational man, however much he may want to, can 
 ever join the Social-Democratic Party again. It's all 
 the more of a shame and all the more disheartening 
 
170 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 that the Fraction is almost entirely composed of such 
 madmen, since these as members of the parliament 
 meet with many an opportunity denied the layman 
 to get at the true facts. If they want to. 
 
 So when Scheidemann asks the enemies to agree to 
 Bethmann-Hollweg's designs and permit him to dic- 
 tate the terms of peace, it is too utterly ridiculous. 
 
 It is to be presumed that in the secret committee 
 sessions, he got to know the political situation and 
 all affairs connected with the war as they actually 
 are, not as the Wolff news agency wants them to be. 
 And knowing the true state of things, how could he 
 ever have expected the enemies to take such a step ? 
 
 Scheidemann 's demands upon his French comrades 
 make a positively indecent impression. The French 
 are not to eject the invading enemy. It's like asking 
 a man to make excuses to a burglar who has entered 
 his house and beg him please not to be angry. 
 
 Because it's an undeniable fact that the German 
 armies made their way into France and Belgium, 
 where they had no business to be. The French and 
 Belgian armies did not make their way into Ger- 
 many. 
 
 So a Socialist, at least, can not honorably demand 
 a peace that presupposes a German victory. A So- 
 cialist has no right to insist that unless they yield to 
 
German Social Democracy and the War 171 
 
 such terms, the war must continue because they 
 wanted to crush Germany. 
 
 Let us look a little closer at Herr Scheidemann 's 
 tactics. 
 
 He declares he is opposed to annexations, and even 
 has the brazenness to tell his constituents that the 
 government is also opposed to annexations. I con- 
 sider he is not acting in good faith. I believe his 
 tactics are dishonorable. 
 
 A man who after Bethmann-Hollweg ? s declaration 
 concerning indemnities in both the east and the west 
 and concerning the enemies' deprivation of gateways 
 by which to attack Germany in the future, a man who 
 after that can say the government has no intention 
 of annexing foreign territory, is either an idiot or 
 he knows better. 
 
 And if Scheidemann actually is incapable of ex- 
 tracting the government's designs from the chancel- 
 lor's speeches, then his eyes might be opened by a 
 perusal of the comments made by the "fatherland" 
 press, especially the official ratifications of Beth- 
 mann-Hollweg 's real intention published in the Nord- 
 deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. 
 
 Evidently it is Scheidemann 's purpose to deny 
 Bethmann-Hollweg 's hankerings for annexation so 
 that he can be answerable to his comrades for un- 
 
172 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 waveringly supporting the government's war policy. 
 He maintains it is because of the enemy's not being 
 prepared for peace that the German workers must 
 keep up the fight. 
 
 But he doesn't say why they are not ready for 
 peace, although he must know. Everybody else 
 knows. They are not ready for peace just because 
 of Germany's greed for annexation, which is some- 
 thing they will in no circumstances tolerate. 
 
 To be sure the chancellor often declared himself 
 ready for peace a German dictated peace. But the 
 others don't want what he wants, that is, wide 
 stretches of territory taken from the French, the Bel- 
 gians, the Russians. Therefore, you can't help your- 
 self, the war simply has to go on interminably with 
 the expressed sanction of the Social-Democratic ma- 
 jority. 
 
 If Scheidemann really means to pursue Socialist 
 tactics, the only sort he ought to pursue, he must not 
 content himself with generalities on the desirability 
 of peace, but say clearly and sharply, "The German 
 Social Democracy is against all annexations. The 
 chancellor must openly and unambiguously declare 
 in the Reichstag that on this point he agrees with 
 the Social Democrats; and the chancellor must also 
 
German Social Democracy and the War 173 
 
 declare himself prepared immediately to conclude 
 peace on the basis of no annexations." 
 
 If the chancellor were to do this and if his state- 
 ment were to be made formally known, and if the 
 enemy governments were still to refuse to enter into 
 peace negotiations, then, and then only, would 
 Scheidemann be justified in saying that they were not 
 ready for peace. Bethmann-Hollweg 's ' ' very accepta- 
 ble terms" of December 12, 1916, are utterly worth- 
 less. 
 
 An observant man cannot fail to notice that a 
 large number of the Social Democrats are unable to 
 escape the influence of the universal suggestion that 
 is being exerted. They view the war and the political 
 situation and even the economic situation in Germany 
 itself in exactly the same way as the non-Socialists, 
 the bourgeois. They see everything in the light of the 
 official statements, which have never ceased to aim at 
 a positively hectic optimism. 
 
 Since there is so little occasion for rejoicing, we 
 have to resort for cheer to the occupied territory. 
 "We are in the enemy's country!" Well, what if 
 we are in the enemy's country? What's the good of 
 it? Wherein lies the tremendous advantage of being 
 nailed down in the trenches for years without being 
 able to budge 1 
 
174 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 It's a prolonged agony. That's all. And how many 
 more months are to pass the same way? To be sure, 
 we are in the enemy's country, but, to compensate, 
 the enemy has conquered all the German colonies, 
 which have swallowed up so many of our millions, 
 the enemy dominates all the seas, and the enemy con- 
 trols all the products of the world for the purposes 
 of an indefinite prolongation of the war. 
 
 To me the position of the Entente powers seems far 
 more favorable than ours both in this respect and 
 with respect to man-power. They can assuredly hold 
 out longer than the enclosed Central Powers. 
 
 The greater number of the Social Democrats also 
 seem to have adopted the perfectly impossible hopes 
 of the successful issue of the war that are dissemi- 
 nated by the government in order to keep up the 
 people's spirits. 
 
 "We want victory, we must have victory, and we 
 will have victory!" 
 
 The ridiculous fable of an overwhelming decisive 
 victory, or a victory, at least, resulting from the 
 enemy's exhaustion still finds enough believers with- 
 in the Social Democracy, even after all the disillu- 
 sionments that Germany has now experienced. 
 
 There 's nothing to be done against such a cherished 
 self-deception. But it prevents the Socialists from 
 
German Social Democracy and the War 175 
 
 gathering themselves together, even if they wanted 
 to, and saying : ' ' We can no longer sanction the war. 
 We can no longer be responsible for it by voting fur- 
 ther war credits." That would still differentiate 
 them markedly from the other parties of the Reichs- 
 tag, and they would have the overwhelming ma- 
 jority of the people with them. Of this there can be 
 no doubt. 
 
 Really, if the Fraction does not at last pull itself 
 together, it will lose the bit of credit it still pos- 
 sesses. It will expose itself to the charge of caring as 
 little for the people's sufferings as the other parties. 
 
 If the Social Democrats do not refuse to go on 
 sanctioning the war, they will only be piling up their 
 own guilt. But let them refuse now, and the people 
 will see that they at least realize their mistake and 
 are trying all they can to atone for the dreadful 
 wrong of August 4, 1914. 
 
 May the Fraction come to a sense of its duty before 
 it is too late! 
 
XXVI 
 VICTORY, VICTORY! 
 
 NOT a day without its victory. Victories every- 
 where, on the western front, and the eastern front, in 
 Servia, on the Dardanelles, in the Caucasus, and God 
 knows how many other places. 
 
 On all the battlegrounds, the daily inevitable vic- 
 tory. 
 
 And all of Germany's allies are having victories, 
 too, the Austrians, the Bulgarians, the Turks, but 
 chief of all the Germans themselves. The world has 
 never seen anything to compare with it. 
 
 I believe the Central Powers are victorious in spite 
 of themselves, in their very sleep. 
 
 And why so many victories? "We want victory, 
 we must have victory, and we will have victory," be- 
 cause the Wolff Bureau has taken the matter in hand 
 and procures victories for all the Central Powers 
 alike. 
 
 The Wolff Bureau, which is one of the entrepreneurs 
 in the business of war, has ' * organized ' ' the victories. 
 You can't get anything else but a victory. There's 
 
 176 
 
Victory, Victory! 177 
 
 nothing else to be had. No arrangements have been 
 made for defeats. A special department for defeats 
 would have to be organized, and of course there 's. no 
 time for anything of the sort now. At any rate we 
 don't need a department for defeats, since we're go- 
 ing to keep on having victories without interruption 
 straight up to the glorious final victory. 
 
 But if in spite of all this, we do actually suffer a 
 tiny defeat somewhere, why, then that's the enemy's 
 boasting, or "the enemy has fabricated the defeat out 
 of whole cloth." Not having achieved any successes 
 by the sword, they have to launch a campaign of lies 
 against us. 
 
 The Wolff Bureau gains victories on the water, 
 too, not alone on land and in the air in the Skager- 
 Rack, as well as on the Black Sea the color makes 
 no difference. It could be having victories on the Yel- 
 low Sea and the Red Sea, too. 
 
 First and foremost, the Wolff Bureau obtained vic- 
 tories over the Austrian, Turkish, and Bulgarian 
 news agencies, because they haven't got the same ex- 
 cellent * ' organization " as we and are a long way from 
 understanding these matters as well as we do here in 
 Berlin. 
 
 Probably the Austrians, the Turks and the Bul- 
 garians would have had a hot time of it in the war if 
 
178 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 the Wolff Bureau had not, out of the sheer goodness 
 of its heart, stepped in and taken their part. They 
 are lacking in imagination and inventiveness, and 
 without these God-given qualities you can't have a 
 real victory. 
 
 How long are we going to keep on having victories ? 
 As long as there are credulous people to believe in 
 them, and we still have a goodly number of credulous 
 people on hand. 
 
 The Wolff Bureau never lies. It says so itself. 
 And therefore it must be true. Reuter and Havas lie. 
 They carry on a veritable campaign of lies. No, the 
 Wolff Bureau really doesn't lie. At the utmost it re- 
 frains now and then from telling the truth. But 
 that 's not the same as lying, no, not a bit. 
 
 "Wolff" is so engulfed in victories that in its ob- 
 session it forgets that even the best thing in the 
 world must come to an end some time, otherwise it 
 will pall. So oughtn't we be permitted to ask Wolff 
 to give us a defeat? Perhaps a defeat would be a 
 good way of ending the war. Our victories seem not 
 to be bringing the end any nearer. 
 
 But am I expecting something out of the way? Is 
 it that we are to triumph ourselves to death? To be 
 sure, it would be a beautiful death, and we're not far 
 
Victory, Victory! 179 
 
 from it now, but still it would be a pity to die so 
 soon, a pity, not for us, but for the Wolff Bureau. 
 There wouldn't be anybody left to read its voracious 
 reports of our daily victories. 
 
XXVII 
 LIEBKNECHT 
 
 You are our star of hope, the hope of millions. At 
 the mention of your name the first rays of peace and 
 liberty dawn on the horizon. 
 
 No one who doesn't know your name knows what 
 courage is, fiery courage and glorious unafraidness. 
 
 You stand by your conviction as firm as a rock in 
 the seething waters. Threats, contempt, contumely, 
 a degrading punishment have no power to make you 
 waver from your belief. 
 
 You are a man, Liebknecht. 
 
 By force and oppression, in a thousand outrageous 
 ways, the makers of the war try to keep all eyes 
 closed that want to open to the light, the light of the 
 truth which says that peace cannot come, the future 
 of the people cannot be assured, by the shedding of 
 blood and violence done to other nations. 
 
 The makers of the war cling convulsively to their 
 so-called victories, which never will bring peace. 
 
 And the peace that victories might bring, a peace 
 180 
 
Liebknecht 181 
 
 that would mean the enslavement of humanity, would 
 be too dreadful. God will never permit it. 
 
 The people must not find out that militarism knows 
 of no ladder by which to bring them up out of the 
 abyss into which it has plunged them. Therefore 
 their mortal hate of Liebknecht, their vile persecu- 
 tion of him. 
 
 Unfortunately our unspeakable militarism finds 
 enough men to help it, not only among those who 
 profit by the war, but even among those who, like 
 Liebknecht, were elected by the people to lead them 
 along the road to liberty. 
 
 The men who should have no other fatherland than 
 the whole of humanity, the men who at dozens of 
 congresses received as the one rule of conduct the 
 world-embracing doctrine of internationalism, these 
 men in the hour of danger forgot their principles and 
 turned themselves into hangmen for militarism. 
 
 It will be too late when these duped and deluded 
 leaders wake up to the fact that they have been 
 shamefully used as tools to sacrifice the whole peo- 
 ple, not for the fatherland, not for the country's 
 happy future, but for the profit of those who scorn 
 the fatherland and are ready to murder it. 
 
 When these deluded deceivers make common cause 
 with imperialism against Liebknecht Liebknecht, 
 
1 82 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 the man of vision, who sees farther ahead than they, 
 Liebknecht who would tear the mask from off their 
 faces they become particeps crimims in the bloody 
 assault upon peaceful nations, in the schemes of con- 
 quest and the outrageous orgies of race hatred willed 
 by the maniac imperialism. 
 
 None of all his friends has the courage to follow 
 Liebknecht. They leave him a prey to the Prussian 
 Junkers, to the mortal enemies of the people, the 
 mortal enemies of liberty. They leave him to a whole 
 Reichstag, which attacks and ridicules him and has 
 delivered him up to so-called justice. 
 
 They gagged him. He was asking uncomfortable 
 questions and trying to make speeches. They wouldn't 
 let him ask questions and make speeches. They over- 
 powered him and knocked him down and beat him 
 black and blue. 
 
 But the questions that Liebknecht wanted to ask 
 are the questions the people are now asking; the 
 speeches he wanted to make are the speeches they 
 want to hear. And if nobody answers Liebknecht 's 
 questions, the people some day will answer them 
 themselves and shriek the answers into the ears of 
 those who betrayed them. 
 
 Yet, even if they did gag Liebknecht, the people 
 now know what he tried to say, because it is their 
 
Liebknecht 183 
 
 own voice speaking out of his mouth. It is the out- 
 cry of millions suffering in stifled agony. 
 
 God save you, Liebknecht! The night of your im- 
 prisonment will soon be over. Soon you will be see- 
 ing the light of the dawn which will bring liberty to 
 you and peace to mankind. 
 
XXVIII 
 SWEEP BEFORE YOUR OWN DOOR 
 
 EVERY newspaper man has most shocking things to 
 tell of Russian corruption, English hypocrisy, French 
 vanity, and Italian perfidy. 
 
 He writes of these qualities with evident gusto and 
 a specialist's knowledge of his subject, recounting all 
 the outrages the enemy nations have been guilty of 
 since their appearance in history, showing how 
 wicked and ignorant even their so-called great men 
 have been, and pointing out that these same great 
 men have often been obliged to hold the mirror up 
 to their own countrymen for them to see how much 
 wickeder and more ignorant they are than even the 
 great men, and also how deceitful, mean, hypocrit- 
 ical, coarse, lazy, foul-mouthed, cruel, tricky, per- 
 jured, greedy, lying, impudent, extravagant, ruffian- 
 ly, and everything else. 
 
 So we Germans can sit comfortably back, full of 
 righteous indignation, and let our enemies themselves 
 pronounce sentence upon their people. In this re- 
 spect for once the enemies happen to speak the truth. 
 
 184 
 
Sweep Before Your Own Door 185 
 
 We can save ourselves all the mental effort of ex- 
 ercising the very necessary duties of a judge. More- 
 over, we need not prove a single assertion. The en- 
 emies ' great men must know even better than we what 
 miserable curs their fellow-citizens are. 
 
 The German reader, favorably inclined at any rate, 
 has been glad to believe what he sees in the papers 
 and would be ready to believe still more. 
 
 Foreign newspapers carry almost daily reports of 
 sharp criticisms launched in the various parliaments 
 against the conduct of their respective administra- 
 tions ; and even the newspapers themselves do not re- 
 frain from faultfinding when things done by their 
 governments do not please them; which seems to be 
 the case quite frequently. 
 
 It does look, as a matter of fact, as though the ''cor- 
 rupt politicians" governing the enemy nations were 
 utterly worthless. So different from here ! Why, our 
 government in all its existence has never made a sin- 
 gle mistake. 
 
 Yes, there are all sorts of rumors afloat about the 
 enemy nations. They must be a dreadful lot; their 
 governments must be rotten to the core. An awful 
 fate is in store for them. 
 
 The Wolff Bureau thrills with ecstasy over dis- 
 agreements among the Entente Allies. Soon, 
 
1 86 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 "Wolff" prophesies, their house of cards will come 
 tumbling about their ears. 
 
 The German sees this black on white in his daily 
 and swallows it whole. It 's all true, he thinks. Why 
 not ? We don 't have to lie. Only the enemy has to lie. 
 
 Why should the common run of the German people, 
 who derive all their knowledge of foreign affairs from 
 these veracious accounts, be permitted to suspect that 
 the citizens of the enemy countries are free men and 
 say what they feel like saying without let or hindrance 
 from above? That they are allowed to criticize, in 
 fact, feel an obligation to criticize, and that they ex- 
 aggerate faults so as to make all the surer of cor- 
 recting them? 
 
 No, the German need not and may not have any 
 such suspicion. Foreign governments must be rep- 
 resented to him as thoroughly corrupt, so that he 
 should rejoice in the evil conditions prevailing abroad 
 and the perfect conditions prevailing at home. 
 
 If Michel were to suspect the true state of af- 
 fairs it might occur to him might but probably 
 wouldn't to wonder why all the other nations are 
 governed by men with human failings, while Prusso- 
 Germany is governed by infallible Prussian demi- 
 gods. In the end he might begin to question whether 
 after all our demi-gods are actually infallible or 
 
Sweep Before Your Own Door 187 
 
 whether they simply make it appear so by preventing 
 all criticism. 
 
 The heralds of the press who proclaim the infallibil- 
 ity of the Prussian government and follow up the 
 mistakes of the enemy governments like sleuths may, 
 some of them, do so in good faith, only they seem to 
 have lost all measure of the true state of affairs. 
 
 Most of them, however, are a bad, venal lot. They 
 make capital of the present juncture, knowing very 
 well how to secure good pay for their patriotic ac- 
 tivity as watchdogs for the government. 
 
 They are the true pirates of public opinion and 
 in the same honorable class as the war promoters and 
 war profiteers. 
 
 The few persons in Germany who have preserved 
 their level-headedness and coolness of judgment even 
 in the stress of wartime and are incapable of exploit- 
 ing the people 's misfortune, have less of a chance now 
 than ever in their own country. They may not move 
 their lips. 
 
 Silence is imposed upon them, not because there is 
 nothing to criticize in the government, but because 
 our infallible government dreads them, being so fully 
 conscious of its fallibility and wrongdoing that it 
 needs the swords of a thousand censorship generals 
 to guard it effectively against criticism. 
 
1 88 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 Our government is in such a state of alarm that it 
 has its infallibility proclaimed every day in every 
 variety of pitch and tone. 
 
 If it has done no other wrong, it has at least com- 
 mitted the greatest wrong of all. It has brought about 
 this war. 
 
 So, sweep before the enemy's door. Don't sweep 
 before your own door. It might raise too much dust. 
 
XXIX 
 THE PAN-GERMANS 
 
 VALIANT Teutonic heroes of the beer table, simple- 
 tons partly and partly criminals! 
 
 Sensible people have had many a hearty laugh over 
 these warriors of the tongue, who strut about, chests 
 out like pouters, these starched-collar clerks who sit 
 warming their seats the whole day long, these school 
 teachers and professors who dish up chauvinistic 
 nonsense and turn the heads of poor callow youths. 
 
 Who in Germany doesn't know them and their dis- 
 torted views of men and the world? We are all fa- 
 miliar with them from our school days up. 
 
 The larger number of Germans never recover from 
 the strange ideas with which they have been inocu- 
 lated in school. They always see international rela- 
 tions in the same peculiar perspective. The few of 
 us who in spite of all the difficulties in the way have 
 succeeded in lifting ourselves out of the mire of Pan- 
 Germanism have had many a hard fight to fight with 
 ourselves. 
 
 Ah, we see our valiant warriors, all puffed up, 
 marching along triumphantly, marching on to Val- 
 
 189 
 
190 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 halla, Herr school teacher and Herr professor and 
 Herr assistant district attorney, all marching along 
 seated at their beer table and amid high discourse 
 healing the world of all its wounds* by means of 
 their excellent Teutschtum.'f 
 
 They empty their seidels to the health of a world 
 that is to be teutsch from ocean to ocean. Nothing 
 less will do. 
 
 The uninstructed observer would take them to be 
 nothing but a lot of innocents whose ideas have no 
 bearing upon actuality. 
 
 An egregious misconception. In the Teutonic com- 
 edy that they are enacting, shrewd calculation is play- 
 ing an important role. They know very well that 
 their Teutschtum is being looked down upon benevo- 
 lently from up above, that a high value is put upon 
 them for their aid in stultifying the rising genera- 
 tion, and that they have a better prospect of quick 
 promotion the more insistently they display their en- 
 thusiasm for Germanism and the fatherland. 
 
 How often we've been irritated or tickled, as the 
 case may be, by the Pan-German professors who prove 
 scientifically that Dante or Michelangelo or Leonardo 
 da Vinci were not Italians but good old Germans. 
 
 * A reference to a patriotic song. 
 t -Deutschtum, meaning Germanism. 
 
The Pan-Germans 191 
 
 All of us have met the professors who hunt through 
 the pages of foreign history for the one object of 
 finding famous men who can possibly be made into 
 Germans by means of scientific humbuggery. 
 
 Is there a single man of renown beginning with 
 Praxiteles or Alexander the Great or even Homer 
 whom these professors have allowed to remain with 
 the nation to which they were born? On the con- 
 trary, they have put out their hands to grab them 
 like a naughty child trying to snatch away another 
 child's toys. 
 
 They have taken possession of all the great men to 
 transfer them to their German Valhalla. For it is 
 impossible, say the Pan- German Michels, utterly im- 
 possible, that any one belonging to another nation 
 should ever have done anything great or good. 
 
 The journalistic satellites of the Pan-Germans, the 
 ' ' fatherland ' ' newspapers, like the Munchner Neueste 
 Nachricthen, have shrewdly calculated for the good 
 of their own business that it pays to flatter the pub- 
 lic, which has no powers of independent judgment. 
 So the press is always ready to blazon forth the 
 great German " scientific " discoveries, since it must 
 greatly flatter Herr butcher Wammerl or Herr baker 
 Kipferl when, reading his paper over his cup of 
 coffee, he sees that this great Italian or that eminent 
 
192 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 Greek (of whom he has never before heard, to be 
 sure, but who must be great, because the newspaper 
 says he is great) is really not an Italian and not a 
 Greek but a Deitscher* a German, just as much of a 
 German as he is himself. 
 
 Sometimes it makes your blood boil in your veins 
 to see all the stultifying, mendacious nonsense that 
 appears in the Pan-German newspapers. The makers 
 of public opinion are fools, race-baiters, men who 
 traffic in misleading thought. But they understand 
 the times they are living in most excellently. Their 
 large editions and advertisement pages prove that 
 they do. 
 
 Who weighs their share of the guilt in the slaughter 
 of the nations now raging? It is enormous. Shrewd- 
 ly cultivating a whole nation 's megalomania, the Pan- 
 German press and its backers have for years been 
 systematically fomenting race hatred and have been 
 piling up inflammable material for the great explo- 
 sion that has just gone off. 
 
 The Pan-German chauvinists have first-rate sources 
 of information. In the spring of 1914 they already 
 knew that there would be war in the summer of 1914. 
 No wonder. They are in close touch with the gov- 
 
 * -Veutscher, meaning ' ' a German, ' ' 
 
The Pan-Germans 193 
 
 eminent and with the policy of William II, whose 
 ideals are near enough to their own. 
 
 What better proof can you want that the Pan- 
 Germans knew of the war beforehand than the cam- 
 paign for Red Cross funds launched by the Pan- 
 German press in May, 1914, and given such tremen- 
 dous publicity and accompanied by such mysterious, 
 sinister allusions? They could hardly have chosen a 
 plainer way to tell the German people what was com- 
 ing. 
 
 The Pan-German agitators knew full well that mat- 
 ters had gone as far as this and that the Red Cross 
 would soon be having something to do. 
 
 They knew when the thing would come off and that 
 the seeds of national hatred which they had persist- 
 ently sowed were now sprouting and ripening and 
 awaiting the reaper. 
 
 These Pan-German criminals, these Herr school 
 teachers and Herr professors, and Herr clerks and 
 Herr butchers and bakers, bear their full measure of 
 guilt for the blood now being shed throughout the 
 world. 
 
XXX 
 
 THE CENSOKSHIP 
 
 "THE eavesdropper hearkens to tales of his own 
 disgrace. ' ' 
 
 This old German maxim serves well as a preface to 
 observations on the way censorship is practiced here 
 in Germany. 
 
 When one reads the adjurations and threats di- 
 rected to travelers, which appear at least once a 
 week; when one hears that at the border travel- 
 ers' visiting cards and newspapers and even train 
 schedules are mercilessly confiscated, one realizes that 
 the Prussians must be terribly afraid that the truth 
 may leak out about the conditions in Germany. 
 
 Evidently, it is in the fear of not being able to 
 conceal their * ' own disgrace, ' ' that they take to eaves- 
 dropping and nosing about in all printed and written 
 matter to see if there isn't something mortifying to 
 themselves in it. 
 
 Their bad conscience reveals itself in a perfectly 
 absurd dread. But nobody is to notice it. So they 
 tell the public that the eavesdropping is done for the 
 
 194 
 
The Censorship 195 
 
 sake of military information. None but a simpleton 
 would believe that. How in the name of common 
 sense is an ordinary German to secure military in- 
 formation outside of what appears in all the dailies? 
 It would be a miracle if he could. 
 
 Censorship may be necessary in wartime. Liberty- 
 loving France has it, and also democratic England. 
 And in actual practice it is not so much a matter of 
 whether there is censorship or not as the way cen- 
 sorship is handled, so that in this respect as well as 
 in the many other respects mentioned in this book 
 the difference between practice in Germany and prac- 
 tice in democratic countries becomes instantly ap- 
 parent. 
 
 The democratic governments, it is noticeable, have 
 nothing to conceal either from their own people or 
 from the outside world, and censorship is actually 
 limited to such things as may be of direct use to the 
 enemy. Nor could it be otherwise. The people them- 
 selves have a voice in the conduct of affairs and can 
 let the administration know to what extent they are 
 prepared to restrict themselves for their country's 
 sake. 
 
 But as for Germany ! The people here have noth- 
 ing to say. They must simply stand stiff as soldiers 
 
196 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 on drill and keep their mouths shut. They are never 
 asked what they want, most certainly not. 
 
 The first act of our government in the war was to 
 place the nation in a state of siege. No other bellig- 
 erent country has done that. Militarism was made 
 absolute lord and master over every living, breathing 
 thing in Germany. 
 
 Intolerable restrictions were imposed on the peo- 
 ple, who were deprived of the right even to say 
 whether or not they would or could bear these re- 
 strictions. 
 
 Prussian militarism gave orders, and the people 
 obeyed; and ever since the outbreak of the war the 
 sword alone has held sway in the land over every 
 province of human life, by no means excepting spir- 
 itual matters. What a tremendous opportunity the 
 state of siege has given militarism for suppressing 
 the last remnant of the people's right to self-deter- 
 mination ! 
 
 It was not every day that such opportunities pre- 
 sented themselves to militarism, even in the police 
 state of Prusso- Germany, and nobody, therefore, 
 would expect militarism to avail itself of the oppor- 
 tunities in any way but one thoroughly corresponding 
 to its character. 
 
 For these few years, therefore, the genuine Prus- 
 
The Censorship 197 
 
 sian spirit has held sole sway in the land, and the 
 censorship sword, wielded by a general who was 
 probably too stupid for war operations, has had ab- 
 solute authority over the whole nation. 
 
 A man who had spent his entire life, apparently in 
 vain, trying to get into his noddle the science of the 
 best and quickest way to kill the largest number of 
 human beings, whose one study was the dealing of 
 death and destruction, was suddenly called to guide 
 the mind of the great German nation and give it a 
 rule of conduct. 
 
 To be sure, he cannot make many mistakes in his 
 administration. He has an infallible guide, the as- 
 surance that everything must be absolutely subordi- 
 nated to the interests of militarism. 
 
 The welfare of the people, even the most urgent 
 needs are taken into consideration only in so far as 
 they promote the aims of militarism. 
 
 Therefore, anybody who awakens men's lowest in- 
 stincts and incites men to hatred and bloodshed may 
 be sure of meeting with full approval and active 
 support. 
 
 The more bloodthirsty a man's utterances, the more 
 vociferous and insistent the patriot, and the more 
 praiseworthy his sentiments. 
 
 Every noble impulse of the human spirit, all rea- 
 
198 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 son, every move for conciliation, is suppressed as out 
 of place or premature. 
 
 This is what they call "civil peace/' It has a 
 frightful resemblance to the peace of the grave. In 
 fact, it is the grave of the spirit, no opponent of con- 
 tinued murder having the chance to express his opin- 
 ion and so disturb the ''civil peace." 
 
 This, of course, greatly promotes the objects of mil- 
 itarism. The masses depend for their ideas upon 
 what they read in print, and only the fewest ever stop 
 to think that the reason they are given nothing else 
 to read is that nothing else may be published. 
 
 The censorship is supposed to serve another pur- 
 pose beside the influencing of the people at home. It 
 ought to mold public opinion abroad also and give 
 the outside world an impression of the genuine ex- 
 istence of unity in Germany. A pious wish, however. 
 Our censorship does nothing of the sort. 
 
 The outside world is not so easily to be deceived. 
 Even the keenest of censorships and the most arrogant 
 of assertions won't hide cold facts except for a brief 
 period. 
 
 Moreover, the utter indignation of men enraged by 
 the attempted enslavement of their souls finds its way 
 into other countries through a thousand channels, 
 
The Censorship 199 
 
 and there secures a publicity denied them in their 
 own country. 
 
 What a sublime feeling must animate the Prussian 
 Junkers to-day when they see their dream of tram- 
 pling upon the spiritual life of the German nation 
 so gloriously realized. At last they can do without 
 restraint what they have long been entirely pre- 
 vented from doing, that is, they can simply use the 
 sword of the censor to forbid what doesn't suit them. 
 
 They need not give any reasons for a prohibition. 
 There is a magic phrase that suffices, " state of siege." 
 How simple, how gloriously easy! 
 
 The state of siege has stood the test so thoroughly 
 
 i 
 
 that the Junkers are dreaming of keeping it up even 
 in times of peace. Can there be anything lovelier, 
 they think, than the mild words, "civil peace" and 
 "unity"? 
 
 They don't go about the censorship openly, but try 
 to keep it invisible ; which is a bit of secretiveness and 
 dissimulation highly indicative of the true Prussian 
 spirit. 
 
 They are ready to practice censorship in the most 
 unscrupulous fashion. But don't let people see there 
 is censorship. Make them believe that what they 
 read in the papers is the true uninfluenced opinion of 
 the large public. 
 
aoo What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 Such, cowardly dishonesty, such crafty deception 
 of the public, joined to a dread of responsibility, re- 
 veal a depth of immorality to which it could scarcely 
 be believed a class of people would sink. 
 
 This sort of censorship has been reserved for 
 Prusso-Germany alone, and if anything, it is the 
 Prussian censorship that shows the low place that 
 our country has taken among the civilized nations. 
 
XXXI 
 
 PRUSSIAN MILITARISM 
 
 " WHERE should we be now if it weren't for Prus- 
 sian militarism ? Prussian militarism is the one thing 
 that has saved us from being crushed." 
 
 A vapid remark, yet one repeated again and again 
 and uttered in tones of the profoundest conviction. 
 The German is so ensnared in the ideas of militarism, 
 and its catchwords have become so intimate a part of 
 his being, that he can see nothing but a justification 
 of militarism even in the fact of this war. He simply 
 can't help himself. 
 
 If you say to him, "My dear man, you're wrong. 
 It's the very reverse. We shouldn't be having the 
 war now if it were not for Prussian militarism/' It, 
 opens his eyes uncomprehendingly. There isn't one 
 German in a thousand who gets at the truth of tli 
 situation. 
 
 The absolute necessity for militarism seems to have 
 been hammered into every German's cranium so hard 
 that if you try to get the idea out of his head, his 
 brains come along with it. 
 
 201 
 
202 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 The picture the German has formulated of the 
 world would dissolve into nothingness were he to at- 
 tempt to conceive of it minus militarism. The con- 
 stant repetition of catchwords has crippled his pow- 
 ers of independent thought. 
 
 If you want to go at the thing with him scientifi- 
 cally and dig down for the roots, he asserts that mili- 
 tarism is in accord with the Germanic character. He 
 forgets that his native land is Germanic in only a 
 very limited degree and is strongly shot through with 
 Slavic elements. 
 
 The nations that are akin to the Prussians, while 
 of far purer Germanic stock than the fathers of mili- 
 tarism, do not cultivate militarism as an end in itself. 
 The Swiss, the Dutch, the Danes, and the Swedes 
 have no love for this Prussian institution. Southern 
 and western Germany are militaristic because they 
 have been Prussianized. 
 
 If one wants to obtain a proper estimate of the 
 value or lack of value of militarism for the world in 
 general and the German people in particular, the first 
 question one must ask is whether its basic tendencies 
 are constructive or destructive. The answer is ob- 
 vious, especially after the experiences in this war. 
 Any man free from prejudice and unhampered by a 
 glut of catchwords in his brain will find only the one 
 
Prussian Militarism 203 
 
 answer. He needs no scientific authorities to guide 
 him. 
 
 Those who profit by militarism have never been 
 at a loss to justify it. Defense of the fatherland, 
 they say, is its main task and next to that the ex- 
 pansion of Germany's trade. 
 
 But our fatherland needed no defense. It was not 
 attacked. It did the attacking. The German decla- 
 rations of war against France and Russia make that 
 plain. And as for the expansion of Germany 's trade, 
 it had better been left to our German merchants, who 
 have devoted themselves to this pursuit with energy 
 and success for centuries with more success doubt- 
 less than militarism will ever be able to place to its 
 credit. 
 
 On examination, both causes given for the necessity 
 of militarism burst like a pricked bubble. They are 
 threadbare pretexts for bringing on the "joyous war" 
 for which militarism had long been preparing and 
 ardently yearning. Militarism has never been at a 
 loss to find a cause for war. Any pretext will do. 
 
 The real task of Prussian militarism, beside that of 
 killing and destroying, lies in a field very remote 
 from defense of the people and the expansion of 
 trade. It has to do with something directly opposed 
 
204 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 to the people's welfare. For that reason its real task 
 is cleverly kept concealed. 
 
 The real task of Prussian militarism is to maintain 
 antiquated conditions in Germany, conditions that 
 without its steady support would have passed long 
 ago. Militarism must uphold the Prussian throne as 
 well as the thrones of the twenty-one other federated 
 kingdoms and principalities. This is its sole task in 
 times of peace, and it is for this purpose that the 
 Germans have spent untold millions. 
 
 Militarism by its strong-handed methods forces 
 upon the German people the ridiculous rule of twenty- 
 two idlers, with their princes and princesses and 
 everything else thereunto appertaining. 
 
 Militarism and divine right, one as absurd as the 
 other in modern times, ought long ago to have been 
 shattered to pieces against the resistance of a civil- 
 ized nation. The world would then have been spared 
 the awful visitation of this war. As it is, a united 
 world, a world in the throes of an immense agony, is 
 needed to make the German people see what the real 
 thing at issue in the war is. The world must fight 
 for the liberation of the German people against the 
 German people themselves. 
 
 It is in this sense that we must take the English 
 minister when he said that the allies did not wish to 
 
Prussian Militarism 20$ 
 
 crush the German nation or interfere with its peace- 
 able activities, but that militarism must be crushed, 
 and for this the allies had the will and the power. 
 
 So be it. The German people have nothing to fear. 
 Militarism has everything to fear. 
 
XXXII 
 
 ASININITIES 
 
 THE Herr Rector magnificus of the Berlin Uni- 
 versity posts an announcement on the bulletin board. 
 According to the traditional custom, he affixes his 
 signature, and puts after it all his titles and degrees 
 and honors. 
 
 Among the honors is listed the fact that His Mag- 
 nificence is a member of almost all the academies of 
 the world except the Paris academy, from which he 
 is "honorably" excluded. 
 
 You look at the bulletin board and clutch your head 
 in despair. After these long, long months of war, of 
 the most horrible blood bath the world has ever ex- 
 perienced, the same professorial asininity. 
 
 We found an excuse for the awful idiocy of the 
 German professors, who were to l ' enlighten ' ' the neu- 
 trals (though all they succeeded in doing was in 
 proving that they themselves needed enlightening) , in 
 the excitement of the outbreak of the war. 
 
 After the many more things that these shining 
 lights of science have since then let fall regarding the 
 
 206 
 
Asininities 207 
 
 war, I find that their excitement was highly exag- 
 gerated. At any rate, the asininity recorded on the 
 bulletin board cannot claim excitement in its excuse. 
 
 We have come to perceive that the average German 
 professor's intelligence has been vastly overestimat- 
 ed. His " excited enlightening" of neutrals proves 
 that it has. An ass is an ass even when excited. 
 
 What but asininity could have impelled the Herr 
 Eector after several years of warfare to post this, to 
 say the least, superfluous remark on the bulletin 
 board? 
 
 Does he think it was a particularly brilliant re- 
 mark, in the most perfect taste? Does he count upon 
 the unthinking crowd's approval of his splendid act 
 as a proud friend of the fatherland? And does he 
 take the Berlin academicians for the unthinking 
 crowd? They are the only ones for whom the an- 
 nouncement was meant. 
 
 Who can follow the processes of a professor's mind? 
 
 Only one thing comes out of the various pronuncia- 
 mentoes issued by the German professors in the course 
 of this horrible war, and that is, that the German pro- 
 fessors have not succeeded in taking an attitude to- 
 ward the awful event which is based upon humanity 
 and common sense. 
 
 They are still just as prejudiced and uncompre- 
 
2o8 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 bending as at the beginning of the war. As far as I 
 can see, there are many workingmen and peasants 
 who formulate infinitely more sensible ideas of the 
 origin, duration, and probable outcome of the war. 
 
 In no circumstances has professorial perception of 
 actuality ever been particularly keen, so that the peo- 
 ple have never placed much reliance in the capabil- 
 ities of professors as politicians. As witness the 
 verse written long ago to the Frankfurter Bundestag, 
 that parliament of professors par excellence. 
 
 "Professors fifty and five score! 
 fatherland, you '11 suffer sore. ' ' 
 
 Following times have only confirmed the popular 
 opinion. 
 
 But, thank goodness! there are exceptions even 
 among German professors. There are a few of them 
 that show a human, unprejudiced reaction to the 
 war. Yet alas, alas, these are the refined souls who 
 shrink from publicity, so that it is the others alone 
 who get the people's ears. 
 
 Their day, however, is coming. Some think it is 
 already here! 
 
 For the present the donkeys hold the stage and 
 fill the ears of the people with their braying, sure 
 
Asininities 209 
 
 of the people's applause. Their cleverness, their 
 courage now come into full appreciation. Which is 
 the reason, probably, for the opinion that there are 
 no sensible professors at all but only donkeys and 
 donkeys. 
 
XXXIII 
 
 BLUFF! 
 
 Bluff Number One: The U-Boat Warfare 
 
 BLUFF ! Prussian bluff ! I still see myself standing 
 on the Marienplatz in Munich on a February after- 
 noon in 1915. A crowd was besieging the open-air 
 bulletin boards, and it was a long time before I could 
 elbow my way through and read the news. What 
 was it? One of our daily victories? Scarcely. A 
 victory would not draw such numbers. We had got 
 used to victories. 
 
 The people who turned and made their way out of 
 the throng had a serious, thoughtful expression on 
 their faces. So, no victory this time. 
 
 At last I could see for myself what it was. The 
 announcement of the U-boat warfare. 
 
 In brief curt words the admiralty proclaimed that 
 English transport ships crossing the Channel would 
 be sunk. Nothing more or less. 
 
 It struck me like a thunderbolt. And apparently 
 it produced the same effect upon every one who read 
 
 210 
 
Bluff! 211 
 
 the news. My knees shook. I was all excitement. 
 The menace to England was really serious now. The 
 English transports were to be sunk. 
 
 Why, yes, it was very simple. You had the troops 
 all neatly gathered together on the ships, and our 
 soldiers would be spared the nuisance of fighting them 
 in France and Belgium. 
 
 You already had a vision of the whole thing. You 
 saw the torpedoed vessels going down and countless 
 Tommies splashing about in the icy water and then 
 disappearing. 
 
 After the nerve-racking announcement, we waited, 
 waited greedily, and kept on waiting, and still are 
 waiting. So far not a single English transport has 
 been sunk. Oh, yes, just one. One has been sunk in 
 the columns of the Munchner Neueste Nachrichten. 
 Every last man on board went down with the vessel. 
 
 Bluff! Prussian bluff! 
 
 Bluff Number Two: Prussia's Wealth 
 
 On every fitting and unfitting occasion Herr Helf- 
 ferich tells us proudly of Prussia's enormous wealth. 
 How lightly he conjures up millions for the war! 
 Requires no machinery for it at all. 
 
 But contrast his high-sounding phrases with the 
 
212 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 tremendous campaign carried on to raise the war 
 loans. Not the tiniest, remotest Bavarian village es- 
 capes. That humble soliciting, that begging even of 
 children and the poor to sacrifice their pennies on 
 the altar of the fatherland, that influencing of the 
 people's minds through school teachers and public 
 officials a remarkable contrast to Helfferich's 
 phrases. So what, in the light of this contrast, be- 
 comes of the vast Prussian wealth upon which Herr 
 Helfferich keeps harping? 
 
 If our minister of finance were actually as rich as 
 he says he is, he shouldn't have to go whining and 
 begging and forcing us here in Bavaria to give up 
 our all in return for bits of hideously printed paper, 
 which, according to all human calculations, will in the 
 end be good for nothing but wrapping up sausages. 
 
 Herr Helfferich's most brilliant performance is the 
 comparison he draws in every speech between Prus- 
 sia's wealth and abundance and England's dearth 
 and poverty. Not to mention the other nations. 
 
 Why, Herr Helfferich wouldn't do them the honor 
 of even comparing them with Prussia. 
 
 Poor Brittania is the one country to enjoy the 
 privilege, but only so that Prussia may shine the more 
 brightly by contrast. 
 
 Can a man of experience doubt the true purpose of 
 
Bluff! 213 
 
 this ridiculous braggadocio? To throw sand in 
 Michel's eyes. Then will Michel willingly give up 
 his last penny. And if Herr Helfferich needs Michel 's 
 shirt for the fatherland, then will Michel take the 
 shirt off his back, too. 
 
 Herr Helfferich is supposed also to work upon for- 
 eign nations and extract money from them, too. He'd 
 be glad to take whatever he can get. Unfortunately, 
 however, he gets nothing. 
 
 The foreigners are not so stupid as to stake their 
 money on the losing horse. They are disrespectful 
 enough not to believe in Prussia's fabulous wealth. 
 They say it is all bluff, Prussian bluff. 
 
 Bluff Number Three: Prussian Organization 
 
 And our organization! That marvelous Prussian 
 organization, unexcelled, inimitable! 
 
 That organization for the mutual and public ad- 
 miration of the glorious qualities and achievements 
 of the Prussian bureaucrats! That organization for 
 proclaiming the overwhelming superiority of the 
 Prussian organization. 
 
 What else the organization may have accomplished 
 is still hidden from the exoteric. 
 
 Even the organizer of organizers, the Prussian 
 
214 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 food dictator, has not produced a change. To him, 
 too, the main thing all along has simply been pub- 
 licity for the incomparable organization. 
 
 He puff s and swells himself enormously, talking ' 
 commonplaces, puffs himself even more than the other 
 organizers, and lets everything be just as it has 
 been. 
 
 The people suffer want and starve. It is to be 
 hoped the Herr Food Dictator is not suffering want 
 and starving. 
 
 He ''the strong man," is nothing but a tight-rope 
 dancer balancing himself carefully between the un- 
 scrupulous greed of the Prussian agrarians and the 
 wrath of the starving people. 
 
 Isn't potato bread rarer than cake in peace times? 
 Aren't our supplies of potatoes, sugar, eggs, meat, 
 all necessities in short, so close to the margin that 
 they are enough to keep us from dying but not enough 
 to keep us living ? Aren 't we down to the very lowest 
 already and isn't what is left so outrageously high in 
 price that the people cannot buy the things most es- 
 sential to life? 
 
 The middle class has been ruined, reduced to the 
 proletariat. No business succeeds unless the head of 
 it is a thorough cheat and has secured government 
 contracts, besides. 
 
Bluff! 215 
 
 The famous organizers shrug their shoulders. ' * The 
 natural consequences of war/' they say. They don't 
 like to hear of misery and starvation. It doesn't fit 
 in with the picture they draw to deceive themselves 
 and others, the picture of the wonderful adaptation 
 of the nation's economic life to the war. 
 
 Yes, but if you don't want to hear of the nameless 
 woe that the war has brought upon millions of your 
 countrymen, then why, you spawn of the devil, why 
 did you make war? Why, if all you can attend to is 
 killing and massacring and destroying and burning 
 and laying waste ? 
 
 Massacring and destroying and burning are things, 
 to be sure, that you have organized well, you crimi- 
 nals. But it's easier to do that than to build up or 
 create useful values. 
 
 Your whole "organization" is destruction. The 
 building up you will have to leave to others. 
 
 Your organization is bluff, nothing but bluff. Prus- 
 sian fraud. 
 
 Bluff Number Four: the Universities 
 
 We opened a university in Warsaw and one in 
 Ghent, presumably for the spread of Prussian culture 
 among the nations of Poland and Belgium. 
 
216 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 So far we have had no news regarding the uni- 
 versity in Belgium, except that a Flemish poet coldly 
 but courteously declined Prussia's proud gift. It 
 seems Ghent has no professors or students, but we've 
 just tried to secure some by way of Holland, and we 
 shall have to wait to see with what success. 
 
 Apparently the Belgians have already acquired the 
 right conception of Prussian culture even without 
 a university through the destruction of Louvain 
 and Antwerp and through the thousands of deporta- 
 tions. They desire no further proofs of its superior- 
 ity. The ungrateful curs! 
 
 The Polish university, on the other hand, is flour- 
 ishing and active, except that there are no Poles con- 
 nected with it. With omission of the Poles, it is a 
 thoroughly international university. 
 
 German and Austrian professors here instruct the 
 scions of that ancient race whose ancestors passed 
 across the Red Sea and later established trading 
 settlements in and around Jerusalem. 
 
 There are rumors afloat among the initiated that 
 Servia is the next in order. This beautiful country 
 is to be blessed with a great art academy in which the 
 Slavs are to become acquainted with the genuine kgl* 
 Prussian art. The proper successors of Knackfuss 
 
 * Common abbreviation for koniglieh, ' ' royal. ' ' 
 
Bluff! 217 
 
 and Anton von Werner are already on their way to 
 Belgrade. 
 
 His Majesty's well-known art magazine, Volker 
 E-uropa's ivahrt cure heiligsten Outer* has been given 
 them to bring along in order to show the Servians 
 what art really is. The requisite drill ground for art 
 has been plotted out, and we shall soon be drilling the 
 young Servian artists with: "Present brushes! 
 Right dress! Left dress!" 
 
 Nor is Montenegro to be left without attention. 
 The Montenegrins must not be allowed to suffer for 
 their king's naughty behavior. 
 
 Cettinje is to be endowed with a musical conserva- 
 tory, because in the mountains there, the sounds echo 
 and reecho so prettily. The chief subject of instruc- 
 tion will be trumpeting. 
 
 The imperial conqueror of Montenegro, as is 
 known, places the greatest value upon trumpeting, 
 because it is the loudest music, and after all his un- 
 heard-of victories on all the battlefields of Europe, 
 he wants none but trumpeters to accompany him 
 wherever he goes, even if his movements are to be 
 kept secret. 
 
 They say a whole regiment of trumpeters is to be 
 
 * Nations of Europe, Preserve Your Most Sacred Treasures. 
 
218 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 got together, and so there will be a great demand for 
 men with good, strong lungs. 
 
 Thus, the Prussian authorities look out in fatherly 
 fashion for all the people that have had the good luck 
 to be invaded by them. 
 
 Of course, always in the field of "Kultur," be- 
 cause that is what they are most familiar with and 
 because it costs them nothing. They simply compel 
 the respective countries to maintain and pay for 
 these Prussianizing institutions. 
 
 Another great advantage of the universities and 
 acadamies is that on the opening days bombastic 
 speeches can be made on the superiority of German 
 culture over all the other so-called cultures, atten- 
 tion thus being drawn to the fact that we are not 
 barbarians, as so many mean people want the world 
 to believe. 
 
 In view of such great cultural deeds it matters lit- 
 tle that the people in the subjugated lands who have 
 escaped death by fire or sword are left to starve, 
 while the little they have managed to save for barely 
 keeping themselves alive is taken from them and sent 
 on to Prussia. 
 
 The world hears nothing of the shrieks of agony 
 of these dying men, women and children. Prussia 
 squeezes the throats of its victims too tight for the 
 
Bluff! 219 
 
 neutrals to catch a sound. And yet sometimes the 
 death rattle of a starving victim reaches the ears of 
 the outside world. But when it does, why, it's not 
 true, it's the malicious invention of our enemies. 
 
 Oh, bloody mockery of culture and humanity, these 
 universities and academies amid subjugated victims, 
 amid mortals dying of hunger. Did any one in the 
 ravaged countries invite the bearers of culture in? 
 Why do they insult those whom they have trodden 
 underfoot with their hollow gifts? 
 
 Even in destroying and murdering they haven't 
 the courage to be open about it arid at least stick to 
 nothing but the job that brought them there. 
 
 Bluff Number Five: Peace 
 
 All the chancellors that succeeded each other to of- 
 fice during the war have wanted to conclude peace. 
 They have had their fill of bloodshed and refuse to 
 assume responsibility for the continued slaughter of 
 the nations. 
 
 They are so peace-loving, so ready for peace! But 
 our enemies are not satisfied. They have not seen 
 enough blood spilled yet. 
 
 This is what the chancellors keep telling us over 
 and over again. They are such dear, good souls. 
 They can't bear to see blood shed. 
 
22O What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 The enemies should just look at the map ! If they 
 look at the map, they can gather the exact situation 
 from it and conclude peace accordingly. 
 
 But they don't want to. They say you can't tell 
 from the German war map, and there are consider- 
 ably larger maps in this world-war which, however, 
 the chancellors apparently do not possess. They say 
 there's a map of the world, and on that map things 
 look very different. 
 
 What insolence! 
 
 So then our enemies want to keep the war up? 
 Well and good. Nothing could be better. They shall 
 have the war they want. But every day the war goes 
 on increases our demands, enlarges the territory that 
 we shall wrest from them as security for their good 
 behavior in the future. 
 
 Donnerwetter, they shall have their war! 
 
 But now they're trembling, we hope. They're 
 shivering and shaking, because the territory to be 
 annexed is growing bigger every day, and soon will 
 be so big that the only thing left them, each enemy in 
 his own country, will be a spot with a tree on it for 
 them to hang themselves on. 
 
 Nevertheless, in spite of this dismal prospect, they 
 keep on fighting. 
 
 Can it be that the enemy has his supicions that all 
 
Bluff! 221 
 
 this stuff about territory is bluff, nothing but Prus- 
 sian fraud? Has he any notion of the fact that the 
 more arrogant the Prussian claims, the nearer is the 
 great crash in Germany? 
 
 Many a time have the chancellors declartd them- 
 selves ready for a German dictated peace. And how 
 did the enemy respond to their magnanimity? By 
 laughing at them, simply laughing at them. They 
 don't believe they've been beaten. They don't be- 
 lieve they ever will be beaten. They're just begin- 
 ning in real good earnest. 
 
 And they don 't even look at the map that the chan- 
 cellors keep sticking under their noses. They say it's 
 bluff, sheer Prussian bluff. 
 
XXXIV 
 
 QUELLE BETISE 
 
 SHORTLY after the outbreak of the war, some few 
 weeks or months later, the German newspapers all 
 carried an interview that a German reporter had had 
 with the French ambassador in Berlin after diplo- 
 matic relations had been broken off between France 
 and Germany. 
 
 Monsieur Cambon, having granted the interview 
 shortly before his enforced departure from the Prus- 
 sian capital, was naturally very brief, and confined 
 himself chiefly to the expression of how stupid the 
 war was quelle betise. 
 
 The interview, it goes without saying, was not 
 served to the German public in its simple form, but 
 dressed with the customary superabundance of spices 
 and sauces I beg pardon, gravy, its own dish gravy. 
 Everybody was to be given a taste of how sensibly 
 the German government had acted. What was a 
 betise to the French ambassador and his country was 
 necessarily the very reverse to Germany. 
 
 I am often made to think of that long-ago incident 
 222 
 
Quelle Betise 223 
 
 when here in a neutral country I discuss the war and 
 its causes with neutrals and over and over again hear 
 some one say, "What stupidity!" 
 
 What did Germany want? What was lacking to 
 make her completely happy? She had everything, 
 the largest, best-equipped and best-managed army in 
 the world, a navy which in its brand-new modernity 
 excelled all other navies except the old English navy, 
 and this it was not so very far from approaching. 
 German science and technology played a highly impor- 
 tant part in the world; German industry and trade 
 were on the highroad to conquering all markets. 
 Everywhere German capital was being employed, and 
 the German technician and German engineer were 
 omnipresent. Then what did Germany want? Why 
 the war? Germany was on the point of conquering 
 the world without removing her sword from the 
 scabbard. 
 
 Why the war? 
 
 In a foreign country one gains perspective in ob- 
 serving things about one's own country. One gets a 
 keener insight into the larger relations. From close 
 by one sees an inextricable confusion of details, the 
 nuts, pins, screws, cogs, wheels, pistons of a huge 
 machine, From afar the thing ceases to be a puz- 
 
224 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 zling multiplicity and becomes the one, great, power- 
 ful machine, Germany. 
 
 That was before the war. But now? Yes, you 
 ask in grief, "What was it that Germany wanted?" 
 A comparison between to-day and the yesterdays be- 
 fore the war brings nothing but profound pity. What 
 has the war done to this flourishing nation? 
 
 Was it not a monumental piece of stupidity to 
 bring this gigantic machine to a standstill with one 
 jerk? Was it not sheer idiocy? 
 
 Where is the young German merchant now, the 
 technician, the engineer? Rotting alive in the slime 
 of the trenches, if not resting forever in one of the 
 wholesale graves of the countless battlefields, or hob- 
 bling about, a helpless human ruin. 
 
 Do the Germans think that the offices, shops and 
 factories that formerly provided jobs will open again 
 to those who will be left over after the pitiless slaugh- 
 ter comes to an end? Do they think that after the 
 war a German will be able to take the place that he 
 held in a foreign country and that he gave up full of 
 enthusiasm for the war? 
 
 Profound disillusionment is in store for any one 
 who cherishes such hopes. The Germans .are no 
 longer wanted. Each individual among them is held 
 responsible for the frightfulness that has been in- 
 
Quelle Betise 225 
 
 flicted upon humanity. Doors everywhere will be 
 closed to them, if for no other reason than that others 
 long ago took their places who will not let themselves 
 be ousted so lightly. 
 
 As for German capital, which was engaged every- 
 where on the globe making wealth for Germany, it 
 is no longer on hand ready for competition. It has 
 been converted into war loans. 
 
 But apart from economic considerations, hasn't the 
 war been utterly stupid from the militaristic point of 
 view, too? That magnificent, enormous army was in 
 truth the "glittering guard" of the "supreme war- 
 lord," and so was the German navy, with its proud 
 swift coursers of the sea. They both made a fitting 
 and magnificent background for the pomp-and-glory 
 loving representative of a great nation. But not only 
 that. The mere latent threat of so tremendous an in- 
 strument for destruction sufficed to keep every na- 
 tion from serious resistance to Germany's will. 
 
 Where is this great host now? What has become 
 of the bugaboo of all of Germany's "enemies"? 
 What does our army look like after these many months 
 of the most fearful warring, after a hopeless, endless 
 struggle against all the nations of the world and 
 against all the war-machines of the world ? Not much 
 more than a ruin. Not much more than a big pile 
 
226 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 of men, more or less shattered in health, damaged in 
 mind and body. All of them hopeless, dejected, ut- 
 terly robbed of their pride, because in the bottom of 
 their hearts they know and feel that they have noth- 
 ing to defend, nothing of theirs having been attacked. 
 They realize it was criminal stupidity, and that alone, 
 which urged them into the war and keeps urging 
 and urging them. 
 
 But no! Not stupidity any longer. Now it is a 
 cold-blooded, diabolically cold-blooded, risk-all game, 
 when the nation about to fall to the ground from 
 exhaustion is whipped up on to its feet again with 
 the despicable lie that England, the ' ' enemy-in-chief, ' ' 
 wants to crush the German people and rob them of 
 what belongs to them take at least half of each 
 German's property and reduce him to a slave. Some- 
 thing of the sort is what the German nation is asked 
 to believe, and it seems it does believe it. The nation 
 of poets and thinkers is expected to believe such 
 stuff! Yet the nation of poets and thinkers comes 
 up to expectations. One despairs of the good sense 
 of the German nation. 
 
 Is there a searchlight strong enough to reveal to 
 this nation's eyes the real meaning of these desperate 
 assertions ? 
 
 They are an avowal by the German government 
 
Quelle Betise 227 
 
 that the game is lost; and it is simply putting off 
 the day when the people must come to the same real- 
 ization, when the crash will be apparent to all like 
 a player hoping for salvation through some happy 
 chance. 
 
 Is there a voice eloquent enough to convince the 
 German people that their future is not in danger; 
 that no one is thinking of doing them any harm; 
 that the menace was only against those who made a 
 profession of keeping mankind in one state of alarm ; 
 that these men were the only ones whom the world 
 wanted to render harmless; and that these men will 
 be rendered harmless even if the German people in 
 their infatuation shed many more streams of blood 
 for their sake. 
 
 It is not the English government that wants to 
 rob the German people of what rightfully belongs to 
 them, and reduce them to slavery. It is the German 
 government. The German government is already 
 stealing their possessions and giving them useless bits 
 of paper in return. And as for being reduced to 
 slavery, why the German people have been living in 
 slavery a long time already. They don't have to be 
 reduced. 
 
 When will Michel wake up? Isn't even the cease- 
 less thunder of cannon on all sides loud enough to 
 
228 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 rouse him and make him take off his nightcap at least 
 and rub his eyes and look -around? 
 
 Or does the German nation want to go on to the 
 end competing with the idiocy of its government, 
 which began the slaughter of nations without the 
 faintest consciousness either of its responsibility or 
 the consequences of the war? The nation itself, not 
 the government, had to pay for this stupidity with 
 ever more and more sacrifices. The government is 
 not denying itself anything, or starving or bleeding 
 to death. The government is simply standing behind 
 the people with the whip in its hand. 
 
XXXV 
 CONCERNING THE PRUSSIAN SPIRIT 
 
 IT still makes my stomach turn when I think of 
 the convention of <l true Prussians" that took place 
 in Berlin in 1913. 
 
 They foregathered from all corners of the Empire 
 east of the Elbe for the mutual admiration of their 
 divine Prussianism, and also to rub their incompara- 
 ble virtues into the skin of an astonished Germany. 
 
 It was at this convention, too, that the expression, 
 " Prussian spirit" was baptized. Henceforth, the 
 Prussian spirit was to permeate the stupid South- 
 Germans like yeast in flour and was to raise them to 
 the glorious heights of Prussianism. 
 
 If anybody in Bavaria has forgotten this world- 
 stirring convention, he will probably remember it 
 when I recall that one of the main events connected 
 with it was a speech held by a Prussian general, in 
 which he sounded the praises of the Prussians and 
 their courage in the Franco-Prussian War and con- 
 trasted it with the cowardice the Baravians showed, 
 
 229 
 
230 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 among other places, at Orleans. "When the Prus- 
 sians coine, we too get courage." 
 
 A fact that was confirmed at the convention, though 
 scarcely needing confirmation, having already been 
 sufficiently well recognized, was that the most promi- 
 nent trait of the Prussian spirit is braggadocio. In 
 this "great time" of the war nothing has turned out 
 to be truer. 
 
 One gets more and more nauseated as one follows 
 the publicity given the most stupendous revelation of 
 the Prussian spirit, the Prussian organization, that 
 unexcelled organization, the food administration. 
 
 At the outset, when supplies left over from peace 
 times were still abundant, it functioned excellently 
 well. But when one article after another gave out 
 and the larger part of the population had to begin to 
 draw in its belt, they grew a bit less vociferous, and 
 sometimes a discord sounded in the complacent cack- 
 ling. 
 
 The Prussian spirit, so loud-mouthed and obtrusive, 
 is scarcely more than a caricature of good human 
 qualities. Aristocracy of feeling, unassuming virtue 
 are utterly foreign to it. It recognizes no law, no 
 rights where its own advantage is concerned. It con- 
 siders that its brutal "necessity knows no law" ema- 
 nates from the loftiest morality, and "necessity," in 
 
Concerning the Prussian Spirit 231 
 
 its opinion, arises merely if some one resists its lust 
 for subjugation and does not allow himself to be 
 beaten down without hitting back. 
 
 The Prussian spirit, therefore, need regard no law 
 based upon justice and humanity. Enough if one 
 dares not to want what it wants. 
 
 Indeed, what could justice and humanity mean to 
 this spirit of the petty tyrant? 
 
 Brute force, that's all it has understanding for, 
 brute force. Humanity? An incomprehensible con- 
 cept. Every good, noble sentiment that a kind Cre- 
 ator has implanted in the human breast, everything 
 that strives for development in the genial rays of 
 humane feeling and humane thinking congeals into 
 ice under the black, barbarous Prussian spirit. 
 
 It is actually impossible to give strangers, or even 
 our own fellow-countrymen, a convincing description 
 of the peculiar frosty superciliousness of the Prus- 
 sians, with their division into strictly defined castes. 
 
 The upper classes display a sense of superiority to- 
 ward those they deem below them that makes a non- 
 Prussian absolutely mad and makes him laugh, too, 
 it's so absurd. 
 
 The trait comes out markedly in the Reichstag. 
 There you may observe the " noblest of the nation," 
 the Prussian Junkers, converse with the bourgeois 
 
232 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 delegates, and especially with the Socialist delegates, 
 in a tone implying that these have no right to claim 
 membership in the human race. 
 
 One really cannot even attempt to describe the 
 genuine Prussian spirit. Suffice it to say that it is 
 unsympathetic to the last degree. One of its main 
 traits, haughtiness, is all the more incomprehensible 
 as you search in vain for the least justification for it. 
 And yet they're so puffed up and uppish, these 
 wretched little Junker country-squires. 
 
 The Junkers treat the middle class with annoying 
 condescension, and the middle class in its turn treats 
 the working class with annoying condescension. And 
 so does the higher official treat the lower official. Each 
 wants the other to feel his power. 
 
 The natural way the "inferiors" accept this treat- 
 ment from the ''superiors" is amazing. "Bend to 
 those above you, oppress those below you" is the 
 stamp and seal on intercourse among the various 
 Prussian castes. 
 
 The Junkers' manners show lack of a genuine cul- 
 ture, of an old culture, of a good breeding that does 
 not fear it will detract from itself by treating the low- 
 liest as f ellowmen in a courteous friendly way. There 
 is a grotesque uncertainty in their way of dealing with 
 persons in humbler walks of life. They waver be- 
 
Concerning the Prussian Spirit 233 
 
 tween an insulting, arrogant inaccessibility and a 
 scornful condescension. 
 
 The classic period of the Prussian spirit, when it 
 reached its highest development, extends from 1870 
 to 1914. 
 
 The world has become familiar with it, as familiar 
 as it ever wants to be. 
 
 Its blood-and-iron menace has burdened humanity 
 ail-too long. Therefore, it is drawing near to its end. 
 Therefore, the world must at last be relieved of its 
 oppression, growing more burdensome daily. 
 
 This condition, by which a nation politically more 
 backward than China terrorizes the whole world 
 through the constant holding up of a threat, must not 
 be allowed to last any longer. The Prussian people 
 themselves, apparently, have neither the will nor the 
 strength to overthrow a despotic dynasty, which is 
 the refuge of everything reactionary in the world. 
 They have neither the will nor the strength to chase 
 the rulers out of the land and make themselves into a 
 free nation. 
 
 So outsiders have to come and prevent the Prussian 
 government from molding the destinies of Europe as 
 it has done from 1870 to 1914. 
 
 All inventions and discoveries are commandeered 
 by the Prussian spirit in the service of death and de- 
 
234 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 struction. Everything must be subordinated to mili- 
 taristic purposes. And the Prussian spirit is proud 
 of this. 
 
 It finds nothing to do for the elevation and libera- 
 tion of humanity. 
 
 What a wonderful, delightful spectacle was the 
 first Zeppelin that breasted the winds with thun- 
 derous motors. The slim fish diving in the air was a 
 beautiful sight. But what did the base Prussian 
 spirit do with this triumphant achievement of man, 
 this glorious fulfillment of a dream which humanity 
 has dreamed ever since its infancy? It degraded it 
 to ravaging and destroying and annihilating. The 
 lovely fulfillment of a dream was turned into a fright- 
 ful Gorgon's head, the sight of which freezes the 
 blood in one's veins. 
 
 Knowing nothing but frightfulness and ugly 
 threats, the Prussian spirit will no longer be tolerated 
 on earth. It must disappear. Mankind must dispel 
 the nightmare of its persecution mania. And it is 
 inconceivable that when Peace draws near she will 
 not come carrying in her hand the awakening from 
 this criminal insanity. 
 
XXXVI 
 
 ENGLAND'S STARVING-OUT OF GERMANY 
 
 IP you want to guard a piece of property of yours 
 very carefully, you buy yourself a dog and send him 
 to a trainer to be taught to fly at the throats of tres- 
 passers. A harmless, good-natured beast, by certain 
 manipulations, is so steadily irritated and enraged 
 that he finally acquires the desired traits and is ready 
 to sink his fangs into the flesh of any one approaching 
 his master's property. 
 
 I always think of this whenever the chancellor, or 
 the minister of war, or any one of the representatives 
 of the ' * imperial lord ' ' thunders in immense indigna- 
 tion against England's outrageous scheme for "starv- 
 ing women and children." The imperial lord's 
 mouthpieces cannot finds words strong enough to 
 stigmatize the atrocious proceeding. 
 
 The thing to be remarked is not their indignation, 
 but the fact that England's sinister scheme is regu- 
 larly trotted out each time there is a discussion, not 
 of the food problem, but of something else for which 
 the people are to be heated up. The dreadful suf- 
 
 235 
 
236 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 ferings that the English plan will inflict upon "Ger- 
 man women and children" cannot be painted black 
 enough then. 
 
 In the speeches of the high officials there actually 
 sounds the "Sic 'em, Hector, sic 'em!" with which 
 the faithful guardians of the "imperial lord's" pos- 
 sessions are incited to jump at the enemy's throat. 
 And the people are made to believe that it is their 
 own property they are defending, whereas they pos- 
 sess as little of it, mostly, as does the dumb four- 
 footed guardian. 
 
 But if, on the other hand, the Eeichstag is con- 
 sidering food problems, we learn to our astonishment 
 that this same English plan is utterly impractical and 
 altogether ineffective; an absurd idea of those Eng- 
 lish people, and nobody in Germany need ever suffer 
 want because of it. We are well provided with suffi- 
 cient necessities no matter how long the war lasts 
 on account of our incomparable organization, of 
 course. The purposes of the English have come to 
 naught. In fact, there never were any prospects of 
 their seriously incommoding us. 
 
 Which of the two claims is right? Either the Eng- 
 lish plan has the serious consequences that are charged 
 against it, or it has no consequences at all. There's 
 something suspicious about this tremendous indigna- 
 
England's Starving-Out of Germany 237 
 
 tion over a plan that is said to be utterly ineffective. 
 You begin to think that England never harbored any 
 such purposes, and that the whole thing is nothing 
 but a Prussian fabrication, invented for the stultifi- 
 cation of the people, and meant to enrage them and 
 spur them on when there is danger of their dropping 
 from exhaustion, or when there is any other reason 
 for getting their fury up against the enemy. "Sic 
 'em, Hector, sic 'em!" 
 
 Perhaps the main idea is to distract attention from 
 the real culprits, from those who are actually to 
 blame for the people's starving. 
 
 There's nothing too fraudulent, too low for the 
 Prussian government to use in spurring on the dead- 
 tired nation. The government knows full well whose 
 property is really at stake. The "imperial lord's" 
 property, his throne, his great dynasty, his very per- 
 son. These are the things for which the dice are being 
 cast, and which are to be guarded by more walls of 
 corpses, more streams of innocent blood. Therefore, 
 "Sic 'em, Hector, sic 'em!" 
 
 If the English plan were a bona fide one, would it 
 really be as outrageous as they keep saying it is? 
 The English, it seems, are carrying on war the way 
 war is carried on, using every possible method of war- 
 fare, and they do not appear to be harboring par- 
 
238 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 ticularly black schemes against " German women and 
 children. " 
 
 That they should cut supplies off from us in case 
 of war is so self -understood that the idea would have 
 occurred even to our wonderful organizers had they 
 had a mind for anything but murder and destruction. 
 Apparently they quite forget that a nation of 65,000,- 
 000 would like to eat even in wartime. 
 
 The whimpering propaganda that they are carry- 
 ing on against England, based on her starving-out 
 scheme, shows, among other things, how badly they 
 miscalculated. 
 
 Are we supposed to deduce from the anathemas 
 hurled against our perfidious English cousins by the 
 Prussian minister of war, Wild von Hohenborn, that 
 the German ministry of war would not have starved 
 out the English had it had the chance to ? Are we to 
 believe that our government would not do what the 
 English government is supposed to have done, but 
 would magnanimously have taken the best care of 
 English women and children? Apparently this is 
 what we are expected to think. One would have to 
 be exceedingly credulous. 
 
 This government whose highest rule of conduct is, 
 "Necessity knows no law"; which gave the order 
 for the torpedoing of the Lusitania, an order, that is, 
 
England's Starving-Out of Germany 239 
 
 for the drowning of 1,400 peaceable, defenseless hu- 
 man beings, including "women and children"; which 
 afterward, in the same inhuman way, had hundreds 
 more drowned like blind puppies do you think a 
 government capable of such acts would shrink out of 
 delicacy of feeling from endangering the lives of 
 English women and children? I think not. 
 
 On the contrary, I am convinced it would quite 
 calmly declare that ' ' war is war ' ' and that the worse 
 the suffering of English women and children, the 
 sooner the English government would have to con- 
 clude peace. 
 
 So, at least, says every Prussian book on military 
 ' * science, ' ' and the men at the head of this war never 
 swerve from the precepts of their authorities, trying 
 even to outdo their inhumanity. It is not likely that 
 they would depart from their usual procedure in this 
 one instance. 
 
 The great storm of indignation against the English 
 resolves itself into one thing, the clear realization that 
 it is nothing but vile Prussian hypocrisy intended to 
 spur on the poor worn-out German nation to renewed 
 defense of its imperial lord's property. "Sic 'em, 
 Hector, sic 'em!" 
 
XXXVII 
 RACE HATRED 
 
 WE were talking about international relations at 
 our table in the cafe, international relations before 
 the war ; and every one agreed with me that fomenting 
 race hatred, was abominable. 
 
 This surprised me. Since the outbreak of the war 
 I have not been pampered by people's agreeing with 
 me overly much. 
 
 Some one in our company who had once spent his 
 vacation in France was ready with stories of what 
 great efforts were being made there to stimulate race 
 hatred. The very children in the schools, he said, 
 were influenced by the chauvinistic readers they are 
 given to study. 
 
 Had he ever seen one of these chauvinistic readers, 
 I asked. Seen one? No, but everybody had told him 
 about them. Everybody ? Where ? In France ? No, 
 not in France, but in Germany. Oh! who was it in 
 Germany that said so? Nobody knew. I proceeded 
 to enlighten the company as to the author of the 
 fairy tale. I told them a Pan-German newspaper had 
 
 240 
 
Race Hatred 241 
 
 fabricated the thing out of whole cloth with the sole 
 purpose of furnishing a pretext to the German author- 
 ities for doing the very thing France was charged 
 with doing. The reading matter given the children 
 in the elementary schools was to be made to serve the 
 "national idea" even more strictly than formerly. 
 And serving the national idea, I said, was tantamount 
 to fomenting race hatred. 
 
 General protest. No such thing here in Germany. 
 Not the least trace of any such intentions on the part 
 of our country. Out of keeping with the German 
 character. The other nations do that sort of thing, 
 not we. 
 
 You think so? Well, I'll read you something that 
 appeared in the newspaper yesterday the latest de- 
 cree of the Prussian ministry of public instruction. 
 
 "Of late requests have come pouring in that for educa- 
 tional reasons instruction should be given such as will be 
 calculated to counteract the spread and the intensification 
 of race hatred and to prepare the young mind for the future 
 reconciliation of the civilized nations. This arises from a 
 feeling for international brotherhood and from enthusiastic, 
 visionary dreams of peace. It must have no place in our 
 schools. It is not the attitude that the public school should 
 take to future international relations. 
 
 "On the contrary, it is the primary duty of the public 
 school to keep the fearful lessons of this war alive in the 
 rising generation. The conviction must take root in the 
 young mind that peace will be guaranteed only by the 
 strongest land and sea forces and that no endeavors for 
 
242 .What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 international brotherhood may ever interfere in the slightest 
 degree with Germany's armaments. 
 
 "All the parties ( !) must yield to this order. 
 
 "It will continue to be the teacher's delightful task to 
 emphasize the feeling confirmed by this war, that a strong 
 royal house is a blessing, and to strengthen the love for our 
 king and kaiser as well for the whole Hohenzollern family. 
 
 "The daily prayer for our ruler, which has just been in- 
 stituted, shall continue to be said in the schools even after 
 the war. 
 
 "The teachers must also firmly oppose all efforts to ex- 
 cuse the atrocities committed by our enemies all over the 
 globe." 
 
 Lovely! Eh? The true Prussian spirit. 
 
 All of my companions had read this remarkable 
 decree, though hastily, to be sure. None of them had 
 thought much about it one way or another, and cer- 
 tainly not that it implied the fomenting of race hatred. 
 
 What better proof than this could be wanted of 
 how tightly the notion has been wedged in the Ger- 
 man skull that it is the other nations, the other na- 
 tions only, who are the chauvinists and the instiga- 
 tors of race hatred ? 
 
 All of our school children, especially in the upper 
 classes, are positively fed on national self-praise. 
 What sense is there in this eternal creeping-on-the- 
 belly to our own national greatness and infallibility? 
 What idiotic presumption in the verse so often sung, 
 
 "Am deutchen Wesen 
 Soil die Welt Genesen." ' 
 
 * The German spirit is to heal the world. 
 
Race Hatred 243 
 
 Has all sense of good taste actually departed from 
 our people? Is their feeling for art satisfied by the 
 tune that our national hand-organ keeps grinding 
 out, about our own superiority and everybody else's 
 wickedness ? 
 
 Let us leave it to the other nations to estimate the 
 good and the bad qualities of the German people. 
 Outsiders are not so blind to the positive sides of 
 German culture. Their love of German music testi- 
 fies to this. 
 
 But the constant pushing forward of themselves 
 that the Germans do, that spreading of themselves, 
 that shoving ahead of others always and everywhere, 
 annoys and insults the other nations, and produces a 
 feeling of race hatred. Their silly behavior posi- 
 tively forces outsiders into a hostile frame of mind. 
 
 The achievements of the * ( fatherland " newspapers 
 in fomenting race hatred exceed all measure. Here 
 idiocy and hysteria triumph. 
 
 The newspaper agitation is so senseless, so criminal 
 that it cannot be characterized in any other way than 
 as a foul blot upon the German name. A man of refined 
 feelings can do nothing but hide his head in shame. 
 
 The amount of cultural values destroyed by race 
 hatred are scarcely to be estimated. We heard Ger- 
 man scholars of note scold and shriek abusive words 
 
244 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 like common market-wives, waxing highly indignant, 
 however, if the other side answered back. 
 
 Erudition actually seems to have little in common 
 with refinement of feelings. To give one significant 
 example : 
 
 Dr. W. Fuchs, a medical professor in Emmendin- 
 gen, wrote an essay against the friends of peace, which 
 appeared in the Munchner Medizinische Wochensch- 
 rift, and concluded with : 
 
 "No one, therefore, can escape the logical conclusion that 
 peace would be a catastrophe and that war is the one pos- 
 sibility. War, formerly a stimulant, a matter of honor, a 
 means to an end, has become an end in itself. The whole 
 nation will as one man demand eternal war!" 
 
 The same high-souled creature wrote the following 
 in a war pamphlet: 
 
 "Education to hate! Education to the veneration of 
 hate! Education to the love of hate! Organization of 
 hate! Away with crude timidity, with false shame of bru- 
 tality and fanaticism. The saying of Marinetti has a po- 
 litical application, 'More boxes on the ear, fewer kisses/ 
 
 "We must not hesitate to utter the blasphemy that 'We 
 have been given' faith, hope, and hate. But hate is the 
 greatest of them all !' " 
 
 Dr. W. Fuchs is a German scholar, a professor of 
 medicine. Yet, I am convinced, the ordinary Ger- 
 man will continue to insist that there is no fomenting 
 of race hatred in Germany. It's only our enemies who 
 do that sort of thing. 
 
XXXVIII 
 OF THE BIRD THAT FOULS ITS OWN NEST 
 
 AN anonymous German has written a book called 
 J' accuse, to prove, it seems, that the diplomacy of 
 William II is to blame for the war. 
 
 I say "seems" because I myself have not read the 
 book nor even seen it. How could I have seen it 
 when there is such thorough censorship here in Ger- 
 many? I learned all I know of its contents from an 
 acquaintance of mine to whom the book had been sent 
 for a short while. Afterwards his house was sub- 
 jected to a search. Apparently, certain things he 
 had said had aroused suspicion. 
 
 The anonymous author adduces such varied and 
 irrefutable proofs in support of his view (that he 
 does so is indirectly confirmed by the worry and the 
 scolding of the "fatherland" press), that certain 
 procedures, which had purposely been kept in the 
 dark, were made clear to every unprejudiced person. 
 
 My second-hand impression of the book is that 
 the author was sincere in his efforts to get at the 
 
 245 
 
246 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 truth, and all his assertions spring from honest con- 
 victions. 
 
 Obviously, he had at his disposal many diplomatic 
 documents which are inaccessible to all but the very 
 few, and this lends unusually convincing force to his 
 arguments. His investigations result in a sum total, 
 which is a clear refutation, a reductio ad dbswrdum, 
 of the statements made by the Berlin government re- 
 garding the outbreak of the war and the events lead- 
 ing up to it. Since the Berlin government is most 
 anxious to have the German people believe its state- 
 ments, it naturally fears the book and is at pains 
 to keep the wicked wolf from its little lambs. The 
 Berlin government has been successful. It has used 
 its police power to good effect. Scarcely a single 
 copy of the book is to be found in the whole of 
 Germany. 
 
 It is this very furious persecution of the book that 
 seems to me to prove its absolute truthfulness. There 
 is probably no refuting it. 
 
 The German public got its knowledge of the con- 
 tents of J' accuse from a few quotations, undoubtedly 
 distorted and torn from their context, which the gov- 
 ernment published in the "fatherland" press, with 
 the idea of prejudicing the people against the book 
 
Of the Bird That Fouls Its Own Nest 247 
 
 and making it appear that the government had noth- 
 ing to fear from their reading of it. 
 
 The comments of the "fatherland" press accom- 
 panying the quotations contained the most vulgar 
 attacks upon the author, couched in language that in 
 no circumstances can ever cross the lips of a re- 
 fined well-bred person. It is not worth the while to 
 repeat the abuses heaped upon the author. I shall 
 cite only the weakest of the verbal assaults, since they 
 throw so strong a light upon the disposition of the 
 now leading spirits in Germany. 
 
 The author of J' accuse is charged with "fouling 
 his own nest." Why? So far as I can tell he says 
 nothing unfavorable about Germany or the German 
 people ; and these, I take it, are his nest, nothing else. 
 What he says is that the Prussian government in 
 power in Germany brought on the war. His accusa- 
 tion is directed solely against the clique at present 
 holding the reigns of government, and not against a 
 single other German. Consequently, the reproach that 
 he fouls his own nest is based on a false premise 
 and carries no weight. 
 
 Besides, the courageous author of J' accuse is not 
 the only one to hold his opinion. There are thousands 
 in Germany who think as he does, and if the police 
 club wielded by the government during our state of 
 
248 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 X 
 
 siege did not come down hard on every open expres- 
 sion of opinion, the government might learn a thing 
 or two that would make it rub its eyes in astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 The man's a democrat, a genuine democrat, not 
 the kaiser kind of democrat, of whom thousands are 
 running around now. He has not forgotten what he 
 knew, like so many other democrats. The Prussian 
 system, with its Caesarism and militarism, is just as 
 much an object of abhorrence to him as before the 
 war, perhaps more so. He is probably one of those 
 few genuine democrats and true German patriots still 
 left who even before the war greatly feared that the 
 mad speeding up of armaments would eventually 
 plunge the country into disaster. And now that the 
 horrible catastrophe he foresaw has occurred and 
 the world is all in flames, is he now to be denied the 
 right to look for the incendiary and, as soon as he 
 has found him, to point him out? 
 
 If in view of Germany 's declarations of war against 
 Russia and France and in view of the invasion of 
 Belgium, he cannot get into his head the lie about 
 his fatherland 's having been attacked, does he foul his 
 own nest? 
 
 The suspicions and aspersions cast upon the author 
 of J' accuse prove that the greatest crime a man in 
 
Of the Bird That Fouls Its Own Nest 249 
 
 Germany can commit to-day is not stealing or mur- 
 dering. That the people have been doing all along 
 at William II 's behest. The greatest crime is to tell 
 the truth, to have an opinion of your own. 
 
 What a sorry thing is this German nation, which 
 may not possess an opinion of its own, but must take 
 its opinions from Prussian highwaymen, must allow 
 opinions to be forced upon it by all the methods that 
 a terrorizing government is ready to employ. We 
 Germans are stifling here under oppression, under 
 the meanest, lowest, commonest blackguardism. 
 
XXXIX 
 THE CRASH 
 
 THE war was lost to us long ago. It was lost a 
 month after it began, at the battle of the Marne. 
 
 In a certain sense those people were right who said 
 the war would be decided in a few weeks. 
 
 It was decided. And if our government had not 
 been so utterly devoid of reason which it still is 
 it would instantly have instituted workable peace 
 negotiations. 
 
 When it became clear that the original plan could 
 not be carried through, that is, a complete invasion 
 of France and the occupation of Paris by rapid as- 
 sault, before having to turn to Russia, the war was 
 already decided, and the thing to have done was to 
 throw the cards on the table and admit having mis- 
 calculated. 
 
 But Prussian militarism in its arrogance would 
 consider nothing of the sort. It immediately had a 
 pretext to resort to. "We were occupying enemy 
 territory." 
 
 But the war of attack and subjugation had turned 
 250 
 
The Crash 251 
 
 into a war of defense quite involuntarily on the 
 part of the leaders. And it could be kept up only 
 because of the trench system of warfare, for which 
 considerably less strength is required than for open 
 combat. On account of this, men could be withdrawn 
 from the western front, and Germany was enabled to 
 drive the Russians back almost into their own country. 
 But since the Russians were finally able to entrench 
 themselves in places that had been properly pre- 
 pared, the war settled down on all fronts into a 
 sedentary condition that has never before character- 
 ized a war mole warfare, we Germans call it. 
 
 A change in the mole warfare in our favor is out 
 of the question. There are many persons already, 
 even in Germany, who know there's no use counting 
 on a decisive victory for us. 
 
 So if a favorable outcome for Germany from force 
 of arms is not to be hoped for and if all matters 
 are to be decided by negotiation, then the war was 
 undertaken in vain and the prodigious sacrifices have 
 all been of no avail. And militarism, which made 
 the war, has no justification for being. The campaign 
 ending with the defeat on the Marne means the re- 
 tirement, the complete downfall of militarism; and 
 militarism may not be credited with the least triumph, 
 the least self-justification. 
 
252 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 This war will pronounce the sharpest possible ver- 
 dict upon militarism. If the German people are at 
 all rational, militarism will cease to be. 
 
 But unfortunately the crash that is bound to come 
 will not involve militarism alone. Militarism will 
 carry other things down along with it, because in the 
 course of time and especially in the course of this 
 war, it has become so intimately bound up with the 
 economic life of Germany. 
 
 "What jubilation in the "fatherland" press each 
 time a new war loan is agreed to by the Reichstag 
 and the blessings of millions come showering down 
 again. 
 
 Billions and billions of marks have already been 
 used up for the war, and all the ' ' patriotic ' ' elements 
 are enraptured by each financial ' ' victory ' ' a victory 
 beyond their expectations, they always say, while, 
 as a matter of fact, the initiated are not so surprised 
 by the success. 
 
 The large industries, into whose laps the war is 
 tossing vast profits, have to see to it that the means 
 are on hand by which the war may be kept up and so 
 bring them fresh millions. A large part of the cash 
 realized through the loans goes to them in the form 
 of pay for supplies sold to the government. As 
 for the agrarians, the Prussian Junkers, they are 
 
The Crash 253 
 
 doubly interested that enough means be secured for 
 the continuance of the war. On the one hand, they 
 make outrageously huge profits on foodstuffs sold to 
 the government; and, on the other hand, the officers, 
 who come chiefly from among their number, pocket 
 what the industrial and agrarian profiteers leave over. 
 
 But the working people, they are the ones who 
 will ultimately have to pay the bill rolled up by the 
 great lords in the war. 
 
 If it should ever come to the pass that the interest 
 on the loans cannot be paid, or is considerably re- 
 duced, and government bonds will be good for noth- 
 ing but wrapping paper, the industrials and agrarians 
 will not suffer. They will have saved enough cash. 
 They will not have put all their money into war loans. 
 The small people, however, will be hard hit. Having 
 confidence in the government's promises, they have 
 invested all their savings. 
 
 It is a piece of rascality worthy of the Prussian 
 rulers that they did not confine the extortion of the 
 blood money to those who profit by the war, but 
 through outrageous publicity and direct compulsion, 
 forced so many people of small means to give up their 
 last pennies. The people in poor or even moderate 
 circumstances will lose their all. They are not in 
 the same fortunate position as the agrarian and in- 
 
254 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 dustrial profiteers, who get their money back now, 
 right during the war, with 5% interest into the bar- 
 gain. 
 
 How many more war loans are to be put over before 
 the end comes? 
 
 There is something else to be considered besides 
 the huge burden of interest on the war loans, which 
 burden, by the way, will have to be borne by a nation 
 thoroughly impoverished and sucked dry. 
 
 The people, utterly ruined, will also have to pay 
 the damages, pensions, etc., that a war brings in its 
 train. Is it possible ? Does any one think the people 
 will be able to stand it? 
 
 As long as the same brains continue to impose taxes 
 as have done so heretofore, there will be no prospect 
 of making the propertied classes help carry their due 
 share of the burden. Nor will the propertied classes 
 be willing to put the control of the state into other 
 hands. It will take more than gentle suasion to con- 
 vince them. 
 
 Accordingly, a great reckoning is bound to come, 
 and, as a result of it, the complete downfall of the 
 old order. The liquidation of this war business, of 
 all these unheard-of contracts, can eventuate in noth- 
 ing but a tremendous crash. 
 
 And when the crash comes and stands revealed to 
 
The Crash 255 
 
 all eyes, will the people then ask, What brought this 
 about? What were the forces at work? Whose policy 
 is to blame for a catastrophe such as the world has 
 never seen? 
 
 When the veil has dropped from all the "father- 
 land" dissimulation, from all the infamous lies, the 
 people will cast about for the ultimate causes of the 
 great disaster that befell them. I wonder whether 
 even then a Bethmann-Hollweg will arise and have 
 the brazenness to trump up the fairy tale of the 
 naughty neighbors who envied the good Michel and 
 wanted to steal what belonged to him. I scarcely 
 think any one will want to continue to challenge the 
 wrath of the people by offering them such lies. On 
 the contrary, I believe that then honorable men will 
 be found who will frankly say it was nothing but 
 CaBsar-madness that plunged the people into such a 
 war, who will tell the people that no neighbors 
 thought of taking anything away from us or attack- 
 ing us; that a handful of rascals with a madman at 
 their head lighted the world conflagration to boil 
 their broth on, and Prussian Caesarism, that decaying 
 old institution all covered with mold, expected to 
 polish itself and acquire fresh luster through a war 
 of conquest, and new life was to be pumped into the 
 corpse of the monarchy. 
 
256 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 The antedeluvian pretensions of kaiserism began to 
 fade hopelessly even before the war. They have been 
 dissolving as steam dissolves in the air. Such things 
 were no longer the order of the day. The times were 
 ripe for monarchical claims to be swept aside. 
 
 The kaiser wanted, by force if necessary, to play 
 a big conspicuous role. So he scalded his lips on 
 everybody else's porridge, and tried to compel the 
 whole world to go his way, and mixed in affairs that 
 were none of his business the superfluous creature, 
 superfluous and ridiculous both in his role as "peace 
 kaiser ' ' and ' l war-lord. ' ' 
 
 In order to give the German people an object les- 
 son in how necessary his existence was as ruler, he 
 did not hesitate, when he thought the hour propitious, 
 to plunge the world into a sea of blood and tears. 
 
 He was the natural champion of a policy of un- 
 restricted expansion. No wonder, therefore, that the 
 captains of industry and finance realized in time to 
 what quarter to turn for the fulfillment of their ex- 
 travagant plans for world conquest. Modern capi- 
 talism allied itself with mystical Cagsarism. Every 
 session of the Reichstag during the war furnishes 
 proof of the union, now become indissoluble, between 
 monarchism and capitalism. 
 
 How ridiculous is the role played in this perform- 
 
The Crash 257 
 
 ance by the ' ' democrats " in the Reichstag, the repre- 
 sentatives of the so-called liberals. They never find 
 cause for serious criticism of the government. The 
 Kommandogewalt, the supreme power, is a touch-me- 
 not. They have given themselves over body and soul 
 to kaiserism and capitalism. 
 
 The great reckoning will be all the easier on ac- 
 count of this stand of the "democrats." There will 
 be no need to do any sorting. All the representatives 
 of the "bourgeoisie" in the Reichstag, on account of 
 the unqualified support they gave the kaiser's war 
 policy, share in the guilt of this war. The people 
 will hold them responsible, just as responsible as the 
 "war-lord" himself. 
 
 They, too, will be carried down in the great crash ; 
 and they will have deserved their fate. 
 
 They, too, will be asked to answer for all the 
 bloodshed and all the tears of woe and misery. 
 
 The thing that will collapse in Germany, there- 
 fore, will be the whole Prussian system, the system 
 that plunged the world into disaster. And in place 
 of that system will step human rights, the right to 
 liberty, the right to bread and work for every one. 
 
 The new state that will then arise, the United States 
 of the World, will finally realize the dream of the 
 
258 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 French Revolution, that eternal yearning of human- 
 ity for liberty, equality and fraternity. 
 
 After the collapse of Prussian despotism and Prus- 
 sian militarism, those deadly enemies of mankind, the 
 world will be as one great nation. 
 
XL 
 WERE THE PEACE PROPOSALS SINCERE? 
 
 ON the 12th of December, 1916, the comedy was 
 put on the boards, all the managerial methods at the 
 command of parliamentarian and diplomat having 
 been employed to produce it. 
 
 Letters and telegrams flew hither and thither. My 
 goodness, it mustn't be kept concealed from mankind 
 that His Majesty with his own hands had indited a 
 touching letter to the chancellor. Express trains 
 chased to headquarters and back again, to all the 
 battlefronts and back again. High and mighty per- 
 sonages rode to Berlin and to the other German capi- 
 tals for important conferences, greeted everywhere 
 by in the columns of the "fatherland'' press great, 
 jubilant throngs. 
 
 With a mighty flourish of trumpets all the per- 
 sonages who give the tone in war-Germany were sum- 
 moned to Berlin. Any man fitted to give the great 
 day still greater significance had to be present at 
 this gala performance in the Reichstheater I beg 
 
260 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 pardon, I mean at the session in the Reichstag 
 building. 
 
 Through dark insinuations, little indiscretions, in- 
 tentional half-truths, both spoken and written, by tele- 
 phone and telegraph and wireless, all the nations (but 
 each under the seal of secrecy) was duly made aware 
 that Berlin was going to spring a sensation. Breath- 
 less suspense was to prevail over the whole globe. 
 And in the universal silence of expectancy the great 
 surprise was to burst with a peal the Kaiser's peace 
 proposal ! 
 
 The peal was to announce the beginning of a play 
 different from the kind that had been acting in Ber- 
 lin for years. 
 
 HE, the "supreme war-lord," was to step before 
 the curtain and hold out his hand of peace to all the 
 nations, that hand still dripping with blood the 
 other hand convulsively clutching his sword and hid- 
 den in shame behind his back. He would stand there 
 in that attitude, everything in one, hero, conqueror, 
 angel of peace, his gleaming armor hidden beneath 
 the white robe of innocence, while the gentle sound 
 of flutes accompanied the act of might. 
 
 Peace! Peace on earth! The word millions had 
 been yearning for, the magic word he would pro- 
 
Were the Peace Proposals Sincere? 261 
 
 nounce it, lie would offer the world, would offer bleed- 
 ing, agonizing humanity, peace ! 
 
 Was he sincere? Did he really mean his proposal 
 of peace ? The enemies did not believe in his sincer- 
 ity. "We received your message," was the answer 
 from all sides, "but we have no confidence in it." 
 
 Were they right or wrong? Was the Kaiser's pro- 
 posal to be trusted or was it not to be trusted? 
 
 Kaiser William's offer of peace begins with two 
 premises. One is, that he standing there as victor 
 is holding out his hand in peace. An untruth. He 
 was not a victor. The second premise is that it was 
 the enemies who had thrown the glove into the ring. 
 
 Because of the recent capture of Bukharest, in 
 which, he seems to overlook, 'Austria, Bulgaria and 
 Turkey materially aided, he stood there as victor, his 
 breast swelling with pride. The conquest of a num- 
 ber of wrecked petroleum wells and half-burned gran- 
 aries probably gave him the assurance that the in- 
 vincibility of the German army had now been estab- 
 lished once for all and that the enemies must recognize 
 further resistance to be unavailing. 
 
 Was he a victor ? Was England defeated ? Has a sin- 
 gle German soldier ever set foot on the British Isles? 
 Was there ever a chance of German armies attacking 
 the British Isles? On the contrary, isn't England 
 
262 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 daily developing more power on French soil to re- 
 sist and defeat Germany? 
 
 Is France defeated? Is the republic down on its 
 knees suing for peace? Did not the French people 
 at the Marne hold up the German hosts surging into 
 the land like a tidal wave? At the Yser and at Ver- 
 dun they gave ample proof of their ability to defend 
 their own soil, filling a whole world with admiration. 
 
 Is Italy defeated ? 
 
 With a few exceptions William II had not attained 
 his war aims and so was not justified in strutting out 
 on the stage as victor. He himself knew it best of 
 all, and might have had the sense to realize that no 
 enemy government would enter into peace negotiations 
 on the basis of palpable untruths. 
 
 His peace overtures, therefore, were not really 
 meant. 
 
 He said it was the enemies who threw the glove into 
 the ring. Can he expect credence for this when it 
 was he who in August, 1914, declared war on Eussia 
 and two days later on France; when it was he who 
 fell upon and devastated Belgium, thereby hurling a 
 declaration of war at every civilized nation, in fact, at 
 every decent human being ? 
 
 He is simply glossing over a crass lie with mean 
 hypocrisy. 
 
Were the Peace Proposals Sincere? 263 
 
 Does William II actually suppose that the enemies 
 would be ready to enter into peace negotiations on 
 the basis of such claims? Even he is scarcely poor 
 enough psychologist to think that. Consequently, 
 his bid for peace must have been insincere. 
 
 The question naturally arises, whether in general 
 William IPs government can make a genuine offer 
 of peace. Any one in a position to formulate a 
 correct picture of the situation in the German Em- 
 pire will be compelled to answer the question in the 
 negative. 
 
 The government knows from innumerable signs 
 that some time, at the very latest upon the conclusion 
 of peace, a day of reckoning with its own people is 
 bound to come. That day must be kept as remote 
 as possible. 
 
 In spite of the veil cast over events since the out- 
 break of the war, the German people have a better 
 insight into things than is generally assumed. They 
 know that the few German conquests do not mean 
 that anything has been, or will be, attained. They 
 discuss these matters and admit that all the sacri- 
 fices of life, money, and property have been in vain 
 and that if peace is to come, all occupied territory 
 for one thing must be evacuated, while, for another 
 thing, the fate of the costly German colonies will 
 
264 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 remain uncertain. In brief, the people are conscious 
 that the government went into a poor business. 
 
 Nothing of this finds public expression. If it did, 
 what would be the use of the military dictatorship? 
 But the feeling is there, and an extremely dangerous 
 feeling it is, too, especially among the lower classes. 
 However that may be, one thing is certain, the one 
 act on the part of the government which would meet 
 with widest approval would be simply to throw the 
 cards down on the table. 
 
 The German nation would breathe an immense 
 sigh of relief. 
 
 But the time is not yet ripe. Nor is it probable 
 that William II 's government will ever take this step 
 voluntarily. In any case, whenever the hour strikes, 
 it will strike too soon in the opinion of the Prussian 
 rulers, who owe their period of grace to the belief 
 still prevailing among the bourgeoisie and the Social- 
 ists, that these must identify themselves with the 
 policy of the government. The rulers are making 
 most excellent use of their reprieve. They are adopt- 
 ing the extremest measures to safeguard themselves 
 against the coming crash, such as the law of entail in 
 the Prussian Landtag and other measures that are 
 more securely kept from public knowledge. 
 
 Therefore, when you consider that the acceptance 
 
Were the Peace Proposals Sincere? 265 
 
 of William II 's peace proposal would mean the end 
 of the war and, consequent^, the end of the military 
 dictatorship, and the end of the military dictatorship 
 would mean that the last branch had been lopped off 
 to which all the powers in Prusso-Germany have been 
 clinging frantically, you cannot but realize that the 
 peace offer could not have been meant in all sincerity. 
 
 There is even further proof that it was a fraudu- 
 lent proposition. 
 
 The statesmen of the enemy countries have made it 
 quite clear to William II 's government that they are 
 unwilling ever to treat with it again, since they can- 
 not place reliance upon its word. 
 
 After Germany's violation of treaties made before 
 the war, as though they were mere scraps of paper, 
 nobody wants to run the same risk at the very next 
 opportunity. Moreover, the German government has 
 been given to understand in by no means ambiguous 
 terms that the Entente governments do not look upon 
 it as the qualified representative of the German na- 
 tion, with the right to make settlements affecting the 
 nation's future, since it succeeds in holding on to the 
 rudder only by the most unscrupulous exercise of its 
 terrorizing military power and by grossly deceiving 
 the people concerning the true state of affairs. 
 
 In the face of this plain refusal to treat with the 
 
266 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 German government, a serious proposal of peace was 
 out of the question. It was a maneuver for the pur- 
 pose of deceiving the German people themselves. 
 
 Are we to deduce, therefore, that William II 's over- 
 tures of peace were made only because he was sure 
 they would be refused? Is it that he doesn't want 
 peace in any circumstances? But the peace offer is 
 here; it has been made. In the words of its author, 
 it is to be a milestone, a turning-point in the history 
 of the war, a signal hoisted on high of the love of 
 peace shown by the "prince of peace," William II. 
 This was not his first offer of peace, either. A 
 whole series had preceded it. Ever since the battle 
 of the Marne, there has been no cease to similar at- 
 tempts, directed in turn to all the enemies. There 
 was the comedy with Montenegro and the long- 
 drawn out secret negotiations between Eussian and 
 German diplomats. 
 
 But the bid of December, 1916, differs from its 
 predecessors in two essential points. One is its mag- 
 nitude, four governments simultaneously proffering 
 peace to ten governments. Till now there had been 
 talk of only separate peace treaties. It was an es- 
 sential departure from the German government 's prin- 
 ciple to get each opponent by himself into its grasp 
 and then, if necessary, play him off against the 
 
Were the Peace Proposals Sincere? 267 
 
 others. Also, it was a concession, if an unwilling one, 
 to the London agreement of September, 1914, by which 
 the Entente Powers bound themselves not to make sep- 
 arate peace treaties, but to conclude a peace only in 
 common. 
 
 The second and more important point of differ- 
 ence between this peace proposal and its predecessors 
 is that it was an apparent break with the favorite 
 method of secret negotiations. This t;me the Central 
 Powers stepped out in full view of the world when 
 making an offer to treat with the enemy. But the 
 break with the principle of secrecy was only apparent. 
 In reality it had not been abandoned. The terms of 
 peace were not made known. 
 
 After William II 's government had thus, to all ap- 
 pearances, resorted to publicity, no bell could be 
 found big enough to announce the enterprize of such 
 prodigious import to the happiness of the world; 
 which explains the pomp of the Berlin performance. 
 
 The public presentation was not designed, of course, 
 for the enemy governments. That they were not to 
 be won over must long before have been observed by 
 the prominent psychologists of Wilhelmstrasse, who 
 had already had opportunities to judge of this by the 
 attitude the enemies had invariably taken on the 
 former occasions when Germany came awooing. 
 
268 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 The performance was a play to the neutrals, and 
 to the gallery, the German people. Also to the people 
 of the enemy countries. 
 
 The neutrals, the dear souls, were to be given the 
 benefit of a lovely pastoral, so as to get them to ex- 
 press their sanction, as it were, of the continuation 
 of the drama. And in the last scene they were to be 
 assigned a part, that of also dying a sacrificial death 
 pour le Roi de Prusse. 
 
 It was a play to the gallery, to the German nation, 
 this nation, whose sacrifices long before had passed 
 the bounds of the humanly possible, whose patience 
 and long-suffering daily provoked the astonishment 
 of even its own rulers. In the alleged interest of 
 its future it allowed ever fresh and more unheard-of 
 sacrifices to be extorted from it. Universal compulsory 
 work had just been made the law of the land, 
 months of actual starvation stood at the door, after 
 long months of privation had already been endured. 
 So the government felt it did not want the people to 
 miss the pleasure of a sweet, lovely play, the peace 
 offer of their Kaiser. A mirage will comfort the 
 parched wanderer in the desert. 
 
 Now the blame for the continuation of the war, 
 for all the hunger and bloodshed to follow, would 
 surely fall upon the enemies, especially that black 
 
Were the Peace Proposals Sincere? 269 
 
 devil, England; and the German nation, chanting 
 hymns of hate anew, was to forget who was the really 
 guilty one. But hymns of hate will not go on satis- 
 fying soul and body forever, and even the cleverest 
 dissimulation will not deceive forever, no matter how 
 much the public announcements, from those made by 
 Westarp to those made by Scheidemann, may all harp 
 on the one theme, namely, that the refusal of the 
 Kaiser's peace proposal will have to be answered for 
 by the sacrifice of all Germans still left alive! 
 
 William's intentions toward the enemy peoples, in 
 his presenting of the pastoral, were particularly 
 benevolent. He hoped to be able to thrust a wedge 
 between the peoples and their respective governments 
 by getting them over as his allies in a suit for peace. 
 
 He wanted to sow distrust and discord. The 
 "fatherland" press makes this clear beyond all doubt. 
 
 But here, too, William II showed he was a poor 
 psychologist, in crediting the democratic peoples with 
 as little insight into the essentials of the world con- 
 flict as the German people possess. The sowing of 
 peace, he hoped, would turn out to be a sowing of 
 dragons' teeth. Badly mistaken again. Not a single 
 person thinks of his peace offer any more. The 
 author of it is too suspicious a character. 
 
 William II had the same objects in view in keeping 
 
270 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 his peace terms indefinite. The invitation to enter 
 into negotiations was directed to ten different govern- 
 ments with widely varying interests. One or the 
 other of them might snap at the bait and show a will 
 to disappear behind the doors of the conference cham- 
 ber and listen to the " acceptable terms." The first- 
 comer, of course, could count on the best terms; and 
 something had been prepared for each. Italy was to 
 get a slice of Italia irredenta, Russia was to have the 
 ' 'kingdom" of Poland restored to her, and so on. 
 
 Distrust and dissension among the Entente allies 
 would have been the inevitable result of separate peace 
 treaties. Exactly what the diplomats of Wilhelm- 
 strasse were aiming at. But success was denied them. 
 The enemies' distrust of them was insuperable, and 
 rightly so. 
 
 The peace that is to end this war must not be of 
 the kind that consists in the diplomats exchanging 
 knowing smiles and shaking hands like old cronies, 
 and the royal cousins embracing and kissing and 
 toasting one another. It would not be worth the 
 trouble to conclude a peace of that sort and leave 
 everything the way it always has been more arma- 
 ments, larger armies and navies, unrest and anxiety 
 in all the nations, and the constant prospect of a war 
 that would overshadow the present war in frightful- 
 
Were the Peace Proposals Sincere? 271 
 
 ness. No, rather an end in horror, than horror with- 
 out end ! All the precious blood that has been shed 
 will then have been shed in vain. 
 
 The peace that is coming will be concluded by the 
 people themselves, the people who have done the 
 fighting. It will be an open, honorable peace, because 
 it will not rest upon injustice and conquest, as does 
 the peace that William II offers us. 
 
 It seems almost superfluous to ask whether, in view 
 of all this, the Berlin performance was only a trap 
 for the enemy and a bluff in all circumstances. 
 
 Oh, no ! By no means. 
 
 Before the desperate starving German people would 
 have a chance to thrust aside all of William II 's 
 actors and make the enemy nations an honorable bid 
 for peace, HE, of course, preferred to come out on 
 the stage in the magnificent pose of imperator rex 
 and benevolently hand the imperial gift of peace to 
 the nations down on their knees begging hand it to 
 them on the point of his sword. 
 
 If he could have stood before the German nation 
 and the whole world as war hero and victor, as con- 
 queror and "enlarger of the empire," enlarger by 
 even the tiniest slice of land or the smallest indemnity, 
 he would gladly have concluded peace to-day, rath- 
 er than to-morrow. 
 
272 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 If he could have been sure of the maintenance of 
 his throne and his dynasty, sure, that is, of nothing 
 happening to himself upon the conclusion of peace, 
 he would magnanimously have consented to stop the 
 terrible torture that he himself was inflicting on 
 humanity. The nations would then have been per- 
 mitted to cure their wounds again. 
 
 If the peace could have ended with an apotheosis 
 of himself, if he could have stood on the stage as the 
 bearer of peace, in the white robe of innocence, with 
 the palm branch in his hand, and the glare of the 
 footlights upon his brilliant person, the flutes and 
 cymbals playing the dainty accompaniment to the 
 pastoral, all of mankind lying prostrate at his feet, 
 turning tear-filled eyes upon him gratefully, it would 
 have been a conclusion quite to the taste of this actor 
 and theatrical manager. 
 
 "An end to strife! The war must go! 
 For my strong arm decrees it so!" 
 
 would have been the concluding sentence of a drama 
 written by Kaiser William II with Kaiser Wilhelm II 
 playing the leading part. 
 
XLI 
 VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG 
 
 WHAT difference did it make who the new chancellor 
 would be in Herr von Billow 's place ? 
 
 Billow, it is known, ventured most humbly to call 
 His Majesty's attention to the fact that it might 
 perhaps be better if His Majesty put a little curb on 
 His Majesty's tongue after His Majesty had made a 
 bad break in a conversation with his English friend. 
 
 Unheard of! His Majesty had no use for servants 
 like that. This Prussian Junker was too democratic, 
 too permeated with western ideals. Such a thing 
 would never do at the court of Kaiser William II. 
 
 Fancy prohibiting His Majesty, the speaker par 
 excellence, from speaking! 
 
 Von Billow had to go. He was not enough of a 
 courtier. Most assuredly he had to go. 
 
 He went, and for his successor recommended a man 
 whom His Majesty could make excellent use of, the 
 bureaucrat, Bethmann-Hollweg. His Majesty need 
 fear no such subversive ideas from him, the correct 
 Prussian official. 
 
 273 
 
274 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 As I said, what difference who the new chancellor 
 would be? He made less difference than Billow. 
 
 What if there was a new chancellor? I came near 
 saying butler. 
 
 Change of servants, that's all. What difference 
 did it make to the nation who the new butler was, 
 or what his name was ? None ! None whatsoever ! 
 
 I was convinced in advance that Bethmann-Holl- 
 weg was just the sort of dry, petty bureaucrat that a 
 Prussian official is bound to be. Even his greatest 
 enemy would not have charged him with a spinal 
 column or independence of opinion. The very ser- 
 vant, therefore, for His Majesty. 
 
 The first time the man attracted attention was at 
 the discussion of the Zabern affair in the Reichstag. 
 Yes, just the narrow sort of soul to come up to the 
 most cherished traditional ideals of Prussian official- 
 dom. 
 
 Not the faintest gleam of the times we are living 
 in has penetrated his intelligence. 
 
 There is no question in his mind but that the ' * can- 
 aille," the nation of 65,000,000 people, is of no ac- 
 count whatsoever next to his " gracious lord," and 
 the "canaille" has nothing to say, but only to stand 
 stiff as soldiers on parade, and never mutiny against 
 
Von Bethmann-Hollweg 275 
 
 the "supreme command." Eight about face! March! 
 And be off with you. 
 
 This tedious philosopher is chancellor of the realm, 
 this man with the intellectual qualities of a nine-dol- 
 lar-a-week office clerk, who never would dare to 
 straighten out his reverentially crooked spine and lift 
 his head to reconnoiter the ground across which the 
 policy of the man on high, "responsible to no one," 
 is leading the German nation. Oh, what a dried-up, 
 bony bureaucrat he is, with the soul of a clerk, inca- 
 pable of nights of imagination, utterly devoid of 
 strength and force. 
 
 He cannot wax indignant, or violent or passionate, 
 like Bismarck, as you might expect him to in this 
 "great time." No, he simply displays venom, and 
 mean little hate and pettiness. 
 
 All his addresses to the Beichstag during the war 
 only confirm this impression, especially his speech of 
 December 9, 1915, when he repeated each of the plati- 
 tudes and malicious attacks on other nations, each 
 of the publicity notices for the Prussian "organiza- 
 tion ' ' that the national-liberal papers had been giving 
 us for one and a half years ad nauseam. 
 
 How those English did annoy the poor man ! Per- 
 fectly dreadful ! Really it was simply shocking how 
 they made the good soul suffer. In spite of every- 
 
276 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 thing he had said so often, they absolutely refused to 
 believe that they had been utterly defeated. 
 
 They hadn't noticed they were defeated. So he 
 had to keep on scuffling with the vile pack, even 
 though he had thrown them to the ground long be- 
 fore. Gott strafe England! 
 
XLII 
 MUNCHNER NEUESTE NACHRICHTEN 
 
 I HAVE often wondered why this paper is called 
 Munchner Neueste Nachrichten. What has it got to 
 do with Munich? 
 
 You 'd think, since it is called Munchner, that you 'd 
 find something of the spirit of that lovely, genial city 
 in its columns. You search in vain. There's noth- 
 ing of Munich in the Munchner Neueste Nachrichten, 
 nothing to recall the spirit which has made Munich's 
 fame, that innocent enjoyment of life and innate 
 democracy which, as it were, leads minister of the 
 cabinet and servant to sit side by side at the table, 
 which moves a man to hold out his hand unsuspect- 
 ingly to every other man in simple friendliness. 
 
 The thing that grins at us daily from its columns 
 is Pan-Prussian megalomania in its most violent form. 
 And Pan-Prussianism has contempt for everything 
 that does not harmonize with its Berlin patterns. 
 
 Every number, every line reeks with the most ex- 
 aggerated race hatred. In its persecution mania the 
 
 277 
 
278 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 paper sees enemies, envious of Prussia's greatness, 
 squatting round in a circle ready to pounce. 
 
 For about thirty years Prussian corruption has been 
 doing good work here, scarcely to be excelled any- 
 where. 
 
 When after 1870 a healthy reaction set in among 
 the Bavarians against the arrogant guardianship exer- 
 cised by Prussia and against its scarcely concealed 
 lust for the absorption of other German states, this 
 sentiment seemed so dangerous to the Prussian rulers 
 that they went to a good big expense and erected a 
 citadel for defense and offense in Munich, and 
 manned it with the notorious Dr. Hirth and other 
 Prussian heroes. 
 
 In the heart of Bavaria, at the Farbergraben in 
 Munich, they put up their citadel, and from there the 
 unsuspecting Bavarian nation was gradually so 
 tricked and deceived and Prussianized that it accept- 
 ed the war without a struggle, as though it had to be, 
 and to-day is sacrificing its life, allowing itself to be 
 utterly ruined, for the sake of the masters of the 
 Miinchner Neueste Nachrichten. 
 
 The Bavarians were never even asked. That's the 
 Great-Prussian way of doing things. So there was 
 nothing left for the poor country of Bavaria to do 
 
Miinchner Neueste Nachrichten 279 
 
 but to sacrifice its sons and to lead its people to 
 destruction. 
 
 All for the greater glory of Prussia ! 
 
 The universal enmity felt for Prussia really need 
 not have concerned Bavaria. No Englishman, 
 Frenchman, or Eussian would have done us any 
 harm. But in 1914 this, the most sensible idea, never 
 occurred to any one of us. Bavaria could no longer 
 collect her thoughts. She had been too stultified by 
 Prussia's branch-office on the Sendlingerstrasse in 
 Munich. 
 
 There are people, whom I actually envy, who can 
 rise so superior to themselves as to be able to take 
 the Nachrichten as though it were a comic paper. 
 They simply smile at the infamies heaped up in each 
 number. 
 
 I am sorry for myself, but I simply cannot get any 
 fun out of the Nachrichten. For it was this news- 
 paper that almost brought me to the point of losing 
 all my faith in humanity. 
 
 Decency, honor, justice, are things it doesn't seem 
 to know even by name. It seems never to have heard 
 of a sense of dignity or a sense of responsibility. 
 You'd not doubt this if you saw the way the war is 
 conducted in its columns. 
 
 If the civilized world were to judge Munich by its 
 
280 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 newspaper, the city would have to hide its head in 
 shame. Fortunately, however, the world does not 
 know this cosmopolitan sheet, nor read the hymns of 
 hate appearing in it daily. 
 
 The pleasant recollections that the name of Munich 
 may evoke, the memories of sacred moments spent in 
 the lofty enjoyment of art will not be spoiled by the 
 frenzied barking of the Munchner Neueste Nachrich- 
 ten. Nobody in the outside world hears it. 
 
 But we here in Bavaria must listen to it. We have 
 to look on while the fair name of Munich is being 
 barbarously besmirched and the thoughts and feel- 
 ings of the Bavarians are being falsified. All by the 
 orders of that dark, violent Prussianism which clubs 
 down everything striving upward for truth, light, 
 and liberty. 
 
 Every day the columns of the Munchner Neueste 
 Nachrichten are filled with shrieking and yelling and 
 raging, roaring, whining, cursing, lying. 
 
 All it wants to do is sow hatred, hatred among the 
 nations. Let it take care that in sowing the wind 
 it will not reap the whirlwind. 
 
 The whirlwind might blow down that Prussian cit- 
 adel of lies on the Sendlingerstrasse. 
 
 Some day at last the eyes of the people of Munich 
 
Miinchner Neueste Nachrichten 281 
 
 will open, and then will come the great reckoning. 
 
 The handiwork of this mixer of poisons, who too 
 long poured venom into international relationships, 
 will be destroyed once for all. 
 
XLIII 
 WHAT IS THE OBSTACLE TO PEACE? 
 
 MILLIONS and millions are yearning for peace. In 
 the belligerent countries there is nothing the people 
 want so much as peace, as the end of this bloody 
 struggle. 
 
 There seems to be scarcely another thought in the 
 world beside peace, peace, peace 
 
 And yet after all these horrible years of war peace 
 is still far off. 
 
 Why ? Why, when humanity 's longing for peace is 
 so great? 
 
 Each of the belligerent governments declares its 
 readiness to conclude peace, provided, however, that 
 the enemy admits defeat. Otherwise the war has to 
 go on until he does admit defeat. 
 
 When one realizes, as one must very clearly, that 
 the highwater mark of German victories was reached 
 long ago and Germany cannot hope for the fulfillment 
 of her war aims, one is tempted to say that the cause 
 of the prolongation of the war is sheer insanity, 
 Prussian megalomania. 
 
 282 
 
What Is the Obstacle to Peace? 283 
 
 But Germany's failure to admit her true situation 
 to herself forms only part of the obstacle to peace. A 
 far more important and more deeply rooted obstacle 
 is one never explicitly mentioned, but only hinted at. 
 
 If the chancellor concludes peace now, he will not 
 secure a single one of all the lovely things he prom- 
 ised the German people as a result of the war. He 
 must step before the people and confess that all their 
 sacrifices, all their bloodshed, all the woe that the 
 war has brought upon them will have been to no 
 avail. 
 
 And when he has made this admission, then all of 
 those who stuck to his policy through thick and thin, 
 believing in his frantically cherished optimism, will 
 suddenly begin to see the truth. Their eyes will 
 suddenly be opened. 
 
 And deadly fright will take hold of them because 
 of the sorry results of the war, so contrary to all 
 the promises made. They will ask the chancellor, 
 Why? Why all this that we have gone through? 
 Questions that he will not be able to answer. 
 
 The chancellor dreads these questions, and in his 
 fear of them resides the true obstacle to peace. 
 
 The people, now become clairvoyant, will want to 
 know why omnipotent militarism is so impotent, why 
 it does not dictate peace as it always boasted it would. 
 
284 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 The people will want to know who it was, as a mat- 
 ter of fact, that gave militarism the frightful power 
 to plunge the German nation into this blood bath. 
 They will want to know whose will militarism is to 
 carry out, the will of a nation of 65,000,000, or the 
 will of a single individual, "responsible to no one." 
 
 They will recollect that they never wanted war, 
 that they never had the intention of attacking any 
 one, and that they derive no advantage from war. 
 It will occur to them that only a single individual 
 and his clique, hoping for greater power and glory 
 from war, might have derived advantage from it. 
 
 The chancellor will be asked many uncomfortable 
 questions, all having to do with the fate of the mon- 
 archy and the fate of all the rulers of unhappy Ger- 
 many. The chancellor and his masters dread the day 
 of revelation to the German people. That is why the 
 chancellor cannot conclude peace and prevents nego- 
 tiations by making the silly demand that the enemy 
 shall acknowledge him as victor. 
 
 Oh, it would suit him beautifully to be acknowl- 
 edged victor. Then he could keep on lying and cheat- 
 ing ; and the great reckoning with the German nation 
 might be delayed somewhat longer perhaps. 
 
 The certainty that in the end he will have no more 
 excuses left forces him constantly to be devising new 
 
What Is the Obstacle to Peace? 285 
 
 subterfuges. And so fresh sacrifices of life must 
 continue to be made. 
 
 If the German people want to see for themselves 
 whether the standpoint of the German government or 
 the standpoint of the western powers is the one that 
 the judgment of history will uphold, all they need do 
 is remember the idea the neutrals have of the basis 
 on which future peace is to rest. 
 
 A careful study of the sentiment in the neutral 
 countries shows with absolute clearness that the only 
 peace possible is one serving the interests of the en- 
 tire world, not of Germany and her allies alone. 
 This forces us to the conclusion, very surprising to 
 many a German, that all the neutrals look upon the 
 war with the eyes of the western powers. And it will 
 never occur to any rational man to doubt that during 
 the whole period of the war the neutrals have had 
 ample opportunity to learn on which side right is, 
 and on which side wrong. 
 
 So, in the end, the chancellor will have to admit 
 the bankruptcy of monarchism and militarism. No 
 matter how much he may resist, circumstances will 
 prove stronger than he. And he will be forced to 
 make the admission under far more unfavorable cir- 
 cumstances than to-day. 
 
286 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 But until that time comes, more hundreds of thou- 
 sands of lives will have to be sacrificed. The obstacle 
 to peace will have to be washed away by a whole 
 ocean of blood. 
 
XLIV 
 THE ASSASSINATION IN SERAJEVO 
 
 IT was on a Monday. You could tell from afar 
 
 by the unusual commotion at the H Station that 
 
 something extraordinary had happened. 
 
 Groups of people formed and then scattered; you 
 saw them holding newspapers and talking excitedly. 
 The tragedy had occurred the day before, but the 
 news did not come out in the papers until the next 
 morning's editions. 
 
 I hurried up and bought a paper. " Successor to 
 the Austrian throne assassinated in Serajevo" in 
 great black headlines. 
 
 We were all frightened and surprised ; surprised, I 
 should say, more than frightened, because there had 
 been nothing to presage an awful event of such a 
 nature. 
 
 There had been no apparent occasion for the crime, 
 nothing to point to such an explosion. We knew of 
 no feeling among the people that would lead to so 
 violent an outburst of passion. 
 
 To this very day we have heard nothing reliable 
 about the matter. The Austrian government has 
 
 287 
 
288 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 made little enough known of the results of its investi- 
 gations into the assassination. 
 
 It was a crime committed for political motives. 
 That is all we were told. 
 
 Purely for political motives? It seems to me sev- 
 eral interrogation marks should follow this official 
 statement. 
 
 The assassins were scarcely more than children. 
 But the Servian government, charged with being the 
 instigator and accomplice in the crime, surely could 
 have found enough adults for the business. It hard- 
 ly needed children. 
 
 Will the name of the actual assassin perhaps fur- 
 nish a key to the puzzle ? He called himself Prinzip, 
 which means prince. Maybe it was his real name. 
 
 Was this Prinzip the scion of some princely house 
 of Bosnia which felt it had greater claims to Bosnia 
 than Austria's successor to the throne? 
 
 Did Prinzip in a surge of overwrought youthful 
 ambition conspire with his friends to punish the Aus- 
 trian grand duke for entering the city as lord and 
 master, whereas the city ought to recognize, and do 
 homage to, none but him, Prinzip, as lord and master? 
 Doesn't this explain the otherwise inexplicable fact 
 that the grand duke's wife had to share his fate? 
 
 In no circumstances could the Servian government 
 
The Assassination in Serajevo 289 
 
 have an interest in loading itself with a wholly pur- 
 poseless crime. What use was there in making a 
 woman pay with her life for her husband's politics? 
 
 We are scarcely likely ever to learn the truth about 
 the affair. The lips of the unfortunate children have 
 been sealed forever. Death graciously came and re- 
 lieved them of a life that certainly would no longer 
 have been life, but a slow, long-drawn-out death, inch 
 by inch. 
 
 Oh, good care was taken that they should not re- 
 main alive, even though, on account of their youth, 
 the death penalty was not pronounced against them. 
 
 Condemn children to death? Oh, no! Sensitive 
 justice in civilized Austria would never do anything 
 of the sort. It was the children's youth that denied 
 them the mercifulness of a quick death, not the con- 
 sideration that the Austrian state by annexing Bosnia 
 was far more to blame for the crime than the over- 
 wrought young assassins themselves. They, in their 
 sad impotence, had only resorted to the most futile 
 means of redressing what they deemed a wrong. 
 
 Consequently, though Servian politics may have 
 played a sufficiently large part in the murder of the 
 grand duke and his consort, it was without doubt 
 not the one decisive factor. 
 
 As a matter of fact, it is surprising that this should 
 
290 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 have been the only outburst of passion from the young 
 and immature. Think of all the stirring up of na- 
 tionalist feelings done in the schools in many coun- 
 tries, not Servia alone, and you will marvel that great- 
 er disaster does not result from the muddle created 
 in unripe minds. 
 
 These children had to pay for the mistakes of the 
 "nationalist" system of education, and pay heavily, 
 too. They atoned for the blood they had shed by 
 prolonged death agonies. 
 
 Was that atonement enough ? 
 
 No. 
 
 Why? 
 
 Because the man assassinated had not been an ordi- 
 nary mortal, but a prince, a ruler, one of the "su- 
 preme" ones. And the assassination of such an one 
 called for greater expiation than the death of the few 
 guilty parties. Millions of others had also to give 
 up their innocent lives, streams of blood had still to 
 flow, and oceans of tears had still to be wept before 
 the earth would be washed clean of the blood of this 
 one on high. 
 
 His death hoisted the signal, visible far and wide, 
 for the beginning of the slaughter of nations. 
 
 It at last provided the Austrian government with 
 the opportunity to make demands on the Servian gov- 
 
The Assassination in Serajevo 291 
 
 ernment that it had long been wanting to make but 
 had been refraining from, out of deference to public 
 opinion both at home and abroad. 
 
 Now it could make demands, to which a reply was 
 impossible. Nor did the Austrian government ex- 
 pect a reply. 
 
 Everybody foresaw the consequences, but the con- 
 sequences were intended. Austrian diplomacy could 
 not afford to let a chance go by that might never 
 arise again. 
 
 A better, more popular cause for war, moreover, 
 could not be found, not if you searched in every cor- 
 ner of the globe. 
 
 Even the lowliest in the nation would understand 
 that awful vengeance must be wreaked for this wicked 
 deed, this assassination of a prince. Every man would 
 now willingly take his place in the regiments of the 
 avengers. 
 
 Every man, even the men who had previously had 
 some "buts" and some "ifs" to offer. 
 
 Millions on millions allowed themselves to be led 
 to slaughter, like docile sheep, to avenge the death 
 of their prince. 
 
 So precious is the life of a ruler that all the blood 
 shed so far is not enough to pay the price. The 
 massacring must go on. 
 
292 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 Is it not time to ask whether these nations which 
 have monarehs at their head, whose lives are so tre- 
 mendously valuable, are not assuming too great a 
 responsibility toward the rest of mankind? 
 
 Is it conceivable that an attempt on the nephew of 
 the president of the United States or the president 
 of the French Republic would result in a similar 
 blood bath ? The murdered grand duke was not even 
 the ruler of Austria, but only a relative of his. 
 
 The murder of a Poincare himself, every one will 
 admit, would not have called for such expiation as 
 did the murder of the scion of a royal house. The 
 world would certainly have been spared the present 
 horror had the man struck by the assassin's bullet 
 been, not one of the men destined to rule by " divine 
 right, ' ' but a man elected to rule by the people, a M. 
 Poincare or a Mr. Wilson. 
 
 After the gruesome experience of this war, every 
 nation ought to shrink from the responsibility of in- 
 dulging any longer in the luxury of so costly a head, 
 and ought rather take one whose life is no higher 
 priced than the life of any other citizen. 
 
 Then, at least, the occasion will be removed for 
 the world's having to live in the constant dread of 
 a repetition of the present catastrophe. 
 
XLV 
 FORCING PEACE 
 
 THE Reichstag sessions come and go. They open 
 and then close again when the desired object has been 
 attained, that is, the taxes, the appropriations, and 
 the loans for the continuation of the war. 
 
 The Social Democrats scold and criticize a little; 
 but in the end the large majority of the Fraction 
 declares itself as ready for the war to go on as the 
 other parties, and votes the necessary millions out 
 of the pockets of its constituents exactly like the 
 other parties. 
 
 On each occasion the Social Democrats talk a great 
 deal about peace, a very great deal. But the decisive 
 word that everybody wants to hear does not come 
 from the government. 
 
 And upon the conclusion of each session the pros- 
 pects of peace are farther off than ever. The cer- 
 tainty lies heavy on one's soul that the war will go 
 on till when? Interminably, it seems. 
 
 It is not only the wrongly informed public, but 
 even the vast majority of the Reichstag delegates, iu- 
 
 293 
 
294 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 eluding most of the Social Democrats, who firmly 
 expect peace as the result of a German victory or, 
 at least, as the result of the enemy's incapacity to 
 continue the war. 
 
 The Reichstag delegates certainly have better 
 chances of ascertaining the true state of affairs than 
 the public at large. Is it that they do not want to 
 see, or are they, too, being kept from the truth? 
 Are they genuinely ignorant of the course of the war ? 
 
 In my opinion we shall never get one inch nearer 
 peace either from a German victory or from the 
 enemy's exhaustion. All such hopes are sheer self- 
 deception. 
 
 The true road to peace is not along the big, favorite 
 highway lined with successes and victories, as the 
 whole of Germany pictures to itself, but along a very 
 different route, where no triumphal arches will stand, 
 but tombstones, at the utmost, and weeping willows. 
 
 From Germany, we have seen, an honorable step 
 toward peace is out of the question. 
 
 Then can't we get help in securing peace from 
 the outside, from the neutral states? The neutral 
 governments, assuredly, are fairly well informed as 
 to the true state of affairs in each of the belligerent 
 countries. What keeps the neutral governments from 
 
Forcing Peace 295 
 
 offering to mediate and so win a whole world's grati- 
 tude? 
 
 From time to time we heard voices in Switzerland, 
 in Holland, in Sweden, and observed that people were 
 thinking and speaking very seriously of mediation. 
 
 But then in the end there always came the resigned 
 admission this is not the time for mediation. One 
 thing, however, that the discussions of eventual media- 
 tion made clear was that the basis on which the com- 
 ing peace was to rest had already been found. Evi- 
 dently, complete unanimity prevails in all the neu- 
 tral states that peace must rest first and foremost 
 upon democratic principles. 
 
 This may suit the neutral governments, but it is 
 absolutely unacceptable to the German government. 
 
 The neutral states know this, and for that reason 
 they cannot mediate, but can only assert their willing- 
 ness to do so as soon as the time comes. 
 
 But when will the time come? Who will answer 
 this question? I believe that in the end the German 
 people (not the government) will have to answer it. 
 
 According to all appearances the people are at the 
 end of their strength. They cannot keep up an in- 
 terminable war; whereas the government and the 
 profiteers can "hold out," though it last ten years 
 more. 
 
296 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 In these circumstances it would only be self-decep- 
 tion to expect a sincere move for peace from the gov- 
 ernment. The government would only be sawing off 
 the shaky branch to which it is clinging. You 
 couldn't ask the government to do that. 
 
 Peace, therefore, will not come from the neutrals 
 or from our own government. But some time or other 
 it's got to come. Somebody has to take the first step. 
 And if all signs do not deceive, the first step will have 
 to be made by those who have suffered the most from 
 the war, whose interests, upon the restoration of peace, 
 will be most urgent. I mean the German people. 
 
 Nowhere have the masses undergone the dire dis- 
 tress that they have in Germany. Possibilities of 
 earning a living are so slight, the prices are so high, 
 and rations of the barest necessities have been clipped 
 so close that no one can any longer satisfy his hunger. 
 Consequences frightfully disastrous to the people's 
 health and to the vigor of the next generation are im- 
 minent. 
 
 Verily, too long have the people borne their hideous 
 sufferings, and the conviction must soon force its way 
 to the surface that they have undergone quite enough 
 and an end must be made of it all. 
 
 The people now dragging along a wretched exist- 
 ence must force the peace that will not come, and 
 
Forcing Peace 297 
 
 conclude peace themselves, since the governmen 
 not do it for them. 
 
 A nation can put up with privation for a time; 
 but when it becomes a certainty that the horror will 
 never end and the war will stretch out into infinity, 
 then the nation must express its will. ' ' The war must 
 end and immediately," it should say in no unmis- 
 takable terms. 
 
 We Germans ought to realize that it's no pleasanter 
 to die by inches from starvation than to die instan- 
 taneously from a bullet. Besides, there won't be 
 any need for the shooting of bullets. Our brothers, 
 who will be expected to fire on us for rebelling, are 
 suffering just as much as we are. We may be sure 
 the soldiers will not shoot down their own fathers, 
 brothers, wives and children. 
 
 The people, it is true, have no leaders. But leaders 
 enough will quickly appear once the people's feeling 
 is clearly expressed, and the leaders know they will 
 not be left in the lurch. 
 
 The fear of authority in which the people have been 
 steeped is an empty nothing, a mere scheming, a hol- 
 low suggestion. The instant the people put it to the 
 test it dissolves into thin air, and becomes known for 
 the vapid thing it is. 
 
 One man is as good as another man. A single gen- 
 
298 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 eral is no stronger than a single soldier. It is only 
 suggestion that gives the general his power. We must 
 make it clear to ourselves that those who want the 
 war are only a handful as against those who do not 
 want the war. Of this handful we ask bread, we ask 
 peace, nothing more. That's quite enough. But we 
 won't be satisfied with subterfuges any more. We 
 want peace and without delay. 
 
 How they will shiver and shake! How quickly 
 the loudest clamorers for war and the hold-outers will 
 creep into their holes and hide themselves, pale with 
 terror. 
 
 All they need see is a crowd of people gathered to- 
 gether. The chief thing is simply to begin. The 
 masses need only go out for a short walk together. 
 They go out every day at any rate, shoving and push- 
 ing to try to get a little something to eat. The war 
 heroes will not be able to resist. The spark of re- 
 bellion will have electrified the masses, and woe to the 
 war heroes if they dare to shed so much as a drop of 
 blood. In an instant the drop will swell into a rag- 
 ing sea of blood that will suck them in and pull them 
 to the bottom. 
 
 They will shrivel up into sorry little figures, these 
 war heroes, these hold-outers, when the people will 
 no longer believe in their power, but will become 
 
Forcing Peace 299 
 
 conscious of their own power, of the power residing in 
 mass numbers. No need for a bloody revolution. 
 There should not be one. No one who loves the peo- 
 ple and suffers their sufferings wants any more blood 
 to be shed. Let the power of numbers speak, and that 
 will be enough. There's no more use in resisting the 
 power of numbers than there is in resisting an ava- 
 lanche. But an avalanche must be given a start, a 
 push, no matter how slight, to set it moving. The 
 time has come for the impetus to be given. It is none 
 too soon. 
 
 And the people must themselves make the peace 
 that their government is unable to make. 
 
XLVI 
 THE RECKONING 
 
 THE unchaining of this war was so enormous a 
 crime against humanity and civilization and morality 
 that it may not go unavenged. 
 
 Not to demand adequate retribution would be a sin 
 against the millions who have suffered untold misery. 
 
 Everything possible must be done to bring the 
 guilty ones to account. It will not be enough simply 
 to wrest the power from their gory hands and then 
 let them live serene lives as private citizens. No, they 
 must taste at least a tiny bit of those thousandfold 
 tortures, of that overwhelming misery which they 
 themselves brought on. 
 
 Undoubtedly the men whose responsibility is the 
 greatest are those who in addition to their many past 
 crimes also have the greatest crime of all on their 
 conscience, the crime of having declared this war. 
 The severest punishment we know of must be meted 
 out to them. 
 
 Punishment should also be inflicted upon their 
 aids, the members of the military caste, the agrarians 
 
 300 
 
The Reckoning 301 
 
 and the other profiteers, who prolonged the people's 
 agonies for their own dirty interests. 
 
 The best way to punish them, the way that would 
 hurt them most, would be to make them disgorge 
 everything they got through the war. And the 
 thousands of generals and officers must be denied the 
 huge pensions that would enable them to rest on their 
 bloody laurels. They urged the war on simply out 
 of selfishness and greed. So it will hit them pretty 
 hard to have to work for their bread just like com- 
 mon mortals. 
 
 The Junkers and agrarians should be punished in 
 the same way. Everything they stole and extorted 
 from the people will have to be restored. They, too, 
 worked to bring on the war from pure motives of self- 
 interest, in order to add more millions to the millions 
 they already possessed. The land, of which they 
 proved themselves unworthy owners, never having 
 sweated a drop tilling it, will be divided among those 
 who have had to be their manservants and maidser- 
 vants. 
 
 In the place where a cold, egoistic Junker squatted 
 like a spider in its web, a hundred free peasants will 
 earn their honest livelihood. 
 
 The big industrials and capitalists will also have 
 to forego the enjoyment of the huge profits made dur- 
 
302 What is the German Nation Dying For? 
 
 ing the war. They, too, will have to render unto 
 the people what is the people's. 
 
 And no coupon-clipping for those who financed the 
 war at a high rate of interest. The people will re- 
 fuse to work and deprive themselves so that they 
 may punctually receive their fat dividends. The 
 massacre would have come to an end sooner had not 
 these honorable gentlemen kept lending their tainted 
 money. 
 
 All the other cheats whose pockets swell in war 
 time will be prevented from carrying off their booty. 
 The glittering gems will be torn from their fingers 
 and from the fingers of their fat wives. They will 
 return to their level before the war. 
 
 As for the Pan-German newspaper agitators, who 
 could not do enough in the interests of their superiors 
 and overreached themselves in "fatherland" enthu- 
 siasm, race-baiting, lying and distorting, they will be 
 very severely punished. Their punishment will be 
 this : to have to write every day the selfsame rot that 
 they wrote on the corresponding day of the war. 
 
 Perhaps that will open the eyes of the German pub- 
 lic if it is at all possible to open the eyes of the 
 German public as to the character of their spiritual 
 leaders in the war. 
 
 But the most fearful penalty of all must be in- 
 
The Reckoning 303 
 
 flicted upon the family of monsters who, when they 
 thought the hour propitious for their predatory ex- 
 pedition, did not shrink from sacrificing to their mad, 
 bloody lust the peace and happiness of the whole of 
 civilized humanity. 
 
 They must be punished in such a way that the peo- 
 ple may witness their punishment daily. The people 
 must exact their own retribution. Every widow whose 
 husband is on the monsters' conscience, every orphan, 
 must look upon their degradation. 
 
 And when they will finally have perished from off 
 the face of the earth, they will not have atoned for 
 even a perceptible part of all the woe and agony that 
 they brought down upon humanity. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 r f 
 
 REC'O CD 
 
 ,;."-* 
 
 Ai*n A A ej^ , m nAi 
 
 2May52U 
 
 SEP 2 9'64"4PH 
 
 
 
 
 JUN 8 2002 
 
 
 
 
 
 REC'D t-O 
 
 
 
 
 NOV 16 1357 
 
 
 J^Apr'SORT 
 
 
 FN STACKS 
 
 
 MAR 30 1960 
 
 
 
 
 or-C'O U> 
 
 
 apn 6 t360 
 
 "~ 
 
 
 
 
 'OOct'64SM 
 
 
 
 LD 21-100m-12, '43 (8796s) 
 
YB 21380 
 
 
 38281 9 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
i