Read Ebook: The World Court (Vol. I No. 2 Sept. 1915) by Various

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 298 lines and 37844 words, and 6 pages

That all Germany is not given over to the doctrine of hate is shown by the following extract from an article by Prof. Ernst von Troeltsch in the Frankf?rter Zeitung:

"We must not allow hatred to be magnified into theory or a system or let it be the guiding maxim that controls our existence. Hatred may inspire us with courage and driving power, but it is, politically speaking, in the long run, an evil counsellor. It gives rise to a bitter and fantastical idea of politics, which cannot be pursued, and therefore brings dangerous disappointment in its train. And in its influence on our moral and spiritual life hatred is most dangerous. Everyone is agreed that we need a deepening of our moral and spiritual sense, and hopes to see a new Germany rise out of the unparalleled sacrifices which we have made. This new Germany is not to be a compound of hate, but to spring from the creation of new sources of national strength. All her past whether it be based on Christian and Conservative ideas or on Liberal ideals, protests against race hatred, and all these theories which base the conduct of real politics on hate--theories which are not born in the field, but at the writing-desk, whose standard-bearers are not soldiers, but the self-important Philistine, and the bombastic writer at home.... We do not need to cultivate hate, but to deepen our insight into the terrible seriousness of the moment, and this all-important hour of our fate."

If Prof. Troeltsch represents any considerable body of German sentiment the note he sounds is an encouraging one. Every country has its yellow journals, its pot-house strategists, and its writing-desk statesmen, who are fond of elaborating pompous theories and showing their bravery by delivering hard words instead of hard knocks. Perhaps a good deal of the quoted literature that comes out of Germany voicing hated and arrogant purpose of world-domination originates with the bombastic Philistines described by the Professor, and not from the real representative men of the nation. If so, when peace comes to be seriously discussed it may be possible to agree upon terms that will not be repugnant to our Christian civilization.

WAR, BUT NOT FAMINE

In allegory and history war is usually associated with famine. But fortunately in this otherwise awful conflict there is so far no general famine. There are of course sporadic instances of local suffering from lack of food in war-devasted regions, but the belligerent nations, as entities, seem to have ample supplies. It is officially declared that Germany has ample stores of food, and that the promise of the current year's harvest is bounteous. It is the same with Austria and Russia. France and England have ample food from homegrown products and importations. The outlook is for enormous crop yields in both the United States and Canada. There seems to be ample ability in the warring countries to take care of the harvests by the labor of the men not at the front, supplemented by the labor of prisoners of war and of the women and children. The setting of prisoners of war to work in the fields is not inhuman. On the contrary, it is very often a mercy to the prisoners.

Pestilence also is the usual accompaniment of war. There are reports of pestilence from various quarters, but modern science has shown itself able to battle with disease and prevent any widespread devastation from it.

STRIKES IN WAR TIME

Reports of an impending strike in the Krupp works of Germany were followed by reports of the probable universal application of martial law. It is not probable that any serious strike will be allowed in Germany. No nation at war can afford to permit extensive strikes on the part of its industrial population. It is not improbable that Great Britain will be obliged to follow the example of Germany in suppressing strikes with the strong hand. When a nation is fighting for its life it cannot permit any class or section of its people to imperil the independence of the country and the safety of its population by pursuing a selfish class interest to the point of paralyzing a vital industry.

AN INTERESTING FORECAST

General and former Judge Roger A. Pryor, who commanded a Confederate brigade during the Civil War, recently indulged in some war predictions after premising that "it is foolish to prophecy." He expected the fall of Warsaw, and then that the Germans would conclude a separate peace with Russia. France would come next for the same treatment. Then England would be left to face things. Judge Pryor added:

"Is England an old empire that has reached the stage that ended the history of Greece and Rome? Perhaps not. Perhaps it is not destined to go yet, and at the hands of Germany.

"But whatever happens, I think the end of this thing they call militarism will come. Whoever triumphs, the people, even of the victorious country, will demand that the nations' means be devoted to humanity rather than war. The people are paying for this war. They are losing most, and they know it.

"As an old soldier, I can say there is nothing in war. I have seen enough of it. The world is not at a stage now where constant killing of men by their fellows can go on. This war will be the great lesson."

Whether Judge Pryor's forecast as to the military outcome is credible of incredible, his prediction of the downfall of militarism is within the bounds of probability. His verdict that there is nothing in war jibes with the verdict of General Grant and many great soldiers.

PRESIDENT WILSON'S LAST GERMAN NOTE

The note to Germany from the Department of State of the United States, under date of July 21, 1915, and signed "Lansing," is gratifying to the American people by reason of its firm tone, its manly assertion of our national dignity, and our purpose to protect American citizens, as well as the rights of humanity, upon the seas. It is not belligerent in expression, but on the contrary most moderate and courteous. It leaves the way open for a friendly adjustment, but appears to be a finality so far as correspondence is concerned. Germany can meet our demands by refraining from the acts of which our government complains, and our claims for redress and indemnity for past acts can be left for future adjustment.

Fortunately, there is not now in the cabinet a Secretary of State to nullify the moral and practical effect of the note by secret assurances that it is "intended only for home consumption."

"PEACE BY COMPULSION"

In the August issue of this magazine there was a reference in this department to a communication from the Hon. James Brown Scott on "Peace by Compulsion." The communication to which reference was made was, through some mistake in the make-up, omitted from the pages of the August number. The substance of it will be found in this number. Mr. Scott sets forth some of the weaknesses and inconsistencies of the plan proposed by the Philadelphia League of Peace meeting.

THE RED SEA

BY FRANCIS BOWLER PRATT

A sea of blood is rising and beating at the Wall Of Peace, that threatens sorely, with each new tide to fall. Upon its crimson surface ! Like floatage from a shipwreck, humanity is lost. Dashed to a doom relentless, worn age and noble youth, Cast at Thy feet, all broken, are at the sea's grim ruth. God of the slain and slayer, the craven and the brave, The scarlet waters, corpse-strewn, Thy very throne must lave If Thou stay not the flood-tide Cup in Thy hand this Red Sea, and calm men's dread and fears; Dread of the devastation wrought by a bitter war. Fear for its flower, and promise fed to a greedy maw. Lord, dry the springs of hatred and check this stream of death. Man's burning lust of power quench with Thy potent breath. Wielder of mighty waters, ward of the tiny stream; Source of the sun's effulgence and of the moon's pale beam; God of the sheltered seedling and the surrendered grain, Grant that to realms war-deluged Thy Kingdom Come again.

EDITORIALS

NATIONS STILL IN THE CAVEMAN ERA

The above declaration from a well known authority upon international law shows how unsatisfactory is the present status of the recognized law of nations, and how inadequate, not to say impotent, it is to preserve the peace among nations. We glean from other authoritative writers on the subject that the Moral Law which is almost universally held to be binding upon the individuals of a nation with respect to internal affairs must, in the case of the nation as a whole, give way to the necessity of self-preservation, and that under this rule everything deemed necessary to the preservation of the life of the nation is justified. Dr. Hill remarks that even the control of international law upon the conduct of war is wholly illusory, as is evident from the fact that the so-called laws of war cannot be enforced by a non-belligerent co-signatory of the convention in which the agreement is made without the non-belligerent itself going to war to execute such enforcement.

Therefore the nations of the world, regarded as individual entities, are in precisely the same relation to each other as were the individual cave-men of the prehistoric era. Each cave-man was a law unto himself and existed by virtue of his strength and cunning. If one cave-man made a compact with another to unite for mutual defense there was no outside power to make either one keep the agreement save by compulsion, or to respect the life and property of friend or enemy. There was no moral law among the cave-men, and there is at present no enforceable law among nations.

The plan of a World Court for Judicial Settlement proposes to introduce among nations enforceable international laws which would tend to prevent war altogether by compelling nations to live up to the recognized rules of international morality. It would do for nations what civilized institutions have done for the individuals of nations.

THE WAR PATH OR THE WORLD STATE

The submarine and the aircraft have made the horrors of war inescapable by the civil population of any country. The development of destructive weapons during the present war has been marvellous. It seems inevitable that capacity for offense will be so developed in time that no ship will be safe from torpedoes on ocean, river or lake, and that no city or hamlet, or even remote farmhouse, will be exempt from destruction by a?rial bombs. What is to prevent a fleet of enemy's aircraft from burning up the crops of any given region, condemning the inhabitants to starvation? This thought can be expanded ad libitum by those who keep pace with the march of invention, and who realize that just now destructive invention outpaces constructive invention and the science of conservation.

The old scope of war was sufficiently horrible, when it mainly threatened fortresses, battle-fields and men liable to military service. But now its threat is universal, against whole populations, on land and water.

Therefore the question of universal peace is now of vital interest not alone to the statesman, the ruler, the general and the financier, but to "the man in the street," to the ordinary citizen, to every woman, and to every little child. It always concerned all these in a general way, but now it is brought intimately home to all, because war can at any moment put any individual in imminent personal deadly peril of life or limb.

Is there a possibility of preventing wars in the future short of the adoption of a counsel of perfection--that is to say, the substantial regeneration of human nature to the moral elevation of the mind that was in the Prince of Peace? There is manifestly only one way to approximate universal peace among men so long as they remain in an unregenerate state. And that is a union or welding of nations into what might be called a World-State.

The model is the nation itself. Internal peace is preserved in a civilized and virile nation by the establishment of constitutional safeguards and of institutions of government. Not all the individuals of a nation can be trusted to keep the peace. The non-peaceable are held in check by laws and by the provisions made for the execution of the laws. To this end nations have legislative bodies, executives and courts. The executives have placed under their command armies and police forces to restrain the wicked. With all the machinery of executives and courts and police forces crime is not entirely prevented, nor violence suppressed. People are assaulted and murdered, but in a well-ordered nation the infractions of the law are trifling as compared with the aggregate of peaceful life.

So in a World-State. War and violence might not be entirely prevented, but the aggregate of peaceful life would be so extended as to save civilization and permit moral and material progress. Mr. Wells well says:

The course of human history is downward and very dark indeed unless our race can give mind and will, now unreservedly in unprecedented abundance, to the stern necessities that follow logically from the aircraft bomb and the poison gas and that silent, invisible, unattainable murderer, the submarine.

The way to achieve a World-State was clearly pointed out by the Cleveland World Court Congress. It is doubtful if any other method is workable than to begin with the establishment of a World Supreme Court for Judicial Settlement backed by ample physical force to curb unruly nations. No one contends that such a tribunal can be made effective without the co?peration of the first class powers, or a decisive majority of them. The task of the United States, after the conclusion of the present bloody war, will be to bring these great nations together in a world-conference to perfect the plan for a World-State.

CHINA AND JAPAN

"Japan has seized this time, when the European powers are engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle for existence, to begin the work of the consolidation of the yellow races. Japanese statesmen have explained her position as that of mediator between the West and the East. Japan does not desire to be the mediator between the West and the East. She wants to be the East."

This is the conclusion reached by Samuel G Blythe, in a recent magazine article discussing the demands made by Japan upon China on the 18th of January last. The original demands were somewhat modified before acceptance by China, but in their modified form they virtually give Japan the hegemony of China. China accepted under a tacit threat of war, because China was militarily too weak to resist Japan, and because China knew that she could not look for help at this juncture either from Great Britain or the United States. The British Empire is engaged in a struggle for its own existence: The United States, in a military sense, is almost as weak as China, and faces too many possibilities of complications with some or all of the European powers to make it safe to allow its attention to be diverted by the possibility of war with Japan.

There is no reason to believe that Japan has any aggressive designs upon the United States. In fact, the execution of her design of becoming, as Mr. Blythe expresses it, "The East," bids fair to occupy her attention to such an extent as to preclude the idea of Japan seeking trouble with this country. But that Japan would stand on the defensive and resist with her full military power any attempt on our part to intervene in behalf of China, goes without saying. If we have war with Japan we shall have to carry the war to Japan, and that, in the present condition of world affairs, is unthinkable.

In the present cynical attitude of the white and so-called Christian nations toward each other, it is not surprising that a heathen nation like Japan should resolve to take advantage of her superior physical strength to push her own interests. She claims to be a civilized nation, and so do Christian nations engaged in the great European war claim to be civilized. But their civilization is not allowed to stand in the way of their ambitions. It is natural that Japan should aspire to be the controlling power of Asia. She is the only Asiatic power that is fit for such a task or that could hope to accomplish such a design.

For Japan to hold her hand now and restrain her ambition when the folly of the great European nations has offered her an opportunity which may never occur again, would be an act of extreme self-abnegation even on the part of a Christian. Can we expect a higher standard of world-ethics from a heathen? Looking the situation squarely in the face, we may expect to see Japan set her foot upon the neck of China and subdue that country politically and economically to her will, for China has no power of organized resistance. We may then expect to see Japan set up a sort of Monroe Doctrine of Asia. She will undoubtedly allow Great Britain to retain India, as Great Britain is already established there, just as we allow Great Britain to retain Canada--but Japan will say to Europe and America, "Hands off!" as to new acquisitions in Asia. She will probably not attempt to interfere with the United States in the Philippines, but if we should make up our minds to abandon the Philippines, Japan might extend her protection over the Filipino Republic to prevent it coming under the influence of any other great power.

As for China, there is reason to believe that Japan's protectorate over it, or absorption of it, will be beneficial to the people of that country in many ways. The Chinese have shown no capacity for organization or self-government. They have shown no capacity to develop the magnificent resources of their vast territory. Under Japanese efficiency China will be developed, and Japan, occupied in this task of development, will have no time to meddle with American affairs or to seek to push any colonizing enterprise on the American continents. The passing of Asia under the virtual suzerainty of an Asiatic power that has displayed a capacity for civilization and modern progress may be one of the compensations of the great world war. As for American trade in the aggregate, it should be helped rather than injured by the awakening of the sleeping Celestial giant to the touch of Progress.

ENGLAND AND THE DISINHERITED

The present war may prove a blessing in disguise to England if it leads to social reorganization on a more rational and effective basis. The weakness of England, as developed during the past year, has been in lack of unity and organization. There has been not only too much political, but too much class division. The remark has frequently been made, "Why doesn't England wake up?" There has not been the same effective co?peration among all classes that has been apparent in Germany and in France. The English government has been in times past careless or neglectful in allowing the developement of slums and of a "submerged tenth," while what are called the upper classes have been too intent on the pursuit of pleasure to give due heed to the privation and suffering of those occupying a lower social scale. This is measurably true of society in all countries, but it is notorious that the "upper classes" in England have been zealously devoted to sports, week-end holidays, social functions and the pursuit of gain, while the operative classes have antagonized them in labor organizations, and the lower working classes have been neglected and thrown upon the poor rates. This has bred social divisions which even the pressure of war finds difficult to heal. If this war is fought through to success by the working people of England, as it must be if England is successful, because the working people furnish the bulk of the army and navy and the toilers in the factories, they will undoubtedly demand a rearrangement of social forces which will give them a more equitable participation in the prosperity of the country. German efficiency teaches the world that no nation can permit the growth within its boundaries of a proletariat that feels itself disinherited.

ACTION VERSUS WORDS

THE DUTY OF THE HOUR

"Is there no possibility of bringing home to official diligence an apprehension of the fact that preparation for defence, so far from involving us in war, is the best defense against war, as is shown by little Switzerland holding calmly on its path of peace in the midst of warring nations? All the powers respect the neutrality of Switzerland because they know that she is prepared to fight for her independence to the last man, and that she is at all times ready for immediate action in defense of her mountain fastnesses, so that she is a power to be reckoned with."

Switzerland is a poor country and does not greatly tempt any of the belligerent nations by her wealth. The Swiss are tough fighters, their country, by reason of its mountainous situation, is a very defensible one, and its subjugation would undoubtedly cost any power more than the conquest would be worth. The case is very different with the United States. This is the richest country in the world, actually and potentially. Any power which could occupy its coast cities would be able to levy indemnities which would richly pay them for the financial cost of any war. Human nature being what it is, such wealth is a constant temptation to any predatory power. The ocean does not protect us as it formerly did, but on the contrary affords a convenient highway for invasion. Such wealth as ours needs protection in the present status of world-morality. There is no thought of aggression on the part of our people. The United States will never arm for aggression. But it should be strong enough to keep its goods in peace and to save its population from the horrors of invasion.

THE ARISTOCRACY OF LABOR

William James's essay on the moral equivalents of war advocated conscription for peace of all youths, rich or poor, to do the hard, rough and disagreeable work--the labor of the mills, the coal, iron and other mines, the work of railroad building and transportation, to man the fishing fleets in December and the harvest fields in August, the digging of tunnels and foundations, the erection of the frames of skyscrapers, and the varied work of land reclamation and cultivation. This of course would have to be done under a system of State Socialism, as everybody is naturally looking for the easier jobs. But the plan would hardly work under the present system of individualism and freedom of choice in occupation and the pursuit of happiness. But one thing the State might do, in organizing its educational facilities, is to give more attention to and provide more facilities for a vocational education. There is a surplus in all communities of clerical labor and of people who are seeking to do what they call brainwork, rather than muscle work. But the need of the world is for strong muscle workers, for manual skill combined with intelligence. Our schools afford ample facilities for the acquirement of book education, and the importance of book education has been so magnified that the lighter tasks have come to be extensively regarded as in some way more genteel than the harder ones. Sentiment, however, is changing, as is shown by the fact that skilled mechanics as a rule command better pay and steadier employment than the mere clerical workers. Applied science and skill have come to occupy so important a place in our modern social life that the skilled manual worker is now the real aristocrat among workers. This trend in the distribution of tasks will do away with the need of drafting men for the hard work. The higher pay and the higher honor of such work will steadily draw the superior brawn and brain of our youth into what may be aptly called the manlier occupations.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet