A searchlight on Germany: Germany's Blunders, Crimes and Punishment

BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY.

Member Board of Trustees American Defense Society.

Already in America there are signs of the inevitable "magnanimity" toward the great world criminal of the present world war, and of a movement for a whitewashed peace with "no annexations and no indemnities." There is danger that within six months Americans who do not know Germany will seek to snatch the boon of durable peace and human freedom from the Allied nations who have given their bravest and best men, literally by millions, and their wealth by billions, to protect the rights of man. A German peace means a German triumph, and the certainty of another war in the near future. As an approach toward a settlement, it is now very necessary that every American should know Germany exactly as that bloody military dragon really is. As a means to that end, these three chapters have been written.

The blunders, crimes and punishment of Germany are inseparably linked together.

The blunders of Germany constitute a spectacle of very much more than passing interest. The questions they raise are by no means academic. The logic of them is as inexorable as Death. They are of vital interest to every freeman, and to every state and nation that sincerely undertakes to conserve the rights of its people. To unhappy Austria, shoved into the war by Germany, they are of life or death interest. =A correct view of Germany is now absolutely essential to the future freedom of man!=

Germany now resembles a rat in a pit, furious from countless defeats, insane with baffled hate and rage, and wild with a fearful certainty of her Finish. All her fine plans, and twenty years of active preparation, have gone awry. Her vast naval and military preparations have brought her only death, poverty, ruin and hatred. Even her own allies now thoroughly hate and detest her, and one and all would break away from her if they dared.

All her long years of lying and spying and plotting have been revealed in their naked and hideous ugliness. She stands before the world as a foiled conquestador, a black-hearted murderer of defenseless women, children and old men, and the wholesale ravisher of helpless women. The "skull-cracker" spiked club of Germany, and the deadly "murderer's mace" of Austria, now abundantly shown in Italy's war museum, are used for the murdering of wounded prisoners in the trenches and on the battlefields.

And now Germany, like a mortally wounded wolf with the hounds at his throat, undertakes to propose terms of peace to the Allies! With a great show of large-heartedness, the Reichstag now talks very magnanimously of peace with "no annexations and no indemnities." Yes, indeed! A peace on that basis would suit Germany well. Tricky and shifty to the last gasp, she seeks thus to catch the swell-headed "soldiers and workmen" of Russia, the large-mouthed and blatant anarchists and radical socialists of America, and the traitor-pacifists of the world at large. =But all honest men who are wide awake know full well that a peace of that nature would spell "victory" for Germany, and as certain as death and taxes another war with her later on!=

The Entente Allies presently will fix the terms of peace, as they should be fixed, and Germany will accept them; but first there will be another eighteen months of war.

With new German-made peace talk streaming out of Berlin, it is now time to post the books for the past three years, and see how the German account stands. Nothing is more conducive to peace and prosperity than a true sense of proportion, and a correct point of view. In all times of danger it is best to know the worst.

The debit side of Germany's account quickly resolves itself, first of all, into a catalogue of Germany's blunders, as the reasons for her crimes, and her present state of impotent rage. It is highly necessary that Americans should study this list, in order to judge the case fairly, and to be able to act intelligently when the times comes for the Allies to discuss the peace terms that Germany, Austria and Turkey must accept.

It is the natural impulse of high-minded and humane people to be over-magnanimous to beaten enemies, =to condone crime altogether too often=, and to help the down-and-out criminal to get back on his feet. It is also a sadly common thing for a confirmed criminal to turn, cur-like, and bite the hand that helps him; and many a criminal has murdered the generous man or woman who gave him a place to lay his head.

There are criminals and criminals. Some deserve succor; others merit quick extermination. The confirmed criminal is in a class by himself. He is unfit to live; but as the very smallest measure of self-protection, society should punish him for his crimes, and render him innocuous for the future. In other words, every confirmed criminal should either be killed or segregated, and made to exist in a little hell of his own, while decent people go their respective ways in peace and security.

Eight million men, to whom America shortly will add at least two million more, bravely are risking their lives on the battlefields of Europe and Asia in an effort to put two criminal nations,--Germany and Turkey,--into an exclusive hell of their own, and keep them there for the protection of civilization.

In courts of law, it is customary to consider the motives of the prisoner at the bar, to search out his lines of thought, and study his methods. An annotated catalogue of the blunders of Germany will afford a clear insight into the present world situation, and the Teutonic frame of temper. It will also serve a good purpose when the time comes to arraign Germany and her allies for sentence.

*

Before we open the door of the German den of mixed wolves and mad-dogs, let us read this marvelously true and prophetic pen picture of Kaiser William as it was published by Harold Frederic, in the New York Times, on April 2, =1888, twenty-nine years ago=:

"In the same way you look into the face of this young heir of the Hohenzollerns and remember the malignant tales which have been told of his inner nature by those who know him best. Apparently all the women--at least all the English women--who have had to do with the bringing up of Prince William hold him in horror and detestation. I have had numerous proofs of this, although I have never been able to fasten on any specific reason for it. Their dislike for him is based on a general conception of his character. This view is that he is utterly cold, entirely selfish, wantonly cruel; a young man without conscience or compassion, or any softening virtues whatever. That he has great abilities they all admit, but they stop there. Heart he has none, on their reckoning....

"It seems very probable that some future Taine a century hence, perhaps, will write to show that William II of Prussia was =a mysterious belated survival of the ante-mediaeval Goths and Vandals,--an Attila born a thousand and more years after his time=."

How many Americans are willing to trust themselves in the power of such a man? 1. THE GREAT BLUNDER OF GERMANY AND HER KAISER IN STARTING THE WAR.

By the light of the official documents of Austria, Servia, Germany, Russia, France and England, now open before us, it is an easy task to write the history of the beginning of the war in one paragraph. The most conclusive evidence of Germany's guilt is the official "German white book," dated "Foreign Office, August, 1914." It has convinced many a reader.

On July 25, 1914, Servia humbled herself to the dust at the feet of Austria, to appease her for the murder of her crown prince by a crazy and criminal fool; and little Servia conceded everything that giant Austria demanded, save a practical surrender of her national honor. Austria had fully made up her mind to destroy Servia, anyhow; and in that connection Germany and her Kaiser decided the event would serve well for starting the great war of conquest for which the Germans had long and lovingly been preparing. The Czar begged the Kaiser not to consent to the slaughter of little Servia by the Austrian big bully. The Kaiser replied that Austria should have a free hand. The Czar appealed to England and to France, to help him avert a war; and both those nations did their level best to avert hostilities. No plea that could postpone the clash of armies, or promote a peaceful settlement was omitted.

The last telegram of Czar Nicholas to Kaiser Wilhelm (August 1) was a pathetic appeal for delay, and a chance "to negotiate for the welfare of our two countries and the universal peace which is so dear to our hearts. With the aid of God," said the Czar, "it must be possible to our long-tried friendship to prevent the shedding of blood." To this the Kaiser icily replied: "Although I asked for a reply by to-day noon [to his telegraphed ultimatum], no telegram from my Ambassador has reached me," and "I therefore have been forced to mobilize my army." Germany's many statements that France began hostilities with her are one and all totally false.

Now, here is a significant fact:

On July 14, 1917, in a speech before the Austrian Reichsrath former Minister Praschek (a Czech) cried out:

"=Must we continue to sacrifice our interests for the expansion of Germany? Must we continue to submit to the German militarism that has drawn us into this war?="

Alas! At last the truth is out, officially and openly! We thought as much! Many men have believed that Germany shoved Austria into the war, because Germany was all ready for her great offense, and the murder at Sarajevo served as a convenient excuse. If Germany had not backed up Austria, and Russia had forbidden Austria to attack Servia, =there would have been no war=! But Germany hailed that murder as her heaven-sent opportunity to begin. It was to her "Der Tag"!

All the world knows that if the Kaiser had sent a nine-word telegram to Austria, at a cost of one mark, saying: "Do not begin war on Servia until further notice," Austria would not have dared go on! But no! William and his Germans refused to admonish Austria, or to delay hostilities by Germany. "We can not interfere with the plans of our Ally;" said William, "and we have mobilized."

=And thus did the German people and their Kaiser begin the war to which they had so long and so eagerly looked forward.= 2. GERMANY'S RUTHLESS DEVOTION TO SELF INTEREST.

When Rapacity moves into the next house, it is time to lock your cellar door. Yoke up insatiable Appetite with colossal Egotism, and the inevitable runaway is only a question of time.

While enjoying the benefits of an industrial prosperity and a world-wide commerce that had won the admiration of the world, the Germans complained about being denied their "place in the sun"; and they reached out after world supremacy. England and the United States were like twin thorns in the side of the Kaiser and the German people at large. The pan-Germanists busily plotted against both those nations.

Concerning England, a distinguished German-born citizen of New York, Mr. Otto H. Kahn, wrote to a relative in Germany (June 28, 1915) as follows:

"England has not abused her power at sea,... any more than previous to the present war you have abused your power on land. Not only has she not stood in the way of your development, but =on the contrary she has given you fair and free access to her markets, with unparalleled liberality=."

In fact, it was so "unparalleled" that by August, 1914, German commercial houses had crowded out of Singapore every British house save two! Wherever the British flag went, prior to the war, along with it went the German trader.

But, like the horseleech, Germany's cry was for "More"; and to get it "=British sea power must be crushed!="

Unmitigated rapacity, in men or in nations, ever has been and always will be a colossal blunder. 3. THE BLUNDER OF WORLD-WIDE TREACHERY.

While America was sound asleep in the lap of Peace, and England slumbered with only her sea eye open, Germany armed herself to the teeth, and planted throughout England, France, America, Belgium, Holland, Russia and India the most colossal spy-and-traitor system ever developed. She secretly armed her African colonies so that on receipt of the famous "Willie-is-ill" telegram, each one of her colonies instantly was ready to fight.

In 1911, while crossing Lake Tanganyika, Central Africa, on a steamer, an American lady said to a German officer who sat beside her at the dinner table, "Have you and your comrade been shooting?" "Not =yet=!" said the officer, significantly; whereat his brother officer laughed heartily, as if at a good joke. Later it became known that the business of those two officers was the supplying of machine guns to German East Africa. And still later it was learned that those guns were shipped to Dar-es-Salaam in piano-boxes, marked "Pianos." No wonder Dar-es-Salaam was so ready to begin fighting on August 2, 1914!

There are times when the blunderings of German "statesmen" are so crude and raw that, when they harm no one, they are comical. Even amid the horrors of war all America is laughing over the wholesale discomfiture and final undoing of Dr. Dumba, Papen, Boy-Ed (an anything-but-precocious Boy), and Bernstorff, by a restless American newspaper man with a taste for amateur detective work after amateur crooks.

One would naturally suppose that men officially designated by their wise and honorable government to play dirty tricks on the people of a friendly nation would at least have as much intelligence as ordinary horses and dogs. But, no; not so with that Austro-German galaxy of shining stars.

One lonesome and harmless American newspaper man, John R. Rathom, of the Providence Journal, had the gall to plant an employee in a secretarial position at Excellency von Bernstorff's elbow. Also, he put a bright American girl stenographer (=with= a red pencil) in the office of the Austrian Consul-General in New York. And not content with those outrages, he generously planted an office on each side of the German fake-passport factory in New York, instead of on one side only.

And it was a Providence Journal man who with most criminal carelessness changed portfolios with the astute Dr. Albert of Austria, and staged a fight in a street car,--without extra charge,--while that horrible mistake was being made. And the saddest part of it all is that nearly forty-eight long hours elapsed ere the lynx-eyed Doctor noticed the substitution, and made a fuss about it.

Mr. Rathom's most delightful story is of his girl stenographer sitting demurely on a big box of incriminating papers, just prior to its shipment to Germany, sharing her frugal lunch with the shrewd Papen, and dreamily drawing two large red hearts on the box-cover, to which the sentimental Von thoughtfully and tenderly added a red transfixing arrow. This spooning led to the cheap and easy identification of the box in Merrie England. It reads like a foolishly impossible romance; but the joke of it is, it is quite true.

"Oh, mon! but it was peetiful!"