WHY WE MUST WIN

FRANK O. LOWDEN

This is not a mere war for territory. If it were, some point of common agreement might be reached. It is not a war sought as a balm to a Nation's wounded pride. If it were, that pride would have been swallowed up long ago in the horrors of the war. It is a war of ideas. And it is a war of two such big ideas that the world itself is not big enough to hold them both. One idea recognizes that, as Government is composed of the people, so Government is subject to the same moral tests, the same ethical obligations as the people who compose it. The idea for which the Central Empires contend is that the State is above all morality, all obligation to humanity, and that its only consideration is, what is best for itself.

At last we know the issue which we have to meet. The Prussian autocracy, a half century ago, declared that the law of force was the only law governing nations. The world heard, but did not heed the sinister threat. Now we know that this was no mere idle, academic utterance of the class-room. The idea, inspired by the history of 'the Hohenzollerns and given utterance by the Statecontrolled universities of the Empire, has flourished until it holds securely within its grip a great and powerful nation. Moved by this idea Germany has, with infinite patience, and ingenuity, and genius, built the greatest fighting machine the world has ever known.

That idea has grown until it has almost the foree of a religious cult. It is spreading like a black cloud over the earth, and nothing will drive away that cloud but the

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absolute triumph of our armies in this war. I believe from the bottom of my heart that the German people will gain more from their own decisive defeat than we will gain ourselves. We are at war, not with any people, but with this idea which, if we do not fight it to the death, will dominate and rule and ruin the earth. Why should not they invade Belgium? It was to their military advantage, and in their new philosophy, advantage to the State is all that counts. Why isn't a treaty a scrap of paper, if their philosophy is sound? Why should not they sink unarmed merchant ships and deliberately drown men and women and children, if that would help them to impose their new Kultur upon the world? Why should we be surprised at their dropping bombs upon hospitals where wounded and dying men lie? These men had dared to fight for that other idea, the outworn idea that there is such a thing as the honor of nations. The German war cult has been consistent-diabolically consistent throughout. It can answer every charge that has been made or may be made against it by an appeal to its basic idea that the nation is above the moral law that national honor is but a phrase invented by the weaker nations to escape the power of the sword. Force, brute force, material force, force that can be seen and felt, and force alone, if they are right, should rule the world. Literature, music, the arts, and all the things of the spirit that make life sweet and beautiful are of use only if they prepare the people for war, and then, when war comes, serve to feed its flames.

The idea that moral considerations, considerations of justice, of humanity, of honor, bind the individuals of a State but not the State itself, is so monstrous that it

threatens the civilization of the world. Yea, it will destroy even the civilization of the State itself which holds to this idea. It corrupts its own citizens. The people of no country can have high ideals if their nation openly professes low ones. The conduct of Count von Bernstorff, the late German ambassador to this country, is a case in point. He followed faithfully the German idea. He was the honored guest of our Nation; the hospitality of our people and the freedom of our land were his. Professing daily his friendship for America, and though we were at peace with his country, he plotted destruction of railroads and munition plants, he fomented internal disorder, he filled our land with spies - but he was true to the principles of his master. And no man can serve a state which denies the existence of national honor, and not himself lose his own honor. Count von Bernstorff doubtless despised himself for the life of lies he lived amongst us. But he was loyal to the teachings of his country. When will men learn that there cannot be one set of ethics for men and another for nations? The idea that a nation can do no wrong, and that the moral considerations which bind individuals do not control in the activities of the State, must be stamped out for evermore if peace in any permanent form is ever to return to the world. Whatever is wrong when done by the individuals composing a nation, is equally wrong when done by the nation itself. The idea that it is a crime for one man to steal his neighbor's horse, but an heroic thing when seventy-five million, in the name of the State, steal a neighboring province, must be done to death. You cannot multiply vice by a number large enough to make vice a virtue.