1914 towards the question of the maintenance of peace at that time. The same ambiguities and signs of indecision, the same promises and refusals, the same apparent acceptance followed by non-acceptance of the propositions put forward by the other side, the same method of placing now this, now that subject of negotiation in the foreground, in order that they might all the better attain their unconfessed purposes behind the screen-all the circumstances which then made the maintenance of peace impossible will now make a satisfying and enduring conclusion of peace impossible, if Germany retains her freedom to continue her former procedure. Confronted with this uncertain and ambiguous attitude of Germany in a question which is the vital question of the future for all the peoples concerned, including the German people also, there can, in my opinion, be no compounding, no compromising, no drawing back. The first and most important paragraph of the treaty of peace which is to bring to an end this war, and with it the period of wars, is the foundation of a community of nations ordered on a basis of law for the prevention of future wars, with adequate coercive force and a corresponding limitation of all the individual armaments. This community of nations, however, will rest on a firm and secure basis only if it not merely prevents future wrongs, but also expiates and repairs present wrongs. He who wants the former only, but not the latter, must be regarded as the enemy of the future order of States, and must be fought against with every available weapon-diplomatic, economic, and military-until he has accepted the peace of law on the basis of law. I say expressly: even with military weapons. The war must, in my opinion, be absolutely and unavoidably continued until Germany and her allies have accepted the highest and most important, indeed the only high and the only important postulate of peace, with all its presuppositions and consequences. I say this as a Socialist and a Pacifist, even at the risk of being decried as a "Neverendian." I say this just because I am a Socialist and Pacifist. No peace is possible without a pacifist organisation. No pacifist organisation is possible without a re-establishment of the right that has been outraged, without an unconditional restitution of the property that has been robbed, without complete compensation of the injuries inflicted. Mens sana in corpore sano. It is only in a sound body politic that a new and better spirit can prosper. If the community of nations which is to exist in future bears from the outset the unhealthy germs of unexpiated wrong, of unavenged misdeeds, then there will be formed new centres of corruption which will speedily lead the scarcely born organism back once more to dissolution and decay. If this, the greatest of all wars, is really to be the last, then it will not be enough to create merely barriers and protective devices against new wars, but it will also be necessary that all traces of this war should be obliterated; the table of the past must be washed clean so that there may be room thereon for the iron law of the future. That is and must be the true, the highest, aim of this war. This is the aim which requites every sacrifice that has been made and makes worth while the continuation of the struggle until it is attained. But it is this aim alone that is worthy of such sacrifices. All other aims-whatever may be the value placed upon them -are of evanescent importance compared with this main object. The struggle is one which concerns the future of our planet, the introduction of a new period of human history, the happiness and well-being of all more remote generations. This is a fact which should be kept firmly in mind by the parties to the struggle, by all of them. This is a point of which they should never lose sight. This great "struggle for Right" for the right of the past, the right of the futurewould become a miserable dispute as to particular interests, it would be degraded to a base transaction if, for the sake of this or that special advantage, one were prepared to continue even for a day the enormous butchery, the insensate lavish expenditure of men and of wealth. That would be equivalent to prosecuting a lawsuit in which the costs would be in flagrant disproportion to the value of the object in dispute. No, deprive the robber of his booty; compel him once again to repair the damage which he has occasioned, and above all bind for all time to come the man who is a common danger by placing upon him the strait-jacket of the law that judges him, the manacles of the force that overwhelms him. Bind him not only in your own interest, but in his also, just as the raving madman is imprisoned in a padded cell so that he may no longer be dangerous to himself and others. Judge him, execute vengeance on him-if needs be, be his hangman! But, be it observed, you are to be the administrator, not the violator-the executor, not the perverter of Law. More especially if your struggle is to be crowned with success, then avoid-for your honour and your advantage-abandoning the lofty rôle which fate has assigned you. Be on your guard against doing that with which you rightly reproach your opponents. Be on your guard against obscuring and degrading your world-historical mission by petty and selfish ends. Let the sword of execution be sharp and keen, but the hands which wield it clean and unstained. Be inexorable and unwavering in the establishment of Right, but unselfish and incorruptible as regards your own wishes and passions. Then History will one day be able to say of you: Germany's conquerors gained a double victory, the victory over their enemies and the victory over themselves. They were strong in their righteousness; they were righteous in their strength. EPILOGUE QUO VADIS, GERMANIA? Vous avez beau enterrer la vérité, elle chemine sous terre, elle repoussera un jour de partout, elle éclatera en végétations vengeresses. Et ce qui est pis encore, c'est que vous aidez à la démoralisation des petits, en obscurcissant chez eux le sentiment du juste. Du moment qu'il n'y a pas de punis, il n'y a pas de coupables.-Emile Zola, in his letter to President Loubet, December 22nd, 1900. The evidence is concluded. The accuser has submitted the incriminating material to the tribunal of the world and to the world-public. He has moved for a pronouncement of guilt against the rulers and the leaders of the allied Empires. The accused and their defenders have also been heard, as is fitting. "Before God and history my conscience is clean. I did not want this war." In these words the Emperor William II, the party chiefly accused, solemnly protested his innocence a year after the outbreak of the catastrophe. Now, history has passed judgment, and the heavenly judge also will give His sanction to this judgment. "If there were no Supreme Being to protect innocence and to punish crime, it would be necessary for man to invent it." This saying of Robespierre, the Jacobin, will be verified with regard to the criminals of to-day, as it was in the case of the criminals of his time. True, in the first stormy period of the war when it seemed as if success might even be vouchsafed to the misdeed, as if the unrighteous might triumph and the just perish-then the 341 faithful themselves might waver in their confidence in the justice of heaven-in that justice which has so often failed in history and has made success the justification of the basest crimes. Merely devised, 'tis but a common crime. Then the "common crime" appeared to be on the point of being transformed into an "immortal enterprise." And today-who could fail to recognise it?-to-day, despite all the deceptive and specious military successes, heavy storm-clouds hang low over the castles and the palaces of Germany-clouds which cannot be dispelled by "storm-attacks" no matter how successful. To-day a thundery sultriness broods over "victorious" Germany. But to-morrow there will break forth the hurricane which will mercilessly sweep away castles and palaces. Already the lightning flashes and the vault of heaven trembles; already the Olympian stretches out his hand for his thunderbolts; soon, stroke on stroke the flaming signs of avenging justice will hiss thundering down on the heads of the guilty. "There lives a God to punish and avenge!" With iron footsteps Nemesis approaches, the sword in the right hand, the scales of justice in the left, on her head the mailed helmet which no grenades can shiver. And when these arrogant ones, considering themselves super-men or half-gods, throw Pelion on Ossa, like the sons of Gaia, there still remains a might high above the mighty, who will hurl the Titans into Tartarus, who will crush under his feet the insubstantial structure of mortal men, who with a wave of his hand will lay level with the ground the Babel tower of unrestrained ambition. Yes indeed, God and history, to whom Germany's Emperor appeals as his protectors and compurgators—they have uttered their decree of guilt. '[Entworfen bloss ist's ein gemeiner Frevel Vollführt, ist's ein unsterblich Unternehmen.] |