and it is by no means impossible that, before these lines appear in print, the Chancellor who merely wears a general's clothes may have made way for a real general, a man of the iron fist.

Even if only a half victory in the war is allowed them, the pernicious forces in Prussia and Germany who have conjured up this war will once again prove themselves to be stronger than the great masses of those who are endowed with insight and moderation. If before the war, when they were not taken seriously, when they were mocked and ridiculed, they had the power to force their ideas and their will on the German people, how powerful will they be after a victorious war, when the greater part of the intellectual classes of Germany-despite all shades of difference-have followed in their track, accepted their language, and surrendered themselves weakly to their efforts under the levelling veil of the civil truce, or have even openly confessed their adherence. For this is in fact the characteristic feature of the civil truce, as it was conducted during the two first years of the war (a slight change has meanwhile taken place): War-aims, it was said, must not be discussed, but by this was meant that there should be no discussion of those war-aims which demanded forbearance from any act of violence or any annexation, which demanded the unimpaired re-establishment of Belgium, the restoration of the occupied French provinces, the establishment of a European peace organisation without a hegemony of this or that State. To discuss these war-aims was forbidden. But anyone who wanted to annex Belgium, the Russian Baltic provinces, parts of the eastern and northern territories of France, anyone who wanted to expropriate and deprive of their rights the annexed populations, anyone who wished by means of gigantic war-indemnities to cripple economically the States of Europe and make them tributaries of Germany -such a one was allowed free speech; no civil truce stood in his way. Men like Westarp, Bassermann, Spahn and Wiemer remained unmuzzled, but the Liebknechts and the Bernsteins, the Wehbergs and the Schückings were compelled to resort to subtle phrases in order to allow their thoughts to be guessed

rather than recognised; for any free and candid word of warning would have thrown round their neck the noose of a trial for high treason.

EUROPEAN PEACE

The statesman's thoughts against strategic considerations! That is the struggle which Bismarck had unremittingly to wage, and which, thanks to his conspicuous greatness and the backing he received from the old Emperor, he was also in most cases able to wage successfully. That is the struggle in which Bethmann-Hollweg succumbed in the last years before the outbreak of war and above all in the last days of the crisis; it is the struggle in which after a victorious war (as may with certainty be assumed from all that has come to light) he would once again have succumbed in putting forward the conditions of peace.

Our rulers and statesmen by their cowardly submission under the yoke of the Pan-Germans, by the ruthless provocation of this war which was "forced upon" them-forced upon them not by the external but by the internal enemies of the German people—have taken upon themselves an inexpiable load of guilt. In better times it used to be said of the Emperor William that his ambition was that he should one day be laid in his grave with the title of the Emperor of Peace. Emperor of Peace! He might have gained this, the most beautiful of all titles of honour, if he had continued to offer to the poisonous influences of his immediate environment the opposition which he displayed in the first period of his gov

ernment.

What, however, has become of the Emperor of Peace? The bloodiest "war-lord" in the history of the world.

Inexpiable is the guilt of blood; the dead will not rise again.

Unforgettable is the crime; after thousands of years it will still live in the memory of men.

Lost beyond recall is the wealth that has been destroyed, the burned cities and villages, churches and pal

aces; generations will not suffice to restore what has been annihilated.

There is only one salvation from all the tribulation; there is only one blessing that can rise from all the curse; there is only one resurrection from all the moral and material decay of the old world of our civilisation. And this salvation, this blessing, this resurrection is:

A European peace, a union of Europe (with the adhesion of countries outside Europe) to a peaceful alliance resting on law, to a league of nations, which will make wars for the future impossible, which will make the present the last of all wars.

Will the German Emperor adopt as his own this aim of his opponents, will he renounce every conquest, every act of violence, all oppression of other peoples, will he henceforth set right in the place of violence, will he transform himself from a brutal destroyer to one whose task is to build honourably? If so, then may he soon express himself in this sense in unambiguous words-and the sooner the better! That might perhaps still mean salvation for him and his people. But if not as we have every occasion to believe-then the settlement on the Day of Judgment will only be all the more grievous, all the more annihilating-the settlement with the guilty one and his abettors, when only they sit on the seat of arraignment-the settlement with the unfortunate German people, if it does not timeously separate its fate from that of its seducers and corrupters, if it does not itself take the sword of justice in its hand, and make itself the master of its fate.

NATIONS OF EUROPE, PRESERVE YOUR HOLIEST
POSSESSIONS!

It is only by organisation of the nations, in place of the present anarchy, that it is possible to give security against similar catastrophes to each individual nation and to all the nations taken together. Europe has become ripe for this organisation, and if the war with all its horrors has brought

one good thing, it is that it has hastened this ripeness, that it has made perceptible to the eyes of the blindest the necessity of a radical change of system in the relations between the nations. The fruit hangs over-ripe on the tree, it is only necessary to shake and it will fall into our lap. Anyone who so refuses to shake the tree is a traitor to humanity and merits exclusion from the community of culture of the nations.

Will the future vision of a family of nations ordered on law, which a hundred and twenty years ago appeared to the great philosopher of Königsberg as the end to which development should tend, still remain a dream after this most fearful of all human catastrophes? It only depends on willing it, and the dream will become a reality.

"Nations of Europe, preserve your holiest possessions!" Let this imperial summons, directed against the yellow races of Asia, be the uniting call of the nations of Europe to a league of peace. But it is not against foreign nations, it is not against foreign races, it is not against foreign cultures or religions that this call is to be directed; let it be directed against the criminals within the country itself. Brand, punish, destroy the miscreants who find in war their advantage, the satisfaction of their ambition, the advancement of their material interests. Drive them out like mad dogs, ye nations of Europe, and stretch out your hands like brothers in the league of peace and friendship which you have always longed for and endeavoured to realise.

To-day neither the yellow nor the black peoples, neither the Slavs nor the Latins, neither the Anglo-Saxons nor the Germanic races-no people, no matter in what stage of civilisation, no matter in what stage of social and political development it may stand, any longer wants war and the oppression of other peoples. The African negro, like the Moroccan Arab, the Russian peasant like the Italian vine-dresser, the Norwegian fisher like the American cotton-planter, the Californian fruit-grower like the Chinese rice peasant, all the labouring and productive classes in the whole world want nothing else than peace and freedom for themselves and for others-freedom in their work, freedom in their leisure, free

dom in the determination of their political and social condition. Let the people vote, free and unhampered, and you will find that no people has any wish for an extension of the country's frontiers, for power and greatness, for hegemony and world power. The cares of daily life already lie heavily enough on each individual and all, without exception, long for nothing else than a political and international arrangement which will alleviate as far as possible the cares and the burdens of each, and will assure to each the greatest possible measure of well-being and comfort.

Workmen and citizens, artists and men of learning, merchants and engineers, lawyers and doctors, financiers and manufacturers, in short all in every country who labour and work with their heads or their hands-with the exception, of course, of those for whom war and its preparations bring material or ideal advantages—all have only the one wish, only the one longing that peace may be maintained between the nations, that there may be given to each individual people the possibility of quiet labour, of undisturbed development. In this effort for the maintenance of world-peace there is no distinction between the middle and the labouring classes, there is no distinction between the proletariat and the capitalists. The wholesale merchants, manufacturers, exporters, whose business and industry depend on the vast development of the exchange of goods on the world market, desire peace as much as the workman or the official who is in their service. It is not the extension of the grandeur of their country that is in their interests, but the extension of the possibility of securing markets, which is sufficiently guaranteed by the system of commercial treaties and of the "open door."

THE IMPERIALIST SUPERSTITION

The extension of the territorial possession of a country always involves cost and danger-the cost of administration

1 For proof that Capitalism as such (which is not identical with militant imperialism) is wrongly made responsible for wars, and in particular for this war, the reader is referred to the pamphlet The Salient Point by Germanicus (Zürich, Grütli, 1916), page 42 et seq.