The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-08-12
Plain Truths BY Bernard Shaw
in London News.
A Balance Of Power Fight and
Nothing Else.
Germany and France Did Not
Think She Would Fight.
Says Kaiser Has Bullied Europe
for Forty Years.

for Forty Years.
London, Aug. 1.-THE London
Daily News publishes the following,
by George Bernard Shaw:
''Now that we are at war It is well
we should know what the war II
about. To begin with we are not at
war because Germany made IN I'M
famous proposal that We should allow
her to violate Belgian neutrality. II
it had suited us to accept that pro-
posal we should have found plenty of
reason for accepting it. The devotees
of our own neutrality have found
some Of them already no more In
famous than the diplomatic reasonD
we have given In tho past for courses
Let US therefore drop 1t. -
Our national track of virtuous i'm
dignation is tiresome enough In peaco-
full party strife at home; at war II 4.
ungallant and objectionable. Let -
take our pugnacity to the fleld and
leave our hypocrisy and our bad blood
at home. They weaken the heroic
fighter and encourage only black
guards.
This war is q balance Of power
war and nothing else. and the fnc& :.
that we all have to face Il. that, IL our
~
an overba1ance OF power in favor OF
Russia, far more dangerous to all
other combatants than the ono ~
are fighting to redress.
Prusstan militarism has bullied un
Tor forty years. and months ago
neither Germany nor France believed
that we would fight when it came to
the point. That is the reason why
there was such q wild explosion OF
delighted surprise when the French
chamber learned that we were game
after all That is why the kaiuer.
though reckless of every other inter.
est concerned. offered us the best ex.
cuse he could invent for our neutral
lty, 0elievtng we are only too ready Tn
snatch at 1t. And that II also why
We mad TO take on our coat and sail
In. We had to show that when n
comes to q balance OF power We arc
NO mere dummy weights In the scale
Our immediate business Therefore
- 10 Fight a. hard ~ We can, for our
weight when the settlement comsay
played in the conflict
| Meanwhile the political influences
OF organised labor at home must not
be waved In idle and exasperating plat
itudes about the iwickedness of war and
the extravaganza of big armaments
and the simplicity of nonintervention
and all other special interest planks
| OF the old peace retrenchment and re-
| form platform.
The difference between the foreign
policy of the Socialist and the foreign
policy of capital IL simple. Capital
sends the flags at the heels of conn
mercial speculation for profit: social
lists would keep the flag at the head
of civilization. Capital, badly wanted
at home. is sent abroad after cheap
labor. Financiers use the control Of
the army and the fleet. which they OBJ
tain through parliament. solely to
| urpn ri nj tr>{r a.,
That is the root of the present mis-
chief.
France. instead of using her sur
plus income in abolishing French
siums and building up French child
rem into strong men and women, has
lent 1t to Russia to strengthen the
most tyrannical government in Europe
and to secure the interest on her loan
she has entered into an unnatural al
lance with Russia against her more
civilized neighbors
No Right to Throw stones.
I'VE have no right to throw stones
lat France on this account for we made
an agreement with Russia of q still
more sordidly commercial character for
the exploitation OF Persia with capital
that should have fed our starving chill
dren, and now mark the consequences.
| Germany with hostile France on one
side and hostile Russia on the other. il
in a position SO dangerous that we here
IN our lSlanO, can form no conception
of its intolerable tension. BY our blind
ness we have brought about the war.
We have deliberately added to tho
strain by making a military and naval
ianti-German alliance with France with
out at the same time balancing its effect
by assuring Germany that II she kept
peace with France we would not help
Russia against her, nor in the last re-
source allow Russia to advance her
frontier westward.
rs IL to be wondered at that Pots
dam militarism-with q chronic panic
i and with militarism raised to despera-
il tfon by the menace Of Russia, France
and Engiand-has made q wild attempt
to cut its way out after q despairing
Iappeal to let 1t fight one to two in
stead of one to three.
Let US be just to Potsdam. It may
Iserve Potsdam right that she frightened
US all 80 much that we became incapa-
bic OF reaIizfng that our terror was
nothing to hers. But II we had been
true to civilization and kept our capital
at home and our honor untarnished by
squalfd commercial adventures In the
East we should have controlled the sit
uation and. kept the European peace.
History viii not excuse us because at
ter making war inevitable We ran
Iar0und at the last moment beexing
Everybody not to make 4 disturbance. :
/ ITALY WON'T fIeIIT.
Il