The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-09-08
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
ON THE EUROPEAN WAR
Denies England Is Fighting Because
Of Germans Proposal as TO Belgian
Neutrality.

lON Ills III VhAG
from the London Daily News:
Now, that we are at war. II Is we'll
that we should know what the war is
about. To begin with. we were not at
war because Germany made an in
famous proposal lat We should allow
her to violate Belgian neutrality. II
it had suited US to accept that pro-
posal, we could have found plenty Of
reasons for accepting it; advocates OF
our own neutrality have found some
Of them already, no more infamous
than the diplomatic reasons We have
given in the past for courses which
happened to be convenient to us. Let
us, therefore, drop it.
Our national trick Of ~virtuOuS in
dignation is uresome enough in peace
full party strife at home; in war it is
ungallant and objectionable. Let us
take u pugnacity to the field and
leave our hypocrisy and our bad BLOOD
at home; they weaken a heroic fighter
and only blackguards. This
war is a balance of power war n
nothing else, and the fact that we all
nav to face is that if our side is vic
torious the result will be an overhaul
ance of power in favor of Russia, far
more dangerous to all the other com
batantS than the one We are fighting
to redress.
"Buuied For Forty Years.
"Prussian militaris1n has bullied us
for forty years and months ago Meth
err Germany nor France believed we
would fight when we came to the
point. That is why there was such a
wild explosion of delighted surprise
when the French Chamber learned
that we were game. After all. that is
why the Kaiser, though reckless of
every other interest concerned, offered
US the best excuse he could invent for
| O11r n,f 70 itv Pnt oxynp Un
only too ready to snatch at it, and that
is also why we had to take off our
coat and sail in. We had to show
that when it comes to the balance of
power we were no mere dummy
weight in the scale.
Our Immediate business is, there
fore, to fight as hard as We can, for
our weight when the settlement comes
will depend on the part we shall have
played in the conflict.
Organized Labor.
meanwhile political influences Of
organized labor at home must not be
wasted in the idle and exasperating
platitudes about the ~wickedness OF
wal and the extravaganza of big ar
intervention and all other special in.
terest planks of the old peace re
trenchment and reform platform.
THE difference between the foreign
policy Of the socialist and the foreign
policy Of capital is simply that capita
sends the flag at the heels Of CONNER
cial speculation for profit, and social
ism would keep the flag at the heat
Of civilization. Capital, which is bad
ly wanted at home, is sem abroad
after cheap labor. F%inanciers use con
troll Of the army and fleet which the.
obtain through Parliament, solely t,
guard their unpatriotic investments
That is the root OF the present mis-
chief.
France instead Of using her sur
plus income in abolishing Frencl
slums and building up French chill
} dren into strong men and WOmen ha
/ lent it to Russia to strengthen tn
most tyrannical government in Eu
' rope. And to secure interest on he
/ loan n has entered into an unnatur
Y al alliance with Russia against he
more civilized neighbors. We hav
S no right to throw stones at France O
e this account, for we made an agree
t ment with Russia Of a still NOR
r sordidly commercial character for tn
exploitation of Persia with capita
that should have fed our starving chill
dren.
n "By Our Blindness"
and now mark the nseuuen
S Germany with hostile France on on
side and hostile Russia on the otho
e is in q position so dangerous tina W
S here in our ecure island can forr
n no conception OF it's intolerable ten
sion. By our blindness we hav
s brought about the war. We have de
e liberately added to the strain by mal
d ing a military and naval anti-Germa
alliance with france without at tn
e same time balancing its effect by as
surfing Germany that if she kept peac
II with France we would not help Russi
n again her, nor in the last resource a
o low Russia to advance her frontie
v westward.
Ie rs it to be wondered that German,
l. with a chronic pride in its militarisn
raised to desperation by the menac
e Of Russia, France and England. mad
a wild attempt to cut its way out. a
d ter a despairing appeal to us to let
e Sight one to two instead of one
three?
al Just To Germany"
S. Let US be just to Germany. It ma
n serve her right that she frightene