The Washington herald., 1914-10-15
For What Are We Fighting?
An Appeal to Plain Men from an E nEIIsh View
point.

point.
In one short week the peoples of alI the big
states of the most civilized part of the Old World
suddenly discovered that the statemen who control
their destinies had condemned them to a colossal
and frightful war. violence and statecraft at
their worst" said the Pail Mall Gazette speaking
OF the German government, but the term applies to
the working of the whole European system
For what we fighting? The war has not
come simply because this that statesman or gov
ernment has lost its head, has made an insulting
proposition, nor because the peoples of different
countries do not eye to eye in some question of
right and wrong nor again because Britain has
suddenly realized duty to a little state The
causes are far deeper. Britain and Germany France
and Austria-Hungary, Russia and Italy have pur-
sued policy these many years which the friends
of international good relations have long pointed
to as certain to bring disaster And this is the pol
icy OF dividing Europe into two rival and heavily
armed camps.
The powers of the Triple Alliance and the
Triple Entente have at times talked pleasantly enough
their hearts and always from the point of view of
potential enemies.
Again Mr. Winston Churchill has told US that
the way to preserve peace is to be so strong that
no one Will dare attack you. But unfortunately for
his wise notion 1t has been adopted a maxim
by all the powers. All have piled up armaments
simultaneously utterly destroying thereby any pos
sible value there may have been in the Churchill
proposition And these things" said Mr. Asquth
in 1908 speaking of these same armaments, these
things made to be used" The day of use has
of at least eight nations
In the days before the fatal week Sir Edward
Grey made many efforts to maintain the peace. All
sane men praised his proposition for a European
conference But it cannot be forgotten that even
when he spoke to Germany of peace, he spoke from
what to Germany was hostile camp. the camp of
the Triple Entente. A camp be it remembered in
which for years. as she has told US in the now ia
nous White Paper, there had been conferences and
conversations between the naval and military ex-
perts of France and Great Britain with a view to
joint preparedness for future
The balance of power, the ententes and alliances
and the big ornaments, these famous instruments
for peace have proved to be utterly rotten, and uni
versal war in Europe is the result.
Now It behooves plain men to look to the future
Germany has thrown down the challenge and Ger
man military power will be broken though the strug-
gle may be long and disastrous. But what of the
future? Is German power resting on the sword
TO be broken in order to enthrone Russian military
power, the power of a state still more deSpotic,
far less civilized and where the plain have less
voice in directing the affairs of peace and than
even in Germany? Such solution would be
solution 1t would leave the lives, the liberties the
homes and the commerce and credit and the democ-
racies OF Europe open as before to the same type
of men who responsible for the present lapse
into barbarsm. And can in fact Prussan militarism
be effectively destroyed for the purposes of last
ing peace except by the act of the German people
itself? For be it remembered that destruction at
the hands of any other power must that that
power becomes in turn huge military force and
must remain so, as did Germany after she had
crushed France in 1870 Which is but shifting of
the evil destroying the lives the peace and the hap
piness of the plain and women of all nations.
To put term to the rule of fear in Europe and
the rule of the sword behooves all of good will
unite in universal insistence for conference of
the nations at the end of this war which by general
consent shall reduce these stupendous and crushing
weapons of murder and shall bind all Europe in
common pact of freedom, peace and justice.
Such pact must, by some such plan that pro-
posed by the President of the United States for in
ternatonal commissions of inquiry put it out of the
reach and for all, of any group of statesmen of
any nation to plunge the world in
To bring such pact into existence to make ef-
fective its working and to establish control by the
democracies that it may endure needs however an
intelligent common people understanding the bases
of those international relations upon which alone
freedom peace and justice is possible between ma
TONS To build up thinking democracies is an essen
tial and immediate part of the work of reconStruc
tion without which indeed the best of political sys-
TENS will be useles and will fail in the crisis.
But no other political solution but a real concert
of Europe and final abolition of the system of rival
armed camps do aught but shift the fear which
is the nightmare of Europe from one center an
other and involve a vast increase in the already
overwhelming burden of armaments for all the peo-
pies alike.
Hostile alliances and big armaments the twin
curses of Europe, must be swept from the world
and their place be taken by Utopian dream, but
by a strong concert of the free states of Europe
one single alliance, European entente. c. H.