New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-07-12
A War of Ideas.


own nation. Such conflict has two radl-
cally different aspects; it is at once war
of nations and war Of ideas.
To the extent that the Great War is a
war of nations it has no real concern for
the United States. A struggle between
Germany and Austria on the one hand and
France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Bel
GUM and Serbia on the other would affect
Americans as their sympathies might hap
pen to fall. AS we admired France, Ger
many or England, we should desire 10 see
the battle turn. In 1870 a majority Of
Americans sympathized with Germany; in
the wars of the French Revolution be-
leaguered France, our old ally, long held
American sympathy.
But a war of ideas is wholly different
thing. Two ideas are now fighting in
Europe. and the successful conception will
shape our thought and mould all human
destiny for generations to come. America
not less than Europe, Asia and Africa, as
we'll as the narrower confines of the pres
emit Continental battle ground, will be af-
fected, dominated by the idea which
triumphs in the contemporary contest.
Now the recent German note to the
United States is an admirable indication
If the German idea. 1t asserts, emphasizes,
declares that the will of one nation super
;edes the rights of all nations. That in
ternational law, the relatively minor con-
hot has
devised to mitigate in some degree the
horrors of organized murder and collective
killing, may be ignored, abolished, at the
pleasure of one nation. The world has es-
tablished certain privileges, placed them
beyond the question of armies. These are
the sanctuaries, as it were, of civilization,
and these Germany asserts the right to
violate.
Precisely in the same fashion mankind
has proclaimed the neutrality Of certain
states whose smallness takes them out of
the area of conflicting aims and ambi-
tions of the great powers. Belgium, Swift
erland, until 1914 these were countries by
common consent withdrawn from battle.
Exactly in the same way all neutral ma
tions were conceded certain rights. All
this represented the accumulated gain of
mankind in long centuries. In our own
time it had been the basis Of greater and
nobler dreams of world peace, of arbjtra-
ton, of the end of war.
Against all these conventions, agree
ments, rights bestowed upon the weak or
the neutral the German idea frankly makes
war. The German Chancellor asserted on
the eve of the invasion of Belgium that the
violation of faith was justifable only on
The ground of necessity. The German For
eign Minister now tells Americans that the
murder of the Lusitanias American pas
sengers was defensible in view of the war
made upon Germany by England. In sum
he asserts the right of Germany to disre-
gard all law when the law bears down
upon German interests.
1t is idle to attempt, as all of us have
done from time to time, to deal with the
German idea on the ground of our con-
ceptions of right, Of civilization, of mo-
rality. The fact is that the Germans have
repudiated the moral system of other ma
tions. They have devised their own code
of laws. They have proclaimed and ex-
ercised their right to live outside the law
Of the rest of humanity. They did it be-
fore the war in all the considerable litera
!ure of national thought that was created
from 1890 to 1914. 1t is as just to quarrel
with Mahometan and denounce him foI
MS failure to live in accordance with Chris
.ian doctrines as to assail the German
people because they follow other gods than
we, than the rest of the world.
But there is none the less the necessity
10 defend our own gods, to repel the Ger.
man idea so far as it invades our rights
assails our liberties. We do not believe in
the law of necessity. We do not believe in
the idea that nation can invade neutral
state, murder its citizens, ravage its fields
dishonor its women, merely because the in
terest of the invading nation is thus
served. We do not believe that a nation
ean blow up a passenger ship and drown
some scores Of American women and chill
1ren just because the ship flies a British
flag and Germany is at war with Gleat
Britain.
To-day we are making the same mistake
that all the nations Of Europe have made
in recent years. We are attempting to
negotiate with Germany on the basis of
our conceptions of international law and
universal humanity. We are endeavoring
10 persuade Germany to act in direct con-
aict with her idea, with what her people
believe, with what her rulers believe. We
are endeavoring to have Germany act in
accordance with the laws that represent
civilization as we understand it, that rep
resent the gain for humanity of the ong