Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-02-15
HENRI BERGSON
ON GERMAN PEACE
He Thinks the Allied and Neu-
trail Nations Should Appeal
From the Kaiser to the
German People
By HENRI BAZIN
Special Correspondence Evening Ledger


i ceived by Monsieur Henri Bergson. phi
| losopher and author. Member of the Instl-
| tute and professor at the College of France.
A description of the man is unnecessary.
| That he Is the author of Creative Evolu-
| ton" suff1ces 1t has been written that but
| pinch of spice embalms. a memory" In
this masterpiece there are quantities and
| quantities.
Professor Bergson did not speak to me
OF philosophy, but of the all-absorbing topic
| In substance, he said:
| Time Is ripe for concerted polemlcal
diplomacy via the allied and neutral powers
TO the end that there may be laid clear
| before all the world the true ethics OF Ger
man mllltarlsm and what Is more vtally
important, that some light may be let In
| upon the German public. that they may
grasp what milltarism really Is, really
stands for, really aims to do
THE German public is beginning to in
terrogate itself. Official censorship, official
falsity of fact and official distortion Of truth
have heretofore dominated German opinion
| even to such extent that It is quite certain
| Germany's true moral position before the
| world and the countrys responsibilities
| in preclpitating this war are a sealed book
| and a darkened chamber to the great mass
of inhabitants within the Kaiser's realm
| But dawnlng upon them are three 1lnts.
| anxiety, curiosity and suspicion, logically
| due to the immense gulf between govern
mental promise and realization. At the out
| break of the war not single German
| soldier, even the most humble. but that, fig
| uratively speaking. had Paris packed
away In his cartridge box, nor by the same
| token, not n German civilian who had not
| the capital of France stored away In his
| closet. After the first few weeks of sue
| cessful advance came delay In promised
| Prussan result followed by the now Oft
| repeated announcement that 1t was but de-
| lay, that the end was sure OF attainment
| This has been so constantly prom sed with
| out fulhllment that today suspicion and
anxiety exist among the masses, while In
| the mind of any thinking German Is the
certainty that the whole plan of conquest Is
not to be realized, that the victories in Ru-
mania and Serbia and Poland have not
brought that which It was announced they
would bring with behind and before, the
ghosts OF unconquered Paris, of Ca'a's and
Ypres, of Verdun and the Somme W tn their
more than a million Teutonic dead, dead
who have died in vain.
Something Is Wrong in Germany
Added to this there is for the thinking
and unthinkng German bitter material
evidence that something is wrong, that
plans have gone awry that promises have
fallen by the wayside-for privation is
rampant in the land, has touched the mouth
and stomach of every Teuton Thus in the
flesh, each individual German today is
defeated German one of a race of tn and
emaciated people whose rotundty of waist
line is a vague memory of the past.
Napoleon said that an army fights on
its stomach. To this truism could be added
that a people whose stomachs are con!
stantly unsatisfed are people ripe for the
reason why. For you cannot deceive the
human craw. The stomach cannot bide
upon faith. Full, 1t strs the man, gives
him the wherewith to believe, to trust, to
walt Empty and unsatistied, 1t breeds re-
bellion, even in a people who know the
N
their language. So presently the owners
of millions of German stomachs will turn
to miltarism In inquiry: militarsm that
has promised so much and given in pro-
portion so little. And since to the very end
miltarism will beg the question finally to
lie when the begging is no longer possible,
1t Is foreign diplomacy that must enighten
the German people, give them the true rea-
sons, show them the true why.
For foreign diplomacy can enter darkened
chambers and penetrate the small crevices
called human minds. The German Govern
ment cannot conceal from its people the
notes from the United States and Switzer-
land, nor the Allied reply to the Prussian
overture for peace. They can only be dis
torted. Neither censorship nor falsehood
can keep them out in the word and sub
stance in which they were written, nor
newspaper articles take from their sub
stance.
80. when the German people have di-
want to know, they will and can know.
Neutral and Allied diplomacy has opened
the way President Wilson's note to the
belligerents put Germany in the position
of giving a frank answer to frank and
justifable inquiry. And against the masked
diplomacy of her answer the Allied reply
to the Prussian peace note Is open and
clear. The highest tribunal, the world
conscience, will Judge.
II even think the Allied reply too pas
sive; for it gives me the impression Of
answering the German note instead of as
serting the latters malicious false audacity
/ do not think 1t sufficient to say the Ger
man Chancellor's note is poisonous thing,
l would go beyond-poison the poisoner
with words, force his own venom down his
throat
Militarism Has Failed
I'VE seemingly ignore the revendications
of the German press, Of German political
parties, of pan-Germansm, which is all Ger
many and distinguish only between these
revendications and those of the Govern
ment Upon the part of the Allies, this has
been. since the debut of hostilites, the
ambiguous side. We have tacitly sub
mitted to German propaganda. the Ger
man people have submitted. the neutrals
have submitted Let this attitude be of
the past. For here is the question:
Yes OF no, is Germanys tentative for
peace based upon the present map of the
War-that Is, the conquest OF Belgium, the
annexation of the Brey basin and the
French coal lands the domination of Po-
land, Serbia, the Balkans?
Yes or no, has Germany preserved her
initial idea of conquest? In word are we
still confronted with Prussian militarism?
These are the questions the real friends
of peace, bellgerent and neutral, enemies of
Germany and Germany herself must each
In the course the light strikes them ask
Of German diplomacy. of the German Gov
ernment. II Is not a question of yesterday
or day before yesterday, but of today, now
and tomorrow.
For armistce. for peace. where does the
Prussian Government stand in plain words,
out in the open? And II she has broken
with tho spirit Of conquest, what are her
guarantees?
IF In this light neutrals seek the role
of arbiters we of the Allies can help them
play a part that will rebound to their eter-
nal honor before their consciences and be-.
fore history. And IL this light Is shed In
sufficient earnestness, II will penetrate even