The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1918-01-25
GERMAN AGGRESSION MUST STOP OR -
NO NATION IN THE WORLD IS SAFE
(By Jacob Gould Schurman, Presi-
dent of Cornell University


1t was a great German philosopher
of the eighteenth century who de-
clared that the fundamental prin-
ciple of morality was that the per-
sonality of every individual is en-
titled to reverence. | do not know
whether the Germans of today in
their code of individual morality pay
any regard to the teachings of I'm
manual Kant Whether they do or
not, they are certainly blind to the
political ideal which civilized peo-
pies and especially democracies have
in modern times come to realize and
accept; | mean that doctrine that
each individual sovereign State must
be recognized by every other as of
equal worth and dignity and as hav-
ing equal rights with itself. 1t has
been said, and | think with truth,
that in this great world war Ger
many is playing the part of nation
which has run amuck. The funda-
mental explanation of her right
and law, of her reputation of right
and law, of the pitiless and murder
GUS warfare she has waged, is her
refusual to recognize the equal in
dividuality of other nations and the
limits to conduct set by reciprocal
obligations between them.
America is fighting for the equal
rights of civilized States. Looking
at the matter from another point of
view, we may say America is fight
ing against German domination. Ger
many has proclaimed equally in prac
tice and in theory that the world
is her oyster and she will open it.
The German Government claims that
it endeavored to avoid war, and it
is probably a general belief among
the German people that the Emper-
or was in 1914 averse to war.
Men and governments must, how
ever, be judged not by their sayings
but by their actions. And the grava-
men of the indictment against Ger
many is that, even if she wished to
avoid war, the one condition on
which she was willing to preserve
peace was that she should be al
lowed to dictate to the other nations
of Europe the conditions on which
that peace could be maintained. The
predominance of Germany in Eu-
rope means the predominance of
Germany in the world. Once at
tanned, no nation in Europe, Asia,
or America would be immune from
the aggressions of such exorbitant
and lawlesS power
The supreme condition on which
the United States and the European
powers who are waging war against
Germany can consent to peace is the
thorough defeat of Germany. She
must be compelled to evacuate north
eastern France, Belgium and other
allied territories which her military
forces now occupy.
The second condition of peace is
to put the submarine out of busi-
ness as an instrumentality of war.
The submarine can not be used in
war without violating the practices,
rules, laws and principals which
Christian civilization has slowly and
painfully established for the re-
straint of belligerents and the pro-
lection of neutrals and non-combat-
ants in time of war.
But there is a third condition of
peace In the German pronuncia-
mentos on the subject of peace you
will find the demand for the secur-
ity of Germany and guarantees for
the future. By these phrases, how
ever, German statesmen and writ
ers always mean such annexations
of territory, such rectification OF
frontier, such additions of coast line
and such monopoly of natural re-
sources as will in any future con-
tingency make Germany predomi-
nant, not merely over any one nation,
but over any combination of Euro
pean nations. In this program the
rights and just security of other ma
tions and the guarantees to which
they are equally entitled are abso-
lutely ignored.
There can, however, be no perma-
nent international settlement of the
present world contest along these
lines. Germany is, indeed, entitled
to security in the future; Germany
should, indeed, have guarantees; but
this security and those guarantees
are not more imperative in the case
of Germany than they are in the
case of England, France, or the
United States
An international organization of
the nations, and especially of the
democracies of the world, for the
,,arn,anent maintenance of Deace,