Plain Words From America - Douglas W. Johnson
PLAIN WORDS FROM AMERICA
A LETTER TO A GERMAN PROFESSOR
BY
Professor DOUGLAS W. JOHNSON
Columbia University, New York
1917.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE.
_The following letter, written by Professor Douglas W. Johnson, of
Columbia University, is in reply to a letter, pleading the cause of
Germany, which he received from a German correspondent. Professor
Johnson's letter appeared in the "Revue de Paris" of September_, 1916.
PLAIN WORDS FROM AMERICA
_February_, 1916.
Your two letters, with enclosed newspaper clippings, and your postal
card were duly received. I can assure you that my failure to reply more
promptly was not meant as any discourtesy. The clippings were gladly
received, for I am always anxious to read what prominent Germans regard
as able and convincing presentations of their side of disputed matters.
Your own letters, particularly the long one of July 9, were read most
carefully. I appreciate your earnest endeavour to convince me of the
righteousness of your country's cause, and am not unmindful of the time
and trouble you spent in preparing for me so carefully worded a
presentation of the German point of view touching several matters of the
profoundest importance to our two Governments.
My failure to reply has been due to a doubt in my own mind as to whether
good would be accomplished by any letter which I could write. I could
not agree with your opinions regarding Germany's responsibility for the
war, nor regarding her methods of conducting the war; and it did not
seem to me that you would profit by any statement I might make as to the
reasons for my own opinions on such vital matters. Your letters clearly
showed that you wrote under the influence of an intense emotion--an
emotion which I can both understand and respect, but which might well
make it impossible for you to accord a dispassionate reception to a
reply which controverted your own views. With your country surrounded by
powerful foes, with your sons deluging alien soil in an heroic defence
of your Government's decrees, with the nation you love most dearly
standing in moral isolation, condemned by the entire neutral world for
barbarous crimes against civilisation, you could hardly be expected to
write with that scientific accuracy and care which would, in normal
times, be your ideal.
For this reason I have not resented much in your letters which would
otherwise call for earnest protest. I feel sure, for example, your
assertion that I and my fellow-countrymen derive our opinions of German
conduct wholly from corrupt and venal newspapers, or usually from a
single newspaper which doles out mental poison in subservience to a
single political party, was not intended to be as insulting as it really
sounded. Your emotion doubtless led you to make charges which your sense
of justice and courtesy would, under other circumstances, condemn. I
believe also that in a calmer time you would not entertain the sweeping
opinion that "the daily press has become one of the direst plagues of
humanity, an ulcer in the frame of society, whose one object it is, for
private ends (wealth, political influence, and social position), to pit
the races, nations, religions, and classes against one another." I
realise that some of our papers are a disgrace to the high calling of
journalism; I believe that some sacrifice honour for gain and that some
are subservient to special interests; but the roll of American
journalists is honoured by the presence of many names which command
respect at home and abroad because of a long-standing reputation for
honesty, fearlessness, and distinguished service in the cause of
humanity. To one such name was added at our last commencement the degree
representing one of the highest honours which Columbia University has to
bestow upon a man of lofty ideals and honourable achievement. The paper
edited by this man is among those most extensively read by myself and
hundreds of thousands of other Americans who demand to know the truth.
However low may be the moral plane of some newspapers, your
characterisation of all newspapers as mere business concerns, founded
and carried on with the purpose of enriching their owners, and
supporting certain special interests, "quite regardless of their effect,
beneficial or the reverse, upon the real public interests of their own
country, regardless of truth and justice," is not at all true of the
class of papers read by the majority of intelligent Americans. I am not
sufficiently familiar with a large number of German newspapers to make
assertions as to their standards; but, in spite of the smaller amount
of freedom allowed to the press in your country, I can scarcely imagine
that conditions are bad enough to justify your sweeping condemnation of
all newspapers.
If you had stopped to consider the radically different relations
existing between the press and the Government in Germany and in America,
you would scarcely have fallen into the error of asserting that a
considerable proportion of our papers, in common with those of other
nations, have "laboured in the employ or at the instigation of" the
Government, "with all the implements of mendacity and defamation, to
spread hatred and contempt for Germany." Unlike your own, our press is
wholly free from Government control. Any attempt on the part of our
Government to dictate the policy of any newspaper would be hotly
resented, and would be doomed to certain failure. Americans do not
believe in the German doctrine that the press must be "so far controlled
as is requisite for the welfare of the community," and hold that
absolute freedom of speech is essential to true liberty. There is no
censorship of the American press. You have a censorship which all the
outside world knows has been wonderfully effective in keeping some
important facts from the knowledge of the German people. No American
paper can be suppressed because of what it prints. You are, of course,
well aware that, on more than one occasion, German papers have been
suppressed for certain periods because your Government did not believe
that what they said was for the good of the country. I enclose a message
received by wireless under German control which is only one of the many
announcements telling of suppression of your papers. It does not alter
the situation to say that censorship and suppression are necessary for
the good of the Fatherland, and that the papers in question deserved to
be suppressed. The vital fact remains that your newspapers are not free
to publish anything they like. Ours are thus free. Every issue of your
papers must be submitted to your police, so that your rulers may control
what you write and read. Not a paper in America is submitted to any
official whatever. You cannot read anything which your Government
believes it wise to keep from you. We can read everything, whether the
Government likes it or not. Americans believe there can be no truly free
press, and no real unfettered public opinion, with the possibility of
punishment hanging over the press of a country. Where the police,
representing the ruling power, controls the press there is no true
liberty. Whatever else may be said against the American press, it must
be admitted that it is free from Government control. It is not
necessary, therefore, to inquire whether the American Government has
employed or instigated the public press to attack Germany, since, even
if it desired to do so, it would not dare make the attempt.
There are many other statements in your letters which can only be
explained as the result of writing under stress of intense emotion; you
would probably wish to modify many of these were you writing under
happier circumstances. It is not my desire, however, to dwell upon this
phase of your correspondence. I do not for a moment doubt your
sincerity, and believe you were yourself convinced of the truth of all
you wrote. My purpose in writing this letter is to accept in good faith
your expressed wish for a better understanding between two peoples who
have long been on friendly terms with one another, and to contribute
toward this end by removing, at least so far as we two are concerned,
one serious misunderstanding which now exists.
As you are well aware, the American people, with the exception of a
certain proportion of German-born population, are practically unanimous
in condemning Germany for bringing on the war and for conducting it in a
barbarous manner. You, together with hosts of your fellow-countrymen,
believe this unfavourable opinion is the result of the truth being kept
from the American public by improper means. It is, of course, a
comforting thought to you that when the whole truth is known we will
revise our opinions and realise that Germany acted righteously, and was
not guilty of the crimes which have been charged against her. But, as a
scientific man, devoted to the search for truth, no matter where it
leads you, you would not want to deceive yourself with such a comforting
assurance if it were founded on false premises. If, therefore, you
really want to know the conditions under which American opinion of
Germany's conduct has been formed, I will endeavour to describe them
with the same calmness and careful attention to accuracy which I
earnestly endeavour to observe in my scientific investigations. In
discussing this vitally important matter, I will first endeavour to
picture the American opinion of Germany and the Germans before the war,
since this was the background upon which later opinions were formed. I
will then explain the sources of information which were open to
Americans after the war began; and will next describe how this
information produced an American opinion unfavourable to Germany, as
observed by one who has read widely and watched the trend of his
country's thought with keen interest. If this analysis is successful in
convincing you that American opinion does not rest on English lies, is
not the result of a venal press controlled by British gold, but has a
far more substantial foundation, then my letter will not have been
written in vain. If you are not convinced, but prefer to retain the
comforting belief that if America only knew the truth it would applaud
Germany's actions, then I shall, at least, have the satisfaction of
knowing that I earnestly endeavoured, in good faith, to return the
courtesy which you showed me when you wrote so fully, by telling you
with equal fulness the truth as I see it.
I.
First, then, let me picture the background of public opinion toward
Germany and the Germans as I saw it before the war began. Inasmuch as
one's vision may be affected favourably or unfavourably by his personal
experiences, it is only fair that I state briefly my own experiences
with people of German birth or parentage. One of my earliest
recollections is of a German maid in our household who taught me to make
my wants known in the German language, and also taught me to love her as
I did members of my own family. In college, one of my two favourite
professors and one of my college chums were of German parentage. Both
these men are still valued friends, and both believe in the
righteousness of Germany's cause. I have spent parts of three summers in
Germany, and have many German friends, both in America and in Europe.
The two Europeans in my special field of science for whom I have the
greatest personal affection are German professors in Berlin and Leipzig
respectively. I have more personal friends in the German army than in
the Allied armies. My sister is married to a professor of German
descent and German sympathies. Surely, therefore, if personal
relationships prejudice me at all, they should prejudice me in favour of
Germans and things German.
In my opinion, the American estimate of Germany and her citizens prior
to the war was, in general, most favourable. Certainly America looked
with admiration upon the remarkable advance achieved by Germany in the
short space of forty years. To your universities we have always
acknowledged a great debt. We have profited much by your advances in
economic lines and admired the combination of scientific research and
business which made your countrymen efficient in many lines. The large
number of your people who have emigrated to America have, in the main,
made good citizens, and we have welcomed them as among the best of the
foreigners who flock to our shores. German music and German musicians
find nowhere a more cordial welcome than here where admiration for their
achievements is unstinted. Nor have we forgotten the heroic services of
the many Germans who laid down their lives in defence of our flag, that
the Union might live. The Germans' love of honour and family has touched
the American heart in a tender spot, and many of my acquaintances admit
that with no other foreigners do they establish such intimate and
affectionate relations as with their German friends.
This admiration and friendship has not blinded us to certain defects in
the German character, any more than has your friendship for Americans
closed your eyes to our defects. The bad manners of Germans are
proverbial, not only among Americans, but all over the world; so much so
that certain German writers, admitting that Germans as a nation are
ill-mannered, have sought to find in this fact an explanation for the
world-wide antagonism toward Germany's policy in the war. I do not
believe, however, that, so far as American sentiment is concerned, there
is any considerable element of truth in this explanation. It is true
that we do not like the lack of respect accorded to women by the average
German; that the position of woman in Germany seems to us anomalous in a
nation claiming a superior type of civilisation; that the bumptious
attitude of the German "intellectual" amuses or disgusts us; and that
the insolence of your young officers who elbow us off the sidewalks in
your cities makes us long to meet those individuals again outside the
boundaries of Germany, where no military Government, jealous of their
"honour," could protect them from the thrashing they deserve. It is also
true that, at international congresses, excursions and banquets,
attended by both men and women representatives of all nations, the
Germans have gained an unenviable reputation for bad manners because
they have pushed themselves into the best places, crowded into the
trains ahead of the women, and generally ignored the courtesies due to
ladies and gentlemen associated with them. But, in spite of our full
recognition of this undesirable national trait, I doubt whether any
great number of Americans have permitted a dislike of German manners to
affect their opinion as to German morals in the conduct of war, though
some do hold that lack of good manners is a characteristic mark of
inferior civilisation. On the whole, we have been inclined to be
tolerant of German rudeness, regarding it as in part due to the rapid
material development of a young nation, and possibly as, in part, the
result of over-aggressiveness fostered by a military training.
It is only fair to say, also, that our admiration of Germany's
achievements in art, literature, and science never led us so far as to
accept the claim of superiority in these lines advanced by many Germans
on behalf of their country. The insistence with which this claim has
been reiterated and proclaimed abroad by Germans, often with more of
patriotism than of good taste, may have led a part of the public to
believe it. But the more intelligent and thoughtful portion of the
people, accustomed to analyse such claims by careful comparison with the
products of non-Teutonic civilisation, has been unable to find any
adequate basis for the assumed superiority. Indeed, while intelligent
and fair-minded Americans are not slow to recognise Germany's great
contributions to the world's art, literature, and science, they believe
that, with the possible exception of music, greater contributions have
been made in these lines by France, England, and other nations. In the
realm of invention, we fully appreciate the skill and resourcefulness
manifested by the German people in adapting new discoveries to their own
needs; but we cannot deny the fact that most of the discoveries which
have played so vital a part in the development of modern civilisation
have been made, not in Germany, but in other countries.
In regard to municipal government and various forms of social
legislation, we have long recognised the high position held by your
nation. But in the more vital matter of the relation of the individual to
the supreme governing power, we have always held, and still believe,
that Germany is sadly reactionary. For half a century your professors,
in the employ of an educational system controlled by a bureaucratic
Government, have taught what we condemn as a false philosophy of
government. Your histories, your books on philosophy, your whole
literature, glorify the _State_; and you have accepted the dangerous
doctrine that the individual exists to serve the State, forgetting that
the State is not the mystical, divine thing you picture it, but a
government carried on by human beings like yourselves, most of them
reasonably upright, but some incompetent and others deliberately bad,
just like any other human government. We believe that the only excuse
for the existence of the State is to serve the individual, to create
conditions which will insure the greatest liberty and highest possible
development to the individual citizen. It has never seemed to us
creditable to the German intellect that it could be satisfied with a
theory of government outgrown by most other civilised nations. That you
should confuse efficiency with freedom has always seemed to us a tragic
mistake, and never so tragic as now, when a small coterie of human
beings, subject to the same mistakes and sins as other human beings, can
hurl you into a terrible war before you know what has happened, clap on
a rigid censorship to keep out any news they do not want you to learn,
then publish a white book which pretends to explain the causes of the
war, but omits documents of the most vital importance, thereby causing
the people of a confiding nation to drench the earth with their
life-blood in the fond illusion that the war was forced upon them, and
that they are fighting for a noble cause. Most pitiful is the sad
comment of an intelligent German woman in a letter recently received in
this country: "We, of course, only see such things as the Government
thinks best. We were told that this war was purely a defensive one,
forced upon us. I begin to believe this may not be true, but hope for a
favourable ending."
Certainly in what you wrote to me you were thoroughly sincere and
honest; yet your letter was full of untrue statements because you were
dependent for your information upon a Government-controlled press which
has misled you for military and political reasons. How can a nation know
the truth, think clearly, and act righteously when a few men, called the
"State," can commit you to the most serious enterprise in your history
without your previous knowledge or consent, and can then keep you in
ignorance of vitally important documents and activities in order to
insure your full support of their perilous undertaking? Such is the
thought which has always led America to denounce as false the old theory
of "divine right of kings," long imposed upon the German people in the
more subtle and, therefore, more dangerous form of "the divine right of
the State." Our conviction that such a government as yours is
reactionary and incompatible with true liberty, and that it stunts and
warps the intellects of its citizens, has been amply confirmed by
extended observation in your country, and more particularly by the
unanswerable fact that millions of your best blood, including
distinguished men of intelligence and wealth, have forsaken Germany to
seek true liberty of intellect and action in America, renouncing
allegiance to the Fatherland to become citizens here. Some of them
still love the scenes of their childhood, but few of them would be
willing to return to a life under such a Government as Germany
possesses.
To summarise what I said above: Americans, prior to the war, admired the
remarkable advances made by Germany in recent years in economic and
commercial lines; held in high regard your universities and many of your
university professors; loved your music, and felt most cordial toward
the millions of Germans who came to live among us and share the benefits
of our free institutions. The prevalence of bad manners among Germans we
regretted, but made allowance for this defect; and we did not fail to
recognise that some Germans are fine gentlemen of the most perfect
culture, while most of them have traits of character which we admired.
We recognised the immense value of Germany's contributions to art,
literature, and science, but did not consider Germany's contributions in
these lines as equal to those of other nations. We never have regarded
German culture as superior, but rather as inferior, to that of certain
other countries; and the Germans' loud claims to superiority have seemed
to us egotistical and the result of a weak point in the German
character. For your form of government and the philosophy of history
taught by your university professors we could never have much admiration
or respect. Both seemed to us unworthy of an intelligent, civilised
people, and sure to lead to disaster. Your military preparations,
evident to every observant visitor, have long caused us to distrust your
Government and to consider your country a menace to the world's peace.
In a word, we admired and loved your people, although we considered them
neither perfect nor even superior to other people; but we disapproved
and distrusted your reactionary military Government.
II.
Such was our attitude when the war burst upon the world. Since that time
what opportunities have the American people had to form an intelligent
opinion as to who was wrong and who was right? What sources of
information have been open to us, what means of getting at the facts?
Have we been drowned in English lies, as several of your professors have
written me is the case? Have we relied on one corrupt party newspaper,
as you intimate is our habit? Have we been dependent on a press bought
up with English gold, as is continually asserted by the German press?
In the first place, we have relied in part upon our previous knowledge
of the German Government and the German people. The hundreds of
Americans who have studied in your universities, the thousands who have
visited your country, and the millions who have come into close contact
with Germans in this country, all have a pretty good idea of the German
type of mind, German standards of national morality, German virtues and
defects. Americans have, of course, used this information in reaching a
conclusion as to the truth or falsehood of charges against Germany. I
talked with some of our American professors just as they landed on the
pier in New York fresh from a summer in Germany which was cut short by
the outbreak of the war. They came direct from your country and were as
fully informed of the German points of view right up to the declaration
of war as were any of your citizens. Many Americans who have spent
months and even years on German soil, and who know the country and the
people intimately, have made us well acquainted with German standards
and German methods of thinking.
It is true that since the war began much of our news has come through
cables controlled by the Allies; but Americans have too much common
sense to accept such reports as final. News from biassed sources is
always accepted with reservation, and not fully believed unless
confirmed from independent sources. Furthermore, Americans have never
lacked for first-hand information from Germany. Direct wireless reports
from your country to several stations in America have given us a
valuable check on cable reports. German papers come to us regularly, and
are continually and extensively quoted. Germany has sent special agents
to this country to represent her side of every issue. The speeches and
writings of these agents have been published repeatedly and at length in
almost every paper in our country from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
American correspondents in Germany and in the war-zone have told as much
as your censors would permit concerning what they saw of Germany and
Germany's army. Many Americans have returned from Germany during the
war, and have published their experiences and impressions. Some of them
have seen your army at work, suffered from its inhumanity, and been
subjected to outrages and indignities by the civil officials of your
Government. Others were dined and honoured as notable guests and given
unusual opportunities for seeing as much as your officials wanted them
to see. Both have offered valuable first-hand testimony as to the
behaviour of the German nation at war. Your university professors and
other prominent citizens of your country have written us circular and
private letters without number, presenting Germany's arguments in every
conceivable form. Your Ambassador and other officials of your Government
have been most active in keeping first-hand information before the
American public. Thousands of your reservists, unable to cross the sea
in safety, remain in this country to talk and write in behalf of their
Fatherland.