Hindsight

THE CONTRIBUTORS’ CLUB

SUPPOSE that those having the administration of affairs in Germany had thought more of future generations than of present glory and prowess and might, and suppose that they had been of a disposition to look at things from a philosophical standpoint, with minds open to the truth, — they might, until July, 1914, have reasoned thus: —

The great need of Germany is more territory. Its population is very dense, its people industrious, and it needs a larger field for development. While it manages its own affairs with consummate ability, it has not been wholly successful in ruling foreigners. For forty-three years it has administered Alsace-Lorraine, but it has not established contentment among its people. On its eastern border the Poles under its rule are not satisfied despite the best German methods of government that have been applied to them, and a similar discontent and unrest prevails among the Danes in the north in Schleswig-Holstein. On the other hand, the German people are peaceful and law-abiding; except for the heavy burden of military duties, they are as well content as any others, and it would appear that so far as the Germans themselves are concerned, the methods of government and rule are sound. In other words, they might have said, ’We Germans are good housekeepers at home, but are less successful abroad. Additional proof of this is the constant trouble that neighbor Austria has in governing Slavs and Italians. They are never out of difficulties over there. So instead of trying to convert foreigners into Germans by force, let us let foreigners work out their own salvation — and raise more Germans. If foreigners want to immigrate and become Germans, they shall be welcome; but instead of conquering them against their will, — in which event they do not seem to develop into German patriots, — we shall accept them only when they want to come.’

This is not a royal idea, nor is it in accord with Prussian traditions; but the great gifts of the German people to the world, their ideals, their philosophy, their science, their music, and their poetry, have not been developed under royal or imperial decree, nor are they the outcome of Prussian traditions.

The philosophical ruler and his cabinet whom I am imagining would have observed that the available earth is largely in the hands of strong powers, and that the cost of gaining by the sword sparsely settled and fertile land near-by is too severe a burden upon future generations to be considered until every other effort has failed. War kills off the best human breeding-stock no matter which side wins. So the proposal to trade would naturally present itself. The Germans are masters at trading. In looking over available territory near-by they could not fail to observe that the northern strip of Africa, comprising parts of Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco, is the very best part of the world now open to settlement. The desirability of this region has long been in German minds, as we have occasionally been reminded by the incident at Agadir and by other signs. But since the foreign office of the Empire has been in Berlin rather than in Cologne, Darmstadt, or Frankfurt, the only method considered has been force, and until the outbreak of the war this has failed.

Now, suppose that the suggestion had been made to the French authorities, with no ultimatum involved and with no reference to the royal and imperial grandfather of the present Kaiser or to anything else save the business in hand, that Alsace and Lorraine, despite over forty years of German rule, still remained largely French in sentiment, and that it had been borne in upon the German government that the French people were evidently desirous of obtaining possession of them again. The German government might have added that it believed that if these provinces were to come under French rule again, this might occur without abuse to the people living there. Germany’s new policy being German rule for German people, and these provinces persevering in their French sentiments, they might well have been ceded back to France in consideration of other territory and a right of way to reach it. The land for which these provinces might have been exchanged is that to which we have referred on the border of the Mediterranean in Northern Africa, now under French rule. Its extent and area could have been determined by agreement. This was at one time the garden-spot of the earth, is rich in minerals, and Germany has enough people to inhabit it and develop it. With all cause of war between the two nations removed, the means of reaching the Mediterranean from Germany should not have been an impossibility.

My impression is that the French would have accepted such a proposal from the Germans, would have been generous in giving up a large share of their North African possessions, and that they would have fallen upon the Germans’ necks and embraced them, instead of shooting them as they are doing now. Germany and France would have been a pair of nations working together in entire amity. There might have been a little difficulty with England, but with France and Germany united in friendship, and the new slogan of German rule for German people, with no desire to control foreigners, in full effect, the sting would have been taken from their development. So far as the Arab tribes of that part of North Africa were concerned, German civilization would not have been acceptable to them, and they would have had to move away in time. It would have been a little trouble instead of the great trouble now.

The plan would not have found favor with the Court at Vienna, but we are now thinking less of dynasties than we are of the German people. The Austrian methods of imposing German rule upon Slavic peoples would not have found favor in Germany, where the people, minding their own business, would have seen no Muscovite menace. It would not be the first time that Germany and Austria have disagreed. Indeed, in course of time, the German part of Austria might have preferred to be a part of a great, strong German empire, rather than to persevere in the unsuccessful attempt to turn unwilling Slavs into Germans.

Then there would have been no war, — no great war. In Eastern Europe the Hungarians and the Slavs might be blowing bugles and killing one another, but the Germans would have had nothing to do with it. They would have said, ’It is their affair, let them rule themselves. Our work is to raise the best Germans for the future. And we have some military work to do in North Africa.’

Then Germany would have become really great. Other nations would have cut down their armament as she cut down hers, and the Peace of Europe would have prevailed. Belgium would not have been violated. And all about the East, both far and near, German merchants and German ships would have been welcome, and her thousands and thousands of young men, the flower of her youth now rotting in unmarked graves with grief as their only legacy, would have begotten their kind, and a new and great race of people would have arisen to enjoy the good will of the world. Now the cowards and the inefficient and the weak will beget the next generation — after their kind.

All this might have been, for the Germans are very amenable to suggestion from their rulers. It might have come to pass if, under the imperial crown, there had been as much philosophy and welcome to the truth as there were dreams of prancing horses and waving plumes and the smoke of battle.