Five months ago, it may be remembered, I gave an interview, in which I praised Germany and in which I took the part of the German people in the dreadful war that had come.
"But I have changed my mind. I have seen that I was mistaken. Several months ago I gave instructions to my lecture bureau to withdraw my lecture, "The New Germany," from my list. That was about the middle of September, and it was only then that I realized what a German success would mean to the world--how there could be nothing else but a world of armed camps, how we in this country, too, would have to adopt militarism in order to live.
"Just prior to that time, in the first of my Sunday evening sermons in this course, I had praised the Kaiser. I believed in the German ideals, I believed in German progress, German inventions, German principles. But I was wrong. I have now become convinced of what I never imagined before--that in the German viewpoint the only sin against the Holy Ghost is military impotency, and, to use Treitschke"s words again, the only virtue is militarism."
The pastor of Plymouth uttered this attack upon Germany with a scornfulness which the printed word can hardly indicate. He was as strongly against Germany--more strongly against Germany now than he had before been in favor of Germany, he said. It was a position, he said, to which everybody in the United States was turning, and it was inevitable that Germany should find the world against her.
In his frank avowal of his position regarding Germany and the Kaiser, Dr. Hillis admitted, too, that his sermon last night had contained more than appeared on the surface. When he stated in the sermon that no man or ruler should ever adopt the view of the peasant and the cave man, and try to make the Eternal G.o.d a tribal G.o.d, he had the Kaiser in mind, said Dr. Hillis. The sermon is published in full in today"s sermon pages of The Eagle.
In addition, Dr. Hillis said that while he believed that his sermon could not be considered in any way a violation of President Wilson"s appeal for neutrality, yet, indirectly, the pa.s.sages to which exception had been taken could be rightly construed as an attack upon Germany and the Kaiser.
"You believe that it is right for a minister to use the pulpit to express his own views upon a subject like this?" was asked.
"I do not believe that it is right for a minister to air his peculiar political views upon any subject--personal, social, or economic,"
answered Dr. Hillis, emphatically. "The church is a conservatory where a warm, genial atmosphere should be created. My conception of the work of a minister is that he is to create an atmosphere in the church on Sunday so that the Republican with the tariff, the Democrat who believes in free trade, and the Single Taxer can all grow and express their judgment during the week.
"The sun and the Summer shine for all kinds of seeds and roots, and the minister and the church should create an atmosphere in which all temperaments and races and faiths can grow. It is quite true that there were some of my German friends and members who rather protested against my view last night. But they had the same right and liberty to protest that I have. A German physician told me plainly that he thought that within six months I would change my view, and with the new light go over to the position of his native land, and even thought that I might retract all my studies, that are apparently prejudiced in favor of the republic and self-government and the liberty of the press. Well, if I do change my views and am converted to his viewpoint, I certainly will retract my statements. But I think this improbable. The task of converting me should be let out as a Government contract--in piecemeal."
Dr. Hillis was reminded here that a number of people were said to have left the church last night in the course of his sermon as a sign of protest against the expression of his views. Asked if it were true, Dr.
Hillis answered:
"I did not see many leave," and then declared that it was impossible to imagine that war should not be discussed in the churches as it was being discussed everywhere else. He continued with the a.s.sertion that he believed it was his duty as the minister of Plymouth Church to say what he had, and then made this a.s.sertion with a vehemence that was almost startling:
"Whenever the time comes that I have to add G.o.d and the devil together and divide by two in the name of neutrality, I"ll withdraw. I"m not going to sacrifice my manhood for what some people call neutrality."
It was on this score that Dr. Hillis came out with his unequivocal declaration that he was against Germany and against the Kaiser. He a.s.serted that the viewpoint of the German people would have to be changed if they were to take the place in the world he had thought their due, five months ago, and he stated there could be no doubt but that the war was occasioned by Germany"s l.u.s.t for power--political, industrial, economic.
"I believe that the real issue of this war is largely industrial,"
continued Dr. Hillis. "It is an industrial war and not a political war.
Some days ago I said that the real fight between Germany and the nations opposed to her was a fight for the possession of the iron fields recently discovered in Northern France. That statement regarding Germany"s iron deposits and the whole economic situation has been challenged.
"Instead of modifying my position, I wish to reaffirm it. This is an age of steel. Without hemat.i.te iron deposits Germany cannot build her steamships, her cannon, her railways, her factories. German engineers have been saying for five years that another five years will exhaust her present iron supply. On Page 221 of the volume "Problems of Power," the author says that within a generation 20,000,000 of Germany"s people will have to leave their native land. The pressure of iron and the call of steel led to Germany"s development of the Morocco situation, where there are valuable iron mines. A short time ago French engineers discovered the largest and richest body of iron ore in Europe. Fullerton, in his book on the subject, expresses the judgment that one province has enough hemat.i.te iron ore to last Europe for the next 150 years.
"This diplomat and author said plainly two years ago, in one of his review articles, that Germany would go to war to obtain the iron deposits in Northern France, and that if she loses the war, she will fall behind in the manufacturing race, and that the French bankers and French engineers will make France the great manufacturing force and the richest people in Europe. The Napoleonic wars were wars between political ideas. The collision was between autocracy and bureaucracy and French democracy and radicalism. The new antagonism grows out of economic conditions. Germany wants to supersede England upon the seas, and Germany wants the iron mines of France, and this is the whole situation in a nutsh.e.l.l.
"No, I am not sinning against the law of neutrality. I am trying to freshen the old American ideals of self-government for the young men and women in Plymouth Church. If the whole-hearted support of America"s free inst.i.tutions involves indirectly a dissent from imperialism and militarism, I am not responsible. I admit there is a necessary condemnation of autocracy involved in the mere publication of the Declaration of Independence. Ours is a Government of laws and not of men, and I have been discussing the principles of self-government and not rulers who represent imperialism.
"Neutrality does not mean the wiping out of conviction. There are some men who think that neutrality means adding G.o.d and the devil together and dividing by two. And there are some statesmen who seem to think that neutrality means adding together autocracy and democracy, and halving the result. I do not share that view. I believe it is the first duty of the German-American and the native-born American to uphold the fundamental principles of self-government, and of an industrial civilization as opposed to a military machine, and if this means protest and criticism, then that protest must be accepted."
TIPPERARY.
By JOHN B. KENNEDY.
(At the other end of the long, long road.)
Who is it stands at the full o" the door?
Mary O"Fay, Mother O"Fay.
An" what is she watching an" waiting for?
Och, none but her soul can say.
There"s a list in the Post Office long an" black, With tidings bad, and woeful sad; The names of the boys who"ll ne"er come back, An" one is her darling lad.
We showed her the list; but she cannot read, So we told her true, yes, we told her true.
Her old eyes stared till they"d almost bleed, An" she swore that none of us knew.
She"s waiting now for Father O"Toole, Till he goes her way at the noon of day.
She"s simperin" white--the poor old fool, For she knows what the priest"ll say.
Who is it sprawls upon the sod At the break o" day? It"s Mickey O"Fay; His eyes glare up to the walls of G.o.d, And half of his head is blown away.
What is he doing in that strange place, Torn and shred, and murdered dead?
He"s singin" the psalm of the fighting race As his soul soars wide o"erhead.
He killed three foemen before he fell (Och, the toll he"d take and the skulls he"d break!) And he shrieked like a soul escaped from h.e.l.l As he died for the Sa.s.senach"s sake.
Who shall we blame for the awful thing-- For the blood that flows and the heart-wrung throes?
Kaiser or Czar; statesman or King?
Och, leave it to Him Who Knows!
As America Sees the War
By Harold Begbie.
I.
_In order to determine how American public opinion concerning the war is running, The London Daily Chronicle sent Mr. Begbie to this country. The two articles printed below appeared in The Chronicle_.
Every day of my sojourn in this country deepens the desire in my mind to see an increasing unity of understanding between America and England. I feel that the audacity of America, its pa.s.sion for the Right Thing, and its impatience with the spirit of muddling through are the finest incentives for modern England, England at this dawn of her political renascence. I feel, too, as Americans themselves most willingly acknowledge, that Great Britain has something to give to America out of the ancient treasury of her domestic experience. Finally, I like Americans so heartily that I want to be the best of friends with them.
But it was only last night in this old and mighty city of Philadelphia that the greatest of reasons for an alliance was brought sharply home to my mind. I had thought, loosely enough, that since we speak the same language, share many of the same traditions, and equally desire peace for the prosperity of our trade, surely some alliance between us was natural, and with a little effort might be made inevitable. The deeper, more political, and far grander reason for this comradeship between the two nations had never definitely shaped itself to my consciousness.
Enlightenment came to me in the course of conversation with two thoughtful Philadelphians whose minds are centred on something which transcends patriotism and who work with fine courage and remarkable ability for the triumph of their idea.
One of these men said to me: "You speak of an alliance between England and America; do you mind telling us what you mean by that term alliance?"
I explained that I had no thought in my mind of treaties and tariffs; that the word "alliance" meant nothing more to me than conscious friendship, and that such a disposition between two nations thinking in the same language, speaking and writing the same language, must result, I thought, in an ever-multiplying volume of trade, to the great advantage of both parties.
Thinks Little of Blood Ties.