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The Commoner
VOL. 1?, JfO. 11
10
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What America is Fighting For
By Lord Northcllffo, head of tho
BritiBh War Mission, in Current
Opinion.
TJiero are many delusions about
tho upheaval of tho world which has
' been causing the solid ground to
quake in Europe, Asia and Africa for
throe years past, and ivhich has now
begun to mako this continent feel its
disquioting tremors. Tho German
people have been purposely doludod
into tho belief that they are defend
ing themselves against foes who are
sot upon crushing them out of exist
ence, a design which nobody but a
lunatic would ' conceive or imagine
possible of execution. Austria fan
cies that she went to war to defend
herself agi'.inst Russia, the truth be
ing that she was used as a cat's-paw
by tho Hohenzollern gang. Bulgaria
is still undcff tho delusion that she
will gain the reward promised her by
Prussian Jun":erdom for her treach
ery to her fellpw-Slavs.
Even among tho Allies there exist
misconceptions as to the causes and
alms of the struggle. A number of
English people still fancy that Britain
could have kept out of the conflict if
Belgium had not been invaded.
These people are still unable to un
derstand that Prussia's object in
forcing war upon Franco and Russia
was in order to clear them out of the
way and he able to attack England
and, in course of time, the United
States, with a good prospect of suc
cess later on.
In Russia the pro-Prussian propa
gandists have infected many with
the crazy notion that the new re
public has no interests of its own to
defend against Germany, and only
remains in the war for the benefit of
Franco and Britain. I have even
'''heard French people speak as if
their country took up arms for the
purpose of regaining Alsace and Lor
raine, whereas wo know that France
would never have brought upon the
world the frightful calamity of war
for selfish alms.
Hero in tho United States I am told,
and I have discovered proof for my
self, that there are people deluded
by German and pro-German propa
gandists into supposing that "this is
a commercial war."( It is not very
easy to make out exactly what these
people mean by that expression. So
far as I can learn, they suppose that
tho cause of the war was commer
cial rivalry, and that the combatants
are each seeking to obtain control of
the world's markets. They even sug
gest that it was a motive of this kind
which brought the United States in.
Tho argument runs thus:
The big business interests in the
United States were heavily commit
ted by their dealings with the Allies,
and they forced the government of
the United States to step in so that
they might not lose their money.
False Notes Disseminated by Enemies.
I am afraid that some of my read
ers, having read thus far, may lose
patience and throw Current Opinion
down, saying, "What is the use of
taking any notice of such arguments
as that?" I make an appeal to those
who feel that way. I ask them to
Tead on. I suggest to them that it is
better to show up the falsity of no
tions disseminated by enemies than
to let them have the field to them
selvvis. It will bo useful, I am sure,
to examine thiB delusion and to
knork away the props Dn which it
stands.
Prussia's reason for making war-,
wo know. It was not commercial. It
was dynastic. No doubt there were
commercial interests in Germany
which were foolish enough to believe
that they would be benefited. But
the aim of tl ) Hohenzollerns and of
Prussian Junkerdom was to establish
a world-domination. Commerce was
to lend its aid, ut commerce was to
be a means towards the attainment of
the war-party's object, and not an
end in itself. So much is certain.
Equally certain is it that commercial
ambitions had nothing to do with
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Austria-Hungary's roasons for fight
ing, nor with thoao of Turkey and
Bulgaria. They joined with Germany
because Germany alternately threat
ened and cajoled their rulers. The
men who hear the guilt of their suf
ferings and losses are the Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, who was murdered
(many believe with Prussia's con
nivance) after ho had been made use
of; secondly, Enver Pasha; thirdly,
King Ferdinand, the Coburg fox, who
was taken out of his dissolute ob
scurity to be the ool of the real rul
ers of Bulgaria, and who has ended
by celling the country which was
foolish enough to let him dishonor
its throne. These three men have
not, to my knowledge, ever been ac
cused of desiring to improve the com
mercial .positions of their countries
through war. Indeed, their countries
are commercially so unimportant that
the very idea is absurd.
How Russia "Was Goaded Into "War.
Now we come to the Allies. Rus
sia 1s not a commercial country. Al
most all the commerce Bhe possessed
was in German hands for many years
before the war. She was .goaded in
to mobilizing her armies by the at
tempt of Prussia and Austria to es
tablish German influence in the Bal
kans; to insult and injure Russia by
showing that she could not save her
Slav brethren, the Serbs, from being
crushed out of existence as a free na
tion. Nctxt, it would be stupid to
suggest that France made war for
commercial aggrandizement. France
stood by her ally Russia, as she had
hound herself to do by "a scrap of
paper." France is an honorable
country. Her people keep their en
gagements. If France now asks for
the return of Alsace and Lorraine, it
is because she desires a jmarantee
against further Prussian aggression
and because the population are in fa
vor of French instead of German
rule.
This brings us to the British Em
pire. It is at her that fingers are
pointed when there is talk of this be
ing a "commercial war." With what
justification? With none at all. It
is quite true that some classes of
merman commerce had been catching
up with BritiBh commerce. It is quite
true that German competition, very
clever and active competition, had
captured some markets and Beized a
share of others which once were en
tirely in British hands. But in other
directions British trade was advanc
ing by leaps and bounds. No one in
England was ever insane enough 'to
propose that Britian should try to
meet German competition by lighting
Germany.
Why Great Britain "Was Unprepared.
The proposal was made that Britain
should abandon her system of free
trade under which Germans were
able to do business as freely us Brit
ons in any British dominion or de
pendency. But that proposal was
not adopted. What would have been
the good of Britain going to war
with Germany in order to secure
markets? As soon as she had secured
them, they would have been open to
German as freelv as to "RririHh rmri
The German vice-chancellor, Dr.
Helffetrich, has asserted that Great
Britain's ohject was "the economic
oppression of Germany." How could
Britain oppress any nation so long as
she allowed the traders of all nations
to compete with her own traders upon
equal terms?
Further, if Britain had planned a
commercial war. is It likelv that aim
would have heon caught unprepared?
How unprepared sho was all the
world knows. She had her navy, hut
it had been plain for many years (all
the military writers insists nnnn n
that the Germans would keep thtir
fleet in port and would strive to win
vietoriei in ag short a time as pos
sible on land. Yet Britain refused
to form a large army, in spite of tho
knowledge that on land her assist
ance would be essential to prevent
France and Russia from being de
feated, in spite of the plain truth
that after France and Russia had
been defeated, Prussia would attack
Britain, and so dispose separately of
all who stood in the way of a Ho
henzollern domination pf the world.
Britain had no motive for taking
up arms beyond the saving of Bel-
glum and the assertion of the right
of all peoples to develop -freely and
securely as they desiw, except the
motive which led her to fight Philip
of Spain and the Spanish Armada in
the sixteenth century, and that which
made her the leader of the nations in
thp struggle against the attempt of
Napoleon to become the master of
Europe in the early eighteen hun
dreds. She saw that she must fight
for her life, for the security of her
communications, which are the art
eries carrying her life blood. "The
war," Sir Robert Borden said in New
York last wintelr, "has taught us two
things. First, that the liberty, tho
security and the free existence of the
British Empire are dependent upon
the safety of the ocean pathways,
whether in peace or war; next, that
sea-power is th,e most powerful in
strument by which world-domination
can be effectually crushed."
"A Pistol at the Heart of England."
The peoples of the British Empire
did not want war. They had nothing
to gain from war. They were threat
ened. They were attacked. Whether
Prussia had invaded Belgium or not,
Britain would have "been ohliged to
fight in self-defence. It was not
Brussels that the Germans wanted
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