The Germs of War/Chapter 4
4. Treasonable Lying and War.
Before human nature can be sufficiently embittered and terrified to produce war between great nations, someone must do a great deal of missionary work. The people must be prepared for war. They must be appealed to, stirred up, exasperated, enraged, infuriated.
A thorough-going war spirit can be extracted from life only after years of steeping and simmering. Children are taught to hate. In their games they slaughter their foes—by name. Then school books teach them to hate, by distorting the facts of history, and by misrepresenting their enemies. Their military drill and patriotic appeals teach them to hate, by making them believe that their country is the greatest, strongest country on earth, and their enemies' country is the weakest and meanest. Their churches teach them to hate by telling them that God is on their side, while their enemies are in league with the devil.
Thus steeped and schooled in hate, enthusiastic, patriotic and ignorant, they go out to wage war against oppression in the name of liberty.
The idea is splendidly developed in the following lines written by W. N. Ewer for the London "Nation":
FIVE SOULS
First Soul
I was a peasant of the Polish plain;
I left my plow because the message ran:
Russia, in danger, needed every man
To save her from the Teuton; and was slain.
I gave my life for freedom—This I know;
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
Second Soul
I was a Tyrolese, a mountaineer:
I gladly left my mountain home to fight
Against the brutal, treacherous Muscovite;
And died in Poland on a Cossack spear.
I gave my life for freedom—This I know;
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
Third Soul
I worked in Lyons at my weaver's loom,
When suddenly the Prussian despot hurled
His felon blow at France and at the world;
Then I went forth to Belgium and my doom.
I gave my life for freedom—This I know;
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
Fourth Soul
I owned a vineyard by the wooded Main,
Until the Fatherland, begirt by foes
Lusting her downfall, called me, and I rose
Swift to the call—and died in fair Lorraine.
I gave my life for freedom—This I know;
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
Fifth Soul
I worked in a great shipyard by the Clyde;
There came a sudden word of wars declared,
Of Belgium, peaceful, helpless, unprepared,
Asking our aid; I joined the ranks, and died.
I gave my life for freedom—This I know;
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
The United States is now in the midst of a campaign of misrepresentation, the like of which has never before been undertaken in the history of the country. For years, the American reading public has been treated to a flood of systematic lying about Mexico. So serious did the situation become that the President of the United States was finally forced to issue a warning which was printed in the papers of March 26, 1916. Among other things the President charged the great vested interests with a deliberate attempt to start a war with Mexico by circulating false news through this country. He said, "The object of this traffic in falsehood is obvious. It is to create intolerable friction between the government of the United States and the de facto government of Mexico for the purpose of bringing about intervention in the interests of certain American owners of Mexican properties."
By way of further emphasis, the President added, "The people of the United States should know the sinister and unscrupulous influences that are afoot, and should be on their guard against crediting any story coming from the border, and those who disseminate the news should make it a matter of patriotism and of conscience to test the source and authenticity of every report they receive from that quarter."
Here is a deliberate statement made by the highest official in the United States, that certain of the great vested interests are trying to stir up a war between the United States and Mexico, in order to safeguard their properties and increase their profits.
The New York Times comments on the President's statement in a way that indicates that the President would have been justified in issuing his warning at any time within the past six years.
"It is well known," says the Times on Sunday, March 26, 1916, "that false reports about the hostility of Mexicans to the American troops of the punitive expedition have been freely circulated. Southern Texas has contained many agencies for the spreading of reports calculated to involve the United States in difficulties with Mexico since the very beginning of the Madero revolution in 1910, and the methods of the interventionists have been perfectly well known to our government and the American newspapers."
If the Times is correct, and as one of the leading papers of the country it is in a position to speak with authority, there have been six years of deliberate effort to start a war between two peaceful countries, for the purpose of making certain American investments in Mexico "pay."
Here is a group of dynamiters who are trying to wreck, not buildings, but nations. Who can forget the wave of frenzied criticism that swept over the United States when the McNamara brothers were tried? They had destroyed life and property! To the gallows with them! Since the President spoke his warning against this group of buccaneers who are seeking to embroil two nations that do not want war, there has been only a feeble suggestion, in the daily and weekly press, that an investigation be made, that the offenders be discovered, tried for treason, and made to suffer the penalty of their misdeeds.
Compare this journalistic indifference to a monstrous crime, with the attitude of the papers toward preparedness. With a few creditable exceptions, the newspapers of the country, during the past year and a half, have come out strong for preparedness, and have deliberately suppressed news of every description that bore on the other side of the question. It is enlightening to have a managing editor say to a committee of citizens interested in offsetting the wave of preparedness hysteria,—"We are not here to print your side of the case. We are for preparedness. If you want space for your side buy it."
Here are strange doings! The President contenting himself with a warning against treasonable acts. The press of a great country solid on one side of an issue of the most momentous consequence to the future of the country, and frankly refusing to print even the news on the other side. Why are some people anxious to bring on Mexican Intervention? Why is the American Press for preparedness and pro-Ally?