John Burroughs, Litt.D., a well-known American naturalist who has published a long list of works, may be called the " Richard Jefferies " of America. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a leading authority on Walt Whitman, and a poet of no mean order ; he was in the service of the United States Government for about twenty years. His opinion, as expressed below, appeared in the " New York Tribune ":

    The events upon which we judge Germany stand out so that he who runs may read. They are written large in fire and blood across the face of a kingdom. They are written in the burned cities, in demolished cathedrals, in consumed libraries, in piratical indemnities, in aerial bombardment of defenceless women and children, and in the insolent and overweening spirit of domination that attends it all.

    Do we need to know all the antecedents of these events-all the diplomatic or political history that led up to them ? We draw our conclusions from the events themselves. The facts are patent to all, namely, that Germany agreed to back Austria up in making demands upon Serbia that would have destroyed the latter's autonomy, and that Germany knew her course would precipitate a general European war. Then there lies Belgium-starving, homeless, bleeding Belgium-whose only sin was that she was a small kingdom and lay in the path of the German hosts. Belgium, who had never taken any part in war but the defensive part since Caesar's time ; Belgium, one of the most peaceful and thrifty and humane nations in the world.

    Do we need to know all the secret histories, all the diplomatic and political chicanery of the times, to judge of these events ? Certain of the antecedent factors and conditions are patent to all, one of these being the growing feeling of distrust and rivalry that sprang from the conflict of commercial interests ; another, race antagonism, with the survival of ancient feuds. But the chief factor was the growing military spirit of Pan-Germanism which begat the enormous armaments, built the military railways, and perfected the terrible war machine which has at last been ditched in Belgium and in Northern France.

    Belgium's wrongs and Germany's crimes are present-day facts, and the lapse of time can never make them less. Time will soften or blur the harshness and the terrible reality of these events, but the murder and spoliation of this admirable and peaceful little State, just because she was little, will ever remain one of the blackest pages of modern history. No plea of dire necessity, no conjuring with right and wrong, can palliate the crime. When the impartial history of the war comes to be written, the blood and famine of this neutral and peaceful people will strike through and through its pages like some indelible and infernal stain. No matter what excuse Germany had for making war upon France, she had not the shadow of an excuse for destroying or seeking to destroy Belgium. Belgium's offence was the offence of a man who resists the passage of an assassin through his house seeking a short cut to the house of his neighbour.

    Germany was bent on assassinating her neighbour and plundering her treasury, and we know why she wanted to do it quickly; but her fear of Russia, whom she had defied, and the tramp of whose gathering hosts were in her ear, does not make her crime any the less.

    In what respect does the conduct of the German army differ for the better from that of the highwayman or the robber baron, who murders or overpowers his victim and then takes or demands his treasures ? The money penalties which Germany has demanded of prostrate Belgium and the destruction that has strewn her path place her acts on a level with the murder and pillage of a band of common outlaws.

    The Germans, echoing the Kaiser, unanimously declare that they did not want the tear, that it was forced upon them, etc. If they could blot out the evidence of their long and exhaustive preparation for war, if they could prove to us that they had turned a deaf ear to the teachings and preaching of their prophets of war, or if we could believe that such men as Bernhardi and Treitschke were not a legitimate outgrowth of the national spirit, if they could show us that such a work as Professor Usher's " Pan-Germanism " was pure fiction, that it rested on no historical foundation, that Germany has not been cherishing the dream of world-empire during the reign of the Kaiser, and studying the problem from every point of view ; that her prodigious increase of armaments of late years was only an offering upon the altar of the goddess of peace ; that the military burden which her people so cheerfully took on was only a discipline in self-sacrifice, or that all those things were only to put " the fighting edge " upon German Kultur and keep it whetted against an invasion by her neighbours- if the advocates or apologists of the Kaiser could satisfy our minds upon these points, we would gladly welcome the proof. But the proof does not come. Her spokesmen slur over these points. They urge her need of expansion ; they throw in our faces her immense superiority to all other nations ; they stand upon her Kultur and challenge the whole world to dispute her Divine right to do what she pleases.

    We have seen mild outbursts of Anglophobia in this country, but never before has the world witnessed the distemper plunging its victim into such frothing and convulsive fury as Germany shows to-day. That dash of the German navy upon the coast of England was like an outburst of uncontrollable hatred and thirst for destruction. It was not the Germany we know in the peaceful walks of life ; it was the Germany drunk with the spirit of war in its worst form. It indicates a reversal to the spirit of primitive savagery which the whole world may well stand in dread of. The destruction of a battleship is legitimate warfare, but the murder of women and children in unfortified towns is the debauchery of war.

    The total destruction of London with all its population by the Zeppelin airships would be in accord with the present temper of the Kaiser's army and navy. They are out to win, to dominate Europe by military might, and no considerations of humanity or of the rights of non-belligerents will for a moment stand in the way.

    Let me add that in the present crisis this country should be very forbearing with the course of Great Britain on the high seas. England has everything at stake, and she is fighting our battles for us. We have nothing at stake but the big profits of some of our monopolies-our oil kings and copper kings-and we know that, by hook or crook, they will manage to survive.



End of Opinion 11

 

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JOHN BURROUGHS