J 65
Peril of
ssianism
Dougks Wilson Johnson
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The Peril of Prusslanism
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The
Peril of Prussianism
By
Douglas Wilson Johnson
Associate Professor of Physiography in
Columbia University
> >
1 ■« •
••.•. :*. !.
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
^bc IRnlcfter&ocftcr press
1917
CoFYRIGHT, I917
BY
DOUGLAS WILSON JOHNSON
Ubc "Rnfcfterbocfter pvtse^ t\cw Ifforft
FOREWORD
HTHE following pages contain the sub-
stance of an address delivered by
the writer before the annual convention
of the Iowa Bankers Association at Des
Moines on June 14, 1917. A request
from the bankers of one section of the
State that the address be printed in
German for circulation among the large
German-bom population of their dis-
trict, together with a nimiber of enquiries
for copies of the English text, have
tempted me to believe that some good
piu-pose might be served by publishing
the address in its present form.
However opinions may have differed
in the past as to our duty in the world
crisis, there can be no two opinions re-
iii
3085^
iv Foreword
garding our duty to-day. America has
decided that splendid isolation is no
longer possible in a world rendered won-
drous small by the swift steamship and
express train, the telegraph and tele-
phone, the cable and wireless telegraphy.
We are our brothers' keeper, and have
entered on a policy of international co-
operation, first to compel a just peace,
and then to preserve it undisturbed from
future assaults by autocratic militarism.
We have pledged our faith and must
fight a good fight to make the world safe
for democracy. Every otmce of the
national strength must be brought to
bear, every man in the whole coimtry
must render loyal, devoted service. The
Stars and Stripes have never yet been un-
furled in a lost cause. They must not
now go down to defeat.
The only assurance of success lies in
the imswerving devotion of our whole
Foreword v
people to a cause they believe sacred.
It is imperative therefore that the issues
of the present war be made clear to every
citizen. Americans will not support with
enthusiasm a cause they do not imder-
stand, nor shed their blood with un-
measured generosity to achieve ends they
cannot see. If the following pages help
a few among'my fellow-citizens to measure
the magnitude of the cause we serve,
they will not have been written In vain.
Douglas W. Johnson.
New York, July i, 19 17.
CONTENTS
I. — Two Ideals of Government
^11. — The Inescapable Conflict
III. — Growth of Prussianism .
IV. — The Mailed Fist at Work
V. — ^A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
VI. — Tt^^o Sides of a Shield .
VII. — The Divine Right of the State 43
VIII. — The Issue .... 49
17
19
25
32
vu
The Peril of Prusslanism
TWO IDEALS OF GOVERNMENT
nPHERE exist in the world two funda-
mentally Opposed ideals of govern-
ment. One is based on the conception
that the government is the servant of
its citizens and exists for their benefit.
According to this conception the divine
right of the individual to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness must be
conserved, and the most successful govern-
ment is the one which most effectively
promotes the free development of its
citizens. The growth of this ideal of
2 The Peril of Prussianism
government ean be traced through the
whole history of the Anglo-Saxon race,
but first reached Its full fruition In the
American Declaration of Independence.
Because of the supreme faith of our
forefathers In dedicating their lives, their
fortunes, and their sacred honor to the
maintenance of this ideal In the New
World, Canada and the other English
colonies to-day enjoy a freedom which
would not otherwise be theirs. The loss
of her American colonies taught England
the fearful cost of obstructing man's
aspirations for true self-government, with
the result that both in her colonies and
at home the growth of democratic ideals
has seldom been seriously checked.
France lit her torch of freedom at the
American altar, and in Russia when the
bureaucrats would denoimce Milyukof
for his democratic aspirations they hurl
at him the epithet ^^ '^American." It
Two Ideals of Government 3
will not appear unseemly, therefore, to
call the ideal of government just described
"The American ideal.'* In a peculiar
degree America has long stood before
the world as its champion and defender.
The second ideal of government is
diametrically opposed to the first. It is
based on the conception that the individ-
ual is the servant of the government and
exists for the benefit of the government.
According to this ideal, the State is
everything, the individual nothing. The
perfect government is one which so
disciplines its citizens that they render
absolute and unquestioning obedience
to every order of the State, performing
with machine-like precision the tasks as-
signed to them. Organized efficiency
and team work replace the imcoordinated
and ineffectual efforts of individuals
which forever clog the clumsy mechanism
of democracy. Individual liberty is per-
4 The Peril of Prussianism
mitted only where it does not interfere
with the good of the State, and it is the
State, not the citizen, which decides
where the line shall be drawn. This
ideal of government was more than once
introduced into England, but has never
seemed to thrive among Anglo-Saxon
peoples. France suffered it for a space,
then permanently rejected it. Russia
endured it with ever increasing protest,
and after long years of bitter struggle and
threatening revolution has at last tram-
pled it under foot. But among Teutonic
peoples it has thriven amazingly. Its
supreme development is boimd up with
the history of Prussia, and reaches its
most perfect manifestation in the modern
state of Prussianized Germany. As Pro-
fessor Munsterberg has truly said, "In
the German view the State is not for the
individuals, but the individuals for the
State.'* Both Kaiser and people unite
Two Ideals of Government 5
in presenting to the world the most
efficient example of a government pater-
nally solicitous for the material welfare
of its citizens, docilely served by a dis-
ciplined people rendering iinquestioning
obedience to the commands of their
sovereign. Assuredly this second ideal of
government is preeminently the Prussian
ideal.
II
THE INESCAPABLE CONFLICT
LJ AVING placed in contrast the Ameri-
can ideal and the Prussian ideal of
government, let us next consider this
all-important fact: The two ideals are
mutually antagonistic, and cannot long
exist in the world side hy side. This
statement may on first thought seem
extreme. One may ask, *' Cannot every
nation select that one of the two ideals
of government which it prefers, leaving
every other nation in peace to do the
same? Is there not room enough in the
world for the peaceful development of
both ideals?** The answer is in the
negative, and for this reason: The Prus-
6
The Inescapable Conflict 7
sian ideal denies one of the primitive
instincts of mankind, the instinct of indi-
vidual freedom and personal sovereignty.
From the beginning, man has rebelled
against slavery, whether the enslaving
power be beneficent or brutal. An in-
efficient government of his own creation
is more tolerable to him than the most
efficient control imposed by another. A
people enjoying unwonted prosperity may
for a time docilely submit to the hand
which feeds them; but sooner or later
the instinct of freedom will assert itself
and the people grow restless. Especially
is this true where the people enslaved by
an autocratic government are surroimded
by freemen who govern themselves.
Liberty is an inevitable, imconscious
proselyter.
There remains to the autocratic govern-
ment but one procedure. It must offer
to its subjects compensation for their
8 The Peril of Prussianism
slavery, and destroy the proselyting
influence which surrounds them. Both
are accomplished at one stroke by military
conquest. Just as freemen will undergo
stern military discipline for the sake of
victory, so a subject people will submit
to a ruler who assures them military
glory and the privilege of triumphing over
their neighbors. Autocracy and aggres-
sive militarism are inextricably bound
together. Through militarism autocracy
must conquer the world, or from a peace-
ful penetration of the ideals of liberty
it will suffer decay.
No one imderstands this truth more
clearly than does the autocratic govern-
ment of Germany. Its motto, "World
power or downfall,'' is not the silly ranting
of a wild extremist, but a brutally frank
statement of a profoimd truth. The
German government's oft-repeated asser-
tion that it is fighting a defensive warfare
The Inescapable Conflict 9
should not be pushed aside as an Idle
falsehood. The tide of popular discon-
tent with autocracy was beginning to
rise in Germany, and the autocratic
government's most effective defence was
a war which should imlte the people once
more In loyal subjection. Prior to July,
1 9 14, the German papers were publicly
ridiculing the Kaiser's pompous assertion
of his divine right to rule, and were In-
dignantly denoimcing his angry threat
to tear the Constitution of Alsace in
shreds and annex the imhappy province
to Prussia; representatives of the people
In increasing nimibers were refusing to
vote the government's burdensome war
taxes and were protesting against the
exaltation of military above civil author-
ity. A month later, the entire nation
was enthusiastically acclaiming the war
lord whose victorious legions were sweep-
ing across Belglimi to carry German
10 The Peril of Prussianism
dominion to the shores of the English
Channel. Never was the Hohenzollern
dynasty more securely in the saddle than
during the many months when flag-
bedecked Germany was celebrating her
victories on every front. An offensive
warfare against Germany's neighbors had
proven the best defensive warfare for
Germany's government.
<u
Ill
GROWTH OF PRUSSIANISM
T^HE historical development of the
'â– â– Prussian ideal of government shows
Prussia's realization of the fact that
nothing save the most aggressive ex-
ploitation of that ideal would prevent its
ultimate extinction. Some time before
the discovery of America by Columbus,
there appeared on the world stage an
imimportant house by the name of Hohen-
zollem which ruled over a small tract of
country surrounding the little town of
Berlin (see map, Figure i). Successive
rulers of this line added to their holdings
by conquering neighboring lands, until
the scattered domains tmder Prussian
II
12 The Peril of Prussianism
control stretched from the banks of
the Rhine eastward beyond the Vistula.
In 1640, there came to the throne one of
the most famous among the early expon-
ents of the Prussian ideal of government,
Frederick William, the Great Elector.
He is described as ''coarse by nature,
heartless in destroying opponents, treach-
erous in diplomatic negotiations, and
entirely devoid of refinement.'' Fully
realizing that the Prussian theory of
government could live only by perpetuat-
ing and extending the policy of conquest
successfully pursued by his Hohenzollern
ancestors, he organized, against the pro-
tests of his subjects, an enormous stand-
ing army, the beginning of the modern
Prussian military machine.
It would not be profitable to trace in
detail the particular part played by
each Hohenzollern ruler in exploiting the
Prussian ideal of government. It is the
Growth of Prussianism 13
proud boast of the Hohenzollern dynasty
that ahnost every one of its members has
in peace or in war added something to
the extent of Prussian dominions. The
rough and boorish Frederick WilHam I.
scoured all Europe in search of tall men
for his armies, selling the royal jewels
and turning the family table silver into
money to defray the cost of building up
an invincible military machine for further
conquest. His son and successor dis-
liked military pursuits, preferring the
company of music and books. But he,
too, realized on ascending the throne that
the Prussian ideal of government could
not endure apart from a policy of aggres-
sive militarism, and skillfully employing
the military machine painstakingly per-
fected by his thrifty father, he became
the all-powerful Frederick the Great, one
of the most renowned military geniuses
of history. Silesia was brutally wrenched
14 The Peril of Prussianism
from the helpless young Empress of
Austria without the pretense of an excuse,
and the shameful partition of Poland
was successfully begun. Militarism ap-
proximately doubled the size of Prussia
in the lifetime of this one man (see
Figures 2 and 3).
The time soon came when the normal
growth of the Prussian ideal of govern-
ment demanded the extension of Prussian
influence on an enormous scale. Thus
far the Hohenzollern dominion had risen
by successive acquisitions from a small
province siuroimding Berlin to a Euro-
pean power (Figure 4). It must next
ascend to the position of a world power.
To accomplish this two things were
essential. Austria had long been a power-
ful rival of Prussia in the struggle for
dominant influence among the smaller
German states. Since the absorption of
Austria was not yet possible, her influence
Growth of Prussianism 15
must be destroyed by military defeat.
With Austria eliminated, Prussian domi-
nation over the remaining German states
must be consolidated, to the end that a
great Germanic power, pledged to the
support of Hohenzollernism and the
Prussian ideal of government, should
arise in the world. Two remarkable men
undertook this colossal task. William
I. of Prussia, grandfather of the present
Kaiser, bent all his energies to developing
the military resources of his kingdom,
while Bismarck proceeded to apply his
policy of blood and iron. In defiance of
the Prussian parliament which ref used to
vote taxes for a great army, in defiance
of the constitution which guaranteed
to the parliament control over taxes, and
in defiance of the voice of the people as
expressed in the public press, the military
machine was enormously strengthened.
William I. and the Iron Chancellor knew
i6 The Peril of Prussianism
that all crimes against the people's
liberty would be forgotten when a war
of conquest had been successfully con-
cluded.
In the course of a few months, the Dan-
ish provinces of Schleswig and Holstein
were conquered and annexed to Prussia,
Austria was overwhelmingly defeated
and her influence destroyed, and a num-
ber of the independent north German
states which sided with Austria were
brought under Prussian control. Soon
after, the south German states were
brought into the Prussian union for a new
war of conquest, Alsace-Lorraine and a
huge indemnity were extracted from
prostrate France, and the Hohenzollern
king of Prussia became the autocratic
ruler of a great world power, the modem
jGerman Empire (Figure 5). The Prus-
sian ideal of government was now
firmly established among a great peo-
Growth of Prussianism 17
pie pledged to a policy of aggressive
militarism.
It is well for us to review these salient
facts of Prussian history, lest we forget
that from the earliest time the house of
Hohenzollem has efficiently and con-
sistently pursued a single policy which
inevitably involves the maintenance of a
great military machine and the periodic
employment of that machine in ever-
enlarging conquests of neighboring terri-
tory. He is blind indeed who would
imagine that, after ptusuing a given
policy for five himdred years with pheno-
menal success, the Prussian Government
should to-day suddenly abandon that
policy in favor of another which it truth-
fully admits would lead to the downfall
of__a_^^painstakingly reared, autocracy.
Both the nature of the Prussian ideal of
government and the facts of Prussian
history assure us that Germany is to-day,
1 8 The Peril of Prussianism
as she has ever been in the past, strug-
gling for world domination in order to
prevent the downfall of the autocratic
HohenzoUern rule.
IV
THE MAILED FIST AT WORK
pORTUNATELY for our clearness of
vision, Germany's plans for her
next step toward the goal of world domi-
nation are too plain to be doubted. They
are precisely what Prussian history would
lead us to expect. A petty HohenzoUem
province first dominates Prussia, Prussia
then dominates Germany, and now the
plans provide that Germany shall domi-
nate Etirope. The method of achieving
the desired end is precisely the same with
which history has made us so familiar.
Adjacent territories are to be brought
imder HohenzoUem rule by the annexa-
tion of some and the federation of others
19
20 The Peril of Prussianism
into a great Central European Empire,
with Germany the directing force and
the Prussian military machine the in-
vincible bond which holds them to-
gether. Let us lift the curtain for a
moment and watch the mailed fist as it
moves the pieces on the European chess-
board in preparation for the coup of 19 14.
We see the evil hand in Vienna, shap-
ing the policy of the Dual Monarchy and
gaining that ascendency over its affairs
which has reduced Austria-Hungary to
a state of vassalage. We observe Italy
bound in unholy alliance with the historic
enemy of Italian freedom. We realize
that it is the mailed fist acting through CU>-^^
Austria in the seizure of Bosnia and (Jlsa-.%ji^
Herzegovina In flagrant violation of treaty
pledges. We behold the Prussian war ^j^
lord appear "in shining armor*' beside
his obedient Austrian vassal to threaten
Russia when she protests against this
â– o-
The Mailed Fist at Work 21
injury to her brother Slavs. We see
Servia robbed of her hard-won port on
the Adriatic and Albania erected into a
make-believe kingdom imder Austrian
tutelage ; and we recognize the old, familiar
methods of the HohenzoUern. We find
the mailed fist clasping in fraternal greet-
ing the bloody hand that massacres
the Armenians, the Emperor of Christian
Germany becoming a brother to the un-
speakable Turk, training and officering
his armies, and securing from him con-
cessions for the future Berlin to Bagdad
railway. We see puppet HohenzoUern csl<l^ ^
kings placed on the thrones of Bulgaria ^^-*Sk^J^
and Roimiania, and King Constantine of
Greece married to the Kaiser's sister.
We watch the meshes of German intrigue
' wound about the Russian Government,
and the mighty Slav reduced to partial
impotence. By ruthless conquest and by
peaceful penetration, the stage is being
VAX-
22 The Peril of Prussianism
set for the great Central European
Empire, while at home the war lord
prepares for the coming contest by ac-
cimiulating military stores in quantities
which have since astonished the world,
by forcing the passage of a naval bill
destined to make Germany formidable
on sea as well as on land, by enlarging the
Kiel Canal to permit the passage of the
^f-^*"^ largest battleships, by building heavy-
metalled, double-tracked railways along
, ^ e^^^ the borders of Belgiimi and other peaceful
J^^ neighbors, by securing a grant of $250,-
000,000 in special war taxes with which
to raise the army to a peace footing of
700,000 men and a war footing of nearly
t^unilUons^ and by marshalling the voices
of obedient professors and the pens of
servile writers in one vast campaign of
education, designed to poison the German
mind with dreams of Pan-Germanic
power.
The Mailed Fist at Work 23
At last the propitious moment is
arrived, and the mailed fist pulls the
strings. Austria approaches Italy with
the proposition, that they unite in the
conquest of Servia; but Italy refuses.
A delay of some months ensues, while
European diplomats struggle to avert
the impending calamity. Then an Aus-
trian prince is murdered in the capital
city of conquered Bosnia. This furnishes
the desired excuse for beginning the long-
planned war. Vienna secretly confers
with Berlin, and at the end of a month of
silence suddenly astoimds the civilized
world by accusing the Servian Govern-
ment of the murder, and submitting ten
demands designed to be so humiliating In
their nature and so Insulting In their tone
as to insure a prompt rejection. But
imfortimately for the Hohenzollem plan
Servia, on the advice of her peaceably
inclined friends, accepts outright eight
24 The Peril of Prussianism
of the unjust demands and agrees to
submit to arbitration the remaining two
which seriously threaten her independ-
ence. This is most disconcerting, but
the plan must not be balked. War is
therefore declared on Servia despite her
hiuniliating surrender, and the mobiliza-
tion of Russia in support of Servia gives
Berlin the pretext for declarations of
war against Russia, France, and Belgiimi.
The work of conquering and consolidat-
ing a great Central Eiuropean Empire
imder Prussian control is now in full
swing according to the most approved
HohenzoUern'methods.
V
A WOLF IN sheep's CLOTHING
TT cannot be denied that as things stand
to-day the plans for a Prussianized
Central Europe have succeeded to a
remarkable degree (see Figure 6). Aus-
tria has come wholly under German
domination, and is dependent upon the
Prussian military machine for her very
existence. Without its help, Serbs and i ^^^^q^
Russians are able to defeat her at will. J^^^tV^^^
Her armies are but tools in the hands of ^r~<r\j^x^^
German higher officers, while her political
administration is dominated by Berlin.
Eager for peace to-day, she dares not ask
for it till the Kaiser has given the word.
Said an Austrian army officer, who had
25
1 ^
26 The Peril of Prussianism
fought through the Galician campaign:
**Our worst enemy is not Russia but the
Prussian Government. If the war is
won by the Germans there will be no
Austria/* To an even greater degree/
Bulgaria and Turkey have become vassals
of the Hohenzollern state, taking their
orders direct from Berlin. German
troops in Constantinople and German
warships in the harbor hold the govern-
ment of the Turk in abject servitude.
The control of two thirds of Roimiania
has passed into German hands, the death
of Germany's hand-picked puppet king
having made forcible conquest necessary.
Serbia has been destroyed and the main
artery of the new Empire, the great
Berlin to Bagdad route, is completely
imder German control to within a few
miles of the Orient city. William II.
began this war as the ruler of 6S million
souls. To-day he is the supreme war
A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing 27
lord of an empire of 176 millions, stra-
tegically located in the center of Eiirope.
As Cheradame truly says: ''This is the
brutal, overwhelming fact which Ameri-
cans must face if they wish to learn the
sole solution of the war which will assure
to them, as well as to the rest of the
world, a durable peace.''
Realizing the vast extent of her suc-
cess, and fearful that further warfare
may lead to its imdoing, Germany is
to-day frantically working for peace ''on
very moderate terms '' ; even, if necessary,
"without annexations or indemnities/'
With the war beginning to go against
her, she is generously willing to surrender
(for the present) all the lands conquered