Title: Present status and prospects of the Peace Movement
Author: Süttner, Bertha von
Language: English
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OF THE PEACE MOVEMENT ***



          PRESENT STATUS AND PROSPECTS OF THE PEACE MOVEMENT.


                    BY BARONESS BERTHA VON SÜTTNER.


Letters of condolence and of cynicism come to my desk in these latter
days in increasing number. There is a note of triumph and of mockery in
one group: “What has become of the famous Peace idea? The South African
war, following immediately upon the close of the Peace Conference at The
Hague, has not yet reached its end, and already the horizon in Eastern
Asia is lurid with the glare of a world-war. Are you convinced now of
the absurdity of your claims, ye dreamers of peace?” Through the second
group runs an undertone of commiseration: “What suffering must have come
to you, honored madame, and to your friends, in seeing your beautiful
illusion shattered. Sad, sad; but thus it is. War is an historic law,
and your ideals are simply—ideals. You will have to reef your sails in
the face of such a storm of facts.”

It is true that a feebly manned boat cannot battle against storm and
surf. But the simile ill fits the effort to establish peace. That is no
boat; it is a rock. The waves may top it with their wrathful spume, but
naught can affect its granite permanence.

Let me set aside metaphor and reply to my correspondents. Let me
endeavor to show them the point of view from which the advocates of
peace regard the present condition of the world, and the nature of the
duties and prospects, the hopes and self-denials to be descried
therefrom.

In the first place, we admit candidly that we have been mistaken; not,
however, in the principles we have enunciated, but in our estimate of
present culture. We had regarded public conscience as being permeated by
a longing for international right and by an abhorrence of despotism to a
greater degree than the facts of the case warrant.

The warlike events that surge about us and threaten us furnish no proof
against the principles of the peace movement. They merely prove that
these principles have not yet entered fully into the conscience of
nations and of their leaders; that the movement is not yet sufficiently
advanced in its spread, its organization, its methods of action, to
verify the hopes fostered by the conference at The Hague for an early
eradication of old, deeply-rooted institutions of brute force. In other
words, we have been mistaken, not in the fundamental statements we have
made, but in the conception that they were more widely accepted than
they have proved to be.

These truths remain: (1.) Culture is synonymous with the repression of
brute force; (2.) Nations are oppressed by their brazen breast-plate,
and, if its weight increases, they will be crushed by it; (3.) Right
relations are as possible between nations as they have gradually been
proven to be between individuals, tribes, boroughs, cities and
provinces; (4.) The abolition of war as a legal institution of human
society, when such abolition is made a matter of principle, will result
in undreamed-of increase of material wealth and moral elevation. All
these truths, and many theories begotten of them, have not lost an iota
of their logical content and of their blessed potentiality from the fact
that foolish humanity, through its most powerful agents, government,
church and press, still emphasizes dogmas opposed to them.

The advocates of peace maintain their principles. Not only so; they do
not rest from their labors; they will not allow the results thus far
obtained to slip from their grasp. The institutions created at The
Hague, despite the resistance of bellicose Powers, are faithfully
guarded by those who helped to create them. The Interparliamentary
Union, now in session at Paris, has assumed the task of popularizing,
developing and executing the Articles of The Hague. Their co-operators
in England continue to protest against the South African war and the
subjugation of the Boers, in spite of the supercilious jingoism of
government and of the hypnosis of the masses. The Social Democrats, the
Ethicists—men of independent tendencies, all of them—lift up warning
voices against the fever of Imperialism in general, and specifically
against the reckless love of adventure which first scents loot and then
seeks revenge in expeditions against a country with four hundred million
peace-loving inhabitants.

To save, to save, to avert universal war—that is the purpose for which
the enemies of war will strive untiringly until the very last moment. If
their strength be insufficient, where shall we place the blame? The
fault is not theirs. It rests with the millions of their contemporaries,
who, though at heart they desire the same result, yet turn away in
contempt or apathy from those who are laboring for it, instead of aiding
these labors by the weight that lies in the consensus of the masses.
With those who ignore, suspect and belittle the work of peace—even in
cases where that work has brought about positive results, where it has
matured practical propositions—instead of co-operating with sincere
workers in their elaborations of these propositions and enforcing them
with opponents—with those must the fault lie.

Great changes come to pass slowly, but in times like the present, when
upheavals are fierce and dangers lie near, it might be hoped that
swifter advances should be made in the conflict between the new and the
old. Just as, immediately before the vote was taken on the Heinze law, a
group of devoted men was formed to oppose that measure, which succeeded
in defeating it, so, in the face of the present conspicuous and
overwhelming manifestation of the principle of brute force, the friends
of right might resolutely band themselves together, and, with shields
upraised, declare a crusade for the liberation of politics from the
thraldom of that immoral tradition.

Possibly the hope that such a step could be taken might again involve an
over-estimate of our contemporaries. What matters it? Kant said: “Man
cannot think too highly of man,” and it is better to have erred in this
direction than, by lukewarm doubt, to have condoned the fault of those
here criticised.

What we see happening to-day furnishes proof, furnishes wonderfully
objective illustrations and experimental demonstrations, not against,
but in favor of our doctrines.

In the first place, let us consider the war in the Transvaal. True, it
broke out immediately after the conference at The Hague, and in despite
of the principles of arbitration and of mediation there announced, and
subscribed to even by England herself. Yet it was no triumph for the
dogma of the necessity of war; it was rather a triumph for the
_advocates_ of war. For our opponents, in giving voice to the slogan,
“The South African war and the Chinese horrors were the direct result of
the conference,” commit—purposely, without a doubt—the blunder of
confusing sequence in time with sequence of cause and effect. It is the
familiar, senseless, exploded, “_Post hoc, ergo propter hoc_.”

Seeds which lay slumbering in the world’s soil long before the
conference at The Hague sprouted in these two instances. For all that
the conference itself could achieve was not in the nature of a harvest,
but merely a sowing of seed.

The newly created institutions are not yet in operation, their spirit
has not yet become incarnate in the flesh and blood of the nations, of
potentates, of the press. And Mr. Chamberlain was able to accomplish his
purpose, in spite of the pleading of Krüger for arbitration, even unto
the last minute. Every intermediation was refused, and none was honestly
and earnestly considered.

Several European rulers, who, as their panegyrists maintain, are
soldiers, body and soul, had no desire to restrain the arm of England;
they wished Queen Victoria success and noted the progress of the war
with semi-joyous interest. But with the people of non-English countries
there was pronounced opposition to this war; there was a manifestation
of the very thing whereof we dream as a foundation of an alliance of
European States, namely, a European conscience. This conscience rose in
rebellion against the fact that a war of conquest should be waged in
this our day; that a great country should seek to subjugate small, free
republics. From every side came protests, petitions, actions of various
sorts, to move the English to call a halt in this war. In England itself
the peace party untiringly made remonstrances in this direction. The
deeply rooted sentiment, “My country, right or wrong,” had to give way
to a sense of justice deeper still, and, as boldly as Zola and Picquart
entered the lists against the General Staff, even so boldly did noted
Englishmen battle against the imperialistic ministry of their native
land. Ten years ago these things would not have happened. Neither Europe
nor America would have opposed this war so determinedly; still less
possibility would there have been of so powerful a counter-current as
arose in England itself. All these things are symptoms of the new
spirit.

But, in spite of the sentiment of the nations, the various governments
have refrained from any peace-making intervention; and in London this
attitude has been regarded as the correct one. But it was correct
according to ancient standards only; it was in direct contravention to
the new lines officially marked out at The Hague.

The progress of the war in the Transvaal has shown, forcibly and
terribly, what a false relation the possible advantages of war bear to
its positive disadvantages. Fifty thousand of her youth, healthy and
vigorous youth, has England lost in the past ten months; sixty-one
million pounds sterling of her national wealth have been wasted; the
respect and sympathy of the world have been recklessly sacrificed; the
character of the nation has been brutalized by the passions aroused, and
freedom, the pride of the British people, freedom of speech, as well as
freedom of the individual, has been imperilled, for even now the spectre
of conscription is raising its head. The fruits of half a century of
national education have been destroyed in this one attack of war-fever.
And in place of the great, submarine Channel-tunnel already planned, the
fortification of Dover has been begun. India is devastated by a famine,
and the money wasted in South Africa for the destruction of human life
might have saved the famished ones.

And the end, the “bitter end,” of this campaign is not yet. There are no
more decisive battles fought nowadays, even where one side has
overwhelming force. There is nothing now save mutual extermination of
the troops in the field, devastation of the land in which the combat
takes place, cessation of commerce, danger of further complications and
the carrying of infectious diseases into other lands.

The reports of Mr. Burdett-Coutts in the House of Commons in reference
to the horrible condition of the sick and wounded in South Africa are a
confirmation of what the advocates of peace have constantly voiced,
namely, that, with our present means of destruction and our present
methods of warfare, sanitation is an illusion.

And then came the news of the insurrection of the Boxers and the
massacres of the missionaries in China. This, too, is the harvest of
seed sown in Europe in these latter years. Apart from the fact that
hatred of strangers is a barbarism, concerning which we lack the right
to grow indignant so long as the story of anti-Semitic riots and
expulsion of foreigners has a place upon European annals, everything was
done by Europeans in China to arouse a righteous hatred of foreigners
there. Dogmas and wares have been thrust upon the Chinese; there has
been contemptuous treatment, appropriation of territory, open
declarations as to the partition of China, backed by plans for the
building of fleets. And running side by side with these things, in
constant confirmation of mercenary greed and of militarism, with an
inherent, blind tendency to expansion, the peaceable, non-military
Empire was supplied with guns and cannons from our own factories and
with instructors from our barracks.

Well, what matters it? No one cares to bother with the intricately
interwoven network of origins and causes back of it all. Here were we
faced by facts—a country in wild uproar, the government overthrown or in
league with the rebels against foreigners, the legations bombarded,
Ketteler murdered—such facts require action.

Here the opponents of the peace movement seem to be in the right.
Surely, it is impossible to quietly look on while such things are
happening; there is no opportunity for arbitration. What is there left
but war? Is not that in some cases the only resource, the “_ultima
ratio_?” Now, are ye convinced, ye dreamers, that conditions may at any
time arise which will force upon men a resort to arms? Therefore there
must be no cessation of armaments, no relaxation in the cultivation of a
warlike spirit. Confess that you are beaten, that you have no answer.

Nay, but we do answer. As a well-ordered State maintains a police force
to execute the decrees of its judges, to secure robbers and maniacs, to
overpower mobs that throw stones and apply torches, to protect those who
are persecuted by violence, so would an alliance of Culture-States, such
as we contemplate, require an armed force to serve international right
as an executive power. Power in the service of the right differs
essentially from the power which pronounces all its decisions and
purposes to be right. The individuals of a community are not as yet so
virtuous, so rational, and so reliable as to render unnecessary every
kind of protection and punishment. It is the same with nations. The
nations of the earth are not as yet so cultured and so peaceable that a
union of nations could exist without a tribunal or an armed force.

What has come to pass before our eyes? Spontaneously, without previous
agreement, all nations decided to hurry their ships and troops to the
relief of those whose lives were in danger; to punish the criminals, to
restore order in the convulsed Empire of China; to re-establish
organized government there. And since such an enterprise can succeed
only when it is undertaken unanimously, there was suddenly formed a
“world army,” a confraternity of previously antagonistic nations, to
battle side by side in the name of civilization against an outburst of
barbarism. Thus has the impulse of events begun the realization of that
fundamental requirement urged by the advocates of the peace movement
from the very first—unanimity among the Culture-States, a comradeship of
co-operation, a setting aside of conflicting individual rights in the
service of a higher solidarity of interest.

This solidarity of interest has now been recognized in the face of the
Chinese danger. We recognized it long ago in the face of the danger of
militarism. The threatened world-war, the ruin that impended, seemed to
us such an abomination of barbarism, and the prevention of that calamity
so imperative a duty of civilization, that conflicts of interest and all
little bickerings and minor contentions might well be set aside.

A campaign carried on with a common mind and for a common purpose, such
as that undertaken in China, would not have been prevented if it had
been preceded by a cessation of further armaments, as suggested by
Russia at The Hague, or even by a decided reduction of the standing
armies. For—let my readers note carefully this fact—the “Culture-Army,”
the police of international civilization, needs but be composed of a
small but representative section of the various nations. The entire
available force of Europe, America and Japan could not be sent to China
at present, at any rate. When arms are used in the service of right
only, the power of such police, or, instead of police—for the word has
an unpleasant sound—let us say of such a knighthood of culture, would be
overwhelming. For crime—within the limits of a civilized community this
holds true as well—is usually committed by single individuals or small
bands. It is the same among nations. If questions of common morals
arose, whose validity is recognized as of interest to all, every single
disturber of the peace, every single tyrant, every single land-grabber
would be resisted in the execution of his purpose and would be punished
by all. Had all civilized nations hastened to the aid of the
Armenians,[1] had they all advised Spain to relinquish Cuba, or hindered
America in its desire to subjugate the Philippines; had they all
insisted that England must listen to Krüger’s proposals for arbitration,
the cruelties and conflicts of the latest slaughters of multitudes could
have been avoided. Different nations can advance with united purpose
against a common danger, and they can do so by means of the very
elements that otherwise support and foster antagonism, namely, by means
of their armies. Twice has this been demonstrated; once not long ago in
Crete, and now in China. The German Kaiser could command the troops he
sent to Eastern Asia to fight shoulder to shoulder with Frenchmen,
Russians and Japanese. And it has been possible to appoint one general
for this international army.

Footnote 1:

  Let it not be objected that a “man’s house is his castle,” and that
  interference with internal affairs is excluded with nations as it is
  with individuals. Massacres are not internal affairs. If one man
  throws down another in my neighbor’s house and is preparing to kill
  him, and the victim’s cries reach my ears, it is not a breach of the
  peace if I hasten to help him or call the police.

The possibility that all Culture-States can enter into an alliance,
though contested by our opponents, has been proven in fact. Humanity is
forced into solidarity by normal evolution along the lines of natural
law. What the force of circumstances has brought about could have been
accomplished by free will and design, and, so accomplished, it would
have been more systematically done, and would have rested upon more
secure foundations.

And now, no one has faith in the present casual and transient coalition,
and many prophesy that the Powers will quarrel over China, and that the
long-dreaded world-conflict will arise in consequence. This, too, is
used as an argument against us. “A concert? Unanimity? The slightest
disturbance unhinges it all. Rivalry is aroused. No one Power is willing
to grant the other a privilege or an advantage. When the coalition
campaign has reached its end, or even before that, conflicting interests
will assert themselves and the European war will be upon us.”

True, that war will break out, if there be no forum for the settlement
of chance contentions, a forum which, by common agreement, would adjust
all differences. Everything goes to prove how necessary such a forum is.
The sad fact that it is not as yet in operation surely does not
militate, in the least, against the possibility or the utility of the
establishment of such a tribunal. The foundation of it was laid at The
Hague. That it is generally ignored demonstrates the fact that
militarism struggles against an institution which would undermine war.

The question, “How in the world do you propose to prevent war in the
face of the present upheaval in China?” has been thus answered by Dr.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, Corresponding Secretary of the American Peace
Society:

  “We have been asked how we would have settled the present trouble in
  China without war. That is as if one were to ask how we would prevent
  a fire when the flames were already bursting from all the windows. The
  settlement of the trouble by us without war would have required, first
  of all, that it be turned over to us for settlement, or that the
  powers involved in it would agree conscientiously to follow, in their
  efforts at adjustment, the principles and methods which we might
  suggest. The utter impossibility of either of these contingencies in
  the case of the trouble with China shows the thoughtlessness of the
  question.

  “The time to have begun the pacific settlement of the difficulty was
  many years ago. Given certain conditions, practices and beliefs, such
  as have for a long time existed in the relations of the other
  countries to China, and war or something like it was inevitable. No
  advocate of peace has ever been simple enough to imagine that war can
  be avoided when every condition leading to good understanding and
  peace has been neglected or trampled under foot.”

Another point steadily maintained by the advocates of peace and denied
by their adversaries has come clearly to light in these latter days,
namely, that wars are instigated and brought to their culmination by
certain influential men without the slightest reference to the people,
to parliaments or to the choicest spirits of the nations. What has been
decided upon by the powers that be, what has been mapped out by
“Cabinets,” is promulgated as an accomplished fact, approved by the
chorus of a servile press, and, if it can be made sensational, cheered
by an enthusiastic mob. How necessary that every land should have a
ministry of peace, an official organism representing the interests of
peace, under whose protection that portion of public opinion which is
averse to war might make itself heard. How essential an independent,
ethically elevated press, conscious of the duty growing out of its
power, the duty to guide the people in the way of unity, of
conciliation, of a just consideration of both sides of a quarrel—in
short, in the way of peace, the only way worthy of civilization and
culture. The opposite is true. The political press, in a ponderous
majority, is to-day a forge for the heating of the irons of war.

Current events reveal the fact that our system is not being put in
practice, but they reveal no flaws or contradictions in the system
itself, for it has none. Without a flaw or contradiction it harmonizes
with the law of evolution. The new age—with its advance in technical
inventions (with especial reference to the possibility of the slaughter
of masses), with its ties of international solidarity, its reciprocal
economic interdependencies, its sublimated ethical requirements—has
outgrown the system of war, and outgrows it more and more daily. This
truth is set forth, as it were, in an object-lesson in the rush of
action upon the stage of the world’s theatre. On the other hand, take
the war in the Transvaal. What economic losses (to say nothing of the
moral loss) to England and to the rest of the world has it involved; and
the end of the war is not yet in sight, in spite of the fact that
England outnumbers her adversaries ten to one. That war and the Chinese
problem both show that the nations are being mechanically driven to the
position which the advocates of peace have suggested as the only one
that can be taken as a result of the exercise of free will and
rationality, namely, coalition, surrender of secondary specific
interests and contentions for the sake of a higher common interest, of
culture and humanity, and the creation of a “world army.”

The position into which the Powers are mechanically forced, which in its
external form seems to adjust itself to the demands of the peace idea,
is not yet permeated by the _spirit_ of the idea; not yet based upon the
firm groundwork of institutions of peace. It is filled with militarism,
confused with military projects and national antagonisms.

The contrast between war and culture is more definitely set forth than
could be done in volumes of essays and of peace literature in the
addresses and newspaper articles which accompany the sending forth of
the “Army of Humanity.” The emphasis placed upon the help of God, upon
the religion of love and of tenderness, and the synchronous emphasis
placed upon revenge and threats of horrors, have never been in so
glaring a contrast. A clinging to old ideals of force, reference to the
thought that, a thousand years _hence_, one member of the human family
shall tremble before another, as men did a thousand years _ago_ under
the lash of Attila; the recommendation on the part of various journals
of methods of retaliation savoring of the wildest of savagery, the
slaughter of masses of men, desecration of sanctuaries and graves, etc.,
and all these proposed as a means of spreading civilization; all this
must needs be recognized by the world at large as strident dissonance.

And what has brought the world to this recognition? The principles of
the peace movement. Denied as they are, they have sunk deep into the
conscience of the age. The community of interests in the world has also
had its share in effecting this result. This has reached such a degree
that a change from conditions of might to conditions of right has become
a positive necessity, an essential of life. What stands revealed in the
peace movement is not the dream of supramundane fancy, but a
manifestation of the instinct of self-preservation in civilization.

                                                     BERTHA VON SÜTTNER.



                           “_IN TERRA PAX._”

                          BY G. LEVESON GOWER.


        War in men’s mouths, peace through the spring-clad land;
        Hate in men’s hearts, and love in God’s high heaven;
        Yet in the mass already works the leaven,
        And in the nations some cry, “Hold your hand,
        Ye Peoples! Turn not Earth into a hell!”
        Already breaks the light when some can see
        The change to come, the order new to be,
        And, seeing evil, will not say, “’Tis well!”
        O! for some high tribunal of the world
        Where arms are stilled and equal law bears sway,
        The strong aggressor from his vantage hurled,
        The wronged upheld in the full light of day!
        Then shall the Earth at rest yield glad increase,
        And through all seas and every land be Peace!

------------------------------------------------------------------------



                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES


 1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in
      spelling.
 2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.



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