New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 1, No. 1

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Various. New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 1, No. 1

NUMBER I. WHAT MEN OF LETTERS SAY

"Common Sense About the War"

I

II

III

"Shaw's Nonsense About Belgium"

"Bennett States the German Case"

Flaws in Shaw's Logic

Editorial Comment on Shaw

"Shaw Empty of Good Sense"

Comment by Readers of Shaw

Open Letter to President Wilson1

A German Letter to G. Bernard Shaw

British Authors Defend England's War

WHO'S WHO AMONG THE SIGNERS

The Fourth of August—Europe at War

If the Germans Raid England

Sir Oliver Lodge's Comment

What the German Conscript Thinks

Felix Adler's Comment

When Peace Is Seriously Desired

Barrie at Bay: Which Was Brown?

A "Credo" for Keeping Faith

Hard Blows, Not Hard Words

"As They Tested Our Fathers"

Kipling and "The Truce of the Bear"

On the Impending Crisis

Why England Came To Be In It

I

II. Russian or Prussian Barbarism?

III. Disposing of Germany's Civilizing Mission

IV. Russia Less Despotic Than Prussia

V. The "Bond of Teutonism"

South Africa's Boers and Britons

Capt. Mark Haggard's Death in Battle

An Anti-Christian War

English Artists' Protest

To Arms!

Conan Doyle on British Militarism

The Need of Being Merciless

Letters to Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler

The Vital Energies of France

France Through English Eyes

France through English Eyes

The Soldier of 1914

Germany's Civilized Barbarism

The German Religion of Duty

A Letter to Gerhart Hauptmann

A Reply to Rolland

Another Reply to Rolland

Are We Barbarians?

To Americans From a German Friend

To the Civilized World

Appeal of the German Universities

Reply to the German Professors

Concerning the German Professors

The Reply From France

To Americans In Germany

A Reply to Prof. Harnack

Prof. Harnack in Rebuttal

The Causes of the War

Comment by Dr. Max Walter

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The time has now come to pluck up courage and begin to talk and write soberly about the war. At first the mere horror of it stunned the more thoughtful of us; and even now only those who are not in actual contact with or bereaved relation to its heartbreaking wreckage can think sanely about it, or endure to hear others discuss it coolly. As to the thoughtless, well, not for a moment dare I suggest that for the first few weeks they were all scared out of their wits; for I know too well that the British civilian does not allow his perfect courage to be questioned; only experienced soldiers and foreigners are allowed the infirmity of fear. But they certainly were—shall I say a little upset? They felt in that solemn hour that England was lost if only one single traitor in their midst let slip the truth about anything in the universe. It was a perilous time for me. I do not hold my tongue easily; and my inborn dramatic faculty and professional habit as a playwright prevent me from taking a one-sided view even when the most probable result of taking a many-sided one is prompt lynching. Besides, until Home Rule emerges from its present suspended animation, I shall retain my Irish capacity for criticising England with something of the detachment of a foreigner, and perhaps with a certain slightly malicious taste for taking the conceit out of her. Lord Kitchener made a mistake the other day in rebuking the Irish volunteers for not rallying faster to the defense of "their country." They do not regard it as their country yet. He should have asked them to come forward as usual and help poor old England through a stiff fight. Then it would have been all right.

Having thus frankly confessed my bias, which you can allow for as a rifleman allows for the wind, I give my views for what they are worth. They will be of some use; because, however blinded I may be by prejudice or perversity, my prejudices in this matter are not those which blind the British patriot, and therefore I am fairly sure to see some things that have not yet struck him.

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The Labour Party should also set its face firmly against the abandonment of Red Cross work and finance, or the support of soldiers' families, or the patrolling of the streets, to amateurs who regard the war as a wholesome patriotic exercise, or as the latest amusement in the way of charity bazaars, or as a fountain of self-righteousness. Civil volunteering is needed urgently enough: one of the difficulties of war is that it creates in certain departments a demand so abnormal that no peace establishment can cope with it. But the volunteers should be disciplined and paid: we are not so poor that we need spunge on anyone. And in hospital and medical service war ought not at present to cost more than peace would if the victims of our commercial system were properly tended, and our Public Health service adequately extended and manned. We should therefore treat our Red Cross department as if it were destined to become a permanent service. No charity and no amateur anarchy and incompetence should be tolerated. As to allowing that admirable detective agency for the defence of the West End against begging letter writers, the Charity Organization Society to touch the soldier's home, the very suggestion is an outrage. The C.O.S., the Poor Law, and the charitable amateur, whether of the patronizing or prying or gushing variety, must be kept as far from the army and its folk as if they were German spies. The business of our fashionable amateurs is to pay Income Tax and Supertax. This time they will have to pay through the nose, vigorously wrung for that purpose by the House of Commons; so they had better set their own houses in order and leave the business of the war to be officially and responsibly dealt with and paid for at full standard rates.

Wanted: Labour Representation in the War Office.

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