• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

PRICE 50 CENTS The Problem of the Hour BY IRWIN ST. JOHN TUCKER In Five Lectures. PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 1541 UNITY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL. 20 :- !- -..,-. -., Lectures in this Series: internationalism: The Problem of the Hour. Lecture 1. The German Idea: “Deutschland ueber Alles.” Lecture 2. The British Idea: “Britannia Rules the Waves.” Lecture 3. The American Idea: Phrases versus Facts. Lecture 4. The Russian Idea: The Proletarian Revolt. Lecture 5. The Labor Idea: The History and Future of the International. These Lecture8 are 10 Cent8 apiece, sing@, and 50 Cent8 per volume bound. Order from the authw, 1541 Unitg B&d- ing, Chicago, Ill. INTERNATIONALISM The Problem of the Hour BY IRWIN ST: JOHN TUCKER Lecture I. PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 1541 UNITY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL. q J -,’ 7 :i -. *-,x f- Foreword to the Fourth Edition / ‘1 / The lectures in this book were delivered in Masonic Tem- ple, Chicago, during the five Sundays in March, 1918. On March 9, the day before the second one was delivered, an- nouncement was made by the United States District Attorney of Chicago that I had been indicted, together with Victor L. Berger, Adolph Germer, J. L. Engdahl and William F. Kruse- all officials of the Socialist Party-for conspiracy to obstruct the draft. In spite of this, however, the lectures were not in- terrupted, and were delivered to increasing crowds. They were printed some months later in pamphlet form, one lecture at a time, and subsequently were bound up in book form; which ac- counts for the system of paging, each lecture being numbered by itself. It will be seen that at the time of their delivery, the Ger- man Empire was at the height of its apparent military success; the Allies were fighting with their “backs to the wall,” as Gen- eral Haig confessed; and the only danger to the Kaiser’s armies seemed to be the Russian revolution, which lay like a thunder- cloud to the East. Brest-Litovsk had resulted in the inclusion of large areas of Russian territory, filled with revolutionists trained in the hard school of the Czar’s terrorism, within the empire of the German Kaiser. It was a fatal error. The in- fection of Bolshevism spread, and in November the German sailors mutinied, the German Socialists of Berlin and Wilhelms- hafen revolted, the Kaiser was chased out of Berlin into Hol- land, and the armistice was signed. Readers will perceive that many references in this book to events as they stood when the lectures were given are out of date now, just a year later; but the general texture of the book remains true. The demand for it has increased with every month. The first edition, ready in July, was speedily ex- hausted; new editions were printed in September and in Janu- ary, and these have all gone. Meanwhile the sentence of 20 years in Fort Leavenworth has been pronounced and our ap- peal is on its way to the Supreme Court. Other books supplementing the philosophy of history here set forth are on their way through the press. The roots of the present situation, which lie so deeply in the past are bringing forth fresh fruit every hour. But out of the wreck and con- fusion of the world-downfall, one fact emerges more and more surely, and one strength grows stronger hour by hour; the Internationalism of the League of Nations, which is an inter- national collection agency for gamblers’ war debts, is giving way before the Internationalism of the working classes of the nations united in a co-operative commonwealth of Socialism. Long live the International! IRWIN ST. JOHN TUCKER. April 1, 1919. Lecture 1. The German Idea: “ Deutschland ueber Alles” Origin of the Kaiser idea in the empire of the Roman Caesars; Speculators in ancient Rome.-How Augustus came to power.-Invasion of the Gothe. -The German Caesars.-Pope and Emperor.-The Reformation and the Thirty Years War.-Napoleon I. and III.-Crowning of the German Kaiser.-A New Religion Necessary; the Religion of Valor.-Treitschke; Wagner: the German Socialists. REFERENCES: Guglielmo Ferrero. ....... Greatness and Decline of Rome. 5 Volumes Guglielmo Ferrero. ....... Characters and Events in Ancient Rome. Guglielmo Ferrero. ....... Ancient Rome and Modern America. Guglielmo Ferrer0 ........ The Women of the Caesars. James H. Bryce .......... .The Holy Roman Empire. Prof. J. A. Cramb. ....... .Germany and England. Ralph Adams Cram ....... Substance of Gothic Architecture. George Bernard Shaw. .... The Perfect Wagnerite. Richard Wagner. ......... Art and Revolution. Bayard Taylor ............ History of Ger,mang. Frederic C. How%. ........ Why War? H. N. Brailsford .......... The War of Steel and Gold. Von Bernhardi ........... .Germany and the Next War. Treitschke .............. .History of Germany. THE GERMAN IDEA “Deutschland ueber Alles” NTERNATIONALISM-the rela.tion between nations-always I has been the supreme problem of the world. Now more than at any other time its solution insistently demands the agonized at- tention of all intelligent persons everywhere. For the present world war arises out of the unstable balance between groups of national powers, as all past world wars have reuoived. around the question of the relations of nation to nation. In the past the question of Internationalism has always been one of Imperialism. There has been hardly any other idea of the relation between nations, s&e that one nation should dominate all others, imposing its will and its tribute upon them. In its ex- treme form this idea of Imperialism dominates Germany today. Understanding Germany becomes a supreme necessity of the hour. Admitting that the Germans are all crazy-even admitting that they are crazier than the rest of us-it is of vital importance to discover what made them crazy. When I was a small boy there was a crazy woman in one of the small towns near my home, a woman of whom all the children stood in terror. We shrank into the shelter of boxes and barrels whenever she came near. Not until years later I did find out why she was crazy. Her father had been wealthy, and left quite a bit of property to her brother and herself. Her brother, desiring to enjoy it all, shut her up for fourteen years in a small wooden out- house, throwing her food through a hole in the wall, allowing her no heat in winter. At the end of those fourteen years, when she was eventually set free, she was hopelessly insane. We did not know it then ; but there was a reason for her insanity. There is always a reason for insanity, even though it lie far back in the mists of heredity. When one reads such quotations as these following, taken from the German press and from some of their best known writers, it is hard to believe at first that they are seriously meant: “The German soul is the world’s soul ; God and Germany be- long to one another.“-“He who does not believe in the Divine mission of Germany had better hang himself, and better today than tomorrow.“-“Germany is chosen, for her own good and that of other nations, to undertake their guidance. Providence has - (j --. placed the appointed people, at the appointed moment, ready for the a.ppointed ta’sk.“-“It was the hidden meaning of God that he made Israel the Forerunner of the Messiah, and in the same way he has by his hidden intent designated the German people to be Israel’s successor.“-“We are the supreme people.” But these sayings are types of what the German people were taught to believe ; and the fact that the British, French and Americans were all saying practically the same things simply intensifies our horror at the blasphemy of the Germans. This with which we have to deal is no sudden thing. Modern Germany appears to the diplomats of Europe as an upstart nation, born since 18’70. But her own vision looks back over her history in Europe through centuries of dazzling if barbaric splendor. Before Bismarck ; before Napoleon ; before Luther ; through glorious centuries the Germanic ra.ce, headed by their hero-kings, -Otto, Conrad, Frederick,-ruled Europe by imperial decree. H. S. Chamberlain, a transplanted Englishman, says boldly: “Just such a systematic transformation of the world as Augustus eRected Germany must now undertake-but on how much nobler a plan !” And even with the name of Augustus there comes a glow of pride. For it was German legions under Arminius that halted the victorious march of the Roman conqueror of the world. The crown of Augustus now rests, it is the boast of the Germans, on the head of Wilhelm, who succeeds not only to the crown but to the name of Caesar; ar? with its Germanized form of “Kaiser” now terrifies the world. It takes a historian to understand the present. We have a historian as President ; and the future will be grateful to Woodrow Wilson for his foreign statesmanship, based on impartial accurate historical knowledge. It is to his deep comprehension of the issues involved-in other lands-that is due his conception of the method of obtaining a permanent peace ; namely to divide between th.e German rulers and their people, and by encouraging the growth of radical and revolutionary sentiment in Germany to overthrow the imperial-militaristic group, and to bring about the democratiza- tion of Germany. With this aim the People’s Council is in hearty accord ; and has so expressed itself, openly and unequivocally, whenever the Berserker rage of our war-mad politicians has suf- fered it to meet and formulate its views. The People’s Council, however, takes one further step ; and that is that the radical forces in Germany can be encouraged only by the encouragement of radical forces in this country.

Load more

  156

Copy Link