Lay Down Your Arms 64

Lay Down Your Arms 64

“I am in a position to-day to communicate to you an interesting piece of

news, dear Tilling,” said the Minister one afternoon with an air of

importance. “People in government circles--that is to say, in the

ministry of war--are ventilating the idea of introducing a universal

liability to service amongst us also.”

 

“What? the same system which before the war was so universally condemned

and derided among us? ‘Tailors in arms,’ and so on?”

 

“To be sure we had a prejudice against it a short time since. Still, it

has rendered good service to the Prussians you must allow. And, in fact,

from the moral point of view, and even from the democratic and liberal

point of view, for which you occasionally appear so enthusiastic, it is

surely a just and elevating thing that every son of his fatherland,

without any regard to his position or stage of education, should have to

fulfil the same duties. And from a strategic point of view, could little

Prussia have been always victorious if she had not had the Landwehr; and

if the latter had been introduced amongst us before, should we have been

always beaten?”

 

“Well, the meaning of that is, that if we had had more material, the

material which our enemy had would not have served him. _Ergo_--if the

Landwehr were introduced everywhere it would not benefit anybody. The

war game would be played with more pieces, but the game nevertheless

depends still on the luck and the ability of the players. I will suppose

that all the European powers have introduced the obligation of universal

defence; the proportion of forces in that case remains exactly the same,

the only difference would be that, in order to come to a decision,

instead of hundreds of thousands, millions would have to be

slaughtered.”

 

“But do you think it just and fair that a part only of the population

should sacrifice themselves in order to protect the dearest possessions

of the others, and that these others, chiefly because they are rich,

should be entitled to stop quietly at home? No, no; that will cease with

this new law. Then there will be no more buying-off--every one will have

to take his part. And it is especially the educated--the

students--those who have some learning, who will contribute the

elements of intelligence and therefore of victory.”

 

“The other side has the same elements ready to hand, and so the

advantages to be gained from educated petty officers neutralise each

other. On the other hand, what remains (and equally to both sides) is

the loss of material of priceless mental worth, of which the country is

deprived by the fact that the most educated, those who might have

promoted its civilisation by means of inventions, works of art, or

scientific inquiry, are set up in rank and file to be marks for the

enemy’s shot----”

 

“Oh, well! for making inventions, and producing works of art, and

investigating skull-bones, and all sorts of things of that kind, which

do not advance the position of the state’s power one drachm----”

 

“Hm!”--“What?” “Oh, nothing; go on.”

 

“For all that there remains plenty of time for people. And besides they

need not serve for the whole of their life; but a few years of strict

discipline are assuredly good for everybody, and make them only so much

the more competent to fulfil their other duties as citizens. We must in

the present state of things pay the blood tax some time--so it ought to

be divided between all equally.”

 

“There would be something to say for that, if it fell less heavily on

individuals on that account. But that would not be the case; the blood

tax would not be _divided_ by that measure, but increased. I hope the

project may not be carried out. There is no seeing whither it may lead.

One state would then try to outvie the other in strength of army, till

at last there would no longer be any armies, but only armed nations.

More people would be constantly drawn into the service; the length of

service would be constantly increased; the incidence of war taxes and

the costs of armaments constantly greater;--so that without fighting

each other the nations would all come to ruin in making preparations for

war!”

 

“But, dear Tilling, you look too far.”

 

“One can never look too far. Everything a man undertakes he ought to

think out to its remotest consequence--at least as far as his mind

reaches. We were likening war just now to a game at chess. Politics also

is of the same nature, your excellency, and those are only very feeble

players who look no further forward than a single move, and are quite

pleased with themselves if they have got into a position in which they

can threaten a pawn. I want to develop the thought of defensive forces

constantly increasing and the universal extension of liability to

military service still more widely, till we reach the extremest verge,

_i.e._, where the mass becomes excessive. What then, if after the

greatest numbers and the furthest limits of age are reached, one nation

should take it into its head to recruit regiments of women too? The

others must imitate it. Or battalions of boys? The others must imitate

it. And in the armaments--in the means of destruction--where can the

limit be? Oh this savage, blind leap into the pit!”

 

“Calm yourself, dear Tilling. You are a genuine faddist. If you could

only point me out a means to do away with war it would be a perfect

benefit, to be sure. But as that is not possible, every nation must

surely endeavour to prepare itself for it as well as possible, in order

to assure itself of the greatest chance of winning in the inevitable

‘struggle for existence’--that is the cant word of the fashionable

Darwinism, is it not?”

 

“If I should choose to suggest to you the means of doing away with wars,

you would again call me a silly faddist, a sentimental dreamer rendered

morbid by the ‘humanitarian craze’--that, I think, is the cant word in

favour with the war party, is it not?”

 

“To be sure, I cannot conceal from you that no practical foundation

exists for the realisation of such an ideal. One must calculate with the

actual factors. In these are classed the passions of men; their

rivalries; the divergences of interests; the impossibility of coming to

an agreement on all questions.”

 

“But that is not necessary. When disagreements begin an arbitration

tribunal--not force--is to decide.”

 

“The sovereign states would never betake themselves to such a

tribunal--nor would the peoples.”

 

“The peoples? The potentates and diplomatists would not--but the people?

Just inquire, and you will find that the wish for peace is warm and true

in the people, while the peaceful assurances which proceed from the

governments are frequently lies, hypocritical lies--or at least are

regarded as such on principle by other governments. That is precisely

what is called ‘diplomacy’. And the peoples will go on ever more and

more calling for peace. If the general obligation of defence should

extend, the dislike of war will increase in the same proportion. A class

of soldiers animated with love for their calling is, of course,

imaginable; their exceptional position, which they take for a position

of honour, is offered to them as a recompense for the sacrifices which

it entails, but when the exception ceases the distinction ceases also.

The admiring thankfulness disappears which those who stay at home offer

to those who go out in their defence,--because then there will be no one

to stay at home. The war-loving feelings which are always being

suggested to the soldier--and in so doing are often awakened in

him--will be more seldom kindled; for who are those that are of the most

heroic spirit, who are most warm in their enthusiasm for the exploits

and dangers of war? Those who are safe against them--the professors, the

politicians, the beer-shop chatterers--the chorus of old men, as it is

called in ‘Faust’. When the safety is lost, that chorus will be

silenced. Besides, if not only those devote themselves to the military

life who love and praise it, but all those also are forcibly dragged

into it who look on it with horror, that horror must work. Poets,

thinkers, friends of humanity, timid persons, all these will, from their

own points of view, curse the trade they are forced into.”

 

“But they will beyond doubt have to keep silent about this way of

thinking, in order not to pass for cowards--in order not to expose

themselves to the displeasure of the higher powers.”

 

“Keep silence? Not for ever. As I talk--though I have myself kept

silence long--so will the others also break out into speech. If the

thought ripens, the word will come. I am an individual who have come to

the age of forty before my conviction acquired sufficient strength to

expand itself in words. And as I have required two or three decades, so

the masses will perhaps require two or three generations--but speak they

will at last.”

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XVI.

 

_New-Year’s Day, 1867.--The Luxembourg question.--Disputes between

France and Prussia.--Arbitration.--The alarm blows over.--We visit

Paris.--Plan of Napoleon III. for general disarmament.--Frederick’s

efforts in the cause of peace.--“The Protocol of Peace.”--A little

daughter is born to us.--Renewed happiness.--Frederick’s

studies.--M. Desmoulin’s proposals.--Return to Paris, and re-entry

into the gay world.--Talk of the “Revanche de Sadowa”.--Pressure of

the war party on Napoleon III.--Whirl of gaiety.--We seek repose in

Switzerland.--Illness of my little daughter.--Return to Paris in

March, 1870.--Napoleon III. drops his plan of disarmament under the

pressure of the war party.--Still peace seems assured._

 

 

The New Year, ’67! We kept the Sylvester Night quite alone, my Frederick

and I. When it struck twelve,--

 

“Do you recollect,” I asked with a sigh, “the speech my poor father made

in proposing a toast last year at this same hour? I do not dare to wish

you good fortune now. The future sometimes hides something so

unexpectedly terrible in its bosom; and no wish has ever availed to turn

it aside.”

 

“Then let us use the turn of the year, Martha, as an occasion not for

thinking of what is coming, but for looking back into the year which has

just flown by. What sufferings you have had to endure, my poor, brave

wife! So many of your dear ones buried--and those days of horror on the

battlefields in Bohemia.”

 

“I do not grieve that I have seen the cruel things that took place

there. Now I can at least participate with all the might of my soul in

your efforts.”

 

“We must bring up your--or rather _our_--Rudolf with a view of his

pushing these efforts further. In his time a visible mark will perhaps

arise above the horizon--hardly in ours. What a noise the people are

making in the streets! they are greeting with shouts the new year in

spite of the sufferings which the old one (that was greeted in the same

way) brought on them. Oh, how forgetful men are!”

 

“Do not chide them too much for their forgetfulness, Frederick. We too

are beginning to brush away from our memory the sufferings of the past,

and what I feel is the bliss of the present--the bliss of having you, my

own one. We were not to speak of the future I know; still I think that

the future we have before us is good. United, loving, sufficient in

ourselves, rich--how many exquisite enjoyments can not life still offer

us! We will travel, will make acquaintance with the world, the world

that is so fair! Fair so long as peace prevails; and peace may now last

for many, many years! But if war is to break out again, you are no

longer involved in it; and Rudolf too is not threatened, since he is not going to be a soldier.”