New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 1, No. 1: From the Beginning to March, 1915, With IndexVarious
History
New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 1, No. 1: From the Beginning to March, 1915, With Index
Various
World War, 1914-1918
As for the question of lynching, Mr. Shaw is, the American public may be
assured, in no danger whatever of being lynched. He is in far more
danger of having the Iron Cross conferred upon him by the Kaiser in
recognition of his attempt to supplement the activities of the official
German Press Bureau. But if he were a German subject, writing on certain
points of German policy as he does upon certain points of British
policy, his fate can well be imagined. The only retribution that will
come upon this man, who exploits the freedom of speech and pen that
England gives him, is that his words lose now and henceforth the weight
they used to have. Oh, the conceit of the man, who in this dark hour,
when the English are dying on the battlefield, writes of "taking the
conceit out of England" by a stroke of his inconsequent pen!
*Admits England's Cause Is Just.*
But with all his will to "take the conceit" out of this England, so
fiercely menaced, her sons killed, her daughters widowed--yet needing,
so he thinks, his castigation into the bargain--the critic is
constrained to admit that our country is playing the part of "the
responsible policeman of the West" and that "for England to have
refrained from hurling herself into the fray, horse, foot, and
artillery, was impossible from every point of view." Then why preface
these statements by a series of attacks upon the country which is
admitted to be justly fighting in a just cause?
The sole importance of Mr. Shaw's criticism comes from this. He
unwarrantably indorses statements made by Germany in her attempt to put
the Allies in the wrong. Because he is known to the German people by his
dramatic work, extracts from his article will be circulated among them
as an expression of the views of a representative British citizen. And
how are the Germans to know that this is false, deprived as they are of
news of what is happening in the outside world and ignorant as they must
be of Mr. Shaw's real lack of influence at this serious time?
That their traffic in mere words disables some literary men from
comprehending facts is shown by Mr. Shaw's play upon the word
"Junkerism." He points to the dictionary definition of the word instead
of to the fact it represents, and by this verbal juggling tries to
convince his readers that the military autocracy that dominates and
misdirects Germany has its counterpart and equal in Great Britain.
Whereas, the conditions in the two countries are wholly different, and
it is this very difference that Germany has regarded as one of the signs
of British inferiority.
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