Plain Words from America: A Letter to a German Professor (1917) — John Shaqi
Plain Words from America: A Letter to a German Professor (1917)Johnson, Douglas Wilson
History
Plain Words from America: A Letter to a German Professor (1917)
Johnson, Douglas Wilson
World War, 1914-1918 -- Public opinion
Americans have studied carefully the official documents issued by the
different Governments concerning the origin of the war, and have had the
advantage of seeing all the papers which each has published. The
official papers issued by England, Germany, France, Austria, and the
other Governments have been printed in full in pamphlet form, and have
been eagerly studied by the whole nation. Edition after edition has
been exhausted by a people eagerly seeking to learn the truth. In
Germany there has been no such eagerness to learn the truth by careful,
critical study of the official sources of information, and leading
Germans have regretfully admitted that too many of the German people
were content to accept their Government's statements as the truth,
without attempting to use their own intelligence in the matter. In the
opinion of Americans the official documents, and especially the
admissions made by your Government in its attempted defence, prove that
the German Government forced the war in order to satisfy the ambitions
of the military party which has long been in control. When you have a
chance to read certain documents which your Government does not let you
read now, you can form an impartial judgment as to whether or not
Americans and the other neutral peoples have been unjust in deciding
that Germany is responsible for the war. Until that time you will, of
course, feel that the judgment of the world does your country a terrible
wrong. The Government which caused the war is not going to let its
people read things which would shake their confidence, and cause them to
weaken in their support of the war!
If Germany really exercised a moderating influence at Vienna, and strove
to avert the war, the State papers exchanged between Berlin and Vienna
would clearly prove this, if published. Germany has every reason to
publish those papers and prove her sincerity, if she tried to prevent
the war. On the other hand, both Germany and Austria have every reason
to keep those papers secret if they were jointly planning the war. They
have kept the papers secret. Not one word of the vital correspondence
between the two Teutonic capitals has ever been made public. Even your
own people are entirely ignorant as to what exchanges really took place
in the critical days preceding the declarations of war. You only know,
and the world only knows, that Germany made the vague general assertion
that she was "exercising a moderating influence at Vienna." You can
hardly expect the world to believe such a vague generality when the
documents which would prove its truth or falsity are carefully
suppressed. Why are they suppressed? Americans, in common with the rest
of the world, are convinced that your Government does not dare publish
them because it would prove the guilt of Germany more conclusively than
do the admissions contained in papers already made public.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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