As these lines are written we are still at peace with all the warring nations. Our neutrality has been preserved only by submitting to outrages such as have been endured without forcible protest by no other great nation in the history of the world. If our patience with Germany serves as an example to the world of how a great and magnanimous nation may make sacrifices to encourage peace, our policy will prove to be wise. If, on the other hand, it serves only to make the Germans believe that we are too mercenary or two weak-kneed to defend ourselves and thus encourages further transgressions, our peaceable policy will have been a great mistake. After an opportunity to observe at close hand the methods and motives of the German war party, I am frankly afraid that the latter situation will prove to be the outcome. We shall be indeed fortunate if we can keep out of the war that has involved half the civilized world.
Nations like men profit by experience. The French people have records of history and civilization extending beyond the days of the Roman Empire, and that civilization has gone steadily forward through many centuries. No wonder then that they excel us in many things; the wonder is that they do not excel in all. In architecture and the arts, France leads America. This must be admitted by any fair-minded person familiar with the facts. But in industrial affairs the story is different.
Our country has adopted more progressive and efficient methods in the industrial field than can be found in France, where efficiency is not the word so much as is the comfort of the workers. This is particularly true of the iron and steel business. We saw in France not a single steel plant that could compare in efficiency with the great plants of this country. By this is meant that in none of the plants visited was the output per man nearly so great or the share enjoyed by the worker nearly so large, as is the rule in this country. Since we did not see the plants to the north which had been captured by the Germans, perhaps it is not altogether fair to make this comparison. Nevertheless the same impression was gained in the inspection of other industrial operations. The French workman is more artistic but he does not move so rapidly or produce so much as does the American. Neither of course, does he enjoy so large a remuneration. On the whole, wages are much less in proportion to individual production in France than in this country.
To the resident of a country which has not had a war within the memory of a generation, it is hard to convey by written or printed words a just conception of what a great war means to any country involved. The outward, visible evidence of individual restraint was one of the most vivid things witnessed on our trip through France: at least this was the case with me and, I believe, with some others of the Commission.
In France the individual has disappeared; he has been swallowed by the State; the nation in its dire necessity, obeying the law of self-preservation has practically obliterated the individual as such. He has become simply a small part of a great whole, a whole so inconceivably more important than any of its parts that all of them are completely subordinated.
The average American citizen would resent with heat the regulations regarded as a matter of course in France. He would fume and fret and all but rebel, if asked to live as the French people are forced to live during the war.
From what we could learn the submersion of the individual is far greater in Germany than in France, but to a healthy American citizen, accustomed to doing about as he pleases so long as he is able to pay the price and injures no one else, there is abundant restriction on personal liberty at this time in France. Possibly under similar circumstances we would as a people show an equal spirit of self-repression for the benefit of the national welfare.
The first great lesson taught by war to the death—as this war is for all concerned—is the great outstanding fact that people as individuals must surrender their rights to the people as a whole. Obedience to constituted authority must be absolute. Personal tastes and interests must be ignored or suppressed. The whole nation must work as one man, under the direction of one head, to keep it from being made subject to some other nation having less regard for personal liberty and more respect for efficiency.
I took particular pains to ascertain directly and indirectly from all classes the feeling of the French people towards Germany and the Germans. Prior to the declaration of war it is safe to say the feeling was not wholly unfriendly. Only three months before war was declared a similar commission came from Germany. The German commissioners were treated with great consideration. Plants and industrial establishments were shown, views exchanged and entertainments were the order of the day, or rather of the night, and everything possible done by the French to foster a good feeling, having in mind increased trade facilities between the two nations. But after war was declared, French territory invaded and the unspeakable and unwritable deeds of the German soldiers made manifest, this previous feeling changed to one of hatred and revenge which it will take generations to eradicate.
In our intercourse with the French people a kindly appreciative feeling was manifest towards the English and Americans; a feeling of deep gratitude towards England for the great part she has taken in the war and to America for the generous aid and assistance rendered in many ways. Hospital work and the great aid rendered by American aviators were much dwelt upon, the personal work of American men and women being everywhere in evidence.