Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Part 1

Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights.

by Kelly Miller.

THE NEGRO'S PART IN THE WAR

BY PROFESSOR KELLY MILLER, THE WELL-KNOWN THINKER AND WRITER.

This treatise will set forth the black man's part in the world's war with the logical sequence of facts and the brilliant power of statement for which the author is famous. The mere announcement that the author of "Race Adjustment," "Out of the House of Bondage," and "The Disgrace of Democracy" is to present a history of the Negro in the great world conflict, is sufficient to arouse expectancy among the wide circle of readers who eagerly await anything that flows from his pen.

In this treatise, Professor Miller will trace briefly, but with consuming interest, the relation of the Negro to the great wars of the past. He will point out the never-failing fount of loyalty and patriotism which characterizes the black man's nature, and will show that the Negro has never been a hireling, but has always been characterized by that moral energy which actuates all true heroism.

The conduct of the Negro in the present struggle will be set forth with a brilliant and pointed pen. The idea of three hundred thousand American Negroes crossing three thousand miles of sea to fight against autocracy of the German crown const.i.tutes the most interesting chapter in the history of this modern crusade against an unholy cause. The valor and heroism of the Afro-American contingent were second to none according to the unanimous testimony of those who were in command of this high enterprise.

The story of Negro officers in command of troops of their own color will prove the wisdom of a policy entered upon with much distrust and misgiving. It is just here that Professor Miller reaches the high-water mark. Here is a story never told before, because the world has never before witnessed Negro officers in large numbers partic.i.p.ating in the directive side of war waged on the high level of modern science and system.

Professor Miller's treatise carries its own prophecy. He logically enough forecasts the future of the race in glowing colors as the result of his loyal and patriotic conduct in this great world epoch.

The author wisely queries: "When, hereafter, the Negro asks for his rights as an American citizen, where can the American be found with the heart or the hardihood to say him, Nay?"

The work will be profusely ill.u.s.trated.

PUBLISHERS.

March 27, 1919.

GENERAL PREFACE

While the underlying causes of the greatest war in all history must be traced far back into the centuries, the one great object of the conflict which was precipitated by the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria, in Bosnia, at the end of June, 1914, is the ultimate determination as to whether imperialism as exemplified in the government of Germany shall rule the world, or whether democracy shall reign.

Whenever men or nations disregard those principles which society has laid down for their conduct in modern civilized life, and obligation and duty are forgotten in the desire for self-advancement, conflict results.

Since the days of Athens and Sparta the world's greatest wars have in the main been conflicts of ideals--democracy being arrayed against oligarchy--men fighting for individual rights as against militarism and military domination.

In the World War, which terminated with the signing of the armistice, November 11, 1918, which painted the green fields of France and Belgium red with blood, and swept nations into the most significant and bitter struggle in all history, the fight was against the Imperial Government of Germany, by men and nations who claim that humanity the world over has rights that must be observed.

Germany has brought upon herself the destruction of her government by ruthlessly trampling upon her neighbors and a.s.suming that "might is right."

The Imperial Government, led by the House of Hohenzollern, was suffering from an exaggerated ego. Her trouble was psychological. The men who study the strange workings and twists of the human mind which land some men in the inst.i.tutions for the criminal insane, agree that when any man becomes obsessed with an idea and "rides a hobby" to the exclusion of all else, he loses his balance and develops an obliquity of view which makes him a dangerous creature.

Germany was obsessed with the spirit of militarism and almost everything else had been sacrificed to this idol. The very first appearance of Germans in history is as a warlike people. The earliest German literature is of folk-tales about war heroes, and these stories tell of the manly virtues of the heroes.

It is true that there are many scientists, poets, and musicians among the Germans, but their warlike side must never be forgotten. The entire race is imbued with the military spirit, the influence reaching to every phase of national life. All that was best in the nation was raised to its highest efficiency through military training, but in the accomplishment of its purposes the House of Hohenzollern, which is responsible for the development of the national fighting arm, neglected much and produced millions of creatures who are but human machines, taught to obey orders without consideration as to the effect their acts might produce, whether right or wrong.

In their criticisms of the Prussian militarism the world democracies defined militarism as an arrogant, or exclusive, professional military spirit, developed by training and environment until it became despotic, and a.s.sumed superiority over rational motives and deliberations.

This att.i.tude was reflected in the conduct of the Kaiser, who, as ill.u.s.trative of the point, is quoted at the dedication of the monument to Prince Frederick Charles at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder in 1891, as having said, "We would rather sacrifice our eighteen army corps and our forty-two millions inhabitants on the field of battle than surrender a single stone of what my father and Prince Charles Frederick gained."

His speeches were filled with similar bombastic and extravagant expressions which were the subject of international comment for many years. Other countries besides Germany have maintained great armies, but their maintenance has been but an incidental part of the general business of the nation and there was no submerging of the spirit which seeks and demands appropriate public ideals in government and action. So that while other elements have always tended to produce friction between neighboring countries, it was adamant, stubborn, military Prussianism which a.s.serted itself in the middle of 1914 and set the world afire.

Enough is known at this writing to show that the cost in lives, money, morals and weakening of humanity as a whole, is staggering, and yet the whole truth can not be realized for years to come. In our own great struggle, which had for its object the liberation of the Negro, the scars which our country received have not yet been entirely eliminated.

Portions of the country devastated by the soldiers still bear the marks of the invasion, but what was lost in money and material things was made up by the welding together of the two sections of the country. The Union was made a concrete, humanitarian body of citizens. The battle was for the right and liberty triumphed. And by the defeat of Germany liberty again triumphs and the world is made a safe place in which to live.

And just as America fought for liberty in the stirring days of 1776, and her peoples fought one another in the trying days of 1861-65, so America was drawn into the World's War that the principles of liberty, for which she has ever stood, might be perpetuated throughout the world, and that an international peace might be established, which has for its purposes the ending of such convulsions as have shaken the world since August, 1914, since the first shots were fired in fair Belgium by German invaders.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

CIVILIZATION AT ISSUE--THE GERMAN EMPIRE--CHARACTER OF WILLIAM II--THE GREAT CONSPIRACY--THE WAR BY YEARS--UNITED STATES IN THE WAR--TWO HUNDRED FIFTY MILES OF BATTLE--THE DOWNFALL OF TURKEY--THE DEMOCRATIC CLOSE OF THE WAR.

The World War, terminated by the signing of the armistice November 11, 1918, was attended with more far-reaching changes than any war known to history, and is destined to so profoundly influence civilization that we see in it the beginning of a new age. Somewhat similar wars in the past were the campaigns of Alexander; the wars that overthrew the Roman Empire and the Napoleonic wars of a previous century; but this one war surpa.s.ses them all, measured by any scale that can be applied to military operations. It was truly a World War, thus in a cla.s.s by itself. Beginning in Central Europe, twenty-eight nations--nearly all of the important nations of the world--with a total population of about 1,600,000,000--or eleven-twelfths of the human race--became involved. It cost 10,000,000 human lives, 17,000,000 more suffered bodily injury; the money cost was about $200,000,000,000, but who can measure the cost in untold suffering caused by ruined homes and wrecked lives that attended it? Or who can measure the property loss, considering that the fairest provinces of Europe were swept with the bezom of destruction?

Rightly to judge the real significance of such a world struggle, we must consider conditions that made it possible; study the issue involved stripped of all misleading statements; review its course and weigh the nature of the profound changes--geographical, political and economic--that resulted. We shall find that this war was the culmination of century-old causes; that two rival theories of government--impossible to longer co-exist--met in deadly conflict; and that civilization itself was the stake at issue. We shall see that beyond the wreck of empires and troubled days of reconstruction now upon us--through it all approaches a wonderful new age. Autocracy has crumbled; a higher form of democracy will arise and in peaceful days to come the nations of the world will rapidly advance in all that const.i.tutes national well-being.

THE GERMAN STATES.

The early history of Germany is a confused panorama of a thousand years, during which time Central Europe was a country of numerous separate states, many of them at times coming together as a more or less closely knit confederacy under the lead of a powerful state, only to fall apart into a ma.s.s of confused units at a later date. It is interesting to learn that among the Teutonic knights of that early time, none was more noted than Count Tha.s.silo Von Zollern who founded the house of Hohenzollern, that played such an ambitious role in European history, the house whose downfall was one of the dramatic results of the war.

THE RISE OF PRUSSIA.

At its height the German Empire consisted of a union of twenty-five Germanic states of various grades and the Reichland of Alsace-Lorraine under the leaders.h.i.+p of Prussia, by far the most important state of the Empire. The foundation of Prussia's greatness was laid by Frederick the Great in 1763 when he tore Silesia from Austria in an entirely unprovoked war. He wished to enlarge the bounds of Prussia, he coveted Silesia, so he took it. In that deed of spoliation we see manifested the spirit that has animated official Germany since that date. Not only is the House of Hohenzollern descended from the Robber Knights of old, but the same is true of the military caste of Germany generally. Recent centuries have cast only a thin veneer of modern thought over essentially medieval conceptions of national rights and duties.

THE DAYS OF BISMARCK.

For a century after the reign of Frederick, Prussia remained the most prominent Germanic state in Europe. Then we come to the days of Bismarck. He is regarded as a remarkable statesman. He himself delighted to be known as the man of "Blood and Iron." Judging from his acts his one motive in life was to advance the power and influence of Prussia. In the decade 1860-1870 he instigated three wars,--with Denmark in 1864, with Austria in 1866, with France in 1870,--not one of which was justifiable. The war with France was occasioned by deliberately changing the wording of a telegram--in itself friendly--from the King of Prussia to Napoleon III, knowing it would result in war. All were short wars, all resulted in victory for Prussia and consequent increase in territory. Under the glamour of the great victory over France in 1871 came the formation of the German Empire.

THE GERMAN EMPIRE.

Thus there suddenly arose in Central Europe, in the place of the weak confederation of earlier years, one empire of great actual strength, generously endowed as regards territory, and at the head of that empire was a state that alone of modern states most resembles Rome of early centuries, that ruled the Mediterranean world, imposing on the conquered people of that section her language, her laws and her customs. Like her great prototype, we now know that official Prussia regarded all she had accomplished to the formation of the empire as simply a station reached in a career of progress which was to end in a World empire as greatly surpa.s.sing that of Rome in her palmy days as the world of the twentieth century surpa.s.ses the known world of Roman times.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMPIRE.

The empire enjoyed a brief span of national life. In less than fifty years it ceased to exist, a republic of an uncertain nature takes its place. To outward appearances the development of the empire was a brilliant one. A colonial empire was established--mostly in Africa--nearly five times as great in area as the home empire; she had large possessions in the Pacific and had gained a foothold in China. The rich potash and iron deposits of Alsace increased her wealth and marvelously built up her industries and she became one of the greatest manufacturing nations of modern times. Her population doubled, her foreign trade increased four fold, her s.h.i.+pping grew by leaps and bounds. Her army became so perfected that it was acknowledged to be the greatest military machine the world had ever seen; she was building a navy that threatened the supremacy of England on the sea.