LIII
SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR 1897
Letter from Count Eugen Zichy · The Eighth Peace Congress at Hamburg · Letter from Prince Emil Schönaich-Carolath · Egidy’s début · Regarding the assassination of Canova · Public meeting in the Sagebiel · Egidy’s speech · New adherents · Henri Dunant · Appeal to the Oriental peoples · Extracts from diary · Bad news from all sides · Attitude of the press · The Russian Emperor in Darmstadt · Letter from Marie Büchner · The Dreyfus affair · Dispatch of the European squadron to the Yellow Sea
The enthusiasm for the peace cause which had flamed up at the Millennial Festival in Hungary had not proved to be merely a fire in the stubble, as so many pessimists had predicted it would be. I kept getting news of the progress and growth of the group in that country. The following letter bears witness to the opinions of one of the most brilliant members of the Congress, Count Eugen Zichy:
Vienna, December 4, 1897
My dear Baroness,
Most honored President:
To-morrow our delegations break up, and it has not been my good fortune, during our several weeks’ séjour here in Vienna, to see you. Twice I have made the attempt—alas! in vain. You were out of town—still in the country! So I will at least send you in writing my hearty respects and greeting. You must have read with delight Berzeviczy’s utterances in our delegation, and have rejoiced, likewise, at the reply made thereto by our skillful and masterly (takt- und sattelfest) Minister of Foreign Affairs. Great ideas are realized only slowly, but a healthy seed always brings healthy fruit, even if, as often happens, it takes a long time; so it is with the idea for which you, dear Baroness, and all of us are fighting. Gutta cavat lapidem! Over and over, and ever unweariedly, we must renew the battle, and at length it will, it must, win the day; for our aim is humanitarian,—the welfare of mankind.
And an idea that has this for its only object is not to become effectual? Impossible! That is the answer that hovers on my tongue, and “impossible” will at length be the shout of all reasonable human beings! And we shall be victorious! And the victory will then really be—universal peace! And even if the present does not recognize it, posterity will remember with gratitude those who turned the first sod.
I understand that in a few days—I believe about the middle of December—you are to hold your annual meeting in Vienna. Permit me, dear Baroness, to send my sincerest respects, and to beg of you to communicate to our peace friends my warmest greetings and good wishes. May your work be blessed!
I hope, dear Baroness, that you may for a long time to come have the most abundant health and strength to share in bringing your work to completion. And for my own self I desire that you continue to grant me your favor and good will, which I so highly prize.
May the Angel of Peace be with you and your work!
Your most faithful fellow-worker and admirer
Eugen Zichy
This year the meetings of the peace workers were not held, as hitherto, in the same place, but in different towns. The Congress met from the twelfth to the sixteenth of August at Hamburg, and the interparliamentarians had their sessions a few days earlier in Brussels.
We took part in the Hamburg gathering. Again we met all our old friends,—Passy, Türr, Bajer, Émile Arnaud, Dr. Richter, Moneta, Hodgson Pratt, Ducommun, and others. We had anticipated that the chairmanship of the Hamburg Congress would be taken by the writer of exquisite verses, Prince Schönaich-Carolath, but he declined to take it, though he was suggested for the office. What his reasons were may be seen from the following letter:
Haseldorf, July 19, 1897
Highly honored, gracious Baroness:
Allow me to thank you cordially for your friendly lines. The expectation that in all human probability I should be permitted to greet you in Hamburg has caused me much happiness, even though I look toward the Congress with a kind of solemn enthusiasm. Your kindly supposition that I have been intrusted with the chairmanship is in so far correct that the Hamburg local group at first, as I heard, thought of conferring that honor upon me. Later, I believe, a more official personage was found, and this saved me from declining with thanks; for I have not the gift of speech and the acquaintance with parliamentary usages requisite for the performance of the duties of such a position.
My wife and I regret that we cannot have the honor of seeing you and your honored husband at our house; my wife’s health unfortunately makes it impossible for her to entertain company in Hamburg as she had hoped. If ever Copenhagen should be selected for a peace gathering, we shall venture to ask you again, either before or after the Congress, to honor us with a visit in our more hospitable Danish home.
Begging you to remember me most warmly to the Baron, and with regards to yourself, gracious and kindly Baroness,
I sign myself yours devotedly
E. Schönaich-Carolath
A new fellow-champion came upon the arena,—Moritz von Egidy. It was a source of pride and satisfaction to me that I had won him over to take part in the Congress and to assist our cause by the fascinating power of his eloquence in the public meeting which had been arranged by the Congress.
At the first session,—all present being under the influence of the painful news, just received from Spain, of the assassination of Prime Minister Cánovas by an Italian anarchist,—Teodoro Moneta, in conjunction with R. Raqueni, editor of Il Epoca, in the name of the Italian group offered the following resolution:
The undersigned, citizens of the country from which, unhappily, came the fanatic who has murdered the Prime Minister of Spain, urge that the Congress, before it begins its labors, transmit to the widow of Cánovas del Castillo the expression of its profound sympathy. Devoted to doctrine which involves the harmonization of politics and morals, we insist that under no conditions must the principle of the inviolability of human life be transgressed, for on this principle our whole existence and the lofty aims that the Peace League has in view are based.
The public meeting, which took place on the first evening, brought together in the hall of the Sagebiel establishment an audience of five thousand of all ranks. Otto Ernst made the opening address. Then Richard Feldhaus recited a poem by Schmidt-Cabanis. And then Egidy. This was the first time I had ever heard him speak. Clear, assured, deliberate, vibrant, powerful. The real voice of command. “Be good!” is an injunction which is usually whispered mildly or spoken in an unctuous, preachifying tone; Egidy thundered it out like a command. The gist of his address was:
We must grow into the unmilitary age which we are fighting to bring about. A new mode of thought must take possession of our inmost being. War predicates the hostile opposition of man to man. We must oppose this hostility and put in its place the feeling of solidarity (Zusammengehörigkeit). In this soil is to grow the natural equality of all people and all peoples. This equality of birth leads to the right of every one in the nation, and of every nation taken collectively, to determine its own career under the limitations made by the duties that each one has in turn toward the whole. In a certain sense we have already entered upon the warless age; but we do not realize its blessings because we have not the courage to meet the transformation.
Egidy spoke also of other conflicts besides those of war:
The conflict between employers and employees, between consumers and producers, must cease. To every person in the community must be assured a dignified existence. Then every conflict will cease. In the unions we already have the beginnings of it.... Credal relationships must become different. The faith of the individual must be respected, but the discrepant evaluation and persecution of individual forms of belief must cease.
The French artillery captain, Gaston Moch, who was present at the Congress, was so delighted by the former Prussian lieutenant colonel that he subsequently published a book, L’Ère sans violence, in which he introduced Egidy’s doctrine and way of looking at things, together with several translations from his articles and speeches.
At the second session I announced that a new adherent had joined us,—Jean Henri Dunant, the founder of the Geneva Convention of the Red Cross. I stated that he would use his influence in the Red Cross societies so as to work through them for our cause, especially in the Oriental nations, amongst whom the Red Cross numbered many adherents and to whom a special appeal was to be directed in all the Oriental languages. I presented the text of this appeal. Dunant had sent it to me with a request that I should give it my signature and win the sanction of the Congress.
General Türr announced that he was prepared to procure its translation into Turkish and to have it disseminated.
Here are a few extracts from my diary:
August 14. Banquet given by the city at the Horticultural Show. My neighbors are Egidy and a senator. Three hundred persons present. Egidy as a table companion does not show his apostle or popular-preacher side; he is a jolly, amusing companion, versed in the usages of the best society.
August 16. Yesterday, after a session which was adjourned early, about five o’clock in the afternoon, we took a trip down the harbor and made an excursion to Blankenese. What a rush of traffic in the colossal harbor! What a host of ships docking and discharging! Our party had supper on the Süllberg; My Own was toastmaster. Novikof, Trueblood, and Ducommun made addresses. A general feeling of enthusiasm. It was after eleven o’clock when we got down to the float. The road was illuminated with Bengal lights. As the steamboat put off, the Süllberg Restaurant was so brightly lighted up that it looked as if it were bathed in fire. Music on the ship; as we sailed along, rockets flew up into the air against the cloudless, moonlit sky. These are the old instruments for celebrating,—toasts, music, fireworks,—which are indeed also employed in the celebrations of battle anniversaries; but how differently they act when they are accompaniments to the feelings of fraternity, of prospective redemption,—redemption from the curse of slaughter and hatred....
I will also copy the advice which Dr. Wagner, a Hamburg author and journalist, gave us. “It seems to me of dubious value,” he said, “for the Congresses to indulge in long and tedious debates over resolutions for the future, and merely to vote on them, perhaps with trifling majorities. Debates bring to the main issue more confused rubbish than serious, valuable thoughts. It would seem to me a far more useful activity for the cause if the members were presented with a series of vigorous reports and speeches, which, when accepted by the Congress after discussion, should be printed and disseminated as pamphlets in tens, nay hundreds, of thousands of copies, and also brought before the governments and parliaments.”
At the final session Lisbon was suggested as the next place for holding the Congress. The Interparliamentary Union, which had met at Brussels, decided upon Lisbon as the place for their 1898 meeting. But it was to result differently.
How did things look in the rest of the world while the debates regarding arbitration and peace were going on in Brussels and Hamburg? Of the “peace negotiations” between Turkey and Greece no end is in sight. Spain also is still a prey to discords. Fresh troops are constantly being sent off to America, and the reports from there announce terrible and increasing losses through sickness. Protests are raised in the country, among them that of Silvela, that concessions ought to be made to the Cubans, that a convenio with them should be entered into. But the government remains inexorable: First surrender, then talk of reform may be in order. This attitude wins much applause in the European press. “Liberal policy,” so run the leading articles, “is admissible in times of peace; in times of war it is equivalent to abdication. Besides, the moment would be ill chosen to make the United States any gift or concessions. All Europe is stirred by her aggressive and extravagant policy, and all Europe has an interest in seeing Spain stand firm. The government is, therefore, right in paying no heed to timorous and interested proposals. The undeviating policy which the Prime Minister has chosen, and to which he clings, is alone worthy of a statesman.”
So stubbornness, despotism, uninterrupted sacrifice of the country’s sons and the country’s money,—that is the only worthy attitude! And such views are borne out in millions of sheets from the editors’ tables. Lucky for these gentlemen that there are no great public scales in which their responsibility might be weighed!
The Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States, General Woodford, came to Spain in order to offer the services of his government for intervention, so that an end might be made of the Cuban war. The press and public opinion (it is well known how that is created!) assume a very hostile attitude to the American ambassador, who cannot understand it. Why should Spain decline mediation which would put an end to a war ruinous to the country?—Yes, why? As if ruin of country and people were to be taken into account when national pride is involved!
The Emperor and Empress of Russia were to spend the month of October in Darmstadt. I find in my correspondence a letter from Frau Büchner, the daughter-in-law of the author of Kraft und Stoff, who was persona grata with the late Princess Alice of Hesse, mother of the young Tsaritsa.
Darmstadt, February 13, 1897
Gracious and honored Lady:
Your very charming letter has made me more than happy, and I should have willingly answered it immediately to tell you how ready I am to fulfill your wish; but only to-day do I get to it. I have considered the matter from every side; it can be managed only in case the Empress should be here. It is expected here that she will take up her residence this summer at Castle Seeheim, near Darmstadt. If that should happen, my husband thinks that he might smuggle the book[21] in through a chamberlain with whom he is personally acquainted. But I myself have no confidence in this scheme, for the gentleman in question seems to me not at all equal to the responsibility. I think the book should be sent directly to the Empress here in Germany, where watchfulness and exclusiveness are not so absolutely punctilious. Then the name of a Baroness Suttner would assuredly help it to make its own way.
That would not work in Russia, even through the mediation of the court here,—that is to say, of any person connected with it. Our sovereigns here are still young and take little interest in anything in particular, and consequently play no great rôle.
Oh, if a Grand Duchess Alice were still alive who made it her special purpose to support noble efforts, to look out for the general good, and to establish truly benevolent institutions! That wise woman had sympathy with the burgher class, and from it she selected her most efficient forces; and a Luise Büchner was her right hand in her useful undertakings. How easy such a matter would have been then! And yet even at that time my father-in-law did not get on with her sister, the Empress Frederick; she was very much interested in his works, and caused this to be intimated to him, and so he sent her the book of the two crowned Liberals, but she never again let him hear from her. And she was a comparatively liberally educated English princess!
Even here little is known about the character and opinions of the young Empress of Russia. From all that is heard it seems that the dowager Empress there wields the scepter, and it is said she has not become reconciled to the fact that her daughter-in-law is a German princess.
So the young woman will have little to say in her country. Nevertheless, I will let no opportunity pass of executing your commission; perhaps it will be more successful than I can now count upon. Perhaps, also, the Empress has inherited something of her mother’s energy and capacity and will be able in time to win a position and to maintain it. In that case I am firmly convinced that her influence will be good, since nothing but good has ever been heard regarding her character.
I have not lately told you that I know and prize your husband’s works also—especially the fresh, thrilling tales in Die Kinder des Kaukasus. Those wonderfully beautiful descriptions of nature have constantly brought before my eyes your own idyllic life there. It must be splendid to live in such a lovely land when you have the genuine, inspired feeling for such beauty. In fact, I think often of your life, your habits, your environment; just because you are both such talented people you must get double the enjoyment out of everything. Only I had always imagined that you lived in beautiful, gay Vienna; so I was greatly astonished that you were in the country. I was obliged to overturn your whole surroundings,—that is, as they existed in my imagination,—and conjure up a quite different frame for the picture of your life. In doing this I was helped by your Einsam und arm; that must have been written at Castle Harmannsdorf.
I should so like to know whether you took for Karl Binsemann a model out of real life. This interested me so very much because generally in real life it is just the opposite: As a rule a man who is in unfortunate circumstances is a reformer in his youth; it is then he has the genuine sacred fire for righteousness. By the time he reaches old age he becomes weary, indifferent, and selfish, by reason of cares or the eternal monotony of his days. Then he says to himself, “What is the use of puzzling one’s brains over insoluble enigmas, what is the good of becoming indignant over injustice—it does not prevent it!”
Of course I am speaking of men of the same rank in life and the same grade of culture as a Binsemann. If this figure were taken from life, or at least suggested by a prototype, it would make the book much dearer to me, because I have always believed that it is not in accordance with life for any one to be thoughtless of such things in his youth, and in old age to begin, for the first time, to think rightly. The descriptions are so true to reality, and everything is so vivid, that one cannot help feeling, just as in reading Die Waffen nieder, that they must be taken directly from life.
My father-in-law was greatly delighted to hear from you again. All the cordial greetings from yourself and your husband are most cordially reciprocated.
In the hope of being able to carry out your commission successfully, I am
Yours with deepest respect
Marie Büchner
During the month of November the Dreyfus case made the whole world hold its breath. My Own and I followed the affair with the greatest interest and sympathy. At that time Scheurer-Kestner, Bernard Lazare, and Émile Zola came out in favor of the reopening of the trial. The Figaro had published Esterhazy’s autograph; it was an ocular demonstration that the handwriting was the same as that on the bordereau. All the military, and especially the Anti-Semitic circles, were against a new trial. The interest which I took in the course of the affair is frequently reflected in my diary:
November 18. Probably the case will be taken up again. The mere possibility that the man banished to Devil’s Island is innocent would be horrible, supposing the sentence should stand ... and we are bound now to believe in this possibility. The public conscience would remain forever oppressed by this thought.... Again it has been strikingly shown that there is such a thing as a “European soul.” A French journal remarks, in a peevish tone, about the many comments in other countries, “In the last analysis, the matter concerns France only.”
No, no! such national exclusiveness has ceased in our day. If a catastrophe occurs in any country,—the assassination of a ruler, the burning of a charity bazaar,—expressions of sympathy stream in from all directions, making the afflicted country glad. But if it permits other countries to share in its good and evil fortunes, then it must also be willing that its right and wrong actions should be judged everywhere. The partisans of justice all over the world have an equal interest in the conquest of justice and truth over tyranny and concealment. And, vice versa, the partisans of authority, the race persecutors, are in the same camp all over the world; not only in France but also in Austria and everywhere are to be found passionate anti-Dreyfusards!
The two camps are growing more and more clearly divided. But the forces are very unequally distributed. The party that champions the right has certainly on its side the overwhelming power that is peculiar to its object,—universal human happiness; the other party has the actual power, however—has the cannon behind it....
Power engenders pride. Everything is permitted to it—so it thinks—and it wishes to make manifest that it is bold enough to attempt anything. So the whole Esterhazy investigation, the Esterhazy trial, and the shameful Esterhazy apotheosis are a pure satire on every judicial proceeding, a slap in the face of august Justice,—even more, a trampling of her scales under the spur-armed heel of the soldier’s boot! The people must knuckle under,—that must be borne in upon them so that another time the desire may pass of pulling down the General Staff’s sacred ensign of error! You wanted to run up against a res judicata, did you? Very well, now you have two of them. And quite right; the people knuckled under. “The affair is at an end” (Affaire liquidée is the heading over the leading articles in the papers); but a man got up and uttered the cry of his soul,—J’accuse,—one man against an army! The far-distant ages to come will praise this heroic action.
Even in our family circle there were disputes about the affair. My father-in-law, the conservative-minded, ardent reader of Das Vaterland, would hear nothing of the proofs in favor of the exile. He also believed in the “Jewish syndicate” that was bent on buying the rehearing. And my mother-in-law had nothing good to say about Zola; she had even gone so far once as to make a great auto-da-fé of such of his books as had strayed into the house.
The year 1897 closes with an event that might well arouse much anxiety among the partisans of peace. We know how it began, but we can never know how it will end; it carries war in its womb, for it is once more something undertaken under the emblem of force,—the voyage of the fighting squadron to the Yellow Sea.
So then ... Port Arthur besieged by the Russians, Kiauchau by the Germans,—that is the newly created situation. High Politics, that is fifty or sixty men and a following of newspapers, see to it that there shall never be any rest, that no progress can ever be made toward the healing of internal troubles, the elevation of human society. A cruel state of things for the champions of peace! For years there have been perpetual wars and rumors of wars, even while in the governmental circles there were constant assurances of peace. Japan and China, the Venezuela controversy, Spain and Cuba, Armenian massacres, Italy and Africa, Greece and Turkey, England and India, and now this East-Asiatic expedition! And all the time constantly increasing armaments and paroxysms over fleets. No wonder that the slow, as it were subterranean, peace movement remains unobserved by the masses.