1914] A Witless Document 



October 11), which with justice has been more TheMani- 

 severely criticized than any other product of German ^",^° "^ "■' 

 scholarship. This made six assertions, all beginning tinel^^ 

 with the phrase, '' Es istnicht wahr'' (It is not true), ^"''^i''- 

 These were (in substance) as follows: '"'''^ 



1. It is not true that Germany is to blame for this war. 



2. It is not true that we have violated the neutrality of 



Belgium. 



3. It is not true that the life or property of any single Bel- 



gian citizen was harmed save in the bitterest defensive 

 need. 



4. It is not true that our soldiers were brutal at Louvain. 



. 5. It is not true that our conduct of war has been contrary 

 to law. 

 6. It is not true that the war against our so-called militarism 

 is not a war against our Kultur. 



This Stupidly untruthful pronouncement naturally 

 made a painful impression on the very persons it was 

 particularly designed to influence. Its origin was 

 recently indicated to me in a personal letter by Dr. 

 Arnold Klebs, an American scholar now resident at 

 Nyon, Switzerland. According to Klebs, Dr. Ludwig 

 Fulda (of Frankfort), who accepted the current view Fuida's 

 of the origin of the war as set forth in the marche-route ^ '^''"^ 

 German press, saw with growing alarm that public 

 opinion in this country was turning rapidly against 

 Germany. Returning home, he declared to Ehrlich, 

 the great pharmacologist, that "some energetic 

 expression of indignation by the leading German 

 intellectuals was needed to counteract the vicious 

 propaganda against German culture, especially in 

 America." To this Ehrlich assented, but he after- 

 ward said that "silence would have served the pur- 

 pose better." 



r 657 3 



