10 
LAND & WATER 
A piil 5, 1917 
The Great Excommunication 
By Arthur Pollen 
WHEN Martin Luther uttcicd tlial >trango 
l)arado.\, " Pecca Fortitcr," he could hardly 
lia\ f supposed that he was eununciatiiiK the 
war policy of the future Gcrjnan Empire. 
But certainly the. words fit that policy with jirophetic 
precision, and in recent events we see the presage of the 
wages monstrous sins must earn. The entrance of 
America into the war has been so long foretold and so 
dearlv foreseen that now that the thing is done, there 
i^ no room left for the emotions which the unexpected 
excites. Yet of all the portents of the last two and a 
half years, it is doubtful if there is one more utterly and 
entirely strange. That the Russian giant should shake 
himself free of the fetters of autocrrcy was a thing to 
bo expected, for no one had ever doubted that he would 
be free as soon as he could. But there never was a jingo 
sf> wild as to suppose that any American, even the most 
bellicose, could ever wish to take a share in a European 
war. It was a tiling that had to be forced upon the most 
pacific of democracies : and it could only be so forced 
by the most criminal, because the most militarist 
of autocrats. And it was forced on them, not by the 
necessities of self-defence, not by the manifestation of 
any such enormous power, or threat <rf power, as would 
jeopardise America's future freedom in the world, but 
solely by the autocrat's forceful sins, his murders by land 
and sea, his rapes, his arsons, his robberies, his enslave- 
ments. 
And so America's entry into the war means much more 
than the addition of so much sea power, so much financial 
power, and ultimately so much man-power adhering to 
the Allies' ciiuse. It was after all always open to 
America to warn her citizens 'to keep off the sea. It 
would have been an abrogation of their liberty and, to 
liave saved her ships by a similar caution, would have 
meant a loss of trade and jirofit. But h?.d the great 
Republic been guided b}^ considerations of finance alone, 
had the sen.se oi honour really been dead, had the pro- 
fessed devotion to humanity's cause been an hypocrisy 
and a blind, Ainerica could have kept, not only entirely 
out of the war, but clear of any possibility of being 
directly challenged to the war. In coming in, then, 
America enters as a volunteer, and America is a country 
in which there are some millions of citizens of German 
birth and many more millions of recent German descent. 
Perhaps the most significant of all the strange conditions 
of the world is, that the overwhelming majority of these 
(iermans take their stand with C.ongrcss and the Presi- 
dent, and come before the world to denounce and condemn 
those who have brought such infamy upon their mother 
coiuitry. It is this home-thrust more than anything 
else which will humiliate the German people. For 
liere is the first German community condemning German 
conduct. Nor is it nothing that within a month the 
military autocracy of Russia — whose threat to the 
German Empire was the sole excuse of the violation of 
Belgium — has ceased to be militaristic and autocratic, 
and has been succeeded by a people's government which, 
because free, is bent on peace, and because it loves peace, 
recognises that peace cnn only reign when justice is 
vindicated. The revolution lias thus made Russia the 
greatest democracy in the world, and the re-dedication 
of this democracy to the war, followed by the dedication 
of America, confirms the resolutions of the democracies 
of Western Europe — I-"rance, Italy and Britain — and 
gives a new meaning to the " Vox Populi, Vox Dei " of 
St. Augustine ; the common conscience of the world has 
become articulate. Germany is confronted with the fact 
that those who speak for heaven and posterity hold 
her accursed. The final step has been taken in the 
greftt excommunication. 
Value of Encouragement 
The moral value of America's action is thus enormous. 
Perhaps the resolution of France, Great Britain, Russia 
and Italy needed no reinforcement — but the strain -of 
remaining resolute is already terrible to some of the 
Allies, and is growing increasingly .-im.v for uU, The 
people of France have made cruel sacrifices in blood and 
treasure. They see their country barbarously polluted 
by murderers : their countrywomen carried off captives 
to shameless masters. They see food ^^etting scarcer. 
There is perhaps no danger of the people of these islands 
being starved into surrender. But it is not impossible 
that they should be starved. We have frjinkly to recog- 
nise that the enemy's submarine successes, though 
smaller than he expected, are still greater than we feared. 
Shall we, as a nation, be proof against the want our 
forebears suhered without complaint a century ago ? 
The jieople of Great Britain have many fine things to 
their credit. In the navy and the army they have pro- 
duced two fighting machines of incomparable skill aiid 
of heroic valour. They liave borne tlie surprises, tlic 
disappointments, the inevitable humiliations that war 
.must bring upon an unprepared nation, with singular 
calmness and reserve. But they have not yet been 
called upon to face hunger and privation nor the mam- 
straits of the besieged. If these are to^ome upon us a 
new test of national discipline and fortitude will be 
imposed — and then we shall need every spiritual and 
moral help that we cafi find. To us too, then, the entry 
of America may yet prove a priceless boon. 
This intervention is priceless because it makes the 
ultimate complete defeat of all that the German Govern- 
ment stands - for doubly assured — if only the Allied 
peoples in Europe can endure the strain of continued 
war. Mr. Wilson has banished the fear that Anu;rica's 
attitude will be purely defensive; her belligerency is 
no mare technical recognition of an existing state 
of things, which w-ill continue after/ the transition 
as it exists already. Many of us have been surprised, 
and surprised to the point of reproach, at the 
Cireat RepubHc"s long indecision. jkVe have been 
tempted to echo the loud expressions of anger and 
contempt, which the President's seemingly inveterati 
habit of writing notes excited amongst the more generous- 
minded of his countrymen. We have been slow to 
perceive, because we have recoiled from recognising, the 
enormous difficulties that lay in the path of the man 
who could not lead America into war until he had 
virtually united it for war. What we must realize 
now is, that all the things that made for patience and 
delay are the very things that should now make for 
perseverance and decision. With war declared, the 
President need no longer wait on Congress. They who 
will the end, will the means. And the Germans will 
find to their pained surprise that, if it has been difficult 
to make America begin to fight ; it will be flatly impossible 
to make her stop, until the war is won and a victory is 
achieved that is to America's, taste. 
Military Power of America 
What precise form can the military aid of America 
assume ? When war is declared, the armed forces of the 
I^epublic are at the unfettered disposall of the President. 
It is one of the curiosities of the American constitution 
that the Chief Magistrate, who has extraordinarily little 
power in times of peace, becomes a military dictator in 
time of war. What forces has he at his disposal ? The 
regular army of America bears perhaps the same relation 
to the regular army of Great Britain as it stood in August 
iqi4, as that army bore to the mobilisable forces of the 
(ierman Empire. For its numbers it is most excellently 
trained, etjuippcd and commanded. Unfortunately, its 
numbers arc insignificant. But behind it there are 
National Guards and veterans of the Spanish War, and 
some hundreds of thousands of volunteers who have had 
some experience of camp life and some initiation into 
militarj' training. Above all, there is a vast population 
of well educated, ((uick witted, high-spirited, athletic 
manhood, exactly similar in origin and surroundings to 
that who have given us the incomparable forces of Canada 
and Australia. It is material out of which soldiers of 
the ver\- highest merit can be manufactured and in an 
