Robert Joseph Kerner

“ Since Centralism, Dualism, Trialism, and Federalism have either been failures or are impracticable, make unstable the peace of Europe, and offer no permanent obstacle to Pan-Germanism, they are unacceptable from the American point of view. A just federation could alone give the nations of Austria-Hungary their chance to live, but the statesman who can mould the Danubian Monarchy into a federation has not yet appeared. ”

“ What is the aim of the German government, which officially denies Pan-German aspirations, but actually carries them out at each opportunity? It is certain, from German utterances, official and unofficial, that the least which the German government aims to do is to make the balance of power in the world favorable to herself. At most, she hopes to dominate the world. ”

“ What the Allies are fighting is not the normal economic evolution—for they cannot prevent that any more than they can prevent the change of the seasons—but rather the political aspects, militarism and autocracy, which give this attempt on the part of Germany to wrest the economic leadership of the world its dangerous and destructive character. ”

“ The Balkan peoples and the Turks boycotted Austrian goods, that is Bohemian goods, while the Czechs protested in vain against a foreign policy which could lead only to war. It is doubtful whether as an independent state Czecho-Slovakia would fare any worse than she has in the past. She has fought the wars of a German dynasty, which since 1879 has been the vassal of Germany, she has paid far out of proportion for all the costly wars of the empire, she has suffered economically worse than if she were surrounded wholly by German territory. ”

“ A federation is in principle opposed, therefore, by these three elements, thus far the lords of the empire’s destiny. It is certain that federal Austria-Hungary would be much weaker from a military point of view and hence would not be to Germany’s liking, which would employ all possible means to prevent a just federalism. The Slavs might at some crucial moment at least prevent a German alliance or assistance to Germany, even if they might not be able to have positive control of foreign policy. ”

“ It may safely be asserted that as long as Pan-Germanism is not crushed or a world state is not established and the Dardanelles are neither internationalized nor Russian, so long will Russia have a good reason for disturbing the status quo, in other words, for war. Russian expansion or yearning for an ice-free port is nothing else than a clear manifestation that Russia is organically incomplete. ”

“ American exports are now preponderantly manufactured goods, and this preponderance will increase steadily with time. Therefore the freedom of the seas and open markets for manufactured goods—not markets closed by economic leagues—are a vital necessity to the United States. ”

“ It has been argued that the economic life of Bohemia will be stifled by the establishment of her independence, because now she is protected by the Austrian tariff and in the future would share in the tariff of Pan-Germany, if that were created. Those who argue in that way ignore the comparative wealth of the various parts of the empire. ”

“ In short, the obstacles to the formation of a state like a federal Austria which could encourage a durable peace would be insurmountable. They would be immense if each nationality were gladly willing to enter such a federation, but to form one against the interests of the vested elements in power would spell failure. ”

“ The dynasty, German by nationality, tenaciously holds to the property conception of the state—the state belongs to it. And the state is a medley of nations and races of which at least six are of vital importance in any attempted solution of the problem: the Czechs and the Slovaks, the Germans, the Poles, the Magyars, the Serbo-Croats, and the Roumanians—neither of which has a numerical majority in the whole state or in either of the two component parts, but whose total population is preponderantly Slavic. ”

“ The British Empire, whose spinal cord is the trade route from England to India by way of the Mediterranean Sea, would be vitally menaced. Egypt and India would lie in the path of Pan-Germanism in its African or Asiatic extensions. ”

“ The simple answer is that in her present make-up, she can only be a tool of Germany; an independent policy is out of the question. The constitutions which govern the Dual Kingdom of Austria-Hungary give the real power to three elements, the German dynasty of the Hapsburgs, and the German minority in Austria and the Magyar minority in Hungary. ”

“ No careful student of Austro-Hungarian politics can believe that the present dominant minorities will commit suicide. It is easier to give them independence than to ask them to accept an equal place among six or seven where formerly two held sway. ”

“ This arrangement is as much a farce as is the German constitution which places the power in the hands of the Hohenzollerns, the junkers of Prussia and the captains of industry under the leadership of the princes of the Bundesrat. The German Reichstag, the Austrian Reichsrat, and the Hungarian Lower House are debating societies, where things are sometimes said, but where anything is rarely done. ”

“ In the defense of their interests they can advance the strongest argument in their opposition to the expansion of militarism and autocracy as exemplified by Germany. A democratic Germany interested in the building of such a road cannot be a menace. ”

“ Soon her soil, like England’s will be unable to support her population, as indeed her soil can now no longer yield forth sufficient raw products to supply her factories. A billion dollars’ worth of raw products for manufacturers was imported into the United States in the course of the last year. ”