Veblen’s Book as an Aid to Kaiserism.
“An Inquiry Into the Nature of Peace” Attacked as Unfit for Young 
American Students.
By Professor William Herbert Hobbs, of the University of Michigan.
The New York Times, Mar., 17, 1918.
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To the Editor of The New York Times:

The defense of Professor Veblen's book, "An Inquiry Into the Nature 
of Peace," &c., published last year, seems to have been directed 
toward showing that the author is not intentionally pro-German in 
his attitude, whereas the real question is whether the book gives 
aid to Kaiserism and is therefore demoralizing in its effect upon 
readers.

It must be admitted that logically the book comes to an end with the 
conclusion of the long chapter on “Peace, Without Honor," (some 
sixty pages near the middle of the book,) where the amazing decision 
is reached that an the whole it would be better to submit to Germany 
rather than go to the immense cost of resistance. What the author 
means by adding that there would be a cultural gain through 
submission some one else must explain. The remaining portion of the 
book is discursive and wandering, but, contrary to some reviewers, 
the statements of this portion do not counteract the yellowness of 
the earlier half. Some twenty-five pages beyond the announcement of 
the decision, and again on page 203, admission is made that the 
country is probably not yet ready to adopt the author's conclusion, 
already reached, concerning the desirability of submitting to 
Germany, and hence Germany will probably have to be destroyed. This 
is no doubt what the book's defenders refer to as the anti-Germanism 
in the book.

Defenders of Professor Veblen having claimed that a supposed 
repentance in the second half excuses the yellow streak of the 
earlier portion, I trust I may be permitted to publish two citations 
in disproof of this. On Pages 185-186 it is stated:

The outlook for a speedy settlement of the world’s peace on a plan 
of unconditional surrender to the projected imperial dominion seems 
unpromisingly dubious, in view of the stubborn temper shown by these 
modern peoples wherever their preconceived ideas of right and honest 
living appear to be in jeopardy; and the expediency of entering into 
any negotiative compact of diplomatic engagements and assurances 
designed to serve as groundwork to an eventual enterprise of that 
kind must therefore also be questionable in a high degree. It is 
even doubtful if any allowance of time can be counted on to bring 
these modern peoples to a more reasonable, more worldly wise frame 
of mind; so that they would come to see their interest in such an 
arrangement, or would divest themselves of their present stubborn 
and perhaps fantastic prejudice against an autocratic regime of the 
kind spoken for. At least for the present any such hope of a 
peaceful settlement seems illusive.

Again, on Page 203, Professor Veblen says:

Of the two alternatives spoken of above, the former – peace by 
submission under an alien dynasty – is presumably not a practicable 
solution, as has appeared in the course of the foregoing article.
The modern nations are not spiritually ripe for it. Whether they 
have reached even that stage of national survival, or neutrality, 
that would enable them to live at peace among themselves after 
elimination of the imperial powers is still open to an uneasy doubt. 
It would be by a precarious margin that they can be counted on so to 
keep the peace in the absence of provocation from without the pale.

If this is irony, as has been claimed, it is indeed of the super-
subtle variety. The cudgels in defense of the book have been wielded 
particularly by a new literary-political review where right seems to 
be subordinate to rhetoric.

The book is admittedly dull and few will read beyond the chapter on 
“Peace Without Honor," so that hardly a ripple will be stirred in 
the great mass of the American people. It is, however, addressed 
particularly to the student, and is even now “on reserve" for the 
special study of classes in history in the library of one of our 
great seaboard universities. This alone gives sufficient ground for 
an attack upon the book in print, even if it did not also attack 
patriotism as a cause of war and ridicule, American preparedness as 
differing but little from German militarism. Inasmuch as the book is 
being used for collateral reading by students of history, we may in 
conclusion cite this profound statement concerning American 
intervention in Cuba. The Spanish-American war, it is stated, was “a 
product of sportsmanlike bravado, fed on boyish exuberance, fomented 
for mercenary objects by certain business interests and place-
hunting politicians, and incited by meretricious newspapers with a 
view to increase their circulation.”

William Herbert Hobbs.
New York, March 15, 1918.
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