The Writing on the Wall: The Nation on Trial (1916), by Eric Fisher Wood

As World War I raged in Europe, many people in the United States thought more seriously about how well the United States could defend itself against an attack by another country.

The Writing on the Wall: The Nation on Trial by Eric Fisher Wood (1889-1962) added to the discussion of such concerns, following the earlier publication of books like American and the World War (1915), by Theodore Roosevelt.

Wood's book goes into very formal detail about the current military capabilities of the United States.  He concluded that the current administration had been negligent in adequately preparing for war. He is critical of United States President Woodrow Wilson, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, and Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels.

Although Wood was a civilian, he had done much research through documentation, conversations with military officials, and firsthand observation of the war in Europe. An advertisement for The Writing on the Wall in the January 29, 1916 editions of the Chicago Daily Tribune and New York Times read:

This book is semi-official.  Every statement in it has been approved by prominent officers of the Army and Navy, who, prevented by official censorship from speaking for themselves, are calling to their country through this book.

United States World War I Recruiting Image

Wood was already well-known because of his popular 1915 book The Note-Book of an Attaché: Seven Months in the War Zone, which was written from Wood's experiences early in the war when he worked with the American embassy in France.

When the war broke out, Wood was studying architecture in Paris.  He then volunteered for service at the American embassy, and delivered messages to American embassies in other European countries affected by the war.

The Writing on the Wall focused on the defense of the United States and does not argue for the United States to join the fighting in Europe.

Wood felt that a foreign nation could attack and conquer a large section of the northeastern United States, which he called "the vulnerable heart of the United States" because of its concentration of important government, military, industrial, and educational facilities. These attackers could then settle in as an occupying force, using natural barriers of rivers, lakes, and mountains to hold that area.

Many facts and figures are put forth in The Writing on the Wall, including this statement about the naval capabilities of the United States:

Dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts are technically classed as capital ships. These carry at least eight modern high-power big guns, and are able to steam twenty-one or more knots an hour. Of such ships Great Britain has forty-three, Germany twenty-six and Japan twelve. We have only twelve at present in service. Sea control absolutely depends upon the possession of these ships.

Wood tried to bring a strong sense of urgency to his writing and tried to face worst case scenarios. The reader might think about the later attacks on United States territory on December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001, and wonder how much Wood's concern about preparedness was felt before these attacks.

We who have beheld the present gigantic struggle with our own eyes feel and understand how far-reaching it is, and how much more far-reaching it may well become. When we return from Europe and find our countrymen apparently asleep to all this, we are utterly amazed at their apathy. We become possessed by an almost irrepressible impulse to shake them until they are thoroughly awake.

Like Theodore Roosevelt and other writers, Wood proposed that compulsory military service be instituted in the United States, similar to programs in Switzerland, Australia, and Japan. The main benefit of such service would be a trained military that could quickly move into action when a war broke out.

Wood's suggested guidelines for compulsory service included:

• All required training and service completed by the age of 24.
• No service outside of the United States or in suppressing local civil disorders.
• Limited standing army.

Compulsory service also would help young men develop more of a "civic consciousness," which Wood described in language similar to that used to describe compulsory service for young Germans in The War and America (1914), by Hugo Münsterberg.

Wood tried to distinguish between preparedness and militarism and titled one of his chapters "Preparationists are Pacifists." He felt that preparedness was a plan for defense and militarism a plan for attacking other countries. He also stressed that any treaties must be backed by the strong threat of enforcement.

Some of The Writing on the Wall was originally published in the Century Magazine in late 1915.

Wood backed up his words with actions by his involvement in national security and military training organizations, before participating in World War I in first the British army and then the United States army. Wood later served in World War II. His son Eric Fisher Wood, Jr. also served in World War II and was killed at the Battle of the Bulge.

---

The Writing on the Wall was published around January 24, 1916, when an article in The St. Louis Star announced "the immediate publication" of the book.  The copyright page states that it was published in January 1916.  Front page headlines in the January 24, 1916 edition of The St. Louis Star included:

• TURKS RETREAT IN ARMENIA ON 50-MILE FRONT / Forces So Nearly Overwhelmed That Sultan Has About Decided to Abandon Proposed Egypt Campaign, It Is Reported.

• GERMANS CONDUCT A NEW AIR RAID UPON ENGLAND

• Austrian Forces Have Occupied Adriatic Seaports of Antivari and Dulcigno, Official Announcement in Vienna Says.

---

Online versions:

• Hathi Trust Digital Library
• Internet Archive

Newspaper information from Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/)

Uncle Same image by James Montgomery Flagg (http://www.usscreen.com/american_spirit/) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons