independent judgment, the verdict of history unquestionably will be that the war is due to Germany's failure to prevent it and to her desire to accept the opportunity of the assassination of the Austrian Archduke as a convenient time to begin a war she long intended. The revelation of their unpreparedness is sufficient to show that England, France and Russia did not conspire to bring on the war. On the other hand, before the war began Germany had constructed a complete system of strategic railways on her Belgian border, adapted not to commercial uses, but only to the quick invasion of Belgium.

Indeed, every fact as the war has developed forms one more circumstance in the irrefragable case against Germany as the Power responsible for this world-disaster. The preparation of fifty years, the false philosophy of her destiny and of the exaltation of force, had given her a yearning for conquest, for the expansion of her territory, the extension of her influence, and the Germanization of the world. She alone is responsible for the incalculable destruction of this war. She led on in the armament of the world that she might rule it. She promoted therefore the armament of other nations. Her system was followed, though not as effectively, by other countries in pure defense of their peace and safety.

And now her Emperor, her Prussian military caste, and her wonderful but blinded people, have the blood of the millions who have suffered in this world catastrophe on their heads. The German military doctrine, that when the interests of the state are concerned, the question is one of power and force, and not of honor or obligation or moral restraint, finds its most flagrant examples in Germany's conduct of this war.

Her breach of a solemn obligation entered into by her and all the powers of Europe, in respect to Belgium's neutrality, was its first exhibition. It was followed by the well-proven deliberate plan of atrocities against the men, women and children of a part of Belgium in order to terrorize the rest of the population into complete submission. It was shown in the prompt dropping of bombs on defenceless towns from Zeppelins and other aircraft; in the killing of non-combatant men, women and children by the naval bombardment of unfortified towns; in the use of liquid fire and poison gases in battle. All of these had been condemned as improper in declarations in the Hague treaties.

The Reptile Fund, which was used under Bismarck for the bribery of the press and for the maintenance of a spy system, has been enlarged and elaborated, so that German bribery has extended the world over, and the German espionage has exceeded anything known to history. The medieval use by the Hohenzollerns of dynastic kinship has paralyzed the action of the peoples of Greece and Russia. And now we know, by recent revelation, of the aid that Swedish diplomats are furnishing to Germany in her submarine warfare against neutral ships, and that it is made possible by the influence of the German consort of the Swedish King.

Intrigue, dishonor, cruelty, have characterized the entire military policy of Germany. The rules of international law have been cast to the winds. The murderous submarine has sunk without warning the non-combatant commercial vessels of the enemy and sent their officers, their crews and their passengers, men, women and children, to the bottom without warning. Not only has this policy been pursued against enemy commercial vessels, but also against neutral commercial vessels, and parts of the crew have been

assembled on the submarines and then the submarine has been submerged and the victims left struggling in the ocean's waste to drown. We find a German diplomat telegraphing from a neutral port to the German headquarters advising that if the submarine be used against the vessels of that neutral Power it leave no trace of the attack. In other words, the murder of the crews must be complete, because "dead men tell no tales."

Having violated the neutrality of Belgium, having broken its sacred obligations to that country and her people, it is now enslaving them by taking them from Belgium and enforcing their labor in Germany. This is contrary to every rule of international law, and is in the teeth of the plainest principles of justice and honor. All these things are done for the state. It is not that the nature of the German people generally is cruel- that is not the case. But the minds of the German people have been poisoned with this false philosophy; and the ruling caste in Germany, in its desperate desire to win, has allowed no consideration of humanity or decency or honor to prevent its use of any means which in any way could by hook or crook accomplish a military purpose.

When the war began, Germany was able to convince her people and to convince many in the world that the issue in the war was not the exaltation of the military power of Germany and the expansion of her plan of destiny, but that it was a mere controversy between the Teuton and the Slav, and Germany asked with great plausibility, "Will you have the world controlled by the Slav or by the German?" Those who insisted that the issue was one of militarism against the peace of the world, of democracy against military autocracy, of freedom against military tyranny, were met

with the argument: despotism and a greater military autocracy than Germany." As the war wore on, the real issue was cleared of this confusion. Russia became a democracy. The fight was between governments directed by their people on the one hand, and the military dynasties of Germany, Austria and Turkey, on the other.

"Russia is an ally. She is a greater

President Wilson says the Allies are fighting to make the world safe for democracy. Some misconception has been created on this head. The Allies are not struggling to force a particular form of government on Germany. If the German people continue to prefer an Emperor it is not the purpose of the Allies to require them to have a republic. Their purpose is to end the military policy and foreign policy of Germany that looks to the maintenance of a military and naval machine, with its hair-trigger preparation for use against her neighbors. If this continues, it will entail on every democratic government the duty of maintaining a similar armament in self-defense, and, what is likely, the duty will be wholly or partly neglected. Thus the policy of Germany, with her purpose and destiny, will threaten every democracy. This is the condition which it is the determined purpose of the Allies, as interpreted by President Wilson, to change.

How is the change to be effected? By defeating Germany in this war. The German people have been very loyal to their Emperor, because his leadership accords with the false philosophy of the state and German destiny, with which they have been indoctrinated and poisoned. A defeat of the military machine, a defeat of the Frankenstein of the military dynasty to which they have been sacrificed, must open their eyes to the hideous futility of their political course.

The German Government will then be changed, as its people will have it changed, to avoid a recurrence of such a tragedy as they have deliberately prepared for themselves.

Men who see clearly the kind of peace which we must have, in order to be a real and lasting peace, can have no sympathy therefore with a patched-up peace, one made at a council table, the result of diplomatic chaffering and bargaining. Men who look forward to a League of the World to Enforce Peace in the future can have no patience with a compromise that leaves the promoting cause of the present awful war unaffected and unremoved. This war is now being fought by the Allies as a League to Enforce Peace. Unless they compel it by victory, they do not enforce it. They do not make the military autocracies of the world into nations fit for a World League, unless they convince them by a lesson of defeat.

When the war came on, there were a few in the United States who felt that the invasion of Belgium required a protest on the part of our government, and some indeed who felt that we should join in the war at once. But the great body of the American people, influenced by our traditional policy of avoiding European quarrels, stood by the Administration in desiring to maintain a strict neutrality. I think it is not unfair to say that a very large proportion of the intelligent and thinking people of the United States and that means a great majority — sympathized with the Allies in the struggle which they were making. But many of German birth and descent, prompted by a pride in the notable advance in the world of German enterprise, German ingenuity, German discipline, German efficiency, and regarding the struggle as an issue between Teuton and Slav, extended their sympathy to their Fatherland.