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Prince of Hohenzollern had been officially communicated to the Imperial Government of France by the Royal Government of Spain, the French ambassador at Ems further demanded of his Majesty the King that he would authorize him to telegraph to Paris that his Majesty the King bound himself for all future time never again to give his consent if the Hohenzollerns should renew their candidature. His Majesty the King thereupon decided not to receive the French ambassador again, and sent to tell him through the aide-decamp on duty that his Majesty had nothing further to communicate to the ambassador.'

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The French people could see in this action of Bismarck nothing but the basest insult, notwithstanding that historians who have carefully examined the dispatch and compared it with the original telegram of King William of Prussia have claimed that it was not at all such-that the abbreviated form had not the incendiary language in it that the original had.14 A perusal of the two shows that there is some basis for this claim. 15 There is no question, however, that Bismarck wanted war, and that the French government were almost as eager. Both the German and French people,

14 See Rose, p. 49-50.

15 The original telegram is as follows: "His Majesty writes to me: 'Count Benedetti spoke to me on the promenade, in order to demand from me, finally in a very importunate manner, that I should authorize him to telegraph at once that I bound myself for all future time never again to give my consent if the Hohenzollerns should renew their candidature. I refused at last somewhat sternly, as it is neither right nor possible to undertake engagements of this kind a tout jamais.

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'Naturally I told him that I had as yet received no news, and as he was earlier informed about Paris and Madrid than myself he could see clearly that my Government once more had no hand in the matter.' His Majesty has since received a letter from the Prince. His Majesty, having told Count Benedetti that he was awaiting news from the Prince, has decided, with reference to the above demand, upon the representation of Count Eulenburg and myself, not to receive Count Benedetti again, but only to let him be informed through an aide-de-camp: "That his Majesty had now received from the Prince confirmation of the news which Benedetti had already received from Paris, and had nothing further to say to the ambassador.' His Majesty leaves it to your Excellency whether Benedetti's fresh demand and its rejection should not be at once communicated both to our ambassadors and to the press."

on the other hand, shuddered to think of the horrors of such a war between the two great powers.

Prussia's monster crime, however, was not the war,-it was the stealing of the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.

CHAPTER XIII

THE UNITED STATES

Fundamental and Immediate Causes of Our Conflict with Germany

IN

N our series "The Causes of War," we have dealt with man's motives for war in the past; the European background of the great conflict just closed; the causes of this war for each of the individual nations involved;-in the meantime showing the nature of recent German diplomacy; the autocratic government and military caste that were responsible, in the Kaiser's dominions, for the universal devastation and bloodshed; and finally, in a general way, with America's reasons for entering the cause of the free nations in the supreme struggle of democracy and right against autocracy and might. Now, in our series of articles on the "Outline and Study of the World War," we shall state our own cause more specifically, and follow up with the study of the military and other events of the war, the preliminary peace problems of the peace conference-all with the view to making this material most available and suitable to the needs of our readers, as they deal with the war and current history.

It is to be hoped that the lively interest in the reading and study of current history which has been stimulated by the war will continue in these equally critical and unsettled times of world reaction and reconstruction, and that the great services of the leading weekly and monthly magazines and periodicals will not be forgotten.

Following is an outline on the United States and her causes

and interests in the world war. This outline has been used throughout the schools of Fort Smith as a basis for the study of this war, as our government urges upon our schools today, -and is recommended by teachers and school officials in a good many systems. Practically all references are available in any community.

WAR STUDY OUTLINE FOR SCHOOLS

1. Why We Were At War With Germany

A. Fundamental Causes.

1. Democracy versus autocratic power. (This world cannot remain permanently half free and half enslaved by autocratic power.)

2.

The moral ground of humanity versus the principle that "might makes right" with Germany's consequent cruelties and barbarous warfare.

3. U. S. championship of international law, the sacred obligations of treaties, the rights of neutrals, and of small states.

4.

U. S. has also gone to war to uphold her own honor and respect among the powers of the earth, and to prove the sincerity of her professed principles.

B. Immediate Causes.

1. Germany's domineering diplomacy and attitude toward our Monroe Doctrine.

a. Admiral Diederich and Admiral Dewey in Manila harbor in 1898. (See World's Work, June, 1916.)

b. The Samoan incident. (See World's Work,
June, 1916.)

c. The Kaiser, Roosevelt, and Venezuela, 1902.
d. Utterances of the Crown Prince and others with
regard to U. S. and Monroe Doctrine. (See
"Out of Their Own Mouths.")

e. German spy system in America. (Pres. Wilson's Speeches.)

f. Germany's aggressions in South America and Mexico.

g. Von Zimmerman's proposal to Mexico and Japan for partitioning U. S. among them.

German submarine blockade.

a. Interference with legitimate American com

merce.

b. Destruction of American lives and property.
c. Shameless violation of our rights as neutrals,
(rights she had solemnly promised to respect,
but whose violation she now celebrated pub-
licly in numerous places).

d. Great loss of food needed for suffering peoples. 3. Atrocities in Belgium, Poland, Northern France, Serbia, Roumania-showing Germany's deliberate policy toward her helpless, innocent victims.

4. Similar effect on American opinion was caused by the Zeppelin raids on the unprotected and innocent in London and other English towns.

5. Nefarious plotting of German agents in the U. S. with working men, banks, anarchists, bombs, traitors, pan-Germans, etc. (Hundreds of cases unearthed by U. S. secret service, showing millions of dollars spent in this country by Germany to foment strife and influence our neutrality while Germany was still professing friendship and peaceful relations with the U. S.)

II. Danger of Failure to This Country

1. Germany threatened to make us pay for all the cost of the war to her. (A staggering indemnity, just as she had already collected from every country she had conquered.)

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