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 / A R INFORMATION SERIES 
 
 !o. 15 
 
 jt 
 
 March, 1918 
 
 WHY AMERICA FIGHTS 
 GERMANY 
 
 (CANTONMENT EDITION) 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN S. P. TATLOCK 
 
 Professor at Stanford University 
 
 Issued by 
 
 THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 Collected set. 
 
i 
 
 
 & 1^5 
 
 ^ 
 
 EXECUTIVE ORDER, 
 
 I hereby create a Committee on Public 
 Information, to be composed of the Secretary 
 of State, the Secretary of War, the Secretary 
 of the Navy, and a civilian who shall be 
 charged with the executive direction of the 
 committee. 
 
 As civilian chairman of the committee I 
 appoint Mr. George Creel. 
 
 The Secretary of State, the Secretary of 
 War, and the Secretary of the Navy are 
 authorized each to detail an officer or officers 
 to the work of the committee. 
 
 WOODROW WILSON. 
 April 24, 1917. 
 
 pj of B. 
 MAY U 1918 
 
WHY AMERICA FIGHTS GERMANY 
 
 America is a peaceable nation. We believe in the principle of 
 "live and let live." We respect other nations' rights, v/ish them 
 
 prosperit3 r , and envy them nothing. We have 
 abfe a natkm eaCe " vas ^ territory and undeveloped resources, enough 
 
 to occupy our minds and hands for generations 
 without meddling with other people's concerns. We believe that 
 the peace and happiness of mankind will be promoted by self- 
 government for all, by allowing the population of each civilized 
 country to govern itself. Through almost our whole history we 
 have stood for democracy and peace. We have protected China 
 from robbery and war on the part of more greedy nations, and 
 have stood the strongest friend of the new Chinese republic. In 
 1896 we stood the friend of Venezuela in her controversy with 
 Great Britain, and prevented war. For j^ears we have even 
 allowed our own citizens to be wronged in Mexico rather than 
 make war on our neighbor republic. Consequently, we are 
 now trusted as the big brother of all the republics in the New 
 World. When we departed from our peaceful policy in 1898, and 
 made war on Spain, it was in order to stop intolerable oppression 
 at our very door, in Cuba. We then gave and have guarded the 
 independence of Cuba, and only took the Philippine Islands in 
 order to save them from falling to some less disinterested nation, 
 and in order to educate their people for independence later. 
 Thus we have always worked for peace, and for the justice to all 
 which is the only sure way to maintain peace. 
 
 Well, then, why did we enter the Great European War? Why 
 was it our affair? If we love peace, why do we make war? Did 
 
 we drift in without knowing what we were 
 
 igh§ We doin S' did we S et in h y some kind of "fluke"? 
 
 We are in the war because we had to go in unless 
 we were entirely blind to our own honor and safety, and to the 
 future happiness of the whole world. 
 
 Germany has attacked us. What finally forced us into the 
 war was the unlimited submarine warfare started by Germany 
 
 on the 1st of February, 1917. Before this, 
 waTon^ 1119 eS man y American ships had been sunk by German 
 
 submarines, and hundreds of American lives had 
 been lost on these and other ships. This was contrary to all 
 humanity and even all law. Merchant ships may be turned 
 
4 WHY AMERICA FIGHTS GERMANY 
 
 back from blockaded ports, but cannot legally be sunk without 
 mercy. The most horrible outrage was the torpedoing of the 
 unarmed British ship Lusitania, in May, 1915, when 1154 lives 
 were lost, 114 being American. In May, 1916, the German Gov- 
 ernment had agreed that this sort of thing should not go on. 
 Therefore in February, 1917, the German Government simply 
 broke its word and defied us. It was announced that any ships 
 whatever, American or of any other nation, found anywhere with- 
 in enormous areas of the free Atlantic west and north of Europe 
 and in the Mediterranean, would be sunk without warning and 
 without mercy to their crews and passengers. Germany was as 
 bad as her word; she proceeded to sink American and other ships, 
 regardless of the fate of those aboard , among whom many Ameri- 
 cans perished. Every such act of Germany was an act of war 
 against us. If we put up with such savagery, it would mean 
 establishing permanently the right of submarines in war-time to 
 sink merchant ships and drown innocent people. It would mean 
 that mercy and humanity are to have no control over the acts of 
 nations. 
 
 Suppose your neighbor X dislikes your neighbor A. Suppose 
 
 he announces that if he sees you on the steps of A's house, or 
 
 even walking on the public sidewalk near it, he 
 
 desoised wn ^ ^ Y ou ) anc ^ Proves his seriousness by 
 
 shooting you through the arm with a revolver. 
 Will you go home and say indulgently, that "it is no affair of 
 yours, that you are a lover of peace, and will leave them to settle 
 their own quarrels"? Or w T ill you send for the police; or else, if you 
 are in a thinly settled region, will you not yourself restrain and 
 punish the outlaw X? Even supposing you had thought earlier 
 that there was as much to be said on X's side of the quarrel as on 
 A's, would not X's criminal and foolish conduct throw you over 
 to A's side? Because we believe in "live and let live," we do not 
 believe in die and let die. No nation of vigorous men and 
 women could put up with such intolerable outrages. We fought 
 the War of 1812 for less, we fought the Spanish War of 1898 for 
 much less. If we had not fought Germany after her false and 
 brutal conduct, we should have been despised by all the world, 
 including the Germans. 
 
 So America had far more immediate provocation than she 
 
 needed to make her an enemy of the German Government. 
 
 But there were deeper and wider reasons j r et. 
 
 outo^d us tieS ^ r ° u nave reason enough to fight a man if he 
 attacks you, but if you have long known that he 
 is a bad and dangerous man, you have still more reason to master 
 him. The overwhelming majority of Americans had been against 
 Germany from the very outbreak of the war in August, 1914. We 
 
WHY AMERICA FIGHTS GERMANY 5 
 
 knew that Germany and Austria desired the war, and forced it on 
 their unwilling opponents, the Allies. Our sense of humanity, 
 
 justice, and chivalry was horrified by the German invasion of 
 Belgium, a weak and innocent nation which stood in the road 
 which the German armies wished to take into France. We 
 were horrified still more by their conduct in Belgium — by their 
 needless destruction of precious things, by their vile and filthy 
 treatment of the Belgians, by their robberies, by their number- 
 less murders. A German soldier fell off his bicycle and his gun 
 went off; he declared he had been shot at, and all the inhabitants 
 of the village were burned to death in their homes. Feeble old 
 Belgian priests were forced to walk in front of the marching 
 German armies as screens, so that if the Belgians fired they 
 might kill the priests first. Babies were stabbed with bayonets, 
 Belgians were carried off into Germany and forced to work for 
 the German armies. There is a picture by a Dutch artist of a 
 poor old Belgian making a shell; the dreadful expression in his 
 face tells us he is thinking, "Perhaps this will kill my son." 
 German seamen from a submarine got into the lifeboat of a 
 ship sunk far from land, emptied the fresh-water casks, filled 
 them with salt-water, and even threw overboard the crew's little 
 packages, done up in bandanna handkerchiefs, of little personal 
 belongings which the poor fellows wanted to save. The crew of 
 another ship which was torpedoed were put on the deck of the 
 submarine, which then dived and left them to drown. Whole 
 books have been written about these horrors, against all law 
 and humanity, and yet half of them have not been recorded. 
 The more decent German soldiers have confessed and deplored 
 them, some have even gone crazy, even killed themselves, it is said, 
 rather than commit them. And we know that many or most of 
 them were not the acts of uncontrolled brutes who chanced to be 
 in the German army; they were ordered in cold blood by the 
 authorities. That is the difference between this war and most 
 wars. Indignation at such barbarities brought hundreds of 
 generous-hearted young Americans to fight on the Allies' side 
 long before the American nation entered the war. 
 
 We had also formed a deep distrust of the German Govern- 
 ment's honor and word. How could we help it, when the 
 
 Chancellor of the Empire brushed aside the 
 undermined solemn treaty which was to have safeguarded 
 
 Belgium, and called it in so many words a mere 
 "scrap of paper"? From month to month we learned more and 
 more of the treachery of the German Government. Through its 
 agents, even through the official diplomats in its embassy at 
 Washington, it committed acts of intrigue and treachery against 
 us within our own country, while it was professing to be our 
 
6 WHY AMERICA FIGHTS GERMANY 
 
 friend. Of such cases twenty-one were listed by our House of 
 Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs at the time when 
 we declared war. Among these acts were placing bombs on 
 ships sailing from American ports;. producing strikes and blowing 
 up factories in the United States; plotting in this neutral country 
 to blow up bridges, tunnels, and factories in Canada; and stirring 
 up anti- American feeling and generally promoting disorder in the 
 unhappy country of Mexico. Thus she attacked our honor and 
 well-being while at peace with us. The net of German intrigue 
 has encompassed the world. Germany's diplomats have been 
 at their treacherous work in the Argentine republic. Worst of 
 all, we know now — she herself admitted when found out — that 
 she tried to induce Mexico and Japan to make war on us. She 
 kindly gave Mexico permission to annex Texas, New Mexico, 
 and Arizona! And she thought the honorable Japanese as con- 
 temptible as herself, and that they might be led to desert their 
 Allies in the present war, and help Germany by attacking us, 
 their friends. How is the world to live with a nation which 
 must be utterly distrusted? The most precious thing in the 
 world, civilization, is built on humaneness and trust. Is it no 
 concern of ours that a powerful and aggressive nation marches 
 over the earth crushing them to fragments as it goes? 
 
 In these three or four years of war the American people have 
 learned a great deal about the German Government and its 
 
 principles. It is this, far more than any par- 
 oiweceft baS6d ticular event, which has made the American 
 
 people determined to see this war through till the 
 German Government is crushed or reformed . Suppose you learned 
 that your neighbor X, whom we spoke of, was in the habit of 
 boasting to his intimates that he had no principles except to get 
 ahead himself, that others have no rights, and that he should 
 never hesitate to kill anyone who interfered with him; should 
 you not feel that the place for him was the penitentiary or the 
 insane asylum? We have learned that the Germans' conduct all 
 through the war is the direct consequence of their organization 
 and their principles. From all kinds of books and speeches, by 
 their Emperor, their public men, their thinkers, we have found 
 that they will stop at nothing, absolutely at nothing, which 
 stands in the way of exalting Germany. They will commit 
 needless crimes and cruelties, murdering children, destroying 
 ancient art, because they believe this will break the spirit of 
 their enemies and make them submit through fear. It does 
 not work that way; but this proves the German authori- 
 ties not to be less criminal, simply more foolish. Their 
 Kaiser himself said to his troops when they set out for China 
 in 1900: 
 
WHY AMERICA FIGHTS GERMANY 7 
 
 "No mercy will be shown! No prisoners will be taken! 
 As the Huns, under King Attila, made a name for them- 
 selves, which is still mighty in traditions and legends today, 
 may the name of German be so fixed in China by your deeds, 
 that no Chinese shall ever again dare even to look at a 
 German askance. . . . Open the way for Kultur once 
 for all." 
 
 The rest of the world for fifteen hundred years has regarded the 
 Huns with horror as pitiless savages, but the German Kaiser 
 admires them! A more humane German who denounced the 
 outrages of the German soldiers in China was sentenced to prison 
 for three months. The greatest of German statesmen, Bis- 
 marck, stated this in 1871 as the proper treatment of the people 
 (not the army) in an enemy country: 
 
 "We shall shoot, hang, and burn. After that has hap- 
 pened a few times, the inhabitants will finally come to their 
 
 senses." 
 
 In the present war this has been done not a few but innumerable 
 times; their enemies have not given way only because other 
 peoples are not the base cowards which the Germans think they 
 are. A German preacher has said this in a public address: 
 
 "Whoever cannot prevail upon himself to approve from 
 the bottom of his heart the sinking of the Lusitania, who- 
 ever cannot conquer his sense of the gigantic cruelty to 
 unnumbered perfectly innocent victims, . . . and 
 give himself up to honest delight at this victorious exploit 
 of German defensive power — him we judge to be no true 
 German." 
 
 If this is the way to be a "true German," who would wish to be 
 one? From the Kaiser down, the Germans talk much of God 
 being with them; but it is not the God of the New Testament, 
 nor the God of the Hebrew prophets. 
 
 What makes all this most dangerous to the world is that the 
 Germans like and admire war. They are always ready to let 
 _ „ loose such horrors. "War is the noblest and 
 
 of war ° m6S holiest expression of human activity." So says 
 an influential paper which circulates among 
 young boys and others. "The ideal of perpetual peace is not only 
 impossible but immoral as well," says one of the greatest German 
 writers of history. One of the most influential of German phi- 
 losophers writes: 
 
 "Ye shall love peace as a means to new wars, and the 
 short peace better than the long." 
 
 Another eminent philosopher says: 
 
8 WHY AMERICA FIGHTS GERMANY 
 
 "A State organized only for peace is really no State. A 
 State is really manifest only in its preparation for war." 
 
 "The lessons of history thus confirm the view that wars 
 which have been deliberately provoked by far-seeing states- 
 men have had the happiest results." 
 
 This is from a recent and very influential book by a. German 
 general. So Germany not only makes war in the most savage 
 and. merciless way. She thinks war in itself a good thing, and 
 desires it. 
 
 Many things have become clearer to the world during the 
 course of the war. From the first the cause of human rights and 
 freedom was seen to be the cause of the peoples 
 All-Democracy allied against Germany. But especially since 
 DesDotism ^ ne Russian Revolution of March, 1917, one of 
 
 the greatest facts of the war is that all-Democ- 
 racy is now waging a supreme struggle against all-Despotism. 
 On the Allied side are the republic of France, the vast future re- 
 public of Russia, the democracies of Great Britain and Italy 
 (kingdoms hardly more than in name) , not to mention the other 
 democracies of the world which are giving their blood or at least 
 their encouragement. On the German side are the autocracies 
 (with the sham of democracy) — the German, the Austrian, and 
 the Turkish Empires. On which side does America belong? 
 Can our ancient republic, which taught popular rule to the 
 world, to France, England and Russia, stand by unmoved when 
 all that we hold sacred is in danger? We in this country are so used 
 to the word democracy that we do not always realize what it 
 means. It means opportunity to every man for success. It 
 means that every man with the necessary ability and character 
 can rise from poverty to wealth and power, and that government 
 will put no needless obstacle in his way, but will protect and aid 
 him. Everyone knows that this has happened countless times in 
 America. But if democracy is conquered in this war, the 
 liberty, of the individual man must be diminished that the 
 nation as a whole may be defended from foreign autocracy. 
 This is not a dream: it is a grim fact. If democracy is conquered 
 in this war, all free peoples must either submit to Germany's 
 domination, or else give up a part of their democracy in order 
 to resist her. 
 
 The tide of man's history is all against autocracy. The great 
 future is with us. But German autocracy is building dikes 
 against the flood, and may hold it off for centu- 
 Germany would r j eg ^ ^y ^ ee p m g its subjects comfortable, by using 
 worl( j the utmost help of science and efficient manage- 
 
 ment, and by achieving a great world empire 
 in the center of the Eastern Hemisphere. At this minute Ger- 
 
WHY AMERICA FIGHTS GERMANY 9 
 
 many virtually controls Austria-Hungary, the Balkan States, 
 and the Turkish Empire, which hate her but must do her will. 
 That is why she is so eager for peace now. She still controls 
 the route of the Bagdad railway, which will give far the quickest 
 route to Asia and Africa. The spider that sits at Berlin can dart 
 along the lines that lead over Europe, Asia and Africa, and 
 dominate the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. When the 
 railroads are completed, Germany would have a vast -com- 
 mercial advantage in peace, and vast wealth and military and 
 naval advantage in war. If it takes years for the democracies 
 of the world to conquer her now, how will it be then? 
 
 Someone may think all of this none of our business. Someone 
 
 may dislike German ideas, but still say, "Here we are away off 
 
 across the Atlantic, in no danger from Germany. 
 
 toSSS enace She wil1 never dare attack us > she ma y turn 
 
 the Old World upside-down, but she will let the 
 New World alone." The answer to this is: We must fight Ger- 
 many in Europe that we may not have to fight her in America. 
 We are and have been for a long time in danger from Germany. 
 The Kaiser only two or three years ago stated it to our ambassa- 
 dor with the insulting frankness of a bully. "He stood very close 
 to me and talked very earnestly," says Mr. Gerard. "He 
 showed, however, great bitterness against the United States and 
 repeatedly said, ' America had better look out after this war'; and 
 'I shall stand no nonsense from America after the war.' " Ger- 
 many desires colonies in South America, in Brazil, which our 
 Monroe Doctrine would oblige us to defend. If she once got a 
 foothold in America, there would be no end to her encroaching. 
 She desires power in the Pacific, and has expected trouble with us 
 there — which all but came during our Spanish War. She be- 
 lieves she can beat us, and would not hesitate to attack us. 
 Plans have all been formed, and printed, by men of military 
 rank, for an invasion of America. Every well-informed man 
 knows that a war between Germany and the United States alone 
 not only has long been possible, but might easily be fatal to us. 
 We are a strong nation, but so are the Germans. They have 
 two-thirds our population, and both in peace and war-time 
 have a far larger and stronger army, and a larger and stronger 
 fleet. These are cold facts. We must fight Germany in Europe 
 with help, that we may not have to fight her in America without 
 help. 
 
 Now let us picture what a sudden invasion of the United 
 States by these Germans would mean; sudden, because their 
 settled way is always to attack suddenly. First they set 
 themselves to capture New York City. While their fleet block- 
 ades the harbor and shells the city and the forts from far at sea, 
 
10 WHY AMERICA FIGHTS GERMANY 
 
 their troops land somewhere near and advance toward the city in 
 
 order to cut its rail communications, starve it into surrender, and 
 
 then plunder it. One body of from o0,000 to 
 
 Snd e in G N^ anS 100 > 000 men lands > let us suppose, at Barnegat 
 j erse y Bay, N. J., and advances without meeting resis- 
 
 tance, for the brave but small American army is 
 scattered elsewhere. They pass through Lakewood, a station on 
 the Central Railroad of New Jersey. They first demand wine for 
 the officers and beer for the men. Angered to find that an 
 American town does not contain large quantities of either, they 
 pillage and burn the post-office and most of the hotels and stores. 
 Then they demand $1,000,000 from the residents. One feeble 
 old woman tries to conceal twenty dollars which she has been 
 hoarding in her desk drawer; she is taken out and hanged (to 
 save a cartridge). Some of the teachers in two district schools 
 meet a fate which makes them envy her. The Catholic priest 
 and Methodist minister are thrown into a pig-sty, while the 
 German soldiers look on and laugh. Some of the officers quarter 
 themselves in a handsome house on the edge of the town, insult 
 the ladies of the family, and destroy and defile the contents of 
 the house. By this time some of the soldiers have managed to 
 get drunk; one of them discharges his gun accidentally, the cry 
 goes up that the residents are firing on the troops, and then hell 
 breaks loose. Robbery, murder and outrage run riot. Fifty 
 leading citizens are lined up against the First National Bank 
 building, and shot. Most of the town and the beautiful pine- 
 woods are burned, and then the troops move on to treat New 
 Brunswick in the same way — if they get there. 
 
 This is not just a snappy story. It is not fancy. The gen- 
 eral plan of campaign against America has been announced 
 repeatedly by German military men. And 
 
 happen ^^ ever y horrible detail is 3 ust what the German 
 troops have done in Belgium and France. The 
 
 same thing would happen at Plymouth or Gloucester in the ad- 
 vance on Boston; might happen at Michigan City, Indiana, in the 
 advance on Chicago, at Council Bluffs on the way to Omaha. It 
 is hard for an American to realize the danger. It has never hap- 
 pened before, because there has never before been such a menace 
 as the German Empire of our day. You do not expect your 
 house to burn down, but you insure it, especially if there have 
 been many incendiary fires in your town. There has been far 
 more danger of an invasion of America by Germany than of 
 your house burning down; our insurance against this invasion is 
 doing our level best to crush the present German Government 
 now while the rest of the world too is determined to crush it. 
 
 Can we crush it? Yes, if we work and fight, ail of us, soldiers 
 and civilians, with heart and soul and both hands. The German 
 
WHY AMERICA FIGHTS GERMANY 11 
 
 nation is not greater than the rest of the world, though just now 
 it thinks it is. During the first part of the war they were 
 
 superior in a military way, because the whole 
 beat rt Germany ° na <tion for fifty years and more had been organized 
 
 first and foremost for war. Other nations did 
 not want war, and had organized for peace. But does any red- 
 blooded American doubt that if ever since the Rebellion we had 
 thought and dreamed and worked for War, War, War, our 
 armies would be better than the German? Six modern inventions 
 have been conspicuous in the present war: the airplane, the subma- 
 rine, the automobile, the wireless telegraph, the "tanks," the Zep- 
 pelin balloon . Of these the first two are American inventions; the 
 automobile mainly French (partly German); the wireless tele- 
 graph is Italian; the "tanks" English. The only one of the six 
 which has conspicuously failed is the Zeppelin; it is a German in- 
 vention. The Germans also introduced two things which anyone 
 could have invented if he had been hard-hearted enough; liquid 
 fire, and poison gas. We are matching them at these now. The 
 Germans are far from being beaten yet; they are still very 
 dangerous, and will give us many terrible surprises and blows. 
 They think now they are the victors. We are at a critical point 
 of the war. But they will be beaten if the boys from Kansas and 
 Oregon and Georgia and Ohio and New York and Massa- 
 chusetts, clean-cut and clean-lived and intelligent, keep at it. 
 
 And they will keep at it. Nothing has given Americans such 
 
 a hearty sense of the intelligence and public spirit of our free 
 
 citizens as the way they have responded to such 
 
 young^en ° m an umisua l measure as conscription and the 
 
 draft. We have all realized that our nation can- 
 not live on this earth if it can be insulted and wronged with im- 
 punity; that its liberty and rights for the future must be ensured; 
 that mercy and truth, justice and peace, must be secured through- 
 out the earth if civilization is to survive on it; that, as our great 
 President says, the World must be made Safe for Democracy. We 
 have all agreed with a prominent American apostle of peace that 
 "the way out is forward." Our young men at the nation's 
 call are postponing their plans for their lifework, and are risking 
 their lives. They see that an entirely impartial draft is the 
 fairest way of raising men to defend what we most value and love 
 on earth; that no man has a right to the blessings of this country, 
 who will not rise to defend them when he is called. America's 
 young manhood can be relied on for courage and patriotism. 
 And many of these are of German blood. The wickedness 
 and treachery which have made the free nations 
 To reform the resolved to down the Germans are not inborn 
 destrov them traits of all their people. German- Americans 
 
 are among the best citizens we have, as many of 
 
12 WHY AMERICA FIGHTS GERMANY 
 
 them have shown during this war. We shall feel brotherly toward 
 the German nation again if two things can be changed, their Gov- 
 ernment and their spirit. 
 
 The chief trouble with the Germans is their Government. It 
 has the appearance of allowing power to the people, but this is 
 only in appearance. As a fact, the Emperor 
 Germany's ■j [iBS near }y absolute power. The ministers, or 
 
 Government cabinet, are responsible only to him, do his will, 
 
 and remain in office during his pleasure. The 
 Reichstag, or Congress, is little more than a debating society; it 
 talks but does not do things. If it refuses to vote taxes, the taxes 
 of the preceding years are continued. Even the power to elect 
 the members of this weak Reichstag is not equally in the hands of 
 all citizens. The great cities, the home of the progressive working- 
 class, have the same representation as was given them in 1871, 
 and therefore have far less voting-power relatively than 
 country districts, which are controlled by the Junkers, the 
 aristocrats and great land-owners. Prussia, which dominates 
 Germany, is much less democratic than the Empire; the 
 laboring class is almost powerless. All this means that a small 
 group of selfish men can force the nation into war, as it did this 
 time; and what is much worse, by feverish preparation and by 
 poisoning the nation's mind can keep it ready and eager for 
 war. Laboring people seldom want war, except for self-defense. 
 There has always been a party in Germany that demanded 
 more popular freedom. During the strain of the war this 
 party has increased by leaps and bounds, so that the rulers are 
 desperately afraid of it. By defeating the Government of 
 Germany we shall help the real German people to get their 
 rights. When all peoples have their rights, the World will be 
 Safe for Democracy. 
 
 The other danger from Germany lies in the belief of the 
 Germans that they are a superior people with a civilization 
 
 that must be forced on the rest of the world. 
 Germany's This arrogance results from the position of the 
 
 military nobility as a superior caste, and from 
 Germany's youth and lack of political sense as a nation. 
 Germany is the youngest of the great nations, only one-third 
 as old as the United States. Their governing class believes 
 that war is the noblest profession for an aristocrat to follow, 
 that bayonets and not ballots should be put in the hands of 
 the populace, and that their army is unconquerable. There is 
 just one way to make such a people into a good member of the 
 family of nations. We have joined in this task and we shall 
 see it through. 
 
WHY AMERICA FIGHTS GERMANY 13 
 
 Once again, Why is America fighting Germany? 
 
 (1) The German Government has drowned our citizens, sunk 
 
 our ships, destroyed our property, insulted our 
 
 toXScSESiy fla S> contrar y to a11 law and a11 humanity. 
 Every such act was an act of war against us. 
 
 (2) By its cruel and treacherous treatment of Belgium, and by 
 its manner of waging war, it has excited the horror of all decent 
 people. Mercy and justice through all the world are at stake. 
 
 (3) Its constant love and desire for war proves it the greatest 
 menace on earth to the peace and happiness of free peoples. 
 
 (4) On our. side are the democracies of the world, great and 
 small; on the German side are the autocracies of the world, 
 warring against the principles on which our democracy and all 
 others are founded. 
 
 (5) Germany plans to dominate the Old World from its center, 
 and to-day has largely accomplished the plan. In a few years 
 it will be too late to stop her. 
 
 (6) Germany's ambitions for expansion in the New World have 
 shown that we should have to fight Germany later, if not now; 
 and without help, instead of with the help of all other great free 
 peoples . ' .... ,^.. _ _ , . , 
 
 To fight Germany now is the only way to make the World 
 Safe for Democracy; to make sure that little American babies, 
 our little brothers and sons, shall not have to do it, but shall 
 grow up free from the nightmare of militarism, suspicion and 
 fear. America is a peaceable nation; if we wish to remain so, 
 we must win this war. After this, will anyone ask, Why 
 America fights Germany? 
 
COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 (Established by Order of the President, April 14, 1917) 
 
 I. RED WHITE AND BLUE SERIES 
 
 1. How the War Came to America. 
 
 Contents: The policy of the United States with reference to the Monroe Doc- 
 trine, freedom of the seas, and international arbitration; developments of our 
 policy reviewed and explained from August, 1914, to April, 1917. Appendix: 
 the President's address to the Senate, January 22, 1917; his War Message, April 
 2, 1917; his Flag Day address, June 14, 1917. 32 pages. (Translations into 
 German, Polish, Bohemian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese, Yiddish 
 and Croatian. 48 pages.) 
 
 2. National Service Handbook. (Price 15 cents.) 
 
 Contents: Description of civic and military organizations directly or indirectly 
 connected with war work. Maps, Army and Navy insignia, diagrams. 246 
 pages. 
 
 3„ The Battle Line of Democracy. (Price 15 cents.) 
 
 Contents: The best collection of patriotic prose and poetry. Authors and 
 statesmen of America and all the countries now associated with us in the war 
 here express the highest aspirations of their people. 134 pages. 
 
 4. President's Flag Day Address, with Evidence of Germany's Plans. 
 
 Contents: The President's speech explained by carefully selected notes giving 
 the proofs of German purposes and intrigues. 32 pages. 
 
 5. Conquest and Kultur. 
 
 Contents: Quotations from German writers revealing the plans and purposes 
 of pan-Germany, one chapter being devoted entirely to the German attitude 
 toward America. 160 pages. 
 
 6. German War Practices: Part I — -Treatment of Civilians. 
 
 Contents: Methods of the German military machine in Belgium and Northern 
 France; facts stated on the basis of American and German evidence only. This 
 book shows how the German Government taught the soldiers the "art" of ter- 
 rorism, often forced them to commit crimes against civilization, and punished 
 those who betrayed symptoms of mercy. 91 pages. 
 
 7. War Cyclopedia. A Handbook for Ready Reference on the 
 
 Great War. (Price 15 cents.) 
 
 Contents: Over 1000 articles, covering all phases of the war, with special 
 reference to America's policy, interests, and activities. Suitable for speakers, 
 editors, and all persons seeking information on the "War. The best single vol- 
 ume on the War. 321 pages. 
 
 8. German Treatment of Conquered Territory: Part II of "Ger- 
 
 man War Practices." 
 
 Contents: Deals with the systematic exploitation of occupied territory by the 
 Germans under the Rathenau Plan, the burning of Louvain, and their wanton 
 destruction in the evacuated districts of Northern France. An appalling record 
 of calculated brutality. 61 pages. 
 
 9. War, Labor, and Peace: Some Recent Addresses and Writings of 
 
 the President. 
 
 Contents: The American reply to the Pope (August 27, 1917); Address to the 
 American Federation of Labor (November 12, 1917); Annual Message to Congress 
 (December 4, 1917); Program of the world's peace (January 8, 1918); Reply to 
 Chancellor von Hertling and Coimt Czernin (February 11, 1918). (39 pages). 
 
 (Translations into the principal foreign languages are in preparation.) 
 
 Other issues are in preparation. 
 
 II. WAR INFORMATION SERIES 
 
 101. The War Message and the Facts Behind It. 
 
 Contents: The President's message with notes explaining in further detail 
 the events to which he refers. A careful reading of this brief pamphlet is earn- 
 estly recommended. 32 pages. 
 
 14 
 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE 15 
 
 102. The Nation in Arms. 
 
 Contents: Two addresses by Secretaries Franklin K. Lane ana Newton D. Baker, 
 showing why we are at war. These are two of the most forceful and widely 
 quoted speeches the war has produced. 16 pages. 
 
 103. The Government of Germany. By Charles D. Hazen (Columbia 
 
 University) . 
 Contents: Explanation of the constitutions of the German Empire and ©f 
 Prussia, showing the way in which the Prussian monarch controls Germany. 
 16 pages. 
 
 104. The Great War: From Spectator to Participant. By Andrew C. 
 
 McLaughlin (University of Chicago) . 
 Contents: A review of the attitude of the American public showing how events 
 transformed the temper of a pacific nation, which finally found war unavoidable. 
 16 pages. 
 
 105. A War of Self-Defense, 
 
 Contents: Addresses by Secretary of State Robert Lansing and Assistant 
 Secretary of Labor Louis F. Post, showing how war was forced upon us. 22 
 pages. 
 
 106. American Loyalty. By American citizens of German descent. 
 Contents: Expressions of citizens of German descent who have found in 
 
 America their highest ideal of political liberty, and feel that America is now 
 fighting the battle of liberalism in Germany as well as in the rest of the world. 
 24 pages. 
 
 107. Amerikanische Biirgertreue. A German translation of No. 106. 
 
 108. American Interest in Popular Government Abroad. By E. B. 
 
 Greene (University of Illinois) . 
 Contents: A clear, historical account, with quotations from Wash- 
 ington, Monroe, Webster, Lincoln and other public men, showing America's 
 continuous recognition of her vital interest in the cause of liberalism throughout 
 the world. Unpublished material from the Government archives throws an 
 interesting light on our policy during the great German democratic revolution of 
 1848. 16 pages. 
 
 109. Home Reading Course for Citizen Soldiers. Prepared by the War 
 
 Department . 
 Contents: A course of 30 daUy lessons offered to the men selected for service 
 in the National Army ae a practical help in getting started in the right way. 
 62 pages. 
 
 110. First Session of the War Congress. 
 
 Contents: A complete summary of all legislation passed by the First Session 
 of the 65th Congress with necessary dates, notes and brief excerpts from the 
 debates. 48 pages. 
 
 111. The German War Code. By G. W. Scott (Columbia University) 
 
 and J. W. Garner (University of Illinois). 
 Contents: A comparison of the official German War Manual (Kriegsbrauch im 
 Landkriege) with the official War Manuals of the United States, Great Britain, 
 and France ; a revelation of the war philosophy of the German Government, with 
 its defense of frightfulness. 16 pages. 
 
 112. American and Allied Ideals. By Stuart P. Sherman (University 
 
 of Illinois). 
 Contents: Addressed to those who are "neither hot nor cold" in the war, it 
 presents in a most convincing way the reasons why all who believe in the prin- 
 ciples of freedom, right, and justice, which are the ideals of America and of the 
 Allies, should aid their cause. 24 pages. 
 
 113. German Militarism and Its German Critics. By Charles Altschul . 
 Contents: A careful study of German Militarism before the War, especially 
 
 as revealed in the Rosa Luxemburg Trial and the Zabern Incident. The evidence 
 is drawn almost entirely from newspapers published in Germany; it reveals 
 the brutality which prevailed in the German army in time of peace, and helps to 
 explain the crimes and atrocities committed by Germany in the present war. 
 40 pages. (A German edition is in press.) 
 
 114. The War for Peace. By Arthur D. Call, Secretary of the American 
 
 Peace Society. 
 Contents: A compilation of the official statements and other utterances of the 
 leading Peace organizations and leaders showing how the present war is viewed 
 by American friends of Peace. (In press.) 
 
L25 flRY 0F CONGRESS 
 
 16 PUBLICATIONS OF THE COMMj 
 
 020 fsHTET! 1 
 
 115. Why America Fights Germany. By John o. r. iau U ^ v *Z^L M 
 
 University) . 
 
 Contents: A brief statement of why the United States entered the war; con- 
 crete yet comprehensive. Deals with the offences of Germany against America 
 and against the world. States the case tersely and forcibly for everybody. 13 
 pages. 
 
 116. The Study of the Great War. By Samuel B. Harding (Indiana 
 
 University) . 
 Contents: A topical outline, with extensive extracts from the sources and 
 reading references; intended for college and high school classes, clubs, and others. 
 (In press.) 
 
 117. The Activities of the Committee on Public Information. 
 
 Contents: A report made to the President, January 7, 1918. ( 20 pages.) 
 
 (Other issues are in preparation.) 
 
 III. LOYALTY LEAFLETS 
 
 A series of leaflets of ordinary envelope size. Designed especially for the 
 busy man or woman who wants the important facts of the war and our partici- 
 pation in it put simply, briefly, and forcibly. 
 
 201. Friendly Words to the Foreign Born. By Hon. Joseph Buffington, 
 
 Senior United States Circuit Judge of the Third Circuit. 8 pages. 
 (Translations into the principal foreign languages are in preparation.) 
 
 202. The Prussian System. By F. C. Walcott, of the U. S. Food Ad- 
 
 ministration. 
 
 203. Labor and the War. President Wilson's Address to the American 
 
 Federation of Labor. (Buffalo, N. Y., Nov. 12, 1917.) 
 
 204. A War Message to the Farmer. By President Wilson, January 31, 
 
 1918. 
 
 205. Plain Issues of the War. By Elihu Root, Ex-Secretary of State. 
 
 206. Ways to Serve the Nation. A Proclamation by the President, April 
 
 16, 1917. 
 
 207. What Really Matters. By a well-known newspaper writer. 
 (Other issues are in preparation.) 
 
 IV. OFFICIAL BULLETIN. Published Daily 
 
 Accurate daily statements of what all agencies of Government are doing in 
 war times. Sent free to newspapers and postmasters (to be put on bulletin 
 boards); subscription price to others $5 per year. 
 
 Any two of the above publications will be sent free, except as noted. 
 Address, 
 
 COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION 
 
 10 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C. 
 
..FHNGRESS f 
 
 020 913 102 A 
 
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 020 913 102 A 
 
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