pilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllliM Why We Fight BY CLARENCE L. SPEED THE UNION LEAGUE CLUB OF CHICAGO 1918 After you have read this pamphlet please pass it on in order that the message it carries may reach the largest number of persons □ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM Clarence L. Speed has for many years been engaged in newspaper work in Chicago. He long served as city editor of the Chicago Rec¬ ord-Herald, and as financial edi¬ tor, city editor and editorial writ¬ er of the Chicago Evening Post. The nature of his work made necessary on his part a careful study of the Great War from the day of its inception, and his con¬ clusions as to the basic causes which forced America into it, to¬ gether with the evidence from German sources on which they are based, are herein set forth. Copies may be obtained of the War Committee of the Union League Club Chicago, at the following prices, delivery prepaid: Single copies...5 cents each One hundred copies.2 cents each One thousand copies...1 cent each Why We Fight CLARENCE L. SPEED The Union League Club of Chicago 1918 UfflUfflUOf'- I 7 ,yp. 311 BECAUSE GERMANY, FOR YEARS, HAS BEEN MAKING TREACHEROUS WAR ON US One of the deep, underlying reasons—not just a diplomatic pretext —why we are at war with Germany is that for a generation Germany has been making war on us. Germany has made this war not openly, bravely or humanely, but secretly, treacherously and persistently. She has sought to create race discord, to corrupt and defile politicians and office-holders, and to create separate German communities within our borders. She has poisoned the minds of children in our schools in an endeavor to make Germans of them instead of have them grow up into loyal American citizens. She has invaded the sacredness of the pulpit itself in an endeavor to corrupt our people through the very leaders of morality to whom they are accustomed to look for guid¬ ance. These may be startling assertions, but they are all true, as you shall see from the documents of the Germans themselves. We all know that it was a German fleet which stripped for action when Dewey sailed into Manila bay. We all know it was the Germans who sought to bring about a European alliance against us when we were engaged in the war with Spain. Few of us realized, however, that all these years Germany has been busy within our own borders, through editors, teachers and preachers, seeking to break down our national unity, so that when the time came it would be easy to defeat the United States in open warfare, to set at naught our cherished Monroe Doctrine, and to seize, in the western hemisphere, anything that the land grabbing rulers of the German Empire might desire. CITIZENS OF DOUBLE ALLEGIANCE The climax of Germany’s underhanded war on the United States came in 1913, more than a year before the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. This was the enactment of what is known as the Delbruck law, which provides that if an emigrant from Germany who is about to be naturalized makes application to a German consul, he may retain 6 Why We Fight his German citizenship even after he has become a citizen of his adopted country. In plain words, this law and the application of it mean just this: A German goes into court in this country and solemnly foreswears allegiance to the kaiser and pledges his word—the temptation was to say, “of honor”—that he will become a loyal citizen of the United States. Then he slips around to the German consul and says: “You know I didn’t mean that, at all. Those Americans are easy marks, and they fell for that stuff right off. But you may put me down on your list as a good, loyal German, and if the time ever comes when I can prove it, you can count on me.” So the German consul puts his name down in the little card index of which the Germans are so fond, and this man,—this creature who swears allegiance to the country which gives him an opportunity to make a real living and to become somebody in this world, and at the same time swears secretly to be true to Germany—is turned loose to work his will, while Americans go carelessly about their business and refuse to see the danger in the arrangement. TRAITORS LEFT TO PLOT IN AMERICA Then along comes the world war. America’s sympathy is at once given to little Belgium, to Serbia, to France and to England. It be¬ comes apparent, however, that there are many Germans in this country who are loyal to Germany rather than to the United States. Industrial plants are blown up, strikes are fomented, bridges are dynamited, and ships sunk in American harbors. Finally the United States is forced into the war. The German ambassador and the German consuls are allowed, because the United States even makes war like a gentleman, to pack up all their little card indexes and go home, taking with them the lists of hundreds— perhaps thousands—of men who have sworn to become loyal citizens of the United States, and then have secretly promised to serve the kaiser. • Can you imagine Germany allowing American consuls to take any such list of spies and traitors out of that country? Would any such “scrap of paper” as a diplomatic treaty have prevented their searching the documents of American consuls if the United States had any such Why We Fight 7 law, and there were millions of Americans going and coming at will in Germany after war was declared? Of course the Delbruck law applied to Germans who became nat¬ uralized citizens of Brazil or Argentina or any other country as well. The German lust for world conquest was no respecter of nations. In fact, it was aimed as much at certain South American nations as at the United States, and, had the world war been delayed a year or two longer, would have so Germanized large sections of Brazil that a revolution in favor of Germany might have been easy of accomplish¬ ment. SOUGHT TO PREVENT AMERICANIZATION OF IMMIGRANTS Long before the passage of the Delbruck law, there was formed the Verein fur das Deutschtum im Ausland—the Union for Germanism in Foreign Lands. This organization, officially fostered in Germany, published a quarterly magazine, which, in its very first issue, outlined its aims as follows: “The purpose of this Union is the preservation and promotion of the Germanism of over 30,000,000 people of German blood dwelling outside the German Empire.” All it aims to do, you see, is to keep Germans who come to this country from becoming Americans. Again, in another issue of the quarterly, Statsminister Hentig writes: “The organization of peoples within states and their political rela¬ tions to each other do not include all their phases of life. Deep beneath the soil on which can work political power and the laws of state lie the roots of national impulses and national sentiments.” Think of it! This from the same nation which has so ruthlessly persecuted the Poles and inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine in an effort to make Germans out of them against their will! Away back in 1890 the Alldeutscher Verband, or the Pan-German League, was formed. It now consists of 268 chapters of which two now are—or at least were immediately before the war—in the United States, one in New York and one in San Francisco. To quote from the Alldeutsche Blatter , its official publication, “the Pan-German League is founded for promoting German National interests both in Germany and in foreign lands.” In the United States this organization worked actively to foster German national aims through the German language press. It encour- 8 Why We Fight aged the teaching of German national aims in the schools, in the churches, in the German social and athletic societies. All of this is told of with that characteristic German frankness in the official publica¬ tions of the organization, open for the whole world to read. AMERICA DISREGARDED GERMAN MENACE A few thinking Americans knew all the time what was coming— what must come. But America, as a whole, went along with that care¬ lessness and indifference with which it treats all things unpleasant, and allowed this German war on our most sacred institutions to continue unchecked. So Germany stands today, with one foot on prostrate Belgium and the other on the neck of poor, deluded Russia; with a bayonet planted in the heart of Serbia, and the point of its sword at the throat of Roumania, while it looks out over the vassal States of Bulgaria and Turkey to India and the Orient. And as it stands thus, it cries to its foes on the western front: “Kamerad! Why go on with all this killing? Let’s have a peace by negotiation?” and, under its breath, adds, “I’ve got all I want for the present.” Can we talk of any peace until such a Germany is absolutely de¬ feated? Shall we negotiate a peace and allow all these German preparations for world domination to go on until the time is ripe for Germany to complete its conquests? II BECAUSE GERMANY’S LAW IS THE LAW OF THE JUN¬ GLE AND HER DOCTRINE, “MIGHT IS RIGHT” We are at war with Germany because Prussia dominates Germany, and from the days of Frederick the Great, Prussia’s law has been the law of the jungle, her doctrine “Might is Right” and her policy, in dealing with other nations, one of robbing the weak and terrorizing the strong. Germany has grabbed territory and exacted tribute from her neighbors, and finally, her greed becoming greater, has looked out over more distant lands, and has committed herself to a policy of world domination which menaces the continued free existence of every nation which will not submit to her will. Germany’s policy is not an accidental one. It has been carried out with remarkable singleness of purpose, from generation to genera¬ tion of Hohenzollern rule, from the time of the Great Frederick until today. Germany’s atrocities are not accidental. They are a deliberate, well thought out part of this Hohenzollern policy, which was to break down the resistance of her opponents, not only by fighting and defeat¬ ing their armies but by killing, torturing and terrorizing the civil populations. TEACH MORAL CODE OF THE TIGER . The German rulers committed themselves to the doctrine of the survival of the fittest. Through generations of teaching they made the German people believe that they, and they alone, were the fit. They built up the world’s greatest war machine, and so perverted German education that the people grew to believe that it was as right for this machine to crush out all opposition as the tiger in the jungle would think, could he think at all, that it was right for him to carry off and devour a baby from a neighboring village. We have the words of the German rulers and German warriors and German leaders of thought for all of this. More than that, we have the performance of German officers and German armies in conquered lands to prove it. 10 Why We Fight Let’s start with Frederick the Great in presenting the evidence. This monarch, who earned his soubriquet through despoiling his neigh¬ bors, rather than through any real qualities of mind which he showed, said, in a letter to his minister, Radziwill: “If there is anything to be gained by it, we will be honest; if deception is necessary, let us be cheats. One takes what one can, and one is wrong only when obliged to give back.” This philosophy, applied to present conditions, means that Germany was right when she took Belgium, and will be wrong only if she is not able to hold it. Bismarck’s policy of blood and iron From Frederick the Great to Bismarck is a long jump in the matter of time; but we find the Prussian policy unchanged. Speaking before the military committee of the Prussian Chamber of Deputies in 1862 Bismarck said: “Not by speeches and resolutions of majorities are the great ques¬ tions of the time decided, but by iron and blood.” Then, with blood and iron, Prussia went out and despoiled Den¬ mark of territory in 1864, beat and robbed Austria in 1866, and finally, in 1870, brought France to her knees and took her richest provinces. Creation of the German Empire after the Franco-Prussian war brought problems of development and consolidation at home which caused Germany to keep the peace for some time, but it also brought dreams of further extension of German power, not among the neigh¬ boring states of Europe, but over the lands of the earth and the waters of the sea. So Germany posed as a peaceful nation, while it made plans to conquer the world, and talked of its superior culture—kultur it is, over there—while its rulers deliberately taught frightfulness to its military men, and its educators taught the people to believe that frightfulness was right. Here is what the present kaiser told his troops when, in 1900, they were about to depart for China to put down the boxer uprising: “Use your weapons in such a way that for a thousand years no Chinese shall dare to look upon a German askance. Be as terrible as Attilla’s Huns.” Why We Fight 11 That is why we call the German of this war the Hun. His own kaiser gave him the name. RIGHTS OF NEUTRALS DISREGARDED Coming on down to the present war we find neutral lands invaded, defenseless cities bombarded, women and children sent to death with¬ out warning through the torpedoing of ships, and even the lifeboats in which hapless survivors attempt to escape, shelled. Such is the German frightfulness of today. But even this is not enough. We find a German minister accredited to a neutral state far across the sea,—one which one would think should be free from the entanglements of world politics,—writing home to his government, in a state paper, advising the sinking of two ships from this neutral nation, in such a manner that no trace be left. Dead men, he believed, tell no tales. It was Baron Luxburg, minister pleni-potentiary to Argentina, who wrote this amazing dispatch on May 19, 1917: “I beg that the small steamers Oran and Guazo * * * which are nearing Bordeaux * * * be spared, if possible, or else sunk with¬ out a trace being left.” This telegram was intercepted in the United States and published. It sent a thrill of horror around the world. Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg is a true disciple of Frederick the Great, Bismarck and his royal master. In a public speech on Jan¬ uary 31, 1917, he said: “When the most ruthless methods are calculated to lead us to victory, swift victory, they must be employed.” So they were used, and are being used today. They include sinking of hundreds of neutral ships, the burning of cities, the deliberate devastating of the fair lands of France, the ravishing of women, the enslavement of workmen and the murder of little children. HOW GERMANY TREATS CONQUERED LANDS Horrors such as these are told in detail in “The Prussian System,” by F. C. Walcott, who, for a long time, was engaged in behalf of America in trying to get food to the Poles whom the Germans were deliberately starving by the hundreds of thousands so that they might not cumber the land which the Germans intended to occupy. He pref¬ aces this pamphlet with the words, “This I have seen,” and goes on to 12 Why We Fight quote from General von Kries, who was in command at Warsaw and who told him: “By starvation we can accomplish in two or three years in East Poland more than we have in West Poland, which is East Prussia, in the last hundred years. This country is meant for Germany. We propose to remove the able bodied working Poles from this country. It leaves it open for the inflow of German working people as fast as we can spare them.” Commenting on this, Mr. Walcott says: “That is not all. Remov¬ ing the men that the land may be vacant for German occupation, Ger¬ many does more. Women left captive are enslaved. Germany makes all manner of lust its instrumentality. “Coolly, deliberately, officers of the German staff, permeated by this monstrous philosophy, discuss the denationalization of peoples, the destruction of nations, the undoing of other civilizations, for Ger¬ many’s account.” Knowing all this, can the American people talk of any peace by negotiation? Can they stop this war until this mad dog of nations is freed from the military rulers who teach frightfulness from the cradle, and will only seize a respite now to prepare themselves for further conquests? II! BECAUSE GERMANY, HAVING SPLIT THE WORLD IN HALF, IS NOW TRYING TO DEVOUR THE HALVES We are fighting Germany, for one thing, because Germany, having split the world in half, is now seeking to devour the halves separately. She has driven a wedge straight through the heart of Europe, and into Asia, and is seeking to extend it to the Persian gulf. This is no accidental happening, due to the downfall of Russia and the sudden shifting in the fortunes of war. Germany planned it all decades ago. She made no effort to keep the plans secret. She told us all about it. She had a reputation for making plans and sticking to them, from one generation to another; yet the world paid no attention. It seemed too preposterous even for Germany to attempt. As long ago as 1895 a pamphlet, “Pan-Germany and Central Europe About 1950,” was published in Berlin and had wide circulation. It laid the whole Mitteleuropa plan bare as follows: “Poland and Little Russia (the kingdom to be established at Rus¬ sia’s expense) will agree to have no armies of their own, and will receive in their fortresses German and Austrian garrisons. In Poland, as well as in little Russia, the postal and telegraph services as well as the railways will be in German hands.” PLANNED LAND GRAB FOR TWENTY YEARS For twenty-three years, one sees, Germany had been planning this land grab. But the plan was modest then. Even the Germans did not dream that Russia would be such easy prey, and thought that they would have to fight for what they got from her. In 1911 Tannenberg’s book, “Greater Germany,” was published. This was only three years before the war, but it showed that the idea of a German Mitteleuropa had not been allowed to languish. It says: “The new kingdom of Poland is made up of the former Russian 14 Why We Fight portion, of the basin of the Vistula, and of Galicia, and forms a part of the new Austria.” How the plan has grown since then! Russia’s collapse dropped whole provinces into the lap of the kaiser, and now Germany plans its empire on a scale which would dwarf that of ancient Rome. It is to embrace original Central Europe, inhabited by some 73,000,000 Ger¬ mans and 100,000,000 vassals, make the Black Sea a German lake, and extend clear to the Persian gulf, through the states of Bulgaria and Turkey. Nor is this all. Already German dispatches are talking of the way being opened to India and the Orient. The German government started to put its scheme for a Mittel- europa into effect years ago when it began the construction of the Berlin-to-Bagdad railway. Little Serbia stood in the way, so Serbia was attacked and the world was plunged into war. In the opposite corner of Europe Belgium was invaded and crushed. The world then thought that this was only because Belgium offered the easiest route to France; but study of the Mitteleuropa plan of years ago shows that Belgium was included in the scheme of conquest. So it was taken. The German plan, well advertised long before the war, also includes Holland. Holland has not yet been taken, but it stands trembling in awe of German might; and it takes no prophet to show that Holland will be seized, with its rich colonies, should Germany be finally vic¬ torious in this war. MITTELEUROPA NOW WITHIN GERMAN GRASP Mitteleuropa, with Germany in a position to say who shall and who shall not pass from Western Europe to the Orient, through her control of land routes and of submarine bases which would make the sea impassable, today is an accomplished fact in the German mind. Only a crushing victory for the Allies on the western front can wrest it from her. “How does all this affect America?” one may ask. Germany was a late comer in the family of great nations. Most of the uncivilized world had been preempted by other nations before she arrived. Ger¬ many wanted colonies. To get them she would have to take them away from someone else. Africa and South America offered the best fields for German colonization. England possessed the best part of Africa—the parts Why We Fight 15 in which the white man might hope to settle and thrive. England had a mighty fleet, and a disposition to hold what she had, even though she did not show a disposition to fight for more. There remained South America. It was divided among weak na¬ tions. It was protected only by the Monroe Doctrine. This Monroe Doctrine was a sacred thing to Americans, but, not being backed up by mighty armies and fleets, was not even a “scrap of paper” to the Germans. Can anyone doubt, should Germany succeed in welding into a mighty empire the 73,000,000 Germans and the 100,000,000 inhabi¬ tants of the vassal and conquered states of her Mitteleuropa, that her next step would be toward the west. The very fact that she had this empire would presuppose the defeat of England, so that no British fleet would stand between us and Germany when the time came for the kaiser to send his legions across the Atlantic. On land Germany would be able to put into the field an army of 30,000,000, not the mere ten or twelve million as now, and no European state would dare to move to thwart her. MONROE DOCTRINE SCORNED BY GERMANS This plan has been just as well advertised as her others. Ger¬ many makes no attempt to conceal her scorn of the Monroe Doctrine. Influential Germans have told us in writings and speeches how they would treat it. They practically set the date. How much more definite the German plans for world conquest have become is shown by her action in Russia. A year ago Germany was anxious to make a separate peace, “without annexations and in¬ demnities.” Then Russia collapsed and made peace, but Germany went right on making conquests. Germany encouraged Ukrainia to form itself into a separate state, and then made an ally of it. German troops marched with the Ukrainians to Odessa, on the pretext of aiding them to expel the Bolsheviki from Ukrainian territory, but when Odessa fell, what did the German wireless message that came across the sea say? That Odessa had been restored to the Ukrainians? Not at all. It said: “Odessa today fell into the hands of the Germans. This opens a way for German armies to Persia, India and the Orient.” The fact that Persia is supposedly neutral does not bother the Germans at all. 16 Why We Fight “strong peace” now the german aim “As in the East, so in the West,” is a motto which, of recent weeks, has been much heard in Germany. At a conference of the National Liberal party, held in March of this year, the following amazingly frank declaration was made: “Our policy has been directed to making the government and ma¬ jority turn away from the Reichstag resolutions of July 19. (Peace without annexations and indemnities.) In that we have succeeded. Peace has just been made in the East under conditions in flat contra¬ diction to the policy of July 19, and has received the support and assent of all the bourgeois parties.” In other words, all Germany is now planning both annexations and indemnities, such as will leave her without a formidable opponent in the world. The Berlin Lokal Anzeiger , only recently, openly advocated the annexation of the Belgian coast and the French districts of Longwy and Brie. Can we make peace now and leave Germany, flushed with victory, in possession of all she has gained and lusting for further conquest? If we did, would not the whole world live in perpetual terror of Ger¬ man aggression, each country awaiting its turn to be gobbled up? Can any red-blooded American talk about peace without victory— victory so decisive that Germany will be forced to disgorge all it has seized, and the German menace be removed from the world forever? IV BECAUSE GERMANY, FOR YEARS, SOUGHT TO UNDER¬ MINE OUR GOVERNMENT AND OUR IDEALS We are fighting Germany for the right to live our own lives as we see fit. We are fighting for our laws, our ideals, our homes, our institutions. ‘‘But how,” one may ask, “were all these things threatened by Ger¬ many before the war started? It is easy to see how they may be threatened now, for if we are defeated we are lost, but before the war started did Germany menace those things we hold most sacred?” Let the Germans themselves answer. After you have read the evi¬ dence out of their own mouths, you may decide whether or not Ger¬ many planned to upset our institutions, our ideals, our very mode of life. We went into the war April 6, 1917. The evidence, given here from German sources, all dates back to before that time. In 1901 the National German-American Alliance was formed in the United States. In 1907 it was incorporated by act of Congress. In April, 1918, it gave up its charter to escape further congressional investigation. One of the objects of the Alliance, as officially an¬ nounced, was “to check nativistic encroachments.” In other words, to keep the Germans from becoming Americans. Another object was “to awaken and strengthen the sense of unity among the people of German origin in America.” SOUGHT TO INFLUENCE AMERICAN POLITICS Still another was “to combat Puritan influences, particularly in the form of restrictions upon the liquor traffic.” “The Alliance,” its preliminary statement of aims concludes, “is pledged to bring its entire organization to the support of any state federation which is engaged in the struggle for any of these objects.” It was pledged, in other words, to have its members vote, not as 18 Why We Fight individuals but as German-controlled units, for or against anything of which they did not approve. The desire for resisting “nativistic encroachments” was particularly abhorrent to American ideals, because the effort in this country has always been to keep politics free from racial or religious influences. Yet here was a body, proclaiming itself German in origin and thought, seeking to perpetuate this German feeling in the midst of America. From its very start the Alliance sought to foment discord with England. It always spoke of the American press as “the Anglo-Amer¬ ican” press, and its carried out a long and well directed campaign for the introduction of the German language into the schools and its use in civil life. It did not want its members to become Americanized even sufficiently to speak to their brothers in the land of their adoption in the language of this country. “The National Alliance,” according to an issue of its official Bulle¬ tin before this nation entered the war, “is waging war against Anglo- Saxonism, against the fanatical enemies of personal liberty and polit¬ ical freedom, it is combating narrow-minded benighted know-nothing- ism, the influence of the British, and the enslaving Puritanism, which had its birth in England.” THREATENS THOSE WHO OPPOSE GERMANY Again, in another issue of the Bulletin, it says: “Our own prestige depends upon the prestige of the Fatherland, and for that reason we cannot allow any disparagement of Germany to go unpunished.” “The race war which we will be compelled to go through with on American soil will be our world war,” said the New York Staats Zei- tung in fighting a proposal to amend the New York constitution to make ability to speak and write the English language a requirement for suffrage. Ludwig Fulda wrote a book, “American Impressions.” They were impressions of a German who had studied this nation with a view to seeing it ultimately Germanized. “Germanization is synonymous with causing to speak German,” he said, “and speaking German means to remain German.” This may throw some light on the effort to perpetuate the sub¬ sidized German language press in this country. If immigrants from Why We Fight 19 Germany spoke and read English, they were likely to become Amer¬ icans. The National Alliance called upon all of its hundreds of local societies to work for the enactment of laws making the teaching of the German language in the public schools compulsory. At the same time it was helping to support and encourage hundreds of schools in this country in which the instruction was entirely in German. Had there been an effort made to make the teaching of the language of this nation compulsory in those schools, you can imagine the outcry against “per¬ sonal liberty” that would have been raised. FOSTERED ALL DISCONTENTED ELEMENTS Wherever there were signs of discontent, of a movement which might tend to disrupt this country, or any other which Germany might find as a commercial rival, the German-American Alliance was sure to be on the job. It gave support to the Irish-American societies, because these societies, before the war, were working for the separation of Ire¬ land from England, a matter in which Germany, at that time, could have no legitimate interest. But Germany, even then, was preparing for war, and was doing every possible thing to weaken its coming enemies. A disorganized America, one filled with German reservists, would be in no position to side with her enemies, Germany figured. On this subject the much-quoted Bernhardi wrote: “Measures must be taken at least to the extent of providing that the German element is not split up in the world, but remains united in compact blocks, and thus forms, even in foreign countries, political centers of gravity in our favor. The isolated groups of Germans abroad greatly benefit our trade, since by preference they obtain goods from Germany; but they may also be useful to us politically, as we discover in America. The German-Americans have formed a political alliance with the Irish; and, thus united, constitute a power in the state with which the American government must reckon.” Can there be anything more deliberate than this statement of Ger¬ many’s aims to mould American political institutions in favor of the Fatherland? How far they had succeeded was shown by the actions of some members of our Congress and Senate just before and after war was declared. With the outbreak of the war in Europe the actions of the German- 20 Why We Fight American Alliance became bolder. The campaign for membership took on new vigor. An address was issued calling upon Americans of^ German origin to come to a consciousness of their duty, to hold fast to their language and to the customs and culture of their fathers. Efforts were made to scare the American public into believing that war with Japan was imminent, though Japan was engaged in fighting Ger¬ many. GERMAN PLOTS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES So serious were the plots to embroil us with England that arrests were made here of persons who actually planned a German-American invasion of Canada. Mexico was so stirred up by German intrigue that, when the war started, many persons actually believed our troops would see their first and perhaps hardest fighting on the Mexican bor¬ der, and the first mobilization was toward that threatened line. An enormous negro uprising was actually planned, and emissaries were sent here to foment it by Germans who had made themselves believe that the Southern states, with their large negro population, could be made to rebel. The utter ridiculousness of the plan does not detract from the fact that Germany, by every means in its power, was trying to disorganize our government and overthrow our institutions. Can we talk of peace with a Germany that, even in times of peace, is trying to disorganize our country, foment strife, and destroy our unity, simply because a strong, united nation on the other side of the world is not German? Can we make peace with a country that fills our land with paid emissaries in an effort to make its language supplant our own? Can we talk of peace while a government that considers the world its prey dominates Germany? Or shall we fight until the world is delivered from this German menace, and our country is left to develop its own institutions, customs and ideals free from underhanded interference on the part of an autoc¬ racy across the sea? V BECAUSE GERMANY MENACES THE FREEDOM OF THE WORLD, AND RUSSIA CAN NO LONGER RESIST We are in this war with Germany because it is a war for freedom more truly than ever before was a war fought for the liberty of man. In times past, it is true, men have fought for freedom from oppressors. Sometimes they have won and sometimes they have lost. »But always there has been a place in this big world where those who had lost in the struggle at home might go and find a country where they might enjoy the liberty they loved. Now all is different. If the forces which are fighting for freedom in this war are defeated, there will be no place in the whole world to which they may go to find a refuge from Prussian domination. Every land under the sun will be directly or indirectly under control of the victor; and if the victor is autocracy, freedom perishes. The land where freedom is most imminently menaced by the legions of Prussian autocracy, at this moment, is the land where unwonted freedom temporarily has run riot and has lost the power to fight for itself—Russia. We are fighting for the freedom of Russia, and must continue to fight for it until Russia learns what freedom means, and is again able to fight. If we do not fight, freedom will die in Russia; Prussian autocracy will rule and exploit the country for its own ben¬ efit; and the very forces which overthrew the Czar will be turned against the freedom not only of themselves, but of other lands. MIXED SENTIMENTS AS TO RUSSIA In years gone by, when the forces of revolution were showing themselves here and there in Russia, they had the sympathy of America in spite of the methods of terrorism of which we did not approve. When the Czar and the Kaiser, leaders of autocracy, were locked in a death grapple, Russia still had our sympathy because she was fighting on the side of those who were seeking to safeguard the world from Prussian militarism. When the Czar was deposed over night American feelings were 22 W h y We Fight mixed. There was joy at the downfall of an old, and sometimes cruel autocracy, but there was fear that Russia would become too disorgan¬ ized to fight further, coupled with the thought that perhaps the revolu¬ tion had come too soon to be effective. Then followed the brief regime of Kerensky, when it began to look as though freedom in Russia might be an organized freedom, prepared to fight for its rights, and all America hailed the Russian revolution as a blessing. It had become absolutely correct to say that the war was a war of democracy against autocracy. No pro-German could longer point to the Czar, whenever an argument arose. Finally came the Bolshevik revolution, in which Kerensky was over¬ thrown. Russian industry and Russian society were disorganized, and Russian armies ceased to fight. The Kaiser’s armies pressed on unop¬ posed, took what they desired in spite of a signed peace, and Russia appeared to be about to pass completely under control of Germany. America stood aghast at the prank freedom had played, and American opinion turned largely against Russia, but thinking men refused to give up hope. Russia was and still is incapable of offering resistance, but Russia is not resigned to autocracy. It devolves upon others to fight for the freedom Russia must have. RUSSIAN COLLAPSE BOLSTERS UP GERMANY The Bolsheviki—literally, the masses—were, on many sides, accused of being in league with the Germans. Trotsky and Lenine were ru¬ mored to be accepting German pay. Betrayal of the revolution for gold was alleged. All sorts of statements were made and discussed. None of them has ever been proved. Russia had just collapsed; ignor¬ ant Russians refused to fight, and the thwarted lust for conquest was renewed in German hearts. The experience of other nations has been that men who loved freedom were willing to fight for it, and to die for it if necessary. The Russian attitude of non-resistance was something new in the world, and is hard to understand. The Bolsheviki represented the extreme idea of liberty. To them freedom meant not the right of the majority to choose their form of government, but the right of the individual to be free from all forms of governmental restraint. They would tear down the old order completely, at one stroke, and set up the millenium. Why We Fight 23 They would divide the land, the factories and the tools among the work¬ ers, and have no masters henceforth. All they need do, the leaders believed, was to tell the masses of the remainder of the world, what they were doing, and the world would follow. Why should they fight the German armies, when all that was necessary was to show the Germans themselves how easy it was to establish the millenium? I DISORDER FOLLOWS BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION Even in Russia, however, there were dissenters. Some took up arms; and the Bolsheviki, who fought the Germans not at all, fought their brothers most ferociously. The result was anarchy, lawlessness, massacres, the disorganization of the railways and the failure of the food supply. The millenium refused to come at the mere decree of the Bolsheviki. It was shown that there must be organization and govern¬ ment of some sort. But still the Bolsheviki clung to their vain hopes. They accepted an ignominious peace, which was no peace at all, from Germany, and sat supinely while German fetters were being forged for them. They have not yet awakened. The peasants who composed their armies are rushing home to be there when the land is distributed. They are get¬ ting as far from the battle line as possible, not realizing that the battle line is following them. They dream of existence in which one labors because he alone wills it, and without compulsion of any sort—they who have been driven by the knout—not realizing that an even more severe taskmaster, one who will be harsher because he is more efficient, is at their heels. The Russian peasant believes today that he has achieved real free¬ dom. It will take much bitter experience to teach him otherwise. While he is getting it, the United States and its allies must be his guardians. GERMAN PROPAGANDA POISONS PEASANT MINDS Russia will no longer fight side by side with her former allies. So insidious has been the German propaganda that, in many instances, Russian hatred of the allies seems to be deeper than hatred of Germany. Allowing Germany to lop off her richest provinces, containing even her capital, Russia turns a jealous eye toward Japan when the latter 24 Why We Fight country professes to see a necessity for sending troops into Siberia to block the advance of Prussianism. Therefore the United States cannot render direct aid to the strug¬ gling people of Russia. She cannot send them armies and supplies, for they have refused to do battle for themselves. To fight for Russia she must fight on the western front. She must do her share toward humbling the Kaiser, and forcing him to relinquish his grasp on the East. Russia must be freed from Prussian militarism. After that no one can say what is her destiny. She may break up into lesser states, or may be rejuvenated like the French were after their long period of disorganization which began in 1789. Any number of things may happen, but there is one thing that cannot be allowed to come to pass. That is the Kaiser must not be permitted to enthrall the people who have thrown off the yoke of the Czar, for if he does he will organize them into a yet greater military machine to use against the freedom of the world. That is why we cannot talk peace with Germany as long as the Kaiser has one single Russian province under his heel. VI BECAUSE GERMAN LUST OF CONQUEST MENACES, IN MANY WAYS, OUR VERY NATIONAL EXISTENCE Any one of the reasons why we are at war with Germany, men¬ tioned in previous articles of this series, would be sufficient justification for this nation taking up arms. Only extreme patience, coupled, often, with complete failure to recognize the seriousness of the German men¬ ace to America and the world, kept the United States out of the war for nearly three years before it finally decided to join in. In fact, justification for war with Germany existed years before the conflict in Europe was begun. It has been shown that Germany, for years, had been plotting within our borders, encouraging immigrants to become citizens and at the same time remain faithful to the kaiser. She filled our land with spies and agents of disorganization when, to all outward appearances, rela¬ tions between America and Germany were of the most friendly char¬ acter. From evidence supplied by the Germans themselves, it has been shown that Germany’s doctrine that might alone is right would menace the very independence of the United States just as surely as it destroyed that of Serbia and Belgium, just as soon as Germany felt herself strong enough to make a formal attack. German lust of conquest knew no bounds. GERMAN PLANS FOR WORLD CONQUEST Events of the last year have proven that Germany, having split the world in half by her creation of Mitteleuropa, extending from the Baltic almost to the Persian gulf, was planning to devour the halves separately. The fact that our half of the world was being reserved for dessert was all the more reason why we should enter the war while a part, at least, of the other half was still making resistance. Germany’s efforts to build up compact groups of Germanized resi¬ dents in the United States, and to dominate our politics from Berlin, extended back many years before the war. Their extent was never 26 Why We Fight realized until we approached the time to enter the struggle, when the treacherous power of the Kaiser began to be felt even in the halls of our Congress. Finally, when the collapse of Russia revealed the fact that Germany was fighting, not a war of self preservation, but one of conquest pure and simple, and that the freedom of the entire world was menaced, any question of why we are fighting seemed superfluous. The military party in Germany started the war because it believed the time ripe for conquest. This fact alone is sufficient justification for any nation, standing for the ideals of democracy and freedom, to take up arms. When a government exists which will wantonly plunge a world into war just to extend its own borders and its own trade, it is time for other nations to fight. HELPLESS NATIONS THE FIRST ATTACKED Proof that ambition, and not consideration of its own safety, prompted German to begin the war is given by the fact that Serbia and Belgium, two helpless little nations, were the first attacked. Serbia blocked the way to the East and Belgium to the West. If Germany would attack and crush helpless little nations, with scant material re¬ sources, there was all the more reason to believe that she would attack one big and rich and helpless, when opportunity offered. In fact, there had been much talk in Germany long before we entered the struggle, of levying an indemnity on the United States to pay Germany’s war costs. Germany had, under no compulsion, signed a solemn treaty to pro¬ tect the neutrality of Belgium. When she branded this treaty “a scrap of paper,” she gave proof that all her treaties would be so considered when her interests demanded. In other words, Germany’s invasion of Belgium meant the tearing up of every treaty which existed between Germany and other nations. It was ample justification for America going to war at that moment. This did not spur America at the time, but Germany’s cruelties in Belgium, surpassing anything ever before known in modern history, gave further evidence that the world was not safe as long as such a government existed in it. If Spanish oppression in Cuba was sufficient justification for the war of 1898, how much more ground did America have for declaring war because of German barbarity in Belgium? Why We Fight 27 At the very outset of the struggle in Europe, Germany gave proof that no treaties or conventions would govern her acts. She bombarded undefended cities, enslaved conquered populations, engaged in pillage and terrorism of the most wanton kind. She disregarded all the stipu¬ lations which had been made at The Hague convention, and flung inter¬ national law to the winds. What more justification could we have needed than all this cumulative proof that a buccaneer nation was abroad in the world, and that no one’s rights were sacred? MURDER OF THE INNOCENTS AT SEA Then came Germany’s conduct on the sea. With her battle fleet cravenly seeking shelter behind the defenses of the Kiel canal, Germany sent out her submarines and began a war on unarmed merchantmen. Women and children were her victims. American citizens by the score went down to death on the Lusitania. The United States made a pro¬ test, and Germany promised to mend her ways. This she did, for a time, until she could build a fleet of bigger and better submarines, and then her pirate sea warfare broke out with fresh vigor. Vessels of neutral nations were subjected to the same treatment as those of Ger¬ many’s foes, and an insolent warning was sent to this country that the Stars and Stripes could float on the Atlantic ocean only by German permission, and under the most humiliating conditions. How could we keep out of war when Germany, after ruthlessly killing our citizens, deliberately closed the sea to us? German plotters and spies, under the direct leadership of the Ger¬ man ambassador to this country, worked almost openly, blowing up industrial plants, sinking ships in our harbors, and menacing railroads and canals. Germany, spurred by successes, openly began to announce plans for disciplining the United States. She scoffed at the Monroe Doctrine, and tried to create a German state in Brazil which, in time, would be strong enough to bring about a revolution and overthrow the demo¬ cratic government there. She tried to create disunity in the United States itself, and forced this country, at last, to take up arms to preserve its very national existence. MAKES THE WORLD AN UNSAFE HABITAT By her huge armaments, her disregard of treaties, and her evident 28 Why We Fight reliance on force alone, Germany was rapidly making the world an unsafe place in which to live, forcing all other nations to adopt the military system, or be at her mercy. The German military policy, alone, would have been sufficient justification for the remainder of the world to combine against her, even though she had not begun the war when she did. Nations have just as much right to peace and security, as do individuals who employ policemen to protect them from bandits and thieves. The German ambition to force German kultur on the remainder of the world was well exploited. Kultur, to the German mind, was not what culture is to us. It was the whole German system, of government, of commercialism and of life. There was no place for democracy in a world which bore the stamp of German kultur. If we valued our form of government, we had to go to war. Lastly, Germany stood in the way, an insurmountable obstacle, to any league of nations which might be formed to keep the peace of the world, and to prevent the strong from preying on the weak. The whole German doctrine has been that Germany should grow strong at the expense of her neighbors. Prussian policy for centuries has been to weaken other nations that Prussia might divide and conquer. There could be no hope of creating a league of nations pledged to support right and justice, so long as the Prussian military policy prevailed. The fight which England and France took up from the beginning, and in which Belgium and Serbia laid down their lives, was America’s fight from the first, and America’s fight long before it began, had America but realized. Now America does realize, and America cannot and will not make peace until the Prussian lust for conquest is curbed and the Prussian military power crushed for all time. .