57^ 
 
D 570 
 .02 fl35 
 no. 5 
 Copy 1 
 
 Ar information series 
 
 August, 1917 
 
 A WAR 01 
 
 By 
 ROBERT LANSING 
 
 SECRETARY OF STATE 
 and 
 
 LOUIS F. POST 
 
 ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF LABOR 
 
 Published by COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION, Washington. D. C. 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFRCE 
 
 1917 
 
 OoUfewte^ ^-- 
 
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 No. 4. The Great War: from Spectator to Participant. 
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 Assistant Secretary of Labor Louis F, Post. 
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 1). Of D. 
 
 cFTc — 3 — \wn 
 

 BY ROBERT LANSING, 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 We must all realize that we are living in the most momen- 
 tous time in all histoiy, in a time when the lives and des- 
 tinies of nations are in the balance, when even the civiliza- 
 tion, which has taken centuries to build, may crumble 
 before the terrible storm which is sweeping over Europe. 
 We are not only living in this critical period but we, as a 
 nation, have become a participant in the struggle. Having 
 cast our lot on the side of the powers allied against the 
 Imperial German Government, we will put behind our 
 decision the full power and the resources of the Republic. 
 We intend to win in this mighty conflict, and we will win 
 because our cause is the cause of justice and of right and 
 of humanit}^ 
 
 I wonder hoAv many of us comprehend what the outcome 
 of this war means to mankind, or, to bring it nearer to each 
 one of us, what it means to our country. I sometimes think 
 that there prevail very erroneous impressions as to the rea- 
 sons wliy.-'ji?« entered the war — not the imjiiecliate reasons, 
 but the deep, underlying reasons which affect the life and 
 future of the United States and of all other liberty-loving 
 nations throughout the world. 
 
 Of course, the immediate cause of our war against Ger- 
 many was the announced purpose of the German Govern- 
 ment to break its promises as to indiscriminate submarine 
 warfare and the subsequent renewal of that ruthless method 
 of destruction with increased vigor and brutality. 
 
 While this cause was in itself sufficient to force us to 
 enter the war if we would preserve our self-respect, the 
 German Government's deliberate breach of faith and its 
 utter disregard of right and life liad a iar deeper liieaning, 
 a meaning which had been growing more evident as the 
 war had progressed and which needed but this act of perfidy 
 to bring it home to all thinking Americans. The evil char- 
 
 (3) 
 
acter of the German Government is laid bare before the 
 world. We know now that that Government is inspired 
 with ambitions which menace human liberty, and that to 
 gain its end it does not hesitate to break faith, to violate 
 the most sacred rights, or to perpetrate intolerable acts of 
 inhumanity. 
 
 It needed but the words reported to have been uttered by 
 the German Chancellor to complete the picture of the char- 
 acter of his Government when he announced that the only 
 reason why the intensified submarine campaign was de-. 
 layed until February last was that sufficient submarines 
 could not be built before that time to make the attacks on 
 commerce effective. Do you realize that this means, if it 
 means anything, that the promises to refrain from brutal 
 submarine warfare, which Germany had made to the United 
 States, were never intended to be kept, that they were only 
 made in order to gain time in which to build more subma- 
 rines, and that when the time came to act the German 
 promises were unhesitatingly torn to pieces like other 
 " scraps of paper." 
 
 It is this disclosure of the character of the Imperial Ger- 
 man Government which is the underlying cause of our 
 entry into the war. We had doubted, or at least many 
 Americans had doubted, the evil purposes of the rulers of 
 Germany. Doubt remained no longer. In thB' jlight ■ of 
 events we could read the past and see that for a 'quarter of 
 a century the absorbing ambition of militaiy oligarchy 
 which was the master of the German Empire was for world 
 dominion. Every agency in the fields of commerce, indus- 
 try, science, and diplomacy had been directed by the Ger- 
 man Government to this supreme end. Philosophers and 
 preachers taught that the destiny of Germany was to rule 
 the world, thus preparing the mind of the German people 
 for the time when the mighty engine which the German 
 Government had constructed should crush all opposition 
 and the German Emperor should rule supreme. 
 
 For nearl}'- three years'we have tviatched the conduct of 
 the imperiiir Government, and we have learned more and 
 more of the character of that Government and of its aims. 
 We came very slowly to a realizing sense that not only was 
 the freedom of the European nations at stake but that 
 
liberty throughout the world was threatened by the power- 
 ful autocracy which was seeking to gratify its vast ambition. 
 
 Not impulsively but with deliberation the American peo- 
 ple reached the only decision which was possible from the 
 standpoint of their own national safety. Congress de- 
 clared that a state of war existed between the United States 
 and the Imperial Government of Germany, and this coun- 
 try united with the other liberal nations of the earth to 
 crush the power which sought to erect on the ruins of de- 
 mocracy a world empire greater than that of Greece or 
 Eome or the caliphs. 
 
 The President has said, with the wonderful ability which 
 he has to express aptly a great thought in a single phrase, 
 that " the world must be made safe for democracy." In that 
 thought there is more than the establishment of liberty and 
 self-government for all nations — there is in it the hope of 
 an enduring peace. 
 
 I do not know in the annals of history an instance where a 
 people, with truly democratic institutions, permitted their 
 government to wage a war of aggression, a war of conquest. 
 Faithful to their treaties, sympathetic with others seeking 
 self-development, real democracies, whether monarchial or 
 republican in their forms of government, desire peace with 
 their neighbors and with all mankind. 
 
 ivWei^ every people on earth able to express their will, there 
 TTOuM-beTiOf wars of aggression, and, if there *«*ea'e.no'?wars of 
 aggression, tlieit there would be no wars, and lasting^ipeace 
 would come to this earth. The only way that a people can 
 express their will is through democratic institutions. There- 
 fore, when the world is made safe for democracy, when that 
 great principle prevails, universal peace will be an accom- 
 plished fact. 
 
 Ko na^tion or people will benefit more than the United 
 States when that time comes. But it has not jet come. A 
 great people, ruled in thought and word, as well as in deed, 
 by the most sinister Government of modern times, is strain- 
 ing every nerve to ;supp]ant democracy by; the autocracy 
 which they have, • been, taught to ^yorship, : When wiH the 
 German people awaken to the truth? When will they arise 
 in their might and cast off the yoke and become their own 
 masters? I fear that it will not be until the physical might 
 
of the united democracies of the world has destroyed for- 
 ever the evil ambitions of the military rulers of Germany and 
 iibert)^ triumphs over its archenemy. 
 
 And yet in spite of these truths vi'hich have been brought 
 to light in these last three years I wonder how many Ameri- 
 cans feel that our democracy is in peril, that our liberty needs 
 protection, that the United States is in real danger from the 
 malignant forces which are seeking to imix)se their will upon 
 the world, as they have upon Germany and her deceived 
 allies. 
 
 Let us understand once for all that this is no war to estab- 
 lish an abstract principle of right. It is a war in which the 
 future of the United States is at stake. If any among you 
 has the idea that we are fighting othei-s' battles and not our 
 own, the sooner he gets away from that idea the better it will 
 be for him, the better it will be for ail of us. 
 
 Imagine Germany victor in Europe because the United 
 States remained neutral. Who then, think you, would be 
 the next victim of those who are seeking to be masters of the 
 whole earth? Would not this country with its enormous 
 wealth arouse the cupidity of an impoverished though tri- 
 umphant Germany ? Would not this democracy be the only 
 obstacle between the autocratic rulers of Germany and 
 their supreme ambition? Do you think that they would 
 withhold their hand from so rich a prize ? 
 
 Let me then ask you, would it be easier or wisei*^ for this 
 country single-handed to resist a German Empire, flushed 
 with victory and with great armies and navies at its com- 
 mand, than to unite with the bra A'e opponents of that Empire 
 in ending now and for all time this menace to our future? 
 
 Primarily, then, every man who crosses the ocean to fight 
 on foreign soil against the armies of the German Emperor 
 goes forth to fight for his country and for the preservation 
 of those things for which our forefathers were willing to 
 die. To those who thus offer themselves we owe the same 
 debt that we owe to those men who in the past fought on 
 American soil in the cause of liberty. No, not the same debt, 
 but a greater one. It calls for more patriotism, more self- 
 denial, and a truer vision to wage war on distant shores than 
 to repel an invader or defend one's home. I, therefore, con- 
 gratulate you, young men, in your choice of service. You 
 
have done a splendid thing. You have earned already the 
 gratitude of your countrymen and of generations of Ameri- 
 cans to come. Your battle flags will become the cherished 
 trophies of a nation which will never forget those who bore 
 them in the cause of liberty. 
 
 I know that some among you may consider the idea that 
 Germany would attack us, if she won this war, to be improb- 
 able; but let him who doubts remember that the improb- 
 able, yes, the impossible, has been happening in this war 
 from the beginning. If you had been told prior to August, 
 1914, that the German Government would disregard its 
 solemn treaties and send its armies into Belgium, v\^ould 
 wantonly burn Louvain, would murder defenseless people, 
 would extort ransoms from conquered cities, would carry 
 away men and women into slavery, would, like vandals of 
 old, destroy some of history's most cherished monuments, 
 and would with malicious purpose lay waste the fairest fields 
 of France and Belgium, you would have indignantly denied 
 the possibility. You would have exclaimed that Germans, 
 lovers of art and learning, would never permit such foul 
 deeds. To-day you know that the unbelievable has happened, 
 that all these crimes have been committed, not under the 
 impulse of passion, but under official orders. 
 
 Again, if you had been told before the war that German 
 submarine commanders would sink peaceful vessels of com- 
 nxence ,an<i'0end to sucklen death men, women, and little 
 children, you would have declared such scientific brutality 
 to be impossible. Or, if you had been told that German 
 aviators would fly over thickly populated cities scattering 
 missiles of death and destruction with no other purpose than 
 to terrorize the innocent inhabitants, you would have de- 
 nounced the very thought as unworthy of belief and as a 
 calumny upon German honor. Yet, God help us, these 
 things have come to pass, and iron crosses have rewarded 
 the perpetrators. 
 
 But there is more, far more, which might be added to this 
 record of unbelievable things which the German Government 
 has done. I only need to mention the attempt of the foreign 
 office at Berlin to bribe Mexico to make war upon us by 
 promising her American territory. It was only one of many 
 intrigues which the German Government was carrying on 
 
8 
 
 in many lands. Spies and conspirators were sent through- 
 out the world. Civil discord was encouraged to weaken the 
 potential strength of nations which might be obstacles to 
 the lust of Germany's rulers for world mastery. Those of 
 German blood who owed allegiance to other countries were 
 appealed to to support the fatherland, Avhich beloved name 
 masked the military clique a.t Berlin. 
 
 Some day I hope that the whole tale may be told. It will 
 be an astounding tale indeed. But enough has been told 
 so that there no longer remains the shadow of a doub.t as to 
 the character of Germany's rulers, of their amazing ambi- 
 tion for world empire, and of their intense hatred for 
 democracy. 
 
 The day has gone by when we .can measure possibilities 
 by past experiences or when we believe that any physical 
 obstacle is so great or any moral influence is so potent as to 
 cause the German autocracy to abandon its mad purpose of 
 world conquest. 
 
 It was the policy of those who plotted and made ready for 
 the time to accomplish the desire of the German rulers to 
 lull into false security the great nations which they intended 
 to subdue, so that when the storm broke they would be un- 
 prepared. How well they succeeded you know. But democ- 
 racy no longer sleeps. It is fully awake to the menace which 
 threatens it. The American people, trustful and friendly, 
 wer« reluctantto' believe that imperialism agaij3r,^jtij:^f\tened 
 the peace and liberty of the world. Conviction ;Came to them 
 at last, and with it prompt action. The American Nation 
 arrayed itself with the other great democracies of the earth 
 against the genius of evil which broods over the destinies 
 of central Europe. 
 
 JSTo thought of material gain and no thought of material 
 loss impelled this action. Inspired by the highest motives 
 American manhood prepared to risk all for the right. I am 
 proud of my country. I am proud of my countrymen. I am 
 proud of our national character. With lofty purpose, with 
 patriotic fervor, with intense earnestness the American 
 democracy has drawn the sword, which it will not sheathe 
 until the baneful forces of absolutism go down defeated and 
 broken. 
 
Who can longer donbt — and there have been many who 
 have doubted in these critical days — the power of that eternal 
 spirit of freedom which lives in every true American heart ? 
 
 I am firmly convinced that the independence of no nation 
 is safe, that the liberty of no individual is sure, until the 
 military despotism which holds the German people in the 
 hollow of its hand has been made impotent and harmless 
 forever. Appeals to justice, to moral obligation, to honor, 
 no longer avail with such a power. There is but one way to 
 restoie peace to the world, and that is by overcoming the 
 physical might of German imperialism by force of arms. 
 
 For its own safety, as well as for the cause of human lib- 
 erty, this great Republic is marshaling its armies and prepar- 
 ing v\dth all its vigor to aid in ridding Germany, as well as 
 the world, of the most ambitious and most unprincipled 
 autocracy which has arisen to stay the wheels of progress 
 and imperil Christian civilization. 
 
 It is to this great cause you, who iire present here to-night, 
 like thousands of other loyal Americans, have dedicated 
 yourseh'es. Upon each one of you much depends. You are 
 going forth into foreign lands, not only as guardians of the 
 flag of your country and of the liberties of your countrymen, 
 but as guardians of the national honor of the United States. 
 American character will be judged by your conduct; Amer- 
 ican spirit by your deeds. As jou maintain yourselves cour- 
 ageously and honorably, so will you bring glory to the flag 
 v'hich v/e all love as the emblem of our national unity and 
 independence. 
 
 I know that it is unnecessary to emphasize the responsibili- 
 ties which will rest ujDon you as you lead the men under your 
 command. To their officers they will look for guidance and 
 example, not only in the battle line, but in the camp and on 
 the march. Your responsibilities are great. As you meet 
 them so will your services be measured by your country. 
 
 It is in the toil and danger of so great an adventure as 
 you are soon to experience that a man's true character will 
 become manifest. He will be brought face to face with the 
 realities. The little things which once engrossed his thought 
 and called forth his energies will be forgotten in the stern 
 events of his new life. The sternness of it all will not de- 
 prive him of the satisfaction which comes from doing his 
 8368°— 17 2 
 
10 
 
 best. As he found gratification and joy in the peaceful pur- 
 suits of the old life, so will he find a deeper gratification and 
 greater joy in serving his country loyally and doing his part 
 in molding the future aright. 
 
 And, when your task is completed, w^hen the grim days of 
 battle are over, and you return once more to the quiet life 
 of your profession or occupation, which you have so gener- 
 ously abandoned at your country's call, you will find in the 
 gratitude of your countrymen an ample reward for the great 
 sacrifice which you have made. 
 
 If enthusiasm and ardor can make success sure, then we, 
 Americans, have no cause for anxiety, no reason to doubt 
 the outcome of the corifiict. But enthusiasm and ardor are 
 not all, they must be founded on a profound conviction of 
 the righteousness of our cause and on an implicit faith that 
 the God of Battles will strengthen the arm of him who fights 
 for the right. In the time of stress and peril, when a man 
 stands face to face with death in its most terrible forms, 
 God will not desert him who puts his trust in Him. It is 
 at such a time that the eternal verities will be disclosed. 
 It is then, when you realize that existence is more than this 
 life and that over our destinies watches an all-powerful and 
 compassionate God, you will stand amidst the storm of battle 
 unflinching and unafraid. 
 
 There is no higher praise that can be bestowed upon a 
 soldier of the Eepublic than to say that he served his coun- 
 try faithfully and trusted in his God. Such I earnestly hope 
 will be the praise to which each one of you will be entitled 
 Avhen peace returns to this suffering earth, and mankind re- 
 joices that the world is made safe for democracy. 
 
BY LOUIS F. POST, 
 
 Assistant Secretary of Labor. 
 
 The United States has gone into the world war in self- 
 defense. Other purposes are more ideal and also just; but 
 this is the cause that gives us our warrant of v/ar by even the 
 narrowest rules of international orderliness which civiliza- 
 tion has yet evolved. We are resisting armed invasion. The 
 necessity for it is evident from the most familiar facts of 
 German history. For half a century German empire 
 builders have made no secret of their policy of VN/^orld con- 
 quest. For the past three years the German Government 
 has given to their policy of world conquest vigorous life 
 in Belgium and in France. And when that policy and those 
 invasions are considered in connection with the defiant and 
 death-clealing assaults by the German Government upon the 
 sovereignty of the United States in February and March, 
 1917, the defensive necessity of our entering the war is 
 demonstrated. 
 
 Historicall}'', those culminating events hark back to the 
 Franco-Prussian War. That struggle of nearly half a cen- 
 tury ago, provoked by Bismarck with a trick as all the world 
 now knows, was the initial grand play in the Prussian mili- 
 tary game for world empire. At its close the Prussian plans 
 for larger conquests began taking on distinctive shape. They 
 had developed out of a political philosophy which empha- 
 sizes the autocratic doctrine of duties in opposition to the 
 democratic doctrine of rights. Elsewhere the doctrine of 
 rights, which had inspired historic revolts against feudalistic 
 regimes of obedience, was becoming hospitable to the idea 
 of a natural balance of rights and duties — rights to life, for 
 instance, in balance with corresponding duties to let live. 
 
 1 Revised and reprinted from The Putlic, July 27 and August 3, 
 (11) 
 
12 
 
 But in Prussianized Germany the feudal principle of duty 
 to superiors in station was revived as a new discovery and 
 invested with new sanctions. 
 
 German projectors of a world empire — philosophers, mili- 
 tarists, historians, scholars, statesmen, courtiers — set abput 
 the inculcation, not always b}' logic or gentle persuasion, of 
 autocratic theories of duty as the supreme obligation of men. 
 Distorted echoes of those teachings were often heard in 
 xSjnerican universities and from American platforms in dis- 
 couragement of democratic progress here. These American 
 echoes usually stressed the obligation as one between indi- 
 viduals, which is after all not so very different essentially 
 from the principle of a balance of duties and rights. But 
 this was not the thought that the molders of Prussian em- 
 pire stressed. The essence of their theory of duties is mili- 
 taristic. It implies a duty of obedience to the word of com- 
 mand. It requires subordination at all times and in all 
 things to " the state," which, in the Prussianistic imagina- 
 tion, is personified by the Kaiser. Exalting " the state " as 
 the prim© object of individual devotion and the Kaiser as 
 its visible deity, these Prussian promotors of despotism 
 established, almost in the center of Europe and in an age of 
 developing democracy, a reactionary empire of ^' divine 
 light," which they dedicated to a world-conquering purpose. 
 
 Though the King of Prussia by " divine right " of birth 
 is German Kaiser only by constitutional derivation, this 
 makes no difference. The German constitution is of a texture 
 and the despotic Prussian spirit of a character to invest the 
 Kaiser with the King's inherited divinit3^ There is, to be 
 sure, a constitutional parliament for Germany; but it is 
 ruled by an imperial chancellor responsible to the Kaiser, 
 whose appointment he holds, whose purposes he serves, and 
 who can dismiss him at will. Except for a fragile right of 
 veto, it has no more legislative power than a village de- 
 bating society. In Prussian municii^al governments, too, the 
 Kaiser controls the governing officials. Nor is this auto- 
 cratic "state" political alone. It is also supreme in its in- 
 fluence upon education and morals. Children's minds are 
 molded by its educational processes in accordance with the 
 Government's conception of what is best for "the state" — 
 not for the clilld, unless b}^ lucky coincidence, but for " the 
 
13 
 
 state.'* Like its political adjustments, the Prussianized edu- 
 cational machinery is pyramided up to the Kaiser. From 
 elementary schools its wheels revolve with automatic regu- 
 larity and mechanical precision through higher schools and 
 universities to a place in the exquisitely geared machinery 
 of " the state," at which all is moved and mastered by the 
 Kaiser's touch of a governmental button. The Kaiser him- 
 self is under the influence of a dominant caste — agrarian and 
 militarj^ — of which, in virtue of his birth, he is the most 
 worshipful grandmaster. 
 
 Caste gradations are characteristic of this mystical Ger- 
 man " state." To the Prussianistic institutions of Germany 
 they are what democracy is to countries more advanced in 
 civilization — the spirit of the place, the thought to conjure 
 Avith, the sign to conquer by. They do not belong with those 
 mere survivals of caste Avhich distort the clemocrac}^ of 
 other countries, but are a system of caste government which 
 is cultivated as a social and political necessity and as one 
 of the indispensable factors of " kultur." The German child 
 is educated for the caste in which he is born. Prejudices of 
 higher toward lower grades of caste and subserviency from 
 the lower to the higher are sedulouslj^ fostered for " state " 
 reasons. University professors are flanged for caste grooves. 
 Clergjmien and school teachers are congealed in caste molds. 
 Workingmen are graded off and graded through b}^ caste 
 variations. Women are strait- jacketed in castes of sex, 
 appendant in series to the caste levels of their respective 
 men folk. And complexities of military caste, interweaved 
 with a land-nobility caste, rule the others — subject, of 
 course, to the Kaiser, who is at the apex of these caste 
 gradations. 
 
 Out of it ail has come a stupendous social and political 
 machine. Individual impulses have been ossified and moral 
 perceptions inverted. Even the scientific and the religious 
 groups have been shaped on caste lines. And this machine 
 is efficient. iSTo blame to such as worship efficiency for 
 the sake of efficiency if they bow the head and bend the 
 knee at the altars of the German system. There are those, 
 however, who value efficiency not for its own sake but for 
 the sake of the worthiness of its objects and the usefulness 
 of its accomplishments. To such as these the prospect of 
 
14 
 
 a world- widte imposition of a Priissianistic "state" by 
 military conquest is not inviting. It would be abhorrent to 
 every democratic instinct and at variance with every demo- 
 cratic thought. 
 
 Yet precisely that purpose has been the manifest object of 
 German efficiency. In so far as it has served useful ends 
 in social life those ends have been served as incidents to the 
 purpose of world conquest. Except in so far as the efficiency 
 has )3een for the mere sake of being efficient, or for the sake 
 of subordinating the German people — body, mind, and 
 soul — to the dominion of a caste-bound " state," its uncon- 
 cealed design has been to make military conquest of the rest 
 of mankind. The Prussianized German Government coveted 
 "a plai'e in the sun" where its shadow would hang over 
 all the earth; and efficiency for military conquest was its 
 method. Conquest was not the purpose of the masses of the 
 German people. But it was the purpose of their ruling 
 caste and its royal chief; and the German people, obsessed 
 with Prussian " kultur," were an impotent factor in giving 
 political form to their instinctive love of democracy and 
 peace. So the Government of Germany has, for purposes 
 of world conquest, been able to devote years of time and 
 volumes of human energy to making nuirvelously efficient a 
 gigantic war machine. By inculcating an automatic sense 
 of dutj^ to " the state," through the ramiiications of mechan- 
 ized " kultur," and developing a spirit of military conquest 
 as a necessity of normal German life and national existence, 
 it has sustained in Germany, in times of peace, that ab- 
 normal public opinion which in countries like ours is sus- 
 tained only in times of war. It has taught the German 
 people to think of luight as the only measure of right and 
 of war as a necessary element in the life of nations and an 
 indispensable factor of "kultur." It has impressed upon 
 them the duty of making aggressive war not only for the 
 good of Germany, but for the good of the human race. And, 
 teaching the vital importance of seizing " the n\ost favorable 
 moment" for begiiming Avars of Ciinquest, it encouraged 
 a Germany-wide toasting of "the Day" when the conquer- 
 ing moAement should begin. 
 
 After moj'e than -iO years of such preparation for forcibly 
 extending Prussian imperialism over the world, " the Day " 
 
15 
 
 came. The " most favorable moment " for further Prussian 
 conquest was seen and seized by the military caste of the 
 empire. The German Government, a young and vigorous 
 despotism, armed to the teeth, was ready and eager to begin 
 its next war of conquest. Russia, a decrepit autocracy, had 
 but recently suffered military disaster. France, so far ad- 
 vanced from her old lust for revenge that the antiwar party 
 had just won the parliamentary elections, w^as neither in- 
 clined to make a war nor prepared for w^aging one. Great 
 Britain, her parties in power (Liberal, Labor, and Irish), all 
 antiwar parties on the whole and in ever}^ respect the an- 
 tithesis of the party in power in Germany — v^^as averse to 
 war and, without further preparation, hardh'- capable of suc- 
 cessfully waging even defensive warfare. Circumstances had 
 thus conspired to make this moment " the most favorable " 
 possible for the German Government to begin its war move 
 for world conquest. Had any doubt remained, an incident 
 occurred to stifle it. Just at this " most favorable moment," 
 when the German Government was hairtrigger ready for 
 war, and France, the nation first to be crushed, was wholly 
 unready, as was Great Britain also, a roj'^al prince was assas- 
 sinated. The crime was in no sense a cause for war ; but to 
 the German war lords it was a good enough excuse. As 
 one member of the German Parliament dared to say to them 
 with bitter irony, they welcomed that assassination as " a 
 gift from heaven." A war of conquest was what they 
 wanted, and a war of conquest they made. Had not "the 
 Day " arrived ? Was not " the most favorable moment " at 
 hand ? 
 
 In the twinkling of an eye the Kaiser's military machine 
 assembled. Every man dropped into " his place " at the 
 word. Almost before the western world suspected a possi- 
 bility of war, the German Government had seized Belgium 
 and sent a huge army of invasion on its conquering way 
 toward Paris. In a month the invader was to have been 
 again in that city which nearly 50 years before he had 
 beleaguered and starved into surrender. From there he was 
 to have offered a German peace. Its conditions would have 
 been framed to crush France so completely that she could 
 never resist a German march of conquest again. The least 
 of its exactions would have been a strategic harbor on the 
 
16 
 
 English channel — a pomt from which the next "svar of Ger- 
 man conquest Avcstward could be waged Avitli advantage 
 agahist Great Britain. And this German peace — a truce 
 between conquests — would have endured until another "most 
 f aA'orable moment " for conquest had made further invasion 
 by the German Government " necessary for the German peo- 
 ple "" and '" the good of the human race/' The treaty of peace 
 would then have been another " scrap of iDaper." 
 
 But the unexpected happened. The efficient war machine 
 somehoAv pj'oved inefficient at a decisive moment. The Ger- 
 man march of conquest from Berlin to tlie Atlantic coast 
 was checl:ed. Only checked, however, for the invader has 
 not vet ii'one l)ack into his own countrv. His war of con- 
 
 (lue^i in western Europe still hangs in the balance. For three 
 years he has occupied Belgium and northern France. His 
 possession is without the slightest color of any right but 
 military might. He can neither justify nor excuse his in- 
 Aasion by even the semblance of a defensive plea. His hold 
 upon those countries accords with no other explanation than 
 a stupendous attempt to realize in part his long-fostered 
 policy of world conquest. 
 
 And now, pursuant to that policy and for its more com- 
 plete realization, he has thrown his western battle line be- 
 yond Belgium, beyond France, beyond Great Britain, many 
 leagues out upon the Atlantic Ocean toward the United 
 States. 
 
17 
 
 This advance of the German westward from his own fron- 
 tiers into and through Belgium, into northern France, and, 
 overleapmg the rest of France, out upon the Atlantic to the 
 twentieth meridian, is indicated by the shaded part of the 
 accompanying map. 
 
 By the menacing extension of his battle line out upon the 
 Atlantic Ocean toward the United States, and his claim to 
 military sovereignty over the intervening waters, the Ger- 
 man Kaiser challenged the United States to fight or fall 
 back. He thereby claimed this area of the ocean as a Prus- 
 sian lake. Had he won the European war he could have 
 extended his claim to the whole ocean, unless we ourselves 
 had subsequently broken the peace and made war upon him 
 to recover what for the sake of peace with him we had un- 
 resistingly yielded at a more favorable time for defense. 
 Had he lost the war, with what grace could we have claimed 
 restoration by the victorious allies of the ocean rights which, 
 during their war, we had yielded to their foe ? 
 
 But our concern in the matter comes closer home even 
 than that. When the Kaiser notified the Government of the 
 United States that after February 1, 1917, he would sink 
 at sight American vessels entering the ocean area indicated 
 by the shaded parts of the map referred to, he declared war 
 against the United States. When within that area he, began 
 sinking American vessels at sight, as he had notified our 
 ^-^'Gb%i*ri^ii6nt he would do, and killed American crews and 
 passengers sailing on them under the American flag, he 
 made toar upon the United States. It was on his part 
 invasive war, a war of conquest, precisely the kind of war 
 upon this country which he had made two and a half years 
 earlier upon Belgium and France. 
 
 Before that declaration of war and those acts of war, we 
 had reason to fear the German Government, reason for 
 indignation, reason for resentment. We might have gone to 
 war with no slight reasons ; and that we did not was because 
 our Government was then, as it still is, under an administra- 
 tion which does not revel in thoughts of war ; it abhors war. 
 But when the German Government advanced its invasive bat- 
 tle line out upon the open Atlanliicili our di^e'ctioJi^ aS^rting 
 its sovereignty there as it was asserting it in Belgium and 
 
18 
 
 northern France, and killing American citizens on American 
 ships under the American flag upon waters where they had 
 as good right to be as in their oAvn cities, States or harbors, 
 then a new element came into the case. Our Republic was 
 invasively and defiantly put upon the defensive. The most 
 pacific administration the United States has ever had could 
 no longer keep us out of the war without putting us into 
 national subjection to an alien power. The German Govern- 
 ment had then left no alternative to this Government but 
 war or surrender. 
 
 Our ships might indeed have stayed aAvay from the ocean 
 area over wdiich the German Government thus asserted exclu- 
 sive sovereignty. Their crews and passengers might have 
 remained at home in obedience to the Kaiser's command. In 
 obedience to that command. our Government might have or- 
 dered them to do so. But none of this Avould have been any 
 safer to our independence, any more in the interest of peace 
 between this countr}^ and Germany, or any more reasonable 
 on any count, than if the Kaiser had ordered us to stay off 
 all the ocean outside our oAvn territorial waters, and we had 
 obeyed. 
 
 If the United States ought, in conscience or from policies 
 of i)eace, to have yielded to the Kaiser's extension of his 
 invasive battle line out upon the ocean to the twentieth meri- 
 dian in our direction, wc should have had no reason in con- 
 science or peace policy for forcibly resisting its extension at 
 the Kaiser's command to the thirtieth degree, nor to the 
 sixtieth, nor even to the very 3-mile limit off our own coast 
 line. There is no argmnent in opposition to our war against 
 the German Kaiser as a war of self-defense which would not 
 be as reasonable if, in his lust of world conquest, he were 
 immediately approaching our water frontiers across the 
 ocean, as almost three years ago, obsessed with that lust, he 
 approached the land frontiers of France across Belgium. 
 
 Of course, on principles of nonresistance the United States 
 w^ould not be justified in either case. Nor should one be 
 hasty to deny that nonresistance is good strategy as well as 
 good morals. It has sanctions that can not be lightly 
 ignored, and there are historical instances of its potency. 
 At all events no high-minded person or noble-spirited people 
 will countenance bullying denunciation or tolerate maltreat- 
 
19 
 
 ment of those among them who preach and practice nonre- 
 sistance. The memory of Tolstoy forbids. But the policy 
 of national nonresistance to wars of conquest is not 3^et a 
 social factor. Still feeling its way forward, the world is 
 unappreciative of any better defense to invasive war than 
 defensive war. As one of the most idealistic and deservedly 
 influential newspapers of our countrj;' and time has phrased 
 the thought, " The world has not reached the place where 
 might can be met with argument, or where the wrath of 
 nations can be turned away with a soft answer." It is by the 
 test of the social toe mark of our own time that our war 
 against the German invader must be tried; and by that test 
 the war we wage is a necessary war because it is a war of 
 national self-defense. 
 
 That there are more ideal justifications has been intimated 
 above. Our war is no less just than necessary as a war of 
 self-defense; and it is just also because it is a war in defense 
 of the peaceable democracies of the world. This justifica- 
 tion, eloquentl}^ made by the President in his war proclama- 
 tion, can not be too often repeated, nor too clearly appre- 
 hended. " We are now about to accept gauge of battle with 
 tliis natural foe to liberty," said the President, " and shall, if 
 necessarj^, spend the whole force of the Nation to check 
 and nullify its pretensions and its power. We are glad, 
 noiD that loe see the fcocts with no veil of false pretense 
 about them, to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the uwrU 
 and for the. liberation of its peoples, the German people in- 
 cluded ; for the rights of nations,, great and small, and the 
 privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and 
 obedience. TJie world 'must l/e 'made sa-fe for de-mocraey " — • 
 an injury to one is the concern of all, " Its peace must be 
 planted upon the lastilig foundations of political liberty. 
 We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, 
 no dominion " — our war is not of the Prussianistic order. 
 " We shall fight for the things which we have always carried 
 nearest our hearts — for democracy, for the right of those 
 who submit to authority to have a voice in their own gov- 
 ernments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a 
 universal dominion of right hj such a concert of free peoples 
 as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and mahe the 
 world itself at last free.'''' 
 
20 
 
 Those are the ideals for which we are to struggle while 
 in the war. They are the ideals for which we are to stand 
 in adjusting terms of peace when the war is over. And 
 they are none the less genuine because in our war struggle 
 in their behalf we temporarily suspend our own guaranties 
 of individual liberty in order to make the war effective as 
 our people would have it, instead of a failure as the war 
 lords of Germany would like it to be. This is part of the 
 necessar};^ cost of all wars for democracy. Our Eevolutionary 
 War, with its democratic purpose and outcome, could not 
 have been won by democratic methods. The French Revo- 
 lution, with its democratic aspirations and its overthrow of 
 ancient feudalism, was it not sustained coercively? Our 
 Civil War for a " government of the people, for the people, 
 and by the people " was not prosecuted in very strict accord- 
 ance with democratic forms or deference to democratic 
 guaranties. It is not, however, with the higher ideals for 
 which Ave are now at war that this discussion is especially 
 concerned, except as they may be involved in the necessity 
 for defending ourselves against an invading foe. Back of 
 those ideals are the plain workaday facts to Avhich the Presi- 
 dent referred as the moving cause of our going into the war, 
 when he advised Congress that " the recent course of the 
 Imperial German Government " had been " in fact nothing 
 less than war against the Govier7iinent.and..peojple,jof.ythe 
 VnUed Btatm'^ byion^r sverf o,^ su i{f^ .80x.r.6J3 bsiinlJ aril 
 i; On those fac^s,- the 'Congi-ess of the Unitedi States, the 
 only authority known to our "fundamental law for such 
 action, and through the only process that would have been 
 binding upon our Government, accepted the war challenge 
 of the German Kaiser. No referendum could have had any 
 legal force. Nor would it have had any probable advisory 
 value. It would only have offered another opportunity for 
 Prussian diplomacy. The obligation Avas upon Congress; the 
 only poAver to decide Avas in Congress; the only aA^ailable 
 reflection of public opinion short of revolution Avas through 
 Congress. And Congress accepted this challenge of war. 
 It did feo'ii^Ab'pnA'ate iriteredt but in 'tM J>nblic interest. 
 It did so becatise {he German GoA'ernment Avas making actual 
 war upon the Government and people of the United States. 
 
21 
 
 The challenge was not accepted while it remained a " scrap 
 of paper." But when this challenge of war was vitalized by 
 deeds of war, when in accordance with its terms of defiance 
 American ships were sunk and American lives were taken 
 under the American flag by the Government of Germany 
 within an ocean area on which the rights of this country are 
 as indefeasible as its rights to its own territory, but over 
 which the German Government had invasively assumed ex- 
 clusive sovereignty, then Congress accepted the challenge of 
 war. 
 
 There was no possible alternative. This self-constituted 
 enemy of ours, after long fostering a policy of conquest, had 
 actually invaded Belgium and France pursuant to that pol- 
 icy. By that long-fostered policy, he had proved his invasive 
 intent. By his actual invasion he had transmuted invasive 
 intent into invasive action. By his diplomatic negotiations 
 with Mexico and his operations within the United States he 
 had disclosed his invasive intent toward the United States 
 itself as one of the objectives of his general policy. By 
 throwing his invasive battle line out upon the ocean to the 
 twentieth meridian, in the direction of the United States, 
 with a threat to the United States, he confirmed his hostile 
 intent toward this country. His destruction of American 
 ships and American lives under the American flag within 
 that, ocean area was the overt act of his aggressive war upon 
 the United States. For us to have ignored the manifest iii- 
 tent after it had been vitalized by the overt act would have 
 been to surrender at discretion. So our war with the auto- 
 cratic German Government, if it involved no ideals at all of 
 the loftier or less selfish tj^pe, would nevertheless be justified 
 as a necessary war of national self-defense. 
 
 We are resisting invasion as truly as if our call to arms 
 had been to check a hostile army marching northward 
 through Mexico or southward from Quebec. And in sending 
 soldiers to France to help the French, the British, and the 
 Belgians drive the invader away from their home countries 
 and back into his, we are defending our own home country 
 under the same njecessity as if we were advancing into Ganacja 
 or Mexico to meet an approaching .army of conquest. While 
 the German Kaiser is in France or Belgium he is a menace 
 to the United States, now that he has demonstrated his 
 
22 
 
 hostil« intent toward this country ; and no peace can be made 
 with safety to our independence until he has left the places 
 he has invaded and gone back to his own frontiers. 
 
 It might possibly have been better to assent to his conquer- 
 ing the world, nation by nation, until our turn came, than 
 to enter into the awful carnage which resistance to his foul 
 ambitions demands ; but that was not the question. "VVe were 
 not confronted with a problem of war or no war. Our 
 problem was one of resisting conquest now, in a war in 
 Europe and with allies, or later on in our own country 
 and without allies. 
 
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