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The 
 
 Cause and Meaning 
 
 of This War 
 
 By F. W. HENSHAW 
 
 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of 
 California 
 
 The Argonaut Press, September, 1917 
 
"Our rights have been grossly violated, our citizens 
 have been foully murdered under their own flag, our 
 neighbors have been invited to join in making conquest 
 of our territory, our patience in pressing the claims of 
 justice and humanity has been met with the most shame- 
 ful policy of truculence and treachery'' 
 
 "True Americans, those who toil here for home and 
 the hope of better things, whose lifted eyes have caught 
 the vision of a liberated world, have said that of the 
 policy of blood and iron there shall be an end, and that 
 equal justice, which is the heart of democracy, shall rule 
 in its stead," 
 
 — President Woodrow Wilson. 
 
»» » t 
 
 The Cause and Meaning 
 of This War 
 
 To Those Who Are in the Service of the United States 
 in Its Annies and Navies, and to Those Who May 
 Be Called to That Service: 
 
 THIS world's war has now been in progress for 
 more than three years. It began when many of 
 you were too young to study its meaning or to take 
 much interest in its progress, since it seemed very 
 unHkely that the United States would be drawn into it. 
 You know that you are in this war, but it is not sur- 
 prising if a great many of you do not thoroughly under- 
 stand why you are in this war. It is my purpose to 
 explain to you those reasons briefly and in simple terms. 
 But even to do this will first require some words about 
 man's development in government and the conditions of 
 the warring nations. 
 
 The Christian conception of God is that there is an 
 all-wise, an all-powerful, an all-kind Being, Who takes 
 a personal interest in the present and future lives of 
 men. If you apply that idea of a spiritual Being to 
 this earth, all will agree that no people could be bet- 
 ter ruled than by such an all-wise, all-powerful, and 
 all-kind King or Emperor; and this was exactly the 
 ancient idea of kingship. The king told his people, and 
 his people believed, that he held his power directly 
 from God and ruled them in accordance with the 
 Divine will. In time, however, the people learned that 
 this could not be so because they were treated with 
 great cruelty and oppression, and thus they came 
 not only to disbelieve in what was known as the 
 "divine right of kings," but they came to believe that 
 
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 2 ' ^ V S ^ : %/ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ Meaning of This War 
 
 they were entitled to a voice in their own destinies. In 
 this belief was the germ of Democracy. The word 
 simply means government by the people, as the word 
 Republicanism means government by the people through 
 representatives. This idea of democracy — of the peo- 
 ple coming into their right to govern — took hold and 
 spread over great portions of the civilized earth. In 
 some countries, as in France and America, kingship 
 even in name was abolished. In other countries the 
 form of kingship was maintained, but the power of 
 kingship was absolutely taken away by the people and 
 given to representatives of their own choosing. Such is 
 the case with England and Italy. The prime minister 
 of England and his fellow ministers are in most real 
 respects like the President of the United States and his 
 cabinet. 
 
 The Empire of Germany 
 In two European countries, however, the people for 
 different reasons were slower in securing these govern- 
 mental powers. These were Russia and Germany. The 
 first by revolution since this war began has put aside 
 its Czar, or king, and has become a democracy. Not 
 so the latter. The Empire of Germany is composed 
 of a number of kingdoms, one of which is the King- 
 dom of Prussia. These kingdoms, with lesser duke- 
 doms and principalities, were disunited and were in 
 frequent wars until Prussia, the most powerful, by 
 threats, by persuasion and by the strong hand of mili- 
 tary conquest, formed out of them the Empire of Ger- 
 many, over which the King of Prussia should forever 
 be supreme. Thus Prussia, always a military nation, 
 became the ruler of the destinies of the German 
 Empire, and the Kaiser arranged the constitution and 
 laws of the empire so that he should exercise abso- 
 lute control. The chancellor of Germany is not chosen 
 by the people, like our President or like the prime min- 
 ister of England. He is appointed by the Kaiser,^^and 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 is responsible only to the Kaiser. The German Reich- 
 stag (or Congress) does not, like the American Con- 
 gress or the English Parliament, make laws and declare 
 war. It is an empty shell of a congress. It is but a 
 debating society, which can only commend or com- 
 plain in words which have some influence but no legal 
 force. This Empire of Germany, while before that 
 time in the process of formation, was completed after 
 the Franco-Prussian war in 1870-71, in which war 
 Prussia took from France its provinces of Alsace and 
 Lorraine and imposed on her a very heavy war indem- 
 nity, or payment of money. Thereafter the Empire 
 of Germany prospered greatly. It developed within its 
 borders industries of many kinds and carried them to a 
 high state of efficiency. It built a great fleet of merchant 
 vessels to carry its goods to all the markets of the world, 
 and in each of these things the government aided. With 
 these great steps forward in the arts of peace it soon 
 became apparent that Germany was equally active in the 
 development of everything dealing with war. She 
 trained every one of her young men as soldiers 
 until she did not have an army merely, but the whole 
 nation was an army. She began actively also to build 
 a war fleet, until today that fleet is the second in the 
 world, and surpassed only by England's. She said she 
 was doing these things for peace and to protect her- 
 self against possible attack from possible enemies by 
 which she was surrounded, meaning thereby, Russia on 
 the east, and France on the west. She formed a treaty 
 of alliance with Austria-Hungary and with Italy, under 
 which either two was to aid the third under certain con- 
 ditions. This treaty was known as the "Tri-Partite 
 Alliance," and the nations forming it were known at the 
 outbreak of the war as the Allies. The other powers, 
 Russia, France and England, had no treaty, only what 
 was known as an understanding of what they would do 
 in the event of war, or, in the language of French 
 
The Cause and Meaning ef This War 
 
 diplomacy, an "entente," and they came to be known as 
 the "Entente powers." Often, however, they are now 
 spoken of as the "Allies," and Germany and Austria- 
 Hungary as the "Central Powers." They will in this 
 paper so be called. 
 
 Notwithstanding Germany's official protestations that 
 her great army and navy were designed only for her 
 defense, many years ago and shortly after her war with 
 France, the professors in her universities and the 
 teachers in her schools, in books and in lectures to 
 their classes, carried on a course of instruction which 
 amounted to this : That throughout all the lower animal 
 kingdom the weaker gave way and were exterminated 
 to make room for the stronger and better ; that this was 
 equally true of mankind ; that the history of man showed 
 the extinction of numberless tribes and races and peo- 
 ples, and that this struggle for supremacy must go on; 
 that the German mind and the German character were 
 the highest in the world, and that it was the right and 
 duty of Germany to impress these upon the world by 
 subjugating, and if necessary exterminating, the inferior 
 peoples. The pulpits voiced the same doctrine, thus: 
 "The German people is always right, because it is the 
 German people" ; "Germany is the future of humanity" ; 
 "The downfall of Germanism would be the downfall of 
 humanity." 
 
 The public utterances of the Kaiser through many 
 years showed that he held to the ancient or mediaeval 
 idea of the divine right of kings. He "held his powers 
 direct from God"; he was "responsible to no one but 
 God"; "unquestioning obedience was due to him from 
 his people because he was God's representative." Still 
 further, the German leaders under the direction of Prus- 
 sia developed the idea of the State, of the Government, 
 of Germany, beyond anything ever before taught. The 
 idea of a state, or of a government, or of a nation, in 
 countries such as ours is, is that of a community of people 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 agreeing to live under laws which they themselves frame 
 and execute. They thus organize into a state, not for the 
 purposes of aggression, not to attack other states, but 
 to live peaceable and upright lives, and by organization 
 be prepared to protect themselves against attack. In such 
 a state as this, every person is entitled to a voice in its 
 afifairs, to take part in its government, and to suggest 
 improvements in its laws and conditions. In Germany, 
 as an outgrowth of Prussia's teachings, the people were 
 told, and in time, too, a very great part came to believe, 
 that the welfare of the world depended upon Ger- 
 many ; that the German state, the Empire, had a supreme 
 destiny, and this destiny was to achieve the control 
 of the world; and as the German people were the 
 greatest people in the world, so it would be for the 
 benefit of the world when this was done. "Deutschland 
 uber alles" (Germany above all else) was but a popu- 
 lar expression of this. Therefore, the idea of Germany 
 which was taught was that she was a state above all 
 other states, and that nothing which any of her people 
 did, whatever its nature, was or could be wrong so long 
 as it was done under the direction of authority and was 
 therefore necessary for the benefit of the state. So much, 
 then, for the attitude of Germany at the outbreak of the 
 great war. This design of world conquest is what is 
 meant by "Pan-Germanism." For this little review it 
 becomes necessary briefly to consider the positions of 
 the other European nations. 
 
 Austria-Hungary 
 Germany's ally under the Tri-Partite Alliance is often 
 known as the Dual Monarchy, since the Emperor of 
 Austria is also the King of Hungary. The nation is com- 
 posed of many peoples having different racial and differ- 
 ent political aspirations. Her ruler, however, is Ger- 
 manic. For our purposes it is sufficient to say that it 
 is and long has been recognized that in its foreign 
 affairs, in its dealings with other nations over serious 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 international questions, Austria-Hungary has been abso- 
 lutely dominated by Germany. Austria-Hungary is and 
 has been, as has been Germany, jealous and fearful of 
 the growing power of Russia. 
 
 Italy 
 Italy, once the seat of the great Roman Empire, 
 later fell on evil days, until finally she became a part 
 of Austrian territory and subject to Austrian rule. She 
 achiered her independence after a long war and re-estab- 
 lished herself as the Kingdom of Italy, a constitutional 
 kingdom not unlike that of England. She did not, how- 
 ever, succeed in acquiring as a part of her kingdom 
 territories inhabited by Italians and lying to the north 
 and east of her peninsula near to the head of the Adriatic 
 sea — Trent and Trieste. She has always contended that 
 these territories should belong to her. This is the mean- 
 ing of "Italia Irredenta'' — unredeemed Italy. Her part 
 in this war is devoted to conquering those territories 
 from Austria-Hungary. 
 
 Turkey 
 Some centuries ago an insignificant tribe of an Orien- 
 tal people allied in race to the Tartars or Chinese began, 
 under the leadership of their chief Osman or Othman, 
 a career of conquest. They were of the Mohammedan 
 religion and brought the "Koran, tribute, or the sword." 
 Their success in war, while remarkable, was not unlike 
 that of other peoples in the early days who by force 
 of military training and superior ^military leadership 
 from small beginnings achieved great results in con- 
 quest The great Roman Empire, for example, was 
 founded by a small and obscure tribe in central 
 Italy. Alexander the Great was originally but the ruler 
 of one, and that an inferior tribe (except in arms), of the 
 Grecian peoples, the Macedonians. So it was with the 
 Ottoman or Osmanli Turks, as they came to be called. 
 Advancing from their conquests in Asia Minor they 
 
The Cause *nd Meaning of This War 
 
 swept around both shores of the Mediterranean sea, con- 
 quering Egypt and the south coast of the Mediterranean, 
 conquering Constantinople (the Eastern seat of the 
 Roman Empire) and the adjacent Balkan peninsula, 
 including Greece. They took Constantinople on the Bos- 
 phorus (1453) and all the lands lying around the Black 
 sea. From Constantinople they besieged Vienna, and 
 were finally defeated by the Pole, John Sobieski, King of 
 the then Kingdom of Poland, which has since been 
 divided between Prussia, Russia and Austria. After cen- 
 turies of conflict they lost the territories on the southern 
 shore of the Mediterranean and around the Black sea. 
 They maintained their conquests in Europe nearest to 
 Constantinople, that is, the whole Balkan peninsula. 
 Their possessions in Asia Minor were never seriously 
 interfered with by the countries of Europe. Now here 
 was a people of alien race and speech, of alien religion 
 and with a bitter hostility to Christianity; of foreign 
 laws and customs, and infamous for its brutality and 
 ferocity. These Ottoman Turks were and are in num- 
 ber few compared to their subject peoples, and they 
 ruled wholly by terror and by force of arms. One of 
 these subject peoples in Asia Minor are the Arme- 
 nians, who had early embraced Christianity and had 
 faithfully adhered to that religion through persecu- 
 tions infinite in number and dreadful in kind. In 
 Europe, and particularly in the Balkan peninsula, were 
 to the southward the Greeks, famous in history, and 
 north of them smaller countries and peoples, Bulgaria, 
 Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia, Herzegovina, 
 and still further north, Rumania, a people claiming 
 descent from the Romans (Ruman — Roman). All these 
 peoples were Christians and were subject to the Turks. 
 They were restless under the atrocious rule of their 
 masters and from time to time started wars with more 
 or less success for their independence, but, generally 
 speaking, Europe took very little interest in their 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 affairs, the principal reason for which will hereafter 
 be given. Indeed, the great chancellor, Bismarck, 
 the man who under the Kaiser's grandfather and 
 father did more to shape the policy and success of Ger- 
 many than did any other man, himself declared that all 
 of the Balkan peninsula "was not worth the bones of 
 one Pomeranian grenadier." 
 
 Russia 
 Russia was a vast northern empire taking in a large 
 part of Europe and extending across Asia to the Pacific 
 Ocean. She numbers more than two hundred millions 
 of people. Broadly speaking, they are of the Slav, 
 race. Here it may be said that all the peoples of Europe 
 (excepting the Turks and Huns) belong to the one Indo- 
 European family of people, which in turn is divided into 
 sub-families, Slavic, Teutonic, Gallic, Latin, etc. Russia 
 with her multitudes and natural sources of wealth has 
 enormous possible powers. Her development has been 
 retarded not alone by her autocratic form of govern- 
 ment in which the Czar and his councillors were the 
 supreme rulers, but also because these men vested with 
 these tremendous powers used them unwisely and kept 
 back, rather than advanced the welfare of the nation. 
 The thrust of the Turks into Europe had divided the 
 Slav peoples, for some of the Balkan states, particularly 
 Serbia and Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, were 
 Slavic. Two prominent facts in Russia's national policy 
 are to be remembered. Vast as was her territory, it 
 was all northern territory and her seaports were closed 
 in winter by ice. She needed for commerce at least one 
 "winter port," that is to say, territory fronting on navi- 
 gable waters which would give her an open harbor 
 through the winter. In her domain lies the Black 
 sea, connected by the narrow waterways, Bosphorus 
 and Dardanelles, with the Mediterranean sea, and so 
 with the oceans of the world. Controlling this outlet 
 were the Turks at Constantinople. The cruelties inflicted 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 by the Turks on the Slavic peoples, their hostility to all 
 forms of modern development, their unreliability and 
 corruption, taken with the needs of Russia herself, dic- 
 tated the war which about forty years ago ( 1878) Russia 
 waged against Turkey to drive her out of Europe and 
 secure control of this entrance to the Mediterranean sea. 
 She was successful in this war, but the other European 
 powers at that time, apprehensive of Russia's plans 
 and designs, intervened, blocked her aims and forbade 
 her from taking Constantinople. But at least she suc- 
 ceeded in forcing Turkey to recognize the independence 
 of Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Rumania. 
 
 The second of these outstanding facts is that Russia 
 for reasons not necessary to enter into here, but one 
 of which was the racial consideration, became the "Lit- 
 tle Father'' of the Slavic Balkan states. Not many years 
 ago (1912) a number of these Balkan states (Greece, 
 Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria) formed a confedera- 
 tion to fight in unison and to conquer Turkey in Europe. 
 They were victorious in the war, but were not allowed by 
 the great European powers to have their own way in 
 dividing amongst themselves the conquered territory, 
 nor yet were they allowed, any more than was Russia, to 
 put Turkey out of Europe. Bulgaria considered herself 
 badly treated by the allotment of territory made to her 
 and there followed the second Balkan war, in which 
 Serbia and Greece, who had been given what Bulgaria 
 thought was more than their share of the mountains 
 and plains of Macedonia, joined forces and defeated 
 Bulgaria. Russia, as has been said, had always exer- 
 cised a friendly influence in behalf of Bulgaria, and 
 the other Slavic states, and Bulgaria was resentful that 
 Russia did not come to her aid in this last war, though 
 how she could have done so as against Serbia, another 
 Slavic state, is not apparent. At the conclusion of the 
 Russo-Turkish war (1878) it was agreed that Aus- 
 tria-Hungary, lying just to the north of the Balkan 
 
10 The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 peninsula and in nearest touch with it, would herself 
 exercise a sort of police protection over some of these dis- 
 turbed kingdoms (very much like the protection we exer- 
 cised over Cuba) until they were able satisfactorily to 
 manage their own affairs. Instead of living up to this, 
 however, Austria-Hungary took advantage of Russia's 
 difficulties in her recent war with Japan and publicly 
 announced that she annexed the two states of Bosnia 
 and Herzegovina. These were Slavic states. Serbia 
 believed they would be united with her, as they would 
 have been if allowed a voice in the matter, and the result 
 was to cause great discontent both in Russia and in 
 Serbia. The Kaiser "rattled his saber'' and threatened 
 Russia with war if she undertook to interfere. (1908.) 
 
 France 
 The Republic of France had suffered grievously in 
 tribute and in territory in her last war with Germany 
 (1870-1). There had been wrested from her two of her 
 French speaking and France loving provinces — Alsace 
 and Lorraine. It may be said that many in France har- 
 bored the hope that some day she would be able to 
 win back from Germany those lands which German 
 arms had by conquest torn from her, but unquestion- 
 ably, as France noted the amazing growth in people 
 and power of the German Empire in comparison with 
 her own slower increase in population, this hope waned. 
 The French, however, as was natural, studied Ger- 
 many's plans and designs with utmost care, and long 
 before the beginning of this war became convinced 
 that those plans contemplated world conquest, and she 
 braced herself, not for aggression, but to meet this 
 great shock. She realized that alone she was helpless 
 against Germany, and she cultivated with Russia and 
 with England, the understanding of which we have 
 spoken, the Triple-Entente. This understanding contem- 
 plated no aggressive measures, but dealt with what these 
 nations would do if and when they or any of them were 
 
I 
 
 The Cause mnd Meaning of This War 11 
 
 attacked by the Central Powers. It was well known 
 that Austria-Hungary would act as Germany directed. 
 It was feared that Italy because of the Tri-Partite Alli- 
 ance would join with them. In fact, however, it should 
 here be said that Italy as the third member of the 
 Tri-Partite Alliance refused to join Germany and Aus- 
 tria-Hungary in the war, basing her refusal upon the 
 ground that the Tri-Partite Alhance contemplated the 
 co-operation of the three allies only in a war of defense, 
 and that this war was not defensive, but to the contrary 
 was an aggressive war deliberately brought by Germany 
 and Austria-Hungary. 
 
 England 
 
 Because she was an island, because she was a vast 
 manufacturing and exporting country, because she 
 depended largely on importations for her food supply, 
 because her territorial holdings were all over the globe, 
 England for her protection had built and continued to 
 maintain the strongest navy in the world. She had 
 no such trained army as had the European nations. 
 Her whole regular or standing army at the outbreak of 
 the war did not number as many men as are in her Avia- 
 tion Corps alone today. England, while in name a king- 
 dom, is essentially a republic like the United States. While 
 prepared by her navy to defend her rights and posses- 
 sions, no sane person has ever said that England con- 
 templated a career of world conquest, and her lack of 
 a great army is a conclusive demonstration that no 
 such plan was ever in the minds of her leaders. For a 
 navy alone, while it can protect from sea invasion, can 
 not conquer a defended country. Moreover, her pos- 
 sessions in India, Africa, Canada, Australia, and New 
 Zealand were quite enough for every possible purpose 
 and policy. 
 
 Belgium 
 
 The little kingdom of Belgium fronting on the NortK 
 sea near the English channel, the territory of which 
 
12 The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 is for the most part low-lying plains, had been by treaty 
 guaranteed that in any war her soil would not be 
 invaded. In the ages past her lands repeatedly had been 
 soaked in the blood of warring nations. Her people, 
 few in numbers, had proved that they would fight to 
 the last man in defense of their liberties. Because of 
 their character and location her lands furnished the 
 most accessible method for Germany on the east or 
 France on the west to attack each other. Every Euro- 
 pean nation in the west, including England, was inter- 
 ested in preserving Belgium's independence; for Ger- 
 many to control Belgium meant a greatly added threat 
 against France and a greatly added peril to England 
 lying but a few miles across the Channel. Under these 
 considerations France, Austria, Prussia and England 
 by treaty guaranteed not only the independence of Bel- 
 gium, but her immunity from invasion by any hostile 
 army. Little Belgium, on the other hand, agreed to 
 maintain her neutrality and to use her utmost force to 
 protect her soil against such hostile invasion. Switzer- 
 land on the south occupies in this regard very much the 
 situation of Belgium. 
 
 Bulgaria, Greece, Rumania, and Japan 
 
 Bulgaria, though Slavic and deeply indebted to Rus- 
 sia for her independence, joined Germany and Turkey 
 (her ancient oppressor) in the conquest of Serbia. She 
 pretended that she did so to regain territory wrongfully 
 taken by Serbia. She really did so under German influ- 
 ence, for Germany had long been engaged in putting 
 German rulers over the Balkan states, and the King of 
 Bulgaria was one of them. 
 
 Greece, in treaty bound to come to Serbia's aid, did 
 not do so because of German influence. The wife of 
 the ex-King is the Kaiser's sister. The Allies were help- 
 less to save Serbia and little Montenegro, as to attempt 
 to do so meant leaving a strong Grecian army in their 
 rear which might attack them at any moment. Finally 
 
k 
 
 The Cause and Meaning of This War 13 
 
 the Allies forced the King of Greece to abdicate, and 
 put his son on the throne; but Greece is now really 
 governed by the people through Venezilos, the Prime 
 Minister, whose sympathies are with the Allies. 
 
 Rumania, rich in grain and flocks, was always in sym- 
 pathy with the Allies. She claimed the fertile lands of 
 Transylvania held by Austria but peopled by Ruma- 
 nians. She entered the war last year and in a short 
 campaign was desolated and destroyed by German, 
 Austrian, and Turkish forces. She openly declares that 
 in this she was betrayed by Russia, which promised to 
 support her and did not. There is no doubt but that 
 the Kaiser's influence over the Czar was very great, as 
 wras also the influence of the Czar's German wife, and 
 this was one cause of the Czar's overthrow. 
 
 Japan, under treaty with England, was called upon to 
 destroy the German menace in the Pacific. She promptly 
 did so, and to her is due the fact that the Pacific Ocean 
 is free from German piracy. 
 
 Poland and Bohemia 
 
 Poland, at one time a kingdom of Europe second in 
 territory only to Russia, was between 1772-1795 dis- 
 membered and her lands divided between Prussia, 
 Russia, and Austria. This is known as the "Crime of the 
 Partition of Poland." From time to time she has tried 
 by revolt to achieve her independence, always without 
 success. Kosciusko was one of her revolutionary heroes, 
 and many of you have read how "Freedom shrieked 
 as Kosciusko fell." It is proposed by the Allies to 
 re-establish the Polish nation. For Poland's cause, in 
 sentiment as well as in justice, makes a strong appeal 
 to the world. When her king, John Sobieski, defeated 
 and beat back the Turks he not only saved Austria, but 
 perhaps all Europe from Turkish domination. So great 
 was the relief and joy that the prelates of the Christian 
 churches preached from the Biblical text, "There was a 
 man sent by God : and his name was John." 
 
14 The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 Bohemia, Slavic in race, and at one time an indepen- 
 dent kingdom, is now under Austrian rule. Years ago 
 she called a convention of all the Slavic peoples under 
 Austrian domination, but it resulted only in a successful 
 attack on her by Austria. 
 
 Germany's Changed World Policy 
 
 Germany's World Policy changed after the time when 
 her great chancellor Bismarck said that the whole Bal- 
 kan peninsula was not worth ''the bones of one Pom- 
 eranian grenadier." The change was with the object of 
 which we have before spoken, the deliberate plan that Ger- 
 many should conquer the world, due to the belief enter- 
 tained that she could do this thing. Such plans are not 
 matured and put into action in a day. A nation expects 
 to live forever and tries to look far into the future in 
 figuring out its welfare. Bismarck taught the very 
 sound military policy of defeating your enemies in 
 detail, and in the case of a nation which you propose to 
 conquer to single out that nation and isolate it from 
 other nations by persuasion, coercion or alliance, so that 
 you can attack and subdue it without trouble. Germany's 
 plan then contemplated as matter of course not to con- 
 quer the world at large by declaring a general war upon 
 it, but beginning with Europe to bring in detail and one 
 by one its nations under her subjection. In the years of 
 her preparation she busied herself astoundingly in the 
 development of her army and of her navy and refused at 
 the suggestion of England to join with her in decreasing 
 the building of warships. She seized upon two Ameri- 
 can inventions, the submarine and the flying machine, 
 and secretly developed and improved them. She formu- 
 lated the plan of first cutting Europe and Asia Minor in 
 two by a control of continuous territory from the North 
 Sea to the Persian Gulf. A glance at the map will show 
 what this meant. It meant the gathering in of Hol- 
 land and Belgium, the reduction of France to a subor- 
 dinate power, the forcing of Russia in part, if not in 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 15 
 
 whole, out of Europe, the domination of Turkey in 
 Europe and of Turkey's possessions in Asia Minor, and 
 the extension of this power to the head of the Persian 
 Gulf. She realized that the solution of the French and 
 Russian problem, as well as the problem of Holland and 
 Belgium, could only come by war. Turkey could be con- 
 trolled under a German protectorate, and to this end 
 some years ago this Christian Kaiser went to Turkey, 
 the oppressor of all Christian peoples, and publicly 
 declared himself to be Turkey's protector and the pro- 
 tector and defender of the Mohammedan faith. He easily 
 procured the concession to build his railroad through 
 Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf. But to bring that rail- 
 road to the heart of Germany it was necessary to carry 
 it from Constantinople west and northward. The only 
 feasible route for this was through the Balkan penin- 
 sula and so through Serbia, and here and for this rea- 
 son, little Serbia became of consequence to Germany's 
 plans. This road, as is quite plain to be seen, was 
 designed to be a great military highway from any 
 point of which Germany could reach out to the north 
 or south, east or west. It was the direct means when 
 the time came for the subjection of Persia, India, Egypt, 
 and Russia's southern possessions. It gave the same 
 control over the Balkan peninsula and it afforded Ger- 
 many an incomparable advantage in the swift move- 
 ment of trained troops upon which success in war so 
 much depends. Germany also built the Kiel Canal 
 through the base of the Danish peninsula, thus giving 
 her a protected water connection for her largest warships 
 between the North Sea and the Baltic. Her railroad, it 
 is apparent, to be available for military purposes must 
 run wholly through German lands or lands friendly 
 to Germany. As has been said, it had to cross and did 
 cross Serbia. Serbia, though an independent kingdom, 
 was by race and sympathy allied to Russia. It was thor- 
 oughly well known that Russia had declared that she 
 
16 The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 would protect the interests of the Balkan Slavic states. 
 Serbia was resentful at Austria's treatment of her in 
 depriving her of the two countries, Bosnia and Her- 
 zegovina, which if allowed a voice in their own affairs 
 would have joined the Kingdom of Serbia. It was no 
 part of Germany's plans to allow Serbia thus to increase 
 her power, and so it was that Austria herself annexed 
 these two Slavic countries. Turkey in Europe and the 
 Balkan peninsula are known as the "Near East," and so 
 we read much of the "Near East'' difficulties. 
 
 The Outbreak 
 We may now with understanding come to the middle 
 of the year 1914, whose first of August saw the outbreak 
 of the great war. In the light of the disclosures down 
 to date it is beyond debate that Germany forced this 
 war, believing that the opportune time had come for 
 her to establish her supremacy over all Europe saving 
 England. She was advised through her spies and agents 
 that the Russian government would be lukewarm under 
 attack. She believed, also, that Russian official corrup- 
 tion was so great that her army and navy would both be 
 wholly unprepared. She knew, moreover, that for lack 
 of transportation facilities it would be a slow and labo- 
 rious process for Russia to mobilize or gather together 
 her soldiers. As to France she believed that the Repub- 
 lic's military power was negligible, and she knew that 
 she had defeated her in 1870-71 in a very brief whirl- 
 wind campaign. , Many of the newspapers of France 
 were publicly lamenting and deploring the inefficiency 
 of the army in all departments. Italy she believed would 
 join in the offensive under the Tri-Partite Alliance, or 
 at the worst would remain neutral. England was 
 involved in grave internal disturbances over the Irish 
 Home Rule question. There had already been arming 
 and a local revolt in a northern province of Ireland. The 
 Kaiser was the declared defender and protector of 
 Mohammedanism. In India, which numbered millions 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 17 
 
 of Mohammedans, it was thought possible for Germany, 
 through the Sultan of Turkey, to incite a Jehad, or holy 
 war, by the Mohammedans against the Christians. 
 These considerations, with her contempt for England's 
 insignificant standing army, led Germany to believe that 
 England would remain neutral in case she attacked 
 Russia and France. The conquest of these would make 
 easy, in the peace settlement, her demand for supremacy 
 over Holland and Belgium. Serbia must in some way 
 be gathered in or crushed. With these European nations 
 thus subjected and with their fleets gathered together 
 with her own, the downfall of England would come as a 
 later and comparatively easy step. The Americas were 
 to follow next, and we have the authority of our own 
 former ambassador to Germany, besides much other 
 evidence, that Germany's plans for the invasion and con- 
 quest of the United States had been thoroughly formu- 
 lated. 
 
 While it used to be a recognized thing that a nation 
 would make war purely for the sake of conquest, interna- 
 tional morality has reached the point where such wars 
 are looked on with strong disfavor. So true is this that 
 few nations could hope to receive the ardent support 
 of even their own peoples in any war unless those peoples 
 believed the war to be a just war. So it was that the 
 great Bismarck said that "A war to be a success must 
 be popular, and to be popular you must make your people 
 believe that they have been attacked." With every plan 
 arranged, even to the violation of her solemn treaty with 
 Belgium, with the opportune moment, as she believed, 
 at hand, Germany must still await an excuse to cover up 
 the frightful crime she planned to commit. This excuse 
 she made out of the murder, on June 28, 1914, of the 
 heir apparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary and his 
 wife while they were traveling in Bosnia. Bosnia, it will 
 be remembered, was a part of the Austrian dominion. 
 They were killed by a Bosnian assassin who sprang upon 
 
18 The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 the steps of their carriage and shot them both to death. 
 It was manifestly the crime of an anarchist, Hke the 
 earHer murder in Switzerland of the elderly wife of the 
 Emperor of Austria. Though atrocious in itself, and 
 though it excited a wave of horror and indignation, it 
 had no political significance. Time passed. The outside 
 world was thinking of other things. Even the states- 
 men of the Allied nations had considered the episode 
 closed, when from a clear sky, without the slightest 
 preliminary warning, Austria on July 23, 1914, served 
 an amazing ultimatum on Serbia. It is unnecessary here 
 to go into the details of Austria's demands. They were 
 of a most humiliating character. Austria charged 
 Serbia with having permitted and fostered the conspiracy 
 which resulted in the deaths of the heir apparent and his 
 wife. Arrests must be made. Trials must be had under 
 the domination of Austria. Humble confessions of fault 
 and promises of good conduct must be read before 
 the Serbian army. Civil and military officers of the Ser- 
 bian kingdom must be dismissed. This and much more 
 Austria demanded of little Serbia. The statesmen of the 
 world agree that never had such demands, couched in 
 such terms, been made upon any independent nation, 
 and that the terms were deliberately chosen so that Serbia 
 could not accept them, and thus Austria, under her 
 ultimatum, would declare war against her. What would 
 then result was well known. Russia, in treaty and in 
 honor bound, would protect Serbia against destruction, 
 and to do this would wage war against Austria. Ger- 
 many, in treaty bound, would then come to the aid of 
 Austria. France by her Entente bond would support 
 Russia, and the war which Germany desired and planned 
 would thus be brought about. Serbia's time to answer 
 Austria's ultimatum was limited to forty-eight hours. 
 England, France, Russia and Italy were one and all 
 earnestly desirous of preventing a European war, 
 and their statesmen bent their most active energies 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 19 
 
 to this end. Serbia, under the direction of Russia, 
 in the hope of averting war made a response marvelous 
 in its humility, conceding all of Austria's demands saving 
 one, and as to that (trials in Serbia under Austrian con- 
 trol) agreeing to submit the question for determination 
 to the great Hague Peace Tribunal. So completely did 
 Serbia consent to obey Austria's demands that the news- 
 papers of Berlin published the declaration that Serbia 
 had yielded and that war was averted. Within two 
 hours after those papers appeared upon the streets 
 they were suppressed and the same newspapers pub- 
 lished the contrary declaration, that Serbia had rejected 
 Austria's demands and that war was inevitable. Mean- 
 time, and while the diplomats were active day and 
 night in their exchange of suggestions and advice, 
 Austria mobilized against Serbia, and Russia mobil- 
 ized against Austria. All possible efforts were made 
 by England, by France, by Italy and by Russia to avert 
 the catastrophe, and their pleas were, of course, made 
 to Germany, because it was well known that she 
 could control Austria's action. Germany, while express- 
 ing a desire for peace, refused to do anything, basing 
 her refusal on the ground that the honor of her ally 
 Austria was involved and that on a question of honor 
 every nation must decide for itself. Apparently Austria 
 herself, grew terrified over the impending consequences 
 of her action, and listened to one of Russia's sugges- 
 tions for a "localization" of the war, or, in other words, 
 it was contemplated that Austria might punish but not 
 subjugate Serbia, might send an army across the Danube 
 river and take Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, and stop 
 there, holding that capital pending permanent terms of 
 reconciliation. But this would have meant the total 
 breaking down of the execution of Germany's long 
 cherished plan, and she then intervened. Germany, in 
 turn, served an ultimatum upon Russia, in which she 
 declared that which was denied and was manifestly 
 
20 The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 false, that Russia was mobilizing her forces against 
 her, and she demanded instant demobilization of all 
 of Russia's forces within twenty-four hours. This was 
 designed to be a demand impossible to comply with. 
 Russia replied, so stating, and stated further her pending 
 negotiations with Austria and her hope that the war 
 could be ''localized." Then it was that Germany, herself 
 already mobilized, declared war. Then it was that the 
 Kaiser dramatically announced to his people that Ger- 
 many's war was a war of defense ; that her enemies "had 
 thrust the sword into his hand," and that he would not 
 sheathe it until the Fatherland stood secure in all its 
 rights against the oppression of its conscienceless foes. 
 Then it was that Germany, under the plan long pre- 
 arranged, hurled her armies into Belgium, violated her 
 treaty with that gallant little nation, and sought to take 
 Paris and conquer France by this swift and treacherous 
 movement, for she knew that France would not expect 
 such perfidy and so would not be prepared to meet her on 
 the Belgian front. Then it was that under the protesta- 
 tion of England that, being a signer of this treaty, she 
 could not look on in silence at its violation, the Chancellor 
 of Germany contemptuously asked if England would 
 go to war for a "scrap of paper" and "for a word- 
 neutrality," and then it was that England aligned herself 
 with the Entente powers and entered the war. 
 
 No human being acts from a single, unmixed motive. 
 Neither does any nation. Undoubtedly England did a 
 very brave thing in staking her future, as she knew 
 she was doing, upon the outcome of this great adven- 
 ture. For she was under no delusions concerning its 
 gravity. She knew it was a life or death struggle. 
 Undoubtedly, while one of the motives which actuated 
 and justified her was the sacrilege committed on Bel- 
 gium and the violation of a treaty to which Eng- 
 land -herself was a party, she saw clearly what the 
 United States has come to see, that only in this war 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 21 
 
 lay her own safety; that Germany's conquest of Europe 
 as the first step meant the conquest of Great Britain 
 as the second step and the conquest of the United States 
 as the third step. These considerations in no way detract 
 from, but intensify England's justification in doing as 
 she did. 
 
 The Vital Controversy 
 
 Government, as we have said, is a matter of develop- 
 ment, and it grows better and more humane as the people 
 of the government themselves grow wiser and more 
 tolerant. There is no nation which possesses any long 
 history in whose record we can not find unjustifiable wars 
 and the oppression of weaker peoples, but it is a part 
 of the growth of morality as well as a part of the doc- 
 trines of Christianity that such wars and oppressions 
 should cease. It used to be held that the welfare of a 
 nation justified every act of its rulers ; so it was said that 
 "expediency is the morality of the statesman." In a sen- 
 tence, this meant that while it would be criminal for 
 you to murder your neighbor because you coveted his 
 land, it would be justifiable for a nation to perpetrate 
 wholesale murder if it coveted another nation's land. 
 Civilization now applies to a nation's act or right to act 
 the same moral rules by which an individual's conduct 
 is adjudged. Germany alone holds to the old doctrine 
 that the state may err, but can do no wrong. Moreover, 
 the wisdom of modern statesmanship recognizes that 
 peoples should be united in a government wherever pos- 
 sible in accordance with race, and that to the citizens of 
 each government should be given a large and an ever 
 larger voice in its control, until they are fitted to exer- 
 cise complete self-rule. The very strength of England 
 in her far scattered colonies and possessions lies in the 
 fact that she recognizes the wisdom of this and has 
 allowed all of those colonies and possessions the utmost 
 liberty of government and of action. 
 
 The essence of this controversy, the very vitals of 
 
22 The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 this war, are whether the German idea shall prevail 
 or the idea held by those countries which are warring 
 against it. Germany's dominant idea, as we have said, 
 is that she, her morals, her "kultur," her ideas, are the 
 best in the world and that therefore it is best for the 
 world that they be forced upon it at whatever cost. If a 
 people is subjugated or even exterminated, it is to make 
 room on the face of the earth for a higher and better 
 people — the German people. Radically opposed to this, 
 in irreconcilable hostility to it, is the conception of the 
 Allies that every people upon the earth should be allowed 
 to work out freely its own development, its own culture, 
 its own ideas of government, and all things else so long 
 as it does not interfere with the same rights of other 
 nations. 
 
 This is what our President means when he says 
 that we are fighting to make the world safe for democ- 
 racy and that our war is not against the German 
 people. Their rulers and leaders of thought have done 
 this awful thing, and the German people, as all loyal peo- 
 ple should do, are but following their leaders. The people 
 have been wickedly blinded and are being very evilly led. 
 Given a voice in their government, given a Democracy, 
 neither they nor any other people in the world having 
 such a voice, would enter on such a ghastly career of 
 world destruction. 
 
 This is what the Prime Minister of England, express- 
 ing the same thought in different language, means when 
 he says that the Allies do not pretend to dictate how 
 Germany shall govern herself; but when it comes to 
 treaties of peace, the Allies have the right to say with 
 what government they will make such treaties, and they 
 can not make them with the present German government, 
 because truth and honor and fidelity to the pledged word 
 are not in her rulers ; that such fidelity is not only vital 
 to every transaction between men, but is the foundation 
 stone of civilization itself. 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 23 
 
 ■ T) 
 
 ^^■Germany's Crimes Against the Civilized World 
 ^^H| AND Against the United States 
 
 ^m The psychologists, the men who study the workings 
 
 of the human mind, precisely as your physician and 
 surgeon study the workings of the human body, all agree 
 that if you keep a person entirely under the influence 
 of one idea, however awful or absurd that idea may be, 
 if his reason be not appealed to by contrary arguments, 
 he will in an extraordinarily short space of time come 
 firmly to believe that which is thus taught him, and 
 particularly is this true if the human being is in the 
 younger and more impressionable age. Thus they say: 
 Teach a young fellow that it is not only no crime to 
 steal, but that it is a good thing to steal, subject him to 
 the force of this idea and its evil influences, and in time 
 you will nol, only have a skilled pickpocket, but even 
 worse than that, you will have a pickpocket who believes 
 that he is doing right. In this way, as has been before 
 said, the youth of the German nation in successive gen- 
 erations have been trained to believe, and most of them 
 profoundly believe the truth of their teaching, that 
 where Germany is concerned nothing which is ordered 
 can be wrong. We will return to this amazing belief 
 
 I shortly. For the moment let us pass on to this fact : The 
 civilized world generally has come to recognize that war 
 at its best is hideous, at its worst is unspeakable. All of 
 the nations agree that its horrors and sufferings should 
 be lessened so far as possible. Holland built a superb 
 courthouse in one of its cities. The Hague, where dis- 
 interested and impartial learned men selected by all 
 the nations should meet as a court and pass upon the 
 merits of disputes between nations, a Court of Arbi- 
 tration to avert war. Conferences between represen- 
 tatives of nations were also there held from time to 
 time to agree upon the doing and the not doing of 
 things in war, to lessen the woes and sufferings which 
 inevitably it produced. To these conferences Gei^many 
 
24 The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 sent her representatives. In these conferences many 
 things were agreed upon, to which the consenting 
 nations bound themselves. Amongst these things were 
 that in the event of war the civilian non-fighting popu- 
 lation should be disturbed as little as possible, and they 
 should not be injured in person or in property. Unfor- 
 tified cities should not be fired on, and fortified cities 
 should only be fired on after warning to the garrison, 
 so that the non-fighting population could be sent away. 
 Warfare itself was to be made less horrible for the 
 soldier as by prohibiting certain kinds of offensive 
 weapons, such as the dum-dum bullet, which splits and 
 creates frightful jagged wounds. Poisoned gases were 
 not to be employed. Many other similar regulations 
 were laid down and agreed to. There is little or no 
 exaggeration in saying that Germany has violated 
 every one of these, wilfully and wantonly. We need 
 not undertake to give a complete list of these out- 
 rages. A few conspicuous examples will serve to 
 show their nature. Violating her treaty with Belgium 
 and capturing most of that country, she took the private 
 money of the banks and she levied and is levying enor- 
 mous tribute upon the cities. She stripped the factories 
 of their machinery. She took the food supplies. She left 
 millions of people to starve, and they would have starved, 
 saving for the food sent them by other countries. This 
 is the meaning of the Belgian Relief Commission which 
 until the time of our declaration of war had for its 
 head an American, Mr. Hoover, now the head of our 
 Food Control Board. Having rendered it impossible 
 for the inhabitants of Belgium to work by depriving 
 them of all their tools and resources, she made this 
 an excuse for carrying thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands of them into actual slavery, and compelling 
 them to work for her. She did worse than this. She set 
 them at work directed against the lives of their 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 25 
 
 own countrymen, in making munitions and in digging 
 trenches. She did not stop here. The girls and women 
 were likewise deported, and they also by the thousands 
 and tens of thousands were made the victims of the lust 
 of the German soldiers. Thousands on thousands of the 
 peaceful citizens, including women, children, and priests, 
 were murdered because of crimes which it was declared 
 not they, but other Belgian civilians, had committed. 
 She inflicted hideous mutilations on wounded prisoners, 
 and deliberately underfed them and exposed them to 
 deadly contagious diseases in her prison camps. She 
 maimed helpless little children by cutting off their hands 
 and feet. She did exactly the same things to the peo- 
 ple and to the conquered territory of France and Rus- 
 sian Poland. In their African possessions before the 
 advance of the English forces the Germans retreated 
 and poisoned the wells as they retreated. They did this 
 to kill the victorious enemy, and their commanding 
 officer has officially admitted that he did this and has jus- 
 tified it as a "military necessity.'' Over England they 
 have sent their air ships, which have dropped hundreds 
 of tons of bombs on unfortified towns, ruthlessly kill- 
 ing women and children. The Turks, outnumbered by 
 their Christian subjects, and doubly embittered over 
 the uprising of those Christian subjects in the Balkan 
 wars, had conceived the infamous design of mur- 
 dering all Christians. In particular their hostility was 
 directed against the Armenians, of whom we have 
 spoken, and whose country is in Asia Minor. The 
 Armenians are a very ancient people, and early in the 
 history of Christianity embraced that religion. They 
 have held to it through indescribable woes and adversi- 
 ties, although by accepting the Koran they could have 
 had relief. It was this far-away people that in Asia 
 Minor lent aid to the Christian crusaders in the first cru- 
 sade sent out to rescue the Holy Sepulcher from the 
 Turkish infidels. For years the name of Turk has been 
 
26 The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 SO horrible to western civilization that they had come to 
 be called the ^'unspeakable Turk/' and for two genera- 
 tions and more history has recorded their barbarities to 
 the Armenians, until "Armenian atrocities'' came to be a 
 diplomatic phrase. Taking advantage of this war, the 
 Turks, allies of Germany and absolutely subject to her 
 will, began literally the extermination of the Armenians. 
 The Christian nations made their appeal to the Kaiser, 
 the neutral nations as well as the warring nations. One 
 shake of his head would have stopped this infamous 
 work. He refused even that upon the ground that he 
 could not interfere with the internal affairs of his allies, 
 and as one of the Kaiser's greatest crimes in this war 
 stands the murder, under all forms of Oriental barbarity, 
 ferocity, and torture, of over one million Armenian men, 
 women, and children. 
 
 Enough of these world crimes which, hideous as they 
 are, only indirectly affected ourselves. Germany did 
 not pause here. She undertook to beat England to her 
 knees by what she called a blockade, but this blockade, 
 since England's fleet had driven her fleet off the seas, 
 was to be maintained, not by the seizure of merchant 
 vessels carrying goods to England, but by the destruc- 
 tion of all vessels by submarines. Now it is and has been 
 the international law of the high seas that no neutral 
 vessel may be disturbed at all, even in going to a block- 
 aded port, unless she carries what is known as "con- 
 traband of war." Contraband of war for our purposes 
 may be defined as goods, munitions of war or other 
 materials out of which munitions of war are made, and 
 those things designed for the aid of the fighting enemy. 
 Even when a neutral vessel was carrying such things 
 she was secure against injury, much more destruction, 
 unless it was necessary to fire on her to prevent her 
 efforts to escape. Such vessels were liable to be seized 
 and searched, and if innocent of carrying contraband 
 were to be allowed to go on their way. If carrying con- 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 27 
 
 traband they could be taken to a port of the capturing 
 ship and there the questions touching the ship and its 
 cargo, such as whether or not it was carrying contra- 
 band, what in fact was its destination, etc., were tried 
 before a court known as the Prize Court. In addition to 
 this no merchant vessel, not even an enemy's vessel sub- 
 ject to capture, could be destroyed at sea unless provision 
 was made for the safety of its crew and passengers. All 
 these accepted rules of international warfare at sea Ger- 
 many treated as a piece of waste paper, precisely as she 
 had treated her compact with Belgium. The nations were 
 horrified over the destruction of the Lusitania, a harm- 
 less, unarmed passenger vessel carrying over two hun- 
 dred American men, women and children, and sent to the 
 bottom by a torpedo fired by a German submarine with- 
 out the slightest regard to the appalling loss of human 
 life which resulted. Our government protested, and 
 while a correspondence was carried on between the two, 
 Germany continued to destroy all merchant vessels which 
 her submarines could reach. The Lusitania was sailing 
 under the English flag, but Germany destroyed in the 
 same manner vessels sailing under the American flag, 
 with the loss of the lives of American citizens. Finally, 
 under repeated protests and repeated warnings from 
 this government she agreed to suspend this "unrestricted 
 use of the submarine weapon" and no longer thus wan- 
 tonly and illegally to destroy at least neutral merchant 
 vessels. She observed this agreement for a measurable 
 length of time. It appears plainly now from her own 
 declarations that she did so only to lull our indignation 
 and alarm while she was building more submarines. 
 Then, in January of this year, she served formal notice 
 upon the United States that she would resume her ruth- 
 less submarine warfare and, within a described zone 
 which surrounded the British Islands and extended down 
 the coast of France into the Mediterranean sea, would 
 destroy every vessel which her submarines could attack. 
 
28 The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 and she concluded this declaration of {rightfulness with 
 the contemptuous and designedly insulting concession 
 that she would permit a limited number of American 
 ships to sail the high seas and go to English ports, pro- 
 vided they entered and left those ports at a given time, by 
 given routes, painted like zebras to distinguish them, 
 and under guarantees given by our government to the 
 German government that they carried no contraband. 
 Our government had borne all these wrongs with 
 great patience and with utmost forbearance. But here 
 at last, and after all that patience and forbearance, 
 Germany had served final notice that none of our rights 
 would be respected and that we could gain a measure of 
 security only by a concession which would amount to an 
 acknowledgment of her supremacy over us. She had 
 during the time we were at peace with her, caused, 
 through her spies operating directly under her Ambas- 
 sador at Washington, the destruction of our shipping 
 and of our munition plants. She had even plotted and 
 urged Mexico and Japan to wage war on us, promis- 
 ing aid and a division of our territory. And so came the 
 sure knowledge that Germany's hand was in truth 
 against us, as it was against all the world, and that we 
 must make war upon her not alone to prevent a repeti- 
 tion and recurrence of the wrongs which she had 
 inflicted and proposed to inflict upon us, but that we 
 must fight for the preservation of our government and 
 the security of our own firesides, or the infamies which 
 she had perpetrated upon Belgium and France she would 
 perpetrate also upon us. 
 
 Though the immediate battle line to which you men 
 will go is drawn the length of Europe, you are fighting 
 as truly for the defense of your homes as though that 
 battle line were drawn from New York to New Orleans 
 and your were aligned to the west of it. In this strife, 
 so much greater are the issues at stake than ever they 
 have been in any preceding war that our President says, 
 
The Cause and Meaning of This War 29 
 
 and says truly, that you are not only warring for the 
 freedom of our own institutions, that you are not only 
 battling for Democracy at home, but you are fighting 
 the battle of Democracy, of liberty, of right, and jus- 
 tice, for the whole world. 
 
 Something has been said to you touching the perver- 
 sion of German thought under her teaching. The same 
 teaching justifies as "military necessities" all the atroci- 
 ties which Germany commits. Listen to this from one 
 of the great leaders in the German Reichstag, Erz- 
 berger, a man who calls himself a Christian : "The more 
 pitiless and cruel war is the more humane it is, because 
 it is then more quickly brought to a satisfactory end. In 
 warfare the greatest absence of scruples, if one sets 
 about the matter intelligently, coincides, in reality, with 
 the greatest humanity. When we are in a position to 
 wipe out London by a method in our possession, it is 
 more humane to do so than to allow a single one of our 
 German comrades to shed his blood on the field of bat- 
 tle, for so radical a cure would bring peace as quickly 
 as possible. Hesitation, temporizing, sentimentality, and 
 consideration are unpardonable weaknesses. A decided, 
 unscrupulous action — a display of efficiency — and vic- 
 tory follows.'' 
 
 Peace Negotiations 
 
 Germany hoped by a swift attack upon her unpre- 
 pared adversaries to bring her war to a speedy and suc- 
 cessful conclusion. She took Belgian, French, Russian, 
 Serbian, and Rumanian territory, but in every essential 
 she failed. She won victories, but she could not con- 
 quer, and she has come to realize that she can not con- 
 quer. She has succeeded only in arousing against her 
 the just wrath of an outraged world. She is willing now, 
 more than willing, to cry quits, so that at some future 
 time she may try it again. This calling it quits, this 
 "draw,'* and a peace on that basis, is the meaning of 
 the status quo ante helium of which you now hear so 
 
30 The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 much. The Latin words mean a return to conditions 
 exactly as they were before the war. 
 
 Consider this: A gang of bandits attacks your home 
 town, murders your friends, robs the banks and commer- 
 cial houses, outrages the women, sets fire to homes, and 
 retreats, carrying away a number of innocent girls. 
 The sheriff organizes a posse, pursues and surrounds 
 the bandits in the hills. You are a member of that posse. 
 The bandit chief sends word to the sheriff as follows: 
 "We did you up in that little encounter, and we can do it 
 again. However, we don't insist on that. We don't want 
 any more trouble. Let's call the whole thing off. Let's 
 restore the status quo ante, as the book sharps call it. 
 We will even return the girls." What would you think 
 of such a proposal ? Exactly what you would think of it 
 is exactly what the Allied nations think of the proposal 
 for a compromise peace on the basis of the status quo 
 ante. 
 
 The Allies, under the leadership of our President, have 
 declared that this can not be; that fundamentally this 
 war will have been fought in vain unless by its outcome 
 it shall be made impossible for Germany to wage another 
 such ; that the crimes of peaceful lands laid desolate, and 
 thousands of peaceful citizens murdered, outraged and 
 carried into slavery can not be condoned by an offer 
 merely to restore those desecrated lands; besides res- 
 toration there must be reparation for the past and 
 security for the future. Who can question either the 
 moderation or necessity of this ? 
 
 The Duty of Soldier and Civilian 
 Here, then, is not only our cause of war, but our neces- 
 sity for war, and he who pleads that cause may stand 
 upright and unashamed before the judgment seat of 
 God and man. And what is the duty of us, the people, 
 the self-governing people of this country? It is, whether 
 soldier, sailor, or civilian, to yield not only unquestioned 
 
I 
 
 The Cause and Meaning of This War 31 
 
 obedience, but ardent service to our rulers. The voice 
 of all criticism should be stilled unless that voice can 
 with certainty speak in helpful suggestion. Amidst the 
 perils and woes of the nation there is no place for malice 
 or for spite. He is no American, and is at heart a traitor, 
 who does not warmly, cheerfully, hopefully, and to the 
 very best of his ability, uphold the hands and aid the 
 work of our rulers — rulers whom we ourselves have 
 deliberately chosen and placed in the seats of authority 
 to guide the destinies of our beloved country. 
 
 To You 
 
 In this war, as in no other, all the most highly devel- 
 oped nations of earth are at death grips with each other. 
 The world's inventive genius is turned to destruction. 
 Young men who would have achieved eminence in art, 
 in science, in literature, have gone cheerfully to their 
 deaths. Millions of others who should have led peaceful 
 lives as the fathers of the generation next to come are 
 counted but as the "unknown, unnumbered servants of 
 the sword." Civilization itself is rocked as by a gigan- 
 tic earthquake, from turret to foundation stone. "The 
 treasures of Nature's germin tumble all together e'en till 
 Destruction sickens." And in this greatest of all great 
 catastrophes you are called to bear your part. Is it 
 worth while ? If you respect womanhood, there can be but 
 one answer. If you love the women of your own fam- 
 ily, there can be but one answer. If you honor the coun- 
 try which has cherished you and given you an inde- 
 pendence unparalleled, there can be but one answer. If 
 you believe that the United States should not bend its 
 neck to any yoke, there can be but one answer. If you 
 hold that the peoples of the world are entitled to work 
 out their destinies as freemen, there can be but one 
 answer. Unless you believe that there is no aspiration 
 of man so noble as to justify him in risking his life 
 for its attainment, unless you believe that it matters 
 
32 The Cause and Meaning of This War 
 
 not how a man lives so long as he holds on to life, there 
 can be but one answer. Twenty-four hundred years ago, 
 at the end of a desolating war, Greece at Plataea won a 
 decisive victory over her Persian invaders and drove 
 them finally and forever from her land. To her soldiers 
 who fell in battle she erected a monument. For that 
 monument her poet, Simonides, wrote the epitaph. In 
 that epitaph he made the dead heroes speak, and this 
 is what they said: "If to die nobly is the chief part of 
 excellence, to us out of all men Fortune gave this lot: 
 For hastening to set a crown of freedom on Hellas, we 
 lie possessed of praise that grows not old" By so much 
 as the freedom of the world today is of greater moment 
 than the freedom of Greece of old, in that larger mea- 
 sure does this epitaph in all its truth, simplicity, and 
 grandeur befit and belong to those of whom may be 
 demanded the supreme sacrifice, for you will lie pos- 
 sessed of praise that can never grow old. 
 
 F. W. Henshaw, 
 Associate Justice, Supreme Court of California, 
 
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