III
What the United States and Her
Allies Are Fighting For
Statement Made by Admiral Von Goetzen at Manila in 1898, to Admiral Dewey
"About fifteen years from now my country will start a great war. She will be in Paris in about two months after the commencement of hostilities. Her move on Paris will be but a step to her real object—the crushing of England.
"Some months after we finish our work in Europe we will take New York, and probably Washington, and hold them for some time. We will put your country in its place with reference to Germany. We do not propose to take any of your territory, but we do intend to take a billion or so of your dollars from New York and other places.
"The Monroe Doctrine will be taken charge of by us and we will dispose of South America as we wish. Don't forget this about fifteen years from now."
III
What the United State and Her Allies Are Fighting For
Not since Fort Sumter was fired upon and Bull Run lost have thoughtful men been so disturbed as to-day. The breakdown of Russia, the massing of German troops on the western front, the accumulation of cannon and munitions against the day of account, make it certain that the coming inevitable battle is to be the greatest battle of the most terrible war that ever shook our earth. All the issues vital to democracy, independence, freedom, and self-government are now at stake. It is a singular fact that the four liberties won by our fathers during four wars are now to be nobly won again, or meanly lost in a single struggle with Germany. In 1776 our fathers won freedom upon the land; in 1812 they fought for the freedom of the seas; in 1846, in their war with Mexico, they established the sanctity of frontier lines; in 1861 our fathers safeguarded liberty for white men by extending liberty to black men. In 1898 the young men of this republic lifted a shield above the little land of Cuba, in the hour when it was being butchered, just as little Belgium to-day is being butchered by Germany. Now, strangely enough, every form of liberty won by these wars is denied to the human race by the militarism and autocracy of Germany.
Once more these forms of democracy must be reasserted, revindicated and reëstablished. We expect militarism in folk like the old Macedonians and Romans, and occasional outbreaks among Indians and the savages of the South Sea Islands, but we do not expect that a nation industrially efficient and claiming to be civilized should suddenly revert to savagery, and revive the methods of the cave man. Society protects itself against the occasional burglar with his nitroglycerine, dark lantern, and revolver, by building a jail for the lawbreaker. Civilized states find that it is impossible to build jails for nine million Germans who have become thieves, murderers, violators of women and children. On German terms life is not worth living for the boys and girls of Belgium, France and Poland. If Germany wins, an eclipse will pass over the face of the sun. The industrial nations will have to adopt militarism. The United States will become one vast armed camp. Every boy will give three or four years to the life of the soldier. The Atlantic Coast and the Pacific must bristle with forts, and the harbours be filled with mines. The ploughman in the furrow and the workman in the factory will have to carry a soldier upon their shoulders. The whole world must become one vast volcano, with Berlin as the crater, spouting forth passion and hate like lurid lava. Not since Judas brought Jesus to the piteous tragedy of His cross has there been an hour so black as this moment when Germany is trying to crucify mankind upon a cross of bayonets.
Autocracy and Democracy Incompatible and Mutually Destructive