Americans must now be very careful not to fool themselves in measuring out sympathy for "the German people"; for every particle of it will be wickedly misplaced. At least let us not make ourselves a laughing-stock for Hans and Gretchen.
With all due regard for our war President, we respectfully claim that in the minds of many millions of Americans both his premises and his conclusions are wrong. Once,—three full years ago,—many Americans (like ourselves) felt sympathy for "the German people"; but by outrage upon outrage the fact has been driven home to Americans that all such sympathy is utterly misplaced. The official publications of the war have opened our eyes. The great mass of the German people are guilty of an unprovoked war, and of wholesale and retail murder, rape, destruction and tortures unparalleled even among the lowest savages of modern times.
For forty years the swell-headed pan-germanists and the odious Junkers deliberately have educated the German people into this fearful war of attempted conquest. The millions of Germany smilingly kow-towed to the war lords and approved colossal annual expenditures in preparing for this very war! The man who says that the conquest of France and England was not ardently desired and deliberately planned by "the German people" is very ignorant of current history. Excepting a few Socialists, all Germany was ready "to the last gaiter button" on August 1, 1914, and feverishly eager for the war to begin! Was the great Kiel Canal built for commercial purposes? Not on your life! Every German knows that it was built as a means for the vanquishment of England on the sea; and one German friend who claims much inside knowledge has solemnly assured me that Germany had long intended to strike France and England just as soon as the Canal was finished.
Never in the history of the world was any war ever planned and developed through so long a period, or with such loving pains and thoroughness, as Germany's present war. Its construction covered thirty years, and throughout that period German newspapers, lectures, books and speeches were full of it. It was taught to the children of Germany, for at least twenty years. For at least ten years the officers of the German navy had been drinking to "Der Tag,"—"The Day" when they would attack the British navy and crush it.
Bismarck was a very shrewd statesman, as well as a ruthless conquestador and a changer of telegrams. But he left Germany in peace and friendship with England and Russia, while William the Egotist, hungry to be the boss of all Europe, promptly estranged both. William alone created the Triple Entente!
Outside the British Army and Navy, there were practically no British statesmen who realized the real trend of Germany's ambitions. That is why the outbreak found England without a powerful army.
Let no American think for a moment that the press and the people of Germany were ignorant of what was coming, or opposed to it. The whole nation, Socialists and all, had become afflicted with acute megalomania, and a real elephantiasis of egotism. They thought that by being sufficiently prepared, and sufficiently treacherous and cruel, they could bring all Europe under the German heel, to toil forever in the German yoke. To-day even the German Socialists support Kaiserism; and while they vociferously are shouting for "peace," remember that they wish only a German-made peace that will leave Germany in the saddle! Let all other Socialists make due note of this.
The first incident that shocked the American people into a realization of the true character of "the German people" was the sinking of the Lusitania, and the drowning of its great company of women, children and other non-combatants. And then, while England and America were laying their streaming dead in long rows on the dock at Queenstown, "the people" of Germany were literally dancing with joy! The German people called it a glorious "victory"! "Were some women and children lost? Well, they should not have sailed on the Lusitania. They were warned,—by the German Ambassador himself!"
And the beautiful city of Frankfort-on-the-Main gave all its school children A HOLIDAY, in which to indulge in unrestrained rejoicing over the sinking of the Lusitania! In Frankfort, if you were to throw a banana peel on the street, or in the Palm Garden, you would fiercely be arrested, and savagely fined 5 marks for the atrocity.