--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Thomas, W. G. M. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 21 number: 7 published: 1918-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Thomas, W. G. M., "Causes of the Great War," *Improvement Era* 21, no. 7 (May 1918): 581–590.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2107unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2107unse start_page: 581 end_page: 590 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1918-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2107unse publication_year: 1918 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1918, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Causes of the Great War Causes of the Great War By Hon. W . G. M. Thomas, of Tennessee Senator John K. Shields of Tennessee asked and was given leave to print this address delivered in Chattanooga, by Mr. Thomas, in the Congressional Record of February 11, 1918. Mr. Thomas is an able lawyer and a profound student of governmental conditions, and has given the causes which brought about this great war careful study. Senator Shields, speaking of the address said: "I believe it is to the interest of the country that it be given the widest publicity and be read by every American citizen. I believe that Mr. Thomas in this able address has conclusively established, as we all believe, that this fearful war and unparalleled sacrifice of human life and treasure was deliberately brought about by the Imperial Government of Germany to effect a long-premeditated dream and effort of world-wide conquest and dominion. The comparison which Mr. Thomas makes of the autocracy of Germany and the unscrupulous, merciless, and inhuman practices which it is willing to adopt in order to carry out its purposes and the great principles of American democracy, conceived and established in this country and advocated and maintained by numerous great Americans, including our present Chief Executive, is one of the ablest presentations of these questions that has been made during the war." The Address —Introduction The world has some acquaintance today with things of which it might have known, and of which it ought to have known many years ago. Antedating the month of July, 1914, it was not supposed to be a possible fact to deceive all th world a part of the time, or a part of the world all of the time. Indeed, not until after this memorable month of that year were people outside the boundaries of Germany aware that the whole world had been deceived, and that a part of the world was still being deceived, but, since the people of the July, 1914, nine-tenths of all the globe and nine-tenths of conglobe have been engaged in a settled, determined course of action to vince the other one-tenth that it is not possible to deceive all the world all the time. , , Unbelievable as it may appear to be, the world has had another revela- deception is to be tion, namely, that the very easiest method of certain presented found in the use of the palpably incredible— incredible truth openly in plain outline— and in exact detail and plan. And still another fact has been revealed— that Germany is the one conspicuous example in th-i art of this unique method of deception. the horrible Antedating Austria-Hungary's ultimatum to Serbia, and the world, beyond conseauences which followed that document, nowhere in num- German borders, was it even thinkable thit any incredible fact or any facts could be successfully used to deceive. So completely ber of incredible an easy and certain were people misled that they do not longer doubt that means of deception is the incredible dressed in unadorned simplicity. present war the For at least one-quarter of a century preceding the using German books^ r-ading public throughout the earth were buying and believe that to attain The student who aspired to scholarship felt moved to German professors his ambition he must pass through a German university. 582 IMPROVEMENT ERA were called into chairs in institutions of higher learning. That American schoolmen might possess the kultur of Germany, and that American youths might sit at the feet of German professors, universities in the United States and universities in Germany exchanged their professors. Everybody who visited Europe visited Germany. If his tour led him into a German city, he observed that a woman's right-of-way along a German sidewalk was subordinate to that of the German army officer. He observed, too, that at ticket windows the German army and navy assumed precedence over the line of civilian men, women, and children. A tourist in Germany witnessed the movements of German commerce and industry, and he found himself interested in the volume of business which appeared to render necessary so many important railway lines leading to the boundaries of Belgium and other border States. It was quite incredible to the foreigner that railroads built prior to 1914 meant anything save Germany's peaceful progress and prosperity. It was unthinkable that these street scenes in Germany were anything more than mere isolated instances of rudeness on the part of German soldiers. It was unbelievable to students that there was any real harm in the rationalism and other "isms" found in the utterances of the German professors, and it was quite incredible to all readers that the German books and German spokesmen on law, and right and wrong, or on war and might and cruelty, meant anything more than irresponsible utterances of such a madman as a Nietzsche, or of such a panegyrist of the Hohenzollerns as a Trietschke. Today it is known to everyone that neither German books, nor professors, German soldiers, nor railways, betrayed Germany. Not one of these, in itself, nor all of them combined, betrayed Germany, for the incredible was discovered to be not a betrayer. Since July, 1915, the world has been taught the new and novel lessons that the incredible is sometimes not at all incredible, and that these German scenes, these German professors, these German books, were pointing unerringly and with bold frankness to the present world war. Under the crimson light of three and one-half years of war, Germany now stands revealed. The incredible prior to 1914 is anything but incredible today and when we turn to the facts, we wonder how the world could have been misled. Out of Germany's Own Mouth "The Teutonic race is called to circle the earth with its rule," says Woltmann. "If fate has selected us to assume the leadership in the kultur life of the peoples, we will not shrink from the great and lofty mission." (Pazaurek.) "The German soul is the world's soul. God and Germany belong to one another. The German soul is God's soul; it shall and will rule over mankind." (Pastor Lehmann.) "He who does not believe in the divine mission of Germany had better hang himself, and rather today than tomorrow." (Chamberlain.) "A good Providence watches over the fate of the German people, which is destined to the highest things on this earth." (Sonbart.) "The German people is always right, because it is the German people and 87,000,000 souls." (Tannenberg.) "We want to become a world people." (Meinecke.) "Germany is the center of God's plans for the world." (Pastor Lehmann.) "Germany will be the schoolmaster of all the world, as every German has a bit of schoolmaster in him." (Prof. Blume.) "Might is right, and right is decided bv war." (Bernhardi.) — "There is but one sort of right the right of the stronger." (Lasson.) "It is foolish to talk of the rights of others." (Peters.) CAUSES OF THE GREAT WAR 583 "Right and wrong are notions needed in civil life only." (Tannenberg.) "Might is the supreme right, and the dispute as to what is right is decided by the arbitrament of war. War gives a biologically just decision." (Bernhardi.) "What does right matter to me? I have no need for it. What I can acquire by force, that I possess and enjoy; what I can not obtain, I renounce. * * * I have the power to do." (Stirner.) "There is no legal obligation upon a State to observe treaties." (Lasson.) "No right is so inviolable that it must not yield to necessity, and in action dictated by necessity there is no violation of right." (Prof. Kohler.) "No power is bound to sacrifice important interests of its own on the altar of faithfulness to her alliance." (Bismarck.) "A State knows no arbiter and draws up all its treaties with this implied reservation * * * and is consequently entitled to repudiate its treaties." (Treitschke.) "When a diplomat is guilty of obscuring facts in a diplomatic negotiation he is thinking of his country." (Treitschke.) Germany and War "Without war humanity would sink into materialism." (Moltke.) "Nothing is more immoral than to consider and talk of war as an immoral thing. War is the mother of all good things." (Prof. Haase.) "When one really meditates war, one must say no word about it; one must envelope one's designs in a profound mystery; then, suddenly and without warning, one leaps as a thief in the night." (Wirth.) "The lessons of history confirm the view that wars which have been deliberately provoked by far-seeing statesmen have had the happiest results." (Bernhardi.) "We must not think merely of external foes who compel us to fight. A war may seem to be forced upon a statesman by the condition of home affairs orby the pressure of the whole political situation." (Bernhardi.) "Thanks to his [Bismarck's] diplomatic adroitness, he forced upon his adversaries the outward appearance of declaring war, while in reality Prussian-Germany was the assailant." (Strantz.) the map ot "If Belgium takes part in this war. she must be wiped off Europe." (Theuden.) _ "Let us laugh with all our lungs at the old women in trousers who are hideous. No; war afraid of war, and therefore complain that it is cruel and beautiful. Its august grandeur elevates the heart of man high above all ii that is commonplace and earthly." (Gottberg.) (Fastor "We have become a nation of wrath; we think only of the war. Lehmann.) , , , . , , . his way , "The German is a hero born and believes he can hack and hew through life." (Treitschke.) ., . .,., , , „ "God calls us to murderous battles, even if worlds should thereby tall to ruins." (Pastor Francke.) (Moltke.) "War forms part of the eternal order instituted by God. Germany and Peace result of this war. "We must not look for permanent peace as a Heaven defend Germany from that!" (Schmitz.) can be read the "Only over the black gate of the cemetery * * words 'Eternal peace for all peoples.' For peoples who live and strive, the motto must be eternal war." (Wagner.) only maxim and by peaceable na- "The highest steps of kultur have not been mounted peace, but by warlike peoples in the time of their tions in long periods of greatest combativeness." (Theuden.) I 584 IMPROVEMENT ERA "Perpetual peace is a dream, and it is not even a beautiful dream." (Moltke.) "We children of the future * * * do not by any means think it desirable that the kingdom of righteousness and peace should be established on the earth." (Nietzsche.) "Whoever can not prevail upon himself to approve, from the bottom of — his heart, the sinking of the Lusitania whoever can not conquer his sense * of the gigantic cruelty to unnumbered perfectly innocent victims * * and give hnnself up to honest delight at this victorious exploit of German — defensive power him we judge to be no true German." (Pastor Baumgarten.) "Not against our will were we thrown into this gigantic adventure. We willed it; we were bound to will it." (Harden.) "Terrorism is seen to be a relatively gentle procedure, useful to keep in a state of obedience the masses of the people." (Hartmann.) "Whoever enters upon a war in future will do well to look only to his own interests, and pay no heed to any so-called international law." (By a German, 1900 ) "It is a gratuitous illusion to suppose that modern war does not demand far more brutality, far more violence, and an action far more general than was formerly the case." (Hartmann.) "I warn you against pity." (Nietzsche.) "We hold that hardness, violence, slavery, danger in the street and in the heart, secrecv, stoicism, arts of temptation and deviltry of all kinds; that everything evil, terrible, tyrannical, wild-heartlike, and serpentlike in man contributes to the elevation of the species just as much as the opposite and in saying this we do not even say enough." (Nietzsche.) "No sooner are airships invented than the general staffs set to work to devise methods of applying them to destruction." (Gumplowicz.) "Much that is dreadful and inhuman in history, much that one hardly likes to believe, is mitigated by the reflection that the one who commands — and the one who carries out are different persons the former does not behold the sight, therefore does not experience the strong impression on the imagination; the latter obeys a superior, and therefore feels no responsibility." (Nietzsche.) "The proud conviction forces itself upon us with irresistible power that a high, if not the highest, importance for the entire development of the human race is ascribed to the German people." (Bernhardt.) "In our German people peaceful disposition and warlike prowess are so happily mixed that in this respect no other people on the earth can rival us, and none seems so clearly predestined to light humanity on the way to true progress." (Lange.) "Where in the whole world can a people be found who have such cause for manly pride as we? But we are equally far removed from presumption and from arrogance." (Pastor Rump.) "Germany is the future of humanity." (Pastor Lehmann.) "We must vanquish, because the downfall of Germanism would mean the downfall of humanity." (Pastor Konig.) "That it will be German kultur that will send forth its rays from the center of our continent there can be no possible doubt." (Prof. Gierke.) "It was given and assigned to us, and we read in it the original text of our destiny, which proclaims to mankind salvation or disaster, according as we will it." (Pastor Rump.) "It was the hidden meaning of God that he made Israel the forerunner of the Messiah, and in the same way he has by his hidden intent designated the German people to be his successor." (Dr. Preuss.) CAUSES OF THE GREAT WAR 585 Insincerity of Kaiser On July 29, 1914, the Czar of Russia telegraphed the Kaiser: "A disgraceful war has been declared on a weak nation; the indignation at this, which I fully share, is immense in Russia." In reply to this wire the Kaiser said: "I can not consider Austria-Hungary's action 'disgraceful war.' Austria-Hungary knows by experience that Serbia's promises, when they are merely on paper, are quite unreliable. According to my opinion Austria- Hungary's action is to be looked upon as an attempt to secure full guaranties that Serbia's promises shall also be turned into deeds." These are the German Emperor's own words, that a nation's signed — engagement should never be unreliable that it is not "a scrap of paper," that it should be turned into deeds, and that an attempt, even by force of arms, so to turn it is not 'disgraceful war.' Was the Kaiser sincere when he dictated this telegram? He sent it at a time when his Government was under written obligation, guaranteeing the independence and neutrality of Belgium; and here are some provisions of that agreement: "Belgium * * * shall form an independent and perpetually neutral State. It shall be bound to observe such neutrality toward all other States." "The territory of neutral powers is inviolable." "Belligerents are forbidden to move troops or convoys of either munitions of war or supplies across the territory of a neutral power." "A neutral power must not allow any of the acts referred to * * * to occur on its territory." "The fact of a neutral power resisting, even by force, attempts to violate itsneutrality cannot be regarded as a hostile act." These words were more than the promise of Germany to Belgium; they were Germany's pledge entered into in writing. The Kaiser telegraphed the Czar that such a promise should not be unreliable—that it should be turned into deeds. On August 4, 1914, less than a week after the Emperor's telegram to the Czar, the imperial chancellor, in a speech before the German Diet, said: "Gentlemen, we are now acting in self-defense. Necessity knows no law, Our troops have occupied Luxemburg and have possibly already entered on Belgium. The injustice— I speak openly— the injustice we thereby commit we will try to make good as soon as our military aims have been attained. He who is menaced as we are and is fighting for his all can only consider the one and best way to strike." Here is Germany's official recognition of the Belgium treaty and of international law; and it is furthermore the officirl admission that Germany had br ached that law, had ignored the rightful protests of Belgium, and that Germany's conduct was an act of injustice to Belgium. The sole excuse "can offered is that "necessity knows no law;" that a nation when menaced consideration only consider the one and best way to strike;" and that such of must be without regard at all to the breaking of pledges or to the rights others. , D ,. Berlin, At a later hour of August 4, 1914, the British ambassador to not disregard with instructions from his Government that Germany must chancellor Just tor her contract with Belgium, called upon the imperial a W ord—'neutrality'— a word which in war time had so often been disregarded—just for a scrap of paper— Great Britain was going to make war on the ambassador. a kindred nation," was the chancellor's reply to Here is the German chancellor's measure of the value of a nation s en- paper; and it gagement and of the force of the law of nations—"a scrap of utterance of the chancellor can not be urged justly that this was an idle of responsibility, tor the for which he and his Government should be free highest authority in Germany. re ord of fact traces the term used to the very 586 IMPROVEMENT ERA German Diplomacy The use of the term, "a scrap of paper," and the German estimate of the virtue and integrity of a treaty did not originate with the chancellor. "Do not be ashamed," said Frederick II, "of making interested alliances from which you yourself can derive the whole advantage. Do not make the foolish mistake of not breaking them when you believe your interests require it. Above all, uphold the following maxim: 'To di spoil your neighbors is to deprive them of the means of injuring you.' When he is about to conclude a treaty with some foreign power, if a sovereign remembers he is a Christian he is lost." Later, on April 11, 1847, in a speech from the throne, King Frederick William IV asserted that "All written constitutions are only scraps of paper," and, again, in 1862, when in a quarrel between Emperor William and the Prussian diet, he was reproached with his defiance of the law, he replied that he would do his duty as he saw it, without regard to "scraps of paper called constitutions." It is quite impossible to assume that the Kaiser may have been ignorant of the use of these terms by former Emperors in 1847 and 1862, or of the Hohenzollern creed as stated by Frederick II ; and all fair men must admit that on August 10, 1914, he did know that his chancellor had stated in the diet on the preceding August 4 that in the face of menace neither national obligation nor the dictates of justice need be given consideration; that imperial Germany "can only consider the one and best way to strike." The Kaiser knew that his war lords had marked Belgium as the one and the best way across which to strike France; he knew, and his war lords knew, that to move troops or munitions of war over the borders and into Belgium would be a breach of the Belgian treaty and a violation of Belgian territory, and that it would be an act of the most glaring injustice to that country and people. With all these facts before his eyes he penned with his own hand a telegram on August 10 to President Wilson, and he handed it to the American embassador for transmission to Washington. In that message he restates, in substance, his telegram of July 29 to the Czar of Russia, that "the Serbian promises on paper should be fulfilled in reality," and he asserts in so many words that Germany's neutrality contract with Belgium "had to be violated on strategical grounds." In other words, the Kaiser telegraphed President Wilson on August 10 that no signed promise or covenant of the German Empire would be allowed to stand across the path of the science of projecting and directing Germany's military movements. Unfortunately the Kaiser set up one standard for Serbia and quite another for Germany. In his telegram to the Czar he complains "that Serbia's promises, when they are merely on paper, are quite unreliable," and that Austria-Hungary had the right "to secure full guaranties that Serbia's promises shall also be turned into deeds;" and he states as much in his wire to — President Wilson, but he lowers that standard in fact he strikes it to the — ground when he declared that "on strategical grounds" Germany had to march into Belgium, notwithstanding the injustice comitted by the act. Viewing these facts, drawn altogether from official pronouncements of four German rulers and a German chancellor, the level of German ethics is seen to be that her promises, even when on paper are both quite unreliable and subject to be broken at will; and, indeed, are not to be fulfilled if performance might prevent or hinder German military advantage; that Germany's contracts may be disregarded as "scraps of paper" if they be found to stand opposed to military aims; that in Germany "might makes right," and "necessity knows no law;" and that in Germany it is a maxim in morals that he who is menaced can only consider the one and the best way to strike; and this without regard to his own obligation or honor, or to the legal or moral right of the one again t whom the stroke is directed. CAUSES OF THE GREAT WAR 587 The World and Cerman Doctrine The world will never bow down before or accept any such doctrine; it must be wholly repudiated and reversed; and the world war is being waged to reverse it. The war is much more than centralized power against representative government, much more than autocracy against the people; it is tyranny against freedom; it is brutal might against human liberty; it it wanton destruction against conservation; it is barbarism against civilization; it is savagery against humanity; it is unrighteousness against righteousness; it is the Iron Cross" against the Red Cross; it is the spirit of Satan against God. So long as Germany shall think it not "by any means desirable that the kingdom of righteousness and peace should be established on the earth," she will find the world against her. So long as she shall teach that "only over the black gate of the cemetery can we read the words, 'eternal peace for all people,' " she will be the world's enemy. So long as she shall continue in her expressed faith that "war is the mother of all good things," and that "might is the supremacy of right," she must find herself alone upon the earth. So long as it is the purpose of the Teutonic race "to circle the earth with its rule," just so long Germany will find no friend beyond her own borders. The Kaiser must lose his crown or else he must repudiate the Hohenzollern creed that national covenants are "scraps of paper;" that "to despoil your neighbors is to deprive them of the means of injuring you;" and that "when he is about to conclude a treaty with some foreign power, if a sovereign remembers that he is a Christian, he is lost." The purpose of Germany "to circle the earth with its rule" and her deeds of lawlessness and savagery are now known world wide. The black record is now open to all men. With unexampled patience and forebearance, the United States and her people bore much and suffered much; but longer patience became impossible when Germany made war upon our country and upon the freedom, liberty, and independence which Americans had gained for themselves, and under which they propose to live their own lives and to pass on to their children. America is defending her good heritage. America is defending more than this. "The object of this war," as President Wilson has stated it to all the world, "is to deliver the free people of the world from the menace and the actual power of a vast military establishment, controlled by an irresponsible Government, which, having secretly planned to dominate the world, proceeded to carry the plan out without regard either to the sacred obligations of treaty or the long-established practices and long-cherished principles of international action and honor, which chose its blow fiercely and suddenly, stopped at no barrier either of law or of mercy, swept a whole continent within the tide of blood not — the blood of soldiers only, but the blood of innocent women and children also, and of the helpless poor — and now stands balked but not defeated, the enemy of four-fifths of the world." Innocent and defenseless women and children have the right to security in the home, and an airplane that wantonly would wreck a home and destroy life is an assassin. Upon the high seas, ruthlessly and without warning, to sink a passenger ship and her human freight is deliberate murder. To drop from the air a bomb upon offenseless children in a schoolhouse is savagery. To mock all laws of war and humanity is superlative and barbarism. To fire upon the Red Cross is satanic. Shall Never Rule German "kultur" shall never rule over our land, and it must be assured that it shall not rule over any other land. It is a base falsehood that "might is right." A nation's word is not "a scrap of paper." 588 IMPROVEMENT ERA Over against the German code that "it is foolish to talk of the rights of — others" America sets up the Golden Rule "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." A nation whose treaty agreement is not as binding as its bond is not a nation with which honorable peoples care to deal. A nation whose accredited ambassador would set a network of intrigue among the people to whom he is accredited, and whose country would promote and decorate him in reward for his base service is a nation whose ways must be mended if it shall expect relations with respectable folks. A nation that would purposely, by shell or torpedo and without notice or warning, sink a merchant ship plying the high seas and leave the crew to their fate in the waves is an outlaw nation. A nation that would organize incendiarism and dispatch its paid agents to blow up industries ought to be put out £ business. A nation that wills the oppression of Europe and that plots and schemes to extend its brutal might across the sea and over free America is a nation whose fiendish lordship must and shall be met and stopped before it shall ever touch these shores. A prince, whatever be his name or title, who would set in motion any such horrors is unfit to be the ruler of a free people; and a people who support such a prince are not free. A nation that would will injustice and harm to other nations is entitled to no place in the councils of men. Such a nation is a world menace, and any such a nation must be rendered powerless to exercise such a will, or else its people must be made to establish for themselves a very different form of government. It is to defend our own people and country, and all people, against this German menace and to assure all the world that the horrors of the last three an a half years never shall happen again, that the United States and her fifteen allies are standing against Germany. The whole history of America shows that our people never could be moved to take any other stand. America's Record In his farewell address, Washington expressed the hope that "the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it." Here is almost the prediction by America's first president that the people's happiness, under the authority and guidance of liberty, would some day become so complete that to America would be accorded the glory of recommending like liberty to the applause, affection, and adoption of every nation still a stranger to it. Washington stated this in 1796, and it is more than a significant fact that in 1917 —a century and a quarter later —America not only made such a recommendation world-wide, but, through President Wilson, the Nation declared that "the world must be made safe for democracy." Twenty years antedating this utterance of Washington, the Declaration of Independence declared that all people possessed the free and independent right "to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them;" and that the people of America hold certain truths to be self-evident; "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Here it is claimed, as an endowment of the Creator, that a people have — the untransferable right of self-government "the government," as President CAUSES OF THE GREAT WAR 589 Lincoln expressed it, "of the people, by the people, for the people." Such form of government is the right of independence and liberty; indeed, it is independence and liberty; and America possesses each of the two because both, as Washington states it, "are the work of joint councils and joint efforts of common dangers, sufferings, and successes." From the utterances and action of the German Government, and German Emperors and people, we have had to stoop low in order to see the level of their standard of conduct among themselves, and toward other nations and people; and now that America has recommended her own freedom and liberty to all the world, and, along with this recommendation, and to the exalted end that government of, by and for the people may be made safe throughout the earth, has pledged the lives and the fortunes of her people, and her own sacred honor, it is with just pride that Americans may place their country's record alongside the record of the Nation's enemies. Indeed, the heart of every American, native or foreign born, should rise in gratitude and praise to Almighty God for his leadership and guidance from Washington to Wilson, and for his blessings upon us as a Nation and people. Today in this world holocaust, nine-tenths of the earth's area and inhabitants are standing with and on the side of the United States, battling for all these exalted, just, and righteous principles for which Americans have always sto»d, and for which, if need be, they have ever been ready to offer their lives. Words of America's Presidents Washington wrote a page of the record in his farewell message to his countrymen: "Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct. And can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that in the course of time and things the fruit of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature." Here are noble words and, indeed, the prophecy of Washington that, at no distant day, the United States would be a great Nation, and would give to the world an example of a people "always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence." Can any sincere man, casting his eyes along the past years, and looking about him in these tremendous times, doubt the fulfilment of this prophecy? President Jefferson adds this further word to the record: "We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with all nations, as with individuals, our interests, soundly calculated, will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties; and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word, when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others." President Madison says that it is a duty and privilege of Americans to of others, too foster a spirit of independence too just to invade the rights proud to surrender our own, too liberal to indulge unworthy prejudices our- selves, and too elevated not to look down upon them in others." President Monroe: "National honor is national property of the highest value." .1.1 j President J. Q. Adams: "Union, justice, tranquility, the common de- fense, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty— all have been pro- moted by the Government under whi h we have lived." Pres!dent Jackson: "Turning our eyes to other nations, our great desire 590 IMPROVEMENT ERA is to see our brethren of the human race secured in the blessings enjoyed by ourselves, and advancing in knowledge, in freedom, and in social happiness." President Lincoln: "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. * * * Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world?" President Grant: "In regard to foreign policy, I would deal with nations as equitable law requires individuals to deal with each other, and I would protect the law-abiding citizen, whether of native or foreign birth, wherever his rights are jeopardized or the flag of our country floats. I would respect the rights of all nations, demanding equal respect for our own." President Garfield : "We can not overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelligent courage, and the sum of common sense with which our fathers made the great experiment of self-governent." President Harrison: "We have not sought to dominate or absorb any of our weaker neighbors, but rather to aid and encourage them to establish free and stable governments resting upon the consent of their own people." President Roosevelt: "Great privileges and great powers are ours, and heavy are the responsibilities that go with these privileges and these powers. Accordingly, as we do well or ill, so shall mankind in the future be raised or cast down. We belong to a young nation, already of giant strength, yet whose political strength is but a forecast of the power that is to come." President Taft: "Our international policy is always to promote peace." President Wilson : "I am proposing, as it were, that the nations should, with one accord, adopt the doctrine of President Monroe as the doctrine of the world; that no nation shall seek to extend its polity over any other nation or people, but that every people should be left free to determine its own polity, its own way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with the great and powerful. "I am proposing that all nations henceforth avoid entangling alliances which would draw them into competitions of power, catch them in a net of intrigue and selfish rivalry, and disturb their own affairs with influences intruded from without. "I am proposing government by the consent of the governed; that freedom of the seas which in international conference after conference representatives of the United States have urged with the eloquence of those who are the convinced disciples of liberty; and that moderation of armaments which asks of armies and navies a power for order merely, not an instrument of aggro sion or of selfish violence. "These are American principles, American policies. We could stand for no others. And they are also the principles and policies of forward-looking men and women everywhere, of every modern nation, of every enlightened community. They are the principles of mankind and must prevail." Germany opposes these American principles; and Gumplowicz gives the basis of the opposition: "No sooner are airships invented than the general staffs set to work to devise methods of applying them to destruction" the — misuse of things. Germany must be made to recognize a higher sense of moral and human responsibility. Her need is not less scientific knowledge, but such knowledge better directed and used. To paraphrase Bishop Candler: Germany must be taught, and she is about to be taught, that men and nations must be as pious as they are scientific and powerful, or they will be a peril to both themselves and others.