Secretary of State Lansing in speaking of our war aims, said: "Let us understand once for all that this is no war to establish an abstract principle of right. It is a war in which the future of the United States is at stake. If any one among you has the idea that we are fighting others' battles and not our own, the sooner he gets away from that idea the better it will be for him, the better it will be for all of us. "Imagine Germany victor in Europe because the United States remained neutral. Who, then, think you, would be the next victim of those who are seeking to be masters of the whole earth? Would not this democracy be the only obstacle between the autocratic rulers of Germany and their supreme ambition? Do you think that they would withhold their hand from so rich a prize? "Let me, then, ask you, would it be easier or wiser for this country single-handed to resist a German Empire flushed with victory and with great armies and navies at its Alone or command than to unite with the brave enemies with Allies? of that empire in ending now and for all time this menace to our future? "I know that some among you may consider the idea that Germany would attack us if she won this war to be improbable; but let him who doubts remember that the improba- The Imposble, yes, the impossible, has been happening in this sible has war from the beginning. If you had been told prior Happened. to August, 1914, that the German Government would disregard its solemn treaties and send its armies into Belgium, would wantonly burn Louvain, would murder defenseless people, would extort ransoms from conquered cities, would carry away men and women into slavery, would like Vandals of old, destroy some of history's most cherished monuments, and would with malicious purpose lay waste the fairest fields of France and Belgium, you would have indignantly denied the possibility. You would have exclaimed that Germans, lovers of art and learning, would never permit such foul deeds. Today you know that the unbelievable has happened, that all these crimes have been committed, not under the impulse of passion, but under official orders. "Again, if you had been told before the war that German submarine commanders would sink peaceful vessels of commerce and send to sudden death men, women, and little children, you would have declared such scientific brutality to be impossible. Or, if you had been told that German aviators would fly over thickly populated cities scattering missiles of death and destruc tion, with no other purpose than to terrorize the innocent inhabitants, you would have denounced the very thought as unworthy of belief and as a calumny upon German honor. Yet, God help us, these things have come to pass, and Iron Crosses have rewarded the perpetrators." GERMANY'S WAR AIMS. As a contrast to the aims and purposes of the United States in the war as stated above by her leaders, President Wilson and Secretaries Lansing, Baker and Lane, the objects of the German warfare may best be shown by quotations from the writings of prominent Germans and from official German documents. "Mission". The idea that upon Germany had been imposed by divine command the duty of spreading German culture The throughout the world and imposing German rule German upon all nations is most clearly expressed in the proclamations and speeches of the present kaiser. In a proclamation to the Army of the East issued in 1914 William II said: Remember that you are the chosen people! The Spirit of the Lord has descended upon me because I am the Emperor of the Germans! "I am the instrument of the Almighty. I am his sword, his agent. Woe and death to those who shall op- By Divine pose my will! Woe and death to those who do not Right. believe in my mission! Woe and death to the cowards! "Let them perish, all the enemies of the German people! God demands their destruction, God who, by my mouth, bids you to do His will!" In a speech made in 1905, nine years before the outbreak of the war the emperor said: "God would never have taken such great pains with our German Fatherland and its people if He had not "A Chosen been preparing us for something still greater. We People." are the salt of the earth." As bearing upon the purposes of Germany in the present war William II in a proclamation dated June 1915, said. "The triumph of the greater Germany, which some day must dominate all Europe is the single end for which we are fighting." That the Imperial German Government has for years considered the United States as an eventual military opponent is evident from the writings of her military authors. In a pamphlet published in 1901 for the purpose of encouraging military study n the Army and Navy Club of Berlin written by Baron Franz Von Edelsheim there is outlined a plan for the invasion of the United States from which the following extracts are quoted: "The question for us to consider is what plans must eventually be developed to put a stop to the overreachings by the United States which are detrimental to our interests. It is by armed action that we must ultimately enforce our will upon that country. Military "To achieve that purpose, our prime instrument in this case is our Navy. The German fleet would have every prospect of victoriously encountering the naval forces of the United States, as those forces are divided into two sections separated by two oceans (Atlantic and Pacific), which are a great distance apart. But the defeat of her fleet would not compel the United States to sue for immediate peace, because of the vastness of her territory and the immensity of her resources. Indeed, even further successes at sea would not force America to yield, partly because her commercial ports are so well fortified that we could not capture them without heavy losses, and partly because it would be impossible for our naval forces to blockade them all simultaneously. "It is evident, therefore, that naval operations alone would not suffice to bring about the result which we desire. What is needed is combined action by sea and land. Owing to the vast area of the United States it would be out of the question for an army to invade the interior with a view to the conquest of the country. But there is good reason to expect that military operations on the Atlantic coast would prove to be a victorious enterprise. Moreover, the cutting off of the main arteries through which exports from the entire country pass would create such a depressed state of affairs that the Government would be willing to offer us fair conditions of peace "Indeed it is questionable whether it would be wise to occupy for any prolonged period any large portion of American territory. The mere fact of one or two of their States being invaded would not induce the Americans to ask for peace. They would, however, find themselves obliged to do so owing to the enormous material loss which would be inflicted upon the entire country by our capturing several of the large Atlantic seaport towns, at which converge the threads of the whole wealth of the nation." The real intentions of Germany toward the United States during the three years of the European war are well exemplified by the letter of instructions given by the German Attempts secretary for foreign affairs to the German minister in Mexico. to Mexico in the following dispatch dated January 19, 1917: "On the 1st of February we intend to begin unrestricted submarine warfare. In spite of this, it is our intention to endeavor to keep the United States of America neutral. "If this attempt is not successful, we propose an alliance with Mexico on the following basis: That we shall make war together and together make peace. We shall give general financial support, and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona. The details are left to you for settlement. "You are instructed to inform the President of Mexico of the above, in the greatest confidence, as soon as it is certain that there will be an outbreak of war with the United States, and to suggest that the President of Mexico, on his own initiative, should communicate with Japan suggesting adherence at once to this plan. At the same time he should offer to mediate between Germany and Japan. "Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that the employment of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel England to make peace in a few months." President Wilson in his speech delivered flag day, 1917, gave expression to what has long been known to Europeans to have been the true meaning of the German aggressions when he said: "The demands made by Austria upon Serbia were a mere single step in a plan which compassed Europe and Asia, from Berlin to Bagdad. They hoped those demands might not arouse Europe, but they meant to press them whether they did or not, for they thought themselves ready for the final issue of arms. "Their plan was to throw a broad belt of German military power and political control across the very center of Europe and beyond the Mediterranean into the heart of Asia; and AustriaHungary was to be as much their tool and pawn as Imperial Serbia or Bulgaria or Turkey or the ponderous Ambitions. states of the East. Austria-Hungary, indeed, was to become part of the Central German Empire, absorbed and dominated by the same forces and influences that had originally cemented the German states themselves. The dream had its heart at Berlin. It could have had a heart nowhere else." |