Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Part 40

COUNTRY'S NATURAL RESOURCES.

Aside from the financial resources of the United States, the country is undoubtedly the richest in agricultural, mineral and other natural resources. It annually produces more than 3,500,000,000 bushels of corn, wheat touching the high point of 1,500,000,000 bushels; 1,600,000,000 bushels of oats; 250,000,000 bushels of barley; 40,000,000 bushels of rye; 22,000,000 bushels of buckwheat; 425,000,000 bushels of potatoes; 77,000,000 tons of hay; 30,000,000 bushels of flaxseed; 7,000,000,000 pounds of cotton; more than 1,000,000,000 pounds of tobacco; 2,000,000 long tons of sugar and 275,000,000 pounds of wool.

There are nearly 70,000,000 swine, and as many cattle, more than 25,000,000 head of horses and mules, and 62,000,000 sheep. Coal is mined at the rate of more than 500,000,000 tons yearly, and the copper mines yield 1,250,000,000 pounds of metal. Petroleum wells yield 225,500,000 barrels yearly. There are 270,000 manufacturing plants with a yearly output of more than $25,000,000,000. The products of the farm total more than $11,000,000,000 annually.

As to Germany's position, economists all over the world have considered her position as not only lacking soundness, but as crazy--crazy in that no attention whatever has apparently been paid to what are recognized as firmly fixed economic laws. The world has been at a loss to understand Germany's att.i.tude, and it can only be explained by a.s.suming that Germany was perfectly well aware of the entire unsoundness of her commercial and financial position, and was willing, or, in fact, had to risk everything with the hope of acquiring sufficient indemnity, resulting from the war, to bring her financial affairs to a sound basis.

Germany's entire structure from the close of the Franco-Prussian war evidently was built upon rotten foundations.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE WORLD RULERS AT WAR.

WOODROW WILSON, THE CHAMPION OF DEMOCRACY--THE EGOTISTICAL KAISER--THE GERMAN CROWN PRINCE--BRITAIN'S MONARCH--CONSTANTINE WHO QUIT RATHER THAN FIGHT GERMANY--PRESIDENT POINCAIRE--AND OTHER NATIONAL HEADS.

No matter what the human frailties may be there are always men who rise in the stress of circ.u.mstances to unexpected heights. They thrive upon difficulties and in the emergencies become protectors and saviors of men. In the world's greatest melting-pot--the burned and blood-stained battlefields of Europe--there were tried and tested millions of men of all nationalities and characteristics, and though the experience was one of bitterness, there was found in it the satisfaction that in their own way millions of men proved themselves great.

Out of the hordes that rode over mountains, sailed the seas or picked their way through trenches and across the scarred surface of the earth there looms the figures of some whose names will go down in history for all time. Their names will be written indelibly upon the pages of life and they will be known for ages after the evidences of the great strife have been obliterated and the peace for which the world struggled has been made a permanent thing.

Among those whose names will be forever linked with the terrible war as a leader of men--whose figure stands out against the ma.s.s of humanity--is Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America.

Though he neither faced bullets nor tramped the historic byways of Europe in the terrible struggle, he was to all intents and purposes the commander-in-chief of all the world forces seeking to break the autocratic domination of the Hohenzollerns of Germany and give democracy its place among the nations of the world which its character justifies.

President Wilson, when he was elevated to the highest position in America which the Nation could bestow, was recognized as one of the greatest essayists and students of history, political economy, const.i.tutional law and government in the country. And those who made light of his "book-learning" and referred to him as "the school-master president," came to know that his training and the very character of his life's work fitted him better than probably any other man in America to deal with the great national and international problems which confronted, which culminated with or grew out of America's entrance into the great war.

WILSON'S MANY HONORS.

He was born in Staunton, Va., in 1856, the son of Rev. Joseph Woodrow Wilson, and received his early education at Davidson College, N.C.

Subsequently he received a degree at Princeton University and graduated in law at the University of Virginia, later practicing law at Atlanta.

After this he received degrees at Johns Hopkins, Rutgers, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale Colleges, and was professor of history and political economy, first at Bryn Mawr College and later at Wesleyan University, and finally professor of jurisprudence and political economy, then jurisprudence and politics and afterward president at Princeton University, from which post he was elected Governor of the State of New Jersey in 1913. He resigned from the Governors.h.i.+p and was elected President of the United States for a term beginning March, 1913, and was re-elected in November, 1916, for a second term beginning March, 1917, both times on the Democratic ticket.

As against the figure of President Wilson there stands that of the Emperor William of Germany, whose policies indirectly precipitated the war and impelled the alignment of nations to defend themselves against his autocratic domination. For years the head of the House of Hohenzollern, descendant of the ancient margraves of Germany who have battled with the old Romans, made it manifest in speech and by action that his ambition was to create a world empire.

GERMANY MUST BE RECKONED WITH.

Once at the launching of one of the great German wars.h.i.+ps he said: "The ocean teaches us that on its waves and on its most distant sh.o.r.es no great decision can any longer be taken without Germany and without the German Emperor. I do not think that it was in order to allow themselves to be excluded from big foreign affairs that, thirty years ago, our people, led by their princes, conquered and shed their blood. Were the German people to let themselves be treated thus, it would be, and forever, the end of their world-power; and I do not mean that that shall ever cease. To employ, in order to prevent it, the suitable means, if need be extreme means, is my duty and my highest privilege."

In a famous interview in the London "Daily Mail" in 1908, discussing the att.i.tude of Germany toward England, the Kaiser was quoted as follows:

"You English," he said, "are mad, mad, mad as March hares. What has come over you that you are so completely given over to suspicions quite unworthy of a great nation? What more can I do than I have done? I declared with all the emphasis at my command, in my speech at Guildhall, that my heart is set upon peace, and that it is one of my dearest wishes to live on the best of terms with England. Have I ever been false to my word? Falsehood and prevarication are alien to my nature. My actions ought to speak for themselves, but you listen not to them but to those who misinterpret and distort them. That is a personal insult which I feel and resent. To be forever misjudged, to have my repeated offers of friends.h.i.+p weighed and scrutinized with jealous, mistrustful eyes, taxes my patience severely. I have said time after time that I am a friend of England, and your Press--or at least a considerable section of it--bids the people of England refuse my proffered hand, and insinuates that the other holds a dagger. How can I convince a nation against its will?"

And then as if to impress upon the world the belief that he was chosen of G.o.d, the Kaiser repeatedly gave voice to such bombastic utterances as when to his son in Brandenburg, he declared: "I look upon the people and nation handed on to me as a responsibility conferred upon me by G.o.d, and that it is, as is written in the Bible, my duty to increase this heritage, for which one day I shall be called upon to give an account; those who try to interfere with my task I shall crush."

THE "G.o.d-APPOINTED" HOHENZOLLERNS.

Again he expressed the same sentiment when he said: "It is a tradition of our House, that we, the Hohenzollerns, regard ourselves as appointed by G.o.d to govern and to lead the people, whom it is given us to rule, for their well-being and the advancement of their material and intellectual interests."

And finally in his address to the people in August, 1914, he said at the beginning of war: "A fateful hour has fallen for Germany. Envious peoples everywhere are compelling us to our just defence. The sword has been forced into our hands. I hope that if my efforts at the last hour do not succeed in bringing our opponents to see eye to eye with us and in maintaining the peace, we shall, with G.o.d's help, so wield the sword that we shall restore it to its sheath again with honor.

"War would demand of us an enormous sacrifice in property and life, but we should show our enemies what it means to provoke Germany. And now I commend you to G.o.d. Go to church and kneel before G.o.d, and pray for His help for our gallant army."

This is the picture of "Kaiser Bill" whose egotism gave expression to itself in 1910 when in a speech he said: "Considering myself as the instrument of the Lord, without heeding the views and opinions of the day, I go my way."

EMPEROR WILLIAM'S CHILDREN.

William II, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, was born January 27, 1859, succeeding his father, Emperor Frederick the III, in June, 1888. He married the Princess Augusta Victoria, of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg, and had the following issue: Frederick William, Crown Prince, born May 6, 1882; William Eitel-Frederick, born 1883; Adalbert, born 1884; August, born 1887; Oscar, born 1888; Joachim, born 1890, and Victoria Louise, born 1892.

Crown Prince Frederick William is one of the remarkable figures of the war. A profound admirer of Napoleon he has always made a close study of that great French soldier, and has long been one of the leaders of the war-seeking element in Germany. The Crown Prince, who was born in 1882, is tall, slim and impulsive. The late Queen Victoria, his great grandmother, was his G.o.dmother.

After he had completed a military course he attended Bonn University, and on the completion of his college course he set out on extensive travels. After his return he was placed in the offices of the Potsdam provincial government so that he might study local administration. After completing this study he was given a course in the intricate routine through which two-thirds of the German people are governed, by being placed in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. Naval administration has also been a part of the studies of the Crown Prince, in fact he was deeply engrossed in that study when the war was declared.

The Crown Prince married d.u.c.h.ess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, in 1905.

King George V, of Great Britain, the only surviving son of the late King Edward, was born in 1865. He was the second son of the king, his brother Prince Albert, the heir to the throne, dying suddenly in 1892 and bringing the second son, who had been destined for the navy, into direct succession. In 1893 Princess Mary of Teck, who was to have married Prince Albert, was married to Prince George, and there is one daughter, Princess Mary, and five sons--Edward, Prince of Wales, and Princes Albert, Henry, George and John.

THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT.

Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught, who is now Governor General of Canada, is an uncle of the King. He was married to Princess Louise-Margaret of Prussia, the daughter of Prince Frederick-Charles of Prussia and Princess Marie-Anne of Anhalt. He has three children; Margaret, the oldest, is the Crown Princess of Sweden; Prince Arthur is married to his cousin, Princess Alexandra, d.u.c.h.ess of Fife, and Princess Victoria-Patricia, who is unmarried.

King Edward had three brothers and five sisters, two brothers falling heir in turn to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

King George V is uncle by blood to Olaf, Crown Prince of Norway, and by marriage with Queen Mary, to three Princes and three Princesses of Teck.

He is brother-in-law to King Haakon VII of Norway and Prince of Denmark, Duke Adolph of Teck, and Prince Alexander of Teck. He is a first cousin on his father's side to Emperor William II of Germany, and his brothers and sisters, among whom, princ.i.p.ally, is the Queen of Greece; to Ernst-Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, and his four sisters, one of whom is the wife of Prince Henry of Prussia, and another is Alice, former Czarina of Russia. The first and second cousins of the King run well up into the hundreds.

The Royal Family of Belgium was founded when, in 1831, the people elected King Leopold I to rule the destinies of that country. The king was married to Princess Louise of Orleans, after which practically all the marriages of the family were with the southern group of royal houses.

There were three children born to the couple, the oldest son succeeding to the throne as King Leopold II. The latter married Archd.u.c.h.ess Marie Henriette of Austria. One son, and three daughters were born, the son dying when he was 23 years old. The oldest of the daughters became the wife of Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the second wedding Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria-Hungary, who died in youth, and the third becoming the wife of Prince Napoleon Bonaparte. The daughter of Leopold I is the widow of the ill-fated Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, who was executed there in 1867.

SECOND SON OF LEOPOLD I.

The second son of Leopold I was Philip, the Count of Flanders, who was married to Princess Marie of Hohenzollern, sister of the Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern and King Charles of Roumania. The son to this marriage is King Albert of Belgium, who succeeded his uncle, Leopold II, in 1909.

The Queen of Belgium is Princess Elizabeth of the Ducal House of Bavaria. Through her King Albert is allied to the Crown Prince of Bavaria, the Grand d.u.c.h.ess of Luxemburg, the Duke of Parma, the late Franz Ferdinand of Austria, and the present heir-apparent, Archduke Charles Francis Joseph. The King and Queen have two sons, Leopold, born in 1902, and Charles Theodore, who is two years younger. There is also a daughter, the Princess Marie-Josephine, born in 1906.

King Nicholas I, ruler of the picturesque little country of Montenegro, which was the scene of much bitter fighting, was born October 7, 1841, and proclaimed Prince of Montenegro, as successor to his uncle Danilo I, in 1860. He became king in 1910. Nicholas I married Milena Petrovna Vucotic. The children are Princess Militza, who married the Russian Grand Duke Peter Nikolaievitch; Princess Stana, who married George, Duke of Leuchtenberg, but which marriage was dissolved, the Princess subsequently marrying the Russian Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaievitch. The other children are Prince Danilo Alexander, heir-apparent; Princess Helena, who married Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy; Princess Anna, who married Prince Francis Joseph of Battenberg; Prince Mirko, who married Natalie Constantinovitch; Princess Zenia, Princess Vera and finally Prince Peter, who was born in 1889.

KING OF SERVIA.

Peter I, King of Servia, one of the figures of the war, is the son of Alexander Kara-Georgevitch. He was born in Belgrade in 1844, and was proclaimed King after the murder of King Alexander and Queen Draga. He ascended the throne on June 2, 1903. He was married in 1883 to Princess Zorka, of Montenegro, who died in 1890. He has two sons and a daughter; George, who was born in 1887, and who renounced his right to the throne in 1909; Alexander, born in 1889, and Helen, who was born in 1884.