Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights Part 9

The Servians were bitter, and both Servia and Greece demanded of Bulgaria portions of the territory acquired in the war and which had originally been a.s.signed to Bulgaria as her share. Bulgaria stood upon her technical rights and precipitated the last Balkan war, which was really made possible, or probable, by the Austrian policy. When the war was concluded Servia had acquired more territory to the south, but she remained a landlocked country, with Bosnia, Montenegro and Albania stretching between her and the Adriatic sea.

This was the situation when the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife occurred in Bosnia. The Archduke was, in effect, a joint ruler with the Emperor Franz Joseph, who was nearly 84 years of age, and the entire world realized that great events were likely to follow the killing of the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The murder was committed by a young Servian fanatic, and Austria determined to hold Servia responsible for the murder, and therefore presented her now-famous ultimatum.

NO CAUSE FOR WAR.

Students of history hold that if there had been a proper respect for the commendable desire of the Christian peoples in European Turkey to throw off the Turkish yoke and become self-governing states, there would have been no cause for war, so far as relates to Servia and the situation which precipitated the conflict. There would have been developed a series of peaceful and progressive countries of the non-military type of Denmark, Sweden and Holland.

A wiser treatment of the Balkan problem might have averted the war, but it could not have set aside racial differences, nor could it have ended the curse of militarism or set at rest the distrust and fear which it promotes.

The end of European militarism might have come about, however, through a better understanding between Germany and France. This might have been arrived at years ago if Germany had opened the Alsace-Lorraine question, and had rearranged the boundary line between the two countries so that the French-speaking communities lost in the Franco-Prussian war be ceded back to France. The cost of maintaining the feud over Alsace-Lorraine has been a burden to both France and Germany, and the progress which Germany has made in world affairs, despite the burden of militarism which she has earned, is one of the marvels of the century. And the situation compelled France to maintain a defensive military organization which was as great a burden to her and barrier to world peace as the military burden of Germany.

STRAIN BETWEEN GERMANY AND RUSSIA.

Whether Germany conspired to bring on the war so that she could wage a campaign of aggression has not yet been made clear, but the strain between Germany and Russia had been growing for some time, and the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Teutonic heir, Francis Ferdinand, by a ward of Russia, created an occasion which gave Germany an opportunity to fight, without being compelled to directly precipitate the conflict. Russia could do naught else but come to the aid of Servia, and Germany by reason of her alliance with Austria must aid the latter country.

Germany antic.i.p.ated the entry of Italy into the conflict as the third member of the Triple Alliance, but Italy did not regard Germany's action as defensive and declined to aid Austria. Germany had made overtures to Great Britain, but England had an understanding with France, which was in the nature of a limited alliance, and Germany might have kept England out of the struggle; but Germany proceeded with a plan to invade France by way of Belgium, which was in violation of international agreement establis.h.i.+ng Belgium's neutrality and independence. Germany had nothing to gain by choosing the Belgium route, for the fact is that even had the Belgian government approved the movement, there must have been a French counter-movement, which would have made Belgium the theatre of war just the same.

Pan-Germanism has been described as one of the underlying motives in the world war, and Pan-Slavism has always opposed Pan-Germanism.

Pan-Germanism is described as a well-defined policy or movement which seeks the common welfare of the Germanic peoples of all Europe and the advance of Teutonic culture, while Pan-Slavism, represented by Russia, seeks in the main the uniting of all the Slavonic folk for common welfare. The contact between these two has always been seething, and the racial differences made burdensome the arbitrary alignment and political geography arranged by the Berlin Congress.

OUTLETS TO THE WORLD'S MARKET.

The commercial side, however, was a big factor, for Germany sought world markets for its products. In the near East are the grain fields of Mesopotamia, and in the far East are the vast markets of India and China. The great banking and financial interests of Europe have been seeking the conquest of Asia for nearly half a century. German capital built railroads through Asia Minor, but English capital controls the Suez Ca.n.a.l. Russia welded the Balkan states until the Slavonic wedge from the Black sea to the Adriatic barred Germany's way to the Orient.

England threatened the Kaiser's expansion on the sea; while Russia, on one side, with France her strong ally, closed the Germans in on opposite sides. So Germany must have outlets to the world markets.

The religious element was also a factor in the affairs of Europe, for the territory has been divided into four large religious groups for centuries. Moslems counted several millions of Turks, Bosnians and Albanians in Europe, the Protestants among the Germans, English, Swiss and Hungarians number about 100,000,000, while the Roman Catholics in all the Latin countries, Southern Germany, Croatia, Albania, Bohemia, and in Russian Austria and Russian Poland are about 180,000,000. The Greek Catholics in Russia, the Balkan countries and a few provinces in the Austrian Empire number more than 110,000,000.

The differences in religion have precipitated many European struggles, but for more than a century the countries have been forced to a.s.sume an att.i.tude of tolerance, so that churches other than those established by the State have thrived; But just what influence religions may have had in the various incidents of the war it is difficult to determine.

The outstanding fact is that but for the arrogant, militaristic policy of Imperial Germany, the differences between nations might have been settled, and almost indescribable horrors of the war would never have been experienced.

CHAPTER V.

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR.

THE IRON HAND OF PRUSSIANISM--THE ARROGANT HOHENZOLLERN ATt.i.tUDE--SECRETARY LANE TELLS WHY WE FIGHT--BROKEN PLEDGES--LAWS VIOLATED--PRUSSIANISM THE CHILD OF BARBARITY--GERMANY'S PLANS FOR A WORLD EMPIRE.

Not merely to prevent Germany from opening avenues of commerce to the seas nor to throttle the ambitions of the Kaiser was America drawn into the vortex of war with France, England, Russia, Belgium, Italy and other nations; but that the iron hand of Prussianism, as exemplified in the conduct of the German Government, might be lifted from the shoulders of men, and the world given that measure of peace and security which modern civilization demands.

Germany by her ruthless submarine warfare brought desolation to many American homes. She sank without a pang of conscience the great transatlantic steams.h.i.+p Lusitania, and, while pretending friends.h.i.+p for the United States and pleading no intent to disregard American rights, broke her own pledges and repeated her overt acts, ignoring international law and the rights of all neutrals at sea.

She began her outlawry by the invasion of Belgium, which was followed by conduct on the part of the German forces which clearly marked them descendants of the "wolf tribes" of feudal days, fighting with the motto before them of, "To the victor belong the spoils."

But all of Germany's diabolical acts involving the peace and security of America and American citizens might have been the subject of international adjudication but for the arrogance of the ruling forces of the Teutons. In a broad sense, Prussianism is credited with responsibility for the devastating war and for the policy which drew America into the conflict.

The country, led by President Woodrow Wilson, who temporized to an extent that for a time made him the subject of bitter criticism, found that war was being forced upon it by an autocratic and ambitious German Government--that of the Hohenzollern dynasty--which possessed an insane ambition to dominate the earth, leaving to America no alternative but to borrow the piratical terrorism of Imperialistic Germany, with temporary abandonment of its own const.i.tutional free government, and join the Allies to defend it.

In the sense which Prussianism or militarism is here used it denotes a mental att.i.tude or view. It is a condition of mind which is partisan, exaggerated and egotistical, and is developed by environment and training. Just as the professional spirit in any other occupation leads to an exhibition of exaggerated importance, the despotic doctrine of militarism a.s.sumes superiority over rational motives and deliberations.

Everything must be sacrificed to perpetuate and maintain the honor and prestige of the military.

WHAT MILITARISM IS.

What that militarism is and what it has done to America, and to the whole world, is best summed up in the words of Secretary Lane, of the Department of the Interior, at Was.h.i.+ngton, who in an address before the Home Club of the Department on June 4, 1917, just when America was beginning to send forces to Europe, said:

"America is at war in self-defense and because she could not keep out; she is at war to save herself with the rest of the world from the nation that has linked itself with the Turk and adopted the methods of Mahomet, setting itself to make the world bow before policies backed by the organized and scientific military system.

"Why are we fighting Germany? The brief answer is that ours is a war of self-defense. We did not wish to fight Germany. She made the attack upon us; not on our sh.o.r.es, but on our s.h.i.+ps, our lives, our rights, our future. For two years and more we held to a neutrality that made us apologists for things which outraged man's common sense of fair play and humanity.

"At each new offense--the invasion of Belgium, the killing of civilian Belgians, the attacks on Scarborough and other defenseless towns, the laying of mines in neutral waters, the fencing off of the seas--and on and on through the months, we said:

"'This is war--archaic, uncivilized war, but war. All rules have been thrown away; all n.o.bility; man has come down to the primitive brute. And while we cannot justify, we cannot intervene. It is not our war.'

IN WAR TO DEFEND RIGHTS.

"Then why are we in? Because we could not keep out. The invasion of Belgium, which opened the war, led to the invasion of the United States by slow, steady, logical steps. Our sympathies evolved into a conviction of self-interest. Our love of fair play ripened into alarm at our own peril.

"We talked in the language and in the spirit of good faith and sincerity, as honest men should talk, until we discovered that our talk was construed as cowardice. And Mexico was called upon to cow us.

"We talked as men would talk who cared alone for peace and the advancement of their own material interests, until we discovered that we were thought to be a nation of mere moneymakers, devoid of all character--until, indeed, we were told that we could not walk the highways of the world without permission of a Prussian soldier, that our s.h.i.+ps might not sail without wearing a striped uniform of humiliation upon a narrow path of national subservience.

"We talked as men talk who hope for honest agreement, not for war, until we found that the treaty torn to pieces at Liege was but the symbol of a policy that made agreements worthless against a purpose that knew no word but success.

"And so we came into this war for ourselves. It is a war to save America, to preserve self-respect, to justify our right to live as we have lived, not as some one else wishes us to live. In the name of freedom we challenge with s.h.i.+ps and men, money and an undaunted spirit, that word 'verboten' which Germany has written upon the sea and upon the land.

"For America is not the name of so much territory. It is a living spirit, born in travail, grown in the rough school of bitter experiences, a living spirit which has purpose and pride and conscience, knows why it wishes to live and to what end, knows how it comes to be respected of the world, and hopes to retain that respect by living on with the light of Lincoln's love of man as its old and new testaments.

AMERICA MUST LIVE.

"It is more precious that this America should live than that we Americans should live. And this America as we now see has been challenged from the first of this war by the strong arm of a power that has no sympathy with our purpose, and will not hesitate to destroy us if the law that we respect, the rights that are to us sacred, or the spirit that we have, stand across her set will to make this world bow before her policies, backed by her organized and scientific military system.

The world of Christ--a neglected but not a rejected Christ--has come again face to face with the world of Mahomet, who willed to win by force.

"With this background of history and in this sense, then, we fight Germany:

"Because of Belgium--invaded, outraged, enslaved, impoverished Belgium.

We cannot forget Liege, Louvain and Cardinal Mercier. Translated into terms of American history these names stand for Bunker Hill, Lexington and Patrick Henry.

"Because of France--invaded, desecrated France, a million of whose heroic sons have died to save the land of Lafayette. Glorious, golden France, the preserver of the arts, the land of n.o.ble spirit. The first land to follow our lead into republican liberty.