The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-25
BY-PATHs OF HISTORY A FUNDAMENTAL CAUSE OF EUROPES GREAT WAR
Fly DIR. H. F. RILEY. D. D.

Co far as the present writer's ob- N servation has gone. one of the N main causes of the present Eu- ropean struggle has not been named. In accounting for the war we are apt to be misled by the dazzling move ments of courts or by the perfunctory utterances of monarchs, while back of 1t all may lie the real causes. deep and dynamic.
 Attention is here called to the fact that the builders of the characters or German youth and the writers of Ger man books, including textbooks for all classes of students. from the Kin dergarten to the universities. have en- gendered conditions of which the pres- ent war is logical outcome. At least three doctrines have been inculcated on the youth of Germany, especially since the triumph of German arms in 1870.
 The first of these is that the Ger. mans. as the highest illustration of Teutonic strength physically, mentally and spiritually. in the fu1fillment of their divine mission. must dominate the world. Second. in order to this ulti- mate domination course of pan-Ger- manism must be begun by an inde- rendent colonial policy with an ag- gressiyeness that must eventuate in subduing all else to German thought. Third, the manifest destiny of Ger many among modern nations is that of sweeping every vestige of opposi- ton that would dare oppose pam Germanic policy out of the way and re- duce the peoples of the globe to a worldwide empire with ideals abso- lutely Germanic, politically. socially. educationally and religiously.
 For more than generation youth- full German thought has been saturated with these three ideas named. It is the revival of the spirit in another form of the wor1d-dominion conception of Alex. ander, Caesar and Bonapartc. With his cratic mental construction, William of Germany is just the man of modern times into whom it Is possible to re- produce this exploded idea. He is the more readily susceptible to this, because of the loftiness of the ideals involved in that which he conceives to be his mis- sion These Ideals exceed vastly those of the aspirants; to world power just named. Theirs was merely the gratifi- cation of personal ambition to have sea severed realms obey them, while he, William, would improve present con ditions and institutions by revampinx the idea of government everywhere, Of society. education and religion, and mold the pattern by the GermaH mooel, as the highest expression of Teutonic power.
 Under the influence of the principles named above the German nation was impelled by two dominant principles, one of which is that the Germans are solemn1y and providentially bound to this policy, and the other is that Will liam is the man to execute it, feeling in which William himself humbly and devoutly shares. Fresh momentum was given to the idea of German superiority by Sadowa and Sedan, and by the sue cessful welding of the empire under the iron hand of Bismarck After these oe- currences nothing was clearer to the German mind than that nothing was im- possible for Germany, not even the re- generation of the world. At this june ture in her history Germany entered on this undertaking.
 It was a signal for advance when, in 1888, William as young man, and one thoroughly inoculated with the ideas all ready named. mounted the throne of Ger many To his exalted conceit was added the thorough digestion of the ideas then dominating the empire. The young prince