Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-06-15
Whv We Must Send
An Army to France.

There are few Americans who do not see the
wisdom and the necessity of sending soldiers
TO fight in France but those few. If they are hon.
est of mind and loyal heart. deserve plain and
patient answer.
Fortunately the answer is not a matter or
speculation but matter or fact Ii is Written
large In the record and the avowed purposes of
German miIitarism 1t is written in the ashes or
Belgium in the blood of slaughtered innocents' In
the hideous slavery of French women taken cap
tive by Prussian troops and in the Kaiser's ooas.
that after Europe, shall come Americas turn In
his scheme of frightfulness and conquest. No one
who is aware of what German militarism stands
for and of what it aims at fail to see that II
we do not defeat 1t once and for all on the otner
side of the Atlantic we shall have to fight 1t In
more powerful and still more ruthless form on
this side with our own fields and homes imperiled
II is Germany's purpose to invade the United
States-if she emerges from this war victorious
just as surely it her purpose to invade Bel
GUM and pillage northern France. America Is
set down on Germany's map of world dominion
as plainly as Serbia, and is set down in her book
of hate as bitterly as England. Long before the
outbreak of the present war, we now know,
German authorities on their Empires politics and
dipIomacy-men in the Governments confidence
and the Kaiser's favor-wrote books to prove the
ease with which a German expedition could cap
ture our Atlantic ports and press triumphantly in
land. AS far back as nineteen years ago. when
we were at war with Spain, Germany tried to
form a European alignment against u.s. going
so far to make definite proposals for that pur-
pose to England. who spurned them. In these
and like incidents we see the drift OF the Hohen-
zoIlern mind. but to understand its matured inten
lions toward America must come to develop
ments of the past few years, and more particu-
IarIv Of he mast ST eight
At the outbreak OF the war every part of this
country as we afterwards discovered, In
tested with German spies carefully distributed far
in advance OF the European catastrophe which the
Prussian plotters had resolved to bring about.
And hardly had the war begun. before these spies
and the thugs they hired for their rougher work
were attacking Industry and commerce and
seeking to intimdate the Government itself
Arson was among their favorire practices, and
they had no scruples at assassination. They dyna-
mited bridges set fire freight terminals, placed
bombs in outgoing ships, spent vast OF
money on schemes OF sedtion and political bribery
and pried ceaseIessly into the affairs of private
business as well as those of army and navy
1t is said upon creditabe authority that the Ger
man Government has in its possession a list OF
American citizens State by State, who own
much as five thousand dollars worth of property
the intention being to that list as the basis
this country. Germany knows exactly what she
wants and has planned exactly how to go after It.
AS the war heightened and its cost scared far
beyond what the Kaiser had expected, his designs
upon the United States took a and more
definite aspect He and the Junkers realized that
IL their losses to be recouped and their
dreams Of srupendous fortunes brought to pass,
they must look beyond the war-bled lands of Eu-
rope to prosperous America. The strongest pas
I1Ha z1rIa ind h;t;1r
and cruelty. is avarfce. The Kaiser and his &C
completes set out to make their war profitable,
Just as deliberately as a gang OF highwaymen
would set out to wreck and rob a train. And they
still determined to get huge indemnites
well as vast stretches of territory-if not from
victim then from another; IL not now, in the
future. No wonder their spies and consuls in the
United States we're busy compiling lists of Amer-
can taxpayers at the same time they we're seeking
keys to our plans of defense. The Prussian mill
tarisrs mean to make our people pay for this war.
both in treasure and blood. They to pour
their pent up spleen upon us; they mean, IL they
can to make as horrible example of this couE-
try they have made of Belgium and Poland and
northern France; and. for their finishing stroke,
they mean to levy a tax that win enrich them
beyond the dreams of Croesus and impoverish
America for generations to come.
Germany's plan to terrorize and trample down
the united states Is not merely some ValnBIOTlOus
ambition of Kaiser Wilhelm; IT is the fixed and
avowed purpose of the German Government II
came clearly to light in the plot to array Mexico
and japan against for an invasion supported
and engineered by German means. The German
Foreign Secretary admitted writing the perfdious
note that fell into our Governments hands; and
Il written and sent at time when the United
States exerting every honorable means to keep
peace with Germany. How many other plots of
the kind were laid probably shall never know;