The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-06-14

they found they could not do that
their agents diligently spread sedl
| ton amongst US and sought TO Ora"
| our own citizens from their allegiance
and some of these agents were mel
connected with the official embass!
OF the German government itself II
our own capitol They sought by VIC
lence to destroy our industries and ar
rest our commerce. They tried to IN
cite Mexico to take up arms agains'
I US and to draw Japan into a hostile
alliance with her and that not by in
direction but by direct suggestion
from the foreign Office in Berlin. They
impudently denied us the use OF the
| high seas and repeatedly executed
their threats that they would send &c
their death any of our people who ven
tured to approach the coasts OF
Europe. And many of our own peo'
pie were corrupted. \. Men began to
look upon their own neighbors with
lsuspicion and to wonder in their hot
resentment and surprise whether
there was any community in which
hostile intrigue did not work. What
great nation in such circum stances
would not have taken up arms? Much
as we desired peace it was denied US
and not of our own choice. This flag
under which we serve would have
been dishonored had we withheld our
hand.
but that is only part of the story.
We know now as clearly as we knew
before we were ourselves engaged
that we are not the enemies of the
German people and that they are not
our enemies. They did not originate
or desire this hideous war or wish
that we should be drawn into it: and
we are vaguely conscious that we are
fighting their cause as they will some
day see it as well as our own. They
turn themselves in the grip of the
same sinister power that has now at
last stretched its ugly talons out and
drawn blood from us. The whole
world is at war because the whole.
world is in the grip OF that power and
is trying out the great battle which
shall determine whether it is to be
brought under its mastery or fling
itself free. The war was begun by
the military masters of Germany who
proved to be also the masters OF
AustriaHungary. These men have
never regarded nations as people,
men. women and children of like
blood and frame as themselves, for
whom governments existed and in
whom governments had their life.
They have regarded them merely as
organizations which they
could by force or intrigue bend or
corrupt to their own purpose. They
have regarded the smaller states IN
particular and the peoples who could
be overwhelmed by force as their ma
tural tools and instruments OF doml-
nation. Their purpose has been long
avowed. The statesmen of other ma
tons. to whom that purpose was IN
credible, paid little attention; regard
I'd what German professors expound-
ed in their class rooms and German
writer's set forth to the world as the
goal of German policy as rather the
dream of minds detached from prac-
teal affairs, as preposterous private
of German destin3, than
as the actual plans of it's responsible
rulers: but the rulers Of Germany
themselves knew all the while what
plans, what well advanced
intrigues lay back OF what the pro-
fessors and the writer's We're saving
and were, glad to go forward unmolest-
ed, fillingsthe thrones OF Balkan states
with German princes, putting German
officers at the service OF Turkey 20
drill her armies and make interest
with her government, developing
plans Of sedition and rebellion in In
iia and Egypt, setting their fires IN
Persia The demands made by Aus
tria upon Serbia were mere single
step in a plan which compassed Eu-
rope and Asia, from Berlin to Bagdad.
They hoped these 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 CEN
ter of Europe and beyond the Medi-
terranean into the heart Of Asia; and
Austria Hungary was to be as much
their tool and pawn as Serbia or
or Turkey or the ponderous
states of the east. Austria-Hungary,
indeed. was to become part of the
central German empire, absorbed and
by the same forces and
influences that had originally
cemented the German states them
selves. The dream had it's heart at
Berlin. It could have had heart
nowhere else! 1t rejected the idea of
solidarity OF race entirely. The
choice Of peoples played no part in
1t at all 1t contemplated binding to-
gether radical and political units.
which could be kept together only by
magyars, croats, Serbs,
Turks, Carmenians-
Tho nro,,d states of Bohemia and
hungary, the stout little common
wealths of the Balkans: the indomit-
able Turks, the subtle peoples OF the
east These peoples did not wish to
be united. They ardently desired to
direct their own affairs. would be
only by undisputed indepen-
dence They could be kept quiet
only by the presence or the constant
threat of armed men. They would
live under common power only by
sheer compulsion and await the day
Of revolution. But the German mill
larry statesmen had reckoned with all