The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1917-09-07
GERMANY'S CLAIM OF
DEFENSIVE WAR FALSE
Careful Preparation Shows
War Was Long Planned and
Eagerly Sought.

German liberty was imperiled by
none, her independence was unattack-
ed, her territories were unthreatened.
She was prospecting greatly in world
where she enjoyed equal treatment.
Her ships were on every sea. Her
goods were in every market. Great
Britain, her chief commercial rival,
granted to Germany greater privileges
in British territories than Germany
granted to Great Britain in German
territories German emigration had
disappeared in world where trade
less and less followed flags. Germany
was encircled in a military way, but
the military enlightenment was defen-
sive, for there was good reason to fear
exactly what Germany did.
Possessing the largest and most
powerful army in the world, Germany
supplemented her known military es-
tablishment by the most diabolic Sc
cret preparation. AS we now know,
Germany was getting ready to attack.
Her constant rafting Of the sword.
her repeated appearances in shining
armor, the hectoring tone adopted by
her spokesman, her concentration Of
power in the hands of group of men
who preached the glory of war and re-
jected every moral consideration de-
veloped by modern civilization-all
these things proclaimed the German
purpose Then, as if to remove all
possibility of doubt, Germany, reject
ing all disarmament proposals on land.
set about the creation of fleet match
ing her army She would agree to no
limitation, except a pledge was given
that she was to be let alone when she
launched her great adventure.
So much for general antewar condi'
tions that left trail whose signifi-
canoe the world now appreciates.
Then, when a time arrived when Ger
many was ready to attack, she author
lied Austria Hungary to attack little
Serbia There was no adequate ground
scarcely even an excuse. AS Vor-
warts of Berlin said just before hostil-
tiles began, it was manifest deliber-
ate purpose existed to bring on the
war. Once, twice, three times, four
begged for arbitration, for a confer
ence, for anything to prevent the war.
Germany insultingly refused every
proffer. The war was to come il she
was not permitted to make the Bal
kans German province. The war
had been projected. as we now know,
for the year before, but Germany sig
nailed to her ally to wait until German
preparations were more perfect
This is the unchallenged record,
with which the world is familiar. The
wickedest war in human history was
deliberately planned and the plan car
ried out with cold blooded cruelty. For
the blood that has been shed, Ger
many and Germany alone is RESPONSE
BILE, for Austria-Hungary would not
have acted unless melted and unless
sure of German support. The blood
guilt for every dead German as well
as for every dead opposer of her will
rests on the kaiser and the German
people who have supported him.
And the best that Germany now of
fers is a peace based on the fraudulent
assumption unAL the WAT was HOt VI
her making. Those who pretend to be
socialists and in favor of new and
better international organization sup
port the kaiser now on the main point
They become sponsors for reasser-
ton Of monstrous untruth. They
have no rebuke of their government
for what it did in the years before the
war or in the last week of July, 1914.
or in the invasion of Belgium, or in
the way of reviving barbarism.
Whatever hope existed of an early
peace withers and dies in the presence
of the reichstag resolution. The party
of the crown prince is in the saddle
and the Scheidemanns are holding his
stirrup chancellor suspected of a
willingness to negotiate for peace on
the only possible terms has been dis
missed and in his stead a plant tool
of Prussian militarism installed. The
domestic crisis in Germany has result
ed in further strengthening Germany's
madmen.-New York Globe.