The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-08-18

like Eucken, Harnack, Hermann, and Diessrnanr
without reserve lend themselves to the defense of
worthy Of their words as we had understood them
Against our will we have been disillusioned.
into war, we have had war thrust upon US. A chat
over which we have had no control has brought
home to the Americans, anxious to maintain their
faith In Germany, the conviction that Americas
sovereignty was being outraged, its people killed,
its inner peace deliberately attacked, and its instt-
tntionS, founded in sacrifice and offered to the
world. not only despised but in danger of destruc-
ton.
Germany has forced America, as it has forced
almost the entire world, to defend itself by arms.
Nobody but those suffering from myopic idealism
eympathies can see anything else. Some of US
have suffered when the scales have fallen-cut
away By facts At last we see clearly. We have
not been drawn into the war by capitalism, or by
commercialiSm, or by national policy. For months
ne have been living In a state of war, deliberately
plenu&d By n nation whose leaders for ten years
haFs been preparing some day to fight America
and who have counted our good nature as cow
artioe. our unpreparedness as a lack Of national
se1f-resped
Here are the facts:
We are lighting this war, In the first place. be-
cause Germany made war upon us
For years she has sought to build up In Amer
lea a community more loyal to herself than to the
United States Money has been layishly spent in
Germnnistie societies. alliances. and associations
to. win the admiration and loyalty Of American
citizens Our universities have been fattered,
our professors have been honored for this rea-
sm- Praise of the kniser has been inserted even
In the spelling books Of our public school system.
Spies hare been everywhere
When the war came In 1914 German officials,
many Of them In high diplomatic positions. treat
ed the United States. a neutral nation, as II it
were am enemy. ProGerman publications were
founded and Subsidized. strikes were organized.
manufacturing peents were blown up, plots
azninst nations with whom We had treaty rela-
lions we're formed within our borders, bombs
were placed on ships In our ports Hatred OF
America was systematically disseminated through
Germany and efforts were made to involve us in
truuble with japan and Mexico
In reply TO our repeated protests against these
and other acts Of Germany. to be mentioned pres
entity, We have received promises and explanA-
tions which were little less than insults The
treaty that had existed almost the entire life of
the American republic was set at naught and
efforts were made to coerce US into favorable
notifications of It's terms-
The right of trade with benigerents, which Ger
many had always claimed, even to the benefit Of
our enemy In the war with Spain, and which at
Germany's own i~nsistence Is universally recog-
nfzed IN international law, was treated as the
violation of our neutrality and alliance with her
enemies And, finally, the proclamation of unre-
stricted destruction OF neutral ships upon the
high seas was a notification to the United States
that It was no longer a sovereign people, but
that If 1t would sail the seas In safety 1t must
conform to conditions set by a power that dehed
international Law. humanity. and elemental NOR
alty-
In the second place we are defending ourselves
against Germany because the German state has
entered upon d program which means the destruc-
lion of democratic institutions
The Prussianization of Germany means that the
policy OF Prussia to carry on economic and po-
iihcal expansion by war Is to be extended
throughout the entire world
We recognize that there were once, and we
dare, believe even now that there are, two Ger
uanys, one liberal and the other an autocracy
based on militarism. The struggle between these
two forces since 1915 has been a steady ~subJuga-
ton Of liberalism In Prussia and the other Ger
man states to the will of u Prussian feudal no
bility. Representative and responsible govern
ment In any true sense of the word has been
fought by Prussian leaders relentlessly. Educa-
ton has been made a creature of autocracy and a
source OF international hatred.
The same fate has met every land Prussianism
mas touched. Austria was beaten into submission
An 1866. and all the other German states were
made practically subject to the will of the Hohen-
,zollerns between that date and 1870. France was
robbed and Inundated. The Balkan states were
kent in perennial war In the interests of German
EXPANSION. Bohemia and Poland have been treat
ed with the same disregard of popular rights as
has been A~lsace-Lorralne. Turkey became a vas
sol Of the kniser. A great militarisic, anti
democratic state like southern Germany, sub
aarvient tn Prussia. has been started and all pu'