East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1918-04-03
WHY WE ARE
AT WAR WITH
GERMANY
BY
EPHRAlM DOUGLASS ADAMS
Executive Head, History Depart
ment
Leland Stanford Junior University

"The object Of this war is to deliver
the free peoples Of the world from the
menace and the actual power Of vast
military establishment controlled BY an
irresponsible government, which, having
proceeded to carry out the plan without
| regard either to the sacred obligations
o. treaty or the long established prac-
ternatlonai action and honor; This
power 10 not the German people. II is
the ruthless master Of the German peo-
It that the history Of the rest OF the
world ls no longer left to its hsndiIng.S
'-President Wilson, August 27, 1917
THE MATERIAL AIMS OF GER
MANY.
Germany believes that she has the
right to dominate the world. Her
militaristic autocracy believes that
this war is step toward such world
domination, but that German demands
for the present may rest satisfied with
substantial gains in Europe. For years
German political writing has been full
of the terms of peace" after war.
and today those terms remain unal-
tered. The Russian negotiations have
served to prove that what has for a
long time been public opinion, is now
official opinion. The quotations will
show this
First, the more general purposes:
III we come victorious out of this war.
we shall be the first people on the
earth, rich stream Of gold will pour
over the land" Expansion of our
power both East and West, if possible
also OUer seas; political and military
L.
nected with economical expansion, this
is our war aim" THE territory open
to future German expansion must ex-
tend from the North Sea and the Bal
tic to the Persian Gulf, absorbing che
Netherlands and Luxembourg, cxft-
zerland,' the whole basin of the Dan.
ube, the Balkan Peninsula and Asia
Minor"
Second, the immediate aims: "Our
relations with Turkey have drawn us
into this war, the Bagdad
Railway must be extended by us to
the open sea. even to India itself"
Belgium must remain under German
domination there exists no
better line of attack for the German
army in future war with France"
whom it is necessary Ito weaken to I
such degree that she can never again |
be dangerous TO us" "Will anybody I
believe that we will hand over the
lands which we have occupied in the
West, on which the blood of our peo-
pie has fiowed?" I'VE are not an in
stitute for lengthening the life of
dying states"
But it is on Poland and Western
Russia that Germany has all along
hxed her eyes. We ought not to
let fall the sword from our hand be.
fore we have assured our future Our
eastern boundaries must not remain
where they are" "Livonia. KurIand
Esthonia, have been for more than
seven centuries sister-countrles united
through German traditions. 1t is true
Germans do not yet represent 10 per
cent of the inhabitants; but their char
acter filters through the whole" Let
Us bravelyl organize great forced mi
1TdtiOnS of the inferior peoples. Pos
erity will be grateful to us We must
'oerce them. This is one of the tasks
If war Such forced migrations may
appear hard, but it is the only solu-
ion The inefficient peoples
discouraged and rendered Indifferent
o the future by the spectacle of the
superior energy of their conquerors.
nay then crawl slowly towards the
,eacefpl death of weary and hopeless
entity The writer of this was here
'iewing especially the nOn-German
populations of South America.
How is America interested in the
European political and territorial re-
ults of this war? Well, first, we are
t war. Germany believes that peace
ow, on the terms she outlines, means
Germany victorious That means a
of military autocracy in
continuance of an aggres-
i've policy-a continuance of German .
nth in its special destiny to rule the
orld.
Against that German ideal we are
ghting. But we are also fighting
save the Americas from the "neTt
ep' in German Imperialism. In the
rst year of the war, the one great
ar expressed by German officers was
lat long war in Europe would
'ause America to wake up" Wake
. to what? Not to the need of =
merican participation in the war. U
he German officers thought America
'gligible for this war. But they did
I'd do, fear that America would
wake to the danger to herself, her
eals, her institutions, her interests. n
Id that being awakened, Germany's
rt step in world domination would
harder than the present one.
There is no hope of changed Ger
any-of establishing those peaceful
d friendly relations which should ..
.eI NM me- Hl'londl cohouct - II ia
Sums heI opJects' OF any ur
rt of them, in this war. She has nj
her heart upon certain material A,
jectS. We must see to it that she us
eS not gain them Then her first dit