Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1918-06-15
Why We Fight
 . No.S 5 Because Germany Having Split the World in Half Is Now Trying
 to Devour the Halves
By CLARENCE l.. SPEED Secretary of the War Committee of the Union League Club of Chicago.

devour the halves separately. She has driven wedge straight through the heart of Europe, and into Asia, and is seeking to extend it to the Per sian gulf.
 This is no accidental happening, due to the downfall of Russia and the sud den shifting in the fortunes of war. Germany planned it all decades ago. She made no effort to keep the plans secret. She told us all about it. She had a reputation for making plans and sticking to them, from one gener- ation to another; yet the world paid no attention. It seemed too prepos- terous even for Germany to attempt. As long ago as 1895 pamphlet, "Pan-Germany and Central Europe About 195O," was published in Berlin and had wide circulation. It laid the whole Mitteleuropa plan bare as fol- lows:
 "Poland and Little Russia (the king dom to be established at Russia's ex- pense) will agree to have no armies of their own, and will receive in their fortresses German and Austrian garri- sons. In Poland, as well as in Little Russia, the postal and telegraph serv- ices as well as the railways will be in German hands"
 Tn 1911 Tannenberg's book, Greater Germany" was published. This was only three years before the war, but it showed that the idea of German Mitteleuropa had not been allowed to languish. It says:
 "The new kingdom of Poland IS made up of the former Russian DOT ton of the basin of the Vistula, and of Galicia, and forms part.of the new l Austria"
 | How the plan has grown since then Russia's collapse dropped whole prov i; inces into the lap of the kaiser, and now Germany plans its empire on scale which would dwarf that of an cient Rome. It is to embrace the orig inal Central Europe, inhabited by some 73,OOOOOO Germans, make the Black sea a German lake, and extend clear to the Persian gulf through the l vassal states of Bulgaria and Turkey
 The German government started to put it's scheme for Mitteleuropa in to effect years ago when it began the construction of tha Berlin-to-Bagdad railway. Little Serbia stood in the way. so Serbia was attacked and the world was plunged into war. In the opposite corner of Europe Belginn was invaded and crushed. The worlC then thought that this was only De cause Belgium offered the easies1 route to France; but study of the Nit teleuropa plan of years ago shows that Belgium was included in the scheme
 of conquest.
 "How does all this affect America! ?
 one may ask. Germany was lat'
 conner in the family of great nations
 Most of the uncivilized world had beer
 pre-empted by other nations before
 she arrived. Germany wanted col
 onies. To get them she would hav'
 to take them away from someone else
 Africa and South America offered
 the best fields for German coloniza
 tion. England possessed the best par
 of Africa-the parts fin which tn
 white man might hope to settle an'
 thrive. England had mighty fleet
 and a disposition to hold what sh
 had. even though she did not show disposition to fight for more. There remained South America. ]
 was divided among weak nations. was protected only by the Monroe do( Urine. This Monroe doctrine was , sacred thing to Americans. but, no
 being backed up by mighty armies an fleets, was not even "scrap of paper
 to the Germans. Can anyone doub
 should Germany succeed in weldin 3 into a mighty empire the 73,OOO.OO i Germans and the 10OO0O,OOO inhab tants of the vassal and conquere states of her Mitteleuropa, that he '. next step would be toward the west :, The very fact that she had this en h pire would presuppose the defeat ( I England, so that no British fleet woul k stand between us and Germany whe = the time came for the kaiser to sen d his legions across the Atlantic. : "As in the East. so in the West IS a ulOJtO WHICH, Ol lCSCAI WCSnOS hu been much heard in Germany. At 7 conference of the national liberal pa
 ty, held in March of this year, the flo
 lowing amazingly frank declaratio
 was made:
 "Our policy has been directed making the government and majorit ;, turn away from the reichstag resol' ton of July 19. (Peace without al nexations and indemnities). In thu : we have succeeded. Peace has jul been made in the East under cond
 tions in fiat contradiction to the pc
 icy of July 19, and has received Il
 support and assent of all the burgeo
 parties"
 In other words, all Germany is no .ef planning both annexations and finder
 mites, such as will leave her witho' a formidable opponent in the world. Can we make peace now and lea' Germany, flushed with victory, in DO l SeSSioD of all she has gained and Jus