The courier-index., 1918-05-31
Why We Fight
 No. ! Because Cermany's Law Is the Lew of the Jungle and Her Doctrine "Mieht Is Right
By CLARENCE l.. SPEED Secretary of the War Committee of the Union League Club of Chicago.

We are at war with Germany be cause Prussia dominates Ger many, and from the days of Freder- ick the Great, Prussia's law has been the law of the jungle, her doctrine Might is Right" and her policy, Tn dealing with other nations, one of rob ping the weak and terrOrizing the strong. Germany has grabbed terri tory and exacted tribute from her neighbors, and finally, her greed be- coming greater, has looked out over more distant lands, and has commit ted herself to a policy of world domi- nation which menaces the continued free existence of every nation which will not submit to her will.
 Germany's policy is not an acciden- tai one. It has been carried out with remarkable singleness of purpose from generation to generation of Hohenzollern rule, from the time of the Great Frederick until to- day. Germany's atrocities are not accidental. They are deliber- ate, well thought out part of this Hohenzollern policy, which was to break down the resistance of her op- ponents, not only by fighting and de feating their armies but by killing, torturing and terrorizing the civil populations.
 The German rulers committed them selves to the doctrine of the survival of the Attest. Through generations of teaching they made the German peo' pie believe that they, and they alone, were the fit.
 We have the words of the German rulers and German warriors and Ger man leaders of thought for all of this. More than that we have the perform ance of German officers and German armies in conquered lands to prove it
 Let's start with Frederick the Great in presenting the evidence This monarch, who earned his sou briquet through despoiling his neigh bors, rather than through any req qualities of mind which he showed said, in letter to his minister, Rad ziwill:
 If there is anything to be gained by 1t, we will be honest; if deception is necessary, let us be cheats. One takes what one can, and one is wrong only when obliged to give back"
 This philosophy, applied to present conditions, means that Germany was right when she took Belgium, and vii be wrong only if she is not able tS hold it.
 From Frederick the Great to Bis marck is a long jump in the matter of time; but we find the Prussian pol icy unchanged. Speaking before the military committee of the Prussiar Chamber of Deputies in 1862 Bis marck said:
 "Not by speeches and resolutions of majOrities are the great questions of the time decided, but by iron ant blood"
 Then, with blood and iron, Prussia went out and despoiled Denmark of territory in 1864, beat and robbed Aus tria in 1866, and finally, in 1870 brought France to her knees and took Her riclleSt prONinCtS.
 Here is what the present kaiser told his troops when, in 1900, they were about to depart for China to put dowI the boxer uprising:
 "Use your weapons in such way that for a thousand years no Chi nese shall dare to look upon German askance. Be as terrible as Attilla's HunS."
 Coming on down to the present wal we find a German minister accredited to neutral state far across the sea- one which one would think should be free from the entanglements of world politics-writing home to his govern ment in a state paper. advising the sinking of two ships from this neutral nation, in such manner that no trace be left. Dead men, he believed tell no tales.
 It was Baron Luxburg, minister pleni- potentiary to Argentina. who wrote this amazing dispatch on May 19, 1917:
 T beg that the small steamers Gran and GuazO which are nearing Bordeaux be spared if possi- ble, or else sunk without trace be ing left"
 This telegram was intercepted in the United States and published. It sent a thrill of horror around the world.
 Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg is a true disciple of Frederick the Great. Bismarck and his royal master. In public speech on January 31, 1917, he said:
 When the most ruthless methods are calculated to lead us to victory, swift victory. they must be employed.",
 So they were used. and are being used today. They include sinking of of neutral ships, the burning of cities, the deliberate devastating of the fair lands of France. the ravish- ing of women, the, achievement of gorkmen and the murder of little chill iren.
 Horrors such as these are told in de- tail in ''The Prussian System" by F. c. Walcott. who. for long time, was en- a t.~