The Carlisle independent., 1918-05-30
Why We Fight
Because Germany Having Split the World in Half 10 Now Trying
 to Devour the Halves
By CLARENCE L. SPEED Secretary of the War Committee of the Union League Club of Chicago.

the world in half, is now seeking to , 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 plaps 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 a pamphlet. "Pan-Germany and Central Europe About 1950," 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 we'll as in Little Russia, the postal and telegraph serv- ices as we'll 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 Austria"
 How the plan has grown since then! Russia's collapse dropped whole prov- inces into the lap of the kaiser, and now Germany plans it's empire on scale which would dwarf that of an- cient Rome. It is to embrace the orig inal Central Europe, inhabited by some 73,00O.OOO Germans, make the Black sea a German lake. and extend clear to the Persian gulf through the vassal states of Bulgaria and Turkey.
 The German government started to put it's scheme for a Mitteleuropa in- to effect years ago when it began the construction of the 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 Belginm was invaded and crushed. The world then thought that this was only be- cause Belgium offered the easiest route to France; but study of the Nit teleuropa plan of years ago shows that Belgium was included in the scheme of conquest.
 s1How does all this affect America" one may ask. Germany was late comer in the family of great nations. Most of the uncivilized world had been pre-empted by other nations before she arrived. Germany wanted col onies. To get them she would have to take them away from someone else.
 Africa and South America offered the best fields for German coloniZa- ton. England possessed the best nart of Africa-the parts in which the white man might hope to settle and thrive. England had a mighty fleet, and a disposition to hold what she had, even though she did not show { disposition to fight for more.
 There remained South America. It was divided among weak nations. It was protected only by the Monroe doc Urine. This Monroe doctrine was sacred thing to Americans, but, not being backed up by mighty armies and fleets, was not even ''scrap of paper" to the Germans Can anyone doubt, should Germany succeed in welding into mighty empire the 73.000,000 Germans and the 100O00.000 inhabi tants of the vassal and conquered states of her Mitteleuropa. that her next step would be toward the west ,? The very fact that she had this en- pire would presuppose the defeat of England. so that no British fleet would stand between us and Germany when the time came for the kaiser to send his legions across the Atlantic.
 "As in the East. so in the West" is a motto which. of recent weeks, has been much heard in Germany. At a conference of the national liberal par ty, held in March of this year, the fol- | lowing amazingly frank declaration | was made:
 "Our policy has been directed to making the government and majority l turn away from the reichstag resolu- ton of July 19. (Peace without an- nexations and indemnities). In that | we have succeeded. Peace has just | been made in the East under condi- | tions in fiat contradiction to the pol 1 icy of July 19, and has received the support and assent of all the burgeois | parties."
 In other words, all Germany is now planning both annexations and indem- mites, such as will leave her without | q formidable opponent in the world.
 Can we make peace now and leave l Germany, flushed with victory, in pos session of all she has gained and lust