The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1918-07-11
Why We Fight
No.
Because Germany Having Split the
World in Half Is Now Trying
to Devour the Halves
BY CLARENCE L.. SPEED
Secretary of the Wal Committee of tho
Union League Club of Chicago.

Secretary of the Wal Committee Of tho
Union League Club of Chicago.
We are fighting Germany, for nj
thing, because Germany, having split
the world in half, is now seeking to
devour the halves separately. She
has driven a 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
cecret. She told us all about it. She
had a reputation for making plans
and sticking to them, from M gener-
alton to another; yet the world paid
no attention. 1t seemed too prepos-
ferrous even for Germany to attempt.
AS long ago as 1895 a pamphlet,
"Pan-Germany and Central Europe
About 1850" 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,"
In 1911 Tannenberg's book, "Greater
Germany" vas published. This was
only three years before the war, but
it showed that the idea of a German
Mitteleuropa had not been allowed to
anguish. 1t says:
"The new kingdom of Poland is
made up of the former Russian por-
ton of the basin of the vistula, and of
Galicia, and forms a part.o 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 a
scale which would dwarf that of an
Gent Rome. 1t is to embrace the orig
inal Central Europe, inhabited by
some 73,0O0,O00 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 Mittelcuropa in
to effect years ago when it began the
construction of the archaeological
railway. Little Serbia stood in the
way, so Serbia was attacked and the
world was plunged into war. In the
opposite corner of Europe Belgium
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.
GLOW does all this affect American
one may ask. Germany was q late
mn 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 colonial
ton. England possessed the best part
of Africa-the parts in which the
white mar might hope to settle and