The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-06-28
Why We Fight
Beos,ss Cernasy Havis1 Split he
World In Hall 10 Now Trying
10 Devouf the Helvos
By CLARENCE L. sPEEI

BY CLARENCE L. SPEED
n>cr...ry Of the War Committee OF tho
Union League Club OF Chicago.
We are fighting Germany. for one
thing, because Germany, having split
the world In half. II now seeking to
devour the halves separately. Sne
has driven Q wedge straight through
the heart Of Europe, and into Asia,
and is seeking to extend 1t to the FER
sian gulf.
This Is no accidental happening, que
to the downfall Of Russia and the sud-
den shifting in the fortunes Of war.
Germany planned 1t all decades ago.
She made no effort to keep the plans
secret. She told Us all about 1t. she
had a reputation for making plans
and sticking to them, from one gener-
alton to another: yet the world PAID
no attention. It seemed too prepos-
ferrous even for Germany to attempt.
As long ago as 1895 q 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 well as In Little
Russia, the postal and telegraph serv-
ices as well as the railways will be In
German hands,"
In 1911 Tannenberg's book, "Greater
Germany" was published. This was
only three years before the war, but
It showed that the idea Of a German
Mitteleuropa had not been allowed to
languish. It says:
1.-THE new kingdom Of Poland Is
made up of the former Russian por-
ton of the basin of the Vistula, and OF
Galicla, and forms a 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 its empire on a
scale which would dwarf that OF an
cient Rome. 1t is to embrace the orig
inal Central Europe, Inhabited by
some 100000 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 its scheme for 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 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 thEe
Belgium was included in the scheme
of conquest.
.sHow does all this affect American"
one may ask. Germany was late
conner 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.
Af1ica and South America offered
the best fields for German colonial
ton. England possessed the best part
of Africa-the parts in which the
white man might hope to settle and
thrive. England had mighty feet,
and a disposition to hold what she
had, even though she did not show a
disposition to fight for more.
There remained South America. It
was divided among weak nations. 1t
was protected only by the Monroe doc
trine. This Monroe doctrine was a
sacred thing to Americans, but. not
being backed up by mighty armies and
fleets, was not even a tscrap Of paper"
to the Germans. Can anyone doubt,
should Germany succeed in welding
into mighty empire the 73OO0,0O0
Germans and the 100000 900 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 motto which, Of recent weeks, has
been much heard in Germany. AT
conference Of the national liberal par
ty, held in March of this year, the fol-
lowing amazingly frank declaration
was made:
sour policy has been directed to
making the government and majority