s cultivated industrially and
financially to give base for military operations.

But most carefully have the business men of Germany been excluded from
the war councils. I asked one of the best-informed men in the diplomatic
cycles of Europe, whose business all his life has been to travel from
country to country studying the languages, thought, and customs of all
people, west of Asia and north of Africa: "Are the German bankers and
business men to have no say in Berlin as to peace and war or the military
policy of the empire?" His response was emphatic: "Not one word; they
would no more be allowed expression of opinion in the inner councils of
military Germany than would a rank foreigner from the farthest part of
the earth. Still in Germany is the business of trade apart from the
business of government."

The world may now see that the business of Germany was war from the
beginning under Kaiser Wilhelm II, and that Germany was to be made great
on land and sea by the sword of war hacking the way for German commerce,
German tariffs, and German commercialism. The old feudal idea of trade
expanded and supported by a war lord has been the idea of Germany since
the pilot, Bismarck, was dropped by the young Emperor from the ship of
state. War for aggression, war for business, war for German expansion,
has been the scheme. That these plans were interrupted and the war
precipitated sooner than expected was most fortunate for American
civilization and all civilization, west of Germany.

It was the Kaiser who changed the terms of Austria's ultimatum to Servia,
making them impossible of fulfillment, and then cunningly slipped away on
a water-trip with the fastest German cruiser behind him, that he might
come rushing back and cry, "Peace, peace!" while he fenced off every
peace proposal from effectively reaching Austria. Servia was willing to
agree to every demand of Austria except that which involved a change in
her constitutional government, with which she could not comply in the
allotted time; but even this she was willing to discuss. The Kaiser gave
Russia twelve hours to demobilize, and then declared war on her five days
before Russia even withdrew her minister from Vienna.

While the Germans have gone to war to possess the land and dominate the
business of their neighbors, they have not gone to war as savage tribes,
seeking blood and human sacrifice as an end in itself.

I have not dealt with German atrocities in B