people in Wilhelmstrasse that the
certain result would be the United States of Balkany, to stand
henceforth as a barrier between Germany and the Bosphorus? Was there no
one to remind Berlin that Italy had just completed a war with Turkey and
that any treaty with Turkey meant inevitably the breaking of friendship
with Italy? Alas! for the man who is elevated to a throne, in whose
presence men burn incense, pour forth flattery that he may breathe its
perfume, sing songs of praise that he may slumber!

In concluding our survey of the nations and the stake of each country
in the war, there is one reflection that must be obvious to all thinking
men. This little fire of last August has become a world conflagration.
The nation that first sent out her armies was Germany. There is a
high-water mark of battle in every war, and after that, the invading
waves begin their retreat. The high-water mark of Napoleon's was
Austerlitz and the waves ebbed away at Waterloo. The high-water mark of
the civil war was Gettysburg, and the tide ebbed out at Appomattox.
Belgium's defense cost Germany the three most important weeks of the
war, and her high-water mark was when she was within twenty miles of
Paris. Occasional eddies and returns of the tide there may be, but
nothing is more certain than that there are ten nations and six hundred
millions of men that had rather die than have militarism imposed upon
themselves and their children. Americans who admire German efficiency,
the German people, and want to see German science preserved, and feel an
immeasurable debt to Martin Luther, do not want Germany destroyed. But
Germany will not listen to England, nor France, nor America. There is
only one voice that can reach Germany--it is the voice of the
German-Americans in this country. They are six million strong. They are
among the most honored and esteemed folk in American life. Their
achievements are beyond all praise. The Germans have built Milwaukee and
have done much for St. Louis. The Germans have been great forces in
Cincinnati and Chicago and New York. What wealth among their bankers!
What prosperity among German manufacturers! What solidity of manhood in
these German Lutherans! Was there ever a finer body of farming folk than
the German landowners of the Middle West? The republic owes the
German-American a great debt as to liberty through men like Carl Schurz.
Take Martin Luther and German liberty of thought out of the republic and
this la