e forces behind the war
game.--Profits and press agents.

Let us turn back to the great powers of Europe. We spoke of their mad
race, each nation trying to build more ships and bigger ships than its
neighbors and to outstrip them in cannon and other munitions of war.
The German navy had been growing by leaps and bounds. From being the
sixth largest navy in the world, within ten years it had grown to
second place. But, fast as the Germans built ships, the English built
them more rapidly still. England built a monstrous battleship called
the Dreadnaught, which was twice as heavy as any other battleship
afloat. Germany promptly replied by planning four ships of the
dreadnaught class, and England came back with some still larger
vessels which are known as super-dreadnaughts.

At last, the English first lord of the navy, Mr. Winston Churchill,
proposed to Germany that each country take a "naval holiday." In other
words, he practically said to Germany, "If you people will stop
building warships for a year, we will also. Then at the end of the
year, we shall be no worse off or better off than we were at the
beginning."

[Illustration: Submarine]

Germany laughed at this proposal. To her, it showed that England could
not stand the strain very much longer. "Besides," said the Germans,
"it is all very well for England to be satisfied with her present
navy, which is half again as large as ours. If our navy were the
strongest in the world, we too would be glad to have all nations stop
building warships," and they laid down the keels of four new
super-dreadnaughts.

But other things disturbed the peace of mind of the German
militarists. For a long time, the population of France had not been
increasing, while Germany almost doubled her numbers from 1860 to
1900. Now, to their dismay, the German birth-rate began to grow less
and they saw the population of Russia growing larger by 20% every ten
years. Again, they learned that Russia was about to build a series of
railroads near the German frontier which would enable them to rush an
army to attack Germany at very short notice. The Germans already had
such railroads in their own country, but they did not propose to let
their neighbors have this advantage also.

Again, France had recently passed a law forcing every young man to put
three years in military service instead of two. This would increase
France's standing army by 50 per cent. The German people, who up to
this time ha