assassination of an Austrian boy and girl, but the cause is embedded in
racial antagonisms and economic competition.

As for Russia, the cause of the war was her desire to obtain the
Bosphorus--and an open seaport, which is the prize offered for her
attack upon Germany. As for Austria, the cause of the war is her fear of
the growing power of the Balkan States, and the progressive slicing away
of her territory. As for France, the cause of the war is the instinct of
self-preservation, that resists an invading host. As for Germany, the
cause is her deep-seated conviction that every country has a moral right
to the mouth of its greatest river; unable to compete with England, by
roundabout sea routes and a Kiel Canal, she wants to use the route that
nature digged for her through the mouth of the Rhine. As for England,
the motherland is fighting to recover her sense of security. During the
Napoleonic wars the second William Pitt explained the quadrupling of the
taxes, the increase of the navy, and the sending of an English army
against France, by the statement that justification of this proposed war
is the "Preservation of England's sense of security." Ten years ago
England lost her sense of security. Today she is not seeking to
preserve, but to recover, the lost sense of security. She proposes to do
this by destroying Germany's ironclads, demobilizing her army, wiping
out her forts, and the partition of her provinces. The occasions of the
war vary, with the color of the paper--"white" and "gray" and
"blue"--but the causes of this war are embedded in racial antagonisms
and economic and political differences.

WHY LITTLE BELGIUM HAS THE CENTER OF THE STAGE

Tonight our study concerns little Belgium, her people, and their part in
this conflict. Be the reasons what they may, this little land stands in
the center of the stage and holds the limelight. Once more David, armed
with a sling, has gone up against ten Goliaths. It is an amazing
spectacle, this, one of the smallest of the States, battling with the
largest of the giants! Belgium has a standing army of 42,000 men, and
Germany, with three reserves, perhaps 7,000,000 or 8,000,000. Without
waiting for any assistance, this little Belgium band went up against
2,000,000. It is as if a honey bee had decided to attack an eagle come
to loot its honeycomb. It is as if an antelope had turned against a
lion. Belgium has but 11,000 square miles of land, less than the States
of Mass