eep an impression with
thinking citizens on both sides of the Atlantic that it has been
translated into a number of European languages, and some 400,000
copies have been sold in England alone.

In making this acknowledgment, which is due for the courtesy of "The
Times" in permitting an article prepared for its columns to be
utilized as the basis for the book, it is in order for the publishers
to explain to the readers that the material in the article has itself
been rewritten and amplified, while the book contains, in addition to
this original paper, a number of further chapters comprising together
more than six times the material of the first article.

The present book is an independent work, and is deserving of
consideration on the part of all citizens who are interested in
securing authoritative information on the issues of the great European
contest.

New York, December 12, 1914

INTRODUCTION

BY THE HON. JOSEPH H. CHOATE, FORMER AMERICAN AMBASSADOR TO GREAT
BRITAIN[1]

[Footnote 1: Reprinted, by permission, from the N. Y. _Times_.]

For five months now all people who read at all have been reading about
the horrible war that is devastating Europe and shedding the best
blood of the people of five great nations. In fact, they have had no
time to read anything else, and everything that is published about it
is seized upon with great avidity. No wonder, then, that Mr. James M.
Beck's book, _The Evidence in the Case_, published by G. P. Putnam's
Sons, which has grown out of the article by him contributed to the New
York _Times_ Sunday Magazine, has been warmly welcomed both here and
in England as a valuable addition to the literature of the day.

An able and clear-headed lawyer and advocate, he presents the matter
in the unique form of a legal argument, based upon an analysis of the
diplomatic records submitted by England, Germany, Russia, France, and
Belgium, as "A Case in the Supreme Court of Civilization," and the
conclusions to be deduced as to the moral responsibility for the war.

The whole argument is founded upon the idea that there is such a thing
as a public conscience of the world, which must and will necessarily
pass final judgment upon the conduct of the parties concerned in this
infernal struggle. Many times in the course of the book he refers
emphatically to that "decent respect to the opinions of mankind" to
which Jefferson appealed in our Declaration of Independence as the
final