the treasures of art. The cathedral at Rheims has received but slight
damage, and would not have been damaged at all had its tower not been
misused by the French as an observation station. I should like to see
the commander of an army who, for the sake of the safety of a historical
monument, would forget the safety of the troops intrusted into his care!

Enough of it! What I have stated is sufficient to show what low weapons
our enemies are using behind the battlefield to sully Germany's shield
of honor. It is enough for those who care to listen at all. But, also,
wherever the weak voice of one rebounds from ears stubbornly closed, the
more powerful voice of truth eventually will force a more just verdict.

Justice--that is all that we expect from America. We respect its
neutrality; we do not ask from it an ideal partisanship for our benefit.
If it does not have for us the sympathy which we have already extended
to it and, after a century and a half of unclouded intercourse between
the two nations, have anticipated there, then we cannot imbue it with
that spirit by reasoning. Furthermore, in the existence of nations
sympathy is not the deciding factor, and every nation should be rebuked
which out of regard for sympathy would in decisive matters act against
its own interests. But just for that very reason one more question must
be raised. In the present conflict, which momentarily almost splits the
entire world into two camps, where do the interests of America lie?

That they are not lying on the side of Russia probably is self-evident.
No free American can find desirable a further extension of the Russian
world empire and of Russian despotism at the expense of Germany. But how
about a country from which once America had to wrest its own liberty in
bloody battle? How about England? Where, if England should succeed in
downing Germany, would her eyes next be pointed? Has she not herself
admitted that she is making war on us principally because she sees in us
an uncomfortable competitor in trade? And which competitor would be the
next one after us that would become awkward to the trust on the Thames?
Yes, have they not already hauled off for the smash against America,
when Japan is given opportunity to increase her power--the same Japan
with whom America sooner or later will be bound to have an accounting
and whose victory over us would make that accounting a great deal more
difficult for the United States?

Germany's fa