GERMANY'S SHIPPING SCHEME How many of the people of North and South America fully comprehend Germany's long-headed scheme for her ocean commerce after the war? Ever since the war began, and the Hun navy scuttled off the seven seas and cravenly hid behind its mine-fields, Germany's submarines have been destroying as rapidly as possible the commercial ships of all nations, friend and foe alike! At the same time, in her own ports she has been building ships as rapidly as possible. Germany's plan is to destroy the ships of all nations until at the close of the war no nation will have a better merchant marine than Germany, nor any better chance for world commerce by sea! Here is the tale of the ships of friendly, neutral nations, sunk by Germany prior to April 6, 1917: Norwegian ships, 436; Danish, 114; Swedish, 101; Dutch, 76; Greek, 60; Spanish, 35; American, 20. 66 And already Germany is planning to demand in the terms of peace a commercial treaty with America containing a most favored nation" clause! If we yield it, it will mark for us the beginning of national decadence. PREFACE "The world must be made safe for democracy." Yes. But is democracy competent to protect itself against robber and cut-throat nations? Over the blood-soaked and shell-riven fields of Northern France, fifty thousand cannon are roaring this very day; and two million gallant men who represent the three great democracies of the world,— England, France and America,- are fighting and dying to make the answer "Yes." May God give victory to Right, and not to Might. France was awake, and ready. England was only half awake, in 1914; and already she has paid a fearful price for being half asleep, and oblivious to the fact that in comparison with her one mortal enemy she had practically no army. In view of her close touch with the Hun, the people of England should have been far wiser than they were. The onset of Germany for world power and conquest found America blissfully ignorant of German character and aspirations, grotesquely helpless on land, wallowing in a riot of luxury and extravagance, and sound asleep to impending dangers. Worse than that, it took dynamite, fire and bloodshed to arouse the American people from their slumber; and yet we were, of all people, popularly supposed to be quick on the draw! On our part the years 1915 and 1916 were a wild orgy of stupidity and blundering. This book is not intended to be a chronology of Folly. Its only aim is to point out certain dangers, and to drive home the wicked folly of sleeping on duty. I shall not catalogue the blunders of Congress and the Cabinet, nor even list the names of the men who are most to blame for the disaster of our unpreparedness on May 6, 1917, when we went through the motions of declaring war on Germany. That was the most ghastly farce of modern history; but we had to go through with it! Those who write the history of this Great Tragedy will not be so lenient as I, when they come to their task. But at one point the hand of the historian will falter and draw back in horror. That will be when the time comes to place the blame for the great catastrophe to Christian civilization. On the side of the defenders of the rights of man, rotten-hearted Russia is most to blame for the slaughter of 1918, and stupid, sleepy, stall-fed America stands next to her. Today the question is: Will Germany win on the battle-fields of Flanders? Will the Hun armies capture Paris, the Channel ports, and devastate the whole of France? For three long years the Leper of Potsdam has been pointing to God as his ally and special partner; and he is doing it to-day with an insistence and unction that is enough to stagger the Faith of the civilized world. Have the inherent weaknesses of this liberty-spoiled democracy played into the hands of brutal Germany |