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the Prussian nobility the ruling caste. Through Prussia these officials and war lords rule the Empire. The noble class is in turn ruled by the Kaiser, but they are content. This is what we mean when we speak of German militarism. We mean a government by the Kaiser and his soldier class.

In America and other democratic countries we hold that one man is as good as another, and that all shall have an equal voice in the government. We would not tolerate being ruled by a class of soldiers and aristocrats.

Now if you will look at the map you will observe that Germany has very little sea coast except that on GERMANY the Baltic Sea. This lack of good ports HEMMED IN hinders her world trade. The Empire is too much hemmed in to suit its rulers. A great and powerful nation must have room to grow. Germany is a manufacturing country and in order to trade freely with other nations needs more convenient harbors.

England controls the sea. All the strategic sea routes of the world except the newly completed Panama Canal, belong to England. She has Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, Singapore and innumerable islands the world over that have naval bases on them. These give England a great advantage in trade and commerce, and these are the very things Germany wishes to develop.

Since Germany has not been very successful in establishing colonies, and as England has always kept her navy far in advance of that of the Germans, there was nothing else for Germany to do but to look forward to a better sea coast outlet for her trade and to become a great land empire. The Kaiser was determined to extend his frontiers and he kept the

largest army of the world ready for the first opportunity to strike for more territory. In fact, the war lords were more than willing to make an opportunity on the slightest excuse.

They have looked with eager eyes on the coal and iron lands of Belgium and northern France and WORLD coveted the fine harbors of these counGERMANY tries. They long to get control of the wheat and oil lands of Roumania and they want a chance to overflow into the garden spot of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys which are only waiting for irrigation to make them some of the most fruitful regions of the world. Above all, they have desired the Dardanelles with its strategic position dominating the whole of the Black Sea country.

In short, the German dream has long been to build up a great empire extending from the Baltic Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was to be held together by a line of railroad which descends from Hamburg through Berlin to Vienna and thence to Constantinople. From here it passes through Asia Minor, where it forks, one branch going down to the Persian Gulf through Bagdad and the other to Suez and Mecca. Germany secured secret permission from Turkey to build the Bagdad railway. This railway is not yet complete, but it is designed to bring German armies to the frontier of Egypt and eventually to India, where they may threaten the British Empire by land. Germany's railroad to the Persian Gulf would be shorter than England's sea route and would give the Germans the advantage in trade with the East.

But in order to carry out this dream it was necessary for Germany to gain possession of Turkey and the Balkans. Austria is an ally of Germany and

is dominated by her. Together they exerted every effort to get the Turks and Bulgars to join them in the war. In fact, we now feel sure that Germany had secret treaties binding these countries to aid her. The object in coveting the Balkans was to get control not only of the land, but of the railroad to Constantinople. Germany also planned to conquer Belgium and extend her rule as far south as Calais or Brest in France so that she might have a port on the English Channel or the Atlantic. Riga on the Baltic was an Eastern port that she desired.

In short, there seemed to be no limit to the ambition and conceit of this German dream. Perhaps it is only natural for them to feel that their nation and training are superior to all others on earth, but their ambition to encircle the earth and Germanize other countries by sheer force, destroying weaker nations without mercy or excuse, does not meet with the sympathy of the rest of the world.

This scheme of German leaders has long been urged. The war lords have written many books and distributed them among their people urging the extension of their territory. The citizens of Germany are trained to listen to the voice of the ruling class and they were beginning to feel that they had a perfect right to seize the best portions of Europe for themselves.

GERMAN
EFFICIENCY

In many respects we all admit the greatness of Germany and her people. German cities are better governed than ours. There is less graft and more efficiency in their methods than in ours. The Germans have reduced many things to a science besides war. They put experts in charge of all their work. They use scientific methods in manufacture and in business. Now

science leads to thoroughness and efficiency and so the Germans excel other peoples in many ways.

But the Germans have come to worship science until they think of nothing else. The questions of right and wrong, peace, and love and sympathy for the weak and helpless-in a word, Christian behavior —is far more to be worshipped than science. We stand for right, for brotherly love and a square deal, for a chance for every nation to live its life in its own way. Upon all these principles of right Germany has trampled with unheard of cruelty to carry out her ambition based upon "Might makes right.' Against this ambition the world fights, fourteen nations against four.

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CHAPTER III

THE STORY OF THE BALKAN COUNTRIES

In order to understand this war we must also know something of the history of the Balkan countries which occupy the whole of the great peninsula between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea. In this peninsula are now the nations of Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Roumania, Serbia, Montenegro and the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which Austria has seized.

The Turks captured Constantinople in 1453 and laid hold upon nearly all of the Balkan countries. This date is an important one in our history, for it was this that closed the trade route of Genoa to the East and finally brought about the discovery of America. The Turks not only seized the Balkans, but they threatened and terrified all western Europe. In time they were checked by European armies, but they placed a heavy yoke upon the Balkan states.

The Turks had only contempt for the people whom they had conquered. They did not try to mould them into a nation, but were satisfied to make them their subjects and exploit them. The Christian peoples were oppressed by the Mohammedan Turks for several hundred years. Their property was taken and their lives also, whenever it suited their Turkish rulers. They bore their ills as best they might, longing for liberation and hating the Turks with a deathless hatred.

In the next two hundred years Turkey steadily

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