The chief nationalist organ of Italy, the Idêa Nazionale expressed this as follows: "The Parliament is Giolitti; Giolitti is the Parliament; the binomial expression of our shame" (7). Giolitti left the nation's defenses in an antiquated condition and, according to Sydney Low, his War Minister was so strongly pro-German that he refused to make the army reforms which were demanded by Generals Cadorna and National defense neglected Porro (8). To quote Dillon again: "That in spite of this knowledge and the further conviction that an Austrian campaign against Italy would have found their nation without a single Ally to back her, King Victor's Government left the National Defenses in such a plight that they no longer deserved the name of "defenses," throws light upon some of the differences between the temperament of the allied people and that of the Teutons. But that Signor Giolitti, who was chiefly responsible for this neglect, should have afterwards invoked it in conversation with the king as a clinching argument against intervention, betrays the presence of an ethical twist in that statesman's mentality of a kind which was reasonably taken by the nation to disqualify him for the post of its principal trustee." (6, p. 117.) To keep Italy from entering the war the Kaiser sent as his special envoy the most astute of German statesmen, Prince von Bülow, who was married to an von Bülow's Italian lady of high rank and who went in the full and apparently justified belief that Prince mission Italy could be kept neutral. Says Dillon: "It was the utter rottenness of the parliamentary system in Italy and the subjection of the legislature, the great commercial and industrial interests, and the court to one man who looked upon international politics as mere manure for the soil he was cultivating that inspired Prince von Bülow with confidence in the success of his mission" (6, p. 129). The people wrest control "Italy's active participation in the war was the work of the nation, not of the government. Had the decision been left to the parliament, to the acknowledged leaders of the people, to the Cabinet, or even to all three combined, it must have fallen out differently. . . . But the nation, wroth with the representatives who had misrepresented it, wrested from them for a moment the powers they had bestowed and reversed their decision" (6, p. vii.). . from the government Wrought to white "It was the work of a moment. heat by the strange behavior of its official spokesmen, the Italian people rose up in its millions, disowned them and imposed its own will on the Cabinet." Well might the Teuton plotters in their discomfiture recall that saying of Bismarck that "we cannot foresee the cards held by Providence so clearly as to anticipate historical development through personal calculation." Germany's methods of peaceful penetration where the Greater Empire is being extended, have been considered at such length because, with the conclusion of peace, the same menace to the world will be resumed unless drastic measures to forestall it are taken, both in the terms of peace and afterward. Says Hauser: "If we refuse to investigate why our rivals have beaten us, and how we shall be able to withstand them, our sons will have died in vain on the Marne and the Yser. The economic struggle will be resumed to-morrow, and all the more bitterly because the German people will need to make good their losses. If we do not take care, the spider will weave its web again; it will speedily take its revenge, and we shall wake up in ten years to find ourselves enslaved once more by the people whom we had conquered" (9, P. 14). I. 2. REFERENCES National German-American Alliance, Hearings before the SubCommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate, 65th Congress, 2nd Session, S 3529, Washington, 1918, pp. 698. The Providence Journal, "A few Lines of Recent American History," pp. 23, 1917. 3. National German-American Alliance, 5 Official Bulletin, 11, pp. 24, 25, 29, 36; 7 Official Bulletin, 10, pp. 31 (a confidential publication). 4. MCLAREN, A. D., Peaceful Penetration, pp. 224, London, Dutton, 1917 5. "Austria in a Trap, M. Hanotaux Thinks," New York Times, July 14, 1918. 6. DILLON, E. J., From the Triple to the Quadruple Alliance, Why Italy Went to War, pp. 242, Hodder, London, 1915. 7. May 15, 1915. 8. SYDNEY Low, Italy in the War, pp. 316, New York, Longmans, 1916. 9. HAUSER, Henri, Germany's Commercial Grip on the World, her Business Methods Explained, pp. 259, New York, Scribners, 1917. X HOW GERMANY MAKES WAR-ATROCITIES UNDER SYSTEM "Sons of Germany, to arms; Forward. This is the hour of joy and glory. "Wheresoever you turn, you enter; wheresoever you enter is Ger many. "Oh, horsemen of ours, spur, rear, sweep all away before you. Your will, spur of your horse, is like winged victory. That timid flesh you trample under foot is made to fatten the fields that shall be yours and your sons. "Sons of Germany, to arms! The great hour is here! "Life does not end; it passes and changes without cease. The life of the vanquished is absorbed by the victor; the life of the slain belongs to the slayer. See then how you can gather together upon the breast of your sacred Fatherland the life of all the world! "Stoop not to effeminate pity for women and children. Often the son of the vanquished was afterward victor. What is victory worth if to-morrow comes revenge! What father would you be if you killed your enemy and left alive his son? "Sons of Germany, to arms! Forward! Smite! Shatter! Overthrow! Pierce and lay waste! Burn! "Kill! Kill! Kill! "The road of glory lies open before us!" Battle song found on German prisoners. “It is not true that we trespassed in neutral Belgium . . . It is not true that the life and property of a single Belgian citizen was injured by our soldiers without the bitterest self-defense having made it necessary. . . . It is not true that our troops treated Louvain brutally. It is not true that our warfare pays no respect to international laws. "Have faith in us! Believe that we shall carry on this war to the end as a civilized nation, to whom the legacy of a Goethe, a Beethoven, and a Kant is just as sacred as its own hearths and homes. "For this we pledge you our names and our honor."-To the Civilized World, by Professors of Germany. THE Three methods of the subject HE manner in which Germany makes war may be studied: Ist, in her official manual (Kriegsgebrauch im Landkriege) written as a book of instructions for her officers in the field; and approaching in the speeches of the Kaiser, as well as the statements made by various German military authorities; 2d, through examining the history of Germany's wars, particularly the Franco-Prussian War, the Boxer and Herrero rebellions, and the present world war; and 3d, by the replies of her leaders in answer to charges made against the conduct of German armies of invasion and occupation and during retreat. By whichever method we choose to approach the subject, the picture is clear; and the conclusions reached are marred by no embarrassing uncertainties. These conclusions have, it must be said, nothing whatever in common with the findings of the ninety-three German intellectuals whose statement is cited under the heading of this chapter. The literature of the instructions to army officers is considerable, but it is also terse and consistent; that of the historical record is vast and uniformly damning; while the German attempts to explain and mitigate are few and specious, though wonderfully illuminating. German conduct of To gain a clear impression concerning what is expected of officers in the field, it will be sufficient to cite in sequence instructions from the Supreme War Lord, from high officials of the German Great General Staff, from the official book of instructions; and, since traditions count so heavily in all armies, from the great German heroes of the past. war seen in official instructions When the German expeditionary army was departing |