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Show The Kaiser's Costly Role Of Pacifists Pacifism is the most costly weed that Uncle Sam has ver permitted to grow in our national garden. We are now paying the bill and it grows longer each day,, not merely the biirof bloodshed, but of economic waste and savings of past years. The best friend of Pacifism has .been William II of Prussia. He has conscientiously proclaimed pro-claimed peace a sthe best thing for all the world excepting except-ing of course, his own country . His agents have carefully careful-ly followed the activities of our societies for disarmament; disarma-ment; and the hundreds of speeches made by non-combatant reformers are filed in the Berlin War Department, with the names of the notable speakers placed on the roll of honor to be singled out for Hohenzollern decoration. To me the German Emperor never spoke save as one whose chief aim was to merit the title of pacifist. He declaimed de-claimed so strongly and so frequently on this theme that I felt towards him the same latent suspicion that I have for a companion who persistently boasts of his courage, his honesty or his pedigree. The Raiser once assured me in a voice vibrant with conviction' that never under any conceivable circumstances could hejbe induced to war upon up-on Russia, and yet, not long afterwards he impatiently refused every mediatory effort, and now occupies the territory of his late friend the Czar, and appeals to God in justification of his barbaric invasion. in Germany a man goes to jail tor whispering a doubt about the sanctity of a Hohenzollern, and newspapers are suppressed for questioning the wisdom of an imperial rescript. re-script. Yet in Russia no less than in Italy, France, and above all in these United States, the leading auiocrat of the world has expended millions upon millions in fomenting foment-ing social unrest and Bolshevjki anarchy as a mighty agency to make the thunder of his big guns more effective. effec-tive. The Kaiser talked peace to me; and while he was talking talk-ing his agents were laboring feverishly1 in secret to pile up the war machinery now devastating Europe. It was not until 1895 that he felt strong enough to play the part he had so long kept in the background. But in that.year the Kiel Canal was opened with international festivities and then Germany was systematically roused by careful propaganda to the belief that, with a fleet that could operate op-erate both in the Baltic and on the English flank, the Fatherland was now at last called upon to respond to the voice of manifest desting and jnove forward to challenge the world fo.' first place on the high seas no less than leading military power on the mainland. In the next year, 1896, tbe Kaiser seized the first possible opportunity opportun-ity for picking a quarrel with Great Britain, by attempting attempt-ing to interfere between the Transvaal protectorate and the Mother country We are now now calling upon the American people for , another patriotic loan, and we shall continue to call so , long as the Hun is loose on the confines of civilization; for until he, is beaten back into his Baltic habitat the , world is not safe for you or me it a wilderness fit , only for Huns and those whom they enslave. For twenty years we have been warned that the Prussian was a predatory pre-datory animal, sharpening his weapons, gathering information, infor-mation, spreading socialism amongst others whilst riveting rivet-ing more firmly still the machinery of absolutism at home. We must now do in a few years the work which Germany has had a generation to accomplish, and we must be very patient at the many mistakes incidental to amateur organization or-ganization on a large scale. When 'Prussia invaded Belgium every alarm bell in this country should have' been rung as though another Paul Revere were galloping with the news that every house in his path was in danger. But pacifism reigned like a miasmatic mist over the country. We looked on while the land of Lafayette lay bleeding under, the strokes of the barbarian, and we shook ourselves into the semblance of manhood only when our own coasts were insulted and our own ships sent to the bottom by the U-boats U-boats of the Hun. So now once more let us look over the cash ledger, examine ex-amine the bank book, shake tre cracked coffe-pot on the lofty mantel, tighten our belts, thing of our brave boys mutilated by the carriers of Kultur -and, above all, bear in mind that the Worjd looks .to us as to the youngest of the Great Nations, the people who have in the past stood for ideals and not merely for dollars ! And finally, every school child knows that whilst Uncle Sam does not in ordinary or-dinary times swagger about with a sword and gun, nevertheless, nev-ertheless, when this country has entered upon a war, it has never made peace until the struggle ceased by the complete and unconditional surrender of the enemy. Let that be our encouragement, wltetner this war lasts another three years or thrty. Poultney Bigelow in Travel. |