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Show HOW AMERICA WAS FGRCED 110 IE IB (Following is the third of a series i of six articles prepared by the warj committee of the Union League club, of Chicago.) Article 3 Because Germany, Having! Split the World in Half. Is Now Trying Try-ing to Devour the Halves. We are fighting Germany, for one thing, because Germany, having split the world in half, is now peeking to devour the halves separately. She has driven a wedge straight through the I heart of Europe, and into Asia, and la seeking to extend it to the Persian, gulf. This Is no accidental happening I due to the downfall of Russia and the sudden shifting in the fortunes of war. Germany planned it all decades ago. She made no effort to keep the plans secret. She told us all about it. She had a reputation for making plans and sticking to them, from one generation to another; yet the world paid no attention. It seemed too preposterous pre-posterous evpn for Germany t attempt. at-tempt. As Ions ago as 1895 a pamphlet. "Pan -Germany and Central Europe About 19C " was published in Berlin and had wide circulation. It laL. the whule Mitteleuropa plan bare as follows: fol-lows: "Poland and Little Russia (the kingdom to be established at Russia's expense) will agree to have no armies of her own, and will receive in their ffirt resses German and Austrian garrisons. gar-risons. In Poland, as well as in Little Lit-tle Russia, the postal and telegraph services as well as the railways will be in German hands." Top German government started to put its scheme lor a Metteleuropa into in-to effect years ago when it began the construction of the Berlin -to-Bagdad railway. Little Serbia stood in the way, so Serbia was attacked and the world was plunged into war. In the opposite corner of Europe, Belgium v. i. invaded and crushed. The world then thought this was only becausr Belgium offered the easiest route tc France, but study of the Mitteleuropa plan of years rfco shows that Belgiurr was included in the scheme of conquest con-quest So it was taken. The German Ger-man plan, well advertised long before the war, also includes Holland. Hoi l;;nd has not yet been taken, but ii stands trembling in awe of Germai mighl; and 11 takes no prophet to show that Holland will be seized, with its rich colonies, should Germany be finally victorious in this war. Mitteleuropa. with Germany in a position to say who shall and who shall not pass from western Europe to the orient, through her control of land routes and of submarine bases which would ruake the- sea impassable, today is an accomplished fact in the German mind Only a crushing victory vic-tory for the allies on the western front can wrest it from her. "How does all this n(cr America?" one may ask Germany was a late comer in the family of great nations. Most of the-- uncivilized world had been pre-empted by other nations before she arrived. Germany wanted col - i onies. To get them, she would have j to take them away from some one else Africa and South America offered the best fields for German colonization coloniza-tion England possessed the Lest part of Africa the parts in which the white man might hope to settle and thrive. England had a mighty fleet, j and a disposition to hold what she had, even though she did not show a disposition dis-position to fight for more. There remained South America It was divided among weak nations It was protected only by the Monroe doctrine This Monroe doctrine was a sacred thing to Americans, but, not being backed up by mighty armies and , Ueets was not even a "scrap of paper" I to the Germans. Can any one doubt, should Germany succeed in welding into in-to a mighty empire the 73,000,000 Germans Ger-mans and the 100 000.000 inhabitants of the vassal and conquered states of her Mitteleuropa, that her next step would be toward the west? The very I fact that she had this empire would presuppose the defeat of England, so that no British fleet would stand between be-tween us and Germany when the time came for the kaiser to send his legions le-gions across the Atlantic, i On land Germany would be able to i put Into the field an army of 80,000,-i 80,000,-i 000, not the mere ten or twelve million mil-lion as now, and no European state would dare to move to thwart her. i This German plan has been just as well advertised as her others. She I makes no attempt to conceal her scorn i of the Monroe doctrine. Influential Germans have told us in writings and, pe-. ' hes how the would treat it They practically set the date How much more definite the German Ger-man plans for world conquest have become be-come is shown by hr action in Rus sia. A year ago Germany was anxious anx-ious to make a separate peace with out annexations and indemnity? " Then Russia collapsed and mad peace, but Germany went right on making conquests. Germany encour aged t'krainia to form itself into a separate state, and then made an allvt of it German troops marched with I the Ukrainians to Odessa, on th5 pre I texl of aiding them to expel the Bol-j shevikl from t'krainian territory, but when Odessa fell what did the German wireless message" that came across the, sea say? That Odessa had been re stored to the- Ukrainians? Not at all . It said: "Odessa today fell into the hands Of the Germans. This opens a way for German armies to Persia. India, i and the orient." The fact that Peria is supposedly neutral does not bother the Germans i at all. "As in the east so In the west." is a motto which, of recent weeks, has j been much heard in German j In other words, all Germany is now planning both annexations and in Idemnities such as will leave hr with out a formidable opponent in i he world. Can we make peace now and leave Germany, flushed with virton, in no session of all she has gained and lusting lust-ing for further conquest? If we did, would not the whole world live in I perpetual terror of German aggression. j each country awaiting its turn to be I gobbled up? Can any red blooded American talk about peac without victory victory so decisive that Germany Ger-many will be forced to disgorge all ,it has seized, and the German menace be removed from the world forever? |