WAR OF THE NATIONS 



6175 



WAR OF THE NATIONS 



they observed official Washington leading the 

 nation toward hostilities. It was felt that the 

 government possessed information not known 

 to the general public, and this proved to be 

 true. 



i The Russian Situation.* The uninformed 

 world was pleased with Russia's part in the 

 plan of the allies; every government, however, 1 

 knew that treason to the entente's cause was 

 working in Russia, and that the czar expected 

 to reach a separate peace with Germany. It 

 was a strange situation ; when in the third year 

 of the war it had been expected that that coun- 

 try would be ready to throw mighty forces 

 against the central empires, German intrigue at 

 the court of the czar and in the Ministry was 

 thwarting Russia's efficiency as an ally. The 

 czarina, a German princess, of stronger will 

 than the czar, had from the beginning opposed 

 the war and had worked unceasingly for a 

 separate peace. The great bureaucrats of the 

 Empire secretly favored friendly relations with 

 Germany. All this was known to every gov- 

 ernment. Behind the scenes it was not the 

 situation on the western front, the Italian 

 front, the Zeppelin menace or the submarine 

 outrages that disturbed the nations, but the 

 menace of Russian defection, which would 

 make that nation a neutral and open its vast 

 southern grain fields and oil riches to Germany 

 and Austria-Hungary. 



Such an end of allied hopes might result in 

 turning the tide of victory 1 to Germany. The 

 kaiser's intentions towards America were openly 

 hostile. Were Germany to win he had declared 

 that the only nation which could pay indem- 

 nity would be the United States, and from 

 America he would exact a penalty. The Ameri- 

 can government was convinced that to stand 

 aloof meant that some day the United States 

 would have to meet an invading army on its 

 shores and fight alone for its liberties. 



There were other circumstances which ap- 

 peared to confirm the correctness of this view. 



The Mexican Plot. Count Von BernstorfT, in 

 rrptifr with I In- j.ublir, was known by 

 rnment, before his dismissal from 

 Washington, to have been the virtual head of 

 system of plotting in which Germany was 

 engaged in the United States. Through his 

 hands passed documents relating to an i- 

 national plot of astounding proportions, all of 

 which was revealed lat ns which have 



not been disclosed. AT .'a break with 



United States, Germany proposed a coali- 

 tion with Mexico and Japan, in case of war, by 



which America would be punished by the three, 

 each to take such territory as seemed proper. 

 co was offered the western states it lost to 

 the United States in 1848. This was but one 

 evidence of what the kaiser hoped to do to 

 the Monroe Doctrine. 



Intrigue in South America. Further evidence 

 of German intention to establish permanently 

 nfluence in the Americas was made public. 

 In Southern Brazil there had been colonized a 

 half million Germans. At the proper moment 

 Brazil's southernmost state was to be seized, 

 and there would have been a German state in 

 South America. In November, 1917, the Bra- 

 zilian government was severely taxed to put 

 down disorders in that part of the republic. 



A German diplomatic officer in Argentina. 

 ignoring the indelicacy, not to say illegality, of 

 his acts, used his office to advise his govern- 

 ment, through a neutral power without that 

 neutral's knowledge, to sink Argentine vessels 

 as they approached the shores of France, "with- 

 out leaving a trace." 



Other acts made it positively clear that 

 America must arm itself against plots which 

 cool calculation had projected against the peace 

 and security of the western hemisphere. 



An End to Hesitation. President Wilson was 

 loath to commit the United States to a part in 

 the titanic struggle, though there is evidence 

 that for many months he foresaw the inevi- 

 table. Early in 1916 he stated in a public 

 address that the world was on fire and the 

 sparks were falling dangerously near the re- 

 public; he asked his auditors, "Are you ready 

 for the test?" That he felt militant a< 

 would not be endorsed at the time is evident. 

 He had kept the nation out of war, for which 

 the people wore grateful, and largely on that 

 issue he was reclected President. But the in- 

 exorable logic of the situation speedily forced 

 an unprepared country to bear its share of 

 the burden of defending the world against 



The Appeal to CongreM. On April 3. 1917, 

 at the call of the President, the Congress of tin 

 United States met in special session to consider 

 tin- grave situation. The central figure in one 

 of the most dramatic scenes in the history 

 of the nation, President Wilson stood be- 

 fore the Congress and told of his labors to 

 maintain the peace; of the pledges given and 

 broken by the power the nation was destined to 

 assail; of the daring affronts of its diplomatic 

 agents; of the plots against the security of the 

 republic and of the certainty that patience 



