s simplicity.

[4] _Wars and Capitalism_, by P. Kropotkin. (Freedom Press.)

[5] See _Nash's Magazine_ for October, 1914, article by "Diplomatist."

[6] Ibid.

[7] In order to realize how easy such a process is, we have only to
remember the steps by which the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899 was
engineered.

[8] Of course we must remember that there has been all along and is now
in Germany a very large party, Socialist and other, which has _not_ been
thus carried away; but for the moment its mouth is closed and it cannot
make itself heard.

[9] See Kropotkin's _War and Capitalism_, p. 12.

[10] See note _infra_ on "Commercial Prosperity," p. 167.
(Chapter XI below)

IV

THE CASE AGAINST GERMANY;

_November_, 1914.

With every wish to do justice to Germany, to whose literature I feel I
owe such a debt, and among whose people I have so many personal friends;
allowing also the utmost for the general causes in Europe which have
been for years leading up towards war--and some of which I have
indicated already in the pages above--I still feel it is impossible not
to throw on her the _immediate_ blame for the present catastrophe.

However we distribute the indictment and the charges among the various
parties concerned, whether we accuse mainly the sway of Prussian
Militarism or the rise of German Commercialism, or the long tradition
and growth of a _Welt-politik_ philosophy, or the general political
ignorance which gave to these influences such rash and uncritical
acceptance; or whether we accuse the somewhat difficult and variable
personal equation of the Kaiser himself--the fact still remains that for
years and years this war has been by the German Government most
deliberately and systematically prepared for. The fact remains that
Britain--though for a long period she had foreseen danger and had on the
naval side slowly braced herself to meet it--was on the military side
caught at the last moment unprepared; that France was so little
intending war that a large portion of the nation was actually still
protesting against an increase in the size of the standing army; and
that Russia--whatever plans she may have had, or not had, in mind--was
confessedly at the same period two years or so behind in the
organization and completion of her military establishment.

Whether right or wrong, it can hardly be denied that the moment of the
precipitation of war was chosen and insisted on by Germany. After
Austria'