e more. He then went to the
front to study the latest improvements that had been made in airplanes
during his absence, in order to take his place again in the fighting
which, however, was drawing rapidly to a close.

ALSACE-LORRAINE

On slight pretext, Germany in 1864 and in 1866 had made wars against
Denmark and Austria that might easily have been avoided.

France took notice of the warlike ambitions of her neighbor and began
to prepare for the war that she knew would soon come between her and
Germany. The French emperor probably also desired this war, but the
French people did not and France was not ready for it.

The Prussian chancellor, Bismarck, was a man of "iron and blood," for
only by these two forces did he believe the Germans could advance.

In 1870, the Spanish Liberals expelled Queen Isabella II and offered
the crown of Spain to a Hohenzollern prince. The offer was declined,
but after Bismarck saw to what its acceptance might lead, he succeeded
in having it renewed. Then the Emperor Napoleon informed King William
that he would regard its acceptance as a sufficient ground for war
against Germany. The Hohenzollern prince, however, rejected the offer
and the matter might have ended here, had not Napoleon directed the
French ambassador to secure from King William a promise never to permit
a Hohenzollern prince to accept the Spanish crown.

King William who was at Ems refused to do this and declined to give the
French ambassador another interview as he was leaving Ems that night.
He telegraphed an account of the affair to Bismarck who realized that
here was his chance to bring on the war he desired. He changed the
wording of King William's telegram in such a way that when it was given
out the next day, it gave the impression to Germans that their king had
been insulted by the French ambassador and to Frenchmen that their
ambassador had been insulted by the king of Prussia.

"There is little doubt," writes a German historian, "that, had this
telegram been worded differently, the Franco-German struggle might have
been avoided."

French pride would not now allow France to withdraw her request, and
the war that Bismarck desired became certain--a war caused by a scrap
of paper on which were written German lies signed by German leaders.
After reading this story of the falsity of the greatest of all Prussian
statesmen, Bismarck, it does not seem strange that another scrap of
paper on which the Pruss