or nations disregard those principles which society has
laid down for their conduct in modern civilized life, and obligation and
duty are forgotten in the desire for self-advancement, conflict results.

Since the days of Athens and Sparta the world's greatest wars have in
the main been conflicts of ideals--democracy being arrayed against
oligarchy--men fighting for individual rights as against militarism and
military domination.

In the World War, which terminated with the signing of the armistice,
November 11, 1918, which painted the green fields of France and Belgium
red with blood, and swept nations into the most significant and bitter
struggle in all history, the fight was against the Imperial Government
of Germany, by men and nations who claim that humanity the world over
has rights that must be observed.

Germany has brought upon herself the destruction of her government by
ruthlessly trampling upon her neighbors and assuming that "might is
right."

The Imperial Government, led by the House of Hohenzollern, was suffering
from an exaggerated ego. Her trouble was psychological. The men who
study the strange workings and twists of the human mind which land some
men in the institutions for the criminal insane, agree that when any man
becomes obsessed with an idea and "rides a hobby" to the exclusion of
all else, he loses his balance and develops an obliquity of view which
makes him a dangerous creature.

Germany was obsessed with the spirit of militarism and almost everything
else had been sacrificed to this idol. The very first appearance of
Germans in history is as a warlike people. The earliest German
literature is of folk-tales about war heroes, and these stories tell of
the manly virtues of the heroes.

It is true that there are many scientists, poets, and musicians among
the Germans, but their warlike side must never be forgotten. The entire
race is imbued with the military spirit, the influence reaching to every
phase of national life. All that was best in the nation was raised to
its highest efficiency through military training, but in the
accomplishment of its purposes the House of Hohenzollern, which is
responsible for the development of the national fighting arm, neglected
much and produced millions of creatures who are but human machines,
taught to obey orders without consideration as to the effect their acts
might produce, whether right or wrong.

In their criticisms of the Prussian militarism the