ar on Servia;
third, that Germany and Austria knew that a war with Servia meant a war
with Russia, and that a war with Russia meant a general European
conflagration; fourth, that Germany declared war on Russia, started the
invasion of France before declaring war, and, by refusing to respect the
neutrality of Belgium, to which she was solemnly pledged, forced both
Belgium and England into the war. In the face of so flagrant a violation
of all sentiments making for peace no sophistry will avail in attempting
to protect Germany from the odium of being responsible for the greatest
calamity the civilized world has ever seen.

We are told that Germany is conducting this war in the interest of
civilization, that her chief purpose is to protect Europe from the
domination of the Slav. And to ward off this Muscovite danger Germany is
at present making desperate efforts to crush England and France, the
standard bearers of democracy in Europe! In her war for civilization she
is employing the methods of barbarian tribes, methods condemned by
civilized nations and which have already horrified the world. It is
hardly conceivable that Russia, which the German Chancellor describes as
a semi-Asiatic, slightly cultured barbaric nation, could have committed
in Belgium the atrocities imputed to the Germans had she conquered that
country in similar circumstances.

It is manifest that Germany's supreme desire is to fasten Teutonic rule
on Europe, to crush Russia, to be sure, but also to crush France and
French civilization and to reduce England to the rank of a second-class
nation. It is obvious that this is a struggle between militarism and its
evils as represented by the Hohenzollern dynasty and democracy as
represented by England and France.

ALBERT SAUVEUR.

Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., Sept. 5, 1914.

Militarism and Christianity

By Lyman Abbott.

_A Letter to The New York Sun._

Editor in Chief of The Outlook; author of numerous works on
theology, religion, and democracy.

_To the Editor of The New York Sun:_

In answer to your request for a statement of the causes and meaning of
the European war I write with necessary brevity, both because of the
limits on my time and the limits on your crowded columns.

What is the cause of the explosion of a powder magazine? The gases
stored in the powder. The lighted match is the occasion, not the cause
of the explosion. The cause of the European war is the s