r, namely, to crush France and to establish such
world sovereignty of Germany.

Militarism to Blame.

It was this spirit which led Germany into the present war; this spirit
which denied that Belgium had any rights which Germany was bound to
respect; this spirit which inspired the military party in Germany to
regard its treaty with France and England guaranteeing the neutrality of
Belgium as only a "scrap of paper," and this spirit which could not and
apparently still does not comprehend why Belgium should be bound in
honor to defend her neutrality, or why England, with no very direct and
immediate interests to protect, should feel herself bound to come to the
defense of her weaker neighbor.

The delay of the German Army, which is likely to prove disastrous to her
designs, has demonstrated in her own chosen field that there is a force
in national honor and national conscience which can put up a very
efficient resistance to Krupp guns.

It is a great mistake to suppose that all Germany is actuated by this
spirit of militarism. Frederick William Wile, for over seven years the
chief German correspondent of The London Daily Mail, in an article in
The Outlook recently said: "There are 66,000,000 Germans; 65,000,000 of
them did not want war; the other million are the war party." But he adds
that now Germany is absolutely united and that the Germans will not
stack arms "till the last among them capable of shouldering a rifle is
incapacitated, till the last copper pfennig capable of purchasing
ammunition of war has vanished from their impoverished grasp."

There is in this nothing extraordinary. Whoever is responsible for
bringing on the war, the interests, the welfare, and in some sense the
honor of Germany are apparently involved in it. And yet it may be true,
and I believe it is true, that the defeat of Germany will be its
salvation, for it will be the overthrow of the spirit of militarism
inherited from Frederick the Great, and this has been the bane of the
German Empire.

In our civil war there was at first only a minority in most of the
Southern States in favor of secession, but when the national troops
invaded Virginia the South was as united for State independence as the
North was for national union, and yet today it will be difficult to find
anywhere in the South an intelligent man who does not recognize the
truth that the defeat of secession and the emancipation of the slave
have been of inestimable benefit to