pt to the army. It is not
Germany the democracy or Germany the state, it is Germany the army,
that is to be crushed for its own good no less than for that of
civilisation."

The United States entered the war at the psychological and critical
moment. We enter it at the moment when our economic and financial
resources, and _our determination_ will have the decisive influence.
We enter at the moment when every one of our future acts will assist
and help the democratic movement in Germany succeed.

CHAPTER XII

PRESIDENT WILSON

The United States entered the war at a time when many Americans
believed the Allies were about to win it. By May 1st, 1917, the
situation so changed in Europe that it was apparent to observers that
only by the most stupendous efforts of all the Allies could the German
Government be defeated.

At the very beginning of the war, when Teutonic militarism spread over
Europe, it was like a forest fire. But two years of fighting have
checked it--as woodsmen check forest fires--by digging ditches and
preventing the flames from spreading. Unlimited submarine warfare,
however, is something new. It is militarism spreading to the high seas
and to the shores of neutrals. It is Ruthlessism--the new German
menace, which is as real and dangerous for us and for South America as
for England and the Allies. If we hold out until Ruthlessism spends
its fury, we will win. But we must fight and fight desperately to hold
out.

Dr. Kaempf, President of the Reichstag, declared that President Wilson
would "bite marble" before the war was over. And the success of
submarine warfare during April and the first part of May was such as to
arouse the whole world to the almost indefinite possibilities of this
means of fighting. The real crisis of the war has not been reached.
We are approaching it. The Allies have attempted for two years without
much success to curb the U-boat danger. They have attempted to build
steel ships, also without success, so that the real burden of winning
the war in Europe falls upon American shoulders.

Fortunately for the United States we are not making the blunders at the
beginning of our intervention which some of the European nations have
been making since August, 1914. America is awakened to the needs of
modern war as no other nation was, thanks to the splendid work which
the American newspapers and magazines have done during the war to
present clearly, fairly and accurat