and Italy supported, were
disregarded. Behind Austria stood Germany, proud, menacing, armed to the
teeth, ready for attack, supporting if not instigating the relentless
Austrian purpose. Something vast and very evil was impending over the
world.

That was our conviction at The Hague in the fateful week from July 24 to
August 1, 1914. We who stood outside the secret councils of the Central
Powers were both bewildered and dismayed. Could it be that Europe of the
twentieth century was to be thrust back into the ancient barbarism of a
general war? It was like a dreadful nightmare. There was the head of the
huge dragon, crested, fanged, clad in glittering scales, poised above
the world and ready to strike. We were benumbed and terrified. There was
nothing that we could do. The monstrous thing advanced, but even while
we shuddered we could not make ourselves feel that it was real. It had
the vagueness and the horrid pressure of a bad dream.

If it seemed dreamlike to us, so near at hand, how could the people in
America, three thousand miles away, feel its reality or grasp its
meaning? They could not do it then, and many of them have not done it
yet.

But we who were on the other side of the sea were suddenly and rudely
awakened to know that the bad dream was all too real. On July 28 Austria
declared war on Servia. On the 29th Russia ordered a partial
mobilization of troops on the Austrian frontier. On the same night the
Austrian troops entered Servia and bombarded Belgrade. On the 31st
Austria and Russia ordered a general mobilization.

Then Germany, already coiled, struck.

On August 1 Germany declared war on Russia. On the 2d Germany invaded
Luxembourg and France. On the 3d Germany declared war on France. On the
4th Germany invaded Belgium, in violation of her solemn treaty. On the
5th Great Britain, having given warning to the Kaiser that she meant to
keep her promise to protect the neutrality of Belgium, severed
diplomatic relations, and on the 6th Parliament, by a vote of
extraordinary supply, formally accepted a state of war with Germany, the
invader.

So the storm signs, foreshadowed in fair weather, were fulfilled in
tempest, more vast and cruel than the world had ever known.

The Barabbas of war was preferred to the Christ of righteous judgment.

The hope of an enduring peace through justice receded and grew dim. We
knew that it could not be rekindled until the ruthless military power of
Germany, that had