what was known
as the Triple Alliance. But Italy recognized the fact that the war was
one of aggression and held that it was not bound by its compact to
assist its allies. The sympathies of its people were with the French and
British. Afterwards Italy repudiated entirely its alliance and all
obligations to Germany and Austria and entered the war on the side of
the allies. Thus the country of Mazzini, of Garibaldi and Victor
Emmanuel, ranged itself on the side of emancipation and human rights.

The refusal of Italy to enter a war of conquest was the first event to
set the balance of the world seriously thinking of the meaning of the
war. If Italy refused to join its old allies, it meant that Italy was
too honorable to assist their purposes; Italy knew the character of its
associates. When it finally repudiated them altogether and joined the
war on the other side, it was a terrific indictment of the Germanic
powers, for Italy had much more to gain in a material way from its old
alliance. It simply showed the world that spirit was above materialism;
that emancipation was in the air and that the lamp of civilization might
be dimmed but could not be darkened by the forces of evil.

CHAPTER III.

MILITARISM AND AUTOCRACY DOOMED.

GERMANY'S MACHINE--HER SCIENTIFIC ENDEAVOR TO MOLD SOLDIERS--INFLUENCE
ON THOUGHT AND LIVES OF THE PEOPLE--MILITARISM IN THE HOME--THE STATUS
OF WOMAN--FALSE THEORIES AND FALSE GODS--THE SYSTEM ORDAINED TO
PERISH--WAR'S SHOCKS--AMERICA INCLINES TO NEUTRALITY--GERMAN AND FRENCH
TREATMENT OF NEUTRALS CONTRASTED--EXPERIENCES OF AMERICANS ABROAD AND
ENROUTE HOME--STATUE OF LIBERTY TAKES ON NEW BEAUTY--BLOOD OF NEGRO AND
WHITE TO FLOW.

Those who had followed the Kaiser's attitudes and their reflections
preceeding the war in the German military party, were struck by a
strange blending of martial glory and Christian compunction. No one
prays more loudly than the hypocrite and none so smug as the devil when
a saint he would be.

During long years the military machine had been under construction.
Human ingenuity had been reduced to a remarkable state of organization
and efficiency. One of the principal phases of Kultur was the
inauguration of a sort of scientific discipline which made the German
people not only soldiers in the field, but soldiers in the workshop, in
the laboratory and at the desk. The system extended to the schools and
universities and permeated the thought of the nation. It