atally
blinded--namely, that the simple solution of the difficulty in which the
menace of the Franco-Russo-British Entente placed Germany was for the
German Emperor to leave his western frontier under the safeguard of the
neighborliness and good faith of American, British, and French
democracy, and then await quite calmly any action that Russia might take
against his country on the east. Had he done so, we could not have
attacked him from behind; and had France made such an attack--and it is
in the extremest degree improbable that French public opinion would have
permitted such a hazardous and unjustifiable adventure--he would at
worst have confronted it with the fullest sympathy of Britain and the
United States, and at best with their active assistance. Unhappily,
German Kings do not allow democracy to interfere in their foreign
policy; do not believe in neighborliness; and do believe in cannon and
cannon fodder. The Kaiser never dreamed of confiding his frontier to you
and to the humanity of his neighbors. And the diplomatists of Europe
never thought of that easy and right policy, and could not suggest any
substitute for it, with the hideous result which is before you.

*The State of Belgium.*

Now that this mischief has been done, and the two European thunderclouds
have met and are discharging their lightnings, it is not for me to
meddle with the question whether the United States should take a side in
their warfare as far as it concerns themselves alone. But I may plead
for a perfectly innocent neutral State, the State of Belgium, which is
being ravaged in a horrible manner by the belligerents. Her surviving
population is flying into all the neighboring countries to escape from
the incessant hail of shrapnel and howitzer shells from British cannon,
French cannon, German cannon, and, most tragic of all, Belgian cannon;
for the Belgian Army is being forced to devastate its own country in its
own defense.

For this there can be no excuse; and at such a horror the rest of the
world cannot look on in silence without incurring the guilt of the
bystander who witnesses a crime without even giving the alarm. I grant
that Belgium, in her extreme peril, made one mistake. She called to her
aid the powers of the Entente alone instead of calling on the whole
world of kindly men. She should have called on America, too; and it is
hard to see how you could in honor have disregarded that call. But if
Belgium says nothing, but on