The American citizen who is now leaving Europe, which has been turned
into an enormous military camp, may consider himself fortunate that he
will soon be able to set foot in the New World, where he will be enabled
again to take up his business pursuits. In the meantime old Europe is
being torn asunder by a terrible war among its various peoples. It will
make him happy again to greet mountain and valley, field and garden
which are not threatened nor trampled down by armies or covered with
blood; again to see cities in which business and traffic are not brought
to a standstill by calling in all men capable of military service; and
he may thank fortune that his people have been given room enough in
which to expand and to permit them freely to unfold their power; that
they are spared the great necessity of resisting the tightening ring of
enemies in the east and west, on land and water, in a struggle for
national existence.
But the American will feel the effects of the fate of the Old World.
Even though he knows his own country is not directly involved, he will
certainly realize that the great net of international traffic and the
progress of his country are connected by many strong ties to the life
and prosperity of European peoples. He will be affected by every victory
and defeat, just as by the sun and rain in his own country. He will
doubtless remember that of all European countries Germany is the best
customer of the United States, from which she purchases yearly over
1,000,000,000 marks in cotton, food, metal, and technical products. If
Germany is economically ruined, which is the wish of Russia, France, and
England and all allied friends of wretched Servia, it would mean the
loss of a heavy buyer to America, and thereby cause a serious loss to
America which could not easily be made good. It would be a great blow to
American export trade, of which Germany handles not less than 14 per
cent. yearly.
The material loss is not the only feature. In the economic struggle in
the world markets American and German commercial men have learned
mutually to appreciate one another, to appreciate one another more
highly than do any other two rivals. The time is long past when the
American pictured the German as one of thousands, shut up in a room,
surrounded by documents and parchments, speculating about the unknown
outside world, and the same is true of the German's idea of the
American--a money-hungry barbarian. Two nations in which so much kindred
blood flows and which are connected by so many historical events
understand each other better today than formerly. Above all, they have a
mutual understanding regarding the ideal in commercial life: A man
engaged in work not for the sake of the profit, but for the sake of the
work he is doing; one who gives all his strength to his task, and who
works for the general welfare of the people as a whole, considering his
position as an office and his wealth as an obligation, not as the final
aim, but as a basis for the realization of higher attainments. He places
the value of character and the development of the creative powers of man
higher than all economic success. Two nations united by such common
inclinations [pg 272] and ideals, boldness of enterprise,
far-sightedness, quickness of decision, and admiration for intellectual
achievements, cannot help being exceedingly congenial to each other.
What concerns one today concerns the other.
Does it sound like a paradox when I say Germany's struggle concerns not
only her own destiny, but to a considerable extent that of America? Does
the United States consider itself entirely immune from the warlike
complications brought about by the Servian murder of Princes and
Russia's breach of faith? In any event, it will be difficult for it to
say: "What's Hecuba to me?" One thing should be clearly understood on
the shores of the five oceans, that the cause of this most terrible war
does not emanate from the dark Balkans, or from a Russian military
group, but from envy and hate which healthy, young and striving Germany
has aroused in her older rivals; not because this or that demand was
made by one Cabinet and refused by another, but because it was believed
there was finally an opportunity to destroy the hated opponent who
threatened to put the older Western European powers in the shade, and
for this reason England and France put their strength into the service
of criminal and brutal Servia. The following statistics will, perhaps,
throw some light on the development of the foreign trade of the
principal countries from 1870 to 1913 (in billions of marks):
1870. 1913.
Great Britain 9,180 23,280
France 4,540 12,300
Russia 2,000 5,580
Germany 4,240 20,440
In these forty-three years, which have been decisive in the development
of international economy, England, France and Russia have not been able
even to increase their foreign trade three times, while Germany and the
United States have increased theirs five times. The trade of Germany and
the United States has increased from 7.6 to 38 billion marks. If these
figures show nothing else, they show on which side the American sympathy
will be. This war, provoked by Russia because of an outrageous desire
for revenge, supported by England and France, has no other motive than
envy of Germany's position in economic life, and of her people, who are
fighting for a place in the sun. "Right or wrong, Germany must not
grow." That is the turning point of a policy which the French Republic
drilled into the Muscovites. Let us consider the adversaries of Germany.
Russia, the classic land of power and terrible exploitation of the
people for the benefit of a degenerated aristocracy. France, a type of a
nation in which there is not even enough enterprise to increase the
productiveness of the country. England, which has so long felt its glory
vanishing and in the meantime has remained far behind its younger rival
in financial and economic equipment. One can easily imagine the feelings
of these peoples when they observe the rapid and successful growth of
Germany, and wonders if these same feelings will not one day be directed
against the youthful North American giant. In this war it shall be
decided which is the stronger--the organized inertia of the tired and
envious, or the unfolding of power in the service of a strong and
sacrificing life. To know that we have American friendship in this
struggle will mean a great moral support for us in the coming trying
days, for we know that the country of George Washington and Abraham
Lincoln places itself only on the side of a just cause and one worthy of
humanity's blessing.
* * * * *
[Illustration: WOODROW WILSON,
President of the United States of America.
(_Photo (C) by Bradley Studio._)]