The war was started by Germany. Her authorities deny that they started
it, but I am willing to let the statement I have just made await the
verdict of history. And the thing that needs to be explained is why
Germany started the war. Remember what the position of Germany in the
world was--as enviable a position as any nation has ever occupied. The
whole world stood at admiration of her wonderful intellectual and
material achievements. All the intellectual men of the world went to
school to her. As a university man I have been surrounded by men trained
in Germany, men who had resorted to Germany because nowhere else could
they get such thorough and searching training, particularly in the
principles of science and the principles that underlie modern material
achievement. Her men of science had made her industries perhaps the most
competent industries of the world, and the label "Made in Germany" was a
guarantee of good workmanship and of sound material. She had access to
all the markets of the world, and every other nation who traded in those
markets feared Germany because of her effective and almost irresistible
competition. She had a "place in the sun."