I do not think the ruling men in Germany feared Great Britain as a fighting power, or regarded us as very formidable. They thought our Army was insignificant, our Navy old-fashioned, and our nation decadent. I do not think they thought we could be aroused to a tremendous national effort, I have no doubt that they counted on the centrifugal forces of our Empire working to our grave embarrassment. They now must know that they misinterpreted these supposed centrifugal forces.
For years Germany has been heaping up armaments. She has built up the most formidable army that ever has existed, and a navy by no means negligible. Her arsenals are filled with munitions. She has selected her own time for a stupendous war of aggression. We were much less prepared. Parenthetically, Germany had constructed a great system of strategical railways parallel to the Russian frontier; Russia had done no corresponding thing. Now, fully prepared for war, with colossal accumulations of war material, Germany decides upon the moment for war, and declares war. Is there any fairness, any chivalry, in her trying to prevent us, in full accord with international usage, from going into neutral markets to buy the implements that Germany's action causes us so direly to need?
I am glad to know that American thought rejects the German proposal. I am glad to know that the American press is standing for the principle of the right of nations to buy munitions when they are attacked. Germany supplied large quantities of munitions of war to Russia during the war with Japan, and thought it no breach of neutrality then. Why should it be such now?
If the Allies win—if Germany, who has carried her military preparations to a pitch heretofore unknown, finds herself beaten—I do not imagine any nation in the future will be likely to pin its faith to armaments. If Germany, armed as she was armed, could not win, how could any nation hope to win by means of arms? I am hopeful that the world as a result of this war will get rid of at least a part of the burden of armaments. I am hopeful that civilization is going to do something to defend itself against war.
We now know that the effects of war cannot be localized. We know that two considerable Powers cannot fight without inflicting considerable disturbance and loss on the whole world. Definite knowledge is necessary to definite action. I
