Chapter XXIII: The United States at War—Why?

Germany throws to the winds all rules of civilized war.—Dr.
Zimmermann’s famous note.—Congress declares war.—Other nations
follow our example.—The plight of Holland, Denmark, and
Norway.—German arguments for submarine warfare shown to be
groundless.—German agents blow up American factories.—German
threats against the United States.—Germany and the Monroe
Doctrine.—A government whose deeds its people cannot
question.—Why American troops were sent to Europe.—Why the war
lords wanted peace in January, 1918.

In the meantime, two months had elapsed from the time when the
German ambassador, Count Von Bernstorff, had been sent home by
the United States. The Germans, true to their word, had begun
their campaign of attacking and sinking without warning ships of
all kinds in the waters surrounding Great Britain and France.
Even the hospital ships, marked plainly with the red cross, and
boats carrying food to the starving people of Belgium, were
torpedoed without mercy. The curious state of public feeling in
Germany is well illustrated by an incident which happened at this
time. It so happened that an English hospital ship, crossing the
channel, was laden with about as many German wounded as British.
These men had been left helpless on the field of battle after the
Germans had retreated, and had been picked up and cared for by
the British, along with their own troops. A German submarine with
its deadly torpedo sent this vessel to the bottom. The wounded
men, German and British alike, sank without the slightest chance
for their lives. A burst of indignation came from all over
Germany against the “unspeakable brutality” of the British who
dared to expose German wounded men to the danger of travel on the
open sea! The British were warned that if this happened again the
Germans would make reprisals upon British prisoners in their
hands.

Week followed week and still there was no declaration of war
between the United States and Germany. But in the latter part of
February, the United States government made public a note which
its secret agents had stopped from being delivered to the German
ambassador in Mexico. It was signed by Dr. Zimmermann, German
minister of foreign affairs, and it requested the ambassador as
soon as it was certain that there would be an outbreak of war
with the United States as a result of the sinking of ships
without warning, to propose to Mexico that she ally herself with
Germany. “Together we will make war on the United States,” said
Dr. Zimmermann, “and together we will make peace. Mexico will
receive as her reward her lost provinces of Arizona, Texas, and
New Mexico.” “Ask the Mexican government,” said Dr. Zimmermann,
“to propose to the Japanese that Japan break away from her
alliance with England and join Mexico and Germany in an attack
upon the United States.”

The publication of this note made a tremendous change in feeling
in the United States. Up to this time a great portion of the
people had felt that perhaps we were hasty in breaking off
relations with Germany, and in their earnest desire for peace had
been willing to put up with injury and even insults on the part
of the Germans, excusing them on the grounds of their military
necessity. The publication of Dr. Zimmermann’s note, however,
showed the people of the United States the true temper of the
government at Berlin. It showed them that the German war lords
had no respect for anything but brute force, that the language of
cannon was the only language which they could understand, and
that any further patience on the part of this country would be
looked upon as weakness and treated with scorn and contempt.

On the sixth of April, 1917, Congress, called into session by the
President, by an overwhelming vote declared that a state of war
existed between the United States of America and the Imperial
Government of Germany.

At this point it may be well to sum up the causes that brought
the United States into the great war. These causes may be given
under two heads: (1) the war waged upon us by submarines; and (2)
the German plots and threats against our country at a time when
we were at peace with them. The latter, as given in pages to
follow, comprise: (a) The Kaiser’s threat, (b) Admiral Von
Tirpitz’s threat, (c) the blowing up of American factories and
death of American workingmen, (d) the attempt to get us into war
with Japan and Mexico, and (e) the spending of the German
government’s money in an attempt to make our congressmen vote as
Germany wished.

The Submarine War

Up to the time when the United States declared war, two hundred
and twenty-six Americans, men, women, and infants, had met their
death through the sinking of ships, torpedoed without warning,
under orders of the German government. These people were
peaceable travelers, going about their business on the high seas
in passenger steamers owned by private companies. According to
the law observed by all nations up to this time there was no more
reason for them to fear danger from the Germans than if they had
been traveling on trains in South America or Spain, or any other
country not at war. The attack upon these ships, to say nothing
about the brutal and inhuman method of sinking them without
warning, was an act of war on the part of Germany against any
country whose citizens happened to be traveling on these ocean
steamers. That the action of the United States in calling the
submarine attacks an act of war was only justice is proved by the
fact that several other nations, who had nothing to gain by going
to war and had earnestly desired to remain neutral, took the same
stand. Brazil, Cuba, and several other South and Central American
republics found that they could not maintain their honor without
declaring war on Germany. German ambassadors and ministers have
been dismissed from practically every capital in Spanish America.

In Europe, also, neutral nations like Holland, Denmark, and
Norway saw their ships sunk and their citizens drowned. In spite
of their wrongs, however, the first two did not dare to declare
war on Germany, as the Germans would be able to throw a strong
army across the border and overrun each of these two little
countries before the allies could come to their help. With the
fate of Belgium and Serbia before them, the Danes and the Dutch
swallowed their pride and sat helplessly by while Germany killed
their sailors and defenseless passengers. After the failure of
the Entente to protect Serbia and Roumania, no one could blame
Denmark and Holland.

Norway, too, was exposed to danger of a raid by the German fleet.
Commanding the Skager Rack and Cattegat as they did, with the
Kiel Canal connecting them, the Germans could bombard the cities
on the Norwegian coast or even land an army to invade the
country. The three little countries together do not have an army
any larger than that of Roumania, and it would have been out of
the question for them to declare war on Germany without seeing
their whole territory overrun and laid waste.

Nevertheless public opinion in Norway was so strong against
Germany that the Norwegian government, on November first, 1917
sent a vigorous protest to Berlin, closing with these words:

“The Norwegian government will not again state its views, as it
has already done so on several occasions, as to the violation of
the principles of the freedom of the high seas incurred by the
proclamation of large tracts of the ocean as a war zone and by
the sinking of neutral merchant ships not carrying contraband.

“It has made a profound impression on the Norwegian people that
not only have German submarines continued to sink peaceful
neutral merchant ships, paying no attention to the fate of their
crews, but that even German warships adopted the same tactics.
The Norwegian government decided to send this note in order to
bring to the attention of the German government the impression
these acts have made upon the Norwegian people.”

The two arguments that the Germans used in trying to justify
themselves for their inhuman methods with the submarine are: (1)
that on these ships which were sunk were supplies for the French
and British armies, the arrival of which would aid them in
killing Germans, and (2) that the English, by their blockade of
Germany, were doing something which was contrary to the laws of
nations and starving German women and children, and, therefore,
since England was breaking some rules of the war game, Germany
had the right to go ahead and break others.

The trade of the United States in selling war supplies to France
and England was a sore spot with Germany. They claimed that the
United States was unfair in selling to the Entente and not to
them. Of course, this was foolish, as has been pointed out, for
the United States was just as ready to sell to Germany as to the
Allies, as was shown by the two voyages of the _Deutschland_. If
our government had forbidden our people to sell war supplies at
all, and if other neutral countries had done the same thing, then
the result would be that all wars would be won by the country
which made the biggest preparation for war in times of peace. A
law passed by neutral countries forbidding their merchants from
selling munitions would leave a non-military nation, which had
not been getting ready for war, absolutely at the mercy of a
neighbor who for years had been storing up shells and guns for
the purpose of unrighteous conquest. So clear was this right to
sell munitions that Germany did not dare protest, but ordered
Austria to do so instead. In reply, our government was able to
point out cases where Austrian firms had sold guns, etc., to
Great Britain during the Boer War as you have already been told,
and Austria had no answer to give.

What is more, at all of the meetings of the diplomats of
different nations at the Hague, called for the purpose of trying
to prevent future wars, if possible, or at least to make them
more humane and less brutal to the women and children and others
who were not actually fighting, Germany had always upheld the
right of neutral nations to sell arms. Moreover, her
representatives had fought strongly against any proposals to
settle disputes by arbitration and peaceful agreements. At a time
when many European nations signed treaties with the United States
agreeing to allow one year to elapse between a dispute which
might lead to war and the actual declaring of war itself, Germany
positively refused to consider such an agreement.

As for the English blockade, England was doing no more to Germany
than Germany or any other country would have done to England if
the English navy had not been so strong. In our own Civil War the
North kept up a like blockade of the South and no nation
protested against it, for it was recognized as an entirely legal
act. In the Franco-Prussian war of 1871, the Germans were
blockading the city of Paris and the country around it. The
Frenchmen tried to send their women and children outside the
lines to be fed. The Germans drove them back at the point of the
bayonet, and told them that they might “fry in their own fat.”
According to the laws of war they were perfectly justified in
what they did. Then, too, the English blockade, which stopped
ships which were found to be loaded with supplies for Germany and
took them peaceably to an English port, where it was decided how
much the owners should be paid for the cargoes, was a very
different matter from the brutal drowning of helpless men, women,
and children by the German submarines. In one case, owners of the
goods were caused a great deal of annoyance and in some instances
did not get their money promptly. On the other side, there was
murder of the most fiendish kind, an act of war against neutral
states.

Plots and Threats Against the United States

Let us turn now to the second cause for grievance that the United
States had against Germany. At a time when American citizens who
sympathized with Germany were subscribing millions of dollars for
the relief of the German wounded, it is strongly suspected that
this was the very money, which, collected by the German
government’s own agents, was being spent in plots involving the
destroying of the property of some American citizens and the
death of others. The German ambassador and his helpers were
hiring men to blow up American factories, to destroy railroad
bridges, and to kill Americans who were making war supplies for
the armies of Europe. Factory after factory was blown up with
considerable loss of life. Bombs, with clock work attachment to
explode them at a certain time, were found on ships sailing for
Europe. Money was poured out in great quantities to influence
members of the United States Congress to vote against the
shipment of war supplies to France and England. Revolts paid for
by German money were organized in Mexico and the Islands of the
West Indies. For a long time there had been a series of stories
and newspaper and magazine articles trying to prove to the
American people that Japan was planning to make war on us. The
same sort of stories appeared in Japan, persuading the Japanese
that they were in danger of being attacked by the United States.
It now appears that the great part of these stories were started
by the Germans, who hoped to get us into a war with Japan and
profit by the ill will which must follow between the two
countries.

At first, Americans were inclined to think that all of these
things could be traced to German-Americans, whose zeal for their
Fatherland caused them to go too far. But it has been proved
beyond a doubt that all of these acts, which were really acts of
war against the United States, were ordered by the government at
Berlin and paid for by German money, or by American money which
had been contributed for the benefit of the German Red Cross
service.

In addition to these facts there were threats against the United
States which could not be ignored. The Kaiser had told our
ambassador at Berlin, Mr. Gerard, that “America had better beware
after this war” for he “would stand no nonsense from her.”
Admiral Von Tirpitz, the German Secretary of the Navy, also told
Mr. Gerard that Germany needed the coast of Belgium as a place
from which to start her “future war on England and America.”

American statesmen were seriously concerned at threats of this
kind, for they knew that the government in power at Berlin could
absolutely command its people, and by forbidding certain kinds of
news and substituting other things in the German newspapers could
make the German people think anything which the war lords wished
them to think. Thus there was great danger that, having won the
war from the Entente or having stood them off successfully until
the fight was declared a draw, Germany would next attack the
United States with the idea of collecting from this comparatively
defenseless and very rich country the huge indemnity which she
had planned to assess upon France and Russia. With this money and
with the breaking down of the Monroe Doctrine, Germany could set
up a great empire in South America which would make her almost as
powerful as she would have been had her first plans for crushing
France and Russia been successful.

You will recall, from your study of United States history, that
President Monroe had warned European governments to keep their
hands off South America, for the United States would act as big
brother to any of the little republics there who might be
attacked by a European foe. Germany in recent years has resented
this very vigorously. There were nearly half a million Germans in
the southern part of Brazil. Uruguay and the Argentine Republic
also had large German settlements. If the Monroe Doctrine were
out of the way, Germany hoped that she would be able to get a
footing in these countries in which she had colonists and
gradually to gain control of the entire country. In the fall of
1917 there was uncovered a plot among the German residents of
certain states in the southern part of Brazil to make this
territory a part of the German Colonial Empire. This discovery,
along with the sinking of Brazilian ships by submarines, drove
Brazil into war with Germany.

To sum up: The United States entered the war: first, because
German submarines were killing her peaceful citizens and stopping
her lawful trade; second, because paid agents of the German
government were destroying American property in the United
States, killing American citizens, and creating discord in our
political life; they were pretending to be friendly and yet were
trying to enlist Japan and Mexico in war against us; third, for
the reason that because of Germany’s threats and her well-known
policy in South America there was grave danger that it would be
our turn next if the central powers should come out of the
European war uncrushed.

The American government has made it plain that we are not moved
by any desire for gain for ourselves. We have nothing to win
through the war except the assurance that our nation will be
safe. If Germany had a government which the people controlled,
then the United States could trust promises of that government.
But, as President Wilson has pointed out, no one can trust the
present government of Germany, for it is responsible to no one
for what it does. It has torn up sacred promises, which its
Chancellor called “scraps of paper”; it has broken its word; it
has ordered “acts of frightfulness” in the lands which it has
conquered and on the high seas, with the idea of brutally forcing
its will upon enemies and neutral countries alike. It has
deceived its own people, persuading them that they were attacked
by France and Russia, while all the time it was plotting to rule
the world through force of arms.

President Wilson has said that the object of the United States in
this war is “to make the world safe for democracy.” This means
that a free people, who have no desire to interfere with any of
their neighbors or to make conquests by force of arms, shall be
allowed to live their lives without preparation for war and
without fear that they may be attacked by a nation with military
rulers.

We have seen how France, attacked in 1870 and threatened by
Germany in 1875, 1905, of war and 1911 was obliged to match gun
for gun and ship for ship with her warlike neighbor to the east.
The dread of an attack by the military party of Germany hung over
France like a shadow throughout forty-three years of a peace
which was only a little better than war, because of the vast
amount of money that had to be spent and the attention that had
to be given to preparation for the war that all felt would one
day come.

When once the German people have a controlling voice in the
government, then, and not till then, can other governments
believe the word of the statesmen at Berlin. But at present the
citizens of Germany have little real power. For, while they can
elect members of the Reichstag, the Reichstag can pass no laws,
for above this body is the national council, whose members are
appointed by the Kaiser and the other kings and grand dukes. The
power of declaring war and making peace lies practically in the
hands of the Kaiser alone, and at any moment he can set aside any
of Germany’s laws, under the plea that “military necessity” calls
for certain things to be done. In this way, he has thrown into
prison those who dared to speak against the war, and has either
suppressed newspapers or ordered them to print only what he
wished printed; thus the German people have let him do their
thinking for them.

They are a docile people. One of the first words that a German
baby is taught to say is “Kaiser,” and all of the schools, which
are run by the government, have taught nothing but respect for
the present form of government, and almost a worship of the
Kaiser himself. What it is hoped that this war will bring about
is the freeing of the German people from their blind obedience to
the military power, which for its own glory and pride has hurled
them by the millions to death.

The United States has adopted plans in this war which are very
different from any hitherto used. With the exception of some
troops raised for a few months during the dark days of the War of
the Rebellion, all of our armies have been recruited from men who
enlisted of their own free will. In this great conflict in which
we are now engaged, the government has drawn its soldiers by lot
from a list of all the young men in the country between the ages
of twenty-one and thirty-one. Thus, rich and poor alike are
fighting in our ranks.

For the first time in our history our troops have been sent to
fight on another continent. Many persons have felt that we should
keep our young men at home and wait for Germany to cross the
Atlantic in order to attack us. Our statesmen, on the other hand,
saw that the peace of the world was at stake. If Germany,
Austria, and Turkey, the three countries whose people have no
voice in the question of peace or war, come out of this conflict
victorious, or even undefeated, the world will see again the mad
race for armaments which resulted in the war of 1914. If, on the
other hand, the people of these nations realize that it is true
today, as in the olden times, that those people who take up the
sword shall perish by the sword, they will overthrow their
leaders and agree to disarm and live at peace in future with
their neighbors.

The military parties in Austria and Germany wanted war. The only
way by which these people can be convinced is by brute force.
When they realize that they have not gained by war, but have
lost, not only a great deal of their wealth, through the terrific
cost of the war, but the friendship and respect of the whole
world, when they realize that the nations allied against them
will push the war relentlessly until these military chiefs
confess that they never want to hear the word “war” again, then,
and only then, will they be ready to throw down their arms and
agree to join a league of the nations whose object shall be to
prevent any future wars.

As long as Germany was victorious and her people thought that
they were going to come out of the conflict with added territory
and big money indemnities, war was popular. But with the flower
of their young men slain, and the prospect of conquest and
plunder growing smaller and smaller with each passing month, the
Germans, too, are beginning to hate the thought of war.

The American army can give the finishing touch to the German
downfall along the western front, and the sooner the Germans
realize that they cannot win from the rapidly growing number of
their enemies, the sooner will come the the end of this greatest
tragedy in the civilized world.

The war lords knew that if the war lasted long enough they must
be defeated and they were striving hard all through the years
1916 and 1917 to make peace while they had possession of enough
of the enemy’s lands so that they could show their own people
some gain in territory to pay them back for their terrible
sufferings. The German war debt was so great that the war lords
dreaded to face their own people after the latter realized that
they had been deceived as well as defeated. The government had
told them (1) that England, France, and Russia forced this war
upon Germany, (2) that the German armies would win the war in
short order, and (3) that a huge sum of money would be collected
from France, Belgium, and Russia to pay the expenses of the war.
The war lords dreaded to think of the time when their people,
knowing that they themselves will have to bear the fearful burden
of war debt, learned also that the whole tragedy was forced upon
the world by the pride and ambition of their own leaders. By
Christmas 1917, the Kaiser was once more hinting that Germany was
ready to talk peace. He was wise, for if peace could have been
made then it would have left Germany absolute mistress of all of
middle Europe. Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey were more under the
control of the Kaiser and his war lords than were parts of his
own empire like Bavaria and Saxony. In Belgium, Serbia, Poland,
Lithuania, Roumania, and northern France the central powers had
over forty millions of people who were compelled to work for them
like slaves. The plunder collected from these countries ran into
billions of dollars. The road to the east, cut asunder by the
results of the second Balkan war (see map), had been forced open
by the rush of the victorious German armies through Serbia and
Roumania. A peace at this time would have been a German victory.
With the drain on the man power of the central powers, with
dissatisfaction growing among their people, with the steady
increase in the armies of the United States, time was fighting on
the side of the allies.

Questions for Review

Does the Zimmermann note show that the German government
understood conditions in Mexico and the United States?

Why did the Zimmermann note have so strong an effect upon
American public opinion?

What were the steps by which the United States was forced
into war?

Why did not Holland and Denmark declare war on Germany also?

What was the main difference between the English blockade of
Germany and the German submarine war on England?

Was the German government responsible for the acts of its
agents in this country?

What is the Monroe Doctrine?

Why could not the Imperial Government of Germany be trusted?

How was this war different for the United States from any
previous conflict?

What was the greatest obstacle to peace?