1.  Why did the Germans desire a road to the east?
 2.  What was the one thing on which the Balkan nations were united?
 3.  What was Russia’s purpose in helping to form the Balkan Alliance?
 4.  Why did the great powers interfere to prevent the four little
    countries from carrying out their secret agreement?
 5.  What was the cause of the second Balkan war?
 6.  Which powers were glad and which were sorry to see it begin?
 7.  Why was Bulgaria angry with all her neighbors?

[Illustration:  A Modern Dreadnaught]

CHAPTER XVI

  Who Profits?

The race for power on the sea.—­The “naval holiday” declined.—­The declining birth-rate.—­The growth of the Socialists.—­The militarists of Germany.—­How wars cure labor troubles.—­The forces behind the war game.—­Profits and press agents.

Let us turn back to the great powers of Europe.  We spoke of their mad race, each nation trying to build more ships and bigger ships than its neighbors and to outstrip them in cannon and other munitions of war.  The German navy had been growing by leaps and bounds.  From being the sixth largest navy in the world, within ten years it had grown to second place.  But, fast as the Germans built ships, the English built them more rapidly still.  England built a monstrous battleship called the Dreadnaught, which was twice as heavy as any other battleship afloat.  Germany promptly replied by planning four ships of the dreadnaught class, and England came back with some still larger vessels which are known as super-dreadnaughts.

At last, the English first lord of the navy, Mr. Winston Churchill, proposed to Germany that each country take a “naval holiday.”  In other words, he practically said to Germany, “If you people will stop building warships for a year, we will also.  Then at the end of the year, we shall be no worse off or better off than we were at the beginning.”

[Illustration:  Submarine]

Germany laughed at this proposal.  To her, it showed that England could not stand the strain very much longer.  “Besides,” said the Germans, “it is all very well for England to be satisfied with her present navy, which is half again as large as ours.  If our navy were the strongest in the world, we too would be glad to have all nations stop building warships,” and they laid down the keels of four new super-dreadnaughts.

But other things disturbed the peace of mind of the German militarists.  For a long time, the population of France had not been increasing, while Germany almost doubled her numbers from 1860 to 1900.  Now, to their dismay, the German birth-rate began to grow less and they saw the population of Russia growing larger by 20% every ten years.  Again, they learned that Russia was about to build a series of railroads near the German frontier which would enable them to rush an army to attack Germany at very short notice.  The Germans already had such railroads in their own country, but they did not propose to let their neighbors have this advantage also.