As for Russia, the cause of the war was her desire to obtain the Bosphorus—­and an open seaport, which is the prize offered for her attack upon Germany.  As for Austria, the cause of the war is her fear of the growing power of the Balkan States, and the progressive slicing away of her territory.  As for France, the cause of the war is the instinct of self-preservation, that resists an invading host.  As for Germany, the cause is her deep-seated conviction that every country has a moral right to the mouth of its greatest river; unable to compete with England, by roundabout sea routes and a Kiel Canal, she wants to use the route that nature digged for her through the mouth of the Rhine.  As for England, the motherland is fighting to recover her sense of security.  During the Napoleonic wars the second William Pitt explained the quadrupling of the taxes, the increase of the navy, and the sending of an English army against France, by the statement that justification of this proposed war is the “Preservation of England’s sense of security.”  Ten years ago England lost her sense of security.  Today she is not seeking to preserve, but to recover, the lost sense of security.  She proposes to do this by destroying Germany’s ironclads, demobilizing her army, wiping out her forts, and the partition of her provinces.  The occasions of the war vary, with the color of the paper—­“white” and “gray” and “blue”—­but the causes of this war are embedded in racial antagonisms and economic and political differences.

WHY LITTLE BELGIUM HAS THE CENTER OF THE STAGE

Tonight our study concerns little Belgium, her people, and their part in this conflict.  Be the reasons what they may, this little land stands in the center of the stage and holds the limelight.  Once more David, armed with a sling, has gone up against ten Goliaths.  It is an amazing spectacle, this, one of the smallest of the States, battling with the largest of the giants!  Belgium has a standing army of 42,000 men, and Germany, with three reserves, perhaps 7,000,000 or 8,000,000.  Without waiting for any assistance, this little Belgium band went up against 2,000,000.  It is as if a honey bee had decided to attack an eagle come to loot its honeycomb.  It is as if an antelope had turned against a lion.  Belgium has but 11,000 square miles of land, less than the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.  Her population is 7,500,000, less than the single State of New York.  You could put twenty-two Belgiums in our single State of Texas.  Much of her soil is thin; her handicaps are heavy, but the industry of her people has turned the whole land into one vast flower and vegetable garden.  The soil of Minnesota and the Dakotas is new soil, and yet our farmers there average but fifteen bushels of wheat to the acre.  Belgium’s soil has been used for centuries, but it averages thirty-seven bushels of wheat to the acre.  If we grow twenty-four bushels of barley