This is not to be an audacious war on the part of the Allies.  It is first a defensive war in which the Germans are the heaviest losers.  On the part of the Germans it is an audacious war and its very audacity has astounded the whole world.  But Germany never meant to war against the world collectively.  That was the accident of her bad diplomacy.

The audaciousness of Prussian war conceptions began in the latter part of the last century.  They did not grow out of the war with the French in 1870, for Bismarck’s legacy to the German nation was a warning against any war with Russia.  The German scheme was concocted by the successor of Bismarck himself, none other than Kaiser William II.  He planned a steady growth of German power that would first vanquish the Slav of southeastern Europe and give Germany control through Constantinople and Asia Minor to the Persian gulf; then, as opportunity arose, a crushing of France and repression of Russia; and the overthrow of the British empire; and then the end of the Monroe Doctrine, to be followed by American tariffs dictated from Germany.

This seems so audacious a program as to be almost beyond comprehension in America.  Yet it will be made clear in the next chapter.

CHAPTER II

TARIFFS AND COMMERCE THE WAR CAUSES

War with Russia was Inevitable—­Finance and Tariffs made Germany great—­Commercial War—­How Germany loses in the United States—­The Tariff Danger.

For the causes of this most audacious war of 1914 one must study, not only Germany and her imperial policy, but most particularly her relations with Russia.  These relations are very little understood in America, but they become vital to us when open to public view.

Disregarding all the counsels of Bismarck and the previous reigning Hohenzollerns, the present Kaiser has steadily offended Russia.  War with her within two years was inevitable, irrespective of any causes in relation to Servia.  Russia knew this and was diligently preparing for it.  Germany—­the war party of Germany—­knew it and with supreme audacity determined through Austria first to smash Servia and put the Balkan States and Turkey in alignment with herself for this coming war with Russia.

Sergius Witte is one of the great statesmen of Russia.  He formulated the programme for the Siberian railroad and Russian Asiatic development.  The party of nobles opposed to him arranged that he should receive the humiliation of an ignoble peace with Japan, under which it was expected that Russia would have to pay a huge indemnity.

But when Witte arrived at the naval station at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to make the famous treaty with Japan, his first declaration was, “Not one kopeck for indemnity.”  He won out and returned in triumph to Russia.

But during the progress of the Japanese war Germany thrust her commercial treaties upon St. Petersburg.  Goods from Russia into Germany were taxed while German goods went under favorable terms into Russia, with the result that Russia has had a struggle now for ten years to keep her gold basis and her financial exchanges.