by Boston and New York Houghton Mifflin Company The Riverside Press Cambridge 1915 Copyright, 1914 and 1915, by the Boston News Bureau Company Copyright, 1915, by Clarence W. Barron All Rights Reserved Published February 1915...

  Suppose 't were done!   The lanyard pulled on every shotted gun;   Into the wheeling death-clutch sent   Each millioned armament,   To grapple there   On land, on sea and under, and in air!   Suppose at last 't were come—   Now, while each bourse and shop and mill is dumb   And arsenals and dockyards hum,—   Now all complete, supreme,   That vast, Satanic dream!—   Each field were trampled, soaked,   Each stream dyed, choked,   Each leaguered city and blockaded port   Made famine's sport;   Th

The Scotch have this proverb: "War brings poverty. Poverty brings peace. Peace brings prosperity. Prosperity brings pride. And pride brings war again." Shall the world settle down to the faith that there is no redemption from an everlasting round of pride, war, poverty, peace, prosperity, pride, and war again? But it was not primarily to settle, or even study this problem that I crossed the ocean and the English Channel in winter. As a journalist publishing the Wall Street Journal , the Boston N

The Censorship—The Warship "Audacious"—Mine or Torpedo?—The Battle Line—War by Gasolene Motors—The Boys from Canada—The Audacity of it. The war of 1914 is not only the greatest war in history but the greatest in the political and economic sciences. Indeed, it is the greatest war of all the sciences, for it involves all the known sciences of earth, ocean, and the skies. To get the military, the political, and especially the financial flavor of this war, to study its probable duration and its fina

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 pres

A State with no Morals—A Peace Treaty sundered—Where Germany fails—A Thunderbolt. Sending his little expedition to China the Kaiser said:— "When you encounter the enemy you will defeat him; no quarter shall be given, no prisoners shall be taken. Let all who fall into your hands be at your mercy. Just as the Huns one thousand years ago, under the leadership of Attila, gained a reputation in virtue of which they still live in historical tradition, so may the name of Germany become known in such a

The Bagdad Railroad—The English Oil Concession—The German Alliance with Turkey—Austria the Hand of Germany—The Decay of Turkey—The New Map. How ridiculous are American peace proposals concerning the Audacious War of 1914 may be judged from this announcement which I am able to make:— The return of the French government from Bordeaux to Paris was determined upon from two points of view: safety and political necessity. The French people were angered that Paris should have been deserted, but notwith

Signs of War not Conspicuous—Paris reopened—A Rejuvenation—English and American Help—French Casualties—French Heroes. One enters France nowadays by the Folkestone and Dieppe route, which is a four-hour Channel trip or longer, or by Folkestone and Boulogne, a Channel trip of ninety minutes more or less. All the routes to Calais are used by the government for its troops, supplies, and munitions. England's hospital base is at Boulogne. Here is the center of her Red Cross work, with a dozen big hosp

The Iron Hand of War—Paris offered in Sacrifice—Faulty Mobilization—The French Army—The Joffre Strategy—The German Retreat. The position of France to-day cannot be compared with that of any other country in the war. The French people have a distinctive genius all their own. They are still the greatest people in art in the world. Nothing in sculpture or painting in the outside world yet rivals the skill of France. Politically the French are trusting children, vibrating between empires and republi

Delayed Budgets—The Caillaux Position—Outgeneralled in Finance—Gold Reserves Undiminished—Allied Finance—No Financial Legislation—The National Defense Loans. The spectacle of England loaning money to rich France—20,000,000 pounds sterling, or $100,000,000—was something most surprising. The French have been considered among the best financiers and economists of Europe. The whole world has been envious of the saving ability of France, and has invited the overflow of her accumulations into their lo

No Migration from Belgium—Germany's War Tax Levies—Irreconcilable—The Army—No Neutrality over Belgium. Before Germany launched her thunderbolts of war, Belgium had an industrious, frugal, hard-working, saving population of nearly 8,000,000 people. Of these, 450,000 are now refugees in Holland, where the magnanimous Dutch are providing for them with no outside assistance. Queen Wilhelmina declares, "These are our guests and we will care for them." Nearly 30,000 Belgian troops have also been inter

Russian Reforms—A United Russia—Russian Armaments—The Greatest Future—Two Water Outlets—The Slav Invasion Bugaboo. Russia also is likely to bring forth some notable men who have not previously been heard of before the world. General Evanoff is the idol of the Russian army. He is the strategist who plans the movements against Austria and Germany in the East, who surrounds Przemysl and says, "Now, we can take it when we please, but we will not sacrifice Russian troops to take it now; Cracow is mor

A Quiet London—The Call to Arms—No Mourning—The Zeppelin Scare—German Spies—The German Landing—Kultur War Indemnities. It is worth a winter trip across the Atlantic to stand with a London audience and hear it respond to the call, "Are we downhearted?" with a thunderous "NO!" It is then you first realize that the British Empire is at war; and what that war means; and that that Empire has piped to its defense a free people inhabiting one fifth of the territory of the globe. The British Empire has

The Men at the Front—The Recruiting—English Losses—Horses and Ships—War Supplies—Barring the Germans. I really admire the English censorship and the manner in which it can withhold information from the English people, and I see the usefulness of much of the withholdings. You are some days in England before you realize that there are now no weather reports—not even for Channel crossings. Nobody really cared for them in London. Everybody there knew what the weather was, and nobody could tell what

Protecting Trade and the Trader—How German Banks Paid—The English Loan—England's Wealth—The Income Tax—More Taxes. A giant Atlas bearing the civilized world on its financial shoulders has arisen between the North and the Irish seas. That is the picture that stands at the opening of 1915, where before Germany had endeavored to stamp the label "Perfidious and degraded nation of shopkeepers." Only the pencil of a Doré could sketch this giant and put him in figures of proper relief as, aroused from

The Food-Supply—War Expenses—The Copper Supply—The Call for Gold—No Outside Resources—The Human Sacrifice. Counting Montenegro and Servia as two nations, there are now seven countries at war against Germany, Austria, and Turkey, and two more, possibly three, may join in within a few weeks. If Greece enters the battle-line, it will be ten nations against three. When Roumania and Italy join the Allies, as is now being diplomatically arranged, Germany will be completely surrounded, with Switzerland

German Socialism—German Unity—A Reverse Political System—Business Men without Political Influence—A Voice from the People—The German War Lord. In America there is no greater conflict of opinion than over the question of the relations of the German people to the present war. There are those who declare most emphatically that when the German people once understand this war there will be revolution in Germany, uprising of the socialists, and the sure overthrow of the Hohenzollern dynasty. Such opin

An Aggressive Germany—The Logic of It—The War Party Supreme—A War for Business—What Confronts Germany—Her Finish. A mighty nation surrounded and besieged, yet still fighting on foreign soil, is the position of Germany to-day. Her triumph would mean, not alone a European conquest, but a world-conquest. Her defeat within a reasonable time does not mean her destruction or dismemberment. It means only the destruction of Prussian militarism and that theory of national existence into which the German

Wealth is National Defense—Gold Mobilization—Food Supplies International—No Financial Independence—Tariffs as War Causes—Are We in a Fool's Paradise? The lessons for the United States and for all America from this war are so many that it is difficult to arrange them in order. The first lesson is that nations can be no longer isolated units. A hundred years ago the United States desired to be free from Europe,—from its political system, its wage system, and its social system. To-day the United St

Not When but How—The Argument for War—Right over Might—National Hate as a Political Asset—The Human Pathway—Peace by International Police—The Practical Way—Is a New Age Approaching? The endeavor in these pages has been to show from close personal research in Europe the cause and cost of this war—cost in finance and human lives,—and also the lessons that America, and particularly the United States, should derive from this greatest war. It is not so material when this war terminates, as how it ter