History of the American Negro in the Great World War | Page 6

as peace
reigned commerce was uninterrupted, and the acquisition of wealth was
not obstructed, men cared little for the intrigues and ambitions of
royalty. If they sensed them at all, they lulled themselves into a feeling
of security through the belief that progress had attained too far,
civilization had secured too strong a hold, and democracy was too
firmly rooted for any ordinary menace to be considered.

So insidious and far reaching had become the inculcation of false
philosophies summed up in the general term Kultur, that the subjects of
the autocratic-ridden empires believed they were being guided by
benign influences. Many enlightened men; at least it seems they must
have been enlightened, in Germany and Austria--men who possessed
liberated intellects and were not in the pay of the Kulturists--professed
to believe that despotism in the modern world could not be other than
benevolent.
The satanic hand was concealed in the soft glove; the cloven hoof
artistically fitted into the military boot; the tail carefully tucked inside
the uniform or dress suit; fiendish eyes were taught to smile and gleam
in sympathy and humor, or were masked behind the heavy lenses of
professorial dignity; the serpent's hiss was trained to song, or drowned
in crashing chords and given to the world as a sublime harmony.
Suddenly the world awoke! The wooing harmony had changed to a
blast of war; the conductor's baton had become a bayonet; the soft wind
instrument barked the rifle's tone; its notes were bullets that hissed and
screamed; tinkling cymbals sounded the wild blare of carnage, and
sweet-throated horns of silver and brass bellowed the cannon's deadly
roar.
Civilization was so shocked that for long the exact sequence of events
was not comprehended. It required time and reflection to clear away the
brain benumbing vapors of the dream; to reach a realization that liberty
actually was tottering on her throne. German propagandists had been so
well organized, and so effectively did they spread their poison;
especially in the western world that great men; national leaders were
deceived, while men in general were slow to get the true perspective;
much later than those at the seat of government.
A few far-seeing men had been alive to the German menace. Some
English statesmen felt it in a vague way, while in France where the
experience of 1870-71, had produced a wariness of all things German, a
limited number of men with penetrating, broadened vision, had beheld
the fair exterior of Kaiserism, even while they recognized in the
background, the slimy abode of the serpent. For years they had sounded

the warning until at last their feeble voices attracted attention.
France, with her traditions of Napoleon, Moreau, Ney, Berthier and
others, with rare skill set about the work of perfecting an army under
the tutelage and direction of Joffre and Foch. The defense maintained
by its army in the earlier part of the struggle provided the breathing
space required by the other allies. All through the struggle the staying
power of the French provided example and created the necessary
morale for the co-operating Allied forces, until our own gallant soldiers
could be mustered and sent abroad for the knockout blow.
As is usual where conspiracies to perform dark deeds are hatched a
clew or record is left behind. In spite of Germany's protestations of
innocence, her loud cries that the war was forced upon her, there is
ample evidence that for years she had been planning it; that she wanted
it and only awaited the opportune time to launch it. It was a gradual
unearthing and examination of this evidence that at length revealed to
the world the astounding plot.
It is not necessary to touch more than briefly the evidence of Germany's
designs, and the intrigues through which she sought world domination
and the throttling of human liberty. The facts are now too well
established to need further confirmation. The ruthless manner in which
the Kaiser's forces prosecuted the war, abandoning all pretense of
civilization and relapsing into the most utter barbarism, is enough to
convince anyone of her definite and well prepared program, which she
was determined to execute by every foul means under the sun.
She had skillfully been laying her lines and building her military
machine for more than forty years. As the time approached for the blow
she intended to strike, she found it difficult to conceal her purposes.
Noises from the armed camp--bayings of the dogs of war--occasionally
stirred the sleeping world; an awakening almost occurred over what is
known as the Morocco incident.
On account of the weakness of the Moroccan government, intervention
by foreign powers had been frequent. Because of the heavy investment
of French capital and because the prevailing anarchy in Morocco

threatened her interests in Algeria, France came to be regarded as