Winning a Cause | Page 3

Honor on the breast of Lieutenant Colonel Charles W. Whittlesey.
Messages from Colonel Whittlesey and Lieutenant McKeogh.
This picture shows the standardized style of building used in every army in the United States.
A 10-inch caliber naval gun on a railroad mount.
A photograph from an airplane at 7900 feet, showing Love Field, Dallas, Texas, and a parachute jumper.
The Red Cross War Fund and Membership poster.
A photograph of the United States Transport George Washington taken from an airplane.
President Wilson driving from the railroad station in Paris with President Poincaré of France.
Sergeant York wearing the French Croix de Guerre and the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Pronouncing Vocabulary (four images).

WINNING A CAUSE
WHY THE UNITED STATES ENTERED THE WAR
The United States was slow to enter the war, because her people believed war an evil to be avoided at almost any cost except honor. In fact, "Peace at any price" seemed to be the motto of many Americans even after two years of the World War.
[Illustration: The standard bearers and color guard leading a column of the Fifth Artillery of the First American Division through Hetzerath, Germany, on their way to the Rhine.]
President Wilson declared in a speech at Philadelphia on May 10, 1915, that there is such a thing as being too proud to fight. He was severely criticized for his statement, and yet it is very true, and for more than a generation it had been taught to American boys and girls. Peace societies had sent lecturers to the public schools to point out the wickedness of war and the blessings of peace. Prizes had been offered to high school, normal school, and college students for the best essays on Peace, How to Maintain the Peace of the World, and other similar subjects. To get ready for war by enlarging the army and navy was declared to be the very best way to bring on war. School reading books made a feature of peace selections, and school histories were making as little of our national wars as possible. These teachings and the very air of the land of freedom made people too proud to fight, if there were any honorable way of avoiding it.
It is said that "People judge others by themselves." So Americans, being peaceful, contented, and not possessed with envy of their neighbors, supposed all other civilized people were like themselves. Therefore they could not at first believe that the Germans were different and looked upon war as a glorious thing, because through it they might get possession of the wealth and property of others. Perhaps the Germans, judging other people by themselves, believed that the French and Russians and English, like the Germans, stood ready to go to war whenever through it they might gain wealth and territory; but the Germans did not think this of the people of the United States. They thought that they were a nation of traders and money-getters in love with the Almighty Dollar. As events proved, this idea was a fatal mistake on the part of the Germans.
In entirely different ways, both Americans and Germans were taught that they were the people above all other peoples in the world. The German insolently sang "Germany above All" while the American good-naturedly boasted his land as the freest, the noblest and best, leading all the other countries and showing them the way to become greater and better. The American people, however, did not intend to force their beliefs upon other nations. But the Germans were led by the idea that German Kultur would be a blessing for all mankind and that it was their destiny to conquer and improve all other nations.
Thor stood at the northernmost point of the world. His hammer flew from his hand. "So far as my hammer this arm has hurled, All mine are the sea and the land." And forward flew the giant tool Over the whole broad earth, to fall At last in the southernmost pool To prove that Thor's was all. Since then 'tis the pleasant German way By the hammer, lands to win, And to claim for themselves world-wide sway, As the Hammer-god's nearest kin.
But the American does not go this far. While he is inclined to believe himself and his country better than any other people or nation, yet he is content to let others live in their own way as long as they are honest and do not interfere with him and his business. He is, to be sure, desirous of improving them, but by peaceful means, by building dams and railroads for them, and by giving them schools and sending them missionaries.
It was difficult therefore for Americans to realize that the Germans really planned and desired the war in order that they might rule the world. It took months and even years of war for the majority of Americans