Page:"The next war"; an appeal to common sense (IA thenextwarappeal01irwi).pdf/41

 vote showed in 1913, the Revolution in 1918. But their dissent was as yet ineffective. Probably the majority of Germans believed in this Religion of Valor which they had learned with their Christian prayers. Certainly the majority believed that the intensive, perpetual preparation for instant war was a necessity to a nation “ringed with enemies.” The preparation went on, ever and ever more burdensome and complex. So did the propaganda, the “mental preparation.” By 1914, the Germans published and read more books on war than all the other nations of the world put together. “The man who builds the ship will want to sail it,” say the nautical experts. And the man who forges the sword will want to wield it. By 1914, the mine was laid and ready. With their “financial imperialism,” their “concert of the powers,” their race for dominating armament, all the European nations were responsible for that. The assassination of an Austrian prince, a mere police court case, lit the fuse. Accident alone was responsible for that. The fuse might have been trampled out; but the Kaiser and his counsellors held back, held others back. Germany was responsible for that—Germany and an aristocratic, militarist system, “prepared to the last buckle.” On the day of mobilization, the French conscripts went to their appointed places sober or pale or weeping according to their individual characters, The first young British volunteers marched to the recruiting offices with a solemn consecration