their foreign trade three times, while Germany and the United States have increased theirs five times.  The trade of Germany and the United States has increased from 7.6 to 38 billion marks.  If these figures show nothing else, they show on which side the American sympathy will be.  This war, provoked by Russia because of an outrageous desire for revenge, supported by England and France, has no other motive than envy of Germany’s position in economic life, and of her people, who are fighting for a place in the sun.  “Right or wrong, Germany must not grow.”  That is the turning point of a policy which the French Republic drilled into the Muscovites.  Let us consider the adversaries of Germany.  Russia, the classic land of power and terrible exploitation of the people for the benefit of a degenerated aristocracy.  France, a type of a nation in which there is not even enough enterprise to increase the productiveness of the country.  England, which has so long felt its glory vanishing and in the meantime has remained far behind its younger rival in financial and economic equipment.  One can easily imagine the feelings of these peoples when they observe the rapid and successful growth of Germany, and wonders if these same feelings will not one day be directed against the youthful North American giant.  In this war it shall be decided which is the stronger—­the organized inertia of the tired and envious, or the unfolding of power in the service of a strong and sacrificing life.  To know that we have American friendship in this struggle will mean a great moral support for us in the coming trying days, for we know that the country of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln places itself only on the side of a just cause and one worthy of humanity’s blessing.

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[Illustration:  Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America. (Photo (C) by Bradley Studio.)]

Speculations About Peace, September, 1914

Report by James W. Gerard, American Ambassador at Berlin, to President Wilson.

By The Associated Press.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17.—­Germany has suggested informally that the United States should undertake to elicit from Great Britain, France, and Russia a statement of the terms under which the Allies would make peace.

The suggestion was made by the Imperial Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg, to Ambassador Gerard at Berlin as a result of an inquiry sent by the American Government to learn whether Emperor William was desirous of discussing peace, as recently had been reported.

No reply was made by Emperor William himself, nor did the Imperial Chancellor indicate whether or not he spoke on behalf of the Emperor.  Ambassador Gerard, in a cable dispatch to President Wilson, repeated the Chancellor’s remarks from recollection, substantially as follows: