The World War and What Followed

Two years before the world war started a well-known American citizen called on the writer. A friend had presented him with a copy of our "Exposition of Daniel." This Christian gentleman said that the reading of the book had greatly helped him to understand the pre-written history of world affairs as penned, under divine inspiration, by Daniel, the prophet. He asked for a copy of the book and turning to page 75 read: "Their standing armies (of the European nations) their ever increasing navies on the sea and now even in the air, tell us beforehand that some coming day, in the near future, the dogs of war will be let loose and the beasts will do their most dreadful work."  

After reading this brief paragraph our visitor asked the question: "It seems to me you are going too far; do you think that the two leading Protestant nations of Europe, both vitally interested in civilization, and above all in foreign missionary work, Great Britain and Germany, could ever engage in a bloody war? You insinuate this in your commentary." We answered him that such an event seemed next to impossible, yet the prediction of Christ, "nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom" brings such a conflict within the range of possibility.  

In the summer of 1914, when the peace delegates were assembled in peaceful discussion, fateful shots were fired. A youth murdered Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife. These shots were the signal for the beginning of the great European tragedy. Behind the human hatred stood another power, an unseen power, not one of the nations, but the one, whose existence the world denies but whom the infallible teacher called "the murderer from the beginning."  

Ten memorable days followed, such as the world probably had never seen before. Inasmuch as these momentous happenings are not clearly remembered, and are also overshadowed today by the menace of another great catastrophe, we record these ten days which led to the European conflagration.  

Thursday, July 23. Austria sent ultimatum to Servia, to be answered by 6 o'clock Saturday evening, demanding that Servia punish accomplices to the murder of the Archduke and his wife, repress PanSerb propaganda and publish official denunciations of anti-Austrian agitation and that Austrian officers be permitted to try Servian offenders on Servian soil.  

Friday, July 24. Russia makes representation to Austria in Servia's favor, asking for extension of time to answer ultimatum.  

Saturday, July 25. Servia answers ultimatum ten minutes inside of stipulated time, yielding all points but investigation of Servians by Austria. Answer unsatisfactory and Austrian minister and staff leave Belgrade.  

Sunday, July 26. Servian minister dismissed from Vienna. Europe seeks means of mediation. Servian army mobilizes. Austrian soldiers hurried to Servian borders. Russia sends strong warning to Germany.  

Monday, July 27. Austria gives reasons for rejecting Servia's answer and prepares to cross Danube.  

Sir Edward Grey proposes conference in London to mediate between Austria and Russia. Bourses close at Vienna, Brussels and Budapest; heavy runs on German banks.  

Kaiser returns to Berlin and calls conference of ministers.  

Greek minister promises that his country will aid Servia with 100,000 men. Entire Servian army mobilizes.  

Tuesday, July 28. Austria formally declares war on Servia. Seizes Servian boats and blockades ports of Montenegro.  

Sir Edward Grey's peace plans fail.  

Russian threatens Austria and masses troops on Eastern border.  

London, Paris and Berlin markets have a panic; ten million dollars in gold shipped from New York to Europe; wheat prices advance sharply, causing the wildest excitement in Chicago, St. Louis, Winnipeg, etc. Prices decline on New York Stock Market.  

Wednesday, July 29. Belgrade bombarded by gunboats and occupied by Austrians.  

Germany warns Russia to stop mobilization.  

France is ready to advance against Germany by way of Belgium.  

German troops sent to the Russian frontier.  

Americans and Peace delegates in Europe struggle to get accommodations for home.  

The great International Peace Conference set for August 15 to 26 in Vienna abandoned.  

Stocks in all European Bourses go down. English bankers withdraw cash from Vienna bank. Big slump in wheat in the United States.  

Thursday, July 30. Kaiser calls on Russia to stop mobilization within twenty-four hours.  

Portsmouth and Dover harbors closed.  

Austria hurls 500,000 men in four divisions into Servia; bloody engagements at Semendria on the Danube and Foca in Bosnia.  

Prices on New York Stock Exchange drop lower than in the panic of 1907. Forty million dollars in gold shipped from New York to Europe in a few days.  

Bulgaria issues declaration of neutrality.  

Then came the fateful July 31 with its crash.  

Friday, August 1. Germany put under martial law.  

British fleet leaves Plymouth; German squadron stops merchant vessel in Danish waters.  

New battles between Austrians and Servians on the Danube and in Bosnia.  

Secretary McAdoo announces that United States ready to issue five hundred million dollars of emergency currency.  

New York Stock Exchange closed, first time since 1873. Consolidated and Cotton Exchanges closed.  

Sunday, August 2. Germany declares war on Russia.  

Italy breaks her alliance with Germany and Austria, declaring the alliance is only defensive. German minister recalled from St. Petersburg. Germany mobilizes all her forces. France follows by a general mobilization.  

But we must curb ourselves, for we do not intend to write a history of the world war. To describe, or even barely mention, what followed those hectic ten days would require hundreds of our pages. In fact, up to date we have not yet a satisfactory history of the world war and its causes.  

An hysterical fear possessed all nations. Germany feared Russia and France would crush her completely and end her national existence. Yet it is also true that Germany was foremost in her war preparations and far better equipped than any other nation. The dream of a great empire with domineering power had frequently been expressed by the military leaders of Germany. General Bernhardi, the eminent German military authority, had written a book a number of years before the great war came. "Germany and the Next War" was the title of his production. In it he maintained the right to make war, and openly advocated the policy of aggression and invasion. He told his countrymen that it is their duty to fight their way to preeminence among the other nations, regardless of the rights and interests of other people, and that agitation in favor of peace is poisonous. At the same time the German Emperor had urged the creation of the strongest possible navy so that nobody "could dispute that place in the world which belongs to us." And so, when France mobilized her troops on the Belgian frontier, Germany in a wild onrush, smashing every barrier, considering well defined treaties nothing but scraps of paper, invaded Belgium with its well trained army to reach Paris in as brief a time as possible. And yet to charge one nation, and one only, with responsibility of this terrible disaster, no well balanced, unprejudiced historian, would assert. Since 1870 France had brooded over her ignominious defeat and Revenge was uppermost in her national consciousness. Russia was working for a great Pan-Slavic Empire. Economic conditions, jealousies and other causes played their part. The trend of the beginning of the century, as we have shown, was in the direction of such a war. We wrote immediately after the outbreak had come—1 "Many times during the last ten years we and other Bible teachers warned against the optimistic dreams of 'Peace and Safety' for our age. We are not a prophet, but we made our predictions and calculations upon that which God has revealed in His Holy Word. Such an awful clash between the so-called Christian Nations, occupying the former territory of the Roman Empire is predicted in the Bible. We see it passing into history. Suddenly the threatening war clouds of many years have broken to deluge this blood drenched earth with a new baptism of blood and fire, and such unspeakable suffering as the world has never seen before. Like a thunderclap out of the clear sky it has come. Twenty million men may soon be in the field. Germany, Austria, Russia, France, England and Italy are at war. Other nations will be drawn into the conflict."  

And so millions of men rushed towards the awful abyss of suffering, destruction and death. We must not pass by the fact that hundreds of thousands of young Jews also entered the world war. It was in the very beginning of the Conflict (October 1914) that the Maccabaean made the following statement:  

"Four hundred thousand Jews bearing arms! What it portends is difficult to prophesy, but grim as the outlook is, it brings a new element into Jewry. Already Russia recognizes it with vague promises of equal rights.2 A federation of Jewish youth fighting the battles of Pan-Slavism is a curious spectacle, but they carry a note of hope as well as death and destruction. Participation in the World War breaks down the Ghetto walls more effectively than any laws can do, and whether Russian arms meet with victory or defeat when the war is over, Jewish soldiers will bring back in their hearts and minds other things than are contemplated by Czar or the General Staff."  

When Turkey entered the war, the defeat of Zionism, the great national restoration movement, loomed up as well as the fate of Palestine, then in complete possession of the Turks. A part of the Zionist movement aligned itself with Turkey, because Turkey had shown itself friendly to Zionism, hoping to gain thereby Palestine as their national home. Little did they dream that their Zionistic hopes would be realized at the end of the war, not through Turkey's victory but through Turkey's defeat.  

The situation in Palestine itself became desperate as soon as Turkey had entered the war on the side of Germany. Only a small number of the Colonists were naturalized citizens of Turkey. Some 80,000 of them were Russian subjects. Turkey at war with Russia turned against them. Thousands were forced to leave and arrived penniless in Egypt. The Colonies were confiscated and handed over to the Arabs. The plight of the Jews became worse everywhere and they suffered indescribable hardships and losses.  

Fourteen nations were engaged in the gigantic conflict of all history. Eighty races were represented in this wholesale murder. They were: Afridis, Albanians, Algerians, Annamite, Arakanese, Armenians, Bantus, Bashkirs, Basques, Bedouins, Berbers, Boers, Bulgars, Buriats, Burmese, Chinese, Circassians, Croatians, Czechs, Danes, Egyptians, English, Esthonians, Finns, Flemish, French, Friauls, Garwhalis, Georgians, Germans, Greeks, Ghurkas, Irish, Italians, Japanese, Jews, Kaffirs, Kalmuks, Kirghiz, Koriaks, Kurds, Ladins, Lesghians, Letts, Lithuanians. Magyars, Mahrattas, Malagasy, Maoris, Mingrelians, Montenegrins, Mongols, Moravians, Mordins, Posthans, Persians, Poles, Portugese, Roumanians, Russians, Scotch, Senegalese, Senusi, Serbs, Sikhs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Syrians, Tartars, Tonkinese, Tunguses, Turkomen, Turks, Uzbegs, Votyaks, Wallachins, Walloons, Welsh, Wends, West Indians and Yakuts.  

Plenty of prophets predicted a speedy termination of the hostilities. The Editor of the "Army and Navy Journal" published in Washington, D. C. stated: "The war will be a short and a decisive war. More men may be killed in battle but the percentage of the casualties will scarcely be larger than in former years * * *. Within a year Europe will have peace again, and in a few years may have recovered almost entirely from the effects of the war." Other similar guesses were made, but the leading warring nations could not be induced to lay down arms, but fight to a finish. And so the war increased with increasing horrors and atrocities. Europe became the "Human Slaughter House," claiming millions of victims while many more millions suffered in a way which is next to unimaginable. All the horrors of past wars fought by heathen nations centuries and millennia ago paled in the presence of this war of "Christian" nations. If Nebuchadnezzar, that illustrious monarch, head of the age of the Gentiles, who fought his wars 2,500 years ago, could have looked on and seen the horrors of the Belgian, the Polish, East Prussian, Galician and Balkan battlefields, he would have lifted his eyes to heaven and thanked the God of heaven that he and his conquering armies were not half so ferocious, cruel and devastating as the armies of Military Christendom. As we have shown in our "World Prospects," politically the "Times of the Gentiles" deteriorate, as revealed in Daniel (Chapter II), from gold to silver, from silver to brass, from brass to iron and ultimately become that which is worthless, clay.  

And heathen as well as Mohammedan nations began to sneer at this spectale of "Christian" nations fighting, trying to exterminate each other. Count Okuma, then Prime Minister of Japan, declared that the end of European civilization was at hand. The same statements were made by other prominent heathen thinkers. The war had lasted but a few months and Prussia had suffered already the loss of 753,202 men and officers, while the entire German armies, Bavarian, Saxon and others had lost two million in killed, wounded and missing. The Austro-Hungarian losses came to about one million and a half. Add to this the hundreds of thousands of Russians, Servians and of the Allies and the miseries of millions of non-combatants, starving, homeless women, children and the older men, not alone their physical sufferings, but their mental agonies, and we can gain a small conception of this war of all wars. When the war ended, over 10 million were dead and a far greater number were wounded, crippled and blinded. The financial cost was equally staggering.  

Some rich men have an income of several thousand dollars a day and the poor often wonder how these rich folks can spend it all. In the first year of the war the expenditure of the war was two million dollars a day. A widely known economist, Captain Edmond Thery, estimated that the total military expenditures for the first year of the war was ten billion dollars for the Allies and seven and a half billions for Germany, Austria and Russia.  

Two years later, on August 2,1916, the following figures of the cost of the war for two years were available:  

A total of $49,350,000,000, an average cost of over sixty-seven and a half million dollars a day. Before the war ended the cost had mounted to one hundred million dollars per day.  

And the slaughter house continued unabated; no, it got worse. To the tragedies on land the tragedies of the seas must be added. The infernal submarines with their death dealing torpedoes did their awful work. The unpardonable crime of the destruction of hundreds of innocent human beings by the torpedoeing of the Lusitania produced a world wide protest. A French battleship went down with the loss of over three thousand men, and similar disasters happened in sea-battles.  

But what about the United States? Lord Northcliffe said in an address during the second year of the war: "What do I think of the chance that America must fight? I think that hardly half your people are aware that the greatest fighting since Christianity began is spreading round the world like a conflagration. Remember what I say—it will be your turn to fight. There is no indication that this war will end for years. It may stop for a few months, but it will burst out like a half smothered forest fire. It must be fought to a finish. After, or before it is all over, let America take heed to herself. Shall the United States escape? You are amassing huge treasures of gold. You are piling up your millions. All the world envies you. It never speaks of simply Americans, it adds 'rich Americans'." The London Times in the fall of 1916 in an article on "America and Munitions," said: "The war has enriched the United States with a new and vital industry. It has laid the foundation of its present prosperity and has shifted the whole balance of international commerce and finance enormously to the advantage of America. But above all else it has immeasurably strengthened America's capacity for defense. It has enabled America to gather experience that will prove when the hour strikes, an asset of incomparable value and potency. Working for themselves and the Allies, the American manufacturers have been working for their country also."  

Very true! An almost fabulous prosperity followed, the result of European war contracts. The foundations for some immense fortunes were laid. At best it was the sowing of the seed from which the United States reaps the harvest in the third decade of our century. The wind was sown and the whirlwind is now reaped.  

And during these war years efforts were made to stop the war. There was a strong effort made by the Vatican, which made next to no impression. In the beginning of 1915 in the presence of 50,000 people, Pope Benedict, surrounded by twenty-two Cardinals, ascended the papal altar and intoned the peace prayer, repeated by the multitudes, whose voices echoed through the vast building. And as the Pope left St. Peters thousands cried, "Give us Peace! Give us Peace!" Peace was out of sight. In our own country peace agitations continued.  

One notable one was inaugurated by the Pacifist Senator La Follette, of Wisconsin. We quote the resolution:  

"Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States assembled in Congress, That the President of the United States be authorized to convey to all neutral nations the desire of this government that an international conference be held for the purpose of promoting by co-operation and through friendly offices:  

1. The early cessation of hostilities and the establishment of peace among the warring nations of Europe.  

2. The consideration of uniform rules and regulations for a general limitation of armaments and the nationalization of the manufacture of all equipment and supplies used exclusively for military and naval purposes.  

3. The consideration of rules and regulation for the prohibition of the export of arms, ammunition, artillery, vessels of war, armor plate, torpedoes or any other thing designed to be used exclusively for military and naval purposes from one country to another.  

4. The ultimate establishment of an international tribunal where any nation may be heard on any issue involving rights vital to its peace and the development of its national life, a tribunal whose degrees shall be enforced by the enlightened judgment of the world."  

It was a noble, humanitarian and unselfish attempt to bring about an end of the war. But it failed completely. We could record other attempts, including "Henry Ford's Peace Ship." All failed! As early as 1915 it was felt by many that the United States would ultimately be involved in the great conflict. The leading military journal of the country urged President Woodrow Wilson to mobilize at once one million volunteers. "Placing a million volunteers under training would amount to a declaration that the United States is preparing to insist upon its rights and resist aggression. It would be a measure of peace, as it might possibly avert the war towards which we are now fast driving, as every student of military history must see, and it would at least partially prepare us to meet the shock of war if war must come. It would also go far to solve the problem of unemployed labor with which we are contending."  

What a blessing it would have been if this suggestion had been heeded! Two years later the United States entered the war and thousands upon thousands of our young men, with next to no military training, were forced to face the well trained and well seasoned troops of the Central powers. Our poor young men were sent "as sheep to the slaughter."  

It is of no mean interest to recall the gradual drift of the United States towards war. The record which we give our readers shows the wonderful patience we had. President Wilson, on account of his hesitancy had to endure much ridicule, but at last war came.  

February 4, 1915. Germany declared all waters around Great Britain a war zone after February 18; and announced that every merchant vessel found there would be submarined.  

February 10. The United States warned Germany it would be held to "strict accountability" for any loss of American life or property.  

February 16. Germany replied the unfairness of Great Britain's blockade and the necessity of self-preservation would force it to a continuance of this policy.  

April 30. American steamer Gulflight torpedoed and three killed.  

May 1. Advertisements in New York papers warned Americans of danger of marine travel; and hundreds who had booked passage on Lusitania received mailed warnings.  

May 7. Lusitania sunk, 1,200 drowned; 115 of them Americans.  

May 13. United States protested, saying America "will not omit any word or act necessary to its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of American citizens."  

May 30. Germany replied Lusitania was armed and carried munitions.  

June 8. Secretary Bryan refused to sign second note; resigned.  

June 10. New note warned Germany.  

July 9. Germany replied British ship could not be protected by presence of an American aboard.  

July 21. Another American note sent, calling for no reply; but restating position.  

August 19. Arabic sunk with two Americans drowned.  

October 5. Bernstorff promised disavowal and reparation for Arabic.  

January 8, 1916. Berlin promised to pay indemnity for Americans lost on Lusitania; investigate case of Persia, sunk in Mediterranean, and observe international law in Mediterranean.  

January 25. Secretary Lansing announced Germany had refused to carry out promises of disavowal.  

January 26. United States' final word on Lusitania handed Bernstorff.  

February 4. Germany's reply received.  

February 15. Germany warned world that all armed British and Allied vessels would be sunk without warning. United States demands withdrawal of order.  

March 3 and March 7. Senate and House voted to stand back of President.  

March 24. British S.S. Sussex attacked by submarine; several Americans injured.  

April 18. United States notifies Germany diplomatic relations would be severed if Germany kept up its methods of submarine warfare.  

April 19. President Wilson addressed Congress on German submarine warfare.

November 4. Germany gives pledge to warn all ships before attacking them and safety to passengers.  

May 10. Germany admits Sussex was sunk in error and expresses regret. Submarine controversey regarded closed.

June 18. Austria-Hungary, in note to United States, defends submarine attack on the American S.S. Petrolite, December 5, 1915.  

July 9. German merchant liner Deutschland arrives.  

July 15. United States rules Deutschland is merchant submarine.  

February 1, 1917. Germany announces decision to abrogate pledges and turn loose submarines.  

February 2. President and Cabinet and members of Foreign Relations Committee in consultation. Signs of a break.

February 3. U. S. severs diplomatic relations with Germany; sends passports to Bernstorff and orders Gerard to lease Berlin.  

February 5. Congress ordered to prepare for emergency of war. Germany will not modify its U-boat orders.  

We doubt if there is any other record in all history of a tnaion showing such patience and consideration to another nation.  

The entrance of the United States into the war brought victory to the Allies. Whether acknowledged or not it was America that won the war. The Central powers were defeated.  

We shall not attempt to picture the increasing horrors of the world war, nor record the increasing sufferings of millions and the staggering increasing costs of the war. We want to look deeper.  

We believe in God, the supreme authority, not a blind principle, but a Being, who is the Governor, the Lord of nations. "It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in; that bringeth the princes to nothing; He maketh the judges of the earth as nothing" (Isa. xl:22-23). "Behold the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing" (verse 15). There is not only a revelation of God in creation, and the higher revelation in His Word, but there is a revelation of God in human history. The hand of God is seen in the affairs of the nations. He permits, He rules, He orders that His eternal counsel, His eternal purposes may be accomplished.  

And so the question comes: Why did God permit this war? That this World War had to serve some great purpose must be obvious, since God, the executor of His purposes, made before the foundation of the world, permitted it to come. We do not hesitate in saying that this World War was permitted to come so that the end of the "times of the Gentiles" might be ushered in, and the way be prepared for the political conditions of Gentile nations, especially the European nations, as predicted in the Bible. We cannot give these conditions in detail. The reader will find them fully explained in the author's "World Prospects." When the war started, we wrote to our friend, Sir Robert Anderson, K.C.B., once chief of Scotland Yard, a deep student of prophecy, as follows: "If this great war continues, as it will in all probability, and if it is preparing for the end of the age, it will end with a defeated Germany and result in a changed map of Europe." Sir Robert agreed to this fully. And so it came about.  

The funeral bells of our dying age began to toll with this war. Ages, too, like human beings, have lingering deaths. The political dying began and is still going on. The man in the street and the politician speak of the passing of the "old world order" and dream of a new order soon to appear. The Christian, who believes and knows the Bible, recognixes the passing of the age, and with it God is marching on in the execution of His purposes.  

Yes, God in His righteousness and wisdom permitted this world conflagration to humble man. A godless civilization filled with unrighteousness, with injustice and all kinds of abominations boasted of its great achievements. Foundations were laid with blood and cities established by iniquity (Hab. ii:12). An infidel science in arrogant pride denied everything, yet boasted of world progress and world prosperity. What God permitted to come was for man's humiliation, so that, perchance, he might turn to God, as Nebuchadnezzar did after the days of his degradation (Dan. iv). The war brought the proof that man had not progressed.  

Progress? Here is a minor incident of interest. An English soldier in digging a trench discovered a peculiarly shaped stone. It was used by him, tied to a stout stick, as a weapon, and many a youth was brained by the use of it. This soldier, on furlough, took this stone with him as a souvenir to England. He showed it to an antiquarian who also was a geologist. He informed him that the stone had been shaped some four thousand years before by a warrior who used it for the same purpose for which the English soldier had employed it. Such is your progress—ye evolutionists.  

But here is another significant purpose for which God permitted the Great War. As the "Times of the Gentiles" near their end, the nation of destiny must rise. That nation is Israel, God's chosen people. According to our Lord's prediction, Jerusalem was to be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Inasmuch as this great world war marked the beginning of the end of this Gentile age, Jerusalem had to come into prominence. The War was being carried towards its end nearer and nearer to Palestine. The British-Egyptian army in 1917 gained an important victory over the Turks at Rafa. Rafa is on the edge of the desert near the cultivated district of the Southern part of Palestine, more then 150 miles east of the Suez Canal and less than 70 miles from Jerusalem. The British had succeeded in crossing the desert nearing ancient Gaza and Beer-sheba. The British Egyptian army was on the march to Jerusalem, which had been heavily fortified with machine guns. The distress in Palestine and Syria was dreadful, thousands starving on all sides. Many Jews were in the British forces. One of them wrote as follows: "As I look from my tent, I can see on the East the blue hills of Judea stretching away to the horizon, and on the west the blue waters of the Mediterranean breaking along the coast as far as the eye can see. I foresee the day when the space between them will be covered with Jewish villages, and fertile fields stretching away up the Wady-el-Arish, the river of Egypt which was the boundary of the land promised to the patriarchs. From the mountains of Lebanon to the river of Egypt, that precious strip of country, it is there we have to make again one of the good countries of the earth, one of the hearths of civilization. The guidance of providence is manifest. For two thousand years there has been no such opportunity for the Jewish people to recover their heritage. Can we fail to respond to that guidance?"  

But as the British forces were nearing the city, fear was expressed that the Turks would wreck the city. In fact Tel Aviv had already been destroyed and a great massacre was feared. It did not happen. The capture of Jerusalem from the Turks shows God's hand in history. It was just as miraculous as many of the battles and deliverances recorded in Old Testament history. General Allenby, with his staff, entered the city and then bowed the knee in thanking God for the great and remarkable victory. On the day when this happened the Jews celebrated their feast "Chanukah," commemorating the cleansing of the temple after its profanation by Antiochus Epiphanes.  

After this remarkable event the end of the war seemed to have become the question of only a short time. It seems to the writer that the capture of Jerusalem was one of the great objectives of this war. The goal had been reached.  

And, lest we forget, let us remind ourselves of some of the beautiful and nice war slogans which were heard in the English-speaking countries and elsewhere. "It takes a great war to end war"—"The World must be made safe for Democracy"—"It shall never happen again"— "France has recovered her soul." We could add others including a famous one invented and adopted right after the war by the Christian Endeavor Societies, in 1920, we believe: "A war-less World in 1923." What has become of all these pet phrases? Has the world been made safe for democracy? Has the great war ended war? Has France recovered her soul? We find the answer in the world events of 1935 and long before.  

To trace the peace negotiations, the solution of the almost hopeless conditions left by the war, the different plans proposed, what took place at the "Peace Table" in which the late President Woodrow Wilson, with his famous fourteen points, participated, is next to impossible. Nor do we enter into a discussion of the Versailles Treaty with its elements of injustice and vindictiveness, nor can we give in full the constitution and aims of the "League of Nations". All were well meaning attempts to help the world out of its dreadful political, economic and financial condition and to bring order out of chaos. But we want to quote here the words of warning given by one of the signers of the Peace Treaty, General Smuts of England.  

"I signed the Peace Treaty, not because I consider it a satisfactory document, but because it is imperatively necessary to close the war; because the world needs peace above all else, and nothing could be more fatal than the continuance of the state of suspense between war and peace. The months since the armistice was signed, perhaps, have been as upsetting, unsettling and ruinous to Europe as the previous four years of war. I look upon the Peace Treaty as the close of these two chapters of war and armistice, and only on that ground do I agree to it.  

"I say this not in criticism, not because I wish to find fault with the work done, but rather because I feel that in the treaty we have not yet achieved the real peace to which our peoples were looking, and because I feel that the real work of making peace will only begin after this treaty has been signed, and a definite halt has thereby been called to the destructive passions that have been desolating Europe for nearly five years.  

"This treaty is simply a liquidation of the war situation in the world. There are guarantees laid down which we all hope will soon be found out of harmony with the new peaceful temper and unarmed state of our former enemies. There are punishments foreshadowed, over most of which a calmer mood may yet prefer to pass the sponge of oblivion. There are indemnities stipulated which cannot be exacted without grave injury to the industrial revival of Europe, and which it will be in the interests of all to render more tolerable and moderate.  

'The war resulted not only in the utter defeat of the enemy armies, but it has gone immeasurably farther. We witness the collapse of the whole political and economic fabric of Central and Eastern Europe. Unemployment, starvation, anarchy, war, disease and despair stalk through the land, and unless the victors can effectively extend a helping hand to the defeated and broken peoples a large part of Europe is threatened with exhaustion and decay. Russia has already walked into the night, and the risk that the rest may follow is very grave indeed.  

"The effects of this disaster would not be confined to Central and Eastern Europe, for civilization is one body, and we are all members of one another. The supreme necessity is laid on all to grapple with this situation. To the peoples of the United States and of the British Empire, who have been exceptionally blessed with the good things of life, I would make a special appeal. Let them exert themselves to the utmost in this great work of saving the wreckage of life and industry in Continental Europe. They have a great mission, and in fulfilling it they will be as much blessed as blessing.  

"All this is possible, and, I hope, capable of accomplishment, but only on two conditions. In the first place, the Germans must convince our peoples of their good faith, of their complete sincerity, through a real honest effort to fulfill their obligations under the treaty to the extent of their ability. Second, our Allied peoples must remember that God gave them overwhelming victory, victory far beyond their greatest dreams, not for small, selfish ends, not for financial or economic advantages, but for the attainment of the great human ideals for which our heroes gave their lives."  

"The League of Nations" was looked upon as a veritable Saviour. The idea of such a league was nothing new. Many statesmen of the past saw in such a league the only salvation of Europe, if not the whole world. Lord Salisbury, shortly before his death, said: "Federation is the only hope of Europe." Over a hundred years ago Napoleon I declared: "There must be one code, one court of appeal, and one coinage for Europe; the states of Europe must be united into one nation." And so the "League of Nations" became the hope of all hopes. A religious weekly of Great Britain said: "The only way out of war is by the establishment of this League of Nations; and it is to work of this kind that Christians of all people must set themselves." At the same time the Christian Herald, published in New York City, stated: "The federation of the world is not Utopian. It does not have to wait for the Millennium. It is practical just now. It is not necessary to "change human nature. All that is needed is to substitute law for violence." But what became of it all? Warnings of failure and disappointments were given by many. So we find among our clippings a paragraph from an address delivered by the President of Columbia University, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, who addressed the Commercial Club of Cincinnati in 1919.  

"There is turbulence not only in the world of events, but in the world of ideas. Loud and angry voices are raised on every hand, urging the overthrow of foundations of society and of the civilization it has taken three thousand years to build. Crude thinking accompanies unconsidered and hysterical action. Force, either military, economic or political, and not reasonableness or justice, is everywhere appealed to as the arbiter of differences. It is probable that the world is now further removed from peace and order than it was in November 11 when hostilities ceased."  

As all similar attempts, beginning with the "Holy Alliance" after the wars of Napoleon, the "League" contained the seeds of future strife.  

While all church leaders and religious periodicals tried to outdo each other in the praise and support of the "League of Nations" and efforts were made, the efforts which failed, to have the United States in that European League, some of the non-religious press called attention to a coming failure of the League. The American Lumberman, published in Chicago, had in May, 1919, the following true statements:

"'Man proposes, but God disposes,' and unless the League of Nations takes into account—not alone in words, but in spirit—the fact of God, it is foredoomed to failure, just as every previous plan and scheme of men to insure permanent peace has broken down under the pressure of national ambition, hatred, or avarice—traits that have not yet been banished from the world. There must be something more potent than bayonets or battleships, needful as both are under present world conditions, as the ultimate authority. Back of the citizen is the state— using the term in its broad sense—and back of the state, is, or will be, the League of Nations. (Back of the League must be God, if it is to endure.)  

"Are these idle words on a subject of little consequence? Listen to the Bolsheviki creed as recently stated by one Wicks, head of the so-called Soviet in Portland, Ore. 'Your democracy,' said he, 'is a lie; your liberty is a lie; your God is a lie.' One of the principal tenets of anarchy, Bolshevism, and every other such cancerous growth upon the body politic is and always has been repudiation of any responsibility to a Supreme Being."  

How true! God was left out. The representatives of the so-called "Christian" nations had no use for "God"—no use for Him, who is the "Prince of Peace". His name was unmentioned. Well, how could His Name be brought in, for here was a powerful heathen nation, Japan.  

Japan had been in the war and gained much through its participation in the war. She was even then the great menace of the Far East. What was done at the Peace Conference and Japan's entry into the "League of Nations" were but stepping stones towards her complete and future domination of the greater part of Asia.  

The following article appeared in June, 1919, in the New York Evening Sun. It makes helpful and interesting reading at this time.  

Settlement of the Japanese question is one of the biggest things accomplished at the Peace Conference. It means Japanese control of the Orient comparable only to American dominance of the Western Hemisphere.  

Japan and the United States are the two great victors in this war, each having sacrified little and gained much through participation in the victory. From the beginning the Japanese have been building steadily in a diplomatic way toward the result finally achieved in the Peace Conference. They used the weakness of the Entente and the collapse of Russia to extort, first from England and then from France, treaties recognizing Japan's reversionary rights to all German possessions in China and in the northern Pacific. They have used the same situation to obtain from the United States the Lansing-Ishii agreement recognizing Japan's superior interests in the Far East.  

Japan has now used President Wilson's need to get a League of Nations accepted to obtain a further and more explicit recognition of the same principle and to secure rights which Chinese say mean not merely domination of a province of 30,000,000 people, but also, through control of the railroad running from Fekin to Tientsin, the practical economic mastery of the great Chinese Empire. Granting of the port of Tsing-Tao to Japan and the control of the important railroad is slightly camouflaged by a provision for Chinese guards under Japanese direction.  

Undoubtedly this is a clear violation of the "fourteen points," but as a matter of fact President Wilson had little choice. The situation was as it always has been in the Orient. There was no way of stopping Japan's progress into China except by force of arms. Had the Peace Conference refused Japan's claims, Japan would undoubtedly have withdrawn from the Conference and entered China in defiance of the will of the Conference.  

Japan, as is well known, left the "League of Nations" and entered, and partially dismembered China. We write this in the summer of 1935 and another conflict between Japan and China is now threatening.  

We must pass by the different pacts and disarmament plans suggested and set in operation, yet unable to bring about rest among the restless nations, restless as the sea-waves.  

We must not overlook in this survey other world conditions immediately after the war. The Central powers were in a desperate condition. Millions were actually facing a slow starvation. Trade in Germany was practically at a standstill because little coal was available and raw materials had become scarce. Then the depreciation of the mark rendered all German Banks insolvent. Misery was not confined to Germany alone. It was even worse in Austria, Hungary, the Balkans and other nations. The unrest of the masses was felt in many countries and strikes upon strikes resulted. Chaos was everywhere and as 1919 passed and 1920 began, all looked darker than ever before. And to this must be added the sweep of epidemics which claimed more victims then the world-war. Yes, it was misery everywhere, almost hopeless.  

That which many hoped would come, a return to God, a revival of religion, did not materialize. Strange and yet not strange, there came a revival of Spiritism, a veritable craze to "ask the dead" which seemed to spread all through Europe. All the nations which had been at war were facing increasing lawlessness. Deeds of lawlessness and immoralities swept over many lands. This was true of France, Great Britain, Italy as well as Germany and the other nations, who had been at war.  

And now let us turn briefly to the United States. While all Europe was suffering from an increase of acts of lawlessness, the United States began immediately after the war to assume leadership in all crimes and forms of viciousness, a leadership which is still maintained. We heard much about "the awakened conscience of the people" but it certainly never came. Murder and self-murder increased at a frightful rate and prisons were overcrowded. Thefts, holdups, burglaries, crimes against women and little girls, divorces, became month after month more numerous. Strikes followed strikes and the general unrest increased. The steel strikes, textile strikes, coal strikes, printer's strikes and many others were directly traced to the foreign radicals, who with American perverts, who call themselves "citizens," aimed at the ruination and overthrow of the United States Government. Like vicious, unseen termites they kept at it, creating, as they still do, discontent and fomenting class hatred. As early as 1919 an attempt was made in Seattle to set up in the State of Washington a revolutionary government. It might have succeeded, if it had not been for courageous Mayor Hanson. There were great strikes in Butte, Montana, in New England, among the silk workers in New Jersey, and in many other places. The attempt was made by bombing outrages to create a nationwide terrorism. The situation became so serious that Attorney-General Palmer asked Congress for a half a million dollars to hunt these anarchists. The fight began then. It has not lessened. Danger was then, but today it is the over-towering menace of our country. The author wrote in October, 1919, about these conditions:  

Following closely upon the prolonged investigation of Bolshevism by the Overman Committee in Washington has come the appointment by the New York Legislature of a joint legislative committee, under the chairmanship of State Senator Clayton R. Lusk, aimed at seditions activities in New York State. One of the first acts of this committee has been to raid the office of the Russian Soviet Government Bureau in New York City, and to summon its head, Ludwig C. A. Martens, and his associates for inquiry. The recent national convention of the American Federation of Labor, under Samuel Gompers' leadership, has explicitly repudiflag and against "criminal syndicalism" are the order of the day in city council and state legislatures. Business men have been paying for the insertion of full-page advertisements against Bolshevism in leading newspapers. Papers have been started with the one object of combating Bolshevism. The American Defense Society and the National Security League consider it one of their most important functions to "stamp out Bolshevism." Governors, generals, mayors, and publicists of high and low degree have uttered their solemn warnings. "There is room in this country for but one flag, and that is the American flag," said Major-Gen. Leonard Wood in a recent address at Schenectady, New York. He continued: "Put down the Red flag. It stands for nothing which our Government stands for. It is against everything we have struggled for. It is against the integrity of the family, the state and the nation. It floats only where cowards are in power. It represents everything which we want to avoid. These are times of dangerous world psychology. The barriers between ordered government and chaos are down in some nations and trembling in others. Avoid the cankerous doctrines of the hour which are masquerading under the banner of 'liberal ideas and progress'."  

But what are we facing today?  

We must not forget the noble, well meant Prohibition amendment. It was heralded when it came as one of the greatest achievements of Christianity, when in reality it was nothing but a legislative measure. Religious leaders became almost fanatically enthusiastic. They declared that the salvation of society was now in sight. Hitherto they had labored for the salvation of some individuals. That had proved too slow a process. Now a big step had been done to save the masses. And so these rationalistic-modernistic preachers pushed aside the only power in the world to save Laws against the Red man, to lift him out of his place of moral degradation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and devoted their time to the upholding of National Prohibition. It was expected that all other nations would follow and ultimately the outlawing of intoxicating liquors would save the world.  

But what happened? Instead of less lawlessness, lawlessness increased. A new most vicious industry, "bootlegging," came into existence. Millions profited by this damnable traffic. The bootlegger produced all kinds of other criminals, notably the gangster and the kidnaper. All forms of crimes increased—burglaries, highway robberies, bank robberies, many leading to cold blooded murders. The erstwhile vicious saloon was followed by the doubly vicious "night club." The corruption of the young of both sexes followed. Drinking among them increased at a deplorable rate. But lawlessness was not confined to the bootlegger and his victims.  

The authorities in Washington, D. C, published some startling figures as to the agents entrusted with enforcing the dry legislation and prosecution of those who break it. In a few years 570 of these agents were found out to be law-breakers and criminals themselves. Of this number 102 were discharged, charged with extortion and bribery; 40 for conspiracy; 96 for misconduct; 36 for illegal contrivances; 44 for intoxication and 7 for assault. It is claimed that many more equally guilty succeeded in covering up their tracks.  

And what about the after-war religious conditions in the United States? Many godly Christians hoped and prayed for a nationwide revival which would save the country and swing it back. It has not come, nor will it come in the future. The onward rush into rationalism with its denials, the road which leads to atheism, has continued. It is like an avalanche in its destructive devastation.  

1 "Our Hope," September, 1914.  

2 When the war broke out the Czar made some very pronounced promises to the Jews living in his empire. He went so far as to address them as "My beloved Jews." But everybody knew they were but empty words. His tactics were inspired by the fear that the five million Jews might plan a revolution and hinder his military operations.