The day book. [volume], August 29, 1914, LAST EDITION, Image 30

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
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quire me to talk to you of your own
interests. If England were to be re
duced in this war, or another which
would be sure to follow from it, if
this war were inconclusive, to the
position of a small country like Hol
land, then, however far across the
salt water your country may lie, the
burden which we are bearing now
would fall on to your shoulders.
"I do not mean by that that Ger
many would attack you, or that if
you were attacked you would need to
fear the result so far as the United
States was concerned. The Monroe
doctrine, however, carries you very
far, in South as well as North.Amer
ica, and is it likely that victorious
German militarism, which would then
have shattered France irretrievably,
have conquered Belgium and have
broken forever the power of Eng
land, would allow itself to be per
manently cut off from all hopes of
that oversea expansion and develop
ment with which South America
alone can supply it?
"Now the impact is on us. Our
blood which flows in your veins
should lead you to expect that we
shall be stubborn enough to bear that
impact. But if we go down and are
swept in ruin into the past, you are
the next in line.
"This war is4 for us a war of honor,
of respect for obligations into which
we have entered and of loyalty to
ward friends in desperate need. But
now that it has begun, it has become
a war of self -preservation. The Brit
ish democracy, with its limited mon
archy, its ancient parliament, its ar
dent social and philanthropic dreams,
is engaged for good or for ill in dead
ly grapple with the formidable might
of Prussian autocratic rule.
"It is our system of civilization and
government against theirs. It is our
life or theirs.
"We are conscious of the greatness
of the times. We recognize the con
sequence and proportion of events.
We feel that, however inadequate we
may be, however unexpected the or
deal may be, we are under the eye of
history.
"And the issue being joined, Eng
land must go forward to the very
end."
While I was speaking to Mr.
Churchill, a telegram came in from
Belgium announcing the total de- (J
struction of the town of Louvain as
an act of military execution. Handing
it to me, he said:
"What further proof is needed of
the cause at issue? Tell that to your
American fellow countrymen.
"You know," he added, "I am half
American myself."
New York, Aug. 29. Declaring
that the statement of Winston
Churchill, first lord of the British ad
miralty, was based on a wrong prem
ise and calling it merely another ef
fort to deceive the American people,
Count Von Bernstorff, the German
ambassador to the United States, to
day gave the United Press the follow
ing reply to Churchill:
"Mr. Churchill, who is largely re
sponsible for the war and who is
known to have proposed an attack on
the German fleet before the war had
begun, is certainly not a fair author
ity in the case. Mr. Churchill's appeal
to the American people is based on
the entirely wrong assumption of a
separation between the emperor and
the so-called military aristocracy of
Germany on the one hand, and the
German people on the other.
"This assumption is all wrong.
It is proved so by the fact that the
German socialist democrats voted the
credits in parliament for war and the
leader of the German socialist demo
crats arose in parliament and said:
" 'We have always" been against
war, but since our country has been
attacked by the worst autocrat the
world knows, we stand with one mind
with all the rest of the German peo
ple.' "In striking contrast to this atti
tude of the German socialists, the in-
i dependent labor leader of England,