Title: America's Black and White Book: One Hundred Pictured Reasons Why We Are At War
Author: W. A. Rogers
Release date: November 29, 2014 [eBook #47484]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Martin Mayer, Greg Bergquist and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
One Hundred Pictured Reasons
WHY WE ARE AT WAR
CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY
NEW YORK
Copyright, 1917, by
The New York Herald Company
All Rights Reserved
NUMBER
Each government engaged in the European War has issued a White, Green, Blue or Yellow Book, explaining the causes which led to its entry into the great conflict.
These books are all interesting, and are full of valuable documentary information; but, if the busy people of America are to understand the reasons for their own participation in the war, some shorter cut to the desired end must be devised.
We, therefore, offer a BLACK AND WHITE BOOK, in which our nation's reasons for going to war are set forth in pictures, a universal language which can be read at a glance by any one who has eyes to see.
On August 1st, 1914, we were at peace with all the world. We were bound by ties of blood to every race on earth.
Particularly close and intimate were our relations with the German people, whom we welcomed to our shores as among our most desirable citizens.
Then, far away from us, apart from our interests or concerns—like a tragedy being played on the other side of the footlights—broke the frightful war of 1914. We looked on fascinated, but not convinced of the reality of its cruelty.
For a little over eight months we watched it, when, on April 22nd, 1915, there appeared in the New York papers an advertisement stating that the great passenger ship “LUSITANIA” would sail on the 7th of May for Liverpool.
In the next column, in equally conspicuous type, appeared a sinister warning to Americans, telling them to keep off the seas at peril of their lives. This was signed, “IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY, Washington, D. C.”
On May 7th came the fulfilment of the threat, and we awoke to the fact that we were not an audience looking at a tragedy, but the victims of the tragedy itself.
Not until then was it brought home to us that our good German friends, whom we thought we knew so well, had been inoculated with the virus of a Junker madness, and that we were dealing with a people who had cast from them every restraint of fair fighting and had become the outlaw nation of the world.
In the following pictures the Artist has attempted to show “Why we are at war.”
—W. A. ROGERS.
With Junker thoroughness, Dr. Bernhard Dernberg had been sent here to suggest excuses for the brutal assassination of Belgium.
The first woman to fall a victim to the “U” boat piracy was a stewardess on an English merchant ship sunk without warning in 1914.
The Rheims Cathedral belonged to the world. The product of hundreds of years of consecrated labor, its destruction by a nation devoted to “Kultur” is one of the primary reasons why we are at war.
The blackest count in the indictment against Germany is foreshadowed in the warning by the Imperial German Embassy at Washington to all Americans, of the crime which was to follow on May 7th, 1915.
On May 7th, 1915, by order of the Imperial German Government, a “U” boat torpedoed the great ship Lusitania without warning, drowning over 1,200 passengers. A sea crime unequaled by any pirate known to history.
Immediately after the sinking of the Lusitania, hired perjurers swore that the ship carried guns on her forward deck when she sailed from the port of New York.
Germany with brazen stupidity insisted on being told the facts—facts which she knew in far greater detail than did the Government of the United States.
A few days after the crime of May 7th, the Count Von Bernstorff requested an audience with the President.
He understood he was to see the President alone.
Dr. Bernhard Dernberg became exceedingly tiresome with his hypocritical professions of affection for the Belgians. His propaganda was effective but not in the way he intended.
“We Germans love the Belgians, who were forced into the war.” —Dr. Dernberg.
If the Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm really said what he is credited with: “This is the most stupid, senseless and unnecessary war of modern times,” he accurately described his father's masterpiece.
In the early months of the war the plain people of the United States invaded Belgium. This lack of “Kultur” was not criticised by the Belgians.
In the autumn of 1914 the German Government issued a poster representing a 42 c. m. shell on which was piously inscribed, “Mit Gott fur Konig und Vaterland.”
It is a singular fact, attested by many photographs, that in the battered interiors of a number of Cathedrals within the war zone, figures of Christ, unharmed, still hold their places.
Official Germany has reported that the busy “U” boat Commander sometimes desists from firing on life boats long enough to reel off a moving picture of his drowning victims.
A strong effort was being made in May, 1915, to persuade the United States Government that England was equally guilty with Germany in ignoring our rights at sea.
The German dearly loves a masquerade. Mr. Bartholdt was parading the “German Vote” in Congress in January, 1915, with the idea of “Throwing a scare into Uncle Sam.”
The semi-official Cologne Gazette added insult to injury when it characterized the one hundred and twenty-five American men, women and children lost on the “Lusitania,” as “Those Flippant Americans.”
“THOSE FLIPPANT AMERICANS, who were drowned on the Lusitania.”—Cologne Gazette.
The Kaiser invited the “unspeakable Turk” to help subjugate the barbarians of England, France and Italy.
The United States was swarming with German spies and assassins whose activities seemed to have a center in the German Embassy at Washington.
Little children playing on the quiet greens of peaceful English villages seemed to be the favorite targets of the Zeppelin fleet.
The hosts of “Kultur” seemed to take particular delight in the destruction of the monuments of Gothic grandeur in Belgium and France.
As the war went on, the heroism and devotion of the Red Cross nurse seemed to shine out with a lustre which quite eclipsed the glitter of military decorations.
Heroic Belgium, crushed beneath the gross bulk of bloated Junkerdom, still held his sword in hand, ready to strike again for freedom.
German soldiers whose hands were red with the blood of Belgian mothers, posed for official photographs to be used for American propaganda, showing them feeding little Belgian children.
One of those touching pictures of a German soldier feeding little Belgium.
After the campaigns of Lemberg and Przemysl, the Kaiser intimated to Washington that the War was about over; and it would be well, in the interests of peace, to FORGET THE “LUSITANIA.”
Count Von Bernstorff continued to “play horse” with Uncle Sam, while Dumba, Von Papen and Boy-Ed looked on with ill-concealed contempt at “the idiotic Yankees.”
In contrast to the violation of our hospitality by Counts Von Bernstorff and Dumba in America, Brand Whitlock, our ambassador in Belgium, spent his time in relieving the distress in that distracted country.
Mr. Bryan, in the disguise of a pacifist, was consciously or unconsciously playing the role assigned him by the Imperial German Embassy at Washington.
Ambassador Dumba, having accumulated sufficient rope, hanged himself at last. His hat as well as his passports were handed him by the President.
One bomb plot succeeded another; leaving a slimy trail that always led back to the German Embassy at Washington.
Before a wrecked Cathedral window in France, from which the Mother and Child still looked down in silent protest, a young German recruit might well ask, “Is God still with us?”
In September, 1915, the Count Von Bernstorff extended the olive branch to the Government of the United States, while Von Tirpitz backed him up with a gun.
Von Bethmann-Hollweg was urged by the German Embassy in Washington to patch up any old assurances and send them over as Uncle Sam was becoming extremely restless.
Certain that Verdun would fall, the Kaiser had predicted that the war would end in October, 1915. As September closed, the Crown Prince's army was being shot to pieces.
It looked as though the German Army was spread over too much territory—faced too many fronts to be effective!
The “Ancona” was sunk with great loss of life, and the German Government immediately claimed that an Austrian “U” boat was responsible, their attitude being that any story was good enough for “those idiotic Yankees.”
In the autumn of 1915, “The Friends of Peace” hung their white robes over plots of assassination, arson, piracy and the destruction of ships and munition plants.
Under our feet the Prussian spy system was working day and night. It was hard to take a step in Washington without sticking your foot on a spiked helmet.
The people of the United States were beginning to think we had had enough of German aggression, and it was felt that a strong stand must be made for the national dignity and honor.
In November, 1915, Mr. Henry Ford had an idea “wished on him” by an Austrian lady who was lecturing in this country. She succeeded in making a spectacle of him, at which Uncle Sam was uncertain whether to laugh or weep.
When the country, in December, 1915, was at the height of distraction, with plots against its peace and security being carried out in every direction, President Wilson came out with a message on Preparedness for War.
Immediately before Christmas the German Government once more sent us assurances of her high regard and friendship, meanwhile blowing up a few ships at sea and munition plants on land.
Many young Americans were at the front, driving their ambulances into the line of fire. Even Christmas night found them abroad on their errands of mercy.
With one hand passing out checks to Von Papen to pay for dynamite, and the other carrying assurances to the White House of Germany's good faith and friendship, Count Von Bernstorff was fairly busy.
Treasonable plots were becoming more and more unbearable. It was thought that the breaking point was very near.
The U. S. Consul to Aden, travelling on the business of his government, was the victim of a “U” boat attack in the Mediterranean. This occurred very near the spot where we drove the Barbary pirates from the seas a hundred and ten years ago.
The expedition in which the U. S. Marines distinguished themselves one hundred and ten years ago was brought to mind by the piracy of 1916.
The Barbary Pirates—We cleaned them out 110 years ago and we may have to do it again.
With characteristic effrontery Germany and Austria disclaimed responsibility for the death of our consul to Aden, blaming it on the Turks.
In FeburaryFebruary, 1916, the newspaper offices were being
bombarded with stories from “a source near the German
Embassy.” —“What Mr. Lansing thinks,”
“Washington agrees with Berlin,” “What the President
believes,” etc., etc.
In the Place d'Iéna in Paris stands a statue of Washington. Within sight of this monument an old man and a little child were killed, the only victims of an air raid by German “Taubes.”
Von Bernstorff, hoping that the “Lusitania” was buried forever, was busy with assurances of regret. His principal hope being that she might “Rest in Peace.”
Mr. Bryan, to the disgust of all decent Americans, made a plea to his countrymen to bow to the will of Germany and keep off the seas entirely.
It was asserted and has never been denied, by the German Government, that the Kaiser decorated the commander of the “U” boat which sank the Lusitania.
Verdun had become a slaughter house. To save the tottering prestige of the Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm, whole German battalions were sacrificed in vain efforts to break down the French defense.
Von Tirpitz was said to have expressed deep sorrow for the women and children he had been compelled to kill. (As well, perhaps, as for those whom he was to kill on the morrow.)
The Junker Pirates, having filled the sea with little lost children, torpedoed a hospital ship and sent down into the deep a score of Red Cross nurses to keep them company.
In the face of a sea campaign of “Frightfulness,” Von Jagow came out with a statement that “Piracy no longer exists.” But something just as good was “made in Germany.”
In a safe of one Von Igel were found documents of the most incriminating nature. Count Von Bernstorff was given opportunity to claim them as official papers if he so desired.
Junker impudence in the German Embassy at Washington had reached its highest point. Even Count Von Bernstorff realized that he had gone the very limit with our State Department.
When the German Ambassador protested against the deportation of his chief lieutenants for their activities in plots against our peace and safety, he was warned that his own position was none too secure.
“Please observe, Mr. Ambassador, that you are pretty close to the edge yourself.”
Making a virtue, perhaps, of necessity, the German Government announced, in February, 1916, that “from now on it would make no forward movement.” Events since have proved how well it realized its true condition.
In June, 1916, Wilhelm II, peering out from behind Heligoland, where his ships had rusted for two years, declared himself “Admiral of the Atlantic.”
The “Deutschland,” a cargo submersible craft, sent over for reasons best known to the German Admiralty, was extremely mysterious as to her cargo for the return trip.
It was stated in a cable from Amsterdam, that, by the Kaiser's direct personal order, issued about three weeks after the first attack on Verdun, to the Court painter, a great historical painting was to be made, called “The Triumph of the Hohenzollerns.” Accordingly the painter, with costumes, horses, models, and a corps of photographers and assistants, mobilized his forces on an eminence overlooking Verdun.
Junkerdom could never understand why all German-born American citizens, or American citizens of German blood did not immediately rally to the flag of Germany against the forces fighting for the liberty of the world.
Germany was ready to talk about restricting “U” boat activity as long as we would listen to her; but the sound of riveting machines in her shipyards was her real answer.
While Von Bethmann-Hollweg was talking of Germany's desire for peace and a cessation of slaughter, Germany was making every preparation for a renewal, more ruthless than ever, of undersea warfare.
While her soldiers were driving Belgian civilians into slavery in Germany, Von Bethmann-Hollweg was issuing such beautiful sentiments as the following: “Conscious of their responsibility before God, before their own nations and before Humanity.”
An American-German (not a German-American) said in an interview in December, 1916, that Germany's Peace Proposals had broken the ice.
Everybody in the world had heard of the German Peace Proposals, supposed to have been sent out by the Kaiser, but nobody had been allowed to see them.
The Kaiser and Von Tirpitz were much happier in announcing a new campaign of Intensive Frightfulness than when endorsing the hypocritical peace proposals of Von Bethmann-Hollweg.
The retreat of the German Army in northeastern France will be remembered as one of the blackest pages in Junker history.
It stirred the indignation of the whole world.
Blinded by the glitter of fifty years of militarism, the German peasant now finds himself the bearer of a crushing burden.
His case is not helped by the diplomacy which guides him.
On February 1st the German Admiralty with the utmost deliberation raised the black flag of piracy against the entire world, declaring that all vessels of whatever description would be sunk on sight if they approached European waters.
By the end of February, 1917, the President and the people of the United States were in a state of indignation that could not much longer be controlled.
They had exchanged “watchful” for “wrathful” waiting.
Junker impudence finally overreached itself. When the United States was informed that it could send one ship striped like a zebra to Falmouth each week, American patience suddenly came to an end.
THE ONLY ANSWER:
Kaiser: “One day in the
week you may go to Falmouth.”
Uncle Sam: “Seven days
in the week you may go to ----!”
The President addressed a request to Congress for power to arm merchant vessels for protection against German piracy.
Two little children, born almost under the shadow of the Hall of Independence in Philadelphia, were murdered at sea in the new campaign of “Frightfulness.”
The feeling of America for devasteddevastated
Belgium was shown in the action of the Rocky Mountain Club, which gave
the million dollars collected for a club house in New York, to the
Homeless Belgians.
An American merchant ship was sunk, carrying down a score of American sailors. Not a single child in the lot. The price of “Frightfulness” seemed wasted.
Many things done by the Germans in the heat and frenzy of war will be forgiven, but in the days and years to come the murder of the sick and wounded and the devoted women of the Red Cross on Hospital ships will be beyond human forgiveness.
Mr. Carranza showed signs of having fallen under strong German influence.
He seemed inclined to adopt the goose-step at Tampico.
The tension in public feeling was suddenly relieved by the revelations of a plot in which Germany and Mexico were to offer a full partnership to Japan in return for an attack on our southwestern border. It caused a roar of laughter from Washington to Tokio and back.
Through all the hideousness of war shone the light of the Red Cross. A fund for this great enterprise of humanity of one hundred and fourteen million dollars was raised in the United States in a week.
The Kaiser's plan for “Getting the boys out of the Trenches” in Eastern France was almost as naive as Mr. Henry Ford's plan of two years ago, and much more effective.
The fate of the Romanoffs must have been most disturbing to the peace of mind of the Hohenzollern family. The torch of Liberty arose “Like Thunder”" across the seas.
England, France, Russia, Italy and the United States recognized that the Junker menace to the world must be thoroughly crushed before Peace could ever return to the world.
Prussia at last realized that the United States could no longer be cajoled. Austria was therefore advised to give up all pretense of friendliness and come out into the open as a foe to America.
The “pacifists” were bending every endeavor to induce the American Government to bow down in craven acquiescence to the restrictions of Berlin on Ocean travel.
It was discovered that German money was paying a great part of the expenses of the Pacifist Party.
The Pacifists were willing to take the money, but objected to being found out.
A “U” boat was reported at work off the Port of New York. This proved of considerable value to the recruiting sergeants.
Germany set a trap beautifully baited with honeyed words for the Russian bear.
It looked for a time as though the Bear would be caught.
There seemed to be a lack of realization on the part of many Americans that war was actually coming our way and that in the German programme, “we were next.”
Perhaps Prussia builded better than she knew when she carved out a heroic wooden figure to represent her hero, Von Hindenburg.
The Von Hindenburg Line was constantly nearing Berlin.
Uncle Sam took command of one of the most powerful branches of his Industrial Army—the Railroads. They swore allegiance to the Flag.
Admiral Fiske advocated going after the submarines with hydro-aeroplanes armed with torpedoes and guns.
Congress was urged to provide a great fleet of the aero craft.
The Hohenzollern family were beginning to realize that the day of Divine Right was nearing its end. They were gathering at the feet of “Old Fritz” for their swan song.
When the Russian loosened his hold on the Junker Beast, a situation loomed up that called for all the resolution and resourcefulness of the remaining allies.
The United States Marine Corps, true to its traditions, was in the forefront of Uncle Sam's entry into the arena of the World's War.
When France presented the United States with the great Statue of Liberty, which stands at our gates, she little thought how powerful that symbol of her friendship would some day prove.
By its shining light we now march to her aid.
Transcriber's Note
| Cartoon Number | As Printed | As Corrected |
|---|---|---|
| 49 | Feburary | February |
| 79 | devasted | devastated |
