America Fallen!. John Bernard Walker

as the time and circumstance may demand, we are to found a colony or colonies in South America, it will be necessary to clear the air by disposing, once and for all, of that curious fiction which has come to be known as the 'Monroe Doctrine.' The peculiar claims set forth therein by the United States have been described as 'the most magnificent bluff in all history and, so far, the most successful.' But you and I know, and it is known in all the chancellories of Europe, that the bravado has been successful only by our sufferance, and because the great problems of Europe, for which the late war has been fought, called for more pressing solution.

      "I have spoken of the 'Monroe Doctrine' as a fiction—perhaps I had better have described it as composed of many ​fictions, not the least among which has been the belief that back of this policy lay the strength of the British fleet. I know not with certainty how much of truth there has been in that assumption; but, thanks to the work of our plenipotentiary at Geneva, an understanding, secret and supplementary to the general treaty, was reached with the British representative, by which, in consideration of our withdrawal from the Euphrates Valley (which the collapse of the Turkish Empire has rendered less attractive to German enterprise than it was), Great Britain pledges herself to a neutral attitude on the 'Monroe Doctrine,' except so far as it affects her own North American possessions.

      "With the fleet of Great Britain eliminated as an element in the problem, it becomes possible for Germany, as I shall show you later, to achieve, through the instrumentality of her fleet, a feat of arms ​which, in a swift series of operations, shall restore our naval and military prestige in the eyes of the German people, demolish for all time the 'Monroe Doctrine,' and transfer from the shoulders of Germany to those of the United States of America the burden of the fifteen-billion-dollar indemnity, imposed upon us by the Treaty to which, only yesterday, we appended our signature.

      "I have said that the war has added to our military prestige—I will go further and say that, in the eyes of all the world, and particularly among those who follow the profession of arms, our military prestige has been immeasurably increased. We set out to fight the two greatest military powers, next to ourselves; and alone we would have crushed them utterly. As the event has proved, Germany and Austria found themselves confronted by the embattled hosts of no less than ten nations. ​Nevertheless, we carried the war into the enemy's territory, and, so far as Germany is concerned, we presented an impregnable wall, which was finally pierced, only by overwhelming numbers, and, thanks largely to our American friends, by a preponderance of artillery against which even the indomitable soldiers of Germany could not prevail.

      "It is only by the mass of the German people that these things are not well understood. We, of the ruling class, you will remember, told the people, brought up as they were to believe in the absolute invincibility of the German army, that within a month of the declaration of war we should be in Paris and within two months in St. Petersburg. Instead, they have seen that army arrested, held fast, and finally thrown back in defeat upon its own borders. The Socialists of Germany, working upon the minds of a defeated and ​discouraged people, are laying the blame for this disaster upon the shoulders of the very class which has made Germany what it is. We, it is, who have made the German Empire and given to it the only system of government which, bearing in mind the century-long training and peculiar temperament of its people, can maintain it intact amid the powerful and jealous nations of Europe, and carry it forward to the greater future that awaits it.

      "The prestige of the army and navy and the confidence of the people in its ruling class can be restored only by some swift and brilliant feat of arms—and in view of the rapidly augmenting strength of the Socialistic upheaval, that feat of arms cannot be performed too soon.

      "The United States, as you are well aware, has recently reaffirmed the 'Monroe Doctrine' by definite Congressional action, forbidding the acquisition by any ​alien power of harbors or coaling stations which are located within striking distance of the Panama Canal, and which might serve as a base for hostile operations in the Caribbean.

      "That, gentlemen, is a clear and bold—I had almost said defiant—expression of one of the most important among the great foreign policies which the United States, since the period of the Spanish War, has adopted and proclaimed to the world in no unmeasured terms. In addition to the 'Monroe Doctrine' I have but to refer to their championship of the 'Open Door' in China, to the matter of the exclusion of the Asiatics, and to the construction and fortification of the Panama Canal; which great work and the Caribbean, as I foresee it, in the future naval wars of the New World, will be what Gibraltar and the Mediterranean were to the contending navies of the ​eighteenth century. The ultimate entry of the great republic of the Western Hemisphere into the field of world politics was, of course, inevitable; but that this entrance would be marked by the adoption of a line of policies so bold as these, involving the possibility, nay the certainty, of conflict sooner or later with the great naval and military powers of the world, I, for one, was not prepared to believe.

      "Had there been in the United States that intimate and well-balanced relationship and co-operation between the diplomatic and the naval and military services which obtains in Germany, the growth of these ambitious policies would have been marked by a commensurate growth of the military and naval forces of the country. This co-operation, as you are well aware, has been conspicuously absent. The United States Congress, always fearful and jealous of what it is pleased to term ​'militarism,' has failed to listen to the warnings of its military advisers; with the result, to-day, that it is endeavoring to support a line of first-class international policies with a third-class navy, and with military forces which are so insignificant that, in the eyes of a first-class military nation, they may be regarded as practically negligible. The burden of responsibility for these conditions lies not upon the naval and military advisers of Congress, but upon Congress itself; which, as our ambassadors have from time to time informed us, does not hesitate to play politics with matters which involve the very life and death of the nation itself.

      "Should the blow which Germany, in the hour of her dire need, is about to strike against the United States lead that great country to a realization of the necessity at all times for proper naval and military preparedness, the regret which I and ​Germany feel at having to break our friendly relations with a country with which we have always lived in perfect amity, will be tempered by the thought that, out of her temporary loss she will reap a future gain of inestimable benefit.

      "It is noteworthy that our swift descent upon that great country could not be carried out with any reasonable hope of success, had the United States Congress but given heed to the words of its first soldier-president which were spoken, if my memory serves me well, in his first annual address. 'To be prepared for war,' said Washington, 'is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace. A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite.'"

      The Kaiser ceased speaking and, turning to the Foreign Secretary, he said: "Von Jagow, have you had the necessary ​conversations with the Danish minister, and have you requested him to be present?"

      "The conversations were eminently satisfactory, your Majesty. The Danish minister is in the anteroom and awaits your commands."

      "Send for him," said the Kaiser.

      The Danish minister entered, and he was no sooner seated than the Kaiser, without any preliminaries, abruptly asked, "What sum do you name as the purchase price of the island of St. Thomas in the West Indies?"

      "Twenty-five million dollars, your Majesty," said the minister.

      "We will give you that sum for the island," said the Kaiser. "The only stipulation is that you shall pledge yourself to secrecy, leaving it to Germany to announce, at such time as may seem best, the transfer of the island. Here are the necessary ​papers, and if you will affix your signature the transfer can be consummated here and now."

      The Danish minister smiled, took the pen, signed the documents, and, after the customary felicitations, withdrew.

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      III

      AN UNDEFENDED TREASURE LAND