Dread of the Muscovite does not seem to Americans a reasonable
explanation of the present actions of Germany and Austria-Hungary,
except so far as irrational panic can be said to be an explanation.
Against possible, though not probable, Russian aggression, a firm
defensive alliance of all Western Europe would be a much better
protection than the single might of Germany. It were easy to imagine
also two new "buffer" States--a reconstructed Poland and a Balkan
Confederation. As to French "revenge," it is the inevitable and
praiseworthy consequence of Germany's treatment of France in 1870-71.
The great success of Germany in expanding her commerce during the last
thirty years makes it hard for Americans to understand the hot
indignation of the Germans against the British because of whatever
ineffective opposition Great Britain may have offered to that expansion.
No amount of commercial selfishness on the part of insular England can
justify Germany in attempting to seize supreme power in Europe and
thence, perhaps, in the world.
Finally, Americans hope and expect that there will be no such fatal
issue of the present struggle as the destruction or ruin of the German
Nation.
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