Awake! U. S. A. Are we in danger? Are we prepared?

Dedication

Dedicated to every man and woman who is uplifted and inspired — not by the example of Peter who, as the cock crew, bought 'peace at the price of denying his Master' — but by the spirit and sacrifice of Saint Peter suffering martyrdom under Nero at Rome.

CONTENTS Part One: Are We in Danger?

CHAPTER PAGE

Part One: Are We In Danger?

DOES not the home and family exist for the purpose of protecting and providing for the children?

And does not the nation and government exist for the protection and welfare of its citizens?

Just as a father will steal — even kill — to secure food for his starving children, so a nation will levyindemnities — even make war — to keep its people from industrial starvation.

There are three hungry nations in the world — and only three.

The three hungry nations are : Germany, Japan and Great Britain, They are significantly and remarkably alike in the density of their population, their lack of areal resources, and their needs of international revenue. Each is, from a commercial standpoint, an isolated empire. Great Britain and Japan are isolated by water, while Austria-Germany is completely surrounded by industrial enemies.

The people of Great Britain as well as the people of Germany and Japan are industrially hungry because they have not sufficient materials at home. For centuries their farmers have tilled the meagre soil and eaten the heart out of their lands; their miners have drilled into the earth and have taken away its treasures, the axes of their woodmen have sounded over the land and the virgin forests have vanished.

Their people are hungry for food ; their factories are hungry for the raw products of the soil and the minerals of the earth; their ships are hungry for the trade of other nations ; their banks are hungry for over-sea tolls. They must have nutriment for their people, materials for their factories, products to fill the holds of their merchant marines and international tolls to fill the cofifers of their banks.

Great Britain is hungry, but Germany and Japan are starving — it is necessary to arrest this process of starvation or die.

They are hungry and starving not only for new areal resources, but they are hungry even for lands upon which their people may live. In Germany and Japan the average number of people living on each square mile is ten times the number in the United States and forty times the average in South America. Of the world powers, Germany, Japan and Great Britain are the three most densely populated countries.

Oifle |i

Russia m .

U.SA. turn

(hfna

Qennany

When we think of a densely populated country our minds turn to China, yet the average number of people to each square mile in Germany is 250 per cent, more than the average number of people to each square mile in China ; in Japan 230 per cent, more ; in Great Britain 370 per cent, more ; and in England alone 620 per cent. more. Area data are taken from the "Century Atlas," 1914 edition, with exception of the data for Bulgaria and Servia, whose areas are given as they existed at the close of the Second Balkan War. Population data are taken from the "Century Atlas" (1914), from the "World Almanac" (1916), from "Statesman's Year Book" (1915), from "Government Reports of U. S. A.," from "Official Reports of European Governments," and from "Revue Statistique de I'Empire du Japon" (1915)-

(1) Population and area of Continental U. S,

(2) Including Manchuria, Mongolia.

(3) Not including Korea, Formosa.

TA AWAKE! U. S. A.

When we think of a densely populated country, we think of China! Yet the number of people per square mile in Japan is 230% greater than in China; the number of people per square mile in Germany is 250% greater ; in Great Britain, 370% greater, and in England alone, 620% greater.

Germany and Japan are the only densely populated countries in the world having no considerable colonial territory to which their citizens can migrate. Russia has immense territories to the East ; she is not even as densely populated as the United States. All northern Africa — Tripoli, Algiers, Morocco — are open to the people of Italy, France and Spain. Norway and Sweden are not densely populated.

The German nationalities have lived upon their lands for more than ten centuries; the English have depleted English soil for a thousand years; the Japanese have been exhausting their lands for six thousand years.

In one respect Great Britain is essentially different from Germany and Japan. Great Britain has millions of square miles of colonial territory and for that reason has outside resources to draw from and outlying territories to which her people may migrate. Great Britain has millions of square miles of colonial territory and three hundred million colonial population. Great Britain has abundant areal resources in her colonial possessions. Great

U.JA I"

HomeAFcal Resources n

C/i/Je

Bpoz/J f2)

Ar^enf/ne

Bolivjo

Germany Japan

GrBrita/n i

1. Areal resources of Continental United States only.

2. Reduced 27 per cent, to make allowance for lands uninhabitable and at present of little commercial value.

Britain has abundant trade with the people of her own colonies. There is little danger, therefore, that Great Britain would ever make war upon us for the purpose of acquiring our territory or securing our trade unless we seriously interfered with her trade with her own colonies.

There arc two great storehouses of wealth — North and South America — eleven million square miles of land — ^grazing meadows, cereal lands, virgin forests, mineral riches — to supply the needs of this century.

These storehouses are filled with everything the starving nations need. The per capita areal resources of the United States alone are eleven times the per capita areal resources of Germany, Japan or Great Britain. Moreover, the areal resources of the three hungry nations have been worked over, dug out, depleted and exhausted for a thousand years.

And if the Americas refuse to allow themselves to be politely robbed by commercial dictation — then the starving nations will fight. They will attempt to compel the Americas by force of arms, if necessary, to give up the wealth of their storehouses — they will attempt by war to force the Americas to pay commercial tribute for generations to come.

They will do so because areal resources are essentially important as the basis of wealth. Banking wealth depends upon commerce; commerce upon manufacturing; manufacturing upon the materials obtained from animals living upon the products of the land, from vegetation grown upon it, or from chemicals and minerals taken from it.

Individually labour is an equally important basis of wealth, but differences in the riches of different nations depend upon differences in the area! resources. The quality of labour does not vary greatly enough to vitally change national values. The German, the Englishman, the American, the Japanese labourer are each efficient — each has proved it by centuries of existence.

Are there storehouses other than the Americas?

Other lands may have been the storehouses of wealth in other centuries and still other lands may be the storehouses of wealth in centuries to come; but for the twentieth century. North and South America are and will be the areal resources of wealth of the world.

The comparison of the great areal resources of the Americas to those of Great Britain, Germany and Japan, as indicated by the chart — "Areal Resources at Home" — tells respectively but half the story of the differences in value.

Considering the density of population, the real value of areal resources to the hungry nations can be truly judged only by a comparison of their home areal resources per person with the "Home Areal Resources of Bach Inhabitant" in the Americas.

HOME AREAL RESOURCES OF EACH INHABITANT

The true value of the areal wealth of a nation depends upon two factors; first, on whether or not it is largely virgin territory, unexhausted by having supported millions of people for hundreds of thousands of years; and, second, upon the number of people living upon the lands. The home areal resource of each inhabitant of Germany, Japan and Great Britain is infinitely small; first, because there are many millions of people living upon tiny bits of land; and, second, because the land in each case has been exhausted — its minerals mined, its forests cut, its soil depleted by a thousand years of occupancy.

On the other hand, we have just begun to open up the vast areal wealth of the United States; while that of Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia is much of it as yet untouched.

Home Areal Resources to Eacti Inhabitant

Bolivjo

Brazil

THE GIGANTIC DEBT

April First, 1916

These figures of the debts of the nations at war indicate only the loans, war credits and treasury bills ; they do not indicate the enormous loss of property, the gigantic financial loss due to interference with industries.

On the other hand, the national debts of the American nations indicate a proportionally greater burden than they should. They do not indicate the increasing prosperity, the increase in gold, the increasing international commerce, the increase of new industries, and the increase in ability to meet obligations. It is seen that the combined debt of the nations at war is nearly 927 per cent, greater than the combined debt of all the American nations and nearly 1661 per cent, greater than the combined debt of all the neutral European nations.

Who Will Pay Ihe Di^anlicDebt

$ 60'5'35000,000'DGbfofAlINarions a/ War {wilhout fn/epe^/)

■$2U,/5(OOQ00O'DeJDf of Germany.

Japan anoi Gr Britain

A B

B. $2,648,000,000, debt of all nations of Central and South America.

They have used up their natural wealth, yet they are hungry — they are starving! They must have food.

They must induce other nations to pay commercial tolls or failing in this, they must take commerce and resources by force of arms. Germany, Japan and Great Britain cannot pay out of their own wealth. Not only have they small natural resources but they are to-day burdened with debts out of all proportion to their national wealth.

Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Japan and their allies were on April ist, 1916, already burdened with war loans, war credits, etc., to the amount of $21,435,470,000. The zvar loans and war debts of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey at that date were $13,992,556,000. The war debts total $35,428,026,000. This gigantic sum is the amount of the war loans, war credits and imperial treasury bills issued to carry on the war.

Moreover, the countries at war were heavily burdened with national debts before the war began. The combined pre-war debts of the nations engaged in the present conflict were, in 19 13, $24,- 903,817,000.

These combined with the present war debt make a grand total — an unimaginable sum — of $60,335,843,000. This represents the debt of the nations at war at the present time; and the war is not yet finished.

And this present war debt of the nations at war is not only equal to the combined national debt of the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and all the other independent nations of North, Central and South America, but it is actually, at the present moment, 927% greater.

This combined debt of the nations at war is not only equal to all the debts of all neutral European nations but 1661% greater than all their national debts put together.

This gigantic combined debt, however, does not represent the industrial losses of the war nor represent the decrease in revenue that will be felt for many years after the war is closed.

Besides the enormous debt, Germany and Austria, if defeated, will find themselves cut off from billions of dollars of foreign trade; and England, if defeated, will be placed in a like position.

This war debt is so great that one can conceive of it only in comparison with other great sums.

We gasp at the past expenditures of our government; yet the sum total of every dollar spent by our government during the last 127 years for all its eleven wars; of all the moneys spent by our government for all the pensions that have ever been paid for all the wars from the War of the Revolution to the Philippine War; of all the money paid as interest on the national debt from the founding of the government to the present moment; of the

NATIONAL BURDEN OF DEBT TO WEALTH

A comparison of amounts of the debts of two nations is manifestly of little value.

The seriousness of the burden of each nation's debt depends, first, upon the relation of its debt to its wealth ; second, upon the number of people laboring to pay off that debt. This chart represents the national burden of debt to wealth. Japan's national debt is $1,260,000,000. The national debt of the United States is $3,225,000,000. Japan's national wealth, however, is less than ten times its national debt. The wealth of the United States is fifty-five times its national debt.

The national debts of Great Britain and Germany include the pre-war debts and war debts up to April ist, 1916.

PER CAPITA BURDEN OF NATIONAL DEBT TO NATIONAL WEALTH

The seriousness of the burden of each nation's debt depends, first, upon the relation of its debt to its wealth; second, upon the number of people laboring to pay off that debt.

This chart represents the burden of national debt that must be borne respectively by each person of the United States, Germany, Great Britain and Japan.

The national debts of Germany and Great Britain include the pre-war debts and the war debts up to April ist, 1916.

Ncilional Burden of DebtloWeolIti

Qermony

OKBritain money paid for the purchase of Louisiana, for the Gadsden purchase, for Alaska, for Florida, and for Texas; in the assumption of the public debt of Hawaii; for the purchase of perpetual right to the Panama Canal and even the building of the Panama Canal — in fact every dollar ever spent by our government from the time of its foundation to the present day for extraordinary purposes — has been but $14,999,490,000. The present debt of the nations at war — and more than half of it has been added during the last twenty-one months — is not only equal to these enormous expenditures of ours, but 302% greater.

In this comparison we have included all the interest on the public debt of the United States for 127 years, while the figure representing the debt of the nations at war represents only the principal existing at the present time. The great portion of these war loans have been made at 4/4%, 5% and 6%. Only one of them was at less than 4%. If, then, the nations at war should pay off this debt in 20 years — a feat absolutely impossible — the interest at 4%, added to the principal, would make a total of $108,603,000,000.

Inasmuch as the pre-war debts of the nations at war were increasing even in prosperous peace times by leaps and bounds — with the exception of Great Britain — it is recognised that after this war it will be impossible for the nations to pay this debt even in two generations. And by that time, even though the present bonds should be exchanged for others at lower rates of interest and all the other expenses of the government should be met year by year, the cost of the debt in two generations would rise to the enormous sum of $156,871,000,000.

This is an overwhelming burden for Europe — a debt it can never pay out of its own wealth!

And the hungry nations! The debt of the three hungry nations — Germany, Japan and Great Britain — is to-day not only equal to the debt of all the American nations, but 311% greater; it is 60/% greater than all the debts of all neutral Europe!

Moreover, the wealth areas of the three hungry nations is less than one-half of one million square miles, while the wealth areas of the American nations is more than eleven million square miles.

The combined population of Germany, Japan and Great Britain and Ireland is almost equal to that of all South America, of Central America and of the United States. But every hundred people of the three hungry nations are burdened on an average with a national debt mortgage of $14,816, while every hundred people of the American nations are burdened on an average with but $3,300. Moreover, the national debt mortgage of the three hungry nations on each square mile of their lands is $50,314, while the average national debt mortgage

AWAKE! U. S. A.

The Overwtielmf n|| Burden

InteresJ: MuJiAkoBGPard

^60,35^000,000

DeblJ of I NatloriiS at Wap(^> April /, 1916

$ f 08,603,000,000 DebJ-s with In teres/ UVo'20yearj(^

1. Pre-war debts, war debts, loans and treasury bills issued to carry on the war.

2. The debt of the nations at war, with interest at 4 per cent. Interest at 4 per cent, is a low estimate. All loans have been made at 4, 5 and 6 per cent., with the exception of one loan — Great Britain's first one.

The OverwhelminiJ BuFden

Interest tlusi Also Be Paid

^ mSJiOOQOOO

Debt

I

Inleres/ alone each 20 years at ^ %

^ 3,600^000,000 Great Britain's Debt before ttie War- (^>

1. The interest per generation is 835 per cent, greater than the entire combined debts of Germany, Japan and Great Britain before the war.

2. This was considered so large before the war that statesmen never expected Great Britain to pay the principal in full.

AWAKE! U. S. A.

Naiional Debf Norf^a^e on Eacli 100 People

$iQ.8f6' Germany. Japan oncf QrBr//a/n

^:5,^l6'AmmcQn Natfons

The governments of Germany, Japan and Great Britain have placed an average mortgage of $148 on each individual — every man, woman or child; while each man, woman or child of the American nations is burdened with an average governmental debt of but %2,2,. The average national debt mortgage of Germany, Japan and Great Britain to each man, woman or child is 348 per cent, greater than that of the American nations.

31'

National Debt Mort^a^e on Each Square Mile

: 50.dm -Germany, Japan and Gr BrJ/aln

^525 -American Nations

The governments of Germany, Japan and Great Britain have burdened every acre of their home lands with an average debt mortgage of 78 dollars.

Each acre of the lands of the American nations is burdened with a national debt mortgage of but 82 cents.

The average national debt mortgage of Germany, Japan and Great Britain on every square mile of their home lands is 9,485 per cent. greater than that of the American nations.

of the American nations on each square mile of their lands is but $525.

Germany may have some portions of central and southern Africa and Japan will have China from which to draw revenue after the war. These countries ofifer wonderful possibilities for the century to come. They would offer great possibilities for the present, if Germany and Japan should have billions of dollars of cash at the close of the war to develop them, build railways, colonise and wait two or three generations for the profits from such enterprises.

But burdened by a debt 607% greater than all the combined debts of all neutral Europe, can they wait a generation for the results?

Can Germany and Japan, especially, turn for ready cash at the close of the present struggle to the other nations at war? Austria in proportion to her wealth will be more heavily burdened than Germany. France even before the war had the largest national debt in the world. It will take a generation for Russia to readjust her finances. In fact, the combined debt of the nations at war, excepting Germany, Japan and Great Britain, is already 149% of the combined debt of Germany, Japan and Great Britain. The three hungry nations cannot turn to other nations now at war for the payment of immediate indemnities.

And evidently no group of the warring European

WHO WILL HAVE THE WEALTH TO PAY THE DEBT?

We gasp at the burden the nations at war have piled up for themselves — billions and billions of dollars of debt. We know they cannot pay it out of their own areal resources. We realize that the wealth free from debt of all neutral European nations is less per million people than that of the nations at war, burdened as they are with great debts.

Before the war England, Germany and Japan might have turned to Africa and China, even though billions of free wealth are required to develop those countries. After the war, however, they will not have the billions of wealth free for investment. The American nations are the only ones that have developed wealth immediately available. Their per capita wealth free from national debt is 304 per cent, of the free per capita wealth of the nations at war, 323 per cent, of the free per capital wealth of the European nations, 2866 per cent, of the free per capita wealth of China.

AWAKE! U. S. A.

Who wm Have The WeaUh Necessary To Pay

IheDeM

Nati'onol Wealfh free from

Noli on a/ Debl

April i J9J6 per iOOQOOO people.

All

AmepJcan

Nol/ons

^fi

All

All

Nations

Meuiral a/ War

Eopopean

$537,000,000

Na//onj

$57000000

Who Win Have Land To Yield The Wealtti

National Area/ Resources per (000.000 people

I All

American Nations

All All Neutral

Nalions European

at War Germany china H^H^^^ Japan Gr Britain

2.900 tSg.mil nations, even though emerging from the present war successfully, can secure indemnities or find sufficient wealth in neutral European nations to save themselves.

But the treasure nations of the world — ^having areal riches of 23 units compared to the i unit of the hungry nations — are burdened with a debt only 24% of that of the three hungry nations.

Our North and South American home areal resources are 2,200% greater than the home areal resources of the three hungry nations and our North and South American debts are but one-fourth Toi their debts. And North and South America are the only portions of all the lightly burdened treasure lands that are sufficiently developed to be able to furnish international revenue to the hungry nations without the expenditure of billions of dollars.

Can any sane man doubt that the hungry nations — burdened with this debt, living on depleted lands exhausted of their natural resources, supporting the densest populations in the world — will not come to the Americas, the unprotected storehouses of wealth of the Twentieth Century?

Germany, Japan or Great Britain will not — either separate or combined — make an attack upon us because of mere desire to make war. Each German, Japanese or English family is just as adverse to losing its sons and father on the battlefield as is the American family. The governments of Germany and Japan will not attack us because of hatred or because of viciousness but because of absolute necessity. If they come they will come because economic conditions force them to take our treasures in order to keep their people from industrial starvation.

We should not blame them!

We, under similar conditions, would probably go to other nations just as Germany and Japan must come to us.

Because of the commerce of the Americans who had settled in Texas previous to 1846, we supported their declaration of independence and took Texas from Mexico; because of the commercial interests of the American sugar planters who had established themselves in Hawaii we supported their revolution, dethroned the native queen, and annexed the Hawaiian Islands.

It is useless to villify the intentions of Germany and Japan; it will be useless to villify Great Britain if she should later deem it necessary to take means to extend her commerce; but it is wise to prepare for attack if we desire to maintain our commercial independence, especially as the combined debt of these three hungry nations is ^43% of the combined debts of all the neutral nations of the world.

AWAKE! U. S. A.

Who Will Be Able To Pay

Nations al War^

^DebtsAprlim \ withou! Inleresf

^Land WealtJi- AreaJ Resources

GrBrJ/ain

TheAnswcF

Debts. April i 1916

\^ Land WeaJ/h ArcQl Resources

A/I Neutral Nations of/Jie IVorld £xceptin0 IJDer/a.Pers/a andiSiam

Alt

Neutral European Nations

Cliina

^7777^

All American Nations

$5,875,300,000 itJOCOOOsgrntl

CHAPTER II WHY ge:rmany may i^ight us

SUPERFICIAL students of economics talk and write of the great prosperity in Germany. It is true that Germany has no idle class, that practically every man is busy, that every factory is humming, that every railway is burdened with products being shipped from the factories to the seaports, and that every port is a bee-hive where the loading and shipping of the "made in Germany" products go on night and day.

"But it is a false prosperity, based upon a forced system of taxation and an increasing national debt, growing by gigantic additions year by year even during peace times. These conditions cannot continue many months longer. No other nation in Europe is so near bankruptcy. Every known method of taxation has been tried by Germany with the single exception of the capital tax, and the Imperial Government must soon impose that also ; and after that, — the deluge for Europe!

"I warn you, to-night, that Germany cannot continue two years longer without an industrial reaction. To save herself from such a reaction she will seek war with some neighbouring power, hoping thereby to gain a big indemnity sufficient to tide her over the industrial crisis which she is now facing." '

Germany was on the point of bankruptcy previous to the war. From 1880 to 19 10, the per cent, of increase in the cost of living and in expenditures for the army and for the navy was so much greater than the per cent, of increase in wages that Germany could not have continued another five years without an industrial revolution.

During the thirty years indicated, the increase in the imperial debt was 1,223% 5 i" naval expenditures was 1,054%, the increase in army expenditures, 127%; the increase in the cost of living 109%, greater than that of any other European nation, excepting Austria-Hungary. But wages in Germany during this thirty years had increased only

31%.

Germany, then, previous to the outbreak of the

European war, was financially in a worse condition than even England. The average increase for the four great expenditures for the thirty years was 628%. The increase of wages, out of which this was ultimately to be paid, was but 31%.

Not only was Germany on the point of industrial bankruptcy before the war; but, even with all the heavy taxation year after year, Germany was approaching financial ruin.

INCREASING INDUSTRIAL BANKRUPTCY OF GERMANY

FOR THIRTY YEARS BEFORE THE WAR,

1880—1910

The industrial prosperity of Germany during the last forty years has been a paper prosperity.

The increase from 1880 to 1910 of the imperial debt was 1223 per cent., the increase in the expense of the navy was 1054 per cent., of the army, 127 per cent., of the cost of living, 109 per cent. ; while the increase in wages was but 31 per cent.

Year by year the three great governmental expenses and the one great individual expense — cost of living — increased out of all proportion to the increase in earning income.

Increases in public expenditures can only be met by increased loans which must some day be paid, increased taxation, or by indemnities levied upon foreign nations by means of conquest. The prospect was industrial bankruptcy.

The data of the increases in the expenses of the navy and of the army are taken from official reports of the German Imperial Government and from the "Statesman's Year Books" of 1880 and 1910.

The data on the increase in the cost of living and the increase of wages are taken from various German writers on political economy and sociology, from "Bliss' Encylopsedia of Social Reform" and from information obtained from the British Museum, the British Institute of Social Science and the Musee Social de France. Increase in the cost of living is not based, as so many writers on economics wrongly base it, upon a few actual necessities of life but upon the average amount of money the masses spent for their living.

The increase in wages is based neither upon the increase nor decrease of the wages of a few skilled labourers nor upon the very small increase of the wages of unskilled workers, but upon the average increase of all types of labour.

Increasfn^

Industrial BanKruptcy of Qermany

FoFThiFty Years Berore the War

1880-1910

/223 % /ncreasG ImperJal Debt

/f 7 % fncreajG Army£xpGnJG

/OSf % IncPGasG Co J J- of Uv/n^

0/ % ino'GasG ofWa^GS

u

Germany had been at peace for forty years. In peace times nations attempt to reduce the national debts that have accumulated in times of stress and war. Not so with Germany. Her seeming industrial and financial progress was so false that, notwithstanding the colossal taxes she imposed upon her people, Germany's national debt increased year by year by gigantic sums. The average increase in national debt each year from 1875 to 1880 was $17,010,000; the increase each year from 1880 to 1890 was $30,861,000; each year from 1900 to 1908 was $69,741,000; and the increase including — as stated in the Reichstag by the Imperial Treasurer — the deficits to be covered by additional loans was $148,0/4,480 each year from 1908 to 1913.

The debt of the German Empire previous to the beginning of the war was given as a little more than one billion dollars. The o/^e-billion-dollar debt, however, was the indebtedness of the Imperial Government alone. It was kept separate from and did not include the debt of Bavaria. The Bavarian debt was listed separately because of her separate army. But as her army is an integral part of the German Imperial armies, a portion of her debt should be included in the actual debt of the Empire. However, in all statements and comparisons given in the work, only the amount of the Imperial debt is employed, unless otherwise stated.