The United States and the Allies are not fighting to impose on Germany and her fellow fighters any particular form of government; but they are fighting to defeat that form of government which has precipitated the war, the so-called Junker policy of the German Empire. The Junker, who is a member of the Prussian nobility and a man devoted to militarism, has been the instrument of war, forcing it on the world that Germany, which for him means only a certain small class of rulers in Prussia headed by the Kaiser, shall be rich and powerful over all the earth. It is to end his reign upon earth that hundreds of thousands of men are dying on the fields of France and Flanders. It is to end that policy of Germany which aims to keep men always at war that we are warring. For, if Germany is not totally defeated, every country in the world will have to build up a military machine of the same kind as Germany’s in order to be ready to fight her when she makes up her mind to invade their territories; and no one will know when she might do that. The policy of Germany will threaten every democracy in the world; for democracies cannot exist while military establishments continue. Nothing but a total, annihilating defeat of Germany in this war will make the world “safe for democracy” and sure for peace. When the war is won the United States will, it is sure, insist upon a just peace that will insure these ideals, a peace that will make impossible another such outrage as the invasion of Belgium, another _Lusitania_ outrage, another defiance of all civilized standards, a peace that will remove militarism, make free the seas, and give to the individual that freedom that has made the United States the haven of the whole world. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. Perceived typographical errors have been corrected. Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.