“We are on the edge of panic! We have three millions of factory workers who will starve unless we can instantly reëstablish our industries and our finances!” “It is intolerable!” said the President, his face white with anger. “It is simply a disguised form of blackmail. He means to make us finance him; for, of course, he will levy contributions on the country as soon as money begins to flow in.” “_He Has Us!_” “He has us!” said the Secretary of the Treasury. “As we were helpless against his cannon, so we are helpless against the new weapon that he has drawn--the starvation of our own people. All the messages that we have received prove that. He has shown them that their fate is wholly in our hands--that if we refuse to send them money and foodstuffs and raw material, they will have to blame us for the consequences.” The President of the United States arose. “Gentlemen,” he said, “they are our own people. There is nothing else that we can do!”[173] * * * * * That is the story of The Invasion of America. There was nothing else that we could do! How the land labored heart-breakingly to put an army into the field; how the invader for eight long months held the conquered land, and under his efficient mastery made its soil produce prodigally, its manufactories pour forth their wealth in redoubled measure; how he laid tax after tax on the men whose necks were under his foot; how, toward the end, he gathered his transports in all the harbors; and how, when three American armies, each 500,000 strong, began to move toward the coast from three grand bases, he embarked all his men within one hundred and twenty hours and sailed away unscathed--these things were but inevitable consequences. The United States of America never knew how much wealth the Conquestadore had squeezed from the conquered territory in requisitions, in fines, in license fees, in taxes on imports and exports, and in war levies. Statisticians figured for years afterward to discover from the wildly tangled accounts how much he had extorted. They figured and quarreled for a generation over the vast amounts that the United States had lost by losing the markets of the world; for when her ports were opened, she found that the markets were gone. Men said that from first to last the invading army had taken a sum not short of four billions of dollars. But whatever the sum, it was as nothing to the wound that had struck America near the heart--a brave Nation, a greatly capable Nation, made to grovel for her life because, in a world of men, she had failed to prepare for what men might do. THE END * * * * * FOOTNOTES: [1] The reader will recall Nast’s skeleton representing the Regular Army with the legend, “Match it for grit if you can” or words to that effect. [2] Statement based on statistics. [3] Authorities concede these matters. [4] See War Department Reports, 1915.