Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-31

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
BERLIN, January 10. 1903.
The great paradox in the world today IS
Germany.
Sincerely loving peace. striving for ideal
results in the works of peace. 1t Is the
nation that gives the others strong cause
for fearing 1t as the one possible danger
to peace.
Deeply imbued nationally with the love
and understanding of literature and art,
the two pre-eminently peaceful professions;
a nation Of city builders and city beauti-
fiers such as cannot be equaled anywhere
on the earth; exalting abstract learning TO
q degree higher than all other nations,
Germany yet loses no opportunity, appar-
emily, to obtrude the ominous ring of the
sword on the councils Of the world.
This warlike attitude by no means ema-
mates only from the military class The
general idea of Germany as a lard that Is,
grooming under militarism Is largely In
correct. However fierce partisan cries
may be against the burden national feel
ing about militarism Is patriotically IN
favor of 1t.
Germany does not feel oppressed by mil
itarism. 1t Is imbued with it.
For thirty years Germany has been
studying the art of war with the earnest
ness and thoroughness of nation that
prides itself beyond everything else on Its
thoroughnesS.
1t has developed a war machine that Is
believed by Germans and Britons and
Americans and Russians-au the authori-
ties whose opinion Is worth having-to be
the most efficient in existence.
The history of its war-worn past Is not a
dim recollection in Germany. 1t is living
reality.
Wherever a German may turn in the land
he sees fortresses of today and yesterday,
rn0numpQt9 to dead and living military
heroes, flags and eagles.
In every town are soldiers. Every home
adjusts itself as part Of the routine of
private life to devoting some Of its motley
and blood to the service Of the state.
Thirty Years of Peace.
And yet In thirty years-until the Chinese
troubles began-the German sailor and SOL
der did not see even the shadow Of active
service.
Germany. harnessed for war, bristling
with arms, has had to live on the recollec-
ton Of that immense flood of iron and
blood that 1t poured into France in 1870
the victory that was as terrible In its swift
ness as in Its overwhelming completeness.
While Germany, the most heavily armed
nation, has been resting in utter, unbroken
peace, England has fought a score of wars,
little and big. Russia's armies have been
engaged from the Pacific to the Black sea.
along all the Asiatic frontiers. in wars and
wariike operations.
America has fought bloody war year af-
, ter year with the Indians, and scarcely
having conquered them at last, she found
the Spaniard waiting and then the Filipino.
France has had her fierce wars in Cochin
China and In Africa Italy had her war
IN Abyssinia, and a state shaking war 1t
was. Greece and Turkey have fought. Even
Austria, with her unsettled eastern from
tiers and her combative races, has had
some chance to give troops at least a SEM
blance of action. But Germany, with her
European empire staid and calm, with her
few colonies administered almost wholly by
civic officers, has lain in inaction.
Therefore, It Is not necessary to consider
Germany as belligerent nation to under
stand why her sea captains, having handled
fighting machines all their lives without an
opportunity to use them. should pound a
little Haytian gunboat to smithereens and
sink couple of still more pitiable gunboats
in Venezuelan waters.
These Were acts to be traced. not to a
national characteristic. but to simple hui
man nature.
No one who has lived in Germany can
make the error of considering this country
as an arrogant nation Of would-be fighters
The simple, cordial social life of the peo-
pie gives the lie in its every aspect to such
a conception.
National Pride Religion.
Neither can one live many months in
Germany without realizing that the pride
IN the lands greatness has become a fervid
enpire-religion since the splendid day In
Versailles when the uplifted swords Of
German kings and princes saluted the fed
Grafton.
The whole country is becoming a mod
ern Greece Of heroic monuments. Kaiser
Wilhelm statues rise from every wooded
hin. The mighty Sieges Alice, the Lane Of
Victory, In Berlin, gives the traveller only
a foretaste of what he may see from one
boundary of the empire to another
SaXony, Wurtemberg, Prussia, Hanover
Bavaria and all the other kingdoms princi-
palities and duchfes, once bitter against
each other. are one now in at least the
r&pturous devotion to hero-worship.
Halls OF fame, memorial edifices of all
kinds. make almost every German vista
ments are counted no longer by scores
but by hundreds. Scarcely an officer or
regiment OF distinction in all the German
wars. from the wars Of the Romans to the
final French war lacks a monument some
where.
Leipsic Is working to make a great hill
200 feet high, plant 1t with forest and
crown it with a mighty building to COM
memorate the battle Of LEIPZIG in 1913 1t
IS to be declared nationally holy place,
and hundreds of German cities have con-
tributed money toward 1t.
The town Of Goerntz on the Neisse, In
Prussian Silesia, away OF in the southeast
ern corner OF the empire, and having a pop
ulation Of only 10000, has just completed a
magnificent Hall of Fame, at a cost of a
quarter OF a million of dollars all contrib
uted by the citizens.
An Imposing Structure.
This truly noble edifice Is entitled to rank
with the finest architectural achievements