The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-03-01
SAYS UNCLE CIV

One of these days I'm going to for
get that my ancestors were Irish and
say a good word for 1.-THE Dutch" AS
matter of sober truth, the world at
large is just beginning to catch up with
the German conception of the biggest
fact in life-tkat of efficiency. The
reason that the alarmists of all ma
tions, and particularly those of Eng
land and France look with shuddering
fear upon every unexplained move of
the Fatherland is that Germany is
above all other things nationally eff
ficient. That is her racial ideal, her
last word in regard to life on this earth
and her one bid for world commercial.
/ scientific and artistic supremacy.
The shiftless ne'erdowell is more
nearly an unknown quantity in Ger
MANY than in any other country.
Pauperism is reduced to minimum
Charities as we know them in Eng
land and the United States are practi-
cally lacking there. Here everybody
gives to charity. There nearly every
body is capable of taking care of him
self
Thrift. which is the shadow of eff
ficiency, is the habit of generations
In many important respects, Ger
many is the healthiest country on
earth.
Scientifically, industrially and artis-
ticaIIy, she is the peer of any nation
on the globe and the superior of most.
All things considered. her workers,
from the laborer to the most skillful
artisan are the most effective in the
world.
The men whose business it is to
guard the destinies of their nations
know that if war should be declared
the whole of Germany would be prac-
ticalIy one compact fighting force.
They know that the narrow confines OF
her territory are COMPRISING to the
point of explosion, as it were-a dan
gerous national force, force resulting
from one thing. and that Germany's
ideal of work for every man and every
man fitted for his work
The other day Dr. Sigurd Ibsen pub
ished a book of essays. In one of
these brilliant philosophical sketches
he outlined the new art which is to
supplant all others-the art of fitting
men to do their work with all the eff
fectiveness of machines and all the
freedom of the free moral agent.
If Ibsen had looked across the mar
row distance that separates his own
Scandinavia from the Fatherland, and
had looked comprehendingly, he would
have realized that Germany had in
measure anticipated him.
German efficiency is in this age pro.
verbal The phrase is uttered in the
workshops, in the laboratories, in the
marts, in the studios. in the chambers
of state 1t Is breathed IN aonlratlon
and in fear.
And it is the result of a persistent.
sometimes a bullheaded, effort to fit
each man for the thing he is to do. IL
is as incomprehensible to the German
in tune with the genius of his country
that human flesh and blood and en-
ergy should go to waste as 1t is that
one should permit raw material to be
destroyed in his factory.
Simple as that proposition may seem.
the rest of the world is just beginning
TO realize its Importance. 1t is just
beginning to understand what Germany
learned fifty years ago-that the great
est waste in the world is human waste
and that the thing most worth saving
is human energy.
Ibsen, the younger, and his school
of thought are right The supreme art
will be the art of making men fit for
their tasks. The elements of that art
have made the Fatherland that magni-
ficent and awesome figure among ma
tions that we call Germany" Copy
right, 1913. by the Mcclure Newspaper
Syndicate.)