The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-11-27
CHRISTIANITY VERSUS MlLiTAR-
ISM

Gf1hiSIIANiTY VERSUS MILlTAh-
ISM
Gentlemen cry Peace! Peace!
but there is no peace. Patrick
Henry.
The intimations that now and then
come to us that Germany has sued
for peace, or is ready and about to
sue, are doubtless the emanations Of
the exigency and the fancy of the
space-writers as the occasional petit
fions that go to Washington urging
the president to propose mediation
are ebullitions of the sense of pity
and horror that fill us all.
Inevitably the war must and will
be fought to finish. The conflict be-
tween Christianity and Militarism,
between Freedom and Autocracy, is
an irrepressible conflict. There can
be no compromise which would be
more than a hollow and provisional
truce. If Militarism be not crushed
Europe will remain an armed camp,
and soon or late America will be
drawn into the selfish and cruel play
of the nations for dominion and pow
er. Save as charity mongers, we have
nothing to do with it just yet, but
when the allies have triumphed, when
absolutism has been dispersed in Ger
many, we may have something to say.
and. in any event, we shall be able to
take care of ourselves and to hold
our own.
The Courier-Journal has not only
not at any time declared war on the
German people, but it is, and always
has been, the near friend of the Ger
mans in America. Irish as well as
American, to the core, it has fought
the English all along the line of Eng
lands denial of justice to ireland, not
to mention John Bulls occasional as
sertion of Superiority to Jonathan.
It has no anti-German feeling or pre-
judice. For the rotten Hohenzollern
and the yet more putrid Hapsburgs,
and the ironclad system of castism
OF which they are the typical repre-
sentatives, it has adherence.
1t is democrat. 1t is republican.
And it aims and seeks to be follow
er of Christ. striving for peace on
earth, good will to men, The spirit
which rules in Germany is antithetic
to this. The kaiser claims partner
ship with God, but his partner is Odin,
the war god, not the supreme being OF
the universe, the Lord, who sent the
Prince of Peace, his son, into the
world to redeem it. Whom but Odin
could he have meant when, address
ing a body of students at the outset of
hOstilities, he said:
Remember that you are the chos-
en- people. The spirit of the Lord has
descended upon me, because l am en-
peror of the Germans. | am the in
strument Of the Most High. l am his
sword and his buckler Misfortune
and death to those who resist my will!
Misfortune and death to those who
have no belief in my mission! Misfor-
tune and death to all towards! May
All enemies of the German people per-
ism! God calls for their destruction!
Out of my mouth God calls upon you
to fulfill his wilt"
Whilst this profane conception has
been impressed for a generation upon
the German mind by the apostles of
the right divine, the principles of war
gOdism have been iterated and reiter-
ated by the leaders of German thought
and morals. We are told that for
years there have been annually ap-
pearing in Germany almost seven
hundred volumes dealing with war as
a science. This indicates an extreme
preoccupation with the idea of strife.
One may doubt whether twenty vol
umes year on the military art ap
pear in England and America COM
bined. Then there is the German way
OF regarding war. The attitude of
Treitschke, for example, a man whose