The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-08-14
THE REAL CRIME AGAINST GER
MANY

From a number of German sym
pathizers among our readers have
come criticisms or appeals. Cannot
the Evening Post. which has invar-
iably urged fair play for Germany as
against the attempst, for instance,
to stir up strife between her and En-
gland, come to her defence without
reservation now? The Evening Post
of Carl Schurz and Henry Willard,
it is asserted, Is in duty bound to
stand by the Germans. One of our
German contemporaries even goes so
far as to call upon its readers to burn
every copy of this newspaper they
happen to run across.
We are assured that this is a holy
war into which Germany has been
forced against her will; that she is
the only bulwark between the rising
tide of Slavism and the endangered
civilization of Western Europe, and,
therefore, enlightened sentiment the
world over should side with her as
aginst the aggressions of the Powers,
like England and France, whose real
motives are jealousy and envy of the
wonderful commercial growth of the
Kaiser's empire.
To this we reply that the Evening
Posts loyalty to the Germany of
which it has SO often expressed ad
miration has never for a moment
wavered, but that this has not been
the Germany of the Kaiser. We
never have believed, and cannot now,
that in this day and generation
noble people should be in the hand of
a king or emperor, enlightened
though he may may be, or however
ardent guardian of peace during
long period of years. Never have we
upheld the Germany of the mailed
fist, of the autocracy of militarism
against its claims, it's excesses. its
encroachments upon civil rights, its
assertion that it constitutes caste
superior to any other, we have pro-
tested in season anda out of season.
We have long seen in this swash-.
buckling, overbearing attitude of the
and particularly in the ac-
tivities of such body as the German
Navy League-we are crushed with
one of our own-a grave menace to-
the peace of Europe; and it has now
brought the very worst to pass that
the human imagination can conceive.
We have never taken the slightest
stock in Kaiser who vows that he
rules by divine right and not by popu-
lar consent; and we cannot now up
hold form of government which
denies to masses of it's population the
right to one vote to every man.
1t is another Germany which we
have been proud to recognize and
acclaim-the Germany of high aspira-
tions and noble ideals, the Germany
of intellectual freedom, the Germany
to whose spiritual leadership every
nation the world over is deeply in
debt. It's flag has meant to us the
flag of scientific knowledge planted
furthest north in more fields of men
tai and governmental activity than
is perhaps any other. 1t is the coun-
try of Fichte, Kant and Hegel, of
Schiller and Goethe, of Korner and
his fellow-champions of German lib
erty in the wars for freedom just a
century ago; of Carl Schurz and
Sigel and Kinkel and their revolution
airy comrades Of 1S4S; of Schubert,
Schumann and Wagner; of Leasing,
Of Mommsen, of Helmholtz and Stem
ems and all the rest of the intellect
ual heroes who have been and are the
real glories of the Germany for
which we have entertained such pro-
found respect.
We have realized, toe, the splendid
qualities which have made of Ger
many a foremost trading nation and
have watched with amazement, like
all the world, her rapid commercial
of the seas and the four
quarters of the globe. Yet, after all, |
It is to the Germany that has done
more for orr own university life and
our intellectual and artistic develop |
nent than any other nation that
hosts of Americans have been so pro-
foundly attached.
Against this Germany the war into
which it has been so recklessly plung-
ed is nothing short of crime. Wheth-
Or victory or national disaster come
out of it all, the intellectual and spir-
tual growth of the nation is checked
or no one knows how long The fine