The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-10-29
THE GREAT WAR.
Mr.. Moreton Proven Writes OF ITS Morals
and Economics.

am not concerned in this letter to dis
cuss whether Jouvain was destroyed
by the Germans or the Cathedral al
Rheims made their cockshy or Antwerp
burned by their bombs. Again a COM
mission Of distinguished Belgian Jurists
under the presidency Of NJ. Cooreman
has Issued Its fifth report The commits
sion finds that the rape Of women
wholesale thieving. murder OF civilians
and incend!arism-that these atrocities
are the sports Of a drunken soldiery.
have personally heard II all from Bel
gian refugees. even from her priests.
Nor is the world likely to forget, these
days. that when sending his soldiers
against the oldest civilization in the
world the Kaiser commanded that no
quarter shall be given, no prisoners
taken: building on this admitted
premise there is some prlma facle
ground for conjecture that these far
worse than tho Bulgarian atrocities"
for which Mr.. Gladstone made the world
his sounding board may yet crystalllze
as history. And. too. the Baroness de
Baye asserts that the Crown Prince Of
Germany. In person. stole her art treae-
ures. This only the German Ambassa-
dor In Rome has come forward to deny.
The Baroness reJoins with the evidence
OF six credible eyewitnesses and says
that the property can now be found In
the possession Of the impenitent thief.
But IL we dismiss oil this as mere
partisan malice, yet seeing that the re-
lations Of the civilized world with Prus-
STA Will for a century TO come turn on
Just these Incidents might not dis
tinguished commission from the great
friendly neutral. the United States, be
empanelled to try these charges on the
spot at Louvain. Rheims. Senlis and
elsewhere? Its findings might relieve the
Prussia OF Tomorrow of burden too
grievous to he borne and OF such n YER
dict In history as may shame her people
down the ages.
Let us suppose for a moment that
the bulk OF these terrible accusations
should be confirmed by such a commits
sion. What might America do. not
chiefly to punish Prussia but to protect
mankind against similar and future
infamies? | believe that not merely the
belligcrent nations but the neutral ma
lions may learn from this war how by
economic pressure In times Of peace
maleficent peoples may be widely dis
trlbuted over the earth's surface for
their own and the worlds great benefit
80 that the crime of such a war as this
may he in future obviated.
II IL necessary TO say a few words as
TO the creation by Bismarck OF the
Germany of to-day. Five and thirty
years ago Germany with the lowest
tariffs in Europe was mainly ngrarian.
Lacking all those vast industrial CEN
tres which che has since developed 50
successfully through protection, the
German races were emigrating chiefly
To the United States and on every ship
that sailed. Admirably they blended
with your great composite community
Importing as they d,d virlle energy
education and thrift. they were an alloy
OF value TO the constituent elements
passing into your great melting pot"
recall speech OF my old and valued
friend the late Senator Jones OF Ne
vada: Shall the nation do its own
work." This was the question Bismarck
asked, should Germans do the work Of
Germany in Germany. or by their re-
settlement in Minnesota or Wisconsin
find there the happier and the freer
life? II was the ideal OF the philosopher
to let the people CO. but the business Of
the statesmen to restrain them. and
Bismarck was n statesman.
The result has been that in place Of
vast emigration Germany has now for
many years kept her whole people AT
home, fully employed and at a rising
rate OF wages. Such has been the re-
suit Of a scientific tariff. But unfortu-
nately II is in the psychology of a Ger
man crowd TO dream. 10 dream always
Of "Ueber Allies" Every one" said
Lincoln. knows more han any one"
therein is the danger of German
crowd. A German cultivating the soil
is an admirable citizen. But aggrega ed
and yet segregated In great Industrial
centres the German "superman" of to-
day Is menace TO civilization and
goaded by his professors he frankly
admits that this Is his aim. have
written Germans" but again I believe
II Is true rather of Prussians than OF
Germans For tho Prusslan race is not
German at all. Prussians are Just
Prussans, ruled over. however by n
German dynasty the Hohenzollern
When a very few years later the tmo
for an enduring peace will have arrived
much, he sure. will turn on this too
little appreciated fact In ethnology. that
Prussians are not Germans.
| pass on. When at the conclusion
of the Japanese war Russia was ex-
hausted and thus squeezable Germany
imposed upon Russia the new CONNER
Cal treaties. As a general statement Il
holds good that Russia was required TO
throw open her vast market to the ex-
ports Of German manufactures and to
discriminate against those OF the United
States and the United Kingdom. while
on the other hand Germany carefully
protected Junkerdom against the i'm
port Of agricultural products from Rus
sia. AS may be imagined. such n tariff
as this set up an artificial balance of
trade against Russia and favoring Ger
many. so that II became very difficult
for Russia TO hold her gold. and thus
to maintain the parity OF her paper
ruble. The threatened serious deprecia-
ton OF her entire monetary mass made
II very difficult indeed for Russia to go
forward with her purchases OF NUM-
lions Of war, and but for liberal loans
from her ally, France, the new German
commercial treaties must have induced
at Petrograd, in the last four yeers
grave financial disturbances, with
strikes and n social revolution.
This brings me to the point that not
the worst protection for Rheims. for
Louvain and for Belgium's women
could issue from a Capitol on the Poto-
mao at hut w ahi N utn ON aa,, ,ha. III.