Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-11-30
GERMANY'S STAND
DISCOURSE TOPIC
Rev. Edmund A. WATSON Ex-
plains Teutons' Attitude To-
ward the World.

Rev Edmund A. WATSON. rector of
st. Stephens Episcopal Church. said
last night that Germany's distinction
and glory lies not in her art or litera-
ture or philosophy, but in being alone
among the nations in humanizing the
social machine and eliminating pau
perism. The discourse was the first
of a series of four upon the largest of
the nations at war by which Mr.. Was
son aims to show that the world needs
them all He said in part:
This course of sermons is not
meant to be a survey of these ma
tons. 1t is intended only to point
out that each of them is a great
people and mas its special contri-
button to make to civilization with
out which the world would be the
poorer. 1t is a wicked thing to hope
that any of these people shall be re-
duced from the family of great ma
tions. The world needs them all
ut is more than a hundred years
since Madame de Stael wrote that
the gods had given to England the
dominion of the waters; to France
the dominion of the earth, and to
Germany the dominion of the air. BY
this last she meant not the physical
air, but the unsubstantial domain of
dreams, visions, PHILOSOPHERS, re-
ligion. art, poetry, love. She truly
described the German people as they
were and had been.
Look at Germany today. The most
idealistic of people have become the
most practical. They entered the
ra Q of the modern nations and have
beaten them at their own game. Tle
dominion of the air that she aspires
to today is that engineered by Count
Zeppelin, with gas and guns. If this
is naturalization, Germany shares 1t
with ali other progressive people, 1t
is no strange path that she has
ventured on; it is the common
thoroughfare of all. Germany throbs
with life a Ia mode.
"0nIy Thorough Nation"
Germany has learned and applied
science as no other nation has, and
she has app led it with vigorous thor
oughness. She is the only thorough
nation on the globe. Her organization
has the coordination and constancy
of vast machine. But it is not a
soulless machine; of her the words of
Ezekiel are true, THE spirit of the
living creature was in the wheels"
And when we are inclined to criti- |
else the vigor of their social organlza- !
ton, let us first look at their results. !
Germany is the first and only human !
people in the history of the human |
race that has wiped out pauperism |
Admitted that German government |
and society is a vast complex of
wheels. still remember too that the |
spirit of the living creature is in these
wheels and moves them. In Germany |
alone of all the earth can the man |
at the bottom retain his self respect. |
Germany is a land without a tramp.
Now, here in America we have !
built up a great social machine, too. |
Trusts have florrished both in Ger
many and the United States. But |
see the differences. Here they were
built up in defiance of the laws of |
justice, of decency. The biggest of |
them resorted to murder, arson and |
bribery They polluted government. |
They have been and they are a curse. |
Why? Because the trust machine |
was merely mechanical; it was re-
morseless; it was energised only by
a fierce, merciless lust OF profit.
Workmen were dumped into its hop
per, along with other raw material,
to come out in the finished form OF
profits.
Not so in Germany, where the
government controlled the trust and
made it subordinate to human ends.
burned down no competitors works;
INDUCED in no unfair competition,
and it has made it's way only by
superior social service. Above all,
it ground no workingmen into the
mire. In a word. Germany saw to it
that the spirit of the living creature
should be in the wheels.
And it is for this reason that emil
grafton from Germany has nearly
ceased. The German workers are
better off at home. Wheels, ma
chinery, organization the world must
have. and probably in ever large
measure. 1t may be that other large
nations may not think it best to fol-
low the German model; each nation
has it's own genius, which must work
itself out.
"But only Germany has hit on the
secret that alone can make the ma
chine age fruitful and helpful and
human; that is, in Germany alone.
the spirit of the living creature--the
care for the weak and friendless-is
in the wheels. This is her distinction
and her glory. She has, besides, art,
literature, philosophy. But other ma
lions have these. Germany alone has
learned to humanize the social ma
chine. May the rest of the world
learn this from her!'