The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-25

eral cleansing. No traditions of past views and principles should hamper, no maudlin precautions should suggest doubt. Henceforth Germany was not to be con- cerned about the dead past, but by the vital present and the alluring future with its unaging vitality. That no lugubrious suggestions of caution should reach hip, and in order to hew his own policy into shape William astonshed the world by his summary dismissal of Bismarck, one Of the two giant statesmen of the globe. This done. and according to his concep- ton, the way lay open to success. He would infuse fresh blood into his coun- cils He would gather about himself men
 of far-seeing sagacity, spirits up-to-date, counsellors more in harmony with the urgent times. Yet more serious blunder 1 was never committed by a monarch than l that of the displacement of the sage Bis marck. Germany was now top-heavy with sense of self-importance, was in Hated by success, and intoxicated by vic | tory. If ever a country needed to be guided by wisdom it was Germany in the l late eighties, but sensitive caution was not what William desired. He was a plunger, and believed in the old Roman anxiom-'they succeed who believe they can" The country was launched on a sea of brand-new ideals. Germany must l remodel the world.
 Henceforth new standards must be es- abolished, new ideas taught the growing generation-German culture, German thought German everything must con- trol. Its pre-eminence must be adver- tised even on the articles of commerce. ] hence "Made in Germany was labeled on commodities os trade. but the funda- mental work was to be done in the schools. Ranke, the one great historian of Germany, was regarded IS encum- bered- with traditional ideas that begat IRatrt trr, xr-Ae nored and radical, Won Treitschke. was made the professor of modern history in the royal university at Berlin. Treitschke led the movement of German world su- premacy. He popularized the idea of the naval supremacy of Germany, and adyo- cated the idea of the destruction of Eng fish domination of the seas He said. we have reckoned with France. Aus tria and Russia; the reckoning with Eng land is still to come; 1t will be the longest and the more difficult" He taught that summary work should be made of the Catholics, socialists and Poles. His was the preaching of crushing. He urged that relentless aggression in bloody war was the noblest of national functions He despised any temporizing policy and
 hated the term, conservatism. A polemic or the rankest type, he clothed his ut terances in fine phrasing, and openly espoused the idea of ruin of all non-Ger- man peoples in order to remodel the na-
 tons on plan consistent with the one
 nation of manifest destiny.
 Trietschke hated England, and grounded
 the German youth in that one consuming passion. Nor was his love for America or the most ardent type, for he said: sTo civilization at large, the Anglicizing of German-Americans means a heavy loss Among Germans there is no longer to be any question that the civilization of man. Sl1ffaTa ffr,aa transformed into a Yankee' This was the atmosphere in which the men of the German army today were reared Treit- scnke was the apostle of world domina- ton by Germany.
 Tn other spheres many others were equaily active and pronounced, while William from the throne directed the whole. That William has done more than any other of his line has ever done, is true, but all this was fnd,s- pensable to the consummation of the one ultimate and supreme idea, that of being eventually able to mold into proper shape the nations of the world. Commensurately with domestic develop ment was the equipment of his mag nificent army, the best disciplined and best equipped army the world has ever Known. Immense in number, 1t is un- surpassed in equipment. and every man is possessed of the idea that his mis- l
 to destroy all that dares to resist in
 the consummation of the German ideal or world supremacy. In the promotion of this ideal, William spread his broad
 palm over as many possessions as pos sib]c in order to attach to himself as
 many quarters of the globe as possible before he should finally strike.
 Such were the conditions in Germany,
 such the disposition of the would be
 conqueror of the world. for years to-
 gcther. He was approaching the limbus
 of old age, being nvw 55 years old,
 and he must act An opportunity pre-
 text. an excuse anything was awaited
 fer a signal to begin. That came when
 Ferdinand fell as the result of bull
 let from the hand of fanatical stu
 dent in the Bosnian capital. Austria de-
 clared war against little Servia and
 Austria was his ally. The pear was
 now ripe, the clock of destiny struck.
 the sublime moment had arrivei.
 Henceforth war, war for the extinc-
 ton of everything that would dare o,-
 pose Germany in her work of remod-
 cling the nations.
 As the Turk in battle Is impe1led by
 the idea that If he falls a rosy para
 disc awaits him. for such the Koran
 teaches. the German soldier of today
 Is actuated by the drilling of a gem
 eration that Germany's function is to
 recast the thought of the world. The
 one makes the Turk a terror in battle
 as the other makes the German a great
 fighters. that he is. He feels the pres-
 sure of destiny. for thus has he been
 trained. thus taught from the cradle.
 This affords at least peep into con- ditions and explains some things.