Washington Journal., 1914-12-12

is a word coined by Goethe and used
repeatedly in his Faust, and so one
might just as well lay the present wal
to the door of Goethe.
The ~absurdity of the thing is patent
three times what il was before, and
thanks to Il democratic government
the repartition of this wealth is such
that we have a well-to-do middle class
number Of really poor people in Ger
many is infinitely small in comparison
with other countries.
This is the story of German militar-
sm, -unaggressive and certainly not
md those who cite Deutschland.
Deutschland Ueber Allies in proof OF
German aspirations do not know even
he first lines of this song so dear tc
he Germans. 1t is a song of modesty
and shows better the tendencies OF
the German nation than anything else
could:
germany, Germany above everything
above everything in the world
May her sens ever stand united for
defense and protection
From the Mas unto the Mcneil
A. ACAA lily E4JoCu uulO Tic DClI
Germany, Germany above everything,
above everything in the world.
Now the Mas is part of the western
frontier of my home country and the
Memel part of the eastern frontier,
IND so are the Etsch in the south and
the Belt in the north. Could a patriotic
song be more modest? You may com
pare it with your own saying that the
United States is the finest country in
The world. The meaning is the same.
Everybody praises his country anG
loves it best. And is Rule Britannia
without aspiration, without preten
sions?
And just as our national anthem
s cited, so is our militarism
1t has been created as a dire
necessity for the defense of our
four frontiers and has never been
used beyond them. Ii every country
could stand on so good a record as
Germany there would not be SO much
ant about the reasons for the present
war. 1t has been stated thai milf.
tarism in general is a threat to the
peace OF the world. Yet German mill
tarism has kept the peace for forty
four years. While Russia went to war
with Turkey and China, and. after
having promoted The Hague Confer
ence, battled with Japan and PRO
tected" Persia, c%onquering territory
double the size of the United States
on the might-is-right principle; while
England, the defender of the rights of
The small states, smashed the Boer
republics, took Egypt, Cyprus and
South Persia; while the French
Republic conquered the Sudan, Tunis,
Madagascar, Indo-China and Morocco;
while Italy possessed itself of Tripoli
and the islands in the AGgean Sea
while Japan fought China, took
FOrmosa, Corea and Southern Man
ehuria, and has now with the aid of
her allies invaded China, a neutral
country-there is not one annexation
or increase Of territory to the charge
of Germany. She has waged no war
of any kind, has never acquired a
territory in all her existence except
by treaty and with the consent of the
rest of the world.
The battle-ground of All Europe.
But why, then, did she keep up such
a tremendous army?
Certainly not for aggressive pur-
poses. She never was aggressive to-
ward anybody. She needed this army
because her exposed situation in the
middle of Europe, without natural
boundaries, between unsettled neigh
5ors, has made her for ages and cel-
turtles the cockpit and the battle
ground of all Europe. Her soil was
drenched with blood and her popula-
ton nearly exterminated in the
Thirty Years War; Louis 14th
in the Palatinate left hardly one stone
IN the other, destroyed old Heidelberg
md took Alsace and Lorraine, then
1 DEMONSTRATING d%ukedom; the
ievastations of the Seven Years War,
the battles and six years occupation
Of the N%apolecnic times, all taught
Germany bitter lessons. Her soil has
been the rendezvous of Swedes, Danes,
Russians, Croats, Poles, Italians,
French and Spaniards for centuries
,ast. Impctent and not able to ward
shem Off. she has been continually
destroyed. until the genius Of Bis
.narck welded her twenty-six states
together into one unit, and Germany
made the VOW that she would never
gain give anyone such chances.
That is why we kept III army, and II
a people have an army at all, it is q
waste not TO make it strong enough
fer any emergency. That it is not too
strong may be judged from the fact
that Germany is now attacked by
seven nations.
You hear people say that the large
standing establishment. the enormous
cost of it and the time wasted, is a
sin against culture, advancement and
scientific PROCESS. The Germany of to-
day proves the contrary. While we
have been keeping up a big army
which, by the way, is the cheapest of
the European armies SO far as the
taxpayer is concerned-we have in
creased our population, we have enor-
mously increased our wealth, we have
have constructed the second largest
built up a gigantic oversee trade, we