The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-09-02
AN AMERICAN OPINION

would read the following from Life,
they would come very near being
able to understand why, in spite OF
their many good qualities. the SYM
patty of American is with their en-
emies in the present war:
Our president has solemnly ex-
horted US all to keep our shirts on
in the great existing crisis in human
affairs and not to talk loud, and not
I'd be partisan. but strictly neutral.
We are going to. We are sincere
ly the friends of all those parties
who are scrapping There is not one
of them that We do not yearn to
benefit. We do not intend to med
die in their scrap, except to help
them stop when the time comes, and
reach, and carry food, perhaps,
where it is needed. But, inasmuch
as all of-us read and some of US
think, we are bound to have opin-
ions on the merits of the contro-
persy and lunches as to who ought
10 win and who is going to. In our
behavior me must be neutral to
hairs breadth; but If in our minds
and feelings we had no preferences
in such a conflict and thought only
0f how it affected ourselves, we
should be good deal duller and
more selfish people than we are
And behold; all of us but a little
band of German-born defenders of
Germany seem to feel that it is for
che interest of civilization that Ger
many should be beaten in this war
We cannot see the welfare of man
kind in the domination of Europe by
the kind of Germany that has been
making in the last forty years. In
this country we believe in democracy,
and we are. committed to great ex-
pertinent with it. But if the Germany
of Bismarck and the kaiser is right
and working on the right track by
the right means, then we are wrong
and proceeding In de1usion, and our
experiment viii come to grief If
1iblpod and iron, militarism and auto
cracy, the strong hand and the mail
ed fist are the great tools of civiliza-
ton. But not with such tools can
democracy hope to succeed. It's hope
rs all in justice and a fair deal,
backed, no doubt, by armed men,
but not dependent for its prosperity
on armed aggression.
What do we think of Germans?
Consider what we thing of them
as Immigrants in this country. Con-
slider our anxieties about the annual
fhrong of newcomers that passes
through our Ellis Island gate. Dub
FOus material for democracy SO
many of them seem. But about Ger
mans there has never been any mis-
giving. They have always been well
coined as a strengthening stock. AL
ways wherever there has been a set
clement of Germans it has been felt
TO he a settlement of people able tc
take care of themselves and to main
tain, and in some respects improve
our standards of life. Certainly we
have no antipathy to Germans; nc
racial distrust of them.
But we do distrust the leading
that Germans has had since 1870
We do consider that her people have
been trained to follow a false ideal
We do consider that the policy o
Bismarck corrupted her moral sense
a great man was Bismarck and /;
great deal good, but he lied without
scrupTe, and he took for German,
without scruple or regard for justic'
Germany good. When he took Al
SAGE and Lorraine he overdid the jo'
and committed his unfortunat
country to a hopeless debauch o
niIftarism Germany as we see
now is not the Germany of Goeth
or Schiller, of the democrats o
ES4S; it is the Germany of Bis
marck, and of intense commercial
ism, and of success at any price
When Bismarck told in his memoir
Mow he changed the wording of tn
French ambassadors letter an
Brought on the war of 1870, it wa
notice given to mankind that in dill
Eomatic concerns the word of Ger
many may not be trusted. Whe
1he German troops crossed the Be
gYan frontier it confirmed the exis
ing suppression that promises of tn
German government are only goo
so long as enforceable by the prom