New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-10-31

sion We mean something that is vii
fully M war with the principles D.
which human society has been mal
rossible hitherto. OF course, II mus
be partly civilized even TO destroy CIV
ilization. Such ruin could not d.
wrought by the savages that ar
merely undeveloped or inert. lo'
could not have even Huns with
ont horses or horses without horse
manship. You could not have ever
Danish piratcs without SHIPS, o
sbins without seamanship. This pen
SON whom | may call the positive par
harlan. must be rather more super
6cially up-to-date than what / may 'ai
tbe negative barbarian. Aleric was al
officer in the Roman legionS, but 10
all that he destroyed Rome. Nooodl
suppoScs that Esquimaus could nave
done it at all neatly. But On GU
meaning barbarism is not matte,
of methods, but of aims We say Una
these veneered yandals have the per
fectly serious aim of destroying Ger
tain ideas which. as they think, th'
world has outgrown; without which, a.
we think, the world Will de.
Danger of the Pruss.
II is essential that this perilous. pc
culiaritv in the Pruss, or positive par
barian, should be seized. lie has wha'
he fancies is a new idea. and ne IS 60
ing TO apply Il 70 everybody. As
oct il is simply a false generalza
ton. but he is really trying to make II
general. This does not apply TO the
NEGATIVE barbarian; II does not apply
IN the Russian or the Servian, even
# they are barbarians. If a Russian
peasant does beat his wife he does 1t
because his fathers did il before him;
he is likely to beat less rather than
more as the past fades away. lie does
not think. as the Prussian would, that
he has made q new discovery IN phySl-
oloCv in finding that a woman IS
weaker than man. If Servian does
knife his rival without q word he does
il because other Servians have done II.
lie may regard it even as piety- but
certainly not as progress. lie does
not think, as the Prussian does, that
he POUNDS a new school of horology by
starting before the word Go" lie
does not think he is IN advance OF the
world in militarism-merely because ne
is behind it in morals. No; the danger
o. the Pruss is that he is prepared 10
fight for old errors as if they were new
truths. He has somehow heard Of GER
tain shallow publications., and mag
ines that we have never heard of them.
And, as ! have said, his limited but
very sincere lunacy concentrates chiefly
in a desire to destroy two ideas, the
twin root ideas, of national society.
The first is the idea of record and
promise; the second is the idea of reel
procity.
lie Will Make a Pact.
Il is plain that the promise, or ex-
/ tension or responsibility through time
4 is what chiefly distinguishes US, | will
not say from savages, but from bru'es
and reptiles This was noted by the
shrewdness Of the Old Testament. when
it summed up the dark, irresponsible
enormity of Leviathan in the words
"Will he make a pact with thee >" The
promise, like the wheel, is unknown IN
nature and is the first mark of man
Referring only TO human civilization
il may be said with seriousness that
in the beginning was the Word. The
VOW is 10 the man what the song Is &c
the bird or the bark to the dog: his
voice. whereby he is known. Just o!
a man who cannot keep an appoint
ment is not tit to fight a duel, s.
the man who cannot keep an appoint
ment with himself is not sane enough
even for suicide. 1t is not easy L
mention anything on which the enor
nous apparatus of human life can b,
said to depend. But if it depends OF
anything it is on this frail cord, funl
from the forgotten hills of yesterda,
to the invisible mountains of to-mor
row. On that solitary string hang
= u, A n,
almanac, from a successful revolution
: TO a return ticket. On that solitar
,, string the barbarian is hacking heav
ily with a sabre which is fortunatei
blunt.
ANY ono can see this we'll enoug'
: merely by reading the last negotiation
between London and Berlin. Tn
- Prussians had made a new discover
in international politics that it ma
often be convenient to make a prom
Use, and yet curiously inconvenient I
; keep II. They were charmed, in thel
simple way, with this scientific dis
Govern and desired 10 communicate
TO the world. They therefore promise
! England a promise on condition tina
she broke a promise, and on the i'm
piled condition that the new promis
might be broken as easily as the oil
one. To the profound astoNishment o
Prussia, this reasonable offer was re
fused | believe that the astonish
ment of Prussia was quite sincere
That is what ] mean when / say tina
he barbarian is trying to cut ava
that cord Of honesty and clear recor
on which hangs all that men hav
made.
Savages Respect Promises.
The friends of the German cau5
Africans upon the very verge of sa,
aCery have been brought against ther
from India and Algiers. And in ord
nary circumstances | should sympa
thize with such a complaint made b
European people But the circun
stances are not ordinary. Here agai
the quite unique b1rbarism of PruSsI
, goes deeper than Whit we call barbari
ties. About mere barbarltles. il
true, the Turco and the Sikh woul
have very good reply 10 the superio
. Teuton. The general and just reaso
for not using nOn-EuropCan tribe
against Europeans is that given b
Chatham against the use Of the re
Indian that such allies might do yer
. diabolical things. But the poor Turc
might not unreasonably ask. after
week end in Belgium, what more dia
bolical things he could do than tn
highly cultured Germans were dom
themselves. Nevertheless, as | say, tn
justification of any extra European ali
goes deeper than any such details. 7
rests upon the fact that even othe
civilizations, even much lower ciyiliza
10 laIrs rssf1 ,