The Washington herald., 1914-12-04
The Truth About Germany.

Seward did not mean to say that the war between
the States was one which never could have been
prevented and was due to take place by sort oi
fate like the srfes of the heroes in the Nibelungeu
Lied. In fact, Mr. Seward always believed that il
the American people had only been little wiser,
the need never have occurred. If the fathers
of the republic, who opposed to slavery
almost to man, had only bestirred themselves a
little actively than they did to suppress
slavery, and if the invention of the cotton gin had
not identified the institution of slavery with a vast
money making business, the civil war could prob
ably have been avoided. OF course, these are two
pretty large "ifs." However it came about it can
not be denied that human passions in the United
States rose to the boiling point and that for all
practical purposes war followed that was Of
irrepressible nature.
Now, as the days pass and thinking people
over the world come to realize the deep-seated
character of the present struggle on the Cont
nent of Europe think it is also coming pretty
generally to be believed that this struggle, like
our own civil war, was irrepressble. 1t was some
thing that, humanity speaking inevitable. 1t
had to be. 1t something that had to be faced
and the world is now engaged in facing it. Most
people that this awful contest is concern
cd only in the most trivial way with the assassna-
ton of the Austrian Archdukc and Duchess Ferdi-
nand at Sarajevo. Its cause far antcdates the
Franco-P Prussian war; the rise of the North German
Confederation, and indefinite number of So
called crucial moments in the past in the history
of Germany. The force that is at work would ap-
pear to be the force of human nature and of human
circumstance as it has been clustered and arranged
almost fortuitously. for generations back. The
vital fact is that the year 1914 has witnessed the
last stretch of the attempt of the worlds civza-
ton to compress within the borders of COM
i
numerical units, energy, inventivcness, ambition,
warlikc prowesS and every capacity for manly &C
complishment ten dozen times too big for
the physical limits of the country itself.
This is the one comprehensive statement, sum
ming up the whole story. Everything is included
here-thc military obsession of Germany, her
vaingoriousness, her devotion to the theory that
might makes right. her scientific progress, and her
thousand great achievements ever since the new
life OF the country began in the ballroom at Yer
saillcs when Bismarck acclaimed the King of Prus-
sia German Emperor.
Germany found herself at last where every inch |
OF room in which to expand had been taken up.
The saturation point had really been reached at
the time of the Franco-Prussian war, but the blood
letting that then occurred relieved the country and
allowed OF years of peace. Unfortunately,
after the Franco Prussian war, emigration from
Germany largely abated. Her people no longer left
home for the United States and other countries
where they could live much in their old home.
They began to look upon Germany with proudcr
affection than they had done before. They no
longer wished to cxpatriate themselves. They be-
came moro desirous of staying at home and adding
to the might and glory of the fatherland. But they
made another convulsion due to overgrowth of
population as inevitable the sunset at the close
Of the day.
But it may be asked, why was it necessary to
disturb all Europe with in order that Ger
many might expand? Why could not the German
people peacefully emigrate to other countries as Of
yore? Granted that Germany is encirclcd, as her
professors and philosophers complain, this encrce-
nent was not maliciously tyranically designated
BY the rest of the world. England is not at fault
because Germany does not possess the mouth OF
he Rhine, as she so greatly longs to do. The
present boundaries of nations were for the most
2art the result of and struggles in the ancient
oast and people living today have little RESPONSE
1ility for them. Why should not the Germans OF
oday accept the case as they find it and leave
he world in peace?
This is all very we'll pure reason, doubt, ]
out when did reason of this sort ever turn aside $
great national movement such as an incursion I
or excursion of people: Races at such times obey
primal instincts and arc in mood for theorizing
Lncient treaties. In rushing westward and north
westward they have done in this year of the grace
If Lord, the German people have only passed t
rom home Alarics legions did across the AL
,ine passes after Rome had grown old, the
Iisigoths swarmed into the south OF Franco and /
et up their short-lived dynasty. The quarrelsome-
less that the Germans have shown for a genera s
ion back has been merely a species of national I
retext hunting for recurrence OF the movement s
Nevertheless the world has got little beyond n
he hour of Goth and Vandal and nowadays when b
n ncursion of starts, the rest of the world h
allies to suppress it-or else to meet defeat in b
he attempt No tell how the affair be- Il
ween Germany and the allies will end. It may re- Y
ult-and has already resulted-in a fast and e
urious blood-letting than at the time OF the
ranco-Prussian struggle, that this will in itself
erve reduction of the population and a neces- 6
ary means of relief 1t may be that the result f.
ill be compromise between the warning ma G
ions 1t may be that the losses of Germany will 1
c so frightful that her impulse to expand and \
onGuer, that is to say her spirit of militarism, O
YiIl vanish for at least long time the life p
me of the present generation. G,
We do not believe that anyone's opinion as to tc