The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-10-20
CALLS PROGRESS OF
GERMANY RUTHLESS
Prof. Giddings Says She Has
Sacrificed Higher Law to
Efficiency.
TER IDEAL THE SUPERMAN

That tho present European struggle IL
primarily q struggle between two civiliza-
lions. the newer Teutonic and the older
civilization of France and England. in
nerltcd from Greece and Rome, is the as
sortion OF Prof Franklin H. Giddings. the
socioloFist. who spoke last night before
The Institute of Arts and Sciences At Coz
lumbla University on The Larger Mean
ines Of the War"
Each Of these civilizations claims to be
better than the other. said Prof. Gidd!ngs.
md while t,usland and France surpass
Germany in scholarship and science Ger
many oXc,.s iu the development OF her
social organization, which has resulted in
great collective efficiency.
Prof Giddinss points out that Germany
does not ask that her civilization be
weighed I'm the future. but asserts II de-
monstrlt,d superiority now. In exam
lining her claims he does not see that she
has exceeding dol!Cacy ~ feeling for
plastic art and her contributions to
scholarship and science do not. he thinks
equal those OF England and France.
but " Gcrmanys achievement in the
fields " art and science. though great and
admirable, are not yet surprising he
continued. her achievement In the domain
OF social policy and organization chal-
lcnges the world. She fatty denies the
maxim that the government Is best which
governs least. She has developed govern
mont as an fundamentally OF social well
fare on IA scale and with a me- sure Of
success never before or elsewhere seen.
while England and America have been
awakening to the humane conviction that
ignorance, ineiicicncy, unemployment,
vasabondage and misery ought II pos
sible 20 be prevented. Germany has said
-. k.Nf -
BY preventing them she has created a
collective efficiency which the rest of Eu-
rope viii henceforth respect. Whether II
has been attained at too great a sacrifice
of individual liberty. initiative and self
relience time and fortunes Of war may
determine Perhaps the fate OF the con-
tending nations will turn upon precisely
this point
"There ROMAN those supposedly i'm
portan. factors Of civilization-idealism
and morality. What OF them Germany
Droclaims TO the world that her paramount
discovery lies in the realm of moral philos-
ophy and that her true greatness is now
% be seen in the feaFlessness with which
she applies # TO life She has discovered,
4 seems. rs truth OF reason that might
-eally does make right. and Itself is the
only right II had been suspected that
1ilchiovc'N laugh; something like this.
but he WAS an Italian and lived before
Through Natural selection Darwin
wrote The Origin Of Species. but he was
n ErEl'shman and chung to an old fash
toned morality Nietzsche. the German,
was the first 20 see that II there really
is struggle FOR existence in which the
81 ronC alone survive and the weak m!ser-
bly, perish weakness mus; be essential
vii. might essential Righteousness. com
re sson the only sin. Not the Christ, but
The supsrmau must come, and the Ger
nam is the superman. Treitschke was
%c'tzsohc', disciple, and the mantle has
failed upon B,rnhardl. Promulgate this
phl,o sorhy. they have said, embody Il in
diplomacy. teach 1t to the army, preach
IL 20 the people and then you shall see
Deutschland ucher Allies
What can the rest Of mankind say
only this. The tiger and the savage
: "occed with simple dlrectncss 10 the end
IN view. Civilized man has assumed that
the quality Of means no less than the
desirahill'y Of ends should receive con-
siderntiou and this attention TO means
as we'll us to ends he has called mo-
ralltv He has made these assumptions
and adjusted his conduct to them be-
cause long ago he stumbled upon two inn
portant discoveries. One was that mutual
aid Is a more important factor in the
struggle for existence than claw or fiat
The other was that mutual aid s possible
only among men that can trust one an
other. who tell the truth and keep their
word, abiding by their covenants though
they have sworn 10 their own hurt"
Prof GiddinPs concludes by saying that
democracies do not hastily make war and
that II We are to have universal peace the
kings. the good one with the bad ones,
must GO