Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1914-09-26
IMPERtAt|STIC AND DEMOCRATIC IDEALS
O. HaIRRA. GaElIHEss NTRAST
CHARLES ELIOT PRESIDENT EMERITUS OF HARVARD, REVIEWS
OF GERMAN ARM DESTRUCTNENESS AND ITS EF
CIVILIZATION

and wealth, and to these ends the firm
establishment of her military suprem-
acy in Europe. These are the ideas on
the true greatness of nations which
have prevailed in the ruling oligarcAy
of Germany for at least sixty years,
and now seem to have been accepted, or
acquiesced in, by the whole German
people. In this view, the foundation of
national greatness is fighting power.
This conception of national great
ness has prevailed at many different
epochs-Macedonia Roman, Saracen,
Spanish, English and French-and, in
deed, has appeared from time to time
in almost all the nations and tribes OF
the earth; but the civilized world IS
now looking for better foundations of
national greatness than force a1d
fighting.
The partial success of democracy in
Europe have much increased the evlls
of war. Sir Francis Bacon looked for
Il fighting class; under the feudal sys-
TEN when Baron went to war he took
with him his vassals, or that portion of
them that could be spared from the
fields at home. Universal CONSUMPTION
is modern invention, the horros OF
which, as now exhibited in Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and France, much
exceed those of earlier martial meth
DDS, There has never been such an in
terruption of agricultural and indus
trial production, or such rending OF
family ties in consequence of war as is
now taking place in the greater part of
Europe. Moreover, mankind has never
before had the use of such destructive
implements as the machine gun, the
torpedo, and the dynamite bomb. The
progress of science has much increased
the potential destructiveness of war
fare.
Thinking people in all the civilized
countries are asking themselves what
the fundamental trouble with civiliza-
ton is, and where to look for means of
escape from the present intolerahle
conditions. Christianity in nineteen
centuries has afforded no relief The
so-called mitigations of war are COM
paratively trivial. The recent Balkan
vars were as ferocious as those of
Alexander. The German aviators drop
aimless bombs at night into cities oc-
cupied chiefly by non-combatants. The
North Sea is strewn with floating
mines which may destroy fishing,
freight, or passenger vessels of any
nation, neutral or belligerent, which
have business on that sea. The ruthless
destruction of the Louvain Library by
German soldiers reminds people who
have read history that the destroyels
of the Alexandria Library have ever
since been called fanatics and barbar-
ians. The Germans army tries to COM
pei unfortifed Belgium cities AMI
| towns to pay huge ransoms to save
themselves from destruction-a meth
cd which the Barbary States, indeed,
were accustomed to use against their
Christian neighbors, but which has
long been held to be a method appro-
pirate only for brigands and pirates
Greek, Sicilian, Syrian, or Chinese.
row can it be that the Government
CT civilized State commits, or permits
IL its agents, such barbarities? The
fundamental reason seems to be that
most of the European nations still be-
s:eye that national greatness depends
i the possession and brutal use Of
force and is to be maintained and
magnified only by military and naval
rover.
In North America there are two
large communities-here inspir-
ed chiefly by ideals of English origin
which have never fortified against
each other their long frontier-Canada
and the United States. Both may fair
ly be called great peoples even now;
and both give ample promise for the
future Neither Of thesa naoplec Iaov,