The sun., 1914-09-27
THE Last War;" by w. A. Dwiggins.

forts. Our decay had become a part
If their national faith.
At first the wish may have been the
father 10 the thought, but soon under
the reiterated assertions of their crazy
professors the proposition became .ndis-
putable. Bernhardi in his book upon
the next war cannot conceal the con
tempt In which he has learned to hold
us. Niebuhr long ago had prophesied
the coming fall Of Britain and every
year was believed to bring II nearer
and TO make II more certain.
To these jaundccd eyes all seemed
yellow. when the yellowness lay only IN
I Themselves. our army. our navy our
| colonies. all were equally rotten. old
! England, old indeed and corrupt rotten
through and through" one blow and
| the vast sham would fly to pieces, and
| from those pieces the victor could
choose his reward Listen to Prof.
, Tretschke, a man who above all others
has been the evil genius OF his country
and has done most to push IL toward
this abyss:
"a thing that is wholly a sham" he
cried. in alluson to our empire "cannot.
in this universe Of ours, endure for ever.
! II may endure for "A day, but its doom
Is certain"
| Were ever words more true when
applied TO the narrow bureaucracy and
staggering Junkerdom Of Prussia, the
most artificial and ossificG sham that
ever our days have seen? See which
will crack first, our democracy or this,
now that both have been plunged into
the furnace together The day OF Gods
testing has come. and We shall see
which can best abide it,
| have tried to show that we are in
no way 10 blame for the hostility
which had grown up between us. SO
far as It had any solid cause at all,
il has arisen from fixed factors. which
could no more be changed by us than
the geographical position which has
laid us right across their exit to the
oceans OF the world That this deeply
rooted national sentiment, which for
ever regarding us as the Cart thage To
which they were destined to play the
part of Rome, would, sooner or later
have brought about war between us
s in my opinion, beyond all doubt
But II was planned to come at the mo-
ment which was least favorable for
Britain.
Even English attempts at a rap
real situation" says Bernhard I'VE
may. at most, use them to delay the
; necessary and inevitable war until We
may fairly imagine we have some pros
pect OF success"
| more shameless sentence was never
penned, and one stands marvclinl
which Is the more grotesque-the cyni'
cism Of the sentiment or the foil,
| which SnCh "A warning the vic.
| tim. For be it remembered that Bern
, hardi's words are to be taken very
seriously, for they are not the rawlings
| of some Pan-German mOnomaniac, bu
the considered views of the foremos
military writer OF Germany, one who I!
in touch with those inner circles who's
opinions are the springs of nationa
policy
4 "Our last and greatest reckoning IL t.
, be with Great Britain" said the bite
Treitschke.
, Sooner or later the shock was I,
come. Germany sat brooding over th
A chessboard of the world waiting for tn
Q opening which should assure winnini
= game.
y 1t was clear that she should take he
4 enemies separately rather than to
I gether. If Britain were attacked II WI
= almost certain that France and Russ
y would stand by her side. But II. o.
I kthe econtrarX4t he quarrel. could be mad