South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-07-06


fulness." Our compatriots, the Russians, are
especially fond of such experiments and won
derful TO say, the experiment sometimes sue
ceeds In Germany it is always supposed that
State hypnotism will act, and Germans are
greatly perplexed when 1t fails to do so.
recollect the following scene A compatriot OF
mine, who wanted TO get off q tramcar before
it reached the appointed station, took the lib
erty of stopping the tram by pulling the bell
cord The conductor, looking at him with
bloOdshot eyes, exclaimed, "Wie, Sic wagenT
and became petrifed with horror. No other
consequences resulted.
But il would never enter an ordinary Ger.
mans head that there may be no other conse-
quences-he is hypnotized, and on that fact
the whole order Of Germany rests 1t is well
known that in Germany all suburban walks are
speckled with prohibitOry placards with strin-
gent threats of two weeks Imprisonment" for
any one who steps 10 the left where he is only
allowed to go to the right and these prohibit
tions are never infringed, though no keepers
are visible to enforce them. The high roads
and paths are bordered by unguarded fruit
trees vet no one plucks the fruit except its
owner Why? Is it that the German is so viz
tuous or that he is haunted by an apparition OF
the "frightfulness" which will befall him If he
oversteps the line? We now know that a Ger
man does not object to steal when the eye or
the Kaiser ceases to threaten him with some
thing frightful, and that gives us an idea OF
what this hypnotism means IN Germany and
of how much rests upon 1t.
We ourselves live in a land possessing just
the opposite qualities and defects; among US
the State hypnOtism acts too teebly. we know
by personal experience that the announcement
of a prohibition prOVOkeS its infringement; Tor
instance we see that prohibitions of smoking
in station Tefreshment rooms are quite COM
patible vita the fact that everybody smokes
there, and spOrtsmen invariably, by way or
protest, punctuate with shotholes the notice
boards which announce that 1T is forbidden
to shoot ii these private woods" ETC., etc. And
in view of these experiments" the Govern
ment does not look at us with eyes sufficiently
"feTOcious" TO make us obey; to do that 1t has
to seize us by the scruff of the neck and act on
us by the application of its fist And until 1t
resorts to that method inclined TO be-
lieve that it is not angry"
With a German it is different. Respect for
government is his second nature. And, thanks
TO the historic conditions amid which he has
lived during the last century, that tendency
has assumed an exaggerated and monstrous
form
The German Empire is a victorious empire.
and consequently it has become for the Ger
mans an doI-a God-on-earth. One of the i'm
pressOns most irritating TO travellers in Ger
many is that produced by the mementoes OF
victory he meets at every step. Now 1t is a
Tower of Victory" a Statue Of Vic
tory" now a Gallery of Victory" an
ALLEY OF Victory" and new simply "Monu-
ment of Victory" that continually dazzles his
eyes.
1t is not difficult to see the result of this
amalgamation of a hypnotism by empire with
hypnotism by victory. The empire has exalted
the German, has raised him above all other
nations, has given him a worldwide hegemony.
has supplied him with colonies and made him
strong and rich How he help wOrshiping
his empire or fail to believe in it! And why
should he strain his limited private brain"
when above him is the State, foreseeing every
thing, caring for everything and leading him
by the hand
OF the fact that the State leads the individ-
ual by the hand he is reminded at every cross
hn IL l. rr1,serra
told where he should 90 to the right and where
TO the left; what he may do and what he
mustn't If he goes to the post box to drop in
a letter he is reminded to stick the stamp on
the proper place and TO address the letter. II
he enters any government office at the exit is
a reminder that he should not shut the door,
it will shut itself; and If he goes to a retired
place he is reminded before leaving TO adjust
his toilet. In Germany cannot take step
without meeting the government, which thinks
for you and guards you. And what a govern
ment! The mightiest, richest, most admirable
and victorious of governments! One has but
to submit to such a government for prosperity
to come TO one of itself, as certainly as a cake
Of chocolate is supplied by automatic
machine when one inserts ten-pfennig piece.
Resistance TO such a Government is i'm.
possible from within. But does not some in
frngemenc of order threaten IL from without?
No; here also acts the well-ordered automatic
system, introduced once-for-all by Bismarck
and consolidated by two Wihelms. And in the
N'Vut Oh dN dlldtk from WlluOul ul6 Oldlb VIII
always have a Krupp and Moltke TO protect
II If not the uncle, then the nephew! And
the result vii. again be the capture Of the en-
emys army; another Sedan; another surrender
OF Paris! The same lightning fash from the
halsers eyes awaits the foreign enemy as
awaits the enemy within
VI course impressions may be subjective, but
the reality OF the decline of spiritual life in
Germany is proved by undoubted objective
data Alike In the religion. the philosophy, the
science and In the art of contemporary Ger.
many, an astonishing decline of creative power
is evident In the sphere OF religious teaching
a fiat Ritschlianism, singularly meagre in us
contents, hold sway, while in philosophy under
the guise of novelty, they are forever chewing
the cud of old ideas, drawn chiefly from the
teachings of Kant, Fichte and legal and
moreover the newest variations of these teach
ings are far from displaying the intellectual
wealth of the models from which thew are
copied In science, one is amazed by their lack
Of general ideas and by the predominance OF
detailed investigations (Einzelforschung)
There is a similar impoverisnment in their
artistic literature, in which the most important
names to-day (Hauptmann and Sudermann) are
~ &C.