Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-03-10
BEST THOUGHT IN AMERICA
DIGEST OF THE MAGAZINES

used them again"-that is a phrase IA s,c,
III ones mind in rejecting on the employ
ment given by war to some of tbe ars..
spirits of our time.
ANY one who has ever listened to the rnasIe
OF Fritz Kresler's playing will indeed wonder
at the madness that could find no better use
l0r MN than to send him into the field to
sleep night after night in wet grass and
then into the trenches to be ridden over and
wounded by Cossack lancer
John Reed tells a war story in the Metro
politan CD which gives a vivid sense OF oa
human nature functioning along the same as
ever with all its inconsistencies and para
doXes. He was with the German army:
You could find no animosty against III,
french and not much respect for them. The
English, however, they respected and hated
not only these men, but officers in Other
places, told me that English and Germans
gave no more quarter to one another, and
took no more prisoners. -
Yet there remained the wonderful story Of
the Christmas truce-where English and Ger.
man and German and French visited one
anothers trenches and even exchanged gifts
The SaXons were in trenches somewhere not
far from Rheims; on Christmas Eve, the
French soldiers opposite, against the com
mands of their officers, sent an envoy under
a white flag to ask for truce on Christmas
Day. This the Saxon officers refused. But on
Christmas morning the Saxon soldiers de-
Clared the truce in spite of the officers; and
and increasing friendliness for six days, until
finally the mutinous regiments had to b
withdrawn from both sides.
Germany Discovers Her Enemies
One of the most subtle effects of war is the
necessity for self-justification which 1t forces
upon both sides. 1t is at first confusing to
see the intellectual leaders of modern thought
arguing from identical premises to opposite
conclusions, according as they are Frencn
or German born. One of the greatest and
most original thinkers of the day, Prof. Ra-
dolf Eucken, has just written some phio
sophical reflections upon the war, which are
translated from the Illustrirte Zeltung By
the Review of Reviews "a:
This year has brought us experiences both
sad and joyous; the sad fortunately are from
without and the joyful from within. There
has been a notable swing of the pendulum
with regard to our relations with forelsa
countries. We were justified in beleWhs
that we possessed, If not the love, at any rais
the esteem. of the great majority of nations
now we are not only forced to suffer the envy
and hate of our direct opponents but even
among neutral peoples so much disanectloa
against us has been displayed, such un'
Willingness and inability to put themselves y
our place, that 1t is very clearly shown nov
foreign we have remained to the others as
spite all external points of contact.
fOf example, we mad recently esldph'Hsr
a multiplicity of cultural bonds with Amer
lea. and now there come to us thence over
whelming expression of a hostile nature. as
also had believed ourselves to be IN cioss
community of culture with French swl1s
land, yet now Geneva seems to have Decons
dn defiance of Swiss neutrality very loeI sa.
of agitation against Germany, But WI
such misunderstanding and such passp.
RACES against us in the outside world. ~
need have no fear, for this year has shos.
a mighty strength in the German peopls,
strength that none of its foes would ha''
dreamed of attributing to it,
The war was forced upon our people =
foes who, envious of our growing greauise
have long cherished sinister plans. bu' ~ "A
did not accept this necessity with SIZE slsts,med
groans we Immediately transL99rhsss
fate into the deed OF our own free VIII =
this whole position was new and the "eaPh ts ghs
forged against us hitherto unheard o.
past can offer us no counsel; we must sssss
on our own feet, discover new paths Sc s.ssn ns
new forces our life mas Nv IA
that chain OF the past and stands "hop'
the present.