The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1915-04-02
Government Ia Germany

n EUROPEAN statesman said once that the
IA only ADVANTAGE OF a war was the popular
lesson in geography that it brought with it.
There, comments the San Francisco Argonaut,
was a certain cynical truth about the utterance,
although there need be no doubt that the present
war will teach US much more than geography.
In Germany, for example, We have seen the per-
feet organization Of almost incredible military
resources, and when the dust has settled bit we
may recognize that this power to organize isga
wholly admirable thing, even though Il may
sometimes show itself in ways that we do not
think to be admirable For the German army is
efficient because Germany herself is efficient.
Military efficiency in Geomany has not been SCI
cured at the cost of any other sort Of efficiency
1t is an outgrowth of the German temperament.
We shall End it in the village school as well in
the Potsdam drill ground The German army is
large and therefore it is extraordinarily visible,
but its perfection Of organization is not peculiar
to itself 1t distinguishes all German Institutions
And perhaps this is thing that we shall pres
emily recognize, and even at some cost to our own
self-esteem A republic can hardly be expected
to admire political fabric that has about it
something more than touch Of autocracy, but
at least we may be persuaded to discard the iu-
sions that democratic institutions are any neces-
sary guarantee Of efficiency or personal liberties,
and that autocracy is their necessary negation!
In Germany we see that civic government has
been brought to its highest pitch of perfection
The management of the German city is as nearly
faultless as any human institution can be. Neither
money, nor influence, nor political power is all
lowed to stand between a city and the best man
available for its government
And this same thoroughnes. this same deter
mination to secure the best results at all costs,
is to be found in well-nigh every department of
Germany life. Justice is quick, infalible, and ut
terly unmoved by considerations of wealth and
rank The German ideal Of justice may not
always be the same as our own but to attain to
an ideal is in itself no small thing. The German
Judge is blind and deaf to everything but the law
and it is triumphant testimony to the purity OF
the German courts that no one has ever been
found to assert the contrary, at least not loudly
enough for the rest of the world to hear it. Two
or three years ago the Emperor himself had =
defend an action brought against him by a
tenant He lost the suit in all the courts up to
the highest, and he accepted the Judgment against
himself and apologized to his humble tenant. No
German sutton need fear the opposition Of either
wealth or influence 5l
That Germany is country where an i'm
usually large number Of things are forbidden is
Of course an ancient taunt. None the less il may
be said that most of the things that are forbidden
are things that ought TO be forbidden, and it may
be said further that the things that forbidden
are not done Perhaps this is even better than
to forbid innumerable things that ought not to
be forbidden and also better than to forbid things
and then permit them to be done. And certainly
there are few il any unenforced laws in Germany
nor Is il conceivable that German official should
announce what laws he intends. or does not in.
tend to enforce, We may doubt il the law is