Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-29


AN AMERICAN, returned from a years
II relief work in Belgium, was speaking OF
the animoslty of neutrals against Germany.
He had not met in devastated Belgium such
rancor and such bitterness. The poise and
heroism of the Belgians he found wanting In
America, and he attributed what he called our
"snarling" at Germany to nothing but fear.
why don't you stop yelping about the Huns
and the barbarians," he asked, "and CONFESS
that Germany has beaten not only the Allies
but you? don't mean on the field. Heaven
knows. I know little enough about that. But
she has forced her ideas on her enemies and
she has forced them upon you. That is why
you hate her" AS in the case Of many general
statements, there is much in this but there Is
not everything in It. It is true that the malig-
nifty of noncombatants is sharper than that OF
those actually engaged. Lincoln suffered from
II intensely in the Civil War. and the men IN
command now suffer from IL. 1t is also true
that Germany has forced her Ideas upon her
enemies To such an extent Is this true that
II victory should come 20 the Allies 1t VIII De
through and because of their thorough appre-
ciation of German ideas of warfare. Military
efficiency is not yet SO fully developed IN
France and England as 1t is in Germany out
It is sufficiently developed to meet twomontns
attack upon Verdun without break. Trench
warfare. understood In every detail by the
Germans before the war broke out was mas
tered by the Allies in six months. In the mass
ing of artillery fire the French are said to
surpass the Germans. In discipline the Ger
mans are still wonderfully advanced.
But it is hardly true that Americans hate
certain things about Germany because they
fear her The terror and threat Of a Germanio
invasion, a physical seizure of our goods and
lands is not so effective as 1t was year ago.
Nor is proud America likely to fear that Ger
many's efficiency will undo her commercially.
The truth is that there are features Oh Ger
manic life, the life which is officially imposed
upon the people, which cannot appeal TO Amer.
icans Loosely those features are summed
I'D in the word efficiency" but that efficiency
Ia something far different from the Industrial
speeding up which is practiced in America.
ApoIogists for Germany have not been slow
in pointing out that her enemies accuse her OF
barbarism and Of Kultur at the same tme.i
To them it is blowing hot and blowing cold
with the same breath. process which may
seem illogical, but is quite within the capa'
bilities of humanity. The essence of German
Kultur is its intense devotion to an ideal OF
living which is so merciless that smple-mind-
ed people cannot bear it. The German ideal of
mental and social and physical efficiency Is
looking at the sun without dark glasses 1t
can be done, but as some one has said after
looking at the sun you cannot see that the
grass is green.
That is why Germany, In which philos
ophers take their cues from politicians ana
grand opera is an affair of State. cannot see
that It is inhuman to ask for a mans geneal-
ogy before giving him library card.
man of science who develops synthetic cam
phor is often forgetful of the fact that little
children do not care for camphorated oil. Yet
the triumph of Germany has been so COM
plete that it is actually held by some people
that the production of synthetic camphor is
a more important activity than the love of
little children. 1t is seriously suggested that
Germany is SO successful because there
the State is everything, and TO meet such
success citizens the world over, must trans
form themselves into cogs in an enormous
wheel OF course, the wheel will be SO well
oiled that each cog will slip through its work
without stress strain. In country which
has been the stronghold and the justification
of the highest type of individual effort pub
ncists and politicians speak unblushingly or
the socialization of industry as something in
eyitable, and when taxed are willing to ad-
nit that the socialization of living may fol-
low. AS indeed it must. That is the climax
of Germany's victory. England fights her,
calls her brutally bureaucratic. riddled with
"oficialdom." tyrannical and inhuman, and
England is compelled. step by step and re-
luctantly, TO do what Germany did in the
grand manner and with sense OF her des-
tiny To the French the German idea that
one can systematic life and make 1t produc-
tive and valuable is a heresy. The French idea
Is that II you live well 1t is quite enough.
And the tragedy is that in France, too, and
even before the war, German ideals are
conquering.
They are conquering, but they viii not con-
quer in the end The war has made some
things clear and one OF the first is that those
who are struggling against the new domina-
tlon must at least adopt its methods. You
may fight a wild fire with fire. but If there Is
in the city ineendiary who fires now this.
now that section, you must fight his fires
with all the energy and all the system that he
uses In starting them. We who stand against
the heretical ideal may safely adopt its forms
Then we shall the better understand 1t and
know better what part of 1t is really obnox-
ious to us When we have done that we win
be more sure 10 win In the end and TO keep
what COED there Is in the thing we have de-
stroysd.
The whole phenomenon is not new. At the
time Of the Inquisition Spain was trying to
impose the ideal Of highly specialized cul-
turs on nations which fought against her Re
publican Rome made the same attempt The
world very properly hates to be made better
ana more efficient, because it loves the flesh
pots OF ease. ana there remains In mankind .
httls Of the wildness and the glory OF the
forest out Of which It has come It is true
that Germany has cleaner streets and better
old-ags pensions ana superior dye works. what
ws cannot forgive Is that thsy seem to have