The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-22
Kant the Father of the
 German twill to Conquer"

Since the outbreak of the war many men of many minds have sought in Geman philosophy and literature the origin and inspiration of the Teutonic will to conquer and the source of Prussian militarism and German inn perialism. According to some it is the spirit of the superman of Friedrich Nietzsche which has driven Germany to make war on the world. Treitschke, Bernhardi and other modern leaders of German thought have certainly found inspiration in the gloomy creator of the ''uber-mensch," or 'tover-nan,'' but long before -Nietzsche was born the cOnquering spirit of Germany had been fostered by ImmanueI Kant and his celebrated pupil. Johann GottIieb Fichte.
 This is the 192nd anniversary of Kant the metaphysician who aroused in the German breast the ambition of world domination, as he was born in Konigsburg, Prussia April 22, 1724 Kant had Scotch blood in his veins, as his grandfather a native of Scotland, emigrated to Germany near the close of the seventeenth century. His father was a sadd1er, and his mother, who was of pure German blood. was noted for her piety.
 The theory that it was Rants "cate- gorica1 irnperative'' and thing init self rather than Nietzsche's ''ueber- mensch,'' which set Prussian to the task of wor1d-conquest, is not unsup- ported by facts To say that German generals, politicians, princes and tradesmen5, are bound, together in a common cause and fighting for a ''pIace in the sum- because a man long since dead formulated a system of meta physics in which he planned the universe on two a priori forms and 4- %oCr 1-,Ixr startling, but it may nevertheless have a large element of truth.
 Bernhardi pays high tribute to Kant as the author of The Critique of Pure Reason declaring that "the Reforma- ton" and The CritiqueNof Pure Req son'' stand for t.twol great move ments born from the German intellectual life on which, l1enceforth, all the intellec- tua1 and moral progress of mankind must rest.''
 Kant was the father of that philo- sophy winch has found expression in ed the universe into two realms, and on the material side he called upon me nto subjectl themselves to sobedi- ence, definite subjection ana control, detailed organizat ii ion.' while on the spiritual and intellectual side he stood for 4'unIimited freedom, the heighten- ing of consciousness for it's own sake,
 
 duality has ever since been the chief characteristic of everything German. It explains why the German loudly boasts of his gneat and unlimited free dom, while at the same time a mere cog in a mighty military and indus trial mechanism ruled by a Kaiser who boasts of his divine right and confronted on every side with the warning .sverboten.'' The German be- feves-as Kant first taught him to be- lieye-that on the material side the in dividl1aI must subject himself com plete1y to the state and the king, while in the domain of SinteIlect he is free to roam at will. It was Kant who preached the gospel of moral duty which now prevails in Germany. and which fsxthe exact opposite of the doc trine of individual rights upheld in Great Britain France and America. Militarism, based on universal military service, was a natural deduction from Rants doctrine of duty and morality.
 Professor John Dewey, the distin- guished Columbia professor of phf1o- sophy, has writtenSa book on this sub ject, with the title of 4'German Philo- sophyl and Politics" in which he att tenpts to show the great part played Ilby Kant, Fichte, Hegel and other philosophers in moulding the German character. and transforming it into a nation of warriors bent on the con- quest of the world.