The daily progressive-miner., 1917-11-26
WE MIGHT BE PRUSSIANS,
 BUT ARE WE?
By Edmund Vance Cooke.

The statement mas Oee0 altElouteu to several theologians, but Watts will serve. The story is that the speaker saw a drunken yagabond pass by on his way to the gallows, and, though the speaker had never been accused of criminal tendencies. he recognized the essential unity of the human race in his charitable exclamation.
 Similarly. some charitable people are still excuSing the heinous offenses ot Prussian autocracy and militarism by saying that German civilization is as high as ours. and that therefore We would do the same the Germans hare done had we been in the same situation as Germany was and is.
 tion as Germany was and is.
 Now. there is deep truth in the as- sertion of Dr Watts and of the Ger man apologies. Given the heredity and the environment of the vagabond and Dr. Watts might have been on his way 10 the gallows. Given en em- peror s'by Divine right" Reichstag without any actual governing power. 2 Bundersrath with the real govern ing power. and the Kaiser in control O: that. militaristic training of gen arations until respect for authority and the impulse 10 obey were second nature; given a philosophy carefully fostered by every educational inhu- ence tfrom primer class 10 uniyer- sityl that the State is supreme and ;s beyond all mortal law. and that therefore the orders of the State ex- pressed through its army are to be carried out implicitly; given the train ing Of child, father. and grandfather that war is mans atural state and is Gods way in the world. that our Kultur is supreme and must be enforced up- on the world for is betterment and ours-given this background. there is no reasonable doubt that you and would De Prussianized. that the kais- CT would appear 10 us like the leading Member of the Trinity. and that Schrecklichkeit would be his prophet and his instrument.
 The answer 10 this is that pr. Watts was not the vagabond and that We are not. as yet, Prussianized people r the Germans had had a struggle toward personal and political liberty from the time of Magma Charta. 2 Declaration of Independence and a century and a third Of self-expression ia government, with an absence Of m:lita-:sm all the time except in rare cases Of extreme national peril. the Germans might very likely have sur passed Is for we have been shameful Y negligent ot some of the opportun- ities ot democracy. Unfortunately for ch4n and for Us. th,s has not been their history. and so today there is apparently 10 oath too solemn not 10 be disregarded. no barbarism too heart less not 70 be committed. no decency 100 tablished not to be violated by the German nation. provided only that it furthers he immediate aim Of that nation.
 1T you and are walking down the street and a child obstructs our path and I thrust il into the gutter and crample upon it, shall I be allowed 10 continue as free as you from control because I assert that I am "as ciYiliz- ed" as you are and that my psychology is the same?
 Well. Germany has gone down the highway Of the nations and. "civiliz- ed' though she be, she has acted like some sort ot maniac. We might have done the same. but we didn't Watts might have been the gallows bird, but he wasn't
 When We shoot Nurse Cavells, when |e execute Capt Freyes, when we bomb schoolhouses and hospitals, when we use our diplomats stationed under the protection Of friendly pow CT 70 hatch schemes to burn and slay, and while protesting friendship in words plot 10 array enemies against her when we adopt the watchwor ''SpurIes versenkt" we do these things. not as individual criminals, but as expressions Of governmental pol icy. then maybe there will be some de- mocrarized Germany 10 call us 10 ac-