The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1917-09-13
THE WAR WITH GERMANY.
.(Continued from page ?, column p
another German philosopher, Nietzs-


,(Continued from page 2, column p
another German philosopher, Nietzs
che, whose views have so tremendous
ly influenced Germany throughout
8 these last thirty years. Even more
fercely than Treitschke he glorifies
war, going even to the extent of de-
nouncing Christianity as a religion
.of the weak; in his view u IS fit only
for "shopkeepers, COWS, women, and
Englishmen. Here is his doctrine
as given in his own words:
What is good? All that in
creases the feeling of power,
the will to power, power itself,
in man. What is bad? All
that proceeds from weakness.
What is happiness? The feeling
that power increases, that resis-
tance is being overcome. -. Not
contentment, but more power.
Not peace at any price, but war.
Not virtue, but efficiency! . -.
; The weak and the botched must
perish: that is the first principle
of our humanity And then they
should be helped to perish! -.
I am writing for the lords of the
earth . You say that good
cause hallows war? l tell you
that a good war hallows every
cause!'
There is your wild, intoxicated del
iication of war-that deifcation for
, which militarist-mad Germany
stands: the doctrine that strong ma
tions must crush the weaker ones,
and glory in the crushing like a
drunken man rejoicing in his muir
der. Nietzsche himself does not
shrink from the most brutal avowal
of his principles. What means life?
he asks in The joyful WISDOM" and
he answers: ITO thrust away from
us everything that wants to die; to
be cruel and inexorable towards
everything that grows old and weak;
to be murderers all the time
Let US be perfectly frank and ad-
NIT that the everage German in his
mind does not wholly accept the
doctrines of these writer's. Neverthe-
less, one has only to study Belgium
and the Lusitania to see that Treis-
chke and Nietzsche are the true ex-
ponents of official Germany. Not
only is it true that in no other ma
tion has such a school of philosophers
won popular approval, and not only
lis it true that their brutal cave-man
doctrines have been accepted and
translated into action by the German
government, but we must also &C
knowledge that the German people,
though ordered as soldiers to ex-
ecute these principles in ravaged Bel
gium or on pirate submarines, have
not yet rebelled or made one historic
protest against a government so con-
trolled. They have not differentiated
themselves from their government.
Force, then, is the German ideal:
military force, and force seemingly
unrestrained by moral scruples.
Moreover, force is limited by no sense
of the governments responsibility to
the great masses of the people. Over
and over again the Kaiser proclaims
the medieval doctrine of the divine
rights of kings; over and over again
he declares that he is anointed of
God to rule Germany-a as he pleases.
The American doctrine that the peo-
pie have divine right to choose their
own rulers has no place in German
thought.
In saying what we have said, we
intend to draw no indictment of the
masses of German people. They are
naturally a people of many admirable
qualities. But in submitting them
selves to the autocratic government
of a ruthless military despotism, they
have been mesmerized into charac-
ter out of keeping with their natural
tendencies. L knew an old man born
in Germany long ago who just prior
to the outbreak of the present war
in 1914 lamented the tragic change
that had come over his Fatherland:
the change we have suggested in the
in the paragraph We have just quot
ed from DR.. Lowell. Nearly every
year he had gone back to his home
land. Il don't want to go again. he
sighed. The Germany l knew and
loved has been transformed by the
ruthless Force-god of the Prussian. J"
Let US keep these facts in mind,
therefore, all through the present
war. There is no excuse for any