The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-09-21
THE MARCH HARE AT BERLIN


We append the article hereto because
we believe that it will be richly en-
jeyed by our readers:
That the German kaiser is person
many intelligent and observing peo-
pie. There are those who think and
say that he is as mad as a March
hare. However true or false, this
may be, there can be no question that
the principle to which he clings so
tenacious,y and asserts SO loudly
the Divine Right. claiming that on
earth he is the vice regent Of God
abOve-rests upon no basis OF rea-
son and is. in point of fact, the pur-,
est delusion Yet it is so incOnceiv-
able that a mind otherwise normal,
reared and matured under the con-
ditions and traditions which attended
his birth and surrounded his cradle,
might never for moment doubt it.
So many of us who were not born
what we want to believe We are
told that there are liars who come in
time to be deceived by their own lies.
There are indeed three different and
distinct kinds of liars; the malicious
liar who lies to iniure, the common
liar who is unable to tell the truth,
and the self-exploiting liar in whose
brain the partition separating fact
from fiction has collapsed. Why
should a crowned head balk at the lie
that makes him a god?
Again, so many people take a man
for what he declares himself to be,
and, if he sticks to it and is not found
out he may go through life imposing
his claims upon the unthinking and
credulOus.. Thus the Hapsburgs and
the Hohenzollerns foisted themselves
upon the Teutons. In the beginning
they were orse,thieves-just plain,
old fashioned hOrse-thieves-thenI
they became robber barons-and
finally, fighting some and footing
others, they got at the top and set
up the Divine right of horse stealing.
George Buchanan, since 1910. the
British ambassador at Petrograd.
told us the other day that he had
repeatedly warned the Car Nicholas
of the rising tide of democracy I'M
Russia and the need for popular con-
cessions. 1t was too late Even if
poor Mickey saw it and realized It'll
the time was passed. The truth isl
he made fatal mistake in casting
his lot with England and France. !
He belonged with Austria and Ger
many.
Bismark, at the Prussian end of
the line, understood this perfectly !
Old Wilhelm der Crosse meant it
when on his dying bed he whispered
to his grandson, you must always
keep upon good terms with the en-
peror of Russia-there are no rea-
sons against it," In other words !.
kaiserism and czarism are birds of a !
feather they need to flock together. /
When autocrats fall out democracy
comes to it's own.
Twenty-Five years hence there will
not be a crowned head in Europe.
Beyond that it is idle to conjecture. |
The mystery of the future. which
cannot now be fathomed, will turn
upon the degree that the proletariati
invested with power shows itself
equal to the emergencies of self-gov-i
ernment, which, as Elihu Root finely
says. is merely organized self-con-
troll"
The rule Of force quite gone from
the scene, the rule of numbers ar-i
rived-no man-on-horseback to in
tervene-the question will resolve
upon how the numbers carry them
selves and what they do. "Citizens," ~
cried Verginaud in the national as
sembly just before the terror. there
is but too much reason to fear that
the revolution, like Saturn, will sue
cessively devour its progeny and
leave at last only despotism with its
attendant calamities" This actually
happened. Sick of bloodshed, stated
with license, weary of chaos, society
turned to Napoleon.
Can that old game be played upon
the world again? 1t would simplify
the forecast of the future to think so.
But. on the other hand, another sur
mise seems coming to the specula-
tive and their are reasons to believe
that in that particular form the one
man-power will never more assert
itself
One thing is certain. the proletariat.
is on the way. The Divine Right of
rulership in kings is doomed Tho