Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-08-08
SHALL GERMANS WRITE THE
HISTORY OF THESE DAYS?


TTIsTORY Is what men have written.
- not what men havo done. Had n
Trojan penned tho Tlad, Hector, not
Achilles would have been tho perfect
warrior. All that we know Of Carthage
comes from Romans. When the African
city fell, down with II went centuries OF
Phoencian literature. 40 Persian wrote
OF Marathon. The golden ora Of Pcriclcs
was period Of ultimate military defeat
but the Spartans had no poets, only an
army, wherefore Athens was the eye ot
Greece
Could German professors write the story
Of the last three years events could Ger
many conquer all Europe and print the
textbooks for succeeding generations, the
heroic Belgians would go down into the
records as n dastardly, faithless race,
whose extinction conferred n great bcne'
ft on humanity. It makes n vast differ.
ence who tells the story. Partisan recorda-
tion paints virtues black and under It's
magic touch crime shines in radiant
whiteness.
There is evident In all recent German
utterances an hystcrlcal longing to FREQ
the nation from tho ISLANDERS" which
have been heaped on It. The greater the
truth the greater the libel" was a maxim
lawyers loved to mouth. So, the German
objection IL not that Belgium was un.
raped and God Himself not insulted in
His temples, but that the facts were
printed and revealed to all the world. II
was n neutral crime to tell the truth
about frightfulness. What man with
ieprous spots does not clothc himself In
fine linen IL he can and hide his limbs?
Wherefore, with almost pathetic emphasis,
the German rhetoricians have sought TO
stay the universal tide of condemnation
which will fasten itself on every individual
German citizen for years to come, II, in.
deed, time ever can cffaCe the memory Of
these days from the mind of man and
arouse in him a forgiveness that can over
vhelm Indignation.
We battle, therefore not only for
democracy, but also for n true record OF
events, that 1t may not be taught In
after years to generation after genera.
tion that the Allies were n dcspicabe peo,
pie. treacherous and dishonest, and that
the United States entered the conflict for
"swaG." For German domination means
the overturning OF our moral code, a re.
volt from accepted standards, a return to
the ethics of the cave man, the dominion
of brute strength not only IN world poll.
tics but also in the home. If there are
no national rights which Germany Is
bound to respect, neither are there any
rights which the German individual IS
bound to respect and feminism will be
slaughtered on the altars of militarism
along with liberty, truth and justice.
These are real dangers. So long
have we lived with our institutions that
we forget the abuses that gave them
being. Our ancestors knew the things
that were worth fighting for. Their
fathers had told them what oppression
was. Not for generations have VIC our
glimpse at II as an unreal, ancient
passed.by thing, So it was until the
Kaiser loosed his egions. Now It rises
again with all of its ancient fury, seek
ing to overthrow the progress of cen
turies and re-establish moral and socia
codes outlawed and repudiated ages ago
We do not think that the German code
could live, even in the event of a com
plete German victory, but the streams o
civilization were turned by Alexander
scipio and Caesar and the world has no
yet recovered from the thrust of Moham
med and his fanatics, bent, as the Kaise
is on the propagation of a new system
by the sword.
Kultur or the Sermon on the Mount
Caesar or God?
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