Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-07-31
A Precedent From Jewish History


A Precedent From Jewish History
A general who has fought the Turk In
| this war reminded me yesterday that Moses
| took the Jews through a forty-year journey
| through the wilderness. The reason, he
said was that Moses wanted the old genera
/ ton to die out and a fresh one to be born
| for the good of the nation. That must
happen to Germany. The generation which
| has been brought up with this war or the
| next as an ideal must be crushed out.
We are fighting a corruption, the corrup-
| ton of every human instinct. We must
| know how far this corruption has gone into
| the people. We must even beware or a
sham revolution which may come In order to
make peace, after which another revolution
| will put the old powers on the throne
| again. And every day the evidence piles
| up that the corruption has gone deeper than
| we thought. 1t is not merely the oligarchy,
not merely the military ruling class. The
| army is small part of it. The profess
| soriate is, perhaps, the worst section, be-
| cause 1t influences so many young people
| The civil service is foul with the same
| spirit (These are the results of studies
| made in the German mind. most of them by
| neutrals, whose reports have reached this
country) And from my own reauing III
certain volumes issued by trades-union ON
cials am led to the belief that the leaders
of the workers In Germany are quite as pao.
I would like to repeat this Not word or
these judgments is due to reading or any
British publication nor of talking TO any
Briton / have happily been allowed 10
| see some German publications recently. ana
there is always a mass of Danish, Dutch
| and swedish transcriptions OF German
opinion at hand here.
Can the German people be restored TO
| sanity by anything short of an anniniiatihs
| defeat in the field? Can we give them
sense of humor? Think of this reference
cot
Engelburt Drerup professor Oh ciassieai
philology at Wuerzburg:
| He has discovered that Demosthenes
| ,s erinently untitled for study in German
| schools He finds that learned Germans
have for some time past taken an IN
| creasingly cold view" of this Greek ora
| tor and regrets that the study or his
| works ever survived the war OF 1870 lie
| reioices that this mighty war has at
| last completely torn the mask from the
| face of that chauvinistic demagogue, De-
| mosthenes, who Is now seen 10 pc
| worthy predecessor of Asquith, Lloyd
| George BRAND. Ven!zelos and Jonescu.
| The friend who introduced me to this
4 choice thing did not stop at the humor OF
| II He asked me whether we should be
\ able To knock out of Germans this insane
| idea that everything had to be German,
| had to serve the German military, or was
damned. He inquired whether we, VINO
| talked of saving the German people from
| their rulers, knew the German, ana par
| tcuarly the Prussian.
| "I know you have lived With those who
| went away" he said. II am rather fearful
of what they will do when war breaks out.
But do you know the Prussian who stayed
at home? We are beginning to know
Not Ready for Reprisals
People here do not say that war is war.
| They say very definitely that Prussian war
| is not war. 1t took their Government thirty
| months to make a reprisal, and many OF
| them would not stand 1t then. / remember
| talking in the company of another Ameri-
| can correspondent. with an officer who had
got shell shock, was knocked out COM
| pletely and felt he might go mad. We
| mentioned reprisals. We suggested putting
| a celebrated young German officer on the
| next hospital ship. And recall the Vince
| of pain the mo, no" and the Never
| which we heard. Here was a man who
had laid down all that was good In his
life as a sacrifice against Prussianism. He
| would not hear of Britons countenancing
what Germans of every description do. ap'
; prove and encourage.
They know here that there are revolu.
tionaries In Germany and they sympathize
with them. They know that In south Ger.
many there are better men and women thar
in the north. And they know also of the
vileness. the personal and unauthorized
llthineSS, which marked the recent German
retreat. And have heard stories, from
Americans who happened to be there lit
tie In advance of their own country.
armies which have not been pleasant ts
hear
The professor who thinks Demosthenes
unfit for the higher Prussian culture, ant
the middle class worker who thinks thai
Bulgaria might well become a part of tn,
Prussian Empire In order to supply hin
with work. these must be eradcated, sa,
my British friends. And how are you goin1
to do It? Isn't 1t even a question whether
a victory in the field will allow us to ceal
these sadly befuddled minds?
They have been forty years intent OF
one thing. AS George Santayana one,
wrote. they have looked so steadily at tn,
sun-they desired their place In it--tha
they can no longer see that the grass Il
green But try looking at the sun. /
takes time for things to resume their natura
| color.
So people think here. And hope tina
II we come to think 80, too. we will thinl
these thoughts with as little hatred a.
| exists here. This war Is being fought b,
haters--by the Germans who announce tina
they hate freedom-iagain I quote from
them)- land by the Allies who hate Prus
sianism, And with this bitter hatred. m
lesst bitter because 1t has cost 30 much
there il the growing feeling that the en-,
| will involve the crushing out, perhaps tn
, killing, of many thousands of German sol
diers ard the harsh starvation Of war 70