New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-23
The Kaiser's Answer

The Devil quotes Holy Writ when It
suits his purposes. SO the German En-
peror talks humantarianism and interna-
tional fraternity when such talk serves
German ends.
The Kaiser's reply to the Pope's peace
proposals drips with lofty sentiment. 1t
declares that the German government is
at one with the Holy See in the conviction
that ain the future the material power OF
arms must be superseded by the moral
power of right" With truly Satanic eff.
frontery the Kaiser expresses the belief
chat the sick body of human society can
be healed only by terrifying its moral
strength of right" Therefore Germany is
willing to accept disarmament and com
pulsory arbitration in the settlement of
international disputes.
This talk comes from the head Of state
nurtured on "bood and IRON Prussia Is
a creation Of the sword. So is the present
German Empire. PruSsian policy, since
Frederick the Great, can be summed up in
the maxim: Might makes Right. The Ger
man mind has been poisoned for years
rast with teaching like that of Nietzsche,
Treitschke and Bernhard, which holds
that no considerations should be allowed
10 stand in the way Of German world
power and that states cannot and must
not be bound in the attainment Of their
destiny by the moral and legal restrictions
which are imposed on individual action.
The cynicism of Frederick the Great has
been glorifed by Germans as national viz
tue, and in the conduct Of the present war
the rulers of Germany have shown lacl;
Of honor, brutality and ruthlessness at
which even the appropriation of Silesia
would have been Mortified
The German government prepared for
war over a long stretch Of years. Its in
ventors devised new and terrible weapons
of warfare, banned by existing military
codes. Its soldiers were schooled in meth
DDS Of terrorism recalling the savagery of
the Dark Ages. When the time came they
applied those lessons by making war not
only on the armed forces Of the enemy,
but on civilians, non-combatants, neutrals,
women and children. They slew the help
less, burned, pillaged, outraged, wrecked
and even RACED the surface of the earth on
a scale unparalleled since the world be-
came civilized.
In the height of popular passion during
cur Civil War James Russell Lowell wrote
=. DIRK p;olou pa porsp.
I'd sooner take my chance to stan
At Judgment where your meanest slave is
Than at Gods bar hoP up han
Ez drippin' red yourn, JEFF Davis!
h To US nowadays that condemnation
ee{ns extravagant. Lowell himself would
lave been the first to modify it in the
almer years after the war. But how in
fgdeqI.ate would Lowelps words be now, if
applieS to the crimes committed by and
in the anne of the German Kaiser! Jeffer-
son Davis observed the rules Of war. Lee,
Jackson. and the two Johnstons were chiv-
alrous gentlemen. Admiral Semmes, on
the Alabama, took scrupulous care to save
|. the lives of the crews and passengers of
Northern merchant ships which he de-
s,royed. The South fought fairly. Its
soldiers did not outrage women and muir
der children. 1t committed no hideous and
cold-blooded barbarities in pursuance of a
Predetermined campaign of frightfulness.
But II Lowell's words were too strong