El Nuevo mexicano., 1917-12-27
Germany as a Leader

The German as a "Superman'' has been
pretty we'll exploded. He hasn't been
super except in numbers and prepare.
ton.
A storm of protest was aroused at the
Los Angeles teachers institute by the
statement of az Stanford professor to- the
effect that the Germans are leaders OF
everything under the sun.
The Los Angeles Times comments:
If this were true there could be no wrong
in admitting it, but the professor is mis-
taken. In a few branches of science it Is
true that Germany formerly led the world;
but necessity is the mother of invention,
and since the beginning of the war other
nations of the world have learned a great
many science secrets and in many re-
spects have far surpassed Germany. In
the matter of government there were in
deed certain minor institutions which Amer
lea and other countries might have copied
to advantage-but the same may be said
of the manners and customs or New Tea
landers, Hawaiians and inhabitants of Mad
agascar. No nation is perfect, and there
is nc people that could not learn some
thing from even the widest tribes of Africa
- 1Auotlo AAa. IiOWOfSi ~ pJobClu "
German government, as a whole, was, and
is, autocratic, militaristic and tyrannical
to rottenness. AS far as art, religion
and philosophy are concerned, Germany
had been on the back trail for some time
before the war, and no greater proof Of this
statement could be offered than the fact
that Germany was directly responsible for
plunging the entire civilized world into the
chaos of the dark ages. That Germany
still remains leader in atrocious cruelties
and unthinkable savagery no one will deny
and this leadership no nation will ever
envy her"
In a terrific lambas;rng OF the pro-Ger-
ma professor, DR.. Alfred Noyes, associate
member Of the faculty Of Columbia uni
versity, said:
In literature, the Germans, as a com
paratively new nation, have been treated
with the most amazing kindness by the
critics of other nations. Against the long
roll of glorious names in English and
French literature, they have only two gross.
ly oVerrated poets - whose names they re-
peat with a parrotlike nsistence-the
names of Goethe and Schiller, and both of
these poets were entirely out Of sympathy
with the German thought which has now
led the German intellect to ruin.
But, we will take them on their own
ground. We will turn aside from literature,
and take them on the ground of science.
Has Mr.. Cooper never heard the name OF
Newton? His only criticism of that name,
| suppose, would be that he is out of date:
that is to say, he was a leader and an
straightforward a follower. But has Mr..
Cooper never heard of the name Of Oar
81 am not going to speak here OF the
petty collectors of dry-as-dust details, the
poor little Gigadibs professors who go polk
ing about in the dusty corners of philology.
Mr.. Cooper has asked for the leaders in
science. | give him a leader-Charles
Darwin. ! can give him a dozen more, il
he wishes-Herbert Spencer. Lister, Fara'
day; but we viii be content for the mo
meat with Charles Darwin, who stands out
like a great mountain towering over the
whole of modern science, and even the
whole of modern political philosophy. 1t
is because the Germans were followers, and
not leaders, because they misunderstood
what they stole from Darwin, that disaster
has come upon them. They misunderstood
the doctrine of the survival of the fittest
Blt they have been talking about it ever
since they picked it out of Darwin's
pocket.
One thing they forgot to steal from
Darwin, and that was his great sentence
in the descent of man-that the understand
ing reyolts from supposing that this grand
sequence of events which we call the evo-
luton of the universe was the result OF
blind chance.
HAD they rightly understood this they
could never have committed themselves to
the doctrine that there is no power above
the state. Had they rightly understood
this they would not have ignored those
imponderable things which make the vic
tory of the allies certain. They would
never have dreamed that wrong could tri
umph over right. They could never nave
done what they did in Belgium, and what
the German chancellor described in the
Reichstag as a wrong.
'"They could never have embodied their
doctrines of frightfulness against civilian
populations as they did in their military
textbooks printed before the war. They
could never have used women to screen
their firing line"
Germany has done one thing. She has
done it WE'LL All it has earned her is the
hate of the world and ultimate destruction,
If that makes her a "s~upernation' she
may make the most Of it.
. III fN