Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1918-05-02
CERMANY'S BARBAROUS POLICY
BUILT ON A FOUNDATION OF
MOST VICIOUS PHILOSOPHY
For Centuries the Worst that Emanated from
the Fertile Minds Of Men Of Evil Genius
Have Been Adopted for Base Of
the German Propaganda
Bv John LEISK TAFT.

&OOu-tudt IL pIouuScu osuiAScs SuSe1
murder, as well as industry and cour-
age. The high priest Of misanthropy.
he maintained that the evil outweighed
the good; and taught that true happi-
ness would be impossible until man
became able to kill viii with Win;
that is to say, until the Win to Live
was willed u of existence and mar
reduced himself. voluntarily. to asceti.
| cism.
But asceticism held no attractions
for Nietzsche. His was not the type
of intellect that submits tamely to
prescription: and, while he readily &C.
cepted Schopenhauer's premise of the
Will to Live. he very quickly diyerged
from him as to the conclusions to be
drawn therefrom. He held. on the con.
trary. that true happiness. or at any
rate true hercism. lay in stiff -necked
indifference toward all "the ills that
flesh is heir to-" and particularly, in
the annexation of whatsoever desir
able things one could find, regardless
of any others claims, or rights to
them. His "Zarathustra," ~discoursing
of the superman, exclaims:
"Why so soft, so tender, SO concili
atory? Why is such self-denial in your
hearts? Such little consciousness OF
destiny in your look? This new table,
Q my brethren, l write above you:
BECOME HARD!"
There was but one logical develop
ment for a man Of Nietzsche's type,
given such a starting point. He be,
came the supreme egoist of all ages;
and in his blaring egotism crystallized
into definite and coherent propositions
all those Grant and rebellious eccen.
t~ricities which had characterized Ger.
/ mar thought. He gave to the Germanic
philosophy its full and final expires.
sion.
1t was thus that Germany found in
Frederick Nietzsche the fitting
spokesman for all apostles of brutal
ity. He became at once the heir and
the administrator of all revolts against
delicacy and decency. He was com
mitted, absolutely and wholehearted.
~, to iconoclasm. These revolutionary
tendencies had long sheltered in the
shadows of the German universities;
and it remained only for later days te
bring forth one who might declare
them "as n having authority" Ir
the half-mad. ego-ridden Nietzsche
. with his brain of lava and his pen o.
flame, Germanic philosophy found its
!, spokesman.
> To other peoples Nietzsche was
merely a phenomenon. His writings
were to be read and admired for theil
) laundering and flaming rhetoric. They
| were not to be accepted literally; they
> were too suhversive of all that ~civiliZa
ton stood for. No man, it was felt
could so write of these things and real
ly mean exactly what he wrote. !
legion of reviewers swarmed over hi
, books, adapting, constituting, interpret
E ing, each according to his own fancy
y the passionate f%ultlinations of thi
/ past master Of invective.
But to Germany, or at least to tn
s leaders of German thought, Nietzsch
| spake as a prophet. In their ears hi
4 scathing doctrines became, not rhe'
q oric, but religion. And his vision g
' the superman, ruthless, hard, takin
, without scruple, iniuring withor
' qualm, a law unto himself--this wa
q the false god after which German
went avidly astray.
in our present civilized world" d.
,s clared Nietzsche. Eve know only tn
10 DEGENERATE criminal til
y criminal who distrusts himself, VII
II often seeks to belittle and excuse h
act; and we try to forget that EVER
as GREAT MAN WAS A CRIMINAL
IL only not in miserable style. but
great style. We forget that EVER
N GREAT ACT is a CRIME"
q And SO we find our iconoclast, WI
re began with accepting Schopenhauer
nj harmless Will to Live, evolving Il
he Will to Power. He no longer holt
,r merely that MISREPRESENTATION Is II
II lures first law; he proclaims that
is right and lawful that he who C,
oil shall take whatever he will-provid,
er only that 1t adds to and does not d
oi tract from his ability to take yet mo
In ruthlessly whatever his neighbor m,
cd have that pleases his sovereign fame
or Nietzsche had reached the point whe
sc he held himself above the moral Ia
Ms and reversed, or tried to reverse,
ar accepted standards Of right an
ye, wrong.
IN Nor did he cease with this; for t
ar prophet, p%erforce, must justify. I
.ilt prophecy. In the closing chapter Of !
al, book, der Anti-Crrist," he scaled I
pu very summit Of blasphemous presun
fo, ton and gave free and final rein
his furious invective. Here no write
me- II condemn Christianity. bri
he against 1t the most terrible Of accuI
tel tons that ever an accuser put ir
nc words. II Is to me the greatest of
the imaginable corruptions. II has 4
nothing untouched by Its depravity.
Ive has made a worthlessness out Of eve
n, value. a lie out ef every truth, q
vol, out Of everything straightforwa
t,no1tH,, noI hounct ~ it.,n, -, =,