The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-01-26
CruSading or Looting..
Which Is Ii?
Wy DANIEL Louis Hanson Of The
Vigilantes)

truly hyphenatic sense-that ia a
herman living under the favorable
auspices of the United States Govern.
ment but minus even the faintest
trace OF the American spirit. Before
the War was forced on the United
o'ates he was noisy in his support Of
lhe so-called "Fatherland": we were
treated to long harangues about Ger.
man kulturf the meaning Of which he
understood less than did any of the
rest OF us; of German literature by
winch he meant Schiller and Goethe
-helther of whose writings he ever
had read, the later writer's Of Ger
many being entirely unknown to him
Also about German music, the best
plt OF which was-acording to him
Hawaii.
But he was particularly strong on
inc "kultur" proposition Germany
mad gone so much farther than all
'he rest OF the world in everything
that she was justifed-it was her
duty, TO put the rest Of humanity un-
der the ameliorating influences of the
"hultur'. And he really believed
what he said; he was a fanatic
preaching the fanaticism of a whole
people, going out to war under its
spell. AS | listened to him it wasn't
so difficult to visualize some of the
great crusade movements Of history
which by the sincerity of their fol.
lowers have enabled us after long
space of years to look at them with
some degree of tolerance-we admire
the fanatic even when deploring the
deeds he does.
Will Germany then, when the his.
torian writes the wellbalanced mar
rative of today go down in the pages
as the Nation which, mislead by its
zeal for efficiency, ran amuck
through the world in the early
part of the Twentieth Century? If
that is to be her niche in the Pan
theon of the Nations, we are not mis-
Judging her at the present time? Sin
cerity-even sincerity running amuck
should kindle a flame of admiration
in our hearts. Is it because Germany
believes herself inspired by a divine
mission that Millions of so called Ger
man-Americans are giving their NOR
al support to that country as against
the United States of America and her
Allies? If so the battle is greater to
win than even we had thought, for
the fanatic fights as no other human
being fights. Fanaticism is insidious,
it is multi-lived; long dormant-ex-
tirpated as many might believe, it
springs into action again and fans
the fires of hate.
Is it fanaticism which causese the
Kaiser to blaspheme by claiming a
working partnership with God; which
brings voiced JOY to him when Ger,
man-directed bayonets of Turkish sol
diers spear little children, disembow-
ell pregnant women and perform I'M
mentionable cruelties on Armenian
virgins? If it is fanaticism, the
World generations hence-will for
give him and his statue find its place
besides those of Joan of Arc, God
frey Bouillon, and John Brown.
In a wooded copse near one Of
Prussia's garrison towns, | saw on a
sunny day not so many years ago, a
group of petty officers drinking &c
l"Der Tag!" I talked with some Of
them. walked with them in that beau
tiful town. Was their jaunty patrl
itism world patriotism? Did they
want to redeem the world on tina
day."
Oh no. And again NO! Ger
MANY has been carrying on tremen
dous military establishment, we haV'
been almost borne to earth by tn
terrible taxation; our colonies are 81
MANY liabilities a large portion o
Germany is sterile soil; our minera
resources are comparatively small
our Wanted manufacturing industrie
are-many of them, household a.
fairs which in spite of the cheapnes
Of labor. can't compete against tn
machine work of America-we mus
have room to expand"
Il And that when Germanys INN
grafton from the East was running
million and half year.
ave want room; we must be r
imbursed for the crushing militar
taxes we can no longer bear on
selves That was the cry of thes
sOl'No' a.