Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-01
THE GREATER HATRED
By Simeon. Strunsky

A MAN may fight his enemy without hatred.
"A man cannot fight pollution without
loathing. Assault on life and limb may be
more easily forgiven than assault on ones
faith in our common humanity. 1t is this
greater hate that Kasersm has been invit-
ing and receiving in full measure.
Kaiserism is not only embarked on the en-
terprise of subjugat!ng human freedom; t
has proclaimed war against the spirit: 1t is
cheerfully practicing the one objectionable
sin. It has broken through the third and
last defensive line of those who grounded
themselves in the creed that there are limits
TO evil. Are there still persons who say,
Though he slay me yet will l believe?
Kasersm is apparently decided to go on
Staying until humanity ceases to believe in
humanity
This is the hour for the hard-headed man
outside OF Germany-who never took any
stock in all this idealstic nonsense. His
"I-tod-you-so'' is very hard to answer. If he
reminds us of his warning against Germany
long before the war, what is one TO say at
first thought? What is one to say when
he insists that after the raid on Belgium
there should no longer have been any doubt
of the German rulers wil-to-evil, and that
the Lusitania, the C-boat ruthlessness, the
airplanes over London and Paris the poison
gas, the bombarded hospitals and hospital
ships, the lies of Bethmann-H -Hollweg and
Czernin, the assassination of Russia. could
have been scientifically predicted? To have
believed otherwise-was It anything but what
nERHAPS II was weak-mindedness Yet
i 1t was a disease to which our hard
headed friend was not altogether immune.
He. too. had the fundamentals of a faith.
For long time he consented to distinction
between the German people and its rulers.
He idealistic enough to believe that
murder on land and sea, pillage and perjury
were not the creed of 10000, 900 souls; at
least in their normal condition. The chorus
nf rninirinp in kaiSarlanh
Lustania murders he was willing to explain
as temporary alteration as the expression
of panic and poison cunningly instilled into
the veins of a people by ruthless Govern
ment 1t not only the "idealsts'' who
were anxious TO see the truth about the war
brought home to the German people But TO
to know the truth about their rulers in
order to divorce itself from their iniQuty was
idealism after all.
The question of dealism weak-minded-
ness as we may choose to call H. was there
fore one of degree-aside from those, of
course. who were hard-headed to the nth
degree, who had no illusions at all about
human nature. who believed that at all times
man Ia to man a wolf. and the chief pursuit
of man is to be there first with the punch.
But with great many II was question
earth after Belgium great many gave up
hope after the Lusitania. A few may have
persisted after the prolonged Bernstorff-
Hollweg comedy had its denouement in the
the seas. Even after America went into the
war 1t still a question whether that
war ought to be waged as against a ruthless
caste dominating a misled people, or against
a people whose conscience was temporarily
sick. The answer came after Brest-Litovsk
when Russia was dismembered and its new
born freedom stifed. and there came from
the German people murinur. feeble move
ment of protest, and-acquiescence.
IIIAS 1t weak-mindedness to have kept up
wv hope through three and a half years of
d,sillusionment? Perhaps; when one judges
by what might have happened. to the war II
every one of us had seen as clearly In May,
1915. we did in January. 1918. But the
question Is whether, embracing the truth In
May, 1915, we could have held it as firmly
as free from doubts we do now after three
years endeavor to believe In the Fundamental
human conscience-even In Germany. The
fervent Mr. Creel, In his usual large-ty
manner, did speak for good many of his
countrymen when he declared that our going
into the war after long hesitations and unpre-
pared was something not altogether to be
ashamed of. (Mr Creel put IL more emphati-
caily. but that was to be expected,) What
he meant, and said, ,~pasxx4 prsIch deta$, and
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