Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1918-05-02

DO the people of Germany, and those
of the Teutonic alliance generally.
sympathize with the aims and pur-
poses of the German government? Or
| are they simply bowling to conditions
they are unable to mend-yielding I'M
willing assent to q war they Would
| NOT wage if they could have their way?
What really caused the war? When
may the world hope for its ending?
All these and hundreds OF other kin
| dred questions have been answered,
| and are daily being answered. in "A
dozen different ways. For the most
part. the answers are based upon SUI
perficial and very partial aspects OF
the matter, and are, necessarily. only
| partly satisfactory and partly true.
If We would really understand the
significance of the world war We mus,
delve among certain musty manu-
scripts that lie Wondering in the IL
braries Of the German universities. We
must read what the masters OF the
| Germanic philosophy have written. We
must learn what the Teutonic mind
has been taught-what ii has been
thinking, in what it has been believ.
ing--and the reasons and the prin.
ciples upon which it has based its be
| lief. We must get the mental setting
of Germany past; for only in the light
of this shall we be able to actually
comprehend the mental phenomena
that underlie the at ,itude and the acts
of the Germany of the present.
Regardless of any sympathy. or lack
of sympathy, that may exist between
the German government and the Ger
man people-whether the blame for
the war, and in particular for its lin
%precedented brutalities, rests upon the
Hohenzollern caste alone or upon the
whole mass of the people of Germany
1T is to the philosophy of Germany
that we must look for the real cause
OF this bloody iniquity. For, mediately
Or Immediately, Germany has been
made the bloody instrument Of a false
philosophy philosophy that bloomed
in the blatant blasphemies d
Nietzsche and fruited upon the blood
soaked fields of France and Belgium
and Servia and Roumania and Meso
potamia and Russia.
This is a philosophy that comments
TT.boat outrages against undefended
neutral merchantmen and passenge,
ships upon the high seas; that gloat!
over the mangled forms OF little chill
dren slain in Zeppelin roads upon non
combatants; that honors the Juda!
ambassadors who stir up sedition ant
plot against the neutral nations tt
which they have been accredited-un
less they commit the objectionable OF
Tense of failing to obliterate complete
" the evidences CT their duplicit.y
It would be interesting, If space pei
mitted, to 60 far back and trace tn
development of this fearful pailosoph,
and to identify the channels through
which 1t has been transmitted iron
great antiquity. For it had it's root
many centuries ago and is not a proc
uct, merely, of the present age. Tha
it found a friendly environment anon
the Teutonic peoples, and particular
among their universities, many Gel
uries ago, no one who reads histor
with an unbiased mind will attempt ,
= deny.
But we must be content with mel
tioning only two or three philosopher
of comparatively recent times. Thes
are cited. not SO much for what the
j. originated as because they gathere
It into definite and transmissible form s
many Of these iconoclastic doctrine
which, maturing slowly beneath tt
surface of German thought, were de
- tined to find their ultimate expressiC
in the writings of Frederick Nietzsch
Iniquity knows no fatherland. Hem
It need cause no surprise that n
the most potent factors in shaping Il
Germanic philosophy was not of &c
man origin. In Niccolo Machiavel
an Italian courtier Of the Renaissance
appeared the unblushing champion
such brazen intrigue as startled ev'
the most Inscriptions diplomats
his day. II required the mellowing
. fiuence Of a century or two. combin
;. with the vanishing impaired by int
:. prefers more or less removed. to
he far soften his pernicious teachings
III to make them acceptable to any but
th avowedly %unprincipled people. J
he Machiavellis precepts, 50 softened,
Q N questionably went far toward prep
M ing German soil for the more vir
" sowing Of Nietzsche. They tended,
;. least, to break down lingering scru,
ID. lousness and to breed contempt
- tho moral law.
i. In schopenhauer Nietzsche fou
r. his earliest master; and, although
Re, parted from him later on, It ia
Of Schopenhauer, principally, that
'al owes his characteristic doctrine Of
a'e VIII to Power. In S~chopenhauer, 4
true. this was merely the Will to II
,hs Nietzschc carried that doctrine to
logical conclusion--if the Machia'
liam influence Is properly taken
consideration.
ec~hopenhauer perceived that
WIN 10 Live caused evil ~ we'll