Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-03-29
The Great Illusion About Germany
by Il. V. KEYS. in North American Review

, est of its members, from the bar
racks. Not alone the military bar
racks, but the educational ones,
where during a long and rigidly en-
forced attendance the German mind
was trained in the two essentials of
an army, absolute reliance on the
officers and unremitting apprehen-
sion of the near presence and treach-
cry of the foe. The discipline of the
classroom was in no way behind
that of the army, for which it pre-
pared and shaped the whole youth
of the country. And from the au-
thority of the schoolmaster there
was as little appeal as from the au-
thority of the commanding officer.
Nothing speaks so eloquently of
the intolerable interlocking of par
entail and school authority in Ger
many as the steadily rising toll of
child suicide, expected and occurring
yearly with the return of the Eas-
ter promotions in the schools. Where
the results of an examination were
responsible for making or unmaking
a career, the burden upon the pupil
was beyond the strength of all those
not capable of assimilating an army
drill, and caught between the school
and a parent trained to know bet
ter than to connive by sympathy at
the undermining of authority. The
German gymnasiast, of an age cor
responding to that of our high school
boys, presented a compound of solid
learning and extraordinary academic
maturity, with a feudal political
mentality that could be described in
telligiby to an Anglo-SaXon only by
the term arrested political develop
ment." But the same youth might
show if living in one of the larger
centers, literary and dramatic and
artistic taste formed on the best
classics and the most advanced mod
ern works in these provinces. And
for that side of him. too, the govern
ment was responsible, tightening its
grip on his loyalty by it's insistence
in every domain, and never letting
him stray for moment beyond it's
watchful attentiveness to his needs.
Every schoolboy in Germany was
made to feel himself the future de-
fender of not only the boundaries
but of the genius of his country
against an obviously inferior and
covertly jealous world. How deeply
the German nature took the mould
thus imposed. the world has seen.
To every German the army is the
tool of his idea the instrument of
German is to impose organization
on mankind" said Ostwald. as a
justification of German aggression.
AS for the temper. of the whole Ger
man people, it had become such that
no possible war that the imperialists
could declare but must be regarded
by them as a war of defense.
Whether there is any other means
of breaking up this war-compleX
than by breaking up the German
army, it is for the German people it.
self, and for it alone, to say and
prove. On them, and on them alone,
lies the burden of proof. We must
accept the word of no one else for
them. We have done so once, and
that once too often. The United
States has spoken at last the word
that History has been waiting for
ever since the first volley was fired:
eve can have no dealings with the
present Government of the German
Empire" In that word the "Neces-
sity knows no law" of the German
Chancellor got its final and logical
reply. To act on that word, never
to recant it, is the duty of the Re-
public to mankind, and to Germany.