New-York tribune., 1918-08-24
The Hun at the Bar
\ Scathing Indictment by a
Great German

THE vANDAL OF EUROPE. Ey Wilhelm
Nuehion. former Director IN Krupp's
T-arsla,ed with an Introduction by Will
.ar l.. MCPHERSON l2mo. PIP. Xvi S35
g. 2 Putnam Sons.
You must read this book. No matter
v.ha, other books about the war you
lad or do not read you cannot afford
70 miss this one For in some funda-
mcn.al and essential respects It out
ranks in value all others that have
been written about the circumst stances
md causes of the outbreak of the war
We have had books by diplomats. by
journalists. by professors and clergy
men. by soldiers and others, all Of in
terest but all perhaps colored by the
influence OF their authors occupations.
Here is one by none of these, but by
one of the greatest of German indus
trialists: one Of those men who gave
Germany her commanding rank in
science, commerce and manufactures;
whose voice is invested with supreme
authority as to that of the sanest and
best minds Of the German nation.
What then, is its tone, its purport?
In brief. it is the most scathing, damn
ing Indictment Of German falsehood,
brutality, crime and general Hunnish-
ness that has ever been published. No
Briton, resenting the "Gott strafe Eng
land cry, no Frenchman nor Belgian,
te-hot with righteous wrath at
wholesale ravshment; no American, re-
membering the Lusitania massacre, has
ever so terribly and convincingly ar
raigred the German Empire as does
this calm phlegmatic German patriot,
speaking always more in sorrow than
in anger; who. at the beginning of the
war had revealed to him what he had
not before IMAGINED the unimaginable le
turpitude of his "compatriots'
That is the most appalling feature of
the case. 1t is not merely the Kaiser
and his military encourage that the
author arralgns, but the whole German
people. The Kaiser did, indeed commit
Germany to full support of Austria
Hungary's almost incredibly wicked at
tack upon Serbia. and he did, Dr. Much
Ion believes on good authority, direct
that no more prisoners should be taken
alive. But the German people, the pro-
letarlat, even the Socialists, rose almost
as one man IN support and approval OF
his policy. They went into the war
eagerly. for the sake OF what they ex-
pected to make out Of it in marks and
pfennigs. Never was there q more truly
"capitalistic" war for pecuniary profit;
only with the proletariat as the capital
lists. And il now some Of them are
HuEHiuI!NS against IL. tndC Is only be-
cause they see that it is bound to fail
The campaign of lies with which the
war was opened is scathngly de-
nounced. The whole German press was
a shameful liar The senli-official
Wolff News Agency put forth food OF
monstrous falsehoods, accusing France
OF precisely the crimes that Germany
herself was committing, or was pre-
pairing to commit - the poisoning of
wells. the dissemination of disease
germs, and all the atrocities which
have made the German name forever
infamous. As for the moral and intel
!ectual prostitution of the university
professors and preachers, the author
places it in q pillory from which it can
never be removed. With all his con-
vincing seriousness he has. TOO. fine
sense of humor, such as, since the davs
Of Jean Paul, has been sadly lacking to
the average German mind: as when he
tells of an artillery regiment which
went out to fight the French and re
tuned without casualties They lost
their cannon but not their courage"
1t is felici,ous circumstance that so
supremely important a book has been
entirely adequately translated. Mr. Nc
fherson obviously possesses not only