El Nuevo mexicano., 1918-02-14
The German Mind

1t is not a bottOmless mystery, this out
rageous record of the Germans at war. 1t
is a clearly consistent expression of the
servile mind. To understand it, you have
only to understand the peaceful virtues Of
the people whom Bismarck called "a nation
of house servants" Thus declares Harvey
l. O'Higgins, in. an article distributed by the
committee on public information, as follows;
They have long been governed by the
most arrogant of all the governing classes
of Europe-the Prussian militarists. They
have submitted with a touching faith in
their oppressive protectors. Timid, senti-
mental, poetic, anu conifort-loving, plundered
for centuries by their marauding neighbors,
they have been glad to league together iii
the German empire with no matter what
loss OF personal liberty, under the domina-
ton of their tyrannous war lords. They
have seen in that tyranny their only safety.
1t defended them superbly in the procured
wars of the last century, first from their
old rivals the Austrians, and then from their
old conquerors, the French. They believe
that it has defended them as efficiently in
the present war. BY inspired news and
forged dispatches, they have been convinced
ludl lnCy WCAO lANduCQ bCAOAC Ills wal wac
declared; and they still believe it. They be-
lieye that they are fighting in se1f-defense
under the leadership of an autocracy that is
their only self-protection.
And they are fighting as the timid fight.
The man who has been governed by arrogance
and has bowed Town to fear is a man who
understands no instrument but cruelty to
compel respect. He will invariably resort
to frightfulness as his weapon in war. He
will know no compassion. He will have no
dignity-not even the dignity of pity. He
will be at once incredibly cruel and incredib-
ly petty. He will prosecute noncombatants,
outrage women, mutilate children, lombard
hospitals, kill the wounded, torment the pris.
~oners, cut down fruit trees, and defile with
animal filth what he has not time to destroy
like a discharged servant taking his re
yenge on the kitchen. 1t is inevitable. 1t
is in the nature of the servile mind to do
these things and to fail to see why they
should not be done.
His officers will order them done, because
it has been by brutality that his officers
have ruled him, and they will hope by bru-
tally to rule the world. And he will do
what he is ordered, because he knows the
efficacy Of fear in his own case, and he
will hope by frightfulness to strike fear into
his enemy.
His instinct of subserviency, in fact, makes
him a perfect military instrument. He obeys
orders like a devoted hound. He has the
courage of unquestioning obedience. He
must be sent to the attack in mass forma-
tions, but he will go blindly, linking arm
with his fellows, singing solemnly, in a state
Of exalted meekness. When he is behind
the lines, in safety, he will encourage him
self with hymns of hate. Hatred" said
the philosopher, Ifs the revenge of the
weak" Caught in his dugout, he will cry,
l"Kameradl Kameradi" to his captors, and
when he is taken prisoner he will be gentle,
~biddable, hard working and happy.
For the same reasons he makes a perfect
spy. He will be humble, ingratiating, as
treacherous as an intimidated child, and
servilely free OF any sense of the obliga-
tions of hospitality. His ambassador in n
neutral country will be a faithful servant,
disguised as a gentleman, gathering serv-
ants gossip in a plot to betray his host.
His very arrogance is the arrogance Of the
servant who is proud of his master. He
will tell you, I'VE Germans fear only God"
because his very religion is a religion Of
fear. If he were really as deyilish as he
pretends he would say, I'VE Germans love
only Cod. Elm feste Burg list unser Gott."
All of Germany's plundered past is in that
line. Who but an intimidated people, long.
ing for a Chinese wall, would sing, Our
God is a strong fortress?" 1t is this lack of
real courage that makes him continually
boast of his lack Of fear. He bullies, because
he has always been bullied. He does not
understand why the world will not cringe,
and he fails to understand it because he is
himself always inwardly cringing to the
autocrats whom he trusts to defend him
from the world.
IL is the problem Of this war, first to break
the military autocracy in Germany, and then
TO set free the minds of the people. Any
attempt to punish them for their cruelties
will drive them, hereafter, with a new tim
|idity, into the arms Of some new despotism.
They must be treasured of their safety in
the world. They must be persuaded to dare
the responsibilities of freedom. These
people, who have never had a revolution in
the whole course Of their history, must BIZ
first liberated and forgiven, and then pro
tected in their freedom and encouraged to
feel selfrespect.
1t is a pathetic sort Of problem. It is a
problem that can not be solved in terms
of hatred and revenge. 1t is peculiarly the
probleM Of the American people, who have
nothing to gain from the defeat of Germany