Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-10-22

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today may do you . world OF m
good tomorrow. NV
Scotia BOVINE. Hleom6.,d. Nj. ISIS ~
democracy do exist In the German
people, little in evidence as they have
been in the last fifty years.
"But I have another reason for be-
lieving that the so-called German
character can be changed. do not
think that the German nature with
which we are now SO painfully IA
miliar is the same as that which ex.
listed fifty years ago. 1t is certainly
not the same as that with which
was familiar as a boy in Germany.
Possibly l hold this idea because I
was born in Southern Germany, in
Baden, and because all my early
recollections of Germany center
around the country of Goethe and
Schiller. Perhaps the Prussian has
always been a beast: all through
history he has certainly made himself
an object of detestation: two hundred
years ago, as today, he was regarded
as ferocious, arrogant, unscruplous,
and overbearing-an altogether hate
full thing. And in this war all Ger
mans have shown unmistakeable
Prussian qualities.
yet this was not the kind of Ger
man that I knew as a child. In
Southern Germany, when was a boy,
children did not constantly play at
soldering, the thoughts of all men
and women did not take a military
form. and the desire for world con-
quest did not fill everybody's mind as
the only laudable ambition that
rccollections of Germany, indeed, are
not militaristic at although again,
must keep in mind that 1 had no
contact with Prussia. But in those
days there was no such thing as q
German Empire. We had no Kaiser
ruling over the whole of Germany, no
German imperial fleet, no brood of
philosophers preaching the doctrines
of Pan Germany, no force of spies in
foreign countries stirring up hatred
and animosities, no national aspira-
tions to destroy the liberty and inde-
pendence of small nations.
ne rome. Loving German
AS I remember the German Of those
days, he was a rather going.
home loving. somewhat dreaming
family man. His main enthusiasms
were the German poets and the Ger
man musicians, and the love of ma
ture was marked, even among the
young. We loved to roam the fields,
to botanize, and to chase butterflies.
In those days we had a great fond
ness for America tens of thousands
Of our people were going there ev-
cry year, and practically all of US had
relations who had found cordial
homes on this side of the Atlantic.
1T is of this kind of material that
Prussianized Germany has created
the present arrogant, bloodthirsty cit
izen of the empire. 1t has been one
of the most astonishing TRANSFORMED
tons in history and always will, am
sure, have the utmost interest for the
psychologist. The masters Of this
new Germany began, in 1871. one Of
the most monstrous experiments ever
made; this was nothing less than an
race. They took under their COM
plete mental control the millions that
made up the newly constituted Ger
man Empire and proceeded to trans
form them into docile instruments to
achieve their dominating purpose
the conquest Of the world.
Fundamentally it was a case OF
hyppotism on grand scale. The
masters Of Germany proposed to reg
ulate all the thoughts Of their people
and to control all their emotions and
aspirations. We all know that there
is nothing so susceptible to sugges-
ton as the mind Of the growing child.
All who have remained in the coun-
tries of their birth are practically
what they were made in the first ten
to fifteen years of their lives. 1t is
in that period that we derive our re-
ligion, our moral conceptions, our pa
triotic attitudes, prejudices. of the
will. that constitute our mental life.
during this impressionable period, it
is possible to instill into it preconcep-
tions that will direct it's actions all
through life.
The New German Theory
"The new masters Of Germany
now seized their millions Of growing
minds and began to impress them
with the new philosophy Of the Ger
man Empire. 1t ineulcated this new
German theory of the State as an
empowering entity. something en-
tirely distinct from the individuals
that compose it--as a mighty, con-
stantly forward marching force, that
could do no wrong. that recognized
no moral principles, that had no obli-
cations to its neighbors, that was en-
tirely free from such distractions as
justice, or mercy, or right. that sinned
only when it was weak, and that had
only one duty-to go on. constantly
waxing more powerful, always seeking
to destroy it's neighbors. and reducing
all mankind to its control. 1t taught
as a necessary corollary to this, that
the individual was nothing, and that
bis only duty was implicit obedience
to his superiors. that the greatest
y
all