Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1918-04-05
WHY. WE ARE
AT WAR WITH
GERMANY
BY
EPHRAlM DOUGLASS ADAMS
Executive Head, History Depart
ment
Leland Stanford Junior University

1.-THE object OF this war Is to deliver
the free peoples Of the world from the
military establishment controlled by an
irresponsible government, which, having
secretly planned to dominate the world
regard either to the sacred obligations
Of treaty or the long. established prao-
tlces and long. cherished principles Of In
po%sr is not the Gee German mSn' people Il MS IS
the ruthless master OF the German peo-
pie. Il ls our business to see to
world is no longer left to lts handiIne."
President Wilson, August II, 1917.
THE GERMANS AS A CHOSEN
PEOPLE.
The foundation cause of this war Is
Germany's firm belief that she alone
has the right to direct the progress of
the world and to exploit it's resources.
For the last thirty years the military
autocracy of Germany has seen to it
that this belief was taught in the
schools, and today that autocracy is
reaping the benefits of a blind ODE
dience to its will German political
Writing of recent years Is full of the
idea that the German people is Gods
chosen people, destined to impose its
'Kultur' upon all other peoples"
THE German soul Is the worlds
SOUL God and Germany belong to one
another" Germany Is the center of
Gods plans for the world" 1--WE hope
that a great mission will be allotted
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man mission is: to look after the
world" Germany is chosen, for her
own good and that of other nations,
to undertake their guidance. Provi-
dence has placed the appointed people,
at the appointed moment, ready for
| the appointed task"
THE German people is always right,
because it is the German people, and
numbers 100000 souls" "Kultur Is
best promoted when the strongest in
dividual Kultur, that of a given ma
ton, enlarges its field of activity at
the expense of the other national Kul-
turs." The attempt of Napoleon to
graft the Kultur of Western Europe
upon the empire of the Muscovite
ended in failure. Today history has
made us Germans the inheritors Of the
Napoleonic idea" THE further we
carry our Kultur into the East. the
more and the more profitable outlets
shall we find for our wares Economic
profit is of course not the main motive
of our Kultur activity, but it is no I'M
welcome by-product." Our belief is
that the salvation of the whole Kultur
of Europe depends upon the victory
which German 'Militarism is about to
achieve"
These quotations are but a few of
hundreds of like expression, and the
last one cited is from a manifesto
signed by thtrty-fUe hundred German
professors and lecturers. Reduced to
simple terms, the German belief at the
beginning of this war was: God di.
reefs Germany Civilization advances
only by c0mbatS between Kulturs in
which the stronger and God-directed
one has the right to prevail and must
prevail. The immediate and present
object Is to make our Kultur prevail
in the East Tin 'Muscovy), and in &C.
complishing this we shall also gain
economic advantages. This is the first
step in our world domination"
Where does America stand In this
theory of chosen people? America
denies that theory; she denies that
God has chosen any one people as
His own; she asserts rather that there
are many civilizations, each with its
own merits and defects, and that to
each must be left the working out of
its own problems.
We Americans are unable to under
stand, or sympathize with, a people
who conceive of themselves as chosen
people, chosen of Coda people to
whom all things and actions however
inhuman or brutal, are regarded as
permissible, even holy, because of a
faith in their superior mission and
civilization. To as such a belief is
direct evidence, not Of leading, but
OF tagging civiIisation.
This German ideal, when expressed
merely in theory, even though taught
In Germany for the last thirty years,
stirred but indifferent interest in other
European nations In this war Ger
many has revealed in the application
OF her theory lust for world power
at the expense of other peoples, a lack
Of good faith, brutality that have
stamped her theory as involving a re-
turn to barbarism
BY the application of German theory
we were forced, unwillingly, to 60 to
war. But today we know that there
was no escape from a war between two
contradictory ideals. Germany's eco
nomic objects are many and large
(they will be pointed out), but the basic
cause OF this war was the German ideal
OF dominant nation. That ideal,
by Germany's own challenge, is on trial
In arms. Against it we must prevail,
or we shall perish.
This Is the first Of a series of ten
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