The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1918-10-05

thoughts OF by,gone ages, which. in the
case of Prussia, amounts TO an obses'
sion-yea. 10 a mental disease,
I'VE, in America. have no hatreds,
ours Is land where hatred expires.
We emerged from the Revolutionary
War of 1916 Us victors buildinga ma
ton and looking ever forward in nation
building. We came through the cruel
BILE OF the Civil War. fight among
brothers, which we have, North and
South alike. agreed TO forget.
ours is a land where hatred expires
"a land where all comers are given n
fair chance. our soil. our climate, the
very air we breathe, is uncongenial 20
those hatreds which bloom so rankly
on the blood.sodden battlefield of Europe,
Only under the Stars and Stripes can
men who have fought on opposite sides,
both Americans and Europeans, shake
hands rs men and brothers.
The Kaiser's Inheritance.
What them was the inheritance OF
William III when he ascended the
Hohenzolern throne in June, 1883?
First, he inherited the Prussan tradl'
tons of the Seventeenth Century,
passed down to him from Frederick the
Great Elector; the traditions of the Holy
Roman empire of the Teutonic peoples
and the divine rights of the monarch,
together with the militaristic form of
government needed to uphold divine
rights. Second, he inherited froSl his
Eighteenth Century ancestor, Frederick
the Great, the Prussian ideals of bu-
reaucracy and efficiency and absolute
centralized government. Third, he in
herited from William l and Bismarck
the race kultur idea, with its hatred of
France and other nations, and its lust
for the territory of others. With such
an inheritance in % years of autocratic
assumption and lust of territory he
built up the Pan.German plot and
hurled his country and Europe into this,
the most barbarous and unholy war OF
all time.
Beginnings of Prussia.
The beginnings of Prussia so back
to the time when there lived in the
mountains Of South Germany a family
of robbers, called the HohenZollcrns,
or high toll takers. They had their den
in pass in the mountains, from whence
they swooped down as road agents, TO
levy what toll they chose from mer-
chant travellers who came up the Dan
ube and Rhine valleys. They grew rich
with the years and came down TO dwell
in the plain and controlled the fair city
of Nuremberg.
Frederick 1 QiohenZollern) of Nurem.
berg purchased the frontier mark or
fort of Brandenburg from the emperor,
barbarians las we did the Indians. SO
Siegismund, in 1415. to keep back the
the north mark of Brandenbug became
in time an electoral mark of the Holy
Roman empire and its prince was one
Of the seven who elected the Holy
Roman emperor.
In 1910 Frederick William, the Great
Tlector, came to the throne of Bran
denburg, near the close of the Thirty
Years war. He championed the cause
of Professionalism, demanded large war
indemnity, by means of which he raised
a large standing army and became the
dictator of the affirs of Germany, reap
ing the advantages of what GustaVus
Adolphur had fought for. In 1918 East
Prussia had been inherited by the mar
riage Of Albert of Brandenburg to the
daughter of the duke of East Prussia,
and then he marched his armies into
East Pomerania and took that land from
Sweden. SO, too, his military power
drew to an end the Cleves controversy
and gave him important Rhine holdings.
Thus Brandenburg stragged from the
Baltic to the Rhine.
Europe at the close of 1G4S was to-
tally devastated, its cities We're depopu-
lated, its people utterly exhausted
Wars burning chariot had driven over
every square mile of territory. Educa-
ton was at a low ebb and life was
brutalzed.
The peace of Westphalia in 164S es-
tablished three hings: Local, legal and
political liberty but only local religious
liberty was gained. Politically it recon
structed the map of Europe. The peace
was drawn game and, as, such, many
of the questions to be settled at the
close Of this war will go back to 1G4S.
The results of this treaty gave Alsace
to France and the right of free naviga-
ton of the Rhine. Brandenburg received
East Prussia and East Pomerania, New
Mark, Cleves Regensburg, Halerstadt
and Minden. Austria was granted su-
premacy of Europe and legalized the
Reformation territorial sovereignty,
while Brandenburg secured the head
ship of Central Europe.
"In 100 the son of the gveat Elector,
Frederick William III, inherited the
HOLY Roman emDire myth with its
pomp and ceremony, and he conceived
the notion of becoming a king. AS there
could be but one elector king within
the Holy Roman empire he was refused
but, on pressing his case, he was allowed
to become King of Prussia outside the
empire, and so from that moment all
the possessions of the Hohenzollerns
and Brandenburgers took to themselves
the slav name of Prussia.