Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1918-05-15
A MANLY CONFESSION

our judgment, but shall Judge for
themselves, and to enable them to do
so, we will publish verbatim beginning
next Sunday the memorandum: "My
London Mission, 1912 to 1914" Today
we will simply state that Lichnowsky
compiled the principle facts as to who
caused the war in the three following
paragraphs:
Paragraphs Cited,
81. We (and by this eve" the
prince means the German govern
ment) encouraged Count Berchtold to
attack Serbia although no German
interests were at stake and the danger
OF a world war was known to us.
Whether we knew the text Of the Ulti-
matum is entirely incOnseouential
60 In the days between the 23rd
and Goth Of July, 1914, when Herr
SasOnow expressly declared that Rus
STA would permit no attack upon Ser
bia we respected the British interme-
diary offers, although Serbia under
Russian and British pressure was
about to accept the entire ultimatum,
and although an agreement in regard
to the two cOntrOverted points could
easily have been arrived at and Count
{ BerchtOld himself was satisfied to be
content with the answer by Serbia.
| "3. On July 80, when Count
Berchtold wanted to give away, we.
without Austria having been attacked,
replied to Russia's mere mobilization
by sending an ultimatum to Peters
| burg and July 81 we declared war on
the Russians, although the car had
pledged his word that as long as ne
gotiatiOns continued not man should
march-so that we deliberately de-
stroyed the possibility of a peaceful
settlement.
Shift the Guilt.
In view of these indisputahle
facts, it is not surprising that the
whole civilized world outside Ger
many attributes to us the sole guilt
for the world war. Is it not intelligi-
BILE that our enemies declare that they
will not rest until a system is destroy
ed which constitutes a permanent
threatening of our neighbOrs? Must
they not otherwise fear that in a few
| years they will again have to take up
arms and again see their provinces Ov-
errun and their towns and villages de-
stroved? We're these people not right
who prOphesied that the spirit OF
| Treitschke and Bernardo dominated
the German peOple-the spirit which
glOrifies war as an aim in itself and
does not abhOr it as an evil: that
among us it is still the feudal knights
and jUnkers and the case of warriors
who rule and fix our ideals and our
values, not the civilian gentlemen;
that the love Of dueling, which in
spires our youths at the universities
lives on in those who guide the for
tunes Of the people? Had not the
events at Zabern and the parliament
airy debates on that case shown for
eign countries how civil rights and
| freedoms are valued among us when
questions of military power are on
the other side?
'Militarism, really a school for the
nation and an instrument of policy.
makes policy into the instrument Of
military power, if the patriarchal alb
solution of a soldier kingdom renders
possible an attitude which would not
be permitted by democracy, which
has disengaged itself from military
junker influences.
That is what our enemies think,
and that is what they are bound to
think, when they see that, in spite of
capitalistic induot1i alization, and in
spite Of socialistic organization, the
living, as Friedrich Nietsche says,
are still governed by the dead. The
principal war aim of our enemies, the
characterization of Germany, will be
achieved
Words of a German.
cit is to be remembered that these
words are not those of an English
man. They are the words of one of
the modest" Of the German nation,
to whom the German emperor en-
trusted the most important foreign
post, one with whom William II, in
his youth was closely befriended. And
after the publication Of the memoran-
dunn, Herr Won Jagow also appeared
before the public to make the attempt
to defend the policy Of the German
empire, "his" policy, in July, 1914 AS
he was the then responsible represen-
tative of that policy as secretary Of
the German foreign Office and in that
defense was forced to profess: II
agree in no manner with Germany in
the widely prevailing opinion, that
England had laid all the mines which
led to the war. On the contrary, I be-
lieve in Sir Edward Greys peace love