The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-02-16
THE GERMAN MIND.
BY Harvey o'liiggins.

war. 1t is a clearly consistent EXPIRES
sion 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 serv-
ants"
They have long been governed by the
most arrogant of all the governing
classes of Europe-the Prussian militar-
lists They have submitted with touch
| ing faith in their oppressive protectors
Timid, sentimental, poetic, and comfort
loving, plundered for centuries by their
marauding neighbors, they have been
glad to league together in the German
empire with no matter what loss OF per
sonal liberty, under the domination of
their tyrannous war lords. They have
seen in that tyranny their only safety.
1t defended them superbly in the pro-
cured wars of the last century, first from
their old rivals, the Austrians, and then
from their old conquerors, the French.
They believe that il has defended them
as efficiently in the present war. By in
spired news and forged dispatches, they
have been convinced that they were in
vaded before this war was declared; and
they still believe it. They believe that
they are fighting in self-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 down TO
fear is man who understands no in
strument 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 incredibly
petty He will prosecute noncombatants,
outrage women, mutilate children, bonn
bard hospitals, kill the wounded, torment
prisoners, cut down fruit trees, and defle
with animal filth what he has not time
TO destroy like discharged servant TAX
| ing his revenge on the kitchen 1t is in
evitabe. 1t is in the nature of the servilc
mind to do these things and to fail to
see why they should not be done.
| His officers will order them done, be-
cause it has been by brutality that his
officers have ruled him, and they will
hope by brutality 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 instru-
ment. He obeys orders like a devoted
hound. He has the courage of unques
tioning obedience He must be sent to
the attack in mass formations, but he
will go blindly, linking arms with his
fellows, singing solemnly, in state Of
exalted meekness. When he is behind the
lines, in safety, he will encourage himself
with hymns of hate. Hatred said the
philosopher, sis the revenge of the
weak" Caught in his dugout, he will cry
"Kameradl Kamerad." to his captors,
and when he is taken prisoner he will be
gentle, biddable, hard working, and
happy.
For the same reasons he makes per-
feet spy He viii be humble, ingratiat-
ing, as treacherous as an inundated
child and servilely free of any sense of
the obligations of hospitality. His am
bassador in neutral country will be a
faithful servant, disguised as gentle
man, gathering servants gossip in plot
to betray his host, His very arrogance
lis the arrogance of the servant who Is
proud of his master. He will tell you,
1--WE Germans fear only God because
his erv religion is a religion of fear.
If he were really as devilish as he pre-
tends he would say; 1--WE Germans love
only God" Elm feste Burg list unser
Colt" All of Germany's plundered past
! is in that line. Who but an inundated
people, longing for Chinese wall, would
sing: "Our God is strong fortress 7"
| 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 un-
derstand it because he is himself always
inwardly cringing TO the autocrats whom
he trusts to defend him from the world.
1t is the problem of this war, first to
break the military autocracy IN Ger.
many. and then to set free the minds OF
the people. Any attempt TO punish them
for their cruelties will drive them, here
after. with a new timidity, into the arms
of some new despotism. They must be
treasured of their safety in the world.
They must be persuaded to dare the re-
sponsibilities of freedom. These people,
who have never had a revolution in the
whole course of their history, must be
first liberated and forgiven, and then
protected in their freedom and encour-
aged to feel selt.respect.
1t is pathetic sort of problem. 1t is
a problem that cannot 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 but the safety of democracy in
world politics, and who cannot establish
that safety till Germany is itself true
democracy, unservile and treasured.