The Washington herald., 1918-02-01

No groups in civil Germany mus
bear a greater measure of response
bility for the world war than:
The school teachers.
The college professors.
The office holders.
The newspaper writer's
Mark now the moving Of the hand
of justice-retributive justice. the kind
the poet sings about. For the groups
in civil sGermany who are suffering
most today rare:
The school teachers
The college professors
The offceholders.
The newspaper writer's.
1t is they who put the poison in
the fact-weIIs and drugged the Ger
man people into a condition that made
1t easy for the Kaiser and the milh-
tarists to work their will with them.
Teachers, professors, newspaper
writers and offceholders are wage
earners, just as machinists and black
smiths are.
But there is this difference-the
machiniSts and blacksmithS have
unions to bring them recognition in
the mass.
DtCduSc Llcg nave anu bt-
cause they are essential to the pro-
duction Of munitions and the carrying
on Of the-war, the machinists and
blacksmiths, in fact, all skilled man.
ual labor. have had pay increases tC
help make living bearable under wal
conditions.
Because they have nc union and
because they are not essential to the
carrying on of the war, the teachers,
etc, are working today for practically
the wages paid in peace time.
OF course, there are exceptions,
mainly college professors and writer's,
The prominent ones Of before-the-waI
are prominent, still, and receive the
pay of the prominence with books OF
articles, and have advanced to the
pay of the prominent. But the great
majority have no prominence and only
the meager income of pre-war days.
That means that those without pri-
vate means, today have a standard of
living lower than that of the skilled
manual laborer. 1 saw advertisements
in German newspapers offering $50 a
day GO marks) for munition makers.
There were no advertisements for pro-
fessors, teachers, oficeholders or
writers.
WIN lne eNCepllOn OF Ine WTlIerS,
all Of these classes are employees OF
the government. And with millions
of men under arms, practically with
out wages, no branch of the govern
ment has had the temerity to increas Sc
the pay of government employees at
home.
Perhaps 1t occurs to you that these
groups might retaliate by opposing
the governments war policy. No dan
ger. They are all operating as in
dividuals. and the German government
knows how to deal with individuals.
On the meager pre-war pay of the
teachers, etc, the table can groan
with little besides bread and pota-
toes. which the government under
takes to bring within the reach of
all. Meats and other foods desirable
from time to time in connection with
potatoes and bread are quite beyond
the reach Of their slender pay.
r And as for clothes-heaven only
knows how they manage. Obviously,
they cannot go about in tAtters or in
honest blue Jumpers. Clothes involve
caste, and one must dress his part in
Germany. And good clothes do not
grow on the bushes Just now, like
all other necessities, except bread and
potatoes. they fall only to the man
with money.
Shabby-genteel is the one term that
fits this class today. Shabby-genteel
supermen!
Probably none Of these teachers of
insanity realizes that he was an ac-
cessory to the great crime of history.
The keeper OF the opium den almost
always hits the pipe" himself Other
teachers, past and gone, IN their day
had taught them poison-taking. Doubt
less the teachers regarded themselves
merely as executing a routine duty
when they read to their pupils from
Ludwig woltmann's "Politische An
thropologie. published in 1903, this:
The Teutonic race ts called to circle
the earth with its rule, to exploit the
treasures of nature and of human
labor power, aRd to make the passive
races servient elements in its cultural
development. Whoever has the
characteristics Of the Teutonic race is
superior. All the dark people are mem
tally inferior; because they belong to
tae passive races The cultural value