The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-06-01
ThePeSsimiSm
of the Loyal
I
By ROBERT ADGER BOWEN
of the Wigilantes

There is need to utter a word Of
warning and protest to those loyal
ones among us who, by some per-
verse quality of sincerity, some in-
herent tendency to pessimism, are
constantly sounding the note that
Germany delights to hear. The recent
great thrust of the German armies
has given these croakers fresh stimu-
lus. In their hearts, though they
know it not, though they deny 1t
Indignantly when so accused, they
have accepted defeat-they are al
ready whipped.
Could Germany ask for more than
the spreading of this unwarranted at
titude of mind? 1t is the subtlest, the
most poisonous of all forms of the
multifarious German propaganda-the
killing of faith and hope and deter
mination to win. "They shall not
pass" said the French at Verdun.
These souls say: 'They have passed.
See how the British have fallen back"
These are not 'quitters" In other
matters. They are not in any sense
consciously pro-German ever in this
matter. They are, however, obsessed
by the everlasting drip of the German
idea of German efficiency. The thing
to them has become an imponderable,
foreseen conclusion. 1t blinds them
to any vision beyond the actual facts
of Germany's military attainments.
1t blinds them to the military attain
ments of the allies. The spirit of in
vincibility-the invincible spirit is not
theirs.
This spirit we need. There Is no
doubt of that. The man or the ma
ton that goes all the way, that goes
any part of the way to meet defeat
Is already beaten. Though this spirit
of pessimism cannot eve be consid-
cred as a rift in the lutte of the ma
TONS unity of faith and purpose, yet,
inasmuch as it exists to any extent, 1t
is to be deplored. For the feeling
will be found always to link itself
with other sentiments insidiously IA
vorable to Germany. There always ac-
companies it that stubborn, narrow
prejudice, so shamefully unworthy Of
us, against England, existing against
all the evidences of fact and reason
and gratitude-the nasty slur that
England lodges her share of the
fighting, that the English are not
fighters, that England leaves 1t to
France to save the day-so far as 1t
Is savedi
There is something peculiarly la
mentable In this distorted viewpoint.
Disastrous though 1t would be to
underrate Germany's prodigious power
of evil might, 1t would be fatal to be-
Heve 1t infallible and invincible.
Whence comes this proneness to
trumpet Germany's success and put
the soft pedal or our allies achieve
ments7 In every instance 1t Is to be
traced to some Of the interminable
forms of German propaganda. 1t is.
as has already been said, itself the
quintessence Of German propaganda.
blown like a fine pollen through the
air when its true nature is the least
suspected, spread as is often a con-
tagious disease by those unconscious
of being the medium.
Against the resolute. infexible de-
termination to win, backing the
righteous cause In which we are en-
listed, Germany will go down in the
ruin Of the monstrous evil that she
has become. But she will not If these
voices, too many even at the fewest.
who proclaim that Germany has al
! ready won the war, swell in number
and volume. That, indeed, is the very
surest way to give the victory to Ger
many, because 1t is the surest way to
undermine and d~isintegrate the bull
| warks of faith and hope. Against an
unfaltering "They shall not win" all
the power of Germany's strength will
not avail.
| And Gnrmanx knnwa IL