Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-06-14

The Germans boast that they know everything
about psychology, but manifestly they know next
TO nothing about human nature. They send u
boats to wage guerilla warfare coasts,
pecting il will brighten into impotence. That
should be stirred fresh activity and resolution
stead of being unnerved seems never to have oc-
Cured to them. Our movement of troops and sup
plies the Atlantic will be fastened rather
than checked; shipbuilding will be hurried for
ward with keener enthusiasm; win to win the
war at all hazards and at any cost is deepened by
this peril at gates. That is the last
thing the Germans expected and the last thing in
human nature they can understand.
As they miscalculated the psychological effect
of this U-boat raid, throughout the have they
misiudged the minds of the Allies and the entire
world. This has been demonstrated in divers ways
but in none more strikingly than in the Germans
reliance upon frightfulness a conquerng force.
Their own word for this weapon is Schrecklichket,
by which they mean the systematic preparation of
cruel and horrible deeds for the purpose of strk-
ing deadly fear into their foes. Thus at the very
beginning of the they deliberately butchered
hundreds of non-combatants in Belgium, thinking
that the CHASTITY spectacle would overawe and
weaken the enemy. In his carefully kept diary Pri-
vate Karl Scheufele. of the Third Bavarian regi-
ment of Landwehr infantry gives, with a relish
which only Hun could feel, many instances Of
Schrecklichkeit. Let suffice for illustration:
In the night of August Is, 1914 the viii
lage of Saint-Maurice burnt to the ground
by German troops. The village was surround
ed, men posted about yard from another,
that could get out. Then the UhIans
fire to il, house by house Neither man,
woman nor child could escape; only the greater
part of the live stock carried of as that
could be used. Anyone who ventured to come
out shot. All the inhabitants left in the
village burnt with the houses"
Unnumbered crimes OF which this was but mild
forerunner were committed with a view to cowing
the Begians and French and intimidating the Brit
ish from coming fully into the war. How COM
pletely the Hun miscaIcua+ed the unfinching hero
ism of Belgium and France and the answering
honor OF England gloriously attest The more
frightful he grew, the more determined did they
become to resist him and eventually conquer him.
Their reaction like that of the Canadian SOL
diers who looking No Mans Land beheld
of their captured comrades crucified above a
German trench; far from being subdued with fear
they were fired with inextnguishable will to get
at the BOche's throat. Likewise the Zeppelin raids
unfortifed English towns, instead of dsmaying
the people who and children slain BY
German bombs. stirred them to more intense and
more purposeful patriotism. In the same way,
America, instead of being kept out of the war by
Ine OF fTusslan piracy, was constrained 10
enter it, and instead of being morally shaken or
paired by Uboat raids at her doorway, is nsprited
and made more resolute
Is it not exceedingly significant that these reac-
tons which to natural and inevitable
should have been quite unexpected by the Germans?
Is there not clear disclosure of German character
in the fact that they have failed completely to
appraise understand the character Of the Bel
gians, the French, the British, the Italians, the
Americans and Of virtually the whole civilized
world? Why is it that the Hun expected these peo-
pies to act contrary to their standards and our
standards of courage and honor? The simplest ex-
PLANTATION is the saying that Hun is able to put
himself in the place of anybody else. Not only
his nation lack the standards and the ideals by
which the Allied nations governed, but he him
self lacks the sympathy and the imagination to
comprehend those reaches of character that
above his own grossness. He cannot comprehend
Americas giving up the of her isolation and
fighting with never thought of material gain. He
cannot comprehend any act, any motive, any state
of mind that lies beyond the circle of his sordd
seIfshness. He knows so little about human nature
because he has in himself so little humanity