Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1918-01-04

VeHDer Is our HlOSU important cuuc"
tional anniversary. Our colleges have
interesting exercises every year which
they call commencement, but every
one knows that the real commencement
is in the life of the family, and that
the true commencement anniversary is
when we renew our loyalty to the ola
folks at home, and to their teachings
at Christmas time.
We have endowed with many mil
lions of dollars colleges and universi-
ties without number. The pathway to
higher education is easier in our coun-
try than in any other. But the great
hope for the preservation of America
does not rest in these academic institu-
tions of learning. That hope can only
rest in the lessons learned around the
family fireside in the average Ameri-
can home.
This is so because the love of truth,
and Justice, and human liberty that en-
dures must be planted in the mind of
the child. No educational system can
keep the heart of the nation sound like
the family Preside. And unless the
story of a democracy means something
deep and cone"cratcd to boy or girl
of twelve or fourteen years of age, it
is likely never to mean anything at all.
But in Germany there has been no
story of democracy to tell.
At Christmas it is appropriate and
inspiring for us to think about these
things Our family freside traditions
have made the ideals of America the
hope of the world. "Peace on earth,
good will to men, is still the wish
sincere in every true American heart.
1t is not for ourselves alone that we
would have the joys of the Christmas
time. We none of us have any desire
to light our Christmas fire with the
rafters of a Belgian peasant g ruined
home, or to pledge the health OF our
friends and kindred in wine that has
been looted from a Frenchman s eel
lar.
But in Germany they haven't said
"Merry Christmas in more than for
ty years without mental reservation,
meaning, for Germans only.
And so they planned in Germany to
plumber the world. Their first step in
preparation was to poison their own
family -ireside councils with hate and
lies. They doctored their religion, they
doctored their philosophy, and they
doctored their history. And when the
God of Abraham, and the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob refused to
stand for the teachings of Treitschke,
they dethroned Him and set up new
God, a German God to sit on the right
hand of their Prussian king.
Ono God shall stand before me and
my desire,'' said the Kaiser.
May our Cod who was the God of
Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob,
who marks still even the fall of a spar
row, preserve us this Christmas time
from this sort of German efficiency!
But even in Germany the day is
foretold when the people will say, as
did Wolsey, Had we but served the
God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
as we have served our Kaiser, He would
not have deserted us now in our ad-
versity.'
Having deceived the world for half
a century regarding their plans, they
thought also to deceive us after the
war was started. They wanted to es-
tablish their dream of great middle
European empire from Berlin to Bag
dad, free from the interference of any
power that could thwart their will
And they relied upon their spies and
their propaganda to keep England,
Italy, the United States and South
America out of the conflict. In this,
German efficiency scored its first fall.
We and our allies found out that the
war, like many of the products we had
been using was made in Germany, too.
But, then, nothing ever made in Ger
many was conceived in liberty and
dedicated to the proposition that all
men are created equal
Lies were their emissaries every
where at home and abroad. They de
ceived us all for time regarding the
exact date when their mobilization was
ordered. They attempted to deceive us
about the invasion of Belgium, and to
whitewash the outrage and murder of
thousands of men, women and chill
dren. Whatever the lie that was need.
ed, everybody in Germany was ready
TO serve. Their Kaiser lied. Their
chancellor lied. Their fifty leading
college professors lied. Their ministers
lied. Their newspapers lied.
But in Germany, you see, there was
no story of George Washington and
the cherry tree to illustrate the honor
in telling the truth.
They recommended themselves and
their works most highly, the Germans
That was German propaganda, too. But
ah, the fatal error! They came to be
lieve that they were the supermen tina
their writers and their rulers had de
scribed. They knew that might WASH =
right. 1t was only because they thought
they had the might to terrorize the
world that they started the war. AS il
said in sporting circles, they were tn,
greatest sure-thing gamblers" in tn,
world. The survival of the fttes
meant the disappearance of the unf
to them only on the basis of their by
pothesis that the Germans are the fit
test to survive.
But with all the cards SACKED Il
their favor, as they have described
them, the Germans welsh when they ar
called upon to face cold steel.
In their mass plays and in their mo
strategy, the German soldier Is n