Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-09-05
ITALIAN POET AND
PRUSSIAN MILITARISM

Some people who have no time to
read are apt to believe that 'Prussian
militarism" is only "bugaboo,' or at
its best an expression of German poll
tics in present times; but militarism
is as old as Prussia. We can get
proof of this by delving into the his
tory Of Europe of the Middle Ages and
paying particular attention to the ac-
tivities and institutions of the Ger
mans from the Northeast and especial
ly of the Teuton Knights.
Without going so far in history we
can note the similarity of remarks re-
garding militaristic Prussia in the
writings OF any twentith century
traveller and those Of Vittorio Alfieri,
who wrote about one hundred and
fifty years ago.
Vittorio Alfieri, ranking third
among the poets of Italy. although
born in Piedmont of noble family, was
so democratic that Mazzini, nearly
century afterwards, called him "a
modern Italian" he was intensely pa
triotic and endowed with indomitable
will power and courage. He had no
patience with the emptiness of the
social life of the aristocracy to which
he belonged by birth, and spent many
years in wandering through Europe.
In entering Prussia he said that it
looked to him nothing but a continu-
GUS large-sized sentry-post." In 1869
he made a stop in Berlin for about a
month and was presented at Court to
Frederick the Great.
He was not impressed by the great
ness CT this Sire; quite the contrary
He says: In seeing him I was NOV
ed in no way by sense of wonder or
respect, but by Indignation and wrath,
instead. These feelings were hourly
growing in my soul; / was seeing too
many things that are not as they ought
to be; that are utterly false and still
are considered right, while they are
usurping the place of the rightful
things" Asked why he had not put on
his uniform for the ceremony of the
presentation to the King, he answered
that st seemed to him that uniforms
were already plentiful all around"
When he continued his journey, he
"breathed more freely on leaving that
universal Prussian Barrack, abhor-
rent to him." and stated that he would
never forget 1.-The disgusting impress
sion of that land of guns. drums and
potatoes"
Through Denmark and Sweden he
went into Russia, then under the in
fiuence of Frederick the Great, and
after short stay in Petrograd, re-
entered Prussian on his way to Eng
land, where he had been before and
where he landed again in 1870.
1t would be TOO long to record all
his scathing denunciations of Prus-
sianism and militarism either in Prus-
STA, in nearby German States or in
Russia. Suffice is to say that he call
ed that part of his travels in lands
ruled by militarism 1.-THE bleakest.
most oppressive of all conceivable
travels, not excluding a trip to the
lower regions"
To him England of that period is
happy England and he is eager to
reach that land of liberty
Not only the Prussian military sys-
tenn, but also the subject populations
stirred his wrath. Those peoples"
he says, ARE worse than brutes,
thought assuming a human form. be-
cause they allow themselves to be rid
den and bull-dozed in every way by
few military tyrants."
This really reads like current
history