The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-02-11
DYNASTY HAS LOST |TSPLACE IN
CIVILIZATION OF MODERN DAYS
WRITES DAVID STARR JORDAN

army service, but also a complete
RECOMMENDATION of industries. For every
competent man the state finds a place
and then holds him there with, in
general, no hope of advancement or
change. This involves the three col
lectiVe duties of society: ''Dienst, Ord
nung, Kraft" '(service, conformity, eff
ficiency). These duties are enforced
from above, involving no impulses
arising within the individual but all
along lines Indicated by officialism.
The individual is described as a brick
within an edifce he does not see and
can not understand. From the same
source arise the three personal du-
ties: E'Soldat sein, Steiner zahlen, Mund
halten" (be a soldier, pay taxes,
mouth shut). These represent the sole
individual contributions of the COM
mon man. And on such basis of mill
tary and industrial control the war
system justifies itself as a discipline
in mass efficiency. In contradistinc-
ton, democracy makes for individual
efficiency and has a philosophy of its
own whereby the man as reality is
exalted and the "state'' is no HegelIan
abstraction but a cooperative organ
iZation of free men for mutual well
fare. Whenever the human democra-
tic state forgets its origin and claims
for its shifting majorities the divine
right of infa1libility and of impecca-
bility it passes into the autocratic
class with all the possibilities of tyr
amy and corruption, which inhere in
political illusions.
Tho T0bi1oConhxv oF
ISM looks forward to the right and
duty of the dynastic and regimented
state to extend it's system, overriding
by force of trickery all interiors or
competitors.
Thls theory bears no legitimate re-
latlon to Darwinism, from which it
borrows only the name 1t regards
civilization as merely physical strug-
gle for existence, nation against ma
ton, race against race, in which the
weak go to the wall to be "trampled
broad" by the strong and ruthless.
The objectionable sin of a sovereign
state is to be small, peace loving, or
backward. The nations which adopt
the system of "Kultur," it is claimed,
stand in the vanguard of progress.
S~@AA ~ 10 lIlS1I 1AlS5 OUly TO SuDCu6,
enslave, or eradicate the others. As
matter of fact, the elements of
force, ferocity, or even courage, do
not bring final success in the "strug-
gle for existence" Nothing enduring
was ever wrought by force. The ce-
ment which holds nations together is
not power, but good will. Empires
have fallen and will fall, for they rest,
one and all, on crumbling founda-
tons, but no nation ever failed
through excess of brotherly love, and
throughout nature there is a bounty
on the heads of wolves, hawks, hy-
enas, Caesars, Alexanders, moguls, or
vandals of whatever race or kind.
The inhuman features which have
distinguished the dyanstic state in our
times are matters fnseparable from
autocracy. Every charge made
against pan-Germany in the present
war was justly charged against the
war making of Louis XIV. Broken
treaties, ruthless invasions, permeat-
ing intrigue, enslavement, rapine, and
devastation entered into the war MAX
| ing of Louis the Magnificent, precise
ly as into that of William II. The dvn-
nastic system is the root of war. 1t
rests on blood, treachery, and super
stition, and there is little hope of last
ing peace until all civilized nations
cast aside it's theory and it's practice.
With the great cause of war out of
the way, it will be relatively easy to
remove the minor incentives Reel
procity must replace rivalry. This car
only be done by the cooperation of
the people concerned. And the cry of
the French in the trenches must be
the watchword of the future: 1.-THE
people have been nothing; they must
| be everything.