Evening star., 1918-02-17
GERMAN EFFICIENCY.
BY ROBERT ADGER BOWEN
OF THE yIGIl.ASTES.

OF THE vIGILANTES.
| It continues to be the fashion with GER
tain types of mind to laud German ef-
| fciency to the echo and thereby lay a
| fattering JUNCTION to the soul of doing
what, it IS complacently asserted. Is
| rendering credit where credit Is due.
God knows Germany needs all the credit
| that may be coming to her. she whose
load of liscredit is so overwhelmingly
heavy But why are these con scientious
people so liberal of praise of Germany
while they have no word of credit
where it is at least equally due to our
allies and even to ourselves as a ma
ton? Truly the shibboleth of German
efficiency has been rung to death!
Not that Germany is not efficient
terribly effici ient-in her way, but why
befoE that way by a false a-SSumptio on
of generosity at the expense of others
whose efficiency in three years with all
the stress and strain of the miGhtiest
contest in history has over and over
against her own long and studiously
cultivated perfection? 1t may be an
Swered that necessity is the mother of
invention, and that, therefore, our allies
deserve no praise. 1t may also be said
that Germany is not the mother of in
vention. not even in her nationally
chosen field of rfection-war-An
receives much praise that is not her
due. even in matters in which she is
undou htedly efficient.
We do not hear quite 50 often today
The ueStion as TO what Great Britain
has done in this war-Great Britain,
without whose ubiquitous service the
war would have been over years ago
with Germany the victor east, west and
not irpro badly, If she had so elected.
across the seas-but We still do not
"a h,srH a
souls any admission of what she has
done We need go no farther back
than a few weeks for an instance.
There was no credit for efficiency in
Byns's advance upon Cambria. would
not have been had he not failed of
ultimate success, but when Germany.
by force of superior numbers and
counting no cost drives him back a
part of the way he had won against
her imrreGnabie defenSes. and is in her
turn brought up short of complete sue
cess that. we are told, is efficiency.
There was no efficiency in 1taly'S re-
ularkable campaign across the 1sonzo,
but when Germany drives Italy hack to
be checked short of complete success
on the Piave. again the paeans are rung
in honor of German efficiency. The
familiar refrain is again being raised
now that Germany, profiting by the
treachery and stupidity of the bOaShe-
Wiki. is enabled to throw against the
western front her vastly augmented
d
gain less than the British gained a. few
weeks ago. What wonderful efficiency,
exclaim these hypnotiZed minds, slaves
to shibboleth-
Just what does it mean The sports
mans love of fair play? It is not fair
play. Rather it is the instructive wor-
ship of a force Sedulously cultivated
for half a century which a world un-
prepared to cope with it has not been
able TO crush in three year>-of a force
efficient. indeed. but frequently be-
cause of anything but praiseworthy
reasons. And why should the fact that
tiger spring. to crush its relatively un-
prepared enemies win no word of credit
for our allies from these apostles of
fair-mindedneSs?
These people are not pro-Germans.
Often they are intensely anti-German:
but they are emphatically pro-ignorants.
They are, too, the intellectually indo-
lent. Their war knowledge is mainly
derived from a reading of the display
headlines in the daily papers Their
interest wanes before a review. an
editorial even news items. They know
nothing of the causes that make for
German efficiency in this war-the long
worked out and almost perfect military
prepaF edneSS the fortuitouS circum-
stance of her central geographical posi-
tlon, the strong, masterful domination
she exerts over her allies SO that her
Will isStheir law. 1t is a curious phase
of fetch worship that they represent,
and it becomes an unpatriotic and un-
generous one. To deprive our allies of
the great praise due them. notwrith-
standing the blunders they have made,
or because they have not taken this or
that ultimate objective and to see no
blunder in German procedures and no
failures in their plans betokens a re-
markabfy faliacious process of reason
ing. 1t is fun time that these indi-
viduals took stock of the comfort they
are, however unwittingly, giving to the
enemy.