Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-10-22

honor that could befa,l him was to
sacrifice his life in promoting this
ideal.
This new Paganism revived GER
tain of the cults that accompanied
the Paganism Of the ancient world.
Just as the citizens Of Imperial Rome
were taught to defy the Emperor, 30
the new citizens Of Imperial Ger
many were taught to worship their
Kaiser. He became the human en-
bodiment Of this new conception of
the super state. a man directly sent
by God to make it the over ruling
power among the nations and, as
such. he necessarily commanded the
vnquestioninS obedience Of all his
subjects.
IAN essential part Of the new Kais-
er worship was the worship Of mill :
tarism. The greatest trade q man
could follow was to be a soldier, and
the greatest occupation Of a nation
was war and preparation for 1t. The
German child was taught that there
was only one way to national prog
ress and to national greatness. and
that was the battlefield. The State
stimulated this lesson by awarding
the highest social distinctions to its
soldiers and by electing the army and
navy leaders into q special privi-
legged class, who had complete free
dom to insult and browbeat the civ
ilian population.
1.-THE masters Of the German people
impressed upon their minds the supe-
riority of the Germans to all other
peoples, the superiority Of German
Kultur to all other Kultur, and taught
them that it was Germany's God
given duty to carry this new national
evangel to all the world. They
taught them also that once a German
always a German, and that no mat
ter where the, German might find
himself, whether. in the wilds of Bra
zil, or in Africa, or in the United
States, and no matter what pledges
Of allegiance he may have given to
his new country, his loyalty still re-
manned to Germany.
Now Mass Of Ruins
IT could give at greater length the
new philosophy now enjoined upon
the growing German minds, but that
is hardly necessary. for the world is
now sufficiently familiar with all the
hideous details-with all the cruelties
the sufferings. the calculated indiffer-
ence to justice, decency, and human
rights which have accompanied this
new barbarism. Germany has sue
ceeded in her attempt to pervert the
mentality of her people. but she has
failed in her underlying purpose of
subduing the world.
This monstrous conspiracy against
human freedom and democracy now
lies a mass Of ruins at our feet. Ger
many's mighty military machine. the
product Of forty years incessant Ia
Dor, is daily going to pieces under the
blows Of the allied armies. In the
last ten days the humbled German
Government has itself acknowledged
it's defeat and practically put up a
plea for mercy. What are the allied
people to do in face Of this new sit
uation?
ut is not for me to sketch the terms
Of peace. but at least one point /
think that we should insist on at this
time. Unless peace can be restored
upon terms that will change the men,
tai attitude of the German people
toward its own masters and toward
the rest Of the world, then the war
will have been fought in vain. re-
gard this as the fundamental point
in the whole international situation
At present the German people pos
sess a philosophy Of life that takes it's
roots in hell. Unless they discard
this. and bring their thinking into line
with that Of enlightened nations. we
will have obtained not an end to this
war. but merely a truce.
"At present I regard the German
mind as in a condition Of disease. 1t
has been deliberately schooled for 40
years to think in the terms Of war
and of evil. Modern psychiartrists
have method Of handling the human
mind that has been twisted out of its
normal course in it's early impress
sionable years. They call this the
process Of re-education. It is a pro-
cess Of substituting healthy thoughts
for diseased thoughts, Of right atti-
tudes for wrong attitudes. and devel-
oping a normal mentality to take the
place of an abnormal mentality.
Some such process Of re- education
must be applied to Germany. If she
is TO cease to be a menace to the
world-if the world, indeed. is to be
a fit place for peaceful, liberty loving
democracies such as are the powers
that are now overcoming the Kaiser's
legions.
Germany Needs a Shock
How is this change to be brought
1t is not the insoluble problem that il
may seem to be at first. Let us again
regard this as problem of perverted
psychology. Experience has demon
strated that there is one way which is
particularly valuable in setting straight
a mind that has been started wrong in
its early impressionable years. A terri
BILE nervous SHOCK freau9ntly produces
the most beneficial and health making
results. Nothing would do Germany SC
much good in the present crisis as such
shock.
This is the reason why a complete
military defeat is the essential prelimi-
nary to ending the war. There is not
the slightest doubt that, at this present
moment, Germany still believes that
she is superior to the rest of the world
in war. and that she regards her pres
ent reverses as merely temporary. seri-
Gus enough Derhaps To justjfv har IN