The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1918-04-13
THE MORAL DECLINE OF GERMANY

Insurance against theft, burglary and other forms of Grim
is common in Germany. The Tribune yesterday published the
substance of a statement appearing in the Berlin IageDa' Vi
March 10, from the director of a large insurance company, COM
planning that 800 robberies and burglaries were being reported
daily in Berlin alone, without taking into account those not
covered by insurance.
of the abandonment of all ordinary moral restrictions. The
fences have been broken down. What has been called German
veracity is a thing of the past and there is no longer the thing
called German honesty. Every one is now pundering every
other one, following the example set by the government itself.
When those who rule set the standard OF highwaylsm among
nations, why should not they who are ruled follow that exam
pie? If it is right for a government to hold up another gov
eminent at the point of a cannon and plumber it, stripping 1T
bare. why shall not the subject of such a government at the
end of a pistol hold up his %neighbor? The government has
been taking heed of widespread moral decentralization and it
has sought to counteract it. 1t has been debated in the reichs-
tag, but the question has not been settled. One speaker says
that the moral decay has gone too deep to be ever eradlcated
by the making of more laws, of which the Germans already
have enough. The people during this war have learned to dis
regard laws of all kinds, and one paper says that If all got
what they deserve under the law none would escape punish,
ment. One member, named Mehring, speaking in the reichs-
tag, said:
The minister expressed anxiety a TIC the injury to h 90
aty of the nation inflicted b. the long wr but considered
that this counted for little against the brilliant achievements
of u army and u fleet in tn world The Bible how
m eS ,o aaS ns W. sn, The view Of modern culture that the
moral ruin of a grea national body by deceit. theft and
cheating and swindlng of all kinds is a evil that cn never
more be covered and gnded by military fame. Great state
institutions like the post have become great dens of thieves,
whole classes of the population have been hurled into the
botomless pit, and all tn behess of morality have been
trampled underfoot in the Unsuitable lust for gain. This
en is rooted tO deep In the conditions OF the world "a TO
be capable of determination by legal prosecutions 1t is deep
y to be depoed that the Minister should have said that SO
terrible al evil "a of little consequence in comparison with
the deeds of the arm and the fleet When a people begins
to tread underfoot against its W broad masses the simplest
obligations of communal feeling, the most primitive behests
of loyalty and honesty, it is sick in its inmost core, and no.
victories can remedy the fact.
Efforts were made to suppress this speech, but they were
not successful. 1t is becoming harder to control the utterances
of the people. On the subject of the censorship the debates
brought out the fact that it has contributed to the demoraliza-
ton of the people. 1t has made them a nation of liars. On
this Herr Mehring said:
The censorship is making thu amt havoc in the mental
realms rs the unbridled lust for money is making in the o
nomic' realm. The systematic misleading of public opinion by
the censorship will day avenge itself in tn most terrible
name o the mental development of the nation The an
sorship escapes being utterly uncomfortable only thanks to the
fact that it has of itself produced a natural reaction in the
shape of ar underground literature, and has thus opened a
small ventilation hole or historical veracty in Germany.
What other results could be expected in Germany, a nation
that went into the war with a lie on it's lips when 1T declared
that it was about to be attacked and that it was making merely
a war for self defense, and that in face of the fact that while
Germany was ready to spring on it's enemies no other nation
had a force prepared to resist. England that was accused OF
having conspired with Belgium to attack Germany, did not have
even a hundred thousand men ready to fight with the most
primitive instruments and that against an army of millions
prepared to the last detail in Germany.
When the government turns liar, what shall the subjects
of such a government turn into except liars also? And that
has happened in Germany. And when the government turns
thief why shall the people remain honest?
When you read what the mel at the front are doing for
us, it ought to make it easier for all of us to do the bits that we
are asked to do, even to the abstaining from certain foods.
And yet how many %thoughtless and even disloyal Americans
there are who insist that they must have everything they want,
and who take it, too.
Expulsion of La Toilette from the senate might please q
majority of the people of the United States, but the removal of
a few German spies from munition plants will be even more
to The point.
Senator Williams is right when he says he is pro-Ameri-
can in this war, and knows no party. So say we all of us.
But the senator ought to labor with some of his associates in
yocL;D~4o who ana updap h n q this