New-York tribune., 1919-05-13
Ger1any's Moral Break
do1un
By Vim. c. Dreher,
Berlin Correspondent of The Tribune

who buried their past, who lost their future
or imagine that they lost it? 1t is easy to
understand that people who have nothing
to lose, or even those who will have to lose
everything, can turn into knights of fortune
in critical moment and throw awav their
principles and morality But such des-
perado course Of individuals must not be
allowed to become a popular malady." And
so on and on with this flow of pessimistic
moralzing
1t is part of a general phenomenon that
may be seen in thousand forms, a moral
breakdown that manifests itself in little
things as well as those that strike at the
very roots Of life. Suicides are uncommonly
frequent, especially among the men who in
other years were known as substantial citi-
zens. Murders Of the foulest and boldest
description are of daily occurrence, usually
murders for purposes Of robbery. Poor old
women are found garroted in their BEDS
and their scanty savings have gone to reward
the murderer
SaPped Morality
ASo"DSAo Ao'o pcSuu fHVT6 ana more TO
operate in bands. Often they scour the coun-
try districts in automobiles in quest of booty
A farmhouse is entered, the inmates thrust
into the cellar and locked up, and then the
house is pillaged, the meat and -four in
the pantry are seized, the pig in the pen is
slaughtered, and all is carried off to the
hungry stomach Of Berlin. Elsewhere the
house OF large landowner was pillaged by
band of some twenty persons; a wagon was
needed to take away the booty. Here in
Berlin robberies are committed in broad day.
light Armed soldiers figure largely in such
diversions, often in squads OF ten or more
The newspapers TEEN with descriptions of
robberies and murders. Hardly day passes
without its record of crime, and sometimes
the list is long one.
The disregard Of law and order has reached
stage that had never conceived as posi-
BILE, after having lived more than twenty
years in what looked liked a different Ger
many from that Of to-day. But was it
different Germany-diAerent at bottom?
Germans are themselves saying to me some
thing like this: "Our people before the war
were models Of honesty. You could trust
anybody. Our business men were every
where respected for their integrity; their
word was looked upon as their bond But
now every man wants to get his hand into
his neighbor's pockets. The war has brutal
lied us, made US dishonest; hunger and the
long bloody work Of war has sapped our
morality" And again the stream of pessin,-
ism flows on, without bringing us nearer to
anything promising.
Self-DiscipIise Lacking
1t was Napoleon, believe, who said that
if you scratch Russian you find Tartar.
Is it true that if you had scratched Ger
man before the war you would have found
a thief or murderer? Certainly not; the
Germans undoubtedly are right who say that
the average Of morality has been frightfully
lowered by the war. And yet one thing be-
comes more and more apparent to me as l
observe the behavior of the German race Of
to-day this, namely, that the fine discipline
for which the Germans were famous before
the war was in the main a discipline i'm
posed from without; it was not self-dis-
cipline. The policeman and the judge, the
schoolmaster and the drillmaster had sue
ceeded in holding them to what looked like
a high standard Of self-control, Of what was
to all appearances fairly high standard of
everyday morality; but it has not stood the
test that has been placed upon it. The test
was and still is enormously severe-that must
in all honesty be admitted; but the fact re-
mains that German training failed to give
the self-discipline which is the only safe basis
of morality.
1t is easy to talk and theorize in this
way, I know, because I am confronted by
mans prime necessity, something to appease
his hunger; as undoubtedly very many Ger
mans are. In Breslau, as distinguished
physician told me, there was judge who was
so stringently honest that he refused to buy
any food outside Of what was allowed him
by the food commissioners upon his cards.
No backdoor dealings for him! But he
starved to death. How many would do like
wise?
The German breakdown Of honesty is
largely due to hunger. Whether other peo-
pies would manifest tougher morality under
equal distress is question which shall not
be discussed here; but aunger, like other
animal wants, is everywhere a great leveller,
and it levels downward.