The Washington herald., 1919-07-06

And the only phantom of honor
which is not according to Schopen-
hauer's noble dictum is the out
ward conscience of us here in ques-
tion.
Too Many Feel War Guilt.
If there were not so many sitting
in high places and parliaments, who,
consciously or unconsciously, are ac-
cessories in the sins of omission and
commission of the imperial govern
ment, not for an hour would the ad-
mission have been delayed that this
government was guilty of the misfor-
tunes OF war. Why otherwise did one
overturn 1t, together with two dozen
ldynasties? Surely not because they
made mistakes. That would be no
sufficient reason for the overturn of
all state institutions. The worlds
conscience, the inner honor Of man
Kind. demanded the confession that
I'VE were not fallen upon a fault, for
the outbreak of war is divided be-
tween Germany's militarists and in
competent leaders of the state"
Through this confession, which
would have accelerated a reconcilia-
ton, the German people would not
have been compromised. For the be-
lief. last expressed in the Clemenceau
letter of June 16, that the German
nation wanted war is just as errone-
Gus as the opinion expressed in the
same document that a revolution
would have been possible sooner.
Authors and approyers of such SEN
tences, despite four years OF expert
ence, underrate the colossal strength
OF the German war machine, which
from August, 1914, to October, 1918,
ruled everything and crushed every
thing that hindered il and which was
to be destroyed only from within. If
the army leadership had found a Ger
man Petafn who, like Verdun's savior,
after the dangerous minutes of 1917,
could have stiffened again the waver-
ing spirit Of the army with new meth
DDS found by himself, and could have
secured its moral reprovisioning, then,
despite the mutinous sailors and COM
munists. the collapse would have been
avoided.
Before the war, too, this machine
was so strong that when 1t ran with
full power its noise drowned every
thing else. In order to be able to
complete the building OF the battle
feet, in which he saw mis- life's mis-
SiOus <AuLllIdl NOH llTplLZ naO con-
stantly to disseminate the idea that
England. Jealous OF our success In the
world market, ''perfidious Albion
which always had sworn deadly en-
nifty against the strongest continental
power. could only be restrained from
its heart wish of annihilating Ger
many by the high risk Of a fight
against our navy.
How Navy Was Increased.
Therefore the ratio Of English and
German naval strength must not be
two TO one. as Haldane and Church :
Ill offered, but at the most sixteen
to ten. Before the early Reichstag
fight for an army increase the hos
tility of the broad masses of Rus
STA and France was garishly illumi-
mated. With purposes of militarism
and marinism, whose representatives
surely were convinced that they
were loyalty serving the fatherland,
the realization was not consistent
that the encircling entente of trust.
or the pool created by King Ed
ward, had only a defensive note.
Offensive limits and not annihilation
was his object. And because every
one. If he did not admit it, felt how
bad and harmful was the policy de-
| termined by Wilhelm's love for ef-