The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1919-06-06
SOME REASONINGS OF
real. GERMAN MIND
Why Murder is Charity and Lust is
Virtue When Committed in
Germany's Name.


"Hun" as he was when Germany was
hacking her way through Belgium,
writes a member of the Ninth Aero
Souadron. now in Germany, in re-
markable analysis of the present state
of the Teutonic mentality that APP
pears in a letter in The Argonaut OF
that CITY. The writer, V. X. Butler,
Jr.. spent two summers in the Kline
land before the war and made two
tours of Germany. He ''hated their
paternalism" then, and "deplored the
blank faces of the automatons' ne
saw in the ranks druing kaiser ma
neuvers. the same traits that have
now cleft them blind cogs in
WRECKED machine" He writes Oh
these Germans "whom defeat has en-
FILTERED, but not chastened":
I think constantly of Owen Wis
ter's chapter in the "Pentecost OF
Calamity" in which he collects Sc
ries of quotations from German ru-
lers and statemen to prove the law
less gospel of the Hun. l used to
think that that was Prussianism and
that the overthrow of the military
caste would work the welcome saliva
ton of the other Germans.
But there are no other Germans.
They are all one at heart. Prusslan
poison has touched them all and they
glory in the infection. Owen Wister
might now collect a companion chap
ter to show that ruler and subject,
philosopher and disciple, are so close
Nv knit that there is no distinguishing
between them.
Talk to merchant or villager, priest
or peasant-their views are funda-
mentally the same. Paternalism first
robbed their minds of indivual re-
source and then stuffed them with
propaganda. They have conned their
White Book by rote, they will justify
for you every outrage of the war,
and they will explain the strategic
accidents which led to their defeat.
Catechize them. They are ready.
@. What caused the war?
A. England's fear of our CONNER
cial supremacy.
@. But had England, dominating
the world, anything to gain by war?
A. She wanted to crush US before
we took her markets from her.
@. What started the war?
A. The menace of Russian mobili-
cation in the East, which caused us
to declare war Immediately.
@. Why the invasion of Belgium?
A. Because she was not neutral.
@. Had Germany promised not to
invade Belgium?
A. She forfeited her rights by her
treachery.
@. And therefore you outraged the
land and it's people?
A. Yes; perhaps there were excep-
tional unfortunate Incidents. But
war is war.
Q. What of the sanctity of con-
tract?
A. We broke no contract, unless
compelled by expediency or reprisal
O. Was the U-boat reprisal?
! A. Yes. Englands blockade was
starving our babies.
@. Does international law recognize
the legality of the blockade and the
rights of neutrals?
A. That makes no difference. Our
people needed food. Besides, the
Lusitania carried contraband.
@. What of the hospital ships?
A. know nothing about them.
@. What of aerial bombardment?
A. The French started it.
Q. Do you realize Germany's po-
sition in the world today?
A. We are hated, | suppose. The
world has been fed on Allied propa-
ganda. In Germany we know the
truth.
Q. Do you know why you are hat
A. Because we are feared-and we
are feared because our bravery and
our skill withstood the world for four
years, because our industries are the
most highly developed and our ener-
gy the greatest.
@. What caused you then to lose
the war?
A. Americas entry.
Q. Why did America enter the
war?
A. To secure the payment of her
loans to the Allies.
@. Is there nc other reason!
A. can think of none
G. Could the Americans have been
idealists, or were they fools?
A. Perhaps both the two are
closely allied.
@. Why did President Wilson dis
tinguish between Prussian rulers and
the German people?
A. Because he did not understand
the situation.
@. Was America the sole cause of
Germany's defeat?
A. No. We might have stood
against the world save for internal
dissension.
@. What caused that?