The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-10-19


 progress of mankind, would not listen
 to talk of war
 I Meant Fresh Reserves
 France would not listen to talk of war Tor another reason. Conscious CT her past defeat, and unconscious or her present strength, France in- clined to the belief that war would only bring fresh reverses. At the be- ginning of the Moroccan crisis, and In the course of it's evolution, there were not lacking political men and parties who proclaimed that France was not ready" dangerous talk in a country where tie public mind is prone to believe bad news rather than good. The Frenchman is not 1 loath to speak i'll of other peoples. even when they are his friends; but ne IS even reader to speak i'll of him self
 It has oft6n been remarked that Tn 1914 America and Great Britain knew very little about us and did not even suspect the reserves of en- ergy and of abnegation which the war called forth If America and Great Britain did not know France. their excuse is that France did not know herself Read the French 1 papers from 1900 to 1914 and see If you can find the slightest hint of the ! splendid picture that the followine moHthss are to present--it is not ! there.
 Petty quarrels of politicians and ! partles, magnified by the press dis torted the view not only of foreign CTS but of Frenchmen as well. The true France was hidden. Ignorance or ones strength leads men to seek the path of least resistance. People sald and economists taught that "waN~ was impossible" People also said "Of war we will have none" Thus one sees why all our compro- mises with Germany. painful though they were, met with the approval of the great majority, both in Parlia- ment and in the country. Thus one l sees why France, by reason alike of her qualities and of her faults, was so deeply attached to peace at the very moment when Germany had de- cided upon war.
 If, in 1914, Germany had wanted peace. she would as in previous years have found France ready to enter into the necessary agreements. If Germany Mad wanted peace, France more than any other nation would have helped her to preserve it. But Germany wanted war
 Germany Wanted War Germany wanted war and, here again, we must go beneath and be- yond the will of governments to re- veal and examine the soul of the governed. War is the very basis and origin of the intellectual and moral beliefs which go to make up modern German patriotism. War created the German ideal which proved strong enough to place the whole of Ger> many under Prussian control in less than 50years. Conceived in the i'm agination of politicians, historians and poets, 1t needed the iron hand of Prussian junker to give it prac- teal shape. Then the Hohenzollerns, who, thanks to the genius of Bis marck, mads>themselves the servants as well as the beneficiaries of this ideal, fashioned it in their own im- age. There Is German patriotism: as France knows but too we'll after 1870 and 1si4 But this German pa triotism is essentially different from French patriotism. Our patriotism holds France sacred as the emblem of traditions many centuries old and woven even more of memories of people than of recollections of war.
 German patriotism holds war sa cred. Patriotism to them Is first and foremost the emblem of profit ac- cruing from war and the recognition of war as the origin of power and of wealth. Saxons, Hessians and Ba- vsrians, more particularly their princes--may at times have mourned the loss of ancient liberties surren- dered to Prussia; but when Saxons. Hessians and Bavarians compared their erstwhile poverty to the pros perity they derived from the em- pire they felt that they were German and nothing but German.
 The spirit of nationality Is not, in Germany as it is in France, the com mon faith of men who for centuries have lived under common law; it is an association of material interests which has passed from bankruptcy to prosperity and intends to safe guard the handspring of its opulence. German patriotism, which 100 years ago was an ideal conception of it's philosophers. has since 1870 been based upon materialism. Germany means, to the people of the south as to those of the north, increased we1l- being. growing markets rising wages and soaring dividends. It means also attachment to the rule of might and remembrance of the sudden appeal to force which brought about this change, of the victorious war without which success would have been im- possible. Thus the idea of war ts inseparable in tho German mind from tho idea of country. Deep down in the heart of every thinking German who knows his history, the "fatherland" stands for war.
 Psrvades Every Class
 This moral unity pervades every class of society. Consider the social fists whose doctrines should make them opposed to war. especially to war of aggression. The prosperity of labor due to the empire and to war Is so closely bound to both that, the day the empire will decide on war-the most flagrantly aggressive war-the whole socialist party will follow, and 1t will need our Marne victory to remind even small mi nority of it's tenets. Why? Because more than any other party, by req son of it's numbers, it is vitally in 1 terested in the success of Germany & Co. because it has not forgotten the organs of imperial success and be- cause 1t pins it's faith. for the pro- lection and development of the ac- ouired assets, upon those who first made 1t great
 From German labor let us pass to tho intellectuals. Here the spirit or military discipline rivals that ex- isting in the trade unions' which Tn turn Is no wit less than the flour ishing in the barracks One day in i 1905, Prince von Bulow, then fmpe- rial chancellor, said to me: In France your universities are schools of debate and of political and so- cial criticism. In Germany our uni yersittes are the strongholds of fla