Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-17
Continued From First Page.)

language. arise. Fidelity to France was
their answer to the bully.
II we examine with perfect objectivity
the astounding episodes Of Bismarck's
dramatic career We see that under all
his immediate successes is hidden the
fatal seed Of sure future disaster. Strong
and rare type of man as he was, he
might have been more at home in the
Crusades or with the Spanish conquis-
tadors. Confronted with modern liv-
ing entities he was not at home. He
knew how TO destroy his opponents. but
after all that is easy when one is In
power and has no scruples, when one
neither cares nor understands what Is
bound to follow.
To the political responsibilities of the
titanic evil genius of nineteenth century
Europe two more may be added, of
which only one is directly Bismarck's
doing.
He reduced the Germans to a sort of
mental servitude; he degraded them
into experts wise and clever as they
may have BEEN without any desire or
possibility of taking their share In po-
litical life. Personally he had the selfish
excuse that he was sort Of genius, and
daily events were mastery treated by
him while he remained in power.
man, not content with his imperial
crown, became his own chancellor, his
subjects, who, under Bismarck's iron
rule. had forgotten how to raise their
heads. went meekly behind the blind
pastor.
Held Back Even Today.
Even today the shadow of the gigantic
Prussian chancellor is holding back his
countrymen In the road Of conscious
civic responsibility. Nothing is more
disquieting for the future development
of the German political mind than to
see the quantities of books on Bismarck
which are published each year-with
none Of them daring to call the hero
to account. On the contrary, the Bis
MARKHAM cult is but a pretense or a
PRAYER for the coming of the super
man who is going to regain her former
prestige for Germany.
Bonaparte, with all his military
glories, put France on the path of a
Topographic decline. Bismarck sowed
the seeds out of which came the re-
cent German disasters.
Bismarck never believed In free ma
tional effort; he made his own people
the people who had given Luther to
the world. the mentally freest people in
Europe-into a crowd of admiring mer-
chants. Officials used to say:
Our great man of genius knows;
let us be guided by him"
Bismarck had one excuse, and only
one; as q statesman he felt embarrassed
by certain natural tendencies of the
German soul and wanted to have them
changed. There was an excess of
romanticism which gave to the German
inner spiritual life a sort of dangerous
penchant for ecstasy. for "ivresse."
Bismarck. like hero Of the old Ger
man Valhalla, decided to call back his
Teutons to a sense of practical life; he
rallied them around formula of con-
crete action, of material conquest, of
organized obedience. He made a great
Germany-but at the cost of the Ger
mans. A vulgar happiness developed
| In the new Pharisees. so glad and salts
fed and proud of their prosperity.
Once in his life, said, did Bismarck
see far into the future; when he re-
| fused to take away even an inch of ter
ritory from vanquished Austria. One
might add perhaps another moment in
his life. It was in 1892, VIXEN, removed
from power, he chose purposely to de-
liver with elaborate eclat a speech to
the students of the Jena University and
told them that absolutism was q poison
l
save Germany 1t was necessary to
strengthen the force Of Parliament and
of public opinion.
Vision Came Too Late.
| But this vision came too late. To
many 1t seemed only the outburst of a
politician furious at having been dis
missed by his sovereign.
| They may go on building their new
aristocratic theory, the French gentle
men who have invented the so-called
doctrine OF nationalism as opposed to
the liberal conception of human rela-
tions but these hard facts remain:
That the war was won by the peoples
imbued with democratic traditions. and
that the only autocratic state belong
ing to the democratic coalition-Russia
was the only one to fall to pieces
Germany, the only one Of the great
European states which had reached
unity by military force and by 'raison
d'etat," after despising and rejecting a
previous opportunity of unification on
a democratic basis-Germany alone
powerful as 1t was, showed itself in the
DAYS of trial far weaker than 1t ap-
peared to be. This, indeed, is not a
party opinion, nor is 1t the opinion OF
former enemies. 1t Is what Is now
openly recognized and admitted by
many Of the keenest thinkers of this
same German people.
To this formidable bundle of ex-
amples another one might be added
Austro- Hungary, the only one Of the
great European states which was bound
by its very nature to suppress national
Municipalities, has fallen to pieces.
History's Experience.
The bitter experience of history Is
more eloquent than any philosophical
generalization.
But II we decide to look into the con-
ceptions constituting the ideals or anti