Evening star., 1933-11-05
1POisonous Prussian Pride'' Denounced
By Chesterton as Menace to World

I
thing else. I do not say that the
prayers and thoughts Of thousands ot
sane people may not yet turn 1t into q
real and permanent peace. But dc
say that recent events in Germany have
revealed as with hoodlight the essen
tial fact in which many brave men
only half believed, even when they
fought and died for it, And that fact
is brute fact of psychology; that
almost all other men have been taught
in some vague traditional way to ap-
peal to some truth that is not sub
, jective Ga favorite German world: that
they have been taught either to appeal
to God or to appeal to man; but the
| Germans have been taught to appeal
only to Germany.
Sentiments Held Depressing.
Such are the depressing, nay, de-
grading and deplorable sentiments
| that are Immediately awakened in my
| mind by the mention and memory OF
the armistice. How different from those
| exalted and optimistic affirmations of
the immediate and inevitable appear
ance OF peace, perfect peace, among all
the peoples of the earth, those silver
trumpets Of eloquence praising the un-
interrupted triumphs Of the League OF
Nations, those visions Of happy fatalism
showing the now complete and final
disappearance OF every weapon from
the world; those radiant sermons on
love and brotherhood and unity which
In late years have been poured out so
copiously by the great and wise. and
especially the wealthy; and all those
who think that war should never be
waged except very occasionally, for
money. against small and defenseless
state. Many Of these moralists will add
that even then 1t is more truly Chris
tian to starve the people to death by
some economic boycott or blockade
rather than sink to the cynical level
OF rlsking our own lives in order to
kill them
In all these higher moral sentiments
l feel I shall be found sadly wanting;
and. having been particularly asked to
write an article upon the armiStice. !
lear / cannot write anything except
what the armistice really means to me.
oee not nee anT m fbgf
OF my friends and kindred who died in
arms. 1t does not instantly come ma
tural to me to celebrate the anniversary
OF their victory by shrieking that they
dled IN vain; or to seek to avoid a repe-
tltlon OF their deaths merely by labori-
ous!y proving that they were as bad as
their enemies.
Sees Greater Tragedy.
Hoping for peace, like all the world,
l Will not express my compassion for
courageous men by writing foul psycho-
logical novels to prove that they were all
towards; nor do I hold the new dra-
matte canon that the Way to exalt
tragedy is to deprive it of dignity.
But am none the less vividly con-
sclous that the next tragedy Of that
type will be even more tragic. am
all the more anxious to avert such dis
aster falling again upon the world.
now that know that my friends and
brethren are henceforth doomed to
su1er twice for the crime of patriotism,
10 DC destroyed by their enemies and
then despised by their countrymen,
Let us, therefore, for this and many
othr reasons, join with all those who
would make the armistice a festival and
a prophecy OF peace. The paciists are
rient IN insisting that peace, like war, is
MADE by the will Of man; and they are
therefore right in adding that a moral
responsibility in the matter lies on all
sorts and conditions of men. Where
they are generally wrong is, first, in as
'umlng that all those who anticipate war
necessarily approve Of war. or even act
ually desire it and, second. in suppos-
Ing that those who did approve of a
particular war necessarily approved of
u 1or the particular reasons given bv
the richest or most successful rascals in
journalism or commercial politics
They will have to think great dpa
more clearly and honestly than that If
we are to avoid war or even escape out
OF 1t alive if it comes. And clear and
honest thinking must not shrink from
starting afresh with that first fact
which is still final fact. that there is
IN Chrlstendom, unconverted and un-
conquered. force that is not Chris
tan. Surely it is not so very impos-
sible to believe that it was this that
threatened the world with war in 1914
Wnen 1t is obviously this that threatens
1t with war in 1888.
Hope for Peace.
But for us, who celebrate the
arr1iStlce, there is surely a nobler and
more humane way OF celebrating it.
Let us forget for day whatever we
may think about the faults of others
and pray that we may not again wreck
the hope Of the world by faults of our
own. Let us pray that il the challenge
does indeed come again. We may not
meet it by random SANDER or roaring
sen-righteousness: that we may test
the quarrel by the history of nations
as studied by sincere and serious men,
and not by nonsense made up on
principle OF inverted advertisement or
the theory that propagandists may say
anything so long as it is abuse, as
salesnlen may say anything so long as
1t is flattery
Let us pray to be delivered from the
vices and vulgarities of our civiliza-
ton; and all the more if we sincerely
believe that it is still civilization and
may need to be defended from some
thing that is still savagery. 1t is
fine thing to be swift to forgive our
enemies; but it is a finer thing not to
be too eager to forgive ourselves.
II the ruin that fell on the great
House Of Hohenzollern was. as I still
believe, a doom earned and provoked
BY the dehumanized pride OF Prussia,
we must not forget that the vast eco
nomic collapse that has affected the
victors has almost as much Of the
quality Of great historical jurgment
and the rebuke of fate to our own
mercantile and mechanical culture.
In 50 far as modern men can face such
facts frankly. they will be worthy to
find Y3eace ar 6tted IN facA war