Life — October 22, 1914 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

& OCTOBER 22, 1914 ‘* While there 1s Life there's Hope" Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY J. A. Mitcnett, Pres't. A. Mitzee, Sec’y and Treas. 17 West Thirty-first Street, New York English Offices, Rolls louse, Breams Bldgs., London, E. C. ERMANY’S purpose in the great war, as seen from here, is to teach a re- luctant world )) a aS AYES g) en v7 that what the he AY Gis rintan Kaiser says goes. In the matter of disciplining Servia, the Kaiser told Austria to go ahead the whole dis- tance and he would back her, The Czar demurred, very moderately, as to details. Germany stood pat, and all the efforts of all the diplomats could not avert the clash. It is a war for the vindication of the Prussian say-so; a war of destruction and ex- termination of whatever stands up against Prussian domination; a war to parcel out the world anew, and give Prussia what she wants. Prussia has dominated the rest of Germany so completely that it has forgotten that there ever were ideas in Germany that were not Prussian. Undoubtedly Prussia is eager to dominate the rest of mankind in the same way, and morally capable of using any avail- able means to do it. With the Prus- sian idea it is truly a case of world-power or downfall. It is an idea that is .; capable of repose, that requires periodical exercise in the field, znd must be fed on conquest if it is to keep its strength, That is not at all true of German “kultur”, which we have so much been told the Germans are fighting to defend. The German “ kultur” means pig-iron, Krupps, ships, beer, chemicals. music, discipline, military service and professors. It is the German civiliza- tion and includes the German attempt to discover, assimilate and apply knowledge and truth, This last needs very little defense by armies. It only needs time and peace. Given those, it will conquer the world, if it is good enough, and not a gun fired. Knowledge and truth are things for which, even in this world, there is plenty of room, Of habitable land there is only a limited area on this planet; good ports are scarce; all the ready-made farming land in the better climates belongs to somebody capable of making trouble if ousted, but the more truth people get hold of, the more there is left; the more knowl- edge is applied, the more awaits ap- plication. In so far as German “kultur” was good, it had all the world to dominate, and no objection. In thirty years that domination had made vast progress. But against the ation of the Prussian idea the objection is so vital and intense that in the great world-rising against it there is only too much prospect that the breath of German “kultur” will be clean squeezed out of the German body. Krupps cannot do much for it; destruction and extermination— the erasure of beauty, the expulsion of piety—are not aids to it. It should be the ally of those things, not their foe. Alas, then, for German “kultur”, ridden to its death by the ruthless Prussian demon; struggling splendidly to do the demon’s work, but fated, who can doubt, to sink in duc time, gasping and bleeding, foundered hy that fatal rider. The pity of it; oh, the pity of it! that what should be the world’s example must figure as its warning; that this hell that is heat- ing for the Saxons and Bavarians— kindly people both—is the kind of hell that awaits all people who fail to fight off Prussian domination before it has enchained them, It is a bad hell; a hell of Krupps and ruined cities and violated women, and tears and misery and blood, and blackened fanes. SINCE Antwerp fell it has seemed more than ever that this world is not our home, and the war seems more than ever like a war of Rome and Carthage. For the capture of Antwerp seems a blow at England. We were pretty sure all along that the Germans could beat up the Belgians if they put their minds on it, but it was hoped that England and France be- tween them could furnish distraction enough to keep them diverted. But that has not proved feasible, and now it seems a longer road than ever to Tipperary. The improved Krupp siege-guns seem to have made all exposed fortifi- cations obsolete. We have been build- ing some defenses lately to protect the Panama Canal. It will be interesting to know if they would be of any use against these new Krupps. Fortifica- lions are expensive and take up room, and perhaps it is something to be put to the credit of the big Krupps and the Zeppelins that they have destroyed the efficiency of forts. If there is to be no security in fortifications, folks who hope to live in the enjoyment of lib- erty and die in their beds must contrive new means of protection. The peace of the world must rest on some new understanding, adequately enforced, or perhaps we must just resign ourselves to taking bigger chances. It was a benefit to the world and helped the general cause of democracy when the carly improvements in cannon put old- time city walls out of use. City dwell- ers have had more room ever since, and trade has been freer. Like ad- vantages may come in the end out of the current improvements in war which have made it too efficient. When all modern knowledge and all the resources of modern industry are concentrated on the work of killing comicbooks.com o