There are some blunders that dogs and horses, and even sensible wild
animals, do not commit. Of all the stupidities of the German people,
the crowning glory of their blundering is their idea that German
savagery and "frightfulness" could so appal their enemies that they
would be paralyzed by the shock of atrocities, and purchase peace at
any price. It is difficult to believe that such fantastic theories
as these originated anywhere outside of a madhouse. No words at our
command can so well describe this situation as do the words of a
once-German, of New York and of Kuhn, Loeb & Company, Mr. Otto H. Kahn.
They were written on June 28, 1915, to a relative in Germany, and
published in the N.Y. _Times_ of July 4, 1917.
"The theory of 'frightfulness' in the conduct of warfare which Germany
now preaches and practices is no new discovery. On the contrary, it
is a very ancient one,--so old, in fact, that long ago it came to be
discarded and superseded in European warfare, and passed into the limbo
of forgotten things. There, until resurrected by your countrymen, it
lay for generations, along with much else that the human race had
overcome and left behind in the progress of culture and humanity,--a
progress achieved by strenuous toil, sacrifices and suffering in the
course of many centuries.
"=And what have you gained from your 'frightfulness'?= Your victories
have been due to quite other qualities. =By your 'frightfulness' you
have steeled your enemies to the utmost limit of sacrifice; you have
embittered neutral opinion; you have disappointed and grieved your
friends, and sown dragon's teeth, the offspring of which will arise
against you many years, even after the conclusion of peace.="
These are indeed words of wisdom and truth. Even after the conclusion
of peace, the exponents of "frightfulness" and the knights of the
"skull-cracker" will be accorded a hell of their own.