[Illustration]
_RESTITUTION AND REPARATION_
* * * * *
The Prussian theory of right and justice is this: "What is mine is mine.
What is yours is also mine if I want it."
This idea is deep buried beneath the thick bone of the Prussian head. He
holds it with stolid stupidity and deep, prehistoric crudity, like a pig
or an idiot. He cannot understand that there are any rights higher than
Prussian greed. "If I want it, it is mine because I want it." It is the
logic of the primitive human animal, the caveman.
Cornered and accused of his thefts he clings to his loot like the pig
that has stolen a carrot. When asked to disgorge he is shocked by the
suggestion. "But they are mine! I wanted them, so they are mine!" he
says. Right and Justice answer, "They are not yours; you stole them."
"Maybe so!" says the Prussian. "But just the same they are mine--I stole
them a long time ago."
The logic of the Prussian fills ten thousand volumes. It is written in
hundred-line paragraphs and six-inch words. It can be condensed into two
short words--piggish greed; piggish because it knows neither right nor
justice, greed because it is greed.