It seems that Germany has published, for the Spaniards, a list of
treasures she has won. In the long calendar the reader finds that eight
States--Belgium, France, Poland, Rumania, Russia, Serbia, Armenia,
Italy--have all been looted.
The Germans claim they have spoiled over three hundred first class
cities, several thousand secondary cities and towns; they add that they
have destroyed seventy-three cathedrals and looted them of their
priceless treasures of statues, paintings, stained glass, vessels of
silver and gold.
With brazen audacity the German pamphlet tells the Spaniards that they
have seized so many hundred thousand watches, so many hundred thousand
rings, so much treasure of diamonds and jewels, so many paintings from
rich men's houses, and the long boast ends with the statement that they
"obtained nearly five billions of loot out of western Russia and have
assessed two billions more upon the farmers, villages and cities of
Ukraine."
But the boast is an idle and empty boast. It is true that no army of the
Allies has crossed the German frontier to permanently hold a city. But
let no man think that Germany has succeeded because of the richness of
her loot. There is a success that is failure. There is a victory that is
defeat.
Macbeth killed Duncan and went to live in the palace of the dead king,
but did Macbeth succeed? Was not his palace a brief halting place in his
journey towards remorse, insanity and the day when Duncan's friends in
turn slew Macbeth?
The rich judges of Athens succeeded and Socrates failed. They went home
to drink wine and feast, while Socrates went to the jail to drink a cup
of poison. But who succeeded? The judges whose names are written low
down and bespattered with dirt--or Socrates, whose name fills the sky
and who has become the thinker for the world?
What if the Kaiser does boast of his successes to-day? So boasted
Nero--sending Paul to his rags, crusts and the dungeon preparatory to
the headman's axe. But it is Nero that lost out, and it is Paul who
reigns a crowned king.
The chief priests celebrated their victory; at the close of the day,
after they had succeeded in crucifying Jesus; but after nineteen
centuries the murderers are unknown and almost forgotten, while that
young carpenter rules over His Empire of Love.
To-day the Kaiser claims to have won the victory of "a superman." In
that he has carried murder, arson, lying, rapine, lust up to the _nth_
power, let us concede his claim. Not otherwise two hundred years ago
the Indian, with his scalping knife, his war-whoop and his tomahawk,
was "a superman" in terms of savagery. Not otherwise the Spaniards under
Bloody Alva were "supermen" in terms of rack, thumbscrew and instruments
of torture.
But what savages once did in the little, the Kaiser and his men now do
in the large. But because the Kaiser can publish a long list of wealth
gained--by breaking his treaties, by murder, arson and lust--let no man
think that he is successful.
The two Biddle brothers looted the Bank of England, but they became
outcasts upon the face of the earth, and always the dungeon yawned for
them, just as the Kaiser and von Hindenburg never sleep at night without
a vision of an oak tree, a long bough and a hemp rope dangling at the
end, for the hemp is now twisted that will one day choke to death the
murderous Kaiser and his War Staff.
Let no patriot, whether he lives in Spain, Russia or the United States,
forget that ours is a world ruled by men who were defeated.
To-day on the thrones of the world are the heroes, like Paul and
Demosthenes; the martyrs who were burned with Savonarola in Florence or
poisoned with Socrates in Athens.
To-day, the soldiers of Marathon and Marston Moor, Gettysburg and the
Marne now rule the world.
The treasure of the burglar and the brigand dissolves like snowflakes in
a river.
Long ago the Hebrew poet said: "I have seen the wicked flourish like a
green bay tree, and then I lifted up my eyes, and, behold! he was not."
And when a little time has passed all lovers of liberty and humanity
will exclaim: "During four years I have seen the Kaiser and von
Hindenburg flourish as the green bay tree, and I lifted up mine eyes,
and, behold! they were not. For the breath of His nostrils had slain
them."