That Germany has been preparing forty years for this war is flatly
contradicted by J. Ellis Barker in his article entitled "The Secret of
Germany's Strength," appearing in the Nineteenth Century and After for
July.
Not forty years, but for 260 years, since Frederick William, the Great
Elector, came to the Prussian throne, the slow-growing plants of
German efficiency and thoroughness have steadily unfolded, Mr. Barker
says, in the administrative, military, financial, and economic policy
that make modern Germany. It was the Great Elector who "ruthlessly and
tyrannously suppressed existing self-government in his possessions,
and gave to his scattered and parochially minded subjects a strong
sense of unity," thus clearing the way for his successors. Frederick
William I. founded in the Prussia prepared by his grandfather "a
perfectly organized modern State, a model administration, and created
a perfectly equipped and ever ready army." Of him Mr. Barker says:
The German people are often praised for their thoroughness,
industry, frugality, and thrift. These qualities are not
natural to them. They received them from their rulers, and
especially from Frederick William the First. He was an
example to his people, and his son carried on the paternal
tradition. Both Kings acted not only with thoroughness,
industry, frugality, and economy, but they enforced these
qualities upon their subjects. Both punished idlers of every
rank of society, even of the most exalted. The regime of
Thorough prevailed under these Kings who ruled during
seventy-three years. These seventy-three years of hard
training gave to the Prussian people those sterling
qualities which are particularly their own, and by which
they can easily be distinguished from the easy-going South
Germans and Austrians who have not similarly been
disciplined.
While the Great Elector prepared the ground, and King Frederick
William I. firmly laid the foundations, "Frederick the Great erected
thereon the edifice of modern Germany." Mr. Barker adds:
Among the many pupils of Frederick the Great was Bismarck.
It is no exaggeration to say that the writings which
Frederick the Great addressed to posterity are the _arcana
imperii_ of modern Germany. Those who desire to learn the
secret of Germany's strength, wealth, and efficiency, should
therefore most carefully study the teachings of Frederick
the Great.
Frederick's "Political Testament" of 1752 addressed to his
successors begins with the significant words:
"The first duty of a citizen consists in serving his
country. I have tried to fulfil that duty in all the
different phases of my life."
Frederick William I. looked out for the education of his successors in
his own militarist ideals. Instructing Major Borcke in 1751 on the
tutoring of his grand-nephew, the Heir-Presumptive of Prussia, he
wrote:
It is very important that he should love the Army. Therefore
he must be told at all occasions and by all whom he meets
that men of birth who are not soldiers are pitiful wretches.
He must be taken to see the troops drilling as often as he
likes. He ought to be shown the Cadets, and be given five or
six of them to drill. That should be an amusement for him,
not a duty. The great point is that he should become fond of
military affairs, and the worst that could happen would be
if he should become bored with them. He should be allowed to
talk to all, to cadets, soldiers, citizens and officers, to
increase his self-reliance.
A thorough monarchist, who noted that "when Sweden was turned into a
republic it became weak," Frederick the Great preached a doctrine not
different from that which inspires the speeches of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
when he said in his "Political Testament" of 1752:
As Prussia is surrounded by powerful states my successors
must be prepared for frequent wars. The soldiers must be
given the highest positions in Prussia for the same reason
for which they received them in ancient Rome when that State
conquered the world. Honors and rewards stimulate and
encourage talent and praise arouses men to a generous
emulation. It encourages men to enter the army. It is
paradoxical to treat officers contemptuously and call theirs
an honored profession. The men who are the principal
supports of the State must be encouraged and be preferred to
the soft and insipid society men who can only grace an
ante-chamber.
Mr. Barker comments on the fact that in 1776, thirteen years after the
ruinous Seven Years' War, Frederick the Great had accumulated
financial resources sufficient to pay for another war lasting four
years, and that he pursued the food policy of his fathers "which is
still pursued by the Prusso-German Government." Moreover, he first
exalted the German professor:
A hundred and fifty years ago Prussia was a land peopled by
boors. Now it is a land peopled by professors, scientists,
and artists. Frederick the Great was the first Prussian
monarch to realize that science and art increase the
strength and prestige of nations. Hence, he began
cultivating the sciences and arts, and his successors
followed his example. As science and art were found to be
sources of national power, they were as thoroughly promoted
as was the army itself, while in this country [England]
education remained amateurish. Men toyed with science and
the universities rather taught manners than efficiency.
The lesson of this centuries-old efficient governmental machine is a
supreme one to democratic England, Mr. Barker thinks. Not that it is
hopeless for a democracy to compete with a highly organized monarchy,
for has not Switzerland shown that "a democracy may be efficient,
business-like, provident, and ready for war?" England, on the other
hand, has been a lover of luxury and ease. She must gird up her loins
and fight or die. The Anglo-Saxon race is fighting for its existence,
and delay is dangerous:
War is a one-man business. Every other consideration must be
subordinated to that of achieving victory. When the United
States fought for their life, they made President Lincoln
virtually a Dictator. The freest and most unruly democracy
allowed Habeas Corpus to be suspended and conscription to be
introduced, to save itself. Great emergencies call for great
measures. The War demands great sacrifices in every
direction. However, if it leads to England's modernization,
to the elimination of the weaknesses and vices of
Anglo-Saxon democracy, if it leads to the unification and
organization of the Empire, the purification of its
institutions, and the recreation of the race, the gain may
be greater than the loss, the colossal cost of the War
notwithstanding. The British Empire and the United States,
the Anglo-Saxon race in both hemispheres, have arrived at
the turning point in their history. The next few months will
confirm their greatness or mark the beginning of their fatal
decline.
"To Avenge"
Stern is the denunciation of W.S. Lilly, in the same issue of The
Nineteenth Century and After, upon the atrocities recounted in an
article on German atrocities in France by Professor Morgan, appearing
in the next preceding number. Mr. Lilly quotes Thomas Carlyle's
sarcastic words about the "blind loquacious prurience of
indiscriminate Philanthropism" that commands no revenge for great
injustice. He says:
Apart from the "fierce and monstrous gladness," with which
the German people have welcomed the hellish cruelty of their
soldiery, they must be held responsible for its crimes.
General von Bernhardi, indeed, assures them that "political
morality differs from individual morality because there is
no power above the State." And they have been given over to
a strong delusion to believe this lie. Above the State is
the Eternal Rule of Right and Wrong: above the State is the
Supreme Moral Governor of the Universe; yes, above the State
is God. Let us proclaim this august verity though in France
Atheism has been triumphant; in England Agnosticism is
fashionable; in Lutheran Germany--worst of all--evil has
been enthroned in the place of good, and "devils to adore
for deities" is the proper cult.
The resolution of the old Roman patriot that "Carthage must be
destroyed" is quoted by this writer. He adds:
As stern a resolution is in the minds and on the lips of all
true lovers of their country and of mankind, be they English
or French, Russian, Italian, Japanese, and I do not hesitate
to add American. German militarism must be utterly destroyed
and the monstrous creation of blood and iron overthrown.
Such is the plainest dictate of the instinct of
self-preservation. It is also the plainest dictate of
justice. Germany must be paid that she has deserved. When
the triumphant Allies shall have made good their footing on
her soil, they will not indeed rival her exploits or
violating women and butchering children, of murdering
prisoners and wounded, of slaying unoffending and peaceful
peasants, of destroying shrines of religion and learning.
But they will assuredly shoot or hang such of the chief
perpetrators of these and the like atrocities as may fall
into their hands. They will strip her of ill-gained
territory. They will empty her arsenals and burn her war
workshops. They will impose a colossal indemnity which will
condemn her for long years to grinding poverty. They will
confiscate her fleet. They will remove the treasures of her
galleries and museums, and take toll of her libraries, to
make compensation for her pillage and incendiarism in
Belgium. The measure of punishment is always a matter of
difficulty. But surely anything less than this would be
wholly disproportionate to the rank offences of Germany. The
reckoning, the retribution, the retaliation to be just must
be most stern. The victorious Allies, who will be her
judges, will not be moved by "mealymouthed philanthropies."
"Justice shall strike and Mercy shall not hold her hands:
she shall strike sore strokes, and Pity shall not break the
blow."