27th September.
Ir is one of the commonplaces daily life that much, sometimes everything, depends upon the point of view from which we look at whatever subject may be under consideration. Recent changes in political power have called attention to the standing of the various states Europe, notably of Getmany who has been accused, far and wide, of a determination to exploit the present opportunity for her own' advantage. It is well to have the other side of this question, and if we take Mr. Arnold White's estimate as being the extreme on the one side, we may look upon the writer from Berlin in the "North American Review" as representing the other. The truth as usual must probably be sought between the two.
Mr. Arnold White writes 4 jeremiad. Militarism overrides everything and is responsible for much. This is hardly news, The German is not a soldier for the love of soldiering, but because of his environment. He has little of the Irishman's predilection for" scrapping," or ofthe Highlander's ardour for frays of a more serious kind. But Mr. White says that the tendency to "militarise everything" in Germany is so prevalent that even the schools are full of it and children frequently commit suicide" in consequence. Nor is this all. Mr. Whit falls foul of the finances, of the civil service, of the nobility, of the Jews, and even of the state system of pensions, With a military system tending to degeneracy—probably the ill-success in South-west: Africa will be adduced in proof; with a system of finance sliding down the slippery slope to bankruptey; with a civil service in which an excess of red tape is outdone by a still greater amount of bureaucratic insolence; with an aristocracy still bristling with feudal arrogance; with the loss of that elevated philosophy which has been could be expected but popular dis~ the past' glory of Germany; what
content, wide-spread poverty,' and the growth of " militant Socialism.
So much for one picture. The other is very different. Is shows that instead of disorganised finances arising from n petty war, there: is no question "of bankruptcy, nor of inevitable deficits, but merely of reorganisation." Taxation in Germany is compared with taxation in Great Britain, and it is shown that sources of revenue imiapped Saxony, the Fatherland has as yet many
and some of the minor States have suffered keenly from the existing system of finance, but the larger ones have not only not suffered but are rejoicing in unwonted prosperity. As to grieving over the loss of old-world systems of thought the writer holds that Germany is to be congratulated on freeing herself from such trammelsin order to launch out into practical world of progress and reform.
Poverty exists. It does everywhere, even in England,. France, and America. But German statesmen. are struggling with it at least. as successfully as those of. other lands. As to the insolence of the military and the bureancrat, is is said that Mr. White is looking at that question through cles, In Germany the old saw is still supreme. "Order is heaven's first law." The Anglo-Saxon is prone to amend this by the substitution of "Freedom" for "Order." There is no doubt that to men accustomed to paternal government the interference which is so irksome to us is but a-sign of fatherly care to them. At any rate the North American reviewer thinks so. Mr. White says' that Jews ure omnipotent in Germany, This his critic ridicules.
He then passes'on to consider the political crimes which Germany is accused of being desirous to perpetrate. The German ambition to "find an outlet on the shores of the Adriatic" is declared to be a figment of Teutophobie imagination, "If it should ever become necessary, Germany world fight, not to dismember; but to preserve the integrity of Aus-' trio," and this because a union with the Austrd-Germanic provinces would mean a grave addition to the strength of the clerical party in the Reichstag, and the definite abandonment of the rest of Austria to the Slavonic races.
Respecting Holland, also, we learn that the " German Emperor has never harboured the design of attacking' Holland." Such action would. be "criminal," and diametrically oppos: ed to true German interests already, overburdened with irreconcilable Poles, Guelphs, Alsatians, and Danes, What Gerniavy desires is to protect the Dutch and their colonies " from the aggressive schemes of other lands." The Dutch as yet hardly see things in this light. That is trae; but the Pan-Germans hope to~ convince them, "and there is small room to doubt that the propaganda enjoys the secret encouragement of the Government." Still, "from a campaign of persuasion to one of force is a far ery."
The Kaiser's fifteen years of rule have given no sign of buccaneering, says the reviewer. He notes with irritation the efforts that have been made to isolate Germany, but he has. given a promise, upon which "I aim convinced the world may rely," that his forces should never be employed so long as the honour of Germany remained unnssailed, and that he would never seek the barren glory that comes of wanton conquest. 'These, of course, are very general terms meaning much or little as occasion requires. The "voice of national intolerance and rancour" so assiduously cultivated of late between Great Britain' and Germany is held tobe the greatest present menace to peace. We can quite believe it, Ib would be a: good thing if the more favourable picture presented above were to become one of the central pieces in the European gallery.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.