lause of the masses, and which continually nauseates us amid the
piety of this hour! Because our statemen failed to discover and foil
shrewd plans of deception is no reason why we may hoist the flag of most
pious morality. Not as weak-willed blunderers have we undertaken the
fearful risk of this war. We wanted it. Because we had to wish it and
could wish it. May the Teuton devil throttle those whiners whose pleas
for excuses make us ludicrous in these hours of lofty experience. We do
not stand, and shall not place ourselves, before the court of Europe.
Our power shall create new law in Europe. Germany strikes. If it
conquers new realms for its genius, the priesthood of all the gods will
sing songs of praise to the good war.

Only he who is specially trained for a race of troops may go along into
the field. Only the man versed in statecraft should be allowed to
participate in the talk about the results of war. Not he who has out
yonder proved an unworthy diplomat, nor the dilettante loafer sprayed
with the perfume of volatile emotions. Manhood liability to military
service requires manhood suffrage? That question may rest for the time
being; likewise the desire for equality of that right shall not be
argued today. But common sense should warn against the assumption of an
office without the slightest special preliminary training. Politics is
an art that can be mastered not in the leisure hours of the brain, but
only by the passionate, self-sacrificing devotion of a whole lifetime.
Now seek around you.

We are at the beginning of a war the development and duration of which
are incalculable, and in which up to date no foe has been brought to his
knees. To guide the sword to its goal, Tom, Dick, and Harry, Poet
Arrogance and Professor Crumb advertise their prowess in the newspaper
Advice and Assistance. Brave folk, whose knowledge concerning this new
realm of their endeavor emanates solely from that same newspaper!
Because they have for three months been busily reading their morning,
noon, and evening editions, they think they have a special call to
speak. Without knowledge of things that have transpired before, without
knowledge of the persons concerned, without a suspicion of the needs of
the situation and its possibilities, they judge the peoples of the earth
and divide the world. Stupid talk, with which irreverent officiousness
seeks to while away and shorten the period of anxious waiting for
customers; but to prepare q