t with the
blood of murdered Christians. Could that be reconciled with what is
right? A little later he saw the Kaiser once again pushing himself into
Mediterranean politics, where no direct German interest lay, and
endeavoring to tangle up the French developments in Northern Africa by
provocative personal appearances at Morocco, and, later, by sending a
gunboat to intrude upon a scene of action which had already by the
Treaty of Algeciras been allotted to France. How could an honest German
whose mind was undebauched by a controlled press justify such an
interference as that? He is or should be aware that, in annexing Bosnia,
Austria was tearing up a treaty without the consent of the other
signatories, and that his own country was supporting and probably
inciting her ally to this public breach of faith. Could he honestly
think that this was right? And, finally, he must know, for his own
Chancellor has publicly proclaimed it, that the invasion of Belgium was
a breach of international right, and that Germany, or, rather, Prussia,
had perjured herself upon the day that the first of her soldiers passed
over the frontier. How can he explain all this to himself save on a
theory that might is right, that no moral law applies to the Superman,
and that so long as one hews one's way through, the rest can matter
little? To such a point of degradation have public morals been brought
by the infernal teachings of Prussian military philosophy, dating back
as far as Frederick II., but intensified by the exhortations of press
and professors during our own times. The mind of the average kindly
German citizen has been debauched and yet again debauched until it
needed just such a world crisis as this to startle him at last from his
obsession and to see his position and that of his country in its true
relation with humanity and progress.

*The Final Stakes.*

Thus I say, that for the German who stands outside the ruling classes,
our victory would bring a lasting relief, and some hope that in future
his destiny should be controlled by his own judgment and not by the
passions or interests of those against whom he has at present no appeal.
A system which has brought disaster to Germany and chaos to all Europe
can never, one would think, be resumed, and amid the debris of his
empire the German may pick up that precious jewel of personal freedom
which is above the splendor of foreign conquest. A Hapsburg or a
Hohenzollern may find his true p