We gaze with delight upon the proud, blonde grace of the Norse maid; the
more gentle and pliant manners of the Swedes and Danes arouse our
admiration; and we dearly love their beautiful fjords and forests of
beech and birch.

*Love Changed to Suspicion.*

Many of us wonder today how much of all this love we, in the days to
come, will be able to rescue from the debris. "Has the world gone mad
that it has ceased to believe in our sincerity?" This at present is the
cry of many, many thousand German men and women. Do we deserve to have
our love requited with hate? And to find in the countries which declare
themselves neutral, distrust, reserve, and, in fact, doubt of our honest
intentions? Sad, dull despair has taken possession of the hearts of our
best men and women. It is not because they tremble for the fate of the
loved ones who have been compelled to go to the front and not because
there is any fear as to the outcome of this war. Not one among us doubts
the ultimate triumph of Germany. We also know that we must pay a
terrible toll for this victory with the blood of our sons, fathers and
husbands.

Equally as much as they mourn the loss of our young manhood many of our
best citizens deplore the hatred which has spread over the face of the
globe, hate which has torn asunder what was believed to have been a
firmly woven net of a common European culture. That which we with ardent
souls have labored to create is being devastated by ruthless force.

The following story of the non-commissioned German officer is typical or
symbolical of many. He, while the bullets of the inhabitants of Louvain
fell around him, rescued the priceless old paintings from the burning
Church of St. Peter, simply because he was an art-historian and knew and
loved each of the masterpieces. And well we all understand the feelings
which mastered him during those moments of horror.

He would probably think and say, "I have but done my duty."

And now we have arrived at the point which gives rise to the greatest
amount of antipathy. Our opponents declare we are endowed with great
ability--they say they must acknowledge that. But how can a race of
stiff, dry, duty-performing beings awaken love? The German must lose all
claim to individual freedom and independence of thought in consequence
of the training which he receives. When he is a child he commences it in
a military subordination in the school, he continues it in the barracks,
and later, when