nature in a state of war with each other. Conflict must be regarded as the essence of their relations and as the rule, friendship as accidental and exceptional."

If this be the relation in which States, as determined by their very nature, must and should stand towards each other, it is not strange that it should be taught that power, physical might, is the chief end for the possession of which in the greatest possible amount the State should strive. The Nietzschean influence is here apparent, and indeed his doctrine of "will to power" is found throughout German ethical and political writings. "The State is power" springs constantly from the mouth of Treitschke. "The injunction to assert itself," he declares, "remains always absolute. Weakness must always be condemned as the most disastrous and despicable of crimes, the unforgivable sin of politics" -the sin against the Holy Ghost.

From premises such as these the rights of small states find short shrift, and the morally obligatory character of international customs sanctioned by age and general agreement is disposed of without difficulty. The most solemnly plighted national word remains binding only so long as expediency dictates. Cruelties too terrible to be described receive complete justification if ordered by the State, even if there appear no commensurable justification for them upon the ground of practical expediency. The sic volo, sic jubeo of the State is sufficient. Indeed, as soon as one has to deal with the welfare of a being deemed divine in character, a measuring of means according to the end to be realized becomes no longer applicable. And thus, when we read of the rapine and devastation committed by the German armies of occupation from which, at the most, only slight and ultimate advantage could possibly accrue to the German State, one is reminded of the statement of Cardinal Newman in his Apologia that it were better that the whole world should pass away and all the living beings upon it perish in unutterable misery, than that a single sin against God should remain unrepented for and unforgiven.

In broad outlines this is the theory of the State that is today dominant in Germany. The evidence for its existence is implicit in the deeds that have been committed and explicit in the writings of Germany's leading publicists, historians, moralists, theologues and the

utterances of her public men. And yet, because of its mystical and abstract character, and because of its atrocious implications, it is not strange that we should hesitate to believe that an intellectually enlightened people could possibly have become indoctrinated with it, and their views regarding political matters perverted by it. How it has been possible to accomplish this result, in appearance so difficult, it will now be my task to show.

The first proposition from which we must start is that the philosophy which has made Germany a pariah among nations is not only political in nature, but political in its origin and propagation.

It is not a matter for surprise that there should be differences in national ideals when different States are in different stages of social and industrial development, or when their peoples give assent to different religions, or for one reason or another have adopted different interpretations of the nature and meaning of human existence. I have recently had the opportunity in China of studying and observing the ideals and practices of a people who are still in the agricultural as distinguished from the industrial and commercial stage of economic life, and who accept a religious and ethical philosophy fundamentally different from our own; and, examined in the light of these determining facts, it has not seemed strange that certain standards of personal conduct in China should not be the same as those of the Christianized and industrialized western world, and that the hierarchical arrangement of the virtues should be different from that with which we are familiar. But when we find a people of a country like Prussia, and the other middle European peoples so far as they have submitted to Prussian influence, avowing belief in, and practicing doctrines which shock the consciences of all the other peoples of the civilized world who are in substantially the same stage of industrial and commercial development, and who accept the same religion, and in private life are guided by the same rules of morality, we are confronted with a situation that demands an explanation. Explanation there must be, for it is scarcely conceivable that such a remarkable condition of affairs could have come into existence in a purely fortuitous manner.

Inasmuch, now, as we are unable to find this explanation in a ruling metaphysics, or a distinctive religion, or a system of personal morals,

or a social order, or a stage of economic life which is peculiar and distinguishing, but do find in operation a system of government founded upon constitutional and political principles radically different from those which find acceptance and application in England, France, Belgium, Italy and the United States, then a strong presumption is necessarily raised that here is to be found the explanation which we seek. And this presumption is still further strengthened when we find that the Prussian Government is one which denies to its own people the right to determine their own political destinies; which asserts that, as a practical proposition, it is not within the competence of the popular will of even an intellectually enlightened people to form intelligent judgments regarding matters of public policy unless guided and controlled by those in political authority; and when we further find that the machinery of government is so organized and operated that it has the organs or instrumentalities through which it is able to create and mold public opinion; when, in other words, we find the clergy subjected to strong governmental influence, education from the primary school to the university practically monopolized by the State, and a system of military service maintained that brings almost the entire body of youths of the country under complete and rigid governmental control at the very period of their lives when their ideals are most susceptible to outside formative influences; and, finally, when we find it frankly avowed that it is within the legitimate sphere of public authority that the press should be controlled and employed as an agency for spreading doctrines favored by those in political authority and for discrediting doctrines which are not favored, — when, I say, we find all these political conditions it no longer appears strange that those in control of the machinery of government should have been able, by reiterated action extending over several generations of time, to spread among a people and secure the acceptance of doctrines which, however false, are surfaced over with a transcendental and pseudo-philosophical character, which appeal to patriotism upon the emotional side, and which furthermore make a direct bid to sordid and selfish interests by justifying every action which will tend to increase the political power and material prosperity of the community.

Let me here quote from one who speaks with knowledge. In the recent work to which I have earlier referred, Professor Dewey says:

Germany is the modern State which provides the greatest facilities for general ideas to take effect through social inculcation. Its system of education is adapted to that end. High schools and universities in Germany are really, not just nominally, under the control of the State and part of the State life. In spite of freedom of academic instruction, when once a teacher is installed in office, the political authorities have always taken a hand, at critical junctures, in determining the selection of teachers in subjects that had a direct bearing upon political policies. Moreover, one of the chief functions of the universities is the preparation of State officials. Legislative activity is distinctly subordinate to that of administration conducted by a trained civil service, or, if you please, bureaucracy. Membership in this bureaucracy is dependent upon university training. Philosophy, both directly and indirectly, plays an unusually large rôle in the training. The faculty of law does not chiefly aim at the preparation of practicing lawyers. Philosophies of jurisprudence are essential parts of the law teaching, and every one of the classic philosophers took a hand in writing a philosophy of Law and of the State. Moreover, in the theological faculties, which are also organic parts of State-controlled institutions, the theology and higher criticism of Protestant Germany have been developed, and developed also in close connection with philosophical systems like those of Kant, Schleiermacher, and Hegel. In short, the educational and administrative agencies of Germany provide ready-made channels through which philosophic ideas may flow on their way to practical affairs.7

It can not be denied, then, that in Germany there exist governmental agencies fully competent to indoctrinate the people with any philosophy which those in political authority may sincerely hold, or may, for purposes of their own, desire that the people generally should hold. That the powers thus possessed have been employed for this purpose in every conceivable way is well known. Promises and rewards in the nature of political or academic preferment have been offered, titles and other marks of social distinction have been granted in almost countless number and variety, and threats and punishment have not been lacking. And it so happens that those in charge of this propaganda have been able, for their purposes, to make use of the

Philosophy and Politics, p. 15.

ruling metaphysical and moral philosophies inherited from the close of the eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries. Some of these philosophies, as for example, of Kant and Fichte and of Nietzsche, have been such as, more or less by chance, to lend themselves to the uses to which they have been put. In other cases, among which the philosophy of Hegel stands preeminent, it seems clear that there was present the deliberate intention to provide the basis for the supreme and supermoral Prussian State. In the writings also of the Prussian school of historians there has been plainly present the purpose to teach a system of political ethics and of political ideals which has found its fruition in the deeds of the last three and a half years.

That the abstract and even metaphysical and certainly mystical doctrines taught by academic teachers should have been able to exercise in Germany the influence they have had in the world of practical affairs has been due to the fact, already referred to, that all the higher servants of the State, military as well as civil, have passed through the national universities, and that in these universities philosophy has played an unusually large part. In addition there would appear to be in the Teutonic mind a predisposition in favor of abstract ideals - a predisposition whether innate or cultivated I do not pretend to say, but certainly present, as German writers themselves are proud to assert. One of the most interesting books called out by the war is one published under the title, Deutschland und der Weltkrieg, and translated and issued in this country under the title, Modern Germany in Relation to the Great War. This volume is a collection of essays by eminent German university professors in which the sincere and, I am convinced, not unsuccessful, attempt has been made to set out in an objective manner the ideals and convictions of the learned classes in Germany. In an essay entitled "The Spirit of German Kultur," by Professor Ernst Troeltsch, of the University of Berlin, the author, with reference to this mystical or metaphysical Tendenz in Germany, speaks of "the German metaphysical and religious spirit." "Our sense of order," he says, "is not founded on its usefulness for material and social ends, but emanates, together with the sense of duty, from an ideal conception of the spirit which is the rule and law of human life and of the universe. . . . The German is by nature a metaphysi