THE GERMAN MACHINE

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2540, 14 August 1915, Page 7

THE GERMAN MACHINE

WHERE ITS WEAKNESS LIES. "Wherever I waiSonefaot grew omnipresent," writes an American lady on her visit to Berlin in the "Nation," "Germany was magnificently organised. Here lay the country's power and her weakrfess. Her power, because it made Germany a unit; her weakness, because it robbed lier people of individuality." "The worship of German organisation, whioh is the fashion at the present moment, dwells on the power and omits the weakness," says the "Westminster Gazette," commenting on her article.

"To 'he organised as Germans, we must be Germans in nature and disposition, with the same Bubmissiveness to the ruling-power, the same readiness to hand our consciences and our lives into the keoping of an unquestioned superior authority. "We should have to blot out the greater part of our history and be made over again and made different. : In that way, and that way . alone, could we have purchased the advantage with wliich Germany started in this war— the advantage of Ion? preparation for a secret policy of aggression engineered by a supreme military caste. "Our individualistic system looks ragged and untidy to the outward -eye as'compared to the cast-ifon discipline of our enemy; and many are the demands that we shall hasten in the middle of the war to conform to the German method and' light the Germans with a machine comparable to their own. • Disoipline undoubtedly is necessary, but in so far as wo make it selfdiscipline, we have so much the better chance of overcoming the State discipline of- our enemy. The German system is the growth of centuries, and it is not to be transplanted and set up in full growth in njien soil. Our system too has its great" virtues, and we &ro saying daily that wo are at war to make these prevail in the Europe of the future. In war, as in peace, they are the hoart and soul of our cause. Against this driven and disciplined people, seeking to blow up the world with their terrible maohine, wo appeal to the enterprise and free-will sacrifice of men who are determined that freedom shall prevail. /'This aspect of the struggle must never be lost sight of in the appeals whioh are now being made to tho workmen of the country. Let us ask them, as a matter of honour and duty, to prove that the free institutions under which they have lived their lives and escaped the tyranny of the Prussian system are equal to the demand on them in the hour of need, and can produce results which leave no room for cavil or reproach. Great and formidable as German machine may be, it shows evident signs of wear.

"The fear and" bitterness .of wliich the American lady _ speaks and ' the cult of unlimited violence which lias now spread through Germany are not signs of victory, but of perplexity and disappointment. This (monstrous engine of war has had some brilliant military triumphs, and may have more, but it is showing us the limitations of mere force and discipline without moral purpose. It lias set tho whole neutral work! against Germany, and, instead of the speedy_ and easy victory which it promised, it has provoked a devastating and costly .struggle which may easily end in wholesale disaster.

"All tho violenco in the world and all tho infernal machines which can be turned out of German laboratories will not retrieve this position, if the Allies pursue their course with faith and courage. Wo do nob need to imitate Germany, or even to beat her at her own game. Wo want to beat her with our weapons and in the manner of free men waging an honourable warfare." I .