A WESTERN WAR

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 670, 24 October 1933, Page 5

A WESTERN WAR

(Press Assn.-

time for DECISION PHILOSOPHER WARNS THE WORLD OF IMPENDING CONFLICT BECOMING T00 SOFT

-By Telegraph — Copyright).

London, October 22 A striking phrase in a book entitled, "The Years of Deeision," by the philosophie historian, Dr. Oswald Spengler, reads: "The World Wai* was only the first rumbling of a storm which, heavy with fate, is to break over this centufy in which the world will be remodeUed." It is the only publication critical of the Nazis which Herr Hitler has permitted to appear. SumlmarisiMg! the credo of aggressive militarism, the author condemns the Nazis' "hurrah" mood, and declares th'at the revolution ha,s been too easy. He adds. "Woe betide thpse confusing mobilisation f or victory. Let Germany reserve her enthusiasm for the day when she emerges triumphant froni the eonflict in which the western world will be involved. This is not the time for sentiraentalisni. The Ox- ; ford undergraduates' pacifist resolution is among nrany indications that England is decaying. Her youngsters : have become soft, making* sport of eroticism, and a profession of sport. "America has failed and laeks stamina. She has falsified destiny. The only warrior spirit is Prussian, which is exploited by a young, valiant and strong Germany and will survive. Many nations are too old and stiff to defend themselves. Man is a beast of prc-y. The race is to the swift and the battle to the strong. "German women mnst breed warriors and take pleasure in doing so. It is of greater consequence that the nation should be racially strong than racially pure. We are pcrhaps on the eve of a second world war. Let Germany prepare." Dr. Oswald Spengler, a native of Blankenburg, Harz, who is 53 years of age, sprang into fame with the publication in 1918 of his amazing book, "Der Untergang dcs Abendlandes" ("The Decline of the West") following this first volume with a second in 1922. The work aroused extraordinary interest, and sold amazingly. It was awarded the Neitzsche Prize, and is gcnerally regarded as the most important work published in Germany within the past 15 years or more. In "The Decline of the West," Dr. Spengler set forth the coneeption that tha present Enropean civilisation reached its peak in 1900, and is declining to its virtual extinction about the end of next century. He had never published a book previous to this masterpiece, but he had read widely in history, literature, religion and art. He took { ight years to plan and write the first volume, and four years for the second. He eontends that the present civilisation is only one of many recurrent phases of growth on the earth, discounting the belief that all other civilisations have led up to the modern one, and that progress will continue indefinitely. Other orders may grow up after this one is forgotten. he says, and become mighty along different lines altogether.