Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 November 1917 — GERMANY’S LOSS [ARTICLE]

GERMANY’S LOSS

With the declaration of Brazil of a state olf war between that country and Germany, the latter can now count eighteen enemy nations arrayed against her. Germany’s losses in men and money, while they must be enormous, are in reality the least of the disasters that have befallen her. The one great disaster that that misguided country has brought upon faer&elf, and which will have most

far-reaching effect, is the loss of her standing with the nations of the world. With the exception of the countries leagued with her in this unholy war, Germany is an outcast among the nations of the earth. Germany is not .feeling the blighting effects of this ostracism now as she Will feel It in the years to come. She claims that her policy of frightfulness is a necessary measure of self-defense, yet this same policy has alienated numbers of nations that but for that inhuman course would today* be, if not her avowed friends, at least strictly neutral. Reace will come after a while, and in the reckoning Germany’s course will be laid bare before a just and discriminating world. We say “just and discriminating,’’ because we believe, despite Germany's frightful defection from national humanity and honor, the large majority of the peoples .of the earth are at heart humane and honorable. And the latent principles of humanity and justice that underlie and form the bed-rock foundations of all civilized nations, have revolted and will continue to revolt against the savagery displayed by that would-be fount of "kultur.” .. , • This antipathy will take the form of prejudice against not only Germany as a nation, but against the German blood. Not all the peoples of the earth have the finely discriminating judgment of' President Wilson, and not all of them will be able to separate the acts of the German government from the impulses of the German people. It is a common thing to hear, even in charity-loving America, references to “German brutality’’ and ‘.‘German savagery.’’ It is of- no avail to tell the people that this brutality and savagery is the result of a “system’’ and that in reality the German people as a whole do not countenance it. Human nature is ' prone to believe that actions speak louder than words and Germany’s actions will form the complainant’s evidence when Germany comes to trial before the people of the earth. The German bed will be a bed of thorns for generations to come.