Germany and the Germans from an American Point of ViewCollier, Price
History
Germany and the Germans from an American Point of View
Collier, Price
Germany; National characteristics, German
One often hears the apostles of a certain kittenish humanitarianism,
talking of the great good that would result if we in America would
provide light wines and beer and music, and parks and gardens, for our
people. They see the crowds of men and women and children flocking by
thousands to such resorts in Germany, where they eat tons of cakes and
Broedchens and jam, and where they drink gallons of beer and wine, and
where they sit hour after hour apparently quite content. Why, Lord
love you, ladies and gentlemen, our populace would never be content
with such mild amusements! Fancy "Silver Dollar" Sullivan or "Bath-house"
John attempting to cajole their cohorts in such fashion!
It may be a pity that our people are not thus easily amused, but, on
the other hand, it means simply that our energy, our vitality, our
national nervousness if you like, will not be so easily satisfied. Our
disorderly nervousness, or nervous disorderliness, though it has been
a tremendous asset in keeping us bounding along industrially and
commercially, and though it gives an exhilarating, champagne-like
flavor to our atmosphere, has cost us dear. If you will have freedom,
you will have those who are ruined by it; just as, if you will have
social and political servitude, you will have a stodgy, unindependent
populace.
Only one out of sixty perpetrators of homicidal crime suffers the
extreme penalty attaching to such crimes in America, and these
figures, I admit, are a shocking revelation of supine justice and
sentimental executive, as when politics can even bend our President to
grant silly pardons, with baleful results upon the doings of other
wealthy criminals. We use as large an amount of habit-forming drugs
per capita as is used in the Chinese empire, so says Dr. Wright, who
was commissioned by the State Department to gather facts on this
subject. We import and consume 500,000 pounds of opium yearly, when
70,000 pounds, including its derivatives and preparations, should
suffice for our medical needs. In the year 1910 no less than 185,000
ounces of cocaine were imported, manufactured, and consumed, although
15,000 ounces would supply every legitimate need. America collected
$340,000,000 from tariff taxes in 1911, and $40,000,000 of this from
tobacco and alcoholics.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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