The Audacious WarBarron, Clarence W. (Clarence Walker)
History
The Audacious War
Barron, Clarence W. (Clarence Walker)
World War, 1914-1918
German military progress is allied with German commercial progress. It
is a mistake in the conception of Germany to imagine that she wars for
the purpose of war or for the development and training of her men.
The first principle of German "Kultur" as respects the state is that
the sole business of the government is to advance the interests of the
state. No laws having been formulated in respect to the business of a
state, the government is without moral responsibility, and the laws
applicable to individual action do not apply to the state. Individuals
may do wrong, but the state cannot do wrong. Individuals may steal and
be punished therefor, but the state cannot steal. It is its business
to expand and to appropriate. Individuals may murder and be punished
for the crime, but it is the business of the state to kill for state
development or progress.
The English-speaking conception of morality is that what applies to an
individual in a community applies to the aggregate of the individuals,
that the state is only the aggregate of the individuals exercising the
natural human functions of government for law and order.
This is entirely outside the German conception. In the German
conception a government comes down from above and not up from the
people. It is not the people who rule or govern, but the government
from above rules the people, and the people must implicitly follow and
obey; thus is national progress and human progress. The whole of
Germany believes in the government of the Kaiser: that law and war flow
down through him and that neither can be questioned by the individual.
Obedience, union, efficiency, progress, and progress through war, if
necessary, are cardinal virtues.
Germany does not desire war with Russia, but German progress requires
the continuance of present tariff relations, and if war is a means to
that desirable end, war is divine.
The murder of the Crown Prince of Austria was an incident furnishing
Germany and Austria opportunity to carry out their long-conceived
programme for the extension of their influence through the growing
state of Servia.
A treaty had been arranged between Greece and Turkey, and was to have
been signed in July, which would have settled many things in respect to
Turkey and the Balkan states. Roumania and Servia were in agreement
concerning this great measure for peace in southeastern Europe.
When all was ready for the final conference and the signatures, Austria
intervened and announced her opposition. Then suddenly followed the
bombshell of the ultimatum to Servia, timed at the precise moment to
stop the signing of this Turkish treaty.
Austrian officials admitted privately as follows, and I have it
directly from parties to the negotiations:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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