The present attitude of the governing class of Germany is diametrically opposed to the right principles of human freedom and progress. . . . It is to be hoped, for the sake of civilisation- not least for the sake of German civilisation- that Germany will be decisively beaten in the present conflict.

One of the pathetic things about the war is that the mass of the German people have been convinced by their military leaders that they are fighting to defend their hearths and homes. . . . The leaders of modern Germany wish to dominate Europe--the militarists for power's sake, the industrialists for the sake of commerce, and the intellectuals for the sake of imposing German ideals upon the world. The German Emperor, in yielding to the war party last August, committed a mistake which history is likely to record as the greatest ever made by a ruling monarch possessing such a moral power over his loyal people as the Kaiser undoubtedly possesses.

I am aware that in this war some Frenchmen are actuated by a spirit of revenge, that some Englishmen are actuated by a spirit of jealousy, that some Russians are actuated by a spirit of aggrandisement. But, on the whole, I believe the Allies are fighting the battle for the liberty and the free development of the little State and of the unimportant individual. They are therefore fighting my battle. I believe it may be said in a very real sense that a victory of the German militarists will destroy the German people, and that a victory of the Allies will save them. I am not at all sure that it is not the moral duty of the United States, which stands for the principles of Cavour, Mazzini, and Garibaldi, of Grotius, Carl Schurz, and Gottfried Kinkel, of John Hampden, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln, to take some public and outspoken position against the purpose of the German militarists to remake the map of Europe on the lines so graphically laid down by Professor Ostwald.

End of Opinion 1


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Laurence F. Abbott