I admitted that my friend’s demand for the thing he wanted, regardless of the bill of fare and in defiance of a dietary law (of which he was not as yet conscious), was a manifestation of our individualism, a rather wide-spread characteristic. I was fain also to admit that our individualism is not always as harmless to others as in the case under discussion. It is an attitude of mind which has developed into a system to which we are committed for better or worse, and is in striking contrast to the German ideal of submission to an accepted order.
“Yes,” from the Herr Director with evident pride. “That which makes Germany great and strong is our willing submission to authority; but remember it must be intelligent authority, and at the same time it must be efficient. To be sure,” he acknowledged, “we are often chagrined by the ‘Streng Verboten’ to the right of us and the ‘Nicht Erlaubt’ to the left of us. We are much governed but we are well governed, and you, too, will some day discover that the common weal has to be above the individual’s caprice. Your evident disrespect of laws and conventions results from the lack of intelligence back of them, and you have no respect for your lawmakers because they do not deserve it.”
At this point the Nebraskan astonished us by saying that he had recently been in Europe on business, selling grindstones, that he knew something about Germany, and he never was gladder to get back to God’s country than when he finally set foot upon his native soil. He had many adventures, and as an example of what he had to suffer from one of Germany’s well enforced laws, he told a story which proved his sense of humor, though the “laugh was on him.”
“When I was in Berlin I made out a small bill for some goods I had sold, and the man told me that I must affix to it some revenue stamps. I didn’t want to bother with it, and told him so. The thing was too trifling anyway.
“I never thought of that bill again till I was forcibly reminded of it in Hamburg as I was about to sail for home. I was haled before the court, and the judge fined me fifty marks. Of course I knew I had to pay it, so I handed him the money and told him in good English to take it and go to the hot place with it. I didn’t dream that he understood, but he replied in as good English as I gave him: ‘Officials of my rank travel first-class. I must therefore have fifty marks more.’ That little joke cost me a lot of money. I wouldn’t want to live in a country where I couldn’t tell anybody I pleased what I felt like telling him.”
The Herr Director doubted the accuracy of the story because “no German official would show so little dignity.” I, too, doubted it; but on the ground that no German official would have so keen a sense of humor.
There followed an animated argument between the Nebraskan and the Herr Director as to which is of more importance, the individual or the state. The Nebraskan insisted that the state being the creation of individuals, they are of supreme importance, while the Herr Director persisted in his theory that the state is supreme and that it is the business of the individual to make it dominant and powerful, to which end the state must make him effective.
“An ineffective individual is a menace to the state, and a state which cannot impress its will upon the individual and make him submissive and effective will be vanquished in the great competitive struggle constantly going on.”
“I suppose you’re effective enough, but you’re as slow as molasses in January.”
“Oh, yes, we are slow, but we are thorough; we take our time to do a thing well, while your hurry is as wearing as it is useless. When we came down here this evening we were in a hurry. We were rushed to your crowded subway to take a certain train, although the next one would have done as well. In about three minutes we were pushed out of that train into another, because it went faster, and we reached here breathless. We saved time, but for what purpose? To see you eat your lobster and mince pie?” And he looked contemptuously at the Nebraskan.