But, always "Beware the fury of a patient man!"
Now that we have put our hand to the plough, the furrow will be turned to the uttermost finish, whether it takes one year or ten years. We will not leave a living Pfafner,—a great, stinking German military dragon,—as a heritage for our children.
7. THE BLUNDER OF "FRIGHTFULNESS."
There are some blunders that dogs and horses, and even sensible wild animals, do not commit. Of all the stupidities of the German people, the crowning glory of their blundering is their idea that German savagery and "frightfulness" could so appal their enemies that they would be paralyzed by the shock of atrocities, and purchase peace at any price. It is difficult to believe that such fantastic theories as these originated anywhere outside of a madhouse. No words at our command can so well describe this situation as do the words of a once-German, of New York and of Kuhn, Loeb & Company, Mr. Otto H. Kahn. They were written on June 28, 1915, to a relative in Germany, and published in the N.Y. Times of July 4, 1917.
"The theory of 'frightfulness' in the conduct of warfare which Germany now preaches and practices is no new discovery. On the contrary, it is a very ancient one,—so old, in fact, that long ago it came to be discarded and superseded in European warfare, and passed into the limbo of forgotten things. There, until resurrected by your countrymen, it lay for generations, along with much else that the human race had overcome and left behind in the progress of culture and humanity,—a progress achieved by strenuous toil, sacrifices and suffering in the course of many centuries.
"And what have you gained from your 'frightfulness'? Your victories have been due to quite other qualities. By your 'frightfulness' you have steeled your enemies to the utmost limit of sacrifice; you have embittered neutral opinion; you have disappointed and grieved your friends, and sown dragon's teeth, the offspring of which will arise against you many years, even after the conclusion of peace."
These are indeed words of wisdom and truth. Even after the conclusion of peace, the exponents of "frightfulness" and the knights of the "skull-cracker" will be accorded a hell of their own.
8. THE BLUNDER AS TO AMERICANS OF GERMAN DESCENT.
One of Germany's colossal blunders was her estimate of the sentiments and principles of German-born people who have made their homes in America, and the American sons and daughters of German-born parents. German statesmen whose criminal wishes shaped their thoughts sincerely believed that the admiration and love of the Kaiser's despotism, including even the military iron heel, was so great that the influence of American liberty, open-hearted hospitality and vast opportunity would count for naught when the Kaiser cracked his whip.
The Simple Simons of Wilhelmstrasse actually believed that in any struggle with America, all Americans of German ancestry necessarily would be traitors to their own hearthstones, and would rise en masse, fully-armed, cobra-like, to strike the government of the United States. Being themselves ruthlessly devoted to the idea of might and conquest, and the merciless subjugation of small and weak nations, they judged their kindred in America by their own rotten standards. They foolishly assumed that a German forty years in America would willingly become a black-hearted traitor to the land that for years had sheltered him, and made much of him,—simply because the ruthless builders of modern Germany had endeavored to keep a grip on him, and had willed that he should obey their orders.