political ignorance_
of the German people as a whole, an ignorance quite unintelligible to
any one unacquainted with their Press and their political institutions.
Public opinion, as he said, counts for little in Germany, and the
Government can generally guide it into any direction it may please, and
this fact is essential to the understanding of the events--diplomatic
events--which led to the declaration of war."--_From the "Cambridge
Magazine," December 5, 1914._

* * * * *

"One of the political phenomena of America has always been the
indifference of the German to active participation in politics. Efforts
to persuade him to organize with any political party have never
succeeded except in isolated cases. The German-American has been
regarded as an independent politically. Until Europe's conflict raised
concealed characteristics to the surface the German-American's
indifference to politics had not been looked upon as a serious
matter."--_From article by Alt. John Herbert in the London "Daily News,"
December,_ 1914.

* * * * *

GERMANY'S PURPOSE.

_According to Herr Maximilien Harden's article in "Die Zukunft," as
reproduced in the "New York Times," December, 1914_.

"Not as weak-willed blunderers have we under-taken the fearful risk of
this war. We wanted it. Because we had to wish it and could wish it. May
the Teuton devil throttle those whiners whose pleas for excuses make us
ludicrous in these hours of lofty experience. We do not stand, and shall
not place ourselves, before the Court of Europe. Our power shall create
new law in Europe. Germany strikes. If it conquers new realms for its
genius, the priesthood of all the gods will sing songs of praise to the
good war.

"We are at the beginning of a war the development and duration of which
are incalculable, and in which up to date no foe has been brought to his
knees. We wage the war in order to free enslaved peoples, and thereafter
to comfort ourselves with the unselfish and useless consciousness of our
own righteousness. We wage it from the lofty point of view and with the
conviction that Germany, as a result of her achievements and in
proportion to them, is justified in asking, and must obtain, wider room
on earth for development and for working out the possibilities that are
in her."

* * * * *

ENGLAND'S PERFIDY.

_From the Manifesto of Professors Haeck