y Prussian
autocracy, its modern exponent, clinches the falsity of its creed for
all but the intoxicated or maniacs.

XI

Now has arisen the Menace, the eternal foe of a free people, the
Prussian Creed. The following is a composite statement of Prussianism:
"compiled sentence by sentence from the utterances of Prussians, the
Kaiser and his generals, professors, editors, and Nietzsche, part of it
said in cold blood, years before this war, and all of it a declaration
of faith now being ratified by action." It is taken word for word from
the eleventh chapter of Owen Wister's remarkable work "The Pentecost of
Calamity,"[A] and is the most concise statement of the Menace that I
have seen.

[A] "The Pentecost of Calamity," by Owen Wister. The Macmillan Company.

"We Hohenzollerns take our crown from God alone. On me the Spirit of God
has descended. I regard my whole ... task as appointed by heaven. Who
opposes me I shall crush to pieces. Nothing must be settled in this
world without the intervention ... of ... the German Emperor. He who
listens to public opinion runs a danger of inflicting immense harm on
... the State. When one occupies certain positions in the world one
ought to make dupes rather than friends. Christian morality cannot be
political. Treaties are only a disguise to conceal other political aims.
Remember that the German people are the chosen of God.

"Might is right and ... is decided by war. Every youth who enters a
beer-drinking and duelling club will receive the true direction of his
life. War in itself is a good thing. God will see to it that war always
recurs. The efforts directed toward the abolition of war must not only
be termed foolish, but absolutely immoral. The peace of Europe is only a
secondary matter for us. The sight of suffering does one good; the
infliction of suffering does one more good. This war must be conducted
as ruthlessly as possible.

"The Belgians should not be shot _dead_. They should be ... so left as
to make impossible all hope of recovery. The troops are to treat the
Belgian civil population with unrelenting severity and frightfulness.
Weak nations have not the same right to live as powerful ... nations.
The world has no longer need of little nationalities. We Germans have
little esteem and less respect ... for Holland. We need to enlarge our
colonial possessions; such territorial acquisitions we can only realize
at the cost of other states.

"Russia must no lo