Page:America in the war -by Louis Raemaekers. (IA americainwarbylo00raem).pdf/64

 Seeing Stars

''Canadian: "And you'll soon see the Stars and Stripes." German: "Saw some already, sir."''

This is the voice that he hears from Germany:

"We Germans are God's chosen people, His special favorites, and God is German Himself. God rules over us in the person of our Kaiser, whom He has appointed for that purpose. We are better than all other peoples of the earth; we are wiser and purer and nobler and more industrious and more learned and stronger and cleverer and kinder and braver and more spiritual and more warlike than all others.

"We are so much greater than they that whatever we do to advance our own interests, at the cost of theirs, is right and praiseworthy. If we kill a great many of them, those who survive will in the end be improved, because they will work for us and learn something by observing us. Any deceit is proper and morally correct if it benefits us; and when we practise a policy of terror upon those who oppose us it is really philanthropy and shows how gentle we are, because the survivors learn through our cruelty that it is useless to oppose us, therefore they the sooner submit their wills to ours. We can not do wrong, no matter what we do, so long as all that we do is for our own benefit. By our bright swords we will take possession of the earth which ought to belong to us, because we are Germans. We believe in the heaviest possible breeding of babies, that they may grow up and be trained to carry liquid fire and poison against any opposition to us. All the same, we are the only real peace-lovers in this malign and prejudiced world, which, except for us and the Austrians and the Bulgarians and the Turks, is composed exclusively of stupid ruffians who were so jealous and envious of us that they forced this war upon us, hoping to make some money out of us by annihilating us. We love peace, and are fighting for our mere existence—that is, the right to adjust our frontiers so that they will include the countries which we have conquered by the sword. We must never be threatened by those rascals of Belgians!"

BOOTH TARKINGTON.