National Debts
are ever national millstones, worn around the neck. They are worn
unwillingly, and they are not ornamental; they are a burden, and the
weight is sometimes crushing. A prospect of that sort seems to be the
lot of several of the "Great Powers" of Europe for the remainder, and
the greater portion, of the Twentieth Century. Though German
"civilization" were more worthy of such a term and its associations as
Kultur ten times over, would it become any Potentate and his advisers to
impose it on so many countries at such a cost in suffering as all
this--and more?
But Kaiser Wilhelm and his crew of State-at-any-price men impose not on
other peoples only: they impose on their own kith and kin. Look at these
three sad and apprehensive figures playing the Loan Game--the first, the
second, the third Loan! Children, says the artist, passing the coin from
one hand to another's, and getting richer at each pass!! Yes, children,
the German people treated so by a few dominies. State dominies and the
Director (or dupe!) at Berlin! No people gains, every people loses by
incurring a Debt; but in Germany, and to-day! to incur an indebtedness,
contract a loss, does not suffice; the people must not know it.
Even the children know that coin has not left them richer: many, very
many Germans know the Kultur War to be ruinous: but Berlin must play the
Game still, and assume that the tricks and aims cannot be understood! It
is lack of regard for other nations carried into German Finance; and all
because the bureaucratic military heart is a stone.
Pages:
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149