--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Paul, J. H. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 21 number: 1 published: 1917-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'J. H. Paul, "American vs. German Ideals," *Improvement Era* 21, no. 1 (November 1917): 29–33.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2101unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2101unse start_page: 29 end_page: 33 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1917-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2101unse publication_year: 1917 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1917, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # American vs. German Ideals American vs. German Ideals By J. H. Paul, Professor of Natural Science, University of Utah It has long been accepted that character is formed chiefly by what a person habitually keeps in mind in his leisure mo- ments. What we repeatedly do, forms our habits, which there- fore result largely from our daily toil or vocation. But when this daily task is over, there are moments of relaxation, when the mind goes its own way, thinks its own thoughts, and forms its chief ideals. — These are the character builders the most fruitful and significant periods of the mental life. It is then that resolves are taken, that ideals become purposes. For the great mass of mankind everywhere, the daily work is not so different in kind as to create substantial variations, except in mechanical actions and routine habits. It is in the leisure mo- ments, when free from its usual toil, that the mind of man is made rich and fruitful by noble thought, or becomes poor and sterile from the lack of high thinking. Thus it is possible to be mentally active at the daily grind, yet intellectually (spirit- ually, really) inert or even retrograding in character. The kind of meditation that runs through our leisure hours determines our spiritual wealth or poverty, our high or ignoble living. A Source of Difference Now, it may be shown that while the American people em- ploy their leisure in various kinds of thought, the German peo- ple employ theirs largely in ideals of war and conquest. This, at least, is the claim of the intellectual Germans themselves ; and one of their statesmen recently gave out to newspaper corre- spondents that German mothers look with pride upon a military career for their sons, while they regard with surprise and even with contempt the average American mother, who holds war in the utmost horror and detestation. Till that declaration ap- peared, the world had supposed that all mothers were alike in this respect. But when we recall that for more than a hundred years Prussia and, for more than forty years, all Germany have constrained their people, especially their officials, to think in military ways, the statement of the German leader is not in- credible. Some portion, at least, of the leisure of the average German has been exercised with thoughts of "the day" (der Tag) when Germany should win with the sword her imagined 30 IMPROVEMENT ERA "place in the sun." I doubt not that many have thus become mentally alert rather than spiritually disciplined. People Much Alike With such a basis, it might be expected that I would pro- ceed to show essential differences between the American and the German character, and to contrast American hopes and ideals of peace and good will on earth, with German hopes and aims of conquest and the subjugation of other peoples. This, how- ever, is not my intention; for, while I suspect that some success might attach to such an investigation, if long and carefully con- ducted by psychologists and sociologists, my thesis is that such national differences are merely accidental and temporary. They are due to special training and circumstances, and will disappear as the latter are modified. The Scriptures teach that God "hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth." All people are pretty much alike. According to the opportunities and ex- periences of each, the average German is much like the average American, no better, no worse. The individual hopes and fears, the aims and ideals, of men everywhere are quite similar. It is only in their organized political and social relations that great differences are visible. It would be an endless task to attempt comparisons of individual traits. Political ideals, on the other hand, and the greater aims of the two governments, can readily be compared. Personal views are difficult to classify, but the purposes of governments and nations are more manifest by acts and policies which cannot be concealed. Comparison will be further limited by making use only of established facts. Since the German government is re- sponsible for the warlike predilections of the German people, no indictment of the German people as a whole is intended herein. Spiritual Germany Is Gone The great difference between American and German ideals is that America, as Secretary Lane has shown, is not the name of so much territory but of a living spirit, "born in travail, grown in the rough school of bitter experiences, with purpose and pride, which knows why it wishes to live and to what end." The Germany of today, on the other hand, is not a living spirit. It is scarcely a nation. It is an army— an army that dares not avow its objects and has not yet been induced to say why it wages war. The old German spirit no longer exists. The Ger- many of literature, poetry, drama, art, and ethics, has been re- placed by military discipline and organized science. Brander Mathews points out that no first-class literature has emanated from that great nation for nearly half a century. Goethe, Schil- AMERICAN VS. GERMAN IDEALS 31 ler, Luther, and Kant, who voiced the real German spirit, have no successors. Only science, music, and municipal organization now remain, and these are the most powerful aids known to warfare. The old Germany of romance, philosophy, and ideal- ism is dying. Its life has been ebbing through forty-four years. Over Germania's dead body stands a dragon of the utmost cru- elty and crime, its tail lashing distracted Russia, its fangs buried in the body of heroic France, its claws reaching out to England and America. Not content with enslaving the country of its birth, the Rhine dragon now seeks dominion over other lands. It has made the German nation believe that it is their divine destiny and calling to subjugate other nations, no matter what the cost may be in bloodshed, misery, and ruin. But Otto H. Kahn, of California, one who was born of German parents, says: "The greatest service which men of German birth or antecedents can render to the country of their origin is to proclaim, and to stand up for, those great and fine ideals inherited from their ancestors, and to set their faces like flint against the monstrous doctrines and acts of a rulership which have robbed them of the — Germany they loved a Germany which had the good will, re- spect, and admiration of the entire world." Peace —The American Ideal In America "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty,and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." When this declaration was written, America was resisting the despotism of a British king who, however, was not upheld by his subjects; but it is just as applicable today when we defend these principles against the onslaught of a despot who is sustained by military masses if not by most of his people. Our dealings with Cuba, with China, with the Philippines, and with Mexico, prove to all the world that this declaration is vital in our life as a nation. Conquest —The German Ideal President Wilson remarked in his Flag Day address that the military masters of Germany "do not regard nations as peoples, as men, women, and children of like blood and frame as them- selves, for whom governments exist." They regard them, "mere- ly as serviceable organizations" which they hope by force or intrigue, to "bend or corrupt to their own purposes." The last public act of the German government towards America amply proves this indictment. 32 IMPROVEMENT ERA At a time when the American government was doing its utmost to maintain friendship with the German high command, even to submitting to murderous attacks upon our citizens and the ruin of our commerce, and was praising the feat of the sub- marine Deutschland in crossing the ocean to our shores with a cargo, the German government was planning to put an end to the American government and to blot out on this continent every semblance of a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."The German leaders offered to divide America among Germany, Mexico, and Japan. The Pacific coast and the Rocky Mountain region, our own home land, was offered to Japan for the mere price of subduing it. The Mississippi val- ley, the world's greatest granary, was offered to Mexico if she would but assist in the conquest. The Atlantic coast, the chief iron and coal region of the globe, was to be taken over by Ger- many. This proposal was not a mere outburst of hate or passion in the heat of argument; it was a deliberately worked-out project carefully considered. The plans were laid, the instruments chosen, the forces measured. German officials well knew just what it would mean to carry out the plan. They knew that to subjugate the Pacific coast, with its intense love of freedom, would mean the massacre of at least a majority of the men and of many of the high spirited women and children before the free West would bow the neck and bend the knee to foreign oppression. They knew that this conquest would sweep into Mongolian slavery our women between the ages of sixteen and thirty, just as the German army has swept off those in France and Belgium. Nor could they doubt that the slavery and shame of our women among men of the Mongolian race would be even more hateful than the German white slavery of the French and Belgian girls. They knew that only untold destruction would make possible the submission of the Mississippi region and the Atlantic States to the galling yoke of foreign serfdom, whether to Mexican tyrants or to German military masters. Yet were the German commanders not only willing but ready to enter upon the execution of these three world-tragedies. Conquest is their ideal. Mercy and humanity, brotherly kindness and charity, were not to be shown to peaceful America, if the sub- marine had been successful and the British war fleet had fallen into their hands. This infamous attempt was not carried out, solely because Japan and Mexico spurned the offers of the Ger- man government. Voices From the Past The German high command has left us no choice; America must fight or surrender to the brutal domination of the most tyrannical government that ever held sway among Western na- AMERICAN VS. GERMAN IDEALS 33 tions. What will the people of Utah do in this crisis? On the 24th of July last, during the Pioneer celebration at Tooele, with the approval of the committee, I ventured to call upon current history rather than upon past events, to furnish the theme of the speaking. Former celebrations have dealt mainly with the achievements of the past. Today the seething present and the portentous future occupy our thought. Not that the past has been outlived as to either its usefulness or its value, nor that the lives and sacrifices of the early settlers of Western, barren wastes, have lost anything of their nobility or inspiration. Theirs is a deathless fame which rests upon a secure foundation. These fruitful valleys, these happy people, these thriving common- wealths, comprise their true and enduring monuments; and there dwells in other lands also, an unwritten memorial of them, engraven not on stone but in the hearts of their fellow-men. Now that the supreme test of our nation has come, we think of the words of Pericles: "Make them your examples; and, esteeming courage to be freedom and freedom to be happiness, do not weigh too nicely the perils of war." Could the Pioneers speak once more among us, they would voice Webster's sentiments: "This lovely land, these benign institutions, this dear purchase of our fathers, are ours; ours to enjoy, ours to preserve, ours to transmit. Generations past and generations to come hold us responsible for this sacred trust. Our fathers from behind admonish us with their anxious, pater- nal voices; posterity calls to us from the bosom of the future; the world turns hither its soliciatiou3 eyes." World-Peace, The True Ideal In America, however, "Our motto is peace and the triumph of right." We are for peace at any price, but we know that the price of peace is war with Germany. We are willing to pay even that price in order to save and exalt this Republic, which has always promoted good will among the nations. There is a widespread belief among free peoples that this is to be the last great war for liberty, that political despotism and military ag- gression, are to be overthrown. With this hope, and in a cause as noble as ever led a nation to battle, the West responds to the call of the country. When the first summons reached our ears that the nation needed funds, Utah, preferring bonds to bondage, promptly oversubscribed her allotment. When the call came for men, Utah mustered her sons and gave to the Nation more than her share. When the leaders of the Red Cross made their appeal, Utah proudly laid her wealth at their feet for the relief of the wounded and hungry. Our young men now offer their lives in the cause of human freedom. All honor to the mothers,