LIFE OUT OF DEATH.

Mataura Ensign, 4 July 1917, Page 3

LIFE OUT OF DEATH.

GERMANY LOOKS AHEAD.

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE

["I think wc do well to note with elor.e attention the tremendous importance attached by our principal enemy to preparation for the future," says the ■well-informed correspondent of the "Christian World," lately in Berlin.!

11l this connection, be calls attention to a notable speech by Professor Eucken. A speech by Dr von Beth-mann-Ho!lweg, published on the same day, calls even more prominence to Ibis important point—Germany's preparation for the future. "After the war we shall be confronted with the most, gigantic tasks which have ever confronted a naVum," said the German Chancellor. "They are so gigantic that the entire people will have to work to solve them.

"A strong foreign policy will be necessary after the war. We shall be surrounded by enemies whom we shall not meet with loud words, but with the internal strength of the nation. We can only pursue such a policy if the .patriotism which, during the war, has developed to such, a marvellous reality is. maintained and strengthened. "Woe to the statesman who does not recognise the signs of the time; who after this catastrophe,' the like of which the world has never seen, believes lie can take up the work where it was interrupted. I shall devote ray last effort to carrying out this idea of 'baking our people strong. Beyond all question, only one thought fills me, and all of us, at present—namely, how to bring this war to a victorious end. As the war can only be won by the exertion of the most extreme man-power, and as to this strength also truth must be united, 1 have freely expressed my thoughts about internal politics, arid about the future of our people, whom God- preserve." What Eucken Says. "With all his. aberration, all his deviations from the paths of strict justice and morality, we must continue to regard Eucken as one of the foremost men of Germany, and it is due to him and to his old reputation to note any return to sane and reasonable views, and ,to that attitude of cool detachment which should characterise the words and actions of so eminent a philosopher," says the "Christian World" correspondent. "That is why I would refer to a lecture of his delivered in the great hall of the Prussian House of Deputies on 'The 'Experiences- of the War and the Demands, of the ■Future.' Naturally, the lecturer dealt with German experiences and with the future of Germany, but Euckeivs utteraiices, while showing many regrettable weaknesses, dealt in a large and spacious way with questions possessing an interest far beyond the bounds of the German Empire. "He pointed out that this war, more than any previous conflict of nations, had. struck deep into the soul of mankind; that the war had revealed a general prevalence of selfishness, falsehood, and greed among all the nations concerned in It far more widespread than had been hitherto suspected. Belief in the fundamental goodness of mankind had received some shattering blows.

The Depth* of Life. "He asks the question.,' What are the depths of life, what are the foundations of our hopes for the future? In the past the German was proud of his work and his general efficiency. It was this which was so often at' the root of the envy and malice with which Germany was assailed; hut was this pride of work and organisation and education not lacking in the deeper things of life •which really counted? Work and its objects were pushed by Germans into the front of their lives, and little else was heeded. Instead of cultivating those deeper and imponderable things, the German added to his lust for work a lust for pleasure. The desires of the body took the place of the desires of the spirit. It looked sometimes as though the German spirit had no desires at all. "In a. fine passage Eucken told his distinguished audience that the country had builtf or itself a beautiful temole in which there was no Holy of Holies, and that this was o temple which had no chance oi duration. If Germany is to live, it is necessary that she should die. Essential for the nation is the cultivation of a responsible sense ot moral values, the development of a feeling which will enable it to distinguish between the evil and the good, between the real and the unreal, between truth and falsehood, between greatness and pettiness.

The Smaller Grew Their Souls. "He did not hesitate to tell his audience that the greater their perfection in work grew, the smaller grew their souls. There was no room for growth of soul when the bulk of the nation cultivated the spirit of negation and mockery. In the heart of man, said Eucken, dwell the demoniac and the dark powers of evil. Germans must learn to know the spirits that rule them, and to cast in their lot with those spirits which will lead them into real freedom of soul and to the heights ot moral and spiritual courage, "In the life of our society atter the war," added Eucken, "a man must be estimated solely by the manhood in him. Because he lacks rank, title, riches, standing, this must not be a reason for ignoring him or f«f> pushing him into the backaround. A man is a man, and our task is to do all in our power to see that after Ihe war he comes into his own. We are at work at the loom of history; let. us work in the right spirit' for the triumph of the spiritual. " Eucken attacks the numerous problems of the after-war period from the point of view ot the moralist. He would see the nation more eager to hold on high those great values of the soul without which no nation can be truly great, without which no nation can fulfil its world mission. Much of his teaching is vitiated, of course, by intolerance and short-sightedness in other directions, but it is clear that the feeling exists that Germany in the past has been lacking in some of the deep essentials of moral grandeur, and it iis equally clear that an attempt is being made to guard against the continuance and growth ot the materialistic spirii. 1 "hi conclusion, ! would draw at-

iention to a lecture delivered" recently in Breslau by a Dr Bassewitz on 'Germany after the War.' Ihe spirit of the lecturer was bad, but his remarks illustrate what many influential people in Germany arc thinking. Dr Bassewitz was addressing a working-class audience. " I do not believe for a moment that all the Paris Conference in the world will affect us detrimentally .so long as we maintain our superiority in education and technique. It is not conceit which enables me to say that when we look around the world we find no working classes to be compared with ours in the variety ot their attainment and the absolute masferv of their business. " Let us stu'dv the working men o our great rival, Great Britain. "What do we see ? While enormous efforts are being made by a small body of far-siahted people to improve thecondition and capability of wonting men and women, the vast majority ot industrial England is quite averse from change, or to the gigantic ell on which would be required were the [ask to beat us capable of fulfilment. "We have noticed with amazement, not unmixed with amusement, ■the-conduct of the best and most skilful of them in connection with war work. Such continuation schools as England possesses are Without the indispensable condition of compulsion. It is rare to find a British working man or woman who reads anything but trash. A. welljilled bookcase is a rarity m a British working home. ■ Since the beginning of the war we have been hearing of the evils which drink has caused", and from which, seemingly, there is no escape. Of such a working class we need not. be afraid. Force of character, knowledge, temperance, and proud class feeling will always fell in our favour, and until the English working man is your equal in these and in other things jyou need have no fear."