THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



281 



for self-glorification. It is as hard for 

 an Englishman to discern anything quite 

 right in England as for a German to de- 

 scry anything at all wrong in Germany. 

 The German plumed himself on his 

 ability year by year to increase his sales 

 in England ; but it never occurred to the 

 Englishman to congratulate himself on 

 the fact that, year by year, he somehow 

 had more money with which to buy them. 

 If a group of amiable spirits sat over 

 their beer in a Berlin cafe till after 

 midnight and their converse took on a 

 slightly alcoholic fervor, the German 

 capital was forthwith described as de- 

 veloping a "night life," becoming tre- 

 mendously gay, and threatening to out- 

 shine Paris in the attributes of true cos- 

 mopolitanism. 



But if the like happened in London, 

 Britain shook its solemn head, decided 

 that the national morals were going hope- 

 lessly bad, and regretfully realized that 

 the social fabric was on the point of dis- 

 integration. The rest of the world fell 

 into the easy habit of accepting the self- 

 imposed verdict in each case, and ulti- 

 mately indulged a good deal of unwar- 

 ranted admiration for the amazing prog- 

 ress of Germany and unjustified worry 

 about the confessed degeneracy of Eng- 

 land. 



AN AGE-OLD CONTEST 



In a thousand other ways the two 

 countries were as unlike as in this lack of 

 capacity for accurate self-appraisement. 

 There was plenty of room in the sun for 

 both. The world needed all of the best 

 that both could give. They ought never 

 even to have imagined that they were 

 sufficiently alike to be capable of intense 

 rivalry. 



And they never would have developed 

 such an obsession but for the political 

 institutions which made it possible for 

 Germany to be brought under the control 

 of a wicked, selfish, designing, criminal 

 dynastic policy of world conquest. The 

 contest between autocracy and democracy 

 has been going on through all the ages. 

 Because England and Germany were on 

 the whole the foremost European repre- 

 sentatives of the antagonistic systems, 

 clash between them was inevitable. 



Two short centuries had seen European 



civilization spread its sway over most of 

 the world. Everywhere this outreaching 

 carried the conflict. The world could not 

 exist half slave and half free. 



Under the spell of German egomania 

 it was falling into a disposition to over- 

 estimate certain undeniable advantages 

 of close-knit, strong organization, and to 

 exaggerate the equally obvious disadvan- 

 tages of that laxity and carelessness 

 which tend to propagate when democracy 

 rules and times are good. 



At the price of those sops which auto- 

 cratic Germany tossed to the proletarian 

 Cerberus, the world might have been 

 bribed to exchange freedom for a mess 

 of welfare pottage. It is good that the 

 contest came as early as it did. 



BRITAIN SPIRITUALIZED BY THE WAR 



Discussing war and after-war problems 

 in a London club one day, an American 

 observed : 



"This war will be followed by a revo- 

 lution." An Englishman in the party 

 quietly retorted: 



"This war is a revolution. Just look 

 around you." 



He was right. It is trite, but it is true, 

 that Britain has been spiritualized by the 

 war. The British democracy is no longer 

 merely a political and institutional de- 

 mocracy. It is a human democracy. The 

 social caste system and the pound sterling 

 have been overthrown as rulers. Truth 

 to tell, England was never so caste-bound 

 or money-ridden as popular belief, there 

 and elsewhere, pictured it. But it loved 

 its traditions, and this was among the 

 most sacred. 



The ordeal of war has made Britain 

 know that humanity is the most precious 

 thing in the world. No man could give 

 more than his life; no man could give 

 anything comparable to his life ; and 

 when all men willingly offered that last 

 sacrifice, they could only offer it for a 

 common ideal which must be the highest 

 possible ideal — for humanity. 



The rich man discovered that his 

 wealth was dross, the titled person that 

 his title was tinsel ; the great common 

 denominator among them all became hu- 

 man life and human souls. 



Neither Magna Charta nor the old 

 English revolution meant any such stir- 



