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Show "TRAGIC MISTAKE." Thirty-nine of the ninety-three German Ger-man savants and professors who. signed on October 11, 1914, tho famous manifesto mani-festo attempting to justify Germany's course during tho war now realize, ac-cordirig ac-cordirig -to a Berlin cablegram, that they made a "tragic mistake." Sixteen of the Germans, however,- adhere to their' belief that the manifesto was drawn in accordance :with f acts. Dr. Hans Wfhberg has concluded a canvass can-vass of the seventy-eight living exponents ex-ponents of German "kultur" who signed the manifesto. Wehbcrg reports that thirty-nine of the signers of the now celebrated document have expressed ex-pressed their regret. Oue of them, Herr Eulenberg, writing to Wehberg, 6ays that the ninety-threo signers, at the timo they subscribed to the document, believed that Germany had been attacked at-tacked underhandedly and that the country merely availed itself of the right of self-defense. Professor Bren-tano Bren-tano has declared that he was urged by telegraph to allow his signature to be appended and that he assented only to "regret it bitterly" when he saw the text of the manifesto. Herr Felix Wein-gaerthcr Wein-gaerthcr writes in a similar vein. Of the seventy-eight living signers of tho manifesto, Wehberg has received replies from fifty-five.. Sixteen who stand by their guns and declare their adherence ad-herence to their original standpoint include Siegfriod Wagner, Eduard Meyer, Herr Doerpfeld and Herr Lenz. One of the sixteen replied that he had read the manifesto again, sentence by sentence, and had not found "a single line" which, according to his knowledge knowl-edge of the situation, could not be signed today. Twenty-three of the signers ignored Wehberg 's request for a statement. The manifesto, it wiil be remembered, was originated by a group of German professors and educators, and justified Germany's entry into the war and attacked at-tacked the motives and governments of the allied powers. Dr. Wehberg declares de-clares that its issuance was "a tragic mistake which has brought harm to Germany." After tho first excitement of the war, he says, the better part of the savants "genuinely regretted" the signing, but many were prevented by false pride from publicly admitting their error of judgment. Thero is reason for believing that a large majority of the German people have been warned for the rest of their lives against the impetuous gregarious-ncss gregarious-ncss which has crazed the Teutons for decades. |