OCR Text |
Show COMPARISON DUBIOUS. Dr. Siegfried Heckscher, who is &aid to occupy in the rcichst.ig a position similar simi-lar to that held by Stone iu our senate, lias become the inspired spokesman of the new political thought in Germany. Just now tho comparison ot' Jfeckscher with Stone is extremely dubious. If the erudite doctor desires to carry weight in this country he should not invite in-vite comparison with the senator from Missouri, who is perhaps our most discredited dis-credited statesmau at this moment. Dr. Heckscher 's remarks are interesting interest-ing to the world chiefly because they I display such a momentous metamorpho- j sis of opiuion in Germany. No longer do the savants cry with the soldiers, "We can whip the world." No longer do the Germans rely upon themselves to win victory or even to hold their own iu the competition of nations after the war. Thus it comes about that Dr. Heckscher emits inspired thoughts in the hope of stirring sympathetic responses re-sponses in Tokio and Petrograd. The Stone of the reiehstag informs the world that Japan must sooner or later join hands with Germany or go down before the coalition of Great Britain Brit-ain and America. And to maintain the ' balance of power it will be necessary 1 for Germany, Japan and Russia to combine com-bine agaiust the Anglo-American coalition. coali-tion. By way of apology the doctor says that whatever interest in the white race still survives in Germany, must go by the board. He finds it necessary to nay this much because he knows that the Teuton spokesmen have gone into verbal spasms for several years because tho entente powers have been using the dark-skinned races against the German coalition. Of course the plea was simply sim-ply of the stuff of which propagandas are made, and few in this country, aside from the Germans themselves, were disposed dis-posed to treat the plea seriously, inasmuch inas-much as Germany was allied with the most murderous of all dark-skinned races the Turks. Germany's interest in the white race was merely for the purpose of the argument wholly academic. aca-demic. Dr. Heckscher is aware that the twaddle twad-dle about the white race must be abandoned aban-doned now that Herr Zimmermann has been caught in the act of proposing an alliance with Japan and the Ilispauo-Jmlian Ilispauo-Jmlian tribes of Mexico. As a part of the plunder to be divided Utah was to be awarded to Japan together with most of California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Al-aska, tho Hawaiian and Philippine islands and a few other unconsidered trifle. Mexico was to receive Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and part of California. Cali-fornia. .Japan "s ' ' pan-Japs ' ' want our Pacific Pa-cific coast and Alaska for the control of the north Pacific. The thought" of Alaska in American hands is enough to make a "pan-Jap" grind his teeth with rage every time he thinks of it. Our strategical position in the E'aciiic is, by the grace of God, almost perfect. We hold not merely one side of the ocean but a gigantic sweep around to the northwest by way of Alaska and the Aleutian islands to the coast of Liberia. On the south we Invo regular stepping-stones across the Pacific Hawaii, Ha-waii, Guam, the Philippines. Wo have the north Pacific practically surrounded and in time, no doubt, will have mighly naval stations in all of our Pacific possessions. pos-sessions. !t is quite likely, therefore, that when Herr Zimmermann made his offer to Japan, through Mexico, he was as lib-em! lib-em! as he could be. He offered prizes that, could not but allure, prizes that would assure Japan complete mastery of thf Pacific. Apparently the offer did not get as far as Tokio, but if it had rea'-hed that capita I at the beginning of a war between the United Slab's and Uermany,. it would have been more tempting than the offer of Satan when he took the Master up into a high place 3 nd offered him the f ai rest dom iuinn of the earth "if," said the evil spirit, falling down thou wilt adore me. ' ' The terms were much the same as Ger-f many's terms, for Japan was to aban- . don the entente powers and fall down in worship of Germany uber alles. The saga of Siegfried Heckscher contains con-tains a stupendous vision, but a vision not to -be realized, perhaps, like many another saga, it is merely to divert at-) at-) rentinn. A starving beggar cannot offer of-fer the world and all its riches, and if lie does he makes himself ridiculous. "1 can call spirits from the.- vasty deep," said Glendower. "Aye, but will they come when you do call them?" was l he biting response. |