Village books

After his return to Germany the Germans
quite unfairly treated him as a man who had failed and seemed
to blame him because England had taken the only possible course
open to her and ranged herself on the side of France and Russia.
The dedication at Leipzig, in the year 1913, of the great monument
to celebrate what is called the "War of Liberation," and the
victory of Leipzig in the War of the Nations, 1813, had undoubtedly
kindled a martial spirit in Germany. To my mind, the course which
really determined the Emperor and the ruling class for war was
the attitude of the whole people in the Zabern Affair and their
evident and growing dislike of militarism. The fact that the
Socialists, at the close of the session of the Reichstag, boldly
remained in the Chamber and refused to rise or to cheer the name
of the Emperor indicated a new spirit of resistance to autocracy;
and autocracy saw that if it was to keep its hold upon Germany
it must lead the nation into a short and successful war.
This is no new trick of a ruling and aristocratic class.


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