It is only fair to say, also, that our admiration of Germany’s achievements in art, literature, and science never led us so far as to accept the claim of superiority in these lines advanced by many Germans on behalf of their country.  The insistence with which this claim has been reiterated and proclaimed abroad by Germans, often with more of patriotism than of good taste, may have led a part of the public to believe it.  But the more intelligent and thoughtful portion of the people, accustomed to analyse such claims by careful comparison with the products of non-Teutonic civilisation, has been unable to find any adequate basis for the assumed superiority.  Indeed, while intelligent and fair-minded Americans are not slow to recognise Germany’s great contributions to the world’s art, literature, and science, they believe that, with the possible exception of music, greater contributions have been made in these lines by France, England, and other nations.  In the realm of invention, we fully appreciate the skill and resourcefulness manifested by the German people in adapting new discoveries to their own needs; but we cannot deny the fact that most of the discoveries which have played so vital a part in the development of modern civilisation have been made, not in Germany, but in other countries.

In regard to municipal government and various forms of social legislation, we have long recognised the high position held by your nation.  But in the more vital matter of the relation of the individual to the supreme governing power, we have always held, and still believe, that Germany is sadly reactionary.  For half a century your professors, in the employ of an educational system controlled by a bureaucratic Government, have taught what we condemn as a false philosophy of government.  Your histories, your books on philosophy, your whole literature, glorify the State; and you have accepted the dangerous doctrine that the individual exists to serve the State, forgetting that the State is not the mystical, divine thing you picture it, but a government carried on by human beings like yourselves, most of them reasonably upright, but some incompetent and others deliberately bad, just like any other human government.  We believe that the only excuse for the existence of the State is to serve the individual, to create conditions which will insure the greatest liberty and highest possible development to the individual citizen.  It has never seemed to us creditable to the German intellect that it could be satisfied with a theory of government outgrown by most other civilised nations.  That you should confuse efficiency with freedom has always seemed to us a tragic mistake, and never so tragic as now, when a small coterie of human beings, subject to the same mistakes and sins as other human beings, can hurl you into a terrible war before you know what has happened, clap on a rigid censorship to keep out any news they do not want you to learn, then publish a white book which pretends to explain