Here, then, you have a real clash between two principles; not shades of
principles as these may subsist between Germany and her western foes,
but principles in all their essential features; not between different
tints of gray, but between black and white, between affirmation and
negation; affirmation of the principle of human dignity, liberty,
safety, and negation of the same; western evolution and eastern
reaction.
I wonder why those prominent Americans who are so deeply impressed by
the comparatively slight shades of liberalism differentiating Germany
from England and France are not struck by the absolute contrast existing
between Muscovitism and western civilized rule as represented by
Austria-Hungary and Germany; that they overlook the outstanding fact
that while in the western area the conflict has nothing whatever to do
with the principles embodied in the home policy of the belligerents, in
the east, on the other hand, these principles will in truth be affected
by the results of war, since a Russian victory, followed by a Russian
conquest, would mean the retrogression of western institutions and the
corresponding expansion of eastern ones over a large area and large
numbers of men.
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