Blood and Iron Part 40

-- Manipulating this psychological side, invisible yet very real, Bismarck shows his genius as a constructive statesman. Without this intuitive touch of Prussian consciousness, all the l.u.s.tre that Bismarck ultimately shed on the Imperial crown would have been impossible.

-- Thus, we behold Otto von Bismarck, the rude, blond, Pomeranian giant--in spite of his coa.r.s.e speeches, his brawls, his political card-stacking, his enormous egotism, his pa.s.sionate seeking after power--play with Shakespearian subtlety on the strings of human pa.s.sion.

There is no larger character-side to our Bismarck; so study it well and reflect on its wide meaning.

-- We are not here to say what Bismarck should or should not have done, but we make up our mind about him by what he did do.

-- He had peculiar ideas of religion, pleasure, duty, and certainly he had his own idea of what was best for Prussia, and finally for Germany.

-- He bartered his immortal time for a King's crown and an Emperor's glory, guns, swords, forts, marchings up and down the land.

-- He bartered his time in angry disputes with his fellow-man, for prisons, broken homes, murders, tears for 80,000 widows and orphans.

-- He bartered his time for magnificent spectacles such as the coronation of William I in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, a palace outrivaling any creation of man since the days of Nebuchadnezzar.

-- He bartered his time for grand b.a.l.l.s for aristocrats in silk coats and ladies in diamonds and satin gowns.

-- He bartered his time that a certain s.p.a.ce in Europe be made over to his own liking. Other kings and emperors with equal logic wished to have this s.p.a.ce made over in a way that seemed as good as the one Bismarck had in mind, but Bismarck regarding it as a calamity that other plans should come to pa.s.s, fought bitterly with sword and cannon to back his individual opinion against all who disputed with him.

-- He bartered his time that a certain part of the map be marked with one name instead of thirty-nine names, as had been the case when he came to power as a young man in the politics of Prussia.

-- And finally he bartered his immortal time in a thirty-years'

gladiatorial fight that in the end millions of Germans might feel the tingle of blood-brotherhood. How he faced the long, heart-breaking battle, therein we find the true measure of our great Bismarck! Thus his work, as an individual, is absorbed in the larger life of the German Empire. These National services make Bismarck one of the immortals; and his name will be remembered affectionately by Germans for thousands of years.

-- The present review of German origins, through Bismarckian genius, is concerned largely with the form of government established.

The collective efficiency of the Bismarckian idea, as worked out in the German Const.i.tution, promptly ascertains the will of the people, and carries out that will.

-- The Kaiser, through the Chancellor, has the selection of all important public officials, and as King of Prussia appoints Prussian administrative officials; and in turn, the various kings choose the various public servants in their respective kingdoms. All hold office during good behavior, or for life; instantly responsive to the will of the Kaiser, or to the Bundesrath. The state officials are thus "the fingers of the Kaiser," working the duties of the Empire, free from the petty molestations that a.s.sail even the most trustworthy and patriotic American office-holders.

-- In simple terms of parallel, the much-lauded American Commission System, for the government of cities, was borrowed from the Kaiser.

The Commission System delegates the power to a committee of five, who pa.s.s and execute the laws.

This is precisely the principle laid down by the Bundesrath, in which body is united executive, legislative and judicial functions. It is a fact that the cities most efficiently managed, in the United States (1915), are under the Commission System, that is to say, the German conception of responsible politico-civic authority.

-- German thoroughness, as well as German discipline, unite to make the German system a brilliant success; but in America the German collective idea is politically offensive because of our superst.i.tion that the way of Liberty lies through incessant political changes. The American has confidence in the wisdom of large numbers, believes that by dividing the functions of government the people may be saved from themselves. One-man power is (theoretically) greatly feared, in America. Despite the fact that in all great industrial undertakings Americans appreciate the part played by personal responsibility, they are loath to admit that the principle makes for National political efficiency.

-- One final word: Revolution means change; and in this sense the French Revolution is important. In some respects, it is still going forward. However, in 1848 the practical side of the Revolution was not understood, was therefore decried by conservative thinkers who saw in the excesses of the Commune little that heralded a better day.

-- In France, thousands of men misinterpreted emotional zeal for human brotherhood for fitness to govern. It is the old, old story.

To come at once to the point: You must judge a nation as you do a man, not by what that man says, but by what he does. Hence, from Bismarck's point of view, it was time to be done with the bursting of blood vessels in a frenzy about equality, and to come down to the essential facts of human nature; or if you like the words better, human ways.

It is not necessarily a mark of wisdom to issue "manifestoes against special privileges" and to set up that "all" the people are fit to rule an empire.

The very reverse is the proof of history; few men indeed there are who have the patience, the discretion and the prudence to rule over other lives.

Also, the German race asks no upstart rulers; the idea of father and child, duty, discipline and personal responsibility is deeply grounded in the German conception of an adequate State.

-- There is small profit in using precious time denouncing Bismarck's protest against French Const.i.tutionalism. Let us, instead, try to understand why the old ways were cherished. And always bear in mind that the Past holds mankind in a tighter grip than the Radicals are willing to concede! There is no such thing as wiping off the slate and starting with a "new" set of ideas. The wisest man in the world cannot do that. At best, he recognizes the past, with here and there a slight variation.

Such, in short, was Bismarck's broad and true idea of human necessity.

And he planned his German Empire accordingly.

-- Bismarck was faced by these facts: the idiomatic ways in which German people thought and acted; their tastes and ideals, not only in politics but in society, law, religion;--nay, their very dreams.

Throughout, there is always a profound sense of personal responsibility to the State. The State is not to be forgotten for some spurious personal individuality.

And mark this: that for generations "events" in Germany all gave expression to certain racial habits of thought, against which all manner of Communistic uprisings were anathema.

German sense of discipline, duty and personal responsibility, in State affairs, is grounded on a high consciousness that is not satisfied with half-measures, bungling, waste, cheap politicians, and freakish legislation. The German takes himself too seriously to permit a bunko-politician to come on with faking, as a subst.i.tute for the National ideal of government.

-- Hence, Bismarck's Imperial democracy, with the Kaiser at its head.

-- As between the inevitable contest between the Crowd and the Crown, springing from the inflammatory ideas of French Const.i.tutionalism, Bismarck did not shrink; but fought it out in his own way. Our Man of Blood and Iron desired the blessings of liberty for Germany with all the strength of his powerful being; but he could not stultify his common sense by meekly conceding no essential distinction between men, in their capacity for leadership. He was, then, intent on bringing out of the German political chaos a type of democracy that may be termed Imperial as well as representative, in which the people are accorded their share, as he saw it, but always under the guidance of a strong central authority.

-- And after all said in glorification of any special type of government, the stubborn fact remains that absolute equality, from a representative point of view, is a fiction unsupported by fact. The notorious incapacity and apathy of the ma.s.ses is always, in the end, directed by central powers, exercised insidiously or openly as you please, but exercised nevertheless. In every political party we find a coterie, men of little wisdom it may be but leaders of the crowd; in every city commission is always one masterful man to whom the other members defer; in every banking house, one deciding voice; every religious organization must have a head, regardless of the number of counsellors; every ship a captain; every army a general; and, finally, in every family there should be the guidance and direction of a strong father.

-- Is there not a ring of sincerity in Bismarck's manly acknowledgment of the inevitable equalities in the human stuff of which governments are composed? He saw only common sense in openly protesting that in any German government big enough and enduring enough to satisfy the German conception of responsibility, in a word German thoroughness, there must be, somewhere, a master-mind.

-- For many years, and even today, Bismarck is in some quarters regarded as the arch-enemy of the common people, but his great work has stood the acid test of time. The German Empire, builded under Bismarck's broad ideas may be likened unto a wonderful watch, in which each part does its peculiar work without even a gambler's chance of going wrong.

BOOK THE SIXTH

Once a Man and Twice a Child

CHAPTER XVII

The Downfall