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 ^ZMorf ASTO r Nancy 
 
 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM
 
 AMBASSADOR GERARD'S 
 EPOCH-MAKING BOOK 
 
 MY FOUR YEARS IN 
 GERMANY 
 
 By James W. Gerard 
 
 Illustrated, 7s. 6d. net. 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON
 
 FACE TO FACE 
 WITH KAISERISM 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES W. GERARD 
 
 Late Ambassador to the German Imperial Court 
 Author of "My Four Years in Germany" 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO 
 
 MCMXVI1I
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1918 
 BY HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 COPYRIGHT, I918 
 BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
 
 
 TO 
 
 COLONEL EDWARD M. HOUSE 
 
 STATESMAN AND FRIEND 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
 DEDICATES THIS BOOK
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 In some measure this book is a continuation 
 of " My Four Years in Germany," the 
 narrative here being carried up to the time of my 
 return home, with some observations on the 
 situation I have found in the United States. 
 
 What I want especially to impress upon the 
 people of the United States is that we are at war 
 because Germany invaded the United States — an 
 invasion insidiously conceived and vigorously 
 prosecuted for years before hostilities began ; 
 that this war is our war; that the sanctity of 
 American freedom and of the American home 
 depend upon what we do NOW. 
 
 JAMES W. GERARD. 
 
 New York, 
 
 March \st, 1918.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Personality of the Kaiser and Some- 
 thing of the King Business ... 1 
 
 II. Who Does the Kaiser's Thinking and who 
 
 Decided on the Break with America ? . 18 
 
 III. Who Sank the " Lusitania " ? . . .27 
 
 IV. The Kaiser and " Lese-Majeste " . .33 
 
 V. When the Kaiser Thought we were 
 
 Bluffing 38 
 
 VI. The Inside of German Diplomacy . . 54 
 
 VII. Germany's Plan to Attack America . . 64 
 
 VIII. Germany's Early Plots in Mexico . . 89 
 
 IX. The Kultur of Kaiserdom — The^German 
 
 Soul 105 
 
 X. The Little Kaisers 118 
 
 XI. Royalty's Recreation 122 
 
 XII. The Eternal Feminine 130 
 
 XIII. Home Life and " Brutality ' of the 
 
 People 138 
 
 ix
 
 x CONTENTS 
 
 OHAriBR PAQH 
 
 XIV. Aims of the Autocracy 145 
 
 XV. Austria-Hungary — The Kaiser's Vassal 
 
 State 165 
 
 XVI. German Influence on the Northern 
 
 Neutrals 184 
 
 XVII. Switzerland — Another Kind of Neutral 196 
 
 XVIII. A Glimpse of France 202 
 
 XIX. My Interview with the King of Spain . 215 
 
 XX. German Spies and Their Methods . . 225 
 
 XXI. En Route Home — Kaiserism in America . 234 
 
 XXII. That Interview with the Kaiser . . 258 
 
 XXIII. The Future Kaiser — The Crown Prince 
 
 and his Brothers 269 
 
 XXIV. When Germany will Break Down . . 279 
 XXV. The Errors of Efficient Germany . . 293 
 
 XXVI. President Wilson and Peace . . . 298 
 XXVII. After the War ; What ? . . . .314
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Printed in the Illustrated Supplement. 
 
 The Kaiser and von Treutler. (Taken in the Norwegian 
 town of Odde in 1910.) 
 
 Ambassadors William G. Sharp and James W. Gerard. 
 (From a photograph taken in Paris, February, 1917.) 
 
 Example of the commemorative medal offered for sale. On 
 the obverse is the portrait of the Crown Prince. On 
 the reverse is " Young Siegfried " attacking a chimera- 
 like monster with four heads : a Bear for Russia, a 
 Unicorn for England, a Lion for Belgium, and a Cock 
 for France. 
 
 Photograph taken in courtyard of Embassy, August, 1916. 
 (Left to right : Lanier Winslow ; Albert B. Ruddock ; 
 Percival Dodge ; Grafton Minot ; von Gwinner, head 
 of the great Deutsche Bank ; Surgeon Ohnesorg, U.S.N. ; 
 Ernest Bicknell, of Red Cross ; Ambassador Gerard ; 
 Mr. Wilmeth, of Treasury Department ; Assistant 
 Secretary of War Breckenridge ; Roland Harvey ; Charles 
 Russell ; Ballin, head of Hamburg- America Line ; 
 Mayor Rjan, and First Secretary Grew.) 
 
 Photograph taken after the banquet given Ambassador 
 Gerard in Berlin on January 6, 1917. Probably the 
 orders for the resumption of " reckless " submarine 
 war had been given when this love-feast took place. 
 (Sitting, left to right : Von Wermuth, Mayor of Berlin ; 
 Ambassador Gerard ; Zimmermann ; von Sydow. 
 Minister of Commerce. Standing, left to right : un- 
 known ; Consul-General Lay ; Commander Gherardi, 
 U.S.N. ; First Secretary Grew ; unknown ; Count 
 Montgelas ; Solf, Colonial Minister ; General Fried- 
 rich, in charge of prisoners of war ; Isaac Wolf, Presi- 
 dent of American Association of Commerce and Trade ; 
 John B. Jackson, former Minister of Cuba.) 
 
 The Iron Cross. In the expectation of a short war thousands 
 of these crosses were distributed in the first months of 
 the war, and the precedent thus established has led to 
 the giving of perhaps hundreds of thousands of these 
 decorations.
 
 xii ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Crown Prince and Crown Princess, from a photograph 
 taken in their Palace on the night of a fancy dress ball. 
 The Crown Princess is in Russian costume, and the 
 Crown Prince wears the uniform of one hundred years 
 ago of his regiment, the Death's Head Hussars. 
 
 Views of a typical Holstein country home owned by a Junker 
 country nobleman. 
 
 The Infanta Isabella, on which Ambassador Gerard 
 returned from Europe. (From a photograph taken in 
 Havana Harbour, March, 1917.) 
 
 Facsimile of an order issued by Commander of German prison 
 camp, Doberitz. Many Camp Commanders, without 
 authority, undertook to make prisoners suffer for alleged 
 and unproved misdeeds of the British. I had great 
 trouble in watching for orders of this character and 
 securing their annulment. 
 
 Cover of the pamphlet ferociously abusive of President 
 Wilson, issued by the ex-travel lecturer, John L. Stoddard. 
 
 The United States Embassy Staff, Berlin ; Mr. Gerard 
 in the centre. 
 
 Reproduction of a postcard celebrating the prowess of the 
 Zeppelin, sold in Germany. 
 
 Zeppelin postcard of patriotic sentiment, sold in Germany, 
 popularising the air raids on defenceless cities. 
 
 Printed on the End Papers of the Book. 
 
 Paper money used in prison camps. 
 
 Facsimile of a prison camp money certificate issued at the 
 prison camp of Neuhammer. 
 
 Paper money issued against property in Germany. Really 
 a " greenback," or almost fiat money. 
 
 Postage stamps issued at Ruhleben prison camp. Used 
 by prisoners writing to each other in the camp. 
 
 Facsimile reproduction of the Kaiser's visiting-card. 
 
 The visiting-card of the Crown Prince, reproduced in fac- 
 simile. 
 
 Exact-size reproduction of a page of the famous Die Zukunft, 
 published by Maximilian Harden, the one uncensored 
 editor of Germany. 
 
 Cover of Programme of Service in Protestant Cathedral, 
 Berlin, in celebration of the five hundredth anniversary 
 of the Lordship of Hohenzollerns in Brandenburg — 
 Prussia.
 
 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER AND SOME- 
 THING OF THE KING BUSINESS 
 
 To the American mind the Kaiser is the personifi- 
 cation of Germany. He is the arch-enemy upon 
 whom the world places the responsibility for this 
 most terrible of all wars. I have sat face to face 
 with him in the Palace at Berlin where, as the personal 
 representative and envoy of the President of the 
 United States, I had the honour of expressing the 
 viewpoint of a great nation. I have seen him in 
 the field as the commanding general of mighty forces, 
 but I also have seen him in the neutral countries 
 through which I passed on my return home and in 
 my own beloved land — in the evidence of intrigue 
 and plotting which this militaristic monarch has 
 begotten and which is to-day " the Thing," as Presi- 
 dent Wilson calls it, which lias brought the American 
 people face to face with Kaiserism in the greatest 
 conflict of all history. 
 
 What manner of man is he ? What is his char- 
 acter ? How much was he responsible for what has 
 happened — how much his General Staff ? What of 
 the Crown Prince and what of the neutral peoples 
 and their rulers whom Germany has intimidated and 
 would fain subjugate if it suited her purpose ? These 
 
 B
 
 2 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 are the questions I shall attempt to answer out of 
 my experiences in Germany and my contacts with 
 the rulers of other countries in my journeys to and 
 from Berlin and Washington. 
 
 To illustrate the craft of the Kaiser, I believe I 
 can perform no better service to Americans than to 
 reveal an incident which has not hitherto been pub- 
 lished. It occurred at the New Year's reception of 
 1914 when the Ambassadors of all the foreign coun- 
 tries represented at the German Court were ranged 
 in a large room at the Palace. They stood about 
 six feet apart in the order of their residence in 
 Berlin. The Kaiser and his aides entered the room, 
 and the Emperor spoke a few minutes to each envoy. 
 He tarried longest with the Turkish Ambassador 
 and myself, thereby arousing the curiosity of the 
 other diplomats, who suspected that the Kaiser 
 did more than merely exchange the greetings of the 
 season. He did. 
 
 What the German Emperor said to me interests 
 every American because it shows his subtlety of 
 purpose. The Kaiser talked at length to me about 
 what he called Japan's designs on the United States. 
 He warned me that Mexico was full of Japanese spies 
 and an army of Japanese colonels. He also spoke 
 about France, saying that he had made every effort 
 to make up with France, that he had extended his 
 hand to that country, but that the French had 
 refused to meet his overtures ; that he was through 
 and would not try again to heal the breach between 
 France and Germany ! 
 
 All this was in 1914, six months before the out- 
 break of the European War. Little did I know then 
 what the purpose was back of that conversation, but 
 it is clear now that the Emperor wished to have the
 
 PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 3 
 
 Government of the United States persuaded through 
 me that he was really trying to keep Europe at peace 
 and that the responsibility for what was going to 
 happen would be on France. The German is so 
 skilful at intrigue that he seeks even in advance of 
 an expected offensive to lay the foundation for 
 self-justification. 
 
 But the reference to Japan and alleged hostility 
 against us on the part of fanciful hordes of Japanese 
 in Mexico made me wonder at the time. There 
 were many evidences subsequent to that New Year's 
 Day reception of an attempt to alienate us from 
 Japan. As a climax to it all, as a clarification of 
 what the Emperor had in mind, came the famous 
 Zimmermann Note, the instructions to the German 
 Minister in Mexico to align both Japan and Mexico 
 against us when we entered the war against Germany ! 
 
 Plotting and intriguing for power and mastery ! 
 Such is the business of absolute rulers. 
 
 I believe that had the old Austrian Kaiser lived a 
 little while longer, the prolongation of his life would 
 have been most disastrous both for Austria and 
 Hungary. I believe after the death of Franz Fer- 
 dinand at Sarajevo and after a year of war the 
 German Emperor and autocracy were brooding over 
 a plan according to which, on the death of Franz 
 Joseph, the successor should be allowed to rule only 
 as King or Grand-Duke of Austria, the title of 
 Emperor of Austria to disappear, and German Princes 
 to be placed upon the thrones of Hungary and of a 
 new kingdom of Bohemia. These and the King or 
 Grand-Duke of Austria were to be subject-monarchs 
 under the German Kaiser, who was thus to revive 
 an empire, if not greater, at least more powerful 
 than the empires of Charlemagne and of Charles the 
 
 b 2
 
 4 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Fifth. Many public utterances of the German Kaiser 
 show that trend of mind. 
 
 Emperor William deliberately wrote and pub- 
 lished, for instance, such a statement as this : " From 
 childhood I have been influenced by five men, 
 Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Theodoric II, 
 Frederick the Great and Napoleon. Each of these 
 men dreamed a dream of world empire. They failed. 
 I have dreamed a dream of German world empire 
 and my mailed fist shall succeed." 
 
 Could any declaration of a life's ambition be more 
 explicit ? It seems impossible for human ambition 
 to stand still. Either a man loses all stimulus of 
 self and becomes as spiritless as a fagged animal, or 
 ambition drives him always on — he is never content 
 with any success achieved. The millionaire to whom 
 the first million, when he was a boy, seemed the 
 extreme limit of human wealth and desire presses 
 on insatiably with the first million in his pocket, 
 more restless, more dissatisfied, than the hungry 
 farmer's boy who first carries his ambitions to the 
 great city. 
 
 When these zealous, scheming men gain the power 
 of kingship they usually bring disaster to their 
 country. Their subjects find no compensation in 
 the personal ambitions which hurry a nation into 
 the miseries of war. Better Charles II, dallying 
 with his ringleted mistresses, than an Alexander the 
 Great ; better Henrv the Fourth of France, the 
 " ever-green gallant," than Frederick the Great, 
 bathing his people in blood. " Happy nations have 
 no history." 
 
 William the Second, the present German Emperor, 
 might well be called the Restless Emperor. He is 
 never satisfied to remain more than a few days in
 
 PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 5 
 
 any place or in any occupation. He commands his 
 armies in person. He has won distinction as a writer 
 and a public speaker. He is an excellent shot. He 
 has composed music, written verses, superintended 
 the production of a ballet, painted a picture ; the 
 beautiful Byzantine chapel in the Castle of Posen 
 shows his genius for architecture ; and, clothed in a 
 clergyman's surplice, he has preached a sermon in 
 Jerusalem. What ruler in all history has exhibited 
 such extraordinary versatility ? 
 
 In my conversations with the Emperor I have 
 been struck by his knowledge of other countries, 
 lands which he had never visited. He was familiar 
 not only with their manners, customs, industries 
 and public men, but with their commercial problems. 
 Through his conversation one can see the keen eye 
 of the Hanseatic trader looking with eager envy on 
 the trade of a rival merchant. The Emperor, in- 
 cidentally, while instinctively commercial, has an 
 inborn contempt, if not for the law, at least for 
 lawyers. In October, 1915, for instance, he remarked 
 to me, " This is a lawyers' war, Asquith and Lloyd 
 George in England, Poincare and Briand in France." 
 
 In appearance and conversation Emperor William 
 is very manly. His voice is strong, with a ring in 
 it. He is a good rider. Following the German 
 custom, he puts on his nightshirt every afternoon 
 after lunch and sleeps for two hours — for the German 
 is more devoted to the siesta than the Spaniard or 
 Mexican. The hours of the Berlin Foreign Office, 
 for example, were from eleven to one and from four 
 to eight. After a heavy lunch at one o'clock all the 
 officials took a nap for an hour or two. Also, the 
 hours of the bank where I did business were from 
 ten to one and from four till six. This meant that
 
 6 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 after six o'clock the clerks had to sit until perhaps 
 eight making up the books for the day. 
 
 In 1916, the Olympic games were to have taken 
 place at Berlin, and in September, 1913, before sailing 
 for Germany, I attended a luncheon at the New 
 York Athletic Club, given by President Page, with 
 the members of the German Commission who had 
 come to America to study athletics and to see what 
 could be done in Germany so that the Germans could 
 make a good showing at the games in their own 
 city. 
 
 After my arrival in Germany one of the members 
 of this Commission told me that it was impossible, 
 he believed, to organise the Germans as athletes 
 until German meal and business hours had been 
 changed. He said that with us in America young 
 men leaving business at four-thirty, five or five- 
 thirty, had time in which to exercise before their 
 evening meal, but that in Germany the young men 
 ate so much at the midday meal that they required 
 their siesta after it, and that they did not leave 
 their offices until so late in the evening that exercise 
 and practice were impossible. 
 
 On the Emperor's table his wine glasses, or rather 
 cups, are of silver. Possibly this is because he has 
 been forbidden by his physician to drink wine. The 
 Germans maintain the old-fashioned custom of 
 drinking healths at meals. Someone far down the 
 table will lift his glass, look at you and smile. You 
 are then expected to lift your glass and drink with 
 him and then both bow and smile over the glasses. 
 As the Emperor must reciprocate with everyone 
 present, his champagne and wine are put in silver 
 cups in order that those drinking wine with him do 
 not see that lie consumes no appreciable quantity
 
 PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 7 
 
 of alcoholic liquor on the occasion of each health- 
 drinking. Some people in America may have often 
 wished for a similar device. 
 
 The Emperor is out of uniform only on rare oc- 
 casions. Occasionally, when in a foreign country, 
 he has appeared in civilian dress, as shown in the 
 accompanying photograph, taken in 1910 at the 
 small town of Odde, in Norway, where he had landed 
 from his yacht. He appears to much better ad- 
 vantage in uniform than in civilian attire. Although 
 uniformed while at sea as an Admiral, his favourite 
 uniform is really that of the Hussars. In this 
 picture he is accompanied by Baron von Treutler, 
 Prussian Minister to Bavaria and Foreign Office re- 
 presentative with the Kaiser. Von Treutler is a Ger- 
 man of the world. I met him at the Great General 
 Headquarters at the end of April, 1916, when the 
 submarine question was being discussed. He came 
 to dinner several times at the Chancellor's house, 
 undoubtedly reporting back what was said to the 
 Emperor, and I believe that his voice was against 
 the resumption of ruthless submarine warfare and 
 in favour of peace with America. Shortly after this 
 period he fell into disfavour and went back to occupy 
 his post of Minister in Munich. 
 
 In conversation, the Emperor reminds one very 
 much of Roosevelt, talking with the same energy, 
 the same violence of gesture and of voice so charac- 
 teristic of our great ex-President. When the Emperor 
 talks all his attention is given to you and all his 
 mental energy is concentrated on the conversation. 
 In this violence of manner and voice he seems not 
 at all German. The average German is neither 
 exuberant nor soft-spoken. 
 
 His favourite among his ancestors is William of
 
 8 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Orange. Once lie attended a fancy-dress ball in 
 costume and make-up copied from the well-known 
 picture of that Prince. The Emperor is strongly 
 built and is about five feet nine inches tall. He sits 
 well on his horse and walks, too, with head erect and 
 shoulders thrown back — a picture of military pre- 
 cision. 
 
 A friend of mine who was present at Kiel with 
 his yacht in 1910 tells me that when all the yachts 
 and warships had been assembled along the long 
 narrow waterway which constitutes that harbour, 
 with the crews lined up on deck or manning the 
 yards, with bands crashing and banners floating, the 
 Hohenzollern slowly steamed into the harbour and 
 passed lazily and majestically through the wait- 
 ing ships. Alone on the upper bridge stood the 
 monarch, attired in full military uniform, with white 
 coat and tight breeches, high top boots, shining 
 silver breastplate and silver helmet, surmounted by 
 an eagle, the dress of the Prussian Guard Regiment 
 so dear to those who portray romantic and kingly 
 roles upon the stage, a figure on whom all eyes were 
 fixed, as splendid as that of Lohengrin, drawn by 
 his fairy swan, coming to rescue the unjustly accused 
 Princess. And, alas, the Germans like all this pomp 
 and splendour. It appeals to something in the 
 German heart and seems to create a feeling of affec- 
 tion and humility in the German breast. 
 
 When I talked at length one day with President 
 Wilson on my visit to America in October, 1916, 
 he remarked, half to himself, in surprise at my tale 
 of war, " Why does all this horror come on the 
 world ? What causes it ? " " Mr. President," I 
 answered, " it is the King business." 
 
 I did not mean nominal Kings as harmless as those
 
 PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 9 
 
 of Spain and England. I was thinking of the power- 
 ful monarchs. A German Republic would never 
 have embarked on this war ; a German Congress 
 would have thought twice before sending their own 
 sons to death in a deliberate effort to enslave other 
 peoples. In a free Germany teachers, ministers and 
 professors would not have taught the necessity of 
 war. What German merchant in a free Germany 
 would have thought that all the trade of the East, 
 all the riches of Bagdad and Cairo and Mosul, could 
 compensate him for the death of his first-born or 
 restore the blind eyes to the youngest son who now 
 crouches, cowering, over the fire, awaiting death ? 
 For there was no trade necessity for this war. I 
 know of no place in the world where German mer- 
 chants were not free to trade. The disclosures of 
 war have shown how German commerce had pene- 
 trated every land, to an extent unknown to the best- 
 informed. If the German merchants wanted this 
 war in order to gain a German monopoly of the 
 world's trade, then they are rightly suffering from 
 the results of overweening covetousness. 
 
 Experts in insanity say that the Roman Emperors 
 as soon as they attained the rule of the world were 
 made mad by the possession of that stupendous 
 power. The sceptre of Emperor William is mighty. 
 No more autocratic influence proceeds from any 
 other monarch or ruler. But you will say how about 
 our President in time of war ? Great power can 
 safely be given to a President. Our Presidents have 
 all risen from the ranks. Usually they have gone 
 through the school of hard knocks. And there are 
 ways of keeping them abreast of the people. 
 
 It is told that hidden from public view, crouched 
 down in the chariot in which the successful Roman
 
 io FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 proconsul or general drove triumphantly through 
 the crowded streets of Rome, was a slave celebrated 
 for his impertinence, whose duty it was to make the 
 one honoured feel that, after all, he was nothing 
 more than an ordinary mortal blessed with a certain 
 amount of good luck. Probably as the chariot passed 
 by the Forum the slave would say after a thunderous 
 burst of applause from the populace : " Do not take 
 that applause too seriously. That is the T. Quintus 
 Cassius Association, whose chief received a hundred 
 sesterces from your brother-in-law yesterday, on 
 account, with a promise of a hundred more in case 
 the Association's cheers seemed loud and sincere." 
 
 So in America the Press, serious and comic, takes 
 the place of the humble slave and throws enough 
 cold water on the head of any temporarily successful 
 American to reduce it to normal proportions. Be- 
 sides, the President knows that some day he must 
 return to the ranks, live again with his neighbours, 
 seek out the threads of a lost law practice or eke out 
 a livelihood on the Chautauqua circuit in the dis- 
 comfort of tiny hotels, travelling in upper berths 
 instead of private cars and eating on lunch stools in 
 small stations instead of in the sumptuous surround- 
 ings of Presidential luxury. These are sobering 
 prospects. 
 
 Kings, on the other hand, come to look on their 
 subjects as toys. A post-card popular in Austria 
 and Germany showed the old Emperor Franz Joseph 
 seated at a table with a little great-grand-nephew on 
 his knee, teaching the child to move toy soldiers 
 about on the boards ; and it is unfortunately true 
 that the same youngster — should the system of the 
 Central Empires be perpetuated — will be able to move 
 his subjects across the map of Europe just as he did
 
 PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER u 
 
 the toy soldiers on his great-grand-uncle's table. 
 He will be able to tear men from their work and 
 their homes, to seize great scientists, great chemists, 
 great inventors — men who may be on the eve of 
 discoveries or remedies destined to rid the human 
 race of the scourge of cancer or the white plague — 
 and send them to death in the marshes of Macedonia 
 or the fastnesses of the Carpathians because some 
 fellow-King or Emperor has deceived or outwitted 
 him. 
 
 In a monarchy all subjects seem the personal 
 property of the monarch and all expressions of power 
 become personal. This extends throughout all coun- 
 tries ruled bv Rovalty. 
 
 When, for example, a member of the Royal family 
 dies, even in another country, it must be lamented 
 by the Court circle of other lands. Here is the 
 official notice sent to all diplomats and members of 
 the Imperial German Court on the occasion of the 
 death of the Queen of Sweden : 
 
 " The Court goes into mourning to-day for Her Majesty the 
 Queen-Mother of Sweden for three weeks up to and including the 
 19th of January, 1914. 
 
 " Ladies wear black silk dresses, for the first fourteen days, 
 including January 12th, with black hair ornaments, black gloves, 
 black fans and black jewellery ; the last eight days with white 
 hair ornaments, grey gloves, white fans and pearls. 
 
 " Gentlemen wear the whole time a black band on the left 
 sleeve. Civilians wear with the embroidered coat, during the 
 first fourteen days, including January 12th, on occasions of Grand 
 Gala, black buckles and swords with black sheathes. During the 
 last eight days bright buckles ; on occasions of ' Half Gala ' gold 
 or silver embroidered trousers of the colour of the uniform and in 
 the one as in the other case gold or silver embroidered hat with 
 white plume; with the 'small' uniform, however, black trousers 
 (or knee-breeches, black silk stockings, shoes with black bows 
 and the ' three-cornered ' hat with black plume). During the first
 
 12 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 fourteen days gentlemen wear black woollen vests and black gloves, 
 in the last eight days black silk vests and gre}^ gloves. 
 
 " Berlin, December 30, 1913. 
 
 " The Ober-Ceremonienmeister. 
 
 " Graf A. Eulenbueg. 
 
 " By command of His Majesty the Emperor, mourning will be 
 suspended for New Year's Day and the 17th and 18th of January." 
 
 So it is apparent what a close corporation all the 
 Royal families make, and the peoples are simply 
 viewed as the personal property of the ruling 
 princes. In his telegram which the German Kaiser 
 wrote to President Wilson on August 10, observe 
 how all is personal. The Kaiser says, " I telegraphed 
 to His Majesty the King, personally, but that if, etc., 
 I would employ my troops elsewhere. . . . His 
 Majesty answered that he thought my offer ..." 
 He speaks of the King of the Belgians " having 
 refused my petition for a free passage." He refers to 
 " my Ambassador in London." 
 
 This telegram shows, on the other hand, another 
 thing, — the great ability of the Kaiser. Undoubtedly 
 he knew why I was coming to see him — to present 
 the offer of mediation of President Wilson — but 
 from our conversation I do not think that he had 
 even in his mind prepared the answer, which sets 
 forth his position in entering the war. 
 
 He said, " Wait a moment ; I shall write something 
 for the President." Then taking the telegraph blanks 
 lying on the table, he wrote rapidly and fluently. 
 It was a message in a foreign language, and, whatever 
 we may think of its content, at any rate it is clear, 
 concise, consecutive and forceful. 
 
 The personal touch runs through that extra- 
 ordinary series of telegrams in the famous " Willy- 
 Nicky " correspondence between Kaiser Wilhelm and
 
 PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 13 
 
 the last of the Romanoffs, discovered in Petrograd 
 by Hermann Bernstein. These reveal, moreover, the 
 surpassing craft of the German Kaiser. He was the 
 master schemer. Touting for German trade, always 
 for his advantage, he twists the poor half-wit of the 
 Winter Palace like a piece of straw. 
 
 Emperor William was not satisfied with a quiet 
 life as patron of trade. As he studied the portraits 
 of his ancestors, he felt that they gazed at him with 
 reproachful eyes, demanded that he add, as did 
 they, to the domains of the Hohenzollerns, that he 
 return from war in triumph at the head of a victorious 
 army with the keys of fallen cities borne before him 
 in conquering march. 
 
 One-tenth of Frederick the Great's people fell, 
 but to the poverty-stricken peasant woman of 
 Prussia, lamenting her husband and dead sons, did it 
 matter that the rich province of Silesia had been 
 added to the Prussian Crown ? What was it to 
 that broken mother whether the Silesian peasants 
 acknowledged the Prussian King or the Austrian 
 Empress ? Despots both. And what countless serfs 
 fell in the wars between the King and the Empress ! 
 I once asked von Jagow when this Avar would end. 
 He answered, " An old history of the Seven Years 
 War concludes, c The King and the Empress were 
 tired of war, so they made peace.' That is how this 
 war will end." Will it ? Will it end in a draw, to 
 be resumed when some King feels the war fever on 
 him ? No, this war must end despots, and with 
 them all wars ! 
 
 It is all such a matter of personal whim. For 
 instance, before Bulgaria entered the war on the side 
 of Germany, even the best-informed Germans pre- 
 dicted that King Ferdinand would never join Germany
 
 i 4 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 because of an incident which occurred in the Royal 
 Palace of Berlin. This is how it happened : 
 
 It is the custom for one monarch to make his pals 
 in the King business officers of his army or navy. 
 Thus the German Emperor was General Field-Marshal 
 and Proprietor of the 34th " William the First, 
 German Emperor and King of Prussia," Infantry 
 and 7th " William the Second, German Emperor and 
 King of Prussia," Hussars, in the Austro-Hungarian 
 Army ; Chief of the " King Frederick William III 
 St. Petersburg Life Guards," the 85th " Viburg " 
 Infantry and the 13th " Xarva ' Hussars, and the 
 '' Grodno " Hussars of the Guard, in the Russian 
 Army ; Field-Marshal in British Army ; Hon. Admiral 
 of the British Fleet, and Colonel-in-Chief 1st Dra- 
 goons ; General in the Swedish Army and Flag 
 Admiral of the Fleet ; Hon. Admiral of the Nor- 
 wegian and Danish Fleets ; Admiral of the Russian 
 Fleet ; Hon. Captain-General in the Spanish Army 
 and Hon. Colonel of the 11th " Numancia " Spanish 
 Dragoons ; and Hon. Admiral of the Greek Fleet. 
 
 The King of Bulgaria was Chief of the 4th Thu- 
 ringia Infantry Regiment No. 72, in the Prussian 
 Army. As per custom, on a visit to Berlin he donned 
 his uniform of the Thuringian Infantry. He had 
 put on a little weight, and military unmentionables, 
 be it known, are notoriously tight. So as he leaned 
 far out of the Palace window to admire the passing 
 troops, he presented a mark so tempting that the 
 Emperor, in jovial mood, was impelled to administer 
 a resounding spank on the sacred seat of the Czar 
 of All the Balkans. Instead of taking the slap in 
 the same jovial spirit in which it was given, the Czar 
 Ferdinand, a little jealous of the self-assumed title 
 of Czar, became furiously angry — so angry that
 
 PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 15 
 
 even the old diplomats of the Metternieh school 
 believed for a time that he never would forgive the 
 whack and even might refuse to join Germany. But 
 Czar Ferdinand, believing in the military power of 
 Germany, cast his already war-worn people in the 
 war against the Allies, much to the regret of many 
 Bulgarian statesmen, who, having been educated at 
 R obert College, near Constantinople, a college founded 
 and maintained by Americans, and having imbibed 
 somewhat of the American spirit there, were not 
 over-pleased to think of themselves arrayed against 
 the United States of America. 
 
 But there is no monarch in all Europe who is more 
 wily than Czar Ferdinand. At a great E st in 
 Bulgaria at which Emperor William was present. 
 Czar Ferdinand toasted the Emperor in Latin and 
 alluded to him as Miles Gloriosus— which all present 
 took to mean ; * glorious soldier " : but the exact Latin 
 meaning of ''gloriosus" is "glorious*' in ir> n 
 meaning and t; boastful " in its second, a meaning 
 well known in Berlin, where, at the " Little Theatr . 
 in a series of plays of all ages, the Miles G 
 of Plautus had just been presented— a boastful, 
 conceited soldier, the Miles GI e chief 
 
 character of the comedy. 
 
 Nothing illustrates more vividlv the belief of the 
 Royal families of the Central Empires in their God- 
 given right to rule the plain people than those few 
 words of Maximilian written before his ill-fated 
 expedition to Mexico. Speaking of the Palace at 
 Caserta. near Naples, he wrote. " The monumental 
 stairway is worthy of majesty. What can be finer 
 than to imagine the Sovereign placed at its head. 
 resplendent in the midst of these marble pillars — 
 to fancy this monarch, like a God, graciously per-
 
 16 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 n lifting the approach of human beings. The crowd 
 surges upward. The King vouchsafes a gracious 
 glance, but from a very lofty elevation. All powerful, 
 imperial, he makes one step towards them with a 
 smile of infinite condescension. Could Charles V, 
 could Maria Theresa appear thus at the head of this 
 ascending stair, who would not bow their heads 
 before that majestic God-given power ? " 
 
 What was the condition of the people under Maria 
 Theresa, whom Maximilian spoke of as possessing 
 a power that, according to him, was so God-given 
 no one could fail to bow the head before her majestic 
 presence ? The peasants, under her rule, were prac- 
 tically slaves, as they could not leave the lord's lands 
 or even marry without his permission, nor could 
 they bring their children up to any profession other 
 than that of labourer. In other words, the children 
 of the slave must remain slaves. 
 
 Poor Maximilian ! He was a brother of the late 
 Emperor Franz Joseph and a member of that 
 Kaiserbund and royal system which, while America 
 was busy with domestic difficulties between the 
 North and South, sought to wrest from Mexico her 
 liberty. I wonder if the Mexicans have forgotten 
 the incident and its implications. 
 
 But one-man power always fails in the end. No 
 man, King or President, whatever he may himself 
 think, has a brain all powerful and all knowing. 
 There is wisdom in counsel. Too much of some 
 favourite dish may lead to indigestion, and that to 
 bad judgment at a critical time and disaster. Na- 
 poleon III, just before 1870, was suffering from a 
 wasting disease and so allowed himself to be ruled 
 by the beautiful, narrow, fascinating, foolish Spanish 
 Empress whom he gave to the French in a moment
 
 PERSONALITY OF THE KAISER 17 
 
 of passion because, as she said to him, " The way 
 to her room lay through the church door." Colonel 
 Stoffel, the French Military Attache to the Berlin 
 Embassy, wrote confidentially report after report to 
 the Emperor telling him of the immense military 
 strength of Prussia and of her readiness for immediate 
 war. But most of these reports were afterwards 
 found unopened in the desk of the doting, sick and 
 fallen Emperor. 
 
 For, after all, however divine the King, Emperor 
 or Kaiser may consider himself, he is but a vulner- 
 able human being — and no accident of birth should 
 give even a small number of people on this earth 
 into the hands of a single mortal.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 WHO DOES THE KAISER'S THINKING AND 
 WHO DECIDED ON THE BREAK WITH 
 
 AMERICA ? 
 
 Because the German Emperor possesses talents of 
 no mean order, because of his fiery energy, because of 
 the charm of his conversation and personality, his 
 ambitions for world conquest are most dangerous to 
 the peace of the world. 
 
 Certainly of all the ruling houses of the world, 
 the Hohenzollerns have shown themselves the most 
 able, and of the six sons of the Kaiser there is not 
 one who is unable or unworthy from the autocratic 
 standpoint to carry on the traditions of the House. 
 They are all young men who in any field of human 
 endeavour are more than a match for men of their 
 age, and by reason of these qualities, so rare in Kings 
 and Princes, it has been easy to arouse a great feeling 
 of devotion for the Royal House of Prussia among 
 all classes in Germany, with the possible exception 
 of the Social Democrats. The other Kings and 
 Princes of Germany have been overshadowed, mere 
 puppets in the King business, by the surpassing 
 talents of the Hohenzollerns, and so the task of those 
 who, in Germany and out, hope for that evolution 
 towards liberalism or even democracy which alone 
 can make the nations of the world feel safe in making 
 
 18
 
 WHO DOES THE KAISER'S THINKING? 19 
 
 peace with Germany is beset with numerous diffi- 
 culties. 
 
 Before the war the Emperor turned much of his 
 enterprising talent into peaceful channels, into the 
 development of commercial and industrial Germany. 
 No one has a greater respect for wealth and commer- 
 cial success than the Emperor. He would have 
 made a wonderful success as a man of business. He 
 ought to be the richest person in the Empire, but the 
 militaristic system which he fostered gave that dis- 
 tinction to another. For the richest person in Ger- 
 many before the war was Frau Krupp-Bohlen, 
 daughter of the late manufacturer of cannon. She 
 inherited control of the factories and the greater 
 part of the fortune of her father and was rated at 
 about $75,000,000. It was a contest between Prince 
 Henckel-Donnersmarck and the Emperor for second 
 place, each being reputed to possess about sixty to 
 sixty-five million dollars. Most of the Emperor's 
 wealth is in landed estates, and of these he has, I 
 believe, about sixty scattered through the Empire. 
 The Emperor is credited with being a large stockholder 
 in both the Krupp works and the Hamburg-America 
 Line. What a sensation it would make in this 
 country were the President to become a large stock- 
 holder in Bethlehem Steel or the Winchester Arms 
 Company ! 
 
 The earnings of the Krupp factory since the war 
 have been immense, and doubtless the fortune of the 
 Krupp heiress since then has more than doubled. 
 The subscriptions to war loans and war charities, 
 thrown by Frau Krupp-Bohlen and the Krupp 
 directors as sops to public opinion, are mere nothings 
 to the fat earnings made by that renowned factory 
 in this war. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 And what a sensation, too, would be caused in 
 America if the Bethlehem Steel Company or the 
 United States Steel Corporation were to purchase 
 newspapers or take over the Associated Press in 
 order to control public opinion. Yet the German 
 nation stands by, apathetic, propagandised to a 
 standstill, stuffed and fed by news handed them by 
 the Krupps and the alliance of six great industrial 
 iron and steel companies of Western Germany. 
 
 A question which interests every inhabitant of 
 the world to-day is where does the ultimate power 
 reside in Germany ? 
 
 Where is the force which controls the country ? 
 The Reichstag, of course, has no real power ; the 
 twenty-five ruling Princes of Germany, voting in 
 the Bundesrat through their representatives, control 
 the Reichstag, and the Chancellor is not responsible 
 to either, but only to the Emperor. 
 
 Consider, for a moment, the personality of von 
 Bethmann-Hollweg, Chancellor of the Empire for 
 eight or nine years. He lacked both determination 
 and decision. Lovable, good, kind, respected, the 
 Chancellor, to a surprising degree, was minus that 
 quality which we call " punch." He never led, but 
 followed. He sought always to find out first which 
 side of the question seemed likely to win — where 
 the majority would stand. Usually he poised him- 
 self on middle ground. He could not have been the 
 ultimate power in the State. 
 
 I have a feeling that the Kaiser himself always 
 felt in some vague way that his luck lay with America, 
 and I imagine that he himself was against anything 
 that might lead to a break with this country. What, 
 then, was the mysterious power which changed, for
 
 WHO DOES THE KAISER'S THINKING? 21 
 
 instance, the policy of the German Empire towards 
 America and ordered unrestricted submarine war at 
 the risk of bringing against the Empire a rich and 
 powerful nation of over a hundred million popula- 
 tion ? 
 
 The Foreign Office did not have this decision. 
 Its members, made up of men who had travelled in 
 other countries, who knew the latent power of America, 
 did not advise this step, with the exception, however, 
 of Zimmermann, who, carried away by his sudden 
 elevation, and by the glamour of personal contact 
 with the Emperor, the Princes and the military chiefs, 
 yielded to the arguments of military expediency. 
 
 The one force in Germany which ultimately 
 decides every great question, except the fate of its 
 own head, is the Great General Staff. 
 
 On one side of the Konigsplatz in Berlin stands 
 the great building of the Reichstag, floridly decorated, 
 glittering with gold, surrounded by statues and 
 filled, during the sessions of the Reichstag, with a 
 crowd of representatives who do not represent and 
 who, like monkeys in a cage, jibber and debate 
 questions which they have no power to decide. 
 Across the square and covering the entire block in 
 a building that resembles in external appearance a 
 gaol, built of dark red brick without ornament or 
 display, is the home of the Great General Staff. 
 This institution has its own spies, its own secret 
 service, its own newspaper censors. Here the picked 
 officers of the German Army, the inheritors of the 
 power of von Moltke, work industriously. Apart 
 from the people of Germany, they wield the supreme 
 power of the State, and when the Staff decides a 
 matter of foreign policy or even an internal measure, 
 that decision is final.
 
 22 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 The peculiar relations of the Emperor to the 
 Great General Staff make it possible for him to 
 dismiss in disgrace a head of the Staff who has failed. 
 But at all times the Kaiser is more or less controlled 
 in his action by the Staff as a whole, and at a time 
 when the Chief of the Great General Staff is success- 
 ful, the latter, even on questions of foreign policy, 
 claims the right then to make a decision which the 
 Emperor may find it difficult to disregard. This is 
 because in an autocratic Government, as in any 
 other, personality counts for much. Von Tirpitz 
 controlled all departments of the Navy, although 
 only at the head of one. The Ludendorff-Hindenburg 
 combination, especially if backed by Mackensen, can 
 bend the will of the Emperor. 
 
 Yet while the head of the Great General Staff 
 may fall the system always remains. An unknown, 
 mysterious power it is, unchanging and relentless, 
 a power that watches over the German Army with 
 unseen eyes. It seeks always additions to its own 
 ranks from those young officers who have distin- 
 guished themselves by their talents in the profession 
 of arms. What does it mean to them ? 
 
 It is January 27, the birthday of the Kaiser, in a 
 German garrison town. The officers of the regiment 
 are assembled in the mess-hall ; the regimental band 
 plays the national air of Prussia, " Heil Dir im Sieger- 
 kranz " (Hail, thou, in the conqueror's wreath). 
 (The music is familiar to us because we sing it to 
 the words of " America." The British sing the air 
 to the words of " God save the King." This music 
 was originally written for Louis XIV.) The health 
 of the Emperor is proposed and drunk with 
 " Hurrahs " and again " Hurrahs," and then comes a 
 telegram from Berlin announcing the promotions and
 
 WHO DOES THE KAISER'S THINKING ? 23 
 
 decorations granted to some of the officers of the 
 regiment : the most envied of all is that younger 
 officer, perhaps the student among them, who receives 
 the laconic despatch telling him that he is detailed 
 to the Great General Staff ! 
 
 Then commences for the young officer a life of 
 almost monastic devotion. No amusements, no social 
 obligations or entertainments, must interfere in the 
 slightest with his earnest work in that plain building 
 of mystery which so calmly, and with such mock 
 modesty, faces the garish home of the Reichstag on 
 the Konigsplatz in Berlin. 
 
 Who decided on the break with America ? It was 
 not the Chancellor, notoriously opposed ; it was not 
 the Foreign Office, nor the Reichstag, nor the Princes 
 of Germany who decided to brave the consequences 
 of a rupture with the United States on the submarine 
 question. It was not the Emperor, but a personality 
 of great power of persuasion. It was Ludendorff, 
 Quartermaster-General, chief aid and brains to Hin- 
 denburg, Chief of the Great General Staff, who 
 decided upon this step. 
 
 Unquestionably a party in the Navy, undoubtedly 
 von Tirpitz himself, backed by the Navy and by 
 many naval officers and the Naval League, advocated 
 the policy and promised all Germany peace within 
 three months after it was adopted ; unquestionably 
 public opinion made by the Krupps and the League 
 of Six (the great iron and steel companies), desiring 
 annexation of the coal and iron lands of France, 
 demanded this as a quick road to peace. But it was the 
 deciding vote of the Great General Staff that finally 
 embarked the German nation on this dangerous course. 
 
 I do not think the Emperor himself, unless backed 
 by the whole public opinion of Germany, would dare
 
 24 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 to withstand the Great General Staff which he him- 
 self creates. They are so much his devotees that 
 they would overrule him in what they consider his 
 interest. 
 
 Whatever thinking the Emperor does nowadays 
 is more or less on his own account. There is to-day 
 no shining favourite who has his ear to the exclusion 
 of others. The last known favourite was Prince 
 Max Egon von Fiirstenberg, a man now about 
 fifty-four years old, tall, handsome, possessed at one 
 time of great wealth and a commanding position in 
 Austria as well as Germany, with the privilege of 
 citizenship in both countries. The Prince, in his 
 capacity as Grand Marshal, accompanied the Emperor, 
 walking in his train, as the latter entered the White 
 Hall at a great ball early in the winter of 1914. The 
 Emperor was stopping at the Prince's palace in 
 Southern Germany at Donaueschingen when the 
 affair at Zabern and the cutting down of the lame 
 shoemaker there shook the political and military 
 foundations of the German Empire. Prince Max, 
 together with Prince Hohenlohe, Duke of Ugest, 
 embarked, however, on a career of vast speculation 
 in an association known as the Princes' Trust. They 
 built, for instance, the great Hotel Esplanade in 
 Berlin, and an hotel of the same name in Hamburg, 
 and an enormous combined beer restaurant, theatre, 
 and moving picture hall on the Nollendorffplatz in 
 Berlin. They organised banks, and the name of the 
 princely house of Fiirstenberg appeared as an ad- 
 vertisement for light beer. They even, through their 
 interest in a department store on the east end of the 
 Leipziger Strasse, sold pins and stockings and ribbons 
 to the working classes of Berlin. As this top-heavy 
 structure of foolish business enterprise tumbled, the
 
 WHO DOES THE KAISER'S THINKING ? 25 
 
 favour of Prince Max at the Imperial Court fell with 
 it. For the Emperor never brooks failure. 
 
 During the present war von Gontard, related by 
 marriage, I believe, to brewer Busch in St. Louis ; 
 von Treutler, who represented the Foreign Office ; 
 von Falkenhayn, for a while head of the Great General 
 Staff and Minister of War, and the Prince of Pless, 
 and von Plessen with several minor adjutants, have 
 constituted the principal figures in the surroundings 
 of the Emperor. Falkenhayn fell because of his 
 failure in the attack of Verdun, ordered by him or 
 for which he was the responsible commander. Von 
 Treutler probably told the truth : he was against the 
 breaking of the submarine pledges to America, and 
 Prince Pless, who remains still in favour, never took 
 a decided stand on any of these questions. Prince 
 Pless, as Prince Max was, is rich. His fortune 
 before the war, represented mostly by great landed 
 estates in Silesia, mines, etc., amounted approxi- 
 mately to thirty million dollars. His wife is an 
 Englishwoman, once celebrated as one of the great 
 beauties of London, daughter of Colonel and Mrs. 
 Cornwallis-West, and sister of the Duchess of West- 
 minster. And therefore the position of Princess Pless 
 has not been enviable during this war. 
 
 Emperor William does not, like many Kings and 
 dictators, confine himself in his search for general 
 information regarding men and conditions to the 
 reports of a few persons. He always has been 
 accessible, seeking even to meet strangers, not merely 
 his own people but foreigners, thus escaping the 
 penalty of those rulers who shut themselves up and 
 who have all their information and thoughts coloured 
 for them by the preferences and desires of prejudiced 
 counsellors.
 
 26 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 The chiefs of the Army are always in close touch 
 with the Kaiser, but he is consulted on Army com- 
 mands and promotions much less than on civil and 
 even naval promotions. 
 
 Always with him is the head of the Civil Cabinet, 
 who advises with the Emperor on all appointments 
 and promotions on the civil side of the Government, 
 helping even to make and unmake Ambassadors and 
 Chancellors. Admiral von Mueller, head of the 
 Marine Cabinet, is constantly in the Emperor's 
 company. He is a shrewd, capable, reasonable man ; 
 for a long time Admiral von Mueller was against taking 
 the chance of war with America and perhaps, even 
 to the end, persisted in this course. After the fall 
 of von Tirpitz, von Mueller acquired more real power. 
 But in a sense it is incorrect to speak of the forced 
 retirement of von Tirpitz as a " fall," because 
 from his retirement he was able to carry on such a 
 campaign in favour of " ruthless " submarine war 
 that the mass of the people, Reichstag deputies, the 
 General Staff, and all came over to his point of view, 
 and von Bethmann-Hollweg, who had brought about 
 his dismissal, was forced officially to adopt the policy 
 first sponsored by this skilful old seadog and poli- 
 tician.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 WHO SANK THE " LUSITANIA " ? 
 
 Who is responsible for the sinking of the Lusitania, 
 for the deliberate murder which has always remained 
 deep in the consciousness of every American, and 
 which at the outset turned this great nation against 
 Germany ? 
 
 In the first place there was no mistake — no question 
 of orders exceeded or disobeyed. Count von Bern- 
 storff frankly, boldly, defiantly, and impudently 
 advertised to the world, with the authority of the 
 German Government, that the attempt to sink the 
 Lusitania would be made. The Foreign Office, no 
 doubt, acquainted him with the new policy. Von 
 Tirpitz, then actual head of the Navy Department 
 and virtual head of the whole Navy, openly showed 
 his approval of the act, and threw all his influence 
 in favour of a continuation of ruthless tactics. But 
 a question which involved a breach of international 
 law, a possible break with a friendly Power, could 
 not be decided by even the Foreign Office and Navy 
 together. 
 
 The Great General Staff claims a hand in the 
 decision of all questions of foreign policy which even 
 remotely affect the conduct of the war. Similarly 
 it was the duty of the Foreign Office to point out 
 the possible consequences under the rules of inter- 
 national law ; but when the question of submarine 
 
 27
 
 28 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 warfare was to be determined, the consultation was 
 usually at the Great General Headquarters. At 
 these meetings von Tirpitz or the Navy presented 
 their views and the Great General Staff sat with 
 the Emperor in council, although it was reported 
 in Charleville at the time of the settlement of May, 
 1916, that Falkenhayn, speaking in favour of sub- 
 marine war, had been rebuked by the Emperor and 
 told to stick to military affairs. 
 
 All the evidence points to the Emperor himself 
 as the responsible head who at this time ordered or 
 permitted this form of murder. The orders were 
 given at a time when the Emperor dominated the 
 General Staff, not in one of those periods, as outlined 
 in a previous chapter, when the General Staff, as at 
 present, dominated the Emperor. When I saw the 
 Kaiser in October, 1915, he said that he would not 
 have sunk the Lusitania, that no gentleman would 
 have killed so many women and children. Yet he 
 never disapproved the order. Other boats were 
 sunk thereafter in the same manner, and only by chance 
 was the loss of life smaller when the Arabic was 
 torpedoed. It is argued that had the Emperor 
 considered beforehand how many non-combatants 
 would be killed he would not have given the order 
 to sink that particular boat. But what a lame 
 excuse. A man is responsible for the natural and 
 logical results of his own acts. It may be too that 
 Charles IX, when he ordered, perhaps reluctantly, 
 the massacre of St. Bartholomew, did not know 
 that so many would be killed ; but there can be no 
 Pilate-washing-of-the-hands — Emperor William was 
 responsible. He must bear the blame before the world. 
 
 Bloodshed in honourable war is soon forgotten ; 
 but the cowardly stroke by which the Kaiser sought
 
 WHO SANK THE " LUSITANIA " ? 29 
 
 to terrorise America, by which he sent to a struggling 
 death of agony in the sea the peaceful men and 
 women and children passengers of the Lusitania, 
 may ever remain a cold boundary line between 
 Germany and America unless the German people 
 utter a condemnation of the tragedy that rings true 
 and repentant. 
 
 We want to live at peace with the world when 
 this war is over, to be able to grasp once more the 
 hands of those no .7 our enemies, but how can any 
 American clasp in friendship the hand of Germans 
 who approve this and the many other outrages that 
 have turned the conscience of the world against 
 Germany ? 
 
 To Americans in Berlin the sinking of the Lusitania 
 came like a lightning stroke. No Bernstorff warnings 
 had prepared us. I believed I would be recalled 
 immediately. In making preparations to leave, I 
 sent a secretary to see the head of one of the largest 
 banks in Germany, a personal friend, to ask him, in 
 case we should leave, to take for safekeeping into 
 his bank our silver, pictures, etc. He said to my 
 secretary, " Tell Judge Gerard that I will take care 
 of his valuables for him, but tell him also that if 
 the Mauretania comes out to-morrow we shall sink 
 her too." 
 
 That was the attitude of a majority of the business 
 men of Germany. German casualties at that time 
 had been great, so that the mere loss of human life 
 did not appal as would have been the case in a 
 country unused to the daily posting of long lists 
 of dead and wounded. Consequently the one feeling 
 of Germany was of rejoicing, believing indeed that 
 victory was near, that the " damned Yankees " would 
 be so scared that they would not dare travel on
 
 3 o FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 British ships, that the submarine war would be a 
 great success ; that France and England deprived of 
 food, steel and supplies from America soon would be 
 compelled to sue for peace, especially since the 
 strategically clever, if unlawful, invasion of France 
 by way of Belgium had driven the French from the 
 best coal and iron districts of their country. 
 
 I do recall that one Imperial Minister, a reasonable 
 individual whose name I think it best not to mention, 
 expressed in private his sorrow, not only for the 
 deed itself, but for the mistaken policy which he saw, 
 even then, would completely turn in the end the 
 sympathies of America to the Entente Allies. And 
 there were others— among the intellectuals, and, 
 especially, among the merchants of Hamburg and 
 Frankfort who had travelled in the outer world both 
 on pleasure and business — who realised what a pro- 
 found effect the drowning of innocent men, women 
 and children would have on our peace-loving people. 
 
 Many of these men said to me, " The sinking of 
 the Lusitania is the greatest German defeat of all 
 the war. Its consequences will be far-reaching ; its 
 impression, deep and lasting." 
 
 The Teutonic Knights, from whom the ruling 
 class of Prussia is descended, kept the Slavic popula- 
 tion in subjection by a reign of physical terror. This 
 class believes that to rule one must terrorise. The 
 Kaiser himself, referring to the widespread indigna- 
 tion caused by German outrages of the present war, 
 has said : " The German sword will command re- 
 spect." 
 
 Terrorism—" Schrecklichkeit "—has always formed 
 a part not only of German military inclination 
 but of German military policy. I often said to 
 Germans of the Government, " Are you yourselves
 
 WHO SANK THE " LUSITANIA " ? 31 
 
 subject to being terrorised ? If another nation mur- 
 dered or outraged your women, your children, would 
 it cause you to cringe in submission or would you 
 fight to the last ? If you would fight yourselves, 
 what is there in the history of America which makes 
 you think that Americans will submit to mere fright- 
 fulness ; in what particular do you think Americans 
 are so different from Germans ? " But they shrugged 
 their shoulders. 
 
 I have heard that in parts of Germany school 
 children were given a holiday to celebrate the sinking 
 of the Lusitania. I was busy with preparations, too 
 anxious about the future, to devote much time to 
 the study of the psychology of the Germans in other 
 parts of Germany at this moment, but with the 
 exception of the one Cabinet Minister aforementioned, 
 and expressions of regret from certain merchants and 
 intellectuals, it cannot be denied that a great wave 
 of exultation swept over Germany. It was felt that 
 this was a master stroke, that victory was appreciably 
 nearer, and that no power on earth could withstand 
 the brute force of the Empire. 
 
 Mingled with this was a deep hate of all things 
 American inculcated by the Berlin Government. 
 And we must understand therefore that no trick 
 and no evasion, no brutality, will be untried by 
 Germany in this war. It was against the rules of war 
 to use poison gas, but first the newspapers of Ger- 
 many were carefully filled with official statements 
 saying the British and French had used this unfair 
 means. Coincidentally with these reports the German 
 Army was trying by this dastardly innovation to 
 break the British lines. It was not a new procedure. 
 Months before the Lusitania crime, the newspapers 
 and people had been poisoned with official statements
 
 32 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 inflaming the people against America, particularly 
 for our commerce with the Entente in war supplies. 
 
 It was the right, guaranteed by a treaty to which 
 Germany was a signatory, of our private individuals 
 to sell munitions and supplies, but, as Prince von 
 Biilow once remarked on December 13, 1900, in 
 the Reichstag, " I feel no embarrassment in saying 
 here, publicly, that for Germany right can never 
 be a determining consideration." 
 
 Indeed the tame professors were let loose and 
 many of them rushed into Government-paid print 
 to prove that, according to law, the murders of 
 the Lusitania were justified. A German chemist 
 friend of mine told me that the chemists of Germany 
 were called on, after poison gas had been met by 
 British and French, to devise some new and deadly 
 chemical. Flame-throwers soon appeared together 
 with more insidious gases. And it is only because 
 of the vigilance of other nations that German spies 
 have not succeeded in sowing the microbes of pesti- 
 lence in countries arrayed against lawless Germany. 
 
 Remember there is nothing that Kaiserism is not 
 capable of trying in the hope of victory.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE KAISER AND " LESE-MAJESTE " 
 
 The talents and ability and agreeable personality 
 of the German Emperor must not blind us to the 
 fact that he is the centre of the system which has 
 brought the world to a despair and misery such as 
 it never has known since the dawn of history. We 
 must remember that all his utterances disclose the 
 soul of the conqueror, of a man intensely anxious 
 for earthly fame and a conspicuous place in the 
 gallery of human events ; envious, too, of the great 
 names of the past, his ears so tuned for admiration 
 and applause that they fail to hear the great, long- 
 drawn, wail of agony that echoes around the world. 
 His eyes are so blinded with the sheen of his own 
 glory that they do not see the mutilated corpses, 
 the crime, the pestilence, the hunger, the incalculable 
 sorrow that sweeps the earth from the jungles of 
 Africa to the frozen plains of the North, from Siberia 
 to Saskatchewan, from Texas to Trieste, from Alaska 
 to Afghanistan — everywhere he has brought the dark 
 angel of mourning to millions upon millions of 
 desolate homes. 
 
 Do you remember that picture of the Conquerors, 
 Caesar and Alexander, Attila and Napoleon, Charle- 
 magne and Cambyses, astride their horses or in 
 chariots in the centre of the picture, dark, gloomy, 
 
 menacing ? On each side of them, lining a vast 
 
 33 D
 
 34 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 plain that fades in the distance, lie the dead ; stiff, 
 cold, grey, reproachful ; yet all the victims of those 
 conquerors, as well as all their battalions, do not 
 equal the countless number that have already drenched 
 a forgiving earth with their dying blood in this war : 
 victims all of the vainglorious ambition of a single 
 mortal — the German Kaiser. 
 
 But the despot who sends his subjects to die, as 
 Frederick the Great said, " in order to be talked 
 about " is not indigenous to any one particular 
 country. Like conditions produce like results. The 
 career of Louis XIV, the " Sun King," for instance, 
 whose wars and extravagances sowed the seeds of 
 the French Revolution, is epitomised in two phrases 
 uttered by him : " I am the State " and " I almost 
 had to wait." 
 
 After the French Revolution, another despot, the 
 first Napoleon, not only sought the conquest of the 
 world, but made his ex-waiter and ex-groom marshals 
 and his washerwomen duchesses ape the manners 
 and customs of the old regime. Despotism has been 
 characteristic of many generations, but the world 
 had thought itself rid of the worst offenders. 
 
 Royalty still lives to torture and retard civilisa- 
 tion. Its methods of perpetuation are unchanged 
 from the Middle Ages. What is lese-majeste but a 
 survival of feudalism, a kind of slavery to inviolable 
 tradition— the immunity of the monarch and his 
 family from that criticism and freedom of discussion 
 which is the essence of democracy ? 
 
 To commit lese-majeste, to speak slightingly of 
 Royalty in Germany, is a very serious offence. 
 
 I have taken the following examples of decisions 
 in lese-majeste cases not from the records of the 
 lower Courts, the decisions of which may be reversed,
 
 THE KAISER AND LESE-MAJESTE 35 
 
 but from the records of the Imperial Supreme Court 
 at Leipzig, the highest Court in the land. 
 
 For instance : The defendant, a speaker at a 
 meeting consisting chiefly of sympathisers with the 
 Socialist cause, made the following statement in 
 reference to a speech of the Kaiser : 
 
 " Under the protection of the highest power of 
 the State the gauntlet has been flung before the 
 (Socialist) Party, the gauntlet which means a combat 
 for life and death. Well, then, so far as the insult 
 concerns our Party, we are so far above it, that the 
 mudslinging— no matter from what direction it may 
 come — cannot touch us." 
 
 The defence pointed out that the defendant " had 
 considered each word carefully before he had made 
 the speech, and that, in doing so, he wanted to avoid 
 any possibility of lese-majeste." 
 
 The Supreme Court held that although the defen- 
 dant carefully selected his words and tried to evade 
 prosecution, he must be adjudged guilty, because his 
 audience could not have misunderstood the insinua- 
 tion. The sentence was affirmed. 
 
 Dangerous as it is to say anything that can be 
 construed as derogatory of the authority of the 
 Kaiser, it is equally dangerous to attack the dead 
 members of the Royal House. 
 
 The editor of the Volkswacht had published in his 
 paper an article entitled " The German Character- 
 istics of the Hohenzollerns " which the Lower Court 
 interpreted to be a reply to a statement of the Kaiser, 
 which had referred to a group of people considered 
 unworthy by him to be called " Germans." Without 
 doubt the editor was alluding to the Kaiser's speech, 
 made at Koenigsberg to the newly enlisted army 
 recruits, in which he called the Socialists " Vaterlands- 
 
 d 2
 
 36 FACE TO FACE WITH KA1SERISM 
 
 lose Gesellen," i.e., scoundrels without any country. 
 The writer, however, discussed " the conduct of the 
 Elector Joachim of Brandenburg and of his brother 
 Albrecht, Elector of Mainz, before and during the 
 election of Emperor Charles V." 
 
 The defence claimed that the defendant could not 
 be held guilty of lese-majeste against the Kaiser 
 since the defendant " criticised the Kaiser's ancestors 
 and not the Kaiser himself." But the Court held 
 that it was the intent of the defendant to discredit the 
 " House of the Hohenzollerns, and that the Kaiser 
 by implication, being the living head of the Hohen- 
 zollern family, was thereby insulted." The Court 
 further states that the defendant's article could not 
 be regarded as a scientific or historical contribution, 
 since the V olkswachf s subscribers, consisting chiefly 
 of working men, had neither the understanding of 
 nor interest in dynastic intrigues of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 Even those Americans who have expressed them- 
 selves freely about the Kaiser will, after the war is 
 over, be compelled to take their " cures " in some 
 country other than Germany, for in one case it was 
 held that an American citizen was rightfully convicted 
 in Baden of lese-majeste because of statements made 
 by him in Switzerland. 
 
 The Court held that the judgment of the Lower 
 Court must be sustained, since the German Imperial 
 Laws have precedence over any treaties engaged in 
 by the Grand Duchy of Baden and the United States, 
 and " that the fact that defendant had become a 
 citizen of the United States does not exempt him 
 from prosecution in the German Imperial Courts." 
 
 In another case a newspaper editor criticised a 
 speech delivered by the Kaiser before the Reichs-
 
 THE KAISER AND LESE-MAJESTE 37 
 
 tag on December 6, 1898. The defendant did not 
 refer to the person of the Emperor himself, but 
 simply attacked and ridiculed the propositions and 
 proposals made by His Imperial Majesty. The de- 
 fence pointed out that the Kaiser's speech was not 
 an act of the Kaiser's own personal will, but only 
 an act of government for which the Imperial Chan- 
 cellor should be responsible, and that the defendant 
 was not conscious of the fact that the criticism 
 contained in his article could be an insult to the 
 person of the Kaiser. 
 
 It was held, however, by the Court that a criticism 
 of the Kaiser's speech at the opening of the Reichstag 
 is always to be regarded as a criticism of the Kaiser's 
 person, and that the plea that the Imperial Chancellor 
 should be responsible for acts of government of this 
 sort is not sustained. 
 
 In other words it is, in Germany, a crime to criticise 
 or ridicule any proposition uttered by the sacred 
 lips of the Kaiser. 
 
 If the Kaiser announces that two and two make 
 five, gaol awaits the subject who dares to ridicule 
 that novel arithmetical proposition. 
 
 It is because of these convictions for lese-majeste 
 that the Berliners, when discussing the Emperor at 
 their favourite table or " Stammtisch " in the beer- 
 halls and cafes, always refer to him as " Lehmann."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 WHEN THE KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE 
 
 BLUFFING 
 
 An Unpublished Diary 
 
 Kaiserdom is an institution with which the Ameri- 
 can people are really unacquainted — a complex 
 institution the parallel of which does not exist 
 elsewhere. How it sought to play double with the 
 United States is in a general way familiar to Ameri- 
 cans, but I think the record of what happened in 
 the eighteen months preceding our break with Ger- 
 many will illustrate exactly the currents and cross- 
 currents of official opinion which led the United 
 States to be scrupulously cautious in its course before 
 entering the war. As I talked with the Emperor 
 or the Chancellor or the Foreign Minister, I jotted 
 down from time to time notes of their conversation 
 as well as brief summaries of the information available 
 to me from other sources. Naturally I cabled to the 
 Department of State the most significant news, but 
 much of this was not published because our Govern- 
 ment was proceeding cautiously and did not wish to 
 be embarrassed by publicity of its negotiations. 
 There is every reason now, however, why the facts 
 should be known. I am reproducing here the diary 
 I kept from June, 1915, to the end of January, 1917, 
 when unrestricted submarine warfare was resumed 
 
 38
 
 KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 39 
 
 and our break with Germany came. I did not have 
 the idea then of ever publishing my memoranda, so 
 my comments were written without restraint. They 
 show, I am sure, what the general trend of sentiment 
 was in Germany for and against submarine warfare 
 and disclose, too, that while the Emperor was often 
 in the background and seemingly not the most 
 powerful factor in the situation, it was his system that 
 dominated Germany, his spirit that bred the lust for 
 military gain at whatever cost — even the respect of 
 the whole civilised world. Here are the notes as I 
 penned them at the time : 
 
 June, 1915. Lincoln never passed through a crisis 
 greater than that with which the President is con- 
 tending. He is fighting, first, for humanity and some 
 decency in war, and, second, determining whether a 
 European Emperor shall or shall not dictate the 
 political attitude of certain of our citizens. 
 
 It is regrettable to be compelled to think that the 
 German nation knows no treaty or law except the 
 limit of its own desires. 
 
 We are still awaiting the second Lusitania Note, 
 and I fear that Germany will never consent to 
 abandon its present hideous method of submarine 
 war. It is extraordinary to hear Germans of all 
 classes extol mere brute force as the only rule of 
 international life. It is a warning to us to create 
 and increase our Fleet and coast defences. 
 
 The Germans not only do not fear war with us, 
 but state frankly they do not believe we dare to 
 declare it, call us cowardly bluffers and say our 
 Notes are worse than waste paper. Breaking diplo- 
 matic relations means nothing. 
 
 Von Wiegand, the newspaper correspondent, is just
 
 4 o FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 back fromPrzcmysl and says the Russians were defeated 
 by woeful lack of artillery and ammunition. Their 
 power for offence is broken for many months. From 
 the West I hear the French are rather discouraged. 
 
 Germany has ample food and gets all copper, etc., 
 necessary for war purposes through Sweden in ex- 
 change for potash and other commodities. 
 
 An officer of the War Ministry, who comes to see 
 me about prisoners, etc., told me last night that 
 because the French have kept several hundred Ger- 
 mans as prisoners in Dahomey and other places in 
 Africa fifteen thousand French prisoners will be sent 
 to work in the unhealthy swamps of Holstein. I 
 have cabled the State Department often about this 
 Dahomey business, transmitting the request of 
 Germany that these prisoners be sent to Europe. 
 Germans cannot be beaten on reprisals. 
 
 Two or three German-Americans have attacked the 
 President, Secretary Bryan and our Government, some 
 publicly. I have ordered their passports to be taken 
 away and hope to be sustained in this. To permit 
 them to continue poisoning the atmosphere would be 
 taken as a sign of weakness here. No one who abuses 
 his own country, its Government or its Chief, is en- 
 titled to protection from that country. 
 
 We have the visiting of British prisoners in good 
 shape, now that prohibition put on our visiting and 
 inspecting the camps was abolished in March by the 
 8 treaty " I arranged between England and Germany. 
 It was not until March 29 that we finally got 
 passes to visit camps under the " treaty." The 
 prisoners say they are badly treated when they are 
 first captured, but we know only of their treatment 
 in the camps.
 
 KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 41 
 
 I do not believe all the atrocity stories ; but one 
 of our servants in this house came back from the 
 East front recently and said the orders were to kill 
 all Cossacks. Our washerwoman reports that her 
 son was ordered to shoot a woman in Belgium, and 
 I myself have heard an officer calmly describe the 
 shooting of a seven-year-old Belgian girl-child, the 
 excuse being that she had tried to fire at an officer. 
 
 If the Lusitania business settles down, I hope 
 the suggestion made to me by the authorities here, 
 and cabled to the State Department, will be carried 
 into effect. This was that each American and Spanisli 
 Ambassador, having charge of prisoners in belligerent 
 countries, should meet in Switzerland and discuss the 
 whole prison situation. Each Ambassador would be 
 accompanied by representatives of whatever authori- 
 ties deal with prisoners (here the War Ministry) in 
 the country to which he is accredited. To prevent 
 unseemly discussions the actual talking would be 
 done by the Ambassadors (coached by those represen- 
 tatives). In addition to doing away with many mis- 
 understandings and helping the prisoners, there are 
 great possibilities in such a meeting. We could all 
 give each other useful " tips " on the caring for 
 prisoners, inspections, camps, package delivery, mail, 
 etc. 
 
 There is plenty of food in Germany now and 
 enough raw materials to carry on the war. Raw 
 materials for peaceful industries are needed. 
 
 A suggestion : Why not start a great Government 
 chemical school or give protection for a certain number 
 of years to dyestuffs, medicine, chemical, and cyanide 
 material ? All these industries are run here by the 
 trustiest trusts that ever trusted, and by their methods 
 keep American manufacturers from starting the busi-
 
 42 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 ness. A Congressman represents one of the best 
 firms, hence his statements that it is impossible to 
 start such manufactures in America. Our annual 
 tribute to these trusts is enormous. One dyestuff 
 company here employs over five hundred chemists. 
 Only big or protected business can compete. This 
 war has shown that we should not be dependent on 
 other countries for so many manufactures. 
 
 Gifts from America within last week have been 
 refused in Saxony. 
 
 I fear that Germany will not give up its present 
 method of submarine war. Each month new and 
 more powerful submarines are added. 
 
 Perhaps it is worth a war to have it decided that 
 the United States of America is not to be run from 
 Berlin. 
 
 Germans in authority feel that our " New Free- 
 dom " is against their ideas and ideals. They hate 
 President Wilson because he embodies peace and 
 learning rather than war. 
 
 In regard to prisoners, Mr. Harte reports prisoners 
 in Russia and Siberia better treated than was reported. 
 
 I hear for the first time of growing dissatisfaction 
 among the plain people, especially at the great rise 
 in food prices. Germany is getting everything she 
 wants, however, through Sweden, including copper, 
 lard, etc. Von Tirpitz and his Press Bureau were 
 too much for the Chancellor ; the latter is not a good 
 fighter. Zimmermann, if left to himself, would, of 
 course, have stopped this submarine murder. 
 
 I hope the President never gives in on the embargo
 
 KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 43 
 
 on arms ; if he ever gives in on that, we might as 
 well hoist the German Eagle on the Capitol. 
 
 July, 1915. I think that the firm tone of the 
 President's Note (of June 9, 1915) will make the 
 Germans climb down. There seems general disposi- 
 tion to be pleased with the Note and an expectation 
 that matters can be arranged. The great danger is 
 that the Germans may again get the idea that we 
 do not dare to declare war. In such case they will 
 again become difficult to handle. 
 
 Zimmermann and von Jagow are both quite 
 pleased with the tone of the Note. 
 
 They both talk now of keeping Belgium, the 
 excuse being that the Belgians hate the Germans so 
 that if Belgium again became independent it would 
 be only an English outpost. Meyer Gerhard, Bern- 
 storffs special envoy, has arrived and has broken 
 into print over the sentiment in America. I am 
 afraid he makes it too peaceful, and, therefore, the 
 Germans will be encouraged to despise America. 
 
 While the authorities here think the idea of freedom 
 of the seas good, they think the idea of freedom of 
 land too vague. They want to know exactly what 
 it means and say the seas should be free because 
 they belong to no one, but that land is the private 
 property of various nations. They compare the 
 situation to a city street, where everyone is interested 
 in keeping the streets free but would resent a proposal 
 that private houses also should be made common 
 meeting ground if not common property. Unfor- 
 tunately for Germany and the world, the German 
 armies are winning, and this will be considered a 
 complete vindication of the military and caste system 
 and everything which now exists. As Cleveland
 
 44 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 said, we are confronted by a condition, not a theory. 
 Germany, unless beaten, will never directly or indirectly 
 agree to any freedom of land or disarmament proposal. 
 
 The Emperor probably will see me soon. He has 
 been rabid on the export of arms from the United 
 States to the Allies, but like all Germans, when they 
 see we cannot be scared into a change of policy, he 
 is making a nice recovery. 
 
 Was told by a friend at the Foreign Office that 
 the German Note would contain a proposition that 
 regular passenger ships should not be torpedoed 
 without notice, but must carry no cargo other than 
 passengers' baggage. Have heard Marine Depart- 
 ment rather opposes this, but may favour proposition 
 as to ships inspected and certified to carry no arms 
 or ammunition. No Note until after July 4, 
 they say at Foreign Office, on tip from Washington- 
 (Note. — German Note was delivered to me July 8, 
 1915.) 
 
 Chancellor and von Jagow have been in Vienna, 
 probably over Balkan question. The situation there 
 hinges on Bulgaria. Germany wants a direct strip 
 of territory for itself or Austria to Constantinople. 
 Thirteen million pounds in gold sent recently by 
 Germany to Turkey to keep the boys in line. Prin- 
 cipal Socialist paper, the Vorwarts, has been 
 suppressed because it spoke of peace ; reason given 
 is that this kind of talk would encourage enemies of 
 Germany. 
 
 The Germans are becoming more strict, even 
 women now entering Germany must strip to the 
 skin and take down their back hair. The wife of 

 
 KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 45 
 
 Hearst's correspondent here had to submit to this 
 the other day. 
 
 At first, newspaper correspondents had to promise 
 they would not go to enemy territory, next that they 
 would not go to neutral territory (after one corre- 
 spondent went to Denmark and sent out despatches 
 about the movement against annexing Belgium). 
 Now the correspondents must promise not to go 
 home. This is to keep secret the internal conditions. 
 The women stormed a butter shop here the other 
 day and our Consul reports, in Chemnitz, quite a 
 serious food riot. The military were called out and 
 the fire department turned hose on the crowd. 
 
 In Austria, I hear men up to fifty-five are being 
 called to the colours and even the infirm taken for 
 the army. There are said to be seven German and 
 five Austrian army corps invading Serbia. The losses 
 of the invaders are reported to be heavy. To date, 
 the German dead in this war number about seven 
 hundred thousand. People who offered private hos- 
 pitals at the beginning of the war and who were told 
 these were not needed have been requested to open 
 them. I was told the remaining civil population of 
 Vouziers, France (in German hands), had been re- 
 moved to make room for German wounded. 
 
 The Note of July 21, 1915, in which the President 
 said he would regard the sinking of ships without 
 warning as " deliberately unfriendly," is received 
 with hostility by Press and Government. Of course, 
 the party of frightfulness has conquered those of 
 milder views, owing largely to the aggressive news- 
 paper campaign conducted by von Tirpitz, Reventlow
 
 46 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 and Company. The Germans generally are, at 
 present, in rather a waiting attitude, perhaps anxious 
 to see what our attitude towards England will be; 
 but this will not affect their submarine policy. The 
 Foreign Office now claims, I hear, that I am hostile 
 to Germany, but that claim was to be expected. Of 
 course, I had no more to do with the American Note 
 than they did, but it is impossible to convince them 
 of that, so I shall not try. 
 
 Germany has the Balkan situation well in hand. 
 Roumania can do nothing in the face of recent Russian 
 defeats and has just consented to allow grain to be 
 exported to Austria and Germany, but has, I think, 
 not yet consented to allow the passage of ammunition 
 to Turkey. The pressure, however, is great. If not 
 successful, perhaps German troops will invade Serbia 
 so as to get a passage through to Turkey. 
 
 A Minister from one of the Balkan States told 
 me the situation of Roumania, Greece and Bulgaria 
 was about the same, each State can last in war only 
 about three months, so all are trying to gauge three 
 months before the end and then come in on the 
 winning side. 
 
 The Bulgarian Minister of the Public Debt got 
 in here by mistake the other day, insisting he had 
 an appointment ; he had an appointment with the 
 Treasurer, Helfferich, whose office is nearby. This 
 shows, perhaps, that Bulgaria is getting money here. 
 
 Also the Germans are sending back to Russia 
 Russians of revolutionary tendencies, who were pri- 
 soners here, with money and passports in order that 
 they may stir up trouble at home. 
 
 The Germans are making a great effort to take 
 Warsaw, even old Landsturm men are in the fighting
 
 KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 47 
 
 line ; I think they will get it, and then they hope to 
 turn two million men and strike a great blow in France 
 — thus they expect to end the war by October. 
 
 I notice now a slight reaction from annexation 
 towards giving up all or part of Belgium ; but I must 
 say I hear very little of popular dissatisfaction with 
 the war. Everything seems to be going smoothly ; 
 but they are scraping the bottom of the box on 
 getting men for the army. 
 
 It is not pleasant to be hated by so many millions. 
 The Germans naturally make me the object of their 
 concentrated hate. I received an anonymous letter 
 in which the kindly writer rejoices that so many 
 Americans were drowned in the Chicago disaster. 
 This shows the state of mind. 
 
 The Emperor is at the front, " Somewhere in 
 Galicia." They keep him very much in the back- 
 ground, I think, with the idea of disabusing the 
 popular mind of the idea that this is " his war." 
 After all, accidents may happen, and even after a 
 victorious war there may be a day of reckoning. 
 The Chancellor went to the front yesterday, probably 
 to see the Emperor about the American question. 
 
 August, 1915. I had a conversation last week of 
 one hour and a half with the Chancellor. He sent 
 for me because I had written him to take no more 
 trouble about my seeing the Emperor. He ex- 
 plained, of course, first that he did not know I wanted 
 to see the Emperor, and second that it was impossible 
 to see the Emperor. They keep the Emperor well 
 surrounded. Now I do not want to see him. He is
 
 48 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 hot against Americans and the matters I wanted to 
 talk of arc all settled — one way. I cabled an inte- 
 resting report on the Emperor's conversation re 
 America. 
 
 The Chancellor is still wrong in his head ; says 
 it was necessary to invade Belgium, break all inter- 
 national laws, etc. I think, however, that he was 
 personally against the fierce Dernburg propaganda 
 in America. I judge that von Tirpitz, through his 
 Press Bureau, has egged on the people so that this 
 submarine war will continue. An official confessed 
 to me that they had tried to get England to interfere, 
 together with them, in Mexico, and Germans " Gott 
 strafe ' the Monroe Doctrine in their daily prayers of 
 hate. 
 
 Warsaw, as I predicted officially, long ago, will 
 soon fall. 
 
 No great news — we are simply waiting for the 
 inevitable submarine " accident." 
 
 Unless there is a change of sentiment in the 
 Government I think the submarine commanders will 
 be careful. 
 
 The Chancellor talked rather freely, but again 
 said it was impossible to leave Belgium to become an 
 outpost of the English, but possibly with Germans 
 in possession of the forts, the railways, and with 
 commercial rights in Antwerp it might be arranged. 
 
 There is a faction here led by Deputy Bassermann, 
 Stresemann, Fahrmann, etc., who are attacking the 
 Chancellor. They represent great industrials who 
 want to annex Belgium, Northern France, Poland 
 and anything else that can be had, for their own
 
 KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 49 
 
 ultimate advantage. A man named Hirsch is hired 
 by the Krupp firm to " accelerate " this work. 
 Krupps also pay the expenses of the " Oversea Ser- 
 vice " which is feeding news to America. 
 
 A paper against annexation of Belgium has been 
 signed, I am told, by Dernburg, Prince Hatzfeld 
 and others, and will be presented to the Chancellor 
 to-day. I believe many are to sign it ; but of those 
 who have signed are Hatzfeld, who is one of the 
 three big Dukes of Prussia ; Prince Henckel-Donners- 
 marck, who is the second richest subject in Germany 
 — (85 years old, he was in 1870 first Governor of 
 Lorraine) — von Harrach, who is a man of great 
 ability, highly respected, as is also Professor Delbruck. 
 
 The Reichstag meets in a few days. The Socialists 
 are holding daily caucuses, but have not yet decided 
 on any Party action. Undoubtedly they will vote 
 for the new ten milliard loan, with Liebknecht and 
 a few others dissenting. Probably a split will also 
 develop in the National Liberal Party ; Bassermann 
 and others have been attacking the Chancellor, but 
 I think other members will dissent. It is quite 
 probable that there will be a discussion about the 
 object of the war, and permission will be asked for 
 public discussion, the Socialists perhaps claiming 
 that they have consented to a defensive war only, 
 and that now that the war is on enemy territory 
 peace should be at least discussed. There may also 
 be talk about the annexation of Belgium and food 
 prices. The Socialists are greatly incensed at those 
 who are holding food for high prices. 
 
 Personally, I think that Germany now wants 
 peace but does not want to say so openly. 
 
 E
 
 5 o FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 A relative of a Field-Marshal told me to-day that 
 Germany's killed to date were 600,000 and 200,000 
 crippled for life. 
 
 I must say that the plain people still seem per- 
 fectly tame and ready to continue the war. However, 
 there may also be a protest in the Reichstag about 
 the treatment by non-commissioned officers of Land- 
 sturm men who have never served but who now, in 
 the process of scraping the box, are called to the 
 colours. 
 
 The Germans hope by a great movement to cap- 
 ture a great part of the Russian Army ; probably 
 they will fail. They also entertain hopes that in 
 such case Sweden will enter Finland and two Balkan 
 States declare for them. Balkan Ministers here tell 
 me the defeat of Russia makes it impossible for 
 Roumania to enter, but they fear an invasion by the 
 Germans. All diplomatic work is now centred in 
 the Balkans. 
 
 Successes in Russia have made the people here 
 very cocky. Hence, probably, the torpedoing of the 
 Arabic. Also great hope of Bulgaria coming in with 
 Germany ; there is no more dissatisfaction heard over 
 the war. I have as yet received nothing from 
 Washington regarding the Arabic. 
 
 I have just spent four half-days at Ruhleben, 
 where civilian Britishers are interned, so as to give 
 every prisoner a chance to speak to me personally. 
 
 There is much talk of creating an independent 
 Poland. The Reichstag session has developed no 
 opposition.
 
 KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 51 
 
 A facsimile of that infernal advertisement * of 
 the Cleveland Automatic Tool Company in the 
 American Machinist was laid on the desk of every 
 member of the Reichstag ; and the papers are full 
 of accounts of great deliveries of war munitions 
 by America, possibly preparing people for a break. 
 If Bulgaria comes in, Germany will undoubtedly 
 take a strip in Serbia and keep a road to Constanti- 
 nople and the East. The new Turkish Ambassador 
 has just arrived. The old one was not friendly to 
 Enver Bey and so was bounced ; he remains here, 
 however, as he fears if he went to Turkey he would 
 get some " special " coffee. The hate for Americans 
 grows daily. 
 
 All rumours are that in the recent Council at Posen 
 the Chancellor, advocating concessions in submarine 
 war, won out over von Tirpitz. But von Tirpitz 
 will die hard, and there will be trouble yet, as the 
 Navy will be very angry if the present methods 
 are abandoned. Members of the Reichstag have 
 telegraphed backing up the Chancellor ; but it is 
 hard for any civilian idea to prevail against Army 
 or Navy. 
 
 Probably the Admiralty will say that the sub- 
 marine which torpedoed the Arabic was lost, in order 
 to avoid disgracing an officer. 
 
 If the Arabic question is not complicated with the 
 Lusitania a solution will be easier. The common 
 people have been aroused by von Tirpitz's Press 
 Bureau and it will be simpler for the Chancellor to 
 4< back track," taking as an example a case like the 
 
 * This was an advertisement in an American newspaper about 
 machines for the manufacture of particularly deadly shells and was 
 much used in Germany to show how America was helping the Entente. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Arabic when the ship was going West and carried 
 no ammunition. 
 
 The defeat of the Russians is undoubtedly crushing. 
 Is England waking up too late ? There will be a big 
 offensive soon against the West lines. 
 
 I have heard nothing up to to-day from the State 
 Department re the Arabic, except one cable asking 
 me to request a report. 
 
 A correspondent has just been in and says that 
 the General Staff people threaten to expel him 
 because he went to Copenhagen and sent out news 
 about the petition to the Chancellor not to annex 
 Belgium. The Foreign Office had no objection ; 
 this shows how the line is forming between the 
 Chancellor and the Military. All correspondents 
 to-day say the Germans are trying to dragoon them 
 into sending only news which the General Staff 
 wants sent, and the Military have added their censor- 
 ship to that of the Foreign Office. 
 
 An official told me that Bernstorff, while not 
 exactly exceeding his instructions in his " Arabic 
 Note ' (of September 1, 1915), had put the matter 
 in a manner they did not approve. 
 
 Orders have now, apparently, been given to all 
 German officials to say that the war will last a long 
 time — at least a year and a half. 
 
 It is expected that Persia will come in under 
 German leadership and attack India. 
 
 Our Military Attache, Colonel Kuhn, was finally 
 presented to the Kaiser and had a pleasant chat with 
 him. Colonel Kuhn says all fighting on West is with 
 artillery and hand-grenades. Rifles are thrown aside.
 
 KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING 53 
 
 Germans have spies " piping off " our Embassies 
 in Paris, London and Petrograd. 
 
 Great airship attacks on London may be ex- 
 pected. 
 
 Foreign Office quite elated over their Balkan 
 triumph. Personally, I think it was one of the most 
 effective bits of German " diplomacy " in the history 
 of the Empire.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE INSIDE OF GERMAN DIPLOMACY 
 
 The Diary Continued 
 
 October, 1915. There is a tendency here to say 
 Bernstorff went too far. But this is all for the 
 public, von Jagow told a correspondent so to-day ; 
 but, of course, he did not know about the Note of 
 Austria to Serbia either ! The Marine people are 
 positively raging. The paper which Reventlow writes 
 for, the Tageszeitung, was suppressed yesterday ; 
 I hear on account of an article on this Arabic settle- 
 ment, but I am not yet sure. 
 
 There is talk now of marching to Egypt. 
 
 More and more men are being called to colours. 
 But Germany seems to be able to take care of all 
 fronts. The Emperor is now in the West. The 
 Foreign Office leads the rejoicing over the Entente's 
 invasion of Greece and the violation of its neutrality 
 and says that talk about Belgium is now shown to be 
 cant. 
 
 Weather is rotten and we shall have a melancholy 
 winter. Feel the war more— deaths and prices. 
 Six hundred and eighty thousand killed to October 1, 
 and many crippled. Food way up, but they cannot 
 starve Germany out. 
 
 Suppression of the Tageszeitung means that the 
 
 54
 
 THE INSIDE OF GERMAN DIPLOMACY 55 
 
 Chancellor has at last exhibited some backbone and 
 will fight von Tirpitz. The answer of Germany 
 depends on the outcome of this fight. It is possible 
 that von Falkenhayn and the Army party may sustain 
 the Chancellor as against von Tirpitz. It is quite 
 likely that a sort of safe conduct will be offered in 
 the Note for ships especially engaged in passenger 
 trade. Much stress will be laid on English orders to 
 merchant ships to ram submarines. 
 
 The Kaiser is at Pless, a castle of Prince of Pless, 
 in Silesia, near Breslau, where he moved after the 
 attempt of French fliers to bombard him at Charle- 
 ville on the West Front. The Germans probably 
 will have Lemberg in a few days. This may prevent 
 Roumania coming in. There is talk here of an 
 attempted revolution in Moscow. There is said to 
 be jealousy of Hindenburg, and on account of this 
 Mackensen was put forward to be the hero of the 
 Galician Campaign. Captain Enochs, one of our 
 observers in Austria, was forced out of Austria 
 because of German pressure, and our other military 
 observers will follow soon. 
 
 Many commercial magnates have arrived in town 
 to argue with the Government against war with 
 America ; but some are in favour of the continuance 
 of bitter submarine war, notably one who sees his 
 Bagdad railway menaced by possible English success 
 in the Dardanelles. 
 
 November, 1915. A man who saw Tisza tells 
 me the Serbs inquired if they could get peace and 
 retain their territories. They were answered, " No." 
 
 It is said that Italy has also felt out for peace, 
 but was answered that she must deal with Austria
 
 5 6 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 n lone— and Austria says that she will not include 
 Italy in any general peace, but will wallop her alone 
 after general peace is made. 
 
 I am working hard to get British prisoners properly 
 clothed. Winter is already here. Efforts to starve 
 Germany will not succeed. We shall be on meat and 
 butter cards, but that is only a precaution. The people 
 still are well in hand. Constant rumours of peace 
 keep them hopeful. Men over forty-five not yet 
 called. They seem to have plenty of troops. The 
 military are careless of the public opinion of neutrals ; 
 they say they are winning and do not need good 
 opinion. I am really afraid of war against us after 
 this war — if Germany wins. We had snow, ice, and 
 cold weather at the end of October. 
 
 There have been uneasy movements among the 
 people in Leipzig, a great industrial centre, and the 
 Volkszeitung, a Socialist paper there, has been put 
 under permanent preventive censorship. 
 
 All these movements start with the question of the 
 price of food. 
 
 The Prussian Junkers, however, are really bene- 
 fited by the war. They get, even with a high " stop 
 price," three times as much as formerly for their 
 agricultural products and pay only a small sum, 
 sixty pfennig daily, for the prisoners of war who 
 now work their fields. They may, in addition, have 
 to pay the keep of the prisoners, but that is very 
 small. Camp commanders are allowed sixty-six 
 pfennig per head per diem. 
 
 There is much talk of peace. The shares of the 
 Hamburg-America Line and the shares of the 
 Hamburg-South America Line have risen enor-
 
 THE INSIDE OF GERMAN DIPLOMACY 57 
 
 mously in price from fifty-six to one hundred and 
 forty in one case. This may be caused by an advan- 
 tageous sale of some shares of the Holland- America 
 Line or by promise of a subsidy, or by hopes of peace. 
 
 There is no question but that every man under 
 forty- five that can drag a rifle has been drafted 
 for the army, with the possible exception of men 
 working on railways, munitions, etc. 
 
 Yesterday I noticed many women working on the 
 roadbed of the railway. 
 
 The new Peruvian Minister is named von der 
 Heyde ; his father was a German. 
 
 The Greek Minister still thinks Greece will stay 
 out of the war. His father is one of the Cabinet. 
 
 The Germans are very glad to get rid of Brand 
 Whitlock. For some time they have been looking 
 for an excuse to expel him. 
 
 The dyestuff and other chemical manufacturers 
 are getting quite scared about possible American 
 competition. I hope the Democrats will give pro- 
 tection to these new industries and will also enact 
 some " anti-dumping " legislation. 
 
 The German cities are adding to the general 
 weight of debt by incurring large debts for war 
 purposes, such as relief of soldiers' families, etc. 
 
 The former Turkish Ambassador, who is against 
 the Young Turks, is living here. He is afraid to 
 go back and also the Germans are keeping him in 
 stock in case the Young Turks go out of power, and 
 possibly to stir up trouble in Egypt, as his wife is a 
 daughter of one of the Khedives.
 
 58 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 There are lots of suspicious-looking Spaniards 
 about, possibly cooking up an attack on Gibraltar. 
 
 Any German peace talk includes payment of a 
 large subsidy by England, Russia, and France ; 
 Italy to be left to Austria to finish. 
 
 The export of gold has now been formally for- 
 bidden. 
 
 There is no doubt whatever that the population 
 in the conquered portion of Poland has been for a 
 long time in need of food. 
 
 Our Military Attache^ Colonel Kuhn, just back 
 from Serbia, says the Germans have, literally, stacks 
 of ammunition and had begun preparing last spring 
 for the present attack, even little mountain wagons 
 and new harness being all ready. Only about six 
 German corps are there. 
 
 The hate against Americans here is deep-seated 
 and bitter. Hans Winterfeldt, a prominent German 
 banker, with American citizenship, just came in to 
 tell me that at the annual meeting to-day of the 
 great Allgemeine Electricitats Gesellschaft a fight 
 was started against him because of his American 
 citizenship, and he was not, therefore, re-elected a 
 director. He thinks of resigning from all banks, 
 etc., and returning to America. 
 
 December, 1915. Red Cross Doctor Schmidt just 
 in from Serbia says Belgrade was completely plun- 
 dered. 
 
 Having lots of difficulty getting the Germans to 
 give the English prisoners clothes. 
 
 Hate of Americans worse than ever. 
 
 Germans are not resentful when I fight to get 
 things for English prisoners ; they only say they
 
 THE INSIDE OF GERMAN DIPLOMACY 59 
 
 hope our Ambassadors are doing the same for 
 Germans. 
 
 Much disappointment at Dr. Snoddy's mission 
 not yet being permitted to work in Russia. 
 
 Last Tuesday night I ran into quite a peace 
 demonstration, called by placards the Night of the 
 Peace Interpellation in the Reichstag. Soon dis- 
 banded by the police with many arrests. One man 
 told me that they were tired of a silly war and days 
 without meat. There has been nothing in the papers 
 about these demonstrations ; of course, each arrest 
 makes an anarchist for life. 
 
 It is hard to get butter. The women storm the 
 butter shops and market. 
 
 In a new building (where the Consulate is) they 
 are taking off the copper roof. 
 
 Of a sudden — peace talk. The Chancellor is waiting 
 to address the Reichstag, waiting to get the sentiment 
 of the members who are all in Berlin, and then swim 
 with it. Many members, who are not Socialists, 
 favour peace, and the Chancellor will be forced to 
 make some sort of a declaration on why they are 
 fighting and for what. 
 
 A Reichstag member told me the Reichstag will 
 say and do things it did not dream of doing six 
 months ago. There are many quiet meetings of 
 members going on. 
 
 Hindenburg is out with an interview saying it is 
 not yet time for peace. This is a Government 
 measure to stamp out peace talk among the Reichstag 
 members. 
 
 Am having a hard fight to get the British prisoners 
 properly clothed for the winter. Of course, the
 
 60 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Germans have rather a difficult time with so many 
 prisoners, but that is no excuse if men die of cold. 
 The weather is and has been bitterly cold. 
 
 Saw von Jagow lately, but only on business and 
 commercial questions. Zimmermann lunched here 
 to-day. Roeder, of the World, is here making a 
 study of German industrial conditions. I introduced 
 him to Gutmann, of the Dresdner Bank ; Rathenau, 
 head of the General Electric ; Dr. Solf, Colonial 
 Minister, and others. I think his report will be very 
 sound and worth reading. 
 
 There is no question but that there is a deep- 
 seated hatred of America here, which must be reckoned 
 with sooner or later. 
 
 I don't expect things to be easy, but I wish to 
 goodness all Americans would stay at home. 
 
 Greek Minister still thinks Greece will remain 
 neutral. 
 
 Probably greatest need of Germany is lubricating 
 oil for machines, etc. Germans claim to have a 
 copper mine in Serbia. I never heard of one there. 
 
 Dr. Ohnesorg, U.S.N. , and Osborne back from 
 inspecting camps. They report bad conditions ; they 
 were not allowed (contrary to our " treaty ") to talk 
 out of hearing of camp officers to the prisoners in 
 Limburg Camp. These prisoners are 2,000 Irish, 
 and the reason, of course, for the refusal of the 
 usual permission is that the Germans, through the 
 notorious Sir Roger Casement, have been trying to 
 seduce the Irish, and do not want the soldier pri- 
 soners to tell us about it. I have learned, through 
 other sources, that the Germans seduced about thirty 
 Irish. I told von Jagow what I had learned and asked 
 what the Germans had done with these victims —
 
 THE INSIDE OF GERMAN DIPLOMACY 61 
 
 whether they were in the German Army or not. He 
 said, " No, most of them had been sent to Ireland to 
 raise hell there." I suppose they were landed from 
 submarines. 
 
 I think the German Press has received orders to 
 step softly on the von Papen-Boy-Ed recall. The 
 greatest danger now lies in Austria, and over the 
 Ancona Note. There is a large body of manufacturers, 
 shipowners, etc., here who at the last moment declare 
 themselves against war with the U.S.A., and use their 
 influence to that end, but in Austria no such interests 
 exist to help toward peace. However, pressure from 
 Germany may be brought to bear. 
 
 I think Germany will not send successors to von 
 Papen and Boy-Ed even with safe conduct ; whether 
 they will ask the recall of our attaches is another 
 question not yet decided. 
 
 An official tells me confidentially that Rintelen 
 was sent to America to buy up the product of the 
 Dupont Powder Company, and that if he did any- 
 thing else he exceeded his instructions. 
 
 Shop people in Berlin with whom I have talked are 
 getting sick of the war. 
 
 I hear rumours that Germany is trying, through 
 its Minister in China, to come to an understanding 
 with Japan and Russia. 
 
 The banks are sending circulars to all safe- 
 deposit box holders, trying to get them to give up 
 their gold. 
 
 An American clergyman has just told me the 
 German Church body has refused to receive an 
 American Church deputation and has written a very 
 bitter letter. 
 
 An official has told me that no new Military Attache
 
 62 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 will be sent to America. The naval people have not 
 yet decided. 
 
 I am very glad to hear Colonel House is coming 
 over. There are many things I want to tell the 
 President but which I do not dare to commit to 
 paper. 
 
 A newspaperman supposed to be of the New York 
 
 had an interview with Zimmermann the other 
 
 day, and Zimmermann sent some messages by him 
 to the President. I do not know what the messages 
 are. We all suffer much from amateur diplomats.* 
 
 Anthony Czarnecki, a very intelligent Chicagoan, 
 an American of Polish descent, is here representing 
 Victor Lawson and the Chicago Daily News. He 
 informs me that the Spy Nest is contemplating an 
 attack on the Administration because of the taking 
 away of Archibald's and others' passports. 
 
 * I do not suppose that any Ambassador ever suffered as much from 
 amateur "super- Ambassadors" as I did. The German Foreign Office, 
 trying to be modern and up to date at times, paid more attention to 
 the tales of pro-German American correspondents than they did to the 
 utterances of President Wilson. Of course, the Germans succeeded in 
 taking many of those correspondents into their camp. In the Hotel 
 
 — in Berlin an agent of the German Government who possessed 
 
 American citizenship was always ready to arrange trips to the front or 
 to make an advance of money to an American correspondent who 
 would promise to be "good." Some received cash, some were paid in 
 interviews with prominent officials, some received both, before all was 
 continually dangled the blue ribbon — the hope of an interview with the 
 Kaiser — and some, thank God, were real Americans and refused all 
 the offered temptations — news or money. An American gentleman 
 who lived for a time at this hotel has given me a written statement 
 which throws a light on the activities of certain of these gentry and 
 which I may some day use. In this he states how one of these 
 gentlemen claimed that the Imperial Chancellor always sent for him to 
 consult him on his attitude towards America and that he had advised 
 him to make a bold front and bluff. Hence, perhaps the Note of 
 January 31 which suddenly announced the ruthless submarine war. 
 I have proof that one of this traitorous gang went about Berlin 
 personating me. What scheme he was cooking up I do not know. 
 Zimmermann was particularly weak in being advised by one of these 
 shady individuals.
 
 THE INSIDE OF GERMAN DIPLOMACY 63 
 
 My impression is that the Austrians, owing to 
 pressure from here, will eventually give in on the 
 Ancona business. I think the present a good time 
 to force the settlement of the Lusitania question. 
 I think the German Government will allow Ford or 
 any of his angels to come here, but the Peace Ark 
 seems pretty well wrecked. 
 
 Provincial and small newspapers are much more 
 bitter against America than the larger ones. 
 
 Von Jagow told me the other day that he thought 
 the feeling here against America was so bitter that, 
 eventually, war would be inevitable. 
 
 Received following anonymous letter : 
 
 a 
 
 I am enabled to-day to give your Excellency news of the 
 utmost importance. Germany is at the end of its forces and the 
 Imperial Government is inclined to make peace cost what may ! 
 One of the most prominent and influential members of the Reichs- 
 tag has assured me that the general conviction of the Parliament 
 is dominated by the absolute necessity to pull back and to strive for 
 peace as soon as possible. The financial aspect given by Dr. 
 Helfferich is disastrous, the military situation, taken in the whole, 
 unsatisfactory, and the confidential information, given by Herr 
 von Jagow in the Committee with regard to the Egyptian expedition 
 discouraging if not hopeless. The Government and particularly 
 Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg wish for peace, but believe themselves 
 restrained by public opinion and by the fear of the Pan-Germanists. 
 It's now the psychological moment for intervention by the United 
 States, and there can be no doubt that it should and will be exercised 
 in favour of humanity, culture and freedom, in favour of the pre- 
 valence of the Anglo-Saxon race and the future development of the 
 new world against Prussian barbarity, Imperial despotism and 
 Teutonic slavery ! 
 
 " Old Gentleman. 
 "22. XII. 1915."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 
 
 The Diary Continued 
 
 January, 1916. Many of the intelligent rich are 
 expressing the fear that after this war the Socialist 
 high price system, governmental seizure of food, con- 
 trol of raw materials, etc., will be continued, and 
 also that the owners of large landed estates will be 
 compelled to subdivide them. 
 
 We are getting vague and conflicting reports in 
 the newspapers here about the sinking of the Persia. 
 There seems to be no end to this business. Perhaps 
 it is best to have the inevitable come now. The hate 
 of America has grown to such an extent under careful 
 Government stimulus that I am quite sure we will 
 be the first attacked after the war. Therefore, if 
 it is to come, it had better come now when we would 
 start with a certain fleet in command of the seas, 
 making it impossible for agitators, dynamiters, and 
 spies to be sent to Mexico and South America and 
 into the U.S.A. through Canada and Mexico. From 
 the highest to the lowest I get intimations that at 
 the first chance America will be attacked. 
 
 There is still a spirit of confidence in ultimate 
 success, amply justified, it would seem, by the mili- 
 tary situation. 
 
 04
 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 65 
 
 A lot of dyestuffs mysteriously left Germany 
 recently in spite of the embargo, and got to Holland, 
 billed to America, where it remains, awaiting a 
 permit from the British. Perhaps the Germans are 
 getting worried about the possible building-up of 
 the industry at home. The profits of the German 
 dyestuff " trust " are certainly great enough to 
 tempt the trust to do anything to keep the monopoly. 
 Hardly a company pays less than 24 per cent, divi- 
 dend. 
 
 The Kaiser is still laid up with a boil on his neck. 
 
 I am waiting the arrival of Colonel House, who, 
 I suppose, will be here in ten days or so. 
 
 S.S. McClure of the good ship Nutty (Pro- 
 prietor Ford), Hermann Bernstein and Inez Milhol- 
 land Boissevain, likewise of the crew, have been 
 here. Their stories are most amusing. Apparently, 
 now, the nuttiest have voted to remain a permanent 
 committee at The Hague ; salary (five thousand 
 suggested) to each to be paid by Ford — with washing 
 and expenses. 
 
 The Reichstag, sitting in " Budget Commission," 
 is getting quite worked up over the censorship, and 
 the Socialists are demanding the freedom of the 
 Press. 
 
 Yesterday one member said he thought it would 
 do the U.S.A. good if they knew what the Germans 
 really thought of Americans. 
 
 The spy system here is very complete, and even 
 the President and Cabinet at home in America are 
 surrounded. Heydebrand, leader of the Conservative 
 Party, called the uncrowned King of Prussia, said 
 yesterday in the Prussian Chamber that " America
 
 66 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 was among the worst enemies of Germany." I am 
 convinced that Germany, as now advised, either 
 will attack America or land in South America, if 
 successful in this war. Falkenhayn, Chief of the 
 General Staff, said, referring to America, " It is hard 
 to stop a victorious army." 
 
 I have just returned from three days in Munich. 
 I visited two prison camps and the American Red 
 Cross Hospital in Munich and conferred with Arch- 
 deacon Nies (of the American Episcopal Church), 
 who is permitted to visit Bavarian prison camps, 
 talk to prisoners, and hold services in English. 
 These Bavarian camps are under Bavarian, not 
 Prussian, rule. 
 
 Munich seems lively and contented. I saw great 
 quantities of soldiers there and at Ingolstadt. 
 
 I expect Colonel House about the 26th, and shall 
 be very glad to see him. 
 
 Morgenthau was here for a day. I took him to 
 see von Jagow, where we talked for an hour. Later, 
 through some Germans, he met Zimmermann, who 
 asked him if he did not think the German- Americans 
 in America would rise in rebellion if trouble came 
 between Germany and America. 
 
 Von Jagow was very explicit in saying that Ger- 
 many had made no agreement with us about sub- 
 marine commanders. He said distinctly that Germany 
 reserved the right to change these orders at any time. 
 On the general question, he again said that the sub- 
 marine was a new weapon and that the rules of inter- 
 national law must be changed, apparently claiming the 
 right for Germany to change these rules at will and 
 without the consent of any other Power involved.
 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 67 
 
 Morgenthau sailed Sunday, the 6th, from Copen- 
 hagen. The newspapers to-day and last night print 
 articles to the effect that the negotiations are taking 
 a more favourable course. 
 
 February, 1916. I dined last night at von Jagow's. 
 He said I would get a Note to-dav which would 
 accept all Bernstorff's propositions except, as he 
 put it. one word, viz. : Germany will acknowledge 
 liability for the loss of American lives by the sinking 
 of the Lusitania. but will not acknowledge that the 
 act of sinking was illegal. He said that international 
 law had to be changed, that the submarine was a 
 new weapon, and that, anyway, if a break came 
 with America, they had a lot of new submarines 
 here and would make an effective submarine blockade 
 of England. To-day a cipher from the German 
 Foreign Office came in to be forwarded to the State 
 Department for Bernstorff, so I suppose this is what 
 he referred to. Probably the Germans are in earnest 
 on this proposition. It is now squarely up to the 
 American people to decide. 
 
 Of course I am very much disturbed at the turn 
 of affairs, but I am doing nothing except repeating 
 to Lansing what is said to me, and trying to convince 
 the Germans that we are in earnest. 
 
 I was very glad to see Colonel House in Berlin, 
 for many reasons, and, especially, that the President 
 may get his view of the situation here. He had 
 long talks with the Chancellor, von Jagow, and 
 Zimmermann, and also met Dr. Solf, the Colonial 
 Minister ; von Gwinner, head of the Deutsche Bank ; 
 Gutmann, of the Dresdner Bank ; and Dr. Rathenau, 
 head of the Allgemeine Electricitats Gesellschaft and 
 
 F 2
 
 68 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 man}- corporations, who is now engaged with the General 
 Staff in providing raw materials for Germany. 
 
 I think the Germans are getting short of copper 
 and nickel, especially the latter. Copper lightning 
 rods of churches have been taken and an effort was 
 made to take the brass reading desk in the American 
 Church and the fittings in the Japanese Embassy. 
 
 I think from underground rumours that the Ger- 
 mans and the propagandists will endeavour to embroil 
 us with Japan. 
 
 Baroness von Schroeder, a von Tirpitz spy, stated 
 the other day that Japan would send a Note to the 
 United States of America making demands on the 
 U.S. in regard to the Japanese immigration question. 
 
 There was a w T ell-defined report that Germany 
 would issue a manifesto stating that enemy merchant 
 ships would be fired on without notice, and this be- 
 cause of orders alleged to have been found on British 
 ships ordering merchant ships to fire on submarines 
 at sight. 
 
 The Chancellor told me he was ready for peace, 
 but that all his emissaries had met with a cold recep- 
 tion in the Allied countries of France, England, and 
 Russia. 
 
 A fight against the Chancellor has been started 
 in the home of the Junkers — the Prussian Chamber. 
 The powerful Liberal papers are jumping hard on 
 the disturbers and the Chancellor hit back quite 
 hard. These Junkers are demanding unlimited sub- 
 marine war and are stirred up by von Tirpitz. It 
 is one of their last kicks, as soon a real suffrage will 
 have to be introduced in Prussia. The Chancellor 
 foreshadowed this in opening this Prussian Chamber ; 
 hence the tears !
 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 69 
 
 The visit of Colonel House here was undoubtedly, 
 from this end, a success ; and I am glad that he can 
 give the President a fresh and impartial view. 
 
 March 1 we go on a milk and butter card regime. 
 I have put the Polish question (food) up to Zimmer- 
 mann, and asked informally whether proper guarantees 
 against the direct or indirect taking of food and 
 money from Poland will be stopped if relief is sent ; 
 no answer yet. 
 
 In spite of what I was told by certain exalted 
 personages last autumn, I think that if the war 
 continues much longer the President will be welcomed 
 as a mediator. In fact, there are a number of 
 cartoons and articles appearing in the newspapers 
 which, in tone, are against the President because he 
 does not insist on peace. 
 
 I think that we may soon look for a very strong 
 German attack on the West Front, an endeavour to 
 break through before the time when the French and 
 English are contemplating their offensive, which is 
 probably some time in March. 
 
 At or about the same time there will probably 
 be great Zeppelin attacks on London and on other 
 English centres. It is reported that in their next 
 offensive the Germans will use a more deadly form 
 of poison gas. 
 
 I had the grippe, went to Partenkirchen for a 
 few days, but the first night in country air since 
 July, 1914, was too much for me and filled me with 
 such energy that I tried skiing, fell down and broke 
 my collar-bone, came to Berlin and can sit at my 
 desk, but am very uncomfortable.
 
 7 o FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 I think Germany was about to offer to sink no 
 merchant ships without notice and putting crews, 
 etc., in safety, if England would disarm merchant 
 ships, but now, since the President's letter to 
 Stone, both the Chancellor and von Jagow say 
 they are convinced that America has a secret 
 understanding with England and that nothing can 
 be arranged. 
 
 Captain Persius points out in to-day's Tageblatt 
 that it is not submarines alone that are now, without 
 notice, going to sink armed merchant ships, but 
 cruisers, etc., will take a hand. 
 
 It is reported that the Kaiser went to Wilhelms- 
 hafen to warn submarine commanders to be careful 
 and that submarines will hunt in pairs, one standing 
 ready to torpedo while the other warns. The German 
 losses at Verdun are small as artillery fire annihilated 
 enemy first. I think an attack will be made now 
 on another part of the front. 
 
 Germany has forbidden the import of many articles 
 of luxury ; this is to keep exchange more normal 
 and keep gold in the country. This probably will 
 continue after the war. 
 
 Some newspaper men just in from Verdun report 
 the Germans saving men — losses small — going at it 
 with artillery, probably over 1,000 guns, and making 
 a slow and almost irresistible push. Some military 
 attaches think there may be a strong attack some- 
 where else on the front. 
 
 This Verdun attack was undoubtedly made to 
 keep Roumania out. 
 
 I think the food question here is getting very 
 serious, but before they are starved out they will 
 starve six million Belgians, eleven million Russians
 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 71 
 
 and Poles and two million prisoners ; so that, after 
 all, this starvation business is not practical. 
 
 There was a Grand Council of War last week at 
 Charleville to determine whether von Tirpitz's propo- 
 sition, to start an unlimited submarine blockade of 
 England, should be started or not — i.e., sink all ships, 
 enemy and neutral, at sight. Falkenhayn was for 
 this, the Chancellor against, and von Tirpitz lost. 
 The decision, of course, was made by the Emperor. 
 
 Great advertising efforts are being made on the 
 question of the Fourth War Loan. It will, of course, 
 be announced as successful. 
 
 There are undoubtedly two submarine parties in 
 Germany and there may be an unlimited blockade 
 of England. 
 
 I think Germany, as at present advised, is willing, 
 if merchant ships are disarmed, to agree to sink 
 no boats whatever without warning and without 
 putting passengers and crew in safety. The Admi- 
 ralty approves of this. 
 
 One of the American correspondents publishes an 
 article in the Lokal Anzeiger on America, in which 
 he makes some statements no loyal American should 
 make just now. 
 
 The " illness " of von Tirpitz is announced. I 
 think it means his resignation, and have just cabled, 
 although it is possible that his resignation may never 
 be publicly announced. For one thing, the Kaiser 
 and Army people began to think it was a bad innova- 
 tion to have any officer or official appealing to cheap 
 newspapers and the " man in the street " in a conflict 
 with superior authority. 
 
 I heard that at Charleville conference both the
 
 72 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Chancellor and von Jagow said they would resign 
 if von Tirpitz's policy of unlimited submarine war 
 on England was adopted. 
 
 The food question is becoming really acute — the 
 village people are about starving in some sections 
 and are not as well off as the people in the big towns ; 
 it is the policy to keep the people in the cities as 
 content as possible in order to prevent riots, demon- 
 strations, etc. 
 
 Some Germans have asked me if the sending of 
 a German " Colonel House " to America would be 
 agreeable to the President. Probably the Envoy 
 would be Solf, and he could talk informally to the 
 President and prominent people. If sent he would 
 require a safe- conduct from England and France. 
 
 I hear the submarines now are mostly engaged 
 in mine laying, at the mouth of the Thames. 
 
 Events are beginning to march. At first von 
 Tirpitz's " illness " was announced, then came his 
 resignation. Yesterday was his birthday and a 
 demonstration was expected ; there were many police 
 out, but I could see no demonstrators. The row may 
 come in the Reichstag. 
 
 There are two sources of danger ; first, a failure 
 at Verdun, and the new food regulations may make 
 people ready to accept Tirpitz's guarantee that if 
 he is allowed his way the war can be won and ended. 
 He has a large following already who favour this 
 plan. Second, there are some Reichstag members 
 and others who think the Tirpitz people can never be 
 reconciled unless there is a new Chancellor. 
 
 The Chancellor sent for me Friday. I think the
 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 73 
 
 Chancellor wants to keep peace with America and 
 also wishes to make a general peace. He talked, or 
 rather I talked, a little about terms. He still wants 
 to hang on to Belgium, but I think will give most 
 of it up ; but is fixed for an indemnity from France. 
 The loss of life here is affecting everyone ; the Chan- 
 cellor is a very good man, and I think honestly desires 
 an honourable peace. 
 
 Potatoes are restricted from to-day, 10 pounds 
 per head in twelve days, not much, bacon and lard 
 practically not to be had, butter only in small quan- 
 tities, and meat out of reach of the poor. 
 
 I told the Chancellor I thought a great source of 
 danger to the good relations of Germany and U.S.A. 
 was in Mexico ; that, if we had trouble there, had 
 to raise a large army and rouse the military spirit 
 at home, the President might find it hard to 
 hold the people. This struck him as a new view, as 
 most Germans think that Mexican troubles are to 
 their advantage, and I am sure Villa's attacks are 
 " made in Germany." 
 
 I shall not come home; both the Chancellor and 
 von Jagow have begged me not to go. 
 
 I sent a cable about the possible stirring up of our 
 coloured people by propagandists. I notice that 
 there are great fires in many cities of the South. 
 
 It is reported that Prussian State Railways were 
 given the banks as additional security for the last 
 loan, but I do not see how this could be, as the rail- 
 ways are Prussian and the loan Imperial. 
 
 Several South American diplomats here think 
 that in case of war between U.S. and Germany
 
 74 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 public opinion in their countries will demand the 
 seizure of the German ships and possible war. 
 
 April, 1916. I am just off to the Reichstag, where 
 the Chancellor is to speak. I have no news here 
 and none from America, but it seems to me five 
 boats sunk almost at once will rather strain things 
 at home. Here they do not want war with America. 
 Perhaps von Tirpitz before leaving gave these sub- 
 marine commanders these orders to sink at sight. 
 
 I think the Germans will eventually encircle and 
 take Verdun, mostly now for moral effect. 
 
 Von Jagow will shortly give Conger (Associated 
 Press) an interview disclaiming any intention on 
 Germany's part of attacking America after the war. 
 " A guilty conscience, etc.," and " Qui s'excuse, 
 
 s'accuse." 
 
 Every night fifty million Germans cry themselves 
 to sleep because all Mexico has not risen against us. 
 
 Part of Germany goes soon on meat ration. The 
 food question is becoming acute, but they will last 
 through here. 
 
 I think that the Germans would now, in spite of 
 previous statements by a high authority, welcome 
 the intervention of the President looking toward 
 peace. Colonel House is so relied on here that he 
 would be doubly welcome as the bird with the olive 
 branch. 
 
 It looks more and more as if the issue of the cam- 
 paign would be peace or war I On this issue the 
 Germans at the last moment wall have to side with 
 the President. 
 
 The recent sessions of the Reichstag have been 
 lively. Liebknecht caused a row on several occasions.
 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 75 
 
 Once by interrupting the Chancellor to imply that 
 the Germans were not free, next to deny that the 
 Germans had not wished the war, and another time 
 by calling attention to the attempts of the Germans 
 to induce Mohammedan and Irish prisoners of war 
 to desert to the German arms, the Irish being attacked 
 through Sir Roger Casement. Liebknecht finally en- 
 raged the Government by calling out that the loan 
 subscription was a swindle. 
 
 The German-American spies and traitors are hard 
 at work at 48 Potsdammer Strasse and also at the 
 Oversea News Service, a concern paid for by Krupps. 
 
 Mr. , in addition, gains money by getting permits 
 
 for goods to go out of Germany, capitalising his 
 " pull " as it were. Some of the money for their 
 dirty work is given them by Roselius of Bremen, 
 
 proprietor of the - Caffee Hag." ; , a traitor, who 
 
 also writes against the President, also works with 
 the gang. 
 
 This cry in America that German babies have not 
 sufficient milk is all rot. One of our doctors has 
 reported on the subject. The cry is only raised to 
 get a hole in the British blockade. 
 
 The Germans are going at Verdun carefully, and 
 an imitation of each French position or trench they 
 wish to take — planned from airmen's and spies' 
 reports — is constructed behind the German lines and 
 the German soldiers practise taking it until they are 
 judged letter perfect and are put to work to capture 
 the original. 
 
 It is said the Germans have developed a sub- 
 marine periscope so small as to be almost invisible, 
 which works up and down so that only at intervals, 
 for a second or so, does it appear above the water.
 
 76 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Also, it is said the wireless vibrations by means of 
 copper plates at each end are transmitted through 
 the boat, and every member of the crew learns the 
 wireless code, and no matter where working can 
 catch the vibrations. 
 
 Note about the Sussex and other four ships just 
 in. I think Germany is now determined to keep 
 peace with America as the plain people are con- 
 vinced that otherwise the war will be lengthened — 
 a contingency abhorrent to all. 
 
 May, 1916. I delivered the last American Note to 
 von Jagow to-day. He said they probably would not 
 answer, and then engaged me in gossipy conversation. 
 
 These people want peace and will gladly accept 
 the President as mediator. 
 
 The Pope, they think, will want brokerage — a 
 " Maklerlohn," as they call it — concessions for 
 the Church, such as the return of the Jesuits, etc. 
 
 If they get good and sick of war here, perhaps 
 they may not feel like revenge after all — but there is 
 an ever-present danger we must prepare for. 
 
 The fact that I was given detailed instructions 
 as to leaving, etc. — which they undoubtedly learned, 
 with their wonderful spy system — helped the Sussex 
 settlement. 
 
 The Chancellor and I became great friends as a 
 result of my stay at the Hauptquartier. The League 
 of Truth gang attacked me lately. The Government 
 published a certificate in the Official Gazette to the 
 effect that I was their fair-haired boy, etc. — very 
 nice of them. I really think they recognise that the 
 propaganda was an awful failure and want to in- 
 augurate the era of good feeling.
 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 77 
 
 I did not go to the front at the Hauptquartier as 
 reported. I had enough to do in Charleville, but 
 did witness the splendid relief work being done by 
 the Americans who are feeding 2,200,000 of the 
 population of Northern France. Twenty thousand 
 of the inhabitants of Lille, Roubaix-Tourcoing, are 
 being sent under circumstances of great barbarity 
 to work in the fields in small villages. I spoke to 
 the Chancellor and he promised to remedy this. 
 
 Germans say they will take Verdun. A military 
 treaty with Sweden is reported ; a large Swedish 
 Military Commission is now here, receiving much 
 attention. 
 
 While at Charleville, in connection with American 
 work, I asked, at one village, to see the German 
 Army stores so as to convince myself that the German 
 Army was not using the stores from America. I 
 saw that one-half the stores came from Holland. 
 
 I think the psychological moment is approaching 
 when Colonel House should appear as the President's 
 White Emissary of Peace. 
 
 While the food question here is pressing, the harvest 
 will be good, if present indications continue. Rye 
 is the principal crop, and this is harvested about 
 July 12. I think, however, Germany can last, and 
 in very desperation may try a great offensive which 
 may break the French lines and change the whole 
 position. The people here, although tired of war, 
 are well disciplined and will see this thing through 
 without revolution. 
 
 We are rather in calm after the last crisis. The 
 Chancellor sent for me and said he hoped we would 
 do something to England or propose a general peace, 
 otherwise his position here will become, he thinks,
 
 78 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 rather hard. Delbriick, Vice-Chancellor, very hostile 
 to America, is out — failure as Minister of Interior to 
 organise food supply is the real reason. 
 
 Yesterday I had a talk with the Chancellor. The 
 occasion was the Polish Relief question, which I 
 shall now take up direct with Helfferich, who, as I 
 predicted, is the new Minister of the Interior and 
 Vice-Chancellor. He is a very businesslike man and 
 did much for the favourable settlement of our last 
 crisis. 
 
 The Chancellor seemed rather downcast yesterday, 
 without apparent cause. He says that Germany 
 from now on will have two months of hardship on the 
 food question, but that after that things will be all 
 right. The crops, as I have seen on my shooting 
 place, are magnificent, and the rye harvest will pro- 
 bably begin even before July 15. 
 
 Mrs. Gerard has just returned from a week in 
 Budapest with her sister. The Hungarians are once 
 more gay and confident. The Italians, their here- 
 ditary foes, are being driven back, and on the Russian 
 front there seems to be a sort of tacit truce — no 
 fighting and visiting in trenches, etc. — terms of great 
 friendliness. 
 
 (This was the beginning of the fraternisation which 
 led, a year later, to the collapse of Russia.) 
 
 At the races here last Sunday there was an abso- 
 lutely record crowd and more money bet than on 
 any previous day in German racing history. The 
 cheaper field and stands were so full of soldiers that 
 the crowd seemed grey, which goes to show that the 
 last man is not at the front. 
 
 State Socialism makes advances over here. A
 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 79 
 
 proposition is now discussed to compel the young 
 men who are earning large wages to save a part 
 thereof. 
 
 On the Sussex question, I got a colleague to ask 
 about the punishment of the Commander and to say 
 at the Foreign Office, after he had once been refused 
 any information, that I had heard that the people 
 at large in America believed the Commander has 
 received "Pour le Merite." Von Jagow said that he 
 was sure that this was not so, but that he did not know 
 the name of the Commander, and that it was not 
 " usual " to tell what punishment had been given. 
 So there I suppose the matter will rest, unless I get 
 orders to ask formally about the punishment. 
 
 The German military people and ruling Junker 
 class are furious at the settlement with America, 
 and abuse America, the President and me indis- 
 criminately. 
 
 Anything the President says about peace is promi- 
 nently placed in the newspapers. 
 
 Yesterday, in a debate in the Reichstag over the 
 censorship, Member Stresemann, National Liberal 
 (the party which now holds the balance of power), 
 violently abused President Wilson and said he was 
 not wanted as a peacemaker. All applauded except 
 the Socialists— so I think the President had better 
 say nothing more about peace for the present. What 
 he has said has done much good and has pleased 
 the Government here, if not the Reichstag. Although 
 von Jagow is a Junker of Junkers, the Junkers are 
 against him and claim he is too weak. He may be 
 bounced. 
 
 The crops are very fine. 
 
 Undoubtedly we shall have another crisis when
 
 8o FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 the extremists here demand a " reckless " U-boat war 
 because we are doing nothing to England. 
 
 Germany will last through on the food question. 
 
 I have heard reports that the Turks are tired of 
 German rule and almost ready to flop. 
 
 I am to meet Prince Biilow, ex- Chancellor, to- 
 morrow and may fish up something interesting. 
 
 The Kaiser has gone to the front, probably Russian. 
 Next war loan will be twelve milliards. 
 
 Helfferich lunched here last Sunday. He speaks 
 English fairly well. Zimmermann is laid up with 
 the gout. 
 
 In the Reichstag debate yesterday, Stresemann, 
 applauded by all except Socialists, said that Germany 
 threw away Wilson as a peacemaker. However, 
 the Government is pleased with President's peace 
 talk, as it keeps the people from thinking of food and 
 U-boat crises. 
 
 U-boat question will come up again, when Pan- 
 Germanists and Conservatives demand a reckless 
 U-boat war because we have done nothing against 
 England. 
 
 Harden' s paper has been confiscated again. 
 
 June, 1916. I am sorry to lose Ruddock, who is 
 sent to Belgium, but it is a good appointment, as his 
 knowledge of German and relations here will help 
 matters. 
 
 The debates in the Reichstag have been quite in- 
 teresting yesterday and the day before. The Chan- 
 cellor, irritated by the anonymous attacks on him 
 in pamphlets, etc., made a fine defence. In the 
 course of the debate allusions were made to President 
 Wilson and the U-boat question. The U-boat ques- 
 tion may break loose again any day.
 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 81 
 
 I do not think that either Austria or Germany 
 wishes President Wilson to lay down any peace 
 conditions. There may possibly be a Congress after 
 the Peace Congress, but meanwhile all parties here 
 feel that America has nothing to do with peace 
 conditions. America can bring the parties together, 
 but that is all. The speech about the rights of small 
 peoples has, I hear, made the Austrians furious, as 
 Austria is made up of many nationalities, and the 
 Germans say that, if the rights of small peoples and 
 peoples choosing their own sovereignty is to be 
 discussed, the Irish question, the Indian question 
 and the Boer question, the Egyptian question, and 
 many others involving the Entente Allies must be 
 discussed. I think that generally there is a big 
 change in public opinion and the Germans are be- 
 ginning to realise that the President is for peace 
 with Germany. 
 
 The Germans expect that by September prepara- 
 tions will be finished and that the Suez Canal will 
 be cannonaded, bombed and mined so that it will 
 dry up, and then the Indian-Afghan troubles will 
 begin. 
 
 The President's peace talks carried over the 
 dangerous moment after the submarine submission. 
 Von Jagow told me that because of debates in 
 Reichstag the President must not think he is not 
 welcome as mediator. 
 
 Crops look well. 
 
 The break in Austro-Russian front is reported to 
 have been caused by wholesale desertions of Ruthenian 
 troops to Russia. 
 
 The editor of the National Zeitung, responsible 
 for the fake interview with me, has been " fired " 
 
 G
 
 82 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 from that paper, which has published a notice to that 
 effect. 
 
 Grand Admiral von Koester made a speech implying 
 that reckless submarine war should be taken up and 
 England thus defeated. He is retired, but is head 
 of the Navy League, a concern backed by the Govern- 
 ment, possessing a million members and much political 
 influence. 
 
 Apropos of hyphenated Amercans, a friend tells 
 me that when he was secretary here some years ago 
 a certain Congressman tried for six years to get 
 presented at Court, insisting that he be presented 
 as a " German- American." The Kaiser turned him 
 down, saying he knew no such thing as a " German- 
 American," and the Congressman finally consented 
 to be presented as an American. 
 
 The U-boat question will come up again, say in 
 three months, unless we get in serious trouble in 
 Mexico, when it will come up sooner. 
 
 Edwin Emerson has been sent out of the country, 
 I think to serve in the Turkish Army in some capacity, 
 perhaps paymaster or some such job. 
 
 The Foreign Office continues to protect these 
 American mud-slingers — such as the " League of 
 Truth ' which is run by a German named Marten, 
 posing as an American ; and a dentist (American citi- 
 zen) named Mueller— these circulate a pamphlet 
 entitled "What Shall We Do With Wilson," etc., 
 and are the gang who insulted the American flag 
 by putting it wrapped in mourning on a wreath on 
 the statue of Frederick the Great with a placard, 
 
 Wilson and his Press do not represent America. 
 
 t; 
 
 •>•>
 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 83 
 
 Letters, codes, etc., for Bernstorff and individuals 
 are sent to America as follows : the letters are 
 photographed on a reduced scale so that a letter a 
 foot square appears as an inch and a half square. 
 These little prints are put in the layers of a shoe 
 heel of a travelling American or elsewhere, book 
 cover, hat band, etc., and then rephotographed and 
 enlarged in America. Also messengers travel steerage 
 and put things in the mattress of a fellow passenger 
 and go back to the ship after landing in New York 
 and collect the stuff. 
 
 A German friend, just returned from Austria, 
 says the feeling there against America is very strong 
 on account of the Dumba incident. 
 
 Yesterday I was told by a German that the German 
 Army had aeroplanes which develop 300 h.p., and 
 would soon have some of 1,000 h.p. 
 
 July, 1916. Everyone in this Embassy is getting 
 to the breaking point. Nerves do not last for ever, 
 and the strain of living in a hostile country is great. 
 The Germans, too, are on edge. They are going to 
 take away our privilege of speaking to prisoners 
 alone ; this because they think I learned of the 
 shooting of the second Irishman at Limburg from 
 prisoners. As a matter of fact I did not, but cannot, 
 of course, say how I did learn. 
 
 The Russian prisoners are being slowly starved, 
 the French and English get packages from home. 
 
 There are rumours that a Bavarian regiment which 
 was ordered a second time to take a position, which 
 the Prussians lost at Verdun, refused and was ordered 
 to be decimated, and that then the Crown Prince 
 of Bavaria threatened to march all the Bavarian 
 troops home unless the order to decimate was re- 
 
 G 3
 
 S 4 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 scinded. I do not believe the rumour, but its cir- 
 culation and other events, such as the refusal of the 
 Bavarians lately to adopt a common postage stamp, 
 show there is a little irritation growing between 
 Prussia and Bavaria. For years before the war the 
 Bavarian comic papers cartooned the Prussians, 
 common and royal, but like every other movement 
 nothing will result. 
 
 There is much underground work for the resumption 
 of reckless submarine war going on, all part of a 
 campaign to upset the Chancellor. Von Bulow, 
 ex-Chancellor, is working hard. He, however, since 
 his row with the Emperor over the Telegraph 
 interview, which he passed as correct, will never be 
 accepted by His Majesty. Nevertheless, he is be- 
 coming a focal point for opposition. 
 
 The Chancellor and his party are very timid about 
 attacks. For instance, they will do nothing against 
 Emerson, Mueller, and that crew which insults in- 
 discriminately our flag, our President, the Chancellor, 
 Zimmermann and me, because, as Zimmermann 
 frankly told me, they are afraid of attacks. Mueller 
 on July 4 hung out the American flag in mourning 
 and circulated copies of the Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence charged with a bloody hand and a black cross. 
 I have filed in vain affidavits with the Foreign Office 
 by people who say he has threatened to shoot me 
 at sight. 
 
 The Germans seem to fear the Russian attacks 
 more than the English and French. They claim to 
 have the measure of the English, and not to fear 
 their offensive. 
 
 Dr. John R. Mott has been here. He made a
 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 85 
 
 great impression. I had him at lunch with the 
 Chancellor, Zimmermann, and officials of the prisoner 
 department and War Ministry. 
 
 Mass feeding of the people has begun. They pay 
 a few pfennigs per meal. 
 
 I have heard rumours lately of actual dissatis- 
 faction among soldiers at the front and of many being 
 transferred, but this unrest also will have no definite 
 result. 
 
 Constant rain lately will damage the harvest and 
 rot the potatoes to some extent. Nevertheless, as I 
 have often said, the Germans will last. Holland has 
 allowed more food in lately. 
 
 The long confinement will make many prisoners 
 insane. Many old men at Ruhleben, living six in 
 a horse's stall or in dim haylofts, simply turn their 
 faces to the wall and refuse even to complain. 
 
 The statement in the American papers that our 
 National Guard could not mobilise for Mexico 
 because of lack of sleeping cars caused much ridicule 
 here, where they go to the front in cattle cars. 
 
 A committee called the National Committee 
 for an Honourable Peace has been formed. Prince 
 Wedel is at the head. Most of the people are 
 friends of the Chancellor. One is an editor of the 
 Frankfurter Zeitung, which is the Chancellor's organ. 
 On August 1 fifty speakers of this Committee will 
 begin to speak; probably the opposition will come 
 into their meetings and try to speak or break up the 
 meetings. 
 
 The Lokal Anzeiger, also a Government organ, 
 prints an editorial to the effect that Germany may 
 take up ruthless submarine war again. Great num-
 
 86 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 bers of U-boats are being built and in September 
 operations will be on a big scale, though the Chan- 
 cellor will try to keep them to cruiser warfare. 
 
 The prisoner question on all sides is growing 
 acute. The Germans sent me a Note to-day threaten- 
 ing stern reprisals if the alleged bad treatment of 
 their prisoners in Russia does not stop. 
 
 We can no longer talk to prisoners alone. Von 
 Jagow told me that after the visit of Madame Sasenoff, 
 or Samsenoff, to a Russian prisoners' camp, there 
 was a riot, but the real reason is that the Germans 
 have much to conceal. The prison food now is a 
 starvation ration. 
 
 The Alliance of the Six, really an organisation fos- 
 tered by big iron businesses in Westphalia, is very 
 active for annexation. This wants to get the French 
 iron mines and coal, and so control the iron business 
 of the Continent and perhaps Europe. 
 
 A man from Syria passed through here recently 
 
 and gave me most interesting accounts of the state 
 
 of affairs there. The Turks are oppressing the 
 
 Arabians and the revolt of the Grand Sherif of 
 
 Mecca may have great effects in this war. This 
 
 man says that the English are building two railroads 
 
 from Suez into the desert and the Germano-Turks are 
 
 building towards the Canal from the North. For 
 
 the Canal attack there are, at present, principally 
 
 Austrian troops assembled. The Turks are beginning 
 
 to take Greeks from the coast cities into the interior 
 
 of Asia Minor and are oppressing the Syrian Arabian 
 
 cities, such as Beirut, where thousands are dying of 
 
 starvation. At the Islahje- Aleppo R. R. 30 Turkish 
 
 soldiers a day die from cholera. The Germans, by
 
 GERMANY'S PLAN TO ATTACK AMERICA 87 
 
 their precautions, escape. He passed 147 German 
 auto-trucks in the Cilician mountains bound for Bag- 
 dad. Also saw the British prisoners from Kut-el- 
 Amara, who are dying of dysentery, being compelled 
 to walk in the hot sun from Kut. He thinks the 
 English and the Grand Sherif will transfer the title 
 of head of the religion from the Sultan at Constanti- 
 nople to either the Sultan of Egypt or some new 
 Sultan to be established as an Arabian Sultan, 
 perhaps at Bagdad if the Russians and English take 
 it, or at Mecca, and he considers this movement of 
 Arabians against Turks may assume great pro- 
 portions. 
 
 There is still talk here of a resumption of reckless 
 submarine war, which question is complicated and 
 involved in the eternal efforts of the Conservatives 
 to get the Chancellor out. 
 
 The recognition of the " merchant submarine " 
 has made a very good impression here. 
 
 The plain people are eager for peace, but those 
 interested in carrying on the war have the upper 
 hand. 
 
 The harvest is good and is now being gathered. 
 
 A number of navy and (which is significant) army 
 officers visited von Tirpitz lately in his Black Forest 
 Retreat and gave him a testimonial. 
 
 There is prospect that what is called here a " Burg 
 Frieden " (Peace of the City) will be declared between 
 the Chancellor and the principal Conservative news- 
 papers. 
 
 One of the American correspondents back from 
 Verdun says that a corps commander said his corps 
 took no prisoners. 
 
 I think many of the Hungarians are for peace.
 
 88 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 I get this from Andrassy's son-in-law, who is also 
 a member of the Lower House. Tisza, however, is 
 still in full control. 
 
 Prince Leopold's (he is a brother-in-law of the 
 Kaiser) stags have destroyed vegetables of the plain 
 people (as in the days of William Rufus), and people 
 dare write letters and Liberal papers dare publish 
 them complaining of these depredations.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 
 
 The Diary Concluded 
 
 August, 1916. Count Andrassy, leader of the 
 opposition to Tisza in Hungary, has been here for some 
 time. He lunched with us one day and I had a talk 
 with him in German. Andrassy is rather old and 
 tired. Andrassy's father, the Prime Minister, was 
 originally a great friend of Germany. 
 
 It is possible that Andrassy through German 
 influence may be made Minister of Foreign Affairs 
 instead of Burian. This is to be the first step in a 
 German coup d'etat to take place on the death of 
 Franz Joseph — the throne successor to be given 
 Austria alone, and Prince Eitel Fritz, the Kaiser's 
 favourite son, to be King of Hungary with possibly 
 a Czech kingdom in Bohemia. 
 
 Andrassy had an audience with the Kaiser here. 
 Andrassy is apparently friendly with America and 
 is also for peace. 
 
 Von Tirpitz is out with a statement practically 
 demanding war with America. I am surprised that 
 the newspapers are allowed to publish it. Very 
 likely it will not be permitted to go out, but it ought 
 to be known in America. 
 
 Germany probably will come out with a strong 
 Note about Poland, refusing help and saying harvest
 
 9 o FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 is sufficient. This is not true as to food for babies, 
 who cannot live on rye and wheat, but need con- 
 densed milk. 
 
 The treatment of prisoners is going from bad to 
 worse. The Chancellor and Foreign Office can do 
 nothing against the military party. 
 
 Hoover, Professor Kellog, and I are all very much 
 discouraged about Polish and other relief questions. 
 The Germans are getting more and more disagreeable 
 about these matters, even though they are for the 
 benefit of Germany. Warwick Greene, of the Rocke- 
 feller Foundation, being a new arrival, is more hopeful, 
 but that will soon wear off. 
 
 The Germans are getting a black list of their own. 
 One Barthmann, an American, who sells American 
 shoes in Germany, wanted to get his pass stamped 
 to go to America, and permission to come back, 
 and was told that would only be done if the Chamber 
 of Commerce (Handelskammer) consents ; you see 
 the connection — no American goods for Germany. 
 
 The Jews here are almost on the edge of being 
 " pogrommed." There is a great prejudice against 
 them, especially in naval and military circles, because 
 they have been industrious and have made money. 
 Officers openly talk of repudiating the War Loan, 
 which they say would only mean a loss for the 
 Jews. 
 
 The Germans say they have new and horrible 
 inventions which will end the war soon. 
 
 I supposed that, because I had some acquaintance 
 with German watering places and German- Americans, 
 I knew a little about Germany. I was wrong. 
 No casual traveller ever gets to know the military
 
 GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 91 
 
 caste nor do the members of that caste travel except 
 on " business." 
 
 The members of the military caste live like Spar- 
 tans and are consoled by the fact that they rule 
 the country and look down on the merchant class. 
 They feel that they have created modern industrial 
 Germany. The military caste (of which the naval 
 and all Government bureaus are branches) has or- 
 ganised the nation for war with the efficiency of the 
 managers of a great American corporation. The 
 Government is an absolutism. No Jew can become 
 an officer. Officers of crack regiments do not go to 
 the homes of persons in any kind of business. A 
 business man is called a " Kaufmann," as we speak 
 of a house-painter. Some tame professors are paid 
 by the State to give an impression of " Kultur." 
 
 This war is now a war for conquest or money. 
 All people tell me that we must have " pay for so 
 much blood." " If we don't keep Belgium there 
 will be a revolution. Who is to pay for the War ? " 
 A Socialist who referred yesterday in the Reichstag 
 to the Kaiser's speech at the beginning of the war 
 which stated this was not a war to get territory was 
 well sat upon. Even the Socialists are all for war 
 against Italy. 
 
 None of the German colonies is fit for Europeans. 
 Germany last year proposed joint intervention in Mexico 
 to England. If successful Germany will try to get 
 a foothold in the Western Hemisphere. The Monroe 
 Doctrine is like a red rag to a bull to every German. 
 
 Relations with members of the Government here 
 are quite agreeable, but there is not an effective
 
 92 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Government at present. The Chancellor will take 
 no decisive action and leaves matters to department 
 heads who fight with other department heads. The 
 Emperor saw fit to follow the traditions of 1870 
 and go to the field taking the Chancellor and heads 
 of many departments with him, hence great govern- 
 mental confusion, but this does not affect military 
 organisation. He is bored by the Chancellor, a 
 good man, but of no action or decision. Von Falken- 
 hayn is the Emperor's favourite. He is the Chief of 
 the General Staff. Von Tirpitz and von Mueller 
 (also naval) have great weight. The Kaiser is thus 
 surrounded by military influences. 
 
 Saw summaries of the news published by the 
 General Staff and given to the Emperor to read. 
 He gets only German-American news from America 
 and no bad news from anywhere. On the Lusitania 
 case there is a disposition to think, because we were 
 not warlike over Mexico, we will stand anything. 
 The Kaiser will not see me because of the delivery of 
 arms by Americans to the Allies and has so stated. 
 
 There is no shortage of food supply. I was told 
 yesterday they did not need our Polish Relief Com- 
 mittee for German Poland as Germany can take 
 care of this alone. The hate of Americans is intense. 
 But this hate can be turned off and on by the Govern- 
 ment. The people believe everything they see in 
 the papers. The monetary situation is not bad. 
 All the money for war supplies has been spent in 
 Germany, except perhaps for a few horses, etc., 
 from Scandinavia. 
 
 The Chancellor and von Jagow have been in 
 Vienna. Von Jagow told me only on current business, 
 but this was a diplomatic statement. I believe
 
 GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 93 
 
 they went to settle the fate of Poland. I hear 
 Prussia wants an independent Poland and Austria 
 wants to make it part of the Austrian Empire. In 
 any event I think Prussia will secure the organising 
 of the army which will soon be raised. A prominent 
 Pole told me two days ago that the peasants were 
 coddled by Russia, whose motto in Poland was 
 " divide et impera," and that they will violently 
 resent being drafted into the Prussian Army. 
 
 The bitter attacks on the Chancellor continue. 
 At a recent meeting in Bavaria resolutions were 
 passed that the first objective of the war was to 
 get rid of the Chancellor and the second to " clean 
 out the Anglophile Foreign Office, " which prevented 
 Germany from resorting to " reckless " methods for 
 the swift winning of the war. 
 
 As a son-in-law of a high official told me to-day, 
 the break between the military and navy on one side 
 and the Civil Government on the other has widened 
 almost into civil war. The same man told me that 
 the Kaiser has lately become quite apathetic and 
 lets events take their course. 
 
 One of my attaches has broken down completely, 
 cries when spoken to ; living in a fiercely hostile 
 atmosphere is not agreeable and I wonder how 
 long the rest of us can hold out. 
 
 The harvest is very good, but does not provide 
 fat and, as yet, meat. But the starving out business 
 I have always said was an " iridescent " dream. 
 
 New men, 80,000 in this vicinity alone, are being 
 called to the colours. 
 
 Everyone here is getting more on razor edge, 
 prisoners are treated more roughly and get worse
 
 94 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 food. Bavaria is getting restless and dissatisfied — 
 this will not amount to anything definite, but is a 
 sign of the times. 
 
 I went to Herringsdorff for a few days of swim- 
 ming. At a concert in the evening a man recited 
 a poem he said he had written about " having bled 
 enough." He was vehemently applauded. Quite a 
 contrast to the days when the best actors in Germany 
 were not ashamed to spout the " HYMN OF 
 HATE ! " 
 
 The military people use the censorship even against 
 papers friendly to the Chancellor, and Germans 
 certainly can hate each other as thoroughly and 
 scientifically as they do most other nations. Dr. 
 Alonzo Taylor thinks that in peace times someone 
 fed this nation too much meat. 
 
 The newspapers are preparing the people for the 
 entry of Roumania. 
 
 Professor , a school friend of Tisza's and 
 
 Burian's who was recently in Austria, saw Burian 
 and says Burian is ready and even anxious to make 
 an arbitration treaty with America and also send an 
 Ambassador in Dumba's place to Washington. This 
 is out of my jurisdiction. He says that to-morrow 
 or next day there will be an interpellation in the 
 Hungarian Chamber about sending an Ambassador 
 to America. 
 
 The National Liberals probably will unite with 
 the Conservatives and demand a strong hold on 
 Belgium, if not actual possession of that country, 
 as one of the objects of the war. 
 
 This Union of National Liberals and Conservatives 
 is dangerous and may mean a resumption of un- 
 restricted submarine warfare.
 
 GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 95 
 
 The entry of Roumania took everyone by surprise. 
 Beldiman, the Roumanian Minister here, was visiting 
 the reigning Prince of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, 
 brother of the Roumanian King, and apparently 
 knew nothing of the danger of a break. 
 
 To-day Hindenburg is named Chief of the General 
 Staff, and his Chief of Staff, Ludendorff, is made 
 Quartermaster-General. Falkenhayn, former Chief of 
 Staff, is bounced without even the excuse of a diplo- 
 matic illness. This is all a great concession to popular 
 opinion. I do not know where Hindenburg stands 
 with reference to America, but have heard that he 
 is a reasonable man. Of course, here the Army has 
 as much to say in foreign affairs as the Foreign Office, 
 if not more. When I was at the Great General 
 Headquarters, Falkenhayn, although I knew him, 
 did not call on me, and dodged me. He did not 
 even appear at the Kaiser's table when I lunched there. 
 From all this I judge he was against America on the 
 submarine question. I also have heard that when 
 Helfferich was talking before the Kaiser in favour 
 of peace with America, Falkenhayn interrupted him, 
 but was told by the Kaiser to " stick to his last " or 
 words to that effect. 
 
 These people here are now nervous and unstrung 
 and actually believe that America will now enter 
 the war against them. It is impossible to conceive 
 of the general breakdown of nerves among this 
 people. 
 
 / have heard lately of men as old as 47 being taken 
 for the Army. 
 
 Zimmermann has now gone on a vacation, his 
 place being temporarily filled by von Treutler, Prus-
 
 9 6 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 sian Minister to Bavaria, who since the commencement 
 of the war has been with the Kaiser. I judge this 
 means the Kaiser is looking personally into matters 
 at the Foreign Office. Von Treutler is, I think, 
 against the resumption of reckless submarine war. 
 He is lunching with me to-day. He is rather the 
 type of intelligent-man-of-the-world and sportsman, 
 and has little of the Prussian desire to " imponieren " 
 by putting his voice two octaves lower and glaring 
 at one like an enraged bullfrog. 
 
 The Germans may hate the President, but there 
 are in America hundreds of thousands of Czechs 
 from Bohemia, Poles from Poland, Slovaks, Ruthe- 
 nians, Croatians and Slavs from Hungary, Roumanians, 
 Italians, Greeks, Russians, Scotch, Belgians, and 
 French who hate the Germans. 
 
 I believe the Germans want an excuse to resume 
 reckless submarine war and an American correspondent 
 has taken the job of making bad feeling to justify 
 such a course. 
 
 September, 1916. As these people get desperate 
 the submarine question gets deeper and deeper 
 under their skin. I really think that it is only a 
 question of time. 
 
 Of course, from what I learn here Greece is sure 
 to come in, and this is expected here. 
 
 As the Consul-General at Hamburg has reported, 
 serious riots have occurred there, two by the poor 
 classes, mostly women, and one by students. The 
 crowd shouted " Down the Kaiser," called for an 
 end of the war, and for unlimited submarine war 
 against England.
 
 GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 97 
 
 The hate of Americans grows daily, if indeed it is 
 possible to be greater. 
 
 Ira Nelson Morris, American Minister to Sweden, 
 was here. He and his wife are charming people. 
 He is very popular in Sweden. Elkus is also here 
 on his way to Constantinople. If anyone can " get 
 away " with that difficult post he can. I took 
 Elkus to see von Jagow and had him at lunch with 
 von Treutler, the man in Zimmermann's place. I 
 talked with Elkus to von Jagow about Syrian relief. 
 A Syrian, whose name I cannot give away, says the 
 Turkish Government reported to our Embassy in 
 Turkey that the harvest in Syria was the best for 
 years, whereas in truth this year's harvest on 
 account of drought, and last year's on account of 
 locusts, are the worst in 35 years. Missionaries 
 have told me that Syrians are starving. 
 
 A fact for the Russian born — Germany does not 
 recognise the American citizenship or naturalisation 
 of a person born in Russia. 
 
 Yesterday there was a conference of all party 
 leaders at the Chancellor's. I understand nothing 
 was said about America or submarine question. I 
 doubt this. The Press here and certain other agencies 
 are trying to convince America that all is peaceful, 
 but Baron Muram two days ago told Elkus, in this 
 house, that the ruthless submarine war undoubtedly 
 would be resumed. 
 
 In general conversation with von Jagow, recently, 
 he said that the offensive on the Somme could not 
 continue without the great supply of shells from 
 
 H
 
 9 8 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 America. He also said that recently a German 
 submarine submerged in the Channel had to allow 
 41 ships to pass, and that he was sure that each 
 ship was full of ammunition and soldiers, but 
 probably had some protecting American angels on 
 board, and, therefore, the submarine did not torpedo 
 without warning. He seemed quite bitter. 
 
 The wife of an American newspaper correspondent 
 was recently attacked in the street. Of course the 
 husband will not cable this to America. Two steno- 
 graphers from this Embassy were recently slapped 
 on coming out of a theatre because they were speaking 
 English. 
 
 Reventlow's paper was recently suppressed and 
 Reventlow forbidden to write without special per- 
 mission. This is a good sign from the Chancellor. 
 
 Dr. Hale was recently given a special trip to the 
 West Front, and allowed to talk to the Crown Prince, 
 etc. 
 
 December, 1916. The Germans are simply delighted 
 with the President's Peace Note. Only a few cranks 
 or Conservative papers are against it. 
 
 I saw Zimmermann the day after my arrival. He 
 was most friendly and said he hoped he and I would 
 be able, as usual, to settle everything in a friendly 
 manner. 
 
 Yesterday he lunched here and gave me the German 
 reply after lunch. He told me at the first talk that 
 he, the Chancellor, Hindenburg and Ludendorff were 
 all working together. Most people here say that 
 Hindenburg and Ludendorff are at present the real 
 rulers of Germany. Zimmermann remarked that
 
 GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 99 
 
 there was no danger from " reckless " submarine 
 war. 
 
 Zimmermann said he regretted the sending of the 
 Belgians to Germany, but it was hard now to go 
 back on what they had done. I have some hope 
 that a retreat may be arranged — possibly by sending 
 the Belgians back gradually and saying nothing 
 about it. 
 
 The American Chamber of Commerce are to give 
 a big dinner January 6 to welcome me back. 
 Zimmermann and von Gwinner, head of Deutsche 
 Bank, have agreed to speak and many prominent 
 Germans have accepted. 
 
 The Press Department of the Foreign Office has 
 been reorganised by Zimmermann, and Hammann, 
 the former head, fired. The new head is Major 
 Deutelmoser, formerly of the General Staff, a personal 
 friend of mine. 
 
 The Emperor is at Potsdam and consulted with 
 Zimmermann, General von Kessel, etc., as to the 
 reply to the President's Peace Note. 
 
 Berlin is much more melancholy than when I 
 left. General von Kessel came to our American 
 Colony Christmas tree for poor Berlin children. It 
 was very pathetic. One little kid got up and prayed 
 for peace and everyone wept. I hope to get to see 
 Ludendorff and Hindenburg soon and see how they 
 feel towards America. 
 
 I went to Ruhleben, the British civilian camp, 
 yesterday to tell the prisoners that all over 45 go 
 home. It was quite a Christmas gift as 700 there 
 are over that age. (Note : don't think this agree- 
 
 H 2
 
 ioo FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 ment of Germany and England ever went into 
 effect !) 
 
 January, 1917. Germany wants a peace confer- 
 ence in order to make a separate peace on good 
 terms to them with France and Russia, then hopes 
 to finish England by submarines, then later take the 
 scalp of Japan, Russia, and France separately. The 
 Allies ought to remember what Ben Franklin said 
 about hanging together or separately. I get the 
 above scheme from very good authority. 
 
 The weather is most depressing ; dark, and rain 
 every day. All hands seem cross. Zimmermann, 
 I think, finds it much more difficult to be the re- 
 sponsible first than the criticising second. It is not 
 as easy as it looked to him. 
 
 The Kaiser stated the other day that he did not 
 expect peace now, that the English would try a 
 great offensive in the spring and would fail. 
 
 Herbert Hoover writes me that the Germans are 
 violating all their pledges in Belgium. He expects 
 a year of great difficulties. I hear this confirmed 
 on best authority and that even the German official 
 who is supposed to see that food is not sent from 
 Belgium to Germany in violation of Germany's 
 pledges sends out butter to his family ; that there 
 is an absolute reign of terror in Belgium, sudden and 
 arbitrary arrests, etc. I think the Germans want 
 to see all foreign diplomats out of Bucharest and Brus- 
 sels, and the charges against Voypicka should be 
 considered in that light. 
 
 The greatest danger from submarine war is that 
 unthinking persons in the U.S. may start a crusade
 
 GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 101 
 
 against the President's policy, encourage the Germans 
 in the belief that we are divided, and lead them to 
 resume reckless acts in that belief. The continuance 
 of a strong front is the very best way to keep the peace. 
 
 Both Zimmermann and the Chancellor asked me 
 about Bernstorff, and returning good for evil, I said 
 that he was O.K., on very good terms with the 
 Government, well liked (sic), and that no one could 
 do better ! 
 
 A friend just returned from a week's visit in Hungary 
 reports a great desire for peace. Persons who, a 
 year ago, said that the President could have nothing 
 to do with peace or negotiations, now say he is 
 the only possible mediator. This comes from high 
 Government circles there. 
 
 The historic crown of St. Stephen was much too 
 large for the King, but the little Crown Prince made 
 a great hit with the populace. 
 
 An Armenian woman came through here the other 
 day. Her husband had been captured or killed and 
 her tale of the treatment of the Armenians by the 
 Turks was heartrending. 
 
 Everything points to a coming crisis in the matter 
 of food, how serious it will be even the officials them- 
 selves do not know, as there is much concealed food 
 and much smuggling over the various frontiers. 
 
 In some parts of Germany the country police or 
 gendarmes are searching the farmhouses thrice 
 weekly. 
 
 I have secured permission to visit and inspect 
 the enslaved Belgians, have named as inspectors all 
 members of our staff speaking French, but as yet 
 have not received passes.
 
 102 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Here is a copy of a letter I have just received 
 from a German : 
 
 " The hypocrisy of the German Government is really disgusting ! 
 It is a well-known matter of fact, that by hints and approbation, 
 nay even by express orders of the German military authorities, the 
 troops in France and Belgium have been stimulated to give no 
 quarter at all in the case of British adversaries, and that in Russia 
 even whole regiments and brigades have been annihilated by grape- 
 shot, although the poor wretches delivered themselves on mercy 
 and raised their hands, to prove their submission. Both the Prussian 
 and the Bavarian Crown Prince have expressly ordered to make no 
 prisoners, to spare ammunition and to despatch the surviving by 
 steel and bayonet. Has the order been forgotten, issued by the 
 Kaiser in the beginning of the German China Expedition, to deal 
 with the Chinese like the Huns, to destroy and annihilate every 
 human creature both men and women and even innocent children ? 
 
 " Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes ? 
 
 Unus pro multis. 
 
 " P.S. — The war would be decided and peace restored as soon as 
 the U.S.A. Government would intervene in favour of humanity, 
 liberty and civilisation. Down with the Prussian Tyranny !" 
 
 The Germans will do nothing about Belgium. 
 The deportations were a military measure, demanded 
 by Ludendorff, who constantly fears a British landing 
 on the Belgian coast. 
 
 A man who called on von Tirpitz recently was 
 told by von Tirpitz that he, von Tirpitz, was watched 
 like a spy and all his letters were opened. Von Tirpitz 
 said that Hindenburg was the real ruler of Germany, 
 that anything Bethmann Hollweg said was censored by 
 Hindenburg, and that Hindenburg was now against 
 reckless submarine war, but that any substantial 
 defeats in the field would make him change his 
 mind. Von Tirpitz said that the Kaiser was losing
 
 GERMANY'S EARLY PLOTS IN MEXICO 103 
 
 his mind and spent all his time praying, and learning 
 Hebrew. 
 
 The food situation grows worse. Potato cards 
 must now be presented in restaurants and hotels. 
 I doubt if potatoes can last beyond April. There 
 is food in Roumania, but much will go to the troops, 
 Austrians and Turks : the railways are so used by 
 troops, etc., that it is doubtful if any food from 
 there can reach Germany for months. 
 
 All apartment houses in Berlin are closed at 9, 
 and lights in halls extinguished. Theatres close at 
 10 and movies also. There is want of coal due to 
 lack of transportation. 
 
 The President's address to the Senate yesterday 
 (January 22, 1917) is splendid. I don't know yet 
 how it will be taken here. If it is published it will 
 give the German people something to consider. 
 
 Postcards showing Zeppelins in the act of mur- 
 dering the sleeping babies of an enemy city are 
 distributed here with pride. 
 
 All Germans of my acquaintance have impressed 
 on me lately the renewed danger of submarine war- 
 fare. The American correspondents are not allowed 
 to send out the hate of America speeches and articles. 
 Cyril Brown of the World says that last week 50 per 
 cent, of the matter he sent was cut out by censor here. 
 
 The new U-boat campaign will go along the armed 
 merchantman lines and an endeavour will be made 
 to force or get us in some way to recognise that an 
 armed merchantman is the same as a warship and, 
 therefore, may be fired on without notice. It is 
 the old story, but more subtly presented.
 
 104 FACE T0 FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Food situation more and more serious, riots lately 
 in two markets in Berlin. 
 
 Have not yet received passes to see the Belgians. 
 
 Undoubtedly Ludendorff is the real dictator of 
 Germany to-day. What he thinks about America 
 may be judged from the circumstances before Colonel 
 Kuhn's recall. 
 
 The nearer I get to the situation the more I con- 
 sider the President's Peace Note an exceedingly wise 
 move. It has made it very difficult for the terrorists 
 here to start anything which will bring Germany into 
 conflict with the U.S. 
 
 The Chancellor, Zimmermann, Stumm, have all 
 ridiculed the idea that Germany will go back on her 
 " Sussex " pledges ; but if she does, then the Peace 
 Note makes it easier for America to enter the war on 
 the Allies' side with a clear conscience and the know- 
 ledge on the part of the people at home that the President 
 did everything possible to keep us out of the mess.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM-THE 
 GERMAN SOUL 
 
 The older I grow the more it seems to me that all 
 men are alike and that they have been alike at all 
 periods of history, capable of the same development 
 and differing only because of environment. 
 
 I do not believe, for example, that any mystery 
 is concealed behind the faces of the peoples of the 
 East. Once I asked Soughimoura, my colleague 
 in Berlin, Ambassador of Japan, whether the Japan- 
 ese were as much subject to nerves as Western 
 peoples. He answered in the affirmative, but said 
 they were taught from infancy to control their 
 nerves. I asked him how, and he said the principle 
 of the system was deep abdominal breathing with 
 a slow release of the breath as soon as nervousness 
 came on. Japanese wrestlers practised this, he added, 
 and when a man took deep breaths it was almost 
 impossible to throw him. 
 
 Of course, social life and customs change with 
 climate. But education is the most powerful factor 
 of all. The Aztecs of Mexico offered human sacri- 
 fices, but the letter of the Aztec mother to her daugh- 
 ter giving advice and counsel, mentioned by Prescott 
 in his history, might have been written by a New 
 England mother to-day. Somewhere in the world 
 
 105
 
 io6 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 is a savage eating human flesh, persuaded that in 
 so doing he is acting in accordance with the tenets 
 of his religion. 
 
 These are the extremes. 
 
 But the German, or rather the Prussian, has been 
 moulded into the extraordinary person that he is 
 to-day by a slow process of education extending 
 through several generations. At Marienburg, on the 
 Baltic shore of Germany, stands the ancient castle 
 of the Teutonic Knights recently restored by the 
 German Kaiser. The Knights at one time conquered 
 and occupied much of the territory that is now 
 modern Prussia. A military religious order, they 
 attracted adventurers from all lands, and their descen- 
 dants constitute many of the noble families of Prussia. 
 It is this tradition of conquest for gain that still 
 animates the ruling class of Prussia and therefore 
 all Germany. 
 
 Later through the Middle Ages, and as the central 
 power of the Emperor grew weaker and weaker, 
 what is to-day Germany became a nest of dukedoms 
 and principalities. Before the French Revolution 
 these numbered hundreds. After the Thirty Years' 
 War which ravaged Germany from 1615 to 1645 
 extreme poverty was often conspicuous at these 
 petty Courts. War was an industry and the poor 
 German peasants were frequently bartered as slaves 
 to the war-god, as the Hessians were sold by their 
 ruler to the British in our War of the Revolution. 
 The Germans were then the mercenaries of Europe, 
 savages skilled in war, without mercy towards the 
 towns unfortunate enough to be given to their 
 pillage. There is no more horrible event in all 
 history than that of the sack of Rome by the German 
 mercenaries in the year 1527. Under General George
 
 THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM 107 
 
 von Fmndsberg, who joined forces with the recreant 
 constable Bourbon of France and the Spaniards, 
 these lawless Germans invaded the fertile plains of 
 Italy and took Rome by assault. 
 
 The most awful outrages were perpetrated. Pre- 
 lates were tortured after being paraded through 
 the streets of the Eternal City, dressed in their 
 sacred pontificals and mounted on donkeys. Altars 
 were defiled, sacred images broken, vestments and 
 services and works of art taken from the plundered 
 churches, and sacred relics insulted, broken and 
 scattered. For nine months the orgy continued, 
 the inhabitants being tortured by these German 
 soldiers in their effort to find hidden treasure. In 
 fact conditions in Belgium to-day had their counter- 
 part centuries ago in the treatment of Roman Catholic 
 priests and the people of Rome. 
 
 The great change in the feeling of the country to- 
 wards Prussia since the latter's conquest of the 
 rest of Germany in 1866 is still exemplified by 
 one quotation from Goethe. He said, " The Prussian 
 was born a brute and civilisation will make him 
 ferocious." We all have seen how prophetic was 
 this sentence. Skilled in chemistry, in science, well 
 educated, made rich by manufacturing and foreign 
 commerce, the Prussians of to-day have shown 
 themselves far more bloody, far more cruel than 
 the German lansquenet of the Middle Ages who 
 sold himself, his two-handed sword, his military 
 experience, and his long lance to the highest bidder. 
 
 Tacitus tells of how the ancient Germans when 
 drawn up in battle array used to sing a sort of war 
 song to terrify their enemies. 
 
 It was Goethe incidentally who remarked, 
 " Amerika, du hast es besser." (America, you are
 
 108 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 better off.) The poet who died in 1832 foresaw, 
 indeed, the coming power of the free democracy 
 across the seas. 
 
 It was interesting to note the psychological de- 
 velopment of the Germans during the war. For the 
 very short time while war hung in the balance there 
 was a period almost of rejoicing among the singing 
 crowds in the streets — a universal release of tension 
 after forty years' preparation for war. 
 
 Next came the busy period of mobilisation, and 
 then, as the German armies swept through Belgium 
 and France, stronghold and fortress falling before 
 them, there came a period of intense exaltation, 
 a period when the most reasonable Germans, the 
 light of success and conquest in their eyes, declared 
 German Kultur would now be imposed on the whole 
 world. 
 
 The Battle of the Marne ended this period of 
 rejoicing, and through the winter of 1914-15, 
 when it became apparent that Germany would not 
 win by a sudden assault, the temper of the people 
 began to change to an attitude of depression. 
 
 It has been at all times the policy of the German 
 autocracy to keep the people of Germany from 
 amusing themselves. I know of no class in Ger- 
 many which really enjoys life. The Counts and 
 Junkers have their country estates. Life on these 
 estates, which are administered solely for profit, 
 is not like country life in England or America. The 
 houses are plain and, for the most part, without 
 the conveniences of bath-rooms and heating to 
 which we are accustomed in America. Very few 
 automobiles are owned in Germany. There are prac- 
 tically no small country houses or bungalows, although 
 at a few of the sea places rich Jews have villas.
 
 THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM 109 
 
 The wealthy merchant takes his vacation in sum- 
 mer at Carlsbad or Kissingen, or in some other resort 
 where his physical constitution, disorganised by over- 
 eating and over-drinking, can be regulated somewhat. 
 Many Germans take their families to Switzerland, 
 where the German of all ages with knapsack and 
 Alpine stick is a familiar sight. 
 
 Earnestness is the watchword. For should the 
 people once get a taste of pleasure they might decide 
 that the earth offered fairer possibilities than life 
 in the barracks or the admiring contemplation of 
 fat and complacent grand-dukes and princes. 
 
 Much of this sycophancy is due to the poverty 
 of the educated classes. Salaries paid to officials 
 are ridiculously small. The German working men 
 both in wages and living are on a lower scale than 
 those of other Western nations with the possible 
 exception of Russia, Italy, and the Balkan States. 
 The professional and business classes earn very 
 little. The reason for the superiority of the German 
 in the chemical industry is because a chemist, a 
 graduate of the university, can be hired for less than 
 the salary of an American chauffeur. 
 
 And this earnestness of life was insisted upon 
 even to a greater degree by the autocracy with the 
 opening of war. The playing of dance music brought 
 a visit from the police. The theatres at first were 
 closed but later opened. Only plays of a serious or 
 patriotic nature were originally permitted. Dancing 
 was tabooed, but in the winter of 1915-16 Rein- 
 hardt was allowed to produce a ballet of a severely 
 classical nature and at the opera performances the 
 ponderous ballet girls were permitted to cavort as 
 usual. 
 
 I saw no signs of any great religious revival, no
 
 no FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 greater attendance at the churches. Perhaps this 
 was because I was in the Protestant part of Germany 
 where the Church is under the direct control of the 
 Government and where the people feel that in 
 attending church they are only attending an extra 
 drill, a drill where they will be told of the glories of 
 the autocracy and the necessity of obedience. In 
 fact, religion may be said to have failed in Germany, 
 and many State-paid preachers launched sermons of 
 hate from their State-owned pulpits. 
 
 Always fond of the drama and opera, I was a 
 constant attendant at theatres in Berlin. The best- 
 known manager in Berlin is Reinhardt, who has 
 under his control the Deutsches Theatre with its 
 annex, the Kammerspiel, and also the People's 
 Theatre on the Biilowplatz. I made the acquaint- 
 ance of Mr. Reinhardt and his charming wife, who 
 takes part in many of his productions. I dined with 
 them in their picturesque house on the Kupfer 
 Graben. In the Deutsches Theatre the great revolving 
 stage makes change of scene easy so that Reinhardt 
 is enabled to present Shakespeare, a great favourite 
 in Germany, in a most picturesque manner. He 
 manages to lend even to the most solemn tragedy 
 little touches that add greatly to the interest and 
 keep the attention fixed. 
 
 For instance in his production of " Macbeth," 
 when Lady Macbeth comes in, in the sleep-walking 
 scene, rubbing her hands and saying, " What, will 
 these hands ne'er be clean ? " the actress taking this 
 part in Berlin gave a very distinct and loud snore 
 between every three or four words : thus most 
 effectively reminding the audience that she was 
 asleep. 
 
 As the war continued the taste of the Germans
 
 THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM in 
 
 turned to sombre, tragical, and almost sinister plays. 
 Only a death on the stage seemed to bring a ray 
 of animation to the stolid bovine faces of the audience. 
 In my last winter in Berlin the hit of the season was 
 " Erdgeist," a play by Wedekind, whose " Spring's 
 Awakening," given in New York in the spring of 
 1917, horrified and disgusted the most hardened 
 Broadway theatre-goers. The principal female role 
 was played by a Serbian actress, Maria Orska — very 
 much on the type of Nazimova. In this play, 
 presented to crowded audiences, only one of the four 
 acts was without a death. 
 
 Another favourite during war-time, played at 
 Reinhardt's theatre, was " Maria Magdalena." The 
 characters were the father, mother, son and daughter 
 of a German family in a small town and two young 
 men in love with the daughter. In the first act the 
 police arrest the son for theft, giving the mother 
 such a shock that she dies of apoplexy on the stage. 
 In the second act, the two lovers have a duel and one 
 is killed. In the third act, the surviving lover 
 commits suicide, and, in the fourth act, the daughter 
 jumps down the well. The curtain descends leaving 
 only the old man and the cat alive, and the impression 
 is given that if the curtain were ten seconds later 
 either the cat would get the old man or the old 
 man would get the cat ! 
 
 The mysterious play of " Peer Gynt " was given in 
 two theatres during each winter of the war. All 
 of Ibsen's dramas played to crowded houses. Bern- 
 hardt, during the last winter I was in Berlin, produced 
 Strindberg's " Ghost Sonata," in quite a wonderful 
 way. The play was horrible and gruesome enough, 
 but as produced by him it gave a strong man night- 
 mare for days afterwards.
 
 ii2 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 The German soul, indeed, seems to turn not 
 towards light and gay and graceful things, but 
 towards bloodshed and gruesomeness, ghosts and 
 mystery — effect doubtless of the long, dark, bitter 
 nights and grey days that overshadow these northern 
 lands. 
 
 I think the only time I lost my temper in Germany 
 was when a seemingly reasonable and polite gentleman 
 from the Foreign Office sitting by my desk one 
 day, in 1916, remarked how splendid it was that 
 Germany had nearly two million prisoners of war and 
 that these would go back to their homes imbued 
 with an intense admiration of German Kultur. 
 
 I said that I believed that the two million prisoners 
 of war who had been insulted and underfed and 
 beaten and forced to work as slaves in factories and 
 mines and on farms would go back to their homes 
 with such a hatred of all things German that it 
 would not be safe for Germans to travel in countries 
 from which these prisoners came, that other nations 
 had their own Kultur with which they were perfectly 
 satisfied and which they did not wish to change for 
 any made-in-Germany brand ! 
 
 Certain Germans have prated much of German 
 " Kultur," have boasted of imposing this " Kultur " 
 on the world by force of arms. What is this German 
 " Kultur " ? A certain efficiency of government 
 obtained by keeping the majority of the people out 
 of all voice in governmental affairs ; a certain low 
 cost of manufactured products or of carrying charges 
 in the shipping trades made possible by enslaving 
 the workmen who toil long hours for small wages ) 
 a certain superiority in chemical production because 
 trained chemists, willing to work at one semi- 
 mechanical task, can be hired for less than a Fifth
 
 THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM 113 
 
 Avenue butler is paid in America ; and a certain 
 pre-eminence in military affairs reached by subjecting 
 the mass of the people to the brutal, boorish, non- 
 commissioned officers and the galling yoke of a 
 militaristic system. 
 
 Subtract the German Jews and in the lines of real 
 culture there would be little of the real thing left 
 in Germany. Gutmann, Bleichroeder, von Swabach, 
 Friedlander-Fuld, Rathenau, Simon, Warburg, in 
 finance ; Borchardt and others in surgery, and almost 
 the whole medical profession ; the Meyers, the Ehr- 
 lichs, Bamberger, Hugo Schiff, Newburger, Bertheim, 
 Paul Jacobson, in chemistry and research ; Men- 
 delssohn, and others, in music ; Harden, Theodor 
 Wolf, Georg Bernhard and Professor Stein in 
 journalism. 
 
 But why continue ? About the only men not Jews 
 prominent in the intellectual, artistic, financial, or 
 commercial life of Germany are the pastors of the 
 Lutheran Churches. And the Jews have won their 
 way to the front in almost a generation. Still refused 
 commissions in the standing army (except for about 
 114 since the war), still compelled to renounce their 
 religion before being eligible for nobility or a Court 
 function, still practically excluded from university 
 professorships, considered socially inferior, the Jews 
 of Germany until a few years ago lived under dis- 
 abilities that had survived from the Middle Ages. 
 They were not allowed to bear Christian names. The 
 marriages of Jews and Christians were forbidden. 
 Jews could not own houses and lands. They were not 
 permitted to engage in agriculture and could not 
 become members of the guilds or unions of handi- 
 craftsmen. When a Jew travelled he was compelled 
 to pay a tax in each province through which he 
 
 1
 
 n 4 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 passed. Jews attending the fair at Frankfort on 
 the Oder were compelled to pay a head tax, and 
 were admitted to Leipzig and Dresden on condition 
 that they might be expelled at any time. Berlin 
 Jews were compelled to buy annually a certain 
 quantity of porcelain, derisively called " Jew's porce- 
 lain," from the Royal manufactory and to sell it 
 abroad. When a Jew married he had to get permis- 
 sion, and an annual impost was paid on each member 
 of the family, while only one son could remain at 
 home, and the others were forced to seek their fortune 
 abroad. The Jews could worship in their own way, 
 in some States, provided they used only two small 
 rooms and made no noise. 
 
 The reproach that the Jew is not a producer, but 
 is a mere middleman, taking a profit as goods pass 
 from hand to hand, is handed down from the time 
 when Jews were forbidden by law to become pro- 
 ducers and, therefore, were compelled to become 
 traders and middlemen, barred from the guilds and 
 from engaging in the cultivation of the soil. 
 
 The German newspaper in size is much smaller 
 than ours. If you take an ordinary American news- 
 paper and fold it in half, the fold appearing horizontally 
 across the middle of the page, and then turn it so that 
 the longer sides are upright, you get an idea of the 
 size. There are no editorials in German newspapers, 
 but articles, usually only one a day, on some political 
 or scientific subject, one contributed by a professor 
 or someone else supposedly not connected with the 
 newspaper. 
 
 The editor of the German newspaper in his desire 
 to poison and colour the news to suit his own views 
 does not rely upon an editorial, but inserts little
 
 THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM 115 
 
 paragraphs and sentences in the news columns. 
 For instance, a Note of President Wilson's might 
 be printed, and after a paragraph of that, a statement 
 something like this will be inserted in parentheses. 
 " This statement comes well from the old hypocrite 
 whose country has been supplying arms and ammu- 
 nition to the enemies of Germany. The Editor." 
 A few sentences more or a paragraph of the Note and 
 another interlineation of this kind. Small news- 
 papers have a news service furnished free by the 
 Government, thus enabling the latter to colour the news 
 to suit itself. It is characteristic of Germany, and 
 shows how void of amusement the life of an average 
 citizen is and how the country is divided into castes, 
 that there is no so-called society or personal news 
 in the columns of the daily newspaper. 
 
 You never see in a German newspaper accounts 
 common even to our small town newspapers, of 
 how Mrs. Snooks gave a tea or how Mrs. Jones, 
 of Toledo, is visiting Mrs. Judge Bascom for Thanks- 
 giving. If a prince or duke comes to a German town 
 a simple statement is printed that he is staying at 
 such and such an hotel. 
 
 German newspapers, as a rule, are very pronounced 
 in their views, either distinctly Conservative or 
 Liberal or Socialist or Roman Catholic. The Berliner 
 Tageblatt is nearest our idea of a great independent, 
 metropolitan, daily newspaper. Other newspapers 
 represent a class, and many of them are owned by 
 particular interests such as the Krupps and other 
 manufacturers or munition makers. 
 
 There is little that is sensational in the German 
 newspaper. I remember on one occasion that two 
 women murderers were beheaded in accordance with 
 German law. Imagine how such an occurrence would 
 
 1 2
 
 n6 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 have been " played up " in the American newspapers, 
 with pictures, perhaps, of the executioner and his 
 sword, with articles from poets and women's organi- 
 sations, with appeals for pardon and talk of brain 
 storms and the other hysterical concomitants of 
 murder trials in the United States. But in the 
 German newspapers a little paragraph, not exceeding 
 ten lines, simply related the fact that these two women, 
 condemned for murdering such and such a person, had 
 been executed in the strangely mediaeval manner — 
 their heads cut off on the scaffold by a public exe- 
 cutioner. 
 
 The German newspapers in reporting police court 
 and other judicial proceedings often omit names, 
 and it is possible in Berlin for a man to prosecute 
 a blackmailer without having his own name in 
 print. 
 
 When a German victory was announced flags 
 were displayed, but as the war progressed so many 
 victories announced turned out to be nothing won- 
 derful or decisive that little attention was paid to 
 the vainglorious flaunting of German triumphs. Follow- 
 ing an old custom, ten or fifteen trumpeters climbed 
 the tower of Rathhaus or City Hall and there quite 
 characteristically blew to the four quarters of Heaven ; 
 but again, as these official and brazen blowings were 
 not always followed by the confirmation in fact, 
 trumpetings were gradually discontinued. 
 
 The Germans cleverly kept back the announcement 
 of certain successes in order to offset reverses. For 
 instance, on a day when it was necessary to tell the 
 people of a German retreat the newspapers would 
 have great headlines across the front of the first page 
 announcing the sinking of a British cruiser (sunk, 
 perhaps, a month before) and then hidden in a corner
 
 THE KULTUR OF KAISERDOM 117 
 
 would be a minimised announcement of a German 
 defeat. 
 
 To us in Germany there was at the time no Battle 
 of the Marne. So gradually was the news of the 
 retreat of the German forces broken to the people 
 that to-day the masses do not realise that the fate 
 of the world was settled at the Marne !
 
 CHAPTER X 
 THE LITTLE KAISERS 
 
 As the king idea seems inseparably connected with 
 war, there is no country in the world where kings 
 and princes have been held in such great account as 
 in the Central Empires. 
 
 I believe there are only two Christian kings in 
 the world — the Kings of Italy and of Montenegro — 
 who are not by blood related to some German or 
 Austrian royalty. 
 
 For remember that while we think of Germany 
 as ruled by the Kaiser, and while it is his will that 
 is certainly imposed upon the whole of that territory 
 which does not exist politically or even geographically 
 but which we call Germany, there are houses of 
 royalty in it almost as numerous as our big corpora- 
 tions. There are the three Kings of Bavaria, Wiir- 
 temberg, and Saxony, grand- dukes and dukes, and 
 princes, all of them taking themselves very seriously 
 and all of them residing in their own domains ; 
 jealously keeping away from the Emperor's Court 
 and jealously guarding every remnant of rule which 
 the constitution of the German Empire has bequeathed 
 to them. 
 
 Once I asked one of these princelings what his 
 older brother, the reigning prince, did with his time 
 in the small provincial town which is the capital of 
 the principality. The brother looked at me with real 
 surprise in his eyes and answered, " Why he reigns ! 
 
 »vereu, vvny ne reigns :
 
 THE LITTLE KAISERS 119 
 
 Before the constitution of the German Empire, 
 many of these poverty-stricken little Courts were 
 centres of kindly amusement, even of intellectual life. 
 
 The Court of the Grand-Duke Charles Augustus 
 of Saxe- Weimar-Eisenach at Weimar, where Goethe 
 resided and where he was entrusted with responsible 
 State duties, was renowned in Europe as a literary 
 centre. 
 
 Many of these princelings, however ridiculous their 
 Courts may have seemed, exercised despotic power. 
 To-day the inhabitants of the two Mecklenburg 
 duchies are protected by neither Constitution nor 
 Bill of Rights. The Grand-Duke's power is absolute 
 and he can behead at will any one of his subjects in 
 the market-place or torture him to death in the 
 dungeons of the castle and is responsible to God 
 alone. 
 
 Here is an example from history. George Louis, 
 Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg-Celle, married his mis- 
 tress, a Huguenot girl called Eleanore d'Olbreuze. 
 They had one daughter, Sophia Dorothea, who 
 married the Elector of Hanover, who was also 
 George I of England. Sophia Dorothea was supposed 
 to have been involved in a love affair with a Swedish 
 Count, Philip Konigsmarck. Konigsmarck was mur- 
 dered by order of George I, and Sophia Dorothea 
 incarcerated in Ahlden, where she died in 1726. 
 Konigsmarck's sister went to Saxony to beg the aid 
 of the Saxon King, Augustus the Strong. She failed 
 to get news of her brother, but became one of the 
 mistresses of Augustus the Strong and the mother 
 of the celebrated Marshal Saxe. I say one of the 
 " mistresses " of Augustus the Strong because he 
 boasted that he was the father of 365 illegitimate 
 children !
 
 120 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 The daughter of Sophia Dorothea was the mother 
 of Frederick the Great and his brothers and, therefore, 
 an ancestor of the present German Kaiser. Anyone 
 writing about her in a disparaging manner is subject 
 to be imprisoned, under the decisions of the Imperial 
 Supreme Court, for " lese-majeste " or injuring the 
 person of the present monarch in daring to slander 
 his ancestors. And, I suppose, anyone referring to 
 Augustus the Strong may be shut up in Dresden for 
 insulting a predecessor of the present King. 
 
 Every year the nobles of the Central Empires 
 hold a convention at Frankfort, where the means 
 are discussed by which their privileges may be pre- 
 served. No newspaper prints an account of this 
 convention of the highest caste. 
 
 The German peasants, as far as I have seen, are 
 not so much under the dominion of feudal tradition 
 as are the peasants in Austria and Hungary. 
 
 I was shooting once with a Hungarian Count 
 who stationed me in one corner of a field to await 
 the partridges, which driven by the beaters were 
 expected to fly over my head, and as I stood waiting 
 for the beaters to take up their positions two peasant 
 girls walked past me. One of them, to my surprise, 
 caught hold of my hand, which she kissed with true 
 feudal devotion. As a guest of the Count I was 
 presumably of the noble class and therefore entitled 
 by custom and right to this mark of subjugation. 
 And it became quite a task in walking through 
 the halls of the castle to dodge the servants, all of 
 whom seemed anxious to imprint on me the kiss of 
 homage. 
 
 Thackeray in the " Fitzboodle Confessions " gives 
 a most amusing account of life in one of these small, 
 sleepy, German Courts and relates how he left Pum-
 
 THE LITTLE KAISERS 121 
 
 pernickel hurriedly, by night, after the Court ball 
 where he had discovered not only that his German 
 fiancee had eaten too much, but that she had a 
 taste for bad oysters. 
 
 All of these small kings and princes are jealous 
 of the King of Prussia and of his position of German 
 Emperor and show their jealousy by avoiding Berlin. 
 
 In October, 1913, when in London on my way to 
 Germany, I met the young Grand-Duke of Meck- 
 lenburg-Strelitz in the Ritz Hotel, where he was 
 dining with an English earl and his beautiful wife. 
 As I happened to have a box for the Gaiety Theatre, 
 we all went there together and paid a visit to George 
 Grossmith behind the scenes and talked with Emmy 
 Wehlen, the Austrian actress, who was appearing 
 in the comic opera then running. But in all the 
 time that I was in Germany I never once saw or heard 
 of the young Grand-Duke who rules the subjects of 
 his duchy with autocratic rule without even the 
 semblance of a Constitution. 
 
 Formerly our Minister used to be accredited to 
 some of these Courts, and, on inquiring informally 
 through a friend, I learned that the American Minister 
 is still accredited to Bavaria on the records of the 
 Bavarian Foreign Office, no letters of recall ever 
 hav : ng been presented. The fact that the American 
 Ambassador is accredited to none of these Courts 
 is a distinct disadvantage, because without letters 
 of credence he does not come into contact with any 
 of the twenty-four rulers of Germany who control 
 the Bundesrat in which their representatives sit, 
 voting as they are told by the kings, grand-dukes and 
 princes. A number of these kings and princelings, 
 combining in the Bundesrat, can outvote the powerful 
 King of Prussia. But they don't dare.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 ROYALTY'S RECREATION 
 
 I had a shooting estate about twenty miles from 
 Berlin, one that I could reach by automobile in forty- 
 five minutes from the door of the Embassy. Be- 
 cause of the strict German game laws I had better 
 shooting there than within two hundred miles of 
 large cities in America. 
 
 There seemed to be something to shoot there 
 almost every day of the year. On May 16 the season 
 opened for male roe — a very small deer. About the 1st 
 of August the ducks, which breed in Northern Germany, 
 can be shot. These were mallards and there were 
 about two thousand or more on a lake on my pre- 
 serve. We usually shot them by digging blinds in 
 the oatfields, shooting them after sunset as they 
 flew from the lake to feed on the newly harvested 
 grain. The season for Hungarian partridge opened 
 on August 20. These were shot over dogs in the 
 stubble and in the potato fields. After a few weeks 
 partridges became very wild and we then shot them 
 with a kite. When we had put up a covey out of 
 range and marked where they went down in a potato 
 patch or field, perhaps of lucerne or clover, a small 
 boy would fly a kite made in the form of a hawk 
 over the field. This kept the partridges from flying 
 and they would lie while the dogs pointed until 
 we put them up. 
 
 122
 
 ROYALTY'S RECREATION 123 
 
 By October 1 pheasants could be shot ; English 
 pheasants become wild. These roosted in the trees 
 at night and so escaped the plentiful foxes. Later 
 on came shooting at long ranges, after they had 
 collected in bands, of the female roedeer, and also 
 the hare shooting. Rabbits were shot at all times, 
 and in November and December and January on 
 foggy days it was not difficult to get a wild goose. 
 
 The hares were shot in cold weather, after the 
 snow was on the ground, by walking in line of ten 
 or fifteen beaters with two or three guns at intervals 
 along the line, and later, when the hares were very 
 wild and the weather very cold, by what is called 
 by the Germans " kessel-jagd " or kettle-hunt. For 
 this hunt the head keeper would collect a number of 
 beaters, as many as a hundred, from the neighbouring 
 towns and villages, mostly small boys and old men. 
 On the great, flat plain the keeper would send out 
 his beaters to the right and the left, walking in a 
 straight line at about twenty-yard intervals. After 
 each side had gone perhaps half a mile they would 
 then turn at right angles, walk a mile, and then 
 turn at right angles until the two lines met, so that 
 perhaps a square mile of territory would be enclosed 
 by the beaters with the ten to fifteen men with guns 
 at intervals in the line. When the square had been 
 formed the head keeper blew a blast on his bugle 
 and all turned and walked slowly towards the centre, 
 and the hares were shot as they attempted to break 
 through the line. 
 
 On one day just before I left Germany, I and 
 members of the Embassy shot more than two hundred 
 hares on one of these hunts. The German hare is 
 an enormous animal with dark meat, almost impossible 
 to distinguish from venison.
 
 124 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 After these hare drives, besides, of course, paying 
 the beaters their regular wages, I used to hold a 
 lottery, giving a number of these hares as prizes or 
 distributing hares to the magnates of the village, 
 such as the pastor, the school teacher, the policeman 
 and the postmaster. 
 
 When we were shooting in the summer and autumn 
 the peasants were working in the fields, and one had 
 to be very careful in shooting roebuck with a high- 
 powered rifle. It is customary to hunt roebuck on 
 these flat plains from a carriage. In this way a 
 bullet, travelling at a downward angle, if the buck 
 is missed, strikes the ground within a short distance. 
 If one were to shoot lying down, kneeling or standing, 
 the danger to peasants in the fields would be very 
 great. The pheasants were sometimes shot over 
 dogs, but usually as the beaters drove small woods. 
 A pheasant driven and flying high makes a difficult 
 mark. One getting up before the dogs is almost 
 too easy a shot. 
 
 We shot the rabbits by using ferrets, little animals 
 like weasels wearing little muzzles and bells upon 
 their necks. In the woods where the rabbits had 
 their holes four or five ferrets would be put in the 
 rabbits' holes, and it was quite difficult to shoot 
 rabbits as they came out like lightning, dodging 
 among the trees. In the early spring the " birk- 
 hahns ' were shot, a variety of black and white 
 grouse. There were some blinds or little huts of 
 twigs erected near places where the ground was 
 beaten hard, and on these open, beaten spots early 
 in the morning the " birkhahns " waltz, doing a 
 peculiar backward and forward dance in some way 
 connected with their marriage ceremonies. There 
 were also on this estate numbers, at times, of a
 
 ROYALTY'S RECREATION 125 
 
 curious bird found only in Spain, Roumania, Asia 
 Minor, and these plains of the Mark of Brandenburg, 
 a large bustard called by the Germans " trappe." 
 These birds were very shy and hard to approach. 
 Although I had several shots at them with a rifle 
 at four or five hundred yards I did not succeed in 
 getting one. 
 
 In talking with the Chancellor he almost always 
 opened the conversation by asking if I had yet 
 killed a " trappe." As a rule the German uses for 
 shooting deer and roebuck a German Mauser military 
 rifle, but with the barrel cut down and a sporting 
 stock with pistol grip added. On this there is a 
 powerful telescope. Many Germans carry a " ziel- 
 stock," a long walking-stick from the bottom of which 
 a tripod can be protruded, and near the top a sort 
 of handle piece of metal about as big as a little 
 finger. When the German sportsman has sighted a 
 roebuck he plants his aiming stick in the ground, 
 rests the rifle on the side projection, carefully adjusts 
 his telescope, sets the hair trigger on his rifle and 
 finally touches the trigger. 
 
 At the commencement of the war the Duke of 
 Ratibor collected all these sporting rifles with tele- 
 scopes and sent them to the front. These were of 
 the same calibre as the military rifles and took the 
 military cartridge, so they proved enormously useful 
 for sniping purposes. 
 
 Going one day to a proof establishment to try a 
 gun, I opened by mistake a door which led to a great 
 room where thousands of German military rifles 
 were being fitted with telescopes. These telescopes 
 have crossed wires, like those in a surveyor's instru- 
 ment, and it is only necessary in aiming to fix the 
 centre of the crossed wires on the game and pull the
 
 126 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 trigger. A clever arrangement enables the wires to 
 be elevated for distant shooting. 
 
 So great is the discipline of the German people 
 that game on these estates is seldom, if ever, touched 
 by the peasants. There is no free shooting in 
 Germany. The shooting rights of every inch of 
 land are in possession of someone, and the tens of 
 thousands of gamekeepers constantly killing the 
 crows, hawks, foxes, and other birds and animals 
 that destroy eggs and game make the game plentiful. 
 The keeper has the right by law to shoot any stray 
 dog or cat found a hundred yards from a village. 
 I paid the head keeper a certain sum per month 
 and in addition he received a premium called " shot 
 money " for each bird or roebuck shot. He also 
 received a premium for each fox or crow or hawk 
 he destroyed, bringing, on the first of the month, 
 the beaks and claws of the hawks, etc., to prove his 
 claim. Foxes are very plentiful in Germany, and in 
 one winter on this estate, only twenty miles from 
 Berlin, the keeper trapped or killed twelve foxes. 
 
 The Emperor is very fond of fox shooting. Foxes 
 are driven out of the forest past his shooting stand 
 by beaters, and one of the reasons why Prince Fursten- 
 berg was such a favourite of the Emperor was that 
 he provided him with splendid fox shooting, although 
 it is whispered that he bought foxes in boxes in all 
 parts of Germany and had them turned loose for the 
 Emperor's benefit. 
 
 In the more thickly forested portions of Germany 
 deer as well as roedeer are shot, and in many districts 
 wild boar. In Poland and in a few estates in Ger- 
 many on the eastern border, moose, called elk (elch 
 in German), are to be had. These, however, have 
 very poor horns.
 
 ROYALTY'S RECREATION 127 
 
 Talking to the keepers and beaters on this shooting 
 estate gave me a very good idea of the hardships 
 suffered in rural Germany, of the way in which the 
 people in the farming districts are kept down by the 
 lords of the manor and by the Government, and it 
 was from this village and the neighbouring town 
 that I got some idea of the number of men called to 
 arms in Germany. 
 
 By a custom dating from the devastating wars 
 of the Middle Ages there are practically no farms in 
 Germany, but inhabitants of the agricultural districts 
 are collected in villages and the few farms have, 
 characteristically, a military name. They are called 
 " vorwerke " or outposts. In the village on my 
 estate there are almost exactly six hundred inhab- 
 itants, men, women and children, and of these at 
 the time I left Germany one hundred and ten had 
 been called to the colours. In the neighbouring 
 town of Mittenwalde, of almost three thousand 
 inhabitants, over five hundred had joined the Army. 
 At the commencement of the war the population of 
 the German Empire was about 72,000,000, or some- 
 thing over, and applying these same proportions it 
 will be seen what a vast army was created. 
 
 In the industrial districts where men are required 
 for munition work perhaps not as great a proportion 
 has been called. The name of the village on my 
 estate was Gross Machnow, the road from Berlin 
 to Dresden ran through it, and only a few miles east 
 was the shooting place of Wusterhausen where the 
 favourite shooting box of the father of Frederick 
 the Great was, and where he was accustomed to hold 
 his so-called tobacco parliament, when, with his 
 cronies, over beer and long pipes, the affairs of the 
 nation were discussed with great freedom.
 
 128 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 The horse races in Germany are excellent. There 
 are several tracks about Berlin. The Hoppegarten, 
 devoted almost exclusively to flat racing ; the Grune- 
 wald, the large popular track nearest to Berlin where 
 both steeplechases and other races are held ; and 
 Karlshorst, devoted exclusively to steeplechasing and 
 hurdle racing. 
 
 The jockey club of Berlin is the Union Club, 
 which owns the Hoppegarten track. Its officers are 
 men of the highest honour, and in no country in the 
 world are the races run more honestly, more " on 
 the level," than in Germany. 
 
 Nothing makes for mutual international under- 
 standing more than sport. Even during the most 
 bitter crises between Germany and America I felt 
 that I could go absolutely alone to the crowded race 
 tracks, and, while I know the Germans differed 
 emphatically with the American views of the war, 
 the gentlemen in charge of the races and the members 
 of the Union Club treated me with the kindest con- 
 sideration and the most graceful courtesy. 
 
 I am sorry that I never attended any of the Court 
 hunts which took place in the vicinity of Potsdam. 
 A pack of hounds is kept there and boars are hunted. 
 The etiquette is very strict and no one not presented 
 at Court can appear at these hunts. As I did not 
 have an opportunity to present my letters of credence 
 until a month or more after my arrival in Berlin 
 in the autumn of 1913, the winter rains had set in 
 before I was eligible for the hunts, and in addition 
 I had not taken the precaution to order the 
 necessary costumes. 
 
 The first time that a man appears at one of these
 
 ROYALTY'S RECREATION 129 
 
 hunts he must wear a tall silk hat, a double-breasted 
 red coat, with tails like a dress coat, white breeches 
 and top boots. After he has once made his appear- 
 ance in this costume he may, thereafter, substitute 
 for it a red frock hunting coat, white breeches and 
 top boots, and a velvet hunting cap, the same shape 
 as the caps worn by the jockeys. There are no 
 jumps on these hunts. When the boar has been 
 brought to bay by the dogs, the right to despatch 
 him with a long hunting knife is reserved for the 
 most distinguished man present. If a royalty is 
 present at one of these hunts he distributes small 
 sprigs of oak leaves to everyone at the hunt, cherished 
 ever after as valued souvenirs. 
 
 When I first arrived at Berlin, having brought 
 horses with me from America, I used to ride every 
 morning in the Tiergarten. Because so many Ger- 
 mans are in the Army, riding is a very favourite 
 sport, and in peace times the Tiergarten is crowded 
 with Berliners. Most of the riding was done between 
 7 and 10 in the morning. The early rising is 
 compensated for, however, by the siesta after lunch, 
 a universal custom. 
 
 Shooting is almost more of a ceremony than 
 a sport. The letters exchanged between Emperor 
 William and Czar Nicholas, lately discovered in the 
 Winter Palace, show what a large part shooting 
 played in their correspondence. One or the other 
 is continually wishing the other ' ' Weidmanns-Heil," 
 which is the German expression for " good luck " 
 as applied to shooting. All royalties must ride and 
 keep in practice, especially because of military service. 
 Indeed, all the sports of the Kaiser and his people 
 converge towards a common object — military efficiency 
 and war. 
 
 K
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 THE ETERNAL FEMININE 
 
 Even the women, many of whom are honorary 
 colonels to regiments, must keep in trim for the 
 great parade days of autumn and spring. Many of 
 these female colonels appear in uniform, riding at 
 the head of their regiments. They sit on side saddles, 
 however, and wear skirts corresponding somewhat 
 in colour with the uniform coat and helmet of the 
 regiment of which they are the honorary proprietors. 
 
 German female royalties are rather inclined to 
 set an example of quietness in dress. They seldom 
 wear the latest fashion and never follow the exag- 
 gerated modes of Paris. Even their figures are of 
 the old-fashioned variety — pinched at the waist. 
 While in the Tiergarten in the morning I saw many 
 good horses, but only one fashionably - cut riding 
 habit. Many of the others must have been at least 
 twenty years old, as the sleeves were of the Leg of 
 Mutton style, fashionable, I believe, about that 
 number of years ago. 
 
 Many German noblewomen shoot and are quite 
 as good shots as their husbands. I was quite sur- 
 prised once on a shooting party to meet an elderly 
 princess whose grey hair was in short curls and 
 who wore a coat and waistcoat like a man's. She 
 shot with great skill and smoked long Havana 
 cigars ! 
 
 130
 
 THE ETERNAL FEMININE 131 
 
 When German women get out of the country 
 they very quickly imitate foreign fashions and ex- 
 travagances of dress. The Czarina of Russia, for 
 example, a German Princess, is very fond of fashions, 
 and a friend of mine who had three audiences with 
 her during the war tells me that on the occasion of 
 his first audience she was dressed in black and re- 
 ceived him in a room where yellow flowers were 
 massed. On the second occasion she was in grey 
 and the flowers were pink. At the third audience 
 her dress was purple and the flowers were of lilac 
 and white. 
 
 There is one good thing about the king and aristo- 
 cratic system. The position of women in the social 
 scale is fixed by the husband's rank. There is, 
 therefore, none of that striving, that vying with 
 each other, which so often exhausts the nerves of 
 the American woman and the purse of the husband. 
 The German women give their time and attention 
 to the " Four K's " that, in a German's eyes, should 
 bound a woman's world, " Kaiser, Kinder, Kirche, 
 Kuche " (Emperor, children, church and kitchen). 
 
 The successful business man of New York or 
 Chicago or San Francisco is surprised to find how 
 docile and domestic the German woman is — no foolish 
 extravagance, but a real devotion to husband and 
 home, a real mother to her many children. She 
 matches that short epitaph of the Roman matron — 
 " She spun wool ; she kept the house." 
 
 When I came to Germany I found, on studying 
 the language, that there was no word in German 
 corresponding to " efficient." I soon learned that 
 this is because everything done in Germany is done 
 efficiently, and there is no need to differentiate one 
 act from another in terms of efficiency. But the 
 
 k 2
 
 1 32 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 German man could not be as efficient as he un- 
 doubtedly is without the whole-hearted devotion of 
 the German woman. 
 
 German girls are given a good, strong, sound 
 education. They learn languages, not smatterings 
 of them. They are accomplished musicians. Domes- 
 tic science they learn from their mothers. They are 
 splendid swimmers, hockey players, riders and skaters. 
 During our first winter in Berlin we spent many 
 afternoons at the Ice Palace in the Lutherstrasse, 
 an indoor ice rink much larger than the one in the 
 Friedrichstrasse, the Admirals Palast, where the ice 
 ballets are given and the graceful Charlotte used 
 to appear. The Skating Club of the Lutherstrasse 
 was under the patronage of the Crown Prince and 
 was one of the very few meeting places of Berlin 
 society. The women were taught to waltz by male 
 instructors and the men by several young women 
 — blonde skaters from East Prussia. I tried to 
 improve my skating and spent many hours making 
 painful " Bogens " or circles under the efficient eyes 
 of a little East Prussia instructress. Afternoon tea 
 was served during the interval of skating and one 
 afternoon a week was specially reserved for the Club 
 members. 
 
 One of my young secretaries used to go occasionally 
 to Wannsee, near Berlin, to play hockey with a 
 German friend ; as the young men were nearly all 
 in the war, girls made up the majority of each team. 
 My secretary reported that those German girls were 
 as strong, as enduring, and as skilful as the average 
 young man. 
 
 Girls of the working classes, instead of flirting 
 or turkey trotting at night, make a practice of going 
 to the Turnvereins, to exercise in the gymnasiums
 
 THE ETERNAL FEMININE 133 
 
 there. If the members of the German lower classes 
 only had the opportunity to rise in life what would 
 they not accomplish ! So many of them are very 
 ambitious, persistent, earnest and thrifty. 
 
 Of course, female suffrage in Germany or anything 
 approaching it is very distant. First of all, the men 
 must win a real ballot for themselves in Prussia, a real 
 representation in the Reichstag. In the Germany of 
 to-day, a woman with feminist aspirations is looked 
 on as the men of the official class look on a Social 
 Democrat, something hardly to be endured. And 
 this in spite of the fact that the nations to the 
 North, in Scandinavia, freed women even before 
 America did. 
 
 The most beautiful woman in Berlin society is 
 Countess Oppersdorff — the mother of thirteen children. 
 She is not German, but was born a Polish Princess 
 Radziwill. 
 
 The chief lady of the Imperial Court is Countess 
 Brockdorff. She is rather stern in appearance and 
 manner, and rumour has it that she was appointed 
 to keep the good-natured, easygoing Empress to 
 the strict line of German Court etiquette, to see that 
 the Empress, rather democratic in inclination, did 
 not stray away from the traditional rigidity of the 
 Prussian Royal House. 
 
 Countess Brockdorff is a most able woman. I 
 grew to have not only a great respect but almost 
 an affection for her. At Court functions she usually 
 wears a mantilla as a distinguished mark and several 
 Orders and decorations. We had three women 
 friends from America with us in Berlin whom we 
 presented at Court. All were married, but only 
 the husband of one of them could leave his work 
 and visit Germany. The two other husbands, in
 
 134 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 accordance with the good American custom, were 
 at work in America. Countess Brockdorff spoke 
 to the lady whose husband was with her, saying to 
 her, " I am glad to see that your husband is with 
 you," an implied rebuke to the other ladies and an 
 exhibition of that failure to understand other nations 
 so characteristic of highly-placed Germans. With 
 us, of course, a good-natured American husband, 
 wedded as much to his business as to his wife, 
 permits his wife to travel abroad without him, and 
 neither he nor she is reproved in America because 
 of this. 
 
 Among the other ladies attendant on the Empress 
 are Fraulein von Gersdorff, whose cousin is a lawyer 
 practising in New York, and Countess Keller. There 
 are other ladies and a number of maids of honour, 
 and all of them are overworked, acting as secretaries, 
 answering letters, and attending various charitable 
 and other functions, either with the Empress or 
 representing her. One of the charming maids of 
 honour, Countess Bassewitz, was married during the 
 war to Prince Oscar, the Kaiser's fifth son. This 
 marriage was morganatic, that is, the lady does not 
 take the name, rank, and title of her husband. In 
 this case another title was given her, that of Countess 
 Ruppin, and her sons will be known as Counts Ruppin, 
 but will not be Princes of Prussia. 
 
 There is much misunderstanding in America as 
 to these morganatic marriages. By the rules of 
 many royal and princely houses, a member of the 
 house cannot marry a woman not of equal rank 
 and give her his name, titles and rank. But the 
 marriage is in all other respects perfectly legal. The 
 ceremony is performed in accordance with Prussian 
 law, before a civil magistrate and also in a church,
 
 THE ETERNAL FEMININE 135 
 
 and should the husband attempt to marry again 
 he would be guilty of bigamy. 
 
 I gave away the bride at one of these morganatic 
 marriages, when Prince Christian of Hesse married 
 Miss Elizabeth Reid-Rogers, a daughter of Richard 
 Reid-Rogers, a lawyer of New York. Prince Chris- 
 tian has an extremely remote chance of ever coming 
 to the throne of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, but 
 nevertheless, and because of the rules of the House 
 of Hesse-Barchfeld, he cannot give his rank and title 
 to a wife not of equal birth. The head of the House, 
 therefore, the Grand-Duke of Hesse, conferred the 
 title of Baroness Barchfeld in her own right on the 
 bride, and her children will be known as Barons 
 and Baronesses Barchfeld. 
 
 When Prince Christian and his wife go out to 
 dinner in Berlin, he is given his rank at the table 
 as a member of a Royal house, but his wife is treated 
 on a parity with the wives of all officers holding 
 commissions of equal grade with her husband in 
 the Army. As her husband is a Lieutenant, she 
 ranks merely as a Lieutenant's wife. On the same 
 day that Miss Rogers and Prince Christian were 
 wedded, Miss Cecilia May of Baltimore married 
 Lieutenant Vom Rath. I acted as one of Miss 
 May's witnesses at the Standesamt, where the civil 
 marriage was performed, while the religious marriage 
 took place in our Embassy. Lieutenant Vom Rath 
 is the son of one of the proprietors of the great 
 dye manufactories known as Lucius-Meister-Farbe- 
 werke at Hoehst, near Frankfurt a. M., where sal- 
 varsan and many other medicines used in America 
 are manufactured, as well as dyestuffs and chemicals. 
 
 In my earlier book I described presentations at 
 the Royal Prussian Court in Berlin, especially the
 
 i;/> FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 great Court called the " Schleppencour," because of 
 tlie long trains or Schleppe worn by the women. 
 All the little kingdoms and principalities of the 
 German Empire have somewhat the same ceremonies. 
 In Dresden, the capital of Saxony, a peculiar custom 
 is followed. The King and Queen sit at a table at 
 one end of the room playing cards, and the members 
 of the Court and distinguished strangers file into the 
 room, pass by the card table in single file and drop 
 deep curtseys and make bows to the seated royalties, 
 who, as a rule, do not even take the trouble to glance 
 at those engaged in this servile tribute to small 
 royalty. I suppose that the excuse for this is that 
 it is an old custom. But so is serfdom ! 
 
 There are in Germany many so-called mediatised 
 families, so-called because at one time they possessed 
 royal rank and rights over small bits of territory 
 before Napoleon changed the map of Europe and 
 wiped out so many small principalities. 
 
 At the Congress of Vienna these families who 
 lost their right of rule, in part compensation, were 
 given the right to marry either royalties or commoners ; 
 so that the marriage of a Prince of Prussia with a 
 daughter of one of these mediatised houses would 
 not be morganatic. The girl would take the full 
 rank of her husband and the children would inherit 
 any rights, including the rights to the throne, pos- 
 sessed by him. 
 
 Thus the beautiful young Countess Platen, shortly 
 before we left Berlin, was married to von Stumm, 
 the very able Under-Secretary of State for Foreign 
 Affairs. While she became on her marriage Baroness 
 von Stumm, nevertheless, if she had married the 
 son of the Kaiser, she would have taken his rank 
 and her children would have inherited all rights and
 
 THE ETERNAL FEMININE 137 
 
 titles possessed by their father. This is because the 
 Platens, although bearing only the title of Counts, 
 are a mediatised family. 
 
 It is noteworthy that in Berlin women of that 
 blonde type with regular features, which we believe 
 is the German type, are very rare. This type is 
 to be found perfected in Scandinavia, although a 
 few specimens exist in Germany. Looking over a 
 Berlin theatre I have often noticed the predominance 
 of brown and black hair. 
 
 There is always someone higher up to whom 
 German women must curtsey. All women, whatever 
 their husbands' rank, must curtsey to a Royal Prince. 
 Unmarried girls curtsey to married women and kiss 
 their hands. Men, on meeting women, always kiss 
 their hands. 
 
 Berlin is certainly the gossip headquarters of the 
 world. Some years ago the whole town was invaded 
 by a mania for anonymous letter writing, and when 
 the smoke had cleared away few were left with 
 unriddled reputations. 
 
 It is the fashion of the present Court, however, to 
 be very puritanical. No such little affairs are going 
 on publicly as have occurred in the annals of the 
 Hohenzollern family. For even the old Emperor 
 William, grandfather of the present Kaiser, had numer- 
 ous love affairs. The tree is still pointed out near the 
 Tiergarten where he met Princess Radziwill every day. 
 
 And the Chancellor's palace was once the home 
 of another royal " friend." 
 
 The Foreign Office was at one time the home of the 
 Italian dancer, La Barberini, the only woman who ever 
 for a time enslaved Frederick the Great. I discussed 
 affairs of State with von Jagow and Zimmermann in 
 the very room where she gave her supper parties.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 HOME LIFE AND "BRUTALITY" OF THE 
 
 PEOPLE 
 
 The apartments of Berlin are designed for outward 
 show for which the Berliners have a weakness. They 
 have great reception and dining rooms called " repre- 
 sentation rooms," but very little comfort or space 
 in the sleeping quarters. 
 
 It is impossible to think of dropping in suddenly 
 on a Berliner for a meal. The dinners are always 
 for as many people as the rooms will hold and are 
 served by a caterer. 
 
 Only two very distinguished guests may be invited. 
 The host and hostess sit opposite each other at the 
 sides of the table, with the guests tapering off in 
 rank to right and left of them, the ends of the tables 
 being filled up with aides and secretaries. When a 
 great man is invited his aide or secretary must be 
 asked also. These come usually without their wives. 
 
 After dinner men and women leave the table 
 together and smoke in the other rooms of the house, 
 going from group to group. And, although perhaps 
 ten kinds of wine are served during dinner, as soon 
 as the guests leave the dining-room, servants make 
 their appearance with trays of glasses of light and 
 dark beer and continue to offer beer during the 
 remainder of the evening. 
 
 The Germans talk much of food and spend a 
 
 138
 
 HOME LIFE-" BRUTALITY " OF PEOPLE 139 
 
 greater part of their income on food than any other 
 nation. They take much interest in table furnish- 
 ings, china, etc., and invariably turn over the plates 
 to see the marks on the under side. 
 
 Whipped cream is an essential to many German 
 dishes, and in the season a Berliner will commit 
 any crime to obtain some plover's eggs. 
 
 The weiss bier of Berlin, served in wide goblets, 
 is rather going out of fashion. It often is drunk 
 mixed with raspberry juice. 
 
 The restaurants of Berlin are not gay, like those 
 of Paris. There is, however, a rather rough night 
 life created for foreign consumption. I did not 
 take in any of these night restaurants and dancing 
 cabarets, warned by the case of an Ambassador 
 from — — who was reproved by von Jagow for visiting 
 the " Palais de Danse." 
 
 In peace time few automobiles are to be seen on 
 the Berlin streets. There are many millionaires in 
 the city, but the old habits of German thrift persist. 
 
 The modern architecture of Germany is repulsive. 
 The man who builds a new house seems to want to 
 get something resembling as nearly as possible a 
 family vault. Ihne, Court architect and Imperial 
 favourite, has produced, however, some beautiful 
 buildings, notably the new library in Berlin. 
 
 Munich pretends to be more of a centre of art 
 and music than Berlin. Artists have their head- 
 quarters there, but the disciples of the awful " art 
 nouveau " and kindred " arts " have produced many 
 horrors in striving for new effects. 
 
 The opera in Munich is better than in Berlin. 
 One of the Bavarian princes plays a fiddle in the 
 orchestra in the Royal Opera House. 
 
 The Berlin hospitals are better than ours, except
 
 i 4 o FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 for the caste system which prevails even there, and 
 there are first, second, and third class wards. 
 
 The underground road is built at about the same 
 depth as the New York subway. There are two 
 classes, second and third ; there are no guards on 
 the trains, only the motorman in the first car. The 
 passengers open the side doors themselves and these 
 are shut either by passengers or station guards. 
 Accidents are rare, all showing the innate discipline 
 of the people. The charge is by distance. You 
 buy a ticket for five or eight stations and give up 
 the ticket as you go out of the station. If you 
 have travelled farther than the distance called for 
 by your ticket you must make the additional pay- 
 ment. This requires that each ticket be inspected 
 separately when taken up. 
 
 The tramways have different routes. These routes 
 are shown by signs and by numbers displayed on 
 the car. Women motormen in the war period caused 
 many accidents. 
 
 For those Germans who cannot afford to ride or 
 shoot, walking is the principal recreation. There 
 are a few golf courses in the German Empire, 
 mostly patronised by foreigners and American 
 dentists. 
 
 Military training is always in view and the use 
 of the knapsack on walking tours is universal; even 
 school children carry their books to school in knap- 
 sacks and so become accustomed, at an early age, 
 to carry this part of the soldier's burden. 
 
 Occasionally, in summer, bands of girls or boys 
 are to be seen on walking tours. In addition to the 
 usual knapsack, they carry guitars or mandolins. 
 These young people are known as " Wandervogel ' 
 (wandering birds), and sing as they walk. But
 
 HOME LIFE—" BRUTALITY " OF PEOPLE 141 
 
 they don't sing very loud. They might break some 
 regulation. 
 
 Outside of the large cities and even in the cities 
 vacant lots are occupied by " arbour colonies " 
 (Laubencolonie) — tiny little houses of wood erected 
 by city working men and surrounded by little gardens 
 of vegetables and flowers. Here the city workman 
 spends Sunday and often the twilight hours and the 
 night in summertime. Of course these are possible 
 only in a country where the working man is in a 
 distinct social class and where he is compelled to be 
 content with the amusements and occupations of 
 that class alone. 
 
 There is no baseball or substitute for it — the clerks 
 get their diversion in a country excursion or at the 
 free bath on the Wann or Muggel Lake. 
 
 These " free baths," so called, are stretches of 
 sandy lake shore where the populace resort in hot 
 weather, undressing with the indifference of animals 
 on the beach, men and women all mixed together, 
 the men wearing only little bathing trunks and the 
 women scanty one-piece bathing suits. There is a 
 bathing tent where two cents is charged for the 
 privilege of undressing, but most prefer the open 
 beach. Few swim or go in the water, but the majority 
 lie about the beach, often sleeping in affectionate 
 embrace, all without exciting any comment or ridicule. 
 
 The Boy Scout movement was taken up enthusi- 
 astically in Germany with the cheerful support of 
 the military caste, who look on the activity as a 
 welcome adjunct to military training. The boys 
 certainly are given a dose of real drill. On one 
 occasion I saw a boy company at drill march straight 
 into the Havel river, no command to halt having 
 been given at the river bank !
 
 142 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 The working men of Germany are more brutal 
 than those of England, France, and America, but 
 this is because of the low wages they receive, and 
 because they feel the weight of the caste system. 
 
 In a speech in December, 1917, I said that a 
 revolution in Germany would come after the war 
 and that a fellow Ambassador in Berlin had said 
 to me that because of the great brutality of the 
 working men in Germany this uprising would make 
 the French Revolution look like a Methodist Sunday 
 school picnic. A newspaper reported me as saying 
 this on my own authority and added that I had said 
 the Germans were the most " bestial " people on earth. 
 
 I only want to be responsible for what I actually 
 say. I did not call the Germans " bestial," although 
 unfortunately it is a fact that many officers of the 
 Army and others have been guilty of a brutality 
 which has helped turn the face of the world from 
 the whole German people. 
 
 Not all the Germans are brutal. I received many 
 letters revealing evidence to the contrary. 
 
 Here is the protest of a German soldier, an eye- 
 witness of the slaughter of Russian soldiers in the 
 Masurian lakes and swamps : 
 
 " It was frightful, heartrending, as these masses of human beings 
 were driven to destruction. Above the terrible thunder of the 
 cannon could be heard the heartrending cries of the Russians : 
 ' Oh, Prussians ! Oh, Prussians ! ' But there was no mercy. Our 
 Captain had ordered : ' The whole lot must die ; so rapid fire.' 
 
 " As I have heard, five men and one officer on our side went 
 mad from those heartrending cries. But most of my comrades and 
 the officers joked as the unarmed and helpless Russians shrieked for 
 mercy when they were being suffocated in the swamps and shot 
 down. The order was : ' Close up and at it harder ! ' 
 
 " For days afterward those heartrending yells followed me, and 
 I dare not think of them or I shall go mad. There is no God, there 
 is no morality and no ethics any more. There are no human beings 
 any more, but only beasts. Down with militarism ! "
 
 HOME LIFE-" BRUTALITY " OF PEOPLE 143 
 
 This was the experience of a Prussian soldier, 
 at present wounded ; Berlin, October 22, 1914. 
 
 " If you are a truth-loving man, please receive these lines from 
 a common Prussian soldier." 
 
 Here is the testimony of another German soldier 
 on the East Front : 
 
 " Russian Poland, Dec. 18, 1914. 
 
 " In the name of Christianity I send you these words. My 
 conscience forces me as a Christian German soldier to inform you 
 of these lines. 
 
 " Wounded Russians are killed with the bayonet according to 
 orders, and Russians who have surrendered are often shot down in 
 masses according to orders in spite of their heartrending prayers. 
 
 " In the hope that you, as the representative of a Christian State, 
 will protest against this, I sign myself, ' A German Soldier and 
 Christian.' 
 
 ' ' I would give my name and regiment, but these words could 
 get me court-martialled for divulging military secrets." 
 
 The following letter is from a soldier on the 
 Western Front : 
 
 " To the American Government, Washington, U.S.A. : 
 ' Englishmen who have surrendered are shot down in small 
 groups. With the French one is more considerate. I ask whether 
 men let themselves be taken prisoner in order to be disarmed and 
 shot down afterward ? Is that chivalry in battle ? 
 
 "It is no longer a secret among the people ; one hears every- 
 where that few prisoners are taken ; they are shot down in small 
 groups. They say naively, ' We don't want any unnecessary 
 mouths to feed. Where there is no one to enter complaint, there 
 is no judge.' Is there, then, no power in the world which can put 
 an end to these murders and rescue the victims ? Where is Chris- 
 tianity ? Where is right ? Might is right. 
 
 " A Soldier and Man who is no Barbarian." 
 
 The first two letters refer to the Battle of the 
 Masurian Lakes, when the troops of Hindenburg, in 
 checking the invading Russians, indulged in a need- 
 less slaughter of prisoners.
 
 i 4 4 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 I heard in Berlin of many cases of insanity of 
 both German officers and men who were driven insane 
 by the scenes of slaughter at this battle and especially 
 by the great cry of horror and despair uttered by 
 the poor Russians as they were shot down in cold 
 blood or driven to a living death in the lakes and 
 marshes. 
 
 An American newspaper said this could not be 
 true, asking why did I not publish the letters in my 
 first book. But my first book did not contain all I 
 have to relate, and the letters in question were 
 sent by me to the State Department early in the 
 war and were not at hand on the publication of my 
 other series. 
 
 But speaking of anonymous letters, shortly before 
 I left Germany I received a package containing a 
 necklace of diamonds and pearls with a letter, which, 
 translated, reads as follows : 
 
 ; ' The enclosed jewellery was found in the fully destroyed house 
 of Monsieur Guesnet of 36 Rue de Bassano, Paris. It is requested 
 that this jewellery, which is his property, be returned to him." 
 
 The package was addressed to the Embassy of 
 the United States. I took it with me on leaving 
 Germany and restored it to the family of the owner 
 in Paris. The Guesnet country-house lay within the 
 German lines and the sending of the jewellery to me 
 shows conscience somewhere in the German Army.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 
 
 I have shown how the Kaiser is imbued with a 
 desire of conquest, how, as he himself states, he 
 dreamed a dream of world empire in which his mailed 
 fist should be imposed upon all the countries of the 
 earth. 
 
 But the Kaiser alone could not have driven Germany 
 into war. His system could. 
 
 The head of one of the great banks of Germany 
 told me in the first few weeks of the war that the 
 Kaiser, when called upon at the last moment to 
 sign the order for mobilisation by the General Staff, 
 hesitated and did so only after the officers of the 
 General Staff had threatened to break their swords 
 over their knees. 
 
 If this story is true, what a pity that the Kaiser 
 did not allow the officers to break their swords ! 
 What would have happened ? Would the military 
 have seized the power and deposed the Kaiser, 
 putting the Crown Prince in his place ? I believe it 
 might have happened had he refused to sign the 
 order. The Kaiser, after leaving Kiel, attended a 
 Council at Potsdam where war was decided upon, 
 and I really doubt whether at the last moment he 
 did not shrink before the awful responsibility or 
 hesitate to sign the mobilisation order. 
 
 The immediate cause of Germany's going to war 
 
 ,,:, L
 
 146 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 was the feeling on the part of the autocracy that 
 the people would not much longer bear the yoke of 
 militarism. That this fear had justification was 
 shown by the enormous vote of lack of confidence 
 in the Reichstag after the Zabern affair. At all 
 costs the autocracy must be preserved, and if in 
 addition the world could be conquered, so much the 
 better. 
 
 With modern improvements on the outside the 
 heart of the government of Germany is that of the 
 Middle Ages. The nobles as a rule are poor, the 
 returns from their landed estates small, and, in 
 peace times, the army general, the Prussian noble, 
 and the Prussian official is overshadowed in display 
 and expenditure by the rich merchant. 
 
 Army officers, nobles, and governing class felt 
 this and believed that war would restore what they 
 regarded as the natural equilibrium of the country, 
 the officers, the officials and the nobles at the top, 
 and the merchant class back in its place below. 
 
 With war, retired generals living on small pensions 
 in dingy towns once more became personages, rushing 
 about the country in autom jbiles attended by bril- 
 liant staffs and holding almost the power of life and 
 death. Their lands worked by prisoners at six cents 
 a day, and their products sold at five times the 
 original price, with no new taxes on either land or 
 incomes, the Prussian Junker is enjoying the war. 
 
 And this autocracy can make no peace which is 
 not a ' German peace," which does not mean that 
 the Emperor and the generals can ride through the 
 Brandenburger Thor to celebrate the conclusion of 
 what may be thought a victorious war. 
 
 For the plain people of Germany, while they can 
 make no revolution now, on returning to their homes
 
 AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 147 
 
 maimed and broken after four years in the trenches, 
 will revolt at last, if a peace has been concluded 
 which does not spell success for Germany. They 
 will say to their Government — to the autocracy — 
 " We had no political power. We left everything in 
 your hands. We had nothing to say either about 
 the declaration of this war or its conduct. In return 
 for our submission you promised efficiency and you 
 promised us more, the conquest of the world. You 
 have failed and we are going to overthrow you." 
 
 It is the knowledge of this that makes the Emperor 
 and the autocracy ready to take any chance, anxious 
 to continue the war in the hope that some lucky 
 stroke, either of arms or of propaganda, will turn 
 the scale in their favour, because they know that 
 any peace that is not a German peace will mean the 
 end of autocracy and probably of the Hohenzollerns. 
 
 And all the while the people are told that the war 
 is a defensive war, although the German armies fight 
 far in enemy territory in France, in Russia, in Italy, 
 in Serbia, and in Roumania. They always are told, 
 too, that it is Germany who is desirous of making 
 peace and that the Allies refuse. 
 
 Last summer (1917), when an interview I had with 
 the Chancellor in which he named the peace terms of 
 the autocracy was published, the interview was 
 repudiated by the Chancellor, who stated that these 
 terms were not his. I am sure that they are not his 
 and were not his, but I am equally sure that they are 
 the terms and were the terms of the autocracy of 
 Prussia as stated by him. Shortly after this the 
 newspapers confirmed part of these terms, telling of 
 the talk in Germany of the guarantees to be exacted 
 in case Belgium was surrendered by the Germans, 
 which guarantees amounted to the absolute control 
 
 L 2
 
 148 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 of that unfortunate country and " rectification of the 
 frontiers " demanded by Germany on the Eastern 
 
 front. 
 
 Outside of Germany the propagandist and the 
 pacifist and other agents of the Central Empires 
 have proclaimed that this war is not a war of conquest 
 or aggression. 
 
 But the evidence is to the contrary. 
 
 Kaiser and pastor, Reichstag members and generals, 
 orators and journalists, have all at different times 
 during the war declared themselves in favour of 
 conquest. 
 
 And it is extraordinary as showing the masterful 
 manner in which the poor German people are led 
 astray that most of the men making these declarations 
 for annexation are able at the same time to cry that 
 Germany is fighting a defensive war and is prevented 
 from making peace only by the wicked Allies. 
 
 The King of Bavaria, speaking early in 1915 at 
 a banquet, said : " I rejoice because we can at last 
 have a reckoning with our enemies and because at 
 last we can obtain a direct outlet from the Rhine 
 to the sea. Ten months have gone by. Much blood 
 has been poured out. But it shall not be poured in 
 vain, for the fruit of the war shall be a strengthening 
 of the German Empire and the extension of its boun- 
 daries, so far as this is necessary in order that we may 
 be assured against future attacks." 
 
 Duke John Albert of Mecklenburg, who is the 
 gentleman who slapped his chest and cried out to 
 me on one occasion that Germany would never forget 
 the export of arms and ammunition to her enemies 
 by America and that some day Germany would have 
 her revenge, declared also in 1915 that the war 
 would give Germany not only a mighty African
 
 AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 149 
 
 Colonial Empire but a sufficiency of strongholds on 
 earth for their Navy, commerce, coaling and wireless 
 stations. 
 
 The Kaiser himself, speaking in July, 1915, in 
 his call to the German people issued from the Great 
 General Headquarters, said that " Germany would 
 fight until peace came, a peace which offered the 
 necessary military, political, and commercial guaran- 
 tees for the future." 
 
 Vice-President Paasche of the Reichstag, in April, 
 at Kreuznach, said : " We are not allowed to speak 
 about conditions of peace. But the wish must be 
 given expression that lives in the heart of every 
 German, that we will not give up enemy land conquered 
 with so much German blood." 
 
 A sentiment also expressed in April, 1915, by the 
 National Liberal Reichstag member, Wachhorst de 
 Wente, was to this effect : " Our fatherland must 
 be larger. We must not allow it to be taken from 
 us. Otherwise we will have obtained nothing except 
 victory. We desire also to have the reward of vic- 
 tory. We will not give back all." 
 
 Von Heydebrand, the Conservative Leader, the 
 uncrowned King of Prussia, as he is called, demanded 
 as a condition of peace " a stronger and larger 
 Germany." 
 
 Naturally, the Conservative leaders are for conquest 
 and annexation. Numerous articles in the Centrist 
 Cologne Volks Zeitungwere published protesting against 
 giving Belgium her independence again. In April, 
 1916, this newspaper approved the statement of 
 Leader Spahn of the Centrum Party that the war 
 must not end without " tangible results," and also 
 the statement of Stresemann, another member of 
 the Reichstag : "We demand and expect a larger
 
 150 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Germany/' In February, 1916, Germania, the Berlin 
 organ of the Catholic party, demanded also a tangible 
 prize of war as one of the conditions of peace. 
 
 Countless examples can be given from speeches 
 in the Reichstag and from leaders and newspapers 
 of virtually all parties in Germany, showing this 
 desire for conquest, showing that Germany will not 
 be content to go back to the situation before the war. 
 Even Maximilian Harden, who is respected all over 
 the world because of his fearlessness and reason, has 
 written since the war in favour of a greater Germany, 
 thus : 
 
 " We wage the war from the rock of conviction 
 that Germany after its deeds has a right to demand 
 broader room on the earth and greater possibilities 
 of action and these things must attain." 
 
 Dr. Spahn, to-day the leader of the Centrum 
 Party, answering in December, 1915, Scheidemann, 
 who had argued against annexation, and speaking 
 in the name of 254 members of the Reichstag repre- 
 senting the citizens' parties, said : 
 
 " We wait in complete union, with calm determina- 
 tion, and let me add, with trust in God, the hour 
 which makes possible peace negotiations, in which 
 for ever the military, commercial, financial and poli- 
 tical interests of Germany must, in all circumstances 
 and by all means, be protected, including the widening 
 of territories necessary to this end." 
 
 Ludendorff is now perhaps the man of most weight 
 and influence, barring no one, in all Germany. When 
 only Chief of Staff of the East Army he wrote : " The 
 Power of Middle Europe will be strengthened, that 
 of the Great Russians pushed back towards the East, 
 from whence it came, at a time not very distant." 
 
 These quotations simply show that the great ma-
 
 AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 151 
 
 jority of Germans— those outside the Social Democratic 
 Party — of the Germans, indeed, who rule the country, 
 conduct its commerce, and officer its Army and 
 Navy — all have been infected with a dangerous microbe 
 of Pan-Germanism and of world-conquest. 
 
 Everyone who professes a knowledge of German 
 life and character, everyone who writes of the origin 
 of the war, talks of Treitschke, Nietzsche, and Bern- 
 hardi. 
 
 Nothing made the Germans more angry than to find 
 in foreign newspapers that on this triumvirate was 
 placed the burden of the responsibility for the war. 
 And I agree with the complaining Germans. Bern- 
 hardt who, during the war, was given a command 
 behind the fighting front at Posen, was not considered 
 a skilful general by the military or a great or even 
 popular writer by the people. 
 
 How many people in our country or in France 
 or in England are influenced by the lectures or 
 writings of one college professor ? And yet, according 
 to many out of Germany, Treitschke, the deaf 
 professor of Heidelberg, is the one man who trans- 
 muted the soul of Germany and incited the Empire 
 to a cruel war. 
 
 In America you can find any brand of professor, 
 from a professor in a Virginia college who recently 
 boasted that he would not subscribe to American 
 Liberty War Bonds, but would send the money to 
 the Socialist, pacifist candidate for Mayor of New 
 York, to the professor in the University of Chicago 
 who based his claim to fame on the fact that he 
 had never been kissed. What professor of history 
 has had any great political influence beyond his 
 own college ? 
 
 And it is equally absurd to think of a Prussian
 
 152 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Junker, sitting by the fire in the evening, deeply 
 absorbed in the philosophy of Nietzsche. All Ger- 
 mans, as a matter of fact, through pride of conquest 
 in 1864, 1866 and 1870, and great industrial success, 
 had come to believe themselves to be supermen 
 delegated b}' Heaven to win the world. Treitschke 
 and Nietzsche were simply affected in their writings 
 by this universal poison of overweening vanity. 
 They but reflected the fashion of the day in thinking ; 
 they did not lead the nation's thought. Nietzsche 
 himself wrote in one of his letters shortly before 
 his death, which occurred in 1900, " Although I am 
 in my forty-fifth year and have written fifteen books 
 I am alone in Germany. There has not been a single 
 moderately respectful review of one of my books." 
 
 I never found a German of the ruling class who 
 had read anything written by Treitschke, Nietzsche, 
 or Bernhardi. 
 
 Tannenberg had more readers and a greater follow- 
 ing, although he, of course, expresses only the aspira- 
 tions of the Pan-Germans. But he presents concrete 
 positions which anyone can understand. 
 
 For instance, the German merchant, looking at 
 Tannenberg's book and seeing the map of South 
 America coloured with almost universal German 
 domination, smiles and approves, for he thinks Ger- 
 man trade will swallow that rich continent and clever 
 laws and regulations will exclude the imports of all 
 other nations. 
 
 In some aspects Tannenberg foresaw what is 
 happening to-day when he says, " The Finns have 
 been waiting a long time to detach themselves from 
 the Great Russians, their hereditary enemies." 
 
 But in the main, in his sketch of the war to which 
 he looked forward, he failed to predict accurately
 
 AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 153 
 
 the attitude of the world. His predictions represent 
 many of the dead hopes of the Pan-Germans, those 
 Germans who believe it is the right and duty of 
 Germany to conquer all. 
 
 Prophesying war between Germany on one side 
 and France and Russia on the other, Tannenberg 
 believed that more confusion and resistance to war 
 than actually occurred would come in Bohemia and 
 Poland following the order for mobilisation in the 
 Slav parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He 
 mistakenly wrote also that Japan would declare war 
 on Russia, a belief shared by the torchlight paraders 
 of Berlin in August, 1914. 
 
 Tannenberg thought Italy would declare war on 
 France. He was wrong in his confidence that France 
 was decadent, wrong in believing that England and 
 the United States would only talk but would not 
 fight, yet right in his belief that revolution would 
 break out in Russia. In fact I think that, for years 
 after the Franco-Russian Alliance, Germany was 
 preparing a Russian revolution to break out on what- 
 ever day the Russian troops were ordered to their 
 colours. He says that France will be so thoroughly 
 defeated that the " war ought not to leave her more 
 than eyes to cry with." 
 
 I am afraid that, while many eyes will cry in France, 
 through the breadth of Germany there will be but 
 few homes where eyes will not weep over the casualties 
 of war, for which cruel, crazy dreamers of world 
 empire like Tannenberg are largely responsible. 
 
 For Tannenberg's dream, the dream of the auto- 
 cracy and of the Pan-Germanists, is to give to Germany 
 most of South America, a great part of Africa, of 
 Asia, the great islands north of Australia, including 
 those of the Dutch ; with Holland and Belgium part
 
 i 5 4 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 of the German Empire as well as the Baltic provinces, 
 and a share of the French colonies to be divided with 
 England. 
 
 The share of the United States for standing by 
 and agreeing to the robbery was to be, according to 
 Tannenberg, a protectorate over Mexico and Central 
 America. 
 
 Mexicans who were offered Texas and New Mexico 
 by Zimmermann should read this Pan-Germanistic 
 book, in which all Mexico is generously bestowed 
 on us. 
 
 And I wish that Tannenberg's book could be read 
 by every public man in South America — that South 
 America in which the Argentine, Chile, Paraguay, 
 Uruguay, the southern parts of Brazil and Bolivia 
 are, according to Tannenberg, to come under the 
 protectorate of Germany. Latin-American publicists 
 should inquire from the inhabitants of Bosnia and 
 Herzegovina how long it is before a "protectorate' 1 is 
 transmuted into a conquered country. Tannenberg 
 does speak for a great party in Germany. The chil- 
 dren's school-books show German " colonies " in 
 Southern Brazil. 
 
 As Sainte-Beuve said, there is a fashion in intellect. 
 The German to-day is essentially practical, cold, 
 cynical, and calculating. The poetry and the Christ- 
 mas trees, the sentiment and sentimentality, remain 
 like the architectural monuments of a vanished race, 
 mere reminders of the kindlier Germany that once was, 
 the Germany of our first impressions, the Germany 
 that many once loved. But that Germany has long 
 since disappeared, buried beneath the spiked helmets 
 of Prussianism, and another intellect is in vogue. 
 
 That older, kindlier Germany was the nation 
 tempered and softened by the suffering of the
 
 AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 155 
 
 Napoleonic wars. After the battle of Jena, where 
 Napoleon rubbed the face of Prussia in the mud of 
 defeat, there came on Germany that period of priva- 
 tion which left its impress so deeply on the German 
 as to make thrift his first characteristic. A spirit of 
 lofty, self-sacrificing patriotism imbued the whole 
 people. Young girls cut off their long golden hair 
 to be sold for the Fatherland. Jewels were given 
 by all who possessed them. " Gold gab ich fur 
 Eisen " (I gave gold for iron) became a saying based 
 on the readiness with which the rich made sacrifices 
 to the cause of country. And with this patriotism, 
 and with this penury, came into every home a more 
 intimate family life, a greater earnestness, a deeper 
 religious sentiment, a turning towards the idealistic 
 side of life ; but all was changed by the successful 
 wars of Prussia that gave Prussia the leadership, 
 the right to rule Germany. Then, with the end of the 
 Franco-Prussian War, came a period of material 
 prosperity, the rush of the population to the cities, 
 and the building of great manufactories, of enormous 
 shipping interests, of powerful banking institutions, 
 of trusts and combinations which marked the Germany 
 of 1914. 
 
 The fashion in intellect had changed, and the 
 grasping, successful Prussian of 1914 was far removed 
 from the ruined, chastened Prussian of 1810. 
 
 Nations, like individuals, change in character with 
 the stress of life. From 1810, the period of a sorrow- 
 ing Germany, to 1914 is 104 years. The same 
 number of years subtracted from the year 1796, when 
 our new Republic was firmly established, and when 
 George Washington made his noble farewell address, 
 brings us to 1692, when nineteen persons were legally 
 hanged, charged with witchcraft in Massachusetts,
 
 156 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 and when in that State Giles Cory perished under the 
 awful torture, judicially applied, known as the " peine 
 forte et dure." 
 
 It is quite true that weak voices against annexations 
 have been heard. 
 
 Dernburg and Professor Hans Delbriick (the latter 
 not to be confused with the disgraced, pig-slaughtering, 
 ex-Vice-Chancellor), in their petition against the 
 annexation of Belgium, showed a most reasonable 
 spirit, and signing this petition with them were many 
 of the great men and great minds of Germany. But 
 their movement was a failure in Germany itself. Their 
 campaign of reason could make no headway against 
 the " League of Six " — the six great iron and steel 
 companies of the West, who, with their paid lans- 
 quenets of the Press and hired accelerators of public 
 opinion, clamour for annexation so that they may rivet 
 the chains of their industrial monopoly on the whole 
 continent of Europe. 
 
 The Conservatives and Junkers, on the other hand, 
 favour annexations to the East ; especially do they 
 eye greedily the Baltic provinces where great estates 
 are in the hands of landowners of German blood. 
 What a reinforcement to the Conservative cause 
 would these Junkers of the Baltic be, and, in the 
 Conservative view, if there are to be annexations in 
 the West which would increase the number of in- 
 dustrial subjects and, undoubtedly, Social Democrats, 
 there must be a balancing accession of agricultural 
 interest on the Eastern frontier. 
 
 The only cloud in the serene blue sky of Junker 
 hopes is the fact that annexations in Poland would 
 add to the number of Roman Catholics and, there- 
 fore, to the power of the Centrum or Roman Catholic 
 party. Hence the desire to make of Poland an
 
 AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 157 
 
 independent kingdom, but one controlled by the 
 Central Empires. 
 
 The Poles are more at ease, having been given 
 more liberty under Austrian than under Prussian 
 rule, and hence the tendency is to put Poland under 
 Austrian rule. The Prussians do not object to this, 
 because it does not matter whether Prussia controls 
 Poland directly or through Prussia's control of 
 Austria, now alas ! only too apparent. 
 
 But the principal aim of the nobles and the landed 
 aristocracy of Germany, followed by their host of 
 office-holders and dependants, is to keep the " graft," 
 to hold the offices, civil and military, filled so long 
 by these old Prussian families. 
 
 The von Lachnows, to imagine a typical Junker 
 family, hold one thousand acres of land in Branden- 
 burg. The head of the house, Baron von Lachnow, 
 was Minister to Sweden. After having held, as a 
 young man, a position of Secretary of Legation, he left 
 the diplomatic service to fight with his old regiment, 
 the Gleiwitz Hussars, through the Franco-Prussian 
 War. He then returned to the diplomatic service, 
 in which he finally attained the rank of Minister to 
 Sweden. He now lives on his estate of Lachnow, 
 with a pension as ex-minister. On great occasions 
 he appears at the Royal Palace, resplendent in uniform, 
 wearing the Orders of the Red Eagle and Prussian 
 Crown with the Cross of the Johannis Order. His 
 total income from pensions and estate is about ten 
 thousand dollars a year. The eldest son, Baron Karl 
 Friederich, after serving in his father's regiment, 
 resigned and entered the diplomatic service and is 
 now Second Secretary of the Legation in Buenos Aires. 
 He married there the daughter of a rich cattle owner. 
 The second son, Baron Johann, is now Police Presi-
 
 158 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 dent of the city of Schelsau, after having been district 
 attorney in an industrial district where he distin- 
 guishes himself by his prosecution of the Social 
 Democrats. He married the daughter of the rich 
 manufactory proprietor Schultz, who sells, wholesale, 
 little statuettes on the Ritterstrasse in Berlin. Baron 
 August is in the army, detailed to the General Staff 
 and with a great future before him. Baron Max is 
 now out of a job. While on his vacation the colony, 
 in which he was secretary to the Governor, was captured 
 by the British, and so at the outbreak of the war he 
 assumed his old uniform of First Lieutenant in the 
 Gleiwitz Hussars and was given command of the 
 prison camp at Schluttenberg, where he has won 
 distinction for his severity with British prisoners. 
 Baron Ernst is in the navy. This is considered 
 rather a come-down by the family, as the navy, 
 unlike the army, is not aristocratic. He has great 
 hopes of marrying the only daughter of von Blitz, 
 who owns a splendid estate in Silesia. One of the 
 daughters, Hilda, is married to Count Wenharp, 
 owner of a beautiful estate in Pomerania, and the 
 other to Hochlst, who is judge of the law court in 
 Holstein and who owns the Rittergut (or manor) 
 of Klein Spassberg, near Kiel. 
 
 The estate of Lachnow is perfectly flat ground. 
 The road to Brandenburg runs through the estate 
 and village, the houses of which front directly on 
 the road. This road in the village is paved with 
 rough cobblestones. The house of the von Lachnows 
 almost touches the road, from which it is separated 
 by an old stone wall. One side is on a square, 
 cobblestoned courtyard, formed by the great barns, 
 stables, and sheds which surround the other three 
 sides of the square. The house and all the barns are
 
 AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 159 
 
 built of rough stone. The house is built on the plan 
 of a piece of Castile soap, walls and roof and nothing 
 more. Inside there are a dining-room, two parlours, 
 and an office-den for the master, upstairs bedrooms, 
 opening on a long hall ; no bathrooms, no conveniences, 
 even the water is brought in by the maids from the 
 well in the centre of the court. The furniture is 
 old and plain. The family does not keep an auto- 
 mobile, but two horses draw a dogcart to the station 
 and take the family on visits to the neighbouring 
 aristocracy. The driver is the sexton of the village 
 church on these occasions. On the two sides of the 
 house away from the main road and the square of 
 barns there is a park of about ten acres. Here are a 
 few evergreens and gravel paths and a pond where 
 some enormous carp excite the wonder of the village 
 children. 
 
 Baroness Lachnow is renowned for her devotion 
 to the four K's. No one has a better stock of house- 
 hold linen, all made by her, her daughters and her 
 maids, in the whole Mark. She superintends every 
 household detail and holds the keys to closets and 
 wine cellar. 
 
 Of course, the family does not associate with 
 the schoolmaster and the Lutheran minister of the 
 village, but they speak very kindly to them, and the 
 Baron once interested himself in obtaining a long 
 service decoration for the schoolmaster. 
 
 The von Lachnows live on their estate the year 
 round, except for two weeks in February when 
 they go to Berlin to a cheap hotel and attend one 
 of the Court balls. The Baroness never spends 
 more than three hundred and fifty dollars a year 
 on her clothes, although when in Sweden as a Minis- 
 ter's wife she spent more. The Baron and Baroness
 
 i6o FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 sometimes condescend to dine with the father-in-law 
 of their son, a manufactory proprietor, at his hand- 
 some apartment on the Kurfuerstendamm in Berlin, 
 but Schultz, in spite of his four million marks and 
 growing business, is made to feel the wide gulf that 
 separates him from the nobility. 
 
 Baron Lachnow farms his own estate. His farm 
 superintendent is von Treslow, once an officer in the 
 Gleiwitz Hussars, who was compelled to resign because 
 of a crippled arm, badly broken in a steeplechase. 
 This taciturn, soured individual, on the outbreak 
 of war, was given a place as commander of a village 
 way station near the West Front, where his cruelties 
 to the French inhabitants will long be remembered. 
 
 Food is very simple. The family drink beer 
 except on great occasions, but the Baron drinks 
 Moselle at the midday meal and a red wine in the 
 evening. The recreation is shooting and visits to the 
 neighbours. 
 
 Such a visit is a great event, arranged by letter 
 beforehand. The von Lachnows drive to visit the 
 von Seltows eighteen miles away. They arrive in 
 time for lunch, when much wine is drunk. After 
 this the women gossip over their fancy work and 
 the men visit the stable, discuss crop prices, and 
 inspect the host's collection of horse flesh. The family 
 photographs are inspected and Count Reventlow's 
 latest article abusing the Americans is discussed 
 and the belief suggested that a democratic people 
 without King or Kaiser or nobility cannot be organ- 
 ised for war. The Social Democrats are condemned 
 and the story gleefully told of how the son of von 
 Seltow cut down a Social Democrat who was slow 
 in getting out of his way. 
 
 I can understand the feelings of the von Lachnows,
 
 AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 161 
 
 the imaginary, typical Prussian family of the ruling 
 class which I have pictured for you. If Germany 
 should be democratised, what place would be left 
 for them ? The offices of the Government thrown open 
 to all classes in fair elections, places in the army 
 and navy and diplomacy open to competition in 
 great academies like West Point and Annapolis. 
 Deprived of the aroma of power given now by diplo- 
 matic or military place and noble birth in the caste 
 system, the sons and daughters could no longer make 
 rich marriages with the sons and daughters of the 
 rich business men and manufacturers. No more 
 would the civil offices of Prussia be open only 
 to appointments among the noble or Junker 
 class. 
 
 I do not blame the von Lachnows because they 
 fight tooth and nail for the retention of their old 
 privileges — because they endeavour to hold the com- 
 mon people in a serfdom almost as complete as that 
 of the Dark Ages. The dawn of constitutional 
 government will be their twilight, the twilight of 
 the gods of militarism, of privilege, and of caste- 
 Prussian autocracy made the war in a last desperate 
 endeavour to bribe the people into continued sub- 
 mission. 
 
 The only excuse for the existence of the Prussian 
 ruling class to-day, as much out of place as chain 
 armour or robber barons, is its supposed honesty 
 and efficiency ; but no class which has brought this 
 war on the German people can be described as com- 
 petent ; no sane governing class would have plunged 
 into disastrous war a country that by peaceful 
 penetration, by thrift and manufacture and financial 
 and commercial ability, was in process of acquiring 
 much of the wealth of the world. 
 
 M
 
 i62 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 The first aim of German autocracy is to keep its 
 own political position at home. 
 
 Second — To obtain as much of the territory of 
 other nations, as great an influence in unconquered 
 lands, as possible. 
 
 Third— To make peace now, but only if that peace 
 is a German peace, a peace which can be called and 
 advertised and proclaimed as a German victory. 
 
 More particularly, Germany now looks to the 
 East. In the so-called Baltic provinces of Russia 
 the lands to a great extent are owned by Russian 
 subjects of German blood. The peasants are poor, 
 servile, without education or property, an ideal field 
 for the advance of autocracy. It is hoped to either 
 annex these provinces boldly or to establish protec- 
 torates, which, sooner or later, at an opportune 
 moment, will fall into German hands— just as Austria 
 gained the consent of Europe to a protectorate over 
 Bosnia and Herzegovina and then suddenly added 
 them to the domains of the Hapsburgs. 
 
 The German propagandists have long been working 
 on the people of that part of Russia known as the 
 Ukraine. If the Ukraine can be made a separate 
 protectorate or a semi-independent State, some day 
 it will be easily absorbed. The autocracy has the 
 same hope about Lithuania, at one time semi-inde- 
 pendent. There, too, the propagandists have worked 
 on Lithuania— all these provinces, of course, differing 
 slightly from the races surrounding and all with 
 a semi-independent history, as, for instance, Cour- 
 land. 
 
 But all these races should think twice before they 
 accept a momentary independence, if that autonomy 
 is to lead them under the Prussian yoke. Whether 
 that yoke is easy to bear or not is best answered by
 
 AIMS OF THE AUTOCRACY 163 
 
 the Danes, Alsatians, Poles and Lorrainers who 
 have been forcibly incorporated in the Kingdom of 
 Prussia. 
 
 But greatest prize of all is the commercial control 
 of Russia which the autocracy hopes to win for its 
 merchant class. Time and again I was told in 
 Germany that a separate peace with Russia was 
 near and that the exploitation of Russia by the 
 enterprising German merchants in a short time 
 would repay Germany for all the losses of the war. 
 
 Would it not seem extraordinary if the language 
 of business and commerce of the United States 
 were French ? But to-day in Russia and for years 
 back the language of commercial business intercourse 
 has been German. A great beginning, a great foun- 
 dation it is for the eventual control not only of the 
 business but the political structure of Russia. If 
 the Germans at war with Russia have been able to 
 split, revolutionise, and divide it and put their repre- 
 sentatives in control, what will they not be able to 
 accomplish when peace shall bring them full liberty 
 to circulate freely in that rich but ignorant country. 
 
 In the end, all classes in Russia will demand a 
 strong Government, and if no military dictator, no 
 Russian Napoleon, has taken in his hands the reins 
 of government, then the German Kaiser will stand 
 by ready to whisper to the torn people of Russia, 
 as Napoleon III did to the French, " My Empire is 
 Peace ! " 
 
 But even if Germany evacuates France and restores 
 the complete independence of Belgium, even if no 
 territories are gained to the East, or protectorates 
 or independent States carved from the body of Russia 
 to be a later prey of Germany, Germany will have 
 won — if from Bremen to Bagdad German influence 
 
 M 2
 
 164 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 or actual German rule is predominant in Middle 
 Europe, the Great Central State, where the cotton 
 of Mesopotamia, and the coal and iron of Westphalia, 
 the copper of Serbia, the oil and grain of Roumania 
 all will contribute to the manufacturer of Germany, 
 who, in turn, will sell his goods in that vast territory. 
 And best of all in autocratic view, the man-power of 
 the Central Empires will be so increased that at 
 a propitious moment, in a characteristic sudden 
 assault, the armies of the Central Empires will invade 
 and conquer Palestine, Egypt, and India, and take 
 what they will in Africa and Asia, while British, 
 Japanese, and American and French navies im- 
 potently rage in useless control of the high seas.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY-THE KAISER'S VASSAL 
 
 STATE 
 
 Few people in America perhaps realise how com- 
 pletely Austria-Hungary is under the domination of 
 Germany and Kaiserism. There are those who think 
 that the hand of the Vienna Government was forced 
 by Berlin when the ultimatum to Serbia was answered 
 so reasonably by the little country to the south, 
 but there can be no doubt that Austria has been 
 ever since under the yoke of the German General 
 Staff. 
 
 And because the first break, the first glimpse 
 of reasonable peace, will in turn be forced on Germany 
 by sorely tried Austria-Hungary, bent by war and 
 bowed by debt, it is well to study a little the 
 races and assess the influences of that unfortunate 
 land. 
 
 My wife's sister married a Hungarian Count, a 
 member of the Hungarian House of Lords, and I 
 have met many of the political leaders and magnates 
 of that country on my trips there. 
 
 The Germans of Austria are handsomer, more 
 attractive, but far less efficient than their bloody 
 brethren from the cold, wind-swept plains of Prussia. 
 They have acquired a slight touch of the Oriental 
 and something of the manana (to-morrow) of the 
 Spaniards, a heritage, perhaps, of the days when 
 
 186
 
 166 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Spain and Austria were so closely connected by 
 Hapsburg rule. 
 
 In the presence of an Austrian one feels his charm 
 instead of the aggressive personality which is Prus- 
 sian. Undoubtedly the Prussians counted on the 
 good nature of the Southern Germans, Hungarians, 
 Poles and Slavs in their insidious campaign to make 
 these peoples, practically if not in name, subject 
 and tributary to Prussian rule. The Prussian pro- 
 pagandist has brought them face to face with a new 
 Kaiserism. 
 
 Shortly after the war a great number of Austrian 
 professors of German blood issued a manifesto de- 
 manding closer union with Germany — a prelude to 
 the plots being hatched in Berlin against Hapsburg 
 rule. 
 
 The Court of Austria is quite different from that 
 of Berlin ; no modern ideas during the reign of 
 Franz Joseph disturbed his mediaeval outlook. 
 
 The beautiful Empress of Austria, who was as- 
 sassinated by an anarchist in Switzerland, was prob- 
 ably insane. At any rate, for many years she lived 
 apart from the Emperor, devoted to hunting and 
 horses, going often as far as Ireland for her favourite 
 sport and seldom appearing in Vienna. Franz 
 Joseph, however, was consoled by an ex-actress, 
 Frau Kathie Schratt, whom he visited daily and who 
 occupied a position in Vienna almost as powerful 
 as that of the mistresses of Louis XIV. Even in 
 this very war, when Frau Schratt established a 
 hospital, she was photographed in the centre of a 
 group of women all occupied at this hospital and all 
 holding the highest rank at the Austrian Court. 
 The instant the old Emperor died, however, her 
 power, influence, and prestige disappeared, and I
 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 167 
 
 imagine that her titled and high-born helpers were not 
 long in deserting the hospital wards over which she 
 had presided. 
 
 That extraordinary Empire known as the Austro- 
 Hungarian Dual Monarchy is less an Empire or a 
 Kingdom or a State than the personal property of 
 the Hapsburgs, whose hereditary talent for the 
 acquisition of land is recorded on the map of Europe 
 to-day. 
 
 For centuries this Royal family, by treaty, by 
 intrigue, by war, purchase and marriage, has been 
 adding to its dominions, bringing under its personal 
 rule races who do not understand each other's lan- 
 guage and who differ widely in customs, intellectual 
 attainments and religion. 
 
 The last acquisition of territory by the House of 
 Hapsburg was in the year 1908, when the Austro- 
 Hungarian Foreign Office boldly declared that Bosnia 
 and Herzegovina, placed under the protectorate of 
 Austria-Hungary by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, 
 had been annexed to the Empire. The German 
 Kaiser, standing by like a watching accomplice while 
 the burglary was in progress, threatened a general 
 European war if any nations protested. 
 
 At a time when Prussia was a struggling State, 
 Austria was the dominant Power in Central Europe, 
 but the one battle of Sadowa in 1866 settled for 
 ever the question of supremacy, and the German 
 States like Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemberg, etc., which 
 stood with Austria in that war, after receiving a 
 sound beating, ranged themselves on the side of the 
 victor and, in 1870, joined in acclaiming the King 
 of Prussia as the First German Emperor. 
 
 That event settled the question of leadership in 
 Central Europe and the dream of the Emperor
 
 1 68 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Frederick who died about the time of the discovery 
 of America. It was he who wrote the famous 
 anagram on the vowels A, E, I, O, U. 
 
 ustria st mperare rbi niverso 
 
 A E I U 
 
 lies rdreich st esterreich nterthan 
 
 "It is the fate of Austria to rule the world." 
 
 In Upper and Lower Austria, so called, there are 
 about twelve million German Austrians. This terri- 
 tory is comparatively small and in it lies the city of 
 Vienna. To the north and north-east lie Bohemia 
 and Moravia, the country of the Czechs or Tchechs 
 of Slavic blood. These people together number about 
 six million. Prague is the capital of Bohemia, while 
 in Moravia there is no great city. For centuries 
 these peoples have been oppressed by the Austrians, 
 and in the Hussite rebellion the lands of Bohemia 
 and Moravia were parcelled out to the Austrian nobles 
 as well as to the warlike adventurers who had joined 
 the Austrian armies. 
 
 With extraordinary obstinacy and patriotism these 
 peoples cling to their old language and customs. 
 They have suffered much during this war, and many 
 tales are told of the shooting of all of the officers of 
 Czech regiments and the execution of every tenth 
 man among the privates. 
 
 It is a bit of poetic justice that the town of Bethle- 
 hem in Pennsylvania, where my friend Schwab is 
 making so much war material to be used against 
 the Central Powers, was founded by fugitives who, 
 rebelling against oppression, left Moravia in search 
 of liberty. 
 
 North of the Carpathians lies Galicia, a Polish 
 country, with Lemberg and Crakow as its capitals,
 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 169 
 
 and in the eastern part the Ruthenians, a race identical 
 with the Russians. These Ruthenians number up- 
 wards of four millions. 
 
 It is a peculiar fact that in the curious Dual Mon- 
 archy each race oppresses some other. The Ruthe- 
 nians complain that they are oppressed by the Poles. 
 The kingdom of Hungary lies to the east of Austria, 
 containing in its twenty million inhabitants about 
 ten million Magyars, who are the dominant race and 
 who in turn rule over a population of one and one-half 
 million Ruthenians, two and one-half million Slovaks 
 or Czechs, three million Roumanians in the south- 
 eastern portion, and about three million of the race 
 now known as Jugo-Slavs. Of these Jugo-Slavs 
 about two million are in that part of the Dual 
 Monarchy under Austrian rule. These are the princi- 
 pal divisions of peoples. A Slavish race differing 
 somewhat from the others is in the mountains to the 
 east of Hungary, where much fighting has taken 
 place in the last war, known as Boukovina. In the 
 south-eastern part of Hungary there is a German- 
 speaking country, known as Siebenburgen, where 
 live the descendants of a German colony planted 
 about two centuries ago. 
 
 In Styria, in the mountainous districts of Austria 
 to the west of Hungary, lives a race differing again 
 from all the others, a mountain race supposed to be 
 eaters of arsenic, a drug which they believe gives 
 them a good complexion and stamina for mountain 
 climbing. It is said that the bodies of these arsenic 
 eaters remain undecomposed for a long time. And 
 from this part of the world comes the curious super- 
 stition of the existence of human vampires. 
 
 Slovenes and Jews, Carinthians and inhabitants 
 of Carniola, Serbs living like Moslems in Bosnia
 
 I70 
 
 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 and Herzegovina, and Italians in Trieste and the 
 Trient — all make up the strange Austro-Hungarian 
 monarchy. 
 
 The union between Austria and Hungary is a 
 personal union. The Emperor of Austria is King 
 of Hungary. Only in four particulars are the Empire 
 and the Kingdom united, namely, a joint adminis- 
 tration of the army and navy, of diplomatic affairs, 
 and of such finances as are connected with joint 
 expenditures for these purposes. 
 
 In 1848 Hungary sought to break away from 
 Austria. Kossuth heroically led the Hungarians 
 against their Austrian masters, only to be beaten 
 in the end because of the advent of the Russians, 
 because one autocrat came to the aid of another. 
 
 Since then, by superior political talents and taste 
 for intrigue, the Magyars have not only held the 
 Slovaks, Roumanians, etc., of their own country 
 in political subjection, but have held much of the 
 power in the Dual Monarchy. Their danger lies, 
 however, in the predominance of German influence; 
 and some day the gay, easygoing, pleasant Hun- 
 garians may awake to find the Prussian Eitel Fritz 
 seated on their throne and to learn what Prussian 
 efficiency means when applied to those whom Ger- 
 mans consider an inferior people. 
 
 The twelve million Austrian Germans differ much 
 in character from the Prussians. They are far more 
 polite, far more agreeable, far more fond of amusement 
 of all kinds. Indeed it is because of their pleasant 
 personal characteristics that so many other nations 
 have been content to remain under their rule. In 
 no city of the world is the mass of the population 
 so fond of pleasure as in Vienna. The best light 
 operas come from that city. Vienna is the original
 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 171 
 
 home of the waltz. The " Blue Danube " was 
 composed on the shores of the river which flows 
 through the Austrian capital. 
 
 The dominant religion of the German Empire is 
 Protestant, but in the Dual Monarchy it is Roman 
 Catholic among the ruling Germans in Austria and 
 Magyars in Hungary. 
 
 In Austria and in Hungary most of the land is 
 held in great estates. The peasants, as in Germany, 
 sometimes own a few strips of land near their miser- 
 able villages. Possession of land is necessary to 
 the standing of any noble. In Hungary, for example, 
 no noble sits in the House of Magnates or House of 
 Lords unless he is the owner of a certain amount of 
 land. 
 
 Once across the Hungarian border, one sees the 
 people taking a certain delight in refusing to under- 
 stand German. The names of the railway stations 
 are in Hungarian, and the uniforms of station officials, 
 conductors, etc., differ from those in Austria. Every 
 effort is made by the population to emphasise the 
 fact that Hungary is an independent kingdom, 
 joined to Austria by personal rule alone. 
 
 There is no melting pot in this part of the world. 
 In the Lower House of the Hungarian Parliament 
 sit forty-three Croatian delegates, Croatia being that 
 part of South-Western Hungary near the Adriatic 
 where the inhabitants are of Slav blood. By the 
 Hungarian Constitution those delegates have the 
 right to speak in the Hungarian Parliament in their 
 own language, and so from time to time a Croatian 
 delegate rises in his place and delivers an ambitious 
 harangue in Croatian, understood by no one except 
 his fellow delegates who already know what he in- 
 tends to talk about. This is only one example of
 
 i 7 2 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 how these peoples cling tenaciously to their language 
 and national rights. 
 
 It is possible to find in Hungary a Hungarian 
 village, a German village, a Slav village and a Rou- 
 manian village, all within a short distance of each 
 other. Men from each of these villages after one 
 month in the United States throw aside their national 
 costume and buy their clothes in the same Bowery 
 shop, eat the same food, and send their children to 
 the same public school not only without protest, 
 but with eagerness, whereas, in Hungary, not one 
 of the inhabitants of these different villages would 
 think of abandoning his national traits to learn the 
 language of his German neighbours. 
 
 Because commands are given in German in the 
 armies of the Dual Monarchy, all the male population, 
 at least during the term of their military service, 
 have been compelled to learn some German. But 
 this they forget as soon as possible when they return 
 from their period of military service. 
 
 Many members of these races go to America and 
 after working there a short time amass enough money 
 to return to Austria-Hungary and purchase a small 
 piece of land — the ambition of everyone born of the 
 soil. 
 
 One of the sons of Prince Lichtenstein told me 
 that a friend, who was running for the Hungarian 
 Lower House in a district of Hungary largely in- 
 habited by Slavs, spoke in Hungarian and, finding 
 that his audience did not understand him, tried 
 German. Finally, when matters had come to a 
 standstill, someone in the back of the room called 
 out to him, asking if he spoke English. The candidate 
 answered that he did. Whereupon the crowd told 
 him to speak English, which nearly all understood,
 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 173 
 
 and so the Hungarian, a candidate for Parliament 
 in Hungary, was forced, in order to be understood, 
 to address his Hungarian electors in the language 
 which they had learned in America. 
 
 Franz Ferdinand, whose murder at Sarajevo was 
 used by the Central Powers as a pretext for a war 
 determined on long before that time, was the heir to 
 the throne of the late Franz Joseph. He was a 
 romantic character. He visited frequently at the 
 house of Archduchess Isabella, where Countess Chotek, 
 of a Bohemian noble family, was a lady in waiting. 
 Franz Ferdinand fell violently in love with the fair 
 Bohemian and, in his desire to marry, enlisted the 
 aid of Koloman Szell, Premier of Hungary. Szell 
 told friends how Franz Ferdinand loved mystery 
 and how, when he wanted to talk to him about 
 marriage plans, instead of meeting somewhere openly 
 in Vienna, he would arrange that Szell's train should 
 stop in the open fields. Szell, on alighting and 
 following directions, would find Franz Ferdinand 
 hiding behind a designated haystack. 
 
 In a country where one Royal family not only 
 rules but owns the land, this attempt of Archduke 
 Franz Ferdinand, then heir to the throne, and mad 
 with love, to marry Countess Sophie Chotek, lady in 
 waiting to Archduchess Isabella, caused a Palace 
 revolution. By the aid of Szell he at last succeeded 
 in carrying out the marriage. But this was only 
 after he and his wife had been required to submit 
 to the most humiliating conditions and subscribe 
 to a marriage contract or promise which was not 
 only enacted thereafter as a statute in Hungary, 
 but was formally put on record by the Austrian 
 Parliament. 
 
 In this declaration, Franz Ferdinand declared it
 
 i 74 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 to be " his firm and resolute resolve to marry Countess 
 Sophie Chotek ; that he had sought, in accordance 
 with the laws of the House, to obtain consent of 
 the Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, the 
 Emperor and King, Franz Joseph I, gloriously reign- 
 ing ; that the most serene, supreme head of the Arch 
 House had deigned graciously to grant this permission, 
 and that Franz Ferdinand, however (describing him- 
 self as c We '), recognise the House laws and declare 
 them binding on Us particularly with regard to this 
 marriage declaration, that our marriage with Coun- 
 tess Chotek is not a marriage of equal birth, but a 
 morganatic one, and is to be considered as such for 
 all time, and that in consequence neither our wife 
 nor our issue or descendants is entitled to possess 
 or claim those rights, titles, armorial bearings and 
 privileges that belong to wives of equal birth and to 
 children of archdukes or marriages of equal birth." 
 Franz Ferdinand further recognised that his children 
 from this marriage would have no right to succeed 
 to the throne in the kingdoms and lands of Austria 
 nor, consequently, to the lands of the Hungarian 
 Crown, and that they were excluded from the order 
 of succession. 
 
 He further agreed and promised, not only for 
 himself but for his wife and children, that none of 
 them would ever attempt to revoke this declaration. 
 
 The old Emperor gave the wife of Franz Ferdinand 
 the title of Princess Hohenberg and later raised her 
 to the rank of duchess, which, in the Central Empires, 
 is a higher rank than that of princess. She was 
 also created a Serene Highness after the birth of 
 her third child, Prince Ernest, in 1904. The first 
 child, Princess Sophie, was born in 1901, and the 
 second, Prince Maximilian Charles, in 1902.
 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 175 
 
 In spite of the rank thus granted to her, the 
 Duchess of Hohenberg was frequently slighted by 
 Archdukes and Archduchesses of the House of Haps- 
 burg, and when the present Emperor, the Archduke 
 Charles Francis Joseph, married Princess Zita of 
 Bourbon-Parma in 1911, and this marriage was 
 followed by the birth of a son, on November 20, 
 1912, it was plain to Franz Ferdinand and his wife 
 that the hostility of the old Emperor and the other 
 members of the House of Hapsburg, aided by events, 
 had succeeded in definitely excluding his children 
 by Countess Sophie from the throne. 
 
 These slights to his wife, so marked as to cause 
 the publication of articles inspired by himself in a 
 newspaper devoted to his interests, and the birth of 
 the heir to Carl, must have had a profound influence 
 on melancholy Franz Ferdinand. 
 
 In all Europe there was one monarch clever 
 enough to take advantage of the situation, to win 
 Franz Ferdinand to him by the honours he paid to 
 the Duchess of Hohenberg — the German Emperor. 
 Kaiser Wilhelm invited the pair to Potsdam, and 
 there both were made to feel that in one Court at 
 least the honours due to a wife of equal birth were 
 paid to the ex-Countess Sophie. This Potsdam visit 
 was in 1909, and I believe that thereafter the German 
 Emperor and Franz Ferdinand met on other occa- 
 sions. 
 
 In the chapter on Emperor Wilhelm, I have stated 
 the belief prevalent, even in Germany, that he in- 
 tended, as his first step towards his openly expressed 
 ambition for world dominion, to make himself, on 
 the death of Franz Joseph, Emperor of a great 
 Continental Empire in which the German Princes, 
 his sons, should occupy the thrones of Hungary
 
 176 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 and Bohemia, the heir of the House of Austria to 
 rule as King or Grand Duke of Austria, with possibly 
 another German-ruled kingdom touching the sea 
 on the south. 
 
 There are some who believe that when the Kaiser, 
 accompanied by von Tirpitz, visited Franz Ferdinand 
 at Konopisht in June, 1914, before the Kiel week, 
 a great conspiracy was entered into, in which 
 it was arranged that a great Central Empire should 
 be created with one of the sons of the Duchess of 
 Hohenberg on the throne of Bohemia and the other 
 provided for by some newly carved out kingdom 
 made from Bosnia, or a portion of Serbia. And it 
 may have been part of this plot that Eitel Fritz 
 and other sons of the Kaiser should be provided 
 with thrones derived from Balkan territory. 
 
 It will be remembered that as Franz Ferdinand 
 and his wife fell under the assassin's bullet at Sara- 
 jevo he called out : " Sophie, live for our children ! " 
 His devotion to his wife and to their children was 
 extraordinary. He was continually sparing from 
 his income so that on his death his sons would have 
 a large sum of money, saved from the income of 
 estates which they could not inherit. 
 
 It is hard to believe that such a crime against 
 the House of Hapsburg and against his own country 
 was contemplated from the inside of Royalty. But 
 one event seems a confirmation of this theory. The 
 dead Franz Ferdinand and his wife were buried with 
 such lack of honour, almost with such contempt, as to 
 lead to the belief that the head of the House of Haps- 
 burg, Emperor Franz Joseph himself, without whose 
 directions the Chamberlain, Count Montenuovo, would 
 not have dared to act, discovered his heir in some act 
 against the laws or fortunes of the Imperial House.
 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 177 
 
 For the funeral arrangements were such that the 
 Austrian and Hungarian aristocracy were moved to 
 protest, and as a result a belated order was issued 
 directing that the troops of the Vienna Garrison 
 should take part in the funeral ceremonies. About 
 one hundred and fifty members of the leading families 
 of Hungary and Austria, without invitation, entered 
 the funeral procession and followed the bodies to the 
 railway station. The London Times correspondent 
 called attention to this in cables to his newspaper at 
 the time. 
 
 Personally, I do not incline to this view, but I do 
 believe that at Konopisht the war of 1914 was finally 
 agreed on. Too many bits of evidence point to 
 this, and from something said to me at Kiel by a 
 very high personage, before the assassinations at 
 Sarajevo, I would have guessed that war was coming, 
 had it not been impossible for me to believe that 
 the world was to be plunged into war simply because 
 the German people were restless under the rule of 
 the autocracy. 
 
 When the murders occurred at Sarajevo, all plans 
 had been laid for war, and the death of Franz Fer- 
 dinand and the Duchess of Hohenberg merely gave 
 another excuse to begin hostilities, after Austria, in 
 the Council of Potsdam, had ratified all the arrange- 
 ments made by the Emperor Wilhelm and Franz 
 Ferdinand for the European war. Undoubtedly the 
 German Emperor used his influence with Franz 
 Ferdinand and his wife in order to secure the former's 
 aid in dragging Austria into the war — a war begun 
 to win the dominion of the world. 
 
 How many in America have heard the name of 
 Sophie Chotck ? Yet the ambitions of this woman 
 have done much to send to war the splendid youths 
 
 N
 
 i 7 8 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 who from all the ends of the earth gather in France 
 to fight the fight of freedom. 
 
 The clever German Emperor, playing upon her 
 ambitions, induced the gloomy, hated Franz Fer- 
 dinand to consent to the world-war, and matters 
 had gone so far that even the death of the Archduke 
 Franz Ferdinand could not change the situation 
 nor turn the war party of Hungary and Austria 
 from their programme of blood. Eighty-four years 
 of age, the old Franz Joseph could only offer a 
 weak defence to the martial insistence of Tisza, 
 Premier of Hungary, and his able understrapper, 
 Forgotsch, who represented him in the Foreign 
 Office at Vienna and who undoubtedly is the man 
 who drafted the forty-eight hour ultimatum to 
 Serbia. 
 
 Berlmers say that, although the German Emperor 
 gave the Duchess of Hohenberg all the honours 
 due to the wife of an Austrian Archduke, heir to 
 the throne of the Austrian Empire, he was careful 
 not to bring her claims in direct conflict with any 
 Prussian female royalty, and that on the first visit 
 of Franz Ferdinand and his wife to Potsdam, when 
 the doors of the banquet-room were thrown open, 
 it was seen that the Kaiser had skilfully placed all 
 the guests at small tables, sitting at one with the 
 Empress and his two guests. In this way he pre- 
 vented a conflict of precedence and a possible scene 
 with some Prussian royal princess. 
 
 After one of these Potsdam visits, the Austrian 
 Government appropriated three hundred millions 
 for new Skoda cannon and a great and unexpected 
 increase of the Navy was voted. In Austria itself 
 it was seen that the German influence was dragging 
 Austria-Hungary nearer and nearer to war.
 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 179 
 
 Ferdinand disliked the Hungarians and in turn 
 was hated by them. If he had attained the throne 
 of the Empire, as his children could not inherit, he 
 would have endeavoured first to remove that obstacle, 
 but if he had not succeeded he intended, as I have 
 said, either to restore the kingdom of Bohemia and 
 place his son, child of a Bohemian mother, on the 
 newly created throne, or create, possibly from con- 
 quered lands, another kingdom over which his heir 
 could reign. 
 
 The Magyars, the real Hungarian ruling race, 
 are most skilful politicians. Their elections often 
 are corrupt and all the tricks of the politician are 
 in use in Hungary. 
 
 In many families political talent seems hereditary. 
 Tisza, the Premier of Hungary for the period for 
 some time before the war, was the son of Tisza, who 
 was Premier of Hungary about the year 1875. Kos- 
 suth, son of the great Kossuth, has been active in 
 politics. The father of Count Julius Andrassy was 
 Premier about 1866 and favoured Germany, a policy 
 which has been inherited by his son. One of the 
 sons-in-law of Count Andrassy's wife, Marquis Palla- 
 vicini, came to America to act as best man when 
 my wife's sister married Count Sigray. 
 
 Andrassy came to Berlin during the war, where I had 
 several long talks with him. The one desire of Hungarians 
 and Austrians alike is for peace, but surrounded 
 by the armies of their German masters, they have lost 
 their independence of action, a bitter blow to the 
 Magyars, who are not fond of the Germans. 
 
 Count Stephen Tisza is an obstinate and able 
 man, so manysided that it is related of him that he 
 fought a duel, rode a steeplechase, and made a great 
 speech in Parliament, all in one day. 
 
 N 2
 
 1S0 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Duelling is still a custom in Hungary, Austria, 
 and Germany. Once when I was in Hungary I 
 took supper with a Count who had been second in 
 a duel that day. One young Magnate was at a 
 restaurant with an actress who wore a wide-brimmed 
 hat. Another young Magnate of his acquaintance 
 looked under the hat brim to see who the girl was. 
 Result : a duel with sabres in a riding school. On 
 this occasion, as the insult was not deadly, the use 
 of sharp points was forbidden. The duel was stopped 
 after one young Magnate received a cut on the 
 forehead. 
 
 Stephen Tisza, on first taking office, was permitted 
 by the old Emperor to obtain some apparent con- 
 cessions for Hungary in order to make his Premiership 
 popular. It was arranged that Hungarian flags 
 should be carried by Hungarian regiments, and 
 that the officers of those regiments should all be 
 Hungarians, but German was to be used as the 
 military language and language of command even 
 in the Hungarian regiments. 
 
 As soon as Tisza became Premier for the first 
 time, Count Apponyi left the Liberal Party, and 
 lately Count Julius Andrassy and his wife's sons- 
 in-law, Count Karoyli and Marquis Pallavicini, have 
 been in violent opposition to Tisza, Pallavicini even 
 fighting a duel with the Prime Minister. 
 
 In a country where the majority of the inhabitants 
 are Roman Catholics it is rather strange that Tisza 
 and his father, both strong Protestants, should 
 have attained the Premiership. The father of Count 
 Stephen Tisza was even more obstinate than his 
 son and greatly oppressed the Slovaks and Rou- 
 manians within the borders of Hungary. 
 
 A great responsibility lies at the door of Stephen
 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 181 
 
 Tisza. He allowed the Germans to use him in 
 bringing on the world-war. Doubtless he believed 
 that Russia and the Powers would not move, that 
 Austria-Hungary could seize or invade Serbia, while 
 Germany terrorised the world as in 1908 when 
 Bosnia and Herzegovina were added to the Imperial 
 dominions. But his failure to read the intentions 
 of Russia and the other Powers is no excuse for 
 the calamity he brought on Hungary and the world, 
 no excuse for the fact that his country is now over- 
 whelmed by Kaiserism, its armies surrounded by 
 the armies of Germany, and its very independence 
 threatened by the subtle influence and intrigues of 
 the master intriguer of the world — the German 
 Kaiser. 
 
 The franchise in Austria and in Hungary is like 
 that given grudgingly to the Prussian, a mere ghost 
 of suffrage. Autocracy rules. In Hungary par- 
 ticularly the Magyars, seeking to keep the political 
 power in their hands, oppose a broadening of the 
 franchise. Tisza has always been against any letting 
 down of the bars, but when the young and brilliant 
 Count Esterhazy was made Premier, many looked 
 for a change — a change which has, however, not yet 
 come. 
 
 The new Emperor Carl at first seemed to exhibit 
 Liberal tendencies, but only for a moment. 
 
 The events in Russia will have a grave effect in 
 Austria-Hungary. More than a million Russians 
 are prisoners in the Dual Monarchy, nearly a million 
 of whose subjects are in Russia — and of these at 
 least fifty thousand Czechs are fighting the Austrians 
 and Germans in the ranks of the Roumanian Army. 
 Many more will refuse to leave Russia, but the 
 coming back of one half, after having witnessed the
 
 1 82 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 winning of liberty by the Russians, will influence 
 their countrymen in no small degree. Just as the 
 French soldiers under Lafayette and Rochambeau, 
 after helping us to gain our independence, returned 
 from the free fields of America to a France where 
 the burdens of the plain people were almost unen- 
 durable and brought on the great French Revolution, 
 the soldiers and prisoners who return to Prussia 
 and to Austria-Hungary from the strange scenes 
 of the Russian Revolution may, perhaps, leaven 
 the inert slave masses of the Central Empires with 
 a spirit of revolt for liberty. 
 
 We should institute a great propaganda from the 
 Italian front. For instance, I have been told by a 
 man who has been on that front, a man who should 
 know, that if a few American troops were sent there 
 and signs erected stating " Come over and surrender 
 to the Americans, you will be taken to America, 
 well fed and paid a dollar per day when you volunteer 
 to work," there would be a great rush of Austro- 
 Hungarian troops eager to be taken prisoner. 
 
 The losses of Austria and Hungary have been 
 enormous— men up to fifty-five have been drafted 
 for the Army, and the troops have often suffered 
 defeat and the horrors of retreat at the hands of 
 Russians, Serbians, and Italians. 
 
 And all the time the iron hand of the German 
 Kaiser grasps more and more of the power. Cheer- 
 less prospect it is for the once gay Hungarians, the 
 once happy Austrians, if to financial ruin and the 
 killing of the flower of their youth is to be added 
 the iron horror of Prussian domination. 
 
 Our citizens of Austrian and especially of Hun- 
 garian descent have been loyal to their new flag. 
 And our great President with enlightened wisdom
 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 183 
 
 has eased the enemy alien regulations so as to favour 
 those born in the Dual Monarchy. America will 
 never forget the loyalty ungrudgingly given by 
 those of her people born under the double eagle of 
 the Hapsburgs. 
 
 In my many visits to Hungary I grew to like and 
 admire the Hungarians. Natural in manners, hos- 
 pitable, polite, there is something in them that wins 
 Americans. How different the open hospitality and 
 friendliness in Budapest from the stern, cold for- 
 mality of the Prussian capital ! 
 
 And with all friends ot Hungary I hope that that 
 country will soon throw off the trance of Prussian- 
 ism, which has led the Dual Monarchy into a Dance 
 of Death.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 GERMAN INFLUENCE ON THE NORTHERN 
 
 NEUTRALS 
 
 Just as I had the opportunity to study conditions 
 in Austria, so also I came in contact with the politics 
 and diplomacy of the nations contiguous to Germany 
 on the north. 
 
 My grandfather, Benjamin F. Angel, was American 
 Minister to Sweden and Norway and on leaving 
 received from the King the Order of St. Olaf. I 
 have always taken a deep interest in Scandinavian 
 affairs and it behoves the American people to regard 
 closely what is happening nowadays in Norway, 
 Sweden and Denmark. 
 
 The outbreak of the European War in 1914 served 
 to bring the three northern nations close together. 
 Their Kings met in conference and a peace monument 
 was erected on the boundary of Norway and Sweden 
 as if to proclaim to the world that, in spite of their 
 recent separation, Norway and Sweden were sister 
 countries. 
 
 The people of these three countries are of the 
 same blood and their languages are somewhat similar. 
 Norwegian and Danish written are practically the 
 same. But there is quite a difference in pronuncia- 
 tion. Swedish is more like German and the pro- 
 nunciation is not as difficult to learn as that of 
 Norwegian and Danish. In Norway, there are older 
 
 184
 
 INFLUENCE ON NORTHERN NEUTRALS 185 
 
 dialects, differing from Danish, and there has lately 
 been a great movement in favour of a more national 
 language. Many Norwegians regard the official 
 Danish-Norwegian as a reminder of old subjection 
 to Denmark and not at all fitted for the new indepen- 
 dent Norwegian kingdom. The new national language 
 is called " Landsmaal." 
 
 Sweden and Norway were both under one King 
 from 1814 to 1905. In that year, after a peaceful 
 secession, Prince Charles of Denmark, the son of the 
 King of Denmark, was made the King of Norway, 
 with the title of Haakon VII. Although both have 
 Kings, Denmark and Norway may be termed demo- 
 cratic countries. 
 
 Copenhagen is lively since the war. The popu- 
 lation of Denmark is only 2,500,000, and the whole 
 country is only 14,829 square miles, which means an 
 area about the size of Maryland. The country was 
 once larger, but in 1864 Prussia went to war with 
 Denmark and, finally, after the war with Austria 
 in 1866, added to the Crown of Prussia the two 
 Danish duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. As the 
 city and port of Kiel were included in this territory 
 annexed, it is easy to see why the Germans engaged 
 in this enterprise against Denmark. 
 
 Denmark possesses the Faroe Islands which lie 
 far to north of Scotland, the great island of Iceland 
 and Greenland, relics of the times when the Viking 
 ships brought such terror to the other countries of 
 Europe, that the Litany used to read : " From 
 plague, pestilence and famine, from battle and mur- 
 der, from sudden death and from the fury of the 
 Northmen, good Lord deliver us." 
 
 In Christiania we saw on our trip out two graceful 
 Viking ships dug out of the clay shores of the coast
 
 186 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 in a state of fair preservation — one of them a prin- 
 cess's ship on which it was easy to imagine some 
 blonde princess of the North, her long braids of 
 golden hair flying in the wind, urging on her Scan- 
 dinavian oarsmen. 
 
 The Danes are a sturdy race, the women more 
 independent than those of other countries. On the 
 Frederick VIII, when we sailed from Denmark, 
 September 28, 1916, for the United States, were 
 two handsome girls, nineteen and twenty-one years 
 of age, the daughters of the proprietor of the largest 
 department store in Copenhagen. They were going 
 to America to find employment in department stores 
 in the different cities of the country, travelling entirely 
 alone, and expected to return to Denmark after a 
 year's experience in America with many new ideas 
 of management and advertising for their father 
 in Copenhagen. These girls were wonderfully edu- 
 cated, speaking, in addition to Danish, French, Ger- 
 man and English with hardly a trace of accent. They 
 lived a short distance out of Copenhagen and told 
 me that every morning of the year they jumped into 
 the sea at six-thirty in the morning, something that 
 I should not care to do even in August in that cold 
 northern land. 
 
 Danish farmers learned early that in order to be 
 prosperous they must practise intensive farming. 
 I believe that Denmark, which even before the war 
 enjoyed a high degree of prosperity, is the only 
 country in the world where there are pigsties steam 
 heated and electric lighted, while the farmer himself 
 does not have these luxuries. 
 
 Our farmers have much to learn from the farmers 
 of Denmark both in agricultural methods and in 
 co-operation for the marketing of products. The
 
 INFLUENCE ON NORTHERN NEUTRALS 187 
 
 reclamation of the Danish moors in Jutland has 
 made surprising progress : it is in Jutland that a 
 park has been preserved in its primeval state — 
 the Danish-American Park, bought with money 
 subscribed by Danish emigrants to America who 
 prospered in their adopted land. 
 
 Ever since the conquest of Denmark by Germany, 
 there has been a deep hatred of all things German 
 in Denmark on account of the treatment of those 
 Danes, numbering between one hundred and two 
 hundred thousand, who were living in Schleswig 
 and Holstein and were unfortunate enough to be 
 turned over as property to the King of Prussia. 
 
 I found the Danes agreeable people. Of the 
 same race as the Germans, living like them in the 
 dark North, this difference in behaviour is perhaps 
 accounted for by the fact that the Danes are free, 
 while the Germans are oppressed by the weight of 
 an ever-present autocracy. 
 
 While the Danish people hate the Germans, officially 
 Denmark is careful to conceal this hate and even, 
 apparently, to lean towards the German side, through 
 fear of the German troops, which could easily overrun 
 Denmark in thirty hours. 
 
 Denmark, during the war, received oil cake from 
 America, which was fed to cattle later sold to Ger- 
 many. A great tonnage of fish has also been sent 
 from Denmark to Germany, while salt and potash 
 have been imported. There is no question but that 
 supplies of all kinds and in great quantities have 
 found their way across the Danish border. 
 
 And the Danes have prospered enormously since 
 the war. Many people have become millionaires 
 through the sale of food and other supplies to the 
 Germans. A great deal of this food supply was
 
 i88 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 sent in the form of canned meat, popularly known 
 as goulash, and so to-day, whenever an automobile 
 passes on a Danish road, the small boys call out 
 " goulash Baron," in the belief that the occupant 
 is a new-made millionaire, enriched by trade with 
 Germany. 
 
 It is hard for us to realise how far north the Scan- 
 dinavian countries lie. Christiania, the capital of 
 Norway and in its southern part, is in the same 
 latitude as the south point of Greenland ; and is 
 it not difficult to imagine a modern city situated 
 in Greenland ? 
 
 In Christiania it is not fairly daylight in December 
 until ten in the morning and dark early in the after- 
 noon. The ample water power of Norway and 
 Sweden furnishes electric light, a godsend in the 
 short dreary winter days. 
 
 Norway, in many respects, is one of the most 
 advanced countries in the world. Having been ruled 
 by Denmark for four hundred years, it was united 
 to Sweden by the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, with the 
 approval of all the Powers, but against the inclinations 
 of the Norwegians, who knew that they were given 
 to Sweden to compensate that country for the loss 
 of Finland, annexed to Russia. 
 
 The ambitious Bernadotte arranged to govern 
 Norway as King of that country, which was 
 theoretically to retain its independence and be united 
 to Sweden only through the personal rule of the one 
 monarch. 
 
 At this time, the Norwegian Constitution provided 
 that no more personal privileges should be granted, 
 and since then the progress of Norway towards a 
 real democracy has been rapid. It was the conflict
 
 INFLUENCE ON NORTHERN NEUTRALS 189 
 
 over the right demanded by the Norwegians to 
 establish a separate consular service that led to the 
 dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden 
 in 1905, Norway voting for separation 368,211 to 184. 
 
 There are now no nobles in Norway. Shortly after 
 the union it was decided that those who had titles 
 of nobility could hold them for life, but that their 
 descendants could not inherit. 
 
 Legislation for the protection of child workers and 
 women, for insurance, etc., is of an advanced character. 
 For instance, no child under fourteen is permitted 
 to work, and no woman for six weeks after her con- 
 finement — women receiving full sick benefit pay 
 during this period. Many of the railways are State 
 owned. 
 
 Norway is a land of little farms, the shipping and 
 fishing industries occupy many men, but with the 
 exception of the water power-driven nitrate plants 
 on the coast, and the wood-pulp factories, there is 
 little manufacturing. 
 
 The mass of the people are with the Allies. Last 
 winter, when it was proposed that a German concert 
 troupe should play and sing in Christiania, the people 
 threatened to burn the theatre if the performance 
 was permitted. 
 
 But, as in Sweden, the German propagandists 
 are at work in Norway. Here again, unless wc 
 present our case, the people may be turned from the 
 Allies. 
 
 King Gustavus V, who occupies to-day the throne 
 of Sweden, has a German wife. All the sympathies 
 of the Court, which copies the little Courts of Germany, 
 of the aristocracy, and of the Army are strongly with 
 Germany. 
 
 In Sweden, although the King has not much more
 
 iqo FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 power than the Kings of Denmark and Norway, 
 there is an aristocracy which inclines to imitate the 
 manners of the German aristocracy and to seize, 
 if possible, the privileges enjoyed by that body. 
 The officers in the Army in Sweden are devoted to 
 German ideals, and, since the war, great bodies of 
 them have been invited to Germany, where there has 
 been much ado over them. 
 
 The people, however, do not sympathise with 
 Germany, knowing what the triumph of Germany 
 means for them, and how the Court and the Army and 
 the aristocracy would be thereby encouraged to put 
 the Swedish people in what the Germans would call 
 " their place." 
 
 The Swedes fear the domination of Germany and 
 the domination of an aristocracy and Army imbued 
 with German ideas. They know that if Germany 
 wins the King business will take on a new lease of 
 life. The ground was ripe for the Allies, but the 
 German propaganda, cleverly managed, spending 
 money without stint, is gradually bringing the people 
 to a point where, if the blockade is tightened, they 
 may consent to Sweden's entering the war as an ally 
 of the Central Empires. 
 
 In spite of the dislike of the people for the 
 German cause, I think that the aristocracy and the 
 Court and the Army would have forced Sweden 
 into the war but for one thing. After some months 
 of war, an arrangement was made whereby the so- 
 called ' heavily wounded " were exchanged with 
 prisoners between Russia and Germany. The 
 German who was a prisoner of the Russians and had 
 lost an arm or a leg was sent home. These wounded 
 prisoners on their way to their home countries were 
 compelled to travel the whole length of Sweden, and
 
 INFLUENCE ON NORTHERN NEUTRALS 191 
 
 it was the sight of these poor stumps of humanity, 
 as the trains stopped at the various stations in Sweden, 
 that kept the Swedish people out of war. Many 
 pictures of them printed in the Swedish papers 
 caused profound dismay in Sweden and developed 
 an inexpressible abhorrence of war. 
 
 Since hostilities commenced, on the other hand, 
 the Government, Army, and aristocracy of Sweden 
 not only have been consistently opposed to the 
 Allies, but of the utmost service to Germany. 
 
 Swedish iron ore goes into German cannon and 
 makes the best steel for aeroplane engines, and the 
 imports into Sweden of foods and fats from America 
 increased one thousand per cent, almost imme- 
 diately. These imports, with great quantities of 
 copper and other supplies, found their way to Germany, 
 to the great profit incidentally of Swedish business 
 men. For the plain people of Sweden the cost of 
 living increased without a corresponding increase in 
 salaries and wages, so that the new prosperity was 
 confined to the " goulash barons." 
 
 There is no question but that, just as in Argentina, 
 the Swedish diplomatic pouch was in all countries 
 at the service of Germany, and that the orders to 
 the German spies in Russia were sent by this means. 
 In fact, it is believed German prisoners in Russia 
 found their way to Petrograd, there to participate 
 in revolution and counter-revolution under orders 
 sent through the Swedish officials. 
 
 Smuggling is winked at, and at Lulea, on the 
 Swedish coast near the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, 
 great quantities of rubber, block tin, and oil arrive 
 from Russian Uleaborg across the Gulf. 
 
 The French wanted to send a consul to Lulea, but 
 their request was refused, doubtless because the
 
 i 9 2 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Swedish authorities did not care to have any official 
 foreigners see this traffic. 
 
 Cleverest of all has been the work of the German 
 financial agents. Warburg, the Hamburg banker, 
 is attached to the German Legation in Stockholm. 
 So skilfully has he managed his task, that Swedish 
 firms and Swedish banks have been induced to take 
 German paper money, commercial paper and securities 
 instead of gold, in return for copper, rubber, tin, 
 food, fats, wool, and supplies, and in this way the 
 Swedish business men, by the touch of self-interest, 
 have been made to favour Germany. 
 
 I confess that it is hard to bring about, but as 
 each nation has the right to choose with whom its 
 citizens shall do business, we must mercilessly black- 
 list those firms which assist Germany by accepting, 
 in lieu of the gold which would thus be drained from 
 Germany, what amounts to the promise of Germany 
 to pay if successful in war. 
 
 The Queen of Sweden, herself a German and an 
 admirer of the German Emperor, has great influence 
 over her husband and the Court. 
 
 At a time when she was visiting her family in 
 Karlsruhe (for she is a Princess of Baden) a 
 reprisal attack made by Allied aeroplanes narrowly 
 missed the Royal palace and, consequently, the Queen. 
 This has added to her prejudice against the Allies. 
 The Crown Princess of Sweden was a Princess of 
 Connaught, the sister of " Princess Pat," but she 
 does not dare take any stand against the anti-Ally 
 propaganda. 
 
 I am sure that President Wilson appreciates the 
 gravity of the situation and that means are being 
 taken to place our position not only before the 
 Swedish people, but those of Swedish birth and
 
 INFLUENCE ON NORTHERN NEUTRALS 193 
 
 descent in the United States, whose influence should 
 be brought to bear on their friends and relatives in 
 the old country. 
 
 The crew of every Swedish ship that lands here 
 should be given our viewpoint ; every Swede who 
 returns to Sweden should go as a missionary. We 
 must not permit Sweden, whose people are bound 
 to us by ties of blood and friendship, by the hospitality 
 which we offered to every Swedish immigrant, to 
 be ranged among our enemies by the German-admir- 
 ing aristocrats of Sweden, who by birth, training and 
 education are opposed to democracy, who hope, if 
 Germany wins, to gain as great an ascendancy in 
 the government as the Prussian Junkers possess in 
 Germany. 
 
 The Finns who occupy that part of Russia nearest 
 to Sweden have quite a sympathy for the Swedes, 
 Finland having been at one time a part of Sweden. 
 The races, however, are not the same. The Finns 
 are a Mongolian race, and certain similarities of 
 language make it plain that the Finns and the Hun- 
 garians came from the same mysterious place of 
 origin somewhere in the great mountains and highlands 
 of Central Asia. 
 
 Three languages, three influences, fight for 
 mastery in Finland : the official Russian, the lan- 
 guage of the Government ; Finnish, now receiving a 
 new lease of life ; and Swedish, the language of 
 those who once conquered and held Finland, and 
 who so imposed their civilisation on the more ignorant 
 Finns, that to-day Swedish is the language of the 
 more prosperous classes and of most of the business 
 men. 
 
 The women of Finland received the suffrage in 
 
 o
 
 i 9 4 FACE T0 FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 1906, all voting who are over twenty-four and who 
 have been for five years citizens of Finland. Many 
 women thereafter were elected to the Finnish 
 Parliament. 
 
 In two Scandinavian countries the women vote. 
 Norway was the first sovereign State of Europe to 
 give full citizenship rights to women. In 1913 all 
 Norwegian women of twenty-five and citizens for 
 five years were put on a voting equality with men, 
 and the only positions under the national government 
 for which women are not eligible are in the Army 
 and Navy, the Diplomatic and Consular Service, and 
 the Supreme Court. 
 
 The Danish women received the full franchise 
 in 1915, but in aristocratic Sweden only the women 
 paying income taxes have rights in the communal 
 councils. 
 
 In 1908, in Norway, a law was passed providing 
 that women doing the work of men shall receive 
 equal pay. 
 
 Military service in all three northern nations is 
 universal and compulsory. 
 
 Possibly on a " tip " from Berlin to a fellow 
 autocrat, there occurred in February, 1914, an 
 extraordinary political event, arranged and " accele- 
 rated " by the Government, when thirty thousand 
 farmers, meeting in Stockholm for the purpose, 
 marched in procession to the Royal Castle to address 
 the King and tell him that they were ready to bear 
 any extra taxes imposed for the purpose of providing 
 for national defence. 
 
 Russia was the Power particularly feared by 
 Sweden, who thought she desired to annex a part 
 of Northern Sweden and Norway in order to get an 
 outlet to the sea on the Norwegian coast.
 
 INFLUENCE ON NORTHERN NEUTRALS 195 
 
 But recent events in Russia have ended this fear, 
 and the only question for the Swedes is the same, one 
 with which the whole world is faced — Kaiserism or 
 Democracy. 
 
 Sven Hedin, the explorer, who was the leader in 
 this movement for national defence, has appeared 
 as a German propagandist so violent as to have 
 become popular with the Germans. It is hard to 
 understand why so intelligent a man should range 
 himself on the side of autocracy. Now that the 
 Russian danger, if danger there was, is past, it is to 
 be hoped that this celebrated man will be found in 
 the ranks of those opposed to the autocracy which 
 ordered the murders of many Swedish seamen. 
 
 Norway, although it has often met the submarine 
 of the Kaiser, which, defying all law, has sent to 
 death so many Norwegian sailors and fishermen, 
 suffers also from German propaganda and a certain 
 self-interest because of the forty-five million kronen 
 sale of fish this last year to German buyers. 
 
 Germany works too in Denmark with the Socialists, 
 and deliveries of coal are used to obtain food from 
 that country. 
 
 The jolly, free, brave Scandinavians are naturally 
 opposed to all that Pan-Germanism and German 
 rule means. It is necessary for us, especially our 
 citizens of Scandinavian descent, not to lose this initial 
 advantage. 
 
 o 2
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 SWITZERLAND— ANOTHER KIND OF 
 
 NEUTRAL 
 
 Free Switzerland ! You cannot imagine the feeling 
 of relief I experienced as I passed from the lands 
 of the Hohenzollerns and Hapsburgs to a free Re- 
 public. 
 
 It was February 11, 1917. To go into the railroad 
 station restaurant and order an omelette and fried 
 potatoes without a food card and with chocolate 
 on the side seemed in itself a return to liberty. 
 
 Our Minister, Mr. Stovall, gave us a dinner and 
 evening reception so that we could meet all the 
 notables, and we lunched with the French Ambas- 
 sador (for France maintains an Embassy in Switzer- 
 land) and dined with the British Minister, Sir Horace 
 Rumbold, a very able gentleman who had been 
 Chancellor of the British Embassy in Berlin before 
 the war. 
 
 As war had not yet been declared between Germany 
 and the United States, the correspondents of German 
 newspapers waylaid me. Some seemed to think 
 that in spite of the insulting blow given us by Ger- 
 many, we nevertheless, scared to whiteness by the 
 U-boat ultimatum, would lend all our energies to 
 bring about a German peace. 
 
 I received a letter from one of the editors of a 
 Swiss newspaper published in Berne, probably in- 
 
 196
 
 ANOTHER KIND OF NEUTRAL 197 
 
 spired by the German Legation there, asking me if 
 President Wilson, in spite of the break in relations, 
 would not continue his work for peace. 
 
 We all know that Switzerland is a republic, but 
 even those of us who have travelled there, probably 
 because we were on a holiday, gave little thought 
 to the Swiss political system. Indeed before this 
 war we cared little about the government of any 
 country except our own. 
 
 The present Constitution of Switzerland was adopted 
 in 1848 and in many particulars is modelled after 
 that of the United States. 
 
 There are the same three great Federal powers : 
 the Federal Assembly, representing the legislative 
 branch ; the Federal Council, representing the execu- 
 tive branch, and the Federal Court, representing the 
 judicial branch. 
 
 The Lower Chamber is made up of representatives 
 elected directly by the people, and the other Chamber 
 of members elected, as in our Senate, two by each 
 canton or State. The Bundesrat or Federal Council, 
 which has all the executive powers, is elected 
 by the Federal Assembly, and it is the Chairman of 
 this body who is known as the President of Switzer- 
 land. In reality he does not possess the powers of 
 our President, but it is the Bundesrat as a whole 
 which exercises the powers. Each member of this 
 Council is Minister or head of some separate depart- 
 ment, such as Military, Justice and Police, Foreign 
 Affairs, Posts and Railways, etc. The Swiss cantons 
 have much power, and there is a distinct jealousy 
 by each canton of States' rights. 
 
 It is in Switzerland that we encounter two little 
 friends, sponsored by William Jennings Bryan— 
 the Initiative and Referendum— means by which the
 
 198 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Swiss people are given a direct voice in their govern- 
 ment. By the Initiative a certain number of voters 
 may propose new legislation, and when the requisite 
 number sign a petition the proposed law must then be 
 submitted to popular vote. This rule applies both in 
 the separate cantons and in the Republic as a whole. 
 
 The Referendum, more often used, provides that, 
 if the requisite number of signers be obtained, any 
 law passed by a cantonal legislative body or by the 
 Federal Assembly shall be submitted to the voters. 
 In certain cantons the Referendum is obligatory and 
 every law is thus submitted to the people. In 
 practice the Referendum has acted as a check to 
 advanced legislation. 
 
 The Swiss have reason to fear the designs of 
 Prussia. As late as 1856 Prussia and Switzerland 
 were on the edge of war. Prior to 1815 Neuchatel 
 acknowledged the King of Prussia as its overlord ; 
 the Congress of Vienna, however, included this 
 territory in the Swiss Confederation as one of the 
 Swiss cantons. But Prussia, in spite of this formal 
 arrangement, with its usual disregard of treaties, 
 continued to claim Neuchatel. 
 
 In 1848 the revolutionary influence resulted in 
 more democratic rule in Neuchatel, but the Prussian 
 propagandist of that day was at work, and, in 1856, 
 Count Pourtales' plot was discovered and several 
 hundred prisoners seized by the Swiss Government. 
 All but a score were released. Frederick William 
 IV of Prussia demanded their instant pardon and 
 release and ordered the mobilisation of his army, 
 but finally, through the intervention of Napoleon 
 III, the affair was settled, the prisoners released by 
 way of France, and the Prussian King renounced 
 all rights over Neuchatel.
 
 ANOTHER KIND OF NEUTRAL 199 
 
 The Kulturkampf of Bismarck, his contest against 
 the Roman Catholics, had its echoes in Switzerland, 
 and it probably was due also to German influence 
 that until 1866 full freedom was withheld from the 
 Jews. 
 
 The Red Cross had its origin in Switzerland, and 
 the Geneva Conventions have done much to bring 
 about the adoption of better rules of war. The 
 Geneva Cross is the badge of international charity 
 and help. 
 
 Switzerland always has opened her doors to the 
 politically oppressed. Over ten thousand revolu- 
 tionists from Baden took refuge in Switzerland in 
 1848. Austria, in 1853, as a reprisal for the alleged 
 actions of Italians in Switzerland in conspiring against 
 Austria, drove thousands of Swiss citizens from that 
 part of Italy occupied by Austria. Also in the 
 Franco-Prussian War the French General Bourbaki 
 and his army of nearly one hundred thousand men 
 sought an asylum in Switzerland. 
 
 The Army of Switzerland is a true citizen army 
 — an army of universal service — and it is due to the 
 existence of this force that Switzerland remains 
 an independent State in the midst of Europe. 
 
 To stand apart in Europe is the very essence of 
 life for Switzerland. It is regrettable therefore that 
 German money and German propaganda and some 
 sympathy for Germany among the officers of the 
 Army should have touched the fine flower of Swiss 
 neutrality. A triumphant Prussia and a free Swit- 
 zerland cannot exist in the same Europe. 
 
 In Switzerland it is in the military that we find 
 the greatest sympathy for Germany. In 1915 Swiss 
 officers were discovered working out the ciphers of 
 other nations for the benefit of the German armies,
 
 200 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 and the punishment given at the ensuing Court- 
 martial was not only incommensurate with the 
 offence, but was a plain indication of the early 
 sympathies of the Chiefs of the Swiss Staff. 
 
 The food question between the United States and 
 Switzerland requires delicate handling. We like the 
 Swiss and do not wish them to suffer, but the Swiss 
 must understand that our food is our own and that 
 we do not propose it shall go to nourish Germans 
 or that it shall take the place, in Switzerland, of 
 Swiss food sold by the Swiss to our enemies. 
 
 The President of Switzerland related to me the 
 difficult position in which Switzerland found herself. 
 Iron and coal, necessary to the industries of Swit- 
 zerland, to keep the population warm and to cook 
 the food, came, he said, from Germany, while food 
 was shipped to the French Mediterranean port of 
 Cette from America and the Argentine and trans- 
 ported across part of France to Switzerland, so 
 that since the war Switzerland, as the President 
 explained, has been dancing about, first on one 
 side, then on the other, in the attempt to get food 
 through France and coal and iron through Germany. 
 Everything in the office of the President was the 
 extreme of republican simplicity. He questioned 
 me about the situation in Germany, especially from 
 the food standpoint. And I learned of the difficulties 
 of the Swiss. It must not be forgotten that in 
 Switzerland about seventy per cent, of the people 
 speak German, twenty-three per cent. French, and 
 seven per cent. Italian. Many of the German-speak- 
 ing Swiss, of course, sympathise with Germany. 
 They are the farmers, dairymen, etc., but in French 
 Switzerland, in the neighbourhood of Geneva and 
 Lausanne, the industrial population sides with the
 
 ANOTHER KIND OF NEUTRAL 201 
 
 Allies. Millions of the delicate fuses used on shells 
 have been manufactured in that part of Switzerland 
 for the Entente. In retaliation for this the Germans 
 boycotted Swiss watches. 
 
 The usual German-paid propaganda newspapers 
 operate in the principal towns. The army officers 
 are the first to be influenced. It is the same in 
 Switzerland as with the officers of many armies, 
 solely because of the past reputation of the German 
 military machine. 
 
 We and the civil authorities of South America 
 must not forget that Japan copied German military 
 methods, that the armies of Argentina and Chile 
 have been trained, for years, by German officers 
 sent there on temporary leave of absence from the 
 German Army. 
 
 Von Below, a German officer in Berlin who had 
 been in the Argentine, used to make merry over the 
 Argentine soldiers and said that they objected to 
 drilling when it rained. I do not believe this officer, 
 but I should like to have the brave Argentine officers 
 hear his jokes and gibes. 
 
 We left, after three or four days in Berne, on the 
 evening train, for the French frontier. In the train 
 corridors, outside the compartments, spies stood 
 staring at us, spies pretending to read newspapers came 
 into each compartment ; police spies, betrayed by 
 heavy boots ; General Staff spies, betrayed by a mili- 
 tary stiffness ; women spies ; spies assorted and 
 special. And these gentry had followed me all 
 over Berne — for in the neutral countries of Europe 
 as well as the belligerents are we constantly reminded 
 of the insidious methods of Kaiserism.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 
 
 At Pontarlier, on the French frontier, a special 
 train was waiting for my party and into this train 
 a German-American inserted himself after first mixing 
 his baggage with mine. I went through the train, 
 and this enterprising gentleman and another German- 
 American were detained for some days at Pontarlier. 
 One of them, later, on reaching Spain, reported 
 immediately to the head of the German secret service 
 there, thus justifying my suspicions. Fortunately 
 when he subsequently arrived in Spain we had 
 already sailed, so that if he bore any sinister message 
 from Berlin to the German agents in Spain to hinder 
 our voyage he was too late. 
 
 The night trip to Paris was uneventful. At the 
 Gare St. Lazare we were met by our Ambassador, 
 Mr. Sharp, with several of his staff and a representa- 
 tive of the French Foreign Office. 
 
 Paris was indeed a changed Paris since I had 
 last seen it in October of 1913. The pavement in 
 the Place Vendome, in front of the Hotel Ritz, 
 where we stopped, was full of holes, but taxicabs, 
 almost as extinct as the dodo in Berlin, rushed 
 merrily through the crowded streets. The boulevards 
 were lively, full of soldiers looking far more cheery, 
 far more snappy, than the heavy-footed German 
 soldiers who so painfully tramped down Unter den 
 
 202
 
 A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 203 
 
 Linden. Many soldiers were to be seen without an 
 arm or leg, something impossible in Germany, where, 
 especially in Berlin, it has been the policy of the 
 Government to conceal those maimed by war from 
 the people at home. Although constantly walking 
 the streets of Berlin I never saw a German soldier 
 without an arm or leg. Once motoring near Berlin 
 I came upon a lonely country house where, through 
 the iron rails of the surrounding park, numbers of 
 maimed soldiers peered out, prisoners of the auto- 
 cratic Government which dared not show its victims 
 to the people. 
 
 At night in Paris the taxicabs and autos rushed 
 dangerously through streets darkened to baffle the 
 Zeppelins. In the hotel there was little heat, only 
 wood fires in one's room. In the homes a single 
 electric light bulb was permitted for each room ; 
 violation of this rule meant loss of electric light 
 from that apartment for three weeks. 
 
 In the Ritz Restaurant there were lights on the 
 table only. And the gloomy dining-room, where a 
 few Americans and British officers and their families 
 conversed in whispers, resembled but little the gay 
 resort so often filled, before the war, with American 
 millionaires. Olivier, the head waiter, appeared only 
 at night, absent during the day on war duties. No 
 lights, no music, it is hard to think of Paris without 
 these, Paris which calls itself the " Ville Lumiere " 
 — the City of Light. 
 
 On our first Sunday in Paris a grand concert was 
 held in the Trocadero — a great Government-owned 
 auditorium on the banks of the Seine — under Canadian 
 auspices. When Ambassador Sharp and I entered 
 the centre box the vast audience rose and cheered 
 — a new sensation for me to be so welcomed after
 
 204 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 my war-years in Berlin, where I had been harried 
 and growled at, the representative of a hated people, 
 of a people at once envied for their wealth, hated 
 because they had dared to keep their rights and 
 treaties and sell goods to the enemies of Germany, 
 and despised because the Germans believed them 
 too rich and cowardly, too fat and degenerate, to 
 fight in the great war for the mastery of the world. 
 
 Lord Esher called on me at the hotel and invited 
 me, on behalf of Field-Marshal Haig, to visit the 
 British line. I am sorry that I did not have 
 time to accept this invitation, especially as in 
 Germany I had not even heard the distant firing of 
 cannon. 
 
 The Great General Headquarters at Charleville- 
 Mezieres where I had visited Emperor William at 
 the end of April, 1916, was only about seventy kilo- 
 metres from the battle front near Rheims. I was 
 naturally anxious to inspect, if not the front trenches, 
 at least the vicinity of the front, but the army 
 officers attached to the German Foreign Office, 
 who had accompanied me, informed me that the 
 Chancellor had telephoned all the Generals in the 
 vicinity to ask permission for me to visit the lines, 
 but that not one of them would permit me to visit 
 his sector. This was a fairly certain indication 
 that sooner or later the hate for America must lead 
 to war or that the U-boat settlement made at the 
 time was only a stopgap until the increased number 
 of submarines would enable Germany to commence 
 ruthless U-boat war once more in defiance of law 
 and humanity, and with a greater hope of military 
 success. 
 
 Compared to Berlin, Paris seemed a land of abun- 
 dance. In the restaurants, however, the customer
 
 A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 205 
 
 was limited to two courses, but with the privilege 
 of a second helping. 
 
 I called on Lord Bertie, the British Ambassador, 
 to ask him to convey my acknowledgments to the 
 Right Honourable Arthur James Balfour, from whom 
 I had received a most complimentary communication. 
 I found him in the beautiful home of the British 
 Embassy on the Rue St. Honore, a house so cold for 
 want of coal that I was compelled to make my visit 
 short for fear of pneumonia. 
 
 With Mrs. Gerard we lunched with our friends 
 from Berlin, Jules Cambon, a former French Am- 
 bassador there, and his family, at the La Rue Res- 
 taurant, opposite the Madeleine. Cambon seemed as 
 game as ever, but fatigued. 
 
 Briand, who was then Premier, invited me to 
 breakfast at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The 
 other guests included our Ambassador, Mr. Sharp, 
 Cambon and the Ambassadors of Britain, Italy, 
 Russia and Japan, and several distinguished French- 
 men. 
 
 I did not sit next to Briand as I ranked after 
 the Ambassadors accredited to France, but after 
 lunch I sat alone with him before the fire in one of 
 the large and beautiful salons, and there we had a 
 long talk, as, naturally, he wanted to know about 
 the situation in Germany. He impressed me as a 
 strong man, with the vigour of an orator, a man 
 of temperament, a man endowed by nature to become 
 a leader of the French — as the French were before 
 the war. 
 
 Lord Esher, at the request of General Lyautey, 
 then at the head of the military force of France, 
 took me to see that General. I had to wait for him 
 some time, as he was appearing before a committee
 
 2o6 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 of the Chamber of the Senate. His inability to agree 
 with the Chamber caused his resignation not long 
 afterwards. 
 
 I was struck in France by the fact that the leaders, 
 civil, military and naval, seemed older than those 
 in similar positions in other countries. 
 
 The present Premier, Clemenceau, is an example 
 of this fondness of the French for government by 
 old men. Clemenceau is seventy-six years old, but 
 is a vigorous fighter. 
 
 Mrs. Gerard and I lunched with Gabriel Hanotaux 
 and his attractive wife at their home. Cambon 
 was there, and Ribot, since become Premier of France, 
 a good old man ; also the Secretary of the Navy and 
 several learned French philosophers and members 
 of the Academy, and one of the heads of the Credit 
 Lyonnais, perhaps the greatest financial institution 
 of France. 
 
 War, war — who could talk of anything else ? 
 Hanotaux said that in our time we had been unusually 
 fortunate, unusually free from war ; that there was 
 underneath France, underneath even the fair city 
 of Paris, under the smiling sunlit fields, another 
 France, a France of caves and catacombs, excavated 
 by the poor people, the plain people who, during 
 the One Hundred Years' War, had sought in the 
 depths of the earth refuge from the harassing, 
 marching armies, the far-riding plunderers, and camp 
 followers, the roving bands of " White Companies," 
 the robber barons who, English and French, Gascon 
 and Norman, harried the lands of France. 
 
 I said that I had heard the statement made, and 
 there seemed no reason to doubt it, that since the 
 birth of Christ the world has only in one year out 
 of every thirteen enjoyed a rest from war.
 
 A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 207 
 
 M. Fabre-Luce, Vice-President of the Credit Lyon- 
 nais, told us of an interesting book written by 
 a Russian and published before the war which 
 predicted much that has happened in this war with 
 almost the foresight of a Cassandra. I was so impressed 
 that I secured a copy. 
 
 This book, "The Future War," by Ivan Stanisla- 
 vovich Bloch, Counsellor of the Russian Empire, and 
 published in 1892, had so great an effect on the 
 Czar of Russia that it was the reading of it which 
 impelled him to call the Peace Conference at The 
 Hague. In the course of his book the author 
 explains that it is impossible for the Powers to 
 continue longer in the path of armaments and 
 that they ought to look each other in the face 
 and demand where these great armaments and this 
 extension of forces are conducting them. He writes : 
 
 " How can one believe it possible to solve inter- 
 national questions by means of the veritable cata- 
 clysm which will constitute, with the present means 
 of destruction, war waged between the five Great 
 Powers, by ten millions of soldiers ? ... In this 
 war explosives so powerful will be employed that 
 every grouping of troops on the flat country or even 
 under the protection of fortifications will become 
 almost impossible, and that, therefore, the prepara- 
 tions of this character made in expectation of the 
 war will become useless. . . . 
 
 " The future war will sec the use of a great quan- 
 tity of new aids to war, bicycles, pigeons, telegraph, 
 telephones, optical instruments and photographic 
 instruments for the purpose of mapping from a 
 great distance the positions occupied by the enemy, 
 and means to observe the movements of the enemy 
 such as observing ladders, balloons and so on. . . .
 
 2o8 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 " In the future war every body of troops holding 
 itself on the defensive or found taking the offensive, 
 when it is not the question of sudden assault, will 
 have to fortify itself in a chosen position, and the 
 war will be confined principally to the form of a 
 series of combats in which the possession of fortified 
 positions will be disputed, and in which the assailant 
 will have to meet the accessory defensives in the 
 neighbourhood of the fortifications such as barricades, 
 barbed wire, etc., the destruction of these objects 
 costing many victims. . . . The infantry, when 
 on the defensive, will dig itself in. The conduct 
 of the war will depend, in a large measure, on the 
 artillery." 
 
 According to our author, who foresaw " No Man's 
 Land " between the two opposing forces, " there 
 will be formed a certain zone absolutely impassable 
 in consequence of the terrible fire with which it 
 will be inundated from a short distance from each 
 side." Bloch adds : " This war will last a long time, 
 and entire nations will be seen in arms, or rather the 
 flower of each nation. Germany will begin the war 
 by throwing itself on France and then, using the 
 many German railroads, will turn against Russia. 
 By virtue of its military force Germany will take 
 the initiative of operations and will make the war 
 on the two fronts." 
 
 His prophetic eye saw even the submarine war of 
 the future. " It will happen, possibly, that the future 
 war will produce engines of war completely unknown 
 and unexpected up to the present time ; in any event 
 one can foresee the advent in a short time of sub- 
 marines destined to carry below even ironclads 
 torpedoes powerful enough to wreck the strongest 
 ships."
 
 A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 209 
 
 He quotes the opinions of Jomini, who says that 
 future armies will not be composed of troops recruited 
 voluntarily, but of entire nations called by a law 
 to arms and who will not fight for a change of frontier 
 but for their existence. Jomini states "that, this 
 state of affairs will bring us back to the third and 
 the fourth centuries, calling to our minds those 
 shocks of immense peoples who disputed among 
 themselves the European Continent," and "that, if 
 a new legislation and a new international law do 
 not come to put an end to these risings of whole 
 peoples, it is impossible to foresee where the ravages 
 of future war will stop. It will become a scourge 
 more terrible than ever, because the population of 
 civilised nations will be cut down, while in the in- 
 terior of each nation the normal economic life will 
 be arrested, communications interrupted, and if the 
 war is prolonged financial crises will come with a 
 fearful rise in the price of everything and famine 
 with all its consequences." 
 
 Bloch, in depicting the future war, says that " in 
 1870 the struggle was between two Powers, while 
 in the war of the future at least five great nations 
 will take part without speaking of the intervention 
 of Turkey and England. . . . The comparing of the 
 coming war with any war of the past is impossible 
 because the increase in the effective fighting forces 
 has been of a rapidity so unexampled and this 
 increase brings with it so great an augmentation of 
 expenditures and of victims that the future war 
 will have the character of a struggle for the existence 
 of nations. ... It is true that the war of 1870 
 gave us something of an example of this character. 
 That was a war without mercy, brought on by 
 secular hate, a war of revenge on the part of the 
 
 p
 
 210 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Germans because of the ancient victories of the 
 French, a war where volunteers were shot and vil- 
 lages burned and where unheard of exactions were 
 imposed on the conquered whom the conqueror 
 sought to wrong and weaken for a long period of 
 time. A new war in Central Europe will be a second 
 edition of the same struggle, but by how much will 
 it not surpass the former wars by its magnitude 
 and by its length and by the means of destruction 
 employed." 
 
 Does not Bloch give a better prediction of this 
 war than the often quoted Bernhardi ? 
 
 The table conversation at Hanotaux's was in 
 French ; few Frenchmen and hardly any public men 
 in France speak English. 
 
 At this lunch, Ribot, since Premier, said to me, 
 " In men, in fighting, we can hold out, but we must 
 have help on the credit side." 
 
 How much more than credit have we sent since 
 to help beloved, beleaguered France ! 
 
 My interview with President Poincare" of France 
 was set for five-thirty in the Elys^e Palace. I had 
 to wait some minutes in an ante-room, hung with 
 splendid tapestries, where the secretary in charge 
 introduced me to Deschanel, the secretaire perpetuel 
 of the Academie Francaise, with whom I had a few 
 minutes' talk. 
 
 The President sat in a small, beautifully decorated 
 room in this historical Elys6e Palace. A small 
 fire burned in the grate, a bit of grateful warmth in 
 almost coalless Paris. He, too, plied me with ques- 
 tions, but not as closely as others, about the land 
 I had left behind. He spoke of a great gift of money 
 made by James Stillman, a fund to help the families 
 of members of the Legion of Honour.
 
 A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 211 
 
 Poincare is a man of fifty-seven, wears a small 
 beard growing grey, and is a little under medium 
 height (of this country) and has much the manner 
 of an American lawyer. What a contrast those 
 polite, agreeable Frenchmen were to the stiff, formal, 
 overbearing Germans. There are " well born " Ger- 
 mans with charming international manners, and 
 the lower classes in Germany have kindly, natural 
 manners, but the manners of the minor members of 
 the merchant class and of the lesser officials is rude 
 to boorishness. 
 
 And here I want to say a word about the democracy 
 of my own countrymen. Before the war and during 
 it we entertained countless Americans in the Embassy ; 
 all sorts and under a variety of conditions, Jew and 
 Gentile, business men and students, travellers and 
 musicians. They carried themselves with ease, what- 
 ever the occasion. I was proud of them always and 
 of our system of education that had given them such 
 pleasant equality. 
 
 After my arrival in Berlin a magnificent darkey, 
 named George Washington Bronson, called in search 
 of a job. Over six feet four and well built, I thought 
 he would make an impressive appearance opening 
 carriage doors or taking hats in the hall. So I 
 engaged him. But he did not get on well with the 
 other servants, and his discharge followed. Great 
 consternation was caused shortly afterwards at our 
 Lincoln Day reception, when Mrs. Gerard and the 
 ladies of the Embassy were receiving the American 
 Colony, by the report that George Washington, 
 dressed up to the nines, accompanied by a coloured 
 friend, presenting the appearance of a new red buggy, 
 was on his way upstairs. I decided that on Lincoln's 
 birthday all were welcome ; so George Washington 
 
 p 2
 
 2i2 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 and his friend, resplendent, received the same greeting 
 accorded all Americans, and the manners of George 
 Washington excelled those of a Grand Duke. But 
 although one could see his mouth water, he did not 
 approach the table where our local Ruggles presided 
 over the refreshments. There was " that " about 
 Ruggles' eye which told George Washington he 
 would have to "go to the mat " before his former 
 superior officer would serve him with champagne. 
 
 The cold in Paris was bitter, biting into the very 
 bones, and all classes of the population suffered 
 intenselv from the lack of coal. In the theatres, for 
 instance, there was absolutely no heat. Theatrical 
 performances were permitted in each theatre three 
 times a week. Evening dress was prohibited. I 
 went to the Folies Bergeres, arriving so late that 
 the crowded house had warmed itself and it was 
 possible to stay until the end in spite of the want 
 of ventilation. 
 
 At one of the theatres I arrived early, but the 
 cold was so bitter that even sitting in fur overcoat 
 and with my hat on I was so chilled I had to leave 
 after twenty minutes. This play was a revue, the 
 actresses appearing in the scanty costumes peculiar 
 to that form of entertainment, but the cold was of 
 such intensity that they had added their street 
 furs, presenting a curiously comical effect. 
 
 I spoke to many of the soldiers in the streets. 
 All were animated by a new spirit in France, an 
 obstinate calm, a determination to see this thing 
 through, to end for ever the fear of Prussian invasion 
 which for so many years had impended. If any 
 sign of weakness was apparent it was among the 
 financiers ; not among the poor and the men of the 
 trenches.
 
 A GLIMPSE OF FRANCE 213 
 
 At the railway station I talked with a blue-clad 
 French soldier, calm, witty, but determined. He 
 said, " My family comes from the East of France, 
 my great-grandfather was killed by the Prussians 
 in 1814, my grandfather was shot in his garden by 
 the Prussians in 1870, my father died of grief, in 
 1916, because my two sisters in Lille fell into Prussian 
 hands and were taken as their slaves with all that 
 that means. I have decided that we must end this 
 horror once and for all, so that my children can 
 cultivate their little fields without this constant 
 haunting fear of the invading Prussian." 
 
 We left Paris on the evening train for the Spanish 
 border. Newspapermen taking flashlights and 
 " poilus " in uniform crowded the station platform 
 as the train with our still numerous party pulled 
 out. 
 
 How France has disappointed German expecta- 
 tions ! France to-day is not the France that calls 
 out " We are betrayed," and runs away after the 
 failure of its first assault. France to-day is a calm 
 France that seeks out its traitors and deliberately 
 punishes them, that organises with an efficiency 
 we once thought a Prussian monopoly, a France 
 that bleeds but fights on, a France that, standing 
 with its back to its beloved, sunny fields, with many 
 of her dearest sons dead, facing the Kaiser across 
 No Man's Land, cries boldly, bravely to the world, 
 the war cry of Verdun, " They shall not pass ! " 
 
 But even while war goes on, even while the French 
 poilus hold fast the long battle line, the French people 
 are beset within by agents of the Kaiser. Face to 
 face they are with the secret agents, the spies, the 
 informers, the buyers of newspapers and of public 
 men, the traffickers in honour who, behind French
 
 214 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 citizenship or neutral passports, seek to divide France, 
 to make the soldier at the front feel that he is betrayed 
 by traitors at home, to render the French distrustful 
 and suspicious of each other, and thus to strike as 
 mortal a blow at the French defence as was attempted 
 at Verdun. 
 
 Bolo Pasha and all his tribe slip past trench and 
 barbed wire and do more damage than a German 
 army corps to the cause of Liberty.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 MY INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF SPAIN 
 
 Neutrals — how obsolete the word seems ! Yet 
 there are some nations in Europe which will remain 
 neutral no matter how great the hardship. How 
 much this is due to inherent weaknesses of govern- 
 ment, fears that the people may acquire too much 
 of the infectious spirit of liberalism that war brings 
 and thereby overthrow Royalty, is hard to judge. 
 But I must say that Kaiserism has omitted no word 
 or act to impress upon the Royalty of those countries 
 which might otherwise be inclined to aid the Entente, 
 the advantages to them of keeping out of the war 
 unless they become allies of Germany. 
 
 You will meet Kaiserism in Spain and the other 
 neutral countries of Europe as much as you will in 
 Austria or Bulgaria or Turkey. I do not mean that 
 Spain, for instance, is by any means an ally of Ger- 
 many, but I do mean that the German propagandist 
 has had free rein. 
 
 I shall never forget the fact that the King of 
 Spain, during my talk with him, remarked : " Re- 
 member that while I am King of Spain I am also 
 an Austrian Archduke." 
 
 And not only is the King of Spain by descent and 
 in the right of his father an Archduke of Austria, 
 but his mother was an Austrian Princess of the 
 House of Hapsburg. Study, for the moment, the 
 
 816
 
 2 i6 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 genealogy of the King and Queen of Spain and you 
 will see how Royalty is interrelated in this war. 
 
 The Queen of Spain was brought up at the Court 
 of the late Queen Victoria of England and is a 
 Battenberg princess. In 1823, Alexander, Prince 
 of Hesse and the Rhine, took in morganatic marriage 
 a Countess von Hauke. He made her Countess of 
 Battenberg, and in 1858 she was given the title by the 
 ruler of Hesse of Princess Battenberg, her children 
 and their descendants to take the same title. One 
 of these Battenbergs, descendants of Countess von 
 Hauke, married Beatrice, daughter of Queen Victoria, 
 and the daughter of the marriage is the present Queen 
 of Spain, who just before her marriage to Alfonso 
 was created a Royal Highness by King Edward VII. 
 Queen Victoria Eugenie has become quite Spanish. 
 With a mantilla on her head, she attends bull fights 
 and is very popular. 
 
 The father of Alfonso XIII, Alfonso XII, was 
 very intimate with the German Court. In 1883 
 he visited the old Emperor William I in Germany 
 and accepted the colonelcy of a Uhlan regiment 
 then in garrison in Strassburg, one of the towns 
 taken from France in 1870. On his return journey 
 he stopped in Paris and was the object of a popular 
 demonstration so violent that the President of France 
 and his Ministers called in a body to apologise. 
 
 Shortly thereafter the Crown Prince (later Emperor) 
 Friedrich paid a visit to Spain and an intimacy was 
 maintained between the two Courts. 
 
 It is the inclination of those in the King business 
 to keep together and a tradition of Prussia that 
 fellow Kings must be sustained and, if possible, 
 maintained against democracy. That is why the 
 Kaiser finds reciprocal sympathy in Spain.
 
 INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF SPAIN 217 
 
 Our popular Ambassador, Mr. Willard, and his 
 staff, with a representative of the Spanish Foreign 
 Office, met us at the station at Madrid on my arrival 
 from Paris. 
 
 Madrid is a handsome city, comparatively modern. 
 From its highest point the great Royal Palace domi- 
 nates the capital and from the Palace the Royal 
 park stretches unbroken to the Guadarrama mountains 
 sixty miles away. 
 
 In many respects Spain seems a land upside down. 
 We arrived at Madrid just at the close of the Carnival 
 season. Masked balls began at three in the afternoon 
 and many theatres not until ten or even eleven at 
 night. Madrid sleeps late. The rich people get up 
 only in time for lunch. The streets are full of noise 
 and people until four in the morning, the sellers of 
 lottery tickets making special efforts to swell the 
 volume of night sounds. 
 
 My visit to the King of Spain was at eleven in 
 the morning. Ambassador Willard went with me. 
 As we entered the Palace and waited at the foot of 
 an elevator, the car descended and one of the little 
 Princes of Spain, about eight years old, dressed in a 
 sailor suit, stepped out. Evidently he had been 
 trained in Royal urbanity, for he immediately came 
 up to us, shook hands and said " Buenos dias." 
 
 And as we strolled down a long corridor where 
 Palace guards in high boots and cocked hats stood 
 guard with halberds in their hands, another little 
 Prince, about eleven, also in a sailor suit, came out 
 of a room and walked ahead of us ; behind followed 
 two nuns, walking side by side at a respectful dis- 
 tance. As he appeared in the corridor one of the 
 guards stamped his halberd on the floor, calling out 
 in Spanish, " Turn out the guard— the Infant of
 
 2i8 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Spain." And in the guard-room at the end of the 
 corridor the guards, forming in line, clashing their 
 arms, did honour to the baby Prince. 
 
 Ambassador Willard and I waited in the great, 
 splendid room of the Palace. Inside, priests and 
 officers, ladies, officials, diplomats were waiting to 
 present petitions or pay homage to their King. 
 Outside in the courtyard the guard was being 
 changed, infantry, cavalry and artillery all being 
 represented. A tuneful band played during the 
 ceremony of guard mount, which was witnessed by 
 crowds of poor folk who are permitted to enter the 
 Palace precincts as spectators. 
 
 While waiting I was presented to the Archbishop 
 of Toledo, head of the Spanish Church, resplendent 
 in his gorgeous ecclesiastical robes. Finally a Court 
 official came and said that I was to go in to the King 
 alone ; that Mr. Willard was to see him later. 
 
 I found King Alfonso in a small room about twenty 
 by fourteen feet. He wore a brown business suit, 
 a soft shirt and soft collar fastened by a gold safety 
 pin — quite the style of dress of an American collegian. 
 He is tall and well built. 
 
 The King speaks perfect English — without a trace 
 of accent. After we had talked a few moments, 
 I noted the difference between Teuton and Latin, 
 the vast abyss which separates the polite and courteous 
 Spaniard, thinking of others, anxious to be hospitable, 
 and the rough, conceited, aggressive Junker of Germany. 
 How often have I found that we ourselves, although 
 good-hearted and easygoing, in comparison with our 
 friends in South and Central America, do not measure 
 up to the standards of Castilian courtesy. 
 
 Some one knocked at the door and King Alfonso 
 rose and answered. He returned with odd-looking
 
 INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF SPAIN 219 
 
 implements in his hands which I soon discovered to be 
 an enormous silver cocktail shaker and two goblets. 
 After a dexterous shake, the King poured out two 
 large cocktails, saying, " I understand that you 
 American gentlemen always drink in the morning." 
 
 I had not had a cocktail for years, and if I had 
 endeavoured to assimilate the drink so royally pre- 
 pared for me I should have been in no condition 
 to continue the conversation. I think King Alfonso 
 himself was quite relieved when, after a sip, I put 
 my cocktail behind a statue. I noticed that he 
 camouflaged his in a similar manner. 
 
 Unfortunately, as Maximilian Harden said, the 
 Germans think of us as a land of dollars, trusts and 
 corruption ; and other nations think of us as devotees 
 of the cocktail and of poker. Their schoolboys 
 dream of fighting Indians in Pittsburg and hunting 
 buffalo in the deserts of the Bronx. 
 
 The characteristic of Alfonso which impresses one 
 immediately is that of extreme manliness. He has 
 a sense of humour that will save him from many 
 a mishap in his difficult post. He has a wide 
 knowledge of men and affairs, and above all, as the 
 Spaniards would put it, is muy espanol (very 
 Spanish), not only in appearance, but in his way 
 of looking at things, a Spaniard of the best type, 
 a Spaniard possessing industry and ambition and 
 bravery, a Spaniard, in fact, of the days when Spain 
 was supreme in the world. His favourite sport is 
 polo, which he plays very well. Indeed, the game, 
 which requires dash, quickness of thought, nerve and 
 good riding, is particularly suited to the Spanish 
 character. The King showed at the time of the 
 anarchistic outbreaks that he was a brave man. 
 Yet he must be careful at all times to remember
 
 220 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 that he is a constitutional King, that in a country 
 like Spain leadership is dangerous, that he should 
 always rather stand aside, let the representatives 
 of the nation decide, thus taking no definite position 
 himself. A King who abandons the council table 
 to shoot pigeons or play polo is often acting with far 
 more wisdom than a constitutional ruler who attempts 
 by the use of his strong personality and lofty position 
 to force upon his councillors a course which the 
 majority of them do not recommend. 
 
 The Spaniards are politically an exacting people. 
 But it is to be hoped that they will not turn the 
 heavy artillery of their criticism upon a King who 
 serves them so gracefully and well. 
 
 The King has a natural desire to take a prominent 
 part in the negotiations for peace, but here again is 
 dangerous ground for him. He should be given a part, 
 if possible, in the preliminaries of peace, but while I 
 believe that he sympathises with one of the Entente 
 countries, the Allies are forced to recognise the fact of 
 which he himself reminded me, that he is not only 
 King of Spain, but Archduke of one of the Central 
 Empires, the son of an Austrian Archduchess. 
 
 The King told me that he was most desirous that 
 American capital should become interested in the 
 development of Spain. He did not tell me the 
 reason for this desire, but perhaps he fears that, if 
 German capital should take a great part in the 
 development of industrial Spain, the tentacles of 
 the German propaganda and spy system which go 
 hand in hand with her commercial invaders would 
 wrap themselves around the commercial, social, and 
 political life of Spain. 
 
 Perhaps King Alfonso, when he wishes capital 
 other than German to become interested in Spain,
 
 INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF SPAIN 221 
 
 is thinking of the occurrences of 1885, when Spain 
 and Germany so nearly clashed. In that year the 
 crew of a German warship hoisted the flag of the 
 German Empire on the island of Yap, one of the 
 Carolina group, an island long claimed by Spain. 
 The act so stirred the people of Spain that a great 
 meeting was held in Madrid, attended by over one 
 hundred thousand people. Later the mob attacked 
 the German Embassy and Consulate, tore down the 
 shield and flagstaff of the Consulate and burned 
 them in the principal square of Madrid. In the end, 
 Spain was compelled to humbly apologise to Germany 
 for the insult to the German Ambassador. 
 
 Some years before the war the King sent to this 
 country a special emissary to interest American 
 capital in Spain. Means of transportation are very 
 meagre. Great mineral districts are as yet un- 
 developed and many other opportunities for foreign 
 capital present themselves. 
 
 I asked the Spaniards why Spain was not developed 
 by Spanish capital, and they told me that the rich 
 put all their money in Government bonds and lived 
 as gaily as possible on the interest. 
 
 Our own Government, whether Democratic or 
 Republican, must always be careful to see that taxes 
 are not so high as to prevent the naturally enter- 
 prising American from risking part of his capital 
 in new ventures, and such protection must be given 
 to American citizens that they will continue to try 
 their luck at business in foreign countries, for the 
 immediate benefit, of course, of themselves, but also 
 for the commercial supremacy of the United States. 
 
 The American who goes to Mexico and there 
 develops a railroad or a plantation, a commercial 
 business, a bank or a mine, is not only adding to the
 
 222 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 wealth of Mexico, but any money which he makes, 
 after paying his due share of taxes there, is brought 
 back by him to the United States, is subject to 
 taxation, and by just so much not only lightens the 
 tax burden of other Americans, but adds to the power 
 in trade of the whole country. 
 
 A business man who is taxed too much on any 
 profits that he makes will, like the Spaniard, invest 
 his capital in Government bonds. He will stop 
 taking up new enterprises because if he loses no one 
 compensates him for his loss, while if he wins most 
 of his profit is taken in taxes by the State. 
 
 I do not think that the Spanish harbour any spirit 
 of revenge against us because of the events of the 
 Spanish-American War. There was nothing in that 
 war to arouse particular resentment. No one used 
 poison gas, or enslaved women or cut off the hands 
 of babies. In fact, on our side, at least, there was 
 an intense admiration for the splendid, chivalrous 
 bravery of our enemies. Spain was, in reality, 
 benefited by the loss of Cuba and the Philippines ; 
 indeed, they were practically lost to her before we 
 entered the war. Thinking Spaniards believe the 
 war with America benefited Spain ; and the lower 
 classes rejoice because their sons and husbands are 
 not forced to serve in the Spanish Army in the fever- 
 laden swamps of the tropics. 
 
 On the war Spain is hopelessly divided : Conserva- 
 tive against Conservative ; Liberal against Liberal. 
 The usual German propaganda is furiously at work, 
 all the paraphernalia, bought newspapers — bribes. 
 Roman Catholic prejudice against former French 
 Governments is a great stumbling-block in the way 
 of the Allies in Spain, for that country became the 
 refuge of many orders and priests driven from France. 
 Many of the Spanish Catholics still resent the action
 
 INTERVIEW WITH THE KING OF SPAIN 223 
 
 of previous French Governments towards the Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 But whatever may be the faults of the French 
 Government in this particular — whether it or the 
 teaching orders went too far — the Roman Catholics 
 of Spain sooner or later will realise that, after all, 
 the bulk of the French and Italian and Belgian 
 people are their co-religionists, and they will recall 
 the attempts of Bismarck to master the Roman 
 Catholics of Germany and to bind its priests to the 
 will of the Imperial Government, attempts recent 
 enough to keep the Catholics of Germany still or- 
 ganised in the political party which they created in 
 the dark days of Bismarck's " War for Civilisation," 
 as he dared call his contest with the great Roman 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 Spanish and other Catholics throughout the world 
 will remember this and will remember, too, that from 
 every valley of the Protestant section of the German 
 Empire the eye can see a " Bismarck Thurm," or 
 Bismarck Memorial Tower, erected on some com- 
 manding height by the admirers of the dead Iron 
 Chancellor. 
 
 I believe that after the war the Roman Catholic 
 Church in France and Belgium will be on a healthier, 
 sounder basis, that it will have more and more in- 
 fluence with the people, that it will be more popular 
 and respected than before, unless some act on the 
 part of the Pope should lead the French and Belgians 
 to believe that he favours Germany. Priests are 
 not exempt from military service in France, and 
 these abbes, fighting, dying, suffering wounds and 
 privation, working cheek to cheek with the soldiers 
 of France, will do much to bring about the change. 
 I met a number of these priest-warriors in the prison 
 camps of Germany. They are doing a great work
 
 224 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 and have earned the respect and love of their country- 
 men — their fellow prisoners. 
 
 Several of these soldier abb&s were prisoners in 
 Dyrotz, near Berlin, and I remember how they 
 were looked up to by all the soldiers. What a 
 consolation were these noble warriors who fought a 
 twofold winning fight — for their country and their faith. 
 
 Spain has suffered much from the war. In the 
 north-east part called Catalonia are located the 
 manufacturing industries of Spain, cloth weaving, 
 cotton spinning, etc. In Barcelona, the principal 
 industrial town, are many manufacturing industries. 
 If these plants cannot obtain raw materials or a 
 market for their finished products, then industrial 
 depression ensues and thousands are thrown out of 
 employment. 
 
 So in the north, where iron ore is produced, the 
 submarine blockade of England, chief buyer of iron 
 ore and the seller of coal, has made itself felt in 
 every province ; and in the south, the land of sun 
 and gipsies, oranges and vines, the want of sea and 
 land transportation, the diminished exports of wine 
 and fruits to other countries, have brought many of 
 the inhabitants to the verge of ruin. 
 
 In the coast cities sailors and longshoremen are out 
 of employment, and this condition — these hundreds 
 of thousands without work through disturbance of 
 industry — has ripened the field for the German 
 propagandist and agent who threatens the King 
 with revolution should he incline to the Allies. 
 
 In no country of the world has the German agent 
 been so bold, and no neutral Government has been 
 more forcibly reminded in its policy and conduct 
 of the fact that it is always face to face with 
 Kaiserism.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 GERMAN SPIES AND THEIR METHODS 
 
 German spies who looked like " movie " detectives 
 hung about and followed us on the journey from 
 Berlin to Switzerland, France and Spain. There were 
 even suspicious characters among the Americans 
 with German accent who came on our special train 
 from Germany to Switzerland. 
 
 Berne is now the champion spy centre of the 
 world. Switzerland, a neutral country, bordering on 
 Germany, France, Italy and Austria, is the happy 
 hunting ground and outfitting point for myriads 
 of spies employed by the nations at war. The 
 Germans, however, use more spies than all the other 
 nations together. 
 
 Bismarck said that there are male nations and 
 female nations, and that Germany was a male nation — 
 certainly the German has less of that heaven-sent 
 feminine quality of intuition than other peoples. 
 The autocrat, never mingling with the plain 
 people of all walks of life, finds the spy a 
 necessity. 
 
 Spy spies on spy — autocracy produces bureaucracy 
 where men rise and fall not by the votes of their 
 
 Q
 
 226 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 fellow citizens, but by backstairs intrigue. The 
 German office-holder fears the spies of his rivals. 
 I often said to Germans holding high office during 
 the war, " This strain is breaking you down — all 
 day in your office. Take an afternoon off and come 
 shooting with me." The invariable answer was, 
 " I cannot — the others would learn it from their 
 spies and would spread the report that I neglected 
 business ! " 
 
 While in Spain I met the then Premier, Count 
 Romanones, a man of great talent and impressive 
 personality. He told me of the finding of a quantity 
 of high explosives, marked by a little buoy, in one 
 of the secluded bays of the coast. And that day a 
 German had been arrested who had mysteriously 
 appeared at a Spanish port dressed as a workman. 
 The workman took a first-class passage to Madrid, 
 went to the best hotel, and bought a complete 
 outfit of fine clothes. Undoubtedly the high 
 explosive as well as the mysterious German 
 had been landed from a German submarine. 
 Whether the explosive was destined as a depot for 
 submarines or was to help overturn the Spanish 
 Government was hard to guess, but Count Roma- 
 nones was worried over the activity of the German 
 agents in Spain. 
 
 It has been very easy for German agents in 
 America to communicate with Germany through this 
 submarine post from Spain to Germany, the letters 
 from America being sent to Cuba and thence on 
 Spanish boats to Spain. 
 
 At all times since the war the Germans have had 
 a submarine post running direct from Germany to 
 Spain. Shortly after our arrival in Spain, Mrs. 
 Gerard received mysteriously a letter written by a
 
 GERMAN SPIES AND THEIR METHODS 227 
 
 friend of hers, a German Baroness, in Berlin. This 
 letter had undoubtedly been sent through the very 
 efficient German spy system. 
 
 Some time in 1915 a German soldier, in uniform, 
 speaking perfect English, called one day at the 
 Embassy. He said that his name was Bode and 
 that he had at one time worked for my father-in-law, 
 the late Marcus Daly. Of course we had no means 
 of verifying his statements, and Mrs. Gerard did 
 not remember anyone of that name or recall Bode 
 personally. He said that he was fighting on the East 
 front and that he had a temporary leave of absence. 
 I gave him some money and later we sent him packages 
 of food and tobacco to the Front, but never received 
 any acknowledgment. 
 
 In Madrid one of my assistants, Frank Hall, while 
 walking through the street, ran across Bode, who 
 was fashionably attired. His calling cards stated 
 that he was a mining engineer from Los Angeles, 
 California. He told Hall a most extraordinary fairy 
 story, saying that he had been captured by the 
 Russians on the East front and sent to Siberia, that 
 from Siberia he had escaped to China, and from there 
 he had gradually worked his way back to America 
 and thence to Spain. 
 
 Of course, without any definite information on the 
 subject it is impossible to say exactly what he was 
 doing in Spain. But I am sure that it is far more 
 likely he had landed from a German submarine on 
 the coast of Spain and that he was posing as 
 an American mining engineer for a particular 
 purpose. 
 
 I told certain people in Spain about Bode and of 
 his intention to visit the mining districts of Spain 
 where numbers of men are employed. Bode must 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 have suspected that I had given information 
 about him, for Hall and I received several post- 
 cards of a threatening character, evidently from 
 him. 
 
 My cables to and from the State Department passed 
 through our Legation at Copenhagen, and, of course, 
 if the Germans knew our cipher these messages were 
 read by them. On special occasions I made use of 
 a super-cipher, the key to which I kept in a safe in 
 my bedroom and which only one secretary could use. 
 The files of cipher cables sent and received were 
 kept in a large safe in the Embassy. But before 
 leaving Germany, knowing the Germans as I did, 
 and particularly what they had done in other countries 
 and to other diplomats, knowing how easy it would 
 be for them to burglarise the safe after we left, when 
 the Spaniards and Dutch were out of the building 
 at night, I tossed all these despatches as well as the 
 code books into a big furnace fire. Commander 
 Gherardi and Secretary Hugh Wilson stood by and 
 personally saw that the last scrap was burned. Of 
 course copies of all the cables are in the State Depart- 
 ment. 
 
 German spies are adepts at opening bags, steaming 
 letters — all the old tricks. The easiest way to baffle 
 them is to write nothing that cannot be published 
 to the world. 
 
 For a long time after the beginning of war I was 
 too busy to write the weekly report of official gossip 
 usually sent home by diplomats. I suppose the 
 Germans searched our courier bags for such a report 
 vainly. Anyway, its absence finally got on the 
 nerves of Zimmermann so much that one day he 
 blurted out, " Don't you ever write reports to your 
 Government ? "
 
 GERMAN SPIES AND THEIR METHODS 229 
 Sealed letters are opened by spies as follows : 
 
 by inserting a pencil or small round object in the 
 envelopes, steamed a little, if necessary ; the envelope 
 is opened at the end flap and the contents pulled 
 out without disturbing the seal — the contents are 
 then read, put in their place again, the end flap re- 
 inserted, a little gum used, and the envelope is as 
 intact as before. 
 
 The only safe way to seal an envelope is thus : 
 
 Even then a clever spy can open the letter, read 
 the contents and seal it again. This is done by cutting 
 through the seals with a hot razor — the divided 
 seals are then united by pressing the hot razor against 
 each side of the cut and then pressing the two parts 
 of the cut seal together. This is, however, a very 
 delicate operation and doesn't always work.
 
 230 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 From the outbreak of war we sent and received 
 our official mail through England, and couriers 
 carried it between Berlin and London through Holland 
 via Flushing and Tilbury. 
 
 On account of the great volume of correspondence 
 between Ambassador Page and myself on the affairs 
 of German prisoners in England and English prisoners 
 in Germany, there were many pouches every week. 
 These were leather mail bags opened only by duplicate 
 keys kept in London and Berlin, and, for the American 
 mail, in Berlin and Washington. Our couriers did 
 their best to keep the numerous bags in their sight 
 during the long journey, but on many occasions our 
 couriers were separated, I am sure with malicious 
 purpose, from their bags by the German railway 
 authorities, and on some occasions the bags were 
 not recovered for days. 
 
 Undoubtedly at this time the Germans opened 
 and looked over the contents of the bags. Later 
 in the war our courier, while on a Dutch mail boat 
 running between Flushing and England, was twice 
 captured with the boat by a German warship and 
 taken into Zeebrugge. Undoubtedly here, too, the 
 bags were secretly opened and our uncoded despatches 
 and letters read. 
 
 German spies were most annoying in Havana, and 
 one of them, a large dark man, followed me about 
 at a distance of only six feet, with his eyes glued 
 on the small bag which I carried from a thick strap 
 hanging around my shoulder. I brought it from 
 Germany in that way. I never let it out of my 
 hands or sight. 
 
 What was in that bag ? Among other things were 
 the original telegrams written by the Kaiser in his 
 own handwriting, facsimiles of which appear in my
 
 GERMAN SPIES AND THEIR METHODS 231 
 
 earlier book, "My Four Years in Germany," the 
 treaty which the Germans tried to get me to sign 
 while they held me as a prisoner. Under the terms 
 they proposed the German ships interned in America 
 were to have the right, in case of war, to sail for 
 Germany under a safe-conduct to be obtained from 
 the Allies by the United States. Somewhat of a 
 treaty ! And quite a new, bright and original 
 thought by someone in the Foreign Office or German 
 Admiralty. There were also in this mysterious 
 bag many other matters of interest that may some 
 day see the light. 
 
 Poisonous propaganda and spying are the twin 
 offspring of Kaiserism. 
 
 There is in Mexico, for instance, one force that 
 never sleeps — the German propaganda. It is the 
 same method as that used by the Teutons in every 
 country, the purchase or rental of newspaper proper- 
 ties, bribing public men and officers of the Army, 
 and the insidious use of Germans who are engaged in 
 commerce. This propaganda is backed by enormous 
 sums of money appropriated by the German Govern- 
 ment, which directs how all its officers and agents, 
 high and low, shall participate in the campaign. 
 
 In the long run a paid propaganda always fails. 
 It is like paying money to blackmailers. The black- 
 mailer who has once received money becomes so 
 insatiable that even the Bank of England will not 
 satisfy him in the end. Sometimes the newspapers 
 which are not bought, but are equally corrupt, 
 become vehement in their denunciation of the country 
 making the propaganda in the hope of being bought 
 and in the hope that their bribe money will be in 
 proportion to their hostility. Corrupted public men
 
 232 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 who are not bribed often become sternly virtuous 
 and denunciatory with a similar hope. Those who 
 have received the wages of shame, on the other hand, 
 become more insistent in their demands, crying 
 " Give, give ! " like the daughter of the horse-leech. 
 
 The blows of war must be struck quickly. Delays 
 are dangerous and the temporary paralysis of one 
 country by propaganda may mean the loss of the 
 war. The United States has been at a great disad- 
 vantage because our officials have not had the 
 authority, the means, or the money to fight the 
 German propaganda with effective educational cam- 
 paigns, both offensive and defensive. 
 
 Bernstorff in this country disposed of enormous 
 sums for the purpose of moulding American public 
 opinion. I, in Berlin, was without one cent with 
 which to place America's side before the German 
 people. It is a conflict of two systems. In Berlin 
 I did not even have money to pay private detectives, 
 and on the rare occasions when I used them, as, for 
 instance, to find out who was connected with the 
 so-called American organisation, the League of Truth, 
 which was engaged in a violent propaganda against 
 America inside Germany, I was obliged to bear the 
 expense personally. 
 
 South of the Rio Grande the Germans are working 
 against us, doing their best to prejudice the Mexicans 
 against the United States, playing upon old hatreds 
 and creating new ones, and, in the meantime, by 
 their purchase of properties and of mines creating 
 a situation that will constitute for us in the future 
 a most difficult and dangerous problem. 
 
 The Germans cannot understand why we do not 
 take advantage of conditions in Mexico in order 
 to conquer and hold that unfortunate country.
 
 GERMAN SPIES AND THEIR METHODS 233 
 
 They could not believe that we were actuated by 
 a spirit of idealism and that we were patiently 
 suffering much in order really to help Mexico. 
 They could not believe that we were waiting in order 
 to convince not only Mexico but the other States 
 of Central America and the great friendly republics 
 of South America that it was not our policy to use 
 the dissensions and weakness of our neighbours to 
 gain territory. 
 
 On one occasion before the war I and several 
 other Ambassadors were dining with the Kaiser, 
 and after dinner the conversation turned to the 
 strange sights to be seen in America. One of the 
 Ambassadors, I think it was Cambon, said that he 
 had seen in America whole houses being moved 
 along the roads, something of a novelty to European 
 eyes, where the houses, constructed of brick and 
 stone, cannot be transported from place to place 
 like our wooden frame house. The Emperor jokingly 
 remarked : " Yes, I am sure that the Americans are 
 moving their houses. They are moving them down 
 towards the Mexican border."
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 EN ROUTE HOME-KAISERISM IN AMERICA 
 
 Our party was so numerous that we were compelled 
 to charter a special train to take us from Madrid 
 to La Corufia, the port in the extreme north-western 
 corner of Spain from which the Infanta Isabella was 
 to sail. 
 
 Just before the train started, a Spanish gentleman 
 from the Foreign Office, who had courteously come 
 to see us off, said to me, " Do you know you have a 
 Duke as engineer ? The Duke of Saragossa is 
 going to take out your train." So we ran forward 
 to the engine and I shook hands with the Duke, who 
 was in blue overalls. 
 
 This Duke of Saragossa, Grandee of Spain, often 
 drives the engine of the King's train. Why he 
 engineered our train I do not know, unless it was 
 because of the rumours that German agents would 
 try to stop my journey home. 
 
 At any rate the Duke proved a most competent 
 engineer, guiding us with velvet touch through the 
 steep inclines and sharp turns of the Guadarrama 
 mountains. At Venta de Banos his turn at the 
 engine ended and on my invitation he came to dine 
 with us in the dining car. He proved a most charm- 
 ing gentleman, speaking English well. He said that 
 his great ambition was to visit America and see 
 the big locomotives and the pretty girls. At dinner 
 
 234
 
 KAISERISM IN AMERICA 235 
 
 he was, of course, dressed in his overalls and carried 
 out the professional touch by using clean cotton 
 waste instead of a pocket handkerchief. 
 
 Arrived at La Coruna in the morning, carriages 
 sent by the Spanish Government met us and the 
 Mayor and the other officials were most polite. The 
 Mayor accompanied us on board ship next day, 
 giving to Mrs. Gerard a beautiful basket of flowers 
 entwined with ribbons of the colours of the city of 
 La Coruna. 
 
 We found the Infanta Isabella a clean, splendid 
 ship — her captain competent and kind. I cheerfully 
 recommend her to any who wish a safe voyage 
 across the Atlantic during the war. 
 
 My stay in Havana was brief and I was soon en 
 route northward from Key West. 
 
 As our train came north through Florida there 
 were crowds and bands at the stations, and at St. 
 Augustine my eyes were delighted by the sight of 
 Frank Munsey and ex-Senator Chauncey Depew. 
 
 At the station in Washington Secretary McAdoo 
 met me. What a splendid record of achievement is 
 his since the war, and now, with the burden of all 
 the railways in the country added to that of finance, 
 I suppose in no country at war has one man so 
 successfully undertaken such gigantic tasks. 
 
 President Wilson was ill in bed, but next day got 
 up on purpose to hear my report. I was with him 
 for over an hour. 
 
 The following day I arrived in New York, being 
 met in Jersey City by a committee headed by the 
 celebrated lawyer, John B. Stanchfield, Clarence 
 Mackay, Herbert Swope (whose splendid articles in 
 the New York World were the first warnings to America 
 and other countries respecting the ruthless submarine
 
 236 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 warfare) ; United States Marshal Thomas D. McCarthy, 
 State Senator Foley, James J. Hoey — a faithful 
 trio of good friends who saw me off for Denmark 
 only a few months before. I was escorted to the 
 City Hall, where I was welcomed by the Mayor. In a 
 speech on the steps of the City Hall I said : 
 
 " We are standing to-day very near the brink of war, but I want 
 to assure you that if we should be drawn into the conflict it will be 
 only after our President has exhausted every means consistent 
 with upholding the honour and dignity of the United States to keep 
 us from war. I left Berlin with a clear conscience, because I felt 
 that during all my stay there I had omitted nothing to make for 
 friendly relations and peace between the two nations. 
 
 " I am very glad to-day to see on the list of this Reception Com- 
 mittee the names of people of German descent. It is but natural 
 that citizens of German descent in the beginning of the war should 
 have had a sentimental feeling toward Germany, that they should 
 have looked back through rose-coloured glasses on that land which, 
 however, they left because they did not have equality of opportunity. 
 We read to-day in the newspapers for the first time that there is a 
 prospect that after the war the Germans will be given an equal 
 share in their own government. I believe that in our hour of trial 
 we can rely upon the loyalty of our citizens of German descent, and 
 if they would follow me I would not be afraid to go out with a regi- 
 ment of them and without any fear of being shot from behind. 
 
 " The nation that stands opposite to us to-day has probably 
 no less than 12,000,000 men under arms. I have seen the Germans 
 take more prisoners in one afternoon than there are men in the 
 entire United States Army. 
 
 " Does it not seem to you ridiculous that the two States of New 
 York and New Jersey should have more chauffeurs in them than 
 there are soldiers in our army ? My companions from the Twelfth 
 Regiment that have honoured me by coming here to-day, and more 
 men like them throughout the country, have done what they can. 
 But they can't do it all. There must be a public sentiment if we 
 are to maintain ourselves as a nation. If we had a million men 
 under arms to-day we should not be near the edge of war. 
 
 " Gentlemen, I have tried in Berlin to be, as the Mayor has told
 
 KAISERISM IN AMERICA 237 
 
 you, an American Ambassador, and I thank you because you, an 
 audience of patriotic Americans, by your presence here set your seal of 
 approval upon my conduct during the last two and a half years." 
 
 I have never been able to understand why so 
 many people did not sooner realise what Kaiserism 
 meant for us. But now, at last, the nation under- 
 stands that we must fight on until this menace of 
 military autocracy has vanished and that not until 
 then will the world enjoy a lasting peace. 
 
 Almost as soon as I was settled in New York I 
 was drafted. Drafted by a public curiosity which 
 insisted on knowing something about Germany and 
 the war. 
 
 And so for me began a new life— that of a public 
 speaker. I spoke first in New York at a lunch at the 
 Chamber of Commerce — war had not then been 
 declared and I was compelled to be careful — for 
 even then there seemed a fear of Germany, a foolish 
 desire to surrender all manhood to a fat neutrality. 
 
 On April 2 came President Wilson's Message 
 demanding war. I was in the Opera House that 
 night. Between the acts extras appeared. I tele- 
 phoned Swope of the World, who confirmed the news. 
 While I was receiving this information one of the 
 directors of the Metropolitan Opera Company came 
 in the room. I told him what had happened and 
 asked if he was not going to do something— order 
 the news read from the stage, for example, and 
 "The Star-spangled Banner/' played. He said, 
 " No, the opera company is neutral." 
 
 I returned to the box where I was sitting and 
 stepping to the front called on the house to cheer 
 President Wilson. There was, for a moment, sur- 
 prise at such unconventional action, but the whole 
 house soon broke into cheers.
 
 238 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Conventionalism was gone. 
 
 The opera was De Koven's " Canterbury Pilgrims," 
 and a few minutes after the curtain rose on the last 
 act Frau Ober, a German singer, who was taking 
 one of the principal parts, keeled over in a faint — 
 rage, perhaps, that the Yankees were at last daring 
 to cheer, to assert themselves against the Kaiser ! 
 
 As I spoke in Albany, Buffalo, Harrisburg, Trenton 
 and Boston, in Philadelphia, Providence and many 
 times in New York and other places, I noted always 
 an eagerness to learn about Germany, the war and 
 foreign affairs. We Americans had travelled, but 
 not with our eyes open — " seeing, we saw not." 
 
 The first great, great question we faced was that 
 of universal service for the war, or the selective 
 draft — again how farsighted our President then proved 
 himself. What would be our situation now if we 
 had tried to go to war under the volunteer system? 
 This question once solved, our President led us with 
 a breadth of vision, an efficiency, and on a scale 
 commensurate with the size of the undertaking in 
 which we at last had become partners. 
 
 Perhaps we are a little over-indulgent, however, 
 in the treatment of the German enemy alien within 
 our gates. No American singer or musician could 
 travel about Germany at will, unwatched by the 
 police, collecting money from Americans to be used 
 in propaganda, or things much worse, against America. 
 Americans in Germany are compelled to report twice 
 daily to the police and cannot leave their homes at 
 night. November 17, 1917 — seven months after we 
 went to war with Germany — I met Hugo Schmidt, 
 a director of the Deutsche Bank, riding in Central 
 Park. He lived at the German Club, saw whom he 
 liked and only reported to the police when he changed
 
 KAISERISM IN AMERICA 239 
 
 his residence. In January, 1918, he was finally 
 interned. 
 
 Long before our break with Germany, American 
 consuls and officials were insulted in the street and 
 in opera houses because they made use of their own 
 language, not at all because they were taken for 
 British, for everyone knew that all British had been 
 interned. 
 
 The wife of our naval attache attended a reception 
 presided over by a German admiral's wife. She 
 was presented to this high personage by the wife 
 of a German naval officer, who, in making the presen- 
 tation, spoke in English. The admiral's wife rebuked 
 both the wife of our attache and the officer's wife 
 for daring to talk English. I am thankful to say 
 that Mrs. Gherardi immediately left the house to 
 receive later the officially ordered apologies of the 
 admiral's wife. 
 
 And while Americans did not dare use their own 
 language in Berlin in time of peace between the 
 two countries, yet after the outbreak of war, news- 
 papers in the United States, printed in German, 
 owned by Germans and German sympathisers, dared 
 to attack America and her President. 
 
 The autocracy always hope to divide us, to make 
 of us a Russia, torn by Maximalists and Minimalists, 
 by Militarists and Bolsheviki, and, consequently, 
 impotent for war. 
 
 In travelling through the United States in August 
 and September of 1917, although I was on private 
 business, I made speeches in many cities, such as 
 Minneapolis, and Helena, Billings, Butte and Mis- 
 soula in Montana, Spokane, Seattle and Tacoma in 
 Washington, Portland, Oregon, San Francisco and 
 surrounding country, Los Angeles, San Diego and
 
 2 4 o FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Pasadena and then Milwaukee, Chicago and Cleve- 
 land. In all this territory I found great enthusiasm, 
 great patriotism and a sincere desire to learn about 
 Germany and the war. But I found everywhere 
 also the trail of Germany's poisonous propaganda. 
 
 The great majority of our citizens of German- 
 American descent have been splendidly loyal to their 
 country in this crisis of its history. But the fact 
 must be faced that there are those who, for some 
 unknown reason, still sympathise with the German 
 Kaiser in his war of aggression. 
 
 More unfortunately there are politicians in America 
 who seek the votes of those disaffected, and approach 
 treason in doing so. In all the history of sordid 
 politics, there is nothing more nauseating than the 
 effort of these cheap politicians thus to gratify their 
 personal ambitions. 
 
 Their shameful identity is known to all. A 
 generation from now their own descendants will be 
 applying to the courts for a change of name. 
 
 If, when the test comes, it is found that the votes 
 of these disaffected citizens count for something in 
 our elections, we must find some means to disen- 
 franchise them rather than have our low politicians 
 outbidding each other within the law in order to get 
 these votes. 
 
 Have we not had examples enough from Russia 
 of what the slimy bribe and the snaky propaganda 
 can do ? 
 
 In Chicago, where one Thompson is Mayor, there 
 is a censorship of moving picture films. The chief 
 censor is Major Funkhouser. When I was in Los 
 Angeles, at the end of September, like all strangers 
 there, I visited movie-land to see the pictures made. 
 
 At the house of my college chum, Dr. Walter
 
 KAISERISM IN AMERICA 241 
 
 J. Barlow, I met the beautiful and celebrated Mary 
 Pickford. 
 
 In conversation she told me about Major Funk- 
 houser, and how he had refused an exhibition permit 
 for one of her films called " The Little American." 
 Curious to see the film rejected by Chicago officialdom, 
 I asked Miss Pickford if she would have it run off 
 for my benefit. I could see nothing in the film 
 that could hurt the susceptibilities of any except 
 the Germans with whom we are now engaged in 
 war ! 
 
 Later the Fox Film Company informed me that 
 their film called " The Spy," and which deals with 
 the adventures of an American who is supposed to 
 go to Germany to get a list of German spies and agents 
 in America, was refused the right of exhibition in 
 Chicago by this same Major Funkhouser. In this 
 case the Fox Company appealed in the Courts and 
 obtained from Judge Alschuler an injunction pre- 
 venting anyone from interfering with the exhibition 
 of this film. The decision of Judge Alschuler was 
 affirmed on appeal. 
 
 And yet the mass of the people in Chicago are 
 splendidly patriotic, as the record of Chicago for 
 enlistment and Red Cross and Liberty Loan shows. 
 
 When I spoke in the great Medinah Temple, under 
 the auspices of the Hamilton Club, on October 22, 
 I was able to show to the audience two German 
 text-books used in the Chicago public schools, stamped 
 with the Royal Arms of Prussia. The books had been 
 approved by Ella Flagg Young, Superintendent of 
 Schools, in 1914. 
 
 These books were furnished me by my friend 
 Anthony Czarnecki of the Chicago Daily News, whom 
 I first met in Berlin, where he came to do most ex- 
 it
 
 242 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 cellent work for his paper. In one of these books is 
 printed the German patriotic song, " The Watch on 
 the Rhine " (" Die Wacht am Rhein "). What a 
 howl there would have been if some public school 
 superintendent had selected for the schools under 
 her jurisdiction a text-book of English literature with 
 the Royal Arms of England stamped on the cover and 
 " Rule Britannia " prominently displayed inside ! 
 
 These text-books were cleverly compiled to impress 
 children at a youthful age with a favourable idea of 
 kings and emperors. In one of these was an anecdote 
 about Frederick the Great and a miller, and in 
 another, one about the Emperor Charlemagne and 
 the scholar, of course making Frederick and Charle- 
 magne appear as good kindly people, and giving the 
 impression that all kings and emperors are beneficent 
 beings. But no word is there in these books quoting 
 the present German Emperor's statement in which 
 he puts Frederick in the same class as the four other 
 bloody conquerors of history, Alexander, Julius Caesar, 
 Theodoric, and Napoleon, and says that where they 
 failed in their dreams of world conquest his mailed 
 fist will succeed. Why was not Frederick the Great's 
 statement printed in these books, his admission that 
 he engaged upon the Seven Years' War " in order to 
 be talked about " ? 
 
 These books contained quotations from Goethe. 
 Why did they not contain Goethe's statement, 
 " Amerika, du hast es besser " (" America, you are 
 better off ") ? Or his prophecy about the Prussians : 
 " The Prussian was born a brute, and civilisation 
 will make him ferocious." 
 
 The only foreign language taught in the grammar 
 schools of Chicago is German. Parents are compelled 
 to sign a statement in which they answer the question
 
 KAISERISM IN AMERICA 243 
 
 as to whether they wish their children to be taught 
 German or not. 
 
 See how subtle this is ! Doubtless if a Teuton 
 parent answers that he does not desire to have his 
 children taught German, the paid agents of the 
 German propaganda stir up feeling against these 
 Germans who have dared to refuse to have their 
 children taught the language of the Fatherland. 
 
 And when a parent has once elected that his 
 children shall be taught German, not the principal of 
 the school, not the district superintendent, but only 
 the head of all the Chicago school system, on the 
 application of the parent, can excuse the child, during 
 his or her school course, from further study of German. 
 
 Worst of all, however, is the Chicago official school 
 speller, a book printed under the direction and com- 
 piled by the school authorities of Chicago. In this 
 speller there is just one piece of reading matter, 
 and that a fulsome eulogy of the present German 
 Emperor. 
 
 This is an account of an alleged incident of the 
 Kaiser's schooldays, and the author concludes that 
 the facts set forth (probably untrue) show that the 
 Kaiser as a boy had the " root of a fine character in 
 him," possessed " that chivalrous sense of fair play 
 which is the nearest thing to a religion " in boys of 
 that age and hated " meanness and favouritism." 
 The Chicago Board of Education end the eulogy by 
 stating, " There is in him a fundamental bent toward 
 what is clean, manly and above board." 
 
 " Chivalrous sense of fair play and hates meanness " ! 
 " Fundamental bent toward what is clean, manly, 
 and above board " ! How about the enslavement of 
 women and girls in France, the use of poison gas, the 
 deportations of the Belgians, the sinking of the 
 
 r 2
 
 244 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Lusitania, and the killing of women and babies by 
 Zeppelins and submarines ? Sickening ! 
 
 A number of the books used in the public schools 
 of New York have so much in them favourable to 
 kings and emperors, have so much of German patriot- 
 ism and Fatherland, that the hand of the propagandist 
 must have had something to do with the adoption 
 of these books. 
 
 Of course it is only in the books of the advanced 
 courses that propaganda appears. It is not possible, 
 however clever the author, to incorporate much 
 propaganda in simple exercises, or in such sentences 
 as " Have you seen the sister of my cousin's wife ? " 
 or " The bird is waiting in the blacksmith's shop on 
 account of the rain." 
 
 But the following extracts from books used in 
 the public schools of New York should not be without 
 interest to those who know that the impressions 
 given to persons under the age of sixteen or seventeen 
 are the impressions that often persist through life. 
 
 For instance in the " Deutscher Lehrgang, First 
 Year," by E. Prokosch, of the University of Texas, 
 " Die Wacht am Rhein " is printed with music. 
 
 I should be very much surprised to hear that " The 
 Star-spangled Banner," with music, had ever been 
 printed in any school book in Germany. 
 
 On page 109 of this book there is an article in 
 German entitled " The German Constitution." It 
 begins with the sentence " The German Empire is 
 a union State like the United States of America." 
 How far the German Empire is from the United 
 States of America in political liberty can be answered 
 by any German immigrant or Jewish merchant who 
 has voted under the circle system or been denied 
 access to Court because of his religion !
 
 KAISERISM IN AMERICA 245 
 
 The second paragraph commences with the sen- 
 tence, " The German Kaiser is not monarch of the 
 Empire, he only is President of the Union." I am 
 quite sure that if the Kaiser ever saw this sentence 
 he would very soon convince the author that he 
 was something more than the President. The article 
 continues : 
 
 " He is the over-commander of the Army. Through 
 him is war declared and peace made, but he can 
 declare war only with the consent of the Bundesrath." 
 
 The Bundesrath had nothing to say about the 
 commencement of this war. They never voted on 
 the question. The German Constitution, as a matter 
 of fact, gives the Kaiser the right to declare war 
 himself, providing that the war is a defensive war. 
 In 1914 the Kaiser first announced, without pre- 
 senting any evidence, that Germany had been at- 
 tacked, and then declared war on the strength of 
 this statement, never since substantiated. 
 
 The text-book writer adds : " The people are repre- 
 sented in the Reichstag as the American people are 
 represented in Congress." If the American people 
 were represented in Congress under the same unfair 
 representation from which the German people suffer, 
 there would soon be a revolution in this country. 
 The districts which elect members to the Reichstag 
 have not been changed since 1872, so that millions 
 of Germans are not represented at all in the 
 Reichstag. 
 
 Professor Prokosch remarks : " The Bundesrath 
 is like the Senate of the United States. It is composed 
 of representatives of the particular States." 
 
 Of course the only difference is that our Senators 
 are elected by the people and the members of the 
 Bundesrath are appointed by the ruling Kings and
 
 246 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Princes of the German States and vote exactly as 
 they are told by these rulers. 
 
 This is only to show how carelessly Professor E. 
 Prokosch of the University of Texas and his 
 helper, C. M. Purin of the State Normal School 
 at Milwaukee, have handled the German Con- 
 stitution, doubtless to give the impression to 
 school children in America that the German Empire, 
 instead of being a despotic autocracy, is ruled in 
 very much the same manner as our own Republic. 
 
 Frederick the Great, who admitted that he went 
 to war " in order to be talked about," who boasted 
 that he had only one cook and a hundred spies, who 
 was one of the most tyrannical kings of all history, 
 has a whole book dedicated to him for use in the 
 public schools of New York. Frederick Betz, head 
 of the Department of Modern Languages in the 
 East High School of Rochester, New York, is the 
 author of a book called " About a Great King and 
 Others." The author in the preface states that the 
 anecdotes which he prints do not narrate the story 
 of the lives of these famous Germans, but, neverthe- 
 less, give glimpses of what they did and may help to 
 show why the Germans held them in such high 
 esteem. The book contains four anecdotes about 
 King Frederick William I, the father of Frederick 
 the Great, a villainous King who was prevented from 
 executing his own son only by the protests of the 
 other Kings of Europe. 
 
 Then follow forty-nine anecdotes about Frederick 
 the Great, all of them, of course, revealing him as 
 a good King and a popular character ; eight anecdotes 
 about Beethoven, Mozart, Schiller, and Lessing, and 
 the remainder of the book is made up of one anecdote 
 about Queen Louise, one about Field-Marshal Blucher,
 
 KAISERISM IN AMERICA 247 
 
 eighteen anecdotes about Bismarck, three about the 
 Emperor William I, and three about the present 
 Emperor. 
 
 The booklet entitled " German Poems for Memor- 
 izing," with music to some of the poems, edited by 
 Oscar Burkhard, Assistant Professor of German in 
 the University of Minnesota, contains a number of 
 German patriotic poems and prints the " Wacht 
 am Rhein ' twice, once in the text and once with 
 music. " Deutschland iiber Alles " is printed twice 
 in the same way. 
 
 I should like to be present at the trial in the secret 
 court in Germany of a schoolmaster who dared to 
 teach his pupils to sing " The Star-spangled Banner " 
 or the " Battle Hymn of the Republic." Prokosch 
 and Purin seem to be popular with the Board of 
 Education, for they are represented by another 
 book called " Conversation and Reading Book," 
 which is full of stories and patriotic anecdotes. 
 Charlemagne, Barbarossa, and Frederick the Great 
 are all exhibited as great men to be emulated. There 
 is a picture of the coronation of Charlemagne which 
 represents the Pope about to place the iron crown 
 on Charlemagne's head while the Deity, attended 
 by seraphim and cherubim, floating on clouds over- 
 head, lends His presence to the ceremony ; only 
 another example of how the Prussians believe that 
 God is the tribal Deity of their nation who takes a 
 personal interest in all their ceremonies and wars. 
 
 A long article appears in these books entitled 
 " The Germans in the United States." It implies 
 that William Penn had no success until he called in 
 Dr. Daniel Pastorius of Frankfort. Among the bits 
 of history set forth the author alleges that, in 1760, 
 there were more than a hundred thousand Germans
 
 248 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 in Pennsylvania, and that on account of their im- 
 portance in this State it was proposed to make 
 German the official language, the proposition being 
 beaten by only one vote ! The article says further : 
 " The only reason why the contentious Puritans 
 succeeded in making English the language of the 
 country and in impressing their character on its 
 politics was because the German immigrants were 
 poor, downtrodden people." 
 
 But it is when we come to the description of the 
 War of the Revolution and other wars that the 
 authors really turn loose. We learn that Washing- 
 ton's bodyguard was composed of Germans and that 
 Baron von Steuben apparently reorganised the Ameri- 
 can Army, so that Washington moved Congress to 
 name General von Steuben Inspector-General and 
 to make his position almost independent. The 
 writers say that the siege of Yorktown and surrender 
 of the English Army was in a great part the work 
 of Steuben. 
 
 I think that other historians might have something 
 to say on this subject. The authors fail to tell 
 that Baron von Steuben, a soldier of fortune, who 
 sold his services to the highest bidder, was hired to 
 join the American Army by a Frenchman, Beau- 
 marchais, who sympathised with the United States. 
 
 Attention is also called to the fact that 190,000 
 Germans fought against the South, and the authors 
 observe in conclusion : 
 
 " If to-day the United States of America is a 
 Power of world political importance, if its industry, 
 agriculture and commerce betoken a powerful danger 
 commercially over the old Europe, so have they 
 to thank the political power and the methodical 
 perseverance of the Anglo-Saxon immigrants from
 
 KAISERISM IN AMERICA 249 
 
 England as well as the industry, the bravery and 
 the cheerfulness of the Germans who have placed 
 themselves politically in the service of the Anglo- 
 Saxons." 
 
 It is noteworthy that of the four books I have 
 set forth as examples, three apparently have been 
 produced since the commencement of the world- 
 war. 
 
 Does not all this show the hand of the German 
 propagandist — the same hand which sends from Berlin 
 every year a large sum of money to the German 
 colonists in the Southern States of Brazil in order 
 that the German schools may be maintained there, 
 German ideas inculcated, and the population pre- 
 vented from losing its German identity ? 
 
 From the time of the visit of Prince Henry to 
 this country the German system of propaganda has 
 been at work smoothing out traditional differences 
 and feuds between Germans and doing its best to 
 make Germans from Bavaria, Saxony, and Hanover 
 and Wurtemberg and Hesse forget that their coun- 
 tries were conquered by the Prussians in 1866. 
 
 When Prince Henry was here on his trip through 
 the country he spent very little time with Americans. 
 He was chiefly occupied with German-Americans 
 and German-American societies. 
 
 Prince Henry's visit to the United States in 1902 
 was primarily to attend the christening of the racing 
 yacht of the Emperor which was being built in this 
 country. One of the members of his suite was von 
 Tirpitz, then Secretary of State of the German 
 Navy. After having been officially received by Presi- 
 dent Roosevelt, he visited Annapolis, Brooklyn Navy 
 Yard, and West Point, and then toured the Middle 
 West, stopping at twenty cities between New York
 
 250 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 and St. Louis. During the entire trip he continually 
 asked questions of all the delegates sent with him 
 by the United States Government, such as for 
 instance facts about the shops at Altoona, the coal 
 mines, farms, factories, and handsome women ! 
 
 At every station he was met by the Mayor of the 
 city and the German societies and greeted with 
 German music. The Deutscher Kriegerverein, a 
 German society consisting of military veterans, always 
 had a place of honour in the celebrations. In almost 
 every city on this trip the German-American citizens 
 gave the Prince albums or souvenirs in which were 
 engraved pretty pledges of devotion to the Father- 
 land. For instance in Chicago the German Roman 
 Catholic Society presented the following address : 
 
 " The German Roman Catholic Staatsverband of 
 Illinois begs your Royal Highness to permit it to 
 express its great joy for your visit to the United 
 States and to assure your Royal Highness of its 
 respect and regard. 
 
 " We extend to your Royal Highness our heartiest 
 greeting as the illustrious guest of this country and 
 the envoy of the wise and noble ruler of our Fatherland, 
 whom the world recognises and respects as prince 
 of peace and as the representative of a great and 
 mighty nation that by its own power has united its 
 people and achieved its present prominent position 
 among nations of the earth. 
 
 " May the Almighty grant that the visit of your 
 Royal Highness bear a rich fruit, that rulers and 
 their people may join together and thereby promote 
 peace, harmony and good will throughout the world ! 
 May God grant this prayer ! " 
 
 Everywhere the Prince went he was surrounded
 
 KAISERISM IN AMERICA 251 
 
 by German- Americans and German influences. In 
 St. Louis, where the Prince spent about three and 
 a half hours, the German-Americans gave him a 
 great reception in the Grand Hall and lunch at the 
 St. Louis Club which was attended by many Germans. 
 In Chicago, a reception was given after the Mayor's 
 banquet, in the First Regiment Armoury, and at- 
 tended by ten thousand Germans. The following 
 day in Chicago he went to a large luncheon at the 
 Germania Club. In Milwaukee the officers of the 
 Deutscher Kriegerbund gave a reception at the Ex- 
 position, where ten thousand German-Americans 
 cheered the Prince, and also a luncheon at the Hotel 
 Pfister, where many German-American officials were 
 invited. 
 
 The speeches throughout had the same tone, those 
 of the German-Americans expressing their respect 
 for the Fatherland and those of the Prince spurring 
 on loyalty in the hearts of the German- Americans. 
 The Prince's speech in the Armoury in Chicago is 
 quite typical. In reply to a speech made by a 
 German-American, the Prince said : 
 
 " You have left your Fatherland, but if you still 
 have some love for the Fatherland then I ask you to 
 give three cheers for the one who has sent me here as 
 the representative of Prussia to bring this greeting— 
 the German Emperor and King of Prussia" 
 
 In another speech which the Prince began with 
 " Mr. Chairman and Fellow-Germans," he said : " I 
 would like to say that the Germans in this country 
 have done a great deal for the literature and science 
 of this country and I hope they will continue in this 
 good work." The whole attitude of the Prince 
 seemed to be one of benevolence to his " Fellow- 
 Germans " and personal interest in them. Wherever
 
 252 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 the Prince discovered a German wearing the Iron 
 Cross in the crowd, he would ask an aide to bring 
 the man up to him so that he could shake hands 
 and converse with him. 
 
 Talking with Prince Henry one day before the 
 war, he told me he regretted that on his trip to America 
 he had seen so little of the Americans. He said : 
 1 You know the Ambassador kept me always with the 
 Germans and German societies." I suppose the 
 poor Prince did not himself know what was the real 
 object of his visit. But undoubtedly his shrewd trip 
 manager and the clever propagandists who accom- 
 panied him knew only too well. 
 
 It is hard to understand why any German- Ameri- 
 cans should take sides with German autocracy. 
 There are many merchants of Frankfort and Hamburg 
 and Bremen and the great industrial towns of Ger- 
 many who do not approve of the cruelties practised 
 in this war, and many of these will leave Germany 
 as soon as peace is concluded. 
 
 Anyone had a right to sympathise, to side, with 
 Germany before our entrance into the war. But 
 now what the lawyers call " the time of repentance " 
 has gone by, there is no middle course and every 
 citizen must declare himself American or be thought 
 a traitor. 
 
 It is hard to understand what the pro-Germans 
 in our country want. They left Germany because 
 of a lack of opportunity there, because of their dis- 
 like for military service under Prussian conditions, 
 because of the caste system which kept them under 
 the heel of autocracy, and because here every avenue 
 of business and social and political advancement 
 is thrown wide open for them and their children. 
 And I am quite sure that if one of these prosperous
 
 KAISERISM IN AMERICA 253 
 
 Germans were deprived of the money that he has 
 won here, given back the rags and wooden shoes 
 in which he landed and told that he was on his way 
 to Germany, no wild animal in all the mountains 
 and swamps of the United States would scratch and 
 bite and kick and squawk more vigorously than 
 he would. These German- Americans do not want to 
 be sent back to their Kaiser and their Fatherland ! 
 
 Certainly we Americans will not stop the war 
 nor surrender our rights nor invite the invasion of 
 our shores because of their stubborn devotion to a 
 country which they were so glad to abandon. We 
 must appeal to their sons and their daughters, to 
 those who have become part and parcel of our nation, 
 to see that these obstinate old codgers do not persist 
 in an attitude which may end in creating a prejudice 
 against those of German descent in America. 
 
 Those of us who are of Scotch or Irish or English 
 descent can urge this with greater insistence because 
 our ancestors were much nearer, in 1766, to the 
 English Fatherland than German-Americans are to 
 the German Empire, and these ancestors did not 
 hesitate in that year to turn against Great Britain 
 on a mere question of commerce — did not hesitate 
 again, in 1812, to face Great Britain in arms on a 
 question of sea rights ; and on account of this we 
 expect all those of German-American descent to 
 stand unreservedly by their adopted country, forced 
 into war by an autocracy that not only murdered 
 our women and children in defiance of international 
 law and common humanity, but which threatens, 
 if successful in this war, to invade our shores. 
 
 Do these stubborn German- Americans think that 
 if a German force should occupy America their 
 position would be any better than that of the other
 
 254 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 citizens of this country, that they would be put to 
 rule over the rest of us and allowed to save their 
 goods and houses from the indemnities that would 
 be put upon this nation in case of our defeat ? 
 
 Let me tell them one thing, and that is, if by any 
 remote possibility the Germans did gain a foothold 
 in this country through the aid of those of German 
 descent here, before we of other descent in this 
 country submitted to German rule we would attend 
 to every traitor ! 
 
 We did not lure any citizens of foreign nations 
 to our shores. They came here to escape serfdom 
 and starvation and forced military service in an 
 army where they could never be officers. We sent 
 them no excursion tickets when they came here as 
 half-starved peasants. We opened to them the doors 
 of hospitality and of opportunity, and we do not 
 propose that they shall pay us like the frozen snake 
 in iEsop's Fables. 
 
 Some of our finest citizens came from Germany 
 in 1848 after the failure of the revolution against 
 autocracy. Where do you think that General Siegel 
 and Carl Schurz would stand if they were alive 
 to-day ? 
 
 The daughter of General Siegel has answered in 
 giving her son, on whom she was dependent, to the 
 Army of the United States, saying, " His grandfather 
 fought under Lincoln for liberty and he must take 
 his place to-day in the great fight for freedom." 
 
 We are too good-natured, too soft, too easy in 
 this country. Our great ex-President, that splendid 
 American and patriot, Theodore Roosevelt, said 
 not long ago of one of our United States Senators, 
 if that Senator were a German and acted in Germany 
 the way he acted in America as an American he would
 
 KAISERISM IN AMERICA 255 
 
 be put at digging a trench. I do not like to differ 
 with Theodore Roosevelt, but from my knowledge 
 of German conditions during this war, I know that 
 if this Senator acted as a German in Germany as he 
 has been acting as an American in America, he would 
 not be put by the Germans at digging a trench, but 
 that with the ten bullets of a firing squad in his 
 chest he would be filling one ! 
 
 Are these Germans in America imbued with the 
 belief that the German Kaiser has been sent by 
 Heaven to rule the German Empire and bend the 
 world under German " Kultur " ? President Wilson, 
 in one of his Notes in 1916, referred to the German 
 Government as " the mouthpiece of the people." 
 A German Conservative newspaper, I think the 
 Tageszeitung, commenting upon this, said that " the 
 German Emperor is not our ' mouthpiece,' but 
 our truly beloved Emperor sent to us by God." 
 
 Does the German-American ever stop to consider 
 how the Hohenzollerns obtained possession of the 
 Mark of Brandenburg, the basis of modern Prussia ? 
 Five hundred years ago the Hohenzollerns were 
 Counts of Nuremberg, then as now a rich trading 
 city. Sigismund III wanted ready money and this 
 was advanced by the Hohenzollerns, Counts of 
 Nuremberg, on the security of the Mark of Branden- 
 burg pledged as collateral to the loan, which totalled 
 only $100,000. Later the Counts of Nuremberg 
 foreclosed their mortgage and took possession of the 
 Mark of Brandenburg and have held it ever since. 
 
 Does a German-American in this country who has 
 placed a mortgage on his house think when he fails 
 to pay the interest or principal of the mortgage that 
 the man who has sold him out was sent by God ? 
 
 This calls to mind one of the great failures of the
 
 256 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 war — the failure of religion in the German Empire. 
 I attended a great service in the Protestant Cathedral 
 of Berlin, held to celebrate the five hundredth anni- 
 versary of the occasion when the first Hohenzollern, 
 having foreclosed his mortgage, entered into possession 
 of Brandenburg. The Emperor sat in an elevated 
 gallery, and across the great Cathedral Dr. Dryander, 
 the Court preacher, mounted the pulpit to deliver 
 a eulogy on the Hohenzollern rule and the 
 Hohenzollerns. 
 
 What an opportunity then if Dr. Dryander, 
 lifting an accusing finger, had spoken of the rivers 
 of innocent blood sacrificed to the Prussian Moloch of 
 conquest ; if he had demanded in the name of 
 Christianity that the barbarities of Prussian rule 
 should cease, that the Belgian working men, dragged 
 from their homes to manufacture shells to be used 
 against their own brothers, sons, and fathers in 
 Prussian factories, should be sent back ; if he had 
 demanded that the twenty thousand women and 
 girls driven into worse than slavery from Lille and 
 Tourcoing and Roubaix in the North of France 
 should be given their freedom once more ; if he had 
 spoken of the whole nation of the Armenians, of the 
 Syrians, of the Jews, massacred by the Turks while 
 the German generals in command of the Turkish 
 armies stood by ; if he had denounced the invasion 
 of Belgium, the breaking of treaties, the starvation 
 of Poland, the horrors of poison gas and the 
 cruelties exercised upon those of the opposing armies 
 unfortunate enough to become prisoners of the 
 Germans. 
 
 But no, Dr. Dryander droned on. No pastor in 
 Germany has dared to risk his State-paid salary to 
 stand up for Christianity and the right.
 
 KAISERISM IN AMERICA 257 
 
 The Prussians cannot get away from the belief 
 that they have a sort of personal God who takes a 
 direct and kindly interest in their destinies, especially 
 in the ordering of their bloody battles. Countless 
 sermons were preached through Germany during 
 the war, but the most ridiculous was th°t of a 
 Protestant pastor in Berlin early in the war. He 
 announced the title of his sermon as "Is God 
 neutral ? " and in his fourteenthly proved to his own 
 satisfaction that the Deity, abandoning neutrality, 
 had declared Himself unequivocally for the success 
 of German arms !
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 
 
 After the appearance, in August, 1917, in the 
 Philadelphia Public Ledger and other newspapers 
 in America and the Telegraph in England of the 
 message of the Kaiser to President Wilson, the 
 official North German Gazette, evidently unaware of 
 the fact that the original message of the Kaiser in 
 his own hand was in my possession, published the 
 following : 
 
 " The London Daily Telegraph publishes from the 
 memoirs of former Ambassador Gerard a telegram 
 that His Majesty the Kaiser is alleged to have sent 
 to President Wilson on August 10, 1914, and in which 
 the events before the participation of England in 
 the present war are set forth. 
 
 " We are, in these circumstances, in the position 
 to give the assurance that a telegram of the 
 Kaiser of this nature does not exist. 
 
 "It is correct that an audience was granted to 
 Ambassador Gerard on August 10, 1914, in order to 
 give the opportunity to spread before His Majesty 
 the peace mediation offer of President Wilson. 
 
 " The personal message of President Wilson to the 
 Kaiser runs as follows : c As official head of one of 
 the Powers which signed the Hague Convention, 
 I feel according to Article III of this Convention it 
 is my right and my duty to declare to you in the 
 
 258
 
 THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 259 
 
 spirit of the truest friendship that I would welcome 
 every opportunity to act in the interest of the peace 
 of Europe whether now or at another more fitting 
 time.' . . . 
 
 " This proposition came at a time when the opposing 
 armies had already crossed the frontiers and when 
 it seemed out of the question to halt the inarch of 
 events. 
 
 " His Majesty could, therefore, only transmit to 
 the President his thanks for the mediation offered, 
 and to add thereto that it was too early for the 
 mediation of a neutral Power, but that later the 
 friendly proposition of President Wilson could be 
 taken up again. 
 
 " His Majesty the Emperor then talked for some 
 time with the American Ambassador and set forth 
 to him separately the events which led to the outbreak 
 of the war. Particularly did the Kaiser call attention 
 to the equivocal and unloyal position of England 
 which had destroyed the hope of a peaceful issue. 
 
 " The setting forth by Ambassador Gerard in his 
 memoirs seems to be a contradiction of this con- 
 versation. 
 
 " If the Press of enemy countries sees revelations 
 in this, that only shows that they are not acquainted 
 with the German White Book which sets forth these 
 events. 
 
 " Possibly, during the interviews, the Emperor 
 wrote down notes for the Ambassador, in order that 
 the latter should not send anything incorrect to 
 Washington. In this case we have to do only with 
 certain notes to aid the memory of the Ambassador, 
 not with a communication of the Emperor to President 
 Wilson." 
 
 The Tageblatt reprinted this lame and silly 
 
 s 2
 
 260 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 explanation in its issue of August 13, 1917, and 
 complained that, although its correspondent at The 
 Hague sent, on August 7, 1917, this part of my first 
 book in a telegram, only on August 11 did the Govern- 
 ment permit the delivery to the Tageblatt of this 
 story from the correspondent. Then the newspaper 
 despatch had to be submitted to the Censorship 
 officials, who only released it for publication at mid- 
 night. The Tageblatt says : " The form of the explana- 
 tion which has now appeared in the North German 
 Gazette can hardly be called very happy. What does 
 this mean — c possibly during the interview the Kaiser 
 wrote down notes for the Ambassador in order that 
 the latter should not send anything incorrect to 
 Washington ' ? Now, after a week the occurrence 
 must have been fathomed and it was not necessary 
 to make use of a ' possibly.' Could Mr. Gerard 
 consider these ' notes ' in the handwriting of the 
 Emperor as a draft for a telegram ? And do these 
 notes read as a telegram of the Emperor to Wilson — 
 as Mr. Gerard repeats them ? " 
 
 Does not the Tageblatt article give a glimpse not 
 only of how the newspapers of Germany are hampered 
 and censored, but of the positively glorious incom- 
 petency of the Government officials who denied the 
 existence of an original document in the Kaiser's 
 own hand which the most elementary inquiries in 
 their own circle would have disclosed not only was 
 in existence but in my possession ? 
 
 The redoubtable Reventlow, writing in the 
 Conservative Tageszeitung, commented as follows : 
 
 " Kaiser William had possibly for his answer 
 written down notes and given them to Gerard, but 
 these were only helps for Gerard's memory, and it 
 was not a question of a direct communication of the
 
 THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 261 
 
 German Kaiser to the President. In accordance with 
 the Gerard reports it now seems that nevertheless 
 the Ambassador telegraphed the Imperial notes 
 immediately and literally to Washington. Mr. Gerard 
 has, therefore, again in this respect lied, which is not 
 surprising." 
 
 Reventlow, of course, had not then seen the fac- 
 simile of the Kaiser's telegram, which is headed in 
 his own hand " To the President, personally." 
 
 Later the other German newspapers took the 
 Foreign Office to task for making such a weak denial 
 of an incontrovertible fact. And note the charming 
 parliamentary language of dear old Reventlow ! 
 
 The article, which appeared in the Tageszeitung 
 of August 14 last, is interesting because Reventlow 
 is without doubt the oracle and mouthpiece of the 
 Prussian Conservatives. He continues to attack me 
 in this article, but much of the attack is in reality 
 praise, and, as we say in expressive slang, " every 
 knock is a boost." The article continues : 
 
 "It is very desirable to know if the former Chan- 
 cellor was present at the audience ; it is regrettably 
 not inconceivable, but is a new proof of the incom- 
 petence of the Chancellor that he did not, according 
 to his duty, inform his Imperial Lord of the 
 political personality and character of a man like 
 Gerard. 
 
 " In the U-boat crisis Mr. Gerard had been able 
 to play a quite decisive part. He was like Mr. von 
 Bethmann-Hollweg— entirely of the view that the 
 German Empire must give in to the demands of 
 the United States and constantly showed himself 
 wonderfully informed about what step each inner 
 circle would for the moment take. 
 
 "The influence of Mr. Gerard is all the more a
 
 262 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 shameful and heavy reproach for the official leadership 
 of Mr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, since this American 
 Ambassador, while an intriguer, was not a personality. 
 " But when Gerard said anything, wished anything 
 or threatened anything, that imported always a 
 fear-exciting event, and he was finally sly enough to 
 seize and use this halo to the limit. That a man like 
 Gerard has been able through all these years to win 
 and keep such a position and such an influence over 
 German affairs is without example." 
 
 But I must really put aside the halo which 
 Reventlow so graciously hands me. While I was 
 informed of what was going on, I certainly did my 
 best to persuade Bethmann-Hollweg and von Jagow 
 and Zimmermann as well as the Emperor and number- 
 less others from defying America. If von Bethmann- 
 Hollweg and any of the others were against ruthless 
 submarine war, seeing that to adopt any other policy 
 would bring America into this war, then they took 
 this position because it seemed to them best for their 
 country and history will prove them right. 
 Reventlow says further : 
 
 " In the winter of 1916-17 one dreamed already 
 of loans and imports from the United States during 
 the peace negotiations. Mr. Gerard came back from 
 America with alms for the wounded, and the result 
 of his sublime patience and of the sublime patience 
 of Mr. von Bethmann-Hollweg was pictured by the 
 Gerard celebration in Berlin. 
 
 " Then came the decision for ruthless submarine 
 war. The first time in his ambassadorial service 
 was Mr. Gerard surprised, and the men who 
 entertained him were also surprised, for they 
 dreamed of and wished for quite other things. It 
 is incorrect, if it has been stated, that at the time of
 
 THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 263 
 
 the Gerard celebration ruthless submarine war had 
 already been agreed on. That came later." 
 
 But I did know that ruthless submarine war was 
 coming, knew of the orders given, and this is proved 
 not only by my reports which are still secret, but by 
 what I told not only many people in America, but 
 several editors who with my full approval published 
 articles showing this belief. 
 
 I am obliged to Reventlow for what he says of 
 me. I admire him as a powerful writer for whose 
 ability I have a deep respect, and perhaps if I were 
 a Prussian Junker I would follow him as blindly and 
 confidently as do the army and navy officers, the 
 nobles, great and small, and the landholding squires 
 of Prussia, to whom his writings are as seductive as the 
 pipings of the Pied Piper to the townsfolk of Hamelin. 
 
 Reventlow's charge of lying was made in the line 
 of his duty as a Prussian Junker, according to the 
 best traditions of Prussian government and diplomacy, 
 but it is so thoroughly disproved and the authenticity 
 of the Kaiser's telegram so universally admitted in 
 Germany, even in official circles there, that I feel 
 only sorrow for a Prussian nobleman and Junker 
 and editor compelled by the exigencies of his position 
 to make so ridiculous a statement. 
 
 I think that the Germans just now are beginning 
 to realise that I always told them the truth and 
 treated them fairly, a procedure, I admit, far more 
 disconcerting and disturbing to them than the most 
 subtle wiles and moves of the old diplomacy. 
 
 Von Bethmann-Hollweg denied that the peace terms 
 as set forth in my book were his (he did not deny that 
 they are the terms of the Junkers) and criticised me 
 for " unethically " publishing an account of my 
 experiences in Germany. This is what he said :
 
 264 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 " In his published report of this particular con- 
 versation Mr. Gerard attributed utterances to me 
 which may have been made in other quarters in 
 Germany and to which he frequently referred in the 
 progress of our conversation, but which were not 
 my own. This applies especially to those references 
 to Germany's alleged intentions to seize Liege and 
 Namur, and of Germany's plans to take possession 
 of the Belgian ports, the railways, and to establish 
 military and commercial dominion over that country. 
 " I never unfolded such German war aims to Mr. 
 Gerard. In the course of my several conversations 
 with him, as also in our discussion last January, I 
 invariably referred to my Reichstag speeches in 
 which I stated that Germany would exact positive 
 guarantees that Belgian territory and politics would 
 not in the future be exploited as a menacing factor 
 against us. I did not make any statement as to the 
 nature of these guarantees. 
 
 " In the progress of our conversation Mr. Gerard 
 suggested that the realisation of far-reaching aspira- 
 tions in Belgium would give King Albert merely a 
 sham authority, and asked whether it would not be 
 better for Germany to forgo such plans and instead 
 of them endeavour to acquire Liege, which Mr. Gerard 
 thought possible of achievement. 
 
 " Perhaps this suggestion was a bait intended to 
 provoke a reply from me. If so, the attempt failed. 
 In all my discussions with the Ambassador on this 
 subject I referred to my public utterances in which 
 I emphasised that I was endeavouring to procure 
 a peace that would permit us to live in cordial and 
 neighbourly relations with Belgium. 
 
 " Mr. Gerard's memory would seem also to have 
 served him faultily when he wrote down what was
 
 THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 265 
 
 said about Russia. He dealt but superficially with 
 Germany's Eastern war aims, observing that the 
 United States' interest in this direction was very 
 limited and that Germany undoubtedly would have 
 a free hand there. For Roumania and Serbia he 
 also revealed very slender sympathy. Mr. Gerard did 
 not obtain out of my mouth any of the statements 
 concerning these countries which he attributes to me. 
 
 " When diplomats undertake to exploit their 
 official career for journalistic purposes they are very 
 apt to be misled into putting into mouths of foreign 
 statesmen utterances which either are the creation 
 of an ample imagination or are based on faulty 
 memory. Discussion of political opinions is bound 
 to be transitory and fleeting. 
 
 " You Americans are impetuous people. You do 
 not seem to permit even your retiring diplomats to 
 observe the traditional silences, nor have you the 
 patience to abide the post-mortem publication of 
 their memoirs. Sir Edward Goschen (former British 
 Ambassador to Germany and Austria) or Jules 
 Cambon (former French Ambassador to Germany, 
 the United States, and Spain) probably could excel 
 Mr. Gerard in revelations of entertaining diplomatic 
 history and gossip. Count von Bernstorff, former 
 Ambassador to the United States, too, I imagine, 
 might startle us with a diary of his Washington 
 experiences. 
 
 c In Europe, however, it was seen that publication 
 of such matters was best postponed by common 
 consent to a later period when judgments are both calm 
 and more mature. Mr. Gerard, however, may hold the 
 special licence conferred by shirtsleeve diplomacy, as 
 you call it, and I shall not dispute his prerogatives. 
 But he must not give his imagination the free rein."
 
 266 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 And this was my answer, published in the New 
 York Times for September 2, 1917 : 
 
 " Dr. Hollweg apparently did not have the exact 
 copy of my articles, for if he had read them he would 
 have seen clearly that I said the peace terms described 
 were the German peace terms and not the opinions 
 of the Chancellor. Dr. Hollweg said he himself was 
 subject to the rule of the military party of Germany 
 and could not follow his own desires. 
 
 " In the second place, Dr. Hollweg admits that the 
 German Government intended to exact guarantees 
 from Belgium and makes the admission himself after 
 the interview in which he so sharply criticises me. 
 
 " Thirdly, I ask, if those terms as cited are not 
 the German peace terms, then what are the German 
 peace terms ? 
 
 " Dr. Hollweg gives nothing different from these, 
 and so it might be assumed they are the German 
 terms after all. I consider it a matter of great 
 regret that the German Government put Dr. Hollweg 
 out of office, and I feel that personally he is bitterly 
 opposed to the ruthless submarine warfare of the 
 German Government and that he only refrained 
 from resigning his office out of deference to the 
 wishes of Emperor Wilhelm. 
 
 " I presume he was put out because his ideals were 
 too liberal for the German authorities to endure. 
 This liberality is shown in the interview. I am sorry 
 to take issue with Dr. Hollweg on this subject because 
 I have a great admiration for him and I think he is 
 a fine old fellow. 
 
 " The old-time diplomacy, which Dr. Hollweg 
 advocated, has succeeded in plunging almost the 
 whole world into the bloodiest war of history. When 
 the people of a nation know what is going on
 
 THAT INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER 267 
 
 in the seats of government such wars cannot 
 happen. 
 
 c I do not believe in backstairs diplomacy any 
 more than Dr. Hollweg. I believe the people of a 
 nation are entitled to know what is going on. This 
 German diplomacy may be all right in a monarchy 
 of the most limited type, but it will not go at all in 
 a modern democracy. 
 
 " As to the ethics of publishing my memoirs now, 
 I pass over the obvious repartee that to hear a 
 German speak of ethics borders on the ludicrous, 
 and especially the man who openly in the Reichstag 
 announced that necessity knows no law and that the 
 German troops were at that moment deliberately 
 violating the neutrality of Belgium. 
 
 " But I believe that the old style diplomacy in the 
 dark caused this war. Of course it is hard for a 
 German ex-official to conceive that the people have 
 a right to be enlightened about this awful calamity* 
 But I hope one of the results of this war will be the 
 end of backstairs diplomacy. When the Germans 
 with the Chancellor's approval violated the usage 
 of all nations and times and kept me as a hostage 
 after I had demanded my passports, I think to talk 
 of ethics comes with a bad grace from the German 
 side." 
 
 Understand that Bethmann-Hollweg is not a bad 
 man, but for one who openly announced that necessity 
 knows no law and defended the invasion of Belgium, 
 failed to stop the cruelties of the prison camps, and 
 gave official, if not private, consent to the murder 
 of women and babies not only on the high seas but 
 in undefended towns, to talk of ethics because I 
 dared to tell the world what was happening in Germany 
 is more than ridiculous. It verges on the ludicrous.
 
 268 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 But why attack poor Bethmann-Hollweg ? Oppor- 
 tunity knocked at his door, but the want of a back- 
 bone prevented his becoming a great figure. 
 
 History will laud him for opposing ruthless sub- 
 marine war so long, but will blame him for weakly 
 yielding in the end. As for the " ethics," I have 
 been careful to give only official conversations with 
 the Emperor, interesting as the others are, and never 
 shall disclose my private conversations with Beth- 
 mann-Hollweg, von Jagow, Zimmermann and others, 
 including my talks with Bethmann-Hollweg and 
 Zimmermann on the day I left Germany, because 
 it was understood that these conversations should 
 never be disclosed whatever happened. 
 
 And as time goes on more and more do I believe 
 that history will vindicate von Jagow and teach the 
 Emperor and the people of Germany that a faithful 
 and skilful servant should never be sacrificed to the 
 intrigues of a few gossiping politicians. It is part 
 of the strength of President Wilson that he backs 
 up his officials and refuses to listen even to widespread 
 popular clamour for their heads. It was the business 
 of von Jagow to conduct the foreign policy of Germany, 
 but the intriguers demanded his removal because he 
 was too occupied to waste time talking to amateur 
 politicians, and because his voice did not charm the 
 Reichstag.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE FUTURE KAISER-THE CROWN PRINCE 
 AND HIS BROTHERS 
 
 In a country where the supreme power swings 
 between the Emperor and the impersonal General 
 Staff all are interested, since even an Emperor is 
 mortal, in learning something about the heir who 
 succeeds in case of death. And we who face with 
 the rest of the world the forces of Kaiserism desire 
 to know about this heir. 
 
 The Crown Prince is about five feet nine, 
 blonde and slim. In fact, one of his weaknesses 
 is his pride in an undeniably small waist which he 
 pinches, and his characteristic pose is with one foot 
 thrown forward and one hand at the waist, elbow 
 out and waist pressed in. He is well built, his face 
 much better looking than his photographs show, nose 
 rather long and eyes very keen and observing. Pos- 
 sessed of a great youthfulness of manner and a 
 boyish liveliness and interest in life, his traits are 
 somewhat American rather than German. He is a 
 good sportsman and excels at many sports, is proud 
 of his trophies, but not afraid to meet other men in 
 contest for them. 
 
 His manners are open and engaging, and because 
 of this he is very popular in Germany. Unlike his 
 father, on whom a pretty woman makes no impression 
 whatever, he is a great admirer of female beauty, 
 
 269
 
 270 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 so much so that when he is playing tennis, for example, 
 if there is a good-looking girl watching he can hardly 
 keep his eye on the game. This weakness for the 
 feminine has been the foundation for countless stories 
 linking his name with that of various women in all 
 countries and of all classes of life, but personally I 
 think these rumours are untrue, and that he is fond 
 of his lovely wife, who is not in the least disturbed 
 by his frank and open admiration of other members 
 of the fair sex. A brood of strong, good-looking 
 children have been born to the Crown Prince and 
 Crown Princess. 
 
 A Prince so fond of a good time, one who loves 
 dancing and racing, hunting and shooting, with a 
 shrewd eye and cool head, might make an ideal 
 King, but the one dark shadow in the background 
 is the Crown Prince's real love for war. From his 
 seat in the royal box in the Reichstag he has applauded 
 violently and ostentatiously utterances looking toward 
 war ; he had made himself the head of the War Party, 
 and the Militarists look to him as their chief. The 
 great danger is that if this war ends in the defeat 
 of Germany without the democratisation of Germany, 
 then the Crown Prince will lead the party of revenge, 
 of preparation for war, and if the war ends in what 
 the Germans can call a success or ends in a draw 
 (which means German success), then the Crown Prince 
 and the Militarists, crying that the military system 
 has been justified, will seek new excuses to enter 
 once more on a war of conquest. All paths or specu- 
 lations turn to one gate ; if the German people 
 continue slavishly to leave the power to drive them 
 into war in the hands of the Crown Prince, or the 
 Emperor, or the General Staff, there will be no prospect 
 of such a world-peace as can justify a universal
 
 THE FUTURE KAISER 271 
 
 disarmament. Absolute monarchs and Emperors 
 and Crown Princes and their attendant nobles, all 
 spell war. They are the products of war, and they 
 can only continue to rule if the desire for war animates 
 their people. 
 
 While the Crown Prince has not set himself in 
 direct opposition to his father, or at any rate taken 
 a part in public affairs with the view either to force 
 his father's hand or take a dominant political part, 
 nevertheless he has allowed no occasion to pass 
 when he could encourage the Army and War Party, 
 even if this brought him into conflict with the policy 
 of the Emperor, and so there have been periods of cool- 
 ness between the Emperor and the Crown Prince son. 
 
 Thus after one scene in the Reichstag when the 
 Crown Prince applauded those in favour of aggression, 
 it was reported that he was banished to Dantzig. 
 At any rate, during the winter of 1913-14 the Crown 
 Prince and his family were at Dantzig, the head- 
 quarters of the regiment he commands, the famous 
 " Death's Head Hussars." 
 
 Some say that it is a tradition in the Hohenzollern 
 family for the Crown Prince to appear to oppose 
 the King. Then, when the King dies, the Crown 
 Prince enjoys a certain popularity in the first years 
 of his rule from those who have been against the 
 Government, and by the time this popularity has 
 waned, the new ruler is firmly seated on the throne. 
 
 The Crown Prince, born in 1882, will be thirty- 
 five in May next. His military education began 
 long before he was ten years old. In accordance 
 with Hohenzollern custom, on his tenth birthday, 
 he became an officer of the 1st Regiment of Foot 
 Guards, and on this birthday was introduced to the 
 other officers and took part in a regimental dinner.
 
 272 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Before this great event he had learned enough of 
 military drill and usages to carry himself as an officer. 
 
 In 1895 he and his brother Eitel entered as cadets 
 at Ploen in Schwerin, where they were subjected to 
 very strict discipline. After leaving Ploen the Crown 
 Prince entered Bonn University, and there became 
 a member of the " Borussia " student corps. 
 
 I never heard that he took part in the corps duels. 
 His face is not scarred, so I imagine as heir to the 
 throne he was excused from a custom in which other 
 corps members are compelled by public sentiment 
 to take part. From photographs I have seen and 
 from what I have heard I believe that the Crown 
 Prince entered cheerfully into the student life of the 
 place and lived on terms of college equality with his 
 brothers of the " Borussia " corps. These corps 
 members, however, hold themselves aloof from other 
 students. 
 
 The Crown Prince attended the Technical High 
 School of Charlottenburg, that large building just 
 across the canal which separates Berlin from 
 Charlottenburg. Here he gained some knowledge 
 of machinery, chemistry, etc. In 1909 he went to 
 work in the Ministry of the Interior, where he learned 
 something of government administration, how to 
 manage the constabulary and their activities — some- 
 thing quite necessary for an absolute ruler in a country 
 where every citizen's acts is noted in the copy-books 
 of the police. 
 
 Meantime, his military activities continued. He 
 was gradually promoted, and finally, in 1911, became 
 colonel in command of the Dantzig Black Hussars. 
 This regiment owes its black uniform and white 
 death's heads to the thrift of Friedrich II, who 
 utilised the black funereal hangings at the elaborate
 
 THE FUTURE KAISER 273 
 
 funeral of his father to make uniforms for this regiment. 
 It has been in existence about 175 years. The white 
 death's heads and bones which appeared in the 
 funereal trappings were used to make ornaments for 
 the front of the regimental head-gear. 
 
 While stationed at Dantzig the Prince was taught 
 agriculture so as to understand the needs of the 
 Prussian Junkers. He even studied the methods 
 of brewing beer in the Dantzig brewery. His education 
 has been strenuous. He has not been coddled or 
 spoiled, and is far better fitted for the battle of life 
 than most graduates of our colleges. 
 
 The father of the Crown Princess was a Grand 
 Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and her mother a 
 Russian Grand Duchess. In appearance the Crown 
 Princess is very attractive, her face rather Russian, 
 with an expression of good nature and cleverness. 
 Although the Crown Prince is about five feet nine, 
 the Crown Princess overtops him, and on occasions 
 when they appear together she wears shoes with 
 very low heels and keeps her head bowed. 
 
 The marriage took place in 1905 and was 
 undoubtedly a love match, the young couple having 
 met in 1904 and become devotedly attached to 
 each other. 
 
 There is only one defect in the character of the 
 Crown Prince, and that is his fondness for war, his 
 regard for war not as a horror, but as a necessity, 
 an honourable and desirable state. 
 
 I have long been apprehensive that when he came 
 to the throne the world might again be hurried into 
 a universal conflict and that vast military preparations 
 would burden every State. 
 
 The Crown Prince and I often talked over shooting 
 in various parts of the world. He wishes to see 
 
 T
 
 274 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 America, and especially to kill game in Alaska, where 
 the heavily-horned heads and enormous bears make 
 such magnificent trophies. When I told him once 
 how my friend Paul Rainey had killed seventy-four 
 lions in Africa he could talk of nothing else at that 
 interview. 
 
 The Crown Prince has been pictured as a libertine 
 and a pillager. His face has been caricatured so 
 often that people have the cartooned impression 
 of him and believe him to be a sort of monstrous idiot. 
 
 On the contrary, he is a good sport, a clever man, 
 a charming companion, but the shadow of military 
 ambition hangs over all, and I doubt if the effect of 
 his infernal military education, commencing when 
 he was a child, can be entirely removed. 
 
 If some day he learns the idiocy of war, if he 
 recognises that the world has progressed, and allows 
 the people some share in their own government, he 
 will make a splendid constitutional ruler of Prussia 
 and the German Empire. 
 
 Should the German people fail to take unto 
 themselves the war-making power, they will, before 
 long, be decimated again for the amusement of the 
 Crown Prince, or, as he once put it, " for his fun." 
 
 The favourite son of the Kaiser is presumed to 
 be Prince Eitel Friedrich — a large, fat, healthy, 
 good-natured young man, married to the daughter 
 of the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, a rather pretty 
 but discontented-looking Princess. It is said of him 
 that he has shown not only great bravery in this war, 
 but real military capacity. Ridiculous scandals have 
 been circulated about him in Berlin, but this is only 
 the usual gossip circulated about persons in prominent 
 positions. 
 
 Adalbert, the sailor Prince, is now married to a
 
 THE FUTURE KAISER 275 
 
 German Princess. He is the best-looking of the 
 Kaiser's sons, possessing all the charm and vivacity 
 of manners of the Crown Prince, but .is without that 
 Prince's absurd ideas about the necessity of war. 
 Any one of those three sons of the Kaiser can give 
 yards to any other young Royalty in Germany and 
 win easily in capacity for administration and the 
 King business. 
 
 Certainly if the German people insist on being 
 ruled by someone and on being occasionally dragged 
 out to be shot or maimed in an unnecessary war, 
 they could not find more capable rulers than the 
 Hohenzollerns. 
 
 Prince August Wilhelm is of a milder character. 
 He, of course, wears the uniform of an officer, but 
 has entered the Civil Service of the Government. He 
 is now a Landrat or Government official, and some 
 day will be given charge of one of the provinces of 
 Prussia, such as Silesia or Posen. He is married to 
 his first cousin, a niece of the Empress, the Princess 
 Alexandra Victoria, daughter of H.H. Frederick 
 Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg- 
 Gliicksburg. They have one son, a fine healthy 
 specimen. The August Wilhelms live very simply 
 in a palace in the Wilhelmstrassc, very plainly fur- 
 nished. They are fond of amusements, riding, 
 theatres and dancing. August Wilhelm has none 
 of that desire of war so characteristic of the Crown 
 Prince. 
 
 Of Princes Oscar and Joachim little is known. 
 Oscar, during the war, married Countess Bassewitz, 
 who has been a Maid of Honour in the Palace. The 
 marriage was of course morganatic, and on marrying 
 the young Countess was given the title of Countess 
 Ruppin. Her children will be Count and Countess 
 
 t 2
 
 276 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Ruppin and cannot inherit, in any contingency, the 
 Kingdom of Prussia. 
 
 Adalbert had no resting place in Berlin, but 
 perhaps now that he is married a palace may be 
 assigned to him. Eitel Fritz and his wife occupy 
 the Bellevue Chateau between the Tiergarten and 
 the river Spree. His wife is childless. 
 
 The Kaiser, the Crown Prince, or some of the 
 numerous Princes of Prussia are always rushing 
 about the streets in motors, each one heralded by 
 a blast on the cornet. Beside the chauffeur on each 
 royal motor sits a horn player who plays the 
 particular few notes of music assigned to that Prince. 
 The Kaiser's call goes well to the words fitted to 
 it by the Berliners, " celeri salade " (celery salad), 
 and has quite a cheerful sound. 
 
 On days of an outdoor function the streets ring 
 with these calls as the royal automobiles whizz back 
 and forth. It is forbidden by law for anyone other 
 than Royalty to announce his coming by more than 
 one note on a Gabriel horn, or other device. I do 
 not know whether out of town or suburban Royalties 
 from Mecklenburg- Schwerin, Strelitz, Lippe, etc., 
 are allowed this privilege when in Berlin ; I think 
 not, and that is perhaps one reason why they so 
 consistently shun the capital of Prussia. 
 
 When the Kaiser motors to Potsdam he usually 
 sits in one of three motors which travel very fast, 
 one behind the other. I do not know whether this 
 is by design or not, but of course it makes an attempt 
 on his life more difficult. 
 
 I used one of the Kaiser's motors in occupied 
 France — a large Mercedes, run by a skilful driver 
 at a great rate of speed. 
 
 The Crown Prince is especially fond of horses, and
 
 THE FUTURE KAISER 277 
 
 if he succeeds to the throne will undoubtedly keep 
 up the royal stable or Marstall. This is situated 
 on the bank of the Spree, across the square from the 
 Royal Schloss in Berlin. There are kept the carriages 
 of state, those sent to bring Ambassadors to the 
 Palace when they first present their letters, two 
 hundred splendid saddle and driving horses, with 
 modern carriages, four-in-hand coaches, dogcarts, 
 etc. Most of the foreign Ambassadors use state 
 carriages for great occasions, with bewigged coach- 
 men and standing footmen. I think Ambassador 
 White was the last American who indulged in the 
 luxury of a state carriage. As a plain dress suit 
 did not exactly fit with a Cinderella coach, I went 
 to functions, such as the Emperor's birthday recep- 
 tion, in a large automobile, retaining only of the 
 former state the necessary body huntsman who 
 acted as footman on these occasions and who wore 
 a livery of hunting green, a cocked hat with red, 
 white and blue plumes, and a long hunting dagger 
 in his belt. 
 
 Out of consideration for the feelings of others I 
 retained the porter in his old finery, a Berlin institu- 
 tion. At state dinners the porter of a Royalty or 
 Ambassador stands at the house entrance, clad in a 
 long coat, wearing a silver belt diagonally across 
 his chest, and crowned by an enormous cocked hat 
 worn sideways. The porter carries also a great silver- 
 headed staff, like a drum major's baton, and when 
 guests of particular importance arrive he pounds 
 this stick three times on the pavement. 
 
 It used to amuse the Berlin crowd lining Unter 
 den Linden to see the Ambassadors and Ministers 
 leave the Palace or Cathedral on the Kaiser's birthday, 
 New Year's Day, etc., to see the state carriages of
 
 278 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 the other Ambassadors overtaken by the modern 
 automobile from America. 
 
 The Berlin lower classes are renowned for their 
 dry wit and they find much to amuse them in the 
 tasteless statues and monuments of Berlin. 
 
 In the square outside our house was a statue of 
 one of Friedrich the Great's Generals which seemed 
 to afford the boys great fun. The General is shown 
 in the act of reflectively feeling his chin and by 
 chance is gazing uncertainly at the barber shop of 
 the neighbouring Hotel Kaiserhof. 
 
 Nobody knows, of course, whether the present 
 Crown Prince will succeed Emperor William— nobody 
 knows the fortunes of war or the fate that this war 
 has in store for the Hohenzollerns ; but while I per- 
 sonally like the Crown Prince, admire his skill in 
 sports, his amiable ways, his smiles to the crowd, 
 I know also of his crazy belief in war. And so long 
 as a ruler persists in this, he is as dangerous to the 
 peace of the world as a man with a plague to the 
 health of a small community.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 
 
 I remember a picture exhibited in the Academy 
 at London, some years ago, representing a custom 
 of the wars of the Middle Ages. 
 
 A great fortress, besieged, frowns down on the 
 plain under the cold moonlight. From its towering 
 walls the useless mouths are thrust forth — if refused 
 food by the enemy, to die — the children, the maimed, 
 the old, the halt, the blind, all those who cannot 
 help in the defence, who consume food needed to 
 strengthen the weakened garrison. 
 
 Every country of the world to-day is in a state 
 of siege, is conserving food and materials, but not 
 yet has Germany sent forth her useless mouths, to 
 Holland, to Scandinavia, and to Switzerland, a sign 
 that not yet is the pinch of hunger in the Empire 
 imperative. 
 
 Since I arrived in America in March, 1917, I have 
 been like Cassandra, the prophetess fated to be 
 right, but never believed. I said then Germany 
 would never break because of starvation, or fail 
 because of revolution, and that her man-power was 
 great. 
 
 We have not made sacrifices enough in this war, 
 there are too many useless mouths. I believe that 
 there are in the States of New York and Pennsyl- 
 vania alone 175,000 professional chauffeurs, a great 
 
 279
 
 2 8o FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 number of them employed on automobiles not used 
 for business or trucking. And then think of the 
 thousands of skilled mechanics employed in garages 
 and factories repairing and making mere pleasure 
 vehicles. If all these chauffeurs (nearly all with 
 some knowledge of machinery) and mechanics were 
 put at work building ships or making rifles there 
 would be no loss to the country, but certain overfed 
 women and their poodles would have to walk, greatly 
 to the advantage of their health and figures. 
 
 Private automobiles disappeared very quickly in 
 Germany. At first a man who could not reach his 
 business in any other way was allowed to use his 
 own automobile, but even these soon went out of 
 commission, and then bicycles were forbidden except 
 for rides to and from business, work or school. A 
 few ramshackle taxicabs still survive in Berlin at 
 the railway stations, driven by benzol instead of 
 gasoline and shod with spring tyres. No one can 
 keep a taxi waiting, it is subject when waiting to 
 be commandeered by the first comer. 
 
 Gradually as we realise the gravity of the conflict 
 our lives will become more earnest and luxuries will 
 be given up to meet the changed condition. There 
 must be a committee who will tide over the workers 
 in luxury industries and help them to learn new 
 war trades. This was done in Germany by the 
 great organisation of the Woman's Service. Already 
 Fifth Avenue dressmakers have dismissed many of 
 their workers, who, being without resources, should 
 receive assistance and advice until they have learned 
 other trades. 
 
 Our farmers are entitled to cheaper labour. Why 
 should not enemy aliens work our farms ? We do 
 not propose to make the Austrian and German and
 
 WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 281 
 
 Hungarian women agricultural slaves as the Germans 
 made the Russian women caught by the war within 
 the borders of Germany, nor have we the right, I 
 believe, to force civilian prisoners to work. But we 
 can give these civilian men, instead of meat twice 
 a day, now given them, the same food which the 
 Germans give their prisoners, until the enemy aliens 
 volunteer to work in our fields. They should, of 
 course, work, as in Germany, under guard. They 
 should be used also in mines, factories, etc. The 
 sooner we use every ounce of war energy, the sooner 
 we shall beat Germany and obtain a lasting peace. 
 
 Eventually forced by the hopelessness of the 
 economic situation, the nerve of Germany will break. 
 There is a suicide point in the German character. 
 The German has been sustained since the war by 
 victories somewhere. No defeats were brought home 
 to the German people. Viewed from inside the 
 German Empire, what are the loss of a few villages 
 on the West front or even of distant colonies com- 
 pared to the conquest of Belgium, of the richest 
 part of France, of thousands of square miles of 
 Russia, of Roumania, Montenegro and Serbia ? With 
 the exception of a very small bit of Alsace the war 
 is being fought far from German territory. The 
 German can swagger down the streets of the capitals 
 of his enemies, in Brussels, Belgrade, Bucharest, 
 Warsaw and Cetinje, and Prussian greed exacts 
 tribute from rich cities, from Lille on the West to 
 Wilna far within the frontiers of Russia. 
 
 Our President has never faltered. He will convince 
 the Germans at last that we are unfaltering in the 
 war, that nothing can swerve us from our goal— 
 the destruction of the autocracy which looks on war 
 as good and seeks the dominion of the earth. When
 
 282 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 the Germans grasp that, then will come the suicide 
 point. 
 
 There is nothing in the war for the German who 
 is not a noble or a Junker, an officer or an official. 
 German victory will only bend the collar of caste 
 and servitude, low wages and militarism, tighter 
 on the German neck. Sooner or later the deceived 
 German will discover this ; revolution will not come 
 during the war, but after it, unless it closes with 
 a German peace, or unless, in anticipation of revolt, 
 rights are granted to the people. 
 
 We cannot stop, we cannot bear the burden of 
 the debts of this war and at the same time burden 
 ourselves with future military preparation to meet 
 a confident conquering Germany ready to carry the 
 sword into South America. Whatever the sacrifice, 
 we must go on. 
 
 And for each country and for the Allies as a whole 
 there is one word, Unity. 
 
 When all had signed our Declaration of Indepen- 
 dence, Benjamin Franklin said, " And now we must 
 all hang together or we shall all hang separately." 
 
 Russia has, for the moment, failed, and unless 
 she recovers herself she will pay the penalty by 
 submission to German rule. 
 
 Is there a defect in the Russian character ? Is 
 persistency lacking ? In 1760 the Russian troops 
 had taken Berlin. If Russia had gone on strongly 
 with the war, the power of Frederick the Great 
 might have been broken. But apparently the Rus- 
 sian troops simply turned around and went back 
 to Russia. In 1854, in the Crimean War, after a 
 long siege and bitter losses, the French, Turks, 
 English and Sardinians succeeded in taking one 
 Russian city, Sebastopol, in the extreme southern
 
 WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 283 
 
 part of Russia. With this exception, Russian terri- 
 tory was intact, and yet the Czar Alexander II. 
 shortly after the death of Nicholas, begged for peace. 
 As a result the Black Sea was made for a time neutral, 
 and no State could have warships or arsenals on it 
 with the exception of small gunboats for police 
 purposes. 
 
 In 1878, after the Russo-Turkish War, when the 
 Russian troops were in sight of the minarets of 
 Constantinople, the Russians allowed themselves to 
 be bluffed by the diplomats of Europe from obtaining 
 the fruits of victory. 
 
 Secretly or openly, Germany will propose to the 
 world to take her pay from the skin of the Bear, 
 from the conquered territories of Russia which re- 
 main in her possession. The inhabitants of those 
 territories would have to become the slaves of Prussia 
 as did the inhabitants of Belgium and Northern 
 France. Prussians of Russia paid the agitators to 
 talk about peace without indemnities. Germany, 
 since the first days of the war, has been taking in- 
 demnities not only in money but in property and 
 in labour from the conquered countries. Belgium 
 alone has been compelled to pay a tribute of forty 
 million francs a month (lately sixty million) to her 
 conquerors, and vast sums have been exacted from 
 Lille and other conquered cities. Property, including 
 machinery, has been seized and transported to Ger- 
 many in the effort not only to obtain a temporary 
 advantage, but to destroy for ever factories that 
 compete with German manufacturers. 
 
 Especially do the German autocrats hope to obtain 
 the so-called Baltic provinces as a spoil of war. 
 Of Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia, now largely 
 occupied by the German invaders, Courland and
 
 284 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Livonia were originally possessions of the Teutonic 
 Knights, then became a part of Poland and finally 
 passed to Russia. The three provinces were governed 
 semi-independently until 1876, when they became 
 in all respects an integral part of the Russian Empire. 
 The land in the provinces is held by great landowners, 
 mostly of German blood — and the mass of the popu- 
 lation belongs to the Lutheran Church. The peasants 
 have been kept down by the lords of the soil, whose 
 sympathies turn to Germany. 
 
 In 1913-1914 I met in Berlin several landlords 
 from these provinces who acted in Berlin and were 
 treated in Berlin like Germans, although subjects 
 of the Russian Czar. So backward were these pro- 
 vinces in liberty under their German landlord that it 
 was not until 1848 that the infamous " right of the 
 lord " (droit du seigneur or jus primce noctis) 
 was abolished. 
 
 What Tannenberg has to say about Courland, 
 Livonia and Esthonia is well worth studying. He 
 writes : 
 
 " The most precious portions for us of the Russian heritage are 
 the German Baltic provinces, Courland, Livonia, Esthonia. 
 
 " To the north in Esthonia and in the northern part of Livonia 
 live the Esthonians. In the south, the Livonians of the Lithu- 
 anian branch. Esthonians and Livonians are Lutherans and 
 form the principal part of the population. There are 250,000 
 Germans. But the civilisation is German and gives to the whole 
 country a German stamp. In the rural districts, the great land- 
 lords, the ministers of the Gospel and the schoolmasters are German. 
 In the cities the middle classes are Germans. But the working 
 men are Esthonians or Livonians. The Russians are only repre- 
 sented in the large cities by officials. 
 
 " It was in the middle of the twelfth century that the first German 
 settlements were made at the mouth of the Dina. In 1201, Riga 
 was founded, and, in 1202, the Order of the Knights of the Sword. 
 In 1237 this Order was united with the powerful Order of the Teu- 
 tonic Knights. There was no thought then of the Muscovites. 
 From Marienburg to Riga it is five hundred kilometres, from 
 Koenigsburg to Riga three hundred and fifty, to Moscow eight
 
 WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 285 
 
 hundred and fifty. Moscow was then going through a very 
 difficult period. In 1225 the battle of the Kalka took place, 
 which put an end to the power of the great Russian Princes. 
 
 " From Riga to Kalka, Dantzig, Stettin and Lubeck, there was 
 sea communication. The all-powerful merchant marine of the 
 Hanseatic League was at its height. ..." 
 
 Tannenberg describes how these provinces finally 
 became part of Russia and adds : 
 
 " Courland, Livonia and Esthonia became the model provinces 
 of the whole Empire. The German nobility furnished Russia 
 with its generals and its high officials : the University of Dorpat 
 was founded and was the model of the high schools created later 
 in Russia. . . . The University of Dorpat exchanged its professors 
 with the other German high schools of the Russian Empire. The 
 students of the Baltic provinces passed several terms in the German 
 Universities of the South and East of Germany and then returned 
 to Dorpat to undergo their examinations to enter in the service of 
 the Baltic or Russian State. 
 
 " One encounters constantly in our literature allusions to the 
 Baltic provinces. Kant, the philosopher of pure reason, published 
 his work at Riga. ... In the time of Goethe students from Cour- 
 land and Livonia visited the great of Weimar. Richard Wagner 
 commenced at Riga his theatrical and musical career." 
 
 Tannenberg speaks of the revolution after the defeat 
 by the Japanese of the Russian troops in these pro- 
 vinces, when the castles of the German Barons were 
 besieged by the people, and says, " The cry of indigna- 
 tion resounded through all Germany. A military Ger- 
 man intervention was generally expected. Against all 
 expectation nothing of the kind happened." . . . 
 " When the Russian Government finally got control 
 the Russian troops treated the rebels mildly, and it 
 was finally the sparkling on the horizon of five 
 million German bayonets that hastened matters so 
 well that superficially, at least, order was re-estab- 
 lished." 
 
 Speaking on the annexation of those provinces 
 
 to Germany he says : 
 
 " There is no money to be seized in the East, but
 
 286 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 there is something which is of more value than cash, 
 and that is lands, lands of colonisation for new Ger- 
 man peasants." And he points out that the Baltic 
 provinces are about the same size as Bavaria and 
 Wurtemberg, but in Bavaria and Wurtemberg 
 there are eight and a half millions of inhabitants, 
 while the Baltic provinces support a little over two 
 millions. 
 
 " The Baltic provinces have always occupied an 
 important place in the thought and sentiments of 
 the German people. The public as a whole does not 
 inquire if it's true that only fifteen per cent, of the 
 population is German. For the public they are 
 simply the German provinces of the Baltic and the 
 German people are right, because since seven hundred 
 years the proprietors of the land there are Germans 
 and the civilisation has always been German." 
 
 Should Germany be allowed to seize these pro- 
 vinces, to increase her population and man-power 
 enormously, a second great war like this one will not 
 be far off, and Russia, deprived of what Peter the Great 
 called " his window on the Baltic," will lose her 
 place as a European Power. 
 
 The Germans will endeavour, during any peace 
 negotiations, to keep their troops there in the hope 
 that they will be permitted to occupy these provinces 3 
 or that, if a vote should be taken to determine to 
 which country the inhabitants wish to be annexed, 
 the latter would be coerced through the German 
 landlords, and by the use of money and terror made 
 to appear as desirous of annexation to Germany. 
 
 Prince Miinster, who had been in this section during 
 the war, told me once how easy it was to observe 
 that the more prosperous sections of the population 
 were German and how anxious these people were
 
 WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 287 
 
 to become Germans. In this case I think he was 
 right to the extent that the feudal landlords of the 
 Baltic provinces believe that as Prussian Junkers 
 they would have a greater chance to continue to 
 oppress the people than as Russian citizens, especially 
 citizens of a new Russian republic. 
 
 The Allies must guard against any move which 
 can add to the man-power of the Central Powers, 
 and this reason alone is sufficient reason never to 
 permit the Arabs and Syrians, who have been so 
 oppressed by the Turks, to suffer again under the 
 rule of the Young Turks. 
 
 The world must not be disturbed again by Prus- 
 sian dreams of world conquest, nor must Jerusalem 
 and the Holy Land, towards which the eyes of all 
 Christians have turned for twenty centuries, be 
 voluntarily given back to the Turks. 
 
 To allow the Germans access to Bagdad is to 
 invite trouble — a second attempt of the Kaiser to 
 don the turban and proclaim a Holy War in the 
 interest of the fat merchants of Hamburg and Frank- 
 fort. 
 
 If this were an old-time war, when sly diplomats 
 sat at a green table, exchanging territories and 
 peoples like poker chips, we might consent to the 
 partition and destruction of Russia as most natural. 
 But this war is between two systems, and wars 
 either will be continued or cease hereafter. We 
 who hope for the end of war cannot permit Germany 
 to add to her man-power any part of the rapidly 
 multiplying population of that great territory which 
 we now call Russia. 
 
 It is probable that Russia will go through the 
 stages of the great French Revolution. We have 
 had already the revolution made by the whole nation,
 
 288 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Duma, Army, and the control of the respectable 
 moderate Republicans. The period of the Jacobins, 
 the extremists, has come too, and we must in the 
 end expect the appearance of the military leader, 
 a strong man who will bring order. That is what 
 will happen, for Russia cannot remain a nation 
 under the control of any Government which cheer- 
 fully consents to dismemberment of her territory. 
 Perhaps Trotzky will be clever enough to transform 
 himself into a patriotic militant leader; if not, then 
 he will not long remain at the head. 
 
 All these movements of lesser so-called nationalities 
 are fostered by Prussian propagandists. 
 
 The region of the Ukraine, in Southern Russia, 
 is supposed to be clamouring for freedom and in- 
 dependent existence. Long before the Russian revo- 
 lution, I and all the diplomats of Germany were 
 flooded with newspapers, pamphlets and literature 
 about the longing of the Ukraine — all as plainly 
 issued by the Germans as if they had been stamped 
 with the Royal Arms of Prussia and the seal of the 
 General Staff. 
 
 The Lithuanians, too, stir uneasily. There is, 
 perhaps, more in their claim ; they request the world 
 not to confuse them with the Poles and they protest 
 against incorporation with Poland. But should a 
 number of little States be created, sliced from the 
 map of Russia, they would enjoy but a short inde- 
 pendence before falling, one by one, into the maw 
 of Prussia. 
 
 Everyone sympathises with the Poles and hopes 
 for the establishment of a really free and independent 
 Poland, and not a Poland under the rule or protection 
 of either Austria or Germany. It will be a great 
 experiment, because in the past the great State of
 
 WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 289 
 
 Poland, one of the greatest in Europe, was broken 
 because of the incapacity of the Poles to rule them- 
 selves. Their armies showed great bravery, the 
 Polish cavalry, winged like angels, terrified enemy 
 cavalry horses and charged often to victory ; but the 
 Polish aristocrats, camped with thousands of retainers 
 at the place where the King was elected, sat patiently 
 waiting for the highest bidder before giving their 
 votes. 
 
 And the King once elected, the Polish Diet ac- 
 complished nothing, because any noble who voted 
 against a proposition could defeat it. This was the 
 so-called "liberum veto " so fatal to Poland. Katha- 
 rine of Russia, that clever, wise, dissolute but 
 great German Princess, placing a puppet favourite 
 on the Polish throne, insisted on the retention of 
 the " liberum veto " in the Polish Constitution, 
 because she knew that by the mere existence of this 
 asinine institution Poland could be counted on to 
 commit suicide for the benefit of the watching 
 spoilers, Russia, Prussia and Austria. 
 
 But a new, real Poland would not be governed 
 by its aristocracy, and under a democratic govern- 
 ment the splendid Polish race could be trusted to 
 work out successfully their political salvation. 
 
 Should the strong man fail to appear in Russia 
 and the Bolsheviki continue to rule, then the con- 
 fusion of Russia may not prove an immediate help 
 to Germany. 
 
 In the first place, no one now works in Russia; 
 the population will be in want of food and will not 
 have any great surplus to export ; and it will be a 
 long time before Germany can draw any material 
 help from the steppes of incompetency. Had Russia 
 immediately settled down to a new form of govern- 
 
 u
 
 290 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 ment, the case might have been different, but now 
 Germany or some power in Russia must first organise 
 that vast country for production under new conditions 
 before Germany can begin to profit from the with- 
 drawal of Russia from the war, except, perhaps, in 
 that important factor — the release of German troops 
 from the Eastern frontier. But as time passes the 
 Germans may use food from Russia to bribe northern 
 neutral nations into an alliance with the Central 
 Empires. 
 
 Revolutions are contagious. In 1848, the move- 
 ment started in France spread all over Europe. 
 The burdened horse on the road evinces a tendency 
 to get out of hand at the mere sight of another 
 horse cavorting about a pasture. The Germans are 
 in blinders and driven by a heavy hand, but forgotten 
 as liberty is in Germany, the German Michael, the 
 peasant chained to the soil, the hard-driven, poorly- 
 paid worker of the cities, at least, will exhibit a spirit 
 of uneasiness, when across the line he sees Ivan, the 
 Russian moujik, capering about, free from restraint 
 and running things at his own sweet will. The yoke 
 fits tight to Michael's neck, the German Kaiser drives 
 hard from his All Highest Place ; but no Emperor 
 seemed more secure than the head of the Romanoffs, 
 and the very fact that the chains of the yoke seem 
 so strong may make the driven cattle all the more 
 ready to toss the yoke aside when knowledge of power 
 comes to the lower castes of Germany and Austria. 
 
 On the question of war Prussia is a civilisation 
 as different from that of France, Great Britain and 
 America as is China. 
 
 Ministers of the Gospel, professors, poets, writers, 
 teach war ; the necessity, the glory, the nobility
 
 WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN 291 
 
 of war. Long before Nietzsche wrote and Treitschke 
 taught war as a part of the Prussian creed the teach- 
 ings of these mad philosophers expressed an indigenous 
 feeling in Germany. It is not some abstract belief 
 to be studied. It is a vital, burning, ever-present 
 question which affects deeply, intimately, every man 
 in this world. For until the Prussians are made 
 weary of this belief and converted to a milder life, 
 there is no woman in any corner of the earth, however 
 remote, who may not have to see her son or husband 
 go out to die in the fight against Prussian aggression, 
 who may not, if this fight fails, be dragged away with 
 her daughters to become slaves or endure that which 
 is far worse than slavery. 
 
 If the Prussian people themselves cling to their 
 Gods of War, if Kaiser and Crown Prince fulfil 
 their ideals, if the Prussian leave the reins in the hands 
 of these warlike taskmasters and refuse to join 
 the other peoples in stamping out the devil of war, 
 then the conflict must go on, go on until the Germans 
 get their stomachs full of war, until they forget their 
 easy victories of the last century, until their leaders 
 learn that war as a national industry does not pay, 
 until their wealth and their trade have disappeared, 
 until their sons are maimed and killed and their 
 land laid waste, until the blinders fall from their 
 eyes and they sicken of Emperor and Crown Prince, 
 of the almost countless Kings and Grand Dukes and 
 Princes, Generals and Admirals, Court Marshals and 
 Chamberlains and Majors and Adjutants, Captains 
 and Lieutenants, who now, like fat, green, distended 
 flies, feed on the blood of Germany. What is there 
 in war for any one but those men of froth at the top ? 
 It is this infernal King business that is responsible ; 
 so much of the King tradition is bound up with war 
 
 u 2
 
 292 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 that a King with power feels that he is untrue to the 
 traditions of his ancestors if he fails at some period 
 of his career to give the Court painters and the Court 
 poets and the Court historians a chance to portray 
 him as a successful warrior. 
 
 The British Air Minister recently announced that 
 reprisal raids were to be made on German towns. 
 Who is not sorry for the poor people who may suffer, 
 but the war must be brought home to them. They 
 have made no protest while Zeppelins killed babies 
 and women and children in the " fortress " of London. 
 The " fortress " of London, indeed ! First the Ger- 
 mans attack an open town, contrary to every rule, 
 and then, when guns are mounted to ward off future 
 attacks, the Germans christen the town a " fortress " 
 and claim the right to continue this slaughter of 
 non-combatants. 
 
 Postcards were sold and eagerly bought all over 
 Germany showing the Zeppelins bombing towns. 
 When some German father sits by the hospital bed 
 of his dying daughter, who sobs out her life torn 
 with a fatal wound, let him tack one of these post- 
 cards over the bed and in looking on it remember 
 that " he who lives by the sword shall perish by the 
 sword," that it was at the command of the Kaiser 
 and the Crown Prince when they thought only the 
 German Zeppelins could make a successful air raid 
 that these massacres were ordered, and that the 
 German people at the time yelled their approval of 
 deliberate dastardly murder. 
 
 " Te Deum ' has been always the favourite psalm 
 sung in cathedrals for all Christian conquerors, but 
 neither psalms nor the paid pastor's praises of the 
 Emperor will satisfy the German people, who have 
 made awful sacrifices for intangible victories.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 THE ERRORS OF EFFICIENT GERMANY 
 
 The Yankee finding himself, like Mark Twain's 
 hero, suddenly transported back to King Arthur's 
 Court is landed in a surprising and unknown world. 
 But one of King Arthur's knights brought to life 
 at the Court of the present German Emperor, aside 
 from steam, electricity, gunpowder, telegraph and 
 telephones, would find the system as despotic as in 
 the days when the enchanter, Merlin, wove his spells 
 and the sword Excalibur appeared from the depths 
 of the magic lake. But while the system is as royal 
 and as despotic as in King Arthur's day, while 
 the King and his military nobles look down on the 
 merchants and the toilers and the plain people, no 
 knights ride forth intent upon good deeds, to protect 
 the poor or avenge the wrongs of the innocent. 
 
 It was the cold realists of the General Staff who 
 battered down the defences of Belgium and the forts 
 of France, destroyed the monuments of art and 
 levied a tax of sixty million francs a month upon a 
 little country deprived of its means to produce 
 wealth, took the food from the inhabitants, shipped 
 the machinery and raw material into Germany, 
 deported the men and insulted the women and drove 
 whole populations from their homes to work as 
 slaves for the conquerors. 
 
 But while they can plan military successes in the 
 first rush of assault on the chessboard of Europe 
 
 -.' IS
 
 294 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 they have failed to understand other nations— failed 
 even to learn the lessons of history. They did not 
 know that in every land, in every walk of life, there 
 are men who will "reject a bribe and who will die for 
 an idea." 
 
 Imagine a German Staff officer reporting in Berlin 
 that over a hundred thousand Alsatians were armed 
 and organised and that they threatened, unless 
 certain proposed legislation uniting them, for example, 
 with Baden was withdrawn, to resist forcibly any 
 attempt to incorporate them in that Grand Duchy. 
 Would not this look to a German officer like real 
 revolution and nothing else ? And when, in addition, 
 there came news of the landing of arms for the 
 Nationalists in Ireland and of the organisation of 
 the Nationalist Army, the Germans, without know- 
 ledge of the psychology of other peoples, believed 
 that Great Britain had her hands full and that the 
 moment had come when they could go to war and 
 leave Great Britain out of all calculations. So study- 
 ing only the German mind, believing that all peoples 
 in national character are like the Germans, the Great 
 General Staff, the greatest military aggregation the 
 world has ever seen, failed lamentably, whenever 
 the human element became the factor in the situation. 
 Its military successes have been marvellous ; its 
 judgments of mankind ridiculous. Its errors of judg- 
 ment may be arranged as follows : 
 
 Error Number One. 
 
 Italy was in alliance with Germany and Austria, 
 although there was no greater hate before the war 
 than that between Italians and Austrians ; and the 
 Great General Staff believed that Italy would remain 
 in this unnatural alliance, would fight in order to
 
 THE ERRORS OF EFFICIENT GERMANY 295 
 
 give the Germans and the German-Austrians the 
 domination of Europe. The victory of the Central 
 Empires would have placed Italy under that Austrian 
 influence from which in her struggle for freedom 
 under the leadership of Cavour, Garibaldi and Victor 
 Emmanuel she had liberated herself. 
 
 Prince Bulow, who early in his career romantically 
 married a charming Italian of good family, was 
 sent to Rome to keep Italy neutral. But he failed. 
 
 Error Number Two. 
 
 Germany's belief that because of the Carson move- 
 ment Great Britain was immobilised and could take 
 no part in the war. 
 
 Error Number Three. 
 
 The theory cherished especially in military circles 
 that because the Japanese Army had been trained 
 by Prussians Japan would join Germany. Indeed, 
 at the moment when the Japanese were packing 
 their trunks and preparing to leave their Embassy, a 
 German crowd with flags and torches was assembled in 
 front cheering Japan, the latest ally of the Entente. 
 
 Error Number Four. 
 
 The belief by the General Staff that the British 
 Colonies would render no assistance to the mother 
 country. 
 
 In the first days after England entered the war 
 many German statesmen said to me, " Of course, 
 now Canada will be incorporated in the United 
 States." The Germans believed that the practical 
 thing, for the moment, for the Canadians was to 
 avoid war, to disavow all their obligations and ties 
 of blood and permit Britain to be destroyed. The 
 General Staff thought that, because the world did
 
 296 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 not have actual proof of the German designs of 
 world conquest, because that design had not been 
 publicly proclaimed, no people or nation would 
 either know or understand the vast enterprise of 
 conquest on which Prussian autocracy had embarked. 
 
 Error Number Five. 
 
 The unexpected resistance of the Belgians. 
 
 The German armies were held only a few days, 
 yet the delay of those few days changed the fortunes 
 of the world. 
 
 Error Number Six. 
 
 The splendid stand of France, which was a complete 
 surprise to the Great General Staff. They believed 
 that France was degenerate, torn by scandals, and 
 that a sudden assault would land the German Army 
 in Paris. In this connection it was another great 
 error for the Germans to have sought Paris, im- 
 portant from a sentimental but not a military point 
 of view. They might better have occupied first the 
 north coast of France, and from there could have 
 conducted the German submarine campaign with 
 deadly effect. 
 
 Error Number Seven. 
 
 We have seen what a shell the Russian Empire 
 was, but in July, 1914, the Great General Staff 
 believed that Russia was on the edge of a revolution. 
 Barricades had been erected in the streets of Petro- 
 grad and the Staff believed that the revolution, 
 which has since divided Russia, was in the making. 
 Instead of this the Russian Empire lasted for nearly 
 three years and the Russian troops and generals 
 inflicted many a hard blow not only on the Austrians 
 but on the German forces.
 
 THE ERRORS OF EFFICIENT GERMANY 297 
 
 Error Number Eight. 
 
 Germany was confident that the United States 
 had been so propagandised, so covered by bribes, 
 by paid newspapers, that the export of supplies to 
 the Allies could be prevented. Another error was 
 the barbarity shown in the sinking of the Lusitania, 
 by which it was sought to terrorise Americans into 
 withholding from England and France the privileges 
 of international law, and of the definite Treaty of 
 The Hague in 1907, in which Germany had joined, 
 and which gave to private individuals the right to 
 supply munitions of war to any belligerent. 
 
 Error Number Nine. 
 
 Thinking that the Emperor, by posing as a Mo- 
 hammedan in the East, could with the aid of the 
 Turks stir all Mohammedans to a Holy War. 
 
 The Germans laboured with the Mohammedan 
 soldiers captured by them. I saw many fine-looking 
 old Sheiks from the desert entering the Foreign 
 Office in Berlin. The Eastern world was filled with 
 German spies. But the Holy War was a failure, 
 and the hope that the races of Asia and Africa would 
 rise in favour of Germany was not borne out by 
 events. The men of the East are wise, the rulers 
 of India are enlightened and were not silly enough 
 to place themselves voluntarily under the harsh rule 
 of Prussia. 
 
 Error Number Ten. 
 
 The belief that President Wilson had been elected 
 with an absolute mandate to keep the peace at all 
 costs ; the Germans declared for unrestricted sub- 
 marine warfare, expecting a craven neutrality from 
 the United States.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 
 
 Once the Kaiser said to me, " I wish I had as much 
 power as your President. He has far more power 
 than I have." 
 
 What would the Kaiser say of the power and 
 prestige now enjoyed by the President of the United 
 States ? 
 
 At first blush it seems almost ridiculous for us 
 to rush to war shouting against autocracy while 
 the man with the greatest power the world has ever 
 seen announces to the world that we fight " to make 
 the world safe for Democracy." 
 
 Charles I must turn enviously in his grave when 
 his spirit sees the obedient Parliament of Washington ; 
 and a line of fallen Kings, from Charles to Nicky 
 Romanoff, must wish that they had had the oppor- 
 tunity to attend lectures at Princeton University, 
 where our President, Woodrow Wilson, once held 
 forth on the science of government. 
 
 But it is characteristic of the high intelligence 
 of our people that we have recognised that war 
 to be waged effectively must be directed by one 
 head. We know that after the war we shall be 
 able to recover all the powers delegated to the 
 
 29S
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 299 
 
 President. We have gained by our temporary sur- 
 render all the efficiency of autocracy and risked none 
 of its dangers, and have simply followed the custom 
 of the free German tribes which elected a leader 
 for war and gave him a power never given the chiefs 
 in time of peace. 
 
 How much more enduring is our Government ! 
 Since the war the Government Cabinets of England 
 have twice changed radically, that of France five 
 times, and Italy very frequently indeed. Few realise 
 that our Constitution is the oldest in the world to-day. 
 Since its adoption the government of every land 
 in some material particular has changed many times, 
 France, for instance, from King and Republic, then 
 to citizen kingship, then to Republic, then to Empire, 
 and finally to Republic. In England the form has 
 remained the same, but the power passed in 1830, 
 with the passage of the Reform Bill, from nobles 
 to commoners, as great a revolution as any in 
 France. 
 
 And I admire the very inaccessibility of President 
 Wilson. He does not waste time on non-essentials, 
 on useless, polite conversation or pointless discussion. 
 This may add to his enemies but makes for efficiency. 
 
 When I saw the President on one occasion about 
 German affairs we talked for four and a quarter 
 hours without intermission. In that period he ex- 
 tracted from me all the information he required 
 at the time. He is a wonderful man to have at the 
 head of our nation in war or peace. 
 
 Gradually the splendid Peace Message of our 
 President (January 8, 1918) will sink into the con- 
 sciousness of the German people. 
 
 There are liberal and reasonable men among them 
 striving for peace and for disarmament.
 
 3 oo FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 In January of 1917, just at the moment when 
 the military autocracy brought on war with America 
 by their sudden announcement of ruthless submarine 
 warfare, the Liberals of Germany were preparing to 
 co-operate with our President in the efforts that he 
 was then making for peace. 
 
 A Socialist member of the Reichstag, a man whose 
 name is known throughout the world, wrote at that 
 time two articles to be used in the effort for peace, 
 and I print them in order that those outside of 
 Germany may obtain a glimpse of the mind of one 
 of the leading Socialists of that country. These 
 articles have never before been published. 
 
 I feel that now when we are at war with Germany 
 perhaps it would cause embarrassment to this man 
 should I publish his name. In a country where a 
 man may be sent to gaol for speaking without respect 
 of some act of the Kaiser's ancestors, committed 
 more than four hundred years ago, it is dangerous 
 for any German to put his name to utterances 
 which might not march with the wishes of despotic 
 Germany. 
 
 It has always been the desire of the Kaiser's 
 Government to draw the Allies into a peace confer- 
 ence with the hope of detaching some of the Allies 
 from their combination. Perhaps these articles, 
 although written by a Socialist, were part of a clever 
 governmental peace propaganda to which the Majority 
 Socialists so readily lent themselves during the year 
 1917. But on the other hand I think these articles 
 represent the sincere real expression of the writer, 
 who is still a member of the Minority or Haase faction 
 of the German Socialist Party. Though written a 
 year ago they discuss points still unsolved and which 
 must come before the peace conference that settles 
 the war :
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 301 
 
 HOW AMERICA CAN HELP EUROPE 
 By , Member of the Reichstag 
 
 The immediate reply of the Central Powers to President Wilson's 
 Note (December, 1916) has been a polite refusal to indicate, beyond 
 some generalities open to the blame of ambiguity, in a clear way 
 what their demands of peace would be. It has been followed by 
 their Note to the neutrals of January 1 1 , which also avoids gi ving 
 a distinct delineation of their demands. The Central Powers 
 maintain that only a peace conference of the belligerents them- 
 selves would be the proper place to bring forth the respective peace 
 conditions, and they state they would produce theirs when once 
 the conference has met. Putting aside every insinuation of motives 
 one cannot help being reminded by this of the attitude of the Central 
 Powers during the fateful twelve days of July-August, 1914, 
 when they refused any outside mediation and insisted on direct 
 conversations between Russia and Austria, whilst the punitive 
 military expedition of the latter against Serbia had to take its 
 course. In so far their suggestion would not augur well for the 
 execution. 
 
 The Entente Allies, on their side, have been somewhat more 
 explicit. Their answer to President Wilson includes the 
 delineation of demands that certainly are open to criticism, 
 but just for this call for a reply or even compel it. At the 
 time these lines are written only newspaper comments have so 
 far come forward, and it is not necessary to dwell upon these. Nor 
 does it seem appropriate to anticipate the reply of the Chancellor, 
 which in some form or other will surely be given in the course of the 
 next weeks. What matters is that there is a programme given for 
 discussion and we are able to scrutinise its nature and bearing. 
 
 The demands explicitly or implicitly contained in the Note of 
 the Allies can be summarised under five heads, viz. : 
 
 1 . Restitution of occupied territory to its former political 
 
 community. 
 
 2. Reparation for inflicted material and moral wrongs. 
 
 3. Territorial changes motivated by alleged 
 
 (a) rights of nationality. 
 
 (b) need for freeing suppressed or protecting consistently 
 
 maltreated nationalities. 
 
 4. Reform of International Law. 
 
 5. National and international treaties for the protection of 
 
 inland and maritime boundaries.
 
 302 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 Of these the demands under 1 and 2 are certainly in their principle 
 quite reasonable, and if it comes to actual and exact formulation 
 are apt to lead to a fair agreement. 
 
 The demands under 3 are partly on principle also unobjectionable, 
 whilst some, as, e.g., the cession of the Polish provinces of Prussia 
 to a Polish State under Russian tutelage or the cession of the 
 European vilayets of Turkey to Russia or some newly created com- 
 munity under Russian tutelage, can hardly be supported by reason- 
 able argument in the face of the fact that they could only be carried 
 out by dictation after a complete and crushing victory of the Allies 
 over the Central Powers. That is to say, after a prolonged war more 
 murderous and more embittered than that behind us. It is to be 
 expected that public discussion will in regard to demands of this 
 nature create an opinion resulting in their reduction if not dis- 
 appearance. What is reasonable in them falls either under number 
 3, letter "a," or under numbers 4 and 5. 
 
 Now as regards the demands under 4 and 5, the settlement of 
 most of them belongs rightly to an International Conference of all 
 the nations. In their good and efficient regulation all are inte- 
 rested. They are also of the greatest concern to the future of man- 
 kind as a whole. The demands or questions can as regards their 
 general character also be divided under three other heads, viz. : 
 
 Firstly, questions of justice to nations or nationalities as political 
 or sociological entities ; 
 
 Secondly, questions of the most expedient settlement of disputes 
 between individual Powers or groups of such where no fundamental 
 principles of nationality or similar rights are concerned ; and 
 
 Thirdly, questions which concern all the nations through their 
 common interest in general security and protection against the dis- 
 turbance of international peace and traffic. 
 
 . Both the Allies and the Central Powers agree to the idea of settling 
 these latter questions in a better way than before ; i.e., by an 
 International League of the Nations to enforce peace. But both 
 want the creation of this League to be settled after the war. It can, 
 however, with good reason be upheld that there is in this a fault 
 against logic which would have to be paid dearly by them as well as 
 by the neutral world. Both base a number of their demands on the 
 necessity of protecting themselves against renewed onslaughts by 
 their opponents. Now such protection might be a necessary thing 
 under the present state of an International Law which has been 
 outraged and partly been made inane by themselves and has partly 
 turned out not to meet the conditions of modern warfare as they
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 303 
 
 result from the modern weapons of destruction. But it would be 
 made unnecessary or its requirements be greatly reduced if the 
 League of the Nations, such as is in principle accepted by them, did 
 already exist or had its rules and regulations already laid down in 
 detail. Is it reasonable to allow this contradiction to cause now 
 innumerable deaths and mutilations of human beings and unbounded 
 destruction of material wealth instead of seeking means to dissolve 
 it as early as possible ? Ought not all our wits to be exerted to find 
 this earlier solution ? 
 
 There are within the means of the neutrals, if acting together, 
 two ways to bring the war to an earlier end than that to be expected 
 from the free decision of the belligerents. The one is to drop all 
 considerations of neutrality such as at present regarded and, 
 without directly supporting the one section to the detriment of 
 the other, withdraw from both of them all supplies in food, raw 
 material, half and wholly manufactured goods, not minding which 
 section would by this be more damaged than its opponents. In 
 fact, it would most likely be a decidedly unneutral measure against 
 the one section which now benefits more than the other by these 
 supplies, and because of this and from other reasons there is little 
 probability that it would find general acceptance. The other way is 
 to reduce the justification of the continuation of the war by mini- 
 mising the objects for which it is led in the belief of the great masses 
 of the people engaged as much as in the eyes of the outside world. 
 
 Both belligerents, to say it again, put in the first line of their 
 requirements security against renewed attacks, protection against 
 the continuation of the insecurity of peace. Both admit that the 
 proposed League of the Nations has become a necessity ; both admit 
 that it might indeed protect mankind against new wars and a state 
 of incessantly endangered peace. Why then wait and let the disaster 
 go on instead of proceeding at once to lay the foundation of this 
 League ? 
 
 The step is not so impossible as it might appear. Supposing 
 one neutral State took the matter in hand and, after having ascer- 
 tained the consent of the other neutrals, or at least a majority of 
 them, — which it is almost sure to obtain — would invite all the nations, 
 the belligerents included, to a conference or a congress at a neutral 
 place for the discussion and the arrangement of the principles and 
 rules of the proposed League of the Nations. Would the belligerent 
 nations refuse to send their delegates to such a conference ? Could 
 they do it without damaging their case before the world of the 
 neutrals and the masses of their own people ? It is most im-
 
 3 04 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 probable that they would do such a thing. And even if they did 
 they would not by this put the conference to naught. It would be 
 there and would give palpable substance to an idea which until 
 now lived, in spite of great and most ingenuous work spent on it, 
 politically only in the sphere of lofty speculation or projects. 
 
 And the conference could do more. Starting from the maxim 
 which finds such impressive accentuation in President Wilson's 
 Note that war in general must not, and the present war in particular 
 cannot, be regarded as the private affair of the individual States 
 that engage in it, the conference could also take into consideration 
 some questions of consequence connected with the present war. 
 It could, e.g., whilst laying the foundations for the security of 
 countries against wilful attacks, lay down opinions about the just 
 settlement of disputed questions of nationality and the liberation 
 of nations or part of such from allegiance to a State or Empire of 
 different or mixed nationalities. It seems to become a necessity to 
 make clear whether a Power or coalition of such can be justified 
 to put in the list of their war aims the liberation of nationalities 
 without sufficient proof that the latter all want to sever 
 their connection with the State or Empire to which they just 
 
 belong. 
 
 The Czechs in Austria and the Finns in Russia strive for their 
 full autonomy within these Empires, but they have very little shown 
 of a desire to become a separate State. An opinion that wars for 
 abstruse benefits never asked for can under no circumstances be 
 regarded as liberation wars would wrong nobody because it would 
 apply to all, but it may contribute much to have designs given up 
 which otherwise would uselessly cause bloodshed and prolonged 
 enmities. 
 
 The conference would also be justified in taking measures to 
 procure an impartial expert opinion on the origin and the legal 
 conduct of the war and the general principles of national and inter- 
 national right involved. 
 
 If the conference would invite neutral experts in international 
 law of general renown to investigate the questions indicated above 
 and draw up reports it would not by this offend in the smallest degree 
 against the requirements of impartiality. But the reports could, if 
 based on careful examination and considerately worded, contribute 
 very much to soften the excited minds in the countries engaged and 
 facilitate the preliminaries of a genuine peace. 
 
 There are, no doubt, all sorts of objections that could be raised 
 against this suggestion. But they can be met satisfactorily if the
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 305 
 
 matter is taken up in earnest and with practical mind. The prin- 
 cipal difficulty to overcome is time ; no time must be wasted by 
 research in far-fetched details. It. is a comparatively short list of 
 pertinent questions which would have to be answered, and the 
 materials of their examination are already at hand in the declara- 
 tions and documentary publications of the different Governments 
 themselves which want to be verified by juxtaposition with the 
 corresponding publications of the other side and to be scrutinised 
 upon their intrinsic significance. Works of conscientious legists 
 and historians that could serve as specimens are not missing. But 
 they are occasioned by private enterprise and express opinions not 
 always in the measured language that would alone fit the purpose 
 here in view. 
 
 This purpose is to direct the minds of the greatest possible number 
 of people in the affected countries to such way of regarding the 
 questions of the war and to such comprehension of the feeling of the 
 other side as are the necessary conditions of a sane and sober 
 appreciation of the nature and the possibilities of a reasonable 
 peace. The present feeling in those sections of the public which 
 form public opinion in this country as in England and in France 
 is as full of bitterness as can be. A cure is badly wanted, but it 
 does not proceed automatically. Weariness of the war is there, 
 but it is counteracted partly by the manifold incidents of the war 
 itself, by the appetites it has awakened, by the mutual distrust 
 it has created. 
 
 It might be objected that one can hardly expect a number of 
 even neutral experts to come to a concerted opinion on these 
 points. But it would be of little consequence if the experts, instead 
 of agreeing on a common report, would publish majority and 
 minority reports. What matters is that opinions of qualified experts 
 are at all drawn up and published, so that discussion is as much as 
 possible free from the effects of the biased speeches of interested 
 statesmen and other politicians and their press. The report or 
 reports would also be of use when an armistice at least had been 
 agreed upon and a conference for the conclusion of a peace is sitting. 
 And even if the work of the invited experts should take more time 
 than the conclusion of the peace itself, the reports might still be of 
 considerable value. For what matters is not only that a peace is 
 come to, but also that the nations should afterward possess authori- 
 tative impartial opinions on the main questions of consequence 
 connected with the origin and the conduct of the war. For such 
 opinions would educate the poisoned minds to an objective and 
 
 X
 
 3 o6 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 argumentative discussion of the means to prevent a repetition of 
 the present disaster. 
 
 Only those who live in the affected countries can be aware how 
 great the need is for providing the general public with unbiased 
 authoritative expositions of these questions. 
 
 Finally the conference could and should also discuss in a pertinent 
 way the question of disarmament. This question has to-day reached 
 a stage much beyond that of mere desirability. It is now a question 
 of commanding necessity, one can justly say of life and death 
 of the reached stage of civilisation. Not pious wishes or theoretical 
 expositions will in regard to it now suffice. We must have practical 
 proposals, proposals of a scheme to put disarmament into practice 
 and proposals of the means to induce the different States to accept 
 the scheme and to carry it out. 
 
 It is a big and pretentious programme here suggested, the first to be 
 decided by breaks with the old principle of non-interference in State 
 affairs. But the times are so exceptional that extraordinary 
 measures cannot be shumied. If one sees two lads fight each other 
 with their fists or even sticks one may well say, " Let them first 
 fight it out and then we shall see to bring them to reason." But 
 if they stand on board a ship and, mad with rage and without 
 interruption and unremittingly, throw incendiary matter at each 
 other, you would rather stop them before the ship is in flames. 
 Under other conditions it might be the right thing to convoke a 
 conference to be held after the war is over. As it is now, reason 
 would demand not to adjourn the term to that juncture. This is 
 not the place to adjudicate responsibilities. Suffice it to say that 
 the present aspect of the conflict is the worst since its beginnings 
 and threatens aggravations of its horrors. 
 
 Of all the neutrals none is more predestined to take the initiative 
 in this grave matter than the United States of America ; by their 
 great power, by their geographical position, by the ethnological 
 composition of their citizens, and, last but not least, by their historical 
 traditions, they before all are called to act. The small European 
 nations are already, as it were, too much under the fire around them 
 to be so free in their action as is the Go vernment of the giant Republic 
 on the western hemisphere. But that they would with the greatest 
 readiness join in the convocation of a conference for the settlement 
 of at least the two first of the described subjects is sure beyond any 
 doubt. 
 
 The leader in the arrangement of this conference is, in my opinion, 
 the least objectionable, and at the same time it is the most promising
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 307 
 
 help that in the present appallingly entangled situation America can 
 give Europe. The Old World is poisoned. The virus of the most 
 irrational hatred of its component sections against each other, 
 inoculated into them by all sorts of false leaders of opinion, eats 
 deeper and deeper and threatens to mortify all the roots of a 
 wholesome life. May the United States of America help a disunited 
 Europe to find the way out of the deadly miasmatic jungle into which 
 it has lost itself. 
 
 THE HELPLESSNESS OF EUROPE 
 By Member of the Reichstag 
 
 Europe is in the position of a wanderer who has gone astray 
 into a swamp. In vain he labours to regain firm ground. The more 
 frantically he struggles the surer he is to become submerged. Like 
 an infant child he is unable to help himself. Help must come from 
 people outside the swamp. 
 
 We are now in the third year of the biggest, the most fratricidal, 
 and the most hopeless war the world has ever seen. It is hopeless 
 in so far as on the one side none of the two coalitions is likely to be 
 in a visible time as much the victor over the other that it can dictate 
 its own terms, and as on the other side there is no common basis 
 to be seen for a sensible compromise. It is not the extravagance 
 of demands that forms an insuperable barrier to peace. Extrava- 
 gant terms of peace have indeed been formulated by unauthorised 
 persons or groups, but they have nowhere received the sanctioning 
 stamp of the responsible Governments. The latter prefer rather to 
 shine by the moderation of their demands, at least as far as territory 
 is concerned. But it is just this apparent moderation that makes 
 peace such an almost insoluble problem. 
 
 Far behind this moderation in regard to territorial demands 
 looms the desire to destroy the opponents' chances of political pre- 
 dominance. The war is, for the present at least, in the first instance 
 a struggle about the supremacy in Europe. And this perhaps more 
 in a negative sense than otherwise. Jingoes are, of course, every- 
 where in high and low quarters, but it is very doubtful whether one 
 of the responsible heads of the belligerent nations pursues for himself 
 or his nation seriously and consistently what might be called the 
 mastery of Europe. All are, however, dead against the idea that 
 this mastery might pass into the other camp. Comparatively easy 
 as it is to settle a dispute on questions of territory by arbitration 
 
 X*
 
 3 o8 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 or to work out schemes for compromise in regard to such, so difficult 
 or almost impossible it would be to arbitrate on a question of actual 
 supremacy or to settle it by compromise. 
 
 Particularly in the camp of the Allies is the possibility lest 
 Germany might emerge out of the war the actual arbiter of Europe 
 conceived as an unbearable thought. None of the Allied Powers, 
 neither England nor France and not even Russia, Italy being in this 
 respect quite out of question, has during the last decades shown a 
 disposition or a pretence to play up to such a part. 
 
 But Germany is suspected of nourishing ideas of this kind, and 
 utterances of some of their prominent men, occasional sayings of the 
 Kaiser included, tend to give substance to this suspicion. In vain 
 Germans object that their country has all the forty-four years since 
 1870 kept the peace in Europe. We have done the same, would the 
 others reply, and we have not, as Germany has done, again and again 
 threatened war when things did not run according to her wishes or 
 humours. Germany has in fact abstained from actual peace-breaking. 
 But she was regarded and has not a little done to acquire the fame 
 as the latent or virtual disturbing element in European politics. 
 
 This view in regard to political Germany has greatly been enhanced 
 through many of her actions during the present war. It is natural 
 enough, though not particularly edifying, that in a war each party 
 ascribes all the guilt thereof to the opponents and poses as the 
 innocent who maliciously was surprised when not dreaming of 
 any harm. But the cantankerous way in which almost the whole 
 political and intellectual Germany has handled this question and 
 has treated it as a crime not to take in every respect the German 
 view of the case and of all the details of warfare has strengthened 
 the feeling that this nation has come to regard itself as a sort of high 
 judge of Europe. People were reminded of that ill-considered 
 harangue to German soldiers at the time of the China expedition 
 when they were entreated to act towards the Chinese like the Huns 
 under Attila. This and the eagerness to crush by overwhelming power 
 every small nation that ventures to take sides with the Allies as well as 
 the proclaiming of rights for submarines and Zeppelins upon her own 
 authority — these and similar measures have only been too suited to 
 nourish the conception that Germany places herself in the rdle of the 
 scourge of God. 
 
 How this feeling reacts upon political thought is illustrated by a 
 conversation a German Socialist has had in the summer of 1915 
 on neutral ground with a French Socialist politician of no jingoish 
 leanings at all on the possibilities of peace. Even if Germany
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 309 
 
 declared herself ready to relinquish Belgium and to return to France 
 every inch of ground occupied, his countrymen would not accept 
 peace from her, explained the Frenchman. And on the question 
 ' Why not ? " he replied passionately : " Because it would be the 
 German peace ; because it would yet leave Germany the all-powerful 
 of Europe ; because it would make us depend upon the whims and 
 tempers of that conceited military nation." 
 
 " But are you going to bleed yourself to death ? " was the next 
 question, and the reply, uttered in a voice where sadness mingled 
 with determination, was : 
 
 " Yes, rather be ruined ! " 
 
 This is a specimen of the feeling created by the present war, and 
 I am afraid the sentiment has not abated a whit yet. Germans have 
 done a good deal in attempts to detach the French from the English. 
 They have told them that they are only the poor seduced tools of 
 the base and egotistic Britishers, that Germans did not bear them 
 any malice, that they rather pitied them and would fain be ready 
 to come to terms with them. But declarations of this sort proved 
 only how little the French mentality was understood this side of 
 the Vosges. The French nation is too much impressed by the 
 memory of her great past and the part played by her in European 
 politics to stand being pitied and patted like children of tender age. 
 It will be respected as an equal who acts with the full knowledge of 
 the state of things and is too much given to political reflection to 
 accept willingly any view of the war that visibly is coloured by the 
 interest of Germany in the dissension between the two great Powers 
 of Western Europe. The anti-German feeling runs still very high 
 in France ; her leading papers excel without any exception 
 in extremely harsh language against everything German, 
 and the great mass of those who in former years had pro- 
 pagated the idea of a Franco-German understanding are now 
 dead against it. 
 
 A similar feeling has step by step got hold of the British nation. 
 From not being very popular at its beginning in England, the war 
 has come to be regarded as a greater national concern than any of 
 its predecessors. The frantic if not hysterical outbursts of hatred 
 against England in Germany when the former decided to stand by 
 France in the war were at first not taken too seriously. But by 
 and by the unceasing utterances of spite have, together with the 
 known acts of German aerial and submarine warfare, deeply reacted 
 on the British mind. The feeling is now general that England has 
 never before had an enemy so full of hatred against her, so ardently 
 
 x* 2
 
 3 io FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 desirous of causing her irreparable harm, as she now has in present- 
 day Germany. 
 
 Even such Socialist papers as the New Statesman, whioh before 
 the war had no anti-German bias at all, have arrived at the same 
 conclusion concerning what may be called a German peace as the 
 French Socialist politician whose opinions were given above char- 
 acterised it. In an article called " The Case for the Allies," and 
 especially addressed to Americans, the New Statesman explains in 
 its number of December 30 that peace with an unbeaten Germany 
 would mean " Mitteleuropa from the Baltic to the Black Sea," 
 that nothing would prevent its expansion through the Balkans to 
 El Arish and Bagdad, that throughout this vast area the authority, 
 if not the suzerainty, of Berlin would be acknowledged, and that 
 the small European States north and north-west of Germany would 
 without any resistance — by the mere force of things — come to be 
 subjected to the dictates of Germany. In the words of the New 
 Statesman, as the result of an inconclusive peace, " militarism would 
 be more firmly established than ever by the record of its marvellous 
 success and by the manifest need for a military organisation pro- 
 portionate to so vast an expansion." 
 
 Is this feeling justified ? Does it appreciate facts at their exact 
 value ? There is undoubtedly an influential section in Germany which 
 entertains feelings of this kind. It has its adherents particularly in 
 naval circles and amongst the intellectuals of the nation and in a 
 considerable degree also in the financial world. These sections 
 hate in England partly the happy possessor of what in their opinion 
 ought by right to belong to the German race and partly the power 
 without which German expansion would meet with no resistance 
 worth speaking of by European nations. This section of anti- 
 English on principle or by deeply rooted hatred, influential as it is, is, 
 however, not the whole nation. It has only now the hold of her 
 mind because it has succeeded in instilling into her the belief that 
 England is the secret manufacturer of the present war, that she is 
 the selfish fermenter of hatred in Europe, the scheming brewer of 
 strife on the Continent. England has become to the average 
 German mind a real nightmare, a sort of a Frankenstein or any 
 such spookish monster, and as she now, by the vicissitudes of the 
 war, has indeed become the most dangerous of Germany's opponents, 
 it is not possible to educate people from the inside to a more rational 
 view of her part in this war and in European politics altogether. 
 
 There you have the greatest hindrances to peace in Europe. I 
 did not mention Russia. But the war between Germany, inclusive
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 311 
 
 of Austria-Hungary, and Russia is of quite a different nature. It is 
 more of a war of the older order. It has, of course, also evoked a 
 good deal of hatred. But on the whole it is, as wars go, more of an 
 objective nature. There are material differences on which it would 
 not be impossible to compromise. But there is no such deeply - 
 seated irrational opposition which now sets Germans and English 
 and French and Germans against each other. The war between the 
 Central Powers and Russia is, comparatively speaking, an accident 
 in the political history of Europe. The war between England, 
 France, and Germany is a catastrophe in European civilisation. As 
 a war it is most irrational, and just because of its absurdity it is so 
 utterly difficult to find a solution for it, and there is little hope that, 
 unless some outside force intervenes, it may end otherwise than by 
 absolute general exhaustion. 
 
 Things would be otherwise if there were reasonable hopes of a 
 concerted action on the part of the International Union of the 
 Socialist Parties. But such hopes, if they ever could be entertained, 
 have by now become a thing of the past. In the three countries 
 named the majority of the leaders of organised labour have taken 
 sides in the war alongside of their Governments and have by this 
 more or less given up independency and lost the confidence of their 
 former comrades in the opposite camp. Distrust, which in general 
 has so much contributed to bring about this war, prevails also in the 
 ranks of the Socialists in regard to the leaders of the movement on 
 the other side of the frontier. Minorities everywhere work for a 
 greater independency as a step to a better international under- 
 standing. But they have as yet nowhere succeeded in winning the 
 majority of the movement over to their views and policy, and even 
 if they did, all sorts of hindrances would by the Governments be put 
 in the way of these Socialists to assemble internationally in sufficient 
 number for work of this nature. 
 
 Nor is it to be expected that revolts of the discontented masses 
 will be vast enough to force the Governments into peace negotiations 
 against their will. The possibilities of centralised governments 
 against revolutionary upheavals as long as these remain locally 
 isolated, which in the face of the enormous extent of the section of 
 the globe directly drawn into the war is most probable, are too great 
 to let these movements have a great chance of changing the policy 
 of the rulers. This would oniy happen when at least some of these 
 olasses or parties which at present support the war come round to 
 their opinion, of which very few signs are at present to be seen. 
 The work of small minorities everywhere, the war has got hold of the
 
 3 i2 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 minds of the millions in all countries and has filled nations against 
 nations with such distrust and spite as in the history of civilised 
 mankind never before have been witnessed. 
 
 How little we are justified to expect peace from the action of 
 these Socialists who stand by Governments in the war is, as far as my 
 own country is concerned, shown by the fact that the big meetings 
 now (and, I am willing to admit, it is the intention of the initiators 
 to hold them in favour of peace) led by the leaders of the majority 
 of the Social Democratic Party, such as Messrs. Scheidemann, 
 David, Ebert and others, turn out in practice as meetings in support 
 of the policy of the Government in regard to the question of war and 
 peace. In order to defend their own political attitude the speakers 
 are compelled to shift the responsibility for the war and its con- 
 tinuation wholly on the shoulders of the Governments of the opposite 
 countries and their supporters, and by this they increase in the mind 
 of their hearers the conviction that nothing short of a defeat of these 
 countries will bring the war to a desirable end. In England the 
 majority of the Labour Party and a considerable number of the best- 
 known Socialist leaders and in France the most influential leaders of 
 the Socialist Party support also the war policy of their respective 
 Governments in all principal issues. The well meant and praiseworthy 
 attempts to convene a full International Socialist Congress for the 
 purpose of settling these differences by finding a common line of 
 action are, I am sorry to say, under the circumstances most likely 
 to prove abortive. They will founder on the self-contradiction that 
 the Socialists of the Entente countries argue that their Governments 
 hate the idea of German militarism coming unbeaten and unreduced 
 out of this war, which in their opinion was provoked by it, whilst the 
 leaders of the German Socialists in power woidd rather see this same 
 militarism, which they in former years have so violently attached and 
 denounced, come out victorious than have it interfered with by outside 
 influence. 
 
 In short, sections of the Socialist movement will assist other 
 forces in the action for peace but the movement as a whole is 
 incapable to act in the matter as a force of compelling strength. 
 
 Help must in the main come from outside. Consequently 
 President Wilson's action in his Note to the belligerents of December 
 20 would have been the right thing, even if it had offended in some 
 way against the rules of diplomatic procedure. Under so exceptional 
 circumstances as these occasioned by the present war extraordinary 
 steps are certainly justified and breaches of etiquette of little 
 significance. But the Note was faultless in this respect, and it can
 
 PRESIDENT WILSON AND PEACE 313 
 
 moreover be said that in no way did it endanger legitimate interests 
 of the one or the other section of the belligerents. It offends only 
 in spirit against Cain's word, " Am I my brother's keeper ? " and in 
 distinct words against the conception that war is a private affair 
 of States may it ever so much interfere with the material and moral 
 welfare of other nations. 
 
 The step has not at once succeeded. But it has opened the 
 way ; nay, it has forced the door open for discussion in a fashion 
 that nobody will be strong enough to shut it again. True, the 
 Central Powers have by their offer of peace negotiations forestalled 
 the Note by a week. But this offer would have come to naught 
 without Mr. Wilson's action. Harsh as the reply of the Allies is to 
 the offer, it would most likely have been put in much more negating 
 terms had not the American Note caused the Entente Allies to 
 avoid a blunt " No " and content themselves with raising objections 
 and interjecting accusations. By this they have willy-nilly pro- 
 voked a debate and instead of shutting the door kept it well open. 
 
 People may call this a small success. In fact it is a beginning, 
 and for the first as such sufficient. The question is now what shall 
 the next step be and how can the debate be directed to positive 
 proposals ? 
 
 Of course, as these articles were given by this 
 Socialist author for publication, anyone is at liberty 
 to reproduce them. 
 
 In conducting the peace negotiations, President 
 Wilson will have the benefit of the services of 
 Colonel House, the one man who, I believe, is best 
 fitted to protect the interests of America and of 
 humanity at such a conference. I, of course, saw 
 Colonel House during the war in Berlin and in America, 
 and I consider that no man alive is his superior 
 in either knowledge of the whole situation or in 
 ability to cope with the trained diplomats of Europe. 
 Human nature is much the same, and the gentle- 
 mannered Texan who has been so successful in 
 American politics will not fail when representing us 
 at the table of peace.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 
 
 No one but a fortune teller or professional seer 
 dares to predict the condition of the world after this 
 war. Only mere suggestions can be thrown out, 
 shadows of prophecy as to what may come. 
 
 Will the tide of emigration turn from Europe and 
 the United States to other countries, or will people of 
 German birth and descent leave America to return 
 to the Fatherland after the war ? 
 
 I made it my business after I had learned 
 German to talk to many of the plain people in Berlin 
 and elsewhere, to get their views. I found that the 
 common soldiers, especially those representing the 
 class of skilled working men in the industrial centres, 
 were almost unanimous in saying that after the war 
 and at the first opportunity they intended to leave 
 Germany, to turn from a country capable of per- 
 petrating this calamity on the world, a country 
 where they have been subject not alone to military 
 service, but to a cruel and oppressive caste system 
 of discipline. I believe that Germany will enact 
 laws against emigration and that there will be zones 
 of espionage on all German frontiers designed to 
 watch and keep back such Germans as may seek to 
 escape to other countries. 
 
 In Austria even more stringent laws will be neces- 
 sary to keep the unmarried males from leaving. 
 
 814
 
 AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 315 
 
 I know that experts of the United States 
 Government believe at least three millions of Slovaks, 
 Greeks, etc., will leave America after the war, taking 
 with them the money they have earned, for invest- 
 ment in new opportunities in the Old Country. 
 
 With this view I cannot agree. The soil of the 
 European Continent is too poor, wages too small, 
 hours too long, and distaste for the military and 
 caste systems too great, to tempt those who have 
 tasted the equality and the freedom of America. 
 Why to-day an ordinary coal miner in Pennsylvania 
 can earn $5,000 a year — a sum greater than the pay 
 of a Prussian or Austrian general ! Why should 
 this miner go back to insult and slavery ? 
 
 The greatest problem of Germany comes after the 
 war — when these millions of men, trained for four 
 years or more to murder, shall return. It will be 
 hard for them to settle down to regular work, impos- 
 sible for them to submit again to the iron discipline 
 of German civil life. Will they not, as Bloch predicts, 
 possibly, re-enact the horrors of the French Commune, 
 or even those of the French Revolution ? 
 
 It is hard to understand why Prussian autocracy 
 does not freely offer what it will be compelled to 
 give after the war — equal suffrage in Prussia, fair 
 representation in the Reichstag — a Government 
 responsible to the Reichstag. Is it not better for 
 the Emperor to offer this — following Bismarck's 
 saying that " in Prussia the revolutions are made by 
 the rulers " ? 
 
 And who of all rulers in history seemed to sit more 
 securely on his throne than Nicholas, who is now 
 learning from his keepers what a Czar really is ? 
 
 The Emperor said to me once, " Is it not wonderful 
 how the German people bear their sufferings in this
 
 3 i6 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 war ? " I said I thought it was wonderful. It is 
 that and more — it is almost a miracle — that a whole 
 nation can so nearly approach this delirium. 
 
 The autocratic idea survives in Germany. On 
 November 22, 1917, the Conservative Union of the 
 Province of Brandenburg unanimously adopted the 
 following resolution : 
 
 " The Prussian State, fundamentally a people of 
 its Princes, is the foundation on which the German 
 Empire rests. 
 
 " Not sovereignty of the people but Kingship by 
 Divine Right is its corner stone. 
 
 " We implore our deputies to do their best to prevent 
 the Kingship being debased into a sham Kingship 
 and being replaced by that sovereignty of the people 
 by means of the alteration of the Prussian fran- 
 chise." 
 
 After reading this can anyone wonder that 
 the Kaiser believes he is called by God to rule the 
 Germans ? 
 
 " Kingship by Divine Right " is quite a develop- 
 ment of a Kingship that originated in foreclosure 
 proceedings, when Prussia was taken for a debt 
 by the crafty, rich Hohenzollern Burgraf of 
 Nuremberg. 
 
 Is it any wonder that the Kaiser once said to me 
 during the war, " Everything seems to be going my 
 way — don't you think God is helping me ? " 
 
 The efforts of those in charge of the German pro- 
 paganda to sow dissensions among the Allies are 
 more than awkward. 
 
 For some time after the landing in force of the 
 British troops in France, the newspapers of Germany 
 were filled with cartoons representing the British
 
 AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 317 
 
 refusing to leave Calais ; and now that America has 
 entered the war even so intelligent a philosopher as 
 Chancellor Hertling speaks as follows : 
 
 " If those who hold power in France forcibly 
 repress every suggestion of peace, and try to rouse 
 fresh will for war by a show of assurance of 
 victory, in spite of the frightful sacrifices the war 
 has cost the country, and must cost still further, it is 
 because they are sustained by the hope of help from 
 America. In this hope they patiently tolerate the 
 Americans also making themselves at home in 
 France. French workmen tolerate in their factories 
 the competition of American workmen, with whom 
 they are not in sympathy, and the owners allow them 
 to look into the secrets of their business, all so that 
 the new Ally may help to take revenge on the hated 
 Germans." 
 
 Misguided old Philosopher ! 
 
 And President Wilson and his Cabinet, Lloyd 
 George and the statesmen of France and Italy, 
 Portugal and Russia, must be on their guard — 
 Wolff's agency is at work, spreading poisonous 
 propaganda. Here is an excerpt that speaks for 
 itself : 
 
 " The Imperial and Royal Propaganda Depart- 
 ment, Section of Foreign Affairs, calls the editor's 
 attention to the practice of the enemy Press in 
 caricaturing the Kaiser, the Crown Prince, Hinden- 
 burg, and alleged German militarism, with the evident 
 intention of an odious anti-German propaganda. It 
 would, therefore, be important from the patriotic 
 point of view for the daily newspapers also to 
 occupy themselves by means of caricatures with the 
 principal events of the day.
 
 3 i8 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 " The idea of such propaganda has been conceived 
 by the supreme military command. And it is there- 
 fore desirable that all should conform to it. The 
 official cinema has been ordered by the supreme 
 command to enter into direct communication with 
 the daily Press, and many leading newspapers have 
 hastened to express their readiness to insert these 
 patriotic caricatures, for the drawing of which the 
 service of the best artists in Munich and Berlin have 
 been secured. These caricatures will regard chiefly 
 the heads of State of the Entente Powers, their political 
 leaders, and those who make no mystery of their 
 hatred for Germany. The blocks will be supplied 
 free of expense." 
 
 German employers will never be able to grind 
 down their workmen as before the war. The men 
 who have fought in the trenches will return with 
 a new feeling of independence, a new spirit of revolt 
 against the caste prejudices, a disinclination to do 
 the same work in the same hours and for the same 
 wages. 
 
 My tailor in Berlin told me that several of his 
 men who had returned after being discharged from 
 the Army because of some physical disability or 
 wounds took an entirely different attitude, and that 
 one of them, for example, had said to him : " Do 
 not think that I have come back to work as before. 
 I have the Iron Cross, I have helped to save Germany. 
 I am a hero, and I do not propose again to be your 
 industrial slave." 
 
 That is the new spirit which after the war will 
 animate the deceived, hitherto down-trodden lower 
 classes of Germany. 
 
 In our own country, the balance of political power
 
 AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 319 
 
 may be held by the soldiers who are enlisted in the 
 war and who, like the G. A. R.'s after our Civil War, 
 may doubtless organise not only for protection, but 
 for political purposes. And this great restless body 
 of returned troops, veterans of wars beyond the seas, 
 may change our whole foreign policy in ways of 
 which we do not dream. We shall be a more warlike 
 nation, less patient to bear insult, more ready for 
 war, unless this war ends all wars. 
 
 The war after the war, in trade and commerce, 
 may be long and bitter. The rivers of Germany are 
 lined with ships of seven or eight thousand tons, 
 many of them built or completed since the war, and 
 Germany designs as her first play in this commercial 
 war to seize the carrying trade of the world. The 
 German exporter has lost his trade for years. Alliances 
 have already been made in great industries, such as 
 the dyestuff industry, in preparation for a sudden 
 and sustained attack upon that new industry in 
 America. Prices will be cut to far below the cost 
 of production in order that the new industry of 
 America fighting single-handed against the single 
 head German trust may be driven from the field. 
 The German Government will take a practical hand 
 in this contest, and only the combination of American 
 manufacturers and the erection of a tariff wall of 
 defence can prevent the Americans, if each fights 
 single-handed and for his own end, from falling before 
 the united, efficient and bitter assault of German 
 trade rivals. 
 
 The war has brought new power and new 
 responsibility to women. Armed with the franchise 
 they will demand not only equal rights but equal pay. 
 In Great Britain alone, before the war, there were
 
 3 2o FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 fewer than five hundred thousand women workers, 
 where now over five million carry the burden even 
 of the war industries of the country. 
 
 Unless the war ends with a victory so decisive for 
 the Allies that an era of universal peace shall dawn 
 for the world, each nation will constitute itself an 
 armed camp fearing always that the German, with 
 his lust for war and conquest, will again terrorise 
 the world by a sudden assault. 
 
 And a necessary sequence of this preparation for 
 war will be the desire of each nation to be self-suffi- 
 cient — to produce within itself those materials 
 indispensable for the waging of war. Capital will 
 be wasted because each nation will store up 
 quantities of these materials necessary to war which 
 it is compelled to import from other countries. 
 
 For instance, Germany will always carry great 
 stocks of grain and of fats, of copper and cotton and 
 wool, all of the materials for the lack of which she 
 suffered during the present war. 
 
 In my first book, I touched on the change in the 
 industrial system that will be brought about by the 
 socialised buying and selling introduced first by 
 Germany and which must be copied by the other 
 nations if they desire to compete on equal terms 
 with that country. In Germany for several years 
 after the war at least, and perhaps as a permanent 
 regulation, the purchase of all luxuries outside of 
 Germany will be forbidden because of the desire to 
 keep German gold and credits at home. 
 
 Germans have even stated to me that they do not 
 fear in a trade war any prejudice created against 
 them in other countries by their actions during this 
 war. They say that a man always will buy where 
 he can buy the cheapest, and that however much a
 
 AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 321 
 
 merchant may hate the Germans after the war, if 
 he can buy the goods he wants for his use from 
 Germany at a cheaper rate than anywhere else, he 
 will forget his prejudices in the interest of his pocket- 
 book. 
 
 This is a question which each reader will have 
 to solve for himself. Personally, I believe that in 
 England, in France, and in America, too, if the war 
 should last a long time, the prejudice against 
 German trickery and brutality in war will become so 
 great that many a merchant will prefer to lose a little 
 money than deal with German sellers. However, 
 the appeal of the pocket-book is always so earnest 
 and so insistent that the Germans may be right in 
 the view that financial considerations will weigh down 
 the balance as against the prejudice engendered 
 in this struggle. And if there comes a change 
 of Government in Germany, if the Hohenzollerns no 
 longer control, or if in a liberalised Germany the 
 Ministers are responsible to a popular Parliament, 
 while Kings sink to the political position of the Kings 
 of Great Britain or of Spain, then the commercial 
 prejudice certainly will not last long. The boycott of 
 Germany for fifty years suggested by the American 
 Chamber of Commerce is a most powerful weapon. 
 
 And why, if wars are to continue after this one, 
 should we contribute to German trade profits and 
 consequently to German preparations for another war ? 
 The nations of the Allies must reckon, too, with the 
 bitter, bitter hate felt for them by the whole German 
 people — and only one who has been in Germany since 
 the war can realise its intensity. 
 
 One great factor in forcing a change of Government 
 will be the desire of the individual German after the 
 war to say that the Government of his country existing
 
 322 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 then is not the Government that ordered the shooting 
 of Edith Cavell, the enslavement of the women and 
 girls of Northern France, the deportation of the 
 Belgian working men, the horrors of the prison camps, 
 the burning of Louvain and all the other countless 
 barbarities and cruelties ordered by the German 
 military commanders. 
 
 Imagine after this war in some distant island, 
 perhaps, a Frenchman, an Englishman, an American, 
 a Portuguese, an Italian all seated at the dining 
 table of a little hotel. A German comes in and seeks 
 to join them. Will he be treated on an equality ? 
 Will he be taken into their society ? Or will he be 
 treated as a leper and a pariah ? 
 
 The Germans will wish to be in a position to say : 
 " Why, gentlemen, I was against all these cruelties. 
 I was against the sinking of the Lusitania, and the 
 murder of its women and children. I was against 
 the starving of Poland and the slaughter of the 
 Armenians and the crucifixion of prisoners, and we 
 Germans have thrown out the Government that was 
 responsible for these horrors." 
 
 Stronger than any other consideration will be the 
 desire of the German to repudiate these acts which 
 have made the Germany of to-day a Cain among the 
 nations — an outcast branded with the mark of shame. 
 
 The Russian author Bloch, whom I have quoted, 
 says, referring to the future war : 
 
 " Behind all conflicts of interest between nations, 
 statesmen must balance the chances of success of 
 their nation, promised by the recourse to arms, against 
 the terrible miseries of the victims caused by war as 
 well as the social peril which can be the consequence 
 of war. 
 
 " They who ask themselves when it will be possible
 
 AFTER THE WAR, WHAT? 323 
 
 to propose to the people of any nation after the war a 
 compensation for its enormous sacrifices forget that 
 the conquered will be so exhausted that there will be 
 no question of being able to draw from a conquered 
 nation the least pecuniary indemnity. All that can 
 be imposed on the conquered will be the abandonment 
 of some rags of frontier territory. 
 
 " In these conditions, up to what point can calm 
 be counted on to reign among the millions of men 
 called to the colours, when in their ranks there is 
 not more than a handful of old officers and when 
 the command will be in the hands of those newly 
 promoted from among the non - commissioned 
 officers ? That is to say, men belonging to the working 
 classes. Will these working men surrender their 
 arms in the States of Central Europe where the 
 propaganda has spread already among the masses ? 
 
 " Will they allow themselves to be disarmed 
 after the war, and could there not come events more 
 horrible than those which signalised the rapid 
 triumph of the Commune of Paris ? " 
 
 Just as to-day it is not isolated armies but whole 
 peoples in arms that are opposed, so in the war of 
 commerce after the war not single producers and 
 exporters, corporations or individuals, but whole 
 nations will meet in the markets of the world. 
 
 Germany has favoured trusts — controlling prices 
 and unfair competition — and we shall encounter in 
 buying and in selling the whole German nation 
 ranked behind their Central Buying Company in 
 buying and their Kartels in selling. 
 
 Isolated firms and individuals cannot on our side 
 cope with such an offensive, but we are hampered 
 in effectiveness by the so-called Sherman Law — a 
 law from which England is free.
 
 324 FACE TO FACE WITH KAISERISM 
 
 The war will produce great and sudden alterations, 
 and President Wilson in meeting new problems has 
 pursued a progressive course ; witness his support of 
 the Webb Law, which enables our manufacturers to 
 combine in export trade. 
 
 Every sign points to a new era in business — an 
 era in which the Government will permit — even 
 encourage — enlightened business combinations. 
 
 The railroads of the country in the efficient hands 
 of McAdoo have already bettered service, and the 
 rights of the Savings Banks and of other holders of 
 the securities of each road have been secured. 
 
 We must, on the one hand, permit the abolition of 
 ruinous competition, and on the other safeguard the 
 public from high prices and the smaller firms and 
 corporations from the unfair competition of a 
 powerful rival. 
 
 Great changes are coming in the social structure 
 of the world. We are on the threshold of a great re- 
 adjustment. Whatever else our entrance into the 
 war may accomplish, let us hope that it will have 
 made of us a nation with the throb of a single 
 patriotism and the steady pulse of an energetic 
 efficiency that shall not merely seek in honest rivalry 
 to compete with other nations, but in an enlightened 
 and helpful way shall strive truly to heal a wounded 
 civilisation in the God-given days of peace. 
 
 THE END 
 
 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY K. CLAY AND SONS, LTD., 
 BRUNhWIl K STREKT, .STAMFORD STRKET, S.F.. 1, AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK
 
 THE KAISER AND VON TREUTLER 
 
 TAKEN IN THE NORWEGIAN TOWN OF ODDE IN 1910
 
 AMBASSADORS WILLIAM G. SHARP AND JAMES W. GERARD. 
 FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN PARIS, FEBRUARY. 1917
 
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 with Wilson? 
 
 by 
 
 John L. Stoddard, 
 
 Meran. Tyrol. 1916. 
 
 Printing-office F. Pleticha, Meran, Tyrol. 
 
 JL_ 
 
 COVER OF THE PAMPHLET FEROCIOUSLY ABUSIVE 
 OF PRESIDENT WILSON, ISSUED BY THE EX-TRAVEL 
 LECTURER, JOHN L. STODDARD
 
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