Face to Face with Kaiserism | Page 2

and envoy of the
President of the United States, I had the honor 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
President Wilson calls it, which has 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 character? 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 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 published. It occurred at the New Year's reception of 1914 when
the Ambassadors of all the foreign countries 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 outbreak 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
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 Ferdinand 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 Francis
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 Fifth. Many public
utterances of the German Kaiser show that trend of mind.
Emperor William deliberately wrote and published, for instance, such a
statement as this: "From childhood I have been influenced by five men,
Alexander the Great, Julius Cæsar, Theodoric II, Frederick the Great
and Napoleon. Each of these men dreamed