Face to Face with Kaiserism | Page 7

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 Robert 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 feast 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 its
first meaning and "boastful" in its second, a meaning well known in
Berlin where, at the "Little Theatre," in a series of plays of all ages, the
"Miles Gloriosus" of Plautus had just been presented--a boastful,
conceited soldier, the "Miles Gloriosus," the chief character of the
comedy.
Nothing illustrates more vividly 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
permitting 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 practically slaves, as they
could not leave the lord's lands nor 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 Francis 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. Napoleon 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 of passion because, as she said to him, "The way to
her room lay through the church door." Colonel Stoffel, the French
Military Attaché 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 vulnerable 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