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  [Illustration: _From a photograph by Brown and Dawson_
    WILLIAM II
    GERMAN EMPEROR
    From a photograph taken since the beginning of the war of 1914]

  THE GERMAN EMPEROR
  AS SHOWN
  IN HIS PUBLIC UTTERANCES

  BY

  CHRISTIAN GAUSS
  PROFESSOR Of MODERN LANGUAGES, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

  NEW YORK
  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
  1915

  COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY
  CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

  Published February, 1915

PREFACE

Unlike his grandfather, who shielded himself behind his Chancellor,
the present Emperor has always insisted upon making himself the
storm-centre of the debates in his Reichstag and among his people.
He has played with many, if not all, of his cards upon the table. In
accordance with this policy he has gone through his country from end
to end and into foreign lands, everywhere announcing his policies and
his views on every possible subject of interest or controversy. Up to
1905 he had made upward of five hundred and seventy speeches, and since
that time has made almost as many more. It was manifestly impossible
to give all of these speeches, and it was also thought unfair to give
merely extracts which might fail to represent the spirit of the entire
pronouncement. They are all printed, therefore, in the completest
form available. Particular speeches have often been reported to the
press in widely differing versions. In all cases only those speeches
are here presented which have received official or semiofficial
sanction. The text followed for pronouncements made before 1913,
with the one exception of the _Daily Telegraph_ interview, October
29, 1908, has always been that of the recognized and standard edition
in four volumes, edited by J. Penzler and published in the Reclam
_Universal-Bibliothek_. Now and then only portions of certain addresses
appear to have been reported, and on a few occasions parts of speeches
are given directly and other parts are merely summarized. In all such
cases the speech is translated from the form sanctioned in the official
version. In no case has any change been made. Where significant
differences exist in the versions of addresses as given officially and
unofficially, the official version is in every instance printed first.
It has been the aim to present faithfully the language and spirit of
the speaker, and his phraseology and emphasis have been reproduced as
closely as was at all consistent with fair English usage. The speeches
have been chosen to represent in due proportion his many interests,
and range therefore from agriculture and art to Biblical criticism,
national and international politics.

The Emperor has, of course, not given titles to his speeches, and
the headings have been assigned by the compiler. It has been his
aim to explain the circumstances under which each address was
delivered and to make plain the references to events embodied therein.
Questions which have had a continuous interest, or which have had
some lasting effect on Germany's policy, such as the attitude toward
Alsace-Lorraine, the Social Democratic party, the retirement of
Bismarck, the development of the navy, the Morocco question, have
been treated at greater length on the first fitting occasion. For
the introductions, therefore, the compiler assumes responsibility.
In preparing them he has had recourse to many incidental sources
of information, and in many cases the true inwardness of certain
situations is still as much a matter of controversy as the causes
of the present war. For his facts generally, he has followed where
possible, besides such incidental and contemporary sources, Bruno
Gebhardt's "Handbuch der Deutschen Geschichte" (1913), the "Cambridge
Modern History--The Latest Age," volume XII (1910), and the volumes of
the "Statesman's Yearbook." In addition, for information concerning
the internal development of Germany he has consulted and drawn
upon the literature of this subject which has appeared in the last
decade, but is more particularly indebted to Doctor Paul Liman's
"Der Kaiser," Dawson's "The Evolution of Modern Germany," Barker's
"Modern Germany," Price Collier's "Germany and the Germans," Forbes's
"William of Germany," Gibbons's "The New Map of Europe," and the
"_Reichsgesetzblatt_."

As the Emperor has spoken upon almost every phase of German political
life, with the editorial introductions which aim to set forth briefly
the occasion and causes of each address, it is hoped that altogether
the volume will offer a fairly accurate picture of the trend of German
affairs for the last twenty-five years.

For help in the preparation of this volume, the writer is much indebted
to his wife, whose assistance has amounted to collaboration.

  PRINCETON, N. J.
    _December 20, 1914_.

CONTENTS

                                                            PAGE

    PREFACE                                                  v

    THE HOHENZOLLERN TRADITION                               1

    II

    PRELIMINARIES                                           25
      June 15, 1888--October 30, 1889.

    The First Official Act of the Emperor                   25
      Schloss Friedrichskron, June 15, 1888.

    To My People                                            28
      Potsdam, June 18, 1888.

    First Declaration of Policy                             31
      Berlin, June 25, 1888.

    Opening of the Reichstag                                39
      November 22, 1888.

    The Emperor and the Striking Miners                     45
      May 14, 1889.

    Visit of the King of Italy                              47
      Berlin, May 22, 1889.

    The English Fleet and the German Army                   48
      Sandown Bay, August 5, 1889.

    The English Army                                        49
      Aldershot, August 7, 1889.

    The Czar at Berlin                                      50
      Berlin, October 11, 1889.

    On Board an English Flag-Ship                           51
      The Piræus, October 30, 1889.

    AFTER BISMARCK                                          53
    May 6, 1890--June 21, 1895.

    Opening of the Reichstag                                53
      Berlin, May 6, 1890.

    Review of the Ninth Army Corps                          60
      Flensburg, September 4, 1890.

    Accidents with Agricultural Machinery                   62
      Berlin, November 11, 1890.

    Alsace-Lorraine                                         66
      Berlin, March 14, 1891.

    Swearing in the Recruits                                72
      Potsdam, November 23, 1891.

    The Emperor's First Army Bill                           75
      Berlin, July 4, 1893.

    Arrival in Metz                                         80
      Metz, September 3, 1893.

    Dedication of Flags                                     81
      Berlin, October 18, 1894.

    Navy Recruits                                           84
      Kiel, December 3, 1894.

    Christening of a Cruiser                                86
      Kiel, March 26, 1895.

    Visit to Bismarck                                       87
      Friedrichsruh, March 26, 1895.

    Opening of the Emperor William Canal                    91
      Kiel, June 21, 1895.

    IV

    THE BEGINNING OF WORLD POLITICS                         95
    June 16, 1896--March 22, 1905.

    The Beginning of World Politics                         95
      Berlin, June 16, 1896.

    To the Recruits for the Navy                           103
      Wilhelmshaven, February 21, 1896.

    A Toast to the Russian Emperor and Empress             104
      St. Petersburg, August 8, 1897.

    The Army Tradition                                     106
      Coblentz, August 30, 1897.

    Toast to the Italian King and Queen                    109
      Homburg, September 4, 1897.

    Address at a Dedication of Flags                       111
      Berlin, October 18, 1897.

    On Administering the Oath to the Recruits              113
      Berlin, November 18, 1897.

    The Chinese Situation and the Mailed Fist              116
      December 15, 1897.

    Address to the Regiments of the Body-Guard             121
      Potsdam, June 16, 1898.

    On the Death of Prince Bismarck                        123
      Friedrichsruh, August 2, 1898.

    "Our Future Lies Upon the Water"                       126
      Stettin, September 23, 1898.

    The Journey to the Holy Land                           127
      Bethlehem, October 30, 1898.

    Dedication of the Church of Our Redeemer               132
      Jerusalem, October 31, 1898.

    By Divine Right                                        135
      Brandenburg, February 3, 1899.

    The Hague Conference                                   141
      Wiesbaden, May 18, 1899.

    The Housing of Laborers                                143
      Early June, 1899.

    French Heroism at St. Privat                           143
      The Battle-field of St. Privat, August 18, 1899.

    V

    THE GREATER NAVY                                       147

    "Bitterly We Need a Powerful German Fleet"             150
      Hamburg, October 18, 1899.

    On the Threshold of the New Century                    154
      Berlin, January 1, 1900.

    New Boundary Posts                                     157
      Berlin, February 13, 1900.

    Seaports and Cannon                                    159
      Lübeck, June 16, 1900.

    The Ocean Knocks at Our Door                           160
      Kiel, July 3, 1900.

    Open the Way for Culture                               163
      Bremen, July 27, 1900.

    Civis Romanus Sum                                      167
      Imperial Limes Museum, Saalburg, October 11, 1900.

    Cabinet Order to the Prussian Army                     169
      January, 1901.

    Dedication of the Barracks of the Alexander Regiment   171
      March 28, 1901.

    To the Students at Bonn                                174
      April 24, 1901.

    A Place in the Sun                                     180
      Hamburg, June 18, 1901.

    The Great Elector                                      184
      Kiel, June 20, 1901.

    Entrance of Prince Eitel Friedrich into the Army       189
      July 7, 1901.

    True Art                                               191
      Berlin, December 18, 1901.

    Monument to General von Rosenberg                      201
      April 20, 1902.

    The Old Order Changeth                                 203
      Aix, June 19, 1902.

    Alfred Krupp and the Socialists                        209
      November 26, 1902.

    The Working Man Once More                              213
      Breslau, December 5, 1902.

    Scholarship and Religion                               216
      Berlin, February 15, 1903.

    Frederick the Great and His Army                       225
      Döberitz, May 29, 1903.

    The Future of Germany                                  227
      Hamburg, June 20, 1903.

    The Reasons for Japan's Victory                        232
      March 9, 1905.

    The Salt of the Earth                                  233
      Bremen, March 22, 1905.

    VI

    ON THE EVE OF MOROCCO                                  240
    March 31, 1905--November 12, 1906.

    The Morocco Question                                   240
      Tangier, March 31, 1905.

    The Great Ally                                         242
      September 8, 1906.

    Optimism and Literature                                247
      Münich, November 12, 1906.

    Twenty-Five Years of Labor Legislation                 253
      November 17, 1896.

    VII

    THE CRISIS OF 1907                                     256
    February 5, 1907--October 18, 1911.

    Imperialism versus Social Democracy                    256
      Berlin, February 5, 1907.

    The Necessity of Faith                                 259
      Münster, August 31, 1907.

    English Journalists                                    264
      London, November 16, 1907.

    Alsace-Lorraine                                        265
      Strasburg, August 30, 1908.

    The _Daily Telegraph_ Interview                        267
      October 28, 1908.

    The Emperor and Count Zeppelin                         273
      Manzell, November 10, 1908.

    Regatta at Hamburg                                     274
      Hamburg, June 22, 1909.

    Review of the Fourteenth Army Corps                    278
      Karlsruhe, September 11, 1909.

    Emperor by Divine Right                                279
      Königsberg, August 25, 1910.

    The Hundredth Anniversary of the Founding of the
      University of Berlin                                 285
      Berlin, October 11, 1910.

    The Emperor in Brussels                                290
      October 27, 1910.

    Alcohol and the Schools                                292
      Cassel, August 19, 1911.

    International Competition                              295
      Hamburg, August 27, 1911.

    Imperial Glories                                       299
      Aix, October 18, 1911.

    VIII

    LAST MONTHS OF PEACE                                   303
    February 7, 1912--June 23, 1914.

    Opening of the Reichstag                               303
      Berlin, February 7, 1912.

    Brandenburg Once Again                                 307
      May 30, 1912.

    Hauling Down the Flag                                  313
      Hamburg, June 18, 1912.

    Accident to a Zeppelin                                 316
      Bonn, October 17, 1913.

    We Germans Fear God, Nothing Else                      318
      Hamburg, June 23, 1914.

    IX

    AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR                             323

    Forcing the Sword into His Hand                        323
      Berlin, July 31, 1914.

    An End of Parties                                      324
      Berlin, August 1, 1914.

    Opening of the Reichstag                               324
      Berlin, August 4, 1914.

    To the Army and Navy                                   327
      Berlin, August 6, 1914.

    Proclamation to the German People                      328
      Berlin, August 6, 1914.

ILLUSTRATIONS

  William II, German Emperor                       _Frontispiece_

                                                     FACING PAGE

  The Emperor in the Year of His Coronation, 1888
    (Age 29)                                              26

  "Our Future Lies upon the Water." The Emperor
    on Shipboard in the Autumn of 1898                   126

  The Emperor in 1900                                    168

THE HOHENZOLLERN TRADITION

Ernest Renan, the author of that once heretical "Life of Jesus," was
by temperament unenthusiastic and had further schooled himself to look
upon all human events with high unconcern. The great sceptic had been
born in 1823; he was therefore sixty-five at the time of the accession
of William II, and his declining health, in Horatian phrase, refused
to allow him to enter upon any long hope. In looking forward to his
inevitable end one thing, he said, afflicted him. He regretted only
that he was not to see, in its later and more decisive phases, the
unfolding of the multiform personality of the new German Emperor. To
him it was an intellectual puzzle, more intricate and more interesting
than any he had encountered in the many cycles of the history of the
Hebrews or in the complicated schisms of the church. In the early years
of his reign the youthful Emperor was regarded with much interest and
some concern by his contemporaries generally. He was the chameleon
among the royal figures of Europe. One day he receives the Czar at
Berlin and proclaims peace to the world. A few weeks later he visits
the Sultan at Constantinople, and shortly thereafter he announces to
his loyal Brandenburgers that he will lead them on to greater things.
What did he mean? Now he is a soldier, jesting with his officers; and,
with the rising of another sun, in workman's garb, with the axe upon
his shoulder, he goes forth as woodman or laborer on his own estates.
At home he was regarded as Benjamin Constant regarded Madame de Staël.
He was the "_bel orage_," the beautiful storm which had come upon
Europe in the dull and piping times of peace of the last decades of
the nineteenth century. He cleared the air of Continental politics
in the years of late Victorianism. He was a dilettante of dangerous
activities, as Renan had been of antiquated heresies and harmless,
outworn systems, and to him Fate seemed to have given the future as a
toy. Such, at least, was the view of the famous Portuguese poet Eça de
Queiroz, who cast his horoscope in 1891.

A quarter century of peace had removed much apprehension. After the
dismissal of Bismarck he had shaped his own policy and gone his own
way. To his great advisers he had seemed to say: "_Ôte-toi que je
m'y mette._" Yet his career had ceased to disquiet, and the youthful
exuberance had given way to mature and conscientious labor. With
unshakable confidence in himself and with a determined application he
was making Germany the greatest state in Europe. To those who, unlike
Renan, did not have the misfortune to have been born too soon to be his
later contemporaries, the riddle _seemed_ to be solving itself to the
greater good of humanity. The Emperor's army, so he tells us himself,
is invincible. Never has Germany been defeated so long as she was
united, and God, who has taken such infinite pains with us, will never
leave us "in the lurch." By means of this powerful, unconquerable army,
at whose side he had now set one of the greatest fleets on the seas, he
had, so he told us, laid firm and sure the foundations of peace.

Then suddenly "the abyss is opened, ... the sword is thrust into his
hand," and reluctantly and with a heavy heart he goes forth to do
battle. Like a shuttle he flits from frontier to frontier, now planning
an invasion of England, now supervising the readministration of Belgian
industries, and now directing a battle in Poland. Surely such a
destiny, so immense a power, has been granted to no man. It may be he
is the great predestined victim; it may be that Time is preparing for
him a final and well-earned European triumph.

What shall be the end, and where lies the responsibility? No ethical
or political problem of our time forces itself upon us with greater
insistence. His utterances may help to make the question if not the
answer clear. Looking forward dispassionately twenty-three years ago
that Portuguese student prophesied that this could not last, that there
would be war; and in the light of later events that prophecy about "the
allied armies" has been recently recalled. It was in these words that
he closed his brilliant study of the youthful Emperor and King:

"William II runs the awful danger of being cast down Gemoniæ. He boldly
takes upon himself responsibilities which in all nations are divided
among various bodies of the state--he alone judges, he alone executes,
because to him alone it is (not to his ministers, to his council, or
to his parliament) that God, the God of the Hohenzollerns, imparts
his transcendental inspiration. He must therefore be infallible and
invincible. At the first disaster--whether it be inflicted by his
burghers or by his people in the streets of Berlin, or by allied armies
on the plains of Europe--Germany will at once conclude that his
much-vaunted alliance with God was the trick of a wily despot.

"Then will there not be stones enough from Lorraine to Pomerania to
stone this counterfeit Moses. William II is in very truth casting
against fate those terrible 'iron dice' to which the now-forgotten
Bismarck once alluded. If he win he may have within and without the
frontiers altars such as were raised to Augustus; should he lose,
exile, the traditional exile, in England awaits him--a degraded exile,
the exile with which he so sternly threatens those who deny his
infallibility.

"M. Renan is therefore quite right: there is nothing more attractive
at this period of the century than to witness the final development
of William II. In the course of years (may God make them slow and
lengthy!) this youth, ardent, pleasing, fertile in imagination, of
sincere, perhaps heroic, soul, may be sitting in calm majesty in his
Berlin Schloss presiding over the destinies of Europe--or he may be in
the Hôtel Métropole in London sadly unpacking from his exile's handbag
the battered double crown of Prussia and Germany."

This drama of a life is twenty-three years nearer its climax than it
was when Renan bade the world good night. With a certain finality of
pathos a Greek poet whom Renan loved, thinking doubtless of his unhappy
countrymen who had fallen in the long wars between Athens and Sparta,
had said: "They that have died are not sick, nor do they possess
any evil things." If this be true, quite possibly, then, the world
was kinder to this aged Frenchman than he shall ever know. For the
disasters which were to follow the rising star of the Emperor, which he
regarded so curiously, were to be far greater than he had ever dreamed.
It may be, therefore, that it is he and not some of his younger
countrymen who are to be congratulated on the bournes which marked the
time of his coming and his passing.

The question of the responsibility of the Emperor and the limits of his
power is one which perhaps only time can decide. Undeniably Germany
has a written Constitution. But that Constitution is of comparatively
recent date (April 16, 1871). It is not looked upon, as is the American
Constitution, as the source of Germany's political life. It is the
empire and not the Constitution that is holy. Struggles for personal
liberty find little place in the history of Prussia. They have no
Cromwell, no Washington, no Robespierre, and, significantly too, they
have had in times past no Ravaillac and no Guiteau. There, still,
a certain majesty doth hedge about a king. The old idea of fealty,
of _deutsche Treue_, which led the retainers of Teutonic chiefs or
rulers to submit uncomplainingly to every abuse and all oppression and
to follow their lords into misfortune and into exile, though it has
doubtless waned, nevertheless retains some vestiges of its traditional
force even to-day.

When, therefore, in 1878, by a curious coincidence, two attempts were
made upon the life of Emperor William I (one by Hödel, an irresponsible
person of diseased mind and body, who had been dismissed from the
Social Democratic party; and another by Nobiling, who was not a Social
Democrat), Bismarck immediately and easily seized this occasion to
crush Social Democracy and increase the imperial power. He dissolved
the Reichstag, and in one month the law-courts inflicted no less
than five hundred years of imprisonment for _lèse-majesté_. Within
eight months the authorities dissolved two hundred and twenty-two
workingmen's unions, suppressed one hundred and twenty-seven periodical
and two hundred and seventy-eight other publications, and innumerable
_bona-fide_ co-operative societies were compelled by the police to
close their doors without trial and with no possibility of appeal. With
equal despatch numerous Social Democrats were expelled from Germany
on a few days' notice. This traditional attitude toward the Social
Democrat, who from our standpoint is the German radical and liberal,
appears again in the present Emperor when he declares (May 14, 1889)
that every Social Democrat is synonymous with enemy of the country. How
Social Democracy has grown in spite of the Emperor's attempt to check
it will be evident from a consideration of the following figures, in
which the forty political parties are grouped into their four larger
divisions:

  +----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
  |                |   1871  |   1881  |   1893  |   1907  |   1912  |
  +----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+
  | Right, or      |         |         |         |         |         |
  |   Conservative |  895,000|1,210,000|1,806,000|2,151,000|1,149,916|
  | Liberal        |1,884,000|1,948,000|2,102,000|3,078,000|3,227,846|
  | Clerical       |  973,000|1,618,000|1,920,000|2,779,000|2,012,990|
  | Social         |         |         |         |         |         |
  |   Democrats    |  124,000|  312,000|1,787,000|3,259,000|4,238,919|
  +----------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+

In spite of this representation in the Reichstag, the power of the
German political parties is slight. The power lies far more with the
Emperor and the Bundesrat. According to Article II of the Constitution,
the Emperor represents the empire internationally and can declare
war if defensive (in German eyes the present is a defensive war),
can make peace as well as enter into treaties with other nations,
and appoint and receive ambassadors. When treaties are related
to matters regulated by imperial legislation, and when war is not
merely defensive, the Emperor must have the consent of the Bundesrat,
in which, together with the Reichstag, are vested the legislative
functions of the empire. But _de facto_, and through her power of veto,
Prussia controls the Bundesrat, and as King of Prussia the Emperor
controls Prussia.

That, even so, the Constitution is not the real and final source of
political power, but a convenient political instrument, which in the
mind of so great an authority as Bismarck might still easily be changed
without consulting the people, we may gather from the fact that the
Great Chancellor frequently debated the question of limiting the
suffrage. "The blind Hödhur[1] [the German elector] does not know how
to manipulate in his coarse hands the Nuremberg toy [the Reichstag]
which I gave him, and through his voting he is ruining the Fatherland."
According to Hohenlohe, Bismarck considered setting aside the Reichstag
and returning to the old Bundestag.

[1] In Norse mythology Hödhur was the powerful blind god who slew
    Balder.

The late Price Collier, an enthusiastic admirer of Germany, is
therefore quite justified in saying: "This Reichstag is really only
nominally a portion of the governing body. It has the right to
refuse a bill presented by the government, but if it does so it may
be summarily dismissed, as has happened several times, and another
election usually provides a more amenable body." And if the following
judgment seems somewhat downright, it is none the less substantially
true:

"The fact that the members of the Reichstag are not in the saddle but
are used unwillingly and often contemptuously as a necessary and often
stubborn and unruly pack-animal by the Kaiser-appointed ministers, the
fact that they are pricked forward or induced to move by a tempting
feed held just beyond the nose has something to do, no doubt, with the
lack of unanimity which exists. The diverse elements debate with one
another and waste their energy in rebukes and recriminations which
lead nowhere and result in nothing. I have listened to many debates in
the Reichstag where the one aim of the speeches seemed to be merely
to unburden the soul of the speaker. He had no plan, no proposal,
no solution, merely a confession to make. After forty-odd years the
Germans, in many ways the most cultivated nation in the world, are
still without real representative government."

History, to be sure, may be read in many ways, but from one standpoint
it is perfectly possible to regard the framing of the present
Constitution and the building up of the present German Empire not as
the last stage in the attempt to give freedom and self-government to
the German people, but to guarantee and maintain the supremacy of
Prussia. Whether or not this is a possible view, it is, in any case,
one occasionally to be found implied in the speeches of the Emperor,
and it came to open expression in the statement of William I that
the empire was merely a "greater Prussia." So, too, when a few years
ago Alsace-Lorraine proved itself recalcitrant to the wishes of its
imperial master, he threatened that he would make of it a "Prussian
province."[2]

[2] On this occasion a Socialist orator declared in the Reichstag: "We
    salute the imperial words as the confession, full of weight and
    coming from a competent source, that annexation to Prussia is the
    heaviest punishment that one can threaten to impose upon a people
    for its resistance against Germany. It is a punishment like hard
    labor in the penitentiary, with loss of civil rights."

It need, therefore, not appear as startling as would otherwise be the
case if on occasions which to us would seem peculiarly appropriate
(as, for instance, the famous Königsberg speech, August 25, 1910) the
Emperor makes no mention whatever of the Constitution. The sources
of his power and the sanction for his authority he finds not in this
instrument but in the history of his ancestors.

To understand the personality and the speeches of the Emperor it is,
therefore, necessary to recall that he is also King of Prussia and
that the foundation of his ancestors' rule was laid in the province of
Brandenburg, of which they became some centuries ago the margraves and
electors. In 1300 Prussia was a wilderness inhabited by savages who
were ruthlessly massacred by the Teutonic knights. It was looked upon
as lying outside the German Empire. Through the knights the country
was converted to Christianity, and the reduced native population was
largely augmented by immigration from other German states.

Although the Emperor is not slow to accept traditions with regard to
his house, he never mentions the old shoot in the genealogical tree of
an elector which carries us back to one of the fugitives who fled from
Troy with Æneas. For our purposes, it was not until 1273 that a count
of Hohenzollern first came into prominence, when, after a fortunate
marriage, he became burgrave of Nuremberg and prince of the Holy Roman
Empire. With the exception of Frederick William II, they have been
a thrifty race. A little more than a century later there appears in
history that one of the Emperor's ancestors to whom he frequently
refers as the founder of his house and that one who began to acquire
for it divine right.

Frederick VI of Hohenzollern had already come into prominence through
the fact that he had cast in his lot with King Sigismund of Hungary.
The services which he rendered the King, however valuable, were not
altogether disinterested, and it is said that he largely increased his
fortune thereby. He seems not to have been content with mere promises,
and it is a matter of record that Sigismund pledged to him certain
districts in Hungary as security for 40,000 gulden. As Frederick was to
lay the foundation for the greatness of the house of Hohenzollern and
as Emperor William is fond of repeating that he came to Brandenburg in
obedience to a summons from on high, this chapter in the history of the
Emperor's house is particularly significant and interesting.

For some time previously Brandenburg had been unfortunate in its rulers
and had frequently changed hands. In 1373 it had been sold for 500,000
gulden to Emperor Charles IV, who turned it over to his son Wenceslaus.
In 1378 it passed to Wenceslaus' half brother, the Sigismund mentioned
above. Sigismund was in financial difficulty. A few years later,
therefore, he pledged the mark of Brandenburg to his cousins Jobst and
Procop of Moravia as security for a loan of 500,000 gulden. Sigismund
defaulted payment in 1393, so that the margraviate passed to them. In
1410 Sigismund eagerly desired to be elected Emperor of Germany. He
entrusted the management of what might quite properly be called his
"campaign" to Frederick of Hohenzollern. Jobst of Moravia, who, as
we have seen, now had claims to Brandenburg was a rival candidate.
Sigismund, without deigning to make repayment, coolly declared that
the transaction with Jobst concerning Brandenburg was null and void
and instructed Frederick to cast the vote for the mark. To this vote
Frederick clearly (if anything in these complicated proceedings is
clear) had no right. He none the less managed the campaign and in a
"snap" election cast the vote of Brandenburg with assurance. This at
least was the view of other electors, and this high-handed performance
did not meet with their approval. They called a rival council and
elected Jobst to the imperial dignity. For both Sigismund and Frederick
it was "fortunate" (we take the word from the Prussian historian
Eberty) that Jobst died shortly after. It is perhaps unfortunate that
it should have been suspected ever since that he died of poison.

Sigismund himself seems to have been somewhat doubtful about the
validity of that election which Frederick had compassed and after the
death of Jobst had himself re-elected and was finally acknowledged as
Emperor. If the times were bad, Sigismund and Jobst were no better
than their times. It was this same Sigismund who, after having granted
a safe conduct to the great reformer John Huss, allowed him to be
judicially murdered, a proceeding which made even Charles V blush for
the empire.

For the purpose of electing Sigismund, Frederick had incurred
considerable expense, amounting to some hundred thousand gulden. It
is perhaps again fortunate for all concerned and for the honor of
the venal empire that no bill of particulars specifying the uses of
this fund is now available, if any was ever rendered. That Frederick,
however, had not served Sigismund "_pour l'amour de Dieu_" is plain
from the fact that he again took security for his advances. This time
he was given the unhappy mark of Brandenburg which, as we have seen,
had belonged to Jobst by virtue of a mortgage which Sigismund had never
taken the trouble to discharge.

If, then, the law of God is at all similar to the law recognized by
men, Sigismund had no right to give and the ancestor of William II no
legal right to accept that province. The right by which Frederick came
into possession of this first state of the later German Empire was,
consequently, a right quite different from rights generally recognized.
This, therefore, must be that "divine right" which William II is so
fond of proclaiming. At its best, the document of June 7, 1411, which
gave the Hohenzollerns their first claim to their first province was
in reality a mortgage to a piece of property of doubtful title, and
if the rather florid style of that document seems to bring in the
business transaction as something quite incidental, it is altogether
similar to the forms in which other mortgages were couched in those
days. That this was so is further evidenced by the fact that the
Brandenburg cities looked upon Frederick as the holder of a mortgage
and did homage to him "_zu seinem Gelde_"--"for his money"; that is,
they recognized that they were bound to him only until he should be
paid. The nobles did not do homage to him at all. After "the rain of
margraves" of the previous decades, it is not strange that they should
have been slow to recognize their latest overlord. Emperor William II
is, therefore, quite right when he describes the mark of May, 1412, as
devastated, unruly, and altogether unpromising. It could hardly have
been otherwise. Before Frederick was invested with Brandenburg (and he
was formally invested only after a further payment of 400,000 gulden),
in 1417, his princely possessions included merely partial claims to
smaller districts like Ansbach and Bayreuth, which he shared with his
brother John. In spite of Frederick of Hohenzollern's devotion to the
cause of religion, the Shakespearean motto, "Thrift, thrift, Horatio,"
may be taken to explain satisfactorily his conduct in this regard. That
the nobles would be unruly he must have expected. His own activities
and his acceptance of the mark had helped to make them so. Frederick's
later service consisted in dispelling a confusion which he had helped
to create.

In these larger transactions the first great Hohenzollern does not seem
to have been given to listening to the still small voice. Incidentally,
he was later to turn against Sigismund. The assumption, therefore,
that he left his southern home for the mark out of heed for a divine
call, as Emperor William in his speech of February 3, 1899, tells us
that he did, is historically, like Laplace's God, a useless hypothesis.
Self-interest, for which he seems to have had a fairly keen sense,
would have impelled him to do no less. Yet it is upon the _faits et
gestes_ of Frederick of Hohenzollern that Emperor William II bases his
claims to rule Germany by divine right.

As we have seen, the mortgage was not discharged, and Frederick had
been formally invested with the margraviate and electorship in 1417.
He lifted the mark out of the deplorable condition in which he found
it, compelled obedience, and during the period of his rule--he died
in 1440--its lot was much improved and the power of the house of
Hohenzollern much strengthened. History must give him credit for his
ability and his difficult achievement if not for his motives.

In the process of establishing himself, his rule, like that of his
successors was the rule of the sword and his policy the _Machtpolitik_,
or policy of force. In spite of her comparative poverty, therefore,
Prussia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries maintained an army
larger than that of Austria or France. The connection between the ruler
and the army in a state which was founded and maintained by force of
arms was, therefore, and remains in modern Prussia so close that the
Emperor is from the standpoint of tradition justified in repeating
that "the only pillar on which the empire rests is the army." It was
literally _ein Volk in Waffen_, a people in arms. The first really
outstanding ruler of the province was the Great Elector (1620-88), who
has always been cited by William II as his model and of whom he speaks
with a respect that amounts to veneration.

He was born in Berlin and, after passing part of his youth in the
Netherlands, became ruler of Brandenburg and Prussia in 1640, before
the close of the Thirty Years' War. He restored the prestige of the
army and centralized the government and, we are informed by recognized
authorities, by a clever but unscrupulous use of his intermediate
position between Sweden and Poland, procured his recognition as an
independent Duke of Prussia by both powers and eventually succeeded in
crushing the stubborn and protracted opposition which was offered to
his authority by the estates of the duchy. His success in organizing
the army was proved by his great victory over the Swedes at Fehrbellin,
1675.

From childhood the Emperor has worshipped the Great Elector as his
favorite hero. In their policies there is a striking similarity, for
the elector was the first to recognize the importance of sea power and
is praised by William II for having founded the Prussian navy and for
having encouraged commerce. He built the first great German canal,
from the Oder to the Spree (another lead which the present Emperor
was to follow), and he inaugurated the colonial policy by founding
a settlement on the west African coast. This, likewise, was to be
revived by the present Emperor, for it was allowed to lapse even under
Frederick the Great, who considered a "village on the frontier" a much
greater asset than a state oversea. The aim of the Great Elector was
to make himself an absolute ruler, as he regarded this best for the
internal and external welfare of the state. But he raised Brandenburg
and Prussia to a high place and laid the basis of their later power.

Under these lords and their followers the progress of Prussia was
amazingly rapid. In 1650, when London and Paris were cities of a
little more or less than half a million inhabitants and Amsterdam
counted 300,000, Berlin was a village of 10,000. The population of
Prussia itself, which, to be sure, had been more than doubled in size,
increased from 1,500,000 in 1688 to 19,000,000 in 1865. It was in the
time of Frederick the Great, however, that her power as a state was
first firmly established. His military genius (he is usually said
to have originated "the oblique order" of battle) and his policy of
dissimulation here stood him in good stead. He sowed discord among
his neighbors and awaited the favorable opportunity to attack even on
very slight pretexts and in the case of Silesia without the formality
of a declaration of war. Like William II, he was a patron of the arts
and sciences and invited noted littérateurs and scientists, especially
Frenchmen, to his court. The scientist Maupertuis and Voltaire were
his protégés, and the exiled Rousseau for a time found refuge in his
domains. He himself wrote in French. It is probably because of his
French sympathies and the fact that he was, in this regard, not a
_kerndeutscher Mann_ that William II rarely speaks of him personally
and mentions usually only his services to his country.

Frederick died in 1786. He had raised Prussia to the position of a
first-rate power and, in Disraeli's phrase, left it "regarded if not
respected." His successor, Frederick William II, is remembered mostly
because of the scandalous character of his life, and he showed none
of the characteristics of the energetic Hohenzollerns. A contemporary
says of him: "He bears the greatest resemblance to an Asiatic prince,
who, living within his harem with his slaves of both sexes, leaves
the business of the state to his viziers. The wall, twelve feet in
height, by which the new garden at Potsdam is enclosed, reminds one of
the enclosure of a seraglio." He was succeeded by his son, Frederick
William III, in 1797. This conscientious but ill-starred ruler was to
be rendered famous through his misfortunes in the time of Napoleon and
has been overshadowed somewhat in history by his beautiful, devoted,
and heroic wife Louise. They stand closer to modern history than is
generally realized. The present Emperor often mentions them for their
heroism and the brave part they played in the War of Liberation and
in freeing their country from the incubus of the Napoleonic Empire.
They were the parents of Emperor William I, the illustrious grandfather
of the present sovereign. If, then, Emperor William II frequently
takes occasion to recall the memory of 1813 it should be remembered
that in his own family these events were very near to him, since his
grandfather had spent his childhood in those years of humiliation and
had served in the allied armies in the time of Napoleon. The man who
was to become Emperor William I had been born as the second son of
Frederick William III in 1797. He was to be preceded on the throne by
his elder brother, Frederick William IV, who, like the present Emperor
and like Frederick the Great, was an accomplished lover of the arts,
but who lacked the strength to guide his country with a sure hand
through the troubled years of the forties. He became afflicted in his
last years with hopeless mental disease, and his brother, after having
served as regent, became King of Prussia as William I in 1861.

The idea of uniting Germany into a single empire had already been
seriously agitated in the time of Frederick William IV, but it
was under his brother, largely through the tireless activity and
wonderfully successful diplomacy of Bismarck, that this great aim was
to be achieved in the lifetime of the present Emperor. It was in
the chapel at Königsberg that William I arranged for and held his
coronation. He cannot be said to have been crowned; for although his
brother had granted Prussia a constitution William himself raised the
crown from the altar, set it on his own head, and announced in a loud
voice: "I receive this crown from God's hand and from none other."

It was such a legacy that the present Emperor inherited when, after
the few months' reign of his father, he succeeded to the imperial
office; and it is this legacy and this tradition which, in fairness
to the Emperor, we must remember in reading such seemingly strange
pronouncements as his own address at Königsberg in 1910.

The later events in German history and the subsequent policies of the
empire are touched upon in such detail that further preamble is hardly
necessary. That the Emperor has everywhere energetically taken the lead
is undoubted. That he should be held responsible in general for German
diplomacy is implied in his position. That he has urged and directed
the movement in nearly every field of endeavor is plain from the varied
character of his addresses. No one can doubt after reading him that
he desired peace, in the sense that he preferred peace to war. The
question that will undoubtedly interest the reader most is the problem
of the consistency of his various policies; whether, for instance, the
exaggerated worship of the army, the devout desire for peace, and the
insistent imperialism of his later years can be brought into harmony;
whether they can be reduced to any common denominator. However that may
be, that he has been one of the most devoted and conscientious servants
of the German cause as he sees it cannot possibly be denied.

II

PRELIMINARIES

JUNE 15, 1888--OCTOBER 30, 1889

THE FIRST OFFICIAL ACT OF THE EMPEROR

SCHLOSS FRIEDRICHSKRON, JUNE 15, 1888

    The aged Emperor William I, grandfather of William II, departed
    this life March 9, 1888. He was succeeded by his son, Frederick
    III, who, after a reign of only a few months, died on June 15 of
    the same year. The present Emperor, who was born on January 27,
    1859, was, therefore, twenty-nine at the time of his accession to
    the throne. It is characteristic that his first official act should
    have been an order to the army.

    The close connection between the army and the Prussian Kings is a
    tradition which William II sedulously maintained. In later speeches
    he will frequently give evidence of this desire on his part and
    will quote characteristic sayings of his ancestors to the effect
    that the army is the "_rocher de bronze_," that it is "the only
    pillar on which the empire rests." He will repeat to the army
    officers that phrase of his grandfather: "These are the gentlemen
    upon whom I can rely."

    If the extraordinary versatility of William II is one of his most
    striking qualities, a reading of his speeches will convince us
    that it is none the less true that he is first and foremost a
    soldier. By far the great majority of his speeches are on military
    occasions, and it is the martial triumphs of his ancestors that he
    is most fond of commemorating. He seems to be most at home with
    his officers, and although at one time or another differences have
    arisen between him and every party or caste in the empire, even
    including the Prussian nobility, this close relationship with the
    army has never been clouded by even a momentary estrangement.
    More than any other one subject, army reviews have provided the
    occasion for his speeches. If but a few of these are given here
    it is because his sentiments in this regard have suffered no
    change and these addresses are largely repetitions of his sense
    of satisfaction and the expression of his good-will. That he
    intended to be the virtual leader of his own host is perhaps best
    indicated by the fact that Von Moltke (who was, to be sure, an old
    man) resigned six weeks after his accession to the throne. The
    present war has proved his capacity in this regard, and the army
    has certainly lost nothing in efficiency and has probably gained
    somewhat in confidence since he took over the direction from his
    ancestors and their advisers. The present order was issued on
    the very day of his father's death. On that same date a somewhat
    similar proclamation was addressed to the navy.

  [Illustration: THE EMPEROR IN THE YEAR OF HIS CORONATION, 1888
    [Age 29]]

Even ere you, my troops, had put aside the external signs of mourning
for your Emperor and King, William I, who lives ever in your hearts,
you are called upon to suffer another heavy blow through the death this
morning, at five minutes past eleven, of my dear and deeply beloved
father, his Majesty, the Emperor and King, Frederick III.

It is in these serious days of mourning that God's will places me at
the head of the army, and it is from a heart stirred deeply, indeed,
that I address my first words to my troops.

I enter with implicit confidence, however, upon this duty to which God
has called me; for I know what a sense for honor and duty has been
implanted in the army by my glorious ancestors, and I know to what
degree this sense has ever and at all times displayed itself.

The absolutely inviolable dependence upon the war lord [_Kriegsherr_]
is, in the army, the inheritance which descends from father to
son, from generation to generation. I would direct your gaze to my
grandfather, who stands before the eyes of all of you, the glorious war
lord, worthy of all honor--a spectacle more beautiful than any other
and one which speaks most tellingly to our hearts; I would direct your
gaze to my dear father, who even as Crown Prince won for himself a
distinguished place in the annals of the army, and to a long succession
of famous ancestors whose names are resplendent in history and whose
hearts beat warmly for the army.

So are we bound together--I and the army--so are we born for one
another, and so shall we hold together indissolubly, whether, as God
wills, we are to have peace or storm.

You are now about to swear to me the oath of fidelity and obedience,
and I vow that I shall ever be mindful of the fact that the eyes of my
forefathers look down upon me from that other world and that I one day
shall have to render up to them an account of the fame and the honor of
the army.

                                                      WILLIAM.

  CASTLE FRIEDRICHSKRON, June 15, 1888.

TO MY PEOPLE

POTSDAM, JUNE 18, 1888

    Three days after his pronouncements to the army and navy Emperor
    William II issued the following proclamation to his people. In
    temperament the son was quite unlike his father. The wife of
    Frederick I and the mother of the present Emperor was an English
    princess, Victoria (daughter of Queen Victoria), and through her
    Frederick is generally said to have been influenced by the more
    liberal English tradition. Critics of William II have occasionally
    annoyed him by repeating, justly or unjustly, that his father
    regarded certain elements in his character with disapproval.
    However that may be, it is true that the people regarded Frederick
    in a different light from that in which they have come to regard
    his son. In reading the speeches of William II one is conscious
    of the fact that he is speaking from a certain eminence, that the
    Emperor never forgets that he enjoys the advantage of position.
    He has, therefore, put between himself and his people a certain
    distance which did not exist in the case of his father. The father
    treated his subjects as if he were one of them, and it is this fact
    that led them fondly to call him "_Unser Fritz_." However great the
    respect which they feel for the son, none of his subjects would
    think of bestowing any such title on William II, and, even if they
    did, it is doubtful whether he would feel in any way complimented
    thereby. He is in this respect more like his ancestor Frederick the
    Great than like his father or grandfather, and it is a striking
    fact that in all his speeches he never once mentions this somewhat
    familiar title, of which his father was proud.

God has again hung about us the pall of deepest mourning. Hardly had
the grave closed upon my ever-memorable grandfather, than his Majesty,
my dearly beloved father, was called from this earthly sojourn to
everlasting peace. The heroic energy, born of Christian humility, with
which, unmindful of his sufferings, he accomplished his royal duties
seemed to leave room for the hope that he would be spared still longer
to the Fatherland. God has willed it otherwise. To the royal sufferer
whose heart was moved by all that was great and beautiful, only a few
months were allotted in which he might display upon the throne the
noble qualities of heart and soul which have won for him the love of
his people. The virtues which adorned him and the victories which he
gained on fields of battle will be gratefully remembered as long as
German hearts beat, and undying fame will illumine his knightly figure
in the history of the Fatherland.

Called to the throne of my fathers, I have taken over the government,
looking to the King of all kings, and have vowed to God, following the
example of my father, to be a righteous and gentle prince, to foster
piety and the fear of God, to maintain peace, to further the welfare of
the country, to be a help to the poor and oppressed, and to be to the
righteous man a true protector.

If I pray God for strength to fulfil these royal duties which He has
laid upon me, I am buoyed up by that faith in the Prussian people
which a consideration of our past history confirms in me. In good
and in evil days Prussia's people have ever stood faithfully to their
kings. I, too, count upon this fidelity, which has ever been preserved
inviolable toward my fathers in all times of trial and danger; for
I am conscious that I reciprocate it whole-heartedly, as a faithful
prince of a faithful people, and that we are both equally strong in our
devotion to a common Fatherland. From this consciousness of the mutual
love which binds me to my people, I derive the confidence that God
will give me wisdom and strength to exercise my kingly office for the
welfare of the Fatherland.

                                                      WILLIAM.

  POTSDAM, June 18, 1888.

FIRST DECLARATION OF POLICY

BERLIN, JUNE 25, 1888

    After the death of Frederick III the Reichstag was summoned to
    meet in extraordinary session. Most of the affiliated sovereigns
    of the German states assembled to pay homage to the youthful
    Emperor. On this occasion he made from the throne a declaration
    of policy which is interesting as showing his ideas before he was
    subjected to the pressure of events. Before he had succeeded to
    the throne it had been generally reported, possibly because of
    his known fondness for the army, that he was by nature bellicose.
    This report seriously distressed the new sovereign, and he began
    his reign with declarations, which have often been renewed since,
    that he would work for peace. He likewise outlines his foreign
    policy and expresses the hope that he may further develop friendly
    relations with Russia. In this he was to achieve but little
    success, and a few years later the agreement which bound Russia
    to observe neutrality in case Germany were involved in war was
    allowed to lapse, much to the disgust of Bismarck, who at that time
    had been superseded by Caprivi. Frederick the Great had warned
    his successors that in the future, in case Prussia wished to wage
    any war, she would first have to assure herself of the neutrality
    of Russia. Bismarck had followed this policy and had established
    it on the basis of an agreement. As the relationship to Russia
    was to be of particular consequence, it will be interesting to
    have before us an article which appeared October 26, 1896, in the
    _Hamburger Nachrichten_, recognized as expressing the views of the
    great Chancellor. It announces that already in Bismarck's time
    the wire between Berlin and St. Petersburg was cut and takes up
    certain events of the year 1890. "Up to this time," we are told,
    "both empires were fully agreed that in case one of them should be
    attacked the other would preserve a benevolent neutrality. After
    the departure of Bismarck this agreement was not renewed, and if we
    are correctly informed about events in Berlin, it was not Russia,
    piqued at the change in chancellors, but Count Caprivi who declined
    to continue this mutual assurance, while Russia was prepared to do
    so."

    Emperor William's announcement with regard to his personal
    friendship and the interests of the realm may be taken as heralding
    a new era in German foreign policy. He inaugurated what has been
    called "personal diplomacy," and felt that it was possible to
    arrange the relationships between states by personally visiting
    and conferring with other sovereigns. Shortly after his accession,
    therefore, he set out on a tour of the European capitals. Bismarck,
    who planned his foreign relations on the basis of race psychology
    and possible future clashes of interests, opposed this strenuously.
    The visit to St. Petersburg (19th to 24th of July, 1888) gave rise
    to certain unpleasant scenes and was only returned by the Czar
    in a very perfunctory manner fifteen months later (October 11,
    1889). The effect of the friendly attentions shown the Czar on this
    occasion was doubtless weakened by the fact that, less than three
    weeks later, Emperor William felt called upon to visit the Sultan,
    by whom he was most enthusiastically received in Constantinople.
    Even though the Emperor was most sincere in his desire to preserve
    friendship with Russia, events were to prove that his method of
    cultivating diplomatic relations was far less successful than
    Bismarck's way of working in silence and waiting for events.

    With regard to the internal administration of the realm, the
    problem that seemed most pressing to William II was the rapid
    growth of the Social Democratic party. This problem had already
    engaged the attention of William I and of Bismarck, who recognized
    its gravity. But here, too, the Emperor and Chancellor were
    to disagree. The former felt that he could easily master the
    situation, as may be seen from his remark to Bismarck: "Leave the
    Social Democrats to me." He was doubtless sincerely concerned for
    the welfare of the laborer and recognized in it one of the sources
    of the prosperity of the state. His policy was to be patriarchal
    and, bluntly put in Shakespearian phrase, amounted to giving them
    medicine to make them love him. But if, to change the metaphor, he
    offered them his hand in a velvet glove, they were, as may be seen
    from his speech, soon to discover that it was a hand of iron.

HONORED GENTLEMEN:

I greet you with deep sorrow in my heart, and I know that you grieve
with me. The recent memory of my late father's sufferings, the
astounding fact that three months after the death of his Majesty,
Emperor William I, I am called upon to mount the throne, arouses the
same feeling in the hearts of all Germans, and our grief has found a
sympathetic response in all countries of the world. Under the weight of
this sorrow, I pray God to give me strength to fulfil the high office
to which His will has called me.

As I follow this command I have before my eyes the example which
Emperor William bequeathed to his successors when, after serious wars,
he ruled with a love of peace. This same example the reign of my late
father strove to maintain in so far as he was not thwarted in his aims
by his illness and death.

I have called you together, Honored Gentlemen, in order in your
presence to announce to the German people that I am determined, as
Emperor and as King, to follow in that same path by which my late
grandfather won for himself the trust of his allies, the love of the
German people, and the kindly recognition of foreign countries. It lies
with God whether I shall be successful in this or not; but earnestly
shall I strive to that end.

The most important tasks of the German Emperor lie in the province of
establishing military and political safety for the realm from without
and in supervising the execution of the laws of the empire within. The
Constitution of the empire forms the highest of these laws. To guard
and defend it and all those rights which it secures to both of the
legislative bodies[3] of the nation and to every German citizen, as
well as those which it secures to the Emperor and to each of the states
of the union, and to the reigning princes, is the most important right
and duty of the Emperor.

[3] Bundesrat and Reichstag.

With regard to legislation in the realm, according to the Constitution
I am called upon to act more in my capacity as King of Prussia than
in that as the German Emperor; but in both it will be my aim to carry
out the work of imperial legislation in the same spirit in which my
late grandfather began it. Especially do I take to heart in its fullest
application the message published by him on November 17, 1881,[4] and
shall proceed in that spirit to bring it about that the legislation for
the working population shall make more secure the protection which,
in accordance with the principles of Christian ethics, it can afford
the weak and oppressed in the struggle for existence. I hope it may
be possible in this way more nearly to eliminate unhealthy social
distinctions, and I cherish the hope that in fostering our internal
welfare I shall receive the harmonious support of all true subjects of
the realm, without division of party.

[4] As this message of Emperor William I was practically the beginning
    of labor legislation in Germany and is several times referred
    to, its significant portion is given below. Emperor William I
    had already failed in his policy of crushing Socialism through
    drastic measures of repression. He was now to initiate a policy of
    attempting to kill it with kindness. In spite of certain admirable
    provisions, this too was to fail. The Social Democrats had learned
    from bitter experience that they did not enjoy the good-will of
    either the grandfather or the grandson, and for this reason the
    projects of social legislation were looked upon with suspicion and
    accepted without enthusiasm. The awkward and compromising nature of
    the Emperor's position is evident in the preamble.

    "Already in February of this year we expressed the conviction
    that the healing of social grievances was not to be sought
    exclusively in the repression of Social Democratic excesses, but
    also in the direct advancement of the welfare of the laborer.
    We hold it to be our royal duty to impress this matter upon the
    Reichstag, and we would look back with greater satisfaction upon
    all the achievements with which God has blessed our reign if we
    could carry away with us the conviction that we had left to the
    Fatherland new and lasting pledges of internal peace and to those
    in need of help greater security and provisions for support,
    upon which they may make rightful claim. In our attempts to this
    end we are sure of the support of all the affiliated governments
    and count upon the support of the Reichstag without distinction
    of parties. To this end a draft of a bill for the protection of
    laborers against accidents, which was presented by the affiliated
    governments in the previous session, will be reformulated in view
    of the discussions held in the Reichstag and will be offered for
    further consideration. As a supplement to it, a project will be
    brought forward which proposes a similar organization of the funds
    for laboring men's sick insurance. But those, too, who on account
    of age or infirmity are no longer able to work have just claim
    upon the community for a higher degree of governmental protection
    than it has previously been possible to accord them. To find the
    proper ways and means for making such provision is one of the most
    difficult but one of the highest tasks of any society which is
    based upon the foundations of a Christian national life. By calling
    upon the sources of this strong national life and organizing it
    into incorporated associations under state protection we hope to
    bring about the solution of problems which the state alone could
    not solve with the same success. But even in this way the goal
    cannot be reached without the employment of important means."

I hold it, however, likewise my duty to see to it that our political
and social development proceeds according to law and to meet with
firmness any attempt which aims at undermining the order of the state.

In foreign politics I am determined to keep peace with every one in
so far as in me lies. My love for the German army and my position in
it will never lead me into the temptation of robbing the country of
the benefits of peace, unless some attack upon the empire, or her
allies, forces war upon us. The army is to make our peace secure; yet
if that should, nevertheless, be threatened, the army will be able to
re-establish it with honor. And it will be able to do so by reason
of the strength which it has received from the last army bill, which
you voted unanimously. To make use of that force to wage a war of
aggression lies far from my thoughts. Germany needs no new martial
glory nor any conquest of whatever sort after she has, once for all,
established her right to exist as a single and independent nation.

Our alliance with Austria-Hungary is publicly known; I hold fast to
this in German faith not only because it is concluded but because I
perceive in this defensive alliance a basis for European balance of
power as well as a legacy from German history. The public opinion of
the entire German people supports this alliance, and it is founded
upon the European law of nations, as it prevailed undisputed until
1866. Similar historical relations, and the fact that we have similar
national needs to-day, ally us with Italy. Both nations wish to
hold fast to the blessings of peace in order to devote themselves
undisturbed to the strengthening of their newly acquired unity, to the
development of their national institutions, and to the furtherance of
their prosperity.

To my great satisfaction, our existing agreements with Austria-Hungary
and Italy permit me to foster carefully my personal friendship for
the Russian Emperor and the friendly relations which have existed for
a hundred years with the neighboring Russian Empire, a course which
accords with my own feelings as well as with the interests of Germany.

I stand as ready to serve the Fatherland in the conscientious promotion
of peace as in the care for our army and rejoice in the traditional
relations with foreign powers through which my efforts in the former
direction are being furthered.

Trusting in God and in the ability of our people to defend themselves,
I entertain the hope that for an appreciable time we may be allowed to
preserve and strengthen through peaceful labor what my two predecessors
on the throne had acquired through their efforts on the field of battle.

OPENING OF THE REICHSTAG

BERLIN, NOVEMBER 22, 1888

    The first months of the Emperor's reign were devoted largely
    to visiting the heads of the confederated German states and in
    cultivating the acquaintance of foreign rulers. His main purpose,
    as he tells us on a later occasion, was to combat the idea that it
    was his intention to enter upon a career of war.

    The workingman's insurance act, which has been referred to, was
    one of the most important legislative provisions ever made in the
    interests of labor. The cost of this insurance was distributed
    between the employer, the employed, and the state. In spite of its
    undoubted benefits, it had failed to disarm the Social Democrats,
    and the party had continued to increase. They complained that
    the proportion of the cost borne by them was too great, and, as
    they had been previously and were soon again to be treated as
    enemies, they were inclined to look upon it as a bribe. By his
    "social-political" legislation the Emperor meant to forestall the
    Socialist programme. When this well-intentioned movement failed to
    dissolve the party, which continued to increase, he was not slow to
    show his resentment.

HONORED GENTLEMEN:

When I greeted you for the first time, at the beginning of my reign,
you stood with me under the weight of the severe visitations which my
house and the empire have experienced in the course of the present
year. The sorrow over this loss will never be wholly extinguished
during the lifetime of the present generation, but it cannot hinder me
from following in the footsteps of my late ancestors and completely
fulfilling the demands of duty with manly vigor and fidelity.

Buoyed up by this sense of duty and assuming that this exists in you to
the same degree, I give you my greeting and bid you welcome as we again
take up our common labors.

My travels have carried me into different parts of the empire, and
everywhere I have found evidences, both on the part of my exalted
colleagues and of the people, that the princes and the population
of Germany are, with absolute trust, devoted to the empire and its
institutions and find the pledge of safety in their union. From such
testimony you have doubtless come to the conclusion, no less satisfying
to you than to me, that the organic union which now binds the empire
together has taken deep and firm rooting in the people at large. I
therefore feel the need of gratefully expressing on this occasion the
pleasure which it gives me.

It fills me with great satisfaction that, after difficult and laborious
negotiations, the inclusion of the free Hanseatic cities, Hamburg and
Bremen, into the customs union of the empire has now been realized.
I see in this the blessed fruit of our combined efforts. May the
expectations which we count upon from this extension of the empire's
customs districts be realized in fullest measure, both for the empire
and for these two most important seacoast towns!

The government of the Swiss Federation has suggested a revision of the
commercial treaty between Germany and Switzerland. Filled with the
desire of confirming the existing friendly relations between the two
countries and of extending them also into the realm of their commercial
policies, I stand ready to meet their proposal. The negotiations have
been conducted through the offices of representatives from the states
bordering upon Switzerland, and their result consists in a further
agreement through which the treaty regulations for reciprocal trade
will be extended and the exchange of industrial products will be made
easier. After its successful acceptance by the Bundesrat the agreement
will be presented to you with the proposal, in order that you may
bestow upon it your constitutional sanction.

The budget for the next fiscal year will be laid before you without
delay. The draft gives proof of the satisfactory condition of the
imperial finances. As a result of the reforms instituted in the
last few years, with your co-operation, in the way of tariffs and
internal revenues, surplus receipts may be expected, and upon this
basis we shall not only be provided with a new means of fulfilling
the inevitable obligations of the empire but it may be possible for
our constituent states to expect an increase of means for their own
purposes.

I greet with joy the signs of a revival of economic activity in various
fields. Even though the pressure which bears upon the farmer is not
yet relieved, nevertheless, as I look forward to the possibility which
has lately appeared of a greater utilization of certain agricultural
products, I hope that an amelioration also of this most powerful branch
of our industrial work will be brought about.

The bill which has already been announced on the regulation of the
industrial and agricultural societies will be laid before you for your
decision. It is to be hoped that the enfranchising of associations with
limited liability which the bill proposes will prove itself beneficial
in increasing agricultural credit.

Certain shortcomings which have appeared in connection with the
insurance against sickness call for legal remedy. The necessary
preliminary investigations for this have so far progressed as to make
it possible, in all probability, to lay before you in the course of
this session an adequate presentation of the case.

As a precious legacy from my grandfather, I have taken over the problem
of carrying out the social-political legislation begun by him. I do not
allow myself to be carried away by the hope that through legal measures
the exigencies of our time and human misery can be abolished from
the world. I judge it to be a duty, however, of the executive power
to strive with all its faculties toward the mitigation of existing
industrial grievances and through organized measures to emphasize
the fact that love of our neighbor, which has its foundations in
Christianity itself, should be a recognized duty of the entire state.
The difficulties which stand in the way of the state's assisting in
the universal insurance of all workers against the dangers of age and
sickness are great; but, with God's help, they are not insurmountable.
As the result of extensive investigations a bill will be presented to
you which reveals a possible means of attaining this end.

Our settlements in Africa have imposed upon the German Empire the duty
of converting that part of the world to a Christian civilization. The
friendly government of England and her Parliament has known for a
hundred years that the fulfilment of this obligation must begin with
combating the hunting of slaves and the trade in negroes. I have,
therefore, sought and concluded an understanding with England, whose
meaning and aim you shall learn. On it depend further negotiations with
other friendly and interested governments and further proposals for the
Reichstag.

Our relations with all foreign governments are peaceful, and my efforts
are continually directed toward cementing this peace. Our treaties
with Austria and Italy have no other aim. It is incompatible with my
Christian faith and with the duties which as Emperor I have assumed
toward the people needlessly to bring upon Germany the sorrows of a
war, even of a victorious one. In this conviction I have looked upon
it as my duty soon after I ascended the throne to greet not only my
affiliated rulers within the realm but also the friendly neighboring
sovereigns. I have sought to find an understanding with them concerning
the fulfilment of this trust which God has placed upon us, of
preserving, so far as in us lies, the peace and welfare of our people.
The confidence with which I and my policies have been received at all
the courts which I have visited leads me to hope that, with God's help,
I and my allies and my friends will succeed in preserving the peace of
Europe.

THE EMPEROR AND THE STRIKING MINERS

BERLIN, MAY 14, 1889

    The Emperor's change of attitude toward the Socialists is evident
    from his conduct in the conflict which had arisen in the Rhenish
    and Westphalian coal districts between the miners and their
    employers. He personally received delegations from both sides. The
    miners' delegation consisted of Schröder (spokesman), Siegel, and
    Bunte. In answer to Schröder's speech, the Emperor announced:

It goes without saying that every subject, when he presents a wish or
a petition, has the ear of his Emperor. Of this I have given evidence
in that I have invited the deputation to come here and to set forth
their wishes in person. You have, however, placed yourselves in the
wrong, because your agitation is unlawful for no other reason than the
fact that the fourteen days of warning have not yet expired, after
which the workers would have been legally justified in ceasing work.
In consequence of this you are guilty of breaking a contract. It is
self-evident that this breach of contract has angered and injured the
employers.

Further, there are workers who do not wish to strike and who, either
through force or by means of threats, are hindered from continuing
their work. Also, certain of the workers have seized upon organs of
the authorities and upon property which did not belong to them and
have even, in individual cases, offered resistance to the military
force called to protect them. Finally, you wish that work should be
generally resumed again only when your combined demands shall have
been fulfilled at all the mines.

As for the demands themselves, I shall, through my government,
carefully examine them and have the results of the investigation
delivered to you through the appointed authorities. Should, however,
there occur transgressions against the public order and peace, or
should the agitation ally itself with the Social Democrats, then I
should not be in a position to reconcile your wishes with my good-will
as ruler. For, to me, every Social Democrat is synonymous with an enemy
of the realm and of the Fatherland. Should I, therefore, discover that
Social-Democratic tendencies become involved in the agitation and
instigate unlawful opposition, I will step in sternly and ruthlessly
and bring to bear all the power that I possess--and it is great.

Now go to your homes, think over what I have said, and seek to
influence your comrades to reflection. Above all, however, you must
not, under any circumstances, hinder your comrades who wish to return
to their work.

VISIT OF THE KING OF ITALY

BERLIN, MAY 22, 1889

    At the time of the great spring review of this year, King Humbert
    came to Berlin to return the Emperor's visit. A state banquet was
    held, at which the Emperor proposed the following toast to the King
    of Italy:

May it please your Majesty to accept from me and my people our
heartiest thanks for the proof of the friendship which your Majesty has
given me by this visit!

My troops, likewise, are filled with grateful pride that they have been
able to conduct themselves with honor in the eyes of your Majesty, an
experienced soldier.

Full of the happy remembrance of the army manoeuvres at Rome, I raise
my glass and drink to the health of your Majesty and of her Majesty,
the Queen; to the health of your brave troops as well as to the
unchanging friendship with the house of Savoy, whose motto, "_Sempre
avanti, Savoja_," has led to the unification of the kingdom of Italy.
Long live his Majesty, King Humbert!

THE ENGLISH FLEET AND THE GERMAN ARMY

SANDOWN BAY, AUGUST 5, 1889

    On this date the Emperor was created admiral of the English fleet
    by Queen Victoria. On the same day he was present at a regatta on
    Sandown Bay, where he replied as follows to a toast offered by the
    Prince of Wales:

I prize most highly the honor which has been shown me by the Queen in
appointing me admiral of the English fleet. I sincerely rejoice to have
seen the manoeuvres of the fleet, which I consider the finest in the
world. Germany possesses an army which answers to her needs, and if the
British nation possesses a fleet sufficient for the needs of England,
this in itself will be considered by Europe in general as a weighty
factor in the maintenance of peace.

THE ENGLISH ARMY

ALDERSHOT, AUGUST 7, 1889

    On his mother's side, who was a princess royal of England, the
    Emperor was a grandson of Queen Victoria, to whom he paid frequent
    visits and whom he held in high regard. William II began his
    reign with cordial feelings toward his island neighbors. If the
    friendship between the two nations was never particularly close,
    the estrangement of modern times may be said to have begun in
    colonial and commercial rivalries in the last decades of the
    nineteenth century and to have been sharpened by events in China
    and especially by the Boer War. The situation became more acute
    after the Morocco incident, in 1904-5, and when on that occasion
    England sided with France she was by a large portion of the German
    people definitely aligned with their enemies. The present toast,
    which was reported in this form in the _Kreuzzeitung_ of August 9,
    1889, was received with no protest or denial. The Emperor had been
    present at the manoeuvres of 29,000 English troops at Aldershot,
    under General Sir Evelyn Wood. The toast was offered in the camp
    tent of the Duke of Cambridge, in response to one by that officer.

It gives me particular satisfaction to have appointed the Duke of
Cambridge, the commander-in-chief of the English army, as a member of
the 28th Regiment, since this same regiment had as chief at one time
our comrade at Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington.

The friendship with the English, which had been sealed in blood, my
honored grandfather maintained to the end of his life.

The British army fills me with the greatest admiration. If ever the
possibility of counting upon volunteers is doubted, I shall be in a
position to give testimony to their capacity.

At Malplaquet and at Waterloo the Prussian and British blood was shed
in a common cause.

THE CZAR AT BERLIN

BERLIN, OCTOBER 11, 1889

    On the occasion of Alexander III's visit to Berlin the Emperor
    offered the following toast at the banquet in the White Room of the
    Royal Palace. It may be "considering too curiously to consider
    so," but to many there will seem to be something matter-of-fact in
    the Czar's reply, which is printed below. This friendship between
    the rulers of the two neighboring countries was, however, outwardly
    preserved up to the time of the present war, as is evident to
    those who will consult the telegrams exchanged between William and
    Nicolas on the eve of the outbreak.

I drink to the health of my honored friend, his Majesty, the Emperor of
Russia, and to the continuation of the friendship which has existed for
more than one hundred years between our houses and which, as a legacy
received from my ancestors, I am determined to foster.

    The Czar replied in French, as follows:

_Je remercie Votre Majesté de Vos bonnes paroles et je partage
entièrement les sentiments que Vous venez d'exprimer. A la santé de Sa
Majesté, l'Empereur et Roi--Hourra!_

ON BOARD AN ENGLISH FLAG-SHIP

THE PIRÆUS, OCTOBER 30, 1889

    On visits to his English relatives the Emperor had, as a lad, made
    occasional sojourns in Great Britain, and that romantic temperament
    of which he was to give indications even in much later years was
    much impressed by the sight of English ships. He recalls the memory
    on many occasions. As will be plain later, he early conceived the
    idea and realized the necessity of a powerful fleet. As this is his
    first reference to the navy in the present volume it is interesting
    to note the attitude of humble discipleship which in the mid-years
    of the next decade is to give way to quite another conception.

I am proud of the rank which Queen Victoria has bestowed upon me. It
might be supposed that my interest in the British navy dated from my
appointment as admiral; that, however, is not so. From my earliest
youth, when as a boy I ran about on the wharves at Portsmouth, I was
much interested in British ships. My inspection of the ships to-day
has afforded me great satisfaction, and I congratulate you on their
appearance. Nelson's famous watchword is no longer necessary. They all
do their duty, and we as a young sea power follow England in order to
learn from the English navy.

AFTER BISMARCK

MAY 6, 1890--JUNE 21, 1895

OPENING OF THE REICHSTAG

BERLIN, MAY 6, 1890

    This address to the Reichstag is of particular importance. The
    Emperor had now visited most of the sovereigns of Europe and felt
    that he had established himself. He was here definitely outlining
    a policy which he himself had framed. In that period when the
    Emperor was still Prince William, Bismarck had said: "In him there
    is something of Frederick the Great, and he is also able to become
    as despotic as Frederick the Great. What a blessing that we have
    a parliamentary government!" He had likewise prophesied that the
    Emperor would be his own chancellor, and he had discovered in
    his own case that the prophecy was a true one. In the spring of
    this year, after numerous misunderstandings, Bismarck had himself
    been forced into retirement, and henceforth his name will be
    mentioned but rarely. One of the points on which they had disagreed
    was precisely this project for labor legislation, which was,
    unfortunately, not destined to fulfil the hopes entertained by
    William II. A number of the projects here laid down were carried
    out only partially and others not at all. So, for instance, in this
    same year the Emperor had issued the following decree:

    "For the fostering of peace between employers and laborers
    legal regulations are contemplated regarding the forms in which
    the laborers shall, through representatives who possess their
    confidence, participate in the regulation of matters of common
    concern and the protection of their interests in negotiations
    with employers and with the organs of my government. By such
    institutions the laborers are to be enabled to give free and
    peaceful expression to their wishes and complaints, and the
    state authorities are to be given the opportunity of continually
    acquainting themselves with the conditions of the workers and of
    cultivating contact with the latter."

    As late as 1905 it had not been carried into execution, though
    chambers of labor have since been established which partially carry
    out this end.

    The industrial courts of which the Emperor speaks have been far
    from successful in arbitration disputes. They are established in
    all cities of over 20,000 inhabitants and consist of equal numbers
    of employers and employees. Dawson holds that unwillingness to
    mediate lies with the employers. During the year 1905, 406 courts
    acted as boards of conciliation on 350 occasions, all told, and
    in only 128 cases were they successful. Part of the failure lies
    in the fact that no wage agreements existed. Of 219 "aggressive"
    strikes in Berlin in 1905, organized by the "free" trades
    federations, 55 were for the introduction of wage agreements.

    The Emperor's disappointment at the failure of his policy to check
    the growing disaffection of the laboring classes will later be
    evident.

    It is significant that in this address, though measures for the
    army are strongly urged, there is as yet no mention of the navy.

HONORED GENTLEMEN:

Since you have been chosen in the recent elections to work in common
with the allied governments, I bid you welcome at this the opening of
the eighth legislative session of the Reichstag. I earnestly hope that
you may succeed in finding a satisfactory solution for the important
problems of legislation which here confront you. A number of these
problems are of so pressing a nature that it did not seem possible to
defer longer the summoning of the Reichstag.

I consider as most important among them the further enlargement of the
bill concerning the protection of the laborer. The strikes which have
occurred in different parts of the country during the past year have
given me occasion to bring about an investigation of the question as
to whether our present legislation has, to the fullest extent, taken
cognizance of those wishes of the working people which are really just
and reasonable and within the state's power of regulation. The question
of first importance concerns the guarantee of Sunday as a day of rest
for the laboring man, as well as the limitation of woman and child
labor in accordance with consideration for humanity and with regard
to the natural laws of development. The governments of the affiliated
states are convinced that the proposals in this connection made by the
last Reichstag can, according to their present content, be given legal
effectiveness without harm to other interests. In this connection,
however, numerous other provisions have shown themselves unsatisfactory
and capable of improvement. To this category belong especially the
legal provisions for the protection of the laborer against danger
to his life, health, and morals, as well as the laws concerning the
announcement of regulations of labor. The prescriptions concerning
the working men's books need amplification with the aim of insuring
the respect due the older men against the increasing impertinence of
the younger laborers. The consequent changes demanded and the further
expansion of the trade regulations find their expression in a bill
which you will shortly receive.

A further proposal endeavors to secure the better regulation of the
industrial arbitration courts and, likewise, an organization of these
which shall make it possible to use them as mediators in cases of
dispute between employers and employees over the terms on which labor
shall be continued or resumed.

I trust that your willing co-operation will secure an agreement of
the law-making bodies concerning the reform laid before you and
thereby take a step forward toward the solution of our relations to
the laboring class. The more the laboring population recognizes the
serious earnestness with which the government is striving to render
their status satisfactory, so much the more will they be conscious of
the dangers which must arise from their insistence upon extravagant
and impossible demands. In the proper provision for the laborer lies
the most effective means of increasing the strength which I and my
associated rulers are called upon and willing to use in opposing with
unyielding determination any attempt to shake the provisions of the law.

Nevertheless, in the case of this reform there can be question only
of such measures as are feasible without endangering the Fatherland's
industrial activity and with it the most important vital interests of
the laborer himself. Our industry forms only one department in the
economic work of all the peoples who take part in the competition in
the market of the world. With this in mind, I have sought to bring
about an interchange of opinions on the matter, among the states
of Europe where similar economic conditions prevail, as to how far
a general recognition of the legislative problems relative to the
safety of the working man can be established and brought to pass. I
am compelled to gratefully acknowledge that these suggestions have
found favor in all states concerned and especially in those where the
same idea was already being agitated and was approaching execution.
The course of the international conference which met here fills me
with especial satisfaction. Its conclusions are the expression of a
general attitude with regard to this most important province of our
contemporary civilization. The principles there laid down will, I have
no doubt, prove a rich field which, with God's help, shall blossom to
the blessing of the workers of all countries and which will also bear
fruit in drawing all nations together.

The continued preservation of peace is ever the goal of my efforts.
I dare express the conviction that I have succeeded in securing the
confidence of all foreign governments in the good faith of this policy
of mine. Like myself and my esteemed affiliated rulers, the German
people recognize that it is the problem of the empire to preserve peace
by cultivating the alliances already concluded for our defense, and
the friendly relations now existing with all foreign powers, in order
to further prosperity and civilization. For the accomplishment of this
task, however, we need an armed force compatible with our position in
the heart of Europe. Every postponement of matters pertaining to the
army endangers the political balance of power and with it the success
of our policy directed toward maintaining peace.

Since the basis of our army organization was decided upon for a
definite period the military organization of our neighbors has been
broadened and perfected to an unforeseen degree. Indeed, we, too,
have neglected nothing in our attempt to strengthen our forces, in
so far as this was possible within the limits prescribed by the law.
Nevertheless, what we could do within these limits was so little that
we cannot postpone a consideration of the whole question without danger
to ourselves. An increase of the present peace strength and an increase
of the bodies of troops--especially for the field-artillery--must not
be longer deferred. A bill will be laid before you according to which
the necessary measures for strengthening the army will go into effect
on the 1st of October of this year.

The plan which has been instituted in West Africa toward the
suppression of the slave-trade and for the protection of the German
interests has, during the last months, made progress, thanks to the
self-sacrificing activity of our officers and officials who are
stationed there. The complete restoration of peace in those districts
may be expected very shortly. The expense thus incurred will be covered
by an additional grant.

The budget for the current fiscal year already needs a corresponding
enlargement on account of the plans referred to. Furthermore, the
increase of salary for a part of the officials of the realm, which has
long been projected and which has become ever more pressing, can no
longer be delayed. The supplementary budget which is to be submitted
to you will give you an opportunity to prove your friendly interest in
satisfying this need.

If the labors hereby imposed upon you come to a successful issue, new
and sound guarantees for the inner welfare of the Fatherland will then
have been won. May it be granted to us through common effort to achieve
this end!

REVIEW OF THE NINTH ARMY CORPS

FLENSBURG, SEPTEMBER 4, 1890

    The review of the Ninth Army Corps took place in the presence of
    the Empress, Princes Henry and Albert, of Archduke Karl Stephen
    of Austria, and Count Moltke at Flensburg. It will be remembered
    that in 1864 Bismarck succeeded in enlisting Austria to aid
    Prussia in a war upon Denmark, which was at that time deprived of
    Schleswig-Holstein, the harbor of Kiel, and more than 1,000,000
    inhabitants. One of the battles of the war to which the Emperor
    refers was fought in this district. The address was made at the
    banquet following the review.

My opinion of to-day's performance of the Ninth Army Corps under the
command of your Excellency [General von Leszczynski] I have already
expressed to you and your officers.

Whoever, like myself, has for any length of time stood at the front
or partly at the front and partly as spectator has been present at
many imperial manoeuvres knows what such a parade means to an army
corps. I know very well what arduous preliminary labor is involved, the
agitation, the attention, the exertion of the troops. I know very well
how each individual officer, high or low, every soldier, rejoices in
and yet with a certain solicitude looks forward to the moment when he
shall parade before his war lord.[5]

[5] Kriegsherr.

I know from my own experience when I was still a captain what
satisfaction I felt when my adjutant could call to me that the Emperor
had nodded as the company passed by him. This is true to-day,
likewise, in the case of every officer.

I repeat to you my hearty thanks and express to you my congratulation
for the magnificent parade. This army corps which you have marshalled
before me has a bearing and discipline which I must demand
unconditionally from every army corps. I do not doubt for a moment
that the work done in preparing for a review will prove useful in the
preparation for battle.

We stand here upon historic ground, on which our armies, united with
those of Austria, jointly won a bloody victory.

I raise my glass and drink to the Ninth Army Corps in the expectation
that here and hereafter, in war as in peace, it will maintain its
famous traditions. Long live the Ninth Army Corps!

ACCIDENTS WITH AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY

BERLIN, NOVEMBER 11, 1890

    The following address shows the Emperor in one of the little-known
    phases of his amazingly versatile career. It exhibits, likewise,
    his command of detailed knowledge in a field where we should least
    expect it and his solicitude for the welfare of faithful subjects.
    Besides his interest in the sea, he has also for many years been
    much interested in agriculture; and his estate in East Prussia
    has been in a sense an experiment station. He prides himself on
    being a pioneer and in personally supervising his domain and is
    occasionally pleased to call himself a farmer. He attended the
    meetings of the Prussian Agricultural Commission and at one of the
    sessions took part in the discussion on the means of safeguarding
    the life of the laborers.

Two points have occurred to me which I would like to ask you to
consider. It is worthy of note that during my reign there have
been brought to my attention many striking cases in which laboring
women have been killed through accidents with machinery. I receive
regularly from the Minister of Justice tabulated lists of requests[6]
for pardon, and it seems to me that there is among them a striking
number of cases of women farmhands who have met with accidents in
tending machines. As has already been said, I am not granting these
pardons as freely as formerly. It is to be noted, furthermore, that a
great difference prevails in the adjudication of the cases in which
penalties may be inflicted and in the penalties themselves. I next
inquired why these women workers--it was especially girls working with
the thrashing-machines--were killed, and it usually appeared that
the girls were caught by their dresses in the transmission pulleys
and so became entangled in them. Then I asked if there were no means
of protection there. Yes, indeed, they said, according to the police
regulations the pulleys must have a cover or a box must be put over
them, but in each of these cases this had not been attended to. There
also appeared here, on the one side, a certain indifference either on
the part of the owner or of the person who was conducting the work
concerning the life of the women in his employ and, on the other
side, an indifference on the part of the women themselves, who had
become accustomed to working near the moving parts of the machines
and to stepping over the pulleys, and finally the accident happened.
Therefore, may I ask you that in using the word "machines" these
provisions regarding power transmission be not forgotten. Many of
the machines stand in one place and the apparatus for transmission
is in another place or in the yard, and that is a chief cause of the
accidents. For every one passes through the yard, and especially if
there are children playing there, all too easily some misfortune may
occur.

[6] From employers, of course.

Let me, therefore, remark, concerning what one of the preceding
speakers has said, that I myself have come to the same conclusion as
Professor Schmoller. I believe that it is not sufficient that the
state should lay upon the worker the obligation to be careful and that
it should give him directions how to conduct himself with regard to the
machines. This cannot be carried out.

I am much more of the opinion that, if such is your desire and if it is
plain that harm has resulted from the fact that the workers move about
too carelessly, it is much better that the obligation should be put
upon the owner or upon the person commissioned to conduct the machines
and that he be required to watch over the employees more carefully.
If the owner cannot burden himself with it then he should have such
officials as would have sufficient influence with the worker to make
him be careful. We must not forget what, for the most part, such a
worker is like and what he knows of machinery. Frequently he knows only
that it cuts or that it is otherwise dangerous. A certain grip is shown
him--he must do it like this--but the rest he does not understand and
regards with indifference. Consequently regulations which concern only
or more particularly the laborer would not help, for the people would
not understand their aim and when the regulation caused them annoyance
or trouble would fail to consider it and thus render themselves liable
to accident.

I believe, therefore, that it is most important in the question of
the conduct of agricultural machinery that we should work toward
proper supervision over the laborer by the employer. When this happens
accidents will begin to diminish.

It has interested me very much to learn here that it is not the
machines but altogether different circumstances which cause most of
the accidents in agricultural operations and that particularly in
all provinces where horses are employed accidents are frequent. I am
therefore pleased that this phase of the question of protecting against
accident has also come up here and that the gentlemen are now engaged
upon it.

For the rest it has been a great pleasure to me to take part in these
deliberations.

ALSACE-LORRAINE

BERLIN, MARCH 14, 1891

    On this occasion a deputation from Alsace-Lorraine presented a
    protest against the continuance of the _Passzwang_, a rule which
    made it impossible to leave Alsace-Lorraine except under very
    special circumstances and on receiving a pass from the imperial
    agent. The rule was particularly obnoxious, and the strictness with
    which it had been enforced was much resented, even by subjects
    favorably disposed to the empire. It was, however, merely one
    of many grievances. Since the time of the Franco-Prussian War,
    Alsace-Lorraine had been governed like a conquered province--by
    a governor appointed by, and responsible to, the Emperor alone.
    Up to this time the policy had been one of repression, save for
    a very brief period. It is possible that the Emperor might have
    been inclined to give them some relief had it not been for the
    unfortunate result of the visit of his mother to Paris. After a
    visit in London, the Empress Frederick, in February, 1891 (it
    is supposed on the advice of her son), visited Paris and, while
    there, was to ask certain of the French artists to exhibit at
    the Berlin exhibition. It had evidently been assumed that the
    time had come for a _rapprochement_. The Empress descended at
    the German embassy very quietly and had received promises from
    several artists, when her presence in Paris became known to the
    League of French Patriots and to the germanophobe Déroulède, who
    immediately started a violent agitation and demonstrations against
    Germany. The artists withdrew their promises under the pressure
    of outraged patriotic opinion, and the situation became so tense
    that the Empress was forced to depart very hastily in a manner
    that suggested flight. The incident tended to make bad feeling
    on both sides and reacted unfavorably upon the attitude of the
    empire toward the former French provinces. The difficulties of
    circulation were increased, and the regulations about passes were
    made particularly trying. These difficulties were removed in 1899,
    but the provinces continued to protest, as they were not given
    equal rights with the other German states and have not enjoyed them
    up to the present. In May, 1911, a new so-called constitution was
    given to Alsace-Lorraine. The executive power is exercised by the
    Emperor in the name of the empire; the province has three votes
    in the Bundesrat, which are so restricted that they give very
    little satisfaction to Alsace-Lorraine and are so far under the
    control of Prussia that they give considerable dissatisfaction to
    other German states. The Emperor appoints officials, including the
    _Statthalter_, or governor, and the delegates are instructed by the
    _Statthalter_ and must vote according to instructions. The votes
    do not count in any vote concerning the imperial Constitution.
    There was much protest because the new constitution did not grant
    the provinces sufficient independence. The previous Provincial
    Assembly (_Landesausschuss_) had been summarily closed on the
    9th of May, 1911. Affairs were but little improved under the new
    arrangement, and the Emperor came to Strasburg in great anger, May
    13, 1912, and made the following threatening address: "If this
    keeps up I shall knock your constitution to bits. Up to the present
    you have known me from my good side, but you can perhaps learn to
    know me from the other side also. If things do not change, we will
    make of Alsace-Lorraine a Prussian province." This speech of the
    Emperor's is not printed officially, but it was made the subject
    of an interpellation in the Reichstag on May 17, 1912, and the
    burgomaster of Strasburg admitted that the sense of the imperial
    utterance was properly given. With regard to Alsace-Lorraine, the
    Emperor has tried both kindness and severity. The Zabern incident
    proved that in neither of these policies had he succeeded in
    winning either the love or the subjection of the inhabitants.

    The following is the estimate of Dr. H. A. Gibbons on the situation
    in Alsace-Lorraine immediately before the outbreak of the European
    War:

    "One could easily fill many pages with illustrations of senseless
    persecutions, most of them of the pettiest character, but some more
    serious in nature, which Alsace and Lorraine have had to endure
    since the granting of the constitution. Newspapers, illustrated
    journals, clubs, and organizations of all kinds have been annoyed
    constantly by police interference. Their editors, artists, and
    managers have been brought frequently into court. Zislin and Hansi,
    celebrated caricaturists, have found themselves provoked to bolder
    and bolder defiances by successive condemnations and have endured
    imprisonment as well as fines. Hansi was sentenced to a year's
    imprisonment by the High Court of Leipsic only a month before
    the present war broke out and chose exile rather than a Prussian
    fortress.

    "The greatest effort during the past few years has been made in the
    schools to influence the minds of the growing generation against
    the '_souvenir de France_,' and to impress upon the Alsacians what
    good fortune had come to them to be born German citizens.

    "Among the boys, the influence of this teaching has been such
    that over twenty-two thousand fled from home during the period of
    1900-13 to enlist in the Foreign Legion of the French Army. The
    campaign of the German newspapers in Alsace-Lorraine and, in fact,
    throughout Germany was redoubled in 1911. Parents were warned of
    the horrible treatment accorded to the poor boys who were misguided
    enough to throw away their citizenship and go to be killed in
    Africa under the French flag. The result of this campaign was that
    the Foreign Legion received a larger number of Alsacians in 1912
    than had enlisted during a single year since 1871!

    "Among the girls, the German educational system flattered itself
    that it could completely change the sentiments of a child,
    especially in the boarding-schools. Last year the Empress of
    Germany visited a girls' school near Metz which is one of the best
    German schools in the _Reichsland_. As she was leaving she told
    the children that she wanted to give them something. What did they
    want? The answer was not sweets or cake but that they might be
    taught a _little_ French!

    "The former French provinces have been flooded with garrisons
    and have been treated just as they were forty years ago. The
    insufferable spirit of militarism and the arrogance of the
    Prussian officers in Alsacian towns have served to turn against
    the empire many thousands whom another policy might have won; for
    it must be remembered that by no means _all_ the inhabitants of
    the _Reichsland_ have been by birth and by home training French
    sympathizers. Instead of crushing out the '_souvenir de France_,'
    the Prussian civil and military officials have caused it to be born
    in many a soul which was by nature German.

    "The Prussian has never understood how to win the confidence of
    others. There has been no Rome in his political vision. As for
    conceptions of toleration, of kindness, and of love, they are
    non-existent in Prussian officialdom."

It gives me great satisfaction that the committee of the provinces
has turned to me in an important question concerning the interests of
Alsace-Lorraine. I see in this fact a valuable proof of the increasing
understanding which my good-will and my interest in the development of
your home country has begotten in the minds of its representatives.
I am also pleased to accept this assurance that the people of
Alsace-Lorraine, satisfied for the time being with the existing
political relations, spurn every interference by foreign elements and
look to the empire alone for the protection of their interests.

While I offer you my thanks for this expression of loyal sentiment, I
regret that for the present I cannot fulfil your wishes. I must confine
myself in this matter to expressing the hope that in a not too distant
future our relations may make possible the alleviation of conditions on
the western boundary. This hope will be the sooner realized the more
the people of Alsace-Lorraine are convinced of the inviolability of the
union which binds them to Germany and the more decidedly they exhibit
their resolution to remain forever faithful and immovable in their
loyalty to me and to the empire.

SWEARING IN THE RECRUITS

POTSDAM, NOVEMBER 23, 1891

    Every year the Emperor is present at the swearing in of the
    recruits to the guard and to the navy. He has made innumerable
    speeches on such occasions. The present somewhat striking
    pronouncement was delivered at a time when his feeling toward the
    Socialists, who had been guilty of no particular outrage, still
    ran very high. Tolstoi saw in it the worst excesses of militarism
    and issued shortly after the following criticism of the Emperor's
    attitude:

    "This man expresses what all wise men know but carefully conceal.
    He says frankly that men who serve in the army serve him and his
    advantage and must be prepared for his advantage to kill their
    brothers and fathers.

    "He expresses frankly, and with the coarsest of words, all the
    horror of the crime for which the men who enter into military
    service are prepared, all that abyss of degradation which they
    reach when they promise obedience. Like a bold hypnotizer, he
    tests the degree of the hypnotized man's sleep: he puts the glowing
    iron to his body, the body sizzles and smokes, but the hypnotized
    man does not awake.

    "This miserable, ill man, who has lost his mind from the exercise
    of power, with these words offends everything which can be holy for
    a man of our time, and men--Christians, liberals, cultured men of
    our time, all of them are not only not provoked by this insult but
    do not even notice it."

    It is possible that such criticism and the resentment aroused in
    the minds of the law-abiding Socialists led him later to tone down
    his utterances, though on one subsequent occasion, again with the
    Socialists in mind, he made a somewhat similar address (March 28,
    1901).

RECRUITS TO THE REGIMENT OF MY GUARD:

You are brought together here from all parts of the empire to fulfil
your military duty, and in this holy place have just sworn fealty to
your Emperor to your last breath. You are still too young to understand
all this. You will, however, little by little, be made familiar with
its significance. Do not imagine it too difficult, and trust in God;
occasionally also say the Lord's Prayer--that has frequently given many
a warrior fresh courage.

Children of my guard, to-day you have become incorporated into my
army; you now stand under my command and have the privilege of
wearing my uniform. Wear it honorably. Think of the famous history of
your Fatherland; remember that the German army must be armed against
the internal as well as the external foe. More and more unbelief and
discontent raise their heads in the Fatherland, and it may come to
pass that you will have to shoot down or stab your own relatives and
brothers. Then seal your loyalty with your heart's blood! And now go to
your homes and fulfil your duties.

    --(According to the _Breslauer Lokalanzeiger_ of December 8.)

    According to the _Neisser Zeitung_, the second paragraph ran as
    follows:

Recruits! You have now before the consecrated servant of the Lord
and before His altar, sworn fealty to me. You are still too young to
understand the true meaning of what has just been said; but be diligent
now and follow the directions and instructions given you. You have
sworn loyalty to me; that means, children of my guard, that you are
now my soldiers, you have given yourselves up to me, body and soul;
there is for you but one enemy, and that is my enemy. In view of the
present Socialistic agitations it may come to pass that I shall command
you to shoot your own relatives, brothers, yes, parents--which God
forbid--but even then you must follow my command without a murmur.

    Entirely similar, but shorter, is a clipping from the Berlin paper
    _Das Volk_, according to the account of one who heard the speech.

You have sworn to me the oath of loyalty; that means, from now on you
know only one command, and that is my most high command; you have only
one enemy, and that is my enemy! And so I may sometime--which God
forbid--have to bid you to shoot upon your own relatives, yes, brothers
and parents--then remember your oath!

THE EMPEROR'S FIRST ARMY BILL

BERLIN, JULY 4, 1893

    The opposition between the Reichstag and the government reached
    a climax when the session which opened in 1886 was dissolved in
    January, 1887, because it refused to vote for the bill fixing
    the army status for the ensuing seven years. The next Reichstag,
    elected in February, voted the bill. In spite of the fact that
    the new arrangement was to have been effective until March, 1894,
    as early as the session of 1890 changes were introduced which
    fixed the peace footing at 468,983 men, exclusive of the one-year
    volunteers. In November, 1892, a new army bill was presented,
    to run for six years, fixing the peace footing at 492,068. All
    infantrymen were to serve two years. In the debates of 1887 it
    was announced that Russia was an ally of Germany. The failure to
    renew the neutrality agreement with that power and the growing
    _rapprochement_ between France and Russia seems to have been most
    in the Emperor's mind in calling for an increase. The increased
    appropriation of 1887 was covered by a tax on spirits, sugar, and
    grain. The new increase was to be met by indirect taxes, mostly on
    beer and brandy. When the Reichstag refused to vote the bill as it
    stood, it was dissolved and a new one called. The new Reichstag,
    which is here addressed, accepted the bill on July 15. As much of
    the opposition had been due to the fear of the less-favored classes
    that the increased cost would fall heavily on them through indirect
    taxes, the Chancellor assured the representatives (as the Emperor
    here indicates) that there would be no tax on beer or brandy nor
    any other necessities of life.

Since you have been called to work in common with the confederated
governments, it is my desire at the beginning of your deliberations to
greet you and bid you welcome.

The draft of the bill concerning the peace footing of the German army,
through which a strengthening of our available force would have been
achieved, was presented to the last Reichstag. To my great regret the
project did not meet with the approval of the representatives of the
people. The conviction, unanimously shared by my corulers, that in
the face of the development of the military arrangements of the other
powers this government could no longer put off such a shaping of its
military status as should guarantee its safety and its future led to
the decision to dissolve the Reichstag and, by the calling of new
representatives to attain the end recognized as necessary. Since the
proposal of this law the political situation of Europe has undergone no
change. To my great satisfaction, the relations of the empire to the
foreign states are altogether and everywhere friendly and free from
any cloud. The organized military force of Germany, however, compares
still more unfavorably with that of our neighbors than it did last
year. Since her geographical position and her historical development
impose upon Germany the duty of taking thought for a proportionately
large standing army, the further development of our defensive strength,
therefore, with regard to the progress of other countries becomes a
pressing necessity. In order to satisfy the duties constitutionally
laid upon me, it seemed to me incontrovertible that I should exercise
every existing means at my command toward the restoration of a
sufficient and effective defense of the honor of the Fatherland.

There will, therefore, be laid before you without delay a new bill
concerning the peace footing of the army. In it the wishes which
were strongly expressed during the discussion of the former bill are
taken account of, and, in accordance with this, demands made upon the
personal capacity and upon the people's ability to pay taxes have, in
so far as this could be done without endangering the end sought, been
lessened.

The interest of the realm demands, especially in looking forward to the
impending expiration of the seven-year arrangement next spring, that
the bill should be decided upon with all possible despatch, in order
that this year's recruiting can be undertaken on the new basis. A delay
in carrying out this proposal would be felt for more than twenty years,
to the detriment of our defensive strength.

To make it possible for you to give your undivided attention to the
discussion of the bill, the confederated governments will refrain from
burdening the session with other important matters.

I and my honored corulers are still of the opinion that the means
necessary for the reorganization of our military equipment can be
raised properly, and without overburdening the people, in the manner
brought forward last autumn in the draft of the proposed taxation
bill. Nevertheless, the question of making good the deficit is still
the object of continued discussions. I expect that a proposal will be
set before you by the beginning of the next winter session in which is
expressed, even more strongly than in the former bill, the principle
that the providing of the necessary means must be carried out with the
utmost regard for the individual's ability to pay and with as little
draft as possible upon our power of levying taxes. Until the expiration
of the present official year the contributions from the various states
may be drawn upon to cover the excess.

Honored Sirs, we have succeeded in the difficult task of welding the
German race into a strong union. The nation honors those who have given
their possessions and their blood for this work and who have brought
the Fatherland to political and industrial prosperity--a prosperity
which is the pride and the pleasure of their contemporaries and which,
if they build in the same spirit as their fathers, will guarantee to
the generations to come the greatness and the happiness of the empire.
To protect the glorious acquisitions with which God has blessed us in
our struggle for independence is our most sacred duty. We can, however,
only fulfil such a duty toward the Fatherland by making ourselves
sufficiently strong in military power to defend ourselves, so that we
may remain a reliable guarantor of the peace of Europe. I trust that
your patriotic, self-sacrificing assistance in the pursuance of this
aim will not fail me and my honored corulers.

    The Emperor followed the formal address from the throne with the
    following:

And now, gentlemen, go forth. May our ancient God look down upon you
and bestow upon you His blessing to the end that you may bring to
successful issue an honorable work for the welfare of our Fatherland!
Amen.

ARRIVAL IN METZ

METZ, SEPTEMBER 3, 1893

    On the 3d of September the Emperor, accompanied by the Crown Prince
    of Italy, paid a visit to Metz. To Burgomaster Halm's speech of
    welcome the Emperor replied as follows:

It is with a heart deeply stirred that I enter the city of Metz, and if
I could not come last year, as I wished,[7] I see, nevertheless, that
the reason for my remaining away has been rightly understood.

[7] The Emperor came to Metz ordinarily to review the Eighth and
    Sixteenth Army Corps. Because of the cholera scare, the imperial
    manoeuvres had not taken place in the previous year, 1892. The
    Emperor, who was anxious to conciliate his subjects, had taken up a
    domain in Urville.

I rejoice to see the monument to my late grandfather at length finished
and to be able to allow my troops to pass before it. Metz and my army
corps are a corner-stone in the military might of Germany, destined to
protect the peace of Germany--yes, of all Europe--and it is my firm
purpose to maintain this peace.

I thank the city of Metz for its festive welcome, and I pray you
that my thanks be made known to the citizens through an official
announcement. If I have removed my headquarters to Urville it is
because as a landholder in Lorraine I could not do otherwise, since
my subjects in this province wish to have me there. In token of my
imperial favor I extend to the burgomaster a golden chain of office
which the burgomasters of Metz shall be entitled to wear from this time
forth. It gives me especial pleasure, however, to be able to bestow
this chain upon the present burgomaster.

DEDICATION OF FLAGS

BERLIN, OCTOBER 18, 1894

    Through a reorganization of the army which was to be made effective
    in the next legislative session, a large number of partial bodies
    of troops were created which were later to be increased to bring
    up the peace footing of the army from 538 whole and 173 half
    battalions to 624 whole battalions. Every two of these constitute
    a regiment and every two regiments a brigade. On the anniversary
    of the battle of Leipzig the Emperor, in the presence of a large
    number of princes, including the young King of Servia, turned
    over flags to these troops. His statement that the only pillar
    upon which the empire rested was the army was strongly resented
    by many of his loyal subjects of the empire who happened to be
    merely peaceful merchants or farmers or laborers. The Emperor was
    doubtless provoked into making the statement from the fact that
    some of his legislative policies had met with determined opposition
    on the part of representatives of the people. This he has always
    regarded as disloyalty and as boding disaster to the empire. Since
    the army's tradition for loyalty to the imperial war lord renders
    opposition here impossible, he saw in it the only salvation of the
    state.

In order that they may serve as a shining symbol of glory for the
troops, we have had the blessing of Heaven called down upon the ensigns
which I have bestowed upon every fourth battalion of my regiments, and
I now turn them over to the regimental commanders and to the regiments
themselves. This inspiring day is one whose memories move the world
and which marks an epoch in our German history. I first salute the
mausoleum of him[8] whose birthday was once wont to fill the entire
German Fatherland with jubilation, the mausoleum of him to whom it was
granted to win glorious victories under the eyes of the great, heroic
Emperor, his father, and to cover the flags which were consecrated
in 1861 with glory. They were nailed to their staffs in the rooms
in which the history of Brandenburg and Prussia is immortalized in
paintings. The monuments of the rulers and of the generals who created
the glory of Prussia have looked down upon them. These flags have now
been brought before the monument of the Prussian King who focussed
the eyes of the world upon them in years of fierce conflict and whose
last breath was a wish of blessing for his army. In the year 1861,
when my grandfather undertook the reorganization of his arms, he was
misunderstood by many and attacked by even more; nevertheless, the
future gave him his splendid justification. Just as at that time, so
now, too, distrust and discord are rife among the people. The only
pillar on which the empire rested was the army. So is it to-day! The
flags which are assembled here are destined for entire bodies of
troops, and I hope that the half battalions to which they are to-day
delivered will soon stand as entire battalions in the army of the
Fatherland.

[8] Emperor Frederick III.

But you, gentlemen, now take over these ensigns and with them the
obligation of maintaining the tradition of devotion, of discipline
unto death, of unconditional obedience toward the war lord against
all inward and outward enemies. Even as heretofore, may the blessing
of the Most High rest upon our army, and may the watchful eyes of our
ancestors look down upon and protect Prussia's army and her flags! With
God for King and Fatherland!

NAVY RECRUITS

KIEL, DECEMBER 3, 1894

    It is part of the Emperor's duty to administer the oath every
    year to the recruits for the navy as well as to the recruits for
    the guard. He is inclined to talk to them usually in very simple
    language, as here, for instance. Indeed, though they are usually
    twenty years of age, he often addresses them as the "children of my
    guard."

The oath is holy, and holy is the place in which you swear it. The
altar and the crucifix bear witness to this; it means that we Germans
are Christians, that we at all times first give the glory to God in
every affair that we undertake, especially in the highest--that of
strengthening the defense of the Fatherland. You wear the uniform of
the Emperor; you are thereby preferred over other men, and take your
rank equally with your comrades of the army and navy; you receive
a special place and assume obligations. By many you will be envied
because of the uniform which you wear; hold it in honor, and do not
besmirch it; this you will accomplish best when you think of your
oath--you especially, you people of the sea, who so often have the
opportunity in your various journeyings upon the water to learn to know
the almighty power of God!

Wherein lies the secret of the fact that we have often overcome our
adversary with lesser numbers? In discipline. What is discipline?
Single-hearted co-operation, single-hearted obedience. That our ancient
forebears already clung to this ideal a single example will show: On
one occasion they were marching to war against the Romans. They had
climbed over the mountain and found themselves suddenly face to face
with the huge masses of the army. Then they realized what a difficult
moment was before them. They first prayed, giving God the glory, and
then, bound together with chains, side by side, they fell upon the