itary have seized the power and deposed the Kaiser,
putting the Crown Prince in his place? I believe it might have
happened had he refused to sign the order. The Kaiser, after
leaving Kiel, attended a council at Potsdam where war was decided
upon, and I really doubt whether at the last moment he did not
shrink before the awful responsibility or hesitate to sign the
mobilisation order.

The immediate cause of Germany's going to war was the feeling on
the part of the autocracy that the people would not much longer
bear the yoke of militarism. That this fear had justification was
shown by the enormous vote of lack of confidence in the Reichstag
after the Zabern affair. At all costs the autocracy must be
preserved, and if in addition the world could be conquered, so
much the better.

With modern improvements on the outside the heart of the
government of Germany is that of the Middle Ages. The nobles as a
rule are poor, the returns from their landed estates small, and,
in peace times, the army general, the Prussian noble, and the
Prussian official is overshadowed in display and expenditure by
the rich merchant.

Army officers, nobles and governing class felt this and believed
that war would restore what they regarded as the natural
equilibrium of the country, the officers, the officials and the
nobles at the top and the merchant class back in its place below.

With war, retired generals living on small pensions in dingy
towns once more became personages, rushing about the country in
automobiles attended by brilliant staffs and holding almost the
power of life and death. His lands worked by prisoners at six
cents a day, and their products sold at five times the original
price with no new taxes on either land or incomes, the Prussian
Junker is enjoying the war.

And this autocracy can make no peace which is not a "German
peace," which does not mean that the Emperor and the generals can
ride through the Brandenburger Thor to celebrate the conclusion
of what may be thought a victorious war.

For the plain people of Germany, while they can make no
revolution now, on returning to their homes maimed and broken
after four years in the trenches, will revolt at last, if a peace
has been concluded which does not spell success for Germany. They
will say to their government,--to the autocracy,--"We had no
political power. We left everything in your hands. We had nothing
to say either about the declaration of this war or its con