nobody knows the fortunes of war or the
fate that this war has in store for the Hohenzollerns but while I
personally like the Crown Prince, admire his skill in sports, his
amiable ways, his smiles to the crowd, I know also of his crazy
belief in war. And so long as a ruler persists in this, he is as
dangerous to the peace of the world as a man with a plague to the
health of a small community.

CHAPTER XXIV

WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN

I remember a picture exhibited in the Academy at London, some
years ago, representing a custom of the wars of the Middle Ages.

A great fortress besieged, frowns down on the plain under the
cold moonlight. From its towering walls the useless mouths are
thrust forth--if refused food by the enemy, to die--the children,
the maimed, the old, the halt, the blind, all those who cannot
help in the defence, who consume food needed to strengthen the
weakened garrison.

Every country of the world to-day is in a state of siege, is
conserving food and materials, but not yet has Germany sent forth
her useless mouths, to Holland, to Scandinavia and to Switzerland,
a sign that not yet is the pinch of hunger in the Empire imperative.

Since I arrived in America in March, 1917, I have been like
Cassandra, the prophetess fated to be right, but never believed.
I said then Germany would never break because of starvation, or
fail because of revolution, and that her man-power was great.

We have not made sacrifices enough in this war, there are too
many useless mouths. I believe that there are in the States of
New York and Pennsylvania alone 175,000 professional chauffeurs,
a great number of them employed on automobiles not used for
business or trucking. And then think of the thousands of skilled
mechanics employed in garages and factories repairing and making
mere pleasure vehicles. If all these chauffeurs (nearly all with
some knowledge of machinery) and mechanics were put at work
building ships or making rifles there would be no loss to the
country, but certain overfed women and their poodles would have
to walk, greatly to the advantage of their health and figures.

Private automobiles disappeared very quickly in Germany. At first
a man who could not reach his business in any other way was
allowed to use his own automobile but even these soon went out of
commission and then bicycles were forbidden except for rides to
and from business, work or school. A few ramshackle taxicabs
still sur