to the American
Shipping Trust, sailing under the British flag. Albert Ballin became a
director of the Hamburg-American line in 1886, and was made general
director in 1900. During his directorship the capital of the line has
been increased from 15,000,000 to 125,000,000 of marks, and the number
of steamers from 26 to 170.

Germany's combined export and import trade in 1880 was $1,429,025,000;
in 1890, $1,875,050,000; and in 1905 it was $3,324,018,000; in 1910,
$4,019,072,250. The German production of coal and coal products in
1910 was the highest in its history, amounting to 265,148,232 metric
tons. It would be easy enough to chronicle the commercial and
industrial strides of Germany during the last quarter of a century by
the compilation of a catalogue of figures. It is not my intention to
persuade the reader to believe in any such fantastic theory as that
the present Kaiser is entirely responsible for this progress. I am no
Pygmalion that I can make an Emperor by breathing prayers before pages
of statistics.

It is only fair, however, in any sketch of the Emperor to give this
skeleton outline of what has taken place in the empire over which he
rules, and which, in certain quarters, it is said, he menaces by his
predilection for war. These few figures spell peace, they do not spell
war, and the ruler who has some 700,000 armed men at his back, and a
navy the second in strength in the world guarding his shores, and a
mercantile marine carrying his trade which is hard on the heels of
Great Britain as a rival, but who has none the less kept his country
at peace with the world for twenty-five years, may be credited at
least with good intentions.

It may be said in answer to this same argument that this building and
training and enriching of a nation are a threat in themselves. True, a
strong man is more dangerous than a weak one; but it is equally true
that a strong man is a greater safeguard than a weak one where the
question of peace is at stake. It is also true that a rich and
powerful man must needs take more precautions against attack and
robbery than a tramp. A tramp seldom carries even a bunch of keys, and
pays no premium on fire, accident, or burglary insurance.

William the Second knows his history as well as any of his people, and
incomparably better than his English, French, or American critics. He
knows that only twenty years after the death of Frederick the Great,
the Prussian power went down before Napo