anything be more burningly irritable to the Germans than those
two unnecessary statements? For the moment I am dealing with the
attitude of the Emperor alone. Of the tirades of Chamberlain and
Woltmann, Schmoller, Treitschke, Delbrueck, Zorn, and other
under-exercised professors, one may speak elsewhere. They are as
unpardonable as the yokel rhetoric of our British friends. Of the
Emperor's insistence upon his friendliness, of his outspoken betrayal
of his real feelings, of his audacious policy of telling the blunt
truth, I am, alas, no fair judge, for I am too entirely the advocate
of keeping as few cats in the bag as possible. If these things had not
been said and written, it is true that there would have been no
tumult; having been said and written, I fail to see the slightest
indication in the political life of either Germany or England to-day
that they did harm. Certainly, from his own point of view of what his
position entails, they can hardly, as the radicals in Germany claim,
be considered as unconstitutional or beyond his prerogative.

When the German Emperor says: "I," he refers to the authority and
responsibility and dignity of the German imperial crown. He is not
magnifying his personal importance; he is emphasizing the dignity and
importance of every German citizen. Let us try to understand the
situation before we pass judgment! Both German radicalism and German
socialism are peculiar to Germany, and everywhere misunderstood
abroad. They both demand things of the government for the easement of
their position, they both demand certain privileges, but they do not
seek or want either authority or responsibility. Look at the figures
of their proportionate increase and compare this with their actual
influence in the Reichstag to-day. From 1881 to 1911, here is the
percentage of votes cast by the five representative political parties:

1881 1893 1911

The National Liberals........... 14.6 12.9 14.0

The Freisinnige and south German
Volkspartei..................... 23.2 14.2 13.1

The Conservatives, including the
Deutsche and Freikonservative... 23.7 20.4 12.4

The Centrum (Catholic party).... 23.2 19.0 16.3

The social Democrats............ 6.1 23.2 34.8

If it were thought for a moment in Germany that the Socialists could
come into real power, their vote and the number of their
representatives in the Reichstag would dwindle away in one sin