, a little more heavy-handed, a little coarser in
speech, than others, that is all. The period of twenty-five years
during which I have known Germany has developed before my eyes the
concomitants of vast and rapid industrial and commercial progress, and
they are: a love of luxury, a great increase in gambling, a
materialistic tone of mind, a wide-spread increase of immorality, and
a tendency to send culture to the mint, and to the market-place to be
stamped, so that it may be readily exchanged for the means of soft
living. These internal changes account to some extent for her restless
external policy. A man's digestion has a good deal to do with the
color of the world when he looks at it. There is more yellow in life
from biliousness, than from the state of the atmosphere.

Aside from these domestic causes there is no reason why Germany should
take a sentimental or pious view of these questions of international
amity. Her own history is development by war. "Any war is a good war
when it is undertaken to increase the power of the state," said
Frederick the Great. "Nur das Volk wird eine gesicherte Stellung in
der Welt haben, das von kriegerischen Geiste erfuellt ist" ("Only that
nation will hold a safe place in the world which is imbued with a
warlike spirit") writes Germany's great military philosopher
Clausewitz.

We took Cuba and the Philippines; England took India, Hong Kong, and
Egypt; Japan took Korea and southern Manchuria; Italy took Tripoli;
France took Fez; Russia took Finland and northern Manchuria;
Austria-Hungary took Bosnia and Herzegovina; and Prussia and Germany have
a long list, including Silesia, Poland, Hanover, and Alsace-Lorraine.
Austria-Hungary tears up the Berlin treaty; France, Germany, and Spain
tear up the Algeciras treaty; Italy tears up the treaty of Paris; and
it is part of the game that we should all hold up our hands, avert our
faces, and thank God that we are not as other men are, when these
things are done. The justifications of these actions are all of the
most pious and penitent description. We were forced to do so, we say,
in order to hasten the bringing in of our own specially patented and
exclusive style of the kingdom of heaven, but outside of perhaps India
and Egypt, and the Philippines, it would be hard to find to-day any
trace of the promised kingdom. Germany, for example, had nine per
cent. of Moroccan trade, the total of Moroccan trade with all
countries only amounted to $27