hich the military party had upon the people and the Kaiser. Von
Tirpitz and von Falkenhayn, who, shortly after the war began, became
the ringleaders of Germany's organised Might, had fallen not _before
the armed foes on the battlefield but before an unarmed nation with a
president whose only weapon was public opinion_. First, von Tirpitz
fell because he was ready to defy the United States. Then came the
downfall of von Falkenhayn, because he was prepared to damn the United
States and all neutrals. Surely a nation and a government after
thirteen months of patience and hope had a right to believe that after
all public opinion was a weapon which was sometimes more effective than
any other. Mr. Wilson and the State Department were justified in
feeling that their policy toward Germany was after all successful not
alone because it had solved the vexing submarine issue, but because it
had aided the forces of democracy in Germany. Because, with the
downfall of von Falkenhayn and von Tirpitz, there was only one
recognised authority in Germany. That was the Chancellor and the
Foreign Office, supported almost unanimously by the Socialists and by
the Liberal forces which were at work to reform the German Government.

But this was in May, 1916, scarcely eight months before the Kaiser
_changed his mind and again decided to support the people who were
clamouring for a ruthless, murderous, defiant war against the whole
world_, if the world was "foolish" enough to join in.

CHAPTER VI

THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION

Dr. Karl Liebknecht, after he had challenged the Chancellor on the 4th
of April, became the object of attack by the military authorities. The
Chancellor, although he is the real Minister of Foreign Affairs, is,
also, a Major General in the Army and for a private like Liebknecht to
talk to a Major General as he did in the Reichstag was contrary to all
rules and precedents in the Prussian Army. The army was ready to send
Liebknecht to the firing squad and it was only a short time until they
had an opportunity to arrest him. Liebknecht started riots in some of
the ammunition factories and one night at Potsdamer Platz, dressed in
civilian clothes, he shouted, "Down with the Government," and started
to address the passers-by. He was seized immediately by government
detectives, who were always following him, and taken to the police
station. His home was searched and when the trial began the papers,
found ther