at the psychological moment and began to
mobilise the forces against the Chancellor.

[Illustration: Gott strafe England.]

After the _Sussex_ dispute was ended the Socialist organ _Vorwaerts_,
supported by Philip Scheidemann, leader of the majority of the
Socialists, demanded that the Government take some steps toward peace.
But the General Staff was so busy preparing for the expected Allied
offensive that it had no time to think about peace or about internal
questions. When von Falkenhayn resigned and von Hindenburg arrived at
Great Headquarters to succeed him the two generals met for the first
time in many months. (There was bitter feeling between the two.) Von
Falkenhayn, as he turned the office over to his successor, said:

"Has Your Excellency the courage to take over this position now?"

"I have always had the courage, Your Excellency," replied von
Hindenburg, "but not the soldiers."

In the Reichstag there has been only one real democratic party. That
is the Socialist. The National Liberal Party, which has posed as a
reform organisation, is in reality nothing more than the party
controlled by the ammunition and war industries. When these interests
heard that submarine warfare was to be so restricted as to be
practically negligible, they began to sow seeds of discontent among the
ammunition makers. These interests began to plan for the time when the
submarine warfare would again be discussed. Their first scheme was to
try to overthrow the Chancellor. If they were not successful then they
intended to take advantage of the democratic movement which was
spreading in Germany to compel the Government to consent to the
creation of a Reichstag Committee on Foreign Affairs to consult with
the Foreign Office when all questions of international policy,
including submarine warfare, was up for discussion. Their first policy
was tried early in July. Seizing that clause in the German note which
said that Germany would hold herself free to change her promises in the
_Sussex_ case if the United States was not successful against England,
the Navy began to threaten the United States with renewed submarine
warfare unless President Wilson acted against Great Britain.

Reporting some of these events on June 12th, the _Evening Ledger_ of
Philadelphia printed the following despatch which I sent:

"BERLIN, July 12.--The overthrow of Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg,
champion of a conciliatory policy toward the United