ght,
smuggling of German dyes via neutral countries, importation of Swiss
dyes, introduction of natural dyes and dye-substitutes--but more
especially by the foundation of a dye industry of their own. In the
case of potash, they had simply to do with what little they could
get; which was all the easier as the American manure manufacturers
and dealers had already in their own interests begun a systematic
propaganda to prove that potash was not indispensable, but could
be replaced by their own products. It might be observed as a
generalization that ultimately no individual product has proved
to be really indispensable. The result of holding back our exports
was therefore simply--apart from a quite unnecessary straining of
political relations, since England succeeded in diverting all the
odium on to us--a scarcity of important German commodities in the
United States and the substitution of their own production.

In negotiating the German loan, the chief difficulty was that grasping
speculators got hold of the market, discredited the war loan by
underbidding one another and in part by direct dishonorable dealing,
and also that owing to the impossibility of producing ready money,
interest in the war loan flagged. Early on I suggested the issue
of bills _ad interim_. The scheme, however, failed, because the
representative of the Deutsche Bank opposed it, and because the
natural opposition of two great institutions, who were making a
profitable business out of the sale of war loans and the speculations
on the value of the mark, which were closely connected with it, could
not be overcome. I am still of the opinion that with well-timed
organization the sum raised by the war loan could have been increased
by several millions.

CHAPTER V

THE SO-CALLED GERMAN CONSPIRACIES

Immediately after the outbreak of war, our cruisers in foreign
waters were cut off from their base of operations, and the German
Reservists in North and South America were prevented from returning
home owing to the British Command of the Sea. Measures to assist them
were therefore taken by the German Nationals and German Americans
in the United States, which although not in themselves aimed at the
Union, certainly transgressed its laws. Moreover during the year
1915 and succeeding years, several deeds of violence against the
enemies of Germany, or preparations for such deeds, were discovered,
involving more or less serious offences against the laws of