States are almost the rule.

On the other hand, Americans never give themselves time to learn
to understand a foreign nation. A knowledge of foreign languages is
by no means general in the United States. The Americans unconsciously
borrow their thoughts and ideas from England, because it is the only
nation whose literature and Press are accessible to them in the
original tongue. Naturally this fact contributed very considerably,
before the Five-Years War, towards making the comprehension of
Germany difficult; because in those days German-English relations
were growing more and more unfavorable every day, and this decline
in friendliness found a powerful echo in the English Press and
other literature. The English language exercises more absolute
power in the United States than even in England itself. For example,
it would never occur to any diplomat in Washington to transact his
business in any other language than English. Whereas, in London,
I never once heard the French Ambassador pronounce one word of
English--even in an after-dinner speech--M. Jusserand in Washington
always spoke English. But, in spite of the claim that the French
make, that their language prevails in diplomatic circles, he could
not have done otherwise; because I have never, during the whole
of the eight years of my official activities in Washington, met
one Secretary of State who had mastered any other language than
English. It is obvious that this state of affairs opens all doors
and avenues to English political and cultural influences.

Thus, before the outbreak of the Five-Years War, the majority of
Americans already looked upon the Germans, however unconsciously,
through the optics of the English Press and English literary
publications. A large number of people in the United States honestly
believed, moreover, in the rumored German scheme to seize the empire
of the world. Our enormous successes in the economic field provoked
unbounded admiration and led, on the one hand, to an over-estimation
of our power, which did not prove favorable to us politically,
while, on the other hand, the Americans who frequently indulged in
generalizations about Germany were prone to judge us according to
the German-American Beer-Philistine, whom they disdainfully called a
"Dutchman." The Americans' view of the German people wavered between
these two extremes; but every year opinion tended to incline more
and more in the direction of the former. The phantom of a