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Show . :; The Kaiser as I Knew Him I Art,trS.:s;n,,s. I ! fi 'A i i -v- American Dentist 1 For Fourteen Years I I- I S I , 1 (Copyrijht, 191!, by Uie McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) CHAPTER IX Continued. 6 The Turkish defeats wore naturally a great disappointment to him. "These Montenegrins, Serbians anc Bulgarians are wonderful lighters," he confessed to me, shortly after the war began. "They're out-of-door people and they have the strength and stamina stam-ina which fighters require. If they keep on the way they're going they'll be In Constantinople In a week ! Confound Con-found "those Turks! We furnished them guns and ammunition and trained their ollicers, but if they won't fight we can't make thorn. We've (lone our best !" The defeat of the Turks lessened their value to the kaiser as an ally anil he Immediately put into effect a measure for Increasing the German standing army from 1 50,000 to 000,000 to restore the balance of power, they said. For this purpose a "Wehrbei-trag," "Wehrbei-trag," or increased armament tax, was levied on capital and, incidentally, . I was Informed that I would have to pay my share. The idea of paying a tax to upbuild the German army, which was already so powerful that it menaced the peace of the world, did not appeal to me at. all and I spoke to Ambassador Gerard about it. lie advised me to pay it under protest, agreeing with me thai there was no reason why nn American should be required to contribute to the German war budget. However, I had to pay it. The German efforts at colonization, which were more or less of a failure because the Germans refused to inhabit in-habit the German possessions, and the measures adopted to conquer the commercial com-mercial markets of the world were an important part of the program of world domination which, Germany planned for herself, and it is not unlikely that If she had confined her efforts along those lines she might have progressed further along her chosen path than she has advanced by bathing the world in blood. "I have nearly 70,000,000 people," the kaiser said to me on one occasion, , "and we shall have to find room for them somewhere. When we became an empire England had her hands on nearly everything. Now we must fight to get ours. That is why I am developing our world markets, just as your country secured Hawaii and the Philippines as stepping stones to the markets of the far east, as I understand under-stand it. That's why I developed the wonderful city of Kiao-Chau." ""-His plans in this connection were changed somewhat apparently by the developments of the present war, for he told me that when it was over the Germans would not emigrate to the United States nijy more. "To more American emigration for us after the war," he said. "My people will settle in the Balkans a. develop and control that wor-iavful country. I have been down there and I know it is a marvelous nd for. our purposes" The kaiser's vfon of the part he would take Is che reconstruction of stricken 2-urope was Indicated by a remark he made to me in 1916 when I was visiting him at the army headquarters head-quarters at Pless. "Here I am nearly sixty years of age," he soliloquized, "and must rebuild re-build the whole of Europe!" Although the kaiser so freely admitted admit-ted his designs on the world at large, he was impatient of any expansion on the part of other nations. He often spoke of England's "grabbing" pro-Tn-nsity and viewed with suspicion our ionexation of Hawaii and the Philip-(vues Philip-(vues and our development of Cuba u ter the Spanish-American war. He professed to see in our new policy a striving after world power which was Inconsistent with the principles upon which our government was founded. He objected to our interference in Mexfcnn affairs, although, as was .disclosed .dis-closed by the Zimmerman note to Von Eckhardt, he was making every effort to have Mexico iuterfere with ours. "What right has President Wilson to attempt to dictate the internal policies poli-cies of Mexico?" he asked. "Why not let them fight their battles out alone?" Alluding to America's threat to enter en-ter the present war, he asked : "What right has America to insist upon the Monroe doctrine of America and then mix in European affairs? Let her recognize rec-ognize also a Monroe doctrine of Europe- and keep her hands out of this coutlict !" There is no doubt that the kaisor Imagined that the great art.1.- and navy ne had built up would enable bin) to carry out his ambitious program without with-out effective resistance. The one power he most feared tuU for which he professed the utmost contempt con-tempt was England. He had ail idea that England would never dare to measore swords with Germany and that he could provoke a war when the opportune moment came without much fear of England's intervention. fit 15)11, when the international situation situ-ation ever the Moroccan affair was particularly acute as a result of Ger-nuny's Ger-nuny's lwvlni, sent a gunboat to Aga-iir Aga-iir t Aemor strato that she was serious seri-ous la her demands, the kaiser had r' I..,..,... tb.t war with Prune might thus be precipitated and he was confident that England would keep out of it. "England would be afraid to war witii us," he told me at the time, " for fear of losing Egypt, India and Ireland. Any nation would think twice before lighting my armies, but England particularly par-ticularly because she would not dare to risk the loss of her overseas colonies." colo-nies." When the kaiser's ambitious project to dominate the world is considered, bis consistent opposition to the universal univer-sal disarmament proposals is easily understood. Without a superior army and navy, his whole plan would have to be abandoned and his dream of world-wide dominion would be shattered. shat-tered. On one occasion when we were discussing dis-cussing the Carnegie peace efforts, the kaiser disclosed very positively just where he stood on the proposition. "Look at the history of the nations of the world," he declared. "The only nations which have progressed and become be-come great have been warring nations. Those which have not been ambitious and gone to war have amounted to nothing!" Shortly after Wilson had pointed the way to peace in Europe in one of his notes to all the belligerent powers the . kaiser called to see me professionally and we discussed that latest phase of the situation. "The way to peace now seems perfectly per-fectly clear," I ventured. "Only your majesty's ever-Increasing army and navy stands in the way. If Germany will give up her armament, it seems, we would soon have peace." "That is out of the question for Germany," Ger-many," replied the kaiser, decisively. "We have no mountains like the Pyrenees Pyre-nees to protect us. We have the open plains of Russia with their vast hordes endangering us. No ; we shall remain armed to the teeth forever!" CHAPTER X. The Kaiser's Appraisal of Public Men. No one ever speaks to the kaiser until un-til addressed. As that monarch's opinions opin-ions on most subjects are firmly fixed and he will stand no opposition, any erroneous idea he may entertain is very apt to remain with him. His advisers ad-visers were apt to leave him in error rather than arouse his ire by attempting attempt-ing to set him right. But for the fact that he was very fond of asking innumerable innu-merable questions, his store of information infor-mation might have been extremely scanty. In the course of my conversations with him he frequently expressed his views of men who were in the public eye. Upon what basis they were founded he did not always enlighten me, but eveti when I knew them to be erroneous I realized it was useless to try to change them and I did not often take issue with him. When I did his eyes would flash fire, but I had expected ex-pected that and I continued just the same. The kaiser always seemed to take a particular interest in American affairs, af-fairs, and while he professed to despise de-spise our form of government, he! watched very carefully the careers of our public men. It is not unlikely that he imagined, as I have pointed out elsewhere in these pages, that he could influence our elections by swinging the German-American vote in favor of the candidate he preferred, and he made a study of our public men in order that he might know which of them would be more desirable in office from the German viewpoint. When Mr. Wilson was nominated for the presidency, the kaiser was quite positive that he wouldn't be elected. Perhaps the fact that Mr. Roosevelt, for whom at that time the kaiser had the greatest admiration, was one of Mr. Wilson's rivals, blinded him to the strength which elected Wilson, but the fact that the latter had had little experience ex-perience in international politics unfitted un-fitted him, in the kaiser's estimation, for the important office for which he was running. I saw the kaiser shortly after Mr. Wilson's election. "I am very much surprised at the result of your election," he declared. "I didn't think your people would be so foolish as to elect a college professor profes-sor as president. What does a professor profes-sor know about international politics and diplomatic affairs?" I haven't the slightest doubt that the kaiser pictured our president as a counterpart of the typical German professor a plodding, impractical, unambitious un-ambitious bookworm with no hope or desire of ever earning more than 51,000 a year and no yearning for public acclaim, ac-claim, a recluse, absent-minded and self-centered, who spent the midnight ' oil poring over musty volumes and j paid little or no attention to what was going on around him ! Such a man, the kaiser undoubtedly believed, the United States had elected as its chief executive and his surprise was more o- less natural in those circumstances. When Wilson sent 5,000 men to Vera Cruz the kaiser felt that he had exceeded ex-ceeded his rights. "What right has Wilson to mix in Uie internal affairs of iltiico?" he asked. "Why doesn't he allow them to fight it out among themselves. It is their affair, not his !" Germany had many financial interests in Mexico and looked with disfavor upon any move we made in that direction. When, however, the war in Europe started the. kaiser made every effort to have America mix in international affairs provided we fought on her side. When I saw him just after the war started he said we ought to seize the opportunity to annex Canada and Mexico. "Can't your president see the wonderful won-derful opportunity now for combining combin-ing with us and crushing England?" he asked. "With our fleet on one side and America's on the other we could destroy England's sea power. This is America's great opportunity to dominate domi-nate the western hemisphere, and your president must see his chance to take Canada and Mexico!" As the war progressed and reports reached the kaiser of our increased shipments of munitions to the allies, the kaiser's impatience with Wilson became be-came more difficult to repress, and there was hardly an interview I had with him in. which he did not give' vent to his feelings in that connection. connec-tion. "My officers are becoming so incensed in-censed at America's attitude," he told me, "it will be impossible for me to restrain them much longer." And when, on another occasion, he accused Mr. Wilson of discriminating against Germany, he made the remark re-mark : "Wilson's in the hands of the Wall street group 1" But, perhaps, the most bitter denunciation de-nunciation I ever heard him make of Wilson was shortly' after we entered the war. I had been summoned to the great army headquarters to see him, and when he entered the room he appeared to be in a towering rage. Indeed, his condition was so apparent that the kaiserin, who was also present, pres-ent, sought to excuse him with the explanation that he had been very much upset and had been sleeping very poorly, and she asked me to treat him gently and tried to soothe him at the same time, but he told her to leave the room and resented her showing show-ing me that she petted him. We said little while I was at work, but when I was through and wTas pre-parirg pre-parirg to leave, the kaiser stepped tewsrd me and said : "Davis, Wilson is a real scoundrel 1" My face flushed, I suppose, at this insult to our president, and my re-sf.ntment re-sf.ntment was so apparent that th? kaiser immediately patted me on my right shoulder and apologized. "I beg your pardon, Davis," be declared, de-clared, in a quieter voice. "I know you're an American and I beg your pardon for hurting your feelings, but if you only knew, you would realize what a scoundrel your president is. When it comes to throat-cutting, Wilson Wil-son should have his cut first 1" Whenever the sun shone for the kaiser he grew so optimistic that he failed to pay the slightest attention to tne clouds gathering on the horizon. After the Italian collapse, for instance, he was so enthusiastic about his military mili-tary success in that arena that he failed to realize that America was slowly but surely forging the thunderbolt thunder-bolt that was to strike him down. "Now how foolish it was for your president to bring your country into this war!" he said. "Americans will now see, when it is too late, what fools they made of themselves when they elected a professor for president. Now America must pay the bills!" In this remark and others of the same import the kaiser's expectation of being able to exact an enormous indemnity as prrt of his peace terms was clearly indicated, in-dicated, and he felt that America, having hav-ing profited the most and suffered the least of any of the belligerent powers, would be in the best position to fill his depleted coffers. The last time I saw the kaiser when he mentioned the president was in the fall of 1917, shortly after Wilson had replied to the pope's peace proposal. "Wilson i an idealist, and an Idealist Ideal-ist can acoompllsb nothing!" was his comment. "He went into the war that he might have a seat at the peace table but he will never get it. I shaU prevent pre-vent it!" Of Wilson's peace notes, whicn were issud befof- America went into the war. the kajwir remarked: "I think I am right, tin others think they're right. America barf all the money. If Wilson really wanti. peace, let him pay tim bill and tako care of the indemnitim ancj the war will be over ! It is very simple." There was 150 man of modern time? v.honi the kaiser seemed to admire so n.uch, before the war, as ex-FresidJi Roosevelt. The kaiser was convinced that Roosevelt had prevented war with O'apan by sending the American fleet around the world and showing that it v.as fit. This brilliant stroke of statesmanship, states-manship, as the kaiser termed it, was a topic that he referred to on several occasions. It was a forceful demonstration demonstra-tion that was very much after his own heart. "What I admire about Mr. Rooevelt most." he said"is the fact that he lias the greatest moral courage of any man I ever knew !" The fact that Mr. Roosevelt had given Germany's fleet twenty-four hours' notice to steam from Venezuelan waters didn't serve to lessen the kaiser's admiration for him. I heard him shower praise on Roosevelt many times and I haven't the slightest doubt that he was quite sincere. After the war started, when Roosevelt Roose-velt showed very plainly that no matter mat-ter what nice things the kaiser might have thought and said of him, he certainly cer-tainly didn't reciprocate the feeling, the kaiser was very much disappointed. "I'm terribly disappointed in Mr. Roosevelt," he declared. "After the way my wife and I entertained him when he was here as our guest, for him to take the stand he has is very uugentlemanly. I gave a great -review for him the greatest honor I could bestow be-stow upon him and a thing which hud never been done for a private citizen. He was not president then, you kno.v. I used to admire him very much, b-jt now I think the man has gone craxy and lost his mind. I nevor thought he would turn against us like that!" He did not seem to realize that a patriotic American owed allegiance to his own country. In 1916 I asked him whether he had heard that Mr. Ford was on his way over from America in a chartered ship with a delegation. "Who, Peace-Ford?" he inquired. I told the kaiser what I had read of the Ford expedition. "How can your country allow a man like that to do this thing a man who has played no part in the politics of his own country and is entirely ignorant of international affairs a man who, I understand, was formerly in the bicycle bi-cycle business and knows very little outside of business matters? "I haven't the slightest doubt Mr. Ford is a great business man," the kaiser went on, "and I am sure he means all right, but -what a mistake it is to allow a man so ignorant of world affairs to do a ridiculous thing like &s I" I told the kaiser that it had been suggested in some of the American papers that If Ford really wanted to end the war, all he had to do was to pay Germany $100,000,000 and buy Belgium back. "One hundred million dollars 1" the kaiser repeated, and then after a moment's mo-ment's reflection, as though he had been turning over some figures in his mind, "No, Davis, it will cost much more than that to get Belgium back !" It occurred to me that if the kaiser really meant what he said on that occasion, oc-casion, all his talk about "peace without with-out annexation" was obviously a myth and that the only hope of Belgium's redemption lay in the military defeat of Prussia. Subsequent developments amply confirmed that view. In the winter of 1916, we were talking talk-ing of the sentiment in America and the conversation turned to Von Berns-torff. Berns-torff. "Von Bernstorff has been doing very good work in your country," the kaiser commented. "Well, your majesty," I replied, "it is said in America that if he had not been such a clever diplomat he would long j ago have been compelled to leave." "From all I hear," the kaiser said, "ho hasn't had a very easy time of it The American press as a whole has been conspicuously anti-German, although al-though I understand that one of your newspaper publishers has been friendly friend-ly to us. Mr. Hearst, for instance, has helped our cause very much in your country. He has been telling the truth about affairs, which is more than most of the other papers have been doing !" Just before the king of Greece abdicated, abdi-cated, the kaiser referred to the attitude atti-tude of the American press again. "The way the American newspapers and the press of the allied countries generally are presenting the Grecian situation to the world is absolutely false and a disgrace I" he declared, bitterly. bit-terly. "They are entirely misrepresenting misrepre-senting the facts. Mr. Hearst is the only one, as far as I can find, who has revealed the real conditions and told the truth about them. My, I wonder what the people have to say now that Mr. Hearst has finally exposed the whole thing!" It was only a short time afterwards that the king abdicated abdicat-ed and revealed unmistakably which papers had correctly interpreted the trend of Grecian politics. The kaiser spoke to me many times tbout the writings of William Bayard Hale. "Have you been following Hale's articles?" ar-ticles?" he inquired. "What he is writing about the war is excellent and t3 reajly the best material published. He voices my sentiments exactly, and it wou'd be well for every American to follow this writer's work." I had to confess that there was one American at least who was not only not following Hale's writings, but had never heard of the writer, and the kaiser seemed to be somewhat displeased. dis-pleased. He referred to Hale several times subsequently and in the meanwhile I had ascertained that the man in question ques-tion tvug t representative In Berlin of the Hearst newspapers and I db sequeutly learned that he had pub- i lished a book called "Americau Rights and British Pretensions at Sea," which explained at once to me why the kaiser was so enthusiastic about him In the course of one of our many conversations on the subject of American Amer-ican munitions, the kaiser paid his respects re-spects to Mr. Schwab. "What can one expect from Schwab, who is using the Bethlehem steel plant to work against us?" he asked, "lie is of Austrian Jew extraction and would work against anyone for the sake of the money that's in it !" "I'm following affairs in America very closely," he told me on another occasion, before we entered the war. "Not all of your senators are against us. Senator Stone, for instance, is taking a very strong neutral stand, I understand, and it is a pity there are not more like him." Just before I left for my trip to America in 1010, the kaiser called on me and I told him I was leaving. "Well, Davis," he said, "be careful not to run against any mines or be torpedoed. You'll probably be pulled into England on your way over. We understand all boats are taken there Tor examination." Then, with Are In his eye, he added : "If you should see my cousin the king, in England, kick him on the shins for nie!" CHAPTER XI. The Kaiserin. Although I had frequently seen the kaiserin in the company of the kaiser, I did not actually meet her until she became my patient, in 1912, from which time on she visited me more or less regularly. Without going deeply into her history, his-tory, it may be sufficient to recall that when the kaiser murried her, in 1881, she was the Princess Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg -Augus-tenberg. She was a year older than her husband. She commanded no particular par-ticular wealth and was not as prepossessing prepos-sessing then, perhaps, as she became when, some years later, her hair turned white and softened her rather large features and too highly colored complexion. My first introduction to the kaiserin occurred one Sunday afternoon at the Berlin palace, where I had been instructed in-structed to be at three o'clock. I was conducted up the stairway and, on the first landing I met the kaiser, who was waiting for me. "Well, Davis," he said, "I hope I haven't spoiled your Sunday afternoon, but I assure you it was not for myself I sent for you, but for my wife. She has been suffering for several days and we are going to have a state ball on Tuesday and I want you to get her in order, so that she can attend it, as it is one of the most important social functions func-tions of the season. Follow me, and I will take you to my wife and introduce you." Doctor Davis gives a most intimate in-timate view of the German crown prince In the next install- ' ment of his remarkable revelations. revela-tions. He tells how the future ruler of Germany displayed the greatest physical cowardice when he was receiving treatment and how he seemed utterly unable un-able to grasp the serious aspects of the war. Doctor Davis' character char-acter sketches of the crown prince and the kaiser's other sons form one of the most interesting inter-esting parts of his narrative. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |